by Hiro Ainana
“The guildmaster has the authority to give out garnet badges and lower as she wishes. It must be within reason, of course, but we’ve yet to award any this year. I’m sure there will be no complaints from the royal capital.”
Miss Ushana went on to explain the benefits of our new garnet badges.
There were all kinds of little perks, like getting half off all guild handling charges and rent through the guild.
I had no shortage of money, though, so I didn’t really care about that.
“Finally, and this is the most important point…”
Why didn’t you start with it, then?
“…anyone with a garnet badge is considered a quasi-noble. Unlike your title of hereditary knight, it does not come with a noble’s special privileges, but it does grant the holder social status equivalent to that of a knight. This is guaranteed by the Shigan king, so it applies not only within the kingdom but in other kingdoms as well.”
Of course, this applied to demi-humans as well as humans. That meant that inns and such could no longer refuse service to the beastfolk girls, even in a prejudiced place like Seiryuu City.
“That’s quite remarkable.”
“You may already be aware of this, but although we are called the explorers’ guild, we are actually managed by the Shiga Kingdom department of labyrinth resources. The guildmaster also takes on the role of the minister of labyrinth resources, which grants her the status of an honorary count, allowing her the authority to grant such privileges.”
I thanked Ushana for her explanation.
I’d already known the first half of that, but the fact that the guildmaster was considered a minister was news to me.
I had assumed the position was something like middle management, but it was actually much more impressive.
Out of curiosity, I asked about the mithril badges and learned that they granted the holder an honorary noble title on behalf of the Shigan king.
“By the way, Satou. Is tonight a good time for that party?”
“I have a prior engagement this evening. Is tomorrow night all right?”
I had already made plans to throw a welcome party for Miteruna and the samurai pair that night.
“Tch, fine. I’ll allow it. By the way, a little birdie told me that young whippersnapper Erthal got his hands on some extremely good liquor…”
Can you really call General Erthal a “young whippersnapper”?
She was probably talking about the rum and fairy wine, both of which I had in plentiful stock, so I had no problem giving some to her.
However, I was a little concerned that she’d given us a special promotion just so she could get her hands on that liquor.
“Wh-why are you looking at me like that? It’s not what you think. The promotion and the liquor are totally unrelated!”
I was still a little suspicious of the shifty guildmaster, but Miss Ushana backed her up, so it seemed safe to assume that it was a genuine promotion.
After I promised that we’d have a drinking party the following night, we left the guildmaster’s office.
“Yahoooo! We got a special promotion from the guildmasterrr!”
Arisa jumped in the air, raising both arms triumphantly.
She had probably restrained herself near the office, since she got scolded before.
“Hooraaay?”
“Banzai, sir!”
Tama and Pochi jumped up and down, too, so high I thought they might hit their heads on the ceiling.
You have to know how to control your own strength, you know?
“I’m happy they seem to have evaluated us highly.”
“Agreed, Lulu.”
“Mm, great.”
“Our high assessment is worthy of celebration, I report.”
The other girls were staying composed, but they seemed to be happy, too.
I shared in their delight as we all headed for the exit.
“Indeeeed?”
“It’s the green man, sir.”
Tama and Pochi had spotted the noble in green, who was accompanying some nobles’ children registering at a teller’s window.
The most stuck-up-looking child was the third son of the viceroy and looked nothing like his older brother Rayleigh.
There was a wide variety of other children, including a pretty young girl with a saber, an intellectual-looking young man, an exceedingly ordinary-looking boy, and a somewhat crafty-looking boy.
I didn’t particularly know any of them, so we just proceeded home, discussing plans for the welcome party as we went.
Then, after a lavish welcome party and the following day’s drinking party with the guildmaster that felt a bit like a witches’ Sabbath, we were finally able to go back into the labyrinth the next day.
Oh right. I also slipped a letter into the guildmaster’s office with information about the demonic potion stash in Sokell’s basement, including the hidden door leading to the sewers, which I discovered with my map and the Space Magic spell Clairvoyance.
While I was at it, I also wrote down information about the ghost town on the outskirts of Labyrinth City where demonic potions were hidden and the locations of a few criminal guilds’ stashes, too.
The guildmaster hated demonic potions, so she would probably take care of the rest.
“Kinda seems like it goes all the way to hell.”
Arisa stared down into the pitch-black hollow.
We were in the labyrinth, farther along the path from the barracks that only garnet-badge holders and up were allowed to use.
In the center of the large cavern was a giant hole almost two hundred feet across, which led down to the middle floor.
“Looks like you take that elevator below.”
There was enough room in the elevator for all of us, so we decided to take it and check out the lower area.
“We won’t get attacked by monsters while we’re on the elevator, will we?”
“It’ll be fine.”
Even if we were attacked, I could protect us, and if the elevator broke, I could use “Skyrunning” and Magic Hand to get us back up.
“It’s a manual elevator?!”
“Spiiin?”
“Round and round, sir.”
Arisa was alarmed, but Tama and Pochi gleefully started turning the crank right away.
They got tired partway down, so Liza and Nana took over.
Once we’d passed into a new map area, I used my “Search Entire Map” skill.
It was a bit smaller than the upper floor but had a similar floor map.
I picked a random area and investigated, but the only difference was that the average level of monsters was slightly higher, and there were more of them with special abilities.
It wasn’t like a game, where the monsters’ levels usually went up drastically when you went down a floor.
Aside from this pit, there was one other route that connected the middle to the upper floors.
This pit also seemed to continue down to the bottom floor, so I figured I would check it out when nobody else was around.
“There are a lot of people here,” Lulu observed.
The elevator landing area of the middle floor contained a supply area for Red Dragon’s Roar members, where several explorers were working busily.
According to my map, there were only two passages from here: one that was exclusively for the Red Dragon’s Roar party for defeating the floormaster and one that was being blocked by the doctors’ and alchemists’ guilds.
“Are they transporting moss?”
“It looks like that moss is a magic potion ingredient.”
According to Trazayuya’s recipes, that moss could be used as is for lesser recovery potions or concentrated to make intermediate recovery potions.
“Doesn’t look like we can go anywhere down here.”
“Yeah, let’s head back up.”
I might be able to convince them to let us through, but there was no need to do that when there were plenty of other monsters around.
; We piled back onto the elevator and returned to the upper floor.
“Okay, slicing up tough enemies with Space Magic is seriously addictive.”
Once we got back to the top floor, I led the way to some moderately tough areas, and we spent six days exploring them.
In each area, we found a safe place to put a teleportation seal stone, as we were still spending nights in the labyrinth vacation home we’d built on our first visit.
“Arisa, gemfish make good material for armor, so try not to chop them up too much.”
“Oh dear, really? I’ll just cut them clean in half, then.”
Gemfish were translucent fish as hard as diamonds.
Their scales weren’t actually made of diamonds, but since they were transparent and around the same hardness, they were also useful for accessories, magic tools, and so on.
“Turtle’s neeext?”
“Bloodred turtles can be cooked and eaten, I report.”
A gigantic turtle protected by a translucent shell the color of a pigeon-blood ruby followed Tama toward the group.
This was the final target in the area we were currently conquering.
“It breathes fire! Be careful! It can’t fly, but it’ll jump and try to head-butt you! And, Mia, its shell is impervious to lesser magic, so be careful!”
“Mm, got it.”
Once Arisa gave her orders, the battle began.
It wasn’t a terribly strong enemy, but since only intermediate magic or higher worked on it, it could be fairly annoying.
Based on prior experience, it would probably be a long battle, so I amused myself by checking on the house with Space Magic, chatting with friends in Bolenan Forest and the southern islands, and so on while still keeping an eye on the battle.
Finally, the monster went down.
“Ugh, leveling up past thirty sure requires a lot of EXP.”
“Maybe it’s because there aren’t many strong enemies left around here?”
We’d conquered three areas in the past six days, but the girls were still only level 36.
Mia required more experience to level up than the others, so in order to keep her from getting left behind, Mia and I took care of most of the monsters in the third area.
“Well, it’s almost our scheduled return day. Shall we go back up?”
I’d registered with the explorers’ guild that we’d be back within a trimoon, which was ten days, but I’d told Miteruna and the others that we’d return within seven.
Besides, since the Dragonpen Trading Company ship had arrived at the trade city Tartumina the day we entered the labyrinth, they would probably be reaching Celivera in the next few days.
“Come on—let’s at least place a seal slate in the next area before we go back.”
“All right. Does anyone have requests for our next area?”
I looked around at the group.
“Meeeat?”
“I want some tasty meat, too, sir.”
“Red meat is of course delicious, but bird meat would be nice, too.”
“Mrrr, mushrooms.”
“I’d like somewhere with a good balance between meat and vegetables.”
“A frog area would be good, so we can bring back meat for the larvae, I request.”
Um, guys… I was asking what kind of battlefield you’d like, not what kind of ingredients.
“Master!”
Arisa, at least, seemed serious.
“Let’s put seal slates in all of them and then go around one by one! That way we won’t get sick of one kind of food.”
That made sense food-wise, but it still wasn’t what I was asking.
“Oh, all right. Want to check out each area in turn, then?”
This might be naive, but since we were doing this level grinding so that the girls would be better able to survive, I figured they should at least enjoy the process.
I’d already investigated each of the surrounding areas, so I looked for places that would fit everyone’s requests.
“Sorry, but there don’t seem to be any areas that are mainly bird monsters.”
“I see…”
There was a cockatrice area, but I didn’t want to risk getting turned to stone just for some poultry.
Still, Liza looked disappointed, so I searched for areas that had some amount of birds.
“The ancient land beast area has archaeopteryx monsters and many kinds of meat, too. And the area next to it is partially underwater, meaning there should be plenty of plant and aquatic monsters.”
“Ancient land beast?”
“Judging by what I saw with the Clairvoyance spell, that seems to be the term for dinosaur-like monsters.”
The mosasaurus I saw in the southern seas was called an “ancient sea beast,” too.
The boss of the half-underwater area looked like a giant floating jack-o’-lantern, so we’d be able to make tons of pumpkin pie.
Using shortcuts by way of Arisa’s and my magic, we finished setting teleport points by the following morning.
When I opened my map to teleport us back, I saw that an acquaintance of ours was in trouble nearby, so we all went to help.
“Th-thanks for your help.”
“Try not to speak. It looks like you have a few broken ribs.”
The people we’d helped were from the labyrinth army.
Mia’s wide-range healing Water Magic spell rescued the soldiers from the verge of death.
“Master, we’ve defeated the soldier mantis and the war mantis.”
“Thank you, Liza. If there are any injured folks who can’t move, give them these potions, please.”
“Understood.”
Wearing armbands with a red cross symbol, my group went around calling out for surviving soldiers.
“Sir Pendragon, you should get out of here fast. They’ll be back with more monsters soon.”
It was hard to recognize him through the blood, but it was Captain Zeorun, the man who’d been on his way to rescue me at Viscount Siemmen’s request before.
“Who is ‘they’?”
“Ludaman and his plunderers.”
Searching the map, I saw that the person called Ludaman was a little ways away.
I didn’t think he would come here himself, but that didn’t mean we were safe.
I saw on my map that there were plunderers running toward us with monsters following them in several of the passages connected to this cave.
As I continued to watch the map display, I witnessed a number of the people disappear, and the monsters in two of the passages stopped in place.
They must have been using their underlings as disposable bait for the monsters.
“Liza, I’ll take care of things here. You and the others go defeat the chain rampages that are coming this way.”
“Understood, sir. Shall we leave Mia behind to heal?”
“No, the severely wounded have already been cured, so I can handle the rest with the potions I have on hand.”
I entrusted my group to defeat the monsters.
“Don’t be rash, Sir Pendragon. Perhaps they could deal with a handful, but there are countless monsters out there.”
“It’ll be all right. They know how to fight when they’re greatly outnumbered.”
There were indeed a lot of monsters coming this way, but they were so weak, they wouldn’t even count as practice for my kids with how strong they were now, so I wasn’t worried. Arisa’s Space Magic was especially good at defense anyway.
I smiled at the concerned captain and started handing out potions and nutrition supplements so that his soldiers could move again.
As I was keeping an eye on Ludaman, the Plunderer King, I noticed another acquaintance’s marker nearby.
They hadn’t made contact yet, and she seemed to have plenty of strong guards with her, but I was prepared to go to her rescue at any time just in case.
Princess Meetia’s Adventure
It is I, Princess Meetia. Having grown tired of a dull life in my homeland
, I made no hesitation in departing when I received a request from Marquis Ashinen of the Shiga Kingdom to heal a young woman’s ailment.
“Thank you, Lady Meetia.”
Miss Shina, the viceroy’s fourth daughter, thanked me upon receiving my Breath of Purification.
“Think nothing of it. I am relieved to finally fulfill the duty for which purpose I came.”
Until the viceroy and his wife returned, Sir Sokell had been preventing me from carrying out the healing.
“It’s only natural. My parents entrusted Lord Sokell with taking care of us, after all.”
The sickly Miss Shina defended Sir Sokell.
Sir Sokell had handsome features, if nothing else, so he was easily able to deceive the naive young Miss Shina.
“Lady Meetia, would you like some sweets?”
“Certainly, thank you.”
The pastries of the Shiga Kingdom were a mite too sweet for my tastes, but they were still a delicacy that I could never acquire in my homeland.
My nurse maid stated that sugar was worth its weight in gold.
Thus, I decided to partake as my reward for healing Miss Shina.
Eventually, the young lady grew tired from speaking too much, so her lady-in-waiting suggested that we bring the tea party to an end.
“It seems that Lady Shina has taken a liking to you, Your Highness.”
“Why, yes, we appear similar in age, so it is an easy thing to converse.”
I was actually four years her elder, but due to my youthful appearance, I looked the same age as the ten-year-old Miss Shina.
It was nothing unusual for those around me to treat me as such, though it still caused some pain to my ego.
Even Sir Satou, who was scarcely any older than I, treated me like a child.
Still, that fine fellow treated even Lady Misanaria the elf as a child, despite her undoubtedly wise soul, so perhaps it was nothing personal.
As I made my way back to my room, I spotted the plump figure of Sir Gerits, the third son of the viceroy, in the hall near the garden.
It appeared that his friends had come to visit today, as well.
“Wow, you really do have a bronze badge! That’s amazing, Jance!”
“Did you get that cousin of yours with a garnet badge to bring you along?”
