A Demon Lord’s Tale: Dungeons, Monster Girls, and Heartwarming Bliss

towards a door leading inside the castle.

I continued tailing him.
I carefully leapt over the wall while making sure to make as little noise as possible before moving towards the door.
To be frank, I was a little tense, so I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, and reached for the doorknob.

Only to find that it didn't turn.

There was a bit of a rattling sound, but that was it.
The doorknob didn't budge, and the door didn't open.
It was locked. Shit.
I should've seen this coming.
Of course people lock doors behind them.
Why wouldn't they?

And though my actions should have alerted the man and informed him something was wrong, it turned out that I was lucky.

“Who's there?” Because, although he had appeared suspicious, the man simply opened the door and stuck his head out its entrance.
He seemed to think that I was the guard, and that I had business with him, but he was wrong.

The first thing I did as I saw his face was twist my body and deliver the day's third roundhouse kick.
He groaned a bit as his head was smashed against the wall before collapsing onto the door and widening the opening.
But that was it.
He didn't manage to react quickly enough to make any noise.

I immediately slipped into the doorway, confirmed that there wasn't anyone else around, dragged the unconscious peeping tom inside, and shut the door.

“Holy shit.” I heaved a sigh of relief.
“That was close.”

I tried to make my break-in as stealthy as I could.
I tried not to make any noise, and I tried not to get spotted.
The idea was to be as stealthy as a snake in the grass, to keep things as easy as possible by preventing my foes from sounding the alarm.
The less they suspected, the less on guard they would be.
And the less on guard they were, the easier it would be for me to take control of the situation.

But evidently, I didn't quite have all the skills I needed to pull it off.
I didn't even realize that I should have checked to see if the door was locked.
I was an amateur attempting something that one should never try at home, something meant only for highly trained professionals.

And unlike a certain snakey dude with a beard, I wasn't a member of the special forces.
And I couldn't just become him.
Things just weren't going to be that easy. Speaking of good old snake and 'stache, he's boss as fuck.
He can go undetected standing in plain sight, and the genome soldiers almost never see him even when he's right next to them.

I now understood that completing a mission without ever being revealed was difficult, and that he could only ever do it because he was special.
Amateurs like me were sure to be caught in a matter of minutes. Yeah.
That's right.
This isn't an excuse at all.
He's just totes OP.
Probably had a ridiculously high-level Stealth skill or something. [1]

“Alright, what next?”

I raised a hand to my chin as I considered my options.
I had already completed all my initial objectives just by successfully making it into the building.
Though I did have some overarching goals, I hadn't bothered formulating a detailed plan on my way here. Such is the spirit of laissez-faire.

While I would have loved to continue without a plan, I knew that it wasn't a good idea, so I reviewed my objectives.
The first was to murder the fuck out of Prince Douchebag.
The second was to restore the old king to his rightful place on the throne.

With my objectives and the things the knights had mentioned yesterday in mind, I realized that saving the king was probably the more important of the two.
I wanted a bit of one on one time, and I needed to make sure that I got to him before he was killed.
The moment he died would be the moment the prince's faction gained legitimacy, spelling an end to the whole operation. Wait.
Why haven't they killed him anyway? If I was rooting for the prince, then snuffing out the old geezer the throne used to belong to would probably be the first thing on my list.
He's basically the opposing faction's leader.
His rescue would put me and my bros in some deep shit.
So why haven't they just done it? Are they planning to execute him in public for the sake of propaganda or something?

I caught myself considering something inconsequential, so I shrugged it off and focused on my objective.
I needed to save the king.
Urgently. I think they said they had him locked up underground?

“Now, if I was making a castle, where would I put my underground dungeon…?” I scanned my surroundings as I muttered, only to realize that I was in a passageway.
There was nothing in front of me but a single door.

I didn't have the liberty to interrogate the guy I knocked out.
He had the whole douchey spy aesthetic going for him.
It was obvious that he was tight-lipped; he wasn't going to crack so easily.
I didn't exactly have all that much knowledge of torture.
There was a pretty good chance I'd accidentally kill him if I tried.
And because I wasn't all that keen on gore, I was more likely to damage myself than extract any meaningful information.

There wasn't much of a choice for me to do anything but proceed as is.
I would stay stealthed and wander around the castle in order to fill the map. Guess I'll set up a few Evil Eyes while I'm at it.

As they were quite expensive, I only had a few that could operate outside the dungeon's bounds. But at least it's better than nothing.

My next course of action in mind, I walked across the hall and reached for yet another doorknob.

***

TL Note

[1] Metal Gear references, a dime a dozen.

Editor's note (Joker): Hey, guys! Joker here.
Yup, yet another fast chapter coming out thanks to all of Boss Young'un's hard work.
He's lookin' for a job, keeping his skills brushed up, playing loads of games, and still has time to crank these chapters out.
I dunno if I could do it.
It truly is a labor of love for him.
My mom's birthday was the other day, so naturally I spent it playing DnD with a couple of friends.
Started up a 5e game and they all seemed to like it, so I'm glad.
But don't worry.
We went out to eat the day after to celebrate, because the restaurant she wanted to go to was closed.
It was pretty good food too, so I was happy.
All right, letter sack, letter sack… Ah, here it is.
Looks like we got three letters today, so a big thank you goes out to Zaow (@Zaowchen), madcart, and Zehd Cashew. Remember, if you've got a question you'd like me to ask, post it in the comments and I'll reply.
Get noticed by your senpai today! See y'all in the next chapter!

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