--The members of the heroic party exploring the A-ranked dungeon "The Thousand Year Corridor of the Abyss" were four, except for Luke of the White Wolf Forest, who was forced to leave.

　Falcon the Brave, an all-powerful warrior who was given power by various gods.

　Julia, Falcon's oldest companion and fellow swordswoman, Julia.

　His twin wizard sister, Bran the White Wizard.

　And Bran's twin sister, the black wizard Noir, the only one in the heroic party to return to earth.

　This is the story she told to the Guild House and the knights of the Silverwing Knights, until the heroic party was wiped out in their quest--










　The day after losing much of their food due to a mistake by the brave Falcon, and cutting off the scullery maid, the adventurer Luke, to save food, the party reached the deepest part of the labyrinth.

　The deepest part of the labyrinth was adorned with a rock door decorated with ancient designs and strictly forbidding intruders.

''I guess we can chant the example password here. Okay, ...... 'Epanes Esom'!

　The door opened due to the chanting of a brave man, and the party moved further in.

　There was a vast underground space that didn't look like the bottom of the ground.

　The ceiling was higher than the mountains, and it was so wide that the distance seemed hazy.

　The overall shape of the underground space was not a simple circle or square.

　It's hard to explain in one word, but Bran described this space as 'the shape of a donut with a hole in it, divided into four parts.

　Or could it be called 'a rectangle bent into a squishy shape'?

'Well then, noir. We'll see how it goes.
...... Yes.

　Under the instructions of the brave man, Noir attempted to gather information on the underground space by a messenger demon.

　The messenger is not a live animal.
　It's a method of gathering information by manipulating a doll that resembles a crow with magical powers and linking the eyes and vision of the glass ball.

............

　The collection of information was completed with no problems.

　The entire underground space was filled with rocky mountains and wasteland, crossed by a river that was fed by a spring.

　The brave party's current position was at the edge of the underground space, near the top of the rocky mountainous area.

　The terrain became lower and lower as one went from there to the opposite end, and on the right side of the space was the city of the demon race.

　Bran's expression - the outer side of the 'quartered donut-shaped' was developed as a mine, with dark-skinned elves who looked like rulers forcing the petite demon race to work hard.

　And the inner periphery was less developed and seemed to be a habitat for dragons.

''It's settled. We'll go through the inner perimeter. Our first priority is not to be found by the dark elves.''

　There was no objection from anyone.
　Julia had always affirmed what the brave man had said, and Noir thought it was an objective and reasonable decision.

　He wasn't sure which reason Bran agreed with, but either way, it was confirmed that they were going to go ahead across the dragon's territory.

'Hmm, what's this?'

　As he used his various skills to make his way safely through the rocky mountain, he found a huge door in the wall of the underground space.

　It was so huge that it didn't seem like it was for humans, but the design of the door looked exactly like the one we had just passed through.

''This one uses the same password to open, too.
Do you want to try it?　'Epanes Esom'!

　In response to Julia's casual suggestion, Falcon uttered the code word with a joking attitude, but there was no particular reaction.

'Well, nothing's going to happen, right? Let's just hurry up and get on with it.'

　After spending the entire day moving around, the brave party arrived at the only city in the underground space.

　There are no humans here, so they aim for their destination while hiding their appearance with magic to avoid suspicion.

''As I've heard, it seems that only dwarves live here.

　Dwarves. They are a type of demon race that is more than a size smaller than humans, and are said to be skilled in blacksmithing and mining.

　The common belief is that they are a hardy and hot-blooded race, but the dwarves here have an air of gloom and reluctance.

　Whether this was due to the regional differences in the dungeons they inhabited, or due to the slave labor they were forced to perform, Noir wasn't sure.

　Their buildings were dimensioned for their size and their doorways were so low that they could almost hit their heads.

　There was also no wood in the building at all, and it was almost completely made of stone.

If the ...... information is correct, this is where we're headed.

　It was a building larger than the rest of the houses.
　As it turned out, this building was the meeting place for the dwarves, and the dwarven elders were promised to wait for them here.

'Welcome, brave men of the earth ...... for listening to our cries for help, and we can't thank you enough ......'

　In the center of the cramped meeting hall for humans, a dwarven elder bowed his head grudgingly.

''We'll just have to defeat the dark elf king who rules this underground city, right?　It's an easy job.
They came out of the deepest regions and treated us like slaves. They are so strong that we have no choice but to rely on the people of the earth for help.

　-- Two months ago now, the dwarves used magical means to call for help from the earthly kingdoms and taught them the password that would open the doors of the Millennium Corridor of the Abyss.

　They said that the dark elves were forcing the dwarves to mine the underground resources as slaves, as well as forge armor with them.

　The Royal Palace received this information and surmised that the Dark Elf Demon King's aim was 'to invade the earth with weapons made by the dwarves'.

　The brave Falcon, who has the ability to break through the labyrinth, was ordered to "scout" the dark elf demon king's sphere of influence.

I'll take care of it. I'll give you a nice little twist on it.

　--Yes, what I was ordered to do was 'reconnaissance'.

　Considering the possibility that the call for help was itself a trap, the first priority was to ascertain the actual situation underground.

　However, the brave Falcon perverted the minister who recommended him to 'defeat if possible' and challenged the dungeon with the intention of defeating the Demon King and gaining fame from the beginning.

　At this point, Noir remembered that Luke, the adventurer he had left behind earlier, had expressed concern about the bravery of the brave man at every turn.

　The brave man had been given numerous skills by the gods and was able to overcome most of his predicaments on his own.

　But this pride - would this overconfident dogmatism not turn out to be fatal this time?

'Good!　Let's get some rest today and get ready for tomorrow!

　In the end, Noir was unable to communicate his concerns to anyone, and the heroic party was forced to spend the night in a room prepared for humans.











　-- this was something they did not testify to the Guild and the Knights, but that night, the heroic Falcon and the female swordsman Julia had slipped out of the room and were engaged in a 'male-female nighttime relationship'.

　It seems that the two of them had that kind of relationship even before the party was formed.
　Since we're talking about childhood friends, perhaps the relationship started before they were certified as heroes.

　Falcon is bellicose and has approached Noir and Bran's sisters, but the possessive Julia won't allow that to happen ...... and the exchange has been repeated many times.

　But even if it's at home, this place is a stone's throw away from enemy territory.

　I don't even know what the point is of needlessly cutting down on my sleep time, even though I plan to ride into the Demon King's Castle tomorrow.

　Where is the instruction to get a good night's rest?

　Do love feelings make human beings' decisions so strange?

　It's a matter of noir, who has never experienced that kind of thing in his 20-odd years of life, the actions of the brave man and Julia were completely incomprehensible to him--