The Abandoned Saint I Picked Up is a Side Character in an Otome Game and Turns Out to Be the World's Strongest Mage. I Plan to Rescue the Heroine Who Couldn't Achieve Her Happy Ending in a Dungeon. - Chapter 18

Kon had brought back two girls, tightly bound with ropes, and proudly referred to them as souvenirs.

“Hweeeeeeh! Father, Mother, I’m so sorryyyyy! Your daughter Curia’s fate ends hereeeee!”

“Oh dear… don’t cry, Curia dear.”

“Why are you so calm about this, Lady Mae?!?!?!”

One of them was a chestnut-haired girl who was crying so hard that it seemed like she was leaking fluids from every possible orifice—a sight no girl should ever be in. The other was a serene, violet-haired woman gently comforting her.

I recognized both of them immediately.

The sobbing girl was Curia.

She’s one of the love interests in the game, the fiancée of a duke’s eldest son.

In the game, her role was mainly to bring trouble to Ariel. Her constant crying and habit of apologizing to her parents made her a pitiful yet strangely endearing character.

Despite her petite frame, she was surprisingly well-endowed—a trait that had been the source of bullying during her childhood, leaving her with her overly apologetic nature.

She was also one of the few characters who, early in the story, subtly helped Ariel avoid being completely abandoned or bullied by others.

And as for the other woman—

“Mae, what exactly are you doing here?”

“Oh my, Lady Christiana. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

It was none other than Mae, the head of the Andarencia Mage Corps.

She was tall, with shapely thighs and a full, impressive bust that made her presence impossible to ignore.

…Wait.

Why do I feel like I’ve been focusing on their chests this entire time?

Could it be that the aftereffects of the magic potion Christiana gave me are still lingering?

“Well, this is perfect timing. Mae, about that magic potion you gave me—this guy ended up using an entire bottle in one go.”

“Huh? The whole bottle at once? That’s… that’s a lethal do—cough, I mean, that’s a bit dangerous.”

“Wait, did you just say lethal dose? You said lethal dose, didn’t you?!”

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

No, it’s fine.

It’s been days since then, and apart from my uncontrollable urges, I haven’t noticed any other major side effects.

What’s more pressing is figuring out why Kon brought two significant game characters here.

“Kon, what’s the story with these two?”

“They entered my territory. I couldn’t catch the males, but I captured these two females alive! You may praise me!”

“Uh, yeah… good job, I guess.”

“Mufufu! With this, my pack grows even larger!”

Pack? Foxes don’t form packs.

Wait, does Kon consider Ariel and me part of her “pack”?

“Still, I’d like to know why they came all the way to the dungeon. I have a pretty good idea, but… let’s interrogate them to be sure.”

It was likely a rescue mission for Angelica.

Kidnapping a royal was no small matter, and Christiana had blurted out “dungeon” in front of the Andarencia king, so it wasn’t surprising they tracked us here.

What puzzled me was why Mae and Curia, of all people, were involved.

Interrogating them would clear things up.

I conjured a revolver, preparing to start the questioning, but before I could even say anything—

“I’ll tell you everything! We were just accompanying the crown prince! I didn’t even want to come, but my stupid fiancé, Jail, was all like, ‘What can you do? Our prince is hopeless,’ and dragged me along!”

“Uh… wow, you really spilled everything at once.”

“Please, I’ll do anything, so just let me go! Don’t hurt me! Please don’t do anything painful or cruel to meeeee!”

Before I even began the interrogation, Curia blurted out the entire story.

Her tearful, pitiful plea stirred a strange sense of guilt within me.

I’ve done plenty of bad things, but when someone begs for their life like this, it’s hard to go through with anything. Humans are funny like that.

“Alright, alright, I get it. I’m not going to kill you, so just calm down, okay?”

“Huh? Y-You’re not going to kill me? R-Really?”

“Really.”

“B-But what if you say, ‘Sorry to deceive you,’ and then kill me!?”

“I’m not going to do that. How distrustful can you get…?”

I let out a small sigh of exasperation, and Curia’s expression immediately brightened, her eyes sparkling with admiration.

“Ah… such a kind person…!”

“Isn’t that judgment a little too lenient?”

Even Ariel seemed stunned by how quickly Curia’s perception of me flipped.

At that moment, Mae turned to Ariel and spoke, and her words made me doubt my ears.

“You’re Ariel, right?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I have a message for you from the king. He wishes to formally apologize.”

“…The king?”

Mae’s statement left me speechless.

Apparently, the king was aware of the bullying Ariel had endured.

He had believed that the crown prince had put an end to it, allowing her to enjoy a peaceful school life. Instead, things had escalated, leading to Ariel losing control of her magic and injuring others.

As it turned out, the king hadn’t known about that either.

It seemed the crown prince had deliberately kept it from him and, acting on his own, had ordered Ariel’s assassination through the shadow division. The king only discovered all of this after conducting an investigation following our attack on the castle.

…Seriously, how disconnected can a king be from his own kingdom?

I mean, I get that running a country is difficult, but still.

“I’ve got it!”

“Whoa! Don’t yell out of nowhere! You scared me!”

Angelica suddenly shouted, her face lighting up as though she’d just had a brilliant epiphany.

“What? What is it? What did you think of?”

“Lord Endo! I shall make you the king of this country!”

“…Why?”

I had absolutely no idea what Angelica was talking about.