Reincarnated as a Dungeon Master, I Became Unstoppable by Doting on My Monsters—My Gorgeous Monsters Have Started to Conquer the World on Their Own! - Chapter 24: Change of Direction

Once the now-familiar status upgrade was complete, the core emitted a faint glow, followed by a soft blue light illuminating Margarita and Rosarosa’s bodies.

“…At last, we’ve finally reached this point.”

With an ecstatic expression, Margarita muttered without even the slightest movement.

“Whoa! Yes, yes, yes! Onii-chan, thank you!” 

Rosarosa followed, bursting a vibrant, venomous red flower into bloom. Although she could make flowers of various colors bloom, this was her actual color.

From my experience, I knew that the status upgrade didn’t bring any exhilaration. Their excitement was their own, showing how much they’d been looking forward to reaching Intelligence Level C.

While Rosarosa was visibly excited, Margarita had a solemn expression as if she had undergone a rite of passage. She seemed to be slowly savoring the reality of being an adult (by Ragunel Dungeon’s standards).

In my previous life in Japan, becoming an adult was just an “Oh, so I’m an adult now” moment, but had Margarita longed for this for a while? Or had she been wanting to leave? The possibility crossed my mind.

Margarita had always been quiet and didn’t voice her opinions, but could she have harbored a hidden dream?

While I had no choice but to support them, seeing this side of Margarita piqued my heart.

After a tense moment, Margarita slowly opened her eyes and looked me straight.

“Master, I have dreamed of this moment for a long time.”

For a split second, I braced myself, wondering if my lousy feeling had come true, that she had enacted this plan to become independent and leave her homeland quickly.

However, her following words were unexpected.

“I couldn’t bear that the insignificant creatures of the forest were attacking you. Naturally, I felt anger for insulting your noble self, but most of all, I felt frustration at my inadequacy.”

She clenched her fists tightly in front of her chest.

“The reason you loot corpses is to protect our hearts. The days of endangering you, the person I respect and want to protect the most due to my incompetence, felt almost unbearable. Therefore, I’ve always…always wanted to increase my intelligence to defeat enemies without causing you concern.”

Her words were so emotional that they made me feel the weight of her years-long sadness.

…I should have been more considerate of her feelings. I don’t think I could bear that situation if they were dying daily for my sake. Although Margarita, a fairy of the Lacie race, does not bleed from her lips, I feel she would have been if she could. She bit her lips in hatred and looked back at the old days with eyes full of spite.

I hadn’t known. I had no idea she had been thinking deeply about my death. I regretted that I should have assumed full responsibility for their deaths, even if it meant lying to them.

Then Margarita spoke again, carefully choosing her words to avoid any misunderstanding.

“Yes, Master. Even after my intelligence reaches C, I can’t consider those common monsters as my kind. They are merely enemies; I have no kinship with them because they are ‘monsters.’ The 12 peers who have spent time in this labyrinth with me… I consider them comrades serving under you, Master.”

She used her newly heightened intelligence to test whether my concern would become reality. Rosarosa followed suit.

“Yep, Rosarosa feels the same. Monsters from different species would make each other prey or kill each other anyway… I don’t want to be grouped with them just because we’re both monsters. I think it should be enough to separate us as allies or enemies of Onii-chan!”

…If we were to make a human analogy, would the term ‘monsters’ be akin to vertebrates?

It looks like my longstanding worries were unfounded. If they had grown up so gently, maybe my educational approach to avoiding fighting would have been successful.

“…Therefore, I would like Master to permit us to counterattack your enemies from now on.”

Margarita knelt again, begging for permission.

Of course, I have no intention of restraining her now that she can stand alone.

“It’s fine. You’re all free. But first, we must bring everyone’s intelligence to C and individually confirm their intentions.”

We could confirm their intentions here, but since Margarita has already said she’ll stay, some might not speak honestly due to peer pressure.

Since I’m the only one who can use contract magic, they must confide in me. However, I thought having these meaningful future discussions would be better.

“And after that, let’s have our usual party, including Jacqueline! Let’s make it big this time!”

Jacqueline made a sad face, but the only thing worthy of celebration in this dungeon was leveling up one’s status.

I won’t budge on this party! Cheers rose from the kids of my dungeon.

That evening, I invited each of the 13 people into my private room for what could be called a consciousness survey or career consultation, discussing the future.

Most seemed inclined to continue living as they have, albeit with some rule changes. I was genuinely relieved.

Still, they probably don’t fully grasp it yet. I was wandering the world when I was 20, so changes among them are bound to happen eventually.

It was funny that they all came dressed up or freshly bathed, possibly misunderstanding my summoning them individually to my room at night as some rite of passage into adulthood.

Afterward, without sleeping, we spent the night drinking beer summoned by Jacqueline to celebrate becoming adults. We laughed over unexpected traits, like Jacqueline’s usual heavy drinking or Margarita’s surprisingly being a social drinker.

We enjoyed the night, wishing it could last forever, marking the end of a chapter of these ten years.

XXX

The next day.

“If we had hunted the forest’s monsters like this from the start, we would have reached C-rank much quicker.”

While watching the monsters continuously being fed into the core, Jacqueline said, half-sighing.

“Well, when it comes to education, I tend to be cautious… or rather, I first thought dungeons were systems for killing humans, but it seems they encourage killing monsters.”

While every human killed gives you a flat 1pt, you can get up to 2pt for killing strong monsters based on the materials they provide.

“It’s almost as if it’s a mechanism designed not to kill humans but monsters.”

“True.” 

Jacqueline, usually knowledgeable, responded in a rather ordinary way at that moment. It was a casual reply but felt slightly odd, prompting me to question her.

“By ‘true,’ you mean you don’t know why? Isn’t understanding dungeons especially important since it’s about your existence?”

It felt a bit hypocritical to ask, considering I hadn’t looked into it myself for ten years. But it was surprising that Jacqueline, who often does research, didn’t know.

“Uh-huh.” 

Jacqueline only stretched, seemingly uninterested in giving a complicated explanation.

“Do you have helper robots in your world?”

Her tone reminded me of a seasoned HR executive from a large corporation. I realized the conversation was leading to a predetermined point. Maybe she has a straightforward explanation manual or something.

“Yes, we had cleaning robots.”

I love Jacqueline’s clear explanations, so I willingly followed her manual. There’s that famous cleaning robot. The one cats like to ride.

Pleased with my quick response, Jacqueline asked, “If that cleaning robot said, ‘Of course, I should investigate who I serve!’ and started to probe into your social relationships, what would you do?”

“… I’d turn it off.”

I was starting to see where she was going.

“Ah, I see. This world has a god, doesn’t it?”

“What would you do if the cleaning robot said, ‘My master is so great, I must share information about him with other cleaning robots!’?”

“I might throw it away.”

Well, it might be so dysfunctional it’s cute, and I might keep it, but that would derail the conversation, so I didn’t say it.

“Investigating God is like that. If you truly unravel the mysteries of God, you might find everything around you incinerated… If a mad theologian moved into my neighborhood, I’d run away.”

She smiled as if to say, ‘Are we clear now?’ and cutely placed her hands beside her face.

“I see. Even you can’t possibly know everything then, Jacqueline.”

Being a theologian would be much more complicated if a god truly exists. It’s like dabbling in military espionage as a hobby.

During our casual conversation, Eglantine, near the core, said, “The work is finished!”

The DP conversion task she had been working on for a while has finally ended.

Hearing her voice, a tense silence briefly settled between Jacqueline and me as we remembered our promise. If everyone’s intelligence reaches grade C, we had to fight her dungeon master for Jacqueline’s sake.

“… You haven’t forgotten our agreement. You’ll come to my dungeon when everyone’s intelligence reaches C.”

Jacqueline broke the silence, visibly impatient.

Of course, I have no intention of breaking that promise, but I haven’t forgotten my other promise either. With a goddess embedded in my chest, how could I forget?

“I have a prior commitment under the same conditions… one that I made ten years ago, with the person inside my chest.”

I opened the locket pendant hanging on my chest. I admit, even though I think I’m doing something rather foolish, it’s a token of an essential contract.

“… I’ve been wondering, what is that pendant? It’s not some otherworldly fashion statement, is it?”

Naturally, Jacqueline looked puzzled by my strange action but asked anyway.

“It’s a contract with a goddess. A goddess named Navalbi. I’m one of her followers.”

I apologize for bringing this up after the fact. When I made the contract with Jacqueline, my life was at stake. Even now, breaking a promise with the goddess would endanger my life. That’s why I can’t compromise.

“Navalbi is a high-ranking goddess in the pantheon, isn’t she? And she implanted her photo in you… You could get killed out of jealousy for getting too friendly with her! Why did you keep quiet?”

Jacqueline was genuinely angry.

Navalbi didn’t implant her photo in me to assert her ownership so much as to remind me, “Don’t forget our contract.”

That being said, the goddess Navalbi is married and doesn’t get jealous. But I decided to use Jacqueline’s fear of gods to my advantage now.

“I… have also promised to go to the temple once everyone’s intelligence reaches ‘C.’ I made this promise directly with that scary goddess. So, is that alright?”

I have to fulfill it. I made the promise ten years ago with the Goddess of Revelation, Navalbi, that when all the monsters reach intelligence level ‘C,’ I would see her daughter, the goddess Nanaya. I believe Nanaya is still waiting for me.

“It’s okay, Jacqueline. Don’t worry. If we hurry, we can be done in three days.”

I pleaded with her, sincerely apologetic yet ensuring she could see the pendant on my chest.

“Sigh… Wito-sama, you act like a good person saying things like ‘don’t threaten the dungeon monsters,’ but in the end, you’re threatening innocent me, aren’t you?”

Jacqueline dropped her shoulders and said resentfully.