My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem - My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1199-1201
Chapter 1199
“So, that is where she went.” The answer I had gone to such effort to acquire, even going so far as to conquer a dungeon to obtain, was that simple. “Miki is in Dioshin.”
“Ah, will Master be leaving?” The witch-woman asked, suddenly grabbing my arm and pressing her chest against it.
“M-Master?” My eyes widened.
“Eh? Who are you calling Master? I’m still the master of this dungeon!” The boy cried out.
“Isn’t the master of my master also my master?” She asked coyly while stroking my chest. “I thought we’d have time to get acquainted with Master.”
“You pervert bastard! Start touching my witch! You can’t have her.” Matty started trying to get between the witch and my arm, pushing her off.
“I’m not trying,” I responded helplessly.
“That only makes it worse!”
The witch’s change of behavior from defensively protecting her charge to laughing mischievously while clinging to me was too fast. I had indeed decided to stop attacking the dungeon, and I had conquered the dungeon, whatever that meant, but wasn’t her loyalty far too cheap? At least I hadn’t named her yet. If I didn’t name her, I didn’t have to take her home. That’s how it worked! I deliberately didn’t think about how happy Selena was to get her name.
While I tried to get the witch off me and Matty through a tantrum, Celeste seemed to be uncharacteristically focused on the party. There wasn’t much being discussed. Miki quickly abandoned her quest down the dungeon. Seeing as the dungeon was barely undead as it was, and only looked like one to try to trick people into staying away, Miki wasn’t that motivated to continue and was easily swayed. I was a bit worried about how we could talk our way into Dioshin, but at least I knew where she was.
“Ahhhh!” Miki was walking to the exit when she suddenly froze, collapsed to the ground, and let out a scream.
The witch, Matty, and I all stopped fighting to look in that direction. The incorporeal animalkin were also quite shocked.
“He-he’s… dead…” She whispered, her eyes staring at nothing.
I lowered my head as I watched this. This must have been the moment our bond was severed. Even death wouldn’t sever bonds with a soul. In the case of a death, as the soul slowly dissolved away, the bonds would also break apart. Based on how the slavers set up the bond, this meant that over a month the slave would either become increasingly ill until they died, compelled to find their new master, or in the case of my bonds, freed.
This kind of sudden destruction of the bond was something only a place like the Illusory Soul Realm could do, but to Miki and the others, they couldn’t be blamed for thinking it meant a more likely event, the destruction of my soul.
“He’s not though…” Celeste whispered tearfully.
She had returned to her normal size and was watching the developing memory with great interest.
“Are you okay?” One of the animalkin men asked, offering her a hand.
“Y-yes…” She stood up shakily, but I could see her suppressing the pain as she took a deep breath.
This was the first time I had seen the event of the bond being cut by their point of view. I could see Miki holding back her tears as she tried to keep from falling apart.
“You don’t need to worry.” The animalkin tried to reassure her. “You’ll be with family soon.”
In a way, this was probably for the best. After having such an emotional blow, going and saving her family would be good for her. With luck, she was still with them. Using her ability to save her family from their illness, I could see them coming to accept her just like Chalm. At least she wasn’t alone. That’s what I was thinking as I watched the memory fade away as they entered the safe room to teleport out of the dungeon.
Then, Celeste spoke up. “Everything those men told her, was a lie!”
Chapter 1200
“Celeste!” I coughed in surprise at her sudden words. “What are you saying?”
“Master can’t hear it?” Celeste asked in surprise.
“Hear what?”
“The voices of the men. They were clearly lying. When someone lies, their voice is always different.”
I had nearly forgotten that Celeste was a wind fairy. She had a perfect pitch and was extremely sensitive to vibrations. As it turned out, that included voices. She could tell when someone was lying just by the tones in their voice.
“What do you mean, they were lying?” I asked.
“Most of what they said wasn’t the truth. They were keeping things from Miki. As for her family being sick, it was completely made up.”
Her words caused my heart to tighten. It truly had seemed odd that these men just suddenly showed up. They went to the bottom level of the dungeon and seek her out, just to help her family? They were common foxkin, an animal type that already had a bad stigma in their society because of their spirit tails. Why would they go to that much effort to find her. Plus, why would she even be needed? Surely, there would be other foxkin with fewer tails that could resolve the problems.
These men had an interest in Miki in particular. That also meant they must have known about Miki’s situation. They knew she was a nine-tailed fox who had gained control of it. That left the extremely worrying question of why they had come. To make matters worse, my bond was severed at the worst time. Rather than Miki being alert and wary, she’d be distracted and emotionally vulnerable. I realized my fist had tightened to the point my nails were digging into my palm. These men had taken advantage of an emotionally vulnerable woman. That alone was enough to earn my ire.
“We need to go to Dioshin.” I declared through clenched teeth.
Celeste nodded. “Miki might be in trouble.”
I furrowed my brow as I thought about what needed to happen next. That was when a sudden thought came to me. I turned to Celeste, my expression turning slightly uneasy.
“Um, Celeste…”
“Yes, Master?”
“About that lying thing… how long have you been able to distinguish people’s lies, would you say?”
“Hmm? I don’t know… I started to realize it once I became a Sylph. It took me a while to figure out what those differences were. Back when I was in Karr’s Dungeon and lived as a mindless drone of my mother wandering the halls of the manor aimlessly, I never learned very much about life. It took traveling with Master for me to gain some perspective.” Celeste explained.
“I see… so, um… hey, listen… about any lies that I might have said…”
Celeste glanced over at me and smirked. “Master, you wouldn’t be worried you might have said something I’d hold against you, would you?”
“N-No! That’s not it at all! I wouldn’t have any suck doubts!”
“I understand.” She nodded, and just as I let out a breath, she turned away. “Liar.”
“Geh! Celeste, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! I was confused!”
I had begun to apologize for things I couldn’t remember and might not have even done. How could someone remember every fib they told someone? Celeste giggled, shrinking back into her smaller form before flying back onto my shoulder and kissing my cheek.
“Master, all of your slaves can tell when you’re lying. You’re not good at it. However, we can feel the intent behind your words, and that is what matters.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I thought I had grown quite good at tricking people. The job Mimic was a lie.
Chapter 1201
“It’s not like I want you to stay or anything, but will you be coming back?” Matty asked as we reached the exit to his dungeon.
Although he was acting like the pouty child he appeared as if he seemed slightly anxious. As for the witch companion, she was behind him, her chest resting on his head as she looked at me innocently. I suppose I could understand their sentiment. I had charged through their dungeon, took the dungeon lore, and forced them to submit, and now I was taking off. They were probably anxious about their future existence. It was weird thinking of monsters having these feelings, but after all of those close to me who had come from dungeons, I realized I needed to start changing how I thought about dungeons.
“Oh, yeah, I probably shouldn’t take this.” I pulled out the dungeon lore I had been keeping in my pocket.
“You were going to take it out of the dungeon!” He cried out. “You were going to kill us all!”
A dungeon couldn’t live without a connection to the core. My dungeon seemed to exist without a true core, but it was using my soul as a conduit or something. I wasn’t exactly planning on attaching my soul to this dungeon, so the lore would have to stay behind. I tossed it to him, and the boy panicked as he desperately caught it.
“Y-you bastard!” He cried as he snatched the thing and started soothing it like I had somehow hurt it.
“You mentioned something earlier about a dungeon master council before. What is going on with that?” I distracted him with such a question.
He stiffened for a moment, and then let out a sigh. “I suppose I’ve already said too much. The Council of Dungeon Masters was set up by the Primordial Labyrinth. It’s intended for any master who has created a Karmic Soul.”
“Does that mean the Demon King is part of this council?”
He shook his head. “Only dungeons that have proven to be able to survive and don’t upset the balance of this world can join. The Demon King’s aggressive takeover rendered him banned. The same could be said of that dungeon to the north.”
I blinked at those words. So, they did know about Aberis and the Widow’s Dungeon.
“What about me? Am I banned?”
He looked at me for a second and then shrugged. “A warning was issued about your emergence, but the basic truth is you’re too new to be banned just yet. Most dungeons have a wild few years before they stabilize and form a Karmic companion and master. Well, not every dungeon forms a companion. Instead, they get taken over by a powerful creature. Those dungeons are quite pitiable, as the dungeon master’s desires wouldn’t align with the dungeon.”
It made sense. There were dungeons like Mira’s Dungeon or the Widow’s Dungeon where the dungeon formed a master who slowly became more sentient until they had a soul of their own. However, there were also dungeons like The Bandit’s Respite that got invaded by a powerful miasma user who conquered it and became the new master. Calypso repurposed her dungeon to go against its original goal, although it did resist in its way.
“Do you know when such a thing would be decided?” I asked.
“The Dungeon Master Assembly.” He responded. “Once a year, all of the dungeon masters have a large gathering where important decisions are made. This is also when new dungeon masters who seek them out can become members.”
“And might I ask, when is this next meeting?”
“Three months,” he answered, and then cried out in alarm. “You’re not thinking of going, are you?”
I licked my lips. “You never know. A lot can happen in three months.”