Chapter 57
In the southwestern region of the Empire lay the 『Argon Plains』.
Located between the South and the West, the plains were unsuitable for farming, but their extremely flat terrain, covered in hard rock, made them a crossroads connecting numerous territories.
A sudden anomaly began to occur across those plains.
Crackle- Crackle-crackle-
“What was that?”
A group of merchants passing through the plains were the first to witness it.
They were traveling by wagon as usual, transporting food, when a strange sound suddenly reached their ears, prompting them to look around.
The plains were quiet as usual.
Thinking they had misheard, they were about to continue on their way—when it appeared.
Crackle- Crackle-crackle- Crackle-crackle-crackle-! Vroooom!!!
“W-what is that!!”
Black lightning began striking the center of the Argon Plains, and then a black door suddenly appeared.
The black door, engraved with ancient letters, looked like something that did not belong to this world.
Upon seeing the ominous door, the merchants hurriedly whipped their horses and fled the area.
It was their first time seeing it directly, but they knew what it was.
It was…
“Hurry! We must tell everyone! A dungeon has appeared in the Argon Plains!”
Some called it a place to strike it rich, while others saw it as the seed of disaster,
『Dungeon』.
That day, a dungeon descended upon the Argon Plains.
* * *
『Dungeon』
Scholars had many different opinions about its origins.
Some said it was a room belonging to an ancient god that had accidentally descended into the surface world,
while others said it had been created by an ancient god to offer trials and rewards.
Although its origin remained unknown, every dungeon that descended into the surface world shared the following general characteristics.
First, monsters would gradually emerge from dungeons and attack people.
They would also take control of monster habitats near the dungeon, causing those monsters to launch even more attacks on people.
The only way to prevent this was to conquer the dungeon.
The problem arose when a dungeon was left untouched for a long time.
Though the timing varied from dungeon to dungeon, leaving one untouched for too long would cause it to unleash every monster inside it into the surface world before disappearing.
This was called a 『Dungeon Wave』, and historical records stated that cities had been destroyed by Dungeon Waves in the past.
Generally, the lord who ruled the region was responsible for managing a dungeon.
This was only natural, since if a dungeon were left unattended, the territory would be destroyed.
However, sometimes a dungeon descended in a region that belonged to no territory.
In such cases, the Red Magic Tower took charge of managing the dungeon and requested assistance from the surrounding territories.
As was happening now.
“The Tower Master of the Red Magic Tower has requested our cooperation in managing the dungeon.”
I said this as I looked at the vassals gathered in the office.
Noah said with a regretful expression,
“To think they’ve even asked us to cooperate… It seems the cooperation isn’t going very well after all.”
“I suppose not. No one wants to manage a dungeon, after all.”
Dungeon management involved many unexpected incidents, and people could suffer serious harm from monsters.
Therefore, unless a dungeon had appeared in their own territory, lords generally did not want to participate in managing one.
They had all tried to save face by sending some money or food, and that was probably why the request had reached us as well.
At that moment, Sharen said with a worried expression,
“Th-then… are we not going to help manage the dungeon…?”
Sharen’s face looked deeply troubled.
That was understandable.
The one who had requested assistance was none other than Sharen’s teacher, the Tower Master of the Red Magic Tower.
While she had been at the Red Magic Tower, Sharen had surely gained experience managing dungeons and knew how difficult it was.
That was probably why Sharen was so troubled.
As the Red Magic Tower’s heir and her teacher’s disciple, she should support dungeon management, but as Kron’s exclusive mage, she ought to stand by like the other lords.
Dungeon management involved that many unexpected developments.
That was when I decided how to act.
“We will cooperate in managing the dungeon.”
“My lord…”
Sharen looked moved by my words.
I conveyed my intentions to everyone.
“Managing a dungeon is dangerous, but it is also work for our subjects and the people at large. I believe it is only natural for Kron to cooperate in such a matter.”
I led people by interpreting Kron’s maxim, ‘Always look toward the highest place from the lowest place,’ as a call to see things through the people’s eyes.
If I refused to cooperate here, I would be failing to uphold that maxim myself.
Of course, that was not the only reason I had decided to cooperate.
Judging from the situation, lords from the prince’s, princess’s, and Northern Grand Duke’s factions were all involved in this matter.
This would let me put them in my debt and firmly establish myself as a beloved ally on their side.
Moreover, building a good relationship through this incident with Sharen’s teacher, the Tower Master of the Red Magic Tower, was not a bad idea.
Finally, and most importantly, dungeon clearing was also one of my personal hobbies.
Although I had half-assed everything in 『World Archive』, there was one piece of content I had cleared perfectly, all the way to the endgame.
It was the 『Dungeon Clearing』 content—the one thing I was more confident in than anyone else.
“If that is your will, my lord, we will follow you.”
“That’s right! It is for justice, so of course we will follow you, my lord!”
Noah and Azel voiced their enthusiastic agreement, and everyone else accepted and supported my decision as well.
Sharen looked at me with the most moved expression of all.
Because I had a cheat code for dungeon clearing and had stepped forward so confidently, I honestly felt a little embarrassed.
In any case, Kron decided to cooperate in managing the dungeon in the Argon Plains.
* * *
Meanwhile, the Red Magic Tower was waging a war in the Argon Plains.
Every day, goblins and orcs poured out of the dungeon, while its influence on the surrounding forests caused beast-type monsters such as half-moon wolves to grow ferocious and run wild.
Even with fifty skilled mages from the Red Magic Tower present, they could only handle so much with the manpower available.
So they had been requesting assistance from the surrounding lords, but the only responses they received were letters of refusal.
“Those damned bastards rejected us again!”
Bang-!
At the Red Magic Tower’s camp, the Tower Master smashed her second dining table.
Red Magic Tower Master 『Raer Sialenis』
She was an elven mage who had become the Tower Master at the relatively young age of 311.
She was a pure-blooded elf, so she had platinum-blond hair and looked like a beautiful young woman in her twenties.
But that was merely her appearance.
In truth, she was a seasoned Tower Master known as the Contractor of Fire and the Queen of the Red Magic Tower, and some of her disciples feared her as 『the Flame Hag』.
Needless to say, anyone who called her 『the Flame Hag』 to her face had to be prepared to spend a week in solitary confinement.
She smoked tobacco from the North and made no attempt to hide her irritation.
She could not help but be furious.
She had already experienced lords refusing to cooperate with dungeon management many times.
But this was truly the first time they had refused to cooperate at all.
The nearest territories had announced that they would make do by sending money and food, while those farther away avoided responsibility by saying it was not their problem.
At least House Silla had sent a few soldiers, but a mere fifty men could do little more than put up a fence.
They were probably saving their soldiers for the upcoming Game of Thrones or whatever it was, but from her perspective, it was all utterly pointless.
They weren’t going to live for a hundred or a thousand years, yet they were making their fellow people tremble before death for the sake of a few decades of power. As an elf, she could not understand it at all.
If not for her duty as Tower Master, she felt that she would have quit it all herself.
While she was agonizing over how to manage the dungeon, one of her disciples entered.
“Master! A reply has arrived from Lord Kron!”
“So what is that bastard sending us? Food? Money? Or is he just telling us to deal with it ourselves?”
She knew a little about the Lord of Kron.
She was interested because Sharen, her favorite disciple, had become the family’s exclusive mage.
Judging from the songs of the minstrels, he seemed to be a lord greatly loved by the common people, but to Raer, he was ultimately just another lord.
Over the past 300 years, countless lords had been born and died.
Had there never been a young reformist lord like him among them?
There had been a few, but all of them had ultimately disappointed her by proving that they acted for their own popularity and power.
Just as she was expecting nothing, her disciple Zik answered.
“Kron says they will send a total of 1,000, including soldiers and knights.”
“What! A thousand!?”
A thousand was the maximum number of soldiers expected to be needed for managing the dungeon this time.
The fact that one house would send that many at once left her no choice but to be astonished.
“And since dungeon management is important, Lord Calix says he will come himself.”
“He’s coming in person!?”
Hearing that the lord himself would come in addition to sending soldiers, she was more astonished than at any other point in her 300-year life.
Could her disciple have chosen a good lord?
As she thought this, her impression of Kron improved slightly.