Volume 1 - Epilogue

“W-What did you say!?”

As we headed to the exit of the labyrinth, Rufa and Garnet told me just what exactly had happened while I was gone, leaving me in shock. To think Eclair-san and the others were plotting to kill me.

“That’s why, them being so clingy towards Alba-sama was merely a plot, an act, so that you would let down your guard, and they had absolutely no positive affection towards you!” Rufa oddly enough emphasized what she had just said, leaving me quite saddened.

To be honest, I was thinking that they might just be interested in me. Gramps told me that ‘If she touches you first, then it’s all okay-dokey’, and with that excessive physical contact, even I’m not as ‘dense’ as my childhood friend keeps calling me. But, that was all just acting…I want to dig a hole and hide in there…

“You already entered a hole.”

A hole…Ah, the labyrinth! So clever! But, no jokes right now, please… I couldn’t even return a smile towards Garnet’s joke, as I just dropped my shoulders in defeat, when Rufa gently rubbed my head.

“Alba-sama, don’t feel so dejected. You just have to be more careful next time so that you don’t fall for their seduction.”

“Yeah.” I deeply nodded in response to Rufa’s cheerful words.

That’s right, there’s no way a cute girl from the capital would develop feelings for such a country boy like me. So that I don’t make the same mistake twice, I’ll be extra careful. Because there’s no way a girl from the capital would fall in love with me!

“Rufa, I understand that you want to remove any possible competition, but you’re just digging your own grave here.”

“W-What might you be talking about?”

Garnet flashed a pitiful expression for some reason, to which Rufa awkwardly averted her gaze. I don’t get what they’re on about, but if we keep talking about this topic, my heart might just get crushed, so I have to hurry and change the topic.

“What about the hindrance?”

In short, I brought up those that are trying to obstruct the subjugation of the Devil. No doubt, the soldiers of the Empire will try to get in our way, going along with the orders of Rufa’s father, the Emperor. In the midst of those, there surely will be adventurers trained in the labyrinth such as Eclair-san and the others. Unsure what we should do about these, I had asked Rufa, who gave a hesitant response.

“We will have to deal with them. For their own fortune and position, they dare risk the lives of the Empire’s citizens, or even the entire world, and that cannot be forgiven.”

In order to save the greater number of citizens, she readily declared to rebel against her father, making yet again realize that there was nobody more worthy of being the Empress.

“Alba-sama, in order to save the citizens of the Empire, we have to make the Empire our enemy. I know that it is a foolish concept, but would you fight alongside us?”

“Yeah.” I nodded without a moment’s hesitation.

I promised to defeat the Devil of Demise. No matter what happens, I won’t back down now. In response to my resolute answer, Rufa yet again had tears appear in the corners of her eyes.

“Alba-sama, thank you very much.” With dampened eyes, she smiled at me, and grabbed my both arms to thank me.

This appearance of hers almost looked like…Ah, not good, I almost got the wrong idea again.

“I figured this would happen.” Garnet sighed.

Don’t worry, I won’t get ahead of myself and assume that Rufa actually is interested in me! I know that my name Alba sounds like Albatross, but I won’t lose my memory after taking three steps, you know. In order to show this, I pulled my hands away.

“Ah…” Rufa showed a disappointed expression for a second, so I guess I really was just seeing things.

Still, making the Empire our enemy and defeating the Devil, I know I was boasting about it before, but is that actually possible? If we the soldiers go all out to capture us, and we lose, it’s all over. Running away from the capital shouldn’t be too hard in a worst-case scenario, but that way we wouldn’t be able to defeat the Devil of Demise.

“No need to panic” Garnet seemingly picked up on my worries. “We might have made the Emperor our enemy, but it’s not like the Empire as a whole is against us now.”

What is she talking about? I tilted my head in confusion, when Rufa delivered an explanation.

“The only ones who know about the Devil are the Emperor as the center, together with a few selected ones. The majority of nobles and army soldiers have no knowledge of this.”

Now that she mentioned it, the first Emperor hid this book in the forbidden storage, and Rufa only found it by pure chance, so I guess that is still a secret to most people.

“I figure that the biggest reason for this must be to avoid any panic, but there must be people who would disagree with the Emperor, and they surely want to prevent that from happening.”

I see. Just because they’re nobles or army soldiers doesn’t mean they live for greed. Not everybody would want the labyrinth to continue existing.

“If you die, that’s the end however. The riches and strength gathered from the labyrinth will be missed, for sure, but there should be a fraction that values life over this.” Garnet gave a glimmer of hope.

“I don’t exactly want to think about it, but the enemies of the Empire must surely wish for the labyrinth to disappear. At the same time, this could end up as a scandal for the Emperor, with him possibly losing his position, which leaves other nobles for a rush to the throne.” Rufa followed in Garnet’s words.

I don’t really understand much about politics, but apparently our number of allies isn’t zero, so I take it.

“That’s why, the Emperor faction most likely won’t be able to act out in the open. The fact that they tried to have you end up lost in battle shows enough about this.”

Yeah, since they can’t kill me in front of others, they have to use the Guardian of the labyrinth to do the dirty work. I guess there’s things even the almighty Emperor can’t do, huh.

“At the same time, the adventurers possess freedom in this capital. Even the Emperor cannot take away their right to ‘Arrive at the lowest floor of the bottomless labyrinth’.”

I get that. Unrelated to the Devil of Demise or the Emperor’s rules, it’s the romance of an adventurer to challenge the labyrinth. Even Gramps told me that ‘It’s the instinct of a man to enter a hole’.

“That’s just a dirty joke.”

Eh, really? What does it mean?

“Don’t you ask me!”

I asked with a pure and curious heart, yet Garnet growled at me with a beet red face. How cruel…

“Let’s leave aside the fact that Garnet has no experience whatsoever.”

“You’re saying that you have experience!?”

“Anyway, I doubt that the Emperor fraction will obstruct us that greatly. If anything, we should be surprised that they acted this quickly.” Rufa skillfully ignored Garnet’s jab, and showed a puzzled expression.

Thinking about it, she’s right. We’ve only started to work towards the Devil of Demise, and we were barely about to best the 1st floor. They were going all out to kill a 1st floor ranker just like that. I don’t think they would have had it harder if they waited until we made it to the 5th floor or something…

“I figure they wanted to strike before we could amass more strength,but maybe the Emperor was just jealous that a man was this close to this beloved daughter.”

“Stop with that, there’s no way that shitty old man would have such human-like emotions!” Rufa sternly denied Garnet’s jest.

As we were talking about this and that, we finally made it to the exit of the labyrinth. We walked up the long stairs, when we ran into the newcomer and middle-aged guard I met on my first day.

“T-The Dark Knight!?”

“Hello, good work today.”

The middle-aged guard let out a shriek, whereas the newcomer gave a calm greeting. I returned a nod, and walked past them.

“You sure have nerves, calling out to that thing…”

“I don’t think he’s a bad guy, you know?”

I heard them talking behind my back, but I ignored that and moved on towards the lodging area, when a group of six adventurers walked towards us…Oh, aren’t these?

“Alba-sama, did something happen?”

I happened to stop in my tracks, which led Rufa to give me a puzzled look.

“…No, it’s nothing.” I shook my head, and started walking ahead.

I planned to just walk past them and not react, but the swordsman that seemed to be the leader came walking straight towards me.

“Um, Dark Knight-san, thank you very much for saving us before!”

“““Thank you very much!”””

The other five followed him, and all lowered their heads towards me.

“What is this about?”

Garnet and Rufa were visibly confused. I can’t blame them. These are the adventurers I saved on my first day here, when they were attacked by a troll. Still, I planned to hide my identity and they still found out…how embarrassing, I want to go back to my hole. I worked hard to suppress the urge to turn back and dash away, but the swordsman spoke up before I could do anything.

“I thought you were a monster back then, so I just ran away without thanking you.”

Eh, that’s what that was!?

“After that, I heard of an adventurer walking around, looking like the Dark Knight, so I realized it must have been you who saved us, so I wanted to properly thank you.”

I’m happy that the misunderstanding was cleared up, but he isn’t going to judge me based on the other rumours going around, right?

“But, I decided that I would stop being an adventurer, and I got in a fight with my teammates…” The male swordsman said so, as he gave an embarrassed look over to his team members.

I don’t know what happened. But, the fact that they are heading for the labyrinth again is enough of an answer I need.

“A lot happened, and I couldn’t thank you earlier, but thank you very much.”

If I hadn’t saved them back then, he would have never swung his sword again. He bowed down to me, clearly conveying these feelings, forcing me to scratch my mask in order to hide my bashfulness. I’m happy about this, but I don’t think he has to go overboard like this…Ah, I know. Since he found out, I might as well.

I put one hand on my waist porch, and handed him a magic stone.

“Is this…”

Yeah, it’s the magic stone that dropped from the troll you defeated. I picked it up and completely forgot about it, but I felt bad to steal the loot from someone else’s prey, so I never handed this one in at the bank. He looked down at it in a daze, but eventually accepted it.

“I will treasure this, as a reminder of my inexperience.”

Eh, you’re not going to turn it into coins!? But, instead of giving me an answer, the swordsman and his team members lowered their heads one more time, and headed towards the labyrinth.

“Ehm, what exactly happened?” Rufa showed a confused reaction, but I was just as lost.

Only Garnet seemed to be in a good mood, as she slapped me on my waist.

“Good for you.”

Yeah, I’m glad he didn’t give up on his dream just yet.

“No, not that.”

Eh, what else is there?

“Aren’t you happy that someone appeared who wasn’t deceived by your outer appearance?”

“Eh!?” I couldn’t hold back a voice of surprise.

Did they find out that some country boy like me was hiding inside this cool armor!?

“…I knew that was coming, but you really are an idiot.” Garnet sighed in disbelief.

How cruel! Rufa, say something as well!

“I-I totally understand it as well! I know that Alba-sama is a very kind person, contrary to his outer appearance!” Rufa averted her eyes, and grit her teeth.

I’m glad for the praise, but that wasn’t the follow-up I wanted to hear.

“Well, I’ve known for a while now that you two are morons.” Garnet complained, and left us behind.

Did she just treat Rufa like an idiot as well? My word, the tone of the dwarves seems to be quite peculiar. Either way, so that Garnet won’t leave us behind, I took Rufa’s hand, and started walking.

“U-Um…Alba-sama.”

I turned around after she called my name, only to find Rufa blushing up to hear ears, as she looked straight up at me.

“Please work hard for your dream.”

She’s talking about that? I was perplexed at first, but returned a nod.

“Yeah.”

“It’s a promise, okay? You have to defeat the Devil in one year, and gain the country, the castle, and the princess, please.”

“Yeah.”

I feel like she added more things towards the end there, but I just nodded yet again. With that, Rufa showed a blooming smile.

“I am looking forward to when that time arrives.”

She sounded like a princess exchanging a promise of engagement with a prince. I was about to get the wrong idea yet again, but barely stopped myself. I kept holding Rufa’s hand, as we chased after Garnet.