The courtyard gate creaked open.
Laurier poked her head out, and her eyes lit up with sudden excitement.
"L... Lady Riveria!"
The elven royal smiled and gave her a small nod of greeting:
"Hello, Laurier. It's been a while."
Lady Riveria greeted me first!
Laurier was practically bouncing inside, completely missing one rather critical detail...
The guests were still standing outside the gate.
Watching her friend slip back into her usual scatterbrained mode, Aura covered her face with her hand and sighed, unable to look directly at the scene.
"Lady Riveria, I'm terribly sorry for the rude reception. Laurier's personality is... well, I'm sure you can see for yourself. Please forgive her lapse in manners."
As she spoke, she bowed respectfully to Riveria and stepped aside to clear the entrance:
"Lady Riveria, please come in."
Watching the silver-haired elf's meticulous bearing, Riveria was reminded of the rigid old-fashioned elves back in her homeland...
Then she glanced at Laurier beside her, still bathing in delight.
These two children couldn't be more different in temperament. One was carefree and easy-going, the other a stickler for the rules.
How interesting.
She let out a small laugh, nodded to them both, and stepped into the courtyard alongside her companion.
"It's been a while. Lady Riveria looks as resplendent as ever."
Leon and the others rose to their feet and bowed politely, his gaze settling next on the smiling blond Pallum at her side.
"I had no idea the captain and vice-captain of Loki Familia would grace us with a joint visit. You honor our humble home."
"Captain Finn."
Finn spread his hands with a wry smile.
"Honor your humble home, please. We're hardly important figures. We're all Adventurers here, so let's drop the empty formalities, shall we?"
Leon smiled and made an inviting gesture.
"Both of you, please come in."
At the same time, he discreetly signaled Laurier and Aura with his eyes, indicating they should prepare tea.
...
Inside the parlor, everyone took their seats.
Accepting the hot tea Aura offered, Finn and Riveria thanked her, took small sips, and set down their cups. Finn's gaze swept across Leon and the companions seated beside him.
"Mr. Leon, please accept our apologies for arriving uninvited and intruding."
Leon waved it off with a smile.
"Intrusion? Hardly. This isn't exactly a formal establishment."
He leaned back into the sofa, draping an arm over the armrest as he met Finn and Riveria's eyes.
"So, Captain Finn, Lady Riveria, what brings the two of you here today?"
Finn and Riveria were both a touch surprised at how directly Leon got to the point. They'd assumed they would need to spend some time on small talk before easing into the real matter.
"Mr. Leon is refreshingly direct, so we'll be straightforward as well."
Finn's expression turned serious.
"We've come to discuss a partnership."
A partnership?
The others took a moment to think it over. The instant their eyes caught Riveria's visibly tense, faintly flushed cheeks, the realization clicked into place.
Especially for Leon.
A while back, he'd been counting the days, waiting for Loki Familia to come knocking and hand him money. Yet days passed, then nearly a month, and there hadn't been a peep from their end.
He'd actually started to think they didn't care at all and had abandoned his proposal entirely.
To his complete surprise, only today did they finally show up to talk it through.
The exact reasons behind that delay, he didn't know in detail...
But one glance at Riveria's flushed cheeks and the threatening glare that nearly bored straight through him, and even someone far slower than him would have understood the key reason behind the holdup.
Well damn, here I was wondering who'd ended up as the guinea pig for the Monster Hunter Special. Turns out it was Riveria herself who stepped into the ring!?
Tsk tsk tsk. The scene at Loki Familia HQ back then must have been quite the show.
Picturing it, Leon's lips twitched upward.
"Ahem."
One look at his expression and Finn knew Leon had figured out exactly what had happened.
Sensing the killing intent rolling off the elven royal beside him, Finn cleared his throat as a tactical maneuver.
If even Finn felt his nerves tighten, Leon, who was the actual target, jolted in alarm.
He snapped back to focus and slammed straight into Riveria's killing-intent-laden emerald eyes.
"Uh... ahem, Lady Riveria?"
Leon's voice carried the faintest trace of dryness. Then in an instant he reined in his smile, straightened his back, and sat upright in pristine posture, the picture of innocence, as if everything that had just happened were a hallucination.
"..."
His shameless attitude made Riveria's teeth itch with rage.
Her pale little hands clenched into fists on her thighs, knuckles going white. She was dying to drive one straight into that infuriatingly handsome face!
"Hmph..."
A cold huff, suppressing both embarrassment and anger, slipped out from her nose.
The two younger elves, Laurier and Aura, watched the scene unfold, and the polished image they'd been holding of Lady Riveria audibly cracked.
Is... is this really the noble, elegant, intellectually composed Lady Riveria?
Why... why does this feel like a girl sulking over something petty?
Of course, in this kind of setting, no one was going to be there to clear up their confusion.
As for why their image of the perfect lady had taken such a sharp turn, they'd have to figure out the twisted threads of the matter on their own. Perhaps... shared elven instincts had them subconsciously assuming:
There was no way Lady Riveria could possibly be the first to taste-test the Monster Hunter Special, and so she could never have experienced that legendary "culinary illusion."
Because if Lady Riveria really had fallen into the bliss of that culinary illusion...
They couldn't even begin to imagine how earth-shattering that scene would be.
Their faith might never recover.
...
Thanks to that little episode, the atmosphere in the parlor had grown rather strange.
Mercifully, Finn finally stepped up to break the suffocating awkwardness.
"Mr. Leon, let's set the joking aside."
"Shall we discuss the matter of the Monster Hunter Special partnership?"
Hearing Finn finally get to the point, Leon let out a quiet sigh of relief. If he'd had to endure Riveria's stare any longer, he was afraid something terrifying might happen.
This elven royal was no Jeanne or Rose.
When dealing with Jeanne and Rose, no matter how much they might torment him during the day, in the quiet of night Leon could easily turn the tables. If he felt like it, he could even pay them back several times over.
But Riveria...
Forget it. Better not to go there.
Leon shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind, quickly recalibrated, and assumed an all-business tone.
"As for the Monster Hunter Special, since you've already personally verified the effects, I won't beat around the bush. Flat rate, one hundred thousand valis per portion."
"One hundred thousand valis?"
At hearing the price, Finn and Riveria exchanged a glance, their brows furrowing in unison.
Finn then put on a helpless wry smile and spread his hands.
"Mr. Leon, Loki Familia may be famous, but as a seasoned Adventurer, you should know better than anyone."
"Compared to our income, our expenses are far greater."
"Even with us upper ranks heading down to the deep floors now and then to grind for gold to subsidize the Familia... we're barely managing to break even."
"...No, frankly speaking, we've been running a deficit for the past few months."
He paused, his tone growing heavier:
"The current state of Orario is something you must be aware of. The Guild has issued mandatory high-intensity patrol orders to us. That severely cuts into our members' time for dungeon exploration, and to say it adds insult to injury where our finances are concerned would be an understatement..."
Listening to Finn's roundabout but unmistakable lament, Leon understood perfectly.
It boiled down to a single line: knock the price down.
But knocking it down was out of the question. Astraea Familia was being charged the same rate.
"My apologies, Captain Finn."
Leon's tone was firm, his eyes locked on the other man.
"I believe the Monster Hunter Special's effects fully justify this price. Just on the strength of one fact, that consuming it does not reduce Excelia gain, I'd think you'd have no reason at all to refuse it?"
He leaned forward slightly, a confident smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Wouldn't you agree?"
"...!"
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