Strongest Gamer Lets Play in Aother World Volume 1 Chapter 2

Strongest Gamer Lets Play in Aother World Volume 1 Chapter 2

“So this is the surface... It’s lot less green than thought there would be, almost like a wasteland, really.”

“Monsters hate living in places like these, so it’s easier to build fields and villages. There’s a forest at the other side of the bridge, see?”

I looked to the west and saw there was grassland spreading out on the other side across the bridge, just like Ann said. I could just make out what seemed to be a forest filled with trees further out, too.

“Are there dangerous creatures living in places like that?”


“Yeah. There’s some intelligent monsters in there, but most of them are vicious and can’t communicate, so it’s pretty dangerous”

“I see. So there’s a lot rough places in this world too, huh? Well then, how about we head to the village? You haven’t seen your family in a long while, right?”

“Yep. This way, Mister!”

Ann held my hand and walked with a fast pace. We ended up on a simple hardened soil road as she guided me away from the stairway. When I looked back at the Saredo Great Rift, I managed to catch a glimpse of a simple bridge made out of rope and planks of wood that looked like it’d struggle to even give pass to a single carriage. Did Ann fall from that? Upon further inspection, I saw traces which indicated that it was repaired recently.

Ann continued to guide me along the road to the east for nearly an hour. Along the way, I saw some fields here and there. I wondered if there was a clan of giants that pulled dead trees from their roots in those far off fields. They seem to be at least three meters tall, or maybe my depth perception was out of whack. The fields in the immediate vicinity were, to put it bluntly, very dry. There were lots of stones in them, and the dirt seemed coarse and dehydrated compared to the rich black soil back at the ravine. They lived in a pioneering village, maybe that was related to why the soil was rather sterile.

“Ann, is life at the village difficult?”

“Yeah. My Auntie said it would take ten years for us to get a good harvest. There’s not really any rich people back in my village.”

Yeah, it might be because it was still just a pioneering village, but it seemed life was hard even in a world like this.

“Then you guys will be having lots of tasty crops in a decade? I hope it works out.”

They may be mere words of consolation, but that kind of thing was important when facing hard times.

It was a bit of an old story, but I tried out the marriage feature in an online game once. It was supposed to be like a fun way to display that you married someone else’s avatar using an event item called ‘Wedding Ring’. On paper it seemed like a good idea, at least... But some players who married their friends ended up becoming mentally unhinged, and desired to monopolize their partners. In due time, they leveled up and changed class from online stalkers to real stalkers.

I remembered this one time I was being ambushed in front of my house, and I ran away to a childhood friend’s house without thinking.

“It’s okay now.”

I could never forget the feeling of security those mere words of consolation gave me.

“Yeah, me too. Everyone’s doing their best to make it happen!”

Ann’s smile as she nodded at my words was simply dazzling.

“A-Auntie! Auntie!”

When we approached what looked like a village with a bunch of tiny buildings, Ann started running towards one of the fields all of a sudden. Right ahead of her there was a... dog-faced creature with a dumbfounded expression on her face. And I say ‘she’ because there was an unusually large swell in her bust area, so I figured it was safe to assume they were female.

“Ann? Is it really you!?”

Ann ran to hug her even though her clothes were covered in dirt and dust. The kobolds that were hard at their farmwork started to gather around them when they heard the commotion.

“Well if it isn’t Ann!”

“You’re alive!?”

The surrounding kobolds started a bit of an uproar. Yeah, the same way we Asians couldn’t tell Caucasians apart from each other, and vice versa for them, I couldn’t really tell apart one kobold from another, among the flock that started to gathered. The only real differentiating feature was their height, and Ann, because she was wearing a pretty dress.

The kobolds seemed to differ in their coats of fur. There were some that look like Shiba Inus, some with black or white spots, different colored eyes and arms, and so on. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to tell one apart from the other if they looked kind of the same and you shuffled them around, though.

“So Ann is back? Now that’s something! I’m sorry, but I’d like to hear all about it in detail. Would you mind coming over to my house? Jenny, Ann, you girls come as well.”

A huge minotaur wielding a hoe arrived after hearing the commotion. It seemed like he was the mayor of this pioneering village... In the end, I was guided to the mayor’s residence together with Ann and her aunt.

The mayor looked rather old, and had some wrinkles on his face. He also had a kind of calm demeanor to him; but between his stern face and his large build—that seemed more than capable of folding a human in two with just one hand—I almost wanted to back down on reflex. It was hard for me to keep a straight face while Ann walked alongside him as if it was the most normal thing in the world. There weren’t any kids who would be happy about you getting scared by their friends, I guess. The humans that have been born in this world might be used to this sort of thing, but my culture shock had started to kick in pretty hard.

The village I was guided to was structured in a radial manner, where roads and fields spread outwards, and the houses were built towards the center. Speaking of which, all of the houses are pretty simple buildings. The walls were made out of dry hardened earth blocks and tree bark, while the roofs were made out of straw and simple wooden planks.

If you made a house like this in Japan, it would get blown away by a typhoon or a small earthquake. I wondered if there were even any of those around this region. Eventually we arrived at a house which appeared to be particularly large compared to the others. Apparently this one belonged to the mayor. Rather than being bigger just because he was the mayor, I figured it was just a house tailored to his rather large stature. I mean, really, the guy was well over two meters tall.

“Oho... Who would have thought there would be a labyrinth of the Great Dark Lord down the Great Saredo Rift. “

While I told him about my job as labyrinth manager, the mayor poured me tea in a cup as big as a helmet from the human world.

“At any rate, the fact that Ann was saved after falling down the bridge is of most importance. I would like to extend my thanks to you, Mister Aoi. These days, Jenny, Sarah, and all of Ann’s acquaintances were quite depressed because of the incident, you see.”

I talked about the whole story regarding how I ended up taking care of Ann. He seemed pleasantly surprised, and pleased she was safe this whole time. He may have looked all macho and scary, but he very much seemed like a simple and mellow person on the inside.

“I’m really glad I saved her as well. It would have been painful for such a nice and healthy girl to die so young.”

I went in ‘working adult’ mode for the first time in a long while. I also figured I would have to greet the villagers, so I thought it would be good to put on my suit’s tie and coat as well.

“Thank you so very much. Ann’s like a keepsake from my sister. Whenever I thought she wouldn’t ever come back I... (sniff)”

Ann’s aunt, Jenny-san, cried while hugging her.

—Jenny-san... Ah, it’s kind of weird to reference her the same way I would someone back at home, huh? Force of habit, really.

“Here, a handkerchief. Please be happy Ann came back safe.”

I offered a linen handkerchief to Jenny. The fact I hesitated back then to give Ann the medicine mouth-to-mouth because of her cute doggy face sent pangs of guilt through my soul—like a thorn right into my heart.

“I can’t believe such a nice person saved you... FNNNRK...”

Was that no good? It seemed to cause the opposite effect. I’d dealt with these kinds of situations a lot in dating sims, but when it came to real familial interactions, I had no idea what options there were.

“Umm... Mayor Hopper, I have about one month left until my labyrinth manager apprenticeship period is over. Would you allow me to trade in this village? There is no one but me in the labyrinth, and I have a few things that could be considered special products, so I think it would be beneficial to able to purchase and exchange things in the village.”

“We welcome you with open arms. Our village is rather poor, as you see, so peddlers only come occasionally. It’s really good news there’ll be new business, however small,” he replied, while nodding.

—Alright, I can finally say goodbye to the daily pumpkins!

“Oh yeah, can you use this currency? I use it to buy and sell stuff with the other managers.”

I took out a silver 5000 DL coin I had in my pocket.

“It’s quite alright. That’s the same currency that’s widely used across all of the domains of the Great Dark Lord. There are certain local currencies issued by regional lords themselves, but regular currency like this is better to use.”

It was good to hear that I could use the coins here. If I combined that with the delivery box from the labyrinth, I really might be able to become kind of a merchant. Tundra was always short in the fresh food department, after all.

“Though, I have to say, your coat looks way glossier than before, Ann. You look like you filled up quite nicely as well. You look so fancy now that I almost didn’t recognize you.”

—So kobolds add hair glossiness to their appearance assessment? I’ll keep that in mind.

“Yep, the food back at his place is really tasty. He lets me eat until I’m full, too!”

Despite Ann’s cheery tone, all we had most of the time was that insipid pumpkin that didn’t improve one bit, no matter how much salt or sugar you’d sprinkle on top. She talked about the food with so much joy, even though the most we ever really had outside of pumpkins were the occasional beef jerky, or dried fruit from Tundra. Her joy made me feel a complex mix of happiness and guilt. I wondered if it was the difference between a child raised in a pioneering village where life is difficult, versus a Japanese that got to eat as much as they wanted.

“You really took care of Ann so well...“

Jenny continued crying while holding Ann close. Aunts and uncles who took children under their wing were usually pretty cold to them in stories and fairy tales. It was basically a clich é , but Ann seemed to be really loved.

“Aoi, what do you plan on doing from now on?”

“Since I’m still a labyrinth manager, I guess I have to go back there and actually manage things.”

Although it might be presumptuous of me to call that ravine with a cabin, some trees, and the stairs going up to the surface a labyrinth, but I was at least a labyrinth manager in name.

“I see. Please, feel free to come to the village at any time. The village market opens up every ten days. Let’s see... The next one should be in eight days, and it lasts from early in the morning until noon. You’re welcome to participate, if you wish.”

“Thank you very much. Ann, thank you for helping me out so much... Well, then—”

I got up and almost fell over as I tried to leave after stroking Ann’s head. Her hands were firmly holding the cuff of my slacks. 

“What’s wrong, Ann?”

—Oh, there’s big tears coming out of the corners of her eyes. Did I set off some weird event flag!?

“I don’t want you to go... Aoi... I want you to be with me.”

—I class changed from Mister!?

Wait, no. I was happy about that, but it wasn’t the problem here.

“Oh man, that’s a little difficult for me. I may be an apprentice, but I’m still a labyrinth apprentice. I can’t stay in the village forever.”

I was kinda cheated into it, but it was still more or less my job. I patted her fluffy head while the tears started pooling in her eyes. It looked like she felt more than relaxed around me now. Maybe this was how she felt deep inside. She probably had put on a brave face this whole time after getting separated from her family.

“Then I’ll go with you...”

She held onto my pants tightly with both hands. 

—Y-Yeah, what a bind...

Both the mayor and Jenny were looking at us, but all they could manage was a forced smile. I was at a loss myself. My communications skills weren’t high enough to manage to read the face of a dog or a cow, so it wasn’t like I could say for certain, but I still felt the atmosphere had gotten kinda heavy, somehow.

“Hmm... Mayor Hopper, Miss Jenny. It may be somewhat of a wild idea, but would you mind hearing me out? I’m kind of short on hands around the labyrinth, and I’m, as you see, just an apprentice. Perhaps I may not have the most stable of income, but I’m certain I can hire a single kobold easily enough.”

I was really happy Ann was able to reunite with her family, but I would honestly feel alone without her back in the bottom of the ravine, should she stay here. It would be a damn shame to lose my body pillow after getting used to her for over one month already.

“Hahaha...”

Mayor Hopper looked somewhat baffled.

“Do you wanna live with me, Ann? Being a labyrinth manager helper isn’t easy, you know?”

“Yes!”

“Wait a minute, I’m happy you’re happy about it, but you have to confirm this with Miss Jenny.”

“Auntie, I can, right? I want to be with Aoi.”

“Well, Mister Aoi. If it’s not an inconvenience, can I ask you to take her with you? I think she can lead a better life under your care in the labyrinth, rather than barely getting by here in the village, and not even knowing if she’ll eat or not. She’s still a growing girl, after all. I might be a little lonely, though.”

She said while staring straight into my eyes, and holding Ann tight.

“But of course, leave it all to me. Well, I say that, but Ann helps me a whole lot too. Let’s keep doing our best, okay?”

“Thank you, Aoi! I’ll do my best!”

Ann’s childish response was really charming.

“Please give me one hour. I have to get her things ready—her clothes and the like.”

Jenny took Ann with her and together they left the mayor’s residence. I guess they went back home to pack her things.

“Mayor Hopper, would you care to tell me about this country’s situation while we wait? I came out of the bottom of that ravine just today, so I’m not really informed about what’s going on in the world right now.”

“If you would like to hear what the mayor of a humble countryside village has to say, it’ll be my pleasure.”

And that’s how I came to learn of this country’s situation and culture.

◇

The mayor’s house stood at the center of the village, and there were several houses made out of hardened earth and straw roofs scattered around the fields. The house in which Jenny and Ann lived was among those. While she finally came back to it after several months away, it took her no more than ten minutes to pack all her things. It wasn’t like Ann was wealthy to begin with. Excluding some rags she apparently used for farm work and picking up edible plants, all of Ann’s belongings fit in a tiny handbag.

They may fall under the ‘Economic Class’ according to the Tundra listings, but the dress Ann wore now, without any sign of wear or patchwork repair, would be considered above average for the village she was from.

“Ann, you have enough spare clothes at Aoi’s place, right?”

“Yeah, I have five dresses just like the one I’m wearing now, and I have two pairs of clothes to wear while working.”

She hadn’t brought anything more than some underwear, a few metal trinkets, and a wooden trunk that seemed to be keepsake from her parents, among her luggage. 

“Ann, sit there.”

Jenny placed a thin cushion on the house’s wooden boards and sat down, then motioned for Ann to sit in front of her. Jenny’s eyes were still red from crying so much earlier, but she had a very serious-looking expression on her face.

“Okay...”

Upon seeing Jenny’s unusually serious expression, Ann also sat on the thin, patched-up cushion that didn’t do much to lessen the hardness of the floor. 

“Answer me even if it makes you embarrassed or afraid. How does Aoi treat you normally? What do you think of him?”

“What do I think...? Let’s see. He always pats my head, and he praises me when I do my best. He also always lets me eat lots of tasty stuff, and is super kind to me. Ah, he also told me before that I was like his little sister!”

Ann’s answer made Jenny sigh in relief. She didn’t think Aoi was a bad person, judging from the conversations they’ve had so far, but he was still someone she met just today. He may have seemed good at first glance, but he might have been treating Ann badly in reality. Although they were only aunt and niece, she worried about Ann as a girl on the cusp of adulthood—one of marriageable age.

“It really looks like Aoi’s a nice person. Do you like him a lot?”

“Yep, I love him lots!”

Ann’s heartfelt smile dispelled Jenny’s worries completely. 

“Say, Ann. Do you want to stay together with him forever? Would you hate to get separated from him?”

“Yes, I want to stay with him.”

“But, you know? You’re almost at that age... You have to start thinking about becoming a bride soon, and if you marry someone, you won’t be able to see Aoi that easily anymore.”

In these fantasy worlds, and especially in rural areas like these, the marriageable age came awfully fast. It was normal for girls to get married off as soon as they started developing their secondary sex characteristics, to a certain extent... Or simply put: As soon as they could give birth. Although the growth rate of kobolds and half-kobolds was different to humans, marrying when they were about 13 years old was normal, and 18 years old was seen as lagging behind.

“Eh? No, I don’t want that. I want to be with him!”

“I see, then there’s a good method for that. The hurdle to become Aoi’s wife might be a little... high, but you can become his mistress. You can stay together forever if you do that.”

Half-kobolds had a longer lifespan and matured slower than a purebred like Jenny, but Ann was way too pure compared to others her age. As far as Jenny was concerned... Ann’s slight unfamiliarity with the subtleties between man and woman worried her. Even if she managed to wed her with a kobold with a gentle personality, Ann would end up looking more like she was playing house, rather than a housewife. But despite abruptly entering a marital situation, Ann was still a fast learner, so it would be fine. Jenny initially thought she would start acting accordingly in due time, but ever since Ann returned, Jenny’s thoughts changed completely.

She felt respite after thinking Ann was dead this whole time, and she was also in debt to Aoi for saving her. But above all, Aoi represented an unbelievable asset that they wouldn’t have been able to find in any of the neighboring villages, or even the frontier cities. He may have been an apprentice, but being a manager of a labyrinth under the direct control of the Great Dark Lord meant he was leagues above any of the farmers living in the village. To put it in earthly terms, it would be like a high-ranking government bureaucrat being appointed to some rural village where there was barely phone signal. 

“Mistress? Umm... So something like his wife?”

“Yes, it’s just a little different. Would you want to be together with him, even if you’re not his wife?”

It was completely different, but Jenny dismissed the small details entirely and declared it was basically the same.

“Okay, I’ll become his mistress if we can stay together like that!”

As the guardian of a girl that was about to reach marriageable age, Jenny smiled from deep within her heart. Interspecies marriages usually had to deal with the hurdles of differences in physiques and sensations, but luckily Ann was half-kobold and half-human, so she could get over the race gap easily. The fact Ann was already wearing way better clothes than she had when she lived back in the village, improved her complexion, and also had a newfound gloss in her fur were testament enough of how high Aoi’s standard of living was compared to theirs. He also had good enough sense to not lay his hands on a completely healthy and pretty girl like her, even though they were completely alone this whole time. Not to mention his character didn’t seem bad from what Ann had claimed. 

And more importantly, Ann seemed to have taken a liking to Aoi, and he cherished her as a sister. Generally speaking, the pioneering villages tended to marry off boys and girls almost as easily as a person would spontaneously adopt a kitten, only to release it the next day. They could have tried to marry off Ann at least six times by now, but hadn’t done so. Jenny, who considered Ann like her own daughter, would rather not force Ann to meet some stranger and marry them off right away. She’d like for Ann to meet someone she came to love of her own volition. Aoi was a perfect match economically, practically, and emotionally for her. There was no reason to let such a good man get away.

“You’re such a good girl, Ann. I’ll teach you something very important now, then. Let’s see... Try to imagine this: What if Aoi let you go and was only kind to other people in the village? What would you think?”

“Ehhh? I’d hate it! I don’t want that. I don’t really know why, but I want him to be kind to me, too!”

Ann raised her voice after imagining the sight of what her Aunt said. It evoked an unknown, confusing feeling inside of her. It felt like a cold sensation had spread all over her chest.

“I see, then you’ll do what I’m about to tell you, no matter what. You can’t doubt it, even if it’s a little embarrassing. What you imagined just now might happen for real if you don’t.”

“O-Okay! Please teach me, Auntie. What should I do!?”

“First of all, this evening you will...”

And so, Jenny taught Ann all the tips and tricks in the arsenal of a blossoming woman to seduce their man, for nearly an hour.

◇

“I see, so the peace between the boundaries of this country and the neighboring human country, represented by the Polaris Fortress, have been maintained for the past hundred years. But bandits sometimes pass through the navy’s vigilant watch and plunder around, so it’s dangerous, right?” 

“Even then, we’re somehow able to go on living thanks to the Great Dark Lord and the Demon Lords. We’re certainly grateful for that.”

—Ah, the existence of Great Dark Lord and Demon Lords has been on my mind for a while.

“Great Dark Lord? I know I’m a labyrinth manager, which makes me one his subordinates, but what is the difference between the Great Dark Lord and a Demon Lord?”

“Difference, you say...? Both of them are way above us, so we don’t really think too much about that kind of thing.”

Mayor Hopper folded his arms and sonorously blew air through his nose. A very cow-ish reaction.

“The Demon Lord is more like a king for us. If there is something troubling the village, he or his subordinates will lend us their help. We’re really thankful that The Great Dark Lord and the Demon Lord help us in times of need. We’re tasked with constructing the labyrinth for the sake of the Demon Lord, although we see ourselves helped as well, indirectly, because of it.”

Right, so was just like I thought before. The Demon Lord acted like a governor of sorts, and the Great Dark Lord was more like the president.

“By the way, Aoi, you’ve been rubbing yourself for a while now, is something the matter?”

“No, I just feel kinda chilly for some reason.”

It wasn’t the kind of chill you felt when a cold was coming. If I were to put it in game terms, it was kind of the chill you felt when a good player was aiming at you from a distance.

“I relaxed a lot after completing the stairs to the surface back at the labyrinth, so this might just be all the piled up fatigue. I’ll try to go sleep early today.”

“That’s good. You must take time to sleep when you’re truly tired.”

While waiting for Ann to finish packing up, Mayor Hopper told me about the situation of the other villages, their special products, and about the other labyrinths. I couldn’t complain about the idle talk. Intelligence gathering was the most basic foundation in all game genres, you couldn’t miss it. And for a total ignorant to the world like me, even the minimal information received from the mayor of a town in the boonies like this was a fountain of wisdom. Ann might be a smart girl, but the amount of information she could give me, compared to the mayor leading a whole village, was overwhelmingly different.

“Sorry for the wait.”

Jenny opened the door and Ann was holding a wooden trunk behind of her.

“S-Sorry for the wait...”

I wondered why was Ann hiding behind Jenny. I had the feeling she was more embarrassed than turned off by something, but I couldn’t tell why, exactly.

“Thank you very much for talking to me, Mayor Hopper,” I said while standing up. “Ann, wanna go back home before it gets dark?”

“Yes!”

I held out my hand and Ann happily jumped to grab it. By the time we descend the stairs at the Great Saredo Rift and found ourselves back at Labyrinth #228, it was already getting dark. We stayed longer than I’d thought back at Milt Village.

On my way back, I passed by the trees I’d planted before and took some firewood and water bags from them, then continued on towards the cabin. I opened Tundra’s catalog after firing up the stone kiln I had built in front of the cabin, and set the pumpkin for today’s dinner.

“You’re gonna buy something?”

She stuck to my back and looked at the catalog from behind. We had been looking at the shopping window together ever since I gave her admin permissions to purchase from the Tundra catalog herself.

“I was thinking of making something, like a special product of sorts.”

“A special product?”

“Yeah, we finally managed to connect with Milt Village, right? We’ve been stuffing nothing but stones in the delivery box so far, but we can buy and sell in the village now. We could use the currency we have, but I still want something I can sell or exchange in the village. Stone would be hard to carry, and I don’t think there’s anyone that can even buy it up there, don’t you think?”

“Ohh, the polished stones are really pretty, so I think there would be people that want them, but I doubt there’s anyone that would exchange them for crops,” Ann replied.

They didn’t seem to be well off enough to allow themselves expensive hobbies, for sure.

“We can just carry whatever goods we buy from Tundra there. Ann, can you choose some daily necessity stuff, and whatever the people back at the village might need?”

“Yup, got it. But... I think that thing would probably be the most popular item.”

“Which?”

Ann pointed to the hoe that was set against the cabin, the same one I’d created using the <Dungeon Management Tool>.

“The men working on the fields always told me how much they wanted quality tools like the hoes and sickles that are sold in bigger towns. The ones in the village are all old and rusty. Even the edges are made of wood.”

“I see. I couldn’t sell it with the delivery box, so it kinda was just there this whole time. Good thinking, Ann.”

I pet her fluffy head.

“Mmmm...”

Ann made a really cute sound when I had done so. It made me wonder if it was because my technique had gotten better, or maybe she had gotten used to being pet. 

The pickaxes and hoes I created with the <Dungeon Management Tool> turned into light particles and disappeared as soon as their durability ran out, but you could keep using them as normal until then.

“The problem will be whether or not I can take them out of the labyrinth. I guess I’ll have to try that tomorrow... Hmm?”

A window opened near my hand.

<WARNING>
All items created by the <Dungeon Management Tool> will disappear within half a year’s time when removed from of the labyrinth.

“Oh, there’s actually a warning about that, huh? Looks like they’ll disappear in half a year, but I think it’ll sit poorly with the villagers if we treated it like a rental system of sorts.”

I had to put a disclaimer for this when selling them. It was a bit of a pain, but on the other hand, if I just spammed these and flooded the market, the price would tank, and every blacksmith would be put out of business.

“We have to capitalize on the environment here. The vegetation in the ravine is totally different from that of the surface’s. There may even be medicinal plants around there. Ann, is there a doctor in the village?”

“Doctor? No. If you go to the city, there's doctors that can cure you with magic or make medicine, but there’s nothing like that in the village.”

“So there are doctors that specialize in normal medicine or magic? Interesting.”

“Then there must be a demand for medical supplies.”

I search through Tundra’s book category... and something that looked promising.


Practical Medicinal Herb Studies ~Wetlands / Waterside Edition~ (JPN) == 588000 DL
Seller : Manager, Labyrinth #7

Rating : ★★★★★
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #201
- a really rad book, it explains everything about the medicinal plants that grow in the wetlands and waterside environments, how to pick and storage them as well. it even holds your hand through the processing methods to make medicine too. very very nice book. on the other side the pricing can go **** itself, that said, I don’t regret the purchase.

Rating : ★☆☆☆☆
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #16
- Entry-level piece of trash. Can’t use it as anything but a reference book. The contents it covers may be vast, but this level of study is still too green. I recommend you to buy “Make Your Own Potions - Aquatic Plants Edition” instead, written by yours truly, of course.


It was pretty expensive, and it seemed like it had haters among some people in the trade, but well, maybe it had good stuff too.

My funds went well over 10 million DL thanks to the stone we sold from digging up the stairs, so this kind of expense wouldn’t hurt that much. Although, while 10 million may seem like a huge personal gain, considering the cost of the expansion and maintenance of the labyrinth, it was an amount that would easily melt away when used to pay for construction work. I was still far away from buying expensive fresh food from Tundra and saying goodbye to the pumpkin diet. I may have grown fond of living in this rundown cabin after two months, but the constant expenses from repairs and rebuilding were unending. I needed to keep a good amount of savings just in case.

My wallet and head hurt from the mere thought of the price of wood for construction, transportation charges, hiring villagers that could do carpentry work, various employment expenses, and the cost of meals.

Since one stone was typically 802 DL, then the stone we delivered through the box should have given us 100 million DL. I wondered if shipping so much in such a short amount of time had some kind of impact, because after we made it to 10 million in sales, a receipt came out of the pig, along with a message card that read “Payment will be processed after inventory is sold”.

We couldn’t reasonably expect the stone to keep carrying us all the way, so we had to think of a new method to raise money. And I had almost forgotten due so many things going on, but I was still in my trial period. There was the possibility I would get rejected as well. If that happened, then everything would have been for nothing, even if I started renewing the cabin, so I would have to make do with what we had on hand right now. I was worried about what to do about Ann if that happened, too. I had to discuss it with Karumi-san when the time came.

I ordered the practical herbalism book and put six 100000 DL coins into the piggy bank. I started reading the book as soon as it arrived, and did so all the way until nighttime. The blue light enveloping the ravine after sunset was as magical as ever, but it wasn’t really bright enough to read a book. There was a magic light crystal which illuminated about as much as a fluorescent light for sale on Tundra. It consumed Willpower and emitted a bright light, but it was a popular item, so it sold out right way. I wanted one of those, someday.

In the end, I ate more of the sugared pumpkin Ann had made, as well as a tennis ball-sized grape-ish fruit, and we finally retired to bed for the night.

◇

I couldn’t really make sense of the events that transpired. The faint and mysterious light of the glowing moss shined into the room from the window, and a beautiful girl laid down on top of me.

The girl looked right at me with her big amber eyes. Eyes filled with uneasiness, or was it expectation...? The complex mix of emotions in her eyes gave off a rather mysterious vibe. Her matching amber locks of long hair were incredibly beautiful as well. My gaze followed the line of her hair and landed on the oversized white shirt she was wearing. My eyes became glued to her exposed skin. It took all of my willpower to not continue further.

She seemed dangerous, yet bewitching. I was overcome with an immoral feeling of corrupting a girl that hadn’t yet reached maturity. With her touch, the girl broke me down and made me feel this undeniable attraction to the opposite sex.

Her feminine, frail figure that incited you to restrain; a smile that made you feel a deep, fiery passion, together with the need to protect, numbed my brain and reasoning like sweet, sweet alcohol. So I slowly took my hand to the girl’s head, as if it was the most natural thing in the world...

—Wait... What happened? What’s going on right now!?

I stopped the hand that was going towards her shoulder mid-way. 

—My hand seemed naturally guided to the girl’s head, but wasn’t there something off about this!?

I was at a loss of what to even think. 

—I went to sleep like usual, right!? How many years has it been since I felt this confused?

Let me try to break down what went on. Rather, let us disconnect for a second and think over everything that happened leading up to this. It was a good thing I had trained really hard as a gamer to not lose my cool no matter what. It was a really useful skill...!

—Well, then... I think it’ll be okay if I recall about 30 minutes, let’s do that:
    1) I put the leftover water in a pan and used the embers from dinner to warm it up a little bit before going to sleep like always.
    2) I dipped in a cloth and used it to clean Ann’s body first, then she went to bed like always.
    3) I clean myself a little with the warm water as well.
    4) I go and lay down on the bed, and a beautiful, half-naked girl is laying on top of me and hugging me.

    5) No good. The skin contact in places I’ve never felt before is making me lose my mind (We’re here right now.)


“.........”

That was weird. What kind of event goes off after going to bed for the day? That was way too sudden.

—Umm... What’s happening here? Am I having a dirty dream? I’m so confused that I’m literally speechless. Although we’re working all the time, Ann’s always close to me from the second we wake up until we go to to sleep. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I can’t process my lust as a man...

I remained silent. But an uneasy expression took over the strangely familiar, beautiful girl in front of me.

“Is... my body... weird? Does it make you feel bad?”

“Huh? Ann?”

“Yes.”

I was shocked, but the memory I’d discarded as a mistake jolted back into my mind. I see, this was the Ann I saw when I met her for the first time. Where did the fluffy doggy girl go? I also had the feeling she grew a few centimeters as well.

“No, it’s not weird. I think you’re pretty cute, but... your body’s changed so much,”

“This is my real body. I usually use my kobold form because I can use kobold abilities with it. Auntie told me to stay like that normally.”

“I see... so that’s what being a half-kobold means.”

So her appearance by default was that of a human girls’, and she gained a kobold’s abilities by changing into that form... How unexpected. Her sitting on top of me, naked, with only a white shirt was wearing away at my self-control. Wasn’t that the shirt I gave her so that she could sleep? Since she normally didn’t really need pajamas to sleep in her kobold form. I thought of it like a cat or dog feeling safer if they had something that belonged to their owner. Something familiar like a shirt or a towel. That’s why I gave her my shirt, but I realized just how much of a destructive weapon it really was. I couldn’t tell you what kind of effect this weapon had on me with a clean conscience, though.

“Yeah. My dad was a human and my mom a Kobold, that’s why.”

So that was what she meant by half-kobold. Could Ann’s father be from the Earth? This place had all kinds of races and clans, so it wasn’t exactly a place where one would need to be a ‘specialized fetish’ like in Japan, but it was still doubtful. Kobolds were indeed cute, but the hurdle to take one as a partner, not to mention procreation, seemed quite high. 

—No, that’s not the problem right now!

“Hngh... She told me it wouldn’t be the same, but it really feels way different to hug you while in this form. It’s making my heart beat so fast.”

I lose myself in her enraptured eyes as she continued to cover my whole body with her embrace. This was bad, really bad.

Men across the world would start counting prime numbers or repeating mantras inside their heads, but in my case, I remembered the battles against hard bosses from a Japanese MMORPG tournament I’d participated with my old party, to get my mind in order.

I recalled being in a town attack as a bow horsemen. The image of me above a swinging horse, focusing to hit another archer on top of the bell tower, helped relax my mind. I could remember the trajectory of the arrow flying to its target as I shot; the concentration I needed as a bow horseman... Phew, I calmed down a little bit.

“Wait a second, Ann, who told you that?”

“Huh? My auntie.”

—JENNYYYYYYY! What are you teaching to your niece!? 

“My face feels hot, and there’s a tingling feeling inside my chest. I wonder why...”

—She’s close. Too close. Way too close!

“Hyah!”

The abrupt warm feeling in my throat was so sudden it made me moan unexpectedly.

“A-Ann, what are you doing?”

The whole situation made me stutter. I was having a hard time processing all of this.

“(lick) I don’t know why, but I feel like licking you. Oh? My heart is beating even harder.”

“Ann? Umm... Do you know what you’re doing?”

The angels in my heart spoke out in unison...

—“Go for it, lucky dog!”

They said with smiling faces and a thumbs up! I know I want to, but this wasn’t right!

“Hm...? We’re just being with each other and sleeping together, right?”

Her face was totally red, but she gave me a pure and innocent answer. She didn’t understand this situation at all!

“Umm... And then I have to hug you real tight.”

Well, I did feel happy in more than one sense when she hugged me so strongly...!

“And, well... Help me take care of this feeling inside of me, please, Aoi,” she whispered.

The words she whispered into my ear were like a bomb to my self-control. Wasn’t that a little too much!? How was I supposed to take care of it!? I’d like to know! My mind was on the verge of going blank from the situation. Ann’s smile, and her desire to entrust herself to me, didn’t help in holding it back.

“I-I see... Y-You’re probably just tired. S-So just hug me. Let’s put the blanket over us and sleep... Okay?”

I put the blanket around the both of us and used the technique that worked whenever she had trouble sleeping because of muscular pain, or missing her family throughout these last two months; I pat her head with everything I had to make her fall asleep...!

“Hmm... I’m sleepy... you... know... I talked with... Auntie... Mmm... She told me I could... become your... If I... did, I... could... stay with you... forever... A... Aoi... I... love you...”

She fell asleep... To be honest, those last words were a far bigger weapon than the direct contact of skin, or her feminine smell creeping its way into my brain. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would burst from my chest. Jenny’s trap was really powerful. Terrifying, even... I may have wanted to follow the primal desires of my heart, but my situation as manager here was unstable. If I laid my hands on her as my trial period ended, and I couldn’t come back for some reason, I’d end up hurting Ann deeply.

Also, I wanted to thank my brothers that helped me get to the finals of that MMORPG tournament, and for giving me the memories I needed to stay sane just now. I wanted to thank that other archer; remembering the moment both of us tensed the bow with our dominant arm and let the arrow fly at the very same time, and the way he turned the tables by cutting it up with a dagger, then charging at me head on. Your high tension, murderous intent, and passion-packed swords dance were the only things that kept me in check. Were you the angel named conscience? I wanted to boo the other ones that were giving me a thumbs up, with lascivious smiles. I really wanted to know if there were different angels in my heart, and my conscience.

If I was a character in an otome game, I would push me over the limit and just hug the heroine, and fall asleep just like that. But that was impossible, I couldn’t do it. It took me a good while to slip out of the bed and the cabin without waking up Ann in the process, and then about 30 minutes to straighten out and calm down my heart.

I couldn’t do anything about it, I was a healthy man. There was no way I could sleep hugging Ann as if nothing had happened, after she opened up her heart to me like that, unless you castrated me or something...!

◇

The next day, Ann paid a visit to Jenny’s once again.

“Ann, did it go well?”

“Well... We slept together, but it was just like always.”

“That’s weird. You told him the line I taught you, right?”

“Yes. I turned into my real form, hugged him real hard, and whispered into his ear just like you told me to. But he covered us with a blanket and patted my head. It felt so good I fell asleep.”

“Tch... Seems Aoi’s one step ahead of us.”

Aoi’s strategy made the veteran Jenny click her tongue, with a villainous look on her face.

“A-Auntie, your face looks kinda scary.”

“Say, Ann. Do you remember Aoi’s face last night? Did he look annoyed? Disgusted? Pained? Which one was it?”

“Umm... Yes. He looked surprised at first, then troubled, and he looked pretty pained by the end. Hey, Auntie. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, did I do something bad to him? Will he hate me?”

“Hahahah. It’s fine, don’t worry. He really loves you, that pained face is all the proof you need.” 

“R-Really?” 

“That’s right. When boys can’t contain themselves, they do something pretty violent to girls. Well, if you love the person you’re doing it with, there’s nothing more blissful as a woman.”

“Hmm... Is that so? I was really excited, but he seemed to be in so much pain. I feel kinda sorry.”

“That’s how I know he loves you. Men make that face when they want to treasure the girl they love.”

“I-I see. So he does love me.”

Although some of Jenny’s words were rather skewed, her experience added a lot to her persuasiveness, which makes Ann show a big, sincere smile.

“Well then, what will out next plan be...?”

“Auntie, let’s try something not too painful for him, okay!?”

Ann recalled how Aoi looked last night as she mustered up the courage to murmur those words right into his ear.

“Then you’ll be doing a sneaking visit tonight.”

As a mother trying with all her might to tie Ann and Aoi together, Jenny decided to double-down on her efforts.

“A... Sneaking visit?”

Sadly, the girl that was in no position to stop her Aunt’s tyranny, as she knew far too little about her means. If only she knew, she would at least have room for doubt about stopping or not, but alas.

“First of all, keep everything as normal for a while. Oh yeah, make sure you’re dressed lightly, or even naked when you sleep together. Since you two will be in the labyrinth of the Great Dark Lord, try to get out of the kobold form as much as possible when together with him. You’ll have to try and live with it to get closer to him. Okay?

At this point it would be like a critical hit to Aoi, but Jenny was determined to take this as far as koboldly possible.

“Yes, my heart starts beating really fast when I’m with him in my real form, but I’ll do my best.”

“It’ll be good if you keep it up for about two weeks, okay? He should get used to sleeping together with you naked by then. That’s when he gets careless.”

“Yes, yes! And then what?”

“Then you do the sneaking visit. If he’s determined enough by then, you’ll finally become his mistress.”

“Huh? Are sneaking visits that awesome?”

“You see, the deed will be done by the time he wakes up.”

Jenny’s next plan was to overwhelm him with her feminine charm and appeal to the fire of his youth, but it could backfire, causing him to distrust women if it didn’t go well.

“Done... deed?”

“It’ll be kinda hard to explain without an example...”

The figure of a lone boy came into Jenny’s view as she wracked her brain thinking of a way to explain.

“Oooh, well if it isn’t our nice neighbor, Boboru. You’re right on time.”

“Huh? Umm... Good day, Miss Jenny. Wh-Why are you holding my shoulders?”

The youth Jenny was about to assault was a kobold that was about two years younger than Ann... Although strangely enough, he was older than her in kobold years. He was named Boboru, a timid young kobold that lived in one of the neighboring farmhouses.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I need to teach Ann something. Would you mind becoming my teaching material for a little bit?”

When the young boy saw Jenny’s wry smile as she licked her own lips, his instinctive sense of preservation kicked in. The fear and the shivers went down his spine beckoning him to run away, but Jenny’s grip on his shoulders said otherwise, as she slowly dragged him into the house.

“Eeek! You’re kinda scary today, Miss Jenny, I’m scared...”

“There, there, you’re a man too, Boboru. It’s no big deal, I promise.” 

“I’m scared! Help! Anyone!”

Boboru’s hand stretched out in terror, trying to seek help. He barely reached the outside entrance to the house before the door slammed shut, preventing his shrieks from echoing out to the village. That day, the single boy became...

“Teaching material.”

As he climbed one step on the stairs of adulthood, Ann learned one thing about the subtlety of adults with Jenny’s practical field trip: the race of kobolds wasn’t a particularly strong one within this world. However, the women living here at the border had a level of strength that went above and beyond regular kobolds.

◇

After Ann left for Jenny’s house early in the morning, I spent a good while sitting on the chair in front of the cabin, just thinking for a long while. I wondered how long it had been since the last time I did  that . Fortunately, Ann left early in the morning. I could still feel her touch from last night even after we woke up and had breakfast together, so it was a bit difficult looking her straight in the eye. I’m glad I had some time to calm down and sort out my feelings.

Just then, someone happend to visit the cabin.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Sara from Milt Village,” she bowed.

The girl that introduced herself seemed to be around the same age as Ann.

She had bright blonde hair and deep blue eyes. She wore a seemingly very well-made apron dress, with simple colors that suited her very well. She seemed pretty light-skinned and tidy compared to the other villagers. She was pretty cute in a different way than Ann. It seemed almost otherworldly, like looking at a doll. She had a very lady-like air to her.

“Nice to meet you, I’m the apprentice labyrinth manager. My name’s Aoi.”

Staring for long was rude. It was common sense for adults to return with a polite greeting when given one.

I served some of the water I was drinking to Sara while I introduced myself carefully. I happened to be out of tea leaves already, but the water around here was far more delicious than mere tea. Buying a tea capable of matching the taste of this water would cost some good money.

“Milt Village... Do you happen to be one of Ann’s friends?”

“Yes, I’m Ann’s best friend.”

—Oh, one rank higher than a simple friend, huh?

“I’ve heard about you from Ann before. She seems really happy about working out here with you.”

I see, so she heard from her. I wondered where she knew me from.

“Is that so? What brings you here, Sara?”

“I have a request to make.”

“Request? Would you mind telling me what is it about?”

What in the world? As her best friend, she might want me to send Ann back to the village. But I had hopes of Ann staying here with me, and it seemed that was what she wished for as well.

“I also heard she showed you her true form. Ann was really happy you didn’t dislike her.”

So she knows about her true form. The best friend title was not just for show, then.

“If... you’re planning to do something awful to Ann... Then please stop it! I’ll take her place, I’ll do anything you say... So please...”

“Huh...!? (cough) Excuse me! (cough)”

She declared that with a face that was like the concept of determination itself. I was surprised I didn’t end up spouting out the water I choked on just now. 

—Last night, and today as well!? 

Holding back the part of me that wanted to nod at the proposal from a cute girl telling me she’d “do anything I say” was hard! Besides, aren’t I the one being awful here? After it took so much effort to not do anything to her yesterday...!?

“Please wait a moment.”

I took a deep breath to regain my composure. Nothing good could come from getting emotional in front of someone this serious.

I’d only played it because it was being talked about, but there was this romance simulation game in which you suddenly had 108 sister-in-laws and little sisters, and each and every single one of them loved you. The promotional line was something like “I can’t believe this harem is legal!”, and it was called “Pole☆Sisters”, if I remembered correctly. Compared to that, this wasn’t all too illogical of a development. Yeah, this was nothing. If you chose any of them, the remaining ones would go crazy and try to make you break up as hard as they could. This was more real than a pointlessly brutal scenario like that.

It had a phrase that went “Can you make it to the ending!?” and all. And you can bet I repeated the game over 20 times, but right after talking about breaking up with the 98th sister, the 99th came and stabbed me. Needlessly to say, I got a pretty bad ending and became unable to keep playing afterwards.

“I did hire Ann, but I’m not planning to do anything cruel to her like you say, Sara.”

“Huh...? But Ann says you’re always sleeping together.”

“The house isn’t that big, and we just have one bed, you see. It’s kinda embarrassing, but I didn’t know much outside of the human race, so I thought Ann was younger from how she looked, and figured it would be kinda lonely for her to sleep alone...”

—Yes, that’s what I thought until last night! Really...!

But buying another bed now would be difficult. I think Ann would just cry if I suggested it.

“Ah, Ann’s always talking about how kind you are to her!”

“She’s a pretty cute girl, after all. She often reminds me of my sister that I just want to pamper and stuff.”

It was a shame my real little sister back in Japan wasn’t as cute or innocent as Ann.

“Are you sure you’re not trying to do something indecent to her, and then dump her right after?”

I understood very well just how strong Sara’s imagination was right then.

“If I was that kind of person, don’t you think I would have sent her home already?”

“Huh!? Wait... What!?”

Seemed like Sara had noticed the words that came out of her mouth when she let her imagination run wild. She covered her completely flushed face with both hands and hung her head. Cornering her like that was kinda harsh, so silently I refilled her cup of water, waiting for her to settle down.

“I want to ask you one thing—why did you say you would take her place?”

When she finally calmed down, I decided to raise a question of my own.

“Because I’m her best friend.”

Why would that be a reason to take her place? I didn’t get it.

“Ann is really, really happy whenever she’s talking about you. I never saw her smile like that before.”

As far as smiles go, I remembered her making a really sweet-looking smile sometimes. Ann was pretty cute when she did. 

“Ann’s my most important friend... That’s why if there’s something that might make her smile disappear, I’ll take her place. I can’t do anything but that for her,” she said with a bitter tone, as she clenched her fist.

—So she’s that important of a friend to her...

I felt as if I understood something new about Ann, but it also made me kinda jealous. I’d had many rivals before, but never a close friend that thought about my well being like this..

“Then I can’t do anything bad to you, Sara. Ann would be completely heartbroken if I did anything to hurt her best friend.”

To be honest, my tone might have been quiet, but 90% of me was putting up with it and grinning.

I’d been holding back for one whole month. That incredibly provocative event last night almost sent me over the edge. And if a girl like Sara came and told me I could do anything to her, then of course it would end up hitting me where it hurts. My desire was telling me to do so many awful things right now... I wanted to cry.

“I won’t... I won’t lose! I’ve been the closest one to Ann ever since we were little, after all...!”

Looked like I chose the right answer. Sara declared herself as my rival as she glared at me with regret and sadness mixed in her eyes.

“Okay, I accept the challenge. No matter which one wins, I’m sure Ann will keep on smiling, so let’s do our best, okay?”

“O-Okay...!”

Alright, I scored the first point. She got flustered when I accepted the challenge head on with a smile on my face... Not very adult of me, if I do say so myself.

“Let me walk you back to the village. We can talk more about Ann if you want on the way. It’s up to you.”

“Uhhh... I guess I don’t mind.”

According to what she told me before arriving to the village, Sara was the only girl from a family that was relatively well-off when compared to the other villagers. It seemed like her body wasn’t very strong, so she never could run around and play with the other children. But she never was lonely because Ann was her talking buddy.

She had become unbearably sad when she heard Ann fell off the bridge in the Great Saredo Rift. It seemed when she heard the story about her being alive, but then leaving right away because she got employed, made her think the worst and act rashly. Was it my imagination, or did she immediately think that Ann was doing the most sinful things possible?

◇

“That was way calmer than I thought it would be. He’s a good adult.”

Sara muttered as she closed the door of her room. She and Aoi parted ways at the village’s entrance. Sara had already pictured the kind of person he was, but Aoi was way different from the lascivious and corrupted adult she imagined. He turned out to be a pretty calm and polite adult.

“It’s a good thing he wasn’t a bad person... Right? Oh Dark Lord...!”

After confirming Ann was alright, the embarrassment of her actions, and the outrageous things she had said finally hit her all of a sudden. Her whole face turned as red as a tomato.

“What should I say to Ann...? That I went to the place of her beloved Aoi and had a fight with him? Well, it wasn’t a fight, but I can’t tell her I talked about something like that.”

That said, it was really difficult to just go and apologize.

“What should I do... Eek!”

As she walked around her room while thinking, Sara staggered and fell to her knees.

“Huh...?”

She felt like she was being crushed under the weight of a giant hand, and collapsed onto the ground with a thud. There had been many times where she had collapsed before due to her weak constitution, but rarely did they occur to the extent of being unable to do anything.

“Sara’s home! Hey, Sara, Auntie told me to give these to yo— Ah! What’s wrong!? Sara!”

Fortunately, Ann found Sara collapsed on the floor after being sent by her aunt to deliver something. She fell unconscious seconds later.

“Up you go... Now to get some help!”

Ann carried Sara, laid her on top of her bed, and went to call her parents, or any adult, right away. Since her body had always been frail to begin with, her collapsing wasn’t that unusual, but after spending so much time together, there was something about Ann that made Sara’s parents react with urgency every time it happened. The adults gathered right away and started deliberating. Ann couldn’t do anything but watch from the sidelines. She understood what was happening, but there wasn’t much input she could herself.

“This is the first cursed cold of the year.”

“If only we had some medicine...”

Ann suddenly raised her head after listening what the smart elf of the village murmured when she was finally done examining Sara.

There were no doctors in the pioneering village. Although, there were cases where the villages were poor, and most doctors only knew medical treatment for about one or two races.

There were races that were similar, like humans and elves, but with different tribes and clans, the medical science differed greatly. There weren't many doctors that studied medical treatments for various races. The ones that did only lived in big cities where they got as many clients as they could possibly want. The chronic shortage of doctors was one of the evils of a multi-ethnic nation like this.

Ann only had one clue: Aoi holding a difficult-looking book in one hand and saying...

“I’ll try making medicine today.”

From before she left for Jenny’s house this morning.

“Depending on her luck... it’ll last about two or three days.”

Upon listening to the grave words of the elderly elf woman, Ann ran all the way to see the beloved labyrinth manager that saved her as well.

◇

After I’d escorted Sara back to the village, I decided to watch the plants growing near the cabin with my copy of “Practical Medicinal Herb Studies ~Wetlands / Waterside Edition~” in hand.

It was written on a coarse, bad quality paper, but the actual contents of the book were rather complex. It had everything from descriptions of the plants, to sketches by the author. It was awfully convenient to have.

What surprised me the most was that it wasn’t printed. Everything from the descriptions to the sketches were made by hand. I couldn’t do anything but nod at the high price after realizing that. As I expected, the ravine in which the labyrinth was located was a really special location, because the plants the book referred to as “Legendary plants that have very limited habitats and are hard to come by naturally”, were growing here like weeds. You could say I was blessed in that regard.

Let’s see... there was bluelight moss growing here and there. If I dried it out then boiled it, I could make a stamina tonic, and it was tasty enough that you could use it as team. If I grinded it together with pure water, I could even make a vitality potion, and then...

I took some in my hand, but It looked just like moss to me.

"The clover-ish thingies growing by the sandbank are supposedly called ‘phosphor buds’. If I grind them up and dilute it in water, I can make a stamina potion. And if I boil that down, it’ll turn into a healing potion.”

While they may have looked a weed to me, the leaves were exactly the same as depicted in the book’s sketch.

—It lists them as precious and limited potion materials, but I don’t think I’ll ever run out when there’s this much around here.

So there was ‘medicine’; disinfectants to prevent festering, pain relieving effects, et cetera.

And then there was ‘simple medicine’, which was a medicinal plant that was uncommon around the village—similar to finding Aloe Vera plants in the middle of the street. The difference was those had medicinal effects that were easy to understand in a modern setting...

Finally there were ‘magical potions’... They had an irrational effect when compared to modern Earth science, like recovering lost stamina directly, or restoring damaged organs. The book said that the rarity value rose when it came to raw potion materials, and that scarcity had a direct effect on the price of potions as well.

“Ah, they're supposed to be scarce, at least.”

I prepared a basket for the plants and rocks I’d collected, and a glass bottle for the moss, then spent a while examining the surrounding area of the cabin with my book in hand. I found herbs growing all over like weeds, and as much moss I could ever need stuck to stones in the ground and all sorts of other places, like the cabin walls. Seemed like I could make as many magic potions as I wanted.

According to the book, the streams and ponds I was so used to by now were “The bodies of water in which bluelight moss can appear and propagate are few and so far in between they’re considered almost a miracle; magical potions can be concocted in such a place.” I’d been drinking this ever since I arrived here. Would it be okay? I was kinda nervous now. This ravine was where a large-scale engineering process was supposed to occur in order to build a labyrinth fit for people to go in and out in hordes. Things became even more complicated when the possibility of destroying such a valuable environment in the process was uncovered there.

—If I started selling these in the village, it would be more like an emergency first aid kit rather than something for regular use, so I think it would be better to reduce the number and make more types of medicine.

It was way different in the sense of easily buying medicine and taking it when you had a cold, back in Japan. In a poor pioneering village like theirs, they wouldn’t rely on medicine unless the symptoms were too much to bear. That meant they’d go for medicine when they were practically in the worst situation possible, so I’d like to raise the quality as much as I could.

—Vitality, stamina, and healing potions. Those three are my main objectives right now.

It was kinda pointless to use a basket when they were growing right in front of me, so I tossed the medicinal herbs into the iron pot I normally used for cooking, then sorted them all by kind over the table. It didn’t take me even one hour to gather a mountain of material.

I used the <Appraisal> skill from time to time just to make sure none of the wrong herbs slipped in.

—Simple sorting work like this isn’t that bad, huh? It reminds me of that realistic alchemy simulation game called “Atelier Meimei”.

Since the book said I should grind and mix with water, I drew some water out of the pod in front of me with a mortar I’d bought from Tundra. I threw some moss inside, and started grinding away with the pestle. 

I didn’t hate this kind of simple trial and error work. The game I was thinking of was a real life-oriented PC simulation game made by a little indie company; but they made you grind a pebble against the mortar for eight hours straight while mixing in about three types of herbs and five types of minerals, with a set timer in the tutorial to make a salve. It was literally aimed at experts specifically—perhaps excessively so. The amount of game time required was so overwhelming that I didn’t play much of it, but I had a friend that overcame the hellish difficulty and spent a whole month of real time in the game to farm gold. He was praised by the other players as a god... Well, he got hospitalized and almost turned into a real god after playing for a month straight. Man, those were the days.

I kept moving the porcelain pestle until the liquid gained some consistency and a green tea-like color. After grinding away mindlessly for a while, I noticed the liquid was suddenly a mysterious cobalt blue color.

—So my technique was too good... Nah. Maybe the materials are too good?

It went from a green to a transparent cobalt blue when I mixed the green moss and the water. It was kinda hard to disregard nature when something turned into a color it shouldn’t have, but I guess this was completed... Right? I thought to put it in a container for now... That was no good, I had to get a container for this thing first. Unlike with games, there wasn’t a convenient mechanism that put the potion in a bottle right as it came out of the pot. 

I opened the Tundra eShop window, ordered some glass bottles for potions, and opened the cardboard box right away. Since Tundra always used cardboard boxes or manila envelopes to deliver things, I’d made a habit of carrying around both a knife and a paper knife to open them.

—I don’t know if the level of technology is low, or if the quality of material is bad out where the labyrinth’s placed in the desert, but they’re cheap and functional, so I guess I don’t care. It’s really affordable. I wonder if they taught the glass manufacturing technology to nearby villages, then outsourced it all to mass produce them.

I took one of the diamond shaped containers and poured the cobalt blue liquid from the mortar into it.

I was using a large mortar; I could make about 100 milliliters of potion every time, and the bottles were kinda like, erm... Tiny energy drink bottles? I managed to fill up eleven of them with the cobalt blue liquid I’d prepared.

“Execute Appraisal.”

I put the stylish lid it came with over the glass bottle and tried examining it as a finished product.


Name : Grade 6 Vitality Potion (Quality+)
  Description : High quality medicine that replenishes Vitality greatly. Restores 2000 points of Vitality in 1 minute. Effect decreases 25% when applied to an open wound; performs the equivalent effect of a Grade 7 revive potion. Recovery time is sharply shortened due to the Quality+ effect.


—How much Vitality is 2000?

I mean, it was good that it pointed out the effect accurately, but the unit of measurement was so alien to me, it was kinda hard to understand. I checked my ‘Labyrinth Manager Status’ screen again and confirmed my Vitality was just 120 right now. So this would bring me right back from death if I had a fatal wound. Is that how powerful it was?

— I think the effect’s kinda overkill for a rural village emergency first aid kit.

These legendary rare materials sure were something... So this was what the book meant. And that was only using the moss that grew all over this ravine. It was so powerful that even an amateur like me could make something ‘Quality+’. Well, I didn’t think the effect being too much could ever be a problem. This was when the delivery box came in handy. You could count on it to assess things reliably. I put in one of the potions I’d made inside the box and closed the lid. When I opened it again after listening to the usual sound of coins clinking inside the box... there were a few 100000 DL coins mixed in the bunch.

“Hmm... Looks like there’s 480000 DL here. It fetched a better price than I imagined.”

Excluding the glass container that cost around 9000 DL, it was still nearly 480000 DL in profit. I had mixed feelings about this being more profitable than working day and night digging up stone this whole time, but never mind that. Wasn’t this price a little out of reach for a remote pioneering village?

Villages that get their main income from agriculture and stock farming wouldn’t have that much cash. If all I wanted was cash now, I could just sell it to the delivery box. I guess I could bring some to Mayor Hopper and consult him about it.

—Should I exchange it for other goods, or ask for a loan, or something? What a pain.

After that I tried making stamina and recovery potions. I used both the mortar and the pot for the recovery potion, but I felt kinda unsatisfied with the result.

“I managed to make the stamina potion well, so what’s the problem here, huh?”

I looked at the bright green stamina recovery potion bottle sitting right next to a clear deep dark green bottle that was supposed to be the recovery potion. I put my hand on my chin and thought. The UI’s semi-transparent appraisal window in front of me displayed ‘Grade 5 Stamina Potion (Quality++)’ and ‘Grade 9 Recovery Potion (Quality+)’, respectively.

—That’s probably enough, as far as medicine goes. But it’s kinda underwhelming compared to the vitality and stamina potions.

When I actually made it, the recovery potion got a lower rank than the other two types of potion somehow—Grade 9 quality.

There were many standards for grading magic potions that I didn’t know anything about. After looking at the Tundra review page and comparing the recovery potion classifications, I noticed that the Grade 10 potions were more like a cinnamon infusion, and were used more often than not as prophylactic medicine to fend off diseases before they could set in. The Grade 9 potions were used more like vaccines or antibiotics because of the weak effect. I was interested in what effects the more advanced potions had, but the problem was that despite using overwhelmingly high quality material, I couldn’t manage to do anything but the most basic things, still.

—It’s times like these that made me wish I had something that displayed my skill levels. If I was told the quality dropped because I tried taking on a high-level recipe with almost no skill, I’d at least be able to understand why.

I took another look at my ‘Labyrinth Manager Status’ screen, but the translucent window only displayed the usual three stats: Vitality, Stamina, and Willpower. It almost made me regret my minimalistic UI love. Have I been too corrupted by MMORPG games after playing them for so long?

—If I’m not being limited by a skill tree or anything, then it’s simply technique in the end. I guess the materials and the mortar alone can only carry me so far.

I looked at the fresh ingredients and the mortar on the table. Even in that realistic alchemy simulator I was talking about earlier, simply mixing wasn’t enough even in the tutorial. I didn’t think that game’s potion making was all that similar to this world’s method, but it couldn’t hurt to use it as reference.

—But I didn’t make any errors making the actual medicine, did I? Then it must be the conditions and the utensils.

For example, the materials were one variable; like the way they were picked up, the degree of freshness, whether they were dried in the shade or the sun—maybe they were even boiled. Then there were cases in which ingredients were seeped in chemicals, with their properties extracted and such. There were more ways to produce potions outside of grinding with a mortar; there was filtration, high temperature and pressure heating, stirring, separation, et cetera. A lot of methods came to mind all of a sudden.

—I would really like a recipe now... I didn’t think having only legendary rare materials would backfire like this.

I ordered a small pamphlet-sized book from Tundra called “Do It Yourself! Vitality Potions for Dummies!” that happened to have more information on the actual manufacturing process. There were various ways and materials to make vitality potions. All the different methods were described down to the last detail, like boiling down medicinal plants and heating up mineral ore to extract its components. Then it really was a problem of material and manufacturing techniques? This book confirmed my worries.

However, the book actually listed about 20 kinds of materials to create various grades of vitality potions; even then, I couldn’t figure out how to process the materials I could get from the ravine. I bought another book from the same series called “Do It Yourself! Recovery Potions for Dummies!” as well. But just like last time, all I managed to figure out was that you could make them out of various materials, and there were various ways of making them depending on that.

—No one’s selling recipes to make potions out of legendary class materials, huh...? Figures.

I sighed as I browsed through the ‘Pharmaceutical Literature’ section of the Tundra catalog. The regular ingredients were way more popular and user friendly. That seemingly obvious truth was incredibly underwhelming and painful.

—Well, this is fun if you think of it like a game. Fumbling around for recipes is what makes an alchemy game entertaining... I guess I’ll take a break for now...

There were many games that centered around alchemy as a theme, but there weren’t that many games that tortured you with recipe gathering as well. The difficulty curve was so high that they were hard to sell. I decided to take a break to pull myself together while I thought about how nice it would be to play a game like that instead.

I’d been warming up the water from the spring I usually drew water from. Drinking hot water was kind of my current obsession. I didn’t know what was causing it, but the water smelled kinda nice when you warmed it up.


Do It Yourself! Vitality Potions for Dummies! == 300000 DL
Seller : Manager, Labyrinth #315

Rating : ★★★★☆
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #601
- A introductory book on potion making, couldn’t be easier to use! This is the first alchemy book of the series. It explains the process of making vitality potions with different materials in an easy but thorough manner. The great amount of illustrations that come with the explanations makes me really happy. This is one book I can’t recommend enough for those looking to step in the world of alchemy.

Rating : ★★★☆☆
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #552
- i heard you could squeeze potions out of rocks but it turns out you need an special ore to do it. i was surprised to discovers theres ways to make potions that dont have anything to do with medicinal plants. unfortunately we dont have any of that ore near my house but i reckon the challenge is nice!


Do It Yourself! Recovery Potions for Dummies! == 620000 DL
Seller : Manager, Labyrinth #315

Rating : ★★★☆☆
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #601
- Finally, I’ve been waiting so long for the new one! My only gripe is that difficulty level this time is kinda... As usual the instructions are detailed and the illustrations are always appreciated. But making recovery potions is so hard I ended giving up anyway. It might be difficult to handle if you’re a beginner, despite what the title says.

Rating : ★★★★☆
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #172
- I’m always looking for new books as a potion maker, potions are always priceless as a bargaining tool outside the labyrinth. Purchase it so you can help fight off the eternal stock shortage! The production can’t catch up. There’s men collapsing because of overwork, this is no laughing matter people! Let’s all make more potions!


“Aoi! Aoi!”

I sat on a chair and basked in the sunshine while watching over the greenery and the moss spreading across the ravine, while sipping on my warm water elegantly, when Ann jumped up, calling for me excitedly.

“Hey there... Ann, calm down first.”

I rushed to hug Ann and patted her head to help her calm down.

For a second the options flashed inside my mind... 1) “What happened!?” 2) “Help her calm down first.”

So I chose the second option. I found that I was now rather used to the excessive skinship with Ann... She must have had a good reason to get riled up like that, so it’d be better to calm down first instead of getting worked up over it together. After a while of patting her head, she gradually calmed down.

“Aoi! Sara is... Sara is... Ah! Sara’s my best friend.”

After she’d finally stabilized, I carefully listen to Ann while I tried to soothe her, as the tears pooled in her eyes. It seemed like Sara had fallen ill and collapsed.

Apparently it wasn’t that unusual for her to fall ill because of her weak constitution, but it seemed she caught something really bad this time. According to the elder elf that worked as the mayor’s counselor diagnosis, the sickness Sara had was called ‘cursed cold’ or ‘thinning disease’, and it specifically targeted humans; kids, and people with frail constitutions, got it more often.

It wasn’t really infectious, as it didn’t infect other species,and it only attacked once. But it was still a serious disease that killed one in every five people it did infect, and it seemed like Sara would be in a dire situation if her fever didn’t break within two or three days. 

“Ever since I fell here, she hasn’t been sleeping well, Aoi... Please save her! I’ll do anything if you do it!”

—The second offer to do anything I say today...! 

Calm down, black beast of mine. Please make my self-control stay in place. So both of them would do anything for their best friend, I was really jealous now. I understood how Sara felt a little better.

Well then... Ann seemed to think she was partly responsible for this. I didn’t think so, though.

“Yeah, let me see if I can do anything for her. Can we use medicine to cure that?”

“Thank you, Aoi!”

—Umm... Ann... It’s pretty serious when you glue to me like that...!

“Erm... It really would be great if we had a doctor, but maybe we can make a special medicine for this particular disease. Oh, right. A Grade 7 potion...”

I did have a few recovery potions on me, but making a Grade 7 would be... challenging.

“Let’s check out Tundra together, Ann.”

“Okay!”

I searched for ‘cursed cold medicine’ on the Tundra catalog and... it was sold out. Looking at the reviews, it seemed the materials used to make it were sensitive to the season and couldn’t be harvested all the time. On top of being scarce, it was rare for there to be stock in the first place. I doubt there would be a restock anytime soon.

If the recovery potion we needed was Grade 9, then I had enough of those. But the quality of this one seemed to be way higher than the ones I made, since the potions out of stock were Grade 8 and above. The price was high as well, but since these potions were so versatile, the supply couldn’t meet the demand.

“Now this is a problem. Looks like we won’t have much luck with Tundra.”

“What about the medicine you said you were gonna make?”

“Sorry, I couldn’t make anything higher than Grade 9 recovery potions.”

“What can we do...?”

“Ann, it’s too soon to give up. I taught you that the first time we played games, right? You can always regret things, so let’s try doing everything we can right now.”

I handed over a bag with eight bottles of dark green liquid I’d made to the crestfallen Ann.

“Deliver these to Sara’s home. They’re far from a Grade 7 potion, but it’s way better than no medicine at all. Tell them to give it to her if she looks in pain. Can you give these to the person that’s taking care of her and come back?”

“This many? Even though they may not work?”

Ann raised her head. I could clearly see the worry in her eyes.

“It’s okay. Truth is, I became Sara’s friend as well today. Of course I’d want to save your best friend, and my friend, right?”

Well, we were more like rivals for Ann rather than friends, and we just met today. And thinking calmly about it, I really didn’t have any reason to go this far for her, but I couldn’t help but do anything but try to help. I wanted to save her, too... Oh yeah, if I could manage to cure her, I’m sure the expression on Sara’s face when she found out would be priceless. With something as fun as that on the line, there was no way I couldn’t get over a bit of a hard event like this.

“Thank you so much! What should I do when I deliver these?”

“It might be a little tiring to run back and forth so much, but can you help me make the medicine when you come back? I wanna try making a Grade 7 recovery potion.”

“Yup, got it!”

Ann leapt out of the cabin, potion bag in hand, and I begin clashing with the potion making.

“Let’s confirm first... Will I always get the same quality with the same procedure?”

I did it just like last time, and slowly grinded the phosphor buds for the potion in the mortar. The sound of the pestle grinding against the mortar echoed across the ravine. It was unusually loud without Ann around.

—It’s like a fairy tale... A sweet little girl collapses, and the medicine I make might save her life.

The one that collapsed was my rival instead of a heroine, though, if I may add.

—Normally I would be so frightened by the pressure I’d want to just run away from here, but I promised.

“This is not a game. This isn’t an NPC in some quest. This is a real person. A real life on the line.”

I grumbled to myself about it for a while.

“Man, I hate this kind of thing. You can kill any NPC like it’s nothing in regular games, can’t you? Oh well... No point in getting worked up about it. It’s just business as usual.”

Some people might get angry I was comparing games with reality, but I didn’t really like it when games took reality too lightly to begin with. Of course I won’t spout some garbage about how I wasn’t not scared because I had done this in games before. I was worried about Sara, and Ann as well, after seeing her so sad because of her friend.

The thought of not being able to make the medicine came to mind. The anxiousness, frustration, and panic of not knowing if the medicine would even work were wreaking havoc on my mental state, but my pride as a gamer wouldn’t let me even think about escaping a trial like this. People usually talked about how life was just like a game. Well, then, people had to do their best with this game called Life.

When I’d finished grinding with the pestle, I mixed what I had on the mortar with water, poured it into the pot, and set up the fire to boil it down. I let the green liquid boil until it gained the consistency of matcha, and its green color darkened. Then I took it off the fire, let it cool, and filled one the bottles with it.

“Execute Appraisal... ‘Grade 9 Recovery Potion (Quality+)’. So it’s the same...”

I had a faint hope, but the quality didn’t change. It might be useful for something, so I filled some glasses with it.

“I’m back! I’m gonna help you now!”

Ann had returned.

“Welcome back. I put some mats with medicinal herbs around the cabin, can you bring them here?”

“Sure!”

The only thing that could be heard in the room was the sound of medicinal plants boiling on the pot below the stove we used inside the cabin. The moss started lighting up the ravine as day turned to night, and everything was painted blue except the blazing orange of the stove taking over the inside of the cabin. As night drew on, I got to my fourth attempt ever since Ann arrived. It’d only been a few hours, but apparently letting them dry was the right answer, though the highest quality I’d managed to get so far was Grade 8.

After giving it her all gathering phosphor buds and firewood, Ann had wrapped herself up in a blanket and used my lap as pillow. She looked so comfortable. We were way past bedtime, so I understood why she was so tired. She went back and forth between here and the village two times today, and she worked really hard up until a moment ago.

“Good grief... Is there even anything bad about you?”

When I looked at Ann’s sleeping face, the way she entrusted herself to me made me want to keep doing my best. It was a burst of energy more than even a thousand cracks of a whip to my back could have mustered.

“Ah... Mm... Zzz...”

It made me feel like a fool that was being led around by the nose, so to calm down some I patted her hair. She seemed to enjoy it as she had let out some cute noises. It was kinda scary how naturally cute she was...

“Execute Appraisal... So increasing the boiling time or the amount of material doesn’t help, huh?”

After my fourth failure... I took a deep, long sigh while I stuffed the bottles full of ‘Grade 8 Recovery Potions (Quality+++)’. The wall between Grade 8 and Grade 7 was larger than I had expected. It wasn’t something you could force yourself to improve upon in a day or two. It took time and experience, both of which I didn’t have the luxury of right now.

“Whoa, there... Looks like I’m tired, too. I’ve gotten so used to sleeping as soon as it gets dark these last two months. Guess I can’t do much about that.”

I grinded some more phosphor buds in the mortar in preparation of another attempt, when I was suddenly struck with a bout of drowsiness, and noticed the thing that was pouring into the mortar wasn’t water. I ended up mixing in a stamina potion instead. I didn’t want to wreck my sweet little vocal cords or wake up Ann, so I gave up on trying to exclaim my displeasure. Suddenly, I noticed something.

—Haven’t I done something like this before?

I was reminded of something when I saw the phosphor bud green paste blend with the bright green colored stamina potion.

“Yeah, it was in one that indie game. It was called ‘El-11 SIU-M’, right?”

It was released around a certain big event that happened every summer. It was regarded by a select few as one of the best classic games, made by a group of veterans under a studio called SilverAge Games.

You played the role of the manager of a little classic bar, and you could increase the warehouse capacity by becoming a subcontractor of a larger company, or by making your very own brand, and carving your way out in the world until you hit a niche market. For an indie game, it gave you a great amount of freedom, and had a ton of depth. That was why it was lauded as one of the go-to classic gems of PC gaming.

Among all the real types of alcohol you could brew in the game, there was a certain one that was composed of just of rice and water. But, if you used alcohol instead of water, then the mixture would react differently, and the result had special properties.

—I’ve been mixing it with water before boiling up until now, but if I used a potion instead... What would happen?

I had nothing better to do besides try out new things; thankfully, the night was still young.


“Execute Appraisal... Wow, I did it.”

The small bottle in my hand was filled with a mysterious emerald green liquid that emitted a faint glow. The translucent appraisal window stated ‘Grade 6 Recovery Potion (Quality++)’.

Morning had started to creep in as I looked out the window. I ended up pulling another all-nighter, huh? At least I had results. I’d tried several experiments after coming up with the replacing water with potion idea, but just mixing up the stamina potion normally seemed to give effective results.

“Ann, wake up. It’s morning already.”

It pained me to wake her up when she was sleeping so peacefully, but I had to.

“Hmm... Good morning.”

Ann slowly opened her eyes, got up a little, and hugged me while still half-asleep. She may still be halfway in dream land, but her charm really did a number on me...! Laugh at me all you want for getting flustered about her hugging and jumping on me, but I still have yet to become overtaken by my desire. Still, I also didn’t feel like running away from this happy feeling.

“Ann, Ann. Wake up. The medicine’s ready.”

“Huh... Really!?”

She perked right up and relinquished her hug. Now that she had finally let go of me, I really missed the feeling of her being glued to me. I really did... 

“Yeah, I made a Grade 6 recovery potion. I wanna get it to her right away, wanna come with me?”

“Yes, let’s go!”

And so we headed off to deliver the potion to the village as dawn broke.

◇

“Ngh... Oh? What is this? What happened?”

Sara awoke from her own bed, confused by the situation that surrounded her. She only faintly remembered she had gotten sick from something and was bedridden. It was a sensation Sara had been used to ever since she was a child, but her body felt surprisingly light this time. There were no lasting effects that indicated she had even fallen ill. On top of that, Aoi was leaning on the side of her bed, totally asleep. His head was resting defenceless beside her lap. Ann was sitting in a nearby chair with a jealous look on her face—watching Sara get worked up over what was happening was quite the sight.

“Ah, Sara, you’re finally up! Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?”

“Huh? No... Hey, Ann, can you tell me what’s happening?”

Still confused, Sara listened to the whole story from Ann. She told her about how she had collapsed and apparently caught some dangerous disease called ‘cursed cold’. She also told her about how Aoi stayed up all night making medicine for her when he found out. When he gave her the medicine, ascertained that her complexion improved and her breath stabilized, he fell asleep like a rock on the spot.

“Uuuh, then I can’t be angry at you... If I move you out of the way, I’ll even seem ungrateful.”

Sara said with mixed feelings tinging her words as she put Aoi’s head back on her lap.

“That’s not fair, I want to do it too!” Ann said, filled with playful jealousy. 

She jumped up into the same position as Aoi and put her head over Sara’s lap as well.

“Ehehe. I’m so glad you’re feeling well now.”

“Say, Ann, why do you think Aoi helped me?” Sara asked, puzzled, as she pet Ann’s head, which was perfectly lined up with Aoi’s.

“He nodded right away after I asked him to save you! He said he would help because you’re his friend, too.”

Ann looked at Sara with a curious look on her face that said “What’s wrong with that?”

“What should I do? This rival is tougher than I thought...” 

Ann looked up at Sara’s troubled expression, as she laughed embarrassingly.

◇

It was noon the next day, on a moss lawn around the cabin... Originally it was just a stone walkway we had built to move the cart back and forth while we worked on the staircase. Soon after we finished working, the soft moss took over and turned it into a makeshift lawn. Today, Sara was visiting, and she was using Ann as a lap pillow.

“I brought something to prove my gratitude, but don’t expect me to bow down and thank you.”

She said as she handed me a basket filled with mushrooms and wild plants, while looking straight into my eyes.

“Ann told me she wanted me to use her as a lap pillow.”

“And you didn’t want to?”

Yeah, I know very well what Sara really wanted to say.

“Ann looked really pleased when I put my head on her lap, but she lost to the sunlight and fell asleep. I’ve been under the sunlight with her like this for over 30 minutes now, isn’t that praiseworthy?”

The sun was kinda strong today; good weather all around.

“Why does Ann even want you to use her as a lap pillow, anyway?”

“I don’t know, but I just couldn’t refuse when she told me ‘I can do it but you can’t?’”

I couldn’t make fun of her when she said it with such a melancholic face. There was no way I could object to something so dreamlike as watching two girls being so cute. It was like a man’s dream.

“Uuh...”

Now this was an awkward mood. After delivering the medicine and confirming it worked, I fell asleep on her lap after passing out because of the exhaustion. I’d rather not even mention the fact, though, for our peace of mind.

“You know, I won’t give up being Ann’s first place, but I’ll accept Ann leaving the village to come live here.”

“Thanks, hearing that from Ann’s best friend makes me really happy.”

“That said, please promise me one thing. You have to protect Ann no matter what happens.”

—“Ain’t that a bit too headstrong!?” Was what I was about to say, but I couldn’t form the words in my mouth.

“I can’t say I can with complete certainty that I can do that, but I can promise to do as best I can to protect her.”

“I think it’s good that you don’t take it lightly, but that’s unfair...”

“Are you gonna start nagging me for that?”

I thought an innocent promise like protecting a girl no matter what was more fitting for a 16 year old boy.

“What should we do to make the promise official? People lock their pinkies together, back where I come from.”

“That’s for promises between married couples. Normal people here use these for promises.”

And then she presented her ring finger to me. It was interesting how the fingers used for promises changed depending on whether you were married to the person or not.

“Then, it’s a promise.”

“I promise.”

I locked my ring finger with hers and swore. The fact we had a peaceful exchange made me so happy that I couldn’t even imagine Ann and Sara were suffering so much until not so long ago. It may not look like that much of an achievement, but I was satisfied with the reward I got for completing the potion making ‘event’, so to speak... I’m glad I did my best.

◇

Saving Sara and making up with her didn’t really change our daily lives much. I was still in my trial period. But in the meantime, I was devoting myself to prepare for the next village market fair, and looking for products that may have a demand.

I figured that being able to make so many types of potions was enough, but I had no real variety outside of that. I didn’t even know how much value the potions would have inside the village. I understood the process, so I I tried making more recovery potions when everything settled down, and managed to make more Grade 6 products with the a ‘Quality+’ property.

“The color is really pretty, and they seem to be in demand... but I can’t say for sure yet.”

I put the little bottle with the emerald colored liquid against the light and tried to appraise it, but I still couldn’t tell what exactly it did for someone. The translucent window that came out said “Cures most illnesses and relieves the symptoms of severe illnesses to some extent.”

I guess I wouldn’t know until I tried it out.

I tried making special products that made use of what I had in the labyrinth, besides potions. I tried using the wire net I’d bought from Tundra to reinforce a glass, making a makeshift candle lamp. Then I placed a piece of bluelight moss and poured some water inside to make a lamp that didn’t require any fuel.

The moss wouldn’t spread if it didn’t have a lot of clean water around, but since it could keep shining on without withering even with no water, it was still usable. It might not be as bright as an oil lamp or a normal candle, but it made for a good source of light still, because it required no maintenance, nor consumed any fuel.

“I’m not too sure about this... Execute Appraisal.”


Name : Bluelight Moss Lamp
  Description : A lamp that emits a pale light in the absence of sunlight. The intensity of the light will be constant as long as it’s properly watered. While not requiring any fuel, its brightness pales in comparison to lamps that employ fire.


Yes, looked like it turned into a lamp just like I wanted. Its nature might be a little different from what I intended at first, but the appraisal was useful enough. I wondered how it determined the kinds of the things I made. It seemed to be able to distinguish failures, at least. I made about ten lamps and put them inside a leather bag I’d made for the occasion, along with the potions. I also began making some more hoes and sickles with the <Dungeon Management Tool>.

Things were awfully quiet around here since Ann went to visit Sara. Even if she lived here in the labyrinth, I’m sure she’d like to cherish the bonds with her best friend and family. Despite that, and even though I’d gotten kinda distracted because of the whole deal with Sara and her illness, I was still amazed by Ann’s real form.

I knew Ann was a half-kobold from the first day I appraised her, but I didn’t know she could transform into a kobold form to get their abilities. Her true form was literally the same as a normal human girl. I couldn’t rely on appearances to guess her age because our races were different, but nothing could beat the impact of the beautiful girl I found in her the first time around. No matter if she had a doggy or human form, she was Ann on the inside, so my way of treating her wouldn’t change much. But if she kept up the skinship level we’ve had so far while in pretty girl mode... Then my mind would snap at some point.

It seemed her form changed due to the shock of the fall when I first found her, but then I asked about why she was in kobold form back when we met, to which Jenny gave me another answer. She said it was because of self-defense. Apparently it was easier to get targeted by demons or other things if your appearance was of a human’s.

I may be speculating a little bit here, but there might be multiple human clans out there, and it must be easier for the other races to judge beauty among humans. But when it came to kobold faces, it must be hard to differentiate a pretty kobold from a normal one, unless you were a kobold yourself. “She’s like a little sister to me, so I can’t see her as a woman” is a line I’d heard more times in games than I could count, but I really couldn’t keep that up if that happened again.

My view of Ann had already shifted from somewhere along the lines of a little sister and a pet, to a pretty girl that was somewhat like my little sister. I’d like to put various things about that on hold until the end of my training... but Ann’s way too powerful.

I wondered if they sold some sort of ‘calming tea’ in Tundra... I had Tundra open on one side, while I chugged down willpower potions, and kept making hoes and sickles with the <Dungeon Management Tool>.


That night we played Ann’s favorite game.

We played the tabletop game while I recalled all the games I’d played back on Earth. I called it “Labyrinths and Dragon’s Feast.” After we were done playing, Ann called out to me after we had cleaned ourselves and headed to bed for the night.

“Hey, can we talk a little bit before going to bed?”

I doubted I would be able to calm down if Ann and I slept together in that tiny bed under the same blankets, while she wore nothing but my white shirt just like before. When I heard Ann’s voice though, one full of trust in me, I could feel my heart calming down a bit.

“Sure, what’s wrong?”

“What’s a sneaking visit?”

“H-Huh...!? (cough) (cough)”

I was caught so off guard that I started to have a little bit of a coughing fit. The calm sea that was my heart went back to the choppy waves it was riding just a moment ago.

“A-Ann, who told you about that?”

“My auntie. She taught me a lot of things, but I forgot to ask about that word.”

—You started plotting the next attack already, Jenny...!?

“I see. Hmm... It’s kinda hard to explain as a man. I think it’ll be easier to understand if you just ask Jenny about it.”

“I see. I am, umm... sorry, that I bothered you before. I did, didn’t I? You looked in so much pain and all...”

—She looks so apologetic and cute, I’m the one starting to feel sorry...

“You had a reason for it, right?”

We had been together for two months now, and I knew how much of a pure and caring girl Ann really was. It worried me at times.

—If I really looked like I was in pain, I’m sure Ann would stop even if she trusts Jenny’s wisdom.

“Yes. I want to stay with you forever, but Auntie told me the time we can stay together like this isn’t so long unless we... marry.”

“I see...”

Ann was still a child... No, thinking about it now that she has changed forms, I could see she was growing, but her honest and cute character made me embrace a younger impression of her. I’d also almost forgotten I was in a medieval fantasy world, after spending so much time peacefully stuck at the bottom of this ravine. Sara was treading between life and death after getting a little sick. Death was always looming around the corner; lifespans weren’t that long, and the mortality rate of babies was too great also. I knew marriage and childbirth started at an earlier stage of life here, compared to those of modern Earth, but I didn’t fully understand or realize it yet.

It was a blind spot for me. Even though I knew there were differences between our cultures, we were still from separate worlds. Of course their set of values and customs would be completely different from mine.

“That’s why Auntie told me that if I do this ‘sneaking visit’ thing, we can be together forever.”

A chill ran down my spine when I’d finally realized what Jenny’s next scheme was. There’s no way I could tell Ann any of that, though. Not when she was opening her heart to me and choosing her words so carefully.

“Hey, can we really stay together forever? It won’t make you hate me, right...?” she asked.

The anxiety-tinged words leaking out of Ann’s mouth hit me like a truck. I felt like they were pushing me down, as if the gravity was turned up. Ann was being pretty bold, but it was obvious she was pretty worried and anxious about this. What could I do? I’d be hard-pressed to simply resolve the situation by saying...

—”We can be together forever.”

I didn’t want to make a promise that involved the future when mine was so unclear due to the trial period. That said, I didn’t want to reject Ann here either.

Rather than spouting words of acceptance irresponsibly, it would be better to reject by carefully wording things as to not hurt her; that would be the best. That was my judgement call as an adult... But I hated it. If I hurt her with heartless adult words, words with no feelings behind them, it would truly be the worst assessment of my life.

—Think... You have tons of experience overcoming difficult moments like this, don’t you? A way to not hurt Ann and not take responsibility... 

One such way rose to the top of my head as I thought as hard and fast as I could.

“You’re so smart, but you miss the mark so much sometimes, Ann.”

“H-Huh...?”

The uneasiness made her curl up a little bit, and I hugged her as gently as possible.

“If I hated you, there’s no way we’d be this close together. Even though you have so many doubts and fears, there’s no need to worry. I could never hate you, don’t you think so too?”

“Do you really mean it...?”

“Yes, because I feel the same way about you. You can stay here as much as you want.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but... can you wait a little bit for me to reply on whether or not we can truly stay together forever? You know, I’m still just an apprentice labyrinth manager, right?”

“Yes...”

“It’ll be decided if I stop being an apprentice or not in a month or so. That's why we should make a promise.”

“A promise?”

“Yeah. If I stop being an apprentice in one month, can you ask me the same thing? I’ll answer then.”

“Yes, I got it... I promise. I’ll ask no matter what, okay?”

Ann rested her head on my arm and began sleeping quietly. I wondered if it was because she felt safe now. Man... I was fortunate that I wasn’t picky with visual novels. This option wouldn’t have come out as smoothly if I didn’t have so much experience with those. I was thankful for being a gamer from the bottom of my heart. Nonetheless, the option I used as reference was one that tied you to the ending of one of the heroines, if I remembered correctly. I just postponed it. 

—Didn’t I pretty much accept her just now, though?

Maybe I was too hasty. The doubts started to swirl inside my heart, and were promptly melted away as soon as I saw Ann’s peaceful sleeping face as she used my arm as pillow. A bitter smile formed on my face, and a feeling of resignation mixed in my heart as a small laugh escaped my lips. She was super soft and fluffy in kobold form, but with this form, her hair type changed from fluffy to smooth; not that it stopped me from patting her head like always. I fell asleep as the bittersweet flavor of the herb spread across my mouth.

I managed to sleep together with her and stay sane today thanks to the herb I’d bought from Tundra today after dinner.


Samathi Herb (Dry; 8 pc. set, 15 g) == 1,800DL
Seller : Manager, Labyrinth #201

Rating : ★★★★☆
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #48
- Useful herb for analgesic/pain killer purposes. It’s dry, but it comes back to life as soon as you add some water, it’s useful since you can put it over scratches or open wounds given they’re not too deep. I’m glad it’s safe to use for children as well.

Rating : ★★★★★
Reviewer : Manager, Labyrinth #16
- A handy herb for when you need to pull all-nighters. Boil the dry leaves with hot water and you’ll get a relaxing bitter-sweet tea. It has a really calming effect for the nerves when you’re staying up all night. I tried analyzing the components and ran some tests, but I didn't find any addictive agents or side effects. The problem it’s that its nature changes when you extract its components, so it’s not really fit for mass production.