“It’s just the right time of year. It is the right of the members to take vacations. Don’t hesitate to do so in the future.”
Yes, I will! “
He made a relieved face and bowed once before jogging out of my office.
I may have a parental gaze, but for a reticent boy like him to request time off was sentimentally notable.
I thought he wasn’t adept at building human relationships, so interacting with those from a completely different organization was quite unexpected. Especially since the investigation team was supposedly insular, being able to get acquainted and accompany an investigation required considerable interpersonal skill, I’d think.
I shouldn’t judge people arbitrarily.
It’s welcome news he has human relationships outside Night Dragonfly. Human connections are nutrients. Stimulation without bias leads to mental and physical stability.
It even reassured me, making me feel he was settling into life at the house.
*
I came to the Adventurer’s Guild’s back entrance.
No, I ended up coming.
While the situation had calmed somewhat, properly I should still be resting or preparing for the next dive around now. I should avoid compromising time for hobbies as much as possible.
Yet my heart was buoyant.
The me today was looking forward to this.
“Mr. Strauss, I’ve been waiting.”
Gereon greeted me.
Same as before, down the stairs was the hall, with the neatly equipped investigation team members gathered.
No, half were properly equipped while some mixed in were unbelievably lightly dressed, still in lab coats.
“Yoo-hoo! You came!”
Rita was dressed the same as when I first met her.
I see, so she’s always ready for a labyrinth dive. As expected of the Labyrinth Maniac’s editor-in-chief.
“Let’s go everyone!”
She energetically opened the door beside the blackboard, revealing a formation I was used to seeing.
A transfer circle.
“This is the Adventurer’s Guild basement, or rather the Labyrinth 1st level! It’s the investigation team’s private transfer circle!”
I was surprised the 1st level had another transfer circle.
Gereon tapped me on the shoulder.
“Mr. Strauss, I terribly apologize but may I ask you to use this?”
What he held was a blindfold.
“I sincerely apologize. Due to our confidentiality agreement not to leak information to other parties, we are provided hidden transfer circle intel. Since today’s investigation uses that circle, I must regrettably ask you to wear a blindfold at key points…”
Ah, so that’s how it is.
They’re an internal guild organization. They have to manage information fairly and evenly.
“Of course, no problem.”
I took the blindfold without any particular resistance.
The journey to the destination was novel.
The scenery itself wasn’t new since I knew most of it, but the investigation team members’ behavior was completely different from adventurers’.
Normal labyrinth dives strictly form ranks and progress safely. No delay in advancing is allowed.
The investigation team was totally different. They only briefly formed ranks with Rita at the lead before those ranks dissolved into practically nothing in no time.
First, everyone walked while writing in notebooks or tablets in one hand, unable to walk straight, slowing progress.
And they crawled up to and groveled at the labyrinth walls licking them over, some even whistling upwards.
You could fairly call it a mess.
Plus most were silent or constantly murmuring too low to hear. Ah, one let out a weird yell. Looking, they’re scratching their head vigorously.
…Somehow I feel a sense of affinity welling up.
“Um, Ms. Rita, what’s…”
“Hm? Something happen!?”
“Um, it doesn’t look like very smooth progress so far…”
“Ah, it’s fine. I gather everyone periodically, so it’s okay as long as they can assemble by the time I reach the destination.”
“I-I see.”
“Plus everyone can fight pretty well! Oh but if it gets bad, I’d like to borrow Mr. Strauss’s power! In that case I’ll pay a reward! Please help us out!”
“Ah, yes, if I can help in any way…”
“Hahaha! It’ll be interesting then!”
Since it’s the guild investigation team, it makes sense they’re different from a normal adventurer party, but this extent of difference was interesting.
The destination this time was the cutting edge of labyrinth conquest – the 99th floor.
With the blindfolds at key points, it was hard to grasp the passage of time, but I was surprised it didn’t take nearly as long as I thought when we arrived.
But after coming to this floor, progress slowed even more, and I understood it would take considerably more days.
Or rather, I was contributing to that slow progress.
Because this was my first time on this floor too.
An endless dense forest spread out. The temperature and humidity were very high. Magic-imbued insects flitted about everywhere.
And like the 98th floor, this floor had a “sky” too. My curiosity couldn’t help but be stimulated.
Rita walked slowly, enjoying herself. It seemed she wanted to show the floor to the team members.
“With a new floor, we get super excited! There’s too much to see and not enough time!”
“I-I understand. It’s, quite distracting for me too.”
“Right!? Just as expected!”
The scholar personality, I guess.
The team members’ murmuring accelerated even more, to where I completely lost track of where we were headed.
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When we neared the destination, I realized right away.
It was cleared out. Trees were logged to create a flat open space, surrounded by fences to prevent monster intrusions. I could tell thorough preparations had been made for the experiment.
Lots of instruments were placed. And most noticeably, the gigantic framework in the center caught my eye.
A hot air balloon.
The purpose of today’s investigation was to verify the “sky.”
The simplest proof of Rita and the others’ continent hypothesis was to escape from that floor and demonstrate the world also existed outside the floors.
But experiments so far had concluded that was impossible. Digging through walls and ground didn’t lead outside. Similarly with the “sky,” on the 98th floor they had launched a balloon into the “sky” but it was blocked by some kind of membrane barrier.
And again today they would launch a balloon into the “sky” on this 98th floor to confirm the barrier’s existence. If possible, they aimed to record the barrier in detail and attempt to approach the principles, analyzing it.
It was a epoch-making experiment at the cutting edge of the labyrinth.
The team members who had been scattered before were now completely devoted to their roles. Though they hadn’t stopped murmuring and the sounds of pens.
Somehow, I felt that was precisely creating a unity. I could tell they all faced the same direction while concentrating heads-down.
Even just watching made the tension transmitted to me, someone with no part in it, sting my skin.
“Air pressure 0.84.”
Rita pressed an earpiece, calmly recording data.
“Oxygen density decreasing rapidly! Stoke more!”
“Correction two at time zero!”
The other investigation team members also exchanged information busily, stared at the instruments, and took records while murmuring.
The balloon in the sky rose vigorously, already a tiny dot.
“Okay, decelerate.”
Matching Rita’s order, the balloon properly decelerated.
I was impressed at the high communication technology.
Hard to believe it was unmanned. It precisely adjusted the flames like a person was inside, maintaining a stable trajectory.
“Alright everyone! The moment is coming!”
Rita’s vigorous call pulled the site’s air taut all at once.
All the investigation team members stopped their hands and looked up at the balloon.
I followed suit.
The balloon rose slowly, really slowly, seeming to tease us.
And I understood what Rita meant by “the moment.”
The “sky” dented.
Light refracted in ripples from where the balloon’s top made contact, continuing to fluctuate as stationary waves.
“Hurry and record!”
The balloon showed no sign of rising further. It seemed blocked by the transparent cloth covering the “sky.”
Is this repelling it?
“Increase output!”
Matching the order, the balloon’s flames visibly intensified. But it didn’t rise. The dent just grew larger.
“The output can’t go any higher right!?”
“Yes!”
“Got it! Detonate after thirty!”
Detonate?
“Watch, Mr. Strauss! That’s the labyrinth’s framework!”
The “sky’s” dent steadily grew. A supernaturally mystical scenery manifested, like an aurora I’d imagine.
Then the balloon exploded.
The shockwave came late. Despite detonating very high up, I had to brace myself against the wind pressure.
“Everyone get down! Don’t miss it!”
Rita shouted excitedly.
A momentary gap was visible.
The “sky” had torn.
Where the balloon stretched the cloth, it ripped, briefly revealing another colored sky deeper inside.
What happened next was astounding.
To fill the tear, blue filaments of light appeared, geometric patterns woven in the sky. Those patterns overlapped manifold, in the blink of an eye hurriedly concealing the tear like hiding it.
What remained was the unchanged “sky” from before.
“The pictures!? The records!?”
Rita, who had been absorbed watching above, asked the team members at the instruments.
“We…got it!”
Hearing those words, everyone stood up. Those already standing jumped as if standing up another level.
“Yesssss!”
Following Rita throwing both arms up and shouting, loud cheers went up.
The team members who had just been murmuring completely absorbed in their own tasks forgot themselves, hugging each other and singing praises.
It felt like excitement built up for this day’s sake. Though usually unsentimental, I almost felt something hot welling at the corner of my eyes.
Still excited, the investigation team headed back.
And interestingly, the team members who witnessed the successful experiment didn’t chat or compliment each other, but even more intense solo murmuring and frantic writing.
Overwhelmed including by the scenery after the experiment, I thought to myself:
So groups like this exist in the world?
“Ah…Mr. Strauss, I hate to say this but you’ll unfortunately have to wear the blindfold quite a while again…”
Seeing how excited I was, Rita apologetically said:
“We got better data than expected, so I’ve decided to change plans and immediately start analysis at our 72nd floor base. For that we have to go through those alternate transfer circles again.”
“O-Of course!”
After witnessing such an incredible experiment, what objection could I have?
If anything I proactively put the blindfold on with momentum.
We arrived at base.
Rather than calling it a base, the splendid building dug out of the labyrinth’s walls deserved to be called a fortress. It matched the natural walls and was so massive I couldn’t grasp its full scope.
I should have all the published maps of the 72nd floor memorized, yet I didn’t know about any place or building like this.
Did the Adventurer’s Guild have facilities on such a grand scale?
“Now then Mr. Strauss, you must be tired, plus you’re a guest to begin with, so use the guest room until departure tomorrow…”
“Yes. Sorry, even after you showed me something so amazing, to just sleep…”
“No no, that’d be boring right?”
“…Huh?”
“We’re going to hold an analysis meeting with all investigation team members in the conference room now. Nothing but hot blooded folks who can’t just calmly sleep.”
Rita had a mischievous face.
“You’ll participate of course?”
Without hesitation, I nodded.
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Weirdness aside, they are acting surprisingly rationally? Was expecting more “mad scientist” moments, experiment is also just a normal test with stress/affirmation phase at the end…