Davey didn't have any frame of reference for the value of the currency in the world they'd entered. However, he didn't need any expertise to recognize that the coin purse he'd snatched from the pickpocket didn't have much money in it.
“Three peons. Eat up and enjoy.”
Josiah frowned, looking at the meat skewer, which offered far less despite being much more relatively expensive than on Earth.
“I thought the ones on Earth were too small... but this is ridiculous. Are they overcharging outsiders?” she grumbled, munching on the impossibly tiny meat skewer.
“You've probably noticed on the way here, but the overall price of goods is pretty high in general,” Davey remarked.
It wasn't just the skewers. While overcharging outsiders played a part, the basic cost of living was nonetheless quite substantial.
Josiah frowned. “Then...”
“Yup. There’s only one reason why an entire territory would be like this.” They had to live under a severe tax rate. He continued, “Do you see how everyone’s dressed, what they’re carrying, and their faces?”
“Their faces?”
“Yeah. That person over there, for example...” Davey went through each person one by one, explaining the emotions they were likely feeling.
Josiah looked at him with a dumbfounded expression.
“Teacher, where'd you learn things like that?”
“Did you forget I’m the lord of a territory?”
“Lords usually don't know that stuff, though,” Josiah argued.
“Just because they don't know it doesn't mean that I shouldn't. Listen closely, because I’ll only explain what's going on with the people here once.”
After that, he continued to apply logic to everything they did or held, concluding that they were likely working side jobs because they desperately needed money. He also gave examples of how there seemed to be many women in the pleasure industry, in addition to many injured men.
“Given the circumstances, the public safety is actually quite good.”
No one tried to stop them while they left the domain. As soon as they left the domain and stepped onto the forest path heading to the dungeon marked on the map, Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, fastened to Davey's waist, resonated and changed into their child form.
“Daddy!! Pic... Pic...” one of them stuttered.
“Picnic?”
Their eyes lit up. “Ya! Are we going on a picnic?”
Davey smiled at Red Ribbon, who giggled happily while riding on his shoulders, and at Blue Ribbon, who buried her face in his arms. “A picnic? Yeah, we're going on a picnic.”
“T-Then... are we gonna eat lunch boxes??”
At the mention of lunch boxes, Davey remembered that he still had the ones Kouna made for him in his Pocket Plane.
“Oh yeah, I do have some. It’s you two’s favorite—sushi lunch boxes!”
“Woww! S-suushii!” Red Ribbon jumped up and down excitedly while riding on his shoulders, and Blue Ribbon's eyes sparkled as she gulped.
Josiah chimed in, “Teacher, I didn't know we were going on a field trip...?”
He turned to her and replied, “Then do you want to finish everything up quickly and head back? I know Professor Alice is waiting for you.”
When she drank with Davey, Professor Alice always said that Josiah was so capable that it was fun to push her. Of course, she'd say on the surface that she’d become a great professor, yet if one read between the lines, she was basically saying she was easy to make do all the work.
He knew there was no way Josiah wouldn't have noticed that.
“No, I always look forward to picnics,” she finally responded, face nearly expressionless.
She sure was servile.
When Josiah showed a lukewarm reaction, Red Ribbon asked her tearfully. “Y-you don’t like to go on picnics with Red Ribbon?”
Naturally, she didn't want to make such an innocent child cry. She put on a smile and reassured the girl, “What are you talking about, Red Ribbon?! Why would I not want to? I love going on picnics with Blue Ribbon and Red Ribbon.”
“Hehehe! Red Ribbon loves it, too! Blue Ribbon, you do, too, right?”
“Yeah. I love it!”
Josiah seemed to be completely taken in by their cuteness, hugging Blue Ribbon and rubbing her cheek against her face. “Kyaaak! You're so cute!”
“Uuwaaa...”
Perhaps due to their devilish charm, Blue Ribbon stayed in her arms until they reached their destination.
Though the mountain path was rugged, Josiah, contrary to her appearance, had reached the level of a transcendent, so she showed no signs of exhaustion.
Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon sang joyfully as if they were enjoying the hike. Yet, their singing didn't last long.
Frowning adorably, the two children covered their noses with both hands.
“Ugh... Dis smell!”
“Ew...”
At the same time, Josiah pointed somewhere, as if she'd discovered something. “Ah! Teacher, I think that’s it!”
A dungeon didn’t have a fixed outward appearance. Yet, there was a reason why she was so certain the distant cave was a dungeon.
“The devilish aura’s so intense over there.”
“Looks like it,” Davey agreed.
“Ugh! Daddy! Da smell!!”
It probably wasn't just the smell of decaying corpses. An intense devilish aura was flowing out of the cave.
“Let's postpone eating and check it out,” Davey decided.
Holding her nose, Josiah added, “I don't think I’d be able to swallow anything with this smell, anyway.”
Whether they were lucky or not, they seemed to have taken the first step towards progress.
There was no sign of life inside the dungeon, yet far too many traces for it to be called a natural cave. The deeper they went, the stronger the stench of decay became.
“Ugh! I can't take it anymore!” Unable to endure it any longer, Josiah unleashed her vampire powers and forcibly dispersed the foul odor surrounding them.
Only then did the stench finally subside.
“I haven’t seen a single corpse, yet the smell...” Davey had definitely heard that there were living corpses inside, which made him naturally think that the world might not have the concept of the undead like zombies on Earth.
Of course, there were plenty of worlds without zombies, but the lack of evidence honestly left him wondering if the cave was really the place he was looking for.
“The map definitely said it’s here, right?” Josiah asked.
Davey affirmed her question by stepping inside. “It should be. Red Ribbon, Blue Ribbon, it's time to transform.”
Following his words, the two, who were trembling as they looked at the sticky things around them, quickly turned into swords and landed in his hand.
“Guuu!”
At the same time, ghouls began emerging from deeper within the cave, giving off an eerie presence that felt distinctly different from ordinary zombies.
“Ah, here they come.” Josiah pulled out her staff and drew up her mana. Though she was a Vampire Lord, she was also a mage adept in using magic.
‘Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve seen any other vampire use regular magic... Only their blood magic...’
Regardless, Josiah completed her casting and extended her staff. Yet, at that moment, Davey stopped her and pulled her back. “Josiah, stop.”
“Eek! Teacher?”
“Fall back for now.”
She seemed puzzled, but didn't argue.
He then immediately condensed divine power into a sphere in his hand and unleashed it.
Bzzzt!!
The ghouls writhed in agony the moment they touched the barrier of divine power, before crumbling into ash one after another.
“Teacher, I could've done that, you know,” Josiah muttered, pouting.
“Just follow my lead. You’ll know why I did this.”
‘Jeez, what was she thinking? Trying to provoke onlookers?’
After pushing forward for a long time, Davey and Josiah were able to reach the end of the cave.
There were no notable treasures, and nothing worth exploring. All they found were grotesque ghouls and unidentified lumps of flesh.
Davey looked around and mumbled, “I feel like I’ve seen something similar before.”
Josiah then called out, as if she found something, “Teacher! Isn’t that it?”
What she pointed at was a massive lump of flesh.
Or rather, to be precise, it was a massive egg lodged between the lumps of flesh.
Josiah pointed at the egg with a frown, as if she didn't even want to be near it. “But is this the necrotic part?”
“I guess we’ll need Kouna after all,” Davey muttered.
“Pardon?”
“This isn't it.” On the surface, it looked like unidentified necrotic skin, but he knew that wasn’t the case.
Davey approached a section of the wall where the energy was concentrated. He then raised his divine power again and placed his hand on it.
Rumble rumble.
At the same time, the wall began to open on its own.
“Teacher... This is...”
Once the inside was revealed, the two were facing a dark interior. Nonetheless, they had no problem seeing, as they could both see even without light.
Inside the hidden room within the cave was a cage. A gruesome cage at that.
A terrible smoke created by the devilish aura energy filled the space above an enormous number of corpses, piled up in a rotten pit. There were two people inside who had completely lost their human appearance and were tearing each other apart.
“Teacher... What in the world is this?”
“In Heavenly Central Plains, there's something called Gu poison.”
“Gu poison?”
“You put hundreds of venomous insects into a jar and wait until there’s only one left.”
The venomous insect that survived was said to possess an incredibly potent poison.
Those who were once human but fought to survive in the endless devilish aura were eventually left with no choice but to become stronger monsters. It was a grotesque and inhuman sight.
Before long, one of them slowly collapsed, followed by the other one falling as well. The fallen man slowly raised his head, breathing heavily, and focused on Davey.
‘I wonder what he’s thinking.’
He slowly puckered his lips and let out a cracked voice.
Davey couldn’t hear anything, but he knew what the man was wishing for.
‘Please, just kill me...’
“Teacher!!”
Understanding his wish, Davey immediately conjured a flame and incinerated the entire pit.
[Fireball]
He then closed his eyes and murmured, “I’ll guide your souls.”
It wasn't just a simple statement. Following his spiritual command, the souls tied to the area began to quickly scatter.
Swoooosh. Thwack!
At that moment, Davey snatched the blade flying toward Josiah with his bare hands. The two heard someone approach them, then the person who'd been secretly watching them appeared in front of them.
They dramatically called out, “Woah, woah! You shouldn’t do that. It's not kind, incinerating the prey I worked so hard to create.”
It seemed he had tried to come out before Davey burned the pit, and once Davey incinerated the entire thing with overwhelming speed, he’d become quite furious.
The man was clearly handsome, and even someone they recognized.
“That person is...”
“The First Apostle, right?”
His eyes turned eerie as he grumbled, “Man, oh man... It was just about complete, and all I had left to do was feed it to finish my strongest minister dragon.”
He covered his face with one hand.
The surroundings crushed, and the entire cave shook.
As the terrifyingly immense power continued flowing, he quietly asked, “Hey, what are you going to do about this? Don't you know how valuable the prey you burned was?”
“If that were the case, you should've stopped me before I got here,” Davey shot back.
The First Apostle sighed at the counter-argument. “You’re right, that's a decent point. I was too complacent. I thought you were a pretty decent prey, so I deliberately lured you here. I didn't think you'd have such a trick up your sleeve.”
Davey didn't know how to respond.
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