I lightly waved Sabira’s resume that I had been holding in my hand the whole time.
“Now then, shall we formally sign the employment contract?”
This was strictly part of the work.
Normally, it would be correct for Sabira and me to return to the office alone and confirm the working conditions one by one before proceeding with the contract.
“Would it be all right if we watched that process as well?”
“The contract process?”
“The concept of a dungeon hiring monsters as employees is so unfamiliar to me. I’m curious how the contract is made.”
“Ah, I’m curious too.”
Both seemed to want to observe the process of contracting with Sabira.
They weren’t trying to monitor me in case I made some fraudulent contract, were they…?
“Hmm…. In principle, employment contracts involve matters that the parties must confirm between themselves, like working conditions and wages, so we don’t usually seat uninvolved people.”
Of course, this wasn’t a modern company, and it was a dungeon that hired monsters.
I might have been being overly strict out of habit from my former workplace.
“Still, if the party involved agrees, I suppose observation should be fine. Sabira, what would you like to do?”
“I don’t mind.”
Sabira answered indifferently, as if it didn’t matter either way.
“First, about the wages….”
The moment I brought it up, Ruadis stared at me with sharp eyes.
I flinched.
“Eek… The thing is, monsters and humans seem to have somewhat different economic concepts? So I had no choice! If I had more operating funds, I’d gladly pay generously…!”
I desperately defended myself while trying to avoid Ruadis’s gaze.
“I really don’t care how much I receive. Money isn’t my concern.”
“But labor must be compensated! Even if you have nowhere to spend money right now, you could save it and use it when you need it.”
“Unpaid! She says she doesn’t need money, so just make it unpaid!”
Ignoring Brownie, I barely managed to bring up the topic of wages.
“I truly want to pay you a lot, but… if the dungeon grows later, I will definitely raise your wages too. A weekly wage of 1,000 eon….”
“You said you could go up to 1,500 eon?”
Ruadis cut in unexpectedly. You remembered that?
But I had said I could match that, not that it was confirmed….
“Guh… I’ll make it 1,500 eon.”
I confirmed the wage while swallowing tears.
“Yes, that will do.”
Still, for a Dullahan at level 40, the employment cost should have been enormous, so at this rate, I had really brought her in cheaply.
If I could hire one Sabira for the cost of three low-ranking monsters, that was a bargain.
Now that I had a strong boss too, we could hold off most challengers!
A bright and hopeful future for our dungeon unfolded before my eyes.
“Wow, monsters really do live in poverty.”
The fact-bomb Ragner dropped while watching stung my heart.
“Now that you know, please don’t bully them too much…. Especially the low-ranking monsters. They’re so pitiful. They’re all living their lives as best they can.”
“Are you taking the monsters’ side right in front of me?”
“All of my coworkers are monsters, so of course I should take their side!”
In the past, I would have been afraid he’d drag me away as a heretic.
But now I had the conviction that he wouldn’t.
For one thing, his childhood friend had thrown in her lot with me!
Weren’t the two of them just now exchanging tearful promises? Could he coldly abandon the home where his friend was living?
Fufu, we have the princess. We’ll never let her go.
Of course, this was the realistic reason.
Today’s events had shown me that Ragner wasn’t such a heartless person, which was why I could do this.
A man’s hot tears had melted the wariness in my heart.
‘I want to see him cry again.’
So as long as I didn’t get too cheeky, he would let it slide.
“Now, everyone. This is how a contract is made.”
I took out the rectangular plate hanging around my neck. The moment I gripped it in my hand, it instantly transformed into a stamp.
“This is the dungeon authority I possess. And when I do this….”
I stamped the bottom of Sabira’s resume with a bang.
[Hiring Complete]
The moment the crimson stamp was pressed, the paper glowed red.
“The contract has been concluded. The Dullahan is now bound to my dungeon. Wherever you are, I can summon you straight into the dungeon!”
When I gave the paper a slight shake, it melted away into the air and vanished.
The contract was kept directly by the dungeon, and even though it had disappeared now, I could retrieve it anytime if needed.
“You don’t have to go to such lengths—I’ll come running anytime Boksil calls.”
“Please don’t say that with such a pretty voice.”
I shuddered, my shoulders twitching. No matter how many times I heard it, I couldn’t get used to that incredible voice.
“Now then, since you’re officially our employee, we should provide you with your benefits, right?”
I gestured to Brownie.
“I’m a director, and you’re making me do this kind of grunt work!”
Brownie approached, carrying a bundle several times its own size.
That was when it happened.
Sabira, instinctively recognizing what it was, spun around.
“I’ve found your lost item.”
It felt like cheating, since we had found it long ago, but still….
“At last….”
Sabira muttered in a voice filled with rapture.
I was very curious. What would happen when the Dullahan reclaimed her lost head?
Sabira reached out both hands and took the cloth-wrapped head. She then tried to remove the cloth, so I shouted urgently.
“W, wait a moment!”
I quickly took off my glasses and tucked them into my collar.
“It’s all right now….”
The cloth slipped to the ground, revealing a round object that appeared to be a pitch-black helmet.
‘That’s Sabira’s head….’
Unlike weak-hearted me, Ragner and Ruadis seemed to be watching silently without any agitation. I envied their courage.
Sabira grasped the head with both hands and slowly lifted it onto her shoulders.
Thump, thump.
Could it be….
At last, the head was placed where it belonged.
Fwoosh!
In that instant, the head was engulfed in blue flames.
“Wh, what? What just happened?”
Brownie, who had fluttered over to my side, explained.
“It’s a Death Knight. The evolved form of a Dullahan that has found its head.”
“Evolution?”
Sabira turned around.
“Eek!”
A skull with blue flames swirling instead of hair looked at me.
Even though I had taken off my glasses, the flames burned so vividly that I could see it all too clearly.
Beneath the black helmet, crimson eyes flashed.
“Aaah, this is it! This overwhelming, ecstatic sense of fulfillment! This is exactly it! Kehehehe!”
Sabira, unable to contain her excitement, burst into mad laughter. Each time she did, the blue flames surged and the eye light burned eerily, giving me goosebumps.
“So does that mean she’ll stay a Death Knight from now on?”
When I whispered, Brownie shook its head.
“No? Once a Dullahan, always a Dullahan.”
“Huh? Why? She found her head.”
“Dullahans are cursed to lose their heads forever. The desire for the head is the essence of a Dullahan’s power. She can only maintain the Death Knight state for about an hour at most.”
What an absurd setting.
Not long after hearing that from Brownie, I came to fully realize what that curse meant. Truly to the bone.
“Manager, they say Dullahan lost her head again.”
“Again!? She just has to keep it on—why does she keep losing it?”
It wasn’t as if her head had legs, yet Sabira lost her head constantly, at all hours.
At this point, I was starting to suspect that the owner herself had no will to take care of it at all.
No, maybe losing her head was a hobby.
“There’s a head rolling around abandoned in the third-floor corridor. Come find its owner!”
“How does it roll all the way up to the third floor? That’s going backward!”
“Chihuahua, wouldn’t it be hilarious if there were multiple Dullahans in the dungeon? They wouldn’t even know which head was theirs!”
Brownie giggled with a sly tone.
[Let’s each take care of our own head.]
Slogans were posted all over the dungeon.
[Lost Head Collection Box]
Fearing I might run into a severed head at any moment, I even made a dedicated head collection box in a corner of the first floor where I rarely went.
“Kyaaaah! Sabira! This was on purpose, wasn’t it!? Why is your head on my bed? You put it there, didn’t you?”
…Sadly, it wasn’t very effective.
In the end, I had to be thoroughly on guard so Sabira’s head wouldn’t invade my personal space.
“What? It just moved, didn’t it? Sabira! Why does your head turn around right as I’m about to change clothes!? What did you do to your head?”
I’m starting to worry that maybe I should attach a string to that severed head.
