Kitaseno-sensei:

It’s the last boss fight.
Please play your choice of BGM.

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Chapter 17 – Imperial Death

The large doors creaked as they opened.
With nothing to block it, the overwhelming sense of presence from inside the room increased, and the mixed party faintly trembled before the door.

『…Let us go.』

With the Demon King’s voice, the party came back to their senses, and their vigilance naturally made their steps slow.
Ahead of them was a throne on a platform a step higher than the rest of the room, and upon it sat the lord of the room.
Sitting on the luxurious throne and waiting for the Heroes and demons was a skeleton clad in a jet black robe. He was much smaller than the Black Dragon and Armour of the Evil God, and could only be taken as the size of a normal human. However, the people gathered in that room withered in face of the pressure greater than any of the previous foes.

『…………………』

『…………………』

The party advanced as far as just before the throne, but he merely sat there and gazed at them with his dark, eyeless sockets, and showed no further reaction.
Because of the feeling of pressure that he released, the party found themselves unable to speak first, and waited wordlessly.
In that tense silence that discouraged even clearing their throat, when the party was about to reach their mental limits, the skeleton spoke first.
In a voice that may well have invited death upon anybody with a weak mind, a low voice that seemed to shake the soul, he welcomed them.

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

That line was similar to his previous one, but the only one who knew that was Leonora and myself.

『You… “What” are you?』

『Fumu. In the past I may have answered “a King”, but at present I am nothing more than a single servant of my God──Anri-sama.』

『Anri… Evil God Anri?』

The skeleton had quietly replied to the Demon King’s question. Hearing my name, the expressions of the Heroes turned grave.

『So we can take it to mean that you’re the boss here, right?』

『Indeed. I have been appointed by my God as the guardian of this room. Therefore, I cannot allow you to proceed beyond here.』

Hearing the skeleton’s words, their vigilance heightened, and they prepared their weapons.

『Hu-』

『!? What’s so funny!?』

The skeleton laughed at them, and Orlaine gave an exaggerated reaction. It told of her nervousness.

『Not funny, but joyous, …Young Miss.』

『Young-…!? T-, Then joyous about what?』

『As I stated earlier, you are the first ones to have reached this floor. Although it was an honour to be appointed as guardian of this place and I had not an iota of dissatisfaction, it is also the truth that I found it vexing to have no opportunity to display my loyalty to my God. And in this moment, that opportunity has finally arrived; what could this be but joyous?』

Having said that, the skeleton stood up, flicked back his jet back robe, before spreading his arms wide.

『Let us exchange our names; I am Imperial Death. A retainer and kin of my exalted God──Anri-sama, as well as the one appointed as guardian of this room.』

The skeleton──Imperial Death, gave his name, and in response the Heroes held out the weapons that could be called their symbols, and the party members named themselves one by one.

『Hero of the Holy Sword, Arc.』

『Hero of the Holy Spear, Lionel.』

『Hero of the Holy Bow, Orlaine.』

『Demon King, Eligor Romariel.』

『One of the Four Heavenly Kings, Fierce Gale Knight Renarve.』

『Likewise, Bloodfrost General Vikuto.』

Imperial Death gave a satisfied nod in response, and displayed his intent to fight.

『Now then. Come. To demonstrate my loyalty, I shall be your opponent with all my power.』

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

『I’m going to attack!』

『Please leave the support to me!』

The first move was taken by Orlain and Vikuto, who had begun to attack from afar. They released as many arrows as they could at once, and they rained down towards Imperial Death. However, he raised his right hand, and a round barrier appeared, easily blocking the rain of arrows.

『An opening!』

Seeing Imperial Death defend against the arrows, Lionel rushed up and aimed for the torso with his Holy Spear. No matter how overwhelming he might have been, Imperial Death was still an undead. In that case, the Holy Weapon that was effective against undead should have dealt him huge damage. Lionel had attacked with that belief, but the strike was all too easily stopped.

『I-, Impossible…』

With his right hand still maintaining the barrier, Imperial Death blocked the incoming Holy Spear with just his left hand. No, more accurately, he stopped it with just the index finger of his left hand. The brittle-looking finger bone blocked a strike from one of the strongest weapons in the world; seeing that seemingly impossible scene, not only Lionel, but everyone in the room froze. Did this mean that Imperial Death himself boasted greater defence than the Armour of the Evil God?

『If you wish to aim for an opening, then you ought not shout your intentions to do so.』

Saying so, Imperial Death reached out and grabbed the Holy Spear, before casually waving his hand. His strength was impossible to imagine from a mere skeleton the size of a human, and together with his Holy Spear, Lionel was sent flying parallel the ground.

『UOOHHHHHHHH!?』

『Kuh-, make it in time!』

Renarve immediately reacted and ran towards the flying Lionel, before catching him. Had Renarve not been there, Lionel would have hit the wall dozens of metres away, and become unable to fight in that instant.

『Guh-, sorry!』

『It is no big deal.』

Lionel thanked Renarve for saving him, and Renarve shook his head with a smile.

『Watch out!』

『Would I let you!』

While Lionel and Renarve exchanged their short lines, they heard a voice from somewhere else.
Wondering what had happened and turning around, Renarve and Lionel found that right next to them, something black was flying their way at incredible speed. The other voice had come from the direction of the Demon King and Arc, who were attacking Imperial Death with their swords.
Realising that they were saved by a hair’s breath because Imperial Death had been attacked when he was about to fire, Lionel and Renarve got up and ran to join the two engaged with Imperial Death.

『Sorry, you saved me!』

『My apologies, Your Majesty.』

Because Arc and the others were fighting at close range, Orlaine and Vikuto had stopped their attacks and watched for an opening. Because of that, Imperial Death’s free right hand turned to the two he had been fighting with. However, with Renarve and Lionel joining the frame, the situation began to change.
Perhaps because he really could not handle a four-on-one close combat battle, Imperial Death released mana from his whole body, and blew the four away to gain some distance.

『Speaking of which…』

『?』

Just as Arc and the others were about to close the distance to attack again, Imperial Death spoke before they could. Having lost the timing to attack, they could now do nothing but lend him an ear.

『Although I said that I would be your opponent with all my power, if I remain barehanded it would hardly be truth, would it.』

『What-!?』

In front of the surprised party, Imperial Death held his right hand out. The party watched with bated breath. Under his hand, a black pole of some sort came out from his shadows. Grasping it in his right hand and swiftly pulling it out of the shadows, Imperial Death held the weapon with both hands.

It was a single-edged scythe, that was about as long as he was tall. A skeleton clad in jet black robes, holding a scythe… It was the very image of the grim reaper from the legends. It might have seemed ironic that the undead emperor who rejected death was taking the form of the reaper that invited it, but it was probably partially because of the image I had when I gave him the divine protection.

『I have kept you waiting. Shall we continue?』

Hearing this, the party couldn’t make any careless moves. The overwhelmingly powerful barehanded enemy was now holding a weapon. Nobody in the room was foolish enough to not be vigilant about that.

『Whatever is the matter? Will you not come? Then I shall move instead.』

With those words, Imperial Death suddenly disappeared.

『Wha-!? Where did he go?』

They frantically searched for him, but couldn’t find him anywhere. Then in the next moment, in front of the backline support Orlaine and Vikuto, Imperial Death suddenly made his appearance.

『Impossible!』

『It can’t be!?』

Cutting through Vikuto’s promptly made water barrier as though it was paper, and smacking away like a twig the Holy Bow that Orlaine tried to shield herself with, Imperial Death’s swinging scythe cut deeply into the Orlain’s shoulder and Vikuto’s abdomen.

『KYAAH!?』

『Guh- …!!』

『Orlaine!』

『Vikuto!』

The other tried to run up to the two who had collapsed with a cry, but before they could, Imperial Death disappeared once again.

『Kuh-, he disappeared again.』

『Incredible speed… is not, what he’s using. Short distance teleportation?』

『Yes, although this ability is limited to use in the dungeon.』

Hearing the words from behind himself, the Demon King immediately cut backwards without even turning his head.

『Mu-, this will not do. The one who advised against speaking when attacking an opening was I myself, wasn’t it.』

Blocking the Demon King’s swing with his scythe, Imperial Death laughed wryly as he disappeared.

『Kuh-, this is bad! At this rate, it’ll just be one-sided attacks.』

『Take up a circular formation! We will remove our blind spots!』

Following the Demon King’s instructions, Arc, Lionel and Renarve gathered together, and they stood back-to-back so that they could defend against attacks from every angle.

『Where. Where will he attack from?』

The four searched in vigilance, but Imperial Death wouldn’t appear at all. Although they grew tired of waiting, they desperately tried to concentrate, when a voice called out to them.

『Remove all blind angles… huh. Not a bad idea…』

The party turned to the voice, and found that Imperial Death was seated back on his throne, with his right hand aimed towards them.

『However, just because I am holding a weapon, does not by any means suggest that I cannot use magic, you know.』

『!? Scatter!』

Faster than they could react to the Demon King’s voice came a mass of darkness from Imperial Death’s hand, flying towards where they were gathered.
They immediately jumped down on the spot, but Lionel who was closest to the throne was hit, unable to dodge.

『GUAHHHHHHHHHH-…!?』

『Uwah!?』

『Kuh…』

『Nu…』

Lionel was hit terribly hard, and collapsed on the spot with a groan. Although the other three avoided a direct hit, they still received damage from the aftermath.

『Kuh-, what strength!』

『He certainly is far stronger than any enemy before. Even if we continue to fight, our defeat will probably be inevitable.』

『Your Majesty, and also Arc-dono… I will try to block the next attack. Can I leave the offence to you?』

『Renarve!?』

『…Understood.』

Arc raised a shocked voice at Renarve’s determined suggestion, but the Demon King agreed with a stern expression.

『Are you finished with your discussion? Well then, let us continue… No, perhaps it is about time to end it. You all fought well. I shall remember this fight for eternity.』

Muttering this quietly, Imperial Death once again disappeared.
Up until now, they had frantically searched for him when he vanished, but this time they just wordlessly concentrated, swords at the ready. Also, Renarve had closed his eyes quietly, and spread wind magic through the area.

『There!』

Renarve thrust with all his might towards the disturbance in the air flow. Although Imperial Death’s skull made a shocked expression, as he had appeared right before the attack, he calmly dealt with Renarve’s attack and swung his scythe.
If he had retreated then he could have avoided any large damage, but instead Renarve chose to stand there and block the scythe’s attack with his body.

『What-!?』

『Guh-… Now!』

Renarve gave the signal even with his expression twisted in anguish, and Arc responded.

『AHH!』

Imperial Death tried to respond to Arc’s swing of the Holy Sword, but Renarve had gripped the scythe, and unable to block with the scythe, he let go of it and stopped the Holy Sword with his arm.

『Your aim was fine, but I see you lack power… Nu?』

Imperial Death had laughed after blocking the Holy Sword, but after seeing that Arc’s expression was not one of despair, he raised a quizzical voice.

『Then I shall… add to that power.』

The Demon King ran up, and smacked his Demon Sword onto the Holy Sword pressed against the skeleton arm. The impact caused the Holy Sword to push deeply into it, and snapped the arm beneath it.

『NU, OOHHHHHHH!?』

The Holy Sword with two people’s strength had snapped Imperial Death’s arm, and continued to swing down. The flash of the sword had failed to reach the enemy, but it cut into his robe, and black cloth danced through the air.

『Kuh-, he evaded it?』

『But it is a fact that we have pressured him. There is nothing to do but continue to attack… Mn?』

Arc and the Demon King had jumped back to observe their enemy, but seeing Imperial Death’s lack of reaction, the two made puzzled expressions. Looking carefully, he was looking at the ground a small distance away from him, and paid no heed to Arc or the Demon King.
Although he was much too filled with openings, that instead begged suspicion, and the two could not attack. Wondering what was happening, he followed Imperial Death’s gaze, and found that something black was lying there.

『…………r』

『What?』

Noticing Imperial Death’s quiet murmur, the Demon King raised a voice of question, but Imperial Death continued to stare at the floor, completely motionless. The black thing on the ground was part of the robe that had been cut earlier.

『…Cur』

『O-, Oi?』

Hearing the deep, ominous voice that seemed to come from Hell itself, the two of them reflexively flinched.

『CURCURCURCURCUR! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU CUT THE ROBE BESTOWED BY ANRI-SAMA!』

『──────!?』

『──────!?』

Imperial Death began to fly into a rage, and the two of them stiffened at his intense anger.
And then, floating into the air, Imperial Death began to release incredible pressure. But although I say pressure, it wasn’t the type that seemed to put force on the surroundings, and instead the surroundings seemed to be drawn into an invisible ‘something’. Continually sucking and concentrating, that ‘something’ started to be dense enough to see… It was miasma from all across the dungeon.
The miasma was thicker the deeper it was in the dungeon, and on the 30th floor that was close to the very bottom, the air was filled with the thickest miasma. And that miasma was now being drawn into a single undead.
Imperial Death took that concentrated miasma into himself, and his figure changed into something ever more sinister.

『Looks like we stepped on the tail of a dragon, huh.』

『So this is as far as we go…』

In front of the two exchanging their words of resignation, Imperial Death placed the concentrated miasma around his scythe, and he swung.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

(¯¯¯-¯¯¯)
Chudooon.
(eyes closed, facing up to the sky)

The scene was such a tragedy that I couldn’t bear to look, so I closed my eyes, shielded my ears, and accompanied it with a sound effect in my mind.
Wondering if I could open them yet, I had a peek, and found on-screen the tattered Arc and Ojisama lying on the floor. With the collapse of the final party members, the party was now wiped out.

Wondering why there was no reaction, I looked at the people in the room, and found that everyone had their mouths hanging open in a daze. Since it was a climax, everyone was here today, but every single one of them was dumbfounded.
Seeing this, I decided to stealthily head to the exit.

“Stop.”

But my efforts were fruitless, and I had the nape of my neck violently caught by Sophia.

“What on earth is that?”

“What, you ask? It’s the other kin that I told you about earlier.”

When I replied as such, Sophia gave a deep sigh.

“No matter how I look at it, that is no regular kin. Isn’t he already close to reaching the realm of a divine? That has to be foul play, right!?”

“There was no rule like that.”

“No, I have to agree with her, yanno? That ain’t something a human or demon can stand up to, right?”

“But even so, I’m not breaking the rules.”

“To begin with, why does somebody who just became a divine have a kin that became something like that?”

“She’s got a point, yanno. Unless a kin with terribly strong faith spends a few hundred years like that, then they basically ain’t gunna turn into something like that, but…”

“Well I don’t know why he’s like that either.”

I thought things would turn out like this. Since he completely ignores words like prudence or restraint, I thought that Sophia and Anbaal would get mad if they found out about him so I was really depressed when I realised that the mixed party had made it this far.
But there’s no option left to me except talking back.
It’s true that it wasn’t breaking the rules, so there shouldn’t be a problem.

Side-stepping Sophia and Anbaal’s questioning, while avoiding Tena, Leonora and Lili’s stares, I silently came to that conclusion all by myself.

---

Mixed party was defeated!
Anri obtained Holy Sword, Holy Spear, Holy Bow, Demon Sword!

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

Chapter 16 – Boss Rush

The top floors of the “Holy Land of the Evil God” were built as an orthodox dungeon.
The monsters and traps were normal, and more annoying than the dungeon itself was the miasma, but it wasn’t as though there were fatal traps, and as long as they were properly prepared, it wouldn’t be impossible for a high level adventurer party to conquer them.

Following that, the middle floors were completely different and were floors that focused on solving puzzles. In exchange for a huge decrease in monsters and traps, various puzzles lay in wait. Unlike the top floors, it was impossible to break through with simple battle power.
A dungeon like this was the only one in this world, and the lack of know-how on how to conquer it was one of the reasons for the heightened difficulty.

Then what about the lower floors that awaited beneath it?
It didn’t have ferocious traps; on the contrary, there wasn’t a single one. It didn’t have complicated puzzles either. The miasma was something that became stronger the deeper you went, but that was it.
However, even compared to the upper floors and middle floors, the difficult of the lower floors were far higher/.

The reason was extremely simple──the monsters were strong.

The monsters that appeared in the top and middle floors were stronger than those in other dungeons, but they were a miscellaneous lot that would respawn infinitely, so no matter how strong they might have been, there was a limit.
But on the other hand, the monsters that appeared on the lower floors were…

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“What is the meaning of this, Anri!?”

“This ain’t what we agreed on, yanno!”

Seeing the lower floors on-screen, Sophia and Anbaal came screaming at me.

“What are you talking about?”

“Are you intending to play the fool? I was speaking of those monsters… Aren’t they unique monsters! According to the rules, you were only allowed to summon a single dragon.”

“Boldly breakin’ the rules like this. You sure got guts, huh.”

The reason they were angry was because they saw the strength of the monsters on the lower floors.
Vampire Lord, Dragon Zombie, High Spectre, Ogre Zombie… The screen depicted an abnormal scene where high level undead that might normally be bosses in other dungeons were appearing as regular monsters.
Of course, they were miscellaneous monsters that spawned endlessly, and it goes without saying each of them was a unique monster without exception.

“『During the duration of the match, Evil God Anri will not summon additional monsters. However, a single dragon is permitted.』”

“AAHN?”

“That’s right. Did we not clearly decide on the rules already!”

Right; the rules meant that I wasn’t able to summon unique monsters. With Vnee as an exception though.
But if you were asking if I broke the rules, then that wasn’t the case either.

“I’m not breaking the rules.”

“Eh?”

“Watcha mean?”

“I’m not breaking the rules, because the one who summoned those 『wasn’t me』.”

Right. In the end, the rules only stated that it was against the rules for “me to” summon. It stated “Evil God Anri” in the writing. The rules didn’t forbid somebody “other than me” to summon unique monsters. Because of that, somebody other than me summoning unique monsters was still consistent with the rules.

“Wha-? Are you saying that there is somebody other than you who can summon that many monsters?”

“The 30th floor boss, my other kin.”

“Your other kin, you say?”

Right, it was the former 10th floor boss No Life King after I gave him my divine protection and made him my kin.
To begin with, as the king of all undead, he had the ability to summon lower class undead, but even after he evolved into something else due to my blessing, that ability was in good health. Rather, you could say that it was strengthened.
He could even summon a Vampire Lord who should have been the same tier as him back when he was still the No Life King, and he had these undead stationed between the 21st and 29th floors.

“It is true that it wouldn’t be strange for a divine’s kin to be capable of such a thing, but… don’t you feel that you are being a little sly?”

“I’m not breaking the rules.”

“Well yeah, ya aren’t, but…”

Sophia and Anbaal still looked a little dissatisfied, but they reluctantly accepted it since it wasn’t breaking the rules.

*imouto*

“But still, that is quite the gathering of fairly high-class undead, isn’t it.”

“The 30th floor boss is an undead, so that’s natural.”

“No matter how our match goes, it’s basically settled that your patroned race is gunna be all the undead, ey?”

By patroned races, Sophia’s is 『the Human Race』, Anbaal’s is 『the Demon Race』, and mine is 『Undead』 huh? I don’t particularly like undead or anything, and zombies and rotting ones like that are actually something I’m bad with, but since it fits the image of an Evil God, I can’t find any words to reply with.

“…I’ll think about it.”

“Yeah, do so.”

“But Anbaal. As long as the undead are not high-class, almost all of them lack a will. Will the faith she gathers from them not be quite trivial?”

“Well yeah, but it ain’t a big deal. Once she combines it with 『Fear』, it ain’t bad, right? Undead themselves are pretty feared, after all.”

“I see. That is certainly true.”

Personally, I would prefer not to be more feared than I already am but… being feared gets me more faith, so my feelings are a little complex.
Having thought that far, I remembered a question about faith that I had been wanting to ask Sophia for a while now.

“I remembered it since you mentioned faith, but are you okay with the humans that turned into my followers?”

She’s in charge of the Human Race and they’re the basis for her faith, but the Pope and the humans of this country worship me instead. Wouldn’t she look unkindly upon it? Or so I’ve been wondering.

“It would trouble me if they increase too much, but just a portion of them is fine. Moreover, rather than being faithful towards you, they were closer to rejecting faith towards myself, so the responsibility lies with me.”

“I see. Then that’s great.”

It’s true that they weren’t originally faithful towards me, but rather that they were rebelling against the Church of Sacred Light, and I just sort of hijacked it. As the darkness that’s naturally born from light, although their beliefs were in the form of rejection, you could say that they did believe in Sophia in a way.

“Guess since ya had the right attributes as a divine, it worked out. Tough stuff. Well, I did have some problems when you first popped into this world though.”

“………………Eh?”

Hearing this for the first time, I accidentally let my voice leak out. They noticed me from that long ago?

“You knew about me?”

“Well of course we did. From a long time ago, visitors from another world have not been particularly rare, but even amongst them, you were by far the most different, after all. Most of them had the light attribute, but you…”

“And it wasn’t even a simple darkness attribute, yanno? To begin with, even though basically all the visitors have appeared on a magic circle on our end, you completely ignored that and forcefully came in here, so you stood out.”

“I was just sent in here.”

It’s not like I came here of my own will. I was just forcefully sent here by that Evil God.

“We understand that much. At the very least, when you had first arrived in our world, you did not have enough power to cross the walls of the worlds.”

“Just as we were thinking that we’d just watch ya for a bit, ya suddenly turned into a divine, so we were pretty anxious at the time, yanno?”

That wasn’t my intention either. It was all things that couldn’t be helped.

“After that I was on guard more, but all ya did was gather followers, or create a country, or spread a scripture, and nothing particularly suspicious.”

“There were some points of doubt, but it was fact that there was a new Administrator. It would not have done to ignore the issue of 『Authorities』 so we decided to come into direct contact with you.”

“You’re telling me this now because you trust me more?”

“Well, at the very least we have confirmed that you yourself have no schemes.”

“Personality sucks though.”

Quiet, Anbaal. Also I don’t want to hear that from you.

“From the way you said that, you mean that somebody other than me is scheming?”

“The intention of the one that sent you in here is unknown, after all. Did you hear anything from them?”

“…Nothing at all.”

Being asked that by Sophia, I searched my memories, but couldn’t remember hearing anything in particular from when I was sent in here by that Evil God. He didn’t tell me what to do in this world either.

“Considering that he did not contact you before, nor after you became a divine, should we perhaps consider it as a mere whim…?”

“Well, can’t hurt to be cautious, ey?”

“Indeed.”

“Got it.”

It’s true that I don’t know anything about that Evil God. I don’t know if I’ll ever know why I was sent into this world, but I’ll bear it in mind.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The monsters that appeared on the lower floors were all high-class undead. And the strength of each one was on par with the old No Life King. Considering that No Life King was more or less on par with Leonora, the party was facing a group of enemies that all had the strength of a Heavenly King.
If it was just one battle, then the mixed party with both the Demon King and two of the Four Heavenly Kings would probably have the advantage. But once they repeated the fighting over and over, they would eventually grow tired, and it was clear as day that the disadvantage would fall to the challengers.

…That’s what I thought.

After crossing swords with the monsters and then leaping back in retreat, Ojisama spoke to Arc.

『It seems that the weapons used by you lot would be more effective on these.』

『Arc.』

『What?』

『My name. Not ‘you lot’, but Arc.』

Ojisama looked at Arc’s expression with a dubious expression, but perhaps eventually sensing his intention, he gave a manly smile and brandished his sword.

『Hmph, very well. Then Arc, this will be the opposite of the time with the Living Armour earlier. I shall cut open a path, so you put them down.』

『Leave it to me!』

Arc and Ojisama──

『Can’t be helped. I’ll support ya.』

『Hmph, somebody of your calibre is going to support me?』

『Heh! Aren’t you the one bumping into me by accident?!』

『I would not commit such a blunder!』

Lionel and Vikuto──

『You were, Miss Orlaine, weren’t you.』

『M-, Miss!?』

『I shall take care of all the enemy attacks, so I would like to have you concentrate on attacking.』

『…Yes!』

Orlaine and Renarve──

Each of them paired up, and began attacking the enemy in combination. Certainly, making use of the Heroes’ Holy Weapons against the undead was the best strategy. But who on earth could have predicted that these two groups that should have been hostile until just a few days ago could work together this well.

Seeing them get along so well was instead making me worry about the future.
They look so close that in the worst case, Ojisama might even say something like “Hmph, falling in a place like this is pathetic. Were you not going to defeat me?” and save the Heroes in a pinch.
Or maybe on their journey together they would realise the existence of the mastermind, or some great evil, and stand together as companions to defeat it or something… Wai-, isn’t that exactly this situation?

No, no, whether it’s ‘mastermind’ or ‘great evil’, neither of them fit me no matter how you think about it, so it has to be different. Leaving my public image aside.
While I was thinking about such things, the mixed party pushed back against the pressure of the monsters.

Ojisama opened a path with his flames, and Arc leapt in with determination and cut at the Vampire Lord.
Weaving skilfully through the gaps created by Vikuto’s ice arrows, Lionel stabbed at the Dragon Zombie.
Renarve parried the High Spectre’s magic with a sword clad in wind magic, and protected by him, Orlaine hit it with light arrows.

It was a scene worthy of being sung in legends or myths.

『Alright! Found the stairs!』

『Jump in in turn! Our objective is not to defeat the monsters, but to advance ahead!』

『You guys can go right ahead, leave the rearguard up to me!』

『Renarve, Miss Orlaine, please go ahead first!』

『Understood!』

『Y-, You’re calling me ‘Miss’ as well…? Geez, understood!』

This was only the 21st first floor, and with all the floors up until the 29th, the road ahead was still long. Normally, seeing them struggle so much on the first floor, you wouldn’t imagine them reaching the bottom floor no matter what. But for some reason I basically expected that they would reach there.

It seems that I might finally need to prepare myself for the worst.

---

It’s a rule that the early game bosses appear in the end of the dungeon as normal monsters, after all.

No Life King-sama? He’s still in the middle of warming up.

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

Sitting with one knee raised =

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Chapter 15 – Armour of the Evil God

Observing the dungeon capture was basically an everyday routine to me now, but the people joining me always changed. I basically watched every single day, but the most frequent observers after me were Sophia and Anbaal, and then Leonora, Lili and Tena.
Today there just happened to be more people than usual, and almost everyone was gathered and sitting on chairs in my office while watching the screen.
Lili was sitting on Sophia’s lap, while Leonora was waiting on Anbaal next to him just like last time. And Tena was standing behind me… or so I’d like to say, but unfortunately she had something else to attend to, and wasn’t here.
How strange. Even though this is supposed to be a Home Game, it feels like I’m the Away Team.

“So Esteemed Father and the others have made it to the 20th floor today, huh.

“Took damn long, huh…”

“Yes, honestly…”

Perhaps feeling cornered by the last few days of puzzle solving, Sophia and Anbaal looked a little worn out. Well, members of the Divine Race shouldn’t be tired from just that much, so it was probably my imagination.

“Good work.”

“…Phew.”

“…Hahh.”

Hm? I was sure they were going to say “I don’t want to hear that from you!” or a reaction like that, but the two just gave deep sighs and didn’t react any further.
It seems that they were a lot more dejected than expected.

“So Anri, there is a boss on the 20th floor as well, is there not?”

“Of course.”

“If I remember right, wasn’t it a living armour or somethin’?”

“Mn, that’s right.”

“Compared to the 10th floor boss, sounds a lot more ordinary, don’t it?”

“Really?”

Was it ordinary? Whenever I look at it, I really can’t feel that way.

By the way, although they’re called ‘Living Armour’, there are actually two main types.
There are the living armour animated by a remaining grudge that are closer to undead, and then the living armours that are animated by magic that are closer to golems. Also, they’re titled ‘living’ but neither are actually living organisms.
The one stationed as the 20th floor boss was the latter; a Living Armour similar to a golem.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The mixed party vigilantly stepped into the boss room when the door automatically closed behind them. Orlaine was preoccupied with the shut door for a moment, but quickly turned her focus to what was in front of her.

『That’s…』

『The owner of this room, I suppose.』

In the middle of the empty room a few dozen metres in front of them stood something with eye-catching presence. Sitting with one knee raised, it was a huge set of jet black armour with a height of five metres.

“Oi, wait a moment. How the heck is that a Living Armour.”

“Mn?”

Watching the boss in the middle of the screen, Anbaal questioned me with a spasming mouth.

“No, I mean, yeah, I don’t wanna admit it but it’s a Living Armour, but no matter how you look at it that ain’t normal, right?”

“It has not retained its original form, but that is orichalcum isn’t it.”

“Not just that. She freaking hardened the thing to hell with divine protection.”

The two of them were mostly correct. The 20th floor boss was an orichalcum-type Living Armour that I gave my divine protection to. Anbaal said “freaking hardened the thing to hell” but all I did was give it divine protection the way I usually do, so I didn’t do anything special.
When I summoned it, it was a set of white armour a little bigger than the size of a human, but because of the divine protection it turned black and more than doubled in size. On top of that it was an orichalcum type to begin with so it already had high strength and magic resistance, but these rose as well.

The result was the 20th floor boss──Armour of the Evil God: Anril Armour.

As they approached it, the Anril Armour stood up, and raised its sword and shield. Although the movements were smooth, they were somewhat mechanical. Now that its entire figure was clear after standing up, the mixed party became even more vigilant. Although it wasn’t as strong as the Black Dragon, even so it was plenty big enough to be called gigantic. And being gigantic meant that it made for an even bigger threat.

『Brace yourselves, Renarve, Vikuto. With some bad luck, it may even be above the dragon from before.』

『Yessir. I understand.』

『I see. This may become quite a tricky one.』

The Demon King side were the first to ready themselves for combat. At Ojisama’s warnings, Renarve and Vikuto both kept an eye on the Anril Armour’s movements, whilst taking up combat positions so that they could deal with whatever happened.

『Let’s go Lionel, Orlaine! I’ll leave the support to you guys.』

『Gotcha.』

『Understood. Please leave it to us.』

The Hero side took their formations as well, with weapons at the ready. Seeing their weapons, I suddenly had a question, and turned to Sophia.

“Speaking of which, what are the Holy Sword and Holy Spear made of?”

“They are also made from orichalcum. They have my divine protection as well, but it mainly focuses on the protection of their users, and does not increase their power very much.”

“The sword that the current Demon King’s using is the same. But well, I wasn’t really thinking about their safety or whatever, so I focused it on power though.”

It’s kind of turned into an ‘Orichalcum and Divine Protection Fair’.
They’re all the same in that they’re orichalcum with divine protection, but since the focus of the blessing was different, that will probably become important. The divine protection on the Anril Armour was focused on defence so from what I’ve heard, it’ll probably be hard for the Heroes to do any damage with the weapons they’re holding. The key to this match will be Ojisama’s Demonic Sword, due to the offensive divine protection on it.
Renarve and Vikuto’s attacks probably won’t even damage it.

『Kuh-! So hard!』

『Unfortunately, it appears that it would be best that we focus on supporting Your Majesty.』

Renarve had aimed for the opening created when the Anril Armour blocked Vikuto’s ice arrows, but he grimaced at the feedback from the impact, and immediately withdrew to avoid the counterattack.
After attacking just once they noticed that their attacks had no effect, so the two Heavenly Kings immediately switched to harassment and support.

『Hah!』

With the support of the two, Ojisama began to attack. The strike succeeded in wounding the Anril Armour, but despite the fact that Ojisama’s attack was enough to force back the Black Dragon, the Anril Armour simply stood on the spot and countered with a swing of its greatsword.

『Kuh-!?』

Promptly taking the blow with his Demon Sword, Ojisama was sent flying through the air, and twisting his body, he landed.

『Are you all right, Your Majesty!?』

『I am fine. More importantly, what a troublesome opponent. Unlike the dragon, it is not a living being, and does not falter in the face of attacks.』

『It doesn’t seem that the Hero side are managing to do much damage either.』

At a loss as to how to continue, the Demon King side exchanged their opinions while they continued to distract it.
On the other hand, just as Vikuto said, the Hero side weren’t making any progress either.

『So hard! This is even more troublesome than the dragon!』

『Even my Holy Spear can only make scratches like that!?』

『It vexes me to say this, but my Holy Bow doesn’t seem like it will damage it.』

Orlain’s Holy Bow itself was orichalcum, but was not something you used to directly attack, and made use of mana to attack with light arrows. No matter how even the bow might have been in material, it was something that used magic attacks, so it wouldn’t make much impact on the Anril Armour.
Arc’s Holy Sword and Lionel’s Holy Spear were doing damage at least, but they were by no mean large wounds.

『Vikuto, do you have no plans?』

『Let’s see… From what I can see, the enemy seems to react automatically to our attacks. The proof is in the fact that it reacts to every attack from Renarve and I without fail, even though we do no damage. I believe that our best option may be in having the two of us distract it, while Your Majesty attacks through the openings in its counterattacks.』

『I see. Then we shall go with that.』

『Understood.』

After promptly deciding on their strategy, the Demon King side ran into action.
Vikuto shot an ice arrow towards the Anril Armour’s head, and it raised the shield in its left hand to block. Aiming for the opening below the shield, Renarve immediately ran by its feet and slashed. Of course, the slash did no damage at all in the face of the Anril Armour’s defensive power. But the Anril Armour reacted to the attack, and countered by swinging a sword down at Renarve.

『OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!』

Aiming for that large opening, Ojisama jumped in as Renarve retreated with wind magic, and he swung his Demonic Sword with all his might. The attack struck against the Anril Armour’s torso, and succeeded in causing the biggest wound yet.

『Fumu, it seems like this will work.』

Perhaps realising that it would be dangerously to aim for another attack against the Anril Armour that didn’t hesitate from taking damage, Ojisama decided on hit-and-run tactics and temporarily retreated.
In the end, the Anril Armour only reacted mechanically, so as long as you attacked, it would continue to earnestly respond to you. Because of that, just by repeating the tactic from earlier, Ojisama was able to stack up damage.
Although they weren’t coordinating, the Heroes’ attacks served as perfect distractions as well, and the number of wounds on the jet black armour continued to increase.

*imouto*

“At first I wondered how things might progress, but the situation appears favourable, doesn’t it.”

“Yeah. As long as they keep repeating this, they’ll probably win.”

“Well, as expected of Esteemed Father and the rest, perhaps I should say.”

“…?”

Sophia and Anbaal were watching the mixed party’s valiant struggle as though they had already won, and Leonora agreed while looking my way in worry. Lili didn’t seem to know what was going on, and tilted her head in wonder.

So naïve.
I had used a revelation, and gave orders to a certain person.

*imouto*

『Mu?』

The first to notice was Renarve. Next, both Vikuto and Orlaine noticed as they were watching from afar, and then finally Ojisama, Arc and Lionel.

『The movements… have changed?』

Up until now, the Anril Armour had reacted even to ineffective attacks like Renarve, Vikuto and Orlaine’s, but now it had begun ignoring them and instead changed its target to the damaging Ojisama, Arc and Lionel.

That wasn’t the only change. With sword still in hand, the Anril Armour raised its arm, and from it a number of shadow bullets assaulted the party.

『Kyah!?』

『Whoa! So close!』

『Impossible! An armour with no will using magic!?』

『Impossible! …That armour?』

The mixed party was shocked that the Anril Armour fired darkness magic. Using the openings from their frozen surprise, the Anril Armour swept its greatsword towards Arc and Lionel.

『Gugu… Uwah!?』

『Fuck! …Gahu-!?』

The Holy Sword and Spear managed to stop it for just an instant, but the large difference in power and size sent them flying a few metres away. Lionel was unfortunately sent flying towards a wall, so he ended up crashing into it.

*imouto*

“Oi, the fuck you do?”

“There is somebody inside that armour, isn’t there.”

With the change in the Anril Armour’s behaviour, Anbaal and Sophia sent questions my way.

Sophia’s guess was right. The Anril Armour is an armour set that’s animated by magic, but there are two ways it can do so. Up until now it had been on autopilot mode, and was following a set pattern. Because of that, its behaviour was mechanical. In contrast, right now it was using manual mode and was being directly piloted. Because of that, it was able to adapt its behaviour to the situation, and it was able to use magic too.
However, the people able to pilot it were limited, and unless they were my kin, it was impossible to move it.

“Speaking of which, I’ve been wondering why I haven’t seen Tena around but… it can’t be…”

“Tena-oneechan?”

Right. The reason Tena wasn’t participating in our peeping party was because of that. As a member of my kin who could use darkness magic as well, Tena easily met the requirements needed to pilot the Armour of the Evil God: Anril Armour. She’s gentle and not really suited for combat, but to begin with we weren’t killing in this battle, so in that regards, I could rest easy with her as the pilot.
The only problem was that she didn’t have much combat experience, but unlike a direct battle with her body, this time she was piloting the armour, so you could even say it was better than she didn’t have any battle experience. A skilled warrior might have been bewildered by the huge difference in feeling, but there was no need to worry about that with Tena.

『This does not bode well. The movements are completely different from a while ago.』

『Yes. Using the same tactics will not work. It ignores Vikuto and I.』

『So we can’t distract it any more, huh. Unless we do even a little damage, it will probably not work…』

Saying that, Vikuto glanced in Arc and Lionel’s direction.
Since Renarve and Vikuto couldn’t damage it enough to distract it, they needed somebody who could damage it enough to allow Ojisama to get a real hit in. And the only ones there who could do something like that were the Heroes.

『Your Majesty…』

『Nu… I suppose it cannot be helped.』

With Vikuto’s silent suggestion, Ojisama nodded with a reluctant expression, and approached Arc and Lionel without failing to watch out for the Anril Armour.

『Oi.』

『Demon King?』

Noticing that the Ojisama had approached and called out to him, Arc replied in wonder.

『I shall only say this once. We need your power to defeat him and advance. …Lend us a hand.』

『Don’t fuck with us, who the hell is going to… Arc?』

Lionel had reflexively refused, but before he could finish, Arc held up a hand to stop him.

『What do we need to do?』

『Oi, Arc!?』

『You already get it too, don’t you, Lionel? We can’t beat that thing alone.』

『That’s…』

Unable to react to Arc’s persuasion, Lionel fell silent. It was truth that although the Anril Armour wasn’t impervious to their attacks, they could only leave scratches at best. No matter how many times they attacked by themselves, it was impossible to defeat the Anril Armour.

『Aah, damnit! I got it. I’ll help out too!』

『Hmph.』

In the end, Lionel folded, and they faced the Anril Armour again, Arc and Lionel at the front, and Ojisama at the back.

『Leave the offence to me. You lot bring out an opening with his attacks!』

『I don’t have a damn choice, so I’ll do it, but just this once, got it!』

『Let’s go!』

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Huh? They suddenly started getting along…?
While I was watching the drama unfolding onscreen with a faraway look, Sophia began letting out a a voice of admiration from behind me.

“I had no idea Anri. You gave them a trial in order to reconcile them?”

“Oh? So ya do have a good idea from time to time.”

“You sure thought it through, Anri.”

“Anri-sama, you’re amazing.”

Eh? Nono, what kind of merit would that hold for me? Or so I wanted to say, but seeing Lili’s pure eyes of admiration, it became really hard to.
Without thinking a thing, I just continued to stare at the screen. While I was doing so, a frantic and cornered voice arrived at my ears.

『Anri-sama, I can’t anymore! I can’t hold on any longer!』

The owner of the voice was Tena, who was currently being exposed to fierce attacks from the Heroes and Demon King. Of course, the one taking the attacks was the armour outside so Tena herself wasn’t injured, but once the Anril Armour broke, she’d be in danger as well.

『Well done. You can come back now.』

Either way, it didn’t seem like she would be able to stop them anyway. After judging so, I teleported Tena from inside the Anril Armour to the office we were in.

“I-, I thought I was going to die…”

Stroking the slightly teary-eyed Tena on the head, I turned to look at the screen and found that the Anril Armour was quickly being wounded now that it had returned to autopilot mode. It was only a matter of time before it broke.

The middle floors were broken through as well. I finally had my back to the wall.
The only ones left were the lower floors, so I was a little anxious now.

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TL: I think you’ve already guessed, but the name of the Living Armour is basically a stupid pun on “unreal”, and perhaps a stupid pun on “mithril”.
Also, generally if the stuff at the top and bottom of page is in italics, it’s me, Estelion.

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

Because the Spear Hero is a dude with a spear and blue hair, I keep imagining bad things happening to him.

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Chapter 14 – Puzzle Hell

I wasn’t employed in my old world so I can only guess, but I wonder if the enquiry divisions of call centres were battlefields of neverending calls.

“No, the correct answer for that question is left!”

“Like I fucken know! How bout you think for yourself a little!”

“AHH!? Why did you go left! Eh? I told you to go left, you say? …Well, there are times like that too.”

“Tsk, aight, aight. I’ll have a look so wait a bit!”

While giving a side glance at Sophia and Anbaal who were being bombarded by questions, I sipped my tea.

“You two sure are busy, aren’t you.”

“──This is your fault, isn’t itt!?”

“──Ain’t this your faultt!?”

They got angry.

The floor that the mixed party was currently tackling was the floor that Leonora struggled with as well; the 11th floor Quiz Floor. It’s a simple floor where you’re given 10 questions with 3 choices each, and the answers give you the right path to take, but if you make even a single mistake you’ll be sent back to the beginning. Because of that, you need to get all 10 questions right.
Ever since they broke into the 11th floors, they’ve been asking Sophia and Anbaal questions without end, and their angry yells have been flying about the room.
But well, it’s not like I don’t understand. After all, the Hero side had completely left out anybody who specialised in knowledge, and was a line-up filled with battle specialists. As for the Demon King faction, Renarve was a combat type, and you could say that Vikuto was the only one who was really good at thinking problems. I’m not quite sure about Ojisama, but at the very least, he didn’t seem to be doing too well with the quizzes.
This party is overwhelmingly lacking in brain power.

“Has my choice to choose all battle specialists ended up in vain?”

“Those guys are basically all meatheads after all.”

“My condolences.”

What’s more, they weren’t joining their forces at all, and the Hero side and Demon King side were tackling their own quizzes. So the discord between them really is huge, huh.
However, perhaps because their gods gave them strict orders to cooperate, they did seem to at least try and head in the same direction. There was a tacit agreement that when one side solved a question, the other side would follow them, and they progressed this way while competing against each other as well.

『Fumu, the answer to this question is this way, I believe.』

『Tsk, like we’ll lose!』

『Wai-, Lionel-san!? That way is wrong isn’- …AHH!?』

『…Starting from the beginning again, huh?』

『Bastards, one of you restrain that fool!』

『Uh, umm… Sorry.』

Oh? They look like they’re getting along unexpectedly well.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Compared to the Quiz Floor where they got the wrong answer again and again and were sent back to the end each time, with the Moving Floor, as long as you could see the place from above it was a lot easier, so with the advice of the Light God and the Dark God, they progressed without too much difficulty.

…Right, they progressed without too much difficulty. They.

Behind the scenes of the smoothly progressing mixed party was the tear-inducing efforts of Sophia and Anbaal.

“R, R, D, D, U, D, R, D, U.”

“D, L, L, D, U, R, D, D, U.”

“D, R, D, D, U, L, D, R, U.”

“R, U, D, D, R, U, R, R, D.”

“D, L, L, R, U, D, D, L, L.”

“R, R, R, R, U, D, R, R, D… So the bottommost one is the exit, huh.”

“Yes. With this, the entire room has been mapped.”

Sophia and Anbaal – drawing a rough sketch of the dungeon’s large room, and mapping the room’s arrows one by one. With the map they drew in the middle, the two of them glared at it from either side, and began wracking their brains.

“So ya get on here, and it sends ya right, then down… No good, just goes right back.”

“In that case, if you start from here… So this one was a failure as well.”

“Seriously such a bother. Cantcha just jump over it?”

“If they could do so, then they would have done so long ago.”

While following along the arrows on their map, Sophia and Anbaal were discussing the right path, but they weren’t making much progress.

“Damn, that looks tough. Want some tea?”

“──Like I said, isn’t this your faultt!? And yes please.”

“──Like I said, ain’t this your faultt!? Thanks, gimme some.”

Seeing the two angry gods ask for tea anyway, I made them some. Since they were tackling a problem that was using their brains, I decided that sugar was important at times like these, so I gave them a little more than usual. But well, it’s a question to begin with whether or not divines even need sugar.

“Here.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Ahh.”

They each gave their reply as I passed them their cups, and then they turned back to the maps before taking a sip.

“──────GEHO-!?”

“──────BUHA-!?”

In the next instant, they spat out the tea in their mouths. Gross.

“S-, So damn sweet…!?”

“You, just how much sugar did you place in our tea!?”

“A lot.”

I used about half of the sugar jar for their two cups.

“More importantly, is your map okay?”

“Eh? AAAHH!? The map that we spent so long to make…”

“Tsk, hurry up and wipe it dry!”

Sophia and Anbaal frantically wiped the map that was wet with the tea from their mouths, but the arrows were blurred, and it didn’t seem usable any more.

“Uuu, will we need to draw it all again?”

“Sif I’m gunna… Oi, this is half your fault, so help us out.”

“…Can’t be helped.”

I was wondering why on earth I needed to give advice on how to conquer the dungeon I made myself, but this time really was partially my fault, so I decided to help with just the map drawing.

“Or rather, if you just gave us the damn answer, we wouldn’t even need to do this.”

“No way. I don’t remember it.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

On the floor where you needed to get on a mine cart to reach the door, or the floor where you needed to turn the right switches to open the door, thanks to the Light God and Dark God’s efforts in drawing out diagrams, the mixed party was able to advance smoothly. But on the other hand, when it came to puzzles that you couldn’t solve even if you looked at them, as you’d expect, the two gods were greatly troubled.
The 19th floor was exactly of that sort; there were two containers, and you needed to fill the water in them evenly.

Of the two containers that were 10 units of water each, one was filled to the brim while the other was completely empty. Here, you needed to use the 3 unit bucket and the 7 unit bucket, and even out the two containers to 5 units each. If you hit a switch, it would return the water to its original levels, so you could repeat it as much as you wanted.

“Um, is this fine?”

“It’s fine.”

I asked Tena to prepare two sets of containers just the right size. The actual size of the containers were different to the ones on the 19th floor, but because they were scaled properly, they were plenty for solving the puzzle.
Across the monitor, the Heroes and demons were wrestling the same problem, and made mistakes when drawing water to move them and stuff.
I left the four containers in front of Sophia and Anbaal, and had Tena fill one with water.

“Why must we do something like…”

“Don’t say it. It’s damn depressing.”

Apparently having already noticed that it was the type of puzzle they were bad at, Sophia and Anbaal’s expressions were grave. However, the two of them who had begun tackling the puzzle, sighing all the while, immediately noticed something wrong and made a puzzled expression.

“This scent is…”

“Wai-, oi! Ain’t this alcohol.”

Right; Tena had filled the containers with not water, but alcohol. Noticing the smell, Sophia and Anbaal began to become oddly restless.
This world was the same in that alcohol had an inseparable relationship with religions, and wine was offered at mass. I’ve never drunk any before so I don’t know, but apparently it was common knowledge that divines liked alcohol.
That’s why I thought to test it out, but I saw that the two were obviously distracted by it and couldn’t concentrate on solving the puzzle.
Seeing them, I realised that it would be a long battle, so I decided to have a break.

“Tena, could I trouble you with some more tea?”

“Yes, understood.”

It wasn’t like I couldn’t steep the tea myself, but the tea she made was better tasting, so I asked her for more. Before long, I sipped the cup that she passed to me, and let out a long sigh.

“Um, Anri-sama? Why are you cooperating with the two of them? It would be better for them not to capture the dungeon, wouldn’t it?”

Perhaps so that the other two couldn’t hear, Tena asked me in a small voice.
Certainly, just considering the match, there wasn’t any reason for me to help the two of them and the mixed party; rather, you could say it would be better for me to obstruct them. I disturbed their concentration with the alcohol, but it was just a slight prank that you couldn’t really call obstructing them.
Either way, I felt that it was just a matter of time before they solved the problem anyway, but the biggest reason was that I was thinking about the future.

“It’s because having my relationship with them deepen is completely linked to our future.”

I succeeded in gaining a one year grace period, but you could also say that I only gained a year.
We concentrated our efforts on rushing to build the shops around the temple, and this country was continuing to rapidly develop. But no matter how positive we were being about it, we hadn’t reached what you would call a country. At best we had finally evolved from a village to a town. It was probable that even a year from now, we wouldn’t reach the level of a country.
In that case, if we messed things up, there was even the risk that the moment the one year was up, we would fall into the dilemma of being invaded by the other countries. In order to avoid that, there was the need to deepen our ties with the other countries to the extent that they wouldn’t invade, but the best way to do that was to have Sophia and Anbaal as the mediators.
I did already ask them to do so, but the closer our relationship began, the lower the chance of a foreign invasion. Because of that, I wanted to become as close as possible.

“Well, that’s not the only thing though.”

However, even if there wasn’t that plan, it was true that just talking to them was quite fun. In my old world, I was an only child, so if I had an older brother or sister, would it be something like this? Or so I ended up imagining.

---

Would it be easier to see as arrows?
You enter from the top and leave from the bottom.
There were a number of rooms like this, all connected.

By the way, since anybody could figure it out just by trying the top arrows one by one, please don’t bother with it, and since I am not really taking answers for the water container question either, please kindly refrain from writing the answers in the syosetu impressions tab.

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tl: they actually said ‘right, left, up’ etc. and not ‘R, L, U’ but it looks a lot neater in kanji, whereas in English is would just be a diarrhoea of letters, so I used single letters instead.

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

Chapter 13 – Immature

Apparently the calm before the storm has ended.
The opening to the storm began with a party of 6 challengers invading the dungeon. In terms of numbers the party size was a little large, but by no means were they the biggest yet. But this was definitely my first time seeing a mixed human and demon party. Specifically speaking, it was a party of 3 humans, 3 demons, with 3 male demons, while the human side had 2 male and 1 female.
Because one of the humans was a person I’d already seen two times before; Hero of the Holy Sword, Arc, I felt it odd that his party members had changed and inspected their statuses. What I found were shocking names.
Hero of the Holy Spear, Lionel, and Hero of the Holy Bow, Orlaine.

…To think it would be an all-Hero party.
Incidentally, Lionel was a frivolous looking young man with long blue hair, braided only on the left, whilst Orlaine was a girl with light purple hair that came down to her shoulders.

Starting to get a bad feeling, I checked the demon side, and as expected, the names on this side were all big-shots as well.
The 『Wind』 member of the Four Heavenly Kings, Fierce Gale Knight Renarve, along with fellow Heavenly King of 『Water』, Bloodfrost General Vikuto. Finally, Demon King Eligor Romariel.
Living up to the name ‘knight’, Renarve was a calm young man with short silver hair, whilst Vikuto was a long-haired intellectual-looking man with monocle, and an air of hidden cunning to him.
And the man whose identity was obvious from a glance at his title… A rough looking older gentlemen, the Ojisama who was both Leonora’s father, and His Majesty the Demon King. In regards to the fact that he was a short-haired man with a good build, he was the same as the regrettable Ijido from the other day, but the difference in presence was obvious.

An impossible party with three Heroes, the Demon King, and his two close associates; there’s basically one thing I want to say about this.

“So immature.”

“It ain’t against the rules.”

“We just used revelations to gather them, after all.”

I know. I don’t think it’s breaking the rules or anything. That’s exactly why I called it “immature”.

“It isn’t against the rules, but the winner is the one who gets their hands on the 『Proof of Capture』. Even if it’s a mixed party, only one of them can be the winner.”

“We understand this. However, nothing will begin unless the dungeon is conquered first.”

“Once they get to the 30th floor, they can just decide the winner among themselves.”

I see. So since they thought that at this rate nobody would be able to conquer the dungeon, until the party passes a certain number of obstacles, they’ll be temporarily working together? In the end they’ll need to battle it out to decide on the 『Proof of Capture』, but until then, it makes sense that they would join the strongest of each faction together.

“But the atmosphere kind of dangerous, you know.”

I called it a 6-man party, but they were separated into the Hero side and Demon King side, and were currently glaring at each other. Rather than calling that a party, I can’t see it as anything but enemies.

“Ahhh… Well, cause they’re Heroes and the Demon King, yanno. Something of that level can’t be helped. I did give them the order not to quarrel until they captured the dungeon though.”

“They are mortal enemies after all. As you would expect, it cannot be hoped that they would get along.”

Well yeah, that’s true. You can’t expect the Heroes and the Demon King to get along. If it was a Summoned Hero with no ties to this world then the story might be different, but they were all Orthodox Heroes. The situation was that they were just barely working together, if unwillingly, because of the orders from the two gods.
In terms of ability, they’re at the top of the humans and demons in this world, but I think they’ll need teamwork to conquer the dungeon.

Finishing my conversation with Sophia and Anbaal, I looked towards the one other person here.

“Is that your dad, Leonora?”

“Yeah, that’s right. My father, as well as His Majesty the Demon King. I heard that the main force would be coming to conquer the dungeon, but to think that Esteemed Father himself would be…”

Apparently Leonora hadn’t heard either that the Demon King himself would be coming here.

“And the other two are the Heavenly Kings I heard about earlier?”

“Yeah, 『Wind’s』 Fierce Gale Knight Renarve, and 『Water’s』 Bloodfrost General Vikuto. Renarve is a knight serving as Esteemed Father’s Royal Guard Captain, while Vikuto is the Prime Minister in charge of government affairs.”

“So they have jobs outside of being the Four Heavenly Kings I see. What about you, Leonora?”

“Me? I am away from the country at the moment, but I serve as Esteemed Father’s assistant. However, in my case, rather than doing my job, the meaning is closer to learning the things required for when I succeed the throne myself.”

Speaking of which, she was the next Demon King, wasn’t she. In that case it isn’t strange that she was learning about that sort of stuff while she was young.
While thinking about that, I suddenly remembered the last Heavenly King who hadn’t been mentioned yet.

“What about Ijido from last time?”

“Farming and civil construction.”

It’s amazing how different the level of intensity is. No, I mean, I get that it’s important too, but the feeling of misplacement amongst “Royal Guard Captain” or “Prime Minister” or “Demon King’s Aide” is no joke. Well, he’s apparently bad at everything except earth magic, so I suppose it can’t be helped though.

“Speaking of which, all these important people just left the country, but is it okay?”

“…I’m sure that Esteemed Father has taken that into account… probably.”

Will things really be okay?

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Being the Dream Team if nothing else, the progression down the floors was faster than any other party so far. The divine protection of the three Heroes blocked the miasma, and the demons had high resistant to it to begin with, and so it presented them no problem either.
Additionally, although the Hero side and Demon King side were conquering the floors together, they never spoke once. The tension in the party was high, and I could tell that sparks were flying within the party even from beyond the screen. However, Lionel alone paid no heed to the atmosphere, and continued to make moves on Orlaine.

『The room up ahead has a dragon. Be careful.』

They reached the 10th floor in no time, and since Arc already knew the trick to the stone slabs as well, they managed to open the door without hesitation.
Perhaps because Arc had already told the party members about the dragon, when they entered the room they prepared for combat without surprise.
But as usual, the Hero side and Demon King side were not really cooperating, and each side took up positions one side of the Black Dragon. Rather than a party of 6, they were closer to two parties of 3, each attacking from either side.

『Let’s go, Lionel! Orlaine!』

『Yeah, leave it to me.』

『Please leave the support to me.』

The Hero side had Arc on the frontlines, Lionel as the middle, and Orlaine in the backlines as support.

『Do not fall behind, you two.』

『Understood, Your Majesty.』

『Please leave it to me.』

On the other hand, Ojisama was on the frontlines, Renarve was playing the hit and run, whilst Vikuto was playing backline support.
Up until now, Ojisama had been mowing down enemies barehanded, but now he had summoned a black greatsword in one hand, and had the other hand wreathed in flames. Just like how Leonora was a magic boxer specialised in fire magic, her father was probably a magic swordsman with fire magic.

『Shall we test the waters? Take my strike!』

He lightly held the greatsword clad in flames with one hand, and running up to the dragon he struck it. The force of his attack was incredible, and the Black Dragon that should have had the overwhelming size advantage was sent flying back a few metres.

『Falling behind him would be a shame to we Heroes!』

『How very… true!』

With Ojisama’s one mighty blow, the battle began. The backline support Orlaine and Vikuto fire a light and ice arrow respectively, and through the gaps created by the middleline Lionel, Arc and Ojisama attacked. The Black Dragon tried to put up a fight with its claws and fangs, but Renarve played his role in attacking it when it did, and cut down its attacks. Renarve was said to govern over wind, but rather than using his wind to attack, he instead seemed to primarily use it to support his movement and bring the speed of his sword to the extreme.

『As long as I am here, I shall not allow you to point your fangs at His Majesty!』

『Not bad, Renarve. I cannot lose to you.』

*imouto*

Although the Hero and Demon King sides weren’t cooperating with each other, it seems that splitting into two groups and attacking from both sides was effective because the Black Dragon was confused with how to cope, and was helplessly toyed with.

『The roar is coming, fall back!』

『Got it!』

『Kuh-!』

『Too weak!』

The Black Dragon seemed to fire a roar in panic, but seeing through the preparation of the roar, Arc, Lionel and Renarve retreated and took almost no damage. Far from being hurt, they immediately closed the gap and took advantage of its opening to attack. As for Ojisama, he never even flinched and swung his greatsword face on.

『Now!』

『There are openings everywhere!』

On top of that, the mouth that the Black Dragon had opened to roar had light and ice arrows fly around into it from the back.

『GUGYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?』

Receiving the painful attack, it screamed. It swung its limbs and tail around in rampage, but there was nobody here weak enough to be struck by its attacks of desperation, and the result was that it was attacked even more.

*imouto*

The Black Dragon gradually weakened, with bloody wounds everywhere. Because of the earlier arrow attack, the insides of its mouth was wounded, and now that it could not even use its trump card, the dragon breath, it already had no chance at victory.
So even the dragon lauded as the most powerful and wicked dragon was at a disadvantage against the impossible dream team of the Heroes and Demon King, huh. …No, perhaps it was largely because of the battlefield. Had the place been outdoors, then there wouldn’t have been any way for the Heroes and Demon King to deal with its one-sided aerial attacks with its dragon breath.
That he wasn’t able to make use of his strong point because of the dungeon was my failure.

*imouto*

*imouto*

*imouto*

『…Enough. You can stop now, Vnee.』

I couldn’t bear to watch the wounded Vnee anymore, so I told him to stop. The thundering room immediately became quiet.
Arc and the others stopped their attacks as well, and looked around the room.

『Let them through.』

After saying that, Vnee stood still for a while, but he eventually moved into the corner of the room and stared at them in silence.

『That voice, could it be the Evil God?』

Ojisama asked that question, but I didn’t reply, and just remotely opened the doors that were supposed to open once the boss was defeated.

『Go ahead.』

Hearing my words, they looked at Vnee for a while, but perhaps giving up, they eventually began heading to the stairs.

『Let us go. The road ahead is long.』

『Understood.』

『It feels somewhat uncomfortable stopping halfway but… I suppose it can’t be helped.』

*imouto*

『Time for us to go too.』

『Yeah.』

『That dragon won’t attack us from the back or anything, right?』

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“With this, the first barrier has been broken, hasn’t it.”

“Finally a third done, ey? Looong way to go.”

“Hmmmn, am I supposed to be happy here or sad…”

Seeing the mixed party head to the 11th floor, Sophia and Anbaal let out sighs of relief. In contrast, Leonora seemed to have some complicated feelings towards it.

“Sophia, if possible I’d like you to heal Vnee.”

“The Black Dragon? Well, I do not particularly mind.”

Hearing Sophia give the OK, I felt relieved inside.
With undead or living armours they could recover once I poured mana over them, but as a living thing, I needed healing magic to heal Vnee. Since I can’t use anything but dark magic I couldn’t use healing magic on him, but if it was Light God Sophia then I thought it was possible.
I forced him to do something unreasonable, so I want to heal him quickly.

“Well then, I shall heal him.”

“Please.”

When I left it to her, her figure disappeared and then appeared onscreen. Seeing Sophia suddenly appear, Vnee growled in vigilance, but Sophia paid no heed, and used magic after raising her hand towards him.
As you’d expect from the magic of a divine, even though Vnee had been that badly injured, he was completely healed in almost an instant.
While Vnee was bewildered at having his wounds healed, Sophia turned her back to him and teleported back to the office.

“It is done.”

“Thank you.”

I gave my thanks to Sophia who had spoken casually. In fact, she helped me out quite a bit. Had she not helped me, I wouldn’t have had any other method except using a lot of medicinal herbs to make medicinal soup, and then force-feed the stuff to Vnee.
When I told her this, both Sophia and Anbaal’s faces cramped.

“Please desist in your pet abuse.”

“That’s seriously harsh, yanno.”

“Anri, how about being a little kinder to him.”

I’m offended. I was just worried about Vnee.

---

Adamantine Earth Fiend Ijido looked this way. It seems he wants to become friends…

---

tl: the above is a line from DQ when a monster wants to join the party

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

Chapter 12 – A Moment Before the Storm

The next day, the regrettable Heavenly King became a new victim, and the odd lull in dungeon capturing continued. Of course the normal customers were constantly coming, but special challengers like the Heroes or the Four Heavenly Kings weren’t coming. As expected, the difficulty level of this dungeon was apparently too high for normal adventurers, because not a single person made it to the 10th floor.
To begin with, the very first condition of challenging this dungeon is having some way to deal with the miasma, so from that point alone the number of challengers was limited. Apparently dealing with this dungeon’s level of miasma is difficult unless you’re a fairly experienced cleric.

Although, I can’t imagine that the Light God and Dark God will stay quiet like this, so it would probably be better to consider this the calm before the storm.

And since I had some time to relax and calm down… I noticed the problem:

*imouto*

*imouto*

Why on earth am I even having this match?

I had wanted to avoid having all of the Administrator work pushed onto me, but the moment that we agreed that balance was needed, it wouldn’t have really been a problem if I had a little bit more work than the others. No, rather, once you consider this country, having more influence would be better, so you could even say it would have benefited me to have a bit more.
But instead, I went too far with reflexively pushing back onto Sophia and Anbaal, and everything got confusing. Thinking about it now, it was just needless effort.
But still, I really would hate having everything pushed onto me, and still want to win if possible. Thinking about it, I might have quite a large side of me that hates losing. At the very least, I still have no intention of giving up my win.

Only, since things have finally calmed down, I decided to deal with a number of things that I’d been neglecting.

*imouto*

First of all, what I wanted to do before anything, was change my clothes.
Even though I finally escaped from the equipment curse, I was told by Leonora that as the symbol of a religion, I shouldn’t change my clothing too much. Because of that I’ve continued to wear the same clothing.
But considering how different Sophia’s real clothing is compared to her statue, I started to think that it wouldn’t really matter even if I changed, so today I decided to change my clothes.
And while I was at it, since I wasn’t using my tantou either, I left it aside and decided to keep something less crazy with me for self-defence.
…I only realised afterwards that after an hour, it would transform from the blessing anyway.

After it was bestowed my divine protection, the clothing changed into a jet black shoulderless dress with black rose decorations; a design that was a little bold and adventurous for me. I had wanted to wear something other than black once in a while, but after the divine protection, it just changed to pitch black again. I’m pretty sure that my clothes would change to black no matter what the original colour was, so I had no choice but to reluctantly give in.
For self-defence, I had chosen a fan to replace the tantou.

“Status.”

Name:  Anri
Race:    Divine Race
Sex:       Female
Age:     18
Job:       Administrator
Level:   1
Title:       Evil God of Fearful Trembling, Dungeon Master, Third Administrator
Mana:   42039845
Skills:
– Evil God Aura (Lv.5)
– Mystic Eyes of Wicked Authority (Lv.5)
– Divine Enchantment (Lv.7)
– Abnormal Status Resistance (Lv.9)
– Darkness Magic (Lv.9)
– Item Box (Lv.9)
– Dungeon Create (Lv.7)
– Administrator (Lv.5)
Equipment:
– Fan of Calamity
– Dress of the Black Death Rose
– Babydoll of Depravity
– Scanties of the Succubus
– Pumps of Darkness
Miko:
– Tena

Mn, it properly changed. …Mn?
It’s been a while since I last looked at my status, but I get the feeling that the mana points have gone up quite a bit. Could it be that a god’s mana points rise and fall with their faith? I can’t think of anything else that might have caused my mana points to rise, so it’s hard to think of it as being anything else.
I’m not going to care about the names of the fan and dress anymore, so I’ll leave that alone.

*imouto*

“It matches you, Anri-sama.”

“Fumu, not bad.”

“It suits you, Anri.”

“Anri-sama, so pretty.”

Since I finally got to change, I went and showed everyone, and all of the girls gave me a positive reply.

“───────Heh.”

As expected, Anbaal looked a certain part, and snorted in ridicule.
I expected as much from him, so I’m not really that angry.

“Oohh, how splendid. We must let the world see your esteemed form. Right, since this is a wonderful occasion, let us construct a statue of you the height of the temple!”

Please don’t.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The second thing that I had wanted to do was change the settings for my 『Authorities』.
Sophia and Anbaal told me before that if I set my 『Authority』 of “fear” correctly, then I could gain faith even if the fear wasn’t directed at myself. I’d been busy with various things and never got the chance to try it, but it is something important linked to the fullness of my stomach, so I want to collect faith from as many avenues as possible.

“Administration.”

When I activated the skill, the same menu as last time appeared.

Menu: Authority Activation
M*nu: Intelligence Perusal
M*nu: Divine Enchantment
M*nu: Divine Revelation

Thinking “Authority Activation” in my mind, another window appeared.

Main : Fear
Sub    : Undefined
Free

In the 『Main Authority』 column it had “Fear”, and since I didn’t have a 『Sub-Authority』 yet, it was undefined. Since there are a lot of 『Free Authorities』, that’s probably why they didn’t show it here.
I chose the “Fear” under 『Main Authority』, and the display changed.

Faith Collection: Inactive
Emotion Adjustment

Apparently there were only two things I could do with the “fear” Authority. Speaking of which, I do get the feeling that Sophia mentioned how emotion-type Authorities couldn’t do much.
Going by the name “Emotion Adjustment”, I suppose I can increase or decrease the “fear” emotion. That’s fine in and of itself, but the problem is the range of targets.
If you consider Administrators as the administrators of “the world”, then if I stupidly tamper with it there’s the chance that I’ll mess with the emotions of every living being in the world. Just one mistake could turn the world into a dystopian hell of terror where everyone is controlled by their emotions, so I decided not to mess with it.
Right now the important one is “Faith Collection”. Since it’s inactive right now, that’s probably why I’ve only been getting the faith from the fear directed at myself.
I changed the status of the Faith Collection.

“…?”

I had expected that I would immediately feel full after changing it, but there was basically no change at all. No, I mean, it does feel like it increased a tiny bit, so I can’t imagine that it was a failure. What’s going on? Even though I was supposed to be able to collect faith from all the fear in the world, why is there so little cha-… Wai-, it can’t be.
No, no, that can’t be.
I’m sure there’s some mistake.

It can’t be that “to begin with, almost all the fear in the world was directed at me” right? That can’t be. If it was, then I’m confident that I would feel more depressed than ever since coming to this world.

*imouto*

Well, although I said ‘since coming to this world’, thinking about it again, I haven’t ever been depressed since being tossed into this place. If I had to find something, then basically just the time with Vnee.
Normally you’d want to go home after being forcefully sent to another world, but strangely I never felt homesick. Thinking about it, even before I became a divine, I get the feeling that I almost completely stopped thinking about my old world──

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

For some reason thinking about it made my head hurt, so I changed gears, and dealt with the third thing that I had wanted to do.

Number three was dealing with the two gods that had continued to stay in my temple; Sophia and Anbaal. Although I say ‘dealing with’, I had given up on driving them out on the very first day, and I can’t imagine they’d be admirable enough to pay rent either. To begin with, they probably don’t even have money. So instead, I decided to make them useful some other way.
The most valuable thing they have is their influence. Because the Light God had revealed to the public the existence of the Dark God, as well as the fact that the Evil God was a completely different being, the headquarters of the Church of Sacred Light, the Luxiria Theocracy, suffered a major blow. What’s more, the Origin Faction that originated in the Kingdom of Fortera began to spread through the neighbouring countries as a result. Also, even if Sophia is interested in the prosperity of humanity as a whole, she isn’t interested in the disputes within the religious factions, so apparently she wasn’t thinking of intervening.
As for how to use their influence in the best way for this country, it would probably be the mediator between the other countries. Even if it’s obviously impossible with the Luxiria Theocracy, if it’s the Kingdom of Fortera who declared neutrality, even having diplomatic relations would be possible. For the demon side, right now we aren’t hostile to each other, and since there’s a link thanks to Leonora as well, if the Dark God certified it, then the possibility of dealing with each other normally is high.

“And so, mediate for us.”

“I am fine with that, but…”

“So troublesome.”

It seemed like Sophia would cooperate, but Anbaal made an unwilling expression. But apparently he just found it plain troublesome, and wasn’t against the idea of mediating itself.

“It’s the hotel fee for staying here.”

“Tsk, aight, aight. I’ll tell em.”

Alright. Diplomacy GET. At least, that’s the plan.
The Human Race and Demon Race are enemies so they can’t deal with each other directly, but they might be able to trade through us. There are probably lots of things that you can only get in either territory, and as long as there isn’t any hostility, there would probably be merchants who would want to trade too.
We’ll probably get a great profit margin as the middleman too.

“Speaking of which, there’s something I’d like to ask you, Sophia.”

“Ask me? What is it?”

“Would it be possible for you to get rid of Lili’s slave status?”

I had thought that perhaps I could get rid of it myself once I had the right 『Authority』, but then I realised that Sophia could do it immediately.

“Release her from her status? As I have the 『Authority』 for the 『Human Race』, it is possible.”

“If possible, I’d like you to remove it.”

“I see… I understand. Very well. The master does not seem to be anywhere in sight, so this should not trouble anyone, and I like her as well, so I shall do so afterwards.”

That’s great. I think one of my problems has been solved.

“Yanno, you said that your believers think that you ate this brat, yeah? If they think she’s dead, then the master ain’t gunna complain. But still…”

“What?”

Anbaal looked my way with a meaningful expression.

“Nah, I was just thinkin’ that considering you’re a man-eating god to them, it’s surprising that your followers haven’t run away.”

“…”

I can’t deny it. Normally people would be scared about being put in the same cage as a man-eating tiger.
But well, the only one who speaks to me directly is the Pope, so maybe the other followers don’t really feel a sense of reality about me, so they don’t feel the danger.

As for the Merry Pope, far from being scared, I get the feeling that he’s say “It would be the acme of honour to be eaten by you, Anri-sama! Please go ahead, and enjoy me from wherever you please!” or something.
I’m not going to eat him, okay.

---

<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

Last chapter for tonight, so don’t wait up.

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Chapter 11 – The Kings That Sit in the Four Heavens

“『Hmph, so this is the temple of the Evil God or whatever, huh.』

A new challenger stood at the entrance to the temple. That in and of itself was something that happened every day and wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but the challenger this time was different to all the others.
He was a fearless-looking man with short pointed hair, and a large build, but he had characteristic silver hair and red eyes were just like Leonora’s… the characteristics of the Demon Race.
The believers in the temple had apparently noticed as well, because unlike with the other challengers, they watched him from afar. Because of their contact with Leonora, the followers had become more or less used to the Demon Race, but as you’d expect, it was different with somebody they’d never seen before.

Name:  Ijido
Race:    Demon Race
Sex:       Male
Age:      31
Job:       Mage
Level:   26
Title:      None

I checked his status, but he really was a demon after all. And what’s more, there was a part of his status that concerned me.

“Aah, so they’ve finally come, ey.”

“Nu… To think that it would be him of all people.”

With something at the tip of my mind, I tilted my head in wonder, while Dark God Anbaal and Leonora reacted next to me as they watched the screen. Leaving Dark God Anbaal aside, I was worried about Leonora’s unpleasant expression.

“Do you know him?”

“He is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, but he has always been courting me, you see.”

So they had them too. The Four Heavenly Kings.

“What kind of people are the Four Heavenly Kings?”

“Mn? You want to know about the Four Heavenly Kings? My father, His Majesty the Demon King has a great many subordinates, but amongst them the most powerful four high-class demons are called the Four Heavenly Kings. Each of the Kings govern a different element; that man──Adamantite Earth Fiend Ijido is 『Earth』, you see.”

By the four elements, does she mean earth, water, fire, and wind? Even if she says ‘govern’, it’s not like they’re divines, so she probably means that they specialise in magic of that element.

“The others are 『Wind’s』 Fierce Gale Knight Renarve, and 『Water’s』 Bloodfrost General Vikuto. It seems that this time only Ijido came though…”

“? Isn’t that only three?”

Since they’re called the Four Heavenly Kings, and she said they governed the four elements, you’d expect there to be four of them, but she only named earth, water, and wind. It’s weird that there isn’t a 『Fire』.

“No, umm… me…”

“Huh?”

Mii? That’s the name of the last King?

“Like I said, the last one is me… The one that governs 『Fire』, Magic Flame Princess Leonora.”

Leonora replied in embarrassment. Speaking of which, aside from darkness magic she was good at fire magic too, wasn’t she.
The Demon King’s daughter is a Heavenly King? It seems abnormal that a member of the royal family is a subordinate though.

“So you were one of the Four Heavenly Kings. From now on I shall call you Magic Flame Princess Leonora.”

“I’m begging you, so please don’t. It’s pretty embarrassing.”

Seeing Leonora turn red in embarrassment made me feel like bullying her a little, but if I went too far she might hate me, so I decided to be prudent.

“And so, just how strong is he?”

A while ago I saw that his level was about the same as Leonora’s, but I wanted the opinion of somebody who actually knew his strength.

“He is on par with me, but since he’s of the earth element, I suppose I should say that he’s focused on defence. If we fought one on one, I would probably win. The personality doesn’t match, but he is somebody who can show his true worth when paired up with somebody who excels in offence.”

Right, when I looked at his status earlier there was something gnawing at me, but I finally know what it was now… His job.
Leonora is a magic boxer, and is an all-purpose type that is fine with both physical combat and magic. Because she was somebody who could play both frontline and backline, she was able to do something as amazing as conquer the dungeon solo.
But in contrast, the man on the screen was a mage… It doesn’t suit his second name of Adamantite Earth Fiend or whatever, but if you think about his job alone, then he should be somebody in the backline. Thinking about it normally, it doesn’t seem possible for him to solo the dungeon.
I was wondering if he had some secret trump card, but from Leonora’s explanation, that didn’t seem to be the case either.

“What kind of magic is earth magic?”

“Unlike fire and water magic which 『bring forth』 phenomena, earth and wind magic mostly 『manipulate』 things that already exist. For earth magic, the ground, and for wind, the atmosphere; that sort of thing, I suppose. The primary method of combat for earth magic is cladding the caster in an armour of rocks, creating shields form the ground, and creating golems from earth I suppose.”

I see. A magic that displays its power best when fighting on the ground, huh. It seems like a skill that would make the choice of battlefield extremely important. But in that case, there’s something that I’m confused about.

“The dungeon is created by bricks, but can you use earth magic on them?”

“It’s probably impossible.”

“…………………”

With Leonora stating so clearly that it was impossible, I didn’t know what my next words were supposed to be.

“Supposing they were normal bricks, then I think it would be possible, but the ones in the dungeon are fundamentally indestructible you see. It shouldn’t be possible to manipulate using earth magic. If it was a dungeon made from the bare earth then he might be able to make do though.”

In other words, doesn’t that mean that he’s completely useless in this dungeon? He’s a mage so he isn’t suited for close combat magic, and he can’t use anything except his specialty earth magic.

“He is also a demon, so although I haven’t seen him use it, he should be able to use darkness magic as well. Only, many of the monsters in this dungeon are undead, so the effect of darkness magic is weak. Well, honestly… isn’t it impossible for him?”

He is technically a coworker, but for her to say that so easily… You must really hate him, huh, Leonora. It felt like my face was going to spasm, so I was trying to keep myself expressionless, while I turned to Dark God Anbaal instead.

“Didn’t they pick the wrong guy?”

“Ahh? Like I know. All I did was tell the current Demon King to go conquer the dungeon. I didn’t say a thing about who to send.”

In other words, the Demon King──Leonora’s father made this kind of selection? You’d expect him to be able to grasp the ability of his direct subordinates, but why did he do something like sending such an ill-suited person? If the Four Heavenly Kings are equal, then he could have just dispatched one of the members with abilities suited for conquering the dungeon.
Searching for an opinion, I once against turned to Leonora, paying careful attention not to look her in the eyes.

『Shitt, WHY!? WHY ISN’T MY MAGIC WORKING!?』

“Fumu, Esteemed Father’s intention, you ask…? Let’s see, perhaps he wanted to sacrifice the most useless guy.”

I get the feeling that Leonora’s remarks are ununsually poisonous today. Just what kind of courting did he do?
But if calling him a sacrifice means that there’s something to be gained through this, then I have to wonder. Honestly speaking, it just looks like they don’t have any intention of seriously conquering this dungeon but… Wai-, could it be that I was right? If the demons weren’t assertively trying to conquer the dungeon, but were instead just acting like they were fulfilling their duties by sending in one of the Four Heavenly Kings, then I can assent to this.
It’s true that considering the details of the time that I became a divine, the Demon Race should be quite afraid of me, so it might be natural that they can’t quite get into conquering this place. I did half-destroy a mountain after all.
But Leonora… if that’s true, then you making that remark here is a big problem, you know.

“So what? That guy decided to ignore my instructions or something?”

“Eh-…!? T-, T-, T-, That would be unthinkable!”

Right – if the demons aren’t assertively trying to conquer this dungeon, then they’re going against Dark God Anbaal’s orders. Hearing his words, and realising this, Leonora immediately turned blue.

“Then what?”

“Eh-, ah-, umm… Right! It’s scouting! It may be true that it is impossible for that guy to conquer this place, but he was sent here as a scout in order to raise the chance of victory for the main force sent later on!”

While panicking and wiping her cold sweat, Leonora somehow managed to give an excuse to Dark God Anbaal. I get the feeling that she had so much vigour that it felt less persuasive instead, but she probably doesn’t have the composure to think about that right now.

“Well, that’s fine then.”

I’m not sure if he was just overwhelmed by her vigour, or if he actually bought it, but Dark God Anbaal accepted her words and backed down.
It’s unclear what the Demon King was really thinking when he sent Ijido here by himself, but now that she made that sort of declaration to the Dark God, they’ll need to invest some real war power into a later force if they want to prove to him that they weren’t disobeying.

『GUAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?』

Ah-, the small fry got done in.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

『Hmph, I was just coincidentally on my off-game yesterday.』

Who on earth is he even making his excuses to?
Ijido who had easily collapsed yesterday, had come the next day to challenge the dungeon again. Normally a fallen challenger takes a while to rest, so I couldn’t help but admire his sturdiness.
Also, unlike yesterday when he challenged the dungeon, this time Ijido was accompanied by 10 earthen dolls of about his size. They’re probably the golems made from earth magic that Leonora mentioned yesterday.
Certainly, even if you can’t use the ground in the dungeon, you can solve the problem by using magic before you enter it. He probably also reflected on his failure yesterday, and came up with some sort of plan.
But still, I didn’t expect to see the this feat of controlling 10 golems at once. As expect of one of the Four Heavenly Kings, perhaps I should say. If he can produce golems from the earth without end, then leaving aside when he’s inside a dungeon, it’s easy to imagine that he’s quite a powerful combatant outside.

『Hah! If I can just use my magic, then a dungeon like this is a piece ‘a cake.』

“It’s impossible. He might be able to use magic, but his mana won’t hold if he continues to use it. At best, he’ll just run out of mana on one of the floors and come to a stop.”

As usual, Leonora immediately cut him down. Seriously, what the heck did he do? I’m a bit scared to ask, but I really do want to know.

“It seems like you hate him quite a bit, but what kind of courtship was it?”

“‘What kind of courtship’, huh? He said stuff like 『Be my woman.』 while looking at me with filthy eyes, and touching me all over the place, you see. I dealt with it, but honestly speaking I was unbearably angry.”

Sexual harassment, huh… It’s true that I can’t think of that fondly either. But still, Leonora is the daughter of the Demon King. He has some guts to do something like that to a member of the royal family. I guess you can call him quite a big-shot in a way.

『Gufu-…』

Ah-, looks like he’s already run out of mana. That was unexpectedly fast.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

『It was all just a test up ’til now. This time I’m serious.』

Today, he managed the achievement of challenging the dungeon three times in a row. I don’t know whether I should praise him, or whether I should be astounded. He started saying things that sounded like a child’s excuse, but honestly, what the heck is giving him all this encouragement?
Also, in exchange for yesterday’s golems, this time he had a big sack on his back, and looked like Santa Claus.
I was wondering that on earth he had in there, but the answer to my question was made clear once he encountered some monsters.

『Hah! Eat this!』

Throwing out the contents of his sack, a large amount of earth spread out. And then, after his chant, the earth rose up into a humanoid form. I see. Yesterday his mana wouldn’t hold because he was always manipulating the golems, so this time he’s going to carry it when he isn’t using it? It’s a simple idea, but it does seem like he’ll be able to maintain his mana this way. It’s super simple though. And also uncool though.

“Anri! I need a favour!”

As I was watching Ijido’s moving struggle, Leonora threw open the door and entered the room. Livid with anger, it was like anger was coming out from her entire body. And then, when she say Ijido on the screen, that flared even more violently.
Leonora clamped her hands on my shoulders, and without making eye contact, glared strongly at me.

“I need a favour. Smash that guy to the bone.”

Owowowow!? Hey-, Leonora, you’re gripping me too hard.

“Did something happen?”

It seems that she hated him to begin with, but today was too different than all the other times so far. Wondering what was up, I tried asking Leonora.

“I asked my homeland you see, but apparently if Ijido manages to conquer the dungeon, then Esteemed Father would accept our engagement.”

I see. Is that why he’s been so abnormally fired up? If not only you could obtain the woman you wanted, but on top of that could obtain the political power from marrying the Demon King’s daughter, then I can understand why you would be desperate.
I can only think of the Demon King’s statement as something he said with full knowledge that it was impossible, but it seems that in her anger, Leonora lost the ability to judge things calmly.

“As somebody born to the royal family, I have no intention of denying a political marriage. I won’t deny it, but even so, what I hate I hate, and I can’t imagine that marrying that guy will benefit the country. So please, stop that guy.”

Putting even more power into the hands on my shoulders, I heard creaking noises. I wouldn’t be able to bear with my shoulders being broken like this, so I nodded again and again in panic until I somehow got her to release me.

Even if I left him alone, I don’t think that he’d be able to conquer the dungeon, but I need to do something to make Leonora accept it as well. Steeling my heart, I took out a single book of scriptures, and teleported it in front of him.

『Mn? The heck is this?』

Namu.

---

Wind:   “Ijido fell, huh.”
Water: “Hmph… He was the weakest amongst all four of us.”
Fire:       “Not even making it as far as the boss is a shame to we demons…
Or rather, he isn’t dead, you know. He’s just worried about his bald patch, and hiding away somewhere.
Personally, I would be grateful if he stayed there forever, though.”

---

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Chapter 10 – The Black Tyrant

“Thee who wouldst come in challenge of the Black Tyrant, arrange correctly the stars.”

Just as the new words said, waiting for them inside as they stepped into the throne room was the Black Tyrant──

『GUOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!!!』

──Black Dragon Vardneel.

The roar from his giant frame was enough to instil physical pressure, and assaulted the Hero Party. With an overpowering strength that pressured you just from being there, he was truly befitting of the word ‘tyrant’.
…I would have really preferred that you showed that majesty before me too.

『A-, A dragon!?』

『What size!』

『No good, everybody please take your formations!』

『It’s coming!』

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“Anri? Wasn’t the boss of the 10th floor the No Life King?”

“I switched them.”

Since Leonora knew who the old floor boss was she asked me that question, but the answer was really simple. I thought about it for a while after the dragon summoning, and I decided to switch the dragon to the 10th floor.
But it couldn’t be helped, right? After seeing the dragon lay belly up, there was no way I would want him to guard the 30th floor that’s basically our final stronghold. I’m sure anyone else would feel the same.

Incidentally, I kept the enchanted Orichalcum Armour as the 20th floor boss, and moved the former 10th floor boss, No Life King, to the 30th floor instead. Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say the former No Life King. After he received my divine protection, he ended up evolving into something else.

“What a thing for you to have summoned! That is Black Dragon Vardneel… The wicked dragon said to bring calamity to the world!”

“Mn?”

Light God Sophia asked me that with a frantic expression, but I just reflexively tilted my head in question. I don’t know about “bringing calamity to the world” but I did choose the one that needed the most mana points, so I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising even if he had such an anecdote. Well, it isn’t surprising, but at the same time thinking about how he’s been ever since I summoned him, I just can’t match him with the image from the anecdote.
To begin with, why is she even so panicked?
He certainly does have high specs, but it’s nothing that a divine can’t handle.

“He shouldn’t be so strong that an Administrator can’t handle him.”

“That may be true, but just how many casualties do you think will come about until we stop him!”

I see. I suppose it’s quite like her to be worried about harm to the Human Race.
But…

“As long as he’s in my dungeon, there won’t be any damage.”

“…………………Ah.”

“Now that Anri mentions it, he doesn’t seem like he’ll be able to leave, either.”

Right. Just like Leonora said, Black Dragon Vardneel basically can’t leave the dungeon of his own power. No, rather than leaving the dungeon, with that huge size of his, he can’t even leave the room. As for ways for him to leave, it’s basically just having me teleport him. As you’d expect, it really would be too pitiful to keep him locked in the room forever, so I was thinking of taking him out on walks on occasion, but even if I did take him outside, I wouldn’t be letting him roam wild or anything.
So there really isn’t any need to worry about casualties.

“…”

“…”

“…”

An awkward silence filled the room. Light God Sophia’s face was slightly red. Now that she’s calm and has a proper understanding of things, she looks embarrassed about how panicked she was just now.

“It seems that the battle is about to begin.”

Ah. She changed the subject.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Frey blasted flames at Black Dragon Vardneel’s face, who was flying about with a nimbleness unsuited for his size. Because of the magical resistance, there was basically no damage, but as you’d expect he probably couldn’t ignore a direct flame to the face, so his speed lowered just a little. With that opening, the four of them avoided his direct attack. In the next instant, his large frame flew through the area that the Hero Party had just been standing. Had they not retreated, they would have been sent flying and probably taken massive damage.

『Eat this!』

Before the Black Dragon turned around to face them, Zio slashed his sword down on Vardneel’s shoulders. However, a metallic -KIN- rang out, and the sword was easily repelled.

『Tsk, how tough… Oop.』

Perhaps irritated at the slash despite the lack of damage, Vardneel swept his foreleg across, and Zio immediately jumped back to evade.

『Doesn’t look like my sword can cut him, ey?』

『Then how about my Holy Sword!』

With the foreleg now in the open after its attack on Zio, this time Arc slashed at it with his Holy Sword. Unlike Zio’s, the Holy Sword wasn’t repelled, and cut into the Black Dragon’s scales, splashing just a little blood.

『GYAOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!』

『I managed to cut him, but he really does have amazing defence, huh.』

The Black Dragon screamed in pain, before snapping its sharp fangs at Arc.

『Like I’d letcha!』

Zio hit the Black Dragon in the face with his shield this time, as it was about to bite at Arc. There was no damage, but being hit from the side had changed the course of its bite, and its jaws closed without catching Arc.

『Thanks, you saved me!』

『No worries. It doesn’t seem like I’ll do any damage, so I’ll focus on harassing it. You concentrate on attacking with the Holy Sword!』

『Got it!』

Zio threw away his sword, and held the shield in both hands, whilst beginning to hit the Black Dragon’s attacks to harass it. With the openings that Zio created, as the only one who could do damage, Arc cut at the Black Dragon. The backline supported with flames, and they slowly but surely damaged Vardneel.

But perhaps growing impatient at them, Vardneel took in a deep breath, and roared. Together with the roar came an explosive wind pressure that assaulted the Hero Party.

『GUOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!』

『UWAHH!?』

『Ku-, SHIT!』

Last time there had been a lot of distance between them, so the roar had only broken their postures, but this time they had taken it at point-blank range. Arc and Zio were blown away with ease, and smacked into a wall a few metres from where Frey and Widdi were.

『Arc-sama!?』

『Zio!?』

Frey and Widdi ran up to them, and began healing them with medicinal herbs and recovery magic. Giving the Hero Party a sidelong glance, the Black Dragon began to take an even deeper breath than before.

『I-, It can’t be…』

『A dragon breath!?』

Frey and Widdi both grew pale, but with Arc and Zio collapsed, they couldn’t avoid it. With determined expressions, the two of them began chanting magic.

『──────────────!!!』

From the large jaws of the dragon flew a black flame wreathed in purple lightning. Frey had used fire magic to try and reduce the damage of the breath even a little, but her fire magic was swallowed by the gargantuan flame in an instant. Widdi had deployed a barrier around them to protect them, but it showed only a meagre resistance, before being smashed to pieces by the dragon breath.
It seemed that they were in dire straits after being enveloped in the dragon breath, but Arc and Zio had recovered enough to throw themselves at Widdi and Frey respectively, to try and put even a little distance between it.
The dragon breath collided with the floor that they had been on just a moment ago, and the four of them were blown away by the shockwave. Although it was a shockwave, its power was tremendous, and after being slammed against the floor, although their lives were not in danger, they could only groan, unable to stand.

On the other hand, the Black Dragon turned towards them, and began leisurely drawing near.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“O-, Oi… Isn’t that bad, Anri?”

“Anri! At this rate, they will be!?”

“It’s fine.”

Watching the screen, both Leonora and Light God Sophia were frantic. Light God Sophia had even drawn out her greatsword, and from her expression it seemed like she was about to jump in any second now. Calming the two of them, I sent my voice to the other side of the screen.

『Vnee, sit.』

The response was dramatic, and Black Dragon Vardneel who had been walking towards the fallen Hero Party──pet name Vnee, immediately sat down on the spot, with a proper posture.

“Heh?”

“Hah?”

Both Leonora and Light God Sophia let out stupid sounds and stiffened, but I decided to ignore them for now, and created a magic circle to teleport the Hero Party out of the dungeon. After confirming that they had been sent out without issue, I turned around and found Leonora beginning to dogeza. She had grown used to averting her eyes from mine, but because she was distracted this time, it seems that her reaction was slow.

“What was what?”

“Even if you ask me that…”

Light God Sophia spoke to me, still in a daze. But there was no way to respond except that it was the fruits of my training.
Unlike undead and living armours, Vnee is a living being, so naturally he needs food. I’m the one that feeds him, but since I was going out of my way, I decided that I may as well try my hand at training him. Each and every time I went to his room, he would dash away into the corner of the room, but we have become close enough that he’ll respond to my commands now. For now I’ve managed to teach him “sit”, “down”, and “wait”. “handshake” would crush me, so I’m not going to do that one.

“You… are treating the most wicked dragon as your pet?”

“Well, it’s Anri after all.”

For some reason both Light God Sophia and the no-longer dogeza-ing Leonora gave tired sighs.

I wonder if I should give Vnee a collar.

*imouto*

*imouto*

…Ah-, I forgot to collect the Hero Party’s items and money.

---

TL:
1) I occasionally replaced ‘Black Dragon’ with Vardneel, because it’s a lot more awkward sounding in English. To begin with, we need a ‘the’ all the time.
2) Vnee is read as ‘vu nii’.

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Chapter 9 – They Came Back

『Is this really… the dungeon from that time?』

『There shouldn’t be any mistaking the location, but…』

『I’d heard the rumours, but it really is shocking, huh?』

『It really was a dangerous place, ey?』

Through the Intelligence Perusal screen, I saw the party of four sidestepping the touters with noncommittal replies, before looking up at the temple.
An ikemen swordsman with short blonde hair, a bishoujo nun, a voluptuous mage oneesan, and a swordsman with a good body.
Indeed. The slab thieves came back.
…Sorry, I meant, the Hero Party.

*imouto*

Back when I was still a human, they invaded the dungeon, and reaching as far as the No Life King’s boss room, they challenge… nobody, because they turned tail and went home; the muscle-brained Hero Party. Even though I had wondered when they would come challenge the place again, in the end they went off somewhere, but it seems that right now they were planning on tackling the dungeon a second time.

“These guys are your representatives?”

“Yes. Aside from the relevation to all of the Human Race, I also gave them a mission through the Sacred Sword.”

I asked Light God Sophia who was sitting next to me and looking at the screen as well, and she replied with a smile. I could see how much she trusted them through her expression. Certainly, they are the most talented amongst the people she has to move. I don’t know if he’s the only hero, or if there are more of them, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that they’re the pinnacle of the Human Race.
Considering that all the other challengers have collapsed before the 10th floor, I can agree that there isn’t much point if the challengers aren’t at least their level of strength.
But having said that, as somebody who knows how the last time went down, I just can’t understand how she can be so confident in them.

“They didn’t come even though all sorts of crazy stuff happened, so I thought they went on a journey somewhere, but?”

“Yes, they entered the Demon Territory and made it close to the Demon King Castle.”

“Yeah, basically to the front door after all, yanno?”

Even though they were about to challenge the last boss, you called them back here? How ruthless.
As somebody who became a hero through the “Sacred Goddess-sama’s” divine protection, he probably couldn’t refuse a direct request from her.

『But still, to think that you got a direct request from Sacred Goddess-sama, ey?』

『Yeah, she told me that this was even higher priority than then Demon King Subjugation, so it’s probably pretty important.』

『More important than the Demon King Subjugation… it’s pretty hard to even imagine, huh?』

『It was Sacred Goddess-sama’s esteemed words, so I think it must be a deep and thoughtful plan that we can’t even imagine.』

It’s true that it’s important, but somehow I’m really starting to sympathise for these guys.

Name:  Arc
Race:    Human Race
Sex:       Male
Age:      26
Job:       Swordsman
Level:   41
Title:      Hero of the Holy Sword

Name:  Zio
Race:    Human Race
Sex:       Male
Age:      28
Job:       Swordsman
Level:   35
Title:      None

Name:  Frey
Race:    Human Race
Sex:       Female
Age:      24
Job:       Mage
Level:   35
Title:      None

Name:  Widdi
Race:    Human Race
Sex:       Female
Age:      20
Job:       Cleric
Level:   34
Title:      None

I decided to try having a look at their statuses. As you’d expect, I don’t remember the details from last time, but I do recall that Arc’s level was in the 30s, so there’s no doubt that they’ve levelled up.
That was just how many fierce battles they had overcome to reach the Demon King, and just as they were about to challenge him… they were called back. When I imagined their hardships, it felt like tears were going to fall.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The Hero Party didn’t overlook last time’s failure, and came completely prepared for camping, smoothly advancing as far as the 10th floor. But they’ve already reached the 10th floor once before, so this much was within my expectations. The issue is what happens from now on.
Will they finally overcome the puzzle that defeated them last time? Holding my breath in anticipation, I watched them reach the pedestal.

“What is that pedestal?”

“It’s a puzzle used to open the path to the 10th floor boss room, and unless you collect the stone slabs and put them in, the door won’t open.”

“Ahh, I see…”

When I answered Light God Sophia’s question, Leonora who was sitting beside me, face-palmed. Speaking of which, she spent a whole hour on this too, huh.
Incidentally, Dark God Anbaal wasn’t here today.

『…? Hasn’t the inscription changed from last time?』

『You’re right, Frey. Although the latter half is the same as previously, the first half has changed, hasn’t it.』

『Yeah but more important than that is how we’re gunna get it open, right? How’s the Holy Sword, Arc?』

『Give me a moment… I see. Apparently we just need to collect the stone slabs hidden on this floor and fit them in.』

!?

Hearing the unexpected conversation from beyond the screen, I let out a gasp, and turned towards Light God Sophia. And when I did, she averted her eyes. From what I saw, I immediately understood.

…This woman leaked the information she heard from me through her revelation.

“You cheater.”

“I am hurt. Giving advice through revelations was never forbidden.”

Certainly, it is within the rules. Using 『Authorities』 is forbidden, but we never forbade the use of relevations. But that doesn’t change the fact that it was unfair.

But still, this might be bad. I underestimated them because I thought that these muscleheads wouldn’t make it past the mid-floor puzzles, but if Light God Sophia supports them then it’s a different story.
With an Administrator’s Intelligence Perusal, they can look at all the information in the world, so with her help, the Hero Party will break through the puzzles in an instant.

Wait, hang on?
Then why did she go out of her way to ask me? If she knew how to solve the puzzle, then she wouldn’t have asked a question like that. In other words, even if she could see the puzzle itself, she didn’t know how to solve it.
In that case, as long as I don’t tell her the solution, the usefulness of her advice will become limited too.

“I’m not giving you any more hints.”

“That is a shame.”

Light God Sophia replied with an expression that didn’t seem to think it was that much of a shame at all. But well, she probably wasn’t so optimistic to think that my tongue would slip over and over after all, so I guess she was just trying to make a gain at the beginning.
It’s also a fact that even without clear answers, just having a third party’s advice should lower the puzzles’ difficult a lot.
I had thought that the middle layer’s puzzle floors would hold out for a year, but now the lower floors might have their turn too.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

After an hour of touring the 10th floor to collect the slabs, the Hero Party returned to the pedestal. The four members had a slab each, and were lined up in front of the pedestal.

Mn? Four slabs?
Why are there four? I should have only placed three of them.
Ah-, could it be that they continued to take care of that one slab that they ran away with last time? I’ve already changed the marks and replaced the slabs as well, so the slab from last time isn’t any use through.

『Now then, shall we put the slabs in already?』

『Yeah, in these three holes… Huh?』

『We have four slabs, but… Where does everyone else think the last one should be placed?』

『There doesn’t seem to be any other place to put it, huh.』

Apparently the Hero Party also noticed the odd number of slabs, because just as they were about to put the slabs into the pedestal, they began looking for another place to put a slab in instead.
Of course, there isn’t any such place.
Seeing them search every corner of the pedestal without finding anything, and even beginning to search the inside of the room made me want to hold my head. And then, as though it were natural, Arc began to hold the pommel of the sword to his forehead. Probably looking for Sacred Goddess Sophia’s advice.
Looking at this, once they go to the middle floors, won’t she be stuck guiding them the entire time? It feels like I can see a large sweat drop forming at the back of her head.

“Sophia, tell them to exclude the slab from last time.”

“Anri!?”

“…Are you fine with that?”

Hearing my suggestion, both Leonora and Light God Sophia raised voices of surprised. It’s true that I was taking back what I just said, but they were just so slow that I couldn’t bear to watch any longer. And what’s more, the fact that another slab was mixed in was unexpected, so there wasn’t any hint either, which is why I think just this much follow-up is fine.
Also, it isn’t as though I don’t gain anything from having them advance forward. Seeing whether or not they’ll be able to defeat the 10th floor boss should serve as a reference for how our match will go from now on. Or rather, I really don’t want to let them get away a second time.
It definitely wasn’t because I felt sorry for her when I saw her flustered at how to answer.

“Understood. Then I shall take you up on your words, Anri.”

After Light God Sophia advised Arc through a revelation, he explained the situation to his companions before throwing away last time’s slab and placing the remaining three into the pedestal.
Hey-, just because you don’t need it now, doesn’t mean you should just throw it away there. Won’t that just confuse other people?

The Hero Party unknowingly left a confusing gift for the future latecomers, before stepping through the newly opened doors to the throne room. I’d better take that slab back later, or else…

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