Party Reset
“My lord, here it is.”
“…Thanks, Dohwa.”
The pink birds plucked the purple mana stone that had been rolling on the ground in their beaks and delivered it to Dohwa. She brushed the dirt and dust from it, then handed it over to Jun.
Her excessively deferential manner made him consider giving her a warning, but he set the thought aside for later and examined the stone she had given him.
“Hmm. The difference really is severe.”
Gauging the amount of mana contained within left him feeling a little hollow. The purple mana stone from the skeleton. The orange-and-yellow mixed stone that had come from Cerberus. He had expected the difference in color to mean a difference in the mana they held, but the gap was far worse than he had imagined. It would not be much of an exaggeration to say it was like the sun versus a firefly.
“So you’re just going to throw it away?”
“No. Every little bit helps, right?”
Answering Fortuna’s playful question, Jun carefully pocketed not only the mana stone but the skeleton’s byproduct as well—the Bone Fragments of the Dead. The mana stones could be sold to the guild, and the bone fragments were one of the collection items on the request Carol had given him.
“This… to gather the amount of bone fragments listed on the request form, I’m going to have to kill at least a hundred of them.”
“For real. Way too much of it just vanishes.”
When a monster inside a labyrinth died, most of its body vaporized. Even the parts that remained were random, so obtaining a desired byproduct was never easy. The reason the Church had paid a fortune for Cerberus’s corpse was that every single part of it had remained perfectly intact.
“By the way, how long are those three planning to keep that up?”
“No idea.”
“Truly pathetic, my lord.”
After stowing the byproducts inside Dowonhyang, Jun turned and muttered in exasperation. The angel and the divine beast perched on his shoulders both nodded in agreement.
“I told you! Don’t go charging off alone! Did you already forget everything they taught us at the training hall?!”
“I remember! But on graduation day the instructor said not to get too hung up on what we learned there! Earlier I just thought I could handle them fine by myself!”
“That’s the problem! You didn’t need to handle them alone, so why did you?! It’s a pointless waste of strength!”
“Why are you only yelling at me?! You wasted strength too! The skeletons hadn’t even come out of the fog yet—why the hell did you throw magic?! You only hit one of them!”
“B-both of you, please calm down… sob!”
Jun and the three rookies had managed to claim victory in their first memorable battle inside the labyrinth. It was a victory so messy they would be embarrassed to speak of it anywhere, but a victory nonetheless.
Susan and Amber had made one mistake after another from the very start. Dennis had taken down four skeletons by himself—impressive on paper, but coldly speaking it had been nothing more than a rampage. The former pair’s blunders could be lightly scolded and overlooked, given that it was their first real fight. The latter, however, was a completely different matter. It was grounds for immediate expulsion from the party with no room for argument.
That was why, after the battle, Jun had intended to give Dennis a thorough dressing-down when the boy came trudging over looking sulky, like a child who had expected praise and gotten scolded instead. He abandoned the idea and simply collected the byproducts, because Susan and Amber had begged him to let them handle the scolding themselves.
They must have known. No matter how hard I scold him, Dennis will just let it go in one ear and out the other.
Mm, looks like the same goes for those two.
They’ve probably absorbed too much miasma and their heads are a little scrambled. Dohwa, you didn’t drink much of it, did you?
No, my lord. That foolish boy rampaged so wildly there was no opening to absorb any. I am truly ashamed I could not fulfill my role.
How is that your fault? It’s the fault of the idiot who charged in without thinking about the aftermath. Still… this is a problem.
“That’s it—!”
“What?! You think words are free?!”
“Sob! Sob! Please stop∼”
Not just Dennis—Susan and Amber are drunk on the miasma too. Why is all three of their mental fortitude this low?
Watching his party members rage and wail, Jun lamented once more. Something surged up hot and sharp inside him.
“Our Juni, calm down. Want to touch Mama’s chest? Hmm?”
“This humble one’s is available as well. Indulge as much as you desire.”
“…I appreciate the thought, but later.”
Sensing his state, the angel and the divine beast pressed their breasts against his cheeks and made their secret offer. Thanks to that, the rising anger subsided somewhat. The side effect was a rising tide of lust, but living constantly beside an incubus wearing an angel’s skin, he suppressed it with ease. Just to be safe, he activated a skill and wiped the slowly swelling lewd fantasies from his mind.
Mind Control
“More importantly, Dohwa—can you clear this away?”
“At once, my lord.”
He scattered the miasma that had crept right up to his face with a wave of his hand and made the request; Dohwa promptly devoured it. Jun watched the rapidly vanishing miasma with a look of pure disgust.
The moment my composure slipped even a little, it came burrowing in like this. Vicious. Truly vicious.
Why were the party members acting so excessively emotional right now? The main reason was almost certainly the miasma they had absorbed inside the labyrinth. The miasma of the Labyrinth—Demon King’s Castle stimulated every negative emotion imaginable: jealousy, rage, lust, greed, sorrow, fear. Only the Demon King’s Castle possessed this particular trait, which was why it ranked as the most difficult of the Three Great Labyrinths.
Just because of emotions? One might think so, yet far more adventurers died from those emotions than from being eaten by monsters—through betrayal, carelessness, starvation, despair, and mutual slaughter. It was no wonder a saying circulated among those who delved the Demon King’s Castle: watch your companions inside more carefully than the monsters outside.
“Just admit it! You’re only throwing a tantrum because you’re jealous!”
“Yeah! I’m so jealous I could die! That’s why I said I didn’t want to join that guy’s party! So why did you go and apply on your own?!”
“Stop! Please just stop! Why do you two start fighting the second you see each other these past few days?!”
Honestly, Jun had thought the saying was an exaggerated scare tactic for rookies. Watching this, he had no choice but to revise that opinion. The two of them—no, even Susan, who had cried herself out and was now joining in with anger—were arguing so viciously that an actual brawl would not have been surprising.
“…This won’t do. I have to step in.”
“Won’t that just make them push back harder?”
“I think that might actually be better.”
They were currently on the first floor of the labyrinth, where the concentration of miasma was thinnest. The amount being absorbed was not particularly large. He had expected that once they vented a little they would settle down, but contrary to expectation their voices only grew louder. From the content of the argument, a great deal of resentment had already piled up over the party application, and the miasma had struck that nerve perfectly.
So that’s why they were so awkward and watchful when we first met.
Before entering the labyrinth, resolve every emotion you can. That was an iron rule for any adventurer delving the Demon King’s Castle. Follow that one rule alone and you could cut tragic accidents in half. Adventurers who ignored it were not considered real adventurers at all.
“It looks extremely difficult to stop them. How do you intend to intervene, my lord?”
“Like this.”
Jun shifted the mask on his face to the side and at the same time deactivated its facial-recognition interference function. Then he walked toward his party members one step at a time. That was all it took.
“W-wow…”
“Huh…”
“Oh god…”
Hazy eyes, cheeks flushing red, mouths falling open with soft gasps of wonder. Those were the identical reactions of the party members who had reflexively glanced his way at the sound of his approach and then seen his face.
“…Tch.”
Perhaps the dazed looks on his childhood friends’ faces sparked jealousy. Dennis snapped back to himself late, clicked his tongue, and turned his head away. Even so, he could not completely tear his gaze free; he kept glancing at Jun from the corner of his eye.
“Still planning to fight?”
“No! We’re not fighting! Who said we were fighting?!”
“R-right! We get along great!”
When he asked with a slight frown, Amber and Susan shook their heads in a frantic frenzy. Satisfied, he smiled—and both women’s pupils dilated completely, as if they had fallen under hypnosis.
Maybe I overdid the service a little.
If he showed any more, their legs might give out entirely, so Jun reactivated the mask’s facial-recognition interference.
“Aah…”
“Why…”
The two women gazed at him with heartbreaking longing. Watching them twitch and tremble with impatience, it was clear they had fallen completely for his face.
The bait worked perfectly. Time to cast the line.
“Don’t look so disappointed. I’ll show you again.”
“R-really?!”
“Then right this second—”
“But! Only if you complete today’s adventure to my satisfaction. You understand what I mean, right?”
Both women nodded so hard their heads might fly off. Then they whipped their eyes open fiercely.
“Dennis! What are you doing?! Get out front and lead!”
“If you don’t start moving right now, I’m telling your parents and the instructors every single disgraceful thing you just did!”
“Kh! Damn it!”
They ganged up on Dennis. He ground his teeth and tried to resist, but under the two women’s relentless pressure he finally hoisted the backpack he had set on the ground just before the fight.
“Dennis! Watch your language! You’re dirtying the party leader’s ears!”
“I’m telling on you for swearing! And use honorifics with the party leader!”
“Fuck! Fuuuuck!”
““Dennis!””
“Kh!”
That day, Dennis learned one absolute truth.
This world truly was an unfair and filthy place.