Crimdor, with the face of a hyena, and his band of gnolls.
They set foot in the dungeon.
As they entered the entrance, torches on the walls greeted them, dispelling the silent darkness.
“It’s bright.”
The torches lined up in a row illuminated the inside of the cave with slowly flickering light, giving them a sense of psychological ease.
Crimdor swept his gaze over his surroundings and began walking again.
The floor was covered with smooth pebbles, so his footsteps echoed softly.
“It’s well maintained, too.”
He ran his hand along the wall, but not a single speck of dust came off.
It meant the dungeon was being kept extremely clean.
‘Is it the master’s taste?’
A dungeon’s atmosphere and upkeep changed depending on its master’s preferences.
The dungeon they had visited this time gave off a clean yet simple air.
‘But for a succubus dungeon, it feels too plain.’
Crimdor looked around and expressed his doubt.
There had been a time, once, when he had visited a succubus dungeon just as he was doing now.
It had not been the dungeon of the Succubus Queen, but one under the Queen’s sphere of influence.
At the time, this had been his impression upon seeing a succubus dungeon for the first time.
—Beautiful.
So this was what a dream demon was.
The dungeon itself was a space that gave off an alluring and mysterious atmosphere.
A dizzying sensation, as though one might be drawn into enchantment, coexisted with its silence.
It had been filled with decorations of red, black, and brilliant magenta, and the portrait of the Succubus Queen hanging in the center had been truly deadly.
It was a thing of the past, but even now, he felt as though it shimmered before his eyes.
That was how captivating the first succubus dungeon he had seen had been.
But look at the dungeon before him now.
Was it not far too simple to be owned by a succubus?
“How strange.”
Of course, it might simply be a difference in taste.
But on the way here, one suspicion had taken root in him.
‘Why did the trading company tell us to investigate this dungeon?’
Perhaps there was information even the trading company had been unable to uncover, which was why they had entrusted the mission to them.
If so, could they really be certain this place was a succubus dungeon?
‘No, they couldn’t.’
The Demon Realm Trading Company had called this a succubus dungeon.
But they had not said what realm the succubus who owned the dungeon had reached.
On top of that, there had been no mention whatsoever of there being that many goblins in the forest.
‘Even the trading company doesn’t know this dungeon well!’
There was only one conclusion.
It meant that even the trading company that had given him the mission did not know much about this dungeon.
If that was the case, there was no guarantee that the dungeon’s master was a succubus.
Crimdor’s thoughts led him that far.
His thoughts had indeed hit the mark, but unfortunately, at the time he accepted the mission, the trading company had only mentioned that it was a succubus dungeon.
For now, there was no guarantee that Crimdor’s own thoughts were correct.
“Hmm….”
As he walked through the dungeon on guard, he heard something in the distance.
Crimdor focused on the sound with all his senses.
‘Water?’
It was the sound of water.
From deep within the dungeon came the gentle sound of water rippling.
‘Is there a lake in the dungeon?’
For it to be a simple puddle, the sound seemed far too vast.
Many thoughts crossed Crimdor’s mind.
The dungeon was much larger than he had expected.
And the fact that the information given by the trading company was unreliable also bothered him.
“Stop.”
Crimdor halted the subordinates walking with him.
He, too, had carried out many jobs with the trading company.
Among those jobs had been missions to investigate dungeons like this, as well as missions to directly subjugate dungeons.
Those experiences had accumulated, allowing him to grasp the current situation.
Crimdor caught his breath for a moment, then shouted loudly enough for the inside of the dungeon to echo.
“I am an inspector from the Demon Realm Trading Company!”
From the moment they entered the dungeon, their movements had already been as good as discovered.
‘Perhaps even before we entered….’
In that instant, he recalled the goblins in the forest.
Perhaps those goblins had not been wandering the forest, but belonged to the dungeon.
That unease suddenly came to him.
At times like this, it was better to reveal that he belonged to the trading company and proceed head-on.
As if that had been the correct answer, soon after he shouted, a monster came out to greet them.
“A goblin….”
The monster that had come out to meet them was a goblin.
The problem was that it was armed the same way as the goblins in the forest.
“So that means they don’t even feel the need to hide it.”
Crimdor’s expression twisted for a moment.
* * *
Crimdor and his subordinates followed the goblin.
The first thing that appeared was a three-way path, and the goblin headed down the first path.
Under normal circumstances, his subordinates should have split up to check the second and third paths as well, but for some reason, he felt uneasy.
And so Crimdor and his subordinates followed the goblin without a word.
When they took the first path, countless undead monsters appeared in the first clearing they reached.
Among them, skeletons made up an overwhelming proportion.
There were no particularly high-grade monsters, and up to this point, it looked like an ordinary dungeon.
But when he arrived at the next location, he was shocked.
“A Death Knight…!”
Upon seeing the being there, Crimdor cried out without realizing it.
To think there was a 5-star being here!
“But why is a Death Knight…?”
There was a large lake in that place.
He wondered if the sound of water he had heard near the dungeon entrance had come from this lake.
But there was one thing he could not understand.
The Death Knight was holding a shovel and digging up the ground near the lake.
“?”
He could not understand it.
If it was a 5-star Death Knight, was it not effectively the master of the dungeon?
The existence of a succubus had already disappeared from Crimdor’s mind.
He became convinced that the dungeon’s true master was originally the Death Knight, and that the trading company had gotten it wrong.
If the trading company had known that the dungeon master was 5-star, they would never have sent him in the first place.
Rather, they would have tried to establish a good relationship with the current dungeon.
The Death Knight, who was surely the master of the dungeon, continued digging the ground with a shovel.
‘Is the dungeon in bad shape?’
In dungeons with poor finances, the master would sometimes take part in the work personally.
But something felt strange.
The Death Knight he believed to be the dungeon’s master was working hard here, while the undead he had seen moments ago had merely been standing guard, had they not?
“Hmm.”
Perhaps the dungeon master was simply diligent.
He did not know the exact circumstances, but it would be rude to just stand there and stare.
Crimdor greeted him as politely as he could.
“I am Crimdor, sent by the trading company.”
He had heard only that it was a succubus dungeon, so he had thought it would be a dungeon of no particular note.
But in reality, it was a dungeon with a Death Knight as its master.
Since the true master was 5-star, Crimdor had no choice but to be cautious.
So this was a Death Knight.
Even though Crimdor had greeted him, the Death Knight merely kept shoveling.
‘He’s deliberately ignoring me.’
Well, he was someone who even commanded all those goblins in the forest.
Such a being would surely have tremendous pride in his strength.
Crimdor spoke to the Death Knight once more.
“I am Crimdor from the trading company. You appear to be the master of this dungeon—”
But his words did not continue to the end.
It was because the Death Knight, who had been diligently shoveling until just moments ago, reacted to Crimdor’s words.
“Hm?”
Crimdor was puzzled by the Death Knight’s action.
The Death Knight brought a finger near his mouth.
It was a gesture telling him to be quiet.
‘What is this?’
Why was he telling him to be quiet?
Then the Death Knight began shoveling again.
“…….”
Was this disregard?
No matter how high-grade a being he was, this was too much.
Crimdor himself had come as a member of the trading company.
No matter how impressive a dungeon was, before the trading company, it was merely a mouse before a cat.
But this treatment crossed the line.
“No! Even if you are the master of the dungeon, this treatment is—”
But this time as well, his words could not continue to the end.
“Hm?”
The goblin that had come to greet him was beckoning to him from afar, telling him to come over.
‘What is it?’
There were far too many strange points in this mission.
For now, since the goblin was gesturing to him, he left the Death Knight behind and moved on.
And another place appeared.
‘Just how vast is this place?’
The lake he had just seen was already tremendous in size.
And yet another place had appeared.
“Oh….”
Humans were being held captive there.
It was certainly a thought befitting the master of a dungeon.
“Have you arrived?”
And another being greeted Crimdor and his group.
“A succubus…?”
At a glance, he realized that the other party was a succubus.
Her alluring appearance and dress caught his eye.
Even the horns on her head were charming.
But the power he felt from her was nothing special.
No, he could hardly feel it at all, as if it did not exist, which likely meant her power was weak.
‘So that was it.’
The existence of the succubus.
He finally understood why the trading company had called this dungeon a succubus dungeon.
‘The succubus was playing the dungeon master for a fool!’
Succubi, along with incubi, were beings treated as dream demons.
They used their charms to seduce the opposite sex.
Succubi basically seduced men, but that ability did not apply only to humans.
Occasionally, they even seduced other monsters, and this was precisely one such case.
‘Ha, a succubus who seduced the dungeon master and now plays at being the master….’
That had to be it.
The Succubus Queen was currently missing.
In such a situation, there was no way a succubus of a higher grade than the Queen could exist.
Even if one did, there was no way her name would not be known.
In other words, the succubus before him had seduced the Death Knight, the dungeon’s master, and was pretending to be the master herself.
“Haha. Well, now.”
Crimdor laughed out of sheer absurdity.
“This is ridiculous.”
The trading company likely did not know this fact either.
At the same time, the Death Knight who had fallen to a mere woman like her looked pathetic.
“May I know what you find so amusing?”
The opposing succubus said with a smile.
She certainly seemed refined, as though she had been well maintained.
But to Crimdor, she was nothing more than a pretty flower.
“It’s just so funny that a fake is pretending to be the dungeon master. Hahaha!”
This time, laughter truly burst from him.
It might be rude on a first meeting, but the other party was a succubus anyway.
A woman who could only compete with her looks at best could not harm him.
On top of that, the moment he had heard from the trading company that this was a succubus dungeon, both he and all his subordinates had equipped gear that made them immune to mental attacks.
“Well, with the dungeon master in that state, I suppose it’s only natural that something like a succubus would play at being the master.”
Crimdor’s words grew increasingly rough.
Now that he looked at it, it truly was a dungeon with nothing special about it, and Crimdor felt like a fool for having struggled all the way here.
It was pathetic.
It made him angry.
To vent the indignation he now felt, he shouted.
The more he did, the more the other party’s expression twisted, but what did that matter?
“Even if a wench like you makes that face—”
But his words were cut off midway.
‘Wh-when did she!’
The succubus who had clearly been in front of him had somehow approached him and covered his mouth.
“Be quiet.”
A chill ran down his spine at her cold words.
And for a succubus, her strength was so great that he could not remove her hand.
No matter how much he struggled, it was useless.
Of course, when their leader was subdued, the gnolls who were his subordinates immediately raised their weapons, but it was no use.
Because the goblins that approached at once subdued them.
There were even hobgoblins among the group of goblins.
‘A G-Goblin Lord?!’
What stood out the most was a goblin wearing a crown.
A so-called Goblin Lord.
‘Why!’
This was a dungeon that had a Goblin Lord in addition to a Death Knight.
On top of that, the succubus was no ordinary one either.
Only then did Crimdor realize that something had gone wrong.
Even so, he could not escape from her grasp.
“I do not care if you insult me, but I cannot forgive you for dishonoring my master.”
She seemed to speak quietly, but there was power in her voice.
Crimdor knew very well that she was furious.
“Mmph… mmph!”
Even if he wanted to speak, he could not.
And at the same time.
Slash—
Stab—
The subordinates around him began collapsing beneath the goblins’ blades.
“Mmph!”
And Celia, the succubus before him, relaxed the strength in her hand.
Only then did Crimdor shout in protest.
“You dare lay a hand on the merchant guild!”
Strictly speaking, he was only in a contractual relationship with the guild.
But right now, his priority was to get out of the dungeon, even if he had to sell the guild’s name to do it.
No matter how powerful his opponent was, if he invoked the guild, they would surely tuck their tail and back down.
They would have no choice but to.
But contrary to his expectations, Celia merely smiled.
“I see. So you did all this believing in the name of some shallow little merchant guild?”
Celia had never intended to let Crimdor go in the first place.
The bastard had insulted her great Master.
That alone made him deserving of death a hundred times over.
When Celia gestured, this time the Goblin Lord moved.
Bang—
With a deafening roar that seemed to tear his ears apart, Crimdor realized he felt pain in his abdomen.
“Huh…?”
When he placed a hand on his stomach, it came away drenched in blood.
“You think you’ll get away with this…!”
If one killed a monster affiliated with the merchant guild, that dungeon was finished.
Knowing this, Crimdor raised his voice and tried to pressure his opponent.
But she was not intimidated in the slightest.
“Do you really think I would be afraid of something like that?”
The more Crimdor struggled, the deeper Celia’s smile became.
“From the look of it, you received a mission from the merchant guild.”
This had probably been his destination.
If Crimdor went missing, this place would be the first to come under suspicion.
“But unfortunately, on your way here, you were attacked by wandering goblins.”
At her words, Crimdor’s face went blank.
“W-what are you—!”
At the same time, Celia snapped her fingers.
Then something astonishing happened.
“Kikik! For Master!”
Several goblins cried out clumsily and plunged blades into their own throats.
Some stabbed themselves in the stomach.
The sight of goblins taking their own lives, blood spraying everywhere, carried a chilling madness.
“……”
Crimdor’s expression darkened.
“After being attacked by goblins, you fought desperately alongside your subordinates, but in the end, you died.”
Celia pointed at the corpses of the goblins who had just killed themselves.
“Still, to think you managed to kill so many goblins before you died. How impressive.”
Her smile felt like that of a demon.
As Crimdor stood there in a daze, Celia gave an order.
“Mr. Shadow, take the bodies as far away as possible. Arrange them so that anyone who sees them will think they killed each other.”
The corpses of the gnolls and goblins were still warm.
As long as the scene was manipulated well, even the merchant guild would find it hard to notice.
At her words, Crimdor could only be horrified.
“This place… is insane.”
Those were his last words.