My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

Chapter 1433

“I’m not an evil man.” Roth spoke, causing Astria to snort disdainfully.

“You could have surprised me-“ Slap!

The lioness leader walked up to her and slapped her across the face as she was still restrained by three others, including mage’s who seemed to have some kind of spell that prevented her from shapeshifting.

“You are before my Master! You will only speak when allowed!” She roared.

Astria licked the side of her mouth where some blood trickled, a hateful glare on her face. “My Master will make you eat those words. Who knows, maybe when he’s done with you, you’ll be kneeling at our feet for scraps!”

Rage painted the lionesses face and she raised the back of her hand to slap Astria again.

“Enough…” A single word from Roth, and she turned and stepped back, lowering her head submissively, almost like she was afraid of Roth.

“Master…” She breathed out in a voice that sounded slightly reverent. “Apologies.”

Roth walked up to Astria, grabbing her chin, lifting her face, and causing me to tense. “I already know how my story will go. It’s one of the advantages of being a hero. When the mantle of a hero attaches itself to you, you take on its karma. In a way, it’s like you get a cheat toward how the rest of your life will go.”

“A sob story?” Astria made a disgusted face.

“Heh… every hero has one. A maid hero is always fated to believe her master died and kill herself. A princess hero is fated to see her entire family die, flee her nation as the only survivor, and then build an army to take vengeance, only to become the very thing she despised in the process. These stories play out slightly differently every time, but the same basic thematic elements are always there.”

“And what of you, Harem Hero?” Astria asked.

“The Harem Hero is always fated to form a group of women he loves, only to find a way to long outlive them. Then, he must watch painfully as they grow old and die one at a time until he has nothing left. Although, in some versions, a more powerful enemy will come and defeat him, taking away his women. I made either fate impossible for me. I defeated my lore and created a new destiny. Do you want to hear how?”

“Humor me…”

“It’s simple, really… I leave my harem… expendable. When a woman gets too old to please me, I have her removed. I bring in newer, more beautiful women, women who keep my harem powerful.”

“Expendable? How could you even consider yourself a Harem Hero?”

“That method worked for a time… I continued to drink the waters of life and watched as my women outgrew me. However, if I had my own spring, I’d have more of it… I could start giving it to my women as well. I hope you understand the situation Karr put me in back then.” He leaned closer. “I could have built an immortal harem. My women wouldn’t have had to die. He’s the reason my women had to be replaced.” His words caused the harem girls standing around to throw dirty and hateful looks at Astria, as if they blamed her personally.

Astria suddenly spat at Roth’s face. The women holding her responded by twisting her arms, causing her to let out a cry of pain as her face hit the floor. The lead lioness looked ready to bash her skull in, raising her sword menacingly until Roth raised a hand. She immediately dropped her sword and hastily ripped off a piece of her dress and handed it to him. Roth calmly stood up, pulling the cloth from her and wiping his face as she looked at him adoringly.

“My Master is a better Harem Master than you ever will be. He will kill you!” Astria snarled.

“Your Master won’t be the one who kills me.” Roth shrugged. “Forty years ago, as the country was still being ravaged by the demon lord, I had gone to a soothsayer and had her read my future. By then, I was well-known as the Harem Hero, and I wanted to know how to side-step my fate. The soothsayer revealed to me how I would die. She said that a king would rise; a hero of heroes would appear in the east and that we would battle. I would fall to the claws of a tiger, a true harem king! Such a thing is impossible though… as I wiped out the entire tigerkin variant!”

Chapter 1434

“The Tigerkin…”

“Did you ever wonder why they were so rare?” He shrugged. “I couldn’t have some kind of competitor rising in my wake, so I made sure to kill all of them.”

“Are… you sure about that?” Astria asked, her expression somewhat dark.

“Yes, you must be speaking of the Tigress, Lydia was it?” Astria’s expression fell at his words. “Someone must have gone to a great effort to sneak her out. Having her listed as a catkin, and even selling her as a sex slave. To subject your own family to such a life just to keep them alive, she was able to slip through my fingers. Thankfully, your foolish Deek had her properly registered in the Slave Guild, and I was able to learn of her. Then, he even broke the bond with her, so I could deal with her properly.”

“What did you do?” Astria cried out, trying to lunge out at Roth, only for the lead lioness to get in her way and kick her in the stomach, causing her to collapse, coughing up more blood.

“She was dealt with.” He responded shortly. “It didn’t really matter. Even if she was alive, the prophecy was for a male tigerkin, not a tigress. She wouldn’t have been able to change a thing…”

“Th-then, why?” Astria croaked.

“I’m done answer questions. Playtime is over. Isn’t that right, Deek Deekson?”

He looked right at me once again.

“Right…” I spoke back coldly.

I was shaking with fury, watching as Astria was beaten. I was compelled to continue to listen only because he was revealing much that I didn’t know. I had begun to wonder if he knew I was there, given how much he revealed. He seemed to like to gloat even more than Demon Lord Aberis. Perhaps that was a theme for villains.

“The reasons I’ve told your little fairy all of this is because no matter what happens, you won’t be able to change it. What has happened has already happened, and what will happen is already decided.” King Roth crossed his arms and stood as if everything was in his control. “I will offer you a chance. Give me the fairy spring, and your head, and I will make sure your harem is well taken care of.”

“Are you kidding me?” I couldn’t help but snort.

He shrugged. “Suite yourself. I already knew you’re refuse my offer. You see, I know you. You’re just like Karr, a Harem Master wannabe who lacks the strength to take what he wants. In the end, you’ll lose everything. I know the ending to my story, and this isn’t it. If I’m successful, then my story will never end.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“I wouldn’t want you doing something foolish like destroying the fairy spring. Therefore, I’ll give you the illusion of a chance at victory. One week… a magic rune will trigger the moment you get this message, and then you will have one week before I march on Chalm, and take everything by force. You can surrender early, or you can watch it all taken from you.”

“You call yourself a Harem Master when you throw women away? Master will beat you-” Astria tried to speak, but the lead woman slapped her again.

“You’d call him any better? I seem to recall a certain foxkin recently stumbling through my lands full of dispair. His tigress is dead. As for you…” He turned to me and grinned. “Ladies, rip off her wings.”

“No. Noo! Nooo!” Her pleas were ignored as the lionesses descended on Astria.

For the first time, she had a look of terror on her face.

“A Harem Master that can’t even protect his harem.” King Roth didn’t even look back as Astria screamed. “Pathetic.”

The image disappeared with a flash.

Chapter 1435

“Ahhhhh!” My fist slammed into a nearby wall.

“Master!” Alysia’s voice tried to calm me down.

“I’m fine…” I responded through gritted teeth. “Where are they now?”

“They left… shortly after they finished…” His eyes fell on something before darting away.

I hadn’t noticed them before. They were spindly black things, shriveled, broken, and left in the rubbish that was once this dungeon. They were a pair of bloody wings, Astria’s fairy wings. I walked over and put them into my soul world, and then walked over to Matty.

“It’s time to go.”

“Go?” Matty didn’t lookup. “There is nowhere to go. I’m a master with no dungeon. I cannot continue to exist. He left me to pass you his message. Now, just let me die.”

“I’m not leaving you here,” I responded. “I can still take care of you. My dungeon will sustain you.”

“They took everything from me… they took her.”

“We’ll bring her back.” My hand tightened. “We’ll bring them all back.”

“How?”

“A person is more than just their body. We’re a story. That story is always changing. Some things are forgotten or neglected, others lead us into the future and how we affect the world. I believe enough lore exists that we can bring her back. Please, let me try.”

My voice didn’t hold any arrogance or dominance. I pleaded with him genuinely. I had once treated Mathew as an annoyance, a harmless fly that irritated me. Now, he might be the only one who knew how I was feeling at that particular moment. As he looked up at me, I reached out my hand. After a brief moment of hesitation, he took my hand. I immediately put him into my soul world.

“Absorb.”

Matty’s Maze of Mysteries was already destroyed. It was desiccating and breaking away. The Dungeon Master, without being able to become part of a new dungeon, would naturally fall apart and die. However, because he was already my tamed monster, I could just bring him to my dungeon and he could become a boss there. However, before I left, I was going to take everything that remained. Matty’s lore may have been shattered and the stored miasma scattered, but after my time in the Deep, I had grown accustomed to lore absorption and manipulation.

I could absorb the lore, and it was possible I could reassemble some of it. It’d be the equivalent of assembly the pieces of a novel shoved into a paper shredder, but there was a possibility. Thus, the little pieces of shattered dungeon lore melted and were absorbed by me. Everything else that remained in the dungeon also began to melt away. The desiccation process that might have taken a week was sped up quicker and quicker. I left the dungeon, appearing on the outside. There, I absorbed the last pieces of it.

There wasn’t much left to work with, but I did have Matty. Matty possessed the memories of his mother, and the so-called maid boss would have been based on those memories. There was still hope I could bring her back.

As for Lydia, I had already tried to resurrect her and failed. Either she was still alive and he was lying, or she was killed in a manner where even her soul was destroyed. As for Astria, she would need to hold out. I would save her though. I had to.