Chapter 28 (1/2)
The Labyrinth’s Garden
As though emerging from the bottom of a deep lake, her consciousness gradually surfaced.
As she awoke from her slumber, the existence known as Ria was being reconstructed.
Her senses returned. She clearly experienced her sense of touch.
(I.. can move…?)
In the dark, she reached out. Something crisp broke, light flooded her eyes.
She could s.h.i.+ft her body. From her fingertips to the tips of her toes.
She recalled that memory. She’d needed to cut off her leg. Did Lulu reattach it?
Still not entirely lucid, Ria wondered what happened to her as she got up.
She was sleeping on a bed in the nude. It was a cabin with a strong wooden aroma. There were black fragments from something on the bed, it seemed to be what had surrounded Ria.
(Where… is this?)
Daylight streamed in from the wooden floor. If she were out of the dungeon, why was she in a cabin like this?
A change of clothes were left for Ria on top of the chair sitting next to the bed. There were boots left below it as well. All things she had given to Serge before the battle.
There were neatly folded underwear. On that subject, though she told Serge he didn’t have to do something strange like that earnestly, he answered with a discouraged expression.
“Nee-chan, I’m not at the age where s.e.xual desire comes out yet. Besides, I’m just not interested in the contents.”
Smiling while recalling that, Ria dressed. There were neither weapons nor armor. Neither was the magic bag there. They probably all melted in the giants stomach. There was the dagger with the seal.
Though her equipment felt very disheartening, Ria left the cabin.
“Wow…”
Filled with light, a field br.i.m.m.i.n.g with flowers extended before her.
The sun was almost directly above, yet it s.h.i.+ned with a gentle light. There were large trees spread out here and there, producing shade.
From the nearest tree came a figure running towards her.
“Nee-chan~”
It was Serge. Though he was running with a smile on his face, he was worried about Ria.
“That’s good, you woke up.”
“And Maal?”
Though she vigorously clapped the boy on the top of his head in an embrace, Ria worried about the other person’s survival.
“I conveyed the message to Maal. I’ve been waiting for Nee-chan to hatch from the egg.”
He said something that she couldn’t ignore.
“Egg?”
She didn’t understand. However, she a.s.sumed it was probably the fragments that covered the bed.
“Huh? I thought it was something from Nee-chan’s gift though.”
Though Serge tilted his head, Ria had no clue what it was. When she used Self Check, it appeared that Gifts were unleashed.
Dormancy, it was like molting. There was also Super Regeneration too. She guessed it was better than High Speed Regeneration.
“Apparently, looks like it. Since it was the first time I’ve gotten that injured.”
In that case, it’s good. According to Serge, a black eggsh.e.l.l covered Ria’s fainted body. Then without reacting at all, a week pa.s.sed.
“A week huh…”
“After a day went by, Maal went back to the surface. I stayed behind because of the lord of the labyrinth’s story…”
“The lord of the labyrinth, that means this is inside of the labyrinth?”
Though she expected it, she wondered how they reproduced the sun in the labyrinth.
“It’s because there’s eleven floors in the labyrinth. More accurately, it seems closer to another world though.”
Another world again, that’s a big scaled story.
“Then, what of the labyrinth’s lord?”
She somewhat raised her guard. Since it was an existence that could produce such a gentle place, it probably wasn’t wicked. It might have close to a human’s sensibilities. She could judge that based on Serge’s appearance.
Though at the same time, they must be the owner of an immense power.
“O~i, Labyrinth~”
Serge waived his arms towards a big tree. From there, a fluffy light headed their way.
It wasn’t that big. Around thirty centimeters at most. In the light, she could make out the appearance of a winged fairy.
Even so, Labyrinth?
“Oh my, you woke up.”
The soft light dimmed, showing the appearance of a tiny fairy wearing a green dress.
“My name is Labyrinth. The lord of this labyrinth.”
Her face was full of a powerful curiosity. Ria remembered this gaze. It was the gaze she’d felt throughout the dungeon.
Continuing her sentence, Ria froze.
“The same as you two, I am a reincarnated person.”
For the time being, after finis.h.i.+ng her self introduction, Labyrinth spoke with a smile.
“Being born as a princess was a great use of points~”
Though that was a misunderstanding, it was easily corrected. Labyrinth had a Gift called Fairy’s Mind’s Eye and could use Identify on Ria.
“Dragon’s Bloodline huh? That’s the same Gift Anaia had. Though it seems you have more skills than Anaia, you still haven’t drawn out the power of the Gift.”
While casually saying momentous things, Labyrinth filled me in on information from after the Cyclops was defeated.
After Ria fainted, her body was immediately covered by a black sh.e.l.l. In front of the two other confused people, Labyrinth appeared.
Labyrinth said that she was the lord of the labyrinth, teleporting the two and the egg to this area.
Since it was a dragon’s egg according to Identify, she recommended to wait and see what happened. The two people agreed.
Before teleporting Maal to the surface and the egg to the bed, they received their rewards. After that, she had reminiscent talk of j.a.pan and the like with Serge, watching him practice magic.
“Reminisced about j.a.pan? Even though it’s been a thousand years…”
Ria’s question was reasonable, though Serge already thought that at first. Due to reincarnating into this world, twenty-first century j.a.panese seemed to be scattered through the ages. When she heard what year Labyrinth died in, it was just a little before Ria.
“I chose the Gift of Genesis Magic. Then by raising my level in the Great War a thousand years ago, my Gift sublimated into Labyrinth Creation. Since then, I’ve always been training adventurers.”
She didn’t say explorers. When Labyrinth made this labyrinth, that t.i.tle was more common.
“Why train them?”
“It will be time for another Great War soon right? In preparation for that, I’m raising the mankind side’s strength.”
However, she shook her head. It might have been too gentle of her to not allow casualties.