Chapter 184: Don't Go, Caleb!
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 184: Don't Go, Caleb!
When I got back to the bedroom after my bath and collapsed onto the bed.
Yernil was lying next to me.
“Aargh!”
“…”
Usually, in the Labyrinth, Yernil was the one screaming while I calmed her down, but today, our roles were reversed.
Yernil grabbed my shoulders.
“It’s me! It’s okay!”
No, I know it’s you.
“What are you doing here?”
I hadn’t been able to answer her when she’d asked me in front of the bathroom if I was going back home.
“Caleb.”
Yernil was an exile from the Fairy Forest. I didn’t know the full story since she’d never told me, but in any case, she had been all alone with no one to trust from Flandre all the way here.
“Tonight…”
And because I was the only person she could trust and rely on, I had noticed early on that her feelings for me were far from ordinary.
Though I had pretended not to know all this time.
“Let’s sleep together.”
No. Yernil.
Are… are you serious?
Are you trying to turn me into a Blackdog!
“No, I… I didn’t mean it like that,” Yernil flinched and clarified.
“The Labyrinth Master might come after you.”
“It won’t.”
The Gourmet Whale was on the brink of death during the last eruption, so it wouldn’t be able to come out for a while.
“A hidden member of the Assembly might show up.”
“There’s no one like that.”
Isel and Meldini would have cross-checked everything. If there were any concerns about the Assembly, they would have mentioned it already.
“I always felt like you were about to suddenly disappear somewhere.”
It seemed she had thought that several times.
When we fought the exit boss, Back Attack, and I, a wizard, stood on the front lines wearing a Black Hornet eggshell.
When I dove back into the 1.5th Floor to save a dying Aimus.
When I had a one-on-one duel with the blacksmith.
When I jumped into Dalstream’s ethereal lake that had trapped the White Lion.
When I swallowed poison and died.
And this time, too.
“Tomorrow…”
Yernil suddenly shouted.
“You’re going into that exit gate tomorrow, aren’t you!”
Ah.
So that’s what this was about.
In the scroll warehouse beneath the university’s alchemy lab, there was an exit gate for the Dagger Raptor.
“The Possessor, Professor Elaine, was desperate to go through that gate. And so was the Possessor Kaal. If you go through there, you return to your original world, right? And back then, Caleb, you…”
Wow, Yernil, you’ve gotten pretty sharp.
“You jumped into that sea of fire, killed Professor Elaine, and protected the gate because you were planning to go through it yourself, weren’t you!?”
Yernil suddenly started sobbing.
“Isn’t that too cruel?”
“…”
“You should have at least told me beforehand.”
So that was the problem.
“I have no intention of touching that gate.”
“Huh?”
“It’s suspicious. I have no idea what would happen if I went inside.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re not leaving tomorrow, Caleb?”
Yernil shot up from the bed.
“No, I’m not going.”
“…”
She flopped back down beside me.
“Phew.”
She let out a sigh of relief.
“What a relief.”
Her expression softened a little.
Then she asked.
“Caleb, what kind of person were you before you were possessed?”
“I was…”
I never thought I’d be talking about the modern world here.
Now that I was trying to explain, the difference in our background knowledge made it a bit daunting to figure out where to even begin.
“I came from a country called Korea. I was thirty-two, and my name was…”
“…”
“I’ll tell you next time.”
Because Yernil’s eyes were already half-closed.
She had every reason to be tired.
But she’s really sleeping here.
*
“How are the kids?”
After returning home, Aimus took a shower and sat at the dining table to eat the late-night snack Mrs. Renick had prepared for him.
“They’re all asleep. They were waiting for their dad.”
“I should play with them tomorrow.”
“No, you should get some rest. But did you really fight the Labyrinth Master?”
That topic had been the talk of the Guild Village all night.
The Deep Layer adventurers boarded the whale, and the Labyrinth Master was there!
Caleb’s party was there too!
Mrs. Renick! Your husband was there! He fought the Labyrinth Master! And when the whale was falling, he escaped first and is now on the 1st floor of the Labyrinth!
To be honest, Mrs. Renick’s head had been spinning from the moment the Labyrinth Master was mentioned.
Was it a mistake to let Aimus fight alongside Caleb’s team?
Why did he go to the 1st floor of the Labyrinth?
What if Aimus had died!
She had been incredibly worried, but her husband eventually came back alive, along with an unbelievable tale of his exploits.
“So, Caleb’s neck was half-severed, and he died instantly. We rode a tidal wave to escape and dove into the Labyrinth. To use the Ossuary to revive him.”
“To think my husband is someone who fought the Labyrinth Master and came back alive…”
“It was more like we ran away than fought.”
“To think you’re someone who met the Labyrinth Master and escaped with your life…”
Wasn’t that demon the master of the Labyrinth, a legendary being so infamous that even Deep Layer adventurers couldn’t survive an encounter with it?
It was surprising enough that such a being actually existed, but how could her bald monk!
“The husband I knew was someone who couldn’t get past the 1st floor, but one day he suddenly started clearing the 2nd, then the 3rd, and now the Labyrinth Master…?”
“I can’t believe it either, but that’s what happened.”
“Have you been possessed by any chance?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Then what day is it today? Tell me.”
“Huh!?”
Aimus was completely flustered.
“T-Today is… what… what day… is it…? No, wait, I know! I know!”
Aimus glanced frantically at the calendar, stammering.
“It’s not our wedding anniversary, not my birthday, not the kids’ school observation day…? No, that’s the week after next! What day is it today…?”
“It’s not a special day.”
“…”
“Yep, you’re my husband.”
Sometimes, his wife scared him.
“Want a beer?”
Mrs. Renick poured him some alcohol.
“It’s good to see you achieving your dream of being an adventurer.”
“…”
“But honestly, I’m worried too. I’m worried about you, and…”
The ordinary citizens of Sohen were anxious these days.
“I’m worried about the Labyrinth Eruptions.”
The eruption 12 years ago had been a disaster that occurred for the first time in about 140 years.
The people who had suffered greatly comforted each other, saying that things would be peaceful for another hundred years.
“But the Labyrinth has been acting strange lately.”
The fact that a monster from the Labyrinth, a White Lion that could speak and was highly intelligent, had been posing as the university’s dean.
The fact that they had organized the Possessors’ Assembly, assassinated the Archmage, and manipulated Sohen.
The fact that the Labyrinth had erupted again to retrieve the White Lion’s body, bringing with it a giant whale monster and even the Labyrinth Master.
“You know the baker? His family is planning to evacuate soon. To Flandre.”
“…”
“Everyone’s in an uproar, saying the atmosphere in the Labyrinth is strange these days. They’re saying another great eruption like the one 12 years ago might happen.”
That’s what worried Mrs. Renick.
“People are leaving, one by one. Sohen might be ruined.”
“I don’t know for sure, but…”
Aimus took another sip of his beer.
“There’s a story that the Labyrinth will eventually swallow the entire surface continent. Maybe running to another city won’t be safe either.”
On Dalai Mountain, they teach about human karma. The great wheel of cause and effect, which transcends the material world, sometimes brings forth something fated into reality.
Perhaps that would be the final eruption of the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth Master had said as much to Caleb. ‘I thought you would be the enemy of my final eruption.’
And…
“Unlike fate, karma is something people can shape. It can all be changed in the end.”
Aimus believed that his own dazzling growth as an adventurer since meeting Caleb might also be a part of that destiny.
“You and our kids.”
Perhaps everything, starting from when he left Dalai Mountain.
“I will protect you, no matter what.”
*
“That’s when I thought to myself.”
In a private room of a back-alley club.
At a table swarming with women, the playboy was spinning an epic tale of his exploits.
“‘Labyrinth Master. If you’re going to kill my wizard, I’ll take your life.’”
“Squeeeal!”
The women went wild.
“And what did I do? My wizard bro has a Ring of Moisture on his finger. I used Plunder, just like that!”
Back Attack used his Plunder skill on the woman sitting next to him, snatching her earring into his palm.
“Then I shoved it into the Void Torpedo’s mouth and blew it away!”
“Oh! Oh my! Goodness!”
“Rainwater was already being drawn to the whale because of the Moisture-Absorbing Magic Circle, and you add a Ring of Moisture to that? Then the Order Bomb explodes, and water pours into the whale’s head?”
Back Attack put the earring back on her ear.
“That thing was sent straight to the afterlife in one shot. Trapped in a water prison, unable to move, it would have fallen to the ground and died!”
“Wow!”
“You’re so cool!”
“How did you make such a calculation in that split second!”
“So you almost caught the Labyrinth Master, Back Attack!?”
“Oh my god. Something even Deep Layer adventurers can’t do!”
Gasps of admiration erupted from all sides.
“If I had caught it then, Blackdog would’ve been like, ‘Argh, Back Attack… I’ve lost. From now on, you are the Blackdog.’”
“Squeeeal!”
“Oh my god, no way!”
“Then what happened to Caleb the wizard?”
Back Attack picked up a piece of fruit from the table and ate it.
“That part’s fun too. There was an Ossuary there, right? My man Caleb’s soul went into it. I quickly snatched it and rode the tidal wave to the 1st floor of the Labyrinth!”
“Wow!”
“That way, we could use a treasure room in the underground to get a resurrection scroll and bring Caleb back.”
“Wow. Goodness!”
“You’re amazing! To think you were looking out for your party member’s resurrection even in that situation!”
“You did that too?”
“No… actually, that was…”
Back Attack scratched the back of his neck.
“Our team’s idiot elf suddenly had a moment of clarity, like she’d borrowed all of tomorrow’s brainpower. She really came through.”
Honestly, at that moment, Back Attack had thought Yernil was crazy for suddenly suggesting they take the Ossuary and head for the Labyrinth.
He never imagined she had such a plan.
I’m telling you, she turns into Caleb sometimes.
*
Early the next morning, I received a message and went to see Professor Meldini.
“Cough! Cough!”
Meldini was experiencing the side effects of his Aether state.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m perfectly fine.”
He took a few sips of hot tea and had me sit on the sofa.
“There are a few things I wanted to discuss, so I called you, Caleb. Ah, but before that… about your fight with the Labyrinth Master.”
The professor asked.
“My staff activated on its own and drew two magic circles. Was that your doing?”
“Yes, it was.”
“I knew it. When I saw the Moisture-Absorbing Magic Circle, I suspected it might have been you.”
“…”
“I heard the magic circle that made it rain blood was yours as well, correct?”
“Yes. I bound an enchantment and an Exploitative Bleed effect to the magic circle.”
“Hmph. Just the kind of knowledge I’d expect from a Possessor.”
Professor, you’re not still holding a grudge, are you?
“I’m sorry for lying to you.”
“Not at all. More importantly, I heard the Labyrinth Master was obsessed with you.”
“It seems something happened between it and my former self, before I was possessed.”
“And you have no memory of it?”
“That’s right.”
“Hmm… Hyedam, Bipa, and Mugol. Those three, right? Your old party members.”
“Correct.”
“Among them, Bipa. The Taoist.”
“Yes.”
“It seems she worked with Professor Dalstream in the past.”
What?
That was unexpected.
Both Elves and the Spirit Race were long-lived, and since Dalstream and Bipa were both old folks whose ages were hard to guess, I’d had no idea.
“Do you know what magic the two of them developed?”
“What was it?”
“Lie Detection Magic.”
“…”
“It’s used for different purposes now, but I heard Professor Dalstream originally had another reason for developing that magic.”
“What was it?”
“To root out Possessors who were hiding their identities, and from among them, find a counter to the Labyrinth Master. It’s the stuff of legends. A figure known as…”
Meldini said.
“The Turn-Based Wizard.”