A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation

It was a day when the night sky was free of a single cloud.

In the room of the inn, lit by the glow of the lamp, Gill suddenly said,

"Tomorrow, boss. Go."

"Then just go."

Eleven, who had been engrossed in a card game, answered as if to say, Why are you saying this now?

After all, Gill challenging the labyrinth boss was an everyday occurrence. Whenever he didn't feel like attempting a full labyrinth completion, but did feel like moving his body hard, he would dive into a completed labyrinth, fight only the boss, and come back out.

Eleven still thought Gill was out of his mind for treating boss fights with such absurd casualness.

When the mood struck him, he would often go along with it himself, but even so, he shoved that aside and gleefully called Gill a freak of nature without hesitation.

At his reply, the crease between Gill's brows deepened.

"Could it be the behemoth labyrinth?"

While glancing at Gill, Lizel asked that with an amused smile.

His hands were selecting two face-down cards laid out on the table. They were the same number.

Today's game was Concentration, where you match pairs of identical numbers. Eleven had suggested it because he was bored, and nothing was at stake.

The reason for that was Quattro, who was sitting beside Lizel with a serious face, staring at the cards.

"Two, seven, three, eleven..."

Quattro kept muttering the cards he remembered, in order from the upper left.

At this point, he probably couldn't even hear Lizel and the others talking. It was as if he would forget everything the moment he let his mind wander even a little.

Since it was his first card game, they'd chosen an easy one, but he was struggling.

"Gill, you've been slowly clearing it, right?"

"Yeah."

"For real? You're doing that solo? Are you insane?"

"That's why I worked through it steadily."

"Can Big Brother really clear things steadily?"

Harsh words, but Gill couldn't deny them, because he had his own memories of it.

Gill's method for clearing labyrinths was to build momentum and push through all at once. It was not exactly brute force without thought; rather, he would thoroughly imprint the labyrinth's characteristics onto his body, then keep challenging it continuously so he wouldn't lose that sense.

Even against a single monster, maintaining an optimized way of fighting was a major strength.

That was especially advantageous in deeper layers, where he could handle monsters from familiar opponents even when surrounded, and could immediately notice and focus on any irregularity.

On the other hand, once he left the labyrinth, the next time he entered he had to start by regaining that sense.

Gill relied heavily on instinct born from experience, and he disliked that frustrating feeling.

But disliking it was one thing; being unable to do it was another.

"That place doesn't seem to go well with Gill's 'clear it all at once' style."

"That's what this guy told me."

"Ah, so that's how it is."

"I wanted to prepare a complete countermeasure, but..."

"That's asking too much."

"It's a labyrinth."

"So it is a labyrinth matter after all?"

Lizel matched three pairs in a row and passed the turn to Quattro.

"Two, seven, three, eleven, five, two... two... two...?"

Losing track of the card he should have matched, Quattro moved his hand around as if feeling for where it had been.

"Doesn't it get tedious if you keep at it?"

"It's better than at the start, but it's still tiring."

"Really? Then maybe it's less about how long you stay there and more about how deep you go?"

Quattro slumped his shoulders without matching a single pair. The turn passed to Eleven.

Eleven matched a pair without even looking much, and Quattro gave him a suspicious stare.

He still didn't know about cheating, so it was a pure look of doubt, wondering how he could do that. He didn't direct that gaze at Lizel, who was also matching pairs, so that was probably the difference between the two of them in everyday behavior.

"Then maybe the boss is the cause?"

"Surely not..."

Lizel thought about it.

He wouldn't say it was impossible, but it felt wrong to simply agree.