MTC 03

Chapter : 03

I hadn’t even walked more than a few steps before I somehow found myself back at the very spot where I had awakened.

It happened so quickly that it was almost as if my earlier desperate sprint, when I had run until I was out of breath, had all been a lie.

The enormous black entity and the flying clay doll were still there, exactly as before.

It felt as though I had been bewitched by a ghost. I stood before them in a humble posture.

“Oh, you’re back! You’re back! Where on earth did you rush off to?”

The moment it saw me, the clay doll began chattering away.

“Don’t tell me you were trying to run away in the middle of your interview?”

I flinched.

“No, well… I, um, that is…”

I felt like it would get angry if I told the truth. I hesitated, glancing around nervously, and the doll, which had been watching my expression, suddenly let out a shrill scream.

“Oh, honestly, Demon King! You’re acting so intimidating that you’re frightening this human! Just look at how his voice is trembling! I’ve given you so much advice about saving that kind of appearance for when a hero comes looking for you!”

“Ahem. Is my appearance frightening?”

“A-a little…?”

I answered the question without thinking.

At that moment, the oppressive aura that had been weighing down the air disappeared, and the black shroud covering the enormous entity slowly peeled away.

What emerged was a gigantic bird resembling an owl, with ash-gray feathers.

It wasn’t merely plump. Its body was quite hefty, and its round eyes were half-buried beneath its downy feathers and chubby cheeks.

The fact that it had four legs was a little bizarre, but looking at its upper body alone, it had a surprisingly cute appearance.

Perhaps because of its adorable looks, the fear I felt toward the being in front of me gradually began to fade.

“This form lacks dignity.”

“Is this really the time to worry about dignity when there’s a new employee about to join? You’re the one who should be worried, Demon King!”

“Ahem.”

Perhaps the little doll’s words had served as a signal to relax, because the owl suddenly twisted its body and flopped down on its throne. Then it scratched its side vigorously with its claws and let out a long yawn.

“You’ve gone way too far in the other direction! There’s no middle ground with you, Demon King! No middle ground!”

The clay doll started scolding it again, but the owl didn’t pay the slightest attention.

Instead, it looked down at me with its large, piercing eyes.

“You understand now that this is reality, don’t you?”

Its expression seemed a little sulky, and I had a feeling it knew perfectly well that I had tried to run away.

“Y-yes, sir…!”

I answered with every ounce of seriousness I could muster.

The strange, oppressive aura was still there, but watching the fat owl get bullied by the clay doll gradually eased my fear.

As a result, my thoughts slowly began to return to normal.

‘I should just accept it now…’

I had been transported to another dimension, and the outside world was frightening and dangerous.

If I encountered another monster like the one I had seen earlier, I might genuinely faint.

And what if there were more creatures like that out there?

From the looks of things, I had probably been lucky enough to remain unharmed because I was here, near this place—in other words, near the dungeon.

If that was the case… rather than trying to escape recklessly, it would be safer to look for a way to return to my own world from here.

Which brought me to my next idea.

How about negotiating with that owl?

If the owl was the reason I had ended up here, surely it could send me back to where I originally belonged, right?

I swallowed hard.

“Are you ready to sign the contract now? Yaaawn.”

Unlike when we had first met, the owl’s voice was now filled with an overwhelming sense of annoyance.

“Demon King, yawning so openly is unbecoming!”

“I want to go to sleep right now.”

“You absolutely must finish the contract before going to bed! Just how long are you planning to leave this dungeon neglected?!”

Think, think! I have to think of something! Gong Choi!

‘First, I need to figure out exactly where I am.’

Come to think of it, they had called this place a dungeon.

Dungeon. It wasn’t an unfamiliar word. It was something I had encountered countless times in games.

PC games had been the only pleasure in my miserable corporate life, so I was familiar with the concept.

Dungeons were usually places filled with monsters and traps. They were dangerous, but you defeated enemies, overcame the traps, and obtained the sweet rewards waiting at the end. They were also places people deliberately visited to help their characters grow stronger.

I took a deep breath before speaking.

“Before joining the company… this is my first experience of this kind, so I’m very inexperienced. I believe I’ll need more knowledge to compensate for my shortcomings. I hope you don’t mind, but would it be all right if I asked a few questions?”

“You have my permission.”

Despite saying that, the owl’s eyelids drooped heavily, as though they could close at any moment.

Its expression was indifferent, and it was still vigorously scratching its side with its claws.

“This place… doesn’t seem to be the world I used to live in. Where exactly am I?”

“A dimension with more possibilities than the one you lived in. However, daily life will not be all that different. Will you sign the contract now?”

“Ah, I’m still not sure about that. Then, since you called this place a dungeon… are you perhaps something like the boss of the dungeon?”

“Pfft! A boss! Demon King, did you hear that? He called you a boss!”

The owl fell silent for a moment. Then, with its eyes half-closed, it stared intently at me.

Feeling uncomfortable under its gaze, I subtly looked away.

“I see. So that is how you understand dungeons? I understand now. Inside a game, you say…”

Its muttering gave me the creeps. I hadn’t said anything about a game, yet it seemed obvious that it had read my thoughts.

“It seems you need quite a bit of basic knowledge about this world. You’ll need it to manage this dungeon properly, too. Brownie would be perfect for the role of teacher.”

“Brownie?”

“That’s me! Brownie, the resident fairy of this dungeon!”

I had thought it was just a big-headed clay figurine that could move and talk, but it turned out to be a fairy.

It was so different from the fairies I had imagined that I couldn’t help feeling as though my childhood fantasies had been shattered.

“What should I teach you first? Oh! You just called the Demon King a boss, didn’t you? Then I’ll start by telling you about the Demon King.”

Since more information was always better, I decided to listen for now.

“Half of this world is ruled by twenty-one Demon Kings! And among them, our Demon King’s rank is…”

Twenty-one Demon Kings? And they even had rankings. The worldbuilding was more elaborate than I had expected.

I stared intently at Brownie’s tiny mouth.

“Our Demon King’s rank is second…”

“W-wait, second place?! That’s incredibly powerful…!”

“Twenty-first!”

“……”

I barely managed to swallow the words So, dead last…

Looking at the owl, I could almost understand why it was ranked last.

Even now, it didn’t have a single ounce of motivation. Its face practically screamed that everything in the world was a bother.

Surely it hadn’t gotten so chubby simply because it barely moved, had it?

“All Demon Kings own dungeons. Dungeons absorb the fear of their visitors, and that fear is converted directly into power for the Demon King!”

“I see… A Demon King managing a dungeon. That’s some unfamiliar information.”

In any case, the being standing right in front of me was a Demon King?

But if it was a Demon King… didn’t that mean it was evil?

If the hero was usually the symbol of justice and goodness, then the Demon King was naturally the opposite.

And of all things, my résumé had ended up in the hands of a Demon King.

“The more fear a dungeon extracts, the greater its infamy becomes. That, in turn, enhances the Demon King’s authority. The more infamous the dungeon a Demon King owns, the higher their ranking rises.”

“Now that the dungeon is here and we’re about to have a manager, your rank will rise in no time, Demon King!”

I had roughly understood how the dungeon worked. However, I still had absolutely no idea how to get back to Earth…

Was I really going to be forcibly hired and made to work in this dangerous place?

Just then, an idea suddenly flashed through my mind.

“Salary! That’s right, the salary has to be reasonable for me to work here! I-I may not look like much, but I’m actually a highly skilled professional, and I used to earn a pretty high salary!”

As ridiculous as it might sound, salary negotiations were a topic that all superiors hated dealing with.

No matter what kind of compensation the Demon King offered, if I kept rejecting it as too low, wouldn’t it eventually have no choice but to give up on hiring me?

“I will give you one billion for every rank I rise. In the currency of the world you live in.”

“…Pardon?”

The amount was so enormous that my thoughts came to a complete halt. I couldn’t bring myself to reject it.

Had I heard correctly?

I could almost hear the phantom sound of a money-counting machine rapidly flipping through banknotes in my ears.

“One billion…? Really?”

“We possess a power called causality, which allows us to create various possibilities. By using this power, we can generate any object of value that you desire.”

One billion… And it would pay me every time its rank increased. The Demon King in front of me was currently ranked twenty-first.

That meant its rank could rise another twenty times. In other words… twenty billion.

Even if its rank increased by just one position, I would receive an amount of money that would be difficult to earn even after working for my entire life!

Until just a moment ago, I had been desperately trying to find a way to cancel my employment at the dungeon.

And yet, rather ridiculously, I found myself wavering.