About an hour into walking around aimlessly, with Juli showing Eli all the wonders in this forest, he still hadn’t seen any signs of a labyrinth.

He had asked Juli if she had seen anything out of place in this forest during her four years at the academy.

She said no.

The academy only used a portion of the forest for its frequent outings and practical exams — most notably the clearings where professors could easily monitor students.

The area they were currently scouring, however, was ill-advised, as a wide range of unaccounted-for monsters roamed the woods, especially the abnormal, supernatural ones.

Not only that, this area was known to be susceptible to monster rifts, and while it had decreased over the years, one could never truly predict what surprises the heavens had in store.

Still, those were just cautionary tales professors told students who were wet behind the ears. Eli could confidently affirm he had left the realm of a newbie behind.

’I mean, killing ten F-Rank monsters... that’s gotta count for something!’

Not even first-year students could claim they had defeated ten boars at once — well, technically nine, since he had rested for thirty minutes after the first.

So by that logic, and with some slight leniency, he was on par with the ordinary second-year students, thanks to [The Hero] trait.

As for Juli, he didn’t need to say much. Her tenure and track record had proven her skill, goofiness and all. When Juli got to work, it was nothing but work.

Like right now, Juli barely spoke unless Eli asked a question. She knew he’d brought them here to find something, even if he hadn’t said so outright. Just as he had [Maid’s Intuition], she probably possessed [Knight’s Intuition].

The hours flew by as they continued their uncertain search. The afternoon wind howled every few steps, and the canopy swayed like a wave of swamp water.

Juli finally opened her mouth and spoke:

"We should go back and treat your wounds. We’ve covered every part of the forest and left corpses of boars and wolves in our wake, but nothing of note!"

Eli gave her a light push.

"Keep going. We still have a few hours left."

She turned around and brought her face close to his.

"How are we supposed to find this thing when we have absolutely no idea what it is!"

’...I suppose she makes sense.’

Eli hadn’t told her anything beyond a few vague hints. He didn’t want to look suspicious by knowing too much, but he could always leverage his position as Housekeeper.

Now he had to reshape the information into another form through a different medium... otherwise known as media distortion.

He had always been good at this ever since arriving here.

"Fine. I’ll tell you."

Juli nodded.

"Do tell."

"Do you know the legend about this forest? That deep within the foliage and mist, there are treasures waiting to be found?"

Juli glanced at the rustling bushes, hands ready at the pommel.

"Nope. Never heard of it."

Eli hummed.

"I see. Well, these treasures are supposedly hidden in some kind of structure underground."

"Ooh? Like a real dungeon?"

"Something like that. In HO—I mean, in the stories I read growing up in the slums, they called it a labyrinth."

Juli’s eyes lit up.

"A labyrinth!? Like, with traps and puzzles and treasures!?"

"Mhm. Supposedly."

Juli suddenly drew a dagger from her thigh holster and hurled it into one of the bushes. Somewhere behind the leaves, a heavy creature slumped with a wet, heavy thud.

’Well that’s just way too cool... When can I be cool like that?’

Juli dusted off her hands.

"Anyway, that sounds amazing! Why didn’t you say so from the start?"

Eli took a quick glance toward where Juli’s dagger had flown.

"Because it would make me sound crazy. Walking around for hours just to confirm a legend out of a storybook? Yeah, sounds bad, isn’t it."

Juli patted his shoulder.

"What’re you talking about? You’ve always been crazier than me. This is nothing!"

"Huh? Whatever do you mean? I am not crazy."

Seriously, how did she have the audacity to say such things? If craziness were on a scale of one to ten, Juli would be a ten, and he would be a zero!

"Oh pleaseee. Elise, I love you, but if I do a survey right now on how crazy you are, the maids and soldiers would go on and on about how crazy—"

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

A scream tore through the forest, making both of them freeze in place. It came from the northeast, muffled by the dense leaves but unmistakably human. Then, a second voice followed with even more panic.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP US!"

Juli’s hand was already on her sword. Her eyes locked onto the direction of the sound.

"That’s kids."

Eli grabbed his own sword and nodded.

"Let’s go."

Juli took off without another word. Eli pushed through the pain in his legs and followed close behind.

The scream grew louder. He discerned four different voices, each overlapping with one another in raw terror.

They burst through a wall of ferns and into a sunken clearing. The ground dipped sharply, and at the center of it, a jagged crack split the earth open. It was wide enough for two people to fall through, and deep enough that Eli could only see darkness beyond the first few steps of crumbled stone.

Three teenagers were huddled at the edge of the crack, with two of them pulling on the arms of a fourth who was dangling over the opening, legs kicking at nothing but air.

"HOLD ON! DON’T LET GO!"

"I’M FREAKING TRYING!"

Juli was already sprinting towards the kids. She reached them in two strides, grabbed the dangling kid by the back of his shirt, and hauled him out of the crack with one arm.

’Incredible strength.’

She set him down on the ground carefully.

The kid collapsed onto his hands and knees, gasping for air.

The other three scrambled back from the edge, their faces pale and streaked with dirt. They looked no older than fifteen. Judging by their plain clothes and the complete absence of weapons or armor, they were probably townsfolks who went into the forest to play.

’Reckless kids, I’m telling you.’

Juli crouched down to their level.

"Hey, hey. You’re okay now. Breathe."

One of the girls was shaking so hard her teeth clattered.

"W-We were just exploring, a-and the ground j-just... opened up! We don’t know anything!"

Hearing that, Eli shot Juli a look, and she nodded.

He walked to the edge of the crack and looked down. What he saw made his heart hammered — one stone steps covered in moss as they led down to nothing but darkness.

"...Juli."

"Yeah?"

His head turned to her.

"I think we found it."