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Maou no Hajimekata Volume 2 Chapter 20 Part 4

 

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Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

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Chapter 20: Let’s Step into the Dungeon of Instant Death, Part 4

WHY IS EVE IN YOUR BED?!!」

Aur wakes up to such a cry. The curtain attached to the canopy was opened, and as the sun was shining through it, illuminating Zana, who was staring at Aur with a gaze that was colder than ice.

「It was cold and she wanted to warm me up.」

「But why are you both naked?!」

With his head still heavy with drowsiness, Aur slowly turns it to the side.

Eldav, who was laying next to him hugged onto his arm, using it as a hugging pillow. Moreover, she was doing so without any clothes, who just so happened to be arranged into a neat square at the side of the bed. The look on her sleeping face was the one of blissful happiness.

「Ugh, listen here, because I’m only going to say this once. You can have your perverted fun with whoever you want, so long as that someone isn’t my sister, you understand?! She’s OFF. LIMITS!」

「Wait. This is …」

Without even bothering to listen to Aur’s explanations, Zana scowls and violently closes the curtain.

「Ah … Master, good morning …」

Without telling Eve what happened Aur sighed and then laughed when she saw her looking at him with innocently confused expression.

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「Zana, focus. Don’t let your mind be distracted.」

「Shut up, I know what I’m doing! This is fine!」

Due to Zana’s anger, all of the visible passages stopped freezing further. Aur sighed and used his own magical power to interfere with Zana’s, drawing another set of patterns on the icy walls.

In order to prevent the Sun God from interfering, Aur needed a clear sign that the Dungeon belongs to him. That’s what the pattern on the walls was for. At the same time, it acted as a medium for maintaining Eldav’s spirit power so that the ice would not melt.

Yesterday, in order to prevent exhaustion, a pattern was created when Aur manipulated Zana’s ability to generate ice, but Zana, who was frustrated, was unable to operate with that precision. He was disappointed that he couldn’t operate it while ignoring the will of the caster, but fortunately Zana’s tantrums had no real harming impact on the speed of their advance as long as Aur was there to correct any mistakes she might have made.

As a result, both Zana and Aur are exhausted, but none of them wanted to apologize to the other to cut the issue off at its root. Zana might not look like it, but she is extremely strong willed and stubborn. Also, despite being called the Ice Queen, her sex drive was like a flame of the fiercest fire.

「This is……!」

Still, the speed of their progress is faster than the first day, and before the dawn approached, they arrived at the back of the Forest Dungeon where they saw a sparkling white passage.

「Oh, now he’s done it, the fucking bastard …!」

Zana growled from behind her gritted teeth. Although the shape was not exactly the same, it soon became obvious that this Dungeon was remodeled to look exactly like Zana’s castle.

「Calm down and don’t do anything rush. Your subjects are all safe.」

「Yes, I know. I am calm. Perfectly calm.」

As she said that, Zana’s spirit, which has been flaring up all this time became calm. No, it would be more accurate to say that it has frozen. Aur realized that this was a pretty bad sign, but for now he decided it would be best not to point that out to her.

「Now let’s go, Aur.」

As if it wanted to openly show its defiance, Zana’s magical power was no longer accepting Aur’s instructions.

「…It’s cold.」

Aur noticed that anomaly when they stepped inside. Back when they visited Zana’s castle in Himuro, it was incredibly warm despite being made entirely out of ice, but this one was severely cold.

「Wait. Let’s prepare some suitable clothing.」

「… We don’t have time to do that.」

Aside from Zana, Eldav and Rames wore very little clothing. Zana pointed her hand towards the wall, shaking off Aur who was trying to give her a warmer set of clothes. A pattern was momentarily drawn on the wall of the corridor and she quickly proceeded to enter the Dungeon by herself.

「Wait, Zana!」

「Don’t you dare ordering me around! This is my castle, my Dungeon!」

As long as ice was involved, she was able to not only make it, but also cut it and change its shape. Even if she did that, the pattern on the wall would still work as intended, becoming the boundary that blocks off the Sun God’s power.

「Damn … wait here!」

Aur handed over the clothes to Mari and chased Zana alone. Her ice-crafting speed is too fast, and if the whole group were to chase after her, they would quickly lose her.

「Zana! Wait! Stop! That way we can’t prevent the Sun God ’s interference!」

He ran while screaming, but Zana has already disappeared in the back of the Dungeon.

「Fuck!」

Certainly, if a pattern is engraved on the wall, it becomes an area governed by Aur that the Sun God cannot interfere with directly. However, the wall with the pattern is different.

This place was most likely not the castle created with Zana’s power and maintained by Eldav, but rather Zana’s Himuro castle that was now under the influence of the Sun God. It must have been somehow transported here.

It’s like a tower on the sand that can be erased at any time.

As Aur was chasing after Zana, he noticed that his breath started to emit steam. It was not because his body temperature rose after so much running. It was because the temperature of the surrounding area itself began to drop. Also, despite the fact that they were indoors, white particles flickered in the air and wind and snow were invading castle’s interior.

「Zana! Are you there?」

He has been following the pattern drawn on the walls, so he couldn’t have passed her. Zana was definitely in front of him. But he was also growing increasingly more concerned with this snowstorm, so he raised his voice.

The only answer, however, was the howling of the wind. In such a storm, she might have not even heard him shouting her name.

Aur tries to manipulate her by interfering with the curse drawn on Zana’s chest. He was worried that the storm might interfere with his ability to trace her, but much to his relief he managed to get a clear reading not that far away from where he was now.

Aur follows after her to the middle of the snowstorm by tracing their connection in reverse. And after a while he found her standing still… surrounded by countless ice statues.

「Aur…」

Zana looks back after noticing Aur’s presence. Her face was empty and had no expression, but Aur knew that she was about to cry.

「I……」

「We’ll talk later. Make a wall, quick.」

Urging her, Aur controls Zana to create an ice wall that surrounds them. It was to prevent the Sun God’s interference, but also to prevent them from freezing to death.

「Zana. Let’s take our clothes off for now.」

Their clothes are soaked and wet with snow, so obviously they will die if they keep them on. Aur takes a white cloak from his leather bag and covers Zana with it.

「Aur, I … have frozen everyone.」

Zana suddenly said something like that, but with a tone that indicated that her attention was not really there with her.

「Is that so?」

The ice statues that surrounded Zana. Aur also anticipated that they must be Himuro’s citizens. They must have been manipulated by the Sun God to attack Zana as soon as they saw her.

「I knew every last one of them, and yet when they attacked me, I have frozen them all without blinking an eye!」

「I see.」

Aur raises Zana’s arms, pulls her wet clothes off her and pushes them into the bag.

「I didn’t even falter. I just… I just straight up abandoned them …」

Zana covers her face with both hands.

「Get your hands out of the way.」

Aur strips Zana out of her underwear when he pushed her hands down.

「This underwear should be thick enough.」

But when he ignored her suffering for so long, Zana’s patience has finally reached its limits.

「…What is wrong with you!? Don’t you know that when someone so sad and depressed it’s your job to comfort them?!」

「Stop being such a drama queen, the tragic heroine schtick is totally unlike you. To me, everything has been decided the moment you chose to attack them. End of story.」

Zana couldn’t find the right words to retort that statement.

「Rather, it’s not your fault they were manipulated. There was nothing you could have done about it.」

「… Yes, I think you may be right, but …after all, I can’t take care of anything. I can’t love anything.」

Zana said with a painful expression.

「After all, no one really loves me …」

「Isn’t it the people’s role to scold their king?」

Aur asks. That should have been the case.

「For the public, I was just a substitute for my dead mother. It was the same with Marina, she only helped me because she sympathized with me. All she ever needed was someone like you.」

Zana continues to talk with her voice filled with self-resentment.

「And you’re the same… you don’t need me anymore, right? You’ve got Marina’s blessing. You’re using my ice because it’s more efficient, but not essential to your plans. If it wasn’t for that… I would have no right to even be here. 」

「That’s right.」

Aur whispered a reply.

「See, you’re not even trying to deny it!」

She wanted to shout at him some more, but he just grabbed her shoulders instead.

「What a troublesome woman you are.」

It’s not that he denies Zana’s words. He just chose to be completely honest with her.

「But your self-analysis is correct. You can’t deny it.」

「I told you.」

Zana casts her eyes down.

「If that’s the case, you should just abandon me.」

「I refuse.」

Aur responded to her words.

「Why?!」

「Because I don’t want to let go of a good woman like you.」

Aur says, but Zana just shakes his hands off of her and screams at him.

「Stop with the flattery this instant!」

Empty words were the last thing she needed now.

「It’s not flattery, I’m merely stating the facts. You are courageous, dynamic, competent and smart.」

If not emotionally unstable at times, but he decided to skip that one out.

「You are a troublesome, but good woman. So I want to keep you close to me.」

Those were Aur’s real intentions.

「So like… you love me?」

「You only figured that out just now? Seriously, you and Eldav are so alike that it’s astounding.」

Aur said that while being on the verge of laughing.

「What am I even supposed to do with that knowledge?」

Zana admitted with an embarrassed expression.

「I too… might like you.」

「What, you’re not sure?」

Aur retorts comedically.

「Or could it be that you are still jealous about your sister?」

「That’s …! … Yes, maybe I am.」

Thinking back, it was probably just that.

「You are a much stronger than you think. So why do you worry about not being needed now?」

What he said is true in some respects. But Zana thought that she was strong enough to be above such a petty worries. Apparently it was not true at all.

Up until now she didn’t believe in anything but herself. There was no need for her to believe in others. Because as the queen it was her duty to make others believe in her with their whole hearts.

In some ways it is similar to Aur and in some ways it is the opposite. That was a paradox named Zana, according to Aur’s deduction.

「You simply want to be pampered. If that’s what you want, I will give it to you.」

To be told so straightforwardly, Zana’s face is dyed red from the neck so fast that the blush was making an audible noise. But…

「Okay.」

Zana closed her eyes and placed her forehead on Aur’s chest.

「Please, allow me to depend on you for a bit more then.」

She murmured quietly.

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