“What is it?”

Seol Jihu asked nervously, and Kazuki slowly opened his mouth.

“I can’t find Jun.”

“Sakamoto Jun?”

Kazuki nodded as he puffed out white smoke.

“There are forty staircases in total. Assuming each labyrinth had eight people, that means at least 320 participated in this year’s Banquet….” As the end of his sentence trailed off, his expression turned more and more sour.

“36 teams made it up so far, so 288 people should be here.”

“Right, but they might have—”

“I know. But don’t you think it’s too harsh for only 165 people to have made it up here?”

Seol Jihu swallowed his saliva. Over half of the participants had perished or had been eliminated in Stage 1?

“There are still four teams left. I can only hope he’s just been eliminated.”

Kazuki smiled bitterly before asking for another cigarette. In response, Seol Jihu dazedly handed him the entire pack.

“Anyways, I heard you did well. The second team to make it up here, right?”

“Who told you that?”

“An Archer named Lara Wolff. She was praising you so much that I began to worry her tongue would dry up.”

Kazuki seemed to have gone around to exchange information the moment he came up. Seol Jihu silently regretted just sitting around and doing nothing.

Meanwhile, Kazuki glanced at the young man and saw his complexion sink.

“…Not really,” The young man muttered in a gloomy voice.

Kazuki tilted his head. From what he heard about the young man’s feats, he should have no reason to feel dejected.

“Did something...