SBTYD 09

Chapter 9

Day 322 – The Labyrinth (1)

[Name: Sisyphus

Race: Human

Strength: 107 (+52)

▶ Check Training Status

Stamina: 88 (+41)

Skills

Endure

Grip

Headbutt

Goal: Place the boulder at the top of the mountain]

[Warning: Physical transformation has occurred due to a rapid increase in strength.]

[The right shinbone is lengthening to withstand the tension of the gastrocnemius muscle.]

“Oops.”

Since yesterday, there had been several times when I almost dropped Wilson for some reason.

“I almost fell again.”

It felt like something was wrong with my body’s balance. Had I pushed myself too hard just because I had finally gotten meat?

“I don’t have time to complain about being weak.”

I did not want to rest just because I felt strange. Injuries were all healed in this place, so if there was a problem, it had to be with my mental strength.

Since I had just cleared the desert section on the fourth floor, I decided to let Wilson rest for a while and return to the altar.

“Phew, phew, phew.”

Yeah, all I had to do was exercise.

[Warning: Physical transformation has occurred.]

“I feel much better. It really was just my imagination.”

I felt like my field of vision had gotten slightly higher, but that was probably just my imagination.

It was almost a year since I had been trapped in this prison.

I was somewhat confident in my mental strength, but honestly, if someone asked me whether I was still mentally fine, I could not confidently say yes.

“Kree, kree.”

Somehow, I had also started talking to myself more often for no reason.

I was desperately trying to suppress the anxiety slowly rising inside me.

I wondered what had happened back home during this time.

I was also worried about the family I had left behind.

My eldest brother, Salmoneus, was quick-witted, so he might have taken over the lord’s duties while I was gone.

My younger siblings all had their own outstanding strengths, so they would probably be doing well, but you never knew when monsters might attack.

The youngest, Kanake, was still young. Alcyone usually took good care of her.

“There’s no point worrying about it here.”

Getting out of this prison as quickly as possible.

That was the thing I had to prioritize above all else right now.

🙂

“I’m back, Wilson.”

Just looking at his face made me feel much more at ease.

I felt like I could maintain my sanity at least because Wilson was here.

“Hey, while I was coming up, the water deer was back in the same place. I guess it comes back whenever I’m not looking at it. Weird, isn’t it?”

🙂

“Yeah. Let’s eat it together next time. For now, let’s try to clear the fifth floor.”

[You have entered the fifth-floor labyrinth area.]

Rumble.

Together with Wilson, I entered a new slope.

This area had another strange structure. It was not difficult to climb, and there were no obstacles, but there were several paths that split into two directions.

“Why did they make it like this?”

There had to be a reason for it…

At the first choice, I pushed Wilson up the right path.

“Nothing happened.”

The next choice.

I pushed Wilson to the right again.

At that moment—

“What happened?”

I was back at the starting point of the fifth floor with Wilson.

“A puzzle.”

A memorization puzzle would not be difficult. I thought I could clear it without much trouble after trying a few times, so I pushed Wilson up the right path again.

“Whoa.”

I was back at the starting point again.

“The correct answer keeps changing?”

The fifth floor was just an irritating, vicious luck-based area.

There were a total of ten forks, so the chance of getting through was 1 in 2 to the tenth power, roughly 1 in 1,000.

I carefully observed the paths, wondering if there was a clue that could help me find the correct route, but there was nothing.

It was purely luck.

“Seriously…”

My anxiety began to rise through my heart.

It would take an enormous amount of time just to get through the fifth floor, and even if I managed to clear it, dropping Wilson from above would waste just as much time again.

According to the law of large numbers, the chance of clearing this section with a 1-in-1,000 probability within 1,000 attempts was roughly 60 percent. In other words, if I was unlucky, I might not even get through it after 10,000 attempts.

The thought of how many years I might waste here was already overwhelming.

“I need to find another way.”

Suddenly, I remembered something that had happened a year ago.

Back then, I had also needed to clear a kind of labyrinth using an unconventional method.

It was when I first met Hades.

“Big brother, wake up! It’s morning! If you don’t get up, I’ll draw on your face!”

“Mmm… mornin’!”

Even though I always took my afternoon naps, I had never slept late.

Ever since I was young, my two-years-younger sister, Alcyone, had come to wake me up as soon as the sun rose. It had become part of my daily routine.

The youngest, Kanake, seemed to think it looked fun, so every morning she would jump into my blankets together with Alcyone.

Since this was an age without alarm clocks, it was personally convenient. Though it was a little annoying.

“Alcyone, you’re going to become an adult soon. How long are you going to keep coming into my room? Kanake is learning from you.”

“If you woke up properly, I wouldn’t have to come in either.”

“We created a culture called knocking. If you keep acting so recklessly, you’ll never get married.”

“Then you can take responsibility for me. I couldn’t get married because I was taking care of you, so isn’t that logical?”

“Let’s not talk about this.”

“Hehe. Hurry up and get dressed.”

Alcyone had followed me closely since she was young, and after I became the lord, she followed me around as if she were my secretary.

She had also helped raise Kanake when she was a baby, so she had been a great help.

That day was the day we had to clean up after the summer festival.

It was also the tenth day since Thanatos had come to visit us.

We needed to hurry.

“…Ah.”

Perhaps because I had woken up at a different time than usual, I happened to run into her in the mansion hallway after a long time.

Clea was staring silently at me while I was with Alcyone.

“Ah, hello, Sister…”

Clea ignored Alcyone’s greeting. She bit her lower lip and hurried past us.

“…Phew.”

Perhaps because she suddenly felt like she was walking on a bed of thorns, Alcyone let out a sigh.

“You’re polite. You used to bully Clea when you were younger.”

“What are you talking about? I have that much sense, too. When I was young, I hated Sister because I thought she would marry you…”

“You’re engaged now, though.”

“No, that’s different. How could I say something mean to her now…? She probably doesn’t even want to stay in our house.”

That was true.

Was there really no way to break a vow made to a god?

When I went to the reception room, Tana was sitting on a chair, swinging her short legs while sipping mint tea.

“A letter has arrived from the Underworld.”

“Was it sent by the god of the Underworld?”

“Ha-ha-ha! He bowed his head before my greatness.”

In short, the letter said that the Underworld’s work had been paralyzed because the snowball from Thanatos’s strike had rolled down, so they would unconditionally accept her demands and negotiate.

Who would have thought Hades would become this submissive?

Now Hades would have no reason to manipulate the records of the dead or interfere with our territory.

Tana really was amazing.

“I shall be leaving now. Someday, when your lifespan finally comes to an end, we shall meet again, wise human Sisyphus. Go and enjoy a life without regrets!”

And so I saw Tana off as she walked away.

Until then, I thought this mysterious experience of receiving a god would be my last.

—BOOM!!

That expectation was shattered in less than ten seconds.

The impact of a meteor striking the ground shook everything.

When the thick cloud of dust cleared, I found myself hanging in the air, grabbed by the collar by someone.

“I ask you, human! Did you kidnap the god of death?!”

A giant who looked at least three meters tall.

He was a muscular man wearing magnificent armor from head to toe.

His long hair and beard, left untouched for a long time, gave him an extremely savage and masculine appearance.

The mana overflowing from his eyes and forming a sharp glow showed just how powerful he was.

“Sisyphus!”

Sensing the attack, Tana immediately swung her scythe to rescue me, but the man blocked it with one hand and grabbed Tana by the collar as well.

The overwhelming display of strength gave me a strong feeling that there was absolutely no way to reason with this man.

“It seems you are here too, god of death. I have rescued you. Be grateful!”

“Will you not release that barbaric hand at once?! What business could you possibly have with me, Ares?!”

Ares.

The violent man who had attacked me, a person who would not be out of place being called the strongest warrior on Olympus.

He was the god of war.

“We shall discuss it on the way!”

Ares jumped up in an instant, carrying both Tana and me.

—Big brother!

Alcyone’s voice grew distant.

I soon lost consciousness.

“…Are you out of your mind, Ares? This is an affair of the Underworld. You interfered without permission, and you even brought a living human here. There is a rule that the living must not cross the River Styx!”

“I know nothing of such a rule! Fewer and fewer people have been dying on the battlefield. One day passed, then two, and by the tenth day, people were still walking around even after having their hearts pierced by spears. Does that make sense? Since my uncle was doing nothing, I personally brought the god of death here. You should be grateful!”

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a gloomy, damp palace.

From the conversation I heard, I realized that this was the Underworld, and that Hades was the ruler whom Ares was complaining to.

I had a feeling that something terrible would happen if I did not keep my wits about me.

“Go back immediately. The Underworld is not a place for the living to set foot in carelessly.”

“Just hurry up and solve the problem. The world above is a mess!”

Ares disappeared with heavy footsteps, and Tana and I faced Hades.

“You idiot, Hades. Why did you lure in someone as violent as the god of war?”

“…I did not expect this either. Forget Ares’s rudeness, Thanatos.”

To summarize, this entire incident had happened purely because of Hades’s incompetence.

Thanatos’s soul-retrieval work was small, but it was extremely important when viewed as a whole.

Without Tana, the Underworld had become paralyzed because the order of souls according to fate had become tangled.

And Hades claimed he had not expected things to turn out this way.

Apparently, even when two enormous bulls fell onto his head, he had been so angry that he intended to fire Tana.

That was why it had taken him ten days to send a reply.

Hades had completely surrendered to Tana.

He promised not only to stop manipulating the records of the dead, but also to share authority with Tana regarding the problems caused by the way things had been managed until now.

After finishing his explanation, he grabbed his helmet as if he had a headache.

“A matter that should have ended in the Underworld has spread all over the place like this. If Ares had known about it, the other gods of Olympus would have learned about this incident too.”

“That is your fault, Hades.”

“…”

Hades looked displeased.

He did not admit his fault even a little and continued acting as though everything had simply been bad luck.

To think that someone this childish and lacking in dignity was the king of the Underworld.

I decided that I should live as long as possible so I would not have to come here anytime soon.

“The human who came with you seems to have been brought here by Ares without permission. The living must not remain in the Underworld. Go back.”

I had quietly listened to him and was about to bow respectfully before leaving.

“But, human, what is your name?”

“My name is Sisyphus.”

“Sisyphus, the Sisyphus who is the lord of Corinth?”

“…Yes.”

A bad feeling ran down my spine.

A sharp light was shining beneath Hades’s helmet.

“I have heard your name from Hermes. He said you were a man who dared to trouble the gods with strange and skillful schemes.”

It seemed Hermes had spread some strange slander about me again.

“…Hmm.”

He looked back and forth between Tana and me.

“You cannot return to the world above.”

“What?”

“Hades, what kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden? Sisyphus still has a long way to go before he comes down here. Why don’t you send him back at once?!”

“…Normally, you would return through the cave of Acheron, but the passage happens to be flooded. There is no way.”

The corner of Hades’s mouth lifted as he said this.

He was clearly being spiteful.

He was taking out his embarrassment from being humiliated by Ares and exposed for his incompetence by Tana on me.

Everything had happened because of his own mistakes, but he needed someone to vent his anger on.

And because I was Alcyone’s brother, he had decided that I would be the target.

What an incredibly selfish man.

I had already experienced this kind of unreasonable malice several times, so it did not even surprise me anymore.

Stay calm.

I simply thought of my younger sisters back home and began looking for a way out.

“Do not worry, Sisyphus.”

Tana jumped behind me and gently patted my head.

“I shall send you back to your homeland, no matter what happens.”

“Lady Tana.”

“Hades, you know very well that having a living human in the Underworld will not bring anything good to this place. Stop playing around.”

“The only exit is to swim upstream along the River Styx. If you can swim your way back, then go ahead. But the moment a living human touches the water, he will lose all his memories.”

The river of forgetfulness flowing through the Underworld was famous.

Because Ares had dragged me here, I had been put in a situation where I had to cross it if I wanted to return safely.

Tana clicked her tongue.

That was how petty Hades’s malice was.

“Lady Tana, may I borrow your ear for a moment?”

“Hmm? What is it?”

I immediately asked Tana for one thing.

“Oh, that should be possible, but…”

Then, after saying goodbye to Hades, I turned around and walked toward the fiercely flowing river.

I did not want to stay in such an unpleasant place even for one more second.

“What a foolish human. You still have not tasted the terror of the Underworld. Even if you cross that river with your bare body, you will become a fool and not even remember why you crossed it.”

Hades mocked me with laughter.

Without hesitation, I stepped into the river.

And then—

“No, how…?!”

Hades’s helmet shook in shock.

I kept the original structure, names, dialogue flow, and simple English style consistent with the previous chapters.