29. The Wolf from the West (4)
29. The Wolf from the West (4)
- 1 -
When a dungeon core was destroyed or stolen, the Dungeon Lord went mad.
Desperate to retrieve what was precious to them, the debuff from the core's removal also eroded their mental fortitude.
In the game, this debuff was named 'Loss-of-Parents'. The explanation was that young Dungeon Lords were highly likely to perceive their summons as attachment figures and the dungeon core as a parental material.
And the Demon Realm's response to a Demon Lord Candidate who had rampaged in such a manner was, as far as I knew, usually to 'leave them be'. Because the Demon Realm, existing beyond the world's walls, had few direct means of intervention.
However, the Mammon Trading Company wished to assess the situation of that Dungeon Lord rather than immediately withdrawing their investments from that dungeon.
'There must be personal connections at play.'
If that rampaging Demon Lord Candidate had been the company's primary trading route, then naturally he would have received active support from the Mammon Trading Company.
At the center of that support, I suspected there might be someone connected to the established Dungeon Lord of the South.
Scarlet's true intentions seemed to lie here as well. That personal connection must have pressured the company into making this request.
Even if the head of the pack was Mammon, not everything beneath him was Mammon. If the Demon Realm had 'Great Dukes', there were probably 'Dukes, Marquises, Counts, and Viscounts' too.
'Of course, this is still just speculation...'
In any case, the potential gains were obvious.
This was an opportunity to fulfill a request to grasp the rampaging Dungeon Lord's circumstances, thereby earning favor within the company and, by extension, the Demon Realm—and simultaneously to establish a line with the personal connections that person originally possessed.
If I was lucky, it could be a chance to absorb the resources and assets of that established Dungeon Lord.
"That is, if it's possible. I'm not telling you to take unnecessary risks. Since this is a time when you must keep a low profile."
"Right. That's a reasonable point."
"Then..."
"Tell me what you can offer."
Ultimately, I nodded.
Anyway, I had maintained a good relationship with the Mammon Trading Company so far, so it was about time I accepted a request or two.
Of course, having to show good results was also a given. Even if I successfully carried out this request, I wouldn't become their superior.
I was still in the position of a soldier or a jeong at best. Someone Scarlet merely treated as an eul.
"For now, the level the company has prepared is... something like this?"
"That is insufficient."
"Hmm. I'll go and draw out more. How about this much?"
"... Fine. Let's go with that. For the sake of your own face, too."
"As expected of Lady Libertas!"
"Flattery."
"I meant it sincerely!"
Of course, negotiating the price was a different story.
Now that I had an information network, it was honestly trivial, but as long as they didn't know that, wasn't it only natural to extract as much profit as possible?
"Then, I'll be counting on you, my Lady."
"Look forward to it."
"Don't overdo it! The humans around here are hell-bent on finding Dungeon Lords right now."
"Your concern is unnecessary. I know well enough."
"Yes, then. This has been Scarlet Spira Spina!"
"On your way."
I confirmed the succubus had departed and her presence had completely vanished.
"... You two. Can you hear me?"
- Yes, my Lady.
- We are here, Master.
I had immediately contacted the tracker Daniel and Cerebrum Skull Talhan.
There was no need to wait until the contract was fully completed, was there? Expanding the information network was a necessary task anyway. It just meant a new objective had been added.
"Talhan, return to Solemio. Daniel, try to create a situation where you can move. To the central regions of the South."
- Understood, Master.
- The South... If I move immediately after handling my current request, I expect I can report my arrival in about a week.
"What if you spare no expense?"
- In that case, three days.
"Good. Then be quick about it."
- Yes.
By the next time Scarlet visited, she would see the results I had obtained.
And then, since I would be the only one with an information network left, the Mammon Trading Company would have no choice but to spend more money on me.
I wasn't someone who would let an opportunity for such overwhelming gain slip by.
- 2 -
Cerebrum Skulls, while not particularly strong in their main bodies' base strength, were clearly 'advanced' entities. Whereas I was currently a Dungeon Lord at a level called 'formal-grade' or 'low-rank'.
What that meant was that I could only handle a very limited number of Cerebrum Skulls.
At most, 3 entities.
There was a limit on handling entities of a higher tier than the Lord themselves. That was why I hadn't been able to promote Eve or Axe further yet.
In such a situation, Lin Xue joining as a seemingly stable force eased a major concern of mine.
『Name - [ ]』
『Title/Entity Name - Cerebrum Skull』
Most other necromancer Lords used these to cause confusion among enemies within their dungeons or temporarily steal enemy forces, but I decided to actively utilize them as my information network.
For the weak, information was that crucial—an unavoidable choice, so to speak.
For this purpose, two more Cerebrum Skulls were summoned, and I immediately deployed them to the field among the adventurers departing from Solemio as reinforcements for Copherin.
Though they didn't possess originals as intelligent or quick-witted as Talhan, these materials, fully capable of doing their jobs, soon brought me the necessary information.
"The race is vampire..."
As I learned, the Dungeon Lord of Copherin possessed a race quite familiar to me.
Because before 'Libertas', the character I nurtured to the very end during my last playthrough, the race I chose most often was vampire.
I recalled that the vampire's name I eventually selected was also 'Scarlet'. Named after a famous vampire character.
'I used it often because the customization came out the prettiest.'
Vampires summon zombies the way necromancers handle skeletons.
They wielded diseases rooted in blood and the power of emotions.
Their mana was slightly on the strong side, but their abilities were overall balanced, making them Dungeon Lords whose specs allowed them to be employed in both the vanguard and the rearguard.
Moreover, zombies were sturdy and tenacious, making them reliable in both early and late stages, so it was a class that could be described as beginner-friendly in many ways.
So, it must have been relatively easy for them to survive in this world as well.
"Their grade is around the beginner advanced level... At this level, unless they let their guard down, it shouldn't be easy for their core to be stolen. They'd sooner die. Did someone hire a phantom thief or something?"
The kingdom I was in, 'Hysen', was a country surrounded by mountains on all sides with its interior composed of plains.
While this made it highly suitable for defense, expansion outward was difficult, and because of this situation, it seemed this nation had focused on trade profits, taking advantage of being situated in the center of the Eastern Continent rather than on military power.
Who could have known that among the nobles of such a country, there existed someone so frantically consumed by desire that they would hide a dungeon's existence—and even steal its dungeon core?
Ultimately, the crazed Dungeon Lord vividly revealed their true nature as a high-grade Dungeon Lord that had been concealed until then, and the kingdom's people, startled by the powerful Dungeon Lord suddenly appearing within their borders, began concentrating their forces...
This was the story I had learned.
"No matter how outwardly beautiful this might be... did they really want it that badly?"
- Dalkak.
"You think so? Well, indeed. People tend to become foolish in the face of desire."
- Tak!
Certainly, from an external viewpoint, a dungeon core appeared as a massive, beautiful chunk of jewel.
And beauty was an object that incited desire since ancient times.
That desire made people commit foolish acts.
Even if it was true that the jewel-like object was actually a magic supply source for hostile lifeforms, that a core without a Dungeon Lord would rampage and generate monsters, or that a Lord who lost their core would rampage, strengthen the monsters, and then come swarming.
'Desire, huh.'
An emotion that always makes one charge blindly, unable to foresee the path to self-destruction.
In 'Milden 1', there was also an episode related to a core and desire.
A side story where the culprit back then was not just a noble but even a princess; that kingdom ultimately fell due to the rampaging Dungeon Lord, and that Dungeon Lord also withered and died because they couldn't find their lost core.
The illustrations of the princess and the Dungeon Lord used in the story were needlessly beautiful.
Compared to the woman before my eyes now... No, there's simply no comparison. Between a drawing and a beautiful woman who seems to have ripped through the illustration and stepped out.
"So, when are you going to get down?"
"Not getting down..."
"..."
Lin Xue.
She was the mercenary Scarlet brought this time, and currently a resident of my dungeon—a wolf beastman from the Western Continent.
The moment the contract was decided, she began persistently following only me around.
It would be fortunate if that was all, but she even clung to me like this every chance she got. Even now, she had pressed her whole body against my back as I sat on the sofa in the core room.
Soft and plush, the immediate sensation wasn't bad, but it was still uncomfortable...
"Skeletons smell... I only like the Lady's scent..."
"Just what kind of smell do you mean?"
Whether the smell of corpses or whatever, if the skeletons smelled that bad, there was no way I could have tolerated it.
My senses now were far superior to when I was in the modern world, and foul odors always make people uncomfortable, don't they?
In the end, it seemed this wolf beastman, with her sensitive sense of smell and other senses, perceived something.
That was probably some other presence felt from the corpses.
Still, it wasn't easy to sympathize.
'They're such good-natured and cute kids, though.'
To me, they were good fellows who constantly showered me with nothing but goodwill.
Thanks to that, I had been feeling quite motivated lately.
Should I say it felt like they were pumping up a self-confidence I didn't even know I had, from a place where it hadn't existed?
"... Nnyahh..."
Come to think of it, she was the same in terms of showing goodwill.
Though I didn't know the reason.
"I was curious. Why did you want to form a contract with me? Lin Xue."
"Because I like you..."
"No, so why do you like... never mind. What does the reason matter?"
"Yeah. The most important thing is that I like the Lady. You smell good, you're pretty, cute, lovable, and noble."
"Good grief..."
"Yeah."
She really was an inscrutable woman.
Her eyes constantly sparkled when she looked at me, her lush tail excitedly thrashed everything around the moment she saw me despite her expressionless face, and occasionally a loneliness and glistening surfaced in her eyes.
Even now, Lin Xue's eyes, as she told me she liked me, were filled with a strange, tearful glimmer.
Despite her expressionless face, her eyes alone were truly honest.
I was about to give up trying to peel her off and just lean back comfortably, when an unexpected presence separated her from me.
Ppaak - !!
"Nngyaak!!"
It was a fierce hand that even used the 'Explosive Power' trait to turn her fist red before striking.
With that stinging flick, so painful that even I, who wasn't even grazed—let alone hit, let alone the one struck directly—winced, Lin Xue, clutching her head, bounced off me.
"What do you think you're...!"
- Tak!
The source of the fist was Eve.
My first soldier, her glare hardened coldly as she looked down at Lin Xue who had leaped off the sofa. Once again, she turned one hand red, and black mana leaked from the corner of her lips.
It was a signal that if she didn't behave properly, she'd get another taste of her fist.
"... I got it..."
Upon that, Lin Xue, who had been stubbornly insisting until now, became surprisingly docile.
She became pitifully dejected, but it was strange that even after being struck so hard, she didn't even consider attacking Evangeline back.
Though Lin Xue was clearly stronger than Eve.
- Tak.
Eve crossed her arms once, nodded her head, then gently stroked her head as if to say, 'Did it hurt?' Lin Xue, too, stayed still without resisting.
Despite having just said she disliked skeletons.
Evangeline acted as if this situation were familiar, and Lin Xue did not resist her.
They seemed so affectionate toward each other.
Almost as if the two of them had some sort of exchange, excluding only me...
'But there wasn't any time for that.'
Rationally speaking, Evangeline must have known her from somewhere before coming here as my summon.
No matter the Dungeon Lord, the first summon was always something that already existed in the world, even among apprentice-level materials.
'You can't give a completely blank entity to a 'baby' Dungeon Lord, after all.'
It was a bit disappointing they didn't tell me directly, but waiting until they did was also a lord's virtue, wasn't it?
- My Lady. Are you there?
While I was letting my thoughts drift, a 'knock' echoed in my soul.
It was a contact attempt from an entity directly connected to me.
"I hear you. Daniel."
- I arrived in Copherin and confirmed it, but it seems the expedition for that dungeon is imminent. Just now, reinforcements from Solemio arrived. Things look a bit urgent.
Copherin was the name of a city not far west of the dungeon where the Dungeon Lord was.
As far as kingdoms went, I had only heard it was currently the central city of the South and a large commercial hub.
"Right. I understand. I'll have to move immediately."
- For now, I've proceeded with the intention of participating myself...
"Well done. If we're lucky, we might even see each other there."
The distance from Copherin to the dungeon was similar to the distance between my dungeon and Solemio, but a bit farther. To get there from my dungeon now, I'd have to move as far as Seoul to Busan.
Considering the detours along the way, even moving as fast as possible from here, it would take over a week for an ordinary person, and even by carriage, it should be considered a four-day journey.
But that would be enough time.
Even I, the one with the least stamina on this side, was a monster capable of traveling all day on just a couple hours of sleep.
- ... Yes. I shall see you then.
"There's no particular problem with Maria. It might be good for you to stop by the dungeon once this task is finished."
- Yes, my Lady. Thank you.
After guessing the reason for the silence between his words and scratching that itch for him, I ended the communication.
Beside me, my dear first soldier had already approached.
"Eve. Prepare to sortie. Let's go together this time as well."
- Tak!
To interfere in a war against an entity corresponding to a high-grade Dungeon Lord, it would be best for me to scrape together as much force as possible.
Now there were plenty of kids to guard the dungeon, and since there was no chance of a strong adventurer coming nearby, leaving Evangeline, one of my greatest assets, idle here was a loss.
"Call Sonia too. I need to check our materials."
- Dalkak!
Eve departed after a respectful silent bow.
Watching her retreating figure, I then embraced Lin Xue who was burrowing into me again.
"Shall I go with you too?"
"I expect you should."
Her white uniform and silver hair completely filled my field of vision.
Upon hearing my answer, a subtle smile rose on her formerly expressionless face.
Unlike her previous blank look, that smile carried a rather bewitching air.