11. O Sole Mio (1)
11. O Sole Mio (1)
- 1 -
"Ah..."
"You need to get up, Sonia."
After facing the painful reality and collapsing completely, Sonia began to recover both body and mind under my care — the kind and beautiful cabin owner in modest clothes who was, in truth, the enemy of her friends.
I fed her meals every day, tended to her simple needs, sometimes helped her turn her body over, and changed the bed sheets soaked with the secretions from her body while she was nearly losing her mind.
Above all, I kept talking to her, always.
"... Wh-why are you being so kind to me?"
To me, someone who had once cared for a grandmother with dementia or a person who genuinely didn't care whether they died, this was simply the natural thing to do when looking after someone.
A person who genuinely thought about their own death wouldn't concern themselves with any of their body's reactions.
But to her... by this world's standards, it seemed my actions were considerably devoted.
Seeing the reaction I got back, that is.
"Does a person saving another person really need a reason?"
It was an ironic thing to say as the one who had killed her friends for my own survival, but this had always been my honest belief.
People kill people. People save people.
The act itself is ugly or beautiful in its own right.
The reasons and motives attached to it are merely accessories that carve either hatred or reverence into the act. There were times when diminishing its value like that was necessary, but now wasn't one of them.
'Keep your allies close. But your enemies closer... was it?'
For now, I simply needed to package my actions more beautifully for the sake of my selfish desires and survival.
"Thank you. I'll manage from here on."
"Will you?"
Nod.
Perhaps my reply had been accepted as sincere.
Right after that brief exchange, Sonia began moving on her own and recovering swiftly.
She said it was thanks to my help, but in my eyes, the reason her recovery was so fast was because of her own goodness.
If she hadn't been, the 'power' I needed to mold her broken self into the desired state wouldn't have worked so easily.
"Because I can't cause any more trouble for someone so kind."
She possessed an oddly enormous amount of magical power.
Under normal circumstances, it was a level of power that someone as inexperienced as me couldn't have possibly let mental magic seep into. And simultaneously, it was an amount of magical power that made it miraculous she'd even survived this long.
Her sincere thought that she 'couldn't cause more trouble for a kind person' created a gap where I could instill the various necessary ideas.
And that helped accelerate her physical recovery.
"There are people who need to be informed about this incident..."
Of course, she didn't say it out loud right then, but there was likely also the reason 'because I have to avenge my dead friends.'
But there weren't many people who, when faced with their own despair, could think of others and use that as a reason to pull themselves back together.
Especially someone who had truly been ready to let go of everything, thinking nothing of their own death.
In any case, through the synergy of all of that, it didn't take a week, but only four days for her to recover enough from her despondency to move her body.
And the same was true of her opening her heart completely to me.
This brought me an unexpected benefit.
『Name - Sonia Medib』
『Job and Grade - Apprentice Mage』
『Affiliation - Dungeon Exploration Mage Guild, Truth-Groping Eye』
First, a fact I hadn't known before.
To view an adventurer's information, the person didn't necessarily have to be corrupted and swear loyalty to the Dungeon Lord.
If I could make them open their heart, I could view their information just like I would a summon's, without having to kill them.
Of course, this was normally a nearly insurmountable problem—whether because adventurers saw Dungeon Lords as enemies, or because Dungeon Lords felt no need to do so.
『Attributes - Stamina 2, Technique 6, Endurance 4, Magic Power 32, Resistance 8』
『Traits - Magic: Detection, Magic: Protection, Mana Overadaptation』
My eyes went to the word glowing with a dull purple light in Sonia's status window.
Mana Overadaptation. An Epic, Heroic-grade trait.
That was probably the source of the boiling magical power effect inside Sonia, and the cause of that overflowing Magic Power stat.
The reason she'd been able to survive this long with such values, I came to learn directly through conversation.
"Lemia was always kind and affectionate, even if she was quiet... And Jack, who was always bright and kept spirits high outside of combat, really liked Lemia. Enough that he never said a word about having to take on a burden like me..."
"If the two of them really were as good as you say, they wouldn't have thought of you as a burden."
"Do you think so? No. They wouldn't have. Because I really was a dead weight..."
"Even if that was truly the case, you're a life they saved, and their legacy. So all you have to do is change going forward, so that you won't be ashamed before them."
"Can I do that? Really...?"
For example, the complex relationship between them.
Among the reasons her self-esteem had nearly hit rock bottom was probably the trajectory of her life, living for so long relying on those two people she was so grateful to.
The feeling of being a burden to precious people can rot a person deeply.
Just as I had when I lived trapped in my own 'delusions' long ago.
"'Mana Overadaptation' huh... Over-related. So there was a reason the magical power I feel from you was so excessive."
"Because of this constitution of mine, I've always needed medicine to stabilize my magic. Those two worked so hard for me."
Another thing was the talk about her physical condition, which had also become the reason her friends kept taking her along.
"But one day, an opportunity came. My mage guild said that if we succeeded in stabilizing my condition, I could become a great mage."
"So as an apprentice."
"Yes. With my lacking body... it was truly a great honor. They both congratulated me sincerely too."
After listening to her words, I naturally checked on 'Mana Overadaptation'.
『Mana Overadaptation - An innate talent. Mana accumulates naturally without any special attempts to gather it. Increases Mana Stability Limit and Magic Usage Limit.』
It was a desirable trait.
From the description alone, it had no drawbacks. Which made it all the more dangerous.
When one's magic power exceeded the stability limit, if it wasn't suppressed, growth would be stunted, and if it worsened and crossed the malignant limit, even one's lifespan would be consumed.
The sum of her Endurance and Resistance was 12. The stability limit was probably 18, and even with the trait's increase, it was likely around 23 to 25.
And the malignant limit was probably around 30.
The reason her Endurance and Resistance, which normally grow naturally to some extent as a person develops, remained at levels barely above or below an ordinary person's despite her high Magic Power, was also likely due to this trait—more precisely, because of the magic power that had expanded beyond its limits.
Probably, her magic power had already exceeded the limit at a very young age, and from then on, she'd been barely staving off the consumption of her lifespan by administering medicine.
She must have tried to earn money through adventurer work while searching for a way to overcome it with drugs. As was evident from the apprentice-level Detection and Protection magic she was learning, she could still use minor magic even in that state.
And despite doing so, her magic power kept increasing, until it finally reached that level.
"Your body still isn't fully recovered. Do you really have to move already?"
"Yes. As I mentioned last time, there's someone who needs to know about this."
"Someone who needs to be informed... is it family?"
"Yes. That's right. My family all lives in the city, you see."
"You had guardians. That's a relief."
Other than that, the most useful information was about their families.
"Yes. My sister Maria is a member of a guild active in the big city. If I tell her about this, she'll definitely help. Even with... sniff. retrieving my friends' bodies."
"I'm sure she will. But going alone..."
Among that, especially, was the existence of Maria Olas, Lemia's older sister and a high-rank adventurer—the fact that a dangerous enemy might have come crashing down before me someday if I hadn't known.
Her physical state and all these relationships were the reason I resolved to invest even more effort into her.
"Right. I'll accompany you."
"What?! But troubling you that far..."
"I can't send you alone. If someone I saved dies senselessly somewhere I don't know, that would burden my heart as well."
"But..."
This was also the circumstance that led me to temporarily leave the dungeon and head for Solemio.
It was both an inspection of the city that would become part of my territory in the future, and a journey to adapt to this new world.
"And... there's still something I haven't told you yet, isn't there?"
"Truly... truly, thank you."
"It's nothing."
When I smiled, meeting Sonia's blue eyes, she smiled back as well, despite the gratitude she had just been pouring out.
The smile was still weak, but it was cute.
- 2 -
In Milden 1, a sufficiently powerful Dungeon Lord could project their power outward.
By forming a clan made up of Dungeon Lords — achieved by subjugating other player or NPC Dungeon Lords — and bringing the surrounding area under their influence.
I never saw it directly, but the six Archdukes probably created their 'Demonic Territories' in this manner as well.
'In that sense, I need to grasp the surrounding ecology and the state of the nearby city, too.'
Though this place was the frontier, there were certainly Dungeon Lords hidden away or still surviving, as well as wild monsters that were particularly powerful among their kind.
Isn't it customary to hand out rice cakes and scope out the neighbors after you move in?
I had to assess them.
Whether they could be made allies, or whether they had to be defeated as enemies.
And while sending subordinates was enough to find out whether other Dungeon Lords existed, moving personally was the most effective way to deal with a human city, since I had come to this world in human form.
"Are you going to be like this?"
However, this journey for that purpose got snagged right from the start.
The greatest obstacle to my progress towards Solemio wasn't the natural fact that a Dungeon Lord grows weaker away from their core, or that I mustn't reveal myself as a necromancer.
- Tak!
It was my soldier, Evangeline herself.
Absurdly, she had laid herself down in front of me as I tried to exit through the gate connected from the cave to the cabin, and was staging a full-body protest, saying that if I meant to go, I'd have to step on her.
It was both amusing and not amusing.
The unamusing part was this overprotectiveness of hers; the amusing part was that even knowing what I had to do was absolutely necessary, I couldn't bring myself to actually step over her like that.
Especially since I could constantly feel her vivid goodwill and loyalty.
"Eve, my soldier. You know well that this is necessary, don't you?"
- Dalkak!
Even though I spoke gently, she kept shaking her head vigorously, expressing that she didn't want to hear it, perhaps because verbal communication was still impossible. Her physical expressions of emotion were becoming ever larger and more expressive, and she sometimes showed this childlike side.
"You're acting like a child at a time like this. I've never seen this before."
I gently clasped her skull with both hands.
Just from that, she stopped shaking her head.
Even though I'd used no strength at all and she could have shaken it off in an instant if she applied any force, she acted as if she had absolutely no desire to, or as if she feared I might get hurt.
However, the blue light in her eyes was turned away from me as much as possible.
There was likely some fear of being persuaded, but she was also a little embarrassed herself to be acting this way.
- Tak!
Even so, she clacked her jawbone once more, pointing with one hand alternately between herself, Mire, and a few other Skeletons standing beside me.
She was asking why I was taking Mire and the others but not her.
"I've hidden the dungeon meticulously... but it's bound to be discovered someday. When that happens, if not you, who else will protect this place? Those hopelessly clumsy wild-born Goblins? The Kobolds? Or those Rogue Skeletons that were barely just created?"
- Dalkak.
With her eye-light flickering wildly, Eve pointed at herself and then pointed outside.
Again, it was a clear statement of intent. She'd rather go herself.
"How exactly do you plan to conceal your appearance?"
- Dalkak...
Of course, that notion was refuted in a single stroke.
Holding her skull steady so she faced me—since she still wouldn't meet my eyes—I tapped her forehead with my finger.
"I trust you. You'll do well, won't you?"
- ... Tak.
Only then did she rise from her spot and prostrate herself before me, expressing her wish for me to go and return safely. It was probably because the word 'trust' and the firm intent I conveyed along with it had a decisive effect.
Despite all her fuss, she couldn't resist me in the end.
I tapped her forehead once more, making her raise her head to look at me, then gently stroked the top of her head a couple of times.
- Dalkak!
At times like this, her feelings always flickered brightly, and this time was no different.
"The core and my room are well hidden, so you should prioritize protecting them over the dungeon's other rooms if they're being destroyed. If you are hurt when I return, I'll be very sad. Do you understand?"
- Dalkak.
She lowered her head once, reliably, then lifted it straight back up.
The intent she sent me was an emotion demanding a promise that 'I, too, must do the same,' and I affirmed it.
"Right. Since I'm going after overcoming your stubbornness, I absolutely will."
- Tak!
And so, leaving Eve behind, I was able to set out from the dungeon.
To inspect the city that might become my future territory, and to learn about those who might become my enemies.
"Maria unni...!"
"Sonia? You..."
Meeting Maria's party—who had set out from Solemio to search for Sonia's group—happened a mere three days later.