“I don’t think it’s right that I keep getting left out.”
“That’s true.”
She called me to the throne room and hit me with that out of nowhere.
She probably wants to say it to Primila, but by telling me — with Primila standing right there — she’s conveying it without facing her directly.
In other words, she doesn’t want to get lectured.
Pilukaya is here too, but he’s got an instance running surveillance on the auxiliary dungeon right now.
No need to worry about that side of things — but honestly, that gives me a reason to want to be over there instead.
I don’t want to get caught in the middle of Lady Fiona and Primila’s argument. Or rather, Primila’s lecture.
“In that case, I should go check on the auxiliary dungeon —”
“You too?! You’re going to abandon me and run?!”
“The other side’s fine, I’ve got it covered~”
“Yes, as expected of Pilukaya. Reviving you was absolutely the right call.”
Curse you, Pilukaya.
Though of course he’d side with Lady Fiona — she is the Demon Lord.
Nothing to be done. I’ll face this seriously.
“Looks like that’s the situation. Primila.”
“…Then let me ask — does my liege wish to join us in managing the auxiliary dungeon?”
“Oh, I don’t need to actually do that. I’m happy to leave that part to all of you. I’ll just watch quietly from the back.”
Then staying in the throne room replenishing mana is functionally the same thing…
Wait — she said she didn’t want to be left out.
…Is Lady Fiona lonely?
“Then why not stay with us while you channel mana into the throne room? You could do both at once.”
I don’t know if remote channeling works like that, but if it does, everyone gets what they want.
If it doesn’t — at minimum we could share Pilukaya’s field of view with her. He’d be happy to do that for Lady Fiona’s sake.
“That’s it! As expected of Rei. Starting today, I’ll channel mana from the same place as all of you.”
“As long as the reserve mana gets replenished, I won’t object to the method…”
“Then let’s head to the workplace right away!”
She took the lead with unusual enthusiasm.
Well — if Lady Fiona is in good spirits, that’s probably a good thing.
“And she claims she has no motivation to run the dungeon. Remarkable~”
“Don’t say that where Lady Fiona can hear or she’ll spiral.”
“I know. And Rei wouldn’t go tattling anyway — I know who I can say things to.”
Fair enough. Pilukaya is good at that. Unnecessary worry on my part.
◇
“Alright, sharing my field of view with the Demon Lord too~”
“Yes, bring it on.”
Nothing out of the ordinary — a handful of adventurers trickling into the dungeon.
According to Pilukaya and Primila, these ones are still nothing remarkable. Low-rank guild work is their usual, and they pose no real threat, so we can watch at ease.
“The first room gets cleared fairly often.”
“Well, it is the first room.”
Wipe them out there and the dungeon immediately gets a reputation as dangerous.
The goblins won’t like it, but their job in that room is essentially to be defeated.
“Do you refill the goblins yourself each time they’re killed, Rei?”
“Yes — apparently if I select the same goblin type to create, the same individual revives. So they’ve been getting better at it. At playing dead.”
The goblins in the first room have already started faking their deaths.
…Are goblins actually fairly intelligent?
“Oh, a treasure chest.”
“No.”
“I know! I’m channeling mana to the throne room properly!”
Primila’s reaction was instantaneous. And so was Lady Fiona’s defense.
These are the upper ranks of the Demon Lord’s Army… though calling that a waste of their Agility stats isn’t entirely wrong.
“Still, what a shame… to think someone would just open a plain wooden chest like that. If I channeled mana into it, it would become a top-tier chest immediately…”
“My liege?”
“Hypothetically speaking.”
She clearly has strong feelings about this.
I would make one, you know. It only costs five mana.
But she can’t use it for that right now, and leaving her in a state of wanting-but-can’t seems worse than not making one at all.
“…”
She’s staring at me, but making a chest now would only be harder on Lady Fiona.
“I’ll make one once the throne room is sorted.”
“And here I thought you were on my side, Rei…”
“I’m saying this because I’m on your side…”
“In any case — Rei-sama’s mana is needed for dungeon expansion, renovation, and maintaining the auxiliary dungeon as it is. Please don’t encourage waste.”
Primila nails it down firmly.
Reliable as ever. Though she never actually complains about how I use my mana — that’s always been up to me. I’ll make something for Lady Fiona eventually.
“My mana has been increasing since the auxiliary dungeon went up, so it should be fine.”
“As expected of Rei! Oh — is the auxiliary dungeon contributing to that?”
“Yes — even when I haven’t made any changes to the dungeon, I’ve had my mana increase suddenly.”
“…So. Intruders defeated in Rei’s dungeon also contribute to Rei’s growth.”
Lady Fiona is quick when she’s focused.
When she’s being serious, the conversation moves fast. When she’s being serious…
If she could just stay a little more motivated, lay off the chest gacha, and get her sleep schedule under control — she’d be flawless.
“Are you thinking something rude?”
“Not at all. I was thinking Lady Fiona is perfect.”
“I-is that so? Really? Do I really come across that way~?”
Not a lie. Just not the whole truth.
In high spirits, Lady Fiona settled in to watch the adventurers pushing further into the dungeon.
…Is that a snack in her hand? She’s completely watching this like it’s television.
“Even the higher-tier goblins are giving some of these adventurers real trouble.”
Right — that’s one of the dividing lines for intruders.
This group… they’ll probably push through this part. Which means they might actually have enough for the boss room.
“Finally the boss room… oh, a treasure chest.”
“No one’s managed to collect it yet. It’s absorbed a fair amount of dungeon mana by now.”
“Still well below the threshold of being a threat to us. No need to swap it out.”
Primila’s addendum.
Now that she mentions it — when exactly should I swap it? I don’t have a good sense of the mana levels, so maybe I should just go by how it looks.
“Once the appearance upgrades to the next tier, maybe that’s when to swap it out?”
“…It still wouldn’t be a threat at that point, but it is a gray area. In terms of completing this auxiliary dungeon, what it yields could become reasonably useful.”
“Hmm… honestly, having someone collect it sooner rather than later might be easier to manage.”
“Then let this group clear it?”
“Yeah, let’s — oh.”
I was starting to issue a simple instruction to the Goblin King when we all watched the adventurers get wiped out by the goblin horde.
It’s the boss room after all… stronger than anything before, but maybe too strong a jump?
If I’m adjusting the balance, reducing the number of Goblin Mages would be the place to start — the mutual buffing between goblins is the whole source of their strength, and one fewer buffer would change things.
Balancing this is hard.
“They were defeated.”
“Yes — next time a group of similar strength shows up, I’ll give the goblins instructions in advance.”
Putting strong items in adventurers’ hands now would create headaches later. Better to wait for someone around that strength to try again.
Izumi Rei — Mana: 23 / Strength: 12 / Technique: 18 / Fortitude: 18 / Agility: 15
Mana went up again. Defeating intruders in the dungeon feeds directly into my strength, it seems.
In that case, I need to keep managing the flow of intruders carefully.