Chapter 57: I Don’t Want to Have the Advantage
Chapter 57: I Don’t Want to Have the Advantage
The Library of Sin was a very popular labyrinth.
Even though once inside you had to struggle for several days, explorers hoping to strike it rich still gathered in droves.
“You said you wanted to have an expedition duel.”
Bartimir, the law-abiding demon patiently standing in line, spoke casually.
“To be honest, I was surprised. It’s a proposal I was planning to make first.”
The mouth visible through the bandages formed a gentle smile.
“Oh? A demon.”
“Hey, hide your valuables. He’ll steal them.”
“I heard they can even take things out of subspace….”
Some explorers who looked like they came from the slums glanced at him and whispered among themselves, but Bartimir ignored them and continued speaking.
“You said you’d set the rules, right? I’m fine with anything, so do whatever you want.”
“Are you sure you can accept it so openly? What if I adjust the rules so they overwhelmingly favor only me?”
“What’s the problem with that?”
The demon black mage looked genuinely confused, as if he truly did not understand the question.
“Isn’t it common sense that the harder and more exhausting the expedition is, the better?”
“Ah!”
Marlin, who had been standing right beside us listening to our conversation, suddenly let out a small exclamation.
“What is it, Marlin?”
“It’s nothing. I just perfectly understood what the butler meant earlier when he said the two of you were similar.”
“I understand what it means too.”
Abel calmly agreed with his sister.
At a glance, Pendrick and Rosalia seemed to be reacting in much the same way.
“What are those kids?”
While I patted the siblings on the shoulders, Bartimir showed interest.
Come to think of it, I had not introduced them yet.
“They are siblings under my patronage. The older sister Marlin is a thief, and the younger brother Abel is a cook.”
“Hmm.”
After looking back and forth between the two young siblings, the demon suddenly leaned his face toward Marlin.
“Kid, you’re in trouble.”
“…What?”
“Because of the internal special laws of the Library of Sin, any thief who enters immediately falls into a pitch-black abyss.”
“Really…?”
Marlin widened her eyes and looked up at me in alarm.
She had become somewhat accustomed to me by now, but she was still innocent, which secretly reassured me.
If she became too used to me, she would stop reacting vividly and become indifferent like Odilon.
Bartimir suddenly tapped the top of her head.
“I’m joking.”
The tiger beastman girl stared blankly at his calm expression, then gestured for me to lower my head.
When I bent down, she whispered into my ear.
“…Do you think he might be your long-lost younger brother, Kar?”
“I doubt it. Biologically, elves and demons cannot have children together.”
“But still….”
While Marlin and Abel alternated between looking at Bartimir’s face and mine, comparing us, I introduced the remaining two members.
“This well-groomed gentleman is Sir Pendrick, a swordsman. And the elf here is Rosalia, an assassin.”
“A good composition. Though the siblings are still very young.”
Bartimir gave a brief evaluation and rested one hand on his waist.
“So what rules did you decide for the expedition duel?”
At this moment, I was certain that our thoughts were not very different.
I deliberately dragged out the silence before answering.
“A three-versus-three expedition duel.”
There were exactly six of us, so we could divide into two teams.
“Each of us will become the expedition captain and lead our members. What do you think?”
“That’s decent enough. But how do we decide victory or defeat?”
“When the results come out, the loser will accept defeat in good conscience.”
If neither side ever acknowledged defeat, the match could never end.
But worrying about such loopholes was something only overly rational people obsessed with logic would do.
A true explorer should be able to acknowledge the difference in expedition ability between themselves and their opponent through an appeal to emotion.
“Sounds good.”
“Right?”
“So how will we divide the expedition members?”
“Let’s do it like this.”
I placed both hands on the tiger beastman siblings’ heads.
“I’ll take these two. Sir Bartimir, you explore with the other two.”
Cultist Team.
Expedition Captain Kar, Marlin, Abel.
Black Mage Team.
Expedition Captain Bartimir, Rosalia, Pendrick.
Naturally.
Our side had the disadvantageous lineup.
“…I don’t like that.”
Bartimir narrowed his eyes.
“Why should we be the advantageous team? The labyrinth already favors me since I’m a demon. I’ll take the siblings.”
“That won’t do. Why would Sir Bartimir take my wards?”
“Then split them evenly.”
“No.”
As our argument continued, Pendrick quietly spoke.
“…Asmi, why do they both hate having the advantage?”
—Exactly my thought….
At this rate, it seemed the argument would never end, so I eventually proposed a compromise.
“Then how about this? Sir Bartimir’s expedition enters three hours later than ours.”
“Hmm, that’s reasonable.”
“Which part of that is reasonable exactly…?”
“You still don’t understand the deep flavor of exploration. But that’s natural at your stage.”
I patted the shoulder of the beginner explorer Marlin and extended my hand toward Bartimir.
“Let’s have an expedition without regrets.”
“Agreed.”
While shaking hands, I examined Bartimir’s bandage-covered face.
When Ymir died so meaninglessly, I did not realize it.
But now that I looked closely at him from this distance, I understood.
He really does resemble me.
Despite being from completely different races.
Even Bartimir’s appearance resembled mine.
Was there another factor besides the external reason that I created this world?
The more I learned, the more the doubts surrounding my own existence grew.
Although compared to labyrinth exploration, it was ultimately a trivial matter.
“We’ll step back and wait here, so you enter first.”
“Captain, see you later!”
“……”
After Team Black Mage left the entrance queue, our turn finally came after quite a long wait.
When I showed my identification plate to the priest, he flinched.
“Sir Kar? You must be the cultist that Sir Valentin praised so highly.”
It seemed that Valentin, the Holy Knight with perfect teeth, had been spreading stories about my ability and character.
This was why it was never a bad idea to become friendly with high-ranking members of the Harmony Church.
“Would you like a brief explanation before entering?”
“I already know all the rules. Please explain them to these children instead.”
“Understood. Friends? Please focus for a moment.”
The smiling priest took out a wooden display board from the subspace of a rosary with a small shield attached.
It looked like something used to perform children’s fairy-tale storytelling.
Tiny paper bookshelves and books were pasted onto the surface.
“What a cute explanation tool perfectly suited for you.”
“…We’re not that young.”
“My sister is right….”
Children always say that.
“Look here. As you can tell from the name, the Library of Sin is a labyrinth shaped like a library. But the name feels strange, doesn’t it? ‘Sin’!”
“Does it only contain scary books?”
Marlin asked with surprising concentration.
“That’s right!”
The priest flipped the board over.
Unlike the bright front side, the reverse showed a dark and ominous library scene.
Srrr.
The tattooed snake on the back of my hand grinned.
The Silent One was sending the intention: This atmosphere is exactly my taste.
“This library was originally a facility actually built in the demon realm before the era of the Great Temple.”
It was constructed during the golden age of the demon race, once the wealthiest race.
It collapsed during the massive invasion of the demon realm by the good-god faction, and now only traces remain.
“In order to consume negative concepts, demons waged wars across the continent. They even competed with one another to see who could torment other intelligent races in the most horrifying and innovative ways.”
“…That’s awful.”
“Eventually, one demon went so far as to publish records of his atrocities in the form of books. After that, other demons began publishing their own books as well.”
The priest bent down to match the siblings’ eye level.
“The books created back then were gathered in this place called the Library of Sin. It’s a facility even larger than Pletika!”
“Larger than Pletika?”
Abel’s tail stiffened.
Marlin, equally startled, glanced toward Bartimir standing in the distant shade.
“Demons were worse than I imagined….”
“Oh, friend! Don’t be prejudiced! Books directly written by demons only make up three tenths of the total.”
Even that alone was a considerable number.
Cultists, black mages, and demons were not called the “three-piece set of prejudice and hatred” for nothing.
“The rest were created through a strange phenomenon where dense mana from the demon realm gathered and the library expanded on its own.”
“The books were automatically created?”
“Yes! If you read them, the grammar may be slightly awkward, but the contents are still filled with detailed descriptions of cruel torture methods or experiences. The flow of mana is truly fascinating.”
“…Then why do explorers come here? If the books are all that terrible.”
While Marlin tilted her head, Abel answered.
“Probably because the rewards are excellent.”
“This friend is correct!”
The priest spread both arms.
“Prepare to be amazed. Every single book in this library is a Mystery Tome.”
“…What?”
The siblings’ eyes widened simultaneously.
“Then if you go inside and read any random book, you can learn a Mystery?”
“That’s right!”
“That’s impossible….”
“Exactly. It’s impossible.”
Abel, who had been staring with his mouth slightly open, soon narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
“But we learned that labyrinths never operate in ways that benefit explorers, Priest.”
“Oh my. You’ve been taught well!”
“Our Patron taught us.”
I quietly formed a V-sign with my right hand.
“That’s correct. Labyrinths never simply hand explorers a benefit.”
If you love free things, your hair will grow on your conscience instead of your head.
There was no such thing as a valuable reward obtained freely in a labyrinth.
“Although every book is a Mystery Tome, each one has a serious flaw.”
The priest produced another board showing a book with villainous eyes.
“For example, if a Mystery grants overwhelming physical strength, the price might be death. It draws all of your remaining lifespan into strength.”
“…Then there are no useful Mysteries?”
“If that were the case, explorers wouldn’t come here in such numbers. If you search long enough, about one in every hundred thousand books has only a minor flaw. But there’s a problem—you only learn the effect after you’ve already learned the Mystery.”
“……”
Marlin’s tail, which had shot straight up behind her head, slowly lowered.
Abel, who looked slightly less disappointed than his sister, spoke after thinking for a moment.
“What is the clear condition?”
“It’s simple. Somewhere in this enormous library there is a librarian. You must find and make contact with that person.”
Finding one librarian in a library larger than Pletika.
Compared to searching for a needle in a desert, it was almost reasonable.
Even so, we would certainly need to prepare for several days of camping inside.
“Any more questions?”
“Hmm, no more. Thank you!”
“Then please proceed inside!”
Guided by the priest who resembled a nursery teacher, the three of us opened a book placed in the towering bookshelf standing in the field and looked at it together.
The story of a wicked demon forcibly carving brutal tattoos into a goblin’s skin.
When we finished reading a single page, we suddenly found ourselves standing in the middle of a library filled with books all the way up to the sky.
“Wow….”
Marlin opened her mouth in awe as she looked around at the towering bookshelves rising like trees in a forest.
“It’s really huge. Just walking around will make you tired.”
“Want me to carry you?”
“Shouldn’t I be the one carrying you, Kar? You’re weaker than me.”
“That’s a reasonable point.”
I straightened Marlin’s crooked hat and began walking without hesitation.
The siblings quickly followed behind me.
“Kar, don’t tell me you already know where the librarian is?”
“Of course.”
A conscientious librarian working in the Library of Sin, who despised the criminal behavior typical of demons during their golden age.
A person located within the detection range of Sky Invader, which despised everything pure and noble.
“But wouldn’t it be boring if we just fulfilled the clear condition quickly and left?”
This was an expedition duel.
Clearing it through the normal route alone would be meaningless.
“Let’s find the Hidden Piece first.”