Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"For us, there cannot be any greater joy other than serving you" Annette pleaded dramatically making Simon gobsmacked.

'Eh?! Ehhhh..a-are they crying? But I only wanted to reward them for their efforts. Where did I go wrong' he panicked internally.

"I-Is that so… then forget about it" Simon hurriedly said. The Valkyries wiped their tears and picked themselves up once again leaving Simon to agonise over what happened internally.

'Should I have just given them DP. Hmm, now that I think about it, I could use the DP as the currency to pay my employees. Damn isn't that a good idea? With DP they can buy anything they want from the [Shop] and I won't have to agonise over not rewarding them. I can't believe this never came to me before' Simon contemplated.

He was thinking about adopting this reform to his dungeon and how he should go on about doing it. While Simon was thinking all that, other subordinates also visited him one after the other giving their reports.

He listened to their reports but most of the contents went over his head as he was busy thinking about the reforms he had on his mind.

Quite a few hours must have passed… "My lord is that fine?" Fennel asked. These words finally snapped Simon out of his thoughts and he tried to make sense of what the person in front of him just said.

"Eh? Umm.. sorry I was not listening, what did you say?".

"I was saying that Cecilia's birthday is coming soon and we wanted to celebrate it in our village. She is the daughter of our patriarch and we always used to celebrate her birthday as a big event. I am here on behalf of the village to ask for your permission".

Hearing his words, all the afterthoughts that Simon was having disappeared from the back of his mind.

"Cecilia's birthday?!! When is it?" he asked.

"It's on the fourth of the Dalias month" fennel replied. 'That's close' there was only a week left for the Nevolas month to end and the Dalias month to come. "Why didn't Cecilia say anything to me then?" Simon muttered, such a big event was coming and he had no clue about it.

"Haha… I'm sure that girl is trying to hide it. She knows how busy you are and is trying not to celebrate it this year. Now that her parents are no longer there, I'm sure Cecilia is struggling internally".

"Though she never lets it appear on her face, whenever she looks at children who still have the mother and father, I'm sure that hurts hers internally. Nevertheless, she always wears that smile around her face. Usually, around this time, she would be running around the village telling everyone not to miss her birthday till the point that we get annoyed".

"But this year… sigh. We have never once missed her birthday and I'm sure that patriarch too would be upset to not see his daughter celebrate her birthday this year from heaven. That is why I came here specifically to ask for my lord's…".

Fennel explained his motive behind coming here, but before he could ask for Simon's permission, the person in question got up from his seat and stated in a clear voice that left no doubts.

"You do not need my permission for something like that. Cecilia is like my sister; No, she is my sister. As you all have celebrated her birthday every year, this year too we shall not miss it. Make preparation for her birthday, make it big: Nah, make it grand. I want her first birthday that she celebrates inside this dungeon to be memorable, one that she never forgets about. I want that fake smile to disappear from her face replaced by a genuinely happy one".

After declaring that, Simon turned towards Fennel and suddenly revealed his wicked smile—

"Fennel, you said that she was trying to hide her birthday from us? So be it then, we shall conceal this fact from her too and surprise her when the day comes. She shouldn't get even a little whiff of it do you all understand".

All of the people present in the hall nodded their heads in agreement.

"Fennel if you need anything do not hesitate to come ad look for me. Valkyries, you shall be assisting the forest spring spirits on this event and also keep her so busy that she cannot leave the Main Floor".

"Leave Princess Cecilia to me" Alice immediately raised her hand to volunteer "Hehe… we are good friends now, master can leave her to me".

"Alright, I will leave her to you" Simon knew that the two of them had hit it off and had bonded quite well in this short period of time. Leaving Cecilia in Alice's care should be alright.

'Is it because both of their races have a little similarity to one another?' Simon questioned internally. Technically, Alice's race was Wood Elf who are said to be close to the nature like the elves and the high elves.

The forest spring spirit are said to be a race that is born from the blessings of the nature and has a strong affinity with it. Simon couldn't discount that it wasn't because of this fact that the two became good friends in such a short time.

While Simon was handing out orders and giving some ideas that he had from his previous world, he suddenly heard the door open. Thinking that it was Cecilia, everybody stopped talking and glanced towards the door only to see a peerless beauty walk in.

Her hair was a little messy probably because she had just taken a nap but that flaw seemed to have enhanced her beauty even further making everyone enamoured just by her presence. Her skin glowed a milky white from the bath she had taken and a nice smell wafter around her.

"What are you guys talking about?" she slowly approached closer and asked.

Simon glanced at Irene and then looked at the door behind them. Seeing that there were no signs of Cecilia, he shifted his gaze back at Irene and asked "Where is Cecilia?".

"She is still sleeping" the woman replied.

"Why are you asking that?" when questioned by Irene, Simon revealed his plan and told her how the little girl was trying to hide her birthday from them.

When the phoenix lady heard that, her crystal blue eyes narrowed a little "So that girl was trying to do something like that huh!! She calls me big sister but hides something so important from me. Good, I like your plan. Allow me to help too, we shall give her a surprise that she will never forget".

Since Irene had that icy expressionless face, it was hard for others to know what she was feeling. However, given that she had always cared deeply for the forest spring spirits and especially toward Cecilia, it was only natural that she would be a little angry after such an important thing was hidden from her.

Now that all of them had assembled here, they solidified their master plan that was Cecilia's birthday. After Fennel left the palace, Simon turned towards Irene and asked her a question out of curiosity.

"By the way, when is your birthday?".

He knew very little about her and it was not very long ago that he felt like she had opened up to him a little. She always had that mysterious aura shrouding her that barred Simon from getting to know her. He thought that maybe knowing her birthday would allow him to close this distance.

Irene glanced at him with her crystal blue eyes, her two cherry red lips opened and closed a few times.

"Hmm… why do you ask? Well, it has already gone by. It was on the 15th of the Virnix month"

The Virinix month had gone by four months ago. At that time, he was stuck inside the forbidden trials toiling away his days in training and trying to find an exit.

"I see…" Simon didn't have anything else to say.

"Right, I heard what happened in the orc's territory from Annette. Don't you need my help to bring those orcs inside the dungeon?" Irene asked changing the subject.

Simon nodded his head, he wasn't able to ask for her help before since she looked tired. But now that Irene had brought it up herself, Simon told her how he had managed to gather new subordinates.

"If you open a teleport portal like the last time, I can bring them back".

Irene mused and nodded her head at Simon's proposal. From what she could tell, that orc named Berigard seemed to be somewhat trustable. They might end up becoming a crucial force that guarded this dungeon in the future.

Although one still needs to be careful and made adequate preparations in case they tried to revolt; after all, they were beings brought from outside the dungeon and not its native inhabitants. One cannot be too careful against them.

"When are you planning to go?" she asked.

"Right now" Simon answered, he wanted to wrap up everything before Cecilia's birthday. Although the Valkyries and Fennel would be able to sufficiently good job, as her brother he had certain responsibilities that he must keep.

As such, he wanted to free his schedule and complete the tasks that have been in the back of his mind for a while. Irene did not stop Simon, she could see that he had already stabilised the mystical energy within him that had become unstable after the rapid increase in his levels.

"Take Bea with you, even though I have been to the orc territory once, with her sending me the spatial axis it would be much easier for me to create a gate near your position," Irene said making Bea who listening from the side, ecstatic.