Chapter 39

After escaping from the 21st floor, each of us began taking our own rest.

Maria retreated to her room and shut herself inside, while Lastiara said she had errands to run and left shortly after.

I thought about using this time to talk to Maria about our future, but she gently turned me down, saying she wanted to be alone. I didn’t push the matter since I had things I wanted to think over by myself as well.

Looking back on our recent Labyrinth exploration, there was so much to process.

There was the lack of experience on both my and Maria’s part, but I also needed to analyze my skills and magic.

The new magic, Little Snow, presented no issues. The Connection magic was also a success. I had draped a black cloth over the door I placed on the 20th floor for camouflage, so it shouldn’t be destroyed anytime soon. Unless something truly extraordinary happened, there shouldn’t be any high-level explorers searching every nook and cranny of the 20th floor.

The real problem, however, was the “???” skill.

After spending a few days without using “???”, the abnormality of that power had become increasingly apparent.

It might be optimistic to assume that the only things lost through the “???” skill were what appeared on the Display. Using “???”, casting aside doubt, and being able to think about everything rationally was nothing less than altering my own values. I hadn’t realized how terrifying it was to have “myself” changed in a way that was beyond my own knowledge or control.

I had been trying to avoid using the “???” skill as much as possible to stay away from the threshold of 10.00 Confusion, but now I had even more reasons to avoid it. That said, as long as I didn’t end up in a fierce battle like the one against Teida or get involved with slaves, I probably wouldn’t need to use it. As long as I didn’t panic, with the level of power I possessed, it was unlikely I would fall into a dire predicament.

Having finished setting my future course for my magic and skills, I checked the time.

It was still a bit early for the sun to set, but I decided to head to the tavern for work. If I gathered information early, the time wouldn’t go to waste.

I told Maria I was heading out, changed into fresh clothes, and made my way to the tavern.

Nothing happened along the way, but just as I was about to enter the tavern—I ran right into Lastiara coming out of the shop. Lastiara’s mouth fell open in surprise.

“Ah.”

“Wait, Lastiara? What are you doing here?”

“Ah! I just remembered an errand! See ya!”

Lastiara hurried away.

It seemed like running into me here was awkward for her.

I thought about chasing after her but held back. I didn’t know what she had been doing at the tavern, but if I chased her now, I might be late for work. With no other choice, I entered through the back of the tavern.

“Christ? Oh my. Why are you here?”

Lynn was waiting at the back. She looked at me entering with a puzzled expression.

“Is it a problem if I’m here?”

“Well, I heard that Christ was taking a break starting today…”

“Huh? From whom?”

“From the manager.”

“…I’ll go ask him about that.”

“You probably should.”

A break starting today?

I had no plans to take a long-term leave.

However, if I had to guess the culprit, it was the Lastiara from earlier.

I brushed past Lynn and headed toward the manager in the kitchen.

The manager was there, busy preparing food.

“Manager. I just heard from Lynn that I’m on leave…”

“Whoa! Christ, is that you? Don’t scare me like that.”

Since I had called out from behind him, the manager answered while jumping in surprise. He seemed to have been so focused on the pot that he hadn’t noticed me.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t worry about it. So, about the leave. That’s what the young lady from Huzya told me, was she wrong?”

“By ‘young lady from Huzya,’ do you mean Lastiara?”

“Lastiara? Is that her name?”

“Wait, you didn’t even ask for her name?”

“She told me she couldn’t reveal it…”

“Please don’t believe what someone like that says.”

The behavior was classic Lastiara. Since I had just passed her, there was no doubt she was the one who spoke to the manager.

“Well, she introduced herself as the ‘Huzya Noble’ you’d seduced, so I couldn’t really ask too many questions.”

“That woman…”

“Then, she pleaded with me to let Christ take a break until his personal affairs were settled, saying it pained her to cause trouble for the shop. For my part, it’s a hassle if people like that Radiant show up all the time. I agreed without a second thought. She was polite and seemed to know the circumstances well, so I thought there was no mistake…”

“Ah, I see…”

In other words, she had played the “good girl” act and wrapped my manager around her finger.

When all was said and done, our manager had a soft spot for beauties. Whether it was Radiant yesterday or Lynn the employee… anyone close to the manager knew that.

He must have been swayed by Lastiara’s beauty and didn’t bother to press for details.

I understood the situation.

But next, I had to think about why Lastiara had taken such actions.

Most likely, it was to extend our Labyrinth exploration time. Whenever I tried to wrap up an exploration because of work, she always looked dissatisfied, so I was sure of it.

And there was one more thing. It might also serve to crush my source of information. She had a tendency to hate spoilers. There was a possibility she hated the idea of me gathering info up to the 23rd floor because it would lessen the fun.

She really was a handful.

But what made her truly troublesome was that she might be calculating those two reasons subconsciously, believing she was acting out of pure goodwill.

Having spent more time with her, I had come to understand her way of thinking a little.

I was sure Lastiara was thinking things like, “Spending time in the Labyrinth is more efficient than time at the tavern—” or “It’ll be dangerous from the 23rd floor onward if he gets used to exploring only after gathering info—”

I let out a deep sigh and continued.

“It’s true that she is indeed the ‘Huzya Noble’ in question. What she said isn’t entirely wrong, so let’s just go with that…”

“Oh, you’re okay with it? Then I’ll keep it as a holiday, just like that young lady said.”

“Yes…”

The level up on the first day, the introduction to the Celestial Knights, joining the party, and even the warning she gave Maria—everything had started from her own brand of goodwill.

It was unwanted meddling, but once I realized that, I felt a certain hesitation to reject that kindness outright.

However, I fully intended to give her a piece of my mind later regarding her selfishness. Lastiara herself had probably run away earlier precisely because she knew she was being pushy.

“Well then, I guess I’ll take that time off…”

“Yeah, go get your affairs in order. You lady-killer, you.”

That was a title I definitely didn’t want…

Now that I thought about it, I felt like a knight in the Labyrinth had called me something similar…

I could overlook other things, but I would pay her back for this dishonorable title someday. I swore it to myself.

And so, enduring the meaningful looks from the manager and Lynn, I left the tavern without doing a lick of work.

After leaving the tavern, I looked around for Lastiara, but perhaps due to her guilty conscience, she never showed herself.

Maria wouldn’t come out of her room either.

With nothing else to do, I decided to drop by and see the final member of our party, Diablo Sith.

Passing the hospital reception, I walked toward the ward where Dia was admitted.

As I made my way down the hallway, I noticed that the surroundings had changed.

For some reason, the corridor was full of holes…

Venturing nervously through the now well-ventilated hallway, I entered Dia’s hospital room.

The state of Dia’s room was even more disastrous than the hallway.

Holes everywhere had been patched up with wooden boards, and the floors and walls were scorched and discolored. Many of the furniture and medical instruments were broken; there wasn’t a trace of the comfort or cleanliness from my previous visit.

In the middle of this transformed room, Dia was lounging on the bed, looking exactly the same as always.

“Dia…?”

“Ah, Christ.”

Dia and I exchanged greetings.

He didn’t seem bothered by the devastation at all.

“Hey, Dia. What on earth happened here?”

“Ah, right, this room… Sorry. It looks like the repairs are going to cost a bit because of this. Could you pay the receptionist out of my share of the reward?”

“No, that’s fine. It’s your money, so of course I will. More importantly, can you tell me what happened?”

“Hmm… An enemy attack?”

Dia asked back, sounding half-uncertain.

Even if he asked me, I wouldn’t know.

“An enemy came here? To the hospital?”

“Yeah, a girl named Alti. You know, the one who was standing behind Teida when we fought him. I fought her.”

“Wait, her?”

Actually, that made sense.

Only Guardians could move outside the Labyrinth, and the magic she used was fire-based. That explained the scorched floors and walls.

However, I couldn’t picture Alti initiating a fight. If anything—

“Did Alti start it?”

“Uh, well… she didn’t lay a finger on me. All of this damage was caused by my magic.”

“I figured…”

That didn’t exactly count as a “fight.”

It seemed Dia had overreacted when Alti came by to poke her nose in, and this was the result.

Now that I thought about it, when I tried to place a Connection magic circle on the 10th floor, she mentioned her “main body was busy.” It was possible she was in the middle of getting blasted by Dia’s magic at that very moment.

“My bad. We made peace, but by then, the place already looked like this.”

“No, it couldn’t be helped. It’s my fault for not explaining about Alti.”

I had been optimistic, thinking Alti’s interest was solely in me. But if I thought about it, I wasn’t the only one who defeated Teida. Dia was a part of that too.

In that case, it wouldn’t be strange for her to approach Dia, who had granted Teida’s wish, to negotiate.

Regretting my lack of foresight, I asked Dia what Alti had been doing here.

“So, what did Alti want?”

“Hmm. We just chatted for a bit, and she taught me some magic. She was a nice girl.”

“She taught you magic?”

“She said she couldn’t stand to watch my flame magic and taught me a few things. Most of the burns in the room are from practicing that.”

“Well, she is a pro when it comes to fire magic, but…”

However, judging from the situation, it seemed he hadn’t heard anything about her “attaining love.”

Perhaps after getting to know Dia’s personality, she decided he wasn’t the type of person she could talk to about romance.

“So, did your magic change?”

“Yeah, it’s on a whole different level. I can adjust the power of my Flame Arrow now. My intuition for Holy Magic has come back, too. I’m not the same man I was before.”

“Ohh.”

Adjusting power.

Since Dia had inexhaustible MP, he could technically just fire at full power all the time, but being able to control it was definitely a plus.

“Though, I got carried away with practice and the doctor got mad at me. He threatened me, saying I’d die if I kept doing that while suffering from mana depletion.”

“Like I said before, please don’t push yourself. It’ll only extend your hospital stay.”

“Ugh… I want to avoid that too. I’ll stay as quiet as possible.”

Dia became docile the moment the length of his stay was mentioned.

It seemed he really didn’t want it to drag on.

After that, we spent some time catching up on recent events.

During the conversation, I brought up the topic of our companions.

“—Oh, that’s right. We have more companions now, so I’ll introduce them once you’re discharged.”

“Companions?”

“Yeah, more people have joined to help with the Labyrinth exploration. I thought I should let you know early.”

“Oh, that’s great!”

Dia looked genuinely happy about the increase in our numbers. Since he had been strangely pushing for a solo challenge when we last met, I thought he might oppose the idea, but it seemed my fears were groundless.

From the looks of it, perhaps because he hadn’t been able to gather a party before, he had a slight yearning for a large group. However, since those long-awaited companions were those two with personality issues, I decided to lower his expectations so he wouldn’t get his hopes up too much.

“Just don’t expect too much; they’re a bit eccentric.”

“You chose them, didn’t you, Christ? Then they must be wonderful companions for me as well.”

As usual, Dia had absolute trust in me.

He was worlds apart from the twisted Maria or the crazed Lastiara. Dia’s innocent gaze felt incredibly comforting right now.

“…Since they’re difficult people, I’m worried about whether you’ll get along with them, Dia.”

“I’ll do my best to make it work. For their sake, I have to polish my magic even more.”

“As expected of you, Dia… But don’t overdo it.”

He was too dazzling…

What a good kid. I almost wanted to thank God for letting me meet Dia.

“—Though, if they’re the type to get in the way of your dream, Christ, I might have to say something.”

As I was giving my thanks to God, Dia’s small murmur reached my ears.

“Eh?”

“Oh, I just meant that if they get in the way of the Labyrinth exploration, that’s a different story.”

“Ah, right. Of course.”

If I hadn’t misheard him, he had said “my dream.” I knew Dia was a considerate guy, but I felt a slight sense of unease at that choice of words.

“Christ. If you have more companions, then you must have made progress in the Labyrinth, right? Tell me about it.”

“Yeah, of course.”

But since Dia immediately begged for the story, I didn’t have time to pinpoint that feeling of unease.

Sharing information about the Labyrinth was a high-priority task. If a magician as talented as Dia was returning, I wanted his help as soon as possible.

I began to speak slowly and carefully about the monsters up to the 20th floor.

There was a mountain of things to talk about. What kind of boss monsters we fought, the characteristics of each floor, the situations where I struggled—I broke down various pieces of information and explained them.

By the time I ran out of things to say about the Labyrinth, it was completely dark outside.

Finally, I promised to bring a gift next time I visited and left Dia’s hospital room.

On my way out, I paid the damages for Dia’s room and returned home.