God's Blessing on this Wonderful Dungeon

By Icura and Special FX

~o~

Chapter 7: Popularity

~o~

Orario Times

Issue 45682

"Eris Familia: Inspiring Stories of Heroism and Healing"

By Elena Ibis of Thoth Familia

In a world where danger lurks around every corner and adventurers die every day in the dungeon, a ray of hope shines through with the heroic acts of Eris Familia. This up-and-coming Familia has once again used exceptional efforts to save lives. In an exclusive interview, several individuals recounted their awe-inspiring encounters with Eris Familia, highlighting the group's selfless heroics.

One such individual, a new up-and-coming adventurer himself, Raul Nord of Loki Familia described his harrowing encounter with an infant dragon. "Honestly, I was terrified. I thought I was a goner for sure, but then Eris Familia arrived. Darkness stopped the infant dragon in its tracks and Kazuma finished the monster with a stab to the head while Lady Aqua was like an angel who had descended from the heavens, bringing me back from the brink of death. I owe them my life."

Eris Familia–composed of only four adventurers and a strong sense of justice–has been making waves throughout the city since their arrival. While not much was known about them initially, their valiant efforts have started to garner the attention and admiration of the public. The old abandoned church on main street has become a hotspot as of late. Once news spread of Aqua's healing abilities, many retired and crippled adventurers made trips to the old church in hopes of treating their injuries.

One such individual was Tsubaki Collbrande, the famous blacksmith of the Hephatesus Familia. "It's been great! Losing my eye was really annoying because of how much it messed with my depth perception, but Aqua was able to restore it as good as new."

The group's rise to prominence has not gone unnoticed by our own darling local authorities either. The captain of Astrea Familia, Alise Lovell, had nothing but praise and kind words for the rising star captain of Eris Familia. "Kazuma's unwavering determination to see Evilus punished for their crimes ignites the embers of justice within my own heart to burn even brighter! I even took more patrols so I wouldn't fall behind!"

However, as the city embraces Eris Familia, their increasing fame brings with it the weight of expectation. Will they rise above it all and become the next great Familia? Or will they crumble under the pressure and disappear from the city like so many rising Familias before them? Nobody knows what the future will hold, but as Eris Familia's fame continues to rise, their extraordinary acts of heroism serve as a beacon of hope for a city in dire need of inspiration.

With each life they save and each evil they thwart, this group of exceptional individuals reaffirms the belief that new heroes still exist among us.

~o~

Bete Loga felt the newspaper get snatched out of his hands.

"It's not like you to pay attention to the news, Bete."

There was only one person who had the nerve to annoy him so casually like that, and that was the captain of Vidar Familia, Selenia. The brown-haired girl took a seat on the couch next to him and glanced over the newspaper he had been reading. She was right in that he rarely bothered to pay attention to what was going on in the city. The only thing that he cared about was growing stronger.

Strength was everything in this world after all.

It was simply the law of nature. The strong survived and the weak perished. That was why his village got destroyed and why he couldn't do anything to prevent it. He had been too weak at the time to save everyone in the village. Too pathetic to save his family and Renee.

That was why he sought strength in Orario and its dungeon.

To become strong. To obtain fangs that would never be broken again. He needed fangs that were sharp enough to slay the master of the plains that had destroyed his village. Real fangs that were strong enough so that nothing would ever be stolen away from him ever again.

But no matter how much the scar on his face burned, it wasn't like he was a golem that only had one thing on his mind at all times. While he wasn't one to pay attention to the news, he also wasn't someone who completely ignored the outside world either. The latest rumors that had been going around at the bar he frequented simply caught his attention was all.

Eris Familia this and Eris Familia that.

Bete hadn't thought much of his encounter with Satou Kazuma at the time. Just another country bumpkin wanting to make it big in Orario. They were a dime a dozen and most quit before even taking the second step. Only those who could earnestly refine their fangs could make it in this city and one day howl from the top.

Funnily enough, it turned out that the guy had some fangs after all.

Bete had fought infant dragons before, and those things were no joke. To think that the guy that had reminded him more of a squirrel than anything else would be able to kill an infant dragon so quickly after becoming an adventurer. He supposed that he shouldn't be surprised; even the most unassuming creatures could bare their fangs when cornered.

"Eris Familia again, huh?" Selenia mused. "They sure have been getting popular lately with everyone."

"Che, who cares what the weaklings think."

Let the weaklings chatter about who's going to be the next hero or whatever. That was all they could do. People who never bothered to sharpen their fangs themselves, hoping for someone to save them from the cruel realities of the world. It annoyed him off just thinking about it.

Why even step on the battlefield if you couldn't even howl?

"You know, there's been an interesting rumor going around about their captain," Selenia casually brought up. "They say that he's got teleportation magic."

"Sounds like bullshit to me."

"That's what I had thought as well, but there've been a lot of people who have claimed to have seen it in person," Selenia replied. "According to them, he teleported members of the Loki Familia along with his own right into the Pantheon."

"Yeah, and? What's your point?"

"My point is that you should use that brain of yours for once and think about how useful that can be," Selenia answered with a glare. "If we teamed up with them for an expedition, imagine how much further we could dive! We wouldn't have to worry about supplies or logistics at all! And that's not even including their healer!"

Bete figured that it would be something like that. Selenia wasn't the captain of Vidar Familia for nothing after all. She had a good head on her shoulders and was strong as well, though he was still going to surpass her one day. No "if's" or "but's" about it.

"Why're you asking me?" Bete asked as he kicked his legs up to rest them on the table. "You're the captain here."

"And you're my lieutenant," she replied with an annoyed smile. "So why don't you do your job and tell me your thoughts on the matter."

Tch. It wasn't like he had a problem with Satou Kazuma or Eris Familia.

They were obviously the type that was willing to earnestly sharpen their fangs, and that was enough to earn his respect. Obviously, having the ability to teleport from the surface into the dungeon and vice versa was a huge boon for any exploration party. The problem here was that they weren't the only exploration-focused Familia in Orario and neither were they the biggest fish in the pond. Selenia could try as hard as she wanted to, but they weren't going to be able to outbid people like Loki or Freya Familia if they decided to step in.

Every damn exploration Familia in the city was going to be scrambling to get the Eris Familia into their next expedition now that the word was out.

"Do what you want," Bete eventually replied. "I ain't got no issues working with them."

"Great!" Selenia answered with a cheery smile. "Let's find a good time and go talk with them then."

"Hah…? Why the hell do I have to–"

Selenia's hand latched onto his shoulder like a vice grip.

"The lieutenant isn't going to leave all the work to the captain now, is he?" She asked while wearing a smile that seemed to promise nothing but ill intentions. "Or did you forget how the hierarchy works around here?"

"Tch. Fine then, damn woman," he replied with a roll of his eyes.

"I hope you haven't forgotten your promise either," Selenia pointed out as she threateningly squeezed his shoulder with that same damn smile. "I won our last spar so you owe me a favor still."

"...and you're using it on this?" Bete dryly asked.

"No. That's a part of your duties as my lieutenant," Selenia stated matter-of-factly. "We're going shopping."

"Hah…?"

~o~

"Aki, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Raul. Don't worry about me; we need to hurry if we want to get there in time."

Despite being called Aki by almost everyone she knew, her full name was actually Anakitty Autumn. She had been abandoned as a baby in front of an orphanage, and the person who found her had named her. Ana was the name that she was given, but since there was already a child named Ana, they decided to add on kitty since she was both an infant and a part of the cat people race. Autumn was because she was found in the Fall season.

As she grew up, the "kitty" part of her name grew more and more embarrassing that she eventually wanted–desperately at the time–to get rid of it. Since one of her fellow orphans was already named Ana, she couldn't use that so she took a different part of her name as her nickname.

Aki from An-aki-tty.

When she was younger, she had been curious about her parents, but as she grew older, she eventually stopped caring. That was because orphans were a constant flow in and out of the orphanage. Adventurers and prostitutes dropped off children for whatever reason, though it usually involved issues of time, money, or untimely death.

Aki had been so confident and proud when she got accepted into Loki Familia that she boasted about it to all her friends in the orphanage. However, everything after that was so much harder than she initially thought that it really pounded into her how small she was.

Still, even with how unconfident she became, she took comfort in the fact that she could never be as cowardly as Raul. It was a bad thing, feeling relieved that someone else was worse than her, so she tried not to think about it too much. Instead, she repaid him by helping him out here and there, mostly to assuage her own guilt.

However, it was that same cowardly Raul who had saved her.

When she froze at the sight of the infant dragon attacking Leon, Raul had grabbed her hand and dragged her away, jump-starting their escape. He could have run faster if he had just left her behind as a distraction, but he didn't. Rather than that, by the end, he had almost sacrificed himself for her.

Aki's face faltered.

Glancing down at the classy envelope, sealed with a candle wax emblem of Loki Familia, Aki couldn't help but feel entirely nervous about the whole endeavor.

She was happy about the fact that Eris Familia was going to be rewarded for rescuing Raul and her, but she couldn't help feeling apprehensive about the fact that they would be the ones delivering the invitation to the dinner. No matter how she thought about it, wasn't this a bit disrespectful to the ones receiving the missive? If a level two came with them, it would at least be more polite…

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Raul asked with concern on his face.

"I'm fine!" Aki snapped out. However, the moment she realized she did that, she immediately lost her vigor. "...sorry."

"Hey, you don't need to say that. I'm the one who usually has to say sorry all the time," Raul replied in a light manner to gloss over it. "Besides, we're already–huh?"

The abrupt end to his words caused Aki to raise her eyes. They had reached the abandoned church that Eris Familia was said to be living in, but the sight before them was a bit different than what she had expected.

"Be careful with that support beam! If you drop it on your foot, I can heal it up, but if you crush your head, I can't do anything about that!"

"Yes, Lady Aqua!"

It was a gathering of burly men and women wearing sleeveless white shirts and olive green pants, all of whom were doing construction work. The one sitting on the rooftop, hammering a nail into a roofing tile, was the blue-haired healer who had saved them. However, instead of her beautiful blue clothing, she was wearing the same white shirt and green pants as the rest of them, though she had a light green bandana wrapped around the upper portion of her head.

"...what should we do?" Raul asked with a bewildered expression. "Should we climb up there?"

"No, Finn said to give this to their captain."

"Then should we knock on the door?"

With so many people around, it felt like it would be awkward to just walk past them and start knocking on the front door. Normally, she would just ask one of them, but it was obvious that they weren't part of the Familia, unless Eris had somehow more than quadrupled the size of their Familia in that short amount of time. However, that seemed unlikely since Finn hadn't mentioned anything about that.

The other option was…

"Excuse me, Lady Aqua!"

"Yeah?" The blue-haired healer paused the action of raising her hammer and spoke even though she had three metal nails clenched between her teeth. "Whaddya want?"

"We're from Loki Familia, and we're looking for your captain."

"Kazuma's inside, though it might be a while before he can speak with you. People from Magni Familia and Modi Familia got here a bit earlier."

There were a couple of loud shouts coming from inside.

"Oh, sounds like they're done."

As if on cue, the front doors of the church opened and two individuals stepped out, a pallum and a hume bunny. However, even as they walked out, the two were still glaring at each other with their hands resting on the hilt of their weapons. While ignoring everyone around them, they kept their eyes on each other while marching through the front yard and out the gate. Only when they reached the street did they separate, going the opposite direction from each other.

Aki and Raul glanced at each other before tentatively walking up to the open doors of the church while hearing a conversation emanating from within.

"Kazuma, I told you that you shouldn't see envoys from two different factions at the same time!"

"And waste double the time?" Inside the church, nearer to the podium at the back, Kazuma had a relaxed expression while the blonde knight, Darkness, was visibly annoyed. "It's not like I was going to accept their offers anyways. Who would want to be a gopher? Do I look like I got bullied in school?"

"What does a place of education have anything to do with this? And why would there be bullying there?"

Kazuma raised an eyebrow.

"Bullying exists."

"Don't you think that I'd have joined in if there actually was any?" Darkness crossed her arms over her armored chest. "On the bullied side, that is."

"Don't worry, I don't think anyone would mistake which side you'd take," Kazuma dryly replied. "Even if you did try to bully someone, can you even hit them in the first place?"

"Bullying isn't just about physical degradation and humiliation! There's a mental side as–"

"Um, excuse me!"

The conversation between the two stopped when the third voice–a male one–interrupted. Of course, that voice belonged to Raul. With the attention of the two now focused on them, Aki and Raul tentatively walked into the church. Honestly, if Aki had known that Raul was going to speak up, she would have stopped him. That was because the conversation that these Eris Familia members were having provided clues into their origin.

However, what she had heard was enough to figure out something important.

These two could possibly be academy graduates. While there were many schools that taught fighting and adventuring, there was only one that was globally recognized and only allowed entry to a tiny portion of applicants from around the world. That was the Maritime Academic Institutions Special District, more commonly known as the School District.

With a size and scale that rivaled that of a small city, it was a massive ship that floated slightly above the ocean by using buoyancy generators powered by magic stones.

All of that was simply to house the academy city that was world-renowned for producing high quality adventurers. The ship allowed the academy to travel throughout the world in order to pick up new students and let their existing ones gain experience by dealing with the monster infestations at each location. For the monsters that the students could not handle, the teachers–led by the Knight of Knights who was said to rival Ottar of Freya Familia–were present to handle them.

If Eris Familia had alumni from the School District, then it was no wonder that they were so strong.

There were practically stars in Aki's eyes, causing the two recipients of the gaze to take a confused glance at each other. However, when Kazuma looked back, his eyes finally lit up with recognition.

"Oh, right. You're the two from before." Kazuma pounded the bottom of his fist into the palm of his other hand in a Eureka moment. "So what's up?"

"Thank you for saving us!" Aki bowed her head. Raul was confused for a couple of moments before he quickly followed suit.

"Don't worry about it." Kazuma waved off their gratitude. "If you want to repay us, you can help out with the rebuilding. That's what everyone else is doing."

"Ah, actually, our Familia wanted us to give you this." Aki held out the letter awkwardly in front of her. With Raul following behind her, she walked up to the two waiting Eris Familia members and handed over the letter. "They want to personally thank you."

"Personally?" Kazuma muttered as he took the letter. Without caring for the emblem on the wax, he broke the seal and popped the envelope open. Pulling out the letter and casually tossing the envelope over his shoulder, he began reading the letter while Darkness leaned over to read as well.

"Ah!" Darkness exclaimed. "It's an invitation to dinner."

"Pretty formal way of writing," he commented. "Nobles?"

"Maybe…" She had a subtle frown on her face. "Does it matter?"

"Of course, it does," Kazuma sharply retorted. "We don't have any formal clothes."

"We could just go out and buy some."

"Eh, it's still too much of a hassle." Kazuma shrugged his shoulders before turning to Aki. "Look, I appreciate the sentiment, but I've been dealing with people all morning. Free food is good and all, but going over there and listening to more talk is a little bothersome right now. Maybe later?"

"Oh, okay…" Aki murmured regretfully. "If you really feel that way, we won't push. It's a shame though, since we managed to get a world renowned chef, but we'll cancel the–"

"We'll be there!"

~o~

Kazuma let out a sigh as he watched Darkness pick out another dress and stare at it for a brief moment in contemplation before throwing it back into the pile. He had already lost track of how many times he had seen that exact scene play out a long time ago. It brought back memories of when he was a kid and his mom would drag him around while shopping. Though, at least back then, he had a gameboy to pass the time with.

"How hard is it to pick a dress, Darkness?"

"This is a formal event," Darkness replied with a frown. "And as the representative of the Dustiness family, I must look presentable."

It had already taken them a while before she was finally satisfied with the tuxedo she had picked out for him. She'd already taken three times as long for her own dress and still hadn't picked one out yet. He was almost tempted to just ditch her and head back by himself, but he didn't want to deal with her nagging later.

"This isn't Belzerg," he dryly pointed out. "You aren't a noble here either so just pick one already."

Darkness shot him an annoyed look.

"Fine then," she said as she held out a white and yellow gown. "I suppose this one should do."

"Finally. Let's go home already," he replied as he stretched his arms over his head. "I'm tired of walking around all day."

"What? No, I still need to pick out Aqua's and Megumin's dresses."

"You can't be serious. Why don't you drag them around with you instead then?"

"They're busy with the reconstruction of the church," Darkness replied as she folded the dress up. "You weren't doing anything besides lazing around anyway."

That wasn't true at all. He was handling some very important business: mainly, taking a nice nap in the middle of the day while everyone else was working. Truly, nothing could be better.

"Come on, let's get this paid for and head to the next shop."

Darkness grabbed his arm, and he reluctantly let her pull him away from his seat. She was enjoying this way too much. Girls and shopping. Apparently, some things never changed, regardless of era or worlds.

After Darkness paid for her dress, she dragged him outside and toward the next store directly across from the one they had just come out of.

They were currently on the 6th floor of Babel Tower, which was apparently the floor that housed all of the fancy clothing stores. The Babel Tower might have housed the entrance to the dungeon as well, but all of the floors above the dungeon were like something straight out of those fancy shopping centers back in Japan. They were filled with various different shops of all kinds with tons of people bustling in and about. It wasn't all weapons and armor vendors either; there were all kinds of different stores ranging from restaurants to boutiques.

The next boutique they entered was just as fancy as the last one they came from.

While Darkness was busy immersing herself within the store and all the dresses on display, he quietly made his way to the back of the store, hoping to find a chair to sit on. Near the back of the store, next to the changing rooms, he spotted a pair of chairs lined up against the wall. Just what he had been looking for. Though, one of the chairs was currently occupied by the same delinquent-looking werewolf he had first met at the Guild a while back.

The werewolf had his arms crossed over his chest and a perpetual scowl on his face before their eyes met. Kazuma didn't miss the group of shopping bags surrounding his seat either.

Another fellow victim of a girl's shopping spree, from what it looked like.

"Yo," Kazuma greeted with a raised hand as he slumped down on the seat next to him. "Bete, right?"

"...what the hell are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Tch, got dragged over here by some annoying woman," Bete replied, though despite his words, there was no real animosity laced within them.

"You too, huh?" Kazuma sighed. "Darkness has been dragging me around since the morning."

"What kind of stupid name is Darkness?"

"I know, right? Sometimes I wonder if she chose it because she wanted people to make fun of her…" Kazuma paused for a moment before he grimaced. "Actually, that's probably why."

"Hah…?" Bete looked at him in bewilderment.

"Just…don't worry about it. You don't want to know."

"...whatever you say."

Kazuma leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes while he rested his head against the wall. Just how much longer was Darkness going to take? At this rate, they'd be lucky to make it back home before the sun sets.

"Heard you killed an infant dragon," Bete casually brought up.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah," Kazuma replied as he opened his eyes. "Hit it with a few arrows before I finished it off with my sword."

"Not bad, for a rookie."

"How long have you been an adventurer then?" Kazuma asked, mostly out of boredom to help pass the time. "You look younger than me."

"A year."

"You're the real rookie here then," Kazuma smugly replied. "I've been an adventurer for almost two years now. You should be calling me 'senpai' instead."

"I just saw you register at the guild the other day, dumbass."

"That's just for the dungeon. I've been adventuring on the surface."

"That shit doesn't count," Bete waved off. "You're still a rookie, rookie."

"Says who? You better treat your seniors with some respect, newbie."

"Hah? You–"

"Bete! What do you think of this dress?" a brown-haired girl suddenly asked as she approached their seats. "It looks nice, right?"

"...it looks the same as all the other shit you wear."

For some reason, the smile on that girl's face only seemed to evoke feelings of dread rather than positivity.

Scary.

"Hey man, you shouldn't talk to your girlfriend like that," Kazuma pointed out. "Oh wait, it wouldn't be a girlfriend. It would be a mate, right?"

"Pfft!" The werewolf sounded like he almost choked on his own spit. "W-what the hell are you talking about!? Who the hell would want to go out with this gorilla woman!?"

"Oho? And who exactly is this 'gorilla woman' that you're talking about, Bete?" the brown-haired girl asked with a smile that promised nothing but pain. "I know it can't be me."

Man, this guy really had no clue on how to talk to girls, huh? He might have been a former shut-in NEET, but even he wasn't this bad. After all, he never had a girl try and strangle him before.

Wait. On second thought… There were those times when Megumin and Darkness tried to strangle him…

Huh. Were they actually more similar than he thought?

"Kazuma! I picked out some dresses for Aqua and Megumin," Darkness called out from the clothing racks as she made her way over. "What do you think of these?"

"Huh…? Isn't that…?" The brown-haired girl trailed off as she stared at Darkness. "Wait… Kazuma? You're Satou Kazuma? From Eris Familia?"

"Yes, I'm Kazuma," he replied with a raise of his hand.

"P-please excuse my rudeness!" she stammered out as she bowed her head. "I'm Selenia Levy, the captain of Vidar Familia."

"It's fine, it's fine." He waved it off. "I'm Kazuma and this is my friend, Darkness."

"A pleasure to meet you, Selenia." Darkness smiled.

"No, no, the pleasure's all mine!" Selenia replied with a smile of her own. "Oh, and the rude one over here is my Lieutenant, Bete Loga."

"Yeah, I know," Kazuma replied. "We've already met before."

"E-eh?" Selenia turned her attention back to the werewolf in question. "Bete! Why didn't you tell me you knew Kazuma!?"

"Hah? You never asked."

"W-why you…stupid wolf!"

~o~

"...and that's why I think it would be beneficial for our two Familias to work together."

The four were sitting at one of the outdoor round tables at a cafe, each with a teacup set in front of them. For Kazuma, it was a testament to his tenacity that his eyes only barely twitched. After having listened to pitches all morning, he had relegated the duty to Megumin while he was outdoors, telling her to reject them all. It was like dealing with those annoying door-to-door salesmen who kept on ringing his doorbell.

He had thought that he was done dealing with that crap for the day, but now here he was stuck in the middle of listening to yet another pitch.

Normally, in this kind of situation, Kazuma would just have stopped her from the start. However, the reason why he didn't was a glance away to his right. Bete was sitting in his chair next to him with a disgruntled look on his face while dozens of shopping bags surrounded him. After discovering who they were, Selenia had helped Darkness pick out some formal clothing for tonight's dinner, but it hadn't ended there. The two girls got so into it that they went on a shopping spree without a care for money or budget.

It was rare for Darkness to show tendencies from her previous rich lifestyle and have fun like that so he didn't bother trying to stop her. They had a decent amount of money saved up now anyway so a little shopping spree wasn't too big of a dent to their finances in any case.

It all accumulated into Bete having to carry all the bags as punishment for withholding information from Selenia. They bickered like an old married couple throughout the entire shopping spree, but the werewolf had done his task diligently enough, even balancing a few of the bags on his head and shoulders when his hands and arms became too full. It was honestly pretty funny to see the guy walking around like an angry puppy while carrying way too many shopping bags.

What was that? He should have helped out with carrying the bags? No way. There was no consequence to not helping out so why would he willingly create more work for himself? Did he look like a charity worker here?

On his left, Darkness nudged him with her foot, bringing him out of his thoughts. Oh right, this was the part where he had to speak as the captain of Eris Familia.

"Not interested."

"Kazuma!" Darkness looked scandalized.

"What? You wanted me to accept that?" Kazuma glanced at Darkness. "Why? Sure, they helped us out with shopping, but this and that are two completely different things."

"That's not…" Darkness looked over to Selenia and bowed her head. "I'm sorry about the way he said it, but we really can't accept your offer."

"It's okay." Selenia didn't look surprised, but she did seem disappointed. "If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me where I went wrong?"

"Well, your approach was a bit sleazy," Kazuma said, much to Darkness' dismay. "Trying to butter us up before you make your request works better on people who aren't me."

"That…wasn't my intention…"

"It doesn't really matter if it was or wasn't; that was just how it felt to me. In any case, we weren't going to accept anyway," he replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I've been rejecting these kinds of proposals all morning."

"I just thought…" Selenia began, but she stopped herself midway. "What about if we–"

"Enough already," Bete interrupted gruffly. "He already said he ain't interested."

"We don't know if we don't try!" Turning her gaze back to Kazuma, Selenia asked, "Is there anything you want?"

However, to her disappointment, Kazuma just shook his head. Selenia deflated, sinking back into his chair in response.

"Look," he said with a tired sigh. "I'm not looking to be anyone's gofer or to go under anybody's wing."

"That's not what we want at all!" Selenia firmly denied. "We're offering an equal partnership. An expedition to the middle floors to try this out and see where we go from there."

That made him pause. It was different from what he heard all throughout the morning.

Kazuma mulled it over for a brief moment. "How many people?"

"Four from my Familia, and four from yours."

"Loot distribution?"

"Half and half," she replied. "That includes item drops as well. If there's something either of us want, we can negotiate."

Kazuma was silent as he contemplated it.

Honestly, he wasn't that averse to it. Sure, he could probably push for a bigger share, but was there a reason to? He wasn't hurting for money, and they seemed like a decent enough bunch.

At first, he had assumed that they had wanted them to be glorified supporters like all of the other Familias that had visited in the morning. They had all thrown their levels around like Mitsurugi showing off his cheat sword, and that had pissed him off. Not to mention the fact that everyone just wanted to use him as a gofer/taxicab because of his teleport ability.

All those other guys wanted him and his party to just roll over and play second fiddle, something that no one in his party was interested in doing.

Well, except Darkness, but thankfully, she didn't have the authority to accept those offers, otherwise it would have been a huge mess. In fact, he had pretty much used her as a barometer to determine how bad a deal was by how much she was drooling. It had gotten pretty bad a couple of times. However, seeing how stable she currently was, this one seemed like a pretty decent offer.

Besides, having more meat shields was always a good thing. It would be just like working with Dust and his adventuring party.

"Alright then, let's try this out."

"Heh, just don't drag us down, rookie," Bete remarked with a smirk.

"Bete!" Selenia yelled with a scandalized look on her face as she smacked him upside the head. "Keep quiet!"

"Ow! What the hell, you damn gorilla woman!?"

"Why you…! How about I wipe that arrogant grin off your face when we get home, huh?" Selenia questioned with a smile that only had ill intentions in mind. "Need I remind you that I'm still stronger than you?"

"Hah, that's only in brute strength." Bete scoffed. "You sure you aren't secretly an Amazon?"

"Sorry to interrupt your lover's quarrel, but how about we finish hashing out the terms first?" Kazuma interrupted with a raised hand. "Darkness and I still have a dinner party to catch."

"We're not lovers!" "Who the hell would want to go out with this annoying ass woman!?" Selenia and Bete both simultaneously shouted at the same time, their faces red with embarrassment.

Kazuma and Darkness both shared a knowing look.

"Suuuuuure."

~o~

Authors' Note:

Special FX: Selenia is actually a character in Danmachi, though we made up the last name.

Icura: Baldur's Gate 3 consumes us.