Monster Company Tycoon - Chapter 29

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Monster Company Tycoon
Chapter 29
Now that I’d broached the subject of the grave, it was time to move on to what truly mattered.
But the words I wanted to say kept circling inside my mouth, and my lips just kept moving soundlessly.
‘This is too hard. Maybe I should wait for Luadis to arrive? Won’t he talk me out of it? Or… will he grab one of my wrists each and drag me to the temple by force…?’
As the silence stretched on, it was Ragnar who spoke first, surprisingly.
“Sabira.”
“Yes?”
“That was his name.”
Sabira—quite an interesting name.
Ragnar’s eyes grew distant as he spoke his friend’s name, his gaze sinking into memory. I could tell this was no ordinary friend.
“You must have been very close.”
“He was from this village too. We were the same age, lived near each other, and played together every day.”
A childhood companion—practically brothers. Friends from the very beginning, no less.
Ragnar spoke of his memories with Sabira in a measured voice.
That’s right. The past bound up in that grave…
Because of it, I had no choice but to add another stack of guilt to my conscience as I listened to his story.
‘I should have made a preemptive move! At least my sins would be lighter before knowing all this!’
But it was too late for regrets. In the end, curiosity about the grave’s owner was unavoidable, so I could only listen carefully to what he had to say.
According to Ragnar, Sabira had been so righteous and skilled that if he’d lived, he would have earned the Hero Title before Ragnar himself.
The two of them had dreamed together of becoming adventurers and enrolled side by side at the Training Grounds, daily wielding their swords like Teon does now, nurturing that dream.
“We graduated on the same day. We’d completed all our training courses and were overjoyed that we were finally ready to venture into the outside world. There was nothing we feared.”
“……”
“But it was a delusion. We were eighteen. His time stopped there.”
Sabira lost his life before he could even pass through the first Dungeon Zone beyond the village.
He died the moment the adventurer took his first step into adventure.
One misfortune was that they encountered an exceptionally strong monster prowling in the very direction they had to go—a monster they’d never faced before. Another misfortune was that it was a type they had absolutely no experience with.
The two fresh recruits, barely graduated from the Training Grounds, lacked the experience to navigate skillfully through the calamity that misfortune had brought down upon them.
‘They’d only ever beaten wooden dummies, and even when assigned monster-hunting quests, they’d faced only weak enemies that had broken through the barrier. An unexpectedly strong monster… they would have had no way to cope.’
“It was my fault that Sabira ended up that way.”
In that moment of crisis, Ragnar’s body had been paralyzed by fear, he said.
It was striking to think that there had been a time when the Ragnar of today couldn’t move from terror before a monster.
“To save me… he gave his life.”
A righteous death for one who had shown such promise as an adventurer.
Ragnar managed only to flee for his life at the time, and it was only after the monster left that he could retrieve his friend’s body and give him a proper grave.
And there was one more astonishing fact he learned.
The place where he’d discovered the grave in the Eastern Forest of the Village had once been part of the Dungeon Zone.
As time passed and the power of the Sacred Stone grew stronger, the barrier’s range expanded, and the area where the grave lay became safe.
‘If the grave was created within the Dungeon Zone at first, could that be why such a strong monster like Duran was born there?’
When Ragnar finished his story, a faint sadness lingered on his face.
Though he looked somewhat melancholy, I could sense only the emotion of mourning a lost friend—which meant that the sorrow had grown quite dull over the long years that had passed.
“He must have been a wonderful friend. I never imagined there was such a story behind that grave.”
“After that, I devoted myself to adventure to fulfill the unfulfilled dreams Sabira left behind. Had he lived, he would have accomplished far greater things than I, but for me, this is the limit.”
“……”
And here I am, supposed to say that I want to turn that precious friend into a staff member for our dungeon.
“I have no more strength to carry on. All I want now is to spend my remaining years in my homeland.”
Ragnar, as he spoke those words, looked like a man who had fallen into such deep ennui that he’d lost the will to live itself.
If Brownie were here, he might have pointed at him and called him a dead-eyed fool…
But as I listened to the story, something suddenly occurred to me.
On the day I first met Luadis at the Training Grounds, there was something he’d said to Ragnar as he lent his support to my position.
“Don’t tell me you’re still holding onto what happened back then?”
“…Master, among the ten adventurers who start their first journey after leaving the Training Grounds, five lose their lives.”
That “back then” might very well be referring to Sabira’s death.
‘So that’s why Ragnar agreed with my opinion about needing to build practical experience for adventurers. It wasn’t just about taking my side.’
Because he genuinely believed it.
This is bad. I can’t bring it up now!
“If your dungeon can become a proper place of learning, it will help prevent many young adventurers from dying tragic deaths like Sabira did.”
“Ha ha…”
“I wasn’t pleased at first, but now I have high hopes. Please guide them well.”
I’m the kind of person who was planning to take that dead Sabira—or what appeared to be him—to the dungeon as an employee.
Help me out, my Lucky Totem sleeping soundly in that safe! What am I supposed to do now!?
“It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken of Sabira to another person. It seems you have a special quality about you, Choi—something that makes people want to bare their souls.”
“Ugh….”
Ragnar’s praise landed like arrows, piercing my conscience without mercy.
In the end, I decided that even if I revealed Duran’s true nature, it would be best to give up on recruiting him to the Dungeon Zone—for the sake of my relationship with Ragnar going forward.
“Ragnar, I’d like to start by saying I’m sorry.”
“Please don’t dwell too much on what I said about Sabira. I only wanted to tell you that a brilliant adventurer who saved his friend’s life rests in that tomb.”
“That’s not it… Sigh. It’s… I’m afraid I have to deliver some bad news.”
Right. It’s always been my job to be the one delivering the unwelcome message anyway.
How holiday leave gets forcibly deducted from your vacation days, how company dinners are mandatory but the bill’s split equally, how you’re expected to join weekend hiking trips disguised as workshops….
I’d lost count of how many times I’d relayed the CEO’s words to the staff, bearing their resentment each time.
Just one more round, I told myself.
“Bad news…?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and forced my mouth open with great difficulty.
“It seems… your friend may have become a monster. A monster named Duran.”
I finally did it.
***
“I never would’ve guessed that was Sabira.”
“With someone of his caliber, it makes sense that a high-ranking monster like Duran could appear.”
“True enough. It would take someone of Sabira’s stature.”
I was dragged along.
Against my will, to the Eastern Forest of the Village with Ragnar and Luadis.
“Now I understand why monsters would flee the moment you appeared all this time.”
“Even as a monster, his consciousness lingers. He must have sensed you instinctively.”
I followed behind them, feeling like I was sitting on thorns.
“I should have paid closer attention to the tomb.”
“Don’t blame yourself. The moment he died in the Dungeon Zone, Demonic Energy would have already taken root. You can’t completely prevent the transformation into an undead monster unless a High Priest performs a consecration ceremony. This isn’t anyone’s fault.”
Ragnar’s reaction when I told him the grim news about his dead friend was unexpected.
All those contingency plans I’d made—even mapping out escape routes—felt pointless now.
He didn’t grow angry with me, didn’t wear a cold expression.
It wasn’t just good composure; there was no trace of resentment toward me in his eyes either.
He simply fell silent for a long moment, then spoke only one phrase.
“I see.” Just like that….
It was so matter-of-fact that he seemed like someone who’d already anticipated this outcome.
All my fretting suddenly felt utterly pointless.
After that, Luadis clocked out and joined us, and before I knew it, I’d been swept along to the Eastern Forest of the Village.
Two people heading out to find their old childhood friend and their disciple, now turned into monsters. One scout caught between them.
Did I have any right to be here at all…?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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