Your Majesty, Dinner Is Ready. - Chapter 126

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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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Episode 126 — B-Rank Dungeon – Trial Tower (2)
The third floor of the Trial Tower, rendered as an open field.
Bartimir and Moonland Expedition Team 1 were locked in fierce combat.
— Pendrick, run left!
A command transmitted directly through the mental resonance afforded by Great Great Friends.
— Understood!
Pendrick bolted forward.
He gripped a Single-Edged Sword in both hands—not Astrímia.
A superior-grade blade once wielded by the demon-type warrior that had ambushed the Moon Expedition Party at Cherry Cherry Hill.
It had no particular effects, but was distinguished by its almost brutish durability.
“Come on—!”
A pig-faced swordsman materialized as their opponent, bringing down a greatsword in a crushing arc.
Pendrick instantly swept the Single-Edged Sword upward.
Whoosh!
The blade sang through the air, inscribing a clean and satisfying path.
Systematic swordplay—nothing like the clumsy, fumbling form of before.
It was the Fierce Gale Sword Technique, a martial Secret Art taught to him by Brunelda, the savage swordswoman of the Northern Continent.
Clang!
The Single-Edged Sword and greatsword collided.
Boom—!
“Ugh—!”
A shockwave rippled outward.
Pendrick couldn’t hold his ground and was hurled backward.
“Students! Is that all you have!”
The pig-faced swordsman roared and drove his greatsword down at the fallen Pendrick.
“Tch!”
Bartimir immediately stepped in, his arms wrapped in demonic energy solidified by Flow Congealing, taking a defensive stance.
Crunch.
Both his hands were severed simultaneously.
By twisting the blade’s trajectory, he’d avoided a fatal wound, but the pig-faced swordsman didn’t pause—he raised his greatsword high again.
“Sister!”
Merlin, hidden by the Brithes Concealment Technique, startled and threw her short sword.
The pig-faced swordsman batted the blade away casually with his thick forearm, then brought the greatsword crashing down toward Bartimir’s head.
“…We forfeit the challenge!”
In that instant, Lucius, who had been supporting the team from the rear, shouted urgently.
— A student surrendering to mere adversity!
A thick voice, seemingly that of the Fist King Gryke, resonated from empty air, and in the next breath, the entire Moon Expedition Party found themselves standing before the entrance to the tower.
They’d been ejected for declaring a premature withdrawal.
“…This is harder than expected.”
Bartimir flexed his hands—already restored by the Cunning Friend’s Curse—and murmured.
This was their eighth failed attempt.
“…I’m sorry. I think I was too ambitious.”
“Yes, you made a mistake, didn’t you?”
Bartimir patted Pendrick’s shoulders reassuringly.
“Still, you’re improving bit by bit, so don’t lose heart.”
“Yes. I’ll do better next time!”
— Hang in there, Pendrick!
“Astrímia, will you watch over me?”
— Sure!
Merlin, exhausted and slumped on the ground, watched the two lovers press close to each other, then turned away.
She and Pendrick were becoming quite close now, but scenes like that still didn’t sit easy with her.
“Merlin, are you feeling alright?”
As she caught her breath in silence, Lucius—whom she’d thought was the Moon Expedition Party’s great hope—approached her.
“My wrists are a bit sore.”
“Would you like me to heal you?”
“No, it’s fine for now.”
“If the pain worsens at all, please tell me immediately. Even healing Secret Arts have their limits.”
“…All right.”
Lucius sat down beside Merlin.
“How does it feel, challenging a B-Rank Dungeon? Is it too difficult?”
“…To be honest, it’s all just too much.”
The Trial Tower operated on a simple principle: defeat the enemy that appeared on each floor, and you’d be transported directly to the next level.
Which meant grueling combat after grueling combat, with no rest between encounters.
“The enemies that show up are so powerful that even when all of us combine our strength, we can barely win. And we don’t even get proper breaks…”
Merlin, imagining himself lying defeated at an enemy’s hand, shook his head vigorously and heaved a sigh.
“If Father weren’t here, I might already be dead. Just like Kar promised—the Trial Tower really is an incredibly difficult dungeon to clear.”
Even for a beastman, born naturally sturdy of body, this exploration was grueling for a young one like Merlin.
He’d prepared himself for hardship, but that didn’t make the exhaustion of body and spirit any lighter.
“Still, it’s okay.”
Merlin clenched both fists as he spoke.
“We can definitely overcome this. That’s why Kar brought me to this dungeon in the first place.”
Kar certainly enjoyed his own suffering, but he wasn’t a sadist who got off on watching others agonize.
…Probably.
“Your faith in Kar seems quite unwavering.”
“Don’t the others feel the same way? Don’t you, Father?”
“…Of course I do.”
Lucius, who had flinched slightly, spoke gently.
“I am certain that Kar will one day succeed in clearing the Nightmare Dungeon.”
“…….”
Merlin said nothing, merely gazing down at his slightly soiled hands.
Clearing the Nightmare Dungeon still felt like a distant dream, entirely unrealistic.
“…That said, I am somewhat concerned about Bartimir’s condition.”
At Lucius’s words, Merlin lifted his head and looked at the demon-type being, pure yet faintly sinister in nature.
“…….”
Bartimir stood in a daze.
His eyes slightly furrowed, his lips pressed tightly shut.
“I wonder if the repeated failures might be weighing on him—if he’s shouldering a heavy sense of responsibility as acting team leader.”
“…No, I don’t think so.”
Merlin dismissed the priest’s assertion without a moment’s hesitation.
“He’d never become withdrawn and quiet. That’s not him at all!”
What would Kar have done in a situation like this?
Surely he’d have said something absurd like, “Being able to suffer through repeated challenges until we win? This really is the finest dungeon there is!”
And so Bartimir, who shared that same disposition, was likely thinking something very similar.
“Listen up, everyone.”
After a long silence, Bartimir finally spoke.
“The will of the Tower Master embedded in this tower seems to despise trainees who give up midway. You all felt that too, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
Every time someone had declared their intention to quit, an angry roar would echo through the void.
“But when we challenge again, there’s no voice at all. It doesn’t want us to lose the will to climb. Because this is a place meant for cultivation.”
The demon-type being’s lips, partially hidden beneath bandages, curved upward in a smile.
“So here’s what we’ll do. We’ll keep challenging up to the third floor—our current limit—and then give up, over and over.”
“…What? Then we won’t be setting new records?”
“I’m not saying we should just camp out on the third floor.”
Bartimir held up the stack of papers Kar had given him before they entered the dungeon.
“Until the three of us get familiar with the homework our captain gave us, we’ll keep challenging up to the third floor. Instead of ‘clearing the dungeon,’ let’s focus on what the Tower Master really intended when he built this place.”
“That’s an excellent idea.”
Lucius smiled faintly.
“Strengthening the expedition’s overall power. That was the true reason Kar pursued this Trial Tower expedition.”
Kar had never explicitly ordered the Moonland Expedition Team 1 to uncover Hidden Pieces.
He’d simply told them to train properly in the dungeon.
“We became so fixated on the goal of finding Hidden Pieces that we nearly lost sight of the real purpose—cultivation itself.”
“You… knew, and kept watching anyway?”
“Yes. It seems Kar anticipated that you’d need to grow spiritually as a team leader.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
The demon-type being, now at peace, turned to face his comrades.
“Regardless, let’s focus on the homework our captain gave us for now. We climb to the third floor, fight that pig-eared beastman again, and then give up—over and over!”
Seeing the vivid determination flare in Bartimir’s eyes, Merlin nodded in agreement.
‘That’s right….’
Bartimir was no explorer who would be crushed by hardship.
Rather, he was the type who thrived when the path to triumph was arduous.
Just like Kar.
“Then let’s rest for just ten more minutes before we try again!”
Bartimir finally stretched out flat on the ground and began to rest.
“…Ugh.”
Merlin watched the demon-type being already asleep from the effect of Sudden Nightmare, then opened her mouth.
“Father Lucius, if I want to clear the Nightmare Dungeon like Kar does, do I need to become like that sister?”
“Hmm….”
Lucius paused to consider, then shook his head.
“There’s no need for that. If all members of the same exploration expedition share similar dispositions, it’s actually detrimental.”
“Why is that?”
“If everyone thinks identically when faced with a trap disguised as something ordinary, won’t the entire party be wiped out? This is an accident pattern that happens quite frequently in practice.”
The meticulous priest cast his gaze toward Pendrick, who held Astrímia nestled against him.
“Just as Pendrick lifts the spirits of the expedition with his natural charm, you need only take on a role that only you can fulfill, Merlin. You needn’t become like Kar.”
“…Besides, it would be difficult to become that way in the first place.”
“Precisely. Which is why you must all the more seek out your own path.”
“I suppose so.”
Merlin idly withdrew the short blade First Breath and fiddled with it, lost in thought.
‘Something only I can do….’
Nothing came to mind immediately.
Yet her chest didn’t feel heavy.
Rather, she felt a little more at ease.
‘Why does this feel so good…?’
Only now, at last.
Merlin was becoming a true explorer.
***
“Take this!”
A hulking orc brought his hammer down at me.
A blow that would split my head open if it connected.
Splash.
Rosalia burst from my shadow and severed the hammer’s shaft with her dagger, then swept a kick at the orc’s solar plexus.
“Ugh, not bad—”
The orc didn’t finish his sentence.
Crack!
Rosalia’s downward kick connected with his shoulder, and the orc couldn’t withstand it, crumpling to the ground.
That blow must have shattered his shoulder blade.
“…You trainees nowadays are magnificent!”
Not long after, the orc slowly picked himself up and laughed heartily.
The inhabitants of the Northern Continent weren’t so petty as to grumble to a student over a mere broken bone.
“I’ll show you the way willingly. Follow me.”
The orc resident led the way with a friendly smile, as if the fight had never happened.
“We’ve arrived. Here it is.”
We reached our destination quickly.
A building that preserved the rough architectural style of the Northern Continent, looking like a cavern.
As I turned my attention to the sturdy door, Jinsil quickly displayed the text.
《Entrance to the Trial Underground Water Channel.》
“This building contains a sewage system built by an ancient kingdom. The terrain itself has changed since then, and through the influence of the Trial Tower, it has been converted into a Dungeon and now serves as a place of cultivation for trainees.”
The orc’s mouth curled up.
“As you venture inside, enemies will sometimes appear, just like in the tower.”
A unique phenomenon that occurs because information stored in the tower flows into the underground water channel along with mana.
The reason it was rated C-rank was because its difficulty was markedly lower than the Trial Tower.
“Unlike the tower, opponents equal to your level or slightly weaker will appear. Defeat all the enemies that emerge and make it to the end, and you can escape back outside. That’s all the explanation!”
“Thank you.”
I bowed respectfully to the kind orc, then stood before the main entrance.
“Let’s go in.”
I grasped the door handle and turned it, and my vision spun dizzily for a moment.
When it settled back, I was already inside the building.
《C-rank Dungeon – Trial Underground Water Channel》
《A small-scale Dungeon accessible only from the Trial Tower. The orc already gave you all the details, so we’ll skip the explanation. Do your best.》
“It’s exactly the same as when entering a real Dungeon.”
The tail of Abel beside me swished gently.
“So this building and the underground water channel have themselves become a Dungeon?”
“That’s right.”
I set my hand on Abel’s shoulder and surveyed the interior.
The space was utterly empty.
It was roughly the size of a modest cavern.
A set of stairs descended from the floor.
“Sometimes within a larger Dungeon, you find smaller ones like this—quite tiny and quaint, aren’t they?”
Clang, clang-clang.
Rosalia threw her weight against the door and windows, trying to force them open, but they wouldn’t budge.
The Dungeon’s boundary was confined to this building and the underground channel.
“Come here.”
I called to Rosalia, who stood gripping a dagger and glaring at the window, then descended the stairs.
“As you proceed, enemies will appear one at a time. Defeat twenty of them in succession without a single loss, and you’ll have cleared the Dungeon.”
The same condition as the Trial Tower, except the number was doubled.
The difference was that the battles didn’t need to be consecutive, and the enemies were more manageable.
Moreover, being a small-scale Dungeon generally easier than comparable C-rank ones, it had all the difficulty of the weakest tier of that rank.
‘So there wasn’t much fun in it.’
Yunji, who’d watched me play all this while, had been critical too, calling it “a boring easy Dungeon that doesn’t suit your tastes.”
“It’s rather dark down here….”
After descending some way, an arched corridor stretched out in a straight line ahead.
Long since abandoned, it held no moisture whatsoever.
“Will you hold this for me?”
I pressed an Exploration Mana Stone Lantern I’d brought along into Abel’s hands and continued walking briskly.
Thud-thud, thud-thud.
The three of us were walking side by side.
Hisssss!
With a plume of smoke rising from the floor, an enemy suddenly appeared.
It was a muscular lizardman shouldering a spear.
“Greetings, student.”
《Spear-Master Knight Stracks (Lizardman, 38 years old). A creature of considerable skill.》
The lizardman knight Stracks stood in the center and faced us.
“Come at me.”
“Understood. But please wait just a moment.”
“Take your time.”
Intelligent enemies had their uses.
Demonic beasts attacked the moment they appeared.
“Here—learn this.”
I drew a Secret Art Tome from my subspace pocket and handed it to Rosalia.
《Tier 1 Secret Art Tome – Languid Calf》
《Upon mastery, your leg strength improves slightly, though your calves thin somewhat.》
It was one of the Secret Art Tomes I’d obtained from the Library of Sin.
It was a Secret Art perfectly suited to Rosalia, who relied heavily on kicks.
“…….”
Once I explained what the Secret Art was, the taciturn assassin took it without fuss and quickly read through it.
“Shall we fight now?”
“Give me just a little longer.”
Then I turned to Abel.
“Watch Rosalia’s combat carefully. Especially her kicks. They’re a technique you’ll need to master.”
“You want me… to learn kicking?”
“That’s right.”
A cook was meant to fight with his legs alone.
If fire bloomed from those legs, that would be the crowning touch.
“Later, you’ll receive instruction in kicking techniques from Charlotte herself. For now, just get a feel for how to fight that way.”
“…I’ll pay close attention.”
As I took a step forward, the lizardman Stracks gripped his spear with both hands.
“Are you ready now?”
“Ready. Thank you for waiting.”
“Good. Here I come!”
I kicked off the ground and advanced confidently toward the charging lizardman.
Whoosh!
The blade pierced through his solar plexus and sank deep.
In that instant, a searing pain that made breathing nearly impossible.
“…Haha!”
Unable to hold it back, laughter burst from his lips—and Rosalia, who had appeared behind the Lizardman at some point, drew her dagger.
Slash!
The Lizardman’s head, unprepared for the surprise attack, fell cleanly away.
“That was excellent work,” he said.
The first enemy was already down.
All he had to do was win nineteen more times in this same dull, mechanical way.
“Shall we continue?”
A dungeon that could be cleared simply by receiving attacks with his full body and pushing through.
Dopamine Detox—Trial Underground Water Channel. The strategy begins.

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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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