A Date with Roxy to Explore a Dungeon

After entering the tavern, Roxy finally let Cain down from her back after his repeated protests.

"Oh!"

The surrounding adventurers whistled and applauded. More than a dozen parties—nearly half the adventurers in the guild—looked at the flushed Cain and Roxy with admiration and respect, cheering enthusiastically for them.

"Nicely done! Cain, Roxy!" Zoldat stood at the front, giving them both a thumbs-up.

"S-so many people..." Roxy pursed her lips, gripping her staff as she edged slightly behind Cain.

"Master is such an idiot."

Cain's face reddened as well. He shifted slightly in front of Roxy, but still could not help turning back to complain to his teacher in a low voice.

Why did Master have to carry him in front of all these people...? Couldn't she see how many adventurers were around...?

"D-don't say that about Master." Roxy puffed out her flushed cheeks and pouted, looking slightly dissatisfied.

Because of that remark, Cain had been punished that afternoon at the inn and made to copy "Respect your teacher" a hundred times.

What Cain did not know was that his feat of killing three Red Dragons in a single battle would make his name resound through every adventurers' guild in the Three Magic Nations.

Some had even given him the title of the Dragon-Slaying Sword God, Cain. Naturally, there was also his master, the Precise Water God Roxy.

They were only titles, of course. Roxy's water magic had not reached Divine Rank, but since she was the Sword God's master, she deserved a Divine Rank title.

"Cain, do you like exploring dungeons?"

At the mahogany table in Roxy's room, Cain was using a fountain pen to write "Respect your teacher" for the ninety-eighth time. He turned to look at Teacher Roxy, whose face was slightly flushed as she played with the blue bangs over her forehead, and tilted his head in confusion.

"Huh? Dungeons? To be honest, I've never been to one before. Does Teacher Roxy like exploring dungeons?"

"Mm... I like them well enough. Do you want to try it? Conquering dungeons is a lot of fun."

Roxy blinked her blue eyes excitedly and looked expectantly at the boy spinning a fountain pen in his hand.

Of course, she only said that because she wanted to teach Cain about dungeon adventuring. It definitely was not because she wanted to cultivate a perfect disciple who could stay by her side forever. Mm, absolutely not.

Teacher Roxy, your inner thoughts are written all over your face...

"Sure, as long as Teacher Roxy can find the way there..."

Looking at Roxy's expectant expression, Cain scratched his cheek helplessly and answered with a hint of embarrassment. After all, he was a Sword God with no sense of direction...

In any case, Cain would never enter a dungeon alone. If he did, he would definitely get lost...

"T-then it's settled. Tomorrow. We'll conquer a dungeon together tomorrow."

Roxy spoke with pursed lips and a slightly flushed face. Though they had only been together for a few days, she honestly could no longer quite tell what she felt for this foolish disciple of hers.

In any case, they were still master and disciple, and that was what they had always been lately. Roxy had no intention of changing that. Of course, she certainly would not turn it into some strange kind of relationship. Yes, it was purely the affection between master and disciple, plus pure friendship, with perhaps just a tiny... tiny bit of liking.

After all, he could kill an S-rank Red Dragon, and he was so considerate and caring toward her. It was natural to feel a tiny bit, right? Of course, it was only the kind of liking friends had... probably...

Cain looked at Teacher Roxy's slightly flushed face, smiled helplessly, and nodded faintly with a soft hum. Then he opened the window in the room a crack, and streams of white mist drifted out through the snow-covered window.

Was this room really that hot? Look at how overheated Teacher Roxy was—her cheeks had turned completely red.

"By the way, Cain, you're from the Demon Continent too, right?"

"That's right. Is there something Teacher Roxy wants to ask?"

Cain gave Roxy a gentle smile and caught the fountain pen he had been spinning.

"Ah, then... what about your people?"

"That..."

Cain pursed his lips slightly and sighed.

"I don't know... Master found me not long after I became aware."

Rather than finding him, it would be more accurate to say he had been kept in captivity, though Master's way of raising him had been somewhat... harsh...

Mm, sometimes he had made Cain, still just a child, take a broken blade and fight a whole pack of Pax Coyotes. In a cave on the Demon Continent, he had even made him fight the B-rank boss-class Acidic Dire Wolf King alone—and if he did not kill them all, he would not be allowed to eat.

Well, thinking back on those experiences did not exactly make him want to reminisce about Master...

Cain had transmigrated into this body. From the moment he could remember, he had been a three-year-old child. The original owner had long since starved to death, his soul already scattered, leaving this body with Cain's soul alone.

Naturally, he would not have lasted much longer either. Fortunately, at the very end, he encountered the Sword God, Gal Farion, who took him in.

Cain smiled faintly at the memory. Master had been grinning happily when he found him, though the wounds on his face had made that smile look somewhat savage.

Still, Master had said Cain was a rare genius for swordsmanship and asked whether he wanted to go with him. If Cain had not had the last bit of strength to nod, the outcome might have been very different...

"I-I'm sorry..."

"Mm? Why is Teacher Roxy apologizing?"

Cain tilted his head slightly as he looked at Roxy, whose pursed lips and faintly reddened cheeks carried an apologetic expression.

"Because Cain's people are all gone, right...? I shouldn't have asked you that."

"It's fine. I don't remember them anyway, since I was little."

Cain smiled carelessly. Back then, he had been lucky just to survive. How could he have cared about such things?

As he spoke, Cain casually drew lines beneath the sheet of punishment writing, forming sketches of various kinds of armor from his memories.

His experience battling the Red Dragon high in the sky had made Cain realize one of his weaknesses.

Whether in close combat or at range, his Blade of Light could generally cleave whatever he wanted to cut in two. It practically possessed the ability to sever anything. Even the neck of a Red Dragon, with its exceptionally hard and thick scales, could be cut through in a single stroke.

In other words, he possessed swift and fierce offensive methods.

Of course, Demon Blade: Instant Void had contributed greatly to that. The demonic blade Master had bestowed upon him was extraordinarily sharp, capable of cutting iron like mud.

However, despite being a Divine Rank swordsman, Cain's body was still too fragile, even with ordinary refined steel armor protecting it. He wanted a special set of armor with excellent defensive properties.

But that led to another problem. Whether it was heavy armor, light armor, or plate armor, even the lightest cloth armor and leather armor would affect his speed.

As a swordsman of the Sword God Style, speed was an indispensable advantage that could never be sacrificed. That left Cain troubled. And even if he solved the burden issue, cloth and leather armor had unsatisfactory defensive capabilities and could not provide the protection he needed.

Cain had been thinking about this ever since returning, but he had never been able to come up with a good solution.

"By the way, Cain."

Cain's thoughts were interrupted, and he frowned slightly. But when he saw that it was Teacher Roxy, he smiled faintly and turned around. Looking at Roxy's flushed face, the hand sketching armor paused slightly.

"What is it, Teacher Roxy?"

"Cain, how old are you this year?"

"Twelve."

"Eh! You're so young?"

"Ah, Teacher Roxy, even if you say that, I'll still get angry, you know."

"S-sorry. I subconsciously assumed Cain was from the Devil Race, and that your appearance had stopped at a certain age."

"Is that so...? But I seem to be the type who keeps growing as I get older."

Though he did grow a little more slowly than other children his age.