LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 39
“Sa… save me! Kyaaa!!”
Thud!!
All but one adventurer, not part of the elite, were killed.
They could have easily turned the tables if they had been in normal condition, but besides matching the conditions to overwhelm them, the adventurers had lost their lives.
I did well, but it was mostly thanks to Serika giving it her all.
Did she really do well? Not exactly.
If this Dungeon Lord had done their job properly, I wouldn’t even need to be here.
“I’m telling you to surrender!”
“Sorry, but I can’t afford that.”
“You bastard—cough!”
A captive is always aware of the limits they can accept, unless it impacts the reputation or justification of their faction.
And I’m not someone who upholds righteousness or justice.
Rather, I’d be a villain if anything.
A plain and lowly villain who would plunge the world into chaos to ensure my own survival.
“I really don’t want to resort to such means.”
Yet there was no option to persuade the remaining three elite adventurers to spare their lives. I didn’t even have the time to speak gently with them right now.
A human army would be storming in soon; where would I find the time to negotiate or find conditions?
It would take time to put on the magical handcuffs and complete the magic suppression, and while ‘Minor Contracts’ could be executed immediately, they couldn’t proceed without voluntary consent.
“Huff.”
Therefore, I had no choice but to resort to brutal means.
“If you don’t surrender and make a contract with me right now, I’ll have no choice but to take your lives.”
“Why would I…!”
Thud!!
Archery expert Lin Xue immediately reacted and pulled at the chains of the magical restraints.
In the blink of an eye, her head flew off. The sight of her body twitching after her head was severed was rather gruesome.
While having many archers is great, they actually don’t all need to be alive, so perhaps it’s for the best.
Forcedly shifting my thoughts, I proceeded with what I needed to do.
“Such a pity.”
After personally closing the unseeing eyes of Lin Xue, I returned her headless body to where it belonged.
If I wanted to apply pressure, perhaps crushing her head might be appropriate, but there was no need to be excessively cruel.
Rumble…!
“I… I surrender! I will contract with you! It’s fine, right?! S-so, um… Lady!”
After that, after executing the execution, Axe wiped the blade with his bare hands, and the sound echoed chillingly, leading Alexis to immediately declare her intention to surrender.
I felt the urge to scowl but quickly suppressed it.
…I didn’t expect her to surrender so easily. She shouldn’t. This is strange…
“And you?”
Nod.
Jinkyung also nodded somewhat nonchalantly. Her expression was blank, making it hard to tell what she was thinking.
Well, good.
They seemed to have thoughts of surrendering first and then looking for an opportunity, but even if they were bound by a ‘Minor Contract,’ I had no intention of letting them act freely, so it didn’t matter.
I wouldn’t just let them be.
Unless, like Leonis before, they were unaware of the conditions that could bind them from the heart.
I planned to clear out the weaklings with simple measures before actually binding them with a real contract, using the contract as a means to constrain the troops.
“Wait! We already made a contract, right? You wouldn’t take away our self-defense, would you?”
“Why should I trust you?”
“But…”
It was just as I thought.
Immediately after the Minor Contract, when I ordered them to wear the magical restraints and bind their bodies, objections erupted.
I noticed Jinkyung briefly darkening her expression but said nothing, instead focusing my gaze on Alexis.
“Don’t worry, filthy smelly male. If I planned to kill you, I wouldn’t go through such complicated steps.”
“Ugh… Cough. Understood.”
“Don’t do anything, just wait.”
Retrieving the remains of the ‘loot,’ aka the corpses of the adventurers, was not a problem.
In this dungeon, despite its unpleasantness, fortune smiled upon me.
Serika’s garden.
It was overflowing with ‘human bodies,’ so by simply stripping off equipment and laying them out in pieces, burning or melting them lightly would make it look like the adventurers died from Serika’s actions.
The faces of elite adventurers are far too recognizable, making camouflage tricky, but I resolved this by handing them their beloved gear and smashing or tearing apart their faces or upper bodies.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t worry, Master…”
Completing that alibi required the last adventurer. Picking the one with the most handsome and memorable face among them.
He would stick in people’s memories.
After injecting him with one of the recovered Cerebrum Skulls, if I had him testify as I said, that would be the end. ‘The Dungeon Lord here self-destructed in his final struggle.’
As evidence, I left the ‘greatest body part of the self-detonating lord’ with the Cerebrum Skull, so even if humans had suspicions, they would have no way to resolve them.
The evidence would genuinely be evidence, and the dead do not speak.
So now, all that’s left is…
“Let’s see. The bleeding has stopped for now.”
“Blergh…”
Clenching the severed wrist as evidence, the Elder Vampire with blonde twin braids glared at me with rage-filled eyes.
It was just Serika’s recovery.
The bandage wrapped around her wrist was still stained with blood, but there was no additional bleeding from the loosened area.
It seemed there would be a scar left.
This state was abnormally slow for a Dungeon Lord to heal.
My cheek, cut during her frantic attack or my finger bitten during the contract, had healed immediately. Yet, how could she, who should have superior physical specs, be like this?
Of course, there’s a reason for that slow regeneration.
“If you behave well, I’ll quickly release your restraints.”
“Why should I…!”
“So, do you want to die here?”
“…”
As I spoke with a smile, Serika fell silent and lowered her gaze.
It seems the intelligence she had lost due to the strain returned, but her strength remained unhealed.
With no Dungeon Core and with all her magic exhausted, she was in a state where she couldn’t even regenerate her magic, let alone her limbs.
So, if she wanted to live, she had no choice but to listen to me.
“Good girl.”
Clap!
“Don’t touch me.”
“Alright. I won’t.”
Still, the way she swatted away my hand as I patted her head showed she still had some pride left.
I had no need for her positive reaction, though.
What interested me was the pressure on her family, which hadn’t spoken a word even after I pressured the Director of the Guild.
Since I saved and let her go, her family would have to reward me in some way. And if I received a reward and then came to harm shortly after, it would tarnish their family’s reputation.
Even if Serika became hostile to me, she wouldn’t be able to call upon her family’s power, so as the illegitimate child of a mundane noble, her freedom to act would be limited against a Dungeon Lord on the surface.
In the end, I had no reason to cultivate her goodwill.
“But you have to get up, right? If you stay here, all my efforts will be for nothing, and you’ll die. I’m not about to engage in additional battles just to save you.”
“… Hmph.”
Ignoring my outstretched hand, Serika pushed off the ground with her good hand and stood up.
Well. Whether she was an illegitimate child or not, it seemed the pride of nobility was ingrained in her blood.
I wondered if her parents were like that too. At the very least, one of them must be a vampire.
“It would have been easier if the Core had been preserved. Looks like we’ll need to take a carriage back. Let’s head out.”
As we exited through the entrance of the dungeon, I noticed numerous torches gradually approaching from down the now darkened mountain.
I already knew this from having scouts out earlier.
– Let’s move quickly.
– Why aren’t we killing them? This is a great opportunity!
That’s not wrong.
The mountain was enveloped in darkness. If we wanted to fight the humans, it was a perfect circumstance for a Necromancer’s dark magic to flourish.
It was obvious that they would have burned all the corpses they encountered, so to maximize that ability, it would be prudent to start with an ambush.
However, I had no such intentions.
– Just like the reason you’ve been hiding. I no longer wish to provoke them. There’s no need to disclose that another Dungeon Lord exists. And don’t pretend you don’t know. Doesn’t it make you look stupid to act like this?
– … Tch!
As I caught Serika glancing away in frustration, I enveloped us with ‘shadows.’
Even though she said that, I had no intention of alerting them to our position or engaging in any trolling.
She was merely testing me, presenting bait in case I chose poorly to mock me and reveal the answer. If I initiated a battle, she would have likely tried to hinder it.
Well, she didn’t seem too spiteful, given how she’s acting. I only cut her wrist because I needed evidence, not because I wanted to torment her.
By the way.
“A core.”
The noble who stole it—where did they go?
Rumors say they’re a noble, yet the identity of the thief remains hidden.
As if someone went out of their way to conceal it.
“…”
I have a strange premonition.
It’s not ominous, but it feels like it could become quite bothersome if left alone.
Since my hunches have been pretty accurate since arriving in this world, it would be wise to prepare in advance.
Fortunately, I have a good card to play.
“Leonis.”
A promising young mage, the top disciple of a great master from the Magic Guild.
– … What is it?
“Within a week… yes. About a week from now would be best. Please get me an invitation to a party. Preferably one attended by high-ranking nobles.”
– Invitations to such events require noble status. At least a baron’s offspring would be necessary.
Initially, he seemed cooperative because he found taking on dungeon reconstruction enjoyable, but he showed no such enthusiasm now.
Then again, if he were consistently cooperative, it would have been more suspicious.
“Is that so? Then we can arrange that too.”
– That won’t be easy…! Sigh. If I invite you, you’ll be able to attend.
“Well, that’s good to hear. I’m glad my subordinate is capable and esteemed.”
– … I’ll prepare it.
Anyway, he’s been handling the tasks I’ve assigned quite well so far.
That’s good enough.
As a master, I can’t help but feel satisfied with how he supplies the necessary answers.
… This should suffice as a reward.
“I’ll bring Sonia along. You want to see her healthy, right?”
– That’s quite kind of you. I’d prefer if you didn’t contact me further today, as I have my own tasks to attend to.
“Alright. I’ll be counting on you.”
– … Don’t worry about the work.
I cut off the communication. It was a connection that couldn’t be stopped at their end.
My core mediates with his soul and the Demon World. To that end, some souls of contract holders are bound to me. Yet, if I were to die, the links to the Demon World and the contractors wouldn’t sever immediately.
The influence of the Demon World would simply invade the minds and bodies of the contractors.
The reason I have to intervene in this contract is to adjust the degree of that invasion to a level the parties can resist, and my contractors are aware of this.
Typically, a Dungeon Lord would simply release it without adjustment, not caring if their contractors suffered or twisted…
Well.
Whether out of self-satisfaction or hypocrisy. I don’t wish to proceed like that.
– 2 –
“Did you arrive?”
“Thanks for your hard work, Talhan.”
As I descended the mountain, concealed in the shadows, Talhan was waiting with five carriages ready and waiting.
Most of these carriages were carrying the minor military supplies of Kaisen that I had stealthily identified and appropriated while acting as an administration official, but one carried other ‘cargo.’
A dozen or so adventurers and civilians.
These were individuals who knew or had indirectly heard about Maria and her group coming to my dungeon.
“You managed to catch them all.”
“It’s much harder to kill them inside the city. There are people even in the back alleys.”
“Were there no non-adventurers among them?”
“I’ve kept track of their identities, so I told my subordinates to handle it quietly later.”
Subordinates referring to the Cerebrum Skulls. Since Talhan is my first Cerebrum Skull, I let him maintain such authority.
After all, using him well is how I planned to proceed.
Thud!
“Alright.”
“… Ugh!”
As I threw in the thoroughly bound and sealed elite adventurers, some people panicked, thinking it was just corpses.
Confirming my skeletons casually settling into the spots I secured, I voiced a thought that had suddenly come to mind.
“This all must be thanks to the Information Guild. Truly useful.”
“They wouldn’t sell information to a Dungeon Lord.”
“It would certainly be expected if they revealed that they are a Dungeon Lord. However, there’s no need to keep them alive.”
“Then…?”
In the past, during the chaos of the many surviving dungeons two hundred years ago, cities were frequently isolated from each other, so messengers were highly valued jobs.
The Information Guild was formed by gathering the know-how of those who performed such messenger roles, and although they aren’t treated with the same significance as those messengers anymore, at least they aren’t overlooked.
I was already aware of this Information Guild’s usefulness.
They collect and sell information in various forms, providing it to kingdoms as well. Having one under my command would allow me to obtain information freely and even intervene in the processing.
Yes. Under my command.
“By any chance, do you know the term ‘full possession’? It’s a phrase I like.”
It seems I can leave Talhan as he is.
There’s no need to restrict the influence of the Information Guild any further by moving elsewhere. While it seems he wants to gain a more ‘human’ form from me…
Well, I’ll grant him that, but he still has a long way to go before acquiring what he truly desires.
In actuality, it seems he doesn’t mind this situation much at all.
“… No.”
“Then let’s go.”
I got onto the carriage without providing him further details as he shook his head in confusion.
Though I could hear him mumbling something behind me, I had no intention of stopping him from having such freedom.