It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

The first process of seizing Solemio, the replacement of the lord, proceeded very quietly.

"To think I couldn't recognize a witch and let her into the castle myself..."

"I'm sorry, Father... This was the only way."

"It's alright. You must have agonized over this a lot."

The lord, who was said to have been an elite-grade knight in his youth, broke his own sword in the face of the contract's existence hanging around his daughter's neck, and accepted the restraints along with the sealing.

"From now on, you are the lord of Solemio."

Feeling the father glaring at me in front of his daughter's tears, I received the lord's signet ring and personally put it on Amelia's finger.

She was now the de facto lord.

To erase doubts about her performing the lord's duties, additional reports to the royal capital would be needed, but from the moment she wears this signet ring, she can carry out her duties as a lord.

"...What should I call you?"

"Those who know us well call me Lady."

"I understand. Lady Libertas. ...Although I didn't want to receive the lord's position in this way, I'll make sure you don't needlessly kill the people."

Eyes that confront with resolve to sacrifice for others are both firm and beautiful.

I didn't want to gouge out those eyes and make them shed tears of blood either, so I stroked her cheek and answered.

"That's enough. I don't enjoy slaughter."

Leading Amelia, whose eyes were full of disbelief, I headed to the place where my subordinates had already gone.

To the place where magic power was stirring.

"To think a magic using artifacts would be nullified instantly...!"

The lord's wife was found on the roof of the fortress.

She had attempted to cast grand magic in cooperation with the magicians in the fortress, using military artifacts.

However, she was discovered by me before that, and the magic was easily nullified.

I arrived at the place where Xue had already led some elites to interfere with the magic's initiation, and about 30 seconds after that.

"You've worked hard. To even find and bring such a good item."

Whether her daughter's magical talent came from her, her capability was quite excellent.

It just wasn't enough to match me.

"Please don't kill my mother...!"

"I never thought there would be no noise, so don't worry, Amelia."

"Thank you...!"

Just because you've made a contract doesn't mean you can be ruthless to the subject.

Since the contract mediated by a Dungeon Lord isn't absolute, if one is sincere, there are ways to harm the Dungeon Lord somehow.

'Even pets or slaves will bite their masters or revolt if faced with excessively harsh situations.'

The contract was no different from that.

It's a matter of having the resolve or grudge to 'burn one's soul and endure that pain', but still.

"All forces have been pushed to the outside. As you said, they won't have room to turn their attention inward while being wary of the orcs."

"I will report on the current situation of Solemio. Master. Lord."

As mentioned before, all the administrators under the lord had already been seized.

The surviving administrators of Solemio had all become demons, albeit at a low level. And demons cannot resist me, the Dungeon Lord.

Emotionally or rationally.

For the people within this inner castle who will mainly belong to evil from now on, there's no reason to hesitate about corrupting them into monsters or demons.

Swish.

"My lords...! What are you doing...!"

After diverting all soldiers to the outside through the administrators, the knights remaining inside were subdued under the swords of Evangeline and the knights who had become demons, which I had already planted inside.

This was a process without any difficulty, and the recruitment of them was the same.

'They say rural knights are just administrators who can use swords rather than being about honor.'

You could say this situation fits that saying perfectly.

Except for a very few knights, none of them even mentioned the 'h' of honor.

"It seems my body has indeed become stronger..."

In the process of subduing them, I corrupted some of the surrendered administrators and knights to 'my side'.

Since I transformed them into types that don't have much change in human appearance, like orcs or beastkin, there wasn't much dissatisfaction.

At least they would think it's better than becoming skeletons.

Those who led the soldiers to the fortress would also be 'recruited' through a similar process later.

"Rather than that, be glad that you've come to serve our new master."

"What? How can that... Ohhh..."

Since beings that belong to evil easily develop reverence for the contracted Dungeon Lord, the remaining worries flew away quickly.

Like this, most of them became demons or monsters.

Including those who wished among their families.

"That's good. Those rotten bastards who go around beating people."

"I hear they were caught embezzling finances."

However, not all of them were made into demons.

Some who were thought to interfere with running the castle were, after some investigation, made part of the dungeon rather than part of the castle.

"Save me, please save me...!"

"Why aren't you giving us a chance!"

To put it simply, it means they were killed and absorbed.

It was a waste of the core's magic power to control them through contracts, and if they were just sent away, they would certainly question the situation inside the castle.

"Take away the freedom of those who want to remain human."

"There will surely be resistance...?"

"If you think there will be no lack in your service to me even if they are left free, you may do as you please."

"...I understand."

Of course, even if some wanted to remain human among those whose families had become my subordinates, we kept them alive, and instead had them live gathered in one of the empty annexes of the inner castle.

'With this, I've seized the inner castle.'

The next targets are the free force holders existing within Solemio.

However, now that I've seized the inner castle, obtaining their heads wasn't a difficult task.

* * *

Solemio was a city with relatively many guilds for an unremarkable countryside.

Although most are occupational guilds or research guilds rather than adventurers, when all gathered, they could treat the lord of a small castle as a 'mere' in terms of position.

However, that's only in case of emergency, and normally, magicians or adventurers don't routinely ignore the call of nobles.

Especially in the case of the current lord, who has good popular support and ability for a rural lord.

"Do you know why we've been invited?"

"Well, I don't know. In the case of the previous Copzerin Dungeon Lord expedition, we benefited a lot, so wouldn't it be something like that this time too?"

"I hope so. The byproducts obtained from the previous expedition were very helpful for research..."

Moreover, having benefited from the previous expedition against Serica, the credit of adventurers and magicians towards the current lord was sky-high.

At least they didn't believe he would call them for nothing.

"Welcome, everyone."

"Lady Amelia? Where is Baron Valeon...?"

Since they thought it was about such an important matter, they weren't too surprised even when the family heir appeared instead of the baron.

Amelia had already participated in such big events several times and had consistently given a good impression.

And so.

"Father left urgently this morning on pressing business. I will be receiving you all."

"Oh, I see. What kind of matter could it be, to leave without notice...?"

"That's a state matter, so I can't tell you. Now, this way please."

Thirteen adventurers and magicians, including three magic guild masters and one or two of their top disciples each, along with the adventurers' guild master and his two deputies, entered the banquet hall without suspicion.

"This is an unusual feast, unlike usual."

"Wow... What's all this?"

Soon they discovered a rare feast that was hard to see normally.

From food made by purifying the meat of powerful monsters that only high nobles could taste, to unique dishes boasted by the three great countries of the Western Continent.

It was a proper formal dinner set as if inviting nobles.

"Please enjoy. Father, as the head of the family, instructed this in advance to apologize for not being able to greet you personally."

"Oh my. To think we'd be having a meal in the inner castle. It's an honor."

"We'll enjoy it."

Although sometimes tasteable even as adventurers, it was a level of spread that couldn't be seen unless by nobles.

A place where they could feel at ease due to the trust and credit built up over time.

Even for each guild master who was in a position to frequently eat relatively rare foods, it couldn't be ignored, so naturally, their eyes were spinning.

"Hmmmm... Zzz..."

"Oh my. It seems Guild Master Truthful Eye has drunk too much."

"To fall asleep before work... Huh...?"

Those who swallowed the food without resistance soon fell asleep.

It was because of several 'measures' taken in advance.

-His wisdom is so deep.

Immediately after, Amelia's appearance collapsed rapidly, revealing the figure of a silver shadow standing in her place.

A doppelganger.

A being between demon and monster that takes on a person's appearance and devours their body to take over their existence.

-Have you arrived, Lady.

He greeted the approaching black woman.

"Good work, Jain."

-Not at all.

"I'm sorry for not letting you eat."

-It's alright.

The presence of such a doppelganger here would normally imply Amelia's death.

However, now he had only temporarily borrowed her appearance and learned her form under Libertas's instruction.

After all, she couldn't use Amelia to catch people who had been smiling and getting along with each other until just yesterday.

Both morally and practically.

-For me, it's just a meal, but for you, Lady, it's a step towards achieving your goal. As a mercenary, it's natural to complete the request.

"Thank you for saying so."

She, or he, was one of the mercenaries Libertas had recently recruited from the demon realm.

Although his level was at best formal, the reason he was hired was precisely because of that.

Doppelgangers, regardless of their rank, had the highest mimicry ability in their category.

To the extent that if Talhan had chosen to change into another species, he might have been here as a doppelganger.

-And it's not like you won't feed me otherwise.

"That's true."

Therefore, Libertas's criteria for choosing the doppelganger was purely 'personality'.

Whether weak and thus good at reading the room, or strong but good at adapting to others, or just having an easygoing personality like now.

"Well. How about one of these? Personally, I'd recommend one of these."

Libertas raised her finger and pointed at two people.

They were the heirs leading the other two guilds, excluding the 'Eyes Tracing Truth' guild where Sonia had been.

Both had reached a mature level even within the high rank, and were at a level that the current Jain could completely digest if he could receive help from others.

-With gratitude...

"Wait a moment. You didn't say you were going to kill them, did you?"

An interruption in a displeased tone.

At that, Libertas turned her gaze to look at the owner of the appearance the doppelganger was mimicking.

"Amelia."

Amelia, wearing a blue cloak with silver threads proving her status as lord on her shoulders, stood glaring at the two.

Still unable to escape from fear and guilt, yet armed with unchanged duty and responsibility.

"The reason would be the same as when I spoke of herding people into the mansion."

However, Libertas just smiled at her objection.

This was merely a demand for the fulfillment of the contract, not an inappropriate interference.

There was just a flaw in that claim.

"All your conditions will be met from when you can certainly fulfill my demands."

"Then...!"

"These are people who can potentially notice my existence and inform the outside about it. Isn't that right?"

"Ugh..."

Amelia bit her lip with her teeth, suppressing her words.

'There was also the method of controlling them using the poison Echidna gave...'

However, the quantitative experiments on that poison were not yet perfect.

Not only was there not much experimental data on humans, but the dosage also had to be adjusted according to the level, and the progress also needed to be observed for a while before it could be deployed in the field, so it was on hold for now.

'So for now, this method is safer.'

There's also the possibility that the subject could die from such imperfect use, but if the existence of the poison is revealed, its lethality is critically reduced.

Therefore, using that poison right now would only result in loss or cruelty.

After finishing her thoughts, Libertas reached out her hand towards Amelia's still discontented face...

"Stop."

Grab!

She grabbed a long silver blade.

Right in front of her eyes.

"What are you doing, Jain?"

Libertas smiled as she looked at the culprit.

The owner of the blade, or more precisely, the tentacle with a blade attached, was the doppelganger Jain who had been talking with her until just now.

-Gasp...!

Seeing his blade caught in Libertas's hand, the silver texture that had existed in Jain's facial area suddenly dimmed and turned ashen.

As if terrified, in human terms.

"..."

Libertas's eyes, looking at him with a gentle expression.

Shone inorganically.