Chapter 337: I Can See What’s Inside Your Head

At that moment, in the basement of Avalon at Spica Castle.

"I’m back...."

Gray walked into the room with an exhausted expression and collapsed into a chair. He hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat, but he’d been worked to the bone.

"You worked hard."

"...You too."

Meri, who’d come to greet Gray, also looked drained.

"What did the Baron say?"

"What did the Holy Knight Commander say?"

"...Said he’d be sending out scouts soon, as soon as preparations are complete. Toward both Ras Vegas and the dungeon."

"Same here. They asked if it would be alright to modify the stockings so a large-scale force could move out, and so they could be used as armor."

Meri and Gray pooled the intelligence they’d each gathered from their respective fronts. And the information they’d collected was converging on a single conclusion.

"Looks like they’re about to move, huh?"

"...A force this size is dangerous."

"It’s a force of a thousand adventurers. Calling it large-scale doesn’t even cover it. That’s the kind of number you could send to the human alliance’s front lines."

"They won’t be ragtag amateurs either. The Barony lost twice, and the Pisces heir was even kidnapped, so they’ll have filtered out the weaklings from the adventurer pool."

A thousand adventurers led by the Holy Knight Commander.

If they all left Spica Castle and marched on Ras Vegas and the dungeon, holding them off wouldn’t be easy.

"The stockings... I think we made a mistake selling those."

"Who could’ve guessed they’d take something meant for the bedroom and use it on the battlefield."

The problem was the stockings.

"Adventurers actually wear them? Men and women alike?"

"Yeah. Some of those crazy bastards are men, and they’re saying they’ll fight in nothing but stockings. Just slapping armor over the crotch."

"...Ugh, gross."

"You’re telling me. They’re not even women, and... ahem."

This was the moment Rok’s pricing strategy and the quality of the stockings had backfired. The fact that two or three layers of the older-model stockings distributed in Ras Vegas provided defense rivaling decent leather armor was the root of the problem.

"The biggest issue is that our legion wears stockings too."

"Tights."

Meri rolled up the sleeve of her robe. Unlike makeshift rags cut from forced-together stockings, the black garment she wore had clearly been tailored just for her. It was practically inner armor.

It wasn’t just Meri. Every member of the Legion of Wrath wore them, and those were stockings.

"If we get caught, it won’t end with just questioning, will it?"

"We’d be suspected as dark merchants supplying the Demon King’s Army too."

No matter how hard they racked their brains, they were at the end of their rope.

Unless the Legion of Wrath stopped wearing stockings altogether, the human world had already had too many distributed throughout it. Naturally, that meant Meri and Gray, stuck in Avalon, couldn’t help feeling the strain.

"Are we really gonna get into deep trouble at this rate?"

"Just think of it as having had a good seasonal run. We’ve scraped together every magic stone in Spica Castle. The succubi need to gorge themselves to produce higher-grade stones. Working over the same guys who show up daily is just going to overwork them to death."

Avalon by day was booming, packed with adventurers from out of town.

Avalon by night was booming, packed with daily slaves to lust.

The earnings might be solid, but if the Holy Knight Commander launched an all-out assault, it was effectively over. They’d absolutely get caught.

"...This won’t work. Let’s use the last resort. I’m going to convince Dad."

"What is it?"

"What my dad does best."

Meri looked up with murderous eyes.

"The first strike."

***

"Welcome. The system is just as expected. Heh heh."

I lightly waved away the window that had popped up in front of me. Then I turned to the other 4-stars.

"What about you all?"

"...I’ll join too."

"Me too."

"Moo."

Once one stepped up, the others took courage and followed his lead. A total of six Minotaurs volunteered to become human-mounters, and I gathered them up and pointed toward the portal.

"You all head to our legion’s main base first and wait for the welcome ceremony. I’ll introduce you at the victory celebration. Luna, send some Cookie elves with them and have them escort the group to the main base."

"Got it. You guys, any volunteers?"

Luna had asked just in case, but about three of the Cookie elves shot their hands up. The six newly recruited Minotaurs went wide-eyed, while the eyes of the rest filled with bloodshot fury.

"Of course. Their gazes were drawn straight that way, but they’re pretending otherwise. Heh heh, what a tease."

"It’s enough to spark their curiosity. And you, Master, are quite the tease yourself, aren’t you?"

Shaitan smirked slyly and gestured with her eyes toward the other Minotaurs.

"And you’re a fine liar too. Actually, kill all of th..."

"Got a problem with that?"

"No, just thinking, that’s our Master alright."

Shaitan tapped the air lightly with the back of her hand. Since we shared the same system window, Shaitan had caught on to my real intentions long ago. I cleared my throat and bit my finger to draw a drop of blood.

"You. The ones in the passageway."

I approached them and drew the mark ’1++’ on each of their shoulders. Then I sealed each tattoo with a circle.

"You all stand by here in the passageway."

"Are you not driving us out of the dungeon?"

"Shut your mouth. I am going to drive you out. I just need to distinguish you from those guys for a moment."

This time I approached the Minotaurs standing in front of the trap and drew the mark ’♂++’ on each of them.

"Heh heh, curious, aren’t you? About why the tattoo shapes are different."

Both groups had refused to join our legion and hadn’t chosen death either. Both had chosen to leave the dungeon. So why were they marked differently and grouped separately?

"That’s because, you bastards, your heads are full of rebellion."

The Minotaurs in front of the passageway, the 1++ group I was pointing at, wore expressions full of confusion. The trap side, the ♂++ group, looked the same.

"Both sides can’t figure out why you’ve been split, huh? Looks like the 4-star subordinates have crossed through the portal, so let me show my true colors."

Clap clap!

The moment I clapped my hands, the Cookie elves swiftly took formation, half facing the passageway and half facing the trap. It was an encirclement formation that surrounded each group of Minotaurs in a ring.

"I, the Legion Commander, am disappointed in you!"

At my hand signal, Luna and the Cookie elves raised their bows again. I’d offered them the option of being driven from the dungeon without being killed, yet here I was, leveling weapons at them.

"Wh, what are you doing?! That’s not what was promised!"

"Promise? What promise."

I flipped the bird at the guy in the passageway.

"Why would I extend any courtesies to those who refuse to join our legion? You were all my [prisoners] from the start, weren’t you?"

"Th, that’s...?!"

"Monsters belong to the dungeon’s master. The dungeon’s master, Hagenti, is dead, and I’m now this dungeon’s master, which means you all belong to me too. Yeah, prisoners. I can kill you, spare you, roast you, or use you for breeding, whatever I damn well please."

This dungeon was mine now.

Which meant everything that belonged to this dungeon was also mine to do with as I pleased.

"I told you I’d treat you better than Hagenti. I’m the one who beat Hagenti. So shouldn’t you naturally follow my word? When I’m being all nice about it, you should be dropping to your knees in gratitude and accepting."

Releasing those who refuse to become allies, the virgin elves were enough of that. And those elves had been released on purpose, with the plan that if they later attacked our dungeon, we’d take them as prisoners and legitimately have our way with them.

’The elf situation and now are different cases.’

Indiscriminate beheading wasn’t going to leave any emotional scars on my women, either. Was the dead Hagenti going to weep for his subordinates’ deaths?

"Th, thinking about it again, doing it with humans might be alright! I’ll join the legion!"

"Your head is full of evil thoughts! Through my system, I can already see exactly what’s going on inside your head!"

A dungeon’s subordinate couldn’t possibly see it. Even regular subordinates couldn’t see it.

"What you, a prisoner, were thinking, I already know!"

[Submission: He has submitted to a stronger enemy, but is extremely repulsed at the thought of mounting humans. He intends to leave this place, build up his strength, and eliminate the filthy human-mounters to restore the demon race’s honor.]

Outward compliance, inner defiance.

The ones standing in the passageway were all filled with contempt for me, the orcs, and our entire legion, and harbored intentions of stabbing us in the back.

"Heh heh, didn’t see that coming, did you? When it comes to prisoners, having the system makes things really convenient. You can tell so easily whether the other side has truly submitted, or whether they’re sharpening a knife behind their back."

This was just my guess, but I had a feeling Solomon must’ve gotten badly betrayed by a subordinate at some point in the past. Otherwise, why else would he have set things up so that you can only see through someone’s true intentions when they’re a prisoner?

"One side is straight up plotting to backstab us, and the other is sneering at our entire legion. Calling us human-mounters. How tragic, how tragic indeed. Living together on this earth, all of us beings should treat each other with kindness, and yet you cannot find it in yourselves to harmonize with humans."

"Aha! That fiend has shown his true colors!"

"He’s a stooge of the human alliance! O Demon King, curse this man!"

"That Demon King favored me and made me a legion’s master, you small-minded fools."

Instead of striking them, I brought my fist down on the crown of Hagenti’s head. He’d raised his subordinates poorly, so he deserved to die a second time.

"F, forgive us! We’ll do better from now on!"

"That bus has left the station. You should’ve known your place when I was being kind about it."

I’d already recruited six Minotaurs. The ones here were just a number of Minotaurs not even worth counting.

"On my way to conquer Hagenti’s dungeon, I came up with a plan. It was a training plan to make our beloved Lime and the slime dragons stronger."

Leveling.

For slimes, who mainly served as engineering corps, the only ways to level up were to devour magic stones or to consume living creatures.

"1++. You are hereby exiled from our legion. Oh? Why are there outsiders on our land? Intruders must die."

"Th, this is unreasonable...!"

"You should’ve joined the legion before I started being unreasonable. We eliminate the seeds of danger. Enemies of our legion are sentenced to death."

I turned my thumb down.

"Quietly become experience for the slimes."

Whff whff!!

The Cookie elves shot their arrows precisely into vital points so the Minotaurs couldn’t resist.

Thud, thud!

The Minotaurs whose tendons had been shot started dropping to their knees one by one. And in tune with that, writhing shapes began approaching from beyond the passageway.

"Lime, eat until you’re full."

Slurp.

"...Yeah, share whatever’s left with the kids, but don’t leave anything. I’ll get one for Line later."

Lime and the slime dragons clamped their jaws around the live Minotaurs’ heads and dragged them out of the passageway. The Minotaurs thrashed and resisted, but not long after, they went limp with brief convulsions.

"Even raising a banner of rebellion in your heart against our legion gets you this. Thinking is fine. But those guys went and made plans. Heh heh heh."

If they wanted to resent someone, let them resent Solomon, who set things up so even inner thoughts could be detected through the system. I turned my body toward the bulls now thoroughly frozen in front of the trap, the [♂++] group.

"You didn’t raise an inner rebellion, but there’s no real reason to keep you alive either. Prisoners just take up space without serving any purpose."

At my words, the ♂++ Minotaurs’ faces stiffened.

"But I’ll give you just one more chance. Cookie elves, restrain all the Minotaurs. Bind them so only their feet can move. Gag their mouths and tie their hands."

The Cookie elves set down their bows and quickly began restraining the Minotaurs. In an instant, they became condemned prisoners.

"For the crime of refusing my recruitment, you deserve to die. But... considering you didn’t dare scheme against our legion like the 1++ group, I’ll show you my final mercy. This is my line in the sand."

The ♂++ Minotaurs didn’t resist. They knew that the moment they did, they’d be dragged out of the passageway and crunched to bits.

"You are sentenced to death by mating."

"Fine. Better than being eaten by slimes... wait, what?"

"You are not going to a ranch. You’re going to a ’nest.’"

The Harpy Aellos needed members. Members the right size to match their bodies, which had grown drastically larger since their harpy days.

"Go... and die emptying yourselves."

Didn’t matter if they all died. Six Minotaurs had already joined up anyway.