“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”
The warm sunlight of late morning filled one corner of the human base known as the inn town.
Beatrice sat motionless with her hands over her face. She did not know what to say to the others in her level cap group: White Witch Filinion who hid her body below a cape, a far-too-short dress, and shorts and Fighter Priest Armelina who wore a priest outfit with a bold slit up to above her hips.
The other two hesitantly spoke to the girl who had gone red to the ears and had steam rising from her head.
“U-ummm. Beatrice, we came all the way to Ground’s Nir. I know you experienced a pretty bad failure, but we can only stay here for a few days at a time, so can’t we make effective use of that time by getting to the Labyrinth?”
“If you can explain that failure to yourself, then it’ll be okay. No matter what you think on the surface, you’ve finished processing it deep down and have it stored away inside you. Don’t drag this along with you, Beatrice. We need to think about the future instead.”
She understood their point.
They could not see it now, but the Sage’s hidden plotting had to be continuing. And she would be doing more than enjoying this age on a whim. Whether or not she was Beatrice from the future, Beatrice needed the power to stop her if it came to that. That was not something that would just fall into her lap. Step 1 was the Labyrinth. Step 2 was the Labyrinth. Even if she had to sit out Steps 3 and 4, Step 5 was the Labyrinth. She had learned just how inexperienced she was in that previous battle, so she had to work toward earning a ton of Experience Points and learning new Magic.
“…I know that. I really, really do know that. But…”
“Isn’t sitting around only giving you more chance to remember that shameful memory of your own making? I feel like it will do less damage in the long run if you force yourself to keep moving at times like this.”
“I feel like that would turn her into something like a workaholic father who neglects his family. And if she relies on her combat skills to drive out her embarrassing memories, she’ll probably turn into a complete berserker.”
Beatrice sniffled, but it was true they only had so much time. And she did not know when she would run across the Sage again. When that time came, she did not want her own or someone else’s life to be lost due to a small moment of sloth.
“…So where should we begin? The trendy hunting ground at the moment is Ice Burn 72. To be blunt, that’s a bad Elemental match for me and my fire.”
“Oh, in that case.” The glasses girl clapped her hands in front of her large chest. “The rumors tend to fly right past you, Beatrice, but the inn town has recently gained a bar that gives you powerful and long-lasting Buffs. If you have trouble with ice, why not get some temporary Water Resistance?”
“I’m not going to forget how you slipped in an insult there, cow. But Buffs, huh?”
To use a more complicated term, Buffs were strengthening support Magic. They were used to increase one’s basic Stats such as HP, STR, and VIT and, as Filinion had pointed out, to fill in an Elemental Defense one had trouble with. The clothing Beatrice and the others wore while in Ground’s Nir was Status-reinforcing Magic taking the form of clothing, so receiving a small accessory would provide some kind of support. However…
“Wouldn’t you be afraid of a Buff from a complete stranger? It’s like reusing surgery tools or taking home a USB card you found in an internet café that anyone can use.”
“You never leave your birdcage, so what do you know about cafés, Beatrice?”
“Heh heh hehhh. As your White Witch recovery specialist, I’ll take that as a sign that the shy young lady trusts me with her body☆”
The teenage girl cowered down at that observation, pouted her lips, and tapped her index fingers together in front of her chest.
“Besides, even if this is another world where Japanese law doesn’t apply, I still don’t feel like drinking at my age. I don’t want to claim it’s a medical act as an excuse.”
“Oh, you don’t get the Buffs like that. I hear a ring made from Magic is dropped into the drink and you pull the ring out and put it on for the Buff.”
“So it’s like a fashionable and effective fortune cookie? Well, if that’s all it is.”
Since the Buff was reliant on someone else, they would not know how long it would last, the third party could intentionally cut off its effects at an inopportune time, and there was even a risk of it interfering with their Shining Weapon’s management terminal when using Magic. They could not be optimistic, but Beatrice was at least willing to check out the popular bar. And if things looked sketchy, she could simply take a peek inside and refuse any Buffs.
“So have you heard what percentage you get?”
“I’ve only heard incomplete rumors, but it’s apparently up to 10%.”
“That’s pretty incredible…”
An Elemental Defense of 100% would completely negate that Element, so 10% might not seem like much. However, it meant a lot to gain an instant boost without using any of your own Experience Points. The gears used as currency contained Experience Points, but it was faster to receive an Elemental Defense directly from an expert than to train yourself up from the beginning of the Magic tree diagram.
“Okay, Filinion, show us the way to this bar.”
“Yes, sir. To be honest, I’ve never been there so it takes guts to go there alone.”
“By the way, there are a lot of different kinds of bars. What does this one specialize in?”
“Heh heh heh heh heh. Meat!! They’re practically brimming with meat dishes!!”
“…I thought you said this was a bar. Why is this glasses cow so focused on the meat?”
That was probably how she (or rather, one part of her: the chest) had grown so big, but the two who had smaller meals (and breastplates) did not want to accept it.
“There used to be a lackluster pizza place there, but once word got out they were shutting down, it seems someone came and bought the place.”
“It can be hard to tell with how similar all the buildings look, but this is a pretty expensive district. If they had waited until the place was vacant, the bidding wars probably would have increased the cost considerably. Whoever it was must have good information sources. I smell a shrewd businessman.”
Every human involved in Ground’s Nir gathered in the inn town, so it was always crowded. The 3 of them passed by a great variety of people on the way to the bar.
“A lot more people are insisting on pajamas lately, aren’t they? It used to be that you didn’t want to take anything more into the Labyrinth than absolutely necessary, so everyone learned some barrier Magic to use like a sleeping bag.”
“That’s because sleep is directly related to the recovery of Willpower which is at the base of our Magic. If the goal is to efficiently recover as much of it as possible in as short a time as possible, it makes sense that people insist on tools for more comfortable sleep. And trendy Ice Burn 72 is especially cold, so you’ll really want some warm pajamas or a thick blanket, right?”
“I’m sure it’s just a temporary fad. And we really are simple if sleeping is enough for us to recover.”
The 3 of them continued walking while glancing over at the roadside stands selling fabric made from Ground Spider silk or Large Deceptive Silkworm cocoons as well as completed costume pajamas or negligees.
“Oh, I think it’s right around that corner there. It’s called Girl’s Grill and its excellent reputation for cute-looking dishes just keeps rising. The only downside is that it’s so popular so soon after opening that it isn’t easy to get a seat.”
“Filinion, you’re always full of information that has nothing to do with exploring the Labyrinth. Where do you get it all from?”
“Heh. Fashion is all about ignoring the practical and seeing how many pointless and inefficient things you can add in.”
A real college girl was mocking a real teenage girl, so Beatrice had no choice but to put her in a headlock.
“Ow, ow, ow! Beatr- my glasses, the sides of my glasses are digging into my temples!!”
“Then curse the karma that led you to be born with glasses, cow.”
“I wasn’t born with them! And it’s starting to become standard by this point, but the damage is building up as you call me a cow all the time!! Do you have any idea what’ll happen if this anger explodes!?”
“What a pain.”
“…They’re going to get even bigger?”
“Wait a second!! These aren’t bags of stress, you know!?”
At any rate, the Holy Swordswoman held onto the White Witch’s head as they rounded the corner.
“Welcome to Girl’s Grill! Will it be 4 of you?”
The voice of the waitress standing at the entrance reached them outside. It was a lively, lovely, and gentle voice that carried well but was not at all piercing. Beatrice was honestly impressed because that was not a technique she could emulate. However…
The Sage wore a cute, frilly waitress uniform with a beaming smile on her face.
It was so sudden.
She wore twintails that did not suit her alluring body in the slightest. The Holy Swordswoman was not at all mentally prepared for this sudden arrival of danger in an assumed safe zone, so her legs tangled up and she tripped quite spectacularly onto the stone-paved road.
The Sage had a heart-shaped cloth over her chest. The miniskirt and stockings accentuated the thighs visible between.
While lying face down, Beatrice raised her head and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Wha-…you-…wait just a minuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!!”
“Oh, dear. Are you okay, miss? Here, use this wet towel to wipe the dirt off of your face and body. And, um, will it be 3 of you?”
“What are you doing…? Why are you opening a bar here while walking around looking exactly like me!? We were in a real fight to the death over the truth of the Iberian Orc village, weren’t we!? Weren’t you the kind of person who arrogantly sits on her throne within the demon king’s castle in the deepest depths of the demon world full of rock and toxic swamps!?”
“Oh ho ho. Now, now, miss. Saying we look exactly alike is an exaggeration. There are differences. For example, chest size. Also? Chest size. And the one that’s like night and day? Chest size.”
“Do you want me to kill you right here and now!!!???”
“I was merely stating the truth. Now, miss, let me show you to your table.”
The way she responded with a perfect smile made Beatrice look like the villain.
The people around them did not know the truth and their eyes on her were painful.
“…Doesn’t anyone find it odd that there are two people here who look exactly alike?”
“Eh? But one look at our chests and-…”
Beatrice silenced the puzzled response by grinding her teeth. Was the Sage saying that alone made that much of a difference?
She just about called up her fire illusion Magic to draw out the frames and lines out of habit, but it was no use. She had no idea where to start with the connecting lines.
Beatrice looked up from the ground and glared at Filinion, but the glasses cow vigorously shook her head. She had apparently only heard rumors of the popular bar and had not known who exactly worked there.
“B-besides, I know there is a wide variety when it comes to waitress uniforms. And this maybe tricking you into thinking it’s a dress thanks to the headdress, corset, and decorative sleeves, but that’s no more than see-through red negligee, isn’t it!? You can just about see the black underwear below it! In fact, it’s bad enough that I can even tell it’s black!! And that’s my appearance you’re using!”
“I have no idea what you are talking about, but business is booming thanks to this.”
“Are you a living case of defamation!?”
“Pajamas are the in thing right now, so I thought it might be good to ride that wave.”
Beatrice did not quite understand that metaphor, but the customer floor was about the size of 2 school classrooms when counting both the counter and tables. There would also be a kitchen and food storeroom in the back. The cow had claimed the place was known for its meat dishes, but the interior design was somehow reminiscent of a ship. There was a ship’s wheel, a wooden life buoy, and other things on the wall. The lamps in the center of the round tables were reused ship lanterns.
“Did they reuse all of these materials? I feel like we saw some similar items on the Next Voyager grounded on the southern beach.”
“Stripping materials and furnishings from a ghost ship that houses a Vampire sounds like a good way of getting yourself into trouble…”
The Sage maintained her service industry smile and ignored Filinion and Armelina’s comments.
“Here is your table. I will be your server for today. Please look over these menus while you wait.”
They heard a hand bell ringing.
“Hurry! Bring out my extra order of meat!”
“How many shots of increased Water Resistance can you get again?”
“I think I’ll get a drink for STR, for INT, and…oh, for AGI and LUK too! I’ll take all the super attack Buffs!!”
“Yes, yes, just a moment!” cheerfully said the Sage as she moved over to that table. This was not just a one-shot gag to harass Beatrice. She really was working here.
“I-is she really working dressed like that…? Looking just like me is bad enough, but why does she have to be wearing a see-through negligee!?”
“Hmm, maybe it’s because of that old cliché with waitresses in a fantasy world. I mean, she does have a far larger chest than you, Beatrice.”
“?”
“Buff-B-…”
That was too much for Beatrice even as a joke, so she poked Filinion in the eyes with a gauntleted scissors. With the sound of thin glass breaking, the cow was left writhing on the floor with her hands over her face. This was not the glasses girl’s lucky day. Although the White Witch did bring it all onto herself. Beatrice ignored her and continued observing the bar.
The wooden building was not very large, but the dishes were only being carried out by 2 waitresses: the Sage who was in charge of the tables and another one at the counter. Beatrice’s group had filled the last of the empty seats, so it had to be difficult for just the 2 of them to run the entire bar. Even with a handwritten memo pad on their waist, it was impressive they did not get orders wrong all the time.
“Anyway, Ice Burn 72 is way too cold, so I need to warm up my body.”
“Yeah, that cold gets to you no matter what you wear, so it’s way worse than the Gimmicks or Traps. You can’t get a wink of sleep without any preparation, so you can’t recover your Willpower either.”
“It would be great if I could get 100% Water Resistance, but, well, as you get closer to 100%, the amount of necessary Experience Points rises like crazy in a quadratic curve, so that would be inefficient.”
Unlike the Sage, the other waitress was a girl with bodylines too thin to even call slender. She had her long blonde hair in twintails just like the Sage, she had blue eyes, and she had oddly pointed ears. The inn town generally refused anyone who was not human, but she might have been some kind of Elf.
“Sibyl-chaaan, mixing conflicting Elemental defenses won’t make them negate each other, will they? I want both water and fire, but is there some kind of fine print there?”
“Yes, yes, yes. You will gain both effects, but even if you double up with the same Element, the time remains unchanged: 24 hours only. Make sure to write the starting time on the back of your hand so the end of effects doesn’t catch you by surprise down in the Labyrinth.”
…Had someone used Magic to make herself look like an Elf, or did it not matter if someone was a Nonhuman if they were skilled and beautiful? Beatrice felt it was not fair that Boo Boo was so strictly rejected yet Sibyl was readily accepted as she carried out colorful drinks with a ring at the bottom of each glass.
“Hehh. I was expecting some crude local beer, but they have a decent variety. They also have gin, vodka, oh, and even whisky. The selection of cocktails looks good too. To brew it all in such a short time, I imagine they used one of the large Alchemy pots the distillers use, but I wonder what Ground’s Nir ingredients they used.”
Armelina seemed to be enjoying herself as she viewed the menu. She glanced over at some other customers who were stacking Gears up on the edge of their table to pay their bill.
“And they do a good job of getting customers in and out. The Buffs only last a limited time, so to make the most use of their effects, the people will want to get to the Labyrinth right away instead of sitting and chatting. That explains why they’re doing such good business. You won’t find many bars back in reality that get new customers in every 10 or 20 minutes.”
“Th-this is no time to be praising them. The Sage might be smiling out in public, but who’s doing the cooking in the back? I just hope half-rotten Disaster isn’t wearing a chef’s hat and waving a frying pan around.”
That was an amusing image, but it would be no laughing matter if it actually happened.
After all, the Sage had spent decades hiding in the shadows of history, but now she was boldly showing herself. She would not have done so on a whim. She had to have some kind of goal. And this change had been triggered by Beatrice’s group storming into the Sage’s hideout.
There was more to this.
This felt like the harbinger of a great disturbance.
The Sage had used the corpses of many Iberian Orcs to create Disaster as her pawn, so what kind of damage would she bring to the humans’ inn town?
“Hey, Filinion, Armelina. Do you think anyone would believe us if we said that was the Sage they’ve sought for so long?”
“Not a chance. They’d only doubt our sanity. She’s probably taking advantage of the fact that she’s stayed in hiding for so long.”
“When an art museum is transporting a famous painting, they apparently use a normal bike courier instead of putting together a largescale escort convoy. But this still requires a fair amount of guts in addition to meticulous calculations. She really understands how the world works and how to manipulate it.”
Eventually, the Sage returned to their table even though they had not rung the hand bell. Her skirt was so short it was right on the borderline of seeing her underwear and the way it swayed as she walked made it all the more risqué. She held a round tray to her belly and used it to lift up her large breasts while maintaining her perfect smile.
And this was the person with enough strength to wipe out the powerful Iberian Orcs in a single day.
“Are you ready to order?”
“Yes. We want to make an attack on Ice Burn 72, so I’ll take whatever Buffs you recommend in a nonalcoholic drink. I’ll also have some food that won’t interfere with the drink. I’m willing to spend about 5 Small Ruby Gears.”
Beatrice’s smooth request transformed the Sage’s smile into a wicked grin. That vague order might sound like a test of the waitress’s skill, but it contained a fatal flaw.
Without knowing the Holy Swordswoman’s Stats, the Sage could not provide the optimal Buffs to reinforce her strengths and make up for her weaknesses.
“Understood. Our clothing and decorations are Magic, so you can find yourself unable to equip an accessory if it requires more Willpower than you have. But the greater your Willpower capacity, the less likely that is to happen. I am sure you will be pleased with the results.”
Nevertheless, the Sage in the red negligee modified into a waitress uniform did not pause even for a second.
As if to announce she understood Beatrice more intimately than anyone else.
“Now, what would you 2 like?”
The Detached Magic Palace was a kilometer-wide green paradise cut out of Roppongi, Tokyo. Misoka, the middle sister of the 3 maids there, was dumbfounded.
“Obwabahoo…”
The girl in charge of the mansion had no idea.
Haruka, the adorable third sister and a nervous small animal of maid with glossy black hair worn short, would wildly strip off her apron dress the second her master was not looking. She would then don nothing more than a baggy track suit top over her naked body, lie on her bed with her legs innocently bared, and munch on potato chips (an economical family-sized bag of consommé flavor).
“Wh-wh-what do you think you’re doing!? It’s almost dinnertime!”
“You know, I don’t serve this black-hearted mansion built with a pool of tax money. I serve milady! I can’t work up any motivation without her around!! Sighhh… Whyyyy does she have to spend the night in Ground’s Nir again?”
“The lady is busy gathering the Pieces needed to revolutionize the world for the better, so it can’t be helped! She even injured herself in order to distort the completion of that room temperature superconductor that could have been used to create satellite-mounted large-caliber railguns…”
“I wasn’t asking for that kind of teacher’s pet answer! Now get lost!!”
“H-hey. You’re in charge of cooking today, so if you can’t get motivated, what are we supposed to do about dinner!?”
“I don’t care. You can just pick up a bento at the convenience store or get takeout at a gyudon place. You’re civilized people, aren’t you? Ugh, everything’s so boring when milady isn’t around.”
She lay face down on the bed, grabbed some chips, and drank cola directly from a bottle with no “diet” qualifier. She did not seem to care that her small butt was just about sticking out from below the track suit top or that the modest curves of her chest were almost visible through the neck.
She’s hopeless, thought Misoka in all seriousness.
If she was allowed to grow up like this, she could easily become a cook who got drunk in the kitchen. And if her course in life was to be corrected, now was the time. They had to strike while the iron was hot!!
“By the way, Haruka.”
“Whah ih iht, Onee-chan?”
“…I recorded this entire conversation on a digital recorder, but what kind of future do you think you will have if I let our sister hear it? A bright one???”
“Wait!?”
Haruka frantically got up as Misoka waved around the stick-shaped electronic device.
“It sure would be embarrassing to receive a serious spanking at your age. And we both know our sister really will do it. There’ll be a shine in her glasses and she’ll expressionlessly pull up your skirt, pull down your drawers, and count to 100.”
“I-I thought we had a private gentleman’s agreement behind the scenes! Surely you aren’t going to say that didn’t count because we didn’t actually sign a document! Right!? Right!?”
“If you understand, then go prepare dinner. You’re a maid, aren’t you?”
Misoka sounded exasperated, but she had not actually hit the digital recorder’s record button. She took their gentleman’s agreement seriously. She only wanted her little sister to get to work and to shake free of her laziness that was limited to when their master was not watching.
And after Misoka hardened her heart to act like a big sister, the oldest sister, Iroka, called in from outside the room.
“Misokaaa, you don’t seem to be working on the hallway flower arrangement like I asked. Should I assume you are shirking your duties? Oh, dear. Am I going to have to count out the spankings on my little sister’s butt at this age?”
“Wait, wait, wait, waaaiiiit!!!???”
It was an ominous sign.
But with no objective proof that this was the Sage and no idea how to actually fight her, grabbing her Shining Weapon rapier and randomly swinging it around would only make Beatrice the villain.
Establishing a popular bar and gathering favorable attention from across the inn town seemed to be one step in a larger plan. That bar was quickly becoming an indispensable pillar of the inn town. At this rate, attacking the waitress Sage could mean making an enemy of every human in the inn town.
But someone was entirely unaware of Beatrice’s worries.
“Boo, boo, boo.”
In the mountains dyed by the colors of sunset, Boo Boo the Iberian Orc was once more humming through his prized nose and spending the day in search of food. He wanted the power to protect Beatrice and the others he cared about from the threat of the Sage. Sutriona had put together a special training menu for him, but he could not abandon his daily life either. He was entirely self-sufficient, so he could not just use a convenience store or online supermarket. Neglecting that necessary cycle would only lead to death.
“Yeah, I managed to dig up this Steak Potato really well!!”
Boo Boo crouched down at the base of a thick tree and dug up the dark soil with both hands. He held something that looked like a thick tube. That king of vegetarian cooking tasted like fatty meat when sliced and cooked, but despite its great size, it was difficult to find and incredibly hard to pull up without breaking. That made this an important catch. Sutriona would be happy since she was eating with him more often due to the special training menu.
(Boo. When I find something tasty, she always smiles!)
And then…
“That is a good one, but it’s been in the ground for a little too long. Steak Potatoes that have started to sprout can be a little bitter, so you should lightly boil it before cooking to get the bitterness out.”
“…”
A gentle voice spoke to him without warning, so Boo Boo snapped his head in that direction. So many wild animals lurked in the mountain, but he had not at all noticed this person approach. Their presence was as fleeting as a ghost’s, so they were more frightening than a ferocious beast that cracked branches underfoot and knocked over trees in a rude approach.
The ghost wore red armor and a white miniskirt and her silver and red hair was long and straight. She leaned against a nearby tree and pointed at her feet.
Still smiling, she spoke like they were old friends.
“Why not grab some Cheerful Alraune while you’re at it? Throw that in the pot and it will suppress any unwanted odors while you boil out the bitterness. You’ve always been fine with bitter and spicy foods, but you were terrible with herbs and medicinal smells. Well, that might have more to do with your nose than your tongue.”
“The…Sage…?”
“Oh, c’mon, Boo Boo.”
She spoke in a gentle voice with the corners rounded off.
But before she finished speaking, she had already left the tree and entered within Boo Boo’s deadly range.
“Call me Beatrice. Just like old times.”
He did not have time to speak, much less fall back.
The red-armored Sage slowly raised a single index finger. She did not draw her Shining Weapon rapier and she did not clench her delicate hand into a fist. She only lightly touched the center of Boo Boo’s belly with her fingertip.
It was a kind action, like mischievously tickling a lover’s body.
Nevertheless, a great roar exploded through the mountains like a giant drumbeat. That mass of powerful muscles had outmatched even a 1000-meter dragon, but now he doubled over. A dreadful impact passed through his stomach and out his back, so he remained in place while the trees behind him were felled by an invisible wave passing in a straight line.
“Oh…”
He was not given a chance to resist or fight back.
He had been holding the Steak Potato like a stuffed animal or body pillow, but he dropped it, could not support himself with his legs, and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
“…Boo.”
As she watched the Iberian Orc slowly collapse, the Sage brushed her long hair back with a hand and gave a satisfied nod.
“You lasted 3 whole seconds? You have been training, Boo Boo. You were really manly☆”
With that, she kept her eyes facing forward but sent her left hand out to the side.
Her fingertips cut through the empty space like a bullet and lightly grabbed the torso of a palm-sized Fairy in a pink dress.
“Ah!?”
It was Boo Boo’s unauthorized roommate, Meridiana, and she was still confused even after being captured. And this was unusual. Fairies tended to be extremely shy because they were at the bottom of the food chain, so this short-haired Fairy would not normally fly within arm’s reach of someone else. It was like scooping up a small fish in your palm or snatching a small bird from a tree branch: they would just flit or flutter out of the way. The Fairies should have been another of those neighbors who were close but out of reach. And yet…
With the pink Fairy between her fingertips, a wicked look entered whoever-it-was’s smile.
If she squeezed just a little, she could probably crush the Fairy with ease, but she did not.
“I’m sure word will get out before long either way, but I’ll leave a message with you regardless: I am about to bring Boo Boo to Girl’s Grill in the inn town. You Fairies specialize in Craft techniques and can’t directly fight, so you can’t do anything about it yourself. Feel free to tell whoever you like.”
“…”
Why? How?
Meridiana’s eyes were filled with intense confusion and fear.
Boo Boo was her kind savior, but most of the humans despised the Iberian Orcs. Taking him to the human inn town was sure to cause chaos on a large scale. And that was bound to leave deep scars on his heart.
But the Sage used her empty hand’s thumb to point in a different direction. A short distance from the underbrush was a narrow road the humans had carelessly paved with stone. A cart sat there with a bundle of thick rope on top.
“Girl’s Grill is introducing a new dish,” she said. “Don’t you think everyone would gather around if we’re holding an experiment to see how many Experience Points you get from the meat of a 4-meter pig-faced giant?”
It was fully dusk by the time word reached Beatrice’s group.
They were lucky they had remained above ground to investigate the Sage instead of heading down into the Labyrinth as soon as they left Girl’s Grill.
“Goddamn her!! There really isn’t a single good thing about her!!”
“Calm down, Beatrice! Acting at random isn’t going to save Boo Boo!”
They had gathered at the brick house the Fairies had made for Boo Boo. Palm-sized Meridiana sniffled and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands over and over.
“Sniff, sob…”
But repeating the same action would accomplish nothing. Unless they could get Boo Boo back safely, those tears would keep flowing.
“I…I couldn’t do anything while Boo Boo was taken away. I watched as she placed him on the cart, tied him to it, and then started toward the inn town, but, but…wahhhhh!!”
“It isn’t your fault. In fact, you did a good job of restraining yourself. If you had forced yourself to stand up to her and gotten yourself killed, we wouldn’t have gotten this information.”
Armelina the police officer tried her best, but she failed to remove the heavy bonds squeezing at Meridiana’s heart. When faced with her savior’s crisis, she had done nothing, turned back, and become the very messenger their enemy had wanted her to be. Only she could know how much that scalded her soul. Every Nonhuman species had their own Skill, but those were not necessarily useful in combat.
Fairy Elder Morgan fluttered down in her orange dress and placed her hands on her sobbing brethren’s shoulders.
“Shed no more tears, Meridiana. You are in front of guests.”
“Sob, but…but…”
Seeing that tiny neighbor made Beatrice realize that she could never wipe away those tears without winning and bringing Boo Boo back.
Filinion, who was knowledgeable about the inn town’s rumors and trends, pushed up her glasses and spoke.
“People are already talking about a new dish at Girl’s Grill. It seems there was a small commotion when the cart carrying Boo Boo was taken to the back of the bar. The Sage apparently smiled and told everyone to look forward to it.”
“…I’m betting it’s essentially an alternative form for a public execution.” Sutriona sounded irritated as she stroked Meridiana’s head with a finger. “It makes me sick. I doubt your words can get through to the mastermind or the audience. That’s the kind of foolish human I’m more than willing to wipe out with my Sandstorm of Red Madness.”
“Phewww…”
Seeing someone else heat up must have actually helped her calm down because Beatrice breathed a long sigh. Then she spoke to change her focus.
“I would love that too, but wait. Wiping out the Sage along with the irresponsible onlookers would be fine, but we can’t have the Sage get desperate enough to hold a knife to Boo Boo’s defenseless throat. We have to hold off on a rampage until we’ve safely secured him.”
“You sound calm, but you haven’t calmed down at all! Let’s stop assuming the destruction of the inn town!! Oh, you tell her too, Armelina!!”
“Yeah, if it’s a hostage you need rescuing, leave it to a police officer like me.”
Armelina was also obsessed with maps, so she reached for the bold slit exposing her thigh, pulled out a parchment map of the inn town, and spread it out on the floor.
“Boo Boo was almost certainly brought into Girl’s Grill, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about the interior layout. And even if she’s provoking us, we can’t go marching in the front door to rescue him from the Sage. Not only do we know how much more powerful she is than us, that would also give her the opportunity she needs to hold a blade to his throat.”
“Then what are we supposed to do? We can’t just leave Boo Boo like this.”
“That’s why I’m hoping for your pure firepower since the blood is rushing to your head, Beatrice. You are the cornerstone of this rescue operation. Is that enough to get you motivated?” Armelina shrugged. “If we’re going to do this, the only way is to catch the Sage off guard. That means ignoring the front and back entrances and instead blowing a hole in the outer wall at just the right point to directly reach the room Boo Boo is trapped in. It would be best if the blast could also knock out the Sage and whoever else is inside, but I don’t know if we can expect that to work. After all, Beatrice claims she has every single Element completely covered, so you can’t get any damage on her.”
“But I thought we didn’t know the layout inside.”
“We don’t.”
Armelina pulled out another map.
They had visited Girl’s Grill earlier that day, but they had only seen the main hall and powder room that customers were allowed to visit. The food on the menu, the speed at which it was prepared, the kitchen door they had seen, and the chimney visible from outside the building could all be used to estimate the location and size of the kitchen, but there were still a lot of unknowns, such as the food storehouse and the living space for employees. The Labyrinth ran directly below everywhere in Ground’s Nir, so they could fortunately rule out the possibility of a deep basement structure.
“I’ve estimated the size of the unknown space based on the exterior of the bar, but we still need to fill in this map. Not to mention learning where the personnel are located and where Boo Boo is being held.”
“So we have to send someone into the bar?”
“The Sage of course already knows what Beatrice looks like and she must know that Filinion and I are with you. We were eating at the same table, after all.”
The lovely paradox who looked 10 gave a wink.
“So you need a guest she won’t recognize? Should I go?”
“That would be great, but you have no reason to go. Girl’s Grill is going to be preparing for their Boo Boo Butchering Show. At the very least, that’s what the people in the inn town will think. All sorts of onlookers are going to be visiting the rumored bar to catch a glimpse of poor Boo Boo. The bar can’t serve that many people, so all outsiders will be forbidden from going further inside. That means you can’t get that close as only a customer.”
“Then who would be best?”
Beatrice pouted her lips, called up her fire illusion Magic, and connected a few frames with lines: the loathsome Sage, Sibyl, captured Boo Boo, and Beatrice’s group who were planning to rescue him. But the frame for their undercover role was still empty.
Armelina winked as she answered.
“It has to be someone who sees Boo Boo as their enemy…no, who intensely hates him. The Sage has to be able to confirm that fact for herself. That will make it look natural for them to want to bargain for the chance to see Boo Boo butchered.”
“…?”
“Well, just leave the selection to me. …I really don’t want to let that beast out of her cage, but I guess it’s necessary.”
A knock came to the door.
Everyone looked in that direction, but Armelina alone did not look surprised. She had likely made the preparations already.
“Come in, Inoue. I’m guessing it wasn’t easy.”
“When I’m here, call me Huldra the cute Alchemist Cheerleader.”
With permission granted, the Boo Boo-sized door opened to reveal a small girl of only 145cm with a characteristic mole under the eye. Her long pink hair was worn in twintails that swept out to the left and right, she was dressed in nothing more than a white and pink tank top and miniskirt with some leather pouches and small liquid containers disguised as colorful jewels, and she wore sandals with thin straps on her feet. It was unclear what affect the pompoms she held had. But despite her short height, she had quite a chest. It was a very irritating body type. And it was made all the worse by the Magical effect that caused glowing stars and hearts to fly around whenever she moved even slightly.
Beatrice did not know her.
Armelina casually provided some information.
“Oh, she’s made to piss you off, so don’t worry about it. She uses Alchemically-created makeup to adjust her Hate values and draw the enemy’s attention. Her job is to use shiny but powerless effects to lure the target over.”
“Ugh. You mean she wears equipment that negatively affects her?”
“She even makes decoy recovery magic poses that are nothing more than motions.”
Clothing was only Magic taking that form, so it played a role in adjusting one’s Parameters. That meant a general scan of someone’s clothing could give you an estimate of their Parameters…and this girl certainly seemed uniquely focused. It was like she had prioritized vanity over direct offense or defense.
And Armelina’s main focus was apparently not her.
“Where is she? We need her.”
“I know that, but try to be careful, okay? Back in the real world, she’s already caused enough trouble during probation to get sent back to juvenile hall and then plotted six different jailbreaks. After faking an attempted suicide, she was sent to the police hospital, manipulated a nurse into sympathizing with her, and then started to half-brainwash the nurse to increase her number of pawns. We intervened when she was just about to bite off the right ear of the kind but foolish counselor who was trying to support her.”
Filinion trembled as she listened to that story.
“Wh-who in the world are you talking about? I don’t know anyone like that.”
“Oh, but you do. We know her all too well.”
Armelina asked to have her brought in, so Huldra stepped aside as if clearing the way.
A solid footstep sounded from the entrance.
“Ah.”
Beatrice’s mind went blank.
She had created a few frames and lines using her fire illusion Magic. This would fill the final frame: whoever would make an undercover visit to Girl’s Grill.
But this?
The color blue stood before her eyes. Long hair had its volume further increased as gorgeous ringlet curls and it decorated the cruel lady’s ample body to give it a princess’s silhouette. But her torso was not contained in a noble corset. Instead, she wore a single cross-shaped sword contained in its scabbard. The sword was held to her body by several belts and her only other clothing was the sharp ice armor around her hips that looked something like a swollen skirt.
She had fully specialized in the Water Element, making her the polar opposite of Beatrice and her specialization in the Fire Element.
She was the new battle arena queen and the ruler of absolute zero.
“Ice Waterfall Princess Wildefrau!?”
“Well, can you see why anyone would accept that I have a powerful grudge against that Iberian Orc and the rest of you? And I was even deployed by the so-called Conference Room in order to ingratiate them to the Sage.”
The cruel hunter hid her mouth behind a fan of ice and laughed wickedly.
“But at the same time, my higher ups were wiped out in the blink of an eye thanks to someone’s blitzkrieg tactics, so who knows if the Sage even received word of what happened to me. It happened right after I got back, so there was no real time for a report. Simply put, she has no way of knowing if I was captured or managed to escape.”
“…”
“So just relax and leave this to me. We are in this together, so let’s try to get along. Okay?”
“I’ve negotiated with my higher up to have your sentence halved if this goes well. The Minister of Justice can’t ignore something as crucial as the Sage’s identity, after all. But it’s all over if you betray us here. You won’t just be sent back to juvenile hall. You will die here before even being sent back to the real world. Do you understand, Wildefrau?”
On the way to the inn town, Armelina gave a clear and concise explanation.
The sexy Ice Waterfall Princess smiled and shrugged.
“These exceptional conditions are actually making me concerned. You must know how skilled I am with Magic, yet you haven’t taken away my Shining Weapon or bound my arms and legs.”
“Yes.” The Fighter Priest smiled. “But that’s because we know a way of sending you to the afterlife without having to restrain you.”
“N-now, now.”
White Witch Filinion cut in while spreading her hands to either side of her face. The corners of her mouth stiffened a bit, but she somehow managed to form a smile.
“We need to work together to save Boo Boo, right? Tripping each other up with this strained atmosphere isn’t going to increase our odds of success. Let’s let our past issues just be water under the bridge, okay?”
“…”
Wildefrau silently but surprisingly smoothly turned her head to face the fluffy blonde glasses girl.
She started by rhythmically clacking her front teeth together.
“Gahhh!!!???”
And then she roared.
Beatrice immediately grabbed Filinion’s shoulders and pulled her back just in time for Wildefrau’s teeth to mercilessly snap together in the space filled with flowing blonde hair.
Hadn’t Armelina said this person had very nearly bitten off the right ear of a kind but foolish counselor?
“Inoue!!” shouted Armelina.
“I’m Huldra while I’m here.”
A metallic sound followed that almost foolishly calm comment.
That was when Wildefrau finally stopped moving. At some point, a trio of long and sharp metal claws with curved tips had jutted out from both of the Alchemist Cheerleader’s pompoms. They stopped just before reaching the blue Ice Waterfall Princess’s throat.
Those pompoms were for more than just cutely hiding her mouth. They were a Shining Weapon.
“Do you understand now, Wildefrau? You are still in chains.”
The Ice Waterfall Princess’s eyes were focused less on Huldra’s claws themselves and more on the many Icons that appeared to wrap around her slender wrists.
“So it would seem. But if I know how long and thick the chains are, I can find a way around them. …Magic that does no damage but has a low chance of causing instant death? And have you forcibly increased the success rate using your Alchemy items? I see, I see, I see.”
It was Armelina’s turn to click her tongue.
For her, it would have been best to hold the prisoner in check without showing her hand. Suspicion and paranoia were the greatest chains. It had been necessary, but revealing this from the start still hurt.
Beatrice, Filinion, and Armelina were joined by twintailed Huldra and ringlet-curled Wildefrau. They arrived at the inn town as a fairly large group, but despite the major incident occurring within, the orange-dyed town looked the same as always. The pleasant smells of dinner preparations came from all over. Of course, a lot of customers would have made their way to Girl’s Grill, the bar where Boo Boo was rumored to be captured and confined.
As they approached the bar in question, they passed by a youth handing out parchment fliers that had likely been mass-produced using a letterpress printer.
“Extra, extraaaa! Girl’s Grill will supposedly be preparing a super-rare Iberian Orc while still alive!! This rare but ugly species hasn’t been seen much, so eating one for dinner is sure to earn plenty of Experience Points. Watching this butchering show is sure to be worth delaying a visit to the Labyrinth!!”
“…”
“Don’t glare, Beatrice. Act natural. If we can’t blend in, we have no chance of rescuing him.”
Before arriving too close to Girl’s Grill, Beatrice’s group of 3 parted ways with Huldra and Wildefrau. That monster being released into the wild was a frightening thought, but it would be a problem if the Sage or Sibyl saw the 5 of them together. If their connection to the Ice Waterfall Princess were revealed, they would lose their chance to infiltrate the bar.
“Welcome. Is it just the 2 of you? Then how about a counter seat?”
Hearing that familiar voice, Beatrice’s group left the main road, circled around the back way, and entered the building next to Girl’s Grill which would soon become a small battlefield.
“Bakeries are busiest from the middle of the night to the early morning. They mainly serve breakfast, lunch, and portable food for exploring the Labyrinth. They aren’t made to serve dinner, so they’ll let you have the place to yourself at this time of day if you pay enough Gears.”
“Fwehhh. Police officers really do things differently.”
“What did you say you were reserving the place for?”
“ ‘We don’t want to see our sales going up just because of some popular shop that appeared out of nowhere, right? We’re going to give them some trouble, so help us out.’ Anyone who agrees to that isn’t going to join the Sage anytime soon.”
Armelina spread out a few parchment maps on the closed-up bakery’s floor and began her preparations. In addition to the maps, she used Magic to open a midair frame made from thin, necklace-like chains and bubbles. It displayed an unsteady view of Huldra’s face.
“Hey, can you hear me, chief? I linked the video to Wildefrau’s vision.”
“Perfect. The reception is good, Inoue. If you’re ready, then get started.”
They used a short-range communication method developed for use in the Labyrinth. The range was quite limited and was affected by the thickness of obstacles like walls, so it was not always useful. Still, it was reliable at times like this.
Beatrice used her fire illusion Magic to call up her frames and lines as she listened to Armelina and Wildefrau.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“That Girl’s Grill receives large shipments of alcohol and herbs, but the food and drinks they actually serve aren’t enough to go through it all. That means this is camouflage to hide something behind the scenes. Say you’ve taken over their supplier and make it look like you’re trying to get in on the action.”
Basically, Armelina’s men had paid off and threatened the supplier to monopolize the inn town’s alcohol, so Wildefrau needed to act like their boss.
“And I use my revenge against that Iberian Orc to spice things up?”
“I’m glad you understand. I want you to get in there and fill in the grayed-out spaces on the map. Confirm the layout of rooms, the distribution of personnel, the material and thickness of the walls, and where Boo Boo is being confined. Try to build a rapport using the fact that you’re both up to no good.”
While counting off the list on her fingers, Armelina explained each condition in more detail.
It would all fall apart if Wildefrau screwed up, so they had to go at her pace.
“Also, you have Huldra to support you. She’s linked us so that anyone you look in the eye will appear on our map from then on. You need to aim for Boo Boo, the Elf, and anyone else you see going in or out.”
“Oh? But not the Sage herself?”
“Did you see the Screenshot?”
“Yes. Other than a slight difference in apparent age, they are identical. …To be honest, I still suspect you might be taking me for a ride.”
“It’s the truth. And make no mistake: Boo Boo is our top priority. And with the Sage’s knowledge of Magic, we’re assuming she can see through this. So even if you do find her, do not look her in the eye. Just act natural.”
Beatrice looked to the wall as she listened to that exchange.
Even with the small path between buildings, it was less than a meter to the inside of Girl’s Grill. That small distance felt like an infinite wall. She shuddered just thinking of Boo Boo laid out on a kitchen counter with a butcher’s knife pressing against his belly.
“Calm down, Beatrice.”
“But…”
“The new dish and the butcher show are probably just bluffs meant to draw in the people of the inn town. If what you said is accurate, then the Sage wants to fight some kind of monster deep below the ground. In that case, I can’t think of any reason for her to put any effort into this kind of show business.”
“But the inn town people think it’s happening. If Boo Boo struggles, breaks down a wall, and escapes, they won’t show any mercy. They’ll see it like a man-eating gator getting loose when it was supposed to be used as a rare ingredient. All of the level cap adventurers out there will be his enemy! The Sage is tormenting Boo Boo with her own Girl’s Grill and with the second barrier of people out there!!”
Beatrice was aware the blood was rising to her head as she spoke.
She was aware of it, but there was nothing she could do.
“And no matter why she did it, the Sage must need Boo Boo if she bothered to knock him out and carry him back to her base. Remember, we’re talking about that Sage! Whatever she’s trying to do, she’s the one who slaughtered the residents of the Iberian Orc village and gathered their corpses to create that monster she called Disaster!! Who even knows what kinds of awful things she’s going to do to Boo Boo!!”
“And that’s why we’re working so hard to stop her. Isn’t that right, Beatrice?”
Beatrice covered her face with her hands and White Witch Filinion gently touched her back.
This was Ground’s Nir, another world.
There were no laws and there was no document ensuring basic rights. It was an island of verbal promises. And even if those things did exist, a Nonhuman like Boo Boo might not be covered.
And that was why they had to do this.
If no one else was going to protect him, they would have to save him.
“Conversations” held under extreme conditions could have great psychological influence. It would not even need to reach the level of Stockholm syndrome. What would happen if he was left all alone in a kitchen prepared for use on him and the greatly powerful Sage continually whispered in his ear? A frightening voice, a kind voice, an angry voice, and a tearful voice could all be used as weapons to shake him psychologically.
The Sage had acquired Disaster through twisted methods.
And she knew Boo Boo’s past very well. She could fine-tune what she said specifically for him. It was like an external cyber-attack made by an engineer who already understood the internal vulnerabilities. It was possible she would use his likes and his trauma to destroy his personality.
Meaning she could attempt something akin to brainwashing.
(I won’t let her.)
Beatrice could imagine the empty shell of an Iberian Orc fighting as the Sage’s pawn until he rotted away and fell apart like Disaster had.
(I won’t let that happen to kind Boo Boo!!)
“…”
She removed her hands from her face and coldly faced the world once more. After a moment, she made an announcement in a horribly low voice.
Yes, she had made up her mind about everything.
“Let’s get started. …No matter what happens, we will rescue Boo Boo.”
Boo Boo awoke to the feeling of thick ropes scraping his skin. He blinked his eyes, but he had no recollection of how he had ended up like this. He saw a cold stone ceiling he did not recognize and his nose detected a metallic scent. The air felt stagnant, so he could tell he was enclosed inside something.
He was on top of a cart.
He tried moving, but the ropes were thicker and tougher than he thought. He had never seen vines this thick even in the forest.
“I used Ground Spider silk. I’ve heard of thin bulletproof equipment being made from spider silk, but maybe it’s just crass to talk about that after traveling all the way to another world.”
“…”
“Hi, Boo Bo. That took longer than I thought. Maybe I put off knocking you out a little too long.”
He heard a female voice. It was the Sage.
She did not wear the same red armor and miniskirt as Beatrice. Instead, she wore an odd outfit made by adding a corset and decorative sleeves to thin sleepwear to make it look vaguely waitress-y. Her flowing straight hair had been remade into twintails. Perhaps due to growing up from the girl form Boo Boo was used to, he was left with an entirely different impression.
She looked unfamiliar.
And even though it was clearly too large for a human to handle, she easily held a Shining Weapon that looked like log or steel beam. But that was hardly surprising when the Sage herself had been the one to leave Boo Boo with that weapon after sealing the slaughtered Iberian Orcs’ souls inside.
Casually swinging that down here would likely break restrained Boo Boo in half along with the cart below him.
He gulped, but the Sage shook her head.
After passing the Shining Weapon back and forth between her right and left hand, it gave a sudden roar and drew a flowing silver line in the air. The thick and seemingly unbreakable ropes were instantly severed. They were cut, not smashed and broken. This was the unbelievable technique of using weight and speed to “cut with a blunt weapon” that Disaster had demonstrated before. No, perhaps it was the Sage who had taught it to Disaster.
Not even Boo Boo could reproduce that extreme technique.
This was not complicated and confusing Magic. Just like when she had knocked him out with a single fingertip, the Sage was skilled enough to overpower an Iberian Orc using pure martial arts.
“Yes, it does have a lot of small scratches, but it’s still in extremely good condition. That shows just how well you took care of it, Boo Boo. As the one who gave it to you, I’m pleased to see that.”
She spoke like she was chopping up a fish to check on the sharpness of a knife. And yet that one attack had inarguably shown the difference in their skill.
“You can have it back. That weapon is like a part of your body, isn’t it? You must not be able to relax without it.”
She then casually handed the Shining Weapon to her prisoner. He finally got up from the cart with his head full of questions. He generally trusted what people said, but even he found plenty about the Sage’s actions he could not trust.
Returning the weapon was not a problem for her.
She was implicitly stating that she was 100% confidence in her ability to strike back without batting an eye even if he made a surprise attack with the Shining Weapon.
Boo Boo looked around. His heart may have naturally desired an exit. But there were no windows and he could not see outside. One wall contained a single human-sized door and another contained a set of double doors which was large enough for the cart to pass through. The wooden barrels and boxes lined up in a corner of the room suggested it was a storeroom, but that was not all.
In the center of the room was a hole large enough for Boo Boo to fit through. It formed a perfect circle. It was surrounded by oddly-shaped glass containers and several tubes extended into the hole from those.
Of course, everyone knew what slept below Ground’s Nir: the Labyrinth which irregularly changed shape like a living creature.
Only the humans ever went there and Boo Boo himself never would have if not for Beatrice’s invitation.
“What…are you doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing? This was not easy, let me tell you. When I calculated out the coordinates on the map, they turned out to be right in the middle of the inn town. And I needed an unnatural amount of alcohol and herbs to interfere with the Labyrinth. Thanks to that, I had to open a bar and pretend to be a waitress. Man is a real job ever hard. I’m impressed anyone can keep this up on a daily basis.”
The Sage dodged the question, but she did not seem intent on hiding it.
Since she had taken Boo Boo to the center of her secret, she was clearly enjoying showing it off. She was like a mother asking her small child to guess what was inside their birthday present. Or perhaps like a predatory woman luring a man into bed by lying there in nothing but some seductive nightwear that showed off her bodylines.
Yes, she was enjoying this conversation held under extreme conditions.
“You seem to be mistaken about something, so let me be clear: I am not trying to stop what you’re trying to do, Boo Boo. You just have to do what you want and I’ll do what I want. If it ultimately surrounds Ground’s Nir, the great foe that slumbers in the ground’s depths, then the more options we have, the better.”
“Ground’s…eh? But isn’t that what Beatrice and the others call…?”
“Yes, this must be terribly confusing. And that is why I invited you here.”
The Sage clapped her hands in front of her chest and smiled.
Then she made a suggestion.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have much time. The world is in a much, much graver situation than I thought. That is why I have changed my MO and stepped out into the open. There are more important things than hiding.”
“?”
Boo Boo honestly found this person frightening.
But it saddened him that she blurred together with a kind person from a distant memory: that person who had looked sad even while smiling.
“Let’s talk, Boo Boo. We should share what information we have. By eliminating what isn’t needed and avoiding duplicate efforts, we can more efficiently surround that monster. I am asking for your help in order to save everyone, Boo Boo.”
“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”
The warm sunlight of late morning filled one corner of the human base known as the inn town.
Beatrice sat motionless with her hands over her face. She did not know what to say to the others in her level cap group: White Witch Filinion who hid her body below a cape, a far-too-short dress, and shorts and Fighter Priest Armelina who wore a priest outfit with a bold slit up to above her hips.
The other two hesitantly spoke to the girl who had gone red to the ears and had steam rising from her head.
“U-ummm. Beatrice, we came all the way to Ground’s Nir. I know you experienced a pretty bad failure, but we can only stay here for a few days at a time, so can’t we make effective use of that time by getting to the Labyrinth?”
“If you can explain that failure to yourself, then it’ll be okay. No matter what you think on the surface, you’ve finished processing it deep down and have it stored away inside you. Don’t drag this along with you, Beatrice. We need to think about the future instead.”
She understood their point.
They could not see it now, but the Sage’s hidden plotting had to be continuing. And she would be doing more than enjoying this age on a whim. Whether or not she was Beatrice from the future, Beatrice needed the power to stop her if it came to that. That was not something that would just fall into her lap. Step 1 was the Labyrinth. Step 2 was the Labyrinth. Even if she had to sit out Steps 3 and 4, Step 5 was the Labyrinth. She had learned just how inexperienced she was in that previous battle, so she had to work toward earning a ton of Experience Points and learning new Magic.
“…I know that. I really, really do know that. But…”
“Isn’t sitting around only giving you more chance to remember that shameful memory of your own making? I feel like it will do less damage in the long run if you force yourself to keep moving at times like this.”
“I feel like that would turn her into something like a workaholic father who neglects his family. And if she relies on her combat skills to drive out her embarrassing memories, she’ll probably turn into a complete berserker.”
Beatrice sniffled, but it was true they only had so much time. And she did not know when she would run across the Sage again. When that time came, she did not want her own or someone else’s life to be lost due to a small moment of sloth.
“…So where should we begin? The trendy hunting ground at the moment is Ice Burn 72. To be blunt, that’s a bad Elemental match for me and my fire.”
“Oh, in that case.” The glasses girl clapped her hands in front of her large chest. “The rumors tend to fly right past you, Beatrice, but the inn town has recently gained a bar that gives you powerful and long-lasting Buffs. If you have trouble with ice, why not get some temporary Water Resistance?”
“I’m not going to forget how you slipped in an insult there, cow. But Buffs, huh?”
To use a more complicated term, Buffs were strengthening support Magic. They were used to increase one’s basic Stats such as HP, STR, and VIT and, as Filinion had pointed out, to fill in an Elemental Defense one had trouble with. The clothing Beatrice and the others wore while in Ground’s Nir was Status-reinforcing Magic taking the form of clothing, so receiving a small accessory would provide some kind of support. However…
“Wouldn’t you be afraid of a Buff from a complete stranger? It’s like reusing surgery tools or taking home a USB card you found in an internet café that anyone can use.”
“You never leave your birdcage, so what do you know about cafés, Beatrice?”
“Heh heh hehhh. As your White Witch recovery specialist, I’ll take that as a sign that the shy young lady trusts me with her body☆”
The teenage girl cowered down at that observation, pouted her lips, and tapped her index fingers together in front of her chest.
“Besides, even if this is another world where Japanese law doesn’t apply, I still don’t feel like drinking at my age. I don’t want to claim it’s a medical act as an excuse.”
“Oh, you don’t get the Buffs like that. I hear a ring made from Magic is dropped into the drink and you pull the ring out and put it on for the Buff.”
“So it’s like a fashionable and effective fortune cookie? Well, if that’s all it is.”
Since the Buff was reliant on someone else, they would not know how long it would last, the third party could intentionally cut off its effects at an inopportune time, and there was even a risk of it interfering with their Shining Weapon’s management terminal when using Magic. They could not be optimistic, but Beatrice was at least willing to check out the popular bar. And if things looked sketchy, she could simply take a peek inside and refuse any Buffs.
“So have you heard what percentage you get?”
“I’ve only heard incomplete rumors, but it’s apparently up to 10%.”
“That’s pretty incredible…”
An Elemental Defense of 100% would completely negate that Element, so 10% might not seem like much. However, it meant a lot to gain an instant boost without using any of your own Experience Points. The gears used as currency contained Experience Points, but it was faster to receive an Elemental Defense directly from an expert than to train yourself up from the beginning of the Magic tree diagram.
“Okay, Filinion, show us the way to this bar.”
“Yes, sir. To be honest, I’ve never been there so it takes guts to go there alone.”
“By the way, there are a lot of different kinds of bars. What does this one specialize in?”
“Heh heh heh heh heh. Meat!! They’re practically brimming with meat dishes!!”
“…I thought you said this was a bar. Why is this glasses cow so focused on the meat?”
That was probably how she (or rather, one part of her: the chest) had grown so big, but the two who had smaller meals (and breastplates) did not want to accept it.
“There used to be a lackluster pizza place there, but once word got out they were shutting down, it seems someone came and bought the place.”
“It can be hard to tell with how similar all the buildings look, but this is a pretty expensive district. If they had waited until the place was vacant, the bidding wars probably would have increased the cost considerably. Whoever it was must have good information sources. I smell a shrewd businessman.”
Every human involved in Ground’s Nir gathered in the inn town, so it was always crowded. The 3 of them passed by a great variety of people on the way to the bar.
“A lot more people are insisting on pajamas lately, aren’t they? It used to be that you didn’t want to take anything more into the Labyrinth than absolutely necessary, so everyone learned some barrier Magic to use like a sleeping bag.”
“That’s because sleep is directly related to the recovery of Willpower which is at the base of our Magic. If the goal is to efficiently recover as much of it as possible in as short a time as possible, it makes sense that people insist on tools for more comfortable sleep. And trendy Ice Burn 72 is especially cold, so you’ll really want some warm pajamas or a thick blanket, right?”
“I’m sure it’s just a temporary fad. And we really are simple if sleeping is enough for us to recover.”
The 3 of them continued walking while glancing over at the roadside stands selling fabric made from Ground Spider silk or Large Deceptive Silkworm cocoons as well as completed costume pajamas or negligees.
“Oh, I think it’s right around that corner there. It’s called Girl’s Grill and its excellent reputation for cute-looking dishes just keeps rising. The only downside is that it’s so popular so soon after opening that it isn’t easy to get a seat.”
“Filinion, you’re always full of information that has nothing to do with exploring the Labyrinth. Where do you get it all from?”
“Heh. Fashion is all about ignoring the practical and seeing how many pointless and inefficient things you can add in.”
A real college girl was mocking a real teenage girl, so Beatrice had no choice but to put her in a headlock.
“Ow, ow, ow! Beatr- my glasses, the sides of my glasses are digging into my temples!!”
“Then curse the karma that led you to be born with glasses, cow.”
“I wasn’t born with them! And it’s starting to become standard by this point, but the damage is building up as you call me a cow all the time!! Do you have any idea what’ll happen if this anger explodes!?”
“What a pain.”
“…They’re going to get even bigger?”
“Wait a second!! These aren’t bags of stress, you know!?”
At any rate, the Holy Swordswoman held onto the White Witch’s head as they rounded the corner.
“Welcome to Girl’s Grill! Will it be 4 of you?”
The voice of the waitress standing at the entrance reached them outside. It was a lively, lovely, and gentle voice that carried well but was not at all piercing. Beatrice was honestly impressed because that was not a technique she could emulate. However…
The Sage wore a cute, frilly waitress uniform with a beaming smile on her face.
It was so sudden.
She wore twintails that did not suit her alluring body in the slightest. The Holy Swordswoman was not at all mentally prepared for this sudden arrival of danger in an assumed safe zone, so her legs tangled up and she tripped quite spectacularly onto the stone-paved road.
The Sage had a heart-shaped cloth over her chest. The miniskirt and stockings accentuated the thighs visible between.
While lying face down, Beatrice raised her head and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Wha-…you-…wait just a minuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!!”
“Oh, dear. Are you okay, miss? Here, use this wet towel to wipe the dirt off of your face and body. And, um, will it be 3 of you?”
“What are you doing…? Why are you opening a bar here while walking around looking exactly like me!? We were in a real fight to the death over the truth of the Iberian Orc village, weren’t we!? Weren’t you the kind of person who arrogantly sits on her throne within the demon king’s castle in the deepest depths of the demon world full of rock and toxic swamps!?”
“Oh ho ho. Now, now, miss. Saying we look exactly alike is an exaggeration. There are differences. For example, chest size. Also? Chest size. And the one that’s like night and day? Chest size.”
“Do you want me to kill you right here and now!!!???”
“I was merely stating the truth. Now, miss, let me show you to your table.”
The way she responded with a perfect smile made Beatrice look like the villain.
The people around them did not know the truth and their eyes on her were painful.
“…Doesn’t anyone find it odd that there are two people here who look exactly alike?”
“Eh? But one look at our chests and-…”
Beatrice silenced the puzzled response by grinding her teeth. Was the Sage saying that alone made that much of a difference?
She just about called up her fire illusion Magic to draw out the frames and lines out of habit, but it was no use. She had no idea where to start with the connecting lines.
Beatrice looked up from the ground and glared at Filinion, but the glasses cow vigorously shook her head. She had apparently only heard rumors of the popular bar and had not known who exactly worked there.
“B-besides, I know there is a wide variety when it comes to waitress uniforms. And this maybe tricking you into thinking it’s a dress thanks to the headdress, corset, and decorative sleeves, but that’s no more than see-through red negligee, isn’t it!? You can just about see the black underwear below it! In fact, it’s bad enough that I can even tell it’s black!! And that’s my appearance you’re using!”
“I have no idea what you are talking about, but business is booming thanks to this.”
“Are you a living case of defamation!?”
“Pajamas are the in thing right now, so I thought it might be good to ride that wave.”
Beatrice did not quite understand that metaphor, but the customer floor was about the size of 2 school classrooms when counting both the counter and tables. There would also be a kitchen and food storeroom in the back. The cow had claimed the place was known for its meat dishes, but the interior design was somehow reminiscent of a ship. There was a ship’s wheel, a wooden life buoy, and other things on the wall. The lamps in the center of the round tables were reused ship lanterns.
“Did they reuse all of these materials? I feel like we saw some similar items on the Next Voyager grounded on the southern beach.”
“Stripping materials and furnishings from a ghost ship that houses a Vampire sounds like a good way of getting yourself into trouble…”
The Sage maintained her service industry smile and ignored Filinion and Armelina’s comments.
“Here is your table. I will be your server for today. Please look over these menus while you wait.”
They heard a hand bell ringing.
“Hurry! Bring out my extra order of meat!”
“How many shots of increased Water Resistance can you get again?”
“I think I’ll get a drink for STR, for INT, and…oh, for AGI and LUK too! I’ll take all the super attack Buffs!!”
“Yes, yes, just a moment!” cheerfully said the Sage as she moved over to that table. This was not just a one-shot gag to harass Beatrice. She really was working here.
“I-is she really working dressed like that…? Looking just like me is bad enough, but why does she have to be wearing a see-through negligee!?”
“Hmm, maybe it’s because of that old cliché with waitresses in a fantasy world. I mean, she does have a far larger chest than you, Beatrice.”
“?”
“Buff-B-…”
That was too much for Beatrice even as a joke, so she poked Filinion in the eyes with a gauntleted scissors. With the sound of thin glass breaking, the cow was left writhing on the floor with her hands over her face. This was not the glasses girl’s lucky day. Although the White Witch did bring it all onto herself. Beatrice ignored her and continued observing the bar.
The wooden building was not very large, but the dishes were only being carried out by 2 waitresses: the Sage who was in charge of the tables and another one at the counter. Beatrice’s group had filled the last of the empty seats, so it had to be difficult for just the 2 of them to run the entire bar. Even with a handwritten memo pad on their waist, it was impressive they did not get orders wrong all the time.
“Anyway, Ice Burn 72 is way too cold, so I need to warm up my body.”
“Yeah, that cold gets to you no matter what you wear, so it’s way worse than the Gimmicks or Traps. You can’t get a wink of sleep without any preparation, so you can’t recover your Willpower either.”
“It would be great if I could get 100% Water Resistance, but, well, as you get closer to 100%, the amount of necessary Experience Points rises like crazy in a quadratic curve, so that would be inefficient.”
Unlike the Sage, the other waitress was a girl with bodylines too thin to even call slender. She had her long blonde hair in twintails just like the Sage, she had blue eyes, and she had oddly pointed ears. The inn town generally refused anyone who was not human, but she might have been some kind of Elf.
“Sibyl-chaaan, mixing conflicting Elemental defenses won’t make them negate each other, will they? I want both water and fire, but is there some kind of fine print there?”
“Yes, yes, yes. You will gain both effects, but even if you double up with the same Element, the time remains unchanged: 24 hours only. Make sure to write the starting time on the back of your hand so the end of effects doesn’t catch you by surprise down in the Labyrinth.”
…Had someone used Magic to make herself look like an Elf, or did it not matter if someone was a Nonhuman if they were skilled and beautiful? Beatrice felt it was not fair that Boo Boo was so strictly rejected yet Sibyl was readily accepted as she carried out colorful drinks with a ring at the bottom of each glass.
“Hehh. I was expecting some crude local beer, but they have a decent variety. They also have gin, vodka, oh, and even whisky. The selection of cocktails looks good too. To brew it all in such a short time, I imagine they used one of the large Alchemy pots the distillers use, but I wonder what Ground’s Nir ingredients they used.”
Armelina seemed to be enjoying herself as she viewed the menu. She glanced over at some other customers who were stacking Gears up on the edge of their table to pay their bill.
“And they do a good job of getting customers in and out. The Buffs only last a limited time, so to make the most use of their effects, the people will want to get to the Labyrinth right away instead of sitting and chatting. That explains why they’re doing such good business. You won’t find many bars back in reality that get new customers in every 10 or 20 minutes.”
“Th-this is no time to be praising them. The Sage might be smiling out in public, but who’s doing the cooking in the back? I just hope half-rotten Disaster isn’t wearing a chef’s hat and waving a frying pan around.”
That was an amusing image, but it would be no laughing matter if it actually happened.
After all, the Sage had spent decades hiding in the shadows of history, but now she was boldly showing herself. She would not have done so on a whim. She had to have some kind of goal. And this change had been triggered by Beatrice’s group storming into the Sage’s hideout.
There was more to this.
This felt like the harbinger of a great disturbance.
The Sage had used the corpses of many Iberian Orcs to create Disaster as her pawn, so what kind of damage would she bring to the humans’ inn town?
“Hey, Filinion, Armelina. Do you think anyone would believe us if we said that was the Sage they’ve sought for so long?”
“Not a chance. They’d only doubt our sanity. She’s probably taking advantage of the fact that she’s stayed in hiding for so long.”
“When an art museum is transporting a famous painting, they apparently use a normal bike courier instead of putting together a largescale escort convoy. But this still requires a fair amount of guts in addition to meticulous calculations. She really understands how the world works and how to manipulate it.”
Eventually, the Sage returned to their table even though they had not rung the hand bell. Her skirt was so short it was right on the borderline of seeing her underwear and the way it swayed as she walked made it all the more risqué. She held a round tray to her belly and used it to lift up her large breasts while maintaining her perfect smile.
And this was the person with enough strength to wipe out the powerful Iberian Orcs in a single day.
“Are you ready to order?”
“Yes. We want to make an attack on Ice Burn 72, so I’ll take whatever Buffs you recommend in a nonalcoholic drink. I’ll also have some food that won’t interfere with the drink. I’m willing to spend about 5 Small Ruby Gears.”
Beatrice’s smooth request transformed the Sage’s smile into a wicked grin. That vague order might sound like a test of the waitress’s skill, but it contained a fatal flaw.
Without knowing the Holy Swordswoman’s Stats, the Sage could not provide the optimal Buffs to reinforce her strengths and make up for her weaknesses.
“Understood. Our clothing and decorations are Magic, so you can find yourself unable to equip an accessory if it requires more Willpower than you have. But the greater your Willpower capacity, the less likely that is to happen. I am sure you will be pleased with the results.”
Nevertheless, the Sage in the red negligee modified into a waitress uniform did not pause even for a second.
As if to announce she understood Beatrice more intimately than anyone else.
“Now, what would you 2 like?”
The Detached Magic Palace was a kilometer-wide green paradise cut out of Roppongi, Tokyo. Misoka, the middle sister of the 3 maids there, was dumbfounded.
“Obwabahoo…”
The girl in charge of the mansion had no idea.
Haruka, the adorable third sister and a nervous small animal of maid with glossy black hair worn short, would wildly strip off her apron dress the second her master was not looking. She would then don nothing more than a baggy track suit top over her naked body, lie on her bed with her legs innocently bared, and munch on potato chips (an economical family-sized bag of consommé flavor).
“Wh-wh-what do you think you’re doing!? It’s almost dinnertime!”
“You know, I don’t serve this black-hearted mansion built with a pool of tax money. I serve milady! I can’t work up any motivation without her around!! Sighhh… Whyyyy does she have to spend the night in Ground’s Nir again?”
“The lady is busy gathering the Pieces needed to revolutionize the world for the better, so it can’t be helped! She even injured herself in order to distort the completion of that room temperature superconductor that could have been used to create satellite-mounted large-caliber railguns…”
“I wasn’t asking for that kind of teacher’s pet answer! Now get lost!!”
“H-hey. You’re in charge of cooking today, so if you can’t get motivated, what are we supposed to do about dinner!?”
“I don’t care. You can just pick up a bento at the convenience store or get takeout at a gyudon place. You’re civilized people, aren’t you? Ugh, everything’s so boring when milady isn’t around.”
She lay face down on the bed, grabbed some chips, and drank cola directly from a bottle with no “diet” qualifier. She did not seem to care that her small butt was just about sticking out from below the track suit top or that the modest curves of her chest were almost visible through the neck.
She’s hopeless, thought Misoka in all seriousness.
If she was allowed to grow up like this, she could easily become a cook who got drunk in the kitchen. And if her course in life was to be corrected, now was the time. They had to strike while the iron was hot!!
“By the way, Haruka.”
“Whah ih iht, Onee-chan?”
“…I recorded this entire conversation on a digital recorder, but what kind of future do you think you will have if I let our sister hear it? A bright one???”
“Wait!?”
Haruka frantically got up as Misoka waved around the stick-shaped electronic device.
“It sure would be embarrassing to receive a serious spanking at your age. And we both know our sister really will do it. There’ll be a shine in her glasses and she’ll expressionlessly pull up your skirt, pull down your drawers, and count to 100.”
“I-I thought we had a private gentleman’s agreement behind the scenes! Surely you aren’t going to say that didn’t count because we didn’t actually sign a document! Right!? Right!?”
“If you understand, then go prepare dinner. You’re a maid, aren’t you?”
Misoka sounded exasperated, but she had not actually hit the digital recorder’s record button. She took their gentleman’s agreement seriously. She only wanted her little sister to get to work and to shake free of her laziness that was limited to when their master was not watching.
And after Misoka hardened her heart to act like a big sister, the oldest sister, Iroka, called in from outside the room.
“Misokaaa, you don’t seem to be working on the hallway flower arrangement like I asked. Should I assume you are shirking your duties? Oh, dear. Am I going to have to count out the spankings on my little sister’s butt at this age?”
“Wait, wait, wait, waaaiiiit!!!???”
It was an ominous sign.
But with no objective proof that this was the Sage and no idea how to actually fight her, grabbing her Shining Weapon rapier and randomly swinging it around would only make Beatrice the villain.
Establishing a popular bar and gathering favorable attention from across the inn town seemed to be one step in a larger plan. That bar was quickly becoming an indispensable pillar of the inn town. At this rate, attacking the waitress Sage could mean making an enemy of every human in the inn town.
But someone was entirely unaware of Beatrice’s worries.
“Boo, boo, boo.”
In the mountains dyed by the colors of sunset, Boo Boo the Iberian Orc was once more humming through his prized nose and spending the day in search of food. He wanted the power to protect Beatrice and the others he cared about from the threat of the Sage. Sutriona had put together a special training menu for him, but he could not abandon his daily life either. He was entirely self-sufficient, so he could not just use a convenience store or online supermarket. Neglecting that necessary cycle would only lead to death.
“Yeah, I managed to dig up this Steak Potato really well!!”
Boo Boo crouched down at the base of a thick tree and dug up the dark soil with both hands. He held something that looked like a thick tube. That king of vegetarian cooking tasted like fatty meat when sliced and cooked, but despite its great size, it was difficult to find and incredibly hard to pull up without breaking. That made this an important catch. Sutriona would be happy since she was eating with him more often due to the special training menu.
(Boo. When I find something tasty, she always smiles!)
And then…
“That is a good one, but it’s been in the ground for a little too long. Steak Potatoes that have started to sprout can be a little bitter, so you should lightly boil it before cooking to get the bitterness out.”
“…”
A gentle voice spoke to him without warning, so Boo Boo snapped his head in that direction. So many wild animals lurked in the mountain, but he had not at all noticed this person approach. Their presence was as fleeting as a ghost’s, so they were more frightening than a ferocious beast that cracked branches underfoot and knocked over trees in a rude approach.
The ghost wore red armor and a white miniskirt and her silver and red hair was long and straight. She leaned against a nearby tree and pointed at her feet.
Still smiling, she spoke like they were old friends.
“Why not grab some Cheerful Alraune while you’re at it? Throw that in the pot and it will suppress any unwanted odors while you boil out the bitterness. You’ve always been fine with bitter and spicy foods, but you were terrible with herbs and medicinal smells. Well, that might have more to do with your nose than your tongue.”
“The…Sage…?”
“Oh, c’mon, Boo Boo.”
She spoke in a gentle voice with the corners rounded off.
But before she finished speaking, she had already left the tree and entered within Boo Boo’s deadly range.
“Call me Beatrice. Just like old times.”
He did not have time to speak, much less fall back.
The red-armored Sage slowly raised a single index finger. She did not draw her Shining Weapon rapier and she did not clench her delicate hand into a fist. She only lightly touched the center of Boo Boo’s belly with her fingertip.
It was a kind action, like mischievously tickling a lover’s body.
Nevertheless, a great roar exploded through the mountains like a giant drumbeat. That mass of powerful muscles had outmatched even a 1000-meter dragon, but now he doubled over. A dreadful impact passed through his stomach and out his back, so he remained in place while the trees behind him were felled by an invisible wave passing in a straight line.
“Oh…”
He was not given a chance to resist or fight back.
He had been holding the Steak Potato like a stuffed animal or body pillow, but he dropped it, could not support himself with his legs, and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
“…Boo.”
As she watched the Iberian Orc slowly collapse, the Sage brushed her long hair back with a hand and gave a satisfied nod.
“You lasted 3 whole seconds? You have been training, Boo Boo. You were really manly☆”
With that, she kept her eyes facing forward but sent her left hand out to the side.
Her fingertips cut through the empty space like a bullet and lightly grabbed the torso of a palm-sized Fairy in a pink dress.
“Ah!?”
It was Boo Boo’s unauthorized roommate, Meridiana, and she was still confused even after being captured. And this was unusual. Fairies tended to be extremely shy because they were at the bottom of the food chain, so this short-haired Fairy would not normally fly within arm’s reach of someone else. It was like scooping up a small fish in your palm or snatching a small bird from a tree branch: they would just flit or flutter out of the way. The Fairies should have been another of those neighbors who were close but out of reach. And yet…
With the pink Fairy between her fingertips, a wicked look entered whoever-it-was’s smile.
If she squeezed just a little, she could probably crush the Fairy with ease, but she did not.
“I’m sure word will get out before long either way, but I’ll leave a message with you regardless: I am about to bring Boo Boo to Girl’s Grill in the inn town. You Fairies specialize in Craft techniques and can’t directly fight, so you can’t do anything about it yourself. Feel free to tell whoever you like.”
“…”
Why? How?
Meridiana’s eyes were filled with intense confusion and fear.
Boo Boo was her kind savior, but most of the humans despised the Iberian Orcs. Taking him to the human inn town was sure to cause chaos on a large scale. And that was bound to leave deep scars on his heart.
But the Sage used her empty hand’s thumb to point in a different direction. A short distance from the underbrush was a narrow road the humans had carelessly paved with stone. A cart sat there with a bundle of thick rope on top.
“Girl’s Grill is introducing a new dish,” she said. “Don’t you think everyone would gather around if we’re holding an experiment to see how many Experience Points you get from the meat of a 4-meter pig-faced giant?”
It was fully dusk by the time word reached Beatrice’s group.
They were lucky they had remained above ground to investigate the Sage instead of heading down into the Labyrinth as soon as they left Girl’s Grill.
“Goddamn her!! There really isn’t a single good thing about her!!”
“Calm down, Beatrice! Acting at random isn’t going to save Boo Boo!”
They had gathered at the brick house the Fairies had made for Boo Boo. Palm-sized Meridiana sniffled and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands over and over.
“Sniff, sob…”
But repeating the same action would accomplish nothing. Unless they could get Boo Boo back safely, those tears would keep flowing.
“I…I couldn’t do anything while Boo Boo was taken away. I watched as she placed him on the cart, tied him to it, and then started toward the inn town, but, but…wahhhhh!!”
“It isn’t your fault. In fact, you did a good job of restraining yourself. If you had forced yourself to stand up to her and gotten yourself killed, we wouldn’t have gotten this information.”
Armelina the police officer tried her best, but she failed to remove the heavy bonds squeezing at Meridiana’s heart. When faced with her savior’s crisis, she had done nothing, turned back, and become the very messenger their enemy had wanted her to be. Only she could know how much that scalded her soul. Every Nonhuman species had their own Skill, but those were not necessarily useful in combat.
Fairy Elder Morgan fluttered down in her orange dress and placed her hands on her sobbing brethren’s shoulders.
“Shed no more tears, Meridiana. You are in front of guests.”
“Sob, but…but…”
Seeing that tiny neighbor made Beatrice realize that she could never wipe away those tears without winning and bringing Boo Boo back.
Filinion, who was knowledgeable about the inn town’s rumors and trends, pushed up her glasses and spoke.
“People are already talking about a new dish at Girl’s Grill. It seems there was a small commotion when the cart carrying Boo Boo was taken to the back of the bar. The Sage apparently smiled and told everyone to look forward to it.”
“…I’m betting it’s essentially an alternative form for a public execution.” Sutriona sounded irritated as she stroked Meridiana’s head with a finger. “It makes me sick. I doubt your words can get through to the mastermind or the audience. That’s the kind of foolish human I’m more than willing to wipe out with my Sandstorm of Red Madness.”
“Phewww…”
Seeing someone else heat up must have actually helped her calm down because Beatrice breathed a long sigh. Then she spoke to change her focus.
“I would love that too, but wait. Wiping out the Sage along with the irresponsible onlookers would be fine, but we can’t have the Sage get desperate enough to hold a knife to Boo Boo’s defenseless throat. We have to hold off on a rampage until we’ve safely secured him.”
“You sound calm, but you haven’t calmed down at all! Let’s stop assuming the destruction of the inn town!! Oh, you tell her too, Armelina!!”
“Yeah, if it’s a hostage you need rescuing, leave it to a police officer like me.”
Armelina was also obsessed with maps, so she reached for the bold slit exposing her thigh, pulled out a parchment map of the inn town, and spread it out on the floor.
“Boo Boo was almost certainly brought into Girl’s Grill, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about the interior layout. And even if she’s provoking us, we can’t go marching in the front door to rescue him from the Sage. Not only do we know how much more powerful she is than us, that would also give her the opportunity she needs to hold a blade to his throat.”
“Then what are we supposed to do? We can’t just leave Boo Boo like this.”
“That’s why I’m hoping for your pure firepower since the blood is rushing to your head, Beatrice. You are the cornerstone of this rescue operation. Is that enough to get you motivated?” Armelina shrugged. “If we’re going to do this, the only way is to catch the Sage off guard. That means ignoring the front and back entrances and instead blowing a hole in the outer wall at just the right point to directly reach the room Boo Boo is trapped in. It would be best if the blast could also knock out the Sage and whoever else is inside, but I don’t know if we can expect that to work. After all, Beatrice claims she has every single Element completely covered, so you can’t get any damage on her.”
“But I thought we didn’t know the layout inside.”
“We don’t.”
Armelina pulled out another map.
They had visited Girl’s Grill earlier that day, but they had only seen the main hall and powder room that customers were allowed to visit. The food on the menu, the speed at which it was prepared, the kitchen door they had seen, and the chimney visible from outside the building could all be used to estimate the location and size of the kitchen, but there were still a lot of unknowns, such as the food storehouse and the living space for employees. The Labyrinth ran directly below everywhere in Ground’s Nir, so they could fortunately rule out the possibility of a deep basement structure.
“I’ve estimated the size of the unknown space based on the exterior of the bar, but we still need to fill in this map. Not to mention learning where the personnel are located and where Boo Boo is being held.”
“So we have to send someone into the bar?”
“The Sage of course already knows what Beatrice looks like and she must know that Filinion and I are with you. We were eating at the same table, after all.”
The lovely paradox who looked 10 gave a wink.
“So you need a guest she won’t recognize? Should I go?”
“That would be great, but you have no reason to go. Girl’s Grill is going to be preparing for their Boo Boo Butchering Show. At the very least, that’s what the people in the inn town will think. All sorts of onlookers are going to be visiting the rumored bar to catch a glimpse of poor Boo Boo. The bar can’t serve that many people, so all outsiders will be forbidden from going further inside. That means you can’t get that close as only a customer.”
“Then who would be best?”
Beatrice pouted her lips, called up her fire illusion Magic, and connected a few frames with lines: the loathsome Sage, Sibyl, captured Boo Boo, and Beatrice’s group who were planning to rescue him. But the frame for their undercover role was still empty.
Armelina winked as she answered.
“It has to be someone who sees Boo Boo as their enemy…no, who intensely hates him. The Sage has to be able to confirm that fact for herself. That will make it look natural for them to want to bargain for the chance to see Boo Boo butchered.”
“…?”
“Well, just leave the selection to me. …I really don’t want to let that beast out of her cage, but I guess it’s necessary.”
A knock came to the door.
Everyone looked in that direction, but Armelina alone did not look surprised. She had likely made the preparations already.
“Come in, Inoue. I’m guessing it wasn’t easy.”
“When I’m here, call me Huldra the cute Alchemist Cheerleader.”
With permission granted, the Boo Boo-sized door opened to reveal a small girl of only 145cm with a characteristic mole under the eye. Her long pink hair was worn in twintails that swept out to the left and right, she was dressed in nothing more than a white and pink tank top and miniskirt with some leather pouches and small liquid containers disguised as colorful jewels, and she wore sandals with thin straps on her feet. It was unclear what affect the pompoms she held had. But despite her short height, she had quite a chest. It was a very irritating body type. And it was made all the worse by the Magical effect that caused glowing stars and hearts to fly around whenever she moved even slightly.
Beatrice did not know her.
Armelina casually provided some information.
“Oh, she’s made to piss you off, so don’t worry about it. She uses Alchemically-created makeup to adjust her Hate values and draw the enemy’s attention. Her job is to use shiny but powerless effects to lure the target over.”
“Ugh. You mean she wears equipment that negatively affects her?”
“She even makes decoy recovery magic poses that are nothing more than motions.”
Clothing was only Magic taking that form, so it played a role in adjusting one’s Parameters. That meant a general scan of someone’s clothing could give you an estimate of their Parameters…and this girl certainly seemed uniquely focused. It was like she had prioritized vanity over direct offense or defense.
And Armelina’s main focus was apparently not her.
“Where is she? We need her.”
“I know that, but try to be careful, okay? Back in the real world, she’s already caused enough trouble during probation to get sent back to juvenile hall and then plotted six different jailbreaks. After faking an attempted suicide, she was sent to the police hospital, manipulated a nurse into sympathizing with her, and then started to half-brainwash the nurse to increase her number of pawns. We intervened when she was just about to bite off the right ear of the kind but foolish counselor who was trying to support her.”
Filinion trembled as she listened to that story.
“Wh-who in the world are you talking about? I don’t know anyone like that.”
“Oh, but you do. We know her all too well.”
Armelina asked to have her brought in, so Huldra stepped aside as if clearing the way.
A solid footstep sounded from the entrance.
“Ah.”
Beatrice’s mind went blank.
She had created a few frames and lines using her fire illusion Magic. This would fill the final frame: whoever would make an undercover visit to Girl’s Grill.
But this?
The color blue stood before her eyes. Long hair had its volume further increased as gorgeous ringlet curls and it decorated the cruel lady’s ample body to give it a princess’s silhouette. But her torso was not contained in a noble corset. Instead, she wore a single cross-shaped sword contained in its scabbard. The sword was held to her body by several belts and her only other clothing was the sharp ice armor around her hips that looked something like a swollen skirt.
She had fully specialized in the Water Element, making her the polar opposite of Beatrice and her specialization in the Fire Element.
She was the new battle arena queen and the ruler of absolute zero.
“Ice Waterfall Princess Wildefrau!?”
“Well, can you see why anyone would accept that I have a powerful grudge against that Iberian Orc and the rest of you? And I was even deployed by the so-called Conference Room in order to ingratiate them to the Sage.”
The cruel hunter hid her mouth behind a fan of ice and laughed wickedly.
“But at the same time, my higher ups were wiped out in the blink of an eye thanks to someone’s blitzkrieg tactics, so who knows if the Sage even received word of what happened to me. It happened right after I got back, so there was no real time for a report. Simply put, she has no way of knowing if I was captured or managed to escape.”
“…”
“So just relax and leave this to me. We are in this together, so let’s try to get along. Okay?”
“I’ve negotiated with my higher up to have your sentence halved if this goes well. The Minister of Justice can’t ignore something as crucial as the Sage’s identity, after all. But it’s all over if you betray us here. You won’t just be sent back to juvenile hall. You will die here before even being sent back to the real world. Do you understand, Wildefrau?”
On the way to the inn town, Armelina gave a clear and concise explanation.
The sexy Ice Waterfall Princess smiled and shrugged.
“These exceptional conditions are actually making me concerned. You must know how skilled I am with Magic, yet you haven’t taken away my Shining Weapon or bound my arms and legs.”
“Yes.” The Fighter Priest smiled. “But that’s because we know a way of sending you to the afterlife without having to restrain you.”
“N-now, now.”
White Witch Filinion cut in while spreading her hands to either side of her face. The corners of her mouth stiffened a bit, but she somehow managed to form a smile.
“We need to work together to save Boo Boo, right? Tripping each other up with this strained atmosphere isn’t going to increase our odds of success. Let’s let our past issues just be water under the bridge, okay?”
“…”
Wildefrau silently but surprisingly smoothly turned her head to face the fluffy blonde glasses girl.
She started by rhythmically clacking her front teeth together.
“Gahhh!!!???”
And then she roared.
Beatrice immediately grabbed Filinion’s shoulders and pulled her back just in time for Wildefrau’s teeth to mercilessly snap together in the space filled with flowing blonde hair.
Hadn’t Armelina said this person had very nearly bitten off the right ear of a kind but foolish counselor?
“Inoue!!” shouted Armelina.
“I’m Huldra while I’m here.”
A metallic sound followed that almost foolishly calm comment.
That was when Wildefrau finally stopped moving. At some point, a trio of long and sharp metal claws with curved tips had jutted out from both of the Alchemist Cheerleader’s pompoms. They stopped just before reaching the blue Ice Waterfall Princess’s throat.
Those pompoms were for more than just cutely hiding her mouth. They were a Shining Weapon.
“Do you understand now, Wildefrau? You are still in chains.”
The Ice Waterfall Princess’s eyes were focused less on Huldra’s claws themselves and more on the many Icons that appeared to wrap around her slender wrists.
“So it would seem. But if I know how long and thick the chains are, I can find a way around them. …Magic that does no damage but has a low chance of causing instant death? And have you forcibly increased the success rate using your Alchemy items? I see, I see, I see.”
It was Armelina’s turn to click her tongue.
For her, it would have been best to hold the prisoner in check without showing her hand. Suspicion and paranoia were the greatest chains. It had been necessary, but revealing this from the start still hurt.
Beatrice, Filinion, and Armelina were joined by twintailed Huldra and ringlet-curled Wildefrau. They arrived at the inn town as a fairly large group, but despite the major incident occurring within, the orange-dyed town looked the same as always. The pleasant smells of dinner preparations came from all over. Of course, a lot of customers would have made their way to Girl’s Grill, the bar where Boo Boo was rumored to be captured and confined.
As they approached the bar in question, they passed by a youth handing out parchment fliers that had likely been mass-produced using a letterpress printer.
“Extra, extraaaa! Girl’s Grill will supposedly be preparing a super-rare Iberian Orc while still alive!! This rare but ugly species hasn’t been seen much, so eating one for dinner is sure to earn plenty of Experience Points. Watching this butchering show is sure to be worth delaying a visit to the Labyrinth!!”
“…”
“Don’t glare, Beatrice. Act natural. If we can’t blend in, we have no chance of rescuing him.”
Before arriving too close to Girl’s Grill, Beatrice’s group of 3 parted ways with Huldra and Wildefrau. That monster being released into the wild was a frightening thought, but it would be a problem if the Sage or Sibyl saw the 5 of them together. If their connection to the Ice Waterfall Princess were revealed, they would lose their chance to infiltrate the bar.
“Welcome. Is it just the 2 of you? Then how about a counter seat?”
Hearing that familiar voice, Beatrice’s group left the main road, circled around the back way, and entered the building next to Girl’s Grill which would soon become a small battlefield.
“Bakeries are busiest from the middle of the night to the early morning. They mainly serve breakfast, lunch, and portable food for exploring the Labyrinth. They aren’t made to serve dinner, so they’ll let you have the place to yourself at this time of day if you pay enough Gears.”
“Fwehhh. Police officers really do things differently.”
“What did you say you were reserving the place for?”
“ ‘We don’t want to see our sales going up just because of some popular shop that appeared out of nowhere, right? We’re going to give them some trouble, so help us out.’ Anyone who agrees to that isn’t going to join the Sage anytime soon.”
Armelina spread out a few parchment maps on the closed-up bakery’s floor and began her preparations. In addition to the maps, she used Magic to open a midair frame made from thin, necklace-like chains and bubbles. It displayed an unsteady view of Huldra’s face.
“Hey, can you hear me, chief? I linked the video to Wildefrau’s vision.”
“Perfect. The reception is good, Inoue. If you’re ready, then get started.”
They used a short-range communication method developed for use in the Labyrinth. The range was quite limited and was affected by the thickness of obstacles like walls, so it was not always useful. Still, it was reliable at times like this.
Beatrice used her fire illusion Magic to call up her frames and lines as she listened to Armelina and Wildefrau.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“That Girl’s Grill receives large shipments of alcohol and herbs, but the food and drinks they actually serve aren’t enough to go through it all. That means this is camouflage to hide something behind the scenes. Say you’ve taken over their supplier and make it look like you’re trying to get in on the action.”
Basically, Armelina’s men had paid off and threatened the supplier to monopolize the inn town’s alcohol, so Wildefrau needed to act like their boss.
“And I use my revenge against that Iberian Orc to spice things up?”
“I’m glad you understand. I want you to get in there and fill in the grayed-out spaces on the map. Confirm the layout of rooms, the distribution of personnel, the material and thickness of the walls, and where Boo Boo is being confined. Try to build a rapport using the fact that you’re both up to no good.”
While counting off the list on her fingers, Armelina explained each condition in more detail.
It would all fall apart if Wildefrau screwed up, so they had to go at her pace.
“Also, you have Huldra to support you. She’s linked us so that anyone you look in the eye will appear on our map from then on. You need to aim for Boo Boo, the Elf, and anyone else you see going in or out.”
“Oh? But not the Sage herself?”
“Did you see the Screenshot?”
“Yes. Other than a slight difference in apparent age, they are identical. …To be honest, I still suspect you might be taking me for a ride.”
“It’s the truth. And make no mistake: Boo Boo is our top priority. And with the Sage’s knowledge of Magic, we’re assuming she can see through this. So even if you do find her, do not look her in the eye. Just act natural.”
Beatrice looked to the wall as she listened to that exchange.
Even with the small path between buildings, it was less than a meter to the inside of Girl’s Grill. That small distance felt like an infinite wall. She shuddered just thinking of Boo Boo laid out on a kitchen counter with a butcher’s knife pressing against his belly.
“Calm down, Beatrice.”
“But…”
“The new dish and the butcher show are probably just bluffs meant to draw in the people of the inn town. If what you said is accurate, then the Sage wants to fight some kind of monster deep below the ground. In that case, I can’t think of any reason for her to put any effort into this kind of show business.”
“But the inn town people think it’s happening. If Boo Boo struggles, breaks down a wall, and escapes, they won’t show any mercy. They’ll see it like a man-eating gator getting loose when it was supposed to be used as a rare ingredient. All of the level cap adventurers out there will be his enemy! The Sage is tormenting Boo Boo with her own Girl’s Grill and with the second barrier of people out there!!”
Beatrice was aware the blood was rising to her head as she spoke.
She was aware of it, but there was nothing she could do.
“And no matter why she did it, the Sage must need Boo Boo if she bothered to knock him out and carry him back to her base. Remember, we’re talking about that Sage! Whatever she’s trying to do, she’s the one who slaughtered the residents of the Iberian Orc village and gathered their corpses to create that monster she called Disaster!! Who even knows what kinds of awful things she’s going to do to Boo Boo!!”
“And that’s why we’re working so hard to stop her. Isn’t that right, Beatrice?”
Beatrice covered her face with her hands and White Witch Filinion gently touched her back.
This was Ground’s Nir, another world.
There were no laws and there was no document ensuring basic rights. It was an island of verbal promises. And even if those things did exist, a Nonhuman like Boo Boo might not be covered.
And that was why they had to do this.
If no one else was going to protect him, they would have to save him.
“Conversations” held under extreme conditions could have great psychological influence. It would not even need to reach the level of Stockholm syndrome. What would happen if he was left all alone in a kitchen prepared for use on him and the greatly powerful Sage continually whispered in his ear? A frightening voice, a kind voice, an angry voice, and a tearful voice could all be used as weapons to shake him psychologically.
The Sage had acquired Disaster through twisted methods.
And she knew Boo Boo’s past very well. She could fine-tune what she said specifically for him. It was like an external cyber-attack made by an engineer who already understood the internal vulnerabilities. It was possible she would use his likes and his trauma to destroy his personality.
Meaning she could attempt something akin to brainwashing.
(I won’t let her.)
Beatrice could imagine the empty shell of an Iberian Orc fighting as the Sage’s pawn until he rotted away and fell apart like Disaster had.
(I won’t let that happen to kind Boo Boo!!)
“…”
She removed her hands from her face and coldly faced the world once more. After a moment, she made an announcement in a horribly low voice.
Yes, she had made up her mind about everything.
“Let’s get started. …No matter what happens, we will rescue Boo Boo.”
Boo Boo awoke to the feeling of thick ropes scraping his skin. He blinked his eyes, but he had no recollection of how he had ended up like this. He saw a cold stone ceiling he did not recognize and his nose detected a metallic scent. The air felt stagnant, so he could tell he was enclosed inside something.
He was on top of a cart.
He tried moving, but the ropes were thicker and tougher than he thought. He had never seen vines this thick even in the forest.
“I used Ground Spider silk. I’ve heard of thin bulletproof equipment being made from spider silk, but maybe it’s just crass to talk about that after traveling all the way to another world.”
“…”
“Hi, Boo Bo. That took longer than I thought. Maybe I put off knocking you out a little too long.”
He heard a female voice. It was the Sage.
She did not wear the same red armor and miniskirt as Beatrice. Instead, she wore an odd outfit made by adding a corset and decorative sleeves to thin sleepwear to make it look vaguely waitress-y. Her flowing straight hair had been remade into twintails. Perhaps due to growing up from the girl form Boo Boo was used to, he was left with an entirely different impression.
She looked unfamiliar.
And even though it was clearly too large for a human to handle, she easily held a Shining Weapon that looked like log or steel beam. But that was hardly surprising when the Sage herself had been the one to leave Boo Boo with that weapon after sealing the slaughtered Iberian Orcs’ souls inside.
Casually swinging that down here would likely break restrained Boo Boo in half along with the cart below him.
He gulped, but the Sage shook her head.
After passing the Shining Weapon back and forth between her right and left hand, it gave a sudden roar and drew a flowing silver line in the air. The thick and seemingly unbreakable ropes were instantly severed. They were cut, not smashed and broken. This was the unbelievable technique of using weight and speed to “cut with a blunt weapon” that Disaster had demonstrated before. No, perhaps it was the Sage who had taught it to Disaster.
Not even Boo Boo could reproduce that extreme technique.
This was not complicated and confusing Magic. Just like when she had knocked him out with a single fingertip, the Sage was skilled enough to overpower an Iberian Orc using pure martial arts.
“Yes, it does have a lot of small scratches, but it’s still in extremely good condition. That shows just how well you took care of it, Boo Boo. As the one who gave it to you, I’m pleased to see that.”
She spoke like she was chopping up a fish to check on the sharpness of a knife. And yet that one attack had inarguably shown the difference in their skill.
“You can have it back. That weapon is like a part of your body, isn’t it? You must not be able to relax without it.”
She then casually handed the Shining Weapon to her prisoner. He finally got up from the cart with his head full of questions. He generally trusted what people said, but even he found plenty about the Sage’s actions he could not trust.
Returning the weapon was not a problem for her.
She was implicitly stating that she was 100% confidence in her ability to strike back without batting an eye even if he made a surprise attack with the Shining Weapon.
Boo Boo looked around. His heart may have naturally desired an exit. But there were no windows and he could not see outside. One wall contained a single human-sized door and another contained a set of double doors which was large enough for the cart to pass through. The wooden barrels and boxes lined up in a corner of the room suggested it was a storeroom, but that was not all.
In the center of the room was a hole large enough for Boo Boo to fit through. It formed a perfect circle. It was surrounded by oddly-shaped glass containers and several tubes extended into the hole from those.
Of course, everyone knew what slept below Ground’s Nir: the Labyrinth which irregularly changed shape like a living creature.
Only the humans ever went there and Boo Boo himself never would have if not for Beatrice’s invitation.
“What…are you doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing? This was not easy, let me tell you. When I calculated out the coordinates on the map, they turned out to be right in the middle of the inn town. And I needed an unnatural amount of alcohol and herbs to interfere with the Labyrinth. Thanks to that, I had to open a bar and pretend to be a waitress. Man is a real job ever hard. I’m impressed anyone can keep this up on a daily basis.”
The Sage dodged the question, but she did not seem intent on hiding it.
Since she had taken Boo Boo to the center of her secret, she was clearly enjoying showing it off. She was like a mother asking her small child to guess what was inside their birthday present. Or perhaps like a predatory woman luring a man into bed by lying there in nothing but some seductive nightwear that showed off her bodylines.
Yes, she was enjoying this conversation held under extreme conditions.
“You seem to be mistaken about something, so let me be clear: I am not trying to stop what you’re trying to do, Boo Boo. You just have to do what you want and I’ll do what I want. If it ultimately surrounds Ground’s Nir, the great foe that slumbers in the ground’s depths, then the more options we have, the better.”
“Ground’s…eh? But isn’t that what Beatrice and the others call…?”
“Yes, this must be terribly confusing. And that is why I invited you here.”
The Sage clapped her hands in front of her chest and smiled.
Then she made a suggestion.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have much time. The world is in a much, much graver situation than I thought. That is why I have changed my MO and stepped out into the open. There are more important things than hiding.”
“?”
Boo Boo honestly found this person frightening.
But it saddened him that she blurred together with a kind person from a distant memory: that person who had looked sad even while smiling.
“Let’s talk, Boo Boo. We should share what information we have. By eliminating what isn’t needed and avoiding duplicate efforts, we can more efficiently surround that monster. I am asking for your help in order to save everyone, Boo Boo.”
