In the parlor, Astraea and Demeter sat across from each other, sipping red tea with the unhurried grace that only goddesses could pull off.
Their eyes drifted, almost casually, between Leon and Kaguya.
Almost.
When Astraea's gaze landed on Leon, the scrutiny in those clear eyes was impossible to miss. He met it evenly and took another sip.
The picture was clear enough. His reputation had reached Astraea, Demeter had filled in any blanks, and the two goddesses had spent the last hour gossiping about his romantic track record like old friends.
Nothing he could do about that now. May as well enjoy the wine.
Astraea watched him the way a mother hawk watches a fox that's wandered too close to the nest. Sharp, unblinking, and making zero effort to hide it. She was on full alert, determined to keep this repeat offender from getting any ideas about her precious, innocent girls.
Beyond the two goddesses and the pressure field they generated, the rest of the room had its own quiet tensions.
Jeanne and Rose exchanged a glance, something unspoken passing between them.
Aura and Laurier, meanwhile, had been so thoroughly rattled by the earlier carnage and the invisible weight radiating off the older women that they sat frozen like startled rabbits. This level of interpersonal warfare was still well above their pay grade.
On the opposite side, four members of the Astraea Familia stood behind their goddess: Alise, Kaguya, Lyra, and Ryuu, each wearing a different expression.
Alise's eyes sparkled with open curiosity, flicking between Jeanne and Rose, the comrades who'd fought alongside her against the Floor Boss just days ago. Her instincts picked up on it immediately: in the short time since they'd last met, these two women with the braided hair carried themselves completely differently.
They leveled up. Alise was certain of it.
She could read it not just from intuition, but from the subtle tells that always accompanied a fresh rank-up, the slight disconnect between body and mind as a person adjusted to their new capabilities. For any experienced adventurer, those signs stood out like a torch in the dark. Everyone who'd been through it recognized it on sight.
Where Alise's interest was pure curiosity, Kaguya's gaze ran far deeper. She'd witnessed it up close: Rose tanking a Floor Boss's full-power strike head-on without a scratch. And now, barely a day later, Rose had leveled up on top of that.
Kaguya's thoughts churned. Given the strength they'd already shown, after ranking up... could they already be Level 4?
Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her katana without her realizing it.
Lyra, for her part, couldn't have cared less about the room's undercurrents or anyone's level-ups. Her tiny brain was orbiting exactly two questions: Would the Monster Hunter Special supply be consistent? And more importantly, how much would it cost?
Last was Ryuu. Her eyes were practically glued to Aura and Laurier, her young elven kin. If the two goddesses hadn't been in the middle of serious negotiations, she'd have already rushed over to introduce herself.
"Demeter..." Astraea called softly, her voice pitched to just the right frequency of pitiful. "You wouldn't gouge an old friend on the price of Monster Hunter Special, would you? You know my Familia is only eleven children. We're running on a thin budget. We really can't afford anything too steep."
Behind those limpid eyes, though, a shrewd glint flickered and vanished.
"Astraea," Demeter replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear with an elegant smile that gave not an inch, "this is an exclusive product. I can't exactly let my children take a loss. And besides..." She let the pause do its work, her tone shifting to something knowing. "We both understand how valuable a food that temporarily boosts Basic Abilities is for your children. And the situation in Orario these days... isn't exactly peaceful."
Negotiation was always a dance. And these two goddesses had clearly taken the floor.
By the time the grandfather clock in the corner of the parlor tolled the hour with its long, resonant chime, the undercurrents had finally settled into an agreement.
Leon had spent the entire time observing from his corner, glass in hand, watching the two goddesses work. The matching satisfied smiles on their faces said everything: both sides had reached terms, and both were happy with the result.
As for whether he'd personally gotten the short end of the stick?
The thought hadn't even crossed his mind. Drama was drama, jealousy was jealousy, but when it came to the Familia's interests, you could always trust Lady Demeter's judgment and finesse. And knowing Astraea, the goddess of justice would never stoop to the kind of petty tricks a trickster god might pull. Her reputation was built on better than that.
"Leon!" Demeter's voice came light and breezy. "I'll leave the details to you young people. Astraea and I are heading out first!"
Both goddesses turned in perfect unison toward Leon, smiles that could generously be described as "friendly."
Leon stood up, set his glass on the table, and inclined his head.
"Understood. Leave it to me."
Astraea's lips curved. "Don't go bullying Kaguya and the others, now. After all... they're such delicate young girls."
Leon met the goddess's smile with one of his own. "You have my word."
Both smiles were polite. Neither was friendly.
"Good."
The goddess nodded, satisfied.
With that, the two goddesses linked arms like a pair of friends heading out for a stroll and swept from the room.
"Hmph."
Persephone made no effort to disguise the massive eye-roll she aimed at Leon as she followed in their wake.
Across the room, Alise blinked, then waved with her usual boundless energy.
"I'm leaving the rest to you, Kaguya!"
"Mm."
Kaguya acknowledged it calmly. Only after all four had vanished down the corridor did she turn, settling onto the sofa with an easy smile.
"Sir Leon," she said, one slender brow arching, her voice carrying a hint of amusement, "why are you still standing?"
"Ah..."
With the goddesses gone, Leon set his glass down and moved to the seat opposite Kaguya, getting down to actual business.
A new round of sparring had quietly begun.
By the time Leon and Jeanne's group finally stepped through the gates of Wheat Manor, dusk had seeped across the sky.
He glanced back. Warm lamplight traced the estate's silhouette against the fading evening, and the corner of his mouth crept upward despite himself.
The process had involved a few bumps and some... unexpected complications, but the outcome was solid. At the very least, they'd locked in a price.
"Once per week, eleven portions each time. That comes to four million, four hundred thousand Valis per month," Jeanne recited the final terms under her breath, her brow creasing with worry. "That price... isn't it crushing? If the Astraea Familia is spending that much on Monster Hunter Special alone every month, won't they go bankrupt?"
Leon, who had a far better grasp of what high-level adventurers could earn, walked with his hands in his pockets, eyes half-closed as he watched the streetlamps flicker to life one by one along the road.
"Jeanne, Rose, you're both Level 2 now. Next time we go deeper into the Dungeon..." He trailed off, his grin widening until it threatened to split his face. "You'll get to experience firsthand just how terrifyingly fast upper-tier adventurers make money."
Where Jeanne's concern was straightforward, Rose's sharper mind zeroed in on the underlying principle. She walked with her hands clasped behind her back, tilting her head so that her braid slipped off one shoulder, her golden eyes catching the last of the evening light.
"Nearly half the adventurers in Orario never make it past the upper floors in their entire careers. Which means..." Her voice rang clear as she cut straight to the heart of it. "Starting from the middle floors, the Dungeon's richest resources and rarest materials are effectively controlled by upper-tier adventurers. That's why their wealth accumulates so quickly, isn't it?"
Leon stopped walking, draped an arm around Rose's shoulders, leaned in to catch the scent of her hair, and shot a deliberately provocative look at Jeanne, whose expression had gone just a shade frosty.
"That's the key, though 'controlled' isn't quite the right word. It's not that lower-level adventurers don't want to head down to the middle or lower floors and cash in. Everyone knows you can grab a few Drop Items, mine some rare ore, or harvest exotic herbs down there and come back to the surface rich. But obviously," his tone turned blunt, "low-level adventurers simply don't have the ability to set foot in those places."
He kept walking with his arm around Rose, breaking it down as they went.
"Think of the adventurer hierarchy as a pyramid. The higher the level, the fewer the people. And fewer high-level adventurers means what?" He posed the question, then answered it himself. "It means the supply of high-grade materials is naturally limited. And when something's rare, it's expensive. That's where the insane markups come from."
"Here's a concrete example. You all know about Flame Rock, right?" He looked around the group. "The stuff only drops on the 41st floor, deep territory. The number of Familias in all of Orario that can actually reach that hellhole to mine it? You could count them on one hand. So the supply trickling into the market is almost nonexistent."
"But demand?" He spread his hands. "The smiths in the forging Familias treat it like it's sacred. The demand is massive. And that creates a brutal supply-demand gap."
"You can probably guess where that leads." Leon's smile turned knowing. "Flame Rock prices get driven through the roof. Go browse the high-end material shops sometime and you'll see for yourselves. The stuff barely exists on the open market, and when a piece or two does surface, the major Familias snatch it up at premium prices before it's been on the shelf for a minute."
"And Flame Rock's hardly unique. Black Obsidian, Adamantite, Orichalcum, the list goes on."
He stopped, letting his gaze sweep across his companions' thoughtful faces, one corner of his mouth ticking upward.
"So now you see why high-level adventurers make money like water. They're sitting at the top of the food chain, reaping the richest profits the entire Dungeon has to offer."
It was Aura who spoke up, her voice soft and contemplative.
"But... it's also true that high-level adventurers spend as much as they earn. Especially the big exploration-focused Familias. Every single one of them seems to be scraping by."
Leon winced, his mouth twitching.
"Well, yeah. Dungeon expeditions are enormously expensive, and large-scale Familia campaigns are a bottomless pit. Nobody can guarantee every expedition will be a success." He shifted his tone, more measured now. "For them, how much they earn is secondary. What matters most is avoiding casualties. As long as they keep their numbers up, the occasional failure gets averaged out over time."
He shrugged. "But sure... the lifestyle's far from comfortable."
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