A/N: I'm here! I did say I'd get one more chapter out this month. It might be the last day, but it counts! I almost didn't mange it. Things are a little crazy for me at the moment. Still, after this we are going to be back on the monthly schedule!

I want to thank you all for your comments and support after the anniversary chapters. It means a lot to me, and I sincerely hope you keep it coming.

Hearthfire

Chapter 38

Hestia

"Aaah." Loki sighed, leaning back and putting her feet up on Hestia's coffee table, a glass in her hand. "It's no Soma, but this mead ain't half bad." She was, of course, drinking some of Torrhen's private stock produced in the distillery out by the forges. Hestia was quite fond of it, but at present it was unlikely to ever be sold. What little Torrhen made was kept down in the basement along with wine and other assorted alcohol.

"Smith, enchanter, warrior, wizard, teacher, and now brewer. Is there anything he can't do?" Hephaestus asked. She was sitting in one of the plush chairs to Loki's left. The three goddesses were lounging in Hestia's office. Ostensibly, they were meeting because Loki had requested it but she had yet to get to the point after nearly an hour, so Hestia decided to simply enjoy the company.

"He plays the lute." Hestia added to Hephaestus' list, "and is a good singer. I couldn't tell you if he's much of a dancer though."

"Can he cook?" Loki asked.

Hesita put a hand on her chin and hummed in though. "He's not bad." She concluded. Torrhen had done a fair amount of the cooking for a while, but now they had divided the duties amongst the Familia. Mikoto was quite the dab hand in the kitchen while Aisha had shocked everyone with how well she cooked when she put her mind to it. "I wouldn't call him a gourmet chef though."

"There you go." Loki gestured. "Can't cook better than most average people. That's something he can't do."

Hephaestus nodded in agreement. "Speaking of food. How's your new restaurant coming Hestia?"

She grinned. "Wonderfully. The reviews have been phenomenal, and business is growing rapidly."

"Hmm. I need to make a reservation then." Loki grinned. "You got a good wine list?"

Hestia smirked at the smaller of the redheaded goddesses. "I cut a deal with Soma. What do you think?" Hestia could only laugh at the sight of Loki freezing, drool dribbling out of the side of her mouth at the thought of so much good alcohol. The god of wine had been all too happy to do business with her when it came to providing wine and other alcohol to her new establishment. While not exactly friends, the two were on amicable terms now that Soma had gotten his act together.

The three goddesses chatted for a while longer, with Hestia promising to host them both at her private dining room but eventually Hephaestus asked the important question. "Loki? As fun as this has been, you called us here for a reason. Don't you think we should know what it is?"

Loki sighed heavily. "Yeah. I suppose I should stop dawdling." She sat up, a serious expression on her face. Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out an object and placed it on the coffee table.

"A magic stone?" Hestia asked, confused.

"It doesn't look right." Hephaestus added. "What's wrong with it?" She was right. The magic stone was a pale yellow, not the deep purple of a normal stone.

"I haven't a clue." Loki said before sighing. "Let me start from the top." She leaned back and put one arm over the back of the sofa. "During my Familia's second most recent expedition, they encountered a new type of monster. We've been calling them Virga. They look like caterpillars, spit acid, and have acidic blood. They pretty much destroyed most of my people's gear and sent them back to the surface empty handed. It nearly bankrupted us. That's why the success of our most recent expedition was such a relief."

"What does that have to do with these stones?" Hephaestus asked.

"I'm getting there." Loki gestured with her glass. "So, my kids were able to beat a couple of the Virga and got these oddly colored stones from them. It was weird, but nothing major. I figured it might just have been something left over that the Zeus and Hera journals didn't mention. Then Mosnterphilia happened. Remember those plant monsters that Torrhen helped my girls with?"

Hestia nodded. "I didn't see any, but Torrhen told me about them."

"Well, they dropped the same type of magic stone as the Virga. We're calling them Violas. That was too much of a coincidence for me, so I've been doing a little quiet digging. Turns out, they weren't part of the pack that escaped from the Ganesha Familia. They just happened to come up from the sewers at the same time."

"That's… worrying." Hephaestus grimaced. Hestia nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it bugged me too. Then the Demi-Spirit my kids fought was surrounded by an army of the damn things." Loki shook her head. "So, now I had to wonder. Where did they come from? Are they native to the Dungeon and we just forgot about them? Who put them in the sewers? Hermes was gonna help me investigate some things but since the idiot got put on probation and house arrest, he couldn't do a whole lot other than speculate. I know Dionysus was curious too, but he gives me a weird feeling."

Hestia nodded in agreement. Dionysus, Greek God of Wine and Madness was a very strange character. He was nice and polite, but to her own mind there had always been something else hiding under the surface. Perhaps it was that he was the god of madness and yet Hestia had never once seen him act like he was... well… mad? Not once in all the long centuries she'd known him.

"So now you're coming to us with this?" Hestia asked. Loki nodded.

"I know I can trust the two of you. A few days ago, I received an interesting piece of information coming out of Melen." She said before taking a sip. If Hestia remembered right, Melen was a city only three kilometers southwest of Orario. It sat on the shores of Lolong Lake and was home to the Njord Familia. Loki continued speaking. "Apparently, there have been sightings of odd plant monsters within Lolong Lake. The description is identical to the ones that showed up at Monsterphilia."

Hephaestus grimaced. "Do you think they were planted there?" she asked, ignoring the accidental pun.

Loki nodded her head. "It's either that or they came out of the Dungeon another way."

"Another way?" Hestia asked, confused. Hephaestus looked a little pale.

"You think they might have come out of the Leviathan seal?" The one-eyed goddess asked, faintly.

"Oh." Hestia gasped, a memory clicking into place. Lolong Lake housed a second entrance to the Dungeon. It was blocked by a seal made partially from the bones of the Leviathan. One of the three Great Beasts. The Njord Familia was partially tasked with keeping an eye on the seal.

Loki shook her head in the negative. "I doubt they have. It's far more likely that they were moved there another way, but I have no idea how. If they came out of the seal, that's bad but it still doesn't answer how they got into the sewers. They have to have been put there by someone."

"So," Hestia cut in, trying to understand, "you think that there's a group taking monsters out of the Dungeon and putting them places they shouldn't be. Monsters that have oddly colored magic stones."

"That… pretty much sums it up." Loki nodded.

"Do you have any idea who might be doing this?"

"Not especially. It's possible it's some new group that has sprouted up. Hermes did have one idea though. It was a bit distressing."

"What did Hermes think?" Hephaestus asked. "Whatever else he may be, he's usually pretty wise to things happening in the shadows."

"Evilus." Loki grimaced. Hephaestus mirrored her expression. Evilus was an organization that nearly destroyed the city around 7 years ago but that was all Hestia really knew about them. It was before her time.

"I thought you and Freya wiped them out." Hestia said, confused. This had all happened well before she descended from Tenkai, so she didn't know the details. "There was an alliance of Familias that assaulted their base."

"Oh, we hurt them pretty bad." Loki replied, "but I'm not convinced that we wiped them out. It was a pretty dark time, and it would have been all too easy for small elements to slip through the cracks."

"What do you plan to do?" Hephaestus asked, grimly.

Loki sighed. "For now, I'll take a few of my members to Melen and check out the Leviathan Seal. See if we can't find some info on the plant monsters while we're at it. After that? I guess we'll have to see what happens. There's still Rakia to deal with after all."

"Well, it's not like they'll be a problem." Hestia scoffed.

"Yeah." Loki chuckled.

Torrhen

"Right." He grunted, settling the slightly heavy object. "I think that should do it. All we need to do now is test it to make sure everything is working properly."

"Perfect!" Tsubaki grinned maniacally. She rubbed her hands together almost greedily, moving towards the enchanting table that Torrhen had just installed in a corner of her workshop.

Considering that she was working mostly from trial and error accompanied by the occasional lesson from Torrhen, Tsubaki was progressing well. What she needed most was practice and having her own table would make that easier. Still, Torrhen couldn't just give one away, no matter how much he liked Tsubaki or approved of her skills with a forge.

No, something like this needed compensation, and Tsubaki was only too happy to provide. In exchange for the table, Torrhen had been granted access to extremely rare materials and stones that he was unlikely to get ahold of without paying exorbitant amounts or delving deep into the Dungeon to acquire them personally. A more than fair trade in his opinion.

"Right, this goes here." Tsubaki muttered, moving through the process of starting an enchantment.

Her movements were still a little unsure, but her confidence was growing with each successful enchantment. Torrhen had provided the Half Dwarf with copies of his enchanting texts and catalogues as well as examples of a few enchantments for her to dismantle and examine so her repertoire was solid. She just needed to work on efficiency and strength of enchantment.

It wasn't very long before the magic stone shattered with a tinkling noise. The power flowed into the simple sword Tsubaki had chosen for the experiment. She'd taken to forging a few low-level pieces specifically to be enchanted and then disenchanted, similar to how Torrhen and Welf kept pieces around for experimentation purposes only. Grinning, Tsubaki lifted the sword and handed it to Torrhen.

"What do you think, mister Master Enchanter?" Tsbuaki asked. After quite a lot of work, she'd finally received the Enchanter skill, but had been thrilled to discover that Welf and Torrhen both possessed advanced versions of the same skill. Proof that the skill would evolve as her own skills did. Taking the sword, Torrhen used his honed magical senses and long years of experience to examine it.

"Not bad." He muttered, letting his senses roam across the shock enchanted sword. "The enchantment is layered correctly. It'll do a fairly low amount of shock damage, but enough to be effective. As for the longevity…" He pushed his senses a little deeper. "Hm. Thirty. Maybe forty strikes." Flipping the sword, Torrhen handed it back to Tsubaki. "All in all, not a bad piece."

"Well, thanks!" Tsubaki grinned. "I'm still not really at a level where I feel like I can sell weapon enchantments, so I'll be focusing on extra effect enhancements. Ones that don't really have a power limit, y'know? Like Waterbreathing or Muffle."

Torrhen nodded in understanding. "Once you've mastered how to do those enchantments, the power doesn't matter. You could start selling amor with those right now if you wanted to. Smart choice."

The two conversed for a while longer with Torrhen explaining the regular maintenance needed to ensure the table continued to function at optimal capacity but were soon interrupted. A fairly tall blue-haired girl stormed in, dragging a very short dark-skinned boy behind her by the ear.

"Captain!" The bluenette shouted. "Valdez set my workshop on fire again!" She yanked on the boy's ear, causing him to whimper a little.

"It was an accident!" The boy complained. "I can't always control it!"

Tsubaki could only sigh. "Iz." She addressed the girl. "I told you. Leo is still learning to control that skill of his. You did install the fire suppression system, right?"

"Yes, but that's not the point! He shouldn't be around sensitive materials if he's always bursting into flames! I'm working with volatile substances. What if he managed to blow them up?"

"Some context would be appreciated." Torrhen muttered to Tsubaki.

The blue haired girl evidently heard him. Upon hearing his voice, she finally noticed him, blanched and turned pale. "Oh. Um. You're the Level 10, aren't you?" she muttered. "I'm sorry. I can come back later." The girl moved to drag the boy out again, but Tsubaki waved her down.

"It's fine Iz. Torrhen's Familia is just as crazy as ours. He's used to insanity." Then Tsubaki turned to Torrhen and explained. "Leo there," she gestured to the boy, "has a skill that lets him essentially set himself on fire. It also makes him almost totally fire resistant. Unfortunately, its tied to emotion so when he gets excited, he tends to spontaneously combust."

"Ah." Torrhen nodded in understanding.

"Iz here is one of our best item crafters. Nothing on the level of your enchantments, but she's pretty damn good. Leo's got the skill but zero experience so I put him under her wing. Iz, Leo. This is Torrhen."

"Yo!" Leo tried to wave, but Iz clamped down on his ear again, causing the boy to wince.

"It's nice to meet you, Master Torrhen, sir." she said, hurriedly. "I'm so sorry about barging in."

"No worries." Torrhen shook his head with a smile.

"Look," Tsubaki stepped towards the two. "I know it's not ideal, but you're the best person we have to mentor the kid. Just try to bear with it and save the more volatile stuff for when Leo isn't around. Okay?" Iz nodded reluctantly.

"As for you." The Half-Dwarf turned to the young boy. "Get your shit together, Valdez. Iz is right about one thing. You can't work around volatile materials if you're going to burst into flames. That's how people get killed."

"Sorry Captain." Leo muttered, sullenly. He did appear to be genuinely chastised until he spotted the enchanting table. Perking up, he gasped. "Is that what I think it is?!"

"What?!" Iz screamed, startled. She looked around wildly, before her eyes settled on the enchanting table. The following grin was blinding. "Is that the enchanting table?!"

"Heh. Yep!" Tsubaki grinned, patting the table. "Torrhen here just installed it."

"Does that mean we get to learn enchanting?!" Leo all but shouted. Iz nodded excitedly behind him.

"Nope." Tsubaki replied, crushing their dreams. She explained before either could protest. "Torrhen here already has his hands full teaching his apprentice, along with me on the side. I'm nowhere near good enough to teach and frankly, I won't do it until he gives the word."

"Hm." Torrhen put a hand to his chin, thinking deeply. He wasn't opposed to others learning, but wanted to wait till he and Welf were more established as the best in the city. Plus, Tsubaki was far from ready to teach enchanting. Even Welf wasn't ready for more than a basic explanation.

"I'm not opposed to it, but not for quite a while. You're correct though. You're far from ready to teach, and I simply don't have the time." He spoke.

"Aw, man." Leo pouted.

Bell

"Alright everybody!" Bell called to the group. It was early morning and the entire Familia, including Torrhen and Aisha, was standing in the courtyard just outside the entrance to the Dungeon. "Today we make the push for 18. We're going to get there on our own merits. No jumping down shafts or getting help from stronger parties. Master Torrhen and Ms. Aisha are only going to be there in case we run into something we can't handle." There were nods all around.

Every single member of the Hestia Familia was decked out in their best gear, with their weapons at the ready. Each was wearing an adventurer pack stuffed with potions and essential support items. They were as ready for this push as they were ever going to be. If that day was successful, it would open up a brand-new future for the Hestia Familia. If they reached the 18th Floor, it would allow the Familia to properly go up in rank. They could go on official expeditions and be given quests by the Guild. As an internal matter, it would also mean that they could finally hold a recruitment drive.

"We hold to a standard formation! Tanks in front, ranged at the rear. Master Torrhen, Ms. Aisha, and the mobile members in the center. We're going to go through the upper floors as quick as possible. Don't bother fighting anything not in our immediate path until we hit the middle floors. We'll regroup there."

"Everybody has a partner!" Lili added. "Don't get distracted and separate. Stay with the group and stay in formation. If we have to fight, I'll call it out. If you don't hear me say to fight, just keep running."

"Everyone ready?" Bell asked. There was a chorus of cheers accompanied by nods and shaking heads. The young Captain pretended not to notice the proud look his mentor was giving him. He didn't want to lose his nerve. "Let's move!"

Together, the Hestia Familia moved through the courtyard, under the arch, and into the Dungeon. The moment they reached the bottom of the stairs, the group began to run. Ouka, as their front liner, set the pace. Fast but leisurely, they ran through the Dungeon. Even without stopping for anything on the upper floors, this trip would take them the better part of the day. If all went well, they would camp on the 18th floor and then head back to the surface the next day. Thankfully they knew they wouldn't have to deal with Goliath.

"Welf, right!" Lili called from the back. The redhead swung his greatsword and cleaved the head from a goblin. The group barely slowed down, Lili stooping to collect the stone before retaking her place in the formation.

Soon enough they found the stairs down to the second floor. They continued in this fashion for quite some time. Sprint through the floor, occasionally deal with a monster in their path, find the stairs, descend. Thanks to their many recent excursions, the members of the Hestia Familia knew the upper floors well and could work in a seamless formation.

Only Lili and Haruhime were forced to stop and down stamina potions before the group hit the 7th floor. Unlike when Master Torrhen came through after the pass parade, they weren't sprinting like mad people. It had taken them the better part of two hours to reach that point, but they didn't wait long before moving again. Just taking a few minutes to drink potions and catch their breath.

Storing the empty vials, they started to run again. This was their first true expedition. The push to the 18th floor was a rite of passage all exploration Familia went through. "We'll make it." Bell thought to himself. "We're more than prepared and we will make it to the 18th floor on our own."

Naaza

"This one goes in patient room six, that one in seven. Eight and nine for those!" Shizune was standing on a box in the middle of the hall directing the movers. The renovations were nearly complete, and they were starting to stock the ward rooms that would be reserved for longer term patients. It wouldn't be more than a week before the hospital opened to the public.

Staff had been thoroughly vetted and hired to act as orderlies, cooks, and other such positions while the main members of the Familia would act as the doctors, nurses, and brewers. Most of the staff came from the non-adventuring family members of adventurers or the average ordinary citizenry of Orario. They'd all been scrutinized to make sure they weren't going to be spies or anything like that.

They'd even done a second round of recruiting! Thanks to recommendations coming from their own members and a few new arrivals to the city, the Miach Familia managed to recruit two more doctors and a skilled alchemist. One was a Pallum named Tony, but he insisted on being called by his last name, Chopper.

Next was a Half Elf named Elise who was quite the skilled surgeon according to Pietro. Finally, there was a Cat Person named Maomao that was an impressive alchemist. She was a former student of Nicholas' who'd moved back to the city after receiving a letter about the new brewing methods from her old mentor.

Walking through the nearly complete hospital, Naaza could only marvel at the changes. Gone were the tacky decorations and far too numerous statues of Apollo. In their place were clean white walls, tasteful artwork and other such things that created a relaxed healing environment. Waiting rooms were filled with comfortable furniture, and the exam rooms were ready and waiting for patients to arrive.

The potion shop that made up a decent portion of the first floor had been open for a while and was doing exceptionally well. Members of the Loki and Freya Familia's were making personal orders, as were members of slightly smaller Familia like Ganesha and Hephaestus. Not to mention the traffic from all the small to mid-level Familia. They'd even received commissions for large batches from several Familia that were prepping for expeditions. Nothing on the scale of the ones from Loki and Freya, but that was to be expected considering the sheer size of the two top Familia.

Stepping out of the front doors, Naaza strolled around the grounds towards the outer entrance of the pharmacy. At this time of day, there was usually a line out the door and she took no small pleasure in seeing how far it stretched.

Coming round the corner, Naaza froze. Crouched by one of the windows and obviously peeking into the pharmacy was a silver haired human woman. Naaza saw red. She recognized the girl. It was Airmid Tesanare. Captain of the Dian Cecht Familia.

"Tesanare!" Naaza barked. Her normally sleepy voice coming out harsh and loud-ish.

Airmid almost squeaked in surprise, whirling to face her. Realistically, Naaza didn't really have any real grudge against her. If she was being honest, Naaza rather liked her. She was an accomplished healer, and her skill was respectable. It was her god that Naaza had problems with, and that meant Airmid couldn't be trusted.

"Is Dian Cecht so desperate that he'd send you to spy on us?!" Naaza demanded.

"Naaza!" Airmid was still getting over the shock. Her face went pale, and she shook her head in denial once she'd processed Naaza's question, hands waving wildly. "I promise, I'm not here on his orders!"

Naaza didn't believe her. "I doubt that." She deadpanned. "What other reason could you have for being here?"

"Professional curiosity!" The silver haired woman stated emphatically. "I've gotten the chance to examine some of your potions and haven't the faintest clue how they were made! Not to mention the rumors of healing spells and that you've recruited some of the best medical minds in the city not party of the Dian Cecht Familia. How could I not be curious?"

The Cienthrope could almost believe her. One thing about Airmid that she respected was the other woman's dedication to her craft. Unlike her greedy, pigheaded god Airmid was willing to treat anyone regardless of what they could pay. In fact, it had been her who'd healed Naaza after she lost her arm. She'd even helped them get out of a few debt payments once those started coming. Though, she would be replacing the arm with one of Pietro's as soon as the man's production was up and running.

"Even if I wanted to believe you, I can't. Your god has already sent more than one spy to try and steal from us."

"He has?" She seemed surprised. "Kabuto was the only one I knew about. He sent more?" Naaza nodded, tersely.

Airmid grimaced. "I'm sorry. Lord Dian Cecht has become more and more unbearable since he lost the Loki contract to you. Once Freya followed suit, he nearly snapped. Ranting about you and Lord Miach is just about all he does these days."

"Forgive me if I don't feel any sympathy." Naaza deadpanned. Airmid scoffed.

"Why should you? He tormented your Familia. I don't know why he hates Lord Miach so much, but it was unreasonable even before all this happened." She gestured at the hospital. "I've never agreed with how greedy he is, but I'm a healer and he runs the only hospital in the city. Or" she glanced at the building again, "at least he did."

Naaza's eyes narrowed again. "That almost sounded like you want to leave Dian Cecht." She said, suspiciously.

"I…" Airmid froze slightly. She sighed. "I'll admit I've thought about it. I'm a healer. Treating the sick is my life's work and I'm tired of his greed getting in the way of me doing that. At the same time though, I wouldn't be where I am without him."

If Naaza could sway the Captain of the Dian Cecht Familia away from him, that would be a major blow, but she still had many doubts. It was all just a little too suspicious.

"I can sympathize with being kept from your work by Dian Cecht." Airmid flinched at the reminder of what her god had done. "If you ever do decide to leave, I might be willing to accept you, but I don't know if I could trust you."

"Even if I wanted to, I'm not sure I could. Lord Dian Cecht would never agree." The silver haired woman sighed.

"I suppose it doesn't matter to me in the end." Naaza said, honestly. "You won't learn a thing about our methods if you're affiliated with Dian Cehct. So, until you leave his Familia, I don't want to see you or any of his other members anywhere near this hospital. Got it?" She glared.

Airmid nodded dejectedly. "I understand." The other woman turned and made her way back towards the gate. Naaza followed along behind her, making damn sure that the other girl was well away from the property before she let her guard down. Then she went to find Lord Miach. Dian Cecht would probably make a move of some kind soon, and they needed to be ready for it.

A/N: What did you think? I know it's on the shorter side, but that's partially because of time constraints. Also, I'm juggling three plotlines at the moment, and I don't want to get too far ahead on one and forget the others.

Oh, I do want to say that I really appreciate all the cameo suggestions you gave me! I'll be using some of them soon, so I hope you like it! I won't be able to use everybody and I will be sticking to characters I know for now, but I really appreciate every suggestion.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts and ideas on this chapter!

Answers to Questions

On FFN

Cloudmint: Thank you for the suggestions!

Guest: Eh. I don't really like Wattpad. The interface is confusing.

Guest: I like it!

Guest: NORA!

BiazarKaiser: Yeah, he might have taken notice if he heard about it.

Walkmanapprenticewordsmith: I like the suggestions! Thank you. Hayate might be a fun inclusion. I'll have to give it some thought.

BookOfThoth: Honestly, the Pleiades feel more like they'd be perfect at Xenos characters.

Sirleirbag: Thank you for the suggestions!

Neo Juubi no Ryu: I hope you liked seeing Iz! Felt like she'd be better in the Hephaestus Familia than Hestia.

Redburndragon: We are finally getting to Evilus soon so we will see how they react to Torrhen's level.

NinjaFang1331: Thank you for the suggestions!

Galo4: Thank you!

LionLordEscanor: Thanks for letting me know about Airmid. I have plans for her, but it's hard to get a read on her character.

Nephilim015: Thank you!

HJiroRanger: Thank you for the suggestions!

Monkey D. Conan: I'm glad you liked it! I'll try to incorporate more small moments between characters. Thank you for the suggestions too!

Rogue1Bois: Not a bad idea for a name. I like it! I'm really happy you like the story! Also, I will try and get better about the occasional grammar mistake. I tend to write really fast and things slip by me.

Guest: Thank you!

Frostwolf3227: I have plans for RWBY people! I already have Penny, Ruby, and Yang planned.

Tibokas: Thank you!

Guest: Yeah, I wanted to show her being different from the other gods. Torrhen would not let her do anything that could break the Familia if something went wrong.

Christalm: Yeah, I miss being able to update so fast, but life does get in the way. We will be getting into new arcs soon though! And thank you for all the suggestions! I still don't know about how I would incorporate your OC's. I like them but it almost feels like they deserve their own stories. Not relegated to cameo appearances in the background. Also, thank you for commenting on so many chapters. You've been there since basically day 1 and I really appreciate it.

Captaindickscratcher: I don't think he'd be invited to Denatus. They aren't used to demi-gods but frankly I don't see him being interested in going even if he was invited.

Unboltednorm896: Thank you for the suggestion!

17: Harry potter might be difficult cause his powers wouldn't translate well but I'll think about it! Thank you for the suggestion!

: 8 and 9 Of the main series or Oratoria?

BlackStarMage: Yeah, I was a little surprised too when I figured out what his real problem with them is.

Schwarzhayasaka: Glad you liked it!

VirusZyX: I hope you liked the chapter!

Guest: Thank you! Don't worry though. It won't ever be Harem. I don't think I'd be very good at writing that.

Ahtu: We'll get there!

On Ao3

For everybody I didn't get to respond to personally!

Reinkernation: Thank you for the suggestions!

Jimbob1: Check it out! Leo! Thank you for the suggestion.

Iskander Mandoraekon: I felt like that would have been pushing it. Despite Lili's growing popularity, I doubt many Pallum would have liked that being her alias.