Chapter 1
Buzz-!
[International Call]
Are you busy? I came to Earth to play. I'm from another world, can you be my Guide? LINE....
'...Another one of these ads.'
My Mobile Phone alarm rang on my way to work. There was a spam message on the screen, the kind I'd been getting a lot recently.
'I've seen plenty of Foreigner scams, but an alien?'
The new type of spam message made me chuckle. For some reason, I felt the urge to reply.
After some thought, the message I sent back was just one word.
[Middle Finger]
When I sent the text and raised my head, all I saw was a Truck crashing over the sidewalk and rushing right at me.
***
An unfamiliar yellow ceiling greeted me when I opened my eyes.
'...Where am I?'
My head felt hazy, as if I had slept for a very long time.
I tried to trace back my memories in the face of this strange sight.
I was definitely on my way to work, looking at my Mobile Phone, when a Truck charged onto the sidewalk....
'...Am I in a hospital, then?'
It was a natural thought, but I soon realized something was wrong.
Looking closely, the ceiling looked like it was covered with dry grass.
There was no way a hospital would be built like this in this day and age.
I pushed my upper body up and looked around.
The first thing I checked was, of course, the condition of my body.
...I was perfectly fine.
For someone who had been in a traffic accident, I didn't have a single scratch on me.
Moreover, perhaps a lot of time had passed, but my limbs looked whiter and more emaciated than before.
My clothes had also changed.
I was wearing a shirt that came down to my knees, with shorts underneath. The clothes, made of coarse cloth, scratched roughly against my skin whenever they touched it.
Who on earth changed my clothes?
What the hell is going on...
Perhaps because I had just woken up, I felt an inexplicable sense of disconnect from my body.
It felt as if this wasn't my own body at all.
'No matter how I look at it, this isn't a hospital...'
The room I glanced around at was even more cramped than the studio apartment I used to live in.
The interior was simple, with only a chest of drawers and a desk.
The windowless room had a dirt floor, causing dust to flutter about.
"Cough- cough-"
I looked around for my Mobile Phone in this baffling situation.
But all I discovered was that the bed I had been lying on was just a cloth sack stuffed with grass.
Giving up on the Mobile Phone, I carefully got out of bed and approached the desk.
On the desk lay several yellowish pieces of paper and a single book.
As I picked up a piece of paper to check its contents, its stiff texture gave me a slight sense of incongruity.
[A purple snake emerged from the stream.]
[Dew gathered in a new bowl.]
[The guard dog by the grave rode the waves.]
The paper was filled with incomprehensible sentences that looked like some sort of code.
I checked the other papers, but they all had similar contents.
Finding no useful information from the stack of papers, I examined the only book.
'Is this a diary?'
The book contained the story of a man named Riv.
Living as a back-alley Orphan, he accidentally awakened his mana and entered the Magic Tower.
The story heralded such a happy beginning, but as it neared the end, only increasingly gloomy details filled the pages.
A lacking talent that kept him stagnant for years.
The cynicism and disregard of the people around him.
A deepening sense of isolation.
Every element around him gnawed away at his happiness, but he tried his best not to let go of hope until the very end.
Until that day came.
Though there were no dates written, it was easy to tell that there had been a long blank period.
And in the text written after that blank space, even the traces of hope that had existed before were entirely gone.
The final sentence, in particular, caught my eye.
[I will definitely take my revenge.]
'....'
I had only one thought after reading the whole thing.
'It was a novel, not a diary.'
Words that would only appear in fantasy novels popped up throughout the text.
Magic? No matter how I looked at it, it wasn't a realistic story.
Feeling empty, I set the book down and opened the drawer next to the desk.
Inside the drawer was a basket containing half a loaf of bread.
Storing food in a drawer, the hygiene is terrible... But what is this?
When I lifted the basket, a wooden stick hidden underneath revealed itself.
The moment I picked it up to examine the object of unknown use.
Vibrate-
!!
Did it just vibrate?
I tried swinging the stick again, but as expected, there was no reaction.
...Was it my imagination.
I put the stick down again and searched every corner of the house.
As it was a narrow space, there was nothing special to be found.
It was a truly ordinary house without even a trace of crime.
The problem was that made it even stranger.
Just as I was wondering if I should go out, I heard voices talking outside.
I hurriedly hid myself under the desk and quietly eavesdropped on the conversation.
"...The reaction cut off around here."
"Is this where the Hideout is, like the Hunter said. Moving in."
'Reaction? Hunter?'
I couldn't understand the conversation... but I had a bad feeling.
Slam!
A moment later, two people kicked the door open and shouted.
"Search every inch!!"
"Yep!"
Due to the cramped space, being discovered happened in an instant, and I was quickly subdued without even putting up a proper fight.
"Ugh, who-"
I raised my head in a belated attempt to resist, and caught sight of a glowing, sharp blade at the waist of the man twisting my arm.
I shut my mouth and tried to behave nicely, albeit too late, but my mind went blank along with a dull thud.
***
When I regained my senses, I was sprawled out in a damp and dark place.
"Ugh..."
They must have moved me quite roughly, as every corner of my body ached.
I struggled through the pain and assessed the situation.
Chain Handcuffs wrapped around my wrists and iron bars placed right in front of my eyes.
...This place looked just like a prison.
The prison was shaped as if it had been carved straight out of rough bedrock.
Moisture seeping through the gaps in the stone walls formed cold droplets.
As the dampness permeated my thin clothes, my body shivered.
'A stone prison following a thatched hut....'
An anachronistic building, the unknown contents of the book, the appearance of the people.
Various pieces of information gathered together pointing to a single conclusion, but.
'Nah, it couldn't be.'
It was a difficult thing to accept right away.
In the face of continuous extraordinary situations, I actually felt no fear. It felt just like a dream.
Yet, to dismiss it as a dream, the bruises I got while being moved made my mind perfectly clear.
Forgetting the flow of time in the darkness, how much time had passed.
Step- step-
I was brought back to reality by the sound of someone approaching the prison.
A moment later.
Clang... clink... click-
With a small noise, the prison door opened, and a Soldier with a stiff expression entered.
I had a lot of things to ask, but he didn't look like he would answer my questions.
The Soldier grabbed my chains without a word and took the lead, gesturing for me to follow.
After passing through a corridor where faint Torches were installed at regular intervals, stairs appeared.
I had to drag my numb legs up the stairs, perhaps because it was a prison built underground.
A square of light appeared before my eyes, as if I had finally reached the surface.
Shielding my eyes for a moment from the bright light I hadn't seen in a while, I passed through the door.
When I opened my eyes again, I saw magnificent stone buildings and tall walls, like a scene from a movie.
The heavy atmosphere of the buildings even made me feel like I was visiting a foreign tourist destination.
'A real castle?'
My awe at the scenery was short-lived. I was immediately forced into a Carriage bound for an unknown destination.
The Carriage, my first time riding one, was incredibly cramped, and the scent of grass wafted up from the dry straw piled in the corner.
As I stood looking around in the narrow Carriage, the Soldier sitting inside yelled at me.
"Hey! We're leaving, so sit down quickly!"
Startled by the sound, I hurriedly planted my butt on the floor.
No one in the Carriage opened their mouths, which gave me plenty of time to look around.
In the Carriage, there were three men wearing Handcuffs like me, and one Soldier.
First of all, all three were far from having an ordinary appearance.
One had a huge, muscular body covered in scars, as if he had roamed through battlefields.
Although I couldn't tell exactly because of his clothes, judging by the long scar marks, his torso was likely similar.
Another had a skinny build and squinty eyes, giving him a very despicable impression.
Perhaps he was brought in for a crime like being a Pickpocket or committing fraud.
The last one was short and had a face full of hair.
I couldn't gauge his exact height because he was sitting, but he looked to be about 140cm tall.
Added to that was a bushy beard, an impression that reminded me of a Dwarf in a game.
In short, all three had faces that wouldn't feel out of place at all even if they were on a Wanted Poster.
As I checked their appearances, there was something I realized anew.
Everyone I saw here was a Foreigner.
The Soldiers who caught me, the Jailer I saw in the prison, and even the Prisoners locked up here.
Without a single exception, they were all Foreigners.
Furthermore, there was one more strange thing.
It was the fact that I naturally understood what they were saying.
For me, who hadn't even taken the TOEIC exam, understanding a foreign language was close to impossible.
Could it be....
By this point, I had a feeling of what kind of situation this was, but I decided not to draw a conclusion right away.
Leaving the hard-to-accept reality behind, I decided to sort out the problems I would face immediately.
'They all look like Prisoners, but why was I brought here?'
The only sin I had committed in my entire life was ringing my neighbor's doorbell and running away a few times when I was young. I felt completely wronged.
I wanted to ask the Soldier sitting next to me right away, but... the atmosphere didn't make it easy to speak up.
If I really am a Prisoner, wouldn't I receive some sort of punishment?
...What if the punishment is the death penalty?
The solution that came to mind in the fear of death was, as expected, running away.
However, the Soldier sitting next to me was a problem, and I also needed the courage to jump out of a moving Carriage....
Not having that much nerve, I gave up cleanly.
While my escape plan fell through, I felt the Carriage slowing down, showing signs of arriving at its destination.
A moment later, the Carriage came to a complete stop.
The Soldier with us pulled back the Tent at the back of the Carriage and stepped out first.
Just as I was wondering if I should get off too.
"Get off."
At the order to disembark that finally came, everyone carefully stood up.
The place we got off was a clearing in the forest with sparse bushes.
Judging by the castle walls visible in the distance, it seemed to be near the town.
There were Soldiers waiting in the clearing.
"You guys wait here. You aren't plotting to run away, are you?"
The Soldier wearing the best-looking equipment among them said, glancing behind us.
Perhaps he wasn't expecting an answer, as he soon turned his back and disappeared, leading the Carriage away.
Left behind like that were three Prisoners, two Soldiers, and me.
The awkward air that carried over from the narrow Carriage filled even the wide clearing.
While playing a game of reading the room not knowing when it would end, the two Soldiers took off their Helmets and sat their butts on a nearby tree stump.
Did they have certainty that we wouldn't run away.
Or maybe they had another countermeasure that I didn't know about.
Left alone in the clearing, we just kept glancing at each other.
The only thing the four of us had in common was the Handcuffs on our wrists. There was simply no common ground to chat about.
Their ferocious faces also played a part in the prolonged silence.
Scar, Thief, Dwarf.
While I was deciding on titles for them in my mind during the long silence.
"Hmm... This is the worst."
"Hmm?"
A heavy, low voice came from my side.
I turned my head to check, and surprisingly, the one who broke the silence was Scar.
The Dwarf reacted to his muttering.
"Hey, big human. What does that mean?"
"Are you calling me?"
"Yeah. Who else here is a human like that besides you?"
The Dwarf said as he glanced over the Thief and me.
"Exactly what it sounds like... It's the worst-case scenario."
"I mean, what makes it the worst."
Instead of answering, he looked at the town visible in the distance.
"Do you know the name of that town."
"Town name? How the hell would I know that."
"...Karhal. That is the name of that town."
Everyone made a puzzled expression at his words.
At least, it wasn't a town name I had ever heard of.
"Karhal... I feel like I've heard it... Ah, Karhal!"
The Thief, who had been pondering alone, shouted with a surprised look as if he finally remembered.
"Yeah. It's Karhal. If you've heard of it recently, you must know?"
"If it's Karhal, a Dungeon has definitely formed..."
...A Dungeon?
While I was surprised, the Dwarf raised a question about the Thief's words.
"What's the problem with a Dungeon appearing recently?"
"Figures. What did you do before coming here?"
"...."
"If you don't want to talk, fine. Anyway, I was a Mercenary."
Perhaps because of his appearance, everyone immediately accepted it.
"When you work as a Mercenary, you're bound to hear a lot of information."
"Whatever, why don't you get to the point?"
"...."
The Mercenary stared at the Dwarf for a moment after his retort, then continued speaking.
"How much do you know about Dungeons?"
"When a Dungeon appears, the Lord forms and dispatches an Investigation Team. About that much?"
"You know the gist of it. Then have you ever heard the term 'Dungeon Dog'?"
"Dungeon Dog?"
The Dwarf made a puzzled expression, as if hearing it for the first time.
Of course, knowing nothing myself, I kept my mouth shut, and the Thief didn't seem to know either.
"Hmm. When a Dungeon appears, Lords usually put effort into the Investigation Team to obtain Relics."
As if it was natural for us not to know, he nodded and continued his explanation.
"However, using their own Soldiers for the Investigation Team puts the territory at risk, and using Mercenaries is expensive and lacks trust."
"...You said you're a Mercenary too."
"Yeah, I was a Mercenary too...."
His expression stiffened for a moment as if lost in remorse, but he soon continued speaking.
"Anyway. Soldiers won't do, and Mercenaries won't do. Then what would be a viable alternative?"
"...Hiring verified Mercenaries?"
He chuckled at the Thief's timid answer and said.
"Lords never want to take a loss. In some ways, they are even worse than Merchants. Therefore, there is only one option."
The Mercenary stared at the three of us for a moment before speaking.
"They push in people whose deaths wouldn't cause any problems."
At his words, everyone finally gasped as if realizing the situation.
"We call them 'Dungeon Dogs'."
Even the Mercenary explaining it didn't have a very good expression.
"No way...!"
"As I said, a Dungeon appeared in Karhal not long ago. And we, who are Prisoners, came here... You have your answer, right?"
"Damn it! They're going to use us as sacrifices!"
Listening to this despairing conversation, I could finally accept reality.
It seems I have truly fallen into a fantasy world.
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