***

Dusty and dark, a space with a smell reminiscent of stagnated waters entered my view.

A long hall forward and at the end of that very hall was a large door.

But it seems that there is no way to open it.

Not having any more clues, I gave up on scouting further and then went back to check on the guide.

After the guide awoke however, he explained that this place seemed to be a labyrinth and if the door wouldn’t open then there must be other ways or maybe even a gimmick within this very hall.

And as he said, I soon found a very obvious looking chest that seems to scream ‘open me’.

Having not much choice left I went closer to the chest and thus reached in to open it, but then a hand grabbed my wrist as a seemingly tired guide stopped me.

‘Did he rush over?’

“Don’t… ha…huff… ugh… open that.”

“Why?”

“'Why?' you say?! Ugh… cough…haa…huff…for one… you don’t know what’s in that… also, I said this was a labyrinth right?!”

“Oh~ I see~ ‘it could be a trap’ is what you are saying?”

“Haa… Just sit still there Hero, I’ll try to find another way to open the door.”

But even after hours of searching, the guide failed to find something other than the noticeable chest from earlier.

“See, I looked everywhere already.”

“… no choice then…”

The guide then went closer to the chest.

“Huh..? Hey! Wait!” I then belatedly realized what he was about to do as I yelled from the top of my lungs in an attempt to dissuade his actions.

But before I could rush over to stop the guide, he had already opened the chest as a puff of purple smoke exploded on his face.

Some time later, before the thick layer of smoke, the guide appeared and rushed towards me as he yelled. “Cover your nose!”

Finally reaching me, he took off his cloak and covered us both as the fog of smoke fully went to our direction.

Realizing that the cloak prevented any smoke from coming in within a meter from us, curious I asked the guide. “Is this also magic?”

“Is that a request? If not I will not answer.”

“Boo…”

“…Don’t speak too much, you might inhale some of the smoke that got in the cloak.”

After what seemed to be forever the smoke has finally cleared up.

“Ah~~ fresh air~

“It isn’t anything but fresh.”

Stolen story; please report.

“…But anyways, are you alright? You got bombed first hand in the face after all.”

“…I’m still fine at the moment but the way you asked somehow irks me…”

The guide’s closed eyes then proceeded to scrunch up in noticeable disgust towards me.

‘Really, his reactions are so interesting haha…haa…but… more importantly’

My smile was then replaced with a scowl as he seemed to be missing the whole point.

“Seriously? You let me fight dangerous monsters but you suddenly decided to open the trap yourself despite not also knowing what was inside? Are you alright in the head or what?”

“…As I said, I am still fine so it’s not something to fuss over about… and also, I got the key to open that door.”

“…Haa… fine fine~”

I then proceeded to snatch the key from the guide’s hand and then threw it towards the big door.

Before it reached however, the key scattered into tiny lights as the door soon began to creak open.

“Let’s go” Pointing with my thumb towards the opening door I looked over to the now stunned guide.

“…”

“Hey~ guide~~ you sure you’re fine?”

“….un…”

“Huh?”

“I said run! Hero!”

“Whuh??”

Before I could even ask, the guide pulled me further from the creaking door, and then ran towards the direction where we first came from.

As the guide pulled me along, curious, I looked behind me only to see a huge round boulder inside the now opening door that was ready to roll at any moment.

Cold sweat run through my whole body as I started to finally run with all my might thus this time, I was the one pulling the guide along.

““AhhHHhHHhHh!!----“” Both of us then screamed at the top of our lungs as the boulder soon started to roll out from the door.

“Haha this is interesting!” Despite the dangerous situation, I couldn’t help but smile widely at the very experience.

“How could this situation be called interesting!”

“Well this place was supposed to be a dead end as I have explored earlier, but now a whole wide hall stretches till the eyes could see!~ if that isn’t interesting then what is?”

“It’s a labyrinth! The roads are bound to change at some point, usually they change at a fixed time and it should be about noon by now so noon must be one of the fixed times the labyrinth’s paths changes”

“Ohh~~ info dumps I see I see I get it now! Thank you for your wonderful explanation dear guide~”

“…You don’t sound the least bit sincere….”

“It’s called 'sarcasm' my dear guide~ never heard of it before?”

“….ut up…”

“Huh? What was that?”

“Ugh… please shut up for a moment you pudding head!”

“Pudding head?! Also, you’re not using honorifics anymore?”

“Hmmp!”

“Wait no, the point is- how do you even know what a pudding is?!”

“…”

“Out of all the various shops I visited after I left the castle and the various amount of food served at the castle that I happily gobbled up, pudding certainly did not appear!”

“You really shouldn’t be admitting that you were the cause of the kingdom’s lack of food…”

“Is that even important?! Also! I asked a question and it’s a request this time.”

“…A guide knows plenty of knowledge in order to accommodate the Hero.”

“You aren’t accommodating me one bit! And that didn’t even answer the question!”

“… no dinner for you later…-“

“Hey I heard that! Also why are you pouting!? Is this possibly the effect of the gas from the chest you opened earlier?”

“Unfortunately I also don’t know as I am not avidly familiar in the world of potions or what not”

“I thought you said guides were supposed to be knowledgeable!”

“I did, but Guides are not perfect. They are bound to be bad at one subject and for me, I just happened to be bad at alchemy.”

“You’re bad at something…? Aren’t you supposed to be an overachiever…”

“That’s just your notion of me and also… who knows, maybe if you study alchemy you may get better than me when using it.”

“Fair point, no words to refute what you said…but you just want to use me to make those potions from hours upon hours right?! Even I know making those things can take a long-long while!”

“….I just so happen to be the impatient type so we will start learning more about alchemy once we get out of here.”

“I see, so you just didn’t want to make potions as it would take hours to even finish one! WELL as much as you don’t want to I also don’t want to! I SERIOUSLY REFUSE!”

“….No dinner. period.”

“Why are you pouting deeper?? And is your face flushed?? Was the gas some kind of concentrated alcohol or something? You look pretty sloshed to me.”

“I am NOT drunk, it’s just that the mana around here is really dense and concentrated that it’s hard to breathe…”

“Heh really~? Because that’s what all drunkards say…”

“I am serious Hero.”

“Oh we’re back to honorifics? You sober now?”

“Believe what you want….”

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With all that was happening...

I couldn’t help but think that….Maybe this was the start of our misfortunes.