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Liberator Myu’s New Friend?

*This short story contains spoilers, so it is recommended that you read it after finishing the volume.

“Graaaaaaaaah!” A tremendous roar rang out through the underground cavern at the bottommost floor of the Great Orcus Labyrinth. This was the room right before Oscar Orcus’s hut, which meant the roar could have only come from one creature.

“So this is the Hydra, huh? It sure is intimidating!”

“It’s too early to be quaking in your boots, Kaori. The many-headed form isn’t even that dangerous. It’s the final silver head that’s the real issue.”

The same monster that Hajime and Yue had nearly died to was once again staring down Hajime. The only difference was that Kaori was by his side instead of Yue. Hajime had come back here to prepare for the final battle, and now he knew the Hydra respawned just like every other monster in this labyrinth.

Of course, Hajime had already cleared this labyrinth, so the Hydra wouldn’t spawn for him, but that wasn’t the case for Kaori. Granted, so long as he was accompanying anyone who hadn’t cleared it, he could still make it so the Hydra didn’t spawn, but if that person stepped into the room alone, the Hydra would rear its many heads once more.

Chances were that even if Kaori defeated it alone, the magic circle wouldn’t recognize her as someone who’d cleared the labyrinth since she hadn’t gone through the whole thing, but that wasn’t a problem. The reason Hajime had wanted to resummon it was so that he could analyze the silver head and its aurora breath more thoroughly. That way, he’d be able to come up with a countermeasure for Freid’s strongest familiar, Uranos.

“Here it comes! Watch out for the black head—it’ll make you see your worst nightmare!”

“What kind of evil ability is that?!”

The red, blue, and green heads fired out fire, ice, and wind breath attacks respectively, but Kaori easily dodged those by flying up into the air. Hajime also dodged them with ease by using his Aerodynamic.

“Yue took the black head’s magic head-on and ended up rooted to the spot.”

“She did?! Even though she has such high resistance to magic?!”

“Yeah. Apparently, the black head showed her visions of me abandoning her. It was honestly kind of cute how much she cried about it afterward.”

“Stop bragging about how much she loves you! You’re so insensitive, Hajime-kun!”

Burning with jealousy, Kaori fired a disintegration beam at the hydra’s white head to vent her anger. The white head was in charge of healing, so the yellow head tried to defend it, but unfortunately disintegration magic was a bit too strong for this Hydra. The yellow head managed to hold off the beam for just a few seconds before it completely disintegrated. The white head simply couldn’t heal fast enough, and once the yellow head was gone, the beam obliterated it as well.

Meanwhile, Hajime used his explosive bullets to take out the other heads. Thanks to the experience he’d gained during his travels, the ancient magic he’d acquired, and the advanced artifacts he’d been able to create with the ancient magic, not even the deadly Hydra posed a threat to him. The silver head popped out of the remains of the other heads, and this time Hajime was able to appreciate its majesty, since he wasn’t fighting for his life. It really was an awe-inspiring beast worthy of going down in legend. The silver head glared menacingly at him.

“All right, time to hunt! I’m gonna harvest every last inch of that thing’s head!”

“Umm, so I should sever it from the base of its neck, right?”

“Yep! I’m gonna dissect it, analyze it, isolate its individual components, and experiment on it every which way I can! We can see how it reacts to stimuli while it’s alive later, so for now, let’s just take the head back!”

The silver head stiffened in fear.

Is it just me, or are the challengers this time acting a little strange? Hang on, isn’t that guy the one who beat me before? Why’s he back? And why’s he looking at me like a wolf who’s spotted its prey? What’s with that smile?!

The Hydra took a few steps back, terrified of Hajime.

“Heh, it’s pretty nice having a test subject that’ll just keep infinitely reviving.”

“Hajime-kun, if you keep this up, you’re going to get this novel an R rating.”

The Hydra could tell if it let itself be caught by this mad synergist, it would be suffering for a long, long time.

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

It roared and unleashed its aurora breath in an attempt to drive Hajime away. Unfortunately, Hajime was far too strong for such a paltry attack to be effective anymore. Hajime killed and respawned the Hydra over and over and over again, collecting its heads and dissecting them with gusto...and that wasn’t even the worst of the humiliation it suffered.

“Daddy, the Hydra meat’s ready!”

Hajime killed it so many times that eventually he started a bonfire outside Oscar’s hut—even though there was a kitchen inside—and started eating grilled Hydra head for his meals. Of course, he was the only one who could. In the past, this meat had significantly boosted his stats and granted him the skill Limit Break, but of course, now he wasn’t getting any new stat boosts from it. Still, he was hoping if he ate enough of the Hydra’s meat, he could unlock the aurora breath skill that it used.

Eventually, the number of hydra kills reached double digits, and Myu—who’d become the pitmaster—had gotten so good at roasting hydra meat that she was now a master chef.

“—me...ill me...”

As she was roasting yet another Hydra head, Myu suddenly heard a voice.

“Huh? Wh-What was that?” she asked, stiffening up in surprise. The voice had come from surprisingly close by, so she looked around curiously, but there was no one there. Was I just imagining it? She cocked her head to one side, then went back to turning her spit roast and ensuring the Hydra was grilled to perfection.

“Kill...me...”

“There it is again!” Myu said with a start. She could make out the voice surprisingly clearly, considering Hajime and Kaori were making a ruckus as they hunted another Hydra in the room over. It almost felt as if—

“I’m talking directly inside your head?”

“Who is it?! Where are you?!”

“I’m right next to—Gyaaaaaaaaah!”

“What’s wrong?!”

With a pained scream, the voice faded away. At the same time, the silver head drooped.

Could it be? Myu thought hesitantly.

“Is that you, Hydra-san?” Myu asked. She could sense a nod inside her head in response. Myu had no idea why she could hear the Hydra’s voice when Hajime and Kaori clearly couldn’t, but she had an inkling of why it was talking to her. It probably wanted her to end this loop of eternal death and suffering. Myu hadn’t considered that the Hydra might actually possess intelligence and a will of its own, so now she suddenly felt guilty for cooking it so many times.

“But Hydra-san, you’ve already been killed so many times!”

Myu had no idea how killing it would help.

“Sorry, I was speaking figuratively there. I don’t actually want to die. Come on, can’t you read between the lines?”

“Oh, sorry,” Myu mumbled, her guilt fading a little, replaced by irritation. She then pursed her lips and asked, “Okay, then, what do you want me to do?”

“Just stop that crazy guy, please.”

“Did you just call my daddy crazy? Suddenly I don’t feel like helping,” Myu replied with her mother’s trademark smile.

“I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

The Hydra capitulated immediately, which was almost as much of a shock to Myu as it having sentience in the first place. It let out another scream as Hajime killed it again, then said, “Ugh, I am meant to be a trial and a guardian of the final floor! I don’t deserve to be treated like a lab rat! This isn’t faiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir!”

The Hydra started crying, and Myu felt a twinge of sympathy for him. She poked her head out of the door of the Hydra’s room and called out to Hajime, saying, “Daddy! I think that’s enough! Hydra-san’s crying because you’ve killed him so much!”

“Ha ha, you’re too kind, Myu! Don’t worry though, monsters don’t have feelings! You’re just imagining things, Myu!”

“N-No, you’re wrong! I really heard Hydra-san’s voice in my head and...”


“Let me tell you something important, Myu!” Hajime said with a smile as he riddled the sixth head with holes.

“Some sacrifices have to be made for the greater good! And this monster is a sacrifice that needs to be made to protect you! Got it?”

“Uh-huh. You can keep going, then.”

“Good girl!”

Hajime had looked surprisingly serious when he’d said that, which had made Myu really happy. She went back to the cavern with the hut and looked up at the sky.

“I couldn’t stop him,” she said.

“So this is true despair...” a despondent voice echoed through Myu’s head.

“Is there anything else I can do to help?” Myu asked, looking around for something she could do.

After thinking it over for a few minutes, the Hydra replied, “If you wish to help, young dagon, come closer.”

Myu cocked her head, but she had a feeling she knew what the Hydra meant by closer. It wanted her to go in the direction the voice was coming from. She thought about telling Hajime what she was up to, but then the Hydra added, “Don’t tell him...please... He’ll experiment on me even further if you do...”

The Hydra’s voice was so fearful that Myu couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

“Please help me. At least get me out of here. I’m begging you...”

“O-Okay, okay, I will, so stop crying!”

The traumatic experiences Myu had gone through had made her very sensitive at picking up on whether or not someone meant her harm or had any ill will, and as far as she could tell, the Hydra’s pleading was genuine. Following his instructions, she made her way over to the river behind Oscar’s hut. She then jumped into the water and swam to the bottom...where she found a small underwater cavern and a hole going deep into the ground at its center. She swam down the hole and followed the passageway until it opened up into a large area consisting of ten interconnected caves. The Hydra guided her down one of them, helping her navigate the mazelike series of tunnels. She passed through several things that felt just like the teleportation portals Hajime made until she eventually reached her destination.

“Wow, it’s so pretty.”

Myu found herself in a vast room that was about as grand and imposing as the room where the Hydra spawned. Hundreds of cylindrical crystals were lined up in a row like pillars, and it felt like the Hydra’s voice was coming from them. Myu leaped up with a splash and ran over to one of them to look inside.

“Is that you, Hydra-san?”

“Indeed it is. This pain is unbearable though, so I—Gaaaaaah!”

There was a Hydra inside the crystal, but it was as small as Myu. All seven of its heads were present, and it was coiled around itself with its eyes closed, as if it was sleeping.

“This is the core of the labyrinth, the place where the blueprints for all of its monsters are stored.”

The monsters of the labyrinth were able to respawn infinitely only within it, and it was all thanks to these blueprints that such a feat was possible. This complex system had been created by combining all seven ancient magics. The original Hydra had just been a small, four-meter-tall creature with only three heads that the Liberators had encountered while constructing their labyrinths. However, one of those Hydras had ended up as Vandre’s familiar and grown to possess a will of its own. It was that familiar that had served as the basis for the Hydra that now guarded Oscar Orcus’ house.

Unfortunately, using the original familiar as a groundwork for these cloned Hydras had weakened the original considerably. The Liberators had, of course, not wanted to rob any sentient creature of its freedom and allowed the familiar to leave if it wanted, but they had also granted it this crystal in case it wished to remain within the labyrinth. This crystal was unlike the others, which just served as master copies for the monsters to be respawned; this crystal prevented the Hydra inside it from aging, as well as allowed it to share whatever sensations its clones felt and even provide them with mana or control them remotely if it wished.

Most of the time the Hydra had slept, waking only its consciousness and not its body whenever new challengers reached the final floor and remotely controlling its clones to serve as a proper trial. The Hydra had originally been created in ancient times to guard a certain treasure, but it had lost that treasure and been bereft of purpose until the Liberators had found it and given it a new duty.

After explaining its life story to Myu, the Hydra finally said, “Anyway, can you please let me out of here? I can’t stop feeling what my clones feel unless I leave this crystal. I’m tired of being skinned alive...”

“Wait, you can’t leave by yourself?”

If the Liberators had wanted it to be free, it would make sense that they would design the crystal in such a way that the Hydra could leave whenever it wanted.

“I’ve spent so long sleeping that I’ve forgotten how to wake up.”

It wasn’t the crystal trapping the Hydra inside, but rather his own body.

Was it really okay to make the final guardian such a lazy guy?

“Please erase part of the magic circle for me.”

“Will that wake you up?”

“No, it’ll unlock the crystal from the outside. I’ll still need your help to awaken.”

“Oh...” Myu mumbled, looking mildly disappointed. The Hydra was supposed to be some legendary monster, but right now it just seemed pathetic. Nevertheless, she did as the Hydra asked and erased the part of the magic circle he specified.

A hole opened up in the crystal, exposing the Hydra’s body to the outside world. Myu poked at its forehead, but it still didn’t move.

“I need a stronger stimulus to awaken. You can even step on me if you want. In fact, I’d like it if you did.”

Had the Hydra been a human, he definitely would have been branded a pedophile. Myu definitely did not feel like stepping on the Hydra, so she instead grabbed a pointy rock from nearby, opened the Hydra’s eye, and stabbed it.

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Hajime and Kaori stared in confusion as the Hydra in the trial room screamed in pain despite neither of them having done anything yet. Still, Myu’s violent stimulus appeared to do the trick, as the Hydra woke up enough to move.

“I-I guess I should have expected that, considering how brutal your dad is. You can stop now, thanks.”

“You’re welcome!” Myu said with an innocent smile. She was completely unaware of the latent sadistic tendencies sleeping within her, which sent a shiver down the Hydra’s spine.

“You can return now. It seems your daddy is finally done hunting me over and over now that I’ve started acting strange.”

“Okay!” Myu replied and turned to leave. But she then remembered something and turned back. “Hydra-san, will you help us beat the evil god?”

“Mmm, I’m afraid I cannot, little dagon. My true body has been significantly weakened...and my clones cannot leave the trial room.”

“I see. Sorry for asking the impossible.” Myu then bowed to the Hydra, waved goodbye, ran over to the water, and jumped back in.

“At the very least, though, I will protect you so long as you remain here. It’s the least I can do for the girl who freed me,” the Hydra said as Myu began to swim away.

She turned back just before she was out of sight, smiled brightly at the Hydra, and replied, “Thanks! Hey, Hydra-san, after we beat the evil god and the world is peaceful, let’s go outside! I’ll take you to the western ocean! We can play with Akkun and Ry-san!”

“Play?”

“Yeah! Don’t you want to live in the free world the Liberators wanted to make? We’re friends, so I wanna invite you to my home!”

The Hydra thought about it for a few minutes. As a guardian beast, he wanted to stay close to the thing he was supposed to guard, but leaving didn’t sound all that bad either.

“I’ll think about it, young friend.”

“Yay!”

With that, Myu swam away and out of sight. As the Hydra, of course, guided her safely back to Oscar’s hut, he idly mused, “I wonder why it is that she was able to understand my words in the first place? She truly is a strange girl.”

The Hydra’s eyes glimmered with happiness.

As soon as Myu returned to the hut, she told Hajime all about the adventure she’d had, saying, “Daddy, I became friends with Hydra-san! He’s really weak, but I wanna make him strong again. Is there anything I can do?”

Confused, Hajime replied, “Uhhh...isn’t Hydra-san currently being roasted right in front of you?”

Hajime suddenly felt bad about beating the shit out of—and then eating—his daughter’s newest friend.



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