The table was loaded with dishes, and the smell was so good Leon could swear he heard a little cooking-show jingle playing in his head.
Tonight's spread covered all bases. For the elves' lighter palates, he'd prepared a vegetable and fruit salad alongside roasted pumpkin and bell pepper soup. For the heavier hitters: lemon-herb crispy chicken with potatoes, spicy braised beef with tofu, and garlic-sautéed mushrooms with diced steak.
The sauces weren't an afterthought either. Green pea puree, mayonnaise, blueberry jam, and of course, the essential drinking companion: garlic confit.
Jeanne, Laurier, and Aura, all long since conquered by Leon's cooking, drained their glasses and dove in without hesitation.
By the time Rose finished her drink and set down her wooden cup, she turned to Leon with open surprise.
"My, it's rare enough to find a man who cooks at all, let alone one with this kind of skill."
She ladled a small bowl of the soup, took a careful spoonful, and her eyes lit up with genuine admiration.
Leon bit into a huge chunk of crispy chicken, grease running down his chin, chased it with a long pull of cold wheat ale, let out a satisfied sigh, and asked, "A man who cooks? That's nothing unusual, at least not where I'm from. Is it different where you grew up?"
Rose thought about it, tilting her head, and gave a small laugh. "The country I was born in was a theocracy. Most of the population were devout, so... things were fairly traditional."
Leon nodded. That tracked. Theocracies and rigid gender roles went hand in hand across most worlds.
Jeanne, a woman of faith herself, seemed to quietly understand.
...
...
Dinner ended with every plate clean and every stomach full.
Per Leon's usual standard, all eight dishes had been wiped out by the girls, and the lingering looks of regret on their faces said they could have kept going.
Food, it turned out, was the universal weakness. Especially for women who never had to worry about watching their figures, which meant they held nothing back at the table.
After the meal, cleanup fell to Rose and Jeanne. At some point, Jeanne had drawn up a clear household chore rotation: teams of two, switching daily.
Leon was grateful beyond words. If organizing the housework had been left to him, the place would have descended into chaos inside a week. Domestic management was not among his talents.
But nobody was good at everything, and he'd made peace with that. Everyone had their strengths and their blind spots. He just needed to excel at what he was good at.
Like cooking.
...
...
Time flew.
The easy days slipped by fast, and before anyone noticed, ten-odd days had passed since Rose joined the Familia.
Compared to when Leon had lived alone and the courtyard felt empty, the growing household had filled the place with life and energy.
Everyone had been busy.
Daily Dungeon knowledge study sessions and individual combat training ate up most of each day.
Jeanne ran a strict program. Setting aside Rose, who was already combat-ready, she pushed Laurier and Aura through grueling drills every single day, never stopping until both were too spent to move.
Beyond mentoring the younger members, Rose's arrival also gave Jeanne a sparring partner. Leon saw the two of them running mock battles in the courtyard almost every day.
He wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but the similarities between them kept piling up. Both were devout believers. Both favored clerical robes. Both wore their hair in long braids past the waist.
Stranger still, even their faces and bearing looked alike.
The few real differences were their hair and eye colors, which were nothing alike.
Honestly, if he hadn't known better, he'd have sworn they were sisters.
And after these weeks together, while they shared no blood, they'd grown close enough that they might as well have been.
The uncanny resemblance fascinated Laurier too. At meals, her gaze kept drifting toward the pair of them.
Between the studying, training, and chores, Leon also found time to take Rose, Laurier, and Aura to Tsubaki's workshop, where he spent a small fortune commissioning custom weapons, armor, and combat attire for each of them.
Rose, as the Familia's frontline fighter, was outfitted on the same tier as Jeanne. Unlike Jeanne and her preference for polearms, Rose specialized in swordplay, or more precisely, sword-and-shield combat. Following her preferences, Tsubaki forged a fine double-edged one-handed sword and a sturdy, lightweight kite shield.
For armor, Rose received a set of custom silver knight plate broken into five pieces: pauldrons, gorget and breastplate, fauld, gauntlets, and greaves, each piece engraved with elegant patterns that gave the whole set a refined look. Paired with a combat dress in a clerical cut, the full loadout gave Rose solid protection from head to toe.
Laurier and Aura, still in reserve, got slightly more modest gear, though the quality was nothing to scoff at. Aura's combat dress, styled like a formal gown befitting a mage, actually cost a bit more than the others. Elves deserved a certain standard of respect.
Beyond equipment, Leon also brought the new members to the Guild to register their identities. Rose Fannett wasn't on duty that day, so Leon's visit went off without incident, and all three registrations cleared smoothly.
The elves' looks drew some attention, and a few minor issues cropped up, but everything got sorted without real trouble.
All in all, a smooth process.
...
Back home after the day's errands, Leon locked himself in his room and started tallying up the numbers.
Rose's gear had run about five hundred thousand valis. Laurier and Aura's combined equipment costs exceeded seven hundred thousand.
On top of that, the new arrivals had needed household supplies, and the expenses from the past two weeks had added up fast.
In barely half a month, close to one and a half million valis had gone out the door.
And that wasn't counting ongoing food, lodging, daily necessities, and Dungeon supply costs going forward.
If not for the windfall he'd pulled in from Tsubaki and Airmid earlier, this kind of spending would have given him a stroke.
No. This can't go on. Money going out with nothing coming in... forget running a stable Familia, we'll be bankrupt before long.
...
That evening, the living room was bright with lamplight. The entire Familia had gathered, Leon included.
Laurier sat cross-legged on the sofa, eyes unfocused, mind clearly elsewhere, her arms wrapped around the sword Leon had given her as a reward while her fingers absently traced the scabbard.
Aura, right beside her, could not have been more different. She sat with flawless elven poise, back straight, knees together, a picture of propriety that made the contrast between the two almost comical.
Jeanne and Rose, whose friendship had deepened at remarkable speed, knelt side by side on the soft carpet, both looking toward Leon in his armchair.
"Leon, did something happen? You look serious."
Rose noticed his shifting expression and asked in a gentle voice.
"Trouble? Yeah, you could say that."
The girls watched him sigh and spread his hands in defeat.
"Ladies, I have bad news."
He looked around the room, his tone grim. "We need to move fast. Otherwise, trust me, it won't be long before our little startup dies halfway to launch."
Laurier's eyes snapped into focus. She blinked, all innocence. "What does that mean?"
Jeanne's mouth twitched, and she translated in the flattest possible tone: "It means the Familia is almost out of money. We're going broke."
"Huh?"
Silence.