Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 60: Two Schemes (1)

This was something that happened one morning.

“…….”

“…….”

Laura and I were frozen. We were looking straight at each other’s bodies.

No, should I say we were forced to stare? We couldn’t even turn our gazes. Even if we tried to turn our heads, it was like our muscles had become stone. Perplexity, astonishment, surprise, shame, and shyness, these muddy emotions came and went like the tidal waves. If we were simply staring at each other, then there would be no need for me to feel this awkward. Thus, Laura and I weren’t simply staring at each other.

The two of us were naked. We didn’t have a single article of clothing on us.

Wait a second.

Let me explain myself first.

This was something that happened out of pure coincidence. I didn’t have some shameless goal of sneaking a peek at my one and only vassal’s bare body.

Even if Laura is remarkably beautiful and my carnal desire for her would occasionally well up, and even if it may not be occasional but actually quite frequent, I never had the stubborn desire to see her nude body! I swear. Before being my vassal, was she not also a living being? I naturally respect her opinion as well.

Someone who bosses their subordinates around however they want is literally a piece of trash tyrant. It’d be unsurprising if they were stabbed in the back by their vassal. Who would sincerely follow a tyrant? For the sake of my survival and prosperity, I have to cherish Laura dearly. No, more than anything else, Laura is only 15 years old! If she were in my original world, she’d be in her third year of middle school……I don’t have a hobby of going after children. Seriously…….

In order to prove my unquestionable purity, I have to first explain the situation with my dungeon.

My Demon Lord castle doesn’t have a bathing facility.

Of course, both the monsters and I don’t particularly have to bathe. I don’t produce bodily waste, after all. Ever since I became a Demon Lord, I no longer had a need to eat or bathe. Sleeping 2 to 3 hours a day is enough for me. It’s incredibly convenient. The only reason I eat and wash is simply due to the fact I want to live a little luxuriously.

It was like that this morning as well.

After contemplating about my army’s future, I headed towards my dungeon’s underground pond for a change of mood. The underground pond had formed naturally, so the water is clear and has no harmful insects or aquatic organisms in it. I was told that it’s because the pond is overflowing with magic energy, but, in any case, it’s perfect to bathe in.

There are magic stones in the water, so there’s a faint blue light glowing from the bottom of the pond all the way to its surface. Due to the heat radiating from the magic stones, the underwater temperature is at the perfect warmth. You could enjoy a mystical experience by floating in the water and feeling as if you’re in paradise while slowly examining the stalactites that had grown around the water.

Who could possibly blame me for stripping down excitedly like some child as soon as I saw the blue water⎯⎯?

And Laura surfaced as soon as I approached the water as if she had been waiting for me.

Within this cavern which not even a single ray of the sun can reach, the girl’s bare body was revealed distinctly due to the glow from the bottom of the water. Laura’s long, blonde hair fluttered.

I froze in place.

My calm brain understood the situation in an instant. The various insect-like egos that were living inside my head were giving their own respective statements. My brain went on overdrive like the time I dealt with Riff’s adventurer group.

‘Laura was bathing here.’

‘Even if she’s a genius, her body is that of a normal human, so she naturally needs to take baths.’

‘I was wondering why her skin always smelled nice. She’s been making sure to wash every day, huh…….’

‘You idiot! This isn’t the time to be thinking about that! This is an emergency situation! We have to go into DEFCON 2 right now!’

‘It isn’t surprising since we don’t have any bathing facilities in the dungeon. If you think about it, we aren’t being considerate towards Laura, a human. How about we think about facilities for humans from now on?’

‘In my opinion……I think it’d be best if we waited for now. This isn’t something we get to see often, right? Let’s enjoy this moment as much as possible.’

‘Wait. Everyone’s talking at the same time. We have three choices. Run away, make up an excuse, or bathe together like this. Furthermore, I’d like to add that the third option seems like the most appropriate. Don’t take my words lightly. This is the conclusion I came to after much deliberation.’

‘I’ve now come to the realization that this is a gathering of retards. Stop thinking about other things and think up of an excuse first. The other party is the daughter of a duke, you ignorant fools. I know you guys are ignorant of this world since you’ve been living carefree lives in a world without a hierarchical society, but……,’

‘Hmph, I’m sorry to butt in, but I’d like to add that you all sound like a bunch of barking dogs.’

‘Woof woof! Bark bark! Arf arf!’

‘All right. I know for certain now that most of us are mutts.’

‘This is just my opinion, but we’ve been quietly standing while staring at Laura’s naked body for a really long time now. If my senses aren’t broken, then roughly a minute has passed. Congratulations. In the end, we didn’t pick any of the three choices and wound up selecting the worse possible option: standing still. I don’t have the energy to be amazed by my stupidity anymore.’

As you can see, I was fantastically falling into a pit of panic.

It became clear to me that making ideological existences converse with one another wasn’t a good thing for me at all. This probably means my mental state is that unstable, but that’s not important right now.

“…….”

“…….”

I couldn’t remove my eyes from Laura’s bare body.

A blue glow illuminated her gentle curves. A girl like a hydrangea in the rain was standing there. Even though she was 16-years-old, it was hard to see Laura’s body as that of a young girl. Her body already had proper curves.

Her pure white skin was exquisite. Her snow-like skin had just the perfect amount of muscle, so it was firm. That firm skin was wet with water. Droplets of water slid down her frame.

“……Lord.”

Laura stepped towards me.

My chest pounded.

Her body emerged more and more with each step she took.

A slender waist and smooth curves that accentuated her buttocks connected down to her firm thighs and calves that were clearly trained thanks to the constant horseback riding she had experienced as a young child. I got a glimpse at her most precious place thanks to the light of the pond.

Laura finally arrived right in front of me.

There was some water pooled above her collarbone. The water created a small stream on her body as it slid down. Droplets of water fell from her chest, fingertips, and buttocks, soaking the cavern floor.

The fragrance coming from the recently drenched girl……exuded softly.

My consciousness became faint.

“Lord.”

A wet fragrance flowed out from between her slightly open lips once again. It was a scent that entered my ears and not my nose. While only the sound of water dripping from the stalactites echoed quietly, Laura’s voice resonated off the cavern walls and vibrated lowly.

Was what I heard just now the sound of water falling from a stalactite or the sound of me gulping?

While within this space of tranquility and anxiety, Laura said something completely unexpected.

“Are you here to take a bath as well, Lord?”

Eh?

Laura smiled.

“The water here is good. It is good for your eyes and body. It is not surprising that you would like this place as well.”

Laura didn’t scream like a girl or slap me as if this were some scene from a movie. She simply smiled happily.

“I intended to tell Your Lordship about this place, but it seems this was not a secret place known only to this young one. It is saddening, but it feels like we have a bond through this connection. Fufu.”

“Uh……ah…….”

Isn’t this a golden opportunity?

My cockroach-like egos that had been clamoring noisily until now all shouted in a single voice.

‘Go with it!’

This was the most valid and appropriate suggestion out of everything that had been advocated thus far. Laura didn’t feel anything in particular about showing her naked body to me or seeing my naked body. I’m not sure why, but this was my saving grace.

I stammered. I did my best to sound as nonchalant as possible. As if being seen in the nude wasn’t a big deal for me at all.

“Y-You are right. I had an urge to be clean today.”

“As I predicted! Bathing allows you to wash your soul. If your body becomes clean, then your mind becomes clean on its own as well. This is the perfect time to relieve your exhaustion after having defeated the adventurers and subjugated the nearby villages.”

“That is correct. W-War is not simply a never-ending cycle of battles. You must rest properly when necessary and work productively when required.”

Laura’s eyes sparkled.

“You are right a hundred times over. Each and every one of Your Lordship’s words is wise enough to be taken as gospel.”

“Hahaha. You praise me too much.”

“So Your Lordship plans to take a bath now, I see.”

“Yes, that is so.”

It seems I was going to get past this without arousing suspicions. Since things that have been witnessed are being overlooked without having to take any responsibilities, I was able to obtain the best possible result.

Like a bolt from the blue, the following sentence struck me while I was feeling relieved.

“Then how about bathing together with this young girl?”

Pardon me?

* * *

Lapis Lazuli, a rank 2 personnel of the Keuncuska Firm and Dantalian’s personal attendant.

Recently, the amount of work she had to do had increased greatly. For starters, she was promoted to a rank 2 personnel. Once she went up from rank 4 to rank 2 in an instant, the people around her became surprised by how fast she was advancing. Therefore, people approached her politically and socially. In other words, amorous glances lathered in solicitation were thrown her way.

“Thank you very much, but I have no interest.”

Lapis flatly refused every offer. She poured all of the resources that were given to her into a single thing. The task of assisting Dantalian. She was certain that Dantalian will continue to bring profit to the firm. Lapis wasn’t acting arbitrarily either. The owner of the Keuncuska Firm, Ivar Lodbrok also agreed.

The incident that had gotten her interest recently was obviously the matter where the adventurer-civilian militia alliance fought against Dantalian. Laura and Dantalian didn’t seem to care much about the incident anymore. Was there a need to think about a battle that had already been won?

Lapis, however, thought otherwise.

‘It is hard to believe that a low-class group of adventurers could be heavily equipped.’

If Dantalian is a schemer and Laura is an intrigant, then Lapis is close to being an administrator. She may not understand the intricate principles of battles that well, but she knows the field outside of battle better than anyone else. How to distribute provisions, how to secure logistics, where to gather arms and manpower from, etc.

‘Chain armor, especially chain armor with a 4-to-1 pattern, is not something that normal civilians of the human world can get their hands on easily.’

The equipment that was provided for the adventurers and civilian militia was expensive. Excessively so if compared to their actual skills. According to His Highness Dantalian, Riff plundered approximately 200 gold from his Demon Lord castle in the past. That may be a large sum, but that isn’t enough to provide a group of over 70 people with sturdy chainmail armor and well-maintained iron spears.

Furthermore, it was revealed that Riff had bribed some of the villages to betray Dantalian. Approximately 100 gold. This thus meant that Riff had at most 100 gold coins to spare. It would be impossible to heavily equip yourself with this much.

‘It’s suspicious.’

Lapis suspected that the leader of the adventurer party had taken a huge loan from a bank. However, after much investigation, there was no evidence that Riff had borrowed money from anywhere. It didn’t seem like an influential person or a lord was backing him either. This was even more suspicious. Where could Riff have gotten such a huge sum of gold from?

‘A certain person or faction must have helped the adventurers, but who……?’

Lapis was going about her job while seated at her personal desk. Her face remained expressionless as she quickly dealt with the documents that lied before her. Her pink pigtails didn’t move even slightly as she worked.

An employee approached her carefully.

“Miss Lazuli.”

“Speak.”

Lapis responded without looking up from the documents. This naturally gave the person the implicit message that they would be punished accordingly if they had interrupted her for a trivial matter. The other employees had already started to refer to Lapis as the Absolute Zero Emotions.

“Uhm, about the corpse of the adventurer group leader. The one that was found in the forest…….”

In order to investigate the matter thoroughly, Dantalian had handed the corpses of several adventurers to Lapis. She didn’t want to miss even the tiniest clue.

“I am aware. Is there a problem with it?”

“Well, uhm, it’s really troubling, but…….”

The employee hesitated.

Lapis let out a sigh and lowered her pen.

“Keep the main point simple and conclusion concise.”

“I-I’m sorry!”

“I’ll accept your apology later. Is there a problem with Riff’s body?”

The employee looked like they were about to cry.

“There is a black imprint on the human’s chest. I-It isn’t a simple tattoo, but a magical symbol.”

“A magical symbol?”

Lapis tilted her head.

Lapis immediately concluded that this may be the decisive clue to the person or group that had backed the adventurers. She gazed at the employee with a cold gaze.

“What kind of symbol?”

“Well……that’s……it was the sign of Rank 68 His Highness Belial…….”

Lapis felt as if she had taken a blow to the head. An unpleasant shiver went down her spine.

‘Another Demon Lord was backing the people that were hostile towards His Highness Dantalian!’

***

TL note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Well, I thought the sexual tension would happen a bit later, but uh, yeah, I was wrong. God this section is going to be a pain to translate. I’m not really comfortable with writing these kinds of details. Maybe over time. We’ll see. We might have to put a stronger 18+ rating on this series if what I think is going to happen, well, happens.

I’ll see you guys in the next release.