Published: September 9, 2025
Satou here. When I hear “bait,” it reminds me of fishing for sardines at the breakwater when I was a kid. Once I threw in some krill as bait, the sardines reacted so fiercely that I remember feeling a little scared.
â—‡
“Sir Pendragon, might this be the jewel scheduled for auction the day after tomorrow?”
“The submission period has ended, so I’m planning to put it up for auction next month instead.”
An elderly viscount from the Duke’s Capital was shining with excitement as he looked at the precious pearl placed before me.
After the kingdom council meeting, I stopped by a social salon to flaunt the jewel made from a Blood Jade.
Of course, it wasn’t to show off or satisfy vanity, but to use it as bait to lure the robbers who had been raiding the Royal Castle, as I’d overheard during lunch.
This Blood Jade was one of the items given to me by Van, the vampire from the lower layers of the labyrinth. It’s mainly used as a material for magical tools that restore stamina or health.
Apparently, it’s rare for someone like me to use it as material for disposable magic potions.
It’s a downgraded version of the Blood Orb I received along with it, but even this Blood Jade is quite a rare material, supplied only as a rare drop from the “Blood Stalkers” that appear in the Bloodsucking Labyrinth of the Saga Empire.
That said, since I’ve seen Van and his subordinate vampire princesses create these easily, it doesn’t feel all that precious to me.
“I thought it was a ruby, but this is Blood Jade.”
“No way—the Blood Jade necklace owned by Duke Bistal was more of a reddish brown, wasn’t it?”
“I’ve heard that the brighter red the Blood Jade, the higher its quality.”
“With such a clear color, I wonder how much this Blood Jade would fetch...”
At least, it seemed valuable enough to make high-ranking nobles from a powerful country change their expressions.
...Maybe I should have just gone with a more affordable ruby or emerald the size of a fist.
The reaction was bigger than I expected, but it should spread rumors as planned.
I did stand out a little, but that’s nothing compared to defeating the “lord of the layer” or being promoted to viscount.
â—‡
Now, I’ll leave spreading the rumors to the noble’s aides and the maids who were there, and prepare a place to store the jewel.
I still hadn’t started building the robber trap I planned to make upon arriving at the Royal Capital.
Tonight, I’ll check the spot for power leveling and build the trap inside the labyrinth.
First, I sketched a simple blueprint in my notebook.
I’d made one before in the mansion in the Labyrinth City, so this is a slightly improved version two.
Next, I prepared materials.
Using the Holy Sword, I cut pieces from the extremely hard labyrinth walls to use as building materials.
For adhesive, I had secured a large amount of a powerful sticky liquid secreted by tree-shaped monsters, so no problem there.
In just about thirty minutes, the robber trap— a cubic structure seven meters on each side — was assembled.
Inside, it’s a three-dimensional maze of corridors with various non-lethal traps installed.
The passages are so narrow that crawling is the only way through, like ventilation holes, and dead ends have been prepared as well.
By normal movement, it would probably take about an hour to reach the treasure room.
Robbers who can command or summon small animals could easily penetrate to the treasure room, but by fixing it so that only those with sufficient physical strength can extract the treasure, it should be an effective countermeasure.
All that’s left is to bury this in the garden of the mansion in the Royal Capital.
â—‡
I returned to the Royal Castle briefly, then took a carriage back to the mansion.
Maybe because I spent time in the labyrinth, the marker for Ms. Zena, which had been at my house before going to the labyrinth, had moved to Count Seryu’s mansion.
After changing clothes and relaxing in the living room, I asked Arisa about Ms. Zena.