NBAA Vol. 8 Chapter 2 Part 3
“You mean… resurrection magic that brings people back to life? It’s true that the first hero was able to bring people back to life, but was that really true?”
“That’s right. However, I never met the first hero, and I was born in a different era. So how do I know about resurrection magic? It’s because I used the legendary magic tool that the hero left behind!”
“Legendary magic tool…?”
Honemin used the magic tool left behind by the first hero to become what she is today.
“What’s the name of that legendary magic tool?”
“It’s a resurrection potion called ‘Life’. It’s a common name, but it’s incredibly effective. I was swallowed by a dragon and died, or rather, my body was dissolved in its stomach, but with the effects of this resurrection potion, I was able to come back to life even though I was just bones!”
“You were swallowed by a dragon?”
“Right, I was thrust into the dragon’s mouth as a human bomb to save my friends. And so, I died. After that, my friends rescued me, who was nothing but bones, and assumed that I was completely dead, so they tried to bury me! I regained consciousness just before they could, and ran away in a panic. The rest is how I ended up in this place.”
“Wait a second, aren’t you leaving out too much of the process?”
“I can’t help it! If I were to tell you about my past, it would be enough to fill a spin-off novel! There’s no way I could write it all on this memo paper!”
“Spin-off novel…?”
Anyway, to summarize her story — she overcame various events, and now she lived in this Great Labyrinth. It was conveniently located in a building that was perfect for keeping people away. That’s what it seemed.
“Even so, I never thought someone would come to a place like this… it’s been a while since the swordsman came here decades ago.”
“The swordsman?”
“He was the swordsman I rescued when he collapsed in the desert. Well, at the time, I wanted someone to talk to, so I brought him here and treated him, but he had lost one of his legs and couldn’t move properly, so he lived here for a while.”
“Could that be…”
Reito and the others looked at each other and remembered Kai, who had given them a ride to this place. He had said that he had lost his leg in the Tower’s Great Labyrinth, and that he had talked about a kind-hearted skeleton. There was no doubt that it was Kai.
“At first, he was wary of me, but we got along well as we spent time together. Well, I helped him get out. In the end, he never came back here.”
“Could that be that his name was Kai?”
“Ah, that’s definitely his name. Do you know him?”
“He’s a merchant now. I guess you could say I know him… He said he challenged the Tower’s Great Labyrinth to get Excalibur, which is said to be on the top floor.”
“Oh, he was thinking of doing that? That was new to me…”
Honemin was a little surprised that Kai was alive. At the same time, she nodded happily several times.
Reito did not expect to encounter the skeleton Kai had been talking about. Thinking so, he took out a ring from his Space magic.
“Hey Honemin, if you are a hero from the past, do you know who this ring belongs to?”
“What’s that?”
“It is the ring that belonged to the white knight Reina.”
“Reina!?”
Reito presented Honemin with the ring that Reina had left behind after fighting in the arena. She picked up the ring in surprise, peering into it despite not having eyes.
“I see… this is definitely Reina’s ring. Why did you have this?”
“A lot of things happened… how should I explain it?”
Then Reito told her the series of events that had happened in the arena. Honemin sighed as she looked at the ring.
“I see… I can’t believe that Reina was turned into a Dead Man’s Puppet.”
“You knew her?”
“We traveled together for a while. I haven’t seen her since I turned into this form, but she was a kind person.”
“Is that so… I’ll give it to you, Honemin. There’s no point in me having it, so you want a keepsake, right?”
“That’s right. I’ll keep it. Then, in return…”
Honemin took the ring and went back into the room. She walked on her tiptoes to the box, not touching the magic stones on the floor, and took out a shining silver longsword.
Then she returned to Reito.
“You’re dressed like a swordsman, but judging from your magical power, you’re a magician, right? In that case, I’ll give you this.”
Honemin handed him a beautiful sword made entirely of silver. There was a dent in the hilt. It must have originally had a magic stone or something inlaid in it. Reito felt familiar with the longsword. Eventually, he realized that it looked similar to the Caledfwlch he used in the battle against the Rotten Dragon.
“Um… what is this?”
“It’s Excalibur.”
“…!?”
“It’s the Excalibur.”
“…!?”
“W-What, Excalibur!?”
“That, that legendary sword!”
“It’s said to be the greatest sword in history… that one!?”
Everyone was surprised when they saw the note she had written. Kai could easily find the legendary holy sword he had been looking for.
Honemin scratched her head and snapped her jaw as if laughing.
“Hahaha… the truth is, I found this sword a long time ago and hid it here. I was hoping to use it to protect myself if something were to happen, but it didn’t seem to have the full power it had, and it was just a sturdy sword… I had no choice but to leave it here.”
“Wait a second! So Kai left without realizing Excalibur was here?”
“Well, that’s how it is.”
“You’re kidding me! That old man was so close to getting it!”
“What a pity…”
“I don’t know what to say…”
“What a sad story…”
After being given Excalibur, Reito had a complicated expression on his face, sympathizing with Kai.
“B-But I wonder if Kai will feel more at ease if I show him this?”
“Yeah. But is it the real Excalibur? I honestly can’t believe it…”
“It’s real. I risk my life to steal it from the top floor.”
“Steal it?”
“This holy sword was enshrined in the temple on the top floor. I stole it without the white dragon that lives around the temple noticing.”
“A white dragon?! Isn’t it one of the most dangerous dragons out there?!”
The normally calm Shizune spoke up. The others were also surprised, but Reito tilted his head as he had never even heard of a white dragon.
“A white dragon… is it that amazing?”
“It’s a legendary dragon! You’ve heard the name, right? Not only has it never been defeated, it’s a rare dragon that has only been seen a few times!’”
“It’s known by many names such as a legendary dragon, a symbol of disaster, and a living legend, that it is.”
“I never thought such a monster would be on the top floor…”
“I’m glad I heard that information here. It seems best not to carelessly step into the fifth floor.”
“Well, he’s a gentle guy who won’t attack unless you get close to its territory. I pretended to be a corpse and escaped, then stole the holy sword.”
“You’re amazing… you’re truly the legendary hero Honemin.”
“No, that would make the name Honemin sound legendary.”
Honemin slammed her bone hand on Reito’s chest.
This exchange made Reito feel like he was talking to Airis, and since her name (Aira) was similar to Airis’, he wondered if she knew Airis.
“Honemin, can I have a word?”
“What is it? You aren’t planning on attacking me because you couldn’t stand my slender body, are you?…”
“You’re too slender.”
A little irritated by Honemin’s gesture of covering her chest, Reito took Honemin and moved away. Then he asked in a low voice.
“…Honemin… are you perhaps a reincarnated person?”
“…Eh? How did you know? I mean, do you know the word reincarnation?”
“…I am one too. And I know Airis too.”
“Clack, clack, clack.”
“No, explain it to me in words.”
Honemin dropped her notepad, but she quickly picked it up and asked Reito.
“Wait a second. Um, what was your name again?”
“Reito.”
“So then, you’re a reincarnated person too, Reito? What’s the name of the country you were born in?”
“Japan, I was a high school student in that world.”
“Oh! So you’re in the same situation as me! What, if that’s the case, you should have told me sooner~”
Honemin was happy to discover a reincarnated person like herself and patted Reito on the shoulder.
Reito was sure that she was the reincarnated person in the Great Labyrinth that Airis had spoken of.
“Honemin is from Japan too?”
“Yes. Ah, but the time period we visited may be different. What year were you born in, Reito?”
“I was born in 20XX AD…”
“Ah, I thought so. I came to this world around the year 2000.”
“Really?”
Incidentally, she wasn’t swallowed into the space crack like Reito, but went to the in-between world, where Airis was, when she died from an illness.
“According to Airis, people who have died in the past were sometimes swept away to the world between worlds. In my case, when I was just a soul, I was lucky enough to come into contact with a place that connected to the in-between world, and I was forcibly swallowed in. I don’t remember when I died, but Airis, who felt sorry for me, reincarnated me into this world.”
“I see… my circumstances are a bit different.”
“Didn’t Reito also die and come to this world?”
“When I was…”
“Hey, what are you two talking about?”
As Reito was talking incessantly with Honemin, Shizune approached them. The others looked at them curiously. Honemin wrote something down on the memo paper to try and cover it up.
“Oh, sorry about that. It seems that Reito’s ancestors and I met here. That’s why he asked me what kind of people they were. Right?”
“That’s right.”
“Reito’s ancestors… so you’re talking about the royal family of the Baltros Kingdom?”
“Royalty?”
“Dain!”
“Mugh!”
Dain carelessly blurted out something about Reito’s identity. Shizune, the only one who didn’t know Reito’s identity, spoke up, but Gonzo covered Dain’s mouth.
Hanzo forcibly changed the subject to try and cover it up.
“Ah, more importantly, I want you to tell me about this place, that I should know about. I don’t sense any monsters, but is this a resting spot, that I don’t know?”
“No, this is not really a resting spot, but there are mechanisms in place to keep monsters away. This building is mostly covered with sand, but it’s actually a big castle.”
“A castle? Here?”
“Yes. This is an old castle. This is the top of the castle.”
According to Honemin, it was a sort of resting spot. Currently, everything except the top was covered with sand, but sometimes sandstorms blew the sand away and the whole castle was revealed.
“Monsters can’t get into this castle, and there are many places to rest. So in a sense it could be called a resting spot, but most adventurers can’t find it.”
“Eh? Why? Because it’s covered with sand?”
“That’s one reason, but most adventurers don’t enter the third floor. You may have noticed this, but this desert floor is a very harsh environment. There are resting spots, but they are not easy to find. The terrain is unstable due to the frequent sandstorms, and the building with the teleportation crystal is covered in sand, making it difficult to find. In addition, the sand dolls that appear are not easy to defeat, and there are no monsters that can be used as food, so if you run out of food, you cannot replenish it. That’s why many adventurers avoid this place.”
“I didn’t know that…”
Shizune looked shocked by the story again.
By the way, Honemin seemed to have visited many places other than this floor, and was more knowledgeable about the Great Labyrinth than anyone else.
“The most popular one is the fourth floor. That floor is a labyrinth made of bricks. Unlike the first to third floors, multiple monsters appear there. It’s dangerous, but you can get valuable experience stones and materials, so most adventurers choose the fourth floor from the start.”
“I’ve seen a lot of adventurers on the fourth floor. I’ve been there with my fellow mercenaries, and there were goblins, orcs, kobolds, and trolls.”
“There are also black wolves, and although you rarely encounter them, ogres also exist. However, the ogres in the Great Labyrinth are very vicious and dangerous, so I recommend that you run away if you encounter them.”
“Is it really that dangerous?”
“Yes, it is. Every time I encounter one, I just pretend to be a corpse and get away.”
According to Shizune and Honemin, who have experience on the fourth floor, it was a labyrinth, so it was not easy to reach the location of the teleportation crystal. There were also many traps set up, so it seemed you had to be constantly on guard.
“Is the fourth floor really that dangerous…? But we need to find the building to get out of the third floor.”
“In that case, we’d be better off staying here tonight. I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but it’s already night outside.”
“What? It has already been that long⁉”
“It’s true. I’m a night owl, so it’s always night when I wake up.”
“You can sleep?! Even though you’re a skeleton?”
“I told you I’m not undead!! Seriously… I don’t want to talk too much here, so I’ll show you to the dining room. I can’t serve you any food though…”
As Honemin went down the stairs, Reito and the others followed her.
They decided to believe her story and spend the night in the castle, then leave tomorrow morning.
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