[Mister Tsutomu! He praised me!! He acknowledged my efforts!!]
Stephanie was in such high spirits that she hummed a tune and waved her staff like an actual conductor’s baton as she provided support to her party members. Seeing how different she was compared to her usual cold self, the Clan members who had formed this temporary team were taken aback by Stephanie’s demeanor.
As Tsutomu had mentioned, one reason behind Stephanie’s excessive interference with Lorena and Eunice was the imposition of her sensibilities. But the main reason, which was unknown to anyone but herself, was jealousy.
She had put in so much effort and undoubtedly possessed superior capabilities, but despite that, Lorena and Eunice were acknowledged by Tsutomu — she could not tolerate that. Perhaps Tsutomu would chuckle it off if he were to learn of this, but for Stephanie, it was a matter of life and death.
But then, just a while ago, Stephanie heard directly from Tsutomu that she was the best. Overwhelmed with joy, Stephanie’s face warped into a smile, to the point where it seemed unsettling. With her greatest need for approval finally fulfilled, the world as seen through her eyes was shining brightly.
[Ehe… ehehehe… Mister Tsutomu! Mister Tsutomu!! Thank you! Thank you!!]
Even after returning to her room late at night after training, Tsutomu’s words seemed to still ring in Stephanie’s ears. Every time she recalled those words, Stephanie trembled with ecstatic joy, unable to fall asleep due to her excitement.
And so she proceeded to meticulously transcribe everything she had heard into her diary, continuing to write everything down until the break of dawn. Her skills wisps flew in a frenzy the whole time, as if reflecting her elevated state of mind.
Since then, Stephanie went three days and nights without rest, yet her physical performance did not deteriorate as it had before, and her mind remained perfectly sound. While keeping up morning and evening greetings… to Tsutomu’s photographs, Stephanie continued to explore the Dungeon with a smile on her face.
―▽▽―
[She actually listened to me. Thank goodness.]
Tsutomu felt genuinely relieved as he looked at a Monitor and saw Eunice — who seemed as if she was out to take revenge on her parents’ killer — and Stephanie shaking hands with each other after a genuine apology offered by the latter. He could not bear to see one of his students go through the same embarrassing internet troll phase that he had.
After that, the main party of Ealdred Crow went on to steadily make more progress, experimenting and learning from their trials on layer eighty. The Enchanter Pollux and Stephanie continued to polish their skills, and Sova and Rook seemed to perform quite a bit better than before.
Rook was the most successful among the currently active Summoners, and Sova had distinguished himself even in the time when Attackers were getting all the focus in the scene. Both of them were by no means weak and had the potential to shine if they were directed properly.
“You know, Tsutomu,” Diniel said, her mood apparently quite sour, “All your students are girls around your age. I never thought you’d be the skirt-chaser type.”
“What? No, I’m not! Besides, aren’t you forgetting Pollux?”
“Never heard of him.”
“Come on, stop being grumpy already.”
Regardless of what Tsutomu tried to say, Diniel only looked at him with the same unchanged gaze. Today was her day off, but she had been urgently called over due to Ealdred Crow’s plan to challenge the eightieth layer in the afternoon.
“I already said I’d give you another day off later, and it’s not like we’d be exploring the Dungeon today.”
“I’d rather enjoy the current moment.”
“That… probably sounded convincing only to you. Listen — Ealdred Crow doesn’t attempt layer eighty very often these days, so it’s about time you looked at it at least once. You were the one who kept putting off seeing the Pedestal, you know?”
“Nah.”
“Do you even have any idea how hard it was to separate you from Amy? Just… take a look, and we can call it a day, all right?”
Tsutomu had tried taking Diniel to the Monitors so many times back when Ealdred Crow had been repeatedly attempting layer eighty, but each time, she and Amy would throw a tantrum together to prevent him from taking them. Today, however, Amy happened to not be available to do that, since she already had plans to go shopping with Hannah and Korinna.
“Do I really have to? I won against everyone the other day, you know?”
“And you ALMOST lost to Garm. Well, I’ll stop complaining if you can solo the Winter General — how about that?”
“Tch…”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Earlier this week, Amy had suggested having a sparring session among the party members, with the same rules as the sparring matches before then. The result was Diniel’s victory against everyone else. She had easily read through Amy’s behavior and intercepted her with an arrow, quickly destroying her <<Barrier>>. In the match against Xeno, she had been particularly aggressive, perhaps to vent her pent-up annoyance toward him.
Among the participants, Garm had put up the best fight and managed to get close, but surprisingly, Diniel proved to be adept even in close combat. Since Garm had already taken two arrows to his legs closing the distance, Diniel seized the opportunity to strike and narrowly emerged victorious.
“By the way, I forgot to ask you at the time — what’s your opinion on Garm? You seemed quite surprised when he got close to you.”
Diniel had been her usual unconcerned self when going against Amy and Xeno, but when Garm managed to take some arrows and almost strike her, the look in her eyes turned into that of a serious hunter. Her intimidating aura stayed up for quite a while after the sparring session was over, which was why Tsutomu had been too scared to ask her immediately.
In response to that question, Diniel looked up at the sky. The weather was good today, and the birds were chirping happily as winter made way for a warmer season.
After staring blankly at nothing in particular for a few moments, Diniel answered,
“He’s passable.”
“Just passable, huh? That’s harsh.”
“I know I’ll win against him in a serious fight. And by being serious, I mean I won’t be playing fair — I’d take my time and shoot from a more advantageous position. It’s like hunting, really — nothing complicated.”
“Huh… so what if you fought head-on?”
“…Not happening. Don’t ask.”
Her answer implied that she was unsure whether she would win if she were to go against Garm head-on. Tsutomu, having seen the match as it happened, knew that Diniel had gotten two out of three of her <<Barriers>> broken. It was quite an intense fight, and he could quite clearly see Diniel’s uncharacteristic sense of urgency.
And so, Tsutomu responded to Diniel’s answer with just a smile, causing the latter to narrow her eyes in annoyance.
“And what about you, Tsutomu? Amy beat you up real good…”
“You know I’m not a fighter.”
“How is it that you never die even once before, anyway? You look even weaker than those kids over there.”
Indeed, Tsutomu had also participated in the sparring session, and predictably lost every single match. He had fared especially badly against Amy, being thoroughly toyed with and made to roll around on the ground. In fact, he was still somewhat bitter about that.
“Oh, they’re getting started.”
While the two were talking, the Ealdred Crow team had finished warming up and returned to the Guild for a short break, after which they were likely to head down to layer eighty.
“I’m gonna go buy some snacks.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Bathroom break.”
“You just did that.”
“Stomach ache.”
“Give it up. I’m not letting you go anywhere today.”
Diniel got up in an attempt to leave, but Tsutomu stood in her way, causing her to heave a sigh and sit back down. Tsutomu, thinking she was finally cooperating with him, also sat down — and at the same time, Diniel proceeded to pull off her hair tie, undoing her iconic ponytail.
“Gimme your arm.”
“My arm? Why?”
“Just do it.”
Tsutomu felt suspicious as Diniel demanded without giving him a choice, but he complied and held out his arm in front of her. Diniel swiftly slipped her hair tie onto Tsutomu’s arm and pulled it up as far as she could, then let go.
“Whoa–!?”
The hair tie, slipping from Diniel’s fingers, snapped around Tsutomu’s arm, causing him to recoil from the sudden sting. After observing Tsutomu in pain for a moment, Diniel said nothing as she retrieved the hair tie and held it in her mouth.
“Now, I’m happy enough to stay.”
“Damn it…”
Tsutomu rubbed his aching arm and stared at Diniel with tears in his eyes. Diniel put her hands behind her head and tied her hair back together.
After taking the hair tie off her mouth and using it to hold her ponytail together, Diniel pursed her lips as if she was tasting something bitter. Then, she casually pointed at Monitor #1.
“Look, they’re going in now.”
“You know, Diniel, I’m starting to think you might even be even more violent than Amira…”
“No way.”
Diniel turned to the side, pretending not to know what Tsutomu was talking about. Seeing her ponytail swaying right in front of him, Tsutomu felt quite compelled to pull on it, but in the end, he convinced himself not to.
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