It’s Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

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– 1 –

“Why is Rita doing such bothersome things?”

It was Serika’s question. She found Elias’s antics, who had recently entered my dungeon, amusing and dropped by frequently, yet even today, with results already out, he hadn’t returned.

Perhaps he just doesn’t want to go back to his family.

“What do you mean?”

“That human male. If you wanted him to pay the price, couldn’t you just cut off his limbs and throw him to the beasts?”

That was her question. Indeed, it was a sentiment quite different from human feelings.

Sitting in the rotating chair, Serika spun around, her eyes tinted with indifferent curiosity.

She was curious, yet indifferent to whether she learned the answer.

As I held the chair to stop it, she looked up at me with a hint of dissatisfaction, but as I started to speak, her eyes lit up and she began to focus.

“Don’t talk so harshly, Serika. I like your style, but such harsh words don’t look pretty.”

“Ah, really? Is this harsh language…?”

“Yes. Indeed… why you would punish a human in such a way…”

I thought for a moment but decided to start by correcting her misunderstanding.

“First of all, that is not a punishment, but a test.”

“A test?”

“Yes. It’s a process to see if he’s useful.”

“Why? What use would you have for a human?”

Serika cocked her head to the side, puzzled.

Following her movement, her blonde hair fell messily.

I grabbed a comb and gently stroked her naturally beautiful blonde hair, which seemed to draw her gaze. She slightly closed her eyes, possibly enjoying it.

“Many dungeons utilize humans, Serika. You’ve seen mercenaries, right?”

“Yes. There are many in the Marquis’s house.”

“Did you know that more than half of them are actually humans?”

“What? Really?”

Her eyes widened, and she turned around.

Those round eyes were cute. If she hated vampires, many might also dislike her red eyes.

I gently tapped her forehead, bringing her back to reality, then let loose her tousled hair.

I planned to try a different style instead of the usual one she wore.

“Yes.”

“I really didn’t know. They were humans? Why did they become demons? Humans always talk about their humanity and such. They say they don’t want to become monsters.”

“You’ve heard such words before?”

“Yes! After seeing my bonsai in the dungeon, especially the dry male and female ones, they said that!”

They were probably mages or scholars.

Ordinary mercenaries or adventurers might have a sense of duty, but they usually don’t ponder about morality or philosophy. With busy lives, when would they have time for scholarship?

“Everyone has different preferences, don’t they? Just like you can’t resist sweets, I enjoy tea.”

As I spoke, her head nodded, and I ran my hands through the back of her hair, causing her mana to naturally intertwine amongst the strands.

Eventually, the hair came together, forming a braided style.

Unlike the usual high braid, this time it was lower. It looked cute, but with a touch more composure.

“Oh, is that so? Then they don’t dislike becoming demons.”

“They may dislike it, but they prefer what being a demon affords them; be it wealth or desirability.”

“Desirability? Why do they like desirability?”

Her final question made me pause momentarily.

I needed some mental preparation to explain it to her. I know she’s actually an adult, but still…

“I’ll explain that next time.”

“Eh…”

“Anyway, while it’s true that I made his life difficult, it isn’t just for punishment.”

“What do you want to use him for?”

Her tone sounded almost surprisingly innocent, and treating humans as ‘things’ was a natural expression for her.

“I intend to claim the human kingdom.”

As I felt some sense of disappointment in myself for getting used to that distance, I wrapped up the conversation.

“Oh…! You’re even trying to become a human princess?”

“That’s not wrong.”

“I can’t wait! Rita is incredibly beautiful and amazing, so why not be both a human and a demon princess!”

“Thank you, Serika.”

“Hehe.”

I thought that innocence and morality were not the same.

‘It was quite fun for once.’

What came to mind was the moment of the contract I made with Elias.

– 2 –

“What I felt the most was… helplessness.”

At Elias’s confession, Libertus, who had been looking down at the book in his hands without adopting a listening posture, nodded.

“You must have had a flood of thoughts that you had been withholding.”

At that moment, he felt a chill run down his spine from the words of the Dungeon Lord. She had pinpointed exactly the thoughts he had conjured within the dungeon.

“I was terribly weak. Believing only in the appearance and power I had, merely imposing myself on others… I was just a playboy that I normally despised.”

He had known throughout his life that he lacked talent and was utterly weak.

However, until now, there had always been substitutes for all that.

Wealth and power, and sometimes even looks, provided alternatives.

Though he might be low on the succession list, he was a scion of a Marquis, a knight, and quite the handsome man, after all.

“But all of that was utterly useless when faced with true threats.”

Yet, when he found himself standing alone, isolated within the dungeon.

All that meant nothing.

He had to confront the weakness he had only known in theory.

He had to clarify what he could and couldn’t do, what he must and must not do, focusing only on the elements that would allow him to preserve his own life.

Like a civilized person thrown into the wild, he had to chip away at himself.

“What did you gain from that experience?”

Following the brief confession.

Finally, Libertus’s gaze turned to him.

Her purple eyes radiated an eerie power and were set upon his pale and fragile face.

As Elias beheld that beautiful face and eyes, he shivered.

He soon realized that the look in her eyes he had faced until now had merely been sculpted.

But those eyes.

When he faced the eyes filled with genuine curiosity, interest, cruelty, and coldness.

“How amusing. You don’t think you’re looking at a king when you look at me?”

Elias could not help but straighten his previously slouched posture and kneel on both knees.

He raised his gaze to Libertus’s and, upon reading ‘permission’ in her glance, opened his trembling mouth to express his opinions.

“You… you are not a king. Perhaps a master.”

“Oh?”

A smile crept onto Libertus’s lips.

If Elias had seen that smile, he would have shivered again. That smile would have affirmed his insight.

It was the smile of a ruler who recognized the value of the possessions they would lay claim to.

“What difference does it make?”

“… A king rules. Yet a master owns. That is where the difference lies. A king can exist without care, but a master knows how to cherish that which is owned. That’s… not necessarily the way one treats people, even if there are varying degrees of value amongst possessions.”

“I can tell your perception is quite commendable.”

Though it wasn’t shown through expressions or gestures, Libertus was quite impressed.

Setting aside the differences between a king and a master, this was a clarity of insight regarding his own desires.

‘It does seem like this knight is more suited to a civil servant or diplomat rather than a knight.’

It even struck him that the knight before him seemed to have taken the wrong path.

“So… Lady of the Dungeon who desires to be the master of all, please make me your possession. I do not wish to fade away in this position. I wish… to rise. To stand the highest, raising my sword high.”

Yet, the man before him still yearned for the path of a knight.

It wasn’t surprising.

It was common for one’s true talent to diverge from their desired path, and it was precisely because of this that he would have the chance to take possession of him.

“What you desire is to don armor and ascend the stairs.”

“That is indeed correct.”

Alexis and Elias were similar yet different.

Both sought to express their identities, but in Alexis’s case, the focus was on the desire to take, while Elias yearned for all that he could achieve while asserting his existence.

The former was the path of a tyrant, and the latter the path of a great general.

However, the former didn’t necessarily control the latter. How many times in history had a great general drawn their blade against a tyrant or a rogue?

“Then.”

Elias was unable to gather himself upon seeing something pure white appear before him.

He hadn’t noticed before, but Libertus was barefoot.

“What would you do to achieve what you want?”

“I… what?”

As she slowly raised her leg from her chair, Elias felt each second dragging his patience to its limits. Yet, truth be told, even if he lifted his head, he would not see what he wished.

The moment he dared to look, Evangeline would have dug into his eyes.

“For the sake of your life and glory, would you drag your father down from that position and, if necessary, kill him? Would you blind your mother’s eyes and sever the necks of your kin to present them to me?”

“…!”

At Libertus’s words, which still carried a gentle and soft tone while ordering the unthinkable, Elias momentarily lifted his head before quickly bowing it again.

Ignoring his presence, she continued speaking.

“… And can you sacrifice everything for me?”

The waiting, the hesitation.

It did not last long.

[Survive and seize. That is the only way for you to live. What would I say if you seized your brother’s share after I’m gone?]

In that moment, the words of his father flashed through his mind.

Wasn’t betrayal a daily occurrence among nobles?

[What I can give you is only one village with a mine. Beyond that, you’re on your own.]

[It’s unavoidable. … I’m sorry your mother is so weak.]

Moreover, he had already suffered betrayal from his parents as a child.

A betrayal of ‘removal from the line of succession’ and ‘minimization of inheritance rights’.

It was merely a revelation of reality regarding what he had taken for granted, yet, having rationalized within himself, the truth mattered little.

“… I shall do it! To survive, to rise high, I will dedicate everything to my master!!”

“Very well…”

As Libertus narrowed her eyes, having pierced through the turmoil and myriad self-justifications whirling within him, the fate of Elias had already been sealed.

“If that is the case, I will bestow upon you the glory of royalties. The first step will be the ‘talent’ that will be granted to you in advance.”

With the sound of a ‘whoosh,’ the contract that was summoned contained both her and Elias’s names, along with specific clauses inscribed below.

“The first price will be the body of your eldest sister.”

“… Yes…!”

In that moment, when the dagger of the Dungeon Lord pointed towards the South of the Kingdom and then the West.

“Then I shall accept the ‘lust’ you have harbored towards me as your down payment.”

Libertus wore a playful smile.

She had no intention of settling the grudge she held against him through this contract.

“… What?”

– The contract has been established. Candidate for the Demon Lord.

As he dared to raise his head, questioning the incomprehensible words of Libertus, as the hand of the Demon Lord disappeared, and simultaneously, when Libertus smiled.

Elias’s body was engulfed in light.

The light of ‘monster transformation’.

“What is this—!!!”

A moment later, the voice that flowed out from within that light was far higher than what he usually uttered.