Buy the Dip (3)
It was a one-sided announcement made on the assumption that Faye’s schedule would obviously be free. Or maybe it was arrogance—the belief that even if she did have plans, canceling them for her sake was only natural. Looking at the count’s daughter, who didn’t even seem to realize there was a problem—or rather, hadn’t noticed that anything was wrong in the first place—it didn’t look intentional. She had probably just grown far too used to giving orders and having people obey them without question.
But regardless of her intentions, from an outside perspective her tone was plenty unpleasant. If it had been me, I would’ve suddenly remembered a prior engagement and turned her down flat. Still, just as the count’s daughter had grown accustomed to speaking that way, Faye had grown accustomed to hearing it.
“Tomorrow? Tomorrow I…”
“Yeah. Tomorrow. We’ll start training immediately. After we got into danger last time, we came up with a plan.”
The count’s daughter didn’t even wait for Faye to finish before continuing on her own.
“Who do you think is the strongest in our party?”
“The strongest? Um, well…”
“It’s you, Faye.”
“……”
Faye said nothing. The noble ladies seemed to interpret her silence as shock, but to me it looked more like she was thinking, Why are you stating the obvious like it’s some grand revelation? It reminded me of a washed-up water-rocket instructor in a shonen manga lecturing the protagonist who had already reached the peak of power inflation. At least it was Faye; anyone else would have bluntly asked, “So what?” with an incredulous stare.
Completely unaware, the count’s daughter proudly laid out the discussion she’d had with the rest of her party.
“Our party’s tactics have always revolved around our two mages. Since we have two where most parties have one, we tried to play to that strength. But now that you’re the strongest, Faye, we’re going to rebuild our strategy around you.”
On the surface, the count’s daughter’s words sounded reasonable. But the more I picked them apart, the more I wanted to tilt my head. Having two mages out of four members was certainly a unique trait. But was it really an advantage? From what I saw on the sixth floor, once their mana ran dry the two mages could do nothing but shiver inside their barrier. It might work for short fights, but they’d be helpless in a prolonged battle. Lots of mages wasn’t a clear strength—it was simply a characteristic that could become a weakness depending on how you used it.
And above all, centering the new tactics on Faye. Having an outstanding individual was definitely an advantage. Planning around that strength was the right call. But there were far more urgent issues they needed to address first. They should be raising their own skills. Training with Faye in their current state would be nothing more than an attempt to ride her coattails.
What this party of noble daughters should be doing right now wasn’t training with Faye—it was letting her go for a while so they could focus on individual training. Or using her like a personal PT trainer.
I couldn’t listen to any more of this. Time to cut in.
Thud.
I set down the plate I’d brought near where Faye and the count’s daughter were talking. It was heavy enough to count as a workout for a beastman like me. The impact alone sent a heavy boom echoing through the room.
“Oh my. You were here, Lady Luna?”
The way her tone flipped the instant someone else appeared was honestly impressive. She really committed to the bit no matter how many times I saw it. That said, her wording was seriously getting on my nerves. You were here? Add one point to the forehead-flick counter.
“Hey. What were you talking about with Faye?”
“We were discussing tomorrow’s training.”
I’d asked while pretending not to know, just to see, but the count’s daughter’s answer didn’t change at all. Proof that she didn’t even realize her words were problematic. If she had, she would’ve at least tried to hide the ugly parts in front of me.
“Tomorrow? Tomorrow Faye is supposed to train with us.”
“Oh dear. Is that so?”
The count’s daughter blinked in surprise.
“I’m sorry. But this training is very important to us as well. We’re truly grateful you saved us last time. Since we’re training so we don’t face the same danger again, could you possibly yield on this appointment?”
Her tone was polite. The part about training to avoid repeating the same mistake wasn’t wrong, either. Yet something about the way she said it felt off. The subtle implication of I’m a noble making this request, so of course you should yield… had to be my imagination, right?
Yeah. Obviously just my imagination. No matter how destined they were to fall to corruption later, that future wasn’t now. It hadn’t even been a full week since I saved their lives. There was no way they’d already gone rotten this quickly. It was probably just that my preconceptions ran too deep. Right?
If not… I might actually get angry.
While I was debating whether to call her out or if I was overthinking it, Faye jumped in.
“Luna. Could you train with Theo tomorrow instead of me?”
“Faye?”
“Hehe… The training tomorrow isn’t something only I can do, but our party training can’t happen without me. And… Oh. Since we’ll have to focus on party training for a while, we won’t be able to go to our usual spot together. Sorry.”
“No, you don’t have to apologize to me…”
But Faye looked so downcast as she apologized that I couldn’t bring myself to say anything else. Our usual spot. After all, the one who enjoyed the Goddess Dungeon the most was Faye.
Theo, Claire, and I each had our own goals, but we challenged the dungeon as a means to those ends. Faye was different. She dove in purely because she loved fighting inside it. Sure, she helped us along the way and wanted to unseal the Goddess, but those were ultimately side benefits.
To think she had to stop doing what she loved. Even if it was only “for a while,” Faye was the one who would be most disappointed. Still, her admirable—if somewhat foolish—willingness to yield for her party members came through so clearly that I couldn’t say a word until she hid her expression and left with the count’s daughter’s party.
“…Ah.”
A beat too late, I realized every eye in the underground gym was now fixed on me. From a third-party perspective, it must have looked like some sudden soap-opera drama had exploded out of nowhere.
I hurriedly tidied up the box Faye had left and the plate I’d carried over, pulling myself together.
…I needed to meet Theo.
The next morning, I went to the meeting spot where Faye and Theo had originally planned to meet, taking her place. Seeing Theo’s face was still uncomfortable. I hadn’t fully sorted out my feelings yet. But for Faye’s sake, I could easily endure that small discomfort. After all, Faye wasn’t just the “original heroine” anymore—she was my friend.
When I arrived, Theo was already waiting. The moment he spotted me his eyes flew wide and he shouted in surprise.
“L-Luna?! Why are you here, Luna?”
“Wow. You show up thirty minutes late when it’s a promise with me, but you’re early and waiting when it’s with Faye? I’m hurt.”
“No, shouldn’t this be me realizing the importance of promises after what happened last time? More importantly—Luna? Why?”
Theo kept repeating “Luna? Why Luna?” like he’d been hit with rabbit-reality-shock. He would respond when I spoke, but it was hard to call it an actual conversation.
It couldn’t be helped. I cut straight to the point and gave him an explanation—lightly laced with my own selfish motives—about how Faye had been dragged off by the count’s daughter’s party for training.
“I see?”
After listening, Theo quickly pulled himself together.
“Luna. While Faye is training with them, what happens to our dungeon progress?”
“Faye’s been a huge help so far. Without her, at best we’ll stagnate. Realistically, we’ll probably drop about a floor.”
I answered exactly as expected. It was a conclusion anyone would reach. Theo probably hadn’t asked because he truly didn’t know.
Faye was essential to us—both as combat power and as a friend.
Of course, taking Faye into our party would make things that much harder for the count’s daughter’s group. Drop a floor? No, it wouldn’t be strange if they dropped two floors or more.
But so what? If you worried about every little thing like that, you could never be the protagonist of an adult game.
“We need to bring Faye back. Luna. Can you help with the ‘persuasion’?”
“Of course.”
I could tell immediately that the “persuasion” Theo mentioned wasn’t normal persuasion. He wanted to discuss how to approach the situation to minimize resistance and apply hypnosis as smoothly as possible. Since Theo’s hypnosis wasn’t omnipotent, the setup needed to be persuasive enough that the target would at least think, Hmm, I guess that makes sense.
Since this was originally a game, the balance concern was understandable, but it still felt a little frustrating at times like these.
We skipped the training we’d planned for today and headed into the hideout to work out a strategy.
However, it didn’t look like things would resolve that easily.
And, sure enough—
“I’m sorry. No matter if it’s you, Mr. Theo, that would be difficult. Let’s pretend this conversation never happened.”
The count’s daughter refused our “persuasion.”