Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue 

Satou here. It’s fun and relaxing to program by myself as a hobby, but it’s also fun to work with a bunch of other creators, bouncing ideas off one another to make a finished product together. 

“You want to nominate me for the Eight Swordsmen of Shiga?” 

“I do. It wouldn’t be immediate, but I can introduce you to their leader, Sir Juleburg.” 

A few days had passed since the demon Ludaman’s rampage. 

General Erthal had summoned me to his office at the labyrinth army barracks one morning to discuss this proposal. 

“Your level isn’t high enough yet, but you fought an intermediate demon. Even that hardheaded Sir Juleburg won’t take that lightly. If you can’t join the Eight Swordsmen right away, surely you’ll at least be admitted to the Order of Holy Knights.” 

I understood that his intentions were 100 percent good, but to be honest, this was kind of inconvenient. 

“I don’t know if you could say I ‘fought’ an intermediate demon. I didn’t really land any hits—I basically ran away from him.” 

“That’s only because your level is still low. Nothing a little training can’t fix.” 

General Erthal was as thickheaded as ever. 

“Besides, you’ve survived encounters with no less than three intermediate demons now, haven’t you?” 

“I’m just quick to run away, that’s all.” 

I’d even gained a strange title called Runaway King, probably because of all that fleeing from the slime-Ludaman fusion. 

“Sir Pendragon, being skilled at evasion is something to be proud of. It’s only by surviving battles that you can build up experience and fight again.” 

I absolutely agreed with General Erthal’s statement, especially in a level-based world where you really could get stronger by racking up experience like an RPG. 

At any rate, it didn’t seem like any of my excuses were going to work on the general. 

I felt bad, but I would have to directly decline. 

“I’m terribly sorry, Your Excellency. I truly appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid I must decline any such promotion. The only lord I serve is Baron Muno. Truth be told, I only came to Labyrinth City to train with my companions-in-arms so that we might better assist with the barony’s revival.” 

That wasn’t exactly true, but it seemed like a good-enough reason to decline, so I decided to give it a try. 

“I see… He must be a truly remarkable lord to be worthy of such loyalty from you.” 

“Yes, quite so.” 

I smiled and nodded. 

Baron Muno really was a good guy, especially since he didn’t discriminate against demi-humans and the like. 

“Very well. Then I shall not press you any further. But if you change your mind, come back anytime. I’ll gladly promote you.” 

“Thank you very much. I’ll be sure to do so.” 

General Erthal finally accepted my rebuff of his offer. 

“Hey, Excellencyyy! I made some fairy wine as a gift for Sir Pendragon!” 

As if he’d been waiting for the tension in the room to ease, the foxfolk officer came in wheeling a wagon. 

Sweet melon whiskey turned out to be whiskey poured into the halves of a smallish melon. 

“Drinking this early in the day?” the general grumbled. 

This was normally when the captain would knock his subordinate on the head, but today he was away heading up the repair efforts. 

“Aw, this isn’t enough to get drunk off, right?” 

“I suppose not.” 

General Erthal nodded. 

Are you really okay with that? 

“These are high-quality melons. Are they from the Eluette Marquisate?” 

“I don’t know about the quality, but yes, you’re exactly right about where they’re from.” 

One of the nobles I met at the tea party had given me a bunch of lemons, saying that his wife’s family sent them. 

I was planning on making melon sorbet or something to thank him. 

“Come on, dig in, Sir Pendragon. The tastiest way to eat it is to mush up the melon inside so the juice mixes with the whiskey…” 

The foxfolk officer handed me a bowl and spoon. 

I guess I might as well. 

“Damn, that’s good.” 

“Riiight?” 

I was so surprised that I gave a murmur of wonder without thinking. 

The melon juice and whiskey went together surprisingly well. 

As I went on eating, the ratio of juice to alcohol changed along with the flavor, which was a lot of fun. 

“I bet this would work well with brandy, too.” 

“We’ve got Shigan sake, too…” 

Now, this was a taste I could get addicted to. 

A dry breeze blew in through the window of General Erthal’s office, high at the top of the building. 

The breeze and the melon cooled me off as I chatted with my drinking buddies. 

Somehow, it reminded me of when I would go to visit my grandfather during the Bon holiday and drank umeshu with my family. 

I’d have to try making some homemade umeshu to bring here sometime. 

Oh, and wind chimes, too. 

“Looks like we can’t get in with a carriage here, young master. Shall we go to the parking area?” 

Once the early drinking party at the labyrinth army barracks had wrapped up, I went to the west guild in a carriage driven by our new maid Annie. 

Of course, I’d already sobered up, and I used Everyday Magic to erase the smell of the liquor. 

I was sure Annie and the others wouldn’t want to deal with an employer who got drunk early in the morning. 

“No, I’ll just get out here. I want to look around a bit.” 

“All right. I’ll go and wait for you in the guild’s parking area, then.” 

After parting with Annie, I looked around the repair work being done at the guild plaza as I walked along the path to the guild building. 

In addition to General Erthal, the guildmaster and the viceroy’s wife had also requested to speak with me today. 

““Ah, hey, mister!”” 

The two women of the Lovely Wings party waved me over. 

“Are you two heading into the labyrinth?” 

“Yep, you got it!” 

“There’s not enough carriers with all this construction work going on, so we’re joining the garnet-badge expedition party.” 

“We’ll be able to pay off a lot of our debt after this gig!” 

It seemed they were still paying off the fine from the “chain rampage” they had been held responsible for causing the first time I met them. 

As a parting gift, I gave them several watered-down healing potions each. 

“Whoa, you sure, mister?” 

“Thanks a bunch!” 

Once I’d seen off the happy pair, I looked at the workers around the plaza. 

I could hear the captain shouting hoarsely as the labyrinth army golems carried materials around. 

There were a few very young kids at the construction site, but they were just doing odd jobs suited to their age, not heavy labor. 

According to what I’d heard at the soup kitchen, all the construction workers were being fed breakfast and lunch. 

That was probably why migrant workers from nearby towns and villages had come to work, too, not only the residents of Labyrinth City. 

I was using this influx of people as a chance to release more of the women I was protecting at the Ivy Manor, sending them to live in the tenements the explorer group had rented. 

“Don’t just stand there spacing out, young master. It’s dangerous.” 

“’Scuse me! Comin’ through!” 

Some familiar-looking young ladies ran by carrying a box. 

They were probably taking it to the area near the guild where food carts were lining up. 

Before long, the aroma of frying food filled the air. 

“The croquette line starts heeere!” 

“This is the end of the deep-fried-skewer line.” 

“Fried potatoes here, piping hot and crunchy!” 

Each of the three lines had a child standing at the back with a sign illustrating the corresponding dish. 

The master artist behind these DANCING CROQUETTES, WINNING SKEWERS, and FLYING FRIED POTATOES signs was none other than Tama. 

The last masterpiece she’d produced at the time, SUNLIT HAMBURG, was framed and hanging in the orphanage cafeteria. 

Apparently, some of the kids had taken to praying to it. 

“Ah, it’s Mr. Viscount!” 

One of the little girls next to the sign holders pointed at me and shouted. 

“Looks like you’re all working hard.” 

I patted her head, then handed out candies to all of the orphanage kids who were working as sign holders, telling them to keep it our little secret. 

“Oh, hey, mister! Lulu, your master’s here.” 

The redheaded Neru, who was working as a hawker in a maid outfit, called out to Lulu as she fried the croquettes behind the stall. 

There was a bit of a story behind Neru and Lulu working together. 

Some of the girls who’d been held captive in the labyrinth were too traumatized to enter it again, and since most of them had no way to make a living short of selling themselves, I had given them some food carts and recipes for croquettes and such as thanks for helping “Kuro” solve the predicament. 

Lulu was working with them to demonstrate the cooking techniques. 

“Welcome, master!” 

Lulu flashed me a dazzling smile. 

It was so cute that if this were a shojo manga, the flowers around her would probably spill over into the next panel. 

Sadly, I wasn’t able to see her chatting with Tifaleeza, who was taking the money and making change in lieu of a cash register. 

Miss Elder Sister and the blond noble didn’t seem to be on food-cart duty today. 

“Sorry to interrupt. I was just passing through, so I thought I’d see how things were going.” 

“Here, mister, for you!” 

“Thanks, Miss Neru.” 

“You can just call me Neru!” 

I accepted the small parcel of food she handed me, then headed into the guild. 

“Smells good. Got some skewers?” 

“Yes, help yourself.” 

I put the package of fried food from Neru and Lulu on the guildmaster’s desk. 

“Fried potatoes, too.” 

Sebelkeya peeked inside and nodded sagely. 

Unlike Mia, she generally ate meat, but she seemed especially fond of fried potatoes. 

Since these ones were fried using oil from the entangling canola that Mr. Dozon had mentioned at the rookie explorers’ class, they were relatively healthy. 

“Ushana, let’s get some ale. It’s the perfect pairing for meat skewers.” 

“No drinking until your work is finished, Guildmaster.” 

Secretary Ushana smiled politely as she denied the guildmaster’s request. 

“So what did you need to speak with me about?” 

“Oh, fine. But fried food loses its flavor when it cools down. Let’s eat and talk.” 

The guildmaster bit into the skewers as she spoke. 

“Firstly, about that cultivation business. We’ve learned that you need a special magic circle to do it properly.” 

“Does that mean the gag order has been lifted?” 

“No, you can still technically cultivate them without one, but it’s not as effective. The gag order still stands.” 

As such, the top-brass plunderers who had survived the incident the other day were going to be publicly executed as planned; the others would be reduced to criminal slaves, have their power of speech limited, and be sent to assist with the reclamation of the Azure Lands: a monster territory where the percentage of lost slaves was exceptionally high. 

It might seem harsh, but I didn’t feel particularly sorry for them. They were getting their just deserts, considering their misdeeds. 

“As for the main topic…” 

The guildmaster’s face grew serious, and she hesitated a moment. 

“It’s about that demon incident. Have you ever seen one of these, Satou?” 

The guildmaster pulled a cloth bundle from her pocket, unwrapping it to reveal a short horn and a long horn. 

“This one is a short horn. So…is that perhaps a different variety of the short horn?” 

I paused for a moment, then used my “Fabrication” and “Poker Face” skills to pretend I’d never seen the long horn before. 

“Pretend you never saw it, then.” 

I nodded, and she put the two horns away. 

“Do you know where those horns came from?” 

“Yes.” The guildmaster answered me immediately. “Poputema.” 

“…Did he confess to that himself?” 

“Yeah, he spilled everything. If you have any questions for him yourself, go to the viceroy’s place.” 

According to my map information, he was being confined in a separate house on the viceroy’s estate, not in the dungeon below the castle or even the spire where nobles were normally imprisoned. 

“By the way, have you heard from that Kuro fellow lately?” 

“No, not at all.” 

“Then I suppose this is the only place he’s come since then…” 

The night after the incident, I’d visited the guildmaster’s room as Kuro and asked her to protect Elder Sister Sumina and the others. 

When I’d innocently visited the guild the next day, they told me about Kuro and Miss Sumina, so I offered the fried-food recipes to help them. 

It all worked out pretty conveniently, since now I could support them from a distance. 

“Well, let me know if you hear from Kuro again.” 

“I will, of course.” 

Although that was unlikely to happen, since if I needed anything from the guildmaster as Kuro, I would probably just go straight to her. 

After that, Secretary Ushana asked if I could spare any assistance for the rebuilding of the guild property; I offered enough money so that I wouldn’t incite jealousy or suspicion from the other nobles. 

“…Sir Poputema?” 

When the viceroy’s wife and I went to visit, we were greeted by the now-legless Poputema, resting in a casket of white light. 

It was probably because his green-dyed hair had been cut and he didn’t have his usual makeup or manicure, but he gave the impression of a frail old man very different from the green-clad noble I knew. 

But his ashen face wasn’t moving in the slightest, making him appear dead. 

“Is he…alive?” 

I could tell through my AR display that he was, but I asked the viceroy’s wife anyway to try to find out what exactly was going on. 

“Yes, the viceroy is using his power to forcibly keep him alive.” 

“So that he can be questioned?” 

The viceroy’s wife shook her head quietly. 

“No. Once the temples of the six gods used their Holy Magic to cleanse him of the demon’s brainwashing, he confessed everything of his own accord.” 

I always thought he had a demon-like presence, but I’d never imagined that he was being brainwashed by one. 

I suppose even in the Muno Barony, my “Analyze” skill and AR display hadn’t been able to detect the demon consul’s Psychic Magic brainwashing. 

No wonder Psychic Magic carried such a strong stigma. 

As I later learned, it was the aged Head Priestess of Heraluon Temple who was able to sense his brainwashing, not any skill or Holy Magic. 

It was probably similar to how a skilled artisan could identify even the smallest error. 

I was a little curious as to why the number of gods seemed to be one short, but there was probably a good reason, so I didn’t press further. 

“Would you mind, my dear?” 

“Of course.” 

The viceroy nodded gravely at his wife. 

“O great spirit of Celivera City, I, the viceroy, implore you: Grant the diadem of power to your humble servant… ? Equipment Souchaku.” 

A ring-shaped light appeared around the viceroy’s forehead. When it vanished, he wore a circlet of blue-green crystal. 

He had probably summoned an item with which to use the City Core’s power. 

“I will now release the suspension. Sir Pendragon, please keep it brief.” 

He didn’t explain much, but I more or less understood. 

The City Core’s power was probably keeping Poputema alive in a state of suspended animation. 

“Suspended state, release.” 

The viceroy invoked one of the City Core’s key words. 

The white light around Poputema disappeared, and his lips and fingers began to twitch. 

“Nnnguuuuuohhhh!” 

A scream squeezed itself from Poputema’s mouth. 

“Darling, the anesthesia.” 

“O-of course. ? Remove Pain Mutsuu.” 

The viceroy used the City Core again, and Poputema’s screaming ceased. His breathing was still heavy, but he seemed to be able to speak. 

“Sir…Pendragon…” 

His eyes fell on me, and he called me over in a weak rasp. 

The viceroy’s wife nudged me forward, so I leaned my ear close to his mouth. 

“It seems…I’ve caused you…a great deal…of trouble.” 

His whispers were punctuated by frequent pauses. 

The viceroy’s spell was supposed to relieve him of pain, but he still seemed to be suffering. 

“I…owe you an apology and my thanks.” 

I used the menu to compensate for his halting speech in my mind as I listened. 

Now that he had been cleansed of the brainwashing, it was strange to hear him speak without saying “indeed” all the time. 

“Your kindness delayed the demons’ plans. That is a great achievement.” 

What had I done as Satou? Taking the homeless kids into the orphanage, I guess? 

I wasn’t really sure what plans he was talking about, though. 

“Without your good deeds, Celivera City would have fallen to ruin and been used to revive the demon lord before anyone realized what was happening.” 

Okay, I hadn’t even realized that was happening. 

From the sound of things, the demons really were trying to revive a demon lord in Celivera City. 

“Thanks to your delay and the work of that Hero’s follower, the demons panicked and resorted to hasty methods to try to revive the demon lord in Labyrinth City more quickly.” 

Did that mean there were still demons left? 

I searched the map, but there weren’t any demons in Labyrinth City or the kingdom land that encompassed it. 

I did notice a somewhat concerning presence in the mountains overlooking the city, but I could deal with that later. 

“No need to worry. Now that their forceful plan has failed, there will be no demon lord revived in Celivera for the foreseeable future.” 

Poputema spoke as if he’d read my mind. 

“The royal family and the Hero of the Saga Empire are bound to have taken notice of such conspicuous actions. The crafty demons will likely use that as a distraction and plot to revive the demon lord elsewhere. History makes that all too clear.” 

So Labyrinth City was safe, but there might be a demon lord revival somewhere else? 

It occurred to me again that the Tenion priestess in the old capital had told me that there were other areas where a demon lord revival was prophesized. 

I’d assumed the other six places were all just misses, but maybe not… 

“Therefore…” 

Poputema coughed violently. 

Blood trickled from the corner of his lips. 

“That will have to do.” 

The viceroy’s wife wiped the blood with a handkerchief. 

“What Poputema is trying to say is that your actions saved Celivera City. I shall award you the Celivera Holy Order Medal in the near future.” 

The viceroy spoke in the coughing Poputema’s place. 

I didn’t know what the medal was worth, but I’d admit it did make me happy to have my actions acknowledged. 

“One more thing.” 

Poputema’s voice wavered, as if he was speaking his last words. 

“I want you to tell the innocent people I hurt that I deeply apologize. I will entrust all my personal assets in Labyrinth City to you. Please distribute them to everyone who was hurt by my folly…” 

With that, Poputema’s eyes fluttered closed. 

“Darling!” 

“R-right. ? Suspended State Kashika.” 

The viceroy’s City Core stopped Poputema as he teetered on the verge of death. 

“Looks like we made it just in time.” 

“Good work, darling. Poputema still has one thing left to do.” 

The only possibilities I could think of for the near-death Poputema were either saying farewell to his next of kin or being presented to the kingdom as the mastermind behind the incident, but judging by the viceroy’s wife’s demeanor, I guessed that it was the former. 

Once we had determined the schedule for the medal-awarding ceremony, I left the viceroy’s castle. 

“Thanks to those reborn demons and the pink sphere, there should be plenty of miasma in Labyrinth City, indeed.” 

Standing on a mountain ridge looking down on Labyrinth City, a suspicious-looking man in green clothes murmured to himself. 

He spoke just like Poputema had as the green-clad noble, but physically the only resemblance he bore was his clothing, as he was otherwise a burly, macho man. A wyvern stood by his side with its wings folded in. 

I had all my stealth skills activated and had gotten close with successive uses of “Warp,” so the man and the wyvern didn’t seem to have noticed me yet. 

“As long as nothing gets in the way, soon the miasma will eat away at the people, and their negative feelings will permeate into the labyrinth, allowing the second coming of His Majesty, indeed.” 

He swept aside the sleeves of his dark-green cloak, spreading his arms dramatically like an actor on a stage. 

Sure enough, activating my “Miasma Vision” showed that Labyrinth City was producing a thick haze of miasma. 

Obviously, the demons’ plans hadn’t been completely thwarted yet. 

I’d just have to cleanse all that miasma later. 

“Enjoy your brief springtime while it lasts, indeed. Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho…” 

A shrill cackle ill-suited to the man’s stern features echoed across the mountains. 

According to my AR and map, his race displayed two overlapping words—Human and Avatar. Finding that suspicious, I’d simply come to investigate, but clearly he was related to the green greater demon who had been controlling Poputema. 

“Next I must help the pink one, indeed. So troublesome, but I must repay for the loan of the pink sphere, indeed.” 

He turned around, grimacing like a top-tier villain, then froze when he saw me sitting on top of a rock. 

Figuring I might as well, I tried giving him a friendly wave. 

“Wh-who are you, indeed?!” 

“…Nanashi the Hero.” 

When I responded coolly to the green-clad man, the wyvern finally noticed me and spread its wings in a threatening pose. 

“What exactly are you planning in Labyrinth City?” 

“Oh-ho-ho…” 

The man laughed loudly. 

“If you can catch me, perhaps I will tell you, indeed.” 

He pulled out two white spheres from his breast pocket, which produced magic circles from which two green lesser demons appeared. 

The man himself began to sink into the shadows beneath him. 

He was probably trying to use the lesser demons as a decoy while he escaped. 

I’m not letting that happen. 

I ignored the lesser demons, closed in on the green-clad man with “Warp,” and kicked him out of the shadows. 

“Guuuh! Wh-what did you do, indeed?!” 

The man groaned in pain. 

“How can an attack on my avatar reach my real body, indeed?!” 

I guess using a fusion of Sacredblade and Magic Armor on my foot when I kicked him must have worked. 

> Skill Acquired: “Holy Light Armor” 

Since I’d gained a new skill as a result, I put skill points into it and activated it right away. 

“E-enough, indeed. Stop that at once, indeeeeed!!” 

I decided to test out the new skill by kicking him again with blue light glowing around my foot, which he didn’t seem to like. 

The lesser demons and the wyvern had charged at me from behind to try to protect the man, so I destroyed them with Sacredblade on my fingertips. 

“To think you could damage me through my avatar… No wonder you were able to defeat the red, blue, and yellow senior demons, indeed. You are a completely freakish monster, indeed.” 

The man wobbled as he addressed me rather rudely. 

I reactivated my new “Holy Light Armor” and wrapped blue light around my fist. 

“I’ll destroy you too right now, then!” 

My punch left a streak of blue light in the air as it cracked into the green-clad man’s face. 

He spun and went flying across the ground, his head dragging through the dirt. 

“I-indeeeeed!” 

The man shrieked like a peculiar monster, turned into green smoke, and disappeared with a poof. 

I was kind of hoping he would dramatically explode, but I guess clichés can only go so far. 

I picked up the lesser demons’ cores from the ground and put the wyvern’s corpse away in Storage. The vanished green avatar didn’t seem to have dropped a core. 

I’d thought about putting a marker on the avatar and letting it go, but there was another one in the northernmost city of the royal territory. I put a marker on that one instead and destroyed this one to cheer myself up. 

Something else had caught my attention, so I headed up into the air with “Skyrunning.” 

“…Is that a magic circle?” 

Activating “Miasma Vision,” I looked down at Labyrinth City and found that the miasma appeared to be in the shape of a black magic circle. 

If my memory was correct, it lined up perfectly with the green-clad noble’s nighttime walking route. 

So he’d chosen that strange path to trace a magic circle, not just to mess with me. 

However, certain areas, like the location of my house and parts of downtown, were wiped clean, leaving the magic circle broken and nonfunctioning. 

I went back home with the Return spell and strolled around with my spirit light fully activated to erase the magic circle. 

Mia was the only person currently in Labyrinth City with the Spirit Vision gift, so it should be fine. 

“Caught you, Pochi!” 

“Awww, I got caught again, sir.” 

The power-limiting items I’d given Tama and Pochi seemed to be working well. 

Waving at the kids as they played in the empty lot, I continued my walk. 

“Mia, dear, your music is always lovely.” 

“It makes me feel stronger by the day!” 

“Mrrr. Flattery.” 

Mia was performing for a group of elderly folks by the reservoir. 

All of them were smiling and looked energetic. 

“See yooou?” 

“Thankee, dearie.” 

As I walked along by the ranch, I saw Tama hopping over a fence as an old lady bowed behind her. 

“Granny?” 

“Here, drink this. The little cat-eared girl gave us some herbs.” 

The elderly woman boiled the herbs and gave them to her sickly grandchild. 

I’d forgotten how good Tama was at identifying and gathering medicinal herbs. 

Walking down a street of farmhouses, I arrived close to the north gate near the private houses. 

“Bwa-ha-ha, what a haul!” 

“Good work, Arisa!” 

“Now we’ll get extra food for dinner!” 

“Larvae, praise me as well, I request.” 

“Ah-ha-ha, you’re so funny, Nana.” 

Arisa and Nana were walking along with large packages, followed by a gaggle of children. 

They’d been setting traps near where veria plants grew, catching lots of veria mice and sand moles. 

“It reminds me of hunting for stag beetles over summer vacations.” 

Arisa gave me a sunny smile. 

I guess her childhood had been pretty wild. 

After we parted ways, I walked through the noble quarters and the nature park that contained the Ivy Manor. 

“Allow me to accompany you, master.” 

Once I’d done a loop around the city and returned to the west gate, I met up with Liza. 

She’d been running along the outer walls of Labyrinth City as part of her training. Unsurprisingly, it was Arisa who had given her this idea. 

Arisa probably thought it would cheer Liza up, since she’d seemed depressed that she wasn’t more help in the battle against the silver intermediate demon. 

“Did you enjoy your run?” 

“…Yes, sir.” 

She didn’t seem to like it very much. 

“I guess we should start exploring the labyrinth again soon.” 

“Yes, master!” 

At my casual comment, Liza broke into a bold smile. 

Aside from harvesting hopping potatoes and walking beans, the group hadn’t been in the labyrinth much lately. 

“All right, maybe we can start tomorrow, then.” 

“I shall inform the others at once!” 

Liza dashed away, leaving me behind. 

With the pleasant background noise of children laughing and construction workers bustling around, I watched Liza vanish into the distance. 

Her tail was whipping rhythmically back and forth. 

“Is she that excited to get back into the labyrinth?” 

Smiling to myself, I looked up at the cloudless sky. 

Walking around the city with my spirit light fully active seemed to have worked well: The shroud of miasma had disappeared from above Labyrinth City. 

It was probably safe to assume that the demons’ plot to revive a demon lord in Labyrinth City was now thoroughly vanquished. 

As I strolled past the street stalls, some enthusiastic hawker kids called out to me brightly. 

“Mister! We’ve got spices that’d go great with any meat dish. Why don’t you take some home?” 

“Take a look at our Eluette rock salt, too.” 

“We just got a fresh batch of sesame sauce, a Vistall Duchy specialty!” 

If we were going back into the labyrinth, we’d certainly need to stock up on spices and ingredients for some meat and vegetable dishes. 

“Maybe I should do a little taste testing?” 

Murmuring to myself, I wandered over to take a look at the kids’ wares. 

The following day was shaping up to be perfect labyrinth-exploring weather.