I unlocked the door again, going back into the room, but this time with Blizzard right beside me. And just like before, she appeared out of thin air right at the corner of the room, brandishing her dagger at me.

“Kill!”

“Now!” I shouted before I was frozen in place completely.

Blizzard’s body shone brightly, lighting the whole room to its nooks and crannies. The brightness was so intense that she broke out of her shadowy form and became a disheveled girl with white hair in tattered burlap rags.

“Kill— Ha… ha…” She shivered, frantically moving to the corner of the room, covering her head. Her left ankle was bound with a cuff, which was bruised red from the rough friction of the coarse metal. Weird…

“It’s okay. I won’t do anything to you.” First, I mustn’t show any sign of hostility by revealing my empty hands. However, there was no sign of her calming down even after all my efforts. “Calm down, please…”

“…K-Kill…” She continued on by uttering gibberish between the words “kill.”

I can’t understand? How is this possible…? I creased my eyebrows; my Vocation should be able to make me understand all languages… No… she just doesn’t know how to speak.

“Uh… Kill… Uah…! Ah…” Her lips and chin trembled, she continued to drag her body to the corner of the room despite the chain wasn’t long enough for her to do that.

Now completely illuminated, I was finally aware of the whole thing. The walls were carved with numerous dagger strokes down to the edges and up to the ceiling like she had been expressing herself in this lonely space that was barely five by five meters long.

Almost since she was born, she was all by herself, not knowing a single thing. Living in fear, all this time… Why did she get treated like this? Why was she being kept alive?

My body involuntarily reached for her, and my hands pushed her head to my chest. Just a bit, even just a bit, I wanted her to share her burden with me.

“Uh! Kill, kill!” She resisted my sudden action and stabbed her dagger in my shoulder.

“Agh!” The sharp pain was horrible, but I preserved and kept hugging her. “It must’ve been lonely! It must’ve been terrifying! It must’ve been hard for you!! Damn it! Just because something you can’t control doesn’t mean that anybody has the right to put you through all this!”

Soon, she was no longer thrashing to get out of my arms, calming down by the moment. What I said must have finally reached her heart.

“You must’ve wanted to complain! You must’ve been frustrated! But you couldn’t even ask for help! Being all alone in this world! I know it all!” The dagger strokes on the wall clearly portrayed the state of her being; even I experienced what was called “loneliness.”

I wondered why I was so emotional about all this… Tears were already welling up in my eyes, but I held myself back from crying. There was no reason for me to be so sad… Just that…

I glanced at her; amid her disheveled appearance revealed a pair of beautiful scarlet eyes and an emotionless face, but unlike Lorelei that looked like an inexpressive princess, she was like a sharp dagger that was purposed for the sole reason of killing. A child that seemed to be barely thirteen or fourteen subjected to such harshness since childhood…

I had killed countless… I might be a hypocrite. But even then, even for just a moment, I would cry on behalf of this girl.

“…Kill… …Ki… ill… Uh… Uah. Uwaaaah!” Her plaintive groan had long since turned into wailing as she hugged me, tightly clenching my back. At this moment, she released the pent-up emotions hidden in her heart, tears falling like waterfalls.

I didn’t know whether I truly cried, but my eyes were definitely wet. To think that I still had this human side within me after becoming a Dungeon Master… at least I had yet to become a heartless murderer madman.

“Phew… Ahem. I’m sorry. That was unbecoming of me to show something so unsightly…” Especially when I was impersonating a grand and mysterious figure not so long ago.

She shook her head in response.

“Huh? Did you just shake your head?”

She nodded.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?”

She nodded again.

Now I got it. This must be the work of my Vocation. Maybe fear made her unable to understand what I was saying previously, or my Vocation had yet to kick in. Either way, I got to take her out of here and do something toward her Vocation, but before that…

Name: Chloe

Emotion: Uncertainty, touched

Species: Human

Sex: Female

Age: 14 years old

Height: 147 cm

Occupation: Assassin trainee

Vocation: [Shadow Constitution]

Stats:

STR: E (34) AGI: D (48) VIT: E (30) MAG: E (28) SPR: D- (41)

Accumulation Points: 30 [E+]

Holy cow! What kind of intense training did she receive to become so strong? Without the clothes set, I wouldn’t be her match.

[Shadow Constitution]

A constitution that made the body of the user be in a shadow state upon willed. When in this form, the user can influence the shadows of others, even manipulating them with sufficient expertise. Without adequate and proper expertise, it can harm those close to her.

Aha! So this is why my body was frozen in place… I think it becomes more potent the darker the surroundings. But just when I was about to go deep into thinking—

“Ouch! Ow, ow, ow!” A sharp pain emerged on my shoulder where she had stabbed the dagger. This girl, Chloe her name, had been trying to take out the dagger, seemingly out of concern and apologies.

Actually, that was a bad thing to do. The wound would bleed and become infected if not treated carefully and with the right equipment, but it wasn’t a problem since I brought potions with me.

When the dagger was removed, I took off my overcoat and partially my waistcoat and shirt before spilling potions on the wound and drinking a few mouthfuls. By doing this, the wound would heal up in a matter of minutes as it wasn’t too deep. After that, I cast {Cleanse} to remove the bloodstain on the clothes.

She gazed at me with an apologetic expression, so I patted her head to show that I wasn’t mad.

“Do you want to come with me? I may be able to lift you from your curse,” I offered, holding onto her shoulders and looking her directly in the eye.

She nodded intensely and tried to speak, “Aah… I… kill?”

“No, not to ‘kill’ people specifically…” I scratched my chin. “Wait, that’s not it. Anyway, let’s get out of here, but first off…”

I had Blizzard turned down the light, then broke the cuff that bound her ankle with [Programming]. It appeared that it wasn’t made out of ordinary metal, but one that was coated with magiclum stone; they wouldn’t be able to hold her in place otherwise.

Anti-magic cuff

A cuff specially designed through a special alchemical process to restrict the magic of the one being bound. It would also restrict special abilities to a certain degree, rendering them unable to escape.

She was injured on the ankle after being chained for years; it was a miracle that the wound wasn’t too serious. Good thing that I brought a lot of potions with me, and of course, I cast {Cleanse} on her while I was on it.

“Done. That should do it.” I stepped outside and beckoned at her to follow me.

The girl, Chloe, gave a last long glance at the room she had spent years in before bizarrely slipping into my shadow. She’s capable of doing that?!

I looked around some more inside the cavern. Curiously, at another part of the limestone cavern, there was a long but narrow chasm that was like a large scar on the ground whose depth I couldn’t see, and there were also several small paths leading somewhere that I didn’t bother to explore since time was tight — they would wake up soon.

Outside, the golems were all already defrosted, and those that were destroyed by Zero had mostly recovered. It had been an hour or so since I explored the limestone cavern in search of treasure, so it was about time to wrap this up.

I ordered the golems to tie up the bandits together with the ropes and gathered the unconscious villagers outside the limestone cavern. Once all of that was done, I had them release the villagers kept at the several man-made caves on the way up the mountain.

In the meantime, I told Chloe to stay inside the roofed transport golem to avoid the light, but I didn’t get any reply as she kept being my shadow. It appeared that she was fine if she hid in my shadow. Wait, she isn’t going to accompany me when I go to the bathroom, right?

“Phantom B,” I spoke up once I was alone.

“Here, Master,” he replied, still in the body of the guard with a helmet and thick mustache.

“Show me Zero’s main building.”

I didn’t find any traces of Zero’s workplace inside the limestone cavern. He probably had a house or something nearby separated from the cavern. As a leader, he should have hoarded the most valuable treasures for himself.

“Yes.” Phantom B guided me to the path leading below.

Incidentally, phantoms would have no memories of the creatures they possessed after they left their bodies, and only when they possessed them like this could they use the memories that the possessed bodies had. This was one of their weaknesses, other than not being able to possess not scared beings and those that were under special status ailments — the grades of the phantoms and those they possessed couldn’t be too far apart, either.

About a minute or so, there were several log cabins at another path converging from the main path halfway down the mountain. Inside the largest log cabin that was said to be Zero’s house, I discovered several small crates containing countless red pills… It appeared to be the “experimental red pills” that Rowan and his contingent used in the past. Unfortunately, there was nothing else of interest except for some coin pouches and miscellaneous items.

However, just before I left the place…

“Master, my comrades tell me that there’s something hidden under the bed, and I found this.” Phantom B handed me a small book that looked like a diary.

“Oh?” The book was quite old, but I didn’t bother and began reading it. The content left my mouth wide open in shock. Basically, my conjecture was correct: There was indeed a more hidden plot going on here with some organization controlling the Axiom Order from the shadows. So this is what happened… Guess I better read more back in the dungeon.

I hid the book deep inside my pocket before returning to the limestone cavern while wearing my mask. By this point, all the kidnapped villagers had been gathered outside and were “guarded” by the golems. Anxiety and worry, along with a mixture of confusion, colored their faces, but they obediently stayed in place.

The bandits were also secured inside the cavern. No matter how unwilling the Axiom Order members were, without their leader, they were just a bunch of headless chickens. As a result, they surrendered and barely put up any resistance.

When I neared the cavern entrance, they finally saw me. Instead of becoming more restless, the villagers’ faces gradually turned more relaxed; the effect of the mask worked wonders at times like this.

I stopped some distance away and stood atop a large rock and informed, “You are safe now, don't worry.”

“You, you are…?” one of the villagers, who seemed to be their representative, spoke up, but his eyes lingered between the golems, the bandits, and me.

“My name is Astra Argentum. People like to call me Lord Argentum… I heard about the recent kidnapping in the surrounding villages, so I came to help. I had arrested the Axiom Order members that had destroyed your villages, thus exacting revenge on your behalf.”

““Ohhh…””

With a startled noise, everyone started to look relieved. However, not all of the villagers gathered here were completely at ease, even with the miraculous effect of the mask.

“That being said, I have come with an ulterior motive: I want you all to be my subjects.”

The villagers looked at each other, seemingly uneasy about the bomb that I just dropped. This was only natural since the Aureum clansmen were also skeptical about my intention. From their point of view, I must have appeared like an unknown stranger controlling magical beings like golems. Of course, it looked sketchy — which truthfully it was.

That being the case, I pushed them a step further. “Most of your villages had been razed to the ground, so I’d like to offer you a safe haven in exchange.”

“But… but we still got our family living in the town or city,” one other villager said meekly.

“Mm. I understand that some of you still have a home to return to, so I won’t force you. However, I want you to spread my name and tell the world that I am building a settlement in the Great Elion Forest, and anyone is free to join me. I will give them protection and prosperity, free from all danger and hardship. Naturally, if you refuse to follow me, I will protect you with my golems here back to the nearest city, Xenonia.” I must be thorough in my conduct to show my sincerity.

Hearing that, the villagers were reassured, and some had begun to show their agreement to follow me in building a settlement.

Hah… Acting is hard work…