After clearing floor 22, returning to HQ, and cleaning up, the six of us gathered in the living room like always. Since we’d handled the boss fight without issue, our post-expedition evaluation was more like a casual chat.
“Well, things went smoothly this time,” said Erin. She’d done the most damage to the boss by far yet didn’t seem to realize it. She was completely nonchalant, although she’d apparently been thinking the same thing I was. “I have to say...Sofie’s skill is really useful. Knowing everything about the enemy is great.”
“You think so?” Sofie cocked her head. “I believe you’re the amazing one, Erin. You can use any type of magic, and you never run out of mana.”
“Maybe, but you should take a compliment when you get one.”
“I wish I could’ve gotten flashy skills like yours...”
Too bad the two of them weren’t on the same page at all. Sofie was naturally negative, and Erin wasn’t familiar with the concept of humility.
“Next up is floor 23!” Neme practically cheered. This enthusiastic dwarf girl looked young, but she was actually the oldest one here. Her demeanor belied her real age, so she came across every bit as childish as she looked.
“Best get to reconnaissance, then,” Force said, folding his arms. He’d nearly been seduced away by a certain partywrecker once, but he’d since come into his own as the leader of the Arrivers.
Said certain partywrecker piped up to ask, “We got our floor 22 intel from the Labyrinth Knights, but they’re still in the middle of clearing floor 23, right?”
“According to word on the street, yeah.”
“That means they don’t have information about the boss yet, I guess...”
“True. The only party that’s cleared floor 23 is Liberation.”
There were currently four leading parties in the Puriff dungeon scene. Liberation was said to be the most knowledgeable and experienced of the lot. They’d even been in dungeons abroad before. Meanwhile, the Labyrinth Knights were the biggest party in town. I assisted their second-string team as a Mapping navigator in exchange for information from time to time. Aside from the two of them, there was also the Princess’s Legion, which was headed by the Tyrant Princess herself—Sofie’s former master, Leyfa Southerndall. And then there was us, the Arrivers.
“But we don’t have any connections with Liberation. What’ll we do?” Roslia asked.
“I can get general information about the floor from the Labyrinth Knights, but we’ll still need intel on the boss...” I bemoaned.
“Liberation’s kind of a mystery, though. They’ve been set up in town for years, but I rarely see ’em. Jin was acquainted with them, but...” Force sighed.
“They’re barely ever at their base. It’s like they’re always in the dungeon,” Erin added.
“In that case, shall we give up on getting information from them and try the floor with whatever we can learn from the Labyrinth Knights? The further we go into the dungeon, the less intel there’s going to be anyway,” our party leader suggested.
“Sounds good to me,” I agreed.
There was no guarantee that Liberation would tell us what we wanted to know in the first place, and we now had Sofie and High Appraisal on our side. It was unlikely we’d find ourselves in another deadly situation like our introduction to floor 21, so this was as good an opportunity as any to test ourselves against the unknown.
“We’ll be counting on you for the Labyrinth Knights’ intel, Note,” Force said.
“Got it.”
“Then I shall report to Princess Leyfa about floor 22,” Sofie declared.
“Oh yeah, I’d almost forgotten that was a thing.”
At present, the Arrivers had developed something of an alliance with the Princess’s Legion. We’d been at odds before, butting heads to the point of kidnapping party members and hiring assassins, but we’d since settled into a friendly relationship after our joint battle on floor 21. It was all thanks to Sofie’s years of service to Leyfa...and the Tyrant Princess mellowing out some.
“Thanks for doing that, Sofie,” I said.
I thought it’d be for the best if we stayed on Leyfa’s good side. She was one dangerous person to cross. But just as I was thinking how nice it was to finally be on friendly terms with her...
“So you’re going to see the princess?” Erin asked.
“Yes, that’s the plan,” Sofie informed her.
“Then I’ll go with you,” Erin declared.
“What for?!” I yelled in spite of myself.
The one person who could jeopardize everything we’d worked toward with the princess wanted to go see her. I didn’t know what Erin thought she was doing, but I sure wished she wouldn’t...
“Oh, I just wanted to have a little chat,” she insisted.
“Can you refrain from random acts of violence?”
“What are you talking about?! Is it really so unbelievable that I just want to go talk to someone?!”
“Well, sort of...”
Talk about an absolute lack of self-awareness. Erin would pick a fight with just about anyone.
“What exactly do you plan on saying to Princess Leyfa?” I asked.
“Leyfa? I don’t have anything to say to her.”
“Then why are you going?!”
“It’s not for her... I want to talk to your childhood friend.”
“Huh...?”
“I want to know what kind of person your first love was, and I might as well give her a piece of my mind while I’m at it.”
I was dumbstruck. I was convinced that Erin and Miya should never be allowed to meet, so I’d specifically avoided letting that happen to the best of my ability—and now here Erin was, throwing all that work out the window. Her bullheadedness was greater than I ever imagined. I almost would’ve preferred her going to see Leyfa.
“Don’t worry, Note!” she pronounced. “I’ll avenge you by beating her to a pulp!”
“That’s not what I want! If you’re really doing this for me, then don’t do it at all!”
“I get it. No matter how much you hate her, it’s hard to exact payback on people you used to have feelings for. But don’t you worry. I’m taking the initiative all on my own.”
“Could you please listen to me for once?” I nearly clutched my head, wishing someone would stop Erin for me. “Come on, Sofie, you say something too. Surely you don’t want to take this loose cannon with you either, right?”
“I hate Miya Line, so I support Erin’s decision.”
“I forgot you were anti-Miya too...”
Sofie had been expelled from Leyfa’s party after being defeated by Miya—but that didn’t mean she had to abet Erin here! I let out a heavy sigh, lamenting the tragedy that was about to take place.