117. My House Disappeared

“Well, it seems the discussion has roughly concluded.”

“Indeed. Take care, Logie.”

“Hmm. Let’s do our best.”

“Thank you both.”

The three of them shook hands warmly, smiling as if they had just finished some high-level summit.

I sighed as I sat on the sofa, watching them. At least things worked out peacefully.

“Um… are you okay…?”

“Yeah. I’m just glad no one started fighting.”

In response to Olivia’s worried question, I patted her head and said I was satisfied with how things turned out.

I really was glad no one fought. If even one of those three had disagreed with the current arrangement and tried to start something, the house would’ve been blown to bits.

Yuria knew the virtue of compromise, Logie had enough sense to back down, and Leah, being the relatively weaker party, seemed to have decided to follow Yuria’s lead.

“Olivia, are you okay with this?”

“Huh? Y-yes… I’m perfectly fine with how things are now…”

Olivia didn’t seem to have any complaints about Logie joining either.

Honestly, she rarely voiced strong opinions. Ever since coming to this house, she seemed to have regained some peace of mind.

“Then I’ll take my leave for now. See you next time.”

“Yeah. Come by for a meal sometime.”

“I’m grateful for your hospitality.”

“I should get going too. It was nice seeing you after so long. I’ll drop by again sometime.”

Logie and Leah left.

Logie returned to the Church, while Lady Leah said she had to stop by her master’s place for afternoon training.

“I’ll head out for a bit too.”

“Where to?”

“I’m going to check on the hole-in-the-wall shop. I need to report the experiment results to Rafnel.”

“Oh? Alright. Ah, could you grab some basil on your way back? We’re out.”

“Sure. I’ll buy some.”

I could just pick it up on my way back from the hole-in-the-wall shop.

Food in this world tended to use an excessive amount of basil-like how Koreans dump loads of garlic into their dishes.

I’d grown fond of basil’s aroma too, so I often added it to my meals.

I also ate a lot of garlic and perilla leaves. People here didn’t seem to use perilla leaves much, so I got them cheap and enjoyed them all by myself.

They only used tiny amounts of garlic in cooking, but I bought it in bulk and stockpiled it. Yuria once complained about the garlic smell, though.

Without kimchi in this world, this was the only way I could satisfy my cravings for bold flavors.

Imagine eating bland, watery soup with bread every single day of the year. This world was brutal for a Korean.

I wanted pickles, danmuji, kkakdugi, kimchi, and garlic jangajji.

Where’s the jeotgal? No soy sauce. No gochujang. No doenjang.

All I had was rare steak dripping with blood.

Having to settle for weird pickled turnips was pure suffering.

Thinking about Korean food made me crave kimchi fried rice again.

I should seriously consider making kimchi soon.

No earthenware pots, no jeotgal, and chili peppers were a pain to find, but I figured it was doable.

I had a ridiculous amount of money, after all.

‘The labyrinth’s temperature is just right.’

Come to think of it, the labyrinth stayed cool all year round.

What if I fermented kimchi inside the labyrinth? It’d be like a natural kimchi fridge.

“Huh?”

While plotting my kimchi fermentation scheme, I headed toward the eastern red-light district, only to find it swarming with workers tearing the place down.

“Hey! Don’t just stand there-move aside!”

“Hyaaah!”

BOOOOM-!!!

As demolition hammers brought the buildings crashing down, roaches and rats came pouring out. A few waiting mages chanted spells to exterminate the pests.

Some adventurers were sweeping up the insect carcasses.

They were completely leveling the area.

I tried to skirt around the destruction to get to Rafnel’s hole-in-the-wall shop, but a guard stationed at the construction site stepped in my path.

“Hey. Who are you? Where are you headed?”

“Ah, I was just going down that alley.”

“Sorry, but this area’s off-limits today.”

“Huh?”

“We got reports that remnants of the heretics are hiding here.”

Ah, so Paramelle must’ve filed the report.

He probably relayed the intel about the transfer stone in the eastern red-light district’s sewers connecting to the underground city.

Since the transfer stone linked to the labyrinth needed to be secured ASAP, they must’ve started demolition immediately.

‘Wait, did Rafnel get caught up in this?’

Just as I thought that, someone came running toward me, sniffling.

“Shion…! Shion…!!”

“Huh? Rafnel-nim?”

“My house… my house is gone..!”

“What?”

Seems Rafnel’s shop got caught in the demolition.

“So, you woke up to find your barrier shattered and your shop half-collapsed?”

“Yes. That’s what happened… My workshop… my home of over a hundred years…”

“Wow.”

Rafnel’s hole-in-the-wall shop, standing strong alongside the red-light district for a century.

Today, it was reduced to rubble.

Luckily, only the entrance and counter were destroyed, so the truly important items seemed intact.

But since the barrier that made the shop hard to find had been broken, it was probably best to relocate.

“Did they compensate you?”

“Well, the supervisor came by and told me to report the damages, but… some of my inventory isn’t exactly report-friendly.”

“Ah. Do you have somewhere to go?”

“I can find a place, but… I’ve got too much stuff… Could you help me?”

“Of course. Let’s go.”

“Thank you. I feel a bit better now.”

Rafnel hugged me tearfully.

A shut-in’s home getting half-destroyed would unsettle anyone, so I understood her distress.

“If we go around that way, the workers won’t notice. Let’s go.”

Following Rafnel, I took a back alley detour.

“By the way, how did you get back safely? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Not really, but I’ve got a lot of questions.”

“Oh? Ask while we move my things. I’ll answer anything.”

Her promise to answer anything made me feel oddly reassured as we arrived at Rafnel’s hole-in-the-wall shop.

“What the-? The entrance is really gone…”

It wasn’t just collapsed.

It was as if someone had sliced through it like a cake-the entrance and counter had been cleanly erased.

“The barrier broke and everything vanished.”

“Wait, it just disappeared this cleanly?”

“Seven layers of protective magic failed at once… I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Who the hell broke all your barriers?”

“Judging by the traces… I think Moira came through here.”

“Ah.”

Hearing it was heretics, Moira must’ve swept through. Rafnel’s shop got caught in the crossfire. Civilians were probably evacuated, but Rafnel, hidden behind her barrier, must’ve missed the warning.

Just knowing Moira was involved made everything click. Of course she’d do something this insane.

“Should we start moving your stuff?”

“Let’s.”

I couldn’t even blame Moira. What could I do? Might as well treat it like a natural disaster.

“You had a basement under the shop?”

“Bigger than you thought, huh?”

“Yeah-wait, why’s it like a World War II German bunker?”

Following Rafnel downstairs, I was met with a tunnel system that looked straight out of a warzone.

She’d been living in this massive underground network?

“This place will get raided soon too. Once they start combing the sewers, they’ll find it.”

“Damn. So you’re moving your workshop entirely?”

“Exactly.”

As I packed alchemy tools, materials, and reagents into my inventory, I casually floated an idea.

“Hey, Rafnel.”

“Hm?”

“Since you’re moving anyway… How about relocating to the labyrinth?”

“Huh? The labyrinth?”

“Yeah. The underground city’s Garden Section was just cleared out. There’s space there-interested?”

“Space in the Garden Section? What do you mean?”

“Well, you see…”

I summarized what had happened in the underground city.

“A giant from the 7th Floor came up… started a fire and burned everything… killed all the trolls… and what’s this about frogmen?”

“Pretty wild, right?”

“That’s… a lot. Wait, a giant came up? What about the vine beans?”

“I planted them all at the Central Section gate entrance. The monsters kept trying to cross over, so I needed to block them.”

“Did it work?”

“Well… They worked too well against the monsters. The firepower was a bit lacking, so I…”

“Huh?”

When I mentioned boosting the barrier’s power by using Fenel’s soul, Rafnel asked what the hell I was talking about.

So I explained about Soul Chains and Eternal Domination.

“That’s… That’s too much info. Soul Chains? Eternal Domination? Drawing the attention of the Roas? You’re messing with souls recklessly?”

“So? Want to set up a workshop in the underground city? The Nightmare of the Labyrinth might wake up soon. I want to turn the underground city into a staging ground for labyrinth conquest.”

“Whew… Let’s… Let’s sort this out first.”

Rafnel slowly started organizing her thoughts.

When I mentioned the Bracelet of Growth, she nearly fainted.

“Alright. Let’s see. First, there are two major issues to solve before settling in the underground city.”

“Two issues?”

“Yes. First, we need to make it unaffected by the Cataclysm.”

“Ah.”

If a Cataclysm occurred, everyone inside the labyrinth would be scattered to random locations. It’d be a disaster.

“The underground city must be shielded from the Cataclysm. At the very least, people shouldn’t get sent to the Deep Levels.”

“How do we do that?”

“The Magic Tower will need to intervene.”

Rafnel said we’d need a Phase Stabilizer.

The problem? Building and maintaining one would cost a fortune.

“The upkeep is expensive. The main materials can be sourced from the 6th Floor, so we’ll need to explore there too.”

“So we’d have to develop the underground city and clear the 6th Floor’s Spider Den simultaneously?”

“Exactly. Even if we throw money at it as a stopgap, it won’t last long.”

“Got it. What’s the second issue?”

“We have to stop monsters from spawning unpredictably.”

Labyrinth monsters spawned randomly. To make the underground city livable, we needed to control that.

“This’ll require research too. But there’s one silver lining…”

“Yeah?”

“Your Eternal Domination and Spirit Eye could be a huge help.”

We needed to control monster spawn locations, which required soul manipulation.

According to Rafnel, I’d need to deeply interfere with the underground city using Eternal Domination.

“We’ll have to bring in Voodoo Shamans and Necromancers… Maybe Druids too. And we’ll need to deal with the Roas… Sigh.”

“Sounds like we’ll need a lot of help.”

We’d have to gather scholars.

The Tower Master, Rafnel, Helena, Olivia…

We needed extensive knowledge about the labyrinth.

“This won’t be easy. We’re not just developing any place-we’re trying to make the labyrinth safe.”

“Yeah, starting’s already tough. Is this even possible? The deeper I dig, the more problems I see.”

“But there’s hope. It’s not entirely impossible.”

Rafnel was cautiously optimistic.

“First, we’ll need to meet with the city’s leaders. Conflicts will arise over competing interests. And if I’m going back into the labyrinth… I’ll need their permission.”

“Right. That’s the first hurdle.”

Rafnel had been banned from the labyrinth after causing a few incidents.

To bring her in, we’d need to lift that restriction.

I’d have to meet with Moira, the Saintess, and the Tower Master. Through them, I could negotiate with the labyrinth city’s leadership.