I tense up whenever something feels off and activate my Relic, Danger Discernment.
There's nothing here. No enemies, no nothing. Just an abandoned village. I let out a breath of relief.
The witch picked up a black stone. A day-and-night stone.
It's a stone that tells you whether it's morning or nighttime on the surface, even inside a dungeon.
It didn't look like a Legacy or a legendary — just a natural mineral, apparently.
Black means it's nighttime on the surface right now.
"Well then, shall we rest over there today?"
"It's an abandoned village. Couldn't there be zombies or something?"
"There aren't any."
I answered. Agaro-san brought the gourd bottle to his lips.
He'd just finished that off a moment ago… Did he seriously refill it?
"Wait, how do you even — oh, right. That thing."
"Yep. I checked with my Relic. It said there are no enemies in that abandoned village. Oh — where'd Juicy go?"
"He headed straight for the village."
"Seriously…"
That's way too straight. I mean, if you saw him heading off, couldn't you have stopped him?
The witch went "Koffuffuffu." What even is that laugh.
"My, my. What a hopeless little puppy we have here. Young Wof, as his owner, you really ought to train him properly, you know."
"Wait — me? That's my job? Geez, no pressure."
"That's completely wrong!"
What was that witch and that drunkard even talking about.
"But but, I think that's what they believe, y'know~"
"Haaaah..."
Well, I'd sort of already sensed it.
But why was she so attached to me?
She'd been clinging to me from the moment we first met.
She was that much of a beauty — having someone that attached to me wasn't exactly unpleasant.
Still, well, it was bugging me, so maybe I'd ask around.
"Go on over. Look, she's wagging her hand and tail, waiting for you."
"Fiiine, got it."
I ran over to where Juicy was.
Even here in the Tomb of Death, Juicy's eyes sparkled as she spoke to me.
"Um, um, um, Master Wof! It's safe here! There's nobody!"
"There aren't any enemies anywhere."
"Um, um, woof! And, um, I think that house would be easy to use!"
The house Juicy recommended was indeed undamaged compared to the others.
I opened the door and went inside.
"......"
Right inside the entrance, there were the remains of a campfire. Next to it was a kitchen.
A stove
and a washing area.
The left side was raised up one step, with two rooms. A toilet in the back.
The front room had toppled shelves, with junk scattered everywhere.
Scrolls. Broken pottery and bottles. Rusted lamps. A lot of stuff I couldn't even identify.
I tried using the Wheel of Fortune, but there was no treasure.
"Mew?"
"Just junk."
The back room had lumber and several pots of various sizes. I wanted to peek inside the pots, but they were empty.
There was also a rusted axe and some farming tools. Maybe they'd used this as a storage shed.
"Hardly any sign of anyone living here."
"Mew?"
"Well, as long as we can rest, that's fine."
"Mew!"
Maybe this room had been a storeroom or something.
Right. Perfect timing. I quietly drank the elixir.
"......?"
Nothing seemed to change. I didn't feel any effect.
The elixir works on undead, but not on curses?
Before long, Jushey-san brought the witch and Agaro-san over.
Agaro just went, "Well, it's fine, isn't it?" and grumbled, lighting the campfire pit.
The leftover firewood burned, and Agaro pulled new logs from his pouch.
The witch set up a barrier stone in front of the door.
Then she placed a black sofa and a red sofa in front of the campfire.
Huh? A black sofa. A red sofa? Those are from that living room.
The witch sat down leisurely, as though nothing were amiss.
"You brought them?"
Needless to say. The witch's pouch was a storage-type Legendary Relic.
I didn't know the exact capacity, but a couple of sofas clearly fit with room to spare.
"Oh yeah, yeah, these are spares. I've got six more just like them."
"That's way too many."
"Um, um, ah, this sofa is so soft and comfortable!"
"Mhm, mhm. This sofa — it's kind to tails, you know."
"Wuf, woof! That's wonderful!"
Oh right. I knew it was her favorite.
Since my stomach happened to be empty, I started preparing a meal.
I used the kitchen to whip up something simple.
First, two kinds of bread-beans: hard black bread-beans and soft white bread-beans.
Then the usual scrap-meat soup: bits of meat, water, vegetables, and a little seasoning.
Plus some dried meat. After that, nuts and fish snacks that Agaro had put out.
That was it.
Me and Agaro on the red sofa. The witch and Juicy on the black sofa.
I hadn't really thought about it, but we'd ended up sitting by gender.
"Man, this dried meat is good. Goes great with sake."
"Delicious, delicious, soooo good!"
"Um, um, woof woof. Woof. It's really, really yummy!"
I was happy they were complimenting the food, but I kind of wished they'd eat a little more quietly.
As I ate my bread-beans, I thought.
After we finished eating, we had some tea and relaxed.
The witch tried my tea and told me I was getting better. That made me happy.
"Well then, the sake's kicked in, so I guess it's about time to ask. Hey. Witch. What are you plotting?"
Agaro shook the gourd flask, fixing the witch with a killing look.
The witch took a sip of tea before opening her mouth. A faint, wry smile.
"I knew it, I knew it. Figured you'd catch on, huh."
"Obviously. Depending on your answer, well... it'd be a waste, but I'll cut you down."
"What are you scheming about, witch?"
Agaro glowered. When I spoke up with a sigh, the witch caved.
"Fine, fine. I'll explain, I'll explain, okay?"
"Um, um, uh—what's this about?"
Juicy, who was still holding Dagaa, still didn't get it.
Agaro took a few loud gulps from her gourd flask and spoke.
"This guy. He knew about the Tomb of Death from the very start."
"Um, um, Lady Witch. Is that true?"
"Mm-hmm. It's true."
"...The Offering of Death too?"
"Well, I'll get to that. The original culprit was old man Abramirin. The large-scale subjugation — turns out that was actually a failure."
"A failure...?"
"Yeah. What do you mean?"
"Waf?"
"See — the Tomb of Death is still there."
"Oh, now that you mention it, it is still there. Were you part of it, Grand Guild Master... Abramirin?"
"He lived needlessly long, that old man."
"So, so. They couldn't unleash the Tomb of Death when it mattered most. Because they didn't have enough fighting force left. But they couldn't just leave it be either. And they didn't have the fighting force to unleash it immediately. So old man Abramirin, making use of the Tomb of Death's system, created what became the infamous forest — the deepest floor of the dungeon. He placed only the deepest dungeon floor on the surface, set down the offering cup of Yomido, and used the offerings made to it as the maintenance energy for the defensive mechanism that was the deepest floor."
"The offerings are the idiots who wander into that forest?"
"Mm-hmm. They were warned not to enter, so that's on them. Bring it on themselves. That kind of foolishness was intentionally included in the design. Thanks to that, the maintenance energy was never interrupted."
"Despicable, but it worked."
It certainly did work. The worst, though.
"By the way, by the way — the one who designed it all was Alexander."
"Oh, that guy. They called him the Dungeon Master, right?"
Alexander. A former Rank I delver — the land catfish, a creature teetering between animal and monster.
It looked exactly like a giant salamander.
Now he handled behind-the-scenes work for the Delvers' Guild.
Still, it was a shock.
The Black Knight, the massive skeleton army... those were defense mechanisms sealing the Tomb of the Dead?
I hadn't known, but that didn't change the fact that I'd done something wrong.
"So, so, I got a request from old man Abrimirin — to release the Tomb of the Dead, since it might reactivate. Since Kon was the only Rank I delver living nearby, that's who they turned to."
"So that's why these people were picked? Even dragging your disciple into it?"
"Why Juicy of all people?"
My own involvement aside, why Juicy?
I hadn't told him anything about Fenrir.
"Well, you see — it's actually quite tangled up in politics."
"Politics?"
"Woof?"
"Mm-hmm. The Tasan family handles combat command for large-scale subjugations, so they're deeply connected to this matter."
"Is that so. And Juicy?"
"Ah, ah, um — yes. Woof. I have heard about it, yes."
"So, so — the Tasan family is the Seihou faith's biggest sponsor, and the marquis family are devout Seihou followers too. Right, little pup?"
"Ah, ah, yes. We are Seihou followers."
"...Huh."
"..."
Those sisters are Seihou followers? Even Sheshu?
The ones holed up in the catacombs making rot-meat pies?
From what I'd heard, they were firmly in Yomid's camp no matter how you looked at it.
The Seihou faith sure casts a wide net, huh.
"And besides, Seihou's whole mission is wiping out Yomid, you know. So through a process of elimination, it ended up being Wanko. There were two others—one was non-combat. The other had outstanding skills, but she was turned down, you know."
"Outstanding skills? Who?"
"Well, she'd be—she's a rare one these days. A mercenary, you know."
"Ah, right. Got it."
Agaro nodded readily.
That's probably about Sheshu.
"Um, um, well, Sheshu. The dungeon especially has trouble with undead."
"Ah, ah, I see."
"She'd naturally turn it down, then."
So Sheshu's bad with scary stuff. Noted.
"So what you're saying is, this young lady here is the Tassan marquis house's representative?"
"Um, um, well, yes! I'm the Tassan representative!"
Juicy shot her hand up.
I shot Juicy a look and spoke up.
"Witch. The Death Offering's curse on this Tassan marquis house representative—
the curse"
"but I really think a curse like that is going a bit too far."
"Wof!"
"My, my — even I didn't know that such a curse would be attached to a contract."
"Has the witch never entered a death dungeon?"
"Oh, certainly, certainly. I have. But the Death Castle I entered didn't come with a curse that kills you four days after you step inside, now did it? Old Abramirin probably doesn't know about this either."
"Is that so."
"Does that mean it's specific to this Grave of the Dead? Or is this particular Grave of the Dead special?"
"Who knows, who knows. But if you defeat the Death King within the four-day window, there's no problem at all."
"There are only three days left, though. Can we beat it? With this group?"
Agaro's skepticism was perfectly reasonable — the witch wouldn't have made a move without a plan.
She had taken on the liberation request that she'd been holding off on precisely because she had a guaranteed path to victory.
"Oh, certainly, certainly. We can beat it."
"...Well, as long as that's the case."
Agaro pinched a morsel, then downed the gourd flask in one gulp.
"Um, um, excuse me, Witch. I have a question."
"Oh my, oh my, what is it?"
"Why didn't Abramirin try to resolve it herself? She should have more than enough power to do so."
"Well, indeed..."
It was strange that someone with that kind of ability would leave something like this unattended with such a roundabout approach.
The witch hesitated for a moment, then closed her eyes and began to speak slowly.
"Well, you see. That old man made two mistakes. First, he incorporated his son, who died in a large-scale subjugation battle, into the defense mechanism."
"His dead son?"
"Indeed. That son became a dungeon monster — and an anomaly at that — one who has been burying intruders and offering their souls to the Offering Chalice, sustaining the defense mechanism. The Phantom Lord, he's called."
"A dungeon anomaly... I see."
Agaro-san takes a long swig from his gourd flask.
The black knight I fought and lost to. So he was the Grand Master's son.
"And, and, you see. The other mistake is that the First-Rank Delver he sent to subjugate the monster after agonizing over it never came back. So, burdened by that regret as well, the defense mechanism continues to function, and he just left it alone all this time."
"............"
"...So that's how it was."
"Besides, besides, being stuck in a position where you can't act freely plays a part too."
Dead or not, he used his own son for the sake of the greater good, ordered his subjugation, and it ended in failure.
Somehow... that's just sad.
But he actually beat a First-Rank Delver? No wonder I couldn't win.
"A-an, um, I'm sorry."
Juicy-san droops, looking dejected.
She must have thought she shouldn't have asked. The witch chuckles.
"Fufu, fufu, there's no point apologizing to Kon."
"Nyaa?"
Dagaa lifts her upper body and licks Juicy-san's cheek with her tongue.
"A-an, um, Dagaa-chan. I'm fine, really."
"Now then, why don't we wash the grime off too, dear? How about joining us, young Wof?"
"H-hey, no, I'm fine."
Wash off?
"Oh my, oh my, then how about you, puppy dear?"
"A-actually, um, about washing our bodies, we don't have a bath."
"Hee hee, hee hee, if we don't have one, we just make one, dear."
So saying, the witch stood up, and Juicy-san followed while still holding Dagaa.
The two headed into the back room. It had nothing but some lumber, jars, and farming tools.
"What's going on?"
"Who knows. Well, leave her be. It's what a witch does."
That made sense.
Agaro stared into the campfire, steadily drinking his sake. Occasionally he'd chew on a strip of dried meat.
I sipped tea from my Canteen and Crescent Moon vessel. Ahh, warm. It settles the heart.
Right after, surprised voices came from the back room — Juicy-san and Dagaa.
What was that? Did a bath just suddenly appear?
That's too much. seriously, Witch.