"Qwy?"

"…"

"Qwy. Qwy?"

"…"

"Qwy!"

[ "The bond creation, Qwy, is expressing its extreme worry. Please speak up, master." ]

"But do I really have to? She knows I'm just upset. Why throw such a tantrum for no reason?"

"Qwy!"

The little one hugged me with her warm body, wrapping her soft feathers around my face. She also released a sweet scent that forced my worries out… but I did not want that.

"The skill won't work, baby." Even if the skill could forcefully change someone's emotional state, it could not change the cause of those emotions.

It was a great skill in certain situations, but right now was not one of them.

"I'm not upset because of you or anything that happened. You saw how Reddy behaved, didn't you?"

The whole city was now working towards the upcoming raid. It was one of the biggest events that had happened in therecent history of Westford, so it was pretty big.

People, famous adventurers, even merchants, were going to come here for this raid, as well as everything that would follow the raid.

The creature in question was a Naga, a serpentine being that possessed scales. And whenever it comes to scales containing Mana, the market takes a steep shift towards the expansive side.

Not only the nobles, but many more will want a piece of the pie. And considering the size of the pie, it's pretty obvious there's going to be a lot of vultures mixed in the bunch as well.

'And the city guards will have to look after everything that goes on within the city during that time.'

I know Reddy takes her job as the guard captain very seriously. She knows her duties, and she does what is right.

It's not a big brainer that she's carrying a great burden on her shoulders. She must be going through a lot for her to say all that irrational stuff. But then again, I didn't like that behaviour.

"You want to stand true to what you believe, then you have the right to do so. I didn't say anything when she presented the snake mother as a literal serial killer. She can believe what she wants, even if it's dumb.

Even I believe unicorns can run on rainbows. Even I believe human beings are inherently good. It's a dumb thought, butwhat can we say? It is what I believe, and I'm not imposing it on anyone!"

It's a good thing I'm in my inn room, or else I would have gone on and punched the first person I could see. This was just! So frustrating!

"Qwy…"

If I were alone, I would have had a bottle of the finest liquor the inn had with me right now, but I only had one glass beside me, with two empty ones at the back of the table.

"Qwy."

My little baby was now worrying about me, which was the only thing that didn't let me get as angry as I wanted to.

Reddy was being childish back there, and I don't really have anything to say about it.

If she was angry, she could go yell at a wall for all I cared.

Yelling at me wasn't going to help with anything. At all.

"Haaaaa…"

[ "Master, you seem to be troubled by something more." ]

Qwy wrapped herself around me to help me a little while Rose's sweet voice brought a special serenity to me.

[ "If the argument is whether a dungeon's creature should be killed or not, then, as a human, shouldn't the natural response be positive? That the dungeon produces the monsters with the purpose of sacrificing them? That the goal of their life, in fact, is to aid the growth of the challengers?" ]

Even she was saying it now. What is it with all of them considering the creatures so hollow and inanimate?

"Aren't they living beings as well, Rose? Produced by the dungeon or not, don't they have a will of their own, their own choices and fate?"

[ "That is not something an external force like them could decide, master. However, you, as a dungeon architect yourself, someone who sees the dungeon and the creatures within it as 'independent' entities, are bound to have your bias." ]

"Huh? I'm biased?"

[ "You do not see the dungeon or the beings produced by the core like the others do. For you, they aren't mere monsters or resources. They are data that can be quantified, as well as energies that are more abstract yet interesting than an external being could understand." ]

Neither Reddy nor Sir Exile could see the motherly aspect of the snake. From what I had seen back there, the creature was simply a monster in their eyes, while for me, protecting her children, the creature was a helpless mother who knew of her own demise.

[ "While the dungeon is a foreign environment for normal beings, for a dungeon architect, it is like a familiar home. The creatures in the dungeons are beings only you can empathise with, while the actions of the core are something only a guest like you will ever be able to perceive." ]

She was kinda making sense right now.

Neither Reddy nor Sir Exile could feel the dungeon like I could. They could not see the control the dungeon has over the freshly evolved Naga; they would not understand the suffering of the creature that has been flagged as an anomaly by the very dungeon it was produced by.

It had a life and it lived that life, and now it had given birth to new lives, ones that would matter more to the dungeon than to someone like the humans.

'Sir Exile did warn us how badly the association and the nobles want the eggs of the Naga. Half of the issue has arisen because of the presence of the eggs.'

The public wasn't informed of the eggs, and even if they saw the eggs at the nest, the association would deal with it on its own.

Most of the parties present would be from the noble factions, and those who get assigned with their own strengths would have no choice but to keep their mouth shut about everything that goes on down there.

[ "The dungeon would want to save the eggs more than a creature that went through the natural process of evolution. The dungeon might even take control of the being and force its will upon the creature." ]

"You're right…"

I also wanted those eggs, but the very thought of tearing them apart from a mother that was going so far for the children didn't sit right with me.

Even with all my logical, ethical reasoning, I did not want the mother to die. And yeah… now that I think about it, my Dungeon Architect bias might be what's preventing me from seeing them as just some monsters we needed to slaughter.

"Haaaaa. And I still don't think it's a bad thing."

[ "And that's the correct attitude for a dungeon architect. If you cannot resonate with the dungeon and all the elements of the dungeon, you cannot prioritize them over the rest of the worldly elements." ]

The moonlit night today was chilly, while the entire city was more bustling with adventurers and salespeople.

"Qwy."

"Right… I was overthinking things."

It's not that Reddy was wrong or I was right. It's just that we see the world differently.

'Still, I'm not talking with her unless she apologizes for yelling at me.'

I'm pretty petty, as she already knows.

She'll know what to do when we next meet… and if she cannot do that, then I'm afraid we are not going to work out in the long run.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.