52. Neighbors (3)
52. Neighbors (3)
- 1 -
"Is this it?"
"Yes! Below here is our home!"
"Well hidden..."
The place they arrived at, following the harpy who called herself 'Pinis', was not on the Haisen Kingdom side, but a high cliff in the Gyeongsa area on the Aririt Duchy side.
To be precise, it was an artificial cave built near the top of that cliff, concealed from below by a large rock jutting out of the cliff face, and invisible from above as well because it was deeply hollowed inward.
"It really is a splendid hideout."
"Right? Right?"
The cave they entered under Pinis's guidance was indeed a splendid place.
The area near the entrance was nothing special apart from being well-hidden, but the large clearing that appeared as they moved further inside revealed its true value, so to speak.
In the high ceiling, natural light half-covered by foliage tinted the cave interior green, and along the cave walls, thick plant stems hung here and there, with hammocks strung across them where some of the harpies sprawled out carelessly.
It was proof that they felt safe here.
"Our queen made this place with magic!"
"With magic? This wide a space?"
"Yes!"
When I asked, slightly surprised by Pinis's words, the young harpy nodded proudly, her head raised high.
I couldn't help but be surprised.
If what she said was true, it meant the Harpy Queen here possessed enough magical knowledge to delicately craft such a vast space.
That also meant the military strength of the dozens of harpies here couldn't be completely ignored either.
It was a remark that made me tighten the vigilance I had set aside because their numbers hadn't seemed that large at a glance.
"This way!"
Pinis led me onward with a face that had brightened considerably—whether the initially frightened impression had vanished somewhere, or she had simply returned home and felt relieved.
"Look over there!"
"A human?"
"No. The power in her body is strong. She's a Dungeon Lord."
"A Lord? It's been a while since I've seen one...!"
From each of the individual caves carved into the walls, harpies who had spotted this side were flying over one by one, faces full of curiosity.
Their appearance was... well, I suppose you could say they were practicing proper eye candy.
They were wearing almost nothing on their upper bodies. Just as the common knowledge about harpies went.
"She's so small and yet a Dungeon Queen? She doesn't look that strong."
"If you're that confident, go challenge her to a fight."
"She's the queen's guest, so I can't do that."
"You're not just saying that because you're afraid of losing, are you?"
"What?!"
It was unexpected that there were also male harpies, but on the other hand, it was fortunate that they covered their lower bodies decently with feathers or leather pants.
At least I wouldn't have nightmares.
Peolleok!
Kung!
As I followed Pinis and approached the front of the highest and largest cave among those in the wall, a heavy wingbeat sounded from within, and a being flew out, landing before me.
Thus, I met the Harpy Queen. My first impression of her was...
"Pleased to meet you. O Queen of the Dungeon who has newly succeeded in being born. I am Kamaya, Queen of the harpies of this place."
...she was exactly a 'winged warrior woman'.
Contrary to what I had heard about her being a mage.
- 2 -
Kung!
The first impression I got when I saw the Harpy Queen was that she was 'large'.
Not unrealistically large, but the first thing that caught my eye was her height—it would have placed the me from when I was a man below her eye level... so about 3 meters tall.
'I have to give credit where it's due. She's twice my size.'
Please don't say cruel things like she was more than twice my size.
Even Pinis was on the larger side compared to me, and the other harpies were also bigger than average people, but Kamaya possessed a height and build on a completely different level.
The next thing to catch my eye was the long, wild red hair that covered that large body, grown down to her waist, and the feathers of the same color as her hair that felt like they were draped directly over her body.
And revealed in between, the robustly developed muscles writhing.
'With that build, it looks like she could fly with muscles more than wings.'
Should I say the shape of her powerful muscles stood out, as if she could launch her body into the sky on sheer muscle power?
Those muscles were moderately swollen but not excessively segmented or covering up her figure, so it seemed like the ultimate realization of a warrior woman—slathered in the sexual fantasies of someone with that taste—would look exactly like this.
'...Wow.'
And on top of all that, her heart was also... generously proportioned.
So my first impression was 'warrior woman'. With wings, at that.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Kamaya."
"Hmm."
When I extended my hand upward, she bent at the waist—so deeply it looked like she was curling her muscles to their limit—and took my hand in her winged one.
"Forgive the rudeness at first meeting, but may I lay hands on your body? This place is not good for conversation, you see."
"Go on ahead, and I will follow behind."
"Could you do that? I understand."
Peo-reok!
The moment she, immediately convinced, spread both arms and beat her wings, a sound carrying a different weight than the other harpies' wingbeats rang out, and simultaneously that large body rose, quickly disappearing into the place she had come from.
Just as the initial impression suggested, it was flight that looked like 'lifting her body with the strength of her muscles'.
"Thank you for the guidance."
"Bye-bye!"
Stomp.
After saying farewell to Pinis, who had guided me here, I too lifted my foot and stepped onto the empty air.
Of course, what I stepped on wasn't completely empty air, but the shadows within the cave where the light didn't reach.
As always, I moved my steps slowly at my own pace with a straight back, but by using the shadows imbued with physical force to lift my body and widen my stride, I ascended swiftly and followed behind Kamaya.
'It's very tidy.'
Kamaya's room—or perhaps her palace—which I entered in this way.
Either way, it was a cleaner space than I had expected.
Seeing Kamaya, who had entered slightly before me, toss the weapon she had been holding roughly anywhere, there must be someone separately handling the cleaning.
I found out who that someone was in the very next moment.
"Mother. Again, like this... things should be put in their proper places."
"Don't you take care of it well enough yourself? Serha."
A harpy with a wild hairstyle similar to Kamaya's, but instead with short, pinkish hair that gave a delicate impression.
Unlike the harpies I had seen so far, that harpy—smaller than me in both height and build—had toddled over, lifted her mother's spear with a flash, and was scolding her back and forth.
She looked slender on the outside, but between her feathers, the arm revealed showed muscles that were tautly defined.
It was such a bizarre sight that I wondered if the Harpy Queen's bloodline possessed some fantastical internal-muscle constitution.
"If you handle things so carelessly like this, the queen's dignity won't stand... Ah."
That small harpy, Serha, continued to nag Kamaya for a while longer with the spear held high, then spotted me and froze on the spot.
And then, with a sasa-sak sound, she sidestepped and hid behind her mother's back.
Without even noticing that the spear above her head was dangerously teetering next to her mother Kamaya's hair, the sight of her poking only her head out from beside that large body, which must have been three times her size, and then hiding again was indescribably cute.
"Sh-she's a guest...! Why didn't you tell me!"
"I forgot. That you're shy around people."
"Mother is always so careless...!"
"Is a child who worries about the queen's dignity planning not even to greet her mother's guest? Come out."
"Ugh..."
They were a mother and daughter with remarkably different dispositions.
Or was that child only like this when she was young, and would she grow to resemble her mother once fully grown?
That would be a bit of a shame, though.
"He-hello... I am Kamaya's only daughter, Serha..."
As I let such impressions pass by and waited patiently, Serha finally emerged from behind Kamaya's back, shyly greeting me while covering her eyes with her head.
A single fang protruding from the corner of her mouth and a missing tooth next to that fang made for a cute sight.
It was an attitude that naturally brought a smile to my face without needing to force one, and my voice softened accordingly.
"Nice to meet you, Serha. Though the greeting is late, I am the Lord of the dungeon that appeared below this mountain, called Libertas."
"Du-Dungeon Lord...!"
Tadak!
However, Serha's reaction differed from my expectations.
This delicate harpy, with an attitude mixed with fear rather than shyness toward a new person, quickly stepped back and hid behind her mother again.
"...?"
"Please understand, Dungeon Queen. We have met other Dungeon Lords before, you see."
"...I see. I understand."
If another Dungeon Lord had come here, whatever their business, the probability that they maintained a courteous attitude like I did now was low.
Even if they had, in most cases it would have been deception.
"So I shall ask: might I know for what business you have come up here?"
Perhaps because of that, the queen's question was filled only with wariness.
It meant she felt no positive expectation whatsoever—not even that she considered me a friendly entity.
"It has no particular meaning."
Nevertheless, I couldn't give an answer that would please her. For instance, talk of various relationships with positive meanings like cooperation, exchange, or alliance.
Because in the first place, it was only this time that I had even learned they were living here.
I didn't know what I could offer them, and I didn't know what they could offer me, so there was no way I could propose anything.
"Meaning... none?"
"Huh...?"
Upon hearing my words, mother and daughter blinked at each other with wide eyes, as if they had never considered such an answer.
When they did that, they resembled each other so much you could tell they were mother and daughter at a glance.
Although the size difference was still enormous.
"It may sound puzzling, but to be honest, I only just learned that a harpy nest existed here."
"Hmm..."
"How did this happen, Mother?"
"No, well..."
Upon hearing that I had actually been moving around to record the topography of this area, the Harpy Queen scratched at her eyebrows with a face that openly revealed her bewilderment.
Her attitude was as if she had assumed I must have come here wanting something.
I could guess the reason.
'The only cases must have been when previous Dungeon Lords learned of their existence and came requesting cooperation or subjugation.'
There must have already been dozens or hundreds of beings born as Dungeon Lords in this region before me.
Among them, if a being who had survived by hiding from human eyes and had grown even a little powerful learned of the existence of such a wild monster pack, they would certainly have tried to incorporate them into their forces.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have seen a way to survive in the middle of this human land.
'...Well, the reason there's practically no sign of their existence now is probably because they already fell into ruin or died.'
However, I had been so focused on matters with humans that I had no room to actively search for surrounding monster packs.
Not only that, but in 'MLD 1', there were no events about cooperating with external monster packs in this way, so I hadn't even expected this sort of thing to occur.
Therefore...
"It seems I've made a mountain out of a molehill..."
Her invitation had become an act of deliberately making their existence known to me, who might have simply gone back down the mountain without anything happening.
If I had truly said I came to incorporate them into my forces, I could have just set conditions and made a bet or something to end the conversation, but now even that wasn't possible.
'But this isn't a bad situation for me. My response wasn't bad either.'
'The difference from other competitors' sometimes brings advantages in negotiation.
If I showed a different side from other Dungeon Lords now, it might serve as a stepping stone to build a good relationship in the future, even if not right now.
"Tch. It can't be helped."
"Mother?"
"Serha. Go out and tell them to bring food. It seems she is a genuine guest."
The way Kamaya was acting now also looked like a clue to that relationship I might gain in the future.
"Uh... Oh, yes!"
As Serha ran out with quick steps, then flew off on flapping wings, her back view disappeared out of the cave.
A moment later, harpies began to come in carrying fruits only seen in high mountain areas and meat from beasts.
"Hmm... You wouldn't happen to be unable to eat meat, would you?"
The problem was that all the meat was raw...
Since I have the body of a Dungeon Lord, there wouldn't be a problem with digestion, but it wasn't exactly something I wanted to eat.
My body wasn't one that desperately needed food in the first place.
"I can eat it, but I don't particularly enjoy it. The fruits alone are sweet and delicious enough."
"That's a relief."
Kamaya didn't say much about that.
Well, they led a pack and lived in the mountains, but they were wild monsters with a history of hiding their existence on the surface.
Unless they were monsters whose bodies were naturally suited to mingling with humans, it would be stranger for them to have formalized etiquette for hospitality.
It meant I could just enjoy the food now given to me and leave it at that.
"You are certainly different from other Dungeon Lords... that trash."
"Is that so?"
"Hmm. ...This much is... yes, this much is worth talking about with other friends."
After the simple food hospitality ended, the Harpy Queen spoke to me with a more relaxed face.
About something that could be a benefit for me beyond her thoughts.
"Other... friends, you say? Why is that?"
"To repay your gentleness—for accepting a forced invitation without complaint, and for refraining from any show of force despite possessing strong power and an army in that small body."
Just as I thought.
It seemed she had already sensed my army waiting within my shadows.
Perhaps she hadn't mentioned it because I had been consistently friendly.
"I wasn't expecting something like that."
"On our part, this is fair, so it doesn't matter. Information about Dungeon Lords is something monsters are sensitive about, after all."
Naturally, from my standpoint, this was a proposal I had no reason to refuse.
It could be seen as a reward for the prudence and honesty I had continuously shown.
"What kind of people are these friends?"
"Other queens. I will introduce you to the queens of the three powers that usually interact or maintain boundaries with us while hiding in this region. It won't be a bad proposition for you, either."
Though it seemed she hadn't yet revealed what she 'truly wanted', at least her eyes were full of goodwill when looking at me, so it didn't seem to be a bad thing.
I could wait until she spoke.
"I will gratefully accept your kindness."
With this, I had gained a clue that would allow me to meet a total of four powers that had been hiding in this mountain range.
Even if the best results couldn't be achieved, the situation was such that I had already gained enough just from leaving a good impression on the Harpy Queen.
What kind of outcome I made of the remaining opportunities was now up to me.
And I was confident.
'Whoever they are, at the very least, they won't try to become my enemies.'
The confidence of being a 'blue-chip investment' in the Dungeon Lord world, that is.