Chapter 143

The Saintess’ Return Home

I thought that she might come over to talk immediately after she revived, but it wasn’t like that . Instead, the saintess took a short rest first before coming over to visit me, the village chief .

“It is extremely unfortunate, but I wasn’t able to resolve the issue… I would still be able to stay if my country hadn’t ordered me to return, though…”

“Well, it can’t be helped can it? I saw you heading into the dungeon every day, so thank you . ”

“I am happy to hear that… unfortunately, I don’t have any more time, so I must leave here . ”

I’d love if you didn’t come back again though honestly . But your DP income… no, considering the hassle, please don’t come back .

“Well then, Euma-senpai, see you again . ”

“… Euma-senpai? Who’s that?”

“… … No, it was my mistake . Inside the dungeon, there was a golem that talked with a similar voice to Village Chief-sama’s . ”

Yep, you used it just now didn’t you? Your skill that sees through lies . But I’m not lying .

“Hmm, a talking golem…? I’ve went far in, it might be mimicking my voice?”

“Really now…? By the way, it introduced itself as Euma, one of the dungeon’s bosses . It appeared to be cooperating with boss—with the demon . Do you know anything about it?”

“Unfortunately, there’s nothing that I can tell you . ”

“… Really?”

“Yeah, really . ”

It’s a secret, so I can’t talk about it [To the Saintess]! It’s the truth .

If she asked me [Are you keeping a secret?], I had planned on responding with [Well, despite how things look I am an adventurer after all], but she didn’t particularly keep digging .

“… Well then, Village Chief-sama, see you again . ”

“Yeah . If an opportunity comes up… Ah, would you like to take pastries with you as a souvenir? I’ve come into the possession of something called cream puff . I have five of them for a gold each, would you like then?”

And so, the saintess returned to the Holy Kingdom together with the cream puffs .

… Does she have enough for traveling expenses? It’s a secret that I’m a bit worried over that despite being her enemy .

*

“Oh! Kehma, look! We’re able to summon monsters again!”

“Yeah, same with walls, passages, and rooms . ”

An hour after the saintess had left, [Treaty]’s effects quietly faded . Confirming that the armor, items, traps, and monster things all looked like they’d work in the DP catalog, I took the chance to move the dungeon core to Rokuko’s room .

I’d put it into the dungeon because the saintess was staying in the inn, but I didn’t think it was even possible to seal off the dungeon core’s functions . To be exact, I want to say that we weren’t able to use our emergency escape—castling .

“And there are some more functions in the menu . You can project your voice into the dungeon and establish sortie points!”

“Wish we could’ve gotten those a bit sooner . ”

The things we can do in this dungeon are slowly increasing . It’s kind of like the feeling of getting a bonus for clearing the [Treaty] or the dungeon leveling up . At any rate, we can probably make the dungeon wider and deeper .

… If there’s something like a reward system, I wonder if we should try out doing a few more extreme things? Like adding floors all the way up to the hundredth . It’d cost 500,000 DP just by adding staircase room though .

“Rin’s still here, but I can finally get some good sleep . ”

“Kehma really does love sleep . ”

“Humans have three major desires, it’s their instincts . Well, I’m off to sleep . Not going to do anything but sleep . Going to sleep for around three days straight . I’ll probably eat and go to the bathroom some time midway though . I don’t think there’ll be any reasons for it, but don’t wake me unless you need to . ”

“Yes yes, I won’t! Good night, Kehma . ”

Seen off by Rokuko, I headed for my room in the village chief’s mansion .

I then had a golem prepare a futon for me . As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep .

*

Three days later .

I finally woke up and decided to head over to Rokuko’s room for the first time in a while .

Mmm, that was a great rest . I slept like a log! I woke up nicely too, maybe I’ll even do some work?

Then, inside Rokuko’s room, Haku-san was smiling with her whole face while petting Rokuko . She had Rokuko’s head on her lap .

“Good morning, Kehma-san?”

Still with her cheerful smile, Haku-san greeted me .

Ah–yes . Good morning to you too Haku-san… umm, when did you arrive?

“I came around midday yesterday? I waited for Kehma-san to wake up before I left, yet you left me waiting . Interesting . ”

Oooooi!? I know I said to not wake me up, but wake me up if Haku-san comes! I just kept sleeping from the backlash of being so busy recently!

Not leaving from my room except for using the restroom backfired! I only ever refilled the futon’s stuffing with DP and cleaned my teeth with [Cleanup]!

And now my mind’s pretty jarred .

“But Haku Ane-sama, I said that Kehma would be sleeping because he was so focused on working recently you know? He got up after three days so it’s alright!”

“Aah, un, that’s right, Rokuko-chan . I’ll pardon the matter of having me wait since Rokuko-chan says so . ”

“T-thank you very much . ”

“And so, I want you to tell me about various things today . I haven’t been able to see Rokuko-chan since I have been busy lately . Really, war is bothersome . It is profitable, though . ”

Aah, I’m seeing Haku-san as a big shot again, talking about war .

Also, I heard that talk about war before, but it’s really happening…?

“The DP I earn lowers when soldiers die, looking at it from the demon king’s army’s perspective, their primary goal is to whittle down the empire’s earnings . Though they should understand that something of this degree isn’t enough to shaking our footing, it is vexing that it is occurring so close to ranking season . ”

Ah, she did say something about the demon king also being a dungeon core now that I think of it .

“Umm, what’s this ‘ranking’ thing?”

“Oh my, you didn’t know? Once a year, there is an assembly of dungeon cores . The DP for each is announced in a ranking . I believe I was seventh place overall last year?”

Come to think of it, I feel like Rokuko said something like that a long time ago .

Rather, seventh place? That means there’re six people above Haku-san!? Err, not people, they’re dungeon cores . [1]

“Well, sixth place was the demon king’s army’s commander-in-chief, Core No . 6 . His alias is [Great Demon King] . It’s alright since he hasn’t particularly done anything himself, but small fry from his faction continually get in the way . ”

“It sounds troublesome in various ways . ”

“Yes . You could take over some of it if you’d like?”

I’d love to hold back from that with everything I have .

“Ah, our conversation fell a little off topic, hasn’t it? I would like to hear about the matter that just occurred . I have already more or less heard about it from my pawns, though . ”

“… Haku-san’s… pawns?”

“Yes . I shouldn’t say it, but the bar’s master, Wozuma, and that adventurer with talent as a carpenter, Koo-san . Are you acquainted with them?”

Wozuma and Koo-san, huh…? Both of them are part of the management for this village, I mean, isn’t one of them even the village sub-chief? For even Koo-san to be Haku-san’s pawn, her range is wide… no, to start with, this person stands at the peak of the adventurer guild . The number of pawns connected to such an inhuman person definitely wouldn’t be low .

“Even though I called them pawns, they are both still humans otherwise unrelated to dungeons . Don’t tell them anything about DP or dungeon masters . ”

“Ah, yes . ”

“And so, according to Wozuma and Koo-san’s reports, the village chief appears to be a splendidly direct one?”

“I’m only pressing work onto others . ”

“Hmmm, well if that’s the case then it’s fine . Wozuma was originally an official that worked in my castle, so it wouldn’t be a mistake to leave domestic affairs to him . ”

I heard something good . Let’s send all of the troublesome stuff, he’s definitely some super elite if he worked in the empire’s castle .

“So, I wanted to ask about various things since I haven’t been able to come over due to being so busy… is that alright?”

“Y-yes . What do you want to talk about?”

“I would like to hear about that black wolf and the saintess… but first, what is this about you giving Rokuko-chan a ring?”

I instinctively prostrated on the ground .

Footnotes:

This isn’t meant to be offensive . Just the “counter” used for the number is reserved for humans in Japanese . The pun is lost somewhere in translation . Any suggestions to make something similar work?