Blacksmith of the Apocalypse Chapter 1257: Not one to tell her no

“Hi Seth, Al.” she greeted them with a nod. “Are you two taking a break?” Monique asked as she sat down beside them with her lunch. Her outfit suggested she just finished her training and ca by for a grub.

“Yeah, we just ca back to take a break before we entered the last one,” Seth answered her readily between bites.

“J—just one left? I an, how are the hell gates so far?” the Chosen of Athena asked curiously. Seth raised an eyebrow. Her unusual curiosity made Seth suspicious. He didn’t pay much attention to it before, but he rembered that she had actually made a beeline toward them, from the mont she saw them. Was there sothing the spear demon wanted?

“Not as exciting as you may think. Lots of traveling and walking through empty landscapes, so fighting with monsters. Custor service sucked. Nothing great,” the bard gave an honest review of their adventures so far.

“The last one wasn’t as bad,” Al reminded him. Right, the caves were quite fun. From looting resources to discovering a mystery, the entertainnt value was through the roof, compared to the burning wastelands and the swamp.

“How was the last one?” Monique asked eagerly. Now Seth was convinced that there was sothing burning under her fingernails. He considered for a mont but decided to simply ask directly.

“Monique is there sothing you would like to ask?” the bard asked, looking her straight in the eyes, even putting aside his fork. The chosen was taken aback montarily, but then she smiled awkwardly.

“Was it that obvious?”

Seth nodded. Al nodded. Both nodded rcilessly. Monique was a serious person, a strong person, she had even beco a great strategist with the help of Athena’s blessings. But she was terrible at hiding sothing.

“I wanted to ask whether I could co along for the last gate,” she finally revealed the truth. Seth's gaze was so obvious, that she continued to answer his question before he could ask it.

“I didn’t feel like this during the eting. We just won a great victory and the mood was great, but in the past few days… I feel bored and useless. Most of the people from my teams are on other missions, even you are traveling outside, while I’m stuck here.”

During her travels, she had gotten used to having an objective. Now that she had nothing to do, Monique felt restless. But that was not the whole story. Kneading her fingers nervously, she spilled her feelings.

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“I know it’s not true, and that I did my duty, but I feel like I didn’t contribute. I worked hard to level up, but I feel like I was completely useless, and I have to prove my worth,” she said lancholic. It was a good thing it was only the three of them in the cafeteria, or she might not have had the confidence to say it out loud.

Monique was really a serious person. Seth would have never expected that sothing like this would bother her. After all, he had left the protection of the tree stations to them, not just because he wanted to know them in safety, but also because he trusted them to be able to do sothing if shit hit the fan.

But as much as he trusted her, as much did he distrusted the ans of demons. Al had the confidence to walk into any kind of trap to get information and co out unhard. Seth had the defense to do the sa. But the spear demon? Monique was strong, but not on that level.

Especially since the last gate they were to visit, was the one that managed to kill off their golem eyes. Not only was their information limited, but it ant that the other side was either very dangerous or very cunning.

“Maybe not the Hell Gate, but we are going to et Mary and Leana after lunch. How about you co along? If you don’t want to rest, maybe Leana has sothing to do for you. Or maybe sothing cos up where you can help,” the bard suggested.

Soone else may have told her to calm down and that it was okay, but he felt like that would belittle her feelings. This was who Monique was and if she could only feel accomplished after accomplishing sothing significant, why would he try and tell her off?

“Really? Great!” she exclaid relieved. She didn’t seem to be sad at all, that it wasn’t going to be the hell gates, as long as she got “a chance to prove herself”, or however she interpreted his compromise.

Thus it happened that Monique ca along, when Seth and Al visited the administrative team, to tell them about their find on the other side of the dark gate. They told them about the gate location, resources, dium monster danger, as well as the destroyed birthing pools and the fortress at the surface.

In the end, they all agreed on the theory that sobody had actually killed the demons that used to occupy that world a long ti ago and the hell gate was an abandoned relic. Although Seth strongly advocated to just occupy the new mines, Leana, Mary, Jane, and Luf insisted that they had to contact the people on the surface.

It was for exactly the sa reason why Seth originally considered it. Just that he was a blacksmith and valued the unbothered mining process over potential trade with people of a foreign world, that could co along with disputes over the mining rights.

“You are too worried about the resources and forget the profit we can make by trading with them,” Jane reprimanded him. She had co a long way, that she dared to reprimand him. Her confidence had grown quite a bit since she started managing the finances across a whole district.

“We can just lie about the interior of the cave. It’s not like they can verify our words or prove that we lied,” she added craftily. “By the ti they may beco suspicious and want to see the cave themselves, the drones will have mined away anything precious anyway.”

Seth ultimately gave in, facing overwhelmingly convincing argunts. If they bought enough ti they may have been able to mine all the resources using Minas Mar’s drones and Seth’s mining golems. At that point, they could even prove that nothing was there(anymore).

Monique also got what she wanted. Since she was already in the room, they decided that she would be the leader of the team, that would try and make contact with the people on the surface. She was also in charge of choosing the people on the team, apart from Jane. Jane was the confird negotiator, as she knew their economic needs and potential the best, even better than Mary.

“Thank you,” Monique expressed her gratitude once they left the office and stood outside in the hallway.

“Why do you thank ? I just gave you a bunch of work. You should have just enjoyed your vacation,” Seth said with a shrug.

“Yeah, but I asked for that, so thanks,” Monique insisted, unimpressed by Seth’s act.

“Yeah, yeah,” Seth said and walked off. Al followed him. Since they had their al and reported about the potential of the cave world, it was finally ti for the two to explore the last remaining hell gate. With a “bye”, the two vanished from the corridor, leaving Monique behind on her own.