The bright sky the lit up the garden of flowers and peculiar appearance of this vast grassland with mountains afar is a curious and questionable event. We, all of us, delve deeper into the labyrinth just to find ourselves in a place that resembles a prairie.

Having no leads of the events transpiring around us, we become cautious of the man who introduced himself as a nameless wizard.

The magnitude of his power far beyond Violetta and yet, his existence or any record about a place like this didn’t exist. In the first place, if he constantly flaunts this amount of magical power, even Senya will be worried over the power balance.

“Keen on sight, cautious of pretense, yet, pulled in by the sheer prospect of discovery. Truly, a heart of someone with desires.”

“What are you trying to imply?!”

“No. My apologies as I worded that wrongfully. It makes me feel joyful to have youthful individuals as my visitors, pure-hearted as that, all of you.”

“Besides that, can you tell us what this place is?”

“I’d be honored to but nonetheless, I would like to receive my guests in a more relaxed manner. Would you like to talk this over a tea and a cake? Please do not be reserved. I take utmost happiness when exchanging words with a woman, though it seems all of you are children in appearance.”

The nameless wizard smiles upon us once more while he points at a cabin not too far from here. We don’t have any reason to decline but I shouldn’t be lax about this, however, given the situation, we don’t have any choice but to accept his invitation to fill in the lack of our knowledge about this world.

Also, it seems that in the first place, Topaz trusts him. It is not because he offered us snacks but because I know that she won’t willingly take us into this kind of place where utmost danger could put us in peril.

Also, did he really just saw through everyone’s appearance?!

“What do you say, everyone?”

“Huh? Shouldn’t you be deciding that as a leader? We’re completely clueless of what to do too…”

“Huh?! When did I become the leader?!”

Everyone looks at me and when Daisy knowingly told me those words, the twins nodded in agreement.

“You were always the one who engages in an adult conversation, Asagao. You are always the one making deals and agreements with them.”

“Ah, wait! Don’t word it like that! It sounds really indecent!”

Hibiscus really does have the knack to mislead people with an innocent face through words. I don’t even know what to be worried about her anymore.

“Even with were adventuring with Ichirou, you were always on the lead in conversations, Asagao. You even led the whole pirate fleet, right? That was really amazing!”

“I don’t know what to say now if you bring that up…”

“You were also the whole foundation of the battle against the devils and destroyed the moon together with Alstroemeria!”

“Don’t emphasize anything anymore!”

These twins are going to make me grovel in the ground one of these days if they keep praising me to an embarrassment like that. Mimi is smiling at me, probably wanted to give chase on those compliments, and Topaz seems to be in the same boat as her.

“Eh?”

“Ah…”

Upon our encirclement, Daisy was the only one who sprouted a dumbfounded face that is turning a little pale. Now that I think about it, Daisy doesn’t know much of the specifics regarding the calamity of devils surging from the center continent and the moon falling on this planet.

All she knew was that I am a somewhat odd princess of the Astlan Kingdom.

She stares at me like she found a galactic squid flying in the sky with the outer space as the background. It’s kind of a blank stare mixed with disbelief and it’s quite amusing to watch her.

“Lying is bad, you know?”

She broke!!

Her eyes said she can’t accept what she heard!

“Ahahaha! You ladies are quite defenseless, no? Conversing gleefully despite the situation, it’s truly a joyous thing to witness.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Nameless wizard, you…seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“Yes, after all, such free entertainment was laid bare in front of me. It seems that I don’t really need to pull any pranks to amuse myself after all.”

“Pranks?!”

“It’s quite a hobby of mine a long time ago.”

“You are dangerous after all…”

“Fret not for I bring you no harm. It is one of the ethical codes I swore a long time ago. Please, my invitation forebodes none.”

I know it’s a must that we deal with the situation effectively. Usually, I’m not this hectic but since I’m worried about the other’s safety.

I am known as carefree and in that regards, people are always skeptic of my actions for my own safety. But this time, I need to at least guarantee that we won’t be falling into any tricks. At the very least, I should just tackle this on my own.

“Fine, but I have conditions.”

“By all means, what is it?”

“Bring all the snacks out here and the only one who will talk is us.”

“Hmm? That is not a problem for me but why though? The more the merrier is what I believe.”

“We are none but lost children to you. You could at least give us the reassurance that our wish for our safety is met, whether physically or mentally.”

“I see, that would be your concern. Well then, how about this?”

The nameless wizard made a new suggestion and tapped his staff on the ground making a dull sound accompanied by a sudden thrust of a new image in the surrounding as his magical power explodes in the air.

Together with the reverberation of the air around us is the change of scenery as we’ve come across from a sunny sky in the prairie to a magical garden beside a lake. In the fences of bush posts an elegant table and chairs with prepared teas and cakes.

The sensation in my skin, the smell of the lake, and the wafting fragrance of the cake and tea are too real to say that it’s an illusion.

I look behind and the…out of the place hole where we come from is still there…sticking out from a nonexistent space…

“Is it fascinating that you forgot to ask? I’m glad that my tricks can still baffle woman at any ages.”

“Yeah…no…it’s baffling…”

“Please look at your hands.”

“Eh…?”

I don’t know what happened but suddenly, each one of us is holding flowers in our hands, beautiful white lilies adorned in a bouquet.

I tried feeling the flower and then it sends back a sensation too real to believe.

“In my domain, all of you are nothing but princesses waiting to be served. In the decree that I have adopted, each and every single one of you is higher than me.”

“This is a labyrinth, right? There should be battles or challenges.”

“That’s exactly why this is a troubling event as girls are needed to be attended as a gentleman. If you were a party of men, I would have thrown you all in a dungeon full of dragons in a pretext of a trial.”

“That’s horrible…”

Hurray for being a girl…

If we got thrown in a den teeming with dragons, well, we could probably deal with it but I’d rather not get into a sticky situation like that where extreme situations may arise.

Besides that though…

“You say that we are higher than you but you went and ignored what I requested.”

“I didn’t ignore it. I just made a better suggestion and took the initiative to perform it. I find this solution quite smart of me, I suppose.”

“You didn’t even say any words before doing this suggestion you are calling.”

“Nitpicking on every little detail is very unrefined, young lady. Then again, it spices a woman in terms of personality.”

“I’ll tell this now. You can’t smooth talk me, okay? It doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work.”

I stressed the last part of my sentence to drill into his head. The nameless wizard only smiled at me with a shrug and started pouring tea on the teacups as if my words just passed from his one ear to another. It’s kind of frustrating that he is nonchalant.

He then invited us for a seat and the others casually accepted his invitation, especially Topaz who immediately threw the flower away on her hands started digging on the cake.

It kind of did damage to the nameless wizard so I kind of want to praise Topaz. Food over trivial things, that’s my Topaz.

“Say, flowery guy, what is this place anyway?”

“Flowery guy…that’s a little bit…”

“Hmm? I’m Daisy Aestasia, the youngest daughter of Folga Aestasia, the late king of the Beast Kingdom Thousand Island. I don’t have any rights to the inheritance since my father was dethroned but I will devote my life to serving my kingdom.”

“That’s quite high profile, huh. But dethroned? Is it something like getting killed or proven inefficient?”

“It’s our tradition to hail the strongest and the wisest as the next king or queen. In our case, my father was replaced with a stronger, wiser, and even younger candidate. I want to devote my life to such a wonderful personage.”

“An interesting tradition, if I may say so myself.”

Daisy immediately engages in a conversation with the nameless wizard while Casablanca and Hibiscus watch in wary. Mimi sat across the nameless wizard and also kept watchful eyes as the twins do.

I think I can safely say that we are not lacking in attentiveness, not anymore this time around where we are thrown in an unknown place.

“My name is Casablanca Prasiolite, the daughter of the Elven Queen Hinoki Prasiolite and the twin sister of Hibiscus.”

“I am Hibiscus Prasiolite, and as Casablanca said, we are twins and we are the daughter of the Elven Queen. The bird atop Asagao is actually my familiar, Emby.”

The nameless wizard blinks twice before staring hard at the twins.

“I am Asagao Lionheart, the…the Esteemed little sister of Ashfon Astlan Lionheart, the King of the Land of Prospering, the human kingdom. The brown haired girl is Topaz and the girl cosplaying there as a maid is Mimi.”

I introduced myself begrudgingly.

I also introduced Mimi and Topaz because I am their standing master and guardian in a sense. Introducing them by my own would be an appropriate move.

Again, the nameless wizard knits his brows.

“So, I’m facing girls of high standings right now. I’m quite moved and at the same time, even more troubled.”

“For now, let’s move the conversation as what this place is and what are you doing here.”

“So we get to start with that, right? Okay, I’ll answer your query, however, there will be restrictions involving information about this labyrinth, is that fine?”

“That’s fine.”

The nameless wizard lightly slaps his cheeks before turning his gaze affront.

It seems he is trying to psyche himself up.

“It’s been an eon since I met people so I might forget some details. First off, as you girls know, this Labyrinth is called Avalon and I am serving as its dungeon master.”

“……”

Dungeon…master?! Is that an occupation?

No, I had the hunch right from the start that there’s something like that. Spawning monsters at interval are something a feat should be done by such person.

“A dungeon master manages a dungeon, labyrinth, ruins, etc. There may be some uninhabited dungeons but that only means that it is not an appropriate place to set up a dungeon, for example, remnants of a civilization with a rich culture.”

I’ve only been to a few of these ruins and labyrinths.

One of them is a ruin from the civilization of the Ethers. One more is the magma dungeon that we went through from the past. I believe those are uninhabited for a lot of reasons.

“And as for me, this Labyrinth is the very image of my dungeon. In the past, I’ve traveled dimension to seek a new world where I can settle. I’ve discovered this world and built this. In this Labyrinth, in the deepest part, I kept one of the most sacred treasures left by the proud king that I have taught.”

It’s quite vague and lacking in any substance when it comes to detailing but that will come afterwards.

“To keep myself detached from any outsiders, I created this dimension. Actually, I did that to see the most interesting person digging down on a labyrinth rather than climbing.”

“What?”

“Think of it! When you see a tall labyrinth, one would aspire to climb that top, right?! So I thought, if I positioned the most important part of the labyrinth underground, the lesser people would venture. Though, it was so effective that it took eons for a visitor to arrive, ahahaha! I’m so smart for my own good!”

That was just cleverly dumb, also please, stop praising yourself.

“And so, this place we are right now is actually a distorted dimension taken from my original world, a world where war has taken place left and right. You could say that we are currently standing in that very world but at the same time, we exist in your world. It’s a world mirrored in accordance with each world we exist in.”

“…You say that most complicated crap, huh? That’s why you don’t have any friends for the past eons you lived here.”

“That’s kind of rude!”

The nameless wizard droops his head as if sadness drowns him all at once. Seeing him down, Daisy smirks and started tapping on his head.

“What a miserable fellow. Since you fed us delicious treats, I’ll give you the privilege of becoming my friend then. Would that ease any of your woes?”

Daisy proudly announces at the crestfallen nameless wizard. However, her words were so effective that the nameless wizard stares at her in wonder and bafflement.

“Ah…you might just be…the next.”