# 027 For the Unicorn's Revenge
# 027 For the Unicorn's Revenge
Thrust, thrust, thrust.
The Escort knights silently drove their spears into the white unicorn at the center.
Hiiihiiing—
The unicorn screamed in a mournful voice, but the Escorts silently stabbed the unicorn again and again.
Their spears had tips like cavalry lances.
"U-um..."
"Watch closely, Sister."
The Escort commander, the Heretic Inquisitor, pointed at the dying unicorn with a benevolent smile.
"This is how you kill a unicorn."
"......."
The woman wearing Escort knight's attire, Hudia, felt both exhilaration and pity as she watched the unicorn that had kicked her.
Seeing the unicorn that had attacked her being so helplessly overpowered, she unconsciously let out a cheer, but at the sight of it being stabbed over and over even while it was defeated and dying, until the very end, she felt a twinge of pity.
Couldn't they just finish it off quickly?
It was already a dying creature; confirming the kill was an adventurer's fundamental duty, yet seeing red blood gushing so profusely from its white body made her feel sick.
Thud, thrust, thud.
Had her pity gotten through?
The unicorn slowly turned into white mist and vanished.
Hudia was somewhat startled by the sudden disappearance, but the Heretic Inquisitor remained composed as she pulled out a notebook and jotted something down.
"9:12..."
Tick, tock.
After checking the exact time with the pocket watch in her hand, the Heretic Inquisitor turned the crown of the watch three times.
"We will now begin three days of exploring the dragon lair."
"Three days...?"
"Yes. What I intend to show you is not something trivial like a dungeon raid."
The Heretic Inquisitor pointed to the lair entrance the unicorn had been guarding.
"What we descended through from above was merely a settlement where monsters had gathered. From here downward, that lair entrance over there is what you could call the 'real' dungeon."
"A Dragon's Lair..."
Hudia swallowed hard.
Although she had become an Escort with Diamond-rank strength overnight thanks to the Heretic Inquisitor's help, her combat sense and experience were still markedly low.
"Watch from behind as your seniors fight. And watch the other adventurers fight as well."
The Heretic Inquisitor pointed to the adventurers behind the Escort, who were in the middle of a strategy meeting.
There, a much larger number of humans than the Escort group were conversing, clad in expensive equipment.
It was her first time raiding a dragon lair.
Many had attempted to raid dragon lairs before, but none of them had come back out alive.
There were a few known pieces of information here and there, but most amounted to 'it's filthy dangerous, so prepare thoroughly.'
"There is no telling what lies ahead. But now that you have become an Escort, we cannot simply eliminate the unicorn and move on."
Click, click.
The Heretic Inquisitor lit a cigarette.
The tobacco leaves rolled in white paper began to burn, and the acrid cigarette smoke stung Hudia's nose.
"If you do not eliminate the ultimate enemy, the unicorn is destined to revive."
"The unicorn... revives?"
"That's right."
With an irritated face, the Heretic Inquisitor pointed at the spot where the unicorn had vanished.
"It is a summoned creature."
* * *
One thing I should mention upfront: the unicorn did not die.
How many women had he killed as a gatekeeper so far?
The number of non-virgins he had killed was beyond counting, and since becoming the frontline sentry guarding my lair, he had lived for a very long time.
But all killing carried karmic consequences.
Just as the unicorn had stabbed to death a considerable number of women, he had also died many times in turn.
'Fighting on the front lines meant encountering that many enemies, after all.'
The unicorn was not the strongest.
In adventurer rank terms, those who had reached above the highest Diamond rank—a stage beyond the Master’s Realm—could defeat the unicorn in one-on-one combat.
By swordsman standards, Sword Master level.
By mercenary standards, Master rank.
By mage standards, 7th Circle, the threshold of Archmage.
The unicorn possessed roughly this level of power.
'The unicorn's job was to verify the strength of those who had fought their way down through the Dragonium dungeon.'
What the unicorn assessed was not merely the presence or absence of virginity.
He also served to assess the enemy's combat strength.
If the enemy was weaker than the unicorn, the unicorn handled them on his own; if stronger, an alert was raised in the lair.
With so much frontline fighting, and being first to face strong enemies, the fellow was injured often and died frequently.
—You died again? At this point, shouldn't you be the one suggesting we break the contract?
—But... there is no place other than here where I can purify the world with peace of mind.
—You call that purification?
—Yes. Even those I cannot kill in the Spirit Realm, I can reverse-summon them if I meet them here.
He was a 'Phantom Beast' and a 'Spirit.'
His physical form existed here, but that form was composed of my mana as his summoner.
—Just give me the chance, and I will pierce through every last one of them!
The only Phantom Beast I had ever contracted.
He had contracted with me to satisfy his own desires, and he fulfilled his duty.
'At least three days until the unicorn revived.'
To summon the unicorn back from the Spirit Realm, the Phantom Beast Realm, that much mana and time was required.
Naturally, those who had killed the unicorn would begin a frontal assault in the meantime, and naturally, as the dungeon's master, I had to respond.
"U-um, Master...?"
"Follow me, Sharia."
"Y-yes!"
I grabbed Sharia and immediately used teleport.
Transported in an instant, Sharia looked around in surprise.
"Where is this...?"
"The interior of the dungeon—the situation room at the very heart of the lair."
A spacious room that an adult dragon could comfortably fit inside.
On the front wall, hundreds of rectangular magic stones were arrayed like a grid.
[Master.]
"Pull up the footage from the entrance perimeter."
Below, female maid-shaped mechanical golems were rapidly moving their hands, operating the dungeon's automata.
"Those are..."
"Magic stones inside my lair. Stones that let you see those locations from afar."
In the past, I had demons with a single enormous eye roaming around, but now that technology had advanced, I replaced them with magic stones that could serve a similar function.
The magic stones were connected in real time to the video playback magic stones in the situation room, and through them I could see the entire lair at a glance.
Past footage as well.
Noir, the head maid overseeing the dungeon, hastily played back the footage recorded by the forward magic stones.
There, approximately fifty humans stood.
Every last one of them looked strong, and a few had top-grade equipment made of obsidian or adamantite.
"No wonder the unicorn was defeated."
Most of the time, those who carried flashy yet practical equipment like that were the 'real deal.'
Moreover, the women beside them in revealing outfits were even more so the real deal.
[As you can see, enemies from the Goddess Church have appeared. They appear to be an adventurer group and 'Escort.']
"No matter how many times I drive them out, they just keep coming."
Escort.
A unicorn elimination unit operated by the Goddess Church.
Why a unicorn elimination unit? Because they were cowards who eliminated only the unicorn and didn't even dare to enter beyond that.
'But Escort was directly under the Saintess.'
I knew the Saintess commanded it directly, and the person in charge who looked like a saintess...
"Was there."
The Heretic Inquisitor.
It seemed certain that the woman Sharia had spoken of was indeed the Saintess.
"Ah, that person is...?"
"The Heretic Inquisitor. Sharia, that woman... that's her, isn't it?"
"...Yes."
With a cold expression, Sharia glared at the Heretic Inquisitor beyond the magic stone's image.
"That woman annihilated my family. The witch hunt... personally."
It might have been the first time.
Sharia, who had blushed when her chest was grabbed and she was sexually harassed multiple times, was directing such hatred at someone.
"This works out perfectly. At first I wasn't sure... I'm really relieved. That what I saw wasn't mistaken."
If Sharia killed her, would that complete her revenge?
"Sharia, want me to kill her for you?"
"...No. I want to kill her with my own hands."
That was what she wanted, but Sharia was still lacking in strength.
"And if I kill her right away, I won't be able to find out who framed my family as witches."
Moreover, the Heretic Inquisitor was just one of many targets for revenge; the real target Sharia wanted vengeance against was someone else.
Those who had slandered Sharia's family.
The Heretic Inquisitor surely knew who they were, and Sharia wanted to interrogate the Heretic Inquisitor—the Saintess—directly.
"So, for now..."
"Sharia. I called Escort cowards, didn't I?"
I switched the magic stone to live feed.
"Look at that."
"......."
Of the enemies visible on the magic stone, only the adventurers were entering; just five or so Escort members were following behind.
The rest of the Escort were setting up a temporary base at the lair entrance.
'Setting up camp in front of someone else's home. How insolent.'
Should I crush them?
Not yet.
If I crushed them, the ones who had already entered my lair would immediately rush back out in response to the external attack.
'I had to catch them inside the lair.'
That way I could capture them, take their equipment, sell the hostages for money, and catch the virgins separately to have my fun, right?
Made for that purpose...
The tentacle room, the slime room, the mechanical goblin room, the trap room, and countless others.
...Come to think of it, those weren't things to show Sharia just yet.
"Noir. Where are the enemies currently entering?"
[They are entering through A-2 Route. If they continue this way, they will enter the sl—the trap room.]
Noir tactfully skirted around her words.
Though she was an artificial golem, she had watched how I treated women all this time and did not carelessly mention slimes in front of Sharia.
Therefore.
"Remove all equipment from the trap room."
[A-2 Route, relocating all trap equipment to the next interception chamber.]
I moved all the slimes in the trap room to the rear.
Naturally, that room was now empty, and at this rate, the enemies would enter without issue and continue advancing inward.
In that case.
"I will intercept them personally."
It was the perfect opportunity to show Sharia something impressive.
"Sharia. Watch from here. See how a blade imbued with Willpower defeats enemies."
I would crush them myself.
"Polymorph."
The optimal form to make the enemy let down their guard.
"Ah, Master...?"
"Watch closely."
I pointed with my hand precisely at my own form for Sharia to see.
"This is what you must become."
My form reflected on the screen was Sharia—black-haired, golden-eyed, wearing a mask.