The labyrinth’s construction was going smoothly. The blocks of soil and rock produced as a by-product of the digging had accumulated into a pixelated mountain beside the workshop. What’s more, Mary had grown accustomed to her life here in Labyrinth #228, as demonstrated by the fact that our happy little morning accidents now only happened perhaps twice a week. One day during dinner, Barry informed me that the interior of the labyrinth was now eight percent complete. He asked me to bring Mary along the next day to pin down some details regarding the guardian’s room.
Before we went down, I put on the hard hat I recently bought on Tundra. It was a little different from the ones back home, since it was made from iron instead of plastic, but it had the same shape, and it would protect me either way, so I couldn’t complain. After we descended into the labyrinth, kobolds with torches guided us to the guardian’s room.
“Ah, how nice and spacious. Mm, and not too many pillars either. This will make a good arena for fighting.”
It seemed Mary had no complaints.
A single kobold’s torch illuminated the room. It was about thirty meters on each side, with four large stone pillars supporting the ceiling.
“You haven’t decorated yet? I don’t really care for the bare dirt aesthetic, at least.”
“That’s why I brought you here today, Boss. I was thinking we could line the labyrinth’s passages with clay and cut stone, but the guardian’s room is the star of the show, so I wanted your thoughts on how to give it a little oomph.”
“Gotcha. It’d be one thing if our guardian was a monster. Then a dark and creepy cave would do just the trick. But with Mary, we need to pick something more suitable.”
Made sense. If the labyrinth’s final boss was a lovely girl, we’d want her room to do her justice.
“I’m sure we could do a fine job ourselves, but I thought Mary should have the final call for what she’d want it to look like.”
“You intend to leave it to me? Aoi, is it okay for me to decide?”
“Yeah, of course. Do whatever you want. You’re going to be spending a lot of time down here when the labyrinth opens up, so I want you to like it.”
“Here’s what we’ve got available to use for the interior.”
Barry took out some miniature sample materials from his bag. He had tiny bricks, wooden planks, all kinds of stones, and little mud walls reinforced with wood.
“So many to choose from.”
Mary selected a few of the samples and inspected them carefully, one by one. It felt a bit like watching someone pick a paint color for their new home.
“I’d like you to make the floors and walls out of stone.”
“Yeah, can do. That’s easy enough. You sure you wanna go with something so simple?”
“Yes. If you make them from stone, it will end up being very similar to the training grounds I used long ago, in my parents’ home. The familiar sight will put me at ease.”
So, a familiar feel was more important to her than a flashy appearance? A very Mary decision.
She looked at me for confirmation, and I gave her a smile and a nod.
We went to see the completed guardian room a few days later and were astounded at how grand it had become in such a short time. According to Barry, the coagulant worked wonders in making smooth walls.
“It looks just like a room in a fortress or a castle.”
The interior was brightly lit by torches set in sconces around the walls and pillars, giving it a certain medieval flair.
“My parents’ house is an old stone fort that was remodeled into a mansion. This kind of room is just like the one where I learned my swordsmanship.”
“It’s important to feel comfortable when you’ve got a job to do, especially when your work requires a lot of focus.”
I voiced my agreement. Like, when you play arcade games, you really have to go to your favorite arcade if you want to play your best.
“I’m so glad you understand!”
Mary was delighted to find someone who empathized with her, which honestly made me feel a bit guilty for comparing her situation to arcade gaming.
✦ ✦ ✦
Although we’d been up to our ears in construction work, I hadn’t forgotten about gaming. In particular, I’d been trying to get Mary to join me and Ann, though sometimes it made me feel like a devil whispering in her ear—a labyrinth manager under the command of the Great Dark Lord tempting a pure and righteous knight onto the dark path of gaming.
“So Aoi, is this box some sort of toy? The only games I am familiar with are those that children play, like tag, or hide-and-seek.”
“This is more like a game for adults.”
Recommended for people aged fifteen and over, if I remembered correctly.
“It’ll be easier to show you than to tell you. Here, why don’t you sit behind us and watch, and I’ll explain while playing.”
Maybe it was unwise to use the dangerously addicting online gaming scene for her introduction to video games, but it wouldn’t be fair to show her less than the best.
“Ann, can you log in to Arena? You know the account password, right?”
“Yep!”
I’d decided to teach her a game called Gun Arena, another game from the makers of Gun Gust. It was effectively another mode of Gun Gust, where you logged in with your characters from Gun Gust and duked it out with other players for prizes. You could earn special equipment and items in Arena that you could use back in Gust.
“Is that a knight? Oooh, it’s on horseback, and it has a lance!”
I’d figured Mary would enjoy the knights. I was mounted, and Ann was armed with a pike and on foot as my squire. Mary was getting pretty pumped up over the mounted knight. Maybe she was so used to knights in this world piloting Extended Knight Armor that she hadn’t thought of them riding anything else?
“Ann is your companion? Will you be fighting together?!”
“You make your own character to be your avatar in the game world, where you live and fight. What we’re doing now is kind of like a war game. It’s a great way to show off how strong you are.”
It was a team competition on a decent-sized battlefield. As Mary watched the ten knights and forty squires clash, though she didn’t say much, her breath began to come faster, and a flush rose in her cheeks. It was strangely erotic.
“So, the battle is over now, but you see those people talking and pointing at us, over by the fences? Those are scouts looking to hire soldiers for their lord.”
It wasn’t uncommon here to see freelance mercenaries looking for Gun Gust partners, or feudal lords looking for capable soldiers to protect their lands. Nobody had called out to Ann or me because we had an indicator that we were under contract, but without that, I was sure a lot of scouts would have been pestering us.
“Do you want to try?”
“May I? Though it seems... complicated.”
True, getting used to a keyboard and mouse probably would have been a bit much for most of the inhabitants of this world.
“He taught me, too. It took me a while, but I can play now, so you should join us. It’s super fun!”
It was a point in my favor that I had clearly been able to teach Ann, but Ann’s request was surely the thing that pushed Mary over the edge. Could anyone refuse her? I knew I couldn’t.
“Very well. I’m not particularly talented with these sorts of things, but would you be so kind as to teach me, Ann?”
“Sure!”
I stood up and let Mary have my seat, and Ann started instructing her right away. Good, good, all according to plan, I thought to myself, twirling my imaginary mustache.
From that day forth, Mary and Ann played games together every night. Mary wasn’t as quick a study as Ann, but she was steadily grinding experience as a soldier, working her way up towards a class change into a knight. She was enjoying it so much she even managed to remember where her shortcuts and hotkeys were on the keyboard. By the end of the week, she was moving her character around just as naturally as any new gamer.
“Aoi, I would very much like my character to learn the horse-riding skill.”
“You have to save up for a horse, and you’ll need to get stronger before you make any real money. You’re still a long way away.”
“I see. Still, I won’t give up. I will become a horse-riding knight, no matter what it takes!”
Yep, she was hooked. I’d have to get a computer for her, too.