After that, the surgery proceeded smoothly. Daisy no longer screamed in agony. She didn't lose consciousness, either. Only occasional beast-like groans escaped her lips.
"Kh— nngh."
Her teeth were biting into her lip. It had split open and bright red blood was trickling down, but Daisy herself didn't notice. The pain was simply too great. The pain from the surgery must have been overwhelmingly stronger than anything she felt in her lip.
The room grew quiet.
Jeremy fell silent, as though she had never been noisy in the first place. The surgery continued calmly and without a word. During that time, Daisy and I stared each other down.
Her eyes were deep, like a well.
Hatred was being spewed up from the very bottom, like a backed-up sewer. I met her gaze willingly. My eyes had already witnessed plenty of hells. A few more drops of resentment wouldn't cause them to overflow. She and I continued staring at each other until the surgery ended.
"……It is finished, Your Grace Dantalion."
Jeremy let out a sigh. She stitched up Daisy's chest and disinfected the wound with a towel soaked in vinegar.
"This child is now your slave, Your Grace. Command her as you will."
"Do not harm me. Do not harm those I hold dear. When I or they are in danger, never turn away."
I spoke without turning my eyes from hers.
"You will obey my commands, and you will prioritize my life over your own. These are the first orders I am giving you, wretch. No matter what happens from now on, you will follow these first orders to the letter."
"……Yes."
The moment the word left her mouth, Daisy's head drooped. The girl had fainted with her eyes still open.
"You have subjugated Daisy as a slave!"
"You may now fully view your slave's Status Window regardless of Affinity. A 'Subservience Level' has been added to the slave's Status Window."
"Abysmal Subservience Level!"
"The bond of servitude has been established through a powerful magical brand. However, the other party does not acknowledge you as their master in the slightest. Due to the abysmal Subservience Level, a new title has been granted to the other party."
With a sound effect, a holographic notification window popped up.
"Ha."
It was almost comical. When I recruited Laura as a subordinate, she'd achieved supreme and unwavering loyalty right off the bat, but now that I'd enslaved Daisy, I'd gotten an 'Abysmal Subservience Level' immediately. It seems like only the most extreme outcomes ever happen to me.
Not that it matters. As long as she can't defy me, that's enough. I'll deal with the rest of the problems one step at a time. The journey to spark a civil war in the Frank Empire has only just begun. I've got more than enough time.
The notification window wasn't finished yet.
"Congratulations! You have acquired a slave for the first time. The 'Training' tab has been activated for slaves."
"Daisy's Rebellion Brand (Lv.3) has increased!"
"Daisy's Agony Brand (Lv.3) has increased!"
"Daisy's Humiliation Brand (Lv.1) has increased!"
…This was yet another unfamiliar notification window.
Dungeon Attack didn't have a feature for enslaving NPCs as slaves. A Training tab? I'd never seen that before.
This was the second time I'd witnessed a feature that didn't exist in the game at all. The first had been Quest Shattering. I suspected it had to do with the different positions of the Hero and the Demon Lord — perhaps that was what caused the discrepancies. I'd need to verify it slowly later on.
For now, it was time to commend the greatest contributor to the surgery.
"Good work, Jeremy."
I clapped Jeremy on the shoulder.
"I made you go through a lot for the after-hours sessions."
"Not at all, Your Majesty. We were hired to carry out your orders."
"No. I want to give you a reward."
Surgery was an excruciatingly exhausting procedure for the practitioner as well.
Moreover, it was a highly refined art that involved engraving a magical brand onto the heart. Not something just anyone could pull off. It was only possible because Jeremy had undergone surgery himself and had performed it multiple times.
" You prepared everything yourself — the potion, mandrake, incense candles, even the surgical instruments. Having someone like me freeload off your labor only damages my reputation. I'll compensate you however I can, within reason."
Jeremy rested his chin on his hand and pondered.
"If Your Excellency truly means that… might this lowly one dare make a wish beyond his station?"
"By all means. I swear upon Goddess Artemis."
I clasped my hands together like a priest and bowed my head deeply.
"Pfft. Y-Your Excellency. You really do suit the role of a temple priest."
"If I weren't the Demon Lord, I could've become the High Priest."
Jeremy laughed cheerfully.
In a sealed room drenched in the blood of a ten-year-old girl, a man and a woman snickered together. Neither of them was anywhere close to being sane. All the more so in that both of them were merely putting on smiles on the surface, while their emotions didn't budge an inch.
Jeremy spoke.
"Lord Dantalion. Could you tell me who this child is?"
"Hmm. I was hoping you might not ask for money, but sure enough, here we are…"
I fetched a wine glass from the desk in the corner of the room. With the scent of incense candles seeping into everything, the wine tasted unbearably bitter.
"I watched Your Excellency plan and execute the entire Crescent Alliance Army operation. As I mentioned before, at the time I experienced a pleasure I could count on one hand in my entire life. What Your Excellency is thinking, what Your Excellency is aiming for — that, more than anything, is what sparks the strongest curiosity in me."
Despite that intense curiosity, Jeremy had kept quiet until now.
When we raided the farming village, when we intimidated the settlers, when we lured in Luke — Jeremy hadn't uttered a single word of doubt. He did exactly as I ordered. He had been suppressing his curiosity, considering questions to be overstepping his bounds.
Only after he'd earned the right to do so did he ask. He knew precisely when to retreat and when to push forward.
Truly professional. The reputation of the premier assassination unit in the Demon Realm was no empty title.
"Very well. Jeremy, from this point forward, what you hear is the most classified of classified secrets."
"I swear I will not breathe a word of it to anyone, anywhere, at any time."
"Do you know what a Hero is?"
Jeremy nodded. She pulled a smoking pipe from her breast pocket, ground the same hallucinogenic powder used in the surgery into the bowl, and lit it.
"Yes. If I'm not mistaken, it is a title bestowed upon one who has slain the Demon Lord."
"The girl and her brother here are humans who will become Heroes."
"Ho ho."
Jeremy blew a plume of smoke upward. The woman, half her face scarred by burns, offered a demure smile.
"Might I ask where you obtained that information… could this humble one know even that much?"
"Would you believe me if I said it was a prophecy?"
"Of course I would, Great One."
It was a remark tossed out half in jest. But contrary to my expectations, Jeremy received it with complete seriousness.
I tipped a mouthful of wine down my gullet.
"More than one or two Demon Lords have been slain. Countless Demon Lords have surely lost their lives… I came to this Frank Empire to put a stop to it."
"You do indeed possess monstrous magical power."
Jeremy, apparently having satisfied herself on some count or other, nodded two or three times. That seemed to settle her curiosity. No — it looked more like her interest had simply drifted elsewhere. I had steeled myself for a barrage of questions…
Well, if she'd reached her own understanding, there was no reason for me to intervene.
I turned my gaze.
A wooden bed, fouled beyond recognition. A young girl's naked body glowed red and flushed, restrained limply against it. She had thrashed her limbs so violently throughout the surgery that the skin on her cuffed wrists had been stripped clean away.
'Status Window.'
*Ting* — a disgustingly cheerful sound effect rang out.
Before my eyes, a Status Window more detailed than anything I had ever seen before was displayed — and I was stunned.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Daisy
Race: Human Master: Dantalion
Alignment: Neutral(0)
Level: 1 Fame: 1
Job: Adventurer(-), Swordsman(-)
Leadership: 9/100 Force: 13/140 Intellect: 13/125
Politics: 9/95 Charm: 10/100 Technique: 8/81
Affinity: 0
Subservience: 0
*Titles: 1. Legendary Adventurer(-) 2. Legendary Mercenary(-) 3. Dungeon Breaker(-)
*Abilities: Tactics(-), Swordsmanship(-), Strategy(-), Persuasion(-), Cavalry(-), Elemental Magic(-)
*Skills: Volunteer Corps(-), Thousand-Mile Journey(-), Lethal Immunity(-)
Current Psychological State: Not displayed due to the effects of Affinity and Subservience.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"……."
So this is what it feels like to be rendered speechless.
Every drop of blood drained from the top of my head in an instant. It felt as though my entire body was turning to stone.
I had seen these stats before.
No. It wasn't merely that I had seen them before. They were far too familiar. The stats, the titles, the abilities, and the skills — every last one of them, all of them were so impossibly familiar to me... that the shock left my limbs completely numb.
'This.'
It was the most obvious thing in the world.
The first person in fan-site history to conquer seventy-two dungeons. To locate the Great Demon Lord's hidden dungeon and seal away Bael. To overcome thousands of failures, to cycle through playthrough after playthrough, and to be granted the name of Mundus by the rulers of the Human Realm.
'These are my character's stats.'
The only thing I had ever been proud of. The only thing I had ever taken pride in.
The stat caps, the skills, the abilities, the titles I had cultivated through blood and sweat — they were all there.
As if possessed, I opened the Status Window and pored over every last detail.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Titles]
1. Legendary Adventurer (—). The pinnacle title of the Adventurer job class. Represents every adventurer in the world. There is no dungeon he cannot clear, no monster he cannot defeat. Currently inactive: on level-up, [Might] +6, [Intellect] +1, [Charm] +4, Adventurer job level growth speed x4
2. Legendary Mercenary (—). The pinnacle title of the Mercenary job class. Represents every mercenary in the world. There is no mercenary who will refuse his call to arms, no army he cannot annihilate. Currently inactive: on level-up, [Command] [Might] +6, [Politics] +2, Mercenary job level growth speed x4
3. Dungeon Breaker (—). A title bestowed upon a Hero who has conquered every dungeon. Currently inactive: when entering combat within a dungeon, [Command] [Might] effect 140%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"......"
Next.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Skills]
*Militia (—). SS-rank AoE enhancement active skill. Currently inactive. Excluding the user, applies to all allied units within their affiliated unit: Attack Power 140%, Defense 140%, invalidates attack and defense reduction from injuries
*Thousand-Li March (—). SS-rank self-enhancement active skill. Currently inactive. Applies to the user: [Command] [Might] effect 140%, invalidates unit type penalty and terrain penalty
*Lethal Nullification (—). SSS-rank self-enhancement passive skill. Currently inactive. Applies to the user: when hit by an enemy skill, maximum damage cannot exceed 50% of remaining HP
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"……Ha."
A laugh escaped me before I even realized it.
Everything I was looking at right now—these were all achievements earned by enduring absurdly punishing difficulty.
For example, the title <Dungeon Breaker> synergized with the skill <Thousand-Li March>. Say a character's combat power is 100. If that character fights inside a dungeon, the title <Dungeon Breaker> boosts their combat power to 140. Then if <Thousand-Li March> stacks on top of that, it climbs to 196. That's essentially doubling the stat.
Which title would grant the greatest effect. Which skills needed to stack together to achieve optimal efficiency. I had agonized over layer upon layer of deliberation just to produce these results.
The fact that there had almost been two Heroes instead of one was already dizzying enough……
*'Now you're going to inherit even my play data on top of that?'*
I could only laugh at myself.
"Ha, haha."
It seemed this world was even more goddamn screwed than I had imagined.