Chapter 66
Up until just now, they’d had a clash of nerves with the crown prince, but it didn’t seem to matter much.
“It’s not that. I had a strange nightmare! What a filthy dream it was. In the dream, I—Max—had become a cook. I was working hard making food for my master, when suddenly someone broke into the master’s mansion and killed everyone.”
Max wasn’t much use for survival, and even the trait he had awakened was only good for running away. With him, there was always plenty to criticize.
But if he had one redeeming quality, it was that since he always spoke without thinking, he never really lied.
At Max’s mention of being a cook, everyone seemed to recall the monster in the banquet hall.
“Was there more to it, Sir Max?”
Yeniel asked as if confirming, and Max answered without a second thought.
“There was, but it was a rotten nightmare! What good is it to tell you?”
“Max. You remember the monster in the banquet hall we ran into, don’t you? It was wearing a cook’s uniform. Don’t you recall?”
At the crown prince’s words, Max’s eyes went wide.
“Oh? Now that you mention it, yes! If you want me to say more—well, it was the master’s birthday that day, so I was baking a cake. I planned to serve it during the evening banquet. He was such a good man, I truly wanted to celebrate him. But suddenly everyone was massacred, and the cake vanished. A knife pierced my chest, and I was so bitter with grief. I even felt a grudge so deep that I wished to rip out the villain’s heart and devour it.”
When Max finished, he clutched his chest and shuddered violently.
The banquet dish placed before the third-floor monster changed every time.
I made sure to remember the mention of cake.
“Ugh, but what does this have to do with anything?”
“It does.”
Sian explained to Max.
“There were two plates before the monster. One was an ordinary plate, the other covered with a silver lid. One of them must have held the cake.”
“And what gives you the confidence to say that, Sir Isengriff? Isn’t this just guessing?”
Sian sighed and gave Max a cold stare.
“Do you not even remember what just happened? That monster shed bloody tears while calling out the name of Aquilium. Looking at the circumstances, those were clearly its own memories.”
“Eek!”
Max was wounded in pride. But Sian’s logic was so sound that he had no real rebuttal.
“Both of you, calm down.”
Just then, Yeniel pointed toward one of the doors on the second floor of the inner kitchen.
It was a doorway without a door, just a frame.
“First, we need to find detergent and wash the dishes. Looking around, most of the second floor seems empty. But this room looks like a storeroom. Let’s check inside.”
As Yeniel said, the second floor was mostly empty. Here and there were a few boxes with spare frying pans or pots.
We went into the only room that was truly enclosed: the storeroom.
Several shelves lined the walls.
This is where the monster with its eyes sewn shut comes out, right.
I recalled the information and readied myself to swing the axe-spear at any moment.
The storeroom was desolate and eerie. Perhaps wanting to get out quickly, Max searched the shelves harder than anyone else.
“Dish soap! Here it is! But which one of these is the detergent?”
Not finding it right away, he picked up bottles at random, grumbling.
The crown prince looked at Max, at a loss for words.
“Max. That bottle in your hand…”
On the bottle Max held was written <Detergent>.
“Careful! Sir Max!”
At that moment, Yeniel cried out.
A servant monster appeared, hanging upside down from the ceiling above Max’s head.
Unlike the maid monster at the entrance, its condition looked much worse. Its skin had turned a bluish-purple, and its eyes were sewn shut, making it grotesque to behold.
[Those eyes. I want Aquilium’s eyes.]
[Let’s trade. Eyes.]
[Give me eyes. Give me your eyes.]
The servant monster also targeted the crown prince first, lunging straight at him.
Its skeletal, withered hands swung out, trying to snatch the prince’s eyes. Its arms were unnaturally long.
Just as its long claws were about to reach his eyes, I swung my axe-spear.
By chance, the strike also swept away several boxes from the shelves.
Crash—clatter!
With the second swing, the axe-spear easily split the monster’s body in two.
But I didn’t let my guard down. I remembered how the maid monster had lunged with terrifying speed at the last moment.
Sure enough, the servant monster also went berserk just before dying.
[Give me eyes!]
Once bitten, twice shy—or rather, never bitten at all.
Blood splattered as the monster’s body collapsed.
Even April’s pale face was stained with blood.
I passed the corpse without a second glance and approached the crown prince, whose stance had faltered.
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
I asked gently, blood still spattered across me.
This was a message.
A hint that I was a monster who could kill monsters with ease.
A show: if it were revealed that they had abandoned me, this was what would happen to them.
The crown prince swallowed hard.
The warm camaraderie we’d had earlier—like during the fourth-floor dungeon—was now shattered.
They were recalling the time I appeared before them carrying a demon’s head.
“…I am fine. Thanks to Lady April.”
“I’m glad!”
I began calculating the timing for moving to the hidden map.
Now that we had the detergent, they would surely go back to wash the dishes.
Once the banquet was ready, the banquet-hall event would conclude.
Before the defense game began, I had to curse Sian’s trait so he would be rendered useless, just as planned.
So, now that we had the detergent—this was the perfect moment. Any later would be too late.
I pulled out the Mysterious Key from my inventory.
Hiding my hand in my sleeve, I gripped it tightly.
If I pressed the jewel on it, I and any nearby strategy characters would be teleported to the butler’s room.
Now.
While Sian and Yeniel were still standing apart, spattered with the monster’s blood.
“April is happiest when she can protect her friends! I’m glad you’re all safe.”
Smiling brightly, I casually fiddled with the key inside my sleeve.
At that moment—
“Sian! My body won’t move away!”
The crown prince shouted.
“Hm?”
Feigning innocence, I put on an expression as though I had no idea what was happening.
The hidden dungeon only drew in me, the caster, and those within a certain range.
But since the crown prince had been standing right next to me, it looked exactly like a magic circle swallowing him whole.
