S-Class Dungeon’s Mistress - Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Adelaide straightened her expression and pretended she wasn’t embarrassed. She asked the adventurer.
“So, what is a legend?”
After hesitating for a while, the adventurer who seemed to have given up, opened his mouth. After all, he had already said this much, there was no going back. He just hoped that the legend wouldn’t find out what he had done.
“It’s a term referring to the adventurer who appeared a while ago.”
“What? Why does he have such a grand name when he’s an adventurer?”
“Because… He has a Legendary level.”
‘A Legendary level?’ Adelaide turned her head and looked to her side where Lisianthus was. She saw two devils with serious expressions in her field of vision.
‘Even Caladium has such a serious face!’ Adelaide widened her eyes in surprise. It must have been something unusual. She had a bad feeling about this.
Lisianthus explained in a subdued voice.
“Legendary is the highest among the adventurer levels. It is a level that only those with the most extraordinary souls among human beings could reach. I heard they were capable of equipping holy relics. But it was literally a legend, because someone with a legendary level hasn’t appeared in hundreds of years.”
“What? So it’s a lie?”
“I’m telling the truth! We didn’t believe it either, but now most of us do! A few days ago, the No. 1 ranker mercilessly lost to him. It ended with just a few moves.”
“Yes, it’s true! I didn’t know it was commissioned by the legend, but I heard the news too!”
Gehrig quickly added. He seemed to be expecting that he could return safely if he chimed in.
Lisianthus and Caladium’s faces darkened after hearing what Gehrig and the high level adventurer said. Adelaide, who sensed the strained atmosphere, quickly opened her mouth.
“S-Since we have Caladium, don’t you think we can win? He’s a devil after all.”
“Lisianthus is also a devil…” She added awkwardly. She still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that he was a devil, so she couldn’t say it properly.
“… I will win if I fight him with this b*st*rd. Surely.”
Caladium responded with swearing in between. The thought of joining forces with Lisianthus was horrifying. He shuddered and said it was terrible to even imagine.
Adelaide gasped and took a deep breath at the unexpected answer. It was hard to believe that the devil, who seemed to be bluffing, spoke that way. Besides, the two devils had to fight him together? Did that mean that the legendary adventurer was ridiculously strong? Well, they said he was the strongest among the adventurers, so he must be that great. In the Demon Realm, wouldn’t he be at the same level as the Demon King?
“What does that adventurer look like?”
Lisianthus asked in a cool voice. The adventurer answered in a trembling voice, terrified of the devil who had spoken to him.
“He has black hair, I’m not certain about his age, but he looks like he is in his twenties, and I heard he is very handsome… I heard.”
‘I can’t be polite to a devil!’ The adventurer stuck to informal speech and spoke with a sharp tone. The devil, who heard it, didn’t even care.
“Master. Have you ever met an adventurer with such an appearance?”
“No, never!”
Adelaide shook her head. She had locked herself in the Association building for over 30 years and did no work, so there was no way she would have ever seen such an adventurer.
“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t believe I am the succubus they are looking for. For what reason would that legendary adventurer look for someone he had never seen?”
She shrugged her shoulders. Despite the logical reasoning, Lisianthus and Caladium’s expressions still looked anxious.
“I will investigate further. First of all, let’s wrap things up.”
“Okay. Now that we have the information, erase their memories. In particular, all the memories related to us. Then kill them.”
“Yes, I understand.”
The faces of the adventurers brightened as they heard their conversation. It was a waste of their soul fragments, but if they could come back to life without turning into an id*ot, it was good enough. It was a miracle that things ended like this when they were up against a devil.
Gehrig, who had a bright face, moved his head up and down, seeming to ask for a quick kill. Adelaide pointed to him and opened her mouth.
“Hey, that guy. Make him an id*ot.”
“The a**hole who dared to attack Bell. I can’t let you off easily.” She ordered with a cold expression.
“Yes, Master.”
“What, what?! W-Wait… !”
Gehrig hurriedly opened his mouth. But before he could utter anything else, Lisianthus snapped his fingers. Then, the little bit of will that remained on his face disappeared. His eyes stared blankly into the air, and his chin hung wide open. It was the figure of a man who had lost not only his memories but also all of his remaining reason.
The rest of the adventurers also lost their memories of the dungeon and passed out. Adelaide turned her head toward her demons and suggested.
“Aren’t you going to kill them? If you kill a high level adventurer, your combat power will increase quite a bit.”
“Yes! I will!”
“Go in first and rest! We’ll take care of this and return! Even if they have fainted, it will probably take a while since they are high level adventurers.”
While the Durahans hesitated because they were very uncomfortable killing the defenseless, the Skeletons nodded their heads and responded quickly. They were secretly greedy for more combat power.
‘The Durahans are nice and all… But if we make a mistake, we may be left behind. The Durahans are a strong demon race amongst the middle class, and we are just monsters.’
‘I have to work harder because my natural strength is not good! I need this to help Adelaide!’
The Skeletons exchanged glances and nodded. Determination was etched in their clenched fingers. They were determined to not lose their seat to the rolling stone.
[T/N: This is a saying where the rolling stone removes the stone that was already in place. Like veterans losing to newbies.]
Adelaide, unaware of this, seemed to like the fact that the Skeletons were trying their best, and smiled happily. Then she left the place so that the Skeletons could play comfortably.
When she returned to the living space with Bell in her arms, she saw Pia standing restlessly. She didn’t have a good expression and she couldn’t eat because she was worried the whole time.
“You’re here!”
Raham welcomed the party with pleasure. From the way his neck bobbed back and forth, he appeared to be busy checking and making sure no one was hurt.
“A-Are you injured?”
Pia rushed towards the direction where she felt their presence. Adelaide quickly grabbed her arm as she felt unsettled, seeing the way she staggered because she couldn’t see with her eyes.
“Everyone is fine. Do not worry.”
“Ah… I’m so glad.”
Pia clasped her hands tightly and expressed her relief. Her appearance looked so sacred that for a moment, Adelaide mistook this place as the Heavenly Realm and not the Demon Realm.
“If anyone is hurt, please tell me. I will heal you right away.”
“It’s okay! Durahans can quickly recover from wounds like this.”
Peter waved his hand. Although small scratches were left from the adventurers’ attacks, it was a miracle to have suffered only this much damage against a group of high level adventurers. There was only a small risk and it was all thanks to Caladium’s amazing help.
“Oh, Pia. Can you look at Bell for a moment? He’s not hurt, but somehow he’s in bad shape.”
“That cute Cerberus? Can you lay him down for a moment?”
Adelaide carefully removed Bell from her arms and laid him on the sofa. Bell whined as if he didn’t want to and wiggled his little paws.
Pia gently swept through his fur and felt for wounds, but as Adelaide had said, she could not even find a scratch. Likewise, it was thanks to Caladium as he kept his eyes on the fight.
“Since when?”
“I think it was after I was covered with intense power a while ago. He suddenly transformed to his smaller figure. Caladium says he’s been feeling weak ever since.”
“Was it the devil’s energy?”
“No, Lisian’s… Ah yes. It was the devil’s energy.”
Adelaide did not try to deny it and nodded her head. Again, it felt very awkward for her to refer to Lisianthus as a devil.
“Hmm…”
The white energy that spread from Pia’s hand permeated Bell’s body.
“It’s not that he was injured. I think…”
Adelaide gulped. She worried that he might have a serious illness.
“It seems like he has an upset stomach.”
“Huh?”
Her round eyes blinked. Did she say it was a stomach ache just now? A Cerberus was struggling like this just because of an upset stomach?
“You’re probably right.”
Lisianthus interrupted and handed Adelaide hot tea.
“A Cerberus in the growing phase prepares for growth by absorbing the surrounding magical energy. But it seems that Bell has absorbed some of my energy earlier. It’s a lot more energy than he was used to, so he must have gotten sick because of that.”
‘Is it similar to the feeling of being full right away when I absorbed Caladium’s energy?’ Adelaide slowly nodded her head.
“It may be difficult for him to transform in the next few days, but don’t worry, it’s not a big deal. After he digests it, he will be fine again. His growth will also be accelerated.”
Lisianthus finished his speech with a smile. However, his pretty appearance was hard to see since she kept staring at his horns.
“H-Horns…?!”
Lisianthus intervened when he said that Bell ate the devil’s energy. Raham, who felt that something was strange, stuttered as he finally noticed Lisianthus’ change. Pia tilted her head at the unfamiliar sound.
‘Okay. Now that we’ve confirmed that Bell is okay, it’s time to talk about it.’
Adelaide lifted her head. Lisianthus met her gaze with a gentle smile.
“Shall we go?”
“Because there are too many demons here for us to talk.” He added.
‘And yet you say you can’t read minds.’ Adelaide squinted her eyes and answered.
“Okay, let’s go to my room and talk.”
“Yes.”
“Alright.”
Caladium jumped up and caught up with them. He couldn’t leave Adelaide alone with that gloomy j*rk.
Adelaide and Lisianthus walked, regardless of whether he followed them or not. She told the others to finish their meal and to not wait up. The Durahans nodded awkwardly. Perhaps once they entered the room, they would talk about this interesting incident.
Click. When she entered the room, closed the door and sat down, silence revolved around the three of them.
Adelaide smacked her lips, not knowing what to say first.
“So, Lisian is really… Are you a devil?”
The first question she spit out after much deliberation was so st*pid. Adelaide closed her eyes tightly and blamed her own poor language skills.
“Yes, it is true that I am a devil.”
The friendly Lisianthus faithfully responded to her question with an obvious answer.
“Are you really the manager?”
Her tone was unusually chilly. Not long ago, when Caladium claimed that ‘it must be a lie that that j*rk is the manager’, she thought that there was no way and did not even try to doubt him a little. Her mood turned sour.
