It's Dangerous Outside the Dungeon, Master

* * *

"Couldn't you have just punished me...?"

This was Amelia's first words after entering her private room, having remained silent for a long time.

"That child doesn't think of it as punishment. She was happy that she could help her sister faster."

Libertas's tone in response was still incredibly gentle, but.

Amelia's body trembled as if feeling a chill.

Now she had experienced enough of what this suspicious teacher and monster could do with such a tone.

Thanks to that adaptation, she could draw up anger even while being immersed in helplessness.

"Isn't it because you changed her into a monster that her thoughts changed?"

"That could be. But."

Libertas's eyes closed gently.

A warm aura flowing over that benevolent face with a smile. Her tone was still gentle and her gestures graceful.

Only the ominousness Amelia felt from her dispelled all that different atmosphere.

"From what I directly saw and heard, her words and actions before and after were not different, so wouldn't that be her true feelings?"

"..."

Speaking with eyes closed, Libertas casually gestured towards Amelia.

"Come here."

"..."

Hearing that short command, Amelia unknowingly moved and approached her.

"Turn around. More. Yes. Sit down."

"On the floor...?"

"Yes."

Having voluntarily stood in front of Libertas, she followed the subsequent orders and sat down in a modest posture.

And soon.

'Huh?'

She realized that she was following Libertas's orders without any resistance.

'Why am I...'

Is it a reaction from moving only according to her words for several days?

Or is it because of the helplessness currently filling her body?

She could understand that there was no energy left in her body and mind to defy Libertas's words anymore.

And that this couldn't be the reason for following her orders so casually.

'It's seeped in well.'

Libertas knew the reason for the helplessness Amelia was feeling.

Crushed by the pressure she felt from her, she acted freely and it led to irreversible results, but she was given a chance to live by her.

She tried to use that chance gained to protect her parents, but that action too brought even worse results.

'It's natural to feel powerless.'

The helplessness felt through intense experiences in a short period had already brought her instincts to their knees.

She just hadn't rationally accepted it yet.

"Your hair is a mess."

Taking the ivory comb handed by the skeletal hand that rose from the shadows, she slowly began to comb Amelia's hair.

As if nothing had happened.

Swish. Swish.

For a while, only the sound of Libertas combing Amelia's hair could be heard in the room.

During this, Amelia realized that magic power was imbued in the hand combing her hair.

And that there was also a magical principle to it.

'Ha...'

She swallowed a bitter laugh.

Using magic power just to groom hair was something hard to imagine for ordinary humans, let alone magicians.

Who would use such a high-class asset as ability for such trivial tasks that don't even match its purpose?

If magicians saw this scene, they would have foamed at the mouth.

"So. Are you done with your childish tantrums?"

Because she was thinking such thoughts, Amelia couldn't react immediately to Libertas's strange words spoken so casually.

"Childish... tantrums?"

Immediately after, Amelia, whose body heated up with rising anger, turned around and glared, but.

Libertas just looked down at her with a face that was still expressionless yet seemed benevolent.

"You made a verbal contract with your family's safety as the price. I said I would take your freedom in return, and you agreed to that. Am I wrong?"

"That was because of your coercion...!"

"Not all contracts in the world are made on equal terms. Human history was also like that. Are treaties between victors and losers made on equal terms?"

Amelia was at a loss for words.

The Heisen Kingdom too had established its current territory through repeated victories and expansions over 200 years.

The land where the current Solemio stands was also incorporated into Heisen in this way, so denying the results of war treaties was essentially denying the legitimacy of her own family.

So, she had to bring up words close to common sense again.

"That's only among humans. You are of the demon race! This is human land...!"

"Then you could become a demon too."

"What...?"

"If the boundary between human and otherworldly being is the problem, I'll make you into that otherworldly being. Then, there'd be no problem, right?"

Swallowing her breath at the touch lifting her chin, Amelia looked into Libertas's eyes.

Continuously.

Although no abnormality or magic power was visible in Libertas's eyes, somehow she couldn't take her eyes off them.

"Your childish tantrum was worthless."

"That wasn't a childish tantrum!"

"Why do you think so?"

"Freedom... freedom belongs to intelligent beings! It's something we should naturally have! You can't dismiss actions to obtain it as childish tantrums!"

At Amelia's desperate cry, a smile appeared on Libertas's lips for the first time.

"Freedom. Belongs to intelligent beings."

"That's right!"

Libertas stood up, threw open the window and curtains, and reaching out towards the setting sun, asked again.

"Then, how about those common people? Do they have freedom?"

"Of course! They have the right to accumulate wealth and pursue pleasure...!"

Libertas extended one finger and pointed between her eyes.

Amelia's eyes followed that finger and flinched back. She had seen an illusion as if that finger might turn into a blade at any moment.

The question continued, disregarding her state.

"Who guarantees that right?"

"Our country..."

Libertas slowly walked towards Amelia.

"Yes. The common people have no freedom. They only had the right to move around in limited spaces. And the right to rise to a limited position. Rights received from others."

Clack. Clack.

The sound of her boots hitting the floor seemed to Amelia like the sound of a giant boulder rolling, and.

It becomes pressure weighing down on Amelia.

"How does your country have the authority to guarantee those rights? Why does the state have those rights? If freedom is given to individuals, why would that right need someone else's guarantee?"

"That's because the state is protecting them...!"

"That's exactly it, Amelia."

"What...?"

Libertas's one hand reaches towards Amelia.

Whoosh!

A shadow with powerful yet gentle strength grabs her body and lifts her up in one go.

It was telekinesis through astonishing control of magic power, not even magic.

Before Amelia could calm her surprise at that gentle force, Libertas, who had taken her hand to support her, spoke with a smiling mouth.

"I am protecting you now. Why are you trying to break away from me?"

"What are you saying...?"

"You haven't forgotten that I protected you from my doppelganger, and from my 'need for slaughter', have you?"

The blade from that day and the image of when she first appeared before her flashed once again before Amelia's eyes.

"I am guaranteeing your freedom, yet why are you trying to throw away that freedom, I'm asking you."

Libertas's words and face were breaking through that illusion and looking down at her gently from the center, and.

Amelia denied those words once again.

"That's not freedom...!"

"Not freedom? Then what is the true freedom you speak of?"

"True freedom is... the right to choose for oneself without coercion!"

"Without coercion... I see."

When Libertas affirmed without hesitation, Amelia lost her words and looked at her.

Her hand gently caressed Amelia's cheek and led her body to sit in the wide chair she had been sitting in.

And whispered even more kindly.

"If freedom must be without coercion, then there was no freedom you desired in the life you've lived so far, Amelia."

"How would a demon like you know...!"

"The things that constrained you. Expectations. Power. And etiquette. I can see it all."

Amelia's parents always expected of her.

Her father, Valeon, for her to become a lord.

Her mother, Grelda, for her to become a lady.

They always wanted to lead her down a predetermined path, and didn't ask what her intentions were.

"Was the path of a lord truly what you really wanted? Or perhaps you wanted the path of a lady that your mother desired."

"But that's..."

"As you've been saying with your own mouth until now, you wanted freedom. To the extent that you wanted to give it to your family if you couldn't obtain it yourself. But you've never actually experienced freedom."

Libertas knew well how a 'good child' would act in between.

That she would make the choice to slowly chip away at herself while meeting all those expectations.

Just as she herself had done.

"Everyone wanted you to sit on the throne, or if not that, to contribute to the family as a lady. You would have folded yourself for their sake. Isn't that right?"

"That's... the balance between freedom and duty. Everyone lives like that."

Libertas, who had placed her hand on Amelia's shoulder and stroked it once, lifted her chin to face her and said.

"That's not true."

"What do you mean..."

"You had no freedom. There was only yourself conforming to others' expectations. You already know this."

The action of not adding the apple received as a gift from commoners to the family's diet, but immediately taking it to her own room.

The incident of swinging a sword until fainting due to stress of unknown cause rushing in.

The event of unknowingly pushing away a maid who was urging the schedule.

What Amelia herself had thought of as dark history flowed from Libertas's mouth, heard from other parties involved.

"How do you know that...?"

"All of that is evidence that you knew you had no freedom, Amelia."

Compulsive and violent reactions are evidence of stress.

However, Amelia had only met people who looked at her reactions as if they were strange until now.

Never had there been.

"Is that really true...?"

"Yes. It's not your fault. Just... too much was placed on your shoulders. A burden you couldn't bear."

Someone who gives a just reason for those actions like now.

"That's why you desired freedom, Amelia."

Looking down at such an Amelia, Libertas erased the smile she had raised on her lips.

Her tone was still gentle, but that expression gradually sinks coldly.

"Then... what should I do?"

"You've already chosen, Amelia. You were just still bound by existing common sense. Think of your sister. What was she afraid of?"

A smile appeared on Amelia's lips.

An innocent one, like her sister Yurianne's.

"No... she looked very happy."

"Yes... Forget about the boundary between humans and demons. I can give that to you too. Just... do as I say."

"But that's... that's..."

It's not freedom, it's like slavery.

The last words didn't flow out, but.

"That's not it."

Libertas whispered as if she had heard everything.

"This is the freedom you chose, Amelia."

If you need someone to grant rights to freedom, let me be your authority.

If true freedom is without coercion, let go of everything.

"Through that, I will guide you to freedom."

Now Solemio is not human's but 'my castle'.

And she is not the lord of the 'enemy' Solemio, but just the first administrator managing one of my owned castles.

"Yes. My... teacher."

The second disciple, and the first castle administrator.

"Good, Amelia."

She is no longer an enemy, but simply mine.

* * *

A land that once made the humans of the Heisen Kingdom, which unified this region, believe that a new day would come.

In that land that completed their territory.

An order sprouted.

An order that will give a new 'freedom' to humans and demons.

Under the will of Libertas, who cut off inner conflicts and established her resolve.