Like a rusty mechanical doll, Leon stiffly turned his head, his gaze landing on the pretty faces inside the window, every one of them written over with confusion.
Then...
His expression cycled through blank, surprised, faintly smiling, and smirking before he broke into laughter.
"Hahaha!"
Watching the rapid procession of expressions cross his face, the others exchanged glances, equally bewildered.
Only Rose, with her sharp amber eyes, caught sight of the notebook spread open on the stone table.
She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, the corners of her red lips curling into a knowing arc as she murmured softly:
"Looks like this haul went far beyond what he was expecting..."
Beside her, Jeanne was working hard to keep up her poker face, but Rose's seemingly all-seeing whisper made the tips of her ears, still not entirely free of their flush, twitch ever so slightly.
...
After a while, Leon finally laughed himself out, and the others learned the full story from his mouth.
"Twenty-six million!?"
Laurier's hands flew up to cover her mouth, her emerald-green eyes going perfectly round, her voice cracking.
"That... that's impossible! Even for a Lv. 2 elite party, normal exploration earnings in a single day max out at around two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand Valis, right?"
"Even with great luck, three days would top out at maybe two or three million!"
Leon flashed a grin and arched an eyebrow.
"Pulling in that much money purely from the hard slog of dungeon exploration, hunting monsters, and gathering materials, at the Lv. 2 tier... yeah, no way that happens."
"But this clearly wasn't a normal situation."
He paused there, casually scooping up a dark-red dagger Magic Sword and spinning it nimbly between his fingers, his eyes glinting with malicious delight:
"For us scoring a windfall this big, our Evilus buddies deserve top credit!"
"Not only did they hand-deliver a deluxe care package, they were thoughtful enough to drag the monster horde right onto my face. Saved me god knows how much map-clearing time."
"And to top it off... they wiped out a whole batch of outlaws over in Rivira for me..."
"So..."
Kureha tilted her little head, her long silver hair sliding down over her shoulder, and then clapped her hands lightly as if struck by sudden understanding:
"Ah! So you... um, recycled the resources nobody was claiming?"
"Smart girl!"
Leon snapped his fingers at Kureha approvingly.
"If you don't take it and I don't take it, all that loot just ends up in the fat hands of those pigs at the Guild."
"Besides..."
He shrugged, his tone laced with amusement:
"I'm not some free-of-charge hero of justice. Making those dead pieces of trash use their estates to pay a little life-saving fee is only fair, right?"
The others looked at one another, momentarily lost for words. Nobody could find solid ground to argue from, even if something about the logic still didn't quite sit right.
Leon caught Kureha's still-slightly-dazed little expression as she struggled to digest this twisted logic, and laughed quietly to himself.
...
In the courtyard, after that little interlude, Leon was working out the spoils division with everyone.
Once it came to actual business, Jeanne instinctively shoved aside the "humiliation" she'd suffered at Leon's hands earlier. With a stern little face, she carefully went through the inventory once more, marking each line in her notebook with a check or an X.
"Magic Swords, Fire Stones, Fire-Spirit Cloaks, and all that miscellaneous junk... we don't need any of it. Sell everything."
"Drop Items, recovery materials, and Magic Stones are for trading into cash anyway. Right now Orario's demand for restorative materials is enormous and the markup is huge, so when we sell, we absolutely don't go cheap."
Once she'd organized it, Jeanne handed the results to Rose for double-checking.
Leon glanced over and already had the picture.
"Meaning, we keep only the necessities like elixirs, whetstones, and maintenance oil, and convert the rest to money. That right?"
Jeanne let out a soft hmph, her expression still less than friendly toward him.
"Of course. In the current situation, every type of elixir is the most strained strategic resource. Even at top prices, without the right connections you probably couldn't buy much. So we need to keep the elixirs ourselves, both for our daily consumption over the coming period and as a strategic reserve for the Familia to handle emergencies."
Jeanne laid out the pros and cons with clear logic, and Laurier, Aura, Kureha and the others nodded in sudden understanding.
"So that's how it is!"
"As expected of Big Sister Jeanne!"
"..."
Jeanne wasn't done. Her gaze swung back to Leon:
"The total value of the elixirs is 8.24 million. After deducting that, the remaining loot is worth around 17.76 million, so let's just call it 18 million. Part of that fund needs to go toward updating everyone's weapons and armor. You don't object, do you?"
Leon: "..."
Watching this Jeanne who seemed like a different person entirely, he muttered to himself:
Is this still the Jeanne I know?
Wasn't she always pretty indifferent to Valis and numbers?
When did she get this sharp?
Why didn't I know!?
Leon stood there blank-faced, scarcely catching anything Jeanne said after that.
In any case, no matter what came out of her mouth, just nodding was the safe play.
"All right, everyone."
Jeanne turned to the others and spoke up:
"Familia finances are in good shape now, so we have a lot more room to choose our gear. Don't worry about saving Leon's money. Within the limits of what each of you can handle, pick the best equipment you can."
Laurier and Aura exchanged a look, then shook their heads.
"Big Sister Jeanne, count us out for now. As for upgrading equipment, let's wait until Aura and I level up before we talk about it."
"Besides... at our current skill level, we couldn't really handle anything too high-end. And,"
Laurier paused and then said earnestly:
"I think that during the foundation-building stage, using gear that's too refined might actually hurt our growth down the line."
That Laurier of all people could voice such a take left everyone stunned.
Especially the three experienced warriors, Jeanne, Rose, and Kureha. They knew this principle better than anyone, and had assumed Laurier would need a good deal more time before grasping it.
A look of relieved warmth spread across Jeanne and Rose's faces, and they said softly:
"Laurier, it's wonderful that you understand this."
"There are some people who simply can't see their own measure, and end up courting irreversible tragedy because of it."
Kureha nodded gravely as well:
"That's right. The most expensive isn't always the most suitable. Especially for warriors like us, a weapon with high compatibility, one that fits in your hand naturally, is what lets you draw out your real strength."
Rose stepped up to the two of them and gently ruffled the hair of the two elven girls:
"Laurier, Aura, you've really grown."
"Remember this. A person has to know themselves clearly. Whatever you do, work within your means. Never push yourself beyond them."
"As an Adventurer, this matters most of all..."
Her tone was gentle, but it carried a weight that brooked no argument:
"After all, your life depends on it directly."
Leon stood off to the side, watching their exchange, and a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Knock knock knock...
"Hm?"
Just then, a gentle knock at the door broke the courtyard's quiet.
"Excuse me, is this Mr. Leon's residence?"
Loki Familia?
From the voice, it sounded like Riveria.
A flicker of surprise crossed Leon's eyes.
He exchanged a glance with the others, then gave Laurier a look, and she nodded and ran off to get the door.
......
......
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