The Virgin Hero Who Fought in the Dungeon for 20 Years Returned to the Surface Only to Find the Population of the World Has Dropped Drastically, with a Male-to-Female Ratio of 1:1000 - 65

Chapter 65: Memory of the Battlefield

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Year Heisei 14. Converted to the Western calendar, it was 2002, early autumn.

Ryuuto Sakazaki was on the battlefield. He was fifteen years old. Two years had passed since the spirit had bestowed him the ability to use this strange art. He heard a voice calling his name from far away.

It was late autumn, at twilight. Ryuuto was inside a trench dug far deeper than his own height. The packed clumps of earth were harder than expected, but not perfect. If a heavyweight monster surged forward, it would collapse easily enough. Again, someone called his name.

Ryuuto slowly lifted his rear from the cold, damp soil and stopped his fingers, which had been flipping through a paperback book. He didn’t stand up completely—just rose into a half-crouch. Like doing an invisible chair. This pose worked as a pretty good training in its own way.

“I’m getting kinda hungry.”

He muttered. He sniffed the air. Wet soil and mud. The thick scent of men’s sweat. The smell of stagnant water, but stronger than all of those—grains, oil, and soy sauce. Ryuuto’s sense of smell, often said to be as sharp as a dog’s, kicked into full gear, and his stomach growled at the aroma of tonight’s menu.

“Dinner’s ready, Ryuuto.”

“Yeah.”

Shougen Genma poked only his face out from a pile of sandbags and spoke in a somewhat tired tone. It was understandable. The wait had been far too long. The body accumulated fatigue if it was overused, and it stagnated if left idle too long.

“Yeah.”

Ryuuto slipped a bookmark into the paperback and tried to stand up all at once from his crouch—but his legs gave out.

“Whoa—!”

He braced himself against the dirt wall. He didn’t want to look pathetic in front of Shougen. Otherwise, that comrade of his would embellish the incident a hundred times over and report it to his big sister. His big sister, six years his senior, treated him like a child no matter what. 

Getting that kind of treatment in front of the soldiers on the battlefield would be unbearable. Ryuuto forced himself to stay calm and brushed the dirt off the paperback that had fallen at his feet. Shougen, grinning, stared at his every move.

“What?”

“What, another book? I’m impressed, I’m impressed. Have you finally taken an interest in studying?”

“Nah, just killing time. Not much else to do around here after all.”

Ryuuto Sakazaki was an “explorer.” He had supernatural powers, but those abilities—far beyond that of ordinary people—were limited to underground labyrinths.

Fifteen-year-old Ryuuto, under the protection of an army battalion, had been locked in a long standoff before Hachiōji Castle, which had been overtaken by monsters. The objective was to infiltrate the dungeon located within the castle.

But things didn’t go smoothly. The ruins of Hachiōji Castle had been suddenly seized by a horde of monsters that surged up from underground, transforming the site into a heavily fortified fortress. Their dwelling was the dungeon itself.

As long as the dungeon was ruled by the boss monster—the Dungeon Master—enemies would spawn seemingly without end. The national defense forces could suppress the monsters on the surface with modern weaponry, but they couldn’t use those weapons inside the dungeon. 

That meant it fell to explorers, wielders of supernatural power, to defeat the Dungeon Master. To the local residents, the never-ending monster spawns were intolerable. In response, the National Defense Forces had dispatched a party of highly skilled explorers, including Ryuuto, to the area.

“Well, yeah. We’ve been stuck here for three months after coming all this way. The army had a hell of a time taking South Tama Cemetery too, so I guess it can’t be helped.”

“Undead types are damn stubborn. Against zombies, ghosts, skeletons, bullets don’t seem to do much.”

Far from Ryuuto’s current position, the undead army entrenched in Tama Cemetery had forced Japan’s National Defense Forces to suffer unexpected casualties. Furthermore, the road leading to Hachiōji Castle was narrow to begin with, and the monsters had used hordes of goblins to thicken their barricades and defenses, forcing the defense forces into slow, grinding combat.

“Jeez, can’t they just bomb it from the air and get it over with?”

Shougen responded to Ryuuto’s grumbling.

“The Air Force is busy fending off the winged dragon horde attacking Hokkaidō. And besides, most of our artillery got wrecked during last year’s capital defense battle. The US military we were relying on is too busy returning home. The only hope left is whether we can buy firearms from Russia via China—but even they are running out of weapons. These monster outbreaks aren’t just in Japan. Europe and the other continents are all tied up with their own fires and don’t have time to worry about anyone else.”

What Shougen said was true. Not just Japan, but the whole world was struggling just to contain the monsters emerging from dungeons appearing within their own territories. No one had the luxury of helping others.

“On top of that, Britain and Europe had severe crop failures from last year’s cold weather. It’s a double punch—monsters and food shortages. There’s even talk of some weird plague spreading around. According to the Strategic Committee’s investigation, even the relatively stable Britain now has a population of just about six million. Down to medieval levels. And, well, Japan’s probably heading toward Edo-period levels soon too—or so the radio says.”

“Radio’s the only source of information these days, huh. That’s just sad.”

“Still, they say we’re useless on the surface. We can’t unleash our full potential here after all.”

“Those ghosts in the cemetery, huh? I heard they haven’t been fully wiped out yet. Hey, Shougen—you’re the temple kid, right? Can’t you exorcise them with your chanting or something?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. My sutras hold no spiritual merit.”

Shougen, who came from a temple family, said this with a dead serious look.

“Reality is harsh, huh.”

“Hey.”

Explorers could only use their superhuman magic and skills inside underground labyrinths. Though both Ryuuto and Shougen had undergone standard military training, the central command didn’t count them as part of their ground forces. In fact, they were kept away from the front lines.

The special powers expected from Ryuuto and the others were only for use underground. Proof of that was seen in the gear worn by the surrounding soldiers—steel helmets, camouflage fatigues, and Type 89 rifles, all repurposed from old Self-Defense Force equipment. The gear was inconsistent and mismatched.

In contrast, Ryuuto and his comrades wore what looked to outsiders like cosplay costumes. Shougen donned mithril silver armor and carried an old-fashioned longsword—he looked every bit the medieval knight. And Ryuuto wore a rust-red cloak, carrying only a wooden staff that was practically useless in close combat. On the surface, their weapons couldn’t hold a candle to a rifle in terms of effectiveness.

“Well, all we can do is keep our bodies in shape and charge into the dungeon in one piece. As explorers, the real battle for us starts once we go underground. That’s why the army guarantees us a special daily ration of 1,500 calories a day.”

“I think this every time, but it’s not enough. The food just doesn’t cut it at all.”

“Ryuuto, you’re a big eater after all.”

“Just so you know, I’m already holding back a little, you know.”

“All right, let’s cut the idle talk. Kazuki-san is in a bad mood. She ordered me to hurry up and bring you to the rear camp. But seriously, until we get the go-ahead, you’d better not get any closer to the front lines. It’s really dangerous around here.”

“I, for one, am trying to unite my heart with our brave soldiers and bring about victory in this battle—”

“Yeah, none of that.”

“Tch. Shougen, you too? Have you submitted to my big sister’s rule?”

“Just shut up and come on.”

“Hey, don’t pull me like that—”

“Hurry it up already. Out here, we’re just dead weight after all.”

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