Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

The morning two days later, in front of Kyle’s home.

“Kyle-chan, make sure to eat some vegetables as well, and not just fish or meat, okay.”

“Yeah, I get it already…”

Kyle had finished preparing for his departure, but found himself unable to move because his mother Seraia was clinging to him.

“Don’t worry, I’m going with him.” Lieze had prepared her luggage as well. “Leave it to me.” She gently tapped herself on the chest.

“Yup yup, please take care of Kyle-chan, Lieze-chan.” Seraia said, wiping her tears away with a handkerchief.

This same scenery had repeated for the past few minutes, so Kyle had to shove his mother away to break free of that vicious cycle.

“We’ll be going, then.”

“Come back from time to time. And stay healthy.” Seraia waved her hand, as she blew her nose.

“I have high hopes in you, Kyle…And, treasure your allies.”

“Yeah, I got it, Da…wait, you were here, Dad?”

Even though his father Roel stood next to Seraia this entire time, Kyle hadn’t caught on to his presence at all.

“I came back the day before yesterday, and was home the entire day yesterday…”

“I-I had no idea…” Kyle muttered, faintly remembering that food was always ready on the table, despite Lieze being nowhere to be seen.

“Are you sure we should let him go on a journey like this…?” Seraia asked, clearly worried.

“I understand that you must be worried, but it’s fine. After all, he’s our child.”

“That’s right…He’s our child, so we can only put faith in him. I’m sorry, honey.”

“As long as you understand, Seraia.”

“Anyway, we’ll be going now, you two.” Kyle watched the scenery of his parents entering a world of their own, so he quickly tried to escape.

“See you~” Lieze waved her hand next to Kyle.

“You done as well?” He asked her.

“Yeah, I told auntie and uncle, and I went to report everything at my parents’ graves as well.”

“Everything read for the journey?”

“No worries there. I had to prepare less than when I secluded myself in the mountains for a month that one time.”

“You did that…? Still, I’d really like it if you could stay behind after all.”

“You won’t convince me with that. I already decided to go with you.” Seeing Lieze’s bright smile, Kyle knew better than to keep arguing.

At the place they decided to meet up at, Seran and Urza were waiting already.

“Man, I sure am lucky to have such a beauty as my ally~”

“I’m but a supervisor! I don’t remember becoming one of your allies! Also, can you not cling to me like that…” Urza seemed more than bothered because of Seran, but he himself couldn’t be in a better mood.

“I’m so glad that it ain’t just me and Kyle. Travelling with another man would completely ruin me. Not to mention that Lieze wouldn’t give me much healing.”

“You’re not even listening to me, huh…” Urza gently massaged her temple to ease the headache she got thanks to Seran.

“Urza-san, you should just ignore that guy if you ask me.”

“Or act like he’s not even there.”

Lieze and Kyle were used to this Seran after all.

“What did Master say?” Kyle asked Seran.

“Hm? Same as always. More than anything, she was like ‘You’re still here? Hurry up and go already’, you know.”

That was something their Master would say, and it led Kyle to smile bitterly.

“Then, time to depart.” Kyle raised his voice.

Seran and Lieze gave an energetic response, but only Urza complained, saying she would have loved to stay here a bit longer. Right as Kyle started walking, Lieze spoke up to him.

“Hey, the East gate is over here, you know?”

The first location Kyle said he wanted to visit was the capital Malad, which was located to the East of Rimarze, but he instead headed towards the North gate.

“No, this is fine. I’ll change our first destination. The reason I wanted to head for the royal capital first was in order to get something important, as well as to earn money needed to buy that, but now I don’t need either.”

“What did you want to buy?”

“An expensive magic item…Which would have cost around 30.000 Gadol.”

Speaking of the currency Gadol, one Gadol equalled a single meal at a food stall, and with 10.000 Gadol, you could most likely live alone for an entire year. Even with the four of them together right now, they would probably not reach that 10.000.

“30k, huh. That’s some sum, alright. How’d you plan on even earning that?” Seran spoke with a fairly concerned voice, probably aware that earning it in a proper way would take forever.

“I didn’t plan on doing anything dangerous. I was thinking of doing it the respectable way, namely becoming a gladiator, and betting on myself.”

“Is that really respectable?”

“Anyway, the plans I made there to buy the magic item are gone now. It’s thanks to this excellent spirit magic user Urza becoming one of our allies~”

When Kyle introduced Urza in such a grand fashion, both Seran and Lieze threw in a round of applause. They must be going along Kyle’s idiocy as they were childhood friends.

“Again, I don’t remember joining you…” Urza tried to complain with a bitter expression, but Kyle paid her no mind.

“That’s why, our first destination will be the Sangurd Mountain Range.”

The so-called Sangurd Mountain Range was a row of mountains located to the North of the Kingdom of Zilgus’ territory, which would take them about half a month to reach.

“That is pretty far, alright.”

“No worries. Urza can use [Wind Walker] magic after all.”

[Wind Walker] is magic that grants your legs the blessings of the Wind Spirit Sylphid, which allows you to walk several times faster than you normally could, with barely any burden for the user as well as the ones profiting from it. A journey that would normally take half a month now should only take three days.

This magic was quite useful for a lot of instances, but there don’t exist many Spirit Magic users within humanity. Just by being able to use that, travelling merchants would pay you a lot of money.

“Spirit Magic has a lot of great uses, so I’m glad to have you with us.”

“Again, I’m not…” In the face of Kyle’s grin, Urza gave up on trying to resist.

As I thought, she’s weak when you push her assertively…

Kyle would often change Urza’s mind with a strategy like that.

“So, what do you want at that mountain range?” Lieze asked.

“Do you know of the Legend of Sangurd?”

“Um…some famous labyrinth, right?” Lieze remembered the legend she heard of, albeit vaguely.

“That’s right. It’s supposedly the greatest labyrinth the human folk has to offer, the ‘Great Labyrinth of the Magic King’.”

History’s greatest blooming country, the Ancient Magic Kingdom Zaales, has legends revolving around it that even reached the outskirts of the Kingdom of Zilgus. The ‘Heart of the Divine Dragon’ Kyle possessed was one of those, but the ‘Great Labyrinth of the Magic King’ is probably more well-known. It was a labyrinth the greatest magic user in human folk’s history, [Magic King] Shildonia Zaales, had left behind, with immeasurable treasures sleeping inside.

This labyrinth supposedly was located somewhere inside the Sangurd Mountain Range, but nobody has managed to find an entrance ever since Zaales fell to ruin a thousand years ago.

“But, it’s from a legend, right? Does it really exist?”

“We’re not going labyrinth sightseeing, are we? That could take us years.”

“No, I have a map with the accurate location and clues on what’s inside right here.” Kyle took out a map from his chest pocket, and opened it up.

“Eh, is that the real thing?”

“I found it in Mom’s archives. This old manuscript seems to be from the Zaales era as well, so it should be the real deal.”

I can guarantee that because I already went there, after all.

In the middle of the Great Invasion, the human folk was pressed into a corner further and further, and looked into any legends in hopes of improving their prowess. In the midst of that, they found a supposedly sealed manuscript that offered the map for this Great Labyrinth to be existing out there. Kyle faintly remembered something along those lines in his younger days, and headed back to his destroyed hometown, where he happened to find that very map.

Thanks to that, his strength grew significantly, and he managed to survive the final clash against the Demon Lord,at least until he struck down his enemy first. To think that the odd hobby of his mother would come in handy like that. Subconsciously, he gazed towards the direction of his home, and imagined his parents being lovey-dovey right about now.

“Doesn’t seem like you’re making stuff up, huh. This manuscript seems to have been made from the World Tree’s bark that has to be at least a thousand years old. That tradition has lasted until the great war in the past, so you don’t even see this today.” Urza joined in. “There’s no way this has been created after the fall of Zaales.”

“But, even if I have the map, the inside is pretty large in itself. There seems to be traps and other sorts of dangers as well, with some automatic magic item weapons…I doubt we can make it through that safely.”

“Then why did you even bother with that?” As Kyle delivered an explanation of the labyrinth’s details, Seran complained. “Not a big fan of suicide if you ask me.”

“Neither am I, but I definitely want the treasure buried in there, as well as the various magic items. For everything I plan on doing, I need money.”

“The word treasure sure sounds mighty delicious, but…I do value my own life as well.” Seran clearly wasn’t super into Kyle’s plan.

“We’re not going in face-first, of course.”

“Oho? Meaning?”

“It’s simple, we’re digging ourselves in.”

***

“Life really is full of surprises. I never would have expected to challenge the legendary labyrinth half a month ago.” With a luminescent stone strapped to his head, Seran moved his shovel, digging through a wall of earth and dirt.

“I mean, I didn’t expect that my first deed as a hero would be to dig a tunnel like this.” Kyle wore similar attire, loading the rail car with the earth, as he wiped some sweat off his face.

“I’m the one who’s supposed to say that!” Behind them was Urza, with equally a luminescent stone on her forehead, as she gave orders to the two, map in hand. “Seriously…why do I have to do this…Ah, Seran, don’t dig there! We haven’t finished stabilizing the tunnel yet! Kyle, once you’re done carrying the earth outside, use [Detect Magic] right away! There might be some discrepancies!”

[Detect Magic] is a type of magic that allows you to see mana. The group of three used this magic to confirm the direction of the treasure, to look for any magic items in the area that could lead them.

“I feel like Urza is working the hardest out of all of us.” Seran said, filled with admiration.

“At the root of it all, she’s pretty diligent and serious.” Kyle nodded.

“No needless talking! Hurry up and move!”

““Yes, sir!””

The two judged that talking back would not end well for them, so they answered obediently.

Barely any person would willingly walk around in this Sangurd Mountain Range, let alone move deeper into the mountain—except Kyle and the others. It seemed to be the inner part, which even offered something resembling stairs, where you could see small green areas with grass plains between, offering enough space for a few goats to play around.

The steep part of the mountain, where the grass plains came to an end, was riddled with rocks to create a rock surface, and there was a hole large enough for humans to pass though. This was at the back of the labyrinth Kyle and the others found, and the true hidden entrance, covered by this rock wall. At the same time, this location connected to the deepest part of the labyrinth, the treasure room, so Kyle decided to start digging here.

Digging however may not be the right word, as they had to deal with a thick rock surface, and with their limited numbers, it would have taken them years. Thanks to Urza’s Earth Spirit, Gnome, the rock surface became smooth and easy to dig, which allowed even an average human like Kyle and Seran to make quick progress. At the same time, the Gnome could solidify the area around, which helped erase any danger of being buried in the event that the tunnel collapsed. Equally, through the use of the Wind Spirit Sylphid, they could breathe freely even in the deeper parts.

Thanks to all of these factors, work was going on along swiftly. Kyle had planned to earn money at the arena in order to afford a magic item that could allow exactly such work, but thanks to Urza becoming a member of their team, he could save this precious amount of time he desperately needed. He thought of employing helpers and asking people for assistance, but he wanted to proceed with as few people as possible. In the beginning, he wanted only Seran and himself to dig, but that would have taken far too long.

“Great work out there, you three!”

Kyle and the other two finished their daily share of work, and once they stepped out of the tunnel, they were greeted by Lieze, in the middle of cooking dinner. They had set up a camp right next to the tunnel, with two tents set up. This was the fifth day Kyle, Seran, and Urza set out to dig the tunnel, whereas Lieze took care of everything else to make it more comfortable for them.

“I finished washing your clothes, so go change before you eat. It’s gonna take me a bit longer. I’ll wash your dirty laundry, so put them together please~”

After listening to Lieze’s swift and smooth orders, the three headed inside the tents to change.

“Phew, I’m tired~ I can’t work anymore.” Seran let out a groan after he changed into some fresh clothes.

“We did most of it, pull yourself together.”

“I was working all day, you know. Even your legs are shaking.”

Just as Seran pointed out, Kyle tried to act tough, but his knees were laughing left and right.

“Physically, I’m fine, but using these spirits all day is wearing me down mentally.” Urza sighed, and sat down with the others.

The employment of a spirit is a bit different compared to using Spirit Magic, as you can give this spirit a direct order, and have them work. For example, if you had a contract with the Fire Spirit Salamander, you could give him an order such as ‘Put fire to a hundred kindles, one at a time’, or something along those lines. Each spirit has their own things they can, and cannot do, and depending on the skill of the summoner, the orders can become as detailed and miniature as you can imagine. This is one of the reasons why Spirit Magic is considered to be much more useful in general life, rather than Ancient Language Magic.

“It’s done~” Lieze carried over the food.

“You really are a great cook, Lieze. I’ve been travelling for a long time, but no food at an inn could compare with this.” Urza gazed at the food in front of her, deeply in admiration.

Lieze had prepared a boiled meat and vegetable soup, together with grilled chicken, some fruits she picked up from the area, and an abundance of edible wild plants. They were all brimming with taste and variety, so that every meal was a new experience. Urza wasn’t exactly useless when it came to cooking, but she could barely prepare preserved food at best.

“I found some meaty mountain bird, so he’ll serve as the main dish.”

“Hmm…Oh? This meat is different, right?”

“That’s bear meat. Fresh as well, since I hunted one today.”

“When did you…” Urza seemed a bit dubious about the food now, whereas the two men just munched up as much as they could before it was gone.

Lieze seemed used to this as well, as she gave them seconds without any hesitation.

“So, how much more will you have to dig?” Lieze asked.

“Well…Judging from the reaction before, it should be done tomorrow or the day after.” Kyle answered, after finishing the dinner with a sip of tea.

At first, [Detect Magic]’s reaction was faint and almost non-existent, but the more they dug on ahead, the stronger the signal was.

“I see, then finish dinner and take a bath, so that you’re fit for tomorrow.”

A bit further away from the campsite was a rocky area. Water had bottled up beneath there, and through Urza’s Earth Spirit Gnome, who dug out a small area, and Water Spirit Undine, who raised the water above ground, Kyle could use weak flame magic to heat it up for a comfortable hot spring.

“I didn’t expect to be able to enjoy a bath like this every day, so deep in the mountains. When I was training in the mountains before, the best I could do was wash my body with a cloth. This is great~” Lieze stretched her body, soaking her naked body in the water.

She showed not a single ounce of unnecessary fat on her body, with a tight bodyline, but she had enough where it mattered. Her arms and legs were a bit more plump, but that wasn’t fat or muscle, and rather a healthy squishiness of a girl her age. Her gently-tanned body added more to this healthy and adolescent image. When she turned her body around to lean her upper body outside the hot spring, she showed her alluring behind, emitting erotiscm that could charm any boy.

“My journey has been long as well. I appreciate this luxury.” Elves generally were rather feeble and slender beings, but Urza was an exception.

She was the type who hid much more than she showed with clothes on, and even so, her style was astonishing at any given time. Both her chest and behind had a well-rounded shape, giving off no erotiscm whatsoever, but instead made her look like a piece of art. If one painted a picture of her like this, it would surely sell for a high price. Adding to that her golden-blonde hair, which she had tied up right now, the complete opposite of her snow white skin, her charm roze even further.

“How nice…” Lieze looked at her own chest, then at Urza’s, and sighed.

“Really? Just to let you know, but at the village where I was raised, wide hips like yours would make you much more popular, you know?”

“Y-You think so?” Lieze looked down at her waist.

“Yeah, you’d be popular because you would be able to give birth to healthy children. At the same time, I…” Urza stood up from the hot spring as well, glancing at her own hips.

“…The older ladies in my town said the same. But, I really would prefer Urza-san’s…Ah, a heart.” Lieze spotted a heart-shaped birthmark on Urza’s slightly reddened behind.

“D-Don’t tell anybody…I’m bothered by that…” She sunk her body deeper into the water to hide herself, muttering in shame.

Seeing Urza blush like that, someone who should be older than Lieze herself, she couldn’t help but think of her as cute. She gave a faint giggle, and started to praise his hot spring again.

“Magic sure is useful. I’m so jealous, because I can’t even use it.”

“I think it’s pretty amazing that you could take down that bear with your bare fists¹…” Having gotten a look at the finished bear Lieze had prepared for the food, Urza figured that it would normally take a small group to defeat it.

Not to mention that it offered meat for at least seven or eight people.

“Well, I’m trying to improve both my mind and body right now, so if I can’t even do that…”

“Is that…because of Kyle after all?”

“Eh? Ah, well… I don’t want to hold him down, you know.” Lieze said, slightly flustered.

She fixed her posture in the spring, and looked at Urza with a more serious expression.

“So, Urza-san, I know it might not mean much coming from me, but…I don’t think you need to worry.”

“Worry?”

“Even I can tell that Kyle is hiding something, and I know that this is related to your True Name…”

“……” Urza’s expression grew a bit more grim.

The reason she was here in the first place was solely because her life was on the line, caused by Kyle’s knowing of her True Name.

“That guy often gets on my nerves, pissing me off about the smallest things, but he wouldn’t do anything to make me cry. That’s why, I doubt he would hurt you in any way, and I plan on waiting until he tells me about it himself.”

Seeing Lieze’s smile, brimming with faith towards Kyle, Urza felt a bit more relaxed, the tension in her shoulders vanishing.

Well, she might just be fawning over her love interest for all I know…

“Though, I was too worried to let him go alone, so I forcefully tagged along. That’s why, if he were to try something fishy to you, Urza-san, then I would take responsibility…” Lieze tightly grasped Urza’s hands to reassure her.

“Urza is fine.” She gave a faint smile, as she said that.

“Eh?”

“You don’t have to add the ‘san’.”

“…Okay, Urza.”

The two healthy and young girls smiled at each other.

At the same time as these two girls were getting closer on an emotional level—

“Let go! I’m definitely going over to peek!”

“Will you stop it already! You’re pathetic!”

Seran, who was dead set on peeking on the girls, was held back by the frantic Kyle, trying to restrain him.

“It’s an open-air bath! How could I not peek! Are you kidding me!?” Seran screamed out his entire soul. “Do you not wanna see it!?”

“Of course I want to, you idiot!” Kyle’s scream came from deep inside his heart. “But, I can’t have you look at them naked… They both belong to me…!”

“Did you just say ‘both’!? Not just Lieze, but also Urza-chan!?”

“………”

“Why’d you keep quiet?!”

“Gaah, so annoying! We’ll need to be fit for tomorrow, so just head to sleep already!”

“I don’t care about tomorrow! I’m living in the present!”

The two friends were quarrelling as always.

“Ugh, shit. Today was no-good again, huh…”

“Damn it, making me use up much needed energy…”

“What are you two doing? The clothes I just washed are all dirty again!”

Lieze, who just came back from the back with Urza, saw the two boys completely drenched in dirt and muddy water, and gave them a harsh lecture.

***

The following day, around noon, Kyle just finished eating lunch, and prepared to go back to the digging again, when Urza called out to him.

“I didn’t expect us to challenge the legendary labyrinth in this way. I’m starting to have second doubts here.”

“It can’t be helped. If we actually tried to challenge this head-on, we’d get annihilated.” Kyle said, remembering the time he went inside through the main entrance.

Even if he knew the types and numbers of traps through the map he acquired, it wasn’t that easy to slip through, and there were plenty of traps not marked down on the map as well. As a matter of fact, the map itself was a detestable trap. It would lead you through the labyrinth truthfully until you get close to the treasure room, but at a certain distance, it would suddenly add blank spaces, adding different layers. Of course, you have to follow this in order to reach the treasure, but in reality, it only leads you in a circle, riddled with traps…

Remembering this experience he went through, shivers ran down Kyle’s back.

Such a twisted and awful way to create a map…

In the corner of the map, the person who created the labyrinth and map left a signature. It was written in Ancient Letters, ‘Shildonia Zaales’. In fact, Kyle swore to never set foot into that labyrinth again, but he desperately needed the treasure.

“So, is Seran still not back?”

After finishing his lunch, Seran said he wanted to take a quick break, but hasn’t returned.

“He has the tendency to skip out on work if he feels like it. Not to mention that he talked about something like ‘I’ll look for a location where I can watch from afar then!’, or whatever that was. Do you know what he meant?” Urza tilted her head in confusion.

“Don’t worry about it…I’ll give him an earful later.” Kyle said, ramming his shovel into the ground.

“I don’t really get it, but alright…Also, Kyle, there’s something I’d like to ask.” Urza spoke up, almost as if she waited for Seran to be out. “I don’t like beating around the bush, so let me be straight. Both Lieze and Seran have known you for ages, and probably don’t ask you because of the trust they have towards you, but I’m different. Why are you trying to become a hero?”

When Urza heard of Kyle’s aspiration to become the hero, she thought of him as someone crazy with plans too big for him. However, while listening to him explain his plans in more detail, she felt a certain resolve, and tranquility inside of him. To achieve this goal, he did not back down from any effort.

“That ring is part of your training, right?” Urza pointed at a simple ring on Kyle’s left hand.

“So you caught on to it, huh. It’s a ring with [Gravity] cast on it.”

[Gravity] is a magic that influences gravitation, allowing you to heighten the gravitational pull on your target, which is often used to weigh down magical beasts in order to capture them alive during a hunt. At the same time, there are magic items imbued with [Gravity] that are used to restrain prisoners or criminals, which you call a ‘Ring of Restriction’. Kyle’s magic item is something he could take off immediately, so it proved no problem in case he needed to fight.

“So your own body weight is about 20-30% heavier than usual, I assume?”

“Something along those lines. Master told me that if I put this much of a burden on me on a daily basis, it’ll raise my overall physical abilities.”

It was simple, but had a great effect. For now, Kyle wanted to raise his basic stamina and abilities, and killed two birds with one stone, as he dug this tunnel at the same time.

“First time I saw that ring, I thought you were into masochistic stuff…”

“Hey?”

“Well, you know…If you have that type of hobby, and Lieze is okay with it then…I don’t mind you doing some weird…r-roleplay? But…”

“Can you not get a wrong idea like that?!”

“Seran told me about this…’They’re really into some messed up roleplays, so don’t worry too much about them, alright?’, he said…”

“He really knows how to make my life worse…”

“When I first heard about that, I always looked at you with scorn and contempt, cursing you for what you did to Lieze…but I guess I was wrong, I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t worry about it…” Kyle felt like crying, but swallowed those tears.

“So, let me ask again. Why do you want to become a hero?”

“That’s…”

Right as Kyle tried to come up with an excuse, the shovel in his hand slammed against a more solid wall, as a metallic sound rang out.

“This is…metal? Alright, we made it!”

When Kyle touched the surface with his hand, he felt a cold, hard sensation. The reaction of [Detect Magic] was getting stronger as well.

“For the final touches, I need to inform Lieze and Seran as well.” Kyle made his way to the exit of the tunnel, as he continued. “Sorry, I can’t tell you right now. But, one day…I will explain it to all of you.”

Urza did not question these words any further, and just muttered a quiet ‘All of them are asking too much of me…’ to herself.

1 You have bear fists? — Whoever gets that reference, I love you.