CHAPTER 2 RABBIT ROOKIE
Back on the eighteenth floor, the Under Resort.
The bluish veil of artificial night had been lifted as the glimmer of morning crystal settled down atop the safety point. Its soft glow blanketed everything, from the wetlands in the north to the forest spreading far to the east and south, covering the relay town atop the island in the lake to the west as well.
Within that swath of underground land lay Loki Familia’s base camp, erected along the southern tip of the forest.
As the inhabitants of the camp began to rise, so did the noise level as they went about their morning duties.
“Wh-what’s happened, Mister Raul?”
“Huh? Oh, Lefiya.”
Lefiya frantically made her way toward Raul in the crowd of people at the center of camp. Her long auburn hair was loose instead of in its typical ponytail, evidence that she’d only just gotten up.
The young elf had been fast asleep inside her tent until the commotion outside woke her and she rushed out to see what was the matter. Incidentally, the two Amazonian sisters, with their animalistic sensitivity to all things to do with blood and battle, were still fast asleep back in the tent, completely unaware of the alarm gripping their camp.
Raul, along with Aki next to him, turned around to face the approaching elf.
“Some adventurers came down from the seventeenth floor. Miss Aiz found them passed out by the stairs and saved them…” Raul replied.
“Seems like ol’ Goliath had his way with them…they’re banged up pretty good and still out cold,” Aki added.
The group had formed a circle around the three adventurers in question, who were asleep on the grass as Riveria, Leene, and the other healers cared for them, constantly monitoring their conditions.
They were dressed casually in robes with inner linens fashioned from salamander wool, all of them decidedly worse for wear. Aiz herself sat among the healers, her usual stoic expression overcome with worry as she watched them work.
“Seems like one of ’em is from Hephaistos Familia,” Aki mused as she took in the scene before focusing on a corner of the crowd where a cotton-swathe-clad Tsubaki stood together with her small group of poison-afflicted smiths.
“Oh, Welfy…” the half-dwarf high smith murmured, her right eye (the one not covered by its usual eye patch) staring at the scarlet-haired boy.
While it was an unwritten rule of the Dungeon that parties were supposed to leave one another well enough alone, given that one of the injured was a member of their allied familia, there was clearly no way Loki Familia could ignore their plight.
And it was a plight. Even as low as they were on resources upon their return from their expedition, Loki Familia wasn’t so heartless and narrow-minded as to abandon their fellow adventurers in a time of great need.
At Riveria’s prompt instruction, the red-haired boy’s bandages and armaments were removed and his broken leg splinted, the warm glimmer of healing spells surrounding him.
“Ah, right. And then there’s Miss Aiz’s friend,” Raul added almost as an afterthought.
“Miss Aiz’s…?”
Lefiya’s senses tingled at those words.
Finally, she took a good, long look at the injured adventurers lying on the grass.
She first saw a young prum girl, followed by the human smith Tsubaki was so worried about, and lastly, though his face was hidden by the shadow of Aiz’s frame, she saw a human boy…
…Hm?
The sight gave her an uncanny sense of foreboding.
In the next instant, she found herself winding through the crowd, azure eyes straining with all their might—staring at the boy on the ground. Aiz’s hand was resting softly on his forehead.
Those slender limbs, that slight frame, his features and their immutably cherubic innocence…and finally, that pure-white hair, as white as snow.
Lefiya’s eyes widened with an almost audible snap.
“Hngggggaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh?!”
She stood frozen with her finger pointed straight at the boy.
The horrendous scream squeezed from her throat was enough to make not only Raul, Aki, and the other familia members stop in their tracks but Riveria and Aiz, as well.
It was none other than her (self-declared) fated rival, the boy she’d shared her beloved mentor with in the days leading up to the expedition.
Once again, luck had brought her face-to-face with her archenemy, Bell Cranell.
“Lefiya, you will be quiet!”
“I-I apologize!”
Riveria’s wrath immediately fell upon her.
Soft sleeping breaths permeated the tent.
The firmly closed eyelids of slumbering patients told of the predicament they’d so narrowly escaped. Half-hidden beneath their blankets, the boy, young man, and girl lay fast asleep atop simple beds fashioned for them from outer garments.
Aiz was sitting on the floor, examining the faces of Bell and the other members of his party under the pretense of nursing them.
Half a day’s time had passed since Aiz had carried them back to Loki Familia’s base camp. They were in Finn’s tent, the captain surrendering his space willingly after he learned the situation. After checking in on them earlier, he had instructed her to bring the adventurers to the main tent once they’d awoken, if at all possible. Tsubaki and the other Hephaistos Familia smiths also dropped by occasionally to check on the young man who seemed to be their companion.
Thanks to the efforts of Riveria and the other healers, their wounds had been fully mended. Even the young man’s broken leg, the worst of the injuries, had been restored. The power of strong healing magic and meticulous care was truly impressive. The remaining light scratches and bruises had been treated with what little ointments and bandages remained.
Aiz lowered her eyes toward the white strips of cloth veiling the face of the boy sleeping by her folded knees.
You already made it all this way…?
Voices and laughter drifted in through the tent’s sheets every now and then as her fingers combed through the boy’s bangs.
With most of their items and armor no longer covering their bodies, the unconscious adventurers were an especially sorry sight. They must have been running for their lives, forcing themselves through the middle levels and finally arriving at the eighteenth floor by the skin of their teeth.
It had been only two weeks since she’d last parted with him.
At the time, he had been a Level-1 lower-class adventurer, and she was certain at one point during their training together on the city walls he’d told her the deepest he’d ever gone was the tenth floor.
And yet, here they were, a scant fourteen days later, and he’d already raised that count by eight.
From the upper levels to the middle levels in the blink of an eye.
It was unbelievable. A speed that was enough to make her doubt her own ears.
But the fact that they were here now, lying right in front of her, was proof enough, and she was forced to acknowledge her astonishment.
He’s Level 2 now…
The adventure he’d completed, that cutthroat battle with the minotaur, had caused him to level up, and he’d broken free of his previous level.
Just as Aiz had done with her subjugation of Udaeus.
At least he must have, otherwise it would have been virtually impossible for him to make it all the way to the eighteenth floor.
No doubt, he and his party members hadn’t originally planned on descending to this safety point. She could only guess that they’d run into something unexpected while exploring the shallow reaches of the middle levels, preventing their return to the surface—an incident that made it impossible for them to escape the Dungeon’s halls.
A massive cave-in along one of the main routes? Or a pitfall, perhaps, that they accidentally dropped into after some monster hounded them. These types of things weren’t uncommon in the Cave Labyrinth, the area also known as the “first line,” often considered a threshold to a great increase in danger.
And so the three adventurers, faced with one of these deplorable situations…hadn’t relied on luck. They had not waited for help that may or may not have come. No, they’d pressed on so they could return home with their lives.
“You wanted to save them, didn’t you…?”
She remembered his tragically heroic face as he’d pleaded for her to save his companions, right before he’d passed out completely.
It had been courage, determination, wisdom, and selflessness in the face of certain death that had led Bell and the others to this safety point.
“…But…”
—You shouldn’t push yourself so.
Ignoring the fact that this was advice she, herself, needed to heed, she reached a hand toward Bell’s face.
There’d been so much blood pouring from his forehead and staining his body. Even now, the scars were still visible, and his face remained tormented with fatigue.
She lowered her golden eyes, gently caressing the strips of gauze on his forehead.
When suddenly—
“…Ngh.”
“!”
—his eyelids fluttered, almost as though he was receiving life from Aiz’s touch.
Aiz withdrew her hand in an instant.
It seemed as if he was struggling against an overwhelming feeling of weakness when the slightest of moans passed between his lips.
She stared at his face until finally, the rabbit’s brilliant rubellite eyes cracked open.
“…”
Ever so slowly, his eyelids rose. He blinked once. Twice.
He seemed not to notice Aiz sitting beside him at all. Instead, he simply stared at the ceiling of the tent as though unsure he’d awoken.
But then—
“—Lilly. Welf?!”
His eyes popped wide open as he sat straight up in bed.
He jerked forward, having seemingly no recollection of what had transpired, fully prepared to jump to his feet and come to his companions’ aid, when—
Ah! You shouldn’t move so suddenly! But the words were only in Aiz’s mind, and by the time she could form them on her lips, it was too late.
“?Hngh?!”
He curled in on himself as his entire body cried out in agony.
And then he began groaning in front of Aiz, like some kind of crazed, pained rabbit.
Aiz hesitated for a few moments, watching the boy suffer, before finally opening her mouth with a look of resolve.
“Are you all right?”
Bell flinched.
The body that had been writhing in such horrible agony froze.
He was still a moment, then raised his head with a snap.
Gold met rubellite as their gazes locked, the two of them close enough to touch.
“I…erm…uh…”
“…Everything okay?”
What looked like a thousand different expressions ran across Bell’s face as he took in the sight of Aiz sitting next to him.
Her brows were furrowed, pity coloring her features at the boy’s distressed state.
Maybe he hit his head really hard. She couldn’t help but worry.
Bell, on the other hand, was oblivious to Aiz’s anxiety as his actions grew more and more peculiar, until finally he grasped his current situation. He gulped.
The color of his face changed quickly after that, almost as if he had suddenly realized that the person he’d begged in his half-comatose state had been none other than Aiz. The fingers he’d dug into Aiz’s boot began to tremble as his face paled, then flushed red before turning white again.
“Wh-why are you…here…?”
“We stopped here…on the way back from our expedition…” Aiz explained with a slight pause at the boy’s trembling half question, relaying her familia’s current situation.
Bell fidgeted as he took in the information, and his eyes refused to stay on Aiz.
All of a sudden, he jerked forward.
“My…! My friends, are they—?!” he started. However, the moment he pressed his hand down on the bed to rise, his elbow crumpled.
His wounded, fatigued body was still incapable of sudden movement, no matter what he intended, and he ended up pitching forward.
Aiz reacted instinctively as she watched the boy fall.
Coming forward with her arms outstretched, she caught him with a cushiony bwoof!
“…”
“…”
Aiz’s hands were on Bell’s shoulders. His face, on the other hand, had settled quite comfortably between Aiz’s breasts.
His mouth, his nose, his eyes—everything was enveloped by her chest and silver armor.
They made for a lovely shock absorber, and there was no way it could have hurt. Yet for some reason, Bell remained completely frozen there.
Did he bump his nose?
She sat there worrying at the white mop that was the back of his head until he shot away from her with a mighty jolt.
“I’m so sorry!!”
He launched himself so far away his back traced an uncanny curve while his face adopted the color of a ripened apple.
In fact, he flew so far that his head collided neatly with the floor, which Aiz had tried to warn him about, but she had been a bit too late. Pain shot through the boy’s body, and he writhed with an inaudible scream.
Aiz became so flustered that she couldn’t respond at all as Bell doubled over with his hands clutching at his stomach, until—
“—Ah. Welf.”
The boy’s rubellite eyes suddenly noticed his companion lying next to him.
Fighting through the pain, he managed to push himself up into a sitting position to inspect the human boy and prum girl still sleeping soundly, as he’d been doing only a few moments ago. When he saw they were alive and well, he let his muscles relax and dropped back to the floor.
“They’ll be all right…Riveria and the others healed them,” Aiz explained as she scooted toward the relieved boy. “His injuries were bad, but…you got really hurt, too…” she added, peering at the smith boy’s leg before reaching a sympathetic hand toward Bell’s forehead.
Her fingers gently combed his white bangs, stroking his forehead through a bandage of gauze like a sister caring for her younger brother.
The touch of her slender fingers produced a brilliant flush on Bell’s face.
Aiz cocked her head curiously.
“Are you all right?”
Which only served to redden his face further as the blush spread to his ears and neck.
As strange as she found this reaction, however, she didn’t stop.
“Th-thank you…for saving me…really…” Bell stuttered, finally managing to pull himself away from Aiz’s touch.
“Of course.” She shook her head, saying, There’s no need to thank me in her heart as a tiny smile formed on her lips. The boy almost looked a little embarrassed.
The two simply stared at each other for a few moments before Aiz gently turned to face the tent’s entrance.
“Do you think you can move now?”
“I…I think…so…”
“I’m supposed to report to Finn…I mean, to our captain, about your condition. Do you think you could come with me?”
Bell nodded in response, and Aiz rose to her feet. Her thoughts still lingering on the boy’s injuries, she extended a hand to help him walk.
“I-I’m fine!” he stammered, pulling his hand away. He wasn’t about to let himself turn any redder than he already had.
While the boy rose to his feet unassisted, Aiz found herself frozen to the spot, hand still outstretched.
I…I touched him too much, didn’t I…?
His forehead. His bangs.
Maybe he didn’t like it?
Regret colored her thoughts as she recalled the way her hand had moved almost involuntarily toward the fur of that tiny rabbit. She couldn’t help but think of her own patron deity, Loki, and the way she constantly flung herself at Aiz and Tiona while denying any ulterior motives. “This ain’t sexual harassment!”
Her shoulders dropped with a tangible gloominess.
“I-it’s not what you think, Miss Aiz. I…It’s like a man’s sense of honor? I-I mean…” Bell began furtively, stumbling over his words, but he was ultimately unable to finish due to the pain.
In the end, he could get to his feet on his own, and the two of them made their way through the exit to the camp outside.
“Whoa…” Bell seemed a bit in awe as he took in the sight of Loki Familia’s base camp.
Tent after tent was interspersed with a multitude of cargo and supplies. Aiz felt a smile form on her lips as she watched him look around in curious excitement…though at the same time, the other members of Loki Familia scrutinized him with suspicious unease.
The gazes aimed their way were pointed, almost accusatory.
“…?”
Is something wrong? Aiz thought to herself, finding all of this incredibly strange as, next to her, the target of those glares began to pale.
The beautiful top-tier adventurer had no idea that she—along with her heroic, unfaltering service for the boy—could have anything to do with this unwelcoming atmosphere.
“What?! Little Argonaut is here?!”
Tiona’s voice arose with a clamor from a small corner of the camp.
“A-Argonaut…?” Lefiya faltered, shocked by Tiona’s sudden shout. She’d been in the middle of explaining the current situation—and Bell Cranell’s presence in the camp—to the two Amazonian sisters.
It was already “noontime” in the Dungeon.
Since yesterday, the two Amazons had busied themselves caring for their poison-afflicted companions while also gathering food and water for the group. Just now, however, they’d left to exterminate a swarm of monsters a short distance from camp, and while they had previously heard about the battered trio of adventurers found near the floor’s exit, they’d yet to learn the full story.
Normally, they received the news from Aiz, but the swordswoman had been holed up in a tent with the adventurers ever since Riveria and the others had finished their healing procedures. Someone needed to watch over them, after all, and as the white-haired boy was an acquaintance of Aiz’s, she seemed like the best one for the job—Riveria’s recommendation had also contributed greatly, as the high elf had noticed Aiz’s complete inability to settle down after the boy’s arrival.
“Y’hear that, Tione? Little Argonaut! The Little Argonaut! Can you believe he’s already made it this far? That fight of his was, like, yesterday!”
“Do you have to keep shouting like that? I heard the first time! And what’s with that stupid nickname you’ve given him…?”
“Hee-hee-hee, from the fairy tale, silly! Fits him perfectly, don’tcha think?” Tiona grinned wide, her cheeks flushed.
Tione, however, looked exasperated. “You’re a moron.”
The younger of the two sisters began flailing around with her giant double-bladed sword, Urga, eliciting a startled look of confusion from Lefiya and an ever-so-fleeting smile from Tione.
“True, though…It really does get your blood pumping just knowing he’s here,” the older girl mused as a truly Amazonian grin of excitement crept across her face.
“Where’s he at anyway, huh, Lefiya? Where’s our Little Argonaut?”
“Seems he’s in some kind of meeting with the captain…” Lefiya explained somewhat sullenly.
Tiona, in direct contrast, let out an exuberant “Let’s go see him when he’s done!”
Bidding farewell to Lefiya, the twins returned to their tent to store their weapons.
“First Miss Aiz…now Miss Tiona and Miss Tione, too…?” Lefiya grumbled, her lips turned downward in a disgruntled pout. The excitement around this boy never seemed to end, and now he’d even forced his way right into their camp…
It almost felt as if she’d had her beloved older sisters stolen right out from under her.
Puffing up her cheeks, she resumed attending to the camp duties she’d been assigned.
“Who in the world do you think that white-haired human is, huh, Mister Raul?”
“Yeah, to have Miss Aiz looking after him personally like that…He must be an upper-class adventurer, yeah? But I’ve never seen or heard of him!”
“How am I supposed to know? Guys, relax already, geez…”
From Lefiya’s point of view, it didn’t seem as if the rest of the camp was taking the boy’s presence too kindly, either. Most of the men who had collected around Raul, for instance, seemed especially moody.
“And what was he thinkin’, bringing people from other familias here, yeah?” The complaints continued, creating a spiteful air over the camp. Everyone except Tsubaki and her smiths seemed no happier about that young Hephaistos Familia smith than they were about the white-haired human.
“White-haired brat!” “Stealing our Miss Aiz…!” “He makes me so mad!” “She’s never taken care of any of us like that…!” “He doesn’t know a damn thing!” “Our beautiful Sword Princess is supposed to watch over us from the sidelines!”
One after another, they announced their opinions with no subtlety.
Though they normally kept a vague distance between themselves and the gorgeous, otherworldly swordswoman as a sign of humility, they held nothing but admiration and respect for their golden-haired, golden-eyed Sword Princess.
Surrounded by all the negativity directed at the mysterious white rabbit, Lefiya took the opportunity to ask everyone exactly how they felt.
“What about you all? How do you feel about the situation?” she asked, questioning the other girls tasked with cooking duty.
Aki, Narfi, and Leene exchanged looks with one another as they bustled about the crates of supplies, chopping mushrooms and herbs, and boiled the water they’d collected from the pool for the soup.
“Well, I mean, they’re adventurers, too, right? So we kinda have to help ’em, yeah?” Aki laid her thoughts out before Narfi continued.
“Imagine how guilty we would feel if we simply abandoned them there.”
The two Level-4, second-tier adventurers exchanged wry smiles.
“And that one boy seems to be a friend of Miss Aiz’s…” Leene, this time, adjusted her glasses nervously. She’d been given a break from her healing duties and was currently helping the others cook.
Hearing this, Lefiya couldn’t help the pout that formed on her lips.
“Though I do find it odd…” Leene continued.
“Odd?”
“I would have thought that Mister Raul would feel the same as the other men…” She glanced toward a circle of lower-level adventurers a short distance away, a sullen Raul at the center of the ring of grievances.
“Well, Raul…maybe you could say that he has a lot of life experience. It’s more like he doesn’t have the time to be bothering with stuff like that,” Narfi added somewhat sardonically as she smirked at the young man a few years her senior, who was being overwhelmed by the onslaught of his peers (“Stop it, guuuys…”).
“…Raul and I joined around the same time.” Aki glanced up from stirring the big pot of soup over the fire. “By the time we did, that girl…Aiz was already a Level Two.”
“Y-you mean that rumor? Of her breaking the record for fastest level-up at the age of eight?”
“Indeed. That tiny little girl…or should I say toddler? She could move like the wind, mincing monsters in the blink of an eye with her sword.” Aki half chuckled into the soup as her wooden spoon stirred it around and around. Leene, too, nodded as though remembering the spectacle herself.
“Now, Raul—that scared the crap outta him. Started calling her ‘Miss Aiz.’ Can you imagine? I mean, sure, I respected her, too, but I just didn’t see the sort of ‘idol’ Loki always made her out to be. So I just watched her…as she got bigger and bigger.”
Aki examined her companion, who was still flailing his arms wearily in the middle of the circle.
“Aiz was a monster back then. Much more so than now…Even I can see the difference.”
Narfi, Leene, and Lefiya, none of whom had been in the familia as long as Aki, gave tiny gulps. They knew the current Aiz well enough already.
“So it’ll be fine, Lefiya.”
“Huh?”
“Since you, Tiona, and Tione joined the familia, Aiz has mellowed out quite a bit. She actually smiles now.”
It had been three years, now, since Lefiya had joined Loki Familia.
By the time Lefiya, a Level-2 honors student fresh out of the Education District, had passed through the gate to Twilight Manor, Aiz already had Tiona and Tione to pull her out of her shell.
She didn’t need to worry, and she didn’t need to be jealous, either—that was what the catgirl adventurer was trying to tell her with a grin. And when Lefiya realized she’d been read like a book, her face began to heat up like an oven.
She promptly launched herself into her work to hide her shame, peeling fruit to throw into the pot as Narfi and Leene giggled discreetly.
R-right! Aiz and the rest of us have a deep bond! One that no random stranger can just push his way into!
Lefiya’s mood brightened considerably after Aki’s reassurance, a smile rising to her face as she continued her cooking duties.
The smile, however, gradually morphed the longer she peeled.
But didn’t Miss Aiz say that boy was only a Level 1 before the expedition…? A complete nobody from an unknown familia?
The boy’s face flashed through her head, as well as the complete disgrace he’d made of himself running away from her in the streets of Orario.
How on earth had he made it all the way here to the eighteenth floor in such a short period of time…?
It was true he’d received special training from Aiz the same as she had, but…
She couldn’t hold in the multitude of feelings flooding her mind as she thought of that boy she’d so one-sidedly deemed her rival.
Eventually, the group of girls finished preparing dinner.
Lefiya was strolling about the camp in hopes of helping out with another set of duties, when she caught a glimpse of Aiz emerging from the main tent.
She brightened instantly…until she saw that white-haired boy exit behind her. In response, she quickly assumed an air of disinterest. He looked nervous, the distrusting gazes of everyone in camp leading him to stick to Aiz’s back like glue, much like a frightened rabbit.
Try as she might to act like nothing was wrong, the more Lefiya looked at them, the more her insides churned.
Watching other familia members toss out greetings in Aiz’s direction, she abruptly changed her own course, cutting a beeline toward the pair.
“—Thank you for all your hard work, Miss Aiz!”
“Same to you, Lefiya.”
She passed by Aiz with a smile—before her path took her right by the boy at her rear.
Her pleasant demeanor vanished in an instant as she directed an intense glare at him.
“Eek!” The mage’s menacing expression drew a tiny squeak from the boy.
His face paled in fear.
Her azure eyes met his rubellite ones as her elegant eyes pierced him, slender elven ears twitching.
Their fated meeting by the city walls, their grand game of cat and mouse.
The boy’s face quivered as though he did, indeed, remember her—the beautiful fairy who’d hounded him through the city streets.
If you do anything, anything to Miss Aiz, you’ll regret the day you were born…!
Wh-whaaaaaa…?!
The silent, vehement exchange passed between them without a word.
In that single moment, that single glance, she communicated everything she wanted to say.
And then it was over, Lefiya continuing her walk and leaving the boy drenched in a cold, trembling sweat. Her warning properly conveyed, she gave a slight harrumph before moving on.
Still huffing and puffing, she glanced back once she was a good distance away to see the boy still practically latched onto Aiz’s backside.
She was observing him as well as making sure he wouldn’t do anything untoward.
And she continued to do so, checking in on them again and again as she went about her work, the same as her equally disobliging companions.
As she intensely focused on that sight in her peripheral vision—
“Ha-ha! It really is Little Argonaut!”
—a bright, cheery voice rang out.
It was none other than Tiona, wearing a grand smile.
She dashed over toward Aiz and Bell, who were currently engaged in some sort of conversation, shortly followed by her sister, Tione.
“I’d heard you got lugged into camp, but I didn’t realize you were awake! Great!”
Her booming voice could be heard all throughout camp, and her pure joy was perceptible to everyone. Bell, however, found himself immediately flustered by the euphoric girl headed straight toward him. Lefiya, too, felt her mood instantly plummet as she watched.
It seemed they were going to introduce themselves to the boy, the oh-so-naive and innocent Tiona and her seemingly interested sister, Tione.
But the sight of the twin beauties rushing toward him, bantering with him, only made the boy’s face redden like a tomato.
Their robust tanned skin, their exposed bellies, their slender hips, and perky chests—he was being seduced by the fearsome bodies of the Amazons!
With Aiz in the mix, currently cocking her head to the side curiously, it made for three beautiful women, all there waiting on him hand and foot.
Lefiya had just warned him about this!!
Don’t get carried away.
Don’t get so damn carried away.
Don’t get soooooo carried away!
PLEASE DON’T GET CARRIED AWAAAAAAAAAY…!!
The words repeated themselves like a spell in Lefiya’s soul, her resentment matching those of the nearby male demi-humans.
All around her those malicious stares gathered on the sight like a murderous barrage aimed at a dragon.
The boy must have felt it, turning white as a sheet beneath the withering glares of Lefiya and her male companions.
“I-I have to…go check on my friends!” he shouted before turning tail and fleeing what felt like a real threat to his life. He practically dived back into the tent he’d been allocated, caring little for pretense.
“Oh dear. He left!” Lefiya mused half-delightedly and half-regretfully, unable to resist, upon the boy’s forced flight before dashing over to where Aiz, Tiona, and Tione still stood side by side.
“I-I, erm…! I-I just wanted to ask, but…you were all fussing over that human so much. Did something happen between you and that adventurer?” she asked, despite already knowing his connection to Aiz, at least.
It was Tiona’s and Tione’s overwhelming interest in the boy, however, that had her scratching her head, as she couldn’t think of a time when the three would have crossed paths. All she had to go on was Finn’s mention of his name down on the fifty-ninth floor. She needed to know.
Tiona and Tione glanced at each other, looking very much like two mirror images.
“Something happened, all right…” Tione began with a wry smile.
“Yeah, a miracle!” Tiona continued next to her, unable to hold back her excited shout. “He took down a minotaur at Level One!”
“All by himself, too.”
Lefiya stopped short. Then she looked to Aiz…
…who only nodded in affirmation.
“He…he…he…”
But Lefiya couldn’t find the words.
“—These brave adventurers were willing to give up their own lives to save those of their companions in order to reach this eighteenth floor. While I’m not asking you to be their best friends, I do ask that you show them at least a shred of respect. We’re all adventurers down here, after all…Now then, shall we get back to the matter at hand?” Finn’s voice cut through the darkness of the forest around them.
The large circle of adventurers surrounding the campfire-like mound of magic stones raised their glasses.
“Cheers!”
Thus, the meager feast began.
They were seated in the large, open space at the base camp’s center. “Night” had settled over the Dungeon; the crystals coating the ceiling far above their branch-sheltered camp were silent.
It was a dinner similar to the one from a night prior, only this time, Aiz had brought Bell and his fellow adventurers, since the young smith and prum girl had recovered to the point where they could walk.
Finn’s speech acted more as an unsaid warning to the group—that they should do their best to avoid any disputes—and the men who’d been harboring their resentment all day could only bow their heads in shame. Self-respect as upper-class adventurers and a need to keep face as the largest familia in Orario both contributed to a decidedly warmer reception of Bell.
After their self-admonition, they were able to enjoy the evening meal wholeheartedly.
And so Loki Familia, together with the small group of Hephaistos Familia smiths, partook in food and drink beneath the watchful gaze of the fluttering Trickster flag. Supper was mushrooms seasoned with what little salt they had left and a soup of sour-tasting fruits, all of which they devoured before washing it down with cool, clean river water that had been chilled with ice magics. Every bit of the meal permeated their fatigued, expedition-weary bodies.
It had taken considerable ingenuity to craft such a supper from the tiny amount of supplies they had left, but the smiles blooming on faces all throughout the circle were worth it.
“…”
That is, except for the face of a certain elven mage, who was currently sitting silently by herself and eating neither soup nor fruits as the cheerful voices echoed around her.
Her eyes were fixated on the small group of adventurers seated a short distance away—a group that consisted of Aiz, Bell, and his two companions.
She watched as the boy took a piece of offered Honey Cloud, eyeing it curiously, taking a tiny nibble, then immediately stiffening, as though he was holding in a sudden urge to vomit.
He took down a minotaur at Level 1…
She couldn’t think about anything but what Tiona and Tione had told her earlier. She couldn’t get Bell out of her head. It was impossible to ignore it.
Lefiya’s mastery of Concurrent Casting under Aiz’s and the others’ tutelage was impressive enough…but now her opponent had gone and defeated an enormous, Level-2-category monster all on his own. And a minotaur, of all things! A symbol of sheer power and endurance. Challenging one head-on was a trying task even for a third-tier adventurer.
To think that a Level 1 could do such a thing was beyond irritating, and Lefiya felt herself losing control of her rancor again.
“Those youngsters are certainly havin’ a good time in spite of it all.” Opposite Lefiya’s building rage, Gareth sat stroking his long beard from atop the seats of honor reserved for Loki Familia’s elites.
“They are, indeed,” Finn responded with a laugh.
Right across from them in their own corner of the circle sat Aiz, Bell, and his companions, the four of them in high spirits as they went about their meal. Apparently, a fight for the fruits had broken out.
The prum girl was red-faced, kicking the back of the young smith as she let out squeals of frustration. The smith, on the other hand, had made clean work of the piece of Honey Cloud in question, the cotton-like fruit nowhere to be found. Bell’s face twitched as he watched the argument play out, while Aiz simply stared on in bewilderment.
The entertaining spectacle was enough to draw snickering out of not only the women but the entire familia.
“Mmph—Tione! Fwe sh—nngulp!—we should go join Little Argonaut!”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full! The food’s not going anywhere, yeah? And I’d rather not see it after it goes into that mouth of yours! You are such a child, ugh! Ah! Captain! Would you like something to drink?”
“Hm? Ah, yes. Thank you.”
But in the end, Loki Familia would not be beaten when it came to being lively.
Already, Tiona was on her umpteenth bowl of soup, and once Tione had finished admonishing her, the younger sister sidled up next to Finn with an alluring voice.
She refilled the prum captain’s cup from a calabash-shaped fruit known as the gourd berry. Cutting away the thick-skinned upper tip and pressing on the body of the fruit would squeeze out its jelly-like red flesh. The flesh itself started sour and grew sweeter the more it ripened. If left for too long, the fruit turned bitter. That taste was a sign of fermentation—the alcohol it produced was cherished for its ability to soothe the tongues and throats of upper-class adventurers who were stuck in the Dungeon but longed for the ale of the surface.
Even Riveria, who normally steered clear of all alcohol, was known to partake in the drink of the gourd berry from time to time.
Now, too, the high-elf queen was being recommended it by the other elves in the familia, and she drank the Dungeon fruit spirit (though not to become intoxicated, of course) with a smile on her face.
“M-Miss Tsubaki! Gimme a break, here! I-isn’t this that crazy dwarf liquor…?!”
“Man up, you puppy! It’s only a little dwarven fire drink, yeah? I just felt like opening up a bottle!” Tsubaki responded, undeterred, as she poured Raul a glass of the alcohol she’d traded for in Rivira.
Raul, in turn, flushed a brilliant red all the way to his ears, drunk in an instant thanks to that bottle and its dwarven insignia.
“Hmph. No fun! Oi, Gareth! Show me that liver of steel!” Tsubaki moved on as Raul passed out on the ground, her own cheeks mildly pink.
“As much as I’d like to join ye, lass…I have me position to consider. Be glad t’join ye for one back on the surface,” Gareth explained before noticing the piercing gaze aimed at him from just beside the leaping flames. “…Riveria! No need fer those steely eyes. I know, I know!”
The humorous exchange was enough to make Loki Familia’s lower-level members burst into laughter.
The mood was relaxed, and everyone was hanging loose now that their expedition was close to completion.
It was a moment of celebration, a toast to a battle hard-won, backdropped by nightfall’s dark forest—a scene that wouldn’t look out of place in a picture book. The boy with white hair gazed out over the revelry, lips relaxing into a smile as he eyed the cheerful circle of adventurers.
It was even more spirited than the night before.
“Tsubaki. I’d heard one of your familia’s smiths was among those brought to camp…Would it be that young man over there?” Riveria asked as she threw a watchful glance toward the guards they had surveying the perimeter.
“No mistake about it! Hee-hee…Now that he’s up and at ’em, it’s high time I got over there and pestered him a little!” Tsubaki exclaimed, taking one look at the red-haired boy in question before shooting to her feet with a wide grin. Together with the other high smiths (and a bottle of liquor), she made a beeline for Bell’s group.
The boy himself gave a sudden urk, brows knitting together like a tightly wound hemp basket.
“What’s with the face, Welfy? And here I came all the way over here to see if ya were okay!”
“Don’t gimme that! I can smell the alcohol on your breath from a mile away!”
“What were ya thinking, though, huh? Comin’ all the way down here to the eighteenth floor in a party with these other folks?” she continued unfazed, ignoring the boy’s blatant hostility at her drunken state. As her junior smith gritted his teeth and growled (“Why you…!”), she caught a glance of the white-haired boy sitting next to him.
Tsubaki stared. In fact, she looked at him so long that the boy grew rather uncomfortable, fidgeting restlessly.
“Oh?”
She looked back and forth between Aiz and the boy until, finally, she clapped her hands together as if reaching some sort of realization.
“Oh, I know who you are! You’re that Crell Banell fella!!” she bellowed excitedly, remembering the alleged “amazing adventurer” they’d run into on their way to the eighteenth floor whom Tiona had mentioned earlier during their descent into the Dungeon.
“I-I think you have me confused with somebody else,” Bell replied, a drop of sweat running down his temple.
However, Tsubaki didn’t pay much attention to the boy’s denial. Instead, the half-dwarf master smith grabbed his hand with a sturdy grip and gave it a bone-cracking shake along with a smile.
“They call me Tsubaki!”
Meanwhile, the bearer of erroneous info herself was just finishing up her meal. “I’m dooone!” she shouted before shifting her attention away without so much as wiping her mouth. “Little Arrrgonaaaut!” she shouted before she and Tione rose to their feet and leaped toward Bell and his companions.
In the midst of all the excitement, a certain sullen elf finally raised her voice. “…Erm, Lady Riveria? Captain?” Lefiya neared the group of familia elites. “I was just wondering if…if you, too, witnessed Bell Cranell defeating a minotaur?”
Gareth, Riveria, and Finn exchanged glances before the latter two nodded.
“We did.”
“’Fraid I missed it, lass. As ye can probably remember, I was with ye and the others in the rearguard while that young’un was workin’ his miracle on the ninth floor…” Gareth responded with a regretful stroke of his beard.
“Finn and I, however, were there to observe it.”
“As were Aiz, Bete, Tiona, and Tione.”
Riveria and Finn countered respectively, both of them glancing in Bell’s direction.
“I just…Did he really, really take down that beast all by himself? Without any help from you or Miss Aiz?”
“He did. Had he not, he’d not be with us today,” Finn responded with a laugh.
“As a matter of fact, Aiz herself stopped us from helping him,” Riveria continued somewhat playfully, her eyes closed.
It was quite the spectacle, both of them confirmed wholeheartedly, voices steeped in admiration.
Lefiya felt an emotion that could only be described as “intense anguish” filling her up from the inside out upon confirmation of her rival’s feat.
I was not able to take on a minotaur single-handedly until I’d reached Level 3…
She knew it was like comparing apples and oranges. That mages were different from adventurers. That those on the back line were different from those on the front line.
But, all the same, she couldn’t stop herself, simply because she and Bell Cranell were both protégés of her beloved Aiz.
“Nnngh,” she grumbled as she stood before her three superiors.
She peered at Bell, who in the brief moment she’d been looking away, had once again garnered the attention of Aiz, Tiona, and Tione. All of them had encircled him with excited, inquisitive questions about his earlier achievement, and Lefiya even heard them say, “How in the world did you get all your abilities to S?!” as the boy sat there fidgeting awkwardly. Finn and the others, too, turned their gazes toward the scene, but while they exchanged brief sighs, they did nothing to intervene.
H-he’s at it again…!!
Her intense anguish quickly combined with flames of rage, and she immediately charged toward the boy, who had broken out in a cold sweat.
“—Nnnghahh?!”
“?!”
It was at that moment—
—the scream of what seemed to be a young girl reached the camp.
There was a flurry of activity from the direction of the perimeter guards, when the white-haired boy suddenly rose to his feet and took off with nothing but a succinct “Excuse me for a moment!” The others were quick to follow—the prum girl, the smith boy, then Aiz, Tiona, and Tione, as well.
The whole camp was instantly alight with excitement.
It would seem the number of unexpected guests was about to rise yet again.
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