She came to a stop, pointed ears completely still even as her jade locks wavered in the morning breeze. One look at Aiz with her hand still on the hilt of her saber, and Riveria nodded, piecing together exactly what had happened. She sighed under her breath.
“You haven’t the time to be distracted by Aiz’s training. You have your own to attend to. We will continue until breakfast is served. Aiz, we shall talk later.”
“M-Miss Aiiiz…”
With the book under her arm, Lefiya weakly called out to her friend as Riveria pulled her back into the tower. In response to the elf’s mournful look, Aiz gave her a little wave in an attempt to cheer her on.
Riveria was training Lefiya in magic. Judging by the bags under her eyes, they’d been at it all night. Aiz had been in a similar position until just a few years ago—in her case, learning the finer details of being an adventurer. She knew exactly how strict Riveria’s teaching style could be.
Memories of those days flashing through her mind, Aiz waved again in encouragement as Lefiya disappeared from sight.
Aiz left the garden and walked back into another tower, saber in hand.
After a quick shower, Aiz made her way through the long, narrow hallways of her home toward the cafeteria.
Quite a few people were already there, busily preparing breakfast or setting up the table for other members of the familia. The various aromas wafting out of the kitchen made her stomach grumble. She’d been up for hours but hadn’t eaten anything. A quick peek through the kitchen window told her that today’s breakfast was composed of vegetable soup and salad made with liberal amounts of vegetables, salted meat and vegetable sandwiches, and vegetable omelets. A substantial delivery from Demeter Familia had come in just the other day and was being put to good use. Their produce was always sweet and crisp, so Aiz always looked forward to the deliveries.
Unsure whether they would be able to finish everything, Aiz grabbed some plates and started to help set the table.
She’d finished placing a few dishes when suddenly…
“Whoa! Miss Aiz! When did you get here?”
“We appreciate the thought, but we can handle this!”
While thankful, other members of the familia wouldn’t allow her to do such lowly work as setting a table. They took the dishes right out of her hands and asked her to wait. Because she was always treated like the princess of a castle, there was quite a bit of distance between Aiz and the lower-ranking members of the group.
She understood that lowly chores like setting the table were beneath the elites, but even so…after seeing how Tiona and the others were able to mingle with everyone else, it would be a lie to say she didn’t feel lonely.
Her shoulders sank as she stood empty-handed in the cafeteria.
“M-Miss Tione, breakfast is our responsibility…”
“I’m gonna cook the general’s breakfast, end of story! You can’t stop me; now out of my way!”
Aiz looked back through the window and saw Tione trying to push her way through the crowded kitchen to get to a cooking station. Talking excitedly with their younger peers—at least that’s how it looked to Aiz—Tione looked very impressive. She watched as the Amazon was gently and politely “convinced” to leave the kitchen.
“Uwh…”
“?”
Feeling that she couldn’t be useful in the cafeteria, Aiz ducked out into the nearest hallway. Turning the first corner, she nearly ran into the werewolf, Bete. He startled at meeting her so suddenly, the corner of his mouth twitching until he was able to force an uncomfortable smile.
“……Y-yo.”
Aiz tilted her head, a little confused as to why Bete was so awkward this morning. Then it came to her.
Not much time had passed since the incident with the white-haired boy at a bar called The Benevolent Mistress. Bete’s attitude had angered her at the time, but he had shown a great deal of remorse after the fact and had barely talked to her since.
Bete had been drunk—and while Aiz’s opinion of him had dropped slightly, the night in question didn’t bother her much anymore.
So, she was about to answer him with a “Good morning,” when…
“G’morning, Aiz!”
“Guh?!”
Thump. Bete was pushed out of the way as Tiona rushed up to Aiz and gave her a big hug.
Aiz bent backward to support the Amazon’s sudden weight. At the same time, Tiona looked over her shoulder at Bete and stuck out her tongue.
Crick-crick. Ignoring the sounds of Bete grinding his teeth together, Tiona hopped down, grabbed Aiz’s wrist, and led her away.
“Aiz, nothing good ever comes from talking to Bete. Let’s go!”
“Oi! I can hear you, you shabby, reedy-lookin’ woman!!”
“Don’t call me thaaaaaat!!”
“Ah, umm…”
“—Such a ruckus at the crack o’ dawn! Keep it quiet in the halls, would ya?!”
And so Aiz and the others were scolded by the dwarf Gareth Landrock until breakfast was served.
“Now then, General. I lovingly made your breakfast myself. Make sure to clean your plate.”
Breakfast was getting under way at the cafeteria.
Hands and arms crisscrossed the table, grabbing bowls of hot soup and fluffy omelets before they disappeared. The leader of the familia, a prum named Finn, sat at the head of the table, but was mostly hidden behind the massive amount of food placed in front of him. A gargantuan fish, its head, fins, and scales still attached, had been roasted whole over an open flame; a wild breakfast fit for an Amazon.
The fish in question was often mistaken for a monster because of its ridiculous size and the twisted shape of its thick scales—a dodobass. A species easy to catch in the saltwater lake southwest of Orario, it was sold throughout the city. This particular fish was still rather young when it had been caught, but it was well over one meder in length. The prum just stared at the fish without saying a word.
Tione looked extremely proud of her work as she convinced Finn, under heavy duress, to start eating. It wasn’t long before every other set of eyes around the table looked at him with pity.
“Aiz, what’cha gonna do today?”
“Well, um…”
The many conversations of fifty-plus people at the table echoed around the long cafeteria.
Tuning out the noise, Tiona took a big bite out of the sandwich Aiz gave her before asking her question.
“I broke a sword the other day, and have to pay for it…”
“Are you talking about the rapier you used during the Monsterphilia?” Lefiya asked from the other side. Aiz gave her a quick nod.
She recounted yesterday’s conversation with the god Goibniu—and why it was necessary for her to earn that money in the Dungeon. She felt a little shy being the center of attention and fell silent once her story was finished.
“Okay, I’ll come, too! Knowing you, you’ll be down there for a week, right?”
“But, Tiona…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! I’m getting Urga remade from scratch, and I need to get some money ready.”
“If…if it will not be a bother, please let me help you as well!”
Tiona offered to join her with the excuse that she had debts of her own. Lefiya just didn’t want to be left out. Aiz felt truly sorry that she’d gotten two of her friends involved in her own problem but couldn’t turn them away.
After all, it made her genuinely happy that they had offered to help in the first place.
“…Okay. Please join me.”
The blond’s face relaxed as a small grin appeared on her lips. The other two girls smiled back right away.
“Home will be pretty empty with us gone. Maybe we should tell Finn first?”
“I agree. The next expedition is not for a while yet, but if we are planning on spending more than a few days in the Dungeon, I believe it would be a good idea to inform Loki and everyone.”
Lefiya answered Tiona by saying that disappearing without notice would mak
e the others needlessly worry about them.
The three girls started to discuss how long they would stay in the Dungeon and what they would need to prepare for their trip. Other members of the familia had finished breakfast and were starting to leave the cafeteria, returning to their rooms one by one.
Aiz watched the room empty out and suddenly realized that Loki was nowhere to be seen. It seemed strange to her that their normally lively and energetic goddess didn’t stop by to say hello. She hadn’t heard anything about Loki drinking so much the night before that she was bedridden by the resulting hangover again.
“You three, what’ve you been talking about?”
“Oh, Miss Tione.”
“We’re going to spend a week earning some money in the Dungeon. Wanna join us?”
Her breakfast with Finn over, Tione walked over to the group of girls sitting farther down the table.
Finn had refused to eat her lovingly prepared dodobass on the grounds that he could never hope to finish it. So she took it on herself to eat the rest of the meal that her “sweetheart” took a few bites from. Tione looked rather pleased with how things had turned out this morning, but her expression soured after hearing Tiona’s plan for getting the money.
“A week? I don’t want to spend that much time away from the general, so that’s a no.”
Tiona had had a feeling her sister would say that. A twinkle in her eye and a grin on her lips, she played her trump card.
“You know we were gonna invite Finn along, too?”
“Then I guess I have no choice but to give you a hand. Be grateful.”
Aiz glanced at Lefiya as the two girls shared a grin at Tione’s sudden willingness to help out.
Loki Familia’s home, the Twilight Manor, was more like a housing project of several high towers gathered together in one spot. The largest, thickest tower stood in the center and was surrounded by the remaining six.
The shape and height of the six towers varied, but all of them were connected at the base—creating a ring around the independent central tower—and each was connected on the higher floors by stone bridges to make traveling from tower to tower more convenient. Three of them were devoted to the male members of the familia, and four to the female members. Shared spaces such as the archives and cafeteria were not centralized in one tower. Simply put, the place was loosely supervised chaos.
Finn’s private quarters, and office, were located in the northernmost tower.
“Finn—we’re coming in.”
Tiona knocked twice and announced herself before opening the double doors and walking into his room. Aiz was close behind her, followed by Lefiya and Tione.
Finn’s quarters and connected office space were wide and roomy—fitting for someone in charge of the familia. A bookcase covered an entire wall on one side, and a rug as colorful as a wreath of flowers decorated the floor. A tall grandfather clock stood against the back wall. The entire room had a calming, brown color-scheme, making the white marble fireplace stand out.
In the back of the room, Finn was seated behind a large desk that didn’t fit his body size in the slightest.
“What’s gotten into all of you, barging in here like this?”
“Ah, Lady Riveria…You were in here as well?”
Finn was focused on the task at hand, his eyes poring over a stack of paperwork. Riveria was standing at his shoulder.
The two of them had come straight to his quarters to work on the familia’s finances right after breakfast. The familia’s second-in-command held another stack of paperwork in her arms as she eyed the new arrivals.
“We’d like to talk to Finn about something.”
“Hmm. Can it wait a few minutes? I’m almost at a stopping point.”
Finn didn’t even look up as he responded to Tiona.
His feathered pen was a blur as he signed his name over and over again before receiving another stack from Riveria.
Aiz used the time to have a look around his quarters. First, she was drawn toward the grandfather clock. She admired the inlaid crystals, probably magic stones, in the clock face that read 9:30 in the morning, and she listened to the clicking of the pendulum’s swing. Next, the tapestry hanging above the fireplace, opposite the bookshelf, caught her attention.
It showed an armored woman who was surrounded prominently by spears and a slew of other weapons.
Gold and silver thread had been woven into fabric to create the image of a goddess.
The deity was known as Phiana, a fictional goddess that many prums believed in with all their heart and soul. She was represented by a group of knights from the Ancient Times.
Those knights were the first and last taste of glory for prums as a race—even Aiz knew their story. However, as soon as the living gods had descended from heaven, belief in Phiana had disappeared overnight. Prums lost the belief that unified them and soon faded into irrelevance.
Now, in a world where people of many different races received the Blessing from deities and forged their own stories of heroism, the number of famous prums was surprisingly low. Aiz had heard that Finn had come to Orario to champion his race and reinvigorate his kin.
In a move he himself would not deny was shameless, Finn had entered into a contract with Loki and received her Falna in the center of the world, the Labyrinth City, in hopes that his name would ring out.
Considering that a tapestry of Phiana was hanging proudly in his quarters, it was safe to assume that Finn had not lost faith in her. It also showed that Loki either was either quite generous or indifferent to the fact that the leader of her familia had faith in a goddess other than herself. Aiz also knew that Loki didn’t ask to be worshiped, or anything close to it.
It was also quite possible that Loki allowed it because he was Finn.
Aiz looked over her shoulder toward the prum sitting in the back of the room. The familia’s flag, the comical smile of the trickster—their familia’s emblem—hung on the wall behind his desk. Her train of thought finally came to a stop.
“That should do it. Sorry to keep you waiting. What’s on your minds?”
“You see, General, Tiona and these two would like to spend some time in the Dungeon and would like to know if you’re interested in joining them…”
Tione stepped in front of the other girls the moment Finn looked up from his now-finished paperwork.
Finn had a quick and simple response: “Sure.” He agreed not only to let them go into the Dungeon for an extended period of time, but to join them as well.
“I was just thinking about taking a jaunt into the Dungeon myself real soon anyway. It’s nice to prowl at your own pace every now and then.”
As the acting leader of the familia, he was in charge of organizing and overseeing every expedition they undertook. He smiled and said it would be fun to go in without any major plans or people to look after during his free time. “No backing out now, Finn!” Tiona said with a grin, knowing that his participation meant Tione would come by default.
“This might be a good chance to get out and stretch your legs, Riveria. You’ve been overloaded with busywork recently, so why not join us?”
“…That is absolutely true. I shall accompany you. I feel sorry for Gareth, but he will have to take charge in our absence.”
With that, their party became six.
With the exception of Lefiya, each member was a top-class adventurer. The five of them were a very formidable group.
“Oh, keep this a secret from Bete! If someone tells him, he’ll want to come. And if he comes, we’ll never have a moment of peace.”
That morning’s conversation still fresh in her mind, Tiona’s lips twitched threateningly as she looked at each of her allies in turn.
Her warning was greeted by strained smiles. At the same time, they knew that sending all their heavy hitters underground would cause its own problems, so there were no objections.
“How about meeting at Babel Tower once everyone’s preparations are complete? Say, around noon?�
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““Yeah!””
The Amazonian twins thrust their right arms in the air. Aiz did the same, with Lefiya following suit, albeit a bit more reserved.
Riveria chose to keep her mouth shut, closing her eyes and ignoring their childish excitement. And so everyone agreed to Finn’s proposal.
Orario’s Northwest Main Sreet, “Adventurers Way,” was bustling with too many people to count.
The early-morning sun shone down from a blue sky, gleaming and sparkling on all types of armor as humans and demi-humans hurried to finish their preparations for entering the Dungeon. The shutters and heavy doors of every shop had been flung wide open in an attempt to welcome customers inside. The proprietor of a shadier shop farther down the backstreets was holding various kinds of suspicious-looking potions in one hand, trying to convince an inexperienced female adventurer to buy a few. Adventurers in a hurry constantly ran into one another, bumping shoulders and shouting insults back and forth, yelling at someone else from somewhere else about something or other.
The adventurers preparing to go to the Dungeon again today made this street come to life.
“Amid, high potions, please! The good stuff, and lots of them!”
“I’d like the same one as Tiona…Five please. And a magic potion, too.”
“Yes, of course.”
An emblem depicting a ball of light among medicinal herbs hung inside a building of clean, pure white stone.
Tiona and Aiz had found their way to one of the many counters. Standing on the other side of this one was Amid, a doll-like girl with long, light silver hair. A vast inventory of potions in different-colored vials lined the shelves behind her. Silver hair waving from side to side, she quickly collected the items they requested and placed them on the counter. The two girls’ faces were reflected in the sky-blue and citrus-orange-colored liquids in front of them.
“Are you planning to spend a long time in the Dungeon starting today?”
“Yep. Tione, Lefiya…Finn and Riveria are coming, too.”
“Amid, anything you want? We’ll be going to at least the thirtieth floor, so if you tell us what to get we can pick something up for you!”
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 2 Page 2