Chapter 30
Restia, the shabby constable of the South Kingdom.
She had called herself that, and she wished everyone else would keep calling her that too from now on, but...
"Section Chief Restia. What's the most efficient way to fight a black mage?"
"Could you please tell us what happened when you took down the manticore?"
How should I put this.
Ever since she survived the Rowjinrat Great Mountain Range, the way people around her looked at her had changed 180 degrees.
She had her feat of subjugating the manticore acknowledged by her superiors.
And as a reward, she was promoted to the youngest-ever chief of Section 3.
'Fuck... I don't know....'
Restia felt wronged.
I didn't catch the manticore.
It was Dreamland's Dungeon Master who did.
She had only been given the old manticore's gold necklace as a gift.
Of course, she'd lied to Sinclair and said she'd subjugated the manticore.
But that was only to repay Dreamland's Dungeon Master.
No matter how much of a Dungeon Master he was.
He was the one who'd saved her life, so she couldn't stab him in the back.
'A-and he even showed me himself that he could go outside....'
To be honest, he felt like someone who would come calling at night with terrifying things in tow.
Being scared had played a part in it too.
Anyway, after that.
Restia's dream of living the cushy civil servant life was shattered to pieces.
As the chief of Section 3, she often had to carry out dangerous work.
To avoid dying on missions, she cut back on sleep and worked tirelessly.
Restia actually had talent and a feel for things.
She'd just never awakened it because she'd been loafing around all this time.
She learned magic too, and in hand-to-hand combat she became one of the strongest among the constables.
She was probably several times stronger than she'd been back then.
So she was praised by her superiors,
and respected by her subordinates, and her exhausting days went on.
"A Marked Elf surrendered?"
"Yes. Her name is Lilia, and she said she'd give us information about the Forest of Life, so please let me live in prison forever... help me be reborn as a new elf... that's what she kept saying."
Lilia.
When she looked through the related documents, all she'd done until now were petty crimes.
She wasn't a villain, but she wasn't that heinous a criminal either.
Marked Elves basically had murder as their baseline offense.
An extremely rare case.
"And she also mentioned some dungeon's name. Dreamland, was it...."
"I-I-I-I-I'll meet with her personally!"
The constable looked at Restia as if she were strange.
"Ahem. I mean, when I talk to her, I get this feeling that I could get useful, high-quality information."
"Ah, I see. Understood, Section Chief. This case was being handled by Section 5, but I'll ask them to hand it over to us."
Restia let out a small sigh.
Since her reputation was usually good, the chief of Section 5 smiled with satisfaction
and was inclined to pass the case to Restia because she worked hard.
The handover was completed quickly.
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.
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Restia ended up meeting Lilia through the bars.
She wasn't the type to go looking for work under normal circumstances, but
once she'd heard a name she couldn't ignore, there was nothing for it.
"I'll ask again about why you chose to surrender. So, you discovered a dungeon called Dreamland, entered it with the Marked Elves, found it to be such a terrifying place that you took the Dungeon Master's help, secretly stole the escape scroll from the Marked Elf expedition leader named Tir, and came out of the dungeon alone. Then, fearing retaliation, you're trying to surrender to the kingdom. Is that right?"
Lilia nodded vigorously.
If it had been another constable, they'd have slapped her across the face and told her not to spout such fucking bullshit.
But for Restia, who knew Dreamland and the Dungeon Master's nature,
it wasn't something she could simply dismiss.
"I'm not actually that high-ranking, but I'm good at buttering people up, so I know some useful information. If you put me in prison instead of executing me, I'll spill everything, I swear. Please, I'm begging you...."
Restia thought for a moment.
Then she nodded and said this.
"However, there is a condition."
"Uh, what kind of condition...?"
It was obvious.
She'd keep quiet about the dungeon for now.
***
'Honestly, I wonder if I really need to go this far....'
By returning to the kingdom with Sinclair, she'd repaid the favor.
To dismiss it with that would ignore the huge kindness she'd received in the Rowjinrat Great Mountain Range.
Repay the kindness you receive.
That's a basic principle of being human.
What could she do to repay it?
The more she thought about it, the more she felt the best thing she could do was keep the dungeon's true nature hidden.
The South Kingdom's atmosphere was bad right now.
For a long time, corrupt officials had swarmed everywhere,
and the royal family was weak too, constantly watching the faces of the powerful, so public sentiment was poor.
Ever since that incident the other day when a commoner beat a noble to death,
the people's dissatisfaction had started to be expressed more and more openly.
In plain terms, the South Kingdom had sensed that it was royally screwed.
While they were worrying about how to deal with it,
they settled on a fallback plan to use the army to subjugate the Marked Elves and soothe the people.
Up to now, the Marked Elves had been deeply entangled with the South Kingdom's underworld.
They had committed many crimes, and the common people had suffered greatly at their hands.
If they beat those great evils to death,
the higher-ups probably thought the people's rage would calm down for a while.
'If Lilia's words are true... then if the dungeon is discovered during the army's subjugation, the Dungeon Master could be in huge trouble, right?'
At present, a Blessed named Sinclair was staying in the South Kingdom.
He was a dungeon conqueror.
If the dungeon's existence became known, it would surely cause annoying trouble for the Dungeon Master.
There probably wasn't much a mere constable could do,
but she could at least pass along the information.
Restia headed alone for the Forest of Life.
Quietly, so the Marked Elves wouldn't notice her.
.
.
.
"Huh...?"
The forest was quiet.
As she entered the outer edge and drew closer to the center,
she kept watch on her surroundings, stayed on guard, and even used detection magic,
but not a single Marked Elf was in sight.
What on earth was going on?
The Forest of Life was known for having tight security,
'There aren't even any magical traps. Did I somehow get lost?'
A little later.
An astonishing scene unfolded before her eyes.
At the center of the Forest of Life,
there wasn't even a shadow of an elf at the Marked Elf headquarters.
'I heard they'd learned the kingdom was preparing to subjugate them... and were getting ready to flee, but this quickly?'
Restia blinked.
Then, as she stepped inside the headquarters,
"Oh, fuck, you startled me!!"
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
Before her eyes,
holding a clean knife,
was the Dungeon Master, looking extremely flustered.
And around him,
there were quite a few Marked Elf corpses.
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.
.
"So we meet again here. I said we shouldn't see each other again."
"R-r-r-r-right...."
"Don't misunderstand me, but I didn't kill them. They were already dead when I got here."
"Saying that, though, there's been no decomposition at all...."
"Then I guess they died ten minutes before I arrived."
What kind of conversation from another world was this?
Still, the Dungeon Master's words didn't sound like a lie.
From what she knew as a constable,
the wounds on the corpses suggested the Marked Elves had died while fighting each other.
And there wasn't a single trace of blood on the Dungeon Master either.
"What brings you here? I thought the Forest of Life was a no-go area where those foul-tempered elves live."
"I came to bring you some information, Dungeon Master...."
Restia explained the full story.
Lilia's surrender.
The South Kingdom's move to subjugate the Marked Elves.
Even how she, as a constable, had happened to hear the name Dreamland.
"Hmm, hmm, ah, I understand."
"So it'd be best to stay cautious. It feels a little wrong to badmouth my own kingdom, but there are plenty of greedy people among the higher-ups. Of course! I! plan to! keep quiet about you and the dungeon! Seriously, I haven't said a single word about it since then. I'd appreciate it if you believed me...."
Restia kept bowing her head over and over.
Then.
"I believe you."
The Dungeon Master gave a small snort of laughter.
"...."
She'd thought it for a while now, but this person was really handsome.
He was fairly tall, had long legs, and a small head, so his proportions were naturally good.
His hairstyle was neat, his eyes were gentle, and his nose bridge was sharp.
If he'd been in the kingdom instead of a dungeon, he'd have been the sort of man to make plenty of young ladies fall for him.
"Why are you staring at me like that? It's a little overwhelming...."
Ah.
"I'm sorry."
"I told you you're not allowed to say sorry in front of me."
"Ah, right."
"Anyway, thank you for passing along the information. I have something to give you, so wait here a moment."
Restia stood there blankly,
and with nothing else to do, she decided to inspect the corpses.
'There's some blood on me. If I'd known this would happen, I should've brought work clothes and gloves.'
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.
An hour later.
"Take it."
"What is this?"
"It's the gear used by Julius, the big boss of the Forest of Life. It looked expensive, and it's useless to me, so please think of it as repayment for the information."
Restia blinked.
The items she'd just received were definitely genuine.
It wasn't hard to tell.
Julius was the Marked Elf with the most widely recognized appearance.
'The Dungeon Master really did take care of them....'
Only now did she understand why the Forest of Life had ended up in that state.
'They must've gone into Dreamland without a care and gotten properly taught a lesson....'
If a group loses its center,
any organization can easily fall apart.
So the reason the forest had been quiet was because Julius was dead.
The corpses were probably the result of fighting over Julius's valuable relics.
They weren't all dead, right?
The remaining members had probably scattered in all directions.
Dungeons are said to expand over time.
The last time she'd seen it, it had been nothing but a bizarre labyrinth.
By now, something more might have been added.
'Maybe the people of the kingdom are the ones I should really be careful of, not the Dungeon Master....'
"By the way, you've gotten pretty scruffy in just an hour."
"I couldn't help it while inspecting the corpses, heh heh...."
"You work hard."
"I'm a constable, after all."
The Dungeon Master gave her a thumbs-up.
"Thank you for protecting the kingdom."
"Dungeon Master, you're not from the South Kingdom."
"It's just my motto to respect soldiers and police, no matter what country they're from."
"What kind of motto is that? Hehe...."
He was an interesting person.
Once again, the Dungeon Master left with the words, "Let's not see each other again next time."
"...."
Restia felt a strange pang of regret, but
"What do I do with this now...."
soon felt lost as she looked around at the utterly messed-up surroundings.
How was she supposed to clean this up, anyway?
If she reported it to her superiors as it was,
the matter could blow up and reveal the dungeon's location.
But if she kept silent,
the army might come and create an even more troublesome situation.
However,
that uncertainty didn't last long.
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.
.
Before long, Restia's subordinates entered the headquarters.
Judging by how heavily armed they were, it looked like they'd followed her into the Forest of Life.
"Section Chief Restia! Are you all right?!"
"My goodness, look at all the blood on you...."
Restia hesitated for a moment.
If I spin this well, couldn't I make it work somehow?
If she could just prove that she'd subjugated Julius,
at the very least, couldn't she wrap this up on her own without the army or other constables getting involved?
It was a little unsettling to suddenly become the hero who'd subjugated Julius, the Marked Elf leader, but
if she succeeded, she could definitely keep the Dungeon Master's existence hidden.
"I got lucky. As you can see from the surroundings, they'd already noticed the kingdom was moving to subjugate them, so there weren't many of them to begin with. And as you can tell from the traces, they were already in the middle of fighting each other... and Julius was badly injured too...."
Restia decided to mix lies and truth in roughly equal measure.
As she subtly showed them Julius's golden weapons and armor,
"Golden armor, a golden staff, a golden dagger—wow, this is insane... Section Chief, what on earth happened here?"
"And the Marked Elf corpses around here too, don't tell me..."
"Where's Julius's body?"
"It probably blew apart from corpse explosion. Those damn Marked Elf bastards... to think they even used dark-school magic."
Her teammates were filling in the blanks with their own imagination.
Perhaps because her reputation was usually good, they believed her with such innocent trust that she almost felt guilty.
'So this is how scammers make a killing. Still, this might be better....'
Restia couldn't bear to look her teammates in the face, so she bowed her head deeply.
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.
After that.
They say the South Kingdom's army never came to the Forest of Life.
It is said that the South Kingdom's army never came to the Forest of Life.