Reverse Dungeon

There was nothing for it.

Ian went back to the merchant. Louise had him pinned to the ground with one arm twisted behind his back. Ian freed him and spoke in the gentlest voice he could manage.

“Sorry. There was a slight misunderstanding.”

“Do you enjoy stepping on people or something?” the merchant asked in a strangled voice.

Who would have a hobby like that?

But Ian was the one at fault, so he kept his expression mild.

“No. Here, I’ll help you up. Do you want me to brush the dirt off too?”

“You’re kind.”

The merchant was moved.

Isn’t he a little too easy?

Ian felt faintly uneasy.

More importantly, there was the matter of the Elf Wood Branch. If he had arrived after this guy threw it away, Ian could have gotten it for free. But now, it looked as though he might have to pay for it.

And Ian did not have a single coin in his pocket.

He had accepted the people of the traitor village as his subjects, but he had not been able to collect taxes from a place that poor.

Should I have collected taxes?

Thinking like a tyrant, Ian first tried persuasion.

“Your bags look pretty heavy. What were you planning to throw away?”

The merchant answered innocently.

“First, the Elf Wood Branch. It’s the heaviest thing I have.”

As expected.

“Only two kinds of people would come barging into a place like this, right? Thieves like you, or kin like me. The latter are far more likely to make it this deep, so I thought I might leave it here as a gift for my descendants.

“I have no talent for growing plants. I’m much better at killing them. But most elves are good at nurturing plants, so I’m sure they would take good care of the Elf Wood.”

Ian ignored the second time the merchant called them thieves.

“So what you want is for someone to take good care of the Elf Wood.”

“Huh? Is that what I want? No, I just thought my descendants might...”

“How long are you planning to wait for these descendants? Do you want to sit here for twenty years watching the Elf Wood Branch rot in a place with no sunlight?”

“No. Absolutely not. I couldn’t bear that.”

The merchant’s expression turned serious. It was an attitude worthy of an elf who cherished plants.

“I have an excellent farmer under me,” Ian said. “He can grow this Elf Wood into a mighty tree. Once it’s grown well, I’ll even share branches with your descendants. Since you were going to throw it away anyway, why not give it to me?”

“Huh?”

The elf merchant looked startled.

Is he buying it?

Ian ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) tensed, wondering whether the merchant had at least some basic ability to think things through.

“You’re a good person. I’ve never met a human as good as you.”

The merchant bought it.

Ian was now certain this man had no merchant ability whatsoever.

Isn’t he going to starve to death?

Although, since he was an elf, the chance of him actually starving was probably close to zero. Elves could live on forest dew or something, couldn’t they?

“You promised to grow it and return some of it to me. That means I can give you the Elf Wood Branch for free, right? This is how you make a regular customer. I’ve never had a regular customer before.”

The merchant looked delighted.

“Where should I go to find you? When would be a good time to visit? Oh, give me some kind of token so I can find you.”

Ian swallowed the urge to advise him to give up on being a merchant. The man clearly had no talent for it, but if he was happy, what could Ian do?

The problem was that Ian had nothing to give as a token.

Portrait of Beauties of the Kingdom?

No, that was not right.

Ian thought for a moment, running a hand through his hair. Then the strands catching between his fingers bothered him.

Ah. There it is.

He cut off a small lock of his hair and handed it to the merchant.

In this game, there was a custom during marriage events where lovers cut and exchanged locks of hair as tokens.

This would do as a token.

Having a traveling merchant could be useful.

Especially one this naïve about the ways of the world. The discount rate would be enormous, wouldn’t it?

Ian spoke kindly.

“I live in a cave farther south in the Southern Forest. There’s a village nearby. Show this token to one of my subordinates, and you’ll be guided to me.”

“You know, I’m not opposed to dating a human, but I’m older than I look. From my perspective, you’re still young enough to be called a greenhorn.”

The elf merchant blushed, his ears twitching.

“What are you talking about?”

Ian accidentally said the thought aloud. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“I’ll take your feelings into consideration. After you grow for another hundred years or so, you’ll forget about elves like me and fall in love with someone else.”

The elf merchant continued speaking nonsense.

In a hundred years, I’ll be a skeleton... Wait, is he planning to come back for the branch in a hundred years?

Ian thought it, but this time, he did not say it aloud.

Good thing he kept quiet.

“I was going to throw these away too. Will you grow them for me?”

Ding!

[You received ‘Apple Seed’ (Edible) as a gift from the merchant.]

[You received ‘Strawberry Seed’ (Edible) as a gift from the merchant.]

...

Good thing I kept my mouth shut.

Ian smiled.

“Of course.”

They parted ways with the merchant. Ian’s heart felt as full as his pockets as he left the temple.

Louise, however, did not seem to feel the same. The moment they stepped into the light, he began grumbling.

“Why did you give that merchant your hair? What’s so special about him?”

Why is he complaining when the values aren’t even remotely the same?

Ian frowned and looked at Louise.

Then Sema pulled Louise back and whispered something to him.

“......!”

Louise’s eyes widened like saucers as he stared at Ian. When their eyes met, he quickly looked away.

“......?”

What nonsense had Sema said this time?

Ian did not have to wonder for long.

Ding!

[People think you are an aesthete!]

[People think you are a womanizer!]

“......”

Keith knelt deep within the Vatican, inside a white edifice, his gaze lowered so that it never met the eyes of the figure before him. The hem of that figure’s garment was long enough to trail across the floor.

Keith usually despised clothing like that—clothing that assumed its wearer would never have to set foot on a dirt road.

But not on this person.

He kissed the hem and bowed deeply.

“Your Holiness. Your servant Keith has returned.”

“Oh, welcome back, Sir Keith. How was the Elf Temple? Was it cursed, as the rumors claimed?”

“Yes. The area was thick with dark energy, and the moment I entered, a horde of undead attacked me. It was pitiful to see the dead denied rest, craving the flesh and blood of the living.”

“Oh dear...”

The old pope laid a wrinkled hand on Keith’s forehead.

“Do not let it weigh on your heart. You merely gave rest to the unfortunate.”

“Yes, Your Holiness.”

Only then did Keith’s rigid expression ease.

He felt nothing about sending the undead back to death. But he felt a heavy sense of responsibility for letting that priest, who had sided with traitors, go.

The pope seemed to understand his heart and comforted him.

A kind man.

Though Keith knew the pope was not truly that kind of person, he wanted to believe it.

The Vatican was Keith’s home. It was the place that had saved and protected him. The place where the people he had saved and protected now lived.

In this world stained with evil, it was the only place that had not lost its light.

An island floating like a lonely lighthouse.

And the pope was the head of that light.

Protecting this place was Keith’s mission. He believed he had to spread God’s light farther across the world.

God’s agent.

A knight blessed by God.

The expectations placed upon Keith were that heavy.

And yet, at times, Keith doubted.

No.

The question had always been there, lingering in his heart and tormenting him.

If God exists, why is the world like this?

Whenever he looked at a world that seemed to contain nothing but suffering, his doubts only accumulated, never finding release.

He could not get a clear answer from the pope either.

Or rather, he could not even ask.

It was too sinful a question.

He must not doubt God’s existence. God had saved him. God had forgiven him for the sin of losing his parents, his friends, and his neighbors.

Keith believed in God.

He would not doubt Him.

And yet it felt absurd that a man who carried such doubt in his heart should be called God’s agent.

That was why Keith clung even harder to the pope’s commands, to God’s commands, and abandoned his own judgment.

Because those judgments were right.

“I’ve kept you too long after your journey. Go and rest.”

“I have only done what I ought to do as God’s servant.”

Keith kissed the hem of the pope’s garment once more and bowed low.

He had indeed done a great deal. And he knew that the pope, who spoke to him this way, would give him a new mission the next day.

Keith opened the heavy door and left the pope’s chambers.

At that moment, he thought he heard a voice.

You came back alive again.

It was a sly voice.

A voice that should never be heard in the Vatican.

A demon’s voice.

“......?”

Keith looked back, but the door was closed.

It must have been an illusion.

The Vatican is protected by the pope’s blessing...

Keith left that place.