Maydare Volume 2 Chapter 6 - School Island Labyrinth I (Part 2)

 With school starting up soon, I probably won't be updating very frequently for the next few months. I'm happy that I managed to get more than half of the volume done this summer, though

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Our first target was a【Fire】automaton with easily identifiable weaknesses. 

It was easy to find because of its large size.

We cornered it to the wall with water magic, and then I shot “flame arrows” into the automaton’s legs.

Then, unable to stabilize its large figure, the【Fire】automaton immediately toppled over. The impact caused its eyeball to fall out.

“Oooh~”

“It looks like a gemstone.”

We got a glittering red eyeball.

However, Lapis was the only one who approached the fallen automaton…

“!?”

She attacked its arm joint with magic and tore it off!

All of us were shocked.

“W-w-what are you doing, Lapis!?”

“This automaton is made of a magical alloy. Since it’s so rare, let’s turn it into a weapon.”

“Huh, a weapon?”

We didn’t know what she meant. Lapis raised her hand to the torn-off automaton’s arm and chanted an incantation.

“Lapis twi twilight——Alchemize, type: spear.”

Upon that, the automaton’s arm changed shape into a long, thin spear.

“Whoa, isn’t that alchemy!? We learn it in third year.”

“That reminds me, the Twilight clan makes a living out of spatial magic and alchemy.”

Frey and Nero were both impressed. I applauded as well. It seemed that in this shape, it would be very useful as a weapon.

The next thing we came across was a mannequin-shaped【Water】automaton that we first saw after entering the labyrinth. 

It attacked with bubbles that looked like soap bubbles that it shot from its mouth.

The bubbles would explode when touched, but they were not very powerful and could be defended against with normal magic walls.

This automaton was easy to be fooled by because of its stature and uncanny appearance, but its movements were slow and its back was unguarded. So Lapis, holding the spear, got behind it and pierced its head with the spear to stop it from moving. Its blue eyeball fell out. We got it.

Afterwards, we wandered around the labyrinth for a while and came to an open space surrounded by pillars.

There was a square box placed in the center.

Apparently, this was an automaton with the【Earth】attribute. The box was made of earth, and its surface was covered with green moss and flowers. 

In this pure white world, it was a little creepy that the only place plants were growing on was this box. It was an automaton, but it didn’t move and we couldn’t find its eyeballs…

Why don’t we just set it on fire? Just as I was thinking this, the top of the box snapped open and a huge flower with a face appeared inside.

“!?”

It opened its big mouth wide and ate Nero, who was at the very front, and then dragged him right into the box. Nero didn’t even scream…

The box closed, allowing even more plants to spread.

“H-hey, what are we going to do? Nero’s been eaten by that huge flower!”

“Wait, you gotta be kidding me! You can’t attach the【Grass】attribute to an【Earth】attribute.”

“【Grass】does correspond to【Earth】, after all.”

“Don’t tell me that so calmly, Miss Lapis!”

But this was bad. This was like Nero was being taken hostage, and it was as if 【Fire】magic, which【Grass】magic was weak against, had been blocked. Nero would get set on fire!

“...Haa.”

Right at that moment, I recalled something.

The white stones scattered around this space.

The guide paper I received in the beginning said that this first labyrinth was made of stones from the Salt Forest. That means…

I bent down, picked up some white stones that were lying on the ground, and chanted an incantation.

“Myr vis makia——Stones of the Salt Forest, set forth a drought.”

And then, I turned to the white stones on my palm and blew on them.

The white stones turned into fine powder, glittering and sparkling in the air around the box automaton. Then the plants enveloping the box automaton began to wither away.

“What’s that spell just now?”

Frey’s eyes widened.

“The stones from the Salt Forest contain salt and magic power, and when they are ground into a powder, they can be used as a magical ‘herbicide.’ Fire isn’t the only thing plants don’t like.”

“So in short, did you use the rocks in this space to make an herbicide, Makia?”

“That’s exactly it, Lapis.”

The magical materials from the “Salt Forest” of my hometown and my specialty, Potions, came in handy. The tree roots and flowers around the box-shaped automaton have completely withered away, leaving only the box within bare.

We have to hurry up to save Nero, I said and ran over, but then...

“Aaah. ...It was suffocating in there.”

Without us even having to open it, the lid of the box opened by itself, and Nero crawled out from inside.

Before we knew it, he was gripping a “brown” eyeball in his hand.

It seemed that Nero had beat up the flower that ate him inside the box and took its eyeball. As expected.

Now we collected the eyeballs of the【Fire】, 【Water】, and【Earth】automatons. There was only one left.

“Alright! Then the next thing is...having a meal we do anything else.”

“A meal, really?”

My stomach grumbled, as though in response to Frey’s quip.

No, I was too hungry to move any more than this.

The cereal bars were useful for restoring magic power and physical strength, the result of improvements upon improvements by the Lune Ruschia Magical Athletics Laboratory. The oatmeal was mixed with crushed nuts and dried fruits. Oh, and some marshmallows and chocolates.

“There aren’t any potatoes, right?”

“It’s been a long time since we haven't had to eat potatoes…”

Just as Frey and Nero muttered, the Potato Report was put on hold for this time only.

The cereal bars were quite bland, but they tasted pretty good once you got used to them. Regardless of what anyone says, everyone seemed to be hungry, and we all silently devoured the bars. We looked a bit like hamsters…

This kind of food almost dried my mouth up, but I gulped down an energy drink. I was recovering my depleted strength and magic power. 

“Haa. Now all that’s left is…”

“There’s just that【Wind】automaton that we haven’t been able to find since we first saw it.”

When we had settled down, Nero and I broached the subject.

We peered at the map of the labyrinth, wondering if we should go back to the place where we first came across it.

“Leader―. You’re blessed by【Fire】, so stay still during the【Wind】battle. It would be terrible if the fire is fanned and spreads to us.”

Frey grinned and said something sarcastic as he opened another bag of cereal bars.

So I appropriately replied, “Why don’t you just use rainmaking magic to put out the fire when that time comes?”

“Aren’t you weak against water, Leader?”

“I’m fine with rain. I just can’t swim.”

“What kind of situation is ‘I can’t swim’? People can float reasonably well if they’re calm.”

In response to Nero’s question, I gripped my cereal bar and appealed, “I don’t float!”

“My body stiffens, and I feel like my legs are being pulled from the bottom of the water. No matter how much I struggle, I only sink, and I feel like I’m sinking even if I stay still.”

”Blessed Children have a lot to deal with...really.”

I nodded vigorously at Lapis’ words. It wasn’t all that convenient, really.

“In the past, I wasn’t afraid of drowning because Thor would definitely rescue me…”

When I said that much, I started in surprise. Everyone was looking at me with great interest.

After all, I hadn’t really talked about Thor with the team before.

“Thor is...one of the Savior’s Guardians at the ball before, right?” Nero said.

“I believe he was Makia’s former servant,” Lapis said.

“That good-looking guy with black hair? No way, don’t tell me that you fell in love with your own retainer~?” Frey said.

“No, you’re wr…” I turned red and tried to deny it, and then slowly looked down.

I couldn’t seem to deny that they were wrong.

“Yes. I loved Thor. There was talk of him being adopted into our family as a son-in-law, and he said he’ll always be by my side, but he was chosen as a Guardian...aah…”

I revealed everything frankly, and then took the cereal bar in both hands and bit into it, letting the tears fall.

My team members gave each other sidelong glances.

“...Really? That’s the real deal.”

“This is because Mr. Frey said something insensitive.”

“Oi, Makia, are you okay? You should either cry or eat.”

Frey, Lapis, and Nero worried about me in their own ways. I wasn’t sure if they were being kind or not.

“Ah, oi! Look at that!”

That was when it happened. Nero got up and walked out from under the stairs. We followed him.

In the direction Nero was pointing, the ball-shaped automaton with the【Wind】attribute was rolling down a corridor a little higher than here. It was creating a whirlwind around it.

Once I saw the automaton we were aiming for, my maiden’s tears receded.

“It’s here, that white eyeball is ours!”

We hurriedly picked up our bags and chased after the ball-shaped automaton.

But when we reached the spot where we had seen the ball-shaped automaton, we ran into another team across from it.

And it was Garnet Team 1. Beatrice’s group.

We glared at each other with sparks flying between our eyes, because we knew what each other wanted.

“Hey, we found this automaton first. Do you understand?”

I high-handedly threatened. However, Beatrice relaxedly flipped her blonde hair.

“That is not my concern. The first to get the eyeball wins. Isn’t that right?”

“Ugh. Well, that’s true.”

Grr… “Leader’s too weak,” Frey said when I backed down immediately.

Beatrice let out a giggle and gave an order to her butler, Nicholas Harbury, who was standing right behind her, as though to say victory went to whoever made the first move.

“Nicholas! Get it over with!”

”Yes, Mistress Beatrice.”

With his hand on his chest and an elegant smile, he turned the right half of his body into clear water.

This was a surprise to us in Garnet Team 9.

“Ohohoho! My Nicholas, who is blessed by【Water】, can turn parts of his body into water and manipulate them at will! And that water pressure is superior to even the wind!”

“No way! Your butler is blessed by【Water】!?”

The butler, with a humble smile on his half-transformed face, said something like, “I was also at the lecture for the Blessed Children…”

Frey and I were stupefied. In our impression of him, he was always with Beatrice, so I guess we couldn’t recognize him as a separate being…?

Now. While we were baffled in this way, the butler was stealthily making the water he controlled spread across the ground. By the time we noticed it, it was already flowing under the ball-shaped automaton and under us.

“This is bad! They beat us to it!”

At almost the same time as Nero’s shout, the butler’s【Water】formed into a number of bands and spewed up from the ground. The bands of water rushed towards the【Wind】automaton and twisted around it, creating a huge column of water. The automaton was trapped in the water, or rather, in the hands of the butler.

“Gyah~~~”

Not only that, but we were also caught in a jet of water that blew us into another corridor. It was like something out of a gag manga.

I heard the laughter of Team 1 led by Beatrice. That made me angry. They didn’t even do anything!

“At this rate, the automaton will be Team 1’s.”

Nero immediately stood up and hit the water pillar with various spells, but all of them could only affect the surface of the water.

That wasn’t ordinary water, but water that could be manipulated at will by a Blessed Child. It was like a very solid and heavy wall.

“Lapis, can you use transference magic to bring that automaton over here?”

“...I can’t. I have to be closer, preferably touching it.”

“Oh man, this is bad. The automaton’s about to be crushed by the water pressure. It’s already over for us.”

Nero and Lapis were trying to figure out what we could do, but Frey was already giving up.

As for me, I shook off the water, which was my weakness, like a dog.

“It’s still too early to give up!” 

I glared sternly at the column of water, pulled out a strand of my own hair, and borrowed Lapis’ spear.

“What are you going to do, Makia?”

“I’m going to wrench a hole open in this water pillar with heat. Then I’ll pierce the automaton and push it out.”

“What!?”

I explained such and such to my surprised team members and asked for their cooperation.

The others agreed to my idea, as though to say, “let’s take a chance.”

I wrapped the strand of my hair around the tip of the spear and asked Nero to calculate the exact trajectory, Lapis to assist with the magic of the jet that would shoot the spear, and Frey to take care of another matter…

“Myr vis makia——Spear of fire, pierce through!”

I threw the spear, the tip of which had been heated red by my heat magic, into the water pillar.

The long, slender spear pierced through the thick pillar of water and grazed the body of the【Wind】automaton, though it didn’t pierce it. It then passed through the water pillar and pierced into the salt stone wall on the other side.

“What!?”

Nicholas Harbury, who was creating that water pillar, and his mistress Beatrice were stunned, wide-eyed at our bizarre attack.

Soon after, the water pillar burst apart with a pang, sending up steam.

The butler undid it himself, probably because he couldn’t withstand the heat.

I saw the ball-shaped automaton, freed from the water pillar, spinning furiously on the ground again. I said furiously, but it was kind of amazing. It felt like it was breaking down and going wild.

It created a tornado that was nothing like what it had been creating until now, and it sucked in all the water vapor in the area, making it impossible for anyone to do anything about it. The members of Team 1, who were right next to us, could only bend down and guard themselves with a magic wall.

But, yes. Its weakness remained the same. All we had to do was block the automaton’s movements.

“Now, Frey!”

I couldn’t see Frey, but,

“Fre i noa——Shake and split!”

As soon as I thought I heard his messy incantation from somewhere, a large fissure formed right underneath the automaton. The automaton became stuck in the crack and was unable to spin.

When its movements stopped, the wind stopped. We had anticipated this and had already made our way back to the original corridor. Frey also appeared from right below the corridor.

Frey was blessed by【Earth】, so he could cling to the underside of the corridor, and he was good at ground-breaking magic.

“Good grief, slipping right underneath it and cracking the ground is too unreasonable, you know, Leader~”

“Okay, Frey, go get the eyeball! You’re the fastest!”

The ball-shaped【Wind】automaton that got stuck in the ground trembled on the spot for a while, and then it broke down and the white eyeball fell out with a plop.

“All right, I got it!”

Frey was the first to rush over and reach for the eyeball that rolled out. At that moment…

“Please forgive me, Your Highness!”

“Eeeh!?”

Amazingly, Beatrice grasped our movements firmly and put a binding spell on Frey. Beatrice, what are you doing to the fifth prince~.

The white eyeball escaped from Frey’s grasp and rolled and rolled at its own convenience…

“Crap! It’s gonna fall from the corridor, Leader!”

“Go, Nicholas!”

I was already right next to the white eyeball and reaching for it. The butler was also running towards me with quick movements of his body.

The two of us jumped at the white eyeball at the same time.

However, our hands bumped into each other, and for some reason, the butler withdrew his hand. In short, the one who got it first was——

“I got the white eyeball!”

It was me, it was me. I held up the white eyeball I had gotten.

Unnoticed to us, the people from other teams had gathered to watch the battle between Team 1 and Team 9, and they were applauding all over the place. Thank you, thank you.

“This…This cannot be!”

Beatrice was the only one who seemed to be unable to accept the reality of the situation, with her mouth gaping open.

The other members of Team 1 were pretty much invisible.

”My condolences, Beatrice, but the first to get the eyeball wins. If that’s the case, then it’s a victory for our planning and persistence. Ohohohohohoho!”

Beatrice’s bitter face at my affected loud laughter was too good to resist.

The butler said, “My deepest apologies, Mistress,” and bowed dispiritedly to his mistress.

His face seemed like it was burning for some reason…

“No, you did your best, Nicholas. More importantly…”

Beatrice didn’t blame her butler, but after touching his cheeks and forehead several times, she gently took his hand and got a sullen look on her face.

“No way, did your hand get burned, butler boy!? When was it, was it when I pierced through the water with the spear? Did I make a hole in your stomach or something??”

“Ahaha!” As I stood at the side, turning pale, the butler laughed a clear laugh.

“I myself would not get injured because the water produced by my Blessed Child constitution was pierced through. It was merely that the heat in your spear caused blood to rush to my head.”

“Oh, now that you mentioned it, those blessed by【Water】are prone to getting dizzy...is that why you released the water pillar back then?”

“Yes. Water is surprisingly sensitive to heat. And this burn on my hand is probably from direct contact with Miss Makia’s hand from when we were fighting for the eyeball. Oh, it was very hot.”

I see. So that was why the butler withdrew his hand when he touched my hand.

However, at the same time, a question rose in my mind.

The butler was blessed by【Water】. The blue clown that attacked me in the capital was also said to be blessed by【Water】, but my heat constitution didn’t seem to have any effect on him…

“Mmm?”

I heard a disturbing cracking sound near my feet. And then…

“Wah, waaaaaaah!”

Because of the ground-breaking magic used earlier, this stretch of the corridor tore open at once, and we from Team 9 and some of Team 1 fell along with the crumbling footing.

While the other team members were being scooped up by the saucer-shaped lifeboats, I was the only one not being picked up, and I was freefalling down the labyrinth.

It was as though I was being sucked into hell.

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