To the Wind Labyrinth, Part 5

Backpacks stuffed to bursting, the three left the labyrinth and headed for the town where they'd taken lodging.

"What do we do with all this?"

"The guild won't give us great prices for it…"

"Oh, isn't that…"

At the town entrance, a young man had pulled up in a horse-drawn cart and was waiting.

Elza recognized him and tried to place the face.

"Oh good, I made it. I was worried we'd miss each other. Kaimol, from the shop. Good to see you all."

It was the tool shop's employee.

He'd apparently come all the way out here by cart and had been waiting for them.

"Honestly, that man asks the most unreasonable things. 'I know where they are, so just go,' he says. Oh, please load your items onto the cart. I'll take responsibility for getting everything back."

They did as told, piling the items from the labyrinth onto the cart.

"I've rented a warehouse in this town, so from now on you can just store things there. Here's the key."

Kaimol handed Azu a key and a map.

That had apparently been the main reason for his trip.

"Well then, I'll be off. Wishing you all the best of luck."

And just like that, Kaimol drove off with the cart.

"He's gone."

"I can't tell if this level of preparation is impressive or overkill…"

"One less problem to worry about, isn't it?"

They returned to the inn and spent a full day resting.

Master had been very insistent about that.

Since she had the time, Azu decided to explore the city.

Perhaps because it was a satellite city near the capital, it was fairly developed, if not quite on the capital's level.

The town square was spacious, lined with food stalls.

Azu queued at a stall selling wheat-flour sweets and bought one.

She nibbled from the paper tray piled high with treats, taking in the sights as she walked.

Adventuring was a grueling profession, yet Azu had never imagined she'd get to live a life this… normal.

As long as she kept working, Master was lenient.

He'd been quite harsh with Alexia at first, but once she stopped resisting, he'd treated her about the same as Azu.

He really was a soft person.

He could have squeezed them far harder if he'd wanted to.

He could have skipped adventuring entirely and put them to work selling their bodies. That would have been far more reliable income.

She still didn't understand why he hadn't.

He had never once looked at her with desire in his eyes.

Probably not at the other two, either.

He did see them changing clothes or undressed under the pretext of discipline, though.

Most likely he had some personal attachment to adventuring itself.

He wanted to do it but couldn't, so he had them do it for him.

That was why he prepared everything so thoroughly and cared enough to make them rest like this.

She thought of the magic stone he'd entrusted to her at the very beginning.

You didn't just hand your mother's keepsake to a slave.

That magic stone's spell had been incredible.

Even Alexia's magic, amplified by her brooch, couldn't hold a candle to it.

About halfway through her sweets, Azu noticed a girl carrying an oversized backpack.

She wore a worn-out robe and had a sharp look in her eyes.

Even younger than Azu, from the looks of it.

Their eyes met.

The girl's gaze drifted to what Azu was holding.

Then quickly looked away.

Azu knew that gesture all too well.

She walked over to the girl and held out the sweets.

"Want some? I'm already full."

"No thanks. Don't need it."

"Then I'll have to throw them away. They'll go stale."

At Azu's deliberately obvious bluff, the girl finally turned to face her.

"… If you're just going to throw them out, I'll take them."

"Sure. They were pretty good."

The girl tentatively picked a piece from the paper tray.

She popped it in her mouth, and her expression softened.

"You really don't mind?"

"Not at all. Being hungry is the worst, right?"

Azu handed over the tray. The girl devoured the rest in a rush.

Before Azu could warn her to slow down, the girl choked. Azu gave her a drink too.

After draining every last drop, the girl finally caught her breath.

"That was good. Thanks."

"Sure. See you."

Azu tossed the empty tray in the trash.

The girl had already vanished.

This was displacement, Azu thought.

She'd been hungry and miserable as a child, so instead of feeding her past self, she'd fed this girl in her place.

She cut her walk short and headed back to the inn.

Alexia was tending to her nails.

Perhaps because of her noble upbringing, she always seemed to pay attention to her appearance.

Her hair and skin really were beautiful.

Azu had picked up grooming tips from her a few times.

Alexia noticed Azu's return and blew softly on her nails.

"Welcome back. What's up? You're in a good mood."

"Am I? Maybe so. Where's Elza-san?"

"Who knows? She said she was going out. She'll be fine, though. She looks like a proper cleric, at least."

"She is actually a slave, though."

"Don't remind me. Well, it hasn't been as bad as I expected. At least I don't have to endure the cutthroat atmosphere of high society."

Azu settled onto the bed. It was a decent inn, so the mattress had some bounce to it.

"How deep should we go tomorrow?"

"Fourth floor should be fine, don't you think? Going too deep makes the trip back a pain, and the enemies get tougher. The loot improves, sure, but our goal this time is decent quality in decent quantity."

"Fair enough. I'll plan on going deeper only if the opportunity presents itself."

"Do that. It's not like working harder earns us more. We just need to keep that master of ours reasonably satisfied."

Easy for Alexia to say, but she actually hated cutting corners.

Blue blood, maybe.

Elza came back around evening.

She'd apparently been visiting churches.

She laughed and called it "enemy reconnaissance," which was too unsettling to press further on.