—The dungeon beneath the castle of Cartafus.
In a room deep within it, used for interrogations, Queen Ludmilla of Cartafus had been bound in a vulgar position, fitted with restraints that clung tightly to her black body and a gag forced into her mouth.
Two maids stood by nearby, assigned to tend to Ludmilla. Torture instruments were laid out around the room, but Ludmilla herself bore no injuries.
She had been locked away in this dungeon solely to stoke her fear and shred her pride to pieces.
When footsteps echoed toward the room, Ludmilla pried her eyes open and glared at the door. Her long reddish-purple hair clung to her skin, and the dungeon was dimly lit by the flickering glow of candles, their light wavering unsteadily.
The person responsible for capturing Ludmilla.
Ralk Mayard had arrived in the dungeon with his companions—his subordinates—in tow.
The moment Ludmilla recognized Ralk's face, she bit down hard on her gag.
Ralk, who normally wore his gray hair in a wolf cut, looked different from his usual adventurer's appearance today. He was dressed in aristocratic attire with his hair slicked back.
With his collar loosened and his chest exposed, Ralk cast a lewd grin the moment he saw Ludmilla.
"Yo, Lady Ludmilla. How are you feeling? Bound up like that, putting on such an embarrassing display. You seemed to underestimate me, so... how about you give me that nice, favorable answer I've been waiting for?"
Knowing that his Skills had particularly potent effects on women, Ralk had surrounded himself exclusively with female attendants.
When the maids removed Ludmilla's gag, she spat on the floor and fixed Ralk with a venomous glare.
"You sure talk a big game. Did you really think I wouldn't know about the illness keeping me immobilized? You scraped your way into a position by schmoozing with the castle's people, but that standing of yours must be hanging by a thread, isn't it?"
Ralk glared right back at Ludmilla. He activated his Skill, attempting to make Ludmilla fall for him—and indeed, Ludmilla's gaze was forcibly drawn toward Ralk.
Through the Skill, she caught a glimpse of her idealized version of a man in Ralk's form, but she crushed it with sheer willpower and tore her eyes away.
Ralk scowled in frustration.
"You dare look down on me—just look at you, a piece of trash bound and gagged like that, putting on airs!"
Ralk was right about that much. Ludmilla had no rebuttal on that point. And she was growing sick of Cartafus's failure to come and rescue her.
Good grief, to think he'd be this stubborn about adhering to rules. What a pain.
Ludmilla had seen through Ralk's plan — he'd already charmed those around her and gained status, and now he intended to charm her next and become the king of Cartafus.
But at the same time, she understood that he couldn't hurt her for that purpose. He couldn't kill her, and she had decided to use that to her advantage.
"How brave of a man who's too scared to lay a hand on one restrained woman. What's wrong? Isn't there any more humiliation in you? You're... quite a small man."
When Ludmilla said that, a vein bulged on Ralk's forehead. He picked up a nearby whip and struck Ludmilla with it without hesitation.
Intense pain lanced through Ludmilla, but she didn't make a sound. She simply grinned, staring at Ralk and laughing, goading him on. Seeing Ludmilla like that, Ralk gasped for breath and gave orders to the maids.
"Treat her with medicine!"
With that, Ralk left the room with his subordinates. The maids bowed and saw him out, then closed the door, and one took up a position as lookout.
One of them approached Ludmilla, removed her restraints, and began treating her injuries. Then, with a worried expression, she spoke to Ludmilla.
"Your Majesty, please don't do this anymore..."
To the worried maid, Ludmilla replied with a smile.
"It's fine. Besides, I can only laugh at those subordinates of his who let their guard down, assuming that since it was the rules, they could just have the castle maids handle Ralk. When things get this bad, you need to feel a little pain to understand."
Stretching her back, Ludmilla sat down on the chair she'd been restrained in and crossed her legs.
She had told them to handle Ralk according to the rules, but she still hadn't expected him to be so rigid that he could only act by the book.
That was why Ludmilla had deliberately gotten herself captured. The two maids were ones she trusted, and they had been pretending to be charmed under Ralk's control.
However, the maid couldn't seem to hold back.
"But if this continues, the kingdom will fall."
To those words, Ludmilla said:
"Even without the Ralk business, the kingdom would eventually be destroyed with this excessive adherence to rules. Too many people use the rules to escape responsibility. It used to be a strength, but when taken to extremes, it's nothing but a flaw."
Cartafus was a nation that tended to place too much emphasis on rules — on regulations. That had sometimes produced good results, but lately it had begun tipping in a negative direction. As long as you acted in accordance with the rules, there was no responsibility.
"It can't be helped because it's the rules." That sort of thing had become increasingly conspicuous. Even if they added more rules, how many people actually understood them?
She may be called the queen, but Ludmilla was essentially a stand-in queen who had inherited the throne from the previous king under those same rules.
Cartafus was a patrilineal nation, and eventually a son-in-law would become king. And Ralk was after that throne.
"Honestly. They should have just picked a man from one of the royal family's branch houses instead of me. Father had been making various moves with that in mind, but the deal fell through before anything was decided."
Perhaps it was the nature of the country, but the branch families of the royal house hadn't opposed Ludmilla's ascension to the throne either. If they became Ludmilla's husband, they would effectively be the next king, so there was no real issue.
But from Ludmilla's perspective, it was an annoying situation.
"...Is anyone suspicious of my absence?"
When she asked the maids, one nodded and reported.
"Most of them have noticed something is off. The question is whether anyone is actually going to act on it."
Ludmilla was exasperated by the maid's answer, though—
"Then whoever rescues me from here will be the next king. Spread that rumor. If they still won't move, then just give me to Ralk for all I care. How pathetic."
While the maid was still bewildered by Ludmilla's judgment, Ludmilla looked up at the ceiling.
"Hmm, not bad. He may not be a prince, but... a prince or a hero who rescued me. Marrying such a man holds a certain appeal for a woman of the royal family. Perhaps I should open it up to candidates from abroad as well? That ought to give the men of this country at least a little urgency."
As Ludmilla said this with an amused look on her face, the two maids resigned themselves and complied—.
With the katana in my right hand, I poured a liquid called holy water over the blade.
It was a transparent liquid, but it faintly glowed, and when it coated the katana, it seemed to shine bright even in the dark depths of the Dungeon.
Gripping the katana with both hands, I tossed aside the small bottle that had held the holy water, and Shannon—holding a basket—caught it.
Shannon, who had been hanging back behind everyone as the group's carrier, caught the small bottles her companions tossed one after another and tucked them into her basket.
The innermost chamber of the Dungeon that had appeared within the fortress was a grand hall on the fifth underground floor. It was a spacious room, but the ceiling wasn't especially high—rather, many pillars supported it in an irregular arrangement.
The undead before me was a skeletal knight clad head to toe in full armor. Its size had to be around three meters.
The sinister armor, shield, and sword were all crudely made in ways that defied description. If anything, the sword looked more like a lump of iron.
Miranda, Aria, and Monica formed the front line, with me and Valkyrie Numbers One, Two, and Three behind them, and Shannon at the very rear.
Aria, spear in hand, crouched low and then launched herself forward in a leap.
The skeletal knight, gripping its greatsword in one hand, swept the blade sideways—scraping the floor and sending sparks flying.
Aria dodged with a jump, and the knight tried to knock her away with its shield. But Miranda's dagger flew in and deflected the shield, throwing off its movement.
Miranda was threading lines from the tips of her left fingers, looping them around the pillars as relay points to pull at the boss skeletal knight's shield.
"Aria!"
At Miranda's shout, Aria brought her spear crashing down on the skeletal knight's now-exposed left arm. Lightning fast—Aria's attack, packing multiple Skills into a single strike, truly deserved the name.
Aria, who wasn't especially gifted with magic, had honed her Skills and martial prowess instead—and by now, she'd become an essential frontliner for the party.
The skeletal knight, its left arm torn clean off, threw open its massive maw and let out a roar that made our ears ring.
Shannon pressed both hands over her ears.
"Where is it even producing that sound from?! It's nothing but bones and armor!"
She was screaming about how unfair it was while staring at the Monster. I had to agree with her. Then, as the skeletal knight swung its greatsword toward Aria, Monica swung her massive hammer in from the side.
Fire blasted out from the opposite end of the hammer, boosting its destructive power.
"Behold, a weapon of pure romance! The ultimate blow from Monica—the maid who understands romance—take it!"
With its greatsword, right shoulder, and right side all ripped away, the skeletal knight was left defenseless and let out a low growl. Then fragments of white bone and broken armor began gathering back toward the skeletal knight...
I watched this happen.
"Just as I thought—the holy water's effect is slowing its regeneration. Sorry about this, but I'm going to end this right now."
I charged forward, with the Valkyries providing covering fire from behind. The skeletal knight, still struggling to regenerate, lunged at me with a helmeted headbutt.
I drove straight through the skeletal knight's helmet—
"——Slash."
——A single vertical flash. A line split the skeletal knight from top to bottom, and it slid apart, collapsing into white powder.
I had coated my blade with holy water effective against undead-type enemies, and thankfully it did its job. Otherwise, I would have had no choice but to keep attacking until it went down or blast it away with magic.
That said, this time the fortress corridors and the abundance of narrow rooms made it difficult to find the right conditions to use magic.
Even in spacious rooms, using holy water like this is more effective.
Watching the boss leave behind a Magic Stone before vanishing, Aria said:
"If you don't mind the materials, undead are pretty convenient, you know. Easy to collect from, too."
Not having to put on gloves and carve up a monster after defeating it to harvest materials is definitely a relief. It's a surprisingly tedious job, so even many adventurers leave it to their support staff.
I wiped the katana's blade with a cloth as I spoke.
"It was rough back when I was a rookie, wasn't it? I messed up once and Zelphy got mad at me for wasting them."
Hearing a story like that, Aria seemed to recall something as well.
"Yeah, I couldn't bring myself to touch them at first either after seeing all the blood. Zelphy was holding her head in her hands over that... but now I think I understand that feeling a little."
While Aria and I were chatting about the early days of this new era, Miranda came over. She must have collected the treasure from the innermost chamber while we were talking.
"Nostalgia is nice and all, but could you take a look at this? Lyle, this is your share of the rewards. I don't think it's bad."
There was silver — a rare metal that had been bathed in magic. A decent amount of it, too; it would probably fetch between one hundred and two hundred gold coins if sold.
The price would depend on negotiation, but judging by the treasure alone, this might not have been a bad Dungeon.
That said, I had purchased holy water this time, so the expenses had been considerable as well.
A little while ago, this would have been more than enough to keep a party going. But now, after investing this much time and effort, the honest truth is that this level of income just isn't cutting it.
"It's not bad, but the profit is pretty thin. If this keeps up, it's going to be a real pain. And here Alette and the others are getting steadily introduced to high-yield Dungeons."
I shouldn't compare myself to others, but I could clearly sense the Guild's intentions behind this.
Monica confirmed the surrounding situation and came to report to me.
"Chicken, preparations for withdrawal are complete. Apparently, no more Monsters are appearing."
Inside the Dungeon. I had deployed the Valkyries and had them collecting Magic Stones. Their external battery, so to speak — their source of energy was Magic Stones.
Those were liquefied and used as fuel.
The atmosphere in the Dungeon had quieted down, so I confirmed the hunt was over and decided to head outside.
Number One carried the Magic Stone from the great boss, the skeletal knight. Number Two, who had received silver from Miranda, held the luggage.
Shannon checked the contents of the luggage, and then—
"There are still quite a few with contents left. These are pretty expensive, you know? And they have expiration dates on top of that. The ones with short expiration dates, no less... It's infuriating that they cost more than my allowance."
Shannon wasted a lot of money. Rather, she dumped almost all of it into elven songs and storytelling.
Whenever I took her out somewhere, she mostly wanted to listen to songs, and even during meals she preferred places where she could eat while listening to music or storytelling.
Miranda smiled and firmly ruffled Shannon's head.
"Once you get a little better at planning your spending, I'll increase your allowance. Start by stopping yourself from spending it all on the day I hand it over."
Shannon was still as hopeless as ever, but ever since meeting Mireia, she'd grown a little... or at least, I thought so. After all, this time too — even if it was just helping out — she had participated in the boss hunt.
As I left the great hall, I thought to myself:
"(Right, I need to head back to Baim at some point. As for the Dungeon hunt report... maybe I'll wait and see a little longer.)"