Chapter 207

01 “Guuuuuuuuuys, sgfuhrgiuhuhgFujiko!!!” “Huuuoooooooh, sgfuhrgiuhuhgFujiko!!!” It was annoying how the guys kept yelling “Fujiko, Fujiko” excessively. That didn’t mean a beautiful woman named Fujiko from a foreign country was coming. Outside the Labyrinth City’s outer wall, young adventurers had formed ranks and were waiting impatiently for a stampede of monsters. Everyone’s morale was bizarrely high. They were too excited to be articulate, but they still seemed completely prepared. The younger ones, in particular, wore polished armor that sparkled, and for some reason, even their hairdos were perfect. Some warriors were checking their appearances in their swords, polished like mirrors. Although they scowled at the Fell Forest, sometimes they glanced back toward the outer wall, where a group of carefree, dressed-up women were. Boom-boom-boooooom! The earth shook. The ominous phenomenon caused everyone to straighten up. The Fell Forest shook, and its trees toppled. It was a pack of rampaging monsters. There was only a single word to describe when monsters that typically kept to themselves began to charge in large numbers. “Now, it’s begun! The first Labyrinth City battle. Who will fell the most monsters and win the best prizes?! We’ll stop the clock when the stampede quiets down! I, Lightning Empress Elsee, and…” “…I, Haage the Limit Breaker, will serve as commentators! All right, everyone, let’s gooooo!!!” “Fujikoooooooooooooo!!!” The roar of monsters that shook the earth and the men’s call of “Fujiko” made for very clashing battle cries. Unmarried young ladies cast passionate glances from the safety of the sidelines. Those wives in attendance gave overbearing looks to their spouses, commanding them to get some good food. That’s right, this was the Unlimited Meat Festival, a celebration newly created in the Labyrinth City. It had replaced the Orc Festival, and it made for an efficient marriage of romantic rendezvous and survival. 02 It had been fine up until the Labyrinth City united to kill the Labyrinth and the entire region returned to human hands, but the orc subjugation, also known as the Meat Festival, ended in utter failure that year. Hungry orcs had come now and then before the start of winter, but they were few enough in number that the patrolling City Defense Squad could exterminate them, and despite the long wait, no hordes of orcs came to the Labyrinth City. This meant that the Meat Festival, the dating event young men and women looked forward to, wasn’t held last year. The Labyrinth Suppression Forces, who had killed the Labyrinth and now had so much time and physical strength to spare that they didn’t know what to do with it all, forced their way into the Fell Forest and hunted edible monsters with reckless abandon. Thanks to this, no one was in want of food during the colder months, but the more satisfied they were in life’s necessities, the more the Labyrinth City’s up-and-coming generation acted out. Blood pumped, bodies danced, meat was plentiful, and lovers burst into song. A festival that provided such things was indispensable. Leonhardt had been at his wit’s end dealing with the unexpected side effects of peace. With exquisite timing, a message from Mariela arrived in his office, stating that a stampede may happen soon. If this had been any other settlement, people probably would have panicked at the unthinkable disaster. However, if you ran in the right circles, you’d know that the sacred tree spirit Illuminaria knew both the scale and the time. Moreover, instead of happening at fixed intervals, the stampede’s scale was entirely manageable for the Labyrinth City with its many seasoned warriors. “In which case, wouldn’t it be an efficient hunt…?” Although Leonhardt, who’d heard the origins of the Fell Forest and “The Legend of the Fire and Water Spirits,” felt a little guilty about treating a stampede like a commonplace event, he readily agreed to the proposal of a new Meat Festival for the stampede suppression. At Leonhardt’s request, the influential people of the event-starved Labyrinth City banded together to make a plan. Even during the early starting stages, there was great excitement about this new Meat Festival. “First, the important thing is to lure out the monsters.” Leonhardt nodded in agreement with Teluther’s extremely respectable opinion. Teluther was instantly overjoyed at having received approval from the general and broke into a huge grin. From there, he broke into a stream of the usual sort of stuff he babbled about, so we’ll skip over that. Halfway-developed agricultural land was selected as the battlefield so the monsters flooding in from the Fell Forest could be defeated without causing harm to the Labyrinth City. Monsters’ aggression during a stampede outweighed the effects of monster-warding potions. It was necessary to scatter concoctions monsters hated over an extensive area of the forest to guide them to the desired location. Unfortunately, now that the Labyrinth City was the domain of people, bromominthra, an ingredient in monster-warding potions, didn’t grow quite so abundantly anymore, so there weren’t enough of the concoctions to go around. Although its effects weren’t as potent, Leonhardt’s committee chose holy water as a substitute. It had been instrumental in the battle with the King of Cursed Serpents, and it did have enough efficacy to steer monsters one way or another. Holy water had an effect on corruption, and it was used primarily to protect against curses. Monsters had corruption within them and instinctively hated holy water. The ingredients for it were sacred tree morning dew, salt purified by a spirit, and the hair of a maiden. They gathered the sacred tree morning dew after splashing the sacred tree with so much water that Illuminaria begged, “Stooop, it’s going to swell up.” As for the salt, Mariela summoned the salamander, Sieg asked it to purify the stuff, and the spirit, full of energy, went —Fire!— Lastly, the hair of a maiden… “In that case, let us summon a famous beautician from the imperial capital!” A free hair salon exclusive to teen girls from had been opened per Caroline’s proposal, and a suitable amount of the necessary component had been gathered over the last few years. Through the skill of the famous beautician, girls transformed from unsophisticated children to precocious ladies. The city was all at once awash with refined maidens. There was no way adult women would overlook such a change. Weishardt suggested opening a children’s hair salon, which was up and running sooner than expected. Scores of young ladies and wives stormed the place, hoping to have the famous beautician get them looking spectacular for the festival. They didn’t even seem to mind being charged. The place became extremely popular. Not only did it cover the beautician’s wages, but there was also enough revenue to allow the opening of a free medical clinic for the duration of the festival. Caroline had always been talented, but ever since her engagement to Weishardt, she’d been refining both her business acumen and her beauty. She sparkled so much in happiness that Mariela added her to her Big Three Dazzling People list. By the way, the other two people on this list were Haage and the electrifying Elmera. The fact that she was making such a list showed Mariela to be a disappointing person, as always. Still, thanks to the practical alchemy class she held on making holy water, her students came to acknowledge her preeminence. The container storing a large quantity of sacred tree morning dew was a large bathtub in the public bathhouse that had been built in the vicinity of the Labyrinth. Mariela had mixed this large quantity in one go with a “Mix it round and rouuund” in a flat voice while hoisting it up like a waterspout. Upon seeing this display of her magical power, the portion of her students who had made fun of her as a “plebeian” and “mediocre” completely changed their tunes. Sieg, who had proposed this class, grinned broadly and whispered, “Just as planned.” Weishardt, who had been concerned about the formation of alchemist cliques in the Labyrinth City, was equally pleased. Mariela and Caroline happily enjoyed their tea together as they watched the pair, and they both remarked, “What an evil expression.” 03 The trees of the Fell Forest shook, and out came a horde of killer bees. Each of the insects was roughly the size of a dog or a cat, and their weapons were stingers whose size needn’t be mentioned. They attacked left and right with their envenomed barbs, flying in a way that was surely impossible for a bird. After the movement of their pitiable prey was stopped by the poison, the bees either devoured the food on the spot or carried it to their nests for their larvae. Moreover, the brutal monsters acted in groups, so in the unlikely event you met them in the Fell Forest, you would have to prepare to die. “Uh-ohhh, it’s killer bees from the very start. This is inconvenient—you can’t eat ’em!” “You can eat them if they’re skillfully butchered, but the exoskeleton is tough and hard to cut, and the poison sacs sell at a high price, so it’s better to just harvest their materials.” “…They’re edible?” “I recommend deep-frying the adult ones. Incidentally, the pupae are the most delicious, but during a stampede, the larva experience abnormal growth and rapidly mature, leaving the nests empty. I can sense how keen the Fell Forest is not to let us eat so easily. Such a shame!” Commentators Haage and Elmera seemed to be treating the insect swarms as a disappointment because they weren’t a reliable food source. Were they okay with eating bugs so long as they tasted good? Let’s not forget it was the Labyrinth City that was under attack. What was with that comment about the Fell Forest not letting them eat so easily? Weren’t the commentators a little too complacent? “Good gracious, I’d like to remind all of you to collect the stingers, too. They contain rare metals. Rock Wheel will buy all of them without exception.” Whether he was giving play-by-play or spectating, Marrock had jammed himself into a seat in the commentators’ booth and shrewdly announced he would buy up materials. Meanwhile, mages and archers, whose forte was ranged attacks, were steadily reducing the killer bees’ numbers. Things were going well so far. However, the adventurers, distracted by their flying foes, weren’t paying attention to their feet. Plant vine monsters known as creepers had snuck up to them unnoticed. By all rights, they shouldn’t have had such long vines. It seemed these monsters, too, had grown rapidly due to the stampede. They twined around the legs of those adventurers fighting in the front row. “Whoa, where’d they come from?!” The warriors who finally noticed their legs were entangled worked to free themselves. That momentary gap of time was enough for a mixed group of forest wolves and black wolves to charge out of the Fell Forest. While most of the killer bees had been dealt with, the wolves took advantage of the opening created by the creepers grabbing people in the front row to attack, and chaos spread through the Labyrinth City’s forces. “Ow, ow, ow, it’s biting me!” “Hey, don’t forget about the killer bees!” Even with diminished ranks, the venomous insects swooped down from above. What cut a swath through the Fell Forest trees and caused earth tremors when it appeared—as though to twist the knife in the battle lines that had instantly fallen into chaos—was an enormous bull monster with eight legs and four horns. Out of the four spikes, two short ones on its forehead pointed straight forward, and the remaining two stretched from each side of its cranium to about shoulder width before curving forward. Its body, several times larger than a normal bull, was not only enormous, but it also looked extraordinarily thick and weighty. If not for its eight thick legs, it undoubtedly wouldn’t have been able to stand. “My, how unusual. A mincer. A delicious monster has appeared at last, but…” “It might be a bit problematic in this free-for-all.” As you can imagine from their large build, mincers weren’t quick-witted or agile monsters. If they crashed into you from the front, you’d be reduced to minced meat, but they took time to accelerate, and once they started running, it was difficult for them to change course. Usually, it wouldn’t be hard to avoid their charge, but right now, the bees overhead and the wolves underfoot were making sport of the adventurers. Everything was a distracting disarray. “Mroooooooooo!” Its eyes turned bloodshot red from the excitement of finding prey: humans. The mincer was so agitated that monster-warding potions had no effect on it, and it charged with the intimidating air of a siege weapon. As if that alone wasn’t enough, there were two others with it. The momentum sent adventurers flying, and the unlucky ones were torn to pieces by its four horns. “Waaaaaugh!!!” What had happened to the festive atmosphere? The mincers’ momentum wouldn’t abate just by sending adventurers, wolves, and creeper vines alike flying. They were headed straight for the Labyrinth City’s outer wall. Those thick, brutal horns would surely leave far more than a few scuffs. “It really is a stampede. Does that mean it’ll be tough to deal with…?” Leonhardt, who was giving directions at his headquarters, lifted his arm straight up and ordered the Labyrinth Suppression Forces to move out. They’d been on standby in the rear to prioritize the festival’s goal, but perhaps the time for fun and games was over. The ones who appeared before the charging mincers on Leonhardt’s orders were the three captains of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces who had won rock-paper-scissors. With the shield knight Wolfgang at the center, Dick and a long sword user reinforced each side. The first ones to move were the spearman, Dick, and the long sword user. Although the pair had different weapon specialties, they got on well. After exchanging quick looks, they drew their respective armaments at roughly the same time and sliced off the four front legs of the mincers on either side. Just because the massive monsters had lost their front legs didn’t mean they would immediately stop. With thunderous sounds, the creatures pitched forward. One faceplanted into the dirt and slid several yards before finally coming to a stop, while the other unluckily got a horn stuck in the ground and turned a somersault, which caused its neck to twist and its life to end. Tremendously high-ranking fighting power was undoubtedly something, but ending things in the blink of an eye lacked entertainment value. “That’s the Labyrinth Suppression Forces for you! They handily settled the problem!” It was unknown whether Wolfgang had heard Elmera’s remark or if he was simply a natural performer. Regardless, Wolfgang assumed an exaggerated stance with his shield, grunted, “Hurrrgh!” and magnificently stopped the remaining mincer’s charge. “I-incredible!” “I knew the Labyrinth Suppression Forces could handle it!” “…Ow, ow, ow, wolves are biting me!” Several adventurers who’d grown wide-eyed in wonder and become distracted screamed as wolves gnawed on them. Meanwhile, Wolfgang, who had caught the mincer’s charge, cried, “Hooooh!” and thrust it away. On a closer look at the mincer that had fallen to the ground with a heavy thud, the two horns on its forehead were broken, the forehead itself was unnaturally dented, and blood foamed from its mouth. Centering the impact on its horns had caused its skull to collapse. “Woooooo!” “Eeeeee!” The three warriors raised their hands in response to cheers from both the adventurers and the spectating women as they returned to the Labyrinth Suppression Forces. “Unfortunately, all those guys are married!” One should’ve expected no less from Haage. Although even married people wanted some attention, if only a little, he just had to say something superfluous. Thanks to the Labyrinth Suppression Forces’ intervention, the adventurers in disarray rallied, the restless mood was swept away, and everyone felt more enthused about the battle. But there was no way the flood of monsters from the Fell Forest would end there. As if to say the preliminary test was over, numerous earth dragons created tremors as they emerged from the forest. Weak monsters like goblins and orcs rushed out from both sides of the earth dragons, perhaps to claim their share in the hunting grounds that the large-scale beasts had so graciously trampled down. And weren’t those things in the sky wyverns, which usually fed on goblins and orcs, heading this way like they were chasing their prey? “Labyrinth Suppression Forces, forward! Clean up those earth dragons!” Under Leonhardt’s command, the Labyrinth Suppression Forces formed ranks and advanced toward the earth dragons. “The Labyrinth Suppression Forces have taken the field due to the appearance of powerful enemies! All adventurers, please promptly move to the outer wall to protect it.” Per Elmera’s announcement, the adventurers made way for the Labyrinth Suppression Forces. They weaved through the earth dragons to subjugate the small fries about to invade the Labyrinth City. If you couldn’t at least grasp that an earth dragon was a powerful monster just from facing it, you couldn’t call yourself an adventurer no matter how much of a beginner you were. The relieving of those on the front lines had also been decided and agreed upon in advance. “Ice Field.” Weishardt and the other members of the mage unit froze the earth. Aside from the physical attacks from the earth dragons’ huge bodies, their stone lances were a nuisance. The lances that protruded from underfoot generated rapidly, and even if you dodged the first wave, the place you ended up would probably be changing into a pincushion. By freezing the ground with Ice Field, you could slow the rate at which the stone lances were generated. The cracks in the frozen water would make it easy to guess the trajectory of the lances. “Hrrrah!” With a thud, hammer-wielding soldiers struck the bulging cracks in the earth and thwarted the initial wave of stone lances, which would make the defeat of the earth dragons much easier. Nevertheless, earth dragons’ scales were tough, too. Clumsy attacks probably wouldn’t even leave a scratch on them, especially on their backs. If there had only been one earth dragon, it would have been possible to surround and defeat it. But perhaps due to the effects of the stampede, earth dragons that generally didn’t group together had gathered in a pack of about a dozen, so the warriors were quite likely to be attacked by another individual while they were taking time to surround the first. The only soft areas they had were their eyes, which were small when compared with their big bodies. Of course, hitting an earth dragon’s eye with pinpoint accuracy was a feat akin to threading a moving needle. Such a feat had to be impossible, and yet… Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. The Labyrinth City had a single bow master with extraordinary finesse. If Sieg didn’t participate here, the “going without dinner punishment” would probably be waiting for him back home. He’d temporarily joined the Labyrinth Suppression Forces in exchange for the best cuts of earth dragon meat. One should’ve expected no less from his cunning in choosing this method to reliably bring home the most delicious meat rather than trying to do so through participating as a solo adventurer. “Nice shot! Nice shot! He—you know—he lives in…sbhgblg…” Excited by influential adventurer Sieg’s participation, Teluther barged into the commentator’s seat and seized the megaphone. Just as he was about to leak Sieg’s personal information, members of the City Defense Squad covered his mouth and took him away. Both the battlefield and the spectator seating area were alive with excitement and chaos. Sieg’s arrows magnificently crushed the eyes of the earth dragons. They threw their heads back in pain, and the instant they blindly raged and exposed their relatively soft flanks and bellies, soldiers from the Labyrinth Suppression Forces stabbed their weak points. Although this was the first time such a large pack of earth dragons had been engaged, the Forces were experienced with fighting the creatures after their expeditions into the Fell Forest. In a group battle in an open space where Malraux’s telepathic communication was also effective, the odds were in the Labyrinth Suppression Forces’ favor. Despite taking attacks and sustaining some damage from the earth dragons that came after, the Forces steadily consigned the monsters to oblivion. “Ballista unit, aim for the wyverns! Don’t fall behind, City Defense Squad!” The ones who shot down the wyverns coming at them from above were snipers of the City Defense Squad. Under the command of Captain Kyte, mighty arrows were fired from ballistae installed on top of the outer wall and brought down wyverns one after another. Although the City Defense Squad’s contributions were significant, the top of any high wall was inconspicuous and lacked showmanship. That much was typical for the City Defense Squad, though. As the Labyrinth Suppression Forces steadily defeated the earth dragons, the novice adventurers retreated from the battlefront and played an active part in confronting the orcs and goblins targeting the Labyrinth City. Maybe being close to the spectator seating area made them more motivated after all. Intermediate adventurers split into groups to defeat the slightly higher-level monsters and the wyverns that had fallen to the ground and were still breathing. The intermediate adventurers, whom you could call veterans, had both stable fighting styles and stable private lives, so they were steadily earning the fruits of battle and making money. A raptor-drawn two-wheel barrow weaved its way between those adventurers and the Labyrinth Suppression Forces to retrieve the injured people it sometimes found. You could probably call the steel frame and its large metal tires with sharp spearheads attached a chariot. The body, tailor-made for the operator, had the Black Iron Freight Corps’s mark engraved on it. The one operating the chariot and showing off tricky moves by sliding the tires with a screech and tilting it nearly lateral was Yuric. It was an attack vehicle with no load-carrying tray, only a coach box. Depending on an animal tamer’s skill, they could harmonize quite well with a chariot, let alone with the animal pulling it. The high-performance frame specializing in drivability made sport of forest and black wolves alike, and the spears attached to the wheels turned orcs into ground meat. The raptor pulling the frame and relentlessly inciting monsters by sloshing them with mud just before a turn and hitting them with his tail was unmistakably Koo. You could tell even from a distance that he was having fun. Ever energetic, that one. After Yuric and Koo had lured in prey, Grandel’s armored chariot slayed them. Unlike Yuric’s cart, which emphasized mobility, Grandel’s was built for defensive power, so with its thick armoring and the armor Grandel himself wore, it was heavy. You couldn’t expect much speed from it. However, its sophisticated engineering, created by Donnino and the dwarves, allowed the operator to steer it without the techniques Yuric possessed. It was quite a simple matter to make the tires slide and slam the vehicle’s body into monsters. “Shield Bash.” Had the “legendary hero” transformed into some sort of gallant rider? Could you even call a ramming attack using the frame of a chariot a Shield Bash in the first place? Grandel already treated anything that could protect against attacks a shield, and if he could operate it, could he append the “Bash”? If he kept this up, it seemed like he might be able to magically send wind into his umbrella and take flight one day soon. Monsters were dancing through the air after being sent flying by Grandel’s chariot. Donnino and Franz took that opportunity to coordinate and recover the injured in their chariots with load-carrying trays. Incidentally, Newie and Nick were the ones operating these chariots, and Donnino and Franz tossed fallen adventurers into the tray while using a hammer and bare hands respectively to knock out the sporadic monsters that remained. “I’m glad our masters are participating in this subjugation, too,” Newie remarked. “And here I thought they’d be dissatisfied with the weaker types,” Nick replied. Their vocal cords had been healed after the Labyrinth City became the people’s domain again and Mariela being an alchemist was no longer a secret. “We put way too much money into these chariots, y’know!” Donnino groaned. “This vehicle was worth it, Donnino. It hardly shakes at all, and it’s fast. Even better, Yuric seems to be having fun. The retaining fee we got from the Labyrinth Suppression Forces wasn’t bad at all, and this is a good setting for the chariots’ debut, don’t you think?” Franz answered with a smile. This time, the Black Iron Freight Corps’s job was to recover the injured and take them to the clinic. It was the perfect chance to show off their new vehicles, too, and it seemed like they’d be flooded with more and more work from here on out. That left one guy unaccounted for—Edgan, the captain of the Black Iron Freight Corps. He should have been in the fray with everyone else, but… “Waaaugh, ow, ow, ouch, I said ouch. I give up, I give up—really. I’m sorryyy!!!” “There’s no need to be shy, Edgan. No seriously injured people have arrived yet. I’ll take the opportunity to give your body a tune-up. You can loaf around here. You have the time, don’t you?” The profits from the temporary hair salon that had been opened to supply materials for the holy water had been allocated to a clinic established for the duration of the Meat Festival. The medical center was the perfect place to get in touch with wounded adventurers, making it a popular spot for women seeking dates. You could say the site was an “extra chance” in a sense. Beautiful young ladies would personally give you potions and heal both your mind and body. There would be time to exchange names, and romantic encounters seemed likely. That is, if Nierenberg, the most brilliant medical technician in the Labyrinth City and the good luck charm of Sunlight’s Canopy, wasn’t lying in wait like a final boss in case seriously injured people arrived. The plan for this festival had been worked out to the finest detail. This sort of thing was within expectations. Any fool who decided to come to the clinic despite not having significant injuries would feel more pain than had they fought instead. Leonhardt, who wanted to minimize the number of victims and allow many the chance to go all out against monsters, had the housewife intelligence agent Merle spread information throughout the city about the clinic, which was like a booby-trapped treasure chest. That’s why the only one to brazenly come to the clinic despite having no injuries and be moved to tears by Nierenberg’s “medical examination” due to a lack of access to information was, as expected, our Edgan. 04 The battle of monsters and humans ended at last around dusk. Monsters intermittently came from the Fell Forest to attack for a little while, so more soldiers than usual took turns standing guard, but swarms of monsters no longer came. All the adventurers who participated in the battle were gathering on the main road to receive rewards corresponding to their battle achievements. “Please present the lanterns you received before the start of the event.” The ones saying this and accepting lanterns from the adventurers were the regulars of Sunlight’s Canopy. A small candle lantern had been fastened to the waist of each adventurer. They were distributed before the start of the Meat Festival. They included wind guards, but if you looked closely at the flames, which didn’t go out even from the violent movements of the adventurers, you would see a tiny fire spirit dwelling in each of them, who bent forward from the candlewick to gaze outside with great interest. These were special items called spirit candles, which were also votive offerings to the spirits that dwelled within them. “You knooow, calling a ton of spirits requires a gift. Specifically, al-co-hol.” “The offering is the spirit candle, right?” It was Freyja, also known as the former great fire spirit, who ignited the spirit candles while ignoring Mariela’s retort and drinking booze straight from the bottle right before the celebration. “Come, many many flames, come, many many flames… This is a pain, so Fire!” It was no longer a chant at all, but Freyja’s enthusiastic Fire! caused tiny, weak flame spirits to light the mass of spirit candles all at once. “Listen up, don’t disappear until you come back here. Cling to it with all your willpower. If you disappear…you know what’ll happen, right?!” After Freyja’s threat, the tiny spirits doggedly clung to the candlewicks. They all did really well. Each fire spirit was responsible for counting how many monsters the adventurer who wore its lantern defeated. They also helped keep their assigned humans safe from the monsters, if only a little. All the adventurers took care not to let their lanterns’ flames go out. Sunlight’s Canopy regulars had a curious affinity with the fire spirits, perhaps because of their contact with Freyja. In particular, Emily, Sherry, Pallois, and Elio, whom Freyja had given lessons to, could hear the spirits’ voices much more than other people, so they served as assistants in the unlikely event something shady happened. Thankfully, there were no incidents of someone stealing and presenting another’s lantern. Most of the fire spirits resembled ordinary flames and simply remained lit in silence, but an adventurer who had made friends with his spirit during the battle turned to it as he awaited his turn and asked, “Hey, you can count, right?” The tiny spirit answered, —One, twooo…,— then —One, two, threeee…,— but since the adventurer didn’t hear a number higher than three, he was a bit worried. “How many monsters were defeated?” —A looot!— —A lot.— —A lot.— Emily’s question got a rather ambiguous answer. The tiny fire spirits who couldn’t count higher than three all said the same thing. They happily answered that the adventurers who fought alongside them defeated many monsters, and they seemed to feel accomplished, but this was no way to conduct evaluations. “I see, you did a good job, didn’t you?” Emily answered, smiling, as she placed a lantern containing a spirit on a scale. “Fifty goblins. Thanks for your hard work.” “Whoa, amazing! You defeated the equivalent of two hundred goblins.” Emily and the others calculated the lantern owners’ battle results from the values displayed on the scale and issued certificates. While the adventurers had been battling, the fire spirits appeared to only twinkle within the lanterns, but their tiny bodies purified just a little bit of the corruption released every time a creature was slain, and they grew as a result. As the fire spirits got stronger, the offerings they required during their manifestation increased proportionally. Thus, weighing a spirit candle gave you a good idea of how many monsters had been defeated. After hearing this explanation, an adventurer praised, “Man, you’re really somethin’,” and his tiny flame proudly replied, —Mm-hmm!— After receiving the certificate of his battle results, the adventurer headed to the plaza in front of the Labyrinth. This was the site of the closing party. Since anyone could participate for free, it only featured simple dishes and drinks, but the adventurers’ objective was to meet the comrades they’d made acquaintance with during the battle. Those who unluckily hadn’t yet been able to meet also had a chance to do so here. Today, only part of each adventurer’s reward had been distributed to them, and the rest was given as a certificate they could redeem at a later date for meat or money after verification. This was so they didn’t inadvertently spend it all in pampering women due to the lingering excitement of the battle. It was a considerate system. The crucial part of the festival started now, and even in the unlikely event they missed their chance today, many more stampedes would happen in the future. There would be many more nights and festivals, and the possibilities spread limitlessly before them. The festival was unofficially dubbed the Unlimited Meat Festival to celebrate the limitless potential in the Labyrinth City. As the revelry grew more and more lively, the one person who should have showed up as soon as she caught wind of a celebration was instead deep within the dark Fell Forest. 05 “Lyro, are you okay with this?” Freyja asked. She stood on the bank of the river that separated the Labyrinth City from the source of the stampede. The stream, which normally had a calm current that allowed monsters to walk across it, now made a deep sound as its turbid waters churned. Many monsters stood at edge opposite Freyja, looking for a place to cross. “It’s fine, Frey. The corruption dwelling within those monsters was too strong, and they wouldn’t have regained their sanity unless they were sent back to the ley line. A considerable amount of corruption was purified in this deluge, so this will last for a while. Those monsters on the other side of the river were lured and are agitated, but they’ll calm down before long and go back into the woods.” Lyro Paja was a spirit who had long taken in corruption, like the many monsters of the Fell Forest. Even now, after separating from the ley line and completing their incarnation, they still supported the monsters, and they had no obligation to protect humans, let alone celebrate their victory. They hadn’t flooded the river to guard the Labyrinth City from more monsters. It was to keep those with only a small amount of corruption from being killed. Ever since Lyro Paja had decided to resign as the ley line’s warden, they knew this would happen, and even if they’d continued to manage the ley line, the amount of corruption they could purify was limited. This was fated to happen sooner or later. “Well, little stampedes now and then would be less harmful to the humans than a great big flood of monsters, but…” Freyja was being evasive. Humans were the ones who’d created the corruption, that source of misfortune, but even if a stampede occurred, people were the only ones who survived. Considering how Lyro Paja felt, even Freyja, who had lived among humanity for a long time, thought it improper to express her relief that the Labyrinth City hadn’t come to much harm. “Corruption isn’t the only thing humans bring into being. You know that more than anyone, don’t you, Frey? Besides, look at your kin over there…” Lyro Paja turned in the direction of the Labyrinth City. The spirit shouldn’t have been able to see anything. Not only were the two deep in the Fell Forest, but it was nighttime. Yet it was clear that Lyro Paja was watching something. His gaze was kind, and his eyes seemed to hold a small light, like the lights of the city reflecting off a liquid poured into a glass. “Cheers!” said the young adventurer to his fire spirit. “What’s with you? You’re drinking with a lantern even though there’re so many cute girls here?” a friend ridiculed. Few spirits remained in the lanterns. Those who had completed their duty moved to other flames or returned to the ley line. However, the one who had teamed up with this youth seemed quite taken with him and remained in the lantern, flickering happily. “Well, you know, this one is surprisingly cute. Wonder if there’s any way to keep it so it won’t go out?” “Ahh, there’s a shop called…what was it, Sunlight’s Canopy? Seems like they sell spirit candles.” “Oh yeah? Maybe I’ll go buy one tomorrow.” After the end of the Meat Festival, many adventurers wanted to stay with their spirits, so the lanterns were relinquished to them. Mariela was so thrilled that she sold spirit candles barely above cost to ensure every adventurer obtained votive offerings for their tiny fire spirit. However, fickle fire spirits couldn’t stay in this world for long, so more than half of them disappeared within the day, and those who remained disappeared after a few more days. A scant few got along well enough with their human companions to remain for even longer. Supposedly, those pairs enjoyed many experiences together. While it wasn’t many, Mariela continued to sell spirit candles in the months following the stampede. Freyja and Lyro Paja, who frequented Sunlight’s Canopy, wore somewhat awkward expressions in response to the adventurers who sometimes brought spirits to the shop, and Mariela and Sieg marveled at the infinite potential of the Labyrinth City. Where else could they have seen such faces on a water or a fire spirit? People, monsters, and spirits. Both the worlds they lived in and their natural temperaments differed—all three groups should have been incompatible. However, even if their steps didn’t match, there were times when they could walk together. That was almost certainly enough. None among them could help but feel a world like that was more wonderful than anything.