Chapter 167 – Dancing in the Labyrinth

After taking a bath and heading to the master bedroom, I found Grace and the others playing cards.

Seeing everyone in their nightwear, freshly bathed and having fun… it had the atmosphere of a sleepover, so to speak.

Since they’re inside the house, even playing cards are treated as furniture, I suppose. Watching Seraphina participate in the game by levitating the cards without touching them was quite amusing.

Ah. So Claudia borrowed Ashley’s nightwear. That makes it look even more like one.

Well, sleepover or not… Claudia will be staying here from today onward.

After that… while I was helping with the theater cleanup, it seems Claudia returned to the Labyrinth Village once to report that we’re engaged.

Since I’ll likely be interacting with the village residents more often from now on, I should go greet them next time I visit the labyrinth.

“Ah, Theodore. You’re back.”

“Yeah. Just got out.”

With this many people, the bath is rather cramped, after all. Lately, we’ve been taking turns bathing normally.

“Theodore-sama, will you be joining us?”

“Ah. I have some research to do. It’s enjoyable watching everyone have fun, so please continue.”

“Is that so? Fufu.”

Ashley chuckled softly, apparently finding my response about enjoying watching them amusing.

If there are too many people, it affects the gameplay, and when it comes to cards, the experience gap is too wide. It’d be better for me to join after everyone grasps the strategies a bit more.

Besides, I need to make more progress decoding Mother’s notebook. After boasting about freeing Claudia, it’d be embarrassing to say I couldn’t do it.

I moved a chair to a spot where I could see everyone and got to work.

“…Somehow, I feel apologetic.”

“Hm? For what?”

After working like that for a while, Claudia spoke to me.

“Even though you went through the trouble of renovating the basement. It feels wasteful that it won’t be used much anymore.”

“I see.”

Maybe I should think of another use for it. While we could move the furniture elsewhere, it was originally made to welcome Claudia as the Otherworld Ambassador.

“How about using it when village residents come to visit?”

“That… might be a good idea.”

At Grace’s words, Claudia smiled quietly. Sitting primly on the bed with cards in hand… perhaps because she’s not in her usual dress, her impression is quite different.

Whoops. My thoughts wandered. Having villagers use it is fine, but if we’re inviting residents, one room might be insufficient. Even if we expand the basement, there are limits.

Come to think of it, was the house next door vacant?

…I’ll buy it. Connect it to the current house’s fence, expand underground… then create a connecting passage. Yeah. That should work.

While enjoying the sight of everyone in nightwear engrossed in their card game, I continued planning the renovations and decoding work until Marlene rubbed her sleepy-looking eyelids.

“Mmm. Should we sleep soon?”

When I said that, everyone nodded.

Our schedules have been irregular lately. Now that the theater has settled down, we should return to a normal rhythm.

“Well then, I’ll get to work—”

Seraphina happily left the room, as if demonstrating a Brownie’s true worth. It seems her purpose in life is cleaning the house after everyone has fallen asleep.

I moved to the bed and lay down.

Claudia cleared her throat softly, her cheeks reddening as she made herself small.

While not exactly “when in Rome,” Claudia seems to have been incorporated into the rotation… apparently it was her wish to be treated like everyone else, regardless of being a goddess or Moon Folk.

Since it’s the first day, we changed the order slightly—today, Ashley and Claudia are on either side of me. Marlene is next to Grace. Lying there smiling at each other, they look like sisters with a slight age gap who get along well. I held Ashley’s hand and performed Circulating Ki.

“…If we reinforce magical power with Circulating Ki, might Claudia-sama have some magical power to spare?”

Ashley tilted her head slightly as she spoke.

“Hm… Should we try?”

“Y-yes.”

When I turned to ask Claudia, she seemed to hesitate slightly but nodded quietly. Taking Claudia’s hand too, I performed Circulating Ki simultaneously.

Somehow… it’s a magical pattern I’ve never seen before. Very high-quality magical power, and the compatibility seems good. The Circulating Ki effect appears promising.

“It’s warm…”

Claudia closed her eyes and exhaled deeply.

Continuing like that, she slowly surrendered to the comfort of Circulating Ki, deepening her breathing.

“Starting tomorrow… what will you do?”

In the darkened master bedroom, Grace’s quiet voice could be heard.

Closing our eyes before sleep to discuss. A peaceful time.

“…Preparations to challenge the Blazing Fortress, I suppose.”

Organized Living Armors, magma—it’s a troublesome place. I want to thoroughly prepare countermeasure Equipment before going.

“If the Circulating Ki effect works, I might be able to use my teleportation more freely.”

I see. That would make it possible to gather Materials from various places in the labyrinth.

“Yeah. I’m counting on you.”

“Yes. I’ll also… do what I can, and do my best…”

Slowly, like that. One by one, we drifted off to sleep.

“We’ll proceed in a practical manner without giving any hints. If there’s danger, I’ll provide support.”

“Understood.”

“Got it.”

—The next morning, we woke up feeling quite refreshed.

We headed to a corner of the labyrinth—the Dust Corridor. Fire Rats, mouse Monsters with high Blazing Heat Resistance, inhabit this area. Our target is their fur. Since we need enough for the entire Party, we plan to hunt them extensively.

According to the labyrinth’s system, fighting Monsters should also help process Claudia’s negative emotions. Supporting her from both the labyrinth’s side and her own.

Now then. This place could be called a quicksand maze, perhaps. Sand flows through the passages, restricting movement. Some rooms have quicksand Traps too—before you know it, you can get stuck and become immobile, then suffer concentrated attacks. If you’re careless, thinking flying in the air makes the sand irrelevant, you might get sand in your eyes or face other troubles.

To conclude, the Circulating Ki benefits were evident. Since we reinforced enough magical power to cover movement, we immediately visited an area that should normally be unreachable yet. For the return trip, using the Transference Stone normally should help conserve magical power.

“Something’s coming.”

Sheila and Irmhild reacted. Sliding through the sand from the dim labyrinth depths, weaving between the rows of pillars, was something.

“A shark…?”

What advanced through the quicksand was a shark’s dorsal fin. A ferocious shark swimming through sand. If you’re careless, it’ll bite your feet, so you must stay alert and not miss sight of the fin. Despite not being small at all, sometimes you realize they’ve approached unnoticed, so caution is necessary.

That said, that’s not all there is to it… but I’ll say nothing. I’ll just stay ready to handle anything at any time.

“I’ll handle this.”

Irmhild nocked an arrow to her Bow. Without sending the Vanguard role charging in when you can’t see the full form beneath the sand, starting with a long-range Weapon makes sense, I suppose.

Matching Irmhild’s movements, Marlene’s Saucer moved.

She released the arrow. Simultaneously, the high-speed spinning Saucer flew in a straight trajectory.

The shark moved to Dodge the arrow and Saucer’s path. But it was futile. Irmhild had fired two arrows at once.

Deviation Shooting. The arrow flying to block the shark’s path pierced the shark in the sand. The only direction to Dodge was toward the second arrow. Because Marlene had blocked the escape route.

Moreover, defensive measures against attacks from below were already in place. Ashley deployed Water Magic around our feet. Lavigne froze it, creating an instant defensive position.

Perhaps realizing the Ambush had completely failed, the shark shot out, having taken an arrow to its left eye. Wriggling its body mid-air, instead of falling, it bulleted straight forward along the shortest path.

A Flying Shark. A Monster inhabiting deserts that moves through sand and flies through the air to attack prey.

What swept it aside from the flank was the second Saucer, moving in a wide arc. It struck the shark head-on as it came straight forward, sending it flying back violently.

“Going in.”

Grace, having discerned the enemy’s characteristics, charged into the following shark swarm. Sheila followed right on her heels, overlapping her back.

“Taking the top.”

“Taking the bottom.”

Minimal, brief conversation. Matching Grace advancing through the air, the sharks leaped up.

Crossing her arms. Blocking the attacking shark’s gaping maw with one Axe, she simultaneously slashed with the other Axe. Sheila slid out from beneath Grace’s feet. Without even looking up, she threw a Dagger while slashing through the bellies of the sharks distracted from above as she passed by.

“They’re not fooled by fake sounds.”

Seraphina said.

“Outside the sand, they judge by smell or temperature, I suppose. What about their eyesight?”

No sooner had those words been exchanged than Lavigne charged in. She was enveloped in a faint chill around her body. Probably the same temperature as the outside air, I’d guess. A moment later, darkness enveloped Lavigne’s surroundings. The power of Shade, the dark Spirit Marlene commands.

Even Lavigne can’t see in that, but using superior sense of smell to supplement the visual information from Ashley’s Five Senses Link, she leaped at the sharks without hesitation. That bite aimed at the shark’s throat cut through empty air. If they can detect it, they can avoid it. If they don’t detect it, they get hit. Movements adjusted to that degree. At any rate, the conclusion was reached.

“Smell.”

From the darkness where Lavigne was, an Ice Shotgun was fired at point-blank range. And—the sharks couldn’t properly Dodge it. They swept through the wounded, slowed sharks with tremendous force.

“First grasp their nature, crush their detection systems, then overwhelm them… They’re astonishingly excellent…”

Claudia murmured this after watching the entire sequence.

“Lately, we’ve been training with the task of fighting while changing the Golem’s Forms and searching for their respective weaknesses.”

Although the Golem’s actual weaknesses aren’t changing, when they take hits to their set weaknesses, they stagger badly, or when their set detection vulnerabilities are exploited like now, they just swing their arms wildly, can’t avoid attacks anymore… we’re changing their behavior in various detailed ways.

Hmm… How about having Golems dance in the theater? Making them feminine types instead of rugged-looking Golems… Yeah. It might work surprisingly well.

“Now then. Everyone seems to have found the strategy, so I think I’ll have some fun too.If I don’t use Impact Striking in actual combat, it’ll get rusty. I need to practice being able to launch it from anywhere—using Staves for hands and feet.