Vol 3: Chapter 47
* Muge *
「Kuu~~ I had to meet a year’s worth of visitors just today…」
Muge, the owner of the company, stretched his body at the table. A cup was then placed in front of him. A fruity scent wafted in the air, so it was probably juice.
It was already dark outside, but still humid inside—as if the heat of the day was trapped inside.
「Oh, thank you. Non-san.」
「Don’t mention it. You looked tired, after all. Let me apply【Healing Magic】. It would relax your body.」
「Dear me! I’m so happy.」
「Ufufu. This is also part of the escort duty.」
「You shouldn’t include conditions that make you work more! Hahaha!」
While laughing, Muge picked up the cup and drank the juice. The cold drink, not too sweet, relieved the fatigue of the day. Non went around behind Muge and placed her hands on his shoulders. When she subsequently applied【Healing Magic】, Muge felt like the fatigue gradually unraveled. It’s similar to when Japanese people soak in hot springs and they say, “Ah~~ I feel like I just came back to life~~!”
「Ah~~」
A similar sound escaped Muge’s mouth.
「Oh, by the way, what about Dante-san?」
「My dad went out when I came back and substituted for him.」
As Non said so sighing, Muge guessed Dante might have gone out to the bar.
Although Dante is a man who can get along with anyone beyond the boundaries of race, there was information that some of the adventurer parties accompanying the capture of Labyrinth of Hatred, Labyrinth of Insanity, and Labyrinth of Sympathy were returning to the city, so there is also the aspect that he went to the bar to exchange information with his fellow adventurers.
Though, of course, alcohol was probably the number one reason he went there.
「How many companies visited today?」
「Let me see… I think there were more than 20 groups. I haven’t really counted them.」
「That’s a lot.」
「It just speaks to the value of the loot brought back by Silver Balance. Ahahahah…」
All of today’s visitors were those who wished to purchase the sorcery/engine parts and materials brought back from the Labyrinth of Fear.
After hearing out all of them exhaustively, Muge was at the point of just giving it all away.
Since he had to welcome visitors during the day, Muge only gets free time at night.
「I have to stay up all night and examine today as well! It’s no laughing matter if I don’t have an understanding of the product I’m selling. Ahahahah.」
「Please don’t overdo it, Muge-san. I will take a rest first, so please let me know immediately if anything happens.」
「Okay. Thank you! ……Ah, I just remembered. Where is Reiji-san?」
「Reiji-kun? I haven’t seen him, either… Do you need something from him?」
「Oh no, that’s alright. It’s not a big deal.」
After Non left, Muge had been organizing documents for a while, but Reiji suddenly popped into his mind. Actually, when Muge entrusted Neko-chan to Reiji, it had some parts which needed repairing. And Reiji seems to have fixed those parts in the labyrinth. So, if Reiji was familiar with magic tools, Muge wondered if he could get his help to analyze the loot.
「Reiji-saaan…」
Muge went to the warehouse rented to the adventurer party and entered the men’s room. But neither Reiji nor Dante could be found there.
「Is Reiji-san playing outside till so late at night?…Nn?」
Muge suddenly noticed a paper on the table.
It was a copy of the lithograph that Reiji saw in the Labyrinth of Fear.
「Hmm? I wonder if this was written by Reiji-san… Let’s see what’s written. Ughh… this language is so difficult. Umm…『In the beginning, there was one world, and it was divided into 2』…?」
As he read through the contents of the paper, Muge’s hand trembled.
The first picture is of two women with their backs to each other—『In the beginning, the world was 1 and was divided into 2.』
In the second picture, 8 circles were arranged at equal intervals, and since there were 2 sets, it was 16 circles in total—『Shared between the 2 worlds, skill orbs must never be skewed to one side.』
Next is a man who goes through a door—『The Great Warlock crossed over worlds.』
「『The Great Warlock』… If I remember correctly, La-Fisa, the one who created “Labyrinth of 9 Emotion” called himself that. La Fisa crossed over worlds. Crossed over worlds. Crossed over… worlds? La-Fisa was a human from another world…?」
Next is a worried man.
Next is 9 doors.
Next is 9 doors which seemed to be open.
In the last picture, the first two women faced each other this time, and their extended hands were touching.
「S-Shouldn’t I investigate this properly!? This is from the Labyrinth of Fear, right!?」
Muge rushed out of the room. He woke up Non, who was about to sleep, and Mimino, who was already sleeping. Zerry wasn’t there.
While talking about the gravity of this memo left by Reiji, the three people pulled out a simplified version of the ancient language dictionary stored in Muge’s main building to decipher the contents.
** Labyrinth of Fear **
A specialized research team in charge of studying the “Labyrinth of 9 Emotions” was conducting investigation in the innermost part of the Labyrinth of Fear. The room was located beyond the made-in-bad taste “Death Mask Wall”, and the most important thing being investigated was the stone monument.
「Hmm, this stone monument seems to provide information about sorcery.」
「It seems incomplete. I feel that only fragmentary information is given.」
「Is that so? I feel that I just lack the ability to understand these words.」
The team of more than 10 people were repeatedly exchanging comments in the small room.
「Ah, uh… I think it would be better to hear the story of the adventurers who captured this labyrinth?」
The youngest male researcher, with a teenage boy’s voice, said.
「You idiot. There is no point in hearing the opinions of amateurs.」
「There’s no way humans can comprehend the magnificent sorcery formula in here.」
「Continue surveying rather than wasting time thinking about that.」
His opinion wasn’t even considered.
「Y-Yes…」
Carrying the surveying tools, the researcher crawled out of the small room on all fours. Behind him, the researchers were having another discussion in front of the stone monument.
「I know that we haven’t really deciphered this sorcery formula, but let’s try executing some actions.」
「Do you mean to try it out and confirm it empirically?」
「Yes, that’s right. Until now, we haven’t really had a labyrinth collapse or anything doing that, right?」
「Hmm, you do have a point…」
When the young researcher got out of the narrow passage, he could hardly hear the voices in the room anymore. The researcher looked up at the “Death Mask Wall” in a creeped out manner, and shook his head.
「Let’s get back to work…」
In the moment when he was about to carry on his work with the surveying tools–
GOGOGOGOGO!!!!
Subterranean rumblings shook the entire labyrinth.
「!? W-What is this …」
The rumbling of the earth stopped immediately, and nothing happened after that. A senior researcher asked him, “Oi, did you feel the tremors out there too!?”, but that was about it.
They were unaware since they were inside the labyrinth.
The major incident that shook the Empire was brought about by themselves.
