Chapter 72: Loki: Surely it's the wheel of fate that brings Rozz to me! (Please subscribe) (Patreon)

"A rookie Adventurer..."

"Normally, someone like that would be active around floors 4 to 5. Maybe I'll find him there."

She stood before Central Park.

The elf girl wrapped in a green cloak carried an aura like an iceberg — cold enough that it killed most Adventurers' urge to strike up conversation.

Ryuu tilted her head back, her deep blue eyes fixed on the towering spire of Babel.

Unfamiliar?

She couldn't quite say that.

Because five years ago, this had been the place where she and her Familia comrades once fought side by side — until that attack by a hostile faction.

It had destroyed everything the girl once held dear.

After avenging her fallen friends, she had buried her old name, changed her appearance, and become a waitress at the Hostess of Fertility.

Even Ryuu herself had never imagined she'd set foot in the Dungeon again.

"Protect Syr's gentle smile."

That had been the elf girl's original intention. If she was honest, her first impression of meeting Rozz hadn't been good at all.

She had mistaken him for the frivolous type.

But in their brief encounters since, her opinion of him had genuinely shifted — she could feel that he cherished his friends just as much as she did hers.

"Probably."

"It's probably because his exploration pace has been so demanding lately that he hasn't been coming to the restaurant."

Ryuu murmured softly to herself.

Her cool, elegant face creased into a faint frown at the thought — she'd told him about the situation beforehand.

If he needed anything,

she could barely qualify as a "Senior" in Adventurer matters and could offer him some appropriate help. And yet he hadn't come to find her once...

Was she really that unreliable?

"..."

"Once I find him, I'm going to have a serious talk with him. Two days without showing up at the restaurant — Syr's been worried sick."

With that thought firmly in mind,

the elf girl resolved to head into the Dungeon to search for him. She didn't linger in the shallow floors — those held little room for growth for a newcomer anyway.

Ryuu focused her search on floors 4 through 6, but even after checking every detail without missing a thing, she found no trace of Rozz.

"Why can't I find him..."

"Could it be that something happened to him while he was exploring the Dungeon these past few days?!"

Adventurers dying in the Dungeon.

It happened all the time, past and present — when one's own strength fell short against the monsters.

She thought of Syr's gentle smile fading away.

And also...

of Rozz, who could barely be called her friend. Ryuu's brow tightened, and even her Mood twisted into something she couldn't quite put into words.

"That shouldn't happen."

the elf girl murmured softly.

She refused to give up the search, turning instead toward the deeper regions of the Dungeon, until she reached floor 9.

"Even I took over a month to explore this far," she thought.

Rozz had only just arrived in Orario. No matter how talented he was as a total rookie Adventurer, there was no way — absolutely no way — he could have reached this deep already.

But just as Ryuu was about to turn back,

movement in the distance caught the elf girl's attention. It sounded like an Adventurer... fighting a Dungeon monster.

Resolved not to miss this,

Ryuu rushed toward the sound of battle. The moment she rounded the corner of the cave passage, the scene before her froze her expression completely.

Rozz.

The boy's black hair and East Asian features were unmistakable.

But what truly stunned her was the way Rozz was fighting right now — a style that went far beyond any normal standard.

A pale blue mana enveloped him,

strikingly similar to the type of magic the Sword Princess, Ais Wallenstein, wielded — burning through mental strength in exchange for boosted stats.

"At least he's safe."

The elf girl let out a quiet breath of relief.

But the battle that followed took a turn Ryuu never could have predicted. Facing a swarm of Killer Ants encountered in the Dungeon,

Rozz's fighting was clean and decisive.

But the problem was, after downing those Killer Ants, he wasn't in any hurry to finish them off — as if he were deliberately keeping them alive.

"What is Rozz doing?"

Just as she was puzzling over it,

the wall of the Dungeon cave tore open into a monster corridor, and as far as the eye could see, Killer Ants swarmed out in dense, endless numbers.

Didn't this guy know that injured Killer Ants would summon their companions?

The elf girl shifted her gaze to the Pallum Supporter. Well, perhaps she could excuse Rozz not knowing — he was still a rookie.

But a Supporter should absolutely be familiar with monster behavior. Shouldn't she be trying to stop this?

But looking at Lili's young face, all Ryuu saw was helplessness — the look of someone who'd tried everything to persuade him and been ignored anyway.

The elf girl's mouth twitched.

Deep down, a strange, indescribable sense of absurdity welled up in her: "Is this really how this guy explores the Dungeon...?"

"..."

For ordinary Adventurers,

even a party led by a Lv2 would choose to avoid a Killer Ant swarm of this scale.

But this guy... this was a madman!

Considering Rozz could just barely be called her friend, Ryuu figured she should step in and help if he got into danger.

But the fight that followed

completely defied the elf girl's expectations. Rozz, wrapped head to toe in that pale blue glow, looked like he'd entered some unstoppable rampage.

With sheer, absurd stat numbers, he tore the entire monster battlefield apart!

"Does this even make sense...?"

Ryuu couldn't wrap her head around it.

But deep down she was thoroughly shaken. Had rookie Adventurers in Orario really advanced this far in the years since she'd retired?

There was no time for the girl to dwell on it further.

Rozz's battle wasn't over yet, but in another pitch-black cave passage, more monsters were closing in.

"Hm?"

An Adventurer caught between two fronts would have far less room to dodge.

Even knowing what Rozz was capable of, Ryuu decided to lend a hand anyway without asking, and headed toward the monsters.

But then,

when the elf girl saw the tall, broad-bodied, bipedal monster with horns on its head — a Minotaur —

even Ryuu felt a jolt of surprise.

"If I remember correctly,"

"Minotaurs appear on the middle floors, around floor 15. Could it have chased some returning Adventurer all the way up here?"

And not only that —

she could clearly sense something different about this particular monster head: "Well, might as well take care of it for Rozz while I'm at it."

Because he'd been slow to master magic,

Rozz could only increase the output efficiency of his "Mana Burst" Skill. Even the Goblins he came across along the way took a brutal beating.

It was almost like...

any stray dog that crossed his path was getting struck by lightning.

Even the "fishing strategy" that Lili had previously banned got reinstated, now that he was desperate to boost his strength.

"Good."

"At this rate of exploration, reaching Lv2 in about 20 days is actually a fairly conservative estimate."

Having finished off the last two Killer Ants,

Rozz stretched his body a bit. As his mana attribute climbed, he could feel the strain of burning mental strength growing lighter.

That was a good sign!

Just as Lili finished collecting all the drops and was preparing to move out again, Rozz — relying on the Danger Premonition he'd honed in the pure white dream world —

suddenly realized an Adventurer was tailing him.

He spun around abruptly.

At the fork in the cave passage, he spotted the figure of an Adventurer draped in a green cloak, keeping a careful, safe distance.

Rozz felt like the figure looked somewhat familiar. He frowned slightly. "You are..."

""

How had this guy noticed her?

Thinking back to the display of strength Rozz had just shown — far beyond any ordinary Adventurer's — Ryuu figured it wasn't so strange to be discovered after all.

The elf girl reached up and pulled back her hood, revealing her fine features. She looked at Rozz and spoke first, stating her intent plainly: "It's me."

"Rozz."

"!"

By the faint glow of the wall-mounted Lantern Fruit,

Rozz saw the elf girl's still iceberg-like face — the waitress who had once mentioned she was a retired Adventurer.

Ryu Lion.

He relaxed his guard slightly and greeted her with a light laugh. "Miss Ryuu, did you come to the Dungeon looking for me for some reason?"

"Mm."

Tailing an Adventurer really wasn't proper behavior.

Still...

Ryuu was a bit too thin-skinned to bring it up herself, and she couldn't find a good excuse to start the conversation — but Rozz's words gave her the perfect opening.

She nodded gently.

When Ryuu spoke, her tone carried none of the distance she kept with others: "It's just... you haven't come by the restaurant in two days."

"Syr's been worried about your safety."

She met his eyes directly and spoke frankly: "So I thought I'd follow and check on you. Seeing you're fine, I can go tell her everything's alright."

After finishing that explanation,

the elf girl suddenly realized those words didn't quite capture Syr's true Mood, and quickly added, "And also..."

"I hope you'll be a bit more careful with your exploring from now on. Don't make the girls who care about you worry so much."

"?"

Lili: Why does everyone seem to like Rozz?!

—

The Hostess of Fertility.

Whenever a Familia wrapped up a Dungeon expedition, Loki would normally hold the celebration feast right here.

A big part of the reason was that the food tasted great and the drinks weren't bad either.

But compared to usual,

Loki, who arrived here this evening, looked unmistakably alone. Even when the proprietress Mia gave her a warm greeting, Loki only responded with a half-hearted wave.

She was clearly in bad shape.

With a bitter look on her face, Loki asked the waitress for a glass of strong liquor, then retreated to a corner and began drowning her sorrows.

She could have just as easily drunk back at the Familia Home, but that would've made the kids notice her sour Mood right away.

And more importantly...

only she, as a god, could see the "Hero Cloud-Raising Plan" floating over Rozz's head — there was nowhere else she could vent about this.

Becoming an Adventurer,

and now already capable of blitzing through rare-species baby dragons — Rozz, as a member of that Shorty Hestia's Familia, had grown from a rookie to this in...

just over ten days total!

No wait...

It was perfectly normal for Familias to develop after arriving in Orario, and Loki genuinely hoped her friend Hestia's Familia would get off to a good start.

But still,

she never expected that Shorty could pull off something on this scale!

Her own Ais had earned a Great Feat by slaying a baby dragon, achieving her level up and creating a feat that shook the whole world.

At this rate, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before word came that Rozz had leveled up too.

"How is anyone supposed to feel good after hearing that!"

Loki grabbed the cup on the table and downed a hard swig of strong liquor, the fiery burn twisting her expression into something even more bitter.

Bitter wine going down a hurting heart, glug glug glug glug glug~

"Hestia—"

sourly imagined an award ceremony...

"You can live well, sure — as a friend I'll definitely wish you well! But don't do TOO well, it messes with my head!"

"It's fake.

"There are plenty of Adventurers in Orario, having someone with the same name is perfectly normal..."

But the more she said it,

the worse Loki felt inside, because that day at the celebration feast here, she'd already seen the transparent light banner floating over Rozz's head.

"Hero Cloud-Raising Plan."

Really...

if she'd only been a bit more proactive back then, made contact with Rozz privately, let this guy experience the kind of support the strongest faction in Orario could offer...

things might have turned out differently.

Loki had absolute confidence in her Familia — no Adventurer would ever refuse an invitation from a top-tier god's Familia.

"I could've had two gods under one roof."

"What's so great about that Shorty Hestia anyway, I just don't get it... sure, she's got a decent chest and a pretty cute face."

"But why didn't she think about switching to a better platform, like changing horses mid-stream?"

the red-haired goddess muttered quietly.

If she really thought about the ideal environment for a "Hero" to grow in, nothing beat her own Familia — and yet she'd let the chance slip through her fingers for nothing.

Hm.

She'd missed her chance to personally take part in Rozz's growth through the "Hero Cloud-Raising Plan," to raise a Hero with her own two hands!

"So frustrating."

Glass after glass of strong liquor poured down her throat.

Under the alcohol's influence, faint flushes of red appeared on both of Loki's cheeks. Just as she was thinking about ordering something to eat,

she looked up.

The red-haired goddess noticed the boy's figure walking into the restaurant side by side with the Supporter girl, the half-transparent light banner still floating above his head.

Rozz.

She sat bolt upright, reaching up to lightly slap both her cheeks, until the familiar sting told her this wasn't a hallucination.

So,

was this the wheel of fate pushing Rozz in front of her once again?!

Loki's eyes gradually sharpened with clarity.

Back before coming to Orario, back in the heavens, she'd always loved goading other gods into self-destructive schemes just for fun, satisfying her own twisted sense of humor.

Getting Rozz to switch Familias to her own now would probably be a hard sell.

And starting the "Hero Cloud-Raising Plan" to nurture Rozz didn't actually require him to formally join her Familia at all.

"Could it be..."

Suppose:

if Rozz really had the Potential to become a "Hero," and someday down the line successfully completed the final commission of slaying the Black Dragon,

then—

Hestia, as Rozz's patron god, given how well Loki knew her personality, would probably come strutting proudly right up to her face about it.

"Heh heh..."

"When Hestia's at her most insufferably smug, I'll just casually mention... that her beloved subordinate was actually raised by me."

So,

having missed her chance to personally raise a Familia member into a Hero, Loki decided to take the roundabout route instead, and found an entirely novel kind of fun in it.

"Ho ho ho ho ho~"

"I can't even imagine what kind of face that Hestia would make. She's not actually going to think raising a Hero was all her own credit, is she?"

"You're just his Familia's god on paper — the real one who raised Rozz is me, ha!"

"Heheheh!"

S-