The floating skull was, without needing to look twice, the Lich King.
Though it still seemed not to have come to its senses.
"So the appointed time came and it didn't wake, and it ended up in this state?"
-That's right, yo…….
It had no idea what was behind it and was still searching for the reason.
"Hmm."
An unfortunate business, but there wasn't much I could do to help.
I did watch the Lich King floating in the air closely, though.
"The flow of its magic power is remarkably supple."
Even in the thirty-second dungeon I hadn't seen anyone governing magic power at that level.
It could control magic power to this degree even while unconscious?
It was worth a bit of study, at least.
-Is that really what comes out of your mouth right now, yo?
At the words of Blackie, who was going through all this trouble because of my request, I coughed and looked away.
"You are back."
"Ah, when did you get here?"
And in the middle of it Enoch appeared, without sound or warning in the basement, as he always did.
For a week's absence it somehow felt like quite a long time.
"Oh, right. Here. This is for you, Father."
"What is this?"
"A gift."
What I held out was an eagle-shaped brooch.
Not that I'd bought a proper gift as promised, exactly.
I'd asked Baiarte separately and obtained it from him.
When I asked whether he had anything I could take back as a keepsake, he gave me this.
"……."
"……."
But why wasn't the man taking it?
Leaving the giver standing there awkwardly.
Hm? Wait.
"What is this used for?"
"A brooch…… never mind, I'll just pin it on for you."
It wasn't as if I had an elixir that would do Enoch any good (if I had, I'd have eaten it), and the fabric of his clothes looked top-grade, but it was a shame there was no ornament on it.
Baiarte must have put some thought into it, because it suited Enoch's suit rather well.
"I'll look for something better if I get the chance later."
"……."
An eagle-shaped brooch.
The craftsmanship wasn't bad, and the jewels on it weren't excessive, so it looked refined.
"……."
"So, is it all right?"
"I am thinking for a moment."
What was he thinking about now?
"I see."
"……?"
"There are words for a time like this."
Then Enoch looked at me and said:
"Thank you."
"……."
How to put it.
It was only for the briefest moment, but I thought I saw something in the neighborhood of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
Ahem.
Feeling awkward myself, I scratched the back of my head and looked away.
Before the regression he'd been an enemy I had to kill by any means.
And now that we'd become father and son.
'Well. It isn't bad.'
A different feeling from when I gave a gift to the director at the orphanage, before I came to this world.
It felt, at last, like coming home.
***
I summoned Zigwell right away and laid out an organized account of what had happened in the thirty-second dungeon.
"There was an incident that large……?"
Hearing it, Zigwell couldn't wipe the astonishment off his face.
"I attended the academy myself once, so I know the place. To think such a crisis fell upon it."
"Don't dungeons run into crises often? I saw quite a few in the history books."
"There are dungeons like that, and there are dungeons that have maintained their history for a long time. The dungeon led by the thirty-second Demon King is the latter sort."
Recalling those days with a bitter expression, Zigwell shook his head once and continued.
"More to the point…… you performed a great service on your very first commission. Since one of the graduates was actually lost, all the many students there are as good as indebted to you, young master."
"Ahem. I am somewhat impressive."
I hadn't acted with any of that in mind, but a good result beautifies the process, doesn't it?
"Thanks to it, taking mercenary commissions will be considerably easier. And you rescued the eldest daughter of the eleventh dungeon, did you not?"
"You know something about them?"
"The eleventh dungeon is a very famous mercenary group within the Demon Realm."
By some trick of fate, the great patron of the mercenary trade we needed was the eleventh dungeon.
Skill and numbers both: the eleventh dungeon satisfied each of them, by Zigwell's explanation.
Calculations had clearly already started running in his head, so I waited out his silence.
Then I passed on what Baiarte had told me.
The words the thirty-second dungeon's previous Demon King had left Baiarte.
Take no interest in the seventy-second dungeon.
Maybe Enoch's dungeon being left in neglect had something to do with the other dungeon masters holding a similar reason.
When I asked Zigwell about it.
"I have heard something similar, but it was closer to folklore. The Demon King himself carried out no external activity at all to begin with."
The Demon Realm doesn't move as fluidly as one might think, Zigwell went on.
"Five hundred years. Even for a race like the dark elves, who live for centuries, that is not a short span. And it is exceedingly rare for anyone of the caliber to have fought in the Heaven-Demon War to still be alive."
So it was simply neglect hardened into custom, and once we began moving in earnest the other dungeons would respond in kind. That was Zigwell's view.
"Well, Baiarte said he'd lend his strength, at least."
"Not naming your request on the spot when he offered a reward was an excellent choice in particular. You placed him under no small obligation, so what comes back to us will be no small thing either."
Given how much our dungeon lacked, we could ask when the moment truly required it.
"Anyway, from here we can start exchanges with the other dungeons in earnest. What do you think, Father? Cooperation with other dungeons. Do you intend to pursue it?"
In truth, however much Zigwell and I talked our mouths dry, what mattered most in the end was Enoch's intent.
And so.
"I will think on it."
"All right."
He had lived five hundred years alone without any exchange to speak of.
Asking for an answer on the spot would be asking too much.
"Then shall we move to the next item?"
"Yes. The matter of the vagrants."
"How are they doing? Are they adjusting?"
"There were some complaints at first…… but since simple meals began being distributed, some of them have started moving actively."
"So not all of the vagrants are moving yet?"
"Correct. They are a timid lot by nature."
They'd wait to see how the first group got treated before moving, in other words.
"Hm. Is it time for a carrot and a stick?"
"In what manner?"
"We set quotas. Once a month, anyone who meets the quota gets extra compensation."
"That much should be acceptable."
It was a shame the whole lot hadn't moved yet, but I figured that too was temporary.
People being what they are, seeing others do well breeds the desire to do the same.
"However……."
At some point Zigwell's expression had turned rather grave.
"An anomaly has begun occurring within the dungeon."
"An anomaly?"
"Yes. Vagrants have recently begun having nightmares, one after another."
"Nightmares……?"
The first thing that came to mind on hearing it was a succubus.
They'd been terribly troublesome opponents before the regression as well.
Don't tell me it was one of them?
"It is not what you are thinking. Normally that would leave them drained of energy…… but there appear to be no side effects at all. They do complain of mental fatigue, though. They are anxious, naturally."
That wasn't a good sign.
We'd approached them with goodwill first, and if strange things began happening among the vagrants, nine times out of ten they'd think it was our doing.
"What form do the nightmares take, mostly?"
"That is the odd part."
What was odd about it?
"They say they cannot remember them. Only that tremendous rage and despair, and at the end an emptiness, linger like an aftertaste."
"……?"
"And in fact I had the nightmare myself. It was not much different from what those before me experienced, but……."
"But?"
"By my Insight, the judgment came that it was caused by the intervention of some being."
If Zigwell said so, then there was a high chance another being was involved.
It felt like an unidentified enemy had coiled itself up somewhere in the dungeon.
"Certainly not a good omen…… How about you, Father?"
"I have not had one."
Of course not.
How powerful would something have to be to affect even Enoch?
"Though it might be different if I dreamed it myself……."
Maybe Existence Analysis would resolve it.
"Did you ask Blackie?"
"It said the sample size was too small. Unless it can watch someone have the nightmare directly, it cannot give a judgment."
And of all things, that one is a shut-in who won't come outside.
After thinking it over for a moment, I nodded.
"It might affect me too. I'll look into that later."
"Understood."
And so the general meeting ended, and we stepped out of Enoch's room.
"Hm…… is it like this?"
I was walking the corridor, raising magic power over my hand and moving it gently.
Zigwell, beside me, asked.
"What are you doing?"
"It's the flow of magic power I saw in the basement earlier. I'm trying to copy it. If it works out, there might be a way for me to use it."
"Is copying another's magic power from sight something that can be done so easily……?"
"Better than not trying, isn't it?"
However much Existence Analysis I have, it only plays a supporting role.
Mastery depends on how much effort I put in.
And just as I'd taken a few more steps.
"No."
Startled me.
At some point Enoch had followed us out, and he said that from behind me.
"Wh-what is?"
"……."
Enoch stood quietly looking at my hand.
I was starting to understand what that expression meant.
He was choosing the word to say.
But what followed wasn't a word; it was an action.
"Oh."
Enoch raised his hand as I had and roused magic power.
A flower of magic power, blooming like a piece of fine art.
Then, as if even that had been an illusion, the petals scattered in every direction and faded.
"This is……."
"It is difficult to explain in words."
Strictly speaking, the flower of magic power Enoch showed differed in many ways from the telekinesis the Lich King used.
But I hadn't been trying to copy the Lich King's telekinesis perfectly in the first place.
I'd only been trying to copy the craft residing inside it.
Enoch had seen through that and produced that flower.
"……."
And seeing it, I.
[Existence Analysis]
Began analyzing it in real time.
The afterglow of magic power still lingering like an echo.
That joke you see online, that disassembly is assembly in reverse, was being applied to me right now.
'The flow of the magic power itself is different. A completely different method from anything I'd thought of.'
Magic power is violent.
Like a wild horse that runs without looking ahead or behind.
So in governing magic power I had always used a method of thorough control.
I built walls across the plain they could run on and laid out the road they had to run down.
And through that I obtained what I wanted.
I don't think that method was wrong.
It was the only method the me who was dying of a magic power rampage could manage.
But as much as I had grown, it was also true that the ways of using magic power had become more varied.
And until now I had been turning away from that without realizing it.
Enoch had put his finger exactly on that part and told me so through action.
"I am told that when one receives a gift, one repays it."
"……."
"Is this sufficient?"
[Magic Arts (Grade D > Grade C)]
[You have acquired a new trait.]
[Magic Power Wielder (Grade F)]
No need to even ask.
"Thank you, Father."
It was a gift more than enough to overflow.