As we cleared the dungeon at a frightening momentum, I sensed two presences coming closer to us.
「The fact that I can feel them now means they’re already on the same floor as us, huh.」 「Well, we practically decimated all of the monsters in our way, so those two had mostly been moving without any fighting.」
This time, our goal was to gather magic stones, so we didn’t just hunt down the monsters that caught our eye, we thoroughly exterminated any and all monsters that come within our wide area search. Naturally, it would take time for the dungeon to birth new monsters. Particularly this dungeon which happens to be called a Dragon Dungeon, the cost of even producing a small fry was high, so it would probably be hard to find monsters for a while.
「Ahh, we already caught up.」
Inside the vast dungeon, a loud voice could be heard from far away.
「Getting a head start is unfair of you, Queen Fraal! You’re just hogging all this fun!」
The voice that spoke so loud it hurt was the red-skinned, muscular, two-horned Oni King who was smiling ferociously and displaying his large fangs, King Jairu.
「For the King of the Oni Tribe to not even come with an attendant, are you sane? The same goes for you, Gandalf! How could you enter the dungeon by yourselves!?」 「What, the shallower floors would be easy if I was with Jairu, right?」 「Aren’t those absurdities coming out of your own mouth!?」
The one seemingly enjoying the confrontation with the angered Queen Fraal was blue-skinned, muscular, two-screw horned ruler of the Devil Clan who had folded bat-like wings growing from his back[1], King Gandalf.
「No, I also think that what Queen Fraal said is right. Why would rulers of their own countries come to a high level dungeon without any escorts?」
Queen Fraal had taken her close aide Ryuka-san even if it was only her, and she dove into the dungeon together with us, so that was enough for an escort. And these people…………
「What, we also have the weapons that Iruma-dono gave us in the last dungeon. Those huge lizards are nothing.」 「Yeah, the subdragons were one hit KO!」
Saying so, King Gandalf jabbed the all-metal halberd into the ground, and King Jairu swung the all metal hexagonal rod.
Though Queen Fraal threw in some sharp words, the two weren’t concerned at all.
「Haa, still, you two really have done it leaving your countries by yourself.」 「That’s just how it is, they likely decided to sneak out.」 「Umu, they’d have stopped us if we said so.」
Ahh, these hopeless adults.
「Huh? But how did you know that we were going to challenge this dungeon?」
Right, I had asked Queen Fraal if she knew an appropriate dungeon, but how did King Jairu and King Gandalf know?
「Fu fu fu, our Rhodes and Queen Fraal’s Accuros have a prosperous trade, after all. Naturally, I have many subordinates that enter Accuros. We are not negligent in gathering information.」
「Schimihazaar which I rule and Accuros have trade too. There are a lot of Onis in Accuros.」 「You guys didn’t throw in spies, did you!?」 「No, even if we don’t put spies in, your information is pretty open, isn’t it? In the first place, there’s no one in our nations here in the Demon Continent that think about these tiny details.」 「That’s right too.」
And so they all agreed. I guess. The necessary quality of a ruler in the Demon Continent was being strong anyway.
「Well, there’s no helping it since you’re already here, let’s restart the capture after a bit of rest.」 「Ou! Leave what’s ahead to me and Gandalf!」 「Umu, we haven’t fought that much. Leave the front to us.」
I quickly gave in to the two kings who did not look even slightly ashamed when looked at with fed up expressions by those around them. It’s fine as long as they don’t die. It’s easier on my mental wellbeing this way.
Maria, Marnie, and Lulu-chan prepared tea, and we all took a break in a large room after collecting all of the monsters.
After resting, we resumed our dungeon diving, but in reality, we began moving with King Jairu and King Gandalf at the front.
「Kaede, please back them up.」 「You got it, Master! Leave Red-ojichan and Blue-ojichan to Kaede!」
The two kings would probably be fine going ahead of Titan and Tsubaki if I leave them to Kaede. Yup, let’s think like that.
Footnotes: 1. As far as I can recall, it had never been mentioned that he had wings on his back. [↩]