Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core)
Chapter 52: SOS and Spaghetti

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: SOS and Spaghetti

I was home. I should be happy. Anne was a joy to be around. Almira was slowly filling in the spot my Old Girl had held.

And yet, I missed him.

The dream Nate had made for me. The dream that was never real.

Aron...

He told me that he would always be there for me. That no matter what, he was going to make sure that I never got my hands bloody.

I suppose that, seeing as he wasn’t real, that was Nate. Nate, who must have been beyond furious when I shot him down without even looking at him.

Back when he showed me, he was interested.

But...

Who doesn’t want a vampire? Those were immortal! Aron, had he been real, would have given me forever!

But that was a dream.

The real prince charming hated me. My vampire romance story had been over before it had even begun.

Soulmates, pah! How could I have been so naive as to believe that I’ll find the one during wartimes?

I looked at my spaghetti bowl.

Then I blinked.

SOS?

Why were the noodles making SOS signs? Did I overcook them?

Anyway, it was time to get back to work!

"Ok, Edda! We need another festival," because, as much as I wanted to conquer the Necromantic Union in King Solas’ name, so the git wouldn’t harvest my organs, I... still had only ten gold coins to my name.

Which, back then with the war inflation, was about enough to get peanuts.

Not even an entire bag of peanuts.

Just enough peanuts to put the "s" at the end of the word peanut. But not even enough to make butter with.

Just... peanuts.

Maybe three... if I was lucky, four.

I heard the food delivery appear once more. I balled my fists. Ah, Nate’s child support...

"You shouldn’t be angry," Edda told me. She was right. Without Nate’s child support, my humans and the gnomes won’t survive the winter.

And even with them, they still might not make it. It was cold in my dungeon. I simply didn’t have enough firewood to go around.

Besides, it felt wrong to do to the other trees that, which I didn’t want done to my own.

"I still am," it was petty to tell her that, but I still did. After all, if she had done something to get me all of the treasure in the Mammoth Graveyard... I probably would never have given it to Doran.

More people would have died.

Nate would have done me at night, Solas would have died, Nate would have married me...

Pretty grim stuff, if one thought about it.

Especially everything that Nate would have done to me!

"You are self-centered," I didn’t understand why Edda was going to chastise me now. It was none of her business! I didn’t want for her to listen in on my personal musing!

But she still did.

"Which is a good thing! Don’t think about the conquest of the Necromantic Union as something you are doing for the king," I didn’t understand Edda at times.

"But it is. Solas is going to steal my heart," he was probably already working through the goblin heart his sister had stuffed inside of him. I could feel the mana coming off it.

It was sick.

A part of me shuddered. Not because I wanted to keep Solas on the throne, no.

Because Doran was going to bash my skull in and eat my organs if Solas died.

Which brought me to the next big agenda on my ever-growing list.

"Grannie Almira, how are the mushrooms?" I didn’t tell her why I had the humans grow the mushrooms.

Solas was a human. Or, at least, was born as one. My theory was that they were going to be more effective if he got them soaked up in human mana.

Well... with a side dish of my own, but that couldn’t be helped. Human mana couldn’t create a healing mushroom.

"Well, the strange timer is still going," I sighed. Ok. Maybe I could get a special mushroom? One which could turn Solas into an immortal... and may God help us all after that.

But at least then he will stop harvesting organs! Or so I hoped.

Knowing him, he’ll start eating

I looked at my spaghetti again. There was no steam coming off it anymore.

But the SOS sign was back.

"Granny Almira, do you see what I see?" It was one thing for me to see it. Another for a human to see it.

"SOS? What, does the food that appeared at regen time want to be rescued now? Should I beat it with the ladle before I boil it? Will Anne... and the others," I could guess at her slip-up. I slipped up, too, from time to time.

Anne was the most important thing for me. The human who had taught me to love the humans.

And Grannie Almira was the human who had taught me to respect old humans.

It was a strange family. But, hey, we were going to survive.

Then my spaghetti turned into a tied-up Aron. I recognized him by the long hair.

Granny Almira gasped next to me. She was pointing at the fangs made out of noodles.

"Vampires! Sylvan, don’t go to the vampire! We have to barricade the tree!"

I shook my head, biting my lip.

I couldn’t tell the old woman what was happening. Nate’s shipments were the only thing which was keeping my family alive!

That...

Darn...

Liar!

Nate was going to cook! Not in a fun way!

I was just like that!

That Boliarin was going to get what was coming to him now that I knew that he had not only cheated me into thinking that he and Aron were the same person but also kidnapped him!

I knew what I needed to do. He was paying for child support anyway.

It was time for me to feed my children. My very spoiled and blood-hungry Lich and Boliarin sons...