When Roxanne and Sherry walked out of the Adventurer Guild, I had to fight the sudden, desperate urge to cling to them and beg them not to leave.
No, I knew what was happening.
My MP was low, and it was making me spiral into negativity.
I had warped from Vale to Zabil, and then spent the rest of the time jumping back and forth between Zabil and Pelmask. I must have burned through a massive amount of MP.
As soon as they were gone, I swallowed another Tonic Pill to replenish my reserves.
As I was now, I felt like some pathetic, deadbeat husband whose wives had finally walked out on him.
I watched them go until they had passed their Intelligence Card checks and paid their taxes. Being slaves didn't seem to cause any issues for them. After all, the official here had mentioned that anyone was free to walk the streets.
There was no reason for them not to return.
None at all.
Right?
Is there?
What if they hated being with a guy like me so much they decided to seek asylum in Pelmask? The idea felt terrifyingly plausible.
There was no law saying Roxanne and Sherry had to stay with me forever. Roxanne herself had mentioned there was a trick to changing one's master.
Besides, it was highly doubtful whether I—someone who knew next to nothing about this world—was even behaving properly as a master.
If you release a tiger into the wild, it's only natural for it to run away.
They were undoubtedly fed up with such a pathetic master.
This was no good.
My thoughts were circling the drain. I swallowed another Tonic Pill. It was a waste of money, and I'd have to restock them soon, but it was necessary.
Eventually, my mind cleared.
Thinking logically, there was no way they wouldn't come back. I trusted both Roxanne and Sherry at least that much. Everything was fine.
I let out a long breath and stared out at Pelmask until my heart rate settled.
From the vantage point of the Adventurer Guild, the city felt exotic. It was an artificial town defined by rows of white buildings. They were low-slung structures, built with a sense of orderly spacing. The uniform whiteness was likely due to the Shielding Cement used in their construction.
It didn't look like anything in Japan, nor did it resemble the Imperial Capital or Quratar. It felt like a Greek city floating in the Aegean Sea, or perhaps an oasis town carved out of the desert.
That was the striking thing—there was no greenery. No trees, no forests.
It wasn't that the area was a natural desert, though. In the empty lots between buildings, weeds grew in thick clusters.
Something felt off about it, but then the realization hit me.
They had cut down every single tree. Large trees were anchors for Field Walk. Since they were obsessed enough to coat every building in Shielding Cement, trees must have been seen as a security risk.
I didn't know the full story, but they were certainly thorough.
With my Warp, I could move even into buildings protected by Shielding Cement. Entering the city wouldn't be impossible for me.
But there was no need to push my luck.
If I were caught, it would be a disaster. Even if I used the cover of night to avoid being seen, waiting until morning to leave would be a hassle. If I couldn't find a safe Warp point for the return trip, I'd be stuck waiting until the following night.
This wasn't the low-MP paranoia talking. I was thinking clearly now.
Once I was certain I could remain rational, I warped back to the Vale Labyrinth. I needed to test the limits of my travel.
Predictably, my MP took a massive hit.
Saying it felt like it had bottomed out wasn't an exaggeration.
Traveling west consumed just as much energy. The distance from Pelmask to Vale must have been staggering.
I definitely couldn't make the round trip in a single burst.
I didn't even want to attempt a one-way trip again if I could help it.
It wasn't a matter of being negative; the reality was simply that grim.
Probably.
The utility of my Warp was only so great, in the end. It was useless. I was useless. A completely worthless human being.
No. Stop. I was spiraling again.
I spent some time in the Vale Labyrinth using Durandal to leech MP back from the monsters.
It was fine. As long as I could recover, I could keep moving.
However, if a solo jump was this taxing, warping with Roxanne and Sherry would be a catastrophe. I'd definitely need to establish relay points along the way.
Once my MP was full, I warped back to the Zabil Adventurer Guild.
"Is there a Labyrinth nearby?" I asked the same adventurer I'd spoken to earlier.
"What sort are you looking for?"
"I'm not picky. Just somewhere close."
"If proximity is all you care about, the nearest one is just outside the East Gate. Head straight from here and you'll find it shortly after the wall. It’s unmanaged, so there’s no Explorer on duty, but enough people use it that there’s a clear path. Follow the trail until it forks, then take the left. It’s close enough to walk; you don't need to waste two silver coins on a Field Walk."
So it was right there. It sounded similar to the Vale Labyrinth, sitting just outside the city walls.
The fact that he mentioned not needing a Field Walk suggested that for two silver coins, someone would warp you there. If I were in his shoes, I'd probably take the money and warp the person even for a short walk, but it seemed he wasn't that ruthless.
He was a decent guy.
I thanked him and stepped out of the guild.
Zabil was a town with a tranquil atmosphere. It was lush with greenery that complemented the red-brick architecture perfectly. It was the total opposite of the stark, white, treeless impression of Pelmask. The contrast made it feel even more peaceful.
In terms of size, it seemed comparable to Vale.
Large cities like the Imperial Capital were clearly the exception to the rule. As for Quratar, it lacked walls entirely, so it was hard to tell where the city actually ended.
The walls of Zabil were impressive, built of high-stacked red bricks. They looked to be at least three meters tall, towering over the landscape.
Conversely, the gate was tiny. It was a single-leaf door barely over a meter wide, and it stood wide open.
There was a grand watchtower perched atop the wall over the gate, which was likely where the sentries stayed. I wasn't sure if "shabby" was the right word for the gate, but it felt more like a side entrance than a main thoroughfare.
Outside the gate, the farmland gave way almost immediately to a grove. It wasn't a dense forest, but rather a collection of trees with wide gaps between them.
A well-trodden path wound through the trees.
That had to be the trail the adventurer mentioned.
I walked for about five minutes before the Labyrinth came into view. Just as he’d said, there was no one at the entrance.
Without an Explorer to ferry me to the higher floors, I had no choice but to enter the First Floor.
I drew Durandal.
Without Roxanne to guide me, I just wandered aimlessly. It really drove home just how much I relied on her.
Eventually, I made my way home via the Vale Labyrinth.
I took a long nap to catch up on my sleep debt. Once I woke up, I spent some time in the Labyrinths to top off my MP before warping back to Pelmask.
No matter the distance, as long as I recovered MP between jumps, I'd be fine. If I used Quratar, Vale, Zabil, and Pelmask as stepping stones, the MP cost remained manageable.
I waited at the Pelmask Adventurer Guild for a little while until the girls returned.
They weren't carrying a mirror.
Did they fail to find one? Or was nothing to their liking? Maybe they'd only managed to buy something small, like a pendant.
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, Master," Roxanne said.
"How did it go?"
"We should discuss that elsewhere," Sherry whispered.
She looked serious. It seemed like a conversation they didn't want overheard.
"Fine. Let's head back."
"Yes, Master."
We needed to get away from Pelmask.
Since they didn't have a mirror, I briefly considered trying a direct jump to Quratar with the party, but there wasn't much point. Even if we had bought one, Roxanne and Sherry would have been carrying it, so I wouldn't have been hit with the extra MP drain.
Besides, carrying a fragile mirror would make stopping at relay points difficult, so a direct jump was a test for another day.
We took the stepping-stone route back.
Our first stop was the new Labyrinth I'd found in Zabil.
"Roxanne, track some monsters for us. Sherry, tell me about the mirrors."
Even jumping from Pelmask to Zabil with a party caused a noticeable dent in my MP. Going all the way to Quratar in one go would be a nightmare.
"The mirrors were definitely there," Sherry explained. "However, every single one was covered in gaudy, nouveau riche decorations. They weren't something we could easily use, and the prices were astronomical because of it."
I wondered if "nouveau riche" was a common term here. Then again, striking it rich in a Labyrinth was essentially this world's version of that.
"She is right," Roxanne added. "If a noble or someone of your stature, Master, were to use them, they would be appropriate. But for us, they are far too much."
Technically, I was the nouveau riche one here, thanks to the Labyrinth.
Would it be okay to have one in the house? Probably not. I didn't care for that aesthetic either.
"Yeah, I'm not a fan of over-decoration either."
"The shopkeeper said that flashier mirrors are more popular," Sherry continued. "He claimed that a higher base price allows for better resale value. That’s why Pelmask jewelers decorate the frames with so much gold, silver, and gems."
"I see. It's a 'value-added' strategy."
"Value-added?"
Sherry looked puzzled. I suppose modern business jargon hadn't quite made its way here yet.
"Since they have a monopoly on mirrors, they don't just sell the glass. They force you to buy a bunch of other expensive stuff attached to it to drive up the profit."
"I see. That makes sense. Pelmask is the only place with the technology for glassmaking, mirror-silvering, and clock-working, not to mention their specialized goldsmiths."
"Wait, they have clocks?"
That was news to me. I hadn't seen a single clock since arriving in this world.
"Pelmask is the center for all glass products," Sherry said.
"And they make clocks out of glass?"
"Well, yes. If they weren't glass, you wouldn't be able to see the sand falling."
Oh. An hourglass.
I had seen those. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up for a mechanical one.
"R-right. They're quite shrewd, then."
"Apparently, the entire city of Pelmask is on an island," Sherry added.
That explained the lack of mountains in the distance.
"Is that so?"
"Because it's an island, the glassmakers, mirror-smiths, and jewelers can't easily escape. It's how the city keeps its monopoly on the technology and the craftsmen."
"That explains the strict Intelligence Card checks at the guild," Roxanne said. "They were very careful to make sure we were the same people coming and going."
"Exactly," Sherry nodded.
So that was why Field Walk was restricted to the guild. It prevented residents from helping each other escape.
It was a city designed to prevent technological leaks and defections. A guild-run prison for artisans.
"If it's an island, I guess there's no Labyrinth there?"
"I believe that is the case," Sherry agreed.
So I couldn't even set up a relay point inside the city.
"I asked if they had anything less flashy, but they said no," Sherry continued. "I even tried going directly to the workshop, but they told me they weren't allowed to sell to individuals."
"Direct sales are banned, huh?"
If the factory sold plain mirrors, it would ruin the retail strategy of forcing people to buy the gold-encrusted versions. It made sense.
"However, they did say that while they normally can't sell directly, they can make an exception if you have a Letter of Authorization from a noble."
"A Letter of Authorization?"
"That’s why I decided not to buy one today. You have a connection in the Knight Order, don't you, Master?"
She meant Gosler. Sherry had met him at the Merchant Guild.
If I could get a letter by framing it as a request from Duke Harz, we could buy a plain mirror directly. And clearly, Sherry hadn't forgotten the handsome Elf.
"You want to use that connection?"
"Even if he is an Elf, we should use what we can," Sherry said coldly. "He's just an Elf, after all. Once he's served his purpose, we can treat him like a pair of worn-out sandals and cast him aside."
Apparently, his good looks didn't count for anything in her eyes.
That was a surprisingly ruthless sentiment. I supposed I should be grateful she didn't go as far as saying the only good Elf was a dead one.