Milo glanced over his shoulder at Aster, and Stella on Aster’s shoulders. He rubbed his neck and grimaced. It really would have been easier to convince Silas to help if he wasn’t there… but then, he has a good point. If Silas refuses because of Aster and Stella, there’s no point bringing him to the labyrinth, first.

“Do you think he’ll help? He wanted to destroy my dungeon,” Stella pointed out.

“We weren’t trying to—we just wanted to retrieve what was left of the boss’s body,” Milo replied, shaking his head.

“Why? Why did you want Momma?” Stella asked.

“She’s… that is, dragons, are worth a lot of money. A dragon scale is enough to buy a day’s worth of meals. A few yards of dragon pelt can feed a family for weeks. We wanted enough money to make it in the capital, as real adventurers.” Milo glanced at his staff and sighed.

“Sorry about that. You know, I don’t want to keep you here forever. You can still leave and go to the capital,” Aster said gently. After all, it’s not as if anyone would believe them, even if they talked about me and Stella. And anyone that came to catch me… well, who would bother? I’m not worth that much bounty.

“Well, that was the party’s dream. I didn’t really have a dream,” Milo muttered. He shrugged. “I don’t know. Ever since I’ve come to the dungeon… it was horrible what happened, but now I… I’ve had to search out what I want to do, not what the party wants to do, or what my father wants me to do, or what the other priests think I should do. I feel alive.”

“It’s important to figure out your goals in life,” Aster agreed. And I don’t mind having a priest around to heal Stella, just in case things go wrong.

Milo rubbed the back of his neck again and nodded. “Yeah.”

Stella kicked her legs, leaning against Aster’s head. “Monsters eat humans. Humans… eat monsters. Does everyone have to eat everything, just to survive?”

Humans eat monsters? Well… no, I understand. Milo compared the price of her mother’s body to the price of a meal, so she decided that humans eat monsters. “Humans eat animals, too, and some animals eat humans,” Aster added.

“Oh. So everyone eats everything.” Stella paused. She frowned, tugging on his hair.

“What?” Aster asked.

“Monsters eat monsters. What about animals? Or humans?” she asked.

“Animals eat other animals, too. Most humans don’t eat humans. The ones that do are usually executed,” Aster explained.

Stella paused, then started kicking her legs again. “But animals can eat animals, and monsters can eat monsters, and they aren’t killed for it. But if monsters eat humans, they get killed. If animals eat humans, they get killed, right?”

“Right,” Aster said slowly.

“So the problem is humans! Humans are the ones going around killing everyone who kills them, even though they also kill monsters and animals, and humans too. Isn’t it humans who are the unreasonable ones?” Stella said, jabbing her finger at the air.

“That’s… but humans are sentient beings,” Milo said.

Stella tipped her head. “Sentient?”

“It means we can speak, and think, and reason,” Aster replied.

“I can do that,” Stella pointed out. “So can Daiyo. And Viki.”

Milo clutched his staff tighter. “I… didn’t think monsters were so… human-like until recently. The One High God always… said that killing monsters was righteous, but it’s the priests who decided that monsters aren’t sentient in order to justify his declaration. Knowing the history of the One High God and his clashes with the land gods, I should have known… I should have questioned it long ago.”

“You can’t be blamed for what you didn’t know,” Aster said evenly.

Stella grumbled deep in her throat. “I can still blame him.”

“No… thinking about it now, the evidence was all there. Berserkers, for one. The complex attack patterns of boss monsters. I should have been able to piece it together long ago. But I… I never tried. I never thought to question that part of the religion, because it benefited me to simply believe and follow it,” Milo said slowly.

“You’re not the only one who believed it. It’s not right to take all the weight of the blame onto yourself,” Aster replied.

Milo shook his head. “But I’ve done real harm because of this. Real harm, to sentient beings. To Stella’s mother, and… and all those other monsters. Even if they can respawn… even if Stella can revive them, I… I wasn’t happy when Alice died, even knowing I could attempt a revival spell.

Stolen story; please report.

“And isn’t that the problem? That I’m not the only one who believed… who still believes. So many adventurers and villagers see the monsters as raging beasts that need to be put down, rather than intelligent creatures.”

Aster yawned. “But at the end of the day, humans kill humans. Sentient humans. Whether it’s war, or for a purse full of gold, or for love, people kill every day. Is it simply the nature of the human beast, to kill for survival?”

“Humans are the problem,” Stella muttered, leaning her head on Aster’s.

Aster chuckled. “Stella, come on. Have your monsters never attacked adventurers?”

Stella hesitated. “But they have to eat something.”

“Isn’t that what it all comes down to? Killing is an instinct built into every creature. Animal, monster, human, no matter what, when it comes down to it, they’re willing to kill. Kill to survive, kill to eat… even an herbivore will kill a man, if backed into a corner. Plenty of hunters have been gored by deer or trampled by aurochs. All beings are ultimately willing and able to kill,” Aster concluded.

“But… then… don’t we just have to keep them in a place where they’re not backed into a corner?” Stella responded. “I’ll figure out another way to feed my monsters. And make sure adventurers and monsters never… never back each other into corners.”

Aster walked on, silent. Is that even possible? All it takes is one inexperienced adventurer wandering alone, who gets scared and goes nuts… or, say, trips and falls into one of the labyrinth’s traps. And that’s putting aside those who willfully kill, who would go out of their way to slay the monsters, even if the monsters fought non-lethally. Even if the cave became known as a non-lethal dungeon and all the monsters perfectly fought by those rules, there would still be troublemakers who’d charge in and, for example, try to collect some giant snake skins.

Milo sighed deeply. “Why is it so hard? What happened? Once upon a time, the land gods lived peacefully alongside humans. Can’t we go back to those days?”

“Yeah!” Stella agreed, nodding so aggressively that her chin banged into Aster’s head.

“Ow…” Aster muttered, rubbing his skull. Stella whimpered in pain, grimacing in a mirror image of his own expression.

Milo laughed, taken out of the moment. “You two made the same exact grimace. It’s like you really are—”

“Well, she really is my daughter. In every way that matters,” Aster interrupted.

Chuckling, Milo nodded. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Why can’t we go back? I’ll be worshipped. I’m okay with that,” Stella said.

Aster and Milo exchanged a look.

At last, Aster broke the silence. He shook his head. “Stella, the problem is that society has… has moved on. If the Church of the One High God were to hear of an enclave of land god worshippers, they’d destroy this town and your dungeon in the name of their god. It’s not possible to peaceably move backward.”

“Why? Why not? Why are humans so problematic?” Stella complained, her voice on the verge of whining. She harrumphed and crossed her arms, slumping. “It’s always humans. Humans, humans, humans are the problem!”

Milo shook his head. “Unless you were powerful enough to hold off the entire Holy Army, I don’t think you could—”

“Ah! Okay. So I have to get stronger. I can be worshipped if I get stronger!” Stella said. Her eyes glittered with determination, and she clenched her fist.

Er, that’s… that’s so unimaginably stronger from where you stand right now that I can’t even picture how long it would take… Milo thought to himself, quietly shaking his head.

Aster cleared his throat. He glanced up at Stella. “Getting stronger means—”

“—letting humans in, right?” Stella said. She scowled. “Humans are always the problem.”

“No. Stella,” Aster said, a note of warning in his voice.

“What? Even then, it’s humans’ fault for killing my Momma that I don’t—”

“Stella! You can’t blame humans for everything,” Aster said, raising his voice.

Stella fell silent. She tensed, wrinkling his face.

Milo jolted and went silent as well, suddenly nervous. Can we speak to the dungeon core like that? Isn’t she in control of the entire dungeon and all the monsters? I’ve faced off against her… what if Aster angers her, and ends up trapped in a crystal?

Aster shook his head. “If you keep blaming humans for everything, you’ll end up spiralling into the darkness where you can’t help but see yourself as the victim, and see humans as the attackers, no matter what. It’s true that in killing your mother, the Aces made you a victim. But what you can’t do, is turn that into your identity. Everyone is not out to get you. There are good people in this world. You are not a victim, but a powerful young woman. You can stand on your own, and keep yourself safe, and face danger on your own two feet.”

“I can,” Stella grumbled, somewhat reluctantly. “But—”

“No buts. Stella. You are incredibly powerful. One day, you will be more powerful than me,” Aster declared.

That day is right now, today, Milo thought to himself, still nervous.

“More powerful than Aster?” Stella said disbelievingly.

“Yes, more powerful than me. If you continue to victimize yourself and blame humans, one day, you will be the one who kills someone else’s Momma, and you will be the one who refuses to take responsibility for that. Do you want that? To inflict upon someone else, what has been inflicted onto you?” Aster asked.

Stella hesitated. She bit her lip and kicked her legs, agitated. “I… I… They deserve it! They—”

“Stella,” Aster said softly.

“I don’t, I don’t. I don’t want anyone else to lose their Momma,” Stella cried. Tears burst out of her eyes, and she sniffled, trying to hold them back.

Gentle, Aster looked up at her. “That’s right. You’re a good girl, Stella. Kind and gentle. You’ll become a very strong dungeon one day, but always remember this. You are not the sole victim. You are powerful enough to overcome that, and face the world as it is, as you are. Even if it feels like the entire world stands against you, always remember that.”

Stella nodded. She wiped her tears on her skirt and sniffled one last time. “Mhm.”

Ahead, darkness claimed the tunnels. Crystals laid crushed on the ground, no more than a faintly glowing blue powder. A soft rustling echoed through the stone tunnels from ahead, the dry rustle of leaves on the wind in a space with no leaves and no wind.

Milo jumped and fled back behind Aster, raising his staff pre-emptively. “Aster…”

Matching the rustling, a hiss came from nowhere and everywhere, bouncing off the rounded walls of the tunnels.

“Hey! You’re on my side!” Stella insisted, glaring into the darkness.

Two glowing, golden eyes appeared in the darkness for a moment, slit pupils black as midnight. A hissing chuckle filled the tunnel, and the eyes shut, vanishing into the black.

Aster drew his hammer and stepped forward. “That’s right. Stella’s a good girl. Now these snakes, on the other hand…”