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Volume 13 Chapter 1 Part 4

She explained further to me, since I was still puzzled about the whole thing.

It’s true that even if you liberate a Labyrinth and are recognized as the lord of the land around it, it’s no use to just get the land where the Labyrinth was. The land where the Labyrinth was really is nothing, since you can’t build a house right where the Labyrinth entrance was.

Of course, you’ll be recognized as the owner of the surrounding land as well, and that’s where you should build your new house; but if you don’t check the status of nearby Labyrinths, it could happen that the next Labyrinth gets conquered first, and you will lose your claim to it.

「I see, I see. 」

「Also, it’s said that when a Labyrinth gets liberated, the difficulty of the surrounding Labyrinths decreases substantially. 」

「Something like that really happens? 」

「Yes. Right after a Labyrinth is liberated, it seems that the highest explored level of it becomes its new final floor, meaning that it should be much easier to liberate it in turn. This is all assuming that you have progressed to over fifty floors of it. 」

「I see. 」

So it’s not that the difficulty level decreases, but that it becomes easier to conquer nearby Labyrinths because the overall number of the floors you need to clear decreases. I wonder if it’s because the impact of the liberation of a Labyrinth spreads to other nearby Labyrinths like a chain reaction? Labyrinths are supposed to be sentient entities, but I don’t know if they actually possess a sense of camaraderie or not. Or maybe it’s difficult for a Labyrinth to survive if there isn’t another one nearby.

Be that as it may, it turns out that by entering the Labyrinth of the Duchy of Hartz, I might have done the Duke more of a favor than I initially thought. Maybe that is why he has chosen to introduce me to the Imperial Liberation Society? Because I have decided to lend him my strength to keep the cycle of Labyrinth liberation going instead of choosing to do nothing and allowing the situation to worsen?

Is that also why he sent Rutina to me? No, I feel like the Duke of Hartz should be more indebted to me for what I did for him. He should be thankful to me, and unable to thank me enough at the same time. But no matter how grateful he might be, I feel like it will never be enough.

In well-organized places like the Duchy of Hartz, they deal with Labyrinths properly and can liberate them shortly after they appear, before they grow too large, and the growth of the surrounding Labyrinths slows down, making those easier to defeat as well. The surrounding Labyrinths are then liberated, and the virtuous cycle continues.

On the other hand, places like the former Earldom of Selmar that can’t deal with their Labyrinths allow the surrounding labyrinths to grow to monstrous sizes before they can be liberated, making it even whose territories are nearby. That was the reason why the coup d’état against the Earl of Selmar was put into motion.

「Is that so? 」

「Yes. 」

Well, even though I’d prefer not to, I cannot deny that I was pretty involved in that event. After all, Rutina came to my house as my newest slave because of the fallout of the incident where the Earl of Selmar couldn’t deal with the Labyrinth located in his territories. It wouldn’t be good to bring up such a topic in front of Rutina, and since she didn’t go into too much detail, it seems Sherry understood that as well.

「So, do you have no more business in this room? Or do you want to take a look at something else? 」

「No, we can move on to someplace else. 」

Well, Sherry stays in the Imperial Library or the Imperial Liberation Society’s reference room whenever she has some time off on her hands, so even if she said that she’d like to find other materials at this point, I think it’ll be hard for her to find anything new or unusual in this library.

「Okay. Did you manage to find anything useful, or perhaps unusual? 」

「The only unusual thing I was able to find was probably some information about shops in the Imperial Capital. 」

「There was information about shops in the Imperial Capital here? 」

「That’s right. That’s why I said it was unusual. 」

Looks like Sherry managed to stumble upon some rather strange information.

「Was it the information about the shop that sells socks? 」

Rutina asked Sherry. It seems like she had a hunch about what the supposed ‘unusual store’ might be.

「Yes. I’m sure it was something like that. 」

「Wearing socks isn’t a very common custom, but it seems like socks that make your legs look slimmer are a specialty passed down in some noble families. Some women apparently can’t help but to worry about that, even amongst Elven women. While almost all of them are slim in general, there are some who are a bit concerned about things like that. I’ve heard that socks like that are a lifesaver for those women. 」
So it’s an item for overweight people, I guess? Rutina was being vague about it, so I couldn’t determine if that was really the case or not. People with weight issues… as in, those who eat too much because they have trouble controlling their appetites. Fortunately, we don’t need it, because the girls in my Party don’t have to worry about their weight….

「Oh. Do they have something like that? 」

… or so I thought, but apparently Roxanne was interested in those socks.

「Oh, y-yes. 」

「Uhm… yes, I think that’s what it is. 」

「Hmm…. 」 Roxanne took the document with the information written on it from Sherry and looked at it with great interest.

「Well, I think that you don’t need to make your legs look slimmer, Roxanne. 」

「Thank you. But I think it’s still a bit of a concern. 」

「I see. 」

I guess that’s just how it is sometimes. A girl’s heart is a complicated thing, after all.

「But it seems like the sales method of these socks is a bit unique. 」

「I’ve heard that too. It seems like the buyer needs to prepare the raw material, a Mithril Thread, on their own, and only when they bring it to the shop will they have the order made and sold to them. 」

As Roxanne read the documents, Rutina added some more snippets of information. She only said that she heard a few rumors about it, but I think Rutina was actually really curious about it too. Perhaps even she is not an exception to the rule – ‘it’s every woman’s desire to dress up and look pretty whenever they can’?

To be completely honest, that got me interested in this matter as well. Rutina’s legs are rather thin, so I legitimately think it would be nice if she showed off her curves a little bit more. There is a possibility that this might be what she herself wants since she’s expressing interest in these.

Yes, a distinct possibility. However, if that happened, it might actually hinder our progress in tackling the Labyrinths, because I would be too busy tackling Rutina in bed every single day.

「Yes, that might be a good thing for you to have. 」

「Are you sure about that? 」

「Well, yeah. Or more like, I don’t really have anything against it. 」

Rutina overheard me mumbling to myself and asked if it would be fine, which I confirmed. I mean, the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

「Is that so? 」

「Yes, but right now it’s still just a possibility for us, right? Rutina, if you went to that shop with the raw material, do you think they would order-make these socks for you? 」

「… Yes, I think they probably will. 」

「Well, that settles it then. We’ll just have to go there and see how it goes. 」

Somehow that’s how the conversation went. It might be something spontaneous, but if everything goes well, the girls might obtain something that will allow them to show off their curves a bit more.

「It’s going to be expensive though. 」

「Yes, but it might be worth it to try it at least once. 」

If it’s for the eye candy, then it really is worth a try.

「Thank you. But what about the Mithril Thread? 」