## Chapter 941 – How Long Has It Been?

But the truth is, I’m hiding all this from our Saintess, so who am I supposed to tell? I feel bad for Kadia, but I have no intention of letting her know about this.

No matter how much the Saintess is my woman, there’s no way she could hear such shocking truths and make a sound judgment. I can tell because she’s my woman. To be coldly honest, I also freaked out when I first saw Hilde and Ari.

Well, what can I do?

“Then, towards the other side of darkness!!! We descend!!!”
“An irresistible urge, dejyaaaaaaaaat!!!”
“De, dejyaaaaaaaat!!”

And so, I roared along with Elise.

Yeah, if Elise is happy, then everything is good.

“To participate in a holy war while still alive…! And to participate with the Saint, no less! I’m overwhelmed with emotion!!!”

Elise mentioned the holy war and clasped her hands together.
She really seems to be in a good mood.

“Me too!!! But nothing’s confirmed yet, so let’s calm down a bit.”
“Saint, I have a sense for these things.”

When I said that, Elise spoke with a serious face.

“Of course, to make a judgment, there must be clear evidence, but that doesn’t mean human intuition and reasoning are completely useless.”

That’s true, but.

“The fact that Minotaurs are demonic creatures from the Demon Realm is a highly credible story. In that situation, Vice Commander Jeynante testified that there are records that Cyclops are also beings from the Demon Realm. If those two beings are gathered together, then it’s naturally more than enough grounds for suspicion.”

ㅡClench.

Elise raised her tightly clenched fist.

“This is a kind of omen…! Hundreds of years since the end of the Idol War! No matter how hard humans try, peace can never last long!! We must now prepare for the Demon Realm!!!”
“That’s right, Elise!!!”

Even if I don’t know about anything else, I vehemently agree with that.
We must prepare for the Demon Realm.

“More than that, our Elise’s speaking skills have improved a lot!!!”
“It’s all thanks to the Saint’s influence!”
“My influence?”
“Yes. The Saint always speaks as if declaring something with confidence. I practiced oratory to learn from that. It has been a great help.”

I can only be moved by this now.

“Hehehe, this makes me feel a bit embarrassed.”
“You can be proud. The Saint’s oratory skills were very effective. Hasn’t that been the case so far?”

Looking back, it does feel that way.
As long as you have a position, talking shit is nothing.

“Yeah, then I should be proud.”
“That’s right. It’s something that can win the favor of everyone, so you should be proud enough.”

Elise nodded as if satisfied.

“The favor of everyone… But Saint.”
“Hmm? Why?”
“Do you still have five wives?”

Why is she asking that all of a sudden?

“Five people?”

Of course.

“Yeah. Of course. Five people. I’m treating women like stones.”

There are now eight, but how can I tell Elise, who is worried about this, about this?

“Is that so?”

Elise’s reaction was flat.

“I was worried that after the Saint went up to the capital, he would continue a licentious life and have countless wives.”
“No, Elise. What do you take me for?”
“Heroes are said to be fond of beauty.”

The concept of heroes being fond of beauty is universally accepted.

“That was subtly bothering me, to the point where my chest felt itchy. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.”
“Hehehe, are you still worried about that? Hey, hey. There’s nothing to worry about. I’m still thinking properly about what Elise said. That excessive… that kind of thing isn’t good.”
“Hmm…”

Elise nodded.

“Still, the moral values ​​I’ve learned throughout my life are like that… so I can’t help but think that way. People naturally think the way they’ve lived. I’m not worried about the Saint, but as a friend and a nun who respects the Saint, I’m always concerned about that part.”

Touched.

“This is my honest thought.”
“Still, I’m really touched. Rest assured, Elise. That won’t happen.”
“Haa… I feel a little relieved that the Saint said that himself. The Saint is not one to lie to me, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

I was starting to feel guilty towards Elise… Going from 5 to 8 is a 60% increase in terms of numbers alone. I can’t even call that an error in jest.

I’m sorry, Elise.

I was more of a playboy than I thought.

“Then, Elise. I’d like to go down to the city and have a meal together, but I’m too busy here, so it’ll be a bit difficult.”
“That’s a very unfortunate thing… I didn’t come alone, but with the warriors of the Order, so I can’t act freely.”
“I’m sorry too. But well, I’ll have some free time when the work is done. Then let’s do that then, and let’s focus on going down below for now.”
“Understood!!!”

With that, I parted ways with Elise and returned to the girls I had sent back earlier. Now, I’m killing Cyclops and professionally dealing with Minotaurs. Maybe we’ll be able to conquer this dungeon soon.

“I’m back.”
“Ah, Kat.”

Claudia greeted me.

“I’m glad things seem to be going well.”
“Because of what Sir Jeynante said?”

Claudia seemed to have great concerns about this Demon Realm report.

“Yeah. With that, you can do what Kat wants without raising suspicion, right?”
“Hehehe, that’s right. Ah. Things are working out this way. Well, good things happen when you live. We’ve been working so hard to do good things.”
“Hoo-hoo-hoo, that’s right.”

Now that concerns and rumors about the Demon Realm are spreading in the exploration party, all I have to do is add some spice to it. And Kim Kat is an expert in that. No matter what is said, the moment it enters my mouth, it takes concrete form.

“But where’s Risha?”
“Heeuk?!”
“Why are you so surprised?”

When I called Risha, she flinched.

And her face had been red since earlier.

“Th, that is… because of the thought of corporal punishment…”

She spoke about corporal punishment as if she was embarrassed, but it seemed that Risha’s fetish was firmly fixed.

Why does she like being spanked so much?

But when I think about it, I’ve been spanking while sucking on the Demon Realm Princess’s milk. When I thought of that, I felt strangely excited.

“No, our Risha, don’t you like this too much?”
“It was all you who made this concubine like this!!!”
“Oh my!”

She’s blaming me for this!!!

“If you want corporal punishment this much, there’s no point in doing it!!! Risha!!! I’ll forget about it!!!”
“Aaat! D, don’t do that! This concubine was wrong!”
“About what?”
“Th, that is…”

Why is she so cute?

“I’m just kidding. Well, I’ll do it when everything’s over. Wait for me.”
“This is embarrassing…”

Risha covered her face with both hands.

“Risha? Is it that good?”
“D, don’t ask such a thing!”

Claudia asked while stroking Risha’s back, who was covering her face with her hands and bowing her head, and Risha shouted again as if she was embarrassed.

I’ll have to properly touch her butt when this is over.

* * *

After that, I spent busy days cleaning up the Minotaurs in the dungeon. In the first place, there weren’t that many of them in the dungeon, so the frequency of encounters was definitely decreasing as the days went by.

The subjugation was almost complete.

And from the middle, the map was almost completed, so everyone gathered together and carried out overtime work. Since the structure of the dungeon had already been roughly grasped, all we had to do was go into the places we hadn’t been to and clean them up.

As we smoothly subjugated the remaining Minotaurs and went down, we were finally able to reach what seemed to be the lowest floor.

ㅡThe deepest part of the dungeon.

So, it was located below the place where the altar was. Unlike the other floors where the paths were intertwined, there was only one passage here.

The only passage to the other side was welcoming us.

The ceiling of the passage was very high… It was a bit strange, but we, who had killed nearly a hundred Minotaurs over the past few days, advanced without hesitation and headed to the end of the passage.

ㅡCheok.

And at the end of that passage.

There was a very large door that even ogres could pass through.

It was blocking us.

“It’s a very large… door.”
“What could be inside that requires such a big door…!”
“It must be a door that giant-like beings use!!”

The paladins in front of the door shared their opinions with serious expressions.

“…”

I couldn’t help but stare at the door as well. This was a door that a bigger bastard than the Cyclops would use.

No… but is the door only this big here?

If there’s a really huge giant inside, it’ll be able to open this door, pass through the passage, and go out to the room outside. But that’s the end. The other passages are too small to go out above that.

Of course, we can break it and go out, but I don’t think this dungeon will be intact if we do that.

And the strange thing is not only that.

If this dungeon is buried and stuck in the ground, then this place, which is guarded by the signal altar and this huge door, is the 1st and 2nd floors… Why would you place something like this on the 1st floor and build a building on the upper floors?

Why put such important facilities on the lower floors?

It doesn’t make sense.

It would be right to assume that this was made with the intention of being buried underground from the beginning.

No, is that not it either?

Even if this area was originally on the ground, is it the basement floor of the building? If I think about it that way, it fits again, but doubts remain about the identity of this giant door.

“Looking at the map, this seems to be the only passage. That means this is the end, and what we’re aiming for is inside that.”

The commander of the holy war exploration party said, stroking the wall of the door.

“It wouldn’t be strange if there were ancient demon kings, archdemons, or evil gods, as we have been worried about.”

That’s right.

“Risha. What do you think it is?”

I poked Risha’s waist and asked quietly.

“With this size… there’s nothing but a giant monster inside.”
“That’s all there is, right?”

The atmosphere of the paladins was already seriously heated. They glared at the wall with rough breaths.

“First of all, we’ve killed all the Minotaurs on the upper side. So there’s no need to worry about a rear attack. Above all, our paladins are staying at the entrance on the ground to defend it.”

The commander continued to speak.
Will he give the order to attack?

At that time, Vice Commander Jeynante said.

“But is it okay to attack now? We’ll need more preparation.”

Certainly, since we just discovered it, it would be better to go after making perfect battle preparations rather than going in right away. First of all, we need to establish a strategy. Since there’s a passage behind the door, it would be good to train to handle the wounded.

“Above all, if we go in recklessly in a situation where we don’t know if reinforcements will come, it may be irreversible. It would be okay to wait for reinforcements here.”

When Jeynante finished speaking, Elise raised her hand high.

“Please listen to me!”

The gaze that gathered in an instant.

“The seals of the Minotaurs and Cyclops have already been broken. That means there’s a high possibility that the monster that might be inside is also unsealed! It’s clear that it will regain its power as time passes!!!”

Elise’s words were also correct.

“That’s a reasonable point!”
“The nun’s words are right. This is a race against time.”
“We have to make a choice.”

The atmosphere is a bit agitated, but still, we shouldn’t go in right away.

“I would like to say a word.”
“Paladin?”
“We just discovered it, right? From today, it doesn’t seem like a big problem will happen just because one more day passes. If something was going to happen, it would have already happened.”

I said as if persuading the paladins.

“Just one day. I think it’s better to establish a strategy and carry out training before going in. It would be a problem if there’s a demon king inside with a lot of subordinates, right? We have to prepare for all kinds of situations. We should also research methods such as transporting the wounded to this corridor for treatment and then returning them to the front line, using this door as a base.”
“…That’s a reasonable point.”
“As expected, he’s wise because he’s young.”

Everyone nodded.

“I understand. Then we’ll go up today, establish a strategy and carry out training, and then attack.”

Good.