Chapter 8 Responsibility
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
When they came down the stairs, the floor that led into the twenty-seventh layer felt strangely wide and empty.
Every “safe area” between floors had the same shape. They had passed many already, so there was no reason this one should look different. Even so, the place Yuuri knew so well now seemed lonely, bare, and dim. It was not only because no one else was here. The real reason was that their group of eight had become only three in less than an hour.
Yuuri was not the only one with a heavy heart.
Ashley quietly kept working to block the stairs, and Marina, who had already picked up her sword, stood near her, lost in thought.
”I’m done. We will leave right away, won’t we?” Ashley said as she walked back to them. Sweat shone on her forehead after using her “ice wall” magic for so long.
”Yes. I’d like to rest, but we can’t. Fried-kyo’s other skill is ‘body boost.’ With that and ‘hard body,’ we can’t expect them to get tired, drown, or freeze to death by mistake,” Yuuri said.
”They are probably breaking the ice even now to come down,” Ashley added.
As a maze guide, Yuuri knew the truth. Stepping on a random warp was a foolish gamble, something only a poor team would try. But waiting here and hoping the Fried-kyo would give up or die in an accident was even less possible.
”So, about our order. I should go first, right?” Yuuri asked.
”I’m sorry, but please do. If a monster gets close… hm? What is it?” Ashley began politely, but Marina clearly did not like that tone.
Marina bent at the waist to meet Yuuri’s eyes from below, her lips pushed out in a small pout.
”As a princess order, when it’s just us two or with Ashley, no titles and no polite speech,” she said.
”W-wait, that’s a bit… Ashley… Ashley?” Yuuri turned to his childhood friend for help, but she only gave him a quick look and then turned her face away.
”Oh? You drop the title for a Count’s daughter? As royalty, I can’t let that pass. Want a punishment for rude speech, or will you follow my order?” Marina asked with a grin.
”Oof… all right, all right. Um… Ma, Marina-san—”
”Title.”
”…Marina,” Yuuri said at last, letting out a long breath. Marina looked very pleased, smiling as if something warm had just started inside her. Maybe she wanted to loosen Yuuri’s fear in this tense time. Her care for those with her showed the heart of a true leader, and Yuuri felt respect rise inside him before he knew it.
”You’re silly,” she answered, turning her face away for a moment.
Ashley, however, turned away again when Yuuri tried to share that feeling with her.
Even though some of the tension had eased, they could not relax for long.
They could not run across the twenty-seventh layer like frightened rabbits either. With only three of them left, they needed a new order. Marina, with her strong defense from her “holy armor,” would stay at the center. Ashley would move so that Marina was always between her and any monster they met.
”It’s not great, but I’ll take the middle, and Ashley will be at the back. If we meet monsters, Marina will hold them off, and if there are many, Ashley will use magic,” Yuuri said.
”Yuuri, your spot is the safest. Fight without fear,” Marina said.
”??? Yuuri should stay alive without fighting. I will protect you,” Ashley said firmly.
Yuuri almost laughed. Marina spoke like a game joke from his old world. Ashley, who did not know the joke, said such kind words that Yuuri did not know if he should feel happy or weak.
”Let’s go then. From here on, Yuuri gives the orders,” Marina said. “If even one more of us falls, we will not make it out. So the one who knows the maze best must choose the path. Ashley and I will trust our lives to you!”
”Got it. Then, we move!” Yuuri said.
They turned away from the frozen stairs and began to walk.
Yuuri wondered what the Fried-kyo would do when they reached this place and found no one here. Would they search the entire twenty-seventh layer alone? Or would they find the random warp and set a trap above? In any case, Yuuri could only pray they would move in a way that kept them apart until they left the maze.
He looked around. It had been a long time since he last came to this layer.
The twenty-seventh layer looked like a mountain forest in autumn, full of bright red and yellow leaves. It might be a short stay, and maybe he would never see this view again. With that in mind, Yuuri took the scene into his heart as they walked.
* * *
Ten minutes after they left, they reached a winding mountain path.
They came to a clearing that looked like a good place to rest, so Yuuri raised his hand to stop.
”Here,” he said.
”That close!?” Marina cried.
Inside a maze, “close” usually meant a place many hours away.
Yuuri had said “close” many times as they came down the shallow layers, yet each time they still walked for two or three hours. It was still true that going straight to the “safe area” was much “closer” than walking to the far places where people gathered plants or ore. So Marina’s surprise now was easy to understand, since this time the place was truly near.
”Sorry. I guess I rushed,” Yuuri said. “I wanted to leave that spot as fast as I could, not explain it.”
”Well, if it’s this close, I get it. So, which one is the trap?” Marina asked.
The clearing around them looked like a perfect place to enjoy the red leaves, with large rocks placed as if waiting for someone to sit.
”See the five rocks in a line? Touch the second one from the left and the trap starts,” Yuuri said.
”Wow… it really wants to split up a party,” Marina said with a small shiver.
In a normal forest or mountain, you could build a fence or place signs. But in a maze, that did not work. The reason a maze was a place full of useful things was because ore, plants, and even monsters slowly returned to their first state with time. Anything extra that people placed would vanish as the maze reset itself.
Only living beings and what they held stayed. But once someone died, their body did not stay either. So when a party could not carry a comrade’s body out, people said the maze “took them back.”
This random warp trap was placed so well that someone might sit on it without knowing. That was why maze guides who knew every trap like this were seen as almost needed for any maze trip. And that was why Yuuri could make a living as one, even without a skill.
”So, how do we warp to the same place?” Ashley asked.
”We step on it at the same time while staying close together,” Yuuri explained.
”Then Yuuri goes in the middle,” Marina said at once.
Before Yuuri could ask why, Marina and Ashley hugged him from both sides. Ashley, as a Count’s daughter and royal attendant, has a crush on Yuuri.
”Because you’re the biggest, so it’s easier to hold on to you,” Marina said.
”…You don’t like it?” Ashley asked softly.
Yuuri did not dislike it. In fact, it even made sense if they wanted to stay close. Still, he had planned to hold the princess safely in a polite way, and now both girls had pressed in without a second thought. He could not quite make sense of it.
With a girl on each arm, he stepped up to the trap rock.
”From here, it’s one way,” he said. “Princess, are you truly fine with this?”
”Yes. I give my life to you, Yuuri. Whatever happens, I won’t blame you,” Marina said.
”Yes. If this is your choice, Yuuri, I will be glad if we live, and I will not be sad if we don’t,” Ashley added.
Their trust felt heavy.
But this was the heart of a maze guide’s job. From the start, they carried the lives of the whole party. To have such clear trust shown now was, in a way, an honor.
He remembered the words from his old teacher, Roeni, now retired:
”Make the choice where you take the responsibility.”
If you waited and avoided a choice because you feared a result, the payback would return many times greater later.
”This is that moment… I see. Let’s go, you two. On my mark, step with me,” Yuuri said.
”Okay,” Marina answered.
”Yes,” Ashley replied.
Both looked up at him and nodded with brave eyes.
He nodded back and raised his voice.
”I’ll count to three. Three… two… one… now!”
He stomped on the trap rock. He saw the girls’ feet touch at the same time. Light burst around them. The ground under their feet vanished, and the random warp pulled them in.
A white space with nothing in it. Yuuri could still feel both girls at his sides. Time stretched as he held on tight. It felt like it might last forever, and fear made every second slow as if his mind was stuck there.
In truth, it was only a few dozen seconds.
At last, with no warning, the warp ended.
First, he had to find out where they had been sent.
Darkness. That alone did not help, since few layers were bright. He looked down. Faint blue-green light glowed on the ground, coming from moss-like patches.
He already knew there were only three layers that looked like this.
No wind. He wanted that to be a lie.
He looked up. Nothing but black.
He looked around. Soft hills covered in glowing moss stretched to the far edge of sight.
”Yuuri, where are we?” Marina asked. Even in this strange scene, she sounded calm.
It seemed like a cave. The still air suggested a closed space.
A cave carpeted with glowing moss. But it was huge. No walls could be seen. No ceiling either.
A cave so wide it was beyond human reach.
Yuuri knew only one layer with these signs.
”…The fifty-seventh layer. ‘Infinite Canopy’,” he said quietly.
Hope of getting out alive almost faded away.
Notes:
• Ashley – Count’s daughter, royal attendant, has a crush on Yuuri.
• Marina – First Princess of Restea—needs labyrinth escort.
• Roeni – Guild receptionist, former adventurer, now a baroness—mentor to Yuuri.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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