The Victor’s Privilege
“Nkyuu. That a Dummy Core?”
“Hm? Yeah…”
Come to think of it, I never told Orange or Aidi that I’m a hero from another world.
Wait, isn’t that Great Demon KingCore No. 6 watching right now? I don’t really want him to find out… No, guessing from the noise back with Haku-san earlier, there’s already a chance she’s properly hiding it.
As for whether or not to tell Orange and Aidi—yeah, let’s not tell them. It’s not like I have to.
I can break it after we head back to level up.
“Yeah. Isn’t this a Dummy Core?”
“Nkyuu. Yeah, Papa’s so generous~!”
“Yeah. Generous… Rokuko, hold on to it.”
“O-Okay.”
I handed Rokuko the Dungeon Core. I don’t really have to destroy it right now. Judging by the calm look on the Dungeon Core [Father]’s face when I gave it to her, it looked like he figured I’d do that.
[Alright, how about we wake Core No. 564 up about now?]
Saying that, [Father] snapped his fingers. A communication opened between Core No. 564 and Aidi.
[Huh!? A-eh… huh…? …. Ah!?]
“—! Aaahha♪”
Regaining consciousness, Core No. 564 rushed to his feet. With that, Aidi seemed amused. Very amused.
[Wh-Wh-Wha….!? Lost? My Glorious Self did? How!? But a 600 series can not win against a 500 series!? How did this brat—!?]
“Good boy. What wonderful howling, you pitiful dog.”
[Gaaaaaah!]
“Ahhahahaa! Ahahaha! Good, good! How is it? What are you feeling? Vexed? Sad? Pathetic? Hey, how does it feel being allowed to live by a girl many years your junior? Want to kill yourself? Too bad! I’m the victor. You know what that means.”
[Dammit, dammit, dammiiiiiiiiit!! How, hoooooow!!!?!!?]
“Pathetic! Your misery is so gooood!”
Aidi laughed in ridicule. She looked very happy—no, amused.
“… Ooh, Aidi, you’re having fun.”
“Rokuko. You lit this flame in me, one way or another.”
“… I just said to not kill No. 564 to win though? I just figured we didn’t need to kill him to win. As a result of that, No. 564 would live and you’d be happy. A win-win.”
“On the other hand, it means someone has to live with the fact they’re a loser.”
[Gaaaah!? You’re dead, DEAD, DEAD!]
Core No. 564 was howling from the other side of the monitor.
“What perfectly small words for that small mind of yours!”
Aidi, meanwhile, was absolutely enjoying herself.
Yeah, she’s heated up. I don’t really care, though. Nothing to do with me, you do you.
[Alright, you two, stop. Could you hear me out?]
[…!? … H-haha…!]
“Yeah, sorry, Father. I got carried away in how fun ridiculing No. 564 is.”
Core No. 564 finally settled down when he realized that [Father] was here.
By the way, he’d lowered his head so far he was basically prostrating himself. I guess as far as Dungeon Cores are concerned, he just showed something unsightly to the most important existence in the world. No helping that.
[Maan, sorry No. 564, but you lost this one.]
[…! My deepest apologies! I never expected that Father would be watching, for you to see such a disgraceful…!]
[No. 6, what do you think?]
[Yes, first is the previous issue. Oi, No. 564. Setting aside Father watching, do not say that you weren’t aware that I’ve been watching, as well.]
[… …]
Core No. 564 sank into silence. Well yeah, he was greeted at the start, after all. And didn’t he say he would devote the victory to him? There’s no escaping from that reality.
[My humblest apologies…!]
[Hmph. I held no expectations for you from the outset. Anyhow, your opponent was No. 666—Aidi. With that Master Haku recommended, it was a forgone conclusion they would prevail against a 500 series. It would be the same with a 400 series—no, perhaps even a 300 series. Don’t you agree, Kehma?]
“Huh? U-Umm, it’s all thanks to Aidi. Hahaha…”
[Hmm, hmm. Well aren’t you quite understanding for someone of that betrayer’s faction? How about it, want to join us?]
[Now hold on, No. 6. Surely that attempt to steal from my faction was a jest? Do you want to die?]
[Kukuku, how about I give you Core No. 564 in exchange?]
[I don’t want that trash. Kehma-san, you can’t go, alright? Your talent is mine to work to de—mine, I was just showing it off.]
Haku-san. Just now, you were about to say to death. You were, right?
[Aaalright. No. 564, do you know why you lost?]
[… A-Apologies! My Glorious Self does not understand… the dungeon should have been perfect. For more than a hundred years, it had even managed to kill those adventurers who were so sure of themselves!]
Yeah, well, they were adventurers. This was a Dungeon Battle though.
[Kehma-kun. Would you like to tell him?]
“… For free?”
“Hey—Kehma!?”
Rokuko started to b.u.t.t in, but this was something I couldn’t back down on. I grabbed Rokuko’s hand to stop her.
[I gave you that freebie earlier, wouldn’t this much service be fine?]
“Hmmm. But if I told him why he lost this time, wouldn’t that make him antagonistic from here on? It’s his own fault for not realizing himself. Besides, it’d probably spread throughout the entire Demon King Faction if it’s said here. Thinking about the losses I’d suffer in that case, I’d obviously be on the losing end. I don’t mind if you tell him, but I’d demand something great enough to balance that out.”
[I see. You have a point.]
Exactly. If I wound up telling him that his loss was due to his dungeon not being suited for Dungeon Battles right here in front of Core No. 6, the leader of the Demon King Faction, it’d wind up spreading throughout basically the entire faction—is my official stance, at least.
If Core No. 6 is as excellent as he’s been touted as, he should’ve long since realized. All I’m doing right now is trying to raise the price to sell it at as much of a profit as possible. I just have to make the sell before Core No. 6 reveals he already knows.
[How about a Boss Monster Sp.a.w.ner then?]
“… There are Boss Monster Sp.a.w.ners? There isn’t one in our Catalog.”
“You know how you have that resp.a.w.n named monsters function? It’s like that, but it’ll resp.a.w.n them for free. There can only be one of the monsters at a time and it has a cooldown time proportional to the boss’ strength, though. I’ll give you a special one that lets you freely set a monster to be resp.a.w.ned with it.”
…! He offered something amazing! For instance, our dungeon’s dragon golem could be set for that. I won’t have to remake it from scratch each and every time it’s destroyed.
Or maybe I should make a mithril—no, an orichalc.u.m golem so that it can be resp.a.w.ned when it’s defeated. It’ll be like an ever-refilling orichalc.u.m deposit.
“Umm, does that mean I can switch the set monster?”
[Yep. Oh, but you can’t switch it during the cooldown period. Memories won’t persist like with named monsters either.]
I see. So he’s saying that any training they’d received would be reset. It could use it as an orichalc.u.m mine forever. I’m a bit worried about its cooldown period, though…
… Hmm? Did he just casually tell me something crazy important about named monsters? He said it like it’s something I should’ve already known, was I supposed to be making use of that? I should look into that later.
“By the way, how long would the cooldown time be on a dragon or something be?”
[About a week for an ordinary Dragon, two for something like a Red Dragon. A Goblin King would just be like eight hours. It won’t be that long unless it’s some crazy monster. You could even rush the resp.a.w.n if you put some DP into it.]
Yeah, so I want that. A lot.
“I’ll need two, one for a mid boss and one for the end boss.”
[Kehma-kun. How do you lug around those ma.s.sive b.a.l.l.s of yours?]
He was amazed, but he gave them to me. Booyah, Father is generous~!