“Good morning, Derus-sama.”
“Mornin’, Derus-kun!”
“It’s already before noon, Master.”
I rubbed my still-sleepy eyes.
When the curtains were opened, I saw four figures.
Clarice-san, Anju-chan, Helen-san, and, uhm…
“Yeah, good morning, fuah.”
As I tried to sit up, another figure sleeping next to me stirred. My hand brushed against Nastasia-san’s body as she slept, still looking content.
“Nn… Master Derus…”
“Whoa, don’t hug me, I’m about to get up!”
I pulled away and sat on the edge of the king-sized bed.
“Here is some water.”
“Thank you, Clarice-san. Huh, are we leaving already?”
“No, we just went for a light stroll.”
Still, they were in full adventurer gear, ready to dive into a dungeon. Could it be?!
“A stroll, you say? Did you go down into a dungeon?”
“No, we didn’t.” “I knew it.”
Yes, I was a little relieved.
“You see, we didn’t go *down* the dungeon, we went *up*!”
“Huh?!”
“Master, this Tiptop dungeon is a sixty-story tower.”
So that’s how it was. It was already midnight when we arrived at the Dragon Arena, so I didn’t notice at all… I heard it was sixty floors, but I thought it meant going *up*.
“Derus-sama, strictly speaking, we didn’t exactly ascend the whole way, but here’s a souvenir.”
“Wha?! Ah, speaking of which, there was another figure… Wh-what is this?!”
The object I thought was a figure was a succubus, and it was a statue!
“Did you perhaps steal this statue from the dungeon?!”
“No, this was the Demon Lord.”
“There’s a hole in its back!”
Indeed, when I went around to its back, there was a shattered hole!
“You say this was the Demon Lord?!”
“Derus-sama, to explain this dungeon, each floor has a riddle. You can’t go up unless you solve it. If you don’t, the door you enter leads not to the stairs up, but to the stairs down.”
So I have to solve sixty riddles? No, maybe fifty-nine.
“That sounds tough. Did you do all of that in such a short time?”
“No, since it’s a tower, we went up to the top floor through the air.”
“There were ma-magic bar-barriers, but we entered by teleporting.”
Amazing. Even just these three in their party could break through ordinary magic barriers.
“Fortunately, the top floor, the sixtieth floor, also had a window.”
“When I peeked, a Stone Succubus was lying on its side, munching on shattered equipment.”
“Master, it seems it was feeding on the equipment of defeated adventurers.”
So that was the staple diet of this Stone Succubus.
“Derus-sama, the Stone Succubus is actually extremely hard. According to what we heard at the Adventurer Guild, we needed to obtain three petrification reversal rods within the dungeon. Using them, we would have to gradually soften the Demon Lord…”
Obtaining those rods also sounded like it would involve incredibly difficult riddles.
“Well, a golden succubus came from behind and went *Zshaaa*!”
“My Eldorado Succubus pierced it from behind and took its Magic Stone… Not a drop of blood came out.”
Of course, it’s stone!
“Then, what about that Magic Stone?”
“For now, when we reported it, we gave it to the Adventurer Guild. It’s an extremely dense, heavy, and high-magic Dark Magic Stone, so it seems to be quite expensive. Nina-sama is currently discussing it with Xel-sama.”
As for negotiations, Nina-san would definitely handle it.
“Ah, Nina-san was with you too?”
“No, we woke her after we returned.”
“She was surprised, wasn’t she? Derus-kun?”
Yes, I would be surprised, but with these three, it wasn’t entirely unbelievable.
“So, Derus-sama.”
“Yes? What is it?”
“What shall we do with this statue?”
How should I know?!
“Can it be used as material?”
“I don’t know.”
“Derus-sama, it’s probably just a stone.”
“Can it be for pickles?”
Anju-chan seemed to want to use it as a pickle press.
“Alright, let’s display it in the villa. For now, I should get up and meet up with Nina-san.”
I wanted to get dressed properly too.
“Then, allow us to help you change.”
“Me too, me too! Ah, a chikuwa chance here!”
“Derus-sama, shall we also have the Silver Succubus come out and help?”
(All three of them ganging up on me like that!!)
In the end, they helped me change.
“Nn, good morn… ing?!”
“Ah, Nastasia-san, good morning. Please get dressed.”
“Y-yes!”
Nastasia-san, naturally, started getting dressed diligently by herself. Meanwhile, I stared intently at the succubus statue.
(Hmnn, it’s a work of art.)
Especially around the exposed chest, and the curve of the waist… It has an unnecessarily good figure! The death throes expression is also a rather magnificent finish as a piece.
“We could sell this at an auction, you know.”
“However, Derus-sama, I don’t think you’re particularly short on money.”
“Pickle press! Pickle press!” “You don’t need to shout it.”
Helen-san was deep in thought.
“What’s wrong?”
“No, I was thinking about how the Silver Succubus could be transformed into this.”
“Hmm, a bulky and hard Sil-neechan sounds unpleasant.” “You’re all set.”
With Nastasia-san ready, the Stone Succubus statue was placed into my Item Box.
“Well then, let’s go for now.”
Looking out the window, the cityscape below looked like a maze.
