Excuse Me for Intruding!*7
“Eh…? E-eh, um, dungeons… can they be taken over…?”
As I stood there confused, the master of the gold mine dungeon also began to look confused.
“Eh…? Surely you’re not trying to feign ignorance? Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”
“No, even if you say that… ah, so that’s why you’re being cautious!?”
At the very least, the information that had just come out explained the current situation.
Apparently, dungeons can be taken over. And the master of this gold mine dungeon feared that his dungeon would be taken, which was why he had us surrounded with spears right now. I see, I see!
“Um, well, this is actually the first time we’ve ever heard of that. The idea of taking over a dungeon never even crossed our minds…”
“… There’s no way I could believe that.”
“Well yeah, you’re absolutely right about that, but… we really have no intention of being hostile, and yet you’re pointing spears at us, so we’re just completely bewildered, I mean…”
The other party looked bewildered yet tense, staying on full alert no matter what. Yeah, this isn’t something we can resolve through discussion. At the very least, the field is bad. We’re standing on their field, which means our lives are in their hands, and because of that, there’s no room for negotiation.
“Could you please lower your spears…?”
“… No. You will die here!”
Whoa, so they’re really planning to kill us before any negotiations, huh. Wow, that resolve is admirable, I guess.
But from our perspective, that’s a problem. There’s no way we can accept that.
“Wait a second! Then, books! Books, did you read them!?”
“Huh?”
… And so, I started buying time.
“Books…?”
“Yeah! The ones I put at the bottom of the sweets box!”
I had placed a reconstructed TOEIC study guide, rather than golden sweets, inside the brandy cake box!
“Ah… what exactly was that?”
“Ah~ you couldn’t read it?”
“I could tell they were characters from another country, but… what of it?”
I see. In that case, I’ve more or less figured out who this person is.
This guy is not an ‘otherworlder’ like me.
Normally, you wouldn’t be able to tell just from conversation. After all, I can read this world’s language and speak it fluently. So when I came to this world, or when I became a dungeon master, I must have gained some kind of translation function.
… but it seems that “a dungeon master can read any language” isn’t true.
Also, the way he said, “I could tell they were characters from another country,” about English and the alphabet means he’s definitely not from my world. It’s English, after all. Anyone from my world would have seen it at least once, and an otherworlder would immediately think, “The other person is an otherworlder too!” and become cautious in that direction.
But that didn’t happen. He showed no reaction to English. Which means that the person in front of me is… probably, taking into account what he said earlier, “a person of this world who took the position of dungeon master from someone else.”
Which also means that this guy probably doesn’t even know that “the rift deep in the dungeon connects to another world”… Well, even if he did know, so what, really.
“Well, whatever. Try breaking down and absorbing that book. I think you’ll get a ton of mana.”
“Huh…?”
“I brought it as a souvenir for that purpose. Go on, go on.”
I figured any dungeon would want mana, but even after I suggested it, he didn’t move at all, probably out of caution. Don’t you want to become a TOEIC master too? No? I see. Well, I’ll keep dragging this out a bit longer to buy time.
“Um… excuse me, but perhaps… do you not know what kinds of things give you lots of mana when absorbed…?”
I brought up a topic that would pique his interest, something that would make him think, “Would killing this guy instantly actually be dangerous?”, and watched his reaction. All the while, maintaining a “Please don’t kill us!” stance.
“Of course, I have a general idea.”
“Ah, figures. Otherwise, you wouldn’t end up with a dungeon like this… If an axolotl were the dungeon master, it’d just be a dungeon where monsters appear…”
“Axolotl…?”
“Oh, uh, yeah, there’s this kind of creature…”
I want to buy time, but explaining what an axolotl is feels like the wrong move. I feel like he’d get bored halfway through and kill us!
“As for mana, if you ever get your hands on adventurers’ diaries or notebooks, you should try breaking those down and absorbing them. Books are recommended too.”
“… Why?”
“I don’t really know why myself… or rather, I came here with the faint hope that maybe someone out there does know…”
From here on, it would turn into a discussion about the possibility that “information” is being converted into mana, but I don’t say that out loud. That would be too much of a spoiler.
“Umm, have you been a dungeon master for a long time?”
So I try to slide the conversation into small talk. There’s information to be gained there too, after all.
“… There’s no need to tell you that.”
Nope! He’s sliding back toward killing us! How heartless!
“Well, then it can’t be helped…”
And so, amid the armored soldiers holding spears, clinging to the hope that “If anything happens, Lisas-san and Mishisia-san will surely manage something!”—
“Come forth, Giant-Ass Slimes!”
When I called out, something transparent squished its way out from beyond the door we had entered through.
“… What!?”
Too late to be surprised now! While they were doing that, the Giant-Ass Slime came raining down from the ceiling next!
It was the right call to prepare the Giant-Ass Slime. Before heading deep into the dungeon earlier, I had exited once and greeted them, explaining “for these reasons, in this way, I’d like to ask for your help.”
As a result, the Giant-Ass Slimes, who had been living peaceful, squishy lives at the Royal Capital Experimental Farm, squished their way into the dungeon, squished their way along the route we had taken, and squished their way here while tightly blocking the corridors.
This is one of a slime’s strengths. Even narrow cracks and gaps are passable for slimes. Even if they’re ridiculously huge Giant-Ass Slimes.
“W-when did this happen!?”
“Um, we had them enter the dungeon after we arrived here.”
There was one big problem with summoning the Giant-Ass Slime this time: “It stands out like crazy!”
… but I know something. While running my own dungeon, I’ve tested what dungeon functionality is like. As a result, I learned that even though you can obtain all kinds of information inside the dungeon, you can only observe one location in real time!
In other words! While we’re drawing all this attention and suspicion here, the dungeon master here can’t check what’s going on elsewhere.
To begin with, when being cautious of us, he probably wouldn’t immediately jump to “There might be other allies.” Either way, success, success. Hell yeah.
“Man, these guys really are huge.”
“The ceiling was high, it was a spacious room too…”
“The room’s basically filled with slimes now…”
The armored soldiers who had been holding spears were trapped inside the Giant-Ass Slime, drifting about with a poyoyon sound, their spears taken away. They’ll probably fall asleep soon. I mean, they’re inside a slime, must be comfy.
“L-let me go!”
“Well, when it looks like we’re about to be killed, we can’t exactly do nothing…”
As for the dungeon master, his head and neck were sticking out of the Giant-Ass Slime, but the rest of his body was firmly buried. Neutralization complete.
“For now, we really don’t intend to harm you… we just want to talk. Would it be okay to talk like this?”
“There’s no way that’s okay!”
Yeah, figures. People who aren’t used to being buried in slime would naturally be tense in this situation. I get it.
“I see. Then I’ll bury myself too…”
“Huh?”
So I decided to get buried as well. Patting the Giant-Ass Slime’s head, I eased myself in like slipping under a blanket, and the slime, understanding my intent, buried me from the neck down. Ahh, so squishy.
“Then I’ll get buried too!”
“Eh? Um… huh?”
Next, Mishisia-san started burying herself as well. When she happily exclaimed, “Yay! It’s cool and squishy!” the master of the gold mine dungeon made a completely bewildered face.
“… If I get buried too, that’d be bad, right?”
“No! Lisas-san! Let’s all get buried! Gold Mine Dungeon-san probably won’t be able to calm down otherwise!”
Lisas-san hesitated a bit, but when I said that… he glanced toward Gold Mine Dungeon-san. Gold Mine Dungeon-san wore an indescribable expression. Well, yeah.
“Lisas-san! Get in! It’s squishy! It feels great!”
“… Ah…”
Mishisia-san recommended it too, but Lisas-san still seemed hesitant. And Gold Mine Dungeon-san still had that extremely indescribable look on his face!
“Come onnn! Let’s all get buried together!”
“All right! Pull him! Pull him!”
“Okay, okay! I get it, so don’t pull! Aaaah…”
When Mishisia-san and I pulled on Lisas-san’s legs from inside the slime, the Giant-Ass Slime cleverly moved as if to say, “Ah, so this person too?” and as a result, Lisas-san ended up buried as well.
“Now then… with this, you and us are in the same situation. Now we can finally talk on equal footing.”
When I tightened my expression and said that, Gold Mine Dungeon-san already looked completely deflated, his face drained of spirit.
… Well, all four of us are buried in slime, after all. It’s not exactly a dignified scene. But hey, it’s better than killing each other, right?
“Um, first, I’d like to ask about your objective… Why did you take over this dungeon and become its master? And why are you running it in such a distinctive way?”
And so, maintaining a limp-looking tableau while keeping my expression serious, I asked the person of the gold mine dungeon. After all, figuring out whether we can work together is important.
“… Becoming the dungeon master was an accident.”
And then, the other party, apparently having resigned himself, began to speak. Yes!
“To investigate a dungeon that had suddenly appeared in the royal capital, I entered it with my companions… and here, we defeated a bear wearing this bracelet.”
“Oh, so there was a bear too…”
If it had been an axolotl again, the theory that I am actually an axolotl would have gained traction. Close one.
“Immediately after defeating the bear, the bracelet came off its arm… and new words were engraved there: ‘The dungeon awaits its master.’”
That much I could more or less imagine. Good, good.
“… I intended to bring the bracelet back for investigation. However, as I looked at it…”
“Umm, you ended up putting it on, right? That’s what happened?”
“… When I realized it, the bracelet was on my arm. Whether I put it on myself or not… even that memory is unclear.”
Gold Mine Dungeon-san nodded with a face tinged with regret. Maybe regret over acting rashly. He seems like a very responsible person. Well, I won’t pry too deeply…
“And at that moment, I became the master of this dungeon… and returned to this form.”
Hold on, that part can’t be ignored.
“… Returned, you say?”
I asked, fidgeting with anticipation… and Gold Mine Dungeon-san said:
“To the appearance I had in my twenties. At the time, I was an old soldier past fifty.”
“And at the same time, I gained an enormous amount of mana…”
“Me too! Me toooo! I was originally nineteen, but I turned into, like, a seven-year-old!”
Sorry for interrupting, but I grabbed Gold Mine Dungeon-san’s hand inside the slime. Since it was through slime, all I felt was munyu! puyo! But that was fine!
“Waaaah! A comrade! There’s someone like meeee!”
“I’m glad for you, Asuma-sama…”
Finally! Finally, I met someone with the same suffering as me! Not an axolotl, an actual person! At last! Waaah!
“Umm, excuse me, but… what exactly is this…?”
As Gold Mine Dungeon-san stood there bewildered, Lisas-san gently filled him in.
“Ah, well… please leave him like this for a moment. Asuma-sama has been… troubled by issues regarding his age and physical body…”
That’s right! I’ve been troubled for so long! So please let me be like this for a bit! Thank you!
And while I was doing a celebratory dance inside the slime—
“… Forgive me for asking, but could it be that you are… Aura-sama, who once served as Vice-Commander of the First Royal Knights Order?”
Lisas-san asked that of Gold Mine Dungeon-san.
… Huh? An acquaintance?
What do you think about this chapter?
