Chapter 6: Saintess III
Our first challenge in this new world was the Mirror Labyrinth. This story takes place on the night before our final assault on the depths of the Mirror Labyrinth.
The moonlight streaming through the window was bothersome. It was a sleepless night.
I tossed and turned repeatedly, unable to shake off the anxiety about tomorrow. Just as I was wallowing in my thoughts, I heard a knock followed by Mika’s voice asking, “Are you awake?”
“I’m awake,” I replied, inviting Mika into the room.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“…I can’t sleep,” she pouted slightly as she answered.
“Even you, Mika, have nights like this?”
“What do you think I am?”
“The flawless Saintess.”
With a playful huff, she sat down next to me on the bed and gave my shoulder a light tap.
By this point, Mika and I had developed a comfortable relationship where we could exchange light banter.
“I’m just kidding. I get it now. Mika is incredibly responsible, possesses boundless mana, and wields the best healing magic. But she’s also just a normal girl who loves sweets and secretly enjoys chatting.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Mika’s expression was usually stoic, rarely changing. But that was enough for me. When her brows furrowed slightly, it meant she was a bit sulky.
Since her time in the Royal Castle, nobles had whispered behind her back about her “lack of expression” and how “it’s hard to tell what she’s thinking.”
But I understood her. I could tell when she enjoyed sweets, when she listened intently to my stories from my world, and when she cast healing magic on me in the dungeon. The list could go on and on. Each moment was unique, and all of it was captivating.
She was just a normal girl who struggled a little to express herself.
I couldn’t help but be drawn to Mika. With her sitting next to me in the middle of the night, my heart raced wildly, and I was doing my best to hide my flustered state, but I was completely flustered.
“To calm your heart and help you sleep better, could you tell me a story from your country—Japan?”
Mika asked, her voice far from calm.
“Alright, just this once,” I said, hiding my inner turmoil as I began to tell her a fable. If I could, I would have chosen a different story.
“There was a young man who saw a crane. ‘Ah, you’ve been seen,’ the crane told him. ‘According to the rules, I can no longer stay with you.’ And with that, the crane flew away into the sky. The young man regretted his actions for the rest of his life and became a monk. And so, it ended happily ever after.”
If you feel a sense of déjà vu, you’re right. Why did I choose this story?
“That’s a tragic love story… Perhaps the crane’s female counterpart regretted it more than the young man who became a monk? After finally being able to live with the one she admired and realizing she could help him, if being seen by her beloved was what caused their separation, she should have insisted more strongly.”
She looked down, softly murmuring, “Isn’t that what she must have regretted?”
At that moment, I realized I had already fallen for Mika. Yet, reluctantly, another thought crossed my mind.
Come to think of it, I told this story to Puffy too. I wonder what she’s doing now? Is she doing well? My thoughts drifted, and in an instant, I recalled that shocking moment.
Puffy had rushed toward me, breathless, and, unbelievably, she had jumped into Ryuguin’s arms.
“…What’s wrong?”
I asked.
“Are you crying?”
I said, “Please don’t hide it. At least not in front of me.”
Mika wiped my tears with her fingers.
“It’s alright. I’m here with you.”
The weight of Puffy, my fear of monsters, and the time limit until the dungeon matured loomed heavily before me. I had been avoiding all of it, pretending not to notice.
“It’s alright. I, the Saintess, guarantee it. Ichiro, you can do it. No, together, we can conquer the dungeon.”
I clung to her, tears flowing freely, without a care for shame. “It’s going to be okay,” she stayed by my side until I calmed down.
Looking back, this might have been the first time I let my guard down since being summoned to this world.
After a while, once I had settled down, Mika said, “Once we conquer the dungeon tomorrow, there’s something I want to tell you.” With that, she left the room.
The next day, standing before the boss room, Mika and I steeled ourselves and nodded at each other.
Ryuguin’s playful banter about being the chosen Hero and the importance of his safety was met with a casual “Yeah, yeah,” as I opened the door to the boss room on the lowest level.
At that moment, the room was enveloped in light, and when I opened my eyes, I saw a humanoid monster, about our height, made of a crystal-like substance, brimming with immense mana.
The battle was truly a fight worthy of the term “death struggle.”
The true nature of the Mirror Labyrinth revealed itself at the very end. The labyrinth’s master was a humanoid monster composed of crystal. From now on, I would refer to this monster as the Crystal Humanoid.
This creature possessed an incredibly troublesome trait: it could reflect all magic without exception.
In a typical party, they might not realize this and unleash their strongest spells right from the start, only to be wiped out in an instant.
Fortunately, my compatibility with the Crystal Humanoid was not entirely unfavorable.
If we focused solely on the aspect of magic reflection, it became clear.
Since I was the only attacker in our party, and if we overlooked the fact that Mika’s debuff magic wouldn’t work on it, then from my perspective, it was merely a ridiculously tough monster with high attack power.
However, that didn’t mean it was an easy boss monster to defeat.
Both its attack and defense were far more ferocious than the Dragonkin or the Deadly Series that had appeared in the lower levels.
The battle turned into an exhausting war of attrition. Each blow from the Crystal Humanoid was nearly fatal, placing a significant burden on Mika, who had to heal me each time, allowing the fight to continue.
Even though it was a struggle, that was just the starting point.
When I swung my sword, the damage I dealt was laughably minimal, barely scratching its surface. Naturally, my sword broke after just a few attacks.
Within minutes of the battle starting, I found myself momentarily at a loss. Without hesitation, I snatched the Holy Sword from Ryuguin, who was standing idly in the back.
That choice proved to be entirely correct. By repeatedly slashing the same spot with the Holy Sword, I finally managed to inflict some damage.
Thus, while enduring fatal blows, I adopted a strategy of sacrificing my own health to deal damage, aiming to accumulate enough to take it down.
Whether it took an hour, two hours, or half a day, I lost track of time as I continued to slash at the Crystal Humanoid, eventually succeeding in defeating it.
Upon our return, we quickly reported to the Guild and declined the grand celebration proposed by the Guild and the kingdom, opting instead to gather at a well-known eatery in town.
After sufficiently praising each other’s efforts in the dungeon and filling our bellies, I suggested it was time to wrap things up.
“Wait!” Mika called out to me.
“I have something I need to tell you both.”
Could it be that she wants to say it here?
“Shouldn’t we find a more private place?”
“It’s fine. I want everyone to know.”
Mika dismissed my suggestion and continued.
“I—Saintess Mika—am in love with you!”
With that, she embraced Ryuguin.
…Ryuguin?
Oh no (heart stops).