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.

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“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.

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“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.

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“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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Chapter 16 – Filing for Reparations

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

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

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

『What the hell are you?』

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

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

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

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

『That was the 10th floor mid-boss.』

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

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

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

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

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

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

『Evil God…?』

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

The heck?

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

『What…?』

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

『You didn’t give your name?』

『Nope.』

『I-, I see…』

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

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

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

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

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

『Gu-… That’s…』

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

『Reparations.』

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

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

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

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

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

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

『But…』

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

『…Got it.』

Mn?

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

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

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

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

『Got it. In that case──』

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

『YOU―――!!!』

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

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

『Slow and steady wins the race.』

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

『…I, I veel zick.』

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

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

Day 4―――

『Isn’t it about time to give up?』

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

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

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

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

『Anti-musclehead measures.』

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

『I wonder if I should stop sending food.』

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

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

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

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

『31 floors.』

『Thir…-!?』

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

『Giving up?』

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

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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