Side Story: Meanwhile, at the Dungeon

It had already been several days since Kehma and the others left the dungeon. Golen Village's dungeon, [Cave of Desires], was bustling with activity.

"Village Chief Kehma and Gozoh-san are gone right now! This is our chance to make a killing!"

"The Village Chief always just strolls in once a week or so, sweeps through the place, and walks out with a huge haul of treasure… With him gone now, it's all ours for the taking!"

With those thoughts in mind, a considerable number of adventurers had formed parties and were exploring the dungeon.

Of course, these adventurers always explored the dungeon, but this time they were particularly fired up.

After some exploration, they found a box sitting on the floor in the labyrinth area.

Treasures in this dungeon often appeared in boxes left on the floor.

Suppressing their excitement, they opened the chest while keeping an eye on their surroundings.

"Ooh, it's nihonshu! A whole bottle just for us!"

"Amazing… Usually only Village Chief Kehma or Gozoh-san ever get these."

"More like the Village Chief scoops them all up and sells them to the bar."

It wasn't that they never felt like he was hogging it all. However, since Kehma didn't seem particularly interested in alcohol and simply sold it to the bar, they were actually grateful.

Thanks to him regularly supplying the bar with nihonshu, they could drink it if they paid for it there.

But it was expensive. It was a rare alcohol, after all.

That made them feel a mix of envy and jealousy toward Kehma, who was raking in money by obtaining large quantities of it from the dungeon.

Just then, some goblins appeared. A party of five.

With a whoosh, arrows flew at them. One thunked into the ground right at the adventurers' feet.

"Watch out! There's a goblin archer! Whatever you do, protect the nihonshu!"

"Again!? Seriously, how many fights have we had today!? But if it's just goblins…"

"There's three clay golems coming from behind them too. Can we take them? Or should we run?"

"Are you kidding me!? Damn, those are some lucky goblins. If we get caught up fighting those golems too, it'll be rough. Let's run!"

Having immediately decided to retreat, they ran through the dungeon.

By the way, the goblins in this dungeon were divided into two types.

First were the small fry goblins. Then there were the armed goblins.

It was easy to tell them apart. Armed goblins carried some kind of weapon and were often found in groups. Their weapons were of poor quality, and their corpses were no different from regular goblins, so there was basically no benefit to fighting them.

Inexperienced adventurers would lose to them fairly easily. Even C-Rank adventurers might end up running for their lives if they got careless.

That said, escaping from them was easy enough, so there weren't many casualties from armed goblins. There were even rumors that they didn't give chase because they were wary of traps. Whether that was true or not, they remained opponents one couldn't let their guard down around.

And so, they managed to escape easily.

"Haah, haah… Alright, we got away. Still, finding lots of treasure is great and all, but why are there so many monsters? This has got to be abnormal."

"A Transition Phase maybe? … Or maybe we've just been running into them by coincidence… ah."

"Hm? Did you think of something?"

"… What if it's because the Village Chief and Gozoh-san aren't here to thin the numbers?"

That's right. Kehma and the others weren't just collecting items; they were also taking care of the monsters.

Realizing this, they started to think that those two parties really were amazing. But then one of them muttered something.

"Wait. Gozoh-san shouldn't be killing this many."

Gozoh properly submitted his subjugation records and proof of kills, but Kehma was pretty lax about all that, so nobody knew exactly how many he was killing.

But calculating backwards from how much money Gozoh usually spent… didn't that mean Kehma was taking out most of the monsters that were now appearing?

"What the… So when we usually explore this place, it's the nice, clean dungeon that Village Chief Kehma has already swept through…"

"Seriously. The Village Chief is incredible."

Just how many monsters was he killing with his weekly dungeon attacks? And he did it so casually, sometimes even going in solo.

… And he was dealing with this many monsters? Places where even parties had no choice but to run, Kehma walked through as easily as strolling through his own backyard.

It was hard to imagine from his usual lazy appearance, but come to think of it, even Hero Wataru had said he'd never beaten Kehma.

If that was the case, then dealing with groups of goblins and golems as casually as taking a stroll made sense.

"… Well, I guess he's earned the right to monopolize the nihonshu."

"More like, it's because the Village Chief finds it and sells it to the bar that we can drink it regularly…"

"Yeah, we really owe Village Chief Kehma."

And so, unbeknownst to Kehma, his reputation rose even higher.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

In the Master Room, Rei received a report from Nerune.

"So basically, I've been increasing the monster production by the amount we estimated Master and Niku-senpai would have been killing. Should I keep going like this?"

"Yes. Please continue like this."

Sitting in the chair that was normally reserved for Kehma in the Master Room, Rei couldn't help but smile as she watched the monitor produced by the menu function.

That smile came from the joy of being entrusted with the dungeon while her master was away.

"Fufufu, the one guarding the dungeon while Master is away is none other than I! Rei, the vampire! Fuhahahah! I shall perfectly replicate what the dungeon would be like with Master present!"

Having let those bubbling emotions burst forth, she took a deep breath. Yes, that felt much better.

Just then, Kinue, who had been standing beside her, tapped Rei on the shoulder.

"Rei. May I say something?"

"Hm? What is it, Kinue?"

"Do you truly believe this is perfect?"

Kinue spoke with a hint of dissatisfaction. Though she'd been called out, Rei knew she couldn't match Kehma. She wasn't conceited. What she'd said earlier was just her getting a bit carried away, so she accepted the criticism honestly.

"Do you have an opinion? If so, I'll hear it."

"Then I won't hold back… You don't really think Master would only do this much, do you?"

In other words, Kinue was saying that if Kehma were exploring the dungeon as an adventurer, the number of monsters being killed couldn't be accounted for by their current surplus.

Rei understood what she meant instantly. How clever!

"… You're right, Kinue! Nerune, please increase production further! Double it!"

"Alriiight, let's do our best! Let's massacre all the adventurers… oh wait, that'd be bad, so let's half-massacre them instead!"

"Oh? Were we allowed to kill half of them?"

"Rei, 'half-massacre' means to hurt them to the point of almost killing them without actually killing them."

And so, the dungeon's difficulty level became very, very high.

Since it also raised people's estimation of Kehma by comparison, one could say this was exactly what Rei had intended.

… Whether or not that was what Kehma actually wanted was another story entirely.