Leo had always understood, very clearly, exactly what kind of person Ais Wallenstein was.
She always carried a cold attitude in front of others, with an expression that made it impossible to tell what she was thinking, and when she fought she turned especially icy, especially ruthless, which was why people had given her aliases like Doll Princess or War Princess. That alone made it pretty clear what her image was like in others' eyes.
Of course, anyone who actually knew Ais was aware that the girl wasn't cold by nature. She just lacked the ability to express emotion. In reality, she was a very pure person. You could even call her an airhead.
When others saw her standing there in cold silence, they might assu she had no interest in talking to anyone. The truth was she might just be spacing out, lost in so thought no one could guess at.
Even within the Familia, there were only a handful of people who knew Ais's true personality, and even fewer who knew that the girl they all treated as their Princess to be protected actually envied Tiona and Tione, who could romp around with the other mbers without a wall between them. Sotis, watching everyone else have a lively ti together, she'd feel lonely, isolated, like a child, picturing in the back of her mind a small version of herself puffing out her cheeks in a sulk.
Maybe it was precisely because Leo knew what the real Ais Wallenstein was like that he could interact with her normally, not keeping his distance the way the others did, watching over her from afar.
And precisely because of that, the relationship between Leo and Ais had advanced by leaps and bounds to where it was now in just one short year. A year ago, back when Leo had only just been brought ho by Ais, there was no way she'd be sitting like this, out in the courtyard after dinner, on the long bench, quietly watching the front gate, waiting for him to co back.
But even so, Leo hadn't forgotten that the real Ais Wallenstein wasn't only what she looked like right now.
Just as Loki said, this girl could be reckless.
She'd often shut herself up in the Dungeon for days on end, killing monster after monster without rest. Her temperant was stubborn too. When she was little she'd carried every last piece of luggage from the whole Familia and forced herself to keep up with the main party, only to collapse from exhaustion afterward and sleep for three straight days.
Because of where she ca from, she hated monsters deeply, believing every last one of them should be wiped out. To cut them down, she always wanted to grow stronger, and stronger, with no end to it. When she'd first received Falna and beco an adventurer, she'd gotten into more than a few argunts with Riveria and the others over this very thing, even pulling stunts like running away from ho, throwing the entire Familia into chaos.
The young her had looked up to the heroes in stories, had hoped for a hero who could protect her. The current her had nothing in her heart but the obsession with getting stronger and a deep hatred of monsters.
Facing this side of Ais, it hadn't crossed Leo's mind before, but now it suddenly did: his own abnormal rate of growth, if Ais, who was obsessed with getting stronger, found out about it, that might not exactly be a good thing...
The thought ca, and Leo almost instinctively changed the subject.
"Loki said you often sneak off to the Dungeon on your own while I'm there, and slip back ahead of before I co ho. Is that true?"
The words landed, and Ais's shoulders gave the slightest of shrinks, almost imperceptible. Her whole bearing began radiating guilt.
"I... I didn't..."
The girl made a small attempt at weaseling out of it, which only made Leo laugh.
"Has anyone told you that you're really not cut out for lying?"
Leo folded his arms, watching Ais with a half-smile, his presence pressing down on the most famous first-class adventurer in Orario, in the whole world even. If anyone had seen this scene, they'd have wondered whether the two of them had their ranks and standings reversed.
"You also went into the Dungeon alone the whole ti..."
The girl tried to protest, but the boy wouldn't budge.
"Is that even the sa thing?" Leo said, perfectly self-righteous. "I only explore on safer floors. Not like you, always going out of your way to dive sowhere dangerous."
Ais looked away from him, all power of rebuttal gone.
This was the part that gave everyone close to Ais the worst headaches.
If she just explored the Dungeon normally, then probably not even Riveria, who doted on her the most, would object. But Ais was rarely normal about it. She pushed herself relentlessly, with no sense of restraint, and kept driving herself into dangerous situations.
If Ais hadn't already been a Lv.5 first-class adventurer, even pushing herself recklessly into the deeper floors of the Dungeon, she wouldn't get all that deep on a sa-day round trip. At most she'd be raising hell in the Middle Floors region of Floors 13-24. Without that being true, Riveria and the others would absolutely not have allowed her to enter the Dungeon alone.
The monsters in the Middle Floor region were Lv.2 at the strongest. Even when a Floor Boss, which was two Levels above the usual monsters, ca out, it wouldn't be a match for Ais at Lv.5, and couldn't pose a threat to her. The Familia leadership, knowing this, had loosened the leash on the girl a little, letting her freely enter the Dungeon to explore, so long as she ca ho that sa night.
But even so, Ais often ca back in tatters, which gave the Familia leadership real headaches.
It was also why Loki was always lanting in front of Leo about how reckless Ais was. It wasn't that she wanted to complain. She really had a headache about it, and was hoping Leo could talk to her, rein her in a little, get her to behave.
And funnily enough, ever since Leo had co to Loki Familia, Ais really had cald down a bit.
Maybe it was because she felt that, since she'd been the one to bring him in, she had a duty to look out for how he was doing at ho. Over this past year, Ais's attention had clearly been split, with a good portion of it going to Leo, which had ant fewer chances for her to be reckless. Loki and the others had been pleasantly surprised by it.
Over ti, Leo had genuinely started to worry about Ais too, anxious about her reckless streak, to the point where he was now no different from one of the elders of the house, scolding Ais every so often.
The Leo doing this had completely forgotten he had also been pretty reckless after becoming an adventurer himself.
Only exploring on safer floors?
Not like Ais, always going out of his way to dive sowhere dangerous?
Then who was the guy who, with all abilities at I0, had plunged straight down to Floor 7 and brushed against death over and over throughout those ten days?
If Loki and the others ever caught wind of these glorious exploits of his, he'd probably end up getting yelled at every day, just like Ais.
Though, Loki and Finn had more or less guessed sothing from the fact that he was already close to leveling up...
"It's not that I'm telling you not to go to the Dungeon, but you only just got back from an expedition. Right now's the ti to actually rest. Instead of running off to the Dungeon every day, how about finding sothing else to do?"
It was rare for Leo to play the patient-and-persistent role like this.
"Like going out shopping with Tiona to take your mind off things? Or going out on a date with Lefiya or sothing?"
Leo's line didn't produce any particularly big reaction from Ais. But for so reason, sowhere off in one corner, there seed to be a small commotion stirring up.
"Hm?"
Leo caught sothing, and looked up in puzzlent at one of the sky corridors above Twilight Manor, only to see nothing at all.
Then Ais's voice reached his ear.
"The day after we got back from the expedition, I already went out with Tiona." Ais said, her face serious. "Lefiya was there too."
The girl seed to want to tell Leo that she'd already completed the task he'd given her.
But the corner of Leo's mouth twitched.
"Don't think I don't know. The day after you got back from the expedition, you went with Tiona and the rest to get your weapons repaired and restock the potions you'd used up." Leo said, exasperated. "And you call that shopping and dating?"
Ais closed her mouth and went quiet again.
At that, Leo went on a bit more, and the girl's shoulders shrank smaller and smaller, her whole figure seeming to shrink in front of him.
Neither Leo nor Ais noticed that, in one of the sky corridors, several figures were ducked there, secretly watching them.
"That was close, we almost got caught just now." Tiona patted her flat chest and complained to the Elf girl beside her, "Honestly, Lefiya, why'd you suddenly get so worked up?"
"Wh-who told that guy to say weird things in front of Miss Ais!" Lefiya's pretty face was bright red, whether from anger or embarrassnt was hard to say, as she squird and said, "Going on a date with Miss Ais... how could that ever happen!"
"Really?" Tiona looked at Lefiya skeptically. "Why does it feel like you actually sounded kind of happy hearing that?"
"I did not!" Lefiya couldn't help raising her voice, protesting, "I'm angry! Not happy!"
"All right, whether you're angry or happy, can you keep your voice down?" Tione, who had been watching the boy and girl interacting in the courtyard with great interest, rolled her eyes when she saw her dimwit sister and her foolish junior getting louder and louder. She said sourly, "If you keep getting worked up like that, we really will get caught."
"Hear that, Lefiya?" Tiona said to Lefiya, grinning. "You can't get too worked up, okay?"
Lefiya's face went red again.
This ti, it was definitely from anger.
"Tiona, your voice isn't exactly quiet either..."
Lefiya muttered under her breath about a certain Amazoness little angel.
"What was that? Say it louder!"
Tiona, who maybe really hadn't caught it, kept teasing her amusing junior.
"Hmph. You're the one who said we shouldn't be too loud."
Lefiya turned her head, snapping her ponytail with force to show the indignation of its owner.
"Those two really are interesting. Watching them like this, it kind of feels like watching your own kid in their first puppy romance."
Tione had stopped paying attention to the other two and was watching Leo and Ais's interaction with her arms folded, looking thoroughly entertained.
"Like you've ever been in a romance, Tione." Tiona, who couldn't stand her foolish sister's posturing, fired off a line out of the blue. "Finn hasn't even accepted your full-on courtship yet, has he."
The line landed like a sharp bayonet, piercing straight through Tione's heart.
"What did you say?" Tione's composed attitude cracked, sliding into full berserk mode as she shouted, "Nonsense! The captain loves !"
"Oh yeah?" Tiona, of course, knew exactly how to handle her older sister. She turned around with a grin, making as if to walk off. "Then I'll go ask Finn whether he really loves you."
Tione was suddenly anything but calm.
"Stop right there! You stupid little sister!"
"Guilty conscience, huh? My stupid older sister!"
"...Looks like you're itching for a fight. It's been a while since the last one, hasn't it? Don't run off after this!"
"Nyah nyah nyah, I'm not scared."
The twin sisters were suddenly going at each other, escalating fast enough to send Lefiya into a panic.
"You two, stop fighting! They'll notice us!"
Even as Lefiya frantically tried to break them up, she was watching Leo and Ais still "having a lovely chat" in the courtyard, and was about ready to turn dark herself.
"That bastard, how long is he going to keep talking with Ais?"
The Elf girl, teeth clenched, started cursing him silently from her hiding place.
......
"...What's going on?"
In the courtyard, Leo, still in the middle of nagging Ais, kept feeling like there was so kind of commotion nearby, which was bothering him.
"Why does it keep feeling like there are people around, but I can't actually spot them?"
It looked like he really did need to push his Status to the limit and get to Lv.2 as soon as possible.
After leveling up, both his own abilities and his five senses would see a huge boost. By then he might be able to pick up on whatever this was.
anwhile, Ais, the Lv.5 first-class adventurer, didn't seem to have noticed a thing. She spoke up in a small voice.
"...I'm sorry."
She'd started apologizing, just short of writing "stop nagging, master" across her face.
"Be more careful from now on." Leo had lost the heart to keep nagging too. Seeing Ais looking so ek, sothing in him softened for no reason at all, and he said, "When it's ti to rest, rest. Get enough rest, then push yourself again. And it has to be in moderation, you got it?"
"...Mn."
The girl nodded obediently, but past experience told Leo this girl was probably not going to listen.
When the ti ca, she'd put on so clumsy little sneaking act, thinking that way no one would notice she'd snuck off to the Dungeon again.
Just as Leo was thinking that, to his surprise, Ais was actually serious this ti.
"Tomorrow, sword practice?"
Ais lifted her eyes, looking at Leo, and out of nowhere said this.
The look on her face was as good as telling Leo that if they trained tomorrow, then she wouldn't go to the Dungeon.
After all, she'd already promised Leo she'd teach him properly.
The girl's gaze said all of that without a word.
Leo stared at Ais blankly for a mont, then, after a brief silence, smiled.
"Sure." Leo said softly. "Let's do sword practice tomorrow."
Ais nodded with utmost seriousness, as if she'd just made so grave promise.
What she didn't know was that Leo was already silently thinking to himself.
Tomorrow, try not to show off any of the updated Status.
=-=-=-=-=
200 powerstones for the extra chapter
=-=-=-=-=
Read 30 Chapters ahead at Patreon/NiaXD
User Comments
0 comments from readers