Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 6

Plunderer Roundup 

Satou here. The saying If there’s one, there’s a hundred is about cockroaches, but it seems like thieves have a similarly high reproductive rate. If only someone would invent a spray or poison trap that worked on thieves. 

“Now, I guess I’ll start by finding the plunderers’ hideout on the map…” 

Arriving in our labyrinth vacation home via teleportation, I transformed into Kuro and searched for the location of the plunderers. 

They seemed to have four major bases and more than ten smaller ones. 

Near the base closest to where we’d captured Ludaman, there was an area containing the captive women. 

Judging by their positions, I would probably have to deal with the nearby plunderers before I could rescue them. 

Investigating my best route on the map, I used the Space Magic spell Clairvoyance to investigate the area in question. 

“Looks like trouble.” 

The base was more complicated than I thought, with paths that were difficult to enter and easy to flee. There were slopes and ledges that they could easily slide and jump down to escape, while invading would mean a lot of difficult uphill climbing. 

I could see why the labyrinth army couldn’t capture all the plunderers if their hideouts were like this. 

If they tried to go and fight them head-on, it would be like attacking an impregnable fortress. The plunderers could send out a few disposable underlings to distract them and scatter through the many escape routes. 

“…That doesn’t matter to me, though, since I can fly.” 

Closing the map, I used Return to teleport to the closest seal slate to the hideout. 

It was a corner of a partially underwater area where I’d planned on leveling up my party next. 

The fastest route from here would be to go by way of the sections where we’d rescued the labyrinth army soldiers before. 

I marked out the route on my map, turning the markers visible so I could navigate like a GPS, and started my rapid approach. 

Along the way, I did my best to ignore and avoid any monsters I ran into. 

Passing through the second area, my curiosity was piqued by monsters I’d never seen before, but I forced myself to avoid engaging with them. 

“Ooh, a natural golem.” 

It looked flat and smooth, without any joints, but it still walked toward me and brought down its fist. 

I dodged the fist lightly, admiring the various kinds of golems that gathered as I dashed away from them. 

Many of them were made of mud or stone, but some even looked like they could be melted into bronze or iron. There were even some made of crystal, but sadly no silver or gold varieties. 

I might be able to find that kind with a map search, but I could think about that after this rescue mission was completed. 

Using “Warp” to dodge around the assorted golems’ fists, I left the golem area behind. 

“I should be in the plunderer area soon…” 

Avoiding the slopes and cracks with “Skyrunning,” I arrived at the point of the plunderers’ lookout. 

Turning all my stealth and spying skills up to the max, I warped soundlessly through the passages. 

Where is he? 

My radar showed the dots indicating a plunderer guard, but I didn’t see one anywhere. 

Oh, over there. 

The plunderer was perfectly camouflaged against the wall. 

I used “Warp” to land directly in front of him and knocked him out before he even noticed I was there. 

This seemed to deactivate the camouflage, revealing almost grayish skin. 

He was totally naked, too. I guess the camouflage didn’t work on clothes. 

I didn’t particularly care to see a nude man, so I covered him with some rags and tied him up. 

Although even if it had been a woman, I didn’t think I was advanced enough to be attracted to someone with a face like a chameleon monster. 

His face must have been warped by demonic potion, just like Ludaman’s. 

I picked up the captured plunderer with Magic Hand and carried him along. 

Of course, I could’ve just left him there, but I didn’t want to come back to find a corpse half-eaten by some monster. 

Placing a seal slate and using Return every time I captured someone would’ve been way too much of a pain. 

“Ooh, so this is the trap level?” 

My “Trap Detection” skill informed me that there were several traps up ahead. 

Beyond the traps, a weak-looking plunderer was dozing off in the middle of the passageway. 

Actually, this guy might be one of the traps, too. 

Standing in front of him was a transparent monster called a “wall slime” that appeared to be trained by the plunderer. 

I’d seen monsters like this once in a famous tabletop RPG I played a long time ago. 

If I hadn’t noticed the red dot on my radar, I might have approached to capture the plunderer and run right into the wall slime. 

“All right, I can’t be wasting time here.” 

I used Magic Hand to push the plunderer from behind, sending him right into the wall slime. 

Obviously, he panicked and started flailing around inside the creature’s goo. 

In the meantime, I crossed over the traps with “Skyrunning,” then used a pebble to shoot out the oil slime’s core right as it extended a tendril toward me. 

Next, I produced a Thunder Rod from Storage and used it to electrocute the plunderer in the slime’s remains, rendering him immobile. 

“…Ew.” 

The man twitching on the ground was sticky with slime. 

If I knocked him out with a punch, it might get on my clothes, so I used Magic Hand to strike the chameleon plunderer’s head against his, then tied him up with the same spell. 

“This one’s face is warped, too…” 

The upper half of the man’s face was covered in murky blue crystals. 

Maybe there were more people who’d been transfigured by demonic potion than I realized. 

Next, I snuck through a corridor patrolled by an areamaster-class monster, then used “Warp” to get through a narrow passage populated by poisonous bugs and shadow monsters, until finally I came upon the first outpost of the plunderers. 

“Looks like the real fight starts here.” 

Two lookouts with bows were standing around chatting. 

There was a total of ten plunderers at the outpost; one of them was in the 30s, but the rest were all level 10 and below. 

My first order of business was to deal with the one with skills like “Sprinting” and “Off-Road Running” before he escaped. 

Not that it would matter if the noise of the battle alerted the rest of the base anyway. 

Once I’d finished assessing the situation on my map, I thought about using Clairvoyance to scout things out but decided against it and closed my magic menu. 

I didn’t want some plunderer with sharp senses to notice me doing it. 

Instead, I put down the two plunderers I was carrying with Magic Hand, then landed right in front of the two guards with “Flashrunning.” 

“Wh—?” 

“Y—” 

Before they could complete a word, I knocked both of them out with a few swift punches. 

There didn’t seem to be walls around the outpost, so I could see the rest of the plunderers from here. 

One sharp-eyed plunderer noticed me and immediately tried to break into a run. 

I don’t think so. 

I jumped in front of the plunderers with “Warp,” then quickly knocked out the rabbitfolk plunderer with the “Sprinting” skill. 

“What the—?” 

Once the rest of the plunderers reached for their weapons, I brought them down one by one with artful steps. 

When I hit one of them, he emitted a red light. 

According to my AR, it was a buff called Demonic Body, a special side effect of overdosing on demonic potion. 

“Boss!” 

Oh? 

One of the plunderers who I thought I’d knocked out was pulling himself up and shouting. 

I dealt another blow to the unexpectedly tough plunderer, knocking him out properly this time. 

It was the one who’d let off the red light before, so on top of creating some kind of barrier, Demonic Body seemed to increase the user’s endurance and strength as well. 

For me, it just made him a little more annoying to deal with, but it might pose a serious challenge to a fighter on a similar level. 

“Never seen you before. Are you a garnet-badge explorer?” 

A half-naked man in his thirties swaggered out of the shadows, looking like a self-styled big shot. 

“Your Wolfsbane, comrade.” 

A completely naked man emerged from behind the half-naked one, handing him a spear with a black blade. 

“Wolfsbane” must be the name of the Magic Spear. 

“Think you can just show up and interrupt my fun? I’ll be killin’ you slowly, mate.” 

The half-naked man swallowed what appeared to be demonic potion. Red magic circles glowed on his body for a moment, then disappeared as jet-black scales grew over his arms. 

“Demon Armor—Black Scales.” 

As he uttered what must have been an activation phrase, a pair of bumps on his forehead grew into two horns. 

It was a pretty cheesy name, but the overall effect was that of a pretty cool antihero. 

“Bwa-ha-ha, cower in fear! For he is none other than the right-hand man of Plunderer King Ludaman: Demon Warrior Kurse!” 

The naked man sneered as he introduced the half-naked warrior. 

That’s great and all, but could you put some clothes on, please? 

“Come at me, user of the black arts! But paralytic poison won’t work on the likes of me!” 

I was actually empty-handed, but since I’d defeated all his comrades in an instant, he must have assumed that I had a hidden dagger coated with paralytic poison. 

“Or are you too scared?” 

Kurse brandished his Magic Spear and bucked his horns intimidatingly. 

He had skills like “Spear,” “Blink,” and even the unusual “Counterattack.” 

That must be why he wanted me to attack him first. 

This was a rare chance, so I decided to lower my attacks to a speed at which he could counterattack it so that I could learn the skill, too. 

I produced a cheap dagger from Storage, moved toward him slowly enough to avoid using “Blink,” and jabbed at the man. 

“Tch. Not bad, assassin!” 

I had tried to hold back considerably, but it took all the man had just to dodge, so he wasn’t able to counterattack. 

Oh, all right. Tossing the dagger aside, I swung a straightforward telephone punch at him instead. 

“Bad move, mate! Demon Wolf’s Fang!” 

Shouting some kind of attack name, the man unleashed a counterattack. 

Black mist whirled around his spear, spinning like a drill as it zoomed toward me. 

If I let that hit me, it’d probably hurt. 

I held up a magic-armored hand to knock the spear away before it hit me, then used the other hand to strike him right in the jaw. 

The red light around the man’s body disappeared. 

> Skill Acquired: “Counterattack” 

Sweet, I got the skill. 

“Guuuuuh!” 

The warrior unleashed an animalistic yell and managed to stay standing. 

I thought that attack would knock him out, but he was tougher than I thought. 

I grabbed his shoulder with one hand, smacking him around with the other hand to render him unconscious. 

“B… Bwuh…” 

He seemed to be trying to say something, but the rapid blows to his cheeks prevented him from speaking properly, and finally he passed out. 

“Let go of him!” 

The naked man raised a scimitar and charged at me. 

He should be the last plunderer in the area. 

My new “Counterattack” skill helped me block and counter the attack with just the right timing. 

I followed its guidance and swung my fist and was able to knock him out with even less strength than usual. 

Well, fractionally less anyway. 

“Now, it would be a pain to carry all these guys around…” 

I surveyed the plunderers lying strewn across the floor. 

There was a perfectly sized patch of exposed dirt in one corner, and I couldn’t really make a pit here due to the nature of the labyrinth, so I decided to make a temporary jail. 

I tied up the men, disarmed them, and collected them all on the patch of earth. 

Just as I was about to use the Earth Magic spell Wall from my magic menu, I heard a battle cry from one of the plunderers. 

“My slime is the strongeeeeest!” 

The second plunderer I’d defeated, the slime fellow, had recovered and was charging at me. 

Judging by the red light around him, he must have popped some demonic potion while I wasn’t looking. 

He had cut through the ropes around him with crystalline claws that had sprouted from his fingers. 

“Take thiiiiis!” 

“…Yeeesh!” 

Slimy tentacles sprouted from his mouth and nose, startling me into making a strange noise. 

“What is this, a freak show?” 

Muttering to myself, I saw in my AR that the tentacles were a monster called a Parasite Slime. They must have been living in the man’s body. 

If I hadn’t electrocuted him with the Thunder Rod before, these slimes might’ve come out to attack me the first time. 

I didn’t want to have a hand-to-hand fight with this sticky weirdo, so I used my go-to, Magic Hand, to grab his legs and pull him to the ground. 

Before he could get up, I pulled out the Thunder Rod and paralyzed him along with the parasitic slimes. 

“You’re not getting away!” 

The chameleon man tried to escape while I was dealing with the slime man, but I used a stone spear from Storage to pin him to the wall. 

The demonic potion must have permanently altered their bodies to recover more quickly. 

“Kwaaaaeo!” 

Even their screams didn’t sound human. 

I hit the chameleon man harder than before to knock him out, propped him up next to the other plunderers, and started making a prison with Wall to trap them in. 

Even these superhuman freaks shouldn’t be able to bust through a fifteen-foot-thick earth wall. 

The particularly tough half-naked man, Kurse, was already recovering, and I heard him cursing through the small air hole. 

“Sit tight. I’ll come back to collect you later.” 

With that, I left the plunderer outpost behind. 

After taking down a few more lookout posts, I finally arrived at the main hideout. 

It had taken about a half hour from my arrival via Return. Maybe I wasted too much time. 

“Security is one’s greatest enemy, you know.” 

As one of the sentries of the main hideout yawned, I snuck up behind him and incapacitated him. 

Quickly assessing the base on my map, I determined the best way to reach the captives, as well as an escape route. 

“Hmm, how about a blockade?” 

I used Earth Magic to create a giant wall blocking the four main passages. 

The bare earth wasn’t exposed in this area, but I was still able to make a wall by using three to five times more magic than usual. 

That made a slightly more brittle wall than it normally would, but I just made it extra thick to make up for that. 

“Wh-what the?!” 

“Those labyrinth bastards are serious this time!” 

“A wall?!” 

Ignoring the voices of panicking plunderers, I used “Flashrunning” to charge at the main building, to make a single opening. 

Flexible Shield! 

Right before I collided with the building, I used the intermediate Practical Magic spell Flexible Shield to soften the impact. 

The wall I’d crashed into broke open like Styrofoam, alarming the plunderers inside with a boom and a cloud of dust. 

> Title Acquired: Attacker 

“W-we’re under attack!” 

“Is it other plunderers?!” 

“No, only a demon could do something like this!” 

A demon? How rude. 

Oops. One of the plunderers was trying to escape through a secret exit. 

I used “Warp” to appear in front of him, stomping down the stone cover he was attempting to lift. 

“Good call, but you’re a little too late.” 

“Tch, masked bastard!” 

The plunderer whipped out a sword from his belt and slashed at me. 

The black blade emitted a red light as it swung through the air. 

“A cursed sword, huh?” 

According to the AR, it was a magic one-handed sword from the labyrinth. 

The information displayed didn’t mention that it was cursed, but it was pitch-black when I turned on my “Miasma Vision” for a moment, so there was little doubt. 

Pulling out a cheap dagger again, I parried the plunderer’s sword. 

The dagger broke with a sharp clang. 

I guess cheap weapons aren’t very durable. 

“What, did you crack it with some stupid attack?” 

Seeing my weapon break, the plunderer sneered nastily and licked his blade. 

It was only then that I noticed that his tongue was forked like a snake’s. 

On closer inspection, his arms were longer than normal, too. 

“Diiiiie!” 

“Yer goin’ doooown!” 

The other plunderers started bellowing and charging at me, too, encouraged by their comrade’s apparent advantage in battle. 

These guys all had strange physical traits, too, like insect- or crab-like carapaces on their limbs or animallike fur. 

One of them was even a snake from the head up, but that was because he was a race of beastfolk called “snake-headed folk.” 

“Raaah!” 

“Take thiiis!” 

As the plunderers attacked from all sides, I swung a stone spear from Storage to knock them all back. 

It wasn’t too strong a swing, but it still knocked all of them into the walls. 

“Wh-where’d this bastard come from?” 

“Tch! A mage?” 

“There was no chant. Must be a magic tool!” 

Bzzzt. It’s a Unique Skill. 

“Use the drugs, boys! No holding back now! Don’t let this crazy masked bastard get away alive!” 

Seeing his comrades at a loss, the Magic Sword wielder shouted instructions. 

He must have been left in charge while Ludaman was away. 

“This’ll be easy. When we’ve had demonic potion, we can take on an enemy above level ten no problem!” 

As the plunderers scrambled for their demonic potions, the leader put on a bluffing leer, displaying a fang-like dogtooth. 

Sorry, but ten levels isn’t going to do much. You’re still 280 levels short. 

“Rrrrgh!” 

“Here gooooes!” 

Once the group had taken the dangerous drug, they entered an overdose state. 

The red magic circles that appeared on their body seeped into their skin, warping their bodies even further. 

Some grew horns, some had blades burst out of their upper arms, and some grew feathered or leathery wings. 

They were like crude mash-ups of humans and monsters. 

“That’s freaky,” I muttered. 

“Heh, someone who’s never taken demonic potion wouldn’t understand this all-powerful feeling!” an effeminate man boasted. 

“Here comes Red-Blade Garon, the Plunderer King Ludaman’s number one warrior!” 

“I’m the top warrior here! Black-Blade Ashiro—special move Armor-Piercing Blade!” 

“Already?! Fine, then I’ll use my secret technique, Triple Lava Attack!” 

The leader with the black blade and the effeminate man with the red blade bantered with each other as they both launched some kind of special attack. 

With the enhancement from the demonic potion, they moved remarkably quickly. 

The leader’s was a slashing attack, while the other man’s was stabbing. 

Of course, with skills like “Foresight: Versus Human,” I could intercept the attacks, but instead I decided to break their hearts by countering with a secret move of my own. 

“Sixfold Rapid Attack.” 

It was a special move I’d learned from Hayato, Hero of the Saga Empire, in the old capital. 

I struck in six quick flashes of my spear, narrowly avoiding directly piercing the plunderers, who were sent flying with a spray of blood. 

They burst through the wall of the building, the shock wave knocking out the rest of the lowly plunderers with ease. 

The stone spear crumbled in my hands, unable to withstand the force of the move. Then, with a loud crash, the building collapsed, too. 

Escaping into the air with “Skyrunning,” I watched the plunderers from the ceiling. 

The stone spear hadn’t even grazed them, but the shock wave had done considerable damage. 

The Hero’s move was an impressive one, all right. 

It wasn’t quite what I’d planned, but the plunderers outside were too stunned to move, so I used Remote Stun from the magic menu. 

The target marks in my AR locked onto the plunderers, one after another. 

“Fire.” 

As the plunderers stared at the ruins of the building, mouths agape, I treated them to a rain of 120 Remote Stuns. 

The Magic Bullets knocked them down one by one, but the ones cloaked with the red light of Demonic Body hadn’t been knocked out completely and started taking cover in the shadows. 

These guys who were overdosing on demonic potion were a major pain. 

This time, instead of the Remote Stun spell I normally reserved for people, I selected the Short Stun spell I reserved for monsters. 

Another invisible rain of bullets came down, hitting the plunderers along with the other facilities of the base. 

Short Stun was too powerful to leave them totally intact, since it could break even the hardest of monster carapaces, so most of the plunderers were knocked out with serious injuries. 

One of them sensed the non-homing Short Stun somehow and managed to dodge it instinctively, but I took care of him with my fist. 

“Now it’s time to rescue the captives, right?” I murmured to myself as I tied up the forty or so plunderers. 

Because I was getting a little tired, I forgot to disguise my voice, but it wasn’t as if anyone was listening. 

Opening the map, I reassessed my position. 

The captives were being held in an area several rooms away. 

Dots indicated two people were approaching from that direction. 

“Huh? Did I go the wrong way?” 

One was a plunderer, and the other… 

“Let go of me, you brute!” 

“You got grit, eh, noble girl? I like that.” 

I heard their voices from the other side of the wall I’d used to seal off the passage. 

“Maybe I’ll just have a taste right here?” 

“If you lay a hand on me, you won’t get your ransom money!” 

“Bwa-ha-ha!” 

“What’s so funny?!” 

“Yer parents have already given up on you, girlie.” 

“Th-that can’t be!” 

This was a pretty awful conversation. 

“I like seeing that look on a high-class girlie…” 

“Wh-what do you think you’re doing?!” 

“Heh-heh, just havin’ some fun while Ludaman’s away!” 

I heard the sound of fabric tearing, so I removed the wall and sprang between them. 

“Wh-who are you?! There ain’t no one with white hair in our gang!” 

“A mask?” 

Both of them looked at me in surprise. 

I was currently disguised as Kuro, covering the top half of my face with a white mask. 

The scar on my cheek was visible on the lower half of my face. 

“Die!” 

The plunderer pulled out a knife and charged. 

He didn’t seem to be using demonic potion, so I used the help of my “Abduction” skill to knock him out without killing him, albeit a little painfully. 

“That takes care of the last piece of garbage in this dump.” 

I tried to imitate the voice and mannerisms of the movie character I’d based Kuro on. 

“Th-thank you for saving me.” 

The young woman I’d rescued, who was blond and around twenty years old, covered her exposed chest as she thanked me. 

“I am Eluterina Rondorbell. My father is a baron, and my grandfather is Marquis Kelten, who has great military clout. I’m sure he can grant any wish you might have as thanks.” 

Having been held captive for so long, the young noblewoman was dirty, a bit smelly, and so on, but she was probably quite beautiful when properly clean. 

I opened my Item Box and gave her some cloth with which to cover her chest. 

“So please, could you rescue the women being held captive inside as well?” 

“I don’t need any thanks. I came to rescue the plunderers’ captives, so that’s what I’ll do.” 

As I nodded, I couldn’t help admiring the noblewoman for asking me to save everyone instead of trying to escape with me right away. 

Normally, it would be a pretty tall order, but for me, it shouldn’t be a problem. 

“M-might I ask your name?” 

“I am Kuro, a follower of Nanashi the Hero.” 

This was the role I’d come up with while knocking out the plunderers. 

“The Hero…?” 

Behind her, I saw one of the plunderers twitch a finger. 

I’d better take care of them first. 

“Just a moment.” 

“A-all right…” 

As I made the forty or so plunderers float in the air, the young woman let out a gasp. 

“Wh-when did he recite that chant…?” 

My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up her nearly inaudible murmur. 

Oh right. Chant-less magic is a trick that only heroes and reincarnations can usually do, huh? 

I wasn’t particularly planning to hide my power as Kuro, but I wouldn’t want to give away any information that might make me easier to identify, either. 

From now on, I would mutter things like “float” and “teleport” using “Ancient Language” and use the Illusion spell to produce some special effects, so I could claim that I was using an ancient treasure. 

“B-but Magic Hand shouldn’t be able to lift this many people… Is it some sort of skill?” 

She didn’t have any magic skills, but she seemed pretty knowledgeable about Practical Magic. 

“It’s an ancient treasure I received from my leader.” 

“An ancient treasure…” 

The noblewoman murmured to herself in wonder. 

“I’ll be back. Don’t move—just wait in this room. Teleport!” 

I pressed a canteen of water into the girl’s hands, then teleported to another room in the labyrinth with the plunderers in tow. 

It was a room where my group had wiped out all the monsters back in our second round of labyrinth exploration. 

This was one of the few places in the labyrinth with exposed earth where Earth Magic was permitted, which was why I’d chosen it as the spot to temporarily keep all the plunderers. 

I could’ve just brought them to the first outpost where I’d made a jail, but it would’ve been a pain to round up the plunderers from all the other outposts and put them there, so I picked this large space instead. 

I put the disarmed plunderers in the area of the soon-to-be second jail, then raised a thick earth wall to the ceiling to shut them in. 

The floor and sides were reinforced to prevent them from digging out. Even if they had handy skills or superhuman strength, they shouldn’t be able to escape for at least the next few days. 

Some of them also seemed to be female, so I put the men and women into separate jails, just in case. 

It took only a second anyway, since I was using the Wall spell. 

I wasn’t leaving them any food, but I did supply them with a few casks of water. They would probably be fine for a few days. 

Oh right. 

I contacted Lelillil in the Ivy Manor with the Telephone spell. 

“Lelillil, I’m going to be bringing several victims soon who were captured by plunderers. Can you make some preparations?” 

“Of course, Lord Satou! Shall I prepare private rooms for them?” 

I thought for a moment. 

The captives had probably gone through terrible ordeals, so it was probably best not to leave them alone. 

“Could you prepare one big room and a few shared bedrooms for them, please?” 

“Yes! Right away, sir! I won’t let you down!!” 

Lelillil gave an energetic affirmative. 

Thanking her, I used Return to go back to a seal slate I’d left near the room in the hideout where the noblewoman was waiting. 

“Wh-who’s there?!” 

As soon as I entered the hideout, the blond noblewoman brandished a kitchen knife at me. 

She must have found one the plunderers had been using. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting.” 

“L-Lord Kuro!” 

…“Lord”? 

“Let’s go rescue the others.” 

“O-of course. I’ll show you the way.” 

She started to take the lead, but I put a hand on her shoulder. 

“Sorry. I know you might not want a man to touch you right now, but bear with me a minute, all right?” 

With that, I lifted her up bridal-style. 

She trembled in surprise, but judging by her red cheeks and her expression, she didn’t seem to object. 

“I-I’m sorry?” 

“If you’re scared, just close your eyes.” 

“R-right! It’s my first time, so please be gentle…” 

She seemed to have misunderstood. Regardless, I placed Enchant: Physical Protection on her for safety, then sped toward the room with the captives with repeated use of “Warp.” 

She must be pretty brave to make a joke like that after how the plunderers may have mistreated her. 

Using the map, I kept zooming forward, and we arrived in a matter of seconds. 

“Is it on the other side of this boulder?” 

“Y-yes, thasss right…” 

She mumbled incoherently, dizzy from the high speed. 

Moving aside the boulder and the steel stay bar, I stepped into the dark room where the women were being held. 

I could see fields where plants that looked like black-grained barley and dark-red wheat were growing. 

Those must be the ruination weeds and destruction stalks, the main ingredients of demonic potion. Ruination barley and destruction wheat would’ve been more accurate, if you ask me. 

The living quarters of the captives seemed to be farther inside. 

“Eluterina!” 

“Leader!” 

As we entered the room, two girls, one with chestnut hair and one redhead, came running up to embrace the noblewoman. 

They appeared to be explorer buddies, both from noble families. 

To keep things from getting too confusing, I’ll just refer to the noblewoman I first met as the “blond noblewoman.” 

“I’m here to save you. Bring everyone here. If there’s anything you want to take with you, grab that, too.” 

The girls looked at me suspiciously, but when they saw Eluterina nod, they let out cries of joy. 

Drawn by their voices, the women who’d been gathering at a distance came over, too. 

There was a total of forty-three people here, all women. 

For some reason, six of them were still cooped up in an area separate from the main living quarters. 

“Is this everyone?” 

“There are also four doctors and one alchemist. Polina went to get them, so they should be here soon.” 

“I see.” 

Nodding at the blond noblewoman, I looked around at the rest of the captives. 

“We really get to leave?” 

“I’ll finally see my family again…” 

“We’re saved. I can’t believe it…” 

Aside from the noble girls I’d spoken to first, most of the others seemed more confused than happy. 

Right. I guess I’d better warn them. 

“I’m going to get you all out of the labyrinth.” 

I waited for them to understand before I continued. 

“But I can’t return you to your families right away.” 

At this, some of the girls started crying or wailing. I quickly went on. 

“Before I release you, I have to rescue the people being kept in other areas. Please just give me a few days.” 

To be honest, not all of that was true. 

I was afraid that the higher-ups in the Shiga Kingdom might try to have these girls killed if they knew they’d been cultivating demonic-potion ingredients, so I wanted to buy some time to take care of that. 

“I’m going to teleport us to a safe house aboveground now.” 

“W-wait!” 

“Please, not yet!” 

A muscular girl and the blond noble both cried out to stop me. 

“What is it?” 

“Polina isn’t back with the doctors yet.” 

Oh right. I forgot about that. 

“Don’t worry. I’ll come back for them.” Then I turned from the blond noblewoman to the muscular girl. “What about you?” 

“The bodies of some of my friends, and theirs, are in the torture room over there. I’d at least like to bring back their explorers’ badges or locks of their hair…” 

Opening the map, I looked for the torture room in question. 

Dangerous monsters patrolled the route there, including some with paralytic poison or petrification abilities. 

“The path to the torture room is too dangerous. I can go there for you and get what you need.” 

“Please take me with you! I want to say a few burial rites for them…” 

I tried to go by myself, but the muscular girl pleaded to come along, so I relented. 

“All right. But I can only bring two of you.” 

Any more than that, and it would be difficult to protect them all. 

“Then I will come with you, Elder Sister.” 

Eluterina stepped forward. 

It appeared that the other captives referred to the muscular girl as “Elder Sister.” 

“All right. You two wait here for a moment, please.” 

I picked up the rest of the girls and their belongings with Magic Hand, then teleported all of them to the Ivy Manor. 

“Wh-where are we?” 

“Big Sis, look! The sun! I can see the sun!” 

“Are we really outside? Truly?” 

Standing in the garden, the girls looked up at the sky with tears in their eyes. 

Lelillil arrived to greet us, so I left her in charge and went back into the labyrinth. 

“This is the torture room?” 

“Must be. I’ve never been here myself, but you can tell from the smell of blood.” 

Back in the labyrinth, I proceeded to the torture room with the blond noblewoman and the muscular Elder Sister. 

However…using a torch as our light source might have been a bad idea. 

With the blood-slick torture instruments, the rotten odor, and the pit with flies buzzing around it, the flickering shadows cast by the flame just emphasized the horror-like atmosphere. 

If this were a certain famous horror game, my sanity meter would be plummeting right now. 

And sure enough… 

> Skill Acquired: “Madness Resistance” 

…my log only confirmed my thoughts. 

I was curious about how this was different from skills like “Psychic Resistance” and “Fear Resistance,” but I still had tons of skill points, so I quickly maxed it out and activated it in the hopes of easing the disturbed feeling in my gut. 

“Garth, Zahana, Bodorina…you can pass on knowing that this man has saved us.” 

Miss Elder Sister peered down at the bodies in the pit, speaking gently. 

I watched over her from a distance, not wanting to interrupt her good-byes. 

“When the plunderers capture a man, they force him to choose between joining their crew after providing them ‘entertainment’ or being tortured to death,” the blond noblewoman explained to me softly. 

Because there was an air vent that ran from this room to the field, the agonizing screams reached it directly. 

The cruelty of these plunderers made me feel sick. 

“We women were kept in that room and forced to tend to those strange plants, but every few weeks, the plunderers would bring in a new woman and take one away in exchange.” 

The woman they took away would be tortured to death like the men. 

As if just hearing those screams wouldn’t have been agonizing enough… 

“I hated myself for being relieved when I wasn’t the one chosen.” 

Tears started to stream down the blond noblewoman’s cheeks, so I gently held her to my chest. 

While I comforted her, the other young woman finished saying her final words to the fallen explorers. 

She started to go into the pit to retrieve their badges, but I stopped her. 

Instead, I made a show of collecting the bones and badges into the Item Box with Magic Hand, while secretly using Magic Hand to put the entire bodies into Storage as well. 

At the very least, I wanted to bury them somewhere that sunlight would reach. 

“Lord Kuro, what is this magic circle?” 

As she turned away to wipe her tears, the blond noblewoman pointed at a sinister magic circle decorated with skulls and bones. 

Activating my “Miasma Vision,” I saw that the whole room was so full of miasma that it was pitch-black, and the magic circle was absorbing the miasma and curses. 

With all this miasma around, though, I was surprised that the victims’ bodies hadn’t turned into undead monsters in the pit. Most likely, this magic circle was what had prevented that. 

Flipping through some materials about magic circles, I couldn’t help wishing that I had a reverse image search. 

…Hmm? I got a search result? 

Evidently, Storage had had a built-in image search all along. 

“It’s to amplify and diffuse madness. Looks like they used it to strengthen negative emotions and spread them around.” 

This information was contained in materials I’d taken from the Wings of Freedom, a cult that had resurrected a demon lord beneath the old capital. 

According to these materials, it had been passed down to one of their ancestors by the yellow-skinned demon. 

They had apparently used this kind of magic circle to create fertile ground for reviving the demon lord until the chaos jars and malice urns were completed. 

Maybe the yellow-robed person Ludaman had mentioned was connected to the yellow demon somehow. 

“Should we destroy it?” 

“Of course.” 

The last thing I needed was for this thing to bring that demon lord back again after I’d defeated him in the old capital. 

I used a Holy Stone’s blue light to wipe away the evil magic circle. 

“Holy light?” 

“So, Mr. White Hair—erm, Lord Kuro—really does work for the Hero.” 

Eluterina and Miss Elder Sister looked at me with eyes full of admiration. 

Anyone can use a Holy Stone, you know. 

Although most other Holy Stones wouldn’t produce blue light, since I’d customized mine with blue. 

Now, a thought had just occurred to me, so I kept the physical destruction to a minimum as we left the torture chamber behind. 

“…You don’t want to leave?” 

When the blond noblewoman brought me to the small room containing the doctors, the alchemist who spoke for their group gave a shocking declaration. 

I had sent the muscular girl to gather the other girls at the Ivy Manor. 

I wanted to leave the blond noble there, too, but she insisted on coming with me because she was worried about the girl, Polina. 

“And why is that?” 

“I’m from the alchemy guild, and these girls are apprentices from the doctors’ guild.” 

That didn’t explain why they didn’t want to leave, so I waited for her to continue. 

“We’ve been forced to make corpse potions and demonic potions here.” 

I had them show me the potions they’d been making, all of which were very low-quality. 

They probably didn’t have the skills to make advanced drugs like these. 

There were some higher-quality demonic potions in the hideout, too. Ludaman must have been providing materials to an outside source to make better potions while attempting to make them on his own, too. 

“If you take us outside, we’ll be publicly executed as criminals for making these illegal drugs.” 

They said they would rather die here than face that fate. 

According to them, even if they explained that they had been forced to do it, it wouldn’t lighten their sentence. 

“Couldn’t you just flee Labyrinth City, then?” 

“No…” 

They regretted their sins so deeply that they would’ve felt guilty about getting away to live in freedom. 

“All right, I understand. I’ll try to come up with a solution, so let’s deal with that once we’ve left here.” 

Without waiting for an answer, I teleported with them to the Ivy Manor. 

I could help handle their conflict after I’d rescued the other captives and arrested all the plunderers. 

Since these girls definitely knew what they’d been cultivating, I had Lelillil put them in a room separate from all the others for now. 

“What the hell?! Just who do you think I am?!” 

“Beats me.” 

A plunderer charged at me despite the hail of Remote Stun bullets I’d brought down on him, so I knocked him out with a punch instead. 

Once I’d sent the blond noblewoman, the alchemist, and the doctors to the Ivy Manor, I’d set about taking down the other plunderer hideouts. 

This was the last one left that had captives. 

“I ain’t done yeeeeeet!” 

The bloodied plunderer stood up; I must have held back too much. 

The half-baked toughness of these demonic-potion addicts was getting exhausting. 

“Go to sleep already.” 

As the plunderer brandished a knife that was glowing red, I hopped in front of him using “Warp.” 

Then I held back a bit less than usual as I punched him, resulting in the unpleasant sensation of his bones splintering under my fist. 

“Nnngaaahhh!” 

Oops. His Demonic Body effect must have worn off right before I hit him. 

The plunderer fell to the ground, bleeding out from deadly wounds. 

I would’ve felt guilty if I just let him die, so I sprinkled a low-grade magic potion from the previous hideout over him to be safe. 

“D-don’t move! Or I’ll kill this human wench!” 

One of the plunderers I’d defeated earlier had recovered and was holding hostage a woman he’d been abusing. 

“Kya-ha-ha-ha!” 

The woman let out a shrill laugh despite the knife pressed to her throat; maybe the repeated assaults had made her go mad. 

“This is all just awful.” 

The plunderers’ toughness and their terrible deeds were both wearing me down. 

I’d rescued plenty of people who had been through unthinkably terrible things, but that was one thing I’d never get used to. 

The gloom was beginning to build up heavily in my heart. 

“Drop your weapon now! I-I’m serious!” 

The man’s knife pressed harder against the woman’s throat, drawing blood. 

Ignoring his threats, I teleported over to him with “Warp,” then punched him in the face, taking care not to shatter his skull. 

I had used Magic Hand to hold his knife hand in place, so it didn’t move an inch. 

As the rest of the plunderer’s body went flying, his trapped arm hit an unnatural angle with an unpleasant crack, but I didn’t feel an ounce of regret about that. 

I collected all the plunderers from this base, used Return to teleport to the jail area I’d created, and tossed them into a new earthen prison. 

I could hear shouts of rage from the plunderers in several of the other jails, but I paid them no mind, returning to the last base to rescue the captives. 

“The plants in this one have been picked clean, too…” 

Around half of the hideouts I’d investigated had fields for destruction stalks and ruination weeds. 

However, aside from the first base I visited, Ludaman’s hideout, more than half of the plants had withered, and the rest no longer bore fruit. 

The main difference between the first hideout and the rest of them was that strange magic circle. 

Most likely, that magic circle held the key factor in cultivating the ingredients for the demonic potions. 

“The yellow-robed mage, huh…?” 

That was how Ludaman had referred to the man who had taught them the cultivation methods. 

It would probably be best to try to get more information from Ludaman about that. 

Since the dungeon he was in was currently sealed, I decided to talk to the guildmaster about the magic circles and save sneaking in as a last resort. 

“…Wh-who are you?” 

The quavering voice drew my attention behind me, where a group of women stood looking exhausted to the point of near death. 

The woman who’d been laughing maniacally before was quiet as a corpse. 

“Sorry, I was lost in thought. I’ll bring you all to a safe place.” 

At that, the women broke into weak smiles. 

“Come here, please… Teleport.” 

I picked up each of the women with Magic Hand and used the Return spell to head back up to the Ivy Manor. 

“Lord Kuro!” 

The moment she saw me, the blond noble came running over to me with a shriek. 

Now that she’d bathed and had put on makeup, she looked more mature than her years. 

Besides makeup, I had also given the noble girls dresses, shoes, and so on, albeit nothing too fancy. 

She was quite a beauty, though less like an actress and more the intellectual business-world type. 

“I hardly recognize you.” 

“Thank you!” 

The blonde gave me a sparkling smile. 

If I were a little younger, I might misunderstand her eagerness for a crush on me. 

Behind her, a plain young woman waited her turn to talk to me. 

“Lord Kuro, thank you for showing such generous treatment to commoners like myself.” 

“Do you need anything else?” 

“No, you’ve already done more than enough.” 

This was Polina, the bag-carrier girl who’d gone to fetch the doctors before. 

Many bag carriers and explorers tended to be pretty rough-and-tumble, but her polite words and calm attitude felt very refined. 

“I brought you some hot water, Lord Kuro.” 

“Oh, thanks.” 

I drank the hot water to soothe my parched throat. 

Through the steam, I saw that Miss Elder Sister was taking care of the girls I’d just rescued from the latest hideout, showing them to their rooms. 

“Kya-ha-ha-ha!” 

“Calm down. Your suffering will be over soon.” 

Miss Elder Sister’s words to the disturbed young woman sounded ominous, but she was referring to Lelillil’s healing House Magic. 

There had been a few other women in a similar state to this one, but Lelillil’s House Magic skills “Mind Care” and “Recuperation” had brought their minds peace. 

Wow, house fairies are amazing. 

I praised Lelillil’s impressive magic, and she puffed up her chest like a proud child. 

According to her, the magic’s effects were temporary, but that should be good enough for now. 

What these girls needed most at the moment was rest and comfort. 

Since Lelillil seemed to be taking good care of them, I left her in charge with the help of three of the young women: the blond noblewoman Miss Eluterina; the carrier Polina; and the muscular explorer Miss Elder Sister, aka Sumina. 

Eluterina excelled at giving people instructions, Polina was popular and good at negotiating, and Sumina was highly skilled at resolving disputes. 

I also had the five girls I’d rescued from the fire assisting Lelillil and running messages to the blond noblewoman. 

If they had nowhere else to go, maybe I could just start paying them to work for me. 

“Do you need anything else?” 

“E-erm… The food, well…” 

The blond noble hesitated, reluctant to complain, so I looked to Polina to finish for her. 

“There’s not enough food.” 

“I’ll put more in the storehouse, then.” 

Right, I forgot. 

Since Lelillil had originally lived here alone, of course the manor wouldn’t have enough supplies stocked up for the nearly two hundred women I’d rescued. 

Incidentally, most of the rescued girls were explorers or bag carriers, but there were also doctors, alchemists, priests, soldiers, prostitutes, and other professions. 

The vast majority of them were commoners, but a little over 20 percent were slaves, and there were also more nobles than I’d expected. 

“What kind of food would you like?” 

“We were chewing on weeds down in the labyrinth. Anything edible is fine with us, even if it’s not perfect.” 

Polina smiled a bit self-derisively. 

“Highly nutritious foods it is, then. You can check them over later.” 

The Ivy Manor had a food storehouse with temperature control, so I planned to stock it with rice, vegetables, a few sweet and vitamin-loaded yellorange fruits from the Mountain-Tree, and one-ton blocks of whale and octopus monster meat. 

First, however, I wanted to confirm something. 

“Do you know what the plunderers were forcing you to make?” 

“Yes, I heard the alchemist and doctors arguing about it at the base…” 

“I’d seen them before in a medicinal herb encyclopedia at the royal academy.” 

Both Polina and the blond noble affirmed, although they wisely refrained from naming the substance out loud. 

“What about the others?” 

“No, I believe it was only the alchemist and the doctors, unless anyone else overheard by chance.” 

“I haven’t said a word to anyone, so I don’t think they know.” 

Hmm. That was a relief. 

“Lord Kuro…” 

Seeing me deep in thought must have made them nervous about their futures; both Polina and Eluterina turned pale. 

“Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.” 

If it seemed like they were doomed to oblivion here, I could always ask the elves of Bolenan Forest to make a hidden village for them to live in. 

That might be too meddlesome of me, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep soundly knowing I’d sent them out into the world unprotected. 

“I have a request for you two. Whenever you sense an opportunity in conversation, try to find anyone else who knows what you were growing.” 

I felt bad for making them do spy work, but I had to figure out who else knew. 

It would be nice if there was a simple way to determine the truth, but the only method I knew of was an analyst’s examination. 

Unfortunately, there wasn’t an analyst conveniently among the rescued. 

As I finished speaking with the pair, another light approached on my radar. 

“Lord Kuro! Isn’t there anything I can do, too? …Wait, were you talking about something serious?” 

It was the explorer Sumina, who the other girls called Elder Sister. 

“Sumina, did you know you were growing gabo barley and gabo wheat in the labyrinth?” 

I used my “Fabrication” skill to come up with a name that wouldn’t be associated with destruction stalks and ruination weeds, then offered Sumina a leading question. 

Polina and the blond noblewoman looked surprised for an instant but quickly resumed their normal expressions. 

“Huh, so that’s what those creepy plants were called. Are they related to those gross gabo fruits?” 

“Yeah, seems the plunderers were going to use them to create a goblin army.” 

“Yikes, now, that’s scary.” 

Sumina seemed to believe the story I’d made up with the help of “Fabrication.” 

It looked like she didn’t know they were actually cultivating demonic-potion ingredients, then. 

“It’s better if nobody else hears about this. So keep it between us, all right?” 

“R-right, of course.” 

I didn’t know how loose-lipped this Elder Sister was, but “between us” often led to something being spread around pretty quickly. 

Better yet, a gossipy-looking girl passing through the hallway had been listening at the door when I said this, so the story would probably permeate the whole group by the following day. 

Hopefully, it would satisfy the curiosity of those who didn’t know what they’d been cultivating. 

Even if it didn’t sound convincing, that could be enough for a lot of people. 

“So, Lord Kuro, is there some way I can help?” 

“Hmm, let me think…” 

Sumina wanted to help, so I decided to ask her to sort through the tools and equipment I’d taken from the plunderers’ bases. 

The explorers who’d lost their belongings could get new equipment from the stash or sell pieces of equipment to buy whatever they needed. 

By the time I’d finished dropping all the items in the courtyard by way of the Item Box, Sumina had returned with a group of helpers. 

“Oof, that stinks!” 

“It certainly is quite the stench… Deodorant.” 

I used magic to deodorize the foul-smelling junk heap. 

“Whoa! That’s amazing, Lord Kuro!” 

The young explorer women were thrilled about the no-longer-smelly armor and weapons. 

“I’m surprised those plunderers had such nice stuff.” 

“There’s hard beetle carapace armor, labyrinth turtle shields, and even mantis armor!” 

“These weapons are pretty crazy, too. Mantis broadswords, swords made from guardian ants’ scythe arms, and… Damn, an Antwing Silver Sword!” 

The underwhelming gray sword one of the girls held up looked familiar. 

It was one of the monster weapons I’d seen at the dark auction in the old capital. 

“I’d love to try fighting with a sword like this in the labyrinth, even just once.” 

Miss Elder Sister and the others gazed at the sword longingly. 

“Me too. How am I ever going to save up thirty gold coins?” 

“I saw one at a secondhand shop for twenty gold coins once.” 

“Secondhand stuff breaks so fast, though…” 

Apparently, this was a coveted piece of equipment to them. 

I had no problem letting them have it, but unfortunately, there was only one. 

I did have the recipe and tons of the required elite antwings in Storage, though. Maybe I would try to mass-produce enough for all of them that evening? 

However, they’d probably be uncomfortable receiving them for free, so I could always ask them to help me bring in the plunderers for arrest or something. 

I left Sumina in charge there for the time being, then went to find the blond noblewoman, who was busy giving out instructions. 

“I’m going back to deal with the rest of the plunderers, but I’ll be here tomorrow morning. If you need anything, talk to Lelillil.” 

“Y-yes, Lord Kuro!” 

Once I’d filled the storehouse with ingredients as planned, I went back to the labyrinth to crush the smaller plunderer hideouts that didn’t have any captives. 

By the end, I’d rounded up well over a hundred plunderers in the earthen jails. 

“Whew, I’m exhausted…” 

I’d finished apprehending the plunderers and rescuing the captives, so I decided to take a break from hero work for the day. 

“Come in.” 

Not long after I changed back into Satou and teleported from the labyrinth to the mansion with Return, someone knocked on the study door. 

“Welcome hooome!” 

“Welcome back, sir!” 

“Satou.” 

The younger group tumbled into the room to welcome me back. 

Tama or Mia must have sensed my return. 

“Welcome back, master. How’s the plunderer roundup going?” 

Arisa closed the door before questioning me. 

“Oh, that’s all done.” 

“…Wha—?” 

Arisa’s dumbfounded stare was actually pretty adorable. 

“Y-you’re done already? Isn’t that too fast, even for just one area? It hasn’t even been half a day yet!” 

“I scoured the labyrinth for plunderers to catch. There’s definitely not a single one left on the upper or middle stratums, at least.” 

Not that there had been any in the middle stratum to begin with. 

“Th-that’s unbelievable.” 

“Greeeat?” 

“That’s our master for you, sir!” 

“Mm. Good job.” 

Soaking up the girls’ praise, I sat on a sofa in the study to alleviate my exhaustion. 

“Forehead.” 

Arisa prodded at my brow, where I apparently had some new wrinkles. 

Covering it up with a fake smile, I rubbed my forehead. 

Arisa didn’t seem to like that, if her expression was any indication. 

“All hands! Commence Operation: Group Cuddles for master!” 

I thought I was used to Arisa’s randomness by now, but this was a particularly weird move. 

“Hee-hee!” 

“Cliiiing, sir.” 

Tama curled up on my lap, and Pochi latched onto my right side. 

“No hogging.” 

“Have haaalf?” 

“I’ll take this side, then.” 

Mia squeezed in next to Tama on my lap, and Arisa sat down on my left side, grabbing my arm. 

“Arisa…?” 

“We’re using our charms to heal your ravaged heart, silly!” 

Aw. I guess I must have worried them. 

I let the kids’ warm presence relax me and wound up sleeping until dinnertime. 

“Okay, let’s go over the issues here…” 

I opened the memo function of the networking tab in my menu and started listing the problems at hand. 

1. The guildmaster and the Shiga Kingdom government views anyone who knows how to cultivate demonic-potion ingredients as a threat. 

2. Miasma seems to be an important part of cultivating these ingredients; it’s safe to assume that the torture chamber and the magic circle were necessary components. 

3. It’s highly possible that Ludaman is the only person who’s had contact with the yellow-robed mage who passed on the information about the magic circle. 

4. The guildmaster and other governmental officials don’t know about point two. 

5. Cultivation is still possible with only a torture chamber and prisoners, although it’s far less effective without a magic circle. 

6. It’s unclear how many of the young women who were prisoners are aware of what they were cultivating. 

“…Hmm. I think I can actually work this out.” 

I could probably find a way to give the young women a future, although it would depend partly on the outcome of number six and how the government reacted to the information in number five. 

If I could find a way to get the guildmaster to trust Kuro, then I might be able to convince her to let the girls live their lives freely with Kuro as their guardian. 

And if I could just figure out from Ludaman why the yellow-robed mage taught him how to make the ingredients for demonic potion, then that would pretty much take care of everything, right? 

As if they’d been waiting for me to get my thoughts in order, someone knocked at the door. 

“Come in.” 

“Is now a good time?” 

Arisa peered inside. 

“Yeah, it’s fine.” 

“Oh? You’re looking more relaxed than I expected already. Did you take care of whatever was worrying you?” 

“I haven’t put it into action yet, but I think I’ve got a good plan.” 

That was all thanks to Arisa and the others for soothing my mind after dealing with those awful plunderers. 

But just as I was about to thank her… 

“Awww, man. I was hoping if I gave you some advice now, I could build up enough points to finally get you on the Arisa route!” 

…Arisa ruined the moment. 

I couldn’t tell how serious she was, which was very typical of her. 

Since she was here, I decided to lighten the mood by getting her opinion about my Kuro costume. 

The guildmaster seemed to be in the City Core room of the viceroy’s castle talking to an important person from the royal capital, so I had some time to kill. 

“Actually, I might need your advice after all.” 

“Aw, sweet! Put ’er here!” 

Arisa posed like a baseball catcher. Chuckling dryly, I offered her a seat. 

Not that getting her advice was going to convince me to take the “Arisa route,” though. 

“So I’m working on a new disguise…” 

I transformed into Kuro using the “Quick Change” skill. 

“Wow, what a hottie! But he’s not really shota enough for my tastes.” 

Arisa was already finding fault with my new character. 

“He’s supposed to be a member of Nanashi the Hero’s party named Kuro.” 

I used the “Ventriloquism” skill to alter my voice and demonstrated it for Arisa. 

Edging closer, she grabbed my collar and looked down my shirt. I thought she was being inappropriate as usual, but it turned out I was wrong this time. 

“So you’re only tanning your skin down to the neck.” 

“It’d be a pain to do it on my whole body.” 

“Hmm. What about your hands?” 

“No, I figured I’d just wear gloves.” 

“What if someone wants a handshake, though?” 

“I’ll refuse.” 

“All right, I guess…” 

That was partly why I had chosen a haughty personality for Kuro. 

Arisa stepped back and looked my outfit up and down. 

“The clothes are a little generic, though. Maybe you could match the hair with a white gakuran?” 

“Wouldn’t a Japanese high school uniform look weird with a Hollywood actor’s face?” 

“You think so? But then you could wear white gloves with pentagrams on them and be all, ‘Mwa-ha-ha!’ or ‘Empire! I have returned!’ Y’know?” 

You’re mixing up so many different references that I have no idea what you’re trying to say. 

“I think I’ll just stick with the outfit as it is.” 

“Awww, at least make it military uniform–style or something!” 

Looking in the mirror, I added more layers of the Illusion spell. 

She was right: The uniform did seem to match this hairstyle. 

“And then put a long overcoat on top. What color are you thinking?” 

“Hmm. Nanashi wears a white jacket—should I match that?” 

“Wait, you gotta go with black, then! It’s like that old line—‘You are the light, and I am the shadow’! So the leader should wear white, and the subordinate wears black!” 

I didn’t really know where Arisa was getting this, but it did remind me of some super-famous shojo manga set in France. 

“All right, he’ll wear black, then. The overcoat, too.” 

“Oh, and you should put a purple streak in his hair.” 

For now, I used Illusion to add a purple highlight to part of Kuro’s hair. 

Since I had dye anyway, I could apply it to the wig before I went out. 

“Now for his equipment. How about a bazooka or a machine gun?” 

Arisa must have recognized the character I’d based this face on, since she suggested the weapons he used in the movie. 

“No, not guns. That would overlap with Lulu’s main weapon.” 

It wouldn’t be a big deal if it was a more popular weapon, but hardly anyone in the Shiga Kingdom carried guns these days. 

“A broadsword, then? Didn’t he use one in that Great Something-or-Other movie?” 

“It doesn’t need to be based on anything.” 

I made a broadsword with Illusion and held it up experimentally. 

“No, bigger. You know, like a giant hunk of metal.” 

“What, the kind that could cut off a dragon’s head?” 

I doubted any human had a sword that could cut the black dragon Hei Long, so I went with a size that could behead a wyvern or hydra instead. 

“Ooh, not bad. It could use a little more originality, though.” 

“‘Originality’? What do you mean?” 

I tried to make the sword’s color match my hair and clothes, but Arisa didn’t seem impressed. 

“You know, like…” 

Arisa looked around the room for some kind of example. 

Finally, she saw herself in the mirror and seemed to come up with something. 

“That’s it! Gemstones! Make the sword look like crystal!” 

It didn’t sound very practical to me, but it was just for show anyway. It’d be fine. 

Besides, if I used “Spellblade” on it, even a wooden sword could probably defeat an intermediate demon. 

“Like this?” 

I tested out a bunch of different variations: making the sword see-through, changing the materials, adding more decorations, and so on. 

It reminded me of working with the art team back during my game-dev days, making me a bit nostalgic. 

I’ll probably never be able to make video games here, but I’d like to at least try making board games and such. 

“Stop! Try it with those same decorations, amethyst as the material, put a sapphire on the hilt, and then add rubies in the middle of the decorations!” 

I manipulated the illusion to Arisa’s specifications. 

“How’s that?” 

“Hmm…” 

She didn’t seem quite pleased, so I lined up a few different versions. 

“It just isn’t quite heroic enough.” 

“Heroic,” huh? 

“You know, like a whip sword or a sickle and chain, the kind of weapon that’s more cool than practical.” 

Like a sword that could rotate like a drill? 

“I can make that kind of thing some other time. For now, how about something like this?” 

I made a double-edged sword, separated it down the middle, and added a sort of light beam between the two blades. 

Then I made the left side into red crystal and the right side blue, adding fire and ice illusions to them respectively. 

“Oh man, nice! Now, that’s the fantasy factor I was looking for!” 

Arisa seemed pleased with my new invention. 

“But do you have the materials to make something like that?” 

“It’d be a pain to make bauxite so I could transmute ruby and sapphire, so I’ll just use colored glass for now.” 

I could technically create bauxite, but the recipe was kind of difficult. 

Colored glass, on the other hand, was fairly easy to make. I’d gotten all kinds of materials and dyes when we were traveling through the Ougoch Duchy. 

“Whaaat, you could actually make sword-size ruby and sapphire?” Arisa exclaimed. 

It was certainly simpler than making legendary metals like orichalcum. 

“Yeah, but it’d be cheaper to buy it.” 

“Aw, darn.” 

Arisa seemed disappointed. 

Transmuting ruby and sapphire required Holytree Stone—essentially Philosopher’s Stone—which was far more expensive than either gemstone. 

“Since it’s just for show, I’ll try to make it before I leave.” 

“You can do it that quickly?” 

“I’ll use illusions for the fire and ice, and I can combine an illusion with the Light Magic spell Laser to make the light beam in the middle.” 

I wasn’t planning on fighting anyway. 

“Whew, that was easier than I thought.” 

In the laboratory beneath the Ivy Manor, I held my newly made colored-glass sword up to the light. 

Next to me was a life-size Kuro dummy wearing a uniform-style outfit. 

Thanks to all my experience making equipment for my group, it took less than an hour to complete both. 

“Personally, I’ve gotta say that’s some pretty good cheating.” 

Poking fun at myself, I stood up and stretched. 

The reason I was able to take the time to make all these things was that the guildmaster still hadn’t emerged from the City Core room in the viceroy’s castle. 

I guess meetings with higher-ups took just as long in a fantasy world as they did on Earth. 

Suddenly, I heard a strange beeping sound coming from the wall. There was a light bulb flashing right near the source of the sound. 

Assuming it was some kind of summons, I pressed the button next to the light bulb. 

“Lord Kuro, I am terribly sorry to interrupt your research. The blonde and some plain girl have business with you, apparently.” 

The blond noble Eluterina and the carrier Polina seemed to have a report for me. 

“Sure. I’ll be right there.” 

Giving a quick response to Lelillil, I went back up to the manor. 

“Including us two, the alchemist, and the doctors, there is a total of thirteen people who know.” 

They had already finished the investigation I’d asked of them earlier that day. 

As it turned out, not too many of the captives knew what they had been cultivating. 

“I see. I’m glad it’s less than I expected.” 

I summoned all thirteen of them into a separate room, explained the danger they were in, and told them that I had a plan to protect them. 

The alchemist and doctors seemed to feel guilty, but the other five just pleaded for my help. 

Eluterina and Polina must have explained the danger to them ahead of time. 

Aside from those two, I had the other eleven move into an isolated room, instructing Lelillil and the remaining pair to make sure they had everything they needed. 

That was the room that the alchemist and doctors had already been staying in, so it shouldn’t be too big of a problem. 

Once the girls were moved, I checked with Eluterina and Polina about the false information. 

“Is the rumor about the gabo wheat and gabo barley spreading well?” 

“Yes, it seems that a particularly loose-lipped young woman overheard your conversation with Elder Sister.” 

Polina reported that the rumor was proving quite effective. 

“Good. Once it’s gotten around enough, I’ll get them to swear to secrecy.” 

That would probably make it more believable than just letting the rumor run wild. 

Since that was going well, I would probably be able to release most of the girls within the next few days. 

“Sorry to barge in.” 

That night, I dressed as Kuro and visited the guildmaster’s room via the spiral window. 

“Eeeeeek!” 

“You shouldn’t be flailing around like that at your age.” 

As soon as I entered the room, the battle-loving guildmaster jabbed at me with her staff, but since I was here as Kuro, I simply snatched it out of her hands. 

“I’m Kuro, a follower of Nanashi the Hero.” 

“…Hero?” 

The guildmaster raised her eyebrows suspiciously, and I felt magic power gathering around her. 

I’d hoped that introducing myself as connected to the Hero would put her at ease, but obviously it had the opposite effect. 

“I don’t know of any Hero by that name. The current Hero of the Saga Empire is Hayato Masaki, is it not?” 

“You haven’t done your research, Lilian.” 

Miss Sebelkeya, who was also in the room, chided the guildmaster. 

Secretary Ushana was present, too. 

“What, you’ve heard of him?” 

“But of course,” Sebelkeya said smoothly. “Nanashi the Hero is a great man who rescued us elves from terrible danger. Perhaps you would know him as the man who defeated the Golden Boar Lord in the former royal capital?” 

“The Golden Boar Lord? So all that nonsense the king was spouting was true?!” 

She explained that the Shiga Kingdom had announced the following: “A masked hero who is the reincarnation of the ancestral king Yamato defeated the Golden Boar Lord, the yellow greater demon, and the school of giant monster fish.” 

But since the vanquished foes sounded way too powerful, the Shiga Kingdom army hadn’t been dispatched, and there hadn’t been any major damage to the old capital, it seemed that many people assumed it was just a made-up story to cover up Prince Sharorik’s blunders. 

“Do you believe me now?” 

“Not yet. Where’s the proof that you’re working for him?” 

“How about this? It was given to me by my leader.” 

I produced a dagger-size Holy Sword from Storage, which I’d made while I was practicing forging swords from orichalcum. 

Then I added magic power to it, causing the blade to glow blue. 

“Blue light… Is that a Holy Sword?” 

“Indeed. It’s nothing compared to my leader’s Holy Sword, but I could easily vanquish the likes of a greater demon with this.” 

Kuro’s official level was set as 50, so that might be a bit too boastful. 

“…So what are you doing here?” 

The guildmaster still looked doubtful, but at least she was willing to hear me out. 

“I was raiding a hideout of those filthy plunderers infesting the labyrinth, and I found something strange.” 

“Something strange?” 

I paused for a moment, keeping the intrigued guildmaster in suspense. 

“Can those two be trusted?” 

“Hmph! Much more than you, I’d say!” 

Sebelkeya and Ushana gave satisfied smiles at the guildmaster’s swift response. 

“Then I’ll say it: I found a field of destruction stalks and ruination weeds near the plunderers’ hideout.” 

“…Field?” 

The guildmaster’s gaze sharpened. 

“Indeed. In fact, it almost looked as though they were being cultivated by humans.” 

At that, the guildmaster grimaced. 

She must have realized that what Ludaman had said in the dungeon was true. 

“And?” 

“You don’t seem too surprised.” 

“I’d heard a little about it from a two-bit plunderer by the name of Ludaman.” 

The guildmaster practically spat his name. 

“This will be simple, then. What does the Shiga Kingdom want to do about it?” 

“Burn it all to the ground. Tell me where this place is and I’ll do it myself!” 

I appreciated her speedy determination. 

“Let’s go right now, then. I’ll take you there—Teleport.” 

“Wh—?” 

Without waiting for an answer, I took the three to a field of destruction stalks and ruination weeds in the labyrinth. 

“What?! Where are we?!” 

“Celivera Labyrinth. This is the field I told you about.” 

The guildmaster moved to burn it right away, but Sebelkeya and Ushana stopped her, heading over to make sure they were really the plants in question. 

“…There’s blood on the leaves.” 

“And bones in the soil, too—these are human bones.” 

Before I’d gone to the guildmaster’s room, I’d made these fakes with the “Counterfeit” skill. 

The blood was from livestock and brown wolves, and the bones were from demi-goblins. 

Secretary Ushana had the “Analyze” skill, but my “Counterfeit” skill was higher, and it was doubtful she would notice the difference in the darkness here. 

“They must be the bones of the people they were forcing to work here.” 

“Those plunderer bastards…” 

The guildmaster growled, believing my story. 

“By the time I got here, the plunderers were tilling the field themselves. They must have worked their captives to death.” 

It was an obvious lie, but thanks to the support of my “Fabrication” skill, the three of them fell for it hook, line, and sinker. 

Hopefully, they would now assume that it was mostly plunderers who were involved in the cultivation and that there were few, if any, surviving women who might know. 

“…No, there’s no doubt about it.” 

“I hate to say it, but this is the real thing.” 

“All right, then. Let’s burn it to the ground.” 

Once the other two finished checking the field, the guildmaster began a Fire Magic chant. 

She wasn’t using a forbidden spell that would affect the labyrinth, but I thought upper Fire Magic was a bit of overkill, even in an open space like this. 

I prepared a fireproof hydra-hide cloak and the Earth Magic spell Wall, just in case the flames got too close. 

Sebelkeya started an Earth Magic chant, too, probably thinking the same thing. 

“…… ? Inferno Kaen Jigoku!” 

Crimson flames burst forth from the guildmaster’s staff, torching the field in seconds and quickly spreading to the surrounding area. 

Exactly as I feared, the heat and flames started to come toward us, but Sebelkeya used a powerful Stone Wall spell to protect us before I had to do anything. 

“Did the plunderers here run away?” 

“I’ll drop them off at the guild soon.” 

“Sure. I’m not holding my breath.” 

The guildmaster seemed convinced that the plunderers had gotten away from me. 

Once I’d ensured that her flames had burned up the field and the fake remains, I called the three of them over. 

This will be the hardest part. 

“There’s something else I wanted to show you.” 

With that, I led them to the foreboding magic circle in the torture room. 

“Th-this is…” 

“Do you recognize it, Sebelkeya?” 

“I don’t know what it is exactly. But I can tell it’s truly evil.” 

I was hopeful that I might get some new information, but the three of them didn’t seem to know anything about it. 

Oh well. That’s fine. 

In fact, it might even work in my favor. 

“Hmph. How little you know.” 

“You’re saying you know what this is?” 

“Of course.” 

I looked down at the guildmaster with an annoyingly haughty expression. 

Normally, I would never be able to act like this, but my trusty “Poker Face” skill helped me get through it. 

“Well, spit it out, then.” 

I snorted. “It’s a magic circle that absorbs and amplifies miasma. Do you know why?” 

“It must be for that field…” 

Yes! Perfect. 

Inwardly celebrating the response I’d hoped for, I continued speaking calmly. 

“What, the field? That was hardly more than a by-product.” 

“A by-product?” 

The guildmaster repeated my words incredulously, taking the bait. I scowled to silence her. 

“You really don’t know? This magic circle is what demon lord worshippers use to make a foundation with which to resurrect a demon lord.” 

I made up a truly ridiculous story with my “Fabrication” skill. 

My aim was to give the guildmaster the impression that growing the demonic-potion ingredients was only a secondary goal, as well as a reason to talk to Ludaman again. 

“A demon lord…?!” 

“It can’t be!” 

The guildmaster and Ushana both exclaimed in surprise. 

“Do you have a basis for that conclusion?” 

I told Sebelkeya that there was a similar magic circle in the papers I’d taken from the demon lord cult the Wings of Freedom and that the yellow demon had given that information to them. 

She didn’t seem convinced at first but believed me once I showed her the real documents. 

“The yellow-skinned greater demon… Perhaps he was the yellow-robed mage Ludaman spoke of.” 

“There are several stories of demons possessing or impersonating humans in the tales of the ancestral king, too.” 

The guildmaster reached a similar conclusion to mine, and Secretary Ushana agreed. 

So far, this was going precisely as I’d hoped. 

“Ludaman is the plunderer you mentioned being in the guild dungeon, yes? Let me interrogate him. I need more information on this yellow-robed mage.” 

“…Hmph. Very well—I’ll allow it. However, I will be accompanying you.” 

“Do as you wish.” 

Awesome! It worked! 

Henceforth, I could legally obtain information from Ludaman. 

As a bonus, they were now convinced that the cultivation was actually a front for an even bigger, darker scheme. 

My hope was to find a way to help the women who’d been involved with the cultivation while the Shiga Kingdom people were focused on the magic-circle connection. 

“Now, you weren’t just trying to use all this to get to Ludaman, were you?” 

“I have better things to do. There are probably demon lord worshippers who were secretly backing these plunderers.” 

I countered the guildmaster’s all-too-accurate suspicion with a new piece of information. 

I had no actual evidence of this, but the person who gave them the yellow demon’s magic circle was very likely a demon lord worshipper, so it wasn’t exactly a lie. 

“‘Demon lord worshippers’? You mean some silly club like the Wind of Freedom in the royal capital?” The guildmaster furrowed her brow. 

The demon lord cult I’d encountered in the old capital was called the Wings of Freedom, so this Wind of Freedom group must be of a similar nature. 

The phrase “silly club” seemed a little out of place, but now wasn’t the time to think about that. 

“Never heard of them. But I do know the cult called the Wings of Freedom who revived the Golden Boar Lord.” I looked the grave-faced guildmaster directly in the eyes as I continued. “They were probably planning to revive a demon lord here.” 

“That would explain the human sacrifices and the torture room… I suppose the demonic potions were to enhance the demon lord’s followers, then.” 

Yeah, that sounds pretty plausible… Wait, I’m not supposed to fall for this story. 

If this were a game, that would be the cue for a demon lord revival, but the current Season of the Demon Lord had presumably ended when I defeated the Golden Boar Lord who was revived beneath the old capital, so we should be fine for another sixty-six years. 

The demon lord revival was prophesized in seven different places. 

Those words rose unbidden in the back of my mind. 

Come to think of it, one of the prophesied locations the head priestess of the old capital Tenion Temple had told me about was right here, Labyrinth City Celivera. 

Now I felt like I was raising a demon-lord-revival flag myself, but I dismissed those worries by telling myself: If another one really does get revived, I’ll just defeat it. 

The Golden Boar Lord I’d defeated was supposed to be one of the strongest demon lords ever, and I had more powerful attacks and equipment now than I had at the time, so it probably wouldn’t be a life-and-death struggle like last time. 

As long as my opponent wasn’t some kind of god or something, anyway. 

“Well, now that we’ve got that information, shall we finish up here?” 

“Let me. I’ll destroy the runes that make up the magic circle.” 

The guildmaster’s magic burned up the torture chamber, and Miss Sebelkeya used Earth Magic to demolish the plunderer hideout until it was in a physically unusable state. 

“So cultists who are trying to revive a demon lord… That sounds like quite the headache.” 

“More importantly, guildmaster, if what this man says is true, then wouldn’t it be impossible to cultivate the plants without that magic circle?” 

Luckily, Ushana remembered my comment about a “by-product” and connected the dots. 

“They can likely still be grown without the magic circle, but it would be far less effective.” 

That was the truth. 

Just like most gases, miasma diffused if left to its own devices. 

“Then perhaps we won’t need to make any unnecessary sacrifices.” 

I looked at the guildmaster indifferently as she spoke, but on the inside, I was pumping my fists in triumph. 

Mission accomplished. 

Now I could release all the girls who didn’t know anything about the cultivation. 

“You’ll take us back home now, yes?” 

The guildmaster turned to me as Sebelkeya finished her work. 

“What are you talking about?” 

“You weren’t planning on leaving us here in the labyrinth, were you?” 

The guildmaster grew angry, misunderstanding my words. 

“What I mean is, why are you talking as if we’re finished here?” 

“Excuse me?” The guildmaster gaped. 

“There are still three more fields I need you to burn.” 

We had a long night’s work ahead of us. 

I needed them to see the fields without the magic circles to confirm that the information I’d given them before was correct. 

“We don’t have enough magic to—” 

“Transfer.” 

Before the guildmaster could finish her statement, I used Mana Transfer. 

“…My magic’s restored?” 

“That’ll work, right?” 

“Oh yes.” The guildmaster grinned. “It certainly will. Let’s destroy every last trace of those demonic-potion plants.” 

I brought the reliable guildmaster around to the other fields with me, and we turned every last one to ash by the end of the day. 

Once I’d brought the guildmaster and company home, I could just come back and use my spirit light and Holy Stones to purge the clouds of miasma. 

“Wake up.” 

Once we returned from the labyrinth, I pressed the exhausted-looking guildmaster into taking me to see Ludaman in the dungeon. 

Sebelkeya was already sound asleep, but Secretary Ushana came along without the slightest sign of tiredness. 

Ludaman growled and glared at me. 

The other plunderer leaders in their nearby cells howled like wrathful animals. 

“Your throat’s crushed, is it? Heal.” 

With that, I selected a healing spell from my magic menu. 

“What’s this about? Planning to off me in the dead of night, are ye?” 

Ludaman bared his fang-like teeth defiantly. 

“I have some questions for you.” 

“Think I’m gonna answer?” 

I pulled a small bottle of Shigan sake from my Item Box. 

When I took out the cork, the aroma of sake filled the room. 

Since the stench of the dungeon might have drowned it out, I had already cleaned the air with Deodorant beforehand. 

“Sake? Ye be takin’ me too lightly if ye think that’ll buy the great Ludaman.” 

Ludaman spat scornfully. 

Maybe he doesn’t drink? 

“Oh, so you don’t want one last taste of sake?” 

I started to put the bottle back into the Item Box, and the other plunderers wailed loudly. 

Ludaman glowered at his subordinates, then clicked his tongue. 

“Fine. I’ll take it.” 

Corking the bottle, I tossed it through the bars to Ludaman. 

“Now, that’s some fine booze.” 

Ludaman took a drink, then tossed it around to his subordinates before jerking his chin toward me. 

“What do ye wanna know? About the mastermind who had us makin’ demonic potion?” 

I shook my head. “I don’t need to know about Sokell.” 

I knew Sokell wasn’t the real mastermind, but I didn’t particularly care to hear the name of the high-ranking noble behind it. 

“Sokell? Ha! No, he’s just the scapegoat. It was a much bigger—” 

Ludaman started to say the noble’s name, but I cut him off. 

“No, what I want to know is more about this yellow-robed mage who taught you how to make demonic potion.” 

If the mastermind really was a highly important noble, I doubted he would have truthfully revealed his lineage to a plunderer he was using anyway. 

“Well, there ain’t much to tell.” 

“Did he teach you that magic circle in the torture room, too?” 

“Oh, he made that himself some five years back.” 

Ludaman was answering my questions readily, probably thanks to my maxed-out “Interrogation” and “Negotiation” skills. 

“Do you know why he made it?” 

“Hunh? Well…” 

Just as he was about to answer, the sake bottle made its way back to him. “Tch, empty.” Holding it out to me, he waggled it around meaningfully. 

It was a brazen request but one well within my means to fulfill. 

“Don’t get carried away, you ass.” 

The guildmaster, who’d been watching in silence, snapped at him, so I gestured for her to stay back. 

“It’s fine.” 

I tossed him another bottle and some jerky. 

“Heh-heh. Ye drive a hard bargain.” 

Ludaman gnawed on the meat and took a swig of sake, looking satisfied. 

“Well?” 

“So he said that circle thing was for makin’ the demonic-potion stuff, but I reckon it was somethin’ else.” 

Ludaman’s eyes glinted. 

“Oh? And what makes you think that?” 

“The jar.” 

“Jar”? 

That was an unexpected key word. 

“Half a year ago, ol’ Yellow Robes brought some kinda strange jar, sayin’ it would enhance the circle. But after that, them ruination weeds and destruction stalks didn’t grow like normal.” 

Right—the demonic-potion ingredients they were cultivating. 

“So you think Yellow Robes actually needed the jar?” 

“Yeah, for sure. At first he came to collect some of the plants once in a while, but then he didn’t seem to care no more. And after he left with the jar, he never showed his face again, so there’s yer answer.” 

I suddenly thought of a different jar. 

“Did it look something like this one?” 

“Why the hell d’you have that?” 

Ludaman looked surprised at the jar I’d produced. 

It was the chaos jar that the demon manipulating the Muno Barony had been using to collect miasma for reviving the demon lord. 

I’d found several similar jars and urns when I raided the cult’s hideout after defeating the demon lord beneath the old capital. 

“Wh-what is that?” the guildmaster asked. 

“A chaos jar. It’s an evil tool for reviving a demon lord.” 

The plunderers seemed as shocked as the guildmaster at my reply. 

“Have you ever seen an urn like this?” 

“Sure have.” Ludaman nodded. “Yellow Robes sent a familiar to switch them out every half a year or so.” 

Like the chaos jar, this malice urn was a tool for collecting miasma to revive a demon lord. 

“One more question. When did Yellow Robes last show up?” 

“When he picked up the jar ’bout six months ago. He took all the urns, too, so we never saw the familiar again, either.” 

Hmm. Half a year ago would be before I defeated the demon lord and the yellow demon in the old capital. 

Thinking chronologically, it was highly likely that those chaos jars and malice urns were used to revive the demon lord in the old capital. 

“Hey, White Hair. Yer more important than the old hag, right? Can’t ye send me to Violet instead? If ye do, I’ll tell ye who Yellow Robes really was.” 

So that was why he’d shared so much information just for some sake: to set up for this request. 

I was certainly interested in that information, but I didn’t have the authority to grant that request, so I turned to the guildmaster behind me. 

She grimaced unwillingly but gave a curt nod. 

I guess information on a mage trying to revive a demon lord was more important than preventing the spread of demonic potion. 

“Go on.” 

“Yellow Robes was really…a demon. Not some lesser kind, either. Intermediate at least, or maybe even one o’ them greater demons.” 

As I’d suspected, the “yellow-robed mage” was most likely the “yellow-skinned demon” in disguise. 

“Interesting theory. And why do you think that?” 

“I tried to punch ’im while I was on demonic potion, but he stopped me with one hand like it was nothin’.” 

“Is that all?” 

That seemed like pretty weak proof. 

“That and the eyes.” 

“The eyes?” 

“He had the eyes of someone real powerful. Even surrounded by dozens o’ violent, demonic-potion-enhanced plunderers, he looked at us like we was a buncha ants.” 

Ludaman shivered, as if the memory alone was enough to disturb him. 

“Did he have any other distinguishing traits?” 

“His face was as plain as they come. ’Cept the yellowish skin and yellow horns anyway.” 

Ludaman looked to his fellow plunderers for opinions. 

“He spoke kinda weird, too.” 

“Yeah, loud and creepy, LIKE THIS.” 

That sounded like the yellow demon, all right. 

“I didn’t see any information about that Yellow Robes, even when I used ‘Analyze.’” 

“Yeah, and didn’t he have a demon familiar?” 

Seriously? 

I didn’t know where to start with the plunderers’ conversation. 

“He had a demon as a familiar? Are you sure?” 

“Yeah, I analyzed it. It was a lesser demon, round level thirty.” 

The older plunderer with the “Analyze” skill spoke with confidence. 

That probably meant my theory was confirmed, then. 

“So a greater demon is trying to revive a demon lord right here in Celivera, then…” 

As we went back up from the dungeon, the guildmaster looked pale, wiping the sweat from her brow. 

“Nothing to fear. If the demon lord is revived, my leader will destroy him. And more than likely, he won’t be.” 

“You seem pretty confident.” 

“Have you forgotten? My leader already destroyed the yellow demon in the old capital. And Ludaman said this Yellow Robes figure last appeared more than half a year ago, didn’t he? The miasma they were collecting was used to revive the demon lord below the old capital.” 

This case was already closed. 

It had all been much ado about nothing—or next to nothing anyway. 

“I’ll leave the plunderers to you. I won’t insist you put them in Violet, but ask about it, at least.” 

What the plunderers had done was unforgivable, but they did at least dispel my worries about the mysterious yellow-robed mage, so I figured I owed them that much. 

“All right. But if we can’t publicly execute them, we’ll at least have them stoned to set an example. If they survive that, I’ll dispatch them to Violet.” 

“Good enough for me.” I nodded. 

Stoning was a pretty cruel method of execution that had existed since the Stone Age. 

Normally, it meant a certain death, but since the demonic potion had toughened those plunderers up so much, maybe they would survive. 

I left the guildmaster to take care of the rest and put the west guild behind me. 

Surely the demonic-potion-hating guildmaster would follow up about the big noble behind Sokell, even if I didn’t. 

“I don’t want to go home in a nasty mood after interrogating a plunderer, so maybe I should cheer myself up first?” 

Muttering to no one in particular, I looked around thoughtfully. 

By the time I left the guild, it was late in the night, which meant I couldn’t go to the pleasure quarter. Instead, I decided to head to the underground lab in the Ivy Manor and make some equipment for Sumina and the other explorer women. 

Of course, they would be simple things made from monster parts, not the unique equipment I’d made for my group. 

“Maybe I’ll start with some handy maze ant equipment?” 

I looked through the collection of recipes left by Trazayuya, often called the sage of the elves. 

“Let’s go with something simple first.” 

I made some breastplates and shoulder guards with adjustable leather or string straps, plus some wrist and shin guards. 

Multitool came in handy for this, but not as much as producing “Spellblade” on my fingertip. 

It was especially convenient for relatively low-level monster materials, since it could cut them or bore holes through them with practically no resistance. 

“Ah, crafting is so fun.” 

I had actually started humming to myself without realizing it. 

It was hard to tell what was what if I lined them up on the floor, so I set them up on the mannequins I normally used to make things for Arisa and the other girls. 

Because they were made with golem-crafting technology, they could be posed like dolls, too. 

I didn’t make them into golems or living dolls because then I wouldn’t be able to put them away in Storage. 

“Hmm, it’s a little plain…” 

I had tried to shape the armor in a style suited for a woman in a fantasy world, but it was missing something. 

I didn’t think it looked too bad or anything, but the explorers I’d seen in Labyrinth City seemed to default to a more flamboyant style, so I wanted to fiddle a bit more. 

“Oh, this’ll work nicely.” 

My eyes fell on some spare lumber from the production process. 

I messed around with it a little before attaching it to the armor. 

It wouldn’t make the armor’s defense any higher, but they do say that man cannot live on bread alone. It’s important to have a little fun. 

“Hmm, I might’ve made this a little too anime…” 

It looked like something out of a Saturday morning fantasy show, but its stats were as high as any metal armor, so that was probably all right. 

However, on its own, it would have far too many revealing gaps; I made some leather armor and a skirt to go underneath. 

I aimed to make it cute and modest, with a little bit of a sexy tinge to the cuts. 

For the leather, I used sea serpent hide, of which I had plenty. It wasn’t as strong as the armored rat leather I’d used for my companions’ camouflage armor, but it should provide the same protection as the average armor worn by a labyrinth army soldier or a garnet-badge explorer. 

“The boots might be a bit of a pain.” 

For my companions, I’d made high-level boots with slip- and wear-resistant soles, comfortable for long walks and extra quiet for stealth, but those used all kinds of unusual materials, so it might cause problems for making that kind of thing for Sumina and the others. 

Instead, I decided to simply use sturdy and slip-resistant hydra leather for the heels and make the rest out of sea serpent hide. 

“All right, time to mass-produce this.” 

With my model outfit complete, I optimized the process and started making more pieces. 

Removing the carapaces from the maze ants was a pain, but with my Magic Hand and “Parallel Thoughts” combo, I was able to finish before long. 

I could make about forty sets in one go, so producing a bunch of them was a piece of cake. 

“Hmm…” 

I looked down thoughtfully at the finished sets of identical armor. 

Originally, I’d planned to give them all matching sets, but maybe I could make something a little fancier for Elder Sister Sumina and the other veteran explorers? 

Admittedly, part of it was just that I was sick of making the same thing, but it had also occurred to me that the women in their late twenties and older might not want to wear such a cartoonish fantasy-like outfit. 

For them, I decided to make a more refined inner layer and use soldier mantis carapaces for the exterior. 

These carapaces were a bit too large to use as is, so I cut them down and used the Earth Magic spell Polish to shave them to the perfect size. 

The designs were similar otherwise; at a glance, it didn’t look much different from the ant armor, but this version’s defense was more than twice as high. 

I made shields by cutting a labyrinth beetle’s back down to the proper size and attaching a handle—not much labor at all. 

However, I was tired at that point, and I decided to load up on some sugar while I contemplated what kind of weapons to give them. 

“Hmm. It’s a little better with magic than bronze, lighter than bronze or iron, but its attack power is a bit lower…” 

Looking through the materials I had on hand, I tried making prototype weapons out of the scythe arms or spikes of various monsters. 

I followed the directions in my documents, but the cheaper kinds had rather low abilities. Thinking in video game terms, they’d be perfect for raising a newbie fighter’s skill levels. 

“Oops, the best-looking recipe is in a different document.” 

I flipped to a different set of instructions, murmuring to myself. 

This set was a guide to making pseudo–Magic Swords and spears. 

It included the Antwing Silver Sword that Sumina and the others had been admiring earlier in the day. 

“…Hmm? It’s speckled silver and gray…” 

I made a test Antwing Silver Sword right away, but unlike the sword I was familiar with, this one wasn’t just gray. 

I looked over the instructions again. 

“Ah, so it’s important to control the temperature precisely…” 

I had given myself a margin of error of one degree Celsius, give or take, but evidently that wasn’t good enough. 

“Heh-heh. Finally a worthy opponent.” 

Entering mad-scientist mode, I experimented with the temperature control to get it down to zeros for the first nine decimal places. 

That would normally be impossible, so I used the Air Control spell to even out the heat in the room, then used Liquid Control to keep the various liquids from evaporating and altering the temperature. 

On top of that, I used “Magic Manipulation” to slow the flow of magic through the transmutation tools and keep everything level. 

Then finally… 

“It’s silver.” 

I held up the beautiful silver sword, grinning triumphantly at my own handiwork. 

Now, this was a sword worthy of the name Antwing Silver Sword. 

Putting the speckled silver-gray prototypes away in Storage, I made an elegant scabbard for the finished silver sword. 

Maybe next I could make swords out of scythe arms from guardian ants and soldier mantises? 

As I let my imagination wander, I started mass-producing weapons to suit the explorer women’s skills. 

They weren’t quite as high-performance as a Magic Sword, but they were as good as or better than the standard equipment of the labyrinth army, so it was probably best to refrain from making anything better. 

If they were too powerful, they might attract unwanted attention. 

Everything’s best in moderation anyway. 

“Wow, new equipment!” 

“Damn, look at this! It’s a Magic Sword made from a guardian ant scythe!” 

“And this one’s a soldier mantis broadsword with armor to match!” 

“Amazing! Who in the world are you, Lord Kuro?” 

“I can try on this armor, right? I won’t get in trouble?” 

“Ooooh, a rosethorn spear!” 

“This shield is cut from a beetle’s carapace, you know!” 

“This is crazy. I can’t even imagine how much it would cost to get stuff like this made…” 

The next morning, I showed the mass-produced equipment to the explorers staying in the Ivy Manor and was met with rave reviews. 

My creative side was thrilled to have my work be so well received. 

Feeling pretty good about myself, I looked around again. 

“So pretty…” 

Elder Sister Sumina was head over heels for the sparkling Antwing Silver Sword I’d made. 

It was meant to be just an example, but I couldn’t very well ask for it back now. 

Making that sword had been pretty difficult, so I didn’t really intend to make any more. If she liked it that much, I was happy to let her keep it. 

“So that’s a real Antwing Silver Sword.” 

“Yeah. If you mess up the temperature, they come out gray.” 

The blond noblewoman appeared at my side, gazing at Sumina rather enviously as the latter held up the sword. 

“Would you have preferred that one?” 

“No, no! I’m delighted with the clothes and the rapier you gave me, Lord Kuro!” 

I had planned on giving her and her noble friends equipment like the other explorers, too, but they said they intended to resign from the explorer business. I gave them light armor and steel rapiers for self-defense instead. 

These favored gaudiness over practicality, so they had the unrealistic appearance of a squad of lady knights. 

“Sumina, I’ll have you and the other explorers bring the plunderers to the west guild and collect the reward money. Then you can use that money to find housing in Labyrinth City until you can live on your own again.” 

“Lord Kuro, I suppose it would be inconvenient for you if we stayed here…wouldn’t it?” 

The noblewoman fluttered her eyes at me, but I responded bluntly. 

“Yes, it would. I have much work to do.” 

The girls who still needed more healing from Lelillil and the ones who knew about the cultivation would be staying awhile longer, but I planned to release the others right away. 

“Of course… You serve the Hero, after all.” 

Eluterina looked dejected, but it wouldn’t suit Kuro’s character to comfort her, so I ignored her and turned to the bag-carrier girl Polina. 

“I have something to ask of you.” 

“What is it?” 

I asked Polina to help me come up with a cover story so that the newly freed women wouldn’t draw any suspicion. 

“Why not say that we were being sheltered in the Blue People’s hidden village?” 

This suggestion came not from Polina but from Eluterina, the blond noblewoman. 

“The Blue People?” 

“Yes. Haven’t you heard of them?” 

According to her explanation, this was a nickname for blue-skinned humanoids said to very occasionally appear in labyrinth villages inside the labyrinth. 

Blue People aside, I was quite interested in seeing one of these labyrinth villages, so I decided I would go have a look with my companions when we had a chance. 

“I’ve heard of them, too.” 

Timidly, Polina shared what information she had. 

According to the rumors, some people encountered them when they got lost deep in monster territory. 

As long as you didn’t antagonize them, they were apparently perfectly friendly, but if you did attack one, you’d be killed without mercy. 

The women were all beauties of every shape and size, and the men were said to be handsome, too, with wavy, seaweed-like bangs. 

There were even rumors that they could evaporate into mist. 

“Are you sure these Blue People aren’t actually vampires?” 

The blond noblewoman was quick to refute my theory. 

“Oh, no, Lord Kuro. I’ve met someone who has been to the Bloodsucker Labyrinth in the Saga Empire, and they said vampires are bluish-black, beastly creatures who don’t understand language.” 

This girl’s awfully knowledgeable. Somehow, she reminded me of Nadi, the woman from the general store in Seiryuu City. 

“Let me think…” 

I contemplated their proposal for a moment. 

“…All right. That should work.” 

With that decided, I spent some time solidifying the cover story with Eluterina, Polina, and Sumina. 

“What the hell’s going on here?!” 

“We are the Lord Kuro Fan Club. Lord Kuro is about to perform a miracle, so just sit and watch.” 

Using my Clairvoyance and Clairaudience spells to make sure things were ready for me to teleport into the labyrinth, I found Elder Sister Sumina arguing with a guild employee. 

I’d sent her out from the first area of the labyrinth’s upper stratum to make sure I could teleport there, but maybe I should’ve sent along someone who was a little better at negotiating. 

Pretending not to have heard the phrase “Lord Kuro Fan Club,” I started removing the earthen walls keeping the plunderers imprisoned. 

Of course, I had already blocked all the exits with gigantic walls to prevent them from escaping. 

“Graaah!” 

“Let’s get ’im!” 

As soon as the walls were gone, the plunderers charged at me like starving animals. 

I beat them down with the human-suppressing spell Remote Stun and the monster-suppressing spell Short Stun. 

The upper-ranking plunderers who were at least level 30 or enhanced with the Demonic Body buff were able to resist the former, so I hit them with the latter. 

One of them weaved around the falling plunderers and tried to hit me with a poison needle, but my “Sense Danger” and “Abduction” skills allowed me to knock him out before he could do anything. 

Where was he hiding that poison needle anyway? 

First, I used Mana Drain to take the plunderers’ magic so they couldn’t use that annoying Demonic Body. Then I tied them up with magic-sapping thornfoot ivy that I’d found in Storage. 

I had instructions for how to make the mage-constricting thornfoot ivy, too, so I decided to try it out when I got a chance. 

Next, I picked up the plunderers with Magic Hand and teleported to the labyrinth guild area, where Sumina and the others were waiting. 

“Whoa, where’d they come from?!” 

“Lord Kuro! Excellent work as always!” 

Sumina’s shout interrupted the startled guild clerk. 

“Take these captured plunderers to the guild. You, clerk, we need more people. Help us bring these plunderers to prison.” 

The clerk looked doubtful at my haughty command, but as soon as she laid eyes on the more famous plunderers among the captured lot, she became very cooperative. 

“So you’re responsible for all this commotion, are you?” 

“Guildmaster.” 

The guildmaster appeared on the other side of the crowd, looking bored. 

Sebelkeya was nowhere to be seen, but Ushana was with her as always. 

“These are the plunderers from the bases you saw last night. I searched for anyone who might’ve been working the fields, but I didn’t find anyone. Most likely they were killed by the plunderers or the mastermind behind them.” 

I used my “Fabrication” skill to make up that story. 

Eventually, the guildmaster would probably hear about the former captives who would claim they had been sheltered in the Blue People’s village, but those girls were convinced that they’d been growing gabo wheat and gabo barley, not destruction stalks and ruination weeds. 

Besides, I seemed to be the only person with any idea how to make the magic circle required to cultivate those plants effectively, so they should be fine. 

I didn’t think the guildmaster or the higher-ups of the Shiga Kingdom would want to poke the hornet’s nest anyway. 

If anything did go wrong, I could always step in and help the girls escape to some far-off kingdom. 

I accepted the reward-slash-hush-money from the guildmaster, gave the money to Sumina, and had her rent out some tenement houses. 

Since there were nearly two hundred people in total, they basically rented a whole neighborhood. 

“I’ll leave you in charge for now. Polina and Eluterina will be along later.” 

“Y-yes, Lord Kuro! You can count on us.” 

Sumina and the crowd of forty-six explorers proudly puffed up their chests. 

Still, I wasn’t planning on just heartlessly leaving them in the lurch from now on. 

I would provide them with support for the next few months until they could be independent again. 

“I’ll send a merchant named Echigoya along in the next few days. If you need anything, talk to him.” 

With that, I gave them some money for their immediate living expenses. 

Now, I didn’t have the fake name “Echigoya,” so I’d have to have Tifaleeza give it to me with “Name Order” later. 

“And you can sell this plunderers’ equipment and use that money for whatever you need.” 

The armor was probably next to worthless, but there were some monster weapons and such that might fetch a decent price. 

The cursed weapons and magic tools were dangerous, though, so I was keeping those. 

Over the next few days, I planned to release the rest of the girls at the Ivy Manor in small batches. 

Later on, I attempted to release the masterless slaves, send them to the tenement houses, and return the ones with masters to their owners, but that plan ended up backfiring. 

The owners didn’t want to pay the finder’s fee for their return. In the end, they ended up surrendering ownership of the girls to me instead. 

Most of them then wanted to stay as Kuro’s slaves, but I had no desire for slaves to be used as tools. 

I agreed to this out of respect for their wishes so that I could keep them safe for the time being, but eventually, when they left the tenement houses, I would free all of them from slavery. 

For now, I just watched contentedly as the former captives went about their new lives happily under a clear blue sky.