“Henrietta, this is not the right thing to do,” I said. “Please, at least allow them to explain themselves.”

“She can explain herself in the next life!”

Clueless as to how to stop Henrietta. I pushed her off balance. This had the opposite effect that I intended. For she let out a small grunt, and instead of dropping her spear, she launched it forward, missing her target by a mere inch. Henrietta instead hit the cold stone at the entrance of the cave, breaking her spear. She then fell on her butt with the force of her own momentum. Her hands flapping as she fell.

Whoever was inside of the cave took her chance and began to blast us with [Ice Magic] as she made her way out.

“See!” Henrietta said.

Henrietta immediately jumped back on her feet, evading all the attacks, and summoning an ice dagger of her own.

As Henrietta did so, a demon girl emerged from the cave and the two demons began to stare down at each other.

Henrietta responded by spitting on the floor.

“That is no way to welcome your sister!” The other demon said.

“I don’t recall giving you permission to hunt on my property,” Henrietta responded.

“Well. It is only natural that I, being a stronger demon, do as I please,”

“But would you still be the stronger demon if I peal your skin off with this dagger?” Henrietta said, as she waved her ice weapon.

“What makes you think you have a chance? Maybe you end up as a tree decoration after I impale you with a hundred ice thorns.”

I was in the middle of getting an anxiety attack and found myself unable to help Henrietta.

However, the fight ended without any bloodshed, for after a few more minutes of posturing and a few ‘fufufu’ laughs, Henrietta introduced me to her sister, Eris.

“Don’t be nervous,” Henrietta said. “Eris is a very nice demon.”

I did not sense any hint of irony or deception in her words.

Even though the two of them were on the verge of murdering each other just a couple of minutes ago.

“You don’t smell like an elf,” Eris said.

“Well. Do I look like an elf to you?” I asked.

Eris glared at Henrietta.

“She is also not a witch,” Henrietta said.

“Let me see your ears,” Eris said.

“Sure?” I said.

I showed her my ears, and at first she thought it was some form of illusion magic, because she casted [Dispel Magic]. But when my ears remained unchanged, she took a step back and glared at Henrietta once again.

“Not an elf, and not a witch. Then what? A Human? But how? I thought those were very rare,” Eris said.

“How do you know I am not a witch?” I asked. For that, she just took Henrietta’s word. Despite not believing us when I said I was not an elf.

“That is simple,” Eris said.

“Explain.”

“There are only four witches. I have seen them all,” Eris said. “And you are not one of them. So explain, where do you come from?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

This baffled Eris.

“She is not lying,” Henrietta said. Then, without even attempting to whisper, she said that humans had horrible memory and sometimes despite their high intellect could be very stupid.

“Thank you….” I responded right before hitting Henrietta on the head.

“What a nice friendship the two of you have. But will it be enough to stop the goblins from destroying your dungeon?” Eris asked.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

Henrietta looked just as confused.

“Ah, so I suppose my little sister didn’t know. How could she? She has been trying to form a dungeon core for almost two hundred years.

But she never got to the part where she actually had to protect the dungeon from outsiders.”

Henrietta only grunted. But said nothing. It seems that Eris spoke the truth.

Maybe Henrietta did not know. But given my experiences in my previous life, I was aware of systems such as this.

“When will these dungeon invasions start?” I asked.

“They already started, of course,” Eris said. “I am the first one. Intercepting you in the cave was a mere distraction while the attack happens on your core.”

“What?!” I shouted.

Henrietta just bitterly stood still.

“Do not take it the wrong way. It is merely tradition for an older sister to take care of her little sisters. If she can’t defend her dungeon from my minions. Then she has no way of defending the dungeon against a goblin invasion, and we can’t allow a dungeon to fall to a bunch of green skins, can we? No. If Henrietta is unable to defend her Dungeon core, then it would be best if she returned home and served as my floor guardian until her skills went higher up,” Eris said.

“Why do you demons have to be so horrible to each other!?” I shouted. But Henrietta pulled me by the hand.

“We don’t have time for this. Let’s go!” Henrietta said.

As we sprinted out, back into our dungeon. Eris only stood still and laughed. She had no intention of stopping us. Perhaps she thought that it was already too late for us to make it in time.

If that was the case. She was wrong.
_____________________________________________
Upon arriving at Henrietta’s dungeon. The first floor looked like it had been stormed.

There were dead minions on the floor. It was hard to tell if they were sentient or not. For they looked like pawns taken straight from a chessboard, except that they had legs and arms and were at least half a meter tall.

Judging by the color of the pawns. It was not hard to deduct that the black pieces were ours. And that Eris pieces were white.

“Why, if the pieces are all the same? Why are ours getting pushed back!?” I asked.

“Because we don’t have floor guardians, of course,” Henrietta answered.

As we spoke, a new wave of pawns began to encircle us.

“How about our minions?” I asked. “No… Don’t tell me they are being held back further down the line,”

It was an obvious answer.

“Go straight to the core. I will hold the waves back,” Henrietta said, as she impaled a few pawns with her ice spears.

[+20 Shared EXP] Appeared on my screen.

“Fine. But don’t get yourself killed!”

I rushed down the stairs and made my way through most of the 2nd floor, only to be stopped by a detachment of pawns, accompanied by what seemed like a bishop.

Seven against one? Fine! I pulled a sword out of my inventory and cut down one of the pieces.

Despite not being living things, a purple like liquid bled down onto the floor.

The bishop piece raised his hands, and suddenly the pawn was back up without a scratch.

“Crap!”