Chapter 7:
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"Loki got SO wasted last night!"
"Don't laugh! I was the one that had to clean her mess!"
"What was she crying about, anyway?"
"*SIGH* Something something, another booba monster. She was both laughing and crying, it was hard to get."
"A new goddess arrived in Orario a week ago, and Loki got a bit…herself when she met her yesterday."
Aiz was barely paying any attention to the conversation, by this point more than used to her goddess antics, although when Finn added his own piece to it, she permitted herself to hear a bit more about it. A new goddess arriving at Orario wasn't outstanding news, but the crawl up the Dungeon was feeling a tad more monotonous today.
"Which goddess is it?" Aiz finally spoke for the first time in the last hour.
Finn looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but answered the same anyway. "Europa," he revealed with a carefree tone. "She already had a Familia herself, before arriving, but it wasn't official per se."
"Really?" although it wasn't unusual, it was still uncommon for a newly arrived goddess to already have a Familia.
"Yeah," Finn's expression shifted into something else. He looked at Aiz in a funny way. "I met their Captain, and truth be told, she reminded me a lot like you, Aiz."
Aiz now looked at her Captain straight in the face, her head tipped to the side in confusion.
"Is she hot?" Bete suddenly barged into the conversation, looking at the diminutive form of Finn with a demanding look.
The pallum only laughed nervously instead of answering, a feeling of dread growing on the back of his head. Curiously, Tione started cracking her knuckles.
The rest of the conversation devolved into amenial talk. Although Aiz couldn't move her mind over Finn's comment, a shard of curiosity overtook her. Perhaps meeting the Captain of Europa Familia was in order.
"What was her name?" Aiz asked Finn quietly, the two unconsciously taking the rear of the group.
Finn put on a pensive expression, trying to recall it before answering. "Arturia Pendragon," he said after a while.
XXX
Mia Grand, former Captain of the Freya Familia, has seen all kinds of things throughout her long career as both an Adventurer and the owner of a tavern, but the sight before her was a great reminder that even she could be caught off-guard.
"We will take…4 more rations of this, please," the young man of the group asked in a gentle manner, before putting a resigned expression on his face. "We may be here until you close," he muttered the last part under his breath, but Mia was capable of listening. "There goes our earnings from the last 2 days."
Mia felt a pang of sympathy for the young man, but she still grinned viciously at the thought of how much money the blonde bottomless pit of a woman was going to make her.
The other 4 occupants of the table had already eaten a hearty meal, but the diminutive gold mine of hers was going through her second order of full roasted pig. She devoured the poor animal clean to the bone like a voracious beast, while also somehow maintaining the perfect image of etiquette.
Years of conditioning still made her check out the group, look intently at their builds as well as their clothing, and let her get an idea of the role for each one of them. The blonde woman that was eating 3 families by herself was a swordswoman, plain and simple. She was also the leader of the party by the way she carried herself.
Both the twin of the swordswoman as well as the albino woman were spellcasters. They didn't don armor at all. The redhead was a clear archer, her clothes short so as to not mess with her aim. And the lonely man of the group was more of a rogue, by far the weakest of the group.
By the corner of her eye, she observed 'Syr' bringing another table their meals, her back turned as if trying to sell the image of not paying this particular group any of her attention. But Mia knew better, she had been doing this same tactic over the years.
She didn't pity whoever was the bastard that managed to catch the attention of her goddess. If she wants them, she will have them. It has always been like that as far as Mia could remember. It was how she managed to get her too.
"Madam, we have a problem in the kitchen," Ryu was proving herself reliable each day that passed. She managed to be discreet when she needed to.
"What is it?" Mia didn't turn from spectacle before her eyes, the signs for valis flashing in her eyes.
"We ran out of boars five minutes ago, the last one was reserved by the Loki Familia group since the morning and has been set apart, but we don't have any more boar for table four."
CRACK
The valis signs cracked in Mia's eyes, leaving only a vacant look in them.
"...I thought I left perfectly clear that we were to restock at midday," the air around her was filled with an aura of dread. There was a promise of pain for whoever screwed things up.
"Anya made a mistake regarding quantities," Ryu was quick to throw her associate under the bus.
"I will deal with that idiot myself," and like that, she started to walk back to the kitchen, but not before directing instructions to Ryu. "Make sure to apologize to the customers for this inconvenience, try to see if they want anything else," she paused for a moment, before adding. "And make sure that their drinks are in the house," it wouldn't do to lose such promising customers.
Ryu bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement, watching how Mia entered the kitchen and almost broke the fringes of the door because of the force she used to close it.
Picking a tray and a cleaning mop, Ryu went to the table in question. The sight of such a small woman devouring a boar until the bone by herself made even herself stop in her tracks for a moment. Now she could see why Mia wanted them to receive special treatment.
The group seemed to be captivated in their own talk, the man making hand-motions to emphasize some sort of point.
Ryu cleared her throat to make herself heard, stopping the conversation dead on its tracks.
"Yes?" the man asked her with a raised eyebrow, he wasn't quite looking at her straight in the eye, but at her forehead for some reason.
Ryu killed any sort of curiosity she had over the behavior, and vowed deeply to the group in general. "We are really sorry dear customers, but we have run out of pork for the night," she straightened herself back up to continue her apology. "In compensation for this, the Madam had made your drinks for the night in the house, as a sign of apology. Please consider coming back any other day, and we promise that this won't happen again."
The man looked back at his companions, and between the four of them all looked at the woman responsible for asking the entire boar for herself. For a moment, Ryu could have sworn she saw the image of a lion overcoming her fellow blonde, but it was gone in the blink of an eye.
"It would be fine," the blonde woman responded in a cordial tone of voice, although a hint of disappointment was palpable in her tone. "We needed to get back early, anyway."
With those words, the entire group stood up as one, a stack of coins being left at the center of the table, exact change for the entire meal, before the drinks were taken to the house.
"Think of it as a tip," the white haired woman gave her a smile, before taking an offered arm by the blonde, armored woman.
The man and the other two women stayed a bit back to talk to her. "We will come back, we promise," the man tried to alleviate any worries that Ryu may have over their sudden departure. "I doubt Arturia would ever forgive us if we don't come back tomorrow," he murmured the last part, before smiling and offering Ryu a handshake.
Ryu accepted the handshake easily enough, nodding with her head. "Please come back soon," she said as soon as the man let go of her hand.
The man gave her a two finger salute before stepping out of the door with his party.
Ryu started cleaning the table immediately after. Overall, they certainly were nice customers.
XXX
Rigo had to suppress a shudder the whole time they were dining at the Hostess of Fertility(which, by the way, totally sounded like the name of a whore house), and was only able to relax once they were a good 200 meters away from the tavern.
It may be because of his exposure to Servants duking it out on a daily basis, but even he, a person without any sort of special training, was able to sense the heavy presence breathing down their necks the whole dinner. Describing the experience as 'off-putting' would undersell the whole event.
A soft touch was felt on his hand.
"Everything is alright," Sita whispered those words into his ear in a calming tone, her hand tracing soothing circles on his back. "I am here, my beloved. Everything is going to be alright."
"Here I am, worrying over a yandere goddess, when I am walking side by side with another one," Rigo did everything in his power to never look at Sita's face. His mind may be clear of his initial overwhelming sense of dread, and he was able to remain calm and collected most of the time, but he could still be scared from time to time. "At least I already Stamped Ryu," that actually helped calm him down.
It was also a bit of a relief that he didn't feel 'Syr' looking directly at him, or a singular person on the table for that matter. It seemed that his incomplete Information Defense just managed to peak the attention of the crazy love goddess for the moment. Not outright obsession like what happened with Bell, fortunately, just a bit of curiosity.
"Here is hoping she doesn't do anything too…drastic," Rigo murmured to himself once they turned from the main street and towards the path that would take them to the 'home' for their Familia.
"Rigo," Artoria suddenly stopped, but not on alarm or anything, more like she suddenly remembered something, likely still a bit upset over not getting four more roasted boars for herself. "We will train your swordsmanship for an hour before going to bed. To digest the food, of course."
Rigo exhaled deeply in defeat. There was no other way around.
This was going to hurt.
XXX
CLANK
CLANK
CLAGH
"Agghh!"
"Don't lose focus on your opponent's every move. Use your eyes to observe more than my sword. Next try!"
CLANK
CLANK
Observing Rigo's training from the bleachers, Europa couldn't help but wince herself every time Arturia struck his body with her wooden sword. Irisviel was on stand-by in case Rigo overstrained himself during the training, something that left Arturia without too many worries and let her train Rigo to her heart's content without too many consequences.
Europa knew for a fact that this was Arturia's own way of venting the bits of rage she still felt from time to time towards being Captured by Rigo. Europa understood that, but she just hoped that they pass to the fucking already instead of…whatever this was.
Still, it was good for Rigo. Even if Arturia was restraining herself considerably during these training sessions, he managed to par two out three strikes already, whereas at the beginning he could barely move his sword in the way before being flat on his ass.
Rigo claimed Martial Talent being at work there, but Europa liked to think that her lover's own will was also at play here. Natural talent was worth nothing without a bit of endeavor. She knew that herself.
Her beautiful face sulked for a moment, discreetly looking at the piece of paper on her hand. She skimmed over the stats of Rigo, less than a week of dungeon crawling weren't going to miraculously show themselves on his stats, but it was his hidden ability that had her a tad worried.
[Dread Counter]
The skill itself didn't offer any sort of description, and from what she had investigated on her own as well as with Artoria's help, this sort of skill wasn't a regular one.
She knew of her lover's previous disposition before she herself was Captured, and seeing him bearing a skill with such a name filled her heart with worry. She could only hope that they never had to see the skill activating on its own, but seeing the disposition of Rigo of going to the dungeon each day, she knew that her hopes were only a fool's dream.
Regardless of what happens, Europa knows that every one of them will be there for Rigo when the time comes.
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AN: The chapter seemed about right for me pals. Nothing too big happened here, just the perspective of some locals through which he found out that Europa Familia has been in Orario for about a week now. FYI, this is 4 months before Bell arrives too, so there wouldn't be too much time before canon events kicked up.
Next chapter we have a dungeon diving by Europa Familia! See you then folks