Night King.
What a loathsome word.
There were plenty of nicknames people pinned on me, but it all got narrowed down to just this one.
"The Night King. He suddenly appeared in the dungeon."
"That's what he called himself, apparently."
Why.
Of all things, why the Night King?
"The Night King goes without saying. His subordinates are strong, too."
"Subordinates?"
"Dungeon monsters, apparently."
"And they're placed bosses."
"Huh?"
Placed bosses — those are the monsters I built into my dungeon.
So why are they serving under the guy calling himself the Night King?
"And what's more — the Night King uses Banish."
"Wait, what?!"
A Night King who uses Banish.
That's literally me.
No, I am absolutely, categorically not the Night King, so that's not me.
I'm here, so I'm definitely not the Night King.
Calm down. Calm down. Get a grip.
But someone who uses Banish... Who on earth is that?
Banish is a rare type of Relic.
But just because it's rare doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Narses has one, and Juicy acquired hers through me.
So it wouldn't be strange for someone else to have one.
It wouldn't be strange, except the person who has Banish is calling themselves the Night King.
That's practically picking a fight with me.
No, that's definitely picking a fight with me.
Bring it on. I'll take that fight.
"But Agaro and Alexander were in the dungeon too, right?"
"Yeah, they used the Dungeon Core as leverage."
"Had no choice but to comply, I suppose."
"And now they're being held hostage."
So that's how it is. Cowardly.
That makes it even less forgivable.
I don't know who it is, but I won't let them get away with this!
"Got it. Let's head to Haizen right now."
"Hold on. Just the two of us isn't enough firepower."
"The enemy's powerful and there are hostages. We can't win unless we get our forces in order too."
"So we're going around to hit up any contacts who might be able to help."
"...I see. Understood. By the way, did you all come here on the Etranze?"
When I asked, Axe grew evasive.
"A-ah, well, that's..."
"I'd heard rumors, but..."
"No way."
It's flying, though.
"Everyone. Do you actually have any contacts?"
"...That Etranze thing. If you'd lend us that ship—"
"Sure. If you talk to Nekia, she can take you there."
"Sorry."
"I'm going to see my sisters now. To report about Jushi."
"...Jushi..."
Right. So Jushi was taken hostage too.
"Jushi is safe."
"Y-yes."
"I've got nothing. What about you, Wof?"
"For now, I'll go down my contacts list one by one and see what I can do."
I showed them the ring-shaped portable terminal.
But the problem is, I can't use this thing beyond a certain range.
Guess I'll start with the people in Hydrangea.
And so we split up to secure our fighting strength.
Hoss made mixed-meat soup in my room.
The ones who gathered were the following members.
"Man, this is amazing. It happened in like no time."
A young horned man, warm and gentle-looking.
Despite how he looks, this is Axe's father. His name is Ens.
He's been trapped in the dungeon's ice for so long that he still looks young.
On top of that, he's a beast who made it to First-Class Delver without even a Relic.
He's known as "Crosser of the Abyss Floor," Ens.
"Dad. Did you call for me?"
"Well, you're strong and mobile, so..."
Axe answered gruffly.
He's willing to ask for help like this, so the parent-child relationship can't be all that bad.
"Tch, what a mess. That Juicy guy."
The one with the sharp tone is Shesh.
Short, rough blond hair with prominent red streaks, and black horns.
Blue eyes with a gaze sharp like a thug's.
A petite face, with three piercings in each ear.
A red-black shirt with bulging, mountain-like curves overflowing even more prominently.
She wore jeans-like pants with her left leg exposed, chains wrapped around her waist.
A sabre and a longsword hung at each hip. Jushii-san's older sister.
"Don't say that, Sheshu-chan. She's working hard too, you know."
The one smiling wryly was Syuu-san, also Jushii-san's older sister.
Golden hair that clung to her body as if wrapping around it. Blue eyes.
A woman of such transcendent beauty that anyone who saw her would be struck awake. And yet, she was a grappler.
Rumor had it she'd beaten a top-tier gold-ranked monster to death with her bare fists. Some kind of monster herself?
"One way or another, I'm worried about my little sister."
Rel pushed her glasses up with a click and said calmly.
"Right."
"And besides, Samaniya is safe."
"That's a relief."
The people who'd been in the dungeon were being held hostage, weren't they.
"Moreover, claiming the title of Night King — which is Master Wof's epithet — is unforgivable."
Munieka poured tea with an expressionless look of disapproval.
Well, it's not actually an epithet.
The one who'd managed to find them was Munieka.
We contacted everyone one by one.
First, the Witch and Chaib weren't in Hydrangea.
I'd known that from the start. The Witch had gone far away for the Witch Water promo.
Chaib was at his own shop.
I knew where he was, but showing up at Étrangé would be a bother.
But Mineha, Shiro, Megadia, and Kaede all went unanswered.
I tried reaching out to Anemos too, but no luck there either.
They were probably in the dungeon.
These communication devices. They don't work in dungeons or over long distances.
They were originally just an in-ship communication app, so that probably wasn't accounted for.
And so it was just me and the three members of Thunder Fang.
……Bzz……———bzz……bzz……
Without warning, a strange electronic sound rang out behind me.
………….
I didn't turn around. Because I already knew.
Floating behind me was a round, pink object.
It was fairly large—a perfect sphere.
It had rings like a planet, with countless smaller spheres orbiting around it.
………….
Apparently, it was called the Afterlife Vision System ver. β.
What even is that, I thought. It was clearly not human, animal, or monster.
Well, maybe it could count as a monster, I considered, but there was no way it was a living thing based on that name alone.
And somehow, even this bizarre object was a Grade-Ⅰ Delver.
I know it sounds made up, but it really was a Grade-Ⅰ Delver.
Because it was a Grade-Ⅰ Delver, it had properly participated in the Grand Rounds too.
It was floating above my seat in the conference room.
"Beep-beep... singularity... detected... beep-beep... singularity... detected."
It had been circling around me for a while now, scanning.
I had no idea what a singularity was, but it had been detecting something this whole time.
And here's the thing.
Nobody invited it. So why is it here?