Chapter 3

Day 158

According to the letter Wataru gave us, another Hero would apparently be coming soon. The other letter had more information in it.

His name was Dragon Suzuki. In Japanese it was written with the normal character for “Dragon,” but was apparently read as literally Dragon instead of as the more normal “Ryuu.”

According to Haku, he was a Hero who had been summoned within the kingdom of Daide, a country neighboring the Laverio Empire. This had happened about four months ago, but apparently he had dull blond hair. It was well known that all Heroes had black hair, and historically there were very few exceptions to this rule. Very few, but nonetheless very real exceptions. However, Daide did not know of those exceptions, and thus drove Suzuki out, calling him a fake.

Three months after that, an adventurer appeared within the Daide Adventurer Guild and began completing quests like mad. He was incredible, and indeed, he was Suzuki. Despite his blond hair, he was unmistakably a Hero with a cheat skill. Not to mention that over the past three months, he had grown about three centimeters of hair, and all of it was black. Daide interpreted this as him having awakened as a Hero and called him back to the royal castle to welcome him as they originally should have.

Rokuko, looking at the letter along with me, poked me in the side.

“But I thought hair could only really change colors into white.”

“...Yeah, he probably dyed it. He always had black hair, but he dyed it blond. That’s why he grew out more black hair. Where I’m from, people who dyed their hair blond and then grew black hair were called purin-heads.”

“Purin-head... That sounds kind of weird!” She seemed to get it, so I continued reading.

Naturally, kicking someone out and then welcoming them back after learning they’re actually powerful was a pretty infuriating thing for them to have done. But Suzuki accepted their request. He headed to the castle, and upon his arrival, they showered him with equipment and skills such as {Storage} that they had prepared for him before the summoning ritual. He took all their gifts without complaint.

Once that was done, Suzuki met the king once again in the throne room. He asked the king for a handshake to symbolize their repaired friendship. The king, supposing from Suzuki’s accepting the gifts that all had been forgiven, agreed and allowed Suzuki to approach him.

The moment the king of Daide held out his hand, Suzuki thrust his sword through his chest. It was a blow so deadly no Restoration Magic could save him in time. Suzuki sneered as the king collapsed into a pool of blood. The guards surrounded him and stabbed every inch of his body with their spears. Suzuki didn’t try to resist. He just fell over as the spears went through him.

And so, Suzuki was executed then and there, as a Hero gone mad. The Kingdom of Daide fell into a temporary panic, but things calmed down quickly after the heir apparent rose to the throne.

“...Wait, Keima. Isn’t Suzuki supposed to be coming here?”

“Yeah. The story’s not over yet.”

Suzuki had been stabbed with countless spears, but his body disappeared without anyone noticing. Furthermore, he was later seen using his Adventurer’s Guild card to leave the country. In short, Suzuki hadn’t died. Reason being, of course, the cheat skill given to him by the god. According to the Guild papers Haku sent us, he had the {Ultra Healing: Level 1} skill. Welp... Guess I’m gonna have to think of something more clever than a spear trap to take him down.

Anyway. Why was Haku so informed of all of this? Because after leaving the Kingdom of Daide, he went to the Laverio Empire and showed up at the capital. About half a month ago, the Laverio Empire accepted him as a Hero with plans to execute him if he caused any trouble. And how would they be executing him?

...Sending him to our dungeon, apparently. Enjoy all the DP he gives? Seriously, Haku? C’mon.

Haku had this to say: “You prepared your dungeon to counter a Hero, but all your effort was wasted on an innocent and sweet Hero like Wataru, wasn’t it? I’m sure you want someone you can kill without restraint. You’re welcome. If he proves to be too... difficult, feel free to send him back alive. I can take care of him myself.”

According to the letter, Suzuki had arrived at the Laverio Empire half a month ago. She expected that she would need to have him executed. He had committed regicide, and she couldn’t let him live if he hadn’t turned over a new leaf.

In other words, it was safe to assume that she had indeed settled on executing him, and he was indeed on his way here to be killed. My head’s starting to hurt.

“Ummm... Are you okay, Keima?”

“Sheesh... I just wanna sleep...”

“You’re getting weirdly down about this. Don’t worry. Even if we can’t beat him, Haku will take care of it if we can just survive until he’s gone.” Aaah, yeah, that’s true. If we wait out the storm, it’ll blow over on its own later. Rokuko’s encouragement cheered me up a little.

I stood up.

“Alright! We’re gonna work hard to ignore the crap out of him! I’m not gonna fight a Hero that can survive getting stabbed by a thousand spears!”

“Now that’s the enthusiasm I’m looking for! That’s my partner, Keima!”

With that settled, first comes... spreading out my futon and sleeping. I’ll work hard tomorrow.

“Wait, what? You’re not going to do anything?”

“I don’t need to rush when I can finish in time tomorrow!”

“Don’t blame me if you don’t finish in time, okay?!” She’s right. But being right means jack shit in the face of the sleepy Sandman.

“I need to digest all this new info and make a plan, which means I need to lay down and get some sleep. Nothing good will come from panicking and trying to rush out an idea.”

“I think you could do with a little more urgency, Keima.”

“Pass. I’m gonna sleep. In the first place, I’ve been working a lot more lately than I want to, so...” Rokuko kept throwing a little tantrum, but in the end I successfully slept the rest of the day away. Saying my head hurt probably helped a lot with convincing her.

Day 162

Several days passed. I experimented more with the dungeon’s functions, powered up the Wearable Golems with data retrieved from footage of Wataru fighting, and increased the number of combat Golems within the dungeon. According to information retrieved from a passing trader, Suzuki the Hero was in the middle of staying at Tsia City with several women. He was kicking up quite the stir and there was no end to the rumors about him. He was stealing prostitutes from brothels, groping waitresses in bars, cutting down and killing children who bumped into him in the street, et cetera. I didn’t know how much of all that was true, but if it all was, he was a real monster.

Apparently, he was shouting about being a mighty Hero who had awakened to enormous power or something. He dragged along over ten slaves with him wherever he went, which made him stand out just walking through town. And all those slaves were girls, too.

He’d be arriving at our dungeon soon, by today at the earliest. Who should I have deal with him... I don’t want to have any girls at the front desk when he gets here, but dealing with him myself would end badly. Wataru figured me out in no time. There’s no hiding that I’m Japanese from any other Heroes. That’s not good.

“So, who do you think I should have at the front desk when he gets here?”

“I think someone like him would be too much for the new workers. But Niku’s a kid, so he won’t take her seriously. That just leaves me and Ichika. Which means! I, the proud little sister of Haku, am the only choice!”

“Yeah, there was only ever one choice here. I’ll leave it to Ichika.”

“Um, what about me...?”

“Not a chance. If you die, I die. Remember?” Indeed. If Dungeon Cores die, so too do their Masters, and I’m Rokuko’s Dungeon Master. That wasn’t metaphorical death, either. It was real, physical death. On top of that, if Suzuki laid his hands on Rokuko or something, Haku would actually kill me. Also physically. She wouldn’t hold back since Dungeon Cores don’t die even if their Masters do.

“...Hahaha. You sure worry too much, Keima. But okay. If you’re that concerned about me, I’ll let Ichika handle this.” Rokuko smiled, clearly happy.

I mean, I’m worried about you cause I’ll literally die if anything happens to you. I’ll literally die!

＊ ＊ ＊

That evening, Suzuki the Hero came with his ten female slaves. I knew he was coming soon, but I didn’t expect him to actually get here today. Glad I settled on who to put at the front desk.

“He’s here... Are you ready? I’m counting on you, Ichika.”

“Leave it to me. Brats like him just need some tough love.”

Just as the rumors said, he was a purin-head with a pierced nose and ears. His personality was pretty bad too, so he was pretty much the definition of a bad dude delinquent. I checked the map and saw that he earned us 600/DP a day. He was a lot weaker than Wataru.

I had heard rumors about him bringing around at least ten slaves, but... wow, it was exactly ten slaves. That’s a lot. He’s completely surrounded. It’s quite the sight. I see humans, elves, and even beastkin in there. Lots of variety.

Though, it looked like there was a sort of hierarchy within the slaves, judging by their appearances and whatnot. One of them was hugging Suzuki’s left arm with a smile, not perturbed at all by her skimpy outfit. Three others were dressed well enough, and the final six were dressed in rags. It didn’t look like they even had underwear on. Worst of all were three of those ragged six. They had chains on their collars and they were clearly being dragged along. They even had bruises on their face and black eyes.

Huh? Wait, that elf, the one dressed okay... Long, blonde hair... Sad look in her eyes... And those wonderful feet. I remember her. She was the girl next to Ichika at Docosp’s Slave Market. Might be able to get some good info from her if Ichika can find the chance to talk to her.

Suzuki led his squad into the inn.

“Welcome. Are you staying overnight?”

“Hey, you’re pretty hot. Come to my room later. The most expensive one.” Suzuki sneered and threw several gold coins onto the counter. That’s the first thing you’re gonna say?

“Sorry, but our inn doesn’t do that kinda thing. So, are you staying? Our grand suite costs twenty-five gold coins a night, thirty with the most expensive food. That’ll be three hundred and thirty gold coins with your party of eleven.” Ichika stacked the gold coins on the counter and shook her head. It wasn’t even enough for one person staying one night.

“That’s pretty damn expensive. The city’s inn only cost one gold coin, y’know?”

“Well, this price was recommended by an A-Rank adventurer, so. If you want to to stay with your entire party for one gold coin, then you will need to stay in normal rooms. Those don’t come with meals, but given the size of your party, we will give free bread rolls if asked.”

“Hmph. You’re pretty cocky, charging that much. Whatever. Suite room for five, then. Don’t sweat the food. This inn’s so far in the mountains it’s probably just grass and vegetable shit, right? These guys may eat that crap, but I won’t.” Suzuki took out a gold-packed bag from his {Storage}.

“Will the other six be staying in a normal room?”

“Nah. They’re staying outside. All of you, get out of the inn. Stand outside all night.” Uh... Outside? And if you order a slave to stand, they have to literally stand. They can’t sit or lay down. He’s telling them not to sleep all night? No sleep? All night...?

“Hold up. That’s naturally not gonna fly here. It’d hurt our business.”

“You complaining about what I do with MY slaves? Fuck you.”

“I mean, you can do what you want if you pay us for the lost business. Though I think it’d be cheaper to just let them stay in a room.”

Suzuki glared at Ichika. She simply gave him a business smile.

“...Tch, whatever. Where’s the nearest bar?”

“There’s no bar here. We do have a cafeteria, though. The owner of the inn declines to sell alcohol, but you can bring your own, or trade for beer that others brought in themselves.”

“Bleh. What a shitty place. C’mon, slaves.” Suzuki spat on the ground and headed to the cafeteria with his slaves. Several adventurers staying at our inn were eating there. They were basically all men and their gazes all settled on Suzuki after he entered with his throng of girls.

“Yo, shitheads. I’m Dragon Suzuki, an S-Rank Adventurer, and I’m better than all of you. You wanna hear stories of my adventures? Heh, too bad. The only things I’ve done are kill Goblins and an evil king. Actually, I’ve killed some ogres, too. They were weak as shit, but I bet you fuckers could hardly manage one all together, eh?” He pulled back a random chair and put his foot onto it.

“When I was first summoned to this shitty world with no electricity, I thought about fucking killing everybody I saw. But, y’know, I’ve changed my mind. This is a good world. All I gotta do is kill weak monsters and I get enough money to buy actual women. Hah! It’s fucking hilarious!” Suzuki cackled all on his own. Two or three people gave some awkward pity laughter. The poor reaction immediately pissed Suzuki off.

“Tch. Buncha buzzkills. That woulda made any other crowd laugh like hell. Guess you’re all idiots... Whatever. Time to get to the point.” Suzuki pulled the six poorly dressed slaves—the “low-tier” slaves, according to him—up forward.

“Heheh. Listen up, you sad lonely sacks! Anyone here wanna buy one of these girls for the night?!” A stir went through the crowd.

“C’mon, it’s an open offer! Anyone can buy one! Ah, forgot the price, huh?! Alriiight. You over there. Yeah, you. The dwarf. That beer you got there?” Suzuki called out to Gozou, who was in the middle of drinking some beer.

“Gimme some of that. I’ll let you pick whichever of these slaves you want for the night.”

“...Yeah? Eh. Here, have a glass.” Gozou poured a glass of beer and held it out to Suzuki.

“And that’s that. Which one you want?”

“Hey man! Give it a rest alre—!”

“Stop.” A young adventurer tried rushing Suzuki down, but Gozou grabbed onto his shirt and held him back. He was looking at Suzuki, whose hand was on his blade.

“Damn, one step more and I coulda cut him down. Too bad.” Suzuki grinned without a trace of remorse.

Heroes, adventurers strong enough to be given an automatic S-Rank. They weren’t people to defy lightly, and not just due to their deadly strength. Heroes generally were given a noble title and the accompanying political authority. A Hero who cut down civilians in the street would rarely be sent to court or punished. Whether the civilian had goaded them or whether the civilian was just minding his own business, almost nobody could punish a Hero who killed them.

Gozou knew that.

“More importantly. Yer gonna lend me one of the girls, right? I’ll take that one. The smallest one.” Gozou pointed at one of the slaves with bruises on her face and a chain on her collar. Suzuki yanked her chain and practically threw her over to him.

“Look at you. Big softie, huh? Or maybe dwarves are just all lolicons. Heh, take her. You can do anything you want with her, s’long as you don’t kill her. I bought her last week, so she’s still pretty new.” Gozou gently caught the girl and let her sit down in a chair, far away from where Suzuki was.

“Here, have a drink.”

“Th-Thank you.”

Suzuki gulped down Gozou’s payment, the beer, while watching them.

“Hah! This is pretty intense stuff. Didn’t know there was any beer like this around here. Hey, how about you buy another one?”

“Normally I would, but I ain’t got that much beer on me right now. You’ll have to ask someone else.”

“Sure. C’mon, everyone! You get one night with a slave for just one cup of beer! You’ll never get another sale like this! Hey, girls, go get some customers. Anyone who comes back empty-handed gets a switch and the usual punishment.” The slaves all paled after hearing a switch and the usual punishment.

“P-Please! Buy me, I’m begging you!”

“I-I need you to help me! Please, I beg yooou!”

The slaves rushed forward and practically clung to the adventurers to try and sell themselves. Suzuki guffawed while watching them, as if seeing the most hilarious thing in the world.

By the time Ichika heard about what Suzuki was doing and got there, the slaves had all found buyers. Suzuki put four cups of beer into {Storage} and gulped the fifth one down. She had been a little busy talking to the elf slave Suzuki had brought with him, but even with that in mind, the slaves had found buyers very quickly. Though some of those buyers were glaring at Suzuki while hugging the crying slaves close to them.

“Sir. Please don’t sell slaves like that in our inn.” Ichika came from the front desk to complain to Suzuki.

“Huh? Oh, it’s you. The receptionist. Who gives a shit? It’s just a little trading. Plus, not like we’re fighting or nothin’. I’m bringing some entertainment here. You should be thanking me.”

“That’s not the problem. It has to do with the integrity of our inn.”

“Huuuh? The fuckin’ integrity?” Suzuki glanced down at Ichika’s neck.

“Oh! Didn’t notice until now, but damn... You’ve got a slave collar on. Who’s your master? I’ll buy you from him. Be honored.”

“Eh? No thanks, dude. I have the right to choose my master, so yeah, no chance.”

“Yeah?” Out of nowhere, Suzuki punched Ichika. He drove his fist into her stomach and knocked her so far back she slammed into a table surrounded by eating customers.

“Nghaa! Ngh... ugeeeh...” Ichika fell to her knees, holding her stomach. Suzuki briskly walked up to her, grabbed onto her hair, and pulled her up.

“Y’know, you’ve been a fucking cheeky bitch to me all day.”

“Nghaah! O-Ouch! The heck are you doing?! Let... go of... me...!” Ichika tried to pull his hand off her, but he just punched her again.

“You’re a fucking slave! Didja think I wouldn’t fucking hit trash like you?! Huh?! Piece of shit!”

“Nghooh! Ngh, guh...!”

“You fucking threw up. Disgusting. Clean it up. Crawl on the ground like the slave you are and lick it up.” Once again, he punched her in the stomach. Oh crap, this is bad. I gotta stop him. But the second I thought that...

“Would you please stop there, sir?”

“Ah? Who the fuck are you?” I looked over on the monitor and saw Rokuko standing by the cafeteria door. The heck is she doing?

“I’m the owner of this inn. What do you think you’re doing to my employee?”

“Hah! She turned me down, y’know. A fucking slave! Turned me down! So, I’m educating her a little for ya.”

“Obviously she would turn you down. She belongs to me, not you. Not ever.”

“Yeah...?” Suzuki looked Rokuko over, licking his lips.

“Whatever, I don’t give a fuck about this slave. Take her.”

“Guah!”

“Ichika!” Rokuko picked up Ichika, who had been thrown onto the ground.

“...Soz, Rokuko. I’m not helping at all...”

“You don’t need to talk. Just rest. If you can’t handle him, then there’s no one left but me.”

“...I was so cocky and now look at me. Ahaha... ngh!”

“I’ll call Kinue... no, Rei would be better. I’ll call Rei to help you to your room. You need to get into bed.”

“Sorry...” Rokuko returned Ichika’s weak responses with a reassuring smile.

“Hahaha, I’m close to fuckin’ tears here. Aaah, by the way, where’s the grand suite? Take me there.”

“...It’s over here.” Rokuko walked up to Suzuki and led him out of the cafeteria.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Hey, you. What’s your name?” After meeting up with his four slaves and heading to the grand suite with them, Suzuki started talking to Rokuko. After briefly considering whether there would be a point to lying, she responded to him honestly.

“It’s Rokuko.”

“Thaaat so? Alright, Rokuko. You’re gonna be coming with me. That slave crossed the line and you’re gonna take responsibility.”

“Huh? What’re you even saying?” Rokuko tried to turn around, but Suzuki roughly hugged her from behind. He grabbed onto her chest with his right hand and squeezed tightly with clear ill intent.

“Hiiih?!”

“Yours are smaller than that slave’s, but they’re still pretty fuckin’ nice. C’mon, what’s the problem? I’m a Hero, y’know?”

“S-So what? Let go of me...! Ngh!” He squeezed her soft chest while running his left hand all over her butt. It felt so gross that Rokuko let a scream slip out. It was like bugs crawling over her body.

“Oh? That was a pretty sweet cry. You into this? How about you become my slave, then? You’ll be a mid-tier slave for sure, not a low-tier. C’mooon, even just one night’s fine with me. I’ll let this all go if you stay with me tonight.”

“What are... you even saying?!”

“Hahaha! Look, I’ll spell it out for you. I’m a fuckin’ Hero. An S-Rank adventurer. Basically, I’ve got enough power that I could smash this whole shitty inn to bits if I felt like it. Alright? You know what you gotta do if you don’t want your inn broken, right?! Yeah?!”

“S-Stop...!” Suzuki squeezed her soft butt and then tried to stick his hand under her clothes.

“Hey, you. Stop. Now.”

“Ngh, Keimaaa...” Rokuko looked at me tearfully. I... Sorry, I was a little late.

“Ah? The fuck are you? I’m a...”

“Japanese person, right? I can tell by looking at you.” I stared directly into Suzuki’s eyes.

“...Tch. Fuckin’ seriously? You’re Japanese too? Shit sucks.”

“And that’s my girl, too. Let her go. Now.” Suzuki glared at me with seething anger in his eyes, but he let Rokuko go. I hugged her close to me. We’re both Japanese, which means we’re both Heroes. I don’t have a cheat skill, but he doesn’t know that. We should look like equals here. Though he might have some kind of status buffs or whatever.

“Tch. If you care that much about her, put a collar on her.”

“This whole inn is a like a collar. ’Cause I own it. And what were you gonna do to my inn again?” I emphasized the my in “my inn.” If he was gonna wave his Hero status around like a club, I’d use my faux Hero status as a shield.

Suzuki fell silent, not knowing what to say. I kept on the attack.

“On top of all that, this inn is backed up by a higher up in the Laverio Empire. You should know what that means if you’re a Hero. And just to be clear, you just groped that higher up’s little sister. You might be dead, man.”

“Tch, you sure are fuckin’ cocky. Trust me, I’m not gonna die.” Suzuki pulled one of the four slaves from the row behind him and pushed her our way.

“But it’d be a pain if you snitched. Here. I’ll let you fuck this girl tonight, so keep quiet about it.”

“Ah...!” It was the elf slave. The one that had been lined up next to Ichika all that time ago. Although this was a perfect opportunity to get her alone for information gathering purposes, I had just declared that Rokuko was my girl. Taking his slave would make me look weak and indecisive. I had to avoid that.

“No thanks. I’m already gonna be busy tonight.”

“A-Ah!” I squeezed Rokuko tightly to drive my point home. Rokuko responded in turn by pressing against me.

Suzuki clicked his tongue.

“That a fact?! Guess nobody wants this girl then!” Suzuki took out his blade.

Stab.

A sword sprouted from the elf’s stomach. It looked almost like a joke.

I had seen several people die through the monitor, but it felt so much more intense seeing it in real life.

“Ah...? Ngh...” Suzuki pulled back his blade, allowing blood to flood out of the gaping wound.

“Eh? Oh no... My stomach...! Please, help! Someone help me!”

“I don’t give a shit about her anymore. Was pretty fun fucking an elf, but she was some cheap shit. Didn’t even cost ten gold.”

“Gyah! Aaaaah!” Suzuki stabbed his blade through her back again. He then swung it horizontally.

The elf collapsed onto the ground. The insides of her stomach spilled into the hallway. Her gushing blood spread like a growing puddle. Her long, flowing hair fell into that puddle and got filthy with blood.

Suzuki looked at me, challenge in his eyes. He wasn’t even looking at the elf anymore.

...I’m not innocent myself. As a Dungeon Master, I’ve killed several adventurers. Seeing someone die in front of me wasn’t enough to scare me anymore, and it was too late for me to go around complaining about other people murdering. But he had killed someone just to intimidate someone else. To show that he was capable of killing. He cared nothing for the lives of other people or even life itself. He was far worse than I was.

...Either way, I’d just be playing into his hands if I acted afraid. He was the kind of animal that would pounce the second he saw any weakness.

“Hey, who the heck do you think has to clean all this? You’re gonna have to pay for the clean up.”

“...Hah, whatever. This should be fuckin’ enough!” Suzuki took out his wallet and flicked a single gold coin at me.

“The room you’re staying in is straight up ahead. The door is fancier than the others so you’ll recognize it on the spot. Get out of my sight.”

“Hmph. You better not snitch on me. You snitch, and I’ll kill you next.” Suzuki took his other three slaves and walked off.

Rokuko pulled on my shirt.

“Keima, this elf is still breathing. What should we do?” The Dungeon Core could tell whether someone was alive or not by whether or not they had turned into DP. If Rokuko said she was alive, she definitely was.

“I’d save if her I could... but her wounds are too bad. Can you at least patch her up a little?”

“If you say so... I’ll try and see what I can do.”

But the elf was already at death’s door. After all, her guts were on the floor and she was gushing blood. Honestly, she was in such a bad state I couldn’t think of anything that could save her.

“...My stomach feels... hot... So... cold... I don’t want... to die...” Her voice was weak. Not even shoving her guts back into her stomach would save her.

I suddenly realized that Restoration Magic might be able to help, but despite spending 100,000 DP on a {Healing} scroll and casting it on her, it was too late. I changed the chant to be effective even if someone was about to die, but it didn’t even activate. I think... I think it didn’t work because the aura of death around her was so intense that my visualization of her getting healed wasn’t strong enough.

In the end, we had no choice but to watch over the elf as she died.

“Mmm, she turned into DP. What do we do now?”

I let out a sigh. By turned into DP, Rokuko meant that she had died. ...Nothing we can do. There’s no way to bring someone dead back to life. It’s impossible. Or at least, it’s impossible to me. This is a pretty stereotypical fantasy world with magic and stuff, there might be some weird way to get her back.

Though maybe I could have saved her if I thought of using Restoration Magic faster. I had gotten more thrown off than I expected. It was too late to worry about that, though...

“...No point crying over it now, though. Guess I’ll ask Ichika about her. She might know a name we can put on a grave for her.”

“Makes sense. Rei should have taken Ichika to her room. I’ll go ahead and put her corpse into my {Storage}. Your {Purification} should clean up the hallway.” Rokuko took care of things without missing a beat, completely calm. That’s a Dungeon Core for you, I guess. I respect her a little more now.

I cast {Purification}, and the pool of blood that had been spreading through the hallway disappeared in an instant as if nothing had ever happened. A faint metallic smell briefly remained drifting through the air, but the wind soon blew it away.

Rokuko and I went to see Ichika, who was resting in her room.

“Hey, Ichika. You okay?”

“Nooope, not at all. Rokuko was so hella cool when she saved me, I’m like, head over heels for her now. Sploosh!”

“Seems like she’s fine.” It had looked like he hit her pretty hard, but she seemed to have mostly recovered already.

“There’s a trick to gettin’ hit, y’know? Looked pretty real though, huh? I’ll be back behind the front desk tomorrow, for sure.”

“Yeah, you definitely tricked me. But still. I gave you a rough job, I know.”

“Dooon’t sweat it. I’m totally your slave, Master. It’s normal. But anyways. About Suzuki.”

I had given Ichika a certain job. I wanted her to figure out just how strong Suzuki was and report back. Though only if an opportunity arose, and I had emphasized that she shouldn’t put herself in real danger.

“Eh, what? Did I get in the way or something?”

“...That stomach punch was actually hella brutal, so nah, you saved me. And between us three, swear never to tell, but I definitely got a little wet when you swooped in to save me. You were so cool, Rokuko!”

“H-Hmph, well, at least you know I’m not all talk now!”

Aaah, yeah. Rokuko was pretty cool there.

“So. Suzuki. That {Ultra Healing} skill you told me about is definitely the main thing here. He’s prolly using it to remove his sense of pain and heal his wounds constantly. I scraped the crap out of his hands with my nails, but he didn’t even flinch and the scratches vanished in seconds.” Removing his sense of pain and healing his wounds constantly. Yeah... I guess he’s using this skill to ignore the internal limits we humans have to stop ourselves from breaking our bodies.

“Also, this is kinda just a guess, but I’m thinking his healing cures his exhaustion, too.” Curing his exhaustion meant that at all times, he was in a state of perfect health and readiness.

“...I’m impressed you caught all that so fast.”

“Aw, you’re just saying that. There were tons of hints, I didn’t do anything that special. I heard some of it from one of the slaves he was with, too. Remember that elf slave I was being sold with? Er... What’s up? You seem kinda down, Master.” Oh, she noticed?

“You normally glance at my feet all the time while we talk, but you’re not this time.” She uh... She notices that? I’m gonna have reel it in a little bit.

“Alright, well... Hey. Do you know the name of that slave?”

“Elulu, yeah. Why...? Did something happen to Elulu?” The smile vanished from Ichika’s face after she guessed from my attitude that something was wrong.

“...Suzuki killed her.” Ichika briefly froze after hearing that. But then, after a pause...

“Oh.” That was all she said.

“You seem pretty calm.”

“...I’m obviously not okay, yeah? But y’know, what can you do? She was a slave. Nothing to do about that. But really, what a waste. Her tits were like melons from heaven... Aaaah, I shoulda made her let me squeeze them one more tiiime!” Ichika rolled on top of the bed, wiggling. Before long, she stopped with her face in her pillow and let out a murmur.

“...Hey, Master. Will you get revenge for Elulu?”

Honestly, I didn’t know if I could beat Suzuki. But even so, there was only one thing I could say to Ichika.

“Leave it to me.”

＊ ＊ ＊

“Fucking hell, what was with that jerk?! Doesn’t he know how to respect women?!”

“Is he seriously a Hero?! I can’t fucking believe it! Right, Gozou?”

“Yeah, I feel the same way. But he’s the real deal. I heard about him from Wataru, but damn.”

“He and Wataru are nothing alike! Scum like him doesn’t belong in this world, strong or not!”

I went back to the cafeteria and was greeted by a bunch of adventurers complaining about Suzuki while taking care of his six “low-tier” slaves. Gozou called out to me while softly patting the sobbing slave he had chosen.

“Hey, Keima. We’re gonna need a room for these six girls.”

“Aaah... Yeah, don’t worry about paying for that. A single room for six should be enough, right?”

“I’m glad you’re quick on the uptake.” Weeell, I did see everything myself. And it’s pretty obvious something’s up here.

“Gozou, you know that crying little girl?”

“Yup. She’s Roppe’s little cousin, Rippe. Last I heard she was living in a town close to Tsia... Guess she got caught and forced into slavery or somethin’.”

“Wow, Gozou, and you’re gonna sleep with her? That’s brutal.”

“Ye lookin’ to get punched? Not a single one of us bought these slaves plannin’ to do that.”

“Huh? Actually, I was thinking about...” Smack! The adventurer who spoke up got punched in the mouth.

“Not a single one of us. Nothing’s gonna happen while I’m around.”

“R-Right on.” That’s our Gozou for you. A real gentlemen. Though he’s probably just acting cool since he’s in front of his partner’s cousin.

“I’m just following the inn’s rules. It’s a great place, I don’t want to get kicked out.”

“The bread rolls taste great! And there’s purins, too.”

“Not to mention rice! And purins.”

“There’s no taverns or brothels, but y’know what? There’s purins.”

These guys sure like purins.

“Alright, alright. I’ll give you all free purins for being such gentleman. Up to three each, got it?”

“Hell yeah, Keima! You know what’s up!”

“I’m more into tasty fried stuff meself.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Gozou.” I went to the kitchen to give Kinue their food orders... or at least, I pretended to before secretly buying the purins and fried food with DP.

“Actually, come to think of it, Suzuki’s hair was black at the top and gold everywhere else. I heard Wataru say this, but apparently people with hair like that are called purin-heads.”

“Why’d you have to say that, Keima? You’re gonna make us lose our appetites.”

“You all want fried food too?”

“Nah, gimme a purin. I’ll eat it with rage in my heart!”

“I still want a purin, obviously. I’ll pretend to rip that jerk to shreds with my teeth!”

“Purins themselves are free of sin, they have done no wrong to us. But I’ll still eat Suzuki!”

That last guy’s eating Suzuki. Oof.

“What about Suzuki’s slaves? If we give them food that’s too tasty, they might have problems getting used to their normal food again.”

“They’re the slaves of an adventurer, any meal might be their last. Iffin it be possible, I’d like them to have something nice to eat.”

“Alright, guess I’ll make them some stew or something.”

I prepared some random meals for the slaves and they chowed it all down, sobbing.

“Thank you so much, it’s delicious... So delicious, but... We’re going to die, aren’t we?”

“That’s... Well, it’s up to luck, I guess.” The only thing I can do now is feed them. Tomorrow, I might end up killing them alongside Suzuki. Yeah... I don’t know how to feel about this.

Day 163

The sun set and rose again. I checked on Suzuki in his room through the monitor. Since the grand suite was part of the dungeon, I could peep inside of it as much as I wanted to. Am I invading his privacy? He’s an enemy I’ve decided to kill. I don’t need to worry about that kind of thing.

The six low-tier slaves who had slept soundly together in a common room seemed somewhat refreshed, but those who had stayed in the grand suite with Suzuki were all still tired. Suzuki himself was wide awake despite having stayed up all night, so Ichika’s theory about his exhaustion being “healed” seemed to be right on the money.

Suzuki, asshat that he was, put as much of the grand suite’s furnishings as he could into his {Storage}. He tried leaving just like that, so I—sitting at the front desk for specifically such a reason—stopped him. I had to wake up early for this, too. Sheesh.

“Hey. That’s gonna be an extra seven hundred gold coins.”

“...Huh? The fuck do you think you’re talking about?”

“We cleaned up the room you trashed and discovered plenty of things missing. Ten towels, one hundred gold coins. Small table, one hundred gold coins. Massage chair, two hundred gold coins. Mattress, three hundred gold coins. That’s seven hundred gold coins in total. Don’t like it? Give the stuff back. Otherwise, pay up.”

“Tch, you noticed? Fine, fine, take it all back. Whatever.” Suzuki opened his {Storage} and dropped all the stuff right onto the ground.

“And didn’t I tell you I owned this inn? Are you not planning to stay another night or what?”

“Huh? Why the fuck would I stay another night?” This guy’s planning on conquering the dungeon in one day and going straight home, huh? Alright. If that’s what you want, I’ll finish this all today.

“You’re going to conquer the dungeon and go home before the day’s over, then? I guess you’ll be staying outside tonight. That’s fine with me.”

“Tch.”

“I’m not gonna let you stay in the grand suite again. I’ll be nice and let you use a normal room, though.”

“What?! I’m a fucking Hero! A customer!”

“Really now? That’s swell. But I’m the owner of this inn. This place is my home. My home, my rules.” I was grappling with him through sheer force of will. I’d lose in a fight for sure, but authority and connections were everything.

“Aren’t customers supposed to be gods?!”

“Customers are piggy banks that bring me money. Anyone stealing from or hurting my inn isn’t a customer. And I’m pretty sure you already met a god when you came to this world.” I grinned at him.

...If I let this tough guy facade of mine crumble, I lose. I gotta keep it up no matter what. Aaaah. My stomach hurts.

“I gave you your stuff back, so who cares?! I’m still paying you!”

“Don’t you realize how much someone dying in this inn is gonna hurt our profits? This is an inn for adventurers, too. Lots of our customers are touchy about bad luck and whatnot. Nothing’s less lucky than someone dying. That’s the worst omen there is. So, can you guess how many customers we’re going to lose because of you? We’re gonna be operating constantly for years. One gold coin? Don’t be stupid. You cost us over 100,000 gold coins. Are you gonna pay that?”

“Huh? Fuck n—”

“Are you going to pay 100,000 gold coins?”

“Quit th—”

“Are you going to pay 100,000 gold coins?”

“.........”

“Are you going to pay 110,000 gold coins?”

“You’re raising the price! Tch, fine, whatever! Shut up! Dammit!”

“Yeah, and don’t come back.”

Suzuki left with his slaves in tow. I won. Hell yeah.

# Suzuki’s Perspective

Suzuki was headed to the dungeon.

“Shit...! I need power. I need more power...!” He clenched his fist so hard that his nails ripped his skin apart. Blood started gushing out, but his wounds were already healing.

Suzuki’s skill was {Ultra Healing}. More specifically, it was {Ultra Healing: Level 1}. It was strong enough that he would never lose to a simple adventurer or monster under any circumstances. Reason being, it stopped him from feeling pain or exhaustion. It even healed his wounds instantly, such that he would never die. All he had to do was keep on fighting hard until he slaughtered his foe.

But even with an unbeatable skill like that, Suzuki felt hesitant to fight another Hero.

{Ultra Healing: Level 1}. Indeed. In terms of being a Hero, he was only level one, which put him on the very bottom rung when compared to other Heroes. His skill’s level didn’t raise no matter how many monsters he slaughtered. Though he did get stronger in general.

...That Japanese person in the inn. The guy who called himself Keima or whatever. He was likely a Hero as well, which meant he had a cheat skill that Suzuki didn’t know about. Indeed. An unknown skill that was at least level one.

Suzuki was confident that he, having been through the hell that he had endured, could beat anyone at his level. But that guy has perfect form, almost like a puppet manipulated into the optimal standing posture for fighting. He must have studied martial arts or something equivalent. And he hardly reacted to the slave he killed in front of him. He was used to other people dying.

...But most intimidating of all was his girl. Keima at least flinched after Suzuki stabbed the slave to death, but that girl ignored it completely. She didn’t just miss it, either. She glanced at the slave and immediately chose to ignore her. She didn’t scream. She didn’t shout in anger. She didn’t pale or start trembling. She ignored her. That could only make sense if she was used to killing her own kind—if the death of fellow humans meant absolutely nothing to her.

His opponents were two experienced killers on their home turf. Suzuki wasn’t incompetent enough to start a fight he didn’t know he could win. He only assassinated the Daide king because he knew he could do it with his {Ultra Healing}.

Power. It all came back to needing more power.

Then he remembered what the god had told him. Dungeons interrupt the flow of mana. Destroy their Cores and become stronger.

“Hah, that’s right. I just gotta raise my level. Killing monsters might not get my level up, but smashing those Dungeon Cores that god talked about might! That’s right! I’m gonna crush this dungeon!” Suzuki descended into the [Cave of Greed], heart burning with determination. His nine slaves followed after him.

# Keima’s Perspective

According to what Ichika heard from Elulu, the slave Suzuki showed the most affection toward was Coriane, his only high-tier slave. The three better dressed slaves were mid-tier slaves, and the five poorly dressed slaves were known as low-tier slaves. Those with chains still on their collars were called the “chained” and he treated them the worst of all. Though Elulu had once been a mid-tier slave and he killed her without a second’s hesitation, so it was fair to assume he only truly cared for his high-tier slave.

Right after Suzuki got into the dungeon, his slaves circled around him defensively. Their formation was structured such that Coriane was in the middle beside him and the three chained were at the front. The remaining slaves spread around him in all directions. It was a formation built around the idea that no matter where a monster came from or where a trap awaited, his slaves would encounter it first. Also, although his mid-tier slaves had swords and shields, all his low-tier slaves—both normal and chained—had nothing but their bare hands.

“So, what are we going to do? Guide him into the [Flame Caverns] like we did with Wataru? Or kill him along with his slaves?” Rokuko offered two choices that were on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. Let them live or kill every one of them. She was really going in all or nothing here.

“...I didn’t expect you to say something like that, Rokuko. Why those two choices in particular?”

“Mmm, well, I thought about it for a while, but I couldn’t think of a way to just kill Suzuki without killing his slaves too. Especially with them in a formation like this. The best thing we could do is try to separate them somehow, but as a dungeon, we can’t really bring the separated slaves to safety or anything.” A very reasonable position. Is this really the same Rokuko who thought having a dungeon with just one room was a good idea?

“Um, please? I can grow as a person too. Of course I’ll get better at this kind of thing with you around, Keima.”

“Dungeon Masters have buffing effects?!”

“...I can’t completely deny the possibility, but I’m probably just learning from example.”

“It all comes back to me, then.”

Now, what to do here. The enemy had just entered our dungeon, but before I could put my thoughts together, one of the chained slaves up front fell into a pitfall. It was a simple pitfall without any spikes on the bottom, intended to be a simple trap for beginners that at worst would twist an ankle and leave one unable to advance further.

“Nghaah, uwaah...”

“Woah, I sure didn’t notice that pitfall. Good job. Now hurry up and get out of there.”

“U-Um, Master, my legs... my legs...!”

“You gonna make me repeat myself?” Suzuki glared at the slave, causing her collar to tighten.

“Aaah! I’m sorry, sorry, so sorry...! Please don’t squeeze... my neck...!”

“Then get the fuck out of there! Trash!” Suzuki gave a maniacal grin while shouting his orders. The slave that fell into the pitfall shakily stood up and crawled out of the hole. Suzuki then made her walk in front, despite how obviously hurt her legs and feet were. The chained slave flinched in pain with each step.

“This man is awful!”

“So this is the man who spat in the inn and made such a mess of the grand suite?”

“Aaah, you know, I thiiiiink this guy is just totally incompatible with me. Like, physiologically?”

Even the three monster girls I had brought with me as assistants found it hard to watch. But I could hardly blame them. Honestly, I was surprised that the three of them were responding like humans despite being monsters. Have they learned some empathy from working in the inn?

“If he wants the slave to die, he should just hurry up and finish her off himself. This is shameful.”

“I wonder if it would be acceptable for me to clean the insides of his skull with my broom.”

“He’s wasting sooooo much mana, it hurts to watch.”

...And thus were the opinions of my Vampire, Silky, and Apprentice Witch. In a way, it was relieving to hear that they hadn’t gone soft. None of them seemed bothered at all by the idea of someone using their slaves as disposable tools. Makes sense.

“We learned from Ichika that the slaves of adventurers are normally used like this.”

“Wait, really?”

“It’s common for dungeons to be conquered upon the backs of slaves and others sent to die. Though of course this primarily refers to convict slaves.”

“I see...” It was a blunt force strategy equivalent to suicide bombing. Can’t say I’m a fan of making normal girls participate in something like that.

“Hmph! Keima’s strength through numbers strategy was way smarter. Suzuki’s not better than us!” For some reason, Rokuko was feeling competitive. I guess my rat strategy was pretty similar to this. Maybe the rats hated being forced into Haku’s dungeon and stuff. Wait... Am I actually a pretty garbage person?

Suzuki’s party encountered three Goblins.

“Go on, get them!”

“Yes, sir...!” The three chained slaves in the front—including the one with the hurt feet—charged at the Goblins. They punched the Goblins with their bare hands, lacking any weapon. They just kept punching and punching.

Eventually, the battle ended. Even a weak female slave was apparently enough to beat a Goblin in a one-on-one, but... they all ended up covered in wounds. Suzuki laughed at them while groping his beloved Coriane’s body.

“Ew... That’s so gross.” Rokuko paled and trembled in place.

“Oh yeah. Suzuki forced himself onto you a little, I forgot about that.”

“He did, it was awful. I bathed so much yesterday and I still feel gross... Oh, I know. You touch me too, Keima. I feel like that’ll definitely make me feel better.”

I decided to ignore half of what Rokuko had just said.

“Ichika asked me to get revenge and he laid his hands on you. Guess it’s time for me to get a little serious.”

“What was that...?! Keima, getting serious?!”

“Our master, who usually sleeps all day... getting serious?!”

“Are you feeling quite alright, Master? Should I prepare a futon for you?”

“My mind is too weak to even imagine what this could meaaan!”

Seriously? Is it really that big of a deal? Never mind then. I don’t feel like getting serious anymore.

...Or at least, that’s what I’d like to say. But nah. Time to give some orders.

“First, we’re gonna get rid of those slaves.” I had put traps in the labyrinth area before Suzuki and his squad first arrived. Though I couldn’t place anything too serious, since there were other adventurers still exploring it.

“Does that mean you’re going to kill them?”

“Mmm, I can save them if they’re lucky. Otherwise, they’ll die. You’ll see.” I moved the Wall Golems around in the labyrinth to guide Suzuki’s party into a trap.

The trap activated right as they entered a crossroad. Several arrows shot out from all four directions.

“Nghaah!”

“Kyaaah!”

Three slaves let out short cries and collapsed. Two in the back and one in the front. They were all low-tier slaves. The mid-tier slaves on the left and right blocked the arrows with their shields. Of course, Coriane and Suzuki were both entirely unharmed.

The fallen slaves remained on the ground, completely still. They weren’t even twitching.

“Hey. The fuck’s wrong with you three? Stand up...! Tch, must be poison.”

Indeed, the arrows were poisoned, though merely with a paralyzing poison. They were specially customized poison arrows that knocked afflicted humans unconscious for exactly ten minutes, a customization that made them cost 3,000 DP a pop. I had bought fifteen of them. Heh. I’m not cheap with DP when I get serious.

So, what’s he going to do? If the slaves have bad luck and Suzuki decides to stab them in anger, they’ll die. Things would be a lot easier for us if he just left them on the ground and moved on, but...

“Tch. Fuck it. Looks like they’re dead.” Suzuki gave one of the unconscious slaves a hard kick and kept moving on. Guess things were going to be a little easy for us. I moved the Wall Golem around again, such that it would be easier for the nearby adventurers to find and rescue them.

“Just three, huh...? Oh, and be sure to grab the arrows that missed. Don’t wanna waste them.”

“Each one did cost three Keimas.” Oh yeah, I got summoned through the 1000 DP gacha. Okay.

There were six slaves left.

“I thought we’d have to either kill them all or let them all live, but wow. I didn’t think about having adventurers rescue the slaves at all.” I probably can’t save all of them, but still. Three down.

Since two of the slaves leading the formation had been left behind, the remaining slaves shifted around such that there was one mid-tier slave on either side of him, plus one behind, with two low-tier slaves in front. Coriane remained beside Suzuki, as always. The low-tier slaves in the front were still barehanded, but the mid-tier slaves around him had swords and shields. Alright. Now things are a little more tricky.

# Suzuki’s Perspective

Even when a Golem came forth, Suzuki forced his low-tier slaves to fight it. But naturally they had no chance whatsoever of beating a Golem while barehanded. Especially since the remaining chained slave was a fairly small girl.

Suzuki took out two clubs from his {Storage} and handed them to the two low-tier slaves. However, they still struggled quite a bit fighting the single Golem. That was to be expected. Their master may have been ordering them to fight, but they were still village girls who had their hands full just fighting Goblins. Even the weakest Golem of all, a Clay Golem, would be a difficult foe to them. And yet, they were fighting a more powerful Stone Golem. The best they could do was buy some time, if that.

Their lack of success soon ticked Suzuki off to the point that he drew his sword and slammed it against the Stone Golem. He hit the Golem over and over until it collapsed.

“Phew. This sword ain’t cutting at all. What kinda piece of crap is this?” Suzuki swung his sword at the chained slave standing near him.

“Eh?” The blade cut about halfway into her arm.

“G-Gyaaaaah! M-My aaaarm! It huuuuurts!”

“Huh? Damn, it actually can cut. Eh... But it only got halfway through. Yeah, this sword must be a piece of crap.” Suzuki kicked the screaming slave away to pull his sword out of her.

“C’mon, we’re going.”

“My arm! My aaaarm! MY AAAAARM!”

“Fuck, you’re loud. Shut up.”

“Ngggh...!” Her collar tightened, and although she fell silent as a result, she simply squirmed in place silently with blood gushing out of her arm.

“Haha! Fuckin’ hilarious. Here, I’ll heal you... {Ultra Healing}.” Suzuki cut his own hand and rubbed it against the slave’s wound such that their blood mingled before activating his skill, whereupon both of their wounds began to close. The slave’s arm patched itself up and all her wounds from the fight with the Goblins vanished. Even her black eye disappeared.

“Haaah, haaah...”

“Hey, where’s my thank you? Aren’t you grateful you’ve got a master kind enough to heal you?”

“Th-Thank you, very much... Master...” The slave bowed so deeply she practically fell to her knees before him.

“Bwahaha! I used my precious {Ultra Healing} on you! Be more thankful! More!” Suzuki cackled and stepped on the healed slave’s head, grinding his foot against her hair.

{Ultra Healing} was fundamentally a skill that could heal only its user. It wouldn’t work on other people. After much experimentation, Suzuki found a loophole: he could heal others if he mixed his own blood in with theirs. However, that would violently exhaust the other person in accordance to the severity of their wounds. Some even died from exhaustion after getting healed. Raising the skill’s level might possibly make it such that he could naturally heal others without such issues.

“C’mon, stand up! We’re moving on.”

“Yes, sir...” The slave stood up shakily, out of breath.

Five Golems approached them. A sizable number that Suzuki could beat given a bit of time. But he just sighed in annoyance. Any amount of time spent fighting monsters was less time to use for progressing through the dungeon. Enough time wasted and he might not be able to clear the dungeon in a single day, which meant leaving early.

“Tch, this sucks. We’re just gonna run past them.” Suzuki and his squad ran forward, around the Golems. But the chained low-tier slave was so exhausted from being healed that she tripped on her own feet and fell over.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing, trash...?! Tch! Whatever, you just stay there and hold off the Golems!”

“Haaah, haaah... N-No way!”

“See ya! You can brag about helping me in the afterlife! Ahahahaha!”

She couldn’t defy Suzuki’s orders. The slave, having no other choice, turned to sacrifice her life holding back the Golems. Suzuki ran off further into the dungeon with his remaining five slaves.

# Keima’s Perspective

“Okay, that’s one more... but don’t we have to kill her now? I think it’d be really unnatural if we just left her alive. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?”

The slave had been left to hold the Golems off all on her own. Despite barely being able to stand, she charged at them with her club. It’d be very unnatural if the Golems were to stand there and take her blows without reacting.

“Nah, we can make this work. We just gotta knock her out and let some other adventurers find her.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that. Buuut I don’t see any adventurers near her. Knocking her unconscious is one thing, but won’t adventurers find it suspicious if they come across her unconscious with a bunch of Golems just standing around doing nothing? What can we do about that?”

“I have an idea. I’ll save her and bring her to the nearest adventurers.” I was the only one of us that could move within the dungeon freely as an adventurer. Naturally I couldn’t send Rokuko out, and Niku was busy working in the inn—not to mention that as a slave, she couldn’t enter without me anyway. Ichika was busy resting, and the three monster girls weren’t even registered as adventurers... I should do that eventually. Guild cards count as ID, after all.

Once the slave fell unconscious and collapsed, I ordered the Golems to disperse. I then went into the dungeon alone and retrieved her. Unconscious people are pretty heavy, small or not, and I definitely would have struggled to carry her if not for my Wearable Golem’s power boost. I’m so glad I made these Wearable Golems.

I checked the map to find the nearest invaders... rather, the nearest adventurers so I could hand off the slave to them.

“Heeey, is anybody there? I know you aaaare!”

“Oh, Keima? How ye doi— Wait, that’s!”

“Rippe!” The nearest adventurers were Gozou and his partner Roppe. Oh... Right, this is the girl who Gozou mentioned being Roppe’s cousin. Perfect.

“She was being attacked by some Golems, but I managed to save her. She’s still alive, just unconscious.”

“Well ain’t that something! He musta used her to stall the monsters or somethin’.”

“Thanks for saving Rippe, Keima. Hey... Gozou.”

“I know, I know. Keima. Would y’mind hiding Rippe in your inn for a bit?” Isn’t that illegal? Pretty sure stealing slaves is illegal.

“As long as we say her master’s dead, nobody will figure out the truth. And it’ll take some time and money, but there’re some proper ways to get that collar off her.” I must have looked pretty thrown off, since Gozou answered my question before I even asked it.

“Go ahead and rent a room for her then, I won’t say anything about her. But would you mind going ahead and taking her from me? She’s actually pretty heavy.”

I had Gozou take Rippe from me. Alright, time to get back to business.

“I’ll leave the rest to you two. I’m gonna keep following after them.”

“...What’re you planning, Keima?”

“Can’t give many details, but let’s just say a certain person gave me a certain request. That’s all.”

“Alright. I didn’t hear nothin’.”

“It’d be a big help if you didn’t see anything either. Would you mind passing it off like you and Roppe saved Rippe?”

Basically, I was acting like I had some mysterious job to do while simultaneously setting it up such that people would think I wasn’t the only one doing things here. Now, even if I saved all the remaining slaves, nobody would get suspicious of the dungeon. They’d think it was me or someone like me working in the shadows. Which wasn’t even wrong, really. What mattered was just making people think it was humans getting in Suzuki’s way, not the dungeon itself.

“...Alright. But know that I’ll repay this favor, ye can be sure of it.”

“Then buy a B-Rank lunch next time or something. I dunno why, but that’s the least popular lunch of them all. It hardly sells.” I couldn’t think of anything in particular I wanted from them, so I just blew it off with a joke that made Roppe giggle.

“You’re a nice guy, Keima. Is that really all you want? I don’t mind paying with my body, you know.” Roppe showed off her muscular, very adventurer-like body to me.

“I’m not interested in other people’s women.”

“...You sure have been glancing at my feet a lot for someone not interested.”

“You’re just imagining things. Oh, whoops, I gotta get going. See you two later.” I cut the conversation short and ran off. I think I might just have a habit of looking at feet now. I gotta fix this or people will find me out in a second if I try acting like someone else. Crap.

I returned to the Master Room and checked the situation with Rokuko.

“They’re in the middle of the puzzle area. They just got past the simple door.” The simple door, of course, referring to the [Gate of Wisdom] with the riddle of ‘The answer is simple,’ where the answer is literally the word ‘simple.’

“Wataru got through that one pretty fast too. I wonder how he’ll do with the other doors?” Each gate in the puzzle area had a different riddle or puzzle, and I switched out their order. This time, the simple puzzle had coincidentally been the first gate.

After a brief pause, Coriane rose her head in front of the second gate.

“I have solved it. The answer is ‘one step before the end of the world,’ Master.”

“Good work as always, Coriane. You were worth the eight hundred gold I spent on you. Keep it up. I hear there’s two more gates after this.”

“As you wish, Master.” Coriane, the highest ranked slave, respectfully bowed her head. Yeaaah... I get the feeling she’s gonna crush the rest of the gates.

Suzuki, Coriane, and the other slaves went through the gate one by one.

...Ah. They’re totally splitting themselves up here.

“Here’s our chance! Hurry and shut the gate!”

“Rei, the door! Kinue, change the puzzle!”

“Understood!”

Rokuko heard my order and immediately shouted out directions. The two monster girls sped through their menus and quickly did the jobs they were given. The door shut and its puzzle was immediately changed.

“Open the fuck up! What’s going on here?! The last gate took fucking forever to close!”

Two sword and shield wielding mid-tier slaves had been cut off and left behind in the last room.

“Hey, what’s the puzzle?! Will it open with the same answer?”

“I’m sorry, Master, but the puzzle seems to have changed...”

“You better not be fucking lying. I’ll kill you if that’s a lie.”

“I-I swear to God that I am not lying!”

“She’s telling the truth, the puzzle is different! This one seems to involve moving parts... Um, what might the answer be, Lady Coriane?”

“Naturally, I cannot solve a puzzle without knowing what it is...”

Heh, lucky us. The new puzzle is one where you have to slide blocks around and guide a particular block to the exit, known to some people simply as ‘sliding block puzzles.’ Good luck answering that through a door.

“Tch. This happened because you two didn’t move fast enough! Pieces of garbage!”

“Master. Might I make a suggestion? I believe it would be more efficient for us to proceed without them and, upon conquering the dungeon, retrieve them on our way back.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Alright. We’ll roll with that... Hey! I’ll pick you two up on the way back if I feel like it, so wait there! Got it?”

“U-Understood!”

“We will be waiting for you, Master!”

...We don’t need to rescue them right now either. They won’t die waiting there or anything.

“We were lucky that Neruneh was in charge of those gates. She took so long to close the gate that the enemy let their guard down!”

“I-I’m sorry for being slooow.”

“Don’t worry about it, you actually helped us here. That’s two more slaves separated from him.” Which left three more slaves. His favorite one, the mid-tier one, and the low-tier one. There was a slave left for each category. Very nice.

The third gate and subsequently the fourth gate took a bit of time, but Coriane brilliantly solved each of them. They reached the spiral staircase area of the dungeon without getting separated again.

“I’m super impressed, Keima.”

“Huh? With what?”

“I really didn’t think that you’d be able to separate so many of the slaves from Suzuki while keeping them all alive.”

“Heh, me neither. Things are pretty rough now, though. Not sure if I’ll manage to save another one.”

“You’re not going to aim for a perfect game?”

“I’ve really gotta start focusing on taking Suzuki down now. I might try and save the others if an opportunity arises, but it’ll all be up to luck.”

I just need to think about killing them now. But just thinking about that made me sigh.

“...What’s wrong, Keima?”

“Eh. I’m just wondering if I’m doing the same thing Suzuki is. I hate Suzuki. I don’t like him. And I don’t like what he’s doing, so I’m going to kill him. Doesn’t that sound familiar?”

“I don’t think so. The thing is, ummm, well... You’re doing this for my sake, Keima.” Rokuko patted my head. Hey... You trying to embarrass me or something?

“Suzuki put his hands on me, so you’re going to kill him. I mean, I am your woman, right Keima?”

“You’re gonna say that now?” This is getting more embarrassing. I can’t let Haku hear what Rokuko just said, now or ever. The fewer witnesses the better. Yeah, now I’m really motivated. Sorry Suzuki, but in this world, it’s kill or be killed.

Putting aside the details, Rokuko really had cheered me up.

“Thanks, Rokuko. Now I’m motivated again.”

“I helped, right? Okay, then make me a ring once this battle’s over. It’s a promise, okay?”

“C’mon, Rokuko. That’s called a flag. Anyone who makes a promise before or during a battle is doomed to failure. I wanna win, so I can’t make that promise.”

“Eh? O-Okay, fine.”

Alright, bought myself some time.

Suzuki’s party was traveling down the massive spiral staircase. This part of the dungeon was like a massive tube with a staircase growing from the walls. The middle of the staircase was an empty hole that reached all the way to the bottom. The gimmick here was that walls would shoot out and knock adventurers into the hole. Plus, chunks of the stairs would fold inward and make holes for people to fall down through to the next floor. Neither gimmick worked on Wataru, though.

...Their current formation was the low-tier slave in the lead, the mid-tier slave in the back, and Suzuki with Coriane between them. They slowly walked down the staircase, taking care with each step downwards.

“The walls don’t go out too fast, but let’s give it a try anyway.”

“Okaaaay. Leave it to meee.” Neruneh casually fiddled with her menu, and soon a Wall Golem started slowly pushing out. Suzuki noticed that and hurried his slaves onward.

“Hey, hurry up! We’re gonna get pushed off, idiot!”

“A-Ah! Understood!” Suzuki kicked the low-tier slave from behind and forced her to rush down the stairs without any caution whatsoever. But there was a trap chunk of stairs right ahead, through which the low-tier slave dropped like a rock.

“Ah... ngggh!” She fell straight to the next floor, a height equal to one revolution of the staircase.

“Hey, mid-tier! Get in front!”

“U-Understood, Master!” The mid-tier slave took the lead and went down the staircase to the low-tier slave. Upon reaching her, Suzuki kicked her up and forced her to take the lead again despite her hurt feet. The pain was so bad tears welled up in her eyes, but Suzuki just kicked her onward.

By the time they reached the bottom, the low-tier slave had fallen through so many traps that she could barely even walk anymore.

“Good work. Damn, your ankles are a really funky color now.”

“Hghiiiih! P-Please don’t poke them... It hurts, ngggh...”

“Aaahahaha! This is hilarious.” I had no idea what was so hilarious about it, but Suzuki kept prodding the low-tier slave’s ankles until eventually getting bored and getting back to the dungeon.

The low-tier slave leaned heavily on the mid-tier slave’s shoulder and advanced slowly.

The storeroom area. This floor had Golem Blades all over the place, plus some experimental Golems I had created during tests. I decided to go ahead and have Rei, Kinue, and Neruneh each control different Golems to really see the strengths of each one. Some were shaped like animals, some had four arms or four legs, some had bows, and some had spears. I had prepared Golems of every shape and size. They weren’t necessary for Wataru, but now was the time to go all out and use them all.

“Okay, use this one first. The others can gang up on them afterwards.”

“Master, what kind of Golem is this?” Rei asked me about the Golem I directed her towards.

“That’s a Net Golem. It throws a net that locks an enemy down. You should be able to immobilize the low-tier slave with him. Then, just hit her a little until she falls unconscious. Thanks.”

“You certainly are being soft, Master. You still intend to save them?”

“I feel like if she dies like this she’ll haunt me like a ghost. I just don’t want anything interrupting my sleep.”

...The, uh, the dead elf slave won’t haunt me, right? Did you give her a proper funeral, Rokuko? What? You turned her corpse to DP right after burying her and saying a short prayer? I’m not sure that’s gonna fly.

“Okay, here we go! Kinue, Neruneh, back me up!”

“Fufufu. I’ll do my best.”

“Yay yay! Oooh!”

The experimental Golems marched out.

# Suzuki’s Perspective

“This dungeon feels like a castle basement or some shit.”

“A castle basement? I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been to one. I imagine you’ve been to one before, Master?”

“I’m talkin’ about the feeling here, the feeling. I’ve never been to one either.” Suzuki and Coriane were chatting casually with one another as the low-tier and mid-tier slaves walked in front of them. They were paying attention to their surroundings somewhat, but there didn’t seem to be any monsters around.

The two slaves quietly talked to one another, whispering so that the two behind them couldn’t hear.

“...Are you okay?”

“Haaah, haaah... I-I don’t think so... I’m going to die here... Aaah, oh nooo...”

“It might be easier for you if you think about this as an opportunity to die, rather than being forced to die.”

“An opportunity to die? As in, I should think of it like I’ll finally be free from living in fear while the Hero Dragon rapes me whenever he wants...? That’s true, but I at least wanted to die as a person... Not as property like this.”

“I... see... I’m lucky he still treats me with a little decency.”

“Aah... I wish he would just die. Maybe I could go home if he were dead...” So murmured the low-tier slave, but she couldn’t even imagine him dying with the god-given skill of {Ultra Healing} that healed any wound in seconds.

“Hold on, say any more and your collar will...”

“Ahaha. I’ll die anyway, so who cares? He’ll probably throw me at a monster if one shows up. I hope it at least kills me fast... I don’t want to suffer any more than I already have.” The mid-tier slave lowered her head sadly after her companion turned a pained smile her way.

“Hey, there’s monsters here!” She lifted her head immediately after hearing Suzuki’s yell. Before her was an animal made of rock and a Stone Golem holding something in its hand. There was also... something ashen gray and wiggling between them.

The mid-tier slave briefly worried about what to do. Should she throw the low-tier slave at them, or take her and run away together? But her worries were crushed in a bad way by Suzuki’s next orders.

“Hey, throw that bitch at them. She’s a slow-ass walker now. We don’t need that dead weight.” In other words, he was telling the low-tier slave it was her time to die.

Suzuki walked up to the low-tier slave and grinned cruelly.

“By the way, you just said you wanted to die, right? I heard all of that, fucking idiot. Live a long life and distract those monsters. That’s an order!” He snatched the low-tier slave away from the mid-tier slave and literally threw her at the approaching monsters as if she were bait. He saw something like a net swallow the low-tier slave up whole. It was easy to imagine the monsters beating on her, stabbing her, and even eating her now that her movements had been restrained. Or perhaps she would be turned into the seedbed of that especially human shaped Golem. Either way, she would die or suffer so much that she would wish she had died.

“Hahaha, man, I’m glad she’s taken care of.” Suzuki walked away, stretching a bit and not worried at all.

“And I am as well, Master. But what shall we do now? You have lost most of your slaves. Shall we turn back for today?”

“Huh? Nah, I’m a Hero, y’know. I can conquer dungeons on my own if I want to. I just brought them cause it’d be fucking boring otherwise. We’re obviously gonna keep going.”

The mid-tier slave had a few thoughts about that. If you could conquer it on your own, I wish you had done so from the start. That way, none of the other girls would have had to suffer so much. But her thoughts were interrupted by Suzuki.

“Hey, mid-tier. From now on, you’re a low-tier. Okay? Okay. Good.”

Aaah. It’s my turn next.

The moment she thought that, the mid-tier slave’s... no, the low-tier slave’s vision went dark and she collapsed.

# Keima’s Perspective

“Huh? Why the fuck did this one pass out? Hey, wake up! Wake the fuck up! Aaah, this ain’t gonna work. She’s broken. Tch. Guess I’ll leave her here.”

The mid-tier (now low-tier) slave collapsed completely on her own and stopped moving. She had probably snapped after being demoted to a low-tier slave after seeing with her own eyes the horrible, horrible treatment that this Hero’s low-tier slaves experienced.

Suzuki and Coriane marched on, leaving the fallen slave behind as they clung to each other and flirted. ...This leaves one slave. The low-tier slave that had been thrown towards the Golems had fallen unconscious after experiencing a quite rocky sleeper hold.

“Good job with the net and sleeper hold, Rei. You’re the best at really precise movements like that.”

“Yes, sir! Your praise is the greatest honor I could ask for!”

“You did good too, Kinue. Take the unconscious slaves to a nearby storeroom. I’ll grab them later and pass it off like I saved them myself.”

“Understood, Master. Leave it to me.”

“What about me, Masteeer?”

“Neruneh, uh... You tried your best?”

“Yaaaay, you complimented meee! Please teach me your magic lateeer.”

Rei had commanded the Golem with enough precision to not hurt the slave. Kinue-san quickly recovered them and even cleaned the area. Neruneh, well... Neruneh had enthusiasm. She didn’t scare them, at least.

I praised the three monster girls and checked the slaves to see if they were safe. One of them was a physical mess, while the other was a mental mess. Well... At least they’re alive.

“We’re finishing them off next time.”

“Mmm, Keima. Maybe we should just kill that last slave with him?”

I thought about that for a bit. Coriane was clinging to Suzuki as we spoke. It would be impossible to tear them apart and rescue her. Plus, it seemed like she actually was staying with Suzuki by choice, unlike the others.

“You did super great saving the other eight slaves. I really didn’t think it’d be possible.”

“Even I didn’t expect to rescue so many of them. At this point... I’ll be fine as long as Suzuki goes down.” There’d be no point in separating Suzuki from his slaves if he survived to leave the dungeon in the first place. Haku would take care of him eventually if he escaped, but who knows how many people would suffer until then. I really need to take Suzuki down, here and now. Nothing will come from worrying too much about the final slave.

With that decided, I activated the trap.

# Suzuki’s Perspective

It all happened in a single moment. Suzuki suddenly saw a spear flying toward him out of the corner of his eye.

“Master, watch out!”

“Coriane?!” In a split-second decision, Coriane pushed Suzuki away and took the spear that was aimed at him. Its metal tip ripped through her torso. Blood gushed out of her mouth.

“Are you... okay, Master...?”

“The fuck did you do that for, shithead?!”

“I did it because... you are a Hero...” Coriane smiled while spitting out blood.

“As a former Daide noble... I am proud to have protected you...” The light faded from Coriane’s eyes, until... her arms fell heavily to the ground.

“Welp, she’s dead. Hahaha, shit. Guess she was an idiot too. She shoulda known I can’t die.” It would have been hard to move if that spear shot through his body and impaled him. But that was all. He wouldn’t die, so he could just pull the spear out of him and that would be that. If Coriane survived, she could have pulled the spear out for him. Her mindless decision to block the spear with her body had made him lose a slave worth eight hundred gold coins.

“Tch. Women really are dumb. But there’s no point to buying dudes, so I guess I’ll just buy another one worth about as much. This time I’ll buy a younger one, about as young as that inn’s owner... Actually, maybe I’ll just kidnap her. If I can make her mine, the rest should take care of itself. Who cares if I have to leave another country? She may be used goods by now, but hey, stealing that smug fucker’s girl would be pretty fun.” Suzuki had a lot of confidence in his endurance. After all, thanks to his {Ultra Healing}, he never had to eat or sleep and he never even got tired. If he could kidnap her, he could rape her not just for a day straight, but for a week or month straight without any breaks.

He licked his lips. He was looking forward to that. So, so much. He needed more power, for that end and others. Even more power, enough to dominate any of his enemies.

“Yeah. Level 2 is twice as big as level 1. Heheheh. I can’t wait to see how much stronger I get.”

The power he wanted was right in front of him. He wanted to destroy the Dungeon Core as soon as possible to raise his Hero level.

Suzuki thought about his future and laughed. Coriane’s corpse watched Suzuki lovingly, her dead lips forming a gentle smile.

# Keima’s Perspective

“I really didn’t expect Coriane to save him like that.”

“Me neither.” I didn’t know what kind of dramatic past she had, but in the end, Coriane definitely thought of Suzuki as a real Hero. She mentioned being a former noble, and Suzuki did seem to treat her like she was special. Coriane had acted with pride, protected Suzuki, and died as a result. Even if Suzuki trashed her in the end, Coriane had died satisfied. This was the kind of scene where you respect and wish a former enemy well despite them being on the other side, I guess.

But really, it had nothing to do with us.

Her death was completely, absolutely irrelevant. What mattered was that Suzuki, our prey, was now walking through our dungeon alone and I wanted him dead. I already had all the information I needed to beat him. All that was left was acting on it. Hesitation and irrelevant information were unnecessary. At most, the knowledge that he was still talking about kidnapping Rokuko was confirmation that I didn’t need to hold back. Not that I intended to in the first place. My plan had been to lock him down with that spear and finish him from there... but since that failed, I had no choice but to go with plan B.

“I’ve got it. I know how to beat him.”

“Oh, are you talking about that thing you’ve been fiddling with for a while?”

“C’mon, don’t say that. You’re gonna kill the dramatic tension.” Yeah, I hadn’t thought up a plan B on the spot. I just wanted to say that cool line.

“What are you even talking about? You’re being weird, Keima... Wait, actually, I guess you’re always like this.”

“Whaddya mean by that? I always act normally and properly. What’s weird about me? Nothing.”

“Right, right. So, what are we going to do? What can we do?” She just blew me off. Well, whatever. I’ll explain my plan.

“When invaders are on a floor, you can’t make new walls. But you can repair existing walls. So, I’m going to bury him alive within the walls.”

Dungeon walls were special. You could repair them even if an invader was on the floor, and in a single moment too. But they wouldn’t heal if the Dungeon Core ignored them. The Golems with pickaxes could dig through the dungeon to empty out space specifically because Rokuko let them. And I had preemptively had such Golems dig about three meters into one of the walls within the storeroom area.

“How are you going to lure him into that dead end?”

“I’ve already finished setting it up. All I’ve gotta do is spring the trap. Rokuko, keep an eye out and repair the wall when he’s in there.”

Alright, time to activate that thing I prepared last night. “Operation ‘Cask of Amontillado,’ begin!”

# Suzuki’s Perspective

Suzuki walked through the dungeon alone. He wasn’t very on guard for traps. Which made sense, given that most traps didn’t really work on him. Even those that did work on him would at best slow him down for a bit.

He noticed something out of the corner of his vision. Turning, he saw the ends of long blonde hair disappearing behind a corner.

“Who was that? A girl?” Suzuki chased after her. He turned the corner and saw a figure much more clearly, advancing down the corridor. It was a girl with blonde hair and the clothes of a slave.

“Huh? Is that one of my slaves? I don’t remember bringing anyone with long blonde hair down here...” He didn’t remember bringing anyone. But the girl did look like someone he knew.

“Hey! You!”

The girl kept walking even after Suzuki called out to her. She turned a corner, and Suzuki chased after her, being cautious so as to not activate a trap that would slow him down.

“Those were elf ears, weren’t they?” The moment she turned the corner, he definitely saw that her ears were pointed. Suzuki thought back and recalled with certainty that he once had a slave just like that. He thought he had killed her, but there she was, still alive.

“Hah! This world is like a fuckin’ video game, no surprise that dead shits can come back alive!” Her seeming revival didn’t throw Suzuki off whatsoever. After all, he had {Ultra Healing}. It wouldn’t be odd at all for Keima to have a skill that could bring the dead back to life. Maybe she had been reborn as a ghost or something, but it didn’t matter to him either way.

“Guess that means she’s still my slave! Heheh.” Suzuki chased after her. After the elf slave, after his property.

“Wait! Hey, I’m telling you to fuckin’ stop! Bwahaha!” He continued to chase after her for a while. She wasn’t listening to his orders, perhaps due to her collar coming off. Not that it mattered to him, since he had plenty of spare collars. He just had to catch her and put another one on her.

“Fuckin’ seriously though! I’m telling you to stop, so stop! I’ll let you be a mid-tier slave if you stop right now! But if you keep going, you’re gonna be low-tier! You fine with that?!” Suzuki’s shout stopped the chase. The girl stopped at a dead end and sat down.

“That’s right. Just be nice and obedient.” He slowly approached her. There was blood on her hair and clothes, plus a scar on her back. Suzuki grinned; it really was his slave.

“Caaaught you. Now, turn around and look at... me...?” He noticed something odd after putting his hand on her shoulder. She was hard. And not rigor mortis hard, either. She was... made of wood?

“Hey, look at me!” The moment he tried to force her to turn around, his vision went black and he lost the ability to breathe.

(Shit, poison?!) He was still conscious. But he couldn’t talk, and he couldn’t move. He couldn’t even move a single finger.

He hurriedly cast {Ultra Healing}, but his vision remained dark and he still couldn’t even breathe.

(The hell is going on here?! {Ultra Healing}, {Ultra Healing}!) He couldn’t breathe, but he was still alive thanks to his skill.

({Ultra Healing}! Fuck, was it a trap? The hell is going on here?) No matter how many times he healed himself, his vision remained dark and he remained unable to move. But he wouldn’t die as long as he kept using {Ultra Healing}. That calmed Suzuki down a little. Staying alive was key. He decided to keep himself alive with {Ultra Healing} until help arrived.

However.

...Who would come to help Suzuki? His one ally, Coriane, had died before his eyes moments ago. At most, there were the three slaves he left in the puzzle area. Their collars might have a way of telling them that their master, Suzuki, was still alive. But would any of them come help him? Thinking about that suddenly made Suzuki very scared.

(Of course somebody will! I’m a fucking Hero! Heroes don’t die in fucking dungeons like this! I don’t wanna fucking die!) But the more he thought, the more he realized that no one would come help him. He hadn’t ordered his slaves to save him if something happened. In fact, they would probably just laugh if they knew the situation he was in.

(Fucking damn it! Someone, someone help me! Someone! FUCKING HELP MEEEE!) Since he was repeatedly using {Ultra Healing}, he couldn’t use any of his other skills.

Suzuki just kept using {Ultra Healing}, again and again.

(I’m asking for fucking help! Anyone, come on! HELP MEEEEEE!) But nobody came. All he could see in his mind were the frightened faces of his slaves and Coriane’s smile, as if they were inviting him to the realm of the deceased.

(No no no no no no NO NO NOOOO! I DON’T WANNA FUCKING DIIIIE!) Suzuki, fearing death, continued to cast {Ultra Healing}. He would likely continue to use {Ultra Healing} for as long as possible, too afraid of death to stop. But nobody would come.

# Keima’s Perspective

I had made a Mannequin Golem that looked exactly like Elulu, the elf slave. The wig cost 50 DP and I used her actual bloody clothes. Oh, and I asked Rokuko to take the clothes off. I didn’t do it myself. The blood on the wig was just paint.

I figured that finishing Suzuki off with such a Golem would help Elulu rest easier, but it ended up being the perfect bait for him. Thanks to it, Suzuki was now in the middle of a wall, completely incapable of movement. And although the wall was a destructible object, it still had the strength of a normal stone wall. Suzuki wouldn’t be able to break free with his own power.

...And since he was locked inside somewhere, his DP income was doubled. He was giving us 1,200/DP a day. My one regret was that I couldn’t lock him inside of a jail as well. That would triple it, too. Oh well. I’m gonna lock that area off and make it uneditable so nobody ever accidentally frees Suzuki.

“He’s earning us over a whole Keima a day! We’re getting six Keimas every five days just from him!” Yeah, please stop using me as a unit of currency.

“By the way, why’d you call this plan Cask of Armadillo-whatever?”

“Aesthetics.” It was a reference to an old short story, but my real inspiration came from a certain game about conquering dungeons. In the game, you would make a party of adventurers and develop them while conquering dungeons. Whenever you hit a trap or something that made you warp randomly, you had a chance of teleporting into a wall that you normally couldn’t move into. Naturally, your entire party would die. Under normal circumstances, you could recover your party’s corpses later and revive them, but it’s impossible to move inside of walls. This resulted in permanently losing characters, a phenomenon which gave more than a few players some serious gaming trauma.

“And that’s how I came up with this plan.”

“I didn’t really get that story, but now I get just how horrible and evil your plan was.” I’m glad you understand.

“Also, couldn’t you have made her actual corpse into a Golem? Why’d you go out of your way to make a Mannequin Golem?”

“Man, Rokuko, and you call me horrible? Turning a corpse into a Golem would be some pretty gruesome stuff. You don’t wanna get cursed or anything, do you?”

“How could a dead person curse us?”

“Wha?! Uhhhh... They could come back as ghosts, or...”

“Ghosts are just monsters, you know. If one tries to mess with us we can just kill it again. Nothing can hide from us in our dungeon, so it’d be easy.”

I looked to Rei, Kinue, and Neruneh for confirmation.

“I believe that Lady Rokuko is correct. You could have even summoned a ghost-type monster to possess the corpse for you.”

“Corpses still rot, though, so they should preferably still be kept out of rooms.”

“Masteeer, magic is really effective against ghost monsteeers.”

Whaaat? Am I the weird one here? No, no no no. It wasn’t a waste to cut down on my sleep time to make that Golem. No way.

Really though, all I did was make an elf-shaped mannequin and put a wig on it. Took about thirty minutes to make in total. Also, I wasn’t confident enough in my craftsmanship to make a face, so I left it blank. Totally flat. Kind of a waste that it ended up getting buried in the wall with Suzuki, though.

“Master! Ummm, like, Gozou and his dudebros are talking about some slaves they found in the dungeon. They wanna secretly rent a room for them or something.” Oh, right. My job’s not done here yet. I’ve gotta get the slaves from the puzzle and storeroom areas too.

Through the dungeon monitor, I looked at the wall Suzuki was buried in one last time.

“...Have a long life. You’ll live for as long as those people you killed didn’t.”

I closed the menu and the monitor with it before heading out to rescue the slaves.