Unrequited Love, Lost for the Better - Chapter 16

Volume 1 of UL,LFTB is available uncensored on ko-fi!

※ This work contains depictions of coercive relationships, explicit language, and other graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.

If the Tower Master had singled out Collette among all the researchers to join the expedition, his intention was clear—to remind the Exploration Squad that even they weren’t entirely beyond his reach.

But that didn’t mean Valerian had to obediently follow the Tower Master’s scheme.

Stay calm. As long as she hadn’t entered the Labyrinth, even if Collette had truly come, he could just send her back.

Valerian pressed hard at his tired eyes.

“Senior Collette!”

He froze.

“Let’s go over there! I think we can see better from that side!”

If not for that irritating fly, he might have convinced himself it was just coincidence—that nothing was wrong.

Watching that small, dark brown head tilt toward the fly, Valerian’s crimson eyes turned icy cold.

* * *

“Senior, hurry!”

At her junior’s eager behavior, like a dog wagging its tail, Collette’s head throbbed. Anyone watching would think they were on a picnic.

“Somerset. We’re not here for fun.”

Telling him to quiet down, Collette sighed and lifted her eyelids.

Beyond the tents, between the clouds-heavy sky, the Labyrinth floated like a massive ellipsoid. It was actually only a few centimeters above the ground, but it was so large and elongated that it looked like a spire rising toward the sky.

So that’s the Labyrinth.

Seeing with her own eyes what she had only heard about made her feel deeply moved.

Now I’ll experience the Labyrinth that Leonhardt and Valen went through…!

To break free from the two who overprotected her, Collette had searched for every thesis and book about the Labyrinth since her Academy days.

The Labyrinth—built on countless sacrifices for the prosperity of mankind.

Thanks to collecting the blood of magical beasts and the plants and animals that lived there, the Magic Tower had succeeded in developing cures for incurable diseases. Collette also planned to gather luminous clock-flower leaves and white lizard tails—things that could only be found in the Labyrinth.

If I personally find the materials to ease Valen’s mana poisoning, he’ll have no choice but to recognize me as a proper mage of the Tower.

He wouldn’t see her as just a girl to protect anymore.

Valen had brought her byproducts before, but luminous clock-flower leaves and white lizard tails crumbled upon contact with the outside air due to the difference in oxygen levels.

If oxygen was the problem, she just needed to keep them from touching it. With that in mind, she had specially treated a glass bottle that could seal anything completely. She clutched the long bottle in her pocket.

Please let this work.

If even this bottle was useless, she had no other options. She had tried every material she could. The luminous clock-flower leaves and white lizard tails were her only hope.

“…Huh?”

Collette, staring intently at the pitch-black Labyrinth, suddenly felt as though it was drawing closer.

When you stare at something too hard, your field of vision narrows and objects seem nearer—a common illusion. But this time, it didn’t feel like an illusion. It felt like it was truly right in front of her.

But that was the Labyrinth.

Something so massive and elongated, impossible to take in at a glance—there was no way it could suddenly appear right before her eyes. Yet why did her vision seem entirely filled with black, as if she were standing right before its surface?

For some reason, she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even blink.

Then a force pulled at her shoulder.

“…Se-Senior! Snap out of it, Senior!”

Startled, Collette stopped walking. Blinking belatedly, her blurred vision slowly returned to focus.

Huh.

I was among the volunteers just a moment ago…?

Somehow, she had drawn closer to the clearing where the Labyrinth floated. Meliano was gripping her shoulder, preventing her from going any further. His pale face showed genuine alarm.

“Senior—ah!”

Suddenly, Meliano’s hand fell from her shoulder. His arm twisted, and a large shadow loomed between them.

As darkness fell over her head, Collette looked up. A hand in black leather gloves was twisting Meliano’s arm.

“…Valen.”

It was Valerian.