24. O Eclissi (6)
24. O Eclissi (6)
- 1 -
The woman Libertas thought of as the blue succubus.
In truth, Mari Maris Mare — illegitimate daughter of Mammon, one of the Seven Great Dukes of the Demon Realm, and at the same time a low-ranking employee of Mammon Company — clutched her trembling heart and thought.
"This one is different from the person who came before."
'She's incredibly beautiful...!'
Even if one gathered all the beauties of the Demon Realm and the surface world, it would be difficult to find anyone who could compare to the woman before her eyes right now.
"Ah, ah, ah, hello... I'm... Mari. Mari Maris Mare... a regular employee..."
"A pleasure to meet you, Mari. Scarlet was a section chief. Are you perhaps the one in charge of me?"
"Ah, n-no... the person in charge is Chief Scarlet, that's correct... but something came up..."
"Is that so? That's unexpected. In any case, I understand."
Lady Libertas, who had briefly furrowed her brow while seated, rose from her seat and approached slowly.
Mari marveled once more.
When seated, her languid, cold, and delicate impression had been quite strong, but once she stood, she was elegance itself.
On top of that, her nearly soundless footsteps and a posture without the slightest disturbance in her shoulders or waist — her haughtiness and nobility overflowed like streams of water soaking into skin.
Though she was on the short side, she somehow gave the feeling of being the largest thing in the world.
And what of the small smile that graced her lips at that moment?
That cold face bloomed in an instant as though in full flower, its cute and delicate impression growing strong. At that transformation unfolding before her eyes, despite being a succubus herself, Mari felt as though she might be the one charmed instead.
'No... the very fact that I'm thinking this means I've already been charmed...!'
She felt she understood why Scarlet had been paying so much attention to this dungeon lately.
An overwhelming beauty that washed away even the faint jealousy she had harbored before coming here.
One might feel jealous of ordinary beauty, but before overwhelmingly crushing beauty, one could feel nothing but awe.
Anyone who saw such beauty would have no choice but to be captivated.
Even if it were a human who regarded her, the dungeon's lord, as a natural enemy — if that human were weak to pretty faces, they would have no choice but to pause their hostility, if only for a moment.
Of course, she had no experience as a dungeon lord, so she could not be certain.
'I think it was good that I came to see for myself...!'
Mari thought it was good that she had not resisted her curiosity.
She did feel a little sorry about causing trouble with a client on purpose and then dumping the aftermath on her senior, but if she had not met this woman now, she would have continued to feel jealous of whoever was drawing Scarlet's attention.
Not that the jealousy was entirely gone, but this beauty was overwhelming enough to lightly suppress it.
'She's too harmful. A fatally hazardous substance...!'
'A rather likeable girl has come.'
Meanwhile, Rita found this low-ranking employee — the one whose speech kept trailing off and who seemed hopelessly incompetent — rather pleasing.
If anything, she even felt she would have preferred this one over Scarlet as her point of contact.
Of course, that was not due to personal fondness, but because this girl's personality seemed easier to take advantage of.
The more pliable the trading partner, the higher the probability of gaining profit.
If she had known that this woman was a disaster magnet who clung to her senior out of personal fondness or curiosity while subtly causing trouble, her thoughts would have changed — but the Rita of this moment did not know that.
"Mari?"
"Y-yes?!"
Mari, who had been imagining a future ten years down the line with Lady Libertas — fantasizing dozens of scenarios about the happiness and conflicts of a demon-realm same-sex couple after marriage — barely managed to return to her senses at the call.
If she had gone just a little further, one might have witnessed the spectacle of her kneeling on the spot and proposing at first meeting — a truly regrettable thing.
"It seems you nearly lost your wits. Did you stay up all night, perhaps?"
"Ah, no! I did stay up... but I'm fine!"
"...? I see. Do not push yourself too hard."
The momentum of that fantasy still lingered, to the point where even that casual consolation, spoken merely out of politeness, sounded like a marriage proposal.
Whether she knew of Mari's thoughts or not, Lady Libertas simply moved forward for the sake of the transaction.
- 2 -
The blue-haired succubus who had introduced herself as Mari Maris Mare gave off a somewhat gloomy impression, huddled in a slightly hunched posture.
One might wonder how someone with that kind of impression could possibly charm people...
'Incredible... of everything I've seen since coming here, the most...'
Well, they were very large.
Due to her hunched posture, they sagged slightly downward, and in that state, they covered more than half of her stomach.
So much so that one might suspect her shoulders ached and that was why she took such a posture. Though, of course, that would be a perfect recipe for a slipped disc, so probably not.
Though the question of whether succubi even got slipped discs remained.
'Enough to make one curious how they could possibly get that big.'
Her ample, worn suit — stomach and tattoo still exposed — and the large chest that the suit's bagginess and shabbiness could never conceal drew the gaze with tremendous force.
If not for 'Nobility', it might have been rather troublesome.
"H-here it is..."
After presenting the adventurers' souls and checking Mari's calculator, I confirmed that the amount written on it was small, just as I had expected, and furrowed my brow.
"It's less than before."
"Well. Perhaps it was meant as an initial investment..."
"Does that mean the investment has already ended?"
"Uh, um... I'll go back and check..."
"Then what do you intend to do about the souls we just traded?"
"Uh, uhh..."
Mari was, as expected, an inexperienced trader.
Whether that sharp, tactful Scarlet had failed to train her junior, or whether this woman simply lacked talent, I did not know — but considering her as a trading partner right now, she was a bit frustrating.
And yet, ironically, I also found this satisfying.
Because after she had contacted someone — whatever she heard — she came back a little later with this answer.
"Th-then... how about this much?"
Written there was an amount far larger than the ratio Scarlet had initially proposed.
"I hadn't expected that much... thank you. Please convey that I will not forget this goodwill."
"Ah, yes..."
"So, who did you contact?"
"Ah, th-that, I'm sorry... you don't have the authority yet..."
"Is that so? I see. Understood."
It seemed to be someone higher than Scarlet.
From what she said, her direct superior was Scarlet, but she contacted someone higher than her... Mammon Company's internal structure was more complicated than I had thought.
"Construction engineers... you said?"
"Yes. That's right."
The full-scale transaction began after converting the ordinary adventurers' souls stored in the core into currency and using that currency to purchase several pieces of necessary equipment.
The first matter was those with construction skills.
"I plan to devise new traps for the dungeon, but I find it difficult to implement them well with my own imagination. I would like you to introduce me to someone with deep expertise in that field, and I also need engineers to serve as my hands."
"A dungeon designer... and Elder Gremlins, you mean?"
"Just as you say."
The gremlins of the Demon Realm are different from the gremlins that are the initial summon for the 'demon' line in dungeons.
Surface gremlins are a bestial race with amplified aggressiveness, actively toying with and devouring their enemies, while Demon Realm gremlins are a race capable of handling engineering knowledge and techniques.
The surface gremlins were probably created borrowing the image of 'mischievous monsters' from modern fantasy, while the Demon Realm gremlins borrowed the image of 'machine-breaking fairies' from folklore.
That was why dungeon gremlins were called 'Lesser Gremlins' and Demon Realm ones 'Elder Gremlins', to distinguish them.
"B-but... they like human precious metals..."
"I have sufficient gold, so you need not worry. Please select only those who wish to come."
"Ah, understood..."
Perhaps because peace had long endured near my dungeon, there were quite a few bandit gangs nesting in the mountains without fear of dungeons, and slash-and-burn farmers who robbed passing adventurers.
All the human gold and silver I possessed had come from them. Spoils obtained in the process of plundering 'everything' they had.
Converting it into Demon Realm currency for dungeon expansion had a high exchange rate and was not very efficient, so using it in other ways like this was advantageous.
"Then, next... I need class-up special materials and 'dungeon-affiliated mercenary contracts' with humans."
"Materials are plentiful... mercenary contracts, you said...?"
"Yes. That's right."
All those who had contracted with me while still human were currently under a 'provisional contract.'
To turn a human into a denizen of the Demon Realm, a contract issued with the Demon King's seal was essential. Without it, the dungeon core could not recognize that 'this human belongs to the dungeon.'
Even without that, the contract could still serve as a dungeon lord's contract, but that required periodic renewal and incurred higher upkeep costs for maintaining mercenaries.
There was a reason provisional contracts and true contracts were separated.
What could I do? I had to spend some money.
"How many sheets...?"
"Four. And having some spares would not be a bad thing."
"W-wow... already that many humans...! But you're not selling them, then...?"
"It would be a waste. I intend to keep them and put them to use."
"A-as expected of my Lady... you are admirable..."
"Don't flatter me. It's nothing."
Since the currency remaining from selling the souls of adventurers and human bandits was sufficient, purchasing the contracts was not a problem. In the first place, the contracts themselves did not cost that much.
These were items that only became expensive when the value of the mercenary written on them was high.
In that sense, the contract Mari showed next was a very expensive one.
"And next is..."
"U-um..."
"Hm? What is it?"
"Actually, there's something... I'd like to propose."
"A proposal?"
"Yes."
Even in 'Milden 1', proposals from the company came in this manner from time to time.
Requests to take on mercenaries or mercenary corps who had connections to the company but lacked skill and needed achievements, or to use a product from some brand in the Demon Realm and share actual usage footage.
Requests not much different from promotions on Earth, essentially — so I was not particularly pleased, but also puzzled.
『Demon Lord Candidate 'Libertas' Dungeon Lv.3』
『Alias - None』
『Continent Fame - 5 (Made 'not to be known')』
『Demon Realm Fame - 28 (A newbie who's fresh and survived)』
Just where in my current dungeon was there room to grant such a promotion?
That thought grew even stronger as I looked at the contract the blue-haired succubus showed me afterward.
Reading the contract was not a problem.
'Nobility' granted knowledge of languages, and 'Alpha Tester' outright displayed a message window that floated the text in characters I knew above the contract.
The status window even showed information about the other party that was not written on the contract, so I felt rather pleased about the gains to come, so to speak.
And yet it was hard to understand that contract.
『Job & Grade - Werewolf Berserker』
『Title/Entity Name - 'Violent' 'Bloodlight Wolf'』
『Attributes - Strength 38, Technique 16, Endurance 30, Magic 27, Resistance 32』
An outstandingly capable individual with stats reaching the advanced level — mid-tier, at that.
...No matter how I looked at it, this was not the kind of resource one simply handed out to a novice dungeon as a promotion — so why was she showing this contract to me?
"Why are you saying this mercenary is being dispatched to our dungeon?"
"Well..."
What Mari said afterward while scratching her head, as though troubled, was even more incomprehensible.
"That mercenary... said they wanted to come here...?"
I swallowed the emotions I had been about to display toward her: the irritation of 'if you don't know, who does,' the suspicion of 'are you trying to deceive me.'
Because Mari's eyes as she said those words were rolling about, as if she herself had no clue what was going on.
I looked once more at the text floating above the contract.
Because there was one more detail there even harder to understand than the current situation.
『Traits - ...Member of Necropolis』
'Why is this...?'
There was a trait attached there, and I had no idea why.