We ate in relative silence. I had no clue how to bring up the subject of the dragon being too dangerous to control. I had a feeling that Carmine had put everything on the hope that the dragon could become her battle companion. If it got out of this dungeon, who knew how much of a threat it would be. The one advantage of curses is that the monsters got weaker the farther from the lore you got. While the bosses at the bottom of a dungeon might be raid-level monstrosities, they were limited to the boss rooms on the lowest levels of the dungeon.

However, if her plan worked, and she extracted the boss from the curse, who knows what kind of damage it could do. It could destroy entire cities. It could be an event that could nearly destroy this country. I wasn’t even officially a lord yet, and I was already tasked with a decision that could lead to their country’s demise.

“Thank you…” The words broke me from my thoughts, and it took me a moment to realize they were coming from Carmine.

The girls were all eating. Celeste had shrunk to her fairy size to eat. She said she liked how full food made her feel when she didn’t have very much room. This caused a flash of some missing memory to pop in my head, but that kind of thing seemed ridiculous and couldn’t possibly have happened, so I decided to ignore that memory instantly. Strangely, Terra was eating too, although she seemed unused to it. I didn’t know a spirit could eat, but then again, I had never tried to feed the Necromancer or Karr, so who knew what they could or could not do.

Carmine was eating a bowl slowly, and then she looked up at me and thanked me, catching me completely off guard for the moment.

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“About saving me…” She muttered when I didn’t respond. “It was my responsibility, but you healed me and then brought me here.”

“Ah… you’re welcome.” I said, smiling stiffly. “I’ve traveled with you this far. I wouldn’t abandon you now.”

She paused as she brought another spoonful up, “Right… of course.”

“On that note… once we’ve recovered, we’re heading down there, right?”

She nodded. “The guardian will be strong, but my magic is stronger. I can definitely take control of the monster.”

“Ah!” Terra made a noise, but I held up my hand to stop her from saying something to upset Carmine.

“The thing is… it’s a clockwork dragon.” I said. “If what I read in the murals is correct, the clockwork dragon went mad and killed the ones who created it. If you do the same…”

Her eyes turned sharp. “What are you suggesting?”

“I’m saying that we should destroy it. Whatever ability you have, it won’t work as planned. Rather, I don’t think we should change our plans, but if you get control of it, order it to self-destruct.”

There was no way we’d be able to defeat the dragon on our own. It was far too powerful. Although there were six of us, It’d probably take twenty skilled hunters to hunt down and defeat a clockwork dragon normally. This wasn’t based on anything I knew… just a guess from my previous experiences. Going in there with six was suicide… assuming that Terra would even fight. Our own trump card was that Carmine had the ability to control it. If she quickly ordered it to self destruct, that was our best bet for defeating this dungeon. As for what happened after they were expelled, I’d probably offer Carmine a chance to flee with us through a portal. We’d take a longer path to the capital, contact the Knights, and they would mop up this whole Bandit King mess for us.

“Is this what you all have agreed on?” Carmine asked, shooting the other girls a look.

This was the first time she had acknowledged them. I didn’t know what prompted it. She lowered her head when they all nodded.

“I will help you escape the Bandit King. We can still get away.” I said.

“… very well… we’ll do it your way.”