With one deep breath, cold fresh air cleansed away my lungs. Gone was the lingering smell of lavender, which had stuck to my nostrils since we left The Witch’s hut.

At last I could pay more attention to the murderous rabbits that seemed to watch us from every corner. Why were they not attacking us?

Henrietta did not seem bothered by this. Instead, she seemed to be more interested in the red potion that I carried on my hands. She kept peeking back and forth, with no attempt at being subtle. Perhaps this was the best time to see if there was an inventory system.

“System, Open my inventory. System. Inventory, Open! Inventory.”

It was not working. Both Henrietta and Elvin looked at me as if I was weird.

“00^^ [] 00 ^ [] ^00 []” Henrietta said.

Did she just call me dumb?

Perhaps the system does not respond to voice commands. If that is the case, I have to try something else.

I closed my eyes and visualized a box. Then I imagined myself putting my items inside of it. My hands immediately felt lighter.

[Inventory slots left; 1]

When I opened my eyes, both the dictionary and the potion were gone.

“See Elvin, I am a genius.”

I kept playing with my inventory until I got comfortable doing so. By the time we were out of the forest, I could easily move items in and out of my inventory.

Once we were back into the symmetrical ruins of the city, I was able to read through the dictionary without fear of tripping on a tree root. The book was relatively short, consisting of only fifty pages at best. But when I was done, a notification appeared.

[You have learned demon-speak.]

Should I tell Henrietta I can understand her now? Keep it a secret felt wrong.

“Henrietta,” I said.

She did not respond. Instead, she just froze. Did she understand me?

“Hey, can you tell me everything you know about this city?” I asked.

Still acting dazed like an animal that was about to be hit by a car, she did not respond.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. Her face turned red. She was so embarrassed. I got embarrassed too. Henrietta pushed me away and recovered her aura of indifference.

“The city, as you call it, was destroyed during the fall of man. From what my father told me, the eagle and the dragon went to war. By dawn, no one had survived.”

“When was this?” I asked.

“A long time ago,” she responded.

"Can you tell me about the witch?"

“You must not trust her,” Henrietta said.

“Why?”

“Witches only lie.”

“Why did you save me?” I asked.

“Who knows? I thought about cooking you, but maybe human meat is toxic.”

Her humor was pretty bad. Only Henrietta laughed.

Inside of the city, we stopped at the entrance of a dungeon. The entrance looked simple and small, and the stone used gave the impression that the dungeon was cheaply made from a mass produced design. Given that there were no ornaments, banners or flags. This particular dungeon was likely a low level one. I still have no idea how difficult levels work in this world, but with Henrietta here… Perhaps we could grind the first floor, or I can just munch EXP from her. Now I just need a weapon. Could I craft one?

Henrietta snapped her fingers loudly, interrupting my thoughts.

“At last, we have reached my world conquering dungeon. Feel free to praise me, human, I might even allow you to sleep inside,” Henrietta said.

Oh no, was Henrietta supposed to be the tutorial level boss?

A notification soon appeared on my screen.

[Henrietta is offering you citizenship in the Democratic People’s Principality of Henrietta.]

That name sounded like an oxymoron. How does a Democratic Monarchy even work?

“In fact, I might just allow you to be my head maid if you join me right now. This is a limited time opportunity and you should consider yourself lucky. The position just happens to be vacant right now, but I cannot guarantee that it will be vacant for long,” Henrietta continued.

“But make no mistake, I am not giving you special treatment,” she said. Wagging her finger. “Is not like I like you or anything like that, but if you were to get to that conclusion, I can’t blame you. After all, I am really charismatic and all,” she said, crossing her arms and making a ridiculous chuuni pose. It was full of arrogance and pride.

I had to strike back.

“Well, if you do not like me, I will have to decline,” I said, pausing for a second to allow her to reply. But she did not.

“The thought of being a burden to you and taking advantage of your hospitality is a thought that I do not wish to bear,” I continued. But she said nothing. Why was she not responding?

“I am sure you will soon find a more talented person to do the role of maid,” I said.

My stomach hurt. She was supposed to be taking the bait. Instead, she was making me sound like a horrible person. I wanted to speak no more.

Instead of ranting more, I turned my back to Henrietta and her dungeon, and I began to walk away, awkwardly.

Crap, what do I do now.

Before I walked too far away, someone hugged me from behind.

“Please, do not leave,” Henrietta said. “I can make you prime minister, or anything you want. Please.”

Her proud voice cracked.

I tried to break away from her hug. Just so I could talk to her face to face. But she refused to let go.

“No, do not turn back,” she said. She buried her face in my back.

“Fine, I will join your principality.”

“Democratic principality,” she said, putting an extra emphasis in the word Democratic.

“But you must treat me like an equal. I do not work for you.”

“Equal?”

“Yes,” I responded.

Henrietta took five minutes to respond. But she did not allow me free of her hug until she did.

“I do not understand what you meant by equal. Humans sure have weird ideas, but fine. I accept.”

Henrietta was never in a position to say no. It was almost as if she had forgotten that not long ago she was in tears and begging me to stay. She truly has a twisted view of the world.

“I guess that is close enough,” I said.

I closed my eyes and thought about her principality, about information. Related to it. Just as I had hoped, the system showed me information related to Henrietta’s little kingdom.

[Inhabitants: 1]

[Dungeon Level: 3]

[Time of creation: 5 years ago]

[Highest number of inhabitants: 1]

I let out a deep breath.

Henrietta poked me softly in the ribs. “What is taking you so long, just join!”

How could she be so demanding while being in such a hopelessly bad situation?

[Warning: Accepting might make some factions hostile towards you. This will also allow the faction to assign roles and tasks for you.]

How bad could it be…

I was immediately presented with a task…

[Henrietta has assigned you a new task; Rock Collection. Help Henrietta collect 30 rocks.]

“Huh,” Why does she even need rocks for. “Can you craft something with rocks?”

Henrietta looked at me as if I was dumb, but then smiled and grabbed me by the hand.

“At last, I shall show you something cool,” Henrietta said.

We made it to a part of the city which, by the looks of it, used to be the heart of the industrial sector in the area. Among the many ruined factories, there was one that looked like a dockyard. Odd, given that this city is landlocked.

There was a huge concentration of rocks all over the floor.

“Watch this,” Henrietta said. She grabbed two rocks and pressed them against each other. There was a small explosion of dust. But when Henrietta showed me her hands, she was holding a small, gray looking crystal.

“If we collect a million of these, I can build a dungeon core,” Henrietta said.

“Does your dungeon not have a core already?” I asked.

“Some asshole blew it up while I was out collecting berries,” Henrietta said. “I do not know who did it, but once I find them, I am going to murder them and make them into a pie!”

While little Henrietta went on a rant. I crouched on the floor and experimented with crystal crafting on my own. Every time I crafted a crystal out of rocks, the small dust explosion clogged my nostrils up.

Something was not adding up. If you could craft crystals out of rocks, then why were all the crystals gray?

I crafted five crystals; the result was the same. Gray, Gray, Gray. Dust, Dust, Dust.

My gamer knowledge was screaming at me; something is wrong! I had to try something else.

Without hesitation, I thought about different colors while holding two rocks. The result was the same. Gray, followed by an explosion of dust.

Then, an idea hit me. What if I add an extra item to the mix? The dust explosion could easily be what happens when the crafting criteria was not met.

Quick, what do I have at my disposal?

I pulled my red potion out of my inventory. Then with also two rocks in my hands. I closed my eyes and crafted a crystal.

There was no dust explosion this time.

When I looked at my hands, a red crystal reflected the sunlight.

Before I could brag, Henrietta jumped at me from behind and caught me by surprise. She reached for my hands, but the two of us fell to the ground.

“Where did you find this!” She asked. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.”

She was really loud. And grabbed the crystal like a greedy clown. “You know how much this crystal is worth!?”

“I have no idea,” I said, standing up and cleaning the dust from my clothes.

“This is the equivalent of a thousand gray ones!”

The sad part is that I only had one flask…