Chapter 59

Just yesterday, immediately after escorting Adele to her quarters, I returned to the Great Hall.

Alejandro greeted me.

“Good work. That took a bit longer than expected.”

“Yeah. I felt like that woman was about to eat me alive. What a bizarre person…”

—Sigh.

I let out a long exhale. That’s when Jin cut in.

“I heard the gist from Father. You’re planning to dump the dungeons on them? Give me the specifics. And how did you find out about that sword?”

“One question at a time. I only have one mouth.”

I grumbled at Jin’s interrogation.

“What I know is no more than what that Adele woman laid out herself. It’s the same as what you or anyone else knows.”

“You mean the part about the sword being a funerary object bundled with a dungeon?”

Wait.

He already knew?

I guess he isn’t the protagonist for nothing.

“Right. That artifact called the Sword of Four Seasons. It drifted into Denabi along with a dungeon.”

I scanned the Great Hall as I spoke.

“…Then I take it everyone here is now aware of my hypothesis?”

The vassals nodded. I nodded back.

“Good. Those guys came all the way here to find the ‘Sword of Four Seasons,’ an artifact that drifted here with a dungeon linked to the Emperor. But there’s one thing that’s strange.”

“Why they came looking for the ‘Sword of Four Seasons’ and not the dungeon itself.”

It was Jin who spoke up. Sharp, as expected of the original protagonist. It saved me the trouble of a long explanation.

“Exactly as Jin says. If they wanted to claim ownership of a dungeon, they could have just named the dungeon. If they could track and specify the dungeon, their job would have been over. But what they disclosed wasn’t the dungeon, but the name of an artifact. Do you know what this implies…?”

I gauged Jin’s expression. Hmm. He doesn’t seem to know this part yet. Good, at least there’s still room for me to show off.

“It means those guys don’t actually know much about the dungeon they’re looking for.”

“How did you reach that conclusion?”

“If it were otherwise, there would be no reason for them to do something as weird as asking for cooperation without disclosing any information. They’re in the dark too. I bet they only know two things.”

I held up two fingers.

“One: that dungeon drifted into Denabi relatively recently. Two: that dungeon contains something called the Sword of Four Seasons.”

I continued.

“That’s why they have no choice but to poke around every single dungeon to find the sword. And that is exactly why we can use them.”

I turned to look at Alejandro. He seemed to have grasped my intent from the moment I went to ask him to stop Jin’s fight. He picked up where I left off.

“It is as Shane says. Since they have no information, they have no choice but to raid the dungeons we guide them to. In other words, we can use the Emperor’s Hunters as convenient auxiliary labor.”

Exactly. That’s the point.

They probably came here intending to use us, but in the end, they’ll leave having been used by us. That is the ‘Dungeon Disposal’ operation—my plan to handle these uninvited guests who are cluttering up the scenario.

We began preparing the plan that very evening. Jin asked me:

“So, which dungeon are you planning to ‘dump’ on them?”

I answered without hesitation.

“We’re going to challenge the Archive of Crystals again.”

“Are you serious?”

“People ask me that a lot. But my answer is always the same. I’m always serious.”

“You don’t know what that place is like.”

“I do. It’s a Rank 4 dungeon.”

“You’re not even a soldier, how dare you say that so lightly—!”

Jin grabbed me by the collar.

‘Good grief, you arrogant brat. Do you have any idea how old the soul inside this body is?’ …is what I thought, but I could understand where Jin was coming from.

The Archive of Crystals hadn’t just taken away Jin’s undefeated record. Many of his comrades must have lost their lives there. Some of them were probably his friends. Just thinking about that place probably made his blood boil.

I looked him straight in the eye.

“I know, even if I’m not a soldier.”

I brushed Jin’s hand aside.

“It’s the dungeon standing as the sole blockade between Western and Eastern Denabi. For that reason, it’s the top priority for elimination by the Denabi Legion. Countless lives have been spilled trying to tear it down, and it’s the dungeon that forced even the elite warriors led by my eldest brother to surrender. I know. That’s exactly why we’re going to challenge it again.”

Jin stared into my eyes in silence for a long time. I didn’t look away. His eyes, which hadn’t blinked once, suddenly squeezed shut. I spoke to him while his eyes were still closed.

“Now is the perfect time. You’ve suppressed their forces enough, and now that the cards we can play have increased, it’s the right moment to challenge that place again.”

“……”

I could give him ten thousand reasons. If we could break through, we’d gain access to Eastern Denabi. We could collect taxes and the market would expand. We could also reach Renoir, who has been isolated over there.

Of course, everyone already knew those things. They knew them, which is why they attempted the first conquest and failed. To persuade Jin, those reasons weren’t enough.

Trust. The only way was to make him believe in me.

His trust in me is still worse than a stranger’s. Fine, I won’t ask him to trust me.

“I trust you, Brother. But I know you don’t trust me. I understand. The period of time I spent disappointing you and everyone else was far too long.”

“And yet you’re making this proposal to me anyway?”

“Yes. Because I don’t think we’ll get another chance like this.”

Jin Astrier.

You’re the type of person who trusts your intuition more than a hundred words.

I know that well.

And I know that to sway that intuition, a brother with a measly Trust level of 33 isn’t going to cut it.

‘So, you don’t have to trust me. You just need to trust someone else.’

I looked past Jin’s shoulder.

“Ronari.”

I called her name. Jin turned around to follow my gaze.

She gave a polite bow. Then, slowly lifting her head, she spoke.

“…I barely managed to meet you again after all that chaos, and the first thing you do is put me to work?”

I let out a soft chuckle.

“You’re a valuable talent. I can’t let you sit idle. It’s been a while, Ronari. I assume this is your first time meeting him?”

I introduced Jin to her. Jin looked at her with a suspicious expression.

“Who is this lady?”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, eldest Young Master. I am Ronari Arenta. I am a strategy… no, a new recruit for the Denabi Legion.”

I helped out with Ronari’s introduction.

“Strategic Analyst. Let’s use the correct title.”

“……”

Of course, Ronari glared at me.

It seemed Jin had already heard about her.

“So you’re the tactician who devised the conquest plan for the Orchard Dungeon.”

“You didn’t expect such a young lady, did you?”

I nudged Jin’s side with my elbow. Jin didn’t react at all. He simply stared intently at Ronari.

‘That’s right. Take a good look. She’s the secret weapon I’ve prepared.’

Up until now, I had forced events into a direction where people had no choice but to trust me. As a result, I proved myself somehow, and a few people began to believe in me.

But this time, there is no time for that. So, I’ve given up on making Jin trust me.

Jin is the ultimate card. It would be perfect if I could win him over. But even if I can’t, there’s no problem in using him. I just need to make him trust someone else instead of me.

“…So, I’ve roughly come to understand that you gentlemen from the Imperial Guard Bureau have come looking for a dungeon.”

“You are quite perceptive.”

Yulian gave a smirk.

‘Stop smiling, you villainous bastard. I know exactly what your dark intentions are.’

Thinking that, I gave him a hollow, insincere agreement.

“Perceptive? If I couldn’t even surmise this much, I’d be called a fool in Denabi. I’ve already narrowed down which dungeon is likely the one you’re looking for, so you can just relax and do what you do best.”

“What we do best, you say…”

“Is there any need to explain what Hunters do best?”

I answered my own question.

“Hunting.”

Yulian leaned back into the drawing-room sofa. He let out a sharp exhale through his nose. After a short deliberation, he spoke.

“I am beyond grateful to hear you say that. However, it is true that I find it a bit… questionable how you have already completed such preparations.”

Oh, I bet you do. I nodded.

“Naturally, when things go too smoothly, one begins to wonder if it’s a trap. You’re probably wondering if you’re falling into my snare. I understand why you’d think that.”

“……”

A look of caution flickered in Yulian’s eyes. He couldn’t be pleased realizing I was reading his mind like an open book.

But what can you do? It’s the truth. And besides, you’re the ones who crawled into Denabi in the first place.

“But weren’t you the ones who came to this distant, remote frontier for some unknown reason to ask for cooperation? Just trust me and keep your mind at ease.”

Not that you have any other choice.

Whether you’re the Emperor’s Hunters or some big-time villains supposed to appear later in the story…

This is godforsaken Denabi. This is our turf.

If you want to headbutt the ground without any information, feel free to reject this hand.

I stood up and reached my hand out to Yulian.

“The preparations for the dungeon conquest will be finished within a week at the latest. We’re already plagued by dungeons anyway, so let’s treat this as a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

Yulian stared blankly at my hand. I nudged him.

“Take it. My arm is getting tired.”

“Wait, there is one more thing I wish to ask.”

I withdrew my hand, making my annoyance blatantly obvious.

“What is it?”

“First, I will speak honestly. It is true that a dungeon is the most likely place to find the object we seek—the Sword of Four Seasons.”

“And?”

“But we also know a bit about the situation in Denabi. There must be more than one or two dungeons here. By what criteria did you specify the dungeon containing the Sword of Four Seasons?”

‘Good grief. Is that even a question?’

You idiot. How could I specify something like that? It’s just “because I felt like it.”

‘In reality, that Sword of Four Seasons was already found in the White Basin.’

Thinking that, I chuckled inwardly.

“That’s a rather trivial question for someone who claims to know the situation in Denabi.”

I spoke.

“Denabi has been suffering from dungeons for decades. We haven’t just been poking at them for a day or two.”

“…Meaning?”

“We know everything there is to know about the dungeons that have newly entered our territory. Among the dungeons that drifted into Denabi recently, there was only one place that could fit as the Emperor’s real estate… No, since dungeons move, should I call it personal property? Anyway, there was only one place worthy of being his asset.”

I tapped the table with my index finger, as if marking a point on an imaginary map.

—Tap.

“The Archive of Crystals.”

That is the name of the Hell you’re about to be dumped into.