Mary had managed to pull herself together and resume her job, but she still wasn’t at her best whenever human hunters came along. We’d added a section to the hunter application form for race. Whenever humans were on the schedule, I’d go along with Mary down to the guardian room in the morning, and she’d go at it with the Daemons while I took on the humans. We were able to scrape by with that strategy.
“Another busy day, huh?”
The last hunter exited the labyrinth, so I locked the door for the night and headed to the workshop and slumped over. It’d been two weeks since I’d started fighting the human hunters. Today there had been a group of four, and it’d taken me a good while to dispatch them. Most of the hunters were solid fighters, so it wasn’t unusual to end up in a pitched battle. I had plenty of physical stamina for it, but it was wearing me out mentally.
Human hunters didn’t have the raw strength of Daemons, so it shouldn’t have been a huge deal, but I was still having issues. The cursed sword let me fight by recreating moves I’d learned in games, but it seemed like it was a bit too good at applying lethal force. The cursed sword’s purpose was killing. It didn’t really understand the distinction between a fight for one’s life and a training battle. It put a lot of extra burden on me to use moves that would neutralize my opponents without killing them. Perhaps that was partially because, in fighting games or beat-em-ups, the standard set of moves was distinctly intended to kill.
“Just thinking of that time I had to fight Mary gives me shivers. If these hunters were as strong as her, we’d be completely out of potions.”
Since I was holding myself back, I was also taking more injuries. For example, there was one hunter I’d faced today where I’d gone for a lunging stab, only to have to stop in a hurry to avoid killing him. He saw the opening and thrust his lance at me, giving me a hard hit to the shoulder. He turned out to be a friendly old codger, and he started profusely apologizing. I assured him that it was fine, that accidents happen. I was secretly relieved that it’d gone down while Mary was off on break; I’d have felt awful if she got all worried over me for taking an injury that was clearly my own fault.
You know, I could try to hide it from her, but then pass the truth along to someone else and let the rumor mill do its thing. Having her fret over me actually sounded kinda nice. Still, I didn’t want to push too hard; getting greedy and trying to unlock every event immediately never ended well.
The wound healed up in a jiffy thanks to my magic potions, but I could still feel the phantom pain of that lance piercing into my shoulder, so I’d decided to take a rest at the workshop before returning to the cabin. There wasn’t so much as a scar left, but still, fleeting as it was, the feeling of that hole in my shoulder had been unsettling.
“Heya, Aoi, how’s it hangin’?”
“Oh, hi Carla.”
Just as I was about to head home for the day, Carla scampered up and offered me a high five. I’d asked Carla and her crew to guard all the spots Mary and I couldn’t cover. Incidentally, I’d heard from the people around the workshop that Mayor Hopper had given her a place to stay in Milt, apparently in hopes she’d find a husband and settle down. She was a reliable, hardworking girl. She usually guarded the workers around the forest, and I’d only heard them say good things about her. Since Carla and company were all girls, beyond just being fighters, they also served as excellent morale boosters. They really brightened everybody’s day.
“Hey, Aoi, I need to ask ya something.”
“What is it?”
She edged a little closer and lowered her voice.
“You got hurt today, didn’t you? The girls and I don’t mind keeping it hush hush, but you need to take care of yourself, okay?”
A shiver went down my spine. I was wearing a Japanese-looking overcoat which I’d found on Tundra, but the hole in my suit beneath it was still there. I’d left the bloodied white shirt back at the workshop, but I didn’t exactly have a spare suit. I’d snuck out the back door of the labyrinth, but on the way I’d run into Carla’s party, guarding the area around the workshop. Caught red-handed. Or, red-shouldered, I guess.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t—”
“You’ve been working too hard lately. Got something on your mind? Maybe something to do with Mary?”
Carla stared intently at me. My god, that stare was brutal. I’d only ever seen game protagonists fold under this kind of pressure, but apparently it was pretty darn effective on me too.
“If you’re not gonna tell Mary and Ann that you got hurt, maybe I should. Unless you’d really, really rather I didn’t?”
Damn, so that’s where this is going. I should’ve seen it coming.
“Carla, is there anything I could get for you? Anything you want?”
“Heheh. Ohhh, well now that you mention it, remember the cream cake you got me that one time? I’ve just been dying to have another one. Who knows, maybe that sweet flavor will drive the memory right out of my head!”
“Fine. I’ll get you one as soon as I can.”
I wondered if perhaps Carla wouldn’t have made an even better merchant than Fez. She knew just how to get to me, and when she was done softening me up, her price was reasonable. A labyrinth manager made those cakes and sold them on Tundra, but as with all high-quality baked goods, demand was enormous, so getting a hold of one wasn’t easy.
“Oh, that’d just make my day. I’ll look forward to it!”
Carla took a seat beside me. Not as close as Ann would have, but still pretty close.
“You still need something?”
“Aoi, you’re in pain. I’m not gonna leave you alone like this. Honest? I’d love to give you a big old hug and tell you it’s gonna be okay, but I think Mary and Ann wouldn’t take too kindly to that.”
Carla was such a sweetheart, always so considerate. I had a feeling the two of us were going to become good friends.