Lala seemed to pause in the conversation and Kotori stop talking as well, not wanting to interrupt the moment.

Lala had been talking about how long she had been in this world. Kotori watched as a singular tear trailed down her eye.

“Is everything alright?” She asked the girl in front of her

Lala quickly wiped the tear from her eye.

“It’s nothing, just a happy dream.” She said in a quiet voice, nearly a whisper.

“Was it really that happy? You were crying” Kotori said.

“It’s none of your business,” Lala said defensively.

Kotori shut up after that and another long pause passed.

Lala seemed to be thinking deeply about something and she didn't want to bother the girl

Finally, after a long period Lala, spoke again.

“Look, I know I’ve kept you here for a while, and I apologize, I was indulging myself with your company.”

Lala’s face seemed to soften.

“Despite what I’ve said, this is quite a fun world, I don’t mind what you do with it. If you want to be a demon queen go ahead, I’m sue the people of Eris would enjoy that” Lala seemed to chuckle a little at the thought.”

“Just indulge me a little more,” Lala said.

“Eh?” Kotori said. It seemed like Lala was asking her for a favor.

She outstretched her hand and a large crystal appeared in her hand.

“To be honest, I’ve taken a liking to you, at the very least enough you were quiet enough to let me rant. Tell me what you think this cystal is?” Lala asked holding out the crystal.

The crystal glowed and seemed to have something embedded inside it.

Kotori cautiously used [gourmet] to probe the nature of the crystal in front of her.

There was a dizzying amount of mana contain within the crystal, so much that Kotori wanted to eat it herself… It looked delicious. Still, Kotori didn’t know what the crystal was so she answered as honestly as possible

“I don’t know…” Kotori said slightly ashamed of herself

“This is a dungeon, well an artificial one at least” Lala said.

Kotori’s immediate reaction was to look with confusion. Her impression of dungeons was a large expanse of mana that created monsters the thing in front of her didn’t look anything like a dungeon she was aware off.

“I’m sure it is unlike any dungeon you’ve ever seen. This is still a dungeon despite appearance. The reason is simple, it collects mana” Lala explained.

“I see,” Kotori understood what Lala meant. Dungeons were simply places where mana tended to collect together. They were often seen in areas with a lot of life, but Kotori guess that if something could collect mana together on it’s on then it was possible that object could also be called a “dungeon”

Still, Kotori didn’t quite understand mana in natural dungeons collected simply due to proximity and large size, such a small crystal even though it was filled with mana shouldn’t be large enough to attract mana to it.

Lala seemed to guess Kotori’s thought process

“it doesn’t make sense right, well, remember what I told you about will? I’ve filled this crystal with the ‘will’ to collect mana”

“I see” Kotori said she suddenly realized something.

“Doesn’t that make this an infinite mana source” Kotori asked, if the crystal truly collected mana all on it’s own then that meant it would be able to function as a energy source and since it collected mana it would never run out. It was an engine and a battery all in one.

Lala nodded

Kotori suddenly realized that the object was incredible valuable, more valuable than any crystal the dragon at the bottom of the dungeon.

Kotori reached for the crystal assuming that Lala was going to grab it.

The instant her hand was about the grab the crystal it instantly shattered and the mana inside was immediately absorbed by Lala.

Lala wagged her fingers.

“Not so fast, I want you to do something for me first.”

“Eh? What do you want” Kotori said ready to do nearly anything to get her hands on the crystal that Lala could make.

“Get rid of the people trying to take down the platinum dragon” Lala said.

“Why?” It was Kotori’s immediate thought and she blurted it out on accident. Lala didn’t need the mana from the platinum dragon to live and there was no harm in letting the other candidates take it down.

“Because it makes me tired,” Lala said nonchalantly.

“Seriously!” Kotori nearly shouted.

Lala pouted slightly.

“Look, I’m not being lazy here, Making that dragon costs a lot of mana and if all three of those goons are gunning for I’ll be put in a world of hurt. I’ve been able to slow them down by winding the hallways but it’s a hassle to manage three parties at the same time and even worse they don’t give up!”

Kotori listen to Lala’s reasoning and although it made more sense after Lala explained herself, the point still stood.

Lala was being lazy and wanted Kotori to fix her problems.

“Just have Bartholomew deal with it!” Kotori said

“Sebastian takes care of me, how am I supposed to live if he spends a few days away,” Lala said

“Tch, fine I’ll do it” Kotori wanted to crystal more than she was worried about spoiling Lala.

“Why, thank you!” Lala said putting on an innocent smile

[This damn princess!] Kotori screamed internally.