The Box Cave (commonly known as "The Box") is constructed like a series of interconnected square spaces. As the name suggests, the space resembles a box, and, typical of a labyrinth, it's surprisingly bright despite the complete absence of any visible lighting.
The walls, made of some unknown material with a smooth surface, are completely flawless. The spaces are also relatively wide, making it easy to walk, which is why this labyrinth is so popular.
"The White Golems only appear from the twentieth floor onwards, right? Gil, have you ever been to this labyrinth?"
"Yeah, I went all the way to the bottom floor."
"Then with the magic circle... oh, but..."
"I'll be fine too."
This labyrinth has 60 floors, and the recommended rank for floors 20 and above, as Lizel mentioned, is B.
Of course, this is based on the assumption of a typical six-person party, but Gil and, needless to say, Eleven, seem to be exploring it solo.
For a Rank C adventurer to explore a place above their recommended rank solo would be nothing short of suicide, but this doesn't seem to apply to these two.
The same could be said for Lizel, but he doesn't explore alone. He probably thinks that soloing in high-rank areas would be impossible for him.
Eleven's abilities are completely unknown, but since he says he'll be fine, Lizel and Gil stepped onto the magic circle.
Because they weren't in a party, they couldn't move simultaneously, but Eleven activated his magic circle immediately afterward.
They arrived at the twentieth floor without any trouble and gazed at the unchanging square passageways.
The wide passageways were spacious enough for a golem to rampage freely, and the visibility was quite good.
"This is a really well-organized space, there's not a single pillar. I like places like this."
"I figured."
"It's exactly as I imagined."
While too organized to be called a cave, the branching passageways, devoid of doors or anything else, were undeniably characteristic of a cave.
Eleven watched the two of them quickly start walking.
The featureless paths made it difficult to gauge distance, and it felt like it would be easy to get lost.
Normally, people would buy a map and take notes of their route, but the two of them showed no signs of doing so. Eleven didn't want to get lost either, so he at least took notes.
"Shouldn't we write something down? I don't want to get lost on the way back."
"Huh?"
"What?"
Had he really said something so strange? He thought he'd said something perfectly reasonable.
Eleven's face twitched.
Despite his vast knowledge, Lizel's common sense sometimes had glaring gaps, especially when it came to adventurers.
The cause was none other than Gil, who stood beside him, completely unconcerned.
Because most of Lizel's knowledge about adventurers came from Gil.
"Ah, there's a trap there."
"This one?"
"Hey, why did you step on it...?!?"
Lizel stepped on the floor Eleven had pointed to without changing his course.
Immediately afterward, he watched with admiration as Eleven narrowly avoided the collapsing floor.
"Huh? Didn't I say that!? I did, didn't I!? Why are you stepping on it!?"
"It's the first time I've known there was a trap beforehand, so I just..."
"Just 'just,' my ass! There's no way there haven't been traps before!"
"But you can't tell where the traps are just by looking, can you? Gil doesn't tell me even if there are any, and even if they're triggered, we manage somehow."
"If you want me to tell you, just ask."
That's precisely the problem; they manage somehow. As long as Gil is there, Lizel has no danger.
Even if the floor collapses, he dodges; even if arrows fly, he catches them; even if monsters swarm, he cuts them down; even if the ceiling falls, he holds it up.
A normal adventurer would first and foremost be wary of traps upon entering a labyrinth, but Eleven sighed, realizing why Lizel was walking so carelessly. A complete wipeout due to traps isn't an impossible scenario.
Since Gil, who is in a position to teach, is hardly a typical adventurer, Lizel's common sense is sometimes skewed.
"Speaking of which, how did you know there was a trap?"
"A hunch. If you look closely at places where there seems to be one, there usually is."
Incidentally, Eleven, who finds traps by intuition, is also far from typical.
It's probably because he knows where to place them effectively. He's a man who can accurately sense what people dislike.
He confirmed that the floor that had opened up was slowly returning to its original position and started walking again.
Just because it's the floor where white golems appear doesn't mean only white golems appear.
As they walked, they naturally encountered various monsters, but since it was a labyrinth they had never visited before, monsters Lizel didn't know also appeared.
"Flying Treasure Chests" and "Murderous Marionettes"—somewhat inorganic monsters seem to be a characteristic of this labyrinth. Facing the monsters that attacked in groups, this was the first time Lizel and Gil saw Eleven fight.
"Well, his style is unique."
"Using two daggers at once... you'd have to be quite the eccentric to do that."
He moved as if gliding across the ground, then leaped into the air, making it difficult to defend against his relentless attacks from all directions.
Unlike Gil's single-stroke-kill attacks, he used many strikes, and his precise aim cornered his opponents effectively.
Despite the numerous attacks, the monsters here didn't seem to be much of a challenge for him, as he finished them off in just a few blows.
Even when surrounded, he didn't seem to be at a disadvantage, suggesting that Eleven was quite skilled.
For him, however, these monsters were probably not stimulating enough, and he looked a little bored.
Incidentally, because his movements were so unique and fast, Lizel couldn't even follow him with his eyes anymore.
He could only tell he was attacking by seeing his long red hair swaying from the afterimage of his movements.
He aimed his hand at a monster in a different direction from Eleven and shot it. He didn't want to accidentally shoot Eleven, who was moving so unpredictably.
After taking care of the monsters approaching from a distance and putting away his rifle, Eleven approached, twirling his daggers in his hands, indicating that the fight was over.
"Compared to the single-stroke guy, I guess I look inferior."
"Honestly, to me, you look more impressive because your movements are so flashy."
"Well, if you dodge that much, it's bound to look flashy."
Eleven generally doesn't block attacks with his swords.
In reality, there aren't many swords with as many blessings as Gil's, and most of them are dungeon artifacts. Most swords found in the labyrinth are actually just ordinary swords with one or two enchantments added.
These enchantments are often nothing more than preventing rust, and enchantments like indestructibility or requiring no sharpening are rare, so they still chip and wear down with use.
Eleven's sword is also a labyrinth-made item, but it's not a top-tier one. To prevent his favorite sword from deteriorating, he avoids attacks as much as possible.
"It has enchantments for durability and sharpness, but if I take every hit, the blade will chip quickly, so I avoid what I can."
"It's amazing that you can avoid so much!"
There aren't many people who can avoid all attacks when surrounded by monsters.
Eleven's skill, judging from how easily he says it, must be considerable.
Besides, if the opponent is susceptible to poison, a mere graze of the blade is enough to win. Of course, many monsters are immune to poison, so this doesn't diminish his skill.
This labyrinth is a treasure trove of monsters immune to poison, so it will be a pure sword fight.
Seeing the current battle, Gil inwardly thought that everything seemed fine, and he was starting to feel that a sparring match wouldn't be a bad idea.
"Even though it's self-taught, your movements were beautiful."
"My joints are flexible. The range of motion is wide, so I can swing two swords without them getting in each other's way."
"A dual-wielder... I've never seen one before, so I can't help but watch."
"It's much more ordinary than your weapon, though."
Lizel shrugged at Elevens words, who laughed.
Even looking at it again, it's a convenient weapon. If Lizel replenished the magic and handed it over, anyone could use it, but Eleven would never want to. The recoil is too strong.
Lizel tends to forget this because he uses it so easily, but the recoil of the gun is incredibly powerful. At the very least, his shoulder would be dislocated, and at worst, it would be shattered, rendering his arm unusable forever.
Seeing its power again, Eleven couldn't help but pat himself on the back, remembering how he had managed to dodge it the first time they met.
As they walked through the labyrinth, chatting casually without any tension, Gil suddenly stopped.
Following suit, Eleven stopped with a knowing look on his face, and although he didn't understand why, Lizel did the same.
A faint grinding sound of rocks colliding gradually approached from around the corner ahead.
Its presence was so strong that they could sense it without even seeing it; the difficulty level certainly jumped for a B- to A-rank quest.
The golem that slowly appeared from around the corner was the largest monster Lizel had encountered in the labyrinth, excluding the unique encounter with the underground dragon.
"It's big."
"It's one of the biggest monsters that isn't a boss."
"But it's slow."
The golem was made of many rocks piled together, with a smooth surface.
The white golem, with its entirely white body, was a high-ranking type of golem; neither magic nor swords could harm it.
While colored golems with elemental attributes could be affected by magic of the opposite element, white golems were impervious to all magic.
Due to its slow movement, adventurers usually ran past and escaped it, making it a very troublesome opponent to fight head-on.
The core of golems is used as a magic core for magical tools, so there is demand for them, but most of them come from colored golems, and white golem cores are rarely used because they are so rare.
According to the guild's monster encyclopedia, their size ranges from two to ten meters. Since a ten-meter-tall creature wouldn't be able to walk properly in this passageway, the creature that was spotted was probably the boss or located in a different area.
The creatures that appeared before Lizel and his companions were one approximately four meters tall and two approximately three meters tall.
Even so, they exuded considerable intimidation, and their raised arms made them look so imposing that one might involuntarily stare at them in awe.
"So, what are we going to do?"
"Just a little experiment."
"But magic doesn't work on them, does it?"
Lizel calmly raised his gun and aimed the muzzle at the four-meter-tall golem.
Golems don't have vital points.
The only way to destroy a golem is to destroy its core, but destroying the core requires destroying the golem itself, which is a self-defeating proposition. The core's location within the body is completely random, so it's faster to simply destroy the golem.
Lizel aimed casually at the golem's head and fired a blast of wind magic.
With a "bang," a hole appeared right in the middle of the golem's head.
"...Why did that work? Isn't that magic?"
"The encyclopedia said that golems absorb and neutralize the magic they receive with their core. Normal magic targets the monster itself, right? So, for the golem, it's like having magic power directly channeled into its core, which it can then absorb."
The small crack and the hole weren't enough to stop the golem's movement.
The golem continued to lumber towards them with heavy thuds, and Lizel continued to fire at it.
As he hit it repeatedly, widening the cracks, the cracks spread further and further, until finally, unable to withstand the damage, the golem's head crumbled.
Only then did the golem finally collapse forward, its large body falling to the ground, and its movement ceased.
"My gun fires the magical energy straight through to the back, so it doesn't get absorbed. Of course, if it hit the core, it would probably be absorbed."
"Are you satisfied?"
"Yes, I'm glad my prediction was correct."
Penetration is a characteristic unique to this gun and not found in ordinary magic, which is why it surprised White Golem.
It seems that magic doesn't work on golems.
With a satisfied smile, Lizel nodded in agreement, and Gil, drawing his sword, charged towards the approaching golem.
The slender greatsword looked like it would easily break if it directly hit the golem, but with a whoosh, the golem's body was cleanly cut in two at the torso.
Turning to look at the remaining golem, Lizel saw that Eleven had just shattered its legs.
This feat was likely possible because both of them had the blessing of enhanced sharpness. While Gil relied on brute force, Eleven focused on targeting the joints – a clear difference in their approaches.
"Which one is the core?"
"This one."
"...But it's cut in half."
"The location was just unlucky."
It wasn't a matter of whether magic worked or not, and why was he even making such a prediction? Besides, crushing a golem's legs to find the core wasn't something a normal human could do.
Ignoring Eleven, who looked like he wanted to say something but gave up with a sigh, Lizel and the others immediately began searching for the golem cores, the items they were commissioned to retrieve.
The golem that Gil had defeated happened to have its core right where it was cut, revealing a perfectly clean cross-section. Since the commissioned items had to be undamaged, this one was unusable.
While watching Gil stomp and crush the golem that Lizel had defeated, Lizel casually tossed the halved core away.
"What are you throwing away?!"
"Huh? But Gil said this wouldn't be sellable."
"What's the basis for your trust in him?! These things are rare, so even if it's in two pieces, it'll still sell!"
Even if it's cut in half, the function of absorbing magic remains, and the magic content of a white golem's core is high, making it highly valuable. The value would be lower compared to a perfect specimen, but it's something an average adventurer would gladly sell.
However, Gil, who was too lazy to bother with anything but the boss's materials, didn't even glance at the materials from the monsters they encountered along the way.
"Is that so?" Lizel picked up the discarded core and examined it closely.
When he channeled magic into it, he could clearly see the magic accumulating.
"Even if it's cracked, it doesn't lose its function? Wow."
"Hey."
"Ah, yes."
Lizel was completely absorbed in confirming this new discovery, while Gil, ignoring him, continued searching for cores.
Gil, who casually tossed the cores to him, was clearly used to this.
Eleven, who thought it would be easier to enjoy himself before getting used to it, seemed to have finally regained his true self.
Eleven, who had learned self-control for the first time, didn't seem to realize it, but he had somehow lost sight of his true nature until now.
The way he narrowed his almond-shaped eyes with a joyful expression and approached the golem with light steps seemed somewhat relaxed.
"Trampling a golem is crazy! You could probably take it down with just kicks!"
"Who knows? Dismantle your own share yourself."
"Don't you know that you need a hammer to dismantle a golem?"
"I don't know."
"That's amazing!" Eleven laughed heartily, and Lizel smiled leisurely and put the core away.
Incidentally, it's a secret that Lizel felt a little sad when the two of them told him with serious faces that it was impossible when he said he wanted to try dismantling a golem.
After that, Eleven was in top form.
As if something had snapped inside him, he slashed, slashed, and slashed at everything. Whether facing golems or armored knights, his movements were lively and efficient, giving Lizel and Gil no chance to intervene.
Having spent so much time exploring alone, he showed no signs of distress, a stark contrast to the six-person parties who struggled through the dungeon. If they saw him, they would either pick a fight or lose all motivation, such was the overwhelming force he displayed.
From the twentieth to the thirtieth floor, he systematically defeated the golems and collected their cores, resulting in a considerable number of cores.
"Is this enough?"
"Actually, I think we have more than we need."
"Huh?"
The number was just under fifty, a respectable amount for the time spent from morning to early afternoon.
Many parties spend a whole day just to advance five floors. In fact, most can't even clear five new floors in a single day.
Considering that, this was an exceptional achievement.
However, for Gil, it was rather slow, and Lizel, who uses Gil as his benchmark, felt the same.
Eleven, while appearing more grounded than the other two, was still exceptional, and he thought this was about right.
Since they were on the thirtieth floor where a magic circle was located, they used it to return to the entrance, and the three of them exited the labyrinth.
Even though the labyrinth was brightly lit, the real sunlight felt different.
They stretched and took deep breaths, relaxing as they waited for the carriage.
In the early morning, many adventurers head to the labyrinth, so carriages appear every ten or fifteen minutes, but at other times, they are less frequent, and it's not uncommon to wait for over an hour if the timing is off.
However, even so, the carriage is faster than walking back, so no one complains.
"About thirty more minutes, I think."
Eleven looked up at the hourglass attached to the labyrinth gate. The hourglass, which is flipped over each time a carriage arrives, shows how much time has passed since the previous carriage arrived.
Since carriages arrive approximately every hour or hour and a half, the large hourglass, which measures two hours, serves as an important indicator.
Currently, about half of the sand has flowed through, so, as Eleven said, a carriage should arrive within thirty minutes at the latest.
Although it's near the gate, it's outside the country, so there's a risk of monsters, but they don't actively attack like in the labyrinth, so there's no need to be constantly on guard.
"It's already past noon, and I'm really hungry."
"You didn't eat anything in the labyrinth, did you?"
"I'll give you some chocolate!"
Since Lizel and the others woke up and started moving quite early this morning, it's natural that they would be hungry before lunchtime.
While there's no time to eat leisurely inside the labyrinth, most adventurers spend the entire day exploring, so it's not uncommon for them to bring some kind of food with them.
This might be high-energy chocolate like Eleven's, or something very simple, but in Lizel's case, he simply eats the bento box prepared by the innkeeper.
This is because even if monsters attack, Gil notices them, and Lizel can defeat them while remaining seated.
Even Eleven, who decided to enjoy the experience rather than just get used to it, was astonished by how relaxed their break time was.
Incidentally, Lizel gave his bento box (containing sandwiches with plenty of meat and vegetables) to Eleven.
Because Eleven was openly waiting with his mouth open, saying "Looks good! Looks good!", Lizel gave him the entire bento box.
Since Lizel doesn't eat much anyway, he didn't feel particularly hungry, and since he doesn't move around much, he didn't experience any significant hunger afterward.
Now that it's lunchtime, he does feel hungry, so he gratefully accepted and ate the chocolate offered by Eleven.
"Oh, speaking of which, we have some time, so how about it?"
Eleven, who had been casually placing wrapped chocolates in Lizel's palm, suddenly looked at Gil.
He was probably referring to the sparring match they had talked about before. Eleven had been in top form and moving around a lot just moments ago, but it seemed he still wasn't satisfied.
However, the same was true for Gil. For Gil, who usually fought the boss and left whenever he came to the labyrinth, the Rank B area seemed insufficient.
He glanced at Lizel, and when he was encouraged to proceed, he drew his sword with a somewhat cheerful expression.
Carefully holding the chocolates piled in his hands so as not to drop them, Lizel leaned against the gate and watched the two as they prepared to fight.
Eleven, with his slender body coiled tightly, held his daggers with both hands hanging loosely, while Gil stood in a natural stance, supporting his large sword, which would otherwise touch the ground, with only his wrist.
"Signal," Gil said, and Lizel stopped opening the wrappers in his hands.
In the quiet forest, he wondered if the open space in front of the gate would remain unscathed, but he didn't stop them.
"Begin."
The calm voice, surprisingly clear, seemed to pass through both of them, serving as a signal for what was about to happen.
Eleven, his toes tapping lightly, listened to the voice and instantly dashed forward.
His movement, like flying at low altitude, was sharp, and the moment he closed in on Gil, he increased his speed even further. Immediately afterward, Gil parried the attack that came from behind with his sword.
He tried to stop the other dagger that came simultaneously by grabbing Eleven's wrist, but the dagger he had just parried blocked his attempt with a horizontal sweep.
Despite the initial attack failing, Eleven revealed his sharp fangs and smiled.
He instantly distanced himself and attacked again. Gil seemed to be blocking every single attack, the clash of metal against metal creating a continuous, high-pitched ringing sound.
The two of them, repeating their attacks and defenses with such intensity that they seemed to be using up all the open space, were difficult for Lizel to follow with his eyes.
One moment they were clashing swords on the right, the next they were on the left, and then the bark of a tree on the right would be scraped away. Finally, Lizel smiled and concentrated on eating his chocolate.
"Hah, why are you so fast with that huge sword?!"
"You stop aiming for my neck! It's hard to hold back!"
Eleven clicked his tongue at Gil's words, but his heart was soaring.
This was the battle he had longed for. The joy of challenging an opponent he couldn't possibly defeat with all his might.
While facing an unbeatable monster would surely lead to death, facing a rational human opponent meant he could push himself to the limit without the certainty of dying.
The thrill was somewhat lacking, but the pleasure of conquering a strong opponent, regardless of the means, was irreplaceable.
He was similar to Gil in that he wasn't interested in defeating strong opponents for their own sake, but rather fought to become stronger himself, yet they were completely different.
Every time Eleven narrowly dodged Gil's sword, and every time his own sword was casually parried, his movements became faster.
Lizel, who only saw them as fast from the beginning, couldn't tell if they were getting faster, but he did notice that the sound of the wind being cut was becoming increasingly intense.
And despite the surrounding trees being affected, the area where Lizel was standing remained completely untouched.
Was Gil being considerate, or was Eleven, whose rationality was starting to slip, unconsciously avoiding him? If so, Lizel smiled serenely, and next to him, the gate slowly opened inward.
"Ah, I still couldn't get that last one... Murderer... Ugh!"
"It'll be about twenty minutes until the carriage arrives. It's safe here, so please."
It seemed there were other adventurers besides Lizel and his group heading out.
Due to the labyrinth's rules, they would never encounter each other inside, but of course, they would see various adventurers when entering and exiting.
The adventurers, their faces contorted in disbelief at the strange space they found themselves in immediately after exiting the labyrinth, were drawn in by Lizel's smile and the promise of safety, and cautiously approached him.
After a short pause, the adventurers gathered in what Lizel called a safe zone, staring in astonishment at the battle unfolding before them.
"It's just a sparring match, so don't worry. Gil seems to be handling it well, so I don't think the worst will happen."
"A sparring match? And that name... S-S-Single-Stroke?"
Upon hearing Gil's name, the adventurers, whose gazes had been fixed on the space filled with the sounds of continuous sword strikes, finally looked properly at Lizel.
It was said that any adventurer belonging to the Parteda Guild who didn't know Lizel and Gil's party was a complete novice. Naturally, the adventurers recognized the refined, aristocratic-looking adventurer who was inexplicably eating chocolate while standing.
Noticing the converging gazes, Lizel, thinking it was a good opportunity, offered the remaining chocolate in his hand.
"You must be tired. Please, help yourselves."
"Ah, ah..."
Just as the man, presumably the party leader, reached out to take the offered chocolate, a knife whizzed past, so close to his fingertips that it seemed to have grazed his nails.
The man thought his fingers had been cut off, and the entire party's faces contorted in the same way.
He was turning white.
Only Lizel gave a small, wry smile, apologized, and lowered his eyebrows in a troubled expression as he looked in the direction the knife had come from.
"That was dangerous!"
"But that! I... I gave that to you!"
Eleven, who hadn't even been out of breath after constantly moving around in the labyrinth, was now panting heavily, looking at them.
Feeling the tense atmosphere dissipate, Gil raised his sword in exasperation and brought it down on Eleven's head. With a loud thud, the impact hit him directly on the crown of his head, and Eleven clutched his head and crouched down.
Lizel laughed at the sight, then turned to the adventurers who were cautiously backing away, looking pitifully frightened, and rummaged through his pouch.
They had every right to be angry, but pitifully, they had completely lost their nerve and were terrified.
"He's been properly scolded, so please forgive him. He didn't mean any harm, and he didn't intend to hit anyone."
"Huh?"
"Here, as an apology."
He placed something he had taken out of his pouch into the hand of one of the men, as if to stop him from leaving.
The man, who had been staring blankly at Lizel's calm face and the object in his hand, finally regained his senses as he watched the unadventurous-looking fingers of the retreating man.
He quickly looked at his hand, feeling the weight of something, and his eyes widened.
It was the ribbon of the "murder doll," the monster material they had been commissioned to collect, and they had been missing just one more of the specified number until today.
"See? Please forgive him."
"Ah, yes, of course."
The adventurers nodded in unison, still bewildered, at Lizel's smile.
There were nearly ten ribbons in his hand. The murder dolls sometimes appear with these items attached to their hair, and since they aren't always obtainable even after defeating them, that's why they couldn't get the last one.
And it wasn't just one, but ten.
"Are you really sure about this...?"
"Wait, is one enough? That was the request from the guild, right? I think that request offered additional rewards for each extra item."
Lizel, who checks the requests every morning, naturally remembered the details of the request. He had suspected this from their conversation when they came out of the gate, and it seemed he was right.
Knowing this, Lizel still offered the items, and the adventurers, forgetting their anger and fear, simply accepted them with gratitude.
Sensing that the negotiation was complete, Lizel nodded once and headed towards Gil and the others.
Watching Lizel's back, the adventurers nodded to each other, their minds still struggling to process how much of a good deal they had gotten.
"...You don't have to protect me, I'm not even in your party."
Eleven, still squatting with a sullen expression, looked up at Lizel sulkily.
He knew the importance of building good relationships with other adventurers (even though he didn't practice it), and he knew that what Lizel was doing couldn't be meaningless, but he had acted impulsively.
Was he regretting causing trouble, or did he dislike the idea of Lizel having to ask for forgiveness on his behalf?
Despite his defiant attitude, he exuded a somewhat dejected air, and Lizel smiled slightly apologetically.
"It's my fault. It was rude of me to share something I received with others."
"..."
"Let's eat together, okay?"
He opened the package, put one piece in his mouth, and smiled. Incidentally, Gil doesn't eat sweets.
He peeled another one and held it in his hand, then gently offered it to Eleven's mouth. He gently touched his slightly pointed lips with his finger, and when his mouth opened, he slowly inserted the chocolate into his mouth.
Eleven, whose lips finally touched the chocolate, then held Lizel's finger between his lips, but continued to chew without paying attention.
Following the retreating finger with his eyes, Eleven buried his face in his arms while still crouching. For some reason, he didn't want to lift his head right now.
"Five minutes, you lasted."
"If he has the time to worry about me, you can probably go a little further. Shall we try a more aggressive approach next time?"
He listened to the casual conversation above his head, and a faint smile appeared on his face, still buried in his arms.
If there was a next time, would he still be allowed to be with them? Had his abilities been recognized?
Immediately afterwards, he widened his eyes at the weight that suddenly rested on his head.
"Ah, the carriage has arrived."
The warmth of a gentle hand and the feeling of fingers softly tapping his head.
As he reluctantly lifted his head, Lizel smiled calmly and looked in the direction from which the carriage had arrived.
It couldn't possibly be Gil. He was the one who had hit him so hard with the flat of his sword that he had a bump on his head.
The gesture of being cared for in that way was something Eleven would never forget, and it stirred something deep within his heart.
Watching Lizel and Gil board the carriage, Eleven slowly stood up.
He ruffled his hair with one hand and boarded the carriage as well.
It seemed that there weren't many adventurers returning at this time of day, and both Lizel and Gil were able to find seats in the carriage.
Eleven, feeling somewhat awkward among the other adventurers, forced himself to sit down next to Lizel.
"It's too cramped!"
"It's fine, isn't it?! More importantly, why did you have so many ribbons?"
"I was planning to use them to wrap a present for someone."
"Ah..."
Gil seemed to understand, but Eleven, while grinning mischievously, kept asking, "For who? For who?"