My Harem of Dangerous and Crazy Women as a Reincarnated Necromancer-Chapter 56: A Whisper from the Depths

"Alice," said Mark, watching the blood still seeping from the nun’s wounds. "Was there anyone else inside the dungeon besides your group?"

"No, my lord. Only the six of us remained from the entire group," Alice replied, shaking her head.

"How many were there originally?" Mark asked with curiosity.

"Twenty."

Mark fell completely silent at the answer.

’Fourteen people, probably high-ranking warriors, dead... and this is the dungeon I was planning to grind with just Yuki.’

A chill ran down Mark’s spine thinking about what would have happened if he had pushed ahead with his original plan.

If Mark had decided to ignore Rose and gone into the lower floors with only two subordinates.

’I’d probably be dead... No, I’d definitely be dead.’

Rose, who had been listening in silence with her arms crossed, stepped forward.

"Hold on," the vampire interrupted with a frown. "What were you doing here in the first place? This dungeon is avoided by everyone precisely because of how dangerous it is. No adventurer in their right mind would come near this place." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Alice turned to look at Rose.

But Alice’s expression didn’t change, she wore the same serious face she’d had since kneeling before Mark, as if the fact that she was bleeding from half a dozen open wounds was a minor detail not worth noting.

"We were carrying out a search mission assigned by the high command of the Inquisition," Alice replied in a professional tone, as if giving a report to a superior.

"The Inquisition?" Rose narrowed her eyes. "What were you looking for?"

"Recently, some ancient blueprints were discovered that revealed the existence of a hidden chamber within the first ten levels of the dungeon," Alice explained without hesitation.

"According to those blueprints, the chamber contained a passage that supposedly led directly to the hundredth floor of the dungeon and to the Demon Lord’s subsequent chamber."

Rose fell silent and blinked in surprise.

"What do you mean, the hundredth floor?" Rose’s voice lost its usual composure for an instant. "Wasn’t this dungeon supposed to only have ten floors?"

Mark also stared at Alice.

’The hundredth floor?’

"Officially, yes," Alice replied calmly. "All the kingdoms, the adventurers’ guild, and the Inquisition have publicly stated that the maximum floor of the Demon Lord’s dungeon is ten... or at least that’s the information taught in academies, what appears in official records, and what any common adventurer knows."

Alice paused briefly.

"But unofficially, it’s known to be one hundred."

"And how exactly is that known?" Rose said, crossing her arms tightly, as if the information she was receiving was causing her physical discomfort.

"Through an ancient text left by one of the heroes who killed the Demon Lord," Alice said. "It describes the complete structure of the dungeon. That text has been kept by the Inquisition for centuries and its contents are classified, so only the highest ranks have access to that information."

’One hundred floors...’ Mark processed the information slowly.

He had been planning to grind the first one as if it were a game’s tutorial level.

’It’s like a level-one player walking into a max-level raid thinking it was a beginner dungeon. No... it’s worse than that.’

Suddenly Rose’s suggestion to go home didn’t just seem reasonable.

It seemed like the smartest decision Mark had ever made.

"Alice, I have a question," Mark said with a frown. "If your mission was to find a hidden chamber in the first ten levels, based on what you’re telling me..."

Mark gestured at the sorry state of her body.

"How did you end up like this? Are the first ten floors really that dangerous on their own?"

Alice lowered her gaze for a moment.

It was the first time since waking up that her expression showed anything other than military professionalism.

"The chamber we were searching for... we found it on the seventh floor," she said in a lower tone than before. "The blueprints were correct. The location, the entrance, everything matched perfectly."

"But?" Mark asked, prompting her to continue.

"But it turned out to be a trap." Alice clenched her fists at her sides.

The gauntlets were already gone, but Mark could see her knuckles turning white from the pressure.

"One of the team members accidentally triggered a mechanism upon entering the chamber, causing the doors to seal behind us and..." Alice paused. "The ceiling began to descend, the walls filled with traps, and monsters we had never seen before started rising from the floor."

"Unknown monsters?" Mark repeated.

"That’s right, probably SSS-rank creatures from the lower floors," Alice said. "Against a group that was prepared to face S-rank threats at most."

’That’s...’

"As expected, most of them died within minutes," Alice continued without Mark having to ask. "The first to fall were those closest to the walls when the traps activated, then the monsters took care of the rest... I could only save a few, and then I fought my way back up, but..."

Alice didn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t need to.

Mark looked at the five women sitting in a semicircle behind him, the ones Alice had carried from the seventh floor all the way to the first, fighting through everything in her path, with her body wrecked, bones broken, and blood soaking her clothes.

All of that alone.

’This woman is completely insane,’ Mark thought as he looked at Alice.

"Master." Suddenly Yuki’s voice cut through the silence and Mark turned to look at her.

The assassin, standing beside him, was staring fixedly at the darkness of the corridor leading to the lower floors.

"It would be best if we withdrew from here," Yuki said in her usual flat tone. "We don’t know what else might happen."

"Yuki is right, Master," Rose agreed, nodding. "We already have what we came for, and considerably more than we expected. There’s no point in pressing our luck further."

Mark looked at both of them.

Then at Alice, who was still bleeding as if her body were a fountain, and finally at the dark corridor leading to the dungeon’s lower floors.

"You’re right," Mark said at last. "Let’s go home."

Mark turned around and began walking toward the dungeon’s exit.

The sound of his footsteps echoed through the massive empty first-floor hall.

The remains of the monsters Alice had eliminated upon arrival were still scattered across the floor, and the group had to go around more than one as they made their way toward the exit.

"Alice," said Mark without stopping or turning to look at her. "I still have several questions for you, but... I’ll ask them on the way back."

"As you command, Master."

The group kept moving toward the exit.

Rose had started asking Alice questions about the structure of the Inquisition, and Alice answered with the same professional diligence she had shown with everything else.

Yuki walked in silence as always, and the five subordinates walked behind Alice.

Mark was only half listening to the conversation, still turning over the new information Alice had just given him.

But then something made him stop.

A whisper.

So faint that for a moment Mark thought he’d imagined it.

"...Huh?" he murmured, mildly confused.

’What was that?’

Mark turned his head slightly back, toward the dark corridor leading to the lower floors.

But there was nothing, only darkness.

Mark frowned and was about to keep walking when he heard it again.

"...Mark..." it came once more, but now Mark caught it with greater clarity.

It was a voice.

Distant, muffled by the distance and the stone walls.

And it was definitely saying his name.

Mark stopped completely.

The rest of the group kept walking. Rose was still talking to Alice about something related to the ranks within the Inquisition, and Yuki walked in silence.

None of them seemed to have heard anything.

’...Am I imagining things?’

Mark stayed still, staring into the darkness of the corridor.

Three seconds.

Five.

Ten.

Nothing.

Only silence again.

Mark was on the verge of convincing himself it had been his imagination when the voice came a third time.

"Mark..."

Now the voice was clearer and closer than before.

And this time Mark was completely certain he wasn’t imagining it.

"What the hell..."