It's been three days since I eliminated the fiend drug users. Besso and the explorer who were in possession of the fiend drug have been captured by the guild, but there is no surprise attack since that incident.

The next day, by the guildmaster's request, we went to Rudaman's hideout and the cultivation fields, but those places had already been vacated and only uninhabited field remained. I'm the one who have made it uninhabited so there's no mistake. The guild staff onee-san who was going with us only collected the Ruin Weed and Decay Stem as evidences, and then we went back to the labyrinth city.

“Then, the field you found had been emptied huh?”

“Yes, since foodstuff and daily necessities were also gone, they might have moved to another place.”

“We also searched for something like hidden rooms, but there was no one remaining just like chevalier-sama's said. They weren't moved by the lost thieves mastermind since there were unharvested ruin weed and decay stem that remained, maybe they might have ran away by themselves?”

The guild staff onee-san who had gone together with us in the investigation is reporting the result in the guildmaster room.

“We also tried searching the neighboring pa.s.sages with magic, but we couldn't find anyone.”

“That so, thank you for your hard works.”

“Should we dispatch explorers again to search for the abducted people?”

“Think of the place, the place. The only ones that can search in such a deep area like that are the Red Iron bunch. Even if they were running away on their own, they would have ended up eaten by monsters before they could reach the surface.”

It seems the guildmaster has decided to give up on rescuing, or rather searching for those people.

“They might have been unexpectedly saved by some explorers and returned to the surface.”

“That would be nice.”

“I also think that the possibility is low, but I wish that they have safely returned to the surface and gone back to their peaceful life.”

“I pray that there isn't anyone with compounding and alchemy skills.”

While vaguely sweeping off my words, the guildmaster said so.

“Is there something bad about it?”

“Yeah, it's bad. Someone who has the Alchemy skill must be involved in the creation of the fiend drug, even the one who has the Compounding skill should be able to prepare for the making of fiend drug. These guys will most certainly be forced into becoming slaves and made to be in non-disclosure condition to prevent them from divulging the method to make the fiend drug, after that they will probably be confined in the kingdom research facility their whole life.”

“Are the other people who are involved in the cultivation alright?”

“Yeah, putting aside the Ruin Weed, Decay Stems can be found in the labyrinth relatively easy so there should be no problem.”

Fumu, that means I can release people besides the ones with Compounding or Alchemy skills before long.

Then, the guild staff-san reservedly interjected.

“Umm….May I?”

“What? Say it?”

“People normally don't think of breaking through the labyrinth where monsters are crawling, away from their safety zone, I think such an idea comes up because guildmaster and chevalier-sama are strong. Even if there are some people who come up with the idea, the majority won't move unless there's a reason like having limited food. In actuality, they have crops from the cultivated field.”

“In other words, there must be secret hideouts nearby where they can move safely to huh?”

“Yes, there might be hidden pa.s.sages that couldn't be detected by the young lady retainer of Chevalier-sama.”

“Then I guess I'll torture Rudaman until he spits it out.”

Looks like the guildmaster is going to torture Rudaman after this, but since it doesn't seem like she'll kill him, let's not mind it.

I acquire the consent of the women sheltered in the mansion of ivy to stay there by saying that it's because “They will be killed by the mastermind behind the lost thieves if they get out right now”. Strangely enough, there were only a handful of people who persistently wanted to go back to the city, most didn't seem eager. I tell them to be patient for 10 days. I'll do something in the meantime.

At the present time, these women are unlikely to be eliminated by the mastermind.

According to the guildmaster's story, I can probably release the people who don't have compounding or alchemy skills. Since the fact that this is the mansion of ivy have been known to them I can't release those people right now. It should work out somehow if I bring them to populated places nearby the royal or the duchy capital, or maybe some villages in Muno barondom and then give them a new name and ID.

I should search some places that can accept them.

“Do you want to become an explorer~!?””

“””Yeah!”””

Amplified with Mia's magic, Arisa's voice is echoing through out the labyrinth city's outer wall. We're currently in a temporary tent right outside the labyrinth city.

100 baggage carriers who aspire to become explorers have gathered before Arisa. We're going to decide the pupils for Iruna and Jenna of Beautiful Wings from among them.

There are 70 boys and 30 girls. They're children who have gathered after hearing publicity talks from Iruna and Jenna during the past three days. Although I said children, the age range spans from 10 to 18 years old. The mean age range is at around 12-14 years old.

Iruna explains the selection test to the children with her voice alone without relying on magic.

“We will choose 15 children among you. First we will choose five children with fast legs. It's important to have fast legs in the labyrinth for scouting and luring monsters. Run once you hear this flute as a signal. The first five children who run around Selbira outer wall for a lap pa.s.s.”

The children began to run when Arisa blew the flute. Some got their feet entwined by other's foot, some were tumbled by their own feet. The one thing they have in common is that every one of them stands up on their own without crying even while covered in dust, and run. They're truly strong-willed.

I used [Clairvoyance] magic along the way to see if there were any fallen children, but there were only two who had fallen from anemia. I contacted Nana who was patrolling with a horse by using [Telephone], and had them withdrawn.

For some reaosn, Pochi and Tama had somehow started running too. They must have been tempted. Pochi was the winner by a wide margin. Tama was unusually worked up and challenged her again.

When the two had finished running, I looked back at the winning children who had been pa.s.sed quite far.

“d.a.m.n, to lose to a dogkin and a catkin children. It's a disgrace for a rabbitkin.”

“I can't believe I lost to someone beside Usasa.”

The first and second place winners looked at Pochi and Tama in frustration. They are 14 years old rabbitkin girl and boy. These children are separated quite far from the third place. The third place is a ratkin, while the fourth and fifth are human boys.

There are 10 children who have failed the first test. These 10 children are doing physical exercise lead by Lulu to build their stamina nearby the temporary HQ.

The second test will begin after a short break with sandwiches. During this break, we distributed water for re-hydration and baked sweets for calorie intake. It'd be troubling if they faint from hunger along the way.

“The next one is endurance run. The first five children who have ran five laps around the Selbira outer wall pa.s.s. Lunches are waiting for the children who have ran for more than two laps. Do your best.”

“””Yeah!””

For some reason, the answer this time have more power in them than the first time. I intended to let them eat unconditionally for the test this time since we had already prepared meals for 100 people from the beginning, but since it was so effective like they have a carrot dangling in front of their eyes, I couldn't intercede. However, besides the leading pack, many children who were unlikely to be chosen by the selection members stopped running after two laps.

The boys were strong for endurance marathon too, there were three boys and two girls. This time humans were strong, among the five children, three boys and girls who had dark-skin like Roji were particularly strong. They looked calm enough to run several more laps.

The remaining five children will be chosen after the meal break. By the way, the meal menu is croquet made from Leaping Potato and insect meat, and Walking Bean with insect meat soup.

The meal this time were prepared not only by Ms. Miteruna and the seven apprentice maids from our mansion, but also five baggage carrier girls who could cook. I'm planning to have Ms. Miteruna taught these five girls, and then permanently employ them as personnels for food distribution on the orphanage and the slum. They are plain and honest girls who are at 14-18 years old.

“Well then let's begin the last test. Use the twig we have distributed earlier like you would a sword. Yes, stretch out your elbow. Keep that posture, the one who doesn't lower their arm until the end pa.s.ses.”

Screams broke out from the children, but this is a selection to choose the last five children with will-power. It's out of question if they can't even endure the training before entering the labyrinth.

The majority of them fell in the first one hour, but it was quite long for the remaining seven, once the last one dropped out after three more hours, the five children had been decided.

The final selected members have 11 boys and 4 girls. The plan is to have Iruna and Jenna teach these children the basic for 10 days on the surface, afterward, five of them are going to be taken alternately in three turns into the labyrinth, each group spend five days, 15 days in total, to be leveled up to level 7.

Since the contract with Iruna and Jenna is for three months, the children who have failed in the test this time still have two more chances.

“Everyone, thank you for today! We will open the test again next month, so to the one who have failed this time, please don't give up!”

With Arisa's closing words, the disqualified children go back to the west gate in groups of twos and threes. Everyone is given three baked sweets as the consolation prize. These sweets seems to become the spreading bait for the children who didn't partic.i.p.ate this time.

Iruna and Jenna explain the plan hereafter to the children who have pa.s.sed. There were shouts of joy particularly when they heard that they were going to be provided with three meals and were free to ask for second.

The children are going to be drilled on the vacant land nearby which I've borrowed.

I was going to give the selected children the same ant armors that I had given to Iruna and Jenna, but Arisa strongly objected and warned me. You should not give them cheat equipments if you're going to let them become an independent explorer after the training is over, unless you're making them into your retainers.

Not only Arisa, Iruna and Jenna also stopped me. The reason is a bit different; if they have an armor that protect them from getting hurt from a monster's attack, they will neglect avoiding attacks. Moreover, if they don't get some slight wounds, they won't learn the way to stop bleeding during an actual fight, so I'm told that such armors will not let them learn the importance of them.

When I consulted to Iruna and Jenna about the right equipment for the children, they recommended the equipment called bone equipment. They seem to be goblin bones that are knitted on jacket and trousers made from knitted gra.s.ses. It seems the basic equipment advancement for labyrinth explorer is as follow : wood chips equipment to bone equipment to insect husk equipment and then to insect sh.e.l.l equipment.

As for the weapon, the plan is to have them use a club made from goblin thighbone, and then a short spear made from ant claw from the second area on. For the s.h.i.+eld, it seems they're planning to use leather s.h.i.+eld. Iruna and Jenna bought these equipments cheaply from the apprentices at the shopping district. I've revised some of the weakly-made points, so they shouldn't incur major injury from low level enemies.

By the way, the two currently use mantis-type equipments. They were very happy when I gave it as a present for the celebration of getting to level 15. Apparently, mantis-type equipments are proof of veteran in the labyrinth city. I probably shouldn't say that they only look different on the outside, as compared to the ant equipment from before, there's hardly any difference in the defensive power.

Now then, if I need permissions from the Marchioness and the guildmaster to hold regular food distribution in the city, let's get them to issue it.

Satou's here. Back then, quitting your job and becoming independent by opening a cafe was popular, but nowadays, it seems that retiring to the countryside and buying a plot of agriculture land to lead a slow life there has become popular.

I was invited to Baronet Dyukeli's mansion under the pretext of an apology for causing me trouble regarding lady Merian.

Looks like I'm not the only one who's been invited to the banquet, the shopkeepers of magic tool shops and medicine shops under his control in the labyrinth city have also come.

When I was in the reception room before the banquet began, lady Merian in a dress apologized for the trouble and thanked me for the rescue. She left the room while whispering me to keep the matter about her going to the swordsmans.h.i.+p dojo a secret from her father.

Her impish smile must have been just my imagination.

“You should get acquainted with them since you're going to be an explorer of the labyrinth city.”

He introduced me as his daughter's savior to the shopkeepers.

During the banquet, it naturally has become the talk about goods that are selling well and ones that are in serious shortage in the labyrinth city. Especially the healing medicines, it seems that even for the shops under baronet Dyukeli with their inflated prices as the viceroy's ally, the medicines are usually out of stock there.

“Moreover, if we want to create the healing medicine in this city, there is no choice but to stock the ingredients from the merchants in the neighboring cities who sell them at a high price, or pick them from the mountain with wolves after pus.h.i.+ng our way through the wasteland.”

“It sure is hard to compete against the guild that's selling the healing medicine without minding the profit.”

“That's cause those guys are selling at the price of the Royal Capital.”

“It really is, they can stock the medicines easier.”

I see, although it's obvious that there are difference between the buyer's and the seller's perspectives, there is such a circ.u.mstance behind it huh. Although I shouldn't swallow their story entirely just like that, it doesn't seem like they're just being too greedy.

“However, that means during the time when it's out of stock, explorers dive into the labyrinth without even having a way to heal themselves?”

“No, poor explorers will go with leaves of Beria they've plucked.”

“That still hasn't changed even now.”

It seems Beria is a cactus-like plant that's growing wild on the wasteland around the labyrinth city.

They were also growing along the highway's sides if I'm not mistaken.

Beria is a succulent plant with aloe-like thick needled leaves growing around its cactus body, and as a matter of fact they're edible, while the leaves can be used to cure bleeding or burn.

As for the center fruit, even though it's relatively tasty, it has an alias [Beggar Killer] since it seems that it causes diarrhea which goes on until you're dehydrated if you eat it too much. It can make children and the elderly who don't have much physical strength to die.

Looks like the baggage carriers who have failed to get a job pick those fruits and sell them in front of the city gate to earn enough income to sustain their livelihood. I ignored it since there were many peddlers who were selling things before the gate, but there were such things being sold there huh. I'll pay more attention to various things next time.

“Maybe it's possible to make a healing medicine from Beria leaf?”

“There's a legend about the sage-sama of olden days who can create a magic potion from Beria leaf, but it's a lost tale from a long time ago.”

“Nowadays, 『Healing medicines made from Beria leaf』 is a phrase only said by the frauds in labyrinth city, it's something that no one believes.”

By sage, does he mean Trazayuya?

I searched about Beria on his doc.u.ments, but there were no hit.

When I go to the elf hometown next time, I'll ask Tsutoreiys.h.i.+ the alchemist if he knows about the recipe to make the magic potion from Beria leaf.

Later, I was able to see various treasured items on his shops when I was going around them.

Among the items, it seems that the silver sword of ant wing is quite popular. It was more of a gray sword than silver, but it seems to be the easiest magic sword to make from monster materials in the labyrinth city. Since the way to create things from ant wing is written in Trazayuya doc.u.ment, I'll try to make one.

The magic scrolls which I looked forward the most had the same line-ups as the duchy capital since they were all provided by Viscount s.h.i.+men.

Interestingly enough, the ignition rod that most explorers use seem to be sold at high price in the neighboring earldom and small kingdoms. It's cheap in the labyrinth city since it's ma.s.s produced by amateur craftsmen from sc.r.a.p magic cores, but in other territories, the rod is made by full-fledged craftsmen from proper magic cores like other magic tools, so it's expensive there.

The Marchioness has requested me to redevelop an experimental farm outside the labyrinth city, although it has nothing to do with Beria fruit.

It seems to be a place near a small water source where the previous viceroy created an experiment to grow wheat, but was abandoned since the yield was bad.

It was right when I was looking for place to employ the slave girls I had saved as Kuro, so I agreed to it.

The explorer-turned-thieves who had built a hideout there were trampled by Pochi and Tama, turned into crime slaves and taken to the coal mine.

Since the land has become barren, I decide to grow Beria fruits for healing medicines, beans for food, and tomatoes. Especially the tomatoes, I expect to ma.s.s produce them.

About the healing medicine recipe made from Beria leaf, when I went to meet Tsutoreiys.h.i.+ to consult it, he quickly wrote the recipe and handed it to me. It seemed that it was a well-known recipe in the elf hometown, so Trazayuya didn't leave it on his doc.u.ments since it was too common.

I came back to labyrinth city, immediately made it, and confirmed its effect on the pupils of the training school.

Since the effect isn't especially strong, I guess I'll make it public.

I wrote the recipe on some papers, put them on treasure chests, and then hid them on various places inside the labyrinth. It's a little surprise for beginner explorers.

I've divided the recipe into several pieces of paper with numbering, and put them in treasure chests.

They should understand that the recipe is real since I've put a sample of Beria healing medicine together with it.

Just in case, I've prepared six sets of the recipe instead of just one.

The first piece of the recipe was found five days later, the labyrinth city was enveloped in a slight festive mood.

In a little while, low level cheap healing medicines should spread.

While thinking that, I watch over the children who are happily harvesting Berias that are growing wildly around the labyrinth city.