* * *
I hadn’t even walked a few steps before I was suddenly back in the spot where I had woken up.
It was so quick that it made my earlier breathless running seem like a lie.
The massive black being and the flying dirt doll were still there too.
It truly felt like I had been possessed by a ghost. I stood before them in a humble posture.
“Oh, you’re back! You’re back! Where on earth did you rush off to?”
The moment it saw me, the dirt doll started chattering noisily.
“You weren’t trying to run away in the middle of the interview, were you?”
I flinched.
“No, I… um, well, that is….”
If I told the truth, it seemed like it would get angry. As I hemmed and hawed while gauging its mood, the doll, which had been studying my expression, suddenly shrieked.
“Goodness, Demon King! You’re being so heavy-handed that this human is frightened! Just look at how her voice is trembling! I advised you so earnestly to use that look only when a hero comes calling!”
“Ahem, ahem, do I frighten you?”
“A, a little…?”
I answered the question without thinking.
At that, the pressure that had been weighing down the air lifted, and the black veil covering the colossal being slipped away.
What revealed itself was a giant bird resembling an owl with gray feathers.
It was not just plump but quite generously built, so its round eyes were half-buried in down and cheek fat.
Having four legs was a little bizarre, but looking only at its upper body, its impression was surprisingly quite cute.
Perhaps because of that adorable appearance, my fear of the being before me gradually faded.
“This form has no dignity.”
“Is this really the time to be fussing about dignity in front of a new employee? You’re the one in need, Demon King!”
“Ahem, ahem.”
As if the little doll’s words had signaled it to relax, the owl suddenly twisted its body and flopped down onto the throne. Then it scratched its side with its talons and yawned long.
“That’s too low! The Demon King has no middle ground, no middle ground!”
The dirt doll started nagging again, but the owl didn’t listen even with the tips of its ears.
Then it looked down at me with its large, round eyes.
“You understand now that this is reality, yes?”
Its expression seemed a little sulky, and it clearly knew I had tried to run away.
“Ye, yes…!”
I answered with far too much vigor.
The strange pressure was still there, but watching the chubby owl being bullied by the dirt doll made my fear gradually fade.
And then my mind began to work again.
‘Let’s admit it now…….’
I had been dimensionally transported, and the outside was frightening and dangerous.
If I ran into another creature like the monster I had just seen, I might really faint.
What if there were more things like that out there?
Instinctively, I felt that I had been safe only because I was near this place—the dungeon—by sheer luck.
In that case… rather than forcing an escape, it would be safer to find a way back to my world from here.
So then, how about negotiating with that owl?
If the owl was the reason I had ended up here, surely it could also send me back to where I belonged?
I swallowed dryly.
“Are you ready to sign the contract now? Yawn—.”
The owl’s voice, unlike when we first met, was soaked with annoyance.
“Demon King, if you yawn so openly, your dignity drops!”
“I want to fall asleep right now.”
“You absolutely must finish the contract before sleeping! How long are you going to keep neglecting this dungeon!?”
Think, think! Gong Choi!
‘First, let’s figure out exactly where this place is.’
Come to think of it, this place had been called a ‘dungeon.’
Dungeon—not an unfamiliar word. It was a word commonly encountered in games.
Since my only solace during my grueling company life had been PC games, I was familiar with it.
Usually, a dungeon is a place teeming with monsters and traps. It is a dangerous place, but you defeat enemies and break through traps to obtain sweet rewards at the end. It is also a place people deliberately seek out for a character’s growth.
I took a deep breath before opening my mouth.
“Before I join……. This is my first time experiencing something like this, so I am very inexperienced. To compensate for my inexperience, I believe I need a little more knowledge. If I may ask, would it be all right to ask a few questions?”
“You may.”
It said that, but the owl’s eyelids were already drooping heavily, as if they would close at any moment.
Its expression was indifferent, and its talons were still scratching its side.
“This place… does not seem to be the world I lived in. Where exactly is this?”
“It is a dimension where more possibilities exist than the place you lived. But life will not be greatly different. Will you sign the contract now?”
“Ah, I’m not sure yet. Then, since you said this is a dungeon… are you perhaps something like the boss of the dungeon?”
“Pfft! Boss, you say. Demon King, did you hear that? She said boss!”
The owl fell silent for a moment. Then, with half-closed eyes, it stared intently at me.
The gaze was so burdensome that I subtly avoided it.
“I see. So that is how you understand dungeons? You understood well. Inside a game, is it…….”
That muttering gave me a bit of a chill. I had never said the word ‘game,’ so it clearly seemed to have read my thoughts.
“It seems you are in great need of common knowledge about this world. Even if only to properly operate this dungeon. Brownie is perfect for the role of teaching you.”
“Brownie?”
“That’s me! The dungeon’s household fairy, Brownie!”
I had thought it was just a moving, talking clay figure with a big head, but it was a fairy.
It was so different from the fairies I had imagined that it felt like an illusion was being shattered for no reason.
“What should I teach her first? Ah! You just called the Demon King a boss. Then let me first tell you about the Demon King.”
Since more information is better, I decided to listen for now.
“Half of this world is ruled by twenty-one Demon Kings! And among them, our Demon King’s rank is….”
Twenty-one Demon Kings? And rank, no less. The setting was more serious than I had expected.
I stared at Brownie’s small mouth with a solemn expression.
“Our Demon King’s rank is tw….”
“Huh, rank 2!? That’s incredibly strong…!”
“Rank 21!”
“…….”
I barely swallowed the words ‘so last place.’
Looking at the owl, I thought I could somewhat understand why it was last.
Even now, it had not a single ounce of motivation and wore the face of someone who found everything in the world bothersome.
Surely it hadn’t gotten so chubby because it moved too little, had it?
“All Demon Kings own a dungeon. Dungeons absorb the fear of visitors, and that fear becomes the Demon King’s power directly!”
“I see… A Demon King operates a dungeon. That’s unfamiliar knowledge.”
In any case, that being before me was the Demon King?
But a Demon King… wasn’t that a evil being?
If a hero is the symbol of justice and goodness, then the one on the opposite side is usually the Demon King.
Of all things, my resume had ended up in a Demon King’s hands.
“The more fear you extract, the higher the dungeon’s infamy rises. That leads directly to the Demon King’s authority. The more infamous the dungeon you own, the higher the Demon King’s rank rises as well.”
“Now that the dungeon has a manager as well, your rank should rise in no time, Demon King!”
I roughly understood how the dungeon worked. But there was no sign at all of a way back to Earth…….
Was I just going to be kidnapped and hired into this dangerous place like this?
Just then, a thought flashed through my mind.
“Compensation—yes, I think I can only work if the compensation is right! I, I may not look it, but I am quite high-grade talent, and I have received a high salary!”
It was absurd, but salary negotiation was originally a topic all superiors dreaded.
No matter what compensation the Demon King offered, if I rejected it all as too low, wouldn’t it have no choice but to give up on me?
“Each time my rank rises by one step, I will give you one billion. In the currency of the world you live in.”
“…What?”
The sum was too large to refuse, and my thoughts stopped.
Had I heard that correctly?
It even felt like I could hear the hallucination of a money-counting machine flipping through bills in my ears.
“One billion…? Really?”
“We possess a power called causality, which creates all kinds of possibilities. Using this power, we can generate anything of the value you desire.”
One billion…. It said it would give it each time the rank rose, and the Demon King before me was currently rank 21.
That meant the rank could rise twenty more times in the future. Then… twenty billion.
If the rank rose even a single step, I could obtain money I couldn’t earn even if I worked my whole life!
I, who had been struggling just moments ago to cancel my employment at the dungeon, absurdly found myself wavering.
