by Tôwa
We could theoretically go to the bottom floor in every labyrinth; it’d just take time. Even if we did, though, there’d be things we’d never find. Then there was the possibility that the hidden floors had already been found by someone else, so even though we spent the time and effort to get there, it could have been cleaned out. There wouldn’t actually be anything to find. Thinking of it that way, we could only aim to find any hidden floors if we happened to find a Black Box in that labyrinth… That’d be a good policy.
“All right, it’s decided. First, I’ll go report to Louisa. The rest of you can go take a break at the mansion. We’ll open the box tomorrow,” I announced.
“““Okay!””” chimed the rest of the members, even Igarashi. I knew she had accepted me as the leader of the party, but it still felt a little strange.
“……”
“Huh? …You wanna come along? No, you can take a break instead; it’s fine,” I said to Theresia, who stuck close to me. I wondered what was wrong—maybe there was something on her mind?
“…Are you maybe thinking about that Seraphina lady from before?” I asked.
“—?!”
I had said it even though I thought I might be projecting this onto her, but Theresia reacted pretty strongly, her face turning bright red as she pressed her hands to her lizard mask and crouched down.
“The way things were going, it would’ve been rude not to shake her hand. It’s not like I’m interested in her or anything,” I continued.
“……”
Theresia looked up at me as if to ask if I really meant it. I held my hand out to her and helped her stand up. Her hand was really warm. Being a lizardman, she wasn’t good with high temperatures, so I should try to avoid letting her get overheated.
“In any case… Looks like everyone got the wrong idea. How about we go together like always?”
“……”
Theresia gained her composure. The red faded from her mask, and she nodded. She walked by my side all the way to the Guild, holding her right hand, the one I’d held, to her chest with her left on top, like she was treasuring it.
Part V: The Puppeteer’s Persistence
Seekers milled about inside the Guild. Theresia and I were basically regulars there by now, so one of Louisa’s junior coworkers showed us to one of the inner meeting rooms I’d been in before. Not much time passed before Louisa came in with some tea and looked at the results of our adventure on my license, with her monocle on as always.
“These names… These are members of Polaris. You somehow managed to save them before the Guild Saviors could…,” marveled Louisa.
♦Expedition Results♦
> Raided SHRIEKING WOOD 1F: 10 points
> Raided SHRIEKING WOOD 2F: 10 points
> MISAKI grew to level 4: 40 points
> Defeated 2 FEAR TREANTS: 80 points
> Defeated 5 DIRTY MUSHROOMS: 100 points
> Defeated 1 bounty VINE PUPPETEER: 1,200 points
> Party members’ Trust Levels increased: 300 points
> Rescued GEORG: 100 points
> Rescued SOPHIE: 100 points
> Rescued JAKE: 100 points
> Rescued MIHAIL: 100 points
> Rescued TYLER: 100 points
> Returned with 1 BLACK TREASURE CHEST: 50 points
Seeker Contribution: 2,290 points
District Eight Career Contribution Ranking: 1
District Seven Contribution Ranking: 294
“No issues where your contribution points are concerned. Congratulations, Mr. Atobe; your party has received official approval to advance to District Seven. I will record your Pass on your license,” said Louisa.
“Pass?” I asked.
“That’s correct. You can view it on your license. We simply call the official proof of approval to move to a given district a Pass. If you don’t have a Pass and attempt to go into a district without approval, you will be forcibly removed, so please do be careful.”
With that function, even if you happened to have a skill that let you get past the walls and go into the higher districts, you wouldn’t be able to. It was possible that there were still some loopholes, but I couldn’t even think of any at the time. On top of that, your karma would go up if you broke the rules, and I didn’t want to be arrested if I could help it.
“You contacted the Guild Saviors earlier, didn’t you? We met Seraphina in the labyrinth,” I said.
“Yes, they aren’t normally dispatched to District Eight labyrinths… But this was a special case. They were mobilized during the stampede and staying in the district anyway.”
Apparently, they were normally busy with saving Seekers in the higher districts. If they were that busy, I wasn’t likely to meet them again anytime soon.
“I will actually be providing you with a rescue reward. There is a bonus, since you rescued all members of the party… It comes to twelve gold per person rescued, so a total of sixty gold pieces.”
“Thank you. Would it be possible for you to put that toward Georg and his party’s recovery costs?”
“Are you…positive that’s what you want to do? I’m sure they have the savings necessary to pay for their medical treatment.”
“I haven’t known them very long, but I think of them as friends who live in the same housing. I’d like to help out, even if it’s just a little.”
Louisa seemed a little confused. Even if someone might think it was hypocritical, I wanted to help Georg. If my party members had been taken under the Vine Puppeteer’s control and I had no option but to run, I’m not sure I could bounce back from that easily. And Georg had been terrified and beaten down. Just looking at him, I knew it would be hard for him to go back to seeking like before.
“Are you trying to…help Seekers keep going for as long as they can, even if it might be one or two of them?” asked Louisa.
“I always want that to be the case. And I know there’s always competition between us, but I want to help like-minded friends when I can.”
“I think that’s a wonderful mind-set to have. If only all Seekers felt the same…there would be fewer parties facing death in the labyrinth.”
That’s not how things were at the moment. If my party was on the brink of destruction, another party passing by might not help us… Though, I couldn’t really blame anyone for putting their own survival first. Even so, if there was someone I could save, I wanted to do something and save them. I couldn’t change how I felt.
“I’m going to go visit Polaris at the Healers. Louisa, would you like to come out and have some drinks with us once things are ready for us to move to District Seven?”
“I would love to. And until then, I pray for your health and happiness.”
Theresia and I headed to the Healer clinic near the Guild and went to the room that Georg and the rest of his party were in. All the men of the party were in the room, and other than Georg, they were all asleep. They had had their vitality sucked out by the Vine Puppeteer, so they were in an extremely weakened state.
“…Arihito, you came,” said Georg. He had a bandage wrapped around his head; apparently, not all his wounds were completely healed, but I could barely believe how much life had returned to his eyes from when we’d found him in the labyrinth.
“You look rough. If only we’d…,” I started, but Georg held up his hand to stop me before I could say I wished we’d started looking sooner.
“When everyone had been taken by that plant monster, I couldn’t leave the second floor for a little while. You’ll probably laugh, but…I was so scared that I couldn’t even move my legs. The whole time, I could hear Sophie’s voice from the forest, as she was being controlled. She kept telling me I should come back and become its nutrients.”
“…It was an evil monster. It would’ve been better if you could’ve taken your test somewhere else, somewhere that didn’t have something like that,” I offered.
“Yeah. But even if we’d avoided that labyrinth and gone to District Seven,
we’d probably encounter another monster like it there. Even if you run from danger, it’s running right after you… It just means that we weren’t ready to go to District Seven…” He wasn’t trying to put himself down; he said it so matter-of-factly. I even saw a hint of a smile on his face. “To tell you the truth, my party was just about to fall apart anyway. We used to have another woman in the party besides Sophie… But she got hurt really bad when we made it to rank one in the district, and she retired from seeking. Mihail and Tyler both had a thing for her. It’s pretty stupid, but us four guys kind of got our motivation for seeking out of competing for the two women.”
“I see…”
Every party had its own things going on—remove one person, and the entire party’s balance could be thrown off… That was probably true about my party as well.
“…Sophie was the first one to become that thing’s puppet. The rest of us were hopeless after that. It would’ve been the end of everything if we let her die.”
“But you’re all right now. You can get back into it whenever you want. Well, I say that like it’d be simple.”
“No… It’s all right. I think part of me wants someone to tell me to give it up, but that would hurt, too. It’s more help to hear someone tell me to keep at it.”
He could always retire from seeking like his one friend and move to the support side. That was an option, but I didn’t necessarily think that’s what he should do. I couldn’t just wish him luck. That wouldn’t mean anything. But I didn’t want them to end things in this way.
“I don’t think you need to blame yourself. There have been many times when I’ve been scared to death in battle,” I said.
“…Even someone like you, who defeated that beast, gets afraid sometimes?” asked Georg.
“Yeah. Not that I can show it in front of my party,” I added, and Georg smiled. It was the same friendly smile from the day we’d met in the mansion.
“Arihito, I really can’t thank you enough. You came all this way and talked to me… But I was actually hoping to ask you one more favor,” he said hesitantly, but he seemed to make up his mind and forced the words from his mouth. “Could you go visit Sophie? I’ll let the Healer know you’re going.”
“…Is something wrong with her?” I’d thought we’d been able to save her. But based on Georg’s expression, that was nothing more than my wishful thinking.
“Since you’re the one who saved her…maybe you can reach her. If you could do something… Say something to make her respond, anything…”
“Georg…”
I couldn’t think of anything else to say to him. What must it feel like to lose to a monster? I still couldn’t really understand how he felt.
I wasn’t sure that Georg introducing us to the Healers would be enough for them to allow us to visit Sophie, but once they learned we were part of the party that defeated the Vine Puppeteer, they led us to her room. I opened the door and saw Sophie in the bed. She was sitting upright, but her eyes were blank. She didn’t react when we went in.
“Seekers don’t always recover after monsters seize complete control of their minds. Coming into close contact with the monster’s consciousness can be too much for a human,” explained the Healer, a woman old enough to be Sophie’s mother. Perhaps that was part of why looking at Sophie seemed to pain the Healer that much.
“…I thought if we defeated the monster, she’d be released from that. I guess I was naive,” I said, the words catching in my throat. If we’d been able to save her sooner… Though, these terrible things were probably happening all over the Labyrinth Country; I just hadn’t seen them yet.
“Is there anything I can actually do?” I asked.
“…There’s no proof that it will work, but since it was your party who defeated the monster that controlled her mind, there is a possibility,” replied the Healer.
“A possibility… What is it…?”
“There’s a chance that she is still being controlled by the monster. Plant monsters sometimes leave behind seeds. Unfortunately, those seeds also have a consciousness. They gather nutrients from their host until they can germinate and accomplish their one goal.”
One goal… Hearing it put like that made me think of something. What do monsters think of the Seekers who defeat them? I doubt they just accept it and move on.
“There are…risks. It is possible that the seed in Sophie will react if someone who the monster sees as a threat is nearby,” continued the Healer.
“And if it…germinates, Sophie will be…?”
“It would be best if we had someone with a skill that could safely extract the seed… But those with medical skills are currently in the higher districts. They don’t seem to be responding to our requests for assistance.”
“…What will happen to Sophie if she stays like this?”
“The seed will continue to feed off her, putting her life at risk. But if we can force it to germinate quickly, then we may be able to prevent that. There is also a chance we could expel the seed.”
The Healer knew it was a gamble, but she’d brought me here anyway…so that Sophie would have even a small chance at survival.
“Okay. Would you be able to leave me alone in the room, then? I imagine there’s a chance it won’t germinate if there are others around,” I said.
“…I’m sorry to ask you to do this. You have already saved her once, and to request that you put yourself in further danger… I hate to ask someone with a bright future ahead of them to put themselves at risk,” she said.
“Please don’t worry about it. I was the first one to strike the enemy’s main body. I think I’m probably the one it’s most hostile toward,” I replied, remembering the dreadful shriek it made when I used Rear Stance to go behind it and shoot it with my slingshot. I imagined it was probably lying in wait, constantly plotting its revenge on me for that attack.
…I’d prefer to reduce the risks as much as possible, but I can’t abandon Sophie here.
The Healer left the room, but Theresia remained in place.
“Theresia, I’m guessing the monster won’t respond unless I’m the only person here. Go outside for a little bit…”
She shook her head. She knew what was about to start would be dangerous, which was probably why she wasn’t willing to leave me. We didn’t necessarily need to make the situation perfect for the monster. Obviously, it was better for me to have a friend nearby.
“…Okay. Stay here, Theresia. Can you go get help immediately if anything happens to me?” I asked, and Theresia nodded. I moved closer to Sophie, her hair swaying as her face turned toward me. There was no life in her eyes. Could I really get her back to her old self?
That’s when it happened. Sophie shot her hand out and grabbed mine, faster than I could react.
Ah?!
Sophie was wearing a simple shirt, and a vine suddenly shot out from her sleeve, wrapping around my hand.
“…Become one… Become one with me,” said Sophie through pale, bloodless lips. The next moment, my field of vision became distorted, and I could feel it taking over my mind—
I realized I was kneeling in an inky black space, unable to move a muscle.
Ack… The vines… Where is this…? Is this some subconscious world…?
Vines wrapped around my entire body so I couldn’t move. Something white appeared in front of me… It was Sophie, strung up in tendrils just like me.
“Sophie—!”
She didn’t respond to my cries. Instead, the ivy stretched around us started to move like some intelligent being, twining together to form a massive bud-like shape in front of me. The bud opened—revealing the same white flower that was on the Vine Puppeteer’s main body. From the center of the white flower appeared a single little girl. She was like a flower personified. Flower petal–like shapes draped over part of her figure, and she looked at me with emotionless eyes… There was something so plant-like about her.
“Are you…the real Vine Puppeteer…?” I asked.
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“…This version of me was formed when I fused minds with Sophie. I will put you under my control by forcing you to succumb here,” said the girl.
“You can speak… I’ve never met a monster that could speak before.”
“Nutrients should be consumed and not heard. I have much to gain from feeding from your mind, so I will let you live a little while. If you do well, I may use you for a long time.”
Well, she was quite the cheeky girl… Though she only looked like a ten-year-old girl, she was actually a monster.
“…You hurt me before. More than being carved with a sword or pierced with a spear or shot with an arrow. Your attack hurt the most,” she continued.
“Agh!”
The vines wrapped around my body squeezed with incredible force; it was like being choked by a gigantic boa constrictor.
“…Accept my control. Or would you prefer to suffer the pain of having your mind broken? There is no creature I cannot break.”
I knew she’d try to attack my mind right now… Sophie won’t be able to recover if I don’t release her from this!
I didn’t have my equipment; I didn’t have any friends to use support skills on. What could I actually do…? It was stupid to assume I could try and monitor her if I did accept her control—that would be a death sentence.
“…Monsters…really do like to do things the mean way…,” I said.
“Humans are no different. There were those who tried to burn me away with the forests I lived in. Do you know what it feels like to be burned alive?”
“…I can only imagine. I wouldn’t choose that method.”
“…Why are you smiling? You should be aware of what will happen if I break your body. This is not a simple threat.”
It made me realize I was smiling. My body was being crushed, and I was gasping painfully for breath, but I wasn’t really thinking about crying out.
“Not sure how it looks to say this about myself, but…I’m really bad at giving up…and pretty good at enduring…discomfort,” I continued.