Eina, surprisingly, actually enjoyed teaching Zomo over the next hour.
That was because, unlike all of her past students, he didn't look at the clock like he was waiting for her to finish speaking. He didn't cut into her explanations with stupid statements like 'when can I go to the lower floors?' or 'When will I be able to face a Monster Rex on my own?'
No, he asked meaningful and well intentioned questions that she was happy to answer. He even asked for a notebook so that he could take notes!
It was gratifying for Eina who always put so much work into helping adventurers to finally have someone who actually focused on her lessons seriously and even took notes!
So much so, in fact, that she actually forgot that he should know all of this already.
"Thank you very much for the lesson, Eina-san," Zomo told her gratefully after the lesson was finished, tucking away the notebook. "This will be very helpful when I start exploring the Dungeon tomorrow."
"You're very welcome- tomorrow?" She blinked in surprise. "You aren't going in today?"
Zomo shook his head. "I want to go over the notes I took today and make sure I'm completely prepared for the first floor. This is my life we're talking about, I don't want to risk it."
Eina's eyes widened and she smiled. "Yes! Yes, that is exactly the right attitude!" She nodded quickly. "I'm glad someone understands!"
He smiled at her. "Well then, I should get home- I'm rather hungry after our lesson. Thank you, Eina-san. I'll see you later for another lesson."
She nodded. "Yes, I'll see you later, Zomo!" She happily showed him out of the room, waving to him as he left the guild.
"Wow, you were enthusiastic," the half-elf turned to her fellow guild employee- a pink haired girl named Misha. "What sets him apart from the other adventurers to get you this excited?" She teased gently.
Eina adjusted her glasses and then said simply, "He's not an idiot."
"... Damn, that's cold," Misha muttered.
Zomo, on the other hand, had a pleased smile on his face as he pulled out the diary once again... He raised an eye as he saw the topic for this entry listed: Ryuu Lion.
Hm... Interesting... Lili could be one thing, but Ryuu? He wasn't even planning to go to the Hostess for a while, so having the diary ask him about Ryuu implied that it wasn't the diary setting these topics...
Interesting~
[Let me start this entry by saying- My Ryuu did nothing wrong!!]
Astraea blinked as she read that entry in the diary, a slight blush coming to her cheeks as she lifted a hand up to it. "Oh my...~ His Ryuu? It seems I may be getting grandchildren in the future~"
Ryuu Lion, in the middle of work, blinked at the words appearing in her mind... She first realised that it seemed that the diary could project entries directly into her mind, before she froze in place momentarily.
His Ryuu?
She did nothing wrong??
Ryuu quietly took a break and went to her room to read the words in the diary, mind reeling.
Even Syr, who was grabbing some drinks for customers, stared at that entry with a blank expression on her face as though she couldn't quite believe just what she was reading.
"... Ryuu actually gets a boyfriend," she murmured in disbelief. She was happy for Ryuu, but on the other hand she felt like she was losing something important!
[However, before I get into talking about my Ryuu- I want to first talk about my time at the guild with Eina, and about the reward I got from my latest Diary Entry.]
[Let's start with Eina. Eina was a dear friend, my dungeon advisor in my last life and also in this one. She is incredibly professional but also lets her emotions get the better of her in a good way- going above and beyond for the adventurers under her care. Sadly, most of those adventurers are stupid and end up getting themselves killed... I was probably like them when I first came to Orario- getting mugged beat that out of me really quick though.]
Riveria's lips quirked in a smile as she read about Eina. She practically considered the girl as her niece, given Eina's mother- Aina- was her childhood friend and attendant while she lived in the Alf's Forest. She was pleased to see that Eina took her job as an attendant so seriously, it filled her with joy, and she knew Aina was definitely proud of how hard her daughter worked.
[I also asked Eina for some lessons on the Dungeon. You would think, being a time traveller, I wouldn't need those lessons. But my memories were damaged during the journey through time, and it seems like I lost a lot of memories- especially memories about how the dungeon works and some of the monsters within it.]
[Luckily for me, Eina is a very good teacher and even waited patiently for me to finish taking notes before she continued with her lectures. When Hestia Familia starts to expand, I will absolutely make taking Eina's lectures a mandatory thing for newcomers.]
Both Loki and Freya nodded at those words. One of the first things they tended to have their stronger adventurers do was either curb the arrogance of newcomers- or have the arrogance beaten out of them. Freya made liberal use of her charm to channel that arrogance in a good direction, but sometimes they required extra 'incentive' to focus up.
Loki, on the other hand, had her executives to show the gap between a Level 1 and a Level 5 or 6. It serves as a lesson- that they had a long way off before they were truly powerful.
[While I could write about Eina all day, this topic is meant to be about Ryuu. So, let me talk about the reward I received. This time, I only received a single reward- however, this reward is good enough that I consider it the same as having obtained two or even three rewards.]
[What I received is a weapon that would make Hephaistos simultaneously green with envy- but also red with sheer indignant rage at how impossible it is.]
Hephaistos raised an eyebrow... Well now, that was a bold claim. Challenge accepted then.
[What I received is a Growth-Type Weapon... In other words, it is a sword that will not bend nor break- and instead will become more powerful as I become more powerful, growing alongside me like a trusted partner. It can even develop special abilities like a Magic Sword- of course, it still won't break even should those abilities be used.]
Silence...
And then, Hephaistos threw the diary across her workshop without hesitation, immediately grabbing her hammer and marching over to her forge.
After reading something as ridiculous as that, of course she needed to immediately start forging! What the hell!? A Growth-Type Weapon!? She knew how to make one, but she absolutely hated making them! On top of that, his would even be able to develop abilities like a magic sword without breaking??
Damn it, she needed to forge right now!
[Now then, circling back to the topic of this diary entry... Oh, right, of course- My Ryuu did nothing wrong!!]
Ryuu couldn't help but flinch at those words... Was he talking about her past with Evilus? When she'd gone on a rampage? How could he say that she did nothing wrong so easily?
[Gale - Ryuu Lion. A Level 4 Adventurer from the Astraea Familia- protectors of law and order within Orario. During the dark ages, the Astraea Familia were a light within the darkness- capable of fighting alongside the likes of the Loki and Freya Familias against the forces of Evilus.]
[Among those forces, Astraea Familia ended up particularly embroiled in a feud with a Level 7 Adventurer. A former member of the Hera Familia, known to many as the Incarnation of Talent. Silent - Alfia.]
None of the girls reading the diary spoke, instead becoming sombre. Many of them had lived in Orario during the dark ages and knew the terror of Evilus. It had been terrifying for a monster who could fight Level 8 people as a Level 7 to be their enemy, a dark time for all of Orario.
[Before I continue this story, I want to speak briefly about Alfia... Because even though the world will never know what she did, Alfia was more of a hero than they will ever know.]
Ryuu blinked in confusion, her brow furrowing. But she didn't say anything, nor even question anything. Instead, she continued reading as words appeared on the page.
[The truth was, Alfia and Zald- a member of the Zeus Familia- didn't join Evilus in order to get revenge on Orario or anything like that. The truth was that both Alfia had a congenital illness that ruined her body, and Zald was suffering from poison thanks to killing the Behemoth, and they had only gotten worse thanks to the battle against the One-Eyed Black Dragon- which the two barely survived.]
Loki blinked... This was news to her. It must have been a tightly kept secret among the Hera and Zeus Familias that two of their greatest Adventurers had uncurable illnesses and were severely poisoned...
"That must have been why the Astraea girls could beat Alfia," Loki realised. "She was already sick... If the illness was as bad as Zomo says it was... Then she probably couldn't have been any stronger than a Level 4 by the time of the final battle with all the extra stress she was putting herself through."
But why? Why would the two of them put themselves through that?
[The two could have lived their lives out in peace, and maybe lasted another decade or two... However, instead, they worked together with the God Erebus and the three decided to work together. They did indeed work as Evilus, but the three truthfully didn't have evil intentions. After Zeus and Hera were forced out of Orario... Orario itself lost something. It lost a spark. It lost its heart, its determination.]
[That was why Alfia and Zald decided to act... They decided to burn out their lives in order to reignite that spark, that fire, within Orario's adventurers- to encourage them to push themselves to the peak. To motivate other Adventurers to become stronger- to rise up and one day become heroes who could do what they had tried and failed to do.]
[And for that reason, even if Orario will never know or acknowledge it- Alfia and Zald are Heroes.]
None of the girls spoke, many of them needing to turn away from others they were with in order to process what they'd just been told- particularly those who had lived through the dark ages.
Their intentions certainly didn't cancel out the terror they had been put through, or the people that the two had killed... However, a lot of things now felt like they made sense for those who never understood everything.
Astraea remained especially silent, remembering her final conversation with Erebus before she had sent him back to Heaven... She knew that Erebus wasn't a bad person, it was just that the chaos and evil he brought... Was simply inevitable. Even down in Genkai, with his power sealed, chaos was simply something he brought about naturally- not by choice.
She understood fully now- he had simply chosen to direct his chaos in a way to prepare other Adventurers for the future.
"It's just a shame you went too far," she whispered, closing her eyes. He had been too good at causing chaos- resulting in Evilus enduring... And ultimately leading to her losing her entire Familia.
Riveria set the diary down and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath... She had once considered Alfia a friend of hers before Loki and Freya let their greed get the better of them and forced the Hera and Zeus Familias out of Orario. She could still remember days silently reading magic books with Alfia, their occasional talks.
"I wonder how Materia is doing," Riveria reminisced, recalling how much Alfia cared for her sister.
The Diary's owner- Zomo- truly was someone special... After all- he'd just shattered their worldview.
And he probably wasn't even close to done yet either.