Entering the Dungeon
Having seen no reason to watch the torture firsthand, I had returned to the clearing where we had been resting to play with Vivian. Before long, Muriel and Weller came walking back.
Despite having just inflicted unspeakable agony upon a living soul and ended his life, neither woman showed the slightest trace of it in their demeanor or appearance.
Though I had felt it time and again, moments like this drove home the reality that I truly had been dropped into an entirely different world.
...Along with the fact that, in a remarkably short time, I had adapted to such a world rather well.
Gulp, gulp!
Washing away the lingering unease and cognitive dissonance with a long swig of strong liquor, I cracked a grin.
"Get anything out of him?"
"Yes. It cut rather close, but thanks to Lady Weller, we extracted the information. As expected, the one who dispatched the assassin was Zeb."
"Figures..."
Now that my hunch had solidified into certainty, I could not help but marvel at the bastard's sheer initiative and audacity. Finding no mention of him in the lore guides, I had assumed he was a nobody, but he had turned out to be quite the wildcard.
"Now that his assassination attempt has blown up in his face, he's probably sweating bullets. What do you think he'll do next?"
"Run, most likely," Weller remarked. "Scum like him are completely predictable."
I tilted my head slightly at her words.
"I wouldn't be so sure."
Zeb was a degenerate gambler who thrived on peril and thrills, getting off on smashing through crises head-on.
"If he intended to run, I doubt he would have sent an assassin in the first place."
"Fair point," Weller conceded. "Which means that bastard might keep getting in our way and threatening us down the road... What now, then? Are we calling off the dungeon raid?"
"No, there's no reason to. He wouldn't know our destination anyway. Right, Muriel?"
"Precisely, Lord Alzen. According to the assassin, the rumors they spread were merely fabricated bait designed to draw the interest of adventurers."
"Just as I thought."
Unless the leak had sprung directly from the Duke's Castle, there was no way Zeb could know where we were truly headed. It was a foregone conclusion.
"Great. Then let's pick up the pace. I'm planning to clear this dungeon before the day is out."
"H-Hold on! What about our deal before that? You're not thinking of backing out, are you?!"
Cacciola, who had been quietly listening in, cried out with an anxious expression. Seeing her hand resting gently on the hilt of her dagger—ready to fight if pushed—she almost looked pathetic.
"Ah, right. That completely slipped my mind."
"S-Slipped your mind? You..."
"Here, catch."
"Huh? Whoa!"
When I took off the bracelet and tossed it over, she scrambled in a panic, barely managing to catch it.
"B-Be careful with it! You know what kind of artifact this is...!"
"Ah, my bad. A bit buzzed right now, you see."
I smirked and shook the liquor bottle. She glared at me with narrowed eyes before letting out a weary sigh.
"Fine, whatever. You don't need anything else from me, right?"
"Nope. You didn't actually do much, but you still got all those adventurers to back off and helped us take care of the assassin, so I've got no complaints."
"...Th-Then, um... There's one favor I want to ask..."
"Hm?"
I looked at her, surprised. I had fully expected her to bolt without looking back.
Cacciola's lips parted and closed several times as though she were wrestling with herself, before resolve hardened in her eyes.
"Save House Belar. No... Destroy the current House Belar!"
"Well, well."
Those certainly weren't words I had expected to hear from her mouth, and I blinked in genuine surprise.
"Now that's a shocker, Cacciola. A proud cynic like you, who trusts absolutely no one, asking someone else for a favor?"
"...I don't know what kind of person you think I am, but I'm not stupid enough to throw away an opportunity."
"An opportunity? You're saying I'm your opportunity? Why?"
"Why?! You already know, don't you?! What's really become of my family! Are you seriously planning to just leave them alone?!"
"If necessary, yes."
"Necessary...? Did you say necessary?! What could you possibly need them for?! Are you trying to squeeze something out of my family?! Or use them for something?!"
Enraged, she lunged toward me, only to be instantly intercepted and held back by Muriel and Rebecca.
"Kgh...!"
"Hmm. Frankly, I'm amazed. And a little bewildered, Cacciola. Do you have no intention of achieving your revenge with your own two hands?"
The Cacciola I knew was a wicked wretch driven by spite and pride, someone who would stoop to any means necessary. I had never dreamed she would actively beg for salvation like this.
"If I could have done it myself, I would have done it long ago! But I... I can't handle those monsters...!"
"Well, that's true enough."
The usurping of her family, the County of Belar, was an incident orchestrated by a High Demon. It was hardly something an ordinary mortal could handle.
In the game, if you never made contact with Cacciola and left House Belar to its fate, she would eventually succumb to despair over her own powerlessness and fall to demonic corruption. Once that happened, she was entirely disqualified as a heroine—a development that had sparked immense outrage among players.
And why? Because her demonized form was just too damn alluring and sensual.
United in their grief, players had flooded customer support and community forums with pleas demanding that corrupted Cacciola be made a romance option. But the developers' response had remained utterly unyielding:
By canonical lore, demons and monsters are irrevocably bound to the Demon God, and thus will under no circumstances align with humanity.
It was a textbook answer from setting purists who lived and died by their worldbuilding.
"Even so, Cacciola, the demons coiled inside your family are far beyond my ability to deal with. What's more, they're posing as your blood relatives, which gives them tremendous political power..."
"What are you talking about?! Who asked you to solve it yourself?! You can just crush them with the ducal army! With that famous knight order of yours! Or Continental Peak Sword Master Urtega Stanasila can step up and wipe them out himself! Didn't he just kill two High Demons recently?! Then sweeping our estate should be a walk in the park for him, shouldn't it?!"
"Hmm..."
To be fair, if I brought it up to Urtega, he might actually grab his sword and rush out the door that very second. Ever since reaching his new realm of power, he had looked practically starved for a decent sparring partner.
Still, if he did that, wouldn't all the protagonist's experience points and item drops vanish into thin air? Ah, wait—this was reality, not a game. I suppose I should frame it as robbing the Hero of an opportunity for growth.
"Please. I'll do anything..."
Seeing Cacciola practically groveling with tears welling in her eyes felt utterly surreal. Where had all the malice, grit, cunning, and haughty composure from the game gone? Ah... Could it be that she hadn't mentally matured yet?
Come to think of it, the player only encountered her midway through the game's story, which was several years from now. Right now, she was simply fragile and unpolished due to a lack of experience.
...Which meant I could exploit that vulnerability.
"Oh? You'll do anything? Truly?"
I smirked and swept my gaze up and down her frame. She flinched, glaring back at me with undisguised contempt, but ultimately gritted her teeth and nodded.
"If you can grant my wish... I'll even become your slave. So please..."
I gave it some serious thought.
Subjugating House Belar... The difficulty was undeniably steep, but considering the backing of the ducal house, it wasn't out of the question. Still, I wasn't in a position to give a definitive promise.
Leaving the Hero's growth aside, having the ducal family as a safety net was an entirely different matter from mobilizing its entire military might at my personal whim. The real question was how Urtega would react and how far he would permit me to go.
"Unfortunately, I can't give you a clear answer right now."
"No..."
As despair threatened to overtake her, I placed a hand firmly on her shoulder.
"However, once our business here is finished, I'll consult with my father right away about a solution."
"Really...?!"
Seeing her face brighten instantly with moved gratitude, looking as though her revenge had already been served, I stretched my lips into a broad grin.
"Yeah. Which means, starting from this very moment, you are my slave."
"Eh...?"
Thrown off, she offered an awkward laugh.
"Th-That was supposed to be the price after you helped me achieve my revenge, wasn't it...?"
"Hahaha. Was it really? Doesn't look that way to me. This is the only place left you can cling to, isn't it?"
I smiled slyly and stroked her cheek. Contempt surfaced on her face once more—though this time, thoroughly seasoned with sheer disgust.
"How can a man be this cowardly and despicable...!"
"Oh, and I haven't mentioned it until now, but you had to come with us anyway."
"What? What does that even mean?!"
"What do you mean, 'what does that mean'? Are you playing dumb? You heard what we said earlier, didn't you? We're going to raid a dungeon right now. An undiscovered one at that."
"...!!"
Her face drained of color as she hurriedly scanned her surroundings. But she was already completely hemmed in by Muriel, Rebecca, and Lira, each radiating a chilling, razor-sharp presence.
"Surrender quietly," Muriel stated calmly.
"I am sorry, but this is information that cannot be allowed to leak," Rebecca added with an apologetic glance.
"I have no intention of releasing a loose-lipped adventurer," Lira said coolly. "The only way you leave is as a corpse."
Hearing their sequential declarations, Cacciola scowled fiercely.
...By the way, Lira really had a knack for uttering terrifying threats while sporting the face of a rustic, innocent country maiden.
"...You planned this from the very beginning, didn't you? Despicable and sly to the bitter end."
"Heheh. That's right. You've been kidnapped."
"You bastard...!"
"Right then, shall we get a move on?"
I leaned my booze-heavy body against Cacciola's shoulder. Her expression soured completely, but she resigned herself to her fate and supported my weight.
"Hey, Alzen. You two have been talking in riddles this whole time."
Not long after we began marching, Weller sidled up beside me, poking my ribs with a disgruntled pout. Next to her, Vivian trotted along with wide, curious eyes sparkling with innocent wonder.
"What on earth happened to House Belar? And what is that Cacciola woman to them? Aren't you going to explain?"
"Ah... Come to think of it, I never told you, did I?"
"No, you didn't. Start talking."
"...I'm kind of lazy right now. Can't it wait until later?"
"......"
Poke, poke, poke, poke!
Her jabs into my side were growing steadily harder. Feeling like she was about to bore a hole straight through my ribs, I let out a sigh and brushed her hand away.
"Fine, I'll keep it simple. So, basically..."
When I summarized the tragedy that had befallen House Belar, the expressions of Weller, Vivian, and even Muriel, Rebecca, and Lira—who had all been surreptitiously listening in—froze rock-solid.
"So you're saying... an entire noble family was completely usurped by a demon capable of shapeshifting into humans? A count's family, no less?"
"Yeah. Cacciola is the sole survivor who barely managed to escape."
"...It's hard to believe. I knew demonic abilities defied all natural laws, but to think something like that was possible..."
"Because you find it so hard to believe, everyone else assumes the same—which is exactly why House Belar hasn't drawn a shred of suspicion to this day. On top of that, they don't just change their appearance; they inherit trivial habits and even memories. In other words, in every observable way, the current House Belar functions as a perfectly normal noble house. That's the exact reason Cacciola has had to wander alone, unable to seek help from anyone."
"Horrifying. Hmm, but if that's the case, Father would probably be eager to lead a subjugation himself, wouldn't he?"
"You think so?"
"Yes. Father never forgives demons."
As Weller said this, an undisguised look of admiration and respect shone in her eyes.
"......"
Isn't that just because he's so starved for a real fight that he'd sprint anywhere for a scrap? Urtega was already the pinnacle; with no worthy rivals left, that was the only way he could ever experience a genuine 'live combat.' Naturally, pointing that out would only make her mad, so I kept my mouth shut.
"......"
Leaving it all to Urtega to resolve everything, huh... I genuinely prayed it would be that quick and simple.
After several hours of travel, we finally arrived at the entrance of the dungeon.
"...This is the dungeon entrance?"
"Yup. That's it."
"...Seriously?"
Weller scrunched up her nose, her face a portrait of sheer disbelief and reluctance. It made sense. The place I was claiming to be a dungeon entrance looked, by all accounts, like nothing more and nothing less than a massive, bottomless pit gouged into the earth.
"Th-This is the entrance...? I've walked past this place so many times...!"
Cacciola stared down into the chasm with a stunned expression. No matter how hard one peered into its depths, there was no sign of a floor—only thick, pitch-black darkness swallowing everything whole.
"It really is a dungeon, so get ready, everyone. We're jumping down."
"...Are you out of your mind? Jumping in there looks like a one-way ticket to getting pulverized."
"Then stay up here. Muriel. Rebecca."
"Awaiting your command."
"U-Um... Oh, whatever! It'll be fine! If Lord Alzen says so, there must be a reason!"
Rebecca looked nervous, but she quickly steeled her resolve and drew her twin swords.
"Cacciola. You steel yourself as well."
"Wait... Are you sure about this?! Is this really a dungeon entrance?! It looks like the gates of hell! If we fall, we're just going to die! I've heard rumors about this place—people say that not a single soul who fell in ever came back!"
"You won't die, so trust me. Ah, before that."
Anticipating an immediate ambush the moment we hit the descent, I activated the Holy Guardian Fortress.
Fwwaaaash!
"Right, like this."
The moment I willed it, soft, radiant beams of light manifested, which I focused and directed outward until luminous shrouds wrapped securely around everyone in the party.
"Great. Working without a hitch. Here we go!"
"K-Kyaaaaak?!"
"Eeeeeek!!"
Grabbing Cacciola by the scruff of her neck and tucking Vivian under my arm, I leaped straight into the void without warning, leaving a trail of shrill shrieks echoing behind us. Muriel and Rebecca reacted instantly, kicking off the ground to dive right after us.
"Ugh... Seriously, you idiot!"
The last thing I saw before the surface vanished was Weller and Lira jumping in behind us. In the blink of an eye, all light was extinguished, swallowed by the suffocating gloom.
Curiously, even the sensation of free-falling seemed to fade away, replaced by a heavy, eerie silence that set off a high-pitched ringing in my ears.
Kreee... Kheee-heee-heeeek!
"Well, look who's here. A Specter."
"Kyaaaak?! A-A ghost...!"
"M-Mommyyyy!"
Spotting the grotesque vengeful spirit swooping down through the dark, Cacciola and Vivian shrieked in terror, but I merely watched it with detached amusement.
Kree...? Kreeeeek?
As long as we had the legendary relic Holy Guardian Fortress active, its sole method of attack—mental interference—could not touch us in the slightest.
Kreek? Khe-he-heee?
Utterly bewildered, the Specter pursed its ghostly maw and flapped around us in flustered circles, looking rather comical.