Chapter 102
Day 6 of the dungeon conquest.
The Count transports the fuel canisters he gathered to the south.
All of them were collected from the western forest and the northern river.
By sight, the amount was considerable.
It was just a hunch, but it should be enough even if he didn't go through the eastern forest.
The party had been wiped out.
Only the Count remained.
Meanwhile, the monsters had only increased.
He needed to act carefully and cautiously.
Naturally, this was no situation in which he could afford to speed up.
There was no time, but he had only one life.
Therefore, he only had one chance.
The Count did not grow hasty.
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Day 7 of the dungeon conquest.
South, abandoned power plant.
The Count spent an entire day finishing the fuel haul.
Now all that remained was to operate the generator.
He felt like he could somehow manage this part.
However.
A fundamental problem remained.
'It'll definitely make a noise.'
Everything inevitably makes a sound.
And tools are no exception.
Look at a pen; when you write with that tiny thing, don't you hear a sound like scraping stone?
Magical tools are the same.
And that incomprehensible contraption called a generator is no different.
The larger a tool is, the louder it tends to be.
The generator was the largest device in this place.
It would surely make noise when it ran.
Of course, that did not necessarily mean the monsters would react to the generator's noise without fail.
For example, if the monsters did not recognize the generator's noise as 'the sound made by prey,' then it would be fine.
If they dismissed it as nothing more than the sound of a river flowing, rain falling, or grass swaying in the wind, then this problem could be brushed aside easily.
The same would be true if there were no monsters nearby.
It was only an assumption, but the only sound they heard abnormally well was the human voice.
However, this village was by no means kind to the Count.
The Count had already been through far too much to think that optimistically.
The monsters had already multiplied as much as they possibly could.
There were already no small number of monsters in the south.
"……."
Therefore, the best thing the Count could do here was to artificially create a huge noise capable of covering the generator's sound.
If he could do something like the 'Soul Explosion' the black mage had shown him before, all the troublesome parts could be solved at once.
The Count thought.
He could use aura like a knight, but he did not know how to use complex magic.
Wasn't there some way?
'Ah. Right. What happened to that?'
The Count moved his feet.
The place his steps led him to was the one with the scorch marks.
'It was still there after all.'
The black mage's magic circle was drawn here.
At the time, under the pretense of insurance, the bastard had performed a black magic ritual here.
That had saved the Count's life once.
Could he somehow use this?
The magic circle was still glowing faintly.
For verification, it seemed to be of the same type as the persistent magic that Laurencia had claimed to have installed in Dreamland.
'He swung his arm widely when casting magic.'
That may have been a signal to the party to move quickly.
Though it could have been a direct signal.
Or maybe it was the activation trigger.
'But the body must be in the dangerous eastern forest… ah.'
He should avoid approaching the eastern forest if at all possible.
It was a danger zone where the alarm sound that killed the knight and the trap that killed the black mage were lying in wait.
But.
He thought the black mage's corpse might not necessarily be in the eastern forest.
'The PTSD knight died in the eastern forest, but the black mage said the knight's body wasn't in the eastern forest.'
The reason was simple.
He had said the monster's endlessly growing tentacles dragged him toward the monster side.
Of course, there had never been a sound as huge as the alarm.
It was certain that the corpse was somewhere around the eastern forest.
After all, his destination had been the eastern forest.
And he might not have died in the eastern forest itself.
It was also possible he had been discovered and killed by a monster on the way to his destination.
They said those things only ate the head.
The body should be intact.
At the time the black mage died.
There were also far fewer monsters than there were now.
It was well worth a try.
The Count moved forward.
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The Count usually thought of himself as unlucky.
But.
Inside this dungeon, luck was on his side.
Silent Village was vast.
The thick fog obstructed his vision.
Corpses didn't trigger detection magic.
Nor could he pinpoint the black mage's corpse with any precision.
So how could he possibly find it alone?
He wasn't an expert himself, so honestly the odds were slim.
Just as he was considering another method in his mind.
Luckily, a head-eaten corpse appeared right in front of him.
There were no traps nearby.
Whether it was just a simple mistake, or there was a trap beyond that made a noise smaller than the alarm but still loud, he didn't know.
Well, it didn't matter now.
After a brief moment of mourning, the Count hoisted the black mage's corpse onto his back.
"……."
He passed a yellow sign reading 'High Voltage Caution' and entered the power plant, avoiding the monsters' ears.
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"……."
There were monsters inside the power plant too.
However, there were only one or two of them, and they were far from the center where the generator was located.
The Count moved his legs slowly, very slowly.
He reached the center where the generator was located.
The Count carefully laid the black mage's corpse down.
Then he unfolded the blueprint.
'Open the fuel inlet and fill it with enough fuel. Then close it, turn the valve to ON, and move the lever to the closed position.'
He looked back and forth between the village headman's explanation he had written down in his journal and the blueprint.
It was truly unfamiliar and complicated, but.
'I have to do this.'
He moved his hands.
His skill was so clumsy it would be embarrassing to show anyone.
One by one, step by step, he began carrying it out in order.
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All that remained now was to turn on the switch.
He hoped it would go well.
Before that, the Count lifted the black mage's corpse.
And made its arm swing violently.
Then.
An explosion sounded from the entrance.
It sounded almost like fireworks.
Additional noise followed.
It must have been the striking sounds made by the monsters' tentacles.
Fortunately, the explosion at the entrance didn't seem like it would continue for long.
The tentacles of the monsters around here were also busily at work, so the noise problem was solved.
The generator starts up.
The generator's noise was naturally drowned out by those sounds.
Lights came on in the silent ruins.
Light spread sequentially along the ceiling.
Things buried in the darkness began to reveal themselves one by one.
The Count moved carefully.
At the place he arrived, there was an elevator with its indicator panel lit up.
He pressed the button.
Then the numbers began to change.
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「10」
「9」
「8」
At last, the door leading to the next area opened.
The situation was desperate.
Even so, the Count's expression remained exactly the same as before.
From the moment he pressed the button, his gaze had remained fixed on the indicator panel.
And.
That was his complacency, and his mistake.
Step, step.
Step, step.
Amid the massive noise, clear footsteps could be heard.
The Count instinctively turned his gaze.
There was a monster standing there.
It was different from the others.
It didn't even care about the noise coming from the entrance.
It looked around, as if certain there was prey here.
Ah, all too familiar.
It was the one that had killed the half ogre.
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「7」
「6」
「5」
The Count remembered.
The voice the elevator made when it opened.
"……."
Surely, a mechanical voice would say, 'The door is opening.'
If that happened, the tentacles would fly toward the elevator.
「4」
Could he move now?
What if the sound of moving reached it?
Wouldn't the noise outside somehow take care of it?
But why isn't it reacting to that sound right now?
Maybe it wouldn't react to the elevator sound either?
But what if it does react?
「3」
Time flows slowly.
His thoughts spun quickly, but no conclusion came.
Only one answer remained.
What should he do?
「2」
The ending played out in the Count's mind.
He recalled the fates of the intruders who had entered Dreamland until now.
They had all died.
So it wouldn't be strange for me to die either.
Death really is frightening.
My death, and my daughter's death too.
「1」
The elevator arrived.
Just as despair began to color the Count's eyes.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A sound came from somewhere.
The Count's pupils widened.
Anemone was there.
She was pounding the wall as hard as she could with her tiny, fern-like fist.
'No…. '
At that moment, the monster's gaze turned.
As many as thirty tentacles moved at once.
Thud, thud, thud.
They mercilessly pierced Anemone.
Even so, right up until the moment she was dying.
She kept pointing at the elevator with her fingertips.
The door opens.
That sound was buried.
It was the final chance created by his dead wife.
It was the Count's job to make use of it.
He moved his legs.
He desperately got inside the elevator.
"……."
As he hurriedly pressed the button, the doors began to close.
Through that narrowing gap, the Count saw many things.
The monster was flustered.
As if to say this wasn't right, it touched its face split like a button mushroom.
Anemone smiled.
It looked like she wanted to say something with her lips, but.
「The door is closing.」
But it was soon cut off.
The Count could tell.
Because it was what she used to say to me every day when she was alive.
"Me too…."
The Count muttered emptily.
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At last, he could make a sound.
This place was a safe zone.
Because he was inside the belly of a monster phenomenon.
No other monster phenomenon could interfere.
"Aaa…."
He did not feel good.
It felt like his insides were burning and his head was going bad.
"Aaa, aaa…."
The Count clutched his head.
He knelt and let out a lament.
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Inside the elevator.
Now the Count had two choices left.
Use the escape scroll in his arms.
Or press on alone.
"……."
This had already been decided.
Maybe from the moment he first set foot in Dreamland.
But it was also such a serious issue that he had agonized over it numerous times along the way.
"I…."
After agonizing, he finally entered the password.
What ultimately made up his mind was the final written exchange with the noble killer.
-This is a Venus flytrap.
-A Venus flytrap that gives off a sweet scent to flies like us, who have desires... lures them in... and then devours them in one bite.
No.
That was wrong.
What stirred their desires was me.
Not the dungeon, but this Count of Wolfhausen.
My desire is the Venus flytrap that devours them.
It might be the sweet pheromone that lures them into the dungeon.
The black mage, the half ogre, the PTSD knight, the noble killer, Anemone, the hundreds of soldiers, the knights— I led them all to death.
So, betraying others is enough already.
If I truly wanted to save Ai, that was what I had to do.
If you want something, you have to obtain it yourself.
The Count discarded the escape scroll.
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Day 8 of the dungeon conquest.
The Count arrived at Area 1.
He pressed on without yielding to the dizzying maze.
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Day 10 of the dungeon conquest.
While conquering the maze, the Count encountered a Copycat.
He did not draw his sword.
Instead, he chose to talk.
"I won't fight you. Whether we fight or you stab me in the back while I sleep, the end is the same anyway, so judge and choose for yourself."
The Copycat nodded.
"All right. In that case, why don't we build a cooperative relationship, just for the sake of it?"
And so they became companions.
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Day 11 of the dungeon conquest.
"The maze is moving—what are we supposed to do about this?"
"Calm down. There must be a way forward."
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Day 14 of the dungeon conquest.
"Come over here. I found something that looks like a mouth. It might be the clue to moving forward."
"Let's talk about the hypotheses that come to mind first. And water has started rising from the floor. We'd better hurry."
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Day 15 of the dungeon conquest.
"That was close. I never expected it to have such a big appetite. Is your right arm okay?"
The Copycat nodded.
"I'm really glad you're here. When I suggested we cut off an arm and split the burden, you agreed so readily, and I really…."
"You might be the real one, and I might be the real one. Well, that's how it is."
The one-armed men walk through the maze.
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Day 16 of the dungeon conquest.
"The elevator's coming up soon."
"I wish you luck. Achieve your goal, no matter what."
"Yeah. Whoever it is."
As the Count entered the elevator, the Copycat disappeared.
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Day 17 of the dungeon conquest.
The Count arrived at Area 2.
If he conquered this place, only two areas would remain.
As the journal had said, the discipline committee president greeted him.
"You can't bring such dangerous things to school… no, even such trivial items would be a problem."
"Take them."
He didn't really have anything that could be called belongings anyway.
If anything, it was just food and water.
And even that was running low.
He had no regrets.
"After school, go to the teachers' office yourself…"
The Count moved on.
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"About this problem, you see."
"Teacher, I'm truly sorry, but… even though I'm concentrating hard, I just can't seem to understand it. Could you perhaps explain it a little more clearly?"
"Hmm, all right. Listen carefully from here on."
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Day 18 of the dungeon conquest.
He found the teachers' office.
The Count reclaimed the remaining food and water.
And ate it all right there.
He took the empty water bottle and headed to the bathroom.
Then he filled it with water.
With that, the thirst problem was completely solved.
Food couldn't be helped, but hunger was still within the realm of endurance.
As soon as they saw the water bottle, the guys wearing yellow armbands rushed at the Count.
But like darkness spreading through the hallway, they couldn't enter the classroom.
I can do it.
So let's not give up.
The Count repeated to himself.
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Day 21 of the dungeon conquest.
"Hey…."
"Yeah."
The Count encountered an ordinary girl.
She spoke to him, and the Count nodded.
"Don't you think this school is unbelievably strange…?"
"Yeah."
This girl had a face.
So he decided to think about it the other way around.
"I know how to get out… but I'm scared to go alone, so could you come with me?"
"Sure."
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Day 23 of the dungeon conquest.
He arrived in front of the elevator.
The girl smiled and bowed her head.
"Thank you for helping me."
"...Likewise."
The Count also bowed his head.
They exchanged farewell words.
"Let's meet outside of school."
"...Though I doubt that will happen,"
The Count walked toward the elevator.
Two areas remained ahead.
His condition was the worst.
And yet his mind and senses were sharper than ever.
There seemed to be a strange glint in the Count's eyes.
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Day 24 of the dungeon conquest.
The Count arrived at Area 4.
This time, a massive cave came into view.
A place that did not exist in the guidebook.
"……."
The Count had his belongings extorted by a merchant, just like the dwarves who had arrived here before.
She brazenly appeared once again and sold him back his own things.
【I'm selling water. That's something you need, right?】
"How much is it?"
【It's four teeth.】
"I'll buy it later."
The Count spotted a goblin wearing dwarf clothes, eating fairly ordinary food.
That peculiar goblin stared straight at me, and since I couldn't figure out its intention, it was rather troubling.
Anyway, maybe he could get food or water in there at least, just like at the school.
That was the Count's thought.
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A miniature camera captured all of those moments.
***
The wave is still ongoing.
However, the live broadcast has ended.
Because, for the veterans, the Count was recorded as having died at the school.
The veterans' reactions were varied.
After all, we had been watching the Count's story for quite a long time.
There were even those who pitied him.
Others were even relieved, saying he died well.
Interest, disgust, mourning, anticipation, and more—the Count had given us so many emotions.
But.
The veterans all reached the same conclusion.
I'm glad no information leaked in this wave.
I'm glad the dangerous intruder died.
"……."
Fear is contagious.
It is a dungeon even the Count of Wolfhausen cannot clear.
The greater Dreamland's infamy grows, the better.
Of course, not as a top-priority target for elimination.
Rather, in the sense that it's an obnoxious minefield to conquer.
In that sense, this wave can be considered quite a success.
Of course, it's not over until it's over.
Every time he was about to die, the Count showed ingenuity.
He escaped the abyss of despair and stubbornly pressed forward.
Suddenly, a line from a novel he'd read long ago came to mind.
Momentum had taken hold, and heavenly fortune was following him.
He was an impressive person.
Give credit where credit is due.
It was a realm no ordinary person could ever reach.
Overcoming the fear of death was not an easy thing.
It was truly strange how he never knew how to give up and kept moving forward.
Shibgan Love Dog(◑) : Newbieyama...
Shibgan Love Dog(◑) : You haven't been saying anything in the gallery lately...
Shibgan Love Dog(◑) : The live run really ended safely, right...?
Still.
I can't die for you.
You cherish your daughter.
And everyone has at least one such existence.
I also cherish the people around me, and my own life.
So if you keep choosing to push ahead, that's unfortunate.
"Malrang, I'll be back."
"Eek."
Our win rate was 100%; the calculations were already done.
The Count was hungry, exhausted, and thirsty.
His right arm had been cut off and was gone, he'd been beaten by goblins, and without healing potions he was a total wreck.
No matter how knight-class the Count was.
In that state, there was no way he could exert proper strength.
This wave was the longest wave in my dungeon.
The time had come to bring things to a close.
***
Day 30 of the dungeon conquest.
Dreamland Area 3.
Ghost Mansion, Garden Entrance.
The Count had finally reached the last area.
The goblinization that had advanced quite far vanished in an instant.
However.
He could not move forward.
Before him stood the Dungeon Master.
He blocked the way.
"Pleased to meet you."
He greeted him.
The Count also blinked and opened his mouth.
"Are you the master of this dungeon?"
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"Give up now."
"……."
There was no chance of winning.
The Count was a mess.
He could easily deal with an injured man like that.
The Dungeon Master said as much.
He was curious why.
Why had the Dungeon Master chosen conversation with the intruder, and why had he taken out an escape scroll instead of a dagger?
And then he said:
"Throw the journal you wrote at me. Then I'll help you get out."
"……."
Right.
This was the final ultimatum.
"Ah…."
The Dungeon Master stared at the Count.
He was persuading him at the exact same eye level as the Count.
The Count realized it at that moment.
-An invasion, a calamity, a curse, a symbol of chaos that defies order. Will you not subjugate the Seed of the Demon King…….
You aren't such a grand existence as the words of the Blessed One make you out to be.
You just have special power compared to others.
You're simply a person just like me.
"……."
What your eyes are reflecting is clearly pity.
Because that's what it means when the Dungeon Master gives an intruder an escape scroll.
You also dragged me into this situation.
The Venus flytrap wasn't Dreamland; it was me.
"I'm sorry, Dungeon Master."
Even so, the Count couldn't stop.
Because he had walked too many roads already.
They say a Venus flytrap spends a great deal of energy opening and closing its mouth.
To replenish the energy it expends, it has to absorb bugs somehow.
"It seems I just can't stop."
A mana stone was before his eyes.
If he killed that person, he could obtain it.
The Count had to collect his reward.
To fulfill my insignificant, ugly desire, I'll gladly become a serial killer.
"Rather, I see this as an opportunity."
"...I see."
The Count drew his sword one-handed.
"……."
The Dungeon Master also gripped a knife.
"What a pity."
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The outcome was a predetermined fight.
At first, the Count drove the Dungeon Master back.
But.
But as the exhausted Count, unable even to use aura, went on, he completely lost the initiative.
The Count's sword moved fiercely, but the Dungeon Master was no beginner either.
It felt as though he'd learned dagger techniques from someone smaller than himself.
There are things you can convey without words.
Through this battle, they felt many things about each other.
The Dungeon Master's knife reflected the moonlight.
At that moment, a flash of movement slipped into the Count's opening.
"Kehuk…."
The sharp dagger pierced his heart.
The victor had been decided.
The Count coughed up blood and knelt.
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Silence fell.
It was over.
"...Any last words?"
The Dungeon Master asked, looking down at the Count.
The Count, almost unconscious, muttered in a tiny voice.
It was long if you thought it long, and short if you thought it short.
The wind blew.
The branches of the plants swayed, and a single leaf fell to the ground.
A final whisper.
The Dungeon Master gently closed his eyes.
"...I understand."
He nodded, as if he understood.
Then.
There was no one there.
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Wolfhausen County.
In place of the Count of Wolfhausen, who had disappeared without a word, Beluga was handling the affairs of the domain as acting head of the house.
She was also handling Ai's matter, and time school magicians were currently visiting the county.
They said they had a project currently under experiment, and asked whether they could use Ai as its subject.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been something they'd have no defense against being hauled off for on charges of insult.
But.
Their project was not bad for Ai—no, it might even have been something she desperately needed.
"So, you're saying you want to turn Ai into an unconscious vegetative state?"
"More precisely, we're preserving her."
What they claimed was as follows.
Ai was in critical condition, unable to escape death.
As things stood, unless they could get a mana stone.
It was impossible to overcome it.
But the future might be different.
Medical technology might advance by then, and Wolfhausen County might acquire a mana stone.
The project they were conducting was part of a life-extending experiment inspired by a bear's winter hibernation.
They would slow Ai's metabolism to the extreme and put her into a continuous coma. If they did that, the progression of the disease could also be dramatically delayed.
If Ai could not be saved right now.
Then they would save Ai in a future farther away than the present.
That was the nature of the experiment.
"……."
The experiment's success rate was about 3 percent.
No matter how long you wait, your big brother won't come back.
'Is this the best we can do?'
Beluga eventually accepted their proposal.
Because it was both an opportunity and a miracle.
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For a child spending every day in pain, the only pleasure was looking outside.
Ai woke from her sleep.
It was fortunate that the pain was less today.
In the dead of night, when everyone else was asleep, she looked out the window.
Soon, she would leave Wolfhausen County.
And go to the mage tower of the Time School and fall into a long sleep.
She wanted to breathe the air here one last time.
So she struggled to open the window.
"It's cold, but refreshing."
A cool wind blew.
At the same time as the winter tree leaves, something drifted into Ai's room.
What danced lightly in the air was paper as white as snow.
There was writing on the paper.
It was a letter from someone to Ai.
"Do people usually send letters like this? Did the magicians send it?"
Ai read it.
Then her eyes widened.
"……."
Apparently, her father was too busy.
It seemed a friend of her father had written it and sent it instead.
The letter was filled with hopeful words.
It was full of updates on her father, who was working hard, and messages of encouragement to fight the illness.
She was truly grateful, even though she didn't know who it was.
"I wanted to see him before I left."
It couldn't be helped. Her father was busy searching for a way to cure Ai's illness right now.
Someday her father would cure her, so she should wait without worrying.
Ai decided to understand her father.
She smiled faintly.
It resembled the Count a little more than Anemone did.
「He says to tell you he loves you.」
Ai carefully hugged the letter.
"Me too."