It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

Leonis, whom I saw after a few days, had become very haggard.

He was originally a thin man, but now one might even suspect that Sonia’s magic overadaptation had transferred to him.

I had heard that he was barely eating, so I wondered if that might be the case.

‘Looking at the sacrifice information, nothing is showing…’

He’s not mentally dead or completely subdued right now. It’s just that ‘Sonia’s betrayal’ was such a shock to him.

“You…”

As if to prove that, his eyes gradually came to life as he looked at me and began to glisten with emotion.

Hatred.

That which rose thickly in a concentration that could only be described as black.

“You… no, you monster bastard…”

Seeing that even profanity was unfamiliar to him and barely came out after rolling around in his mouth several times, he probably didn’t live such a rough life as his first impression suggested.

However, contrary to the very plain way he expressed it, his hatred was very vivid. As if he had sharpened all the quantity he couldn’t express verbally into a blade.

If Scarlet had seen this, she might have said, ‘We could get a good price if we sold him in this state.’

Of course, I won’t do that. Because there was a contract.

“To become like this in just a few days. Sonia must have been very sad seeing you.”

Clank!

“How dare you speak that name…!!”

“Is there any reason I should hesitate to call my disciple and servant?”

“This…!! Aaagh…!!!”

Boiling hatred was an emotion that could change a person in just a few days.

The proof of that was right in front of my eyes.

He no longer looked like a frail scholar, but rather like a werewolf who had been starving for days.

Clank!

“I’ll kill you… I’m going to kill you… You…!”

Bound by iron chains that restrained both his neck and upper body, fixed in the skeleton’s hands, the man repeatedly kicked at his spot as if he would throw himself at me at any moment.

In that boiling voice, his eyeballs were bloodshot with burst capillaries.

Even though his toes were broken and other toenails had come off just before, he seemed to feel nothing, as if burning his body with intense hatred.

It felt like seeing the beginning of madness that would fall down there if just pushed a little…

If one doesn’t feel something from that, they wouldn’t be human. Because the reason for that appearance is ‘love’ for one woman.

Even though I’m no longer human, I’m moved.

To the point of jealousy.

“It’s strange. You’re acting as if you wished for Sonia to die.”

As long as he remains my enemy, such emotions are unlikely to come out of my mouth in most cases.

Instead, I could put a leash on him and pull him up so that he doesn’t go mad with love any further.

“That’s…!”

“Look at her now. Where in that face looks like she’s suffering?”

Sonia was now present at the place where Leonis was brought.

She had asked for my permission, probably curious if I would do any harm to him, and I, who had no qualms about it, also granted her permission.

Sonia’s eyes, which seemed nailed to the spot with eyes tinged with sadness and fear, yet becoming more beautiful with each passing day, never left us for a moment.

However, Leonis just closed his eyes tightly once and gritted his teeth as if unable to look at her.

“Even if she’s alive, isn’t her path as a mage completely blocked?! Moreover, you intend to turn her into a monster!”

“Well. Why do you think so?”

“A Dungeon Lord’s contract is only for monsters…!”

“I see. It seems you don’t know this. Our contracts are possible with humans too.”

“What does that mean…?”

What’s needed for a Dungeon Lord’s contract is only human submission, it doesn’t necessarily require the corruption of humanity.

Once contracted, they do become bodies that can’t live without the dungeon core or demon race’s magic power, but that state can’t necessarily be called ‘not human’.

“Human mage. Even if they can’t live without a dungeon core, can you say those who maintain human thought functions and have no alteration of their bodies when they were human are not human?”

“Then, why have those found in dungeons until now…”

“Because they can’t live otherwise.”

The way for a human who has once contracted with a demon race to survive is ultimately to prove their usefulness, unless it’s a special case.

That usefulness is usually ‘strength’.

So humans belonging to dungeons often pursued strength even if it meant breaking down their own form. It’s not like they couldn’t enjoy human world pleasures even if they did so.

Strength was their property.

Those abundant in that property could live somewhat decently even if they became non-human.

“However, I have no intention of altering her. Not unless she wishes it. I won’t object even if she marries a human later.”

Hearing this, Leonis, whose hatred had momentarily diminished, made a very confused face. As a mage, he was human who needed rationality even in self-immolating hatred.

Just as he had tried to present logic to the humans beating him.

“Even… even so, you cut off her connections…”

“I won’t say there was no coercion, but in the end, it was her choice.”

“You killed her friend too…!”

“Yes. That’s something I’ll have to apologize for if I want to keep her by my side.”

Perhaps because of this, the words that came out afterwards were incoherent.

Because he was caught off guard by ignorance without his hatred being resolved.

The mage who heard my last words looked at Sonia with a blank expression.

“A Dungeon Lord… apologizing… to a human…?”

Nod

“It’s a lie…!”

Since it was true that I had apologized to her, she nodded her head with her honest nature.

To that, I even delivered the coup de grâce.

“What remains is you. If you keep your mouth shut, she might even be able to regain her life as a human.”

“Such…?”

Leonis sat down with a completely deflated look.

It was the typical reaction of someone whose common sense and beliefs they had blindly trusted were denied, and at the same time accepted that it wasn’t a lie.

‘Arrogant Dungeon Lords in human eyes’ was such an old common sense.

“You’ll need time to think. Let’s let you rest today.”

At that point, I decided to leave Sonia and Leonis alone for a while.

Although not every process would go as I thought, I was confident that the result would.

“…Thank you.”

“Withdraw.”

I just waved my hand at Sonia’s greeting, who couldn’t have known my thoughts, and she approached Leonis to try to support him.

As she hadn’t recovered enough to support an adult yet, she eventually had to get help from the skeleton.

“Bring Maria and Daniel.”

Now only two remain.

One with a grudge who can never live under the same sky, and one who might soon become like that.

* * *

“It was because of me. No, perhaps because of us?”

“What?”

It was a sudden word that flowed from Leonis’s mouth while returning under the escort and surveillance of the skeletons.

When Sonia turned to him in surprise, the mage who had raised his head with difficulty looked at her and spat out the words remaining in his mouth.

“The reason you made a contract with that monster.”

“…”

“So that’s how it is.”

As if getting an answer from the silence, Leonis lowered his head again powerlessly.

He had already accepted it.

[You love her…? Even though you couldn’t properly believe. With such an attitude, you even drove her into this situation…]

That he had become a burden to Sonia.

Sonia, unable to think of words she could say while watching him, just supported him and walked the way back.

“Miss Sonia?”

There were people they met while returning to the room.

A pair of men and women walking in a similar state to them, but with the genders exactly reversed, with no helping skeletons but more surveillance attached.

It was Maria and Daniel.

“Sir Daniel.”

“Sir Leonis is… still the same.”

“…”

The man smiled bitterly while observing Leonis and Sonia’s condition.

Sonia could recognize it.

Some resolution shining in his eyes.

Something similar to her own decision.

[It’s not for you to decide their fate.]

At that moment, what came to Sonia’s mind were the words of Angelita, no, Dungeon Lord Libertas.

“Miss Sonia? Why suddenly…”

“Huh? Ah…”

Coming to her senses at the man’s words, what she saw was her own hand already grasping Daniel’s arm.

Surprised by this, Sonia was about to let go of his arm out of habit, but then changed her mind and grasped it again.

-Clack.

-Clatter.

As Sonia grasped him, the skeletons escorting each of them naturally took over Maria and Leonis and walked ahead.

Only the two people and the soldiers watching them remained in that place.

“I didn’t know I was this popular. Even Miss Sonia has fallen for me.”

“Don’t say that.”

Daniel trying to brush off the situation with a joke. However, Sonia didn’t let him go and just expressed her own will.

Until then, Daniel didn’t lose his smile.

“What do you think I’m going to do?”

“Anything.”

“Miss Sonia.”

Sonia’s hand grasping Daniel’s arm came off very easily.

Despite exerting as much strength as possible.

Her body, not long free from the curse of magic power, was so frail that even Daniel, who usually doesn’t pay much attention to others, was worried her arm might break.

It was fortunate that she seemed to be regaining her health these days.

“Even if there’s a woman who risks her own safety for a man she doesn’t love yet, just because he likes her. Are you trying to make me such a bad man who can’t even risk his life for a woman who likes me?”

Sonia looked surprised at his attitude, which seemed to guess her entire situation without saying anything.

But that expression soon settled.

“You’re all Maria has now.”

“Maria is all I have too. She’s like my light, Miss Sonia.”

Words of confession that should only be said at the most perfect moment to the person you love.

However, Daniel’s confession was filled only with bitterness, and moreover, the subject wasn’t even in a state to hear those words.

A moment when both the person involved and the one who could empathize couldn’t hide their bitter feelings.

“Anyway, Maria and that Dungeon Lord can no longer live under the same sky. Then… we have no choice but to bet our lives.”

“…Master’s common sense is different from humans. You don’t know what will happen to you.”

“Even so, if Maria can just live.”

“Even if that life is worse than death?”

“Even then.”

A resolution prepared for death, or a life even worse than that death.

With his roguish impression completely gone, only one man remained there.

Just a person wanting to protect the one he loves.

“You’re selfish.”

“So were you, Miss Sonia. You didn’t even talk to Sir Leonis before acting, right?”

“…That’s true. I’m not in a position to criticize Sir Daniel.”

The victims who shared a bitter smile for a moment soon showed sincere smiles.

“I wish you good luck, Sir Daniel.”

“I hope things go well for you too, Miss Sonia. And just call me Daniel. No need for formalities.”

“You too.”

So they parted.

With a firm camaraderie for such a brief encounter, and with light greetings for a situation where they might never see each other again.

* * *

“Yes. Do so.”

“Huh…?”

However, unlike the weight of the victims’ solemn conversation and resolution, his proposal was accepted very easily.

As if she had been waiting for it.

“The condition of the contract is one. Daniel Smith becomes my ‘retainer’. In return, I will keep Maria Olas’s lifeline attached. If you’re fine with a life that can’t achieve anything, no matter what happens.”

“No matter what… happens?”

“Yes. No matter what happens. Even if… something like this happens.”

That event happened the moment Dungeon Lord Libertas nodded.

“Aaaaargh!!”

“Maria!!”

Maria Olas, who had been spewing anger towards Daniel since he mentioned ‘contract’, then bent her waist and breathed heavily.

She, who had been showing ominous signs all along, suddenly jumped up and tried to strike Rita with the shackles binding her hands.

Clang!

That attempt was easily crushed under Eve’s sword standing beside her.

The shackles were slammed to the floor by the sword, and Eve immediately stepped on the shackles to fix them, subduing Maria and trying to cut off her neck.

“It’s okay, Eve.”

-Clack!

Evangeline, spewing blue light and black magic vapor from her mouth and eyes along with anger, exuding hostility.

However, she immediately calmed down at Rita’s simple restraint and stood there again waiting for orders. It was a coolness found so quickly that it was hard to believe she had been so violently angry just before.

“Miss Maria, why…!”

“So you want me to watch you mortgage your life?! Why…! Why!! Are you trying to take responsibility for what happened because of my stupidity!”

“Don’t you know, Maria.”

The answer to the question came not from Daniel, but from Rita.

Rita approached Maria, who had fallen completely face down on the floor with her shackles and entangled hands stepped on, and spoke in a soft tone as if coaxing a child, though without a smile on her lips.

“That’s what love is.”

“What would a monster like you know…!!”

“It’s an emotion that makes people the most foolish and stupid. Yet it can also make them the most noble, or the most brilliant. That’s what love is.”

Libertas smiled a rare smile.

Looking at Daniel and Maria, who were blankly looking up at her, saying things incomprehensible to a Dungeon Lord.

“I pay tribute to your foolish but excellent love. Daniel Smith. You will be the herald of my legion for a while now. I will arrange for you to meet Maria whenever you wish.”

“Thank… you…”

“Don’t do this…! Don’t do it!! Daniel!!”

“I love you, my light. Maria.”

“Don’t do iiit!!!”

Thus, amidst Maria’s screams.

Daniel Smith became the second human of the dungeon.

“I look forward to your devotion.”

It was the moment Libertas secured another who would become the eyes of the dungeon in the future.

* * *

Evangeline’s eyes, while escorting Maria to the master, swept once between Sonia and Maria.

‘The choice has changed a bit.’

This was probably that ‘butterfly effect’ the master had talked about in the past.

In a conversation that was like a joke, she had said that if something in the past changed, the result could change uncontrollably, that story about time travel.

‘Well, it should be fine.’

However, Evangeline didn’t make her worry too big.

It was certainly plausible that if one tries to overturn the flow of the times with individual power, that flow could become merciless.

But what if it’s not an individual but a group trying to change that flow in one direction?

‘…’We’ will ultimately protect the master.’

Evangeline’s belief was based on that.

It’s true that she, who met the master first and had to protect her, arrived at the earliest time, but others would gradually cross over too.

She would just grasp her sword and guard her master’s side until then.