23. O Eclissi (5)
23. O Eclissi (5)
- 1 -
Sparing Leonis had been for the sake of obtaining his knowledge intact, but accepting Daniel as my soldier was honestly nothing more than a whim.
Even so, it wasn't a meaningless action.
Just as I hadn't completely erased Gyeonghan but sent him off into the space of human life, the more 'eyes' I had, the better.
"Therefore, your first task is to return to your guild, Daniel."
"But without Maria, the guild will be suspicious. They know well that I would never return without her."
For his part, along with a contract that compelled him to obey my commands, a binding was added that forced him to speak only the truth to me.
That was sufficient.
As long as Maria remained in my grasp, the moment he entertained thoughts of betrayal, he would erase them from his mind.
Besides, a mercenary guild wasn't even an organization that operated on loyalty and honor in the first place.
Money and influence, perhaps.
And on top of that, what I wanted from him wasn't even to drag his former comrades here to their deaths.
"First, cite her younger sibling as the reason. Second, mention retirement and a security post in her hometown."
"That won't convince them."
"This should do, shouldn't it?"
"Where did this much money come from...? No, certainly, with this much, it should be possible."
Thus, what I presented to Daniel was a considerably large amount of wealth I had obtained while erasing the bandits.
Maria had been a promising prospect for the guild, but conversely, that meant she wasn't a top-priority asset to manage.
So if they were fed a large sum of money, the mercenary guild wouldn't pay much attention to her withdrawal.
As I said, mercenary guilds operated on money.
"What should I do after that?"
"You'll have to keep operating there regardless, won't you? If even you were to quit, that would truly draw suspicion."
"That is true."
"While operating there, erase all traces of Maria and her siblings as much as possible, and primarily gather information related to dungeons. For now, that should suffice."
"Understood."
Information was always crucial.
If possible, I'd want to scatter the 'Eyes of the Necromancer' across the entire continent so I could check all information in real time.
"Then... um."
"'Lady' will suffice."
"Yes. Lady Libertas."
When I gave a slight nod, Daniel bowed his head with a degree of poise that, while not quite matching Eve's, was still respectable, and departed from the dungeon.
With this, he would become my eyes observing the kingdom's eastern region, and this could potentially bring me good opportunities.
'In "Milden 1," the world had been united due to the chaos caused by dungeons, but the present era was a time when many established Dungeon Lords already existed, and the major spheres of influence had largely stabilized, causing humans to begin revealing their conflicts with one another.'
'I'm looking forward to it.'
Information about wars among humans would undoubtedly be of help to me.
For example, foreknowledge of when disturbances that could conceal dungeon expansion would occur.
When that time came, I could attempt yet another endeavor.
- 2 -
"So. Are the two of them doing well?"
- Tak.
- Tak!
To my question, Mire answered quietly, and Eve answered briskly.
The 'two' I referred to were the observation mage Leonis and the trap specialist Jacob.
[I will contract with you. The conditions are...]
Leonis ultimately chose to contract with me and became the dungeon's third human.
It was still a provisional contract, but soon, once I purchased the contract document, he would be properly affiliated with the dungeon and the demon realm.
Leonis's contract conditions were Sonia's health, restoring her life as a mage, and allowing her to choose a human life.
[Understood. I grant it.]
The former was something I had never intended to take away in the first place, so I permitted it as a matter of course, and as for the latter, since she herself had declared she would remain here, there was no issue.
In exchange, what I demanded of him was diligent labor and the safeguarding of secrets, along with a mental binding to enforce this, and the 'pain' both would suffer should the contract not be fulfilled.
He agreed to this and was currently steadily carrying out the contract's conditions.
[Our guild's methods and those of other guilds are certainly different, but there is one commonality. More than anything else, they react most keenly to 'danger to oneself or someone close.']
[Considering this, in cases where a mage can easily overcome it but a typical adventurer would find it difficult to avoid, designing traps that...]
Designing the dungeon's magical traps to strike at the unconscious minds of human mages.
[Lady...? To make the traps you desire...?]
Jacob's situation was far worse than Leonis's.
I hadn't even needed to carefully apply hypnosis as I had when infiltrating Sonia; having grown confident in my previous results, I applied the curse somewhat roughly, and the man had already broken down.
[I'm sorry? ... I don't know...]
It was a regrettable mistake.
His 'knowledge' could still be used without issue, but he had become incapable of using 'wisdom.'
Moreover, because of this, Jacob's labor was carried out in a place unseen by those affiliated with my dungeon. There was no reason to dampen the morale of those who had come under my command.
"When does he say it'll be completed?"
- Tak.
- Dalkak!
"Leonis in three days, Jacob in a week... one side is far too slow, but it can't be helped."
Thus, it was Mire and Eve who were monitoring the two people working for my dungeon.
Mire watched Leonis, and Eve watched Jacob.
In Jacob's case, once all the knowledge he possessed was extracted, I would have to consider other 'uses' for him, but still.
"Mire. How are the other two?"
Mire was also tasked with monitoring the conditions of Sonia and Maria.
Entrusting them to her, who still retained traces of Lemia, might seem unsettling, but there was no need to worry about betrayal or anything of the sort.
Contracts with the undead, as they directly employed my essence as a necromancer, were far more powerful than contracts with living humans.
To the point where I could even fabricate emotions that did not exist.
Eve's case was special in that she had displayed friendliness toward me from the very beginning without even undergoing such manipulation. If necessary, it was a measure I would have to apply to other subordinates as well.
- Dalkak.
"I see, nothing out of the ordinary."
Sonia was gradually regaining her health.
Once she became healthy enough to endure 'trait removal' before long, I intended to extract 'mana overadaptation' from her.
The contract with her was an exercise of exclusive rights for this purpose. Had she caught the eye of a Dungeon Lord other than myself, that Lord would not have taken such 'moderate measures.'
They might have attempted to extract the trait immediately, regardless of whether she lost her life or not.
A trait that increased mana without special training was like a cornucopia to a Dungeon Lord, after all.
Since there was a difference between human mana and demon mana, the amount of increase might vary somewhat, but even if the amount went from 0 to 0.1, wasn't that far better than nothing?
[I'll kill you... without fail...]
Maria remained the same, even after several days.
Whatever Sonia and Daniel had said, she was at least accepting food, but she engaged in no other activities and seemed to focus solely on exercises to prevent her body from rusting, staying indoors all day.
Of course, I had no intention of leaving her be either.
My dungeon and I were very young compared to other dungeons, and growth during youth was immensely important.
If there truly was no use for her, she would be put to work even as a janitor.
"Mire."
- Dalkak.
I looked at Mire for a moment.
At her, whose gaze trembled uncontrollably, and beside her, Eve was also watching with a slightly displeased expression, following my lead.
If it hadn't been for the orders I had given in advance, she might have scolded her for something.
"..."
She had been Maria's younger sister.
Keeping Maria alive, even in a semi-crippled state, was something I had already resolved to do for Mire's sake, separate from accepting Daniel.
Still, I had been conflicted until the very end, so if Daniel hadn't resolved to contract quickly, I might still have been agonizing over it.
Had she not already regained her 'heart,' it might be different, but now that she had already regained it, was there any need to deliberately deepen the contradictions in that heart?
She probably hadn't yet recovered precise memories, but it was clear she was at least feeling a sense of familiarity with her own name or presences familiar to her in life.
Someone would surely call this hypocrisy.
And I would probably shake my head. Saying it was 'self-satisfaction and curiosity.'
'It's not just her.'
Such cases weren't limited to Mire alone.
In subordinates who had been bandits or wild greenskins, far stronger 'aggression' than that of ordinary undead was also noticeable, and in subordinates obtained for other purposes, other individualities were blossoming one by one.
Considering that in 'Milden 1,' such individuality blossoming took at least two or three class-ups at the fastest, the time it took for my skeletons to acquire 'individuality' was remarkably quick.
Not to the extent of possessing clear intelligence like Mire or Eve, but you could say they were at a level clearly not that of ordinary undead.
And while that happened, the number of entities showing goodwill toward me had increased. Strangely enough.
'I don't know whether they're following Eve, the First with clear intelligence, or if it's because of that 'small benefit' granted to me.'
Even if the cause was unknown, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Diverse individuality was a path leading to multiple types of traits, and soldiers who obtained traits in this way would become the foundation for multifaceted strategies.
Someone might view it with unease, but to me, it was a deeply fascinating matter.
In Milden 1, undead who developed good individuality invariably brought specs that were equally excellent.
『Trait - Specialization: Fighter, Member of Necropolis』
『Specialization: Fighter - Receives corrections to both throwing and shooting.』
'I'm looking forward to seeing how they'll grow from here.'
Therefore, it was only natural that I especially looked forward to the future of Mire, who seemed to have awakened the most memories from her life among them all.
- 3 -
One day, while I continued my routine of developing and maintaining the dungeon, and simultaneously growing the dungeon by devouring the adventurers that the Talhan, sent outside, successfully fished in,
"H-h-h-hello..."
The guest I had been waiting for all along, the succubus dungeon merchant, visited my dungeon once more.
"I'm... Mari. Mari Maris Mare..."
Not the cheerful red succubus who had come before, but a blue succubus, gloomy beyond belief, for some reason.
This happened about a month after dealing with the novice adventurers who had been the first wave, and about a week after fending off Maria and her party, who had been the second wave.