Chapter 118: Humanity’s Greatest Courier

“Oh, Sion!”

“Aah! Guild Master! Wait a moment!”

As soon as I entered the guild office, I was grabbed and hugged by Moira.

“You’ve returned alive. I heard the news yesterday already. But seeing your face makes me happy.”

“Thank you for welcoming me. Ah, about the armor you gifted me.. except for the helmet, all the other parts were completely destroyed.”

“That’s fine. What’s important is that you survived. Was the armor useful?”

“Thanks to it, I saved my life about three times.”

“Good. That’s enough. Armor is consumable anyway.”

Moira said she’d have a new set of armor made for me, patted my back, and then unnecessarily caressed my arms and chest.

Not seeing me for two weeks seems to have made her quite hungry. Both daughter and mother like me too much.

“By the way, Sion. Why is this woman here?”

“Ah, about that.”

“Ugh…”

“Raphanel, it’s been a while. So what brings you here? I thought you said you’d stay holed up in your room and not come out. You’ve crawled out again? What, did you miss the outside air?”

“You rotten woman..! You blew up my workshop!”

“Hm? When did I. What are you talking about?”

Moira, who had no idea she had blown up Raphanel’s hole-in-the-wall shop, looked at me as if asking what this was about while listening to Raphanel’s indignant accusation.

I explained the situation to Moira. I told her how part of the eastern red-light district was blown away, and half of Raphanel’s workshop was destroyed in the process.

“So you’re saying the hole-in-the-wall shop that was in the demolition area got destroyed.”

“Yes. So Raphanel has nowhere to go right now.”

“Is that so? This woman must have a lot of money, right? Buy a proper house. Stop hiding in strange places with your workshop all the time.”

“…Ugh. If I’m too conspicuous.. too many people come looking for me.”

“Who on earth is looking for you?”

“The head of the Alchemy Association… or the Tower Master.. You’ll surely come looking for me too, won’t you? Can you say you won’t? You’ll call for me frequently when you need something. Isn’t that right? Why do you think I’m hiding? It’s because all of you try to use me like some kind of servant!”

“Ahem. Well, we might ask for help if we need it. Why make such a fuss about it.”

“You shameless! You were always the first to look for me! I’m not someone who works year-round without pay! But you came looking for me without any holidays! You’re not going to say you don’t remember what happened 10 years ago, are you?”

“It’s already been 10 years, huh. I miss those times.”

“Don’t change the subject!”

“Haha. It was a mistake of the past.”

Moira couldn’t dare deny Raphanel’s words that she would bother her all day if they lived next to each other.

Well, it’s natural to be interested if an amazing engineer lives next door.

In terms of this world, Raphanel is an amazing craftswoman. She can make anything. Although all her items have side effects, if you can use those side effects well, you could say she’s someone who makes the best items.

“Ugh. Fine. I’m sorry. So, since you have nowhere to go, what do you want me to do? Find you a small room somewhere?”

“No, that’s not it…”

“Excuse me, Moira. Could we perhaps bring Raphanel into the labyrinth…”

“No!!!”

Moira immediately covered my and Raphanel’s mouths and shouted at Raphanel while pointing a finger.

“I don’t know how this guy bewitched you, but it’s denied. Raphanel, does Sion know what you’ve done?”

“Well…”

“After doing all sorts of experiments in the labyrinth, you caused monsters to go berserk twice, and you have a record of blowing up the base district in the underground city three times. No way. This woman is so obsessed with the labyrinth that once she loses it, there’s no telling what she’ll do.”

“Those were all mistakes of the past.”

“Since my using you was also a mistake of the past, I guess you can move in next door then.”

“Ugh.”

Moira seemed to have no intention of letting Raphanel into the labyrinth.

“This woman, you see. She doesn’t cause huge incidents that result in loss of life. But she causes accidents right up to that point. Inside the labyrinth, she goes crazy and conducts all sorts of experiments and creates strange things. It’s mana addiction. Once she inhales mana, she changes a bit, you know? I don’t see how it’s any different from the early symptoms of labyrinth synchronization.”

“No, don’t you have too little faith in me? I’m different now! I’ve learned to control myself!”

“You’ve shown us plenty. It’s easy to extrapolate based on experience.”

“…Sion. Help me. At this rate, entering the labyrinth will be impossible until Moira dies of old age.”

“Moira. Couldn’t you help me out a bit?”

“No, why on earth are you trying to bring this dangerous woman into the labyrinth? What’s the reason?”

“Well.. Haah. Where should I start explaining this.”

The reason I came up with the idea of the underground city pioneering project was ultimately because of Helena.

She said that the labyrinth’s nightmare would soon awaken and that only I, as the owner of the spirit eye, could prevent the labyrinth from going berserk, so I’m trying to send Raphanel to the underground city to make it an advance base and safe zone.

‘Helena. Is it okay to reveal information about you? There are parts that can’t be explained without you.’

-Hmm. Revealing my existence, is it. As long as it’s not Fria. It might be alright.

Helena gave her permission. It should be fine if it’s just Moira and Raphanel.

“Then I’ll explain why I need Raphanel.”

“Alright. Let’s hear it.”

“I was curious too. Why are you trying so hard to help me enter the labyrinth?”

Moira and Raphanel sat facing each other at the office table.

After checking their faces once, I decided to bring out Helena from within me.

‘I’ll lend you my body for a moment.’

-Alright. I’ll use it well and return it.

I can’t use magic above 4th circle through my body. If I did, my mana circuits would all burn out.

But I could lend my body for a moment on the condition of not using magic.

That’s enough. Raphanel and Moira are the people who know Helena best in the labyrinth city. They should be able to recognize immediately that Helena has returned.

“Ah. It’s good to see you.”

“…Huh?”

“What’s this. Sion. What’s going on?”

I was pushed back in my consciousness.

I could see the outside scenery as if looking out from a control room. This must be how Helena was seeing the world from inside me.

“Moira and Raphanel. It’s truly been a long time. I’m not sure how many years have passed since I hunted the magic dragon. It must have been just a moment for Raphanel. For you, Moira, it must be a distant past.”

“You… What are you?”

“….This energy feels familiar.”

Helena gradually increased her energy using my body.

Through the mana wavelength, Raphanel seemed to have noticed who was borrowing my body.

Moira put her hand on her sword hilt with an expression of disbelief.

“Moira, don’t be too tense. I haven’t taken over this child’s body. I’ve just borrowed it for a moment.”

At Helena’s words, Moira’s eyepatch flashed.

“It’s not a lie. Where did Sion go?”

“He’s watching the situation from inside. That child judged it would be easier to convince you by showing directly rather than explaining himself.”

This time Raphanel carefully asked.

“What are you trying to convince us of.. You should already be a ghost of the past, shouldn’t you? Why haven’t you moved on and instead borrowed his body?”

“Those who die in the labyrinth cannot move on by themselves. They all wander in the other side of the labyrinth, losing their sanity and eventually disappearing.”

At Helena’s words, Moira asked her in shock if that’s really what happens when you die in the labyrinth.

Helena nodded. Saying she had seen and experienced it herself.

“….You. Were you wandering in the labyrinth?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Thanks to this child’s eyes, I was barely able to come up. And normally, I would have moved on and disappeared.”

“He-Helena. Why did you remain in this world? Did you have regrets?”

“No, I had no regrets. It was just what this child wanted.”

“What? What did Sion want? Power? Magical talent? Or was he looking for a teacher?”

“You’re all wrong. This child didn’t want anything else from me. He just wanted peace for the city.”

“Peace for the city?”

“What nonsense is that? The heretics have been mostly dealt with. There shouldn’t be any problems.”

“The problem isn’t with the city itself. It’s the ones below that are causing trouble.”

“Below, you don’t mean…”

“Yes, the demon lords of the ideal world are targeting the 5th floor.”

At Helena’s words, Raphanel covered her gaping mouth in shock, and Moira made an expression of incomprehension.

“Demon lords? Well, a demon lord is one thing. But ‘lords’? What do you mean? Are there more beings different from the one we know about?”

“As expected, you don’t properly know the situation in the ideal world. I heard humanity’s conquest area had regressed. It was true.”

“Well, there was no need to go down to the 7th floor. To begin with, there were hardly any talents left who could go down. Above all, even the 6th floor exploration hasn’t been properly finished since the Great Shift.”

This was when I first learned that most of the sane platinum badge holders in the labyrinth city had gone down to the 6th floor.

No wonder they said they were short-handed when catching heretics. They really were short-handed.

“I clearly told you before I died. That a big problem would arise later, so focus on nurturing talents.”

“It’s not like I didn’t try.”

“Even so, it’s not enough. The fact is that the level of adventurers in the labyrinth city has fallen compared to before.”

Helena waved her hand in the air and pulled out a piece of parchment.

“To begin with, the demon lords are just a minor incident compared to the real problem.”

“Minor?”

“Yes. Humanity now needs to conquer the 7th floor and go below.”

“What’s that parchment?”

“Information I found out while dead.”

What Helena handed over was a kind of journal. She said she had recorded it in case someone who could communicate with her spirit self appeared, and thanks to meeting me, it was about to see the light of day.

“This is…”

“Information about the entrance to the 8th floor that I accidentally reached while wandering the darkness of the labyrinth as a spirit.”

Raphanel and Moira checked the information written on the parchment and soon fell silent. I guess all the stories I had heard orally from Helena were recorded there.

“….”

“Darkness. Just darkness, you say.”

“Even the current platinum badge holders can’t handle the 8th floor. Until the labyrinth conquest begins in earnest. We have to live with a bomb that could explode at any time below us. Raphanel’s entry into the labyrinth must be permitted. The underground city pioneering is now a necessity, not a choice. We need to create an environment where adventurers can roam freely on the 7th floor at least. We need to raise the overall level. If you don’t want to die, that is.”

At Helena’s words, Moira rubbed her face.

“Underground city pioneering. It’s been a long-cherished wish. But you should know well that it’s impossible.”

The two biggest problems.

The lack of countermeasures for when the Great Shift occurs and control over randomly spawning monsters.

“We need to find a way to solve that. There are some clues.”

“What clues?”

“This child. Sion’s eyes. And the beings he has contracted with.”

“…..No way.”

‘No way.’

Raphanel and I, who were listening to Helena’s story, were surprised at the same time.

Because we realized what alternative she was about to suggest.

“Summon the Three Villainesses to the underground city. They will become the managers of the underground city.”

My head started spinning.

Now we have to persuade the Three Villainesses too. We have to bring down the Three Villainesses who said they couldn’t enter the labyrinth.

How?

Of course, that wasn’t something for me to worry about. I was just the courier after all.