CHAPTER 1: Paradise

01

“Welcome in! Here’s your usual medicine. Dr. Nierenberg is coming today. Would you like to see him?”

“Welcome! I recommend the uni-corn tea.”

After Captain Dick’s wedding, a stunning woman and a little girl had joined Sunlight’s Canopy.

They were the daytime and nighttime poster girls for the Yagu Drawbridge Pavilion, Amber and Emily. Mariela fretted over the financial situation of the Pavilion without its two biggest allures. But with an around-the-clock contest between the other employees vying to secure Amber’s position as the top earner for themselves, sales had actually increased. Erotigan—er, Edgan sometimes came with useless tidbits about how so-and-so was a real cutie and what he’d given her this time. He was one of the important customers driving profits at the Yagu Drawbridge Pavilion. With the girl in question never the same, Sieg began to jot down the dates, names, and details of their conversations in a notebook, which turned into an unofficial “Observational Diary of Erotigan.”

Whatever. The real question was whether it was okay for Amber to start working again right after getting married. After all, she’d been working forever, and Mariela asked if she’d considered taking a little break.

“Well, Dick’s not here much, and I get so bored. I may not look like it, but I’m a whiz at bookkeeping!” boasted the unsolicited employee with unrivaled beauty, puffing up her chest with pride.

Apparently, waiting quietly at home wasn’t an option for her. Plus, she was a boss at math. The finances at Sunlight’s Canopy were all over the place, but maybe they would become as tight and taut as Amber’s figure—monitored and whipped into shape. Incidentally, the valley trailing between her huge twin peaks was concealed with a sweater sporting a high neckline. But it was only human to be curious about secret places. There was no doubt her stretched sweater inspired heated emotions in the hearts of aspiring “mountaineers.”

“Hey, Sherry! Come and play!”

With Nierenberg’s daughter coming to Sunlight’s Canopy on the regular, Emily started to stop by more frequently, excited to make a friend close in age. She must have sprinted through the frigid air upon finishing her work at the Yagu Drawbridge Pavilion. With reddened cheeks and ears, Emily gave her recommendation for uni-corn tea to the customers before running over to Sherry.

“Oh, Emily, your ribbon is all crooked again. Wow, your cheeks are cold.”

After Sherry covered Emily’s cheeks with both hands to warm them, she retied her hair for her.

A heartwarming sight. Even “mountaineers” couldn’t help seeking a life closer to home.

“A new magical tool was delivered.”

“Wow! What’s this do?! What’s this?!” chirped Mariela to Carol, who had more than enough potential to surpass the medical skills of the cheery commoner.

One was a sheltered flower, while the other was a roadside blossom raised in the Fell Forest. With different strengths, both were in demand.

There were prime pickings ranging from young girls to beautiful women—flowers raised on the side of a road to the peak of a mountain. It was a harem. Where was their king?

Ker-chak.

“Amber! I’m sor—”

Slam.

Captain Dick must have come to pick up Amber, but he’d shut the door upon seeing Nierenberg in his place of honor in Sunlight’s Canopy. Not the king of the harem, huh?

This reaction had become second nature—whether it was nobles making a pass at Carol, Lieutenant Malraux and his guilty conscience, or soldiers from the Labyrinth Suppression Forces coming in for medical examinations. Everyone opened and then shut and then reopened the door again. Mariela wished they would just come in the first time. They were letting in the cold air!

The only people occupying Sunlight’s Canopy were the itty-bitty girls, regular customers soaking in sunlight like plants, and Nierenberg, the monster-warding statue. Although there was technically a harem, no one bothered the itty-bitty girls. They could be as carefree and lazy as they wanted. It might be more accurate to call it paradise than a harem.

That’s right: Neither Sieg nor Lynx were currently in Sunlight’s Canopy.

“Oh, Mr. Dick. Why are you out here in the cold?”

Another customer had arrived—a soldier who’d come for a medical examination.

Ker-chak. Slam.

Why did he shut the door…?

It might as well be a ritual for visiting the monster-warding statue. A sacred tree might be growing here, but that didn’t make it a sacred place.

“H-hello?” This time, the soldier from the Labyrinth Suppression Forces managed to step inside. Captain Dick tried to sneak in behind him, but his hunkering body wasn’t hidden at all.

With a huge sigh, Amber quipped, “Dick, over here. I’ve got heavy luggage,” and led him to it.

“Leave it to me,” Captain Dick boasted, trying to look cool as he scampered after Amber. He didn’t look cool at all, but he certainly did look very happy.

“The examination room is in the back.”

If Dick had eagerly received a one-way ticket to heaven with Amber, the other soldier looked as if he was being dragged to hell as Nierenberg led him away.

Mariela couldn’t put her finger on why the soldiers adopted these expressions. Weren’t Nierenberg’s examinations nothing out of the ordinary? After all, Mariela had gone for a visit with him, and he’d simply given her a tune-up by pressing the parts of her body that had grown stiff to encourage stagnant blood to flow. Although Sieg had groaned, it hadn’t hurt Mariela at all. This might be attributed to the fact that she chugged Drops of Life on the daily—it was too much of a hassle to draw up water. This was why she never had any knots or poor blood flow. In fact, her entire body was all flab and squish, but the person in question didn’t notice at all.

Oh, that man…

When the visit was over, Nierenberg handed the soldier’s medical record to Mariela. She stuffed the applicable medicine into a bag and wrote something at the end of the record.

The soldier who’d just been examined was a little unsteady on his feet as he returned to the shop. After taking his medicine and drinking some tea, he went home.

Emily had told him it was called uni-corn tea, and he looked so happy drinking it that he would never again be able to use the word corn without a uni- in front.

A few days later, the soldiers requiring medical treatment, including him, were notified of a change in post.

“You’re ordered to recuperate for one week in the Ahriman Springs.”

They received complimentary tickets for a trip to the hot springs in snow country, known as the Polar Bootcamp from Hell.

The Ahriman Springs.

A hot spring that gushed forth on one of the mountains towering over the northwestern section of the Labyrinth City, Mount Ahriman. It was known for its high content of Drops of Life. Mount Ahriman was steep, but its springs were close to the Labyrinth City, and it flourished in the time of the Kingdom of Endalsia as a day spa.

Ever since the Stampede, the amount of spring water had been halved, and monkey monsters had begun to inhabit the area, known as needle apes because their fur resembled metal needles. A huge horde of the creatures that loved hot springs congregated there in the winter season, preventing people from getting too close. Needle apes were B-Rank monsters, and they were most dangerous in wooded areas.

On top of that, the poor footing and cold temperatures of winter created additional hurdles. Who wanted to fight needle apes under those conditions? Only the devil would issue this command. It was way beyond human scope.

“Grar-rar-ar-aaaar!” shrieked the needle apes as if to intimidate the human trespassers… Well, it might have been more accurate to compare their screams to squealing laughter, making fun of the miserable humans forcibly thrown into this situation by Nierenberg. Since needle apes were monsters, they didn’t stop at intimidation, using trees as footholds to begin their assault. If the humans didn’t desperately fight back on this unfamiliar terrain, they would be devoured in an instant.

The three men facing the needle apes in Mount Ahriman in the middle of winter had no time to even shiver from the cold.

“Why…? Why me…?”

“Get over it, Ed.”

“…Mariela…”

Edgan, Lynx, and Siegmund seemed to be linked by fate to the snowy country.

Their current situation warding off the needle apes could be attributed to an off-the-cuff statement made by Mariela.

“What? Treatment for impurities in the body? A hot spring might be good for that.”

More than underground water, hot springs were saturated with Drops of Life. Mariela’s master had told her that they could improve circulation and flush toxins from the body. Plus, skin would become baby smooth. Though Mariela had never been to a hot spring, her master called Ahriman Springs paradise—verdant scenery, scrumptious food, and steamy waters—causing Mariela to worship it in all the wrong ways. She was totally convinced that paradise was a party venue, tables lined with meat, meat, and more meat. Well, according to her standards, she wasn’t entirely wrong.

She’d whined about going to Ahriman Springs.

“Ahriman Springs is a paradise for monkeys,” Sieg had warned.

“It’s too dangerous to climb snowy mountains,” Lynx tried to convince her unsuccessfully.

“Needle apes, eh? Might make the ideal opponent.”

The Ahriman Springs seemed to have flipped a switch—or hit an acupuncture point—in Sunlight’s Canopy’s resident monster-warder, Nierenberg.

“If we can exterminate the needle apes in the winter, it may be possible to travel to the hot springs in the spring,” he suggested.

Between Mariela’s desire to go to a hot spring and Sieg’s desire to go to a hot spring with Mariela, it was enough grounds to officially decide to subjugate the needle apes. Lynx and Edgan were just unlucky enough to be present at the time and got roped into the whole debacle.

Dick and Malraux of the Black Iron Freight Corps had initially lent an ear to Lynx and Edgan’s objections.

“Be grateful that they’ll get better at combat,” argued Nierenberg, to which they raised both hands and sent the young men off. If Nierenberg was telling them to be grateful, they would do it. After all, he’d been the one who’d thoroughly looked after them during their time in the Labyrinth Suppression Forces. What outstanding yes-men. Old habits are hard to break.

That said, between the three of them, only Edgan had been categorized as a B-Rank from strength alone. Lynx was only a B-Rank with his shadowmaster abilities, which were really more geared toward scouting, and Sieg had lost his Spirit Sight, dropping his status to C Rank. With just the three of them, fighting one B-Rank needle ape was a challenge. But a whole herd of them in the snowy mountains? That was suicide. And because this was for training, they couldn’t use monster-warding potions.

In a moment, they were surrounded by needle apes, attacking from all directions. Their namesake fur was as stiff as metal needles, and crude strikes would not be enough to pierce it. It might have been a different story for Dick, whose spear could drive through cheap armor, or Donnino with his hammer. But the trio’s respective weapon proficiencies were in short swords, dual swords, and long swords. They might have differed in length, but in the end, they were all weapons that relied on technique more than power. And the only way to overcome this monster was by jabbing the blade at the same angle as the fur grew or aiming at places with sparse fur, including its face.

“Geez! Quit moving around! Sieg! Use a bow! Aren’t you an archer?!”

“When I could rely on my Spirit Sight! I can’t hit anything with a bow now! Hey, Lynx!

“Didn’t you say a bow wasn’t suited for a guard?!”

“Oh, that one’s a girl, so I can’t exactly kill her…”

“Ed! Don’t ease up on them!”

“Edgan! Mixed bathing! Mixed bathing with Belisa is waiting for you!”

“Seriously? Can’t wait for a day in bath-topia…”

Erotigan’s favorite smut might feature the international paradise of mixed outdoor baths, but there was no such practice in the territory of Margrave Schutzenwald. Even if the Ahriman Springs could be redeveloped, those with social status would rent private rooms, and commoners would be segregated by gender into large baths. And obviously, they would be indoors. It would be unwise to soak in an open-air bath where monsters were present.

“Wait for meee, Joanna!”

“Not Belisa?”

“Oh, she was the one before.”

Apparently, Edgan’s gill gem present was in vain, and his affections remained unrequited. Swinging his dual swords, the indomitable man redirected his persistence to fighting the needle apes in front of him. Encouraged by their gallant friend, Sieg and Lynx boldly stood against the swarm of needle apes.

Needle apes used tools, picking up stones to chuck or breaking off branches to use as weapons, for instance. Perhaps it was a small mercy that no rocks were exposed in the snow, which meant no stone throwing. If that hadn’t been the case, the trio would have probably been defeated without much of a fight at all.

But in their battle against needle apes ranking the same or above them, logical arguments that the humans were at an obvious disadvantage wasn’t going to get them anywhere. The snow tripped them up, and all the trio could do was dodge the needle apes springing at them while slashing at the monsters.

The trio’s stamina had been exhausted. It was the moment when the needle apes’ fangs were going for Lynx’s windpipe, Edgan’s guts, and Sieg’s remaining eye.

“And that’s a wrap for today!” boomed the boss of the needle apes.

Wait! It was Haage, clad in fur. Even his head was shrouded by a hood. For an instant, he was unrecognizable.

Not that they could only identify him by his head. Under his fuzzy hood, Haage appeared 10 percent manlier than usual. It must have been because they were in a crisis in a snowcapped mountain. It definitely wasn’t an effect of this hood. It obviously had to be an effect of the background.

Haage zipped between the trees with apish movements and began systematically sending needle apes flying with kicks. The needle apes couldn’t follow the movements of the man who could find a foothold anywhere, even in the side of a tree, and they were forced to retreat deep into the mountains like sheep driven by a shepherd. Haage aimed his blows so they landed on the soft snow. Without sustaining any major injuries, the apes quickly regained consciousness and followed their retreating brethren.

Needle apes were smart. They knew a formidable foe had appeared. Maybe his kindness had been communicated to them from his soft kicks. Just as you’d expect from the boss monkey—er, Haage. The female needle apes cast lustful eyes at him before reluctantly withdrawing.

“You might as well have culled ’em. Why didn’t you?”

“I was extra careful to make sure you can still train!”

It had been far from a close match for the three men; the needle apes had almost left them dead. As one who was powerful enough to make the monsters scramble, Haage’s response was unexpectedly sensible.

With the added benefit of training, Sieg and the others had been told to subjugate the needle apes, but it wasn’t as if they had no support. Weishardt had requested aid for them from the Adventurers Guild. He’d paid a sizable retaining fee for the top brass that the Adventurers Guild’s guildmaster, Haage, had trained, but the man himself had been dispatched instead to ensure the trio could train with efficiency.

“Why has the guildmaster butted in…?”

“Ha-ha-ha. The staff members of the Adventurers Guild are top class! If we’re missing two or three of them, it hampers everyone else’s work!”

“And you’re saying an absent guildmaster is no problem?”

“That’ll be our little secret!” Haage flashed his teeth and gave his signature snappy thumbs-up, but with a little less energy than usual.

It may have been because every last staff member of the Adventurers Guild had said nothing except that he was “qualified.”

“Someone come with me!”

“You’re qualified.”

“I’ve got classes to teach, you know?”

“You’re qualified.”

“By the way, maybe we could all have lunch together today…”

“You’re qualified.”

“…I’ll handle the Mount Ahriman request.”

“Take care, Guildmaster!”

This last line was said in perfect unison. It was their finest teamwork. It only served to attract attention to the man they were ostracizing.

Now that it’s come to this, I’ll use every possible method to restore the Ahriman Springs, and then all of Team Haage will take a vacation together!

In his mind, Haage forced a snappy thumbs-up.

02

Mount Ahriman housed a number of hot springs relatively close to the Labyrinth City. Two hundred years prior, it had recreational facilities that utilized the hot springs. Though the region didn’t sustain damage from the Stampede, it had been abandoned for a long time, meaning the facilities had deteriorated from the gas in the hot springs and were missing their roofs, which had been crushed under the weight of snow.

Sieg and the rest stayed overnight in a temporary tent.

They’d had a tough time from the get-go. They were glad they’d thrown a small barrel of monster-warding potions prepared by the Labyrinth Suppression Forces into their hot spring of choice to drive out needle apes relaxing in the water.

These low-grade monster-warding potions were odorless to humans, but they emitted an unbearably bad smell to monsters. From the needle apes’ point of view, it was like filthy water had been dumped into their usual spot.

In an instant, their paradise had completely transformed into a pool of foul water. The surroundings were saturated with a horrible odor that blended with the rising steam, and they couldn’t even get close. The dirty water soaked their fur to the core, and there was no doubt the stench wafting from their bodies hadn’t abated at all.

Imagine marveling, “What a great hot spring waterfall” and then experiencing the shock of turning your head to realize the water was coming from a drunken old man doing something very crude. If someone displayed that kind of behavior…

“ROOOOOAR! GRA-AR-RARG!!!”

It was no wonder the needle apes tried to slaughter that person in a fit of rage.

The needle apes were smart. They knew Sieg, Lynx, and Edgan were the ones who’d transformed their paradise into a pungent nightmare swamp. The trio had wanted to run away from the creatures approaching with furious squawks and bloodshot eyes. But between the needle apes and Nierenberg, the latter was more frightening for sure.

Standing their ground, the three were locked in a relentless fight to the death, pushing back on the needle apes in the hellish landscape named Ahriman Springs.

The soldiers from the Labyrinth Suppression Forces who had “won” tickets for a day trip to the hot springs—or more accurately, the Polar Bootcamp from Hell—filed in, enclosing the area around the hot springs with fencing. By planting bromominthra and daigis, they were able to prevent monsters from invading their secured zone. With the needle apes pummeling Sieg’s group at all hours, they could catch their breath only while the soldiers were doing their thing: receiving medical attention from healers, eating food that the soldiers brought, and sleeping like logs. Since they secretly took the Regen medicine from Mariela, the three were getting better at abnormal speeds, but with every new day bringing brutal challenges, they didn’t even have the energy to notice.

All the soldiers from the Labyrinth Suppression Forces were on a day trip. Once their duties were finished, they rested in the hot spring for no time at all before trudging down the snowy slopes. They were tasked with lugging up resources to restore Ahriman Springs without ever staying overnight. Even with all their training in the Labyrinth, it was no easy feat.

From morning to evening, the soldiers were being worked to the bone for a few dozen minutes of respite in the hot springs. Though they were essentially married to their jobs, they fantasized about soft and fair skin emerging from the steam on the other side. Except the only women in these parts were the needle apes. And all of them were madly in love with Haage.

On top of that, they couldn’t even enjoy a meal served by a cute waitress—they departed the Labyrinth City before sunrise and returned late at night. Across from other rugged men, they scarfed down their three meals, which were gross, preserved pouches to boot.

The effects of the “new medicine” gradually waned thanks to the hot spring treatment, though the oblivious men were beginning to have doubts about the whole thing. All they knew was that their energy was being sapped along with their psyches. The hot springs might have made their skin baby smooth, but their hearts were beginning to dry out and crack.

“At least we can sleep in our own beds at night,” said the soldiers at the Ahriman Springs, reciting their new group mantra.

Then what crimes had Sieg’s group committed to be subjected to this punishment? Other than the short span that the Labyrinth Suppression Forces were present, they’d been forced to put up a fight day and night. Only Haage was there to cast his gentle eyes on them, gazing at the battered group with the affection you might have for little children. From their perspective, it’s not hard to see how this could be incredibly grating. Forced to spend every waking minute with Haage and shoo away the jealous female monkeys, the three felt the soldiers of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces definitely had it better.

According to the Labyrinth Suppression Forces, the trio were the bottom-feeders in the social hierarchy at the Ahriman Springs.

“Heeey, Sieg! Any other exciting stories from your life shacked up with a girl?”

“Shut up and eat your food, Edgan.”

“What if I don’t wanna? It’s always the same old junk. Tell me a story to spice up my dinner.”

“Dinner, huh? Mariela always whips up some pretty good stuff.”

“Sure, but she can really only follow a recipe, Lynx.”

“Hmm? Is she bad at tweaking recipes?”

“‘Bad’ doesn’t even begin to cover it… I think it was last month when an adventurer handed Mariela a small gift. She might not look it, but she’s pursued by plenty of men.”

“She’s what?!”

Lynx was hooked now, and Sieg continued his story.

Adventurers were familiar with consumable goods—including medicine and smoke bombs. Now that the chemists were all-around better and the differences in quality had become negligible, it was possible to buy items for the same price at the shop run by the Adventurers Guild near the entrance to the Labyrinth. In most circumstances, the adventurers stopped by at the shop to purchase those goods while selling the materials they’d obtained on their latest expedition. But their loyalty to Sunlight’s Canopy ran deep, steering them to visit on their days off to buy products or relax.

As a chemist, Mariela had a stable job, but her carefree grin brought her down to their level. She was unremarkable and therefore desirable.

The information transmission channel—going by the name of Merle of Merle’s Spices—was eager to spread rumors of her love life: “Who will win her affections? Sieg or Lynx? Both contenders are currently in the friend zone! And the winner to reign supreme is orc king meat, once again!” Even then, there were extremely rare occurrences of young men throwing their hat in the ring, claiming to be the one to “overthrow the orc king meat.”

“Mariela, I want you to try this.”

“Wow, this is new! Is it meat from a lightning deer?”

On that day, a young contender had apparently brought choice cuts from a rare lightning deer in an attempt to defeat the orc king. The fact that he had brought meat to woo her instead of his personality meant he really didn’t stand a chance.

“Mariela, he went to all the trouble. How about treating him to dinner with the meat?”

“Great call, Sieg. Hmm, it might be good in a stew with red-wine sauce?”

“Are you sure, Mariela? Oh boy, I can’t believe you’re cooking for me! And thanks, Mr. Sieg?” added the man, suspicious of his motives, but over the moon about the idea.

He didn’t know that he’d played right into Sieg’s hands.

“Hey, Johan,” grunted Gordon, “I’ll get us bread; you grab red wine.”

“Got it, Pops. Get some soft bread for me, will ya?”

“Then I s’pose I’ll get some greens for the salad. And hard bread for me,” mumbled Gordon.

“And while you’re out, grab some roots for the stew! I’ll get herbs to mellow the taste. Mariela, don’t get started without me; I have tomato paste, too. And get some bread coated with sugar for me,” added Merle.

With a clatter, the dwarven trio of Gordon, Johan, and Ludan, along with Merle, stood up and began to disperse—totally uninvited but naturally inviting themselves.

When she was done cooking, the old man Ghark brought over a bundle of ham made from orc meat when their conversation reached his ears. That evening, Sunlight’s Canopy transformed into a banquet hall. Caroline trudged home with regret as the daughter from a noble family obviously wasn’t permitted to dine in the home of a commoner. After Mariela closed up shop, her dishes were set out for dinner.

“It’s delicious, Mariela!” exclaimed the young man in delight.

The regulars were happy to heap their own plates with food and chow down. As the recipe called for, she’d rubbed the herbs into the deer meat to mask its gamy taste, then trimmed off the hard tissue before boiling it until soft. The flavor came bursting out with every chew.

Mariela was a great cook. Any man who got to live with her would be very happy.

As he let his imagination run wild, the young contender savored his meal, while the other guests crammed the food into their mouths. After all, the regulars had just invited themselves over for dinner, which meant manners were already a foreign concept to them.

Meanwhile, Sieg had portioned out Mariela’s share of the food. He wasn’t one to neglect social cues. The only one who missed out on eating a full meal was the young man, serving himself a small portion at the very beginning of their dinner and completely immersed in his emotions.

“Oh… What? There’s only bread left.”

All the young man had was sauce on his plate, which he sopped up with a piece of bread. Gordon had brought over the bread from his favorite bakery, kneaded by hand by a hulking dwarven man. The unlucky suitor tore into it with his teeth.

“I made dessert, too! Something new for today!” announced Mariela, stuffed from the meal.

From her magical refrigeration tool, she brought out some tarts with a pastry base, piled high with three-layer bavarois. Judging from the color, they appeared to contain citrus fruit.

“Something new? From a recipe?” asked Merle with caution, after she’d enjoyed plenty of the stew and bread.

“Nuh-uh. I came up with it myself. I’m confident about this one!” Mariela answered, flashing a smile. She hadn’t noticed the true motive behind Merle’s question.

That was when Sunlight’s Canopy fell into dead silence, electrifying the air with unease. Only Mariela and the young man were oblivious to this change in mood.

“Here you go.” Mariela held out a slice with a huge smile to the young man, who eagerly accepted the plate and expressed his gratitude.

All eyes were on them.

“Urp…”

As expected. Well, at least he didn’t spit it back out. The suitor of the day was an okay guy.

With their eyes glued on him, the regulars were all on the same page. The young man guzzled water as he gulped down the remainder of Mariela’s tart.

“Delicious, as always. Particularly the white layer. It has a unique texture,” commented Siegmund, eating the tart without changing his expression.

His cruel and long days as a slave had given him a special skill of eating anything.

“Really? Let’s see… Blargh…” Tricked by his smile, Mariela dry heaved after sinking her teeth into her culinary creation, immediately washing it down with water.

“Another failure… Weird. The rind and spongy white pith are supposed to be chock-full of nutrients. I thought sugar would get rid of the bitterness.”

“It’s enhanced by sugar, and the spongy bits coat every corner of my mouth. Helps me savor the flavor longer.”

“Aw, man… I thought sugar would bring out its acidity.”

“It really stings. Like my eyes are being stabbed. Very creative.”

“And I added a layer of yagu milk to bring the flavors together…”

“Which really brings out a gamy stench. A nice surprise after you cooked the venison perfectly. The pastry sucked all the moisture from my mouth. It’s an effective attack.”

“Sorry, Sieg. And you, sir, I apologize for making you eat this…,” said Mariela dejectedly.

“Everything you cook is delicious, Mariela,” consoled Sieg, polishing off the rest of the cake. What a hero. With a smug, almost mocking expression, he looked down at the young man.

“Urgh…” The young man gritted his teeth. “Thanks for the meal. I had a good time…,” he offered to Mariela, totally defeated, and took his leave with his tail tucked between his legs.

“I think he’d be happy if you served him the Mariela Special,” said Sieg.

Mariela was none the wiser that he’d meant it in jest.

“It’s because Mariela’s cooking enhances the effects of food in the human body. And the flavor, too. Thanks to that, my skin was absolutely glowing the next day. It was almost glassy.”

“Which was totally wasted on you, Sieg.”

“Geez, Sieg, you’re pretty conniving,” added Edgan.

The trio were surprisingly friendly with one another, while Haage loitered around in their periphery, looking like he wanted to join the group.

“Man, I want to eat something she’s cooked……”

“Me too.”

“Hear! Hear!”

“And don’t forget her special cake.”

“Hard pass.”

“Wouldn’t it be fine if she follows a recipe?”

While they chatted excitedly about Sieg’s story, they were starting to become homesick, too.

03

The needle apes just wouldn’t let it go.

They might have wanted revenge for being unjustly driven from their paradise.

Or they held a grudge against the monster-warding potion that had turned their lovely spring into a stinking swamp.

They must have wanted to get even with Haage for stealing the hearts of their lovely ladies.

But needle apes were monsters, which meant they couldn’t coexist with humans. In the imperial capital, the scholars proposed that all monsters possessed corrupted magical gems in their bodies, telling them to hurt humankind. These magical gems were believed to be the coagulation of magical power and corruption in this world. That meant monsters with these gems inside their bodies had an inherent grudge against humans, as the creators of corruption—from malice to hatred to jealousy to terror to anger to lust.

These thoughts polluted the world; ravenous and parched, they congealed and relentlessly foraged for magical power. This was why scholars considered magical gems to be a manifestation of these thoughts. Those monsters that harbored these gems could not help but loathe humans—desperately trying to annihilate them before the world was saturated with their corruption.

But this was all conjecture. All they knew was that monsters and people were incompatible. The relationship between the two could never go beyond “kill or be killed.”

That was why this situation wasn’t black-and-white. The Ahriman Springs might have been a place of recreation for the Kingdom of Endalsia two hundred years ago. It might have been paradise for the needle apes now that the Labyrinth City was trying to reclaim it. It just wasn’t that simple.

As long as Sieg and his fellow humans were camped out in the Ahriman Springs, the needle apes had no choice but to try and annihilate them. Atop the wintry mountain, the humans had become too aware of this fact.

“Oh, hey, Natasha! Baring your teeth and playing hard to get? You’re! Just! Too! Cute!”

“Ed, get a grip! That’s a needle ape!”

“Hey, you can’t discriminate, Lynx. You should know love transcends all.”

“Aaargh! Unbelievable! Sieg, talk some sense into him!”

“Mariela…”

That was all Siegmund could say, even as Edgan began to seduce the needle apes. It was total chaos. Of the three, Lynx was the only one young enough to excuse his idiocy. But the two adults were in a tizzy, leaving young Lynx to be the calm one.

At the very least, Sieg was defeating the needle apes. Edgan, on the other hand, was busy chasing ape ass. The monsters were conditioned to attack all humans on sight, and it was absurd to see the needle ape at the target of Edgan’s affections sprinting for its life. There was really nothing left to say.

It had been almost a month since Sieg’s group had sequestered themselves on the mountain.

The fence enclosing the Ahriman Springs had become sturdy enough to ward off monsters, and they had even made a cabin for lodging. Every hot spring in Mount Ahriman now contained a barrel of monster-warding potion. But because Haage had strewn used towels and socks from Sieg’s group everywhere, the needle apes in the mountains zeroed in on the trio. As a result, the three had become stronger—whether they liked it or not. Previously C Rank, Sieg had enough skill to be considered a B-Rank, and Lynx was able to defeat needle apes without using his shadowmaster skills. Edgan’s growth was slower than the other two, but since all he did was chase their butts, it was inevitable.

“You’ve all made amazing headway! I think we’ve defeated enough needle apes—they shouldn’t pose any problems for us. And we’ve finished building the hot springs base. Let’s leave the mountain tomorrow!”

In a surprising turn of events, Haage had granted them permission to leave.

“Seriously, Haage?! Yes! We can go home!”

“Joanna? I can finally see her! Wait for me!”

“Mariela!” In delight, Sieg clutched a letter from her delivered by the Labyrinth Suppression Forces.

She’d written letters to Lynx and Edgan, too. The soldiers had nudged Mariela to write to them, having compassion for the men. Maybe all was right in the world.

In eager agreement, Mariela included Peppity-Pep Cookies with her frequent letters. The contents droned on about her meals from that day, her meals from the other day, and other meal-related talk. Incidentally, she copied the exact same letter for all three of them, and the only grateful one was Sieg.

“Mariela…”

“Uh-huh, that’s right, Sieg. With Mariela, you’ll never have to worry about her being too lonely to eat. I mean, all she writes about is food, right? I bet she’s feeding herself and doing just fine.”

“I think Joanna’s too shy to write me any letters.”

“Ed, isn’t Needle Ape Natasha good enough?”

“Don’t you think she has too much of a wild side for my sensitive soul?”

“Mariela…”

“What, Sieg? You’re worried about the mountain minerals that the Labyrinth Suppression Forces are hauling back with them? You think they could be for a new potion, huh? I know Mariela can be a pushover, so you’re worried they’ll work her to the bone.”

“What should I bring back to give Joanna? I’ve got nothing but needle ape fur. You think she’ll like it?”

“Ed, are you seriously thinking of giving her Natasha’s pelt? That’s just cruel, dude.”

The fact they could have a conversation in this state was incredible. Although Sieg said nothing but “Mariela,” Lynx understood what he was trying to say. He must have acquired a new skill.

In their excitement to go home, the three lost sight of one important thing: Monsters and people could not coexist. And the needle apes would never forget it.

That night, the remaining needle apes launched their attack at the Ahriman Springs, as if they knew the three would be going home.

To prepare for their return to Labyrinth City, the trio had shaved their beards and trimmed their hair, which Haage sprinkled across Mount Ahriman, calling all needle apes. Not that the three realized this. They hadn’t reached his levels of combat.

In another unlucky twist, the monster-warding potions in the hot springs had been diluted by the water gushing in, making the stench now bearable to the needle apes. The tall fence around the springs and the bromominthra and daigis weren’t insurmountable obstacles for those with raging with murder.

The needle apes knew the humans who’d evicted and tried to destroy them were slumbering there.

The relationship between the two could never go beyond “kill or be killed.”

The needle apes gathered their surviving comrades and prepared for the final battle.

“Grar-grar-grar! Graaaaaahhhhhr!”

The needle apes clambered over the fence, closing in on the cabin where Sieg and the others slept. At last, they’d be able to destroy the cabin in the blink of an eye.

“Ngh… What the—? Needle apes?! Come on!”

“Natasha! Sneaking into my bedroom at night? You take what you want, huh?”

“Mariela!”

The three men leaped to their feet at the sound of the needle apes’ furious shrieks. The instigator, Haage, had been awake and blithely spectating.

“Took ya long enough! If they wreck the place, you can kiss home good-bye—until we rebuild it!”

It was an absurd thing to hear from the culprit behind this attack. Maybe it would be better to think of it as educational guidance—for Sieg’s group to demonstrate their true strength under constrained circumstances.

“We can what?!”

“I’m sorry, Natasha. I gotta go home!”

“Ma-Mariela!”

After coming this far, there was no way they would accept any more delays! Highly motivated, they barreled out of the cabin to settle things with the needle apes once and for all.

The heat from the hot springs had melted the snow, exposing the ground around them. The needle apes were clutching stones and broken pieces of fence, hurling them with the force of a ballista.

If this had happened a month ago when the group had just arrived at the Ahriman Springs, they would have been dashed from the face of the earth. These attacks were that fast. The apes had good control, taking precise shots at their heads and legs. The trio dodged the projectiles by a hairsbreadth, cutting through the needle apes springing at them and using their blades to knock away objects that might cause damage to the hot springs or the lodging.

Lynx’s daggers whistled through the air, too fast for the eye to follow their trajectory, and found their mark in the middle of needle apes’ foreheads. His control was flawless.

Siegmund’s sword tore through the apes’ fur. Back in the early days of their expedition, his sword had bounced off, but now he could sharpen the magical power in his sword right before it came in contact with their natural armor, boosting its sharpness ten thousandfold.

“If you bare your teeth, I can’t give you a kiss, Natasha,” Edgan cooed, which is to say he was just being Edgan.

He stabbed his dual swords up along the needles and into their flesh as he flew past the monsters. Not that the needle apes were standing still. Their armor of needles rippled with every movement, refusing to slow down. And yet, his finesse was incredible.

As Edgan sliced through the needle apes, he whispered “Natasha” to every single one of the female ones. It would seem there was no real difference to him.

Haage had managed to stir up a decisive battle that lasted until dawn.

Among the heaps of corpses on the battlefield, the last ones standing were the three men.

All of them had someone waiting for their return.

That had made all the difference between victory and defeat.

“Good job, fellows!”

With a snappy thumbs-up, Haage appeared through the steam, glistening in the morning light. He seemed even more infuriatingly enthusiastic than usual.

“We’re going home, Haage!”

“Joanna’s waiting for me!”

“Mariela!”

The trio had no time to engage with Haage. Although they’d eaten and slept under his watch for a month, they offered him only the most cursory farewell, scrambling toward the Labyrinth City before he could start talking about any more construction or delays.

He’d be able to see Mariela. Finally. At long last. Oh, how he had looked forward to this day.

Mariela, Mariela, Mariela… Siegmund set his sights on the Labyrinth City without even a look to his side as he mowed down monsters on his way.

Sieg did not conceal his desire to see Mariela as he sprinted for the Labyrinth City, which Lynx admired. He picked up his pace, determined not to lose.

They practically tumbled down the mountain, racing across the open fields like the wind. A month of death matches with the needle apes had made their bodies light. As the scenery rushed past them, they began to understand how fast they were running.

Far off in the distance, the Labyrinth City became visible as a tiny speck, urging the three down the path.

They could see a gate to the City—probably the northern one.

The soldiers of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces must have been contacted in advance, because the three were able to enter the Labyrinth City without a problem despite the wild, bestial fervor glittering in their eyes.

They sped through the main road toward the city center. Once they turned at the street in front of the Labyrinth, Sunlight’s Canopy would be a hop, skip, and jump away.

Ah, there was the sacred tree.

The familiar sight and signboard announced that he was home.

Ah, Mariela. I finally… I finally get to see you…

Sieg had been reduced to spouting nothing but “Mariela,” but his thoughts would have been easy to guess.

Slam! As if this were the finish line, the trio tumbled into Sunlight’s Canopy, panting.

“Welcome back, Sieg and Lynx. And Edgan, too!”

Oh, how he’d even dreamed of that voice! It greeted them as it always had welcomed him.

Sproing. The face that greeted them was just a liiittle wider than usual.

And her clothes were bursting at the seams.

It wasn’t from the sublime peaks and valleys—like a certain someone’s sacred mountains. If anything, they were gently sloping hills. Everywhere. And no valleys in sight.

“Did you seriously put on weight?!”

“Marielaaa!!!”

Let loose to freely graze in the garden of Sunlight’s Canopy, Mariela had grown tubby.

Oh, and Edgan’s latest favorite, Joanna, wasn’t waiting for his arrival.

04

“Hey, hey, hey! Doc, what’s the meaning of this?” Lynx asked aggressively.

By “this,” he meant Mariela, sitting in a chair like a squashy lump of kneaded lynus wheat. Her thighs spread against the seat of her chair in a doughy display. In a way, it was the first time she’d been in a crisis situation since she’d awoken from suspended animation.

Lynx’s group spent a month of hell fighting needle apes at the Ahriman Springs, and they’d all advanced enough to be B Rank. You could say they leveled up. And when they finally trudged home, they found Mariela had experienced rapid growth, too. It might as well be a change in character class, never mind leveling up. They hadn’t asked for this. It was so unexpected that Lynx was close to acquiring a skill for coercion or some other form of vindictive delinquency.

“Hrm… I warned her, but…”

It was rare to see Nierenberg avert his gaze. If the soldiers of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces saw it, their eyes would have been as big as saucers in surprise.

To think Lynx, one of the three people in the lowest tier of the Ahriman Springs hierarchy, had overpowered Nierenberg.

“Lyyynx, you’re so mean. I wrote about meals in my letters, didn’t I?” Mariela’s round cheeks became even more rotund—further proving Lynx’s point. She must have been puffing them up. Somehow.

“Yeah? You mean when you were writing about the sweets from somewhere-or-another and cookies from so-and-so?”

“Yeah, snack meals,” replied Meatiela—er, Mariela with a cheeky grin on her face.

Snack meals? What in the world? He knew what she meant. Sure.

“Snacks are snacks! And! Meals! Are! Meals! Don’t think this made-up word will get you outta this!” Lynx flew into a rage as if he was her mother or something, while her guard and guardian, Sieg, pushed his way into the conversation to back her up.

“Our village in the countryside didn’t have sweets. You just happened to overindulge a little, huh?”

“That’s right, Sieg.”

“There’s nothing ‘right’ about it! Geez, Sieg! You spoil her. It’s not good for her!”

“N-not good for her?!”

Sieg brought his long history with Mariela into the conversation, which was totally irrelevant and earned him a biting comment from Lynx. He finally had the opportunity to mutter something other than “Mariela,” and now this. Sieg might need medical treatment or therapy. Particularly therapy.

Lynx tore at his hair, pointing sternly at Mariela.

“Mariela! From now on, I’m calling you Chubby-ela until we’re back to where you started! We’re gonna go look for materials in the Labyrinth! You’re going on a diet!”

“Oh?! The Labyrinth? Materials? I’ll do it!”

From that day forward, Chubbyela began to hunt for items from the Labyrinth.

Lynx’s “not good for her” speech seemed to have flipped a switch in Sieg, upping her evil teacher count to two. From intense exercise to a balanced and restricted diet, they had it down to a tee.

Thus, with the new exercise of hunting items in the Labyrinth and Sieg restricting her snacks, her figure quickly returned to its original shape, and Chubbyela became Mariela again. The crisis had been averted with her effort and her friends’ cooperation…… Well, it might be more accurate to call it coercion.

05

“Dehydrate, Dehydrate, Deeehyyydrate.”

Mariela’s carefree voice echoed through the Labyrinth.

This was the twenty-third stratum, known as the Shores of Eternal Night, where lunamagia flourished.

Because she’d made a ton of high-grade potions at the request of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces, there was a shortage of lunamagia in the Labyrinth City. This place was perfect for Mariela’s diet and for gathering materials.

Lunamagia grew in the Labyrinth from the nineteenth to the twenty-third stratum. Most adventurers gathered it from the twentieth, as this was the threshold of D-Rank monsters. C-Rank ones started to appear from the twenty-first stratum onward. Adventurers of C Rank and higher considered the monsters in these four strata suitable for their rank—though neither profitable nor tasty. Even if you gathered lunamagia in spare moments while hunting, it would be much more efficient to hunt in a different stratum altogether.

Those who decided to gather lunamagia for a living were exclusively D Rank, and their gathering spots were constrained to the nineteenth and twentieth strata where these monsters appeared.

Mariela’s group was in the twenty-third stratum, as recommended by Ghark for its lunamagia. The monsters on this floor were stronger than those in the previous two strata, but they were massive and rare in number. If their guard was strong enough, even a civilian could safety harvest lunamagia.

In accordance with its name, the Shores of Eternal Night was lit like the night of a full moon. The darkness was kept at bay by the moonstones scattered on the ceiling and walls of the stratum, all the way to the ground and the lakes.

There were lakes of all sizes and gentle streams weaving through the trees. Over beds of moss and curtains of algae slipped clear water, showered in the light. The droplets of water that plipped on breaks in the stream sounded like music.

They could hear the rush of water from far away, perhaps from a waterfall somewhere.

If you followed the timbre of the waterfall and the burbling of the streams, you would find a large lake. The many voices of water in the dark stratum were hauntingly beautiful and tickled one’s inner explorer—beckoning you to push aside the trees and peek through.

But a monster nest awaited there.

“Screeech!”

“Hiss! Hiss, geeeh!”

You see, this stratum was a den of lizardmen.

These lizard monsters started appearing from the nineteenth stratum onward, overlapping with fields of lunamagia. As the adventurers traveled down, the lizards got increasingly bigger, until they were lizardmen, walking on two legs with a reptilian slouch on the twenty-first stratum. On the twenty-second, they were completely bipedal, their arms extending longer, and they attacked in herds with spears of sharpened wood. It was as close to witnessing the evolution of lizards as one could get.

By the time you reached the twenty-third stratum, they became harder to encounter, though their height inflated to two or three yards with another yard for their tail. They were called armored lizardmen because of their tough scales. They possessed some form of intelligence, capable of calling to one another in near words as if to communicate to their fellow monsters in the manner of orcs.

Since the monsters were tough and smart, it took time for C-Rank adventurers to defeat them, but there was a low chance of obtaining magical gems compared to other monsters. Instead, they left behind their hides, which were heavy and unwieldy, and their smelly, dry, and generally inedible meat. These hunting grounds just didn’t cut it for C-Rank adventurers—even though they could cull lunamagia. It was always deserted. And today was no exception. It was as if Mariela’s group had booked it for a private event.

Of course, the armored lizardmen were no threat to Sieg or Lynx after training in the Ahriman Springs. It should have been no problem for Mariela to wander along, plucking lunamagia and Dehydrating it without a care for the world.

“Screeech! Sh-cha! Raaaah!”

“Grar-rar-rah!”

Their luggage-carrying raptor was provoking the armored lizardmen. It was a surprise to learn that reptiles could make such loathsome expressions.

The area around the stairs connecting the different strata of the Labyrinth was said to be a safe zone. For some reason, the monsters didn’t go there. In general, the monsters had low IQs, and it had been confirmed that those in the deeper strata preyed on those in the shallower ones. If monsters could move freely between levels, the superior species would prey on those at the bottom of the natural hierarchy and eventually push out humans from the Labyrinth altogether. This was why the Labyrinth restricted their movement.

Even among experts, the concept of a sentient labyrinth was hotly contested. But there was one area where they could find common ground: If it was better for the Labyrinth to confine the monsters to their strata, these restrictions could be removed if the conditions reached a certain threshold, causing monsters to swarm out. That was called a Stampede. To prevent this, it was believed that soldiers and adventurers needed to go into the Labyrinth and defeat monsters to keep the scale from tipping.

That was why yagus and other docile animals were hesitant to enter the Labyrinth, even though they could move between levels. Meaning it was up to the humans or raptors and other fierce cavalry animals to carry their supplies.

As for the raptor that had been provoking the armored lizardmen, it wasn’t stronger than the monsters. It simply hid behind Lynx as it taunted the lizardmen. Bearing its fangs and threatening to sink its teeth in the monsters, it was way too eager to fight.

Irritated by the raptor darting behind him, Lynx called out to the other luggage-bearer.

“Jay! Keep an eye on the raptor, would ya?” Lynx called to a slave of the Black Iron Freight Corps, who was slowly picking up hides and magical gems dropped by lizardmen. In response, he moved in the direction of the raptor.

Yuric trained the raptors well, but this particular one was newly purchased when the Black Iron Freight Corps built a base in the Labyrinth City for transport around the City. It was hard to say if the creature had been trained for long enough, and it was young, fickle, and brimming with curiosity. With a naughty streak, the raptor readily changed its attitude depending on the person. It quietly obeyed those with more strength, including Lynx or Sieg, but it assumed a mocking attitude and refused to take orders from anyone it could overpower. When Yuric was around, his skills as an animal trainer granted complete control over the animal, so the raptor turned into a docile and obedient creature for anyone. But the members of the Black Iron Freight Corps, including Yuric, had left for the imperial capital, and the only ones in the Labyrinth City were Lynx, the newly minted husband Dick, and the slave, Jay.

Since Edgan had gotten stronger at the Ahriman Springs, Dick was free to remain in the Labyrinth City, but if they were going to leave behind their strongest member, Malraux had to accompany the Corps to make up the difference. Among the three weakest members, Jay had happened to catch the Forces’ eye and stayed behind in the City.

Naturally, Jay had been given miscellaneous tasks, including looking after the raptor.

“Grr! Raah!”

“!”

The raptor refused to listen to Jay, pretending to take a chomp out of him instead. Jay stumbled backward onto the damp ground near the streams, moistening his pants and staining his rear end in an unsightly fashion.

“Tch, pathetic,” Lynx snipped, and Jay reddened.

He silently began to gather up the materials that had scattered when he fell. Of course, he couldn’t fire back with any quips—his vocal cords had been crushed.

“Oh, raaaaaptor! C’mere,” cooed Mariela.

“Grah! Grah.” The raptor adopted a completely different expression, wagging its tail as it trotted to her.

Mariela should have been the weakest person in this team—not Jay—save for her magic. Although she usually restrained this power to prevent others from taking notice, the raptor knew exactly who it was dealing with upon receiving water infused with magic. Other than Yuric, Mariela was the one it listened to the most. Lynx teased that it was like feeding a stray cat that won’t leave.

Mariela piled bundles of dried lunamagia onto the raptor, a burden that was nothing to a creature accustomed to pulling armored carriages on its own. It turned its back to Mariela as if to say, “Want a ride?”

“I’ll walk on my own,” she replied, cooing that it was so hardworking and letting it lap some water from her cupped hands.

It wasn’t because she had learned to enjoy exercise, unfortunately. Whenever she tried to take it easy, Lynx would open his eyes wide and waggle his fingers near his face, chasing her around with a “I’m gonna tear off your fat!”

See? His eyes are all big again!

As Lynx chased her around, Mariela shuddered, remembering the era of Chubbyela when she’d been forced to run from the Labyrinth’s twenty-third stratum all the way up to the surface.

Sieg had cheered Chubbyela on with all his might, with cries of “Just a little more!” “Food tastes the best after exercise!” and “I’ll give you three marshmallows in your cocoa today,” as he ran alongside her.

The morning after her twenty-three-stratum dash, Lynx had paid her a visit. Mariela would never forget it.

“Chubbyela, let’s go to the Laaabyrinth.”

Her knees had still been knocking against each other. If she hadn’t been able to heal her muscle aches with Regen medicine, it would have been hell for her. Those eyes of his were serious.

Bless the Regen medicine!

06

In winter, sunset came early. Although Mariela’s party had left the Shores of Eternal Night to make it home in time for dinner, the sun had completely set, and the City was illuminated by artificial light.

“Brrr, it’s so cold.”

“Grah.”

The lunamagia-filled Shores of Eternal Night were nippy, but night at the Labyrinth City was chilling to the bone.

Laden with bundles of dried medicinal herbs, the raptor followed Mariela, braying as though in agreement. Mariela, Sieg, and Lynx carried hardly anything, while Jay wobbled behind them stacked high with hides from armored lizardmen. Although the raptor still could carry more, it had growled threateningly at Jay when he tried to place his bundle on it, forcing him to carry the load himself.

Although the citizens ambling through the roads ogled the raptor, no one paid any attention to the average civilian Mariela or the weighed-down Jay.

Dehydrating herbs was an easy task for those with alchemical skills—even if they weren’t a Pact-Bearer. Since dried medicinal herbs could be carried in greater quantities, it was not unusual to see someone with those skills in a party. Plus, most herbs stored their properties better when dried at the temperature and humidity of their natural habitat.

As for Jay, he was led by Lynx and Sieg, who could be easily identified as high-ranking adventures from their equipment and swagger. From an outsider’s perspective, he was simply a slave for a group of adventurers, tasked with carrying their load. Depending on the observer, they might even assume that his masters were humane for clothing him in a decent outfit.

It was customary for a slave to be weighed down by luggage—as it was customary for his masters to hold hardly anything.

At the Adventurers Guild, Lynx sold the lizardmen hides and magical stones, handing Jay the change—twenty copper coins—with an order to take the raptor back to the base. Jay eagerly received his dinner money, thrilled. After Mariela soothed the raptor with some water, Jay headed back to the base with it.

To give a slave twenty copper coins for dinner and letting him choose his meal was exceptional treatment.

Nice, I can have some booze. I mean, I thought I had it good, staying in the safety of the Labyrinth City, but boy, they worked me to the bone. At least I get to have a drink. It’s stupid cold today. I can’t wait to get to the base and throw one back.

Jay stocked up on as much of the cheapest alcohol as his coins would get him before heading for the Black Iron Freight Corps’ base. There was orc meat at the base for raptor feed. No one would notice if he snuck a few bites.

Upon arrival, he gave the raptor its share of water and meat, tossed the dried medicinal herbs into the storehouse, and sipped on his cheap drink, picking at the orc meat.

“Five silver coins from the lizardman hides and magical stones. I’m gonna go hard at the Yagu Drawbridge Pavilion.”

“How many meals is ‘going hard,’ Lynx?”

“Enough to feed a family of three!”

“Hooow do you never gain weight?!”

Noisy as usual, the trio headed to the Yagu Drawbridge Pavilion and placed a huge order.

Even though there was enough food to go around, Lynx swiped meat from Mariela’s plate, while Sieg heaped it high with vegetables.

“Argh, Lyyynx! Why’re you taking meat from my plate? Take some from Sieg’s!”

“I already did. I’m just so fast you couldn’t see it.”

“Oh? Really?”

“Hey, Mariela. You haven’t touched your vegetables.”

“What? I thought I finished, but I guess…”

On one hand, Sieg was slipping vegetables onto Mariela’s plate at supersonic speed, while Lynx kept pilfering chunks of her meat. It was really mean, seeing as she wasn’t Chubbyela anymore! Well, it could have been a calculated effort to prevent post-diet rebound. After all, Sieg was supposed to always be on Mariela’s side (key words: supposed to).

“Hey! You just took another one!”

“Mwa-ha-ha! Too late! And all that’s left is the illusion. Nom-nom.”

While Lynx made full use of his physical abilities to tease Mariela, Sieg took advantage of every opportunity to make use of his physical abilities, stacking her plate with vegetables and swapping her cuts of meat for those with less fat. It was terrifyingly coordinated. Harmony between two people. Expect no less from the warriors who’d obliterated the needle apes on Mount Ahriman.

Once they were bursting from food and laughter, the remainder of their earnings were evenly divided between Lynx and Sieg.

“You guys earned it,” said Mariela, turning down her share as usual.

At Mariela’s house, Sieg managed both of their earnings, including payments for the potions. If it were left to Mariela, she’d splurge on slimes to collect every available acidic liquid or impulse buy unnecessary magical tools or dine on orc king meat every day. After a discussion, they decided on a fixed amount for living expenses and an allowance, which Sieg gave to her every month. Of course, Sieg received the same allowance as Mariela.

Their allowances were scant for a B-Rank adventurer and an alchemist concocting high-grade potions. But with living expenses, weapons, armor, and items needed for work coming from other funds, it was more than enough. Every time Mariela received her allowance, she scrambled out of the house, clutching her purse tightly, and came home with useless knickknacks to Sieg’s chagrin.

To Mariela, it was only natural for her to have the same allowance as Sieg. Lynx and the others in their lives might chide him for spoiling her, but none felt this arrangement was weird, even knowing Sieg’s past. No one pointed out that it was strange for Sieg to receive a share of the money from the hunt—even though it went against the cultural hegemony that a slave’s earnings belonged to their master.

About five months prior, Sieg and Jay stood together as slaves in the rear yard of Reymond’s slave trading company. Jay had watched Sieg taking care of the raptors while he’d been on the brink of death.

Even now, both Sieg and Jay remained penal laborers.

Except no one thought of Sieg as a slave anymore.

He carried a mythril sword and wore basilisk leather armor he’d obtained through the Black Iron Freight Corps. But it was his mannerisms as Mariela’s escort that signaled he was a fine gentleman—even more than his expensive equipment.

Even though Jay was dressed in decent clothing, he didn’t care to dust off dirt from his butt or clean his face or teeth. His posture was hunched, and he scrutinized his surroundings with darting eyes. His mouth might form a genial smile, but his dull looks made those around him uneasy. He wore normal clothes, yet no one doubted he was a slave.

Sieg and Jay had gone from occupying the rear yard of the slave trading company to going to the Labyrinth together.

Sieg was enjoying dinner with Mariela and Lynx, roaring with laughter.

They sat around the dining table set with dishes upon dishes and quality drinks—though Sieg and Lynx only drank in moderation and never got drunk. There was no hint of the old Sieg, a fool who ruined himself by indulging in alcohol and pleasure. Now he had someone to protect.

Meanwhile, Jay guzzled down cheap alcohol, voicelessly chuckling with his crushed vocal cords; it’d been his first drink in a while.

As long as he could get drunk without breaking the bank, that was fine. Jay was plastered from cheap spirits that boasted nothing but their strength, chewing on orc meat that he’d cooked with a sprinkle of salt. When Lynx returned, he’d confiscate the booze. His greed spurred him to polish off the bottle. Cradling the empty bottle with the tenderness of a cherished teddy bear, Jay curled up on his bed at the base of the Black Iron Freight Corps. To him, nothing in the world seemed more important than himself.

The next morning, Sieg woke up in his room in Sunlight’s Canopy to continue training with Nierenberg, while Jay got up with the sharp pangs of a hangover. On his way back from getting water, he peeked into the storehouse and noticed the lunamagia he thought he’d tossed in yesterday wasn’t there.

Where’s the stuff from yesterday?

Late at night, as the City slumbered, the alchemical materials brought to the Black Iron Freight Corps’ base were carried through the underground Aqueduct to Sunlight’s Canopy. Lynx had transported the lunamagia from the day before while Jay had been sleeping off the alcohol.

Come to think of it, these herbs always disappear when I’m not lookin’. What’s goin’ on?

Jay was not suspicious because he was admirable enough to help the Black Iron Freight Corps. In fact, he refused to be grateful for receiving decent clothes and enough food to eat.

Despite being subjected to slavery for his crimes, Jay seethed in hatred and hostility for those who treated him as a slave. If only there was a dirty scheme or signs of weakness he could weaponize. He contemplated the disappearance of the medicinal herbs.

Since Jay’s vocal cords had been crushed, he couldn’t voice his question aloud. And since he was illiterate, he had no way to scan documents for information. All he could do to investigate the situation was keep his eyes peeled and his ears pricked.

The herbs usually disappear at night. And often. This ain’t the work of an outsider. That newlywed is probably makin’ out with his hot bride, so Smiley must be the one takin’ the herbs, Jay thought as his head pounded with a hangover.

It would be convenient for him if a member of the Black Iron Freight Corps was selling medicinal herbs through illegal channels. If he could dig up some good dirt, he’d probably be able to get hush money for it.

Hrm? That’s odd. I’d get it if Smiley wanted to make a profit from herbs that he bought with his group’s money. But didn’t that lot gather ’em on their own? Why not sell the herbs in the open? If he wanted to hide ’em, why would he bring ’em here—not to their final destination? Where’s he takin’ ’em?

Jay’s nostrils twitched and flared. He’d gotten a whiff of money. A good deal lay just ahead. And he was extremely good at sniffing those out.

Been a long time since I felt like this. This’s gonna be a cash cow, I know it.

Would the day come when the suspicions budding within Jay involved Sieg and Mariela?

Would the fates of Sieg and Jay intersect once again, after they parted ways in the rear yard of the slave trading company?

Spring was far away. The nights were long, and the morning sun took its time before illuminating the City in full.

In the low visibility of the Labyrinth City, only Jay’s eyes glinted with light.

07

Sieg trudged through the thawing snow as he headed for the Ahriman Springs once more.

Though the snow on the mountain had already melted, the wind blasting through the terrain was still bitterly cold. It was almost unbelievable to think that spring would be upon them soon.

But when he cast his gaze on the mountain’s trees, he could spot small buds pushing out of their branches. At his feet, sprouts were emerging from the ground.

If Mariela saw this, she’d be over the moon about the material-gathering possibilities.

He could picture her scuttling around from a tree branch over there and picking at the ground over here, completely forgetting the original mission as she hoarded materials.

After confirming there was no change in the bundle strapped to his back, Sieg started walking along the narrow animal trail to the Ahriman Springs.

The results from his brutal winter training session with Lynx and Edgan seemed to be showing. On his back was a bundle that seemed too large for a single man to carry alone. Mariela sat inside of it, dozing off.

It was fine that she’d gotten up at the crack of dawn, beyond excited to go to the Ahriman Springs. But by the time they’d reached the foot of the mountain, she had run out of energy, and Sieg carried her along with his other equipment.

“I’m sorry, Sieg. I promise to start walking after I get a little rest,” she’d said at the beginning. “Not too heavy, is it? I don’t think I’ve gained weight…”

But as time went on, stuffed next to the other gear and gently swaying on Sieg’s back, she’d fallen sound asleep. Apparently, it was the perfect rhythm to induce a nap.

Sieg didn’t anticipate she’d be able to go all the way to the Ahriman Springs on her own two feet. Plus, they would reach their destination sooner, because they weren’t wasting time in the name of gathering materials. All in all, Sieg was thankful that she was fast asleep.

To Mariela, this trip to the Ahriman Springs was a dream come true.

“I wanna go to a hot spring! I wanna go! I might be sick! I mean, I shed a bunch of weight recently! It could be anything!” she yelled in front of Nierenberg.

How could anyone this energetic be sick? Even in the dry winter air, Mariela’s skin remained supple. Plus, on her allegedly superthin body, she’d regained the fat pockets that she’d had before she put on weight, making her look as healthy as ever. Sickness had nothing on Mariela if she could whip up one of her high-grade potions—and there was definitely no need to go to a hot spring to heal.

Nierenberg obviously knew Mariela wasn’t sick, but he negotiated with Weishardt’s group. “It’s important to let her rest every now and then.”

His face might be terrifying, but he did have a soft spot for women. After all, he’d let Mariela become Chubbyela under his supervision.

“Please don’t feed her,” Sieg wanted to scold Nierenberg, as her zookeeper—er, as her guardian. But he couldn’t help but thank him from the bottom of his heart for blessing this trip to the Ahriman Springs.

He was spending a night at the Ahriman Springs with Mariela. An overnight trip. And that was wonderful.

But they lived under the same roof, one might have protested, but that was foolish. To see Mariela’s melty smile from the other side of the steam? To witness her flushed face getting out of the water? Priceless. It would be that amazing.

The hot springs were surrounded by fences to keep monsters out, and the only cabin was that one hut that had housed Sieg’s group during their first expedition. After all, the Ahriman Springs had taken a nosedive two hundred years ago, its facilities destroyed before becoming a paradise of the monkey monsters known as needle apes. To cut to the chase, this was basically a secluded spring in the mountains. It didn’t have gendered zones. This needed to be emphasized: The Ahriman Springs had mixed bathing. To the delight of many.

The Labyrinth City didn’t have a mixed bathing culture. With the threat of monsters in mind, all baths were constructed indoors. This was common sense. But nothing could be done if there weren’t enough buildings—and if there was only one bath.

Sieg gave himself a warning. I’m an escort. My duty is always to protect Mariela. That’s nonnegotiable even in hot springs.

It will be fine. I’ve prepared a bathing suit just in case. All risks have been mitigated…!

Sieg must have become a little eccentric from living a stoic life for too long. He seemed to be developing a one-track mind. His definition of risk was wrong in the first place. It didn’t matter if you turned it on its head: A swimsuit had nothing to do with keeping Mariela safe. What else could possibly be stashed in the bundle on his back?

But of course, he considered Mariela’s safety his highest priority. The previous day, he’d traveled to the Ahriman Springs to make sure the road was safe. Along with Mariela, he carried enough provisions to camp out even in the winter mountains if something unexpected happened. It wasn’t as if he’d brought only a swimsuit.

With the Labyrinth Suppression Forces marching up and down the mountain frequently, there were almost no monster appearances on the road to the Ahriman Springs. Now that a supervisor was permanently stationed at the hut to manage the place, it was possible to detect a human presence from a distance. The trees in the vicinity had been mowed down, which made firewood plentiful. This helped cement his confirmation that it would probably be safe to bring Mariela.

The final hurdle was to carry out the trip to the hot springs without anyone around them finding out about it. Sieg wanted to go there with Mariela. No exceptions. Just the two of them, if at all possible.

“Almost there, Sieg. No monsters are around.”

“Yeah…,” replied Sieg, looking at Lynx with a sour expression.

There was no way Sieg’s overtly suspicious scheme would go as planned. Lynx had found out about it without much difficulty and weaseled himself into their strategem. Just as you would expect from a scout of the Black Iron Freight Corps. He saw through Sieg’s desperate attempt to spin his story and turned it into a three-person trip. Sieg should have been more gracious. After all, Lynx had given him a great excuse to ensure no other nuisances might tag along on this trip. And he had the ability to make any place more fun, encouraging Mariela to let loose. If she wore a swimsuit, it wouldn’t be much different from taking a dip in the ocean. It would be easy to broach the topic of a mixed bath. A delightful topic.

Well, if they just handed her the swimsuit and boldly invited her to the hot spring with them, Mariela wouldn’t think twice about it. But from Sieg’s point of view, it was critical that this remained an accidental situation, where they just so happen to find themselves in a mixed bath. Lynx agreed that this was important. Something was obviously wrong with their minds.

This was right around the time when news reached Edgan’s ears, and he would cry in resentment. But Natasha the Needle Ape had already been wiped from the mountains. He just had to suck it up.

“Mariela. Mariela, we’re here,” Sieg whispered to wake her as she continued to doze on his back. “The mountain road was cold, huh? Let’s hurry and get into the water.”

Sieg forgot to mention the hot spring to get her all giddy. Mariela didn’t have even the slightest thought that Sieg had secretly plotted a stupid scheme. As soon as she opened her eyes, Sieg helped her off his back, and she broke into a sprint toward the hut as if she just couldn’t wait any longer.

“Hellooo!”

“Oh, welcome. It must’a been a long trip. We’ve just opened to the public, and there might be amenities we’re missin’, but the hot spring is a fine piece o’ work. Take a load off yer feet.” An elderly married dwarven couple plodded outside to greet them.

“Yer room is this way,” announced the dwarven grandma, shuffling out of the hut that housed Sieg’s groups before, leading them farther into the forest.

“Wait a sec. We’re not staying in this hut?” asked Lynx.

“We’re usin’ this ourselves. It’s in no shape for guests. I built a place for lodgin’ farther back.”

A dwarf never forgot his roots, eh? Not much time had passed since Sieg’s group had left the Ahriman Springs, but an impressive log boardinghouse had been erected during their absence.

“Hey, Sieg. This is news to me,” Lynx whispered.

“When I came to check up on the place yesterday, I kind of just observed the hut from a distance. I certainly didn’t see this. I can’t believe he built this in such a short time…”

Sieg and Lynx exchanged a hushed conversation as the dwarven grandma led them to the boardinghouse.

They had a bad feeling about this. Their sixth sense had been honed during their battles against the needle apes, and it was blaring an alarm bell in their heads.

“And this here is the women’s bath, and this’s the men’s bath. It may be a wood buildin’, but my husband built it nice ’n’ sturdy. No danger here. Young lady, ye can take a bath with peace o’ mind,” drawled the dwarf grandma.

I knew it…!!! Sieg and Lynx buried their faces in their hands.

Their dreams of hopping in a bath with Mariela had been obliterated right before their very eyes. Sieg especially was not taking this well. He’d never thought this scenario through! The bundle on his back started to feel twice as heavy, weighing him down.

“Wow!” marveled Mariela without noticing the reactions of the two men. “But the needle apes are gone now, right?”

Mariela had believed monsters to be the dangerous ones, twisting the knife in her companions’ hearts and gutting them completely.

“Yes’m. But now that the needle apes are no more, weak monsters sometimes come out from the woodworks. Well, my husband can beat them back just fine. And today, we have those trusty companions of yers, so ye can rest easy,” she chattered, pushing open the door to the log cabin that could easily house a few dozen people.

They could hear the clamor of a banquet, as if guests were already inside.

“Hey! I’ve been waiting for you! The booze ran out; I was getting worried!”

Beyond the door, they found the brilliant morning sun. Well, not exactly, but there’s no need to rephrase. The cliché has played out so many times now that it’s becoming an art form.

This disappointing turn of events was a rite of passage, almost, for a giddy young man on an overnight trip with his crush. Sieg was taking it the hardest, even though he was a full-blown adult.

“Oh! Mr. Haage. I didn’t realize you were coming, too.”

“That’s right! It’s a company trip with the guys from the Adventurers Guild!”

It would seem that Mariela wasn’t the only one who’d whined to go to the hot springs.

“The guildmaster barreled into our rooms before dawn. That’s why we got here so early.”

“And its only just past noon, but he’s downed all the alcohol.”

“Oh, but don’t worry. If he goes too crazy, we’ll bundle him up and toss him out of here. He shouldn’t be a bother.”

“The guildmaster might be obnoxious, but the hot springs are just wonderful. We’ve been here a week, and it’s let us make marked progress. I just want him to pass out. Then I can relax in the hot springs.”

In the great hall near the entrance, they found all the top dogs of the Adventurers Guild looking after Haage and enjoying a feast. Their comments had no filter, meaning they must have put aside their standings to enjoy themselves. Well, it might be a normal thing for them, because Haage didn’t appear to be very drunk as he polished off the bottle with a carefree laugh.

“You saying there’s nothing for us to eat or drink?!” lamented Lynx, who always ate enough for two.

At the moment, his stomach growled. His dreams of baths with Mariela and thrilling nighttime chats had all been smashed to bits. He wanted to enjoy the feast—at the very least.

“What’re you talking about? You brought stuff with you.”

No. Way. Sieg lowered his bundle, ripping it open to check its contents.

“Th-this is……!!!”

What had happened? His emergency meals for unforeseen natural disasters had been swapped with alcohol, processed foods, cheese, bacon, and vegetables. Of course, there was no swimsuit among them.

“Ah, thank goodness. Ye brought everything the Labyrinth Suppression Forces requested. My husband caught a lot o’ game; I’ll cook it and bring it out right away,” added the dwarven grandma, retrieving Sieg’s bundle as Haage’s group snatched up the alcohol.

“When did it get switched…?”

“Could it have been when you were here yesterday?”

It was safer to come to the Ahriman Springs on the same day as Haage’s group than to haul provisions on their own. Thanks to the cover story that Sieg and Lynx were delivering food and alcohol to Haage, no one would question why Mariela got to go to the hot springs on opening day. To outsiders, Mariela’s group could be disguised as those delivering goods to the top brass of the Adventurers Guild who were on a company trip to the hot springs.

“I’m being confronted by my own ineptitude…”

Where had the excitement of the past few days gone? At the urging of the elderly dwarven supervisor, Lynx and Sieg let her lead them to their room.

Afterward, Sieg slipped into the men’s bath, cradling his knees and nearly drowning in the deepish water.

* * *

“The bath was huge! I could swim in it!”

“Oh, Mariela. I see you didn’t accidentally fall asleep and drown in the tub. Good job.”

“I…I would never! That’s dangerous, you know! …Er, I don’t do that anymore. Got it?” Mariela shouted back.

Lynx poked fun at Mariela for a little while.

“Since we’re here, let’s play a game!”

“Now that sounds like fun!” For some reason, Haage latched on to Lynx’s proposal.

First, it was an arm-wrestling competition, then a classic game of Can You Guess What’s in the Box?, and then it quickly devolved into anything else they could come up with on the spot. The dwarven grandma was an excellent cook, and the group feasted on dwarven cuisine full of the mountain’s bounty, which people didn’t really get to experience in the Labyrinth City. There were dishes with meat, too. As her master had foretold, Mariela was completely satisfied with this paradise of hot springs and meat.

“This is the first time I’ve ever partied in a big crowd! Thank you for bringing me, Sieg and Lynx!”

“Seeing you happy makes me happy, too, Mariela,” replied Sieg. For all his dashed dreams, Mariela’s delight made it all worthwhile.

“Well, someone slept on Sieg’s back the whole way. We brought you here. Literally.”

“Hmph! I’ll walk on the way home!”

The party at the Ahriman Springs continued almost until dawn.

Mariela was all tuckered out, perched in the bundle on Sieg’s back on the way home.

“It was different from the original plan, but…I had fun,” said Sieg.

“Yeah. Let’s go again sometime. Just the three of us. Invite me next time, Sieg,” replied Lynx with a laugh.