Emergency

"… Huh?"

A sudden follower declaration for the saintess. My mind went blank for a moment. Wait, it could speak human language? Oi.

Come to think of it, what did Rin say when it made me its follower?

— You've been offering food. So you're my follower — it was something like that.

Let's review what the saintess has been doing here.

Once a day, she entered the dungeon… and got eaten by Rin.

How was that any different from me sending golems to Rin to be eaten?

"… It's the same! Damn it! This is an emergency!"

If anything, the saintess wins by virtue of being tastier. What do I do… what do I do?

For now, I called Rokuko. There's a direct line from the Master Room to the Dummy Core in Rokuko's room.

"Oi Rokuko, this is bad! Emergency meeting!"

"Wha— Kehma?! Don't just barge in!"

For some reason, Rokuko was in the middle of changing. Sorry about that.

"Well, that aside—"

"That's not something to set aside, you know?! Wait, emergency? What happened?"

"Rin made the saintess its follower."

"Okay, got it, let's set that aside. This sounds bad."

As expected of Rokuko lately—she's smart. She understood immediately. She quickly threw on an outer garment and headed to the Master Room. All of this took just thirty seconds.

"The saintess is a follower… so what happens now?"

"No idea, nothing's happened yet. For now, call anyone who's free. We're preparing for a defensive battle."

Then, the saintess seemed to reboot. I eavesdropped on her conversation with Rin.

"Your, follower?"

"Yeah, follower. You've been offering, delicious food, so you're, a follower, right?"

… Wait, come to think of it, Rin isn't going to tell the saintess about me, is it? Even if it did, she should only recognize me as a golem, so it probably wouldn't be a big problem though…

"Since you're my follower, if there's, something, troubling you, tell me."

"… Um, right. Then let me ask. Did you come from outside this dungeon?"

"Call me, Boss."

"Eh?"

"Boss."

"B-Boss?"

"Yes."

Apparently that point mattered to Rin, and it wouldn't budge.

"… Does, Boss come from outside this dungeon?"

"Yeah. Because I'm, strong. This is, mine."

I've gotten used to it since I've been talking to Rin so much, but it looks like having a proper conversation with it is still difficult. By the way, to put it more clearly, that was: "Yes. I came from outside the dungeon. Also, I'm super strong, so I conquered this dungeon and claimed this room."

The trick to conversation? Just get used to it.

"… You took over the dungeon…? Is such a thing even possible…?"

"Kuahf, so if there's, nothing else, I'm eating."

"W-wait a moment! By eating, you mean — you eat your followers?"

"? Is there, a problem? No matter how much, I eat you, you come back, right?"

"… That won't work today. Anyway, I'd like to see the Dungeon Core. Where is it?"

"Dungeon Core? What's that?"

Oh right, Rin doesn't know about Dungeon Cores. When I invited it to become a dungeon subordinate, I only said something like "Want to serve under this dungeon?" It refused anyway.

"… A glowing orb, about this big?"

"… Hmm… well, there is one."

"Show me! Where is it?!"

"Ah, this way. Follow me."

It doesn't know what a Dungeon Core is, but it knows about a glowing orb… Right, it was sleeping in the Core Room at first. And so Rin lumbered off with the saintess in tow.

Alright. Time for a defensive battle. Just in time, everyone except Kinue-san had gathered in the Master Room as our dungeon defense force… Kinue-san is handling the inn by herself.

"Goshujin-sama, the haniwa are ready anytime."

"The wall golems are already moving. I've positioned them to force detours for now."

Niku and Ichika were business as usual, looking almost practiced at this.

"Four-Legged Archer Golems ready to deploy, Master."

"Gargoyle unit is ready to move out～! We've got plenty of magic stones, so there's lots of them～!"

"Oh, new troops! Let me use some too!"

"Sure～, feel free～!"

Rei would handle the four-legged golems, while Nerune and Rokuko would control the gargoyle unit.

"Alright, let's start the defensive battle… actually, before that, let's evacuate the Dungeon Core. Right now the real Dungeon Core is placed right where Rin was sleeping."

"Got it. I'll use Castling with the one in my room, right?"

"Yeah. Do it."

After Rin left the Core Room, I had moved the real core back to the deepest area. The other route was still under construction. I think I've been focusing too much on magic tool research lately.

… And by moving the Dungeon Core to the village side, we could conduct the defensive battle safely. Even if they made it to the depths of the dungeon, there would only be a Dummy Core there. No problem even if it got destroyed.

This way it would be fine even if Rin brought the saintess to the Core Room. Ah, safety is wonderful.

"Ah…"

"Hm? What's wrong?"

"Castling is unusable — fifteen more hours. It seems to be sealed."

Rokuko said with a pale face.

Huh? That means,

"Does that perhaps mean we can't escape?"

"That's exactly what it means. We can't escape."

I felt cold sweat running down my back.

"Well… it's been a while since I've heard death's footsteps approaching…"

… My muttered words left the Master Room in silence.

"… Kehma. What was that…?"

"Ah, sorry. That was weird of me to say."

"That's super cool! I'm going to use that sometime too—death's footsteps!"

"Please, stop. That was cringy, so cringy."

I apologized profusely to the sparkle-eyed Rokuko while we continued preparing our defenses.

At any rate, we win if we can kill the saintess even once. The saintess can only stay until today, after all.