All of a sudden, he jerked forward.
“My…! My friends, are they—?!” he started. However, the moment he pressed his hand down on the bed to rise, his elbow crumpled.
His wounded, fatigued body was still incapable of sudden movement, no matter what he intended, and he ended up pitching forward.
Aiz reacted instinctively as she watched the boy fall.
Coming forward with her arms outstretched, she caught him with a cushiony bwoof!
“…”
“…”
Aiz’s hands were on Bell’s shoulders. His face, on the other hand, had settled quite comfortably between Aiz’s breasts.
His mouth, his nose, his eyes—everything was enveloped by her chest and silver armor.
They made for a lovely shock absorber, and there was no way it could have hurt. Yet for some reason, Bell remained completely frozen there.
Did he bump his nose?
She sat there worrying at the white mop that was the back of his head until he shot away from her with a mighty jolt.
“I’m so sorry!!”
He launched himself so far away his back traced an uncanny curve while his face adopted the color of a ripened apple.
In fact, he flew so far that his head collided neatly with the floor, which Aiz had tried to warn him about, but she had been a bit too late. Pain shot through the boy’s body, and he writhed with an inaudible scream.
Aiz became so flustered that she couldn’t respond at all as Bell doubled over with his hands clutching at his stomach, until—
“—Ah. Welf.”
The boy’s rubellite eyes suddenly noticed his companion lying next to him.
Fighting through the pain, he managed to push himself up into a sitting position to inspect the human boy and prum girl still sleeping soundly, as he’d been doing only a few moments ago. When he saw they were alive and well, he let his muscles relax and dropped back to the floor.
“They’ll be all right…Riveria and the others healed them,” Aiz explained as she scooted toward the relieved boy. “His injuries were bad, but…you got really hurt, too…” she added, peering at the smith boy’s leg before reaching a sympathetic hand toward Bell’s forehead.
Her fingers gently combed his white bangs, stroking his forehead through a bandage of gauze like a sister caring for her younger brother.
The touch of her slender fingers produced a brilliant flush on Bell’s face.
Aiz cocked her head curiously.
“Are you all right?”
Which only served to redden his face further as the blush spread to his ears and neck.
As strange as she found this reaction, however, she didn’t stop.
“Th-thank you…for saving me…really…” Bell stuttered, finally managing to pull himself away from Aiz’s touch.
“Of course.” She shook her head, saying, There’s no need to thank me in her heart as a tiny smile formed on her lips. The boy almost looked a little embarrassed.
The two simply stared at each other for a few moments before Aiz gently turned to face the tent’s entrance.
“Do you think you can move now?”
“I…I think…so…”
“I’m supposed to report to Finn…I mean, to our captain, about your condition. Do you think you could come with me?”
Bell nodded in response, and Aiz rose to her feet. Her thoughts still lingering on the boy’s injuries, she extended a hand to help him walk.
“I-I’m fine!” he stammered, pulling his hand away. He wasn’t about to let himself turn any redder than he already had.
While the boy rose to his feet unassisted, Aiz found herself frozen to the spot, hand still outstretched.
I…I touched him too much, didn’t I…?
His forehead. His bangs.
Maybe he didn’t like it?
Regret colored her thoughts as she recalled the way her hand had moved almost involuntarily toward the fur of that tiny rabbit. She couldn’t help but think of her own patron deity, Loki, and the way she constantly flung herself at Aiz and Tiona while denying any ulterior motives. “This ain’t sexual harassment!”
Her shoulders dropped with a tangible gloominess.
“I-it’s not what you think, Miss Aiz. I…It’s like a man’s sense of honor? I-I mean…” Bell began furtively, stumbling over his words, but he was ultimately unable to finish due to the pain.
In the end, he could get to his feet on his own, and the two of them made their way through the exit to the camp outside.
“Whoa…” Bell seemed a bit in awe as he took in the sight of Loki Familia’s base camp.
Tent after tent was interspersed with a multitude of cargo and supplies. Aiz felt a smile form on her lips as she watched him look around in curious excitement…though at the same time, the other members of Loki Familia scrutinized him with suspicious unease.
The gazes aimed their way were pointed, almost accusatory.
“…?”
Is something wrong? Aiz thought to herself, finding all of this incredibly strange as, next to her, the target of those glares began to pale.
The beautiful top-tier adventurer had no idea that she—along with her heroic, unfaltering service for the boy—could have anything to do with this unwelcoming atmosphere.
“What?! Little Argonaut is here?!”
Tiona’s voice arose with a clamor from a small corner of the camp.
“A-Argonaut…?” Lefiya faltered, shocked by Tiona’s sudden shout. She’d been in the middle of explaining the current situation—and Bell Cranell’s presence in the camp—to the two Amazonian sisters.
It was already “noontime” in the Dungeon.
Since yesterday, the two Amazons had busied themselves caring for their poison-afflicted companions while also gathering food and water for the group. Just now, however, they’d left to exterminate a swarm of monsters a short distance from camp, and while they had previously heard about the battered trio of adventurers found near the floor’s exit, they’d yet to learn the full story.
Normally, they received the news from Aiz, but the swordswoman had been holed up in a tent with the adventurers ever since Riveria and the others had finished their healing procedures. Someone needed to watch over them, after all, and as the white-haired boy was an acquaintance of Aiz’s, she seemed like the best one for the job—Riveria’s recommendation had also contributed greatly, as the high elf had noticed Aiz’s complete inability to settle down after the boy’s arrival.
“Y’hear that, Tione? Little Argonaut! The Little Argonaut! Can you believe he’s already made it this far? That fight of his was, like, yesterday!”
“Do you have to keep shouting like that? I heard the first time! And what’s with that stupid nickname you’ve given him…?”
“Hee-hee-hee, from the fairy tale, silly! Fits him perfectly, don’tcha think?” Tiona grinned wide, her cheeks flushed.
Tione, however, looked exasperated. “You’re a moron.”
The younger of the two sisters began flailing around with her giant double-bladed sword, Urga, eliciting a startled look of confusion from Lefiya and an ever-so-fleeting smile from Tione.
“True, though…It really does get your blood pumping just knowing he’s here,” the older girl mused as a truly Amazonian grin of excitement crept across her face.
“Where’s he at anyway, huh, Lefiya? Where’s our Little Argonaut?”
“Seems he’s in some kind of meeting with the captain…” Lefiya explained somewhat sullenly.
Tiona, in direct contrast, let out an exuberant “Let’s go see him when he’s done!”
Bidding farewell to Lefiya, the twins returned to their tent to store their weapons.
“First Miss Aiz…now Miss Tiona and Miss Tione, too…?” Lefiya grumbled, her lips turned downward in a disgruntled pout. The excitement around this boy never seemed to end, and now he’d even forced his way right into their camp…
It almost felt as if she’d had her beloved older sis
ters stolen right out from under her.
Puffing up her cheeks, she resumed attending to the camp duties she’d been assigned.
“Who in the world do you think that white-haired human is, huh, Mister Raul?”
“Yeah, to have Miss Aiz looking after him personally like that…He must be an upper-class adventurer, yeah? But I’ve never seen or heard of him!”
“How am I supposed to know? Guys, relax already, geez…”
From Lefiya’s point of view, it didn’t seem as if the rest of the camp was taking the boy’s presence too kindly, either. Most of the men who had collected around Raul, for instance, seemed especially moody.
“And what was he thinkin’, bringing people from other familias here, yeah?” The complaints continued, creating a spiteful air over the camp. Everyone except Tsubaki and her smiths seemed no happier about that young Hephaistos Familia smith than they were about the white-haired human.
“White-haired brat!” “Stealing our Miss Aiz…!” “He makes me so mad!” “She’s never taken care of any of us like that…!” “He doesn’t know a damn thing!” “Our beautiful Sword Princess is supposed to watch over us from the sidelines!”
One after another, they announced their opinions with no subtlety.
Though they normally kept a vague distance between themselves and the gorgeous, otherworldly swordswoman as a sign of humility, they held nothing but admiration and respect for their golden-haired, golden-eyed Sword Princess.
Surrounded by all the negativity directed at the mysterious white rabbit, Lefiya took the opportunity to ask everyone exactly how they felt.
“What about you all? How do you feel about the situation?” she asked, questioning the other girls tasked with cooking duty.
Aki, Narfi, and Leene exchanged looks with one another as they bustled about the crates of supplies, chopping mushrooms and herbs, and boiled the water they’d collected from the pool for the soup.
“Well, I mean, they’re adventurers, too, right? So we kinda have to help ’em, yeah?” Aki laid her thoughts out before Narfi continued.
“Imagine how guilty we would feel if we simply abandoned them there.”
The two Level-4, second-tier adventurers exchanged wry smiles.
“And that one boy seems to be a friend of Miss Aiz’s…” Leene, this time, adjusted her glasses nervously. She’d been given a break from her healing duties and was currently helping the others cook.
Hearing this, Lefiya couldn’t help the pout that formed on her lips.
“Though I do find it odd…” Leene continued.
“Odd?”
“I would have thought that Mister Raul would feel the same as the other men…” She glanced toward a circle of lower-level adventurers a short distance away, a sullen Raul at the center of the ring of grievances.
“Well, Raul…maybe you could say that he has a lot of life experience. It’s more like he doesn’t have the time to be bothering with stuff like that,” Narfi added somewhat sardonically as she smirked at the young man a few years her senior, who was being overwhelmed by the onslaught of his peers (“Stop it, guuuys…”).
“…Raul and I joined around the same time.” Aki glanced up from stirring the big pot of soup over the fire. “By the time we did, that girl…Aiz was already a Level Two.”
“Y-you mean that rumor? Of her breaking the record for fastest level-up at the age of eight?”
“Indeed. That tiny little girl…or should I say toddler? She could move like the wind, mincing monsters in the blink of an eye with her sword.” Aki half chuckled into the soup as her wooden spoon stirred it around and around. Leene, too, nodded as though remembering the spectacle herself.
“Now, Raul—that scared the crap outta him. Started calling her ‘Miss Aiz.’ Can you imagine? I mean, sure, I respected her, too, but I just didn’t see the sort of ‘idol’ Loki always made her out to be. So I just watched her…as she got bigger and bigger.”
Aki examined her companion, who was still flailing his arms wearily in the middle of the circle.
“Aiz was a monster back then. Much more so than now…Even I can see the difference.”
Narfi, Leene, and Lefiya, none of whom had been in the familia as long as Aki, gave tiny gulps. They knew the current Aiz well enough already.
“So it’ll be fine, Lefiya.”
“Huh?”
“Since you, Tiona, and Tione joined the familia, Aiz has mellowed out quite a bit. She actually smiles now.”
It had been three years, now, since Lefiya had joined Loki Familia.
By the time Lefiya, a Level-2 honors student fresh out of the Education District, had passed through the gate to Twilight Manor, Aiz already had Tiona and Tione to pull her out of her shell.
She didn’t need to worry, and she didn’t need to be jealous, either—that was what the catgirl adventurer was trying to tell her with a grin. And when Lefiya realized she’d been read like a book, her face began to heat up like an oven.
She promptly launched herself into her work to hide her shame, peeling fruit to throw into the pot as Narfi and Leene giggled discreetly.
R-right! Aiz and the rest of us have a deep bond! One that no random stranger can just push his way into!
Lefiya’s mood brightened considerably after Aki’s reassurance, a smile rising to her face as she continued her cooking duties.
The smile, however, gradually morphed the longer she peeled.
But didn’t Miss Aiz say that boy was only a Level 1 before the expedition…? A complete nobody from an unknown familia?
The boy’s face flashed through her head, as well as the complete disgrace he’d made of himself running away from her in the streets of Orario.
How on earth had he made it all the way here to the eighteenth floor in such a short period of time…?
It was true he’d received special training from Aiz the same as she had, but…
She couldn’t hold in the multitude of feelings flooding her mind as she thought of that boy she’d so one-sidedly deemed her rival.
Eventually, the group of girls finished preparing dinner.
Lefiya was strolling about the camp in hopes of helping out with another set of duties, when she caught a glimpse of Aiz emerging from the main tent.
She brightened instantly…until she saw that white-haired boy exit behind her. In response, she quickly assumed an air of disinterest. He looked nervous, the distrusting gazes of everyone in camp leading him to stick to Aiz’s back like glue, much like a frightened rabbit.
Try as she might to act like nothing was wrong, the more Lefiya looked at them, the more her insides churned.
Watching other familia members toss out greetings in Aiz’s direction, she abruptly changed her own course, cutting a beeline toward the pair.
“—Thank you for all your hard work, Miss Aiz!”
“Same to you, Lefiya.”
She passed by Aiz with a smile—before her path took her right by the boy at her rear.
Her pleasant demeanor vanished in an instant as she directed an intense glare at him.
“Eek!” The mage’s menacing expression drew a tiny squeak from the boy.
His face paled in fear.
Her azure eyes met his rubellite ones as her elegant eyes pierced him, slender elven ears twitching.
Their fated meeting by the city walls, their grand game of cat and mouse.
The boy’s face quivered as though he did, indeed, remember her—the beautiful fairy who’d hounded him through the city streets.
If you do anything, anything to Miss Aiz, you’ll regret the day you were born…!
Wh-whaaaaaa…?!
The silent, vehement exchange passed between them without a word.
In that single moment, that single glance, she communicated everything she wanted to say.
And then it was over, Lefiya continuing her walk and leaving the boy drenched in a cold, trembling sweat. Her warning properly conveyed, she gave a slight harrumph before moving on.
Still huffing and puffing, she glanced back once she was a good distance away to see the boy still practically latched onto Aiz’s backside.
She was observing him as well as making sure he wouldn’t do anything untoward.
And she continued to do so, checking in on them again and again as she went about her work, the same as her equally disobliging companions.
As she intensely focused on that sight in her peripheral vision—
“Ha-ha! It really is Little Argonaut!”
—a bright, cheery voice rang out.
It was none other than Tiona, wearing a grand smile.
She dashed over toward Aiz and Bell, who were currently engaged in some sort of conversation, shortly followed by her sister, Tione.
“I’d heard you got lugged into camp, but I didn’t realize you were awake! Great!”
Her booming voice could be heard all throughout camp, and her pure joy was perceptible to everyone. Bell, however, found himself immediately flustered by the euphoric girl headed straight toward him. Lefiya, too, felt her mood instantly plummet as she watched.
It seemed they were going to introduce themselves to the boy, the oh-so-naive and innocent Tiona and her seemingly interested sister, Tione.
But the sight of the twin beauties rushing toward him, bantering with him, only made the boy’s face redden like a tomato.
Their robust tanned skin, their exposed bellies, their slender hips, and perky chests—he was being seduced by the fearsome bodies of the Amazons!
With Aiz in the mix, currently cocking her head to the side curiously, it made for three beautiful women, all there waiting on him hand and foot.
Lefiya had just warned him about this!!
Don’t get carried away.
Don’t get so damn carried away.
Don’t get soooooo carried away!
PLEASE DON’T GET CARRIED AWAAAAAAAAAY…!!
The words repeated themselves like a spell in Lefiya’s soul, her resentment matching those of the nearby male demi-humans.
All around her those malicious stares gathered on the sight like a murderous barrage aimed at a dragon.
The boy must have felt it, turning white as a sheet beneath the withering glares of Lefiya and her male companions.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 5 Page 7
