19. O Eclissi (1)
19. O Eclissi (1)
- 1 -
[The dignity of one who has become a monarch naturally begins from the room! So how about you hurry and furnish a pretty room? Here, I know some fine furniture craftsmen...]
[Dalkak!]
I'd been dumbfounded when Scarlet suggested making my room a priority over preparing even the basic functions of the dungeon—and when Evangeline nodded along as if that was the only thing she agreed with...
But now, I thought it was a good thing I had gone through with it.
"Mmm..."
Because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to wake up in the morning with such a pleasant stretch.
My body no longer needed sleep, but sleeping even a few hours still felt good. And if that sleep was in a proper bed, it was only natural that it felt even better.
- Dalkak.
Chirp chirp...
"Good morning. Eve."
- Tak!
Eve, who had already entered the room just before I woke up, opened the window, and birdsong drifted in along with a pleasantly cool breeze.
I stroked the head of her kneeling beside me, then took the hand Eve offered and rose from my seat.
At first, it had been awkward beyond words, but it was a special treatment that had taken only three days to get used to.
"I'll be counting on you again today."
- Tak!
My hair didn't get messy even after sleeping, but because it was so long, it needed proper combing and care for the parts that had tangled.
When I spoke after sitting at the vanity for that purpose, I felt Eve's careful touch and the comb running through my hair as she answered with a burst of joyful emotion.
A touch filled with deep caution, careful that her sharp fingertips might even damage my skin.
Though she knew full well there was no chance of that actually happening to my skin, I didn't feel like stopping her since her behavior pleased me.
Sarak-sarak...
"I saw that you drove the children quite hard yesterday."
- Dalkak.
"No, no, I'm not reproaching you. It was excellent."
- Tak!
"Yes."
'How cute.'
As I looked past the mirror while enjoying the pleasant sensation of my hair being tended to, I saw pieces of furniture like a wardrobe and a vanity set along the rock walls, unlike before.
They hadn't been made by the craftsman Scarlet mentioned, but were handmade items that Eve had crafted using her strangely good dexterity.
I didn't know what kind of wood she used, but the furniture, properly finished with materials purchased from the Sollemio Carpenter's Guild this time, gave off a nice woody scent that quietly boosted my mood every time I woke in the morning.
I could see outside the window created by magic, and it even shone sunlight into the room, so it felt very cozy—except that the stone was still visible because there was no wallpaper yet.
'Nice.'
The location of my room, which put me in a good mood like that, was actually at the entrance of the dungeon.
To be precise, it was on the upper floor, reachable via stairs hidden in a pillar at the center of the dungeon.
It was designed so that adventurers wouldn't be able to reach me if they couldn't solve the 'mystery' even after breaking through to the end of the dungeon.
And of course, they couldn't find the dungeon core either.
It seemed that other dungeon lords often placed their cores underground, but my core room was even higher up than my room.
Tok.
When I tapped my chest and used magic, my nightgown was momentarily dyed entirely black by mana.
When I checked through the mirror a moment later, a perfect dress without a single piece of lace out of place or a single wrinkle came into view, just as always.
This kind of instant clothing change was possible except when undressing completely.
It reminded me of the magical girl animations I'd glimpsed on TV as a child, which felt a bit odd, but convenience was a good thing.
Dalkak.
"Hoo."
Thus, I welcomed a pleasant morning while drinking a cup of morning tea that Eve had brewed.
Into that room, which always made me feel good with the goodwill I sensed directed toward me, entered one person filled with dark emotions that stained those feelings.
"..."
"Good morning. My disciple."
Sonia Medib.
She was my partner in the minor fraud where I played the teacher and she played the student, though she didn't know it.
- 2 -
"..."
Dalkak.
Her eyes, brought by Mire from her room and seated facing me, were still empty even by the time I had finished all my tea.
The same went for the mana that had been raging furiously within her. Currently, all her mana, except for the minimum needed to maintain her body, was in a restricted state.
It was a measure taken to restrain her and, if the chance came, to 'properly handle' her.
If I had left that torrent of mana as it was, she—fallen into despair—would have lost control of her mana and died before I could do anything.
"Have you eaten breakfast?"
Shake shake.
Perhaps because of that, when I met her a few days later, she looked healthier than before even though she hadn't been eating properly.
It was only natural, since her metabolism was far smoother compared to before when absorption hadn't been happening.
Even if she ate properly, all the food would be broken down into energy just to sustain excessively powerful mana, so she must have been in a state where the phrase 'losing weight even while eating' was literally embodied.
...Though it seemed her heart still hadn't recovered compared to her body.
"So... have you sorted out your thoughts?"
"..."
A few days ago, after I succeeded in restraining her and all her acquaintances, I made her a proposal.
Today, I intended to hear her answer to that proposal.
For the dungeon to properly grow, I would eventually have to create an environment where adventurers would come from outside, and to do that, I had to properly solidify the foundation first.
I couldn't afford to spend time on her indefinitely.
"If your thoughts aren't sorted out yet, we can talk over a meal."
"...No."
Sonia finally opened her mouth.
Her face, unlike a moment ago when it had been blank and slack, now showed intense emotions.
Hatred, loathing, anger, murderous intent.
It was an expression so intense that I wondered if the amount of those emotions she was feeling now was greater than all of those emotions she had felt in her entire life.
"...Why did you do that to me?"
Yet even so, she asked for the 'reason'.
Even though it was 120% certain that we had already become enemies in this state, it was an attitude that suggested she was prepared to understand depending on the reason.
It might have been because I had killed her friends or reduced them to a state worse than death, but still hadn't taken everything away. Perhaps it was thanks to the presence of Mariana Leonis, who was still alive.
Of course, she would never be able to accept it.
But 'understanding' always stood at the opposite pole from 'hatred'. It was natural that if you understood the other party, you couldn't purely hate them.
Knowing that, I couldn't help but find her attitude very beautiful.
So, I had no choice but to answer honestly.
"It was because I was weak."
"Weak... you say?"
"Yes."
Sonia glared at me with a face that said she couldn't understand. From a human standpoint, it must have sounded incomprehensible.
But to me, those words were filled with nothing but sincerity.
Originally, I had simply wanted to delay for time, but that became a meaningless strategy the moment Maria took action.
What remained was to gain the maximum benefit according to the situation. Honestly speaking, Sonia simply became the best sacrifice to gain that benefit.
In other words, the fate of the weak caught between the strong.
If I didn't want to end up looking like that, I would have to keep striving in the future as well.
I had to become strong.
"A dungeon lord is a being born from the core. Even a human would know at least this much."
"...Anyone knows that. That fact."
"Yes. Because humans have records."
It was laughable even to myself to talk as if I wasn't human, but that feeling never leaked out through my expression or my words.
Because 'Nobility' was always supporting me.
I closed my eyes briefly and then opened them, imagining one thing. What would have happened if I, in this body, hadn't had my current self present.
It wasn't deception.
It was something I had once imagined while playing this game, and it was also a 'story' that had actually happened.
"When you are born into the world, all you see is one brightly shining, bead-shaped inorganic substance. Only that floats in the air and looks down at me."
"..."
"And it says: 'Devour it.'"
There is no one to talk to, no one to share the warmth of life with.
Simply because they were born into the world as a successor to the Demon King, they were abandoned with only knowledge they couldn't be sure was their own or someone else's, and 'hostility toward humans' planted in their head.
And a baby waiting instead to devour the being that would slaughter them and take everything away.
That was a dungeon lord.
Under the former Demon King's belief that 'one who is to be king' must be raised from the start, they were the infants of the demon realm, entrusted to the dungeon core.
"Like that, you stay lonely, not even knowing what loneliness is. Then you realize one thing. That you 'must summon something'."
"Monsters..."
"Yes. The beings you call monsters. Greenskins, corrupted spirits. Anything."
A dungeon lord thus comes to resemble the first being they summon.
If they summon a skeleton, they become a necromancer; if a zombie, a vampire; if a kobold, a were-dragon; if a goblin, one of the greenskins.
Before properly recognizing themselves, they observe another being, learn something from that other being, and build their ego.
Of course, this was only the general case, and it didn't always happen 100% of the time. If it did, there would have been no customization elements in 'Milden 1' at all.
"Thus, most come to know wildness first. If they're lucky, there are cases where they realize wickedness or how to deceive."
"Lucky... you say?"
"Of course. The quicker you come to know such things, the better it is for survival. You already know what we are, but we don't know you. Because we're babies."
"..."
Like that, the dungeon lord first seeks to survive. According to the instinct of life.
Ironically enough, this part was the same as me. Because my current self was also aiming to survive 'first' as well.
What lay beyond that, came next.
"Do you understand? You have standards for 'cowardice' and 'fairness'. But we only have to survive. From the endless adventurers who come seeking us. And sometimes from seniors who want to devour juniors and grow larger."
"Seniors...?"
"Other dungeon lords. A young dungeon lord's mana is a very nutritious food to them."
The mana of a dungeon core had a high mana conversion rate.
Far higher than ordinary creatures or other special tools.
Mana normally used in various ways to control the whole dungeon, when absorbed by another core, would instantly be refined and become pure.
And the mana a core possessed could itself be converted into another 'attribute' of the dungeon lord.
It was itself the 'remaining attributes' in the status window—a fine material that could purely and powerfully strengthen the dungeon lord themselves.
"A lonely life. Countless enemies, or prey. Living like that... a dungeon lord becomes one of two things. An immensely powerful beast. An immensely wicked demon. One of the two."
"But... but you were wise from the beginning."
"Yes."
As the explanation about dungeon lords concluded, Sonia's face showed even greater incomprehension.
I looked at the restraints Sonia was wearing.
To purchase those, which numbered only eight, from the trading company, all the souls of one unfortunate bandit group were sold off. But even if Sonia knew that, she wouldn't sympathize.
That would be the same as not pitying wild goblins or orcs even after learning they were 'beings capable of being educated'.
To this good child, bandits were probably synonymous with monsters. Unless she knew that a portion of them were merely slash-and-burn farmers.
In reality, what bandits did wasn't much different from what monsters did.
"You are the most edible and nutritious food to me. Just as you view other beasts."
"...!"
It seemed, however, that 'understanding' was possible splendidly.
That the gaze of other species looking at humans was not inherently different either.
"Moreover, I knew that if I let go of a nutritious piece of food, it would summon even better food that I could choke on. Sonia. I needed more 'digestive juices'."
"Digestive juices...?"
"You. All the relationships you have. And... this."
Sonia flinched and shut her eyes slightly as I brought my hand over. From her, I extracted a part of the mana that had been suppressed.
It was possible because Mammon Trading Company's restraints were made to be friendly to dungeon lords.
I couldn't take it out and use it freely like the core's mana, but I could 'borrow' it in this way.
"Ugh... uh."
"Did you know? Your mana is already more powerful than Maria's. It could become a very powerful resource, or a material. And I chose you as a resource. Not a material."
Sonia watched with eyes full of shock as her mana, originally blue, was dyed black under my influence.
Perhaps because it seemed, at a glance, to contain such tremendous force. Or perhaps because her death had nearly been decided without her knowing.
"Why didn't you just kill me..."
"I told you. I needed you. And... that's still the same now. I still regret killing your friends. I also feel sorry toward you. Sonia."
"Lies."
"Think what you like."
Though I was sincere, Sonia glared at me as if I was loathsome.
Since I had no intention of convincing her entirely anyway, I decided to bring the conversation back to the main topic.
"You haven't forgotten, have you."
Looking at her, I reminded her of the proposal I had made previously. About the man who, pitifully drawn by his feelings for her, was scheduled to die in this place.
"If you want to save Leonis, form a contract with me. The conditions haven't changed."
A dungeon lord's contract wasn't only possible with summoned creatures.
Humans could also form contracts with dungeon lords and belong to the dungeon. Usually, it was done after completely corrupting their soul into a cursed being, but it wasn't absolutely necessary.
I had no intention of doing that either.
I needed her 'Mana Overadaptation', and to be able to securely receive and use that trait, a 'contract with a human in an uncorrupted state' was essential.
The reason I wasn't corrupting her here was, well, what I might call my 'humanity'. Something I didn't necessarily think I had to protect, but which still remained.
"...What about Maria unni and the others?"
"Their circumstances are not for you to decide. It's something I'll discuss with them separately. But if you agree to form a contract, at least I will ensure they are cared for while confined. What will you do."
Her deliberation didn't take long.
In the end, Sonia nodded and glared at me with resentment.
Her hatred, thinned by the goodness that had come from understanding I was a dungeon lord not long born, wedged understanding between hate, and further tempered by the 'familiarity toward me' I had already painted into her inner self—now far more diluted than before.
And with eyes that filled the lessened amount with self-loathing.
"...I hate myself for having considered you my sun."
"Hate me all you like. What I need is not your goodwill."
"Someday, I might kill you."
"The contract isn't that easy. But if it becomes possible, try it."
"...I will."
"Good. Then, let us first form a provisional contract."
This was the circumstance by which she came to call me 'Teacher'.
- 3 -
"It must be a lie."
Sonia murmured like that. Powerlessly.
"A lie..."
But what her own self was saying was also a lie she herself couldn't believe.
A lie uttered because of the shock of the fact that she would forever lose her sun.