Chapter 86
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 86
Chapter Title: Shattered Peace
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"Hmm..."
"You're awake?"
Instead of the uncomfortable tube where Erzsebet usually slept, she opened her eyes on the bed I normally used. She looked around and met my gaze.
"Master? Where is this..."
"Jeez. I knew you slept a lot even normally, but I never imagined you'd fall asleep mid-air and crash..."
Having heard my words, Erzsebet slowly sat up. I'd already checked via the [Employee Management] function, but she truly seemed fine—no issues with her body or anything.
"Master. Why am I here?"
"...Why are you here, you ask? You said you'd handle that alliance all by yourself, and not even a day later, you came back. Then you fell from the sky, and the elves brought you here..."
Seeing Erzsebet's memory seeming a bit fuzzy, I explained how the elves had found her. Only after hearing that did she nod as if it all came back to her.
"Ah, right... Don't worry, Master. I've definitely taken care of that alliance."
"Taken care of?"
"Yes. The three core members of the alliance... and the dungeon cores they were staying in. I destroyed those for sure."
She'd even destroyed the dungeon cores... That should do it, then. Just to be safe, I should send scouts later to confirm the dungeons are truly gone, or maybe get info through the dungeon merchant.
For now, keep the sentries as they are, and first...
"Erzsebet. Did you happen to find... three weird things when you went out?"
"Weird things?"
"I don't know exactly what they are... Something like strange contaminants? Three of them."
I figured that the shattered contaminant text from the [Sub Quest] meant Erzsebet had collected them while dealing with the alliance, so I asked if she'd found anything special in the process. Especially since the quest progress showed three collected already.
"...Hmm. No idea."
"...Really?"
But contrary to my expectations, after frowning and rummaging through her memories for a bit, Erzsebet shook her head.
"If it were minor items, maybe, but three weird things... If it includes living beings, then those dungeon masters were pretty strange."
"...Tch. I see."
What could it be? Maybe this [Sub Quest]'s contaminants refer to the dungeon masters themselves? She caught exactly three, after all, so it kinda fits...
Now they're treating living creatures as contaminants? We do count bugs as contaminants, though...
"Hmm... Aside from that..."
"Nah, forget it. Rest. You look exhausted."
I stopped Erzsebet from straining to remember and laid her back down. I wasn't about to grill someone who'd crashed from the sky after dozing off.
Instead, I quietly placed the [High-Pressure Cleaner (lv.5)] beside the now-closed eyes of Erzsebet and left the room. She'd find it when she woke up.
"This [Sub Quest]... let's shelve it for now."
My guess, but this [Sub Quest] doesn't seem like something doable from inside the ruins. That's why the quest window has that tip about actively using employees who can go outside in my place.
I have no clue what those three collected contaminants are... but exactly three, and timing-wise with the quest counter, it lines up with one from each dungeon...
"Maybe the dungeon cores?"
The dungeon cores might count as contaminants instead of the living dungeon masters... but I'm not sending other [employees] out just to check. Best to forget it for now. If I dispatch [employees] outside again later, I can verify then.
"Um... Master."
"Yeah? What is it?"
I was pondering ways to check the status of the dungeons Erzsebet claimed to have destroyed when the Red Demon Tribe member I'd put in charge of the monsters approached cautiously.
"Well... One slime is missing."
"Missing?"
"Yes. When Erzsebet returned, the vibrations caused the slimes to scatter in panic... We recovered all the others, but one just won't turn up no matter where we look."
"Hm... It's not dead, is it?"
Intruders came and went, and Erzsebet crashed from on high, so in all that chaos, one might've died.
"If it were dead, we'd have found the remains at least... But your summoned beasts cleaned up every trace."
"Ah."
Whether the slime died or vanished somewhere, there should be traces left normally. But this ruin has my [Robot Vacuums] sprinkled around for cleaning. Did they erase all signs of the missing slime?
Tch... Where'd it go? They were doing a great job cleaning when I set them loose at the entrance.
"For now, ask Dry to scour the forest top to bottom. Or it might've slipped outside, so have the patrolling elves check too."
"Yes."
And even if it died or vanished completely, no big loss. Slimes are dirt cheap from the dungeon merchant. Just buy another.
The only slight worry is they're low-intelligence monsters, and casting subjugation magic on every single slime isn't cost-effective, so the slimes don't have the standard spell to obey the master or not harm the master...
Well, even if a hiding slime attacks a ruin resident, it couldn't take down a kid, they say. No real worry there.
"Wh-what?!"
"The dungeons...!"
The next day, after a foul stench of blood hung in the air, the demons under the alliance's shadow personally witnessed the three dungeons leading them collapse.
'The alliance has fallen!'
They weren't blind or deaf. They'd known the three alliance dungeons had pooled forces to send troops somewhere recently. And not long after, confirming all three reduced to rubble in a single night, they trembled in fear.
"It's that newborn dungeon..."
"What?"
"The direction the alliance headed. Where that new dungeon was said to have appeared."
"That newborn one... wasn't it destroyed by humans?"
"If not that dungeon, who could pull this off? You think there's anyone else in the south who could beat the alliance?"
A few quick thinkers among them linked the recently appeared newborn dungeon to the alliance's downfall. By their common sense, wiping out three dungeons overnight would require at least a 5-star hero stepping in personally, or a demon of comparable power.
"I told you! It was suspicious that a 4-star hero—their core—died, and the rest took it down!"
"What does that matter now?!"
Fearing they might catch the eye of that unknown newborn dungeon, the demons who'd fully committed to the alliance scattered.
Those forcibly dragged into the alliance despite no interest returned to their old lives, while those who'd bullied weaker demons under the alliance's banner hid away.
And among them were some with unusual ambitions.
"Dungeons destroyed means...!"
"A new dungeon will appear!"
When a dungeon falls, a new core spawns somewhere on the continent. Unchanging fact.
And though not widely known, new cores usually appear not far from the original dungeon.
Not all follow that rule, of course, but with three dungeons down, at least one new core might've popped up nearby. Demons harboring desires to become masters of new dungeons set out with greed in their eyes.
"...Where is it?"
"Damn it. By now, word should've come that someone found it, right?"
But no matter how they searched, they found no cores—nor news of anyone chosen by one. As if no new dungeons had formed at all.
"Tch. Someone must've been chosen and is hiding it."
"Whoever it is, lucky bastard. Hiding it tight means some nobody got picked..."
Unable to find any cores in the end, the demons clicked their tongues. Never imagining no cores had spawned at all.
"What now? We didn't find any cores."
"Gotta leave the south first... You think that newborn dungeon will let us alliance collaborators go?"
In the end, demons who'd aggressively recruited for the alliance or pressured other dungeons relying on its might quietly fled south. Heading east—the most peaceful of the other three regions, if not quite like the south—they tilted their heads.
"Feels like I've got more pep since last night..."
"Yeah, you too? Same here."
Something felt off—demonic energy slightly increased, physical abilities a tad enhanced. An unnamed demon swung his arm around.
"Heh... Been a while since I fought properly under the alliance. Must've grown."
"Grown? All we did was tussle with a few monsters expanding alliance turf."
Some dismissed it as imagination, but sharper demons sensed their overall power had indeed risen slightly and grew suspicious.
But they never got a chance to resolve that doubt.
-Fwish!!
"Gah...!"
"Wh-what?! Jerban!"
A sharp whoosh cut the air ahead of demons sneaking out of the south toward the east, and the lead one toppled over.
Panicked demons halted en masse, then figures emerged from beyond the ridge.
"H-humans...?"
-Thud! Thud!
Not amateur demon hunters, but properly armed professional soldiers.
Not just regular troops—heroes with holy relics, priests wielding divine power mixed in. That massive force mercilessly cut down the blocking demons.
"From this moment."
The commander leading the humans spoke in icy tones.
"The holy war begins."
"In the name of God!!"
Thus, that day, news far more shocking than three southern dungeons vanishing overnight in demon infighting rocked the continent.
The fragile peace, barely held by the late Holy Empire emperor's absurd "dungeon preservation" policy—like a candle in the wind.
Word spread that the policy was abolished.