RD | Chapter 28

Ian’s dungeon kept expanding endlessly. People who came after seeing the notice realized that their choice was not wrong.

Ian, the master of the village, was royalty. His subordinate revealed that he was “the son of a king,” so people knew that Ian was a noble person.

Even if that weren’t the case, Ian was someone who caught people’s attention. As he approached, those who had come to the dungeon village to survive flinched.

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Ian didn’t treat them harshly. He asked in a gentle tone:

“Name?”

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“Pardon?”

“I think I should at least know the names of people who have come into my village. Tell me your name. What should I call you?”

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“Me… someone like me? It’s Hobbs, Your Majesty.”

“It’s not Your Majesty.”

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“……?”

Ian personally met the vagrants and greeted them. His intention wasn’t to move them to tears; it was simply to learn their names.

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‘Indeed, no one above 4 stars.’

He had hoped for an easy gain. Most were ordinary people around 2 stars, not helpful for defense but useful for increasing the dungeon’s population.

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As Ian turned his head regretfully, Louise was looking at him with satisfaction.

‘……?’

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Ding!
[People consider you a benevolent ruler.]

‘Yeah, yeah.’

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Think about it a lot.

Ian wanted to quickly get rid of his tyrant reputation. Because of that reputation, he couldn’t do what he wanted properly.

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The forest around the dungeon was now completely Ian’s territory. Since Louise had set up numerous traps there, Ian could tell if someone had entered the entrance without even moving.

Trap installation itself was a skill. The moment a trap was triggered, you could know who had stepped on it.

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The traps had a ‘target setting’ feature, so they didn’t activate unless the target was hostile to the dungeon.

Crack!

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Upon hearing something break in his head, Louise immediately reported to Ian.

It’s not a person. An enemy has come.

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“There’s an intruder. The opponent is… a demon.”

“……!”

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Ding ding ding ding-!

An emergency was declared in the dungeon. As the alarm sounded, people dropped what they were doing and went into the caves assigned to their homes.

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“Ian, Hans is missing!”

Someone shouted then. Ian gritted his teeth.

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“Sema, check it out!”

“Yes, sir! <Water Mirror>!”

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Sema touched the spring with his staff. The magic succeeded at once, fortunately. However, whether that was truly fortunate was questionable.

“Aaaaah! Hans!”

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The farmer who reported Hans missing clutched his head.

The reflection in the water showed a corpse with one arm torn off by a demon. Ian, not even aware that his lips were bleeding, watched as the demon held Hans’s body and moved its mouth. That mouth was saying:

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Human scent.

Besides Hans, there were numerous human corpses. All those who had moved to the dungeon village after seeing the notice had become prey.

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Ian realized another fact. There wasn’t just one demon; there were several. And when several arrogant demons moved together, there was only one situation. When a noble higher in rank than them commanded them.

‘It’s not a demon archduke.’

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The game developers weren’t that crazy. Probably not. They wouldn’t send another one to deal with at this point after having sent one.

Of course, Ian had never attracted the demons’ aggression by destroying a coliseum and doing things like ‘public recruitment’ this early in the game…

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‘Is it a noble?’

A being who has pledged loyalty to a demon archduke and received a title based on their power and wisdom.

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They were the ones who actually governed the archduke’s land.

The demon burst into laughter and shouted, “So, it’s true that there’s no demon archduke!”

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Despite having entered deep into the territory, no demon came to block them. This confirmed the accuracy of the information. The demon’s laughter reached Ian. Since all actions of those who entered the ‘dungeon territory’ were visible and audible to Ian.

‘No.’

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The demon hadn’t crossed the territory of the southern demon archduke.

They had invaded Ian’s territory.

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Ian also understood why those demons had done such a risky thing. They thought no one could stop them if there was no demon archduke.

Surprisingly, that was true.

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With Ian’s current power, he couldn’t block a noble-level demon.

Since the southern archduke had disappeared, the demons eyeing the power vacuum wouldn’t suddenly fly in to defend this land. They needed to conserve their strength to vie for the next archduke position. Even if it would be their land once they became archduke, why would they expend energy defending a territory that wasn’t yet theirs?

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That was fundamentally how demons thought. Selfish and full of desire.

Ian’s dungeon couldn’t stop that demon noble…

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Ian roughly brushed his bangs back. Then, holding his forehead, he spoke, “We can’t deal with them inside the dungeon.”

“B-but how… They’ll soon detect our scent and locate us!”

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“I’ll go out and lure them away. In that gap, escape, Lord Ian.” Louise stepped forward.

Ian pushed him back and thought.

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So, that idea was… a good method if it worked, but if it didn’t, it would be disastrous.

‘No, think of another way.’

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Ian tried to think normally. However, the enemy was right in front of him, and his brain was always thinking, ‘Try something you’ve never done before. Are you even a gamer?’

He broke into a cold sweat.

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‘Will this really work?’

The laughter of the demon duke seemed to echo right in front of him. Ian had to make a decision before the dungeon was discovered.

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So, right now…

There was no other way.

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Ian sighed and put on the demon mask.

“Ian?!”

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“Come here, everyone. We have something to do.”

“……!”

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The subordinates included in the ‘everyone‘ Ian called gathered. Ian first bought a <Levitation> skill book with Sema’s experience points and thrust it into his arms.

“You learn this. …Everyone understands? If we fail, I die. Don’t feel pressured. Let’s do this well.”

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“How can we not feel pressured?!” Sema’s question spoke for everyone’s feelings.

Ian ignored it and ran down into the dungeon.

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‘There’s something to prepare.’

The byproducts of the demon archduke, abandoned in the dragon’s territory.

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The reason why that unknown subordinate, clearly not of the southern archduke, invaded the territory was clear.

Because there was no southern archduke.

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‘All we need to do is show that the archduke exists.’

Ian used <Purification> as minimally as possible, descending further and further. The demon archduke had neatly widened the hole, making it easier to go down than before.

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His HP was draining rapidly, though.

‘Should I use <Purification> one more time?’

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Ian thought about it but denied himself.

If he woke the dragon, it would be a big problem.

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This time, he couldn’t pull off something like II-Je. The dragon had exhausted too much power killing the southern archduke, and more importantly, it was a creature that couldn’t leave this cave. By the time the demon duke butchered the dragon, Ian’s party would already be dead.

Ian tried not to mind his HP, which was down to half, as he approached the dragon. Without using <Purification>, the dragon did not wake. It just lay there, unconscious, its scales, stained dark red by demonic energy, glistening.

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Passing by that huge body…

Ian succeeded in obtaining the necessary item from the corpse of the southern demon archduke.

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‘Done.’

Ian, checking his nearly depleted HP, madly dashed back up the cave.

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The western demon noble, enjoying the human hunt, suddenly looked up. An immense demonic energy was rapidly approaching.

All the demons stopped and turned to look in that direction.

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The southern demon archduke was known to be mentally unstable, but that wasn’t strange since most demons with demonic energy penetrating to their marrow were like that. However, the archduke’s peculiarity lay in his extreme sentimentality.

The archduke could pity the weak one day and then kill them for being dirty the next. One day he would weep over flowers, and the next, summon a storm to uproot a mountain.

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The whims of the southern archduke were almost like a disaster, impossible to predict.

Who could know what he was thinking?

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It’s wise to avoid disasters.

A pale face with scales peeking through, red horns, and a black cloak. Black hair swept back, black eyes gazing at them with melancholy.

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The sudden surge of powerful demonic energy.

‘Ah.’

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The western noble felt a chill.

The southern demon archduke was floating in the air, looking down at him.

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