We had reached the sixth floor.
The sixth floor was absolutely crawling with eat devils.
The armored warriors had vanished, leaving only eat devils.
Thanks to the incense we had, things were easier on that front.
Even so, there were far too many of them.
There were so many eat devils you'd wonder why on earth there were that many.
The reason became clear once we moved closer to the deepest part of the sixth floor.
The room leading to the deepest chamber—the magic circle—was a nest of eat devils.
Countless eat devils were packed together, and in the corners of the room lay innumerable eggs.
They were elongated, horizontally-oriented eggs covered in black slime—remarkably similar to those of the quick, black ones that gave me chills just looking at them.
Maybe somewhere there was a queen, and Zenis was being used as a brood mother or something.
The thought crossed my mind, but eat devils didn't seem to have that kind of behavior.
They swarmed together, sure, but there didn't seem to be any boss in particular.
Still, where did monsters like these come from, and where were they going?
This many monsters, and there probably wasn't that much food around.
"Roxy, what do you think monsters eat to survive?"
"……That's a good question. There are various theories, but one common idea is that they feed on mana."
"Mana?"
Forests and caves had high mana density and lots of monsters.
Come to think of it, Nanahoshi had told me that everything in this world contained mana.
But mana was invisible to the eye.
You couldn't really tell whether it was there or not.
Well, mana eyes existed, so I guess it did.
But if mana could be eaten, then spells would get devoured too.
So maybe there was edible mana and inedible mana?
Actually, I remembered hearing from Paul that monsters in the labyrinth targeted the mana crystals in the depths.
Were mana crystals a delicacy for monsters?
But even so, the monsters here didn't seem to be heading for the depths.
They seemed content just making nests and living there.
Was it enough just to stay here to survive?
Well, no point overthinking it.
There were monsters like the armored warriors that clearly didn't eat anything.
Let the monster ecologists handle that stuff.
"Anyway, regardless of what they eat, they'll still attack humans on sight. When we come back next time, let's destroy any eggs we find that might get in the way."
As she said this, Roxy calmly went about disposing of the eat devil eggs.
She didn't use magic.
She simply stabbed each one with her short sword, one by one.
Her expression was completely dry.
That was exactly what I liked about her.
But monsters laid eggs too?
Did armored warriors have larvae or something?
Would there be little armored warriors toddling about like toy swords on felt dolls?
Papa Armor and Mama Armor gazing fondly at their adorable little baby armor.
Then the sound of an intruder's footsteps.
Papa Armor and Mama Armor tell their son to hide while they go to the battlefield.
And who appears but Paul, with a demonic look on his face.
He holds a short sword—the insecticide of armored warriors, so to speak—and brutally massacres Papa Armor and Mama Armor.
The child armor watches this, learns that humans are enemies, and by the time it grows up, it becomes a monster that attacks humans on sight.
……No, that's not happening.
"Rudy. Stop spacing out and help me, would you?"
"Ah, yes."
I did as told and squashed eggs too.
The three rooms connected to the main hall were absolutely packed with eggs as well.
If these eggs hatched, larvae that would stick to human bodies would probably come out.
Well, there was absolutely no sign of them hatching, though.
And no, there was no incident where a newborn larva latched onto Roxy's crotch or anything. We finished the sweep.
---
And so, we reached the deepest chamber.
The final location written in the book.
It was a wide room.
A stone room.
Square-shaped, with a magic circle near each wall that didn't face the entrance.
But you could sense its otherworldly atmosphere the moment you stepped in.
There was nothing in this room except the magic circles.
Just before this room, there had been a massive swarm of eat devils.
Over a hundred eat devils, plus their eggs.
Yet here, there were only magic circles.
It was as though this place were a sanctum, protected as such.
"It appears we're before the Guardian, doesn't it?"
"This atmosphere certainly feels like it."
"We need to stay sharp."
Paul, Elinorise, and Roxy all spoke in turn, gripping their weapons tighter.
I supposed every boss room in any dungeon gave off this kind of eerie atmosphere.
"Now then, which one's the right one…?"
Geese held the book in one hand and began checking each magic circle one by one.
The rest of us waited at the entrance.
"I'll help."
"Sure, much appreciated."
As someone who had at least been involved with summoning-type magic circles, I joined in.
For some reason, Roxy also followed along behind us, chipper as ever.
With Roxy there, I felt much more confident.
"Well? What do you think?"
"It feels like it's exactly as described."
At Geese's words, I compared the book to the magic circles.
We went through all three magic circles in order.
The book read:
"There were three magic circles.
Two of them turned out to cause random teleportation—that much was immediately obvious.
Therefore, we placed a marker stone in front of what we believed was the correct one and stepped on it.
But it was a trap.
I was sent to an unknown space.
A space teeming with demons with dark, slimy bodies.
Yes—an eat devil nest. The moment they saw me—"
The marker stone was found without much trouble.
It was a fist-sized stone, neatly polished.
Carved on its surface was the number 6.
Something that hadn't appeared on any floor so far.
"This is kind of moving, isn't it?"
"Huh? It's bad luck, is what it is. Listen, Senior—relics from wiped-out parties are never a good omen."
"Is that a jinx?"
"Yeah, a jinx."
"Well, they weren't actually wiped out…"
As we talked, I studied the magic circle before us.
It looked extremely similar to the bidirectional magic circles we'd been stepping on this whole time.
But this one was different.
Step on it, and you'd get hit with random teleportation.
Or maybe you'd be sent somewhere along with the entire room's contents.
So the correct one had to be one of the remaining two.
But those two clearly displayed the characteristics of random teleportation magic circles.
"Rudy, can you tell?"
Roxy asked me, and I shook my head.
"Not at all. Nanahoshi might have been able to."
"Nanahoshi? Who's that?"
"There's someone at the magic university who researches teleportation—or rather, summoning. She's well-versed in magic circles too, so she might have been able to give me some pointers."
"Co-could that be Rudy's girlfriend?"
"Nanahoshi? No way."
I laughed it off, but the thought lingered—Nanahoshi, or Sylphie, or Cliff. Any of them might have helped.
Though I couldn't bring Nanahoshi or Sylphie, maybe I should have brought Cliff along.
Could I go back and get him now?
The round trip would take three months.
Cliff wasn't accustomed to traveling, so four months.
And even if I brought him, he might just say he didn't know.
"I did study teleportation at the magic university too, but I'm embarrassed to say I'm completely stumped."
"You researched teleportation?"
"Yes."
"My goodness, as expected of Rudy. Rather than searching blindly, you tried to pinpoint the cause—that's not easy to do."
She seemed to be misunderstanding my motives. I'd only done it following Hitogami's advice.
My reasons weren't exactly pure, so I didn't really want to tell Roxy about that.
I'd keep it to myself.
"……As a student of Roxy-sensei, it's only natural."
"Flattery won't get you anything, you know."
The inspection of the magic circles was complete.
"So, Senior—did you figure anything out?"
"No, nothing at all."
Most of my knowledge about teleportation magic circles came from that book.
Since the book didn't have the answer, it was beyond my knowledge.
Well, I had looked into teleportation beyond what was in the book, of course.
But what I didn't know, I didn't know.
All I could tell was that the three teleportation magic circles before me were all "different."
I had seen plenty of Nanahoshi's magic circles by now.
With magic circles, even a small difference in detail could change the effect entirely.
So this much I could say with confidence.
All three teleportation magic circles in front of us were different from each other.
"If what the book says is true, then one of them should be the correct answer."
"……So what you're saying is, Senior doesn't have a clue either."
"That's about the size of it."
We returned to the room's entrance.
We sat in a circle with Paul and the others, who were taking a break.
I reported my findings as accurately as I could.
"Tch, so it's a fifty-fifty?"
"……A fifty-fifty, is it."
"Two choices, seriously…"
Paul, Elinorise, and Talhand didn't look happy about it.
"A fifty-fifty's the worst. A three-way pick would be better."
Geese said something like a gangster in a funny hat and looked up at the ceiling.
Did he have some bad memories related to fifty-fifty choices?
Seemed plausible.
"Is that another jinx?"
"Oh yeah, jinx. When it's two choices, you gotta let Ghislaine pick or you'll fail."
At those words, Paul and the others nodded as if to say, "Yeah, that's right."
Ghislaine.
That was a nostalgic name.
The beastkin woman definitely did have that kind of instinct.
"Man, Ghislaine—we could use her at a time like this."
"She was only useful at a time like this…"
"She wouldn't listen to orders in battle and just charged in headfirst, couldn't understand what people were saying, couldn't read or write or do math, and got mad right away when you said something she didn't get. But when it came to fifty-fifties, she was weirdly accurate."
That was rough.
I felt sorry for Ghislaine.
She was one of the masters I respected, after all. Give the woman a break.
"Give her some credit. She can read, write, and do math now."
Ghislaine had put in the effort too.
Sure, she was the type to stumble on carry-over in long division, but she'd worked hard and learned division.
"Hah! I heard from Paul before, but I'm not buying it. There's no way that mutt can do anything human-like."
"I heard that too before, and honestly, I can't believe it either."
Elinorise and Talhand were skeptical.
Ghislaine had been… quite something, so I couldn't really blame them.
But it did feel a bit odd.
Of all of Paul's former party members assembled here, Ghislaine was the only one absent.
And yet she was the only one Paul had managed to stay in touch with.
The only person here who knew Buena Village.
Yeah, it was strange.
"Forget all that—what are we gonna do?"
Geese's words brought the conversation back on track.
Two magic circles.
Which one do we enter?
"Rudy, even your assessment doesn't help, huh?"
Paul asked, and I shook my head.
"No. I'm sorry—I should have looked into this more thoroughly before we came."
"I see…"
Paul crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and thought.
Then, less than a minute later, he looked up.
"Let's try a vote. Anyone who thinks we should go with the right magic circle, raise your right hand. Anyone who thinks the left, raise your left."
At Paul's words, everyone raised their hands.
Paul, Elinorise, and Roxy chose right.
Me, Geese, and Talhand chose left.
Three to three—a dead split.
"Tch, this ain't settling anything."
"Um, Dad—calling a vote to decide this seems like a bad idea."
"Well, what else you got? Anyone have a better plan?"
At Paul's words, Elinorise raised her hand.
"How about we send one person into each simultaneously?"
"You want to sacrifice one of us?"
"If it's Paul or myself, we should be able to push through the eat devil swarm with the incense."
One person enters each magic circle. The one who found the correct one comes back. Then immediately send a search party for the other, and there's a chance everything works out.
"That's a no."
"Oh? Rudeus, might I ask why?"
"First and foremost, there's no guarantee that either of those two magic circles is the correct one."
They looked like random teleportation circles.
It was entirely possible that both of those were traps too.
All three could be traps.
The correct answer might be in a different room entirely.
Of course, that probability was low.
According to the book, you basically found every room before proceeding to the next floor.
If I could trust this author, this was the end point.
But the arrangement of these magic circles, their shapes—something about it all felt deliberately constructed.
Yes, something was nagging at me.
Could a simple coin-flip be a trap in itself?
If they'd prepared a fake bidirectional magic circle, wouldn't the real one just be the other one?
Three would be redundant as a puzzle.
Was there a clue I'd missed?
No, this wasn't an escape room. The labyrinth had no obligation to provide hints.
"Rudeus—do you have some kind of idea?"
"No, but could you wait a little longer before we make a conclusion?"
But something was off.
I felt like I was forgetting something.
Until I remembered, it felt dangerous to simply step into a magic circle on a fifty-fifty gamble.
The moment two people stepped in, there was a chance every person in the room would be randomly teleported.
This was a teleportation labyrinth—you couldn't get in or out without teleportation.
There might even be rooms only reachable through random teleportation.
"I'd like to investigate a little more," I said.
"All right, Rudy. It's all yours."
Paul was the first to nod, before anyone else.
---
I sat in front of the magic circles and thought.
What if all three of these magic circles were dummies?
Let's start from that assumption.
Sitting and thinking, three possibilities came to mind.
1. This room might not be the end point.
According to the book, the teleportation labyrinth followed a certain rule.
The main route consisted solely of bidirectional magic circles.
Following that rule, this should definitely be the end point.
But the area where Roxy had gotten lost had no entry or exit through bidirectional magic circles.
You had to use one of the thirty-plus unidirectional magic circles in that zone to get back.
In other words, the true end point might be beyond a unidirectional magic circle.
The probability seemed low, though.
2. Another party member triggered a trap just before the author realized it.
The author thought they had stepped on a bidirectional magic circle, but they hadn't.
Due to another member's random teleportation, they were sent to an entirely different room.
So this bidirectional magic circle was actually the correct one.
……No.
If there had been a trap like that, Geese would have found it.
3. This bidirectional magic circle was actually double-layered.
Magic circles came in all sorts of shapes.
A donut-shaped teleportation circle—that was conceivable.
A trap teleportation circle surrounding the correct one.
Was that possible?
In other words, instead of stepping on the outer ring, you'd jump to the center and step on the inner part to reach the next floor.
……What am I, some kind of Zen monk pondering koans?
The most likely possibility was still number one.
The author basically only ever used bidirectional circles.
After discovering three types on the first floor, they never used unidirectional or random ones on the third or fourth floors.
That was how they'd made it here.
But from this point on, maybe we'd need to use unidirectional circles too.
……But if that were the case, this might not be the only place.
We might be at a dead end right now.
The fork in the road might have been earlier—maybe on the fourth floor, the true end lay beyond a unidirectional magic circle.
Damn it. My thoughts were getting tangled.
In the first place, which floor we were on was determined only by the monsters appearing and the surroundings changing.
That was just the author's arbitrary designation.
Those "unique rules" might be nothing more than coincidence.
Maybe brute force was the way to go after all.
Starting from the sixth floor, ride each unidirectional teleportation circle, defeat the monsters ahead, and find a different route.
That felt like the correct approach.
But look at this room's atmosphere.
Every veteran in the party felt that "the boss must be close."
This really did feel like a special place.
Part of me was certain this room was the end point.
No—that could also be a trap of the labyrinth.
Hmm.
"If I keep going, I'll never stop."
I said that and stood up.
Quick bathroom break.
"Dad."
"What's up?"
"I'm going to pick some flowers."
"Whiz? I'll come too."
"Don't say 'whiz'—that's improper in front of a lady…"
"What's the point of putting on airs in a place like this?"
Well, you know, with Roxy around.
I didn't want to mess up. Not that she'd think anything of me over a bathroom break or anything.
Paul and I left the room together.
The room littered with eat devil corpses and egg remnants.
We decided to take care of business right there.
Taking turns standing guard, we each did our thing.
"You're having a tough time, huh?"
Paul spoke to me while I was struggling along.
"Yeah. The idea crossed my mind that this room might not be the end of this floor. That there's another route, and you can only reach the boss that way."
"Nah, that can't be right. That room's definitely the end."
"What's your basis for that?"
"None."
None—meaning it was just instinct.
But veteran instinct was nothing to scoff at.
What looked like pure guesswork was often an unconscious deduction born from experience.
"Well, no need to rush. Your old man will wait. And if you have questions or want to talk something over, just ask. Don't try to figure everything out alone."
"Yes, sir."
I finished up and swapped with Paul.
Standing guard, I looked around.
"Oh—Rudy, one more thing. I wanted to say something."
"What is it?"
"……Actually, never mind. I'll save it for when we get back to the inn."
"What? Come on, don't say something like that and leave it hanging—it makes me anxious. That's called a death flag, you know."
"A what…?"
"If I say it now, it could affect the party's morale."
I heard the voice from behind and tilted my head.
Something that affected morale.
What could it be?
Worry about Zenis?
Or something that would sour the mood?
"Is this going to be a lecture?"
"Something like that."
"I mean, if our morale drops and we get sluggish, that'd be terrible. I'll get an earful later."
"Heh—nah, it won't be that bad. Just want to share one piece of advice about mindset."
When we got back to the inn, then.
I hoped Zenis would be safe by then.
"Mom—I hope she's all right."
"……Yeah."
His muttered words cast a heavy silence over everything.
Not good.
But we'd searched so much already.
Paul had to be feeling that maybe it was hopeless too.
Maybe I shouldn't bring it up.
"……"
Listening to the long sound of Paul taking a whiz, I looked around.
The main hall, the three rooms full of eggs, and the magic circle chamber at the end.
All connected.
Something clicked.
"This room is quite elongated, isn't it?"
"Hm? Yeah, so what?"
This room was long.
It was wide and full of corpses, so it looked square at first glance, but it was actually longer than it was wide.
Rectangular.
And along its two long sides, there were two rooms each.
All different sizes.
But I'd seen this layout somewhere.
Recently, in fact.
And something was missing.
"……Ah."
I realized.
This was similar to the "Teleportation Ruins."
"Okay, let's head ba—hey, Rudy? What's wrong?"
Ignoring Paul's puzzled look, I hurried back to the others.
I spoke to Geese, who was lying sprawled like a great Buddha.
"Geese, I need your help."
"Hm? Did you find something?"
"Just come here."
I pulled Geese to roughly the center of the room.
"See if there's a hidden staircase somewhere around here."
"Huh…? Well, actually, that could be a thing. We've only been seeing teleportation traps so far, but maybe there are hidden rooms and stuff too."
Geese convinced himself on his own and got on all fours, feeling the floor.
Then his expression suddenly changed. He pressed his ear to the ground.
He drew his short sword and tapped the handle against the floor.
"Hey… there is. There's a hollow space down here, Senior."
"Can you open it?"
"Hold on a sec."
Geese ran his hands over the floor, moved to the wall and felt around there too.
Then he came back.
"No good—can't open it. It's probably the kind you have to break through."
"Would it be a problem to destroy it?"
"No traps… All right. Senior, give it your all. Right here."
Geese marked an X on the floor.
I aimed at the spot and fired a stone cannon.
With a clang, the shot shattered and the floor dented.
Did I make it too weak?
"A little harder, come on—you can do it, right?"
"Yes, sir."
I cranked up the power and fired again.
With a tremendous boom, the ground split open.
"All right, leave the rest to me."
Geese immediately dropped to all fours and began clearing the rubble.
Once the hole was open, the rest was easy.
In no time, the hole widened and took the shape of a square descent.
What appeared was a staircase leading downward.
"Awesome—great job, Senior! You really figured it out!"
"Yeah, I've seen something like this before."
The Teleportation Ruins.
There had been four empty rooms and one room with a staircase.
But originally, those four rooms probably weren't empty.
The staircase leading to the teleportation magic circle had probably been hidden, just like this.
Back when the ruins were in use, each room probably had furniture in it, so no one would notice a hidden staircase.
Either age had caused it to deteriorate,
or Orsted had destroyed something, and that was how it ended up that way.
"All right, everyone—Senior found a hidden staircase!"
Geese's shout brought the others to their feet.
They came over and looked at the staircase.
And let out an amazed "Ohhh."
"……Gahahaha, not bad!"
"Ow!"
Talhand laughed and slapped me hard on the back.
"That's my boy, I tell you!"
"Ouch!"
Paul hit me too.
"Now that you mention it, this place does look like the Teleportation Ruins!"
"Hey!"
Elinorise hit me too.
"Now hold on, there could be traps. Senior, toss me about three scrolls!"
Even as he said that, Geese hit me.
"……"
When I turned around, Roxy had her small hand raised.
When our eyes met, she looked up at me, then touched my back with a speed barely above contact.
"Good work, ……too."
Roxy murmured those words softly.
Her expression held a faint hint of frustration.
Did it bother her that her student was performing well?
My achievements were basically Roxy's achievements anyway—there was no need to feel that way.
All right, if this ever came up, I'd boast that I'd actually gotten the hint from Roxy.
"All right, let's move out! Everyone, stay sharp!"
"Yeah!"
At Geese's shout, everyone nodded.
At the bottom of the staircase, there was a teleportation magic circle.
A bidirectional teleportation magic circle.
But its color was red—like blood.