“Wh-What... was that?” Seiya whispered weakly.

Moffle carefully investigated the wall. “Seems to be a trap, fumo. One rigged to go off when you
stepped on a certain flagstone.”
“I know that!” Seiya said. “But that... that could have killed them!”
“Yeah. It was a real close shave, fumo.” Moffle’s voice remained calm.
It was said that trained soldiers better kept their calm in direct proportion to the urgency of
their situation, and Seiya was seeing a live demonstration of that now. If only he weren’t a
super-deformed rodent mascot...
“Moffu... we’ll need to proceed with caution, fumo. ...Tiramii?”
“M-Mii?”
“You’re our point man, fumo. Keep an eye out for traps. The minute you see one, warn us and
disarm it.”
“O-Okay. I’ll do my best, mii.”
“Macaron, you’re our tail gunner. Watch our backs, fumo.”
“...Got it, ron.”
“Isuzu, you stay in the middle, fumo. Guard the load.”
“Yes sir, General, sir.” Isuzu pulled out her musket, grabbed Seiya’s shoulder and pulled him
towards her.
While a little disoriented over Moffle’s sudden turn for the militant, Seiya found the presence of
mind to object. “Hold on a minute, now. Set up ranks if you want to, but what did you mean by
‘the load’? Was that supposed to be a reference to me?”
“Stop whining and do what I tell you, fumo,” Moffle grumbled in annoyance.
“No, I won’t let that one slide! The brilliant, omni-talented, handsome Kanie Seiya will not be
referred to as ‘the load’! Especially not by a weird, surly rodent like you!”
“Geh... ‘weird rodent,’ fumo? I’m trying to keep you safe because we need you to run the park,
fumo! Even though you’re a smart-aleck brat!”
“I can keep myself safe! I’m just sick of you always looking down on—” Seiya took a step
forward in anger, then heard something clack beneath his foot. “Er... was that a clack?”
Somewhere out of sight, mechanisms began roaring to life. A large machine had activated in
the dark of the tunnel beyond.
“Did you step on something, mii? Kanie-kun, did you step on something, mii?!”
“W-Well, I... might have, but I—”
A rumble echoed through the corridor. The whole group cringed. Then, out of the tunnel from
which they had come, a huge boulder started rolling towards them, on a path to crush them all.
“Thank goodness, ron! It’s an adventure story! See?”
“Now’s not the time!” Seiya bellowed.
“Run, fumo!”
“W-Wahh! Waaaah!”
All they did for the next few minutes was scream. There was no attempt at a formation; the five
of them just ran and ran, mindlessly. And, in their retreat from the massive pursuing boulder,
they triggered switch after switch.
Swarms of arrows shot out from the wall.
“Miiii!”
Holes opened up in the floor.
“Rooooon!”
The ceiling crashed down upon them.
“Moffu! Mooooooffu!”
There was no sense of coordination or teamwork. They all just ran, dodged, flailed, and avoided
the various traps with truly miraculous timing.
“Kanie-kun. I would recommend that we stop for a time,” Isuzu said to Seiya, who was jumping
and ducking to avoid the many traps assailing him.
“Stand still?! Don’t be ridiculous! How are we supposed to stand still when there are traps all
aro—what?!”
A buzzsaw made a beeline for Isuzu and Seiya. After just barely dodging, Seiya staggered, then
ended up falling into the wall behind him. That triggered a giant spiked ball that roared through
the air right for him.
“Gwaaah!” There was nothing he could do. It was going to hit him. Cringing, Seiya resigned
himself to his fate. But just before the ball struck, Isuzu jumped in from the side and knocked
Seiya out of the way.
“Sento?!”
They’d managed to avoid a direct hit as a result, but one of the spikes had caught her jacket and
thrown her roughly forward, sending her tumbling helplessly along the stone floor.
“......” She was rolling right for a newly opened pitfall. Without any chance to stop herself—or
even enough time to scream—Isuzu fell into the hole.
“Sento?!”
The hole covered over. A new rain of arrows fired off at him. Seiya tried jumping at the floor
where she had fallen, but Moffle grabbed him and dragged him back.
“Let me go!” Seiya yelled. “Sento is...”
“Save it!” Moffle told him.
“She fell! I need to help—”
“What we need to do is run, fumo!” Seiya was dragged away by Moffle.
Once things had finally settled a bit, they were able to notice that there were three of them
where there had been five before. Seiya, Moffle, and Tiramii were the only ones left.
“When did we lose Macaron, mii?” Tiramii asked, panting for breath.
“They’ve really got us on the ropes, fumo. I don’t even know which way we came from...”
Moffle spat.
“Sento...” Seiya had done nothing but whisper her name. When the spiked ball trap had
targeted him, Isuzu had put herself at risk to push Seiya out of the way. Then, because of that,
she had—
“Let’s save our worries for next week, fumo,” Moffle said. “Our first priority is getting out of this
maze. Once we call for help, we can use heavy equipment to tear the place apart, fumo.”
“I know that. I know that, but...” Seiya whispered, despairingly.
Meanwhile, Tiramii was looking around. “There don’t seem to be any traps here, mii. I think
we’re getting closer to the center of the maze.”
“What makes you say that, fumo?”
“I’ve got a bead on the thought process of whoever designed the maze, mii. I think he wants to
keep maintenance and hard work to a minimum. That’s why none of the traps were things like
poison gas or bombs that would take a long time to reset, mii.”
“Hrm...” Typically, Tiramii did nothing but spout idiocy, but for once, he seemed to be in his
element. Seiya was starting to believe that he could have been a safe-cracker, at one time.
“They set up big, flashy traps in the outer maze for purposes of shock and awe, mii. You use
automatic traps to thin out the weakest of the herd, but for those they can’t stop...” Tiramii
hummed, scowling, and tilted his head. “...they’ll stop using traps, and come to finish them
personally.”
“Personally?” Seiya asked.
Just then, the sound of howling voices began to echo through the maze. The hallway where
they were taking a breather—actually, it was more like a large chamber than a hallway—was
soon filled with orcs.