"Finn! We're coming in!"
Just as Loki, Finn, and the others were discussing how to handle the situation regarding Leon, the office door was suddenly pushed open with great force.
Outside the door, several figures filed into the room, instantly doubling the room's population density.
Looking at these uninvited guests who barged in so casually without even knocking, Riveria let out a startled exclamation.
"Ais, Tiona, Tione, Lefiya—why are you all here?"
Indeed, the newcomers were three executives of the Familia along with Riveria's handpicked successor.
Walking at the very front were the Amazon twins, looking as if they were cast from the same mold. The one who had just forced the door open and led the intrusion without any hesitation was Tiona.
"Captain!"
Tione followed right behind Tiona. The moment she entered, all her attention fixed upon the Pallum leader. Her eyes practically turned into hearts as she lunged forward, looking exactly like a maiden in spring catching sight of her beloved.
"—Sorry."
Ais walked at the rear. Seeing Riveria looking at her with a face full of surprise, she apologized almost automatically.
"S-Sorry, Lady Riveria. We've overstepped by coming uninvited."
Lefiya closely followed Ais. In front of her mentor, who was also the princess of their race, she appeared incredibly nervous, bowing and apologizing repeatedly.
The arrival of the four young maidens instantly loosened the serious atmosphere in the office, dispelling the previous oppression.
"You little girls, what are you doing running over here all of a sudden?"
Gareth looked at the young women with an exasperated expression. He seemed to be scolding them for being so chaotic, but there was virtually no real blame in his tone.
"Hehehe, Ais-tan, did you miss me? Is that why you came all this way to spend a long and lonely night with me?"
Loki laughed in a thoroughly distasteful manner, rubbing her hands together as if she were about to pounce on Ais and thoroughly fondle that delicate body.
"No."
Ais denied Loki's claim without a shred of hesitation. Her completely expressionless face gave Loki an involuntary shiver.
Although the girl showed no emotion at all, Loki's intuition told her that Ais had already covertly taken up a defensive stance.
If she dared to pounce, what awaited her would surely be an iron fist powerful enough to instantly silence a Large-class monster.
Consequently, Loki's eyes cleared up, and she instantly behaved herself.
"Stop messing around, Tione."
On the other side, Finn was fending off the advancing Tione, keeping her head firmly pressed away with his hand to prevent her from hugging him.
Unfortunately, his arms were too short. Though Tione couldn't pull him into her embrace, she still managed to clasp her arms around him, a blissful expression surfacing on the Amazon girl's face.
"A-As expected of the Captain. Even though I used all my strength, I was still held back. Truly, the Captain is the most masculine man of all!"
Tione made absolutely no effort to conceal her affection for the Pallum captain. Her fanatical display caused even Finn's lips to twitch slightly, seemingly pushed to his limits.
"I say, Tione, that's about enough, isn't it? Can't you see you're troubling Finn?"
As Tione's sister, Tiona really couldn't stand her sibling's obsessed behavior any longer and couldn't help but sigh, burying her face in her hand.
"What do you know? As an Amazon, one should pursue love bravely. Otherwise, what's the point of being an Amazon?"
Tione not only rejected her sister's advice but stated this as if it were the most natural law in the world.
And yet, it truly left one with no room for rebuttal.
After all, the so-called Amazons were exactly that kind of race. They loved combat, they loved strong men, and once they set their eyes on a man, they would not hesitate to use force to drag him back. Furthermore, they went straight to the point, immediately preparing to bear children. Their direct and uninhibited style of conduct was known to everyone in the Lower World.
Tione was considered well-behaved; at least she hadn't resorted to physical coercion yet. Tiona was so innocent and romantic that she didn't look like an Amazon at all, resembling an un-grown human girl instead. Had it been any other Amazon, she would probably be considering whether to drug her beloved by now.
This unbridled style gave the nearby Lefiya quite a shock, her face flushing crimson in an instant.
Compared to the free-spirited Amazons, Elves were the true conservatives, each one of them incredibly pure. Even when falling in love, they had to start by working up the courage to hold hands. Lunging straight onto a man to profess love like this—
It was simply too stimulating for a pure and flawless Elven maiden.
Only Ais remained like an Outworlder from beginning to end, standing there quietly, yet her presence was by no means faint.
The girl merely needed to stand there to naturally become the focal point of the room. Even with an Elven royal, rumored to be more beautiful than a goddess, present, she could not be overshadowed; one simply could not ignore her existence.
"Alright, speak up. Why did you all come over together?"
Riveria took over Gareth's inquiry, returning to the main subject.
The one who answered this question was none other than Tiona.
"It's all because of Loki."
The Amazon girl pointed at the main god who had sat on the office desk at some unknown point, speaking thus.
"Huh?" Loki blinked, pointing at her own nose. "What does it have to do with me?"
"How does it not have to do with you?" Tiona said with her hands on her hips. "If you hadn't suddenly started shouting and screaming in the manor just now, how could we have been drawn over here?"
"And it's not just us. Everyone in the Familia is outside discussing it right now, wondering if you're throwing another drunken tantrum, Loki."
"The few of us were pushed forward as representatives to come and see what exactly is going on."
Hearing Tiona's explanation, Loki was startled into an afterthought.
Indeed, because of Leon, she had been so excited just now that she entirely forgot to restrain herself. She had run all the way here while screaming at the top of her lungs; how could she not alarm the members of the Familia?
By now, the entire Familia headquarters must have become quite lively, right?
Thinking of this, Loki couldn't help but slap her own forehead.
"My bad, my bad. It really is my fault. I'll go out right now to soothe everyone."
Saying this, Loki jumped down from the desk and ran out of the office without looking back. Her hurried manner clearly showed she was worried that the commotion caused within the Familia might escalate and eventually become unmanageable.
"Gareth, you go out for a bit too."
Finn spoke to the dwarf warrior sitting in the corner while still fending off Tione's relentless advances.
"Since such a commotion has been caused, it's not quite appropriate for the leader of the Familia not to step forward and soothe them. Go show your face and find a reason to gloss over this matter."
Hearing this, Gareth nodded and walked straight out of the office, departing from the room.
"S-So—what exactly happened?"
Seeing that both their main god and one of the Familia leaders had left, Lefiya timidly raised her hand and asked a question, drawing the girls' gazes to focus on Finn and Riveria.
"—Should we tell them?"
Riveria hesitated slightly, turning to Finn to seek his opinion.
"Tell them." Finn remained very calm and composed, speaking with a smile. "We've already decided to announce it anyway. Even if we don't say it now, they will find out tomorrow."
Riveria thought about it and finally nodded, agreeing with Finn's statement.
"So it really wasn't Loki throwing a drunken tantrum? Something big actually happened?"
Tiona was filled with curiosity, nearly pressing her face right up to Finn and Riveria.
Ais also looked toward Riveria. Her face bore no emotion, but her eyes were brimming with curiosity, proving that the girl was not entirely uninterested in this matter.
Looking at Ais like this, Riveria could already foresee how much of a shock the news she was about to deliver would bring to this young girl.
Riveria could only let out a sigh and, in a businesslike manner, state the truth of the matter.
"Actually, it's about Leon."
Riveria's words caused all the girls to freeze.
"Leon?"
Ais was the first to look stunned.
"Him?"
Lefiya was also somewhat bewildered.
"Oh ho, so it's related to the wild man Ais brought back."
Tiona and Tione, on the other hand, displayed intensely interested expressions.
Then, they heard the following sentence.
"He leveled up." Riveria closed one eye and said, "Just now, he officially advanced to Level 2."
The moment these words were spoken, the entire room fell dead silent.
"Wh—"
The bewilderment on Lefiya's face turned into utter shock.
"Level 2?"
The interested expressions on Tiona and Tione's faces instantly transformed into astonishment as well.
Ais looked as if she had heard something completely inconceivable. Her eyes widened slightly, and for the first time, a clear shift in expression appeared on her face, which usually lacked emotional variance.
""Eeeeeeeh—!""
A few seconds later, Tiona and Lefiya cried out in unison, their voices filled with absolute disbelief.
"Leon is Level 2? That's impossible!"
Tiona's exclamation almost rivaled the volume of Loki's earlier shouting in the corridor.
"Th-That's impossible, right?" Lefiya even covered her small mouth, completely unable to believe the news she had just heard, speaking in utter consternation, "H-How could he possibly level up to Level 2 right now?"
Indeed, how could he possibly level up to Level 2 right now?
Clearly, not long ago, he had only just received the Grace of the Gods and become a Level 1 novice adventurer.
Whether it was Ais, Tiona, Tione, or Lefiya, they had all been paying a great deal of attention to Leon.
Therefore, they remembered very clearly that the time since Leon became an adventurer and received the Grace of the Gods had not even reached a single month.
"To be more precise, it has been twenty-seven days." Finn tapped the desk, speaking calmly as if he could read the thoughts of the girls at this moment. "On the morning twenty-seven days ago, he met with us right here. At that time, he had just come out of Loki's divine chamber, and he had possessed the Grace for less than half an hour."
No one failed to understand what these words meant or what they were reminding everyone of.
Finn was telling them that Leon had indeed used less than a month to rise from a body that had just received the Grace to Level 2.
In an instant, Tiona was lost in bewilderment, Lefiya was struck dumb, and even Tione, who had been attempting to pounce on Finn, stopped her movements, falling into an unspeakable silence.
As for Ais, she stood there blankly, with only one phrase echoing in her mind.
"Twenty-seven days—"
This was simply a terrifying number capable of causing a tsunami in the Lower World.
Ais still remembered what a massive uproar the people around her had made when she took a year to level up to Level 2.
Her companions in the Familia were cheering, the people in the city were marveling, and even people from outside the city would occasionally come here to express their admiration for the time it took her to reach Level 2, saying she was the fastest person to reach Level 2 in history, a record-breaking genius.
Although Ais didn't care much about these things, she also understood just how incredible it was to be able to reach Level 2 in a year's time.
One only needed to compare her with the sisters Tiona and Tione to know.
Due to their background, Tiona and Tione had the Grace carved onto their backs from the moment they were born, and the two eventually rose to Level 2 together at the age of five.
Ais, on the other hand, received the Grace at the age of seven and rose to Level 2 at the age of eight, making her a full three years older than Tiona and Tione when she became Level 2.
Yet now, Ais and the twin Amazon sisters were all exactly sixteen years old, completely of the same age. As a result, Ais, who had become Level 2 three years later than them, was now just like them, a Level 5 first-tier adventurer.
From this, it was evident that in terms of personal potential and growth speed, Ais was considerably better than Tiona and Tione.
And Tiona and Tione, who could become Level 2 at the age of five and were now Level 5 first-tier adventurers, possessed a personal potential that was obviously higher than ordinary adventurers by an unknown degree.
Compared to them, Ais was even more exceptional, showing that this blonde-haired, golden-eyed girl was among the very best even among geniuses.
The feat of her taking only a year to reach Level 2 was still talked about with great relish, a record for the world's fastest level-up that no one had been able to break even after eight years.
But now, this record had been violently shattered by someone using a timespan that could only be described as a dream.
Twenty-seven days!
In a mere twenty-seven days, Leon had risen to Level 2!
How—how was this possible?
"—The Captain shouldn't be making this kind of joke."
Tione spoke in a controlled tone, but her shaken manner made it clear that her inner self had not entirely calmed down yet.
"Can someone really achieve a level-up in less than a month?"
Tiona's eyes were wide and round, her making-a-fuss manner no better than Loki's.
"That person—how could—"
Lefiya's pointed ears twitched as she murmured to herself, still looking as if she didn't quite dare to believe it.
Ais did not speak at all, remaining silent the entire time.
"We are already prepared to report to the Guild." Riveria cast a worried glance at Ais, speaking thus. "Tomorrow, this matter should completely spread out."
"As core figures of the Familia, remember to keep an eye on Leon."
"He will attract a lot of attention next."
Riveria's voice fell away, but it no longer elicited a reaction from the girls.
The young women merely pondered over matters in silence, their countenances incredibly complex.
This night was destined to leave many people unable to sleep.
In particular, a certain blonde-haired, golden-eyed girl would likely remain awake the entire night.
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