Depths of the Otherworldly Labyrinth (WN)

a result, Lastiara abducted Maria with the most radiant smile she had ever shown.
I had a feeling that Maria, that girl who always had her wits around, was seeking help from me, but I pretended not to see it. 

With that, I could rest easy.
Besides, that would deepen their relationship.
What a win-win.

I chose the room farthest from theirs, leaned my sword against the wall, and succumbed to bed.
I was running low on MP, so I couldn’t experiment with magic before bed.
I drifted off to sleep, focusing only on healing my physical exhaustion.

***

Early the next morning.
While I was experimenting with magic in the living room, an emaciated Maria showed up and greeted me in low spirit.

“G-good morning… Master…”

“Yeah, morning.”

I would not pry too deeply as to why and how she could become like that.
That being said, she’d bore a hole on the back of my head with all the staring, so I decided I should probably try to somehow get her into a good mood later.

Seeing that Maria had woken up, I ended my magic experiment.

For the time being, I was able to fix «Connection» in the corner of the room, so the experiment was a success.
However, I did not expect that my MP would be drained all the time to maintain the magic.
Just maintaining one door, my max MP was reduced by about 100 points.
It seemed that there were various conditions for the use of the magic.

Just when I thought Lastiara had gone so early in the morning, she returned a little later with a large jute bag with her.
Apparently, she had packed the tools she assumed she’d use in the Labyrinth.

I wondered how much I should tell her about my ‘Item List’ system.
Dia might have been aware of it the whole time, but even if he was, I hadn’t actively told anyone about that ability.
At the very least, I didn’t want to reveal all of my cards to Maria and Lastiara just yet.

However, judging from Lastiara’s motive, I could predict that there would be a time we were stuck in a prolonged battle down in the Labyrinth at some point in the future.
When that time came, there would be occasions when I had to make use of the ‘Item List’ system in front of both Lastiara and Maria.
If that was the case, it would be better to present a part of the whole truth ahead of time to avoid any trouble down the road.

“Lastiara.
If your luggage is too bulky, give it to me.”

“Mn?”

“My bag is a Magic Item Bag that is quite spacious inside.
You can entrust some of your less important items to me.”

I didn’t reveal the whole truth, just a part of it.
Through the proxy of my bag that I dubbed as Magic Item Bag, I demonstrated the power of my ‘Item List’.

“Huh, hmm… Magic Item, huh? I’ve never heard of an item like that, you know…”

“…Are you or are you not going to entrust your items to me?”

“…I’ll trust you.
It’s good to have your hands free, after all.”

I guessed that she was aware of the true nature of my lies.
However, she didn’t pursue it further and only took out water and food from her jute bag and handed them to me.

I put them in my ‘Item List’.
Added with Lastiara’s belongings, the number of supplies in my ‘Item List’ was enormous.
With that amount of supplies, both Maria and I shouldn’t have any trouble exploring the depths of the Labyrinth.

With that, we were all set.
I called my party members to set out to the Labyrinth.

“Let’s go, Maria.”

“Ah, yes, Master.”

I had Maria get her equipment ready, and we both headed out of the house together.
Once we were out, Lastiara followed us.

“—Hey, Christ.
We’re bringing Maria-chan with us?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Mn, as far as my ‘Skill’ can see, it will be hard for Maria-chan with her ‘Status’ like that.
Seeing that she has the ‘Cooking Skill’, I had thought she was your housekeeper…”

While I had no idea if it worked the same as my ‘Display’ system, Lastiara was able to see ‘Statuses’ too, and she seemed to be anxious when she looked at Maria’s ‘Status’.

“Maria is a Labyrinth exploration companion.”

“But her talent is really lacking, you know? She doesn’t have that many ‘Skills’, and the most important parameter, ‘Aptitude’, is also low.
She won’t be of any use as soon as we hit the deeper floors.
Is that okay with you?”

Lastiara nagged me for my choice of companion.
I could sort of tell that she was implicitly recommending that I should leave Maria back at home.

“I didn’t choose people solely on the basis of their talent.
There are things that even Maria can do in the Labyrinth.”

“Hmm… is that right? Well, I’ll do as you say.
Don’t blame me if Maria-chan dies, okay?”

Lastiara casually, off-handedly spoke that she wouldn’t care even if Maria died.
I would have taken issue with her view of life and death, but… the cold truth was that it was Lastiara’s strict mindset that was more appropriate to explore the Labyrinth with.
I took her advice head-on, then replied willfully.

“I won’t let her die.
No matter what.”

“…That’s good too, I guess.
I fancy that kind of dramatic stuff a lot.
I love both bad ends and good ends, you see.
Ufufufu.”

“…you’re nasty.”

“Putting that aside, do we have an actual goal for the Labyrinth? Diving in thoughtlessly doesn’t strike me as fun, so I hope we get to about the 30th floor.”

“The 30th floor is basically a world foreign to humanity as a whole, you know… For the time being, we’re aiming for the 20th floor, but considering Maria’s level, it might take several days to reach there.”

“Several days… That’s a bit troubling for me.
Personally, enemies up to the 20th floor don’t really give me any fun, you know, so I want to go further than the 20th floor as soon as possible.”

“Well, I want to progress our exploration too, but—”

“If so, why don’t I give you an idea?”

Lastiara smiled and picked up the sword at her waist.

The entrance to the Labyrinth was close to my house, so it didn’t take us long to get to that big, ostentatious hole.
Lastiara drew her sword out of its scabbard in front of the entrance and declared.

“I’ll deal with all the small fry.
Christ, you and Maria just need to watch.”

With that declaration, Lastiara took the lead, and we entered the Labyrinth.

『Tenth Day Starts』