Pioneer Lord: I Have Conquering System

“Lord Levi, I need to go talk to Nanny Milan first. That way, you and Fatir can stay here temporarily without any worries,” Kemisi explained.

Levi waved his hand, telling him to hurry.

The Lord of High Cliff Castle wasn’t entirely without suspicion—for instance, that Kemisi might be going to tip someone off.

However, Kemisi hadn’t taken his sister with him. And to be honest, while this underground city had at least hundreds of thousands of residents, Levi didn’t consider them a threat in terms of martial strength.

Those Blood Warriors they revered looked intimidating enough, but the Lord’s intuition told him that a single Beastman Barbarian could take on at least ten of them.

Not to mention this was a Magicless World, with no insidious magic. Despite their large numbers, if it came to a real fight, they would just be throwing their lives away.

Such confidence could only come from strength!

Fatir and Kemini went inside to tidy up the rooms. After such a long day, they needed to sleep.

Meanwhile, the Lord, bored out of his mind, pulled out a bottle of honey as if performing a magic trick and beckoned to someone in the distance.

Although the adults were puzzled by the two strangers Kemisi had brought back, they didn’t ask much, mainly because they lacked the energy to bother. The children’s curiosity, however, was irrepressible. They hid in groups in the corners, poking their heads out to stare cautiously, their cat ears twitching adorably.

“Anyone who comes over and tells me their name gets some honey,” Levi said from under his hood, offering what he thought was his most amiable smile.

Honey is one of the most basic sweets, something no one is unfamiliar with. In a society with low productivity, such a natural, high-quality sweet treat was especially hard to refuse, but the children still hesitated.

Because even though they were young, they already knew how cruel the world was.

They had heard a rumor not long ago that a Little Snake-man had been lured out with a red earthworm and eaten.

“Whoever comes over first, I’ll give this whole thing to them.” The Lord smiled and raised the stakes. He opened the bottle, revealing the golden, incredibly tempting liquid inside. “The brave shall enjoy the richest fruits.”

Finally, a young Snake-man girl mustered her courage and slithered over from the group of children. A large, gray garment hung on her body, making her look emaciated. She lifted her young face, which was full of anticipation.

“You are brave, and you are a Pioneer, so you have the right to enjoy all of this.” Levi pushed the entire bottle of honey into her arms. The rich aroma of the honey wafted irresistibly into her nostrils.

“Mr. Cat-man, is this all mine?” the young Snake-man girl asked, looking up in disbelief.

“That’s right. It’s all yours now.” Levi touched the bright greasepaint on his face. ‘Looks like she mistook me for the Cat-man Kemisi mentioned.’

After getting an affirmative answer, she wiped her slightly dirty fingers on her clothes, dipped them into the bottle for a taste of honey, and immediately broke into a silly, contented grin. Then she closed the lid and hugged the bottle carefully to her chest.

“Why not have some more?” Levi asked.

“My mother has been bedridden for a long time, and I have a younger brother. If we’re careful with this honey, it’s sure to last a very, very long time.”

After she finished speaking, the young Snake-man girl gave him a sincere thank you and left happily.

Levi suddenly froze. He sighed, a complicated look in his eyes.

Fatir, who had come up behind him, saw a flicker of profound compassion in the Lord of High Cliff Castle’s eyes, and she couldn’t help but ask, “Levi, what are you thinking about?”

Levi glanced at Fatir, his expression turning calm as he asked a pointed question. “Fatir, if a Demon who committed heinous, bloody crimes had descendants, do you think those descendants should have to atone for the sins of their ancestors?”

“I don’t think it’s right to hold descendants accountable for the crimes of an individual,” Fatir replied after careful thought. “But that can’t be a universal rule. For example, the descendants of Abyss Demons can only be Demons, so they should all be exterminated.”

As the Saintess of the Holy Light Church, she had encountered many such questions from repentant believers or Priests who had lost their way. Although she didn’t fully understand it herself, as the Saintess, she had to act with unwavering conviction.

“Yeah, you certainly can’t generalize,” Levi said, shaking his head. He was reminded of certain people from his past life who were living quite comfortably.

Fatir looked at him. She knew Levi must have discovered something, or he wouldn’t be acting like this.

The face this Lord of High Cliff Castle showed the world was that of a scoundrel, one audacious enough to grope the Queen’s behind. But Fatir knew he was a perfect example of being both bold and meticulous; “a tiger pausing to smell a rose” was a phrase that might as well have been coined for him.

It was impossible to distinguish day from night in the Dungeon, but the Divine Servant Clan had their own unique way of telling time: they judged it by the brightness of the surrounding glowing mushrooms.

Therefore, when the glowing mushrooms gradually dimmed, it meant that dawn was breaking in the outside world.

Kemisi soon returned alone. The Lord didn’t ask what he had said, but the young Snake-man volunteered the information anyway, which made Levi see him in a better light.

The dwelling consisted of two simple rooms, each only about the size of a spare bedroom from his previous life, separated by a wide strip of cloth that served as a partition.

So, Fatir naturally ended up sleeping with the Snake-man girl, Kemini, while the slightly disappointed Lord had no choice but to squeeze in with Kemisi.

And on this night, some were destined for a sleepless night.

“Damn it, I’m not sleeping!” The Lord shot up from the floor, only to feel a chill run down his spine. He turned his head and saw a pair of snake eyes staring eerily at him in the darkness.

“You’re not sleeping either?” Levi asked calmly.

“After everything that happened today, who could sleep?” Kemisi muttered.

The events of this single day had been more eventful than everything that had happened in his past ten-odd years combined.

‘First, I met a Human Abomination, but instead of being killed, I was treated to a lavish meal. Then he saved me from those damned Rat-men…’

“Since neither of us can sleep, how about a game of cards?” The Lord hadn’t played with anyone in a long time and was itching for a game. It would be a good way to kill time.

Besides, gathering intelligence could wait a little longer. Like a magician, he produced a special, Otherworld-version deck of playing cards.

If one looked closely, they would see that the face cards were illustrated with the various leaders of High Cliff Castle, while the big joker was, of course, the Lord himself.

Levi was well aware of the importance of reputation, so there was no way he wouldn’t use such an obvious method to increase his fame.

Thanks to his method of coaxing everyone he met into playing, this simple and fun form of entertainment had already been popularized throughout the northern and southern territories by Fulina and Lily. It was said that it was even starting to catch on in Gonda City.

His one demand was that on these playing cards, the joker must bear his portrait. This, he called “intellectual property,” a way to show that he was the first to introduce this form of entertainment. Fulina and the others had no objections to this.

After he explained the rules to Kemisi in detail, the young Snake-man started to get interested. But just then, the cloth curtain serving as a partition was pulled aside. Fatir and Kemini were both staring with wide eyes.

“Levi, we want to play too.”

“Alas, the night is long, and sleep is far from my mind. I thought I was the only one who couldn’t sleep, but it turns out you couldn’t either,” the Lord said, shaking his head as he spouted a line no one else would understand. Then he patted the empty space next to him. “Come on, join us.”

Kemisi lifted the leaves covering the glowing mushroom, and the small room brightened a little.

In the dim light, the group sat in a circle and prepared to play cards.

Facing the curious and expectant group, Levi broke into a wicked grin. It had been a long time since he’d gotten to crush some newbies. ‘I need to come up with a fun twist for this.’