Chapter 237

Preparations

That day, Leona was taking a stroll about Succubus Village .

Though I say that, she didn’t exactly walk far, seeing as how the place the village was in was just a single dungeon floor . It looked like a spacious meadow, but it had walls and a ceiling .

‘There’s nothing new to see…’ is what she thought, but then she suddenly found a red button sitting on a rectangular pedestal coming up from the ground .

“Oh? Was this here before?”

Not pausing at all, Leona pressed the button .

“…? Nothing’s happening . ”

Click . Click, click click .

Leona pressed the button repeatedly .

Cli-click, click, clickity click click click . She even started trying to press it sixteen times per second, but even then nothing happened .

[Oi Leona, what’re you doing?]

And then a Golem appeared .

“Oh, Kehma-sa—-Golem-san . Well, I was pressing this button here . ”

[… You pressed it?]

“… Yeah?”

[How many times? … Mm, fifty-two times eh? Kay then, here ya go . ]

“Eh, what’re you gonna give me?”

He dropped an eggplant into Leon’s outstretched hand .

“… I don’t want them…!”

[Sorry, it’s one of this dungeon’s rules . Someone who presses this button here has to eat an eggplant… Alright, here’s the four others . ]

“Such a weird rule, change it!”

[You want me to change it? Oh well then . Then you’ll have to give me something in exchange… how about five Philosopher’s Stones instead of the eggplants? You can make them at the drop of a hat right? I’d like to experiment . ]

“Sure, here . ”

Five Philosopher’s Stones—alchemic treasures—tumbled across the ground .

They weren’t worth any different than simple rocks to Leona .

[Ah, thanks . ]

“Seriously, why’d you suddenly make such a weird rule?”

[I made it since the Succubi wanted to eat eggplants . I’ll just remove this button then~]

With a rustling sound, the Golem removed the button along with its pedestal from the ground . It then slung it over its shoulder like it was just carrying a plank .

[Listen here, if you got discouraged by this, go and try pressing some more buttons whenever . Absolutely press them!] [1]

With the Golem telling her not to press buttons, it left without waiting for a reply .

“…”

Leona smiled .

*

“She should definitely press the next button she comes across now . ”

“Well, she’ll definitely press them after you told her to press them like that . ”

… Did it turn into that because of the translation function?

“Just to say it, what I told her was to not press them . It’s an intentional mistranslation that feels like a scheme . Leona—who’s also a Hero—should hear it as-is in Japanese, though . ”

“Eh, what? She’ll press them even though you told her not to press them…?”

“She’ll definitely press them . ”

Leona’s weak points . That is, [Eggplants] and [Promises]… rather, [ Clichés ] . [2]

She keeps her promises, all the more so when they are clichés . In that case, it’s a definite thing .

While on the topic, my saying [Absolutely press them!] was a [ Cliché ] to the point that the translation function mistranslated it . With that, Leona’s pressing of the next button she comes across is virtually a sure thing .

“With this, the foundation for Leona catching herself in the trap has been laid . Next is making the instakill trap… well, it won’t kill her, but it should at least drive her out . ”

Still though, I wound up getting a hold of these Philosopher’s Stones in the preparation stage .

I was expecting for it to blow over as a joke, but it looks like Leona really does treat them as the same worth as pebbles…

… Maybe I should’ve asked for fifty-two of them? Well, no point in crying over spilt milk .

“… Should we try turning one into DP?”

“Oh, wait . Don’t… I get the feeling that they’d be 10 DP at most . ”

Rokuko stopped me when I tried to convert a Philosopher’s Stone into DP as a treasure .

She’s gotten to the point of being able to know how much DP a treasure is before crushing it? Just when did that happen…

“Hm? The heck, is it a fake?”

“I don’t know, but I get the same kind of feeling with Kehma’s Ring? It’s just a guess, but I think it might be because it didn’t take much time or effort to make? Like you get proportional DP to the effort it takes . ”

I see, so it’s the same as the DP-light magic sword blade golems I made… Conversely, when I raised those beets and turned them into sugar, the value of those cheap seeds went up after I put so much time and effort into them . It’s that kind of feeling .

Ooh, now that I think of it, that DP-raising method about raising a Jewelled Turtle that Haku-san taught me did take up quite some time, didn’t it?

“Leona’s able to make them from any old rock right? But they still function normally . It’s like that . ”

“I see…”

In that case, maybe I should give one to Nayuta? … is what I thought, but I don’t really have a reason to actually give her one .

I got it from Leona after taking great pains to do so myself, so I should use it for my own sake . Just giving it away is no good .

But Nayuta doesn’t have anything I actually need . Even her gun is a defective prototype… maybe some freshly used socks?

“… Eh, wait . You tried crushing the ring I gave you?”

“Hueh!? N-no, Kehma! Haku Ane-sama said she wanted to buy the ring for 100,000,000 DP, so I was like ‘I wonder how much it’s worth~’ and just started thinking about—ah, I obviously turned her down though, you know that right!? Don’t worry, I really definitely absolutely wouldn’t betray your love and trade it in for money or DP! So, umm, right! Let’s sleep together tonight!”

“Wait wait wait, STAHPPU, STAHPPU . ” [3]

I calmed down Rokuko, who’d started panicking for some reason .

… 100,000,000 DP though, woah . But Rokuko’s also amazing for actually turning that down . If it were me, I would’ve sold it . I could’ve used that to buy a bed and a luxurious life of indolence .

“I wouldn’t have minded if you sold it for a 100,000,000 DP though, I could’ve made another . ”

“It’s the ring I got from you though! There’s no way I could sell it . Don’t say something so mean… Muuu…”

Rokuko pouted .

… And now I’m thinking this girl’s naturally adorable .

It’s just a ring to me, but for Rokuko, I guess it’s something important she got from me .

“Hey, Kehma… I wonder, umm, a Dungeon Core and a human, they can make kids, right? Taking Setsuna as an example, they can, right? How do they make kids?”

“That’s not a story for right now, alright? Oookay, let’s change topics~!”

Ask Haku-san about something like that… no, actually please just forget about it and never ask anyone . It’d get me killed .

But still, Rokuko’s in this state… did Leona do something to her? I really do have to rush Leona out of here or I’m not going to live for long .

“Really Kehma, you don’t have to get shy . We’re in a relationship, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, we’re partners . ”

I once again strengthened my determination to drive Leona out .

“… So you made that Leona-use floor after all? There are a lot of things you made that I don’t understand though . ”

“Yeah . I made sure to prepare a chance for Setsuna to get an attack in on Leona too . ”

With that, my preparations are in order .

Next, I’ll be sending Leona to the specially-made floor and do something to her .

… As soon as Setsuna’s preparations are ready, it’s go time .

“Nerune, how’s going on their side?”

“I gave the weapons I got from Master to them~, they’re probably ready whenever~? They were practicing with the weapons they got~”

“In that case, we’ll start the operation tomorrow . ”

I decided to do one last look-over of the Leona-use floor .

I really just wanted to sleep to prepare for tomorrow, but it looks like Rokuko would get into my bed if I tried sleeping now, so I don’t think I’d be able to sleep in more than one meaning…

Keima is actually saying [DON’T press them]… by using Japanese wordplay that doesn’t work in English at all . Return He adds the ‘this is important O’ modifier to ‘Promises’, causing it to gain a second meaning: clichés . It might be a bit of a spoiler in English, but understand that this meaning isn’t used much in Japanese . This is meant to be wordplay that becomes apparent in the next chapter . Return Keima started speaking English here, so I put Engrish . Return