Ch 97 – A Twisted Truth

As Lute glances at the blue portal dungeon entrance, a flash of wonder appears in his shining purple eyes while a toothy grin forms on his face.

'All that's left is to get enough dollar signs to achieve enough protection against any information gatherers and I'll be able to move a bit more unhinged compared to now.' Lute thought, his body then turned to the trio walking towards them as his toothy grin widens.

"It's finally over you guys!" Lute shouted while brushing off the dirt and dust on his clothes. His black hair now also holds traces of white strands here and there, indicating the severity of his previous spells must have taken out a lot for him. But is that really true for a being capable of fully controlling their physical body?

As the trio approached Lute and Kira – who silently stood there like always – with worried eyes, Honda was instead thinking about the last spell Lute casted, [Stop Time].

Rushing up to Lute, Silvy took Lute into a tight hug while tears streamed down her eyes, "A-are you okay, Lute-san? D-did you really sacrifice your lifespan?!"

Chuckling, Lute patted her head covered by her blond hair dirtied by dirt, "Yeah, yeah. But it's only like one year of my lifespan, I still have many decades to live."

'One year of his lifespan?!' Honda thought, alarmed at how Lute just casually tossed aside one year of his lifespan so nonchalantly.

"One year?! Are you really sure you're okay? Some of your hair even turned gray already!" Bella shouted while walking behind Lute and inspecting his hair.

"Don't worry about that, my hair will return back to normal in less than a week. Though I am worried about Kira-chan, activating Divine Light must have taken a lot of burden on his soul," Lute muttered, turning their attention to Kira, he just stood there silently without even twitching a muscle.

"I'm fine, Lute-san. I would recover in around a week or so," Kira said, his voice soft and soothing as Lute nodded his head.

"Phew, I thought I'll have to take care of you like a little baby now that your soul is damaged," Lute mumbled as everyone returned to normal. Nearing the blue portal, the others nodded their head at each other as their time inside the dungeon was finally coming to a close.

*Fwoosh*

Appearing directly outside the blue portal, they all found themselves surrounded by other adventurers who just got out, many of them confused and questioning how they got out without doing even a single thing in just a few hours.

"Let's get out of here!" Lute whispered as all the others nodded their heads and ran away.

*A Few Minutes Later*

"A toast to the close of our grand adventure!" Lute shouted, raising his beer mug to the air as the five can now be seen sitting on a large wooden table filled with an assortment of food and drinks.

Raising their mugs – including Kira – high towards the air, a clinking sound was heard as they all laugh cheerfully – except Kira. Their tiresome time inside the dungeon dying over and over and also failing over and over again has now finished. Their bonds were stronger while their stomachs were hungrier for a large feast such as this.

"Uwah! Having a beer after being stuck inside that dungeon for so long is refreshing!" Bella exclaimed as she finished one mug of beer quickly in the blink of an eye. In response, the others did the same while Honda was still secretly amazed at Kira drinking through his snow-white mask.

They went to eat cheerfully, from eating a whole chicken down to the bone to eating a whole pig. They went to drink till they became drunk fully that their words were slurred and their faces flushed. Their whole table became a mess that the other adventurers currently inside Rockfeller Inn can't help but feel more excited with the five – except Kira – being so rowdy.

"Silvyyyy-channnn… When, when, when we go back to Peckle City, I'll teach you how to be a great chef like… me, so that you can open your own grandeur restaurant and help your glutinous sister Bella-chan with her food cravings, hahahahaha!" Lute mumbled and laughed incoherently. His perfect face was now dirtied and oily while turning a flushed red.

"R-really, Lute-san? Why… thank… you! I'll, I'll be sure to become a great coooookkkkk in the future," Silvy said with a woozy smile as her face planted down to her plate full of mushy meat and mashed potatoes.

"Hey! I'm not that glutinous, okay! I… Just like the taste of meat!" Bella retorted loudly while holding an eaten drumstick with her right hand, waving it in the air as its juices splattered everywhere.

"Hehehe, even though Bella-san has the blond hair and green eyes of elves, you have the attitude of an orc!" Honda mumbled, his face the most flushed of them all as Bella's eyes widen in anger.

"YOU! Come here!" Bella shouted, her body lunging forward and landing on the large table, dirtying her whole body as they were all drunk except Kira, who only sat there quietly until he saw everyone was now sleeping after a few good minutes.

Standing up, four white arms sprouted from his chest and grabbed hold of the four drunk conquerors of the Shadow Dungeon. With a glint in his eyes that now turned an eerie white, their bodies got covered by an ultrathin white sheen that made all the stains on their clothes and bodies fall down to the ground, from meat bits to oil stains.

Silently walking up the stairs, Kira went to open two doors and put the boys and girls in their own separate rooms while entering the room Lute and Honda were in sleeping soundly. Turning off the light, Kira lay down on his own vacant bed and closed his eyes, for their rowdy day is now coming to a close with a good night's sleep.

And so, the luminous moon high above the inn quietly rose to the night sky filled with shining stars and darkened clouds. But as time passed by, Bella suddenly opened her emerald green eyes and muttered with a soft voice.

"Spirits of darkness, drape me in a cloak of shadows and erase my presence, [Stealth]," Bella muttered as she slowly stood up. And out of nowhere, the shadows below her covered her whole body in a skin-tight suit and a shadowy cloak, erasing her very presence while she quietly opened the window inside their shared room.

Putting her arm on her waist, she pulled a shadowy black knife out of nowhere while taking out a glass vial with her left arm. Opening it quietly, she covered her shadowy black knife with the colorless liquid contained inside the glass vial and put it back inside her shadowy cloak.

'Operation Tyburg Acquisition, start.' Bella thought as she jumped out of the window, not even a single sound was produced by her body for a sudden twist had appeared.

(Tyburg Kingdom's Royal Palace, Wilson Tyburg's Room)

Inside the room of the king and queen of Tyburg, Wilson Tyburg can be seen looking out of his glass window and towards his own kingdom. His body was tall but fat, and a hint of muscle can be seen all around his body that was covered with a blue bathrobe. His brown hair and brown eyes complemented each other along with his serious look full of worry and contemplation.

'Sigh, the current state of Tyburg has been going poorly these past few months. The monthly income is at an all-time low, the citizens' happiness is also getting worse, and the adventurers are slowly leaving one by one while fewer caravans are showing up. Even the miraculous dungeon became a bust when it suddenly closed after all the adventurers inside it went out, not reopening again even after a few hours has passed.' Wilson Tyburg thought, his kingdom has slowly degraded over the years, far from its previous prosperous state a few years ago.

'The dungeon would have been a game changer for our kingdom, it would have attracted a lot of adventurers with its high rank, and many outsiders would slowly come into the kingdom. But now, we only managed to acquire a bit of money from it before it's fully gone.' Wilson Tyburg sighed, annoyed at how his previous hope came crashing down to the ground in less than a day.

But without him noticing, a shadowy humanoid figure suddenly appeared from the shadow behind him wielding a shadowy black knife. Instantly, the shadowy humanoid figure lunges forward and pokes the knife to the nape of Wilson Tyburg, his previously shining eyes turning dim while his body went stagnant, not moving a single inch from its place.

Hastily, the shadowy humanoid figure neared its head to Wilson Tyburg's ear and whispered, "From now on, you'll follow my every order, including my master's orders."

As if regaining his consciousness, the glow returned back to Wilson Tyburg's eyes as he nodded his head, "Yes, mistress."

Nodding her head, Bella went to walk towards the bed in the middle of the room and looked at the quietly sleeping queen of Tyburg – Eda Tyburg – and without hesitation, poked her knife once more to Eda Tyburg's neck and whispered to her ear the same thing she said to Wilson Tyburg, "From now on, you'll follow my every order, including my master's orders."

Standing up slowly, her emerald green eyes glowed a discrete blue light while she muttered, "[Open Interface]."

With a flash of blue light in her own field of vision, a screen popped up in front of her that only she can see through the glowing blue magic circle inscribed on her two emerald green eyes.

"Master, the mission is done," Bella muttered while pressing on a certain contact named L-sama.

Instantly, the screen went from a weird messy interface into a black screen with the letter L in the middle written in a fancy font. And so, a cheerful voice appeared directly within Bella's mind that was neither masculine nor feminine, it was androgynous that doesn't allow a person to find out the gender of the person talking, "Good job, Bwewa-chan. Now, you know what to do next right? Instruct Wilson-chan with the given steps so that the annual earnings of the Tyburg Kingdom increase by a few folds while also improving the kingdom itself. Then slowly take out 10000 Platinum from the kingdom's treasury and transfer it to me through the magic circle I gave you. And after that is the usual stuff."

"Yes, L-sama, I'll do as you instructed." Bella nodded her head as the person talking to her laughed.

"Is something wrong, L-sama?" Bella asked while she and Wilson Tybrug walk through the palace undetected by anyone else until they arrived at the kingdom's treasury.

"It's nothing, I just find it funny when somebody like you calls me L-sama in such a refined manner when you were acting like a pig just a few hours ago," L said, teasing Bella as she responded calmly.

"Shall I act more elegantly from now on?" Bella asked while they entered the treasury to see hills of gold piled everywhere.

"No, no. Acting strangely in just a day would only incur suspicion. Besides, I like the way you are as you are, but remember to act professionally when on missions like this, okay?" L said as Bella nodded her head. Crouching down, she went to take out a brush and slowly drew a magic circle in a discrete part of the treasury and covered it with non-magical means.

"Affirmative. Shall I slowly make my sister make a restaurant chain later on while you are gone?" Bella asked as she stood up and walked towards a hill of gold to grab ten gold coins and place them on top of the hidden magic circle.

"Yeah, and name it something Nature or Elven like, how about Nature's Garden?" L said while Bella activated the magic circle and watched the ten gold coins disappear.

"Affirmative," Bella responded while the two walked out from the treasury once more and returned to Wilson Tyburg's bedroom.

"Well, that's about it. Have a good night now, Bella-chan," L said with a yawn as the call was dismissed. Nodding her head, Bella melded once more into the shadow and disappeared from the palace without a trace.

AN: This is 2085 words, you're welcome.

Wait... If Bella was under Lute's control the whole time? Then... Was the whole time they spent in the dungeon under Lute's full control?! Of course you fucking dumb piece of shit, like bruh, this is literally my specialty. To create stories seemingly normal when in reality, it was under Braun's full fucking control! One can even say, it's all according to motherfucking keikaku!

Writing takes a lot of time and effort; send me power stones.

(July 22, 2022 – 240th day of writing)