Chapter 61

5 The next day, Fay, who had forgotten everything about the night before, came to Leshea’s room to discover…Uroboros with her wrists bound in a pair of handcuffs, looking thoroughly worked over. “Hrmph… To administer on me such a forceful warning, and in this manner! Well, I am undefeated. The great always attract attention.” “You were just trying to get ahead of the rest of us,” said Leshea, resting her hand on Uroboros’s head. Then she looked up toward Fay, finally noticing him. “Oh, Fay, you’re here!” “G’morning. Uh, you want to fill me in on why Uroboros…?” “I’m going to be keeping this rookie in my room from now on. To see to her education.” She gave the handcuffed Uroboros a pat on the head. Pearl and Nel were snoozing on the sofa behind her. Apparently, they’d all spent the night in Leshea’s room. “We were just having a girls’ night,” Leshea told Fay. “And she’s handcuffed why?” “Fay,” Leshea said with a smile. “It was a girls’ night.” “………………Got it.” He nodded; his instincts told him it would be dangerous to pursue this line of questioning any further. “I hear you. Looks like you had a lot of, uh, fun.” “That’s right. We sure did.” Leshea smiled again. At that moment, the communications device at Nel’s hip rang loudly enough to compete with the sound of her snoozing. “Ack!” “Eek?!” Nel leapt up, her shout causing Pearl, who had been dozing next to her, to jump to her feet as well. “Wh-wh-what’s going on, Nel?!” “It’s a communication… Oh? It’s from Chief Secretary Miranda. She’s calling me? That’s unusual.” “Hmm? Oh, how silly of me. I meant to call Fay, and I got Nel,” said the Chief Secretary, sounding not the least bit bothered. “Good morning, Chief Secretary. Shall I transfer you to Master Fay?” “Oh, it doesn’t really matter. I’m sure you’re all together, right? Just put me on speaker so everyone can hear. This is official business.” After a beat, she said, “Nel, you saw the message I sent your team this morning?” “You mean the one at four AM?” “Yep. A little over ten hours after you got back, three more of the rescue teams returned. Which is great, as far as it goes, but from the opposite perspective, it means only four of your groups have come back to the real world. Most of the rescue teams—teams supposed to be staffed with the best apostles we had available—are still struggling out there in that labyrinth.” Dives through the Divine Gates anywhere in the world were currently forbidden. This situation was unheard of. The gods’ games, the foremost entertainment in the entire world, had been suspended for more than a week. And even some civilians were starting to view the situation with suspicion. When would all the apostles come home? Could the gods’ games ever officially restart? “Anyway, headquarters has come to a decision. They want you to go back in there. They’re naturally giving a lot of attention to the four teams that managed to find a save point, and especially yours—the first to defeat a raid boss. Hell, they’re practically begging. You should know, though, that this is a request. We can’t force you to go.” They could hear her sigh on the other end of the line. “Now that you’ve slept on it, Fay, are you still convinced this labyrinth can’t be cleared?” “For now, yes. But I’m willing to try.” Fay nodded slightly toward the communication device in Nel’s hand. “I think I’ve got an idea.” “It would be really reassuring if you told me what it is.” “I’d love to, really, I would, but maybe we could leave it until I actually reach the depths of the labyrinth. There are too many things I’m just not sure about yet.” That was the truth, as far as Fay was concerned. He had a prediction that bordered on certainty, but there was still the chance it would prove completely wrong. “Most of all, I don’t want to become fixated. If I start thinking, ‘This is the way out!’ it blocks everything else out of my head and I don’t notice other possibilities. That worries me—so I’d like to keep my idea to myself for now.” “Haah… That sounds like you, all right. Through and through.” This time, they could almost hear her wry smile. It was the opposite of her sigh earlier, an exhalation that had sounded almost resigned. “Fine, I read you. Get going. But…when you’re sure about what you’re going to do, come back and report in. It kills me to just sit around waiting!”