The moment Jeanne and Rose stepped out of the passage, their eyes sharply caught sight of the familiar figure flickering in and out of view deep in the woods off to the side.
"Leon!"
Hearing the call, Leon leapt lightly and landed steadily in front of the two.
"Jea..."
Before he could even raise a hand to greet them, in the blink of an eye they had pounced on him. Four slender hands roamed over him without stopping, and their two pairs of eyes swept him from head to toe like the most precise scanners.
"Uh..."
Looking at their tense little faces and their almost piercingly serious eyes, Leon spread his arms helplessly, like a mannequin waiting to be inspected, and let them do as they pleased.
A good while later, once they had confirmed there wasn't so much as a scrape on him, Jeanne and Rose's taut nerves finally slackened, and they let out long sighs in unison.
Seeing their furrowed brows finally relax, the weight in Leon's chest settled too.
Brazen as ever, he took the opportunity to grasp their small hands, gently stroking them as he grinned and bragged:
"What are you two doing here? Not confident in my strength? Even if you don't trust my ability, you of all people should know my instincts... if things went south, I'd be the first one running."
Red flushed Jeanne and Rose's cheeks at his shameless behavior. They yanked their tingling hands back as if shocked and shot him sharp, exasperated looks.
"Even if we knew you were safe, aren't we still allowed to worry?"
Jeanne spoke first, a note of reproach in her voice:
"Easy for you to say!"
Beside her, Rose also murmured a complaint:
"Leon, don't forget where we are. Have you tossed all of your caution out the window?"
Leon reached out and tucked a stray strand of Rose's silver hair behind her ear, his fingertips lingering along her jaw.
"Fair. Got ahead of myself there."
He turned to Jeanne, catching her hand and pressing it lightly to his chest. Her cheeks warmed, but she didn't pull away.
"I hear you. Both of you."
Rose exhaled slowly, the edge dropping out of her posture. She pulled a recovery potion from her belt and pressed it into his palm, her fingers closing over his for a beat longer than necessary.
"Then don't make us say it twice. Next time the cost might not be just a little blood."
"By then it wouldn't just be my life on the line. It'd drag you two down with me."
"Alright. Since you two tracked me down here, you've probably already guessed what I'm planning to do next, right?"
Rose's long, narrow eyes slightly narrowed as she looked out at the slowly shifting tide of monsters in the distance, and a teasing curve rose at the corner of her lips:
"Oh my, your wallet's bulging but your experience bar's empty, huh? That's a rough feeling, isn't it?"
Jeanne wore a knowing smile beside her.
Having his awkward predicament laid bare by the two of them, Leon didn't mind in the slightest.
With how well they knew him, it would be stranger if they couldn't see through him.
"Then what we do next is simple. What do you say, my two beautiful lady knights?"
Leon spread his arms, a touch of exaggerated, graceful amusement on his face as he struck an inviting pose.
"As you wish, sir!"
Jeanne and Rose slipped straight into the act, playing along with Leon's roleplay.
With a bright smile, Leon jumped down the slope first and charged toward the monster horde.
"Frost Armor!"
"Golden Oath!"
Gold and frost intertwined. With buffs maxed out, the three of them instantly fanned into formation and clashed into the monster horde!
...
...
Floor 18, Under Resort, town of Rivira.
Some time had passed since Leon had quietly slipped away and reinforcements like Ottar and Gareth had arrived on the battlefield.
By now, the town of Rivira had been reduced to half-ruined wreckage.
The wooden huts built up on the "surface," which had only ever been thrown together casually to keep monsters out, had crumbled like paper under the onslaught of Evilus's Magic Swords and magic, leaving behind scattered debris of scorched wood across the ground.
Aside from the Crystal Street on the north side of the town and the nearby Golden Burrow Pavilion inn, which had survived by sheer luck, the industries Rivira had prided itself on had been all but wiped out by Evilus.
Luckily, as long as the adventurers were still around, rebuilding and reviving this underground black market wasn't anything too difficult.
Riveria and the others patrolled streets thick with smoke and the stench of blood.
Wherever their eyes fell, there were only the wounded, collapsed on the ground, moaning in pain or weeping without restraint.
The sight drew tight frowns from everyone.
Just then, a clear voice brimming with power rang out:
"My name is Gold, aide to the goddess who swore an eternal vow!
Thrice burned by searing flames, flesh pierced through for all eternity, standing within the purgatory of flame-spears, the light is born anew, eradicating death!
Blessing, blessing, blessing. As Gold, with the light of resurrection, I summon endless strife to this place!"
"Zeo Gullveig!"
A dazzling golden domain spread out in an instant with Heith at its center! The ghastly wounds on the gravely injured, gathered together for treatment, began to close and heal at a pace visible to the naked eye.
"We owe you one, girl from Freya's house!"
One of the adventurers called out gratefully.
"You fight so wild and fierce, I never would've guessed you had such precious recovery magic!"
Heith, already light-headed from mental exhaustion, found herself surrounded by this cluster of adventurers who had just cheated death, their chatter rising on all sides like swarms of flies buzzing in her ears, her mind growing more and more hazy.
Finally, her patience hit its limit.
"All of you, get the hell away from me!"
She jerked her head up, her small face twisted with fury, and let out a deafening roar:
"Don't think you're getting my magic for free! Once you're back on the surface, every one of you is going to march your sorry selves to Freya Familia and pay up the treatment fees, down to the last coin!"
"Whatever Dian Cecht Familia charges, you pay! Understood?!"
An adventurer who had just been healed, his arm restored, pale-faced, pushed himself up and flexed the mended limb, protesting in dissatisfaction:
"Huh? We have to pay?"
Another voice chimed in right away, dripping with sarcasm:
"Exactly! Aren't we all just unlucky bastards caught up in Evilus's mess? Dealing with that scum is supposed to be the job of top-tier familias like yours, isn't it?"
"The reason we regular adventurers got caught up in this disaster is because you lot slipped up and failed to stop them, isn't it?"
"Isn't healing us just what you ought to be doing?"
"Treatment fees? I've never even heard of such a thing!"
"..."
The waves of doubt and deflected blame rolled in one after another, like cold tide water.
Heith lowered her head, her shoulders trembling violently, unable to hold still.
Shadow fell over her face, and no one could make out her expression.
In the shadow of a ruin in the corner, Ottar stood with arms folded, leaning back against a broken wall, watching it all with cold detachment, showing no intention whatsoever of stepping in to rescue her.
Clearly, this junior, making her first foray into the fight against Evilus and still unfamiliar with the unwritten rules of the adventurer world, was getting her first real taste of human nature.
But this was exactly what she had to go through.
Someone who could only swing a sword and cut down monsters, yet couldn't see through the treacheries of the human heart, would never be a proper adventurer.
This was the first time Heith, Ais, and the others had come face to face with the cruel test this cold reality of a world would throw at them.
The world had never been so innocent after all.
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