I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

After an exhausting shower, Felix emerged from the bathroom, steaming still.

It was already five days after the egg hunt incident. Five days after the fire raged through the woods, and there hadn’t been any job offers for him since then. He spent most of the time resting, recovering physically and mentally, sitting quietly in the morning, building up his Numen carefully.

Once, during the afternoon, he went down to the market and bought a book related to dungeons. After that, during the evening, he examined the pages by candlelight. The book described the nature of dungeons and how it happened: as if the soil itself folded and turned around some invisible point. Also, the book described different varieties of dungeons – from simple and shallow to the complex ones sealed by the ancient kingdoms. But there wasn’t a single page that mentioned an alive dungeon. No pages about dungeons transforming into a human.

Taking a long breath, he stepped towards the wardrobe and slowly removed the clothes. "How great if such a peaceful period continued."

Turning his back to the mirror, he looked at his own tattoo and saw that another sword had disappeared since the forest dungeon. And the tree in its center became smaller comparing to the state it was in the previous week.

When he’d checked on Dune earlier that morning, the small sprout had grown slightly.

"It’s definitely some kind of sealing circle."

More than once he wondered whether to go to the guild and ask people there to examine those two tattoos, to understand something about their nature. But each time he thought of that, he stopped himself and didn’t act. He didn’t know what consequences such a discovery might lead to. If it was indeed some kind of high-level circles, the information about that would quickly spread all over the guild, and by the time he would realize his mistake, it would be too late already.

"I can figure that out for myself," he said, and reached up to yank the wardrobe door open, taking a clean shirt and pants from the shelf.

The pattern had been easy enough to identify up to this point. The more swords disappeared, the stronger Dune got.

"Even stranger than the tattoo, however." He tugged his new shirt over his head. "Yes, it really seems to be affected by what is between us."

He finished putting on his clothes, grabbed his money purse off the table beside the door, and stuffed it absently into his pocket. But after the few seconds, he stopped in his tracks and pulled it back out to look at it again.

"It’s just a little too light."

He stuffed it back into his pocket and went out to knock on Dune’s door. "Dune? You here?"

No response came from within. He looked at the lock which was positioned sideways on the handle.

"Where could she have gone?" He pushed the door open anyway and stepped inside, looking around the room with his usual careful eye, scanning every inch of the place for anything different from what was normal.

"Hold on," he said and stepped back into the room and looked at the room a second time, this time being more thorough. This time his eyes fell upon her bed. It was made, the sheets neatly pulled tight and folded at the corner, not bunched up on the floor in its usual state of disarray. The rest of the room followed suit. There wasn’t anything lying around, any dirty clothes or even half-eaten food anywhere.

Felix couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her make her bed. She usually didn’t leave it in any other condition, and certainly never cleaned the rest of her room before.

Felix flexed his fingers one at a time in his usual nervous manner and considered things for a moment. Finally, he nodded to himself and stepped back out and shut the door.

"Dune!" He shouted as he went downstairs, running his hand on the railing.

There was an ongoing list of the things she’d changed, now that he was actually paying attention, all of them coming to mind one after the other. It was something he hadn’t been able to piece together until now, having noticed it in passing over the last few days.

She cleaned herself without his constant reminder; she stopped asking all those blunt and strange questions she used to throw at him unexpectedly right in the middle of the meal.

Felix frowned in thought, still going down the stairs. She even started to dress properly, taking more time to pick proper clothes instead of choosing the ones sitting closest to her. Even her behavior around other people got better.

"Did my teaching finally pay off?"

He entered the living room just as the front door opened quietly, letting Dune enter the house silently.

"Where have you been?" He asked as he approached her.

"Outside." She responded.

"That doesn’t answer my question."

"Square." Dune nodded. "Yes. I’ve been at the square, watching the horses walk."

"You love horses, huh." Felix smiled faintly. *There must be something wrong here.* "What happened to the five silvers I gave you?"

"I didn’t receive any silvers."

"Interesting." Felix scratched his chin, pretending to think hard. "If I haven’t given you the silvers, where did it disappear from the money pouch?"

"I don’t know."

"Dune." Felix looked carefully at her face. Small bread crumbs were clinging to the corners of her mouth.

"Yes."

"Have you taken the silvers? While I was cleaning myself?"

"No, I haven’t."

"Dune, are you lying to me?" He touched the crumbs with his thumb.

"No." Dune shook her head. "I am not lying." Then she nodded rapidly. "Yes. I am lying."

"So, you lied to me." He pulled his hand back. "I cannot believe it. You lied to me. I don’t know what to say to you. I’m lost for words."

"I am—"

"Well, part of it’s my fault too." Felix didn’t let her finish. "If I’d given you your share of the work, you wouldn’t have had to steal it in the first place." He laughed to himself. Guess that’s some kind of progress. One more step toward being human.

"So from today onwards, I’ll give you your share as well. A fourth part of the total payment. Are you alright with that?"

"Yes," said Dune, nodding.

"Alright." Felix turned towards the dining table. "You still haven’t told me what you bought. Make sure it’s something worthwhile."

"Exclusive Dark Chocolate Loaf."

"What?" Felix jerked his head towards her. "All this for bread?"

"Yes," said Dune, nodding. "Did you hear the shopkeeper talking yesterday when we walked past? He told us that fresh Dark Chocolate Loaves were arriving the next day. He said it would help me heal faster, and gave me a discount because I am kind to him. He gave me two loaves for five silvers. Normally it’s three silvers for one. It’s going to become even more expensive from now on." Dune nodded again, drooling slightly from the corner of her mouth. "It was delicious. Next time we will eat it together."

Felix listened to all of this with his eyes wide open, shaking his head after she was done. "That piece of crap Alam fooled you. It was regular bread with extra chocolate on top. Nothing exclusive about it."

"He fooled me." Dune clenched her hand into a fist. Then released it just as fast. "I liked it. So that makes it even."

"But that’s not how things work," Felix said. "Price isn’t something you pay off with emotions."

"Felix!" The door slammed open and a man walked in, without knocking. "Is this Felix’s house? The guy who does work for a cheap price?"

"Yes. That is me," Felix said, walking towards him. "Is there something you want?"

"Yes. I have a job for you."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!