“I see…”
“Honestly, with me around, a half-baked spy would just be redundant~”
“However, for the shop we’ve been holding onto — she may be exactly what’s needed.”
The Heavenly Kings’ read matches mine.
Spying is covered by Pilukaya. But getting that shop operational, something we demons have no use for on our own, requires the right person.
“You’re a reincarnate?”
“Yes! Absolutely! No sense of racial loyalty whatsoever!”
The girl answered Lady Fiona’s question without hesitation.
…The reincarnates I met before had tried to kill me for experience points.
So I killed them first. Is this girl different?
Or were they the exception — and most reincarnates don’t particularly care about which race they ended up in?
“Rei.”
“Yes.”
Lady Fiona’s voice pulled me back before I could sink too deep into that thought.
She looked at me with a serious expression and spoke slowly.
“Trust her and you may be betrayed. As demons, we are fundamentally incompatible with other races.”
…That’s fair.
Kunimatsu was the same — not all reincarnates need to be killed.
If this girl wants to cooperate, I’m willing to accept that.
But she might turn on us. As long as I don’t forget that, things should be fine.
“You came into this dungeon to fight demons, didn’t you?”
“N-no! After I was taken in as a beast-kin reincarnate, I couldn’t keep up with that fight-happy species at all… I was dragged here to prove myself, basically.”
So the beast-kin mentality hasn’t settled in yet.
Though eventually it probably will. The same way I’ve been getting used to being a demon.
“Even so, you were navigating the dungeon suspiciously well.”
“Th-that’s the goddess’s skill — worthless as it might be otherwise.”
So that was it.
Like Kunimatsu, she’s built more for investigation and evasion than direct combat.
“My skill is Options.”
“Options?”
Hearing the name didn’t clarify anything.
She seemed to pick up on that and started explaining.
“Yes — whenever I’m about to make a choice, my field of vision shows me the available options and their outcomes. That’s why I followed the beast-kin into the dungeon instead of refusing — refusing would have gone badly for me. And in the maze, I could just pick the safe path.”
…Sharing something that significant means she genuinely intends to switch sides.
So deliberately jumping into the pitfall — that was her optimal choice too?
“And the pitfall?”
“Going any further, every option ended in death… the only path where I survived was jumping in and then begging for my life.”
“So that’s why you jumped straight to offering to work the shop.”
“I mean… it sounded absurd even to me. But I’m still alive, so the option was correct.”
Convenient skill.
Knowing in advance whether any choice is right or wrong.
If she’s joined our side, does that mean we’re the faction that survives in the end?
No — that’s overreading it. Her skill only covers immediate situations. I shouldn’t put too much faith in that.
“Can the skill tell you whether things will go well for us — like, our decisions?”
“Ah… unfortunately it seems limited to my own actions. So no.”
Not omnipotent then.
It would’ve been useful for dungeon design — knowing which layout, which trap placement, what the right answer was.
Though even hypothetically, if she tried to use it for dungeon construction, the skill would probably return every option as invalid since she doesn’t have the Dungeon Master skill. Dead end.
“So Rei — what do you want to do?”
“…If she has no hostile intent, I’d be willing to put her in charge of the shop. But keeping someone on to watch her around the clock seems—”
Before I could finish, Pilukaya pointed to himself.
“I can see pretty much anywhere.”
“True…”
“If she tries anything, I can have her incinerated pretty quickly.”
“Right — that works. Pilukaya, can I ask you to keep watch?”
Pilukaya is more than adequate for this.
Even if she tried something, she’s not taking down a Heavenly King easily.
And if she somehow managed it, it’s an instance — the main body would have the information immediately.
Reliable on all counts.
“As expected of Pilukaya-sama. Always dependable.”
“Well, I am talented~ Pleasure working with you. And for the record — do something funny and you get burned.”
“Th-thank you!”
“I won’t tell you not to betray us. We’re demons — we operate on the assumption that other races will eventually turn on us.”
“I wouldn’t—”
Not a companion. Not a subordinate. Lady Fiona accepted the beast-kin reincarnate as someone who would, in all likelihood, betray them eventually.
“So — name? If we’re going to be working together, it’s inconvenient not to know.”
“Oh, yes! My name is Tokitou Serika!”
“I’m Pilukaya.”
“Primila.”
“I’m Izumi Rei.”
Simple introductions, names only. Lady Fiona did not offer her own name.
“The Demon Lord.”
The expression she wore as she said it wasn’t the Lady Fiona I’d come to know.
Pilukaya had said she’d changed — but maybe this was what the Demon Lord had always been, before everything that had happened.
“Let’s go show you the shop.”
Whatever each party’s intentions, Tokitou had become part of the Demon Lord’s Army.
For now, I’d start by taking her to her new workplace.
◇
“The inventory’s laid out for now, but consistent restocking may be tricky.”
“Meaning some items can’t be refilled.”
“Food and low-tier consumables are fairly steady. Those should hold.”
I’d been guided to just inside the entrance.
When I first came in, I’d noticed something odd about the wall here — slightly off.
The muscle-brains hadn’t registered it, and I’d known without using my skill that telling them would get exactly the response of who cares, so I’d filed it away and moved on.
But I hadn’t expected to find an actual shop hidden behind it.
A demon guy — probably around my age, and from the same world — was explaining how things worked.
There was a lot of food and items on offer, but would anyone actually buy things from a shop inside a dungeon?
…Options. About how I should do my job here.
1. Work to generate sales → Valued by the Demon Lord’s Army. 2. Work to avoid generating sales → Continue as caretaker for surplus goods, no change in standing. 3. Work half-heartedly → Expelled from the Demon Lord’s Army. 4. Fully cooperate with intruders → Die in a fire.
Reassuring, actually. The outcomes are surprisingly reasonable.
As long as I work, I’m treated as part of the Army.
Even if I slack off, I just get sent away — not killed.
I’d assumed something calling itself a Demon Lord’s Army would have me working like a slave, but this seems… livable.
…The last one’s obvious, though.
It means I can’t tip off intruders, can’t sell them things that help them crack the dungeon.
That crosses into betrayal, and that Demon Lord would probably kill me with fire or something.
Right. Something to be careful about.
For now — I should ask Izumi-san what I’m allowed to sell and what I’m not.
◇
“W-welcome…”
“Wait, isn’t that the scaredy-cat?”
“It is. What’s she doing here?”
After Serika asked what she was allowed to sell, I’d decided she could offer items and equipment — but nothing too powerful. Selling things that made the dungeon easier to clear would undermine the whole point.
So: only items unrelated to traps and monsters. With that settled, we opened.
And she was already dealing with beast-kin.
“W-well… I was too scared to go further, so I thought I’d sell things here that might help everyone out.”
“Same as ever. Still pathetic.”
“Oh, food? And recovery items? If you’re selling those here, we don’t have to pack our own.”
…The beast-kin bought from the suspicious shop without a moment’s hesitation.
Because they recognized her. That’s why they didn’t question it.
If that’s the case, pulling in a reincarnate who had connections to the beast-kin village might have been luckier than it looked.
The beast-kin who’d strutted into the dungeon came sprinting back out with desperate expressions.
By the look of things, the recovery items from the shop were what kept some of them alive.
They’ll be back at that shop next visit.
We couldn’t wipe anyone out this run, so the mana increase was a bit below the usual.
But trying too hard to wipe everyone out and overloading the dungeon with new traps and monsters would probably draw a worse class of intruder.
“The balance is still hard to get right…”