NOVEL NEXT Chapter 208
I won’t go back to Bainen.
It wasn’t a hasty decision. After contemplating all night, even into this morning, I finally reached a conclusion.
Therefore, I had already noted this in the report I would send to Argantir, and separately sent a letter to Bainen.
I informed Argantir that the organization work would be on hold for the time being. After all, I had handled two life-threatening missions in succession—even a knight of the kingdom would struggle to keep their life intact under such circumstances, so shouldn’t I be entitled to at least a month or two of vacation?
Of course, whether I executed those two missions perfectly and neatly is hard for me to claim, honestly…
“It’s not my fault. The orders themselves were practically a scam, right?”
For both missions, not a single thing went as stated in the orders. I was told that I just needed to capture Ganagl, only for Ariane to pop up one after another, and what was supposed to be a simple mid-level dungeon exploration mission turned into a chaotic nightmare.
It wasn’t Argantir’s place to grumble about unsatisfactory results; rather, it was I who should’ve scolded him to do some proper preliminary research.
Both missions were of a level that, with only Argantir’s projected strength, we should’ve been wiped out, not succeeded.
Given the situation, Priede and I somehow managed to bring back “success,” yet he refuses to even grant us a two-month vacation?
“That’s more malicious than Heid!”
If Argantir was like that, it would be better to cleanly cut ties with him.
“It’s not impossible. As long as I’m careful during the breakup and don’t get blindsided, he won’t leak the info that I’m alive, right?”
Therefore, I just had to be cautious not to reveal my identity by acting independently.
Of course, doing so would mean I wouldn’t be able to enter the deep dungeon managed by the Kingdom of Hervor… but honestly, isn’t it pretty much the same as now?
Argantir promised he would let me into the deep dungeon eventually, but I had no idea when that might be.
Since I began living under the alias Fernhilde Esther, Argantir hasn’t even mentioned that matter.
Were we still unprepared? Or was he planning to exploit us as much as possible before allowing us into the deep dungeon?
He didn’t say anything, so I couldn’t decipher his intentions, but it was certain that it wasn’t going to be in the next month or so.
Had he been planning to let us in soon, he would’ve told us to prepare for our entry into the deep dungeon ahead of time.
The fact that he was sending tasks without speaking was evidence that he had no such plans for the time being.
So, blindly trusting Argantir and just waiting seemed foolish, no matter how I thought about it.
In the worst-case scenario, he might grant us access to the deep dungeon a decade later and then brag about fulfilling the contract.
“Surely he wouldn’t be that shabby… but then again, who knows?”
Argantir is the type to thoroughly adhere to contracts he makes, but if there’s a loophole in the contract, he’ll shamelessly exploit it.
And the contract regarding letting us into the deep dungeon didn’t include a time limit. That was a perfect loophole for him to exploit.
That’s why, instead of waiting for Argantir’s permission, I decided to come up with my own alternative plan.
In other words, this vacation was an escape to avoid a confrontation between my mother and Eleadra, as well as the first step in preparing that plan.
—
I sent Argantir a concise, stiff, and businesslike letter summarizing the key points, but I couldn’t write a letter to my mother in such a tone.
The letter going to Bainen was at least three times longer than the report I sent Argantir.
With concerns about my mother’s well-being and reassurance that we are doing well, so she shouldn’t worry.
Updates on our experiences during dungeon exploration, as smoothed over as possible.
My aspirations to gain real-world experience by traveling for a while to become stronger, along with well-wishes for her desires to come true.
Even I thought as I reread what I wrote that there was no daughter as devoted as this.
…To be honest, when you think about it, I was more like a child who secretly ran away from home after getting pregnant without telling my parents, so perhaps I was the furthest possible from being a devoted daughter.
“So, where to go now?”
Priede, nestled in my arms, asked about our next destination, wondering where I planned to drag the bomb named Eleadra.
“Hmm… I do have a couple of places in mind.”
The first place that came to mind was a dungeon hidden within a spectacular scenery of the Kingdom of Rhine.
It was the dungeon that the protagonist of the original novel immediately sought out after securing minimal defenses, where the first hidden piece lay sleeping.
If I could get that hidden piece, Priede would undeniably become much stronger than now.
Just like I had overcome various crises thanks to this armor.
“The problem is… can I really take her there?”
I sneaked a glance at Eleadra, sucking on her fingers, and let out a deep sigh internally.
If it wasn’t for her, I would’ve headed there, but bringing her along to find that dungeon was extremely risky.
“…Of all places, it has to be a dungeon closely connected to ‘blood’, so who knows what will happen.”
If things went awry, not just Priede, but even Eleadra could be overwhelmingly strengthened.
And given that Eleadra was a demon and not a hero, unlike Priede, she wouldn’t be able to neutralize the side effects of that “hidden piece.”
“That’s not all. Lately, I’ve been feeling unusually unlucky, so if an unavoidable accident were to happen in that dungeon…”
Just thinking about it sent a chill down my spine.
Acquiring the hidden piece there was not particularly difficult, as the original protagonist had weakly gained it at the beginning.
While three high-ranking knights would struggle against it directly, with the cheat of original knowledge, I could breeze through dangerous periods.
The problem was afterward.
The dungeon’s boss… or perhaps it’s a little different from that? Anyway, the creature in front of the hidden piece was an existence we couldn’t defeat no matter how we combined our powers.
A real insane monster so rare that only the Demon Lord would stand as its equal—not as powerful as Valfreya, but definitely stronger than Eleadra.
In the original story, it had been a creature quietly sleeping, and as long as you didn’t disturb it, there was no issue of it waking up, meaning you could grab the hidden piece easily and leave.
“…What if I did wake it? It doesn’t seem likely.”
Even during the Valfreya incident, wasn’t it that Valfreya’s consciousness, which should have been sealed away, unexpectedly woke up and started talking to me?
If a similar “accident” were to occur in this dungeon, the only outcome that would follow would be death.
And ever since I came to this world, I’ve had far too many experiences of these kinds of accidents.
Because of this, even though it was a certain and highly efficient means of strengthening, I couldn’t hastily suggest heading there.
—
My second option was also a place where we could strengthen our capabilities.
Though the method was completely different.
“…Pesengwigel? You must be joking.”
Upon hearing the name Pesengwigel, Priede shot me an incredulous look, questioning if her assumption of that particular place was correct.
Yes, that’s right.
“Not joking. That’s absolutely correct.”
“Uh, why there…? No way, are you planning to sell her off there?”
“No, not at all.”
Priede was implying I planned to sell Eleadra and run away in a hurry, and I found that notion completely absurd.
Would she just accept being sold off like a slave? That would reserve the city’s destruction for that very day.
Personally, I think smashing that city would be the right course of action, but given Eleadra’s penchant for destruction, selling her off was never a feasible possibility.
“If you’re not selling her off, then why on earth to a place like ‘slave city’…”
Slave city.
Yes, at the western edge of the Kingdom of Hervor, nestled up against the Beastfolk forest of Valtgard, Pesengwigel is the kingdom’s largest slave market.
It is a world too barbaric and murky, where adults advocating for the abolition of slavery or human rights activists would rarely surface.
Such a city should be perfectly normal, right?
After all, the name Pesengwigel itself sounded like something from hell with shackles and chains and such.
They claim to only handle “legal” slaves, but is it really legal?
It was a place where kidnapped slaves are forced to sign rights waivers and magically turn into “voluntary” slaves for sale.
To facilitate smooth kidnappings, they even employ Beastfolk from Valtgard as professional kidnappers.
That slave city was, without a doubt, the next best option after the hidden piece dungeon.
More precisely, somewhere in that city, someone was the real backup plan.
A member of the “Hero Friet’s Party” from the original novel. One of the heroines that the original protagonist had drawn into his party and greatly benefited from.
The reason for heading to Pesengwigel was for her sake.
If she couldn’t strengthen Priede or me, at least we should aim to increase our number of allies.
While she might not be stronger than us at present, having appeared as a party member in the original story guarantees her talent, so if we could bring her onto our side, she could provide significant help in the future.
…Provided we can bring her over, that is.