Lena’s gaze sank slowly toward the floor. Her thin frame began to tremble, almost as though holding back tiny sobs.
Bete’s laughter faded, and for just a moment, he felt a sort of dried-up cynicism (along with just a tiny bit of disappointment) seep out from the corners of his tattoo. But then the feeling was gone, and the smile was back on his face, accompanied by an almost too-forced snort.
At long length, Lena looked up at him.
“Then…does that mean once I’m not a piece of fish bait anymore…I can be with you?!”
Her voice crescendoed into a full-out belly roar.
“…Wha—?!”
The orange pearls that were Lena’s eyes were glittering more violently, more radiantly than ever before. Bete, on the other hand, could only stutter in bewilderment, his mouth hanging open in a stupor.
“Yippee!! All I have to do is get stronger and then I’ve got me a first-tier adventurer as a hubby! The wife of one of the most truly coveted males in the species!! Yes, that’s it! That’s all I have to do! Everything’s going according to plan!”
“Wh-whaaaaaat?!”
“And that means I’ll get to bear Bete Loga’s children!!”
“Y-you idiot! The hell are you going on about—?!”
As Lena raised both arms in a sudden burst of exuberant triumph, Bete felt his heart cry out in agony.
—That’s not it at all, you lunatic!
This wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. No, Lena had truly punched a hole in that strategy, leaving him trembling and confused in its wake. This was, without a doubt, the strangest, most off-kilter response Bete had ever received after shooting off one of his cruel smirks.
“Stop that right now, you baby-obsessed bush leaguer! Were you even listening to me?!”
“Of course I was! And now I’m more pumped up than ever! I’m gonna get strong! The strongest you’ve ever seen! If I can just make it to Level Six, then…he-he-he…he-he-he-he-he-he…!!”
“What the hell…?!”
What in the world is wrong with this girl…?!
The nigh-unparalleled depravity behind her smile was enough to shake Bete to his very core. Lena, however, was ignoring the werewolf’s terror while pushing herself so close to him that their chests were practically touching, then gazing up at him.
Her eyes consumed him, spinning like twin orange whirlpools. S-somebody help me!
“Once I become strong, please make me Bete Loga’s—make me your wife!”
—It’s Tione! Oh god, a Tione just showed up!!
The Finn-obsessed, two-screws-loose Berserker had appeared on the scene!!
He should never have let his guard down in front of this lovesick Amazon.
Not even scorn and ridicule were enough to divert the beating, lovelorn heart of this carnivorous girl, loyal to nothing but her own instincts. No, those would have only thrown more fuel onto the fire.
“Oh yeah! And I get it now!”
Lena continued to speak, her voice like daggers plunging into the werewolf’s short-circuiting brain.
“When you call people fish bait or weaklings…those aren’t insults at all!”
“”
It was at that moment.
That time came screeching to a halt.
“They’re more like…worms on the end of a hook, you know? Like a carrot in front of a donkey!”
“…”
“Which means…you’re just trying to cheer me on! Yeah, that’s it!”
“…Like hell I am, you pinhead.”
But those were the only words he could manage to squeeze out.
Lena blissfully ignored him, skipping on ahead, almost as though she was in such high spirits that she couldn’t control her own feet.
“…”
Around them, the blue phosphorescence emanating from the walls seemed to brighten, light seeping slowly into the gloom of the normally silent cave. The derisive laughter of the strong had been replaced by the cheery chirping of a young girl, the sound echoing off the stone. The werewolf stood in stunned silence, his shadow stretching toward the wall with no one left to bare its fangs at.
Bete watched the girl leave before letting his gaze drop slowly toward his right hand.
A scene from his memories was rising up to meet him.
Of a girl who’d once told him the same thing.
“You useless roaches! Gettin’ in our way again! You think we enjoy gettin’ slowed down by all this excess baggage, huh?”
Bete had been hurling profanities that day, as well.
“Bete, calm yourself! There’s no reason to disturb the peace!”
“Oh, cram it, you old hag! You know I’m right!”
It had been two years ago, on one of Loki Familia’s expeditions.
On their way down to their target floor, they’d gotten attacked by monsters, and the lower-level members had quickly found themselves battered. This stalled them for quite some time, which was what had led to Bete’s tirade (and Riveria’s subsequent admonishment; the high elf couldn’t let his words go despite the situation).
The whole affair was enough to steal what little morale the lower-levels had left, even with Finn’s and the other elites’ mediation. Heads were drooping, tears were building, and teeth were biting hard on trembling lips. They were completely incapable of fighting back against the first-tier adventurer’s censure.
That girl, Leene Arshe, would have been with them.
“Hey, you! Dum-dum with the glasses! Why’re you here, huh? You think you’re a healer? You can’t even protect yourself! Worthless piece of shit!”
“Ngh…”
“All you fish bait should just crawl back into your hole. You don’t belong on the battlefield…and you never will!”
It was later, when the whole group had finally been able to settle down for a longer rest, that Bete had run into the human girl, Leene, in the shadow of a nearby rock. He’d chided her then, only for the girl to gaze up at him, trembling.
She’d looked him straight in the eye through those large glasses of hers, fear and hesitation all but gone.
“This is the seventh time you’ve yelled at me, Mister Bete.”
“Huh? You’ve actually been keeping track? Heh, you really are hopeless.”
“This is true. I am hopeless. Already, you’ve saved me seven times…no, much more than that.” Gathering her courage, she took his right hand—the one that had been injured protecting Leene and the other lower-levels.
Bete simply stuck out his tongue. Stupid injury. It’s what I get for involvin’ myself with weaklings, is all, he thought, cursing his own ineptitude.
But he wasn’t about to say that out loud. Instead, he prepared to lay all the blame on the “weaklings” themselves, but before he could get the words out, Leene shot him a smile, almost as though seeing through the barrier of his heart.
“I think I…finally understand. What you keep calling us…weaklings…fish bait…They aren’t insults.”
Time had stopped for Bete then, as well.
His hardened features twisting.
The tattoo on his face—his fang—distorting.
Leene’s braid shook, tears in her eyes as she turned a gallant smile toward him.
“I may be one of these weaklings, but…I can still heal you.”
“…”
“So…would it be all right if I…stayed by your side?”
A warm light formed around his hand as she spoke, already working at healing the gash on his skin.
Still, she continued to smile, gazing up at him with cheeks flushed.
“…”
How had he responded to her back then?
For some reason, Bete couldn’t seem to remember.
Maybe…maybe if he’d said something different…she and the rest of his fallen comrades wouldn’t have lost their lives deep within that cold, dark labyrinth.
“Bete Loga!”
Lena’s sharp call brought him back from the sea of his memories.
<
br /> And when he looked up, he saw a face completely different from that of the girl in his mind, but smiling back at him all the same.
“I’m gonna do my best, okay? And when I finally prove that I’m not weak anymore, you’ve gotta make me your number one, yeah? Promise!”
“…Would you shut up already…?”
But his words didn’t have the same oomph behind them as before, and Lena cocked her head curiously and started back toward him. She took his hand, giving it a gentle tug.
Bete took one look at their hands clasped together before sullenly jerking his away.
Why, you! Lena’s face conveyed her thoughts clearly, her cheeks puffed out in anger, but it didn’t last long; her lips curling back into their usual smile as she renewed her cheerful step.
How sentimental. Maybe it wouldn’t have changed anything at all. But there was a question he couldn’t push out of his mind.
It was something he should have forgotten long, long ago, but this Amazonian girl had dragged it back to the surface, and now it was expanding in his thoughts like rings on water. Gazing off at nothing and no one in particular, he went with Lena into the winding corridors of the seemingly endless Dungeon.
“So…you got any idea of somethin’ you mighta seen that looked a bit like a key?”
“Like I’ve been saying this whole damn time, I don’t know!”
It was later that day, and just around when the sun was beginning its descent toward the western horizon, Tiona was accosting one of her fellow Amazons in the city’s Central Park.
“You’re sure you don’t have aaaaaaaany idea at all? C’mon, Salami! Do your fellow Amazon a solid, would ya?”
“My name is Samira! Not some food! Now you’re just messing it up on purpose! And don’t you try that with me. Amazon or not, you know the wants of Loki Familia are of no concern to me!” shouted the cocoa-skinned Amazon with the short ashen hair, her speech decidedly masculine as she stormed off.
“Well, that could have gone better…” Tiona moaned, scratching her head at the ex–Ishtar Familia captain’s rejection.
“Any luck?…Though it looks like I don’t even need to ask.”
“Ah! Tione! How’d you do, huh?!”
“Horribly. But that’s beside the point! Damn Freya Familia assholes. Dropped by their home with a letter from the captain but couldn’t even get them to answer the door. A bunch of jerks—all of them!”
“Well, our two familias have never really gotten along…”
Finn had tasked the two sisters and the rest of their group with seeking out any information they could on the man-made labyrinth Knossos. While it made the most sense to question the former members of Ishtar Familia, they’d also hoped to make contact with Freya Familia, given how they were the ones who’d effectively wiped Ishtar Familia off the map.
Tiona and her group had come up with a grand total of nothing.
Tione, meanwhile, hadn’t fared much better, completely ignored by Freya and her cronies.
“We were supposed to rendezvous back here with Aki and everyone, but…I’m guessing the results will be pretty much the same across the board.”
“Pretty much, yeah…Huh? Ah, there’s Lefiya!” Tiona suddenly exclaimed, bringing a hand up to wave at their stock-still companions a short distance away. It was the two elves—Lefiya and Alicia—the former of whom dashed straight over upon seeing the two sisters.
But the look on her face said immediately that something was wrong.
“M-Miss Tiona! Miss Tione!”
“Huh? What’s got you all worked up?”
“It…I-it seems that Elfie and the others recently caught sight of Mister Bete…!”
“…Yeah? And what of that damn werewolf, huh?”
Just the mention of Bete’s name was enough to put the two Amazons in a sour mood. Lefiya, however, couldn’t keep the flustered tremble out of her voice as she continued.
“M-M-Mister Bete, he…he seems to have been…out walking with an A-A-A-Amazonian girl…Almost as though they were on some kind of d-d-d-date…!!”
““WHAT?!””
Tiona’s and Tione’s eyes widened with almost audible snaps.
“So he thinks he can go around chasing tail while the rest of us are bustin’ our asses, does he?!”
“WHAT DOES THAT DAMN WOLF THINK HE’S DOING?!”
The two cries of rage were enough to shake the ground where they stood.
It was simply too much—not only had all their information-gathering efforts failed, but that detestable werewolf was off chumming it up with girls.
“And after all that time ignoring Leene! That son of a!!”
…Perhaps telling these two wasn’t the best idea…Lefiya couldn’t help but think, finding the information hard to believe herself as the whole dumbstruck group watched the twins flail and rant.
For just a moment, she could have sworn she heard Leene’s ghost weeping in the air next to them, but it was just her imagination.
Around the same time that Tiona and Tione were blowing their lids…
Lena’s Dungeon date had come to a close. That didn’t mean, however, that the “date” itself was finished.
“Hey! Bete Loga! Over here! Do you think this looks good on me?”
“It looks like shit.”
“Heeeeey!”
They were in one of the small back alleys set off from the main street, Lena having posed the question while standing excitedly in front of a small accessory stand. Returning the hairpin she’d picked up to the cloak laid out across the cobblestones, she turned to Bete with a harrumph.
“Shit, shit, shit! Is everything shit to you? You’re never gonna get any girls to like you like that, you know!”
“Yeah? Great. Then maybe you’ll stop following me around.”
“Yoooooooooou!” she moaned, bouncing around in frustration.
It had been like this since they’d returned to the surface, to the point where Bete felt he didn’t have any sighs left in him to sigh. He couldn’t even find the effort for his usual ascerbic remarks.
Lena’s eyes trembled in anguish as she looked up at him, until her usual smile returned in an instant mood shift.
“Are you gonna tell me about that key already or what?”
“No way! As soon as I do, you’re gonna leave me high and dry! You will! I’ll only tell you if you stay with me aaaaaall day!” she declared before taking off down the bustling backstreet, glancing back and forth between the stalls of jewels and accessories on either side.
Bete had already gone past the point of caring. Lena may have been an Amazon, but she was also a teenage girl, so it only made sense she’d want to date like one, as well. Bete only half paid attention to her. The hell is fun about this? he silently grumbled as she picked up one item after another, eyes sparkling—“Look at this! Look at this!”—as she turned back to show him.
“You don’t like exploring the market? I thought you would.”
“Like hell I’d enjoy playing house with you, you dumb brat.”
“Cold as always, I see, Bete Loga…Ah! A florist!”
Upon leaving the backstreets, the first thing to cross their path was a small flower shop. Named “Dia Floral,” it was run by a young, free girl who’d stocked its shelves high with an assortment of colorful flowers. The human girl herself must have just come back from making a delivery. Her goddess-rivaling beauty drew all manner of adventurers’ gazes as she made her way toward the store.
Lena, meanwhile, was perusing the flowers out front thanks to an arrangement of tiny light-blue blooms that had caught her eye.
“Hey, Bete Loga!”
“What is it now?”
“Wanna hear what I like the best? And I mean something that I’d be super-pumped, super-jazzed to get as a present?”
“Nope.”
“Then I’ll tell you! There’s nothing that makes me happier than getting forget-me-nots!! They can make me fall in love with a man all over again! Wink, wink!”
Bete almost hurled.
Which was a feeling that was becoming as common as breathing for him at this point as Lena shot him an all-too-expectant glance next to him. He didn’t even have to try to look fed up—his features had already formed the expression for him.
“…Lena? And is that…Vanargand?!”
As the two of them were standing in front of the florist, a voice accosted them from behind.
Turning around, they came face-to-face with a long-haired, long-legged prostitute.
“That woman from the bar…!”
“Guh! A-Aisha?!”
“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing, Lena? Why are you fraternizing with his type?”
It was none other than Aisha Belka, one of Lena’s sisters from her former familia and the same Amazon Bete had gone toe-to-toe with in the pub the night prior. Brows raised in surprise, she quickly grabbed Lena’s arm and prepared to pull her away from the werewolf.
“W-wait, Aisha! Bete Loga and I are on a date right now! Th-this is the chance I’ve been waiting for!”
“A date? With this werewolf? Fool! Just how low have your standards dropped?! You’d do better to find yourself someone with at least an ounce of integrity!”
“I’m right here, you know…”
“Flowers are about the last thing you can expect from a man like this,” Aisha continued, still testy about the fight in the pub and not even trying to hide her disdain. She must have heard their conversation, as she threw a disgusted look in the direction of the light-blue flowers Lena had been ogling (and she certainly didn’t pay Bete’s annoyed comment any heed, either).
Lena, however, wasn’t one to give up, and she implored the woman who was as good as an older sister to her. “Pleeeeeease, Aisha! Just gimme some time! Let me pop out two kids!”
“Say that one more time.”
“I see. Like a studhorse, then?”
“Say that one more time.”
“Mm…More like a studwolf!”
“JUST TRY SAYING THAT ONE MORE TIME!”
Bete’s indignant commentary grew louder and louder as the two girls talked around him.
“So, just let it go, yeah? Pretty please? What’re you doin’ out here anyway, huh?”
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 8 Page 7
