Chapter 54
As time passed, guests began arriving one by one.
They were the elite fighters who had made it through the rough dungeon and reached the end of the first floor.
Fortunately, most of them agreed to hand their markers over to us.
Sometimes, some stubbornly insisted they couldn't accept us.
As our numbers grew, our coordination with each party improved, and we cleared monsters faster.
There were even a few Wolpi among them, but surprisingly, they followed my every word.
“Big brother! We’ve cleared the eastern sector!”
“Good work. Please install this beacon at the marked location.”
“Understood!”
I suppose Wolpi really are governed by the law of strength.
It was simply surprising how readily they listened.
However, I made absolutely sure they and Aris never came into contact.
They might seem to have given up on Aris, but her condition wasn't normal right now.
She was about to enter her regular heat, so she wasn't in good shape.
There was no need to excite them again and make things worse.
Just in case, I had even prepared magic to block her scent.
Since I had warned Aris as well, she came to me after they left.
“Master! I brought back the marker.”
“Well done. Let's go install this beacon.”
“Yes, Master.”
The wolf girl followed me, wagging her tail.
Her flushed face made her look happy.
In fact, Aris's condition had improved considerably.
The red miasma had aroused her, but she had calmed down after intercourse.
In crude terms, it felt as though a single semen injection had cured her.
It seemed best to keep her from getting aroused whenever possible.
But Aris couldn't help getting excited when a battle broke out.
Since I couldn't just penetrate her every time, I tried not to assign her combat duties as much as possible.
“This should do for the installation.”
“Understood.”
She threw the dagger precisely to the spot I indicated and installed it.
On our way back, I noticed a new guest approaching.
“Let's go collect the marker.”
“Yes, Master!”
As we walked side by side, I glanced at her, and our eyes met as expected.
This had happened before.
She deliberately met my gaze.
It was a cute reason: she wanted to become closer to me.
It also meant there was still that much distance between us.
That girl had once told me, ‘I like you.’
This time, too, she had said it while intoxicated by arousal…but she had been somewhat lucid.
Hearing those words had made my heart pound, and I was overjoyed.
I liked Aris too. I liked her as a woman, not as a slave.
The thought that someone so lovable and adorable liked me….
Even thinking about it again made me feel proud and happy.
But part of me also wondered, ‘Was it real?’
I was the master who had bought her with money, and she was a slave.
I treated her as well as I could and cherished her, but still….
Could she truly say that she liked me ‘as a man’?
Even so, the option of simply ‘freeing her from slavery’ for her sake frightened me.
I couldn't let her go.
What if, once she was free, she left me?
I didn't even want to imagine it. It was something that must never happen.
It was a terribly wicked and selfish mindset, but I didn't want to let her go.
“Master. It looks like the guests will be arriving soon.”
“Yeah, got it.”
Aris was a beautiful and wonderful woman.
That was why, whenever I looked around, I saw no shortage of people trying to take her away.
If she were freed and left me, countless men would immediately approach her.
That wasn't all.
What if someone stronger than me appeared, even if I didn't free her?
As a Wolpi who followed strong males, she might leave me for someone stronger.
My strength. I had no doubt it surpassed anyone else's.
But anxiety always took root in my heart.
Not with strength, but with my heart.
I wanted Aris to be wholly mine as a woman.
It wouldn't be right to exploit the Wolpi's nature—their species' inclination to enjoy mating.
What mattered was the pure heart Aris possessed.
I wanted her to like me as a woman, not as a female.
“Is this finally the boss room? The magic is certainly unusual.”
“Wait, it seems there are guiding markers….”
“What? Has the vanguard party already arrived?”
Noisy voices could be heard from the far end of the corridor.
They were quite late, since not only the vanguard but six other parties had already arrived.
The seventh party followed the guiding markers into the boss waiting room.
Judging by the fact that there were only three of them, they must have been quite skilled.
A mage, a swordsman, and a cleric.
They were an extremely standard elite party.
“Greetings. Welcome.”
Aris and I spoke to them in front of the entrance.
They looked at us warily.
It was a perfectly natural reaction, but I deliberately let magic flow through the guiding marker.
This should have told them that I was the vanguard party's mage.
“What the hell? How did you know we were about to arrive?”
“Hmm… Did you put detection magic on the marker?”
“That's a little creepy, then. Ugh, disgusting….”
This bunch was rather fussy.
Their attitude made it obvious that they hated the vanguard.
“Grrrrr… I only came because your awful stench wafted over here.”
Aris said angrily, and I put an arm around her shoulder as I said,
“I'm sorry if we made you uncomfortable. If you come this way….”
I tried to placate them and guide them to the safe area.
“Look at you, putting on airs.”
“So you're the vanguard party? Are you after our markers?”
To put it bluntly, yes.
I was trying to treat them courteously so they would hand over their markers.
“Yes, that's right. As the vanguard party, we'd appreciate it if you handed over your markers.”
But they frowned.
“There's a great deal of monster miasma filling this room, though.”
“Indeed. Shouldn't the vanguard clear out all the monsters, as befits the vanguard?”
“What a joke… Hmph.”
They were rude to the core, but their instincts were sharp, as befitted a small elite party.
I did want to deal with the red monster near the center of the waiting room.
But since Aris was being affected by it, I intended to approach it cautiously.
If we dealt with as many nearby lesser monsters as possible before approaching, Aris would be all right too.
“We'll clear the waiting room in one go. Then hand over every marker you have.”
The swordsman drew his sword, pointed it at me, and said so.
The mage followed by tapping his own head with his index finger.
“It's a simple rule, so I see no reason for you to object. Assuming you can think.”
I caught Aris by the shoulder to stop her from moving.
“No. It's dangerous.”
To be honest, these three couldn't clear the area.
The red monster in the center, in particular, would certainly defeat them.
“Tch, dangerous? Are you crazy? Do you even know who we are, calling this dangerous?”
“That's right! That's right! You’re acting high and mighty just because you’re a little handsome and have a woman tucked under your arm. It's pathetic!”
The woman who appeared to be the cleric suddenly said that.
Come to think of it, I had been holding Aris tightly by the shoulder.
“Ah, I'm sorry, everyone.”
It had been so natural that I had forgotten I was doing it.
I let go of Aris, and she looked at me with disappointment.
“Seeing you behave like that even in a dungeon tells me what kind of person you are, Mr. Mage.”
A middle-aged mage about as tall as Aris.
The magic he emitted, apparently to show off, was quite substantial, so he wasn't bad.
They refused my guidance and entered the waiting room.
“Every room has its own boss. Whoever defeats it is the vanguard.”
“We'll deal with it, so wait here.”
The middle-aged mage cast a scanning spell to check the monsters in the waiting room.
To help him, I slightly lowered the magical barrier maintained by the beacons.
Judging by the area he scanned, he seemed to have seen part of a nearby goblin settlement.
“Hmm, what's this…?”
The mage's expression stiffened slightly.
Then he asked me,
“What did you just do?”
“I drew back the curtain around the safe area. What do you think? Can you handle them?”
In response to my question, the mage scowled and spoke to the swordsman.
“Hey, Robolta. The monsters here….”
“What? I-is that really true? But….”
They huddled together and conferred in low voices before speaking to me.
“Well, this scale is manageable. So? Are you willing to stake your qualification as the vanguard party?”
At the swordsman's words, I shook my head.
“Senior? Please scan the area around the center over there. The boss of this waiting room is….”
Since the mage was much older than me, I deliberately showed him respect.
But he clicked his tongue, waved a hand dismissively, and said,
“Tch, you're annoying. Do you know how much mana scanning spells consume? It's easy to estimate the average just by knowing the nearby monsters. How did you even get this far without a skill like that….”
It was true that scanning was a fairly tricky spell.
But if he gathered information this carelessly, it would be worse than not gathering any at all.
“You people…don't ignore my Master’s advice.”
Aris growled at them.
But they had ignored me too, so there was no way they would listen to her.
“What a cute puppy. She looks so fuckable… Anyway, just watch.”
“Keep those markers safe! We’ll come back for them!”
“Me~roooong!”
They walked inside with brazen confidence.
“It wouldn't be a problem if those guys were the only ones who died…but that won't happen.”
“What should we do, Master? Shall we go over there and beat them to a pulp?”
“No. We can't start trouble ourselves as the vanguard party.”
To be honest, I didn't care one bit whether they lived or died.
We could retrieve the markers later.
But if the red monster went on a rampage, it would put Aris in a difficult spot….
“That would cause a commotion among the other parties, so let's go warn them to prepare.”
“Yes, Master!”
If even all the other parties were wiped out, that would be troublesome.
We had to avoid anyone misunderstanding that we'd killed every member of the advance party and seized the vanguard position.