Dungeon. It was a living structure where an ancient hermit crab that turned into a monster fused with a cave or ruins and used it as their “shell”.

The monster hermit crab evolved repeatedly in order to absorb mana and life force from the living things that wandered into them. They even scanned the residual thought of those that died inside them in order to better lure 『human』 and 『monster』, the two living things that they considered as their best “food”. That was how dungeon ended up producing things that those two species sought of.

Suitable environment that monster preferred, precious metals and gems that human liked, and also weapons or magic tools that were created from ores.....

Because the dungeon had never been human before, most of the things that they created were no different from trash, but a dungeon that had existed for a long time and continued to absorb residual thought all along could increase their floor level, recreated their cave into stone passage, and they even gradually became bale to create 『magic sword』 or 『treasure』 that human couldn’t create.

And then....the residual thoughts that continued to accumulate inside a dungeon for thousand of years would possess an ego as 『a dungeon’s spirit』 that was different from the spirits of the natural world. This dungeon’s spirit then would grant 【Gift】 to intellectual creature that arrived at their lowest floor.

【Gift】──A special ability that surpassed mere human strength.

In the past heroes would seek that power, used that power to overcome numerous difficulties, and guided the human society, countries toward peace.

Therefore humans sought for dungeon with dream in their heart.

Even while knowing that what they would find there wouldn’t be limited to just “hope”.....

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And now the young royalties of Claydale Kingdom would also challenge a dungeon.

Several hundred years ago, Claydale Kingdom absorbed Dandall Dukedom and Melrose Dukedom and rapidly grew in strength, becoming a powerful country. Naturally such rapid growth caused the neighboring countries to consider them as dangerous. Because of that the next generation of the royal family sought to obtain 【Gift】 in order to oppose the other countries.

While the crown prince, the first princess, and the noble daughters who were engaged to the crown prince were making their preparation to conquer the dungeon, the head of the royal court magicians, Count Lester were having a conversation with his daughter who would participate in the dungeon exploration this time due to her status as a fiancée of the crown prince. The conversation that was taking place in the office of his mansion had an extremely cold atmosphere even though they were father and daughter.

「Carla....I won’t ask you to come back safely. Just don’t let the crown prince to die. That’s the only thing that I’m asking from you.」

「Very well, dear father.」

「I don’t permit you to bring the servants of this mansion with you. Just choose some people from outside.」

「I understand.」

Those weren’t words that a parent should say toward their child who would be heading to a dangerous place, but even after listening to the words of Count Lester──Ignas Lester that he was spitting while frowning the whole time, Carla was only squinting her eyes that had dark circles around them with a sunny smile on her lips.

She didn’t remember how many years it had been since the last time they had a father and daughter conversation like this. The father treated her daughter like a thing, while the daughter didn’t even consider her father as human. The chasm between them had gone far beyond being a mere irreconcilable difference. The atmosphere among the two of them could even be called as an atmosphere between two enemies.

In fact, Ignas had attempted to kill Carla before, and not just once or twice. He only left his daughter alive when she was still little because he thought that she still had some use for him, but his daughter’s dangerousness rose up by leapt and bound as she grew older, and currently the only reason why they didn’t kill each other was because of Carla’s status as a fiancée of the crown prince at the present time.

She didn’t have long to live anyway. She might die just by a single punch from an ordinary person. But Carla hadn’t died even when she was poisoned by her family.

「....Begone from my sight. Nothing would make me happier if you become the crown prince’s shield and die. That will be the greatest fidelity you can perform for the royal family as a member of Lester House.」

The father told his daughter to go die. The daughter laughed in respond to that.

「Fufu....that sounds like fun but, in that case I’ll need a “shield” to use. Is it alright if I bring one of my dear brothers with me?」

「You....-!」

「I’m just joking, dear father. I forgot that I only have one brother left.」

She only had one big brother remaining despite having three in the past. Even that last remaining brother had never returned to this mansion for many years because he was scared of getting killed by Carla.

「Then fare thee well, dear father. Should I also give my greeting to dear mother?」

「Just get out of my sight already!!」

*BAM-!*

The thrown ink jar hit the door that Carla closed, leaving behind an ugly scratch and black stain.

Carla listened to that sound from outside the room while chuckling. Then she began walking through the corridor cheerfully.

.

What Carla wished for could be found in the dungeon. And the chance for that had come to her faster than she expected.

Originally even though it was expected for members of the royal family to dive into dungeon, asking those at their teenage who hadn’t even enrolled into the academy to do such thing could be said as too premature. .This hastiness might be caused by Carla and the first princess Elena.

Carla became even more fixated toward strength since a certain time period. Her capability as a magician surpassed even the royal court magician. That abnormality of her stood out and the royal family began to consider her as dangerous.

Elena too had grown even more intelligence since a certain time period and she displayed her qualities as a princess. In order to ascertain that quickly, the royal family chose to compare and contrast her with the crown prince.

If they wanted to play it safe, then they should wait until the crown prince came of age or at least until the princess enrolled into the academy. Originally Carla too planned to keep training herself diligently until that time came.

But, what put Carla in a good mood wasn’t because of this chance coming to her this quickly. It might be because of the appearance of a “girl” who changed the fate of the two of them when Princess Elena met danger.

.

「I wonder if I’ll be able to meet you quickly if someone die....」

***

The royal castle was a place where the king and those who made political decisions were working. The palace that was adjoined to the castle was where the royal family was living at.

Although it was called a palace, it didn’t consist of just a single palace. The palace at the center was the residence of the king, and surrounding it was the three palaces for the queens. Furthermore there were even more palaces of various sizes surrounding those palaces of the king and queens. The relatively new palace at the east side was the “first princess palace”.

「The servants who will come with me into the dungeon this time are going to be Sera and Chloe. Sera is one of the people in charge of the queen palace’s security, but from now on she is going to be the one in charge of the first princess palace’s security. I shall be looking forward to your good work, both of you.」

「「It’s an honor, your highness.」」

The two maids elegantly bowed their head in respond to the words of Elena, the master of the first princess palace.

The dungeon exploration that the royal family would perform this time was being carried out under the veil of secrecy in order to prevent any obstruction from the noble faction. Because of that the number of participants was kept at minimum. Excluding the guards and luggage carriers, each main participant could only bring two servants to take care of their needs.

The maid named Chloe who Elena chose was still young, but she was a maid who had been taking care of Elena since she was born. Elena held deep trust toward her, and the person herself was also a knight of this country’s black ops, so she had been one of the candidates for participating from the start.

But as for Sera, there was a reason why she now worked exclusively for the princess despite being someone in charge of the security for both the queen palace and princess palace before.

Elena’s big brother from different mother, the crown prince Ervan had stopped trusting the guards from the black ops since the failed kidnapping attempt on Elena at Dandall. He refused to be guarded by the black ops member even for the dungeon exploration this time.

From where Elena was standing, as the one who almost got kidnapped, Ervan’s choice was making her feeling complicated because his action was taken due to his love for his family, but thinking pragmatically, there weren’t that many people who were qualified to serve royalty as servant while also acting as bodyguard. Furthermore that number would become even more limited when taking into consideration whether they could be trusted or not. Ervan would only bring the servants who had been taking care of him in his daily life.

Although not to the degree of the black ops’ knight, they too should have the minimum capability to fight to be qualified for serving the royal family, but that degree of capability would be useless in the dungeon.

There his majesty the king made the decision to attach Sera as Elena’s exclusive maid because of her status as a rank 4 powerful warrior even among the security members of the palace. That was the best that he could do in order to protect his two children.

But, just like how his thought as a king and as a father could differ from each other, the thought of the father and the thought of the daughter were also different.

「Our objective is not for me to obtain Gift. It will be great if I can do so but, our foremost objective is for my brother the crown prince to return back safely. To achieve that, all of us shall protect big brother as one with our life on the line.」

「「Yes.」」

Elena made her declaration with unwavering eyes in order to affirm her resolve to sacrifice even herself to protect the crown prince. In respond Sera and Chloe also nodded without hesitation. Elena slackened her grim expression slightly seeing the two’s response.

「Forgive me for dragging not only Chloe, but also you Sera into this.」

「No, both Chloe and I have made our resolve since the beginning when we joined the black ops.」

Sera smiled at Elena’s words. Chloe beside her also nodded quietly with a gentle atmosphere.

This would be a dangerous mission where they might not be able to return back alive from it. Even so, there was strength inside their eyes. Although there was resolve in there, there wasn’t any sadness that could be felt from them.

「Seeing that we have come this far, I shall also poached away Sera from dear mother. Are you fine with that?」

「It shall be as your highness will it.」

Sera too smiled just a little, seeing Princess Elena who was displaying such aristocratic haggling that was unthinkable coming from a girl who had just turned eleven this year.

Although Elena would stake her life in the task this time, she had no intention of dying. She was thinking of what would happen after she returned alive.

She wasn’t seeking result, but making progress by considering the effect that the result would bring. It was a quality of Elena that the crown prince didn’t possess. Her caliber as a king was surpassing her big brother.

She possessed four elemental attributes and her body stopped being healthy due to the magic stone in her heart swelling up. Elena wasn’t fit to become king due to her body’s condition but, she hadn’t given up on anything.

When she was little....there was a “girl” who never gave up no matter what and saved her.

Until then Elena had continued fighting alone inside the darkness where she couldn’t see anything ahead, but then the moonlight reached her and illuminated the dark path.....

After that Elena stopped giving up.

.

(I wonder what you will think if you can see the me right now....Aria)

***

「Father, please allow me to also go-! I’m Clara’s big brother, and a protector of his highness the crown prince!」

「Just give up on that already, Rockwell. Realize that you are the heir of this Dandall.」

His little sister Clara who was engaged to the crown prince was commanded by the royal family to conquer a dungeon. Rockwell was only informed of that right before the dungeon exploration would be carried out. He wished to accompany the exploration in order to protect his little sister and his friend, but his father Margrave Dandall stopped him.

Perhaps he would be allowed to go if he asked his hot-blooded grandfather who was fond of Clara, but his grandfather had handed over the headship of Dandall house to his father, so his father was the only one who could make the decision.

Unlike his grandfather, his father was an intellectual person, because of that the headship and the position as the supreme knight commander were handed over to him in order to weather the current chaotic domestic situation of this country. Unlike the members of the ordinary knight house, Rockwell himself was also an intellectual person, and because of that he was able to understand his father’s thinking. That was exactly why he was unable to take any rash action.

「........」

Clara was watching that argument between her father and big brother like it was other people’s business.

Could her participation be cancelled if she too asked her grandfather? Would she not be required to head to a dangerous place if she earnestly pleaded to her father?

(It won’t work....surely.)

Clara being the first queen was the consensus of the whole Dandall House after taking into consideration how her aunt who should be the first queen was forced to become the second queen. Her whole family and also the vassals of her house were wishing for Clara to become the first queen.

Even the past Clara before she regained the memory of her previous life was also wishing to become the first queen because she was a child who didn’t know anything. She was under the impression that becoming the first queen would be the best thing only because that was what her family wished for. There was no way that Clara could say that she didn’t want to become the first queen at this point.

The Clara of the otome game didn’t have any Gift. Perhaps she simply failed to obtain it in the game but, in the game Clara and the others didn’t enter the dungeon at this time period when they were at such young age.

In the game there was a dungeon exploration event in order to obtain strength after the demon race event, but perhaps the demon race event was happening early right now.

The 『otome game』 started when the heroine reached the age for entering the academy. Even if she was able to get along with the heroine, if Ervan got interested with the heroine and entered a romantic relationship with her, the people around them would become attracted to the heroine’s charm and planned to remove Clara to place the heroine as the first queen.

She could understand it now although it wasn’t shown in the game. In order to place the heroine who was the princess of Melrose as the first queen, a made up charge was created to remove Clara politically.

Clara pondered whether the heroine could be removed in order to avoid such future that might spell her death, but here she learned that it was possible she might die even before that. It made her felt like her sight was turning dark.

.

(Just....what am I doing here....)