Your Majesty, Dinner Is Ready. - Chapter 44

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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 44: C-Rank Labyrinth – Nightmare World (2)
Cult of Evil and dark sorcerers.
In the present, they remain merely unfortunate, but in the thousand-year future manifested within the Nightmare World, they are incomparably formidable classes.
Enemies wielding impossible power in reality pursued us relentlessly.
“Lonely silence, I invoke you!”
Flames shaped like a serpent streaked toward us.
Consumption Formula.
Grimly, even the center dot was included in the official name—a Rank 4 Mystery of Lonely Silence.
Roooar!
The flaming viper swept across the ground, and in its wake, scorching winds tore through the air.
It burned.
My skin seared even without contact.
“Bite them asunder!”
In the same moment, razor teeth materialized in the void.
Rank 6 dark sorcery—Fangs of the Demon Realm.
Crunch-crunch-crunch!
A Mystery capable of chewing through a sentient being’s fragile body like meat surrounded us, closing in.
Scattered curses wove between them as well.
Every attack from all directions was enough to incapacitate my team members instantly.
So I charged forward and took them all myself.
“…Mm.”
The flame serpent set my head and shoulders ablaze, while teeth gnawed at my limbs.
The searing pain and the anguish of being consumed as meat both descended at once.
I endured it all through the combination of Wound Deferral Barrier and Ghoul Mobility, plus the transcendent tolerance I’d cultivated being ground down by the malevolent spirit Choi, as I drained Health Recovery Potions.
“This way!”
As I absorbed the relentless barrage with my own body, a narrow opening finally emerged.
…….
Seizing the chance, Rosalia leaped off my shoulders and hurled wavering shuriken from her hands without restraint.
Phantom Shuriken—an assassin-class Mystery that briefly shows those struck past their most horrific memories.
“Agh, ah, aaaaah!”
“…Father, please!”
“Loneliness gnaws through my body…!”
From all sides came wails laced with weeping and roars heavy with despair.
Shortly after, blood erupted from various points.
As the demonic beings reeled in shock at the assassin’s full power, they readied greater dark sorceries.
“Do you see this!”
I converted my right hand into lightning and hurled it in all directions.
I did not forget to continue absorbing the Consumption Formula and Fangs of the Demon Realm with my body.
“How audacious! To drag down the rebel who refuses death!”
“Be swallowed by desolate loneliness!”
The Watcher of Lonely Silence is one who governs inevitable death.
For his priests, anything that refuses to die and merely endures is aggro enough.
The dark sorcerers, in another sense, had their attention fully drawn to me as well.
“That, that really is a madman!”
“How is he enduring this!?”
The priests bellowed in fury while the dark sorcerers recoiled in horror.
My relentless struggle seemed to leave an impression—all enemy eyes fixed upon me.
“Astremia!”
As I drew aggro with violent movements and blocked the encircling Mystery attacks, Pendrick, whose movements had been confined, darted past me and burst forward.
Schwing!
A Holy Blade wreathed in starlight tore through the demonic beings’ bodies.
With a warrior raging in their midst, the environment became ideal for an assassin who could merge with shadow to operate.
“…Beware the unexpected reaper of life!”
Only when the two highest-level priests fell did the others finally concentrate on defense, but it was too late.
“Why are my limbs….”
For the fresh companion, the crimson death-rose, had already parted the darkness and scattered paralytic poison among only the enemies.
In the chaos of murmuring priests, Pendrick swung his blade with full force.
Krrgh!
A Level 4 dark sorcerer caught in the ambush lost his head.
Pendrick’s current Level is 2.
The peculiar trait Master of Swords transformed a mundane first-rank mystery like Powerful Strike into an attack wielding the force of a fourth-level swordsman.
Moreover, the mage’s class had but one notable weakness: a fragile body.
A well-placed ambush targeting their vital points could fell even a low-level explorer.
《Your remaining Health: 50/100》
《Your remaining Mental Force: 20/100》
Despite taking blow after blow in the chaos, I still had reserves left.
I was draining another Health Recovery Potion when one of the few remaining priests shouted.
“Don’t think it’s over!”
My body trembled, certain the Cult of Evil was about to perform some ultimate self-sacrificial ritual, but it turned out to be nothing more than a parting boast before their retreat.
They fled.
“…We did it.”
Pendrick exhaled with relief and collapsed onto the spot.
He bore a wound on his shoulder from getting caught in the dark mages’ counterattack.
……
Rosalia, who emerged from behind me, was hardly in better condition.
The scent of burning clung to her—caught in the flames, it seemed.
“Well done, everyone.”
I handed Health Recovery Potions to both of them and waited for my throat—somewhat melted from the heat—to recover before speaking again.
“We’re almost there now.”
Even once we arrived, I couldn’t afford to rest easy for long, but even a brief respite was something.
I pushed my exhausted limbs forward, herding my worn team onward.
The desire to simply collapse on the ground and roll about was beginning to overwhelm me when—
A small house came into view through eyes still unaccustomed to the darkness.
“…A house?”
Pendrick’s voice wavered, as though he wondered if exhaustion was playing tricks on him.
“More of a villa, really.”
Given time, I could elaborate at tedious length, but now was not the moment.
The dark mages and priests were still hunting us.
“I’ll scout inside first.”
I approached the window and converted my right eye into a Blind Raven.
– Caw.
“I’m counting on you.”
It bobbed its head, then pecked out the lower section of the window with its beak.
I reached through the broken pane and unlocked the latch.
I found myself grateful anew for Kato Roger, the creator who’d unnecessarily detailed the exact construction of windows in houses within the Nightmare World in his video—such attention to detail, truly.
The man had been thorough in so many ways.
– Caw.
“Good work.”
I stroked its head; the Blind Raven twisted its head in pleasure before returning to my eye socket.
Then I slipped inside.
The interior lay wrapped in silence, no different from the world beyond.
“Rosalia.”
I spoke her name barely above a whisper, and the quietest assassin of us all moved to my side.
“There’s a room on the upper floor. Someone lives here, but they won’t have noticed our entry. If possible, I’d prefer them alive.”
There was no need for further instruction or explanation—she already grasped such things.
……
The elf, quick and efficient in her element, vanished swiftly into the darkness.
In the meantime, I led Pendrick to a long sofa nearby and we collapsed onto it.
“Let’s rest a moment.”
“…Yes.”
Even the usually spirited genius swordsman found this battle taxing; he stretched out without hesitation.
– How much longer can we rest?
Astremia’s voice too lacked vigor, worn from wielding her weapon so relentlessly.
I answered, doing my best to ignore the curses seeping through my entire body.
“Perhaps fifteen minutes at most?”
– We won’t be able to rest long, then….
“Still, consider where we are.”
In the Nightmare World, this qualified as a luxury refuge.
As I allowed myself to savor this fleeting comfort, Rosalia soon drew near.
She dragged a figure along by the hair—a person bound hand and foot, limp and docile.
《Dream Tourist Kiriaka (Demon, age 37). A high-ranking demon who came to the Nightmare World on vacation. His hobby is locking human families in a room together, pretending to spare only one survivor—then killing them all.》
So he’s not Cult of Evil, not a dark sorcerer—just an ordinary demon?
“You’ve assessed correctly.”
Across the sprawling Nightmare World, creatures like him lay scattered in abundance.
“Demons subsist on negative concepts that sentient beings emit. The City of Pleasure was created as a dream-based breeding ground for humanity—a place where they periodically harvest ‘sordid desires.'”
So if you did nothing and remained confined to your room, you’d eventually find yourself dragged down into the Nightmare World that formed beneath the veneer of the great city.
It was much like a fish farmer pulling a diseased catch from the water to dispose of it.
“You can rest assured—demons in the waking world lack the wealth to create and maintain such spaces.”
Yes, that’s truly reassuring…!
“We’re about to begin the rite, and time is pressing, so I’ll need your assistance.”
Following my instructions, Rosalia stripped the demon of all his garments, and Pendrick arranged stones in a circle before setting candles, completing a makeshift shrine and altar.
Meanwhile, I adjusted the offering’s posture.
‘Let me try something different this time.’
First, I lay the demon on his back.
Then I crossed both hands behind his head before placing his left leg over his right knee, bent at ease.
A leisurely, restful repose.
Today’s preparation of the offering was complete.
The dark deity receiving this sacrifice preferred to savor it raw.
“Lord of Kings, who twists the earth with bolts of deepest black and bestows upon us the authority of shadow and majesty—behold, the offering prepared for you.”
The recipe: an unhurried, fresh demon.
An offering devised from a demon’s above-average appearance—though not quite elven in beauty—and his damp, shadowed nature that loves darkness.
“Suezei, dinner is served.”
Crack!
Black lightning erupted from the lightning tattoo on my collarbone, engulfing the offering in an instant.
The demon’s body burned black from head to toe.
Violent current coursed through my entire frame, but I was already managing it with Black Thunder Bloom, so I avoided the misfortune of being roasted whole.
【Delicious again, pretty one!】
When the offering’s entire body had charred and crumbled, the exalted one began to issue an oracle.
【You’re the best, truly. Why don’t you cast off that doddering old fool right now and nestle completely into my embrace?】
Even as he chattered away enthusiastically, my consciousness didn’t grow muddled nor did pain strike my head as it had before.
The golden aura—Radiant Faith—was facilitating seamless communion with the divine presence.
【Come here! A kiss for you!】
Fierce lightning returned after its meal, flowing across my right cheek.
It is the duty of any True Believer to undertake and carry out deeds that please the great divine.
“Would you not bestow the same upon the other side? This time, perhaps a bit more intense and prolonged.”
From some distant corner deep within my mind came the faint echo of laughter—that of a perverted old man, ‘Uhhh-hehehehe’—reverberating softly.
【Phew. Karl, pretty one. Don’t tempt me further. I’m growing desperate to embrace you fiercely!】
A sentient being of such frail nature, the moment they receive a direct embrace from the exalted one, transforms into a pseudo-monstrous creature.
Not only Suezei.
With any dark deity, excessive affection swiftly turns a True Believer into a mindless monstrosity.
This was the reason the trait of receiving all dark deities’ favor in equal measure—the True Believer—was not regarded highly.
【I wish I could spend the whole night conversing with you like this, but that would be troublesome, wouldn’t it?】
Lightning that had flowed across the left side returned and was absorbed into the collarbone tattoo.
【What shall I give you this time? Do you desire a Mystery?】
“Not this time.”
The key to conquering the Nightmare World was not a Mystery.
“I request a Holy Artifact.”
A Holy Artifact.
A mystical object imbued with divine power.
In simpler terms, the object-form equivalent of a Mystery.
“Grant me the Sky Invader.”

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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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