Chapter 8: 8

Depths of the Otherworldly Labyrinth

Chapter 8: Against Going Into the Labyrinth

When I opened my eyes the next day, I was able to move my body again.

I was worried I would stay that way forever, but I was able to head east to Varte as I had originally planned.  

The innkeeper had told me about the route and precautions to take, so I wasn’t particularly lost on my way there.

I was resolved for a long journey across the country, but I easily reached the border before noon. Perhaps that’s because the five countries shared territories surrounding the Labyrinth, and the closer one is to the Labyrinth, the closer the distance between the countries. 

Furthermore, there were no procedures required to cross the border, just a simple stone wall at the border. I wondered how they managed the entry and exit of people and goods, but when I saw the Line on the stone wall, I told myself they probably just managed it with some unknown technology. 

After a short walk through Varte, I immediately understood the stark difference between it and Whoseyards.

The difference between the rich and the poor was noticeable, and above all else, the management was on entirely different standards.

Most of the people that I saw were dressed as adventurers.

Many of them carried blades, and those who made their living doing physical work stood out. 

Having arrived at a new place, I organized my objectives.

My first goal was to ‘Return Home’.

If I continued to stay in that weird and dangerous world too long, I would go mad sooner or later.

I had to return for the sake of the family that I had left behind.

However, there were just a few methods I suspected would be able to get me home.

First of all, there was that legend where any of your wishes could come true that was associated with the giant Labyrinth that was basically screaming at me to challenge it. From a game point of view, challenging that should be the right answer. Otherwise, I needed to look into magic or culture that might hint at a return home, but… that approach had little hope. I couldn’t find anything about it at all in the library.

I debated whether I should search for a way home or whether I should conquer the Labyrinth—I needed money either way.

Just eating or staying in an inn would cost me money.

If I were to go into the Labyrinth, I would need to spend money on various tools.

Or weapons, for that matter. 

Which meant I needed money.

And the choice I made to accomplish that task was—!

* * *

“—Oi, newcomer. Take out the trash when you’re done washing dishes!”

“Yes, understood!”

I started working part-time at a tavern.

Frankly speaking, I never wanted to enter the Labyrinth again. I didn’t even want to see the Labyrinth.

That’s what I felt from the bottom of my heart.

I judged that it was still too early for me to start making money off the Labyrinth. To be honest, I was scared. If possible, I wanted to stay away from the Labyrinth for a while. 

I was lucky enough to find a tavern near the entrance of the Labyrinth that was looking for employees while I was walking through Varte.

My mind was overflowing with thoughts, but I decided to give it a try and took the interview. I spun some decent lies and—unexpectedly—passed. I wasn’t even subjected to any sort of background check, and there I was, working for paychecks.

I was surprised how smooth getting employment in another world was.

I wish I could share that ease with countries under recess back in my original world. 

By the way, I’d worked part-time in a restaurant before.

I was also confident in my cooking skills, as I did the cooking myself every day in place of my sister.

Because I had the aptitude, I jumped into the job without much thinking, but… I don’t regret it since a tavern by the Labyrinth is a good enough location to gather information. 

“Christ-kun, clean this table up, please—”

“Yes!”

Christ.

I pondered a lot about it, and that became my name in this world. 

At first, I was about to say my real name, Kanami Aizawa, during the interview.

But at that very moment, the face of that pervert girl Lastiara popped into my head. Using a name that was known to such a dangerous person would only increase my chance of encountering her.

To put it bluntly, I was afraid.

I was scared of that Lastiara girl.

Pushed by that fear, I thought up a Western name on the spot. 

My first thought was to ascertain a place of my own under a pseudonym. Talking about possibilities, nobody said that there were no people from my original world in this world. And in case I met them, it would be better to have a really famous name so that they would immediately realize that we were from the same world. That’s what I thought. 

It needed to be the name of the most famous thing in the world. A country name, or the name of a president—no, it had to be something much more famous—after thinking such, I mouthed “…I am Christ Eurasia. Pleased to meet you.”

That was a drastic choice for something I decided on in such a short time.

I took what was probably the most famous figure as a false name to live by. 

And once I’d taken that name, there was no taking it back.

I decided to live by that name in this world. 

…But personally, I don’t think it’s that bad.

The name can be interpreted as the one who saves the continent. It scored 80 points in my style book.

If my little sister was there, I’m sure she’d spend at least six months making fun of my sense style, though…

“Hurry up! Christ-kun!”

“S-sorry!”

Lynn-san, the tavern’s tall poster girl, reproached me for pausing my work. 

This is no time to contemplate.

This is also no time to feel uncomfortable with my pseudonym.

From today on, I am Christ Eurasia, living in another world—

After saying that to myself, I resumed my work. 

It was the busiest time of the day: dinner time.

Adventurers who returned from their exploration in the Labyrinth were filling up the tables. The place was bustling and crude but also full of vitality. 

I picked up information about the Labyrinth as I did my chores.

“—Hehe. We earned a lot today.”

“Sure did. I got cold feet when we ran into a herd of Soldier Ants, but they ended up as a fruitful hunt.”

“It’s all up to luck whether we can meet a herd or not, after all… Well, it was dangerous for sure, but high risk, high return, right?”

“Conclusively speaking, yeah.”

Conversations within the tavern were usually about the Labyrinth.

Listening to them reviewing their exploration of the day and exchanging information was quite fruitful. 

As I wiped the dirty table, I continued to observe my surroundings.

“Yo. Newcomer kid. Did the guy before you quit?”

And there were only a few who called out to me.

Restaurants in this world were friendly to the staff, unlike the ones in my original world. 

“Yes. I am… Christ. I just started today. The person before me quit, apparently.”

“I can see why. This place pays you so little even though it’s fucking busy every day.”

The man who spoke to me smiled good-humoredly.

“So what if it’s cheap!” the store manager’s voice boomed from the kitchen, inviting more laughs from the man. 

The balance of power in the tavern was quite unique.

It seemed like the manager of the place was originally a famous Labyrinth explorer, and he never backed down, even when dealing with the roughest of customers. I’d heard him curse at customers many times as he did just then.

If he wasn’t the way he was, setting up a store so close to the Labyrinth wouldn’t have been possible. 

For example, if Lynn-san, our female staff member, was about to be picked on, the manager would jump straight on the case and back her up. I’d only met him a short few times, but he seemed to be a trustworthy store manager. 

However, after seeing how he hired me on the spot, I doubted his management skills. 

“I wonder how long the new kid will last? This place has a lot of annoying customers, ya know. Me included.”

“That’s not true. Everyone has been very kind. I feel comfortable working here.”

“Hou, you sure are used to it… You got your way with words, unlike the guy before you.”

“Is that so…? Well, thank you very much then.”

“But don’t get too formal, ‘kay? Take it easy.”

As I continued to talk with the drunken man… 

“Oy, Crow! Stop holding up my newcomer! I’ll beat the shit outta you!”

A shout louder than before came from the kitchen. 

Apparently, the manager and the man called Crow were acquaintances.

His threat was quite severe. 

“Err, I’ll go back to my duties then. The dishes won’t wash themselves.”

“Heh heh. See ya later. I don’t want to get the shit beaten outta me.”

Crow-san raised one hand and nodded.

After responding to him with a bow, I hurried back to the kitchen and began the task of washing a large number of dirty dishes. 

At any rate, for that day, my duty was to bring in dirty dishes and wash them, and I intended to devote my efforts to that.

It was hard since I had to constantly move around, but the experience I had from my original world definitely helped. There was also the fact that I was constantly using «Dimension»—it helped me to get things done efficiently. 

Thus, the first day of work I had in another world proceeded late into the night.

* * *

* * *

When the last customer left and the cleanup process was underway, the manager spoke to me. 

“Phew—that’s the last of it. Newcomer, how was work?”

“…The customers turned out to be quite a crowd; it was a rewarding experience.”

“Damn cheeky kid. From the looks of it, I’d bet you’ll come again tomorrow.”

The manager smirked and arranged a schedule for the next day, but his words sounded upsetting. 

“Eh… Was I being cheeky?”　

“No, not that bad? Just, you know…the way you speak so weirdly polite makes you sound kinda cheeky?”

“Right, I was told that I was being too formal today…”

There might be a culture gap between the two worlds.

I thought I was speaking in a way that wouldn’t cause discomfort to others, but I was learning that such an approach might not be applicable in this world. 

It seemed like I needed to change my attitude a bit.

I was going to try to be a frank and bold waiter like that customer had advised me.

“Well, don’t beat yourself over that… Just get yourself used to it bit by bit. I expect more from you in the kitchen than attending to the customers.”

“Eh, Christ-kun, you can work in the kitchen too?”

Hearing the word “kitchen”, Lynn-san, the poster girl, came up to me, shaking around the long, brown pigtail that suited her tall figure. 

“Yup, I’m thinking of using Christ in the kitchen too. His skills with the knife were unquestionable. He’s dexterous, and he’s been cooking for quite a long time, it seems.”

“Heeh. So that’s why he was accepted on the spot.”

“From how he talked, he seemed a bit too polite and service-oriented to be left unused. I got no reason not to hire him.”

But that doesn’t mean you should just allow anyone to work in your tavern without any good explanation. 

Even if I thought so inside, it was hard for me to vocalize it. 

“You’re right. There was so little I needed to teach him.”

“Right? My eyes never miss their prey. Well, I’m going to go into the back room. You take care of the rest.”

“Ye~s”

Saying so, the manager left to clean up the kitchen. 

“Isn’t that great, Christ-kun? You need the money quickly, don’t you?”

“Yes, it’s a great help… but I think I will mess things up a lot because of the way I did it in my home country, so please don’t expect much of me, okay?”

I didn’t want them to put too much expectation on me, so I decided to take a precautionary approach.

“Aah, you came from a different country, right? Err…”

“Fania.”

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“Right, Fania. I’ve never heard of it. You sure came from quite far away.”

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“I dreamed of going into the Labyrinth, and yet, this is how I ended up.”

Saying so, I showed her the burn scar on my arm.

In other words, I was playing the setting of ‘a young boy from the countryside who challenged the Labyrinth, dreaming to get big, only to be brought down to reality on his first day’.

“Uwah, that looks painful, but I’m glad you didn’t lose a limb or an eye. You won’t die like that if you’re working here, after all.”

Lynn-san said something so gruesome with a light tone.

While we did have different world views, I guess she had seen her fair share of things—working in a tavern in the front of the Labyrinth. 

“Yes. For the time being, I don’t need to worry about my meals if I’m working here.”

“Yup, yup, work hard. Onee-san is rooting for you. You’re much more polite and knowledgeable than the previous guy, too!”

Apparently, I had made a good impression on Lynn-san. As for courtesy, it was probably the difference in educational level between this world and my original worl. As for knowledge, it was all thanks to «Dimension», so… being praised for it felt a bit awkward since it made me feel like I was cheating. 

“…I’ll do my best. Now, let’s clear the tables.”

“Okay~ I’ll help you out~”

Once the store was all cleaned up, I planned to discuss the details of the contract with the manager.

I’d been told that I would be given preferential treatment because they were short on staff, but depending on the details of the contract, I could deny that treatment from my own end.

For me, a part-time job was just a means to an end, and I was still in the process of experimenting with a lot of things. 

But I can’t deny that I liked the people there. 

“—Aah, finally done! Christ-kun, go lock the entrance!”

“Understood.”

After finishing our work, Lynn-san asked me to finish up before she walked to the back door.

I went to the front door as I was told to lock the large door with a wooden bolt. 

—That’s when I noticed it.

There was a snag in «Dimension».

There was someone outside the door.

After checking on my MP, I reinforced my magic. 

“…Yeah, I can afford it. —Magic, «Dimension, Multiplied».”

I spent some extra MP to pick up more details about the situation outside.

By the way, «Dimension, Multiplied» was an application of the technique that I used to grasp a wide distance back in the Labyrinth—it just increased the consumption of MP to make the magic more potent, but I also changed the name to make it easier for me to use.

After all, the longer the name of the technique, the more exhilarating it is to use. 

Outside the store was a large bulletin board.

Under the board, apparently, there was a kid about my age crouching down.

—I couldn’t shake it off my mind, so I stepped out. 

Outside, white flakes were falling.

There were only a few flakes, but it still made for a pretty sight.

Those white flakes are called ‘Tear Rays’ and apparently aren’t like the snow that I know from my original world. They aren’t crystals of ice that fall during winter, but rather crystals of magic power that have accumulated in the sky falling down. I learned about it in the library, but I don’t know all about it. 

The kid under the board kept crouching with tear rays piled up on their hood, so I called out to them. 

“Hey, are you awake?”

“——!”

The hooded kid looked up and saw me. 

Their startled eyes met with my black eyes.

The kid was a girl.

When she looked up, her golden hair spilled out of her hood. Her hair was long and straight like warm sunlight. She had large, blue eyes and an innocent, androgynous face. 

The girl looked at me and stood up.

She was probably close to my age, but she was two heads shorter. And quite petite.  

I got lost in admiring her for a while, but I soon snapped out of it and talked to her as an employee. 

“Good, you’re awake. We’re going to close the store, you know…”

“…I can’t stay here?”

The girl replied quite bluntly, a bit ill-suited to her profile.

“Hmm. I think it’s okay, as long as you don’t do anything funny. Well, maybe.”

“Is that so…? I’ll stay around, then. Just tell me off if I’m being a bother.”

The girl then sat down.

She acted more masculine than I was, but I still couldn’t leave her be. 

(#TL/N: The kid uses Ore to refer to themselves, while MC uses Boku. Ore is a more masculine form of I, Boku is also masculine, but usually for milder/softer people.)

“No, that’s not what I meant… It’s already midnight, and it’s not safe for a girl to be out alone.”

“…”

Maybe I was just being a busybody without knowing her full circumstances.

But the ethical points of view I carried from the other world carried my words. 

“If you have somewhere to stay——”

“I scooted over to a tavern since it’s warmer here because I don’t have cash.”

She quickly dismissed my suggestion.

A monetary problem, was it?

There’s little that I could say further then.

All I could do was close the store and pretend I had never seen her. Even if a girl that was smaller than me was having a hard time finding shelter in a place that close to the Labyrinth…

“…I see. Well, I’m closing the store, then.”

“…”

I didn’t have the luxury to help out strangers.

With painful reluctance, I decided I should close the store.  

“By the way, I’m no girl. Don’t worry.”

Right before I closed the door, the girl spoke up. 

No, the boy.

It seems like since he was a boy, I didn’t need to worry that he would suffer things I could only imagine. 

I closed up the store, surprised at that fact. 

I didn’t know if he lied about his gender or not.

Either way, I decided that it was pointless to beat myself up for it, so I walked to the back of the store, where the manager and Lynn-san were probably waiting for me. 

* * *

After work, the manager and I decided a lot of things about my contract.

That being said, the contract wasn’t as detailed as it would be in my world; it was something rather general.

He said he would try testing me out on a daily basis. I was given ten copper coins for that day.

He even offered me a meal and told me I could sleep in the corner of the tavern. 

I was surprised by how he treated me. 

Quite the contrary, it was me who gave him candid advice.

However, even if I told him he was being careless, the manager said, “I’m confident in my judgment, it’s alright,” and brushed me off.

Lynn-san then said, “If you do something bad, you will be tagged by the Line and soon get caught.” Apparently, this “Line” thing that was drawn in various places of town had security and crime prevention functions. Maybe that’s included in the treatment, too. 

Thus, I was able to wrap myself up in a blanket under a roof.  

Comparing myself to the boy from before, it felt like heaven vs. hell. 

“Status, Skill—”

【Point Allocation】

Skill Point(s): 2 Remaining.

I rested in the corner of the tavern, trying out different things on the Display. 

Lastiara’s raid on my room the previous day had increased my level and generated bonus points and skill points, so I took care of those. 

Bonus points were said to increase parameters such as Strength and Vitality, while skill points were said to be used to gain and grow skills.

I didn’t want to die, so I spent all my bonus points on increasing my HP.

If it were a game, I would have given priority to Strength and Agility, but I gave priority to HP instead, taking into account that I mustn’t die even once. 

Since one point gave me 10 HP, my maximum HP became 151. 

I allocated a skill point on ‘Dimensional Magic’.When I did so, the notation was changed to something like ‘Dimensional Magic: 5.01+0.10’. When I used «Dimension», it showed just a slight change to my perception, so I put the remaining two skill points on hold.

“I might use it to get a new magic, after all…”

Regardless of whether I wanted it or not, there was no doubt that I would be involved with the Labyrinth in the future.

It would be appropriate to allocate those two skill points to a magic that would serve me in that purpose. 

“I was told I only need to work at night… Maybe I’ll walk around the town and gather information tomorrow…”

I calmly constructed my schedule.

I was in less of a hurry now since I could expect a steady income.

My confusion and fear towards this world were dampened by the ‘???’ skill, and I was careful to keep my mental health from getting worse. 

At that moment, it was important to make a rational move towards my goal of returning, one step at a time.

First, I needed to spend a few days gathering information and acquiring common knowledge regarding the Labyrinth.

After I mastered the use of ‘Display’ and magic and had my equipment and tools in order, then I would finally rechallenge the Labyrinth. 

I kept trying out and experimenting with ‘Display’… and fell asleep in the middle of it.

Hence, my second day in this world passed rather peacefully.

‘Second Day Finished’

【Status】

Name: Kanami Aikawa

HP: 151/151, MP: 34/41

Class:

Level: 4

STR: 3.03, VIT: 3.16, DEX: 4.07, AGI: 5.05, WIS: 6.09, MAG: 8.08, APT: 7.00

Constitution:

Confusion: 4.29

EXP: 127/800

【Skills】

Innate Skills:

Swordsmanship: 1.01

Freezing Magic: 2.01

Acquired Skills:

Dimensional Magic: 5.01 + 0.10

???:

???:

???:

???:

【Magic】

Freezing Magic:

Freeze: 1.00

Ice: 1.01

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Dimensional Magic:

Dimension: 1.02 

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