Chapter 124: The Inevitable Reunion
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 124: The Inevitable Reunion
The woman I supposedly killed before I was possessed.
The woman who was murdered because someone else was possessing her body.
The woman who, as it turns out, was still alive.
The woman who was in the same party as me before all that.
And the woman who was even my lover.
The eight-tailed Deep Layer adventurer, Hyedam of the Fox Spirit tribe, known as Wyndham's greatest shaman.
…And you want me to meet her now?
Honestly, it’s a lot of pressure.
This wasn't part of my plan. If I was going to face Hyedam, I wanted to have more information. I wanted to know what kind of person she was, what the possessors' village was like, and what Bipa and Mugol were planning.
If I meet her now, there’s no telling what might happen. For example:
Scenario 1.
“Hello, Hyedam! It’s been a while.”
The moment I greet her cheerfully, the Deep Layer Fox Spirit smashes my head in with her fox marble.
“How dare you try to kill me!”
Game over.
Scenario 2.
The Fox Spirit woman gives me a warm hug.
“I missed you. Let’s forget the past and live here together in this Inter-floor Village!”
“I think I’ll just be leaving now.”
“No!”
I’m imprisoned in the Inter-floor Village.
Scenario 3.
“Caleb? I don’t know who that is.”
The eight-tailed possessor says, pointing to herself.
“I’m just a modern person who has taken over this Fox Spirit’s body. Sob. I want to go home.”
“Then why did you call me here?”
“You were her lover, weren’t you? Do you know anything about this body? Tell me something!”
No matter what happened, it wouldn't be surprising.
“What do you say, Caleb?” Bipa pressed for an answer.
For now, the Wyndham duo didn’t feel threatening.
If they were planning to lure me in and do something to me, they wouldn't have made the offer here, surrounded by so many Deep Layer adventurers.
There were other ways to enter the Inter-floor Village without using that elevator.
They could have arranged a meeting with Hyedam for me in any number of ways.
The reason they were bringing it up now must be because they thought there would be no problem taking me to the possessors' village.
Because…
They think I’m not a possessor.
They had once suspected me and tried to capture me, but I had proven my innocence(?) under a lie detection spell.
“Just a moment.”
Meldini, looking displeased, stepped forward, tapping his palm with his wand.
“After what you two pulled before, you want to take Caleb down into the Labyrinth?”
“Do not worry. We will take full responsibility for his safety.”
“Then I will go with you.”
Professor Isilof, to my great appreciation, offered to accompany me himself.
“The two of you, plus myself and Caleb. The four of us can travel together through the elevator gate at once, can’t we?”
“I’m sorry, but that won’t be possible,” Mugol refused flatly.
“We cannot reveal our destination to anyone.”
“What, did you hide a golden calf in the Labyrinth?” Meldini scoffed, pulling me by the shoulder.
“You don’t need to get involved in this, Caleb. Let’s just go back. We can leave the cleanup and investigation to the Public Security Headquarters.”
“…I’ll just go for a little while.”
“What!”
The professors were startled.
To be honest, it was a bit of a gamble for me, too.
Like I said, I had no idea what would happen when I went down to the Inter-floor Village and came face to face with Hyedam.
But there was also a tremendous amount to be gained by going with them now.
First, I would find the possessors' village.
Second, I would learn a lot more about my past and about Hyedam.
Third, I might be able to figure out the identity of the ‘living sacrifice’ they were preparing.
Fourth, I could make contact with the other possessors in their village.
For now, it didn’t seem like Bipa or Mugol had any intention of harming me.
The potential gains were clear.
And if things went south, I had an insurance policy.
*
Lilweed’s simple elevator went as far as the 4th floor, which meant the Inter-floor Village where Bipa and Mugol had relocated the possessors had to be one of the following four:
Floor 1.5, Floor 2.5, Floor 3.5, or Floor 4.5.
Which one could it be?
It was obviously Floor 3.5.
There were two reasons.
First, among the four candidates, it was the only one where the stairs to the Inter-floor Village were always exposed.
For example, when I visited Floor 1.5, I had to use Undead Back Attack as a bloodhound to get a rough idea of the stairs’ location, then have the party members sit side-by-side on top of it and wait patiently.
For the stairs to open.
While other Inter-floor Villages required similar tedious steps, Floor 3.5 had a staircase wide open right in front of the Mass Annihilation Stele.
Of course, the downside was that it was also more accessible to other adventurers, but the Inter-floor Villages had held zero appeal for adventurers until I submitted my report on the Ossuary.
Besides, the Inter-floor Village was an enormous city. Even if someone came down the stairs, finding the possessors' hideout would be difficult.
And the second reason.
The Spider Doctor.
That creature was the ruler of the 3rd floor and the Inter-floor Lord of Floor 3.5.
Perhaps that’s why he knew so much about the possessors' village and blabbed about it to me.
What if the crucial information about possessors that the Spider Doctor offered me in exchange for getting his body back was about Hyedam?
…I’d been suspecting as much.
And it turned out to be true.
[3rd Floor]
Bipa set the elevator’s destination.
I knew it.
“We’re going to Floor 3.5, right?” I asked after we passed through the gate and arrived in the space between the walls.
“Yes.”
“Follow me this way, Caleb.”
Bipa led the way.
The space between the walls on the 3rd floor was a completely empty void. Everything was pure white.
Tilting my head back, I saw a white sky that stretched on endlessly, devoid of any sense of perspective. It was impossible to tell if a ceiling existed, or if what was above was even a sky at all.
The floor and walls, lacking any discernible boundaries, simply extended into infinity.
It was the kind of place you’d see in some internet challenge: “How long could you last here for a million bucks?”
I had to admire the plunderers who crossed these spaces to hunt adventurers.
“You don’t have to be afraid. We’re with you.”
You being with me is the part that’s making me nervous.
“The cold on the 3rd floor is truly harsh every time I come here.”
After we crossed the space between the walls, Bipa shivered.
The beastfolk, with their resistance to cold, were unaffected.
“This place is periodically assaulted by intense cold and confusion. Did you know?”
“Of course.”
Snap!
Bipa opened her fan.
“Jangjanghail (Long, Long Summer Day).”
To a Taoist who has reached the pinnacle of their art, the cold and confusion of the 3rd floor were a trivial matter.
“…Let it be so.”
Within a 300-meter radius of Bipa, the snow melted.
The gloomy landscape of the snowy mountain was erased, replaced by the clear, vibrant colors of a bright summer day.
*
“What the?”
Back Attack, who had come to the Nathaniel Temple hospital ward with Aimus, tilted his head.
Caleb wasn’t there.
“Where’s Caleb?”
In his place, only Yernil sat forlornly.
She was at a complete loss.
“Was he discharged?”
At Aimus’s question, Yernil shook her head.
“No… He went out.”
“Out?”
“He said he had to go to the university to meet the professors and then attend a Sohen leadership meeting.”
“Wow, I’ve never met anyone who goes to meetings like that.”
Back Attack clicked his tongue.
“Caleb’s really moving up in the world.”
“I heard Caleb was the first to notice this Labyrinth Eruption. He must have known something. Maybe he went to testify about it?”
Aimus placed the fruit basket he’d brought on the table.
“Hey, man, did you get an earful from your wife?” Back Attack asked.
“Why would I?”
“Your husband is a mid-tier adventurer. Wouldn’t she have expected you to come running to save your family?”
“…”
“But instead of going to the Guild Village, you were fighting at the Public Security Headquarters, right?”
“I was.”
That had been weighing on Aimus’s mind, leaving him with a heavy heart.
It felt like that day long ago when he was torn between the woman begging him to be her lover and the teachings of the Dalai Lama.
Back then, Aimus had made the right choice.
But had he made the right choice this time?
Defending the city by fighting monsters at the Public Security Headquarters, or rushing to his family’s side to protect them.
Between the two, what should Aimus have chosen?
“To be honest,” the Monk was a family man. “I have some regrets.”
“…”
“While my wife was evacuating in a hurry, our youngest bumped into a wall and got a little hurt. He’s fine now, but still.”
The ordinary citizens had evacuated to safe houses under the guidance of low-tier adventurers.
When he was finally reunited with his wife there, terrified and clutching their three children, Aimus’s heart had clenched.
“Perhaps a man’s place is always beside his woman. Not protecting a city, or a party, or any of those grandiose things.”
“Man, you’re so sweet I think I’m gonna get diabetes.”
As Back Attack responded with his usual nonsense, Yernil’s ears perked up.
“Caleb… is like that too, right?”
“Caleb’s not married, is he?”
“But…”
A memory of something she’d once heard suddenly surfaced in Yernil’s mind. When they had confronted Bipa and Mugol at the scene of Teramond’s murder, they had said it.
That Hyedam was Caleb’s lover.
Clack!
The temple door opened. Someone else appeared, also holding a fruit basket.
It was Neko.
“Where’s Caleb?”
“He went to the Sohen leadership meeting,” Yernil replied, her brow furrowing slightly. She didn’t particularly like the cat mage. On the 4th floor, she had suddenly hugged Caleb and started grooming him. Not that she couldn’t, but still…
“That meeting already ended, though.”
“Huh?”
“And everyone went to the Foggy Cliffs and then came back to Sohen. So why isn’t Caleb here…”
Neko’s words threw the hospital room into a brief state of confusion.
Then, someone else popped up from behind Neko.
“Caleb went to the Labyrinth.”
Isel dropped the shocking news.
“What did you say?!”
Back Attack, Yernil, and Aimus all jumped at once.
“What? Why would a guy who hasn’t even fully recovered suddenly go to the Labyrinth?”
“By himself!? He went into the Labyrinth alone?”
“But isn’t the Labyrinth Union keeping the stairs and elevators closed for now? To deal with the Eruption…?”
“Yes.”
Isel had come to see her youngest brother, Avison, in the temple’s VIP room and had joined the conversation.
She felt they needed to know.
“He went down with the Wyndham duo using Ingelam’s simple elevator.”
“Whoa, hold on, miss. I can’t process a single word you’re saying.”
Back Attack’s confusion only grew.
“Who’s the Wyndham duo, and what’s this about Ingelam’s simple elevator?”
“That’s why they went to the Foggy Cliffs, to find that elevator. And as for why he went to the Labyrinth…”
Yernil felt like she was about to faint at the words that followed.
“He said he was going to meet his old lover.”
“Old lover?”
“Well, well, he acted all innocent, but he had a past after all, huh? I guess it would be a waste to let that face go to….”
“Let’s…”
Yernil shot out from beside Back Attack and yelled.
“Let’s go!”
“Go where?”
“Let’s go! To find Caleb! He went into the Labyrinth alone!”
“You foolish elf. How are we supposed to get in when the Labyrinth is closed?”
“We can use the simple elevator too!”
“Not just anyone can use it,” Neko said quickly.
“It’s an asset that’s been confiscated by the Public Security Headquarters.”
“I’m a Citizen Constable!” Yernil shouted, quickly pulling out her badge.
*
The Inter-floor Village was silent.
Monsters like the Ossuary Caretakers and the Wardens of the Boundary were impossible to completely eradicate. Even if you killed them, they would just respawn somewhere in the village and attack again.
This meant that even if the Wyndham duo and Hyedam had taken over this village, those monsters still existed here alongside them.
They must be hiding.
The possessors' village would be somewhere among the abandoned buildings in this massive Inter-floor Village.
They were probably repairing and cleaning up usable houses to live in, and they would be trying their best not to be detected by monsters by casting wide-range noise-canceling spells.
What about food?
Were they farming here?
Or did Bipa and Mugol bring it to them?
It was possible the Wyndham duo had a contract with Lilweed or Ingelam that went that far.
To supply them with food and water.
We passed a dilapidated mill and cut through a cluster of small, tightly packed houses. An alley that looked like an old market street appeared.
We walked for about three hours.
“We’re almost there.”
Even after Bipa said that, we walked for another twenty minutes.
There was still no sign of anything resembling a possessor.
However…
What’s this?
I noticed something strange.
The Hourglass was glittering.
A message window next to it caught my eye.
[The Hourglass's dominion ability has been expanded.]
[Select a person to subjugate.]
1. Aimus (Trust Level: 100%)
2. Back Attack (Trust Level: 100%)
3. Isel (Trust Level: 100%)
4. Neko (Trust Level: 100%)
5. Bernard (Trust Level: 100%)
At the very end, a new line was added.
6. Hyedam (Trust Level: 100%)
I’ve never even met…
“Caleb?”
On the rooftop of the building to my left.
A fox-spirit woman with eight tails was sitting there.
She held a long paulownia pipe the size of her forearm, taking a drag.
Puff, puff.
As she exhaled smoke, her brow furrowed slightly.
The sun also rises in the Inter-floor Village.
The glare was so bright we couldn’t see each other clearly, but she recognized me first.
Clang.
The long pipe bounced off the rooftop and clattered away.
In the next moment, she had already leaped down in front of me.
The sharp, sweet scent of tobacco.
A mysteriously beautiful face and eyes like ethereal lakes.
Whump!
Her skin was soft as she pulled my head into an embrace.