Trap 8 – Children are always growing.

Trap 8 – Children are always growing.

side: Vilia ¹⁾ ヴィリア

Spread out in front of me is the inner part of a dark and concealed passage.
The very beginning already has a bad atmosphere.

(Vilia)「Uhhh…… 」

I’m now inside the Dungeon for children.
Onii-sama, I’m scared.

(Yuki) 「You don’t have to be scared. You can go in Vilia. 」

Talking to me in that way, Yuki onii-sama stroked my head.
But, scary things are still scary.

(Hiro)「Onee is scared.」

He said that to blame me, but he’s definitely scared himself. He’s gripping onii-sama’s clothes and wasn’t willing to let go.

(Vilia)「Hiro keep your hands to yourself.」

(Hiro)「No」

(Vilia)「Why not? It’s impolite.」

(Hiro)「I wasn’t saying that I’m not afraid.」

This kid~!!

(Hiro)「Ihiya, ihiya! Onii, onee is bullying me.」

(Vilia)「What! ? Onii-sama for this, he needs discipline desu !!」

(Yuki)「I know. But let’s be kind to each other a little. Hiro, I don’t need to remind you but don’t be too selfish okay?」

(Hiro)「Oh onii… I understand」

(Vilia)「Why are you listening to what onii-sama says!!」
(Hiro)「Onee’s words are mixing with something else」

(Vilia)「Ugh²⁾Dispirited sfx!」

I’m envious… Don’t think about it, don’t think about it desu.

(Yuki)「Yosh, I understand. Do your best today and we will see each other this evening. 」

(Vilia)「Really!? 」

(Hiro)「… I’ll do my best. 」

Hiro immediately released Onii-sama’s clothes and walked forward in front of me.

(Hiro)「Onee you’re slow. I will quickly capture this Dungeon and stay for the night. 」

(Vilia)「I am in good condition!! 」

I said that and chased after Hiro inside the Dungeon.

(Yuki)「Well, Vilia, Hiro. Even if it’s painful, work hard. 」

In the back onii-sama muttered such a thing.

(Lulu)「Did everyone understand that? Monsters are scary living creatures. Until now, due to demons, many lives were lost, villages and towns, and even countries have been destroyed. 」

Back then, our usual group 3-1 was studying monsters.
It’s been two months since we came to this Dungeon and started school.
Many other children have also started going to the school building.
We, children who came from Rochelle were deemed third grade³⁾https://www. tokyo-icc. jp/guide_eng/educ/01. html, thanks to Yuki sensei who had seen a certain academic ability within us.
So we got a promotion? There were some children that had difficulty, but Yuki-sensei taught them well and they started catching up properly.
Yuki-sensei himself seems to have thought it impossible to reach that level of academic ability in just two months.
I hate studying. I remember saying that to a child who was not good at studying when I helped him as we studied together.
Simple addition and subtraction are easy.
Characters can now be read and written easily.
According to Yuki sensei this speed is abnormal so he said 「Perhaps it’s because they can understand the meaning of the characters?」I didn’t understand the hard words and couldn’t recognize some of the characters but there’s others that I do know.
When you live in the slums, it’s natural to remember random things, such as the characters.
Such characters that we’d seen often are easy for everyone to remember.

Yuki sensei is always doing his best when he teaches us, he makes many strange faces as we eagerly listen to him.

(Yuki)「Children, it’s important to play, but that doesn’t mean you can do whatever pleases you ～」

(Yuki)「Isn’t it hard to only study?」

I often hear things like this.
But, we aren’t suffering when we study.
No, one part of the children aren’t quite keeping up, but in that case, Yuki sensei will help them until the gap in studying is filled.
Here’s what he said.

(Yuki)「Someday, I wish for all of you to do your best and fulfill your dreams. Like helping me with this Dungeon, being an adventurer, becoming a merchant or going to another country. These are all good examples of dreams you should jump on board with. 」

Yuki sensei saved our lives.
Onii-sama gave everyone warm beds, and meals.
Tch, but Onii-sama, he isn’t caring for himself at all.
Every time, he speaks for the sake of everyone.

Daiichi Daiman Daikichi ⁴⁾大一大万大吉, something along the lines of: One for All, All for One brings excellent luck

It’s a weird word that Onii-sama taught us.
Because everyone’s alone, if one helps everyone else, then everyone else would help him to find happiness.
I think that’s a beautiful idea, but sensei said that it is very difficult to implement this saying.
For that reason, we quietly decided the following.
Let’s do our best to study and help Onii-sama.
Because after all, Onii-sama’s saying「Daiichi Daiman Daikichi」has to come true properly.

(Lulu)「…… A-chan? Vilia-chan? Were you listening?」

(Vilia)「Oh, sorry. I wasn’t. 」

While I was thinking about such things I didn’t notice that Lulu-sensei was calling out to me.

(Lulu)「How is everyone doing? Please let me know if you aren’t feeling well.」

(Vilia)「We’re okay. 」

I was surprised after hearing that Lulu-sensei is in fact the Holy Woman from the Holy Country Ritea.
But despite that she seems to be living in this Dungeon in various ways, mainly working in hospital and school.
Somehow she looks alike to Yuki .
She’s a formidable woman, doing more than one job at once.
…… The breasts of that saintly woman, they’re overwhelming.

(Lulu)「Well, I’ll repeat what we just discussed. Monsters originally attacked others in order to live. There are very few monsters that are friendly, have intelligence and are able to have a conversation like the ones in this Dungeon. We may be able to employ monster subordinates of people with the tamer skill, but even they won’t be given the same amount of freedom as the monsters of the Dungeon. 」

Lulu-sensei was teaching us about the existence called monsters.
There are a lot of children who are wondering how does it feel to get attacked outside.
There were very few children who had encountered demons in the past.
Usually, children wouldn’t be allowed to go to places where monsters are known to appear until they’re a lot older.

(Lulu)「Muu, It looks like I have chosen my words a little too lightly. They attack. There’s no doubt about it. However, an attack in this case means death. 」

「「「！?」」」

Lulu-sensei nodded as she saw our surprised looks.

(Lulu)「That’s a better face. No, it would be half as bad if the only thing that happens to you is mere death. There’s various kinds of monsters. For example, giant spiders⁵⁾Said in katakana which look like big Spiders, will lay eggs inside a person, for the sake of their children’s meals during early growth. 」

「Hii」

One of the children screamed.
Yeah, If I wasn’t as shocked I probably would have as well.

(Lulu)「Don’t expect women to die easily, especially against humanoid monsters. No, the end-result would still be death. The same races as the guards over there, Goblins, Orcs and Kobolds, they can mate with almost any humanoid creature. In other words, women would be used until their death to increase the monster’s own kinship. Of course, whether you are an adult or a child, doesn’t matter. If you’re already capable of conceiving it’s fine to them, but if not there’s only one outcome, you’ll be violated and killed. Even when you die, you’d still be used a while. There’s various meanings behind this. 」⁶⁾Anth: Lulu-sensei what are you teaching to the kids :'( Chill: Yup, way hard-core, isn’t that the point of protecting them in the Dungeon? They can learn later…)Face: Isn’t it to teach them the dangers so they won’t try to get friendly with goblins from outside the dungeon? Especially since they have friendly goblins there kids might misunderstand that

When she said that, everyone instantly went silent.
Surely, these are stories I had heard before, but the amount I understood was clearly far too different when Lulu-sensei seriously told us.

(Lulu)「It all well and good to describe the fear of monsters with words, but the monsters outside are seriously far more dangerous than words can describe, this Dungeon is the exception, not the other way around, remember that. Sometime in the future, I believe there will be children who would choose to leave the nest offered by this Dungeon. So please, never forget about the danger known as “monster”. 」

I remembered her words now.

「Ghehyah！! 」

Although there was a goblin in front of me who looked exactly like the goblins inside the city, it wasn’t the same at all.
That little goblin who suddenly found and jumped at us, suddenly started swinging his club.

「Kya⁷⁾High pitched female sfx！?」

Involuntarily, I closed my eyes.

SFX:Gang.

With such a sound, I opened my eyes only to see Onii-sama countered the club with a sword.
Ahh, he’s so cool.

(Yuki)「Vilia, I know how scary it is, but despite that you should never close your eyes. And the only thing I can do is guard against it. Vilia, Hiro, you have to knock down that monster. 」

Onii-sama looked at us, he said that without any hesitation before staring again carefully at the Goblin.
If the only thing we had to do was to knock it down……

(Yuki)「To knock down means to kill. It might be painful if you think about it, but you have to firmly ensure it dies. 」

(Vilia)「Eh」

(Hiro)「Onii… That Goblin. He might be one of Steve’s friends…… 」

It was as Hiro said.
No matter how I look at it, he is the same family as Steve, a Goblin who always protects us…..

(Yuki)「… No, he isn’t a friend. Steve and the others wouldn’t dare raise their hands against Vilia and the other children. Didn’t Lulu tell you? That is a monster. 」

(Vilia)「A monster. 」

(Hiro)「… Monster. 」

That small goblin was surprised at onii-sama’s movements, but since there were no counterattacks, it ignored him and pounced towards me.

「Fuu!! 」

Onii-sama rushed back between me and the goblin.
Without a moment’s delay onii-sama defended me.
But, he isn’t attacking.

(Yuki)「Vilia, Hiro. You two have to beat him. Kill it. If you don’t do it, the Goblin will take you as his toy. He would probably start by turning off your limbs, since you’re so young. 」

(Vilia)「… U, Uah」

(Hiro)「…… 」

Even if you say so, my body refuses to move.
It’s scary.
Onii-sama isn’t attacking, if we don’t attack, we’d be made into Steve’s family’s toys, it’s painful to get your limbs struck, but to get the limbs taken away……

That’s when the incident occurred, because we were wasting time.

Gond.

A dull sound echoed.
Onii-sama was kneeling.
Covering his face with his hand.

Under it, there’s blood.

(Vilia)「Onii-sama! ?」

(Hiro)「Onii！?」

Not noticing our crying voices, the goblin hadn’t stopped to fight us. He instead kept striking at onii-sama who was already kneeling in order to eliminate him.
No, don’t, stop.
Don’t kill onii-sama.

Gaki!!

I blocked the club with the sword I had at my disposal.
I was desperate.
I thought that I wouldn’t let onii-sama get hurt any more.

(Vilia)「Hiro!! 」

(Hiro)「AaaaaAA—–！! 」

「Gehiyo! ?」

Zpan!!

The sword that Hiro is holding reached the Goblin’s neck, separating his head from his torso.

Thud.

That’s what the sound was like, the head rolled and seemed to be staring at me.

(Vilia)「Uh, oh, I….. 」

(Hiro)「…… Killed. Killed you… 」

We both were in a daze.
Noticing that, onii-sama stroke our heads.

(Yuki)「It’s all right. Well done. Thanks to you, I was saved. That’s why, it’s all right. 」

(Vilia)「O, onii-sama. 」

(Hiro)「…… I killed Steve’s companion. 」

We managed to speak with hoarse voices.

「「Uwwaaaaaaaan！!! 」」

After that, onii-sama embraced the two of us who were weeping, he then brought us back outside.
Let’s talk with everyone in school today.
The fact that onii-sama was injured, that monsters are really scary, and that we have to be ready to fight for our lives if we see one.
And then, that kind of pain and bitterness that Onii-sama always takes for himself, I can definitely not stand it……
==========
Afterword of the author
I was troubled whether to make it a main part of the story or a trap.
In the end, it became a trap.
The fact is Vilia and the others won’t be actively part of the story for a while, so it’s a trap.

Oh, of course, you knew that the injury was an act right?
Yuki is dark isn’t he?

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