General Pov
Twilight Manor
"We're finally done!" Loki cheered, throwing both arms up in triumph before she flopped back in her chair. Her groan of satisfaction filled the new executive chamber.
Still grinning, she let her eyes wander over the fresh walls around her. Goibniu's people started rebuilding the manor right after the raid, and yesterday morning they finished the last of it, right on schedule. The reconstruction ate a good chunk of the familia's coffers, so by any honest measure, they were nowhere near as wealthy as before, but the extended Dungeon dive more than made up for it.
They started selling everything their expedition party hauled back from the deep floors the moment they returned. It took the better part of half a week to move it, but the rare resources fetched far more than she hoped, and between the sales and the final push on the manor, the past few days were some of the most productive she could remember.
None of them spent this morning idle, either. Now that the builders handed over the keys, each of them went off on their own inspection, and Loki checked the rooms herself, walking every floor until she was satisfied that each door opened where it should and every room was accessible. As she looked across the table at Finn and Riveria, the easy set of their shoulders told her they felt the same way.
Just then, the door swung open and Gareth walked in, pulling it shut behind him with a heavy thud.
"Sorry I'm late. That armory took a while to go through," he grumbled as he dropped into his seat, though he was clearly pleased. "I checked every rack. The weapons are sufficiently stocked, and the spares are where they should be. If Evilus comes knocking again, we won't be scraping for blades."
"Good," Loki said, turning a page in the Soma Familia's latest catalog. "Riveria?"
Riveria straightened slightly. "The new defensive matrix is holding," she said, her tone crisp and approving. "It is considerably stronger than the old one. I tested each layer myself this morning."
Finn nodded along, resting his hands on the rolled blueprint in front of him. "The builders followed the last-minute adjustments I made after we came back from the Dungeon," he said with satisfaction. "I went over the layout room by room. Everything is where it needs to be."
"And every room I checked opens, closes and has a floor in it," Loki added proudly, "which is more than I can say for the last place after the raid."
That earned a snort from Gareth and a tired smile from Finn, though the smile did not last long. With the manor settled, Finn's thoughts were already moving to the next thing standing between his familia and the deep floors. The sooner they had a teleportation circle of their own, the sooner they could get back into the Dungeon and grow stronger, and the one person who could etch it still had a debt to collect from them. He folded his hands on the table and turned to their goddess.
"Did you contact Maximus about clearing our debts?"
At the name, Loki perked up from her catalog, then slumped right back into her chair with a long sigh.
"Yeah, I did," she grumbled. "But apparently he's sleeping. He'll get back to us once he wakes up."
Gareth's brows knitted together. "If the lad was sleeping, how'd ye know that?"
It was a fair question, and Loki was still a little stunned herself. That morning, she used the bracelet expecting the usual chimes and a cheerful greeting. Instead, Max came through sounding completely wrung out.
"Hey, it's Max. I'm tired, so I'll be hibernating until I recover. I'll call you back once I'm awake. Record any message you have after the beep."
She waited, confused, until a beep rang in her head a few moments later. Feeling a little silly talking to no one, she told the silence that they were ready with everything and that he should call her when he was, and then she hung up.
Remembering it now, she shook her head before she could overthink it and fry her brain. Magical artifacts weren't her expertise, and she would simply ask the kid in person when he came. Besides, the longer he took, the better it was for them, since every extra day gave the expedition team more time to rest.
Across the table, Finn turned his own bracelet over between his fingers, looking at it the way he would look at a new spear.
"There's nothing else like these bracelets, Loki," he said, a note of wonder in his voice. "It's a good thing the Guild never asked for the one they lent us back."
He spent the past few days testing them himself, and the more he used them, the clearer it became how much they would change any battle. Orders that once needed runners, flares or shouted relays across a cavern could now reach every commander in an instant, and a scout in trouble no longer had to survive the trip back just to report. He ordered more before he even finished testing, and they were still waiting on the delivery.
"I know, right? I was amazed too," Loki said, her lips curling into a foxy grin. "No idea how the kid managed to copy the Divine Mirrors from Tenkai, but I'm glad he did."
Her grin faded a little as her eyes drifted down the table. Riveria went quiet again after her report and barely heard anything. She sat in her chair, twirling the bracelet around her wrist, her eyes fixed on nothing in particular. Every time the conversation came back to Max, her mind went straight to his request and refused to leave, and the bracelet kept turning between her fingers as if it could wind the thought away.
Loki's grin crept back, wider than before. She glanced toward the door and brightened.
"Oh, hi Max!"
Riveria jolted upright in her chair and whipped her head toward the door, then around the rest of the room, her eyes wide and her whole body stiff, like a startled cat. The doorway was empty, and so was every corner she checked. Slowly, she turned back to find Loki resting her chin on her hand, grinning from ear to ear, while Gareth coughed into his fist and Finn pressed his lips together very firmly.
"Something wrong, Riveria?" Loki asked innocently.
Riveria's cheeks went red. "N-no. Nothing is wrong," she stammered, and dropped her gaze back to the table.
Loki didn't believe her for a second, and from the glance Finn and Gareth traded, neither they did. All of them knew exactly what was eating at her. Loki sighed and leaned forward on her elbows.
"Look, you won't get pregnant just because someone touches your ears," she said, as gently as she could manage. "Your mother must have scared you."
Riveria knew that. She stopped being a child a very long time ago, and she had no business entertaining such a ludicrous notion. Yet the scare her mother planted in her as a little girl clung to her all the same, refusing to leave her alone no matter how much reason she threw at it, and when she lifted her eyes to her goddess, her lip trembled.
Watching her, Loki softened. Guess everyone has their own untouchable topics, she thought. And Max went and touched exactly that one. Poor mama…
Then the thought finished forming, and her eyes lit up.
Oh, RIGHT! If she gets pregnant, I can call her Mama Riveria, and she can't bonk me for it!
Finn caught the mischievous glint creeping across Loki's face and didn't like it one bit. He kept his expression unchanged as he silently hoped she wasn't about to do something stupid.
Beside him, Gareth saw it too. The dwarf shifted in his seat and held his breath, hoping exactly the same.
Loki smoothed the mischief off her face, put on her most solemn expression, and reached across the table to lay a hand over Riveria's.
"If you do get pregnant," she said gravely, "I'll make him and Freya take responsibility for the child. I'll make sure he pays a hefty price, too. The complete transfer of earnings from every business he owns. Freya blessing your entire family, and Max personally taking all of them up to the First-Class ranks. I'll even go to Ouranos myself to facilitate the marriage—"
Bonk. Riveria's staff came down on top of her head from across the table before Loki could finish.
"This is serious, Loki!" Riveria snapped, her ears burning red. "My royal father would come for me immediately, and every elf in the world would become even more suffocating than they already are. And my mother would go on forever about safe practices!"
"That'd be fun to watch," Loki said offhandedly, still rubbing her head.
Bonk. The staff came down again, and this time Loki said nothing more, quietly nursing her head.
Through all of it, Gareth kept his face carefully blank. He faced Balor with less hesitation than he felt now, and he knew better than to wade into anything involving a High Elf's ears and her royal family.
Finn reached the same conclusion a good deal faster and suddenly found the reports in front of him very interesting.
With nobody willing to touch the subject again, the chamber settled into low murmurs as Loki sulked over her catalog and Finn sorted through his papers. Riveria didn't join in. Gareth watched her fingers tighten around her staff, again and again, until her knuckles went white against the wood, and he couldn't take it any longer. He cleared his throat.
"What of the room we set aside for the teleportation circle?" he asked gruffly. "Are we ready to propose it to the lad when he comes?"
Riveria looked up, glad to finally be asked about something she was best at. She stood beside 'Max' while he etched Astraea's circle, and the day after, she studied Ganesha's for herself.
"I have arranged the space," she began, her voice steady again. "The new manor's design allows for large-scale deployments, and the room was built specifically with teleportation in mind. I also etched the magic circle I saw at Lord Ganesha's and Lady Astraea's, and adjusted the patterns to fit our familia in a side room." She paused, a small crease forming between her brows. "I will have to confirm whether it works once he etches the real one in the designated room."
Finn nodded. "We should also propose an executive circle, so the executives can move quickly across the city and the Dungeon." He looked to Loki. "What updates do we have from the Guild and the gods we asked for access?"
Loki perked up at once, happy to talk about anything that wouldn't get her bonked.
"Freya rejected access to Folkvangr, obviously," she said, rolling her eyes. "She thinks it's a disaster in the making if our familias can teleport into each other's homes. But she did give us access to the external circle at their Rivira base." She ticked the rest off on her fingers.
"Ganesha readily agreed to the two-way plan, along with access to all their bases in case of an emergency. Astraea agreed to two-way access in times of emergency, and the Guild agreed to open all circles during emergencies." She tapped her chin. "As far as I know, those are all the places the Guild approved for teleportation so far. That's one more thing we have to confirm with him."
Saying it out loud brought the question right back to the front of her mind. How the hell is that kid walking around as a Guild Representative? she wondered, her eyes narrowing slightly. And what leverage does he have on that pig to go unchecked like this?
Finn nodded slowly as he weighed it up. "That would be the best outcome we could ask for." He glanced down at the bracelet on his wrist, and a small smile crossed his face. "Let's hope Maximus doesn't keep us waiting too long."
Around the table, everyone agreed, though Riveria's nod came a beat later than the rest.
-◈ -
Max
He groaned as the world slowly came back to him. He rolled over in his bed and stretched, arching his back until his spine popped, unwilling to open his eyes just yet. Still half asleep, he reached to his right for Kairu, found something soft resting on the edge of the mattress and gave it a gentle pat. When a sleepy hum answered him, his muddled mind wondered when Kairu learned to hum.
Then he frowned. Kairu didn't hum. "Kairu?" he called.
Ki!
The answer came from his left, and Max went still, his hand frozen mid-pat. If Kairu was on his left, then what was he patting on his right?
He pried his eyes open, squinting against the light spilling through the window, and found Freya sitting in the armchair beside his bed. Her back was straight and her hands were folded in her lap, as if she was sitting like that the whole time, but his hand still hung in the air right where her head was a moment ago. It took his brain a second to put the two together, and when it did, he snatched his hand back to his chest.
"Freya?" His voice cracked with sleep and surprise. "What are you doing here?"
Freya covered a slow yawn with her hand and rubbed her eyes. "Oh, Max. I came to check if you were awake," she said, her voice thick with sleep. "It has been more than a day since you fell asleep, and it was cozy, so I continued my own sleep."
She said it as though dozing off at his bedside were the most natural thing in the world, and Max had no idea what to make of it. Then he noticed the faint crease of his bedsheet still pressed into her cheek, and he had to bite back a smirk. So the Goddess was slacking off too.
But the rest of her words were sinking in, and the smirk faded as they did.
"More than a day?" He pushed himself up on his elbows, the blanket sliding off his shoulders, and stared at her. "Has it really been that long?"
Freya's lips curved at the look on his face. "More than 36 hours, to be precise. It is the afternoon of the second day."
Max turned his head to the clock on the wall. Afternoon, it said, and he counted back. He fell asleep on Wednesday night. If she was right, today was Friday, and all of Thursday came and went without him. He dropped back onto the pillow and dragged both hands down his face with a groan. He was waiting on Loki's invite to finally touch Riveria's ears, and for all he knew, it came and went while he was dead to the world. What if they've been waiting this whole time? What if they think I was insulting them? Just thinking about it made him impatient.
The mattress dipped beside him, and a moment later, Kairu bounced onto his chest, his core glowing bright.
Master is awake! the slime chirped through the bond. Lady was here for a few hours, since Kairu woke up. And Kairu repaired Lady's necklace!
He puffed himself up as big as he could and wobbled in place on Max's chest, waiting for praise.
A few hours. Max glanced at Freya, and the teasing thought from a moment ago went quiet. After the way her voice broke two nights ago, he could guess why she sat there that long. She was making sure I'd actually wake up.
Max lowered his hands from his face and looked over at the necklace resting at Freya's collar. The silver chain hummed with power, and when he focused on it, he could see every enchantment woven into it restored, including the shields that cracked the night his Destruction ran wild. A grin spread across his face as he reached up and patted Kairu's head. Nice work, buddy. That's perfect. Kairu glowed even brighter under his palm.
Freya followed his gaze down to the pendant and brushed it with her fingertips, a fond smile on her lips. "Did he tell you?"
Max nodded and smiled back at her.
A day and a half, though, he thought. That fight in my head must've drained me way more than I expected. Kairu was in there with him, so Max glanced down at the slime still perched on his chest.
How long were you up?
Kairu was up before Master, Kairu answered proudly.
Max waited for him to be more precise. Kairu jiggled in place, thinking it over, and after a moment, he tried again.
Since the yellow ball came up?
Max took that to mean since morning and nodded. So Kairu slept through most of the same stretch, which made him feel a little better. But the thought of Loki's invite kept nagging at him, so he reached for the call log in the back of his mind. He found it full, and seeing it brought back how he set it up in the first place.
After he laid out his plan for Riveria, he asked Freya to pick a good disguise for the visit to Loki's and told her she could come as his secretary. She said she would think it over and left. The moment the door shut behind her, the night caught up with him. He dragged himself into the shower and stood under the hot water until the Dungeon's grime ran off him and swirled down the drain, and by the time he stepped out, his legs felt like lead.
He still had a promise to keep, so he sat on the edge of the bed with his hair dripping onto his shoulders and got to work. He rewrote the first of his Simple Protocols, the one that used to run Auto-Evade. Giving it up stung, but he linked it to Freya instead, so the moment he broke his self-imposed ban, she would get a ping. He turned the second into a receiver that would log every call he missed and record any message left after a beep. Then he handed his two complex protocols back to Rimuru and Gojo, the two Kairu duplicates that carried them, and gave each of them their tasks. By the time the pair left the room, he could barely keep his eyes open, and the moment his head hit the pillow, he was lost to the world.
That receiver was what he opened now, and he went through the log one call at a time.
Ganesha called several times. The guy was harassing him from the moment he got his bracelet, and judging by the length of the recorded messages, Max's silence did not deter him in the slightest. The flamboyant deity spent the better part of each message sharing his 'wisdom' on mask designs and how best to attract the masses, which was ironic, considering Itachi's whole shtick was avoiding attention.
Further down, Hephaestus called too. Max tensed for a second, then saw Rimuru already dealt with her, and he let out a breath of relief. Below that sat a few reports from Gojo, who was out on his errand out of Orario.
Loki's call came last. Max played her message and heard her say that they were ready with everything and that he should call her when he was. Her voice had the halting rhythm of someone not quite sure who she was talking to, and the corner of his mouth twitched. At least the feature worked. More importantly, the invite was still waiting for him, and the knot of worry in his chest finally loosened.
Freya was still watching him from the armchair with that same small smile, and it reminded him of the last thing he asked her before she left. He turned his head on the pillow to look at her. "So, did you pick a disguise?"
Freya nodded, and her eyes lit up as she leaned forward in the armchair. "A black dress," she began, "with a white apron over it, and a lace band for my hair—"
Max's face fell further with every word. By the time she reached the frilled cuffs, there was no mistaking it. She chose a maid's attire.
A sudden image of another silver-haired woman with the same tendencies flashed through Max's mind, and he sighed. He lifted Kairu off his chest and set him on the bed, then sat up against the headboard and faced her.
"Freya, I told you, you can come as my secretary," he groaned, rubbing his temple. "Why did you think a maid was the choice?"
Freya's smile only grew, as if she was waiting for him to ask exactly that. "I was thinking about the suitable role for what's to come," she explained, her voice bright with self-satisfaction. "Being a maid allows me to act decisively with no one objecting. I can inspect and be suspicious of everything they do as much as I like." She wiggled her eyebrows and leaned closer, as though waiting for a pat on the head.
"No, no." Max shook his head before she could get any further. "I don't want to be known as the weird guy with a personal maid, and I don't want you acting as my maid either. Personal assistant is fine if you think secretary is too much."
He held out his hand toward Kairu. The slime jiggled for a moment, pulled a folded set of clothes from his storage and placed it in Max's palm. He picked them up a few days ago, just in case, and he passed the bundle across to her.
"These should suit you better and carry over that elegant look well," he told her, a hint of pride creeping into his voice. "Once I'm ready, we'll make a few more adjustments as needed and be on our way."
Freya took the bundle and unfolded it across her lap. A deep green gown spilled out first, followed by a cream wrap meant to tie in a bow across the chest, a pair of long gloves and a small gold flower pin. She held the gown up against the light from the window, turning it one way and then the other, and the eager look on her face slowly gave way to something more thoughtful.
There was still the matter of her name. Freya went first, offering Gwen, Hilda, Bretta, Sigrid and Astrid, until Max realized most of them led straight back to Norse myths and shook his head hard, warning her that if she could think of them, Loki could connect the dots.
He countered with names from his own world instead, Viola, Vivi, Margarette, Esdeath, Robin, Gabriel, Susan, Catherine, Juvia, Irene and plenty more, and in the end, they settled on Robin, a name that could pass for someone from Orario. Freya agreed, though her eyes narrowed at how easily he rattled off so many women's names.
With that decided, Max swung his legs off the bed and left her to change. Kairu hopped onto his shoulder as he went. He washed up first and splashed cold water on his face until the last of the sleep left him. Then his stomach growled loud enough to remind him he had missed a whole day of meals, so he headed down to the kitchens and ate until his stomach stopped complaining. Back upstairs, he changed into his casual attire and ran his fingers through his hair until it looked less like he had slept for a day and a half.
When he stepped back into his room, Freya was waiting for him in the green gown. The cream wrap sat tied in a neat bow across her chest, the gloves reached up past her elbows, and she had already slid the golden flower pin into her silver hair. As he came in, she lifted her chin a fraction and waited for his verdict.
Max looked her over and nodded, satisfied. The cut suited her the way he expected it would, and even in borrowed clothes, she carried herself like she owned the room.
"It looks good," he admitted with a small grin. "Now hold still. This is the first layer."
He stepped closer and raised his hand, and his magic washed over her in a slow wave. Her silver hair darkened strand by strand until it settled into a warm brown, and her silver eyes shifted to a deep red. The necklace at her throat faded from sight along with them, and the features every god in Orario would recognize at a glance softened into a face that could have belonged to anyone.
Freya lifted a lock of her new hair and studied it between her fingers. "Interesting," she murmured.
Max stepped back and frowned at his own work. The illusion held, but he could feel his magic humming inside it, and someone like Riveria would feel it too if she looked hard enough.
"Kairu," he called, glancing down at the slime. "Your turn."
Perched on Max's shoulder, Kairu let a small duplicate detach from him, and it leapt onto Freya's shoulder. Once there, it stretched itself thin and spread over her from the crown of her head to her feet, until it merged into her skin and vanished. Max felt his own magic go quiet as the duplicate took over holding the illusion. He already knew Kairu's film could hide a god's divinity, since it fooled the Dungeon when he took Loki down to the 36th floor.
Kairu's duplicate has Lady, the slime announced proudly through the bond.
Max relayed that to Freya, and her eyebrows rose. She flexed her gloved fingers, then touched her cheek, as if checking whether anything was there at all.
"And my words?" she asked.
Max opened his mouth to answer, then froze. Oh, shit. That's right. Gods couldn't read each other's speech, just like they couldn't read his. If Freya's words came out the same way they always did, Loki would hear a "mortal" assistant who gave off nothing, and the whole disguise would crumble the moment she said hello. Oh boy. What do I do now?
He racked his brain, and his mind supplied Rimuru's meeting with Hephaestus. The smith goddess listened to him that whole time without so much as a strange look, nothing like the puzzled faces Astraea and Freya gave Max when they first heard him speak. Rimuru was running on one of Kairu's duplicates. The duplicate must've acted as an extension of him and neutralized that hollowness. And if it could do that for Rimuru, it could do the same for Freya.
The only way to know for sure was to test it, and Max sighed. He wasn't happy about winging something this important on a hunch. But he couldn't think of a better chance to test it than right now. He promised she could come with him, and he was not about to break a promise to her, especially not now.
"They should sound like any mortal's to Loki," he said, a little more confident than he felt. "Which also means she'll hear every lie you tell, so no lying. Not once. I'll introduce you."
"How restrictive," Freya mused, though a slow smile curved her lips, as if she was already counting how many true things she could say to Loki's face.
"I mean it," Max warned, narrowing his eyes at that smile. "Don't push your luck."
The smile she gave him in return told him she fully intended to push it.
[CENTER]-◈ -[/CENTER]
General Pov
Twilight Manor
Alone, Loki was reaching for a bottle of the Soma Familia's newest vintage when a familiar ping rang in her head.
Finally! Half of her started to wonder whether the kid forgot about the request. But his timing is terrible. Why couldn't he call a little later, after I had the first taste? She set the bottle down with a regretful sigh, yet a smirk crept across her face all the same. Well. Time for the show to begin.
She called her executives back into the chamber, and they filed in one by one. Riveria came last and took her place by her chair without sitting down. Once they were settled, Loki told Max to come over and channeled her will into the bracelet to set the beacon. A moment later, a crimson circle bloomed in the middle of the executive chamber, and as its light faded, two figures took shape inside it.
Loki narrowed her eyes. Her gaze slid past Max and settled on his companion. The woman carried herself like someone used to every eye in a room turning toward her, and for one long second, Loki thought Freya came in person after all. It would not have surprised her. Even Loki could see what the kid was worth, and Freya was not the type to let someone like him walk into her familia home unattended. Then the light cleared, and she found an unfamiliar mop of brown hair, a pair of red eyes and a face that could have belonged to anyone. She let out a quiet breath of relief, though she decided to stay cautious all the same.
"Yo, Max!" she greeted with a wave. "Welcome to the new Twilight Manor."
Max waved back as he walked toward them, Kairu perched on his shoulder. "Loki! Been a while, huh," he said, a little sheepish, though his eyes flicked to Riveria before he could control.
Loki didn't care much for small talk, and she understood he was eager to get on with what he came for, but there were pleasantries to uphold.
"Yeah, it has," she said, then tilted her chin at the woman beside him. "Who's your companion?"
Behind her, her executives looked Max over, as if measuring how much stronger he grew since they last saw him.
"Oh, right." Max gestured to her. "This is my assistant, Robin. Robin, this is Lady Loki, and the Loki Familia's executives, Mr. Finn, Ms. Riveria and Mr. Gareth."
Robin, being the respectful mai— assistant she was, gave each of them a graceful bow.
Loki watched the bow a moment longer than she needed to. It was perfect, a little too perfect for someone's assistant, and something in her gut stirred.
"Fancy," Loki drawled. "Since when do you have an assistant?"
Robin opened her mouth to answer, but Max laid a hand on her shoulder before she could, and she closed it again.
"It's a new perk for being an executive," he said with an innocent smile.
The room froze. Riveria stopped churning her staff like butter. Finn looked up so fast that the ache in his thumb throbbed. Gareth nearly slid off the wall he was leaning on. And Loki, halfway through a smart quip, forgot the rest of it and just stared at him with her mouth wide open.
"WHAT?" Loki shrieked after a moment.
That was when Robin finally chimed in. "Master Max was made an executive after his promotion to Level 4," she said modestly, though none of them could miss the smug smirk tugging at her lips.
Max barely kept himself from wincing. Master. She really called me Master. So much for not acting like a maid.
Loki's mind was still catching up to her own shriek. Beside her, Finn was already doing the math. A Level 4 who joined just a month ago, and already an executive of the Freya Familia. His thumb throbbed harder.
Before anyone could voice a single question, Max's calm voice cut through the room. "We can talk about all of that once I'm done," he said, a hint of impatience slipping into his tone. "Shouldn't we get started?"
Riveria jolted at the words, and Loki gave a grave nod.
"Before you begin, tell me something," Loki said, her eyes narrowing. "Did you get Freya's permission for this? I don't want her going crazy when she finds out you snuck in here to touch my girl."
Robin answered before Max could even open his mouth. "Lady Freya is aware." She lowered her gaze, as if the weight of it pressed on her personally. "Though the cost Master Max had to pay was steep."
Loki listened closely and heard nothing but truth. She gave a curt nod. Whatever Freya made the kid pay was their internal matter, and she had no interest in the specifics.
"Alright, then. We'll leave you to it," Loki said, pushing herself up from her chair with a wave of her hand.
Finn gathered his blueprint and hopped down from his seat, and Gareth peeled himself off the wall with a grunt. As they turned toward the door, Robin glanced at Max, and he gave her a small nod, assuming she meant to follow them out.
They were almost at the door when a sharp yelp cut through the room.
Riveria never heard her coming. Every bit of her attention was on Max, bracing herself for what was about to happen, and she never noticed the assistant slip away from the others and circle behind her. One moment, she was standing beside her chair. The next, a pair of gloved hands closed around both of her ears from behind. A jolt shot through her from the tips of her ears down to her feet, and the yelp escaped before she could stop. A stranger's hands were on her ears, without so much as a word of warning. Her whole body locked up, her staff trembling in her grip, and she could not move. She felt a faint trace of magic in those gloves, so thin she could barely sense it, but before she could hold on, her panic swallowed it.
Loki spun at the sound. Beside her, Gareth already had his axe raised toward Robin, and Finn's blueprint hit the floor as his spear came up, leveled at Max, the only one in the room who could actually threaten them.
While Robin stood behind Riveria, holding both of her ears between her gloved fingers as gingerly as if they were explosives about to go off, while Riveria stood frozen in front of her with her eyes wide and her face burning red.
Loki's jaw dropped. Did that girl just…? No assistant in Orario would dare something like that in another familia's home, and the feeling she pushed aside earlier came back twice as strong.
Max stared, just as stunned as the rest of them. Back in his room, after she agreed to come along, he teased her half-jokingly that she should touch them herself and then tell him whether they were worth the favor he gave up. She went quiet at that, and he thought that was the end of it. He never imagined she would actually be that daring. Somewhere beneath the shock, a small part of him mourned. She got there first.
Finding every eye in the room on her, Robin's smile turned a little nervous, though she did not let go.
"I am here to keep Master Max safe," she said resolutely. "I was only making sure everything was in order."
Loki listened closely and heard no lie in it, which somehow made it worse.
Robin released Riveria's ears a moment later than she needed to, smoothed the front of her gloves, and walked past Loki's group toward the door with her chin held high, as if nothing happened. Finn and Gareth slowly lowered their weapons and traded a look. Max gave them an apologetic nod, and with obvious reluctance, they followed her out. Loki was the last to go. She paused at the threshold and glanced back at Riveria, who did not move, then pulled the door shut behind her.
The click echoed through the chamber.
Max turned to Riveria. She was squeezing her staff with both hands, and her ears were still pink from Robin's grip. Now that it was just the two of them, his heart was hammering in his chest, and he took a slow breath before he spoke.
"Ms. Riveria, I apologize for Robin's behavior," he said, keeping his voice low. "Please don't hold it against her. Relax. I'll be gentle."
He walked toward her one slow step at a time.
Every step he took brought her mother's old warnings back to the front of Riveria's mind, and her grip on the staff tightened with each one. She knew they were nonsense. She told herself so all morning. Yet when he came within arm's reach, her instincts flared before her reason could stop, and she shoved the staff against his chest with all of her first-class strength.
Max didn't budge an inch, but he stopped. He raised both hands where she could see them, and waited.
Riveria stared at the floor, breathing hard, the staff still pressed against his chest. He stopped. She did not expect that. The debt was owed, and she agreed to pay it, yet here he stood, giving her the choice anyway. Somehow, that made it harder to refuse. She drew a long breath, lowered the staff and squeezed her eyes shut.
"…Proceed," she managed.
Max lifted his hands again, slowly enough that she could have stopped him at any moment. As his fingers neared, Riveria went rigid and still, and he could feel the heat coming off her ears before he reached them. Then his fingers touched them.
They were warm, and softer than anything he imagined, and the tip of one twitched beneath his fingertip. Riveria's ears flushed red all the way to the tips while she stood stiff as a board, her eyes shut tight and her hands locked around her staff. Max barely dared to breathe. Every elf he ever admired through a screen in his old life, every page and every episode, led to this moment, and his eyes stung.
"They're…" he whispered, his voice trembling, "…divine."
--> Devil in a Dungeon <--
AN:
There we have to folks! The cultural milestone is finally achieved! WOOOHOOOO!!
The chapter covered much more from both sides and this is just the beginning and in the next chapter, Max will activate his next plan, haha. How's Robin? Did you like her?? ;)
I know the finale wasn't grand, but I just thought that word summarises his feeling at the moment the best. Next chap will have the detailed spiritual voyage, haha.
In addition to that, do share how you felt the chapter was. Was it good or did you feel it was a bit forced? Please share your feedback/suggestions on how to improve the story in a comment/review.
If you'd like to read 13 chapters ahead(around 65k words), support my work, check character images for free, read a free chapter(Ch 51.5), or commission a story idea, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m/b3smash
Please note that the chapters are early access only, they will be eventually released here as well.
Next update will be on Saturday. I was unwell and so didn't update.
Ben, Out.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.