Lova Labyrinth, entrance to the first floor.

Most of the adventurers who had escaped were still standing there. Not one had actually left.

"I wonder what happened to that person..."

"Sure, he was strong — but the human being controlled was no ordinary foe either. Just that Battle Aura alone, I couldn't even bring myself to look straight at it."

"Didn't Miss Elf say earlier? The one being controlled — apparently that's Oberon Holstein. The strongest warrior in history."

"Seriously?" A few adventurers who hadn't seen the whole thing called out in disbelief.

"Even the Dragon-Slaying Hero Griffin was completely outmatched in front of that person. That one might genuinely be the legendary strongest."

At the mention of Griffin, the crowd was reminded of what they'd seen on the light screen moments ago. Every jaw tightened.

"Bah! Dragon-Slaying Hero, my ass. Nothing but a traitor who wanted to sell humanity out to the demons!"

"Once we get out, we'll have every bard spreading the word about his disgrace from here to every town in the land. Those nobles and their pet heroes, absolute scum, all of them!"

"Right — that person who saved us. Who was that, anyway?"

At those words, many adventurers turned in unison toward the corner where the elf had been standing the entire time, silent and apart from the rest.

The man had arrived with the elf, after all. The elf had to know something.

"Miss Elf, could you tell us the name of the one who saved our lives?"

"Yes! That lord was also the one who exposed the whole conspiracy between the nobles and Griffin!"

"..."

The elf said nothing.

Those emerald eyes were fixed on the labyrinth entrance, and the mood coming off the elf was thoroughly foul.

"You'll find out once he walks out."

The voice carried a chill that left no room for further questions. The adventurers who had been pressing for answers quietly backed off.

No one was sure how much time had passed before the labyrinth, which had been still, began to shake again.

"The labyrinth... is collapsing?"

While everyone stood frozen in shock, the elf was already moving, striding straight toward the entrance.

The elf had read about something like this in ancient texts.

Many labyrinths from the mythological era were built with a rule: once the master of the labyrinth died, the entire structure would collapse with it.

What was unfolding right now was exactly the spectacle those records had described.

Which meant the adventurer had won.

But if he couldn't escape before it came down completely, he would be buried alive inside these mythological ruins.

The elf's expression turned grave.

A decision had to be made.

No matter how strong the young man was, the opponent had been the most powerful warrior since the mythological era. Even having won, his current state couldn't possibly be good. And the monster pulling the strings from the shadows would never have simply stood by and watched.

The real situation was very likely this: he had faced two mythological-era monsters alone, and clawed out a victory only after a grueling battle.

"What an idiot I am!" The elf bit down on the lower lip, nearly drawing blood.

Staying behind was what should have happened.

Even if there was nothing to be done, at least one surprise attack from the monster could have been absorbed in his place, instead of standing out here, useless, doing absolutely nothing.

The elf had no way of knowing whether the young man still had the strength to climb back up.

The worst possible outcome was not something the elf could bring itself to think about.

In an instant, every magic tool on the elf's body flared to life, and a layer of flowing light spread across the elf's frame.

Going down. There was no other choice.

That person had saved the elf's life. Watching him be swallowed by this place was not something the elf could stand by and do.

Under the bewildered stares of the crowd, the elf charged into the crumbling labyrinth without a backward glance.

The deeper the descent, the more violent the shaking became. The whole structure felt like it could give way at any second.

Finally, at the door to the sixth-floor boss chamber, the elf found him.

His condition was bad. His face was pale enough to be frightening, one hand pressed hard against the wall to hold himself upright. Without that stone surface to lean on, he probably couldn't have stayed on his feet at all.

The brutal fight had clearly pushed him to his absolute limit. He didn't have enough left to get himself out.

"Why did you come down?" Amid the tremors, Banxia looked toward that gold hair, faintly puzzled.

He had planned to wait until his body recovered a little. Even if he got buried, it didn't really matter, he could crawl his way out eventually.

"Fool." The elf said it quietly, then moved to his side and reached out to pull him along.

Banxia: "..."

What was this elf's deal, leading with an insult the second they met?

"I'll take you up."

"Fine. Seeing as your heart's in the right place, I'll let it go." Banxia exhaled, forcing himself to ignore the roiling chaos in his stomach, and picked up the compass from the ground. "No need to carry me. I can walk."

"Still playing tough at a time like this..." the elf muttered, but looked up at the young man's face all the same.

A few more minutes and the labyrinth would be gone entirely.

When that happened, they would both be buried alive.

There wasn't much time left.

"...It would help a lot if you could hold this for me." The floodgate feeling in his gut was getting worse by the second. Banxia shoved the compass toward the elf.

"Huh? A Teleportation Compass?! Where did you get this?" The elf's emerald eyes went wide. "This thing disappeared ages ago!"

"Picked it up inside." Banxia's face was ashen. He jerked his chin toward the boss chamber behind him.

"Perfect." The elf took the compass, gripping it like a lifeline. "I studied how to operate ancient magic tools like this one. We're saved."

"You know how to use it. Good." Banxia squeezed the words out through his teeth.

He had made his peace with whatever came next. The churning in his gut had robbed him of any desire to think or move.

"Going by the mana reserves inside, there should be enough left for three people's worth of teleportation," the elf said, visibly relieved. "We just don't know where it'll send us."

The elf activated the compass.

A deep blue light bloomed from the surface and slowly spread, wrapping around both of them.

Ancient magic tools of this kind had been lost to history long ago. Their research value was beyond calculation. The simple fact that this one still had three uses remaining made it a priceless treasure.

Under normal circumstances, given the elf's obsession with ancient magic tools, using it would have been unthinkable.

But there was no room for that now. Both of them getting out alive mattered more than anything else.

"Adventurer, take my hand. The teleportation is starting."

"Okay." Banxia reached out. His fingertips met the elf's warm palm.

The next instant, the light snapped inward and swallowed them both whole.

Behind them, the entire Lova Labyrinth let out one final groan, and slowly sank into the earth.

...

The Southern Continent. Alterna.

In the run-down courtyard of a noble's residence, fresh buds had already broken out along the branches. In a few more days, someone would have to be hired to pull the weeds.

A petite girl with blue hair sat beneath the tree, completely absorbed in a thick grimoire resting in her arms.

"I didn't know magic could be used like this..." Roxy murmured in quiet delight as she condensed the water droplets gathered in her palm into ice spikes.

This technique let flowing water freeze into icicles at the instant of impact, dramatically increasing the damage dealt.

"I've grown stronger again, Mr. Banxia." She said it softly, almost to herself, a small smile pulling at the corners of her mouth without her noticing. "At this rate, it won't be long before I'm strong enough to head north and find you."

The young man's face drifted through her mind, his features, and the way he spoke, always carrying that easy, perfectly measured warmth. Heat crept into the girl's cheeks.

"Really now... Roxy, you need to stop being so improper."

She scolded herself under her breath. But her feet moved on their own, drawn forward, until she was quietly pushing open that familiar door.

The room was exactly as it had always been.

His warmth had long since faded from the bed. Yet the faintest trace of his scent still clung to the air, like the last embers of a fire long gone.

In the open wardrobe, the few worn garments he'd treasured most still hung in place.

The girl stood in the doorway and hesitated for a long moment. Then, slowly, she walked to the edge of the bed and sat down.

"J-Just one last time... I mean it..."

➤ Next: Roxy's Spellcasting Interrupted

Chapter 90 - Roxy's Spellcasting Interrupted

"Mr. Banxia... Banxia... Ban..."

"Why are you calling me?"

Roxy decided she must have been missing Mr. Banxia so badly that she was hallucinating in broad daylight.

She took a deep breath, slowly pulled up her white panties, quietly smoothed the skirt back down over her purity, and did her best to will the flush off her face.

"Ah, haha... Looks like studying magic lately has been too draining. I should go sleep a little longer..."

"Don't run from reality." Supported by the elf, Banxia punctured her illusion without mercy.

"Huh... Could it really be Mr. Banxia...?" Roxy's voice trembled badly, her whole face flooding red again at a speed visible to the naked eye.

She froze in place, hands still caught in the motion of smoothing her skirt, her entire body as if turned to stone.

"Um... W-When did you get back? No — why would you suddenly appear inside the room..."

"It's a long story..." The view just now had been wonderful, but Banxia's stomach was churning too violently for him to appreciate it.

He quietly filed the scene away in his memory. He'd pull it up later with the Magic to Show Fond Memories and take his time savoring it.

"...You two know each other?" Only then did the elf shake loose from the stiff silence.

Anyone suddenly teleported in front of a stranger, and catching that particular scene, would understandably be too embarrassed to make a sound.

"Her name is Roxy. She's a friend of mine. This is more or less my home."

Banxia explained, voice flat with exhaustion. "Seems the Teleportation Compass drops users near someone connected to them."

"Probably... yes." The elf wasn't sure what expression to make.

This was the young man's home. That blue-haired girl was his friend.

But would a friend do that in someone else's home? And the name she'd spoken, Banxia, was that the young man's real name?

Just friends. Were they really just friends?

The elf couldn't help glancing at Roxy.

"..."

The instant their eyes met, Roxy snapped her gaze away.

A racing pulse and the urge to simply cease existing took turns tormenting her.

She had wanted to see Banxia, of course she had, but not like this. Not in a way she'd be unable to forget for the rest of her life.

What would Banxia think of her now?

She desperately wanted to steal a look at his expression, but couldn't find the courage. She ended up staring hard at her own bare toes instead, wishing she could dissolve into a puddle and drain away through the floorboards.

...

"So after heading north, Mr. Banxia defeated the legendary Xiaoyan, cleared a labyrinth from the mythological era, beat the strongest warrior in history, and finally made it back here using the Teleportation Compass..."

Sitting in the guest room of Banxia's home, Roxy quietly listened as the young man finished recounting everything he'd been through.

She hadn't expected it. Not a month north, and he had somehow done all of that, feat after outrageous feat stacked on top of each other.

She'd thought she was finally reaching a point where she could be useful. Listening now, she felt herself drift.

The enemies she couldn't even bring herself to imagine, Banxia described them like nuisances he'd brushed aside on the road.

All the effort she'd put in during his absence hadn't closed the distance between them by even a step.

The girl quietly tightened her grip on her skirt and said nothing for a long time.

"Yeah, that's about it." Banxia sat in the chair looking pale, taking a small sip of warm tea.

The heat slid down his throat and eased some of the churn that had been sitting in his stomach for hours.

The elf sat quietly nearby and said nothing throughout.

All three of them tacitly left the earlier incident unmentioned.

Adults had it hard enough as it was. Everyone was allowed a few small secrets. And some things only weigh a couple of ounces until you put them on a scale, no use overthinking it.

"After all that — do you plan to keep heading north?" Roxy asked quietly.

"Not yet. I need to rest for a while." Banxia waved it off.

He still didn't know how long the nature spirits would hold their aversion toward him after he'd used Rejuvenation. Until that passed, he had to take it easy.

"..."

Roxy's head came up sharply.

It was the first time she had ever heard those words from him. Need to rest.

She looked at his face, really looked, and her voice went tight without her meaning it to. "Banxia, you're so pale..."

"It's nothing. I'll be fine once I catch my breath."

Roxy pressed her lips together.

She thought back over everything he'd glossed over so casually. She knew perfectly well that it wasn't nothing.

Xiaoyan. The strongest warrior in history. A labyrinth left over from the age of myths.

Not one of those was something ordinary people could even dare to imagine. Even someone as strong as Mr. Banxia must have pushed himself to his absolute limit to make it through.

She looked at him, this rare, unguarded weakness, and felt something lodge in her chest, heavy and aching.

She wanted to help. She just didn't know how.

The girl dropped her gaze to her own pressed-together knees and, in the end, said nothing at all.

"What a waste, though!" Banxia shook his head with a look of genuine regret. "Cleared the Lova Labyrinth and didn't even get to loot the place."

That landed squarely on the elf, who let out an involuntary sigh.

"There should have been a hidden chamber on the sixth floor — full of ancient magical artifacts the Eater of Life had been collecting for over ten thousand years. All of it buried a thousand meters underground now. Never seeing daylight again."

"Oh, Banxia." Roxy looked toward the blonde girl for the first time, voice a little careful. "This is...?"

Pointed ears. Golden hair and vivid green eyes. An elegance that announced nobility the moment you saw it.

What Roxy was asking about wasn't race. It was the relationship.

"Oh, she's an elf."

Roxy: "..."

I can see that. I'm not blind.

"Hello. Elf is fine." The blonde elf had long since made peace with that introduction.

Besides, giving out your real name to strangers was never wise.

"Miss Elf... hello..." Roxy reached out and slowly took the offered hand. "Roxy is fine for me."

"Mm." The elf gave a small nod. A brief exchange, and they released. "Adventurer, would you like a priest to look at you?"

"No need. Rest will sort it out." Banxia doubted any priest could undo the nature spirits' animosity toward him. Certainly not one in a border town like this.

He turned to Roxy. "Could you clear out a room? It's Miss Elf's first time in the south, she probably doesn't have anywhere to stay."

The old house had only three rooms fit to use, cleared out last winter: one for Banxia, one for Roxy, and one packed floor-to-ceiling with books.

Both girls went slightly still.

"C-Cohabitation?" The elf's cheeks went pink. Fingers twisted at the hem of a sleeve. Eyes drifted sideways. "D-Don't get the wrong idea! It's not like I want to live with you or anything... It's just, it's my first time in the south, and..."

Roxy let out a quiet breath of relief.

So Miss Elf's relationship with Banxia wasn't what she'd been imagining.

She gathered up the books nearby and headed for the door. "I'll go tidy it up now. Just a moment."

➤ Next: Banxia Felt Nervous for the First Time in a Long While