Jake watched from afar as Dina effortlessly entered the Second Gate – again, brilliant name – and entered the residence of the Second Mistress. He purposefully waited a few minutes before he also made his way there.

Now, if waiting actually helped, Jake didn’t know. The ”people” in Minaga’s Labyrinth were not the smartest, but it was possible some of them could display some level of intelligence when it truly mattered. After all, the Demon Lord seemed like it wasn’t a complete moron.

Walking up to the gate, the two guards at the gate raised their hands to stop him.

”Halt, may I know why you wish to enter the residence of the Second Mistress?” he asked.

”I have something of utmost importance I must discuss with her,” Jake tried, seeing if that would help.

”Without an invitation, I sadly cannot allow you access,” the guard shook his head.

Should have seen that coming, Jake thought. Oh well, I guess I will have to head to a bar and get lucky or maybe sneak in when another visitor comes b-

”Excuse me,” the other guard said as he looked at Jake. ”Do you know a Courtesan by the name of Sylphie?”

Jake’s mouth opened wide for a second before he answered. ”Yes?”

”Ah, in that case, you are naturally welcome. We were informed by the Second Mistress that someone matching your description would come by,” the second guard said as he opened the gate.

”Thanks,” Jake said, still not sure what was going on. Sylphie? A Courtesan? How in the hell did that even…

If something happened to her… we are going full-on murderhobo,Jake told himself as he tried to restrain his bloodlust. Luckily, it didn’t look like he had to be worried. The second he went through the gate, a bird flew out of the primary residence in the room and landed on his head as she greeted him.

”Ree!” she said with excitement.

”Oh, you made a friend?” Jake said, a bit surprised.

”Ree,” Sylphie explained, making Jake nod. Inside the largest building in the room, he saw Dina sit opposite another woman as they looked to be discussing something. Sylphie had told him about how nice the Second Mistress was, but Jake naturally questioned that assessment if he went by the standards of any other natives of the labyrinth. Nevertheless, he knew he would have to go meet her and walked towards the house with Sylphie proudly standing on his head.

He was fully prepared for another conversation that was just him trying to find the right dialogue lines to get a proper response, which was why he was a bit surprised when he entered the room where Dina and this Second Mistress were talking. She was not behind a veil like the other Mistress but was sitting at a table with Dina and casually looked his way when he entered.

”You must be Jake; Sylphie told me a lot about you,” the Second Mistress smiled.

”Greetings, Second Mistress,” Jake said, nodding at her. She felt more animated than the other Mistress just from her change in tone as she spoke, and more than that, her level was a lot higher.

[Second Mistress – lvl 268]

As far as Jake could tell, she was also a human, but there was one other big difference. She gave off an actual aura of power, something the other Mistress had not, and the Sword Saint had also hinted at the other Mistresses all feeling weak. This Second Mistress did not.

”Please, no need for such formalities,” she waved him off. ”I heard you were the uncle of Sylphie here? Truly a wonderful niece you have.”

”Ree!” Sylphie protested atop his head.

”Oh, you are not his niece?” she asked, looking a bit confused. ”I thought he was your uncle?”

”Ree!”

”So, not your uncle… but he is still Uncle?”

”Ree,” Sylphie nodded, satisfied.

”I… am not entirely sure I get it, but on the other hand, I don’t feel like I should,” the Second Mistress chuckled as she looked at Jake again. ”Considering Sylphie’s power, am I right to assume you are strong too? If Dina is anything to go by… things around here may get very interesting.”

Okay… definitely not the usual NPC energy, Jake thought.

”I am not too shabby when it comes to combat, no,” Jake answered. ”None of us are.”

The Second Mistress nodded before looking in thought. ”When the Demon Lord returned, he was injured, which is part of the reason why they chose to seal off the castle. Are you people perhaps the cause of those injuries?”

Now Jake was really sure she was not a regular person of this labyrinth.

”What makes you think that?” Jake asked. ”We just arrived here in the city recently, and if we had fought the Demon Lord and were truly antagonistic, would it not have been discovered already?”

The Second Mistress sighed. ”I would not expect anyone here to ever notice anything. I am uncertain why it is like this, but the majority of those who live here just go through the motions, seemingly with little thought behind it.”

Jake raised an eyebrow. She seemed aware something was wrong with all the other people, but clearly not that she was within a dungeon. Which made him curious. ”Why do you think this is?”

”Who knows. Perhaps it is the influence of the Demonic Cult, perhaps the odd environment, or it could just be they have all given up on life. Ultimately, their catatonic states only help me achieve my goal.”

”And what is your goal?” Jake asked.

The Second Mistress did a double-take with Sylphie, who happily screeched before the woman spoke. ”To kill the Demon Lord and put an end to the Demonic Cult once and for all.”

Jake nodded as that was the expected answer. ”And to do that, you became a member of the Demonic Cult yourself to destroy them from within?”

Smiling, the Second Mistress returned his nod. ”You know, I am so used to talking with people who never truly question anything… today has indeed been refreshing. But yes, that is exactly what I did. My initial goal was only to kill the Prime Consort, who was the original summoner of the Demon Lord, but after the demon was freed, he will now have to die too. Along with all the Mistresses, if possible. In fact, I would love to burn this entire place to the ground, but I guess that would be going overboard.”

”Say, why do you want them dead that badly?” Jake questioned. She had way more emotion than anyone else Jake had seen besides maybe the Demon Lord and Minaga, and he clearly felt bloodlust bubble up as she spoke.

”I am not a big fan of sharing my personal history… but let’s just say that the Demonic Cult took all I had, and now I have dedicated all I am to make sure I take everything from them in return,” she said with determination.

Jake nodded, having a pretty good understanding of the situation on floor thirty-four by now.

So, to summarize all Jake had learned so far:

Two factions existed in the Demon Lord’s harem. One was ruled by the Prime Consort, who was afraid of being ousted and never really left her residency, while the other was ruled by the First Mistress, the prime candidate to become the new Prime Consort.

Then there was the Second Mistress, who was actually someone that only joined the Demonic Cult to put an end to it because of her tragic backstory. The common determined heroine. Her wish was not only to kill every single other Mistress but also the Prime Consort and Demon Lord. This Second Mistress was definitely the prime candidate for parties like theirs that specialized in combat.

However, these factions and the Second Mistress didn’t really have much power besides what they themselves wielded as individuals. They had some allied demonic cultists, but none were truly powerful. No, the most powerful faction was, by far, the Guards, ruled by a Guard Captain. He was the one who had kept order while the Demon Lord was absent. These guards were, as of this moment, not associated with any faction.

So, two factions, one standalone Mistress and a group of unaffiliated guards.

”If I may… how exactly did you plan on doing this?” Jake asked the Second Mistress. ”Don’t get me wrong, your level is high, and you are stronger than the other Mistresses based on what I have seen, but are you enough on your own?”

”I am not. While I have confidence against any of the Mistresses, I am uncertain I could defeat the Prime Consort, much less the Guard Captain or the Demon Lord,” she shook her head. ”The original plan was to get help from the Light’s Dawn, but the Demonic Cult managed to strike at them before they could properly gather their strength. Only the Knight of Light’s Dawn survived, but I heard he was slain by the Demon Lord recently… but now that you are here, I would love to offer an alliance, as I believe our interests align.”

”Hm,” Jake said, nodding as he looked deep in thought. Through the telepathic link, he quickly communicated what he had just talked about with the Second Mistress to hear their opinion.

”I say we go with her as it allows us to gain the most experience and end this floor sooner rather than later,” the Fallen King commented. ”Not fighting the Guard Captain would be a waste…”

The Sword Saint took a bit longer to answer but still responded. ”Ask her if killing the Mistresses is necessary to her route for completing this floor.”

”How important is it to kill all the other Mistresses?” Jake asked her.

”Hm… not extremely so, but the main problem is that any of them could potentially try to restart the Demonic Cult. As Mistresses, we are all trained in the art of summoning demons, including Demon Lords. If we can assure they will not do so, they don’t necessarily have to die as I have no grudges against them as individuals,” the Second Mistress answered.

”As long as we can assure they won’t go on a demon-summoning spree, it should be fine,” Jake informed the Sword Saint.

”In that case, we should ally with her. But give me time with the other Mistresses before making any big moves. A few days should be enough,”the old man answered.

”What exactly are you up to?” Jake asked, really confused about what he was doing.

”Negotiations, and let us just leave it at that,” the Sword Saint said. ”You four should instead try to focus on obtaining the three Secret Scrolls. One of them is held by the Prime Consort, and a second one is held by the Guard Captain, so they should only be a bit tricky to get. As for the final scroll… none of the Mistresses I have spoken to knew anything.”

”Alright,” Jake answered. He kind of wanted to ask what the Sword Saint had been doing before he contacted him… but did he really wanna know? Probably not.

”Do you have any more questions?” the Second Mistress asked.

”Would you happen to know anything about something called Secret Scrolls?” Jake asked.

The Second Mistress momentarily seemed taken aback but then sighed. ”I guess it is only expected you know of them. Yes, I know about them, and we will need them if we wish to battle the Demon Lord. There are three, and the problem is that while I know the Guard Captain and Prime Consort got one each, then I have no idea about the third.”

”Why would we need it to battle the Demon Lord?” Jake questioned. This was the first he had heard of that.

”While I am not certain exactly what these Secret Scrolls say, I do know they are related to the three artifacts of the Demon Lord within his castle. When the Demon Lord was sealed away, he was without three of his most powerful treasures, as these three are so powerful the Demon Lord can only use them under certain circumstances and while within his castle. I suspect these Secret Scrolls hold the method to ensuring the Demon Lord cannot use these treasures… because if not, then I have a difficult time seeing us ever defeating him,” the Second Mistress shook her head.

Her answer made Jake reconsider if they even needed or wanted to gather the Secret Scrolls. Assuming she was telling the truth, then did they even want to use these scrolls to weaken the Demon Lord? Probably not… oh well, they could gather them either way for the bonus points. Not like they had to use them.

Jake talked a bit more with the Second Mistress and consulted his party before they decided to let the Sword Saint and Fallen King do their thing while Jake began working on something he had a good feeling would come in handy: a special little poison.

Sure, Jake did have a lot of special poisons, but he wanted to make a variant of his Sleeping Night. Sleeping Night was currently still designed to be injected and not ingested, so he would have to make some minor changes to make sure it would work at full potency. Luckily, he had all the ingredients, and the Second Mistress graciously allowed them to stay in a guest house within her labyrinth room, letting Jake work in peace.

This was how the next four days went by. Sylphie and Dina did go out occasionally, but Jake stayed back and worked on his poison while he was sure the others were hard at work. They had update meetings here and there on how things were doing, with the Fallen King having now met and spoken to the Guard Captain quite a few times and was now some-fucking-how close to getting promoted to vice-captain.

As Jake was sitting and working on his poison on the fourth day, he was contacted by the Sword Saint as the old man gave an update to the group.

”I have made contact with all Mistresses so far besides the Second Mistress, and I believe I should be able to… let’s just say, neutralize them all. The only issue is the Prime Consort. My method of neutralization required me to get rather unfriendly with her, and she is aware of my existence by now. There is no way I will ever be allowed near her chambers,” the Sword Saint shared.

”The Guard Captain is also aware of you, and we are to keep an eye on you at all times,” the Fallen King added.

”Right. So, this means I cannot approach her directly, which may be a problem seeing as I have learned that even if the Prime Consort does not have the third Secret Scroll… she knows where it is,” the Sword Saint said.

”We will need to get to the Prime Consort then,” Jake said.

”Not we, Jake. You will have to get to the Prime Consort. Didn’t you say that was your original plan? To get to her fast.”

”Well, sure, but I am still working on the poison,”Jake answered.

”I am not saying you should kill her. I am saying you should learn the location of the third Secret Scroll from her while potentially obtaining the scroll she has on hand,” the Sword Saint said.

”Alright, alright,” Jake relented. ”But how do you see me gaining an audience with her? Based on the Mistress I spoke to, I will have to do some things to assist her first. Can we maybe use one of the Mistresses you talked to and say I have convinced her to join the Prime Consort? Maybe the Second Mistress is up for it…”

”Jake, you are overthinking this,” the old man said in a semi-admonishing tone. ”You have something she already wants, don’t you? The Prime Consort cares about power and influence through her faction, and you can offer her something that will give her both.”¨

”And… what is that?” Jake asked, getting a feeling he really wouldn’t like this.

”You know already. Be honest withyourself, Jake, do you really think she will say no to the chance of passing down such a powerful Bloodline?”

Yep, Jake didn’t like this.