Sacred Aldebaran Underground Arena
Taking Lumine and Erna around with me—hopping between food spots and the blacksmiths—a whole week slipped by before I knew it.
There had been one ridiculous incident when we walked into a tavern and they tried to turn only me away, claiming they didn’t serve minors while leaving Erna alone… but every day spent in Labyrinth City Labyrinth was still pure fun.
Still, the thought of the upcoming expedition-scale labyrinth dive kept me from smiling too freely.
Back when I’d faced an imperial legion’s worth of soldiers or the Serpent Dragon, the open terrain had let me unleash my ultra-large-scale magic—Inferno—without a second thought.
This time, though, the space looked wider than I’d expected… yet it was still a closed, limited area that people called a “labyrinth.” Combat would take place inside those walls.
If I carelessly threw around magic on that scale again, not only the expedition but the entire Labyrinth City above us would come crashing down with it.
The demon who erased the very city that once praised her as a hero, leaving not even a trace behind.
Was that how history would remember me?
So I’d spent the week hunting for a spell that was compact yet devastatingly powerful, plowing through about ten magic tomes and textbooks.
It wasn’t perfect, but I’d managed to craft something that delivered fifty-five percent of Inferno’s efficiency while keeping the destruction radius tiny.
Well, spoiling it now would ruin the fun.
To everyone else I simply said I had a pretty decent spell ready.
“Are you certain it’s truly all right?”
“It really is fine.”
“If Hero Esilly says so, then it must be… The interior of the labyrinth is fairly spacious, so as long as it isn’t anything too enormous, we should be fine.”
“Then it’s even more fine.”
The Guildmaster still looked a little worried.
He’d worked the blacksmiths half to death forging armor and weapons from the Serpent Dragon’s hide and bones so the expedition members wouldn’t get hurt. If a single spell of mine wiped them all out…
Ugh, don’t even think about it.
Just picture everyone returning safely to Labyrinth City without a scratch.
“We’ll be heading inside soon, so double-check that you haven’t forgotten anything!”
The Guildmaster’s booming voice drew a thunderous reply from everyone gathered.
They all looked like rough-and-tumble middle-aged men, but they were active B-rank adventurer parties operating right here in Labyrinth City.
A fair number of A-rank adventurers were mixed in as well.
Four to a party, five parties total, if I remembered right.
“Everyone’s wearing clothes made from Serpent Dragon hide.”
Lumine surveyed the adventurers, then let out a slightly nervous breath.
Looking at us now, we really did resemble one of those legendary expedition parties straight out of an old fairy tale.
A place so dangerous you needed Serpent Dragon armor just to walk in.
Thinking of it that way, a little tension was only natural.
“The Guildmaster bought it all for that reason. I even sold it to him a bit cheap and gave him the good cuts.”
“As expected of Lady Esilly—you’re so kind.”
“If the leather turned out defective and people died because of it, the whole place would feel cursed, right?”
It would feel like they’d died because of me.
If I was going to sell the stuff anyway, I wanted it to be good enough that not a single person got hurt.
Our luggage was safely stowed in my Inventory, so we just sat on the edge of a wagon and waited.
Most of the group were men, so they didn’t make us women do any of the heavy lifting.
Besides, we were the firepower. They weren’t about to waste our strength on chores.
“That’s true. Lady Esilly will be the most important key to this entire expedition.”
“Huh? Miss Enge?”
Why was Enge here?
Instead of the soft, fluttery dress she’d worn yesterday, she was clad in armor forged from the Serpent Dragon’s shoulder hide and solid bone.
“I’m an A-rank adventurer too, you know. I’ll be joining this expedition.”
“Is that so… Then Erna’s stuck house-sitting alone.”
“She’s fifteen now. Leaving her alone for about a week isn’t something we need to worry overmuch about.”
Was that right?
Well, she was the daughter of the Guildmaster and the Ice Empress. Fretting about her ability to watch the house was absurd.
“Shall we board the wagon, then?”
“Wait, we’re riding this?”
It wasn’t as grand as the carriage we’d taken into Labyrinth City, but it looked big enough to hold about ten people comfortably.
I’d assumed it was for hauling supplies since it already had cargo inside, but apparently not.
“The floors of the underground arena are paved, and the ceilings are high enough for wagons to enter.”
“Ahh… so that’s what the Guildmaster meant earlier when he said the ceilings were high.”
The labyrinth we were about to enter was called the Sacred Aldebaran Underground Arena.
They said it was a temple built by humanity in an age so distant it made the days when tigers smoked tobacco look recent.
An underground arena that was also a temple?
I’d wondered about that, until I learned the god Aldebaran had ordered humans to construct a colosseum-like arena underground.
After centuries of labor they completed it and offered it up to him, and Aldebaran watched the gladiators duel there.
A rather violent god, it seemed.
We climbed into the wagon and chatted about such things while waiting for the final preparations to finish.
About forty minutes later the Guildmaster and Vice-Master stepped up onto the platform in front of us.
The doting-father expression was gone; only a warrior burning with the resolve to crush a vicious monster remained.
“Everyone. I see you’ve all properly equipped the new gear we issued.”
The first words out of that stern face were about armor.
I couldn’t help a small snort of laughter.
Everyone else around me cracked a grin too.
Looking at the equipment we were wearing, a smile was inevitable.
But it didn’t take long for the grim, resolute faces to return.
“Until now we have explored the labyrinth and lost many comrades. We are well aware that outsiders criticize the Adventurer Guild for forcing people to their deaths just to obtain information.”
Yeah, I’d heard that too.
The people of Labyrinth City longed to clear every labyrinth, eliminate the labyrinth masters, and create a safe home where their children and descendants could live without fear.
Of course, that didn’t mean they wanted the adventurers who accepted those commissions to never return.
The budget drain was enormous, so neither Adventurer Guild Headquarters nor the other lords of the Lord Alliance looked kindly on Labyrinth City.
Nothing but losses, no gains.
“Yet thanks to the devoted efforts of those comrades, the ninety-ninth party finally reached the location of the labyrinth master! Do you truly believe that was a fruitless act, as the world claims?”
“No!”
“It was not!”
“Seska’s death was not a meaningless death!”
“Exactly! Their deaths were never a fruitless act!”
No matter how the outside world dismissed it, the adventurers themselves never would.
If even they labeled their comrades’ deaths as worthless, who in this world would ever honor their achievements?
The Guildmaster and Vice-Master slammed the butts of their spear and polearm hard against the ground.
It might have looked like mere aggression, but the moment the two of them did it, every expedition member around them began to copy the motion.
Thud… thud… thud… thud…
Thud… thud… thud… thud…
Striking the floor with weapons was a rite to soothe a warrior’s soul.
The sound filled the underground Labyrinth City, unable to escape, bouncing back and echoing again and again.
It almost sounded as if the dead themselves were cheering on the expedition members heading into the underground labyrinth.
“Because of them, we can now march to eliminate the last potential threat remaining in Labyrinth City! Who dares call the act of protecting the land inherited from our ancestors a fruitless deed?!”
If the labyrinth master ever climbed up into Labyrinth City…
The people would have no choice but to abandon it.
They would wander without a destination.
And the Lord Alliance would refuse proper cooperation, unwilling to take on such a nuisance.
The Guildmaster’s grip on his spear tightened further.
At last the wooden shaft could no longer endure his strength and snapped with a sharp crack, like a dried stalk of millet.
“Therefore, as Guildmaster—and as your comrade—I command you.”
At those words every last person held their breath.
The sudden silence was so complete I almost heard ringing in my left ear.
Then the Guildmaster opened his clenched fist.
Shredded fragments of the spear’s wooden grip pattered to the ground.
“Do not die. Do not render the deaths of four hundred comrades meaningless with your own!”
The first—and final—expedition whose sole purpose was to defeat the labyrinth master of the Sacred Aldebaran Underground Arena.
Roughly three hundred strong, including adventurers, blacksmiths, alchemists, and support staff, the expedition entered the labyrinth amid the thunderous cheers and applause of Labyrinth City’s residents and visiting outsiders alike.