The Emperor Has Returned

The expedition party was gathered earlier than expected. Mark wore a pleasant expression as he looked at the people gathered for the expedition; it had only been two days, but quite a few more talented people had gathered to join the group. Mark had a feeling that these people might be talented enough to finally get to the deeper area of the dungeon this time.

“Each one of you are like legendary heroes! I have high expectations this time,” Mark proclaimed.

However, there was a strange tension among the mercenaries; one could see that there were quite a few of them with unusual expressions.

“Uh, my lord. Is this black-haired punk going with us too? I heard hanging around black-haired guys in the dark brings bad luck. What if I end up making a mistake and blowing his head off in the dark?” a man with the crossed scar on his face asked Mark.

Beside the man were two huge hounds tall enough to reach his waist. They were crouched next to him.

“He sure is. His name is Juan, and uses a short sword as his weapon. He’s the one who brought back Jules’ head. Remember how I left it to you for a year?”

“Wait, he’s the one who caught Jules? Well, it’s not my fault that I couldn’t manage to catch him—for some reason, my hounds couldn’t sniff him out properly in the mountains. I tried my best but I couldn’t find him in the forest. Must you really blame me for that?”

“Whatever the reason is, you have to acknowledge his achievement. Now, everyone. This hound trainer is called Menneth. He’s one of the best hunters in the eastern territory, and is a gold grade mercenary. He’s not very good in the forest, but he’ll be very helpful to find the way in the dungeon.” Mark introduced as he looked around the other mercenaries. “Then shall we all briefly introduce ourselves? You are all about to enter a dungeon so dark that you won’t even be able to see each other’s faces. Don’t you think you should know each other’s names?”

The mercenaries remained silent and no one bothered opening their mouths. In fact, half of the people that were about to enter the dungeon were new faces in Durgal and they didn’t know of it at all.

Then, someone opened their mouth to break the silence.

“My name is Nora, and I used to be a knight.”

She was a sickly woman with long, straight silver hair. She was so skinny that one would even doubt whether she could hold a sword or not; however, Mark didn’t seem to have any concerns.

“You don’t have to doubt Ms.Nora’s skills; I’ve checked it myself,” Mark said.

Mark was already aware of the fact that Nora was a Templar, but he was keeping this fact a secret at her request.

“I’m Swallan and I use a horn bow.”

“Do you know how narrow it is inside the dungeon? Using a horn bow in there… how ridiculous.”

Menneth openly derided Swallan. However, the smile on his face disappeared as soon as he saw an arrow aimed at his eye. The arrowhead was close enough to cover his field of vision and shook as if it was about to tickle his eyeball.

“It’s better if it’s narrow. That just means there’s nowhere to hide from me.” Swallan recollected her bow and arrow while smirking at Menneth.

With a rotten look, Menneth turned his gaze toward the next person. It was a man who gave off an extremely odd and strange feeling among the new faces. He was wearing a ragged black robe and a white mask without any patterns on his face. He was not holding a weapon, but the chains wrapped around his waist grabbed everyone’s attention—he seemed more dangerous than most monsters.

[My name is Rem. I can be considered to have dabbled in magic.]

Surprisingly, the sharp voice of a young man came out of him. But anyone could easily tell that it was a voice synthesized by magic which only made him seem even more like a monster. However, no one was complaining; most mages working as a mercenary were illegal mages who hadn’t been certified by the Church. It was only natural for them to hide their face and voice. Although it was a little unpleasant, the quality of expeditions which had mages was much higher when compared to the ones without them.

The real danger was elsewhere.

“Come to think of it, who will be the overall commander of this expedition? I feel like I’m the most suitable person, since I’ll be guiding the way, and I’ve been working for the longest, so…”

“And my name is Mark Moore. I will be the overall commander of this expedition.”

Lord Mark suddenly declared as he cut off Menneth’s words. Everyone suddenly went silent. Although no one had realized it until now, Mark was wearing armor and had even brought an iron mace with him. His armor was shaking loosely at his waist; it didn’t fit him tightly.

The mercenaries got ready to laugh as they thought Mark was joking, but Mark’s expression was serious. The silence continued, and an atmosphere of urgency descended upon the mercenaries. The mercenaries exchanged gazes as if they were telling each other to deal with the situation, but no one was willing to protest against the lord.

At that moment, Juan felt a hand gently pushing his back—it was Swallan. Swallan opened her mouth and mouthed ‘do something’ to Juan.

Juan replied by mouthing ‘why the hell should I,’ but it seemed like Juan was the only person who could speak out in front of Mark. After all, he was not interested in money.

“Are you coming with us?” Juan asked.

“Of course I am. How could I possibly miss out on it when this expedition might actually be the one where we might be able to break through the deeper area? There’s no need to worry about me. I know I look quite weak, but I’m a descendant of the noble who was once sent to defeat the traitors. I am capable of using weapons.”

“Well…that’s not the problem.”

He was different from young officers who ran out to the frontline without knowing they weren't skilled enough. If the overall commander was stupid, the army would be in a dangerous position. If the overall commander wasn’t well respected, the entire army would break down. Mark was someone who satisfied both conditions.

Juan made a gesture of rubbing his hands against each other to the mercenaries without Mark knowing. Swallan pulled Juan back and whispered.

“I was telling you to stop him from joining, not kill him.”

“Same thing. We don’t necessarily have to kill him. We can just knock him out for a while.”

“Then the lord will freak out once we come back…ugh, this is driving me crazy.”

In the end, Menneth opened his mouth with difficulty.

“My lord. Is it okay if we cut you into pieces and feed you to the dogs if you die in a ridiculous way?”

“What!? How rude!” Mark yelled as he burst out in anger. “Don’t worry about me dying! How many years do you think I’ve lived here? I’m a descendant of a mighty knight.”

“My lord, this isn’t a war, and…”

“This expedition might be the last opportunity for me. I’ve lived a wealthy life with the property handed down by my father, but I made no accomplishments. When else would I get such an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of my father and get some heroic achievements?”

Menneth frowned and turned his head upon hearing Mark’s words. The other mercenaries sighed and gave up on convincing Mark; they understood that Mark really meant his words.

“Wait, seriously? You’re all going to take this clueless lord with us?” Swallan said as she dumbfoundedly looked at the mercenaries around her.

“What can we do? He wants to die inside the dungeon.”

Mark smiled triumphantly among the mercenaries looking away.

“Don’t you worry. I’ve been training steadily, so I won’t hold you all back.”

***

“Ahhhhh! Your Majesty!”

Menneth cursed and grabbed Mark by the back of his neck and threw him to the ground. A club narrowly passed by the spot where Mark’s head was. Mark, whose head narrowly avoided being smashed, continued lying on the ground and repeatedly shouted His Majesty’s name. Mark wasn’t a man with a small figure—the mercenaries who had to fight fiercely in the narrow hallway kept getting tripped over his body.

“You’re getting in my way!” Swallan yelled.

She climbed on top of Mark’s back and pulled the bowstring. Everytime an arrow ripped through the air, the skulls of the skeleton soldiers were smashed and scattered into pieces. What was revealed from their smashed skulls were purple tentacles.

One of the tentacles grabbed the nearest mercenary and stuck to his face. The mercenary freaked out and struggled to resist the tentacles that were trying to enter his mouth, but he wasn’t strong enough to get rid of the tentacles.

At that moment, the tentacles fell to the ground with a sharp sound. Holding a shield as big as her body, Nora expertly handled her sword with only one hand.

“Keep pushing! We will all be done if we get pushed back!”

“It’s easy to say!”

The moment Menneth blew his whistle, two hounds moved fast like the wind. The hounds weren’t easily noticeable due to their low stature, but they were very helpful within the narrow hallways.

The tentacles that had been controlling the skeleton soldiers from inside the armor were helplessly pulled out when the hounds bit on them and pulled. The tentacles were easily destroyed by simply stomping on them once they came out of the skeletons.

“Rem! Do you still need more time?”

Rem, the mask-wearing mage, was constantly mumbling magic spells. Rem had requested the other mercenaries to buy him some time to cast a spell, but the short time needed to cast a spell felt infinitely long in a situation where enemies were endlessly charging at them. Rem quickly recited and made a hissing sound to cast a spell, then raised his hand at one point.

[Cover your eyes.]

While it was extremely dangerous to cover your eyes in a battle, no one refused the mage’s words.

In just a moment, the skeleton soldiers that filled the hallway were illuminated by a bright light and scattered to the ground. When the tentacle monsters that had been hiding inside fell to the ground, the mercenaries ran and furiously stomped on them as if they were venting their anger.

“These fucking starfish bastards!”

The tentacles resisted until the end by grabbing the mercenaries’ legs, but they were soon chopped into pieces. Finally, there were no more tentacles left in the hallway. The mercenaries breathed heavily and were relieved that the battle was over.

“Ugh…my eyes…”

One of the mercenaries who hadn’t been able to cover his eyes in time sat on his knees and groaned. Menneth took a closer look at his eyes.

“His eyes are gray like they are rotting. Hey, Mage, is this guy gonna be okay?” Menneth asked.

[He’ll be fine soon if he only saw the light from his peripheral vision. But if he saw it directly from the front, he’s going to lose his vision. Anyway, our losses are great even though we are still in the upper area.]

It had only been a short battle, but two of the mercenaries were already dead. Although their role was only that of a porter rather than fighting, their loss was still quite harmful.

The mercenaries’ gaze turned toward Mark who was still lying on the ground. He was still repeatedly muttering ‘His Majesty, His Majesty,’ with his ears covered.

“Hey, you damn pig! Get up at once!” Menneth shouted angrily, kicking Mark on the waist.

Mark rolled on the ground, and belatedly realized that the battle was over.

“Is—is everything over now?” Mark asked.

“Are you kidding me? Fucking damn it. It’s not like I’ve gone on an expedition only once or twice, but this is insane—we are still only in the upper area! Have you done something to mess this dungeon up?” Menneth growled.

“M-mess up? No. I had thought that there wouldn’t be many monsters in the upper area since it was already subjugated enough. I also can’t believe that so many of them poured out all of a sudden…”

“Ah… enough! If the dungeon is messed up to this extent, I can’t go any deeper. I don’t want to die in a ridiculous way.”

“No.”

It was Swallan who answered instead of Mark.

“The expedition will continue. We were able to hold out earlier, weren’t we? Just because we are in a dungeon doesn’t mean the monsters will constantly appear. I’m sure it was just the monsters from the lower level that crawled up earlier. That means that there will be less monsters as you go lower.”

“Are you crazy? I can see that you lack one of your ears, but are you also missing a part of your brain?”

“I might be lacking an ear, but you are the one who lacks two balls.”

Manneth was about to jump at Swallan in a fit of rage, but Nora blocked him. Menneth had no choice but to stop; he had seen Nora’s extraordinary skills in the battle earlier—if it wasn’t for her blocking the enemies from the front, the damage would have been much greater.

“I agree with continuing the expedition,” Nora said.

[I am fine with it as well. It’s worth a try.] Rem agreed.

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

Menneth had a distorted expression on his face upon hearing their answers.

“Why, you… Fuck!”

“Enough, Menneth. I know that you’re trying to rip off more commission fees from the lord, but doing so when you can’t even play your role properly will only undermine your grade level,” Swallan said. Swallan was already aware of Menneth’s intentions.

Menneth muttered a curse, and turned his head toward the lord.

“Hey, my lord. Are you gonna continue coming with us? Now is your last chance to go back.”

Mark was trembling in fear, but he nodded his head.

The mercenaries muttered a curse in unison. Even if they didn’t acknowledge the lord’s strength, they had to praise his guts—even if they didn’t want to.

Meanwhile, Nora looked around with a tired expression.

“By the way, where’s the young man called Juan?” Nora asked.

“Come to think of it, where is this bastard?”

Juan had disappeared among the enemies shortly after the battle began. No one could pay attention to him during the battle as it was an urgent situation, but the fact that he still hadn’t returned could only mean that he was dead.

Nora’s expression was stiff.

“Mr. Menneth, maybe we should release your hounds to go find him…”

“Oh,? It’s over already?”

Suddenly, Juan’s voice was heard from the other side of the hallway. Juan was slowly walking toward the mercenaries under the dim light. Upon seeing Juan’s relaxed manner, Menneth shouted furiously.

“You fucking bastard! Where were you when we were all busy fighting… against the…”

Menneth stopped the words he was about to say.

Juan was not empty-handed.

“There is a place to rest at the end of that hallway. Why don’t we go and rest there?” Juan said.

What was being dragged by Juan’s hand was a part of a monster’s body—one whose original form couldn’t be guessed at all. The body part that was covered with countless nerves and wriggling tentacles reminded everyone of a heart. Mercenaries couldn’t help but to naturally think of one question.

‘How big does the monster’s size have to be for it to have such a huge heart?’