Fast.
Leonhardt's sword came down from overhead. Luca used [Shield Block], angling the new shield on his left arm. The blade slid off its face. Heavy. His arm went numb.
Sideways sweep. He twisted and caught it on his dagger. [Reverse Grip]: he rode the force of the parry and flipped the blade into a reverse grip.
Rising cut. That one, he couldn't block. Luca leaped back. A few strands of his bangs scattered in the air.
"Huh."
Leonhardt raised an eyebrow.
"A thief's sleight of hand, and a heavy fighter's shield work. You fight strangely, don't you?"
His eyes narrowed.
"Where did you learn that?"
"I picked it up."
"What?"
The next combo came. Overhead, sweep, rising cut. Somehow, Luca weathered all three. And as he weathered them, he watched.
After the third strike, the rising cut—
The left side.
It was just as Theo had said. After the sword swung up, for the briefest instant, Leonhardt's left side was unguarded.
But it was too brief. [Lunge] alone wouldn't get him there.
* * *
Flames burst on the far side of the hollow. Celes and Gina were trading spells.
"Flame, gather in my hand—"
"Too slow, milady!"
Gina's fireball exploded at Celes's feet. Celes rolled clear. Gina's chants were faster, and her spells hit harder.
Even so, Celes got back up. Her face black with soot, she raised her wand again.
"It doesn't matter if I'm slow."
She kept chanting. Gina loosed her next fireball—
And at that exact instant, a tiny ember burst right in front of Gina's face.
Fizz.
"—!?"
Gina squeezed her eyes shut on reflex. Her fireball veered off somewhere wild. Even as he fended off Leonhardt's sword, Luca had pointed a single fingertip at her. [Fire Arrow (Lesser)].
"—Become searing heat, and pierce my foe!"
Celes's fireball knocked Gina's wand flying.
* * *
"Do you really have time to look away?"
Leonhardt's sword grazed Luca's cheek. It burned. Blood ran down his face.
At the bottom of the hollow, the ogre roared. Drawn by the smell of the lure incense, it was clambering up the slope, with two gray bears following close behind.
"Time's up," Leonhardt said with a smile. "Goodbye, little hyena."
Overhead.
Luca took it with [Shield Block]. The shield finally split in two.
Sideways sweep.
This time, Luca didn't block it with the dagger. Instead, he turned his wrist. The way you run a ladle along the bottom of a pot to lift off what's about to burn.
That turn of the wrist. Looks like it might work against a sword, too.
Grun's voice flashed through his head.
[Ladle Work].
The back of the dagger slipped in under the base of Leonhardt's blade, and Luca's wrist rolled over. The sword's path shifted upward. Only slightly.
"Wha—"
Leonhardt's stance broke. Even so, the moves were soaked into his body, and the third strike came anyway: the rising cut.
Leonhardt drew a breath.
His shoulders rose. Just a little.
Luca had seen that movement a hundred times in the backyard.
Here it comes.
The left side, opening.
Right foot, half a step, deep. Drop the weight.
Theo's [Lunge].
Then kick off, hard enough to crack the ground.
Grun's [Iron Legs].
Luca flew like an arrow. The pommel of his dagger drove straight into Leonhardt's left side.
"Gah—!"
Leonhardt folded in half. The sword slipped from his hand and clattered across the ground. He staggered two steps, three—
And fell flat on his front. The two pots still tucked inside his cloak burst beneath him.
Black powder billowed up in a cloud. His golden cloak was coated in the sweet-smelling stuff.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
"...Ah."
Leonhardt looked down at his cloak. Then, slowly, he looked up.
The ogre was standing right in front of him. Its nostrils twitched as it stared down at Leonhardt, drenched in lure incense.
"W-wait... Wait, please...!"
The ogre raised its club.
"No—! S-somebody! Help me! Don't leave me here!"
Luca was already running.
[Shield Charge]. His shield was broken, so he used his shoulder. He kicked off with [Iron Legs] and slammed into Leonhardt, knocking him sideways. The club came down and split the ground where Leonhardt had been a moment before.
The two of them rolled across the dirt. Leonhardt stared at Luca as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Wh... Why would you save me?"
"Being left behind is scary, isn't it?"
Luca got to his feet. The ogre was raising its club again. The gray bears were closing in.
He raised his dagger.
His stomach growled.
Then something went past Luca's side.
Tok.
The tip of a walking stick tapped the ogre lightly on the knee.
The ogre crumpled. Like a puppet with its strings cut, it sank to the ground knees first, and it didn't move again.
"Hwaaah... Ah, dear me. You shouldn't make an old man run."
Oldo was standing there, yawning. Out past the end of his stick, the two gray bears had somehow collapsed, eyes rolled back in their heads. Slung over Oldo's shoulder hung Bolz, limp and out cold.
"O-Oldo...?"
"First time in sixty years anybody's managed to get me lost in a forest. That scout of yours is pretty good."
Oldo dumped Bolz on the ground. Then he looked down at Leonhardt, who had slumped to the dirt.
His sleepy eyes narrowed.
That alone was enough to freeze the air in the hollow.
"I saw all of it. The black-market pots. 'Accidents happen.' And the scavenger boy saving your hide, too."
The color drained from Leonhardt's face until it was pure white.
"Former Rank One delver Oldo, the Sleeping Demon. ...Now, here's my finding as inspector."
Oldo rapped the ground with his stick. Tok.
"Guilty."
* * *
After that, everything happened fast.
Once Bolz came to, he confessed everything in the Guild's interrogation room.
Over the past six months, they had used rookies as bait eleven times. Exactly the same number as their requests to take lure incense out of the Guild.
They gathered rookies on mentoring runs and led them to the nests of monsters that hoarded honey crystals and mana stones. They used lure incense to set the nest lord on the rookies, and while the lord was off chasing its prey, they cleaned out everything it had stockpiled. A nest lord only ever left its nest to hunt.
If a rookie died, they reported that the rookie had "charged ahead without orders." If a rookie survived, they made sure the kid felt indebted to them, and kept them quiet. That was how the Golden Lions had built up the highest deliveries in the branch, along with a fine reputation for training rookies.
"Leonhardt, Gina, Bolz. The three of you are stripped of your delver status and will be handed over to the city guard."
Branch Master Valeria made the announcement in the Guild hall. There wasn't a golden cloak to be seen anymore. The three of them were bound with rope and led away, heads hanging.
At the very end, Leonhardt looked back once, at Luca. He started to say something, then didn't, and faced forward again.
"Deputy Branch Master Baldo. You covered for them with false testimony. You are relieved of your post and reassigned as keeper of the supply storeroom."
"B-but...!"
"If the inventory comes up short by even one item, your pay gets docked."
Baldo sank to his knees.
* * *
There was good news too. Some of the rookies who had gone missing were alive.
The rookie who'd held up his shield on the fifth floor was named Pete. After that day, another party had happened to pass by and rescued him, and he'd been carried to the infirmary in the next town over. His life wasn't in danger, and word was he planned to go back to delving after some rest.
"I'm glad."
When Luca heard, he meant it from the bottom of his heart. The shield's Recall had ended on a frightening memory. Knowing that there had been more after it felt like a weight lifting off his chest.
Theo was going to be paid compensation out of the Golden Lions' assets. On top of that, Valeria had apparently asked him to help train rookies at the Guild's training grounds until his leg healed.
"Being on the side that protects the rookies doesn't sound so bad, huh," Theo said with a laugh.
He was planning to have a blacksmith reforge the broken sword Luca had returned to him into a dagger.
* * *
"Now then. That leaves your case."
In the Branch Master's office, Valeria looked down at Luca. He stood with his back straight, Celes and Grun beside him.
"You entered the sixth floor on a salvage tag. Rules are rules."
"Yes."
"As your penalty, your salvage tag is confiscated."
Luca bit his lip. He'd been ready for it. But never being able to go into the Labyrinth as a scavenger again still hurt.
"—That said."
Valeria laid a single sheet of paper on her desk.
"A scavenger's tag won't get you onto the sixth floor. So carry a tag that will."
The paper read: Delver Registration Application.
"Huh?"
"Your sponsors are myself and Inspector Oldo. And former Rank One delver Grun Beil."
Luca turned to look at Grun. Grun was looking the other way, puffing on his pipe.
"Boss, you were Rank One?"
"Ancient history."
Valeria smiled faintly.
"In front of an ogre, you saved the man who'd tried to kill you. The Guild needs delvers like that. ...So, what will it be?"
Luca looked down at the paper.
He liked being a scavenger. Picking up lost things and returning them to their owners. Carrying someone's regrets back to where they belonged.
But down on the deeper floors, there were more lost things. Many more. Someone's techniques and feelings, left behind down there.
"—I'll do it. I'll be a delver."
* * *
"All right, registration complete. Luca, you're officially a Rank Ten delver."
At the front desk, Nora held out a brand-new iron tag. Then she looked over Luca's application again and tilted her head.
"Preferred fighting style... 'A bit of everything'?"
"A bit of everything."
"What is that supposed to mean..."
Nora put her head in her hands.
"A brand-new Rank Ten beats a Rank Five party's swordsman, rescues someone in front of an ogre, and his sponsors are the Branch Master and two former Rank Ones. And I'm supposed to file that as Rank Ten? I don't even know how to write this in the ledger..."
"Sorry."
"You don't have to apologize, but..."
Celes popped up beside him.
"Nora, could you register a party for us too?"
"A party?"
"Yes. Me and Luca."
Luca blinked.
"Miss Celes, are you sure?"
"About what?"
"I come from a scavenger's shop, you know."
Celes let out an exasperated sigh.
"You saved my life, and you've seen the inside of my head. Do you honestly think I could treat you like a stranger now?"
"I'm sorry about the inside of your head."
"Besides, your front line and my fire magic are a good match. My family's debt comes due in six months. You're going to climb the ranks with me, and fast."
Celes held out her right hand. Luca took it.
"I look forward to working with you, Miss Celes."
"Just Celes is fine. We're partners."
* * *
That night, Grun's Salvage held a small celebration.
Grun, Theo, and Celes were there, and for some reason, so were Nora and Oldo.
Luca was the one at the stove. He stirred a huge pot of stew from the bottom up with a ladle. [Ladle Work]. Not a single scorched bit.
"...This is delicious."
Celes's eyes went round.
"What is this? It's better than our old family cook."
"It's a technique I got from someone named Emma."
"And who is Emma?"
Theo laughed, Nora laughed, and Oldo went back for more three times. Grun didn't say a word, and quietly ate two bowls.
* * *
When the party was over, Luca climbed up to the attic. He lay down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.
Twelve Echoes.
A Rank Ten delver's iron tag.
One partner.
Half a month ago, he'd had none of them.
Then he noticed something in his jacket pocket. He pulled it out. It was an old coin. He must have picked it up along with the pot shards that day in the northern hollow.
It was stamped with a crest he'd never seen before. It wasn't a coin of the present kingdom. It was from long, long ago.
Without really thinking about it, Luca closed his hand around it.
◆ ◆ ◆
—Dark.
Deep. Somewhere very, very deep.
Nothing to see. No one here. Here, for so long. So very long.
Thank you for picking me up.
◆ ◆ ◆
Luca shot upright.
For a while, he listened hard to the back of his head.
After a Recall, there was always a voice that sounded deep in his head. The quiet voice that told him an Echo had been inherited.
This time, that voice didn't come.
Nothing had been left behind. He wasn't even hungry.
The coin gleamed coldly in his palm.
Whose voice had that been?
There was no place on the sixth floor that deep, or that dark.
Outside the window, the entrance to the Labyrinth gaped black in the dark of the night.
(End of Volume 1)