—
The cold moonlight stread in through the window.
Will lay on the couch in the second-floor liaison office of the Adventurer’s Guild, breathing in the faintly dusty air around him.
When he first entered this place, the entire floor was covered in a thick layer of dust.
This Adventurer’s Guild…
Could it really only have one person running it—the guild master?
In this quiet little town, devoid of bustling transportation or tourism, Will and Shuna had found themselves at a loss after being escorted out of the dungeon by Lucifa. They couldn’t even find a single inn along the streets.
If they wanted to stay here, their only option was to crash at the Adventurer’s Guild—thankfully, the couches seed to be prepared for such situations.
Shuna had ntioned she’d already been staying here for a few days. With two couches on either side of the room, they could each make do with one.
—”The couch isn’t big enough, but we could consider sharing it.”
—”It’d be warr than this, right? Especially since it’s an autumn night.”
—”Oh, and don’t worry. The guild master doesn’t co in until noon, so if we sneak out early, he won’t even notice.”
That was how Shuna had casually pitched the idea to him earlier.
“Ugh… I can’t sleep…”
After trying various thods to cure his insomnia—visualizing a pendulum swinging in his mind, counting numbers, and maintaining steady breathing—Will finally gave up. He opened his eyes and stared at the blurry wooden ceiling above him.
Lucifa’s words kept replaying in his mind.
Though she had likely shared the information with the enthusiasm of soone spilling juicy gossip, every sentence about Treya’s current state echoed relentlessly in Will’s head.
“It’s really bothering … What exactly is Treya going through?” he muttered softly to himself as he sat up, careful not to wake Shuna on the other couch.
But…
When he turned his head, he realized Shuna wasn’t lying on her couch. The old blanket she had brought was neatly folded and empty beneath it.
“Hmm…”
Will reached out in the dark, fumbling on the table until he found his glasses. Putting them on, he looked up.
Through the soft autumn breeze brushing past his ears, he saw her.
Her long black hair shimred under the sheer moonlight like a delicate veil.
Wearing only one stocking on her leg, she leaned against the wall with a slightly bent posture.
Shuna…
She was standing by the window?
“Can’t sleep either?” Will asked as he walked over to her. He noticed she was holding a bottle of beer in her hand. Under the moonlight, it appeared full and untouched.
“Oh? Sneaking a drink without telling ?” he teased.
“Don’t even start,” Shuna replied with a wry smile. “I found this in one of the cabinets. Took a sip and realized it was expired. Now I’m just holding it for show.”
Under the moonlight, Shuna had an air of lancholy about her—like an older sister unable to sleep, stepping out for a drink to clear her mind.
Will had always thought of Shuna as soone who never let sadness touch her.
“What’s wrong? Do I look especially good tonight? You’ve been staring at ,” she teased again, catching his gaze.
The fleeting lancholy on her face vanished, replaced by her usual playful smirk.
“Speaking of which… you really didn’t treat her like a ‘person’ today,” she added with a subtle laugh layered beneath her words.
“Who?”
“Lucifa. When you said that line earlier, it gave quite a shock.”
“You an… when I said I wanted her heart?”
“Exactly.”
Shuna shook the beer bottle in her hand. Naturally, since it was full, it didn’t make any sound.
“She kept calling herself the Empress of the dungeon. Isn’t that far above being just a ‘person’?”
Now that Shuna ntioned it, Will had been pondering Lucifa’s reaction as well. It seed overly dramatic—almost as if she were painting him as so manipulative playboy who toyed with emotions. Why would she think that? Although… looking back now, maybe he was good at that sort of thing.
“Didn’t you feel it?” Shuna continued. “Saying sothing like that in that setting—it carried a certain… creepy undertone.”
“What? Isn’t it normal dungeon strategy to go for the ruler’s heart first? Be honest—you’ve touched or stabbed a few rulers’ hearts yourself, haven’t you? Besides, wasn’t she the one who brought up hearts in the first place—”
Will stopped mid-sentence.
“Think about it again,” Shuna said with a sly grin. “Grabbing a seven- or eight-year-old girl by the chest and seriously saying you want her heart…”
Crap.
That did sound bad.
In that mont, Will realized he hadn’t thought of Lucifa as a “person.” After all, most of the demons in Tenth Demon Castle appeared small and childlike.
But upon closer reflection, aside from her demonic traits…
Lucifa was fully humanoid!
She could easily pass as an exotic monster girl!
Why had he acted so naturally in that mont?
Was it because…
Because…
When she spoke those words earlier, she truly resembled an Empress standing guard over her desolate dungeon—a ruler trying desperately to change her fate but powerless to do so?
As an Empress of an abandoned dungeon with no visitors, Lucifa had done everything within her power to attract adventurers. Yet her efforts bore little fruit.
Perhaps…
For soone like her who carried the weight of maintaining a dungeon alone, not being treated like a child might actually be a complint.
Thankfully, aside from Shuna, no one else was around. If word of this got out, the Hysterm family’s gates would likely be sward by angry mobs by morning.
“Alright, fine. My bad,” Will admitted with a sigh. “But hey, she erased my mories multiple tis and mocked with gossip—let’s call it even.”
“Haha! That does sound like sothing you’d say,” Shuna replied with a chuckle.
“So,” Will asked, shifting topics, “what’s keeping you up tonight? What are you brooding over?”
“Well,” Shuna began thoughtfully, “ever since I first stepped into this dungeon, I’ve been wondering about sothing. Will… why do you think Tenth Demon Castle has no adventurers?”
“……”
Will fell silent for a mont.
As a mber of the Hysterm family, he should theoretically have more insight into Adventurer’s Guild operations than anyone else.
But in reality…
His knowledge of the guild’s workings from his family barely scratched the surface compared to what he had gleaned from the original story!
“What’s wrong? No answer?” Shuna teased lightly. “So even Hysterm’s little prince isn’t all that favored by his family?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Will replied sarcastically. “The family keeps out of everything—completely sidelines like I don’t even exist…”
He paused mid-thought.
That’s right.
They sidelined him… almost as if they expected him to die?
“But if you look into the guild’s records,” Shuna continued, “it becos obvious.”
“Hmm? Is that what you’ve been researching instead of sleeping?”
“Exactly.”
Shuna nodded.
“As a town near the capital, its Adventurer’s Guild isn’t even marked on our usual maps. It’s overshadowed by the capital’s icon instead. And as we both know, the capital’s guild…”
“…is tiny and doesn’t need such a big icon,” Will finished for her.
“Second,” Shuna added, “none of the recomnded dungeons list Tenth Demon Castle. If not for that old witch specifically ntioning it, I wouldn’t have co here at all.”
“……”
“And finally—this is the strangest part. For a town with a dungeon, Zymart’s most convenient transportation is its vegetable and fruit shipnts to the capital—not connections to other dungeon towns.”
“It’s almost like…”
“…like the Adventurer’s Guild is deliberately ignoring it,” Shuna concluded.
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