Chapter 83: Dungeon Rhapsody ① – The Zenzera Family

Two days later.

I stood in front of the main gate of a mansion.

It was a three-story mansion, old and distinguished, not particularly flashy.

“This is the main residence of the Zenzera family.”

The Zenzera family is the oldest noble family in Heizen.

One could even say the history of the Zenzera family is the history of Heizen itself.

The witch had given me a brief explanation.

When I spoke to the gatekeeper, I was let in without difficulty.

A maid guided me to a corner room on the second floor to wait.

It reminded me of the noble houses in Hydrangea.

Probably a waiting room for guests.

Chairs and tables, landscape paintings on the walls, vases, and armored knights on display.

High-class, but not extravagant. A nicely balanced room.

I sat in a chair and waited.

“…………”

Dagaa was quiet.

She was probably playing her card game in my mind again—with the male saint, the blue vampire empress, and the tentacle guy—what a bizarre mix.

Especially the empress—she was a historic criminal who destroyed an empire.

Why was someone like her in my mind?

Dagaa is strong at games, particularly card games.

Known as the Queen, she’s gaining a reputation in that world.

Well, in moderation.

I worry she might get involved in dark gambling. She worships the Crab, after all.

Speaking of which, this world does have some card games.

But board games? Only odd ones played with shields—like Shield Board or Moon Board.

Dice exist too—like dice gambling.

I know there are casinos in Heizen, even for minors, though I’ve never been.

Board games…

In my previous life, a university friend was obsessed with figurine board games.

They spent most of their part-time earnings on them.

“…Games, huh.”

I suddenly remembered my old obsession with dungeon creation games.

Especially the ones where you keep placing elements.

Set up corridors, rooms, monsters, traps, treasures.

Defeat adventurers who enter to earn DP—Dungeon Points.

The number of adventurers and their strength determines how much DP you get.

With that, you expand and deepen your dungeon.

“…I never thought I’d actually be doing that now.”

I chuckled wryly. But this is no game.

This is real life—a world where people’s lives are at stake.

“…………”

A thought occurred. Perhaps because of my memories from my previous life.

I might be viewing this world a bit like a game.

Am I really walking firmly on the ground here?

A maid called, “Thank you for waiting,” and led me to a reception room on the third floor.

Alright. Focus. Think about what’s in front of me now.

The table in the reception room already had a teapot and cups. The main desk had no one behind it.

Instead, a woman sat on a white sofa.

Long blonde hair loosely curled, round animal ears poking out.

Clear blue eyes, like shimmering water.

Her face was refined, intelligent, yet still held a hint of youth.

She wore a flowing white dress and a blue cape.

Light attire, but clearly made from the finest, luxurious fabrics.

Like the mansion itself, understated but high-class.

And most strikingly—she had two tanuki tails.

She was of the tanuki race.

A friend of the fox-race witch. Seiran Zenzera. Current head of the Zenzera family.

Apparently, she has various ties with my uncle.

Speaking of my uncle… he was apparently called “Sturm” in this city.

Sturm… my uncle… hmm.

“―――You’re not a first-time visitor, are you?”

She sipped from her cup with her eyes closed, then glanced at me.

“Yes. Once again, I am Wof.”
“Seiran Zenzera.”
“Giza.”

A woman in a butler outfit stood diagonally behind the sofa and greeted me.

Giza is the daughter of the sword goddess—unrelated to Laada and the others. She’s Seiran’s bodyguard.

“I’ve heard from the witch that you have an important matter. Please, sit.”

I sat across from her on the blue sofa.

Giza poured tea from the teapot into my cup.

Slightly sweet, with depth in the aroma. High-quality tea leaves.

“Yes. This will be a lot of information, and I don’t know how much Seiran-san knows. So I will speak even if some of it is familiar to you.”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind.”

“Alright. First, this Heizen dungeon is called a surface-type dungeon. I received a request from the will of the Heizen dungeon to eliminate its anomaly.”

“…Go on.”

“The request was completed. At that time, I made a proposal to the dungeon’s will. In fact, I nearly died from falling. So I suggested creating a normal dungeon in Heizen. The dungeon’s master agreed, but said if it could be done, it would have been done already. Then I was asked to actually create the dungeon.”

“…A normal dungeon in Heizen?”

“Yes. A dungeon with underground floors, like any other.”

“You’re being told to create it in Heizen?”

“Yes. The dungeon’s Will will fully cooperate.”

“…Then, I thought it would be proper to first get the two major families on board. Their cooperation would be appreciated.”

“…Hmph. So you are truly Sturm’s nephew.”

She put down her cup. Wait, what?

“Huh?”

“Of course I will cooperate. The will of the Heizen dungeon is Heizen itself. You are merely a proxy. Of course, I must comply.”

“Th-thank you.”

Good. That went smoothly.

Seiran took a sip from her cup.

“You knew Heizen was a dungeon, and you understood its dangers. Same with Forest Wave. Wof, nephew of Sturm. Do you know why Forest Wave occurs?”

“An EVENT, you mean?”

“That theory exists. But in truth, it’s because it’s a dungeon.”

“…?”

“The total number of monsters is determined by the dungeon’s scale.”

“Is that so?”

“Normally, they are distributed across floors, so it doesn’t feel like too many.”

Perhaps because the monsters are dispersed.

“Surface-type dungeons have a larger area, so the total number of monsters increases accordingly. But if we released all the monsters at once, Heizen would be destroyed.”

“…Could it be that Forest Wave is just the total number of monsters that would normally exist in Heizen appearing at once…?”

If that’s true, and the original number of monsters had appeared, Heizen would have been destroyed.

“Normally, the will of the Heizen dungeon suppresses them. But when it reaches its limit—that’s Forest Wave.”

“We have to do something, then.”

“So when there are underground floors, the monsters are dispersed.”

“That would calm Forest Wave.”

In any case, as a source of income, it seems huge.

Seiran’s expression grew complex.

“It will decrease significantly. But that’s much better than Heizen being destroyed.”

True. If it were destroyed, everything would be lost.

Still, it’s a gradual story, but it shows that Heizen was approaching a crisis.

After that, I simply played the role of listening to Seiran venting her grievances about the witch.

I could only remain silent and smile wryly as she spoke her mind.

She wasn’t slandering the witch, just listing the difficulties she had been caused.

If it had been baseless, I might have spoken, but these were facts.

I silently apologized in my mind for not saying anything.

When she finished, I drank the tea Giza had prepared and let out a sigh.

Good work. Ah, right—I had forgotten to request something important.

“Um, I have one favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Could you… tell Crab… in the Gouro family’s Poor Man Club about this dungeon matter? I’m not very good at matters like these.”

“Oh, that’s all? Sure. I’ll be seeing him soon, so I’ll tell him then.”

“Thank you very much.”

Good. Now the Gouro family will be informed.

Speaking of Gouro, I wonder if Araya is doing well.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Wof, nephew of Sturm. Be careful of the remnants of Jinryu.”

“Remnants of Jinryu?”

“They hate the witch and also hold hostility toward you as her apprentice.”

“Ah… that’s like the Barrow remnants, right?”

Seiran nodded slightly.

The Barrow faction’s supporters, who didn’t know the backstory, were left unpunished.

Giving up that immunity voluntarily is so Barrow-like.

“Um, if I encounter them and they attack, is it okay if I annihilate them?”

I didn’t want to take them alive. I implied as much.

There’s no need to show mercy or leniency to such people.

Leaving them alive would surely cause harm.

Seiran seemed to sense my firm attitude and looked resigned.

“Yes, you may do as you like.”

“Understood.”

I hope they don’t attack.

If they don’t, I won’t take action.

But these kinds of people are reckless.

On the way back from the Zenzera main residence, I checked the deployed Crisis Detection just in case, and multiple red dots appeared.

Already, huh? Let’s see where they strike.