The Magical Hunter Girl Decorates the Dungeon! - Chapter 74

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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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The Magical Hunter Girl Decorates a Dungeon! Episode 074
“What’s wrong? Is the problem too difficult?”
“……I simply miscalculated the pattern at first, so it caught me off guard.”
Clovis’s brow creased slightly. The Marquis remained perfectly at ease.
“Have you been neglecting your mathematics studies lately? Well. There’s still time. My boy, stop bothering him and sit down.”
“Hmph.”
The Eldest Son flopped onto the Reception Room sofa.
Lee Ji watched the father and son carefully while sampling the refreshments on the table. The Financier was deliciously rich, but the beverage that resembled Black Tea tasted like something between Ginseng Tea, Green Tea, and Strawberry Milk.
‘Ugh!’
She scrunched her face like a sponge just to swallow a single sip.
“Haha. The little lady clearly doesn’t appreciate fine beverages. Shall I get you milk instead?”
“That’s all right…….”
“Clovis. You’re welcome to drink anything you like while you work. ……Clovis?”
Clovis remained silent for a long moment before finally opening his mouth.
“It’s fine, thank you.”
“……Fine about what, exactly? Not the drink—the problem itself.”
“Just a moment. I think I’ve found another pattern—or have I?”
Five minutes had passed. Clovis’s expression suggested he hadn’t grasped even the first thread.
The Eldest Son tapped his fingers anxiously against the sofa.
“Clovis. You can solve it, right?”
“Don’t disturb Clovis’s concentration!”
“But sir, when you asked him yesterday morning to prepare your account ledger, it took him the entire day—”
“What? Why did you have Clovis do that? You should have done it yourself! When did you start handing it off to him?”
“No, no—I was joking!”
Even as the Eldest Son was being scolded, Clovis couldn’t manage a smile.
Time slipped away.
Clovis’s pencil filled the paper uselessly…….
Ten minutes later.
The boy set down his pencil, his face gone slightly pale.
“……I don’t know.”
The Marquis looked startled.
“Clovis, what are you saying? Have you really forgotten all your mathematics? You didn’t throw the match on purpose, did you?”
“I swear I did my absolute best! I even applied Modern Mathematics——”
Perhaps the Marquis hadn’t expected Clovis to lose. First bewilderment flashed across his face, then anger.
“Little lady. You said it was a problem any child could solve—where did you get this university-level riddle?”
“No. Both of you should have been able to solve it easily.”
“Explain it now!”
Lee Ji picked up the pencil again.
The problem was brief.
8801=5. 1265=1. 9095=3
4578=?
The father and son stared at the problem, but they too found themselves unable to solve it in such a short time.
The Eldest Son gave up first. The Marquis let out a frustrated growl.
“What kind of problem is this? A function? A matrix?”
“It’s about counting numbers. That’s why a five-year-old could solve it more easily.”
“Hmm? How?”
“The number on the right of the equals sign is the count of circles you can find in the four-digit number on the left.”
“……What?”
Lee Ji marked the circles in the left-side number with checkmarks.
Two in the 8, two in the 8. One in the 0.
“Five circles total!”
“…….”
“In the next one there’s only one in the 6. In the one after that, three. So the answer to the last problem is two.”
“This, this——! Calling this a problem——!”
The Marquis’s face flushed red and purple.
The Eldest Son exclaimed with delight, “Wow! I could solve this one too!”—only to wilt under his father’s withering glare.
Lee Ji spoke confidently.
“I said I’d give a problem that even a five-year-old could solve, and you accepted. And both you and Clovis failed to solve it.”
“Ugh…….”
“Give me the Greenhouse as promised. ……Actually, there probably won’t be any pretty flowers left in it.”
“What? Why not?”
“Your elder son picked a huge number of flowers from the Greenhouse earlier, sorted by type. Quite a lot of them.”
The Marquis spun to look at his Eldest Son. The boy instinctively looked away, thereby proving his guilt. Plant sap stained his fingernails didn’t help his case either.
“You’re useless too!”
“Father, I apologize! But those were flowers you could have given to someone else anyway!”
“What I give and what you give are different things, you fool!”
“Still, when I left, there were still plenty of flowers remaining in the Greenhouse…….”
Before the Marquis could waste more regret on the Greenhouse, Lee Ji interjected.
“Sir. We need to settle the wager properly.”
“Damn it! I, I don’t accept this kind of wager——”
The Marquis already knew the truth. There was no way out for him.
Now all that remained was one final flourish.
‘One last sentence—say it with elegance!’
Lee Ji recalled the most graceful line she knew.
A scene from . The one where Bunny Princess demands an annulment from her philandering fiancé, Prince Ryan.
“This meeting began with pity, and though we have clashed, I hope that from this day forward we might remember each other with honor.”
“…….”
“A true connoisseur who understands the real value of collecting—Black Diamond Marquis.”
“Krgh……. Fine, fine. Do as you wish!”
“Yaaay! Thank you so much!”
Lee Ji laughed brightly like a child, and the Marquis found he couldn’t stay angry. He simply sighed deeply.
“Congratulations on achieving your innocent dream. But how will you take it with you? I doubt your parents will help you move an entire Greenhouse.”
“I’m going to eat it!”
“……Pardon?”
“Just joking! I’ll come back to look at it. Enjoy your tea!”
Before rushing outside, Lee Ji bowed gracefully.
“The pastries were really delicious. I’ll always take good care of the flowers you gave me!”
“……Ha, ha.”
The Marquis laughed despite himself.
And in that moment, Clovis followed Lee Ji and rushed down the Stairs.
“Lee Ji. Why did you take such a reckless risk?”
“Reckless? What do you mean?”
“The wager! The Marquis in this Dungeon embodies a ruthless Collector. If he’d wanted your things, there’s no trick that could have stopped him from taking them!”
“But I won anyway.”
“…….”
“And besides.”
The two children crossed the Entrance.
Bathed in brilliant sunlight like a floodlight, Lee Ji spoke gravely.
“I don’t want to see you take the blame. I don’t want to see you trapped in a burning building. It’s horrible.”
“I already told you I’m fine. It’s all in the past now!”
“The past, but you’re experiencing it again! This is, well——”
“……Don’t make that analogy about excrement.”
“I wasn’t planning to! You brought up excrement, Clovis!”
“You told me that story!”
Clovis shouted as he ran. Seeing the typically model student say such a juvenile word made Lee Ji laugh delightedly, and Clovis’s own mouth-corners crept upward to match hers.
Before long, the two children left the Pebble Path and their feet flew across the grass, scattering white dandelion seeds in all directions.
After running at a child’s pace for some distance, they reached the Greenhouse.
The interior was beautiful enough to resemble a cathedral, but there was no time to admire it.
“Huff, huff……. Clovis. Where, where did the fire from the Tobacco start?”
“Probably over there.”
In the corner of the Greenhouse, a spark still glowed on the Tobacco-rolled paper before it could reach the broken Trunk. Lee Ji bounced on it.
Soon the flame went out completely.
‘Phew—!’
“…….”
“Why do you look so anxious, Clovis? Oh right, no saying ‘the fire will keep burning’ or ‘we could escape because of the fire.'”
“……But——”
“For someone who looks so clever, that’s all you’ve got to say?”
Clovis’s face flushed deeply.
He turned those forbidden sentences over in his mouth, then slowly hung his head.
“……You’re right. I can’t think past that.”
As if his mind were trapped by just a few words.
Even when fire breaks out, even when he hears harsh things, it’s fine.
Fine. Fine. Fine…….
The fact that he can only say “it’s fine” means, in other words——
This is a situation that’s clearly not fine, no matter who’s looking.
Clovis has simply grown numb to it. Like an old wound.
Before the speechless boy.
Lee Ji cried out.
“You said you could escape because of the fire. This time there won’t be another fire, so are you saying you won’t escape?”
“……No. I have to escape.”
“Why?”
“Because……that escape will make me free.”
“Exactly.”
Something was strange.
Every time he touched old memories in this Dungeon, he knew he would escape and recalled the exhilaration of freedom——
But for some reason, this was the first time it felt like he was truly free.
‘Surely from now on, too.’
In the cathedral-like Greenhouse, a girl in a lovely dress proclaimed boldly.
“Next time, even if we face the Dungeon again, I’ll keep running. Then someday you’ll forget about fires, and you’ll just get to run excitedly every time!”
That sight was the most magical thing Clovis and Grimoire had ever witnessed in all their years of living.

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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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