Volume 1 - CH 2

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Extra Chapter 2: Genius Detective Mari’s Grand Case

「I want to become a detective!」

Hearing Mari say something so over the top out of the blue, Melizand, who’s now called Mary by the way, reacts with a surprised look.

「Well, uh… where did that come from, Mari?」

Two years have passed since Aur gave them the bodies that could grow up and die. Because the reconstruction of the Dungeon Core has not been completed yet, Spina was temporarily acting as a replacement for it.

「Here!」

She protruded a copy of an entertainment book that has been popular recently. It was an absurd story about a mage detective who solved various cases involving curses, time travel, mind manipulation, hypnosis and the like. Mary failed to understand how something that ridiculous could be so popular with the children these days, although a large number of illustrations sandwiched between the text might have been part of the reason. It was also small enough to read with just one hand, so there’s also that.

But enough about that. Since the day the two of them met, Mari and Mary were practically inseparable. Not only did they shared the same circumstances, but Mari’s innocence and sunny disposition helped in curing Mary’s heart that was wrapped in loneliness and sadness. Their connection was deeper than anyone else’s.

If one of them was hurt, the other one would also be hurt. One’s pleasure was the other one’s pleasure. Sometimes, Mary thought to herself that it was a shame that she didn’t have someone like Mari with her all those years ago.

「Now do everyone a favor and just drop dead and die.」

「Oi, stop messin’ with me, you rotten old hag.」

Irritated, Logan lashed back at Mary for her rude comment. Although she had the same appearance as his beloved Mari, her attitude, he thought, was spoiled and rotten to the core, hence he acted so rudely towards her. It was similar to the 「do you want to eat pasta that expired over a thousand years ago even if it still looks delicious on the outside」 kind of problem.

「Mari said she wishes you to die.」

「All right, if that’s the case I’ll gladly do it. What cause of death might bring her the most joy?」

But whenever Mari’s name was mentioned, his attitude softened considerably. Mari was truly an adorable existence; that was the only thing in regards to which the two of them shared the same opinion.

「How about being skinned alive and having burning hot metal rods rammed up every hole in your body?」

Said Spina, who appeared before them by dripping from the ceiling.

「The hell, that’s so scary and gross.」

Logan shivered at the appearance of another person he preferred not to hang around.

「Didn’t your parents teach you that it’s bad to eavesdrop, Aur’s disciple?」

Mary said with a somewhat clouded expression.

「Even if you say so, this place is essentially my body now, so it can’t be helped.」

「Hmm, is that so?」

If that was indeed the case, then she was not fitting to play the role of the criminal. It has to be someone else.

「If you want help with whatever it is that you’re doing, then I’m all up for the role of the assistant!」

Yunis appeared in a puff of smoke and raised her hand enthusiastically.

「Sounds interesting. I have some free time on my hands so I can help you out as well.」

Seeping out from the shadows, Lili has also made her appearance.

「No, the assistant’s role is mine, I called dibs! So we have three suspects… all right, this should be good enough of a setting.」

So the proportion was one to three: three suspects, and Mari who played the role of a detective.

「So if you’re to play the corpse then maybe we should start by breaking every bone in your body starting from the fingers?」

「Oh, that could be nice. We could also use this neat little trick where we chop the body up and place it in a bag so we could have an alibi…」

「And what if I really end up dying from that, huh?」

While the other girls were passionately discussing the most gruesome way to kill their resident lolicon, Mary thought out the whole scenario in her head. Compared to all the other things she accomplished or created this was incredibly stupid and childlike, but it was a first time in her thousand year’s long life when she genuinely had fun doing it. Now all that was left to do was to set the whole thing into motion.

「Logan, Mari needs you! Logan? Logan!」

Sometime later Mari needed Logan to do something for her so she went to fetch him up, but no matter how long she banged on the door to his quarters, there was no response.

「Logan? Logan!」

She knocked on the door time and time again, but there was no reaction even after she tried to turn the knob.

「What’s wrong, Mari?」

Spina asked the troubled girl after noticing the commotion she was making.

「Ah, Sophie! Logan won’t come out!」

「This is indeed strange, let’s open the door.」

Spina made her fingers transparent, shaped them like a key and inserted them into the keyhole. When she opened the door, Logan was lying flat on the ground with a gaping hole in his chest. On the wall, written with his own blood, was one, ominous word.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooobies.

When Spina saw that outrageous dying message she nearly screamed 「Don’t add such unnecessary things to the plan, you sh*tpile of a demon!」, but she managed to stay calm without Mari noticing her inner turmoil.

「Logan? You will catch a cold if you sleep on the ground like that.」

Mari gently shook Logan’s body, but it didn’t budge an inch.

「Mari, I’m sorry to say this but… Logan’s dead.」

「Eh?」

Shocked, Mari looked at Spina with round, big eyes. Tears were flowing out of them.

「Logan?! Logan, no! You can’t die! No, I don’t want it, no!!!!!!!」

And she began to cry loudly. So loudly in fact, that even Spina was a little frightened.

「Wh, What’s going on?!」

Yunis, Lilu and Mary also rushed into the room.

「Logan is…! Logan is…!」

Even though they knew this would happen, everyone’s faces were still pretty anguished.

(What do we do now?!)

(So you liked Logan that much, huh?)

(Just look how happy this damned lolicon’s face is!)

(Anyway, we need to stop Mari from crying!)

After that short conversation carried out by eye contact alone, the four of them decided to stop Mari from crying.

「Mari, Mari, it’s okay, it’s going to be fine! Logan is a demon, so he won’t die so easily!」

「Really?」

Lilu nods vigorously to confirm her words. Mari felt relived, and calmed down a little.

「Moreover, since it was a murder… except that it wasn’t, since the victim is not technically dead, but… no matter, this is a criminal case, and it means that it’s time for Detective Mari to shine!」

Mari’s face brightened instantly when she heard that.

「A case?! As in, a detective’s work?!」

Mary nods, patting the girl’s head.

「That’s right, it’s a mystery only you can solve, Mari! Now go for it!」

Encouraging her, Mary used a handkerchief to wipe the tears away from her face.

「Umu. I will surely avenge Logan’s death!」

「Except he’s not really dead.」

Lilu wanted to say it out loud but managed to hold herself back just in time.

And then, Mari raised her hand up into the air in a triumphant gesture and proudly declared:

「I have solved the mystery!」

「What, already?!」

「That was fast, Mari!」

「The culprit is… Sophie!」

And she pointed her finger towards Spina.

「And what exactly makes you think that, if I may ask?」

Spina folded her arms on her chest and asked, to which Mari answered confidently:

「‘Cause you’re the most probable culprit!」

「「「Isn’t that a hundred percent guessing?!」」」

Everyone shouted unexpectedly.

「Just what in the world is going on in here?」

They seemed to have attracted the attention of the dungeon’s other residents and the Demon Lord Aur himself, as he got to the scene of the crime with a sleepy look on his face. For the past few days he was working nonstop on creating the new Dungeon Core, and apparently he was not able to get much sleep because of it. It was also the reason why everyone else had so much free time on their hands.

「Lord Aur, listen! Logan’s been killed!」

(F*ck, I had no time to tell Aur about this!)

Because he was so busy with his work, Lilu did not wanted to worry him with anything else, but that decision clearly came back to bite her in the backside now. Aur looked at Logan on the ground and frowned his eyebrows.

「Ah, well… master, I think we need to have a wee chat…」

「Report the situation. Just what exactly happened here?」

Aur demanded with a stern voice. His expression was tired, but serious.

「When we entered the room, Logan was already like that and…」

Mari did her best to explain the situation to Aur. After her brief explanation, he nodded affirmatively.

「It couldn’t have been any outsider, as the alarm system would have activated immediately after sensing them. This means that it was a crime within our own ranks, and a closed room murder at that.」

Aur said that to all the people gathered while spreading his arms widely.

「The culprit is here among us!」

(How can you be so sure of that?! And more importantly, are you serious?!)

His seriousness about this matter left Lilu puzzled. Sometimes she felt like she could not truly understand the heart of her master.

「Yeah, and that’s why I will get to the bottom of this mystery!」

Mari declared that to Aur with a very serious look.

「Indeed, out of all the people gathered here, you’re the only one who couldn’t have done it. Very well Mari, I will leave solving this case up to you.」

「Wait, Aur, are you serious? Are you seriously saying that one of us killed Logan?」

Lilu and Spina repeated after Yunis in their minds. Was he serious or was he just playing around? If it was the latter, then he should give them some kind of signal.

「Don’t you remember my motto?」

Aur answered with a very serious look.

「I do not trust other people. They will betray you without fail.」

(So he is seriouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!!!!!!!!!!!)

(Right, I forgot, he was actually that kind of guy.)

Lilu held her head in both her hands.

「Whatever, for now, let us look for the culprit. In order to do it, you first have to check the scene of the crime, Mari.」

「Yup.」

Mari smiled towards Mary, and began investigating the surroundings.

The cause of Logan’s death was a chest injury that was most likely caused by a sword. And of course he was not really dead, because he did not turn into a mass of darkness, like all demons do upon death.

He was stabbed and then fell, leaving the elongated word 「boobies」 as his dying message.

「I’ve solved the mystery!」

Mary shouted enthusiastically for the second time.

「Again?! Can’t you think this through a little bit more?!」

Mari looked around. She glanced at Yunis, then at Spina, and finally at Lilu. She then pointed her finger at her voluptuous breasts and declared:

「Those are the culprits!」

「Stop pointing at my chest!」

Lilu reflexively covered her breasts with her arms and screamed. Now that Aur was also interested in this case, any false accusations could prove disastrous to them.

「Think about this carefully! Logan was stabbed in the chest, and probably died instantly! So he did not have the time to write a dying message!」

In light of those words, Mari looked at Logan’s corpse once more.

「Wait!」

A sudden realization seemed to have hit Mari.

「Logan could not have written that dying message!」

「Yeah, I… I just said that like, thirty seconds ago?」

「Lilu, just shut that d*ck sucking mouth of yours for a minute, would you?」

With a rather harsh words, Mary ordered Lilu to remain silent.

「…. Tch, fine.」

Excited, Mari jumped around Aur’s feet.

「Lord Aur, could you kneel for a sec? I need to tell you something.」

「What is it?」

Before she could share her discovery with Aur, Mary used one of her Laws to strengthened Aur’s sleepiness, sending his consciousness into the world of dreams and felling him on the spot.

Ignoring that mysterious phenomenon, Mari shouted for the third time.

「The mystery has been resolved!」

「No no, it’s right in front of you!」

When Lilu tried to say something unnecessary again, her d*ck sucking mouth was covered by Spina’s hand.

「You are… the culprit!」

Saying that, she pointed at Yunis.

「Do you have any proof of me being the culprit?」

Mari pointed at the sword hanging from Yunis’ waist.

「There’s fresh blood dripping from your sword.」

「Oh my god and all that is holy, woe is me, my crime has been exposed!」

「Wonderful job Mari! You truly are a genius detective!」

「Ehehehe~~」

Mari was basking in the glory of her achievement and praises she was receiving from everyone. But in the next instant, their faces all froze with fear, because…

「Yunis… so it was you… you were the traitor.」

Because Aur has woken up and misunderstood the whole thing.

「Ah, well, you see Aur, the truth is…」

「Whatever the reason might be, traitors must be punished.」

Pushing Lilu aside, Aur approached Yunis… and hugged her. Or at least did something similar to a hug.

「As punishment you will carry me to my bed. I am too sleepy to give a damn about any of this now.」

「Eh?」

Yunis opened her eyes wide at Aur’s dismissal of her (supposed) transgression.

「Honestly, spending your free time on such a farce, you have way too much of it on your hands.」

Aur grinned triumphantly.

「We were so one-upped!」

「I knew it was like that from the beginning.」

Lilu roared and spina lied with a stone face.

「Are you all perhaps finished here?」

As he was held by Yunis, Aur asked all the girls.

「From tomorrow onward, the actual production can start. All of you… will help me… with it…」

His words became disjointed, and his eyes slowly began to close.

「Thank you for your hard work, Lord Aur.」

Stroking his amber hair, Mary whispered softly.

「Shall we carry our master to his bedroom?」

「Yes!」

Obeying Lilu’s suggestion, the girls carried their master into his bedchamber.

「F****ng Aur, go blow yourself up!」

Thought Logan, still unable to get up due to the wound he received.