SURPRISE LABYRINTH UPDATE LMAO

TL: I changed "Varte" to "Wald"

ED: No idea how the above works. Anyway, why did I post Labyrinth instead of Arcadia? Uhh… At first I thought part 4 was missing (I keep my work queue in a folder), so I did Labyrinth instead cuz I didn't want to skip parts, but then after I finished editing the chapter, I realized that the part 5 in my folder is actually part 4, just with a wrong label———————–ANYWAY that adds to the stack of things I need to catch up with then! HAHAHAH (I am so sorry)

E n j o y !

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Sigh, even though this… girl knows that it's her fault I've had nothing but trouble today, but all she's doing is giving the impression of a little child wanting to play.

"You're so childish, you know that?"

"Ehh? Can't you understand that I'm being serious here? I'll help you go back to you world, and in exchange, I want you to help me as well, simply by accompanying me.

So, pretty please~?"

Again with the 'pretty please'…

Although I'm still angry at her, I am considering it seriously. I know that if I accepted her terms, a lot of problems would come. However, if I think about it, regardless of her character, being able to make use of her skills alone makes it an appealing deal. After all, she has extraordinary talent.

Moreover, if I let Lastiara slip away, in the long run, I'll be running into more problems. If left unattended, she might accidentally (or intentionally) leak information regarding me or my companions. In that sense, it's better to always keep her at my side.

After considering the merits, I finally decide.

"—Alright, I'll welcome you to my party."

She releases an exaggerated gasp.

"!! Really?! Hurray!! Thanks a lot, Kanami!"

Lastiara cheerfully grabs my hand and starts waving it up and down.

She's happy now, but I need to rain in on her parade for a bit.

"But, I'll kick you out if you do anything suspicious!"

Immediately, I warned her. At least with this, she'll be more cautious with her actions in the future. But even if I said that, how will she respond—

"Okie dokie! I won't do anything suspicion, alright? I just want to play with you inside the Labyrinth!"

Play, you say…

"And one more thing, please explain your situation properly to the knights. Especially Radiant."

"He?! But I want it like this~ If they realize that we're lovers, the number of pursuers should become less! They understand the sanct.i.ty of love!"

… Sanct.i.ty of love?

… Well… she's right with one thing. Knights should understand that. But the issue here is different!

"Wait, what if they continue chasing us?"

"Well, yeah, that's for sure. But with that, you'd get people to train with, free of charge, right? A bargain!"

They'll keep chasing us, huh. Well, as she said, if they do continue chasing us, it will just become opportunities for me to test my strength. Maybe she set this so I could keep myself on the tips of my toes, and to have a different situation each time, to make me flexible. Training with knights will allow me to pick up a lot of things from them due to their different styles and techniques. Plus, by using oaths, I could a.s.sure myself that the fights won't escalate needlessly.

I only won because I took Radiant by surprise, taking advantage of the fact that she knew little about me. However, next time will be a different story.

If things get out of hand next time, I need to give it everything I have.

"Sigh, very well."

"You agree? Alright! No taking it back later, okay?"

Again, Lastiara takes my hand and waves it exaggeratedly.

[Lastiara Whoseyards has joined the party]

A screen appears informing me of her members.h.i.+p in my party.

It seems that only after mutual agreement to each other's conditions would the system recognize the members.h.i.+p. Now, my party has a total of 4 people. Within just two days, I've managed to increase my party by 2 members. I hope this isn't a bad omen or anything.

"Well then, lets' go to your base, Kanami! I can't wait for tomorrow!"

"What?! You mean you're going to my house?"

"Of course!"

A natural smile is plastered all over Lastiara's face.

Her gestures really show how childlike she is. Handling her would be much more of a pain than with Dia and Maria. Even if she's the same age as me, she's so immature—

"Wait, wait! Let me think!"

I need to take the reins in this situation. Lastiara wants to stay at my house? I can understand if she doesn't have any money to stay at an inn, but that can't be it, right? Does she think that joining my party automatically ent.i.tle her to staying at the same house as me? Right now, we're comrades, but—

"Hey? Kanami, are you okay?"

"No, maybe I just ate something bad. Anyway, I can't let you stay at my house. I don't know how society works here in this world, but things like staying in the same small house as a girl close to my age isn't something acceptable back in my world. You have money, right? Can you settle at an inn?"

"Ah, me too. I don't know much about this world either, really. But don't comrades live together? I think it's okay like that. I have no financial problems, but don't you think it's better if we save money? After all, expenditures are essentially shared."

Lastiara doesn't know much about this world too? Well, it's consistent with what she said earlier about not being able to go out often due to her status. Perhaps everything she knows so far were just things she read from a book? If her dream to become an adventurer came from reading stories about it, then perhaps its fine.

And besides, I agree that it's always better to save money. I'd be a hypocrite if I say otherwise.

I don't think I need to worry about her coming to kill me in my sleep. If she wanted to, she wouldn't have needed to bother with all this and just killed me earlier.

… The problem is I'm embarra.s.sed at the idea of living under the same house as a beautiful girl like Lastiara, okay? Other men would be happy, but with my situation, I can't be.

"… Are you mad?"

Lastiara looked at me with upturned, teary eyes.

Ugh…

"Okay, fine! I get it! You can come along to my house! I have a few rooms to spare."

"Eh? A few? It's not an inn?"

"Yeah, I just moved to a house I bought yesterday."

"Yay, lucky! But, if we're going to follow those stories, then it would be more exciting if you were still staying at an inn. Like the inn Kanami lived in before."

(ED: I have this feeling that Lastiara reads isekai novels too LOL)

"Before? Ah, my first day, right? That inn was very expensive."

"Ohoho~ That means, after staying at an expensive inn and realizing you should save up money, you moved to a cheaper inn, huh? Haha, you're admirable, Kanami!"

… I'm admirable or is she admiring my poverty? If someone poor was to hear her words, they'd undoubtedly flare up in anger. Lastiara doesn't have the mindset to understand these things.

Because we've settled the situation, we both headed towards my house.

"One more thing, can you stop calling me 'Kanami'? In this world, my name is Siegfried Visitor. You can call me Sieg." [1]

"Okay, Sieg. So, tell me, what does this name mean?"

"Well, I borrowed the name of a legendary hero from my world. And, well, 'Visitor' simply means someone who visits. So, if someone in this world knows its meaning, then he's likely an otherworlder like me." [2]

"Ah, I see. But, a hero's name? That's interesting. Coincidentally, it's the same as me! Ehehe~"

"Hmm, your surname is 'Whoseyards' right? It's the same as a certain country. Are you related to the royal family?"

In the northern region of the country of Wald, there's a country called Whoseyards. She has the same surname as the name of that country, so either it's just a very wild coincidence, or she's related to it somehow.

"Yeah, it's as you said. No ordinary people can use a country's name as their surname within the Allied Nations. That name was given to those in power for hundreds of years, ending up with an aristocrat who claimed to be the king. This Allied Nations is ruled by many kings, though, in the past the nations in question were but small countries which were engaged in turmoil.

Among the many stories of heroes out there, Bellwether Whoseyards the Great's was particularly funny. After he conquered this one country, he didn't kill its ruler. Instead, he praised the conquered king. Due to this he suffered from a lot of ridicule, but he didn't give up. For the sake of the people's joy and peace, he stood by his word and continued his fight—"

Lastiara looks happy, telling me the story of one of her favorite heroes.

We approach my house after a while of walking. I listened attentively to Lastiara, deciding that it would be better to learn a bit about the various legends and histories of this world than to just ignore her and think about nothing in particular.  Well at the same time, I also thought of what to do when we get home.

Because Maria is waiting in my house.

Maria may think that the part only consists of her and me, but in fact there were 3 before Lastiara joined. The situation is complicated, but I should take the time to explain things to her.

Wait—do I really need to explain? They just have to introduce themselves to each other, right? It's no problem. Probably. Well, everything should be fine.

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ーSpoiler Alertー

TL: This gonna be a “Root” for a problem which dragged me to read all over until vol 7 in a week.

ED: I'll be adding footnotes for long stuff below.

2 Arcadia chapters will be released on Sat.u.r.day. Hopefully. To make up for this mixup.

Footnotes

[1] I was actually curious about this for a while; his name is ジークフリート・ヴィジター, and as you can see, the direct interpretation for it is Siegfriend Visitor (it's Jīkufurīto vu~ijitā or something). So, unless someone can come up with a better name (though I honestly just think the author has trouble with names), take it as it is.

[2] As you can guess, both Siegfried and Visitor are easy things to recognize (if you're from this world. OR ARE YOU AN OTHERWORLDER?). Siegfried's too popular not to miss and Visitor is in English, a common word and a common language in this world.