Chapter 140

To an S-rank hunter scraping by on dungeon rations, that setup looked utterly ridiculous.

Don’t you all get a sudden surge of motivation when you’re closing in on your target?

Didn’t it occur to you that the monsters would charge even faster once they spotted their goal right in front of them?

Or have you lived lives where you never had to worry about things like that?

Whether we clicked our tongues or not, the remaining monsters started racing toward the mansion after the magic circle activated.

Now we had to deal with those?

“A magic circle that size must have drained nearly all their mana to create.”

So Yeri the hunter said in a low voice.

Having seen it from above herself, she seemed to have a good sense of its scale.

I’d never drawn a magic circle myself, but even to me, it looked plenty large.

They were probably sprawled out in the sea right now, completely mana-drained.

Now the question was how to take down those 17 remaining beasts.

The three mages had no strength left to move and stayed rooted in place. Soon, a breathless race began between the 17 quadrupedal beasts and the knight.

The knight was displaying superhuman strength, nearly reaching the mansion.

But he didn’t look like someone who could take down 17 near-S-rank monsters without catching his breath.

And sure enough, the knight who stepped up to block the monsters’ path soon turned into a gray dot.

Death confirmed.

Right after, the 17 monsters surrounded the mansion.

“Oh no!”

Madam Maiden, frowning, seemed averse even to a simulated destruction of the Maiden mansion and quickly waved her hand.

—Paat!

A sparkling emerald light emanated from her fingertips, resetting the Eastern Empire folk to their starting positions.

“Huff… huff…”

The knight was still panting hard, and the mages had been resummoned in an utterly exhausted state.

All four looked a decade older in the blink of an eye.

“Indeed, the variables are significant. To think the outcomes could differ so drastically.”

Madam Maiden approached the sprawled quartet with a furrowed brow.

“Why on earth did you form such a formation?”

She asked sharply.

“Tha… huff…”

The three mages, lacking even the strength to speak, gasped and struggled to form words.

Realizing communication was impossible with them, Madam Maiden turned to the remaining one.

The knight, meeting her gaze, began to fidget nervously.

“Well… um…”

Of course, he couldn’t just say, “I ran full speed and got one-shot to death.”

Saying something like “I told those Western Empire bastards to go die” would earn him a warning on the spot.

“Surely not without reason…”

But staying silent wouldn’t get him off the hook.

Madam Maiden’s face twisted more and more.

—Chwak!

She snapped open her fan to cover her mouth and said,

“How utterly displeasing.”

Right? We’re displeased too!

Minus favorability for those guys!

As I silently cheered her on,

Red text appeared and vanished above the Eastern Empire people’s heads.

Current favorability floating above their heads.

Madam Maiden had simply deducted 10 from their favorability and turned away without another word.

Wait, that’s it???

As I unconsciously started to rage, a system window popped up.

She’s talking about them, not us, right?

Startled, I glanced at the Eastern Empire side. They looked shocked.

The same system window appeared four times.

“…!”

One of them was suddenly enveloped in a dark crimson light.

What the—?!

“N-No!”

I had no idea how it was conveyed to them without system windows.

One was tilting his head as if listening to something, so maybe it was auditory. Coincidentally, it was the guy who’d placed our linked toy soldier at the map’s edge.

“The basement here is…!”

As he said that, he was fully engulfed in the dark crimson light and vanished in place.

After a brief silence,

We all widened our eyes at the system window.

We figured being trapped in the basement—which they said was empty—meant no survival, but we didn’t expect to witness it.

“Wha, wha…!”

The Eastern Empire survivors, having seen the same, clamped their mouths shut mid-shout in shock. The knight and one mage were clearly terrified of the same fate.

‘No one said anything about dying!’

That’s what they wanted to scream, but clearly, they’d been living estranged from basic comprehension.

Common sense: forcibly teleported to solid bedrock at the bottom? What do you think happens?

“Our Madam Maiden aims for dignified discourse.”

Madam Maiden turned to us as she said that.

Her eyes gleamed with an ominous intensity for some reason.

“So, perhaps your side could propose a superior formation?”

She glanced at the mages and added,

“They’re not in great shape for testing, but I’d like to observe nonetheless.”

Only then did the Eastern Empire folk seem to truly realize this was a high-rank gate.

As their faces paled, we exchanged glances.

Formations that came to mind? More than a few.

Especially for combat-related ones. We were confident.

“I’ve considered something like this as a baseline.”

I simply positioned the toy soldiers with the knight up front and mages in support.

I pointed to the knight toy.

“This knight has the endurance to sprint full-tilt up the mountain the whole way monsters charge, so he’ll make an excellent wall.”

The knight didn’t need to kill monsters himself.

He’d hold them off with defensive swordplay while the mages handled them from behind.

“Of course, the time he can hold depends on the mages’ capabilities.”

Still, they wouldn’t get utterly wrecked like the Eastern Empire just did, right?

Madam Maiden nodded at my words.

“Traditional, but reliable.”

Great! Or so I thought that instant.

No, why -5 for you!

Do you just vibe with your mom that much?

The grim favorability window passed, and the system window flashed.

And we were instantly transported to the 3rd floor.

—Paat!

As soon as our vision cleared, we saw a room.

The Eastern Empire folk, recognized as guests of the lady of the house, seemed to be in a different room.

The one we were in looked like a playroom for kids.

“It’s all toys.”

The furniture and items were all rounded at the edges and child-sized.

Kid-sized, right at Rifen de Maiden’s eye level.

And in the center of the room was a meal.

The portions were, naturally, child-sized.

“That’s why they gave us such small servings.”

The child-appropriate meal on kid’s utensils finally made sense.

They saw us as kids, or Rifen’s friends, and sent small portions accordingly.

But we obviously aren’t kids—can’t they up the amount a bit?

Before we ate, Poison Detection appeared on Yian the hunter’s skill window.

I flinched for a moment. Not poisoned again, right?

“At least no poisons below SS-rank.”

She’d just checked because it was dungeon food.

“Thanks! Dig in!”

So Yeri the hunter exclaimed. We joined in.

In dungeons, it was best to avoid eating when possible, but refusing a meal in a house that prized decorum might trigger another warning.

Fortunately, it was delicious.

“SS-rank quality lives up to the hype.”

Shin Jae-heon marveled. The only downside? The portions, of course.

Koreans run on rice power! Who can survive on this?!

Still, as we finished our modest meal satisfactorily,

Then, out of nowhere, red system windows followed in sequence.

Suddenly preaching about responsibility.

Quick-witted hunters think like this in such cases.

“Roughly means there are traps on the 3rd floor too, right?”

The three hunters nodded at my words.

“Mm.”

But So Yeri the hunter seemed to have something to say, opening and closing her mouth.

With 2 warnings, she was being cautious.

Then Shin Jae-heon piped up bluntly.

“They’re blatantly signaling traps, so were you thinking we should just chill?”

Spot on. So Yeri nodded vigorously.

She’d clearly planned something cruder (by the lady of the house’s standards).

Like, let’s camp here and leech! or whatever…

Ugh, this dungeon was so creepy, I needed to clear it fast.

“Anyway, traps mean moving around much won’t help, right?”

So Yeri spread her hands.

“I don’t think that’s the mansion owner’s intent.”

Yian the hunter shook her head.

Model student mindset? Piercing the question-setter’s intentions?

“You’re right.”

In the end, whatever the owner wanted, we’d have to clash with the 3rd floor.

As long as we had this skill, no choice.

But the moment we started moving, another skill attached.

“Oh.”

I couldn’t help but admire it.

The mansion’s strict rules, plus Surveillance, now 3rd Floor Surveillance on top?

Three L-rank surveillance skills!

What a truly free time!

3rd floor freedom! Is this freedom?!

“……”

“……”

We exchanged looks.

Quietly vowing to chew out Madam Maiden over drinks once we escaped.

“Anyway, let’s look around.”

Shin Jae-heon gestured.

They called it free time, but achieving whatever decorum-obsessed Madam Countess Maiden wanted was surely the 3rd floor’s goal.

“……?”

But after wandering the mansion’s 3rd floor for dozens of minutes, we encountered a bizarre situation.

It didn’t seem to align with Madam Maiden’s intentions, no matter how we looked at it.

“Huh?”

We’d found a space where all three layers of surveillance debuffs had vanished entirely.

We widened our eyes.