“Do I really need to be here, Master?” Fianna asked with a sulky voice.

  Viktor gnced at the mermaid. “You showed up uninvited whenever it suited you, but now when I request your presence, suddenly you don’t want to comply?”

  “I didn’t say no. If you give the order, I’ll obey. But...” She pouted, tail flicking in irritation. “I don’t want to go near those guys.”

  “It’s a good chance for you to get to know them. How about listening to what they have to say about themselves before you judge?”

  “As you command, Master,” came the reply.

  It had been three days since the day Gideon’s dead body was found. The whole town was on edge, with people pointing their fingers left and right at anyone in sight. Marcellus had been trying to calm down the adventurers, with little success. He told them to remain patient and wait for the investigation’s result, but his words barely made a dent in the growing frenzy. On the other hand, Rennald didn’t show up at all in public, and his people seemed to stay low as well. Maybe he didn’t want to provoke the angry mob and was just waiting out the storm. Or perhaps he was still shaken by the Guildmaster’s murder. The Overseer might be a ruthless businessman, but had he ever killed someone with his own hands? If he hadn’t yet crossed that particur line, then he was no match for Viktor in this game.

  Now that the issue with Clovis’s deal had been more or less resolved, it was time to turn his attention to other matters. He had been pnning to summon an Acolyte of the Deep to ask the creature why it had agreed to form a contract with his dungeon in the first pce, and today, he intended to do just that. As for why Fianna was also called here, well, he was just pulling her leg—no, tail.

  A ripple on the water’s surface, a stir as the shadow beneath rose, then a crash. Droplets sprayed in every direction, catching the light in a way that might have been beautiful if he hadn’t been on the receiving end of it. The Acolyte settled on top of the water, tendrils writhing under its drenched cloak. Its eyes, pitch-bck with no whites to be seen, scanned the surroundings before they settled on him. The creature bowed deeply.

  “Master, I’ve answered your call.”

  Viktor leaned toward Fianna. “See? You two are not that different. You both love spshing water all over me.” The mermaid was about to open her mouth, but he didn’t give her the chance to speak even a word, turning back to the still-bowing Acolyte. “You know why I called you here, right?”

  “Yes,” the creature said, raising its head. “I was informed that you had some questions for me.”

  Viktor eyed the twisted features on its face. “You have a name?”

  “I used to be called Orloth. But now, I am merely one of the many Acolytes who serve the Great One.”

  “You were once human?”

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Tell me,” Viktor said. “How did you become an Acolyte in the first pce?”

  According to Celeste, these creatures had forsaken their humanity to worship the so-called Great One of the Deep, willingly accepting horrific mutations in return for power. And the grotesque, barely human form standing before him right now was a living testament to that unholy exchange.

  “It’s a long story. Do you really want to hear it, Master?”

  “Entertain me.”

  “Very well,” the creature began. “In the world I’m originally from, svery was a common practice. A business, just like any other. And sves were often crammed into ships to be transported from one country to the next. Needless to say, their living conditions were hardly ideal. Disease, malnutrition, and all kinds of abuse were rampant. It was not uncommon for more than half of the sves to not survive the voyage. But that didn’t matter. Even if nine of ten sves died, the svers would still rake in a profit.”

  “How horrible,” Fianna muttered.

  “I was on one of those ships. And I was sick. Very, very sick. When they judged that I was unlikely to survive the trip, they threw me overboard. You know, making space.”

  The mermaid gasped.

  “I had no strength to resist. I couldn’t fight. I couldn’t swim. So I just sank. I thought it was over. But then, when my consciousness was about to fade, the voice came...”

  “From the Great One?” asked Viktor.

  Orloth nodded. “Yes, from the Great One. He spoke to me, from the depths, and offered me salvation. He promised me a new life, with power beyond imagination, in exchange for my eternal servitude. Well, I didn’t really have a choice in that situation, did I, Master?”

  Viktor said nothing.

  The creature ughed darkly. “So I took the deal. In an instant, my body began to transform. It twisted. It contorted. It was... remade. When the pain faded, I felt it. Power. Overwhelming power that flowed in my veins. And as the first demonstration of my newfound power, I sank that accursed ship.”

  “Wait,” Fianna said, frowning. “You killed everyone? Even the other sves?”

  “Yes,” the creature replied. “Every soul aboard that ship, svers and sves alike, was tossed into the sea as their ship was crushed by my wrath. I watched the svers drown. I watched their pathetic struggle as they sank to the watery abyss. As for the sves, the Great One gave them the same offer as he had given me.”

  “And?” asked Viktor.

  “Many accepted. But many others refused. They... clung to their humanity. They preferred to die as humans...”

  The Acolyte paused, lowering its head.

  “There was... someone. The closest thing I had to a friend on that ship. He declined the offer. ‘Why?’ I yelled at him as I grabbed his shoulders. And he just looked at me and said, ‘You’re still a sve. The only thing you did was trade one master for another.’ Well, perhaps he was right.” The creature let out a dry, hollow ugh. “It turned out that I did have a choice after all.”

  Viktor cast a gnce at Fianna. The mermaid was still as stone, her eyes wide and locked on the wreck of a man who had abandoned everything in order to survive. Her lips trembled, as if she was trying to speak, but nothing seemed to come.

  “I now understand why and how you became a servant of your god,” he told Orloth. “But if that's the case, why are you here? Considering your devotion to the being called the Great One, is this part of his pn?”

  There was a long silence.

  “For centuries, I served the Great One,” Orloth said quietly, its gaze fixed on the sand at its feet. “I followed His will, and I watched as His vision became reality. He drowned the entire world beneath the waves, leaving nothing left but an endless ocean, ruled by Him and us, His servants. But then...”

  “But then?”

  “Then one day, He was... gone.”

  Fianna blinked. “Gone?”

  “Yes, gone. Suddenly, He vanished. Without any expnation. Without a trace. As if He had never existed.”

  “Do you have any idea why?” asked Viktor.

  “The Prophets told us that since His conquest had been completed, He was no longer interested in that world, so He moved to the next.”

  “The Prophets?”

  “Prophets of the Great One. They were our leaders, closest to our God. They were telepathically linked to Him, so they received His messages and conveyed them to us. The voice I heard was actually not the Great One speaking to me directly, but His words came through one of the Prophets. Then... the Prophets left too, following Him. After that, I no longer hear any voice.”

  “But you can still cast your spells by chanting his name? You can summon what you call the Hand of God, which is supposed to be an extension of his body?”

  “Yes, we retain all of the powers He has bestowed upon us. But we can no longer communicate with Him in any way.”

  Viktor chuckled. “It was great for you, wasn’t it? You no longer had a master. You were free. Even better, you had become the rulers of that world. You had gained everything while losing nothing.”

  “We had lost... our purpose. After centuries of servitude, we no longer knew how to live with the freedom that had been suddenly thrust upon us. Without the voice to tell us what to do, we... we were lost. I was lost.”

  Viktor looked at the creature, prompting it to continue.

  “In the end, we decided to embark on a journey to find Him. Unfortunately, unlike the Prophets, we don’t have the power to travel between worlds. So whenever a Dungeon Core contacts us, we’re eager to make a deal. All we want is that, when our service in the dungeon is complete, we’ll be sent to a different world than the one we started with.”

  Is it really the case? Viktor thought. Were they truly trying to find their god, or did they just want to have someone to give them orders?

  Well, it didn’t matter. He had learned everything he needed to know, for now at least, and that would be enough.

  “I have no more questions for you. You’re dismissed.”

  The Acolyte bowed and left. After it disappeared into the water from which it came, Viktor turned to Fianna. “What do you think?”

  “I...” The mermaid hesitated. “I think... What pitiful creatures they are.”

  “Do you still hate them now?”

  “I... I don’t know.” Her face now wore a jumble of emotions. “I’ve always thought of them as soulless monsters, driven by nothing but a thirst for power. But now...”

  Viktor shrugged. “To be fair, this is just the story of one Acolyte. The rest might very well be the power-hungry maniacs you’ve always imagined.”

  Fianna sat on the beach in silence, staring out at the water that had just swallowed Orloth back into its depths. He didn’t say anything either. After all, it was not his responsibility to help people sort out their conflicting emotions. Whatever storm was brewing inside her right now, it was hers alone to weather.

  As for him, the creature’s plight was irrelevant. If it had been telling the truth, then it meant the Acolytes weren’t a threat. Not to him, not to his dungeon. And that was the only thing that mattered.

  “My other point still stands, doesn’t it, Master?” she finally spoke. “Their god is terrible.”

  “Well, yes,” Viktor replied. He couldn’t really argue with that.

  “You won’t go down that path, will you? You’ll never treat us like that, right, Master?”

  Well, about that...

  At the end of the day, the minions of the dungeon were merely tools to help him achieve his goal. He was not going to throw away his tools for no reason, but he would not get sentimental over them either. If the situation called for it, he wouldn’t hesitate to make the sacrifice.

  “If I do, what are you going to do about it?”

  Fianna didn’t blink. “I’ll scold you.”

  Viktor frowned. “Why do you keep treating me like a kid?”

  “Because you’re one, Master,” Fianna said with a grin. “I have kids your age.”

  “...”

  “Did you know, Master? About the contract between us merfolk and your dungeon? In exchange for our service, the offspring we give birth to here will be allowed to stay until they reach a certain age, after which they’ll be sent back to our world.”

  “I’ve heard.”

  “It’s a good deal for us, all things considered. But it also means that we don’t get to see our children grow up. Not until we ourselves return to our world, and many of us might not make it.”

  “So that’s what it is? You keep bothering me because you see me as the repcement for the sons you can’t be with?”

  “Well, a son... or a nephew.” She tilted her head, her eyes glinting with mischief. “Or a younger brother, with a very big age gap. A kid that would be kind of cute if he didn’t carry around the cynicism of a jaded adult.”

  Calm down, Viktor. He already knew how insolent she could be. He would never allow himself to get angry, no matter what this stupid mermaid might say—

  “Master.”

  “What now?”

  “Can I pat your head?”

  “Absolutely not.”