Then... wasn't I already on his radar too?
Thinking back to yesterday's mix-up, that accident where she'd practically "delivered herself to his door," Margaret's cheeks flushed bright red.
No way, absolutely not! I...
Wait!
Strong, brilliant, independent women like Jeanne and Rose, how could they ever willingly fall into the clutches of a man like that?
But the moment she thought it, she watched Rose lovingly make a sandwich and set it on Leon's plate.
That interaction was one step away from feeding him by hand!
Were they actually in love?
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
Yet when she looked again at the clash between Jeanne and Leon, on the surface it seemed like Jeanne was just embarrassed and furious, but a closer read revealed it for what it was, the bickering of a couple.
Margaret fell silent.
A hazy memory of yesterday's accident flashed through her mind, and her body instinctively sent her signals of want.
...Scumbag!
...
After breakfast.
According to this week's chore rotation, dish duty fell to Laurier and Aura once again.
The two of them tidied up the dishes quietly and diligently in the kitchen, while the rest gathered in the living room, each busy with their own thing.
Everyone except Jeanne, who for some reason had hurried back to hide in her room.
Margaret, who'd been quietly keeping an eye on her, sharply picked up on it: Jeanne didn't seem to dare meet Leon's eyes at all, her gaze darting away, her cheeks crimson... her whole being radiating an aura of utter mortification.
Could it be... that she'd been broken by that man!
Leon and Jeanne had no idea.
In the span of just a few seconds, Miss Margaret had nearly imagined her way to the truth of what happened in the bedroom last night.
Last night, Leon's [Holy Maiden Corruption Plan] had ultimately ended in failure, but the various performances that played out had indeed been quite the spectacle.
At the very least... in Rose's words: the Holy Maiden had a good time.
If Jeanne knew what Margaret was imagining, she'd probably be too ashamed to show her face for quite a while.
"Rose, are you all heading to the Dungeon today?"
Leon lounged lazily, sprawled across the sofa, his gaze sweeping over Margaret and Iri murmuring to each other before turning to Rose.
"Mm, Iri still needs more real combat practice. Besides, now that Margaret's here, it's a good chance to let them team up and find their groove, so they can pick up on each other's combat rhythm faster. And things like the basics of the Dungeon, the monster types, how to handle sudden situations... you know how it is, none of that helps if you're just reading books at home. This stuff has to be built up and understood slowly through actual fighting."
Leon nodded thoughtfully.
See, this was the benefit of joining a Familia with a mature development system.
Not only did you have powerful, experienced seniors leading the way, but everything from weapon and equipment choices to passing down relevant knowledge to timely guidance in real combat let newcomers skip a lot of detours and grow more steadily, more comprehensively.
Adventurers who grew up under this kind of "veterans guiding newcomers" tradition were on a completely different level from the "self-taught" types who figured everything out on their own, whether in combat power, perspective, or adaptability.
And an adventurer who grew up under conditions like these, we generally call them a war beast!
Clearly, both Margaret and Iri were enjoying this "latecomer's perk" from the Familia.
It was easy to predict that with an environment this good, plus all the various buffs stacked on top, their growth rate from here on would absolutely shatter records.
"What about you?"
Rose asked back.
"Me? I've got to head out today. You know how it is, time to deliver this month's orders to those few sponsors of mine."
At that, Rose glanced at the calendar on the wall and sighed softly.
"It's that time already... time really does fly. Blink and it's the end of the month."
"Yeah, just a few more days until the Christmas Festival. Walking around the streets these last couple of days, you can really feel the holiday mood, and even the city's decorations have changed quite a bit."
"...I have no idea where they're getting all these Christmas trees."
"That's not even the point." Rose laughed. "Isn't the most surprising thing that our Lord Royman actually shelled out money to dress the whole city up for Christmas?"
At the mention of this, everyone got a kick out of it.
"The sun really did rise in the west, haha!"
"My guess is Evilus tanked Orario's reputation, making other countries around the world start questioning the city's capabilities. So our Lord Guild Master wanted to seize the Christmas holiday as a chance to do some promotion for the city."
"You can question Royman's greed, but you can't question his ability."
"True, otherwise Lord Ouranos wouldn't have let him sit securely on the Guild Master's throne for over a hundred years."
...
...
At eight o'clock sharp in the morning, the Familia's members began their new day's activities as usual.
Rose led Iri, Margaret, and Kureha off to the Dungeon for their daily exploration and training, aiming to get the two newcomers acclimated to the Dungeon's pace quickly. As for Miss Sword Saint, she needed no explanation at all, swinging her sword was one of her few hobbies, and on days without "Baptism" sessions, with a place like the Dungeon where she could fight to her heart's content, she naturally wasn't going to miss out.
Meanwhile, Jeanne, who'd spent all morning avoiding Leon, took Laurier and Aura to the Free Market for a large-scale shopping run ahead of the coming holiday.
From food and drinks to clothing and daily goods, then ribbons, string lights, gift boxes, and festive toys... the shopping list was fully unrolled, nearly as long as Jeanne was tall. For the three of them, this was by no means an easy task.
Luckily, Leon had already finished crafting two 4-volume Wonder Packs in this time, otherwise they'd probably have needed to bring along extra hands just to keep from being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff.
Finally, it was Leon's turn.
"Astraea Familia, 44."
"Loki Familia, 160 portions."
"Freya Familia, 0 portions."
"504 total, no problem."
Having tallied up the Monster Hunter Special portions, Leon came out into the yard and loaded the boxed, packaged portions onto the wooden cart. He patted the dust off his gloves, put his hands on his hips, and looked at the neatly stacked wooden crates with a satisfied nod.
"Not bad, this presentation, one look and you can tell I didn't half-ass it."
"I figure even that picky Hildrsleif won't be able to find fault with it."
"Off we go!"
Locking the courtyard gate and draped in a winter cloak, Leon pushed the cart along with an easy expression, gradually fading into the far end of the snow-white street.
...
...
As everyone knows.
Loki Familia's Twilight Manor and Astraea's Stardust Garden, one's in the Eighth District, the other in the First District. On paper they seem completely unrelated, but in reality the two are separated by only a single North Street.
Still, Leon decided to head first to the Folkvangr in the Fifth District.
Why?
Well, naturally because sponsor number three's order volume was bigger than sponsors one and two combined.
You get what you pay for in service, and this was a point Leon prided himself on having down to a science.
...
An hour later, Leon's figure appeared before the gates of the Folkvangr.
Leon: "..."
Ottar: "...Fuck."