Side: Yuki
Good grief... What kind of luck is this!?
Seraria's childbirth and the defensive battle had to happen at the same time!!
The fact that she didn't contact us herself probably means she didn't want to worry us unnecessarily.
I'm grateful to Milly.
"So, what are we going to do, Yuki-san? It's not impossible for us to defeat 120,000 enemies by ourselves, but..."
"It would take too much time... Should we just kill them all? That would be easy."
"Kaya, don't say such scary things! And that's no good in many ways!!"
Just as Kaya said, wiping them all out would end this quickly.
However, Torii stopped that idea. If we did that, a massive amount of magic power would suddenly be replenished into the magic power depleted land, and we don't know what kind of abnormalities might occur. We also want information on the Magic Sword wielders.
Additionally, we don't know how the Enaria Holy Kingdom would react if they heard their entire army was annihilated.
If they sent a huge army for revenge and it turned into a final battle with Jilva, we'd get dragged into trouble. If they shrank back, Jilva would gain momentum and attack, and we'd still have to deal with it.
"...Yuki-san, what do you intend to do? If we fight as we are, there's no avoiding the fact that the true strength of our mercenary group will become known. During the defensive battle, we at least coordinated with the other armies, but if fewer than fifty of us repel, annihilate, or capture an army of this size... everyone will learn about the overwhelming firepower Weed possesses by following Earth's methods. As a result, there's a very high chance we'll drastically alter the balance of power across this new continent. Wouldn't that be a serious problem?"
Sheila had apparently been thinking about it as well, worrying about the consequences of this battle.
Indeed, just as Shella said, if we annihilated 120,000 with modern weapons — which could be called over-technology in this new continent — not only Jilva and Enaria, but every major power on the continent would begin investigating us.
And once that happened, there was an extremely high chance we'd become targets of every nation and lose our freedom of movement. In other words, we'd end up in the same situation as Weed—having to deal with every country that came knocking.
That defeated the whole point of being mercenaries... Well, rising to fame like this was probably something mercenaries normally welcomed. But our objective wasn't fame. It was investigating the cause of the new continent's mana depletion. Since we still didn't know where the cause lay, we shouldn't do anything that would restrict our movements.
If the culprit turned out to be some nation acting intentionally, then making a name for ourselves might have been worthwhile. But if the cause lay elsewhere, wasting time dealing with every kingdom that took an interest in us would accomplish nothing.
"Umm, Onii-chan, I don't really understand, but I want to go to Seraria-oneechan's side quickly."
"I also want to go to Seraria-aneesama's side quickly!!"
The two little ones seemed to want to be present for Seraria's childbirth just like me and weren't thinking too deeply about it.
But seeing them worry about family warmed my heart.
"Yuki, it's nice that you're touched by those two, but... what are we really going to do? Whether we use modern weapons or bombard them with magic empowered by our stats, the end result won't really change."
Labyris's words snapped me out of my sentimental mood.
Right.
The sooner we wrapped this up, the sooner I'd get to see Seraria and my child.
"Yeah... Tori, Sheila, and Labyris are right. I'd rather avoid forcing things through in a way that'll cause problems later. So..."
I said that and took 'that' out of my item box.
"Eh... Wait a moment, Yuki-san. Isn't that..."
"...Why are you taking out a Dungeon Core here?"
Jessica finally put a name to the object in my hands.
Yes, what I was holding was a Dungeon Core.
Which meant...
"I've already had Luna stop the dungeon's mana circulation. Expanding the dungeon by purchasing the surrounding land with DP will spread mana through the area, but unlike the demi-human village, this is nothing but open grassland. It'll be easy to observe. Besides, Zargis and the research team have been saying they wanted another observation site for a while now."
"Umm... even so, I don't see how that'll stop an army of 120,000. They're not exactly going to walk into a dungeon..."
Riel looked troubled as she replied to my opinion.
"You're right. An army marching to attack a city isn't going to enter a dungeon voluntarily. But what if the dungeon were the only route available?"
When I said that, everyone seemed to understand, and Jessica pressed her temple as she spoke.
"You plan to change the terrain all the way to the surface... Surround the 120,000 enemies with walls, or trap them in a hole too deep to climb out of. Then place the dungeon entrance there."
"Just as Jessica said. We just need to drive them into a situation where entering the dungeon is their only option."
"But a dungeon capable of handling an army of 120,000... Ah... could it be the one everyone was building together?"
After thinking it through, Riel arrived at the answer herself.
Naturally, we'd already considered using dungeons as part of Weed's defenses.
This was simply repurposing that plan.
"Oh, right. I remember hearing about it now. Jessica and I weren't involved—we hadn't joined yet when Weed was founded—but everyone worked together to design a dungeon specifically for dealing with massive armies, right?"
"...I'd completely forgotten about it."
"Well, there hasn't been anyone around to attack Weed. We only ever made the blueprint."
Unfortunately, Ria hadn't participated in constructing that dungeon either, but she knew about it.
Kaya and Tori seemed to remember it after Riel mentioned it.
"...And this dungeon can truly handle an army of 120,000 while allowing us to observe them and evaluate their combat capabilities? Also... how exactly do you intend to explain this to Jilva afterward?"
Jessica's sharp question cut straight to the heart of the matter.
"There's no problem. It's an extraordinary dungeon designed to handle attacks from multiple countries against Weed. To make it easy to understand: it can handle Roshure, Gartz, Rithea, the Demon King's country, and all of them at once. Of course, monitoring is easy, and we can deploy countless monsters from summoning arrays or send powerful monster armies from our side. There are also numerous traps."
As Labyris explained, Jessica visibly turned pale.
Well, it was basically a declaration that we could do whatever we wanted.
And that was while facing four superpowers on par with—or even stronger than—the Jilva Empire simultaneously.
"Naturally, both Jilva and Enaria—and every other nation secretly observing this battle—will simply see a dungeon suddenly appearing as nothing more than a natural disaster. On this continent, where dungeons are believed to be nothing but ancient ruins, no one will suspect otherwise. People on Weed's continent might realize it's our handiwork, but here? They won't have the slightest idea."
Holding my hand, Labyris smiled as she effortlessly read my thoughts.
"...As terrifying as ever. I see. Since there's no need to wipe them out immediately, we'll simply keep them under observation. Then we'll tell Lord Horst they fled because of a natural disaster before returning to Weed."
"Exactly. Besides, dungeon construction is much easier back in Weed."
"But what about the generals wielding Magic Swords? If they're truly powerful, they could escape on their own... Ah... in that case, it'll actually make them much easier to capture."
"Exactly."
The biggest concern with this operation was that those individuals might either escape before the dungeon's traps caught them or possess enough strength to conquer the dungeon itself.
Fortunately, neither was much of an issue.
If they tried to escape before entering, we'd be monitoring them and could simply capture them—or throw them into the dungeon ourselves.
If they entered the dungeon, well, once they were inside, we could deal with them however we pleased. Besides, it wasn't as though we were going to build a dungeon with an exit they could actually escape through.
* * *
"Oisuu. Boss, the enemy is visible. They've probably noticed us too-ssu."
"That's to be expected. We had the Marauder's headlights on full blast. Well, let's get this over with quickly."
I got out of the vehicle, placed the Dungeon Core on the ground, activated "Dig here, woof woof," and set up the large army dungeon that had been stored without being used.
Rumble... Rumble... Rumble.
A deep rumbling sound echoed around us.
"Confirmed collapse of the enemy area!! Land control and map confirmation complete!!"
With the goblin unit's report, everyone activated their maps and checked the markers.
"Wow... there's a lot."
"The map's almost entirely red markers."
"Yep. Just as planned, Yuki-san. The enemy's main force is inside the collapse zone."
Just as the beastman wives said, the enemy's main force was completely caught in our trap.
"...We've confirmed it too. The enemy supply unit 5km behind seems to be heading to check the situation. What should we do about them?"
Yes, the main force was one thing.
Just as Jessica said, there was also a supply unit delivering supplies to the rear, so we had to deal with them too.
"Goblin unit, take 30 members to raid the rear and supply units. Send half into the dungeon and chase the rest away. This way, the Enaria side will have no choice but to recognize it as a natural disaster. Listen, begin the attack only after entering the collapsed area. It's troublesome to carry them into the dungeon. Begin operations!!"
"""Roger!!"""
The goblin unit immediately began moving.
"The remaining 20 will monitor the collapsed area using both visual and map confirmation. Knock down anyone trying to climb up!!"
"""Roger!!"""
With that, nearly all of our forces left, leaving only a handful of goblins with us.
"Alright. Once we've monitored things for about three hours, we can withdraw."
"...Yuki. You said they would climb up... does that mean it's not that deep?
"No. The collapse is about twenty meters deep."
"...Most of them are probably dead on impact, then."
"Nope. There's an army of skill-sealing slimes waiting at the bottom. They'll cushion the fall. They're spread across the entire area, so unless someone's extraordinarily unlucky, they won't die."
"...So in three hours, they'll either escape into the dungeon or only corpses will remain."
"I'd prefer you call it ‘driving fish into a trap.'"
"That's a nasty way to put it."
Jessica glared at me, but there was also a sense of resignation in her gaze.
Has she become a bit softer since becoming my wife?
"No, I just realized that clinging to common sense forever would only tire me out."
"Ah, I see."
"Of course, as my husband, I still hold you in high regard. This is the way you truly fight as a Dungeon Master, isn't it?"
"Yeah. This is my real profession."
That's right.
I'm a Dungeon Master.
Now then, to the brave challengers of the Enaria Holy Kingdom—welcome to our very first, anti-army dungeon.
I expect all of you to provide plenty of good combat data for our research teams.
My wives are also happily watching the dungeon's progress, so I hope you don't get taken out too early.
Naturally, I've set the systems to minimize lethal force where possible, but given the scale of things, accidents happen... so if you happen to die down there, sorry about that.
Oh, as for the two Magic Sword wielders leading your army—your capture orders are already set. I highly recommend putting up a great fight when our squads arrive.
"...I wonder if Seraria's doing alright."
Still, what I'm most worried about is my wife.
