The Labyrinth Fairy

Sei and Mako were bewildered.

The goddess's voice from earlier and the fairy's voice were the same. Only the dignity contained within them differed.

"Come now, this way first. Standing around talking isn't ideal, after all."

Looking more carefully, there was a table and chair set right nearby. They were properly human-sized, and someone was already seated in one of them.

It was the vampire from before.

"Huh?"

In response to Mako's voice, the vampire's body trembled with a start.

"I-I have no intention of fighting anymore. I bear you no ill will."

Even his voice was trembling. The vampire's totally scared, hey hey hey!

When she looked at Labyrinth, she was shrugging her shoulders too.

"Yeah～, I've been running this labyrinth for 4000 years, but I never thought I'd see a human who eats vampires."

"W-Well, that was more of a heat of the moment thing, you know…"

Mako was embarrassed, but this hardly seemed like the right scene for such a cute reaction.

"Anyway, Jean was just doing his job too, so there's no grudge anymore, right?"

Jean appeared to be the vampire's name. In response, Mako tilted her head to the side.

"I'm sorry, Jean-san. Did it hurt?"

More than hurt, it had been terrifying.

But Jean didn't say that. He was a vampire with high pride, after all.

"So, why did you keep just the two of us here?"

Sitting in a chair, Sei asked. Incidentally, Jean was seated in the chair farthest from Mako.

"One reason is that I wanted to talk with you two slowly. Actually, I'm a reincarnator."

Labyrinth's story was long, but to summarize:

4000 years ago, during an era when many people still reincarnated from a different Earth.

Labyrinth had also reincarnated into this world of Nears with her memories clearly intact.

Though apparently at that time, this world didn't even have a name yet.

Then in the great war 4000 years ago, Labyrinth played an active role and contributed to defeating the Demon King.

Using the power she gained at that time, she created this labyrinth.

The purpose was to strengthen humanity's fighting force to oppose the demon race.

That's why no one dies in this labyrinth. To avoid reducing their fighting strength.

"But that reason doesn't exist anymore, though."

3000 years ago, Nears and the Earth from before Labyrinth's reincarnation collided, and the Earth side was destroyed.

In that battle, the Demon King declared coexistence with humanity. In fact, despite being the victors, the Demon King's army didn't cause serious harm to humans or demi-humans.

3000 years, a long time, had passed, and humans, demi-humans, and demons—the so-called races—while having various problems, were coexisting and living in separate territories.

The current problem was the revived gods. Though geographically distant, Labyrinth said she hoped this labyrinth could become a place to train the races' fighting forces.

"Besides, in this labyrinth, reckless kids who want to become explorers won't die."

Many people aspire to become adventurers or explorers. Mainly second and third sons of farming families, and demons who primarily eat meat.

It was a world with land and technology to develop, but there were still many who took on dangerous work dreaming of glory and riches.

Especially races unsuited for agriculture, like beastkin and demons, delved into labyrinths and demon territories to obtain magic stones as an energy source.

It was a reasonably necessary occupation. But the danger was high.

In contrast, Labyrinth maintained this gentle labyrinth. So that people wouldn't die.

"However, the development of weapons has been remarkable lately…"

Nihon, Garhart, and Orgas too were all pressing forward with developing weapons that individuals could carry.

Of course, other countries were also putting effort into weapon development recently to oppose the evil gods, but there were problems.

This labyrinth was also being conquered in short spans lately thanks to those weapons, and Labyrinth's power to grant wishes had drastically decreased for a time.

So Labyrinth turned her attention to monsters and demons that couldn't be defeated by weapons.

She negotiated with Jean through mutual acquaintances and entrusted him with the deepest part of this labyrinth. In fact, since he began guarding the depths, no one had been able to conquer this labyrinth.

"If weapons develop too much, it becomes difficult for the common people to overthrow those in power too."

If numbers are power, then it's possible for risen masses to use the violence of numbers to overthrow those in power.

But weapon development was bad for that. If you give one person a rifle, how many unarmed civilians can they kill?

The development of science and technology raises the standard of living for humanity as a whole, but at the same time intensifies the gap between rich and poor.

Even so, if the military rebels against the crown, that crown could be destroyed, so perhaps the military is the biggest problem.

"Civilian control. It looks like it's working well for now, but actually, just a handful of individuals are secretly disposing of incompetent, foolish, and cruel people in power."

That referred to Ria in Orgas and the Great Demon King in Garhart.

The only place where democracy was actually working was the Nihon Empire, but even there, corruption among those in power was the same.

Labyrinth thought that a society where everyone could live happily was probably impossible.

At least in these 4000 years of long history, humans had never achieved it.

Considering that demi-humans like elves, dwarves, and lizardmen had maintained relatively well-functioning societies for many years, perhaps humans, demons, and beastkin were inherently flawed from their very existence.

Labyrinth went on and on about such things at length.

"Um, I have a question. Setting aside Mako, how did you know that I came from Earth?"

Mako had the title of Hero from Another World. Though it was disguised and concealed, someone with the ability to see through things could discern it.

However, Sei's titles didn't indicate he was a visitor from another world. If anything, it was his Japanese features, but he'd heard those weren't unusual in certain regions of this world.

"Oh, I heard about that directly from Ria."

It seemed Ria had actually been doing things on her own while also overseeing Sei's training.

What she'd asked of Labyrinth was the same thing Sei had been thinking about.

"Even though she's a Divine Dragon, she's not good at detailed work, that one. I also went through a lot of trial and error to finally make this."

What was produced was a map. A single sheet of paper with blue dots scattered here and there. There were 35 of them. Sei's wasn't included.

"This is the heroes'…"

"Current locations. I can't tell the exact details, but you can look those up with your map skill, right?"

Using the faint connection between Earth and the heroes, she projected them onto a map. It was apparently a far more difficult technique than crude satellite broadcasting or digital television.

35 of them. One had died. No, been killed.

"Huh? There's one dot near the dwarf village."

"I don't know, but someone probably captured or protected them? Honestly, doing troublesome things when we need to fight against the evil gods, that… whatever kingdom."

"Neosis Kingdom."

Sei and Mako's words overlapped perfectly in harmony.

"Anyway."

Coughing, Labyrinth said.

"I'm counting on you. Heroes are truly troublesome existences."

"I know. I've made various promises with the gods too. I'll do my best."

"Not saying 'leave it to me' there is so Japanese."

Labyrinth said that nostalgically.

"Yes, yes, so about my present."

Mako raised her hand to draw attention. She had a feeling she'd be forgotten at this rate.

"Oh, I hadn't heard. What would you like?"

"Please give me an Item Box."

That was a very reasonable, perfectly average wish.

"Do you want to be able to use it yourself? Or do you want a magic tool that does that?"

"I want to be able to use it myself."

"Understood. But with my power, I can only make a treasury about the size of a gymnasium at best. What do you want to do about time passage inside?"

"Please make it stopped. I want to put freshly made food in it."

"That's fine, but… it won't be complete time stoppage, you know? It'll be about one second passing inside for every day that passes outside. Also, you can't put living things in it."

"Yes, that's plenty."

"You could just put it in my infinite storage…"

Mako made a complicated face at Sei's words.

Girls have things they don't want to show even to other girls—or rather, especially because it's another girl.

"So, what do you wish for?"

"Eh? I get one too?"

Sei was surprised, having assumed the map of the heroes' current locations was his reward.

"That was something Ria asked for, necessary to save this world. It's only natural that I give you something else besides that, isn't it?"

When told that, Sei thought about it. What he decided to try asking for was something the god of Earth had refused.

"Could you make me able to use teleportation magic?"

He was learning from Carla-sensei, but it was hard to say he could use it at a practical level.

"Sure, but what kind of teleportation do you want?"

"Something like a trump card, you know…"

And so Sei obtained short-distance teleportation.

"Well then, see you again… no, it would be better if we don't meet. Tell Ria to come visit sometime."

"Understood. Then, excuse us."

She teleported the two of them to the surface as they bowed their heads. Then Labyrinth turned to face Jean.

"My～, they were quite something, those kids."

"Indeed. I never want to meet them again."

Being devoured seemed to have become a trauma for Jean. Despite normally being the one who sucks blood from humans.

"I can't retire yet either. I can't lose to modern weapons."

Snorting with determination, Labyrinth and Jean together began planning labyrinth renovations.

For the first time since the vampire had become the master of the depths, the Trial Labyrinth was conquered.

This news spread throughout the city, and an official announcement was made by the governor.

The person at the center of it all, Sei, somehow managed to escape from the governor who was showering him with every word of praise, and was lying on the bed in the annex.

"So, that's how things went."

"I see. Good work."

When he contacted Ria, it seemed there had been developments on her end over the past few days too.

The elves had protected someone who had teleported to the Great Forest, and Ria's companions had captured one hero.

"Captured?"

"They apparently resisted. Well, they roughed them up enough not to kill them."

Ria's companions were impressive. Sei suddenly wondered.

"By the way, which Gift did that hero have?"

"Ah, time stop."

"Eh…"

Time stop. Among the Gifts Mako had told him about, he had thought it would be quite troublesome if it became an enemy.

In fact, according to what he'd heard from Mako, among the heroes, they were supposed to be quite high-ranked, especially in person-to-person combat. Though apparently they weren't undefeated.

To capture that. It would be far more difficult than killing them.

"How… how did they…?"

"Merely stopping time isn't enough to bridge certain gaps. Just as your immortality isn't absolute."

Once again, Sei shuddered. There were too many monsters in this world.

"Now, for your next directive."

"Why do you have to sound so evil organization-like?"

"Don't say that. Make your next target Lemdria. That place is currently in turmoil from internal strife. I don't want an irregular existence like a hero stirring things up."

"Understood. I'll hang up then."

"Ah, I'm counting on you."

After ending the communication, Sei stared at the canopy of the bed.

Time stop. And they had been captured so easily. It was an opponent Sei had been mentally simulating what to do if he ever faced them.

"Give me a break…"

He should sleep. Starting tomorrow, a parade for conquering the labyrinth was scheduled. Regrettably, Sei was its main attraction.

The Lemdria Empire. An empire that once claimed hegemony over the southern part of the continent.

Now it was split into north and south, but even so, its national power was said to be great.

"I wonder what kind of place it is… I'd like to do at least a little sightseeing…"

Murmuring to try to feel even a little more carefree, Sei drifted off to sleep.