Dungeon Sherpa

　Before I met Yuika, I had nothing.

　My mother died before I was even aware of my surroundings, my only relative was my father and everything about him was weird except his appearance. 

　Whenever an interesting guest came to invite him to their party, without saying anything, he would go back to being an Adventurer, unexpectedly disappearing and leaving only living expenses. 

　After a while, he would again retire and return.

　He didn’t seem to have any interest in doing anything related to parenting, I don’t have a single memory of being disciplined. 

　That was why I decided to live as I liked.

　He was a father that was even less obsessed with money than beign a parent.
Whenever I said that I didn’t have enough allowance, he would carefreely reply that there was gold in the drawers, so I could use as much as I liked. 

　I bought flashy clothes, bought weapons that intimidated the people around me, and became a delinquent. 

　That was roughly when I was 12 years old.

　In the Royal Capital, I couldn’t get close to houses in safer districts, so I used money in the slums and gathered friends. 

　Shoplifting, pickpocketing, snatching, extortion — in the slums, young boys and girls committed crimes to live. 

　Once you were caught, it was over.
You would get a thoroughly painful beating. 

　Hunger, fear, suspicion.
And also a sense of solidarity that only existed within the group. 

　I had thought this was the place where I belonged. 

　It was said that the best way to escape the slums was to become an Adventurer.
According to the regulations of the Adventurer’s Guild, the registration required you to be a healthy man or woman above the age of 15, but it was common for children from the streets to fake their age and register at the age of 12 or 13. 

　Together with my friends, I became an adventurer.

　Fortunately, I must have had some talent and luck.
From an early stage, I was able to acquire an attack-type active Gift and learnt wind-type magic, and I started standing out as an Adventurer. 

　By the time I was 16, the party I was leading had extended our descent record in the Infinite Labyrinth to the 19th Floor, and I was able to make a stable living. 

　From that time on, the relationships within the group began to get strained.

　Since beginning, we never placed importance on concepts like party strategy, and we kept fighting while only relying on our individual strengths, so we also hit what was known as the “20th Floor Wall”.

　I was frustrated by the labyrinth exploration that couldn’t progress and sometimes lashed out at my surroundings.
I wanted to accomplish something big.
I didn’t know what exactly, but for example, something that would make that father surprised — while spending fruitless efforts on these kinds of feelings, I continued my reckless dives into the labyrinth. 

　Naturally, the atmosphere among us friends turned worse. 

“Hey, big sis, isn’t it good enough?”

　On a certain day, the one I trusted the most, the deputy leader, said that to me. 

“We’re already level 4.
Even if we don’t dive into the labyrinth, we can live.”

　When an Adventurer raises their level, their Status will evenly rise.  

　For level 4, you will have strength and endurance that exceeds ordinary people, even if you don’t dive into dangerous labyrinths, and instead choose to do manual labour like transporting or farm work, you will still be able to get by.

　In fact, many people become Adventurers and then retire after rising to a certain level to get a job with better conditions.

　I was surprised.
I thought that the rewards, the sense of accomplishment, and the joy shared with friends were things we were all aiming for.
 

“We can’t afford that.”

“In the past, we had our hands full with just trying to live.
For getting tomorrow’s bread, I bet my life to fight monsters.
But now it’s different.
There’s plenty of spare time for life, and I’ve become a person acknowledged by others in this city, I also don’t have to live in fear anymore.”

“That’s why we don’t need to ask for more than what we already have and risk our lives.”

“–Haa?”

　What are you talking about, this guy?

　I scolded the deputy leader.

　I became an adventurer and dived into the labyrinth because you wanted it.
We might be hitting a wall now, but it won’t be long before we become intermediate Adventurers.
After that, we can easily break through the 20th Floor and earn more money.
You can live a much better life that what you’re doing now.

“Is that, big sis’ goal?”

　When I answered yes, I was told, “probably not, right”.

“Because, big sis’ family is rich, isn’t it?”

“…”

　There was no reason why I wouldn’t have been exposed. 

　From our first meeting, I had been dressed differently, and when we were starting Adventurers, whenever money ran out, I would take money from my home.

“Big sis comes from a rich family, we knew that.
Our first set of equipment was also bought with big sis’ money.”

“…You, what are you trying to say?”

　The deputy leader sighed again and opened his mouth as though he had readied himself. 

“In the end, big sis is different from us.”

　In the royal capital, there exists a strict social class determined by family status, wealth, place of residence, income, and so on.

　For example, aristocrats with territories and titles belong to the upper class, and residents of slums belong to the lower class.

　Furthermore, it was common sense that you would not interact with someone other than those who belonged to a same or similar class.
Recognizing your own social class, living within those limits, the people living in the Royal Capital — for better or worse — tolerated this situation. 

　My friends were in the middle lower classes.
They had already left from the lowest level.
And due to my father’s status and assets, I was probably in the upper middle class. 

　Etiquette, manners, education, language, high pride in my way of living.
No matter how much I tried to dress myself as a delinquent, the quality of my upbringing seeped out. 

“Big sis, you can’t scavenge trash and bite into mouldy bread, right?”

“…”

“That’s how it is.”

　And the difference in our life goals. 

　To put it simply, my friends were already satisfied.

　The relationships with my friends that used to provide me with comfort, that recently had become strained, abruptly come to an end.
For the half-hearted stupid girl who had tried to stick her neck into a different social class even though she kept for herself a home to return to, it was an end that was more natural than natural. 

　I gathered my friends and notified them that the party was going to be disbanded because of “adventuring differences”, then I returned to my hated parent’s home, with my father who was in the middle of one of his many retirements. 

　I simply had no other place to go.

　Losing my goals, I didn’t even have the energy to be frustrated, I just passed my days meaninglessly. 

　Those grey days were ended by a black-haired, black-eyed, beautiful Adventurer. 

“Might Magikan be around?”

　Her eyes were so focused forwards that I ended up flinching, it felt to me like she was constantly trying to catch hold of something I couldn’t see. 

　She looked like she was visiting to invite my Sage father to her party.

　Young.
She was around the same age as me.
Of all the Adventurers who had come looking for my father, she was by far the youngest. 

　At that time, Yuika was level 8.
Her lowest descent record in the Infinite Labyrinth was 35 Floors. 

　What was astonishing was that until then, she had not formed a party with anyone, which meant that she had been diving solo into the labyrinth. 

　The first thing Yuika said after opening her mouth was to request my father to join as a comrade. 

　To gain the trust of my father, Yuika freely revealed her Status and her Gifts, and what made me the most surprised was the purpose she mentioned. 

‘To stake my entire life on clearing all labyrinths on this continent, including the Infinite Labyrinth, and prevent the demise–‘

　For merely an intermediate Adventurer, that was too much of a boast. 

　What’s more, “the prophecy of demise” was nothing more than a rumour, or put differently, a fairy tale. 

　That was common sense in this world.

　If it were normal, “recently, the followers of the Earth Mother Goddess have increased, huh”, and with a sigh, I would have sensibly let her story enter one ear and out the other.
However, faced with her calm expression and passionate tone, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. 

　Unusually and seriously, I was engrossed in her story. 

　It wasn’t something like she’d been brainwashed, or deceived to help someone else sell things.

　This kid was seriously — pushing forward.

　Compared to me who had a vague and unfixed goal, she had a far grander, and much more specific objective. 

　When I looked sideways at my father’s face, I could see his interest was drawn.

　So I took the initiative before my father could reply.

“That’s fine.
However, there are conditions!”

　That was to bring me along as a comrade.

　At my father who was expectedly shocked, I glared at him to stop him before he could even try to open his mouth. 

　My level, status, Gifts, were all revealed to Yuika.

“My current level is low but I’ll catch up to you soon.
I definitely won’t just be a stumbling block!”

“……Fumu.”

　I intuitively understood.

　This kid would mercilessly cut loose anyone unnecessary for achieving her own purpose. 

　Absolutely, she would do so.

　I had to be prepared to do my best even at the cost of my life. 

“I don’t mind.
But.
Is that alright with you, Magikan?”

　Again, I glared at my father.

“…Well, why not.”

　Like this, I had a fateful encounter with Yuika, and returned to being an Adventurer.

　My world had dramatically changed. 

　It was as though the faded landscape received light, and was imparted with vibrant colours. 

　Yuika was different from the normal person.

　Her beauty was such that you would unthinkingly be captivated by her, her sword skills were also tremendous, she also had an unfair Gift.
However, what strongly captured my heart was her beautiful spirit that was like a clear night sky. 

　The distant, cold, and unwavering night sky.
A solitary existence.

　It might not be possible for me to be a friend of Yuika in the truest sense of the word 

　Still, as a comrade around the same age and of the same gender, I could probably secure the closest position to her. 

　My goal has been set.

　Next to Yuika, I will be there. 

　When the curtain of night draws, like the first star that appears. 

　With the completion of countless dives in labyrinths, my feelings towards Yuika swelled and sharpened, and it more or less reached the level of faith. 

　To put in words, the Black Princess religion.

　The other thing to mention was that for some reason, the fights I had with my father increased.
Whether this was because we were getting along better or worse was complicated but… anyway.

　I was able to start running again.