Everyone stared at Leon's "cool" retreating back, eyes twitching in unison as they mentally screamed: How does this guy manage to say the most cowardly things with the most righteous tone!?
Persephone nearly choked on Leon's words. She shot him an irritated glare, then let out a long, weary sigh.
"Honestly, Leon... there isn't a single shred of desire to be a hero anywhere in that head of his. This is Orario, the so-called City of Heroes, and someone with his kind of talent is nothing like those First-Class Adventurers who actually have ambitions. How does that even happen?"
"Could it be a Demeter Familia problem? Did Lady Demeter spoil Leon rotten from the very start too?"
Persephone fell into deep thought.
Rose heard that and lost it, laughing out loud. She smirked.
"Expecting Leon to aim for heroism? You'd have better odds praying for the Loki or Freya Familia to produce a hero..."
Kureha jogged along beside them, pressing her lips together without a word.
Heroes and all that... she'd long since been disillusioned with the concept.
In her "previous life," she'd held the title of Sword of the Kingdom. Respected and looked up to by countless people. Wasn't that being a hero in its own right?
But a hero's ending was rarely a happy one.
Reality and fairy tales were two very different things.
She kept those thoughts to herself, though. Neither Leon himself nor any of them had ever expected him to become a hero. Having been through it themselves, they knew all too well the weight that came with the title of "hero." It ran on a completely parallel track from ordinary life and everyday living. Clearly, in everyone's minds, Leon included, nobody wanted to live like a celebrity.
They'd all just started new lives. All any of them wanted was to live freely and comfortably, not to shoulder responsibilities foisted on them by others.
Leon, of course, had no idea what they were thinking. Even if he did, he'd probably just snort and shrug it off.
Become some kind of champion? Did he look stupid? He had zero interest in playing the clown on the gods' stage. Sitting in the audience and watching from a comfortable seat... what was wrong with that?
A thunderous roar rolled through the caverns, followed by a massive tremor that shook the ground, the ceiling, the entire passage... no, the entire Water City.
The waterways running parallel to the corridors churned violently, water surging up and spilling across the ground, making the already slippery paths even more treacherous.
But the rapidly worsening conditions didn't slow Leon's party down. Beyond having long since adapted to this kind of terrain and being able to handle environmental shifts with ease, the biggest reason was their equipment. Before the Expedition even started, Leon had stuck to his usual cautious approach and signed off on a full set of custom gear. Not just weapons and armor. Everyone's clothing, gloves, boots, even the trim on their cloaks and packs, was all crafted from Undine Cloth.
It was precisely this specialized water-resistant kit that let them move through conditions like these as naturally as fish in water.
Rapid, uneven footsteps echoed through the cavern corridor.
The next second, Leon burst out of the passage at the front of the group and immediately spotted the colossal creature in the distant cavern's pool. The massive thing was thrashing its two grotesque necks with impunity, as if laughing with its jaws wide open at the Adventurers foolish enough to challenge it.
Leon's jaw dropped. The expletive came out on pure instinct.
"Holy shit! That thing's huge!"
The rest of the party poured out behind him and instantly took in the carnage on the embankment. When they saw the Adventurer squad that had been completely broken, scattered across the ground with wounds still gushing blood, every single one of them stared wide-eyed.
"That's...!?"
Persephone's attention didn't go to the Monster Rex first. Instead, her eyes went to the embankment's edge.
When she made out the Familia Crest on their equipment, her mouth fell slightly open. She pushed her glasses up, her face a picture of disbelief.
"Scarlet Harnel... Alise Lovell? It's the Astraea Familia? How is that possible!? They're supposed to be maintaining order in the city. When did they come down to the Dungeon?"
Jeanne and Rose exchanged a glance, the same answer forming in both their minds.
Like many exploration-type Familias, the Astraea Familia clearly wasn't flush with cash either. On top of that, maintaining order in the city ate up virtually all their time, which naturally meant... opportunities to venture deep into the Dungeon were few and far between.
Without Dungeon exploration, where was the money to keep the Familia running supposed to come from?
Even if the Guild provided some subsidies, for the Astraea Familia whose lowest-level members were still Level 2, that kind of support was a drop in the bucket.
That was exactly why they'd seized the window when things were relatively stable and Evilus wasn't making moves to rush down to the Dungeon and farm for funds to keep the household afloat.
Given their levels, showing up in the Lower Floors made perfect sense.
These thoughts flashed through Jeanne and Rose's minds in an instant, while in reality, barely a moment had passed.
"But how did they get this unlucky? Looks like they'd barely arrived in the Water City, didn't even have time to mentally prepare, and ran headfirst into the Monster Rex..."
Laurier let out an awkward laugh and muttered under her breath:
"Uh... this situation feels weirdly familiar."
Everyone: "..."
"What do we do?"
Jeanne didn't hesitate for a second and gave the order immediately:
"Regardless of anything else, we save them first!"
"Right!"
...
...
On the embankment of the great cavern.
Of the Astraea Familia's eleven members, only two and a half were still standing.
Alise, leveraging her overtuned skill set and magic, was punching above her weight at Level 4 performance to barely fend off the Monster Rex's onslaught. But her armor was already in tatters, her clothing shredded to ribbons. She was clearly in terrible shape.
"Damn it!"
Dodging another dragon charge, Alise's face twisted into a rare expression of fury mixed with grim determination. She glanced back at her companions sprawled across the ground, and the rage nearly consumed her reason.
"Stay calm, Alise! If you lose your head and charge in too, Neze, Leana, and the rest are dead for real!"
"..."
Kaguya grabbed Alise just as she was about to lose control, eyes narrowed and locked onto the culprit toying with them.
That's right. Kaguya was one of those "two and a half" still on her feet.
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