I’d gone back to the labyrinth to fetch the cursed sword, and now I was facing off against Mary in the backyard of the mayor’s house, sword in hand. I actually felt like I’d grown somewhat accustomed to the single-edged blade, but I was still a bit nervous whenever I remembered that its only mode was “all-out attack.” I left the sword mostly in control of me, basically just willing it to prepare to engage with Mary. This must have been what it felt like to be moved around with a controller or keyboard. Mary held her double-edged sword, what I assumed to be standard issue for a knight, with the tip pointed straight at me.
“I’m ready whenever you are.”
You know, life in this place was hard, but it sure was fun. I’d gone up against people of all ages and nationalities while playing games, but I’d never had a chance to cross swords with a knight before. Mary’s concentration and experience were evident in her stance. Her sheer presence was overwhelming, rivaling that of any top-ranked pro I’d seen. No, she surpassed them all. In a situation like this, the information floodgates opened up, and your brain picked up on every little twitch of the muscles, every flick of the eyes. The eyes were the key; the windows to the soul. It looked like Mary intended to let me take the initiative. I mentally thanked her as I briefly reviewed the one-handed and two-handed sword combos in Gun Gust before selecting one. As I pictured the preparation stance from the attack where you launched from the back row around the enemy’s flank to cut at them from the side, the cursed sword interpreted my thoughts and made my body enact them.
“Here I come!”
I imagined myself pressing my Shift+W hotkey to quickly close the gap between us, and then Ctrl+1 to use the skill, and a smile spread across my face. But I wasn’t using a keyboard or mouse, and this wasn’t a game. I had to be conscious of that and provide input to the cursed sword the way it expected. Close the distance. Slash. Regain my balance when she evades. Quick, intercept Mary’s slash from the right! Now, dodge the follow-up and get some range. There weren’t any fancy visual effects, but the clash of our sheathed swords striking was far more impressive.
“You can do it, Aoi!”
Ann gave me a cheery yell. Seriously, shouldn’t she have been scared or something? Clearly I’d let her play too much Gun Gust.
I had to parry another cut from the right, and then again move to parry her follow-up thrusts low to my center. Mary was ruthless. If this were a game, she’d have gone pro for sure. No, her skills here were beyond any gamer I’d ever seen.
“Good luck to you too, Mary!”
She had me cornered. If she’d been one of the many rivals I’d found over my years of gaming, I’d have put my trust in being able to avoid every attack and gone for a high-risk technique to break the stalemate. I pictured the go-to combo move I’d invented in Gun Gust, Flash Blade, which mixed a movement skill and an attack skill. It was kind of plain, but it always got the job done. The cursed sword accepted my input and closed in on Mary with blinding speed before throwing out a fast feint. Mary didn’t bother parrying, and instead tried to avoid the feint altogether, just like I’d hoped. I stepped in and reset for the real attack, slashing hard with my sheathed sword, and... miraculously, Mary’s sword made it there just in time to parry, now clutched in both her hands. I kept linking together combos from the game, and every time, Mary would parry, evade, or deflect them, sometimes even throwing in a counterattack. We were risking our safety out there, but our swords flashed as we twisted and turned as though we were locked in a dance together. Man, jumping around and getting actual exercise like this was crazy fun. I wondered if VR games felt this good. Even though I was pushing myself hard, I wasn’t breathing particularly hard. Maybe leveling up my stamina so much was coming in handy?
“Hah!”
Mary parried another attack and pushed me back, creating some distance. My heart was crying out, telling me it wanted to keep fighting, it wasn’t done playing. It was a damn shame, really. If this had been a game, we could’ve played until our lives were spent.
“Mary, shouldn’t you have a shield?”
It was a good fight, even if I didn’t think I’d win, but the whole time I could tell something was off about Mary’s technique. She was almost exclusively using her sword one-handed, only grabbing on with the other hand when she was forced to parry. The way she fought made me certain she was used to carrying something in her free hand.
“I left my shield with the soldiers whenever I rode the armor.”
She was looking at me in surprise, her eyes wide. Probably wondering how I’d noticed. But come on, I’d seen countless enemies wielding a sword and shield, and some games even had different animations for characters when their equipment set was incomplete. Mary’s style was just like a sword-and-board knight whose shield had lost all its durability.
“I should admit defeat. Even with you handicapped by the lack of a shield, I’m not quite on your level. If you were fully armed, I wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Even with my cursed sword channeling all my game experience, I was at a clear disadvantage. If I wanted to seriously fight with Mary, we’d have to both be prepared for it to be a battle to the death. I’d only seen Mary piloting her armor before, but I’d never dreamed she’d be this strong. Now I really wanted her for Labyrinth #228!
“Are you satisfied?”
Man, what a powerful unit! But as much as I wanted to recruit her, I tried to keep the enthusiasm from showing on my face. Play it cool, Aoi.
“Yes, I’ve seen enough.”
Mary’s smile told me all I needed to know. It seemed I’d gotten full marks on this event.
“Well then, let me ask you one more time. Mary, will you come work with us?”
“It would be my honor.”
Our combat trial concluded, Mary’s face was aglow. Someday, I’d have to ask her what she thought about our fight.
“Here is my offer. In addition to your duties as labyrinth guardian, I’ll also be asking you to do chores periodically. In exchange, you’ll be provided with lodging and meals, and you’ll be paid 150,000 DL per month. How does that sound?”
“I’ll do it! Maybe it’s just a temporary thing, but mind if I call you Boss?”
She grabbed me by both hands and looked up at me, her eyes sparkling. It was harder to gauge her mood since she was human, but I was willing to bet that if she were a kobold, her tail would be wagging furiously. She was so excited she even stopped with the flowery knight talk. Huh. Would I have been able to skip the fight if I’d just told her how much I’d be paying her?
“Just keep calling me Aoi, like you have been. Mind if I stay casual with you as well?”
“Of course, Aoi. No need to worry about that. Even if I’m just a hired hand, it’d be strange for us to be overly polite.”
Helping around the house or working in the fields would probably have gotten her no more than her daily meals. She’d have been working herself to the bone to earn any money, if it weren’t for my offer, so I supposed it was natural for her to be so excited? Any prisoner needed ransom money, but as a knight and a noble, she’d need to pay a lot. It made sense that she wouldn’t be able to say no to a high-paying offer like mine. July was standing just behind Mary, holding a tray with cups of tea. When I mentioned money, her eyes turned predatory.
“Oh, that’s wonderful. I’m so glad you found a job.”
“Yes. I’m so glad to have finished searching, so I won’t be idle anymore.”
Mayor Hopper looked sincerely happy, and Mary simply looked relieved.
“Here, consider this your relocation fee. You’ll be working on-site from now on, so you can use this to prepare whatever you need before moving in.”
I handed her a leather bag with about 200,000 DL inside. I expected it would cover the money she owed the mayor, at least, and have some leftover for whatever necessities she’d have to buy. I could get what she needed on Tundra, and the quality might be higher, but I was certain it would be far more expensive as well.
“I’m grateful, Aoi, for everything, but there is one problem. Being the labyrinth guardian means I’ll have to fight, correct?”
“Well, yeah. That’s what guardians are for.”
“The issue is, I had to sell my armor to a wolfman peddler to be able to afford to stay here. Is there anything that can be done about that? I don’t need the full Extended Knight Armor, but it would give me an edge against challengers to at least have my normal armor.”
“Ah, that must have been Fez. Gotcha. That said, was it okay for you to sell your armor? You’re a knight, after all.”
“No, it was absolutely not okay, but my options were limited, and it was better to sell my armor than to sell my sword.”
Wow, talk about a choice of evils. Imagine being a knight and being forced to pawn either your armor or your sword just for living expenses. Talking with Mary never failed to make me pity her.
“I’ll have a chat with the peddler and see if I can buy it back somehow.”
“I’d be very thankful. Whatever the cost, it doesn’t matter. You can take it out of my earnings. Though saying so makes me realize that all I’ve really done so far today is to increase my debt.”
Mary’s shoulders drooped. True enough, buying back something you pawned tended to be pretty expensive.
“We’ll be waiting for you at the west entrance to the village, Mary. Come meet us whenever you’re ready.”
“Absolutely. I’ll try to settle everything quickly.”
Ann and I exited the house just as July laid her hands on Mary’s shoulders, a malicious smile on her face. I heard a little shriek and looked back to see July dragging Mary into the back of the house. It looked like she was going to be squaring up with one of her debtors today.