Chapter 16 – Filing for Reparations

Hearing the sound of applause ring throughout the throne room, Miss Leonora snapped around, turning her gaze towards the source────towards the throne. On the throne that the No Life King had been sitting on earlier was an eerie patchwork doll.

Well, it’s a doll made by me though, since I had the time.
I tried making it with Tena as the model, but for some reason I’ve always been bad at sewing, so it didn’t come out the way I wanted. I tried getting Tena to have a little look to see what she thought of it, but I seriously made her cry. Was it that big of a shock that a doll like that was based on her, or was it simply because she was afraid of it? I still don’t know.
I thought about throwing it away… or rather, I did throw it away, and countless times too, but it’d return before I knew it. Mn, seems like it’s cursed. It’s because it took me an hour to make it, so I accidentally enchanted it.

I used teleport to place it on the throne, but to be honest there isn’t much meaning to the doll. I apparently earned the girl’s resentment sometime somewhere, so I wanted to try talking to her, but it was scary to meet her directly, so I decided to talk to her through the dungeon core using its voice reception system. But in that case she probably wouldn’t know where to face when talking, so I left something random as both a target for speaking, and as my representative.
Once I talk to her, my existence will be revealed, but well, even in the worst case scenario, from what I can tell from the battle, if I prepare a number of No Life King level monsters, I should be able to manage somehow.

『What the hell are you?』

『I’m the dungeon master of this dungeon. The doll is just something to represent me, so there’s no point in attacking it. If you want it, I’ll give it to you after our talk is done.』

『You think anyone would want such an ugly doll?』

Well, that’s right I guess. I’d be extremely happy if somebody took this cursed doll away though. Even if I give it away, there’s a high chance that it’ll come back though.

『But still, the dungeon master, you say? The No Life King from just now wasn’t the lord of this place?』

『That was the 10th floor mid-boss.』

『I see. So the lord that the undead king obeys is you, huh? That bastard. Even though he was spouting great lines about not kneeling to even the demon king, to think that he was a dog in the end.』

A dog, huh. Besides leaving the defence of the 10th floor to him────it might have been a ‘her’ though────I more or less left him alone, so even now I’m not sure if we had something like a master-servant relationship.

『Well, that doesn’t matter anymore. More importantly… in other words, the arrogant bastard that I’m after is you, then.』

Miss Leonora glared at the doll. Even though she was all beaten up from her deathmatch with the No Life King, that dreadful gaze of hers projected on the screen made me shiver… Not. She probably intended on glaring at me through the doll, but the camera for the dungeon core isn’t in the doll but looking at her from an angle instead, so it didn’t really feel like I was being glared at.

『I want to know what you’re angry about.』

『Hmph, asking the obvious! I’ve come here to give the death penalty to the fool who calls themselves the Evil God!』

『Evil God…?』

『? Why is that what you’re getting confused about? It’s rumoured amongst the people in town that the Evil God lives in this dungeon, you know!』

The heck?

『You’re the first person I’ve spoken to as a dungeon master. I have no memory of calling myself something like the Evil God.』

『What…?』

Even if I did have the chance to give my name, I have absolutely zero intention of calling myself the Evil God. But still, I’m kind of worried about the rumour in Riemel. Why is it being spread that I’m the Evil God? But if there wasn’t something to start it off, I don’t think such a rumour would appear though.

『You didn’t give your name?』

『Nope.』

『I-, I see…』

When I cleanly denied it, Miss Leonora started to have a cold sweat. Becoming fidgety and restless, her gaze began wandering here and there.

『In other words… it was a stubborn misunderstanding?』

When I pointed that out, she reacted with a start, and her unrest intensified. Almost like a small child frightened by their parent’s scolding.

『Umm… I… you could say that there’s not no chance that that’s what happened, or rather…』

『The No Life King that I spent 1,000,000 mana points on.』

『Gu-… That’s…』

I didn’t tell a lie. I can create three each day, so it’s not really a big deal though.

『Reparations.』

I don’t really mind, but her reactions are interesting, so I’ll try pressuring her a little. Miss Leonora groaned with a sour expression at my words.

『I-, It can’t be helped… I’ll make it up to you, but, what should I do?』

『Work as the 10th floor mid-boss in his stead.』

『Wha-!? Are you telling me to submit to you!?』

Ah, crap. Did I get a little carried away? Just now her face turned red and showed her indignation.

『A temporary hire. It’s fine even if we aren’t master and servant.』

『But…』

It seems that Miss Leonora is extremely picky about master and servant relationships. I said that earlier as half a joke and want to take back my words, but if I say ‘Just kidding.’ at this point, she’d get angry, huh.

『…Got it.』

Mn?

『The No Life King’s job. I’ll do it in his place.』

Geh-, if you really did that I’d be troubled, you know?

『However! I have no intention of working under somebody whose face I’ve never seen! I’ll only agree after meeting you directly and making a judgement! This is something I’ll absolutely not budge on!』

In other words, she wants to have an interview with me? A ploy for a sneak attack…? Doesn’t seem so. She seems bad at that sort of cunning. Well, once she meets me she’ll probably get let down and lose her intention of obeying me. I’m level 1 after all.

『Got it. In that case──』

I’ll head down now, or so I wanted to say, but she cut me off and declared with a determined expression.

『Alright, in that case I’ll immediately head down to the lowest floor. Wait there for a little!』

H-, hey… Unaffected by me trying to stop her in a fluster, Miss Leonora made way into the path behind the throne. It seems that she’s the type of person who becomes really hard to talk to once she’s decided on something.
No matter how strong she might be, even by the quickest estimates it’ll probably take her 2 days to get down to the 31st floor. On top of that, the 11th to 20th floors are puzzle-solving floors that you can’t brute force your way through, so if she gets stuck on one, it’ll take forever. Do I have to keep waiting for her all that time?
Having said that though, going by how she looks, she doesn’t seem like she’ll listen to a thing I say at this point. It can’t be helped. I’ll have her continue until she feels satisfied, and once she gives up I’ll give her an invitation.

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Miss Leonora had managed the splendid accomplishment of reaching as far as the 10th floor in a day, but as expected, from the 11th floor onwards, she fell into a slump of 1 floor per day.

Day 1, the 11th floor quiz floor.
A floor where you’d be given 10 questions with 3 choices each, and progressed by getting them correct. If you made a mistake, you’d be forcefully sent to the beginning of the floor and forced to redo it all.

『Aahh, even though I finally got as far as 8 questions!?』

『Unfortunate. You’re returning to the start.』

『YOU―――!!!』

Day 2, the 12th floor moving ground floor.
When you stepped on a panel with an arrow, you’d automatically be moved that way, and flying was forbidden. Unless you carefully planned out where you’d get on, you wouldn’t be able to progress like you wanted. On a game screen where you could look down from above, it was a puzzle that you’d immediately be able to figure out with just a little thinking, but it might be quite difficult once it’s all spread out in front of you.

『Arghhhh, even though I could see the stairs right in front of me…-!』

『Slow and steady wins the race.』

Day 3, the 13th floor rotating floor.
It’s a gimmick where the floor rotates everywhere. All of the rooms were circular and the exits were all equally spaced apart, so once you got spun around, you wouldn’t know which way to go. And while you were there, if you span too much…

『…I, I veel zick.』

『As a fellow warrior[samurai], I’ll shut my eyes and ears to this.』

Ah-, when was it that I said that I wasn’t a samurai again? As you’d expect it was really too pitiful, so I teleported in a cup of water for her.

Day 4―――

『Isn’t it about time to give up?』

『D-, Don’t joke with me. I-, I can still go on…』

So she said, but however you looked at it, she had lost quite a bit of spirit compared to before. Even looking on as a bystander, you could tell that her spirit was about to break.

By the way, because Miss Leonora assumed that it would be a shallow dungeon, she came in almost completely empty handed, and of course she didn’t have a single ration with her. I found that I couldn’t just watch her challenge the quizzes while her stomach growled, so I sent in bread and soup. On the first day, Miss Leonora was stubborn and wouldn’t eat the food, but once the second day came, perhaps because she couldn’t bear the hunger, she reluctantly ate.

『T-, To begin with, what’s with this!? This mountain of tricks!』

『Anti-musclehead measures.』

『Who are you calling a musclehead! You, once I get to the lowest floor you’re going to get a good punch!』

『I wonder if I should stop sending food.』

『Wha-!? S-, Starvation tactics are for cowards!』

I don’t want to hear that from somebody who didn’t bring any provisions. To begin with, there’s no other dungeon that provides reception as good as 3 meals a day, so I’d like her to be a little thankful.

『By the way, there’s something I’d like to ask, but, how just many floors does this dungeon have?』

Ah-, has she finally realised? Honestly, I think she should have asked this to begin with though. Knowing how many floors there are would provide a hint on how to conquer the dungeon so I can’t really make it public, but if it’s just her then I guess it’s fine. From our conversations so far, I can tell that she isn’t the sort to spread this around after all.

『31 floors.』

『Thir…-!?』

Miss Leonora paled, speechless. Despite having advanced through the dungeon while enduring hardships, she still hadn’t even reached the halfway point, so I guess it’s natural. Having said that, even if the 21st to 30th floor exist, they still aren’t finished yet, so the hardest part of the dungeon are the middle floors that she’s on right now, but I don’t think I’ll tell her.

『Giving up?』

『Gu-… Certainly at this rate, I can’t help but agree that it’ll be difficult to reach the bottom floor, but… if I don’t make it to the lowest floor, I won’t be able to see you, right?』

『When I spoke to you on the 10th floor, I had planned to head to where you were.』

『What!? Then, my three days of toil were…』

『It’s what you reap for deciding not to listen.』

Being poked where it hurt, Miss Leonora fell into silence.

『I get it. It’s frustrating, but I’ll give up on getting there.』

Seeing her say that with a reluctant expression, I patted my chest in relief. It looked like conquering the 11th floor and down had amassed quite alot of resentment, so if she made it to the bottom floor by her own strength I’d probably get beat up, so I was secretly trembling with fear. She probably isn’t shameless enough that she’d beat me even after giving up and then being invited here.
From the very beginning, I didn’t intend on having her act as the midboss, but having talked to her for these three days, I know that she’s a pleasant person, and I’d be happy if we could build a friendly relationship.

『Got it. I’ll prepare a teleportation circle for you so get on it.』

At first I had planned on inviting her into the residential area, but just in case by some chance negotiations got violent, I decided to meet her somewhere else. Well, judging by her personality, I don’t think that’ll happen though.
The 30th floor boss room is just the room right now with no boss in it yet, so it’s just right.
By the way, I’ve already deployed the 20th floor boss. I summoned a living armour made of orihalcon and tried enchanting it with divine protection while I was at it, but it turned into something brutal.
I was thinking of placing on the 30th floor a dragon that’s so common to fantasy worlds, but since I was doing it anyway, I might as well make it the strongest one, I thought, so I’m saving up mana in the dungeon core right now.
Eh? Wasn’t I limiting the monsters to non-living ones so that I wouldn’t kill anyone, you ask? Well, heroic warriors who could make it this far will probably be fine.
…Mn? I thought that non-living monsters would be safe since they wouldn’t disobey me without an ego, but when he was defeated by Miss Leonora, the No Life King spoke, didn’t he? …I wonder why.

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I moved to the 30th floor and then sat down properly on the throne. Neither my personality nor clothing have any trace of dignity, so I have to try my best to look even a little more proper.
Speaking of which, I’ve established thrones like in the 10th floor boss room, and in the 20th and 30th as well, but thinking about it carefully, neither of the bosses are the right size to sit on a chair made for humans… They ended up being useless. Well, they’re serving me like this now, so maybe they were useful after all.
While I was thinking about things, the large doors opened with a groan. The teleport circle that Miss Leonora used brought her to the room before this one, so she’s properly arrived. When I turned to look at the entrance, I could see a girl with silver hair in a red armoured dress.
I waited for her to enter the room, but she showed no signs of moving at all. Could it be that she can’t enter unless she’s given permission? Or so I was wondering, but she eventually slowly made way into the room.
From my point of view, she was pale enough that I was worried for her, and I could see sweat was running from her face. She walked slowly and after a few minutes arrived at a place 10 metres away from me, when she stopped still. It’ll be hard to talk like this, so I’d have liked her to have come closer, but well, it’s not a distance that we can’t hear each other, so I guess this is fine.

“Nice to meet “Please excuse my actions!” …you?”

She suddenly dogeza’d at me. Speaking of which, I get the feeling that the explanation for the mystic eyes said something about being strong enough to have a demon king dogeza. A terror strong enough to make the daughter of the demon king dogeza as well… perhaps?

“Um, “I deeply apologise for my many acts of rudeness! If it’s something I can do, I will do anything! So, please… please have mercy on my countrymen!” ”

Why did it turn into a scene where I looked like I was going to attack the Demon Race Territory? I haven’t the tiniest intention of doing that, you know.

“No, you really need to “I beg of you, please punish me alone.” …listen to me.”

I got irritated at the conversation going nowhere, and unconsciously pulled out my tantou and threw it. The cursed tantou pierced right in front of her eyes, and Miss Leonora let out a voiceless scream.

“Raise your head, and stand.”

“H-, However…”

“Just do it.”

I spoke a little overbearingly and forced her to stand. Miss Leonora snapped up and stood still at attention.

“I’m not angry.”

“Eh?”

“I have no intention of punishing you either.”

“T-, Truly!?”

Miss Leonora who seemed truly relieved even had tears form at her eyes. I’m not mad at what’s happened up until now, but rather, it’s the back-and-forth we had just then that annoyed me, you know.

“And also, about the 10th floor boss…”

“R-, Right! Of course I shall carry out my duties with all my heart!”

“You don’t need to do it.”

“Pardon?”

The other day I said it half-jokingly, but if she actually did that, I’d be troubled. If the daughter of the demon king did something like work as a mid-boss, I’d be liable to make enemies of both the human race and the demon race. As for the 10th floor boss, I can just create a No Life King again. Or rather, after Miss Leonora continued down to the 11th floor, I’d already created a new one and deployed him already. Mysteriously he knew my name from the start, but I wonder why.

“In exchange, there’s a favour I’d like to ask.”

“W-, Whatever you would like!”

“I want you to be my friend.”

“F-, Friend…?”

It was from beyond the screen, but the three days that I spent talking to her was quite enjoyable. It’s a shame that she’s frightened because of my skill, but even so, I’d like to think that there’s room to get along enough that she won’t run away even so.
In the worst case scenario, since I already know that we can talk to each other normally once separated across the screen, both considering my feelings, as well as her position as the daughter of the demon king, if possible I’d like to get along with her.

“U-, Understood! Please allow me to humbly become your friend.”

“We’re friends, so you don’t need the keigo.”

“Unders… Got it.”

My first friend in this world, GET.
I didn’t threaten her into it.
…I didn’t, right?

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TL Note:
“so I’ll try pressuring her a little.”

The “pressuring” is actually “repeatedly attacking with questions etc. to press her for an answer”.

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Chapter 15 – Last Boss Battle

Another few days have passed since the shiver-inducing hero party invasion.

Their actions which betrayed my expectations in an odd way, and the anti-climax coupled with the tension gave me an intense sense of wasted energy. To damage the dungeon master without even fighting… The Hero is fearsome.
Those muscleheads can just stay as hero(lol)es.

But there’s one thing that I realised.
In my old world, solving puzzles in dungeons was a matter of course, but in this world, that isn’t the case. I unexpectedly drove off the hero party, but thinking about it, the dungeon’s level of difficulty rising means that the level of my safety rises, so it’s something I should welcome.
And so, I’ve decided to try remodelling the 11th to 20th floors by adding puzzles and gimmicks.
While recalling the tricks in an RPG I played long ago and using it as reference, I gave adding in various things a try. Quizzes, moving floors, rotating floors, rail carts, switches that you need to press in order, places where you need to fall into the hole on purpose or you won’t progress, invisible floors, 2 containers that you have to balance the water levels for, corridors that will infinitely send you back to the start unless you follow a certain path…
Mn, I might have gone a bit over the top. Well, it is something I’m betting my life on, so there’s probably no need to hold back. At the very least, that Hero Party probably won’t reach the bottom floor for their entire lives.
Ah-, of course I’ve replaced the stolen stone slabs too.

Just as I finished remodelling, feeling satisfied, the sound of the alarm resounded in my ears.
Another person has gotten to the 4th floor… Wai-, it couldn’t be that the Hero Party is already back, could it?
Thinking that, I looked at the screen, when I found that a beautiful girl with long silver hair flowing behind her was reflected on the screen. The girl who wore a red outfit that gave the impression of being a mix of a dress and a set of armour wasn’t using a sword, and instead ripping apart black iron golems with her bare hands.

Name:  Leonora Romariel
Race:    Demon Race
Sex:       Female
Age:      16
Job:       Magic Boxer
Level:   24
Title:      Demon King Successor

“Demon King…?”

First the Hero, now the Demon King!? Is this dungeon cursed or something? Wai-, looking carefully, it wasn’t “Demon King” but “Demon King Successor”. Since it’s a successor, could she be his daughter or something?

It’s my first time seeing somebody from the demon race, but ignoring the fact that she’s an incredible bishoujo, there’s no difference with humans appearance-wise. But that power is on a different level. So far there have been other intruders of her level, but however you look at it, she seems even stronger than the Hero Party from the other day.
It seems that for a level, each race has their own strength, and it seems that even on the same level, their strength can differ based on their race. To begin with, a person who can make it to the 4th floor by themselves is totally estranged from the human level 20s.
Terrifyingly, she’s erasing the wraiths with her bare hands even though physical attacks shouldn’t work on them… Wai-, that’s impossible.
Ah, could it be that she’s attacking with mana clad around her hands? In that case, I can assent to her being able to touch a spirit. Either way, it’s not the act of a human though.

『Hmph, is this it?』

Miss Leonora muttered to herself as she dusted her hands against her dress armour. Seeing that majestic and dignified attitude of hers, if it wasn’t for the fact that I saw her ‘Demon King’s Successor’ title, I might have mistaken her for a battle maiden.

『Going from just this, it seems that this dungeon master that calls themselves the Evil God isn’t a big deal, huh. Before long I’ll reach them and beat them down, and make them regret picking a fight with our demon race.』

Pardon?
It seems that I’m getting some incredible hatred for something I have no idea about. Call myself the Evil God? When did I do something like that? She’s the first demon I’ve ever met, so there’s no way I have any memory of picking a fight with them.
Unaffected by my confusion, she found the stairs that led to the 5th floor and continued down.

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The energy she had in advancing was incredible, and she made way downwards at the incredible speed of 1 floor an hour. All the monsters she met on the way were destroyed with just one blow as well, and she didn’t slow down at all.
I hadn’t even imagined that somebody would hit the 10th floor today.

『Hmhmph, did you think a child’s game like this could stop me?』

Unlike a certain Hero(lol), she cleared the 10th floor pedestal puzzle. Hmm, what’s with this? Even though she broke through my puzzle, I want to thank her.
Let’s not mention that it made her agonise for close to an hour.
Upon putting the 3 stone slabs into the pedestal, the wall in front of her split into 2 halves, and opened the way to the audience hall.

『So it is finally time to meet you.』

Miss Leonora stepped into the audience room without hesitation. At the end of the luxurious red carpet lay an elevated throne, upon which say the King of the Undead.

『Welcome, my guest. You are the first one to have reached here.』

『I see. So you’re the No Life King mentioned on the pedestal? It seems that you have what it takes to be arrogant, huh.』

To Miss Leonora who was standing right in front of the throne and gazing at him, the No Life King spoke to her magnanimously. This was the first time that Miss Leonora looked nervous.

『Indeed, the one before you is the one who governs many retainers, the King of the Undead. Even in the face of a Demon King, I have no intention of kneeling.』

『It seems that you know what I am. I originally planned on just beating you down, but I’ve changed my mind. You can just quit being a dungeon master, and serve I who will one day inherit the throne.』

『I said that I would not kneel. Do not push your luck, lass.』

Despite speaking quietly, the tension between the two reached its climax.

『Then I’ll make you submit by force!』

『Come. Adding the daughter of a demon king to my retainers would also be amusing!』

The air of tension that had continually built up was ripped apart when the two fired their magic, and a fierce battle began.

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The battle was fierce to the extreme.
When the No Life King shot darkness bullets, Miss Leonora dodged them, and when Miss Leonora let out flames to occupy him, the No Life King used his summoned zombies and skeletons as a shield. High level undead like dullahans and spectres were also summoned and surrounded Miss Leonora, but with mana wrapped around her hands, dense enough that it was visible, she mowed them down without hesitation.
It looked like Miss Leonora had the upper hand, but as the battle dragged on, that situation changed. The No Life King and his retainers weren’t living so they didn’t get tired, but even if Leonora was a demon, she was still alive, meaning that she had a limit to her stamina and a long fight was something she ought to avoid.
When there was a gap in her concentration because she was out of breath, one of the dullahan’s arms that had been cut off grabbed her ankle. Because of the unexpected hand, Miss Leonora lost her balance and fell diagonally. The No Life King who excelled at coordinating with his retainers did not overlook this opening, and fired the largest darkness bullet thus far at Miss Leonora.
Because she was on the ground, Miss Leonora couldn’t avoid it, and being hit dead on she was sent flying for almost 10 metres before hitting the ground.

『Gu… Uu…』

『It seems that this is as far as you go.』

Perhaps to confirm his victory, the No Life King leisurely walked towards Miss Leonora, who was lying face down in agony.

『Gotcha!』

However, perhaps her laying down was an act, because the moment the No Life King entered her range, Miss Leonora raised her body and created a flame at her hand.

『Hmph, cease your futile… What!?』

Although he was in her range, he probably could have dealt with any number of spells created in desperation. However, Miss Leonora exploded the flame magic that fired from her hand on purpose. The out-of-control flame burnt even her own right arm.
She jumped towards the No Life King who was frozen from the shock, and with her fist still wrapped in flame, she hit him.

『Take this!』

『I-, Impossi… ble…』

Unable to react to the unexpected attack, the No Life King suffered a direct hit to his chest. The high-pitched sound of his bones breaking rang out, and on top of that, the flames that clad Miss Leonora’s arms lit up the robe he was wearing.
The No Life King fell backwards, but Miss Leonora who had staked everything on that one punch collapsed forward as well. Laying on the ground, she somehow managed to succeed in putting on the fire on her arm.

『Hur-… -!』

It seemed that pain shot through her because she stifled a scream as she got up. Even speaking conservatively, with wounds all over and a heavily burnt right arm, you’d be right in saying that she was battered, but even so, she was dignified and beautiful.
Miss Leonora walked towards the No Life King burning on the ground, and looked down on him. The undead around her had also crumbled because of their lord’s defeat.

『To think that you burned yourself to defeat me. You’re a mad girl.』

『As if I did this because I wanted to. I planned on making you submit without destroying you, but I didn’t have that leisure. You can feel proud for having driven me this far, O King of the Undead.』

『Haughty to the end, you are… Well… that’s fine… …n… ri… sa… …apo… gies…』

The No Life King eventually crumbled away, and only his crown fell to the ground, but that too eventually became dust.

Miss Leonora quietly overlooked it.

The next moment, the sound of applause rang out through the throne room.

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Chapter 14 – Natural Enemy

An ishibitsu is a Japanese funerary urn made of stone. They’ve been around for at least a millenium.

Picture of an ishibitsu with its lid: http://www.fufufufu.com/fufufufu_image/p_image/3/20338_3.jpg

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When the day broke, I put on the robe that I had draped around my body, and headed to the bathroom. For now, since the forced equipping doesn’t happen as long as I’m touching it, when I go to bed, I drape the robe around me in place of a blanket.
After washing my face and getting rid of my drowsiness, I headed to the dining area that was part of the kitchen, and found that Tena was already in there preparing breakfast.

“Morning.”

“Ah-, good morning, Anri-sama.”

When I called out to her, she replied back energetically.
When I sat at the dining table, my breakfast was carried over to me in an instant. Toasted bread and fried egg with salad and soup; a healthy breakfast. If I had to be greedy, then I’d have liked a Japanese-style breakfast, but since there’s no rice nor miso, even demanding it wouldn’t help.
Tena set down the same meal on the other side of the table, and then sat down as well. Because she kept firmly refusing, it took quite a bit of effort to get her to eat with me, but now its basically how we spend every breakfast. I’m not a noble, so it’s tough on me to have somebody stand behind me while I eat breakfast by myself.

“Itadakimasu.”

“Itadakimasu.”

Nomnom, yummy. It’s a simple meal, but Tena’s cooking is generally delicious. I’ve decided not to ask Tena yet what her life in the village was like, but judging from her personality, she probably earnestly helped her parents.

“Speaking of which,”

“Yes? What is it?”

“Does ‘Sacred Goddess Sophia’ ring any bells?”

“Sacred Goddess-sama? Well, of course, but…”

When I gave that question a try while eating, I found out that apparently, the deity worshipped in the standard religion for this world, the Sacred Light Faith, was the Sacred Goddess in question. She was apparently the deity that created this world, fights against the Evil God as the Goddess of Light, and guides the people through divine protection and divine revelations. Those who receive particularly strong divine protection become heroes, and becomes those that defeat the Demon King, the being born from the Evil God to bring calamity to humanity.

“U-, Um… of course I swear loyalty, to you, Anri-sama! Sacred Goddess-sa-, I mean, the Sacred Goddess means nothing to me!”

“I don’t really mind if you just keep calling her Sacred Goddess-sama.”

Perhaps because she misunderstood my silence while I was thinking, but Tena followed up on her words in a fluster. Although it was the cost of saving her life, I did give something like the divine protection of an evil god to Tena, so I had decided that I needed to tell her that the power came from an evil god, and did so. I left out the part about coming from another world, though.
Only, unfortunately I’m just a human who was given too much power by an evil god, so it’s not like I’m particularly opposed to Sacred Goddess-sama or anything, and as long as it doesn’t harm me, I’d rather her try her best to beat the crap out of that evil god, really.

“Do you know anything about the Hero?”

“Hero-sa-… I mean, the Hero? I’ve heard that the Hero is a special person who’s received divine protection, and fights with the Demon King to defeat him. Also, if I remember correctly, when Obaachan’s Okaasan was a child, there was a great celebration across the nation because the Hero had defeated the Demon King.”

Eh? The Demon King has already been subjugated?
I don’t know about the average lifespan in this world, but I think that Tena’s great-grandmother being a child was fifty years ago at the very least. Going by his age, the Hero that’s invading this dungeon should be a different person. In that case, why was he given divine protection? Could it be that there’s another Demon King?

“Are there lots of Demon Kings?”

“No, at the very least, I have only heard of one. Only, the priest that came to the village to teach us said that even if the Demon King is defeated, he eventually revives.”

I see, the Demon King defeated 50 years ago has revived, and to defeat that, the [current] Hero Arc was chosen to face him?

“Do you know where the Demon King is?”

“I don’t. People say that in the Demon Race Territory, there’s a Demon King Castle, and he’s in there.”

“Demon Race Territory?”

“Ah-, yes. The western part of this continent is controlled by the demon race. The eastern side are divided into a number of human countries, but they say that all of the Demon Race Territory is controlled by the Demon King.”

After that, once I asked in more detail, I found that Riemel apparently belonged to the Kingdom of Fortera, and was right in the middle of the continent. Being in the middle of the continent has a nice ring to it, but if the east and west are divided up between the human race and demon race, then being in the middle makes it the front lines. I wonder if on the way to the Demon King, the Hero party heard about this dungeon and dropped by here.
Or more like, I wish they would avoid detours like this and just go fight the Demon King already. Hurry up and go.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

After finishing breakfast, I asked for just some red tea from Tena who had begun washing the dishes, and holding my tea cup, I headed to the office.
When I checked the screen, I found that the Hero Party had already packed up their simple camp, and begun exploring again. The floor they’re on right now is the 7th floor, so if they progress smoothly, I expect that they’ll make it to the 10th floor room that the No Life King is protecting in the evening.
Honestly, as a fighting amateur, I have no idea who’s stronger, but if my boss loses, I’ll have a lot I’ll need to think about.
Since they thought that this dungeon would have less floors, they came in here unprepared and I don’t think they’ll make it to where I am, but next time they’ll probably come to conquer this place, completely prepared. It won’t matter if they can’t win against the No Life King, but if it seems that they can beat him, then the chance that they’ll reach me eventually is high.
I’ll need to come up with various measures before they arrive here the next time. Uneffected by my nervous surveillance of them, they steadily made their way through the dungeon.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The Hero party who had arrived at the 10th floor following my expectations were, contrary to expectations, stuck before the 10th floor boss room. What they were tilting their heads in thought about was the puzzle pedestal that I had installed there for aesthetics’ sake.

『“Thee who wouldst come in challenge before the throne of the undying one, arrange correctly the stars.” huh? Just what the heck could it mean?』

『There are many undead in this dungeon, so I believe that the “Undying One” refers to the boss of this dungeon.』

Widdi replied to the puzzled looking Zio.
Right right, having you think that makes me really happy. And having you go home satisfied after defeating the No Life King would make me even happier.

『I see. Then in other words, if we want to fight the dungeon master, then we have to “arrange correctly the skies”, huh? I wonder what “arrange correctly the skies” means.』

『They probably mean the celestial bodies, huh? I think that’s what these marks on the pedestal represent.』

Ah-, speaking of which, I had the symbols for the sun, moon, and stars, but I didn’t think about whether or not that would translate properly in this world.
Well, they did guess that it referred to the celestial bodies, so maybe there’s no problem.

『How are we supposed to arrange these marks? …They don’t bloody move.』

『Seems that putting mana into it doesn’t work either, huh.』

Eh? No, no, I know that you guys only have one of them, but you’ve still got one of the stone slabs, you know.
Could it be that they forgot? Or could it be that they didn’t see the marks on the slates properly?

『Arc-sama, has the guidance of the Holy Sword not given any clues?』

『Sorry, nothing really…』

『N-, No! I apologise for asking too much!』

So even that cheat-sword that even saw through traps can’t deal with this stupid puzzle, huh? I’m feeling this odd mix of relief and pity…

『Even the Holy Sword from Sacred Goddess-sama can’t do a thing? Seriously? It’s a pretty hard question, hey? As someone whose specialty is using my body, this kind of thing is a bit much for me.』

『Don’t say things like that, and think together with everyone!』

Huh…? Things seriously don’t look good. I put that thing there as a bonus question for aesthetics’ sake, but once they butted heads with it, they got seriously stuck. Collecting the slates from around the 10th floor is annoying, but I thought solving the riddle itself would’ve only taken 2 seconds, but…

Hey, don’t try and slash the pedestal!
It’s not an ishibitsu either, so stop trying to look for a lid to take off!
Cut it out, meatheads!

『It’s not good. I haven’t the tiniest idea how to get the dungeon master to come out. I thought this place would be a shallow dungeon, so we didn’t prepare enough. It’s frustrating, but let’s withdraw for now.』

『T-, To withdraw right before the dungeon master…-!』

Eh-? There’s no way you’ll come all the way here only to go home without fighting the boss, right?
It’ll trouble me too in various ways if I don’t find out if you guys or the No Life King are stronger.
Hey-, wait! Don’t seriously go home!
At least put back the slab you took, you thieves!

 

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