“Salicia…” I found myself asking.
“How did you convince a group of criminals to attack Penbrook together?”
“Ah, so, Master… you want to learn my secrets?” Salicia asked coyly.
“Does how you convinced them to throw their lives away so you could play with your sister involve how you became a Bandit King?”
She looked away. “You just ask like that…”
“Quit being difficult. I can always order you as my slave.” I responded.
“Now, you want to have master-slave play!”
“Master, if I may…” Carmine spoke up just as I started to grow tempted to use some kind of slave punishment on her.
“What is it?” I demanded.
“I have tried futilely to learn about Sister’s past as well. Before Penbrook, the last time I had seen her was when she attacked our Paladin troop while I was still a trainee. We were doing some training exercises and clearing out a few monster dens when a group of Bandits attacked. Sister was their leader. She captured me and killed the rest. I was her prisoner for nearly a month. It was during that time that we formed our… current feelings toward each other. Eventually, more Paladins were sent out and wiped her group out. She killed herself and resurrected to avoid capture, while I was brought home.”
“At the time, her job class was only Marauder. It was three years later that I heard her name as a local Bandit King, and she subsequently attacked Penbrook only two years later.”
“Ah… sister… describing our first meeting so coldly.” Salicia held her cheeks. “It was such a magical time.”
I ignored her, glancing at Carmine instead. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying that Salicia isn’t able to talk about her past. It might be because she doesn’t remember, or because she’s trying not to remember. Or, it might be because something is keeping her from recalling.”
The group of us ended up looking at Salicia. Rather than deny it, she just let out a laugh, scratching her head awkwardly. The fact that a woman like her had become a Bandit King had been bothering me since some time ago. She may be strong, but she didn’t really have the kind of charisma one would expect to be able to lead armies. It seemed like the more questions I asked, the more mysterious this all was.
It felt like a dungeon, with a bunch of clues that didn’t seem to connect at all. Xin, Salicia, Bandit Kings, an alliance, Penbrook, and now Regency. Perhaps, if I kept digging, there was a lore to be found here. However, it’d be a lore without a dungeon. Was that even possible? Well, lore was just a story, and stories appeared everywhere. They didn’t always fester into curses. At that moment, a thought occurred to me.
“Is it possible this entire world is a curse?”
Ruby let out a laugh that was probably louder than it should be considering we were in bandit territory. “Sorry, you just sound like those dungeon philosophers. I read a book once that suggested that this entire world is just a dungeon created by a greater world. They call it the infinite dungeon theory.”
While she laughed it off, I suddenly wasn’t so sure. I had come to this world in a strange way. That video game was a lore. What if I had just fallen into a dungeon? What if this was just a place accessed by a dungeon on Earth?