After eating and bathing, it was time to go to sleep, and I was in my bedroom watching the rat monitor with Belle to find out what the enemy was doing.

　. yesterday.

Hey!　The dungeon in my territory has been destroyed!
　Apparently, they're going to show me what happened when they heard I'd trudged through the Fog Dungeon.
　The head of House Philibert came to the general in a hurry.
　He must be very impatient to make a move on his own.
　The general looks surprised.

''A dungeon?　What's up with the dungeon?

That's why I got crushed last night!

Who's this for?

I don't know what that is yet ......, but it must be him!
　Well, we'll see.

Yeah. So, what's the problem?　If he's stepped through, he's going to get a new skill and it's going to be a pain in the ass, but ...... he was at school yesterday, right?　I don't think even a quirky guy can traverse a dungeon in a few hours. If you can do that, then you might as well give up fighting from now on .
　Ooh, you're all right, but you're not right at all.
　You forgot about the transference.
　But I don't think it's possible to transfer into the dungeon.

Yeah, right. All right, let's find out who's been in the dungeon.

It's not our job. If you want to look for it, you can use your own troops to find it.

Why?

"Because we have no reason to look for you. We're knights of the realm, not your knights. And this dungeon thing is a matter for your realm.
　Well, yeah.

'Can you say that?　I'm the one who's paying for it.

''So I'll say it again, but if you're going to say that, then you'll have to give me the money soon. At this rate, we'll have no choice but to report to His Majesty the King that the House of Philibert has no intention of fighting, won't we?
　If that happened, what would happen?
　First, the House of Philibert would have to deal with both the Empire and the Kingdom.
　Then the Empire would either destroy it or the kingdom would invade it.
　In either future, though, House Philibert will be finished.

"d*mn it!　All right. Just give me six months!　I'll raise the taxes more, until we can start the war by six months from now . Right now we don't have any money to spend on the war because of the fines we've paid.
　Wow ...... This guy is going to take money from the already exhausted territories.
　It's going to fail before we can start a war .

"Six months? ...... Okay. I'll give you six months as the deadline. If you haven't paid in after six months, I'll report to His Majesty.
　So I'll just have to make the Philibert family's financial woes worse, so that they won't make it in six months .
　This makes me feel like we can end the war without a fight.


　2 HOURS AGO

　Now the scene when we get the message that we've trudged through the mountain dungeon?
Oh my God!

What's going on?

'After the fog dungeons, you trudged through the mountain dungeons.
　I knew it.
　The video starts with a soldier reporting to the general and the master of House Philibert.

"What?　Who are you!
　When the chubby father heard the report, he yelled at the soldier.
　The soldier didn't do anything wrong, so he didn't have to yell at him .

''The fog dungeon is still under investigation, but we have learned that the mountain dungeon has been trampled by Léonce Muldean, Frank Baudelaire, and Hermann Caloon .

What?　He was at school the day before yesterday, right?　What's going on?　Explain it to me!
　He heard the soldier's explanation, and then he turned to the general and yelled at him.
　You've been busy.

"Do you?　I won't know without looking into it. But I think it's safe to assume he took the fog dungeon too. Then he's got two more skills. And in that case, we don't have a minute or a second to spare. We have no choice but to go to war now.
　It's a quintessential ...... calm analysis without being rushed.
　But the other side is incompetent: .......

'It can't be done.'

Why?　It's already going to get tougher from now on as time goes on, isn't it?

'They've just destroyed two dungeons!　How are we going to raise the money!


　Yeah, yeah, it's all going according to plan.

"Oh, yeah, that's what I think: ...... I know what he wanted to do.
　Oh, did you notice?　But it's too late.

What do you mean?

He's just trying to buy us some time. He's put the spotlight on our current funding source. d*mn it. While you're trying to find out where the guy's weaknesses are, you're going to find out where ours are: ......

Yeah, and what do you do?

Thankfully, we have no choice but to retreat. Haha, I thought that since he was a duke, he would only be able to fund it, but I didn't know he had this much money. ......
　The general sighed and stood up.

'Well, wait!　Are you going to run away?
　The chubby father hurriedly tried to stop the general as he walked out.

'Yes, I know . Rather than fight in vain and have so many men killed, I'll just tell the king that we couldn't fight because of you, and we'll be able to do less damage.

Oh, you're serious?　What's going to happen to me!

Bear with me as best you can. Oh, perhaps if we take the imperial capital, the kingdom will help us. Goodbye.
　With that, the General said that and walked out of the room with his men.

''d*mn it!''
　The video ends with the chubby father kicking the table in the empty room.


'Oh . I didn't know you'd give up so easily.

But I think it's the right decision.

I know. We're lucky the general was willing to help.
　If they were incompetent, they would have been attacked in a strange way and a lot of people would have died for both of us .
　Well, the fact that the general can blame the Philibert family for all of our losses is a big deal.
　If the Philibert family had paid out the money halfway, it would have been a muddy war.

''Yes, sir. I see that Leo-sama's efforts have been rewarded.

Yeah. Now we can focus on developing the territory for the time being.
　Tomorrow, you're working in your own domain for the first time in years.

'Yes, sir. I'm sure Elsie and Lou will miss you, so please go to them.

Sure, I haven't been there for a week or so: ......
　You know, I've left a lot of things alone.
　Elsie and Lou too, and I left Alma's training to Bernolt.

"Huh~
　I can't. I can't think straight.
　We'll figure out what to do tomorrow.

Look, you need to go to sleep. We haven't slept in a while.
　As he said that, Belle led me to the bed .

'Yeah ...... I went to bed early yesterday,'
　Frank woke me up, and I had a little trouble sleeping.

Still, you're tired, sir.

'Sure. ....... But I'm kind of lonely, so why don't you sleep with me until I fall asleep?

'What are you talking about in your sleep already?'
　I might be sleepwalking for sure .
　You don't usually say this: .......
　But I'm kind of missing human skin. .......
　I guess living in a dungeon has left me mentally exhausted. .......
　Even though he knew it was safe, maybe he felt traumatized somewhere inside because of what happened to his grandfather .

'I don't care. I've been missing Belle for a couple of days.

You'll have to go to ...... to get it. It's just until you fall asleep.
　Belle shyly plopped down next to me.

Thank you. Good night.

Good night.
　I fell asleep soon after that, but the next day I woke up unusually early in the morning to find Belle's face in front of me, so I was allowed to watch her sleep until she woke up.