It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

“It’s done.”

“Thank you…”

“Don’t mention it. Return to your place.”

Tigris’s second daughter showed a rather disappointed face despite having received treatment for her legs that had probably been abnormal for a long time.

She must have imagined ‘Could I be chosen as the leader of the group by the Dungeon Queen?’

Thinking about taking over the group as soon as the threatening leader disappears shows a mindset dominated by desire.

It must originate from her monster instincts.

‘Her entire bones and carapace were misaligned.’

Regardless of her delusions, I was holding onto the thought I had when I saw her legs.

The spider king’s daughter.

Her legs, which should be called a princess in human terms, were attached completely misaligned. They had been broken once, then healed strangely.

Not just one, but three out of eight legs.

‘Fortunately she had a monster’s body.’

Although she quickly recovered enough to move after I broke them cleanly again and gathered the bones properly for healing…

“Domestic violence… such a mindset probably doesn’t exist among monsters.”

“Probably… for monsters and demons, teaching through violence is common sense… since their bodies are so tough and regenerate well.”

“Still, that crossed the line.”

“That’s true too…”

The culprit was obvious.

Her body looked like it had never experienced combat, let alone being suited for close combat.

Although her bones and muscles were superior to humans’, they were crude compared to those of her father, or even other soldiers or worker spiders beside her.

So those injuries must have come from something that happened at home.

“Even after letting her live, he must have constantly debated whether to kill her or not.”

-Clack.

“Yes. You did well.”

-Tack!

While praising and patting Evangeline’s body as she approached with affectionate emotions at this opportune moment, I watched the three spider people in front of me until the queen consorts returned from completing their task.

All three were kneeling with lowered postures as instructed by the eldest queen consort.

…Gulp.

The eldest son, who was watching with the most nervous look among them, had already escaped confusion and was looking at me with subtle greed in his eyes.

He would have been worth choosing if picking an ordinary successor for a force.

Seeing how he was notably more sane than the other children, perhaps Tigris thought so too and touched him less than the other family members.

‘That’s why you lose points.’

I’m not trying to pick an ordinary successor.

In that sense, the second daughter whose legs were broken earlier also lost points.

“…”

She was exuding her will to follow my orders with her entire body while completely lowering her head and body.

However, as I had already confirmed in her eyes, she was someone full of undisguisable desire.

Didn’t she have clear enough intelligence to realize she hadn’t been chosen as queen right after her injury was healed?

Without something she firmly wanted to achieve, it’s difficult for someone who can think properly like this to come from such a dysfunctional family.

Naturally, my gaze turned to the third.

‘At least her appearance passes.’

Third overall, and probably the second daughter, she appeared to be in worse condition compared to the other two.

That’s why she passes.

Because I’m trying to create a spider queen who will cooperate with me to manipulate this force as I wish.

‘Is she pretending because she’s smarter than her two older siblings, or is she really in that state?’

Although there are some suspicious points, if it’s the former, it could be a mistake if I choose her, and if not, she would be a useful card.

All these assumptions are actually meaningless though.

“‘Accordingly, the contract has been sealed.'”

What I was looking at was just first impressions, as I was going to contract with all of them anyway.

As mentioned, contracts with monsters don’t burden the dungeon much.

Then it’s enough to just put all these Arachne royalty under the influence of the contract.

That way, it’ll be much easier to grasp information too.

『Name – …』

The first ones I checked were Tigris’s three queen consorts.

However, they were just Arachnes who barely met the conditions for advanced grade in the system with their abilities, nothing particularly noteworthy.

No, just one thing.

『Poison Eating – Permanently absorbs a small amount of either magic power or resistance, whichever is higher, by consuming living beings or corpses with poison. Very low chance of creating or improving poison-related characteristics.』

Only this characteristic was worth noting.

It was a hero-grade characteristic I found in the blue-haired queen consort, and upon examining the information in detail, although it had limitations, it was quite good.

The ability increase is proportional to the target’s corresponding value, but it’s a very small amount.

It can’t absorb from targets with stronger magic power than oneself, and attempting to do so results in strong feedback as a limitation.

Still, the fact that there’s no limit to the abilities that can be absorbed, and that additional poison-related characteristics can be gained, is quite excellent.

‘I should keep an eye on this.’

Although only living summons can use it, it’s a characteristic that could be good to have someone other than myself absorb.

Even if it makes the user feel bad.

“What’s this…?”

While thinking that and now checking the children’s information, I found one more thing in an unexpected place.

From that second princess whom I had just thought ‘passed’.

『Solitude Sac – Swallows living creatures with poison into a poison sac, dissolves that creature and gains either magic power or health, whichever is higher. Very low chance of gaining poison-related characteristics.』

One hero-grade characteristic.

Checking its description, it had slightly more restrictions but better effects than the previous ‘Poison Eating’.

While checking information to ask if she knew she had this ability, I discovered one more element that caught my attention.

『Name – Sanme』

Her name.

It seemed out of place no matter how you looked at it.

You could say it didn’t look like a name that the daughter of an Arachne King living in the eastern continent would have.

“Is your name really Sanme?”

“H-h-how…?”

“I see it is. How did you come to have such a name?”

“I-I don’t know… Father just, called me that…”

“…Hah.”

While feeling ‘nobility’ stopping my brow from furrowing at her timidity that looked like the result of violence no matter how you looked at it, I heard a sigh from behind.

When I turned my head, I saw the wives.

The source of that sigh that seemed to pour out everything contained within it with deep lamentation was the blue-haired Arachne from whom I had discovered ‘Poison Eating’ in her characteristics earlier.

Come to think of it, this child has the same hair color as her.

“The Queen is watching.”

“Ah, yes? Eek…! I-I’m sorry!”

When the first wife jabbed her side, only then did she realize my gaze was directed at her, and she covered her mouth with both hands while repeatedly bowing and apologizing.

The reaction of the wives standing beside her was calm as if familiar with this.

Although she maintained a somewhat dignified attitude like the other wives while performing her duties as a queen consort, this seems to be her original demeanor.

“I do not intend to punish you. Raise your head.”

“Thank you…!”

“I am curious about one thing. The reason for your sigh.”

“Ugh…”

The blue-haired wife hesitated for a moment despite my question.

“Hurry and tell her, sister. There’s no loyalty worth keeping to that guy anyway.”

“Y-yes, I suppose…?”

When the brown-haired wife beside her pressed her, only then did she bow respectfully and open her mouth.

And her first phrase was what I had expected.

“That child is my eldest daughter…”

“I see it was so. And then?”

Despite my acknowledgment, she hesitated and bit her lip for a moment, but finally spilled out the rest of the circumstances almost like pouring them out.

In a manner that, though awkward, seemed to be trying to maintain an archaic atmosphere.

“Our husband, no, that person… had no interest in the children, I heard he just gave them names meaning ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’.”

“I see.”

‘He was more heartless than I thought.’

Looking now, the other princes and princesses also had names ending in ‘me’.

Yonme, Gome… it seems familiar from somewhere.

At first, I didn’t quickly notice anything more because I saw ‘Nime’ first before seeing ‘Sanme’.

“Indeed it was so…! He took us without any love at all, just kidnapped us and…!”

“Sister.”

“S-sorry…”

“It’s fine.”

This time the blue-haired queen consort pulled back words that were about to spill out at the black-haired wife’s restraint.

Looking at their behavior, she seems to be second among the three, so I can call her the second wife from now on.

“Hah. And so… I unknowingly sighed out of concern for my child, Your Majesty.”

The other former queen consorts beside her who heard those words unconsciously sighed or cleared their throats while blinking their eyes.

Seeing how there’s no sign of acting and they look as if past grievances are rushing back, the blue-haired queen consort’s words must be true.

‘Third’, ‘Sanme’.

“It’s the language of Hwa nation.”

“That’s what I heard.”

“So he was someone from there.”

Hwa nation, Hwa Country is one of the major powers of this world as an island nation that inherited most of Japanese culture.

Although it’s inferior in size and power compared to other large countries of the western continent, it has built wealth by independently expanding trade with the eastern continent, using its island position and the ‘Gap’ demon realm between the other two countries as boundaries.

Actually, it’s in a state where part of its territory has been occupied after being invaded from that Gap demon realm.

“May I speak? Your Majesty.”

“You may.”

The one who stepped forward was the black-haired wife whom I considered first among the three.

Though she appeared to be the oldest among the three, she was a mature woman whose appearance seemed to have fully converted that into experience.

“This humble one has been with that fellow since the time he had just fled here from the western continent. Therefore, I know his past.”

She who stepped forward spoke in a much more archaic manner than the other wives.

She must have been the source of the other wives’ ‘awkward but archaic manner of speech’.

“Let us all sit and talk. Yes. What of that past?”

I encouraged all the queen consorts and their children to take seats.

Because I had a feeling that her following testimony would be quite interesting.

“Everyone sit down.”

“It-it’s fine… I’ll listen while standing.”

Although not everyone sat down, I didn’t pay any more attention to that and just confirmed that only the queen consort before me had taken a more comfortable position before sitting in my shadow chair to listen to the story.

“In the past, he was one of the relatively large yokai of Hwa called Aotsuchigumo, who originally commanded three Hyakki Yagyō.” (tl/n: Night Parade of One Hundred Demons)

My intuition was correct.

The fact that he commanded three Hyakki Yagyō, the yokai clusters of the western continent, means he was reaching for ‘high rank’ beyond the maturity of elite grade.

At that level, he would have either possessed his own small demon realm or held a position even while belonging to an existing archduke’s demon realm.

In other words, originally he shouldn’t have been someone to die so futilely by Eve.

Stories containing the fall of the strong tend to be interesting.

“I see. And then?”

“However, caught up in a large subjugation that recently occurred in Hwa, he lost his orb, army, and nest, and fled to the eastern continent having lost even part of his memories related to his power.”

While listening to her words, I felt something strange.

Of course, it’s natural for power to decrease if one loses their orb, their dungeon core. However, it’s strange that he lost his memories as well.

I put my assumption about this directly into words.

“He must have used the technique of golden cicada molting, leaving behind a duplicate or proxy.”

I said this recalling the scene where Serica had used this to quickly return to my dungeon from Copzerin’s subjugation forces.

The first wife nodded.

“Your Majesty’s wisdom is like a divine mountain. That is correct. He transferred part of his power and memories to his consort at the time, throwing her into confusion as bait while he fled.”

“So that’s what happened.”

Tigris probably fled to the eastern continent while Hwa was subjugating yokais in their mainland to concentrate their forces on the Gap demon realm, their main concern.

Then after wandering the eastern continent and building up power, he gathered forces around here intending to prey on the ant monsters.

Learning of his origin and history, it naturally led to the assumption that his name was an alias.

“The name Tigris (tiger) must have come from his back pattern.”

“That is correct. His real name was Aoru.”

‘To weave blue’, what an ill-fitting name.

I turned my gaze to ‘Sanme’.

She was hovering beside the first queen consort and me, rolling her eyes as if unsure what she should do.

The wife beside her probably hoped this child would shed some tears at this moment.

Whether she thought showing weakness would lower her points with me, or if she was just stupid.

“And so?”

“Yes…?”

The first wife looked at me questioningly at my counter-question.

And I urged them before the pleasure and pity I felt from their story faded.

To see the end of the ‘act’ they had been putting on until now.

“You must have something you wish to request of me after telling such a past you didn’t want to talk about. Tell me.”

I waited with a moment’s patience.

These spiders don’t hold much value to me right now. It won’t be easy for them to do so in the future either.

Although their characteristics are useful, that’s just something to ‘collect’, isn’t it?

From the start, the reason I ended up settling them was just because Tigris touched my sore spot and died, so I was in a situation where I had no expectations for them.

‘Now that the north is essentially forcibly stabilized, there’s no need to make them rulers again. I can just use them as my army. Whether alive or dead.’

Therefore, once this interest fades, I won’t take their requests seriously.

And not giving anything in return for such an interesting past seemed like it would waste both their effort in telling it and the entertainment I felt.

That’s why I was urging them.

An urging to grab what they could grab at the right time. It could also be called showing some mercy.

“You noticed…?”

“Hurry.”

By then, the second and third wives who had been watching my mood also carefully approached and sat on either side of the first wife, bowing their heads deeply.

“We humbly beseech you.”

“”Please do not cast out our children. We will do anything for that.””

Although I had guessed it, this was their own desperate struggle.

While asking me about their children’s lives, it was an act staking their dignity and even lives to educate their children, who haven’t yet abandoned monster instincts, to behave properly on their own.

Because they don’t know what kind of foolish things their children who grew up watching their wicked father might do, to prevent that future.

And.

“Very well. I shall do so.”

Such desperate and wise ‘maternal love’ was enough to move my heart.

“You mean…?”

“I will take you in and certainly not abandon you, and those among you who show talent will be used in positions fitting that talent. I will prove this through trust and actions without placing magical contracts. …Are you satisfied?”

“We believed you would not speak falsehoods about those you’ve already captured. We will believe those words as well.”

As they guessed, as long as they or their children don’t dare cross the line, I don’t abandon ‘my things’ just because they’re useless.

And as the first proof of their request, I designated ‘Sanme’ and spoke like this.

“Your name will be ‘Fortuna’ from now on, Sanme. And you shall take charge of leading this group.”

“Wh-what…?!”

“You former queen consorts shall properly assist her. I will decide future matters after seeing the results.”

“”We will follow with our lives, Your Majesty.””

“I look forward to your dedication and wisdom.”

With this, the war in this region ended.

It took about two more days to settle all the spider forces.

The only remaining issue in this region now was what to do about the ant queen who had been ruling this area.

And since this region was now stabilized, that wasn’t an immediate problem to solve.