Welcome to the Man-Eating Dungeon - Chapter 41

Chapter 41: The Temple Knight – Within the Smoke and Darkness

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What sprung out at first was a black smoke that had an irritative in it. That smoke that leaked out from the crevices of the wall was discovered when a defense militiaman that was close to it got a sore throat.

「It, it’s gas!」

The militiaman that shouted that spat up blood from his throat, crumbled to the floor, and started coughing violently. Unrest spread out like a wave in the remaining soldiers that surrounded him.

The main force had already passed through the area where the gas sprung out and were in the middle of capturing the next passage, but the possibility that this situation would divide them up was also high. After a young messenger soldier, who was a low class noble, confirmed that the gases spewing point was only in one spot and had the soldiers evacuate from there, he started to jog to report it to Olivia, who was the commanding officer. The gap between the front line force and the rear guard force was a distance of about 30 meters. It wasn’t that great of a distance, but their figures couldn’t be seen within the narrow tunnels, and voices didn’t reverberate so it didn’t really get through. It was for this reason that the messenger soldier’s job didn’t disappear.

「Officer of Arms-dono, a black smoke has sprung forth in the back, and it seems to be toxic! It will be dangerous at this rate. Since I will be reporting to Olivia-sama now, please fall back together with the injured soldiers for the moment!」

After making a hasty report to the Officer of Arms who was waiting in the vicinity of the tunnel entrance, the messenger soldier started to run towards to the frontline……But feeling an extreme pain in his side, unable to endure the intense pain, he collapsed onto the floor of the tunnel.

「……!?」

Even though his mouth was opening and closing, his voice wasn’t coming out.

「……There is no problem.」

The voice of the slowly approaching Officer of Arms was cold. When he finally raised his head, maybe it was his imagination but, the figure of the Officer of Arms, which was illuminated from the back by the torchlight that was installed on the wall, swayed, and it looked as if she had several arms. Among those arms, one of them had a rapier that was thin like a needle at the ready. Was he attacked by someone? By who? For what reason?

「Your voice won’t come out, right? Aah, that is such a nice face you’re making.」

What was hidden in that voice was unmistakably sexual desire.

「Truthfully, I would kill children like you after raping them over several days, slurping their blood, licking off their tears, and crushing all of their pride but……I don’t have the time right now. At the very least, I’ll have you suffer from suffocation and poison then die.」

A highly adhesive object that was either thread or a cloth was abruptly stuck onto the messenger soldier’s face. With his nose and mouth plugged up, he was unable to breath, and he couldn’t freely move his body. While looking down on the messenger soldier that was twisting his body like caterpillar due to his fear of suffocating, the Office of Arms stepped on the messenger soldier’s crotch with her boot.

「Ara ara, how vulgar. Even though you’re in the middle of going to report something important to the commanding officer-sama, why is your cock so erect?」

Even though he was a low class noble, he wasn’t affluent enough to employ his own exclusive blacksmith. That went even more so for anyone that wasn’t the eldest child. In addition, the messenger soldier’s equipment was generally made of leather to stress ease of movement. With the minimal amount of pride, he wore a breastplate made of metal, but most of his lower half was covered by highly flexible leather. When the Officer of Arms skillfully lifted up the part that protected his crotch with one foot, she softly stepped on the messenger soldier’s penis, which was erect from the fear of death, through his pants.

「You fell in love with Olivia-sama, didn’t you. You used her as fap material over and over again, didn’t you. I’ll tell you something good. That girl, she is definitely a virgin. If she had sold her body to the nobles of an influential town and negotiated, you wouldn’t have had to come here in the first place……You wouldn’t have been dispatched with a unit with such a seedy-looking fighting force, and you wouldn’t have been made a sacrificial pawn. It’s alright, after I’ve made that girl my plaything, I’ll kill her just like you. Although she’ll become my used goods, you can also rape her after death…… ‘It’s your fault that I died’ is what you can say to her.」

While expressing a sadistic smile, the Officer of Arms stimulated the penis of the messenger soldier that was about to die with her foot. Raising a voiceless scream, and releasing his final ejaculation in his life, the messenger soldier’s life came to an end. Together with the ejaculation, the Officer of Arms crushed the messenger soldier’s crotch. Blood and semen leaked out and dirtied her boot.

「Now then, let us begin the dance, Ojou-san……After slowly defiling you, raping you, and plucking your arms and legs……I’ll kill you while gazing at your crying and screaming face. It’s alright, since that boy that was your childhood friend is surely waiting for you in the beyond, you won’t be lonely.」

After she licked her lips looking like she couldn’t endure it any longer, the Officer of Arms returned to the frontline looking as if nothing had happened.

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「A cave-in!」

「Fall back! Before rescuing the injured, get yourselves to safety first!」

An earth tremor occurred, and screams were raised. It was a big deal even if the panic didn’t occur. That was most likely blasting powder being used in order to split this passage from the wide area at their back. Was that the effect of the jewel that the Officer of Arms hid earlier?

The Officer of Arms’ traps that remained in the passage were two explosives, and two poisons. To be more precise, they were things that Diana had laid out, that we had left remaining. If we were to remove all of the traps in the passage, the Officer of Arms would have sensed something, and we didn’t have enough time to go that far. With the fact that she received Diana’s report, I predicted that she couldn’t tell where these jewels were unless she was near them. Of the several areas that she would possibly force them into from the passages, there were locations that I intentionally removed the jewels from, but I didn’t know if she noticed that or not.

Considering their layout, the Officer of Arms could partition the main force into the front, middle, and back, and then invite Olivie, who was probably in the center of it all, somewhere……Or maybe she would divide the passage into parts and turn it into a small room. If I were to go out now and warn her, Olivie might be saved. However, in that case, she would cross-examine me wondering why I was there, and in reality, I would become unable to drive the expeditionary force away. Because of that, I need to wait. To wait for the timing after the Officer of Arms makes her move and disperses the expeditionary force’s fighting power but before Olivie has her life stolen by the Officer of Arms. I am bitter about how there is only one of the passage’s 「eyes」. The fact that it took up time and needed to be tuned after installing it was this eye’s weakness. It would be the best if I could make it so that it could see even beyond where it was brought to, but I would probably have to raise my own skill for that. I am able to grasp only Olivie’s location, but I can’t read the situation other than that. The sound of an explosion echoed once again, and screams were raised. The control of the expeditionary force finally crumbled. The Officer of Arms played her second hand.

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「Uuu……Everyone, are you all alright!?」

Olivia felt that even she herself couldn’t hear her own voice all that well. Her sense of hearing had probably gone temporarily numb from the explosion just now. ……That, wasn’t a cave-in at all. It would be great if the following unit would come to rescue them, but she feared that there was a high possibility that the following unit was caught in some trap similar to them. They were advancing favorably up until now, but the situation instantly changed.

……She might have taken the Man Eating Dungeon too lightly. By no means did she let her guard down, but Olivia desperately gained control of herself as she felt like she would succumb to feelings of self-reproach. She was still within a dangerous dungeon. Checking the surroundings, if there were any companions that she could rescue, she needed to rescue them. She tightly grasped the pendant that had a pretty glass ball inserted in it that she found in the loft of her memories where she once played together and read books together with a boy in the past. The friend that she thought that she would never be able to meet with again had turned into a splendid young man. She wanted to meet with him again. Just by thinking that, a small bit of strength welled up inside her.

There wasn’t a response, but her hearing ability returned. The sounds of groans and rocks crumbling were continuously heard. She thought that her eyes had become unable to see, but it seemed that the lights had simply gone out. After calming down a bit, she was vaguely able to see a few people within the darkness.

A taciturn but good-natured mercenary that was made into her guard, and a still young messenger soldier. The mercenary was buried underneath the wall, and wasn’t moving even an inch. The messenger soldier had his left ankle twisted in a strange direction, but there weren’t any external wounds that stood out other than that. The knight that she entrusted the frontline to, Gaspar, seemed to be in a different area, so she couldn’t see his figure. She checked the state of her own body. It seemed that she twisted her right ankle, and her other joints were in pain. However, it didn’t look like she had any injuries such as hitting her head or getting any gashes. She might have seen that she had a great amount of internal bleeding and bruises if she took off her armor, but she was grateful to the River Goddess that there weren’t any injuries that stood out.

The time that she was unconscious should have been a fairly short time. She focused her mind while overcoming the pain. She chanted scripture as she was sitting down on the floor of the tunnel.

「O sacred, gently flowing River Goddess. Grant me light to illuminate this darkness.」

After a short while passed, an area of soft light was produced before Olivia’s eyes. It was a cold, bluish, soft light that was clearly different from the fire of a torch.

It was God’s divine protection was bestowed to a portion of Temple Knights, those with deep piety. Among the divine protections, the light that illuminates the darkness, Glowlight, is the divine protection that is most frequently used, but it’s said that the ones able to make this even possible is three out of ten people even if they are monks or priests.

So as to shake off the faint fatigue that came after focusing her mind, she used the situation as support and stood up. Looking at the state of the surroundings, since it seemed that they had set off some sort of trap and turned the situation into something close to a cave-in as a result, the part that was once a passage inside of the tunnel just a little while ago had now turned into a small, narrow room with a length of about 5 meters.

「Aara, you’ve had a quick awakening, haven’t you, Olivia-sama……I thought you would’ve had a much longer sleep.」

Seemingly out of nowhere, the Officer of Arms’ voice was heard.

「Officer of Arms-dono, so you were safe! Where are you right now? Do you have any injuries?」

Even after surveying the surroundings, the Officer of Arms’ figure could not be found. Since the light was quite weak, could she be deeper inside?

「Ahh, I am over here. Ojou-sama that knows absolutely nothing. I have eyes that work much better than yours in the dark, you see……」

Olivia felt something ominous for an instant from the change in the Officer of Arms’ tone. However, the other party was the Officer of Arms that came from the capital in order to validate the military achievements. No matter what her position was in the expeditionary force was, she was a party that she needed to pay respect to. When she turned her face to where the voice came from, she saw the Officer of Arms’ white face within the darkness.

「……Officer of Arms-dono, what happened to your armor, to your clothes?」

Why, wasn’t the Officer of Arms wearing her helmet?

Why, did it look like the Officer of Arms’ upper body was stripped to the waist?

And then……

「Officer of Arms-dono……Who, are you……?」

Why, was the Officer of Arms’ face turned upside down?

At that time, the swaying light of the Glowlight faintly illuminated the direction that the Officer of Arms was at.

「……!」

What she saw there was the person she called the Officer of Arms, hanging from the ceiling with an atypical lower body that possessed four legs. It was the figure of an Arachne, an intermediate level Mazoku.