How to Survive as a Dungeon Manager in Another World

45 – Reason

“…I shall be on my way.”

Ecion finished his business and departed Blackmore with weary steps.

His demeanor clearly betrayed his dismay at the endless list of demands, but he had no choice from the start.

The corpse of the Ouroboros could not be found even if one scoured the entire continent, and such a rare opportunity to study such a treasure was likely to occur only once in his lifetime. Thus, he was in a position where he had to accept whatever I demanded.

Although the requested items were quite extensive, in the end, wealth was something he could somehow acquire over time.

But if he missed this chance, he would never again have the opportunity to study the Ouroboros’s corpse.

How could a mage who had reached the realm of Magister possibly let go of the one and only chance to approach the very origin of the world?

“You sucked him dry, right down to the marrow, Sixth Lord?”

“…Great Lord.”

Arkan, grinning as she approached, plopped down opposite me.

She looked at me with her usual expression and smiled brightly.

“You’ve apparently decided to completely antagonize the Concord?”

“Why, does that make you uneasy?”

“Hmm, not really? If that’s what you, the Sixth Lord, intend, then that’s how it must be. The Concord fellows are persistent, but not so much as to warrant great concern. Above all…”

She glanced out the window.

Following her gaze, I faintly glimpsed Elfriede, radiating golden light as she healed the people.

“Truth be told, it’s not entirely wrong, is it? In the first place, the true Saintess is on this side.”

It was true, so I nodded.

As Arkan said, the justification was ultimately on our side.

It was the Concord, not I, who were perpetrating national fraud with a false Saintess.

“Haha, I wonder what reaction the Pope will show if he falls out with the First Lord?”

He’ll have a fit, no doubt.

Judging by the First Lord’s temperament, he wouldn’t reveal his deal with me, but as long as the Concord has brains, it wouldn’t be hard to grasp the situation.

Having just sent a threatening message demanding the cessation of the saintly charade, not only had I strained my relations with the First Lord, but fate, in its infinite cruelty, saw fit to place him in the very same Lord’s Council as myself.

Doubtless, the realization of this fact would have him gnashing his teeth, my name a curse upon his lips.

“By the by, when are you thinking of departing?”

“What meaning lies behind those words?”

“The Duchy, darling. Surely you haven’t forgotten? It was none other than the *real* saintess, glued to your heels, who saved the Duke from succumbing to the Incorporeal Poison.”

…Completely forgotten.

Come to think of it, I seemed to recall Chiron, the Head Butler, informing me that the Duchy had extended an invitation, wishing to bestow rewards.

But the thought of traveling all the way to the Duchy felt cumbersome, especially with the immediate demands piling up, so I’d simply disregarded it.

My silence was all Arkan needed. A faint smile danced on her lips, as if she understood the situation perfectly.

“Completely slipped your mind, hm?”

“……”

“Yes, yes. You’ve been quite busy of late. Well, now that things have transpired in this manner, let us proceed at your leisure, Sixth Lord. It’s hardly a pressing matter, is it?”

Her words rang true.

Securing rewards from the Duke wasn’t exactly an urgent affair.

Of course, I fully intended to extract recompense, thoroughly and completely, but its timing need not be immediate.

Time may pass, but the fact that the Duke owed Elfriede his very life wouldn’t change.

Yet, even so, I found myself unable to readily agree with Arkan’s suggestion. For the time had come, truly, to embark for the Duchy.

‘The original storyline is about to begin, isn’t it.’

I am a transmigrator.

And as such, I always kept the original timeline etched within my mind, and if memory served, this was about the time the protagonist would begin to stir.

I could be certain of this, because the starting point of the original story was set some months after the Duke’s demise.

As fate would have it, I had saved the Duke’s life when he was supposed to have died, but the incident itself had already occurred.

Therefore, the calculation that the original story’s beginning was nigh.

‘And the protagonist will soon emerge as well.’

That specific point in time, when the protagonist began their activity, could be deemed the critical juncture where the world would erupt into cataclysm.

Even now, the continent was already hurtling towards destruction, but from the original story’s beginning, the acceleration would truly commence.

I immediately summoned Chiron, the Head Butler who was waiting just outside the door.

“Chiron.”

“Yes, Sixth Lord.”

“Prepare for our departure to the Duchy at sunrise tomorrow.”

“I shall make the necessary preparations immediately.”

And so, time passed, and night descended.

*Tadak-tadak.*

I sat before the fiercely burning bonfire, lost in contemplation.

Though I had unwittingly stumbled into the Demon Realm and become a Lord, my objective remained unchanged.

To escape the confines of the original story and live a peaceful life.

Of course, the senile Emperor was proving to be a hindrance, but that didn’t mean all opportunity was lost.

Just because one is a Lord doesn’t mean one can’t live a life of ease.

In fact, in some ways, it might be even easier.

The essence of a Lord is that of ‘one who commands’, so if I could delegate all the tasks given to me to others, I could achieve my goal to some extent.

However, there were still a few hurdles to overcome.

First, there was Sung-dan.

He was probably fueling his rage against me to concoct all sorts of schemes, but he wasn’t the type to back down after a few defenses.

He would undoubtedly cling on incessantly until my retirement.

Second, there was my origin.

The Richter barony may appear to be merely a venerable, ordinary family of magical lineage, but in reality, the family’s circumstances were quite complicated.

They were the villains who hindered the protagonist in the original story, and a force closely linked to Sung-dan.

At the same time, they were the heart of the aristocratic faction, rebelling against the Imperial policies at every turn.

And, as fate would have it, I was born an illegitimate child of this family.

The situation had become unexpectedly complicated.

One thing was certain: if left unattended, it would only become more tangled in the future.

Though I was a Lord, my influence was still insignificant.

My Lord’s territory was merely a Demon Realm stranded in the backwoods, and unlike other Lords, I hadn’t built a reputation before my inauguration.

Therefore, the more solid backing I had, the better.

‘In that sense, the Duchy is one of the essential routes.’

The Duchy itself was an ideal territory overflowing with abundance.

However, the Royal Family, the core of the Duchy, was a cauldron of chaos in many ways.

The cause was none other than the volatile succession dispute.

Due to the Duke’s deep-seated interest in women, there are currently no fewer than ten individuals vying for the position of the next Duke.

Of all the candidates, the First Crown Prince was the most likely choice, and wouldn’t you know it, he was one of the Constellation’s lackeys.

“So, we just kill this First Crown Prince fellow, then?”

Ludine, who had been quietly listening to the explanation beside me, tilted her head, perplexed.

No matter the explanation, her simple brain structure always jumped to the conclusion of ‘kill,’ which never failed to astonish.

Adopting the most amiable tone I could muster, I answered her question.

“No, we can’t just kill him right away.”

“Why?”

“He’s rather capable to just off him like that.”

“…Shouldn’t we kill him even more, then?”

“Why when we can squeeze him dry? We’ll only kill him halfway and use him as a double agent.”

“Ah, I see.”

The First Crown Prince of the Duchy was a thoroughgoing materialist.

His every action was governed solely by his own safety, which meant he was the type to do anything if his security was threatened.

In the original story, he initially sided with the Constellation to check the protagonist, but as soon as the tide turned against him, he immediately switched to the protagonist’s side, pretending to be a loyal subject.

Therefore, training him wouldn’t be too difficult.

But a more serious problem existed separately.

Ludine was a Seed of the Apocalypse, a living calamity harboring the soul of the Star of Heavenly Slaughter.

Until now, the Ring of Ifrasia had been used to gradually absorb her Star of Heavenly Slaughter, but with the ring lost, there was no suitable means to control it.

I sat quietly, recalling the contents of the original story related to Ludine.

If she failed to control the periodically raging Star of Heavenly Slaughter, her soul would be consumed by madness, causing her to have seizures, during which her latent aggression… and her lust, would become maximized.

Right.

Just like now.

“…Ah.”

Ludine, who had been staring at me, swallowed hard.

Her gray eyes were tinged red by the aftereffects of the crimson mana, and the vermillion eyes fixed on me glinted ominously, like those of a starving beast.

She approached, exhaling a breath filled with hunger.

“Lu…ke…”

She dragged the words out with difficulty.

Her voice cracked and the sentence fragmented, so heated was she.

She left those words – whether a warning or a piece of advice, I couldn’t say – and reached out a hand.

“I… something’s wrong with my body…”

“……”

…This is a mess.