Chapter 18
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: The Room You Can't Leave Without Sex, and Aphrodisiac Gas (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jackal, the adventurer who had arrived in the village.
He had come all the way to this small village on the outskirts of the continent to conquer the dungeon that Ariana had newly discovered.
Jackal, who often heard that his short-cropped black hair and the scar crossing his eye gave him a fierce impression, covered his face with a mask today as well.
"There are more people here than I expected."
He voiced his honest impression while looking at Lorangleble Village, a small mountain hamlet.
Even though the dungeon had only recently appeared, he could already see more than twenty adventurer parties.
All of them had come to conquer the dungeon.
The peculiar thing was...
"Why are they all coming in male-female pairs?"
That struck him as odd.
Jackal's sharp instincts detected something off.
"W-Well? Why do you think that is?"
Floa, the mage from the Magic Tower who had dragged Jackal all the way here, avoided his gaze.
"You don't know something about this, do you, Floa?"
"It's probably a dungeon limited to two people. You're too worried all the time, Jacky. That's your problem."
"Is that so."
Hmm.
However, his instincts kept warning him about this unfamiliar situation.
Something's wrong.
Something feels off.
It seemed like he needed to look into it more closely.
That was when it happened.
"Ah, new adventurers have arrived. Welcome."
A middle-aged man greeted Jacky and Floa.
The village chief, perhaps.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Jacky."
"Hoho, I'm the village chief of Lorangleble. Do the two of you need a place to stay?"
"Well, yeah."
"Haha, there's exactly one room left right now."
Nothing to be done about that, then.
"We'll take it."
"Hoho, follow me."
The two followed the chief to their lodgings.
"Thanks to the dungeon that suddenly appeared recently, the village has changed a lot. They're building structures here and there."
As the chief said, laborers could be seen constructing new buildings throughout the village.
"You must be busy."
"Hoho, it's still better than the old days when there was nothing. A prosperous busyness is preferable to idle poverty."
And the place the chief led them to was a house that looked like a private residence.
"This doesn't look like an inn."
"The proper inn is still under construction, so for now, we're opening up private homes to outsiders."
"Ah."
"Jacky, come on in. My luggage is heavy."
"Got it."
Jackal took Floa's luggage and set it down in her room.
"But is there really a dungeon here?"
Jackal asked Floa as he finished unpacking.
This village felt far too lighthearted to be near a dungeon.
The adventurers' attitudes were lax, and most of those who came here seemed like third-rate hacks.
"O-Of course! Ariana guaranteed it. I heard it from the guild last time."
"Really? Then can you tell me what kind of dungeon it is?"
He figured some investigation was in order.
"Th-That's a secret. I'll tell you on the day we raid it tomorrow."
"......Got it."
While gathering prior info before a raid was Jackal's standard approach, if she was refusing that firmly...
She must have some plan.
It had been a full five years, after all.
That was how long they had been conquering dungeons together.
So he trusted her.
There were suspicious elements, but he believed Floa had checked everything thoroughly.
"Hey, Jacky."
"Yeah?"
"W-Would you... maybe stay here tonight?"
To Floa, who spoke with a flushed face...
"Nah, I'm good. I don't want to disturb your rest for no reason."
Jackal gave her plenty of space to relax.
Even if it was suspicious, he could just overcome it.
He always had.
There wasn't much for an A-rank adventurer like him to fear.
"This makes the twentieth party already. Are you really just going to let them go like this?"
"Let them go."
According to plan, in the early stages, he wouldn't let anyone through unless they were truly top-tier adventurers.
Over the past week, more than thirty parties had come and gone from this dungeon.
On average, three teams per day.
The returning men and women each had their own reactions.
Some men grinned smugly, crowing about finally scoring.
Some pairs subtly avoided eye contact, embarrassed and hyper-aware of each other.
One woman, lost to the aphrodisiac gas and stripped of her virginity with someone she barely recognized, had sobbed in the dungeon's center for ages, unable to leave.
It was a dungeon that turned carnal relations into pleasure-soaked chaos—primitive joy for some, lifelong shame for others, and a relationship booster for a few.
Their common thread: they all emerged from the aphrodisiac gas trap unscathed and left without further incident.
"But that girl still hasn't come out. She seems pretty shocked about getting taken by a guy."
The man she'd come with had already ditched her without a care, cool as ice.
"What should we do?"
"......Let her be. She's fine as is. Amy."
"Yes, Demon King."
"Bring that girl to the throne room."
"Understood."
Ditching a girl he'd already slept with? What a rude bastard.
In her broken state, taking her in wouldn't cause much fuss.
"When do you plan to start capturing them in earnest?"
"Yulia."
"Yes, Demon King."
"Do you have complaints about my plan right now?"
"N-No, I don't."
She bowed her head deeply.
Her wings fluttered nervously at her waist.
He couldn't help but imagine someday grabbing that fluttering waist, those wings, and gripping her plump rear in his hands.
A succubus, through and through.
The more he looked, the more her figure impressed him.
Touch her now, with his power lacking, and he might end up dead instead.
"Then why do you keep second-guessing me?"
"I'm sorry. But I don't think it's good for the dungeon to be exposed so often."
"You're not wrong. However..."
"However?"
"Sometimes it's easier to disguise things by letting them see us as a joke rather than a complete unknown."
"......"
"The moment the enemy lets their guard down and offers their neck to our blade—that's when I strike."
At the very least, he needed adventurers on Ariana's level, the first to fall into the trap.
Eating low-experience scrubs might taste fine, but too many would give him indigestion.
He'd focus on the tasty ones.
The nutrient-rich delicacies.
Yes.
Like that one.
"Looks like a decent one has finally shown up."
"......"
I spoke while eyeing the black-haired masked man and the silver-haired mage trailing him.
"You're really not gonna tell me?"
"Nope, I'll tell you once we go in. It's not a dungeon dangerous enough for you to worry about, Jacky. From what I heard, it's a D-rank at best."
"D-rank? Why the hell would we come here for that?"
Jackal swallowed his confusion while watching Floa's flustered reaction.
He was an A-rank adventurer, and Floa was a B-rank mage with her badge to prove it.
Frontliner and combat mage.
Not the standard party of two fronts, two backline DPS, and one healer, but their duo was solid enough to clear plenty of A-rank dungeons.
The two had slain countless monsters on battlefields.
And now a D-rank dungeon out of nowhere?
"This is too random."
"D-rank is low, sure, but it's a new dungeon. Aren't you curious?"
Floa's eyes wavered as she spoke.
Jackal stared at her intently.
"Floa."
"Y-Yeah?"
"What's your angle?"
"M-My angle? What do you mean?"
"You're hiding something."
"H-Huh? No idea what you're talking about~?"
"A brand-new dungeon with assigned entry orders? Adventurers swapping those orders? They all seem more interested in something other than conquering it..."
Jackal pinned Floa against the wall.
"Kyaa!"
"What's your game, Floa?"
He still trusted her.
A long-time comrade wouldn't betray him.
No suspicious presences anywhere he scanned.
No assassins gunning for him, no weird magic auras.
Exposed to killers' bloodlust since childhood, Jackal prided himself on sensing such shifts in the air better than anyone.
"G-Game? I don't have one! You can't trust me or something?"
"It's not that, but if you keep dodging, I can't help but get suspicious."
"......"
Floa met his eyes.
"Jacky, trust me just this once. Have I ever lied to you? Even once in all this time?"
"No, you haven't."
"So trust me. I just thought the two of us could have some fun conquering this dungeon."
Jacky stared into her eyes for a long moment.
Searching for even a hint of deceit in her words.
Five years as partners.
He knew her speech patterns and habits inside out.
She was definitely hiding something.
But those words...
I just thought the two of us could have some fun conquering this dungeon.
There wasn't a shred of falsehood there.
'If she does have an ulterior motive...'
He'd handle it himself.
Just like he'd thought yesterday.
'I've gone soft.'
Five years ago, when he first met Floa, he was a stubborn solo player who never would have followed anyone.
This must be camaraderie.
"......Sorry for shoving you so hard."
"It's fine. I was wrong for not telling you. But don't worry, Jacky."
Floa's ears turned bright red as she turned away.
"You'll like it too."
Her back to Jacky, she wore a resolute expression.
Determined to make it happen today.
That kind of face.
And then.
"This is fun."
The Demon King watched the two with keen interest.