~ Chapter 23: Inner turmoils ~

After Nanya and Ayuseya walked out of my room, I was left alone with Shanteya to think about what I had just done, besides the obvious fact of marrying a foreign princess and someone with the title of Mad Destroyer. That being said, I had the feeling I could select my own title as well, unfortunately, I had yet to discover where exactly in my Status the list with all of them was hidden. Maybe the title appeared depending on the number of people aware of that specific title? Either way, that wasn’t what troubled me at the moment, it was the whole Dankyun fiance thing.

No matter how I looked at it, my grave had been dug, and I was half-buried in it. My intent wasn’t to make a target out of myself for three kingdoms with Supremes under their rule, however, I wasn’t willing to let Ayuseya end up dead or abused either.

“Sigh…” I looked out the window and thought back at what I did and said.

Half way through, it appeared as though I managed to confuse myself as well, but the idea worked: pretend to be insane in order to get them to look at another possible solution. There was also the small factor of their will.

Could that marriage thing had even worked if there wasn’t a true intent from both of us? Then again, how can a Dungeon even get married? Ugh… or rather why? I thought as I watched the sun go down at its regular slow pace.

“Master, is there something troubling you?” asked Shanteya.

“Hm? I’m just wondering if I made the right choice or if I just confused and pushed myself into a deeper mess…” I replied.

“I believe it’s too early to give a proper reply to such a delicate question, but in the end, do you regret your choice?” she asked me.

Regret? Hm… no, I don’t think so. No matter how hard I think about it, there’s no sign of lingering regret in my heart regarding the decision. Maybe it would be right to say that it felt… right? Do I actually want to be married to them? Erm, no… wait… that’s not true. Maybe the actual regret comes from my previous life… I mulled over my own feelings and thoughts for a few minutes.

“I think… I think I feared that I was going to lose them without doing anything. Still, they aren’t my lovers, why would I have such possessive thoughts about them? Did I believe I could change the situation into a better one? Maybe…” I said as I looked over my thoughts and decisions one last time.

“If you feared the possibility of losing them, then maybe Master holds feelings for them even Master isn’t aware of yet?” she asked.

“Feelings? But… I just barely know the two. I’m not exactly a member of either of their species, and we haven’t even gone out on a date! When I asked that silly question, I only saw it as a joke and maybe a temporary thing to get Dankyun off Ayuseya’s back and out of her panties, but… isn’t this a bit too much? What if they loved someone else? What if…” I said as I started to realize that I may have just turned their whole lives upside down.

“Master!” said Shanteya in a raised tone of voice.

I blinked surprised and looked at her. I was starting to panic, and she pulled me out of it.

“Master, sometimes it’s not our minds that make the decision. It’s not our hearts that have a say in the matter. I don’t know if Master heard about this, but it’s being said that our souls have the ability to listen to the voice of the gods, that’s why when we do something neither our minds nor hearts may have wanted, that’s the decision of our soul after listening to a god’s advice. Maybe that’s what happened to Master? Maybe through thinking, you wouldn’t have ever reached a decision, maybe by listening to your heart, it would have taken too long for you to realize what you had to do. That’s why your soul made a decision for you…” she spoke to me in a soft tone of voice, which calmed down the panic in my heart.

I listened to her words, but part of it sounded like something taken out of a preaching book. I couldn’t understand how my soul could take hold of my heart and mind or even why it would do so in the first place, maybe what she was talking about was intuition? It happened before in my other world, and not only to me, but to many others as well. When our thoughts didn’t make any sense and our hearts were distracted, we simply tossed both of those in the garbage bin and went by intuition. That was how I ended up with Alina, but still… marrying them in one go? Wasn’t that a bit too exaggerated?

I let out a sigh in defeat “Maybe…”

“If Master doesn’t regret what he did or believes what he did was wrong, then Master did the right thing. At least, that’s what I think.” she showed me a small smile.

“I guess so… Let’s leave it at that for now. Hm, but you also wanted to say 'yes', am I right?” I asked.

“Yes…” she blushed and looked down.

With her ears turned red and a shy gaze in her eyes, she showed me a little bit of her cute side.

“Thank you, Shanteya. Even though I know that with [Bond of Trust] I can increase your strength tremendously in the case of an upcoming battle, it appears that this marriage thing isn’t something to be taken lightly. I wouldn’t want to pull you into this when both of us aren’t 100% sure about it. However, I promise you that if I’ll ever reach the point of wanting you by my side as my wife forever, I will make sure to properly ask you, not turn it into a joke as it happened with Nanya and Ayuseya. Honestly speaking, I’m a bit glad you didn’t answer… at least now, if our relationship will develop up to that point, I’ll be able to ask in a manner you deserve. If not, you’ll be free to search for the man you truly wish to spend your life with.” I told her.

Looking up, she blinked surprised. Her cheeks were already red from how embarrassed she was, and with her mouth opened in awe, the el’doraw looked quite cute like that.

“I understand, Master. Then, if it’s alright with you, Master, when that time comes, I shall call you by your name…” she said with a soft smile, but I failed to register the sadness and disappointment in her eyes.

“You can call me by my name even now if you want, but…” I let out a heavy sigh. “If you think it’s better that way, then sure.” I replied with an invisible smile.

After our small conversation, we went to bed, and I tried to forget about my thoughts regarding how I may have messed up that day.

I slept like a baby until the following morning. Shanteya woke up early, but didn’t disturb my peaceful sleep, she let me enjoy my dreams in the comfort of her bosom and waited patiently until I opened my eyes.

Once up and awake, I increased the bonus stats she received from my [Bond of Trust] to 50%, the maximum allowed for a slave. I told her to start training on getting used to the sudden change, but preferably outside of everyone’s eyes.

The first thing I did that day was to try to add Magic Energy to my crystal body to increase my Magic Armor. It worked perfectly on the first go. Just like Nanya and Ayuseya said, it was something that came naturally to me. I actually felt much better when surrounded by it. I had no idea how much I had to add, so I left it at 2000 Magic Energy points and then added 2000 more to my Territory. After that, I flew off to my dungeon. It was time to build the third floor. While flying there, I kept adding more Magic Energy to my territory, expanding it constantly.

Regarding what I wanted to do with this floor was quite easy. First off, I destroyed the stairs leading outside of the dungeon and built another drop point, but instead of water, I used poison. My choices, unfortunately, weren’t extremely varied. I had to choose between Aconitum infused water and Lead infused water. If I were to guess the reason for that was because I was aware only of these two from my past life. Poisoning and methods of killing humans weren’t among my top researching subjects back at the university in Bucharest. The weird part was that I had poisonous gas traps, but that may have been because among the many books I found in Tuberculus library there was one with such subjects? Not like I understood everything written in it though.

“Hm, maybe I should ask Nanya for a book or two on poisons from this world or maybe Shanteya could teach me? She is a former assassin, after all.” I thought as I looked around my skills before starting to build a very deep and large room filled with lava.

I had to work in layers. First, using the moat skills, I made the floor of the room. It was at least three meters deep, just enough to make sure that even draconians had problems getting out of it. After that, I raised the room to a decent height, almost six meters above the lava, in order to make jumping out quite hard. It also had to be quite spacious, huge actually. In the middle, I added two poles close to each other. Each had a diameter of 1 meter. One was going to be triggered by a lever, and the other was going to just stay there. Both poles had a metal tip with sharp steel blades around it. It was hard to hang on top of it and even harder to land or jump from it.

Technically speaking, lava reached temperatures of over 1000°C even 2000°C, I had to make the spikes able to withstand those high temperatures with ease. That’s why I surrounded them with a layer of tungsten, which could survive almost double those temperatures. Of course, that was only at the base. Inside, I made sure to add four copper pipes capable of leading the inside temperatures all the way down to the earth or up at the ceiling. The entire room was covered with copper radiators on the outside wall in order to make sure it dissipated the heat gathered inside. On a side note, the lava on the first floor was starting to harden, and the walls showed deterioration signs. Using my repair skills, it restored the walls, but didn’t reheat the lava. I had to add it again with the moat construction skill.

On the first half of the room, I created timed platforms like the ones on the first floor, but here, I added a few on the ceiling as well. There were many jumps which would require quite a bit of strength to get across, but the adventurers could also aim for grabbing one of the sliding platforms from the ceiling; they were fitted with a metal bar good for grabbing onto. If they aimed for that and didn’t time their jump right, they would go straight down into the lava moat.

At the end of this jumping puzzle, there was a small lever hidden behind a room filled with poisonous gas and arrow traps. Once pulled, the second pole was raised from the ground and could be used as a second jumping platform.

On the other half of the room, I added two big poles made just like the other two, but the difference was that they had platforms on top, four to be exact. Each of those platforms was rigged to a spring. Once the adventurer jumped on them, he would be catapulted into metal spiked walls or onto another catapult. I made two that simply bounced him around left and right like a ping-pong ball. The only way the adventurer could safely get across was by grabbing the edge and not triggering the traps; a very hard thing to do if I were to say so myself.

The last pole, placed in the middle, on the same line as the first two poles, had a single spring platform, and it was designed to throw the adventurer into the last part of the room, which was a spiraling tube with sharp blades and AGLMC lasers creating a net of death and doom. It was absolutely wonderful! That thing could only be described as an Adventurer Minced Meat Generator!

When I was done with it, I was very tired from the entire Magic Energy spending business, but just then, I sensed someone entering my dungeon. Surprised and worried at the same time, I rushed over to them. Because I was tired, I didn’t focus on recognizing whose energy it was, so I flew over there thinking it was a student who got lost.

“Huh? Nanya? What are you doing here?” I asked when she came into view.

She was standing in the middle of the platform labyrinth in the second room, but the harpies weren’t attacking her, and none of the traps triggered. It was like she wasn’t there at all.

“Oh? Illsy! I came by to see how you are doing and also to give you a couple of books. I convinced the old geezers to part with some, but they are quite rare, so you should be careful with how you handle them.” she told me and patted the leather bag on her side.

“I’m doing fine, thank you. Books? But wait a second, why aren’t my harpies attacking you or the traps activating?” I asked.

Did something happen when I repaired them? I asked myself as I looked at the [Magic Thread] connections to the power crystals, but there was nothing wrong with them.

“I don’t know. As soon as I entered, the traps and doors simply activated or deactivated at my will. For example…” she pointed her hand at one of the fire traps, and it immediately spewed out a jet of flames. “See? It must be because of your ring. Maybe the dungeon recognizes me as allied to its master?” she hypothesized.

“I think more like the wife of the master, otherwise, it should have reacted the same back when you first ventured into this dungeon.” I said as I looked at the timed fire trap and then back at her.

“Hm, well it’s good to know that I don’t need to worry anymore about your traps when coming down here. Anyway, here are the books. All three of them are about enchanting.” she said and opened her bag. “This one is about various room enchantments found in an old Demigod dungeon. The dungeon doesn’t exist anymore, but one of the Supreme adventurers who ventured inside wrote about it in detail.” she picked up the book and offered it to me.

I absorbed it.

“This one is about trap enchantments. It uses similar spells we use on weapons, even Master Rank adventurers can mimic it, but they have a lower number of uses than those found in a dungeon.” she gave it to me and then pulled out another book. “This one was written by Tuberculus. It’s about item enchantment. Using the spells written here, you can give various properties to a weapon. It lasts for only one use, unlike Godlike-made items or dungeon-made ones. On the other hand, they are far easier to use than the rest, even Beginners could learn them.” she explained.

“I see... One time use weapons, huh?” I said as I absorbed that one as well. “I’ll need to get back to my Crystal Core in order to learn them.”

“Good! Let’s head back then.” she told me with a smile. “Still, I can hardly believe how simple it was to reach this place when all the traps were deactivated…” she said as she looked at one of the harpies leisurely flying around us without showing even the slightest intent of attacking her.

Before we headed back, I checked around the dungeon for one last time to make sure there wasn’t anyone else who sneaked inside, and once Nanya was out, I sealed the entrance to keep intruders out. There was still a small hole left to refresh the air breathed by the spawned monsters, but breaking through the entire block would have been seen as troublesome by anyone.

“Nanya, you said Godlike-made items back then. What did you mean by that?” I asked.

“You don’t know? You actually don’t know?” she asked me with a stupefied look on her face.

“Erm… no?” I replied.

“Sigh… Well, it’s you we’re talking about. I shouldn’t be surprised by now. Anyway…” she sighed again and scratched the back of her head. “Beginner spells usually represent basic skills anyone can learn and use. Intermediary skills… erm, let’s take [Fireball] and [Ice Spear] for example. At Intermediary, you have the basic version, afterwards the spells grow in complexity and power until it reaches Master Rank. At Emperor Rank, you have what we call Fusion Skills. Basically, they are a combination of two spells. An Emperor Rank [Fireball] with [Ice Spear] fusion is basically a big fireball with a spiked iceball in the middle, or which shoots ice spears randomly. The reverse, meaning an [Ice Spear] with the [Fireball] fusion is actually an ice spear covered in normal fire or liquid fire, depending on the spell. At Godlike Rank, you enter a different category of skills, the creation skills. A Godlike skill is any skill capable of creating a permanent item, not a summoned one. In general, you just need the right materials to make it, but if you managed to improve the spell quite a bit, then you need not worry about materials, anything you can grab is transmuted into what you desire. These skills are also called Stolen Skills because they resemble a Dungeon’s ability to create items or rooms. Here’s something I made.” she explained and showed me her steel gauntlets. Being items created through her Godlike skill, they were quite powerful when compared to their standard version.

“But I can’t create items…” I told her, and in that moments, she stopped in her tracks.

“What? That’s not possible! That’s absolutely not possible, Illsy! It’s a basic skill for Dungeons…” she told me a bit shocked by what I told her.

“Erm, nope, I don’t have it.” I said as I looked through my skills again.

“This is a bit bad… A Dungeon is usually valued because of that skill. If you can’t make items… Urk, I don’t even want to think about that. Illsy, promise me you won’t tell this to anyone else, alright?” she showed me a rather serious look in her eyes.

“OK…” I replied.

“I’ll make them for you when we need to, but it would be best if you learned yourself… Maybe your level isn’t high enough? We should go and hunt more for you… I’ll even feed you some of my Magic Energy, but we need to get you that skill.” she was quite serious and worried about this.

“I understand. I’ll do my best.” I told her.

“Good…” she let out a sigh and then continued to walk.

“What about Supreme skills?” I asked.

“Those are mass area destruction skills. They are primarily a combination of multiple lower ranked skills but with a more devastating area effect.” she explained.

I gulped “What do you think Dankyun’s skill is?”

“Probably [Fireball Storm]. As far as I remember, it covered a surface with a 1 km radius and could cast down fireballs of 1 meter to 3 meters in diameter. They also exploded upon impact, so it’s quite a dangerous spell…” she told me, but just by listening to the description of that spell made me realize what sort of monsters the Supremes were.

A single attack like that could decimate the entire academy. It could quite literally wipe off the map the entire area. As for a dungeon’s ability to survive that, I guess that could only be possible if it had many many levels to hide under. That being said, wasn’t I in danger by staying above the ground?

“Still, that’s not the most powerful one. If I remember right, his was categorized as weak.” and with that she dropped the bomb right on top of me.

“You’re telling me that there are Supreme ranked adventurers out there with an area destruction skill categorized as strong or incredibly powerful?” I asked a bit shocked.

“Yes. But as I said, these are Area spells. The reason why it’s called weak is because those fireballs can defeat Master Ranks, maybe even some Emperor Ranks, but that’s about it. If you cast it inside a dungeon, you can instantly kill all the monsters in there and maybe destroy all the traps, but only for one floor.” she explained, and I could breathe again.

Even so, that was one hell of a terrifying power. Dankyun could easily destroy an entire floor with it. Although, it seemed that humanoids regenerated Magic Energy far slower than I did. In other words, maybe they couldn't use it as often as I believed?

Curious about this new information, I asked Nanya “How often can they cast that spell?”

“Hm, it depends on their mental fatigue. While Magic Energy may regenerate fast, if the individual doesn’t have the concentration need for it, then it will be hard to cast. The only exception to that appears to be you…” she raised an eyebrow and looked up at me. I flew to her left, and her eyes followed me.

“Sigh, I see… hm? Can you by any chance see me now?” I asked.

“Yes…”

She turned her gaze to the path ahead.

“Is it because of the ring?”

“Mhm. You look like a floating orb of light, it’s kind of hard not to spot you. I don’t even need to ask if it’s you or not, I just feel it… If I ask in my mind, the answer comes back: It’s my husband.” she told me.

“Hm. That’s interesting. So, are you upset about me making you my wife?”

Asking that question felt like crossing a tightrope above a swamp filled with hungry crocs.

Nanya shook her head “No. I guess it’s just fate, maybe? Honestly, I would have preferred something romantic, maybe after a few years of dating and knowing more about each other. A ‘not not’ joke was a bit harsh! Hehe!” she laughed a bit.

Her answer was rather quick, showing me that she may have given it some serious thought, they both probably did. It was a major change in their lives, one which was cast down upon them by chance. Rather than fate, I think it was me who had to be blamed. Who knew a simple question was enough to close the deal? If Ayuseya really wanted to go with the plan, I was expecting some more planning, thinking, eventually a way to fool Dankyun and set her free, not a magic tattoo ring.

“I’m sorry…” my voice was low and apologetic, although, deep inside, I still remembered Shanteya’s words about me doing the right thing even if it may not look like it.

“I won’t deny it, Illsy. I’m a bit afraid of this future… I may be a Godlike, but before that, I am woman who is now married with someone she doesn’t share a mutual love with. Who knows? Maybe I’m just cursed when it comes to love?” she said in a rather sad tone of voice.

Those words hurt and dug deep inside my heart, pointing out at what I had done. I knew my own self, I wasn’t the type who would deliberately cause a woman to be hurt like that, but in the end… that was exactly what I did.

A mutual love, huh? I guess… I may have made a mistake… I thought to myself as I silently followed her through the forest.

What woke me up from that state was the silent tune of a violin. Looking in the direction of the sound and perking up my invisible ears to hear it better, I recognized the song. It was the one Ayuseya played quite often.

Ah! Speaking of which, what about her? Chased out of her home, hunted down by her fiance, cursed, threatened, and now the victim of my stupid joke… Maybe she doesn’t show it, but it could be that she hates me now? What if the draconian tradition asks for the husband to be loyal? Does she consider sharing me as being unfaithful? Wait, before that… How does she see this marriage? Aaand I’m back to the other question… Does she hate me for forcing her into this marriage? I asked myself as I followed the gentle sound of her violin.

I stopped before coming into view and looked back at Nanya.

“Can you do me a favor, please?” I asked her.

“It depends. But a fair warning, I’m not going to give you my panties.” she replied tilting her head a bit to the left.

“I’ll use a certain spell on you if I want them, but it’s not that… Can you… can you go over there and ask Ayuseya what she thinks about her current situation… no, what she thinks about me and this marriage? I’ll be out of view… ” I requested, but I couldn’t hide the worry hidden in the tone of my voice.

“Sure.” she nodded and showed me soft smile.

Nanya walked past me, and I stayed as far away from them as I could. I tried to keep myself hidden from Ayuseya’s sight, but at the same time in hearing reach.

Since it was getting dark, the male fireflies were showing off their lights and flying around all over the place. Bathed in the light of the rising moons, surrounded by the small flying insects, and wearing a delicate yet simple white dress, Ayuseya was calmly playing for the forest. It was a soft tune, slow, and peaceful. It reminded me of a late serenade dedicated only to the stars above.

Without disturbing the beautiful scene, Nanya approached the draconian princess and waited patiently for the song to end. Once the last note was played, she approached her.

“As I would expect of a royal princess. That was beautiful!” said my teenage-looking wife.

“It’s a simple song, and my talent is just one among many shining stars out there. I would only fade away if I were to be placed on the same stage.” said the draconian wife, taking a small bow in front of Nanya.

“Maybe, who knows?” she shrugged and then asked “What’s the song called?”

“Midnight Tears, by Lorence Astunov.” she replied with a smile.

“Lovely, but a bit sad. Is it because of the marriage with a certain perverted crystal ball?” she asked bluntly.

I’m not a ball, I’m a polyhedron… I think I may be a bit of a pervert, but I won’t admit it! I muttered in my mind.

“No…” she replied shaking her head and then looked up at the moons, “It’s just a small song to lament the countless misfortunes I was met with throughout my short life.”

I guess marrying with me counts as the biggest one yet? I wondered.

“You’ve been chased out of your country, turned into a puppet princess, forced into a marriage with a man you didn’t love, cursed, targeted by assassins… and now married to a perverted Dungeon Core.” said Nanya, enumerating only those few events we knew about so far.

“Hm, there are a few more things that happened to me back in my country as well.” she said with a sad smile.

“Why didn’t you fight back?”

“The curse of the Pleyades family isn’t one to joke about. It made us incredibly weak… I think among the top ten most horrible things I experienced was being poisoned. At that time, the el’doraw boy you fought with the other day was the one who saved me.” she placed her violin inside its case, carefully so as to not damage it by accident.

“What about Illsy?” Nanya popped the question.

I gulped and perked my ears up, listening to Ayuseya’s answer.

The draconian woman didn’t reply immediately, she kept looking down at her violin and gently moved her pointing finger across it’s edge.

“Illsyore…” she said and looked back at Nanya. The draconian princess showed her a soft smile “At least, he asked me… even if it was a ‘not not’ joke…” she looked down “With Dankyun, I had no say in the matter, I was his the moment Paramanium decided so… I just had to nod and act like a good girl. With Illsyore… with him, I was allowed to experience the beauty of having such a question addressed to me. Part of the reason I said yes was because I longed for a normal marriage as well, with a partner who could love me and not care of how cursed I was…” she confessed.

“So, deep down, you wanted to have a normal marriage, huh? Guess the same applies for me as well, although, brutes such as myself rarely get the loving dolt.” said Nanya shaking her head.

“Hehe, maybe Illsyore will prove to be the one?”

“Nyahaha! He does have the dolt part, but he’s missing the other! Guess we both lucked out.” said Nanya and shook her head.

That hurts, you know? I thought, but I couldn’t deny those words. I know already, Nanya, that unlike Shanteya, you don’t see me as anything but a… Wait, how do you see me, exactly? I thought to myself.

“You need not worry about me if you wish to give him a chance. I’m not going to stand in your way. For me, just knowing that I can talk freely and that my curses had been lifted is enough. Asking for love would be too much.” said Ayuseya shaking her head.

“You are giving up on him?” asked Nanya.

“No, I’m giving up on myself. I’m too broken to feel a passionate love for another… Besides, I understand he asked the question out of pity for my situation. If I can survive this trial, that’s enough for me, but if by chance he…” she stopped and looked down at her violin for a silent moment “No, even married, I won’t expect to be loved by him…” she shook her head and showed Nanya a sad smile.

I watched them head off as they continued to talk about less depressing things. Meanwhile, I stayed behind in that small clearing, watching the fireflies dancing around me.

“I’m an idiot…” I said and then let out a sigh. “They are hiding their pain behind a smile, and I just added more pain to it by getting them married to someone they don’t love…” I looked up at the moons and didn’t move for another half an hour before I finally returned to the academy.