As preparations wrapped up one by one, Loki Familia's forces began to assemble.
Finn stood at the front, his calm, steady gaze sweeping over the group to assess their morale. Without wasting words, he raised his hand.
"Move out!"
"Yeah!"
Leon's party followed at the rear of the column, walking alongside Loki Familia's younger members and the Hephaestus Familia logistics team.
Watching the imposing main force march ahead, Leon clicked his tongue, visibly impressed.
"Loki Familia's looking fired up. At this rate, I'd say their odds of successfully pushing into new territory are pretty high."
Tsubaki smirked, amused.
"Heh. You still don't know Finn well enough. That crafty little Pallum probably hasn't told the rank and file the full picture. He doesn't want morale taking a hit or people getting jittery and causing problems."
Leon didn't see anything wrong with that approach. If anything, he nodded approvingly.
"In his position, I'd do the same thing."
He shifted gears.
"Besides, he brought you guys along for backup. Having smiths maintaining their equipment should be more than enough to offset whatever losses they've taken."
Persephone's lips curled into a thin, knowing smile.
"You think Hephaestus's smiths, let alone a master of One-Eyed Craftsman caliber, are just there for the asking? Especially for an insanely dangerous, large-scale Expedition where even they can't predict the outcome."
"I'd bet..."
She glanced meaningfully at Tsubaki, who met her gaze with a silent smile of her own.
"I'd bet Lady Loki had to pay a pretty steep price to convince Lady Hephaestus to loan them out."
Tsubaki ran her fingers along the intricate engravings on her tsuba, flashing a wide grin.
"Sharp as ever, Persephone. You're right. For this Expedition, all the materials and rare Drop Items from the unexplored territory go to us, Hephaestus Familia. Consider it payment for bailing them out."
Leon: "..."
Holy shit. All the high-grade materials and rare Drop Items? From deep, unexplored floors? That's gotta be worth a fortune!
Damn you, Tsubaki!
Leon swallowed hard. His breathing went ragged, and he stared at Tsubaki like a husky that just spotted a bone.
Noticing his reaction, Laurier pursed her lips, thinking: There he goes again with the money-grubbing...
Jeanne kept a straight face on the surface, but her hand snaked around and pinched the soft flesh at his waist, twisting hard.
Leon sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth and doubled over.
Right on cue, Rose leaned in with a smile so sweet it could melt butter, her voice dripping honey as she backed up Jeanne's assault.
"Mr. Leon, there are quite a lot of outsiders present right now, so please try to show a little restraint, okay?"
She even winked at him. But all he felt was that little hand at his waist twisting another full rotation.
"..."
His face contorted into a strained, ridiculous grin as he nodded furiously.
"Yes yes yes, I know, I know! Ow... my dear Lady Holy Maiden, I'm back to normal now!"
Jeanne gave a haughty little hmph and shot him one last glare.
"That's more like it."
Persephone took in the whole scene and snarked.
"Look at you. Is Demeter Familia short on cash or something? How did we raise you to be like this?"
Demeter Familia, short on cash?
That would be the biggest joke in all of Orario.
What did it mean to be a monopoly-level global food supplier?
Did people really think "controlling eighty percent of the city's food supply" was just talk?
Forget Orario alone. Even the port town of Melen by the sea-linked Lolog Lake, the supply ships docked there from across the world, the food supplies of neighboring city-states bordering the labyrinth city... they all had to play nice with Demeter Familia.
Nothing to be done about it. The goddess Demeter's domain was abundance and the earth itself.
One look at the Familia's symbol, a sheaf of wheat, and it all made sense.
...
Hearing Persephone's words, Leon immediately straightened up and cleared his throat.
"Ahem. Demeter Familia being rich has nothing to do with whether I'm broke or not. I'm not about to go mooch off Lady Demeter like some kept man."
"I've got two working hands and I'm not that desperate. Not yet, anyway..."
"A man's gotta have some pride."
His expression turned serious.
"Besides, if I actually did that, I think both the goddess and you... would be pretty disappointed in me."
Persephone's lips curved up in the faintest trace of a smile. She didn't answer directly. Just smiled at him.
That ambiguous response made Leon instantly realize just how lucky he'd been to join Demeter Familia in the first place.
Even if he and Lady Demeter had clicked, that alone wouldn't have guaranteed him a spot in the family.
After all, if he'd chosen to freeload off his goddess instead of standing on his own two feet back then... he'd probably have been kicked out long ago.
Back then, Leon had just arrived in this world. He'd had nothing. Couldn't even speak the language.
Without Lady Demeter and the Familia backing him up, whether he could have survived at all was anyone's guess. Even his cheat system needed contact with a Magic Stone to activate.
Gods were truly inscrutable creatures.
...
...
The group chatted as they moved with the main column, and before long they'd passed through the eastern forest and arrived at the base of the massive central tree.
Filing through the tree-hollow passage connecting floors, they quickly reached the Great Tree Labyrinth.
"Wow, so this is the Great Tree Labyrinth? This kind of environment feels so... familiar!"
The moment they entered, Laurier was buzzing with excitement. She gripped her shortbow tight, gazing out at the endless jungle stretching ahead, practically bouncing on her feet.
Even Aura, who usually kept her expressions under tight control, had a subtle shift in her eyes.
"The Great Tree Labyrinth... I've read about it plenty of times, but actually standing here... it's hard to put the feeling into words."
Leon watched the two elves with an easy grin, pointing toward the vanguard members already engaging monsters up ahead.
"Jungle environment making you feel at home, huh? You grew up in the great forests on the surface, so that makes sense."
His tone gradually turned serious.
"But I need to warn you. The environment might look like your homeland, and sure, the jungle's crawling with all kinds of monsters just the same. But compared to the surface versions that have been breeding and getting diluted over thousands of years, the monsters in the Great Tree Labyrinth start at a baseline of Level 2. For real."
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