Having decided that it is time for them to leave, Hajime stands up. He then says to Remia, "Thank you for allowing us to stay here for the past few days."
"After you saved my daughter it is the least that I could do," Remia states.
Myu then says, "Are you leaving now Papa?"
"That is right. I have to go and do something really dangerous now, like when I left for the volcano," Hajime states.
"Are you going to come back when you are done?" Myu asks.
Shea answers for him by saying, "Of course we will. However, just for a visit."
"No, Papa is Papa so he needs to live here with Momma and me," Myu declares.
Hajime then says, "Myu, I have told you before how I am not from this world remember. I have a mom and dad back in my world that are waiting for me. I have to travel to some really dangerous places so that I can get back to see them. That is why I need you to stay here, while I am trying to get home. Once I have, then I will take you and your mom to my world if you want."
"Really?" Myu asks.
"Yes, I promise," Hajime states.
Myu says, "Alright. I will see you soon then Papa."
Remia then says, "We will at least see you off."
"I guess that is fine, "Hajime states.
At this point, Hajime and the rest of the group leaves the house. They make it outside only to be stopped by a small group of soldiers. One of them walks up to Hajime and says, "It is my understanding that you are harboring a pactmaster. Hand him or her over immediately to be put to death."
Hajime states, "I have no idea what you are talking about. Now move out of the way. I have places to be."
"We cannot let you leave here with a pactmaster. All pactmasters have to be put to death by law," the soldier states.
At this point Shizuku walks up to the man and says, "Excuse me, but we are on important business that the pope personally asked us to take care of. I assure you that there is no pactmaster with us." She then says, "Now then, I trust that you do not want to get in the way of a mission the Holy Church asked us to do, now do you?"
The soldier seems hesitant after hearing this. He however does not back down. Instead he says, "I was not aware that the church had any operatives working in this area."
"It is supposed to be a secret mission," Kaori states.
"A secret mission. I guess that is possible. However, there are also reports that there is a pactmaster traveling with you. This is not something that I can take lightly," the soldier says.
Zane then asks, "Who exactly told you that a pactmaster was traveling with us?"
"One of the citizens said they overheard you all discussing how one of you was a pactmaster," the soldier states.
Zane quickly says, "I see. They must have misheard us. I apologize for the confusion. However, I can assure you that none of us are pactmasters."
"Even if that is true. I need to at the very least check the status of each of you just to confirm," the soldier states.
At this point Hajime says in a threatening voice, "We don't have time for you to waste doing that. Move out of my way now, or I will make you move."
One of the other soldiers states, "We are just trying to do our job."
"I don't care. Now move," Hajime declares as he pulls out one of his guns and points it at the commanding officer.
This manages to get the soldiers to move out of the way. Once they have moved, the group is able to make it past them. They then head to the docks where Zane, Kaori, and Shizuku originally arrived at the town of Erisen. Upon getting there, Hajime summons a large submarine. The group all climbs into this vehicle to make their way to the Sunken Ruins.
Upon getting in the submarine, Hajime takes the controls and begins to drive it away from the area. They then start to make their way in the direction of the Sunken Ruins of Melusine. Remia and Myu stand on the docks and wave goodbye to them as they are going off.
As they are traveling Shea walks up to Zane and says, "I am sorry that we got you into trouble back there. I honestly never thought that just the mention of a pactmaster would cause so much trouble."
"Just imagine if they had found out I was a pactmaster," Zane comments. He then says, "It doesn't matter though. Everything has been resolved at least for now."
"Still, I am surprised that the soldiers would take the accusation of someone being a pactmaster so seriously," Shizuku states.
Kaori adds, "I know. I had not even heard about pactmasters until we found out that Zane was one. Based on how big of a deal they are making about it in Erisen, you would like that it would be a bigger deal in the Capital."
"I am not so sure about that," Tio comments. She then says, "Around the center of the Kingdom it would be difficult for a pactmaster to escape notice by a member of the church. Because of that there is less reason in the center of the Kingdom to get civilians involved in the search for pactmasters. However, out in Erisen, it would be easy for a pactmaster to go unnoticed. Thus, the reason for having civilians acting as informants for the military."
Zane says, "I am not sure if that is why the guards acted like that or not. My guess is that the Holy Church has announced my existence to the Kingdom. This has made the whole kingdom be on high alert like that."
"While that is possible. They didn't seem to have any idea what the pactmaster they were looking for looked like," Shizuku says.
"Yeah, that was weird, "Shea comments.
Zane replies, "It is possible that news of my appearance has not made it this far. It is also possible they never assumed I would come all the way to Erisen so they didn't bother telling the people what I look like."
"Either way, it is a good thing that Nagumo was there to get the soldiers to let us through," Kaori comments.
"I guess that is true," Zane says. He then adds, "However, it will make going back to Erisen more challenging for all of us in the future."
"We can worry about that later," Shea states.
The group continues to talk amongst themselves for a short time. This eventually comes to an end when Hajime announces to the group, "We are nearing the location that the labyrinth is supposed to be in. We will be stopping for the night. Then when the sun comes up in the morning we will begin our search for the labyrinth."
At this point the submarine comes to a stop. Now that they are just floating in the water, the group all heads out onto the deck. Hajime then says to them, "We are going to be here for a while, so you can all do whatever you want. We will start looking for the labyrinth in the morning"
Zane comments, "I am not sure that is a good idea."
"Why do you say that?" Hajime asks.
"I found a passage in the journal of one of the liberators that mentioned this labyrinth. From what I read in order to get to the Sunken Ruins of Melusine you need to use the medallion that you get from the Grand Gruen Volcano," Zane states as he pulls out the medallion.
Zane then continues by saying, "Supposedly to find the Sunken Ruins you need to hold up the medallion to the moon. Then it is supposed to guide the way forward."
"That sounds like something out of a video game," Hajime comments. He then says, "Although I guess we will follow that plan."
Hajime then says, "Well we have some time until the sun sets. You can do whatever you want until then. Since we will be traveling through the labyrinth at night, it might not hurt to get some sleep now."
The group disperses at this point. Zane walks off on his own and talks to his monsters in his head. At the same time, Hajime walks up to Shizuku and says, "I have a gift for you. I figure that you can use it better than me." He then hands her a katana.
Taking this she says, "Nagumo, I don't know what to say. It feels so light."
"I made it from the strongest metal in this world. Since your sword broke back in Orcus, I figured that this would be a good replacement," Hajime states.
"I appreciate it. I will make good use of it. I promise," Shizuku says.
At this point, Hajime walks off to a separate part of the boat. Shizuku is about to go and thank him again, when she sees that Kaori is headed towards him. Shizuku decides that she does not want to get in Kaori's way of talking to Hajime alone. For this reason, she decides against going and talking to him more.
Meanwhile Zane says to his phoenix in his head, "Well it looks like we will be going through our fourth labyrinth soon."
"It appears so. I regret that I will not be of much help in this one. It likely will have a lot of water monsters, which as you can imagine I will not be useful against," the phoenix says.
Zane replies, "I am not sure about that. Even if you cannot help though, I doubt this one will be all that challenging for me to make it through. I am traveling with a group rather than by myself this time."
"That is true," the phoenix states. It then says, "Following this labyrinth, do you plan on heading to the primordial beast?"
"Yes. Honestly, that was my plan after I dropped the two girls off to start with. However, since Nagumo offered for me to go with him through this labyrinth, I figured I may as well take him up on it," Zane says.
"Let me know if you will need any help when it comes time to go and find the monster," the phoenix states.
At this point, Zane is done talking to his monsters. The sun is just starting to set at this point. Zane looks up at it to watch the sunset. He then hears Shizuku behind him say, "It sure is beautiful."
"Yes, it is," Zane replies. He then comments, "I figured that you would be with Shirasaki."
"I thought I should give her some alone time with Nagumo," Shizuku replies. She then gestures to another part of the ship where Hajime and Kaori are sitting. Yue is heading that way as Zane is watching. She then promptly sits in Hajime's lap.
Zane says, "It doesn't look like she is going to get that alone time."
"I guess not. It is probably fine though," Shizuku states. She then comments, "To be honest, she probably needs to by herself to think through how she really feels."
"What do you mean?" Zane asks.
"Nothing. Forget that I said anything," Shizuku says. She then changes the subject by saying, "You have been through a labyrinth before right?"
"Yes, three of them," Zane states.
"What should I expect down there?" Shizuku asks.
Zane replies, "Each one is different. Every labyrinth has something that it tries to test about you. I don't know what the test is in the Sunken Ruins of Melusine . Whatever it is though, if we stick with Nagumo and his group we will be fine."
"I guess that is true. They really are very strong. Then again, you must be strong too if you could clear three labyrinths on your own," Shizuku states.
Zane says, "I am not really all that strong. You have seen my monsters. They are the ones that do most of the work in the labyrinths."
"Somehow I doubt that," Shizuku comments. She then says, "Anyway, I should probably double check all of my gear, since we will be going in soon." She then walks off towards the door that leads down into the submarine.
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Zane's Status Panel
Job: Pactmaster
Occupation: Former Adventurer (Silver Rank)
Strength= 1473
Vitality= 1650
Defense= 1717
Agility= 1841
Magic= 1757
Magic Defense= 1976
Skills
Language Comprehension (Can understand any language)
Pactmaker (Able to form up to five pacts. Receive small stats boost based stats of monster pact is formed with.)
Improved pactmaking (Allows up to ten pacts to be formed. Increases the stat boost obtained from formed pacts.)
Pact Telepathy (Allows pactmaster to communicate telepathically with creatures pacts are formed with.)
Will of the master (Boosts stats of all monsters pacts are formed with when near the pactmaster.)
Kinship (Grants one skill from each monster a pact is formed with.)
Fire Immunity- Immune to damage from fire. Can still feel heat. (Grand Phoenix)
Underwater breathing- Can breathe underwater. (Merlion)
Physical Resistance- Increases the physical resistance and recovery rate of the user. The degree of impact is reduced as well. (Mythril Golem)
Hypersensitive Hearing- Enhances hearing. (Imperial Bat)
Ice Shell- Creates a wall of ice that protects users from physical attacks and deals ice damage to those that attack it. (Glacial Tortoise)
Air Purification- Automatically purifies any air that the user breathes in making them immune to airborne toxins. (Master Sylph)
Storm Summon- Allows the user to cause a rain storm in his or her vicinity. (Celestial Thunderbird)
Holy Flame- Allows the user to create a holy fire that destroys all that it touches immediately. (Kirin)
Primordial Pact- Allows the user to form a pact with a primordial monster.
Spatial Magic
Metamorphosis Magic
Gravity Magic
Formed Pacts
Grand Phoenix (Agility +180 and Magic Defense +180)
Merlion (Strength + 50 and Agility +100)
Mythril Golem (Strength +150, Vitality +220, and Defense +220)
Imperial Bat (Vitality +180 and Agility +180)
Glacial Tortoise (Defense +250 and Magic Defense +250)
Master Sylph (Agility +125 and Magic +250)
Celestial Thunderbird (Magic +300 and Magic Defense +300)
Divine Beast Kirin (All stats +1000)
Artifacts
Treasure Trove (Allows user to store items in another dimension)
Ring of Mana (Grants user the skill mana manipulation)
Divine Amulet (Dramatically increases the mana of the user. Dramatically increases mana recovery rate. Also grants the user the ability to see the mana of other living beings)
Ring of Resistance (Grants user the skills poison, paralysis, petrification, and fear resistance)
Magical Cloak (Grants the user the skill all elements resistance)
Boots of Air (Creates platforms under wearers feet when they are falling, or jump)