It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

[The dignity of one who has become a ruler should be evident from their room! So why don’t you quickly get a pretty room? I know some excellent furniture craftsmen…]

[Clack!]

When I saw Scarlet’s suggestion to prioritize making my room over setting up the basics of the dungeon and Evangeline nodding as if she agreed with only that, I was dumbfounded…

But now I think it was good to have done so, at least a little.

“Mmhmm…”

If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to wake up and stretch pleasantly like this in the morning.

I now had a body that didn’t need sleep, but still, even a few hours of sleep made me feel good. Of course, it was even better if that sleep was on a bed.

-Clatter.

Chirp chirp…

“Good morning, Eve.”

-Clack!

Eve, who was already in the room just before I woke up, opened the window, and along with the pleasantly cool breeze, bird sounds came in.

I stroked her head as she knelt beside me, then grabbed the hand Eve held out and got up from my seat.

It was extremely awkward at first, but it was special treatment that only took three days to get used to.

“I’ll be counting on you today too.”

-Clack!

Even if I sleep and wake up, my hair doesn’t get disheveled, but because it’s so long, it still needs some proper brushing and care for tangled parts.

After sitting at the dressing table for that purpose and speaking, I felt Eve’s careful touch and brushing stroking my hair, along with a wave of joyful emotion as she responded.

A touch filled with deep caution, careful not to hurt the skin with her pointed fingertips.

Although she knows that my skin would never actually be hurt, I didn’t feel like stopping her because it felt good to see her being so careful.

Rustle rustle…

“I saw yesterday that you really drilled the children a lot.”

-Clack.

“No, no, I’m not scolding you. It was excellent.”

-Clack!

“Yes.”

‘How cute.’

Feeling the pleasant sensation of my hair being touched, I turned my gaze through the mirror and saw furniture like wardrobes and dressing tables along the rocky walls, unlike before.

Not the craftsmen Scarlet had introduced, but handmade furniture that Eve had made using her strangely good handicraft skills.

I don’t know what kind of wood was used. Still, the furniture, properly finished and dried using finishing materials bought from the carpenter’s guild in Solemio this time, constantly gave off a pleasant wood scent, making me feel subtly good every morning when I woke up.

I can see outside through the magically created window and even have sunlight shining into the room, so it’s very cozy except for the bare stone walls without wallpaper.

‘It’s nice.’

The location of my room that made me feel so good was actually at the entrance of the dungeon.

More precisely, it can be reached on the upper floor through stairs hidden in the dungeon’s central pillar.

It’s designed so that adventurers can’t meet me even after breaking through to the end of the dungeon if they can’t solve the ‘puzzle.’

Of course, they can’t find the dungeon core.

It seems other Dungeon Lords often put their cores underground, but my core room was even higher up than my room.

Tap.

As I tap my chest area and use magic, my nightwear is momentarily dyed completely black by magic power.

After a moment, when I look through the mirror, I see a perfect dress without a single lace or part out of place, as always.

This kind of clothing change was possible except when completely undressing.

It makes me feel a bit strange, reminiscent of the magical girl animations I briefly saw on TV as a child, but still, it’s good that it’s convenient.

Clack.

“Whew.”

While having such a pleasant morning and drinking a cup of morning tea that Eve had brewed-

Someone full of dark emotions that stain that heart enters the room, which always makes me feel good with the goodwill I sense towards me.

“…”

“Good morning, my disciple.”

Sonia Mediv.

She was a partner who had participated in a small-scale scam that she didn’t know about, with me as the teacher and her as the disciple.

* * *

“…”

Clatter.

Brought from the room by Mire, her eyes sitting across from me were empty until I finished drinking all my tea.

The same was true for the mana that had been flowing violently inside her. Right now, she was in a state where all her magic power was sealed except for the minimum needed to maintain her body.

It was a measure taken to restrain her and, if lucky, to ‘handle her properly.’

If that flood of mana had been left as it was, she, fallen into despair, would have lost control over her magic power and died before I could do anything.

“Have you eaten breakfast?”

Shake shake

Perhaps because of that, she looked healthier than before when I met her after a few days, even though she hadn’t eaten properly.

It’s natural since her metabolism is much smoother compared to before when absorption wasn’t happening.

When she ate properly, all the energy was decomposed to maintain her excessively strong magic power, so it would have been a state where ‘you lose weight even if you eat.’

…Although her mind still doesn’t seem to have recovered compared to her body.

“So… have you sorted out your thoughts?”

“…”

A few days ago, when I succeeded in restraining her and all her acquaintances, I made one proposal to her.

Today, I intended to hear her answer to that proposal.

For a dungeon to grow properly, an environment where adventurers come from outside must be created, and to do that, a proper foundation had to be laid.

I couldn’t just keep spending time on her.

“If you haven’t sorted out your thoughts yet, we could talk while having a meal together.”

“…No.”

Sonia finally opened her mouth.

Her face, unlike a moment ago when it was blankly relaxed, was filled with intense emotions.

Disgust, hatred, anger, killing intent.

It was such an intense expression that I thought the amount of those emotions she was feeling now might be more significant than all the emotions she had felt in her lifetime.

“…Why did you do this to me?”

However, even in the midst of this, she asks for the ‘reason.’

Although it’s 120% certain that she has already become an enemy in this state, her attitude seems as if she’s prepared to understand, depending on the reason.

Maybe it’s because I definitely killed or put her friends in a state worse than death, but I didn’t take everything away from her. It might be due to the existence of Maria and Leonis who are still alive.

Of course, she will never be able to accept it.

However, ‘understanding’ is always at the opposite end of ‘hatred’. If you understand the other person, it’s natural that you can’t only hate them.

Knowing this, I couldn’t help but find her attitude very beautiful.

So, I had no choice but to answer honestly.

“It’s because I was weak, dear.”

“Weak… you say?”

“Yes.”

Sonia glares at me with a face that I can’t understand. It must sound incomprehensible from a human perspective.

But for me, it was a word full of sincerity.

Originally, I just wanted to delay time, but that became a meaningless strategy once Maria started taking action.

What remained was to gain maximum benefit according to the situation. To be honest, Sonia simply became the best sacrifice to obtain that benefit.

In other words, the shape of a weak person caught between the strong.

If I don’t want to become like that, I’ll have to work hard continuously from now on.

I must become strong.

“Dungeon Lords are beings born from cores. Even humans would know this much.”

“…It’s a fact everyone knows. That.”

“Right. Humans have records.”

It was ridiculous even to myself to talk as if I wasn’t human, but there was no instance of that feeling leaking out either through expression or words.

‘Nobility’ has always supported me.

I closed my eyes slightly and opened them, imagining one thing. What would have happened if I, this current body, didn’t have me?

That wasn’t deception.

It was something I had imagined at least once while playing this game, and it was also a ‘story’ that had actually happened.

“When you’re born into the world, all you see is one brightly shining, spherical inorganic object. Just that, floating in the air, looking down at you.”

“…”

“And it says. ‘Eat it,’ it says.”

No one to communicate with, no one to share the warmth of life with.

Just abandoned with only knowledge that you don’t know if it’s yours or someone else’s, and ‘hostility towards humans’ implanted in your mind just because you were born into the world as the successor of the Demon King.

And a baby waiting to eat those who would slaughter it and take everything away in order to survive.

That was a Dungeon Lord.

They are demon realm babies entrusted to dungeon cores under the belief of the former Demon King that ‘one who becomes king’ must be raised from the beginning.

“Being lonely like that without even knowing what loneliness is. Then you realize one thing. That you ‘need to call something.'”

“Monsters…”

“Yes. The beings you call monsters. Greenskins, corrupted spirits. Whatever.”

Dungeon Lords come to resemble the first being they summon.

If they summon a skeleton, they become a necromancer; if a zombie, a vampire; if a kobold, a were-dragon; if a goblin, one of the greenskins.

Before properly recognizing oneself, one observes another being and builds one’s ego by learning something from that other being.

Of course, this is just the general case; it doesn’t always happen 100% like this. If it did, there would have been no customization elements in ‘MilDun 1’.

“That’s how most come to know wildness first. If lucky, some realize evil or how to deceive.”

“Lucky… you say?”

“Of course. The quicker you learn such things, the better it is for survival. You already know about us, but we don’t know about you. Because we’re babies.”

“…”

So, Dungeon Lords first try to survive, according to the instinct of life.

Ironically, this part was the same for me, too. Even now, I’m aiming to ‘just’ survive for the time being.

Beyond that is next.

“Do you understand? You might have standards of ‘cowardice’ and ‘fairness’. But we just need to survive. From adventurers who endlessly come in. And sometimes from seniors who want to grow bigger by eating their juniors.”

“By seniors, you mean…?”

“Other Dungeon Lords. The magic power of young Dungeon Lords is very nutritious food for them.”

The magic power of dungeon cores has a high magic conversion rate.

Much higher than ordinary creatures or other special tools.

The magic power that was originally used in various ways to control the entire dungeon, if absorbed by another core, is instantly refined and becomes pure.

And the magic power that the core possesses can also be converted into another ‘attribute’ of the Dungeon Lord itself.

It is the ‘remaining attribute’ of the status window itself, and it’s a good material that can purely strengthen the Dungeon Lord itself.

“A lonely life. Numerous enemies or prey. Living like that… a Dungeon Lord becomes one of two things. A very powerful beast. A very evil demon. One of the two.”

“But… but you were wise from the beginning, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

As the explanation about Dungeon Lords ended, Sonia’s face became even more incomprehensible.

I looked at the restraints Maria was wearing.

Although the souls of an innocent bandit group were all sold to purchase these eight items from the guild, Sonia wouldn’t sympathize even if she knew that.

It would be the same as not pitying goblins or orcs from the wild, even if you learn that they are ‘educable beings’.

To this good child, bandits would be synonymous with monsters as long as she doesn’t know that some of them are just slash-and-burn farmers.

In fact, what bandits do isn’t that different from monsters.

“You are the most delicious and nutritious food for me. Just like how you see other beasts.”

“…!”

Admirably, it seems ‘understanding’ is possible, bu.

That the gaze of other races looking at humans is essentially not different.

“Moreover, if I miss nutritious food, I know that I would summon food that’s even better but might give me indigestion if I eat it. Sonia. I needed more ‘digestive juices.'”

“Digestive juices…?”

“You. All the relationships you have. And… this.”

As I reach out my hand, Sonia flinches slightly, closing her eyes. I drew out part of the suppressed magic power from her.

This was possible because the Mammon Guild’s restraints were made to be friendly to Dungeon Lords.

Although I couldn’t freely extract and use it like the core’s magic power, I could ‘borrow’ it like this.

“Ugh… ugh.”

“Do you know? Your magic power is already more powerful than Maria’s. You could become a very powerful resource or a very powerful asset. And I chose you as a resource. Not as an asset.”

Sonia looked with shocked eyes at the magic power that was originally blue but was now turning black under my influence.

Perhaps because it looked like it contained powerful strength at a glance. Or maybe because her own death had almost been decided without her knowing.

“Why didn’t you just kill me…”

“I told you. I needed you. And… that’s still the case now. I still regret having to kill your friends. I feel sorry for you too, Sonia.”

“Liar.”

“Think what you will.”

I was sincere, but Sonia glared at me as if I were detestable.

Anyway, I had no intention of convincing her to the end, so I decided to return the conversation to the main point.

“You haven’t forgotten, have you?”

Looking at her, I reminded her of the proposal I had made before. About the man who was destined to die here, pitifully led by his feelings for her.

“If you want to save Leonis, make a contract with me. The conditions haven’t changed.”

A Dungeon Lord’s contract wasn’t something that could only be done with summons.

Humans could also make contracts with Dungeon Lords and belong to the dungeon. Usually, this is done after completely corrupting their soul and making them a cursed being, but that wasn’t absolutely necessary.

I had no intention of doing so either.

I needed her ‘Magic Overadaptation’, and to be able to properly inherit and use that characteristic, a contract with a human in an ‘unaltered state’ was essential.

The fact that I’m not deliberately corrupting her here, well, that’s my ‘humanity’. I don’t particularly think I need to preserve it, but it’s still there for now.

“…What about Maria and the others?”

“Their fate is not for you to decide. I’ll talk to them separately. But if you agree to the contract, I’ll at least let you look after them while they’re confined. What will you do?”

The deliberation didn’t take long.

In the end, Sonia nodded and glared at me with resentment.

With goodness that had inserted understanding between hatred after understanding that I was a newly born Dungeon Lord, along with the ‘familiarity towards me’ that I had already drawn into her inner self, much more diluted than before.

And with eyes filled with self-hatred to the extent that it had decreased.

“…I hate myself for having considered you my sun.”

“Hate me all you want. What I need isn’t your goodwill.”

“I might kill you someday.”

“The contract isn’t that simple, but if you can, go ahead and try.”

“…I’ll do it.”

“Good. Then, let’s make a preliminary contract for now.”

This was how she came to call me ‘Master’.

* * *

“It must be a lie.”

Sonia muttered like that. Weakly.

“A lie…”

In fact, even these words she was saying were lies she herself couldn’t believe.

Lies she was telling due to the shock of the fact that she would lose her sun forever from now on.