"Oh yeah!"
Laurier leapt up off the sofa in delight, clapping her little hands.
"Welcome, welcome! Welcome to our big family, Lydia!"
With this little ray of sunshine leading the way, the mood in the sitting room instantly loosened up, and warm smiles surfaced on everyone's faces.
"Th-thank you all, everyone..."
Lydia stood up, her face flushed, and gave another somewhat stiff little bow.
"Oh come on, we're all family now, no need to be so formal." Rose took her hand with a smile. "Come on, let's take you upstairs first and pick out a room you like."
With that, not even waiting for a reply, she led her off toward the stairs, footsteps pattering away.
"Kureha, Aura, Margaret, Iri, you all go along too."
Leon, leaning back into the sofa, nodded to the girls.
"Help her get familiar with the place. At home, she can set down all those fussy royal rules and just relax."
"Mm-hm, got it!"
Irisviel nodded earnestly, her little face serious, took Margaret by one hand and looped her other arm through Aura's, and followed Kureha up the stairs.
Rose soon returned. Once the others' footsteps faded away at the top of the staircase, only Leon, Jeanne, Rose, and Persephone were left in the sitting room.
And then Leon dropped the act.
"Phew..."
He reached for his glass and downed the ice-filled lemon water in one go. The cold rushed down his throat, and he let out a long breath before flopping backward and sinking deep into the sofa.
"Running around all day, finally I can catch my breath." He closed his eyes, his voice lazy and content. "Nowhere beats home, that's for sure."
Jeanne: "..."
Persephone: "..."
Only Rose's face wore an "I knew it" expression, a slight smile on her lips.
"Out with it, Rose." Leon kept his eyes shut, but his tone sharpened a little. "There's no way this trip of yours just happened to pick up a princess on the way back, right? What were you originally bringing Kureha along to do?"
"Hmph, and sneaking around behind my back, too."
At that, the corner of Rose's mouth curved, her smile deepening a touch.
When she'd been laying out the whole story earlier, she had indeed deliberately left out the parts about the underground commission and the payment. She hadn't expected him to seize on that point so sharply.
"Oh my, well, originally..."
...
"...Huh?"
"What did you say? The commission paid fifty million? Just to find one person?"
"And then during the handover, the other side naturally tried to pull a double-cross... and so the payment went up to a hundred and twenty million Valis!?????"
"Which means... not only did the commission money land safely in hand, the target of the job got kept too..."
Listening to Rose's calm account, Leon was utterly dumbstruck.
After a while, he abruptly slapped his thigh, his voice full of frustration:
"An underground commission? How did I never think there was a way to make quick money like this..."
Jeanne shot him an exasperated glare, then turned to look at Persephone, who stood quietly leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.
"You don't seem the least bit surprised by this 'underground commission' business?"
Persephone nodded, reached up to push at the frame of her glasses, and let her gaze drift to the dancing fire as she sank into recollection.
"Mm. Spend long enough working as an Adventurer in Orario and you're bound to hear a thing or two about the underworld, one way or another. After all... you all know what most Adventurers are like."
Jeanne and the others thought back on the conduct of most of the Adventurers they'd run into, in the taverns, in Rivira Town, and even down in the Dungeon, and nodded thoughtfully.
"It's just that... these strange, untraceable underground commissions can't possibly be notarized or protected by the Guild, so... whether you actually get paid in the end comes down entirely to your own strength and the client's credibility."
"So it's not exactly a secret trade, but in any circle of Adventurers with a bit of experience, its reputation has long since gone rotten."
"There's no telling how many people who weren't strong enough, who got greedy and were chasing quick money, took on a commission and then... vanished without a trace..."
Vanished without a trace? More likely they were wiped off the face of the earth.
After hearing Persephone's explanation, a trace of understanding crossed Jeanne's eyes, and she turned to Leon with a hint of mockery:
"Heh heh, looks like the waters of this Underground Black Market run even deeper than you'd think."
The corner of Leon's mouth twitched. He faked a couple of coughs and clumsily changed the subject:
"By that logic, doesn't that make our princess here someone who joined with her own funding?"
Not only had the person joined the Familia, but the fifty-million bounty, plus the seventy-million "charity donation" the slavers had "voluntarily contributed," had all fallen into Rose's hands too. Just thinking about those numbers, Leon couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from climbing wildly upward:
"Never thought the day would come when this kind of lottery-winning luck would actually land on us..."
"Heh heh, when fortune comes knocking, there's just no stopping it!"
"If I'd ever heard of some goddess in the Lower World who held dominion over luck, I swear I'd go bow my head to her a few extra times..."
"Just thinking about it..."
"I'm too hyped to sit still!"
With that, he sat up straight, his eyes glinting with an anticipation almost like opening a mystery box:
"Right, next up..."
"Before we start the Christmas dinner, let's hold the Falna ceremony for our princess first, shall we?"
"I really do want to see just what secret is hidden in the bloodline they call the holy royal family of the Kingdom of Chulz..."
"Tch, a mere missing-person commission, and it's worth fifty million Valis."
"There's no way there isn't something special going on. I won't believe it."
That price, in Leon's memory... nearly rivaled, in its weight, the bounty placed during a certain period on that "Evilus Assassin" who'd struck terror into the whole underside of Orario. And mind you, that had been a sky-high bounty issued jointly by numerous gray-market trade guilds all living under the shadow of death, and even so it had been a "mere" eighty million!
...
...
On the second floor, Lydia still carried a bit of the awkwardness of a newcomer, but with the warm company and introductions from Margaret, Iri, and Laurier, most of that stiffness quickly melted away.
It only goes to show that friendship between girls is sometimes just like that. No particular reason, yet it comes about naturally.
"Let's go with this one! Though honestly everyone's rooms are pretty much the same anyway."
Laurier pushed the door open and poked her head in, looking left and right. The layout and furnishings inside were almost identical to her own room. She walked to the window, pushed it open to look down at the snow-covered courtyard below, and gave a soft "mm."
Lydia stood in the doorway, quietly gazing at this space that was about to become hers. The room was tidy and bright, with a simple, warm sense of security to it.
Thinking back over this stretch of wandering and upheaval, all the way to this sudden turn of fortune today... a real and gentle warmth quietly welled up in her heart.
Feeling her body and mind at ease, a smile rose to her lips before she realized it.
Her voice was very soft, but carried a settledness she no longer bothered to hide:
"Laurier, this place is wonderful. I really like it."
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