Free Web NovelChapter 12: Greatmaster Likes to Grin
"Great Master, are you alright?"
Rian came back to his senses at the sound of Thalia’s puzzled voice.
She must have been studying his expression, and mistaken it for some kind of pain.
"....yeah, I am alright."
Rian tightened his left fist, forcing down the searing heat the Holy Mark was giving off.
It was a good thing he’d worn the leather gloves that reached all the way to his elbows. With those on, no one could catch even a glimpse of the Mark glowing brightly into his hand.
That being said...
’Why is it reacting like this, all of a sudden?’
He clearly hadn’t used any 「 Necromancy Art 」 today, which meant it didn’t get triggered by him, and something else had set it off.
’...Could someone else’s Necromancy have triggered it?’
That was possible, in theory.
But Rian would be the first to notice if anyone nearby were channeling an Necromancy Art, and Thalia was right here beside him too, she’d have sensed it as well.
No, this was something else entirely.
The Holy Mark had flared this reaction the very instant he’d teleported into Pandora’s Rainforest.
Which means Pandora’s Forest itself had something which had caused it.
And just as Rian was turning it over in his mind, the heat vanished from his left arm.
’...Huh. That’s strange.’
It was as if nothing had ever happened at all.
But Rian couldn’t simply pretend that was the case. After surviving a hellish war, he’d grown painfully cautious of even the smallest things.
And right now, his gut was telling him this was no coincidence.
"Thalia, raise some birds and small animals as undead, and scatter them across the area. Make sure they’re small enough to go unnoticed."
"As you command, Great Master."
Thalia didn’t question him. She simply did as she was told.
Rian would deal with this after he’d finished what he came here for.
That was his top priority.
Once Thalia was finished, Rian made sure to fix the location firmly in his memory.
They’d have to return to this exact spot after he retrieved the Blade of Zelda.
Then, together with Thalia, Rian set off in the direction of the Labyrinth.
Back in his past life, it had been Jeanne who first told him about the place, after she’d returned to the frontline military camp with the 「Archon Blade of Zelda」 in hand.
Well, told him was putting it generously. She’d spent the better part of a day flaunting the thing in his face.
She knew full well how hard Rian had worked, how many places he’d torn the world apart searching for, and she relished every second of watching his eye twitch at the sight of it.
It had been far too much fun for her.
Once she’d finally worn herself out gloating, Rian’s own curiosity had gotten the better of him, and the next day, he’d gone to see the Labyrinth for himself, alongside her.
Sadly, by the time he arrived, the whole of the Labyrinth’s Entrance had already been reduced to rubble, wrecked in the crossfire of Jeanne and her battalion’s battle with the demons there.
After that incident, Rian had added one more grievance to the ever-growing list of reasons he couldn’t stand her.
’She knew the whole place was rubble, and she still made me walk two hours through a swamp to look at a pile of rocks.’
It was truly, needlessly cruel.
So this time, out of nothing but spite, he’d take the Blade, the Labyrinth, and every last thing it holds.
’Consider it my revenge Jeanne.’
He grinned brightly, forgetting entirely that Thalia who was standing right beside him, was watching every last shift of his expression.
She said nothing, but privately, she wondered, ’Great Master must be pleased with how well I did my task.’
They’d been walking for thirty-five minutes now.
The sun overhead had long since been swallowed by the vast canopy of tree shade, The entire forest had turned cold. And the deeper they pressed inward, the more creatures they began to encounter.
The first was a wild boar.
Before Rian could so much as do, Thalia had already killed it and set about carving off cuts of its meat.
’For lunch preparations, Great Master,’ is what she said to him.
Rian had no idea when exactly she thought she’d find the time to cook it, but he let it go.
The next was a wild bear.
And once again, before Rian could lift a single finger, Thalia had already dealt with it.
"Haah. There, all done, Great Master."
She stood atop the poor creature’s skull, with her one foot planted firmly on its face, stomping it down with the enthusiasm of a woman thoroughly enjoying her work.
Rian watched her begin to butcher bear one too.
"...Thalia, there’s no need for the bear meat."
Bear meat tasted awful. He had no intention of ever eating it again unless he was starving out of his mind.
At his words, Thalia’s shoulders slumped.
She stepped down off the bear’s ruined face and muttered.
"...My apologies, Great Master. I’ll be a good maid."
Rian just sighed to her reply.
He’d forgotten that this was simply how Thalia was, always throwing herself into some ridiculous stunt or another in the name of pleasing her Great Master.
Whether it was the 「 Reincarnation Spell 」 that had brought her back like this, or whether she’d simply always been this way, he honestly couldn’t say.
But, seeing her back to her old self again...
...he supposed it wasn’t so bad.
He’d brought her along for a reason after all. Until they reached the Labyrinth, he needed to conserve every drop of his own mana.
When it came to sensing which threats to spare and which to cut down, Thalia’s instincts were even sharper than his own.
So Rian decided he’d simply leave the rest to her.
Finally, after encountering a dozen other wild beasts along the way, Rian had reached the place at last.
An open clearing lay before them.
At its center sat on the ground was a wide circle, its edges traced by twisting roots and ridges of tree bark that coiled inward toward the middle like the spokes of some wheel.
To any eyes looking at it, it was nothing but roots and bark tangled by what seems like nothing ordinary, it was the sort of thing an adventurer would glance at, and shrug off as one of the forest’s odd little quirks, and walk right past.
But it hadn’t grown this way by chance, because every line made from veins and barks had been shaped deliberately a long, long time ago.
An altar.
And it was the gateway to the Labyrinth of Zelda.
Before Rian could walk towards it, Thalia interrupted.
"Great master."
"Hm?"
Rian turned to see that an undead bird had sat on her head.
He understood that it had found something and returned back to her with the info.
"Is something the matter?"
Thalia only smiled at him.
"Nothing worth troubling yourself over, Great Master. Please go on ahead, I’ll handle it myself."
Rian studied her for a moment.
Back in his past life, Thalia had proven time and again that her judgment was sharper than anyone’s in his entire battalion.
If she said it was nothing worth his concern, then it was nothing worth his concern.
"...Alright, but keep everything quiet."
They were near the border between the two Empires.
If either side caught wind of them, the two of them would be finished before they ever reached their home back.
"As you wish, I’ll return shortly."
And with that, Thalia sank soundlessly into her own shadow and vanished.
Rian crouched down to study the altar more closely.
The veins and bark hadn’t merely been shaped into a circle, they carved out an intricate magical formula with lines and symbols layered atop one another.
’...It looks a little like a teleportation gate,’ he mused.
But it wasn’t.
This was something far more complex when compared to the usual Teleportation magic formula which was used in the Teleportation Gate.
For one thing, as far as Rian could tell from studying it, this formula didn’t require the user to channel their own mana to activate it at all.
’...If that’s the case, then how is it meant to be used?’
The question shifted in his mind almost at once.
’How did Jeanne activate it, then?’
Clearly, she hadn’t possessed any deeper understanding of magical formulae and altars than Rian did, if anything, far less.
So either she’d stumbled into activating it by pure chance...
"...Or."
Rian grinned and stepped toward the center of the circle.
The moment he came to a stop upon it, he felt something warm washing over his flesh, creeping across his skin like unseen hands.
As though the altar itself were touching him all over.
"Ugh.. this feels weird."
And once it was finished...that warmth gathered upon his left arm.
Right where the Holy Mark lay hidden beneath his glove.
Vrrrmmm—
The altar came alive, blazing with brilliant green light.
He watched as his body shimmered and dissolved into fine dust.
For a single second, a radiant green light pulsed across his vision, and in the next, as he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at something he had never dreamed of seeing.
’...I can’t believe someone actually built a Labyrinth all the way out here.’
Well, that someone was Zelda, so this much madness was expected.
He muttered it inwardly, genuinely awed by the sight before him.
Never once had he imagined he thought it would be here.
"...Such a marvel," he muttered out loud.
