Chapter 16 - Return (3)

Light fills my vision, then a softer light settles over it as my sight returns.

I stared blankly up at the sky. It had been so long since I had seen light this bright.

Well, it was still a dreary gray sky.

“Derek, heading back to your lodgings?”

“After a whole month in there? Not a chance. I'm going straight to a tavern once I've washed up.”

“I'm baaaaaack!!”

“All explorers of Grade 7 or below, this way, please!”

Calling the place noisy didn't begin to cover it. That was only natural, with every explorer who had entered the Labyrinth converging on one spot, but...

Even so, I hadn't realized this city had so many explorers. It was like looking at Gwanghwamun during the World Cup.

CLICK, CLICK.

I adjusted my watch to twelve. Only a single day passed in the city while you were in the Labyrinth. No matter how many days you spent inside, you emerged at noon the following day.

'When I was playing, I just thought it was considerate worldbuilding on the developer's part...'

This way, you could continue quests in the city even after a trip to the Labyrinth. I'd thought it was simply a convenience for the player.

“Bjorn, son of Jandel!”

Who was that? The voice sounded familiar...

I turned toward it and saw a barbarian roughly as tall as I was. He had been my first leader, so I remembered him clearly.

“Karaq, second son of Vinon.”

“Third son of Vanon.”

Huh? Was Aynar the second, then?

Anyway, even in a crowd like this, tall barbarians had no trouble spotting one another.

“Serum, fourth son of Cenik! You made it back alive too!”

“I'm glad you look well yourself, Karaq, third son of Vanon!”

I had literally done nothing but stand there, yet barbarians started flocking over.

“Hahahahaha! Razor mane wolves were nothing special! Not a single one could take more than one blow from my axe!”

“With your valiant axe work, of course they couldn't, Farman, son of Nerun!”

Was this some kind of class reunion? In no time, my head was spinning. They kept greeting one another with those ridiculously long names and praising each other's prowess.

These guys really were something. They didn't seem all that bright, so how did they manage to memorize those long names so well?

“Bjorn! What are you doing? We're off to exchange our magic crystals! Aren't you coming?”

I cleared my throat and answered as thunderously as I could.

“Ah, I'm coming!”

“You must be exhausted!! There's no strength in your voice!!”

“I am!”

I'd thought I was doing a good job of acting like a barbarian, but my confidence was slipping.

Natives really were on another level.

“There it is!”

“The place where warriors prove their valor!”

Moving along with the barbarians, I naturally got to go through the formalities required of an explorer. Nothing much, really—just exchanging magic crystals for money at a checkpoint.

“That's 24,476 Stone.”

“That's 28,420 Stone.”

“That's 41,498 Stone.”

It was like a supermarket checkout. Especially how fast their hands moved.

The civil servants working at the tables were efficiency itself. They placed the crystal pouches on something as though scanning barcodes, then mechanically handed over the money once a number appeared.

As I watched, somewhat fascinated, the savages around me once again started chatting at the tops of their lungs, without a shred of shame.

“Ooooh! More than forty thousand Stone! Truly impressive!”

“Karaq, third son of Vanon, is a warrior among warriors!”

Whew. Was it because I'd spent the last few days with an elf? I couldn't get used to this at all.

Speaking of which, I needed to find Erwin... Why were these guys the only ones coming over, instead of the person I was looking for?

I really had just been standing there.

“Bjorn, son of Jandel! It's your turn!”

My turn came while I was sighing. I approached the table and set the pouches down in front of a civil servant who looked dead inside.

“Do all three pouches contain magic crystals?”

The other two belonged to the lanky guy and the samurai. But now they were all mine. That had happened about forty minutes ago.

“They do.”

When I nodded, the civil servant placed the pouches on something resembling a scale, then recited the exact amount.

“That's 182,413 Stone.”

A piece of bread cost about twenty Stone, so had I earned more than nine thousand pieces of bread in seven days? It felt like just yesterday that I'd been miserable about earning a single piece of bread for killing a goblin.

... For some reason, I was getting emotional.

“A hundred and eighty thousand Stone! Bjorn, son of Jandel, has earned a hundred and eighty thousand Stone!”

“An all-time record! Bjorn, son of Jandel, is the greatest warrior of all time!”

These bastards wouldn't even give me a moment to savor it.

I hurriedly accepted the money from the civil servant and left the checkpoint.

Once I emerged from the crowd, the savages who had come out before me apparently got their first proper look at my appearance. They started making fools of themselves too.

“It's not just the Stone! He's carrying a hammer!”

“No, he's even wearing shoes! I'm jealous!”

“He has three bags!”

“He's looking at a watch! Can he actually tell time?”

“How is this possible? Is Bjorn, son of Jandel, a mage?”

Well, their reaction wasn't entirely incomprehensible. It must have felt like magic.

After all, I was probably the first barbarian to enter the Labyrinth with nothing and return having evolved into a civilized man!

Fuck, all this excessive praise was getting my body worked up on its own.

Easy, easy. Calm down, Bjorn.

I...

“I am the greatest warrior of all!!”

“Waaaaaaah!!!”

My shout sent the barbarians into a frenzy. Then they lifted me up and started tossing me into the air.

Surprisingly, it felt better than I'd expected.

Whatever. To hell with it.

“You can't make so much noise here.”

“Sorry! We apologize!”

“I mean, please lower your voices...”

“UNDERSTOOD!!”

The madness finally subsided only after an employee came over to reprimand us. At last, I recovered my composure and sat on the ground like the savages around me, waiting for the rest to finish at the checkpoint.

That was when it happened.

“...”

Feeling someone's gaze, I turned to find an elf watching me from amid the bustling crowd of explorers.

It was Erwin.

How long had she been watching? Please tell me she'd only arrived after they finished tossing me around...

“...”

Whether she knew how I felt or not, Erwin smiled in greeting when our eyes met. But the beautiful male and female elves beside her started talking to her, and she soon looked away.

Curious, I listened in. Their conversation was quite refreshing. The way they cheerfully chattered in quiet voices, addressing the older elves so affectionately... It felt almost unreal.

“I'm starting to understand how to work with spirits! I think I get why Grandma Grinderin kept telling me to become friends with them first!”

“Oh, really? Fire spirits are said to be rather impatient, so I'm sure you'll hear yours speak soon.”

Ah, so that's the crowd you belong to.

Meanwhile, all I've got around me are these barbarian bastards.

I'm jealous...

As I watched Erwin with something like longing for what I couldn't have, our eyes met again. Seizing my chance, I mouthed a time to her.

'Tonight.'

Erwin tilted her head, then giggled and mouthed a reply.

'Yes!'

One thing was clear: Erwin found this secret exchange tremendously entertaining. But I wasn't sure she'd understood me.

Had she even said “yes” in the first place?

Whew. I'd have to have a proper conversation with her once she left the checkpoint.

Just as that thought crossed my mind...

“Why do you keep looking over there? Is it someone you know?”

“N-no! Of course not!”

At the older elf's question, Erwin vehemently waved her hands in denial. Then, when she got a chance, she glanced at me and mouthed,

'I'm sorry!'

I seemed to have caught that one correctly. I also quickly understood her gestures as she discreetly pointed at the older elf and shook her head.

She'd had no choice because of her, I supposed.

Well, we were more or less in the same boat.

“Bjorn, son of Jandel! What are you staring at? Is that an elf you know?”

“No!”

“Of course not! The greatest warrior of all time wouldn't associate with those treacherous pointy-ears!”

I wanted to clap a hand over the bastard's mouth, but I couldn't. His voice was so loud that the nearby elves turned to glare at us.

Erwin was among them. She looked at me with bitterness in her eyes and managed a strained nod, as if to say she understood.

“Hah...”

That sorrowful look finally brought me crashing back to reality. What the hell were we doing?

It wasn't as though we were Romeo and Juliet.

“Let's go!”

Soon, the barbarians finished at the checkpoint and came out to the entrance. It seemed impossible to talk to Erwin while she was surrounded by elves, no matter how long I waited, so I went along with them.

Yet another crowd awaited us outside. I was sick of crowds.

“Dad! Are you hurt? I missed you!”

“Hey! Over here!”

Right, the game had something like this too. Put simply, these people were the explorers' families and acquaintances.

“Let's go! I'll clear a path!”

“Woooooo!”

Following the barbarians, I pushed through a crowd swirling with welcome, elation, despair, grief, and affection. As I went, I studied their faces one by one.

It felt strange.

“Rimarion! My husband—where is my husband? Don't tell me...”

“I'm sorry. He asked me to give you this.”

“No... No, please. No... Aah!”

I had played [Dungeon and Stone] countless times. But all around me were expressions I could never have understood through the 2D graphics on a monitor.

* * *

There was only one reason I'd gone out of my way to accompany the barbarians. Like the checkpoint earlier, I thought there might be more procedures a newcomer to the city needed to go through.

That expectation proved spectacularly wrong.

“Booze! Let's drink!”

“Wooooooo!”

The first place the savages headed after leaving the Labyrinth was a tavern.

Were they kidding me?

“I'll pass.”

“Why, greatest warrior, Bjorn, son of Jandel?”

They'd added a title to a name that was already too long.

Mentally reminding myself to be patient, I excused myself, saying I had somewhere I needed to be.

“May fortune favor you in battle, greatest warrior, Bjorn, son of Jandel!”

As I kept discovering, any prediction based on common sense was useless with these guys.

“Whew. Finally, some quiet.”

Spending even a little time with the savages made me feel like I was losing my mind. Had Erwin felt the same way when she was with me?

I'd have to tone down the barbarian act from now on.

My footsteps trudged on. After parting ways with them, I wandered through the city. I had a destination, but for now, I just felt like going wherever my feet took me.

It was peaceful.

It had been the middle of the night when I first saw this city, but now, in daylight, people filled the streets. Surprisingly, that made me feel safe.

“...”

There were no monsters here. No humans who would hurt me, either.

I could collapse in the street and sleep, and still wake up unharmed. No, someone might even offer me a helping hand.

Here, there were laws, rules, and room to breathe.

Of course, this was a distant other world, and I knew that despite appearances, almost everything—their thinking, culture, social institutions—would be barbaric compared with the twenty-first century.

Even so, it was peaceful. At least compared with the Labyrinth where I'd spent the past seven days.

“...”

Wanting to savor that sense of safety a little longer, I kept walking. Perhaps because explorers had just poured out of the Labyrinth, my blood-drenched appearance didn't particularly stand out. No one gave me strange looks, either.

But as I walked, I began to want a wash. So I went into the first inn I saw, rented a room, and washed up.

It was a little surreal, washing a human body and seeing more bright red blood run off than dirty water.

“...”

After spending about an hour thoroughly scrubbing myself clean, I stepped out and found the clothes I'd been wearing unbearably filthy.

Damn it, I should have bought clothes before washing.

I wanted a nap, but instead, I went back out into the streets to find a clothing shop.

But why was it? No one was looking at me strangely, yet for some reason, I felt embarrassed.

I was still shirtless, still wearing the same trousers stained with dirt and blood. If anything, my body was much cleaner now...

Yet I felt as though I'd become a savage again.

Why?

“Welcome!”

As I entered what looked like a clothing shop, a friendly employee approached. They smiled warmly despite my being a barbarian who looked like a beggar.

I'd rarely seen employees this professional even in Seoul...

“A shirt? If you'd like something custom-made, the building next door... Oh, you're looking for something to wear right away? I'm not sure we'll have anything that fits, but I'll take a look.”

With the employee's help, I managed to buy a shirt so tight it looked ready to burst, along with a pair of black cloth trousers. The total came to 2,500 Stone.

I had no idea whether I'd been ripped off. I'd never bought purely cosmetic clothes in the game, either.

“Please come again!”

Now looking fairly presentable, I returned to the inn.

I'd felt it when I watched the civil servant exchange magic crystals, and again while talking to that employee: there was something strangely modern about this city of Raphdonia.

Most of the buildings were made of stone, and they were all tall. In fact, it was hard to find a building of three stories or fewer along the main streets. When I'd washed, water had even come out of a faucet.

Perhaps living in this city would be more manageable than I'd expected.

“...”

Before long, I reached the inn and lay down on the bed. As I recalled the events of the past seven days one by one, I realized I wasn't so different from Mister Hans after all.

When I'd first landed here, survival had been my only goal.

But what about now?

At last, I said the words I'd held back countless times.

“I want to go home.”

I wanted to go back.

Even if there wasn't a single person there to welcome me.