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 59: Rhapsody - Part 3

She covered her face with one hand and laughed heartily, “Kuhaha.” It was the first time she had shown such direct madness, having never before shown a playful side.

No, it wasn’t madness. It should be considered the first time she showed the root of her heart. And her enthusiasm was probably not impulsive but something she couldn’t hide anymore.

She, covering her eyes before us, seemed to convey that the talk was over.

“……My Lord. This is my second time being told to save the world.”

“……That’s right. But this time, it’s completely different.”

Her two claims, the existence of the “Spiral of Killing,” which spreads and eventually takes the owner’s life, and my supposed role in governing the world seemed completely unconnected.

There was only one sentence that could connect these two. “Leave the dirty work to someone else, and, Mr. Wito, please protect a peaceful world.”

Jacqueline’s past actions clearly defined who that dirty worker was.

“Jacqueline, I think there’s a better way. The usual, you would have been wiser!”

When I was entrusted with maintaining world peace by the goddess Nanaya, I was overwhelmed by the responsibility, thinking someone else could do it better, and was about to refuse.

But now, I’m trying to take on that responsibility someone else offers me. …This is my dues to pay. Despite being the only one entrusted by the goddess with the duty of conquering the world and maintaining peace, I hadn’t taken it seriously.

“If I leave it to Jacqueline now, I’m pushing everything onto her. And I know what will happen next.”

If Jacqueline, who developed a mental illness after defeating ten dungeon masters, were to subdue dungeon masters worldwide, her life wouldn’t be guaranteed.

Hearing this, Jacqueline’s eyes sharply turned towards me.

“You don’t need to worry. Yes, it’s fine. Even if my mind is fragile, I have this lower half of my body. Surely, it will carry the world’s sins and vanish.”

“What should we do, My Lord? I don’t understand what she’s saying at all.”

Anima said this with a troubled look. Even I was confused by her remarks until now, but now I’m starting to understand a bit.

“She said she could see the thoughts of the people she killed when she looked back. And also being carried away by the lower half of Trana.”

“Yes.”

Anima nodded. I finally started to understand her behavior and realized how much I had only thought about myself and not seeing what was around me.

“Stress-induced personality dissociation due to enforced murder.”

This explained her disjointed behavior. Or rather, it could forcibly be explained. The implanted sense of justice conflicts with the mission of murder. And the repeated annihilation of sisters has been shown since childhood.

If the same thing had happened to a human child, it would be more surprising if they didn’t develop personality dissociation.

Rather, why did I think Jacqueline, who had been kind to us, hadn’t developed a mental illness from murdering?

“……So, my soliloquy until now was like a suicide note before self-destruction. That, too, is a form of suicide through the collapse of self. As expected of My Lord, such insight.”

Anima finally seemed convinced and nodded.

And thinking about whose lower half she had adopted, the identity of her other personality became clear.

When Jacqueline opened her palm, beer poured into her hand from the void. She brought her beer-drenched hand to her face and licked it off.

“Jacqueline… have you always been drunk? I didn’t realize because you’ve been the same since we first met.”

She responded to my question with just a chuckle.

“You won’t toast with me, will you?”

Jacqueline delightfully sucked on her four fingers, “Jururi.”

“Jacqueline. If you’re going to give up your consciousness for us, that’s unnecessary. Even without you, we can dedicate the world to My Lord.”

Anima stated. But this wasn’t persuasion. It was just conveying a friend’s feelings… Jacqueline’s profile had already accepted her fate.

“No way. My purpose has always been for myself and to fulfill the justice I couldn’t achieve. If you listen to her story, surely you’ll agree with the method to break this world’s fate.”

With those words, Jacqueline stood up from her wheelchair.

Jacqueline was no longer there when she tore off the lower half of her long skirt.

Her face, more lively than I had ever seen, was quickly covered by a black mask she had hidden.

“My name is Trana Spoonbender! The champion of justice! Don’t worry, Anima-chan and Wito-kun! Now that I’m here, there’s no need to fight anymore. So, I want the two of you to make a lifelong non-aggression pact!”

Trana Spoonbender. A champion of justice in a black mask, who repeated the annihilation of evil for world peace, stood there.

　XXX

“Toooh!”

I dodge the sudden flying kick with a roll. Just from the wind pressure of her landing, my body is slightly blown away.

“Don’t dodge!”

“Of course, I’ll dodge!”

“You’re so cheeky!”

Even though I’m bluffing with my mouth, my status is far inferior to hers, who is an A-rank monster.

I barely avoid her approach, which lowers her extreme posture by falling. I can only dodge like this because she is making exaggerated motions like playing hero. Right now, I’m just being toyed with.

Maybe she also wants me to swear not to fight by my will.

But I can’t allow that. I don’t mind not fighting. But it’s more cruel than most of the evils in this world for us who can fight to push all the responsibility to her, who is weakened.

Only tragedy awaits at the end of that path. But she doesn’t understand that!

“Even if Trana-san kills them, it’s the same as us ordering her to kill them! It’s meaningless!”

“Nuh-uh! I’m already dead, you know! I’m just borrowing Jacqueline-chan’s body! So just kill everyone and cut off my lower half, and it’ll be okay! And then Jacqueline-chan can go on a trip or something.”

“Like that would work! Besides, you’re not the real Trana!”

She’s completely out of touch with reality. Trana’s personality should be entirely fictional. Besides, there’s no brain in the lower half, so there’s no way the thoughts will transfer even if they’re connected. This Trana is nothing but a “convenient Trana for Jacqueline-san.”

A device that will atone for the murders committed by Jacqueline-san. That’s what Trana Spoonbender is, who is in front of me now. And that is, in fact, nothing but an illusion.

With her rapier, Anima quickly counterattacks Trana, distracted by the verbal fight. ^[1]rapier (/ˈreɪpiər/) or Espada ropera (‘dress sword’) is a type of sword used in Renaissance Spain to designate a sword with a straight, slender, and sharply pointed two-edged long blade wielded in … Continue reading

But Trana spread the torn piece of the skirt she had hidden and wrapped her thrust with it, twisting her arm and locking her joint.

It’s hard to catch a thrust, but it’s a basic combat technique to neutralize it using cloth or something similar. But something’s wrong.

“That’s a human movement that knows how to fight, right?”

Why is Jacqueline-san, sitting all the time, able to use human body techniques so well? There’s no way Trana-san’s consciousness is really in there.

“By the way, Sally-chan and Ange taught Jacqueline-san self-defense!”

Anima shouts while her arm is twisted behind her. So that’s the technique I taught Nanaya’s shrine maidens, huh?

“It’s good that you’re getting along!”

I shoot fire magic at Trana-san and free Anima from her hand. But if her goal were to kill Anima, she would have been dead already.

“Why won’t you listen to me? I’m saying I’ll conquer the world for you instead of Wito-kun! You weren’t enthusiastic about it in the first place, right?”

Trana cries like a spoiled child. But there’s no hatred in her emotions. Rather, she’s pushing her friendliness towards us.

But no matter how much she remembers spending time with us, Trana’s personality and mine are strangers.

“You don’t know if Trana-san can succeed, do you?”

I’m trying to stop her because I’m worried about Jacqueline-san and want to calm down and talk properly for once, but there’s no sign that she’ll calm down. So, I decided to change the angle and persuade her.

“Don’t worry! I have a plan! With my “Corpse Fusion,” Pirripart-chan’s “Monster Creation,” and Sally-chan’s “Legendization,” I should be able to get unique skills from everyone! Because they don’t need them anymore if they don’t fight, right?”

Surprisingly, conditions other than the non-aggression pact came out.

…Originally, Jacqueline-san was the person who held my life hostage, and she was selfish at the base.

It’s the worst that the contract magic or whatever makes fighting the best option for purposes other than murder. She wouldn’t have resorted to such means if she couldn’t bind her actions with contract magic.

…I’ve lost to her twice. So if her goal is world peace, maybe I have to give up my seat as a human who wishes for peace.

“But, can Jacqueline-san be satisfied with pushing everything to the dead Trana-san? Or do you think it will work?”

“Even if I fail, Jacqueline-chan won’t be harmed, so don’t worry!”

She spins her arms around as if to show off her strength.

She looks confident, like a ray of light in this dark world.

But I know from my knowledge of the other world. She plans to have Trana’s personality kill the dungeon master and then separate Trana’s personality, but personality dissociation is not such a simple thing.

…It’s useless to tell her who thinks she became Trana herself. I have no choice but to stop her by force.

“It’s a breakdown of negotiations. It’s useless to say anything to Jacqueline-san now, so please give up.”

“That’s why I’m Trana. Look at these legs! They’re Trana’s, right?”

“You just used dungeon points to modify them, right?”

The symptoms of a split personality are leading her to the worst conclusion.

I don’t mind giving up my unique skill or my mission of world mediation to her. But the means and the possible outcomes were all the worst.

The real Trana Spoonbender I heard of wouldn’t make such a choice.

“Just like you thought it was a chance to atone when Ryuujo became the dungeon master, you saw me being asked by Nanaya Goddess to save the world and thought it was a chance to atone, right? A chance to make up for killing Trana-san! Don’t involve others in punishing yourself!”

“Shut up!”

Trana-san, enraged by my attack, lowered her posture and flew at me with a headbutt from about ten steps.

I crossed my arms to soften the impact but was still blown away.

How unreasonable is her power? She’s really like Superman. She’s a good example of a hero.

But she never came to attack me again. I thought it was strange and looked at her. She had removed the “Denibaji’s Goblet” from somewhere in the gap that opened up. The troublesome cup had put most of my dungeon members to sleep before.

But this time, I have the perfect equipment for sleep prevention.

“How naive!”

Anima ran out, thinking this was the chance when Trana-san used sleep magic. But it seemed that something was wrong with Trana-san.

“Fufufu. The effect of alcohol is not just sleeping!”

Trana-san smiled defiantly, like a child who had bought a transformation belt, believing and not doubting that she was the strongest.

Wait a minute. This is not the time to attack! This is bad!

“Anima! Dodge!”

I shouted, and Anima threw away her weapon and lay down on the ground.

“The feast of men is fruitless,” “There is no seat for guests,” “There is no seat for us either,” “Now drink it up!”

…Originally, there was no chant for Jacqueline-san’s Denibaji’s Goblet. That means there is a possibility that Jacqueline-san believes in her mind that “Trana is the one who can use Denibaji’s Goblet perfectly.”

In that case, what is about to start is the true power of the Denibaji Goddess’s blessing.

The moment her chant ended, my head spun.

“Well then, while you’re having a nice trip, I’ll make a contract with you~”

Before I knew it, I felt good in an instant.

I realized that it was the blessing that forcibly planted the joy of alcohol in me, but by then, I couldn’t walk properly.

Surely, if you want to make a contract with someone, it’s better to get them drunk than to put them to sleep, I thought, but for some reason, a smile leaked from my mouth. This is bad. I can’t think of anything. This is bad, bad.

“See? You must resort to such means because you don’t give up!”

Trana walked up to me with a disgusted look. And she reached out her hand to me, who had collapsed.

“Are you okay? Can you stand up? Come on, take this hand.”

And she said such kind words. With a drunken head, I wanted to cling to her, even though she was the enemy I had been fighting until now.

It was like that feeling when you’re alone with someone at a second party, and it feels good. The most fun thing!

But I grabbed her hand, stretched out to me, and broke her fingers.

“Ow ow ow ow ow! How can you move!?”

But of course, Trana reacted in an instant and kneed me in the nose, breaking my nose bone. The nosebleed wouldn’t stop, but somehow I sobered up.

She looked around, wondering why she was counterattacked, and then she noticed that something was wrong with Anima, who was lying on the ground.

“Get out of the way!”

Trana threw Anima to the wall with one hand. But Anima showed a face of accomplishment and stood up on her legs, staggering. She had done her job.

“Too bad, Trana. I didn’t tell you about my unique skill, did I?”

On the floor where Anima was lying, there were a lot of pictures of cups drawn with ink. They all had the shape of Denibaji’s Goblet and emitted a faint glow.

“Value Distribution… a skill that halves the value of what is written in the picture.”

“…I know about Anima-chan’s perversion from Jacqueline-chan’s memory, but that’s quite a straightforward skill, isn’t it? So? If I erase this picture, will the effect disappear?”

The smile disappeared from Trana’s face for the first time, and she looked at Anima with a disgusted expression.

“Well. Who knows.”

She said that and showed off her composure, and behind Anima’s back, the pictures of the cups were duplicated at high speed. The e-rank item “Automatic Writing” is a pen that only repeats the same movement, but it was an effective weapon for her.

Trana didn’t intend to say that it was unfair to use an A-rank item.

“Haa! How annoying! You don’t intend to win, do you?”

It was a matter of an instant.

With a bang, like a truck had hit the wall, Trana had already grabbed Anima’s throat. It was her first serious move in this battle.

“Don’t you understand I’m fighting without hurting you as much as possible because we’re friends? Jacqueline-chan wanted to talk to Anima-chan, but… I only need Wito-kun for my purpose.”

This is bad! Anima is…

I tried to stand up desperately, but I couldn’t reach her with my hazy head, and the best I could do was to look at Anima in the end.

“My lord, my lord. I apologize, but please use Nanaya’s blessing. It’s okay. Jacqueline is a strong girl.”

And with those words, Anima’s neck was broken.