Instinct Never Lies

* The dungeon master has died.

Although I was the only one who could see this text, the fact that the ‘dungeon master’ had died was something others could also sense.

“That smoke looks like Camilla’s magic!”

Smoke was rising in the distance, just as it had when Camilla used her explosion spell a little while ago.

Then, the entire dungeon began to shake—phenomena that appeared whenever the ‘dungeon master’ was killed.

“Do you think Camilla’s team killed the dungeon master?”

I nodded at Serena’s words.

Those Camilla folks had claimed to have experience with Hydra, and it seemed they hadn’t lied.

I had been waiting for this. I had even marked the spot for this very reason.

“U-uurgh….”

Maybe the effect of Thrag’s ‘Three-Piece Set’ had worn off, but Barkal was staggering.

* 【Using Skeleton Summon.】

To hoist him up, I wrapped the ‘skeleton exoskeleton’ over my body.

Barbarians were usually huge. Barkal was even bigger.

“I can move!”

Barkal refused assistance, perhaps disliking being helped, but judging by his words, he seemed to know what he had to do now.

“We’re getting out.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Serena and Barkal launched themselves away from the Black Knight in the opposite direction.

The dungeon was collapsing. Anyone who kept fighting here would have to be insane, craving death.

“Portal! The portal’s over there, brothers!”

Serena, who was in the best condition, must have spotted the portal—she shouted at us, her voice urgent.

Without further ado, we shifted our direction toward it.

As I ran, I glanced back—a quick peek showed the Black Knight standing stock-still like a stone statue, not intending to follow.

He was truly bone-chillingly powerful. Were all Abyss creatures this strong?

“I hope he disappears with the dungeon.”

Serena muttered as she saw the Black Knight still rooted in place, but I shook my head.

Just a hunch, but I felt that thing wouldn’t die, even if the dungeon vanished. More likely, he would return to the Abyss.

“Next time, we will kill him for sure!”

It seemed Barkal instinctively sensed the same.

Next time, huh.

Will we ever meet him again?

I’d honestly prefer not to.

Thinking such thoughts, I threw myself into the portal, leaving the collapsing dungeon behind.

* * *

As I exited the dungeon, the underground canals of Iushil filled my vision.

Who would have thought I’d ever miss such a gloomy place?

Still, my deepest wish was to get out of here as soon as possible.

“The one who flees is weak. But the one who survives is strong!”

While moving to escape the sewers, I heard Barkal muttering beside me.

It seemed running away still bothered him, but come on.

A monster attacks that couldn’t even be scratched.

Escaping was absolutely the best option right now.

Letting Barkal’s soliloquy go in one ear, I looked to the ‘Blood-Colored Awl’.

Come to think of it, only my ‘Blood-Colored Awl’ had pierced the creature’s thick armor.

Why?

Was there some connection to Thrag?

Or was it simply that my weapon was of divine grade?

In any case, the opportunity to verify such questions was gone—and honestly, I had no desire to check.

Verifying it would mean facing him again.

“Are your wounds okay?”

I asked everyone.

The wounds inflicted by the Black Knight weren’t deep, yet they weren’t shallow either.

Especially considering we’d experienced our flesh melting.

Barkal, in particular, had taken a direct hit from the Black Knight’s halberd.

“They’re honorable scars!”

Barkal stuck out his chest as if the wound was a badge of honor. The wound was healing at a pace rapid enough to be visible.

It must have been the effect of Thrag’s ‘Three-Piece Set’.

“My honor is fading!”

Ignoring the flustered Barkal, I looked over at Serena next.

Her clothing was torn and frayed here and there, but she had no wounds.

She’d been the one whose hand had melted the most from the Black Knight’s bizarre magic, and yet… she was the cleanest of us all.

“I’m fine too! Lady Liberas’s grace is protecting me!”

Serena said with a bright smile.

Honestly, she was the scariest one of all. Even while her hand was melting, she managed to pull off a guillotine choke.

“Will the other adventurers be okay?”

Remaining true to her role as the representative of the ‘God of Love and Virtue’, she worried about the other adventurers.

I replied that they would be fine.

The larger the dungeon, the more entrances and exits there were.

Anyone with ‘silver-rank adventurer’ ability should be able to handle themselves.

“Huh? Camilla!”

As soon as we emerged from the sewers, the first thing I saw was Camilla and her party.

She approached us the instant our eyes met, as if she had been waiting.

All her teammates were present, except Rogue was nowhere to be seen.

I briefly wondered if he had died in the dungeon, but judging from the way Barkal was snorting next to me, he had probably gone into hiding instead.

Camilla came closer and tossed a ‘mana stone’ at us as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Serena caught it, looking somewhat startled.

“It’s a mana stone from the hydra.”

“Why… are you giving this to us? Wasn’t it your team who killed the dungeon master?”

At Serena’s question, Camilla nodded. She then looked at me.

“You’re the one who marked the direction the hydra escaped, using blood, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

When I used ‘Clotted Blood’ on the Black Knight, I’d known it wouldn’t have an effect, and yet there was a reason I used my power once more.

It had been to mark the direction the hydra had escaped.

“Why?”

“You said you’d killed a hydra before.”

Camilla still wore a puzzled expression, apparently unsatisfied by my answer.

“You knew there was a chance we might not return, right?”

So this was the question she really wanted to ask.

“The moment my magic didn’t work, our party had no way to kill that abyssal monster.”

“I thought you’d still make it back.”

Why?

She looked puzzled.

“We barely know each other! We’re practically strangers.”

“We are not merely close to being strangers.”

“Then what are we?”

“Strangers.”

What do you mean, ‘close to being strangers’?

We only got the same request because of matters related to ‘necromancers’—just strangers.

“But this city isn’t a stranger to you.”

I said simply.

“This place is your hometown.”

Camilla’s eyes widened, as if she’d been struck. But her expression quickly returned to normal, as if her doubts had been cleared.

“You’re right. People of Iushil can’t just sit back and do nothing to defend Iushil.”

If ‘Abyssification’ was completed, Iushil would be finished.

If a being like the ‘Black Knight’ we saw earlier ever made it outside, Iushil would have no means of resisting.

“Let me ask you just one more thing.”

“Enough with the questions! Do you think you have the right to ask anything after fleeing!”

Barkal answered Camilla in a loud voice, but I let her continue.

“Did you kill that monster?”

“We failed to kill it. Couldn’t inflict a single wound.”

“Really?”

She didn’t seem scared by the knowledge that such a monster was still alive. Instead, Camilla let out a sigh of relief.

“So it wasn’t that my explosion magic was lacking, after all!”

She smiled.

It was a smile as refreshing as a clear sky. That smile gave me déjà vu, so I glanced to the side.

“Huh? Brother Dmihtan, what is it?”

Serena answered, and I realized the origin of my déjà vu.

“We didn’t kill it this time, but next time, I’ll spend more money.”

It was the feeling you get when you see someone who seems fine on the outside, but is actually strange inside.

She wasn’t afraid of the ‘Black Knight’ itself, but was apparently worried that her ‘explosion magic’ wasn’t strong enough.

She was in the same category as Serena.

* * *

After receiving the ‘hydra’s mana stone’ from Camilla, we headed straight for the Adventurer’s Guild.

As we entered, the glances from the adventurers inside followed us.

Nothing much had changed. Most stares still felt as if they were looking at troublemakers.

Were the rumors about the ‘sewer dungeon’ not spreading? Even though we’d hastily gathered and sent off the ‘silver-rank adventurers’, they’d done a surprisingly good job containing the leak.

It made sense.

The higher-ups in Iushil probably hated chaos.

“Bwahahaha! You all almost died! We saved your lives!”

In spite of the city’s efforts to keep things hushed, Barkal’s mouth was already itching to boast as he yelled out.

“There was an enormous dungeon underground! Even I had never seen a monster so strong before!”

Barkal spoke, smacking his chest as if showing off his strength.

“But we closed the dungeon and trapped it inside!”

That was true.

Even though we had fled.

Barkal apparently wasn’t embarrassed at all. He’d taken my words—’The living are the strong’—to heart.

Yes, those who survive are strong.

“Sewer dungeon?”

“Monster? What are you saying, you stupid barbarian?”

The adventurers gathered in the guild clearly didn’t know about it. Only the ‘silver-rank adventurers’ and above would know; the ones gathered here were ‘bronze-grade’ or lower.

“Don’t you know what happened underground!?”

“What about it?”

“There’s nothing down there except rats.”

“Thrag’s bones! Do you really know nothing?!”

Barkal questioned the bewildered adventurers, his tone exasperated.

“If no one knows, who will testify to our honor?”

Then, Barkal shouted loudly,

“Listen! Beneath the ground, there’s—!”

“Uh, excuse me!”

Again.

The flustered guild receptionist, watching Barkal about to yell, suddenly jumped forward.

Dripping with sweat and clearly nervous, the receptionist addressed us.

“T-the Branch Manager would like to see you….”

“Again! They’ll come for us themselves!”

“We will go.”

“Brother! That person will look down on us!”

“The strong are also generous.”

When I responded, Barkal cocked his head, seeming to ponder, ‘Is that so?’

After persuading Barkal moderately, we followed the receptionist to where Blaz was waiting.

If the Branch Manager was calling for us, he must have wanted to discuss this dungeon case, and more importantly, wanted a proper talk about rewards.

“Brother, I want to say something.”

What is it?

I looked over at Barkal.

“Our honor has been stolen.”

Stolen? What was that supposed to mean?

We didn’t kill the dungeon master, but the ‘hydra’s mana stone’ was with us.

As long as I could make money, I was fine with it.

* 〈Thrag despises your attitude.〉

Don’t think about it like that. I’ll do what needs to be done when it matters, okay?

“No one knows we completed a dangerous quest.”

“There are those who know.”

For example, the ‘silver-rank adventurers’ who entered with us. Some of them must know.

“That’s not enough! Everyone should know!”

“There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Why not?”

Unable to understand, Barkal’s doubts persisted, so I explained Iushil’s circumstances.

Iushil was a big city.

If the fact that such a city was in danger leaked, the citizens would panic.

Honestly, whether the townspeople panicked or not had nothing to do with us.

But those ‘high-ups of Iushil’—the ones who paid us—hated that kind of chaos.

“The high-ups of Iushil….”

After my explanation, Barkal muttered,

“Are they the ones who stole our honor?”

He seemed to have misunderstood something.

“We’re here.”

While I was chatting with Barkal, we arrived at the room where Blaz was waiting.

The receptionist knocked three times, and Blaz’s voice came from inside.

The receptionist opened the door, and we walked in as if it were only natural.

“Well done, Dungeon God adventuring party.”

As expected, Branch Manager Blaz was inside. But beside him sat an unfamiliar face.

“I heard the news briefly from the Dark Shade party. They said you made a huge contribution on this quest.”

I nodded.

A huge contribution? More like a monstrous one.

If we hadn’t kept the ‘Black Knight’ at bay, everyone would be dead by now.

That aside—who was that?

I looked at the blond man seated next to Blaz.

He looked like a dandy gigolo, but even through my glare he left the impression of someone unreasonably handsome. Still, he couldn’t hide the arrogance on his face.

“Ah, I forgot to introduce him. This is Lord Edmund Steldian.”

Edmund Steldian?

What?

“Steldian… He’s a count of the Kerval Kingdom. The noble lord who rules over Iushil, brother,”

Serena whispered, sensing I didn’t know who it was.

“The fact that he’s a big shot doesn’t matter. Why is he here?”

“Why, to speak personally with you ignorant barbarians, of course.”

Edmund swept his blond hair back, posing as if full of grace and nobility.

“I know you suffered a lot, but what happened in the Iushil underground must… hmm?”

Halfway through his speech, edmund stopped as a huge figure wearing a skull helmet loomed in front of him.

Barkal?

“W-what is it?”

“Are you the high-up of Iushil?”

“Y-yes, that’s right?”

Barkal’s eyes blazed with intensity. I had a bad feeling.

“How dare you steal the honor of the mighty barbarians, you rat!”

BANG!

Barkal’s fist crashed right into Edmund’s face.

His tremendous strength sent Edmund flying into the corner of the room like garbage.

I sighed.

————-= Clacky’s Corner ————-=

Good job, Barkal!

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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