The Fat Aristocrat Waltz in the Labyrinth - Chapter 48
Chapter 48: The fat aristocrat struggles with rabbits
After Mitrof took a day off, he once again delved into the labyrinth. He tried to avoid combat as much as possible and went straight down to the 10th floor underground. He soon found a smallblade rabbit.
Speed. That was troublesome. The small ones were fast.
Mitrof found it difficult to keep up with the speed of the smallblade rabbit bounding on the ground.
He could follow it with his eyes.
His thinking was fast enough.
Thanks to the mystery of the labyrinth called “Sublimation,” Mitrof had gained a level of calmness to the point of being ruthless, enabling him to anticipate how the smallblade rabbit would move.
However, his body was too heavy.
“Guh, ugh…!”
His steps to avoid them were inevitably one step behind. They didn’t mesh with the rabbit’s rhythm.
While his back was cut and his arm was cut, he managed to strike one blow. The tip of his rapier slashed through the rabbit’s neck.
He had managed to hunt the rabbit, but Mitrof’s body was accumulating more and more wounds.
As many smallblade rabbits as he met, that was the current state of Mitrof’s body, with overlapping wounds.
“…I can’t keep up with dodging.”
His breathing was calm. There was no tension in him that would begrudge even breathing space from the smallblade rabbits.
However, sometimes Mitrof’s rapier could not reach the passing smallblade rabbits.
Each time, he would suffer injuries, bleed, and eventually become immobile due to pain and twitching skin.
The smallblade rabbits were not terrifying opponents.
They were merely troublesome opponents. The small monster quickly approached and retreated, making it difficult for Mitrof to handle.
Mitrof was cautious, holding his rapier with one hand, surveying his surroundings.
There were four smallblade rabbits in the herd. Mitrof had only taken down one, but the rest were already jumping quickly and flying towards Canule.
Canule moved lightly and hit the smallblade rabbit in the air with her round shield.
The curse’s superhuman strength easily stripped away the small creature’s life. The razor-ear of the smallblade rabbit hit the shield, making a high-pitched metallic sound as it flew and hit the wall.
“… Amazing.”
While Mitrof was struggling to defeat one, Canule was effortlessly taking care of three more without getting hurt. Her movements were becoming more and more refined. She was already handling the smallblade rabbits with ease.
“Mitrof-sama, are you injured?”
“No, I’m fine—it’s nothing.”
“Shall I bring some ointment?”
“…Just your concern is enough—it’s just a scratch this time.”
Mitrof pressed his right upper arm with his left hand. It was bleeding. It was not just a scratch.
However, Mitrof couldn’t nod his head to Canule’s words.
He was struggling with an opponent as small as a smallblade rabbit, whom Canule had easily defeated. The wound on his arm seemed to symbolize that, and he hesitated to show it.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m fine—let’s hurry and collect them and move on.”
Mitrof collected razor ears from a small knife bunny. At that moment, it seemed like he had lost his attention, and he cut his finger with the sharp blade.
A tingling heat-like sensation and a throbbing pain. Bright red blood floated like a bead and dripped onto the ground.
He wanted to click his tongue in annoyance.
‘Why was I struggling with a mere rabbit?’
Frustration colored the words surging up inside him.
The redness of the blood on his fingertips stimulated his memory.
About half a month ago, he fought against a red-eyed troll. How exhilarated he must have been at that moment.
The moment life and death collided, he understood the true meaning of being an adventurer to the core of his being.
He thought that was the moment he became an adventurer.
But now, he was struggling against a small rabbit and cutting his finger with its ear.
‘What a dull time…’
“Buhi,” a sigh. It leaked out without Mitrof’s knowledge.
He never imagined a bright future for himself.
He was forced out of his house, stayed in cheap inns, and earned pocket money fighting against goblins. The ordinary days when he was struggling were full of tense moments. He found a sense of achievement in fighting strong enemies.
Perhaps it was the recoil from that.
Hunting rabbits, and struggling to do it well. He felt pathetic.
“…Grace could easily handle this.”
The mutter escaped him.
Canule tilted her head.
“I thought Grace could easily hunt the smallblade rabbits.”
Mitrof said it with a slightly embarrassed expression.
Canule also agreed softly.
“Grace-sama was a hunter, wasn’t she?”
“Yes—with such skillful archery, she must have been an excellent hunter.”
Grace, who had helped Mitrof when he was lost and bewildered upon arriving at the labyrinth, was originally a hunter in the forest of elves.
Growing up with an adventurer parent, Grace had ties to and an understanding of human society. She came to the labyrinth seeking means to solve the unavoidable situations that had arisen in her tribe.
Fighting against the monsters that abound in the labyrinth must have been a different kind of hardship from hunting. Nevertheless, she had repeatedly helped Mitrof with her bow.
——What’s wrong, Mitrof? You can’t? Leave it to me, then.
Grace must have said that with a smile, and Mitrof smiled wryly.
She achieved her goal and returned to her hometown. She promised to come back, but Mitrof had no idea when that would be.
Mitrof always kept the silver earrings in his pocket that Grace entrusted to him as a promise to meet again.
Wishing for her safety, Mitrof bundled the razor-sharp ears of the smallblade rabbit he collected.
At that moment…
A voice calling for help could be heard.
Mitrof raised his head, and Canule braced herself.
Although the voice echoed through the passage, it shouldn’t be far away. Mitrof strained his eyes, hoping to catch a glimpse of someone, but the passageway was dimly lit, and the visibility was poor.
Although lights were installed on the walls for adventurers, they were only like campfires at night, and daylight could not be expected.
“It should be ahead—let’s go.”
“Be careful.”
“I know.”
Mitrof cautiously advanced along the passageway with his hand on the hilt of his rapier. Canule also had a shield in hand, ready to jump out if something happened.
Neither Mitrof nor Canule had been in the labyrinth for long. They had not yet learned many things that experienced adventurers knew as common knowledge or unspoken agreements.
Even so, they know that anything can happen in the labyrinth. Adventurers are never saints. Just like good and bad people mix in the city, there are no exceptions in the labyrinth.
Evil people with weapons attack other adventurers for their own benefit.
Such stories are heard all the time.
One cannot judge whether a cry for help is a trap to lure unsuspecting prey. The rationale that it is better to be cautious prevails in the labyrinth.
At the end of the corridor, it became a dead end, with passages extending to the left and right.
Approaching the corner, Mitrof cautiously peeked into the passage on the right.
Instantly, he saw the glint of reflected light from the lantern. He quickly lowered his head.
A sharp sound cut through the air as a smallblade rabbit passed by, slicing a few strands of Mitrof’s hair.
Mitrof looked at the ground.
His thinking was calm.
There was a sound of metal behind him. Canule must have deflected it with her shield. There was no need to turn around. He must be vigilant.
Only those who venture into the labyrinth and defeat monsters experience a phenomenon called “sublimation.” It is said that this is due to the influx of the monster’s life force into the body or a magical evolution that occurs to correspond with the labyrinth. However, much of the reality of this phenomenon is still unknown.
The sublimation that occurred in Mitrof could be described as an enhancement or stabilization of his mental strength. In situations where the old Mitrof would panic and lose his composure, this enhancement reinforced his mind to remain calm.
That’s why Mitrof isn’t panicking, even though danger confronts him face-to-face. He calmly assesses the situation and raises his head to recognize the enemy while drawing his rapier.
In the passage, there was a girl sitting down, injured. She couldn’t move right away, with a stick in her hand to ward off a pair of smallblade rabbits.
One of the rabbits, one small and the other large, was in front of the girl.
The small rabbit is running towards Mitrof. It shrinks its legs to gather strength and jumps.
Mitrof has already moved. If he could see the rabbit’s movements, he could predict its trajectory. Even if Mitrof is not as fast as the rabbit, if he moves before it, it would offset his agility.
“Canule!—Leave it to me!”
“——Got it.”
Mitrof lowered his body and moved to the left.
The sharp edge of a passing smallblade rabbit’s ear blade licked Mitrof’s right temple, leaving a streak of blood in the air.
Due to the weight of his body, Mitrof’s movements were sluggish. The normalcy of his thoughts through “sublimation” produced simplicity and speed. However, his body could not keep up, and the gap between his thoughts and his body was frustratingly severe.
The rabbit in front of the girl was two sizes larger than the other smallblade rabbits. Its face was already facing Mitrof.
Mitrof had previously collected information about the 10th floor at the guild. He knew that this was a superior species called a swordhorn rabbit.
The ears stood firmly erect. The overlapping ears looked like a single sword growing out of its head. The swordhorn rabbit lowered its head and pointed its tip towards Mitrof. Its hind legs bit into the ground, and its thick muscles bulged out of its thighs.
Mitrof suddenly recalled the words spoken by the receptionist at the guild.
——Even if you’re used to smallblade rabbits, don’t underestimate the swordhorn rabbit. They can,
Bang! The scaffold of a sword-horned rabbit exploded.
——shot like a bullet.
“…Huh?!”
The chilling sensation that ran down his spine was a memory from when he fought with the red-eyed troll, risking his life. At that moment, instinctively, he evaded rather than giving orders to his body to calm down and think rationally.
He rolled on the ground like a rag doll.
His sight was fixed on the swordhorn rabbit.
It was no longer a rabbit but a gray, round shadow, exactly like a bullet. The swordhorn rabbit flew with speed incomparable to that of the smallblade rabbit, grazing Mitrof’s left arm.
With a forceful impact, his left arm bounced up. Mitrof lost his balance and fell to the ground, but he immediately got up and wielded his sword, a sign that his adventurer’s instincts were taking root within him.
“Huh?”
Turning around, Mitrof uttered a shocked voice.
Wide-eyed, furrowed eyebrows, he slowly caressed his double chin.
The Swordhorn rabbit was impaled on the wall. It struggled and thrashed. Its terrifying speed and sharp ears had turned it into a bullet, embedded in the wall. Once it stopped, it couldn’t move at all.
“Oh, I see—that’s how you deal with them.”
It dawned on Mitrof.
If you observe closely, the walls around here are not flat but warped and uneven. Mitrof had seen walls deform similarly before.
The ochre boars
They are fierce monsters that keep charging at rapid speeds. How do you deal with them? Stand with your back against the wall and avoid them. That way, they will strike their tusk against the wall.
It was the same here.
Mitrof went to the swordhorned rabbit hanging in the air on the wall and sliced its throat with a rapier.
The horned sword is halfway through the stone wall. Its sharpness and force were terrifying.
Looking around, there was no sound. Mitrof sheathed his rapier and headed towards the girl.
Canule was already standing a bit away from the girl. She was vigilant of her surroundings and wanted to avoid being seen, as her appearance had turned into that of a skeleton due to a curse.
She knew all too well how those who saw her like that in the labyrinth felt. Mitrof felt like he saw Canule’s sadness at the boundary line drawn between them from a distance.
The girl leaned against the wall with her legs stretched out. As Mitrof approached her, she shrank in fear and made herself small. On her head, the ears of the beast were flattened.