Because the man suddenly introduced himself, I had no choice but to introduce myself as well.
“Ah, yes, hello…. I’m Choi.”
“I’m Teon! Isn’t my brother cool!?”
“Choi, that’s an unusual name.”
Just from giving my name, I could feel the man’s guard toward me loosen considerably.
“What are you saying? You’re not Choi, you’re….”
Just then, Brownie suddenly flew over and butted in.
I hurriedly tried to cover its mouth, but Brownie nimbly dodged my hand and flew around. Then, as if to protect me from the two, it blocked my path.
“A fairy?”
“That’s right! This body is the great fairy of the earth! Lowly humans, bow your heads at my feet…!”
Brownie, who had been shouting boldly, suddenly darted into my hair and hid.
“What’s wrong?”
When I whispered quietly, Brownie trembled and muttered.
“I feel a frightening aura….”
Hearing that, it was true. For a moment, a sharp and chilling aura had flowed out from Ragner.
But the moment his eyes met mine, that aura scattered and vanished.
What was that just now?
“A, anyway! This dungeon is far too low-level for you! A strong person picking on the weak is cheating, isn’t it?”
“Monsters are not some weaklings that need to be shown consideration.”
“Th, that may be true, but! Think about it! If you sweep through a weak dungeon… that’s it!”
I hurriedly pointed at the younger brother and continued.
“Where are adventurer hopefuls like Teon supposed to train? What you’re doing right now is trampling on the potential of future outstanding adventurers!”
I knew myself that it was a ridiculous sophistry. Even so, I had to stop that man from challenging the dungeon no matter what.
“Dungeons are dens of dangerous monsters.”
Ragner didn’t seem willing to back down in the slightest.
He bent slightly to match my eye level and spoke in a calm voice.
“If monsters were to burst out of a dungeon and raid a village, there would be countless casualties.”
“That’s right, dungeons are bad. If you don’t deal with them in time, it’s a big problem! And they took my wooden sword too!”
I flinched. The one who had taken that wooden sword was none other than me, so my conscience pricked sharply.
This kid… he could just throw away that worn-out sword and buy a new one. Why go out of his way to get that one back…
If the goal was simply to get the wooden sword back, I wished I could just return it and be done with it.
“That only applies to things like instant dungeons…! Dungeons run by Demon Kings don’t do such petty, self-damaging things.”
Brownie, hidden in my hair, mumbled in a voice small enough that only I could hear.
“Th, they say there’s no chance of that happening. No, there isn’t!”
I raised my voice toward Ragner again.
“How can you be so certain of that?”
“Because I’ll stop it! This dungeon will never raid a village! This dungeon is… um… it’s essentially a facility that manages monsters so they can’t get out!”
“You’ll stop it…?”
Ragner looked me up and down with a puzzled gaze.
“You don’t look like you have any combat ability at all.”
What should I do? Wasn’t there a good way? What I could do was….
I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.
“I… made a contract with the owner of this dungeon!”
In the end, I decided to embellish my situation appropriately and reveal it half-honestly.
If that man took the sacred relic, it would be a disaster. I had a responsibility to protect my dungeon no matter what. I was the manager, after all!
“I made the contract to protect this world! I safely manage this dungeon so that monsters don’t burst outside!”
Just then, Brownie chimed in again in a small voice.
“That’s roughly right. It’s true that the world can only be protected if you work hard.”
…What did that mean now?
I was curious, but it wasn’t the situation to press for details, so I pushed that thought to one corner of my mind for now.
“You made a contract….”
Ragner looked at me with an interested gaze.
“If that’s the case… you’re saying you made a contract with a Demon King? Are you aware that by saying that, you’ve essentially declared yourself a heretic?”
“…A heretic? What’s that?”
“You abandoned Leta, the Holy God who protects this land and stands in opposition to the Demon God… and took the hand of a Demon King, who is no different from an enemy. That makes you a heretic.”
A heretic. A cultist.
“Huh…!”
“Monsters can’t form a society outside the dungeon. The temples strictly forbid it.”
Brownie had said that.
I had wondered why the temples intervened in monster affairs, but I hadn’t thought deeply about it.
But could it be that in this world, monsters were something like absolute evil defined by religion, just like demons?
It seemed I was in really big trouble….
My heart began to pound like crazy.
Of course, I also had the common-sense prejudice that Demon Kings were evil beings. That was why I had been so terrified when I learned that the being who brought me to this world was a Demon King.
‘But after learning the truth, it wasn’t that scary.’
In my mind, a plump owl scratched its side with its talons.
It wasn’t just its appearance. The Demon King had promised me fair compensation and had never inflicted any harm on my body.
It even wrote a contract and got me a new job. It even gave me a huge advance payment of twenty million won!
It was a choice I had been forced to make as someone isolated with no connections, but looking back, it wasn’t such a bad deal.
The Demon King was lazy, incompetent, shameless, had no sense of economics, lacked exercise, and was a sleepyhead, but….
“Chihuahua, you seem to be thinking something rude right now.”
…Anyway, the Demon King I had seen with my own eyes seemed far from the absolute evil the world talked about.
I didn’t know about other Demon Kings, but at least the one who had contracted with me seemed trustworthy.
“I told you. I made the contract to protect this world. How can protecting the world be heresy?”
What I believed in was not rumors or temples. It was the facts I had seen, experienced, and judged for myself.
If I received fair compensation, I would fulfill the responsibility that matched it.
I finish what I take on to the end.
That was the belief I had held onto throughout my working life.
So then….
This company—no, this dungeon—I will protect it!
Ragner, tilting his head, asked in a serious voice.
“What are the exact terms of the contract?”
“The terms of a contract are not disclosed to anyone other than the parties involved. Don’t you know about confidentiality obligations and personal information protection laws?”
At my words, Ragner momentarily looked taken aback.
“By any chance… are you in a dangerous situation or in need of help? Were you threatened by the Demon King and forced into the contract with your safety as collateral?”
I flinched.
Was I in need of help?
The moment I heard those words, a thought flashed through my mind.
Could the temple… know a way to send me back to my original world?
If it was that place, I might no longer have to face monsters so terrifying that I had to take off my glasses to look at them, and I might be able to live safely and comfortably among humans like myself.
…Honestly, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t wavering. There had been times when I thought it might be better to find a way outside the dungeon.
But that thought didn’t last long.
The faces of the monsters waiting for me in the dungeon surfaced one by one.
The goblin who had choked up over its first victory, the skeleton who had danced with joy over receiving a single wooden sword, the small slime who had bounced around in excitement at the words ‘hidden card.’
And Brownie, who had begged us not to abandon them.
…What would happen to them if I disappeared?
If the Demon King ran this dungeon directly, it was obvious it would fail.
If this had been the starting stage with no one hired, I might have immediately jumped at Ragner’s words. I might have clung to him, begging him to get me out of this failing dungeon.
“…No. There was no threat. I did it with a clear mind! After sufficient deliberation! I made the contract of my own free will.”
An uneasy feeling lingered that I might have missed a good opportunity, but abandoning the manager position halfway was far too irresponsible.
I, Gong Choi, may have been in a department with not a single team member, but I had risen to team leader. Sincerity and diligence are my pride.
As a cog in the company, I am absolutely loyal to the company that pays well.
“I see….”
His gaze was still suspicious, but the atmosphere suggested he wouldn’t push unilaterally anymore.
