The Mysterious Child: An Adventure Tale Beginning with Numerology

"Welcome back, Ruruk-sama."

The one who greeted me as I returned to the Bargia mansion after the first day of class was Jacqueline, the head maid.

Leading the Maid Dragon corps, she exudes an atmosphere like a yakuza wife. In fact, she's an attribute dragon over level 90 with ridiculously high stats.

According to the Dragon King, even if all the other maid dragons were to betray us, Jacqueline alone has enough strength to protect Seori.

I wished for a life where I could be protected by a tough beauty like her, even if just once.

"I'm back. Is everyone else home yet?"

"They haven't returned yet. The bath is ready, would you like to go in first, Ruruk-sama?"

"I do like taking the first bath, but... it's a bit late, so I'll check with the girls."

"Understood."

As Jacqueline bowed and left, I immediately spoke into my bracelet.

Of course, it's the communication stone I received from Luney Trading Company.

"Hello, Saaya, can you hear me?"

"Yes~ I can hear you~"

"Are you still in the dungeon? If you need a transfer, I can come pick you up."

"Oh, is it that time already? Sorry I didn't contact you. We're at the guild now."

"The guild? Did something happen?"

"You won't believe this. Seori fired off a breath attack inside the dungeon... Ah, sorry Elenora! No, it's not like that! It's Ruruk, Ruruk! Hey, don't take the bracelet!"

It sounds like there's some commotion going on.

Due to the device's performance, I can't hear Elenora's voice, but it's probably just another trivial argument.

Can't be helped.

Not sure if they can hear me, but,

"I'll hear the explanation later. I'm coming there right away."

"O-okay! Wait, Elenora, that's not it! Don't touch that!"

It seems Seori has messed up again and is probably being made to write an apology letter at the guild.

In the past six months, the number of apology letters Seori has written is more than I can count on both hands. I remember Camlock complaining that because she's a princess, writing apology letters is about all he can make her do.

"Well then, time to transfer."

I warp directly to the guild's rooftop.

I immediately enter through the main entrance. Given the time, both the reception and the tavern were crowded.

Passing by the noisy adventurers, I head straight to the Guild Master's room and knock without hesitation.

"Hello, it's Ruruk."

"Oh, come in."

"Excuse me."

Camlock was at his desk.

On the sofa in front were Nagi and Punisuke elegantly drinking tea, and Seori, on the verge of tears, scribbling away at the table.

"Another apology letter, huh. You never learn, Seori."

"Master~ I'm sorry~"

"Guild Master, what did this klutz do this time?"

"She blew away monsters along with an entire floor on the 52nd level."

Yikes.

That's definitely on the level of dungeon collapse.

"Apparently, young Elenora immediately prevented a total collapse. But still, half of the 51st floor's ceiling is on the verge of collapsing. I've sent staff to investigate, so we won't have details for a few days."

"...What were you thinking?"

"But! But..."

Seori tried to make excuses while half-crying, but hesitated and closed her mouth.

This is definitely her biggest blunder so far.

"Why did you go that far? Tell me, I won't get angry."

"Because... *sniff*"

"There was a Nightmare Ghost on the 52nd floor."

Nagi explained while sipping her tea, looking unconcerned.

"Nightmare Ghost, you mean the one that reads minds?"

"Yes. It's an undead that transforms into what its opponent hates most. When Seori confronted it, the Nightmare turned into a demon's form."

"Ah~ I see."

No wonder she fired a serious breath attack.

"Ruruk should praise Nagi and Elenora. If Nagi hadn't quickly halved the 'Dragon Slayer Shot' and Elenora hadn't repaired it with magic, it wouldn't have ended with just half destruction."

"That must have been tough. Thank you."

"Hmph, indeed."

This was a level where even Seori would seriously reflect.

"Guild Master, what about compensation? We can pay immediately this time too."

"No need for compensation. Given the scale... we'll use the 'dungeon core' to fix it this time. In exchange, we're borrowing some magic power."

"I see."

The dungeon core, huh.

It seemed like Saturn was using it to create monsters inside the dungeon in the demon realm, so when we returned here, I had asked the Guild Master if humans could do that too.

Camlock's answer was like this:

"It's quite difficult to control. As a minimum condition, you need to be able to see magic essence and have a magic proficiency over 7000 to even move it properly. Even if you can move it, you can only determine the direction of the dungeon's movement. Controlling it is even harder. The dungeon is a living being, after all."

By the way, they've found and stored the dungeon core for this dungeon, but apparently no one has registered as its master. In fact, there was no one who could register, they say.

In the first place, the dungeon core itself is quite confidential. Very few people know about it.

"Right now, we're having Elenora and Saaya share their magic power with the dungeon core. Even without an owner, Elenora should be able to control it to some extent. We've decided to allocate resources for internal repairs. They're in the back room."

"I'll go check on them."

I knock on the door of the back room.

"Hello, it's me. It's me, but it's me."

"It's open."

Inside the room, there was something like a large crystal ball on the table, and Elenora and Saaya were holding their hands over it, pouring in magic power.

"I heard from the Guild Master. Seori messed up again, huh."

"I'm sorry. I should have noticed and stopped her beforehand."

"Don't worry about it. The 50th floor area will probably be off-limits for a while, but there were no human casualties, right?"

"That's fine. Elenora confirmed that no one was there."

"Elenora, you helped a lot too. Thanks."

"Mm."

But a Nightmare Ghost, huh.

It's certainly a troublesome opponent for Seori, who lacks mental strength.

If I had been nearby, the result might have been different.

"From now on, we'll make sure to cover for her properly, so don't worry, Ruruk."

"Mm. Leave it to us."

"I see. Then I'm counting on you."

If these two say they'll do it, they'll definitely follow through.

I still have more dungeon classes, so I intend to rely on those I can rely on.

"So how's the dungeon core? Looks like you're using quite a bit of magic power."

"It's incredible. There's dozens of Elenora's worth of magic power in here. If this went out of control, it would produce monsters endlessly, right? That stampede thing."

"That's what they say. They say it produces until it overflows from the dungeon... no wonder it's difficult to control."

But come to think of it, Roze mentioned something four years ago.

There was a rumor that the king of Stoania could intentionally cause a stampede in the continent's deepest dungeon in Stoania.

Maybe the Stoania royal family controls their dungeon core?

"...It's possible."

Stoania is a country of rational arts. It wouldn't be strange if they had a way to control it with rational arts.

Maybe I should ask the Guild Master there next time I go to the Stoania guild.

"Isn't it about time? Elenora, how is it?"

"Mm. Done."

Elenora says casually. The dungeon core was faintly glowing.

Saaya stretched her back and said,

"Ah~ I'm tired! I'm almost out of magic power."

"Mm, still plenty left."

"Don't compare me to maxed-out Elenora. I only have 4800, you know."

"...Hmph."

"Grr! Just you wait, I'll catch up to you soon!"

"Both of you, it's getting late. Let's go to our usual tavern for dinner."

As they were about to start another verbal fight, I diverted their interest to food.

"I'm hungry! I want meat!"

"Mm, steak."

Phew. Good thing they're simple.

When we returned to the Guild Master's room with the dungeon core, Seori had just finished writing her apology letter. Looks like she had to write a longer text than usual this time.

Camlock, receiving the dungeon core, looked up from his mountain of documents.

"Good work. I'll take the dungeon core to use in the dungeon now, so Ruruk, come by again tomorrow morning."

"Understood. Then, excuse us."

We all file down the stairs.

As we were about to exit, we ran into [White Tiger] just returning. We met face to face at the entrance.

"Hey."

"Hello."

As we had no particular business, we were about to pass by with just a light greeting, when Leelin rushed up to Seori.

"Dragon Princess, I heard about it!"

"Eep!?"

"I heard that demons appeared on the 52nd floor, and this time the princess blew them away! There are rumors that the demons might be plotting something again... But don't worry, we won't doubt you anymore, Princess!"

"Uh, ah... d-do as you see fit..."

Seems like rumors are spreading on their own.

In reality, it was just a major blunder by a klutz, so Seori hung her head with a bright red face.

Kemuna tapped my shoulder.

"I heard the area around the 50th floor is off-limits for a while. Ruruk, what are you guys going to do?"

"Ah~ well. Since we have the chance, maybe we'll take on some high-difficulty quests we've been putting off. I haven't been in combat myself recently."

"If that's the case, I have a quest I'd like to entrust to you. We were thinking of giving up because it's too far and would take too much time for us, but you should be able to handle it easily with your abilities, so take a look."

Saying this, Kemuna ran to the receptionist and quickly returned.

He pushed a quest request form at me.

[Quest Rank: A

Requester: Merchants Guild

Content: Reclaiming base from bandit group

Details: A storage warehouse of the Merchants Guild near the border with the Kingdom of Mataisa has been occupied by a bandit group. We request the reclamation of the base and the subjugation of the bandits. The bandit group is about 50 strong. For more details, please contact the Guild Master]

Bandit subjugation, huh.

Looking at the simple map, I've been to a nearby town before, so I can get there quickly with transfer.

I've been diving into dungeons lately, so I didn't know about the outside situation.

And near this location... Wait, could it be.

"Mm. There were elves."

That's right! It's near the mansion of Prennarec, the botanist!

The handsome elf who was Roze's disciple was running a coffee farm around here. It's been almost a year, so I had forgotten.

Which means...

"...Elenora, you understand, right? We're accepting this quest and going tomorrow."

"Mm. Leave it to me."

"What, what? Why are you so fired up?"

Saaya tilted her head, looking at Elenora and me as our eyes burned with enthusiasm.

If it's Prennarec's mansion, that means his disciple Navi is there too.

It's been a year since we last met. That thing might be completed by now.

"The pressure cooker! We must protect it!"

"Mm!"

There's a battle there that we absolutely cannot lose!