A Trash Novel's Only Reader-Chapter 21: Back Home

The demon woman who had planted the core felt the connection snap while lying on her bed, her eyes snapping open.

For a second she stayed still, naked on top of the sheets, staring at the ceiling while the broken link echoed through her senses. Then her brows pulled together and she sat up slowly, one hand brushing dark hair off her shoulder.

’That was too fast,’ she thought, the last trace of sleep leaving her face. ’Did somebody already clear Serpent’s Pit? That makes no sense.’

She picked that dungeon because nobody ever tried to clear it. Low-rank hunters avoided it, better hunters thought it was beneath them, and the clerk they paid had already made sure the request would keep rotting on the board until some desperate idiot finally took it.

’Unless they lied to me,’ she thought, annoyance creeping in as she swung her legs off the bed. ’If someone accepted it early and nobody reported it, then I paid useless trash for nothing.’

Even that answer felt wrong.

The core she planted was not some cheap toy a random hunter could just walk through. Once it settled properly, it pushed growth, aggression, and mutation far past what normal dungeon beasts could handle, and the queen in that nest had already been a decent host to begin with.

’No,’ she thought, standing up and reaching for the robe hanging beside the bed. ’If the link broke this soon, then the integration was not complete yet.’

That was the only answer that fit.

Whoever went in must have reached the queen before the planted core fully rooted itself, and even then, killing it that early should not have been easy.

’At minimum, the person who did it had to be at least D-rank or higher, I see no way anyone lower could handle it.’

She tied the robe around herself and walked across the room, bare feet quiet against the floor.

’So,’ she thought, stopping by the table where a black crystal device lay, ’someone entered my test dungeon, killed the host, and took the core before the process finished.’

That last part was what irritated her most.

If the host had simply died, the planted core should have remained in the chamber until one of their people cleaned it up. For the connection to vanish the way it did, there was a good chance somebody had taken it away.

"How annoying," she muttered, picking up the crystal.

She pressed her thumb to its surface, and dark light spread across the room for a second before gathering into the kneeling shape of a shadowy figure near the door. The figure did not speak first, only lowered his head and waited.

"The serpent’s Pit failed early," she said, her tone flat while she looked down at him. "The planted core’s link is gone."

The figure finally lifted his head a little. "Was the host destroyed?"

"Most likely," she said, setting the crystal back down. "But the timing is wrong, which means someone interfered before full integration finished."

He stayed silent, waiting for the part that mattered.

She folded her arms and leaned one hip against the table. "Track down whoever took that mission, find out who came out of that dungeon alive, and confirm whether the core is still in their possession."

The figure’s voice stayed low and steady, "do you want retrieval or only observation?"

She looked toward the window, eyes narrowing for a moment before she answered.

"Observation first," she said. "If someone really cleared that place and walked away with the planted core, I want to know exactly what kind of thing we are dealing with before we cut them open."

The figure bowed his head again, "understood."

She waved him off with two fingers, already turning away, "bring me a report the moment you find them," she said. "And if the idiots at the guild lied about the mission board again, kill the clerk too."

The figure blurred, then vanished without a sound.

Silence settled back into the room, but her mood had already gone bad.

"Whoever you are," she said quietly, "you had better not have wasted my core."

Shu went straight home after his report, carrying the two eggs the whole way and ignoring the stares people threw at him from a distance.

By the time his building came into view, his arms were sore, his shirt felt gross, and the only thing he wanted was to get inside, put everything down, and think in peace.

’No warnings so far,’ he thought, glancing at the corner of his vision while he walked up to the entrance. ’Good, that means nobody tried to get into my Domain while I was out.’

After everything that had happened in the dungeon, the idea of coming back to more nonsense was annoying enough to make his head hurt. Luckily, the system stayed quiet the whole trip back.

He stepped inside, pushed the door open with his shoulder, and carefully carried the eggs into the living room before setting them down one at a time.

"Nari?" he called, rolling one sore shoulder. "I am back."

For a few seconds, nothing happened, then light footsteps came from deeper in the apartment, soft and a little uneven. A moment later, Nari appeared at the edge of the hallway, rubbing one eye with the back of her hand.

Her hair was messy from sleep, and the shirt he had given her earlier hung so loose on her small frame that it nearly slipped off one shoulder. She blinked at him, still looking half asleep until her gaze finally focused.

"Mister Shu," she said softly, her voice small and drowsy.

He was about to answer when she lifted both arms a little and gave him the sleepiest little smile he had seen all day.

"Welcome back," she said in the cutest way possible, still half mumbling the words like she had only just woken up enough to say them.

He froze up for a second.

’Haha... that was unfairly cute,’ he thought, staring at her innocent smile while his tired brain stopped working for no good reason.

He cleared his throat and forced himself to act normal.

"You didn’t try to leave while I was gone, right?" he asked, setting the bat against the wall before glancing around the apartment. "Or open the door for anybody weird?"

She shook her head right away, "nope," she said, walking a little closer while rubbing her eye again. "You told me not to, so I stayed here."

That answer made him feel better, because with how dangerous this world was, him leaving a little girl alone all day had not exactly sat well in his chest. Still, hearing that she listened properly made things easier.

"Good," he said, nodding once. "Any noises or anything strange?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

She thought about it for a second, then shook her head again, "nothing strange happened, it was quiet all day," she said softly.

’Phew, looks like the Domain really held up fine while I was gone,’ he thought, glancing at the eggs for a second before looking back at her.

She followed his gaze and finally noticed the two huge eggs sitting in the living room, "Woah, mister Shu," she said, staring at them with wide eyes. "What are those?"

He looked at the eggs too and scratched the side of his face, "that’s a long story," he said. "I had a very weird day."

She kept staring for another second before her stomach suddenly made a quiet little sound. She froze up, then lowered her head a little, her face turning red from embarrassment.

He looked at her and laughed a little, "you must be very hungry," he said, walking towards the kitchen, "let’s make something delicious for you."

She followed him, smiling, "yay, I can’t wait!"