Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 12

Chapter 12

 

“Chihuahua, look at this.”

After roughly tidying up the dungeon, Brownie led me to the room where the holy relic was kept.

Despite being the most important place in the dungeon, this was my first time visiting the holy relic room.

An incredible treasure bestowed directly by the God of Demons! My first impression was…

‘An old walking stick? I could probably find something like this lying around in the mountains.’

Compared to my high expectations, its shabby appearance was a huge disappointment.

It was a long wooden staff, crudely carved. About as long as my arm, perhaps?

It had no gemstones embedded in it, nor any elaborate decorations. On top of that, it was covered in a thick layer of dust, as though it had been abandoned in the corner of a storage room for ages. At a glance, it almost looked like a rotten piece of wood.

“See? The fear we extracted from those guys just now has gathered here.”

“…Where?”

No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t see anything special about it.

“Here, look right here.”

Brownie zipped over to the tip of the staff and pointed to a particular spot with her short arm.

“Ah…”

Now I could see it. A tiny red sprout, no bigger than a grain of millet, had grown two little leaves.

But a sprout? And weren’t sprouts usually green?

“If we extract that kind of fear about ten more times, I think it’ll grow to a decent size.”

“How big?”

Brownie flapped her wings enthusiastically and demonstrated the largest size she could manage to illustrate. Even then, it was smaller than a coin.

“Right now, the holy relic has lost a lot of its power because the Demon King has neglected it so much.”

It had done more than lose its power. It had practically withered away. Sensing my increasingly cold gaze, Brownie hurriedly continued.

“Even so, it used to look really impressive! It sparkled and glittered, and it had such a majestic presence!”

I felt utterly dejected.

Surely that wasn’t going to be my future appearance, was it? Suffering under an incompetent Demon King, getting used up until every last drop of usefulness had been squeezed out of me, and ending up completely battered and broken…

“If we extract fear and strengthen it, the holy relic will return to its original appearance! The dungeon will become stronger, too! There’s no need to be so disappointed.”

We’d extracted fear from two challengers and managed to sprout a single tiny shoot no bigger than a grain of millet.

How much more fear would we have to extract before it grew enough to resemble an actual plant?

‘Demon King, aren’t you being a little too much? Just how lazy are you?!’

All I could do was let out a heavy sigh.

“I wanted to show you that we’re making progress, even if it’s only a little at a time.”

Then Brownie twisted her body bashfully beside the sprout and spoke in a small voice.

“Before you came, we really had nothing at all. So… I wanted to tell you that you’re doing a good job…”

“Ah…”

Recognition for one’s achievements. Brownie had been trying to look out for me in her own way.

Apparently, she’d noticed that I hadn’t been able to join the monsters in celebrating their victory and had spent the whole time looking worried instead.

I composed my expression.

“Right. At this rate, it’ll grow big and strong in no time, don’t you think?”

At my words, Brownie’s face brightened, and she nodded. Each time she did, little grains of dirt fell from her body with a plop, plop.

“I’ll really do my best. Let’s all work together to turn this into a wonderful dungeon.”

“Yeah! You can’t take that back! Never! If you abandon us halfway through, I’ll chase you to the ends of the world and torment you!”

We’d just had such a nice moment. Why would she say something so chilling…?

After the dungeon’s grand opening, all my determination to make things work seemed to have been for nothing. Not a single visitor came to the dungeon.

And so, four days passed without us earning a single thing.

Even the monsters, who’d been training diligently at first, quickly began to slack off. They spent most of their time sitting on the dungeon floor, chatting, or playing a game in which they used small stones to flick one another’s stones as far away as possible.

Brownie had settled down behind the donation box at the dungeon entrance, hiding there and waiting endlessly for a challenger to appear.

It would be a disaster if she turned into a statue from waiting so long.

I was wrong. Rather than worrying about a strong challenger showing up, I should’ve been grateful if anyone came at all!

Our dungeon was like a tiny shop with its doors wide open but not a single fly coming in.

Well, those children had probably discovered this dungeon by accident in the first place.

What a bunch of heartless brats. If they wanted revenge, they could’ve at least told passing adventurers that there was a dungeon here!

This couldn’t go on. We were still paying labor costs for the monsters, who were currently rolling around on the floor.

Money was just pouring out without a single coin coming in!

I was clasping my hands together and praying for absolutely anyone to come to the dungeon when…

“Someone’s coming!”

A solid clump of dirt smacked me right in the back of the head.

It was Brownie.

“Someone’s coming?”

“I sensed a presence approaching this way! It must be a challenger!”

Perhaps they’d overheard Brownie, because all the monsters jumped to their feet at once.

“Waaah! A-a challenger is coming!”

“What should we do? Manager, what should we do?”

“Just do what you’ve been doing! Have you already forgotten everything just because you haven’t worked for a few days?! You useless bunch!”

Brownie berated the monsters on my behalf.

“What if we’ve forgotten everything?”

“Just get to your positions first! Go guard your assigned areas!”

I watched the monsters hurry off to find their places, then turned to Brownie.

“Are you sure it’s a challenger?”

“The presence I sensed from far away was extraordinary.”

“…Let’s go!”

Brownie and I hurriedly ran toward the dungeon entrance.

Please let it be someone weak this time, too.

I’d just been begging for anyone to come, but when I thought about the dungeon’s circumstances, I couldn’t help making such a cowardly prayer.

Perhaps the heavens thought I was being too shameless, changing my wish after only a few minutes, because they ultimately decided to send me another trial.

“Over there.”

I looked in the direction Brownie was pointing, and sure enough, I could see someone in the distance.

There were two people again, but their builds were distinctly different.

“Big brother, you have to avenge me! If you just swing your sword around, all the monsters will die!”

“I believe I specifically told you to reflect on your actions and keep quiet.”

“Ugh…! But I even lost my wooden sword, so Master scolded me really badly!”

“Aren’t you afraid of being scolded by me?”

As the two approached, their figures gradually became clearer.

One of them appeared to be the child who’d visited before.

Was his name Theon?

But the other was tall and broad-shouldered.

“No! He looks incredibly strong at a glance!”

I grabbed Brownie and shook her frantically, the little fairy jingling in my hands as despair washed over me.

The tall man was covered from head to toe in equipment that was extraordinary at a glance. He wore gleaming armor and a cape, and even the sword at his waist radiated a sinister aura.

If someone like that entered our dungeon, he’d probably smash through one gate every five seconds and charge straight to the deepest part without giving a damn about our defenses.

At this rate, both my chance of returning home and my money are finished!

While I stamped my feet in panic, the two had already reached the dungeon entrance. Under the sunlight streaming down on them, their appearances became crystal clear.

They looked quite similar, as though they were brothers.

Light brown hair and deep green eyes.

The older-looking one was especially striking. His well-defined features were handsome enough to catch anyone’s eye at a glance.

He looked as though he’d stepped straight out of the cover of a knight novel.

Even just standing still, he naturally drew everyone’s attention.

His half-lidded eyes looked sleepy, and there wasn’t the slightest hint of tension in them.

He seemed to regard a dungeon of this caliber as something that didn’t even qualify as dangerous.

If anything, his indifferent attitude made him seem even more powerful.

“So there really is a dungeon here.”

“See? I told you I wasn’t lying!”

“I thought you’d hidden your wooden sword because you didn’t want to train… just like last time.”

“Ugh…”

“I’ll go deal with the monsters…”

‘This can’t go on!’

Giving up on hiding, I dashed straight out in front of the two men.

“P-please wait!”

At that moment, the man’s hand moved naturally toward the sword at his waist before stopping.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye.

I was impressed by his incredible reflexes, but at the same time, a chill ran down my spine as I realized that if I’d looked even slightly suspicious, my head might have been cut off right then and there.

If I suddenly appeared in front of someone at a dungeon entrance… I’d look exactly like a monster, wouldn’t I?

“A human?”

“Yes, I’m human. Are you planning to challenge the dungeon?”

“So there was another challenger who arrived before us…”

“Th-that’s not quite it, but…”

I’d rushed out with great enthusiasm, but my mind had gone completely blank.

What on earth could I say to stop this man from challenging the dungeon?

I couldn’t think of a single excuse.

For a moment, I considered simply telling him the truth about my relationship with the dungeon.

But I kept my mouth shut, knowing full well that he’d obviously think I was crazy.

The Demon King had clearly said so.

“No Demon King would ever hire someone without experience, and a human would never have the opportunity to meet a Demon King alone in the first place. To us, humans are nothing more than livestock from which we extract fear.”

That meant having a human manage a dungeon was certainly not a normal situation.

I decided to just say whatever came to mind.

“The difficulty of this dungeon is far too low for someone like you!”

“Ragner.”

“Huh?”

“Not ‘someone like you.’ Ragner. That’s my name.”