The Younger Sister's Resolve
Canaby's firm refusal came first.
“Sister!!!!”
“Throwing a tantrum won't make me change my mind. Go back.”
“If not me, then who can hunt the monster? There's no one else you can trust with this! I'll save you, Sister. So please, just allow it.”
“The Labyrinth is a dangerous place. No matter how strong you are, you can't kill every monster in there.”
“You know my abilities better than anyone. I'm stronger than you! If there were no traitors inside, I could do it!”
“How could anyone possibly know what lies in another's heart? I agonized over my choices when selecting people too. And yet a traitor still appeared.”
In truth, handling people was an area where my sister overwhelmingly excelled. If even she had been deceived, how well could I possibly manage? I had no honest rebuttal to that.
Still, it wasn't as if I had nothing at all to counter with.
“That's why I plan to move with a small group.”
“You intend to break through the Labyrinth with just a handful of people? You're only making it harder for me to agree.”
“I think I can do it in a year at most! So here's the thing—I'll give you my share of the medicine. Will you take it for me?”
I thought it was a good offer, but I knew my sister would jump up in outrage. I'd steeled myself for it, yet as her expression hardened rapidly, my heart pounded with anxiety.
“…You're not talking about that medicine, are you?”
“A year will pass in the blink of an eye. You'll just fall asleep for a little while, and when you wake up, the curse will be gone. Trust me this once. I can do this.”
I wanted to save my sister. If things continued like this, she would stubbornly refuse the medicine and eventually succumb to the curse and die. Just because she didn't show any signs of pain in front of me didn't mean she wasn't suffering. I knew that all too well. She was probably holding it in precisely because I was there.
“We can send other people to kill the monster. There's no need for you to step forward. Besides, you want to protect me for an entire year by yourself, enter the Labyrinth, kill the monster, and come back? Do you honestly think that makes sense?”
“Are you opposing this because you don't think I can do it?”
“That's not what I mean. You're still a child who needs protection.”
“The only one who still sees me as a child is you, Sister!”
In reality, there was no one else who looked at me like a child and tried to protect me. Only my sister.
“We promised we'd rely on each other. So I relied on you. Then why won't you let me do the same for you? You raised me. Can't you rely on me now too?”
“I am relying on you right now. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to hold on this long.”
“Then rely on me for something bigger than that!”
Come on, just give in already! Normally, when I asked her this earnestly, she would reluctantly give in, so I looked at her with hopeful eyes.
But.
“Even so, I cannot allow you to enter the Labyrinth.”
…This time, there was no chance at all.
Yeah, I expected as much.
It was unfortunate that my heartfelt plea hadn't worked on her, but it was also something I'd anticipated. After all, there was no way my sister would sit idly by while something threatened my safety.
Still, I'll find a way!
It was a shame I couldn't get her permission, but since I was the one going in, her approval wasn't strictly necessary. Moreover, if I conspired with the priest in charge of her treatment, administering the medicine would be entirely possible.
I'll be the one to save you, Sister.
Having failed to persuade Canaby, my next target was the priest. His conditions were somewhat more manageable. All I needed was to obtain permission from the Holy Empire. The problem was that to negotiate, I would have to go to the Holy Empire myself. Sending someone else was an option, but that would take an enormous amount of time going back and forth for negotiations.
Leaving my sister's side wasn't something I wanted, but there was no helping it. I decided to meet the priest, entrust my sister to his care, and then depart.
◎ ◎ ◎
“I plan to go to the Holy Empire myself to negotiate.”
Perhaps because she took after her sister, she was remarkably decisive in pushing things forward.
“Have you already received permission?”
I was certain she would never get permission, yet she'd obtained it this quickly? The way she kept avoiding my gaze felt suspicious, and my doubts only grew.
“You're not lying to me, are you? May I ask Princess Canaby directly?”
“W-why are you so suspicious, Priest!”
Her expression screamed that she'd been caught. As I thought—getting permission at such an absurd speed was suspicious.
“You're already eroding trust and faith like this.”
“There's no need to criticize me that harshly!”
“You should have made a genuine effort to obtain permission instead of trying to take the easy way by deceiving others. How can I entrust you with my life and enter the Labyrinth when trust and faith are crumbling? If you disappoint me like this one more time, I will cancel our agreement.”
“That's not fair!”
“Does this look like a situation where an adult got caught lying to a child and is now being scolded?”
She was still such a childlike princess. How could I possibly fall asleep for a whole year trusting someone like her?
Even I wouldn't be able to sleep if I left the monster hunting to her.
Even a mature display would have been barely enough, yet she'd tried to use the cheat of lying. It was only natural that trust would break. And since she'd brought it on herself, complaining that it was unfair made no sense.
“This isn't something that can be brushed off as a joke. Building trust is difficult, but losing it is easy. What you just did, Princess, was clearly the behavior of a child throwing a tantrum and asking to be forgiven because you're young.”
“……”
The princess froze with wide, round eyes as if she'd been struck on the back of the head.
“If you truly want to obtain permission because you wish to save Princess Canaby, you should have shown responsibility instead of behaving like a child.”
It wasn't easy to speak so candidly to a member of the royal family. I'd gone out of my way to give her some harsh advice for her own sake, but if the person in question refused to accept it and only grew upset, I would be the one at a loss. It seemed Princess Reciel found such blunt words extremely unfamiliar.
“…Hearing you scold me like that feels like it's waking me up. Until now, the only person who's ever spoken to me this way was my sister.”
Even if she'd been scolded by her sister, she should have grown up a bit, but seeing her like this now, it seemed harsh words didn't sink in easily with her. However, contrary to my worries, Princess Reciel seemed to have reconsidered. Her expression turned serious as she spoke.
“I told my sister that I was all grown up now and that she should rely on me, yet here I was, forcing her without showing her anything at all.”
“Did you get scared and give up because persuading Princess Canaby seemed too difficult?”
“I can't deny it. Honestly, I thought nothing I said would make any difference. So I probably gave up without even trying. I was also impatient because I felt it had to be fixed quickly. I'll start over from the beginning. There must be some way to persuade my sister. Right?”
“Yes. I'll be waiting for as long as it takes.”
It was a relief that the princess seemed to have come to her senses, albeit belatedly. There was no need to rush this matter. There wasn't much time left now.
The Labyrinth's paths will change soon. The path to finding the monster that cursed Princess Canaby will disappear.
In that case, a cornered Princess Canaby would have to look for another method. If Princess Reciel stepped forward at that moment, her opinion would have a much higher chance of being accepted. Until then, all Princess Reciel needed to do was prepare thoroughly enough to persuade her sister.
She simply needed to have patience.
◎ ◎ ◎
The Labyrinth is preparing to reset its internal pathways.
All explorers will be expelled shortly.
Rumble— Boom!!
Grind— Grrrrrind—
“E-earthquake!!”
The entire ground of Labyrinth City was shaking violently.
“Everyone, get down!!”
People outside the Labyrinth panicked and scrambled to evacuate from the quake. In our case, we were frantically trying to take care of the patients.
“Focus on helping those who have difficulty moving!”
“Yes!”
“Please come this way! Everyone can get out safely, so don't worry and move quickly!”
Even as we evacuated people, the ground continued to tremble without pause. Just as the evacuation outside the temple seemed mostly complete, the real chaos began.
“Priest! They say there's pandemonium at the Labyrinth entrance right now.”
“Did the Labyrinth collapse or something?”
It was hard to imagine the Labyrinth collapsing from an earthquake, but since they said it was a big problem, that was all I could think of.
“No, they say everyone who was inside the Labyrinth suddenly came rushing out.”
“What? All of them?”
The news was that people had begun pouring out of the Labyrinth all at once. At first I was bewildered, but I soon realized what it meant.
So it's today!
It had been three months since the Labyrinth opened. There were a few days of variation, but every three months the entire layout of the Labyrinth changed. It seemed the Labyrinth had spat out everyone inside before the shift occurred.
I gathered the curious crowd and headed to the Labyrinth entrance. The area was already packed with a massive throng of people.
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Why did the entrance suddenly…?”
People gathered around those facing the incomprehensible phenomenon.
“Where were you when you suddenly came out?”
“We had gone really deep inside. Even if we'd gotten lost, there's no way the entrance should have appeared.”
“Same with us.”
The people who had been inside the Labyrinth were bewildered, saying they hadn't taken any strange paths—they'd simply been walking their usual routes when this happened.
I'd wondered how the Labyrinth would handle the people inside when it changed its paths, but I never imagined it would deliberately alter the layout to eject them all outside.
That's unusually kind for the Labyrinth.
If it changed while people were still inside, it would cause absolute chaos. Hundreds, even thousands, would go missing. The Labyrinth, which had begun kindly spitting people out, soon ejected our Holy Empire's subjugation force as well. The other forces looked confused, but the Holy Empire's team already knew what was coming, so they all remained calm.