Claire seemed startled by my sudden curse.
“Y-Young Master Allen?”
Without even answering her, I asked the receptionist,
“Where are these two right now?”
“They’re probably on the second floor. I told them that you usually come around this time, so they said they’d wait for you in the tavern.”
The moment I heard that, I headed straight for the stairs.
Even as I quickened my pace, my mind was filled with questions.
‘What the hell is going on?’
It was not their given names that I recognized.
It was the surnames ‘Lemoe’ and ‘Dvar.’
I knew both of those names extremely well.
There was no way I could not.
Because they were—
BOOM!!
At that moment, something exploded.
“AAAAARGH!!”
Along with the screams, people began pouring out of the second floor.
Adventurers fled the Guild in complete panic, as though a fire had broken out.
The sudden commotion even drew people down from the third floor.
I knew I had a bad feeling about this.
“Claire. Guide the people coming out so no one gets hurt. I’ll check what’s happening.”
“I’ll check it myself! Young Master Allen, please evacuate immediately!”
“If it looks dangerous, I’ll get out right away. Don’t worry.”
“Young Master Allen!”
Leaving Claire’s protests behind, I hurried into the tavern.
Two figures stood some distance apart, facing each other.
One was a sharp-featured beauty with skin as white as light itself and pale green hair.
She shouted in a shrill voice,
“You filthy Dwarf! You knew I was an Elf, yet you still gave me alcohol containing eggs… Because of you, I broke the Law! How are you going to take responsibility for this?”
The extremely short Dwarf facing her looked troubled and bewildered.
“How many times must I tell you that it was a misunderstanding? How was I supposed to know the laws of the Elves? You drank it perfectly happily, and now suddenly you’re making a fuss.”
“You can lie without so much as changing your expression… As expected, there’s no dealing with a race that has no roots.”
The Elf drew the dagger hanging from her waist.
The instant he saw it, the Dwarf raised his eyebrows and lifted a shield larger than his own body.
Were these bastards actually insane?
I had no idea what they had done, but the surrounding area was already littered with the shattered remains of tables.
‘What about the other Adventurers…?’
For some reason, not a single person remained to stop them.
The people who had fled earlier were probably all Rank 8 Adventurers or lower.
I had just thought it was fortunate that nobody had been hurt when a whisper came from the corner of my vision.
“Hey…! Hurry up and run!”
The tavern owner, who had failed to escape in time, was peeking over the edge of a table.
Apparently terrified of being caught in the fight, he was too afraid to come out.
Should I evacuate him now?
‘No. He’s probably safer there.’
One look at the Elf and Dwarf told me that this was not something I could resolve with a few gentle words.
Neither of them even glanced at me despite my standing openly in the room.
Rank 7 Adventurers were not people who could be underestimated.
‘I need to end this before they really start fighting.’
There was probably no need to use magic.
I slowly walked toward the space between them.
Only then did they glance at me.
A moment later, however, they went right back to glaring at each other.
“Stinking Dwarf. Kneel and apologize while you still can.”
“What nonsense is that? Why should I apologize when I did nothing wrong?”
“Do you seriously want to die?”
“Even if I die, I have no intention of apologizing!”
Listening to their noisy argument made me sigh involuntarily.
A Dwarf was one thing, but Elves possessed intelligence superior to humans.
Yet the instant an Elf encountered a Dwarf, sheer hostility seemed capable of suppressing even that intelligence.
I stepped between them once again and said,
“I’m Allen, the Mage. I heard both of you wanted to join my team.”
“Allen?”
Only now did life return to the eyes of the Elf and the Dwarf.
I immediately asked the question that had been bothering me.
“Why?”
That was the first thing I could not understand.
Of all the teams available, why ours?
And that was not the only mystery.
The surname ‘Lemoe’ in Esta de Lemoe.
The Lemoe Clan had already been wiped out by Dark Elves.
I had never imagined there might have been a survivor.
Beric Dvar’s surname was equally unusual.
The Dvar Clan was famous throughout the continent.
They were known as ‘Those Who Sell Their Souls to the Devil.’
Despite the grandiose title, they were simply misers who supplied weapons even to Marauders and black-market criminals.
Other Dwarves despised them for it.
For now, I needed to calm the two of them down quickly.
The moment some reason returned to their eyes, I addressed the cause of their fight first.
[Dwarf. You gave the Elf alcohol, correct? Something called eggnog?]
[That’s right. I offered it as a gesture of goodwill, but she suddenly started shouting about her Law and attacked me.]
[That’s because you gave me alcohol made with eggs!]
I cut Esta off as her voice rose.
[The Law of the Elves strictly forbids consuming meat. Eggs are included. Did you know that?]
[Hmm. I did not.]
Beric replied awkwardly.
Esta’s furious face remained visible beside him.
I slowly explained to her,
[First, let me make one thing clear. The drink you had contained no eggs.]
[Don’t talk nonsense. It’s called eggnog precisely because it contains eggs, isn’t it?]
[Maybe in the capital. In the North, they use a fruit called ‘Bandar’ instead. It has a similar texture.]
That was completely true.
Bandar was a specialty of the North.
Its texture resembled eggs, but its caloric content was absurdly high, making it a popular ingredient.
It was also cultivated in large quantities, so Northerners often used it as an egg substitute.
[Hey, owner. I’m right, aren’t I?]
The tavern owner hiding behind the counter nodded.
[Really? Then that’s a relief.]
Only after realizing she had not broken the Law did Esta finally relax.
The two then looked around and noticed the devastation they had caused.
[My apologies. I’ll compensate you for everything we broke.]
[I’m not paying. This happened because of the Dwarf’s mistake anyway.]
They could sort that out themselves.
After quickly handling the immediate aftermath, Claire and I moved with the two of them to another nearby tavern.
Apparently, even they realized they no longer had the face to remain in the previous establishment, because neither objected.
The four of us sat facing each other.
“…….”
“…….”
An awkward silence lingered for some time.
An Elf, a Dwarf, and two humans.
It was a bizarre combination.
I could feel people around us glancing in our direction.
“All right. I’d like to get to the point now. I heard you wanted to join my team. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“That’s right.”
Mm.
This was where I stopped understanding the situation.
Members of other races were generally considered promising talents by default.
Unlike humans, their natural advantages were obvious.
Yet these two had come all the way to the North specifically to enter the Labyrinth?
“Why us? You’re a Rank 7 Guardian and Scout, and you’re both from other races. Any team would gladly take you.”
Neither answered for a moment.
As expected.
There was something going on.
Just as I was about to press them, Esta spoke first.
“It’s an order from the Queen.”
“The Elf Queen?”
“Obviously. Who else, the human queen?”
“Does the Queen even interfere with whether you enter the Labyrinth? Why?”
“Who knows? I don’t. She ordered me to do it, so what choice did I have?”
This was absurd.
Was I actually supposed to believe that?
For now, I let it pass.
When I turned toward Beric, he nodded slightly.
“Well, this is surprising. The same goes for me.”
“The same… You mean a queen?”
“We have a king.”
“Whew… You two didn’t arrange this together, did you?”
“Me? With this Dwarf? Don’t say something so ridiculous.”
Good.
I had learned everything I was going to learn for now.
Whether I believed their stories was another matter.
Still, the situation itself was hardly bad.
If anything, it was as though exactly what I needed had fallen straight into my lap.
“Fine. I have no reason to refuse either of you. Can you enter the Labyrinth with us tomorrow?”
“Of course. That’s why I came in the first place.”
“Same here.”
Beric answered and drained the beer he had ordered.
Without touching mine, I gave them a brief explanation.
“Our destination is the second floor. We’ll stay for at least a week.”
“Hmm. That’s fine. It is our first expedition as a team, after all.”
“That seems rather bland. We’re not going as far as the third floor?”
Beric sounded disappointed.
Unfortunately for him, I had no intention of doing that.
“Claire and I haven’t even reached the second floor yet. We need time to adapt to the Labyrinth.”
“What is there to adapt to? It’s only the lower floors.”
“You… is your brain actually made of muscle? He means we need time to adapt to the denser oxygen inside the Labyrinth.”
“Ah. I see.”
Beric nodded at Esta’s insult without complaint.
Being told his brain was made of muscle was probably praise to a Dwarf rather than an insult.
For reference, the higher one climbed through the Labyrinth, the greater the concentration of oxygen became.
Higher oxygen concentrations elevated one’s mood and even improved physical performance, but the effect was even greater on the Monsters that permanently inhabited those floors.
On the upper floors, the increased oxygen concentration could even cause Monsters to grow as large as small mountains.
If a human ascended too high without allowing their body time to adapt, their life could be placed in danger.
‘This should be enough….’
The basic explanation ended quickly.
Afterward, we decided on a time and place to meet, then parted ways.
There were less than twenty-four hours remaining before the Labyrinth opened.
‘The team’s combat strength suddenly skyrocketed….’
I had been completely unable to find the person I originally intended to recruit.
So I had resigned myself to entering with Claire alone.
But now it felt as though the missing pieces of the puzzle had suddenly fallen perfectly into place.
It could not simply be my imagination that I sensed some kind of intention behind all of this.
‘Interesting….’
Of course, I had no intention of lowering my guard.
I needed at least some form of insurance.
I was also concerned about whether those two could actually get along, but that was within the range of what I had expected.
My thoughts continued well past midnight.
And finally, the next day arrived.
[The character enters the Labyrinth.]
My second expedition into the Labyrinth began.