Published: February 1, 2026
You don't need to read this to understand the main story. This is a complete IF scenario.
The timeline is around when Rizel and the others had not yet decided to go to Astarnia.
Knock knock. A gentle knock sound was heard, and Judge tilted his head in curiosity.
Since this was a shop, knocking shouldn't have been necessary to enter. Thinking that, he stood up from the appraisal table chair where he had been sitting. Occasionally, postal guild staff would call out from outside, so maybe this visitor wasn't here just to shop.
Answering, he reached for the doorknob and opened the door. No one was there.
“A prank...?”
He looked around nervously, a little disappointed. A surprise knock-and-run.
Though the threshold wasn't high, this shop was located among some rather nice stores, and until now there had never been such pranks. Still, he thought, if it's becoming a familiar place, perhaps it's fine. Judge smiled faintly while furrowing his brow. Then, noticing the recent good weather, he looked up at the sky and started to head back inside.
“Ah.”
“Eh?”
As he was about to close the door and return inside, a voice stopped him.
It was a child's voice, gentle and calm, clearly coming from near his feet.
For someone as tall as Judge, his feet were a complete blind spot. Such a small child coming to shop was rare, and he hurriedly looked down.
“This isn’t a prank.”
“...!?!!?”
He was so surprised he was speechless. The child’s face was extremely familiar.
Frozen and unmoving, Judge looked up at Rizel, who looked at him curiously. The scene was witnessed by Eleven, who had been hiding and burst into laughter. By the way, it was a prank that Eleven had casually orchestrated, and it was a huge success.
Judge wanted to ask Eleven for a good while why he thought to do that, but he knew it was impossible. Looking at Rizel, who was sitting properly on Eleven's lap, Eleven smiled softly, causing Judge to involuntarily smile faintly too. By the way, the shop had a sign saying it was temporarily closed.
“So, could you look after the leader for a bit?”
“I understand the situation, but...”
Watching Rizel being poked and prodded on the cheeks, Judge was impressed by how labyrinthine this all was.
Though body and mind had become that of a child, the memories within the grasp of that child remained intact. Since this was work deeply connected with adventurers, and considering the labyrinth, it was understandable—but Judge still worried a little if there might be some strange effects.
“I’ve heard rumors about the Mushroom Grassland; it sounds amazing.”
“I thought the leader would like it, so that’s why we went.”
The “Mushroom Grassland” was the labyrinth Rizel and the others had visited this time.
In short, it was filled with mushrooms. Stepping on these mushrooms triggered various effects.
Effects were completely random, but since mushrooms grew so thickly that it was harder not to step on them, there was nothing life-threatening. Effects would disappear in a few days if left alone, but if you ate mushrooms growing on the boss’s body, the effects immediately returned.
“That’s why Eleven has a halo.”
“He stepped on it when he was distracted by the tiny leader.”
By the way, it looked terribly out of place.
When Judge first saw Eleven appear, he was so startled he thought Eleven had died.
“By the way, Big Brother has horns. You know, goat-like horns.”
“Scary... Is Jill still in the labyrinth?”
“Yes. Since it’s dangerous for the leader to fight the boss directly, we left the leader behind and Big Brother pushed forward through the layers. I plan to catch up with them later.”
The Mushroom Grassland was a labyrinth Jill had avoided out of sheer annoyance.
Therefore, Jill was now rapidly making progress. If there was a way to fix it, he had no intention of leaving it as is for several days.
They planned to advance up to the level with the magic circle, so by the time Eleven returned to the labyrinth, Jill would be near the next or second next magic circle.