‘Your Highness… Edmund is here to talk.’ Alya spoke as she served tea to Ariadne.

‘You can let him in. I’m glad he can already walk; it has been only five days,’ Ariadne continued to write on her tablet.

Alya sighed and shook her head as she opened the door. Edmund moved forward, strapped in a small bed and being pushed by a soldier. He was smiling. The moment Ariadne raised her head, she was struck by the sight. Her shock was palpable as she leaned back, crossed her arms, and looked at him with complete disbelief.

‘Why? Just…’ She was lost for words.

‘I can’t stop working; I will die of sadness, so this was the solution. I can’t move, so my friend here is pushing me around. I say they should train, so it's a win, win, right?’ Edmund looked to his right side.

‘Right.’ The soldier put Edmund into position and got to his left side.

‘We need to work on our communication.’ Edmund gave a quick laugh.

‘This is ridiculous, peasant, even for you, but you are already here; speak your mind.’ Ariadne took a deep breath.

‘You are huge; why is nobody always saying this?’ Edmund looked at the soldier and Alya.

‘Peasant, did you come here to say something this obvious to me? I don't have clothes, and it will take time for things to adjust to me, but on this note.’ She stood up.

Edmund, the soldier, and Alya looked up; even Alya didn’t adjust to her change in height.

‘The new tools the people in the city are using are interesting; I didn’t have the time to see all of them. Even for simple tasks, they have something; I’m impressed.’ Ariadne stood right before Edmund, touching his chest with the point of her fingers.

‘Well, the majority was made by my students; I had no time to give much importance to everything; they were the ones that created everything, giving them the complements.’ Edmund into Ariadne’s eyes.

‘I might do just that; thanks for the suggestion, now to the point you came here to discuss.’ She returned to her chair behind the desk

‘I have a theory of why we changed along with the soldiers.’ Edmund smiled.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

‘Alright, continue.’ She waved at him.

‘The demon lord army raided the dungeon; that is, obvious, from the destroyed golems, we can say they conquered the dungeons, but instead of conquering, they were trapped by it, becoming part of it.’ Edmund blew a part of his hair that was next to his right eye.

‘It makes sense, but what about the rest.’ Ariadne held her chin.

‘When the hero conquered the dungeon, the enemies just became dust; these also became dust, but I think that because they weren’t golens, the magic that was used to make them come didn’t have anywhere to return to; it wasn’t the same magic used by the golens anymore.’ He again blew a part of his hard that was next to his right eye.

‘So attached itself with the first thing it didn’t reject it.‘ Ariadne frowned for a moment.

‘Yes, I think that was what happened, but there is more.’ Edmund blew his hair away again.

‘Just cut your hair, peasant.’ Ariadne sigh.

‘Yeah, but if they conquered this dungeon, the next one may have already been opened, and the same might have happened.' Edmund looked into Ariadne’s eyes.

‘Humm… tell me, peasant, how long it took the hero to conquer all dungeons before the fight against the demon lord?’ Ariadne tapped the desk with her nails.

Edmund tried to pull from the hero's memories, and after some time, he estimated the time; it was not perfect, but it was close enough to what it was.

‘Like five years.’ Edmund said bluntly.

Ariadne was taken back by the time; it was too close. Now that she had conquered the dungeon, the demon lord was as accurate as the clothes on her body.

‘Well, even the hero itself didn’t know how it works, so there are two ways things happened before: wait a second, my nose.’ Edmund moved his nose around.

The soldier to his side scratched Edmund's nose for a moment, then nodded at him with a smile. He was impressed by the gesture and smiled at him, too, returning his gaze to the duchess.

‘So?’ Ariadne continued to tap the desk with her nails.

‘The first one is that it will happen in five years; if that is true, we are all dead, but I don't think it is because that might say that we have five years to conquer all dungeons before the demon lord arrives, and there is no such legend.’ Edmund tried to shrug his shoulders with no success.

‘That is true, and the other?’ Ariadne held her chin for a moment.

‘The other is that these dungeons are locks. By the end, we have released the demon lord so that we can kill him. It makes more sense. With the demon lord army attacking the dungeons, it becomes a real contender.’ Edmund looked at Alya, who was carrying what looked like tea for Ariadne.

‘Wait? So, if we just do nothing, she will just stay in prison forever?’ Ariadne gave Edmund a confused look.

'No. We conquer the dungeons to free the demon lord because if he gets out alone, can you imagine how powerful he would be to do that? No one could kill him.’ Edmund’s tone was more serious.

‘So why not just wait? He should be doing everything for us not to conquer the dungeons.’ Ariadne took a sip of her tea.

‘On the time of the hero, that was what he did, but now there is no...' Edmund was interrupted.

‘Hero, this time the hero is not coming, so the way he is now is enough.’Ariadne was in deep thought as he held her cup of tea.

‘Yes, but judging by what happened in the first dungeon, it trapped the demon lord army and used it to guard the dungeon. That is what I think, at least.’ Edmund tried again to shrug his shoulders and failed again.

‘I think you are right, even though you do stupid things like right now.' She pointed at him. ‘You are smart, peasant. So what now? What do you think we should do?’ Ariadne put the cup on the table.

‘We need to know how this improved us, the changes and all; finish the things we already were working on with the new resources we have from the dungeon, make the life of the people better so that we have more soldiers willing to fight and next time raid the next dungeon with at least two thousand soldiers, the more, the better, for now, that is it.’ Edmund smiled at her.

‘Alright, peasant, let's go with that. Now get out, just rest. Don’t you ever show in front of me like this again!’ Ariadne got the cup again after Alya filled it and took a sip.