Chapter 121
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 121
Closing his eyes, Swallow pictured Patrick and replied in a bright, cheerful voice.
“In that case, I suppose I should crack your skull open first.”
Phase 6
Do nothing.
That was the order Swallow had given regarding the incident.
“Well, it is certainly a situation where doing nothing is the best course of action, but…”
Acting rashly when nothing had been decided would only stir up trouble. From that perspective, the choice to do nothing was indeed the best one.
However, no matter how he thought about it…
“You’re just being lazy, aren’t you?” Patrick asked pointedly.
Instead of answering, Swallow opened his mouth wide in a deep yawn that shook the entire cave. Stalactites rained down from the ceiling, and one of them struck Patrick directly on the skull.
The stalactite shattered with a sharp crack, but Patrick’s skull merely rang with a clear, resonant chime.
“Sigh…”
With that single sigh, all of Patrick’s bones rattled in unison. If sighs had a color, his would surely be blacker than the abyss.
The urge to just give up and his duty to somehow guide his boss clashed fiercely within him.
And after he mediated that conflict so brilliantly, too.
Once the meeting of the Five Great Evil Caves had ended, Swallow had reverted to his usual, incredibly lazy self as if nothing had happened.
Bathory had stormed out with a grim expression, to say nothing of Kurak, who was at the center of it all. Even Hexabel and Azi Dahaka had left filled with worry. Yet Swallow alone remained completely unbothered, as if he weren’t the master of a Great Evil Cave at all. To any observer, he looked like this was entirely someone else’s problem.
“It’s not our problem,” Swallow said.
“…Well, if we had to categorize it, I suppose that’s true. But it’s not like we’re in a position to avoid the crossfire. Kurak himself must have known that when he came to see us. I’m just saying we should at least consider what kind of damage our dungeon might suffer.”
“I don’t really want to think about it too deeply.”
—He didn’t want to think about it too deeply.
It wasn’t that he simply didn’t want to think about it. The difference between including the word ‘deeply’ and not was larger than one might expect.
Swallow’s words meant: ‘I’ve given it some thought, but the deeper I dig, the more annoying and complicated it gets.’
In short, Swallow was admitting that this matter would not end peacefully.
Patrick felt the same way.
Furthermore, after the meeting had ended and everyone else had left, Rene had muttered, loud enough for both Melju and Patrick to hear:
“Kurak isn’t stupid.”
It was a statement to be taken literally.
An Orc was not a Dragon or a Great Worm. They were not an ancient race of monsters. On a continent teeming with beings who were supreme from birth, Orcs were a relatively inferior species.
Yet, had Nilkumbal not transcended the limitations of the Orc race to rise to the status of a Great Evil Cave? Was he not standing shoulder-to-shoulder with those supreme beings?
And Kurak was the one who reigned at the very top of Nilkumbal.
There was no way the commander of such a legion could be a fool.
During the meeting, everyone had criticized Kurak as if he were an idiot, but that was merely their way of testing him. Since Kurak was trying his best to hide information, they had likely intended to corner him and pry out even a single extra detail.
“We have allies with the same goal,” Kurak had said under interrogation.
This meant that Kurak, who was far from stupid, had his own schemes. Yes, one way or another, war was definitely coming. A war so fierce that even Swallow found it troublesome—a conflict where it was impossible to know how many would die over what period of time.
“You know it too, Boss,” Patrick said, looking Swallow straight in his four golden eyes. His voice was incredibly serious.
—Swallow simply avoided doing things; he was by no means a short-sighted or foolish boss. Patrick held that firm belief.
As Patrick’s steadfast gaze met his, Swallow seemed to accept his sincerity and finally spoke.
“Patrick, I know what you’re trying to say. But…”
“But?”
“Let’s say what Kurak is doing becomes a problem. Even so, can we predict all of his actions? And if we do predict them and prepare, can you guarantee those preparations will be effective?”
“Well… I suppose I can’t guarantee that.”
“Exactly. Think about it. Whether we exert effort to prevent it or exert effort after it happens, we’re still exerting effort either way. But in the first case, if nothing ends up happening, our efforts are wasted.”
“…”
“Conversely, if we only exert effort after the incident occurs, that effort is guaranteed to yield results.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“Yes. Rather than wasting energy on an uncertain future, I’ll seize the certain happiness of the present.”
“…I see.”
Patrick replied absentmindedly, momentarily swayed by the sheer eloquence of the logic. Honestly, he was a bit taken aback.
To think he’s even learned how to wrap up complete nonsense so beautifully… Patrick couldn’t help but nod.
“That certainly makes sense.”
He then pulled a letter of resignation from between his ribs. The paper was crisper than the last one, suggesting it had been freshly written.
“Then, for the sake of my own certain happiness, I shall be taking a break starting now.”
“On second thought, I think I was wrong, Patrick.”
“No, Boss, your logic is flawless. Much like Miss Hexabel, I’ll drop by whenever the mood strikes me.”
“No, I’ll do it. I’ll do it, okay? Come on, calm down. Just tell me. I’ll… make an effort to make an effort.”
“An effort to make an effort? Too long. Well then, farewell.”
“I’ll make an effort.”
“Shorter.”
“I’ll try.”
“More.”
“…I’ll do it.”
“Excellent.”
A click of the tongue echoed as Swallow muttered, “Dammit.” He looked like a man who had lost his final stronghold before he could even deploy his troops.
“You know this too, Boss. If Nilkumbal wins the war against the Empire, it will disrupt the progress of your ‘objective.’ Furthermore, if the Empire falls, the other human nations will band together to bring Nilkumbal down. We can’t just let them steal all the customers from our establishment, can we?”
“…I suppose not.”
“That’s a problem for me, too. If a seat in the Great Evil Caves becomes vacant, the monsters will go wild, and the Kingdom Alliance will surely pull all sorts of tricks against the weakened Empire. Either way, the political landscape will shift rapidly. It’ll be a pain for both of us.”
“So, what are we supposed to do?”
“Isn’t there plenty? Honestly, you could stop the war with just a few words, Boss.”
“Stopping someone who’s already set on war won’t end well. It’ll only blow up into something bigger later.”
“Yes, that was just an example. I’m not asking you to do that. It’s not like I’m asking for much, Boss… Still.”
Patrick’s gaze swept across the Primordial Core.
Indeed, there was no point in asking what the problem was. The Primordial Core was currently such a mess that it was only natural for Azi Dahaka to have worn such a dazed expression.
“…For starters, let’s clean up this messy dungeon. We still haven't found monsters for Room 1 and Room 2.”
“How long are you going to keep telling me to fetch monsters…”
“I have no intention of asking you to fetch monsters right now, Boss. Miss Rene and I will handle that. I just want you to tidy yourself up. After all, the boss is what most influences a dungeon’s intimidation factor.”
“Tidy myself up, huh.”
Swallow briefly inspected his own state.
Black hair, black legs, black torso. “I look fine.”
“No, in that form, everything is just black. How can you even tell what’s what?”
Only after hearing Patrick’s nagging did Swallow shift into his human form. He let out a lazy yawn and inspected his condition once more.
Shabby clothes, messy hair, and eyes exhausted with fatigue.
Next, he looked around his room.
It felt moderately dirty.
“Hmm.”
“Well? Does the gravity of the situation finally feel real to you?”
“It’s perfect. What’s the problem?”
“Ha… Haha… Ah… Arghhh…”
Patrick clutched his skull and let out a wail that echoed far and wide, all the way to the ceiling. Rebounding several times, it was the most sorrowful cry he had uttered in recent memory.
“Boss, I’ve been telling you this for ages, but there’s such a thing as basic dignity! Just changing your outfit would solve this. The Troll Lord in the neighboring dungeon wears a cloak made of Drake leather to boost his dignity. Even the Goblin Lord wears clothes that look somewhat fancy! If you would just pay a little attention to things like that, do you know how much easier my life would—”
Before Patrick could even finish, Swallow stood up. It seemed the phrase ‘tidying up’ had reminded him of something.
He directed his steps toward the darkness at the back of the room.
“I wonder if tidying up includes a place like this.”
The place Swallow was heading toward was the food storehouse.
At the end of a side path hidden in the darkness lay a space so vast it rivaled any of the other rooms. Since they couldn’t fill their stomachs solely with the humans who occasionally dropped by, they supplemented their food supply through human villages or monster societies. This was where they stored those provisions.
The massive room was dominated by a freezing chill. The cold was not merely refreshing like in the other rooms; it was intense enough to coat every wall in thick layers of ice.
Of course, this space had not formed naturally. A magic tool was used to maintain the storehouse’s freezing temperature.
It was ‘Permafrost,’ one of the 36 Masterpieces.
—They were using a Masterpiece for food storage.
If only we had used that for dungeon defense…
Every time Patrick saw it, stress piled up, making him feel as though his skull were cracking. He sighed repeatedly. No matter how he looked at it, this was an unprecedented waste of a Masterpiece. The thought that Swallow might not even know it was a Masterpiece made his outlook even bleaker.
“…Well, I suppose that counts as tidying up in its own way.”
Staring into the darkness that had swallowed his boss, Patrick tried to brainwash himself. Just as he barely managed to force his thoughts toward a positive light, Swallow reemerged from the dark storehouse.
“…You returned much faster than I expected. As I thought, even if you neglect other places, you’ve kept that area perfectly organized—”
Patrick stopped mid-sentence, his jaw locking shut.
Swallow’s face was completely stiff. It was the exact expression he had worn when Rene ran away from home. Seeing this, Patrick forgot all context and wore an equally grave expression.
For a brief moment, the air between them seemed to freeze solid.
“In the storehouse…”
Swallow’s voice was filled with hesitation. Patrick focused all his attention on it.
After a long, tense silence, Swallow finally parted his heavy lips.
“In the storehouse… we’re completely out of food…”
*
“Usually, when food is running low, don’t you notice a few days in advance? Didn’t you know, Boss? It’s not like anyone would steal the food in there.”
“Well, I did know, but…”
“…I think I know what you’re going to say next, so let’s just stop there.”
“How despairing. To have to endure a hungry wait with no end in sight.”
“You brought this on yourself. Besides, if you just tell Miss Rene, she’ll prepare meals for you.”
“That is precisely what’s so despairing.”
Unable to refute that, Patrick walked away without another word. He had already taken measures to replenish the food supply by sending a letter.
There was a regular merchant guild that the Primordial Core primarily dealt with. Among the guilds that traded with dungeons, the ‘Leprechaun Merchant Guild’ possessed a fairly high level of credibility.
Merchant guilds were incredibly important to dungeon monsters. From the perspective of a dungeon that always had to be prepared for battle, the replenishment of supplies was a matter of life and death. Normally, monsters from an ordinary dungeon would visit the guild themselves to purchase goods, but…
The Great Evil Caves were a different story. To a merchant guild, a Great Evil Cave was far more than just a VIP with high transaction volume. Having a Great Evil Cave as a regular customer meant securing a powerful backer. It was a symbiotic relationship. In fact, elite members of the merchant guild would personally visit the Great Evil Cave.
“It would have been nice if we could have just bought some from Hastin for now.”
“That village is only just recovering. If we take their food on top of that, they’ll all starve to death again. Please bear with it for a bit, Boss,” Patrick replied, as if comforting a child.
Since they needed to procure a large quantity of food, they had to trade with a monster merchant guild rather than a human village anyway.
“The Leprechaun Merchant Guild is famous for its swift merchants. They might even arrive as early as today.”
Even while comforting the slumped-shouldered Swallow, Patrick insisted on taking him along to patrol the dungeon. He intended to show him Room 1 and Room 2, which had been without a master for months, to make him realize the gravity of the situation.
“Even if recruiting monsters is something Miss Rene and I will handle, shouldn’t you see the situation with your own eyes, Boss? Honestly, what kind of boss lets their dungeon get into this state until— Huh?”
The two of them stopped in their tracks at Room 4.
“Huh?”
Patrick asked again, searching his memory. What was Room 4 again? Ah, yes. It was the room where Melju had settled in as the administrator. To be precise, it was the room managed by Melju and 2 Ounce.
It was the space where they planned to build the Demon King Castle in the future and station Melju’s Demon King's Army as monsters.
“……”