Thus the Boy Runs Through the Labyrinth ~The Story of an Ordinary Boy Who Ended Up Punching Heroes, Demon Lords, and Even Gods~ – Chapter 3

The Great Sin Labyrinth City Greed, and the satellite city Kuro are separated by the Great Labyrinth Keika.

This labyrinth is managed by the Golden Phoenix – Greed Branch, which purchased the management rights from the Great Sin Labyrinth Greed. Day and night, vast amounts of magic stones are excavated here.

The dangerous excavation work, which used debtors drowning in debt like slaves, was ultimately a great success. Of course, it was the debtors’ own fault for getting into debt, but their actions were a flagrant violation of human rights.
However, this is outside the city. And the ones being used are not citizens, but “nameless” individuals without permanent residency. It’s highly unlikely that those within the city would go out of their way to protect the human rights of the nameless outside.

To the administrator, the dwarf Zaza, this place was akin to a field that produced infinite gold.
Or so it was supposed to be.

“May I ask what business you have with me…?”

Currently, Zaza was cornered.
Before him stood members of the audit department of the Golden Phoenix – Headquarters. Faced with their unannounced, sudden appearance, Zaza broke out in a cold sweat and managed a strained smile.

Why had they come here?

He had an idea. A lot of them. That’s why he was cornered.

“I admit this labyrinth mine utilizes nameless individuals for magic stone excavation, but this is being done under a formal contract.”
“If there’s no illegality in the employment conditions, I have no intention of interfering.”

The man sitting opposite Zaza, with his head shaved clean, responded nonchalantly to Zaza’s rapid explanation. Zaza flinched under his gaze, which was far from friendly.

“Y-Yes! Of course! It’s all in accordance with the laws of the Great Alliance! Besides, all the people working here are just scum who couldn’t repay their debts properly!”
“The issue is the quantity of magic stones mined, their exchange value, and various other ‘records’.”

He casually flipped through the ledger spread out before him. Zaza’s cold sweat increased.

“There seems to be a considerable difference between the reported numbers and the actual numbers.”
“That… well…”

Zaza’s face turned pale as he realized all his illicit activities had been discovered.
Zaza, who was ordered to manage the labyrinth outside the city, had feigned suffering from the dangerous work assigned to him, but inwardly, he was gloating. Outside the city, meaning beyond the Barrier of the Sun, various monsters poured out of the holes dug in the earth, making it no place for humans. But precisely because of that, it was easy to bend the law.
After all, there were few watchful eyes. Once he established a base and became its administrator, Zaza was practically a king of the place. It was then that he began using the nameless like slaves.
He reveled in the thought that even the Priests of the Temple that ruled the city could not act as freely as he did.

Until today.

The man stood up and placed a hand on Zaza’s shoulder. The man’s hand felt surprisingly large and heavy, and it wasn’t simply because Zaza was a dwarf and the man was of normal stature.

“Managing a labyrinth outside the city’s sphere of human habitation must be incredibly difficult. Governing such a place is no simple matter. I sympathize with the mental strain of working daily while facing a crisis of life.”
“Y-Yes! Yes!! It truly is!!”
“Therefore, our Guild Master offers considerable rewards. And a certain degree of leniency is allowed. You are working amidst various dangers. The Guild Master understands that a few minor mishaps are unavoidable.”
“Th-thank you! That’s very kind!”
“However…”

With a crunch, the man’s hand on Zaza’s shoulder tightened. Zaza felt his shoulder creak.

“There are limits to everything. Do you understand?”

The audit department of the “Moneylender Guild to Adventurers,” Golden Phoenix – a special guild that unfailingly collected due debts and interest from ruthless individuals with no collateral. This department was rumored to be particularly dangerous, with whispers of those who had literally lost their heads by their hands.
And now, he understood that he was about to prove the truth of that rumor.

“W-Wait! Please wait! I actually have something to give you!”

Zaza cried out. It was an unmistakably blatant offer of a bribe, a plea for his life with no room for negotiation. After all, he had been entrusted with managing this place, and he had gained some experience and understood the art of negotiation. He *had*, but faced with a crisis of life, all that experience was meaningless.

“If it’s money, we’re not interested.”

As expected, the auditor dismissed him casually. From their position, they must have heard such bribery offers countless times. His icy eyes showed no wavering.

“No! It’s not that! What I want to give you isn’t money but—!”

However, Zaza still had a trump card. A trump card that had miraculously fallen into his hands. By pure chance, a “daughter” offered as collateral by a foolish man pretending to be an adventurer, was a miracle itself whose rarity and value the man himself completely failed to understand.

“A girl possessed by a spirit!”

Zaza’s words seemed to have caught the auditor off guard. His hand on Zaza’s shoulder loosened for a moment. Silence enveloped the room, and Zaza, unsure if he was saved or not, continued to sweat profusely.

“—Oh?”

It wasn’t Zaza or the auditor who broke the silence.
It was a beautiful girl with short, golden hair. This girl had entered the office with the auditors but had not participated in questioning Zaza, and had been gazing at the labyrinth excavation scene from the room’s window until now. Zaza hadn’t had the leisure to consider who she was, so he had dismissed her from his mind.
It was this girl who, at Zaza’s outburst, finally turned her gaze to him. Her eyes, the same color as her hair, fixed on Zaza’s. Instantly, Zaza felt a strange pressure in his chest. It was far more intense than the pressure he had felt from the auditor.

The girl approached gracefully. The auditor smoothly stepped aside, yielding her path, and bowed his head. It was at this moment that Zaza finally understood.
The one in charge here was not the man before him. It was this girl.

“Tell me more about this ‘girl possessed by a spirit,’ won’t you?”

The beautiful girl curved her slightly crimson lips into a smile.

***

Meanwhile, in the deepest part of a small labyrinth.

“Damn, I’m gonna die, gonna die, gonna die, gonna die, gonna die, gonna die, gonna die, I’m screwed.”
“BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!”

Ul was on the verge of death.
Ul discovered a Great Fang Boar and initially tried to steal only its True Core Magic Stone. Anyone would want to avoid danger if possible. Ul certainly did. And he tried.

“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

It didn’t work.
The True Core Magic Stone is the heart of the Master and, by extension, the labyrinth. No one leaves their heart to be stolen. As a result, the Great Fang Boar charged at Ul the moment he approached the magic stone. Ul was being chased and was now dying.

“Gahhh!!”

Ul ran and jumped. Fortunately, the hall was in disarray, making it difficult for the Great Fang Boar to move. If the hall had been a clear, unobstructed space, Ul would have been flattened into ground meat.

“What should I do…!!”

He looked at the spear clutched in his right hand. Swing it? Impossible. It would certainly break. There was no way he could handle this with just that. Was there any other way to break free from this situation? Tools…?

Ul’s gaze caught sight of the True Core Magic Stone.

That was the core of the labyrinth. Was the Master protecting it? Then, should he use it as a shield?
Ul acted on his intuition.

“GUUMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

The boar roared. It was charging. Ul desperately moved his legs to escape. His destination was the pedestal where the True Core Magic Stone was displayed. He leapt onto it, maneuvered around, and used it as a shield. For the boar, the thing it was protecting should be impossible to attack—

“…? What is it?!”
“MO!?”

Ul’s surprise was evident in his voice.
The radiance of the True Core Magic Stone had intensified. The already dazzling blue-purple glow became even stronger and more intense, filling the entire room. Ul had no idea what had happened, but the Great Fang Boar seemed to be in the same state. It stopped its charge and retreated.
Then, before Ul’s astonished eyes, “cracks” spread across the giant True Core Magic Stone.

“Huh?”

As Ul opened his mouth in disbelief, the cracks rapidly widened, paused for a moment, and then exploded.

“Gah!?”

Ul was blown away by the force of the explosion. The impact, like a gale hitting him head-on, sent his small body flying. Flailing, Ul reached out and grabbed something.

It was soft and large.

“Gah!?”

Immediately after, he fell onto the ground on his back. The impact on his back left him unable to breathe for a moment. Enduring the pain in his back, he opened his eyes to assess the chaotic situation.

Before him were breasts.
A stunningly beautiful silver-haired girl, completely naked, was straddling him and smiling.

“Oh, hello.”
“NAKED!!!”

The utterly bewildered Ul shouted out the scene before him exactly as it was.

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