Chapter 65 : Extremely Curious Fairies
「Pikushie? Duriado? What are those? Are they delicious? 」
「They’re not food, Stella-chan. They’re fairy races that were famous for living in forest-type labyrinths. Even I have never seen them except in books… Until now.」
Aria was delighted by the newcomers. She explained about the races to Stella, who had a curious look on her face. As she had just said, Lily and Faeri were fairies. Both pixies and dryads rarely appeared in front of humans.
But according to rumors, once they did appear, that human gained fortune overnight.
「Ahahaha! Quite an interesting creature, aren’t cha.」
「So tiny, adorable, and fluffy~!」
While Aria was talking to Stella, Lily and Faeri approached Tama with extremely curious looks on their faces.
Faeri stretched her arms toward Tama to hug him while Lily leaped on his back and ruffled his fur.
「Wa~i!」
「N-Nya~? 」
Being ganged up on by the two fairies, Tama didn’t know what to do.
「Uhm… Lily-chan and Faeri-chan, is it? This little one is called Tama. I’m Aria, and this girl is Stella-chan. May I ask why you two were hiding in the bushes?」
「Ahaha, so your name is Tama! It’s not just your appearance, even your name sounds adorable! 」
「Aria-san, and Stella-san, is it? The reason we hid ourselves wais because we wanted to befriend the adorable Tama-san…」
「And because of the delicious smell from Aria’s bag! He~y, will you share a bit of those delicious smelling things with us? 」
Lily and Faeri spoke to Aria in turns as they stroked Tama’s fur.
「Delicious smell from my bag… Do you mean this? 」
Aria took out a small container from her backpack.
The moment Lily and Faeri saw it, their expression loosened.
「AAAAAH！IWANTIWANTIWANT-I WANT TO EAT THAT! 」
「Such an amazing smell~!!」
Both of them seemed to be in a trance as soon as they looked at the honey-pickled fruit.
It seems that fruit was the only reason they tailed Aria and the others.
「Fufu, how adorable you are. Feel free to enjoy this.」
「「YA~~~y! 」」
Both Lily and Faeri scrambled to eat the fruit as soon as Aria gave her permission.
Despite grabbing the fruit with her bare hands, Faeri ate them with elegance. Lily took a smaller part of the honey-pickled fruit and munched on it.
Their little figures with bulging cheeks were too adorable.
「Fuha~! Faeri, human food is so yummy! 」
「Ye~s, what a tasty treat the human made~!」
Lily and Faeri kept on talking while they devoured the honey-pickled fruit.
Hearing that conversation, Aria got curious.
「Lily-chan, Faeri-chan, could it be that you two met another human aside from us? Since this labyrinth was just born, aside from us, no one should’ve walked in here…」
「Just born? Do you mean…」
「Do you think this place was~… Reincarnated again? 」
Lily and Faeri exchanged looks as soon as they heard Aria’s question.
「Reincarnated… Could this place be a 〝Reincarnation-Type Labyrinth〟? 」
Labyrinths had different types. Some stayed in the same place while continuously spawning monsters, like Labyrinth City. Others never stayed in the same place for too long.
The labyrinth they were inside was the type that, once it reached the end of its duty, somehow returned to its initial state.
「Exactly! Tell me, human―― I mean, Aria. Will you let us guide you into this labyrinth? 」
「Ehh!?? Is that really okay, Lily-chan? 」
「Of course~. We received yummy fo~od, and I want to befriend Tama-chan to~o! On top of that, Aria and the others don’t seem to be bad people~.」
Aria was quite surprised at the offer. Contrary to her, Faeri was relatively calm. It seemed that she was already bewitched by Tama’s adorable appearance.
Lily and Faeri started to pet Tama’s fur again as they spoke to Aria.
「GUNUGNUNUNUNU! Even though he doesn’t even let me hug him yet! Oi, little one! Separate yourself from Tama! 」
「Hyii~! H-Her body transformed when she got angry! 」
「She’s like a drago~n! 」
Seeing how they were able to touch Tama freely while she couldn’t, Stella snapped. Desperate to drive the two away, she changed into her dragonewt form.
――That’s enough, Stella!
<――Guh, Tama…>
Once he saw how Lily and Faeri trembled in fear, Tama stepped in and blocked Stella.
She unwillingly canceled her transformation.
「Geez, can’t be helped. Listen, Stella-chan. I’ll allow you to hug Tama just once, but only after we capture this labyrinth and return to Gladdstone.」
(M-MASTER, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU SOLD ME! YOU’RE SUCH A TYRA-…!?）
Tama was shocked by Aria’s words.
His eyes opened adorably wide in distress.
「WHAT!? YOU’RE NOT KIDDING, RIGHT, ARIA !? 」
「It’s a reward for your willingness to cooperate with me, Stella-chan. Nevertheless, it’s JUST ONCE. Do you understand? 」
「YAAAAAAY! Alright, Pikushi and Draiad over there! Lead the way! The sooner we’re done, the sooner we can go back! 」
Aria and Stella made such a decision while disregarding the one being bargained, Tama himself.
Tama could only lament that his master was getting used to using him as bait to control Stella. He knew Aria wasn’t letting down her guard around Stella with one concession, but he was still wary.
「Then GOOOO! Will you become our friend after this, Tama? 」
「Fluffing Tama’s fur is sho~ irresistible~.」
Lily and Faeri only demanded Tama’s friendship in exchange for guiding Aria and the others through the labyrinth, even though the group wasn’t knowledgeable about how relationships worked with fairies.
Nevertheless, the situation was a massive stroke of luck for Aria.
They had basically gained fairy-race navigators to capture a virgin labyrinth.
「So, what kind of things are you looking for in this labyrinth? 」
「Is it a monster pe~lt? Or maybe a medicinal pla~nt? 」
「Wow, any of those two would be wonderful, but we’re looking for the treasure box first. Have you two seen something like an ornamental box? 」
Aria felt that a virgin labyrinth should have at least one of those untouched treasure boxes.
To her, it was much more valuable than any loot they could collect in there.
「There is, right, Faeri? 」
「Yes, Lily-cha~n. Then we’ll guide you to those boxes fi~rst」
Their reply was as Aria expected.
Aria was extremely delighted by the situation. She raised Tama and, with a victory cheer, stashed him right in the valley between her breasts.