This is the first time weâve had a guest in our house since Haruka and I moved in. The intruder was lying on the floor screaming even though it was someoneâs house. There was no elegance in his voice, and for some reason, his voice was sounding desperate.
âHaru.â (Kei)
âYes?â (Haru)
âAre you done?â (Kei)
âYes!â (Haru)
There was a loud shout again. Oh, it wasnât a shout, it was a yell.
âUgh. *vomit*â (Shiki)
âOh my God, my old man is a zombie. Youâre disgusting. Donât get up.â (Kei)
â*cough*, *more vomit*â
Of course, we wouldnât let a stranger into our house, but it was my father who was screaming.
About an hour after we returned home, our old man knocked on the door, looking more upset than ever. I had just been thinking about [Resonance] we had heard about in the dungeon, and I immediately understood why our old man had come, so I let him in.
The [Resonance] that had been attached to us was removed by the girl we met in the dungeon. In all likelihood, it was my old man who put the [Resonance] on us, and from his point of view, we have either found out or were killed. Either way, he must have thought that something unusual had happened.
He looked at me and sighed as if he was relieved. He walked into the room, looked at Haru, and took a deep breath. He lifted his hands and tried to hug Haru, but in an instant Haru had his arms bent and bound.
He was screaming, but his face was smiling and he was looking like a zombie, so I guess he still had some screams left inside him.
âIs it fun to be a girlâs stalker? This damn old man!â (Kei)
âOuch, that really hurts. Ouch.â (Shiki)
Oh, my dad stopped moving.
My dad woke up a few minutes later. By the way, Haru had kicked the sleeping old man, though only mildly. I think she was trying to wake him up.
âSo, I know what [Resonance] is, and Iâm pretty sure it was you, old man, who put it on us. I also have some idea about the maid. You can explain it to me, canât you.â (Kei)
âSeriously, you meet that maid? Iâm glad youâre safe.â (Shiki)
My father puts his hand on his forehead, and he stared on the floor. Soon, I can hear him muttering, âSeriously, whatâs wrong with my luck?â
âOld man, when youâre doing a Dogeza, your hands should be on the floor, not on your forehead.â (Kei)
âBecause Iâm not on a Dogeza!â (Shiki)
My father slaps his knees and raises his face. So on a serious note, after begging us to leave the anger later, I take out the tablet from the bag that was loose.
âThe two of you are right, I do have a skill called [Resonance]. It allows you to check the status of the person youâve designated at any time, once youâve met them. Of course, there are ways to level up in this house. Iâm also aware that there is probably a dungeon in this house. Basement, right?â (Shiki)
As I knew, my father completely understood the situation we were in. ButâŠ
âIs that the only effect of [Resonance]?â (Kei)
We had heard about the effects of [Resonance] from the maid we met in the dungeon. This means that we now know that my father is trying to cover up the effects of the skill.
âDo it, Haru.â (Kei)
âHow many levels?â (Haru)
I can see the magic power stretching from Haru to my father with the words.
âDonât peek at peopleâs statuses, please.â (Shiki)
Haruâs magical power, [Detection] is easily deflected. I saw a thin magical power growing from my father towards Haru, surrounding the magical power both were scattered.
âIs that [Resonance], father?â (Haru)
He reached out his hand in front of Haru and blocked it with his magic power.
âItâs a good thing Iâm level 94. Iâve never heard of a level as high as this before. The highest level recorded right now is in the upper 80s in America. Thatâs who they call the strongest in the world.â (Shiki)
âNo, I heard theyâre in the late 70s?â (Kei)
I think thatâs what I heard a few days ago, as far as I can tell. I believe it was written that American explorers are the strongest in the world as they are about to approach level 80.
âAh, maybe that was the case. I was wrong.â
My dad laughs, âAhahahaha.â
âFather knows some pretty wild stuff, donât you? I heard about the maid from brother. Even now, there are probably unannounced level 80s and above.â (Haru)
âCome on, you know I canât say that.â (Shiki)
My dad is playing with his tablet, blurting out that I donât have anything to do with us. If I look into it a little bit, I can see an illustration of a maid. Normally, I would be put off by my fatherâs taste in maids, but I couldnât help but recognize the maidâs outfit in the drawing.
It wasnât as tattered as the maid in the painting, but the clothes were similar to the ones worn by the maid we had just met in the dungeon.
âSheâs definitely the one you saw.â (Shiki)
Our old man seemed to be convinced and asked me for final confirmation.
âNo, sheâs not. The clothes are probably the same, but the face is completely different. The maidâs clothes we saw were not tattered, though they were the same design, and she didnât have these dark circles under her eyes. She is neither of the other two.â (Kei)
The maid we met was saying that there were two more. Probably one of them is the maid of the painting that my father showed.
âWhat? What do you mean there are two? No, if there are two more besides the one, I saw, then there are three in total. How strong are they, can you fight with either of the two?â (Shiki)
âNo, I donât think so. I couldnât even follow them with my eyes. If I tried to fight them, Iâd die without landing a single attack.â (Kei)
âSo, they werenât enemies, were they? The maid, the one I know, has been attacking explorers. However, it seems that they didnât kill them despite the overwhelming difference in power.â (Shiki)
The maid we met. The maid that my father knew. And the other maid. After that, I continued to question my father as if it was a coincidence, and I was able to get him to reveal some of the information he knew.
However, none of the information was directly related to the dungeon attack.
He said he was starting to get all the information he needed and was going to run around the Kanto area. We were going to dive into the dungeon as usual. [T/N: Kanto Area a.k.a. Greater Tokyo, that includes Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa.] .
However, the inside of the dungeon is not always the same.