Chapter 16 – The Dungeon
The dungeon of the demon castle where the sinners are imprisoned was outside the castle.
One of the four spiers connecting the castle walls surrounding the Devil’s Castle, the entrance was guarded by undead Death Knights who did not feel tired, taking turns day and night.
As we approached the prison, following Camilla who was leading the way, the Death Knights guarding the entrance spotted us and put their hands on the Zweihender stuck in the scabbard.
It was probably a warning meaning that they would attack if they got any closer.
Camilla glanced at the Death Knights, then she looked at me and she said.
“As you can see, no unauthorized person can enter the dungeon.”
“Then who can I get permission from?”
“A person who was previously recognized as a superior by the Death Knights, such as the Demon King…”
“Kadrash! Camilla! You’re back!”
“…You just need to get permission from someone like Vanessa over there.”
The tiger also came when I said it, and Vanessa, who appeared at the perfect timing, was fully armed as usual, holding his head in her right hand wearing a tin helmet.
I shook her hand and asked what she was doing.
Then Vanessa responded confidently, banging her gauntlet on top of her armor.
“Because I’m the captain of the Demon King’s bodyguard, I was patrolling to prevent the treacherous from invading the castle.”
This guy is very sincere.
Didn’t he usually just scribble papers in front of his desk when he was the captain of the guard and leave the patrol to someone else?
As I was admiring it, Camilla, who was next to her, said with a puzzled expression.
“Because the Demon King was almost assassinated just a week ago. The captain of the guards couldn’t do his job, so of course he has to do chores like this.”
“Waaaaagh! If you say that!”
Oh Yes it was.
Even though it was only a few days ago, I had forgotten about it because it felt so old.
As one of the main culprits of the assassination, I looked at Vanessa with new eyes.
“I had an accident like that, but I couldn’t manage to get it cut. If it were me, I’d blow off the head right away… Oh, it’s already been cut.”
Come to think of it, Dyurahan is immune to beheading.
This can’t be helped
“It’s too much! I was still paying attention!”
Then Vanessa shrugged his shoulders and pretended to cry.
Dyurahan, who is called the fairy of death, is honestly a bit awake because of this.
If you meet on the battlefield, there is no opponent as difficult to deal with as Dyurahan.
Anyway, I can’t keep fucking her jokes with her Vanessa, so I told her straight up.
“Vanessa, I have business in the dungeon.”
Then Vanessa stopped pretending to cry and asked in a puzzled voice.
“What to do? What to do?”
“I just came to see the Demon King, and he asked me to interrogate a group of heroes imprisoned in a dungeon.”
Then Vanessa let out a shrill exclamation, “Ah!”
“If that’s the case, I’d like to help.”
While Vanessa said that, she gestured to the Death Knights guarding the entrance to the tower leading to the dungeon to get out of the way.
Then, the Death Knights, who had been threatening us like wild dogs earlier, followed her words like gentle sheep and stepped aside.
She showed her keychain which was hanging from her own waistband, and she urged her to go quickly.
I blinked both eyes.
“You were on patrol. You want to go with me?”
“The third basement level, where the hero is confined, is where only felons who received the death penalty or life imprisonment are confined, so a guard must accompany them down unconditionally.
If that’s the case, it certainly couldn’t be helped.
As I was about to follow Vanessa into the dungeon’s entrance, Camilla asked from behind her, tugging at her collar.
“Was it because of this that you sent me out of the room?”
She didn’t hear the last conversation between me and the Demon King.
So, as soon as I came out of the office, he immediately asked me to go to the dungeon, so he must have been suspicious.
In fact, the Demon King did not utter a single word from her to interrogate her, but she did not have to tell Camilla the truth about her.
“Um… It’s classified.”
I said that and evaded it moderately.
It is a kind of rational falsehood.
***
Dungeon.
Generally, when people think of a dungeon, the image people think of is a dirty, unpleasant, and gloomy space.
Unlike modern times, there is no need to legally guarantee the human rights of criminals, so the basement where no sunlight comes in was actually not a place to live.
The first floor, descending the short stairway at the entrance, had several tabernacles lined up in a long corridor.
One cell was about 10 pyeong in size, and the only entrance was an iron door, and everything was blocked so that not even a single ant could escape, except for a small hole with a barbed wire and a feeder hole drilled underneath.
As I passed, I peered into the room through the bars, and saw prisoners in tattered rags sleeping against the walls, or playing cards in groups.
Surprisingly, it feels like a modern prison with about 10 people in each room.
According to Vanessa, those who committed minor crimes around the castle and public officials who committed corruption, such as receiving bribes or asking for favors in private, will be confined to the first floor here if caught.
After passing by dozens of tabernacles and walking through the corridors for about 10 minutes, the stairs to the second floor finally appeared.
“This is the second floor.”
As Vanessa descended the steep stairs, she explained the prisoners trapped on the second floor.
“In contrast to the first floor, where the crime is relatively light, the prisoners confined on the second floor are those who committed serious crimes. Murder, assault, looting… Well, you don’t have to say more, you know? Bring them to solitary confinement. If you put humans in the cell on the first floor, they’ll be lynched as a group by other prisoners and die soon.”
Unlike the first floor, where prisoners live in groups, the second floor is a place where serious criminals are confined, so all the rooms are single rooms.
Instead, the pyeongsu of the room is quite small, about 3 pyeong.
If you are a man with a strong physique, you can barely stretch your legs out and sleep.
Other than that, there was no major difference in composition from the first floor’s tabernacle.
As I walked while looking around, I had arrived at the end of the hallway before I knew it.
I feel like I’ve been walking for a long time, probably because I dug the tunnel on the second floor longer than the first floor.
Vanessa, who was in front of her, knocked on the stone wall at the dead end.
“And this is the third floor. The hero you want to meet is also trapped here.”
Before long, the wall that Vanessa had knocked in went in, revealing a stairway hidden behind the wall.
Said Vanessa, turning to us standing behind.
“I personally call this hell hell. Once you enter, you can never get out of here until you die.”
Those words sounded very meaningful to me.
***
Unlike the stairs leading from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor, the spiral staircase going down to the 3rd floor was quite long.
It seems to have descended more than 10m underground.
By the time I was slowly losing my sense of direction after walking too much, I finally saw the exit leading to the third floor.
As we followed the light and approached like moths, a wide hallway lined with torches appeared in front of us.
Vanessa, who was walking in front of him, raised his right arm and pointed to the end of the aisle.
“There is a captive warrior over there.”
Then Camilla, who was next to her, gulped down her saliva with a nervous expression.
From the point of view of the demons, the enemy of the mortal enemy would be the warrior.
I knew it well because I had received the eyes mixed with resentment and hatred from the demons as a colleague of the hero not too long ago.
Unlike the upper floors where the corridor and the cell were separated by iron doors and walls, the prison on the third floor separated the corridor and the cell only with iron bars, like a prison cell in a police station.
As I walked toward the room where the hero was, I saw a familiar face.
“You! Kaldrash! You son of a bitch! What kind of a stranger are you to come here!”
Even though it’s already been a week since I was imprisoned, a blonde woman warrior with high energy still looks at me and cheers me up, a blue-haired sage is drawing on the floor with an expression of giving up everything, or the goddess of courage Everyone was finer than expected, with the believing priest praying while looking only at the wall with his back turned.
I gently shook her hand, as if I was threatening a female warrior who was as strong as a gorilla, and headed towards the prison at the far end of the hallway.
Eventually, Vanessa stopped his steps and pointed to the side.
“This is where the hero is imprisoned.”
After hearing her words, I naturally turned her head.
“Five.”
There, a brave man who had not been seen for several days was sitting on the floor with shackles hanging from his limbs.
