Chapter 75: Plant Beans in the Labyrinth

After finishing bathing with Yuria, we drank alcohol to unwind.

It was natural to drink since she returned safely without dying, and drinking at home brought intoxication faster than usual.

“Siooon…”

“Yuria. You’re very drunk. Let’s go to bed now.”

“Juuust ooone mooore… more…”

“No. Stop drinking and sleep.”

“Ugh.”

As her drunkenness seemed to peak, I forcibly lifted Yuria, who was clinging to me while acting drunk, and dragged her to the bed.

It seems she abstained from alcohol during the transfer stone search, so once her limit was released, Yuria drank recklessly, and she ended up completely wasted like this after going on a binge until she became incoherent.

It was only when it reached the point of alcohol drinking alcohol that we could finally stop.

“Siooon… don’t gooo…”

“Ack! Yuria.”

I tried to go clean up the drinking table after laying her on the bed, but Yuria wouldn’t let go.

I was pulled into bed, still held by her.

“Marine, please clean up.”

“Yes!”

I had no choice but to leave the cleanup to Marine and spend the night in Yuria’s arms.

“Siooon….”

“Ugh. Alcohol smell.”

“Hehe…”

Yuria sleeping with a loose expression.

Her body didn’t emit any scent. But she still smells of alcohol.

She’s completely drunk. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen her this drunk.

She probably received a lot of stress during the expedition. After all, she went through all sorts of hardships to escape alive while several people died.

Honestly, it’s amazing she doesn’t have PTSD.

The humans of this world all have strangely high mental strength.

They’re people living with a toughness of a different dimension from the weakened humans of modern Earth.

This must be what they call medieval sensibility.

‘I should sleep too.’

Since Yuria has passed out, I think it’s better for me to just sleep early too.

I plan to go pick up the items I ordered tomorrow and get the ring of etherealization from Raphanel, so I should sleep early.

‘In the evening, I need to stop by Moira-nim’s house for dinner too.’

The day after that, I had to meet the Young Lady and receive compensation.

I have so many things to do.

---

The sun has risen before I knew it.

As I was preparing to go out, Yuria finally woke up with a disheveled look.

“Ugh… Sion… give me some water…”

“Here.”

“Thanks… my head hurts…”

“That’s why you should have drunk in moderation. You were going all out yesterday without restraint.”

“But… on a day like this, we should toast.”

“That’s true.”

“Hehe… ow… my stomach hurts.”

“I’m going out for a bit. I need to prepare for the labyrinth trip.”

“Okay… take care…”

“Ah, your mother said to come over for dinner tonight.”

“Really? Mom did? Hmm. Alright. I need to go to the guild in a bit too. Until then, just 5 more minutes… I need to sleep 5 more minutes.”

Yuria went back under the blanket.

She’s a reliable companion in the labyrinth, but at home, she’s an incredibly lazy woman.

Not that I was going to say anything about it. I know she just went through hell until yesterday. And Yuria is pretty even when she’s lazy.

‘Then from now, the place I need to go is…’

I should stop by the grocery store and then go to the hole-in-the-wall shop.

I plan to return before dinner, so I should hurry.

-Ding-a-ling.

After putting the pre-ordered items from the grocery store into my inventory, I arrived at Raphanel’s hole-in-the-wall shop.

I feel it every time I come, but it’s truly a shop with a gloomy atmosphere.

“You came.”

“Yes. Nice to see you.”

“Yes, yes. Come here.”

Raphanel seemed to be in a good mood.

She looked upset when I visited last time. Did something good happen?

“You see. I ended up making something incredible.”

“Something incredible?”

“Yes, yes. Look at this.”

Raphanel took out a small pouch and showed it to me.

Inside the pouch made of red thread were a few unidentified kidney beans.

“Do you know what this is?”

“No. I have no idea.”

“Hohoho. This is, well. Yes, what should I call it. It’s a kind of vine. It grows by eating mana.”

“Oh. And then?”

“Can you imagine what will happen if you scatter this in the labyrinth?”

“Oh, it grows by eating mana?”

“Yes. It grows. Very big and strong.”

How big and strong exactly is “very big and strong”?

Will it grow big and strong enough to cover the entire labyrinth?

“Well. It might grow until it devours an entire floor. Or it might only grow enough to dominate a small area. So, would you plant this for me? I heard a plaza district was created in the underground city. I think that would be a good place.”

Raphanel suddenly showed me a new experimental product and asked me to plant it in the labyrinth.

Is this old lady in her right mind? Asking me to do work just like that? Let’s first question the safety of the item.

“That seems like a dangerous item. Am I right?”

“Y-yes. Of course, it could be dangerous depending on the user. If someone with malicious intent uses it, the labyrinth would become an even more terrible place. But! If you use this well, you can create allies inside the labyrinth. How about it? Isn’t that good?”

Creating allies in the labyrinth. Allies mean they have the intelligence to help me. Moreover, it means they live in the labyrinth.

We call living creatures in the labyrinth monsters. Yes, these kidney beans were no different from monsters.

“Don’t tell me, those beans… are monsters?”

“Correct answer.”

Is Raphanel proudly saying she created monsters? Has she finally gone crazy?

After all this, now she’s creating monsters?

“No, you always complained about not having a man. Now you’ve created monsters instead of men?”

“You brat! Men are a different matter. This is innovation!”

“Innovation? It looks extremely dangerous. Isn’t this bringing destruction rather than innovation?”

“No! If handled well, it will definitely be of tremendous help for labyrinth trips! The labyrinth’s difficulty is too high right now! My amazing labyrinth vine beans will surely solve this problem…! Then I’ll gain fame in the city and countless males will court me… Ah. My heart flutters just imagining it. If the influx to the labyrinth stops, the person who will become my husband in the distant future might not come. I have to plant this…”

She’s definitely crazy.

This woman is not in her right mind.

Consumed by her desire for marriage, now she’s trying to establish her social position.

To lure in excellent males…

Well, regardless of her purpose, I now understand how much Raphanel wants to plant these kidney beans.

Now it’s time for negotiation.

“But Raphanel-ssi, you can’t enter the labyrinth, right?”

I vaguely heard that she was banned from entering the labyrinth.

“Th-that’s… That’s why! I’m asking you to plant it for me, aren’t I?”

“No, wait a moment. What do you have to do in the labyrinth to get banned from entering?”

“…I tried to create a sanctuary.”

“A sanctuary?”

“Yes. I tried to create a nice place where people could rest, but. It ended up becoming a nest for monsters…”

“Don’t tell me the number of monsters increased drastically because of that sanctuary?”

“…Yes. It was a big incident at the time. They swept it all clean with a subjugation campaign back then… but since then, I’ve been banned from entering the labyrinth.”

“Oh geez. Raphanel-ssi! You’ve already been burned once, and you still haven’t come to your senses!? Throw those kidney beans in the trash right now. Don’t tell me to plant strange things in the labyrinth.”

“N-no! This is truly an innovative item with secured safety! Please, porter. Believe my words. Please…!”

“Ah, I won’t do it. How can I plant such a thing? I’m not crazy. I won’t buy it, I won’t.”

“If, if you plant this… Right! I’ll give you the ring of etherealization for free.”

“What?”

I’m hooked.

“I’ll give you the ring of etherealization, so plant the vine beans and see if it really helps adventurers. I’m begging you.”

“Will you really give me the ring for free?”

“Yes. If you accept my request.”

“I was going to buy the ring anyway. I’m entering the underground city soon. If you give me the ring first, and some potions too, I’ll gladly plant the kidney beans for you.”

“Really?”

“Yes. But that thing is verified for sure, right?”

“Yes! If you feed it your blood before planting, the vine bean will recognize you as its master.”

Planting a few kidney beans and getting the ring of etherealization and potions for free. This is a profitable deal.

Above all, although I made a fuss saying it might be dangerous, I already know that most of Raphanel’s items tend to be perverse, but none of them actually take people’s lives.

“By the way, Raphanel-ssi. If I become the master of the vine beans, can I give orders freely?”

“You should be able to distinguish between what can be eaten and what can’t be eaten.”

“That means…”

“You can make it recognize monsters as food. And designate humans as protected targets. How about it? Simple, right?”

“You said you don’t know the exact range of expansion, right?”

“That’s right. But it probably won’t grow enough to exceed one district. The further it gets from the core bean at the center, the weaker the vine’s power becomes.”

She says if you wedge it between walls or stones and give it water, it will eat mana and grow on its own.

“There are 5 in total. If you plant one in each district, it means safe places will be created in 5 districts of the underground city.”

“If it’s such an excellent item, shouldn’t we tell the guild master?”

“W-well… I have a bit of an awkward relationship with Moira. I’m scared to face her. And the magic tower master is chasing me too… I don’t want to get involved with the city’s top brass. If they find me… ugh. It’s obvious they’ll lock me in a room and make me do research.”

“Huh.”

Raphanel shuddered.

“Those bitches are so cruel. They’ll lock me up and just extract ideas from me. Then they’ll gain popularity with it… ugh, I feel like I’m going crazy. Please understand.”

“Looks like you’ve been through a lot.”

“Oh, my child, don’t even mention it. They were so vicious when we entered the labyrinth together.”

“Wait, the three of you entered the labyrinth together?”

“That’s right. Moira and Mabel. And me. Ah, there were about two more people.”

“Who were the other two?”

“Saint Fria. And one… died in the labyrinth.”

What kind of party was this?

Moira, the current guild master and strongest in Labyrinth City, and Mabel, the current magic tower master and authority in the magic world.

Then Raphanel, the thousand-year-old hole-in-the-wall shop owner, and Fria, the crazy saint that even people outside the city shudder at.

Plus one unknown person who died in the labyrinth.

“No, it sounds like some hero party. Were you hunting a demon lord or something?”

“Not a demon lord. The 7th floor was a bit noisy at the time.”

“7th floor…”

The place you can reach after passing through the 5th floor underground city, the 6th floor crystal cave, ancient mine, and abandoned workshop.

The 7th floor of the labyrinth, Utopia.

“A dragon appeared there once. It tried to come up.”

“What, dragons appear in the labyrinth too? A dragon in the cramped labyrinth. Wow.”

I only heard about the 5th to 6th floors from Olivia.

It was meaningless to hear about below that now.

“All sorts of strange things pop up on the 7th floor. And the 7th floor isn’t cramped. How should I explain this. Right. Have you heard of the hollow continent theory?”

“Hollow continent theory?”

“Yes. The story that this continent is hollow underneath, and there’s an unknown continent we don’t know about.”

“Ah, I think I understand.”

This is like the hollow Earth theory in Earth terms.

The story that inside the hollow Earth, there’s a land very similar to the surface, and extinct dinosaurs or flora and fauna have survived.

“The 7th floor is such a place. A place full of the unknown and mysterious, miracles and monsters. Would you believe me if I said there’s no ceiling in the labyrinth?”

“Unless I see it myself. It’s a bit hard to believe.”

“You’ll have no choice but to believe when you see it. And you’ll understand why Gold Badge adventurers aim to go down to the 7th floor. There are things there that you can never obtain on the surface anymore.”

So this was the reason adventurers go down.

The 7th floor Utopia. That place was full of dreams and hope.

“And despair and nightmares are lurking equally. I must have told you before. That there are things trying to go backwards.”

“Right.”

“The floor with the most things trying to go backwards is the 7th floor.”

It was a more dangerous place than I thought.

Moreover, below that is still an unexplored area.

The labyrinth estimated to have 10 floors.

What on earth is beyond the 7th floor, on the 8th, 9th, and final 10th floors?

One thing for certain is that I got the ring of etherealization for free.

“You’re sure these seeds aren’t dangerous, right?”

“Yes, trust me. And you must feed it one drop of your blood. If you don’t feed it blood, it can’t be managed. Understand?”

“I understand. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good. Come back alive this time too. Ah right, and how did your spirit vision turn out?”

“About that…”

I explained to Raphanel about the spirit vision.

Including the story of how I ended up making a contract with the three villainesses of the labyrinth.

“Ah… so those women had such circumstances.”

“Yes, I have no choice but to go down to the end of the labyrinth.”

“Hmm. The end of the labyrinth. When the time comes, I’ll help you.”

“What? Really?”

“I’m curious about the end of the labyrinth too. If you’re going down anyway, let’s go together.”

“You’re talking like someone going on a picnic. We could die, you know.”

“Bah. I’ve lived so long I don’t have many attachments anymore. But dying a virgin would be unseemly, so when we go down to the deepest part of the labyrinth, you take responsibility for me. Understand?”

“…I’ll think about that.”

“You brat! Fine. Go on now.”

“Yes. I’ll come again next time.”

“Alright. Take care.”

After greeting Raphanel, I left the shop.

She says she’ll come along when we head to the deepest part.

It will probably be a big help. Even if it’s just a verbal promise, it felt reassuring.