小嫂子的味道

"Hey! Ichigo! We met again!" said one of the three people.

He was Spene, the one who called out my name—or at least the name I\'d given him.

"These are the people who accepted your quest. Do you already know each other?" the lady asked.

"Well, kinda," I replied.

At the same time, Challes stared at me in the same way as I had done before. Maybe it was revenge or something? I don\'t know.

"Have a great time exploring then," the lady said and then left.

"What a coincidence, Ichigo!" Spene spoke with a bright face as he stood up and looked at me with his sparkling eyes.

"Yeah…a coincidence indeed," I repeated.

"Anyway, why did you accept this quest?" I asked as I sat on the bench that was placed around the table.

"Huh? We saw your name under the quest poster, the reward was also high and there wasn\'t much to do, so we took it," Spene explained.

Yesterday, before I left the lady at the counter, she had asked my name and I, of course, told her that my name was Ichigo. I can\'t risk giving away my real name, after all. Maybe that\'s how he got to know that I was the one who posted this quest.

"But why did you leave early, Ichigo? I thought our destination is the same, so we\'ll come to the town together?" Favian appealed; till now he was sitting quietly. Well, no. He and Xara were arguing over something in a low, whispering voice.

"You guys were asleep, and I didn\'t want to disturb you, so I left you alone."

"I see. Though we woke up soon after, the driver was not kind enough to let us sleep."

"Are you guys done with this shit talking?! Can we go do this quest quickly?! I want to end this quickly!" Xara blustered as she stood up and smacked the table with her fists.

"Calm down, Xara, the quest isn\'t going anywhere."

"Fuck you!" with that, Spene\'s attempt to cool down the atmosphere failed.

"It\'s alright; I agree with Xara here. I\'d be better if we finished this quickly," I interjected.

I mean, I don\'t want to stay here for long either. There are still some things I\'ve left back in the academy which I\'m worried about; like Anya. Though I have told Ellyn to take care of her so that she won\'t get fucked by Leon as it happen in loli_pop\'s novel, but I can\'t trust her completely

I needed to go back as soon as possible.

Now, since I was also supporting the idea, Xara gained some more confidence as she glared at Spene and Favian. Thus, all we did was eat breakfast together—which we got in the guild building by the way, and after that left for the quest.

While we were walking down the path that went out of the town and toward the forest, Favian came close to me and started walking side by side.

"Please don\'t take anything Xara said to heart; as I\'ve told you before, she is just like this," he said.

"I know that already."

"She is not in the best mood for this quest, since she never wanted to do it in the first place. But Spene insisted that we should do this quest because the reward was good and, of course, it was from you."

"I hope you understand," he assured with a calming smile.

"I do, I really do."

"I see... thanks."

Like I care. And for some reason, Challes was constantly smirking the whole time. Was it because the ones to take my quest are these people? If he was thinking that I\'ll hesitate only because I know them already... then he is dead wrong.

I just wanted some disposable tools to help me survive the labyrinth, and I got them—it doesn\'t matter who they are. That\'s all it is.

***

After walking for a few hours, we reached the destination—the labyrinth. Right now we were standing in the middle of the forest that surrounded the town and in front of us was a hilly area.

The rocky slopes started low, but as you moved forward, their height increased with each step you took. It was here where the Durendreg mountain range started.

"Are you sure this really is the place?" Spene asked as he looked around and scratched his head.

His doubts were reasonable. I\'d stopped them in the middle of this forest in a slightly open area. Behind us were all trees, and in front was a small river that supplied the town with water. And besides, that river was a mountain slope that stood 30ft in height.

The scenery was nice as we could hear the sounds of birds chirping but, there was no sign of a labyrinth.

"Yeah, we are in the right place," I clarified and reassured and then moved forward toward the slope—Challes behind me since his hand and leg cuffs were still attached to the chain I was holding.

Reaching near the slanting wall of the slope, I first searched for something all around it, and then when I was unable to find it, I took a deep breath and then blew a burst of air from my mouth on the wall.

A great amount of dust was blown off and the surface came out a lot clearer. Then I found it. I was standing in the wrong place. What I was searching for was a few steps beside me.

It was a big, human-sized magic circle engraved on the stone slope; this was the entrance to the labyrinth.

I was able to find it in one go because loli_pop was kind—or lazy enough, to set it up in a hard-to-find location. In his novel, when Leon went out to find the labyrinth, he was able to do so very easily.

And it was written that the entrance to the labyrinth will be opened through a magic circle that is printed on a long mountain slope which is just beside the river. This was the only river in this forest and this was the only slope just beside it, so it didn\'t take much longer to find it—though I do have to walk around in circles to find this place since I didn\'t know the exact location.