"Mmm…"
Ryuu Lion stepped out of her room with dark circles under her eyes.
Last night, she'd been thinking about the Dark Faction, thinking about what gift she should give Cid, and she ended up sleeping terribly.
Ryuu knew her condition was bad. She also knew she shouldn't have let herself spiral into restless overthinking.
But knowing something and actually doing it were two completely different things.
It was like how a struggling web novelist knows staying up late is bad for their health—yet procrastination still drags them past midnight anyway.
And after a whole night of poor sleep, Ryuu still hadn't decided on a gift.
Just like that doomed writer who stays up until three in the morning and squeezes out four hundred words.
"No. I have to pull myself together."
Ryuu patted her cheeks.
Today's workload was heavy—not only did she need to keep patrolling seriously, she also had to use whatever gaps she could find to finally decide what to give Cid.
With Orario's safety on her shoulders and her comrades' feelings at stake, she had no business looking this haggard.
"Ah…"
Cid walked out of his own room, looking just as drained.
With the same kind of dark circles around his eyes, anyone who didn't know better might've assumed he was matching Ryuu on purpose.
"Cid… you didn't sleep well either?"
Ryuu was surprised at first—then decided it made sense.
She was sad about Cid leaving. If Cid was the one leaving, he had to be hurting too, didn't he?
If he weren't truly unable to keep up with everyone—if he weren't being crushed inside—he wouldn't want to leave the Astraea Familia.
Ryuu couldn't even imagine what kind of pain someone had to go through before deciding to leave a place like this.
Was Cid suffering that much?
The thought made Ryuu's chest ache.
And with that, she had a faint sense of what kind of gift she should give him.
"You didn't sleep well either? I'm fine, but you should rest properly, Ryuu."
Cid glanced at her, clearly not understanding why she looked so awful.
Alise had barely let him sleep last night.
He seriously couldn't understand why she had that many things to complain about.
Was she under that much pressure?
And what had Ryuu been through? She looked even worse than he did.
"Mm. I'll be careful. Tonight, Cid…"
Ryuu's voice grew smaller and smaller.
The gift she had in mind was… unique.
So unique that she couldn't bring herself to say it out loud.
"Tonight? I'll look forward to it."
Cid hadn't caught what she mumbled at the end, but once she mentioned "tonight," he could guess.
Alise had already told him about the farewell gathering.
After circulating his magic through his body once, Cid returned to his usual state.
With an adventurer's constitution, going half a month—or even a full month—without sleep wasn't impossible.
Cid hadn't tested it, but if he really wanted to brute-force it, he was confident he could last two or three months.
"Cid, are you going out? There's no need to rush like this…"
Only then did Ryuu notice Cid was wearing the adventurer gear everyone had bought for him.
She couldn't help thinking—was he already going to apply to another familia?
The image made her heart sting and turn sour.
"Rush? I'm heading to the Dungeon. I won't be eating breakfast at the familia today."
Cid looked completely baffled, unable to read her emotional roller coaster at all.
Why did she look like she was about to cry?
He didn't think too deeply about it. He just waved casually and left.
Unlike Alise's occasional blowups, Ryuu's low moods were an every-other-day thing.
You got used to it.
"The Dungeon…? In that case—Cid, please be careful!"
Ryuu called after him, and Cid's figure vanished from sight.
This time, Ryuu didn't feel sad about the brief separation.
Instead… she felt a little happy.
"Even though we kept things from him, Cid must've thought about a lot on his own. Alise was right— even if Cid leaves the familia, he's still our comrade."
Ryuu recalled what they'd discussed at the meeting.
They'd argued for a long time about where the Dark Faction was hiding, and in the end they'd all reached the same conclusion—
The Dungeon.
They had already dug through Orario's surface like turning over every inch of soil, and all they'd found were minor small-fry.
Even if a few were disguised as ordinary citizens, there was no way they could hide that many people across the city without being found.
A place that could hold that many Dark Faction members had to be in the Dungeon.
So only one answer remained.
The Dark Faction had discovered a hidden region in the Dungeon, which was why no one could find them.
But at this point, even if they'd guessed the answer, there wasn't much they could do.
Exploring the Dungeon was time-consuming and exhausting, and the Astraea Familia was short-handed to begin with.
Even with the Ganesha Familia's scale, they didn't have the spare capacity to explore the Dungeon right now.
No one knew when the Dark Faction would strike. The Ganesha Familia had to focus on organizing Orario's defenses.
And if it really was a hidden region in the Dungeon, finding it would come down to luck.
With Orario's survival on the line, what responsible leadership would gamble on luck?
Rather than chase a vague, uncertain hope, it was better to do what they could right now.
"Cid really is incredible… We discussed it with so many people and only managed to guess that the Dark Faction might be in the Dungeon. But Cid, thinking alone—he figured out that much?"
In Ryuu's mind, Cid was always lazy, and his combat talent wasn't especially remarkable.
But his mindset was strong, and he was very smart.
Ryuu often felt like his strengths perfectly complemented hers.
She was good only at fighting.
Cid was good at everything except fighting.
"No. I'm not some useless elf who can only fight."
Even with no one around, Ryuu still muttered a small defense for herself.
She wasn't useless—she just wasn't as smart, not as firm, not as decisive, not as… and so on!
In any case, Ryuu believed Cid's intellect was even above Lyla's.
So even if he explored alone, Ryuu didn't think she needed to worry about his safety.
Just as Ryuu was about to go wash her face, Alise walked out of Cid's room.
Ryuu froze.
Seeing that familiar red figure, her brain short-circuited. For a moment, she didn't even react.
"Yo, Ryuu. You're up early too. But you don't look so great—what's with that face?"
Alise looked radiant, brimming with energy, the contrast with Ryuu almost cruel.
Only after Alise waved a hand in front of her face for the third time did Ryuu finally snap out of it.
The instant she realized what she'd just seen, Ryuu's face turned bright red.
"A-A-A-Alise! Why are you coming out of Cid's room?!"
The useless elf erupted into a full-on meltdown.
She didn't dare think about how refreshed her best friend looked—
And yet her imagination had already painted pictures.
No, no, no!
Her mind had become impure!
Alise clapped her hands over her ears, but it was too late.
Even Alise—an outstanding Level 3—could barely withstand that ear-splitting shriek.
"What's the big deal? When we were kids, I used to sleep with Cid all the time."
"When you were kids! That's not the same!"
"It's nothing like that. Cid isn't that kind of person… Ryuu, don't tell me you're overthinking again?"
"I-I'm not overthinking!"
"Ryuu, you look guilty."
"Why would I feel guilty?! The one who should feel guilty is you!"
In the end, Kaguya stormed out, half-asleep and furious, dragging along her usual morning temper.
"You're too loud! Shut up already!"
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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