Heartwarming / Delicious in Dungeon

"For all these years, I've wanted to taste this soup again! Thank ye all... Thank ye..."

Spoilers are unmarked.

---

• Chapter 1:
  • Falin's Heroic Sacrifice to save Laios and then all of her team in Chapter 1. She literally pushes Laios out of the way of the Red Dragon's jaws, getting caught herself in the process, then teleports all of the team out of the dungeon to save them. Which means they wouldn't be around to rescue and resurrect her. Falin was willing to give her own life to save her brother and their friends.
  • Laios tries to get Marcille and Chilchuck to leave the guild so he can go after Falin alone. He even says it's all his fault she was lost and so they shouldn't worry about going. But Marcille and Chilchuck flat out refuse to leave. They want to help save Falin no matter how dangerous it is.
• Chapter 2:
  • After seeing how gloomy Marcille is at the thought of eating monster again, Laios asks her what she'd like to eat and promises to do his best to get it no matter what. It doesn't comfort Marcille much, since it would still be monster food, but it was still a sweet gesture.
• Chapter 5:
  • Senshi and Chilchuck beginning to mutually respect each other's skills. Chilchuck even offers to teach Senshi about traps, which is a big deal considering how much he hates others interfering with his work, because Senshi gave him a cooking lesson.
• Chapter 11:
  • In a flashback, Falin saying she'd rather repel the spirits than blast them. They reform later so hitting them with offensive magic just makes them suffer needlessly. Even to enemy monsters, Falin is kind.
  • Later she gets a spirit to leave the body it was possessing by hugging it and asking it gently to go.
• Chapter 12:
  • When Laios goes into a living painting, he sees moments from the lives of the royal family, before the Golden Kingdom sunk. The first is Delgal's birth, with the previous king and his wife besides themselves with joy over their little boy.
  • The second scene Laios sees gives more of an impression of Delgal's character; At his wedding day, Laios accidentally lands on the prince's table. While the servants are furious and tell him off, Delgal himself just smiles and doesn't mind. It's his wedding day, after all, and Laios was merely celebrating.
• Chapter 13:
  • While the party's taking a long rest, Chilchuck wakes up Marcille to tell her he's getting up for water, and she's very groggy. Later, trapped in a room with a Mimic, he wonders if she'll notice he hasn't come back and concludes that she won't, she'll have gone back to sleep. She does in fact notice and rouse the party, though they only arrive after Chilchuck has managed to escape the room and kill the Mimic himself.
  • Chilchuck finally telling the rest of Team Touden his age, showing he's opening up to them more and more.
• Chapter 14:
  • Marcille and Laios running up to hug Senshi after Marcille's water walking spell works. Both of them are so happy they'll be able to keep travelling with him.
  • Afterwards, Senshi admits walking on water feels pretty good and thanks Marcille for helping him do it.
• Chapter 17:
  • Laios telling Marcille how much happier Falin's letters to him became after she and Marcille became friends. From the look on Marcille's face, it's obvious she's deeply touched.
• Chapter 19:
  • Just how worried Mr. Tansu gets about Kiki. He's pretty blasé about Namari dying, but as soon as Kiki is in trouble, he's frantic. It is revealed in Ryoko Kui's artbook that Mr. and Mrs. Tansu adopted Kiki and Kaka and raised the pair as their own after they were abandoned by their biological parents.
  • Namari telling Laios not to risk his life because revival magic is unreliable. Laios tells her not to worry because he's not relying on magic, he's relying on her and Senshi.
• Chapter 20:
  • Marcille begging Namari to rejoin Team Touden and help rescue Falin. She even promises to scrape together Namari's fee out of her own pocket if that's what it takes. Marcille is so dedicated to getting Falin back that she'll even plead with someone she considers a traitor and obviously dislikes for "abandoning" them in the first place.
  • Chilchuk gives Namari absolutely no grief about leaving the team, even pointing out that it would damage her reputation if she just kept switching sides for money. While the reasoning is mostly pragmatic, it's still nice to see him considering what effects the situation could have on her.
  • Mr. Tansu telling Namari to "go for a walk", code for letting her go help Team Touden. It's of no benefit to him, but he still lets her do it because it's obviously important to her.
  • Marcille hugging Namari after she and Senshi catch the undine together.
  • All the company sitting down to dinner together, followed by Mr. Tansu telling Namari she can stay if that's what she wants. Namari replies that she's with Team Tansu not because of the money, but because she wants to be with them.
  • Namari telling Team Touden to make it back safely and Marcille thanking her and shaking her hand. It's clear that she still cares about her old teammates even if she can't go back to them right now.
• Chapter 22:
  • Kiki and Kaka go with Namari to a resurrection center to see if Falin's body turned up. When the unidentified corpse turns out to not be hers, Namari sighs in relief, and the guy behind the counter says he hopes she's found. Later, at a tavern, Namari warns Kiki and Kaka not to rely on the Tansus so much. Kiki asks how old Namari is, because if something happens to her, it'd be a problem if she didn't know how old Namari is.
  • Namari lets Kiki and Kaka take as much food as they want, saying it's their day out and implying that lunch is on her. It's a nice gesture, and it implies that she likes them a lot.
• Chapter 23:
  • Laios thanking Senshi, Chilchuck and Marcille for sticking with him this long. He tells them he couldn't have come this far if they weren't with him.
• Chapter 25:
  • Chilchuck rushing out to rescue Senshi from under the Red Dragon's foot. He even grabs Senshi's mithril knife and stabs the beast in the eye! This after continually insisting he will not help fight the Red Dragon. In the end, Chilchuck proves himself wrong and risks his own life to save his friends.
• Chapter 27:
  • When Falin is brought back, the first thing she does is call for Laios. Cue him grabbing her in a tight hug.
  • When Marcille wakes up and sees Falin is alive, she breaks down in tears and pretty much throws herself at her.
  • The chapter ends with Falin's stomach grumbling and the rest of the party smiling at each other and promising to cook a meal for her. Awww.
• Chapter 28:
  • Just how happy Marcille is to have Falin back. She's happier than she's ever been in the whole series up to this point. When Falin worries about all the trouble she's caused them, Marcille insists that everything they went through is worth it so long as they have her back.
  • Laios hugging Falin for all he's worth and making her promise never to put herself in danger like that again.
• Chapter 30:
  • Senshi saying he wants to make sure he can give Falin a proper meal when they find her again. He has faith they'll find her again and, when they do, he wants to take care of her the way he does the rest of the team.
  • Heck, just the fact that Senshi is sticking around to help them find Falin again is pretty sweet. Considering he'd initially joined the party because he wanted to cook the Red Dragon, he could've left after they did, but he genuinely wants to help Laios get his sister back.
• Chapter 31:
  • The very first panel is this with Laios, Chilchuck and Senshi in the middle of a group hug after they agree to head back to the surface to regroup. Chilchuck again admitting he doesn't want to lose his friends.
  • Just how dedicated Senshi is to making sure everyone is eating well and getting the nutrients they need is really touching, especially when he starts becoming a Papa Wolf and refuses to abandon any of the "young ones" (even though Chilchuck is very much an adult for one of his race), particularly since he hasn't known the others for very long.
• Chapter 38:
  • Shuro giving Laios the bell so he and the rest of Team Touden will one day have a way to escape to the East if need be. He may have been disgusted by their actions, but Shuro still cares about his former party members.
• Chapter 41:
  • Senshi offering to cook for Izutsumi, even though at that point she was their enemy. He admits to himself that he just can't bear to see any "young ones" go hungry.
• Chapter 42
  • After dozens of chapters of Marcille looking like she hasn't slept in a decade and about ready to fall over from overexertion, Marcille finally gets some good rest and happy dreams, and ends up looking even better than brand new. It's the brightest she's smiled in the entire manga up to that point.
  • The last two panels of the chapter are Laios admitting he doesn't care how Marcille saw him in her dream as long as she had a good night's sleep, and an image of dream!Marcille hugging dream!Laios's dog form.
  • The fact that the resolution to Marcille's dream consists of her, Laios' dog form and her doll (the stand-in for Falin) going on a hunt for treasure could be seen as her subconscious reflecting her deep friendship with the siblings and how she enjoys adventuring with them. There's also how the doll only starts moving after the nightmare turns into a good dream, and the "treasure" being the Lunatic Magician's tome could indicate Marcille getting over some of her guilt about what happened to Falin and finding renewed resolution to save her by getting said tome.
• Chapter 43:
  • Chilchuck repairing a backpack for Izutsumi and apologizing for antagonizing her earlier. Shortly afterwards, she thanks Senshi for the food along with the rest of the group.
• Chapter 49:
  • Chilchuk opening up a bit more and telling everyone more of his backstory. Of course, it quickly turns funny when everyone is shocked that he has a kid, but it's still nice that he was the one to come forward in order to make Senshi more comfortable with sharing his past.
  • One that's both heartwarming and tearjerking: Laios is determined to replicate the soup Senshi mentioned after the dwarf reveals his backstory. He finally gets the proper kind of meat for it, and Senshi breaks down in tears of relief when he realizes that he didn't eat what he thought he did.
  • The chapter ends with everyone giving Senshi a group hug. Awww...
• Chapter 62:
  • Kabru and Mithrun's dynamic. While in the previous chapter Kabru took the order to tend to Mithrun's needs with a mix of stress and exasperation, over the course of the week they spend stuck together he starts taking the task seriously and seems to get invested in the process. It only takes three days for him to start wishing he could feed Mithrun something better than what they can scrounge in the dungeon. He carefully bundles Mithrun up to rest, keeps him fed, and goes so far as to massage his feet to get him to sleep instead of just using a spell to knock him out. It's refreshing to see his perceptive skills put to compassionate use looking after someone with a pretty profound disability.
  • On Mithrun's part, the Captain doesn't hesitate to treat Kabru more-or-less as an ally from day one, saving him from danger, listening to his input and answering what questions he has along the way. By the time they're found by the rest of the Canaries, one of his squad mates remarks that he seems to be looking unusually healthy. He's a difficult person to read, but his grin when he chooses to go deeper into the dungeon with Kabru instead of leaving when the chance arose suggests gratitude rather than pragmatism was his motivation.
• Chapter 76
  • Kabru not only defends Laios from Lycion's attack, but also attempts to persuade him and his group from leaving by attempting to explain his reasons for hating the dungeon in an uncharacteristically awkward way. When Laios attempts to leave anyway, Kabru is worried that Laios could become an enemy of humanity, and thus would have to be killed by him, which he doesn't want. He tells Laios that he just wanted to be friends with him. Laios is skeptical, but Kabru (after punching him) admits that he went through a lot of trouble to get close to Laios's group, saying that he wanted Laios to develop an interest in people as well. Laios leaves anyway, but promises to bring Marcille back so they can all have a meal at a restaurant on the surface together.
• Chapter 78
  • Flamela orders everyone to make preparations to defeat Laios, arguing that since a Dungeon Lord always goes mad, it's just a matter of time before Laios starts unleashing monstrous horrors on the world. The first people to speak up in his defense? The orcs, saying they won't let the Canaries lay a finger on Laios or any of his companions. The second group to speak up in his defense? The adventurers the group rescued in Chapter 3, who bring up how they cooked the basilisk to perfection.
  • Kiki reminds Mr. Tansu of how Laios's group helped them despite the lack of any obvious reward for them, then asks Shuro and Namari what they think of Laios. Namari says that he's a great guy, and even Shuro (who admitted to disliking him) agrees. The two of them discuss the unlikeliness of Laios doing anything to the Canaries and decide...
  Namari: We're not gonna do a damn thing you say!
• Chapter 91:
  • A moment in hindsight is when Laios tells the Winged Lion to be free to go where it pleases, and not be tethered to humanity anymore, does the cosmic force curse him for stripping his desire away. Making it clear, the entity loved how flawed humans were. Eternity meant nothing, and felt empty, to the demon if it couldn't share in Earthly passions with people anymore.
• In Chapter 93:
  • Laios has gone missing in the midst of the Winged Lion's defeat. Several of his friends are angry about this, with Chilchuck admitting that he won't be satisfied until he punches him. At the end of the chapter, Chilchuck kicks him toward Namari, Shuro and Kabru, who are rushing toward them. The last panel shows Shuro hugging him. Chapter 94 shows the hug in context with the bonus of Namari ruffling his hair.
• Chapter 94:
  • The Canaries and Kabru coaxing Mithrun into developing new desires to replace the ones he lost, giving him the will to live again. When Mithrun admits that he wasn't driven by vengeance but by his frustration that he wasn't finished off by the Lion (likening it to being the unwanted leftovers on someone's plate), Senshi offers accidental words of wisdom, thinking they were only talking about wasting leftover vegetables. It's at that when Mirthurn laughs for the first time in a very long while, showing that he is on the road to healing.
• Chapter 95:
  • Izutsumi doesn't know what she wants to do with her life now and begrudgingly accepts that she's unlikely to find the mage who cursed her to be a beastkin, so she meanders around seeing what the party will do. Laios does not want to be king but recognizes that it would help a lot of people. Senshi is looking forwards to some alone time; he misses solitude, though he likes the party and advises Izutsumi on her eating habits, and she decides she wants some of the pie he's making even if it does have vegetables. Chilchuck had been considering retirement but is stepping into a bit of a leadership role himself, wanting to take care of his fellow half-foots whose livelihoods had depended on the dungeon.
  • Back in the villagers' part of the dungeon, monsters were pacified by Thistle's prohibition on them harming humans. These included wargs and Izutsumi. Laios, as we see later, is cursed to have monsters fear and avoid him by a wide margin, but somehow this doesn't include wargs and Izutsumi this time. Izutsumi talks to him like normal and wargs come up to Chilchuck while he's preparing intestines, and he hand-feeds them like they're the gentlest dogs.
• Chapter 97:
  • Even if nobody in the group believes that rescuing Falin is Laios's biggest desire, Marcille still tries to console him in case Falin's resurrection fails, Lion's curse or not.
  • As Falin dreams about regaining her body, the once massive dragon holding her down becomes an adorable little creature she takes with her as a companion. She later shares part of the miniature chimera meat with it.
  • During her dream, she also encounters the Winged Lion, who despite having every reason to throw a wrench in the resurrection process, decides to guide Falin along instead. His words does show he still has empathy towards living beings:
    Winged Lion: [Returning to life] certainly seems to be the more painful and cruel path to me... But, well... It's no concern of mine. Go on.
  • The first thing Falin sees upon waking up is Marcille passed out by her bedside. Upon seeing she's up, Laios leaps into her for a hug, startling Marcille, culminating in both sandwiching her with hugs. When she opens the door, everyone's revealed to be listening in to see if she's alright.
  • Falin sees her legs are still covered in feathers thanks to the small part of the dragon's soul remaining inside her. Rather than be horrified at the sight of this, Falin is instead amazed and actually elated to see her chimera legs.
  • The tapestries representing Laios' reign show that even after becoming king, his friends are still there with him. Marcille stays by his side as a court magician, and even Kabru is present when Laios tries out new foods for the populace, even if he is pissed off.
  • The mere fact that despite his insecurity and self doubt, Laios actually became a competent and well loved king, and spent much of his rule researching ways to make food production easier and more efficient. The last scene is him teaching beastkin children the importance of food, as he walks with them through the farmlands overlooking the castle.
• World Guide:
  • The guide includes Senshi's journal. Apparently, despite his misgivings about Marcille, when she was Taken for Granite he worried that she was awake and immobile and told her stories.
    • His misgivings about Marcille included a fair degree of Fantastic Racism towards her that he mainly kept to himself in the manga proper. When everyone was transformed by changelings, he felt that he was the same but noticed the others treating him worse, regarding his general aloofness as "putting on airs". Realizing that he'd regarded Marcille the same way, he vows to do better.
    • His entry on the hippogriffs has him thank Laios for finally solving a mystery that has plagued him for decades and being able to taste hippogriff soup again, with the page stained with tear marks.
• Extras:
  • One is a flashback to Laios' childhood, around the time when Falin was born. His father and mother are initially surprised by little Laios' lack of reaction to the newborn, but the reader can quickly see they had nothing to worry about — Laios proceeds to toddle around the house and farm telling all of his family's animals about his new little sister.
  • When Marcille becomes the Lord of the Dungeon, the Winged Lion immediately eats her desire to take care of her hair and it rapidly becomes very unkempt. In one of the post-climax chapters, after this has been pointed out to her she's surprised and decides that since it's a pain to keep it out of her face, if no one's going to manage it for her she'll just have to chop it all off - she doesn't retain enough of this aspect of herself to even want to use a ponytail. In all later-set images of her, from the tapestries to other omakes, her hair is braided, if often more messily than she would have braided it herself once. Her friends are taking care of her.