"?"
Bors's cackling expression froze, and a chill shot up from the pit of his stomach.
Since when!?
He felt the weight of the hand pressing down on his shoulder, sweat starting to pour down his forehead.
Stiffly, he dragged his gaze off the tempting giant Magic Stone in the distance, twisted his neck around bit by bit, and turned.
The figures of Leon's group filled his vision, every last one of them.
When he got a clear look at the man standing with a hand on his shoulder, wearing an ambiguous almost-smile, every scrap of wishful thinking and greed in Bors's head was wiped clean, and his eyes turned perfectly "innocent."
"Ah, ahahaha... if it isn't Leon, my old... my good buddy?"
He forced out a couple of dry laughs, his voice tightening without him meaning it to, and bent over rubbing his hands together, face full of flattery.
"It really has been ages since we last met!"
Word of the party that had actually slain the Two-Headed Dragon, Amphisbaena, had spread across the surface as garbled hearsay, impossible to sort truth from rumor. But as the small-time boss of Rivira, nobody knew better than Bors exactly how things stood.
The man in front of him, and those women of his with faces to rival goddesses, were the real deal. The kind of people who had genuinely put down an Lv.6 Monster Rex.
The corner of Leon's mouth curled, a false smile on his face.
"Well, it really has been a while. But Bors, my boy, not that your old pal here is one to lecture, but that grabby habit of yours, the one where the moment you see something nice you reach for it? Maybe time to work on that. In Orario, seizing another party's kill... is a heavy enough crime to get you thrown out of the city."
Meeting Leon's teasing gaze, the fat drops of sweat on Bors's forehead rolled even faster. He squeezed out an agonizingly awkward smile and rubbed his hands together.
"Wh-what? No way! I just... didn't know this was 'goods' belonging to you and yours, buddy! If I'd known, I wouldn't have dared reach for it even with ten times the nerve, you know what I mean?"
Leon let out a soft "heh." "You'd better be right."
Then he shifted gears, tone going breezy.
"Right, look, we're on the Expedition and still have to keep heading down. This Magic Stone is too big to lug around... so we'll leave it with you for now, have you 'safekeep' it for us. No problem?"
"No problem! Absolutely no problem! OK! OK!"
The moment Bors heard that, a smile piled onto his face on reflex and he nodded over and over.
But then his gaze slid sideways and caught Persephone behind Leon, arms folded, eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at him. The cold smile on her face was like a basin of ice water, drenching the bit of hope that had just stirred in his chest and chilling him straight through.
The Priestess of Desolation, Persephone.
Damn it! What's she doing here!?
Wait... the intel said she'd already... hit Lv.4, didn't it?
He sucked in a breath.
The back of Bors's neck went cold, and the little schemes in his head came crashing down in pieces all over the floor.
Can't afford to cross them. Not one of these ladies...
Leon took in the full show of shifting expressions on his face and saw through all of it. But for now he still needed to "trouble" the man for a "favor," so he kept that same smiling look, and his tone could even be called polite.
"In that case, Bors, my boy, the Magic Stone is in your hands. As for Rivira, we're still mid-Expedition, so we'll pass on dropping in."
Bors understood at once: this was his cue to scram.
"Yes, yes, yes! Then I won't disturb your rest any longer!"
He nodded in a flurry, hefted the ludicrously oversized Magic Stone onto his shoulder in one motion, as if what stood behind him wasn't a group of people but a pack of predators hunting for prey. The next moment he plunged into the depths of the passage without a backward glance and was gone from sight.
"Tch... coward."
Persephone pushed up her gold wire frames and sneered, arms crossed.
"Run into someone they can't afford to cross and it's all bowing and scraping; get someone weaker in front of them and out come the fists... All these years and the Rivira bastards haven't changed one bit. A pack of bullies, every last one of them."
Rose patted the back of her hand gently, soothing her softly.
"There, there, forget him. This counts as a lesson for him too. With that timid, careful streak of his, he'll probably steer wide around us from now on. And with the strength we showed this time, it won't be long before word of our fight with Goliath spreads through Rivira. That's a good thing for the rest of the Familia as well. Down the road, when they come back to the Dungeon, if that Rivira crowd wants to fleece them, they'll have to think twice first."
Such was the confidence that came with having backing.
In the past, the Demeter Familia had single-handedly held up the food lifeline of all Orario, and their influence was enormous; even with their strength lacking, others would still extend them a measure of face... But that courtesy generally stopped at the edge of the sunlight.
In the dog-eat-dog world below, especially in a lawless madhouse like Rivira, the Demeter name probably didn't carry much weight.
But times had changed.
With Persephone, an Lv.4 Priestess of Desolation, holding the line, plus the absolute force of arms Leon and the others had displayed today, who would dare casually push around the Demeter Familia's rank-and-file adventurers from now on?
One hand gripping the food lifeline, the other clenched in a fist strong enough to defend their interests.
The Demeter Familia now walked on two legs, and its standing was as solid as ever. In many minds, they had perhaps become, right behind Orario's "Big Four," a fifth power that absolutely could not be trifled with.
Faint gold flickered in Jeanne's eyes as Revelation quietly turned over. She checked it against the parchment map in her hand, confirmed their bearing, and spoke.
"Let's go. We just came out of a hard fight, and everyone's burned through a lot. Laurier and Kureha are still carrying injuries, so let's find a safe place to rest and recover."
At that, easy smiles broke out on everyone's faces.
"Jeanne!" Laurier came bounding up, eyes sparkling. She still looked a bit the worse for wear, but her voice was bright as anything. "Let's camp by that pond over there! Last time we came, we never got to have any real fun!"
Jeanne looked down at her small face, smudged with soot yet written all over with expectation, a flicker of indulgence passing through her eyes, and reached out to ruffle her sweat-damp hair.
"Okay."
"Woohoo!"
After a high-intensity "trial" like that, everyone's nerves had been stretched somewhat tight; now, on the relatively safe floor of the Under Resort, the moment they let themselves loosen up, a deep weariness rose over them like a tide, surging up from every limb.
Leon was no exception.
After all, he had been maintaining three tasks at once: his ice clones, the blizzard, and pouring out fire with Ice Lance.
He rubbed his temples and beckoned Kureha over.
"Kureha, once camp is set, I'll update your Falna."
...
...
Meanwhile, having fled back inside Rivira Town, Bors slammed the Magic Stone down hard on the ground and spat, his face livid.
"Information brokers? Fuck those guys!"