Your Majesty, Dinner Is Ready. - Chapter 140

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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 140: C-Rank Dungeon – Southern Continent Expedition (1)
The Southern Continent.
A land of mystery, long buried beneath a veil of mystical fog.
Thanks to dazzling advances in detection magic, a continent that until now could only be approached through imagination and speculation had finally revealed itself to the world.
“‘A plot of earth more precious than ten thousand jewels has at last walked toward us.’ These were the words left by the Tower Master of the Green Light Magic Tower when he announced the existence of the Southern Continent.”
The deck of the large sailing ship Solmiran’s Hammer.
A dwarf climbed the ladder at the bow and flung both arms wide open.
“I’m quite colorful—oh dear, my apologies. Though I’m not particularly fond of Precious Elves, even I found the Green Light Tower Master’s words utterly convincing at that moment!”
A manner of speech remarkably genteel for an Eastern Continent dwarf.
And yet, a voice and gestures burning with the blazing passion one would expect from an Eastern Continent dwarf.
“I, Brinya Kalbrak, shall formally declare before you all!”
The dwarf Brinya, now aboard as a member of the expedition, slowly swept his gaze across those gathered on the vessel and continued his speech with gravity.
“This expedition will be extraordinarily perilous. You’ll go without proper food for months, and I cannot offer you generous wages. Moreover, the dangers that await us remain uncertain, and there is no guarantee that you will return alive.”
Thump!
The dwarf leapt down from the ladder and raised his single short arm high.
“But! If the expedition concludes successfully, we shall grasp immense honor and glory!”
“Hooooray!”
A burst of applause and cheers erupted.
Fervent cries and the thunderous stamping of feet.
Though they were being told they would likely march toward death, no one seemed tense or afraid.
They had every reason not to be.
“The name of our Southern Continent Expedition shall become a symbol of honor! Even in failure, history shall remember us!”
Those who favored passionate endeavor over a comfortable life had never learned to value their own lives.
“An enticing prospect, certainly.”
Bartimir, wearing a white sailor’s cap perched atop bandage-wrapped hair, let out a soft chuckle.
“If this were the real situation and not just a simulation, I would’ve joined in myself.”
“I would too.”
The younger of the Ires Sisters.
Tilda, an explorer of the Lurker class, nodded her head.
“Truth is, we’re in much the same position. Explorers are a profession that walks toward dreams rather than safety.”
Tilda laughed lightly and struck an impressive pose.
“You say surprisingly cool things for someone who shouldn’t.”
“What do you mean, shouldn’t?”
“Are you genuinely asking?”
……
“Ow, quit pulling the bandage! It’s precious!”
The two explorers, of similar age, had grown close rapidly during their stay in the city while waiting for the expedition’s public recruitment to open.
Whether it was their shared quality of innocence—or perhaps childishness—unbecoming of their years, they had already become inseparable.
– They’re practically soulmates at this point.
“That they are.”
Pendrick, who had been watching the two bicker, let a faint smile cross his face and turned his head toward Brinya, the expedition leader.
“Expedition members! Our darling Solmiran’s Hammer is a tremendously sturdy vessel, crafted through the combined effort of the master craftsmen who work under me!”
Tap-tap!
The dwarf produced a hammer and began striking the deck with reckless force.
Despite being made of wood, not a single scratch appeared.
“As you can see, she’ll withstand ordinary impacts without so much as a flinch, and since wind spirits are guiding the ship, smooth sailing is possible even in windless zones! If I may boast a little, I oversaw the construction myself!”
Pride resonated clearly in his words.
It was a vessel worthy of that pride.
Assuredly, it would endure the scheduled ‘attack’ without wavering.
“Does this suggest that matters are proceeding smoothly according to strategy?”
“For now, yes.”
Veldora, the elder of the Ires Sisters, replied in a cautious tone to Pendrick’s question.
“I cannot blindly trust the Gold Raven’s strategy, but it is certainly worth believing and following. The detail with which it’s been written is remarkable.”
The Southern Continent Expedition strategy compiled by Kar was astonishingly specific.
A long and thorough document, packed with unnecessary personal observations.
“But why doesn’t he explain every detail?”
Yet certain sections were written vaguely.
Considering that during the Tower of Trials conquest, he had meticulously prepared tailored assignments for each member, it seemed he had deliberately left some portions less detailed.
Merlin, who had been gazing out at the sea, offered an explanation for Veldora’s question.
“Just his nature, probably.”
“…Just like that?”
“Yes. Kar would know every detail related to this Dungeon. But I doubt he felt like putting it all down in writing. He always acts on impulse.”
Perhaps it was because he served Ridni, the pioneer of Twisted Truth.
The knowledge in his mind was vaster and richer than anyone else’s.
But.
Kar had a tendency not to invest his vast learning in any form of wisdom—instead, he surrendered body and heart to the whims and impulses of each passing moment.
“Then, during the Guild War, did he borrow my appearance and my brother’s form purely on a momentary impulse?”
“I’d say so.”
Merlin spoke with absolute certainty.
Honestly, she could boast that no one understood the psychology of Kar, the Half-Elf, better than she and Abel did.
Veldora’s expression turned grave all at once.
“How could a person become so broken?”
“…Please don’t use the word ‘broken’ so carelessly. It’s not wrong, but.”
“You’re admitting it, then. It would be a bit embarrassing to claim that someone who deliberately chose to board as a ‘slave’ rather than an expedition member is in a normal state, wouldn’t it?”
“A bit.”
The reason Kar had boarded the ship as a slave to be thrown into dangerous work rather than as an expedition member remained unknown.
That section contained only the obvious nonsense: “I intend to depart in search of love.”
“The captain must have his reasons.”
Pendrick spoke with not a shred of doubt in his tone.
“He must surely be dreaming of some wondrous exploration we know nothing of. Just as he always has.”
“That’s right!”
“…How can you people blindly believe in that golden raven so much?”
“You’ll understand once you join the exploration, Lady Veldora.”
Merlin swished her tail as she surveyed the expedition members and sailors gathered on the deck.
Solmiran’s Hammer crew—approximately two hundred sailors.
Expedition members recruited through open enrollment, twenty-seven in total including Expedition Leader Brinya Kalbrak.
“Southern Continent Expedition! Let’s all do our best!”
At Brinya’s cry, the members and sailors roared in unison.
“Let’s go!”
“Woooo!”
Bartimir and Tilda waved their arms excitedly in the air.
Swept up in the fervor, Merlin shouted along and steeled her resolve as a true Explorer.
‘I’m a real explorer now, so I won’t be surprised no matter what Kar does!’
***
Below deck aboard Solmiran’s Hammer.
A space where the sound of waves could be heard constantly, and the wind spirits occasionally giggled with their chirping laughter.
I was bound.
“…….”
Not mere bonds. Not simple restraints.
A sturdy iron collar around my neck.
Both hands shackled behind my back, both feet bound in leg irons.
In that state, crammed into a warehouse reeking of fish, I was pressed shoulder to shoulder with people dressed like myself.
“…It’s hard.”
“Mom….”
“I want to go home….”
Whimpers and sobs echoed throughout the space.
I felt no particular sympathy.
《Leon (human, 42 years old). Fifty-seven prior convictions for theft. Feels no guilt whatsoever. He’d be perfect as tribute!》
《Nails (fox-woman, 19 years old). Serial killer. She cooked and ate her victims’ livers. I want her too!》
《Faviel (flame elf, 77 years old). Arsonist. This place is basically a storage room for tribute!》
Without exception, only serious criminals with histories of heinous acts.
Expedition Leader Brinya had purchased criminals as slaves to deploy them in dangerous operations.
My charge was “Attempted arson at the World Tree, thirty-two counts.”
Merely starting a fire near the World Tree was against the law, so it was easy to follow the course of arson-arrest-prison-slavery.
“…Heh.”
Overnight, I had gone from an ordinary citizen to a slave.
The situation was so utterly wretched that
laughter and breath kept leaking from my mouth.
“Heh, ha….”
There was no humane treatment for a slave born from criminality.
My backside aches, but my head burns hot.
The expedition leader, Brinya, treats me like mere cargo.
My lower back throbs, yet my chest blazes with heat.
The ultimate trial placed on the path toward the supreme fruit of dungeon conquest.
《Others regard you as a strange, mad Half-Elf. They wish you would stop being so amusing….》
I, too, am a Socialite who knows how to maintain propriety, so I tried to endure it—but it proved far from easy.
Since the Guild War, I had not tasted genuine stimulation or the rush of dopamine.
At this moment, I felt I could endure even the wretched fate of being dragged beneath a ship’s keel, swallowing seawater—and somehow find it bearable.
“…What’s so good about this?”
The Half-Demon Boy beside me muttered quietly.
A boy in his late teens.
He looked kind-hearted, yet he was a dangerous criminal with a murder on his record.
“Good? This is practically a march toward death.”
“Then why are you smiling?”
A certain summer day comes back to me with crystalline clarity.
Yun-ji, who never lost her smile no matter how much life tormented her, once said something to me.
“No matter how hard things are right now, someday happiness will come. These trials are only the foundation for that day—so of course laughter will pour out of you, won’t it?”
You remain trapped in the past, yet you are still more mature than I.
Still, if you could see who I am now, Yun-ji, you would be deeply satisfied.
Because I have now mastered my own secret art—the alchemy of transmuting present hardship into future accomplishment and joy.
…….
The Half-Demon Boy fell silent.
I, too, let the hours drift past, feeling the pain and torment of slavery coursing through my entire body.
《Smooth voyage in progress – 3 hours elapsed》
After three hours passed like this.
《For reasons unclear, the Avatar of Earth has suddenly become Tier 2…!》
I smiled faintly to myself.
Not suddenly.
Among the undisclosed conditions for raising the Avatar of Earth’s Tier is maintaining an immobile stance with all four limbs restrained.
Normally it would take far longer, but the triple-stack effect of the three Corrupted Trial Tokens—rewards from the Trial Underground Waterway—accelerated the training, shaving years from the timeline.
《Congratulations! – Avatar of Earth has become Tier 3!》
Another three hours passed.
I ascended smoothly to Tier 3.
The Avatar of Earth, the innate Secret Art of native earth elves, increases Strength by 3 with each Tier gained.
The Curse Sprout resets it back to 1, but the chain reaction of Rumbling Dark Cloud and Copying Mirror funnels half the lost Strength into Stamina.
《Your ‘Stamina’ has risen by 3, reaching 19!》
At last.
In the Stamina domain, I was but one final step from becoming a transcendent being.
Enduring pain as a slave, raising the Tier of a growth-type Secret Art—
Could any other exploration be this delightful?
‘…This is only the beginning.’
If it had ended with merely this, there was no way the Saint directly chosen by Artemis could have foreseen it through prophecy.
The conquest of the Southern Continent Expedition had only just begun.
Thud.
It was around the time everyone’s exhaustion had brought silence to the ship’s interior.
《The sailor you mentioned—the one with remarkable appearance—is approaching.》
It was time to move into the second phase of the conquest.
Thud-thud.
Footsteps echoing slowly between the rows of slaves.
“You, lift your face for a moment.”
The sailor grabbed a slave’s hair and forced his head up to examine his features, then clicked his tongue in disapproval.
He proceeded to examine each person’s face one by one.
“What’s he doing?”
The Half-Demon Boy beside me asked quietly.
An explanation of such mature content was not permitted for a minor, so I could only offer a smile in response.
“None of these are suitable….”
Then, as the sailor drew near, I slowly lifted my head.
While invoking Sin: Lust, which I had received from the Demon Lord.
“Ah….”
The sailor’s mouth fell slightly open where our eyes met.
There could be no other outcome.
Having witnessed the beauty of a Half-Elf in love.
《The effect of Sin: Lust has left you in a state of ‘enchantment’, granting you a presence so diminished that those around you become invisible….》
Sin: Lust is not a Secret Art that seduces others.
I, the wielder of this Secret Art, become enchanted by anyone whose gaze meets mine.
“Captain?”
I spoke in a trembling voice, feigning shyness.
“Would you consider taking me with you?”

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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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