The Heartfelt Promise
Irene took a deep breath.
She blinked several times, then fixed her gaze once more on the wooden box.
But nothing changed.
Inside the box, the pebble remained exactly as it had been the first time she saw it, obedient and unassuming.
“It’s impossible….”
She murmured the words to herself.
A few days earlier, Irene had requested the complete records of every dungeon that would appear during this expedition.
The officials who used to demand she come in person to copy the entries now handed them over in full after learning Michael was accompanying her.
Thanks to that, she could simply compare each one at her leisure without needing to relocate anything.
Before arriving at the fortress, she had already examined the records of all dungeons that had appeared and vanished in the past.
Thanks to that, Irene was certain.
The dungeons were unchanged from before.
Everything was exactly as it had been.
Numbers, locations, monster attributes, and rewards were all the same.
Then why…?
Only the reward from dungeon number 181, the one she had chosen, had changed.
Feeling a pang of sympathy, Michael opened his mouth with great care.
“Rewards for lower-grade dungeons often turn out to be completely worthless. The same applies to mid-grade dungeons as well. I hope you won’t be too disappointed.”
She knew that already.
Lower-grade dungeons were notoriously difficult to obtain useful rewards from.
But this dungeon was different!
Irene glared at the pebble in silence.
Michael’s expression grew even more troubled.
“I understand your disappointment. Please return to the fortress for now. I’ll ask the fortress staff to make sure you’re comfortable. Rest well….”
He tried to console her, but Irene heard none of it.
Only one thought looped through her mind.
I’m finished.
* * *
Irene lay sprawled on the luxurious sofa in her bright room, staring blankly at the ceiling.
She couldn’t remember exactly how she had made it back to the fortress.
When she stepped out of the dungeon, she only vaguely recalled seeing the box and the pebble and being told by the recording staff that she should have known better.
“It’s impossible….”
She shot up and hurried to the large table in the center of the room.
Scattered across it were the dungeon information she had already checked, along with the latest results from other pairs who had completed their raids before evening.
Irene grabbed her bag from the corner.
It was the one she had packed only the essentials she would need to leave with right away.
The moment she opened it, she frantically retrieved the papers where she had jotted down everything that had come rushing back to her.
“98… 115….”
In the past, Irene had read dungeon records every single day.
She didn’t have a particular hobby of memorizing them.
After spending the whole day alone, she couldn’t bear the boredom and depression, so she wandered around until she overheard people laughing at her.
In the end, she chose the records hall.
Dungeon-related documents were open to anyone.
She spent countless hours reading how other pairs had cleared dungeons, what they had obtained, and what they had learned.
She wasn’t limited to other pairs’ records.
She had also read Michael’s.
Unlike everyone else, reading his solo dungeon runs left her feeling unbearably desolate.
She knew he was useless to her, but seeing it with her own eyes was a different kind of pain.
It’s fortunate that being a paladin made him stronger against demonic energy.
She could purify mild demonic contamination on her own, so he never needed to come looking for her.
She kept reading those records over and over, trying to forget the loneliness and despair.
She read not only about dungeons but everything she could find on monsters.
Eventually, her knowledge far surpassed that of ordinary scholars.
Especially regarding this season’s dungeons.
Irene turned the pages a few times, then slumped into the chair with a heavy sigh.
Just staring at records won’t change anything.
The only certain thing right now was this:
She had failed to obtain the transparency ring.
In other words, she still couldn’t leave this fortress.
“No money….”
Irene slammed her fist on the table in frustration, but the ring didn’t drop from the sky.
She buried her face in the table and let out a long sigh.
Then she glanced at the items still stacked in the room.
At least some of these remain. It could be worse….
She had told the staff before leaving in the morning not to touch a single thing.
She had also asked them to refund her the Tirenia Kingdom ambassador for the full amount.
But upon her return, the fortress staff politely explained that returns were impossible in principle.
She had been too dazed then to notice.
“Thank goodness.”
Irene muttered as she searched among the piled items for something to wear.
She had no idea what the future held, so she needed clothes for today.
One set… or two at most….
She had thought that would be enough.
“Shoes… undergarments… oh, soap!”
Soon her side of the room was overflowing with the items she would need.
* * *
Thanks to Tirenia Kingdom and Michael’s consideration, a lavish dinner identical to the one she had eaten over the past few days was laid out before her.
The time for refusal had passed.
After eating heartily, Irene sat back down at the table.
I need to make a new plan.
She couldn’t keep sitting here helplessly just because she had missed the transparency ring.
She still owed one hundred thousand gold coins, and she had to pay it off within half a year.
Hope was not entirely lost.
She had missed this time’s artifact, but others would appear in the future.
What kind of useful things were there?
As Irene flipped through the records she had written down, she soon found the next dungeon she should target.
“The Stone of Quietude. That was it.”
A stone that, when clutched, silenced all surrounding sound for about ten seconds.
Its power was mysterious, yet it wasn’t very useful in many places, so it fetched only a low price among artifacts.
Still, it seems it sold for around twenty thousand gold.
Royal families and nobles across the continent, along with wealthy commoners, were all frantically collecting artifacts.
Of course, strong and useful ones were too expensive for most to afford.
Yet those who wanted to show off their collection bought items like the Stone of Quietude, which offered a reasonable price.
At least you can boast that you own several.
The Stone of Quietude had been a decent power, anyway.
Among the artifacts Irene remembered, the most trivial was the one that boiled an egg.
It was useful but awkward to pay for.
Compared to those, the Stone of Quietude ranked among the better ones.
The problem is… the dungeon that produces the Stone of Quietude appears in about a week.
Irene recalled the contract she had made with Michael.
Once a month, she could choose a lower-grade dungeon to raid, and all rewards would belong to her.
Once a month.
That was the issue.
The dungeon appeared in about a week, so other pairs would enter in the meantime and claim the reward.
Even if Michael enters, that’s a problem.
All rewards obtained from dungeons other than the one she specified would belong to him.
What should I do?
If only I had known, I would have made it once a week.
She had already missed the deadline by far.
Still, maybe I can ask him once.
This time, Michael seemed far more intimate with her than before.
He even grabbed my waist.
Of course it was just to check for injuries, but the old Michael would have let her get hurt.
He must have wanted this pair bond this time.
Therefore, he wouldn’t resent her.
After thinking it over for a long while, Irene felt her eyelids growing heavy.
I should rest for now and think again tomorrow.
She had moved since morning and faced something completely unexpected, so fatigue was creeping in.
Irene gathered the papers and placed them in the drawer, then covered every glowing stone in the room with a lid.
She set the one emitting the faintest light on the farthest bookshelf.
Lying on the bed, she let out a quiet sigh.
In the past, I never dreamed of such glowing stones.
Of course, they were expensive items too.
She had never even been allowed to touch them, let alone place them in the room.
Now they were everywhere.
It’s a good thing it’s not too dark.
Lying on a hard bed in a narrow room with no light at all, she could hardly breathe at the fear that she would never escape the count’s grasp and be sold away like livestock.
The murmurs of people toward her once more echoed in her ears.
But now, surrounded by this gentle light on a soft bed, such hallucinations were nowhere to be found.
Only the worry of how to change the contract filled her heart.
At least I should meet Michael and talk.
Thinking that, her eyes grew heavy and she drifted off to sleep.
Knock. Knock.
After a brief knock, a voice came from outside.
“It’s Michael. Are you there?”