"Marcille! Marcille!"
Marcille, who had been sleeping soundly with Izutsumi in her arms, was suddenly woken up by Chilchuck. With a pounding headache from last night's drinks, Marcille clutched her temples and buried herself deeper into the bedding, unwilling to rise.
"Is it morning already? It's fine… The Mad Sorcerer's been defeated… I can sleep a little longer…" Marcille mumbled, pulling a pillow over her head in protest.
"Hey! This is not the time to be sleeping!"
Chilchuck shook her forcefully.
"I knew that idiot Laios couldn't be trusted! Of course it wasn't going to go that smoothly!"
"If you don't get up now, something terrible is going to happen!"
Chilchuck's urgency finally managed to wake Marcille up.
Once she sat up, Chilchuck went straight to the point:
"That Hunter leader guy! He's definitely shady! I saw him secretly talking to the Winged Lion!"
Chilchuck relayed everything he had witnessed the night before, and Marcille, upon hearing it, tensed up as well.
"Dalamadur? What the heck is that?! I've never heard of such a thing before!"
Marcille's concern deepened.
"Is he trying to create a creature like that? This is… this is insane…"
"Did you go talk to Laios?"
Marcille asked.
"Laios is asleep downstairs—I can't go down there!" Chilchuck clutched at his hair in frustration.
"Why does he trust them so easily?! Can't he even consider the possibility that they might be the bad guys?!"
"..."
Both Marcille and Chilchuck fell silent for a moment.
They were probably both thinking the same thing:
Maybe Laios saw them eating monsters. Or maybe it's just that they're… really interested in monsters…
"This guy's obsession with monsters is even worse than Laios's!"
Chilchuck practically yanked at his hair.
"Why did we have to run into someone who's an even bigger monster maniac than Laios?!"
"I-It's okay!"
Marcille, despite being flustered, tried to reassure herself.
"The other side hasn't studied magic… at least not ancient magic. So they shouldn't have a way to unseal the Winged Lion…"
"As long as I stay cautious… It should, it should be fine…"
Marcille nervously tried to psyche herself up.
But any remaining sense of peace was now completely gone.
Although Marcille and Chilchuck crawled back into bed, their nerves—rattled by Kairo Retsu's actions—left them too anxious to fall back asleep…
Meanwhile, Kairo Retsu was still downstairs, excitedly talking to the Winged Lion about Dalamadur.
He had even unfurled a scroll and begun sketching what the Dalamadur looked like.
And just like that, a long night passed.
—
The next morning, Laios climbed out of bed full of energy.
He cheerfully greeted Senshi, who was already cooking breakfast in the kitchen.
"Morning, Senshi."
Laios hadn't slept that well in ages. He'd made sure to fully recover his mental stamina in preparation for what was to come.
"Good morning, Laios," Senshi replied, flipping a Leaf Dragon egg in a pan.
"You look well-rested. Take a seat—breakfast will be ready shortly."
"Oh… Huh?"
As Laios approached the dining table, he noticed Kairo Retsu sleeping beside it.
"Did the Guildmaster get up early?"
"He was already sleeping there when I came down," Senshi said as he expertly flipped the now-set egg.
"Looks like, as their leader, he has a lot to worry about."
"..."
Just then, Chilchuck descended the stairs, sporting two heavy dark circles under his eyes.
He flinched when he saw both Laios and the still-sleeping Kairo Retsu, then slapped his own cheeks and kept walking.
"Too much drinking last night, Chilchuck?" Laios asked with concern.
"You look like you didn't sleep at all."
Originally, Chilchuck had been planning to tell Laios everything that happened last night.
But for some reason… seeing Laios's smiling face…
Chilchuck hesitated—
What if Laios actually agreed with the other guy?
In the end, Chilchuck swallowed the whole story back down.
"Next up is unsealing the Winged Lion and becoming the Dungeon Lord," Laios declared.
"Better wake Marcille."
He stood up before breakfast to go upstairs.
"She's still asleep, right? I'll go get her."
"Wait—!"
Chilchuck shouted, his voice cracking from panic.
"She drank too much last night! She's still hungover! Let her sleep a bit longer!"
"…I see."
Laios sat back down.
"Then let's eat first. Joseph and the others should be getting up soon too…"
Right on cue, Joseph and the others came yawning in from the warehouse area, hair a mess, stretching and groggy.
"Breakfast is ready. Someone wake up Kairo Retsu," Senshi said as he brought over the Leaf Dragon omelette.
"Skipping breakfast will leave you sluggish."
"I'll do it!"
Kazuma leapt into action and rushed up to Kairo Retsu.
With the vigor of someone downing a Mega Potion, he slapped Kairo's face a few times.
"Hey! Wake up!"
"Great! Let's start with a hundred of them! But we have to get one that's a super ancient one—!"
Kairo sat up abruptly, still half-dreaming. Then, seeing breakfast already in front of him, he squinted.
"…You guys are already eating breakfast?"
"A hundred of what? Fish?" Senshi asked.
"If it's fish, I know plenty of recipes."
"Fish…? Not exactly. Probably… snakes!"
Kairo shook his head and grinned.
"What a good dream!"
"..."
Chilchuck heard him and practically buried his face beneath the table.
A hundred of them…
Was he talking about the Dalamadur he mentioned last night?
If that kind of guy really became the Dungeon Lord…
It would be disastrous!
The world would be destroyed! Entire races would go extinct!
Chilchuck suddenly felt like the burden of saving the world had been thrust upon him.
Panicked, he started babbling—
"R-Right! Since we already beat the Mad Sorcerer, shouldn't we be figuring out how to get back up?!"
"Right! The Island Lord! We have to report the Mad Sorcerer's defeat!"
Chilchuck scrambled.
"And other stuff! Other important stuff we have to do…!"
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