The Beach
And so Leona jumped forward with her eyes closed, falling down and eventually rolling across sand.
When she opened her eyes, what she saw was a beach.
“… Oh? I really am outside, huh.”
She looked around. It wasn’t just a [room that looked like one] like that floor that was the Succubus Village, it was a true ocean, a beach.
A rucksack fell down. This was the travelling set. When she looked inside, she saw preserved food, a cup magic tool that could produce water, and a portable Othello game.
By the way, there was rice in the preserved food. Seeing that, she grinned.
“I see. So that’s all for this place, huh… now then, I wound up getting found by those girls too, so maybe it’s time I go for another journey~. Travelling wherever I want by myself for a while doesn’t sound so bad… but really, where am I?”
This place was definitely a beach. A place that had to be very far from the dungeon that dwelled within Tsuia Mountain. She had been moving a bit each time she broke through a trial, but if pushed she’d say that it was only like they were going in circles.
It had maybe four, no, nine rooms in a 3×3 grid, maybe? She felt like she was coming and going through the same rooms multiple times, just with their contents switched out.
“… Still though, for it to end there, kind of leaves a sour taste… nnn?”
With that, a piece of paper fell out of the rucksack. When she picked it up, it read, in Japanese: [Sorry! The correct answer was [Cave of Desires]!]… It felt like it was the first time she read Japanese in a long time.
“Oooh, come to think of it, that was the name.—Burn the paper, [Fireball].”
Giggling, Leona burned the page with magic.
“Now then, how about I go on a proper journey… I wonder where I’ll end up?”
Putting the rucksack away into her [Storage], she set out in a random direction.
“It’s been so long since I had that much fun…”
Leona muttered to herself.
Her expression looked somewhat lonely, but she was smiling gently.
*
Leona left.
“… Haah. That was tiring.”
“Good job, Kehma.”
What made me tired was that I was talking through the Golem that whole time, so I’m seriously tired. Not in the usual way.
… I might be tooting my own horn here, but I was a pretty good host. Didn’t expect that…
But still, with this, Leona has now been left at the Imperial Capital’s beach.
Even if she wants to come back, it should take her a while… well, it didn’t seem like she wanted to though.
[Oooi, Kehma.]
“Hmm? Oh, Ontentoo? Sorry, you helped me out here a lot.”
[No, it’s alright. So this one’s my win, yeah?]
“Oh? It should be one win, one loss now though?”
By the way, behind the scenes of our anti-Leona strategy, I held a Dungeon Battle between my sub-dungeon [White Beach] and Ontentoo’s.
… To be exact, it was only a Dungeon Battle in the formal sense in that I had its gate left open to let Leona through and closed it by surrendering when she jumped through the gate.
I had Rei and Kinue manage the Dungeon Battle at [White Beach] while Nerune acted over here as a scene shifter. Rokuko and I were in the Master Room. Ichika and Meat were working at the inn.
[Still though, now I’ve won once yeah? Kukuku.]
“Yeah. I knew you were going to say that. But well, thanks?”
[What, it’s fine. We even got one of those Philosopher’s Stones, it has a great redness that even Redra’s loving.]
As a reward for his help, I gave one of the Philosopher’s Stones I got from Leona to Ontentoo. It feels like I just laundered something I got illegally, but let’s just call it a Win-Win.
Ah, but as change for it, Ontentoo gave us a pretty big chunk of territory near our dungeon. Practically all of Tsuia Mountain is Ontentoo’s territory, so we’d already expanded as close to them as we could. Getting some area we can expand the dungeon into in the future and store those props in helps a lot.
[Rather, what’s up with that, Kehma?]
“That?”
[Having a Dungeon Battle just for driving that so far away. You were wanting to have the Dungeon Battle for that, but when it entered our dungeon for just that instant, we saw that that seemed pretty crazy?]
“… Ah, Leona? She’s something like a Dungeon Core and Dungeon Master combined? I don’t know what core number she is though, I didn’t ask.”
[Eh? The heck.]
In the monitor, Ontentoo tilted his head. Yeah… even I had thought that.
[Alright then. Let’s have a proper Dungeon Battle next time, yeah?]
“If I feel like it~”
“Ah, hold up, Kehma. There’s something I want to ask 112 (Ontentoo).”
Rokuko interrupted as I tried to round up the conversation.
“112 (Ontentoo), do you have kids?”
[Eh? Kids?]
“Kids with Redra, you know, kids. Leona has grandkids, so I was wondering if anyone else did.”
[Ooh, I do. The eldest is just about three hundred. I have grandkids too.]
Ah, so he does have kids and grandkids. First time I’ve heard about that.
It’s no wonder after seeing how love-love Redra and Ontentoo are… rather, maybe it is strange seeing as they react like newlyweds?
Is it that [Fire Cavern]’s lovers are perpetually heatedly passionate with each other?
[Dragons live forever after all. They generally live until they’re killed. There is that one guy that’s still alive after dying though.]
“An Undead Dragon! I hadn’t even thought of that!”
[Yeah. Well, there’s even precedent of some living into the tens of thousands of years. I don’t know how long cores can live, so maybe I’ll die first? Ah, but we’ll leave together when the time comes. Hahaha.]
“Otou-sama said we’re immortal, but isn’t even Core 1 just around six hundred?”
That scale’s huge. Humans would be doing well to hit even one hundred.
[So, was that all you wanted to ask?] “No. Please tell me how Dungeon Cores can have children with other species.”
[” Bufuu!? “]
Ontentoo and I both felt like something punched us in the gut.
[W-wha, what’re you asking me!? Ask Redra that!]
“Ah, right. I’ll bring Feni with me to go play again then.”
[Wait, why’d you ask me!? Don’t you have a reliable Nee-chan!? It’d obviously be better to ask another female human-type core!]
“But I can’t since Keima said that I absolutely couldn’t ask Haku Ane-sama about it.”
So that’s why she asked Ontentoo…? Who is she getting that unpredictable behavior from? Me? No way, I shouldn’t be that bad.
“H-hold on, Rokuko… You wanting that information, could you be intending to have kids with me?”
When I asked that, Rokuko’s face turned red as she looked up at me with upturned eyes.
“Changing the question, is there anyone else I could have them with?”
“That’s not the problem though.”
“… It’s not like I’m wanting to have them right away or anything. But wouldn’t it be troublesome if I didn’t know how when the time came? Well, 112 (Ontentoo), cya later.”
Rokuko turned away, her cheeks puffed out a little in anger.
[Y-yeah. Kehma, uhh, hmm. Be strong?]
“Yeah… well, uh… yeah.”
I closed the communication with Ontentoo.
… Well, is it alright since she’s not thinking about doing it right now? No, too much knowledge might incur Haku-san’s wrath, I should stop there.
Eh? Before that, were Rokuko and I married?