Chapter 129: The Fox Marble Kiss
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 129: The Fox Marble Kiss
The memory transfer was over.
Slowly, our lips parted.
I passed the fox marble to Hyedam.
Hmm.
My thoughts were as follows:
The me before possession… he was surprisingly smooth.
“Leaving Fox Ridge back then was the best decision of my life.”
Hyedam swallowed the fox marble with a gulp.
“We were happy after that, weren't we? We got engaged in Wyndham, lived together in newlywed subsidized housing… I became a Labyrinth adventurer to earn money, and you, Caleb, took care of the house.”
So that’s how it was.
I was a househusband.
“I miss those days.”
Hyedam still didn't suspect a thing about me.
I was getting uncharacteristically lucky.
Honestly, I hadn't expected Hyedam to open up and tell me all about our past in such a good atmosphere.
I thought it might be dangerous, but so far, I hadn't been suspected.
I was sure of it.
Why?
Because her trust in me was still at 100%.
Maybe it was because I hadn't done anything suspicious yet, or maybe it was because she'd heard from Bipa and Mugol that I wasn't a possessor.
Or maybe it was because the pre-possession Caleb was just that smooth.
Anyway, since the situation was good, I decided to try and coax a little more out of her.
Hmm.
‘Should I just subjugate her with the Hourglass and give her orders?’
That would be much easier, but it also felt like a waste. It's not like I was going to adventure in the Labyrinth with Hyedam…
“Caleb. Do you want to adventure in the Labyrinth with me?”
Just then, Hyedam brought up the topic.
“What?”
“I can't leave the Labyrinth anymore.”
She gave a bitter smile.
“Because I've been possessed. I'm in a state like I have a split personality. If I go outside the Labyrinth, the possessor will gradually grow stronger and take over my body completely. But I can suppress it as long as I'm inside the Labyrinth.”
That’s possible?
“Right now, we switch two or three times a day. The person who possessed my body is a girl named Hyoin. She's a bit strange, but not a bad person.”
Hyedam cleared the empty dishes and came back.
“So, what I'm saying is, let's live here together. Just the two of us, adventuring down from the 3rd floor, one level at a time. If we need to, we can bring Bipa and Mugol along.”
“No… that's…”
“And Hyoin might come out soon. So I don't have much time, you see? Before that, right now. …Shall we?”
“Do what?”
“We…”
Hyedam's eyes grew slightly hazy.
“We were going to have a baby, remember?”
Huh?
“It's similar to when we were building a family in Wyndham and I was earning money in the Labyrinth. We can get everything we need here. Let's have a baby and live here together!”
Don't tell me that's why you kicked Bipa and Mugol out.
The Foggy Cliffs was a magical zone that confounded the five senses of anyone who entered.
Finding one's bearings inside was difficult, but fortunately, Yernil, Back Attack, and Aimus hardly got lost.
That was because the Public Security Headquarters' forces had completely occupied the Foggy Cliffs.
“The elevator? It's that way.”
Following their directions, they arrived at Ingelam and Lilweed's makeshift elevator.
“I heard Caleb went down this way?” Yernil asked Urgash, the Orc Constable.
“Which floor did he go to?”
“The destination Bipa and Mugol set was the 3rd floor. But we don't know where they went from there.”
“…Damn it.”
Yernil bravely jumped into the elevator.
“Yernil. But do we really have to go this far?”
Aimus was very worried about the situation.
Both their objective and their chances of success were unclear.
“You said Caleb went of his own free will, didn't you?”
And Caleb was supposedly with a duo of Deep Layer adventurers named Bipa and Mugol.
With a party like that, the chances of Caleb being in danger on the 3rd floor were nonexistent. If a crisis did occur, it would be because of that Wyndham duo, in which case Aimus's team would be of no help. Their chances of winning against a Deep Layer duo were slim.
“Besides, it won't be easy for us to track Caleb.”
Finding Caleb on the vast 3rd floor? No matter how good Yernil's hearing was, as a human, there was a limit to the range she could track.
And there was a bigger problem.
“We have no way to resist the confusion or the cold right now.”
The cold and confusion of the 3rd floor. The volcanic ash, pyroclastic debris, and lava mounds of the 4th floor.
It had always been Caleb who prepared them for the dangers that spanned entire floors.
When they went to the 3rd floor before, Caleb had borrowed a Torch Helm from the university, but it had been returned long ago.
And when they were looking for the 4th-floor stairs, Caleb had protected them from the confusion and cold with the 'Peaceful Mind' spell and 'Warming Potions'.
“Right now, we have nothing.”
“Mmm…”
“How about we just trust Caleb and wait outside?”
“Guh…”
Aimus's point was absolutely right. But.
“That Wyndham duo are the ones who almost killed Caleb. They attacked the dormitory.”
Yernil found them suspicious and unsettling.
“They say Caleb went willingly, but we don't know… He might have been threatened.”
“Hmm.”
“Going into the Labyrinth to meet an old lover is strange, too,” Back Attack chimed in. For once, he sided with Yernil.
“If she were a normal woman, wouldn't she come visit Caleb at the temple herself? Calling someone who just came back from the dead a few days ago into the Labyrinth to meet… no matter how you look at it, that's not sane. Based on my deep and vast experience with women, this could be dangerous.”
“Y-You're right!” Yernil agreed enthusiastically.
“Right! That's a problem too.”
“But we have no physical way to get in. We have no means to resist the cold and confusion.”
“…”
“…”
Yernil bit her lip, lost in thought.
Just then.
“Do you wish to enter the 3rd floor?”
Bernard, the Lizard Paladin from the Order of Nathaniel, suddenly interjected.
“Yes! But we have no way to resist the confusion and cold!”
“Shall I help you?”
While Caleb's party was descending to the 4th floor, Paladin Bernard hadn't been staying on the 2nd floor either.
He, along with Remus the Halfling crossbowman, Astin the Dwarf wizard, and Greg the Barbarian warrior, had already cleared the 3rd floor.
And the way they had resisted the confusion and cold was…
“We have a Torch Helm here!”
It was the shining helm of a certain bald monk who had now become a legend among the adventurers of the Guild Village.
“Of course, we didn't borrow it from the Magic University. We pooled our money and acquired it from the east.”
“You'll lend this to us?”
Considering the rarity and value of magical equipment, lending it out so readily made no sense, but Bernard had his reasons.
“I, too, am suspicious of Caleb following that duo down. The university professors might even be heading to the 3rd floor to search for him soon.”
“…”
“I would like to go myself, but as a constable, I cannot abandon my duty to guard the area around this elevator. If you could understand my position…”
“Give me the helm!”
Yernil quickly took the helm and placed it on Aimus's head.
“We're going to the 3rd floor!”
Still, a problem remained.
The problem of how to find Caleb on the vast 3rd floor.
No, they couldn't even be sure he was on the 3rd floor.
He could have gone to the 3.5th floor.
Or, the 3rd floor could have been a fake destination to deceive the Public Security Headquarters watching from outside, and he might have actually taken the stairs to the 4th or 2nd floor.
In effect, the search area could be considered the entire Labyrinth.
Still, Yernil had a baseless conviction.
That she would be able to find him.
Because…
‘I found him in the annex ventilation shaft!’
I'm reminded of a girl I had a thing with during my innocent freshman year of college.
She was a senior in my department, two years older than me. I once took her home when she was drunk.
Her room was on the 3rd floor of a studio apartment building with no elevator, and she said she couldn't climb the stairs alone and asked me to help her.
Looking back, that was the start of her scheme.
When we got to her door, she punched in the code, went inside, and flopped onto her bed.
You come here too.
She called me over, patting the spot next to her on the bed.
Telling me to sober up before I left.
Thinking about it again, it was a truly cunning, premeditated crime. Back then, my birthday hadn't passed yet, so I was an adult in name only—the bus fare still registered as a youth fare when I tapped my card.
As soon as I lay down next to her, she started pouncing on me, pecking my forehead, cheeks, and lips.
Of course, I had feelings for her and I'm a guy, so my heart was racing, but I didn't want my first time to be like that. I was so flustered that I ran out of there as if I were escaping.
“W-Wait a minute…”
I'm just as flustered now as I was back then.
Suddenly, Hyedam had taken me to the bedroom, laid me down, and started unbuttoning my shirt.
“Why?”
I have to keep my wits about me!
If I let myself be bewitched by this fox, who looks like she could suck out a man's soul and liver, I might cross a river of no return.
To be honest, as a man, I'm extremely tempted, but this is just wrong.
‘Hyedam doesn't know I'm possessed!’
But if I take advantage of her misunderstanding and do something this major, it's not just a moral problem—I don't have the confidence to handle the aftermath.
What will I do when Hyedam finds out my true identity later?
In the worst-case scenario, it could escalate to a Deep Layer adventurer trying to kill me.
“W-Wait. I…” I managed to say, pushing Hyedam away.
“I was resurrected not long ago, so I have no strength in my body…!”
It was a really cliché excuse, basically saying I was tired.
But it seemed it wasn't cliché to Hyedam.
“…”
She flinched and took a step back.
“When we kissed during the memory transfer earlier, you accepted it.”
“What?”
“That's our secret code…”
During a memory transfer, you can just hold the fox marble together in your hands.
In fact, there's no need to pass it from mouth to mouth like a candy kiss.
Then why did Hyedam do it that way?
“When I came back from the Labyrinth and showed you my adventures with the marble while kissing you, we would…”
So, it was like how a newlywed couple might use the direction of mandarin duck figurines on the TV stand to send signals to each other?
Shit.
How was I supposed to know?
[The Hourglass's subjugation ability has been expanded.]
[Select a person to subjugate.]
1. Aimus (Trust: 100%)
2. Back Attack (Trust: 100%)
3. Isel (Trust: 100%)
4. Neko (Trust: 100%)
5. Bernard (Trust: 100%)
※ Hyedam (Trust: 99%): Can be subjugated upon reaching 100%.
Her trust level dropped!
“Bipa!”
Suddenly, Hyedam threw open the front door and ran out.
“Come here.”
“What is it?”
Bipa and Mugol, who had been kicked out, were wandering around the village and headed back toward the house.
“Is it true that Caleb proved he wasn't a possessor under a lie detection spell?”
“I'm telling you, it's true, you brat. I saw it with my own two eyes.”
“The spell didn't fail?”
“Do you think I wouldn't be able to tell? Meldini's magic worked properly.”
“Why the sudden question?”
Mugol appeared next to Bipa.
The eyes of a beast glinted, turning toward me.
“Caleb… he's… different somehow.”
Hyedam looked at me with a very confused expression.
“We felt that too, Hyedam. But it seems Caleb has had several near-death experiences since coming to Sohen. It's not surprising his personality would change, is it?”
“No! It's not like that! That… that's something you can't forget…”
Hyedam bit her lip hard.
“Then,” Mugol said.
“Look into him with Soul Tracking.”
'Soul Tracking,' a unique ability of the Fox Spirit race, could track the texture and shape of a soul.
From a distance, it was like a thermal camera image, piercing through cover to indiscriminately find multiple souls, but up close, it could carefully distinguish individuals.
It was accurate enough for Soyul to have distinguished Gildal's soul mixed inside the life vessel of Antonelli, who had become a Lich.
“That should do it. Check for yourself.”
“…”
Hyedam strode toward me.
I clutched the Stair Scroll in my pocket.