Chapter 50: The Reason to Become Stronger

“Good morning, Rica.”

“Ah, porter. Did you get some sleep? Oh.. Your cheeks look quite swollen.”

I barely managed to escape from the room.

They were sucking on my cheeks so much from both sides.

My cheeks have swollen up.

My face is covered in saliva. It feels gross.

“There were some circumstances.”

“Huh. What about the young lady and Yuria? Are they not up yet?”

“No. They’re still sleeping. I didn’t bother waking them up. Let’s just let them sleep, shall we?”

“Uh.. Is that okay?”

It would be Rica’s duty to wake up the young lady, but right now that room is in a somewhat den-like state.

If you go in carelessly and get caught in their sleep talking, you might end up becoming a body pillow.

I barely escaped.

Yuria and Lady Lea have the common trait that their sleeping habits get worse when they drink.

“Well, it’s not like we have anything to do today anyway. If we wake them up now, it’ll just drain our energy.”

“That’s true… I agree. Honestly, when those two are together… it’s a bit much.”

“Wait, is it okay for you to talk about the young lady behind her back like this? This is gossip. Is it okay to do this about your lord?”

“No! Don’t make me the only bad person after we talked together!”

“Hahaha.”

This person seems like a good type to tease.

Should I say she’s good to pick on because she has a stiff image?

Maybe because she’s experienced life in a knightly order, she has a good sense of hierarchy and order.

From the moment she confirmed I was the young lady’s man, her manners towards me improved subtly.

“Let’s go to the market together before those two wake up.”

“Together? Now?”

“Yes. We’ll have Olivia watch the house. Let’s go buy some soup for hangover relief. And get some fresh air while we’re at it.”

“Not a bad idea. Let’s go together.”

“Ah, on the way, let’s register at the martial arts hall together too.”

“Oh! That sounds good!”

She’s really happy when I suggest registering at the martial arts hall to exercise together.

As expected of a muscle-brained pure female knight. She seems to love exercise.

“Olivia. Are you sleeping?”

“Yes…?”

Olivia comes out walking along the wall as I call her name.

Judging by her messy hair and face full of drool marks, she must have been sleeping soundly.

“We’re going out to buy some food. Guard the house while we’re gone. If anyone comes, just pretend no one’s home.”

“Um, can’t I… come along too..”

“No. It’s hard to take you around. See that sofa over there? Sit there. I’ll buy you a snack when we come back.”

“Okay.. I understand…”

She looked dejected, but didn’t cling to me anymore.

Yesterday she was really in bad shape, but after providing her with warm food and a comfortable bed, she seems to have regained her senses a bit.

Maybe she’s found comfort in the fact that I, a fellow Earthling, am here?

I hope she stays in this sane state like this.

“By the way, was that child someone you knew from before? Or someone from your hometown?”

“You mean Olivia?”

“Yes. From what I saw, it seems she can’t see.”

She must be wondering why I specifically bought a blind girl with money.

A sane person wouldn’t buy a blind slave.

She might have doubts.

There could be some impure intentions.

“She is from my hometown. She knows quite a lot about the labyrinth too. That’s why I brought her.”

It’s best to hide as much information about Olivia as possible.

Moreover, I can’t tell Rica a secret I haven’t even told Lady Lea.

“I see. You always seem to help those in trouble.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

But I don’t?

Why would I help others?

I only work as much as I’m paid for.

Didn’t I keep my mouth shut about the magic tower’s test subjects too?

If I really wanted to help those in trouble, I would have been rolling around as a corpse retrieval team member that doesn’t even pay.

“Even if you deny it. That’s how I see it. No matter how much money or compensation is offered. It’s not easy to throw yourself into danger like that.”

She seems to be talking about how I saved her.

Well, I wasn’t in my right mind back then either.

The reward the young lady offered.

Was it 20 gold per person?

To be honest, looking back now, it wasn’t worth risking my life for.

Yet I made up reasons and rushed in to save them.

“You came into the labyrinth to save Erica and me after the great change, not knowing what state it would be in. Despite only being together for half a day. You even incurred debt to an adventurer to save us. And I heard you went through severe things in the underground city too. Not just anyone can do such things.”

Rica seemed to be attaching great meaning to my actions.

As if talking about a knight she admires.

She tried to praise and admire my actions.

If I were a person full of vanity, I might have felt proud at her words, but.

I don’t move according to such justice or chivalry.

“I just moved for money. If the young lady hadn’t offered compensation. I would have abandoned you and Erica. Don’t thank me. Thank the young lady.”

Rica nodded at my words.

“I’m always grateful to the young lady. She’s my benefactor. Of course, the same goes for you. In the end, you’re the one who saved me. If it weren’t for you, Erica and I would have died.”

Why is she trying to praise me like this?

What’s the reason for trying to raise my favorability?

“…No, Rica. What is it? What do you want? Why are you praising me like this?”

“Hm? I’m praising you because I want to, why?”

“No. You’re suddenly building me up so much, I feel like you must have some ulterior motive.”

“Hahaha. It’s nothing. Really.”

Rica looked into the distance.

As if picturing her future self.

“I feel like a big crisis will come at some point. I just have that feeling somehow. When that time comes, please take care of the young lady.”

“Aren’t you the bodyguard knight, Rica?”

“If, just if. If I really become unable to protect the young lady. That’s when I’m asking you. Of course, I’ll protect the young lady until I die, but. If by any chance, a time comes when my hands can’t reach her. I hope you’ll protect the young lady then.”

“No, Rica. Don’t say such unnecessary anxiety-inducing things suddenly. Why are you talking like someone who’s about to die? Are you sick?”

“No, porter! Don’t you have any sense of mood? I’m trying to set the atmosphere here. What kind of reaction is that?”

“Ugh. It’s so cheesy, I’m getting goosebumps. What do you mean a moment when your hands can’t reach? Just protect the young lady to the end, Rica. It’s just a matter of getting stronger, right? You said you’d get stronger.”

“I have to get stronger. Honestly, when I felt the gap with Yuria. I was mortified enough to die.”

Rica revealed her feelings from yesterday.

When she was overwhelmed by Yuria’s pressure and almost drew her sword without her master’s permission.

She says she was mortified to death then.

It was one of the few moments of shame in her life.

“I’ve been constantly thinking I need to get stronger. There are labyrinth city study abroad students in our knightly order too. Every time I knelt before their power. I wanted to go to the labyrinth city too. I came like this thanks to the young lady. But I’m still weak.”

Rica seemed disgusted with her powerless self.

Her eyes were full of desire for power.

I could feel her desire to become stronger.

“By the way, there are labyrinth city study abroad students in the knightly order?”

“Of course. It’s an open secret. There are probably many nobles from other countries hiding their identities and training in this city too? Mana adaptation and abilities are great blessings that are hard to obtain outside the labyrinth city.”

“I guess that’s true.”

Mana adaptation and abilities are like specialties of the labyrinth city.

To have a similar experience outside, you’d have to go to inhuman magic realms or unexplored areas called uninhabited zones.

Those places are basically demonic realms.

Places where you just die from mana poisoning before any adaptation or anything.

“Anyway, I wanted to ask you to take care of the young lady. The young lady told me yesterday. If you’re involved in labyrinth trips. It feels like we can almost certainly make it out alive. She seems to have tremendous faith in you.”

“That’s…”

Even during this great change, I rolled around like crazy and managed to get out with the young lady alive.

That experience seems to have given Lady Lea faith in me.

“It’s not like I can definitely save everyone.”

“Well. Yesterday I went to the guild to gather information about Yuria and met an adventurer named Hachi. He said the same thing. That this labyrinth trip would have been wiped out if it weren’t for you.”

“That too is just a coincidence.”

“I thought you’d say that, so I’ve been tracking the porter’s actions until now.”

“Wait, you investigated me? Is it okay to admit so boldly that you did a background check?”

“It can’t be helped. You’re the man the young lady is in love with. Shouldn’t I know what kind of person you are?”

That’s true.

In the end, Rica is the young lady’s bodyguard knight.

To protect the young lady in a place like the labyrinth city, it would be essential to investigate the people around her.

“Porter, do you know?”

“Know what?”

“That there have been almost no deaths in parties you’ve been part of since you obtained the spatial pocket. This has already gone beyond the realm of coincidence. This time too, I died because of the variable of the great change. If it weren’t for that, we would have completed the labyrinth trip safely again.”

“Wait, Rica. Don’t deify me too much. I just prepared well…”

“That’s exactly the important point. Your spatial pocket allows you to prepare any kind of item. An owner with a bag of unlimited capacity who fills that bag to the brim with relief supplies using their own money. Just that alone dramatically increases the survival rate of a party.”

That’s true.

The survival rate in the labyrinth does change depending on how thoroughly you prepare.

“So, you’re asking me to keep being part of the young lady’s party, right?”

“Yes. Porter, you probably think you’ll just help with conquering the upper levels and then leave. But I hope you’ll come with us into the underground city too. It’s reassuring when you’re around.”

“I won’t make an exclusive contract.”

“That’s fine. But we don’t plan to enter the labyrinth without you. We’ll adjust to your schedule. This is the confirmation I got from the young lady. Without the spatial pocket owner. We won’t enter the labyrinth. We need your strength to protect the young lady.”

It seems Rica, rather than the young lady, said they won’t enter the labyrinth without me.

Her role is to protect the young lady.

The reason she wants to get stronger in the first place is to protect the young lady.

So it seems she doesn’t want to take the risk of entering without me.

“Above all, the young lady wants to go down to the end of the labyrinth.”

“…The end of the labyrinth?”

“Yes. She talks about it every night. That something there is calling her.”

The end of the labyrinth.

Of course, the master of the labyrinth is waiting at that end.

The master of the labyrinth is calling Lea.

Why? For what reason?

I don’t know. But it wasn’t a good thing.

There were occasionally cases like this.

People who go down due to the labyrinth’s pull.

You could say being assimilated by the labyrinth is similar to this.

“We don’t know what’s at the end of the labyrinth.”

“I know. Honestly, I don’t want to go down that far either, but. The young lady’s will is so firm.”

“You’re not asking me to go down there with you, right?”

“Can’t you just come down with us, take a quick look, and come back?”

“No! Are you crazy!?”

I’m willing to go down to the 7th floor as per Yuria’s wish.

But below that?

Asking me to go down to the bottom of the abyss is crossing the line.

“Let’s stop talking about the labyrinth here. Let’s buy some hangover soup.”

“Ah, I didn’t bring my wallet.”

“It’s fine. I’ll buy it. I wasn’t planning to ask you to pay anyway.”

“Is that so. Sorry for just mooching off you.”

“It’s nothing. Treat me next time.”

“I will. After we finish the next labyrinth trip. I’ll buy you a drink.”

“Sounds good.”

The hangover soup in this world tastes like tomato.

You can think of it as a slightly spicy and thin stew made by boiling tomatoes with peppers and meat.

It feels like something you’d want to eat with rice.

But in this world, the concept of rice soup is rare, so it’s common to dip bread in it.

“The spatial pocket really is convenient.”

“It is.”

You don’t have to worry about food smells.

Even if you buy food with strong spices, you can go anywhere without being self-conscious.

“So this is the martial arts hall.”

“It’s the most famous martial arts hall in the labyrinth city. If you pay the monthly fee, you can use the exercise equipment freely. If you pay for personal instruction, they’ll train you too.”

It’s basically like a gym in another world.

If you pay the monthly fee, you can come and use the exercise equipment freely.

If you want PT, you can separately learn weapon use or combat techniques from trainers (former adventurers).

It’s truly the labyrinth city’s gym.

“You said you didn’t have money, right?”

“W-well. I left my wallet at home…”

“I’ll pay your fee for this month.”

“Really? Sniff..! Thank you…!”

Rica already looks like her hands are itching to lift weights.

The monthly fee was 10 silver, I think? I can pay this much.

I have money from the young lady anyway.

Rica only signed up for equipment use.

I decided to receive personal training.

What Rica lacks is ultimately mana adaptation and abilities, not skills.

So she didn’t need separate personal training.

But I needed separate personal training.

I don’t know how to handle weapons at all.

I only know how to blindly swing a sword, but I don’t know how to perform systematic movements with it.

The sling shot is amazing, but that feels like all I have.

“You’re signing up for warrior attribute education, right?”

“Yes. As a warrior.”

“Understood. There happens to be one person available who can provide warrior education. Could you wait a moment?”

“Sure.”

The female employee at the martial arts hall lobby introduced me to a former adventurer.

Since I’ve accepted Shaka’s legacy, I think it’s right to walk the path of a warrior.

“It seems to be that person.”

“Oh..”

As Rica and I sat in chairs waiting for the instructor, soon a large man approached us.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Gon, who will be in charge of your education.”

A shirtless man covered in tattoos.

A barbarian warrior named Gon with skin as black as if he’d gotten a tan.

He became my instructor.