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Is It Wrong To Skitter In A Dungeon? Chapter 19: Celebrating Survival
🕑 Added 2024-11-10 17:03:02 +0000 UTCChapter 19: Celebrating Survival
“Thank you again for your potions,” Riveria said gratefully to Taylor after treating the injured and poisoned members of the Loki Familia. “You may have saved several of their lives.”
“Like I told Finn, it was no problem, and the right thing to do,” Taylor replied.
“I wish more people had that attitude!” Tiona, an Amazon and executive of the Loki Familia, said with a wide smile as she beamed at the parahuman.
It had been an hour since the rescue party had descended to the 18th Floor, and so far, the Loki Familia was extremely polite and welcoming. The donation of life-saving potions and antidotes had certainly played a part, but Taylor was also aware that the presence of so many monsters under her control that really had everyone’s attention.
Even Ais, the girl with a perpetual hate-boner for monsters, had behaved herself around Taylor and her Tamed monsters. Although Taylor had to admit, a lot of that was due to Gareth literally sitting on her in order to force the Sword Princess to calm down and not immediately charge in and attack her.
“You’re just like a hero!” Tiona added, having continued to chatter on even while Taylor had mostly tuned her out.
“I’m no hero,” Taylor replied, shaking her head at that.
“No, no, you are! Generosity is a key component for being a hero!” Tiona claimed. “And so is loyalty! And after rushing down here to save your friends, well, you’ve got that in spades!”
“My sister is a big fan of legends and the heroic figures within,” Tione said apologetically to Taylor. The other Amazon was taller than her sister, and the parahuman had a hard time imagining they were twins with how different they were, both appearance-wise and in personality.
“It’s fine. I used to be a fan of heroes as well, once upon a time,” Taylor said. As a girl in Brockton Bay, heck, on Earth Bet in general, it was hard not to be pulled in by the glitz, glamor, and propaganda of the PRT and Protectorate. But after experiencing what it was really like for herself… the shine had gotten tarnished.
“You never grow out of loving heroes!” Tiona declared. She then leaned in a bit closer. “Yeah, I can tell. You’re definitely a hero, too!”
“I’m really not,” Taylor denied.
“Not just anyone would become an adventurer while missing an arm. Even those who get prosthetics tend to avoid the middle and lower floors,” Tiona replied. “Some might even call such a dedication… heroic.”
She waggled her eyebrows at Taylor, causing the one-armed parahuman to snort.
“Sure, whatever you say, Tiona,” Taylor said.
“Tch! She should have just quit,” Bete Logia, the surly werewolf Bell had had very little nice to say about, growled out. “Somebody without an arm is just a liability in the Dungeon!”
The other Loki Familia members surrounding Taylor glared at him, but the tall, dark-haired woman had a more appraising expression.
“You remind me of an old friend, Rachel,” Taylor eventually said, looking Bete dead in the eye. “She was also a major Bitch.”
The werewolf spluttered and growled, taking a step forward towards her, but the laughter of his own Familia members stopped him. Well, that and the sharp looks the Amazon twins and Riveria shot him. He stomped off angrily, Taylor discreetly putting a few bugs onto him so she’d know where he went.
“Sorry about Bete,” Tione said apologetically. “His personality is… hard to get along with, but he means well.”
“I could tell,” Taylor replied. “His anger and hatred of weakness stems from having experienced what happens when you can’t defend yourself from a greater threat. One he believes he could have stopped if he’d just been a little bit stronger.”
The parahuman shook her head. “He thinks that somebody who is weak has no business being an adventurer, because of the dangers. Anybody can die at any moment down in the Dungeon. So only the strong should be allowed to enter. His words and attitude are a crude way of trying to protect people. To keep those weaker than himself alive.”
She watched the werewolf leave, and noticed the way his ears twitched. He was clearly listening in, if the way his shoulders hunched in embarrassment was any indicator.
“That is a remarkably accurate appraisal of his personality,” Riveria said, impressed by Taylor’s analysis. “Was your friend Rachel like that as well?”
“Sort of. Rachel didn’t… she had a hard time understanding people. Didn’t quite ‘get’ interactions or social norms. She preferred dogs to humans,” Taylor said, feeling a pang of something as she recalled her time with Bitch. Had she been a friend? Taylor wasn’t sure Rachel had been capable of it. She’d been loyal, though. And that had been perhaps worth more than friendship at the time.
“Surprised you’d be so willing to call somebody you knew a bitch, though,” Tione said. “I mean, I thought you were friends.”
Taylor just chuckled at that.
“That was actually her name. Well, her… I suppose you’d call it her adventurer alias,” Taylor replied.
“Somebody really had been given a name like that?” a younger elf, Leyfia, Taylor believed her name was, asked, head tilted cutely to the side in confusion.
“Rachel chose it herself. She hated the name she was officially given,” Taylor replied. “Personally, I thought ‘Hellhound’ was a pretty decent name, but I respect why she did it, to call herself what she wanted.”
“Hellhound does sound like a cool alias!” Tiona nodded in agreement. She then leaned in eagerly. “So! Is it true you can make silk? Like a spider?”
“I don’t make it myself, I just tell the spiders I control to do it for me,” Taylor explained.
“Oooh! So that’s it!” Tiona said, impressed. “I wondered how it worked!”
“Um, is it true you m-make underwear? A-and other things out of the silk?” Leyfia asked, her voice quiet, and her face red with embarrassment.
“I do,” Taylor confirmed. “Are you interested?”
“Y-yes!” Leyfia nodded. “It’s not that Orario doesn’t have what I’m looking for, but, uh, they don’t have spider silk like I’m used to.”
“Elves make use of spider silk?” Taylor asked, intrigued, and Riveria nodded.
“It’s one of the more common materials used in the Great Spirit Forest, and in other elfish domains,” the Nine Hells explained. “There are rather large arachnid specimens, some of which are the descendants of monsters, that we’ve domesticated. However, producing enough silk to make clothing is a long process, sometimes taking upwards of several years to gather enough for just a single cloak or pair of gloves. Because of this, elfish silk is very rarely exported beyond our borders.”
“Interesting. I take it silk from silkworms the Far East produces isn’t quite the same?” Taylor asked.
“Yes, there is a subtle difference in spider silk texture that regular silk lacks,” Leyfia replied.
“You know how Eastern silk is made?” Riveria asked, surprised, having caught what Taylor had said.
“Yes?” Taylor replied.
“What, wait, hang on, are you saying silk comes from worms?” Tiona gasped.
“Technically, silkworms are the larva of the silk moth. Silk is actually the cocoon the worms spin when its time to undergo metamorphosis,” Taylor explained with a shrug. “To extract the silk, the cocoons are boiled in hot water, and the strands plucked out and unraveled once softened.”
Nearby, Mikoto was staring at Taylor in shock. “Th-the origins of Far Eastern silk are supposed to be a highly guarded secret!” she exclaimed.
“Really?” Taylor asked, confused.
“Yes! It is!” Lucia said, sounding a little exasperated at her cluelessness. “The secrets behind silk are something the Far East jealously guards!”
“It’s not a secret where I’m from,” Taylor said defensively.
Mikoto groaned into her palms, Ouka had a constipated look, and Chigusa simply looked overwhelmed, while Lucia and Iris both sighed. Meanwhile, the Loki Familia was very interested in what they’d just heard. And even more intrigued by the parahuman.
“Interesting,” Riveria murmured. “I suppose it makes sense. If elvish silk is made from spiders, then it stands to reason Far Eastern silk, which is a similar material, would have to be made from another species of bug.”
“Please do not spread this around?” Mikoto pleaded.
“Sure. As long as Miss Taylor is alright with us placing orders for our own spider silk stuff!” Tiona said with a grin.
Taylor nodded in agreement, and started to talk shop a bit with the female Loki Familia members. Specifically, about ordering silken garments from Lucia’s shop.
“Lili’s awake,” Taylor suddenly said, perking up and cutting the conversation she’d been having with the others short, her head shifting towards the tent the three of them had been put in.
Taylor hastily stood up and made her way over, wanting to be there for her. As for the supporter herself, Lili was disoriented and surprised by her surroundings, and tensed up when the flap to the tent began to open, but relaxed when she saw it was Taylor in the opening.
“Miss Taylor,” Lili breathed out in relief, before wincing a little and holding her ribs.
“You took a bad hit,” Taylor said, helping the pallum sit up.
“Y-yeah, a Minotaur hit Lili,” the Supporter replied. “If not for the armor, Lili’s chest would have been caved in.”
“And now you see why I wanted you to wear something heavier,” Taylor said smugly, and Lili rolled her eyes.
“Yes, yes, you were right, Miss Taylor, you and Welf can gloat together,” Lili huffed. She glanced over at the other two people in the tent. “Are they…?”
“Bell and Welf are alright as well. They’re still resting,” Taylor said, rubbing Lili’s back gently. “Here, drink this.”
She handed a potion bottle to her, filled with a dull pink liquid. “It’s diluted with water, should help you recover and rehydrate. Drink slowly.”
“Th-thanks,” Lili whispered, accepting the vial and drinking it slowly.
“Tell me what happened,” Taylor requested, and Lili nodded.
“We were making our way down through the 13th Floor, and were getting close to the 14th, when we heard a commotion. A bunch of monsters were chasing another party that had an injured member. They ran right past us, and we were forced to face the monsters ourselves.”
“A Pass Parade,” Taylor said with a nod.
“How did you know?” Lili asked, surprised.
“The adventurers who performed the Pass Parade were from the Takemikazuchi Familia, and they came to us this morning after they’d recovered. They told us what happened and apologized, and some of their Familia volunteered to help us find you,” Taylor explained.
“That was… honorable of them,” Lili said, surprised that adventurers had willingly come forward and apologized. Most adventurers would never do something like that.
“From what I understand, the Takemikazuchi Familia puts a strong emphasis on honor,” Taylor replied. “Sorry about interrupting you. Continue, please.”
“Right,” Lili said. “Um, after we wiped out the monsters, which wasn’t very hard, we wanted to head back to the surface, but Lili accidentally fell down to a lower Floor when the ground beneath us collapsed. Bell and Welf dove down after me. We landed on the 15th Floor.”
“You fell down two whole Floors?” Taylor gasped.
“It was more like sliding down a steep hill or tunnel, but yes,” Lili said. “These drop holes aren’t too common, but they’re a nuisance. That can separate a party quickly.”
Lili shivered. “Well, after we landed at the bottom of the hole, the Dungeon began to go through a Shift, and since we had no idea where exactly we were anymore, or where the exit was, we decided to wander a bit. In the end, we found the stairs down to the 16th Floor. We hadn’t planned to go deeper, but too many Almiraj popped up, and chased us deeper down.”
“And from there, it was one thing after another,” Lili sighed. “Monsters were spawning at a ridiculous rate, and there were Minotaurs, Ligerfangs… if not for Bell and his clones, we’d have died a dozen times over. And when Welf got hurt… we decided it was safer to just double-down and keep heading deeper, till we reached the 18th Floor. Safer than trying to head back up with riled monsters above us.”
“A sound decision,” Taylor said. “Even so, you three are lucky to be alive.”
“No need to tell Lili that,” the supporter huffed. “When we reached the 17th Floor the damned Goliath spawned early! It nearly squished us, and Bell had been carrying both Lili and Welf for an entire floor at that point. He was so hurt, and he pushed himself so hard just to get us to safety…”
She trailed off and sent a worried look at Bell, and Taylor joined her. The white-haired boy had numerous bandages covering his body, and some blood-stains were soaking through. But he was alive, and would recover. The impressive vitality of an adventurer would see to that.
“Do you want to get up? Or do you want to continue resting?” Taylor asked.
“Lili wants to get up,” the pallum requested after a moment, and the parahuman helped Lili stand up onto her feet.
She led her out of the tent, and Lili blinked a bit as the mimicry of the late afternoon sunlight hit her.
“Owww… so bright,” Lili complained. She then noticed where she was and whose camp she was in, and she gasped. “I-is that the Loki Familia?!”
“That’s right, the Loki Familia found you,” Taylor confirmed as she helped Lili out over to a log being used a as a bench.
“Hey there!” Tiona said, immediately getting into Lili’s personal space. “You okay?”
“U-um, yes?” Lili said, nervous being around so many powerful adventurers.
“I’m so glad! You were hurt real bad! Finn was very impressed you managed to survive such nasty wounds!” the Amazon said. “He used up one of his own health potions to heal you!”
“Hmph!” Tione huffed at that, folding her arms petulantly, and Tiona leaned in to the pallum.
“Big sis fancies the captain,” she said in a not-so-quiet whisper. “She’s just jealous. Don’t worry.”
“Telling Lili not to worry does the opposite,” the supporter drawled, and Tiona gasped.
“Oh! My! GOSH! You talk in the third-person?! That is so cuuute! I just wanna hug you!”
“Please do not injure the poor lady so soon after she’s recovered,” Finn requested, walking over to the group upon noticing Lili having woken up.
“Yeah, yeah, got it, boss,” Tiona huffed.
“Don’t worry, captain, I’ll make sure she keeps her distance!” Tione promised. Finn flashed the older twin a smile at that, and she blushed heavily.
Taylor and Lili watched the interaction quietly, before Mikoto, Ouka, and Chigusa approached, and immediately knelt down in front of the two, performing a trio of dogeza.
“Please! Forgive my Familia for what we did!” Ouka pleaded, his words echoed by Mikoto and Chigusa.
“E-eh?” Lili stammered, completely taken aback.
“We did not mean to perform a Pass Parade on you and your companions! We were trying to get an injured companion to safety!”
“I-I… it’s fine,” Lili mumbled. “Please, um, don’t worry about it?”
Ouka did not, in fact, seem like he could stop worrying about it, which was understandable. Taylor was still not a fan of what they had done, but at least they were trying to make amends. Not everyone would do something like that.
That earned all of them favorable points in Taylor’s eyes. Though the Level 2 adventurers would still need to do more to completely wipe away the debt.
Awkwardness aside, Lili was quick to be befriended by the Loki Familia’s executives. After the initial nervousness, the short girl was able to banter and chat with them as if they were old comrades.
‘I’ll bet that her years of acting as a servile supporter has helped her out here,’ Taylor mused. Lili had long worn a variety of masks in order to survive. And, perhaps, her disguise Skill was aiding her a bit. The parahuman had no idea how far Skills could assist an adventurer. Likely not as much as a Passenger, but there was probably some bleed-over.
Welf woke up an hour later, his groans alerting everyone to his status, and once again Taylor went to the tent to help him up.
“Careful,” Taylor urged as she entered the tent and helped him sit up. “Your leg was badly hurt. You won’t be putting much weight on it for a while.”
“My Endurance stat is pretty high, I should heal up soon enough,” Welf said, weakly pumping a fist.
“Even so, take it easy,” Taylor ordered as she passed him a watered-down health potion.
“Did everyone make it?” he asked hopefully.
“Yes. Bell made it to the 18th Floor with you and Lili on his back,” Taylor confirmed. “The Loki Familia found him. We’re currently in their camp.”
She then squinted at him. “Though you don’t seem surprised to see me here.”
“Heh. Blame Bell for that,” Welf chuckled. “The whole time we were descending, he was telling us that you’d be coming to save us. That you wouldn’t allow any of us to die down here. I didn’t really believe him, but it seems like he was right, and I owe him and Lili a new piece of equipment at half price.”
“That will teach you to bet against me,” Taylor joked, and the blacksmith snorted.
She helped him hobble out of the tent, and one of the Hephestus Familia members who’d accompanied the Loki Familia into the depths passed him a hastily carved crutch, so as not to put too much weight onto his injured leg.
“So, what now?” Welf asked.
“We’ll stay with the Loki Familia tonight, then they will venture back up to the surface tomorrow morning,” Taylor replied. “Meanwhile, we will stay down here as long as it takes for you and the others to heal up.”
“Ugh, alright,” Welf grunted. “Not like I can move around much even if I wanted to.”
“Good. Rest up, and recover,” Taylor ordered. “I’m going to put Iris and Lucia through some drills.”
“Oof. Poor girls,” Welf winced. But, privately in his mind, ‘Better them than me!’
Taylor rolled her eyes at him before walking over to the two new adventurers. “Okay, girls, you’ve had a nice, long rest, but it’s time to get some training in.”
“Yes, Miss Taylor,” Lucia and Iris said in unison.
“Now, it won’t be the full one. No monsters, and a limited swarm. Get ready,” she said, pulling her regular dagger out and shifting into a combat stance.
Naturally, this drew a crowd, but Taylor wasn’t too worried. She was deliberately holding back, and was getting in more hand-to-hand training with the newbies. And of course there was the physical conditioning and stamina workouts.
“Jeez, lady, you don’t think you’re being a bit too hard on them?” a Loki adventurer asked incredulously as he watched the brutal ‘training’ session.
“Yeah, even Amazons would find that workout hard!” Tiona commented, whistling a little.
“Sweat now to avoid bleeding later,” Taylor replied as she finished a Suicide Set. “Even if I’m more used to being a rear-line fighter, like a mage, I still understand that sometimes, there’s no choice to fight up close and dirty.”
“You’re a mage?” Leyfia gasped.
“Sort of,” Taylor replied. “I only have one spell right now, but my swarm isn’t too different from the way a typical mage uses their magic for area denial and territory control, and I’ve met other… adventurers who’ve relied too much on a gimmick and not their own strength, and lost because of it.”
“A good point,” Riveria said. “Even I have some Bo staff training in case I have to use my staff in melee, and I always carry a knife.”
Taylor nodded back at the veteran mage. “Exactly. Relying too much on magic or Skills is a trap many adventurers fall into, and I don’t plan on being one of those.”
Many of the Executives nodded in agreement at that, glints in their eyes. Several Familia members shivered as they had a premonition there was pain and sweat in their near future.
Ais was staring at Taylor the whole time, an unknowable emotion in her own gaze. Taylor did her best to ignore the monster-hating woman, but it was very uncomfortable to be stared at like that.
Time passed, more training was done, and it was late at night when Bell finally woke up, groaning weakly. Taylor’s swarm noticed, and she quickly hurried off to his side.
“Thank you for coming to rescue us, Miss Taylor,” Bell said, his voice weak but filled with gratitude as he looked up at her.
“That’s the first thing you say when you see me?” Taylor asked, hiding the way his genuine belief in her touched her heartstrings.
“Because I knew you come,” Bell replied.
“Here,” Taylor said, deciding to ignore the blush on her face as she passed him a potion.
As he drank, Taylor explained where he was, and who had rescued him. She then helped him up, leading him out into the Loki Familia’s camp.
The 18th Floor had darkened, tiny speckles of glowing crystal providing illumination along with campfires.
“Whoa,” Bell breathed out, looking around. “It’s beautiful!”
“I suppose,” Taylor said. She still found the whole floor eerie.
“You’re okay,” Ais said as she spotted Bell, showing a flicker of emotion, before grabbing him into a hug. Since she was still wearing her armor it probably hurt a bit, but from the blush on his face, he didn’t mind too much.
Some of the Loki Familia began to hoot, cheer, and jeer at Bell as he was shown affection by one of Orario’s most beautiful (and powerful) adventurers. Even Welf, Lili, and the Hestia Familia smirked and giggled at his not-quite-misfortune.
“Alright, alright, don’t hurt the poor rabbit again, Ais,” Finn ordered, a teasing smirk on his face as he walked over, saving Bell from suffocation and a crushed spine.
He then clapped his hands. “Now, how about some food?”
That got a loud cheer from the rest of the adventurers, and everyone began to get out pots, pans, and other supplies for a large cookout.
“Do your monsters need anything?”
“No, they will be fine,” Taylor replied. “If they get hungry, I will take them to the 19th Floor to hunt for some Magic Stones. And if they need anything else, I can always grab some of the fruit growing down here.”
It had been a surprise to see that there was actually something edible down on the 18th Floor, with the trees sprouting large, bulbous yellow fruits that resembled what a child might think a fruit was supposed to look like, but had never actually seen one before. Since she’d seen some of the Loki Familia eating them, it seemed safe enough for regular people to do so.
“Food?” Bell asked eagerly, perking up at that. Smiling in response, Taylor sent Chris off to fetch some from a nearby grove, and he returned with his scythe-arms full of them. They had a sweet scent, like overly ripe apricots, and varied in size, ranging from apple to watermelon.
Taylor had Chris slice and dice a few, and passed them out to anyone who was interested. Tiona and Leyfia both eagerly accepted, and even Gareth took a couple slices.
“Ugh! It’s so sweet! What is this?!” Bell gagged out after taking a huge bite of his own piece, spitting a little to clear the taste off his tongue.
“Honey Cloud,” Tiona said with a giggle. “It’s a crazy sweet fruit that only grows down here on the 18th Floor.”
“It’s like I just ate an entire beehive’s worth of honey, and then washed it down with a bunch of sugar,” Welf grimaced as he tried some himself.
“Lili has only had it dried,” the supporter hummed as she nibbled on her own slice. “It spoils too quickly once picked, so the only way to handle it is to eat it right away, or preserve it. The inhabitants of Rivira process Honey Cloud fruit and sell it to other adventurers and the surface. They make jam, moonshine, fruit leather and more out of it.”
“Hmm, not bad,” Taylor said, taking a bite of her own fruit. It reminded her a juicy peach, but with a distinct tang of honey. Compared to the artificially flavored food of Earth Bet, though, this was rather mild. Still, she supposed for a world that hadn’t managed to mass-produce sugar, Honey Cloud fruit would be rather overwhelming.
Everyone stared at her as she ate it, then another, without any issue.
“Wow,” Lili breathed out.
“Your teeth are gonna rot and fall out if you’re not carefully, Miss Taylor,” Lucia warned.
“As long as you brush your teeth afterwards and don’t eat them every day, you’ll be fine,” Taylor replied dismissively. “It’s actually worse to eat too many carb-rich food like bread, pasta, and potatoes since the carbohydrates and starch within them turns into simple sugars as they’re digested.”
“Well, now you’ve gone and ruined our Pasta Nights,” Finn joked, though he was clearly processing what Taylor had said, and deeply curious about where her knowledge was coming from. He didn’t know what ‘carbs’ were, and was very interested in what else she might know.
He wasn’t the only one, as Riveria and Leyfia were intrigued as well, but the Loki Familia was polite enough not to pry.
The meal itself was basic and bland, but filling. Salted and dried meat, dense, hard-baked bread, and plenty of water and moonshine, the latter bought from the makeshift town nearby. Despite it, or perhaps because of it, the adventurers happily began to celebrate another successful return from the depths of the Dungeon.
Taylor allowed a tiny smile to slip onto her face as she watched Tiona rope Bell into a conversation about heroes, followed by a slightly drunk Mikoto bowing at Bell and weepily begging for him to forgive.
This was not how she’d expected the day to go at all, but she was glad that everything had gone well, with no deaths or major injuries.
What the next couple of days would bring was anybody’s guess, but Taylor had a feeling things were going to be just fine.
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“We’ll, it’s been fun, but it’s time for us to head back to the surface,” Finn said, giving Taylor a nod. It was around ten in the morning and the Loki Familia had packed up and was ready to depart.
Finn tilted his head to the side as he regarded the parahuman who had come to see them off. “You sure you’re alright sticking around here for a bit longer? We’d be happy to escort you back up.”
“It’s a kind offer, but Bell and the others still need some time to recover,” Taylor replied with a shake of her head. “Welf’s leg especially needs more healing before I’m willing to risk moving him, even with the Dungeon Worm to carry us most of the way.”
“A broken leg is always a tricky issue to deal with down in the Dungeon,” Finn nodded in understanding.
He then glanced over at where Bell was talking with Ais, the two of them looking bashful and cute as they tried to say goodbye to each other, but were unable to say anything as their feelings got in their way.
“Anyways, little lady, we’ll probably see each other a bit more in the future,” Finn said, looking back at Taylor. “A crush between two Familia members isn’t much of an excuse to work together, but nobody will say too much about it.”
Taylor raised an eyebrow at the pallum, who just grinned shamelessly back.
“I’m more than twice your height,” Taylor eventually retorted, deciding to ignore the fact that the Braver himself wanted to work more closely with her. She knew he was interested in her. Not romantically, thankfully, but in her knowledge.
‘Hestia may have had a point when she warned me about not spreading around what I know,’ she thought to herself.
The Loki Familia was a large and powerful group within Orario, possessing a lot of power, both hard and soft. From what she’d gathered on them so far, the best word to describe them was ‘curious.’ They seemed to delve the Dungeon not for fame or fortune, but because it was a mystery. Perhaps befitting the Familia sworn to someone who took the name of the Norse trickster god. Though Taylor wasn’t going to lower her guard around somebody who called themself ‘Loki’ either.
‘I’ll have to step up talks between Naaza and Shakti. If the three of our Familias combine our influence, it should hopefully be enough to prevent Loki Familia from trying anything too shady or underhanded when they inevitably come and try to make a deal with us,’ Taylor thought to herself.
“I’ll let Hestia know that Loki is interested in having a chat when I get back,” Taylor said, and Finn chuckled.
“Great! Now, goodbye, Miss Taylor. It was a pleasure to meet you.”
“Same. Good luck returning to the surface. And thank you for passing my letter on to Hestia.”
Finn nodded at her and patted his pouch where he’d stowed the short note Taylor had penned. It would hopefully reassure Hestia that everyone was safe.
He then walked off to join his Familia in the Vanguard, and without much fanfare they departed, heading into the passageway leading up to the 17th Floor.
Bell watched them – or rather, Ais – leave, and Taylor patted him on the shoulder.
“Cheer up, Bell. You’ll see your girlfriend again soon.”
“S-she’s not my girlfriend!” the white-haired boy stammered.
“Of course she isn’t,” Taylor said, clearly not believing him.
“I just respect her! She’s very strong and beautiful and I’m going to shut up now before I put my foot further into my mouth.”
“Wise decision,” Taylor said. “Now, come on. I want to find a new campsite for tonight, and explore the shantytown.”
“Right!” Bell said, relieved to have something else to focus on, and not get teased for his crush on the Sword Princess.
His relief would not last long. The others had also seen everything, and all of them, even Ryuu and Mikoto, teased Bell a little.
The sight of it brought a tiny smile to Taylor, as she reveled in the normality of the whole situation. Even while they were stuck deep below the ground, it was just another day in Orario.
