Welcome back, master.
I'm home. And don't do the master thing.

　When I went straight home from the hospital, Maria greeted me. I cautioned her about calling her out, but she's about to give up, so I'm skittish.

'Maria, are you okay now?'
'Yeah, I'm good now. I was getting a little carried away with the level of the game. You didn't know what you were doing and you got your hopes up too high.

　Maria looks calm and lowers her head.
　As far as I can tell, she doesn't seem to care about what Rustyala said anymore.

''No, it was an error in judgment on my part. I was overconfident in my plan and misjudged the drawback.''
'Hmm. I knew the master would say that. Thank you.

　Maria gives a small smile and thanks me.

'Why are you thanking me?　My mistake - my fault - I put Maria in harm's way, remember?
But that mistake was a mistake that happened with me in mind, wasn't it?

　Maria kept her smile on her face and continued to speak.

　It's not.
　It's not that good.
　For my own protection, I forced Maria to do it. Subconsciously, I just avoided the sight of one day.

"That's being too self-conscious. "That's self-consciousness. I don't have a lot of room for other people right now.
'No, no. Your master couldn't decide to pull out because he didn't want to make me sad, could he?　You were hesitant to destroy my dreams, weren't you?

　Maria talks as if I'm a good person.
　But that's an unfair assessment.
　I'm sure that's part of it, but the root cause is my lack of determination and mental capacity.

'I'm telling you it's not: ......
"Hmm.

　I continue to deny it, and Maria smiles at me.
　Then, after smiling somewhat, Maria's face suddenly darkens and she continues to speak.

''--But I'm sure that I can't be of any use to you in the labyrinth anymore. Now that I know that I can only cause trouble for my master, what can I do to help you .......

　I'm so excited that I can't stop talking.

　I'm surprised at the gap between the two. The expression on Maria's face is gloomy, as if the woman from earlier is a lie.
　As I thought, it was impossible for her not to be concerned about it. You can't possibly get your feelings in order after only a few hours after returning from the labyrinth.

''Calm down, Maria ....... It's not that I can't do anything anymore. You just need to take your time and find out what you can do here.
...... Can I stay here?

　I say, "Here," and Maria asks back curiously.
　I was dumbfounded and asked back more.

'...... Were you going to leave here?'
'Of course, I will definitely return the favor. But there's no more reason to be a nuisance in this house any longer: ......
'Wait, wait, wait, wait: ......!　Where's the old bullshit?　You're too distracted, you fool.

　Just a few days ago, she was so full of confidence, but now she is a shadow of her former self. I can only deny the difference in their appearance with impatience and strength.

'Such bull ....... It's 'made up' .......

　Maria replied, mocking herself.

　I don't know what has made Maria so weak, I don't know.
　But I am certain that I don't want to see Maria looking so sad. The way she looks reminds me of Maria when I first met her. You have to keep a firm hand on Maria, or else I'll be in trouble.

　I don't mind asking her to leave if she looks as strong as she did before. But if she walks out with this look on her face, I feel like I'm going to throw up with regret and worry.

I have something to do. You can cook for us here. I'll leave this house to you, Maria.

　So, I try to give Maria a reason to exist in whatever way I can. What I came up with on the spur of the moment was cooking. With her skills, there's no doubt in my mind that if I let her take care of the housework, I'll be able to do it.

'But before, she said cooking was good: ......
'That was just a diversion to get Maria out of the labyrinth. I said something mean that time because I really wanted her to come to the labyrinth.

　I'm not going to lie.
　At the time, I really hoped that he would help me with the labyrinth rather than have me cook for him.

'I didn't see that. ......
So, I'll take care of it this time. I want you to cook for me every day in this house.

　Now, I want to ask her to do it for me.
　When I plead with a straight face, Maria replies with a troubled look on her face.

Well, every day is ....... Huh, you're still saying stupid things, master. It's a very embarrassing line, that. You don't even want to do that .......
'Yeah. I've been so embarrassed since I said it: ......

　Maria looks at me with a dumbfounded look on her face, as she always does.
　I don't care what kind of look you give me as long as Maria gets back on track.

Then I will be grateful for the job. Thank you, master.
Yes, please.

　We chuckle at each other and sign a new contract.
　There are no dark shadows there as there were earlier. However, my eyesight can't detect Maria's performance, so I can't be relieved just yet.

''Well then, since we're here, let's cook together today.
You're with me?

　I don't feel safe, so I'll see how it goes by cooking.

'Yeah, we'll see how good Maria is. I'm confident in my skills too, but probably not as good as Maria.
'Oh no, I'm no match for my master.
'No, Maria has a talent for cooking. I told you before that I could see talent.　I can see Maria's culinary talents in me.
A talent for cooking, huh?
'Yeah, this is a no brainer. You can be confident.
Culinary Talent: "......

　Maria's expression becomes heartfelt and happy.
　It would be helpful if this would solidify my existence.

　I begin to teach Maria my cooking knowledge in a very polite manner so that she will love cooking. I, too, learned about the cuisine of this world from Maria, and the conversation about cooking was much more exciting than I expected.

　As it is, we both stand in the kitchen and begin to prepare dinner.

　While the food was cooking, Maria's expression was bright.
　I'm relieved that my choice was not a mistake, and I happily continue cooking with Maria. I'm sure that for a while, I forgot about the labyrinth and immersed myself in the task of cooking.


◆◆◆◆◆


I'm home. It smells so good.

　Maria and I cooked together and were almost finished preparing dinner when Rustiala came back, as if she had seen it coming.
　I left the rest of the work to Maria, and crowded into Rustiala. I thought Maria's expression changed slightly, but it can't be helped now.

"Hey, Rustyala," she said, "I have a lot to say to you. I have a lot to say to you.
'No, no, wait, wait!　I need you to listen to me first!

　As soon as I call out a voice filled with anger, Rustyala immediately begins to make excuses.
　As it is, he continues to string words together in an impatient manner.

'I didn't give Christ's work a break without thinking about it, either. I gave it a lot of thought. I figured that he's probably not able to reduce his workload because he's too worried about the people in the shop ...... anyway, so I did it for him. See, Christ is indecisive in a weird way.
Yeah. Sure, it's not that efficient in there. But, you see, I still needed to gather information in that bar. Besides, the tavern has its own reasons. If there's a sudden decrease in the number of people, the store won't be able to turn around.
'I'm thinking about that too, I've got the information up to layer 23, so why don't you just send Maria to the store when you can't turn it around?

　He's going to slip through the cracks by emphasizing that he's holding onto the information. But the convenience of the store is another matter.

'I'm willing to take a hundred steps when it comes to gathering information. But how can you expect someone else to do your job so easily? Besides, it's not like Maria's going to do it for you.
Yeah. All Christ did was wash and lower the plates. Anyone could do it. You could probably do it better than Maria, because she's a great cook. More importantly, a pretty girl would be a better fit for the restaurant.　I'll see if Maria will do it for me at ......, right Maria, right?

　Rustyala called out to Maria, who was cooking.

'If it's good for you, Master, I will definitely do it.

　In a spirited voice, Maria replied in vain.
　Hearing that, Rustyala turned to me with a face that said, "See?

d*mn it ......!

　I snarl at Rustyala's brilliant escape attempt, unable to give chase.
　I could take a bite out of the corner of the heavy box, but there's no reason to go that far. Rustyala is right about some parts, that's for sure.

　Looking at me, who has gone quiet, Rastiara continues to speak.

''With this, if you ever need to gather information, you can ask Maria to help you out. See, a beautiful division of labor is created. Even Christ the quintessential Christ wouldn't be so overprotective as to object here, would he?

　If possible I would not want Maria to work in a bar.
　That's because there are a lot of things that are not part of the customer base, but Maria's level of skill is the solution. We can't keep up, but Maria's ability is on par with that of a skilled explorer. If I disagree with her here, I will inevitably be branded as overprotective.

　Since it can't be helped, I'm going to shift the issue.
　I can't just stand to be won over by Rastiara here.

But we're not done talking yet. It doesn't change the fact that I did what I wanted to do on my own, and Maria is just an after-the-fact consent. Your selfishness is not excused.
All right. What's for dinner tonight?
No, I don't mind eating. The food tastes better when you're preaching to the choir.
'No, I'm going to have a bad meal: ......

　Rastiara sensed the flagging and tried to change the subject further.
　But I didn't allow that to happen, and I followed Rustiala, who ran away to the table, and took my place at the table as well.

　Maria, seeing this, lays out the dishes that have been made.

　--I'm not going to be able to get the same thing done.

　I've been lecturing Rustyala on his selfishness for a long time. I'm not going to be able to say that I'm not going to be able to do anything about it.

　In the end, Rustyala continued to eat my and Maria's sermons, and at the end he apologized in a small way. With that apology, the day ended.

　The three of us were all smiling as we parted ways before we fell asleep.
　The dark air created by the agony in the labyrinth was now completely gone.

　At least I was the only one who thought so.