The Labyrinth City, Orario.
The city of heroes, where gods gathered and the greatest talents of the world assembled, was no different today than any other day.
When the two of them finally climbed the long spiral stair, passed the Guild’s checkpoint, and stepped out of that magnificent tower that ran straight down into the earth, the wind that met them carried the dryness and clamor unique to the surface, sweeping away in an instant the last dark, dank scent clinging to Artorias.
“Now that I think about it, it really has been a long time since I’ve seen a sun like this.” Real sunlight, with actual warmth in it, poured down without restraint, and Artorias — unused to such brightness — narrowed his eyes and sighed.
He stopped walking without meaning to and tilted his head back.
Beyond the brilliant light, what met his gaze first was the endlessly high, heartbreakingly blue sky, and that magnificent white tower that seemed determined to pierce it, the bridge between the gods and the mortal world.
“So that’s… Babel?
Seeing it with my own eyes really is nothing like seeing it in an anime.” Memories of a former life or not, standing here in this body made the sight overwhelming all over again.
Draped in his red Salamander Wool, Artorias stood in the bustling Central Plaza with his head raised, that towering spire reflected in his deep crimson eyes, and for a long while he could not look away.
“Heh, see?
I told you a trip to the surface couldn’t hurt.
You’d never get a view like this underground.” A soft laugh came from beside him.
Alise watched the boy standing there in a daze, staring up at Babel, and smiled with obvious satisfaction.
“Right now you look exactly like one of those rookie adventurers who’s just arrived in Orario.” Her gaze traveled up and down the red-cloaked figure in front of her.
“Or maybe — like a high-class adventurer who’s already broken past the upper floors?” “Salamander Wool suits you, you know.” “It’s comfortable enough to wear, sure.
But as the price of a disguise… wasn’t it a little expensive?” Artorias tugged at the cloak and grumbled, wincing on her behalf.
The [Salamander Wool] he wore had been bought by Alise right before they set out, from a merchant in the town of Rivira.
As the name suggested, it was protective clothing with a marked resistance to fire-attribute attacks, meant mainly to deal with the flame-spitting monsters that started appearing in the middle floors — the [Hellhound].
This was the kind of preparation an adventurer was supposed to make before ever entering the Dungeon.
Buying it on the spot in a monopolized enclave like the Adventurers’ Town meant running into a price-gouging swindler was all but guaranteed.
He still remembered it clearly: Alise haggling with everything she had to buy him this outfit and conceal his identity, losing anyway, and finally paying the full price through gritted teeth with tears in her eyes, bidding a wrenching farewell to her personal savings.
“If you’re going to disguise yourself, you go all the way.
An adventurer coming out of the Dungeon with no weapon and no armor would look way too strange.” Alise scratched her cheek, a little awkward.
“So a cloak that covers you head to toe is perfect, isn’t it?” “All right, all right, stop fussing over the little things.
There’s plenty worth seeing besides Babel.” “Ari, let’s go.
Today, I — Miss Alise, captain of Astrea Familia — will personally serve as your tour guide.” “Onward!” The words had barely left her mouth before a warm palm closed around Artorias’s hand.
Alise paid no attention at all to the looks the crowd threw their way.
She simply held his hand and strode toward the busy streets.
“This is the Labyrinth City Orario, where adventurers from all over the world gather.
Too many people, too many eyes.
If I don’t hold your hand, you might get lost the moment I look away, you know?” “…I’m not a child.” Artorias sighed, resigned — but he didn’t shake her off.
For someone accustomed to the cold senses of a monster, the warmth against his palm was unexpectedly reassuring.
“Besides, is it really fine for you to keep holding my hand like this?” This wasn’t the Dungeon, where only a handful of adventurers passed by.
This was the center of Orario, in full public view.
“Doesn’t matter.
Back at the Rivira Inn, that big-mouthed owner already saw us in a pretty misleading position anyway.” The girl’s voice came from beside him, light and utterly unconcerned.
Alise showed no intention whatsoever of letting go.
If anything, she gripped his hand tighter, towing him through the crowd.
Walking behind her, Artorias watched the strands of red hair blaze in the sunlight.
“If the rumors are going to reach the surface sooner or later, then worrying about idle gossip is just borrowing trouble.” And so the two of them walked, one ahead and one behind, down the broad Central Avenue.
As the captain of Astrea Familia, who had spent years upholding justice throughout Orario, her name was hardly unknown here.
So the sight of a celebrated, beautiful swordswoman openly leading a clean-featured black-haired boy by the hand through the main street naturally drew countless probing, curious, and outright gossip-hungry stares.
The two of them walked, one ahead and one behind, down the broad Central Avenue.
One was the famous [Crimson Blossom] with her dazzling red hair.
The other was an unfamiliar black-haired boy in Salamander Wool, with delicate features.
A pairing like that would have had a hard time not attracting attention.
Exactly as Artorias had predicted, adventurers and townsfolk alike turned their heads as they passed, and the whispering never stopped.
“Hey, isn’t that Alise, the captain of Astrea Familia?” “Seriously?
She’s holding hands with a guy?” “What Familia is that boy from?
Never seen that face before… black hair, young.
Could he be that new adventurer who joined Loki Familia?” “No idea.
But we can rule out Freya Familia right off the bat.” “Obviously.
Everybody knows the adventurers in Freya Familia don’t see a single other woman in this world besides Lady Freya.” … All sorts of chatter like that rose around them, yet Alise, the subject of it all, showed none of the bashfulness she’d had when it was just the two of them alone.
She gripped Artorias’s hand even harder.
Not only did she not shy away, she still had energy left over to wave at acquaintances in the crowd.
That easy, open expression on her face never wavered from beginning to end.
Watching it from arm’s length, Artorias understood something all over again — Alise Lovell, who could shoulder stares from every direction and keep walking at her own pace, truly was an adventurer with a formidably strong core.
“Okay, okay, Ari, Ari, come here, come here!” Some switch inside her — the big-sister-dragging-her-little-brother-shopping switch — seemed to have flipped, and Alise hauled him straight toward a lively roadside stall.
“Ta-daaa!” “This is Orario’s most popular street food, the very wellspring of its citizens’ vitality — Jyaga Maru Kun!” “If you come to Orario and don’t try one of these, you’ve lost ninety percent of the joy in your life!” For a dish with a national-treasure reputation, the line was oddly thin, so it took Alise no time at all to come running back cradling two bags of steaming golden fried snacks.
“They’re just ordinary potatoes, deep-fried — but with that special blend of spices, the taste is something else.” Alise kept up her excited commentary as she pushed the bag toward him like she was presenting a treasure, launching into a torrent of history about the street food and the customs of Orario.
“Ah, I know these.” Artorias looked at the familiar fried snack, nodded, and said offhandedly, “Adi mentioned them a while back.
She said they’re her essential snack when she’s slacking off on patrol.
She’s brought me some a few times.” “…Hm?” The smile on Alise’s face stiffened, and eyes that had been perfectly peaceful a moment ago sharpened.
“You’re telling me Adi… already fed you these?” That was not something she could pretend not to have heard.
“Yeah, and you’re right, they taste great,” said Artorias, utterly oblivious to the dangerous air in the conversation, still calmly delivering his review.
For reasons she couldn’t name, watching that bland, matter-of-fact reaction stirred up a small, stubborn spark of competitiveness in Alise.
She was the one who had brought him into Orario, and yet a friend who was away on the Expedition had beaten her to the punch.
Unacceptable.
What about the dignity of the tour guide she’d just so loudly declared herself to be?
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Ari, my dear student, I can see you don’t understand a thing.” The red-haired girl raised an index finger and waggled it in front of him, her tone carrying a distinct refusal to lose.
“Jyaga Maru Kun fresh out of the fryer and Jyaga Maru Kun gone cold are two completely different foods, you know?” “The ones Adi carried down from the surface into the Dungeon for you — no matter how fast her legs are, they’d have gone stone cold.
There’s no way they compare to this, piping hot and freshly fried.
This is the real delicacy!” Alise speared one of the just-fried potato balls on a bamboo skewer and, without bothering to check whether Artorias was ready, brought it straight to his mouth.
“Here.
Open up!
Ahhh—” “Mm?!” Startled by the sudden feeding, Artorias opened his mouth on reflex.
Crisp outside, tender inside, the potato ball burst across his tongue in a rush of scalding heat and rich fragrance.
It was true — cold food could never match that crunch.
But for someone who had just been fed without warning, there was clearly something in front of him far more delicious than the burning potato ball he was struggling with.
“W-well?
Isn’t it better than you’d heard?” Alise kept up her confident front, but as she watched the boy obediently eat what she’d fed him, her gaze began to drift on its own, and a suspicious flush crept across her cheeks.
Only now, belatedly, did the girl who had launched into a feeding routine on a whim realize something — that publicly spoon-feeding someone in the middle of the street was perhaps a bit too intimate for mere friends.
It fell entirely outside the boundaries of “proper distance between a man and a woman” she had so loudly insisted upon back in Rivira.
And Artorias, who had noticed it a step ahead of her, was watching her with a very complicated look on his face.
“Ahem — ahem!
Anyway… the point is, they taste good, right?” To cover her fluster, Alise hurriedly stuffed a potato ball into her own mouth and chewed with her cheeks bulging like a hamster’s, trying to use food to plug up a heart that was about to leap out of her chest.
“You’re right.” Artorias went on calmly pushing Jyaga Maru Kun into his mouth, acting as though he hadn’t seen a trace of the girl’s turmoil.
From that little incident he drew a lesson: in the future, it was best not to bring up one woman in front of another without thinking it through first.
…
After the farce ran its course, the two of them settled by the fountain in the Central Plaza to rest.
Afternoon sunlight scattered across the rippling water, throwing back dazzling flashes of light.
Sitting on the stone steps, Alise watched the thin, scattered crowd in the plaza.
The flush had faded from her face, replaced by a rare gentleness and quiet.
Artorias sat beside her, quietly enjoying this uncommon peace.
“Hey, Ari.” Alise spoke suddenly, her voice soft.
“Hm?” “What do you think… of Orario?” “Lively.
Prosperous.
Full of energy.” Artorias looked toward Babel in the distance and answered seriously.
“Unlike monsters, who have no reason and know nothing but survival, everyone here is striving to live for something… I don’t dislike that feeling.” “Is that so… Good.
As long as you don’t dislike it.” “I was worried you might find it hard to adjust, since you’ve only ever lived in the Dungeon as a monster.
Looks like I was overthinking it.” Alise seemed to let out a breath she’d been holding.
“Still — the Orario in my impressions should be livelier than this.” There were too few ordinary people out in the city.
Whether at the Jyaga Maru Kun stall earlier or here in this corner of the plaza, the number of ordinary citizens coming and going was pitifully small.
Most of the people walking around were armed adventurers.
Only that stretch at the start, when Alise had led him along by the hand, had drawn a real crowd of gawkers.
Clearly, this was not the cheerful Orario he remembered.
The people living in this era were all worrying about something he did not yet understand.
“In your impressions?” Alise turned her head, startled, not quite grasping why Artorias would speak in a tone of such familiarity.
“Adi and Kaguya both let a few things slip to me.
And didn’t that sage in the black robe say as much too?” Artorias looked at her steadily.
“Orario right now is being swallowed by darkness.
The adventurers smuggling monsters underground, and the forces standing behind them.” “The so-called [Dark Age] — that’s what you’re all facing, isn’t it?” “I want to lend you my strength.” Like Adi Varma, Alise Lovell was a good person in the fullest sense of the word.
As long as someone was worth helping, she would extend a hand without hesitation.
Unlike Gojouno Kaguya, the other member of that just Familia he had already met, this kindness of hers weighed no gains or losses, and cared nothing for the other party’s status or standing.
It judged everything solely by the girl’s own inner scales of right and wrong.
And precisely because of that, an Alise like this would never, on her own, ask a friend she considered too weak and too politically sensitive to be dragged into this dangerous conflict.
So he had to be the one to speak first.
“After all, [Justice] wouldn’t turn down a friend who wants to help — would it?” “Ha ha ha ha—” The red-haired girl stared blankly for a moment, then burst into bright, ringing laughter, laughing until tears prickled at the corners of her eyes.
“That’s a pretty sneaky way to put it, Ari.” Backlit, she rose to her feet.
Her hair, red as burning flame, streamed in the wind, and the sunlight spilling over her plated the girl in a rim of gold.
Alise drew a deep breath, as though she had just made some important decision, turned, and held out her hand to the boy before her.
“In that case…” The boy’s figure was reflected in her emerald eyes, and in them was a seriousness and solemnity she had never shown before.
Beneath the dazzling sun, the girl of justice issued an invitation out of the light: “Ari — will you come to our Familia… and meet Lady Astrea, the Goddess of Justice?” Artorias raised his head and looked at the hand stretched toward him.
The blazing sunlight of the surface still stung his eyes, but this time he didn’t close them.
“Gladly.” Instead, he reached out and took hold of that light that stood for justice.
____ 👻🔥Walnut-chan — Patre*n🔥👻 🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: