I've Done It Now...

Making a mistake on the carry-over calculation, the thugs fell into the spider web trap.

… Either way, the answer was [Easy], so they would have been wrong anyway.

At any rate, with this, everyone was neutralized.

Phew. I let out a breath. The job was done, and it felt like the heat that had been clinging to my body was dissipating… Yeah, I'm calming down now.

"Hey, Kehma. I was thinking—wouldn't ten adventurers going missing all at once make them quite wary?"

"… Y-yeah, you're right."

Rokuko was correct.

Thinking about it calmly, a party of ten people including multiple C-Rank adventurers going missing would definitely make this look like a pretty tough dungeon. I just lost my temper. Got mad because they were about to hurt Ofuton-san. That's all.

"… Were you that annoyed because they went after Ichika and Niku?"

"No, it was for Ofuton-san. I got mad for Ofuton-san's sake."

"If that's what you want to believe, sure?"

Mm, that's right. There's no way I'd get irritated just because someone made a move on Ichika or Niku… no, actually, there might be. Now that she mentions it, that's the only way to see it. Confronting the knight captain directly to warn him for Niku's sake—that was dangerous behavior even for me.

In other words, yes… Crap, I wasn't thinking at all. I really did it now.

"Hey, hey Kehma. If they had gone after me, would you have killed them all too?"

"What kind of dangerous question is that? … No, it's only half-killed. I only killed half of them. Rather, sixty percent are still alive."

"But you're going to squeeze them for DP and finish them off in the end, right?"

"… Well, yeah."

"You massacred the bandits for my sake too, Kehma, so I'm sure you'd definitely massacre anyone who went after me!"

Rokuko flashed me an innocent, adorable smile.

Huh, when she puts it like that, I've been doing some pretty violent things.

But since I've already trapped them, there's no way I can let the ones still alive go home. So it's a total massacre in the end, huh… I've gotten pretty far down the villain path. In a certain game's terms, I'd be tilting toward Chaos. I need to pump the brakes somewhere appropriate. I want to stay Neutral. Normal.

"Goshujin-sama. I've finished storing everyone in the cells."

"Oh, good work… But man, Niku, you've gotten really good at piloting golems. When did you improve so much?"

When I patted Niku's head, she wagged her dog tail happily.

… Petting Niku calms my heart. At this point, maybe the equation Niku = Pillow = Sense of Security has been established?

Yes, Niku is my precious bedding. So there's nothing wrong with me getting angry when someone makes a pass at her! I am not a lolicon!

"Nnn～… I've been working hard to be useful to Goshujin-sama… It's been hot lately, so sometimes I couldn't be your hug pillow… hauuu～"

As I petted Niku's head while she let out happy sounds, Rokuko stared at me with slightly accusing eyes that went "Jiii…"

… Yeah, sorry. This isn't the time to be feeling relieved. Ten people going missing is a total screw-up.

"So, what are you going to do? With the ones you captured?"

"Let's see…"

Taking care of prisoners myself would be extremely troublesome. Plus, it leaves too much of a bad aftertaste. It would interfere with my peaceful sleep.

Alright! Let's leave this to my subordinates!

"Rei, I have a job for you. As the jailer, I'm putting you in charge of looking after these guys. I'll assign some golems as assistant jailers, so make them last reasonably long."

"Yes! Leave it to me, master! Also, can I drink their blood?!"

"Hm? Sure. Go ahead, I don't mind even if they die."

"Yay! … Ah, s-sorry, thank you very much!"

Come to think of it, Rei was a vampire. I just now remembered.

So originally, humans are food for Rei. Apparently that means vampires have the know-how for "raising" humans ingrained in their heads.

This is an unexpected way for Rei to be useful. Good thing her being a vampire isn't going to waste—in fact, she might even power up by drinking blood!

I need to figure out a way to dispose of them quickly and have the dungeon absorb them if it looks like we might be exposed. Not a slave collar, but maybe a prisoner's collar? If there isn't one, I can just make it with a golem. Like a neck shackle that becomes a guillotine with a single command.

"… By the way, as a vampire, do you really want to drink blood after all? I thought there was an option to negate the blood-drinking impulse."

"That's right, I don't need it. But master, imagine if you had a body that didn't need to sleep."

"Ah, yeah. I'd sleep. I'd definitely sleep. I would absolutely sleep."

I see, I completely understand. "Not needing" and "not wanting" are different things. It's like how even if you love cake, you won't die as long as you have bread.

Still, our DP income has skyrocketed.

Specifically, what used to be about 500 DP per day has become 1,800 DP per day. That's 3.6 times as much.

About 1,300 DP from six prisoners. We can get this much. Double from confinement, triple from being in a cell. A total of six times the normal rate—that's just amazing, no other way to put it.

"In other words, we can splurge today! Melon bread party tonight—no objections allowed!"

"Rokuko-sama, I want hamburgers too. And let's give Ichika some curry bread."

"Granted!"

What happened to no objections allowed? Well, whatever.

In that case, let's offer various kinds of bread today. Not just sweet breads, but the bakery bread series items that have recently been added. A little luxury once in a while is nice!

"… Oh, we got DP. Someone died～"

"Hm? I don't think the ones whose legs were cut off would die that quickly since we cauterized the wounds to stop the bleeding… Oh. The aristocrat, huh."

When I checked the trial room's situation, the aristocrat… Drason, was it? … had been thoroughly done in by his followers. He had been clinging to the magic sword until the end, but the followers managed to return it to the pedestal and successfully unlocked the blockade.

Returning the magic sword smeared with the aristocrat's blood to the pedestal was somehow touching. They had the faces of men who had achieved their goal after a difficult journey.

Yeah, yeah, you worked hard. As a reward, I'll release the labyrinth's blockade.

I'm in a mood to do something kind right now, so how about I just let them go.

By the way, after being saved, they can make any excuse they want about the aristocrat not being there. They could, but… since there are magic tools that can detect lies, they'll probably be arrested immediately after interrogation.

Well, I can't take responsibility for that. That's outside the dungeon.