Chapter 18
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Seven Deadly Sins
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While cleaning up the mess Erzsebet had left behind overnight, I listened to her story.
"There were intruders last night?"
"Yeah. Apparently, three of them were so-called heroes."
.....I never thought they'd actually show up. After luckily chasing off those hunters from two days ago, I'd wondered if other humans might come looking, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon...
'This is so unfair. They struck first, so why am I the one worrying?'
It was all because of that mage woman I met after being transported here. She mistook me for a demon hybrid and tried to kill me, so I had no choice but to fight back. Then other hunters came seeking revenge for her...
"Heroes, huh?"
"Yeah. They said they were heroes affiliated with some temple that serves that bitch Eukrasia."
A temple...... What was that about? From the vibe, they didn't seem connected to the hunters I ran into two days ago. Were they remnants of those hunters coming for revenge?
No. There had been one guy calling himself a hero among those hunters back then, so maybe it wasn't that strange.
"But... three heroes, and you took them all down?"
"Not all three. Didn't you handle one of them?"
"....Me?"
"Yeah. A woman with the strange ability to turn invisible slipped inside... but she came running out bleeding from her foot. Wasn't that you?"
....Bleeding from her foot? What the... Wait a second.
'...That footprint from yesterday.'
Listening to Erzsebet, something clicked. Last night, after taking a piss, when I used [Contamination Check], I spotted that weird footprint. I blasted it with water to clean up the urine traces and wipe the print away too...
'....Agh!'
...And suddenly, a woman's scream echoed from empty air. I'd thought it was half-asleep hallucination or maybe a ghost, but it was a person? A hero, no less?
'Fuck. Nearly died in my sleep.'
Goosebumps prickled across my skin. Who would've thought another brush with death would come in the dead of night? Good thing I'd made the contract with Erzsebet. New intruders after just two days... sneaking in while I was asleep. Without her, I'd be dead for sure.
Then I glanced at the corridor still bearing traces of the nighttime battle. It was splattered with blood everywhere, and on closer inspection, bits that looked like human body parts were scattered around.
'.....Why doesn't this bother me?'
But even staring at that gruesome scene, no revulsion rose up. It should have disgusted me...
'....Is this another effect of the 'Cleaning Game' ability?'
I’ve felt mortal terror and a sense of acute crisis during life-threatening moments, but looking at debris like this? Weirdly enough, I feel nothing at all—just a vague sense that things are 'dirty'
Maybe it was tied to the 'Cleaning Game' system applying to me.
'That must be why hearing people died last night doesn't shock me much.'
...Or maybe because I nearly died myself, relief at surviving outweighed any guilt.
I lived, so that's what matters. I lived...
"Oh, and I let that woman you deliberately spared go."
".....What?"
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Having barely escaped the dungeon of unknown identity, Mori ran frantically. The superhuman body of a hero allowed her—even with a hole pierced through the middle of her foot—to return safely to the city.
"....A total wipeout?"
"Yes!"
She made it back to the small city of 'Delron' and headed straight to the temple she belonged to, reporting everything she'd witnessed.
"A dungeon! It was definitely a dungeon!"
"Ugh.... A new dungeon appearing now of all times. Hard to believe just like that..."
"There was a demon calling that man 'Master'! It's gotta be a Dungeon Master!"
The bishop listening to 1-star hero Mori's account felt a headache coming on. He'd nominally assigned her to investigate a suspected dungeon site and dispatched a scouting party, but he hadn't actually believed a real dungeon was there.
'I just hoped they'd grab any holy relics and come back...!'
The holy relic 'Baikal' that 1-star hero Rox had been carrying when he got his ass handed to him by demons, somehow lost his contract, and dropped it. The scouting party's goal was simply to find and retrieve that Baikal...
"A real dungeon...!"
Multiple heroes down, and intel from Mori—who outshone other 1-stars in reconnaissance—made the info credible. Feeling exhaustion wash over him, the bishop first sent Mori to the infirmary.
"Why a new dungeon all of a sudden...? Did rebels defying the Empire go rogue and conquer one? Or did infighting among demons cause a dungeon to collapse...?"
He hurriedly drafted a support request to headquarters, his mind racing.
When one dungeon falls, a new one appears somewhere on the continent. Common knowledge. But... unless a dungeon is destroyed, no new ones pop up.
So a new dungeon meant one of the existing ones had collapsed, right?
"I need to check the status of dungeons under watch at each temple branch... No, priority is reclaiming the three holy relics we've already lost..."
Muttering various thoughts while writing the request, the bishop paused, recalling one detail from Mori's report.
'...A demon wielding blood? Have I heard of such a demon?'
Among Mori's report was a demon with blood-manipulating powers.
But from the bishop's knowledge, no 'parasite'-like demons currently plaguing the continent wielded blood abilities.
Even checking magic instead of racial traits yielded the same. No known demon or human spells manipulated blood, no matter how you sliced it. If anything...
'Mimicking a figure from myth?'
The bishop recalled a myth known only to high priests or ancient demons—the stuff of fading memories.
In the era of creation, as Eukrasia spread life across the continent and created humanity, the insidious Demon God crafted seven demons to serve his will.
The progenitors of all demons thereafter. Beings of demigod-like power, each surpassing mortal limits.
The Seven Deadly Sins.
'A Dungeon Master would know the myths of the Seven Deadly Sins. Tch. Blasphemous...!'
And among those Seven Deadly Sins was indeed a demon who wielded blood.
'Sloth.'
A demigod commanding blood—the symbol of life—and empress ruling the Blood Demon Tribe that inherited her power. True to her epithet 'Sloth,' even records from mythic times preserved at temple headquarters barely mentioned her exploits.
Compared to 'Pride' with abundant activity logs or 'Lust' known vividly through suspiciously detailed illustrations, her documentation was pathetically sparse.
But those few records...
"Were filled with absurd tales like single-handedly massacring armies of tens of millions or reviving after being killed thousands of times."
Her temperament was said to be brutally savage; whenever she stirred, thousands fell as victims.
Historians studying mythic history claimed records of 'Sloth' were so exaggerated they hindered proper research.
"A survivor of the Blood Demon Tribe we thought extinct?"
Naturally, 'Sloth' herself couldn't have appeared, so the bishop considered alternatives. After the mythic God-Demon War ended in the Demon God's defeat, as he and the Seven Deadly Sins vanished from the continent—before the mysteries of 'dungeons' and 'holy relics' emerged—humans mercilessly hunted down defeated demons.
Top priority: tribes bearing traces of the Seven Deadly Sins. The Blood Demon Tribe under Sin 'Sloth' was hunted first; humans rooted them out from hiding, eradicating them continent-wide.
By now, Blood Demons survived only in ancient histories or mythic records.
"Looks like remnants hid somewhere on the continent. And this sudden dungeon... Maybe descendants of the Blood Demons are plotting something."
Organizing his thoughts, the bishop added to the request that the mystery demon was suspected to be Blood Demon Tribe.
'What are those bastards scheming...?'
Stamping the finished support request/report, the bishop shuddered, anxious over the demons' movements.
'They let Mori go on purpose. A warning, perhaps...?'
Slaughtering the entire scouting party, seeing through stealth, yet sparing one lone hero—the demon's intent eluded him. Lost in thought, the bishop pondered.
'What are those wicked fiends doing right now...!'
"Clean it more thoroughly. There's still bloodstains here."
"M-Master. Do I really have to do this?"
"Want me to confiscate your high-press... I mean, your staff?"
"N-No! I'll do my best, Master!"
You make the mess, you clean it up. Especially after causing trouble.