And with that, the transfer of power was all left behind them.
Leaving the Pantheon, sunlight still poured down upon the streets.
On the way back, in high spirits, the Holy Emperor's steps were much lighter than they'd been on the way there.
She no longer had to bear the shell of being a nation's symbol, nor stay on guard every moment against those politicians lurking in the shadows.
Here, she was just a girl.
A girl who now had a teacher and a goal—who could even, now and then, curiously steal a few extra glances at the peculiar spices and exotic trinkets the roadside vendors were hawking.
Watching the Holy Emperor beside him wear, for once, an expression befitting a girl her age, Haimer too felt a smile rise at the corner of his mouth.
"Kami-sama."
The Holy Emperor suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned her head, a radiance shimmering in her clear eyes.
The sunlight fell upon her white dress, setting off her whole figure until she looked almost translucent.
"Once I've learned to control my magic, once I can truly bring out the power of 『Gensokyo』…"
The Holy Emperor bit her lip and worked up the courage to look straight into Haimer's eyes.
"From now on, no matter how grave the wounds everyone suffers, no matter how dangerous the place—"
"I'll bring them all back safe and sound!"
"This is my promise to you."
Haimer stopped walking, raised his hand, and brushed the pad of his finger across the soft hair at the Holy Emperor's temple.
"I'll remember that." "But you mustn't forget—there's no such thing in this world as making the horse run without letting it graze."
There was a teasing note in Haimer's voice, and his fingertip flicked the tip of her nose in passing.
"I've already found you your mentor; how far you can learn from here, and how much suffering you'll endure, is all up to you."
"I understand, Kami-sama." The Holy Emperor nodded hard, her gaze resolute.
The two of them walked on.
And then—the Twilight Manor. When Haimer led the Holy Emperor by the hand back into the luxurious mansion, the irritability that had hung in the air had already quieted considerably. His gaze swept across the scene.
Amou Kirukiru was sprawled spread-eagle across the shattered bluestone floor.
Her body was covered in ghastly bruises of black and purple, the joint of her left shoulder twisted at a bizarre angle, with a few loops of coarse, blood-soaked bandages wrapped haphazardly around her.
It seemed that even with an unreasonable skill like 『Battle Frenzy』, the squeezing of the flesh had, in the end, its physical limits.
After launching one suicidal charge after another at the Lv.5 Tione,
her body had finally been utterly drained, and she'd passed out cold right in the midst of the slugfest.
Beside her, Ais was crouched down.
In her hand was a soaked towel, with which she earnestly wiped away the dried blood on Amou Kirukiru's forehead.
Ais's eyes were fixed on Amou Kirukiru, who even in her stupor would now and then bare her teeth and grind them. A complicated light flickered in the depths of her gaze.
That kind of madness—willing to grind one's very life to pieces and pour it in for the sake of growing stronger—stirred a powerful resonance in Ais.
She herself had clawed her way through the darkness along just such a road.
On the other side—by comparison—Tione sat sprawled with no dignity at all amid a heap of rubble on the floor.
Although she'd taken no fatal, serious wounds, both of her arms were already swollen red across a wide area.
To be able, by her own strength alone, to drive one of the proud Lv.5 Amazon twin sisters to such a state of exhaustion—
Amou Kirukiru's real combat lethality needed no words at all to prove.
At this moment, though, Tione was busy gesticulating instructions at Onigawara Rin and Nomura Satori, who stood not far off.
"When you put power into it, sink your hips down! You blade-users, stop always trying to twist everything from the wrist! With an unstable base, swing at a rock and the blade'll go flying right out of your hands!"
Hearing this, Onigawara Rin and Nomura Satori gripped their blades and listened quite earnestly.
As Haimer drew near with the Holy Emperor, Loki was the first to come rushing up before him.
"So you've finally deigned to come back, you bastard!" Loki pointed at Amou Kirukiru, who lay unconscious on the floor. "Take a look! Just take a look!"
"This girl of your Familia is an absolute monster! My place here has been thoroughly wrecked into ruins!"
Loki planted her hands on her hips, grumbling her complaint. But since Haimer knew Loki all too well—
"So what's your point?" Haimer, somewhat at a loss, stopped his steps and met Loki's gaze.
"So, whatever the case—since my place has been turned into such a mess by your people, today's business won't be settled without a proper feast!"
"After all, I happen to know you've been raking in a windfall these past few days—you even shook down Ganesha for a hefty sum."
"So tonight, it's The Hostess of Fertility as usual—your treat, no objections?"
"Want a feast?" Watching Loki's money-grubbing little display, Haimer curved the corner of his mouth into a faint smile.
"For the sake of how devotedly you lent out your grounds today—one meal, I'll cover it." "Hooray!"
Loki immediately cheered, turning her head to holler at everyone else.
"Listen up, everyone! Tonight we're going to The Hostess of Fertility to eat our fill! Someone else is footing the bill! Order whatever you want—don't go saving this guy any money!"
Sitting on the floor, Tione's expression softened just a little, too.
Listening off to the side, Finn came forward with a wry smile as well.
"We were the ones who volunteered to spar and instruct, yet Lady Loki is still making Lord Haimer go to the expense of treating us—I really do apologize."
"It's a trifle; one's got to eat regardless." Haimer dealt with Finn in a few simple words.
Then he turned his head and shot a glance at Loki, who was still gesturing animatedly beside him. "Come to think of it,"
"I saw your eyeballs rolling around just now—the abacus in your head must've been clacking away like crazy."
"You're not just scheming over this meal, are you—but over what comes after it?"
"Heh heh, well, about that~ I really can't hide a single thing from you, can I, old friend."
At these words of Haimer's, Loki gave a couple of dry 'heh heh' laughs—and far from feeling embarrassed, she rubbed her hands together and leaned in even closer.
Her gaze slid past Haimer to fall directly upon the Holy Emperor standing behind him.
In that look there was an almost drooling eagerness. "Here's the thing,"
"Haimer, look—we're on such close terms, hundreds of millions of years of friendship back in the Heavens. We know each other inside and out."
Loki raised a hand, cleared her throat, and lowered her voice—though the excitement in her tone simply couldn't be suppressed.
"That magic effect this child of yours used just now—I saw it with my own eyes too!"
"Even split-open flesh can scab over in a flash."
"It's a good ten times more potent than those sky-priced medicines that old antique Dian Cecht sells!" With that, Loki threw an arm around Haimer's shoulders, adopting a bargaining tone.
"Our Loki Familia is planning to mount a second expedition before long, pushing straight for the Deep Levels. So, you think you could… cut us a little slack, here?"
"Lend us your Holy Emperor to use with our party for a while? Don't you worry!" she said,
and Loki patted her flat chest, swearing up and down in guarantee.
"All she has to do is stay in the middle of the party—she won't have to do a thing! The officers of our First Corps will keep her surrounded airtight; absolutely safe!"
"And of the drop items and ultra-high-purity Magic Stones we bring in, we'll cut your Familia thirty percent right off the top! Not a drop of it watered down—how about it?"
Any patron deity of a Familia with the ambition to gnaw at the hard bone of the Dungeon's Deep Levels would, after witnessing the Holy Emperor's wide-area healing magic, go mad with envy.
A healer of this caliber, in the Deep Levels where the margin for error was minuscule and the monsters absurdly ferocious, was practically equivalent to granting the entire expedition party a second life, or even a third!
"I knew you were lying in wait for me here." Hearing this, Haimer slapped away the hand Loki had draped over his shoulder and brushed off his clothes.
Loki, for her part, rubbed the back of her hand and looked at Haimer with pleading eyes.
"Lending you the person is fine. But I have one condition."
"What condition? Name it, anything! Materials? Money? I'll scrape together every last bit for you, even if I have to sell the pots and pans!" Loki thumped her chest.
"I want my children—all of them—to go along." "Nani?!!"
The moment these words came out, not only was Loki stunned—even Finn, who had been standing to the side maintaining his smile this whole time, couldn't help his expression stiffening. "All of them?"
Loki's eyes went wide, her voice cracking. "Haimer, you're not joking, are you?"
"You have to understand—our target this expedition is the Deep Levels!"
"The monsters down there—pick any one of them at random, let it so much as graze you, and a Lv.2 frame would just shatter like a biscuit!"
"Sure, these children of yours have absurdly high base stats, and punching above their level is as easy as eating for them. But when it comes down to it, they've only just reached Lv.2!"
For once, Loki put away her usual cheeky grin and turned deadly serious.
"You want to send these few Lv.2s into the Deep Levels right now—how is that any different from just tossing them straight into the monsters' jaws to die?"
Finn stepped forward as well, echoing her in a grave tone.
"Lady Loki is right, Lord Haimer. In the Deep Levels, even simply protecting ourselves demands the full effort of our First Corps."
"If we also had to split our attention to protect too many personnel below Lv.4, the whole battle formation would collapse entirely from being unable to cover everything at once."
As the 'Braver' who commanded the whole, Finn had naturally considered things more thoroughly than Loki.
Haimer listened to the two of them lay out their analysis, and was in no hurry to explain himself.
"On that point, you really needn't worry." Haimer looked at Finn. "I won't let my children go throwing their lives away so easily."
"Of course, Captain Finn, as commander you have your concerns, and I won't make things difficult for you either."
"Let's do this." Haimer paused, then tossed out a proposal.
"If it really comes to it, then before the expedition sets out, just let my Familia hold a formal match against your Loki Familia's Second Corps."
"If they can't even beat your Second Corps, then I won't breathe another word about sending them to the Deep Levels."
"But if they win, then all of them go down to the Deep Levels with you. And you won't need to spare a single hand to protect them—their lives in the hands of fate. How about it?"
It wasn't that Haimer genuinely wanted Amou Kirukiru and the others to go and die. This too was a consideration he'd had on the way here. After all—just as Amou Kirukiru had said, the Dungeon's Middle Levels could no longer satisfy their appetites.
Hearing this, Finn's mind raced at high speed.
The Loki Familia's expedition party was composed of the First Corps and the Second Corps. The First Corps was responsible for forging the path; the Second Corps, for supply.
Though the Second Corps wasn't as terrifying as the First, its members were all genuine, rock-solid Lv.5 and Lv.4 elites.
To pit a group of newcomers who'd reached Lv.2 only days ago against Lv.4 veterans who'd spent years slaughtering on the front lines—the odds of victory were nearly zero. But… what if they really could win?
From his observations, the strength of this group of girls from the Haimer Familia was plainly not at the level of ordinary Lv.2s—more like Lv.3, and even, as Amou Kirukiru had shown when taking on Tione, already possessing the strength to keep pace with a Lv.5 for short bursts.
Which meant their actual combat power had indeed, just barely, brushed against the minimum threshold for Deep-Level exploration.
Add in the Holy Emperor's unreasonable magic, and they were genuinely worth bringing along.
Finn knit his brow tightly and pondered for a moment. "If Lord Haimer has gone so far as to put it that way,"
"then I can make the call: so long as Lord Haimer's children truly pass the Second Corps' test, we'll bring all of them along."
Finn raised his head. "And when does Lord Haimer think would be a good time for the match?"
"That depends on when you plan to set off on the expedition." "About a week or so, I'd say." Loki stroked her chin, counting out the days.
"And that's thanks to you, too." Loki broke into a grin.
"Normally, if those Deep-Level drops and ores were handed off to someone else to process and sell, plus all the odds and ends like weapon maintenance, we'd have to wait at least a month or more just to refit our gear."
"But you went and reforged and upgraded all of Finn's and the others' weapons in a single night."
"So we just need to restock some consumable potions and rations—a week is plenty for us to be fully ready to move out."
"Then it's settled." Haimer made the final call. "One week from now, a match before departure."
"It's a deal!" Finn nodded as well; after all, it was the most prudent way to handle things for the moment.
"All right, since the serious business is done, you all head to tonight's banquet yourselves—I'd like to get my side cleaned up first. Where's your Familia's bath?"
From the unceasing fighting, the girls' bodies had long since been covered in sweat and dust.
Not to mention Amou Kirukiru, still lying on the floor, whose clothes were basically battle-trashed.
Haimer gave a wave of his hand and turned to walk toward his own Familia, still resting at the edge of the training ground. "Come on, let's go take a bath first."
Haimer clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention over.
And so—inside the great bathhouse of the Twilight Manor.
The Twilight Manor's great bathhouse had been built in the first place to accommodate the bathing of a vast Familia returning from expeditions, and so it was enormous.
Steam curled and heat rose. A faint scent of aromatic incense and body wash drifted through the air.
The broad pool was crystal-clear to the bottom, warm water continuously gushing from the mouths of lion-head stone carvings with a splashing, babbling sound.
"Phew—I'm alive again." Kikakujou Mary leaned against the pool wall of white jade and let out a coquettish sigh of relief.
She tipped her head back, her long golden hair, soaked through, clinging to her slender, fair back.
Her already full, proud bosom, under the water's buoyancy, looked all the more on the verge of spilling forth; droplets slid down the cleavage into the water below, raising a ring of fine ripples.
"Don't just laze about soaking—hurry up and wash the grime off yourself."
Onigawara Rin sat on a little stool to the side, a scrubbing cloth in hand, vigorously wiping away the grime of battle from her arms.
After the high-intensity sparring, her muscles looked all the more taut; the water sluicing over her flat, utterly trim belly left behind a glistening, lustrous sheen.
In the very center of the bath, Amou Kirukiru had, at some unknown point, woken up.
She wasn't leaning obediently against the pool's edge; instead, she lay half-reclined right in the water, letting the hot water rise over her neck.
The bruises and swelling on her body were slowly healing on their own, having already faded considerably.
But that body—brimming with explosive power and a streamlined, wild beauty—was still covered all over with shallow traces of battle.
"By the way, what are we eating tonight?" Hiruko Kohina, pressing the little rubber duck Tiona had given her earlier up and down across the water's surface, asked with her big eyes wide open.
"Kami-sama said we're going to The Hostess of Fertility for a feast! Meat! I want to eat lots and lots of meat!"
Aihara Enju thrashed about excitedly in the water, slapping at its surface with both hands and splashing water all over Hanasaka Warabi's face beside her.
"You little brat who never grows up! Can't you behave for once?!"
Hanasaka Warabi wiped her face in a flustered fury and stood up, making to pinch Aihara Enju's cheek.
The sweet laughter of girls in the bloom of youth echoed through the spacious bath.
The Holy Emperor sat at the very edge, watching the scene of everyone romping about, and a smile rose unbidden to her face.
She reached out, sinking her hand into the warm water. Looking at her own reflection beneath the surface, the Holy Emperor quietly told herself in her heart—
Everything was different now, and she secretly clenched her hand beneath the water.
Once she had, under Fels, thoroughly mastered the true essence of channeling magic and unearthed her own potential, she would no longer be someone who could only cower and tremble in the rear, but would truly become her comrades' most solid shield.
Meanwhile—just as the Holy Emperor was immersed in her hopes for the future—
With a crisp sound of sliding rails, the heavy frosted-glass door at the bath's entrance was pushed open.
"Pardon the intrusion."
With that maturely charming greeting, the ladies of the Loki Familia filed in one after another.
Walking at the very front was none other than the Loki Familia's vice-captain, the 'Nine Hell,' Riveria Lios Alf.
Since Haimer had indicated they'd celebrate properly tonight, Riveria had decided to wash herself clean.
It was just that—when Riveria shed the mage's long robe and heavy mantle that always wrapped her up so tightly, truly baring to the air this delicate high-elf body refined by the passage of years—
the originally boisterous noise throughout the entire bath instead came, in that instant, to a brief halt.
Because whether it was the girls of the Haimer Familia or the maidens of the Loki Familia following behind, every gaze at this moment fell, unbidden, upon Riveria.
The elven race was already renowned for slender frames and well-proportioned figures. But Riveria's figure had clearly far surpassed the somewhat unripe slightness of ordinary elves.
Riveria trod across the wet, anti-slip tiles. With every step, those slender, jade-like legs—kept hidden year-round beneath her long boots—flexed in alternation.
Following the line upward along her flat, firm belly without an ounce of excess flesh, one arrived at a bust ample enough to leave the vast majority of elves feeling defeated.
Even Kikakujou Mary, well used to the assets of her own body, couldn't help privately comparing as she looked at Riveria's contours just then.
After all, it wasn't simply a matter of size, but rather like a fully ripened peach, exuding a truly mature allure.
Amid the curling steam, a few transparent droplets slid quietly down her emerald-green strands of hair to land in that full, snow-white cleavage, then slipped all the way down along the lines of her midriff and vanished beneath the water's surface.
Riveria seemed entirely indifferent to these riveted stares.
Composed as ever, she walked to the pool's edge, tested the water temperature, then stepped in with her long legs, letting the hot water creep bit by bit over her waist and hips, and let out a faint, soothing sigh.
Coming in close behind Riveria were Ais and Lefiya, along with Tione and Tiona.
"Ahh—this water temperature is just perfect!" Tiona, not caring in the least about her flat chest, plunged straight into the water with a 'sploosh,' boyishly, splashing up a great spray.
Tione, meanwhile, rubbed her arms—swollen red across a wide area from her earlier slugfest with Amou Kirukiru—and slid slowly into the water grimacing and baring her teeth, her eyes flicking now and then toward Amou Kirukiru, who was resting with her eyes closed on the other side.
Just as everyone had found their own spots and was getting ready to enjoy this rare mixed-bathing time,
Lefiya, however, hugged her arms over her chest and leaned somewhat stiffly against the edge of a white-jade carved pillar, gazing around rather cautiously; after surveying a full circle through the mist— "Eh?" "Where's Lady Loki?"
Then Lefiya went briefly blank, and her gaze searched the broad bath once over, unwilling to give up.
In the end she didn't even spare the backs of the few wooden buckets used for holding towels. At these words, Tione and Tiona couldn't help going blank as well.
Indeed. By all rights, Loki—who loved nothing more than getting handsy with pretty girls whenever she had nothing better to do—facing the present spectacle of a poolful of beauties of every figure, slender and full alike, in boundless springtime splendor, would absolutely never let slip such a prime opportunity to cop a feel.
What's more, this was a mixed bath of gorgeous girls from two Familias. For Loki, it was nothing short of a dreamed-of paradise. Even if she got smacked for it, she'd surely have shoved her way in with a brazen face.
"No idea—just now outside she was talking about making Lord Haimer treat us to a meal at The Hostess of Fertility, and then I stopped paying attention to her."
Tiona scratched her head, casting her mind back. On the other side, upon hearing Lefiya's question,
Ais, who was seated on a wooden stool by the pool cupping hot water in both hands to pour over her shoulders, paused her movements as well.
Her long golden hair, soaked with water, clung tightly to her smooth back, setting off the exceedingly well-developed curves of her maidenly figure.
"Loki, she… It seems just now at the doorway she got grabbed by the back of the neck from behind by Lord Haimer and hauled off in one go."
Ais turned her head, tilted it slightly, and plainly recounted the scene she'd witnessed at the doorway a moment ago.
Loki had been hollering 'A chance for a real eyeful~,' only for Haimer, at a loss beside her, to reach out and seize her in one grab.
At these words of Ais's, the women of the Loki Familia all suddenly understood. Tione, especially, burst out laughing without the slightest restraint.
"Ha! Who'd have thought Lord Haimer could actually rein in Loki's old chronic affliction of always acting up!"
At these words of Ais's, Riveria's tensed shoulders slowly relaxed as well. After all, from the moment she'd come in, Riveria had already been prepared to boot her own unseemly patron deity out at any moment.
After all, elves had always held strict notions of chastity, and even though they were both women, she still couldn't tolerate Loki's behavior.
But with Haimer stepping in to deal with this nuisance, it really did save her quite a bit of trouble.
____
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