The knight said he was going to destroy the core.
Shivers ran through me as though my blood flowed in reverse.
The knight raised his sword in the monitor… then, swung it down.
“Gob!”
“Gobsuke!?”
Gobsuke rushed out into the master room. Rokuko and I couldn’t stop him.
That is, it may have been the instinct of a dungeon monster to avoid the core from being destroyed.
[Uwah-!? Kuh, that’s-!]
[Gob-… ah…]
In the monitor, we could see Gobsuke jump out of the core and be cut down.
Gobsuke was cut in two, breathing his last breath.
[Dammit, the goblin got in the way… let’s go again…]
[Oi, what are you doing!? This isn’t in our jurisdiction!]
The leader stopped the knight raising his sword over his head.
[Low class dungeons like this are controlled by the adventurer guild. Just a goblin came out, I heard that this is a bottom class dungeon.]
[Oops, that’s right… my apologies.]
Stopped by his captain, the knight quickly lowered his sword.
[… Shit, even though I could become a Sage Knight by destroying a dungeon core…]
[Tch… well, just one goblin came out of the core when I said I’d destroy it, maybe it didn’t get enough power…]
[Eeh-! That’s-!]
[Well, rather than gaining recognition as a Sage Knight with a dungeon where there isn’t even a dungeon boss, wouldn’t the opposite happen?]
[Yeah, that sounds pretty bad… Haah, Ryui, Eijin, Thomas… I didn’t think three people would have been lost by something like a bandit extermination.]
[Melon Vomit was a formidable enemy…]
Leaving out their losses, the mood became one of work completed.
… I thought I was going to die.
Thought I was going to crap myself… seriously, ya know? Craaaaap myself.
However, he had his mind on what he heard them say about Sage Knights destroying dungeon cores.
“U-uu… G-Gobsuke…”
Rokuko was crouched down, sobbing.
As for memories… yeah, but they’re just memories of eating bread together.
I wonder what kind of relationship Rokuko had with him while I was sleeping?
“Leave after giving back my portion of the [Bean Paste Roll]…”
Apparently it looks like Rokuko did the same as me.
“Gobsuke… repaid his debt splendidly. If he didn’t stop them, we’d be dead.”
“Uu, my [Bean Paste Roll]…”
No, she was probably meaning to say [Don’t leave me and die… idiot…].
I selected an assortment of six sweetened buns, presenting them to Rokuko.
“Here, [Bean Paste Rolls] to cheer you up.”
“Eh-really!? I’m cheered up, cheered up! Super cheered up!”
Rokuko was so lively it was to the point that I seriously almost saw an aura around her.
Ah, now that I think about it, this girl was always a brute that sent goblins against adventurers.
“What’s this!? Though it’s black on the inside it’s somehow delicious! Ah, but this one is tasty too–”
… Incidentally, I still had to teach her about [Jam Buns]…
The bandits’ corpses were gathered in the entrance room. It seemed that they would bring the knights’ corpses back home.
… Dousing the corpses with oil, they burned them… In the cave?
I get the feeling they don’t know anything about carbon dioxide stagnating in the air inside the dungeon in the first place. Even the bandits used torches for light as usual…
[Even a dungeon funeral is too luxurious for these guys.]
[Yeah, it’s fine to just burn everything but their weapons yeah?]
[That’s right. In they off chance they somehow survive, it’ll be troublesome if they have anything.]
Though they said that, there wasn’t anything worth using left.
So that it would burn everything, they went outside the cave’s entrance before setting the fire. I was thankful for that, since after it burned out I could majestically capture the corpses.
[Alright, I’ll set the fire… Dance, flames—[Ignition].]
Ignition looked to be a magic that produced a fire to the level of a lighter from the fingertip. Igniting the oil fuse, the fire extended along it like a snake. The mountain of corpses inside the cave was wreathed in flames surprisingly quickly.
“Ah. Hey, is that dog eared slave girl alright?”
When I was reminded by Rokuko’s words, the fire snake burned through the wooden door, approaching the bed where the dog eared girl was hiding.
Maybe, even though the bandits were good, I get the feeling I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t save her here. Is it because she’s a child?
I’d be troubled if I had a nightmare… I’d lose out on sleep.
“… I wonder if she’ll become DP?”
“Collect her huh? You’re going to go and help her now? The entrance room is a sea of fire you know? It’ll be burned out by the time you get there.”
It was like Rokuko said. Regardless of whether or not there were any intruders, you could only enter and exit from the dungeon core in the master room. And even if I left the dungeon core it was just a sea of fire. It was hopeless to just walk there.
“Besides, don’t you know that I can’t collect invaders? She isn’t an item.”
Hearing Rokuko’s words, it dawned on me.
“That’s it… an item. What did you just say, Rokuko?”
“Eh-?”
I spoke to Rokuko like I was persuading myself.
“Slaves are called tools. Items. In fact, I never saw those guys make any voluntary movements. Even after their owners, the bandits, died. In other words, slaves… are items, she just doesn’t have an owner now. Items of dead adventurers become the dungeon’s. Therefore, she already belongs to the dungeon. Right, Rokuko?”
“Even if you called them living things, you can deploy demons directly from the dungeon core so long as there aren’t invaders. In other words, it’s possible to send and collect living things. In fact, couldn’t you collect the moldy bread? Isn’t mold a living thing? If that’s the case, you could probably collect a box with a mouse in it for example. So you should be able to collect living things like humans. It’s no good since there’s magical power? Even magic tools have magical power. Didn’t you collect the light magic tool? Therefore, there’s no reason you can’t collect THAT-!!”
I looked at the monitor and map. The fire spread to the bed, beginning to scorch the sheets.
Shit, it’s still no good, I didn’t convince myself enough!
“A-a slave isn’t an item after all!”
“Then that isn’t even a slave! It’s a pillow! That is a pillow! A dog eared girl type of pillow! An item meant for men concealed under their beds!!”
That’s a pillow, a pillow, a pillow, a pillow, a pillow, a pillow, a pillow…
Yeah, such an important hug pillow must not be burned.
Maybe not having knee socks on its legs is also an option?
Wait, I got a bit of topic.
… Ah, I remembered something unpleasant. Vomit Melon used it like that…
Well then, if not I’ll just have to wash it thoroughly.
I could already only see the dog eared girl as a hug pillow.
Glancing at the map, rather than the red dot of an intruder, there was a green dot indicating an item.
“Alright, it’s a hug pillow. Collect it.”
In conclusion, she could do it.
“Eeeeeh… W-why could you collect it!? She was an intruder, the master room-”
“Huh? I just collected a hug pillow. Rather, Rokuko, don’t absorb the corpses before the fire burns out. Wait a while after it finishes, a knight might come by to make sure.”
Ah, a bit of its hair burned. Wasting such precious black hair. Well, with the auto-restoration function, it was left as just burnt. Maybe short is good too… Woah, some white stuff is stuck in it. Seriously Melon Vomit, wash it out.
“Eh-, i-is that right… No, no no. Wait a moment. If intruders can’t be brought into the core, it isn’t funny she was collected!”
“Y-yeah… I get the feeling that works…”
And so, I used Cleanup on the hug pillow.
As the foam characteristic to the Cleanup magic went from top to bottom on the hug pillow, it completely cleaned it off–
“Uoh-!?”
–and it let out a cute sound.
Phew, I almost didn’t come back after my self-suggestion…
“G-good, I’m back. Right, somehow, I collected her…”
“Ah, that’s easy… It’s because I could.”
I thought I couldn’t do it so I convinced myself. Magic is a free and irresponsible thing… though now I’m tired.
“You saw it right? You can collect slaves.”
“That’s right… I can collect slaves…”
Yeah, it’s better to have Rokuko think that.
… Well, what do I do with this dog eared girl? For now, should I really make her a hug pillow…?
“By the way, what’s this one’s name? It’d be hard to refer to her without one.”
“Eh…. ah… … Meat… is what I’m called, Goshujin-sama.”
Though her reaction was a little dull, she answered properly.
Though she didn’t move at first, she obediently ate the sweet rolls when ordered and laid down, sleeping on the futon.
Above that, it’s better that the knights don’t meddle.
In the end, the group of knights confirmed that the bandits’ corpses burned sufficiently before returning.
After that, they returned to their camp without doing anything in particular. Yeah, I think it would have been amazing if they’d just slaughtered the bandits to eat their roasted meat. Truly.
With this, our savings are totaled at—14504 DP.
“Amazing… this is the first time I’ve seen so much DP.”
Right now, when compared with our DP savings so far it was a small fortune.
Gobsuke isn’t here anymore… but in exchange I have a dog eared slave and have to support it.
And the income from the core was just 10 DP. It seemed that the dog eared slave earned 0 DP even when left alone since it was collected as an item. Or maybe it isn’t strong enough to collect DP from to start with…
Well, that being the case, I’ll cut her meals to two a day to make it stabilize… no, in order for adventurers to not expect anything when they come, I need to take out a goblin. There would be a deficit. Could I sleep soundly in a situation like this? No, I couldn’t sleep. I’m a coward, so I can’t endure my savings being gradually decreased.
So, I who cannot endure a deficit management style, will have to fundamentally change the [Ordinary Cave]’s nature.
… Haah, I don’t want to work.