"Deek Deekson.” The leader in charge turned to me.

“Ah, yes?”

“I have come under the orders of our great Lord Reign!”

Seriously, what was with this guy’s naming convention being completely different. We were both lords and his rank was only slightly above mine. There were ten knights in all, and it looked like they had been giving the innkeeper trouble since he looked about ready to cry. Most of them were sitting at a table eating, but they were rowdy and messy. I also saw one squeeze the waitress’s butt as she passed. She had a furious expression on her face.

Naturally, these weren’t the knights who had been sent to the dungeon. These were ten newly dispatched knights. I was expecting to at least have 2-3 days before I had to deal with this kind of thing. When Raissa noticed them, she immediately, hid behind me, looking somewhat shy. Lord Reign used to be her Master, I had heard. Did she recognize one of these knights, by chance? The leader’s eyes went over the girls, but he didn’t seem to give Raissa any more attention than any other. I suppose slaves were just slaves to him.

“What do you need?” I tried to keep any bitterness out of my voice.

Although I already knew that Lord Reign wanted me dead, there was no way I could show my hand yet. It was kind of frustrating, but I just had to bear it.”

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He narrowed his eyes anyway as if he expected me to show him respect like I was below him. “Lord Reign received news that you did not enter the dungeon as you claimed. He was naturally concerned.”

The knight didn’t sound concerned in his Master’s place.

“Your guards refused to permit me entry,” I responded simply.

“You should have returned to the city!” He said, sounding annoyed. “This mistake would have been sorted quickly.”

“Sorry, we wanted to get a feel for the town first before returning. I even completed some quests. We’re short money, you see…”

I had been careful to create evidence, so even if he checked, he’d find that this was true. All-day yesterday I was out getting salt. The day before I visited the mine, which is collapsed as I reported. There was nothing that he could specifically pin on me.

“We sent knights into the dungeon, however, they have not given a message.” He said, a pinch of uncertainty forming on his face.

“Dungeons are large and dangerous.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “Perhaps, they ran into some trouble.”

“Perhaps…” The knight nodded. “But we’ll find out shortly.”

“Find out?”

“Mm… we’re beginning our mission now. We’re to recover their life recorder.”

“Wait… what? What is that?” I immediately tried to school my expression. “I mean, I’ve never heard of a life recorder before. If it helps me in a dungeon, I’d naturally be curious.”

The man’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he continued anyway. “The only thing such a device does is help you die. A life recorder was placed on the lead knight. It not only has a tracking device, but it also records how they died.”

“Oh…”

Crud! Why am I hearing about this device now! I didn’t recall any magical device on him. Was it something they swallowed? What the heck are we going to do? It’s the first time I killed someone, and now it’s going to turn out this disastrous.