It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

"Please... please don't do this..."

Grace, who had been wearing pure white clothing adorned with modest accessories earlier, was now clad only in underwear, trying desperately to cover herself while crying in the corner.

Around her were scattered torn or broken clothes and accessories.

"Don't worry. I don't intend to kill you."

I approached her, placed a hand on her chin to lift her face, and made eye contact.

Around her teary eyes, holy power that hadn't yet settled was scattered.

It looked beautiful, but the feeling it conveyed to me was unpleasant.

"Heeek...!!"

As I frowned at this, Grace convulsively showed fear and shrank back.

"I'll, I'll be good... so please, just don't hurt me...!"

I placed one hand on her abdomen while stroking her head with the other.

"It's alright. You'll soon tire and fall asleep, and when you wake up, everything about you will have changed."

"T-That's...!"

My, what a troublesome woman she was.

『Characteristics - High-grade Specialization: Detection Holy Spell (Praise), Specialization: Defense Holy Spell (Text), Defensive Coward, Mammonism』

Just like cowards always are before entering the main process.

* * *

"Save... me... please... hmnnya..."

To conclude first, the process of tainting the clergy with evil failed.

It wasn't disappointing.

'I didn't expect it to work on the first try anyway.'

Before implementing the process on Grace, I deliberately went through sufficient experiments.

I thought tainting a person would have a much different level of difficulty than tainting an animal raised on holy power or an artifact.

'It's amazing how quickly holy power recovers. Even though she was just a high-rank entry-level priest.'

The biggest problem I felt during the process of tainting her was the holy power welling up from her chest.

While suppressing the repulsion between holy power and demonic power to continue the process, that power kept recharging endlessly, leaving me at a loss.

"It's not without results though."

What my eyes caught was the pure white light that kept flowing over Grace's exterior.

Some of the white light powder that had become part of her halo, as if proof of her priestly status, now had its brilliance slightly faded.

As if her faith had lost its light.

Although it's gradually regaining its original light, it means there's a possibility.

'The solution would be one of two.'

One is to pound in massive power.

Even if holy power based on faith keeps welling up from within, if you keep pounding in power endlessly, eventually that 'white ink in a cup of black water' will turn black.

'But that's not my style.'

Also, this was a method too unreasonable to use right now.

I thought it would be worth trying against a high-rank opponent only when my power reaches at least 2 levels higher than now.

So the next method I thought of was.

'I need to corrupt that faith first.'

It's a method that's possible to start right away. If you consider only that it's a task done alone without a guide, making it pitch dark ahead.

It's not something to do in a place that's still human territory, as it takes a long time.

"Take care of the priestess separately. I think I'll need to see her later."

Therefore.

"You've waited long, Amelia."

I need to create the place first.

"Release her."

As I turned my gaze back to Amelia Terramor and gestured to the female knight standing beside me, she removed the cloth covering Amelia's mouth.

I could see translucent, shiny saliva stretching.

"Hah... What have you done to her... and to our people?"

Amelia still had her eyes narrowed sharply.

Like a small animal trying to look bigger.

Although she never had much of a strong presence to begin with, she consistently showed no signs of giving up or backing down.

If she had stronger power, I might have thought she was like a honey badger rather than just a small animal.

"Wait a moment. You're impatient."

"What...?"

Before answering her question, I took a handkerchief from the maid beside me and wiped the saliva stretched around her lips.

Amelia's face, which had unconsciously avoided my touch, turned bright red.

She had been so wary of me that she hadn't even noticed something sticking to her face.

"Daisy..."

"Yes, young miss?"

Then, seeing the face of the maid who took back the handkerchief next to me, her expression contorted again.

The one standing beside me was a maid of this fortress, and among them, the personal maid who had always naturally attended to Amelia.

She had been 'talking' to me until just a moment ago.

"Land. Power. People. Force. You human nobles naturally plundered others' things, believing they were originally yours. But look. In whose hands are they now?"

"That's because you...!"

The priest has fallen.

The knight holds a sword for me.

Her personal maid serves me.

Now that the 'power of the clergy', 'authority of nobility', and 'trust between people' that had been pillars in her heart have all lost their ability.

Her resistance was like a sand castle.

"Did you ask what I did?"

"..."

"I showed you how futile the things you believe you naturally possess are."

"Ugh...!"

"And I let you know that you too are weaklings who can be ruled."

Amelia's gaze, glaring at me with her chin in my hand, gradually became tinged with realization.

"You... You want this land and the people on it, don't you?"

"You're wise."

Wisdom and courage filled her eyes.

Her mother had hoped she would live the life of an ordinary noble lady, but...

Seeing her like this now, her qualities were clearly more suited for a lord.

Although slightly lacking, that's better for me.

"But it's useless. Even if you do this, there's no way I'll cooperate...!"

"You won't cooperate."

"...?"

"You'll simply obey."

"That can't be...!"

I smiled at her and pointed a dagger at Grace's neck.

"What are you doing?"

"Even if I do this, it would be easy to make you submit. It's a life you called here to die, isn't it?"

"Stop it...!"

"Oh? Then, how about this?"

"Daisy...?"

As I turned the blade to point at the maid's neck, she approached me as if unaware of fear and placed her neck on the dagger.

It was so natural that even Amelia couldn't immediately comprehend the situation.

But her face soon turned pale.

"Come to your senses, Daisy! What are you doing?"

"Huh? I'm just doing my job as a maid, young miss."

"What is your job?"

"To provide what the master wants, Master."

A thin stream of blood flowing along the chin of the maid speaking nonchalantly.

By the time Amelia realized what that bright red blood meant, I withdrew the blade and wiped the maid's chin with a handkerchief.

The collar already soaked in blood couldn't be helped.

"What if it were your mother here? Your young sister?"

"Then...!"

"You wouldn't even think of resisting. Isn't that right?"

Amelia's eyes were losing their light.

I could clearly feel her mind giving up.

'One supported by the people.'

From what I've observed over the past few days.

Amelia was a young lady supported by all the servants and knights in the inner castle, and even by the people outside.

'It's not an easy thing. For someone accustomed to the position of a ruler to receive such support.'

Whether it's innate talent or a performance honed over time.

Although it's true that I'll eventually have to remove this lord's family for complete control of this area, it was safest to just take them into my hand for immediate stability.

Among them, someone who could maintain the territory to some extent and didn't need constant attention was convenient.

Where would I have the time and ability to control each of those numerous puppets one by one?

It's faster to just take the puppeteer controlling those puppets.

"The fruit vendor who always greets you in the morning with an apple. This female knight who taught you some self-defense. This maid who was always with you. The lives of all these people depend on you."

Among the lord's family, the one I chose was Amelia.

The young sister was too lacking.

The lord was too stable.

And his wife was stupid.

"What... what are you trying to do?"

"It's not me who's doing something, it's you."

"What...?"

"If you alone contract with me. Then there's no need to touch their lives, or their hearts."

If being too smart was a problem, it was enough to make it unnecessary to worry about.

"Then... really...?"

"The contract is not allowed!"

At the sudden voice, Amelia turned her gaze.

The owner of the voice was Priestess Grace.

She had fainted once but had woken up at some point and was listening to our conversation.

"Strong magic power, contract... She's not just a follower of demons, but a Dungeon Lord! If you contract with her, you'll become like them...!"

"Is that true...?"

Her voice was quite passionate and persuasive.

For someone who had been a coward and shabby.

I smiled at Amelia's question.

After all, Grace's logic based on past cases could be immediately refuted.

"Bring Sonia and Maria."

I called for the two with my arms crossed, and soon Xue brought them and presented them in front of the priest and noble.

"Look carefully, Grace. Do these two look like monsters or demons to you?"

"They're... humans, aren't they? The ones you control through vile means...!"

"Yes. They're human. That I control them... well, that's true. Maria."

"...Do I really have to show them?"

Maria, who immediately understood what I meant, looked at me with somewhat reluctant eyes.

"Resistance...?"

And just with that, Grace seemed shocked.

If Maria was being perfectly controlled by me, it would have been normal for her not to show, or be unable to show, such reluctance.

"If you really don't want to, you don't have to."

"It wasn't...?"

Grace was even more so when I seemed to accept that negation readily.

"Haah. I understand. Master."

Maria sighed, then approached Grace and Amelia and unbuttoned her top.

"W-What are you doing?!"

"Stay still. You can't escape from the master anyway. Here, look."

What Maria showed was a mark engraved from her collarbone to near where her breasts began.

A purple flower and a black skull.

My mark as a Dungeon Lord.

"If you're clergy, you should know. This is a contract stigma. I'm in a contract with the master. And as you can see, I'm also human."

When a Dungeon Lord and a human share a contract, the stigma is usually engraved in a place not easily visible, and in her case, it was there.

Why I asked Maria to show it instead of Sonia... I'll refrain from commenting.

"Is this enough, Master?"

"Yes. Come here."

"Yes."

I tidied up Maria's clothes as she approached me.

One button was mismatched, which bothered me.

"Ah... Thank you."

"Thank you for your hard work. Rest now."

"...Don't bully them too much."

Maria, who seemed to be glaring at me slightly, finally spat out the words she had been holding back one by one.

Considering her original personality, she had held back for a long time.

I wasn't someone who wouldn't tolerate such small complaints.

"I'm persuading them. Like I did with you."

"...Then do as you please."

"I'll retire too, Master. As Sister said... I hope you won't bully them too much."

"Alright, Sonia. Don't worry."

After seeing off Maria and Sonia, who left the room grumbling, I looked at Grace, and she was now looking this way with a completely confused expression.

It must be shocking not only to see a Dungeon Lord contract with a human while they remain human, which is a very rare sight, but also to see such contracted humans expressing their will relatively freely.

It's an impossible thing according to the common sense spread in the world.

"It seems I've finished what I had to say. Decide. Whether you'll let everyone die, or sacrifice just yourself. Of course, if you contract with me, I won't harm your family either."

"This is... this is too cowardly. Creating an environment where we have no choice but to decide like this..."

Grace finally left only those words and fell silent.

She would know that any further objection would be no different from telling Amelia, 'You and your family should sacrifice yourselves'.

To that, I focused my gaze on Amelia.

"What are you trying to gain by doing all this?"

She asked me the final question.

"Well... There's only one thing I want to gain."

As I remained silent for a moment, their eyes looking at me gradually widened.

Are they imagining some earth-shattering result?

I counted the time for a moment until they had completely imagined my answer in their minds, then opened my mouth to speak that answer.

"Tranquility."

"...?"

"What did you say...?"

Probably an answer opposite to what they had thought.

'For my people to be at peace through me, by dyeing the whole world.'

The commonality between that answer and what they imagined was that to achieve this, I could destroy or possess everything in this world.

That was all.

"You... just who..."

"It's hard to believe, but it's the truth."

I looked at Amelia.

She was still looking at me with eyes full of anxiety and fear.

"I can really do anything for that."

With what I just said, she won't be able to laugh it off as a misunderstanding about her feelings towards me, and even if she makes a contract, she won't be able to gain trust as she's a human who has already had everything she could have.

"... Alright. I'll... make the contract."

"Good. To think such a good child would come into my hands."

So, I was thinking of taming her.

The materials for that were already in my hands.