Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Library Labyrinth

STEPPING OUT of the teleportation circle was like waking up from a dream. No matter how many times I experienced it, I could never get used to it. It reminded me too much of my encounters with the Man-God.

I glanced at my companions. Almost all of them wore dumbfounded looks on their faces. Even the normally solemn Eris gaped as she looked around. Ghislaine was the only one who seemed unsurprised.

Come to think of it, she’s the first of the beastfolk to ever use a teleportation circle.

It was the first time I’d ever seen Ariel utterly gobsmacked. She craned her neck upwards, her mouth half-open, and her eyes were unfocused, staring off into the far distance.

Wonder if she’d get pissed at me if I stuck my finger in her mouth.

Nah. Even if she didn’t get mad, Sylphie would definitely have a fit.

“Ah!” Ariel finally blinked and regained her composure. She turned her gaze toward me. “We’ve arrived at our destination…haven’t we?”

“Yes.”

We found ourselves in a room with a stone floor and walls, similar to the other Dragon Tribe ruins I had visited. All the other teleportation circles I’d used led to places like this. The only difference was that this place had a proper door, and the room was filled with the smell of ink, parchment, and mold. That assured me that we had definitely arrived at the Library Labyrinth, even if there were no books in this room.

“I was told there was no real danger here, but the place is a labyrinth, after all,” I said. “Let’s stay on our guard.”

The tension returned to Sylphie and Luke’s faces. Ghislaine’s expression remained unreadable as ever, and Eris…well, Eris looked pretty pumped up.

“I’ll take the lead!” she declared, stepping toward the corridor that led deeper into the labyrinth.

“Hold up!”

“Gah?!”

I grabbed her coat to stop her advance. She snapped around and glowered at me. “What’s your problem?!”

“Eris, there may be traps. Let someone else take the lead. If a fight breaks out, you can take the vanguard, but for now, stay back.”

“…Fine.” She pursed her lips, pouting as she reluctantly retreated behind me.

Okay, but the problem is, who should take the lead here? The only people with any experience in a labyrinth are me and…

“Hm?” Ghislaine grunted.

Ghislaine, I guess.

Geese and a number of others had told me all I needed to know about the dire consequences of letting Ghislaine lead a group. As one of the beastfolk, she might be able to sniff out danger and avoid it, but she had a talent for tripping into every possible trap and running headlong into swarms of monsters. She was definitely not a good pick to lead us.

“Since I have an Eye of Foresight, I will take the lead,” I said. “Eris will follow right behind me. Ghislaine and Luke will protect Princess Ariel from either side and Sylphie will watch our backs. It seems like the best way to go. What do the rest of you think?”

I personally thought it was a clever formation, and everyone else seemed to agree, nodding quietly.

“I have no objections,” said Ariel. “We will leave you to take the lead, Lord Rudeus.” 

With Ariel’s seal of approval, we fell in line. 

I would be scouting the way ahead, but from what Orsted told me, the Library Labyrinth differed from other labyrinths in that there were almost no traps whatsoever. As long as we avoided breaking one key rule, we should be fine.

Speaking of which…I should warn the rest. 

“While we’re here, I would ask that you refrain from using fire magic,” I said.

“Why?” Eris demanded.

Sylphie immediately understood my reasoning. “Because if you use fire magic in a labyrinth, you’ll deplete all the oxygen.”

Eris’ face scrunched in puzzlement, as if she didn’t understand what that last word meant. Sylphie was clearly more knowledgeable in this field, but her guess, while good, was actually off the mark.

“There is that too,” I admitted. “But it’s actually because the monsters here will get angry and attack anyone who damages, burns, or steals any of the books. I don’t expect we’ll have to do battle at all, but if we do, please be careful not to damage any of the tomes.”

“Those are some strange monsters,” Eris mumbled.

“Well, to be more specific, they’re actually familiars of the Demon King who lives deep inside this labyrinth. Anyone would be angry if someone damaged their things.”

“Makes sense.” Eris nodded. “Okay, I understand!”

Thankfully, this was one instance where she actually meant it and wasn’t simply putting on a brave front.

“I’m not just talking to you, Eris. I want you to be careful as well—Ghislaine, Luke.”

“Got it,” Ghislaine grunted.

Anxious, Luke frowned and said, “What if we have no other choice?”

“I have no idea how much this Demon King will tolerate. This is my first time here too.”

“All right…” Luke reached a hand toward the hilt of his sword, brows still drawn. He wasn’t a very skilled swordsman. By average standards, he was all right enough, but he had nowhere near the level of perfect control that Eris and Ghislaine commanded. He probably knew there was a high likelihood he’d hit a book if he started swinging his blade around.

“If what I’ve been told is anything to go by, I don’t really expect we’ll do battle,” I said.

“I trust you on that, but…on the off chance we do have to fight, maybe it would be best if I stay back.”

“In that case, we’ll leave guarding Princess Ariel to you.”

Luke nodded, at least confident that he could do that much.

“Anyway, let’s get moving.”

All that said, I cracked the door in front of us open.

***

“Oh, wow…”

I gasped as I stepped out of the door. I couldn’t help it. An endless hallway stretched before me, but that wasn’t just it. Its walls, three meters tall, comprised stone bookcases that continued far into the distance. Books were packed tight on the shelves.

“I see, so this is the Library Labyrinth…”

I stepped up to one of the bookcases. The volumes were more like manuscripts, lacking a hardcover binding. In fact, some didn’t have a spine and were just sheaves of paper bound together. No, not some—that was the majority of the material on the shelves. Most of them resembled a disorganized cluster of scrap paper and memos more than a collection of organized notes. In this mess, I only spotted one volume that actually had a cover. Its title was Ledger, written in Demon God Tongue. Based on that, I guessed it contained accounting records for some shop somewhere in the Demon Continent.

I quietly looked to the bookshelf on the opposite wall. It was the same. What good was a bunch of scrap paper like that going to do anyone? It was a mystery to me. At least it fit with the image of a Library Labyrinth; even its contents were like a maze.

“Rudeus? What’s the matter?” Eris asked.

“Oh, no. It’s nothing.”

Trying to find the book we were looking for was going to be like searching for a needle in a haystack. I wondered if we’d really be able to locate any materials on King Gaunis.

“Come on, let’s keep moving,” I said.

We walked for quite a while after that. The bookshelves went on forever. At first, all we could see was a hallway that led straight ahead, but it apparently had a slight curve to it. There was a brief gap in the shelves, where the hall branched off in the shape of an H.

I decided to keep moving straight forward, leaving a sign behind to mark where we’d been before moving on. We ran into a number of monsters on our way. One was a snail big enough to block half of the corridor. Writhing tentacles grew from its shell. The mere sight sent a chill down my spine. It wasn’t until I realized those tentacles were holding countless books that I felt less wary. I had no idea what the creature was called, so I decided to tentatively dub it the Cthulhu-Snail. 

We also encountered a black slime creature. From a distance, I couldn’t make out any other features other than that it was a slime, so I decided to call it as such for now. Both creatures were grabbing books and drawing them into their respective bodies heading down the hallway. They weren’t getting to their destination any time soon, but it was clear that they had one in mind: they moved with too much purpose to be merely meandering. 

There were also some knee-high, black bipedal ants. They seemed to have their own destination as well, not even sparing us a glance as they went on their way. They had no distinctive characteristics, so—for lack of anything better to call them—I decided to refer to them simply as ants.

Although the ants spotted us, they didn’t appear aggressive, instead disappearing off into the labyrinth. I was so used to monsters attacking indiscriminately that it felt a bit anticlimactic. Eris and Ghislaine kept running off to slay them every time. It was a nightmare trying to stop them.

We hadn’t encountered any traps yet. At first, we moved through the halls with great caution, but after an hour of nothing, it seemed silly to continue walking on eggshells. I was pleased that this meant Orsted’s information was accurate. He hadn’t tried to deceive us. At this rate, I was actually going to start trusting him. 

Then again, I already had experience with a certain party who tried to gain my trust before stabbing me in the back. 

I won’t name any names, but let’s just say their name starts with M and rhymes with Zod.

“Ah, it’s a dead end.”

It took an hour of walking to finally find one. We kept our guard up the whole time, scanning the shelves as we went, but even at that slow pace, we probably still traveled about four kilometers. The bend of the hall was gentle enough that I didn’t think we’d completed a circuit around the labyrinth yet.

At any rate, this hallway didn’t have anything on King Gaunis. The volumes covered a mishmash of subjects and languages, but one thing they had in common was their publication date. They were all put out around the end of the second Great Human-Demon War, which was about 300 years ago.

“Let’s retrace our steps to where the path last split off,” I said, turning back around.

The aforementioned area split off in the shape of an H, with two paths leading inward and two leading outward.

Guess the closest would be one of the outward-facing hallways. 

“Hey, Rudy… Why don’t we try going inward first?” Sylphie suggested.

“Oh? Why inward?” I asked.

“I had a peek and it looks like the hallways leading out contain older volumes, while the ones leading in appear to be more recent.”

If that was true, then going inward would lead us to the years of Gaunis’s reign—those following Laplace’s War. “All right,” I said. “In that case, let’s retrace our steps a little further to the hallway turning inward then.”

Observant as ever, Sylphie. I should have known you’d have a keen eye for this.

We walked again for a while. As Sylphie noted, the further in we went, the more recent the books. At the same time, the bend of the hallway became far more noticeable. This also meant the corridors themselves were much shorter than they had been. We were getting closer to the center of the circle.

I wondered what we’d find in the middle. Since this was a labyrinth, maybe the master of the place? Its guardian? Orsted said the books were created by a book-loving demon, but perhaps that wasn’t all. Maybe something else lived here too. Considering my memories of the Teleportation Labyrinth, I didn’t want to fight if I didn’t have to.

Well, Laplace’s War started about 400 years ago. We shouldn’t have to go all the way to the center to find that section, I reminded myself, trying to get a handle on my anxiety.

“This place is kinda boring,” Eris grumbled sullenly.

Ah, this brings back memories.

I had seen Eris get bored before. It was better to warn her against trying anything funny simply because she wasn’t being entertained.

“Eris, I realize you’re not having fun, but if you try anything—”

“I know, I…” Eris suddenly pulled her sword from its sheath. A split second later, Ghislaine also had hers out.

“How many?!” I asked.

Having traveled with Ruijerd before, I knew this meant there were monsters nearby. Sylphie and the others were also on guard. My Eye of Foresight had yet to pick up on anything.

“The next corner…to the left…at the back,” said Eris, surprising me with how well she managed to pinpoint this foreign presence. 

“Can’t say exactly how many, but there’s a lot,” added Ghislaine.

Just like her to be vague about numbers. Had she forgotten our lessons together? Even after how much hard work she put into them?

Okay, now’s not really the time for that.

“I’ll take a look,” I said, stepping forward. Moving as quietly as possible, I edged toward the H-shaped intersection and carefully peered around the corner.

There really were a bunch of monsters, mostly slimes and ants. The former were repeatedly coalescing before splitting off again, which made it impossible to know how many there were.

Thank goodness. Ghislaine hasn’t forgotten her numbers after all.

Still, what were these things doing?

“They’re digging through the wall…and making shelves?”

From what I could tell, the ants were carving into the rock, while the slimes collected the resulting rubble and consumed it. They then broke it down inside their bodies before reforming it and spitting it back out to make new shelves along the wall. Basically, this Library Labyrinth was a maze of hallways they’d created.

“Doesn’t look like there’s any danger,” I announced, beckoning everyone over.

They nervously approached, peeking around the corner as I had moments earlier. Once they saw what was happening, they breathed a sigh of relief.

“So they’re simply building more shelves,” Ariel remarked.

“Orsted did tell me that the monsters here are basically like familiars. I suppose that means they’re a bit different from the other beasts we’ve seen before,” I said.

With that out of the way, we quickened our pace onward.

We must have walked for another five hours after that. Each time we came to a corner leading further inward, we turned, but many led to dead ends, and some of the intersections only had hallways leading outward. This made it impossible to reach the center. Nonetheless, we were gradually beginning to find newer and newer books, so I knew we were getting closer.

We decided to take a short break. Sylphie and Luke weren’t doing too bad, but Ariel was quite exhausted. Most of our party was in excellent physical shape, but Ariel wasn’t used to this much walking. She really was a princess in every essence of the word. Meanwhile, the (former) noblewoman in our party was nearly bored to tears.

“This place really is nothing but books. I thought a labyrinth would be a little more interesting than this,” mumbled Eris.

If only she’d learn from Ghislaine’s example.

Ghislaine looked pleased simply from the exercise we’d gotten from walking this far.

“Eris, a labyrinth isn’t a fun place,” I said.

“You don’t think so? But it’s a core part of adventuring. I always wanted to visit one, but this is lame.”

“You don’t say…”

I didn’t have very good memories of being in a labyrinth. Paul had died in one, after all. I never wanted to experience something that traumatic, ever again. Unless there was a very compelling reason, I was content not to see another labyrinth in my life. Eris should have known what I had been through, but I couldn’t really fault her for her interests.

“Halls teeming with monsters, untouched treasure just waiting to be discovered, and at the end of it all, a huge guardian monster!” Eris gushed excitedly.

“Eris,” Sylphie interrupted, “let it go. Rudy lost his father in a labyrinth, you know.”

“Huh?” For a moment, Eris gaped in surprise. “Oh…” Her face rapidly paled, lips pulling into a frown. She drew her brows tight and kept her eyes on the floor as she mumbled, “Sorry…”

“It’s fine. You don’t need to apologize,” I said. “I know you have looked forward to visiting a labyrinth since you were young.”

“You don’t mind?”

“I just want you to keep in mind that there are truly dangerous labyrinths out there too. Ones that can rob you of a loved one in the blink of an eye.”

“Yeah, I got it.” Eris bobbed her head.

Years ago, she would never have apologized so earnestly like that.

As we turned a corner, we found ourselves in an open area. It was a ridiculously wide, cone-shaped hollow. It had multiple levels, with stairs sandwiched between stretches of shelves. It reminded me of the staggered seats in Rome’s colosseum.

In its center was an enormous slime. Its body jiggled, dozens of arms extending from its middle like tentacles, each one holding a pen and scribbling something at a lightning speed. Only one of its appendages was different: it pointed directly upward. It had an enormous eyeball at the tip, which was glaring up at the ceiling.

The second I saw this creature, one thought ran through my mind: Oh, crap.

This was, without a doubt, the master of the labyrinth, and we had unwittingly stepped within striking range. I wasn’t the only one who sensed danger; those behind me were similarly speechless. Eris and Ghislaine were gawking, even as they drew their weapons.

“What the heck is that thing?” Luke blurted.

Thanks, Luke, you said what the rest of us were all thinking.

“It has to be the ruler of this place,” I said. “Orsted told me they’re a bookworm Demon King, but I wasn’t quite picturing this…”

“This one is quite different from Lord Badigadi,” said Sylphie.

Exactly. I had anticipated something more like Badigadi, but this was far more…slime-like than what I had in mind. Then again, there were multiple subspecies of demons, so it wasn’t too strange for them to have a slime Demon King.

But a slime that reads books? Okay, okay. It’s not good to judge. I am sure even slimes enjoy reading.

“If this is indeed a Demon King, then should we not greet it?” asked Ariel.

“I wonder if it can even talk…” I mumbled.

There were many types of demons. Some had no vocal cords and therefore couldn’t speak. It seemed that this slime might fall into that category. If my past experiences with Demon Kings were anything to go by, they didn’t really listen to people. Granted, Badigadi and Atofe were the only ones I had ever met, but neither of them listened to others. We couldn’t judge this slime simply by looking at it, but it’d probably be safer to keep to ourselves. 

“Since it doesn’t look like it’s noticed us, let’s try to keep it that way and move quietly.”

Silence was one of the golden rules of a library, after all.

We resumed our search, being careful to stay quiet. There appeared to be smaller slimes in the area moving around as well. They seemed to be ignoring us for the moment, but there was no knowing what might happen if the larger slime spotted us. None of the familiars looked very powerful, but it was impossible to know for sure, so it was best for us to stay on guard. It could put us in a real pickle if they all came at us at once.

“Ah!” Sylphie suddenly gasped.

“What is it?” Curious as I was, I couldn’t peel my gaze away from the enormous slime at the center of the room.

“It’s here, Rudy. This area.”

What’s here?

I glanced behind me. Sylphie reached out to a shelf along the outside wall, plucking a book from the middle that was titled King Gaunis: Rise and Reign. It was one among many.

I had been so distracted by the giant slime that I hadn’t noticed it, but apparently this was the area that housed books written in the wake of Laplace’s War. It seemed like we’d passed right over the section covering the middle and end of that conflict, but then again, the people back then were probably so busy fighting that they didn’t have time to pen books. But once victory was theirs and people’s lives began to go back to normal, those who could recount the details of the affair had started writing it all down, and the books in this area likely belonged to such authors.

“In that case, let’s backtrack the last dead end and make camp there,” I proposed.

Eris nodded. “Yeah, can’t say I want to sleep somewhere with that thing in sight.”

“Agreed. Gives me the shivers just looking at it,” said Ghislaine.

“Really?” Ariel tilted her head. “I think it looks quite intelligent.”

Eris crossed her arms. “Swords don’t work too well on slimes like that, do they?”

“A slime will die if you destroy its core,” said Ghislaine. “But that one is so enormous your sword won’t even reach its core.”

Ariel’s comment was bizarre, but I was more troubled by how ready Eris and Ghislaine were to go into battle. Thankfully, everyone seemed to agree that we should take our leave. I didn’t want to linger near something we knew nothing about and whose movements we couldn’t predict.

Still, after a long journey, we had finally made it to our destination, and that was cause for celebration at least.

***

A whole week passed after we set up camp. Our group spent the whole time moving between our base and the section of books on King Gaunis. We spent each day thumbing through them. At first, we sneaked them out and retreated somewhere the giant slime couldn’t see us, before we flipped through the pages and took notes. Then, we carefully returned the book to its rightful place.

After three days of this, we realized that no amount of racket seemed to draw the owner’s attention, so we began doing our research right by the shelves instead. This meant that Eris and Ghislaine had nothing to do, so the two trained with their swords or left to go on walks around the area. I still wasn’t sure this place was entirely safe, so I wanted them to be careful, but I couldn’t expect them to sit still the whole time. By the fifth day, I gave up worrying about it. There hadn’t been any problems with their activities.

Meanwhile, we had no lack of materials about King Gaunis. Which was unsurprising, given that he became the monarch of the country that won the war.

Gaunis was not simply a king in the era that followed Laplace’s War, he was also once one of many princes. The literature was a bit spotty on the numbers—some stories said he had dozens of brothers, others said he was the youngest of three, especially those aimed at children. The one thing they all agreed upon was that he had two older brothers. This lined up with what Ariel seemed to know. The eldest was an impressive and fearless warrior, while the second eldest was a resourceful tactician. Gaunis, being the third son, was gifted with both intelligence and strength.

It was these three princes that decided to take a stand against Laplace’s encroaching army. However, Laplace’s troops were powerful. Neither the eldest’s brute force nor the second eldest’s raw tactics could outmatch the enemy army, and so the two of them died.

The war culminated in a decisive battle on the Central Continent’s southern front, which finally resulted in the death of Asura’s king—Gaunis’s father. Thus, Gaunis took the throne despite his youth. He was a talented man, but his strength couldn’t match that of his eldest brother, nor were his tactics equal to the second eldest. Could someone like him could beat Laplace’s army, when both of his brothers and the previous king had already fallen before him?

He could. It was, as the literature stated, because he had numerous friends: the Dragon God Urupen, the North God Kalman, and Armored Dragon King Perugius, to name a few of the numerous heroes he called comrades. Gaunis went to them and prostrated himself, pleading with them to help him find a way to take down Laplace. Seven heroes answered his call and set off on a journey to defeat Gaunis’s sworn enemy.

The details matched up with what I had read long ago in Legends of the Armored Dragon King. These books also said more about Perugius and his companions’ adventures than they did about King Gaunis.

After the heroes left on their mission, King Gaunis consolidated power in Asura Kingdom and rode out to meet Laplace’s army. It was one defensive clash after the other, a battle of attrition. However, King Gaunis did manage to hold back the enemy’s advance, successfully keeping Asura from falling until Perugius and the others returned. He really was the man behind the scenes.

As for what kind of person King Gaunis was…the literature tended to be pretty unreliable. Most volumes described him as an exemplary ruler, peerless in his majesty and overflowing with talent. They never illustrated exactly how he possessed these qualities, but they showered him with compliments nonetheless.

Ariel seemed satisfied with these accounts since they matched up exactly with what she’d heard, but the more I searched, the more I found strange information mixed in with the rest. According to other sources, Gaunis was a talentless alcoholic who sneaked into the city to mess around while his gifted elder brothers participated in the war effort. Apparently, he drank and got into fights almost daily.

At first, I thought someone who hated the king had written this to smear him, but these accounts gave specific examples of his behavior and the precise dates these events took place, unlike the sources that lauded him. This made them much more believable in my eyes.

Even so, I still found myself going, “No, no, that can’t really be true,” as I read along. All that changed today, when I finally found the most credible source of all.

Dated around the final years of the Laplace War, it was a diary written by King Gaunis himself. It started before his rise to the throne, when his two older brothers were still actively participating in the war. It painted a detailed account of Gaunis Freean Asura’s daily thoughts and past experiences.

Gaunis was the black sheep of the family. His two older brothers were such geniuses that no one expected anything from him, which only pissed him off. Even if he complained about it, no one paid him any attention. That was why he sneaked out of the castle to hang out in the city all the time.

Since there was an active war going on, the city wasn’t the safest, but that also made it the perfect place for Gaunis to vent his frustrations. He would drink until he was hammered, whine about how unfair everything was, then get into fights. There were no consequences for him whaling on the backstreet thugs in the city. 

If I had a word to sum up the kind of person Gaunis was at that time, it would simply be: garbage.

After reading his diary, Ariel was so shocked that she spent half a day slumped over, doing nothing. Even now she leaned against one of the shelves with her legs pulled to her chest, her expression dark as she mumbled to herself, “Is this it? Is this the kind of king that Lord Perugius is searching for?”

Luke and Sylphie were trying to help her regain her composure, but even their voices were strained from the shock at discovering what kind of person Gaunis really was.

Personally…great king or not, Gaunis was a human being first and foremost, so his behavior wasn’t all that surprising to me. If anything, it made him easier to relate to.

Though I have to admit that his behavior isn’t very kingly.

In spite of that, Perugius had seen fit to support someone like Gaunis. So perhaps Gaunis being a garbage human being might actually be a hint. Thus, I continued my search, and it was then that I found a deeply intriguing book on Blessed Children.

This tome covered which Blessed Children had been discovered at the time, what powers they possessed, and what kind of people they were. None of it seemed to have anything to do with Gaunis. At least not until I came upon an article that described the “Powerless Blessed Child.” The title alone made me imagine the opposite of Zanoba, who boasted inhuman strength. Powerless suggested this person was frail and wimpy.

Despite my impressions, the power described was deemed extremely dangerous, enough that the text emphasized that anyone possessing it should be killed immediately. A Powerless Blessed Child could disable other Blessed Children’s powers. 

I had seen this pattern pretty often in light novels with superpowers. In most cases, the person with the ability to disable the powers of others had no other abilities of their own. This often put them at a disadvantage and others looked down on them. But in these series, the majority of the central characters possessed super powers, like ninety percent of them, so the ability to nullify their abilities was game-changing. Naturally, the person possessing this rare gift was typically the main protagonist.

Blessed Children were so rare in this world, however, that there were probably only a handful of them in existence. Being able to nullify their abilities didn’t seem all that potent. If anything, it seemed extremely useless to me. It would be way better to have a Sword God-style warrior on your side than someone like that.

That said, other Blessed Children tended to be authority figures in their respective countries. They could create miracles with their powers that one normally couldn’t bring about through ordinary magic. For that very reason, it would be a huge disadvantage to a country if their Blessed Child’s power was snuffed out. Other countries would see a Powerless Blessed Child as a nuisance, while their own country would deem them as a worthless liability that only put them under foreign scrutiny. Thus, it was advised to kill such a child immediately.

The power described, however, did catch my interest. Powerless Blessed Children could apparently also dispel the powers of Cursed Children. They were the same, after all. The only difference between them was whether the power they had was beneficial or not, so it made sense that Powerless’s abilities would be effective on them as well.

I wondered, though, if this ability to erase other Blessed Children and Cursed Children’s powers could also be used to nullify other things. Like regular curses, for instance. The title Cursed Children lent itself to the belief that they had been marked by an actual curse, but the two things were completely unrelated. 

Since this book didn’t explicitly say this was the case, I assumed the Powerless’s abilities couldn’t cure curses, but perhaps I needed to look at the bigger picture. Blessed Children possessed all kinds of different abilities. Every single one broke the natural laws of the world. It seemed plausible that one among them could erase curses or turn back the hands of time. In other words, with the right Blessed Child’s power, we might be able to return Zenith’s memories to her.

That was merely a wishful observation on my part, of course, but it was worth asking Orsted about when I got home.

“Ah, I better jot this down in my diary, lest I forget,” I muttered.

I closed the book I was reading and pulled out my diary. Frankly speaking, after reading my future self’s journal, I had reservations about continuing this thing, but it had saved my skin. I had no intention of returning to the past, though. I was going to do everything in my power to make sure I didn’t have to. That said, I might someday want to entrust my diary to someone. Like, when my time came, maybe I’d want to pass on my will. The person reading would benefit from the guidance of all the information I included.

“Let’s see…I discovered Blessed Children can have a number of different powers. There are even those who can manipulate the abilities of other Blessed or Cursed Children. Perhaps I might be able to achieve something even if that thing seems impossible using these powers… There, that’s good enough, I think.”

I lifted my head after I’d finished scribbling and caught a glimpse of the enormous slime in the middle of the hollow, wriggling around as it always did. It had startled me when I first encountered it, but I’d grown accustomed to the sight over the past week. It was no less terrifying than before, but it hadn’t launched itself at us. It spent all its time staring up at the ceiling and copying books, which suggested it was intelligent at least.

Suddenly I glanced back at my diary. “Hold on a second, ‘I might be able to achieve something even if that thing seems impossible’? Isn’t that a little too vague? Maybe I should write a specific example of what I might use those powers for.”

Until this point, I had never put much thought into writing anything in detail. Maybe being in this labyrinth had encouraged me to change my ways? Haha. Well, it was time to rewrite that vague portion regardless. I tore out the current page, replacing it with another which I used to rewrite my current thoughts.

You know, I feel like this would be so much easier if I had some correction fluid. But how would I go about making that? Or should I just smear white paint on the page?

“Hm?” I glanced up, noticing that one of the giant slime’s many tentacles had just torn a page from the book it was writing in.

I stared silently. Something about it made me wonder… 

Just to be sure, I scribbled a random sentence in my book. Immediately after, the tentacle began mimicking my movement. I then started blacking out the entire page with ink. The slime did the same thing.

Is it…copying me?

No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t copying me; it was copying down what I had written.

“If it likes books, then that means it must be able to read, right?” I mumbled to myself.

The slime had no mouth or ears, so maybe it wouldn’t understand spoken words, but it did have that giant eye on the tip of one of its tentacles. That had to mean it could read, right?

“Worth a shot, I guess.”

But should I consult Ariel and the others before I try to communicate with it? Nah, that wouldn’t do me any good. Ariel is already at her wits’ end with our current situation and about ready to give up and go home. It’s worth a gamble at this point.

“Let’s see, then… ‘Good day to you, Demon King. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Rudeus Greyrat. This is an incredible library you have here.’” I recited the words as I penned them in my journal.

One of the giant slime’s tentacles immediately began racing across the page only to freeze suddenly. It was something we had yet to see it do before. It hadn’t merely copied what I’d written; its other arms had ceased moving altogether.

An eerie air settled over the cone-shaped hollow.

“Am I being too hasty?” I wondered. For a split second, I lost my nerve, but it was already too late to regret it now.

The giant slime’s eyeball, which had been glaring up at the ceiling this entire time, now turned toward me. The thing was enormous. It could clearly see me gaping at it.

The slime shrunk back for a moment. In the next second, its tentacles shot outward at an incredible speed, almost like porcupine needles blasting in all directions.

My Eye of Foresight told me: A tentacle is headed straight toward me. 

I ducked, assuming it meant to impale me. To my surprise, the tentacle stopped right in front of me. It was clutching a single piece of paper. No, that wasn’t right—it wasn’t clutching anything, its body was like an adhesive so the paper was merely attached to it. At any rate, it held the paper directly in front of me, a message scrawled on it that read: I am Demon King Beethove Tovetha, of the Nen Tribe. Welcome to my castle, Future Author-in-the-Making.

Oh… Ooooh! Communication successfully established! I mentally pumped my fists. Wait, no. Hold up a second. Seriously? I just came up with the idea of talking to this thing on the fly. I never dreamed it’d go this smoothly. Uh, now what…

I hastily scribbled my reply: My deepest apologies for not paying my proper respects sooner. It truly is an honor to meet you, Your Majesty. We came here in hopes of researching a certain subject. Would you be willing to permit our stay here in the meantime?

Its response was succinct and simple: Yes.

Phew. I could finally breathe a sigh of relief after being on edge this whole time. I wiped cold sweat from my brow. 

Okay, I thought. I can actually do this. Although next time I should probably have alerted Eris before I try something. That was a little too rash.

Still, what an interesting name. It reminded me of a certain composer who had spent their life making music. Orsted had told me this Demon King wasn’t such a bad guy, and based on our brief interaction, it seemed he was right.

But now what? I thought about what I’d say after striking up a conversation with them. Maybe I could ask after some information relating to Gaunis. If they really were the master of this labyrinth, they ought to be knowledgeable about him.

Actually, we are looking for a certain book, I wrote.

Find it yourself, the slime replied instantly.

Oof, I thought. That was cold.

Then again, we were complete strangers who had appeared out of nowhere. I couldn’t blame the slime for turning down what they must have deemed an outlandish demand. At least they weren’t chasing us out altogether.

However, the slime continued, you have managed to amuse me.

Apparently, they weren’t simply refusing me as I’d first thought. Flustered, I reached for my journal again and wrote back, Did I say something that funny?

The slime replied, You came here carrying a book from the future. That was truly shocking. And now, you are currently writing a continuation to its contents as we speak. If you don’t call that interesting or entertaining, then what is? As a reward for amusing me, I will grant you one wish.

Book from the future? Ah, they must be referring to that diary my future self brought here—as in, to this timeline. I hadn’t brought it to the labyrinth. And if what the slime was saying was anything to go by, it had probably already copied the contents of that diary. From the slime’s perspective, my current journal was a sequel to the previous one. That was ironic. A diary from the past being the sequel to one from the future. I could see how it found such a unique book series so entertaining.

All that aside, it sure seemed like Demon Kings loved to reward good deeds by granting people’s wishes. Was that a part of their culture or something?

A wish? You’ll grant me anything I want? I asked.

The only thing that I, Beethove Tovetha, am capable of doing for you is searching for any book you seek, they replied.

Well, given the type of creature I was dealing with, I couldn’t expect them to give me vast riches or immortality or anything like that. Now that I knew the parameters of this wish-granting, though, what book should I ask them to find? Singling out a single volume would be difficult. I’d have to know the title to be able to ask for something specific. We had already searched through most of the literature pertaining to Gaunis, but we still hadn’t found the key we needed…

Wait. Maybe I should just give up on searching for something Gaunis-related and ask them to search for any book that might shine a light on a way to cure Zenith of her condition. Given the vast knowledge contained in this library and how enormous this place is, there might be some information on a way to treat her. Then again, it’s equally possible there isn’t.

No, I couldn’t ask about that. I hadn’t come to this Library Labyrinth to search for a way to heal Zenith. My priority was Ariel. I came here to help her. Zenith still weighed on my mind, but her condition was stable right now. I couldn’t let myself be distracted. If Orsted started to think I was unreliable and decided to abandon me, the Man-God might take the opportunity to massacre my entire family. I had to avoid that possibility at all costs. Zenith was important, but she couldn’t be my first priority right now. I had to forget about her.

“Oh, that’s right.” I suddenly remembered the slip of paper I had tucked inside my pocket. It was the one Orsted had passed to me right as I was leaving. It had a book’s cover drawn on it. He’d likely anticipated that we wouldn’t find what we were looking for, which was why he’d handed it to me. Maybe he’d meant for me to show it to the Demon King. He did mention he could see the future or something like that.

In that case, I wrote, I would like you to find a book with a cover that looks like this.

Very well, replied the slime.

I handed them the piece of paper, and a split second later, they plucked a volume from one of the shelves in the room. Apparently, the volume had been right nearby all along.

The slime grabbed the book, drew it inside its body, and transferred it to the tentacle that dangled in front of me. I grabbed it, expecting it to be dripping with slime goop, but to my surprise, it was perfectly dry.

Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This slime is a bookworm, so of course they know how to handle books properly.

I glanced down at the tome. It had a red leather cover adorned with trees bearing fruit, and it was particularly thick. I thumbed through it, giving it a cursory glance. The pages were covered in writing, squished tight from margin to margin.

Your wish has been granted, wrote Beethove. Take your time and enjoy reading it.

It then retracted its tentacles and resumed its copying work once more.

What if this book happened to have the same cover as the one I was looking for, but it wasn’t the right one? Could I ask for an exchange? Granted, the back cover even had the same scribbles on the edge, so the chances of this being the wrong book were slim.

“Well, at any rate, guess it’s time to crack this thing open.” I sat myself down and flipped to the first page. I barely made it several lines down before I gasped. “This book is…” I wasn’t sure yet whether it had the clues we needed or not, but I did know for certain that I had to show this to Ariel immediately.

When I made it back to our camp, Ariel was still sitting there hugging her knees to her chest. Sylphie and Luke were nowhere to be found, let alone Eris. Perhaps they’d all left to look for more materials to sift through. In their stead, Ghislaine remained at the princess’s side, not unlike a guard dog.

I stepped in front of Ariel. Since she was wearing a skirt, her white underwear was in plain view, but I tried to avert my gaze. Eris and Sylphie might not be here watching, but that didn’t mean I could sneak a peek. That was forbidden territory.

“Oh, Lord Rudeus,” she mumbled.

“You must be exhausted, Your Highness.”

“My apologies for letting you see me like this.” She adjusted her posture, sitting more gracefully this time.

Farewell, blissful white underwear. Our time together was short.

Anyway, that didn’t matter right now. “Princess Ariel, I found something good,” I said.

“Something good? What could that be?”

“Something I think will excite you.”

“Hm… What could that be? A sensual novel penned around the time Asura Kingdom was founded?”

Would something like that really excite her? I wondered.

“Oh, pardon me,” she said. “I digress, what is it you have?”

Now that she was mentally backed into a corner, she was babbling all kinds of strange things, which was amusing. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to leave her in this state for a bit longer. But then again, we didn’t have much time before we had to head for Asura. We didn’t have time to waste playing around like this.

“This,” I said, handing her the book I was holding.

Ariel’s eyes went wide as she glanced at the cover. “These things hanging from the trees… It’s the bat emblem.”

Oh, so those were bats and not fruits? Could’ve fooled me.

“Anyway, please go on and read it. I promise it will be more exciting for you than a sexy novel,” I said.

She furrowed her brow skeptically as she stared at the cover. Finally, she opened it to the first page. “Ah,” she gasped in realization as she made it through the first few lines.

She had discovered the same thing I did moments before; this was Derrick Redbat’s diary.

***

A diary is where one records the mundane goings-on of their everyday life. It allows one to briefly sum up recent happenings, keeping things simple and to the point, while expressing the emotions one is feeling at the time. Indeed, a diary is not merely a series of events; it is a record of the writer’s feelings. The author writes about what angered them, what brought them to tears, what made them laugh, what brought them pleasure, what brought them pain, what prejudices they hold. They write about when they feel lonely, happy, lustful, and every other emotion in between. The way these things are recorded is at once detailed and yet vague.

In Derrick’s diary, he never mentioned his own name, but he wrote daily about Ariel and Luke. It was an ordinary, casual journal: one you might find anywhere in the world. And it was for this very reason that his true thoughts were contained within.

There was intense pride in his words, beyond what I would have expected. I couldn’t hide my shock at how much he truly believed in Ariel at his core, more than anyone else I had ever met before. And I knew well enough how much charisma she possessed.

Ariel began combing through the book. She devoured every word, quietly and methodically. I decided to wait nearby until she finished. 

As I watched her turn the pages, Sylphie, Luke, and Eris returned. They were carrying armfuls of books. They had located a veritable mountain of material regarding Gaunis on another bookshelf. When Sylphie and Eris noticed me staring at Ariel, their expressions turned sour, at least until they noticed how absorbed Ariel in the book was.

Sylphie quietly took a seat beside me, no longer pouting about my attention being focused elsewhere. “Rudy, what’s going on?” she asked.

“I found an interesting book, so I’m having Princess Ariel read it,” I said.

“Oh? What book is that?”

“Derrick Redbat’s diary.”

Luke’s jaw dropped. He stared at Ariel. “Come to think of it, he did write in that thing practically every day.”

“You should consider reading it afterward as well,” I suggested.

“…Yeah, guess so. Though I’m sure he didn’t have very nice things to say about me.”

I shrugged. That was something he’d have to read to find out for himself.

“Anyway,” said Sylphie, “it’s incredible you were able to find something so specific like that.”

“Yeah, well, I sort of have a thing with diaries,” I said, opting not to share that I’d found it with intel from Orsted. It was true, anyway: I really did have a connection with diaries. There was the one I’d written, the one Gaunis had written, and now the one Derrick Redbat had written.

After a while, Ariel finally finished reading. She closed the book with a snap. Her expression was devoid of any real emotion and difficult to read, but she was obviously feeling something given her blushing cheeks and misty eyes.

“Princess Ariel?” Luke immediately went to her, taking a knee at her side.

“Oh, Luke. You should read this too.”

“…As you wish.”

Ariel handed the book to him before turning toward me. The hesitation in her eyes had vanished completely. She must have discovered something while reading that book. Something that I, as an outsider, wouldn’t have been able to catch. Whatever her epiphany was, it was probably something Derrick would have told her directly had he still been alive.

“Well, Princess, were you pleased with it?” I asked.

“Yes. You did an excellent job finding it.” The expression on her face said it all before the words even left her lips. “I now know the answer to Lord Perugius’s question.”

There was such strength in her eyes. I could only nod silently.

After that, we began our preparations to return home. Sylphie and I started returning the books we had borrowed, while Eris, Ghislaine, and Luke cleaned up our campsite. There was no drop-off where we could leave these tomes, so we had to accomplish the difficult task of putting them back exactly where we’d found them.

We scrambled back and forth, trying to put them in the right place, but apparently failed a few times. I only knew because a slime would come along and snatch the book from where we’d shelved it, rushing off to return it to its rightful place. 

Part of me thought we should entrust the task of organizing all these books to the Demon King’s minions, but leaving behind a bunch of books without putting them back where we’d found them was obviously bad etiquette. This library admittedly had a terrible organization system, but it did contain a wealth of information. There might come a day when we needed to use this place again, so it was in our best interests to mind our manners. If I managed to stay on Demon King Beethove’s good side, he might be willing to find a book for me again.

With that in mind, we managed to return all the books before finally making it back to the campsite. Everyone else had already finished packing by that point and were left twiddling their thumbs as they waited for us.

Eris was bored out of her mind, sitting with both legs stretched out in front of her. Ghislaine had hers crossed beneath her as she meditated. Ariel sat gracefully beside Luke as she waited for us to finish. 

Luke was still cradling Derrick’s diary in his arms, tears welling in his eyes. “I can’t…believe this…” His brows were knitted, his hands trembling as he turned the pages and took in the words. “I was…such an idiot…”

“Luke,” Ariel said in reprimand, “that goes for both of us.”

“Your Highness…”

Ariel smiled at him, and the tears finally broke loose, streaming down his cheeks. Her face strained as she watched him.

Having read some of the diary, I already knew what Derrick thought of Luke. None of it was good, at least on the surface. He even wrote about what a rotten brat Luke was, teaching Ariel nothing but bad behavior. Yet it was clear from the way he wrote just how deep his affection for Ariel was. 

Derrick could sense that, despite Luke’s youth, the boy had a knack for dealing with people. If Luke started using that natural talent on men as well as women, he could climb the ranks and have followers of his own someday. Simply put, Derrick expected great things from him in the future. Even as he complained about Luke’s ridiculous preoccupation with women, he also saw potential behind that veneer.

If Derrick were still alive, Ariel and Luke might not be as passionate about taking the throne as they were now. But if he could see them now, he would probably be more than happy to lend them his aid—though if he really were here, Sylphie would have no place with them. Derrick had watched them both closely and had great expectations for what they could eventually accomplish.

I glanced at Sylphie, who was standing beside me. Her face was pulled into a conflicted expression as she watched her two friends. Maybe this wasn’t such a happy development where she was concerned. She had considered herself one of the founding members of their group, but this diary dispelled that notion.

I considered pulling her close and stroking her head, telling her that she still had me so there was no need to worry, but I got the feeling that wasn’t what she needed right now.

While I was preoccupied with my thoughts, Sylphie mumbled, “Okay, here goes.” Having plucked up her courage, she stepped toward her two friends and knelt down. “Hey, you two…”

“Sylphie…”

Ariel and Luke both wore awkward expressions as they looked at her. They hadn’t done anything wrong, but I could understand why they felt guilty. They had always treated her like she’d been with them from the start.

Wonder what she plans to say to them? My stomach was knotting up in anxiety.

Sylphie’s voice trembled as she said, “Um, this Derrick person… When we get back home, could I ask you to tell me more about him? Since it seems like he had such great expectations of you both, I’d like to know about him too.”

“Of course,” said Luke, nodding. “In fact, I want you to know more about him. He was the first person to recognize Princess Ariel’s true potential.”

Ariel was silent, but the way she smiled made it clear that she agreed with everything he’d said.

Sylphie grinned, pleased at their reply.

I clapped a hand over my mouth without even realizing what I was doing. Watching them filled my heart with such emotion. I recalled Sylphie in her younger years, back when we lived in Buena Village. She was always all by herself, bullied by the other children. I was the only friend she had, and when she thought I might leave, her eyes had filled with tears.

But look at this now, I thought. That lonely little girl now has such amazing friends.

I hadn’t done anything to help her along. Ariel and Luke were friends Sylphie had made on her own.

It was admittedly a little sad to realize that she no longer belonged to me and me alone, but this was a good thing. I was certain. I wouldn’t have thought so in the past but this was the way things should be. Neither I, nor anyone else, should be watching over her as a protector. She needed to be an equal, both in our relationship and in her friendship with Ariel and Luke. She had managed to cultivate those relationships on her own. She was also trying her best to stand on equal footing with me, too.

That means I need to match her efforts.

When it came to friendships and equals, the first people that came to mind for me were Cliff and Zanoba.

“H-hey, Rudeus…”

I glanced to my side. Eris was standing there, bumping her elbow against mine.

What could she want? Maybe she was jealous that I’d had my eyes glued on Sylphie this entire time. Don’t worry. I’m not going to leave you out. We’re married now, so I’ll be sure to shower you with just as much—hm?

Eris was glancing behind us, down the corridor.

What could she be looking at?

“Uhh?!” I gasped, as I finally realized what had caught her attention.

The hallway was filled with an enormous number of slimes and ants. Both were gleaming red; in the former’s case, it was their core emitting light, while in the latter’s case, it was their eyes. At any rate, it was clear they were pissed.

“Filed…it…”

“You…de…”

The swarm spoke in groans, though it was hard to tell how they were producing that noise. Either way, they were slowly making their approach. 

Why? Why are they angry?!

We had returned the books to their proper places. I didn’t know where Derrick’s diary belonged, so I planned to hand that back to the Demon King and pay my respects before we left. It was the only book we still had.

“You…de…”

“Filed…it…”

You… Defiled… It…? What did we defile? A book?

“Oh!” I jerked my head around to face Luke.

He was staring at the army of monsters with his mouth agape. Realization only dawned after a moment as he glanced down at the book he was holding. His tears had soaked into the page, making the ink bleed so much that some of the words were indistinguishable.

“I-I’m terribly sorry!” Luke hastily apologized, snatching a handkerchief from his pocket to dab at the book.

“No, Luke, you can’t do that!” Sylphie cried, trying to stop him, but her warning came too late. His attempt only caused the ink to smear even more, and thanks to his tears weakening the integrity of the paper, it tore under the force of his hand.

“Graaaah!”

Behind the ants, a Cthulhu-Snail came charging at breakneck speed. The ants opened their jowls and the slimes shrunk inward on themselves. They were so enraged that they had lost their senses.

Eris reflexively jumped in front of us.

“S-sorry, we really didn’t mean to do it!” I cried out from behind her, but my plea fell on deaf ears.

The slimes lunged at us, and Eris and Ghislaine lunged forward to cut them down. In a single stroke, they managed to slice six of the slimes’ cores in half, leaving goopy puddles on the ground.

Eris glanced back at us and bellowed, “Rudeus!”

I wanted to thank the Demon King for going out of their way to accommodate us, and I wanted to apologize for defiling one of their books. I hoped, at the same time, they might be willing to hear our side of the story. Alas, these creatures had gone berserk with fury. They wouldn’t listen to reason even if we tried to talk it out.

“Let’s make a run for it!” I turned to grab our luggage.

Sylphie and the others moved swiftly, following my lead. Luke was the only one who lagged behind, still gobsmacked that his actions had triggered all of this. Fortunately, he was accustomed to hastily retreating. He grabbed what was left and drew his sword so he could protect Ariel in case anything slipped past our defenses.

“Sylphie!” I shouted.

“Right! I’ll take the lead. Everyone, follow me!”

All I had done was call her name, but that was enough for her to interpret my instructions.

So this is what they call being on the same wavelength. Maybe it was merely a coincidence, but it made me happy nonetheless.

“Ghislaine, you back Sylphie up. Luke, you stick by the princess and keep her safe. Eris and I will provide cover.”

“Provide cover? Provide cover from where?!” Eris roared.

“From the rear!”

I turned my staff toward the encroaching slimes.

Sorry, Lord Beethove, but Luke had no ill intentions.

Okay, admittedly, he was probably one of the Man-God’s apostles, so it was possible he was operating on the Man-God’s orders…

No, that’s crazy. I don’t think that was it. Well, regardless, sorry, Demon King!

“Frost Nova!” 

Ice formed at the tip of my staff, triggering a cold blast that rippled outward. The monsters hit by it instantly began to freeze, but their movements didn’t stop completely. My spell had only slowed them down. Apparently, they had resisted the full effect, but delaying their advance was good enough.

“Yaaah!” 

Ghislaine whipped her sword through the air, instantly slicing through the enemies blocking our path. She cut through the slimes and ants like they were butter. She would have used that momentum to continue charging forward, but a Cthulhu-Snail stopped her advance. Her attacks glanced off its shell with a clang. Its club-shaped tentacles contracted before going on the counterattack. In modern terms, it was like a tank that had suddenly whipped out a lance and started going on the offensive with it. With no other options, Ghislaine took to evading its onslaught.

“Ice Lance!” Sylphie bellowed.

The snail had managed to keep itself safe by hiding in its shell, but its underbelly was unprotected. Sylphie’s lance jutted through the earth, skewering the creature.

“Now, let’s go!”

“Right!”

Sylphie charged ahead, breaking through the enemy’s ranks with Ghislaine hot on her heels. Ariel and Luke scrambled along behind them, but an ant that had avoided my Frost Nova by skittering across the ceiling came crashing toward them.

“Hah!” Eris immediately moved to intervene. Her swing was so heavy, it severed the creature’s head from its body before leaving an impact crater on the floor.

“Stone Cannon!” Without missing a beat, I launched a spell at it. These insect-type creatures could sometimes keep moving even without a head. I wasn’t leaving anything to chance. 

Finishing the enemy off was an ironclad rule of battle, but considering how graciously the Demon King had allowed us into their library, I did feel a bit guilty slaughtering their familiars like this.

“Now things are getting interesting!” Eris said.

“Interesting? It’s giving me a stomachache,” I grumbled as I hurried after Ariel and the others.

“Dammit, just how many of these creatures are there?!”

The horde’s pursuit was unrelenting. Despite how unassuming they looked on their own, these beasts held quite a lot of power. The slimes in particular were far quicker than they initially appeared—like the Metal Slimes in Dragon Quest. If we paused for even a second, those ants would be on us, and their jaws were powerful enough to chomp through the toughest bedrock. But the worst of them were the Cthulhu-Snails that came charging from the front. If Ghislaine and Eris didn’t use the full force of their blades in their attack, it would merely glance right off. Even if they managed to cut through, it wasn’t enough to instantly kill the beast; it would still swing its club-like tentacles at us.

Thankfully, the Library Labyrinth had no rooms and was instead a collection of interconnected hallways. So, as long as we kept up a solid offense in the front and back of the line, they wouldn’t be able to completely surround us and kill us off. Sylphie and Ghislaine took point, guiding us along, while Eris and I covered the rear. I kept unleashing Frost Novas while Ghislaine cut a path ahead. Sylphie continued launching Ice Lances from the ground below, skewering every snail, and Eris cleaned up whatever was left. We slowly inched forward while making sure nothing sneaked up behind us. We had an exhausting number of enemies, but we were at least making some progress forward.

“There, ahead!” Ghislaine’s sharp voice cut through the air.

I snapped around. Ahead of us was an enormous swarm of slimes all clumped together. In the blink of an eye, they morphed into a single, enormous slime that completely blocked our path.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Really? Now we have to face a King Slime?

“Haaaah! Tornado Impact!” Sylphie launched her magic at it, and Ghislaine brought her sword down upon it, but the King Slime recovered from the damage almost instantaneously and continued to block us.

“Rudy, I can’t handle this thing!” said Sylphie.

“I’ll take it from here!” I hurried forward, taking Sylphie’s spot so she could fall back to help Eris cover our rear. It was a seamless transition. I didn’t have to give her explicit instructions; she moved on her own.

Come to think of it, this is the first time the two of us have ever fought against something together, isn’t it? She’s got more guts than I thought.

Honestly, it wasn’t my doing. She was the one picking up on my silent cues and reacting appropriately. In the split second where we brushed past one another, our eyes met. Her expression betrayed the panic she was feeling, but in that moment, her lips eased a little and her ears twitched. Perhaps the same thoughts had crossed her mind, and with them, a twinge of happiness and embarrassment.

Whoops, hold up. Now isn’t the time for that.

All that aside, this slime was enormous. I wondered if the Demon King had come into existence the same way. No, that couldn’t be. This thing had a huge number of cores inside it. It wasn’t a single entity but a conglomeration of many.

Which meant the best way to break it down was…

“Ghislaine, I’m going to launch a powerful blast and break it into pieces. I want you to take down as many of the smaller slimes as you can,” I said.

“Got it.” 

She wasn’t spacing out or anything, but I gave her detailed instructions because I didn’t want her charging in at the same time I used my magic.

“Phew…” 

I took a deep breath and started concentrating mana into my right hand. I needed a spell that could blast a hole right through the giant slime. Sylphie’s Tornado Impact was an advanced spell that made wind rotate rapidly, almost like a drill. It had punched a hole in the creature, but without enough force to break it into pieces. I needed something that would cause destruction, not in a single concentrated spot but across a wide area. And that had more power behind it than Sylphie could muster.

“Improved Sonic Boom!”

What I unleashed was a shapeless shockwave. As the name implied, it was similar to Sonic Boom, which was an intermediate spell, but added a punch that far exceeded the base spell in power.

An invisible explosion echoed through the halls, blasting through the slime with incredible speed. The force caused the creature to shatter into splintered pieces.

“Graaaah!” As if refusing to be outdone by the tremors that rippled through the floor and walls, Ghislaine let out a fierce roar and charged forward. In one blink of an eye, she sliced through the cores of at least a dozen of the slimes.

“Huh?!” I gasped, realizing that another enemy lay in wait behind that wall of enormous goop. No, not one. There were five Cthulhu-Snails. They had stopped their advance momentarily when the aftershock of my attack hit them, but just as quickly, they were back on the move, charging toward us. The snails managed to slip past Ghislaine and closed in on me.

“Graaaah!” Ghislaine leaped back, slamming her sword into one. She must have found a weak spot in its shell, because that was enough to stagger it. It collided with one of the nearby shelves and was buried in a mountain of books.

“Hmph!” I grunted, launching Stone Cannons at two of the others. The spells split the air with a screech, piercing straight through the creatures’ shells and leaving a goopy mess in their wake before blasting out the other side.

Sadly, that wasn’t the end. Snail guts went spraying everywhere, but even after being doused in its companion’s innards, a fourth snail continued sailing forward. Ghislaine moved to block it, standing between me and my would-be attacker.

But there’s still one left, right? That’s only four down.

By the time I thought that, it was too late. I sucked in a breath as my Eye of Foresight spotted the fifth one. It had hidden in the shadow of the fourth one and sneaked up, unnoticed. The cudgel of its tentacle filled my vision.

Too late to counterattack. I had to dodge it somehow. In a split-second decision, I jerked my upper body back.

“Eh?!”

It caught my flank. I had managed to avoid the tentacle, but the snail still rammed into me, sending me backward.

“Guh!”

I slammed into a bookshelf so hard, the air was knocked from my lungs.

Shit. They managed to break past us.

The snail that had slammed into me was now bearing down on Ariel. The princess was trying to fight back as best she could. She had a small sword, her eyes wide as she met the beast head-on. Panicked yet determined, she didn’t tremble in fear. She must have faced surprise attacks like this countless times before. Even so, the snail was on a rampage, brandishing its tentacles as it barreled toward her.

I didn’t think Ariel could handle it. I lifted my right hand, conjuring a Stone Cannon to launch at the snail.

It’s okay. I’ll make it in time, I thought.

But at that same moment, I saw something else at the edge of my vision—slimes. The appearance of the snails had distracted Ghislaine from cutting them down. Those that escaped her blade earlier slipped past the fallen snails and charged toward us. Ghislaine, meanwhile, had yet to finish off the fourth snail. Doubt hit me, but it wasn’t enough to slow down my spell.

“Stone Cannon!”

It split the air, slamming into its mark precisely as intended. A pleasing, familiar boom echoed as it shattered the snail’s body. In that instant, the slimes dodged Ghislaine and rushed toward Ariel.

Only a single man stood between them and the princess—Luke. He’d likely been preparing to face the snail until I killed it. His focus then shifted to the ten encroaching slimes. Two of them split off toward me as I knelt beside one of the bookshelves. Three others retraced their path to flank Ghislaine.

I focused my Eye of Foresight on the two approaching me. I calmly dealt with them while keeping my eye on Luke. His preemptive strike at the five surrounding him managed to kill one. However, the other four were already moving in sync. One launched itself at his feet, while another slammed into his stomach. Luke collapsed onto one knee, at which point the third slime wrapped itself around his sword, while the last of their number aimed an attack at his unprotected head.

“Urgh?!”

Luke took a heavy blow to the skull. Blood gushed from his forehead and sprayed out of his nose, but that wasn’t enough to stop him. He pulled a short sword from its sheath on his waist and stabbed the slime wrapped around his main weapon. With it freed, he took down two others that had lunged at Ariel.

“I won’t let you lay a finger on Princess Ariel!” he bellowed.

Alas, there was still one slime left—the one that had landed such a fierce blow on his head. Luke had turned his back on it to cut down the others, and it now launched itself at him, aiming for the back of his head. Despite how soft its body looked, it packed the punch of a cannonball. If it hit the wrong spot, it could shatter his skull.

Fortunately, the slime didn’t hit its mark because Ariel drove her sword straight into its core. It turned into formless goop and spattered in a puddle on the floor.

“Princess Ariel,” gasped Luke.

“Luke, in times like these, I have no intention of remaining a simple wallflower.” She grinned.

With that, the way forward was clear. 

Ghislaine cast a grim look at me.

“Onward!” I commanded, peeling myself off the floor. I bathed the party with healing magic as I scrambled to rejoin her at the front of our formation. Guilty as I felt for ruining such a touching scene, we had a flood of enemies charging at us from behind. We needed to get a move on.

After that, we continued mopping up our opponents as we rushed toward the exit. The beasts tried all manner of tactics to stop our retreat. Slimes formed walls, snails came in droves, ants scuttled across the ceiling and tried to drop down on us en masse. When enemies inevitably slipped by, Luke fiercely protected the princess as if his life depended on it. Ariel also did her part with her own magic and short sword, taking down whatever came her way.

Thanks to these diligent efforts, we reached the teleportation circle mostly unscathed. If Ariel had been a mere wallflower, or if Luke had revealed himself to be the Man-God’s apostle and stabbed someone in the back, our formation would have undoubtedly crumbled. 

Even so, this was still a failure. I had hoped to return here if we ever needed to research anything else, but alas, that now seemed impossible. We had killed no small number of the Demon King’s minions and damaged numerous books during our retreat.

Who would have thought that someone crying on a book would piss them off this much?

The one note of hope was that these familiars moved more like puppets than actual sentient beasts. But even if they were mindless machines, we had still destroyed them. I’d be pretty thick-skinned to use their lack of sentience as an excuse to weasel forgiveness out of the Demon King. No. Even with a letter of apology, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t let any of this slide.

At least there were a few upsides: whether or not Luke was one of the Man-God’s apostles, he’d proved he would still protect Ariel with his life. And Ariel had found her answer to Perugius’s question. We got what we came for. We cleared our objective. That was good enough for now.