“Ah, yes, we don’t need those things either.” The moment he snapped his fingers, the horses let out a high pitched neigh, and the sounds of their hooves started fading into the distance.
Seems like we’re completely stuck here now.
“Now, where was I? Not to worry! If you listen to me, I won’t do anything to you. For now, at least.”
His earlier example was extremely effective. None of the passengers dared to make a peep.
“There are certain ruins just a short distance away, where our base is located. I’d like for you all to follow me there.”
Are we prisoners? Will we be sold somewhere? A good majority of the passengers are adult males, though. Wouldn’t you want young women to sell?
“The ruins are actually rather deep. We found a labyrinth of some sorts artistically hidden within. And the entrance to this labyrinth was embedded with over one hundred large and high-quality jewels. We’d never seen jewels that large before! Isn’t that wonderful?”
Labyrinth? Jewels in the entrance? What’s that got to do with us?
“Now, here’s the important bit. Do listen carefully. We couldn’t remove the jewels from the entrance, no matter how hard we tried. We couldn’t take them out by force, and magic was equally ineffective.” His tone was gleeful, and he gestured excitedly. “However, if only one person enters the labyrinth and closes the door, much to our surprise, one jewel falls from the entrance!”
Everyone started chattering. Gruszka smiled once again and bent his whip. In an instant, everyone looked down and fell silent.
“Once the door closes, a random amount of time must pass before it can be opened again. At times, it’s one day, and sometimes it could be up to five. This is purely speculation on my part, but I think this correlates to the amount of time it takes for the person inside to die.”
I see. So you want to shove each person here inside to get the jewels. We’re just sacrifices.
“The jewel will only pop out when a single person enters the labyrinth. Should multiple people enter at once, not only will the jewel not fall, but a while thereafter—after quite a bit of screaming—their headless corpses will be tossed back out.”
So you must enter alone. Wait, that’s weird. How do they know there’s a labyrinth inside?
“Oh, have you all caught on? Then why do we know that there’s a labyrinth behind this door? Well, that’s because we’ve had survivors, of course!”
Makes sense. How else could they have known?
“They were a very capable subordinate indeed. The door opened once more, and they stumbled out, their body and soul both worn. With their dying breath, they told us that there was ‘a large tree at the end of the labyrinth.’”
What?!
“Furutsu, could it be?!” Grida cried.
Could this be the World Tree?!
“Now, let’s go! As I’ve said before, any attempts to struggle or flee will only result in death,” Gruszka said. The hood of the carriage came off, and we were able to see the two adventurers lying on their sides, a burnt section of the carriage, and eleven fully armored bandits.
Of course they’re armored. Jeez, under normal circumstances, this would be a seriously bad situation.
“Fresa-san, Apple-san, are you guys ready?” Datil asked.
“Whenever you are,” Fresa replied.
Well, in our case, we won’t really struggle against humans.
“Activate King of Apples.”
Ding! “King of Apples has been activated. Please ensure that others are a safe distance away. Activating in: 10...9... You will feel a strong shock wave, please stand back. 3...2...1...”
Five apples appeared around Fresa. She decided to roll them on the floor this time—probably to be discreet about it.
“Ummm, these apples would kill them like this, wouldn’t they? Soften and paralyzing nematocyst.”
Ding! “All apples will be softened and given paralyzing nematocysts. 3...2...1... Upgrade complete.”
Seems like she made some human-friendly adjustments. Paralyzing nematocyst sounds terrifying though.
“Oh, are you good? Then I guess I’ll go next. Cell Manipulation,” Datil said.
Ding! “Cell Manipulation has been activated. Remaining time: 59...58...57...”
All right, let’s get started. This’ll be over in an instant, so stay with me, okay?
“Apple-san, here,” Datil said. His figure wavered for a split second. In the next moment, the bandits’ equipment was collectively flung into the air.
Damn, you’re fast! Grida, would you please collect all of this?
“Okay!” Their knives, bowguns, and other weapons flew toward me as Grida collected them all.
Excellent precision, Datil. We’ve disarmed the bandits in a flash.
“Wh-What?! What’s going on?” Gruszka yelled as he glanced at his surroundings. Everything happened so quickly that it took him some time to process.
“Don’t move.” To Gruszka, it seemed as though Datil’s sword appeared out of nowhere, pointed between his eyes.
Game, set, match.
“Huh?! You’re...”
“Just a passenger. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but our destination is much farther north.”
Gruszka laughed. “To think there was someone of this caliber in Rank E! But it’s not over yet!” He looked to the side, and the other bandits surrounded Datil as they started chanting spells. For a split second, Datil followed Gruszka’s gaze and looked away—but Gruszka took the opportunity to jump behind him.
Huh, so I guess he isn’t a chief for nothing. He’s pretty agile.
“I thought you’d do something like that! This might hurt a biiit! Apple Meteor!” Fresa cried. She took down the surrounding bandits, one by one.
“Gah! This hurts!”
“M-My body won’t move!”
“Heeelp...”
The apples were softened like rubber bullets, and as such were nonlethal to the bandits. The paralyzing nematocysts had successfully incapacitated them all.
They shouldn’t be able to cast spells anymore. Seems like only three of his goons could use magic in the first place though.
“Don’t move, okay? If you do, I’ll fire two of these apples at you!” Two apples floated in front of Fresa’s outstretched arms. With a look of defeat, Gruszka forced a bitter laugh.
“Well, well, well. Seems like this is it for me. I surrender.”
Even Gruszka should just raise his hands and admit defeat... Huh?!
“You would’ve liked me to say that, wouldn’t you?” In a flash, a round black item appeared in both of his hands. “Now! You’d best not touch me—or even move at all! I’ve purposefully made these very, very delicate. If I drop them from this height, this entire area will go up in flames! Everyone here will die.”
The bombs had designs straight out of a manga or video game. They even have fuses. Jeez, the shape is really obvious!
“Hmmm. This was outside of my expectations,” Fresa mumbled with a troubled expression. The apples were still floating around her.