Chapter 2 : Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Perhaps it was because I had seen Seirei’s tragic end.

Looking at her standing perfectly fine before my eyes left my heart feeling bitter and sore.

It was as if one corner of my chest ached faintly.

However, as though she did not care about my sentiments at all, Seirei opened her mouth brightly.

No, she began firing words at me.

“No, but where in the world is this? What an unfamiliar place! Ah, right! What is my lord’s honored name? I happen to be astonishingly good at memorizing names, you see!”

“My lord cannot possibly… be without a residence… right? Oh, surely not! Then again, these days, I hear there are people who deliberately enjoy this sort of minimalism? kind of atmosphere.”

.

.

.

Because she poured out words without pause for ten straight minutes, my ears were on the verge of bleeding.

My temples were already beginning to throb.

However, I had to determine exactly what this young lady was.

If I set aside that noisy mouth of hers, her appearance at least passed.

I opened the summoned creature’s Status Window and began carefully examining her information.

[Talkative Heresy Inquisitor Who Lost God’s Name]

Name : Seirei

Grade : High Grade

Type : Heresy Inquisitor (Elf)

As expected, Seirei was not human, but an elf.

She was a self-proclaimed apostle of God and a Heresy Inquisitor from a dimension entirely different from this one.

Her grade was an astonishing High Grade.

Among the four total stages of summoned creature grades, ranging from the bottom-rung Low Grade to the Highest Grade, a High Grade could unquestionably be classified as a powerful force.

For me from my past life, it was a grade I would never have dared dream of.

The mystical atmosphere unique to elves, so long as she kept her mouth shut, blended with her innocent and delicate beauty to make her look rather impressive.

‘If only she talked a little less, she would truly be perfect.’

Still, she was a High-Grade summoned creature in name and reality, so there had to be something special about her.

As I inspected her carefully, a detailed background explanation about Seirei appeared below the Status Window.

[An esteemed Heresy Inquisitor so renowned in Dimension 28747 that she was revered as the ‘Incarnation of Justice’.]

[She displayed unmatched ability in searching out and judging blasphemous heretics, as well as enforcing sacred law.]

[However, she was betrayed by the god she had firmly believed in and had even her name and identity stolen wholesale. In the end, unable to bear that sense of loss, she made the tragic choice to end her own life.]

‘No, why in the world would a being called a god betray his own believer? What is this, some dysfunctional household?’

The specific reason for the betrayal was not written, but there must have been a twisted and pitiful story behind it.

Pity and sympathy welled up within me at her tragic story, but as I watched Seirei’s mouth chatter without rest, those feelings seemed to evaporate in an instant.

“Ah! In the world where I lived, you see, there was a truly terrifying legendary demon. You have no idea how every hero in the world looked up to me when I cut that demon down in a single stroke.”

“Hah. That thrill I felt then! Truly… even now, just thinking back on that moment makes my heart swell……. My lord should experience it as well….”

Seirei’s mouth showed no sign of stopping, like a broken faucet.

Words kept pouring out without rest.

I felt as though I now understood to the bone why the modifier ‘talkative’ had been attached to her Status Window description.

It was because of this wretched chatter.

I even began to harbor the reasonable suspicion that perhaps even the god who abandoned her had grown sick of her tendency to talk far too much.

For some reason, it felt like an extremely credible guess.

“And so, what I did then was…….”

Whether I frowned as hard as I could or not, Seirei’s mouth kept running without pause.

‘Should I just… Unsummon her?’

The thought of Unsummoning her truly rose all the way to my throat, but I barely suppressed it.

Even so, she was a precious High-Grade summoned creature I had finally drawn, and I could not do that when I was trapped barehanded in a dungeon.

Even across the whole of my past life, I had never once personally summoned a High-Grade summoned creature.

That was how rare High-Grade summoned creatures were, and their summoning difficulty was also atrocious.

Still, I could not simply leave that chattering mouth alone.

“Enough!”

“Y-yes?”

At my thunderous shout, Seirei flinched in surprise and asked back with her eyes wide like a startled rabbit’s.

“Answer only what I ask you. Otherwise, I will simply Unsummon you.”

I warned her as coldly as possible, in a voice like a sheet of ice.

“N-no! My lord. Please, anything but that…….”

Seirei pleaded with an expression that looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment.

“Tsk!”

When I narrowed my eyes and threatened her,

“Y…yes, sir….”

She promptly whimpered and shut her mouth.

It seemed my threat had worked after all.

Or perhaps one of the newly added abilities, Charisma, was taking effect.

‘If that is the case, does raising my Charisma value make my summoned creatures obey my orders more readily? That is quite useful.’

I would need to confirm that later.

Seeing Seirei’s lips twitch faintly as she struggled to hold back her words looked rather pitiful, but it could not be helped.

My mental health came first.

“Your name is… Seirei, right?”

“Yes, that is correct! I am Seirei! My lord, please feel free to call me Seirei… Ah! I have heard that addressing each other comfortably like this is very good for building intimacy. Then communication becomes smoother as well, and….”

“Tsk!”

I had said only one thing, yet as though a seal had been released, she immediately began rambling again.

‘Ah, I really want to Unsummon her.’

But what could I do?

I had to check the abilities of the High-Grade summoned creature I had finally obtained.

Only by learning her abilities would I be able to find even a clue to escape this dungeon.

“You said you were a Heresy Inquisitor, did you not? Tell me what you can do. Ah, keep your answer as brief as possible. Just the point.”

Once again, I very strongly emphasized that she was to keep it short.

“I can judge all blasphemous beings that threaten my noble lord.”

This time, she was fairly concise.

“Good. Then shall we see that ability of yours?”

“Is there something you wish for me?”

Her gaze sharpened in an instant.

It was a completely different atmosphere from the one she had shown while chattering a moment ago.

“This place is called a dungeon. Have you heard of it?”

“A dungeon……. In the dimension where I lived, there was a place called the Tower. As my lord’s summoned creature, I share my lord’s memories to some extent, so I can compare them. This place is similar to the Tower of our dimension. Am I to clear this place?”

She knew how to grasp the main point fairly well.

Was she intelligent, aside from the chatter?

“Yes. Can you do it?”

No sooner had my question ended than the corners of Seirei’s mouth stretched into a chillingly wide, cruel smile.

Her first impression, which had seemed pure and innocent, was nowhere to be found.

The way she looked now was so ferocious and filled with mad killing intent that I could have believed she was not a Heresy Inquisitor, but a demon that had crawled up from the depths of hell.

* * *

Viscount Bradley Hennes had just finished a grueling dungeon conquest with the knights under his command.

Although it was a relatively manageable E-grade dungeon, the desperate battle in that clinging darkness had continued for a full ten hours.

How fierce the struggle inside the dungeon had been could easily be guessed from the countless scratches and bloodstains cruelly carved across the knights’ armor and shields, now battered until they looked like rags.

The moment he finally stepped out of the Dungeon Gate and saw his son waiting for him, Bradley Hennes forgot even his dreadful fatigue and spoke with a gentle smile.

“Owen, were you waiting for your father to return?”

Owen nodded as though he had been waiting for that, answering with a bright smile that tried, and failed, to conceal his pride.

“I believed you would return safely like this, Father.”

“Ho ho, what could a mere E-grade dungeon do to your father? It was needless worry.”

Viscount Bradley laughed heartily, seemingly satisfied by his son’s admirable concern.

“I told you I was not worried. Ha ha.”

Owen also laughed along with his father.

“Yes, yes.”

However, Viscount Bradley did not miss the faint excitement and malice hidden within his son’s laughter, and asked gently, yet sharply,

“Do you, by chance, have something to tell your father?”

“Ah, it is nothing important. I merely… taught one scoundrel a small lesson.”

Owen answered with a sly smile.

His eyes gleamed like a snake’s.

A scoundrel.

Viscount Bradley immediately realized that the word referred to Cain Lake.

“Owen, do not handle him too harshly. He is still the eldest young lord of a family we once served.”

His voice carried not a trace of concern, but rather a subtle acquiescence that seemed almost amused.

Owen understood the meaning behind those words precisely, and smiled even more brightly, more cruelly.

His father’s words were not a warning to leave Cain alone.

‘Yes, he means I should toy with him in moderation, then crush him like an insect.’

It seemed Viscount Bradley also believed that the scoundrel of an eldest young lord from a fallen count’s house no longer posed any threat.

No, perhaps he even regarded him as a thorn in his side.

“Do not worry, Father. We will never have to see that bastard’s face again.”

An icy sneer flashed through Owen’s eyes.

By what means could a wretch like him possibly return alive from a dungeon that was no different from the threshold of death?

A worthless fool who could not wield even a handful of mana.