Chapter 21 – Evil God Average

Holding my hand to the dungeon core, for the first time in a while I added a floor.
However, what I was doing this time was different to what I’d been doing up until now. So far, I’d just been adding floors normally, and since this was a cave-type dungeon, the floors were added underground. In contrast, this time what I was doing was adding floors contrary to the nature of this dungeon.
The first time I needed to pay 30,000,000 extra, like some sort of harassment, but with that, I could build floors both below and above ground. …Aahh, even though I’d finally saved up that much. The dragon I wanted is moving away from my reach.
After adding a special floor one time, after that I was able to add on more surface floors just by using the normal floor-adding function. The surface floors weren’t just rooms, and so I needed to choose how to have the exterior as well which was a bother, but since most of the settings were already set, I finished it quickly.
Leonora was standing next to me with a cramped expression, but I paid her no heed and finished processing the final floor.

There weren’t any changes to that room, but with this, I felt that I would be able to give a good performance, and so I turned to look at the scenery reflected on the mirror that I had left beside me.

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The Kingdom’s soldiers who had completed their formation, the cultists who were ready to martyr themselves in opposition of the Kingdom; all of the people there were frozen in shock and awe, with their eyes fixed on that one spot.
On the thus far empty clearing that had been created to serve as the base of the temple, suddenly appeared a gargantuan building, as though piercing the heavens.
That mostly black palace was designed with an exquisite balance of holiness and dreadfulness, and the building itself was like a work of art.
Everyone there had surely realised it instinctively; that this was the temple in which the Evil God lived.

That’s right. On the top of the 5th surface floor, I established a temple.
Because it requires too many mana points, to begin with no other dungeon master would build a surface floor in an underground dungeon. Because of that, people don’t know that the act in itself is possible, so it’s probably quite flashy enough.
If they misunderstand this as a power I have because I’m the Evil God, then it’ll be even more effective.

For the cincher, I brought Leonora and Tena up to the top floor with a teleport.
From the balcony of the spire, I could see the dumbfounded and frozen figures of the Forteran Army and Evil God Cultists.

“Leonora, Tena, if you’d please.”

“Yeah, got it.”

“Understood, Anri-sama.”

Leonora and Tena began chanting magic together.
I’ve asked the two of them to help set the stage for my show.

What Leonora chanted was a spell that forcibly changed the battlefield to nighttime, in order to heighten the effectiveness of darkness magic.
What Tena chanted was a foothold creation spell used for aerial battles.
An area of a few kilometres radius with the temple at the centre was engulfed in the shadow of night, and in the midst of it all with Leonora and Tena in tow, I walked off the balcony into the air.
Normally doing this would send me tumbling to the ground, but right now because there was a staircase of black smoke that Tena created, I slowly went down the stairs.

Because my foothold was fluffy and unreliable, even if I knew that I wasn’t going to fall, scary things were still scary.
Inside, my heart was beating faster than it ever had since I was born.
If possible, Leonora, Tena, either was fine, so I’d have preferred to have held someone’s hand, but that wasn’t possible in this situation.

The stairs continued all the way to the ground, but I stopped at a landing situated halfway down, and once again overlooked the surface.
In my vision, the various soldiers and cultists were all looking up at me without exception.
Now then, it’s time for the finishing touches.

I quietly closed my eyes, and began moulding my mana.
Let’s use all of the mana that I’ve preserved by even asking Leonora and Tena to set the stage, and shoot it into the sky as one big, flashy firework.
I’ll have them think that there’s a massive difference in power, and make sure they never dream of attacking me again.
My eyes flashed open, and my chant────

…*

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────Wha-, huh? The Forteran Army isn’t even here. Where’d they go?

…*

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With the stage missing the people I was supposed to perform to, unsure of what to do, I froze up.

“Um, Anri-sama? It seems that things have already ended.”

“If you’re looking for the Forterans, they ran away right after they saw you, you know?”

What did you say?
Wai-, then what do I do about all this mana I’ve moulded?
I ignored stuff like the maximum limit, so it’s about to explode, you know?

“Come now, how long are you going to stand there? Let’s return already.”

Whatever, gunna fire it.
It was supposed to be a harmless firework, but because I stopped the chant it’s turned turned into just your normal attack magic, but it should be fine as long as I fire it somewhere without towns and stuff.

“Wha-!? What do you intend to do!?”

Sorry, it can’t be stopped now.

“I-, Idiot! STOOOOOOOOOOP―――!!!”

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

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『Candidate “Anri” has exceeded the required faith and fear levels.』
『Race has been changed from “Human Race” to “Divine Race”.』
『Job has been changed from “Mage” to “Administrator”.』
『Title has upgraded from “Child of the Evil God” to “Evil God of Fearful Trembling”.』
『Gained title “Third Administrator”.』
『Gained skill “Administration”.』

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Huh?

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Why did things turn out like this?

No, I mean, it’s my fault for acting without thinking so it’s nothing except reaping what I sow, but even so, who could have predicted that something like this would happen? It might be pointless to say anything after all this time, but the reflection that I’m doing is even deeper than the ocean.
I’m reflecting, so──

“Can’t you forgive me already?”

“No. Stay in seiza.”

──You’re heartless.

..*

After I interrupted the showdown between the soldiers and cultists with my once in a lifetime farce, despite feeling shocked at the sudden 『voice』, I somehow managed to keep a hold of myself and returned to the dungeon, but what awaited me was punishment from the furious Leonora.
Overwhelmed by her threatening attitude, and spent the last few hours in seiza, without even being allowed food or the bathroom. But the fact that for some reason I’m not getting hungry, and that I’m fine without going to the bathroom even once, is a mystery.
Incidentally, the reason that I was being punished like this by Leonora who shouldn’t have even known what seiza was, is because it was Tena’s suggestion. Tena… you definitely held a grudge over that. And that being the case, just imagining what awaits me after this is enough to send a cold sweat down my spine.
Although I’m a Japanese person who’s used to seiza, as you’d expect, after bearing with this for hours I’ve already lost the feeling in my legs, and just trying to move a little sends prickles throughout my body.
If I get poked in this state… -tremble tremble-

..*

Also, regarding Leonora’s anger, becoming an Evil God was… not why she was mad, and it was instead because I fired the gathered mana in a random direction.
At first I had planned on just using a harmless and flashy spell to threaten the soldiers, but I ended up losing focus due to the soldiers that had run away before I knew it, and having lost my timing, the mana that had gone beyond the limit was on the verge of going out of control.
Since I couldn’t hold it back properly, I had no choice but to fire it, but there’d be damage if anything was hit by that no-longer-harmless mana, and so with at least that much reasoning left, I fired it into a direction with no towns.

..*

And well, of course there were no towns. Because it was in the direction of the “Demon Race Territory”.

..*

Having realised what I’d done, Leonora began using magic to check with the Demon Race Territory and how much damage was done, while beginning to lecture me at the same time. She really didn’t need to do such a good job of multitasking. I wish she would just focus on confirming the damage.

“Are you listening, Anri!?”

“I’m listening.”

I was thinking about something else, but at the very least, it did enter my ear.
While Leonora’s lecturing was entering my left ear, and exiting my right, I stealthily chanted “status” under my breath.

Name:  Anri
Race:    Divine Race [New]
Sex:       Female
Age:     17
Job:       Administrator [New]
Level:   1
Title:       Evil God of Fearful Trembling [New], Dungeon Master, Third Administrator [New]
Mana:   27193018
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) [New]
Equipment:
– Tantou of the Wicked Demon
– Black Clothes of the Evil God
– Babydoll of Depravity
– Scanties of the Succubus
– Pumps of Darkness
Miko:
– Tena

…*

Uwahh… Um~mm, uwahh…
It’s no good. I can’t find the words.
Just why have things turned out like this?
I knew it when I heard the 『voice』, but seeing it again is rough in various ways.

..*

<Evil God of Fearful Trembles>
The Evil God who governs the Fear authority.

<Third Administrator>
The one who takes the third seat of the administrators of the world.

<Administration>
The basic skill of an Administrator.
Manages the laws and environment of the world.
Level defines the reaches of one’s jurisdiction.
Lv.5 is the level where one’s jurisdiction encompasses everything except the World System and the authorities held by the other administrators.

..*

If I’m the third seat, then that means there are another 2 people (2 gods?), so if the legends that Leonora told me were correct, then they should be the God of Light and God of Darkness.
By ‘the fundamentals of the World system’, could they be talking about the power of the Creator God that was tasked with maintaining the world?
Thinking about it, these statuses and titles, skills, and the abilities of the dungeon are probably part of this system.
Even after being turned into a god, I’m not exempt from its management after all, so I can’t think of what else this could be.

…*

Name:  Tena
Race:    Apostle Race
Sex:       Female
Age:     14
Job:       Miko [New]
Level:   1
Title:      Anri’s Miko
Mana:   187530
Skills:
– Abnormal Status Resistance (Lv.6)
– Darkness Magic (Lv.6)
Equipment:
– Miko Outfit of the Evil God

…*

I even smuggled Tena out of the realm of humans with me. Sorry.
As a bonus, she was released from slavery and became my miko.

…*

『…And that ends my report.』

“I see. Got it. If anything happens, contact me.”

『Understood.』

It seems that Leonora knows how the Demon Race Territory is now.
When I looked at her pleadingly, she averted her eyes whilst telling me what happened.

“Fortunately, nobody was harmed.”

Thank goodness. In my mind, I let out a sigh of relief.
I wasn’t seriously listening to her lecture, but that was because I couldn’t concentrate from the worry. I mean, even like this, I actually did worry. If somebody was hurt because of something stupid like that, I wouldn’t be able to apologise enough.

“However, apparently one mountain was half-destroyed.”

Are you serious? Certainly, by the time it was about to explode, there was a terrifying amount of mana packed in there, but to think that it was enough to smash a mountain.
But well, I guess that’s fine, as long as nobody was hurt. In the worst case, I could probably fix it with the skill I was granted after all.

While thinking about this, a shadow fell over me. Wondering what was up, I looked upwards and found that Leonora was standing in front of me with her head hanging. I couldn’t see her eyes because of her silver hair, but I could see that her mouth was clenched and twitching.
The atmosphere feels kinda dangerous.

“…It seems that you haven’t been listening to me, huh?”

“I was listening.”

“Then try repeating it back to me.”

“………………”

…I’m sorry.

“Tena. It looks like Anri wants a foot massage.”

“Understood, Leonora-san! Help out too, Lili.”

“Mn.”

I’m seriously sorry!?
Wha-, wait. That’ll be seriously bad right now.
Don’t wriggle your fingers as you sidle up to me!
Pikyaaaaaaaa――――――!!!

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Tena was laughing with a brighter expression than I’d ever seen.

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Lili who was playing together with Tena, as well as Leonora who should have been angry, seemed to be having fun as well.

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Even though I became something like an Evil God, they didn’t treat me any different.

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It’s a scene where I have no dignity at all, but I think that this is really happiness.

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Although I was supposed to be able to live an average lifestyle, I ended up as average with Evil Gods as my standard, and in the end I even became a real Evil God, but,

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if I can be with these girls, then I’m sure things will be fun.

..*

I’m just a novice Evil God, but in order to continue laughing with these girls, I’ll at least give it my all to become an average one.

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“How does this spot feel, Anri-sama?”

“Tingly.”

“Alright, time for me to “help out” too, Anri.”

Really, just forgive me already…

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Thank you very much for reading.
Now that Anri-san has become an Evil God, Evil God Average 【First Half – Book of Evil】 has finished.
Also, after this I will be writing 【Book of Evil – Side Stories】 where the events up until now will be told from other points of views.
The reason is because when writing in 1st person, there are just things that Anri-san can’t see, and so it wasn’t depicted enough.
Where those guys went, what those guys were thinking at the time, things that weren’t clear in the main story will come to light, maybe.

And after that, we’ll be jumping into the second half, the 【Book of God】.

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“entering my left ear, and exiting my right”
Actually the other way around, but sounds weird in English.

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

Hi, sorry for the uh, close to one week delay. Last Sunday just as I was about to finish chapter 20, I got into a big argument with father again, and couldn’t find a chance to sit down at my comp for a few hours at a time. I could have done translations in parts, but my quality goes down a lot when I do so.
But mn, I basically resolved the argument by getting an interview/test thingy for teaching English in Japan and threatening to move there, lol. Of course, I don’t know a thing about english grammar due to Australian English curriculums so I’ll probably fail for sure, but as long as I show that I’m willing to change countries, it should pacify him for a while!

Oh yeah, Kitaseno-sensei has a twitter now, so you can follow them here: https://twitter.com/yunaki_kitaseno
It doesn’t matter that you can’t read moonrunes. I’m sure that just having a large number of followers is encouraging, so yeah! Go make an account and follow them.
[Wakes up to sudden influx of 200 foreigners.]
Ah, but if you do follow them, neeeever link to this blog please. I’m translating everything without permission, since I figure things will get annoying once they get published, so yeah. But well, at least I’m not making money off my piracy.

Kitaseno-sensei has written three parodies of fairytales featuring the cast of Evil God Average. I will be translating them. Just, not yet, since we haven’t even gotten through half of the main series yet. They’ve also begun writing the side stories for Arc 2, so yeah.

Um, mn. If things stay calm, hopefully I’ll get back to normal speed. I’ve been really itching to translate Tilea and Otoburi.

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Chapter 20 – The Battle of the Evil God Temple

“Anri, are you in!?”

I turned in shock towards Leonora who had suddenly burst in while I was having tea with Tena and Lili.
Because we accidentally met eyes, she turned blue from the effect of the mystic eyes, and began to dogeza on the spot.
When I averted my eyes in a fluster, I asked Tena to brew some for Leonora too, after she had finished helping her up.

“S-, Suddenly going through a horrible time like that.”

“I-, I said I was sorry.”

“No, well, it’s my fault for looking at your eyes though.”

Leonora sighed, after having sat down to some tea and catching her breath.
We introduced her to Lili as well, who hadn’t been here the last time she stayed.
Lili’s shyness of strangers came into play and she hid behind Tena, but once she realised that Leonora was harmless, she was very quickly able to speak to her normally. …Even though I’ve been living with her for days now. This is unfair.
Also, it turns out that the reason Lili kept running away from me was because of the miasma filling the dungeon. It took me a while to notice since it had no effect on Tena and I, but even if I call this place the residential area, it’s just something I decided arbitrarily and it’s still inside the dungeon so of course there’s miasma here. Apparently the combo attack from my Evil God Aura and the fear inducing miasma makes me seem ridiculously terrifying. Of course, since the miasma is a characteristic of the dungeon, it’s not something I can stop even if I wanted to. That’s why I settled the problem by tampering with the circulation so that it’d suck out the miasma from the residential area and blow it into other areas. The miasma in the other floors might have gotten worse by the same amount, but well, I guess that can’t be helped.
Having understood the problem and expelling the miasma from the residential area, Lili finally stopped running away from me. Even so, whenever our eyes met, she’d run away as you’d expect though.

“And so, what’s up, all of a sudden? From how you were acting earlier, it seems like you have something to say, but?”

“Yeah, that’s right. While I was travelling I heard a disturbing rumour, you see, so I came back here in a fluster.”

“A disturbing rumour?”

Just hearing that was disturbing enough, and now I’m scared to hear the rest.
Speaking of which, didn’t I hear the Evil God rumour from Leonora as well?

“There’s a rumour spreading that there are Evil God Cultists gathering around Riemel town, you see.”

“Ahh, so it’s about that.”

I unconsciously relaxed.
Sorry to Leonora who journeyed all the way back here to tell me, but if that’s what this is all about, then I already know.
The Hero(lol) Party let me down and didn’t come, and though the construction of the temple that was arbitrarily set outside the dungeon entrance is still going slowly, it’s making progress.
It’s certainly troublesome, but it’s nothing life-threatening, so I’ll just relax and take my time to come up with a countermeasure.
But still, going by the way she said things, could it be that Leonora didn’t see the stuff around the dungeon herself? Since I told her about the back entrance as well, if she came in from there, it makes sense that she’d arrive here without passing through the blockade.

“Mu, so it was true after all? In that case, the rumour that I heard is seeming closer and closer to fact.”

“That wasn’t the disturbing rumour?”

“No, the fact that Evil God Cultists are gathering is nothing more than the precondition. You see, the disturbing rumour I heard is about the Order of the Sacred Light being gathered to subjugate the gathering cultists.”

Order of the Sacred Light?

“T-, That can’t be…-!?”

“…?”

It seems that Tena knows something since she turned pale, but as expected, perhaps Lili was too young to know, because seeing Tena she just tilted her head in wonder.

“You seem quite relaxed, huh. Even though you should know quite well what this means.”

“Uh, no, what’s the Order of the Sacred Light?”

Hearing my question, Leonora and Tena fell forward powerlessly.

“Y-, You… You don’t know of the Order of the Sacred Light? I’ve been thinking this for a while, but are you really a human?”

“Anri-sama… The Order of the Sacred Light is just as it sounds; a knight order formed by the call of the Church of Sacred Light. Only the Pope has the right to call them, and it comprises knights from various countries.”

In other words, something like the Crusaders of this world?
Also, Leonora sure is rude. It’s inevitable that I don’t know about this world.

“It seems that you don’t understand, so I’ll say this as well, but the state religion of all the human nations should be the Faith of Sacred Light. Becoming the target of the Order of the Sacred Light is in other words becoming the enemy of the entire human race.”

NANI?
The degree of danger just shot to another level.
From what I hear, certainly the Evil God Cultists are the enemy of the Church, but didn’t things get blown up way too quickly?
Although it’s true that cultists are gathering, is all of the human race joining forces just for a group that’s only a few hundred at best?
When I asked this, Leonora nodded as though it were natural.

“Certainly, it does feel unnatural that they would mobilise on this huge a scale just for the Evil God Cultists. It makes sense that we should view them as having an objective beyond this, I suppose.”

“An objective beyond this?”

“The investigation of the rumoured Evil God, and then the subjugation, or sealing of it, I suppose.”

I see. If it wasn’t just the cultists, but the Evil God as well, then I can assent to this exaggerated mobilisation.
To get attacked by all of humanity like this, this Evil God person sure has it rough too, huhh~

“I think you already understand, but it’s you, you know?”

I know it’s me, dammmit.
At least allow me some escapism.

“I’m not the Evil God.”

“That isn’t the problem right now. Whether or not it’s true, if the human race recognises you as such, then it’s the same thing.”

Certainly, whether or not I’m the Evil God, as long as the top brass of each country and the Church recognise me as the Evil God, it won’t change the fact that I’ll be their target for elimination.
But why I’m being recognised as the Evil God is a mystery.

“The leaders of the countries and Church should know that the Evil God is imaginary.”

“Mu, now that you mention it, that’s true…”

According to what I heard from Leonora earlier, the Evil God was a fictitious enemy created to give authority to the Church of Sacred Light.
Normal people or those in lower positions are one thing, but the higher-ups know that the Evil God doesn’t exist, so they’d probably just laugh at rumours of the Evil God appearing.

“Or perhaps it’s because they know that it is fictitious. It is not strange to think that the subjugation will be easy since its just a fake and self-styled Evil God. And what’s more, fake though it may be, as long as ordinary people and believers think that it’s the real thing, they can heighten their authority by subjugating it.”

Even though I don’t recall ever calling myself that.
But I also think that Leonora’s train of thought is correct.
It’s nuisancing others, but as long as the people believe that it’s true, regardless of whether it is or not, they probably won’t be able to leave it alone.

“And so, when will the Order of the Sacred Light be coming?”

“I don’t know that much, but if you consider them as being gathered and prepared from various nations, at the very least a few months, and perhaps it might even take a year, depending.”

As you’d expect, once it gets to this massive a scale, they can’t mobilise that easily, huh?
It was quite a headache of a topic, but the fact that I still have room to think is great luck.
I really can’t relax with the situation as it is, but since I have time, I’ll carefully figure out which choice is best.

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…There was a period when I thought like that too.

“Leonora.”

“T-, This isn’t my fault, you know!?”

Using the crow from last time, the surroundings of the dungeon were projected onto the mirror.
And on that mirror were the marching forms of soldiers on the highway that led towards the dungeon.
Meeting the cultist barrier, the soldiers stopped to set up a camp, but they kept arriving one after another, and the difference in power was ridiculous.

“It hasn’t even been half a month… This isn’t what you said.”

“L-, Like I said, this isn’t my fault. To begin with, isn’t this strange!? Why were they able to mobilise soldiers so quickly!?”

Leonora exclaimed with vigour and anger, but it felt like she was just trying to direct the blame away from herself.
Well, I had her stay in the dungeon out of worry, so I have no intention of blaming her though.
Like she said, it certainly is too early, no matter how you look at it.

“No, wait. Can you make the image of the soldiers bigger?”

Leonora asked me this, as though having noticed something.
I gave a nod, before moving the crow closer to the formations.
Leonora stared hard at the soldiers reflected on the mirror, but finally, she gave a nod, having seemingly assented to something.

“I see. I understand the trick now. The ones marching right now are all soldiers from the Kingdom of Fortera.”

The ‘Kingdom of Fortera’ is, if I remember correctly, the country that this place belongs to.
All of them are soldiers of the Kingdom? Wasn’t the Order of Sacred Light a coalition force?
Or could it be that these guys are something other than the Order of Sacred Light?

“They’re probably the vanguard. The allied forces will take time to assemble, so they probably intend to have the soldiers that can immediately mobilise do the scouting and planning first. Given Fortera’s location, they’d get here quickly after all.”

I see. I don’t know if it’s something that Fortera wished for itself, or if it was pushed into it, but for the role of vanguard, it’s natural that it’s Fortera.
According to Leonora, the location of the Kingdom is adjacent to the Demon Race Territory, so in a place like that, it wouldn’t be strange to have a standing army to a certain extent.

“In that case, they won’t attack us immediately, right?”

“If they’re devoted enough to play their role, that is.”

Leonora spoke hesitantly.
As though asking for the true meaning behind her words, I gazed at the beautiful face of the girl with the flowing silver hair. …She averted her eyes.

“From Fortera’s point of view, this is something they should like to tidy up before the main force of the Order gets here. As long as this is the Kingdom’s territory, then by all rights, this is a problem that should be dealt with by the Kingdom itself. Although the Evil God may be the enemy of all of the human race, if a problem within their country is dealt with by the Church or the Order, they will come to owe them a favour.”

I see. If they owe them a favour, then in later negotiations they’ll be at a disadvantage, so it’s natural that they;d want to avoid that.

“What’s more, looking at the scene from earlier, its clear to anyone that they appear to have enough power to deal with it even without waiting for the main force. Would it not be difficult for them to sit still for months without doing anything?”

“Certainly.”

I don’t know exactly how many soldiers Fortera has, but they should have thousands even by a conservative estimate, and if I’m unlucky, they might even have over ten thousand.
And on the other hand, the cultists have stopped with the construction and taken up positions, but they only have a few hundred… There’s nothing to even discuss.
On top of that, if this is the standing army of the Kingdom’s military, then they’re all professional soldiers, but the fighters among the cultists number only a few dozen at best, while the rest are normal people.
No matter how hard the merry Sect Founder tries, it’s impossible for him to overturn this difference in war potential; he’s truly a drop in the bucket.

There’s no way to shake the military superiority of the Kingdom after all, and even I think it would be completely meaningless to wait for the Order.
On the contrary, if they waited in this situation, wouldn’t they be liable to be slandered as cowards?

“There’s a good chance that they will attack once their camp is complete. What will you do?”

“…”

‘What will I do’? That’s what I want to know.
I didn’t think they’d come so quickly, so I haven’t thought of anything.
I’m a normal person who likes to put off the unpleasant. (When it comes to food alone, I’ll save the best for last though.)
I was told that there would be a few months until this happened, so I thought it would be fine if I thought about this stuff next month.

I guess there are about 3 rough choices that I can make.

(1) Fight: For ye fools who hath roused me from my repose, I award ye with death! (fight to the bitter end)
(2) Surrender: P-, Please just spare me my life! (naked dogeza)
(3) Escape: Cya, Totssan! (making a break for it)

For now, let’s think in a direction where I won’t be doing (2).
I have no intention of doing a naked dogeza after all, and even if I did, what lies after would probably just be a tragic fate.
(3) is looking ridiculously attractive, but the problem is where I should run to.
It seems that I’ve made an enemy of the entire human race, so I guess the only place I could escape to is the Demon Race Territory.
I wonder if I can’t use Leonora’s connections to give me asylum.
I looked towards my only ray of hope, Leonora, but it seems that she interpreted my glance as asking for her opinion, because she continued speaking.

“It does certainly seem that with the difference in numbers, you’ll lose in a head-on confrontation, huh. Were it me, I think that using the geography of the dungeon to fight a siege battle would be effective, though.”

Ah. Seems like it’s no good. She’s completely in the mood to fight.
When she asked “What will you do?”, I guess she meant “How are you going to fight?”.
Speaking of which, although she was better than the Hero(lol) Party, Leonora was actually quite a musclehead too.
I’m thankful just that she’s staying by my side in a situation like this, but if I asked her to give me refuge in the Demon Race Territory, it feels like she’d abandon me in scorn.
If I can’t hide in the Demon Race Territory, then (3) is impossible as well… Is there only (1)?
But feeling pain, and being killed, and while I’m at it, killing someone as long as I’m in no danger, are things I’d like to avoid though.

No, thinking about it again, defeating the main force of the Kingdom or the Order isn’t my goal, so I guess there isn’t a reason to fight them head-on?
Now that it’s come to this, the best result for me would be to have them think of me as powerful and withdraw their troops, as well as holding back on making a move against me in the future.
Even if I use brute force to drive away the Kingdom’s forces today, if I continue to get attacked in the future, there won’t be any point.
I’ll put on a flashy performance and make our side look stronger than it is, and make them think that it’s impossible to fight me… This is the best way.

…It’s nothing but a bluff though.

If the idea that I’m impossible to fight against begins to spread, then peace negotiations should be possible.
Negotiations are impossible for me, so I plan on pushing this onto somebody else though.

Fortunately, I have an idea of something flashy enough. When I told Leonora about what I thinking, she immediately went to prepare.
Honestly speaking, I didn’t think Leonora would be very happy about it, but she was surprisingly willing to help. Although she was speaking like that before, even she should understand that frontal attacks are no good. If it’s just the Kingdom’s army in front of us then it might be another matter, but if the Order of the Sacred Light comes along later, we’ll be crushed by their numbers. The only chance at overturning this situation is right now.

Now then, let’s begin my one in a lifetime gamble.

..*

..*

..*

..*

..*

---

“…There was a period when I thought like that too.” is a Baki reference lol
The whole scene is something like,
” ‘Boxing is an incomplete martial art because it lacks kicks…’ huh? There was a period when I thought like that too.”

Note: Lupin (of Lupin Third) often refers to Zenigata as Tottsan, a form of address that is usually translated as “Old Man” or “Pops”

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

If you’ve read Arifureta, you’ll have come across it often, but if not, a ‘yakuza kick’ is basically a rough front kick performed with either the heel or the whole foot, typically aimed stomach or chest level. In some kickboxing styles, it’s known as a stomp kick.

Like this: http://blog-imgs-27.fc2.com/s/y/u/syukanwakame/1240700734818.jpg

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Chapter 19 – Starvation Tactics

The goals of the intruders who come to this dungeon are varied, but if I had to roughly classify them, they’d be those looking for money, and those looking for fame.
If you succeeded in conquering a dungeon, you’d receive quite a reward after all, and if that dungeon’s level of difficulty was high, then your name and fame would spread.
With the spread of the Evil God rumours, I was worried that my income sourc-… I mean, the number of adventurers would decline, but I really didn’t have to worry because they began to increase instead.
Apparently even the guild was getting frustrated with the lack of progress with the dungeon capture, and increased the reward.
Drawn by the promise of 100 gold coins, each day an average of 10 parties would come to the dungeon in challenge, and after using up all their strength in the top floors, they’d be thrown out to the upper floors.
At present, nobody has reached the redeployed No Life King yet.

…*

However, since 3 days ago, the intruders suddenly stopped coming.

…*

I was spending each day toiling away at assorting the weapons and armour since they were always being collected and sent in, but suddenly nothing was coming.
Wondering what was going on, I had a look at each of the dungeon floors, but they were filled with only monsters, and not a trace of an intruder.

On the first day, I was being optimistic and thinking “Well, I guess there are days like this too.”.

On the second day, I began to think “Something’s wrong.”.

And then today, on the third day, having decided that there was something abnormal about the situation, I decided to have Tena secretly search around the dungeon.

..*

“Anri-sama, it’s terrible! The area around the dungeon has been sealed off!”

Having come back into the dungeon through a back entrance after I told her to check the surroundings, Tena came flying in with a changed expression.

“Sealed off? Who did, and why?”

Did the Adventurers Guild create a blockade because of the dangers of this dungeon?
But there hasn’t been a single death yet, and in a sense, this is the safest dungeon in the world.
I don’t think there’d be a reason for the guild to do such a thing.

“I do not know! There are people gathered near the entrance to the dungeon and working on some kind of project, and among them are people creating a blockade and forcefully turning back the adventurers who are coming here from town!”

A project near the dungeon entrance?
At the very least, as long as they’re forcefully turning away adventurers, it probably isn’t something the Adventurers Guild is doing, and if it was the Guild, they could just withdraw the reward after all.
It’s no good. Just hearing what Tena said doesn’t help me understand the situation at all.
Thinking that I might figure something out if I had a look with my own eyes, I got off my fat butt.

Just as I was about to teleport into the rear exit, I remembered that Leonora taught me darkness magic and I now had a means of observing things from a distance.
If I used that, there wouldn’t be a need to go all the way outside… Wai-, in that case, does that mean that I didn’t need to send Tena out either?
This was supposed to be a good chance for me to go outside for the first time in a while, but it seems that my hikikomori lifestyle got extended.
It feels like I’ll get fat from the lack of exercise.
Ah-, the “fat butt” that I mentioned earlier isn’t a physical description, so don’t misunderstand.
I was talking about the possibility of getting fat in the future, and by no means am I fat right this moment.
As you can see, even my stomach is… -squish-… ah-…

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

I teleported a crow that I made of mana to the back entrance of the dungeon.
I wasn’t using the dungeon core’s screen, and instead was using a mirror made from darkness magic that showed me what the crow heard and saw.
Though it had the benefit of not necessarily being limited to the dungeon, in exchange there was a need to move the crow from place to place which wouldn’t be instant, so it used more mana than my abilities as a dungeon master.
But as for the mana expenditure, going from how much mana I have, it really isn’t much, so I don’t really mind all that much.

After flying out from the back entrance and soaring into the sky, the crow moved to a place where I could see the dungeon entrance, and stopped on a tree.
In the mirror that reflected the vision of the crow were people working on something or other around the dungeon entrance, just like Tena said.
The entrance to this dungeon is on a small hill by the side of a lake that you can reach by following one of the highways to the end.
Around the entrance, there’s a bit of flat ground, but because nobody’s really maintaining it, it’s a mess of grass and weeds that grow as much as they want.
No, perhaps it would be better to say that “it was” a mess of grass and weeds.
It probably happened during these last 3 days, but the grass was mown, the few trees that should have been growing here were cut down, and the space was just like an open plaza now.
And in that place were people measuring the ground for something, as well as carried in materials here and there.

…It’s almost as though they’re building something, but to think they’d construct something near my dungeon of all places.

『Harvin-sama! We have finished measuring the land.』

『Well done. Tell the results to the planning team, and then have a rest.』

『Sir!』

Ah-, amongst the people working was somebody that I recognised.
The person firing off instructions to the people around him was the blonde priest that had been in charge of the sabbath the other day.
Which means… It can’t be that the ones doing the construction are the Evil God Cult, can it?
I’m kind of getting an incredibly bad feeling about this.

『It seems that the adventurers are trying to forcefully break through the blockade!』

『!? I will head there immediately, so hold on! They can not be allowed to interfere with the construction of the temple devoted to our god!』

『Understood!』

Geh-, I knew it.
It seems that my bad feeling was immediately proven to be correct.
I was just trying to act like the Evil God when I told them to be zealous in their faith, but building a temple is probably too zealous.
Just how much money are they planning on investing in this?
He looks like he’s in the early half of his twenties, so I was finding it weird that he was the group leader, but could it be that the young priest comes from a rich merchant or noble family?

To begin with, what do they want from the Evil God anyway?
From what Leonora said, the Evil God doesn’t even exist in this world, so although I don’t know how many times they’ve held a sabbath like the other day, they probably haven’t gotten anything back from them.
All they’re really doing is making useless endeavours.

Wai-, is it my fault!?
Up until now the (fake) object of worship hadn’t shown them any responses, but if they then received words and a treasure from offering a sacrifice, then I can assent to their rampage right now.

『You’re the leader of these fuckers!? We’re adventurers here to challenge the dungeon, so why the fuck are you getting in our way!?』

『Blasphemous fools who would challenge our god, in Her place, I shall hand down your death penalties. I swear on this divine weapon granted as the proof of our faith, that I will not let anybody pass!』

The adventurers were climbing over the barricades, while the young priest was standing in their way.
A critically tense atmosphere filled the whole area.

『Shit, you’re fucking insane! Oi, let’s clear these fuckers out!』

『AAHH!』

『Fool, fool, FOOL――! I am the agent of your divine punishment, Sect Founder Harvin! En garde!』

But wow, that priest sure is into it.

『Fucken eat this!』

『A pathetic effort!』

When the adventurer had tried to cut him down, the young priest──Harvin, met their blade with the staff in his hand.
The moment that their two weapons collided, following a high pitched sound, part of the adventurer’s sword was sent flying from halfway down the blade.

『I-, It can’t be…』

『Behold the might of our god!』

After sending the dumbfounded adventurer flying with a yakuza kick, Harvin held up the staff in his hands to the heavens.
Black lightning ran along the staff, and shot out towards the adventurers.

『GUAHHHHHHHHH―――!』

『G-, God damn it…』

A number of people could bear it without collapsing, but Harvin ran towards them and brought down his staff.

『IMMEDIATE!』

『GUGYAH-!?』

『PUNISHMENT!』

『GOHU-!』

『PUNISHMENT, PUNISHMENT, DIVINE PUNISHMENT――――!』

『…-!』

The adventurers couldn’t move well because of the lightning damage, and Harvin knocked them out one by one.
By the time he stopped, his breathing rough, all of the adventurers were lying on the ground.

『OOHHH! As expected of Harvin-sama!』

『Our Sect Founder!』

The surrounding followers looked at him with reverent eyes.
Nobody else is commenting on it, so I’ll be commenting but, even though he’s a priest, he was actually a melee class this whole time!?
He used a lightning attack, but there was no chanting, so that was probably the power of the staff. Harvin himself used nothing but hand-to-hand combat. Even though I completely thought that he was a mage or a cleric, so I gave him a staff… This is fraud.
Wai-, couldn’t I have just looked at his status?

『All by the guidance of our god. The rest of you must strive further in your devotion.』

『Sir!』

I’m not guiding you, I’m definitely not guiding you.
At the very least, I wouldn’t do this sort of thing.

『Now then, please toss them outside the barricade or something.』

『Understood.』

Having told them to throw out the unconscious adventurers, he returned to giving instructions on the construction of the temple.

But still, Harvin was stronger than expected.
As you’d expect, he’s weaker than Leonora, but if the Hero(lol) was careless, wouldn’t Harvin be a match for him?
At this rate, no matter how many adventurers come, they’ll probably just be eliminated and won’t make it to the dungeon.

I don’t know how long it’ll take to finish the temple, but at the very least it seems that the time required will be in the order of years.
If I lose my income source-, I mean, the adventurers, then I’ll probably run dry before the temple is finished.
Even if the temple is completed before I do run dry, all it’ll do is stop more adventurers from coming, so in the end it’s the same.

S-, Starvation tactics are for cowards…-!

I tried borrowing Leonora’s words, but these guys aren’t doing that on purpose, and out of goodwill instead, which makes it all the more terrible.
If I play the Evil God again and told them to stop, then I think they’d listen, but I can’t think of a good reason for telling them to stop the temple construction.
I’m beat. I can’t think of anything.

Oh yeah, it’s at times like this that the Hero is supposed to appear, right?
I want him to crush the plot of these detestable cultists, and take back my peace and quiet.
Where the heck did those guys go, anyway?

While entrusting a thread of hope to that Hero Party coming back and crushing the ambitions of the cultists, I looked resentfully at the progressing construction.

---

tl note: this is how I pictured Harvin’s fighting style:

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

So uh, I don’t have any consoles right now besides the original Xbox, which I got a looong time ago. And um, on the Xbox, among my favourite games were DOA3 and DOA2U.
I just felt they were quite pretty, and the flow of the game appealed to me better than things like Tekken 3 and 4. Somehow the hits felt weightier and more explosive. It might have been the sound effects. It might have been the settings on the physics engine. I guess I’ll never know.
And the music and character designs appealed to me more as well. But uh, mmn, because I don’t have a 360 or Xbox one, I’m only playing a DOA game again after DOA5 Last Round came out on steam. Ein is wearing mesh shirts as usual. Everytime I see his nipples, all this nostalgia for DOA2U comes flooding back.
But wow. Some things have changed. I’m not really sure what happened in the interim between 2U and 5LR, but apparently the costumes in DOA have started defying physics at some point.

But um, idunno. It’s not like I hate it. It looks a little silly that Hitomi can perform doumawashigeri with the flowers still keeping her decent, but maybe some people like that sort of thing. There are crazy tengu and ninja explodey magic in the world of Dead or Alive, so perhaps this costume is enchanted somehow. Or perhaps not.

DLC costume packs are going for 70 dollars each. I am okay with this. I wouldn’t buy them myself, but I respect their attempt to moneygrab using cuteness and sex appeal.
Marie Rose in a sukumizu is powerful stuff. I am not a lolicon.
Marie Rose in anything is powerful stuff. I am not a lolicon.
When you read chapter 18 and find out that this was my favourite chapter in the whole series, you may begin to doubt this, but I maintain the position that I am not a lolicon.
Wow, Marie Rose in overalls just came up in the dlc slideshow. Powerful stuff. Not a lolicon.

Anyway, chapter below. Thanks for bearing with me thus far. Tell me if this chapter is also your favourite. (:

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Chapter 18 – Mad Feast

I’ve turned the entrance part of the dungeon into a fairly large hall. Because it’s also the place that I chuck all the unconscious adventurers of all the other floors to, I’ve made it into a place with extra room. Enough room that people could hold a bit of a gathering there. When you add on the fact that monsters can’t enter the room with the entrance, as well as the fact that there would be nobody reckless enough to go out of their way to come to a dungeon at night, it means deep in the night, that there wouldn’t be anyone to get in your way.

…But that doesn’t mean you can hold your damned sabbaths here.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

Leonora who had become my friend the other day promised to visit again before continuing her journey, but the rumour she heard in Riemel──that the Evil God was living in this dungeon──was on my mind, so I had Tena head to town to investigate.
The result was that I discovered that there were two sources to that rumour.

The first was 1~2 months ago, when around the time that the dungeon transformed, there was an attack on a church belonging to the Sacred Light Church. In the middle of broad daylight, some being attacked the church, easily broke through the barrier that should have repelled evil, and then left with a sneer.
The second was a certain piece of equipment found in this dungeon. The sword blessed by the Evil God contained a terrifying curse and power, and was guessed to have been directly enchanted by the Evil God.
Because of these two facts, a rumour about the Evil God living in this dungeon began to be spread.

…I have no idea what those two incidents are about. Absolutely no idea, I said.

…*

I don’t know how far the rumour’s spread, but at the very least, it’s apparently been spread enough that Evil God worshippers have gathered in large numbers. This is something that I’m realising keenly enough that I’m getting a headache because of what I’m seeing on screen.

There was a bonfire lit in the middle of the room, and what’s more, I don’t know where they brought it from, but oddly they have a large cauldron on top of it. There was a suspicious liquid boiling inside the cauldron, and it was surrounded by a faint pink smoke. I’m seeing this through a screen so I don’t know how it smells, but it isn’t hard to imagine that there’s a strong odour spread throughout that room.
Surrounding the bonfire were close to a hundred people looking the way they did when they were brought into this world, and displaying shameful behaviour. There were those dancing madly with all their heart, as well as those embracing each other and indulging in each others’ bodies nearby. Perhaps the smoke that’s filling the room is some sort of drug, but everyone seems to be in ecstasy.

Truly a mad frenzy of a feast, befitting of being called a black sabbath. It definitely doesn’t feel like I can stay sane watching this scene, but as the master of this dungeon, I have to properly observe them. I’m definitely not peeking on them because I’m hugely curious.

As the feast went on, their excitement grew even further, until it finally reached the climax. Amongst the screams, only one person remained clothed and stepped forward into the centre of the room.
He was a young blonde man, who looked to be in the early half of his 20s, and with a handsome face, was clad in a priest’s outfit. When he stood in front of the cauldron, he raised his right hand before the followers before him. That moment, the frenzied feast stopped all at once, and a tense silence filled the room.

『We now begin the ritual of offerings!』

To the young priest’s voice, shouts of joy that surpassed even the feast thus far spread through the room as though tearing apart the silence. In the midst of this abnormal atmosphere, four large men carried forth a stone table, and placed it before the young priest.

Since they said ‘offerings’, are they going to perform a sacrificial ritual? Usually goats are sacrificed, right?
Judging from the atmosphere I can see on screen, I’m getting a bad feeling, though.

As though confirming my premonitions, what they brought forth was a girl of about 8 years old, dressed in a plain outfit. With chestnut hair that reached her shoulders, the girl had her hands bound before her, and a gag stuffed in her mouth, and was being forcefully brought out in front of them.
And then, perhaps realising that she was going to be attacked, with tears in her eyes she frantically tried to resist, but it was just the strength of a young child after all, and she could only offer a meagre resistance.
When she was brought to the stone altar, she was stripped of what she was wearing, and with her hands pulled out above her head, her hands and legs were bound and fixed to the altar by a rope that ran along under it.

『Nnnnnn――――――!!』

The girl tried to kick and struggle, but the rope tightly stopped her, and the best she could do was twist her body a little. While looking down at the girl, the young priest brought out a dagger from his pocket. To that deadly weapon that glinted in the light, the girl shook her head as though saying no, no, but there was nobody there that cared.

『O god of ours, please accept our humble offering.』

Having said that, the young priest aimed the overhead dagger at the girl’s heart, and unwaveringly brought it down, and… wai-, that’s no joke!
I was being overwhelmed by this unreal spectacle, but suddenly coming back to my senses, I flusteredly activated the transfer circle above the altar, and teleported the girl to where I was. After an instant of light, the bound and gagged girl was lying down in front of me.
It was some pretty close timing so,  feeling worried, I checked how the girl was, but there was no blood coming out of that young chest of hers. I was touching the centre of her chest to check it out, but perhaps because of the fear of almost being killed, her heart was currently pounding away. However, I could at least feel a definite heartbeat.
It seems that I made it in time.

..*

While I was feeling relieved, the high pitched sound of something breaking reached my ears.

Wondering what it was, I turned around, and what reached my eyes was Tena standing at the entrance to the room, and fragments of porcelain scattered by her feet. It seems that Tena had intended on bringing me tea, but accidentally dropped and broke the tea set. I was going to tell her to clean it up seeing as she showed no signs of moving for some reason, but seeing the expression on her face made me swallow my words.

“A-, Anri-sama…”

Shock, anger, grief, despair… with an expression filled with those mixed emotions, she was looking my way, stiffened up. I have no intention of scolding her that badly just for breaking a tea set though.

“W-, Wh-, Who is that child…?”

Her words reminded me that it wasn’t just me in her gaze, and that she was looking at the little girl who was the other person in the room. Seeing the girl who was looking up at me with tearful eyes and a terrified expression, I suddenly and calmly came back to myself, and tried looking at our situation from an objective point of view.

A little girl of about 8 years old was stripped nude, with her hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged with tears in her eyes.
And seemingly looming over that girl was I, who was touching her slim chest.

I-, It’s a pervert… Wai-, that’s wrong!
Having understood how I looked, I tried to explain to Tena in a fluster, and turned towards her.

“I can expla-…”

“──── -!”

Before I could call out to her, Tena burst out of the room in tears.

Wai-, stop. Don’t run.
At least tidy up the broken tea set.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

It’s become quite a headache. If I don’t properly explain things to Tena later, it’ll become a fixed impression that not only am I into other women, I have a preference for little girls. I also have to do something about this girl that’s bound and lying on the floor.
But what I really need to urgently deal with before anything else, is the sabbath with the vanished sacrifice. Because it was something I did in the spur of the moment, I have to fix it up somehow. What’s more, I don’t want something like this to happen again either, so I need to do something about that as well.
And so, I’ll be undoing your bindings later, but sorry, I’ll need to have you lying on the ground for a little longer, girl.

When I looked at the screen, the followers were naturally in a great uproar about the sacrifice that disappeared the instant it was killed. There were also people who were terrified because of this unforseen incident happening during a holy ritual. But when the young priest with the dagger turned around and raised his hand, the uproar quieted down.

『Have you all not seen it yourself!? Our god has accepted our humble offering.』

After the followers quieted down for an instant, they raised an explosive cheer. After the young priest gave a satisfied nod, he turned back to the altar and waited there silently. He was probably thinking that the god they worshipped would show a response, and was continuing to wait there, hoping for a reaction.

In this situation, it’ll get troublesome if I don’t respond, huh? I really just want to ignore this and go to sleep, but if I do that, I can’t predict what these guys will do.
Now then, what should I do? After having snatched the girl myself, I doubt they’d listen if I told them at this point that I didn’t need sacrifices after all, and if I gave the girl back, she’d probably be killed. Having said that though, if I praise them well done, then the possibility that they’ll continue to do this from now on is high.

『…Untasty.』

After thinking about it, I decided to compromise. It’s a tactic where I tell them that I didn’t like the sacrifice they gave me, and next time to bring something else.
Ah-, I forgot to use the cursed Tena doll. Well, I guess that’s fine this time.

『Eh-? Ah-… Please excuse us! Umm, did it not suit your esteemed palate?』

『Humans, demons, unpalatable. Oxen, pigs, chickens, goats──animals recommended.』

『U-, Understood! U-, Um… I am truly sorry to trouble you, but is there no mistake in that you are our god?』

Perhaps they felt something wrong with my lack of Evil God-ness, but it seems they were doubting me a little. But telling me to play the Evil God well is unreasonable, so I hope they’ll cut me some slack on that.

『Indeed.』

『Oohhh! Receiving your words is the acme of honour!』

『Although it did not suit my palate, it is true that you have done me service with your offering. As such, I bestow this staff.』

I enchanted a staff that I got from a mage that invaded, and teleported it atop the altar in front of the young priest. I’m a fake Evil God, but the enchantment is the real thing, so I can probably dodge most of the suspicion if I hand this over.

『T-, This is!? T-, To think that I would be granted a divine weapon-!』

After the young priest reverently picked up the staff that I left on the altar, first he was shocked, then he cried tears of joy.

『Continue to be zealous in your faith.』

『Understood-!』

Seeing the young priest bow deeply beyond the screen, I felt relieved at having somehow dealt with it. I saw onscreen that the young priest had held up the staff and was giving a speech to the followers, but I don’t care anymore.
Even if this happens again, they’ll just be sending me food, so I’ll just think of this as a good bargain.

…*

I’ve dealt with the issue of the sabbath now, so I undid the bindings on the girl who was still lying on the floor. I was wondering why she was so silent, but apparently she had passed out from the terror. I think she was still conscious when she was teleported in here, but I wonder when she fainted.

While wondering about this, Tena who had burst out from the room earlier entered the office.

“………………”

“Tena?”

Wondering what was up since Tena showed no signs of moving, I called out to her when with a determined expression, she suddenly took off the miko outfit that she was wearing. Stripped down to her underwear, amongst the youthfulness of her age, was just the slightest hint of seductiveness.
Perhaps because she was shy, that white skin of hers, illuminated by the lamp in the room, was tinged faintly red.

“Um… Anri-sama. If you really want to no matter what, then I…”

Hearing her words, I unconsciously stretched my hand towards her──

…*

──and shot her in the face with a darkness bullet.
I’m straight. There’s no sign of any men around me though.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

After having returned to her senses, Tena cleaned up the broken tea set and taken some basic care of the girl, I explained to her what happened and somehow managed to resolve her misunderstanding. Having properly understood the situation, Tena turned bright red and apologised, but I won’t forgive her.
I do think that her misunderstanding couldn’t be helped given the scene that she saw, but I’m not happy with how she acted afterwards, so I’ve decided not to let her off so easily, and punish her instead.
Even if I say punishment, it’s not like it’ll be anything weird; I’m just going to have her sit in seiza for an hour. Is that all? you might think, but to people of this world who aren’t used to seiza, staying in that unfamiliar posture should be quite a tough punishment. As proof of that, after an hour passed, her legs were numb enough that she couldn’t stand, and she was suffering on the ground.
Seeing this made me feel a little mischievous, so I lightly poked at Tena’s leg.

“Hii-!?”

Tena gave a sensitive response as her upper body jumped up, but apparently moving her body made her numb legs tingle, so she writhed about like a caterpillar. Deeply impressed by this wonderful reaction, I continued to poke at Tena who was trying to escape.
-poke poke-

“Ah-! …Sto-! …Y-, You can’t! …Please don’t poke mee!”

-poke poke- …This is kind of fun.

…*

“And so, what will you do with that girl?”

Perhaps because the numbness had finally gone, Tena was standing up now, but her face was still tinged red, and her eyes were oddly teary. Because of her reaction I accidentally got into teasing her, but if I do it any more I think she’ll dislike me for real, so I’ll stop it here.
By ‘girl’, she was probably referring to the sacrificial girl that she had taken care of just a while ago. Tena gave her a bath and a change of clothes, and she was now sleeping on a bed in the bedroom.

“I’ll return her to her parents.”

Obviously. I don’t know where they abducted this girl from, but considering both the issue of proper morals and the issue of avoiding troublesome things, returning her to her parents should be the best answer.

“But, that girl seems to be a slave…”

I unconsciously froze at Tena’s words.

“Slave?”

“Yes. She was wearing a collar.”

She was wearing, a collar? I was in a rush, so I don’t remember it well. But now that you mention it, I do get the feeling that the clothing that she was originally wearing was the kantoui for slaves.

…Crap. If she’s a slave, then this changes things quite a bit. If one of the cultists from just now was the master that bought her, then it was their right to decide what to do with this girl, and actually, I who saved the girl just became a thief. If she was abducted then I thought I could search for her parents, and maybe find them, but if she was sold as a slave, then I don’t have much chance in that either. There’s nothing I can do.

“And so, what do you plan on doing?”

Tena asked me this as though trying to finish me off, when I had sunken into silence.
…What do I do?

..*

..*

..*

..*

..*

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“Hii-!?”

When our eyes met, the adorable girl with chestnut-hair gave a spasmed cry, and hid behind Tena. It’s a spectacle that I’ve gotten used to over these last few days, and the girl in question is the sacrifice from the other day.
We managed to find out that her name was Lili, and that she had lost her parents in an epidemic, but apparently she didn’t really know anything more than that, and we still don’t know where she came from, or how she came to be a slave.
In the end, I couldn’t think of any ideas, so I decided that we’d raise her in this dungeon for a while at least. From what we’ve heard, it seems that it’ll be impossible to return her to her parents.

“Lili, Anri-sama isn’t scary, you know?”

Incidentally, the one who found all this out was Tena, not me. Lili had apparently grown attached to Tena who had taken care of her, and always follows her around. In contrast, she’s afraid of me, and just as you saw just now, even when I try to talk to her, she immediately runs away from me.

While seeing the two of them getting along like sisters, I sighed.

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

Chapter 17 – Girls’ Talk

I recently found out that ‘jashin(evil god)’ is translated by Google Translator (CN>EN) as ‘Cthulu’.

Remember that ‘Sacred Goddess’ comes with the implication of ‘Holy Woman-esque Deity’.

The kukuku here is probably stifled laughter, and not ‘My name is Leysis Vi Felicity Sumeragi.’-type kukuku.

---

“Speaking of which, are you the daughter of the Demon King, Leonora?”

“Mn? Yeah, that’s right. The current Demon King is my father.”

I invited Leonora, who had signed the friendship contract, down to the residential area and had tea with her… after having her take a bath. She cleaned up that dirt and blood stained appearance of hers and we moved to the living room and drank the black tea that Tena brewed.
She was stiff at first, but perhaps because she gradually got used to it, we progressed to being able to call each other by the name. Only, she won’t meet my eyes. It seems that the Evil God Aura has an immediate effect on beasts and monsters whose instinct is strong, but to demons and humans whose reasoning is strong, the effect is equally weak. On the other hand, the effect of the mystic eyes apparently works just fine, and when our gazes meet, she’ll immediately dogeza. I wonder if I should count myself lucky just that she isn’t running away. I’m paying attention so that I don’t accidentally meet eyes with her.

“I heard that the Demon King revives once he dies, but is that true?”

“As if that’s possible!”

I got told off.
Asking her in detail, I found out that the Demon King doesn’t revive, but is apparently just passed on as a title. The previous Demon King from a few decades ago that Tena mentioned is probably Leonora’s grandfather. Even when they get defeated, the next generation steps up to take their place, which is probably why weird rumours spread amongst the humans.

“If you’re the Demon King’s daughter, then you’re the princess of the demon race… Why are you in a place like this?”

Although it’s near the Demon Race Territory, this is clearly in human territory. It seems weird to me that she’s here.

“The Romariel family has a custom of having the Demon King Successor go on a journey by themselves in order to become an adult. I wasn’t headed anywhere in particular, but I was thinking that I wanted to have a look once at the Human Race Territory, so I came here.”

It’s a custom that I’ve heard of someplace else. But still, to even think of being a princess who marched into enemy territory by herself, she sure has fire.

“I thought that the Demon King was in the Demon King Castle.”

“No, that way of thinking isn’t wrong. Because the Demon King has a lot of influence, from the moment he ascends the throne, he can’t freely go out anymore. ‘That’s why while I’m still only a successor…’ is probably one of the reasons for the custom as well.”

I see. So this is also the last period where they can ignore responsibility, huh? It’s like going on a trip after graduating from uni… Hm, maybe that’s a little different.

“How long is your journey?”

“It isn’t really fixed. I don’t have any plans of coming back until I have some kind of achievement though.”

“Achievement?”

“Like defeating the Hero that’s the enemy of the Demon Race, or maybe winning over someone useful as an ally I guess.”

I suddenly understood Leonora’s circumstances, as she made an extremely displeased expression for some reason.

“Did you come to this dungeon for that reason too?”

“”Gu-… That’s right. I was thinking that I’d hand down punishment on the fraud Evil God, and depending on the circumstances, I’d make them into my underling.”

I see. I don’t know what kind of position the Evil God holds amongst the Demon Race, but at the very least, it’s someone that you wouldn’t be forgiven for selfishly impersonating. Having said that though, it’s unbearable being attacked due to a misunderstanding even though I never called myself the Evil God, so I’d like her to do some serious reflecting.

“Then can I ask you this instead, Anri?”

I nodded to her question.

“You said that you were given that power by the Evil God, but…”

I wasn’t sure if she would believe that I came from another world etc. so I’ve kept that part from her just like Tena, but as for being a human that was given this title and these skills by an evil god, I’ve already told Leonora.

“Honestly speaking, the person himself didn’t call himself the Evil God. I’m just guessing based on the names of the title and skills.”

“Hmm…”

Leonora sank into thought about something after I replied. When I wordlessly prompted her for an explanation, she averted her eyes and began speaking.

“No, it’s not that I’m doubting your words, but… the ‘Evil God’ shouldn’t really exist.”

“? The people of Riemel and you used the term 『Evil God』. Don’t you call it that because he exists?”

“Certainly, there exists the word and concept of the Evil God. But the deity known as the Evil God doesn’t exist.”

Is this some kind of riddle? What she said “doesn’t really exist” doesn’t sound quite like she’s denying the existence of gods. It seems that Leonora said that with the belief that “gods” exist, but the “Evil God” doesn’t.

“The Evil God is an imaginary god created by the human race.”

“An imaginary god?”

That evil god was imaginary?
I actually met and talked to him though.

“Yeah. Anri, how much do you know about the gods?”

“I heard that the God of Light that created the world──Sacred Goddess Sofia, battles against the Evil God that tries to destroy the world, and leads the people through divine protection and revelations.”

“I heard about this from the rumours, but hearing it again really is shocking.”

She’s kind of looking at me really pitifully, but she won’t look me in the eyes, so I’m just guessing through. Only, I don’t have any information source about the myths of this world except for what I heard from Tena, so I’ll be troubled if Leonora looks at me like that.

“Very well. It’s a bit of a long story, but I’ll tell you the true myths passed down in the demon race.”

It’ll apparently be a long story, so I called Tena and had her brew some more tea. Since she’s bringing it over anyway, I’ll have her listen to the story as well. I won’t be able to compare it to the myths that the humans have by myself, after all.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“The world was created by the one and only god, the Creator God.

“The Creator God created various animals as the inhabitants of the world, and finally, with the Creator God’s own form as the basis, they created humans.”

Up until here, Tena hasn’t objected and has been nodding along. There were various myths in my old world, but creation myths were all relatively similar I think.

“The human race received the favour of the Creator God, and prospered to the extreme, but that immediately reached the limit. In a world with no natural predators, there grew to be too many humans, because they couldn’t gain enough food.”

So the balance of the food chain collapsed? Without any natural predators, that seems certainly likely, but this is quite scientific for a myth.

“The Creator God gave food to the human race who entreated for help, but at the same time, worried about the situation, the Creator God took countermeasures. They created the natural enemies of the human race in order to bring the world to harmony… the demon race.

“The demon race was born, and fulfilling its duties, it opposed and attacked the human race, decreasing their numbers. With the demon race who was stronger than humans, yet less fertile than humans, as the natural enemy of the humans, peace was born.”

“That can’t be…”

Tena was stunned at the story that was so different from the myths that she knew, but certainly, with a small-numbered strong foe standing on top, you’d get the food chain back into balance, and makes more sense than the human myths that I heard form Tena.

“However, the Creator God was tormented by their own actions. There was no choice but to torment the beloved humans for the sake of their prosperity… The result of that self-contradiction was that the Creator God split themselves into three parts. Most of their power was separated into preserving the world, while their remaining power and mind was split into two.

“The two parts of the divided mind became the God of Light and God of Darkness, and they split the things that they governed into two────the sun and the moon, the day and the night, the human race and the demon race, or so it is.”

“…”

Tena couldn’t even form words. It’s probably already quite divorced from her common sense.

“That’s the myth passed down in the demon race. Those called ‘gods’ comprise only the God of Light and God of Darkness. There is no god known as the Evil God.”

Certainly, if you take the demon race’s myths as true, then the two gods are beings born from the Creator God, and aren’t separated by good and evil, or right and wrong. The God of Darkness sounds exactly evil, but it’d be like the Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto in Japanese myths.

“To begin with, the ‘Sacred Goddess’ was something that the human race themselves attached to the God of Light afterwards, to strengthen the god’s authority. And for that sake, they proposed a fictitious Evil God as the enemy, and so the God of Light ended up fighting against it.”

“Couldn’t they have just had the God of Light fight the God of Darkness?”

“It’s just a guess, but I think that as you’d expect, they didn’t have the guts to go against the God of Darkness himself.”

“Um, excuse me, I heard that the Evil God that the Sacred Goddess battled against governed darkness, but…”

“Ahh, it’s obvious that if they didn’t clearly say anything, the idea that the Evil God was the god of darkness would come up. That’s why the demon race finds both the words ‘evil god’ and the worship of the Evil God something detestable.”

I see. So they hate it because it’s something that shows contempt for the God of Darkness that they worship. Is that why Leonora was going to punish the swindler who called himself the Evil God?
But there’s something she said that’s been on my mind.

“They worship the Evil God? Even though it’s fictional?”

“It’s fictional, but only a handful of humans know that, even though it’s something that the human race created. Even if it’s a fictitious story, as long as the people up top spread it around, it’s natural that people will think of it as the truth. It’s a weird fact, but there are apparently humans who worship the Evil God in earnest, you know.”

There were Satanic cults and demon worship in my old world too, so I guess there’s nothing weird about such people existing.
I can’t sympathise though.

“I understand what the Evil God is now. I don’t know what the guy I met was, though…”

“Yeah. Even if we debate it now, it won’t be anything but a guess.”

For now, I’ll just think of that evil god as the Evil God(?).

“I understand about the God of Light and God of Darkness, but what about the Hero and Demon King?”

“The Demon King is a being that the God of Darkness brought forth to lead the demon race. And the ones brought forth by the God of Light for the sake of the humans afraid of the Demon King threat, are called the Heroes.”

Isn’t this putting the cart before the horse?
According to what I’ve heard, the threat of the Demon King is someone who plays a key role in making sure that humans don’t increase too much, so it’s supposed to be problematic if you eliminate the threat.
Perhaps sensing my doubt, Leonora gave a bitter smile as she began to continue.

“I know what you want to say. If the Demon King or demon race are defeated, then they’re right back where they started, and in that respect, the Creator God’s goal and God of Light’s actions create a contradiction. By separating from the God of Darkness, the God of Light specialises in favouring the humans after all, so that’s why things ended up the way they are.”

“I see. Then what does the demon race think of the Hero?”

From the demon race’s point of view, even though they’re attacking humans to carry out the role given to them by god, god’s underling ends up attacking them, so if you had to ask if it was unreasonable or not, then it was unreasonable.

“The God of Light’s wishes don’t matter. To us, the only god we worship is the God of Darkness, after all. The opinion of the demon races is that the Hero is just a strong opponent.”

“I see. Speaking of the Hero, they came to this dungeon the other day.”

“What? What were they like?”

I told Leonora about the Hero(lol) party that invaded this dungeon the other day. When I told her that they were muscle-brains that ran away even though they came as far as the 10th floor, she held her sides, bursting into laughter.

“Pff-, ku-ku-ku… T-, They got depressed over that puzzle and gave up, going home? …AHAHAHAHAHA-!”

“It looked like the even the Holy Sword’s guidance couldn’t solve the puzzle.”

“I-, I’m begging you, don’t make me laugh any more… M-, My sides are splitting… I-, It hurts… ku-ku-ku…-!!!”

Seeing her continue to laugh in tears, I started to feel like a little mischief.

“You were stumped for an hour too, though.”

“PFFT-!? Y-, You were watching!?”

The moment I commented, Leonora turned shocked and bright red, and averted her eyes. What she was ridiculing the Hero(lol) Party for came back like a boomerang and pierced her.

“F-, From what I hear, that Hero seems to be an Orthodox Hero, huh.”

Ah. She’s trying to distract me. I could poke at her some more, but her words have me wondering, so I’ll leave it for now.

“What’s an Orthodox Hero? Are there different types of Heroes too?”

“Yeah, it’s a classification that our demon side came up with. Has that made the idea unfamiliar to the humans? Amongst the demon race, those called Heroes amongst the public are separated into three types. The people of this world who gain the divine protection of the God of Light are the Orthodox Heroes, the ones summoned from another world are the Summoned Heroes, and the ones who arbitrarily declare themselves heroes are the Self-Proclaimed Heroes. From least to most troublesome, you have the Summoned Heroes, the Orthodox Heroes, and the Self-Proclaimed Heroes.”

Are Other World Summonings something that happens often? Or maybe there are other people in this world that are in the same situation as me. I don’t have any intent of going out of my way to find them, but if we met by chance, it’d be nice to have a chat, huh.
But still, isn’t the order that Leonora gave kind of strange?

“You didn’t get the order wrong? The Self-Proclaimed Hero sounds the weakest, but…”

‘Yeah, they are. Hm, if you arrange it from strongest to weakest, it’s still Summoned Hero, Orthodox Hero, Self-Proclaimed Hero. The chance that someone summoned from another world has powerful skills is high, so there are lots of them that are stronger than Orthodox Heroes.”

So it’s normal even in this world that summoned people have OP skills, huh? Speaking of OP skills, mine probably count in a way, but… honestly speaking, I’d like to pass them over to someone else.

“Then why is the Self-Proclaimed Hero the most annoying one?”

“Even though they’re weak, they pop up one after another without end. What’s more, most of them aren’t much different from hoodlums, you know? Going around killing, raping, stealing as they please, they’re no different than bandits. They’re the highest priority target amongst we demons.”

Ahh, I guess it makes sense that self-alleged heroes with no qualifications would be massive attention seekers and self-centred, huh.

“I see. Then what about Summoned Heroes being the easiest to deal with?”

“They have powerful skills so when you fight them they’re strong, but to begin with they’re not people from this world, after all, so they don’t have much reason to fight. Most of the time you can avoid them by using their weak point, or by winning them over. There’s even the statistics that when the Demon King is a woman, or when they have a little sister or daughter, the Hero changes sides over 80% of the time.”

…That’s terrible.
But well, I guess people who’ll agree after being suddenly kidnapped and told to fight would be in the minority, huh.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“By the way, I have a request.”

“Mn? What?”

Now that we’ve finished discussing the basics of the Heroes, I remembered that there was something I wanted to ask of her.

“Please teach magic to Tena and I.”

Since I’ve already made friends with somebody who seems like they’d be able to use darkness magic, I’d like to take this chance to have her teach us. Both Tena and I only have the skill without any knowledge, so it was just pearls thrown before swine. To give an example, it’s like somebody with pro baseball level batting skills, but zero knowledge of the game, I guess.
If darkness magic was also like the dungeon master skills in that I could just use it somehow, things would be a lot easier, but it seems that not everything can go so well. Or it could be that being able to just somehow use dungeon related abilities isn’t because of the skills, but because of my title.

“It’s not as if I won’t teach you, but darkness magic is specific to the demon race, you know? You are technically humans, aren’t you?”

That “technically” was unnecessary.

“It’s fine. We have the skills.”

“What? Ah, is that also a skill that the 『Evil God』 gave you? Then fine, I don’t mind.”

Alright! Instructor, GET.
With this, I too make my debut as a mahou shoujo; Jashin Shoujo Terrible Anri starts n-… ever.

I don’t think I’ll have a chance to use magic in the future either, but there’s probably no loss in learning it for self-defence when the time comes. If I had to say, then rather than me who’s a hikikomori, it’s more necessary to Tena who goes out to town, though.

…*
…*
…*

What’s more, three hours later, that Leonora ended up sitting on the floor, hugging her knees with a distant look is not my fault.

“I-, I even lost to Tena…”

“Umm, I’m sorry?”

“That’s okay.”

A student is someone who’s supposed to surpass their teacher, you know. Well, we only beat her in magic though.

 

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<Previous Chapter | Imouto | Next Chapter>

Chapter 16 – Filing for Reparations

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

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

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

『What the hell are you?』

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

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

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

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

『That was the 10th floor mid-boss.』

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

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

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

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

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

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

『Evil God…?』

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

The heck?

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

『What…?』

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

『You didn’t give your name?』

『Nope.』

『I-, I see…』

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

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

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

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

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

『Gu-… That’s…』

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

『Reparations.』

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

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

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

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

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

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

『But…』

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

『…Got it.』

Mn?

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

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

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

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

『Got it. In that case──』

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

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

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

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

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

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

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

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

『YOU―――!!!』

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

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

『Slow and steady wins the race.』

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

『…I, I veel zick.』

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

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

Day 4―――

『Isn’t it about time to give up?』

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

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

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

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

『Anti-musclehead measures.』

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

『I wonder if I should stop sending food.』

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

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

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

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

『31 floors.』

『Thir…-!?』

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

『Giving up?』

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Raise your head, and stand.”

“H-, However…”

“Just do it.”

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

“I’m not angry.”

“Eh?”

“I have no intention of punishing you either.”

“T-, Truly!?”

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

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

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

“You don’t need to do it.”

“Pardon?”

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

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

“W-, Whatever you would like!”

“I want you to be my friend.”

“F-, Friend…?”

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

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

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

“Unders… Got it.”

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

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

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

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Chapter 15 – Last Boss Battle

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

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

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

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

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

“Demon King…?”

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

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

『Hmph, is this it?』

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

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

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

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

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

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

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

『So it is finally time to meet you.』

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

『Then I’ll make you submit by force!』

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

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

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

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

『Gu… Uu…』

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

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

『Gotcha!』

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

『Hmph, cease your futile… What!?』

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

『Take this!』

『I-, Impossi… ble…』

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

『Hur-… -!』

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

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

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

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

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

Miss Leonora quietly overlooked it.

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

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Chapter 14 – Natural Enemy

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

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

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

“Morning.”

“Ah-, good morning, Anri-sama.”

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

“Itadakimasu.”

“Itadakimasu.”

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

“Speaking of which,”

“Yes? What is it?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Do you know anything about the Hero?”

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

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

“Are there lots of Demon Kings?”

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

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

“Do you know where the Demon King is?”

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

“Demon Race Territory?”

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

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

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

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

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

『Sorry, nothing really…』

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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English Version:

In my mind, the bear speaks with Nakata Jouji’s voice.

感想～Impressions

“IMO, prefer the Jap.” -Sexy Cross Jesus (XCrossJ)
“I actually like the English version.” -rei_hunter
“Japanese. Just for [Nakata Jouji’s voice].” -rhayex

Chapter 13 – Cornered

Sacred Goddess implies ‘a saintly woman-type, goddess’

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The alarm that represented intruders rang out.
This sound that I hadn’t heard for the long while since I changed the conditions for the alarm to people invading the 4th floor, sent my right tension up. When I sat on the chair on my office and looked at the intruders on screen as usual, I found a party of 4 being shown. Two of them were female.
When I checked the intruder party’s status I found a shocking entry.

Name:  Arc
Race:    Human Race
Sex:       Male
Age:      25
Job:       Swordsman
Level:   38
Title:      Hero of the Holy Sword

Name:  Zio
Race:    Human Race
Sex:       Male
Age:      28
Job:       Swordsman
Level:   33
Title:      None

Name:  Frey
Race:    Human Race
Sex:       Female
Age:      24
Job:       Mage
Level:   33
Title:      None

Name:  Widdi
Race:    Human Race
Sex:       Female
Age:      19
Job:       Cleric
Level:   31
Title:      None

Hero…?
I was shocked at the title held by the ikemen swordsman with the short blonde hair who was walking as the vanguard.
No, I mean, since it’s a fantasy world like this, having a hero might not be all that strange, but now that he’s here in front of my eyes, I can’t help but be shocked, as you’d expect. Moreover, the fact that it’s shown as a title must mean that he’s formally recognised as a hero by “something”. I don’t know if it’s a god, or a country, but even though there’s been close to 100 intruders so far, nobody else has had a title.
But not only the hero who doesn’t fail to live up to his name, the other party members also have levels that are clearly a cut above the rest.

Could this possibly be a desperate pinch that I’m in…?

I’ve already increased the dungeon to 27 floors, but I’m worried about whether that will be enough to stop them in the end. Let’s say that they do manage to reach here, what would I do? What would they do? When I see the sharp looking shining sword that the hero is holding, an unpleasant sweat runs down my back. While praying that he wouldn’t reach me, I continued to monitor their exploration.

『The effect of the barrier is about to run out, so I’ll recast the barrier, okay?』

『Yeah. Counting on you, Widdi.』

Widdi who was dressed in a nun’s outfit gave her proposal, and they all stood still in the large room. After Widdi chanted her spell, for an instant, all of them were wrapped in a white light. The light settled after a moment, but if you looked carefully, you could see that their whole bodies seemed to be faintly shining.

『With this, we’ll be protected from that troublesome miasma for a while longer, hey?』

『Now that we’ve come as far as the 4th floor, it’s gotten very thick after all, so if we didn’t have Widdi’s barrier, our progress would not be very good at all, would it?』

『Huhu, I’m glad to be of use. Because we have the protection of Arc-sama’s Holy Sword, it might have been meaningless though.』

『Nah, it helps. Even if we have the enchantment of my Holy Sword, I don’t think it would feel too good being enveloped in this evil miasma.』

Well, sorry for being evil.
But still, monks had a way to defend against the miasma? This is some important information. The enchantment on Arc’s Holy Sword is on my mind as well.

『But still, this dungeon was only just made, right? Just how many floors down does it go?』

『Usually it would take a number of years to grow, huh?』

It seems that because they stood still to reapply to barrier, they’ve decided to take the chance to rest in that room. While paying attention to the surroundings, they sat down in the room and began chatting.

『Well about that, it seems that when the dungeon master of this dungeon was originally subjugated, this place was only 3 floors deep. The guild believes that the current dungeon master took over that dungeon and used it as the basis for this one.』

『Even so, considering that this floor right now is the 4th one, there’s no mistaking that this place grew in a short time, huh?』

『Yeah, you have a point, Frey.』

『But well, I really doubt that it’s in the double digits after all. I don’t know when this dungeon master took over this dungeon, but even at the earliest estimate, it wouldn’t even be a month after all.』

Well, no, it’s 27 floors.
It’s more convenient for me that they’re optimistic, so I’m not going to tell them though.

『The dungeon master… huh?』

『What’s wrong, Frey?』

『Well, I was just wondering what kind of guy the dungeon master is, you see. The impressions of them is just too random and… while you’re thinking about how they release this terrible miasma, at the same time all their traps are non-lethal, so…』

Seeing the glamourous mage oneesan fall into thought, Arc asked her the question, and she voiced her doubts. Certainly if you consider it from an outsider’s point of view, perhaps it can’t be helped that they see it as random. It’s not like I’m releasing this miasma because I want to after all, and from my perspective, I did try to make everything consistent, though.

『Speaking of which, I’ve heard that there still hasn’t been one fatality in this “Evil Cave of the Robber” yet, hey? Even when you get done in by the monsters and faint, they only take your weapons and items and throw you by the entrance apparently.』

『Ahh, I see. So that’s why it’s “robber” isn’t it.』

『Even so, we can’t let our guards down. The monsters that appear here are all strong foes that will easily wipe us out if we lose focus after all, and even if the traps are non-lethal, they’re dangerous and can throw us into a crisis in an instant. Also, if by some chance I had the Holy Sword stolen, I wouldn’t be able to face our Sacred Goddess Sophia-sama.』

『I don’t think that beings of evil would be able to touch the Holy Sword, but yes, that is true isn’t it.』

Sacred Goddess Sophia, huh? Is that the name of the god worshipped in this world? Speaking of which, the time when I went to the church in Riemel, I get the feeling that there was a statue of a goddess enshrined  further inside the church hall. I didn’t have time to pay attention to it at the time so I don’t remember the details though.
In my old world I didn’t believe in god, but as long as that evil god exists, it wouldn’t be strange for god to exist either… or rather, I’d hate it for there only to be that evil god, so I hope they do exist. Well, since the monk really can use their power, I think the power of gods exists at the very least.
Going by Arc’s title and the conversation just now, could it be that he received the Holy Sword from that goddess? From the name ‘Holy Sword’ it probably has holy power, and in a dungeon with lots of undead, you could say that it’s something you could call its natural enemy.
Considering that I was rejected by the church’s barrier, I’ll probably go through a harsh time if I meet with that sword too. Of course, even if it this wasn’t the case, I’d still pass on being cut down though.

『Well, I don’t know what kind of guy they are, but there’s no doubt that their personality is totally messed up, hey?』

『Ahaha, definitely. They seem to be a money-grubber, so they might even be dressed up like an upstart rich guy, you know. I’m sure they definitely look like a fat, ugly lump of meat.』

『Huhu, you’re right.』

Youuu-. I-, I want to hit them…
I’m sure they meant it as some meaningless chatter, but no matter what, isn’t saying those things about a maiden just too cruel? Boiling mad, I sent the monsters current on the 4th floor towards them, and at the same time, I poured in my mana and increased the spawn rate of the monsters on the 5th floor and below.
Without knowing about the angry me on the other side of the screen, the hero party wrapped up their break and began exploring again.

I was wondering how they were avoiding traps without a scout, but apparently the hero senses them all beforehand with nothing but intuition. Or it might be the enchantment on the Holy Sword or something. From what I’ve heard of their conversation, that possibility seems high, but it’s quite an all-purpose sword, huh? Or rather, I get the feeling that it’s already gone beyond the category of “weapons”.

As expected of a high level party, perhaps I should say, even the attacks by the monsters whose numbers I increased were easily driven back. The skeleton lords were cut down by Arc’s Holy Sword, the black steel golems’s metal fists were blocked by Zio’s shield too. The wraiths were blown away by the flames and blizzard that Frey shot out, and even the chaos elementals were purified by the light magic that Widdi fired.
Although the hero party wasn’t completely uninjured, they progressed smoothly through the dungeon without any major injuries, and it took them roughly 2~3 hours to conquer each floor. Right now they’ve reached as far as the 7th floor, but since it’s already basically night time, it seemed that they were tired as you’d expect because I could see that the energy in their movements had dulled. In particular, the female members who were the rear guard with low stamina were tottering enough that it seemed like they would collapse.
No, if you look carefully, only the hero seemed to still be fine. I can’t tell if it’s the enchantment on the Holy Sword, or if it’s just how he is though.

『How ’bout we rest a little, Arc?』

Noticing that the girls were tired, in one of the wider rooms, Zio suggested this to Arc.

『Hmm, yeah. It’s been already been half a day since we entered this dungeon. I had no idea that it’d be this deep, so I didn’t prepare camping gear, but let’s take turns sleeping and guarding.』

At Arc’s words, Frey and Widdi sat down, deeply relieved.

『I-, I’m saved.』

『…Hah… Hii…』

When it came to Widdi, it seems that she couldn’t even speak.
Even if they get through a floor every two hours, it means that they’ll take more than two days to get to the 27th floor where I am. Without having expected and prepared camping equipment beforehand, conquering this dungeon will probably be tough. Considering that, it doesn’t look like they’ll be conquering the dungeon on this run. I was a little relieved.

Also, this is completely off topic, but I decided to place a toilet in the room of each floor. They were the first people to explore the dungeon for very long, so I hadn’t noticed this problem.
Thanks to that, I caught sight of the horrible scene of the blonde ikemen hero doing his business… I’ll say it just in case, but I didn’t peep through the gaps in my fingers or anything like that.
It was even graver when it came to the women; seeing the bishoujo nun tell the party with a bright red face, close to tears, that she had to use the bathroom really made me sympathise with her, so I made the decision to create the toilets. Their chatter during their break pissed me off, but even so, the feelings of sympathy as another woman won out.
A dungeon this kind doesn’t exist anywhere else, you know?

For now, they probably won’t be moving until morning, so I decided to sleep as well.

 

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