Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core)
Chapter 109: The Front

Chapter 109: Chapter 109: The Front

Solaria was at war.

It was an easy thing to ignore from the protective barrier of the Forest of Forget-Me-Nots.

A thing so easy to ignore that I felt shame well up inside of me.

I was there, in the middle of the ruins of a village, wearing pants without any tears on them, a shirt with no holes, and a vest from real leather.

And the people... the people were...

"Ok! Gather up, everyone!" I had to do something! There was a little girl, no older than Anne, who was wearing a dress at least five times her size!

The skirt was dragging on the ground, as the child was walking around with a heavy basket.

Moving from a villager to a villager, trying to sell dolls made from straw.

She looked at me. Her eyes still had that light in them that children had.

They were big and brown. She moved towards me.

I could see how her fingers were shifting through the dolls. Those crude things for which she must have begged to get the straw.

Had she slept, I asked myself. Had she eaten?

There were many such children around me. But for all that I had sons, three of them, in fact, I simply couldn’t watch a little girl in distress.

I rushed to her, hugged her, and then promptly took her to our corner of the village.

"What? You steal children now, Nymph?" A man asked. I honestly didn’t know if he was the girl’s father or not.

I felt strange.

What if this man was her father? What if he had tried to give her everything but given only so much?

The dress she was wearing was long.

My brain began to imagine someone else in the dress. Someone older.

Perhaps even her mother.

Someone who no longer needed the dress.

"He, Hugo, quit it! Let the rich noble adopt the poor girl! She doesn’t have anyone!" A crone yelled as she used a stick, just a branch really, to support her body on her one remaining leg.

"Titan," I had no idea what Telets was doing. Why was he so airheaded as to allow for the war to continue, when the queen of the enemy had already run away? "How many mobs can you send off against the demons?"

He shrugged.

"Depends," I knew that he was going to give me a hard choice, but the little girl was silently placing a single doll in my hand.

I could feel that it was nicely made. From soft straw.

The girl was a master at that, I realized.

She simply hadn’t had any good materials. With tears in my eyes, I realized that this doll was a relic from happier times.

"Sylvan, don’t you dare," it was Nick.

Kind and gentle Nick, who had a hand on my shoulder.

"You’ve lost nothing. Don’t insult the people of Solaria with your tears. Come now, cook for them!"

I nodded, placing the girl down.

Giving her a loaf of bread I baked the very same morning back in my peaceful Forest of Forget-Me-Nots even as other children edged closer.

She grinned, the doll forgotten.

I wanted to give it back to her. To call her daughter.

Only for Nick to take the doll with a face so grave, I didn’t dare argue.

"Come now," Aron urged, his tone soft and calm. "Just cook for them."

"Move into my forest!" I blurted out.

I didn’t want them to remain here. Outside of the barrier Aron was keeping with ease!

"There’s space! I can buy food from the gnomes for you!"

For a second, I could see that the people were just staring at me in mute horror. The wind ruffled my hair.

Hugo, the man who wanted me to leave the poor girl behind, snorted.

"We are from Solaria. Your forest is not," he spat on the ground.

I didn’t understand. It wasn’t like...

Oh...

But I did bring about this invasion. The Archdemoness Mary came because I, Sylvan the Dark Nymph, was here.

I didn’t know what she wanted to do with me but what I did know was that I wasn’t going to like it.

I gulped.

"Then... then..." I couldn’t do it. The barrier around the forest protected my humans, the tourists, and the gnomes.

I refused to wish this horror on them!

"You are just a noble," Hugo spat on the ground once more. "Who doesn’t care! Just like that silly king! The one who doesn’t have any claim on the throne!"

Telets was in danger. Of that much, I was certain.

"Titan, I want the demons gone!"

Hugo took a step back.

Did that man really think I’d call human beings demons?

"The ones who are attacking!" I yelled, as my hands found a home in my curls. "The ones whom I ignored! The ones..."

Whom my strong grandson couldn’t handle.

And I asked myself, back then, if Solaria, strong and eternal Solaria, named after the sun, was in such a state after the demons, how was the rest of the world fairing?

And...

And could some glowing golden mushrooms really make a difference?

"My beloved Sylvan," Titan said as he pointed me at Desmond, Nick and Nate. "You don’t need mobs. There are plenty of corpses on the ground. You have not one, but three Boliari as husbands."

I gulped. Yeah, I did.

But the undead were not something that I could handle. Did I dare trust my loves?

I still remembered what had happened to Aron after he had become lost in the bloodlust.

If...

But the people around me had lost all faith. They needed someone to get rid of the demons.

"Tell me, Sir Hugo," Nick’s eyes were a storm. I knew that he was angry. He was a Boliarin of the king. Telets must have tried his best.

But because my three lovers were mine, and he was my grandson, he had not asked for help.

That silly boy.

"How many villages are there in the area?"

"That’s not important," the crone murmured. It was spoken so quietly that I knew that I was not meant to hear it. "It’s the castle that is the problem. The dungeon castle."

The one Luciano took Tom to? That thing was still standing.

But then... was there a new Archdemon ruling over the invaders?

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