Apparently, this labyrinth was going to become their new workplace.
Since the nation had accepted them, they couldn't just be freeloading — that was what they'd been told.
The slime swayed its body with a soft, springy motion, yet moved silently and fluidly, almost as if flowing. There was something faintly elegant about it.
It was probably just their imagination, but it felt like something distinctly different from the mindless, bottom-rank monsters that did nothing but clean without any will of their own.
After all, this slime was none other than the king of the nation that had accepted their asylum — the Demon Lord, Rimuru.
It might look like one clean surprise strike could take it out, but it would be a terrible idea to let their guard down.
The demon standing beside it as a servant of the Demon Lord radiated an utterly abnormal aura.
The demon introduced himself as
Shinji and the others couldn't comprehend it, but the moment Gadra-sensei laid eyes on Diablo, his eyes went wide and he stammered,
"To think it goes this far… A Demon Duke, no less, added to his subordinates…"
and was left speechless.
It must have been one hell of a monster.
When Shinji asked about it later in detail, he learned that Diablo was a being capable of commanding even a Greater Demon — an existence that could bring about hell itself on this world.
Given that Shinji had been part of a unit that was nearly annihilated by a single Greater Demon during the "Lake Dyed Crimson" incident, he could only imagine the weight of those words and turn pale.
In any case, the two of them nodded at each other in silent agreement that the most important thing was to avoid angering Demon Lord Rimuru at all costs.
And so, with Diablo in tow, they made their way deeper into the labyrinth.
In the room they were led to, she was waiting.
"Heeey~! I'm
A tiny fairy flitting around before their eyes.
She was about thirty centimeters tall? She looked like a cute little girl.
"Whoa! That's amazing! She's really a fairy!?"
Mark let out a cry of awe and excitement — Oh! Fantastic!
Shinji understood the feeling.
But apparently, those words only served to inflate the fairy's ego.
"Hmph! You guys seem like you might have some potential. Fine, I'll pass you!
But listen — you have to follow my orders absolutely! Got it~?"
Puffing out her flat chest and putting on a lofty tone, the fairy declared.
Shinji quickly realized she was basically a bratty kid at the peak of her playful phase.
This labyrinth really was a demon's den, he thought.
After all, there were beings of absolute strength like the Death King Adalman and his knight — the Holy Knight
Having to follow a kid's whims didn't sit entirely well with him, but above all, they were in the care of the labyrinth's ruler.
Mark seemed thrilled, but unfortunately, they wouldn't be working here.
(The ruler of the labyrinth must be Death King Adalman. After all, Gadra-sensei said they were old friends. That's got to be it.)
That was what Shinji was thinking.
But the name Ramiris did seem to ring a bell somehow…
Oh well. With that thought, Shinji politely declined.
"I'm sorry, but we're supposed to meet the ruler of the labyrinth and work under them.
I'd love to play with you too, but we have our duties —"
Just as he was about to continue, Gadra suddenly slapped the back of Shinji's head, cutting him off.
Shinji had no idea what was going on.
Ignoring Shinji entirely, Gadra spoke:
"Lady Ramiris! I am called Gadra. A pleasure to make your acquaintance!"
"U-uh… Are you okay with that?"
"Ha ha ha, of course! My body has not been trained by a soft regimen, so there is no problem at all!"
That was the exchange between Ramiris and Gadra.
Only then did Shinji finally remember that Ramiris was the name of a Demon Lord.
Mark and Shin seemed to have recalled the same thing from watching the exchange between Shinji and Gadra, and they snapped to attention, standing rigidly still.
To the three of them, now stiff with tension, Demon Lord Rimuru spoke:
"Oh, you already knew even without an introduction?
This is Ramiris. She's going to be your boss.
If you underestimate her just because she's small, the secretary behind her will give you a hard time, so watch out."
He gestured to the figure that had appeared silently behind Ramiris at some point without anyone noticing.
This person was named
When Gadra saw that masked, doll-like figure, he could only manage a single word:
"So it's…"
before letting out a groan.
Shinji and the others inferred that there must be some reason for Gadra's reaction.
In other words, that masked Beretta was no ordinary being either.
This place, befitting the Demon Lord's domain, was truly a land of inhuman terror.
Shinji and the others' first job was to monitor those who invaded the labyrinth from within the room.
The invaders were soldiers of the Imperial Army — the very same people who had once been their comrades.
Most of them were strangers, but among them were some acquaintances.
It wasn't a pleasant sight, but orders were orders. With that thought, they continued their surveillance.
On the first day, the Imperial Army was advancing smoothly.
But there was a question. The structure of this labyrinth was completely different from the one Shinji and the others had entered.
When they asked about it, they got a bright reply:
"Obviously! The labyrinth has a hundred floors, and its layout can be easily rearranged!"
Demon Lord Ramiris answered innocently.
This fairy was in the same room with them, watching the scenes unfold on the big screen together.
It was no surprise at all — Ramiris was just as easygoing as she looked.
She had a great vibe, and the tension melted away quickly.
Demon Lord Rimuru also seemed pretty easygoing, but Shinji was still hesitant about speaking to him too casually. Ramiris, on the other hand, would strike up conversations on her own, which made it easy for Shinji and the others to talk back.
Demon Lord Rimuru was apparently in the control room and wasn't present here.
However, next to Ramiris sat a mysterious, strikingly beautiful individual.
This person looked bored and was reading a manga.
Shinji didn't know where they'd gotten it, but it was a manga he had actually read before. He struggled with how to bring it up — or whether he even should — and ultimately couldn't bring himself to say anything.
If he could, he'd love to borrow it later out of nostalgia, but since he couldn't even speak to the person, there was no way to ask.
One day passed with that matter nagging at him, unresolved.
Incidentally, before they started work, they received an explanation of their compensation: three gold coins per month.
That made thirty-six per year, and apparently there were bonuses too. Though they were said to be discretionary, so it wasn't exactly something to count on.
Shinji had earned about seventy coins a year under the Empire, and Mark and Shin had each earned around fifty. That meant a significant pay cut.
It was practically halving their salary, but they had no complaints.
The first year was a probationary period, and from the second year onward, raises would be based on performance.
More importantly, just like the Empire, their food, clothing, and shelter were taken care of, and the cost of living here was much lower.
Work uniforms were provided, and sleeping quarters were arranged for them.
To their delight, they each got a private room complete with a kitchen, a bath, and even a toilet.
A fully flush toilet — it was almost unbelievable. From a medieval level, they had jumped straight to a modern studio apartment.
Even in the Empire's capital, private rooms didn't come with toilets.
A private room with a bath and toilet was the kind of luxury you'd find only at ultra-premium inns charging ten gold coins a night.
And in the Empire, those toilets were the bucket-and-dump kind.
Magic could eliminate the smell and bacteria perfectly, but psychologically, it was incomparable to a flush toilet.
The treatment was so shockingly good that Shinji and the others were genuinely moved, feeling that money issues were trivial by comparison.
Even Gadra was left speechless once again at the incomprehensible convenience of it all.
Their work hours were set. Every day at 6:00 AM, they would pick up Ramiris, and by 6:30 they'd have breakfast at the elf restaurant.
Lunch was also free and all-you-could-eat when accompanying Ramiris.
And their workday ended at 3:00 PM.
They were told that the shops outside only stayed open until around 6:00 PM, so the earlier end time was designed to let them go out and about.
Nine hours of work, with a proper one-hour lunch break. They quickly understood that the arrangement was also meant to give them time to interact with the adventurers outside.
It was an remarkably generous workplace.
Incidentally, dinner was on their own.
They were issued a bracelet that granted them free movement throughout the labyrinth, and showing this bracelet at the labyrinth's inn meant their meals were free.
However, the elf restaurant cost money.
One meal was a gold coin — even considering that dinner was the priciest, the cheapest options were around three silver coins. It was ultra-premium hotel pricing, but the quality was beyond doubt. Breakfast and lunch had proven that — but that meant they couldn't just casually eat there.
When Shinji tried going to the elf restaurant at night without Ramiris (since meals had been free during the day), he was in for a shock.
That day, he reluctantly ordered the cheapest thing on the menu and fled the restaurant.
But eating wasn't limited to inside the labyrinth.
Outside, there were plenty of restaurants run by adventurers.
There were yakiniku joints and izakayas, and of course, bars too. So eating outside was actually preferable to the free meals at the labyrinth inn.
There was also a kitchen available, so cooking for themselves was another viable option.
They were gradually getting used to the workplace, but that's a story for a little later.
The second day after the Imperial Army began its invasion of the labyrinth.
The mysterious beauty who had seemed disinterested the day before was now watching the screen with keen interest.
Shinji learned that this person was actually the Evil Dragon Veldora in human form.
He was stunned, but that was only the first shock of the day.
It was about to become the most surprising day of his entire life — the most surprising single day he would ever experience.
After about two hours had passed, Gadra began groaning with his eyes closed, and Shinji, Mark, and Shin found themselves giving silent thanks for their own good fortune.
They now understood beyond any doubt that the labyrinth held overwhelmingly powerful beings far beyond even Adalman and Albert, whom they had considered the strongest within it.
Their assignment was to help and seek out knowledgeable "otherworlders."
Part of the job involved evaluating their combat performance and probing their true character.
That was precisely why, as they observed the battles on each floor in detail, they were left utterly dumbfounded by the sheer absurdity of it all.
"See? Gadra was right — coming here was the right call, wasn't it?"
They could hear Gadra's voice from somewhere far away, but all the three of them could do was nod repeatedly.
They had naively believed that floors 1 through 50 were the "front" and floors 51 through 60 were the "back."
How laughably wrong that thinking had been — it almost brought them to tears.
Not from humor, but from the dry, hollow kind of laughter that comes when you realize how absurd you've been.
Gadra had been exactly right. If he hadn't taken them along when he fled, they might still be guiding travelers through the labyrinth.
Just thinking about that sent a chill down their spine.
Shinji and the others devoted themselves wholeheartedly to thanking Gadra for his foresight.
Albert, whom they had believed to be overwhelmingly strong, was defeated.
He lost in a duel against
In pure swordsmanship, Albert had been overwhelmingly superior, but the sword he struck with was broken when it hit legendary-grade armor.
Adalman, who was apparently weak in close combat, suffered greatly from the loss of his vanguard Albert.
Their combination fell apart, and they were defeated.
Gadra, looking thoroughly displeased, grumbled bitterly, as if it were his own defeat:
"Even as bones, you're still too soft!"
But from Shinji and the others' perspective, that was a battle between beings in a different dimension entirely, and there was honestly nothing they could say.
Shinji and the others didn't realize it at the time, but having witnessed the battles of such powerful beings here was an incredible stroke of luck.
Later, when they themselves faced powerful opponents, this experience would prove invaluable.
For now, though, they simply watched without any awareness of what was to come.
In the end, the three hundred and fifty thousand Imperial soldiers were completely annihilated.
Even the mighty Imperial Guard Knights like Krishna were no match for a monster named
When Krishna was defeated in an instant, Shinji and the others were so shocked they couldn't even muster the energy to react.
They had reached a state of complete apathy — whatever happens, happens.
But they still remembered their job, so they recommended Michel and
It was fortunate that they had survived to the end, and even more so that Ramiris had been impressed by the fact that they had destroyed the fake bracelets.
And so, their first mission — searching for knowledgeable "otherworlders" to serve as new assistants — was successfully completed.
After that, Gadra-sensei rekindled his old friendship with Adalman and gradually took on labyrinth management duties as well.
He would go on to be recognized as one of the Labyrinth's Ten Greats, serving as one of its boss-class defenders.
Shinji, Mark, Shin, Michel, and Raymond — the five of them became Ramiris's assistants, helping with all manner of research.
That said, the line between work and play was hard to draw. In practice, their role was closer to a department for developing new forms of entertainment.
Occasionally, their research did produce surprisingly useful results, so those around them didn't think they were just fooling around.
"You know, life really is unpredictable," Shinji remarked.
It was a perfectly fitting sentiment for someone whose life had just been flipped upside down right when he thought things couldn't get any worse.
Please wait a little longer for the main story.