Chapter 326 - Visiting Rabbit Paradise

“Kyuu can help right? I hope kyuu can!”

​ The orange-colored rabbit flicked his ears from within the cage.

​ … He’s so fluffy…

​ Just then, Haku-san suddenly appeared in the room. Like a ninja… she probably used [Teleport]—wait, no, it was probably the menu’s [Placement] function. At the very least, the capital was within Haku-san’s territory.

​ “Sorry to keep you waiting. I see you’ve started?”

​ “Haku Ane-sama.”

​ Rokuko walked over to Haku-san.

​ “Haku… sama. Thankyuu for helping me for this…”

​ “For the Demon King Faction to set their eyes on you, you were in a tough spot, No. 629.”

​ “… Nkyuu. Seriously.”

​ Orange settled onto his hind legs and stamped twice. It felt like it was the rabbit’s way of showing stress.

​ It was natural he’d be stressed, though whether that was due to the Demon King Faction or Haku-san, well. Well.

​ Right, let’s ask him what’s been on my mind.

​ “Say, Orange, how’d you manage to contact Haku-san? It’s not like you hopped all the way to the capital, right? You’d definitely have gotten yourself hunted by someone.”

​ “Nkyuu!? Don’t say something so scary! … But I wanna know kyuu! I was just holding my head from the stress and Haku—sama, just appeared kyuu. So I yielded to her!”

​ Yep. I get the feeling that a rabbit would just yield as the default but alright?

​ With that, I looked over to Haku-san, who gave her response while embracing Rokuko.

​ “I received a declaration of war from the Demon King Faction, saying [We will destroy your faction’s dungeon]. So then when I inspected the place they mentioned, I found you.”

​ “C’mon nkyuu. They didn’t listen to me at all… uuu, they just found me when I was frolicking in the meadow…”

​ Orange stamped the ground again.

​ “By the way, is ‘Orange’ No. 629’s name?”

​ “Yeah, it was hard for me to keep using a number as his name.”

​ “… Hmm. So, were you able to become his master as well?”

​ “No?”

​ Looks like Haku-san caught on to me wanting to experiment. Orange himself didn’t seem to notice though. He didn’t, but he still tilted his head is puzzlement.

​ “Ohh, right! How should I improve my dungeon?”

​ “Hm? Right. First, I will be giving Kehma-san some DP. Please cooperate with him to somehow make it through the Demon King Faction’s assault.”

​ “… You’re skillfully delegating your work away, Haku-san.”

​ “Rather than me giving the instructions, I believe that leaving it to Kehma-san will certainly produce more amusing—well-suited results.”

​ She definitely just said amusing there. Well, I guess Haku-san wants to see at least a little of what’s up my sleeve.

​ “Which is why I will be officially allowing you to join my faction, Orange. You are welcome.”

​ “Hahaha~! My deepest thanks nkyuu!”

​ Orange bowed his head. His hind leg seemed to stamp the ground there for a sec, but let’s pretend I didn’t see it.

​ “… By the way, are there any other factions than yours, Haku-san?”

​ “Most of the dungeons in the Raverio Empire are mine. It’s not as absolute as in the Demon King Faction or the Dragon King Faction, though.”

​ “… Which is why they mistook me for being in the Betrayer’s Faction nkyuu…”

​ Ah, he just said betrayer, there. Well, Orange was also in the Betrayer’s Faction, it’s just official now.

​ “Uuu, even I was basikyuuly in the Beast King Faction…”

​ “Right. I was wanting to ask about that, too. Who’s this Beast King person?”

​ “Core No. 8.”

​ I’d asked Orange the question, but Haku-san responded with an audible frankness.

​ “Although beast-type cores generally belong to his faction, they also follow the law of the jungle and push their children into bottomless pits and leave them there.”

​ “… So what you’re saying is that they forsake the weak ones?”

​ “Kyuun…”

​ I started to feel like the orange rabbit was pitiable… Alright, I have to properly help him in this Dungeon Battle…!

​ “Alright then, it looks like our meeting is now at its end, so how about we go examine the area?”

​ Haku-san recited the incantation for [Teleport]. It would’ve been different if it was just Haku-san and Misha, but she couldn’t use dungeon deployment since were all going as well.

​ Wrapped in [Teleport]’s light, we appeared in the meadow.

​ … You could say it was a sea of grass for as far as the eye could see. This vast meadow was Orange’s dungeon? Or perhaps we’re underground and this just looks like a vast grassland?

​ “Nkyuu, my dungeon’s around a fifty meter circumference around here. Ummm, my hole’s somewhere around here, but…. o-ooh, here, here it is nkyuu~”

​ Orange was hopping through the grass and stopped at a spot with some exposed dirt.

​ So he put an illusion over it to make it so that enemies wouldn’t find it? I see…

​ “You could sprain your ankle if you didn’t see it and fell in.”

​ “Fu fu fu! And then we’ll beat ’em up! Horned rabbits, armored rabbits, magic rabbits, soldier rabbits~, everyone, I’m baaack!”

​ After descending the stairs, I saw a big room. There were rabbits that looked like armadillos and others with a single horn sprouting from their heads. I guess they’re the horned rabbits and armored rabbits he was talking about.

​ They all twitched their noses. They seemed to be saying [Welcome back~]… I guess Translation Function-san doesn’t work with rabbit speech?

​ “Welcome back~”

​ “Any souvenirs~!?”

​ “Something stinks~”

​ Oh, there it goes. I could understand what the three horned rabbits were saying… This’ll make it feel weird next time I go to eat rabbit meat.

​ And Meat, I can see your tail wagging back and forth there, but you can’t hunt them, okay? Really.

​ “Nmu nmu. Oh, Kehma. This is my dungeon, nkyuu, and these guys stop people here. The magic rabbits and soldier rabbits run out from that room there and pincer them~. Nokyuu intruder’s ever made it past! It’s the best strategy!”

​ “I see. But that Demon King Faction guy walked in and out?”

​ “… He stopped when he saw my core while the armored rabbits were holding him back. Nkyuuu, if he continued, he’d have killed everyone…”

​ Orange kicked the ground in frustration. He seemed to be aware of his own strength.

​ Well, up until then it was probably just beginner adventurers hunting rabbits. I mean, even D-Ranks were considered to have graduated from rabbit hunting back in Tsuia.

​ Still though, getting swarmed by monsters as soon as they entered would definitely do in a rookie.

​ You could even call their 0% return rate a splendid achievement for a dungeon, an existence that turned lives into DPNourishment. It also had a disadvantage, though.

​ At the very least, it was definitely much better of a dungeon than ours when I became its master.

​ “Did you think of that strategy yourself?”

​ “I was taught it by my rabbit-type core seniors nkyuu. We may be rabbits, but if we swarm them, we can win.”

​ Oh, so there’s other rabbit-type cores. Heeh… come to think of it, wasn’t something said about Setsuna’s father being a rabbit-type core? Maybe it’s one of them.

​ As I thought about such irrelevant things, Haku-san wrapped her arms around Rokuko from behind and asked me a question.

​ “So, Kehma-san. Do you think you could frustrate the Demon King Faction with this dungeon?”

​ “… I’d like a little more information. Like who we’re up against.”

​ “So you’re not saying you can’t?”

​ Just as Haku-san smiled, Rokuko rubbed her nose with a prideful humph.

​ Err, she was praising me there though?