It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

“You’ve come, Master.”

“Teacher. I was in the library so I heard the news late. I’m sorry.”

Although Xue went to get Sonia, Maria also arrived together when they came back.

The two seemed to have recovered much of their previous relationship.

They must have been together from the start, as Maria in a maid outfit and Sonia in a wizard’s clothes were seen holding hands tightly once before letting go.

If the two rely on each other like that, I expect they’ll be able to endure well no matter what happens.

Of course, they both need to stay alive for that to happen.

“Have you been well, Maria? Sonia? Even though I went to inspect the dungeon first without seeing you, why are you apologizing? It’s alright. It’s good to see you working hard.”

“Thank you.”

“Well then, let’s go. Ah, Maria, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

However, I was a bit reluctant to take Maria to where we’re going now.

“What? Why…?”

“Because we’re going to the underground prison now. Of course, if you’re okay with it, that’s fine…”

After all, she had experience of staying in a similar place for a long time.

She might have PTSD. Consideration was natural.

“Why the underground prison…?”

“I’ll tell you if you decide to come. If you don’t come, there’s no need for you to know.”

“…”

“It’s a matter that doesn’t require your presence, so think of it comfortably.”

“Prison…?”

Sure enough.

When she heard we were going to the underground prison, Maria’s eyes filled with anxiety.

Sonia also looked uneasy. If this wasn’t about Maria, it meant it was about her.

As if recalling something, Sonia asks me.

“Is this related to… those nobles who came here a few days ago?”

“You’re smart. That’s right.”

My answer seemed to reassure them somewhat, but Sonia and Maria still contemplated with eyes full of questions and unease.

Although we recently built the underground prison, it’s natural for them to be anxious since they’ve never been down there.

The meals for the nobles staying here were delivered through skeletons, not them, so they had no reason to go in.

If they sensed people being imprisoned here a few days ago and today, it’s natural to feel afraid. Especially Maria, who has experience of being confined for quite a long time.

Basically, it’s proper for them to find it strange that I, as a Dungeon Lord, act gently.

Still, Maria gathered her courage.

“I’ll go. I’m worried about sending Sonia alone to such a place…”

“A courageous decision. I like it.”

“I’m not doubting you, Master. But…”

“It’s okay to doubt me, Maria.”

To Maria, who was looking at me curiously, I said the words I had engraved on her.

“Didn’t I tell you? It’s okay to hate me.”

“Ah… yes.”

After the light returned to her dazed eyes, I took the two of them down to the basement.

And only after joining Eve, who had gone down first to open the door and wait, did I talk about what they needed to know.

“There’s a gift for Sonia here.”

“A gift…? In prison?”

“Yes. I’m not sure if you’ll be happy about it, but. Eve? Please open it.”

-Clack.

Clang!

As I said that, the steel door at the deepest part of the underground prison was opened.

“Lady…!”

Clang!

The woman inside, who had been bowing her head as if unconscious with long disheveled orange hair, suddenly raised her head at the sound of the door opening and approached.

Eleanor Claimel. It was her.

* * *

‘Why… why?’

Eleanor, in the darkness, was feeling something gradually growing bigger in her chest.

‘Weren’t you going to use me? The Dungeon Lord…’

The name of that thing growing by feeding on rising thoughts, emotions, and questions was ‘despair’.

‘If not, there was no need to capture the whole family. Right…?’

Libertas, who returned to the dungeon, immediately separated her from her family and isolated her in solitary confinement.

Of course, Libertas actually prioritized inspecting the dungeon over her matter.

She first received the handover of the work that Scarlet had been supervising for a long time, showing consideration so that Scarlet could return to her main job.

‘Al… Al almost died…’

But there’s no way she could know that.

What Eleanor knows is that if she doesn’t follow the contract, the Dungeon Lord’s orders, one of her family members will die.

In fact, when she tried to rebel saying she couldn’t understand, she witnessed her younger sibling grabbing their throat and about to stop breathing.

As a result, she eventually entered solitary confinement, but still couldn’t understand.

‘But why did they put me in solitary confinement? I can’t understand… understand… understandunderstandunderstand…’

Click!

While sinking into the despair she was creating for herself.

The sound of the end of the brief solitude, immersed in darkness and silence, not knowing how much time had passed or what happened to her family, was heard.

“Lady…!”

As soon as she confirmed Libertas’s appearance, she tried to kneel before her.

She didn’t know what was going on, but she had to somehow get forgiveness from the dungeon’s master. Although she thought she had already received it, anyway.

Clang!

Of course, that attempt was stopped by the magic restraint on her neck…

Regardless, she tried several times to approach the Dungeon Lady, and with a strangely distorted expression, she opened her mouth.

“Weren’t, weren’t you going to use me? That’s why you saved me, right? Right?”

People tend to lose mental balance easily when betrayed by expectations.

Although it was almost the same as receiving it inevitably, the sudden solitary confinement was incomprehensible and desperate for Eleanor, who had been imagining a new life in the dungeon.

“Unfortunately.”

Of course, Rita had no reason to fulfill her expectations based on confirmation bias.

In the first place, her using Eleanor to kill the branch family members was also a ploy to strengthen Eleanor’s confirmation bias.

The real victims are Sonia and Leonis rather than her, but she also lost subordinates to Rita.

Although Eleanor is an interesting subject to Rita, there was no reason for her feelings to be good.

“The role I want from you is different, Eleanor. It’s about concluding something.”

Rita could see Eleanor’s eyes gradually being dyed with despair, but she didn’t mind and told the prisoner what she wanted.

Then the prisoner, filled with hope again, asked.

“What, what kind of thing…”

“They say the one who ties should untie. Although you did this out of revenge against another, I have nothing to do with that person. So I have no choice but to hold you responsible.”

Rita trampled on that hope again.

“That’s already over…!”

“Did I say that?”

Eleanor finally froze, unable to continue speaking and just opening and closing her mouth. No matter how much she searched her mind, she couldn’t remember Libertas saying such a thing.

Watching the prisoner freeze like that, the dungeon’s master narrowed her brows. It was an intentional performance.

“How impudent. To arbitrarily judge my intentions.”

“No, no…! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. So please, at least my family’s safety…! End it with me!”

Eleanor’s behavior of caring for her family before herself in this situation.

Rita inwardly raised her score for Eleanor while watching this.

‘Still the same. It’s a shame.’

No matter how you look at it, if she had grown up normally in a place that wasn’t such a family, she seemed like a talent that could be quite usefully completed.

However, she didn’t particularly express that and looked at Sonia who was waiting behind.

“Do you know who she is?”

“No. …But according to what you said, Teacher, she must be…”

Sonia, who shook her head once, looked down at Eleanor with complex eyes.

Her teacher simply affirmed that guess.

“Yes. She’s the one who brought your senior to that state.”

“…! Are you the young lady? Right?”

Clang!

Upon hearing those words, Eleanor immediately turned her gaze from Rita and looked at Sonia, approaching on her knees.

Despite the shackles still on her neck, her blind attitude of not caring about such things made her fall backwards a couple times, but it was too pitiful a sight to laugh at.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry! So please just kill me! I deserve to die! Please!”

“How could someone like you do such a thing…”

As Rita had initially expected, Sonia’s voice was tinged with sympathy when she saw Eleanor like this.

However, all judgments should always be made with accurate knowledge of the criminal.

Libertas immediately ordered Eve.

“Lift her head.”

-Clack!

“Ugh!”

In that state, she approached Eleanor’s side and whispered one thing to her.

Loud enough for Sonia and Maria standing right in front to hear.

“Although she is a mage, she’s still just at the beginner stage, so she can’t count as a full person yet. That’s who you’re begging to. She’s not qualified.”

“…!”

And at that moment, something flashed across Eleanor’s face.

It was an expression that directly portrayed the emotions named humiliation and disgust.

People don’t change easily. For Eleanor, who had lived like this her whole life, this time of pain was too short for her to change.

“You…!”

“No, no, no! I’m sorry! So please, just me, please just…”

Sonia was quite shocked when the person who had been confessing her sins and begging for her family’s life showed such an expression and spirit even for a moment.

Although Eleanor came to her senses and buried her head again, apologizing and pleading, it was to the extent that Sonia couldn’t even see it.

Even for her, who had seen quite a lot of people’s dirty sides, this was a rare case.

“Be it humans or demons. Demons are a bit simpler, but there are multifaceted aspects. Sonia. You shouldn’t look at it from just one side.”

And Libertas’s voice directed at Sonia was still gentle.

“But, Teacher… no matter what, that’s…”

“Yes. She is quite extreme. Usually people don’t get this twisted. This can be seen as a beautiful collaboration created by a fantastic environment and her character loyal to her family.”

“That’s…”

“She can kneel even to a monster like me if it’s for the revival of her family. In fact, her family did so.”

Sonia immediately understood that Libertas’s words were ironic.

And thanks to that, she could understand.

Although Eleanor does have some good points, beyond that, she is now in some ways a being more harmful to humanity than monsters.

Well, in most cases, a dagger that stabs from behind is usually more fatal than a sword you face from the front.

“Don’t misunderstand, Sonia. This kind of thing happens quite often in the world. Parents’ obsession twisting their child.”

“How do you know that, Teacher…?”

“Well. I wonder how I came to know.”

Libertas, unaware that her words and actions were accelerating Sonia’s misunderstanding that wasn’t a misunderstanding, evaded like that and said lastly as she got up from her seat, leaving Eleanor.

“It’s a gift I’m giving you. I hope you can resolve the knot in your heart.”

“Teacher…”

“I won’t hear words of thanks. It’s not that kind of thing. I’m tired. I need to sleep a bit. When you’ve decided, come and tell me on your own.”

“…Yes, Teacher.”

Of course, there’s no way the Dungeon Lord’s body would feel physical fatigue.

“Xue. Will you help them?”

“Yeah… don’t worry.”

“Then. I trust you.”

“Yes…!”

Sonia and Maria, who realized that her words were giving Sonia time to judge Eleanor, bowed their heads to see her off.

As Libertas’s small body disappeared beyond the underground prison, Sonia and Maria, who remained, looked at each other.

“What are you going to do…?”

“For now… I’ll talk to her.”

“Alright. I’ll be beside you.”

“Thank you, sister.”

The two turned their gaze to Eleanor.

“Please… just me, just me…”

She was still pleading with her head bowed.

Even as she became more and more devastated as time passed, she continued.

Watching this, Sonia realized there were others she needed to meet to understand Eleanor’s condition better.

“…I want to meet her family.”

“Okay. Follow me.”

Xue gladly helped her.

Sonia’s judgment took two more days.

The day of that judgment was also the day Rita finished her contract with Elias.

* * *

Revenge and forgiveness. The possibilities were fifty-fifty.

Those possibilities were expected to change depending on whether Sonia found someone to rely on mentally, and whether that person responded to Sonia or not.

Either way, there was nothing that would be disadvantageous to me.

“If possible… I’d like to talk to my senior once more first, Teacher.”

And Sonia’s choice, supported by Maria, was to hear the thoughts of the one who had the right to judge first.

A situation that should normally be impossible to hear.

“That’s an unexpected choice.”

“Is it not possible…?”

“Well. I think we can try it for now.”

Fortunately, her teacher was one who could keep even dead people in this world.