Raised in Dungeon



King Henry Sheraton Wildenhall lay in his bed, plagued by illness. It was a precarious situation - one where he and others knew he wouldn't be able to save his own life in this precarious situation. As a result, he was placed in his resting room of the palace, the King's Chamber. With its hallowed air, this sacred room was deemed fit for only a select few. Access to open the room was granted only to those with a royal bloodline - namely, the king himself and his children.

"It is located in the western part of the palace. But even if you open all the doors in the palace, you won't find it because only those who have royal blood can open it, right, my lady?" asked Ivaylo.

Ivaylo was talking to a woman wearing a large and conspicuous dress. The room had no light, so her face could not be seen clearly.

"That's right,"

'But based on Arthur's vision, he saw the king's mana to the east. Is this some kind of illusion of space? Maybe the actual room is in the east, but to open it, we need to go to the west room.'

"May I ask you something, my lady?"

"No, you may not. Just do as we say, and you'll get the reward you ask for."

"Fufufu, alright. I wondered why one of the queens tried to kill the king. Was it your wish, or is there someone behind all this?"

"I won't answer that; just finish your task," the woman said as she left the room.

The room was the place where Ivaylo woke up, and when the woman was there, most of the members of the Noctem Dolls had already gathered inside the cramped space.

Norman, Nishizaka, and Arthur appeared to be the worst injured, while Elinor was nowhere to be found. Despite the setbacks, the rest of the group appeared to be in good condition and ready to continue with their plan.

"What exactly are we accepting the queen's request for, Leader?" asked Ralph.

"Right, it's not because we need money, nor is it because you want me to go on a rampage, right?" asked Adam.

"For now, please keep the questions in your mind. What is certain is that what happens here will have a good impact on us," Ivaylo replied, putting his finger to his mouth.

"Mary, please put the one who can't fight into your stomach."

"All right, Master."

"Wait! I don't need to; I'm already healed. Although I am not fully healed, I can fight," Norman replied.

"I-I too, I-I'm fine. Forgive me for suddenly becoming useless," uttered Clarissa.

Ivaylo smiled and replied, "Well, don't push yourself."

Following Ivaylo's orders, Mary timidly made her way toward Arthur and Nishizaka, the pit of her stomach beginning to churn with unease. As she approached them, her stomach began to expand at an alarming rate - growing larger and larger until it was the size of a fully grown human body. Slowly, her stomach opened wide, allowing Adam to deposit Arthur and Nishizaka's bodies inside. And just as slowly as it had opened, Mary's stomach began to close again - trapping these two within her.

'I really don't like the feeling inside Mary's stomach,' thought Norman.

The Noctem Dolls exited the room, then casually walked a few steps to the right. A man with long yellow hair was standing at the far end of the room. Holding the doorknob in front of him, he twirled it around. That man was Leofric; he was the one who was opening the door to get to the king's room.

"If I'm not mistaken, that's the door to the basement. Is the king's room really inside there?"

"Let's see whether the royal family's mana can really take us to the king's room or not,"

Everyone stood behind Leofric. Leofric beckoned everyone to stand behind him as he opened the door. They were all curious to see what lay beyond the entrance.

-SREET

To their surprise, it was not the dark, dingy basement they had expected. Something else awaited them. It was a hexagonal room, with each side adorned by a white door. Ivaylo and his companions enter this room from one of the doors, and as they enter, a bridge-like path materializes, leading them to a spectacular wreath in the center. This room was unlike anything they had ever seen; it resembled a garden of otherworldly beauty, seemingly detached from reality. Although it was night outside, the room was drenched in vibrant daylight, and no matter how high they looked up, the walls seemed to stretch on infinitely.

"I can't believe there's a place like this in the palace!" Adam said.

"It's like inside a dungeon's resting place," said Mary.

There were many flowers in there, and the place smelled pleasant and soothing. Water flowed from a statue holding a jug, forming a river around the room.

"Wait, where is Leofric's corpse? He disappeared?" said Ralph.

"Oh, about that... The order given to him was only to open this room, after which he returned to that room," Ivaylo replied.

As explained earlier, a wreath was in the middle of the room. Not just an ordinary wreath. It was a large altar. With transparent colored crystals, creating a rainbow on top.

Ivaylo walked slowly to it while the other members quickly went to each door in case someone entered. And as Ivaylo approached, he could clearly see inside the crystal, a frail, frail-looking old figure was seen inside the crystal, surrounded by flowers.

"So this is King Henry's current condition; if people left him alone, he would probably die in a few years; there is no point in asking us to kill him, that means they want to kill the king as soon as possible," Ivaylo said.

"!!!"

Ivaylo was immediately a little surprised when he saw the king, who was sleeping in the crystal, slowly opening his eyes.

"Who..." said the king.

"!!!"

No, that's not what he said from his mouth. A voice entered Ivaylo's head, and probably everyone in the room heard it. Some telepathy.

The voice of the mind did not sound like the voice of the old grandfather in the crystal because his voice sounded fit and robust.

"Nice to meet you, King Henry Sheraton Wildenhall. My name is Ivaylo, and I am a Norttish. I have come here to kill you," Ivaylo said, certain that it was the king who was speaking.

"Norttish... Finally, one of you gets to me."

"Oh? If you think I have a grudge against you, don't worry, I didn't come for a grudge."

"Hmm? Grudge? What have I done to you?"

"Haha, I understand; it was the first king who massacred our tribe three hundred years ago, not you. But still, that should be enough for my people to take revenge on you as well. His descendants, and those who maintain the Norttish rule of capture and slaughter."

"Aaah I see. But I was also responsible for the massacre of your clan three hundred years ago. I don't understand why Norttish should have a grudge against me."

"Hmm?" Ivaylo thought, 'It looks like this king has a logical fallacy. Maybe he has different morals than others. Well he was the great king at all; he saw a different world from us. But what bothers me is…'

The king suddenly said

"Oh... you outsiders don't know. I thought your elders had already told you the truth..."

"Unfortunately, I killed all the elders... They also sent people to watch me. What does that mean? Why are you responsible for what happened three hundred years ago when you were still unborn?"

After that, there was a slight pause in their conversation. That pause created a strange situation.

"I see...So that's how it is... I see... I understand now," said the king.

What the king said confused Ivaylo.

Ivaylo had grown accustomed to leading conversations and dominating others with his wealth of information and the effortless use of the word 'kill.' He relished the feeling of superiority it gave him. However, for the first time in his life, he felt inferior—not just to anybody but to the king, who couldn't even speak for himself.

As the two engaged in dialogue, Ivaylo couldn't shake this newfound feeling of inadequacy. He realized that the king probably had mastered the art of listening, asking the right questions, and interpreting responses with just a few words, leaving Ivaylo feeling as though he had already given the king what he wanted to hear with minimal effort. The king uttered only two simple words, "I see," and Ivaylo knew immediately that the king had everything he needed.

"Leader, we should just kill this old man right away; I have a bad feeling," Ralph said.

It wasn't just Ralph, others felt it too. Although their plan was perfect, they sensed that someone would soon come from one of the six entrances.

"He's right; you'd better kill me quickly."

There was no anxiety in his words for someone who was about to die. And strangely, his words contained an invitation and an order for them.

'What a difficult old-man to deal with,' Ivaylo thought. If he killed the king, he would be uninformed, and Ivaylo's pride would be damaged by being in a situation where he was ordered to be killed. Ivaylo wasn't a romantic person with pride inside him, but in this case, he felt very scorned if he killed the king now.

The king was currently in charge of the situation in the room. He closed his eyes while smiling at Ivaylo, which made Ivaylo a little annoyed, although the smile on his face had not disappeared.

"You don't want to kill me?" the king asked again.

Ivaylio still looked at the king with a smile, then sighed after a while.

"Huft... I lost... Well, I'll kill you soon,"

"Good... For your information, you can't destroy this crystal easily. Perhaps the blessing of the big man over there is enough, or the high level amnis of the big-breasted tall girl over there," he referred to Adam and Clarissa.

"How do you know our god's blessing?!" said Adam, shocked.

"Why would I answer that if I'm going to die anyway?"

Adam immediately got angry and approached them.

"Leader, we really should kill him right away; this old-man is annoying me."

Ivaylo began to think...

It had been a long time since he had been in this kind of trouble. If he killed the king, he would get what he wanted from the queen, and then everything would go according to the queen's plan, and it would also go according to his plan.

If he didn't kill the king, he wouldn't get anything from the queen, and in the future, they wouldn't be trusted by people as a group that could work well, and that would affect his future plans.

After thinking it through, Ivaylo smiled and replied,

"We-"