EPILOGUE: Beneath the Sunlight’s Canopy
01
Hundreds of soldiers marched along the main road toward the Labyrinth.
They were clad not in splendid, showy regalia but in shoddy armor cobbled together from magical metal and monster hide. Some wielded long-handled weapons like halberds or spears, but the only thing they all had in common was that each soldier wore a jet-black cloak. Every single one marched in perfect order.
These were the Labyrinth Suppression Forces, the strongest army in the Labyrinth City. They had tackled the lowest strata of the Labyrinth countless times and lived to tell the tale.
Many adventurers and citizens had gathered along the main road to see them, and it really was like a festival.
The cheering grew louder.
“It’s the Gold Lion General!”
“Generaaal!”
A heroic-looking man with a thick mane of golden hair reminiscent of a lion rode atop a magnificent horse and responded to the people’s cheers.
“With the general at the helm, one soldier is as good as ten men!”
“The man himself is incredibly strong, too.”
“He’s the mightiest general in history. It’s about time for the Labyrinth monsters to reap what they’ve sown.”
The enthusiastic fanfare continued until the expeditionary force disappeared into the Labyrinth.
Their two-week-long Labyrinth campaign had begun.
“Your right side’s open!”
“What’re you doing standing still?! You ain’t using a bow here!”
“You’re swingin’ that thing way too slowly!”
Every time Haage called out to urge him on, Sieg was sent tumbling to the ground. He was getting clobbered, to say the least.
After watching the parade go by, Mariela and Sieg had headed to the Adventurers Guild. Today was the start of Sieg’s training there. Mariela had come along as well to observe.
After verifying Sieg’s aptitude with appraisal paper, Haage discussed with Sieg their combat objectives and settled on the one-handed sword combat style. After spending most of the first day’s lesson strictly on practice swings, they were now having a sparring match.
Sieg had been agile enough to avoid a barrage of creeper seeds, but he couldn’t even begin to compare to Haage. Every time Sieg slashed at him, Haage took advantage of the opening to rap him with the tip of the staff he used in place of a sword. Even though the hits didn’t look very strong, Sieg always lost his balance and tumbled to the ground.
The ol’ baldy Haage’s really givin’ it to him…
Mariela mentally narrated the fight as if she knew what was going on, but truthfully, she had no idea even as she watched. Although Sieg seemed to have long since reached his limit and was unsteady on his feet, he got back up every single time he was knocked down, eager for more. Somehow, she could tell he would be fine. Mariela’s gaze shifted down to the book she’d brought with her, The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Herbs and Their Effects.
Mariela thought Sieg seemed a little different ever since the day after she’d exhausted herself making glass.
When she’d woken up, he was whimpering a little for some reason, so she’d tried something a teacher at the orphanage had taught her: “If a child looks sad and says things you don’t really understand, just hold them tight and tell them, ‘I know; it’s okay; I love you.’” It had worked beautifully.
Sieg had said stuff like “I’ve been buttering you up” and “for my own sake,” but Mariela felt that was only natural. It wasn’t as if he’d been particularly bothering her. He’d even searched so eagerly for the Monkey Lure, so if “for Sieg’s sake” and “for Mariela’s sake” happened to line up, wasn’t that enough?
After she’d woken up, Sieg transported the glass she’d made to their new home and given them an excuse: “A creeper was guarding it. Some merchants must have left it behind.”
The day after she ran out of magic, Sieg asked her to rest at the inn, so she’d passed the time making medicines and potions. She showed up at the new house the day after Sieg brought the glass there. For some reason, the dwarf population there had increased by one by the time she’d arrived.
Two dwarves and the half dwarf were having a heated discussion in the storefront area, surrounded by glass and scattered sheets of blueprints. All three of them had bags under their eyes as if they hadn’t slept.
“Good morning…?”
“Name’s Ludan. I’m a glassmaker from the same engineering firm as these guys. I’ve also joined in to work on the design.”
As Ludan explained, glass this big was never used as is in the Labyrinth City, since people assumed monsters might swarm in from the Fell Forest or the Labyrinth. It would be cut into smaller parts and used in metal window frames. Even if some of it broke, someone with glasswork skills could fix it, and items made from repaired glass were used in ordinary people’s houses in creative ways. Therefore, generally speaking, the quantity of the glass itself wasn’t unusual.
“I’m just itchin’ to get goin’ on this project.”
“We’ll keep it reasonable.”
“Wouldja let us do it?”
The three dwarves were bursting with enthusiasm, and Mariela decided to have them do the work under the condition they “keep things inconspicuous.”
They settled the contract, and she paid the remaining money for the residence and the fee for the storefront. Including the advance payment, the total came out to seven gold coins. The leftover amount had been rounded up compared with the initial estimate, but considering the added window frames, it was cheap. She heard the three people they’d brought from the slums worked surprisingly hard, so they were appointed to work on the storefront, too.
“I’d like to meet those three.”
At Sieg’s request, Mariela decided they’d introduce themselves to all the workers.
The three people from the slums were young adventurers who had to take time off from adventuring due to injury, and although they were a bit thin, they didn’t seem especially poor. You wouldn’t know they were from the slums unless you were told.
“We choose people who should be able to get out of the slums when they recover enough to earn even a minimal livelihood. Since we’re also working, it’s difficult to hire people who’ve put down roots in the slums, as you might imagine,” Johan explained. He said as long as the expedition was going on, the injured adventurers could gather materials in the shallow strata of the Labyrinth even if they hadn’t fully recovered, and with this work, they wouldn’t have to part with their weapons or borrow money. Sieg listened intently.
Mariela asked the three about their injuries, then told them about the medicine she’d just made yesterday and handed them a few samples. It was ordinary medicine created by referencing “How to Make Medicine: Beginner’s Edition” at the back of The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Herbs and Their Effects, and it had also received Ghark’s authorization. Since the samples weren’t in potion form, their wounds wouldn’t be healed immediately, but if they used it every day, they would probably recover faster.
The workers happily received the samples. “Once we’re adventuring again, we’ll come buy some more from you,” they told her.
When she saw the joy on their faces, Mariela regretted not being able to give them potions.
She bought more ingredients and returned to the Yagu Drawbridge Pavilion, crafting more medicine to pass the time, but she couldn’t help wondering if she could be of more help somehow.
02
“If your eye ain’t doin’ the trick, compensate with magic!”
“Your left arm’s just hangin’ there! You call that guarding?!”
“Too slow, too slow!”
Haage bellowed as he used his staff to strike Siegmund’s openings. Although they were by no means strong blows, they would have probably been fatal if Haage had been using a real sword; Sieg fell to the ground with each strike as if he’d just dropped dead. He would fall, get up, and then fall again.
I’m used to pain. After I became a slave, I was forced to my feet even when I was too exhausted to stand. It’s seared into my very flesh.
His muscles, his flesh, his bones all cried out in silent agony, yet Siegmund got himself up time and time again.
Haage’s blows were quick, heavy, and precise. Every time Sieg tumbled to the ground, his body learned little by little the correct way to move. He truly felt he’d found a good instructor.
He reached for his practice sword to learn as much as possible in their limited time together. Training continued until he could no longer lift even a single finger.
“One thing I’ll say is—ya got guts!” Haage said to his immobile trainee. “Aren’tcha ashamed to fall down in front of the young lady?”
Mari…ela……
The lack of oxygen made him dizzy. He couldn’t even move his head, let alone look over at Mariela.
“Don’t worry! She’s so absorbed in her book that she ain’t even watchin’!”
Bam! Haage gave a snappy thumbs-up. Siegmund hated that huge grin.
Just like that, Siegmund slipped out of consciousness.
“We’re done for the day, young lady! There’s a watering station in the back, so when he wakes up, he can wash up before going home!”
Apparently, Sieg’s training had wrapped up while she was reading her encyclopedia.
Having given Sieg a thorough trouncing, Haage grinned widely, his pearly whites on full display as he returned to the Adventurers Guild’s armory. The sunlight reflecting off the back of his head was dazzling.
“Sieg, wake up.” He didn’t respond when Mariela called his name.
All I did was run outta magic, and he made such a big fuss, keeping me cooped up in bed the whole day, and now look at him—he trained so hard he passed out. Geez!
Mariela rummaged around in her bag and produced a vial containing thirty green pills. This was a high-grade, health-restoring magic medicine called Regen, something she’d made during her forced convalescence at the inn.
As a deep-healing medicine, it would even restore a life span shortened by harsh conditions if you continued to take it regularly for about a month. It was a convenient pill believed to increase muscle strength in a short period of time when taken while training. Sieg, who’d seen plenty of hard days his lifetime, needed this medicine, and she was giving him three vials over one month.
Even regular potions could reduce fatigue from training, but since they’d just restore the body to its pretraining condition, it was pointless. In that respect, the Regen medicine increased the body’s healing capacity, allowing the results of training to show at the highest efficiency.
The ingredients were snapping clams from the wholesale market, sacred tree leaves, creeper sapling, and planada moss. The moss was a rare potion ingredient that didn’t appear on the market much, but she’d gathered a lot when she was crafting vials by the river. The processing method for the new material, snapping clams, was easy, and she was able to memorize it quickly. Once she got used to making the Regen medicine, it wasn’t hard.
On first glance, the small grains that shone through the dark-green pills looked delicious, but they were in fact extremely bitter. The acrid taste, possibly the result of boiling down slime and creeper, filled your mouth with an unripe flavor that lingered, so the pills were coated with a thin layer of gelatin.
“Hup!” She took a pill from the vial and stripped off a bit of the gelatin with her fingernail, then tossed it into Sieg’s mouth.
“Cough, ugh…”
“Ooh, he woke up.”
That’s Regen for ya. Its effects are spot-on!
Mariela spent the five days after she woke from her fainting episode buying and preparing a bunch of miscellaneous items to use at the new house, making medicine to sell at her shop, and observing Sieg’s training.
Even outside his lessons, Sieg seemed to practice early in the morning while Mariela shut herself in the room making medicine. His gaunt cheeks gradually filled out, perhaps a result of the Regen.
They left the Yagu Drawbridge Pavilion and moved into their new home on the appointed day, but sometimes they’d stop in for an early dinner to see Emily. The inn swelled with adventurers as the evening went on, and Amber and the other ladies were very busy. They thanked Mariela when she gave them the medicine they’d asked for, saying it was a big help, and told her they’d come to buy more once her shop was open for business.
The ladies offered to introduce Mariela’s apothecary to their adventurer customers, so she handed out lots of salve samples and flyers on which she’d written the opening date and a map. She’d have to find some way to thank them after she opened her shop.
Mariela and Sieg went to the wholesale market for lunch almost every day. All the materials the adventurers brought back were likely in circulation by now, because there were more items and heavier foot traffic than usual.
They found and purchased the necessary ingredients for medicine and potions, and before long, the shelves covering the walls of Mariela’s workshop were lined with vials and bags of processed materials.
“I’d like to hurry and get these shelves filled up. The shop will be finished by tomorrow. I also need to set up all the products and get ready for opening day. So, so busy.”
The prospect of her new life had Mariela’s heart aflutter.
03
“The shop’s renovations are complete.”
The dwarven trio of Gordon, Johan, and Ludan greeted Mariela and Sieg with huge smiles. The front entrance to the shop had been out of service during the renovations, so neither of them had seen the interior. They could have peeked in through the windows or the rooftop, but they chose not to so that they could look forward to seeing the finished job.
At last, they entered the completed shop through the front entrance.
“Oooh, it’s so bright!” Mariela was so surprised, she could muster only a limited vocabulary. The ceiling had been fitted with several glass windows.
They weren’t that large on their own, but glass of different sizes had been embedded to imitate lovely tree branches and leaves, and the shadows of the grid on the floor created the impression of standing under the shade of a tree.
“Is this…a sacred tree?”
“Exactly right. Since there’s one planted next to the house ’n’ all,” said Ludan, the glassmaker. “The branches don’t reach this far, but this way you feel like it’s protectin’ ya.”
“Not only that,” added Johan, the architect, “these windows may look normal, but they actually have a three-dimensional structure. They’re designed so that light will always shine in while the sun is out. And the skylight’s been crafted to make sure the shop is well lit.”
She didn’t understand how it worked, but it was kind of incredible. Mariela stared up at the skylights with her mouth agape. The windows were a little bigger than what you’d see in other shops, but they didn’t seem out of place. Aside from where medicine was stored, it felt like a sunny spot outdoors. Moreover, it gave her a feeling of peace, as if she was literally under the sacred tree itself.
“And…what’re these chairs and table for?”
Gordon, the last dwarf to speak up, was sitting at a table right in the middle of the patch of sun when he answered.
“This is where I like to come.”
“That’s, uh, not an answer.”
As Mariela had requested, the shop’s center had a counter fitted with shelves for employee use, and display racks had been installed in the back where customers could view products at their leisure. Apart from these, for some reason there was a table that seated six people right smack in the middle of the sunshine and counter seating near the wall by the entrance that sat five people each. The chairs appeared to be made of scrap material from the previous storefront, but they’d been shaped to fit in perfectly with the new shop. The place was almost like…
“…A café?” Mariela wondered.
Gordon, Johan, and Ludan had seated themselves in the sunshine.
“Ahhh, this spot is the best.”
“I’m burstin’ with creativity!”
“Real nice…”
The dwarven trio started to really unwind when Sieg served them tea.
According to the trio’s explanation, they had inspected the finished glass ceiling’s workmanship the day before Mariela and Sieg got there.
“Quality’s good.”
“Uh-huh. But the shop’s too big and a li’l dreary.”
“It would be a waste not to enjoy this sunny spot.”
“We got some scrap wood here. Wanna make some chairs?”
Tap, tap, clang, clang.
“I want some tables, too, about this size.”
Tap, tap, clang, clang.
“It’s too rustic; these won’t fit in.”
Tap, tap, clang, clang, tap, tap, clang, clang.
“Well, there ya have it.”
There I have what? Mariela thought, but it wasn’t bad as a spot for injured or ill customers to relax. Since it was a free gift, she decided to accept it gratefully.
“Ohhh, Miss Mari, I see yer shop’s finished.” A fourth dwarf arrived—no, wait, it was just Ghark. “Oh? This’s a real nice place.” For some reason, he joined the circle of dwarves at the table. Though it didn’t seem as if they were acquainted, he didn’t look out of place at all. “Miss Mari, if ye can spare the lad, I’d like some tea, too.”
Um, sure, there’s some space to relax in here, but this is an apothecary, not a café! No, no, it’s all fine. Once we stock the shelves with medicine, it’ll definitely feel more like an apothecary.
“Mariela, what should we do about the shop’s name?” asked Sieg, interrupting Mariela’s thoughts.
He gazed at the old men as they enjoyed basking in the sun and drinking the tea he’d prepared. In the blink of an eye, the shop had caught the four old men, hook, line, and sinker.
“Hmm, how about ‘Old Man Grab Bag’?”
In the end, they decided to call the shop “Sunlight’s Canopy.”
No one’s gonna know what kind of place this is from the name alone—not that they’ll know even when they come inside, but hey, that works just fine.
After enjoying the sunshine for a while, Ghark returned to his shop. He told her he’d take her gathering in the Labyrinth the night after tomorrow. Her first labyrinth. She was way too excited.
After Ghark went home, the three dwarves finally seemed to return to reality and showed Mariela and Sieg the shop and galley.
First was the kitchen next to the shop. Since it used to be a galley, it was the size you’d expect, and the new dining table there had room for two or three people to sit and eat. It was conveniently designed so that the door served as a partition whenever it was open, blocking the inside of the kitchen from the shop’s view—a rather user-friendly design.
Or maybe more like a café-friendly design. I mean, that’s basically what they were going for here, right?
What surprised her was the magical tool that could be ignited and its heat adjusted with mere buttons. When she asked where to put in the firewood, Sieg explained to the dwarves, “We’re from a village out in the sticks. Mariela, this doesn’t need firewood,” and gave her a demonstration.
That was quick thinking with the three dwarves here. Never thought our “childhood friends” story would come in so handy.
Something caught painfully in Mariela’s heart.
There were magical tools for water in the kitchen, bathroom, restroom, and washroom, and each room had a magical tool for ventilation and a vent installed in the ceiling. Mariela had thought the windows of houses in the Labyrinth City seemed small and gloomy, so she couldn’t believe how convenient this all was.
When she asked Sieg about it later, he explained that magical tools generally handled tasks that used to be done with lifestyle magic. It was one of the policies implemented by successive generations of margraves to make up for labor shortages in the Labyrinth City, and since the city subsidized the tools, they were also installed in commoners’ houses.
However, the tools consumed many times more magical power than lifestyle magic did, and even when people had access to them, they often ended up resorting to magic. In particular, magical implements that needed to be kept running for extended periods of time—such as for storage and ventilation—used magical gems, and the cost of those was nothing to sneeze at.
There were even tools for laundry, heating, and sweeping, but anything easily accomplished through human labor alone cost a lot of money. Such tools weren’t included in Mariela and Sieg’s new house. Factoring in maintenance costs, it would be cheaper to hire someone or buy a debt laborer to do housework.
Regardless, Mariela was shocked at the incredible progress in technology.
The quality of modern medicine might be lacking, but perhaps alternatives to potions would turn up sooner or later.
They’d been living there for two days, and Mariela understood the residential portion of the house now. The living room, which had been used to store raw materials before, was now spick-and-span. There was no carpeting or furniture apart from the chairs and tables left by the previous residents, but she wanted to gradually gather some. Also, apart from the beds that were repaired for them and the dressers, there was no furniture in Mariela’s or Sieg’s bedrooms. The bedding alone made for a rather dreary place, like a hotel room.
As Mariela was wondering what kind of furniture to put there, Gordon said, “Oh, I almost forgot,” and took them to the cellar.
The cellar had three rooms linked sequentially, the first of which was where Sieg had put the materials from the creeper he’d felled, and they planned to use it as a storeroom. The second room was furnished with the amount of emergency rations and evacuation tools designated by the “Labyrinth City Special Laws Residential Affairs Regulations Something-or-Other,” enough for two people.
The third room had a wooden box in it for some reason.
“A massive hole opened up in here, y’see. Looked like the sacred tree’s roots reached the Aqueduct and caused the floor to collapse. I went down to check, and the roots do in fact go all the way to the Aqueduct. Boy, I’d heard about it in stories, but gettin’ to see the thing in person is a rare opportunity. Oh, but this didn’t affect the drainage, and the wall’s still sturdy, as ye can see. Since we’re right under the sacred tree, monsters probably won’t come up, but I hear the Aqueduct’s got lotsa slimes, so we put a box stuffed with daigis here just in case.”
With that, Gordon went on home. That was extremely important information to be casually dropping at the very end of his explanation.
I wonder if this is why the place went unsold for so long?
The Aqueduct was a remnant of the era of the Kingdom of Endalsia. Even now, two hundred years later, it still functioned as a sewer system in the Labyrinth City. Each home was installed with drainage treatment tanks called slime tanks, which held domesticated slimes tailored specifically to treat sewage. The sewer system wasn’t a source of infectious diseases because clean water flowed into it after being purified by the sewage treatment slimes.
However, wild slimes seemed to propagate in the underground Aqueduct.
A slime was an amorphous, mucus-like monster with no intelligence. It was a weak creature that could be killed by crushing its nucleus, and you could do so just by stepping on it as long as it hadn’t grown significantly. Also, since it lacked an outer shell, it was extremely vulnerable to magic absorption and wouldn’t come near daigis plants. You could prevent slimes from leaking out of the Aqueduct just by planting daigis around the pipes that connected to it.
Although slimes preferred corpses with magical power remaining in them, they could decompose some organic and even inorganic substances, so they were used to treat human excrement and kitchen waste. Wild slimes attacked by generating acidic liquid from the components they’d decomposed, but trained ones would spit out lumps of earth during the decomposition process. These clumps were collected regularly by dedicated contractors for use as fertilizer.
Slimes were very familiar monsters and closely entwined with everyday life, but…
“Doesn’t feel all that great, being so connected to the Aqueduct while it’s full of squirming, mucousy monsters, huh?”
Even without the sacred tree, they could use dried daigis to prevent slimes from invading, but just logically knowing that didn’t keep it from feeling unpleasant. She imagined them wriggling and oozing their way through joints in the walls’ masonry.
“Let’s fill the joints with daigis fibers later. After that, we should make sure to water the sacred tree so it doesn’t wither.”
Sieg and Mariela nodded to each other, agreeing to keep the third room closed off for the time being.
They’d unexpectedly found a literal pitfall at the very end, but she was glad both the shop and the house had turned out fantastically.
Mariela bought some orc king meat and made it into steak for the two of them to celebrate with. It was so good that tears came to her eyes. Turns out meat cooked with general oil has the flavor of orc general, not orc king after all.
Ohhh maaan, orc king’s so good! It’s just waaay too good! It might be a vile creature that likes to attack women, but now it’s all just meat to me.
Full of emotion and her cheeks stuffed with meat, Mariela had a request for Sieg.
“Shiiieg, you gotta get really shtrong ’n’ take bown lotsa orkings!”
“I’ll take down as many as you want, so please either eat or cry or talk, not all three at the same time.”
The shop was scheduled to open in one week. She needed to buy everyday supplies, craft the merchandise, and collect tamamugy and a variety of mushrooms outside the Labyrinth City. All sorts of things could be harvested in this season. Mariela wanted to return to the spot where her cottage used to be and transplant the surviving medicinal herbs. Ghark said he’d take her foraging in the Labyrinth the day after tomorrow. She wondered what they might find.
The two of them enjoyed silly conversation over their orc-king-meat dinner for a while. Afterward, she tried out the appraisal paper she’d bought at the Adventurers Guild shop. Mariela needed to see what kinds of effects that two-hundred-year-long sleep had on her.
An appraisal paper was a type of form with data written in thin magical ink. When activated with a drop of blood, the color of the ink for the corresponding item changed to indicate the condition of the subject.
The seven abilities that could be appraised were stamina, magical power, strength, intelligence, dexterity, agility, and luck, and each one was evaluated on a five-point scale. For example, if your stamina was a one, one of its white squares would change to black. If you’d broken through the upper limit, the final black square would change to red. It was quite a useful piece of paper.
Also included was a list of the various skills the user possessed—if you had aptitude in a skill, its name would change to black; if you simply possessed a skill, it would change to red. If you had skills or talents that weren’t listed, the “Other” column would change color.
If you wanted to know something that couldn’t be gleaned from appraisal paper, you would have to pay a lot of money to someone with the Person Appraisal skill. However, appraisal paper was sufficient as a guideline for occupation options or growth strategies.
Mariela’s magical power exceeded the five-point scale. To a certain extent, stamina and magical power didn’t change much once you stopped growing. An exception, where both attributes would rise even in an adult, would be when the person has hovered on the barrier between life and death.
Her increase in magical power was likely a result of being in a state of suspended animation for two hundred years. She’d been aware of this change ever since she awoke, but where it used to be at the fourth level out of five, it now exceeded the upper limit of the appraisal paper. She hadn’t known the exact value, but when she’d run out of magic while making the plate glass, she’d gotten a general sense of it. What pleased her even more was her stamina; before, it hadn’t even reached a one on the scale, but now, it had risen to a two. She went from a one-hit KO to a one-hit almost-KO. She couldn’t help from cheering and striking a little pose, showing off her “muscles.”
The other items on her chart hadn’t changed, however. She still had only one skill, Alchemy; her lifestyle magic abilities just barely broke even.
Sieg was surprised to see Mariela’s magical power, but Mariela was even more surprised to see his appraisal paper. All the items on his were threes or fours. Although it was a five-point scale, that didn’t mean a three was average. A one indicated an everyday level, and if something was a three, it meant you could get a job using that trait. Mariela’s strength and agility were only ones, but since she was an alchemist, her intelligence and dexterity were threes. For some reason, her luck was a four, the only ability of hers that surpassed Sieg’s.
Sieg has more intelligence, even though I’m an alchemist. What the heck?
Mariela secretly folded up her appraisal paper and tucked it away in the back of her bedroom dresser.
04
“Light the incense and don’t let it go out.”
With Ghark in the lead, he, Mariela, and Sieg entered the Labyrinth. Mariela was unable to fight, so she was in charge of burning the monster-warding incense. The incense was made from dried and powdered bromominthra, and though it wasn’t as good as a monster-warding potion, it was enough to keep the weaker monsters at bay. The incense was also easy to make, and plenty of the bromominthra grew both within and outside the Labyrinth City, so more than half the population could make it themselves. During the expedition, when the Labyrinth was crowded with people, Mariela had even seen children from the orphanage near the entrance selling baskets full of incense they’d made themselves.
It was late at night when the monsters were most active, and although she didn’t see any children, a steady stream of adventurers trickled in and out of the Labyrinth—probably unique to the expedition period.
Just two guards kept watch at the entrance, and other than children who tried to go in to play, no one was barred from entering. Apparently, the guards’ main purpose was as a point of contact in times of emergency.
As Sieg explained, other labyrinths had entry fees, and you even had to forfeit a portion of any materials obtained inside as taxes when you exited. The Labyrinth City, on the other hand, levied taxes only on materials taken outside the city limits; there was no tax for using them within the City itself. Incidentally, imported goods weren’t taxed, either, but because it was so difficult to travel to the City, there was a chronic shortage of foreign goods.
The inside of the Labyrinth emitted a dim glow despite the dark, moonless night. Scattered across the cave-like rock face were stones known as moonstones, which gave off just enough light to walk around. Nonetheless, the low visibility wasn’t sufficient for fighting monsters or gathering herbs, so Ghark donned night-vision goggles while Mariela used Sieg’s night-vision magic.
Ghark steadily descended into the Labyrinth, felling the occasional monsters that appeared—ones with poor senses of smell, such as goblins, slimes, and wraiths—with his double ax. To Mariela’s surprise, Sieg had been taking down the ones at the group’s rear, so she took the chance to observe the Labyrinth, all the while adding more monster-warding incense to the burner in her hand.
The stairs between the Labyrinth’s different strata were concentrated at the center, making it easy to move from one level to another. These stairs were said to appear when you defeated the boss located somewhere in each stratum.
Mariela gave a slight shudder as she imagined the Labyrinth’s mysterious leader birthing its underlings, the stratum bosses, as it ate its way straight down into the Labyrinth’s depths.
“It’s just up ahead. I’m gonna use a sleep orb, so put on yer masks.”
Per Ghark’s instructions, Mariela and Sieg donned masks soaked with stimulants to keep them awake. Ghark then tossed a lit sleep orb through a gap between some rocks. The faintly glowing moonstones were arranged in such a way that at first glance, the gap appeared to be a joint between the rocks, but a closer look revealed it was big enough for adults to pass through. Only the entrance was narrow; inside was a passage the same size as all the others in the Labyrinth.
Mariela followed Ghark into the chamber and was startled by what she found.
It’s full of snakes…
They were small for monsters, but snakes with arms were lying asleep all over the place.
“There are a lot more of ’em than before. I’ll cull ’em a little,” Ghark said, then began to make quick work of the monsters as he went deeper in. He crushed the small ones’ heads with his foot and chopped off the heads of the larger ones with his ax. Not long after they died, the majority of monsters in the Labyrinth would then start to fade and dim before their corpses eventually dissolved into thin air.
It was said this happened because their magical power hadn’t manifested physically yet.
If a monster lived a long time, its magical power condensed into gems and manifested inside its body. When they were defeated, those gems could be collected as materials.
The snakes here were still young and weak, so most of them disappeared without leaving anything behind, but every so often, the larger ones left their fangs or magical gems the size of the tip of a fingernail. A bag full of the fangs sells for quite cheap, but they make effective painkillers. Ghark defeated the snakes along their route, while Mariela picked up the magical gems and fangs. Sieg cut down the more conspicuous snakes while acting as her bodyguard.
The winding, S-shaped snake passage looked like a dead end from the entrance, but once they turned the first corner, Mariela saw a hazy glow shining through the exit.
Maybe the snakes hated this light, because their numbers dwindled as the group got closer to it.
A bright, open chamber lay at the end of the snake passage. The space was narrow enough that it would take less than ten seconds to walk from one end to the other, and the ceiling was practically sky-high. Many moonstones shone on the walls and ceiling in an underground, starry nightscape.
The entire floor was covered in knee-high grass, much of which had buds emitting a gentle light.
Thousand-night flowers. These bloomed only once every one thousand days.
The buds spread so far across the chamber that it looked as if a full moon were shining down on them.
“Any minute now.”
As if they’d been waiting for Ghark’s cue, the thousand-night flowers burst into bloom.
The buds snapped open with a popping sound, scattering beads of light into the air.
Pop, pop, pop.
One by one, the beads spilled out of the blooming flowers and slowly fluttered up to the ceiling in fairy-tale-like beauty.
“So…pretty.”
“They’ll wilt if we don’t hurry up and pick ’em,” Ghark told Mariela as she gazed spellbound at the lights.
The buds had no effect, and the flowers themselves quickly wilted after blooming. It was a shame to not be able to enjoy such a magnificent spectacle, but these flowers were a valuable resource that could be obtained only once every one thousand days. Ghark, Mariela, and Sieg picked off the petals and put them in bags.
They must have picked about half of them. Many still remained, but Ghark beckoned her and Sieg to hurry and get out. The moment they reached the snake passage—
Plink, plink, plink, plink.
—a mass of pebbles rained down on the chamber they’d just exited.
“Ohhh, just in the nick o’ time.” Ghark laughed in amusement. The fluttering beads of light had been pollinated in midair and turned into seeds before falling back down to the ground. The seeds had a pointed shape to pierce the Labyrinth’s tough ground, and if the trio had continued carelessly harvesting the flowers, they would’ve been turned into seedbeds.
“I only go in that chamber when the thousand-night flowers bloom. It’s just a nest o’ snakes otherwise.”
The snakes in the passage must’ve run away from the hail of seeds, thought Mariela. That’s labyrinth plants for you—gorgeous but freaky.
Mariela and Sieg tried to give Ghark half of the thousand-night flowers they’d collected, but he turned them down: “What ye pick is yours to keep.”
Whoa, nice!
“Make me another cuppa tea next time I visit yer shop.”
Ghark wouldn’t take the fangs or magical gems from the snakes, either. He gave Mariela and Sieg a wave before returning to his shop. “We’re not a caféééé!” Mariela hollered after him as she waved back.
05
At last, the opening day for Sunlight’s Canopy arrived.
Many different items had been arranged in the display cases, from commonplace medicines such as salves and pills to soaps in both powdered and liquid form for use in laundry, dishwashing, or bathing; miscellaneous goods like cosmetics; monster-warding and insecticide incense; and consumables such as smoke bombs and sleep orbs to be used while exploring the Labyrinth. Mariela didn’t know how much she’d be able to sell, but just in case, she had a bunch more stockpiled in the living room.
She’d also purchased various herbal teas at Merle’s Spices to help her customers relax. She had plenty of cups, too—not that she was running a café here.
Sieg hung up a banner outside advertising the shop as an apothecary and put out a signboard showing they were open for business. A new one-handed sword hung at his waist.
It was a gift from Mariela on his fifth and final day of training.
Mariela felt Sieg had worked very hard. He’d studied under Haage every other day, exchanging blows until he could no longer stand. At first, Sieg had barely landed so much as a scratch on his instructor, but by the end, he’d even managed to beat him in a sparring match. His formerly emaciated body had developed muscles, perhaps partly thanks to the Regen medicine; he seemed like an entirely different person from when they first met.
As she watched Sieg gain muscle and grow stockier, she secretly worried what would happen if he got super-beefy, whether he’d be too heavy for a yagu to carry anymore. However, Sieg’s growth stopped at the perfect point.
When she talked to him about it later, he explained, “If I gain too much muscle, it’ll slow me down. My physique now is more suited to my fighting style.”
“I see. That makes sense,” she’d replied as she sewed the buttons of Sieg’s pants back where they originally were.
Since the only weapon Sieg had was the short sword Lynx lent him, Mariela got him set up with a one-handed sword for his final day of practical training.
When the fifth day of training came to an end, Sieg bowed deeply to Haage and expressed his thanks. Haage dispensed some advice before telling him, “Ya got serious guts, kid! You’ll grow even more if you apply yourself! Seems the young lady has a graduation present for you! Be sure to use it to keep her safe!” With that, the training was complete.
“Sieg, good job with your class. I got you this in honor of how hard you worked. Take it.”
Mariela gave Sieg the one-handed sword she’d secretly prepared for him.
“Mariela…is this mythril? You’re giving something this nice to me…? It fits perfectly in my hand, like it was specially made. A sword you chose for me. I’ll cherish it. Thank you so much.”
Deeply moved, Sieg reverentially received the weapon from Mariela. He gazed at its blade, then knelt on the ground and held it out to her.
“My sword is yours.”
It was like a scene in a legend. Sieg swore fealty with the sword Mariela chose for him in his hand—his cheeks red with exaltation, his blue eye moist with resolve.
I can’t… I can’t tell him I had Haage choose the sword!
Instead, she gave a vague laugh and went with the act.
The sword was a good one—at least, from what Haage told her anyway—but it seemed like the kind of thing even B-Rank adventurers didn’t own. On Sieg’s third day of training, after he’d passed out like normal, Mariela had consulted with the instructor.
If something were to happen to Mariela, how could Sieg, a slave, make a living? Was there anything she could leave him?
Haage knew about Sieg from his appraisal paper at the beginning of their training, so she was right to ask him. Although Sieg’s attitude and sweaty appearance didn’t make it obvious, based on what Haage had seen in his training up to now, Sieg didn’t seem to be an ordinary individual.
Haage didn’t flash his trademark blinding grin but quietly looked to Mariela and the unconscious Sieg, then closed his eyes for a little while.
“Slaves with combat ability are priceless in the Labyrinth City! If you’re gonna leave him something, a weapon would do the trick. A slave and his own familiar weapon are treated as a set. His manners ain’t bad, either, so I doubt he’d be parted from it!” Then, as always, he beamed from ear to ear.
When Mariela said she didn’t know what kind of weapon would be best, Haage mentioned he had some ideas. She showed him ten gold coins, about half of what she owned.
“…Don’t make things hard for Sieg, now. That kinda money ain’t something to be wavin’ around all willy-nilly, young lady!” he exclaimed in shock. Still, he promised to find Sieg a weapon he could use for a long time. Haage was a kind man, just as she’d thought.
The sword Sieg held was made of mythril. His appraisal paper had shown he boasted a variety of talents in weapons and magic. His innate skill was with a bow, but with further combat experience, he could probably pick up some swordsmanship skills as well. However, since he had only one eye and was mostly going to act as an escort for Mariela, who couldn’t fight, Haage had apparently trained Sieg with a focus on strengthening his body in tandem with wielding magic.
“Mythril’s a good conductor of magical energy, so it suits Sieg’s fighting style. And after it channels his magical energy just once, it won’t channel anyone else’s. It’ll be a weapon special for him.”
The mythril blade given to Sieg was a high-caliber specimen that came recommended by Haage, who also introduced Mariela to a master blacksmith who could repair it. He left nothing to be desired.
Behind Sieg, who stood overwhelmed by the mythril sword, Haage gave a snappy thumbs-up before departing, his broad grin positively radiant.
He’s a guy who dazzles in many ways, not just with his smile.
It was a stark contrast to Sieg, who was holding his sword aloft with deep emotion.
“Okay, let’s get back to Sunlight’s Canopy.”
“Yes, let’s.”
Mariela and Sieg returned to the home where they now belonged.
When Haage returned to the Adventurers Guild, a guild staff member approached him.
“You’re in a really good mood, huh?”
“Sure am. It’s been a while since I last had a student with a backbone. The first time I saw him, though, I thought, Man, what a chump! How’d he end up in such bad shape with all that talent? But he really sank his teeth into it even after I gave him a proper trouncing. Must be that young lady’s doing.”
“Well. Training the rookies is good and everything, but don’t you think we’re picking up too much of your slack?”
“You guys can manage, right? Rookie training and military enhancement—those’re what’s most important.”
“We’ve certainly received our fair share of ‘proper trouncing’ from you, too. However, Guildmaster, we’ve received a call for reinforcements from the Labyrinth Suppression Forces.”
Haage’s eyebrows twitched. A call for reinforcements from the Labyrinth Suppression Forces? From the Labyrinth City’s mightiest? Inconceivable.
“I’ll go right away. You folks oughta get ready, too. Ask Lightning Empress Elsee to look after things in my stead.
“This is gonna be a royal pain,” muttered the guildmaster of the Adventurers Guild, Haage the Limit Breaker.
06
Sieg returned to Sunlight’s Canopy after putting up the signboard for opening day. He flung the doors open to see they were decorated with flowers to celebrate the renovations. Amber had brought the bouquets and said, “The Black Iron Freight Corps asked me to bring this one when the shop opened. The other one is from us ladies.” One of the bouquets featured flaxen flowers tied with a greenish-blue ribbon the same color as Lynx’s clothes. It felt as if Lynx himself was right there with them.
The Corps had met Mariela, the sole survivor of the Stampede, in the Fell Forest and taken her to the Labyrinth City. Instead of just leaving the poor girl all on her lonesome, they somehow let themselves get tangled up in her affairs. Right about now, they were probably traveling through the Fell Forest on their way back to the Labyrinth City from the imperial capital. Even now, in their absence, their meddling and concern for Mariela still filled her heart with joy.
Several adventurers arrived at the shop thanks to the flyers and samples Amber and the ladies at the Yagu Drawbridge Pavilion had handed out. The salve samples had worked well, and the new customers were buying medicine, incense, smoke bombs, and other sundries. And it wasn’t just Amber who came by; Ghark, the dwarf trio, and even Emily all showed up in turn to Sunlight’s Canopy to relax under the patch of sun and do some shopping. Not even a month had passed since Mariela had come to the Labyrinth City, and yet, there were already so many people who cared about her.
Sunlight’s Canopy was neither a roaring success nor exceptionally busy, but it had turned into a quiet, calming shop that was never without customers.
Sieg stood beside Mariela, who was all smiles at seeing what a wonderful shop it had become. Everyone they knew was gathered under the dappled sunlight. Lynx and the others would return soon, too.
No trace remained of her life two hundred years ago, but in this town, in Sunlight’s Canopy, she’d managed to carve out a new place where she belonged.
“Mariela, I brought these sweets to celebrate the new shop. How about we share them with all these folks?”
“Wow, thank you, Merle! I’ll go make some tea.”
The spice shop proprietress had come bearing a large basket stuffed with confections. The shop was much livelier now; those who were offered tea sat in open seats and began chatting or even helped make the tea despite being customers. Sunlight’s Canopy was originally intended as an apothecary, but now on opening day, it was anyone’s guess as to what kind of shop this was.
“I want some tea, too, miss!” a customer teased.
“This ain’t a café!” Mariela responded with a laugh.
For the first time since she had awakened, the cold loneliness of having nowhere to turn disappeared, and warmth filled her instead.
“Congratulations on the shop, Mariela,” Sieg said with a slight smile when their eyes happened to meet. He always stayed close by her side. Even though he’d once completely forgotten how it felt to enjoy things, his smile was as natural as could be. Mariela smiled back, similarly brimming with joy.
“Thanks, Sieg. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us!”
Mariela—the alchemist, the survivor—would build a life for herself here in this town. Even if it wasn’t guaranteed to be a quiet one.