“Go back to the annex and rest,” Gilead said as he turned his cold gaze away from the child before him.
Hansen was the first to declare that he was giving up by tapping on his necklace as soon as it was possible to do so. While thinking that he didn’t stand a chance in this competition anyway, he had decided not to waste any extra effort. His parents also hadn’t held any expectations that their son would choose to do anything different.
“Y-yes.”
Hansen had been hanging back hesitantly as he waited for the Patriarch's response to his surrender, but he quickly bowed his head and left. Sometime after he had left, another call for rescue was heard. The ten-year-old Juris had actually made it into the labyrinth, which was at least a little better than Hansen. However, he was struck by an arrow at the first trap and had started begging for help with tears pouring from his eyes.
Shortly after that, yet another call for rescue came in. It was from the eleven-year-old Deacon. Although he had endured being struck by an arrow, he was beaten by the slime he had encountered afterward. Slimes were monsters that were difficult to deal with when equipped only with bladed weapons. Deacon was swallowed up by the slime’s gelatinous body and had started screaming for his life.
Though less than an hour had passed, the nine had shrunk down to six. It might seem pathetic, but these results were as predicted. No one had expected to see anything special from those three dropouts.
‘As for Gargith… He’s clumsy, but he never stops moving forward,’ Gilead judged objectively.
Lovellian floated an image of the labyrinth’s interior into the air. The image was divided into six screens to show each of the six children. Rather than avoiding the traps, Gargith had chosen to force his way through them. Even though he was struck by arrows or confronted with a monster, he would smash his way through with one swing of his greatsword, which was about as large as his torso.
Gilead turned his attention to another competitor, ‘Dezra is agile, and she also has a good intuition….’
Whenever she triggered a trap, she would change paths immediately. She had even managed to dodge through several traps. She didn’t try to always fight the monsters either. If there was another path available, she would take it, and she only swung her spear when she couldn’t get away in time.
‘Cyan is being overly cautious, but that’s not so bad.’
Ancilla had obtained the notes of famous adventurers and the blueprints of several labyrinths and had used them to train the twins. Through this, the twins had learned the basic information and strategies for conquering labyrinths. All of which would help them break through this transparent and easily explored labyrinth.
For example, when the labyrinth was enclosed on all sides, but a wind was being generated by magic, then following the direction of the wind could help you find your way. If they looked carefully, they could also find several other artificial clues that pointed to the right way. And even without that, as long as they used their judgment, it was possible to escape a trap during the moment that it activated.
Cyan was capable of doing just that. However, due to being overly cautious, there was some awkwardness to his movements. His mind just wasn’t flexible enough. His vision was narrowed because he was trying to rely solely on what he could recall from memory. That was why there were times when he fell into an easy-to-avoid trap.
‘Ciel is sensible, and her thinking is flexible. However… there is a childish side to her.’
Ciel would activate a trap by throwing things, like her shoes. After doing that a few times, she would be free to head down the now trap-free path. If her path became blocked, she would just turn around, and if her path wasn’t blocked, she would just keep going. Whenever she encountered a monster, she wouldn’t fight them right away and would instead harass them as if she was playing with a new toy.
As for Eward.
“...How is he?” Gilead asked.
“He seems to be very interested in the magic,” Lovellian replied.
Eward wasn’t focussing on the sole task of breaking through the labyrinth. Instead, he examined each trap one by one, and he exclaimed in admiration every time he saw a monster. He was amazed at how life-like they seemed despite being made from an illusion. And after defeating a monster, instead of leaving immediately, he would examine the corpse for quite some time with shining eyes.
His eyes, which were dull and dead whenever he slashed at the monsters with his sword, revived with a smile whenever they touched on magic.
“...He’s been like that ever since he was young. He liked reading books better than training his body or his skills. He especially enjoyed whenever I read him a fairy tale about magic. Do you know? Eward, that child, he respects the Wise Sienna more than his own ancestor, the Great Vermouth,” Gilead confessed.
“Master Sienna is someone who deserves the respect of all wizards after all,” Lovellian smiled proudly.
“That’s exactly what he said. When listening to ‘The Adventures of the Hero Vermouth,’ he liked Sienna's stories better than those about Vermouth. He said that it was because, whenever the party was in trouble, it was Sienna’s magic that could come up with the most surprising solutions for their troubles.”
Gilead paused before continuing to speak.
“That fairy tale was also read to me when I was young. But, I… to tell you the truth, I actually preferred Hamel,” Gilead admitted.
“Are you really talking about Stupid Hamel?” Lovellian asked in surprise.
“If it wasn’t for him getting into trouble, the fairy tale would have been very boring. Although he was ill-mannered, he was also good-hearted… He inspired me to slowly overcome my inferiority complex towards my ancestor Vermouth through my own hard work. Because even when everyone else was already following Vermouth’s opinion, Hamel, all on his own, insisted that he had a different opinion.”
“I actually hated Hamel when I was a kid.”
“Well, that’s fair. Thanks to Hamel, the party was forced into several crises… However, Hamel always tried to take full responsibility for his actions in each crisis. That was why I couldn’t possibly hate Hamel….”
Gilead looked at the events occurring within the labyrinth with a smile.
“...Eward, that child, has wanted to learn magic ever since he was young. I even invited a magic teacher from the capital, just so that he could learn properly… But halfway through, he refused to learn any more magic,” Gilead recalled.
“Do you know his reasons for that?” Lovellian asked.
“Reality forced him to give it up. For the sake of his mother… he decided that he needed to become the next Lionheart Patriarch. And because magic provides no advantage in the competition for succession, he had to turn away from it.”
The competition over the succession would begin in earnest when all his children had become adults.
“...Well, that’s understandable. Although magic offers countless possibilities, it is still a long and difficult road to get to that point,” Lovellian offered.
“Truthfully, I would be happy if Eward chose to walk the path of wizardry,” Gilead smiled sadly and turned towards Lovellian.
“There is only one family among the collateral lines specializing in magic. As such, I’ve tried to point Eward towards them a few times, but he has always refused. However… if he receives an offer to become the disciple of the Head Wizard of the Red Tower, he won’t possibly be able to refuse. Because Eward still has a great passion for magic burning in his heart.”
“I can’t give you the answer you want right away, “ Lovellian shook his head. “Because I can’t just make anyone my disciple. Since I have a good relationship with you, Sir Gilead, I can take him with me, but… if he doesn’t show me that he has the qualifications for it, I won’t be making him my disciple.”
“That’s not a problem. It also wasn’t my intention to force you to take him in. However, I want to let that child have a chance to follow his dreams.”
Gilead wasn’t doing this for the sake of Cyan and Ciel’s succession rights. It was just that seeing his eldest son rot, as Eward forced himself to do work that he hated, was painful for Gilead.
To convince his first wife, Tanis, and give Eward a push on the back, he had even personally invited the Head Wizard of the Red Tower, Lovellian.
“...Well, I’ll just have to take a closer look at Eward’s qualifications later. Right now, it seems that Eward has already decided that he won’t be using any magic as he attempts to break through the labyrinth,” Lovellian muttered as he looked at the screen.
“...However…what on earth is that kid, Eugene?”
Eugene had already caused him to feel amazement several times in a row. But, by now, feelings of perplexed confusion were overtaking his sense of admiration.
“...I don’t know either,” Gilead muttered in a sincere tone.
On his screen, Eugene was in the middle of tearing the illusion of a troll into pieces.
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