The Labyrinth City of Asmos (2)
A cold, dry wind brushed past Raul’s ears.
It hardly mattered to him. He had prepared properly for the weather, and Horus kept him well shielded besides. But a suffering sound came from behind him.
“Hhrrrghhh.”
Sprawling her arms back and forth across her body, stamping her feet, and shivering so hard her teeth rattled, the assassin from the Embers, Aila, looked utterly miserable.
Raul narrowed his brow slightly. “For someone from the Embers, you’re losing to a winter wind?”
“No, you’re the weird one here. Anyone who’s fine in this snowstorm at night is weird. Look at the streets. Nobody’s out because it’s freezing.”
At her words, Raul turned his head, and sure enough, Asmos’s nighttime streets were empty beneath the gray glow of the lamplight.
To Raul, though, this looked less like bad weather and more like a failure to prepare.
“Then whose fault is it for dressing that lightly?”
“The request came in during autumn.”
“Exactly. I’m more surprised you thought an autumn request would be done before winter.”
“...The plan was made by the old man. I don’t know.”
Hmph.
The red-haired assassin muttered that in a low, sullen voice and jerked her head away.
The old man she meant was probably the swift-sword master they had met in the world of the World Tree.
Judging by the way she said it, the two of them had been fairly close, yet Aila showed no sign of resenting Raul for killing him.
Still, to be sure, he asked, “Were you close? You and him, back then?”
“Not really. We just lived in the same building for a long time. If we’d actually been close, we would’ve fought together, wouldn’t we?”
“...Fair enough.”
Raul gave a small nod, then let out a long sigh at the sight of her still rubbing her arms and stamping her feet like a restless child.
“Horus.”
With no other choice, he called for the guardian sleeping in his inner pocket.
Nya-
Horus poked his head out and, without a word, headed straight for Aila again.
“Huh! Warm, cute! What is this? You keep animals too, old man?”
Her reaction was more intense than expected, and Raul snorted as he answered with the smug air of a parent showing off a child.
“That’s my partner. If you want to get technical, he’s closer to a spirit of light. Just touching him is enough to keep the cold away— Hey, are you even listening?”
“Cute! Warm! Cute! Warm!”
But Aila ignored him entirely, hugged Horus to her chest, and kept repeating the same words like a broken machine.
Watching her, Raul pressed a hand to his forehead and started walking again.
He had worried, absurdly, that she might feel offended. He really was an idiot.
The snowstorm grew fiercer as the night deepened, but fortunately Raul reached the northern district of Asmos before it grew too late.
Whoooosh-!
Leaving the howling wind behind him, Raul stepped into the building of the city’s largest adventurers’ guild, the Labyrinth Administration Bureau.
It was a place that never shut its doors, day or night, waiting for adventurers returning from the labyrinths.
Even so, at this hour, it was quiet apart from the restaurant corner on the first floor.
That was why Raul had left the inn at night in the first place.
He left Aila, who was still busy rubbing her face against Horus in both arms, and walked up to the desk.
There sat a receptionist with a face worn down by exhaustion, dark circles hanging heavy beneath his eyes.
“What can I do for you?”
“I’m here to get a labyrinth entry permit.”
“Ah, yes. Please present your identification plate.”
The voice practically dripped with, This is a pain in the ass.
Well, there was no labor law in Exeria.
It wouldn’t be strange if people here worked overtime as though it were part of their meals.
Feeling a strong sense of solidarity and pity, Raul held out his adventurer’s plate.
At that instant, the receptionist’s eyes flew wide open.
“...Silver—?!”
At the familiar reaction, Raul smoothly lifted a finger to the receptionist’s lips.
Only then did those bulging eyes turn toward him.
“I happen to be on a covert mission. Would it be possible to issue an emergency identity plate for use here in Asmos?”
Of course, it was an absurd request.
But once the fame attached to Silver Bullet mixed with that trademark aura of mystery, the result changed.
Gulp.
The receptionist swallowed dryly, all traces of sleep gone from his face, then silently nodded.
“A special case, then. Understood. What false profession would you like? Ah, and please understand that I’ll need to report this to the branch chief in Asmos.”
“That’s fine. And the profession...”
Raul thought for a moment, then said softly, “A magician would be good.”
Fortunately, the receptionist was quick at his work.
***
“...You can use magic too, old man?”
Aila, the red-haired assassin, looked genuinely curious.
Raul placed the guild’s specialty beef stew in his mouth, savored it thoroughly, and then answered.
“Not me. That one does.”
He jerked his chin toward Horus on her shoulder, and Aila’s reaction only grew bigger.
“That tiny little cutie can do magic too?”
“More than you can imagine.”
“Whoa. That’s amazing. Seriously amazing. Old man, is that what it is? Once you get to the level of Motala’s judge, everything really is different?”
Raul had barely been speaking when he was once again taken aback by Aila slicing off the words Motala’s judge with a razor-thin aura.
She did it as if it were nothing, but the control over her aura was spine-chilling.
For all her mannerisms, this woman really was from the Embers.
At that moment, Aila pointed at Raul with the knife she had been using to cut meat.
“So? You’re not planning to seduce me or anything. Why are you camped out in a guild building this late at night?”
“First I wanted to gather information.”
“Why?”
“There’s someone I’m looking for in this city.”
“Ah.”
Information came from places with lots of foot traffic and lots of alcohol. It was basic common sense in this world, so basic that it hardly needed explaining to someone from the Embers.
So Raul sipped his wheat beer and listened to the noise around him.
No matter how late the hour, there were plenty of adventurers at the center of the city, the Labyrinth Administration Bureau, drinking themselves crooked.
“...Those damn Tower of Mages bastards thought they could swagger around, but in the end they got smashed in Kurjeng’s Maze...”
“...Yeah. Because of that entrance sealed with ancient magic...”
“...And that’s when I said it! That’s right, I’m Tarosha’s Ice Sword! Even knowing that, you still...”
Most of it was the usual drunken nonsense, the kind of self-important boasting where people recounted their own lives like epics.
But even in that nonsense, there were things to be gained.
The Tower of Mages seems to be here.
Raul hoped, at the very least, that it wasn’t the Red Tower, which he already had bad blood with.
And another thing that caught his interest was the keyword “ancient magic.”
So a place sealed by ancient magic has been discovered somewhere deep in a labyrinth...
If things went well, he might be able to skip the troublesome dungeon exploration entirely and just take the rewards from inside.
Besides, ancient magic. It fit perfectly with Understanding of the Ancient, one of the Saint’s basic skills.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of anything about the astrologer he was looking for.
As expected of an astrologer who’s unmatched when it comes to hiding.
It was disappointing, but there was no reason to be impatient.
Astrologers who “read fate” were never easy to find in the first place.
He was thinking that he might as well withdraw here and aim for tomorrow evening instead when—
Tap, tap.
Aila suddenly tapped the back of his hand.
“Why?”
“Hey, aren’t they talking about you?”
“What?”
The place she pointed to was directly across from where she and Raul were sitting in the tavern.
Can they hear that all the way over there?
Raul admired it silently once again and focused a faint thread of divinity into his ears.
Then the scattered voices became clear.
“Did you hear? They say a great paladin’s been appearing lately in the western regions.”
“Yeah, I heard. That Raul guy the blue-clad knight kept going on about?”
“You idiot, don’t call him a guy. One wrong move and you could disappear without a trace, man!”
“They say he smashed a sacred body all by himself.”
“That much?”
“You think that’s all? I heard he even summons the high miracle of the Motala sect, Winged Warhorse.”
“No, no. I heard he can fly on his own even without the warhorse.”
“Then what is he? What, does he have wings on his back like one of those holy grail knights from a fairy tale?”
Tap, tap.
When Raul looked forward at the touch on his hand, he found Aila sweating coldly.
She asked with a strangely serious expression, “Is it true? You’re not a judge, you’re a legendary holy grail knight? You can just fly around?”
“...You believe that?”
Raul found himself wondering all over again exactly how old this woman’s mental age was supposed to be.
That made Aila scowl.
“Of course I believe it. I saw you slice up the old man with one sword and melt down that elf they called the council elder in a matter of seconds. Honestly, your power was at a level I’d never even heard of in my life.”
“I see. To your eyes, it might look that way.”
“So, it’s not true?”
Raul met the wide-eyed look in Aila’s face, a look that still held the innocent curiosity of a child, and let out a small sigh.
“It’s something like that.”
“Huh? If it’s true, say it’s true. If it isn’t, say it isn’t.”
“There are things like that.”
“Tch. Boring.”
They were exchanging little scraps of idle talk in low voices when—
Whirr.
One of the people in a group wearing jet-black robes suddenly turned to look in Raul’s direction and dropped the money pouch he was holding.
That sent silver and gold coins rolling everywhere without mercy.
“Hey, hey. Lergal. The money, man, the money!”
Then one of the group blurted out an utterly unbelievable name.
“Lergal?”
At that, Raul turned his head, and the man who had been hiding his face in the deep shadows under the lights suddenly pushed back his hood.
“...Lord Raul?”
The man staring blankly at him was indeed Lergal, the knight of Zern.
***
After that sudden reunion, they first changed locations.
After all, a money pouch had been overturned, and everyone’s attention inside the guild had turned toward them.
So the place they hurriedly moved to was a quiet tavern that Lergal and his companions apparently favored.
Ting-
Raul flicked a silver coin as they entered, and the tavern owner guided them to a back room that looked fairly secluded.
“It is an honor to meet you again! Lord Raul!”
The moment they entered the room, Lergal tore off his black hood and bent from the waist at a full ninety degrees.
“I’m glad to see you looking healthy too, Lergal.”
“To think you would worry about me despite how busy you are carrying the burden of your sacred mission! What moment could be more moving than this?”
It had been a casual remark, really...
But Lergal had become a man with a much stronger, much more intense reaction than before.
That was probably this knight’s real nature.
Back then, he had lost all his comrades and been trapped in despair.
Raul now had some rough idea why the rumors that had come out through this knight’s mouth had grown so wildly exaggerated.
As they exchanged their eager greetings, the man standing behind him removed his robe and spoke.
“So, Lergal. You’re telling me that this foppish-looking young man, who doesn’t seem all that special beyond being decently handsome, is the Raul you’ve been rambling about all this time?”
A rugged-looking man with especially thick sideburns and a certain wild masculinity to him.
At his words, Lergal nodded repeatedly.
“That is correct, Captain. However, Lord Raul’s very appearance already carries the presence of a great warrior—”
“Enough. Save the chatter.”
Cutting Lergal off without hesitation, the man called Captain strode toward Raul.
He suddenly held out a large gauntleted hand.
“Good to meet you. Wandering paladin. My name is Dmitri. I am a man who has polished his sword his entire life under the honorable name of Zern.”
After that, the rest of the jet-black-robed group also took off their robes, and every one of them wore a sword at the waist engraved with the symbol of Zern.
All of them were knights.
Watching this, Raul asked, “Looks like you have a big job.”
The fact that the Captain himself had come out, and that no fewer than eight knights were accompanying him, meant it couldn’t be a small matter.
“Interested?”
Dmitri asked that with a gleam in his eyes.
But Raul immediately shook his head.
Because he recognized those eyes.
The eyes of a knight who had already decided, Now that you’ve heard the circumstances, you’ll help us until this is over. A condescending, one-sided look.
“Not in the slightest.”
Dmitri’s brow slowly tightened.
“That is different from what I heard. I was told you were a righteous warrior who could not abide injustice and lived to help those in trouble.”
Raul shot Lergal a brief, incredulous look and answered, “Not really. Back then I only helped because our interests happened to line up.”
“And yet you’ve suddenly become so curt?”
“I tend to speak curtly to people who speak curtly to me.”
When Raul returned the treatment in kind, Dmitri’s face darkened a little more.
“Even if I tell you of this body’s noble lineage?”
“Yeah. Being a noble doesn’t change anything.”
The knight captain’s eyes remained fixed on Raul in silence.
Raul looked straight back, then narrowed his brow and said, “If you called me all the way out here just to pick a fight, then I’m leaving.”
Only then did a smile spread over Dmitri’s lips, half anger and half interest.
“Ha! That kind of nerve is at least worth acknowledging.”
“...I wasn’t asking for your acknowledgment.”
Raul gave no ground at all, and in the end Dmitri stepped back a pace.
“Now, now. Don’t take it so hard. Think of it as a light bit of roughhousing between warriors and knights.”
His anger and his contempt for Raul were real, but even so, he was still a knight who put reason first.
Well, that probably meant he was the Captain for a reason.
“For a certain reason, we have to break through a newly discovered labyrinth called Kurjeng’s Maze.”
“And?”
“Since you were in the guild building, you probably heard it too, but the request rank assigned to Kurjeng’s Maze is S-rank. Three adventuring parties have already gone in, along with a large expedition force, and none have returned. And today, even the Tower of Mages’ fops got thoroughly crushed.”
Sure enough, the name Kurjeng’s Maze and the story that the Tower of Mages had been crushed were already a hot topic in the guild, endlessly tossed around on everyone’s tongues.
“An S-rank labyrinth?”
When Raul reacted, a feral grin spread across Dmitri’s face.
“So even a great paladin finds a phenomenon this mysterious to be of some interest, then?”
Raul frowned briefly at the knight’s mocking expression before answering, “Well, I am interested.”
“Good. That’s how it should be. Here’s the proposal. The authority to organize the sixth expedition into the labyrinth has just so happened to fall to our Zern Knight Order. We must break through that labyrinth no matter what, so we’ve been selecting capable personnel and assembling an elite expedition team.”
“...You want me to join?”
“You’re finally making sense. Yes. We’ll make use of you specially. As you saw at the guild, the pay is generous enough. What do you say?”
Honestly, the terms weren’t bad.
But that detestable look on the knight’s face was the problem.
From the beginning to this very moment, he had been looking down on Raul and the Aila standing beside him without the slightest real basis.
Should I just punch him open right here?
Raul immediately entertained the extreme thought, then calmed himself by rubbing his chin.
In any case, he had intended to go into the labyrinth anyway.
And from their skilled movements here in Asmos, it was easy to tell that these people had not just arrived today or yesterday.
It’s possible. They might know where the astrologer is.
After finishing his calculations inwardly, Raul deliberately tossed out a probing question.
“Fine. I get all that. But why the hell are a bunch of knights trying to break into a labyrinth in the first place?”
“If you hear the answer, you’ll have to become a ‘related party.’ Is that acceptable?”
“Well, whether I become one or not is something I should decide after hearing you out.”
“Ha! Impossible. Would a paladin like you really abandon honor?”
“I’ve always been a little distant from that whole honor thing.”
The tension between Raul and Dmitri tightened like a drawn wire.
Then Lergal, who could no longer bear it, suddenly stepped in.
“We had a prophecy from a trustworthy astrologer. At the far end of that labyrinth, there will be a masterless sacred relic. Lord Raul. We came to this city in search of that relic.”
“You bastard, Lergal!”
“You lowborn wretch! How dare you freely reveal top-secret information—!”
Of course, the knights in front of him flew into an uproar at news that made Raul’s eyes widen as well.
Bang!
Raul slammed his fist down on the table in front of him, drawing every eye at once, and said, “I’ll join. The expedition team.”
Relic and astrologer.
They were exactly the sort of things Raul could not simply hear and ignore.
There was no need to think it over.