Aiz and Riveria returned back to the surface three days after the rest did.
Yuji was in the training yard behind the Manor, reading another book as he slowly grew more used to the reading and writing system of this world.
That was when the gate guards announced the two's arrival. He paused and glanced at towards the Manor before making his way around the building to the front courtyard.
The first thing he noticed was how tired Riveria looked. Not physically exhausted, as the high elf was far too composed to show that side of her, but he could tell the areas around her eyes were strained. She carried her same regal posture, but her gaze swept through the courtyard with relief at being back home.
The second thing he noticed was Aiz.
She walked through the gate behind Riveria and Yuji could tell that something was wrong. She looked, for a lack of a better word, deflated.
Tiona was the first to reach them, bounding across the courtyard with her usual energy. "Aiz! Riveria! You're back! How'd it go?! Did you beat Udaeus?! Tell me everything!"
Aiz nodded once, "...I won."
Tiona waited for her to say more, but nothing came out of the blonde girl.
"O…kay." Tiona glanced at Riveria who offered a subtle shake of her head that said to not ask her. The Amazon's enthusiasm dimmed slightly as she read the situation. "Well, you're home now! That's what matters! Oh, and guess what? Guess who joined the Familia while you were gone!"
Aiz's gaze slowly lifted from the ground and found Yuji, who had arrived from the training yard. Something flickered behind her golden eyes, a brief spark of recognition before the dulness settled back in.
"...Yuji joined?" She said quietly.
"He did! Isn't that great?!"
"...Mm." Aiz nodded, but the gesture carried as much enthusiasm as a wet cat could carry. She walked past the group toward the Manor entrance without another word.
Tiona watched her go with her mouth slightly open. "Did… Did something happen down there?"
Riveria let out a sigh that seemed to carry the weight and tiredness worth three days of patience. "A great deal happened. But what is bothering her most had nothing to do with the Dungeon."
She glanced at Yuji, noting his presence for the first time since arriving. Her emerald(jade) eyes slightly regained their lustre as she saw a newly issued Loki Familia emblem hanging by the side of his belt.
"Welcome to the Familia, Itadori." Riveria said, softly studying him. "I take it the others informed you of the circumstances?"
"Yeah, they did." Yuji replied to her with a nod before adding on. "But Aiz's mood isn't about any of that, is it?"
"No." Riveria said, and a flicker of something resembling guilt crossed her composed features. "She found the white haired boy collapsed on the fifth floor during our ascent. She watched over him while he was unconscious, protecting him from monsters."
"Let me guess. He woke up and ran?"
"I suggested she give him a lap pillow." Riveria quietly said, and Yuji could hear a hint of regret and embarrassment as she admitted to her part in Aiz's current mood. "He woke up, turned bright red, and fled at a speed that would impress most Level 2 adventurers."
Yuji stared at her, blinking once. "A lap pillow."
"It seemed like a reasonable gesture at the time."
"For the same boy she's spoken to exactly zero times, who we last saw running out of the Hostess of Fertility after Bete's spiel?" Yuji said with a raised brow.
Riveria couldn't help but look to the side, clearing her throat and he could see the tips of her ears turned a faint shade of red. "In hindsight, the context may have been… insufficient for that level of physical contact."
Yuji let out a sigh. He could tell the high elf was genuinely bothered by the outcome. Riveria cared deeply enough about Aiz that the girl's unhappiness was affected her own state of mind.
"She's convinced he's afraid of her." Riveria continued. "The same conclusion she reached after the Minotaur incident. Except now, it's happened twice, so in her mind, it's been confirmed."
Yuji nodded at her words. "I could see why she'd think that, he didn't give her much alternative exactly."
Riveria also nodded at his words, before looking at him with a more pointed and pleading gaze. Yuji couldn't help but already know what she would ask of him.
"Could you… perhaps-"
"I'll talk to her." He interrupted her before she could finish her words, making her eyes widen for a fraction. "You were already going to ask that of me either way. Besides, I promised Loki sometime ago that I'd hear her out."
Riveria let out a soft smile. "Thank you."
Riveria nodded once then headed inside, presumably to find a bath and a bed, in that very order.
Yuji stood in the courtyard and watched everyone else slowly filter back to what they were previously doing.
He could tell something was eating away at Aiz once again, and it seemed to stem from the same issue she had when talking with him . At least, that was the impression he got from her and Riveria's words.
He shook his head and went back to his reading spot.
---------------------
About an hour later, the news arrived calmly through the mansion.
"AIZUU'S LEVEL SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIX!!"
Loki's voice erupted from within the Manor's upper floors with enough volume to rattle the windows in Yuji's room. He had opted to switch locations when more people went to the training yard.
He paused mid-page in his book and looked up at the ceiling.
Barely a minute later, the hallways erupted into chaos. Doors opened and footsteps thundered out as various voices overlapped one another with the news spreading like wildfire. The Sword Princess had reached Level 6.
By the time Yuji had made his way down to the dining hall for dinner that evening, the atmosphere had completely shifted. The lower-ranked members were practically vibrating with excitement and their conversation all circled around the same topic. Aiz Wallenstein, Level 6. The youngest to ever reach that threshold in Loki Familia's history and the pride they felt was palpable.
Bete was conspicuously absent from dinner, though one of the younger members mentioned hearing something heavy being thrown against a wall in the werewolf's room. Tiona had spent the afternoon lamenting loudly that Aiz had "gone ahead without her." while Tione just kept telling her to stop whining. Lefiya had been quiet as her eyes carried a complicated gaze of both admiration to Aiz and frustration to herself.
At the centre of it all, Aiz herself sat at the far end of the largest dining table, eating mechanically and responding to congratulations with one-word answers.
Yuji took his usual seat and ate in silence, watching the scene unfold from the periphery of his vision.
Finn, Riveria and Gareth were nowhere to be seen, likely meeting in Finn's office to discuss their next steps. Loki had disappeared after her initial screaming announcement, though Yuji suspected she was lurking somewhere within earshot.
After dinner, the hall slowly emptied as the evening wound down. Tiona dragged Tione off to spar and Lefiya retreated to the library, while the lower-ranked members drifted to their rooms.
Aiz remained at the table, staring at her empty plate.
Yuji hadn't intended to stay. He'd been getting up to leave when he noticed she hadn't moved from her spot. The dining hall was empty now except for the two of them, with the dishes having been cleared by kitchen staff and the magic stone lamps dimmed to their evening setting.
He sat back down, but not next to her or across from her. Just at the same table a comfortable distance away. He took out the book he had kept in his jacket and began flipping to its marked page.
He didn't say anything and just read in silence.
The minutes slowly stretched and the grandfather clock in the hallway ticked on steadily. The sounds of the Manor slowly dimmed down as people got settled into their evening routines.
Eventually, Aiz spoke.
"...You don't want to congratulate me?"
Yuji turned a page in his book. "Do you want me to?"
Aiz stayed quiet for a moment. "...Everyone else did."
"And how did that feel?"
She stayed quiet again, but for a beat longer than before. "...Like they were congratulating someone else."
Yuji lowered his book slightly to look at her. He could see she was now looking at him, but her eyes were conflicted for someone who had achieved a feat worth the entire Familia celebrating for.
"Level 6 is impressive." Yuji said, sensing the shift in her strength and power when she had arrived to the Manor. "But levelling up doesn't fix what's actually bothering you."
Aiz's eyes widened for a fraction of a second in quiet surprise before she let out a tired, wry smile.
"... Of course you know. How?" She asked quietly.
"The boy?" Yuji said and Aiz nodded silently. "Riveria told me what happened when you came back up."
Her hands scrunched up her skirt as she frowned. "He woke up. He saw my face… He turned red and ran."
Yuji said nothing, letting her words settle.
"You told me before." Aiz continued, her golden eyes lifting to meet his, "That he picked a direction. That being scared was part of it, not separate."
"I did."
"I believed you." She said. Her tone didn't carry any accusation to her words, just confusion. "But he ran again. The same way, the same reaction. If he picked a direction… why does it keep leading away from me?"
It was a fair question coming from her perspective, but after hearing Riveria's accounts on what happened, he needed to hear how things went from Aiz's side. He already had a vague sense of what was going on, and once he confirmed it, he knew just how ridiculous this misunderstanding might seem.
"Tell me exactly what happened before he ran." Yuji said to her. "Not what you think happened. Just what you saw."
Aiz nodded. "I found him unconscious and asked Riveria what I should do so he wouldn't be afraid of me. She suggested a lap pillow, so I gave him one. When he opened his eyes, he looked confused at first, like he didn't know where he was. Then he saw me." Aiz's brow furrowed slightly as she recalled the details. "His face… Changed. All the skin from his neck to his ears turned red. His eyes went wide and he tried to say something but couldn't."
Yuji could feel his eye twitching involuntarily for the first time in centuries at what he was hearing. "And then?"
"He jumped up and rank. Very fast."
Yuji did everything in his power not to sigh or drag Riveria down so she could explain to the naive girl how boys think of girls.
He looked at her evenly and said patiently, "Aiz. Think back to what I told you on the street, about strength doing two things to people."
"Scaring them or giving them direction." She quickly said, word for word as if she had them memorized.
"Right. Now, I'm going to add a third thing that I didn't mention before, because I didn't think it was relevant at the time." He ignored how he could sense Loki hiding behind a doorway, holding herself back as if she was about to burst out in laughter. "Sometimes, people don't run because they're scared of you. They run because they're scared of how you make them feel."
Aiz blinked at his words. They seemed to hit a wall in her mind and bounced all around, looking for somewhere to land in that head of hers.
"His face turned red." Yuji said. "Not white, pale or the colour someone turns when they're afraid. Red. From his neck to his ears. That's not fear."
"... Then what is it?"
"Embarrassment." Yuji stated directly, already planning how he'd make Riveria owe him for this. "The kind that comes from being caught in a situation you weren't prepared for, by someone who matters to you more than you know how to handle."
Aiz went still at that. Her golden eyes went wide but not with shock from the revelation that Yuji's words brought, but with the confusion of trying to process a concept she had never encountered before.
"He…" She started, then stopped, trying to form her words. "I matter to him?"
'Riveria, you owe me SO much. Loki, I swear if you keep trying not to laugh, I'll string you up.'
"A boy who got saved by someone far stronger than him, who watched his person fight something he could barely scratch, and then one day waking up with his head on her lap." Yuji let his words settle in Aiz's mind for a moment. "He didn't run because you're scary, Aiz. He ran because you're overwhelming. There's a difference."
The silence that followed seemed to dispel the gloom that surrounded her.
"...Overwhelming." She repeated the word to herself.
"You saved his life, showed him a level of strength he can barely comprehend, and then one day wakes up to find you watching over him. For someone like him, someone just starting out, that's not something you process calmly." Yuji leaned back and rubbed the back of his neck. "He'll come around, but he needs time to catch up to what you already are to him."
Aiz looked down at her hands resting across her legs, no longer clenching her skirt and ruining it as the tension in her fingers eased.
"...You said before that the strength I'm missing isn't the kind I train with a sword." She said quietly.
"I remember."
Her eyes met him again, and there was a different spark in her eyes now.
"You told Loki you wouldn't train me, because you weren't part of the Familia."
"Now hold on, let's not be rash here." Yuji immediately said, lifting a hand to stop her but Aiz repeated.
"You told Loki you wouldn't train me, because you weren't part of the Familia."
"Look, that was-"
"You told Loki you wouldn't train me, because you weren't part of-"
"Sparring."
Yuji finally said, causing her to pause and consider his words.
"I'll spar with you, I'm not the teacher type. I've tried, and it didn't end well, but least I can do is be someone you can fight against." Yuji relented before she spammed her words again. "But on my own terms, and my schedule."
Aiz stayed silent before a smile bloomed across her face.
"I accept."
"Of course you would." Yuji shook his head as she stood up to leave.
"...Thank you, Yuji."
"Yeah, yeah." He walked to where Loki was hiding behind the door. "Get some rest, you look like you haven't slept in three days."
"I haven't."
"That explains a lot, you stink."
"..."
Yuji exited the dining hall and went back to his room, leaving Aiz alone. For once, she seemed lighter with herself as her shoulders were no longer tense and her eyes seemed to regain its lustre.
She raised an arm to smell herself, before frowning and leaving the dining hall shortly after.
Meanwhile, Yuji stopped Loki from running off, but she had a smirk on her face, covering her mouth as she snickered and teased him. "Heheh, what's wrong, Yuji~ You did quite well when talking to her, don't you think so, Papa Yuji~"
The next morning, Loki would be found tied up into a cocoon, squirming, by Gareth when he went to find her in her room. The words 'I will not eavesdrop' written across her forehead and face.