Fortunately, Yu Hanul was still in his original spot.
“Daon.”
It looked like he’d come back to his senses. That was a little disappointing. It was nice that he’d been listening so well to what I said.
“Are you back to normal?”
“Yeah… I said a bunch of nonsense, didn’t I? Sorry.”
It seemed he still remembered calling me “Your Highness”. I wasn’t sure how much of it he remembered exactly.
“I’m ashamed of myself. As your senior Hunter, I should’ve been guiding you instead of the other way around. I guess I really need to strengthen my mental-magic defensive gear.”
In reality, the confusion was probably caused by the system forcibly reviving memories from his past life, but he couldn’t very well admit that, so he was pinning the blame on his equipment instead.
“But what’s with that puppy?”
The wolf, now reduced in size at my command, let out a cute bark, “Woof!” To other people, it probably looked like an ordinary large dog. It was a bit big to be called a puppy, but compared to its original size, it was about one-fifth as large. Since Yu Hanul might have regained part of his past-life memories, I figured it was better to be cautious and changed its size.
I patted the obedient wolf. “I found it wandering around inside the castle. More importantly…”
Thud!
The mage’s limp body rolled across the floor.
Yu Hanul’s eyes widened. “That person is—”
“Not a person. A monster. An S-rank one, at that.”
"...I see." Yu Hanul looked at the mage with a complicated expression for a moment, then nodded as if he’d made up his mind. “Okay. I get it. Let’s talk about the details once we’re outside.”
I frowned slightly.
He’s not even asking how I took down an S-rank monster?
A Hunter who’d awakened only a few months ago defeating an S-rank monster alone; anyone would find that suspicious. I couldn’t read Yu Hanul’s thoughts at all.
Don’t tell me he’s figured out who I really am… No, that can’t be it. If he had, he wouldn’t be this calm. And he’s not stupid enough to completely rule me out as a suspect. Is he just too confused right now to think that far?
I’d been prepared for Yu Hanul to grill me and even had excuses ready, but his reaction only made things more troublesome. It seemed I’d have to dig into both Yu Hanul and the system later.
Exactly how much does he remember?
“Leave things here to me and go look for Han Jaeyeong first—”
“Looking for me?”
From the entrance of the massive hall we’d come through, Han Jaeyeong’s bright voice rang out. They poked their face through the open doorway.
“I’m not making excuses, but just as I finished analyzing the maze-like structure of the castle and was about to dismantle it, the whole place collapsed, you know? It’s not like I did absolutely nothing—”
“Perfect timing, Hunter Han Jaeyeong. Please step outside for a moment with Hunter Jeong Daon—”
“Are you just completely ignoring me? More importantly, Yu Hanul, are you back to normal, hmm…?” After taking a look around inside, Han Jaeyeong shook their head. “Yeah, I get it. You’re planning to take that woman—no, that S-rank monster—out, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“Then hurry up. Just slice her up with that sword already and let’s get out of here.”
Yu Hanul frowned at their blunt remark. Honestly, I’d been wondering why Yu Hanul wanted me to step outside, and now it made sense. He probably didn’t want me to watch him kill something that still looked human.
“Hunter Han Jaeyeong…”
“Jeong Daon isn’t a minor anymore, you know. Stop fussing over nothing and just kill her already.”
“About that,” I raised a hand and cut into the conversation.
If I’d really wanted her dead, I could’ve killed her earlier when I was beating her half to death. The reason I’d kept her alive and dragged her here in front of Yu Hanul was because I had a purpose.
“You all agree that I contributed the most to clearing this dungeon, right?”
“What are you even trying to say?”
"I have a proposal."
"What?"
“Pardon?”
Yu Hanul looked at me with pure confusion, while Han Jaeyeong eyed me suspiciously.
“If we kill this mage now, the barrier will collapse immediately. You know that too, Han Jaeyeong.”
Han Jaeyeong frowned. It was clearly a “why are you stating the obvious?” kind of reaction. “Well… yeah. Of course. That barrier was created to protect that mage, and all the magic power the A-rank lifeless idols absorbed ended up being used by that S-rank lifeless idol to maintain it. Once the caster disappears, it’ll completely collapse. That’s when the dungeon clear will register for us, too.”
“Right. And that’s why.”
“…You’re already giving me a headache.”
“I think we can still get the dungeon clear even if we leave this one alive.”
From the system’s perspective, the condition for clearing a dungeon is whether humanity has conquered the otherworld. And the core monster controlling this area had already been completely subdued; that alone could arguably satisfy the clear condition.
…Of course, a few more requirements would be needed, but those could be met, too.
The system is questioning the true intentions of User “Jeong Daon”.
“Yeah, in theory it’s not impossible. I’ve actually escaped a few times using loopholes myself. But still…” Han Jaeyeong tilted their head. “But why go that far? It’d be cleaner to just kill her.”
“Daon, could it be that…” Yu Hanul spoke cautiously. “You’re worried about the people living inside this barrier?”
I’d expected that, and I’d steered things in that direction. …Even so, nodding at that question felt strangely difficult. But I nodded anyway. Paradoxically, sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to in order to get what you want.
“Honestly, it’s just sad. It’s not like they wanted to become sacrifices to this kind of magic.” My tone ended up sounding a bit like I was reading from a book, but it couldn’t be helped.
“My god.” Han Jaeyeong clicked their tongue. “I knew you were softhearted, but are you seriously saying we should keep this S-rank lifeless idol alive for that reason?”
Who are you calling softhearted?
What kind of misunderstanding is this?
It was the same the last time they called me some kind of saint. Han Jaeyeong seemed to be seriously mistaken about me. There were plenty of things I wanted to say in rebuttal, but I held back and continued with words I didn’t even mean.
“I want to try to find a way to save these people. There might actually be a way for them to get their bodies back…”
“They look human, but according to the system they’re still monsters. And you got hit with a rock, didn’t you, Jeong Daon?”
“They probably received an order to be wary of outsiders. Since they’re in spirit form, it would’ve been easy to plant a command in them as a kind of suggestion…”
“My god.” Han Jaeyeong pressed a hand to their head.
From their perspective, this had to be a massive headache. Honestly, I sympathized with Han Jaeyeong here. We were victims who’d been thrown into a random dimension, and our top priority should’ve been getting back to Earth as soon as possible. Why should we care so much about some ghosts here?
“…Fine. Then let’s try to find another way.”
Unfortunately for Han Jaeyeong, Yu Hanul was on my side. I really didn’t understand why.
Han Jaeyeong squeezed their eyes shut. “What is wrong with you two, seriously?”
“It’s not just a moral issue.” Yu Hanul looked down at the mage, who was twitching on the floor as if she might regain consciousness at any moment. “I think you’ve probably already guessed this, but…we’re likely going to come back to this dimension a few more times. If that’s the case, then we need a base.”
Well, Yu Hanul wasn’t an idiot. He’d probably been following the system’s information to hunt down soul cores, and he’d also recovered some of his past-life memories, so he must’ve realized that this was the world he’d lived in before. If someone was trying to connect this dimension and Earth, then research on this place would also be necessary. In that case, the idea of needing a base made sense in its own way.
“On top of that, we need to analyze this monster called a lifeless idol. The monster we found on Yeongjong disappeared before we even had time to analyze it, didn’t it?”
“Well, that’s true, but…” Han Jaeyeong said, pressing their fingers firmly against their forehead as if it hurt. “Fine, let’s say I agree to all that. Then how are you planning to control that S-rank monster without killing her? Even if you try to trick the clear condition with a loophole—” But Han Jaeyeong couldn’t finish their sentence.
“I’ll use this.” Yu Hanul had taken out a parchment scroll, and I knew exactly what that parchment was.
“A contract of the soul…”
“No, what the hell? Why do you have an S-rank item like that?!” Han Jaeyeong yelped in shock.
What Yu Hanul had pulled out was literally a contract that bound and subordinated the other party’s soul. If the terms written into the contract weren’t carried out, the clauses engraved into the soul would destroy it.
That’s an item made by demons.
And by “demons” here, I didn’t mean demon lords like me—humans designated by the system—but beings born as true demonkin from the start, like ghost piranhas. In any case, it wasn’t something you could get easily. Maybe this really was the perk of being a hero.
Still, Han Jaeyeong seemed convinced when they saw the item Yu Hanul had taken out.
“Yeah, if you’ve got something like that… then it makes sense. So what are you going to put in the contract?”
“That she will obey my commands absolutely. With a contract that strict, the system should be forced to recognize it as a clear.”
“Wow…”
Honestly, even I couldn’t help but be impressed. Destroy her soul if she didn’t obey his commands absolutely? Wasn’t that a pretty extreme thing for a hero to say?
Maybe he felt embarrassed by my gaze. Yu Hanul’s cheeks turned slightly red.
“…With contracts like this, it’s actually much better in the long run not to pile on too many detailed conditions and just do it this way.”
“I didn’t say anything. And I agree.”
The system is considering the opinion of User “Yu Hanul”…
Looks like the system agreed, too.
When I brought up the same idea, it questioned my true intentions.
Honestly, this is blatant hero favoritism.
Of course, I’d pulled Yu Hanul into this partly because I was hoping for exactly this reaction from the system. Whether or not someone acknowledged by the system as “Yu Hanul” agreed carried a lot of weight. I’d figured that if Yu Hanul judged keeping this barrier intact to be beneficial, the system would fully support it. From my perspective, I’d achieved my goal by bringing Yu Hanul into it.
Even if it left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.
“With you two acting like this, it feels like I’m the only bad guy here.”
With things having gone this far, Han Jaeyeong had no choice but to go along with it. They let out a long sigh.
“Then at the very least, I want the HP Guild to handle the research on this monster and this territory. That’s my condition. How about it?”
“I was planning to ask the HP Guild anyway. There’s no one else I can trust besides you, Hunter Han Jaeyeong.”
“Hearing you say that doesn’t exactly make me feel bad… but still, I don’t know.” Han Jaeyeong shook their head and then looked back at me. “You’re a really strange person, you know. Are you some kind of half-angel or something?”
“Are you
insane
?”
The idea was so absurd that goosebumps ran up my arms.
When I glared at them, Han Jaeyeong burst out laughing. “Ahahaha, was half-angel too much?”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that in my life!”
“Then let’s form the contract.”
Yu Hanul paid no attention to what the two of us were saying and brought his sword to the fallen mage’s neck.
Slice!
He lightly cut her neck with the blade. Blood welled up and then seeped into the contract that was floating in the air.
“I command you to obey my orders absolutely.”
The words Yu Hanul spoke became a geas and sank into the mage’s soul. If she disobeyed this geas, her soul would be completely destroyed. True to something made by real demons, the most terrifying part was that the contract didn’t even require the other party’s consent.
After the contract was formed, Yu Hanul issued a few additional orders, “First priority: use your own mana to maintain this barrier. Do not, of your own will, harm the people living inside this barrier. The duration of these orders is until I return to this place.”
And just as Yu Hanul finished binding her completely…
The dungeon has been cleared.
The message popped up.
After taking Yu Hanul’s words into account, it seemed the system had finally made its judgment.
Time until dungeon escape becomes available: 00:03:00
The system will protect the user until dungeon escape.
Rumble!
The moment the system messages appeared, the inner castle walls began to collapse even more heavily. At the same time, noise started coming from outside the castle.
“The castle… the castle collapsed!”
“Oh no, we’re all going to die now!”
It seemed the villagers had rushed over after sensing the abnormal change.
Han Jaeyeong shrugged. “…Looks like we should at least explain what happened before we leave.”
“Yes. Let’s go out.”
Yu Hanul gave the fallen mage a brief glance, then turned his back on her. Now that she was bound by the contract, there was no real need to talk to her anyway…
Figures Yu Hanul would act like that.’
With limited time left, Yu Hanul would choose to calm the people panicking over the sudden upheaval rather than threaten the mage. That was exactly what I’d expected, and I was right.
I cast a brief glance at the mage lying on the floor, then followed after Yu Hanul.
And when we stepped out of the nearly half-collapsed castle…
“Th-those bastards!”
“What the hell did you do?!”
Before we knew it, the people of the territory, bristling with hostility, had swarmed around us.