“It seems that, ugh... not a single thing about the way we got through was normal!”

With a loud shout, as if throwing off a heavy burden, Ero hurled his shot put. The sphere he threw rose onto the low cliff first, then dropped with a dull thud. The number was already down to 63. Beside it, Leonardo Blaine sat at the edge of the cliff with his chin propped on his hand, staring down absently.

The cliff the two of them were climbing was the only patch of greenery in the middle of the desert, covered in blue moss and brush. Trees often seen near water, like lumel palms with silver-glinting leaf tips, acacias, and tamarisks, stood here and there in sparse clusters.

Standing below it, Ero bent at the waist, braced both hands on his knees, and panted for breath.

“Huff, huff... They are not going to disqualify us just because we used a little trickery, right? How were we supposed to know a monster would eat the shot puts?”

“If they were going to do that, they would not have just stood there watching us go through all that hell.”

Leonardo Blaine replied indifferently, repeatedly tossing his own shot put into the air and catching it. The shadows of the willow branches swaying in the sand-laden wind and the iron sphere flickered over the corners of his golden eyes. Its number was 518.

“They are probably still watching from somewhere right now. If that had been something worth disqualifying us over, the Council bastards would have popped out of nowhere, whether from the ground or the sky. The fact that they are leaving us alone means it is not a problem.”

Even after everything that had happened, the shot puts had only lost a single count reflecting the initial throw, so Ero was actually more worried that using the Tur’ark as transportation to cross the desert might count as grounds for disqualification. But just as Leonardo Blaine said, if it had been a disqualifying offense, the organizers would never have let them keep competing. More importantly, was it not the organizers’ fault in the first place for unleashing a monster like that into the desert?

“That does make sense. I was worrying for nothing.”

If it had not been for his boss, anyone else would have ended up as a corpse mixed into stomach acid. He ought to count himself lucky just to have made it here alive.

Now somewhat relieved, Ero stepped onto the tree roots hanging down the cliff and started climbing. Thanks to the dragon of the desert carrying them along with its jeweled prize in its belly, they had effectively only traveled a few hundred meters by actually throwing the shot puts. But his overworked muscles trembled so badly that Ero’s hand kept slipping now and then whenever he grabbed one of the rocks jutting out.

If there was one good thing, it was that the shot puts grew lighter every time they were thrown. Maybe that was why Leonardo Blaine, idly dribbling his shot put against the ground for no reason, looked at Ero and urged him on.

“If you know that, then hurry up and get up here. My neck is going to break from waiting.”

“Come on, if you would just carry me up there, it would be over in a second. Are you really going to stand there and watch me suffer?”

“What are you playing at? Am I your transportation now?”

At the prickly retort, Ero let out a foolish little laugh for no reason. He might talk like that, but the fact that he was still waiting for him to climb up made it obvious that his boss really did care about him.

But suddenly, at the line about someone “popping out” from the ground or the sky, the bird-beak mask he had run into earlier surfaced in Ero’s mind. Skillfully planting his feet in the grooves as he climbed, he asked,

“Boss, by the way. Aside from Belle and Beast, do you know anyone else among the participants?”

Leonardo Blaine, who had been staring into the distance and keeping watch to see whether any competitors were coming, lowered his eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, when you showed up dragging that monster earlier...”

The bird-beak, who had suddenly been found sitting behind him, had mentioned Lion’s movements while Ero was searching for his boss. Ero’s guess was that the man had either known his boss beforehand, or had been watching the relationship between the two of them.

“There was a strange person beside me. You did not see him?”

“A person?”

Leonardo Blaine narrowed his brow in puzzlement. He had only noticed Ero’s presence belatedly in the first place, so there was no way another participant would have been on his mind in that situation.

“I did not see him.”

At Leonardo Blaine’s reaction, which made it clear this was the first he had heard of it, Ero started to explain further, then closed his mouth again. After all, the man could have been nothing more than an opportunist who had quickly noticed how strong his boss was and wanted to attach himself to him. Or he might have been someone his boss simply had no desire to acknowledge.

“But why?”

“Ah, it is nothing! More importantly, please grab my hand, whoa—!”

At that moment, the tree root Ero had been gripping snapped under his weight. Just as he was about to fall straight back down the way he had come, Leonardo Blaine reached out and grabbed his hand. Then he hauled him up onto the cliff in one swift motion.

Dragged upward by that powerful force, Ero was airborne for a moment before tumbling across the grass in the blink of an eye.

He was not injured, but after throwing the shot puts, his shoulders were already worn down by fatigue, and with that sudden strain added on top of it, it felt like his arm might get ripped right out of its socket. Even so, he immediately sprang to his feet and, with twigs still stuck in his hair, flashed a thumbs-up.

“Huff, huff... Boss, nice catch!”

Leonardo Blaine slowly stood up, dusted off his pants, and shook his head.

“How did you even make it to the preliminaries before?”

“Huh?”

“How did you think showing up with just one gun was enough...?”

Muttering to himself, he lightly rolled his shoulder, then threw the shot put he had been holding into the brush. After the vicious slicing sound of wind, branches snapped by the shot put fell rustling to the ground. Leonardo Blaine shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking in that direction.

“Hurry up. I have plans after this.”

“Huh? You are not even going to give me another chance to treat you to a meal?”

Ero hurriedly scrambled to his feet as well. To retrieve his own shot put hidden in the brush, he deliberately let out a loud grunt and threw it in the same direction Leonardo Blaine was going.

Soon, after catching up with him, Ero suddenly seemed to realize something. He clapped his hands, then leaned in toward Leonardo Blaine with a sly look.

“Are you meeting that Council official, by any chance? You told me not to act familiar with anyone else, but it seems like you are pretty close with that person. You even waved.”

“......”

“What kind of relationship is it? Could you maybe get a preview of the next match, aagh!”

Leonardo Blaine smacked Ero hard across the back and answered firmly.

“If you want to get eliminated, keep talking. And I do not ask for that kind of thing. It looks fucking pathetic.”

Then he added,

“I do not want to put him in a difficult spot. And he is not the type to tell me anyway.”

After saying that, he suddenly stopped walking and stared straight ahead. Ero barely managed to keep his balance, rubbing his back with a twisted grimace. Then he turned his head in the same direction.

At the end of their gaze was a dark opening, revealed through the brush. A cool wind was blowing from there.

“......”

Leonardo Blaine went silent for a moment and closed his eyes. The faint sound of water and the slightly fishy smell of it mixed into the wind and brushed against his senses. When he slowly opened his eyes again, he saw the entrance to a strange cave beyond the dense branches, covered in vines.

After glancing sideways at the man beside him, Ero reached out a hand.

“Boss, over there—”

Without answering, Leonardo Blaine shook out his right hand and formed a blazing sword of flame. Then, as if entranced, he advanced while ruthlessly cutting away the weeds blocking the path. Ero, who had been peering at his expression, hurried after him.

“B-boss. But should we not find the shot puts first?”

“I think they are already in there.”

“Huh? Really?”

They had no time to hesitate. By the time they realized it, the two pairs of legs had already entered the cave. The instant they did, the blazing air turned fresh all at once, and the suffocating tightness in their chests loosened. With the vicious sun gone, the temperature dropped sharply, and tiny goosebumps rose over skin that had not yet adjusted.

The inside was filled with darkness overall, and if not for the tiny lights flitting around like fireflies, it would have been impossible to see even an inch ahead. The ground, which had been a mix of dirt and sand, now felt smooth beneath their feet, as though flat stone slabs had been laid down. Yet strangely, the thick brush one would naturally expect near greenery was nowhere to be felt.

“W-what is this place?”

Already scared stiff that something might leap out at them, Ero pressed himself close to Leonardo Blaine and grabbed hold of his arm.

Just as Leonardo Blaine turned to look at the piece of baggage as if those golden eyes were repulsive, cold water touched their feet.

“Whoa, that startled me!”

Ero jumped back in a panic, and the sound of his splashing and his shrill voice rang loudly through the cave. At the same time, light bloomed from the puddle they had stepped in, then gradually spread outward, illuminating the interior. As the darkness retreated, the first thing they saw was an oasis stretching without end.

Taking the place where the two of them stood as the center, the oasis extended at least fifty meters in every direction, far too vast to be mere rainwater collected inside a cave. By some unknown principle, the calm water emitted a blue glow that collided with the obsidian walls, filling the wide space with tangled, crisscrossing refractions.

After letting out a sigh and looking around from side to side, Ero fumbled his way through his words.

“This must be the finish point for the second part, right? They called it an oasis, so I really thought it would be out in the middle of the desert. I never imagined it would be somewhere like this.”

Leonardo Blaine, who silently agreed with Ero’s words, also slowly surveyed the surroundings.

A door?

This place was strange. Then again, what place they had passed through so far had not been strange? But this was no ordinary cave. Doors were plastered all over the walls and ceiling.

They were arranged irregularly, and each one had a number engraved on it.

The numbers varied wildly, from the very smallest values to astronomically large ones.

Are those related to the shot put numbers too?

Just then, the clear sound of a token being flicked rang out from somewhere.

He turned reflexively, and two tokens were flying toward them through the air.

As Ero, having spotted them a beat later, half-stretched out both hands awkwardly, Leonardo Blaine caught both tokens first with one hand. The moment he checked them, they matched the tokens they had been given before entering the maze, with numbers engraved in the middle of gambling-chip-like stripes. The numbers were 517 and 62, each reduced by 1 from the shot put values they had last confirmed.

At that moment, a voice sounded from a shadowed corner where the darkness had not yet fully lifted.

“Congratulations on clearing the second part. You worked hard to make it here.”

A white uniform that now felt almost welcome was walking out from deeper inside. Perhaps he had taken a nap while waiting, because unlike the guides before him, his face looked utterly sleepy and ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) indifferent.

“I thought you would arrive sooner, but it took longer than expected.”

“...?”

“In consideration of how exhausted the participants must be, the third part has been designed to be relatively simple. You two, do you see the countless doors here?”

Following the guide’s fingertip, Ero lifted his head and stared up at the doors hanging there like planets scattered across space. Then he slowly nodded blankly.

After confirming the reaction, the guide opened his mouth.

“Then I will explain the rules of the final part. This round is betting.”