Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: The Sea of White Statues
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Mayches' friends somehow regained their composure and gathered again.
Their teamwork still looked like it would crumble under the slightest pressure, like fragile meringue, but I decided to be satisfied with that alone.
"Kids, there must be a reason they gave us pens and paper, right?"
Bamper, the first to pull himself together, said something sensible.
Daluh looked at the pen in Bamper's hand and suddenly let out a sigh.
"I really didn't want to show myself like this."
Daluh picked up the pen with casual ease.
As Bamper wound up the music box, music echoed through the maze once more.
His friends, convinced Daluh had some method, followed behind him.
At the first fork, Daluh closed his eyes quietly and dropped the pen to the ground with a clack.
"This way."
He gestured faintly toward the direction the pen pointed, smiling. That wasn't quite how I meant for them to use the pen, but it was creative!
Mayches' friends let out awed "oohs" and followed Daluh in a herd.
But chaos erupted among them at the very next fork.
"Hmm... Can't we do this a bit faster? The music's about to end."
"Brother, are we gonna waste time like this at every fork?"
Daluh opened his closed eyes.
He looked up and sighed.
"Fine, just go back. Even when I help, it's a mess."
"If you're gonna give up this easily, why even start?"
The next attempt was Calipan.
Calipan seemed to ponder for a moment, then started the music box.
"Hold on, guys."
Calipan grabbed paper and pen, then vanished into the crowd of friends.
And 1 second, 2 seconds. 3 seconds.
Calipan reappeared.
"I found the maze exit using left-hand rule."
What? No wonder there were ghostly flickers across the full screen!
He'd scanned the walls of that complex Hydra maze, marked it on paper, and returned in just 3 seconds?
I'd felt it when he snatched a bomb mid-flight from 100 meters away, but Calipan's physical prowess went beyond superhuman. He seemed like the type who could brute-force his way out of the abyss...
"Alright, let's go."
Using the map Calipan had made, his friends re-entered the maze.
But soon, they found themselves back at the entrance.
Time had run out. Those 3 seconds Calipan spent drawing the map were to blame.
This failure seemed to give them some insight, though.
"The music box time keeps getting longer, doesn't it?"
"This maze is way more complex than the one I smashed at the start."
"Hmm... Feels like every failure extends the path to the exit. It seems designed so you can't reach it unless you move efficiently right from the start. And..."
Bamper and the other friends' heads turned in unison toward the statue at the maze's starting point.
"That's the answer, but... what do we do?"
What! They all knew but pretended not to?
I clasped my hands tightly.
Please, guys, give me the answer I want.
"How many minutes left?"
Daluh blinked blankly before suddenly asking.
Mayches answered into the mic.
"12 minutes."
Three more minutes had passed already.
Only 12 minutes left, and four stages to go. We're doomed! Even I felt despair.
"Jayhan."
Daluh turned and called Jayhan.
Jayhan's eyelids lifted slightly, his impassive red eyes turning toward Daluh.
Daluh unceremoniously set the paper and pen on the desk and said shamelessly,
"Jayhan, you've memorized all the directions of the leaves on that statue, right? Yeah, I figured. So we can go straight through without marking it down."
His friends seemed to grasp Daluh's intent and chimed in eagerly.
"Yeah! If Jayhan or Bamper memorizes it, one of them can lead."
"Bamper should save his spirit stones... er, mental energy. How about Jayhan?"
"Sounds good! Come on, Jayhan, let's go!"
Pushed by his friends, Jayhan stood at the maze entrance.
Calipan wound the music box and quickly stuck to his back.
Jayhan's face showed no refusal, nor any voluntary resolve. He simply stepped forward with an indifferent expression.
At that moment.
Swish-swish-swish-swish-
I clapped a hand over my mouth.
The ivy leaves clinging to the maze walls began guiding the path in unison!
Jayhan walked with steady, ordinary strides, but each step seemed to carry the glory of every wondrous thing in the world.
Yan rolled his eyes in confusion, staring at the prostrated ivy leaves.
"No way, we were supposed to luck our way through...?"
Calipan cleared his throat hastily.
"Ahem-ahem. Yan, Jayhan memorized those leaves."
Bamper burst into cheerful laughter.
"Either way, the direction they're pointing is correct."
I watched through the screen as they navigated the maze without a hitch. Tears welled up.
"Aiel? You okay?"
Mayches habitually checked my temperature as he asked.
Without pulling away from his hand, I excitedly shouted into the mic.
"Everyone! That was amazing! A bit roundabout, but you nailed the leaf directions in the end! I love it! Never forget—next time something like this happens, as long as you don't ignore those obvious leaves, you can win!"
Daluh muttered "Is she mocking us...?" mid-stride, but he wasn't important right now—Bamper was. I ignored it.
Finally, with 10 minutes to spare, Mayches' friends reached the exit.
Jayhan pulled open the door, and their bodies were enveloped in radiant light.
As expected, they're training while pretending it's a game!
Lady Rudelriz's words just confirmed it.
They're preparing for some 'incident that could happen anytime, anywhere'!
Kay, thrilled at uncovering the hidden truth, scribbled furiously in his notebook.
But his trembling hands turned the writing into a scribbled mess.
Kay exhaled sharply, trying to calm his pounding chest.
His heart wouldn't settle.
Gritting his teeth, Kay thought,
'Jayhan... is too sublime...'
It was such a profound, moving scene.
When the ivy leaves bowed their heads to point the way, Kay nearly leaped out to bow his own.
Even his back, reflected on screen, was so overwhelming in its brilliance that it stole Kay's breath.
'Truly, the one who makes people mistake every temple appearance for the Second Coming.'
Kay bit his hand for a jolt of pain to regain composure.
He raised the pen to his notebook again.
Whoosh—
But as dazzling light poured from the screen, Kay forgot his notes and stared.
Second stage incoming. Kay narrowed his eyes.
"......"
The wallpaper where Kay hid rippled once more.
As expected of a novice at stealth.
"Brother...? What is that...?"
I'd felt uneasy since seeing the first round's maze.
The maze I'd planned was a mini-sized one, common in noble gardens.
But the one Mayches dramatically unveiled was, as everyone saw, far denser and larger than expected.
I'd been flustered by the changed scale but chalked it up to miscommunication.
Only now did I realize what I'd overlooked.
Mayches was a fellow game party member who'd crawled out of the same hell as those guys...
With the trait: 'Expert at team-killing'.
Everything before my eyes was white.
Thick white trunks of massive broadleaf trees, vigorously spreading white branches and leaves, a herd of zebras rearing on hind legs beside them, pale people in white clothes passing by, and even a white woodpecker peering down or tiny white lizards on the roots.
The interior of this vast graph-paper-white room, filled solely with sculptures, felt alien like an unfinished world—or perhaps like an ecosystem crafted entirely from white from the start.
"......"
I couldn't tell if my reddening eyes were from the room's white light or Mayches' antics.
With damp eyes, I yanked at Mayches' clothes.
"When we tested it yesterday, there were only a hundred statues... just normal human shapes?"
"True, but with a hundred, they'd solve it in seconds, Aiel. I can't forgive them breezing through the challenge you worked hard on."
"But now they've got to solve that many in the time limit... Argh, setting that aside, you filled the whole room like that? How many statues are there?"
Yan in the party hall answered my question.
"This jerk—I wondered why he ordered 10,000 statues from our merchant guild..."
"......"
I grabbed Mayches by the collar.
Mayches obligingly lowered his neck to make it easier.
"You blew a fortune on 10,000 statues just to mess with your friends?!"
"Ahaha, our Aiel's grip strength is back. She'll recover to pre-fainting levels soon."
The news was happy, but I decided not to smile.