Further updating the deepest descent record, discovering a Dungeon Oasis — as one might think, the Adventurer’s Guild was astir like an overturned pot.
Lately, the gaunt Guildmaster had issued a statement that he would soon be holding a briefing session for advanced Adventurers and residents.
However, the counter staff don’t have such big responsibilities, and they only had to repeat the same responses as the last time, so they had a relaxing time.
Even the beginner and intermediate Adventurers who were not directly related also seemed to be waiting for information to be released, so there are few applications related to labyrinth diving.
The past few days had been somewhat restless, but there was no major trouble.
“Even the expedition that they took trouble to organise has gone to waste.”
Arranging the no longer needed Dive Plan bundled on the counter, Ann, the dispatched staff from the Sherpa Guild, mumbled dejectedly.
In fact, a large expedition plan had been made by 5 advanced Adventurer parties, but they received word from the party leader in-charge that the plan was to be cancelled.
Outsiders from “Twilight’s Sword” had discovered the spiral path continuing from the 48th Floor and the Dungeon Oasis right at the beginning of the floor, so not wanting to lose out, they were about to set out with determination only to receive reports that that the 50th Floor had been reached and another Dungeon Oasis discovered.
Furthermore — though still unconfirmed information — rumours were flying around that the legendary monster known as the ‘Phantom Death Encounter’, the Lich had appeared
This completely took the wind out of their sails.
“It sounds like various types of new monsters have appeared, and it will be necessary to adopt countermeasures against them, so surely it can’t be helped. From now on, we will be flooded to death with inquiries.”
This was Sura, the receptionist from the Adventurer’s Guild, who had a meaningful smile.
“More importantly, Ann. I heard that Rowe was discharged from the hospital, is that true?”
“Ah, yes. Just the other day. I haven’t met him yet though–“
Even though she was still on duty, Anne raised her voice hysterically.
“Oh, I forgot!”
“W, what’s wrong, Ann?”
Bringing her face close, she cast a dazzling gaze at her.
She had exactly the eyes of a teenage girl obsessed with romance, and her spirit of curiosity was bared naked.
“About that thing, I want to interrogate — no, ask Rowe about it!”
“You remembered huh…”
’That thing’ referred to the previous day in this lobby, when Rowe and Zag from “Magic Reversal” had gotten entangled with each other, and helped by “Twilight’s Sword”’s Yuika.
Surprisingly, Yuika had called Rowe “Darling” and declared their relationship as “lovers”. Following which, the two left the stunned audience behind and calmly walked out of the Adventurer’s Guild.
After that, when Sura came to her senses, she had requested Ann to keep quiet.
It was possible that Yuika had put on a show to cover for Rowe. “Twilgiht’s Sword” was the most important client of Tyros’ Adventurer’s Guild, and it was decided that it would be wise to take measures against careless rumours from spreading and causing a commotion.
Anne, whose curiosity and speech had been sealed, agreed for the time being — and then came up with another proposal.
‘It’s definitely too dangerous to judge and act based only on this information. That’s why we should check what’s really true directly with the 2 of them. The 4 of us will have dinner together, and we’ll try to find out during then. Since we have Rowe as a mutual acquaintance, it’ll look like we’re only having him introduce us to Yuika, so it won’t be unnatural. Let’s go ahead and do this right now.’
Seeing this girl who was usually timid becoming so unexpectedly decisive, Sura inwardly thought, ‘this girl can’t be let loose klike that’ and had just given an evasive, vague reply.
“But it’s quite hard to grab hold of Rowe, huh. After work, he’s the first to go home.”
“Marin is still small. 3… or is she 4 years old?”
“He really dotes on her. He always brags to everyone about how cute she is.”
“That guy, he does things like that?”
It was a surprising fact for Sura, who had lost contact with Rowe since he retired as an Adventurer.
During his time as an Adventurer, Rowe was always calm and collected, controlled his facial expressions, and extremely hated having his emotions understood by others.
“A little while ago, he was going around showing everyone the pressed flowers that his sister gave him.”
There was no doubt that he cherished his little sister. That was why Rowe quit being an Adventurer and became a Sherpa.
“Fufu. He’s kind of like a dad, it’s cute, isn’t it?”
“Cute? That guy?”
Were they talking about the same person?
Such acts were unthinkable for the Rowe that Sura had known, and she couldn’t pass this over as just a joke.
That cold, calculating, self-serving man. Who never lets his guard down.
’Self-serving’ referred to how he only acted kindly towards himself and those important to him — in other words, only kind towards his family.
That’s why that man would not be unwilling to use any means to protect his sister.
She felt a chilling premonition.
In the first place, it was hard to suddenly believe that a mere Sherpa from a rural region was in a romantic relationship with the super-famous Hero of the East.
I don’t seriously think so, but is he not trying to sweet talk her and trick her into doing something?
The goal would be obvious — money.
“…well, that’s probably not the case.”
Sura smiled wryly at her all too wild thoughts.
On the other side, Rowe was being forcibly kidnapped from his home and detained in the conference room of the Sherpa Guild.
While breakfast was being prepared, several burly, muscular men suddenly appeared and sang in a loud chorus.
“Rowe~!”
They were all Rowe’s seniors, athletic, sweaty men who absolutely obeyed orders from their superiors.
Needing to make adjustments with Nuuk, the submission of the Dive Report was delayed. The upper management of the Sherpa Guild must have gone numb from waiting.
Rowe had conveyed that he would submit the Dive Report by noon, but he was being intimidated to head there immediately. On the grounds that he was recovering from illness, he tried to turn them away, but he was threatened that he “didn’t have to worry”.
“Just in case something like this happened, I prepared a stretcher.”
“A stretcher? But Marin…”
“Then you should go together.”
Riding a stretcher along with her brother, Mariete was amazed.
Arriving at the Sherpa Guides, before the sombre meeting began, a mountain of sweets was served before Mariette.
“Marin, you haven’t had breakfast yet? We only have this, but you don’t have to hold back, so eat a lot, okay?”
Unfortunately, the one who said that with a gentle smile was a big bearded man — Gameo. His speech and gestures were very feminine, but despite his appearance, he was an advanced Sherpa, and seemed to be the father of 3 children.
“Alright, leave the drinks to me!”
Gunji, the Guildmaster of the Sherpa Guild, grabbed a Sarabo fruit and squeezed it out, with a, “Ngaa!”. The Sarabo fruit was covered with a hard shell, and usually broken with a special hammer. Gunji removed some of the husk, and now carefully poured the juice in a glass.
“If you want more, there’s as much as you want.”
Although Mariete was extremely shy, she had visited the Sherpa Guild with Rowe several times. She knew very well that these big bearded men were actually kind, so she wasn’t frightened.
With both hands, she drank the Sarabo juice and munched on some baked goods.
The men were looking at the situation from afar with eyes full of affection. They wanted to spoil this girl that was like a cute baby rabbit, but if they got too close they would frighten her so they were all fidgeting impatiently.
When Mariette smiled, the tense atmosphere suddenly relaxed.
“Well, how cute! We have 3 sons, so I wanted a daughter!”
When Gameo stroked Mariete’s head, as though a dam had been broken, the men flocked to her.
“You, don’t touch her with your rough hands! This pervert!”
“I only have cheeky kids, they’re not cute at all.”
“My daughter, says I stink— damn it!”
“Oi. Just now, the guy that called me a pervert, I’m going to crush you.”
“Gameo, you’ve revealed your true colours. Sorry, Marin. Good girl, good girl.”
“Ah, sorry. Me of all people. Marin, that was a joke~”
“Marin, eat the sweets over here too. Stop patting her–”
“Don’t bring out the snacks for drinks. You really want her to eat fried beans? And also, this jerky…”
“All of you, stop fooling around! Get lost! Stop touching her. Marin is my disciple’s sister. The one in-charge of her is me!”
The conference room was sent into a shambles by the men who had forgotten their original objective, and the Guildmaster who should have reined in the situation, started grumbling nonsense like “the one in-charge of her is me”.
In the end, the old woman who was the former Guildmaster and had arrived late — Gima, gathered them and drove them out with her pipe, and the place finally regained its calm.
“Haa, everything about you guys. So pathetic that my tears are coming out.”
“Mom…”
Gunji gently placed his hand on the shoulder of the old woman who had let out a big sigh.
“Don’t worry too much. Those guys usually fool around, but when push comes to shove, they’re more than capable.”
“I’m talking about you!”
Gunji let out a scream as the pipe swung again.
Gima called for Gabo, a newcomer, and ordered him to read a book to Mariete in another room.
“If the princess stays here, the talk won’t progress. Don’t make her cry, Gabo.”
“G, got it!”
After that, Rowe was made to report on his labyrinth exploration with “Twilight’s Sword”.
“Without the Dive Report, what should I talk about?”
“Everything.”
Nobody lent an ear to Rowe’s protests.
“You’ve already sorted things out in your head, haven’t you? As usual, talk about everything that happened in the labyrinth in an easy-to-understand way. That will be good.”
The only people in the conference room are the executives of the Sherpa Guild and advanced Sherpas.
On top of the circular desk was a total of 50 gigantic parchments numbered according to the labyrinth floors — “Sherpa Maps”.
Number 48 was almost blank, and numbers 49 and 50 were completely blank.
It would take a while to detail how the map should be filled out.
Around noon was when Rowe finished speaking, and after that, they started working on the clean copy of the “Sherpa’s Map” as well as the coded version.
Sherpas are not required to do this work, as there are specialists in charge.
Thinking that he had suffered through a terrible experience, Rowe was about to pick up Mariete when he was stopped by Gima.
“…Rowe boy. I still have something to talk to you about. There’s another job I need you for.”
–
