Chapter 214: Alliance (1)
The death of a demon king soon led to the death of the soul of the dungeon. Because of this, if the demon king who went outside the dungeon met with a violent death, it was conveyed to those who remained inside the dungeon in near real-time.
The King of Gluttony was dead.
It was only about ten minutes later when Orlando, the king’s butler, came to know about the king’s death.
Unlike Red Demons, Blue Demons were good at magic, compared with their weak physical abilities, and often showed surprising calmness even in a crisis. Orlando responded to his death with composure and calmness befitting his identity as a Blue Demon.
Orlando blocked the dungeon immediately. When the dungeon’s soul died, most of the dungeon’s functions were supposed to be paralyzed. In that case, those dungeon spirits inside the dungeon would feel something strange, belatedly or not, and some of them might be suspicious of their master’s death.
So, it was better to have rumors getting around about the blockade of the dungeon outside than letting things inside leak out.
Orlando, who blocked the dungeon, agonized. The King of Gluttony did not leave any contingency guidelines in case he died. He didn’t have any successor chosen in advance. The king was not prepared for his death. It wasn’t because he was too young to think of anything like death yet. It wasn’t even because the king’s death wasn’t something to consider.
The king rose to the throne after overcoming the crisis of death over and over again. It was common for the master of a house to prepare for their own death, regardless of whether he was young or old.
Nevertheless, there was one reason why the King of Gluttony did not prepare for his death.
He simply didn’t care about anything after his death.
What was the point of caring about anything after he died anyway? An heir was not important to him because he was a king who had grown up by defining everybody other than himself as an enemy and literally “eating” them. For a man like him who thought only he was important, preparing for somebody else after his death was nothing but a futile effort.
But that was only the position of the King of Gluttony himself.
Orlando, who was left behind, agonized. The number of those who belonged to the Kingdom of the King of Gluttony was huge. As a result, only the King of Gluttony could stay insensitive to the lives and well-being of his own people.
It wasn’t just the absence of the king that made Orlando concerned.
The absence of the Ten Warriors, the king’s right-hand men, also made him worried.
The king was killed, and his right-hand men were killed. Not only his top deputy but also other top subordinates were all killed.
Fortunately, most of the Ten Warriors were the king’s subordinate spirits, not ‘masters.’ If each of them was a master, even Orlando would not be able to hide the deaths of all of them, no matter how smart he was.
‘It would be a matter of time anyway.’
Since the King of Gluttony was a womanizer, he had numerous pleasure women for his sexual desire. Because of this, “those offsprings,” who inherited the king’s blood, mushroomed. Maybe Orlando might have to choose one of them to succeed their late father.
But was it enough?
Would other kings watch the kingdom whose king had disappeared, and in a tense situation like this at that?
Orlando eventually stopped judging for himself. Since all of the Ten Warriors were the king’s subordinate spirits, he decided to rely on the unexpected benefactors to resolve this issue.
Orlando wrote three letters. They were addressed to the three masters under the king’s command, who led a mighty army defending the front lines in the north and west.
The king’s subordinate spirits could not be the masters, so they could not become local strongmen protecting the dungeon at an important point, even though they could be the king’s close aides.
Although not only the king but also his Ten Warriors were killed, there were, fortunately, three strongmen in the Kingdom of the King of Gluttony who defended the borders.
Orlando decided to leave this matter to these three strongmen. He hurriedly sent out the letters to each of them.
***
‘That’s weird.’
Samael, ‘the fastest wing’, tapped the table with her finger. The tea she prepared in advance was already cold for a long time.
It had already been over an hour since the appointed time passed, but the King of Gluttony did not appear.
It was strange. The king had never broken the appointment. Though he was somewhat hysterical, he was basically a meticulous man.
‘He didn’t appear at the secret place he requested first, let alone sending any message about his failure to appear.’
Samael was upset because she was put out after waiting for more than one hour in vain, but she was one of the five directors of the Dungeon Market. Rather than being upset, she came to think about the reason rationally.
The King of Gluttony was not a man to break the appointment. Even if he broke it, this was not the way he did it.
Then, what was the reason?
Did something big happen to make it impossible for him to keep the appointment?
Samael stood up. Instead of dismissing her assumptions like this as delusion, she acted.
She called an incubus.
***
“Hey, guys! I’m back.”
Yong-ho just passed through the door of space, shouting with her hands open.
Catalina curled her tail as if she was shy, but she posed with him.
Kaiwan clicked her tongue after stepping back from him.
Yong-ho’s subordinate spirits and others reacted differently. Salami, sitting in a corner with Bucephalas, shook his head, narrowing his eyes, while Bucephalas tapped on the back of Salami with a horseshoe as if comforting his rival, but Salami growled at Bucephalas, unhappy about him putting his feet on his back.
Ophelia laughed awkwardly as if she was shy, and Tigrius gently turned away.
However, Yuria, who Yong-ho had in mind from the beginning, welcomed his return by clapping her hands, so did the baby dungeon meerkat on her head and Baduki on her back.
“Welcome back, master!”
Eligos expressed due manners on behalf of all the dungeon spirits just like the butler of the House of Mammon. Not only his subordinate spirits but also all the major dungeon spirits of the Mammon family welcomed him in the room of the space.
“Yes, thanks for your warm welcome. I’ve brought you guys a bunch of gifts.”
[You bought mine, right?]
[Did you buy Merona?]
[Pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat.]
There seemed to be something strange stuck in the middle of the gift packages, but Yong-ho nodded with a smile and lifted a small pocket apart from the large package like he did last time. It was a magic pouch he obtained as a reward in the arena. Looking at it, it was a small pocket that could barely fit a fist, but it was expanded a lot inside with magic, so much so that it could contain even a car.
Even normal packages were piled up like a mountain, so when Yong-ho lifted the magic pocket, Ophelia became a little worried. Quick-witted, Kaiwan whispered to her, “Don’t worry about the budget. In the human world, the value of a jewel was more than that here. We used one of the jewels we carried there to buy all this.”
Ophelia felt relieved to hear that, but a bit embarrassed at the same time, so she nodded quietly. Yong-ho pulled out the first item from the magic pouch.
“Now, this one is for Treant.”
Treant, who was standing at the entrance to the room because of his huge body, where the door of space was located, shook its branch in surprise. It didn’t think it would be called first.
Yong-ho waved at Treant once again, who waddled on its roots and approached him.
“This is a plant nutrient. I don’t know if it tastes good, but it must be good for your body.”
Yong-ho lifted dozens of plastic containers with yellow liquid then removed one of them and put it into Treant’s body right away. Treant flinched for a moment, but it soon became satisfied and happily hung down its branches.
As Yong-ho said, Treant obviously didn’t feel it tasted good. Besides, a single nutrient could not have restored Treant’s body immediately. Nevertheless, Treant’s expression was satisfaction itself. He seemed to be pleased with the fact that he received a gift from Yong-ho more than anything else.
In fact, Treant could be said to be one of the founding members of the dungeon, so Yong-ho felt sorry he could not take good care of him until now. If Kaiwan hadn’t followed him this time, he wouldn’t have been able to bring anything like this for Treant.
When Yong-ho expressed gratitude to Kaiwan with a glance, she signaled to him to continue quickly. He immediately took out a second gift. It was a metal polish.
“This is for Skull. I think it would be good when you clean weapons or armor...”
Yong-ho unwittingly laughed while slurring his words because Skull applied it on his body as soon as he received the polish. He didn’t know if it was because of his pleasant mood or because of the real product effect, but it seemed that Skull’s body was pretty shiny.
“Oh, You can do it, too.”
“Skull Skull.”
Then Yong-ho handed out other gifts. All of them were picked up by Kaiwan, tailored to the needs of each spirit.
“This cosmetics is for Ophelia, a pot set for Eligos, and this one is for Tigrius. I don’t know if you’ll like it.”
Tigrius, who received a lighter that looked pretty luxurious, lit it a few times. He then expressed his gratitude with a very satisfied expression. The lighter was a fun toy and collectible for him, who lit a magical flame every time he smoked.
“Now, this is dog gum for you!”
“Wal! Wal!”
“Meowing! Meowing!!”
The best gift for a dog was a dog gum. Yong-ho also handed over a few bags of dog snacks. He then rummaged through his pocket again and took out a present for Yuria. It was also a gift that Kaiwan chose, but it was a bit questionable.
“This is for Yuria.”
When Yong-ho handed the gift to Yuria without expressing his feelings, Yuria, who was so excited at the moment, opened her eyes wide. She admired it from the bottom of her heart.
“Wowwwwwwww!”
It was none other than a soccer ball that Yong-ho gave her.
He originally planned to buy her something like a doll, so he was embarrassed that she liked it so much. Kaiwan, who chose the gift, was half convinced that Yuria might like a soccer ball better than a doll, but little did she think Yuria really liked it so much.
“Thank you!”
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