Strongest Gamer; Let's Play in Another World Volume 2

by Shinobu Yuuki

  "So this is all poison as far as the eye can see?"

  "The plants and moss are toxic, but if you treat them with care, they're valuable medicinal materials. While you could wipe out a city or two with all the poison in them, you could also save ten times that many lives if you used them to treat illness."

  Medicinal herbs here weren't so different from those in my own world in that regard.

  "Ultimately, whether they're poison or medicine is up to you, when you decide how to use them. Incidentally, the water here is incredibly high quality, in spite of the plants being what they are."

  "I see. Life and death are both ready-at-hand, and you have only to choose. What a remarkable place. Truly, this is fit to house a labyrinth of the Great Dark Lord."

  I worried a bit about how much Mary was getting her expectations up. She was in for a rude awakening when she saw our shabby cabin, that was for sure.

  ◇

  "Okay now. Hey, Aoi, would you look the other way for a sec?"

  When we finally reached the bottom of the steps, Ann set down her bags and put her hands together as if praying. Though she kept up her kobold form when we were outside the labyrinth, she always changed back into her human form when we returned. I dutifully turned away from her. Apparently being seen while transforming was a lot like having someone watch you change clothes.

  "..."

  Mary's jaw dropped in surprise when she saw Ann turn into a pretty girl.

  "You can look now! Oh, what's wrong, Mary?"

  "She seems surprised. Wonder why."

  Ann had been all skin and bones when we first met, but now she was the very picture of health. In her kobold form especially, she was wonderfully soft and fluffy. What was there to be surprised by, I wondered.

  "How shocking. And even more shocking is seeing how commonplace you two treated it. This really is the other side of the world. Are you in fact a human, Ann?"

  Ohhh, right, the transformation itself had caught her unawares. Yeah, that'd confused me too, the first time. She and I had slept together at first as if she was the family pet, but then she'd suddenly shapeshifted into a beautiful human girl. It was such a strong temptation, and it'd come on so suddenly, that I'd almost done something terrible to her back then.

  "Ann is a half kobold. These are both her real form, and she has the strengths of both a human and a kobold."

  "Since she's such a pretty girl, I asked her to change into kobold form outside of the labyrinth to help keep her safe. You'd have to be another kobold or close family to tell if a kobold was normal or pretty, right?"

  "Um, I see. Well, I may have lived a sheltered life, but far be it from me to be frightened off by something like this."

  Mary couldn't hide her surprise, but at least she was understanding.

  "Am I a strange-looking human?"

  Ann looked down at the ground and rubbed her hands together nervously. It seemed she'd spent most of her life in kobold form, so she wasn't too comfortable with her appearance as a human. I thought she was absolutely beautiful, but you try convincing a girl of that.

  "No, perish the thought! You're simply adorable!"

  Mary rushed over to stroke Ann's head. Oh, good call, she liked that.

  "Naturally, I understand why you would find it safer to appear to be a kobold in this part of the world. What surprises me is that a child can be born from a union between a human and a kobold in the first place."

  Fair enough. I'd played my share of games, but half kobolds were a new one to me.

  "Are mixed races common in the Great Dark Lord's territories?"

  She looked to me for an answer, but I was the wrong guy to ask.

  "Where I'm from, we only have humans."

  Despite being one of the Great Dark Lord's labyrinth managers, I was just a human from another world. I wasn't an expert on local anthropology.

  "There's lots in the cities especially, but most of them prefer one form over the other and just live that way, so people don't really realize."

  Ah, that made sense. You'd never really know a half kobold from a kobold if they never transformed.

  "Is there a reason why you use your human form in the labyrinth?"

  "Yeah, because Aoi's here! I'm safe as long as he's around."

  Her radiant smile warmed my heart. We'd been through a lot of happy times, and also a lot of worrisome times, since Ann had started using her human form with me. Like when she would have trouble sleeping and undo most of the buttons on my button-down shirt that she used instead of pajamas, leaving her practically naked on top of me. Or when, half-asleep, she would hug me tight and nuzzle my chest. Both of those were a daily occurrence. Honestly, you probably got less fanservice from a typical visual novel than I got in my regular life with Ann. But I had to hang on to the tattered shreds of my self-control and act like this was all no big deal, just one of those things that happens when you lay down for a nice, relaxing rest. I just wished she'd make it a little easier on me!

  Now, look, I'd obviously feel lonely if she stopped acting so intimate, but she was taking it a bit far! Still, I wasn't in Japan anymore, and she certainly wasn't Toto. I was in another world, and one where she was considered mature and self-sufficient. Rationally, I knew that the proper thing to do would be to introduce her to the adult world as soon as possible, but when I thought about Ann losing her purity, my hand wavered. Ann herself wasn't aware of the temptation she represented for me, and I could see that the fondness she felt for me was more that of a doting younger sister idolizing her big brother. But regardless of how we ended up, I was prepared to do right by her. I wanted to watch her back, and to be there by her side as she matured into an adult, however long that took her.

  Don't misunderstand me, though. I wasn't being wishy-washy, asking myself if Ann was really the girl for me, or anything like that. I'd made my decision on that front long time ago.

  You see, one thing I'd learned was that, corresponding to the wild variation in races inhabiting Daemon territory, there was also a wild variation in reproductive customs. The laws took this into account, only stipulating two requirements for marriage: that the two parties must consent, and that when two people wanted to be married, they should notify the village mayor or city warden. The people also seemed completely accepting of interracial marriage.

  In other words, I had options.

  Now, just ask any gamer: What's the best possible romantic outcome? The harem ending, of course! Ann was the only girl I had my sights on at the moment, but it was important to dream big.

  "So, a half kobold and a human. You must have interesting family reunions. I must admit, I'm envious of the trust you have for each other, as I never had a brother myself."

  I got the feeling Mary had misunderstood our relationship, but I didn't feel comfortable correcting her. Well, whatever the official records said, Ann and I considered each other family, and that was what mattered.

  ◇

  "Welcome back. It seems your recruiting trip was successful."

  "Oh, Aoi's back? Sweet, now we can get to work."

  We returned to find Karumi and Suzu, visible again through a floating UI window, both drinking tea. I didn't mind Suzu relaxing, but I got a little miffed seeing Karumi there, just calmly sipping tea. The world was unfair if the source of my suffering got to sit around while I had to go out and cover for her mistakes.

  "Karumi, Suzu, I'd like you to meet Mary, a knight of the human kingdom and my new labyrinth guardian. Mary, this is Karumi and Suzu."

  "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

  "Ooh, a human knight, and so polite. Nice find, Aoi! Whaddaya think, Karumi?"

  "I'm surprised, to say the least. She's certainly strong enough to serve as the labyrinth's guardian."

  Karumi looked Mary over carefully. Wait, that was all she had to do to measure her ability?

  "Suzu, does Karumi have some ability beyond our ?"

  All labyrinth managers learned the ability
immediately, which showed basic stats like vitality, stamina, and willpower when used on a person. But it didn't show much beyond that and wasn't as useful as it sounded.

  "Yeah, Karumi's skill is different from ours. I've heard she can see more detailed info, like numerical values attached to skills and abilities."

  Sounded pretty handy. How come we didn't get that?

  "Aoi, are these two women attached to the labyrinth in some way?"

  "Ah, right, I should tell you more about them. The one at the table there is Karumi, my superior. And the one talking through the window is Suzu, a colleague of mine and a fellow labyrinth manager... Hmm? What seems to be the trouble?"

  "Well, there was a labyrinth near my old home, but it was a dreadful place where miasma would gather. If anybody was brave enough to dare challenging it, they were beset by vile creatures. I must admit that I'm shocked to find they were staffed by humans."

  Miasma? Crazy.

  "I guess Suzu and I don't really look like labyrinth overlords, do we? Maybe a minotaur like Mayor Hopper would be a better fit for your image of a labyrinth manager?"

  "The appearance isn't the issue. Even knowing a Daemon was in charge of one would be upsetting. To think that a person was in charge of all these... But do not worry about it. I'm fine now."

  I figured things were pretty different over in the human kingdom, and Mary was still coming to grips with the differences. It must have been hard on her.

  "Kousaka, have you and Mary signed a contract?"

  "No, but we have a verbal agreement. Do we need something written?"

  In a world like this, I figured giving your word should be enough.

  "Yes, you do. Ms. Mary, could you come take a look at this? I have your contract here, and... Oh, Kousaka, just to confirm, you're hiring her as your labyrinth guardian right?"

  "That's the plan."

  If she was strong enough to pass Karumi's inspection, I certainly wasn't going to change my mind now.

  "Then we'll need to file her labyrinth guardian registration as well."

  Karumi rummaged around in her briefcase and pulled out a few manila folders and documents. She laid them before Mary to sign, explaining the details of each one.

  "Excellent, that's all we need for registration. Kousaka, can you fill out this paper detailing her signing bonus?"

  "Of course. This one here, right? Let's see, the amount was... this."

  I went on to fill out her salary as well, but something about this wasn't sitting right with me. When you hired a wandering swordsman or whatever, wasn't this supposed to be the big scene? Like, shouldn't there be some sweet line about guarding you with their life, and maybe some over-the-top ritual involving blood or whatever? It seemed almost criminal that all we were doing was signing a pile of documents. This was even worse than buying groceries and paying with your phone.

  "All right, now that that's all signed, we just need it properly notarized. That means it's my turn."

  Karumi took a resin case from her bag, removed a stamp from it, and pressed the stamp firmly to the document, leaving an intricate black seal on the page.

  "And now it's official. Welcome to Labyrinth #228, guardian. We're expecting a lot from you."

  Karumi made some closing remarks as she stashed the documents in her briefcase.

  "Aoi, is that really all there is to it? This is worlds apart from the rituals I went through when I was made a knight."

  Seriously. This was a little too modern an approach for hiring a knight.

  "Well, you're better off not thinking too hard about how things normally work when you're in the labyrinth. Trust me, I know how you feel."

  I put a comforting hand on Mary's shoulder. She was finally a member of Labyrinth #228. We had a guardian, and gofer in chief.

  "Did I really become your labyrinth guardian? I thought there'd be some change, but I don't feel any different."

  Mary pats herself down. She had a point. If this were a game, a class change like going from knight to labyrinth guardian would come with a strength boost and a palette swap, at the very least.

  "Labyrinth manager is just a title. It doesn't change anything in particular."

  Admittedly, it would've been kind of extreme if she'd turned into some beefy boss monster immediately after signing a few papers.

  "Actually, I'll have you scrubs know, labyrinth guardians do get a few perks."

  "Oh, really?"

  Mary and I asked in unison, and Suzu went on to explain.

  "Becoming a labyrinth guardian makes you officially a subject of the Great Dark Lord, and a high-ranking one at that. That means you get a bunch of tax breaks! Plus, now you can use Tundra, as long as your labyrinth manager gives you permission. Oh, um, Tundra is this special shop that only labyrinth managers and their authorized employees can use to buy and sell goods."

  Wait, that was it? I was imagining some crazy new ability or something. Lame.

  "Here, Ms. Mary, this is for you."

  Karumi presented a black plastic card to Mary.

  "What is this?"

  "This is your labyrinth guardian ID card. Please be sure to always keep it with you. Not only is it an ID, it also gets you discounts at state-operated institutions!"

  "I-I see. I'll be careful not to misplace it. This does all sound beneficial, but certainly not in the sense I had imagined it would."

  She accepted the black card in its plastic slip case and stared at it, bemused.

  "Look, I totally get where you're coming from, but try to roll with it, okay? You'll get used to this eventually."

  The perks were nice, but they just weren't quite what you were hoping for. Like, shouldn't she get some labyrinth-exclusive skill or something? But that particular disappointment was one I knew all too well, and Mary was going to have to learn it too.

  "So, can you show me what I'm going to be protecting?"

  Oh. She wasn't going to like this.

  "See that cabin right there?"

  "Indeed. It looks a little worse for wear."

  "That's the full extent of Labyrinth #228 as it currently stands."

  We stored all our vegetables and grains there, but there wasn't really anything that needed to be fiercely guarded. On reflection, the only intruders we were likely to get were like, mice? We probably should've hired a cat to protect our food stash, not a knight.

  "Surely you jest, Aoi."

  "Now that we have you, we're going to start building the actual labyrinth. In the meantime, you're on standby. I'm going to build the whole thing in three months. Somehow."

  If I couldn't manage that, Mary's job security was in question.

  "Very well. You can count on me. In the meantime, I shall protect this cabin."

  Oh gosh, she looks like a little lost puppy. I'm sorry, but I can't show you a labyrinth that doesn't exist! You're still getting paid the same, so why do you care so much?!

  "So she'll be protecting your house. This is less like being a labyrinth guardian and more like being in the home security business."

  Look, that thought crossed my mind too, Suzu, but I wasn't actually gonna say it out loud!

  ◇

  "Hey, Aoi? Mary's a fine choice for a guardian, but what're you doing for monsters? You're gonna need trash mobs as well as a boss."

  "Could you tell me how you have your labyrinth set up, Suzu?"

  "Yeah, sure. #370 is a production and storage labyrinth, right? So I just hire mercs. They kinda patrol, chase out any monsters, that sorta thing. Maintain order, you know? Just in case, I've got this contraption that produces skeleton-type golems when you feed it raw resources, but it's a pain in the neck to use, so now it's basically a hat rack."

  Huh. Pretty weak security. Though, if she had mercenaries strong enough to drive away monsters, she was way better off than me.

  "That doesn't really give me any ideas. Your objective is to produce a lot of stuff and make money, right? And all you need to protect your warehouse is some mercenaries?"


  "If things get serious, I just go around and hire every single Daemon mercenary in the nearby villages and towns. When push comes to shove, I can scrounge up enough numbers to be the envy of a decent-sized fortress."

  So she would grow her military on demand in emergencies. That gave me some nasty flashbacks.

  "I remember one time I was pitted against you. I'd taken over this defenseless town with a skeleton force, and you showed up out of nowhere to lay siege to it with a full battalion not even half a day later. That was pretty intense."