Reverse Dungeon

‘Ah... just as I thought.’

Ian immediately recognized what was happening.

The real difficulty of Keith’s route had never been the battles themselves.

It was Keith’s stubborn personality.

The margin for error was practically nonexistent. One wrong dialogue choice, one slight misstep, and everything collapsed—the rewards tied to the event included.

Exactly like now.

‘No. If I just leave the mermaid alone, she’ll eventually feel guilty and hand over the rewards herself.’

If he interfered before that happened, the rewards would disappear entirely.

And this particular event was also tied to gaining the mermaid princess’s affection—a requirement Ian could not afford to miss.

From the moment he began traveling with Keith, he should have anticipated the overlap between the Ian route’s difficulty and Keith’s route conditions.

Instead, he had been grinning to himself, thinking, With this guy around, defeating the Demon Lord will be easy.

Ian spoke carefully.

“So what exactly are you planning to do to make them ‘pay for it’?”

“We will make them recognize their sins and repent.”

‘No... absolutely not.’

That was just a refined way of saying he planned to kill them.

The reason Keith behaved relatively reasonably around Ian was simple: he believed Ian was the Agent of God.

Originally, Keith had been little more than a fanatic.

Different race equals traitor.

Traitor equals death.

That was the foundation of his worldview.

Which was why, in Keith’s route, alliances with non-human races were effectively impossible.

To be fair, though, Keith wasn’t especially good with humans either.

Seeing Ian’s expression, Keith continued calmly.

“The merfolk were cowards from the beginning. During the demon army’s invasion, they refused to fight. They hid themselves in the depths of the sea, avoided danger, rejected outsiders, and cared only about preserving their own lives.”

His icy voice sharpened.

“And now they blame the very benefactor who resolved their suffering. They are a race that shirks responsibility and condemns others for their own weakness. The only reason such worthless creatures continue to survive is because there are still people on the continent resisting the demons. Why should anyone sacrifice themselves for beings like that?”

“No, the people on the continent aren’t fighting to save the merfolk. They’re fighting because they want to survive too.”

Ian corrected the glaring flaw in his logic immediately.

Keith didn’t even flinch.

“More importantly, they failed to recognize the divine.”

And there it was again.

“When the messenger of God descended upon this world in the guise of a humble traveler, the righteous welcomed him into their homes and shared what little they possessed. The greedy and wicked mocked him for his appearance and turned him away.”

Keith’s gaze settled firmly on Ian.

“The way they treated Lord Ian is no different.”

What kind of absurd leap in logic was that?

And Ian wasn’t even a messenger of God.

Since directly denying it would only create more problems, Ian changed tactics instead.

“You can’t compare this situation to ordinary selfishness. The princess just lost her family and friends. She’s grieving. Anyone would understand that.”

“That...”

For the first time, Keith hesitated.

After all, Keith himself had become a holy knight after losing his own family to the demons and pursuing revenge.

‘Did that work?’

Ian carefully observed him.

If he could just keep Keith inside this room a little longer, the rewards would come naturally.

Under no circumstances could he allow him to storm the throne room.

If Keith frightened the mermaid princess now, any possibility of rewards would vanish permanently.

The important thing was giving that indecisive princess time to think herself into guilt.

She wasn’t the type to throw a tantrum and sleep peacefully afterward.

By midnight, she’d be curled up somewhere sniffling to herself, thinking, I was wrong...

“Lord Ian.”

Keith’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Why are you not angry?”

Ian blinked.

“Angry?”

“You solved their problems. You prevented further suffering from falling upon them. You risked your life for their sake.”

Keith frowned faintly.

“And yet they ignored your sacrifice, drowned themselves in grief, and blamed you instead. Why does that not anger you? Why are you not disappointed?”

Ian found himself momentarily speechless.

After all, Keith was ultimately a game character.

What exactly was Ian supposed to feel angry about?

More importantly, Keith’s entire premise was wrong.

“You misunderstand something. We didn’t come here to save the merfolk. We came here to destroy the Demon Lord’s life vessel.”

“If the monster guarding it had threatened them, would you still not have killed it?”

“I would have.”

Ian answered without hesitation.

Keith nodded slowly, as though he had expected that answer.

“If the palace gets destroyed, we lose the rewards.”

The words slipped out before Ian could stop himself.

Keith blinked.

“Yes. You truly are that kind of pers—”

Ian froze mid-sentence.

‘Damn it. The Agent of God setting.’

“...What I mean is, God commanded us to unite all races against the demon realm. If the merfolk isolate themselves out of fear, shouldn’t we still try to reach out first?”

Keith seemed briefly confused by the contradiction between Ian’s two statements, but ultimately chose to ignore the first one.

“Truly noble thinking.”

Then he quietly added,

“But they are ungrateful people incapable of accepting the hand extended to them. So what should we do now?”

The way he asked sounded almost earnest.

Like someone genuinely seeking guidance.

With that innocent face, he looked less like a holy knight and more like a devoted cultist willing to accept any nonsense Ian fed him as divine truth.

Suppressing a sigh, Ian answered in the gentlest tone he could manage.

“They aren’t ungrateful. They’re grieving.”

“And yet they locked you in this room and stationed guards outside.”

Keith’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“I fail to see gratitude in that.”

Ian stiffened.

Wait. There were guards outside?

He honestly hadn’t noticed.

This room hadn’t exactly felt like a prison.

“...The princess probably just needs time to process everything,” Ian said reluctantly. “People aren’t rational all the time.”

Keith lowered his gaze.

“...Even among the people I saved, there were those who blamed me for arriving too late to save their families.”

Ah.

So that was the real issue.

Ian finally understood why Keith was reacting so strongly.

“I thought I understood them,” Keith murmured quietly. “But perhaps... somewhere deep down, I still resented it.”

Keith was generally lenient toward humans and the weak.

But even so, resentment in situations like this was unavoidable.

“...Even at the Vatican, people were more distressed over losing the shield that protected them than they were over the Pope’s crimes.”

His voice grew quieter.

“If you had not declared apostasy, they would have blamed you as well, Lord Ian.”

Keith laughed bitterly.

“Perhaps humans are simply creatures incapable of # Nоvеlight # gratitude.”

For the first time in a while, he genuinely looked his age.

Despite his almost divine appearance, there was suddenly something painfully young about him.

Ian remembered again just how young Keith actually was.

‘Such a kid.’

The world never worked the way people hoped it would.

Ian himself had once tried to help a bullied classmate, only to end up falsely accused instead and dragged before a disciplinary committee.

The person he had protected never defended him.

That was simply how reality worked.

Which was why Ian never expected anything from people.

Keith, on the other hand, still believed in the world enough to expect gratitude in return for kindness.

That was why disappointment hurt him.

Ironically, that kind of logic only truly existed in games.

In games, helping people increased affection points.

Reality didn’t work that way.

Then suddenly—

‘Ah.’

Ian felt a strange sense of disorientation.

This was a game world.

He had been here so long that the line between reality and fiction had begun to blur.

The advice he had almost given Keith died unspoken in his throat.

Keith didn’t need to change. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Soon enough, the mermaid princess would come apologize and offer her gratitude exactly as the scenario intended.

This world was built that way.

Do good things, receive affection in return.

Simple.

...But then another thought struck Ian, and cold sweat ran down his back.

‘No. Wait.’

If Keith started losing faith in humanity altogether, that would become a serious problem.

What would someone who fought to protect humanity become once he no longer believed humans were worth protecting?

“You’re not wrong for feeling hurt.”

Ian lightly patted Keith on the shoulder.

“You’re just too strong. People like you—people born with that kind of talent—are rare. Most people would’ve reacted the same way in that situation.”

Keith slowly lifted his head.

The cloudy bitterness in his blue eyes had faded, returning once more to their original clarity.

Then he asked quietly—

“Lord Ian... may I kiss you?”