To the Wind Labyrinth, Part 6

The next day, Azu and the others stopped by the Adventurer's Guild to look for a porter before heading into the Wind Labyrinth.

The guild's answer was essentially: find one yourself among the ones hanging around.

Porters tended to cause trouble by nature, so the guild preferred to stay uninvolved.

They approached several candidates, and it was easy to see why hiring one was no simple task.

"Three girls? Nice, I'll go."

A male porter whose attitude shifted the moment he realized it was an all-female party.

One look at his face told you exactly what he was thinking.

"… Tch."

A middle-aged porter who couldn't even be bothered to make conversation.

Even Azu could tell these were not people she wanted to hire.

A nearby adventurer told her that most porters were doing it reluctantly. The decent ones either got snatched up as regulars or saved enough to get out of the business entirely.

Azu was about to give up and stick with just the three of them when she spotted yesterday's girl.

Hood up, oversized backpack strapped on.

She was a porter too.

Azu walked over.

"Hey, you're a porter, right?"

"… Oh, you. From yesterday. Thanks for the food."

"Yeah. Want to come with us?"

"I thought you were some rich girl. Didn't realize you were an adventurer."

"Really? Ehehe. So, what do you say?"

The girl looked past Azu at Elza and Alexia.

"All girls, huh. Where to?"

"Wind Labyrinth."

"That place. Sure… What's the split? If it's cheap, I'm not going."

"Um, hold on a second."

They hadn't decided on terms yet. When Azu asked Alexia, she was told to handle it herself.

Elza just smiled and watched. Probably seeing what Azu would do.

So this was what being a leader meant, Azu realized.

She went back to the girl.

"Equal split by headcount. Nice and simple, right?"

"Can't argue with that. But you're pretty generous. I thought the same thing yesterday."

"Am I? Maybe."

"Then we've got a deal. I'm Kazusa. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Azu. The cleric over there is Elza-san, and the one with the battleaxe is Alexia-san."

"The cleric I get, but what's with her outfit? Is she an exhibitionist?"

Kazusa eyed Alexia from head to toe and declared her an exhibitionist.

Alexia's brow twitched. There was no way she could have heard from that distance, but Azu frantically covered Kazusa's mouth just in case.

"Don't! She doesn't dress like that by choice. You do not want to make her angry."

Kazusa batted Azu's hand away.

"Fine, fine, I get it. So you're… Azu, you're the one running things?"

"That's right. I've been put in charge, more or less."

"Gotcha. Well then, looking forward to it. When do we leave?"

"Now."

"Works for me."

Kazusa was already prepared.

The party of three became four as they set out for the Wind Labyrinth with Kazusa in tow.

Azu, excited to meet someone close to her own age for the first time in a while, chatted with Kazusa between stretches of the journey.

Kazusa, probably bored with nothing else to do, chatted back and shared bits of her own story.

"You have a little brother."

"Yeah. I want to make sure he learns to read and write properly."

"Literacy is… expensive."

Literacy rates in this world weren't exactly high.

Outside of nobility, merchants, and wealthy families, most people could only read and write the basics: their own name and some numbers.

Literacy had a huge impact on your future.

Fewer chances of getting swindled, more opportunities for real work.

In larger cities, churches and the like offered literacy classes, but they required donations.

"Yeah. I'll manage, but I don't want my brother to have it rough."

"I don't have any siblings, but I think I understand. Let's earn a lot, then."

"Sounds good. I stay back during fights. I can defend myself, but don't count on me."

"I know. I'm counting on you for the items, though."

They entered the Wind Labyrinth.

The first floor had weak enemies and poor drops.

They cleared it with minimal fighting and moved to the second floor.

Kazusa kept pace with them without missing a single drop.

Quick on her feet, or rather, there was no wasted movement.

They blitzed through the second floor with minimal combat as well.

A monster lunged at Kazusa, but she fended it off deftly with a knife.

Azu dispatched it quickly, then cut down the one Kazusa had been handling.

"Thanks."

"Sure."

And then the third floor.

Here was where things got real.

The Giant Bees were gone.

When Azu mentioned they'd burned the nest, Kazusa was surprised.

According to Kazusa, destroying a nest meant the Giant Bees wouldn't respawn for several days.

"If you burned the nest, you must've gotten a ton of loot."

"Yeah, we did. That alone filled our bags and we had to head back."

"So that's why you brought a porter… why you brought me. Smart move. This place is all about volume."

Kazusa packed Wind Elementals from the slain Wind Wolves into her backpack.

The pack she carried was enormous. Azu could probably have fit entirely inside it.

"Can you actually carry that thing when it's full?"

"It's got a basic weight-reduction enchantment, so the rest is just… pushing through. With heavy materials I can't even fill it halfway."

"It's still heavy, huh."

"Obviously."

"Yeah, obviously."

Alexia watched the two of them from behind.

"Azu seems quite pleased."

"Well, her only companions have been the two of us. Of course she's thrilled to have someone new."

"I'm one thing, but Elza, you're a little off, so maybe that's part of it."

"How rude. The Creator King will not let that stand."

"What can a faded god do about it?"

"Alexia-san. It's so clear now why you had no friends."

Elza sighed.