The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Defend the Dungeon

Ghosts were part of the secret group that worked underneath the effeminate duke. Men and women ghosts erased their faces behind cold masks, yet every one of them wielded skills at the highest tier.

For the headmaster to mistake me for one of them, it drove home just how far I’d come and just how refined my Stealth had grown. Of course, compared to Botis’ chosen priest, who blessed the ghosts, I was still crude.

At least Lime had refused their offer. If Lime had accepted the priest’s veil of concealment, fighting them would have been nearly impossible. As an enemy, no one could be more troublesome.

Did Lime receive the offer early in the loops? Or was it only after the Purson faction lost ground inside T&T once I completed Rena’s scenario?

Either way, I had to bring Lime to my side. The first step was to drop the concealment.

Whoosh.

Isaac and I appeared. Lime’s expression shifted at once when they saw the armored figure. Lime’s flesh could sculpt a hundred faces, but what shone most was the richness of those expressions.

”Ah. My mistake. Your concealment was flawless,” Lime commented.

Isaac’s red eyes gleamed, impressed. ”Hooh? They recognized us right away?”

Lime seemed to feel the scrutiny and asked carefully, ”And this companion beside you... another guest of honor, I take it?”

Isaac tipped his beak high, instantly rating Lime higher for recognizing him.

”You’ve caught me unprepared with such esteemed visitors,” Lime said, posture still wary.

The faint slosh beneath the human guise was almost audible in my head. I sat across from Lime at the desk. I knew this room and this person well.

The headmaster’s eyes narrowed. ”An introduction, at least?”

I already knew what line to say. ”Like you, one who hides among humans. No real introduction needed.”

”...”

Lime’s expression softened a fraction.

Meanwhile, Isaac muttered at the shelves, ”Not just Ashton. Plenty of fine texts here... forbidden works too. This collection is far above average.”

So it seemed.

The headmaster’s gaze returned to me. ”What are you really? That concealment, without a demon’s blessing? I sense sorcery, swordcraft, even ritual skill... all at high refinement.”

Impressive.

Lime’s appraisal extended beyond objects to people themselves. It only made me want Lime more.

”Let’s just say I want you with me.”

The crow perched and watched. ”Heh. Straight to the point.”

The headmaster tilted their head. ”I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I already belong to a group. Recruitment is impossible.”

”Would you call the Purson faction of T&T, a faction crumbling under Naneow’s rise, a real group?”

”...”

There was no outward reaction. Of course, Lime was still a high-ranking officer there.

”And you haven’t chosen to serve the Demon King yet, have you?”

Not fully. Lime hadn’t said farewell to the children, nor had they replaced themself with caretakers. That was the point Lime had left before, when they abandoned the orphanage to follow the Demon King. This wasn’t it. Not yet.

”What do you know of me?” Lime asked.

”You’re the orphanage head who delights in change, raising human children because you yourself can’t truly change. Watching them grow fills the hollowness.”

”You...” Lime’s expression stiffened. ”You hold absurd perceptive power. Enough to rival the ghosts. Stronger, even.”

I remembered our fight after Rena’s scenario. If not for the jet-black dagger from Gith-Za-Rai, I couldn’t have beaten Lime. The artifact had momentarily leveled the playing field against their hidden might. Lime wasn’t someone who belonged buried in this backwater. Of all Purson’s faction, Lime might well be the strongest.

”And a collector.” I added, ”Those shelves alone prove it.”

”You’ve investigated thoroughly...”

”Ha! Look at their fake surprise. But this time... that wasn’t an act.”

True enough, even Lime mimicry of human shock was perfect. This time, however, Lime had genuinely flinched.

I pressed on. ”The Demon Kings will collapse under their own rivalries. They’ll ravage the continent, then fall to humans again. That cycle only doubles the suffering for humans, for demi-humans. Is that the world you want? Another massacre, followed by worse hunting than before?”

I’d stated a fact. I’d already watched the kings squabble before they even arrived. Their ruin was certain.

”...”

Lime studied me in silence. I laid out the plan: in the south, build an alliance strong enough to resist the Empire. Prevent the war. Prevent the kings. Lime hated slaughter. Even with cause, Lime would recoil from it.

I recalled Brody Valdorf’s words.

Lime left at the start of the war. Lime saw it firsthand and couldn’t bear it. Aezar asked me to search, but I never found Lime.

Lime wasn’t the type to side with anyone who would bring more killing. That meant Lime would definitely side with me.

”Neither demon nor human,” I said. ”A third path. Walk it with me.”

Isaac bent his beak, snickering. ”Ke, kekeke...”

I ignored him, meeting the slime’s mismatched eyes: one red and one green. Unhideable. Unmistakable.

Lime slowly answered, ”I must decline...”

Polite and cautious with no seam to slip through.

***

”Mm...”

Perhaps I’d thought I already knew the headmaster too well. Lime cold refusal struck harder than expected.

”Why?”

I tried to steady my tone, but the question still quivered with unease.

Lime answered as though it were obvious. ”You say you’ve studied me, then conveniently speak only the words I would want to hear. If a friend had said them, I wouldn’t be surprised. But a stranger saying such things? Of course I feel wary.”

I had no rebuttal. Rena and Rubia carried over Affection. Gith-Za-Rai had system-bound adjustments to favor me. But the headmaster? Nothing. Everything was one-sided in terms of affection and memory. Every meeting until now, he had observed me, weighed me. Not the other way around. Naturally, he would feel burdened.

Lime went on calmly. ”Also, I know the Demon Kings’ power. I know humans as well. They are fractured, yes, but once they descend, driving out mankind will be no difficulty.”

I fell silent. The decisive factor in their eventual fall was always the Hero.

How can I even say ”mysterious heroes will appear and slay them all” without sounding mad?

Even if Lime believed me, I wasn’t ready to unveil everything.

I glanced at Isaac.

The crow shook with stifled laughter. ”Getting rattled over this?”

”He refused...” I protested.

”If you loop endlessly, not even I am someone you must recruit. Remember, they should be the ones clinging to you, not the other way around. Know your place.”

”...”

”Relax. You’ve baited the hook with more than enough. Even if you thrash the line, it’s hard for fish not to bite.”

”Still...”

Lime said to me, ”You have sparked my curiosity. I’ve never spoken of a third path to anyone. Not once.”

”See? Already nibbling.”

Really?

”With such power, why are you backing something as small as an heir of Erast? That intrigues me as well.”

Tap.

Lime plucked a thread from the desk. With practiced fingers, lime wove it into a hexagon, its edges pulsing wider, then smaller. That was a habit that surfaced whenever Lime sank into thought.

”Then, can you take a look at the girl? See her for yourself. Judge her in time,” I suggested.

Something told me Rubia and Lime would resonate well.

”That’s fine... since I’m the one interested in her.”

”Then let me make another request.”

Lime’s face tightened. ”Another request?”

”Hmm...”

I’d meant to ask for Ashton’s books, but stacking demands here would sour even Lime’s charity.

”What is it you want?”

I thought fast. ”Do you know of others nearby, beings tormented by humans?”

Lime’s frown eased.

I continued, ”I plan to gather them. In fact, I already know that the Crimson Deer Goblins bled for bloodstone. They’ll be freed first.”

Isaac clutched the railing, chuckling darkly. ”Look at you, working so hard.”

Lime’s gaze softened. They were not merely amused, but there was genuine warmth.

”Good. That’s good.”

Of course, Lime understood my angle, but the cause itself mattered to him.

”I’ve always wanted to, but lacked the resolve to openly oppose Botis’ cult. I looked away.”

Judging by Lime’s tone, the Necron Society oversaw more than one site. Either way, my plans would inevitably collide with them.

”Then leave it to me,” I said.

”You truly are resolved. Then listen.”

Lime leaned forward, eager now, and marked three more locations on the map, the sites of suffering like the goblin tribe. They were too far to reach immediately, but worth noting,

”Perfect. Handle one near the border first. The rest can wait. Show the slime some effort, it’s not like you actually care.”

I tucked the map away. Ashton’s talk could wait until after this task.

We left the orphanage.

Isaac said to me with an edgy voice, ”But that headmaster...”

”What is it?”

”Strange fellow... age is clinging to him.”

”Age?”

”That weight you feel when you touch something old. He’s older than you think.”

”You’re saying not to trust him?”

”No, the opposite. One of the few you can trust. But... don’t dwell on it. Curiosity pulls the leash the other way.”

”...”

”Focus. You know the path?”

”Of course.”

I once needed a map, but not anymore. The goblin village lay ahead. There were no signs of the ragged woman who used to tear clothes and dig pits. Perhaps she was still struggling for life elsewhere. Corpses soon littered the path. Goblin corpses were piled high with their hearts split and heads cleaved.

Isaac whined with a regretful tone, ”What a waste. Goblins make such fine slaves... and they butcher them for bloodstone mining.”

***

We cleansed the Necron cultists. We put down the berserk Boomtong again, and no witnesses were left. No goblin learned about my identity. Even if Necron wanted revenge, my stealth alone would block their trail. More likely, they wouldn’t bother because slaughter sites like this were routine.

Zixkisses Boomtong, the hobgoblin, faced me with tears of gratitude. ”Thank you, thank you! If there’s anything I can offer in return...”

I already knew his next words, so I cut him off. ”You mean about the goblin mage. Mudcash.”

”H-how...?” Zixkisses’ eyes bulged wide.

”What, that he shrieks through the eastern mountains? I tried that already. Didn’t work.”

The hobgoblin’s mouth hung open in shock.

”...”

After a long silence, his gaze turned grave.

”Then you must hear the second story.”