Dungeon 42

The Continuing Awkward Adventures

Chapter 103

The day after Elim got me his pie sample I found myself facing a fairly serious issue. Hetcha and Mira seemed ready to make a deal, but I’d screwed up during our prior conversation. They didn’t know I was the dungeon master and I had no idea if that would be a deal breaker.

More honestly, I would have to admit I didn’t want it to be and was sorely tempted to just not tell them. I’d talked about building partnerships on honestly, but fucking hell was my actual nature a problem. I wouldn’t blame them if they refused once I told them.

“I think you would be better off discussing this with Henry, Mistress,” Dawn said from the couch. She was sorting through fabric and bead samples for her wedding dress. Dress here just referring to the outfit, she hadn’t settled on if she was wearing pants or not. Everything was bright shades of red, yellow, and orange, celebratory colors among her people.

“White was kind of a thing on my old world in some places,” I offered, flat out ignoring what she’d said.

“White? Wouldn’t that be expensive and stain easily?” Dawn asked, looking confused.

“Yeah… that was actually kind of the point. It wasn’t expressly the fashion until a particular royal wore a giant ass dress and rich people got into it, then everyone else,” I explained.

“I think anyway… Kind of think I wasn’t the type to peruse bridal catalogs for fun,” I added. This was one of the random spots where I wasn’t sure how accurate my information was. I may well have thought it was true or just not given enough of a shit to actually look into it at the time.

“Bridal catalogs?” Dawn asked, confusion deepening.

“Uhm… picture books that showcase wedding supplies. They’d have images of dresses, china- fancy dishes, party setups… stuff like that,” I clarified.

“Your world was strange,” Dawn said simply. I could only shrug at that, I didn’t really disagree, though I didn’t find my current one terribly heavy-handed with the sense-making.

“So, why are you avoiding Henry?” Dawn asked.

“Fuck,” I hissed. I’d hoped Dawn wouldn’t recall asking me and ruined my chance to pivot with the curse. She just smirked at me.

“Its… complicated,” I said lamely. That didn’t begin to cover it.

“Well, I don’t need to eat or sleep, and can’t die of boredom. So I imagine if you start talking you’ll manage to explain it to me eventually,” Dawn said rather archly. I flinched a little, she wasn’t wrong, but that did paint a grim picture of my speaking skills.

“It’s an ethical thing. There's what's called a power disparity between us since… he literally can't disobey me,” I started. The terms hopefully made sense since Dawn wasn’t interjecting with a question.

“I’m also kind of scared,” I added before I could chicken out.

“Of?” Dawn asked.

“Well… I wouldn’t say I’ve had romantic feelings for him all that long, but I have liked him from pretty much the day I summoned him. If he can't disobey an order… it's possible I’m influencing him, even if it's not intentional,” I explained.

Dawn tilted her head as she considered the idea, then pushed up into a proper sitting position on the floor instead of laying on it. I’d offered her the couch but she’d declined.

“Mistress… I’ve served before. I’ve never encountered a master who… encouraged their monsters to think or be themselves before, but the degrees of control certainly varied,” Dawn started. I nodded, wanting to encourage her, but not trusting myself to say anything intelligent.

I kind of knew what I could or couldn’t do on an instinctive level when it came to certain things. Like I couldn’t order a monster to disobey me or not listen ever again. They would still default to obedience if I issued an order after that. Aside from that and a few other specific cases and what was in the manual, everything else was a gray area.

“The more profound it is, the more obvious it becomes…” Dawn paused, biting her lip and thinking.

“Master-sama, are you daijoubu?” I remember a succubus who’d repeat that and nothing else. It was like she was sleepwalking through the day in the throne room where I stood guard,” Dawn began. I cringed, having a pretty good guess what that poor creature was subjected to.

“I never spoke to her personally, but I did see her again in a different dungeon… her personality was very different when she wasn’t being so heavily controlled. She was alert and able to make choices when she was less so.”

“Thaaaat sounds utterly fucking awful,” I offered as a shiver ran through me.

“My point is, if you were able to influence us like that I’m pretty sure Chris wouldn’t behave like a half-mad goblin quite so freely. You might be tolerant, but I’m fairly certain you’d curtail quite a lot of what he does if it were simply a question of your preference,” Dawn said.

“You make a compelling case given the recent rash of moonings,” I said and sighed. Chris was very fond of his newly fleshy ass for entirely awful reasons. Such was the way of Chris.

“Let's pretend I knew that with certainty. It doesn't change that he has to obey an order. I’m basically god in this dungeon,” I said, knowing that the basic problem was essentially unsolvable.

“Pardon me if I don’t build a shrine,” Dawn said flatly.

“I’ll build my own, should it suit me,” I growled back. I would do no such thing, not unless one counted my personal quarters. Something I hoped no one did. I wasn’t going to do anything ridiculous like decorate it with statues of myself like an egocentric lunatic.

“You are more of a nervous mayor than a god,” Dawn said then snorted.

“God, mayor, inmate running the asylum, semantics,” I said with a shrug. I was fine with not all of that registering for Dawn as I chuckled.

“Fuck it, I’m going to tell the girls the truth and we’ll just see where the chips land,” I said, scrubbing my face with a hand. Fuck around and find out was not an ideal operating procedure for social situations, but it was the best I had for the moment.

“Ripping the wound open, I see,” Dawn said.

“What?” I asked, my orbs fluttering.

“That thing you say. To get it over with,” Dawn replied with a shrug.

“Rip the band-aid off,” I offered. “It’s a small sticky bit of bandage you put over minor wounds but it kind of stings when you pull it off. Doing it faster isn’t exactly better but at least its over with quickly.”

“Can you make those too?” Dawn asked.

“Uhm… I know absolutely jackshit about how the adhesive works… I don’t know, I guess I could mess around and try though, if you think it will be useful,” I offered.

“Medical supplies usually are, and you mentioned wanting to bring people here to live,” Dawn said with a shrug. That was a good point. I really needed to focus better and plan for people to move in, rather than leaving it as a nebulous eventuality.

“I’ll put that on the to-do list. In the meantime I’m going to worry myself into knots trying to think of what to say. That and possibly upgrading a pie recipe,” I said then sighed. I’d already deconstructed the sample Elim sent me and given him a copy of the recipe.

“Pie?” Dawn asked, clearly not understanding why I’d bother. Neither of us ate or had a sense of taste.

Upgrading the pie recipe and its ingredients at this point was largely just a whim on my part. Still, if Elim’s mother wasn’t fully appeased she might look kindly on some higher grade ingredients or an improved one. I sort of doubted it though. If she was really into making pies she might use the recipe as a reference but would likely just try to improve her own in contrast rather than produce an improved knock off.

“Elim’s mom knows what I am. So now he’s trying to dig himself out of the trouble that put him in with her,” I explained.

“And his solution is pie?” Dawn asked, clearly skeptical.

“I’m not saying its going to go well,” I offered with a shrug. It wasn’t a great idea, but I didn’t have a better one. My apologizing outside of letter format was out of the question, since seeing me or even just hearing my voice would likely make it worse.

“Some god you are,” Dawn said. Affronted, I smacked her with my tail before I could think better of it. The motion landed like a very light pillow, my body not generating force in a sensible way as per usual. Dawn just laughed at me and the pathetic attack. It wasn’t like I wanted to hurt her anyway, but it was still a bit frustrating.

“I repent!” Dawn said, a mortal being would have been wheezing. I just glared. Before I could think of anything to say, a communication stone started chirping. It looked like Hetcha and Mira wanted to talk, something I was negative percent prepared for.