Chapter 17

Cheryl stared at the magic stone for a long while before stepping closer to me and asking,

“You… no, young lady. What is your name? Which family are you from?”

“I am Ayrbet Titanoa, Count Cheryl Sidonia.”

“No need for ‘Count.’ Call me Cheryl. So you’re the young lady of House Titanoa? Then may I call you Ayrbet too?”

“Ah, yes. Of course.”

Still dazed from the sudden barrage of questions, I answered, and Cheryl folded her high, sharp eye corners into a pleasant smile.

Was the villainess Cheryl Sidonia really the sort of character who could smile this innocently?

She looked so bright and happy that I felt like giving her the monster cores I had back home too.

Clutching the magic stone tightly, her eyes shining, Cheryl said,

“Good, Ayrbet. Sidonia does not forget kindness. I will definitely repay you.”

It was something I’d heard, or rather, read… many times before.

“Sidonia does not forget grudges. I will repay them without fail.”

Her most frequent line in the novel was a bit different.

Well, it was gratitude this time, not a grudge, so it should be fine.

I glanced at Linus for a moment, just to check, but he was smiling with pure happiness from earlier.

He’d be fine with it too.

Caught between the two happy people, I let out an awkward laugh just as Heide and Larienne finished examining the queen’s corpse and approached.

Heide saw the monster core in Cheryl’s hands and asked with surprise,

“Don’t tell me, that’s a magic stone?”

Cheryl hid the magic stone in her arms, wary of Heide.

“This is mine, Your Highness. Ayrbet gave it to me.”

“Did I say otherwise? I have no intention of coveting what belongs to the Count, so be at ease.”

“Veserys is always coveting what belongs to Sidonia.”

Heide and Cheryl glared sharply at each other.

It was a power struggle between the main cast, background characters like me had no place to butt in.

As I stood there awkwardly watching them, Larienne stepped between the two again.

“You should return now, shouldn’t you?”

At her words, Heide once again turned first.

He walked toward the nursery, and Cheryl followed behind him without lowering her guard.

Kind Larienne explained to us that a black hole had appeared in the nursery, probably because Duke Piction had defeated the monster.

I pretended to be surprised and agreed as if that made sense.

When we returned to the nursery, a gate had formed in the middle of the large, still-smoldering pile of charcoal.

Having crossed gates once before, the three of them stepped through skillfully, and Linus and I followed them back into the Butterfly Garden.

Even though we had cleared the dungeon quickly, the Butterfly Garden was already shrouded in deep darkness.

Right after confirming that the gate that had spat us out had disappeared, I was thinking about skipping the banquet entirely and heading home.

That was when Heide spoke to us.

“I have a favor to ask of Duke Piction and Lady Titanoa.”

“Please speak, Your Highness.”

“Could you keep silent about everything that just happened? The black hole, that strange place, the monsters. All of it.”

“May I ask why?”

“His Majesty is greatly troubled by the strange phenomena occurring recently. In such a sensitive time, this could sow seeds of unnecessary unrest. So until the true nature of the black hole is uncovered, keep this a secret.”

Now that he mentioned it, when the first gate appeared, there had been rumors that Duke Toned had created the black hole.

With reconciliation between the imperial family and House Toned finally within reach, more rumors would only cause trouble.

From my perspective, this was a blessing.

He wanted the gate and the dungeon kept secret? I was the one who wanted to beg for that, honestly.

Trying not to show how relieved I was, I pressed my lips into a firm line and bowed my head.

“Understood, Your Highness.”

As Linus bowed beside me, Heide walked toward the imperial palace.

Larienne and Cheryl, after giving me a brief glance, followed after him.

Linus held out his hand to me as I watched them leave.

“Shall we head back as well?”

“No. I think I’ll just go home from here.”

“I’ll escort you to your carriage.”

With Linus’s gentle escort, I returned home.

* * *

Late at night, when everyone in the Titanoa ducal residence was surely asleep, a white ball of fur appeared by the window.

When I opened the window for him, having waited there for a while, Himong stepped into the room and waved his rice-cake-like front paws.

“Hey.”

“Hey, my foot. You said you’d tell me when a gate appeared, but you didn’t even show your nose.”

“I tried to tell you, nya! When I detected the gate and went to check, Ayrbet-nya was already being sucked into it, nya.”

“You saw me getting pulled into a dungeon break? Then you must’ve seen four others get dragged in too, right?”

“I did see it, nya.”

“Then you also know that three of those four are the main characters of this world?”

“I do know, nya.”

Look at this cat.

I stretched out Himong’s squishy cheek and scolded him.

“And you’re just sitting here going ‘nya nya’ like everything’s fine? If something happened to them, stabilization or whatever would all go down the drain, right?”

The cat, whose cheeks were like chewy candy, struggled to escape my hands, then rolled his eyes when he saw the frown on my face.

Still pinned by the cheek, he brought his two little paws together and said,

“Himong was nervous too, nya. But didn’t Ayrbet-nya clear the dungeon splendidly and come out, nya? Himong believed in Ayrbet-nya, nya.”

It was the kind of empty flattery you hear from an exhausted customer-service worker used to dealing with chronic complainers.

I knew there wasn’t a drop of sincerity in it, but the deadly cuteness of those two bundled rice-cake paws melted my irritation away.

I released his cheek and asked again in a gentler tone,

“I wasn’t the one who defeated the dungeon boss. The people of this world were able to fight even inside the dungeon, why is that?”

Himong, who had been grooming his cheek by licking his paw, snapped his head toward me.

His eyes were round with shock.

“What do you mean, nya?”

“Exactly what I said. The ones who defeated the monsters weren’t me, but the people who got dragged in with me.”

“How is that possible, nya?”

“You’re asking me what I want to ask you. Are people of this world all awakened or something?”

“That’s impossible, nya! In a world where the dungeon protocol is not activated, awakened beings cannot exist, nya.”

“Then what? They were using sword aura and magic.”

“That makes no sense, nya…”

Himong’s large eyes trembled, and he rested his rice-cake paws under his chin as he sank deep into thought.

I waited with a bit of hope, but after a long while, the best answer the lowest-ranking bureaucrat cat could give came out.

“I will look into it, nya.”

Dimensional Management Bureau or whatever, fancy name, but apparently they know nothing.

I thought I’d get answers if I asked Himong, but all I got was one more confused cat.

I sighed and asked again,

“You don’t know why the dungeon evolved during the raid either, do you?”

“What do you mean, nya?”

“A C-rank dungeon suddenly changed into an A-rank.”

“I’ll look into that too, nya. But since the dungeons in this dimension appear because of Ayrbet-nya, it’s difficult for us to understand what happens inside them, nya.”

“What do you even know, nya?”

“Himong is doing his best, nya!”

When I mocked him with “nya,” Himong thumped his tail against the floor in protest.

Even his angry face was cute, but this adorable cat knew nothing, and would probably continue to know nothing.

Which meant I couldn’t predict the condition of future dungeons either.

A dungeon that was C-rank when I attacked it could evolve into S-rank next time.

Mountain after mountain, at this point it felt like the god of fate was kicking me in the backside, telling me to give up already.

Was possession supposed to be this hard?

“Hueeuh.”

Letting out a sigh that rose from deep in my gut, I flopped onto the floor.

Himong watched me with pity, then gently tapped my forehead with his rice-cake paw to comfort me.

“Cheer up, nya.”

It didn’t make me feel better at all.