"Thanks, lass. Keep up the good work."
A wolfman hunter who looked a bit like Fez wrapped up his registration with Ann and gave her a pat on the head. Even the coldest lone wolves warmed up before her sunny charm.
"The campsite for lodgers is over thataway. Just check the map here in case you get lost! We have a tent rental service, food stands, and even a sit-down restaurant if you like. Please enjoy your stay!"
She pointed to a sketched map to guide the hunter to their prepared campsite. It had a simple watering hole, space for setting up a tent, and a blanket to sleep on.
"Well, well, I even get a campsite? Glad to hear there's somewhere to get a bite to eat."
That's right, dear hunter, nothing hits the spot like good home cooking! It was a great arrangement. The hunters got a good meal, and the villagers enjoyed an influx of money, making good use of whatever excess crops had been harvested earlier in the year. I wished I could claim credit for the restaurant idea, but it had actually come from the village's housewives. It seemed the joy of earning a living through cooking had been kindled inside them during the construction work. I wanted to believe it was just a coincidence that all the servers were the village's available bachelors and bachelorettes, but it was tough convincing myself of that after I witnessed Jenny and the other housewives instructing them on how to carry themselves and how to chat up customers. They, err, were just selling food... right?
Ann gave a cheerful wave to the wolfman as he set off for his campsite, then she took a peek at my notes as I jotted down my impressions of the hunter and his equipment.
"That was the third group today. We've got six people challenging the labyrinth tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah, things sure are busy. Mary told me she's seeing more traffic down in the guardian's room, too. The word must be spreading. Ann, can you check how we're doing on magic potions?"
"Sure!"
With all these outsiders, I'd decided to extend Carla's contract, and I'd additionally hired Donnel's party to patrol the village and keep an eye on the visitors. About eight groups had challenged the labyrinth in the one week it had been open, totaling up to twenty hunters all told. I felt pretty good about that number, since pretty much all I had for advertising was Carla and Donnel spreading the news. Communication and travel were both slow in this world, so I had to temper my expectations.
The reward for clearing the challenge was one of the high-class potions I made, but I also took the opportunity during our nightly maintenance sweeps to litter the place with treasure chests containing the lesser potions Ann made, and these little gifts were quite popular with our challengers. Among the hunters who had used up all their tries for now and had lost their right to challenge the labyrinth, some of them had opened up consulting shops where they would offer strategy advice to new challengers. The village was really jumping these days.
So far, my main sources for information were Donnel's group and Carla's catgirls, though sometimes I overheard hunters gossiping myself. Mary was also a font of data regarding the challengers who made it to her room. At dinner each night, she'd give me a rundown on how many there were and what they'd been like in combat. It was nice to get some amount of information from on-site.
"So yeah, that's about it. I think it really helped, making it so they didn't have to beat Mary to win the big prize."
"Not bad, not bad! I'm just glad to hear the village isn't any worse off for all this crazy tourism you're bringing it."
After I returned from the labyrinth one evening, I got in touch with Suzu and updated her on our progress.
"Thanks for spreading the word with the mercenaries and hunters over in your area. A good 30% of our visitors come from there."
Suzu's labyrinth was a bit far for me and Ann to walk to, but it wasn't that bad for hunters, who traveled light and were used to longer journeys.
"Aww, it ain't no thing. I just made sure to plant some juicy gossip with the traders."
In fact, Fez had told me that we were seeing more caravans transporting salt from Suzu's region, and moreover, that the number of hunters escorting those wagons had gone up substantially. Suzu's helping hand was obvious, but I opted not to say anything.
"Any thoughts on what to do about labyrinth traps getting stale?"
I decided to ask her a few questions about the labyrinth itself. The hunters liked to exchange info, so the new ones benefited from the info brought back by the trailblazers, which made it easier for them to avoid my traps over time. I sometimes overheard them chatting, and I'd ingrained in the maintenance personnel that they had to change the layout of the traps every day, especially around the entrance, but it didn't really have much effect.
"Can't help you there. We don't really do intruders at my labyrinth."
Oh, right, Suzu's labyrinth is a glorified warehouse.
◇
The labyrinth opening wasn't an instant smash hit, but we did have a steadily growing stream of challengers. One day, around when I'd gotten used to the new rhythm of things, I headed to the workshop to help out with cooking. There was less hustle and bustle compared to when construction had been in full swing, but between the patrollers, the emergency crew, and the maintenance crew, the place was still always crowded.
"This is real bad!"
On my way to the workshop, as I stepped around the mountain of leftover blocks of soil from the construction, Ann came running.
"Aoi! The lady at the reception desk just told me that six of the eight adventurers who entered the labyrinth brought back certificates, and it isn't even noon yet!"
"No way!"
What had happened to Mary? Even on the busiest days, no more than one out of every three hunters got past her. For so many to have cleared the challenge, and so quickly, something had to have gone wrong.
"Ann, did they have enough potions on hand at reception to exchange for the certificates?"
I wanted nothing more than to rush off to check on Mary, but I had to confirm that first. I absolutely couldn't allow the hunters to lose faith in the fairness of the labyrinth challenge.
"Oh, that's right. The lady said they all wanted the same type of potion, so I'm on my way to the workshop to get more!"
We kept a small selection of potions at reception, but we stockpiled most of them in the workshop. So Ann had run here all the way from Milt?
"I can look out for Mary. Ann, you need to... Oh, hey, there's George, perfect! Can you accompany Ann to the village?"
The sun was setting, so I wouldn't dream of letting her go alone. Fortunately, I noticed one of Donnel's guys sitting in one of the workshop chairs, licking himself clean. George was a quiet fellow, but his excellent work ethic had garnered him a lot of fans among the village girls, so the housewives with unmarried daughters all kept a close eye on him. When I called out to him, he looked my way and nodded.
"I'm going to go check on Mary. I know you're worried about her too, Ann, but I need you to trust me to handle this."
"All right. Make sure she's okay!"
Ann looked concerned but still went along with my plan. She was such a good girl; I really didn't deserve her.
I asked around, but nobody had seen Mary leave the labyrinth, so I took the back door near the workshop and headed for her room. At the bottom of the stairs, I opened the door with Mary's name on it and went straight in, being careful not to spring any of our traps on the way to the guardian's room.
"Oh, thank goodness you're all right."
I found Mary sitting on the floor of the guardian's room. I ran to her and nearly collapsed in relief when I realized she wasn't hurt.
"Aoi? Why are you here?"
Mary looked up at me, her face drawn and haggard. Had she not realized how late it was?
"Mary, the labyrinth is closed. I heard a lot of hunters got certificates today, and I got worried about you. Did something happen?"
A shiver of fear ran through Mary's face when I mentioned the hunters. I'd never seen that look in her eyes be
fore. I took a closer look at her, fearing the worst, but her clothes didn't look ripped anywhere. Nothing out of place either.
"You'll catch a cold sitting on that stone floor. Come on, up you go."
I gave Mary a hand standing up, but she staggered into me, and I was left with my arms wrapped around her. She didn't say a word. Normally, she got flustered over this sort of thing.
"They were... the same as me."
Mary murmured, her head hanging low.
"The hunters today were humans trying to earn money to pay off their ransom. When they saw my sword, they realized I was an Extended Knight Armor pilot just like them. I'm useless, Aoi. At the end of the day, I'm a knight with a duty to serve her people. When I realized my job here was to stand in the way of my countrymen, and all they wanted was to go home, I could only step back and let them go."
So we'd finally found our guardian's weakness.
"I couldn't ask them to sacrifice themselves to help me pay my debt. I'm a knight! But I'm also sworn to fight them as your labyrinth guardian. I could say nothing, could do nothing. I'm so sorry..."
Mary's grip on my coat tightened.
I remembered Karumi's warning, long ago now, about the limitations placed on knights. I hadn't expected her to be bound so firmly. Did that mean it wasn't even her own decision, and she couldn't face humans at all? She had nothing to apologize for. Serving both of her two oaths to the best of her ability was a heavy burden to bear. As her employer, I should have reprimanded her. But as her former rival, her friend, and now her family, that was the last thing I wanted to do. I knew she was torn. I didn't want Mary to be the sort of person who could coldly abandon her oaths to her people and country.
I made my decision. I knew it was selfish, and a little arrogant. But I wanted to make this lost girl smile, even if it meant coddling her a little. My gaming intuition told me that if I wanted to trigger Mary's flag and make her join my party, I had to be gentle with her in this event. I had to spoil her. If this were just a game, that would've obviously been the right move. You take any opportunity you can to secure yourself a powerful unit. But thinking of her as just another piece on the chessboard when she was genuinely depressed would have made me truly heartless.
"I'm sorry, Mary. I'll figure something out for the next time a human adventurer shows up."
At long last, Mary lifted her head and looked me in the eye.
"Aoi, why would you do this for me? You put your faith in me, and I failed you."
So because I was relying on her, she had to do everything perfectly? That was a pretty warped view.
There were two routes before us, now. She would finish her job and return home, and where once we had been intimate, we would return to being enemies and rivals. And on the other route, I would persuade her to stay and become my ally. No matter which path we chose, I was sure it would be a fulfilling story. But I knew which ending I wanted to see.
If the alternative was to see her fighting back tears on the field of battle, I'd much prefer to put a smile on her face and make her my ally. It was time to exercise every ounce of persuasion I had and forge a new path forward for the two of us. How hard could it be? I had a lot of practice making my dreams a reality in the game of life.
"Why? Because when I see a girl crying, I want to hold her and tell her it's going to be all right."
The dam finally broke, and a single tear trickled down Mary's face.
"Don't say that, Aoi. I have to do this on my own."
But as she said that, she buried her face in my shoulder and tightened her arms around me. This wasn't making a whole lot of sense to me, but I decided to respond to her actions, rather than her words.
"You've had a really hard life, haven't you? I won't tell you to give up, and I won't tell you to tough it out on your own. I was thinking, instead, maybe we could get through it together."
I knew I wasn't making things any easier on her. Far from it. But I was going to see my choice through to the end.
"Please, Aoi, stop. I have to stay strong!"
The tears were streaming down her face now.
"I worked so hard. I traveled wherever they sent me, and I forced myself not to cry at night until I thought I couldn't feel anything anymore. Why must you be so cruel to me? I don't even have any parents to tell me I did a good job. Why must I keep suffering alone? Why, Aoi?!"
Mary's anguished cries echoed around the guardian room. She had been aloof since the day we met, but there really was a warm, human girl underneath that iron armor. My next step was to tell her she'd done a good job. You know, this was a lot easier in games, where you just clicked one of like three choices and your character said a whole prepared monologue. I, on the other hand, was stuck winging the whole thing. Man, if only the real world had retries.
"You've worked hard for a long time, and you've done a great job, Mary. Thank you."
I slowly stroked her hair.
"Ah... Waaaaaaaah!"
The cutesy wailing caught me by surprise. Mary arms tightened, crushing me against her. Seriously, her grip was so tight I was worried I was gonna crack a rib. But I endured and just kept stroking her hair as she cried.
"..."
Ten minutes passed before she finally settled down. She'd finished crying, but neither of us knew what to do next.
"Aoi, would you please say something? I'm about to die of embarrassment here."
Mary's forehead was still firmly pressed against my chest, and I was still stroking her hair. I noted with interest that her ears were bright red.
"Uh, let's see. Umm. That was really cute?"
It was all I could think of.
"I'm going to kill you, and then kill myself." Evidently that was not what I was supposed to say.
"Honestly, Mary, I'm really happy that you let me hold you while you cried. I think it's way better to let someone give you a shoulder to cry on than to just bottle everything up. Don't you agree?"
"Are you sure? To be honest, it felt wonderful. If you truly don't mind it, I might just keep doing it."
Mary looked at me in surprise, her eyes shining with hope. Just one more little push now...
"I never thought you'd say that. Fortunately for you, I'm totally into spoiling people."
I had a little sister, though she wasn't grown up like Mary, and I'd spoiled her rotten for her whole life. I loved it. And more importantly, I wanted to see Mary happy.
"If you say so. Then, do you mind holding me a little longer? I feel safe like this."
"Do you mind if I contact the guys on the surface first? They're probably starting to get worried."
"No. This is Mary time."
"All right then."
Firmly reprimanded, I held my ground, my arms still wrapped around Mary. I couldn't see her face, with her forehead pressed against my shoulder and her arms wrapped around me, but I was just relieved she wasn't crying anymore.
"Thank you, Aoi. I think I would like some time alone now."
After a bit, Mary calmed down and left me behind. I took a seat on the floor and pondered. Did I clear the event? Somehow, this one had been even more exhausting than the time we'd fought. Finding the route where Mary stayed with me had left me completely spent. For the longest time, I'd just been asking her to stay every chance I could get, but that had clearly been going nowhere. I'd finally found the right approach.
Whew. I was tired, but I had no regrets. In fact, I was ecstatic that I'd finally landed on the true route. But just as I went to stand up and breathe a sigh of relief...
"...?!"
I looked up to see Fez, Donnel, and Carla, all peering at me through a little crack in the guardian's door that Mary had just used to exit. All three of them had the most insufferable grins I had ever seen. I straightened up in surprise, and they all waltzed into the room.
"Now ya've done it, Aoi. Another wife? You're as bad a criminal as me, I swear."
"Aren't you the lady-killer? Now, Boss, how much are you gonna pay me to keep my tra
p shut?"
The guys came up on either side of me and each threw an arm around my shoulder. I was never going to live this down. Actually, Donnel's fur was kinda warm and soft, but his smirk ruined everything.
"Yeah, yeah, how much ya gonna pay us, Aoi?!"
Carla, did you really have to sound so excited about blackmailing me? Fez and Donnel got too into it, and I ended up decking both of them. Unfortunately, I hit them a little too hard and knocked them both unconscious, which meant I was forced to drag them up to the surface, as I tried to force out a smile for Carla. Donnel and Fez should both have been at the village, which meant they must've come running here out of concern for us, but I was sure hell would freeze over before they would admit that.
Strongest Gamer; Let's Play in Another World Volume 2 Page 18