General Pov
"…Proceed," she managed.
Max lifted his hands again, slowly enough that she could stop him at any moment. As his fingers neared, Riveria went rigid, and then his fingertips touched her ears.
They were warm and softer than anything he imagined, and the tip of one twitched under his finger. Riveria's ears flushed red to the tips. She stood stiff, her eyes shut tight and her knuckles white around her staff. Max barely dared to breathe. Every elf he admired on a screen in his old life led to this moment, and his eyes stung.
"They're…" he whispered, his voice trembling, "…divine."
Max barely heard himself, and for a long moment, he did not move. He was afraid that if he shifted even a little, he would wake up in his old room with a dead phone in his hand. Back then, he used to joke that he would give anything to see a real elf just once. Now the best of them, their Princess, stood close enough for him to see her eyelashes tremble, and her ears rested under his fingertips.
That single word reached Riveria, and she went still. Divine? For a heartbeat, she could not breathe. Is he comparing me to the gods over my ears? The thought horrified her.
The gods' descent was the true blessing of the lower world. Her mother told her the stories passed down through their long-lived line, of a time when monsters roamed the surface unchecked, until the gods came down. High Lord Ouranos put a lid on the Dungeon and held the monsters inside it, and with the Falna, adventurers slew the ones that still reached the surface until their numbers fell. To be compared to the gods was the highest honor she could imagine, and as the meaning sank in, the heat in her ears spread to her face until her cheeks burned. She only hoped Maximus was not looking at her face.
He wasn't. His eyes were fixed on her ears, and once he was sure she would not pull away, Max began to move. He started at the rounded top and traced their outer edge with his fingertips. The edge was thinner than he expected and the skin was smooth, and when his fingers reached the middle, her ear gave a small flick. Max froze and waited for it to settle, then continued down toward the lobes.
The flick sent a faint tingle racing after his fingers, spreading from her ears into her neck and down through her shoulders, and Riveria bit her lip to keep any sound inside. A new thought crept in behind the tingle, one that made her stomach drop. Praise like that, from a man touching her ears so carefully… Is he courting me? She told herself it was absurd, but her mind refused to listen. It ran back over everything she saw of him, 90 people moved in a single jump, magic without a chant, a Mind pool she could not begin to measure, and before she could stop it, it wandered on to what a union between them might even produce. Her face burned hotter, and her staff creaked in her hands.
Through his fingertips, Max felt something too. Heat seeped from her ears and climbed up his arms, and a rush of energy came with it. He paused, unsure whether he was imagining it, but it kept flowing. He woke up well rested, yet this was something else entirely. It soaked into his muscles and settled into his bones, filling him past the point he thought of as full, until his whole body was bursting with vitality.
Curious now, he let his fingers linger on the lobes. They were softer than the rest of her ear, and as his fingertips rested there, the urge to press them rose in him. He almost did. Then he caught himself. If he took everything in at once, there would be nothing left to discover next time, and he fully intended for there to be a next time.
As much as it disgusted him to compare himself to Issei, the comparison fit too well. Issei once discovered that pressing the nipples was an enlightenment experience of its own, and the idiot dove straight in. Max refused to be that guy. If this was going to be a recurring thing, the last image he wanted to leave in Riveria's mind was that of a fiend. So he held himself back and traced his way up toward the pointed tips instead. That felt like a good place to start.
Riveria felt the change in direction at once, and her breath caught. She knew exactly where he was heading. Her whole body tensed, and she squeezed her eyes shut tighter.
Max's thumbs pressed against her ear tips, and the sensation sharpened all at once. It shot through him like lightning, from his fingertips down to his toes, and for one breathless moment, his whole body felt renewed. A gasp escaped him.
What the… Is this an elf's healing magic?
A second later, the otaku in him caught up, and he could have wept. Of course elves heal you. Obviously they do when you're touching their ears. That's possibly why they don't let anyone touch them.
While Max stood there marveling, Riveria jolted under his hands. The pressure on the tips sent a sharp shock through her, and her ears twitched hard under his thumbs. A startled sound slipped past her lips before she could stop it. The shock cut straight through the haze in her head, and every wild thought that crowded it, the praise, the courting and the union she imagined, drained away at once. Cold reason flowed back in to take their place, and it brought a far more important fact with it. Maximus was one of Freya's.
If I ever said any of that aloud, Freya would hunt me down and raze my entire forest to the ground.
She was not exaggerating, either. Word from home reached her of a blue-haired intruder who crashed into their royal forest a little over a month ago, chased out across the lake by Vana Freya himself, and soon after, Hedin arrived to discuss a "cooperation agreement." Everyone at home understood what that was: a thinly veiled warning not to lay a hand on one of Freya's.
Blue hair. One of Freya's. Standing here, with Maximus's fingers on her ears, Riveria finally realized who that intruder was. She only hoped he did not hold a grudge against her clan, and that he would never walk the path of vengeance. She would clear it with him herself, before anyone else could get involved.
As her thoughts settled, the tingle surged through her once more and then eased, leaving a quiet warmth behind instead of pain or shame. It did not feel bad at all, and that confused her more than anything else today. Nothing about it felt like what her mother warned her of, either, and some foolish part of her let out a breath of relief.
Neither of them knew how long it lasted. Kairu sat still on Max's shoulder the whole time and did not make a sound. Only when the rush settled into a steady warmth did Max come back to himself, and he found his thumbs still resting on her ear tips. Slowly, he pulled his hands back and stepped away.
He flexed his fingers as he stared at them. The rush from her ears did not fade, and every part of him felt lighter and more awake than he could remember. Even his head felt clearer and sharper than it did after his long sleep. He turned his palms over, half expecting them to glow, and found only his usual hands.
Master is very GREEN! Kairu grumbled through the bond, wobbling on his shoulder. Kairu doesn't like it.
Max almost chuckled at that, but controlled himself and when he finally looked up, Riveria's eyes were still shut. Her ears and cheeks were burning red, her knuckles were white around her staff, and her lip was still pinched between her teeth. She did not move an inch since he let go, as if she was not sure it was over.
Seeing her like that, the weight of what she gave him finally sank in. If touching an elf's ears did what he just felt, then no elf would ever let a stranger near them, and she let him anyway, after what Robin did to her. A simple thank-you would not cover that.
When Riveria finally opened her eyes, she found him standing a step away, relaxed, and she felt the silence between them suddenly unbearable. Her ears were still burning, and she could not think about them for a moment longer, so she reached for the one thing she was always sure of. Magic. A question had been gnawing at her since the 36th floor, and it was far safer ground than her ears. Besides, the way he answered would tell her what kind of man she was dealing with, and she needed to know that before she raised the matter of her forest.
"Mr. Maximus," she said, straightening her back, and she was relieved that her voice came out steady. "When you brought us up from the 36th floor, you moved nearly 90 people in a single jump, with no mother-circle at our destination and no mage to support you. How was that possible?"
Max blinked at the sudden turn, but he knew an ostrich with its head in the sand when he saw one, so he gave her a sheepish smile as he spoke. "A lot of practice. And a lot of Magic."
"That is not an answer," she said flatly, her eyes narrowing.
"It's the honest one, though," he replied with an awkward laugh, scratching his cheek.
Riveria did not let it go. "Then what did it cost you?" she pressed, leaning in. "A jump of that size should have emptied any mage I know."
"It took a lot out of me," Max admitted with a wince. "I won't pretend it didn't."
"And the circle," she went on, her questions coming faster now. "With so many people inside it, how did you keep it from breaking apart? How did you teleport all of them together with nothing missing? How does the space linking work? Do you reduce the distance between two circles or simply replace one with the other?"
He opened his mouth, closed it again, and shook his head with an apologetic smile. "Some of that I can't put into words, and some of it I can't share. I'm sorry."
The truth was, he did not know how to explain it in a way she would understand. When he made the jump, he simply imagined the two circles connecting, and that was all there was to it. Saying that to a mage of her caliber would make for a poor explanation, and it would drag down the good image of him she seemed to be forming. Max was not one to make such blunders. Not anymore, anyway.
"And the Mind cost?" she asked, more slowly this time. "Where does that even come from?"
Max only shrugged, his smile turning rueful. "I wish I had a better answer for you than 'I have a lot of it.'"
Riveria watched his face the whole time, searching for the game behind his words, and found none. He did not puff himself up or try to charm her, and when he could not answer, he said so and apologized. It was the same thing she saw when he stopped and waited for her to say proceed. He was simply being sincere.
That left only one explanation, and it was the one they already theorized. No mage could move 90 people across floors without a mother-circle on Mind and practice alone, so he had to have a special Skill tied to spatial magic and teleportation. A Skill like that would be the most closely guarded secret in his Familia, and no adventurer in Orario would share one with an outsider. The realization made her cheeks warm with shame. She was pressing him for answers he could never give her, and that was very rude of her.
"I understand," she said quietly, lowering her gaze. "Please forgive my insistence. It was not my place to pry."
Max waved the apology off with an easy smile. "It's fine. I'd be curious too."
His easy answer settled her, and it gave her the courage to raise the matter she was holding back. Her place was here, with her Familia and the life she built in Orario, and she chose it long ago. But the people in that forest were still her kin, and she would not see them suffer for a misunderstanding.
"Mr. Maximus," she began carefully, weighing each word before she spoke. "You have answered me sincerely, so I would like to ask you something just as sincerely, and I hope you will not take offense. A little over a month ago, an intruder was driven out of our royal forest." She paused and held his gaze. "I believe that was you. Do you hold any grudge against my people for it?"
For a moment, Max could only stare at her. The elves of that forest chased him out without a second thought, and now their own Princess stood in front of him, asking so carefully whether he meant them any harm. He could not help it. It felt like vindication, and he let himself enjoy it for a second longer than he probably should have.
Then he shook his head with a wry smile. "No grudge," he said lightly. "I did crash-land in their lake uninvited, after all."
Relief washed over Riveria, and her grip on her staff finally eased. Then the rest of his answer caught up with her. Crash-landed. Her mind went at once to the comet they all saw streak past Orario around that same time, and her breath caught as the two pieces fell together. That was him?
Her curiosity leapt, and a dozen questions rushed to the tip of her tongue. How did a man fall from the sky like that and walk away? What was he even doing up there? But she already pressed him enough for one day, and prying any further did not feel appropriate, so she held them back. She could wait for now.
Seeing her relax, Max decided it was now or never. He cleared his throat, and a hopeful note crept into his voice. "Ms. Riveria, if you're willing, I'd like to continue these sessions."
Riveria's eyes widened. Continue? She stared at him, stunned by the sheer audacity of the man. Minutes ago she let him touch her ears, something no elf would allow a stranger, and now he stood there asking for more as if he were booking a lesson. Her temper rose to meet it, ready to crush whatever impure notion he might be nursing.
But her anger did not last. She thought of the way he stopped and waited for her, the honest answers he gave when lying would have been easier, and the grudge he chose not to carry, and her anger cooled. So she made herself think it through instead. His rise was meteoric, and there seemed to be no end to what he could do. Turning a man like that away would be foolish, so it would be prudent to keep their relationship a beneficial one. And if he wanted something from her, perhaps she could put it to better use.
But before any of that, she had to make one thing clear.
"Mr. Maximus," she said, her voice cool and measured. "I appreciate your honesty. However, I am not pursuing any romantic entanglements right now, and I would implore you to reconsider if that was your intention."
Max shook his head. "I'm not interested in them either," he said offhandedly.
Then he looked at her and saw that her face had gone ashen. Max realized how that sounded, and he quickly raised his hands. "I meant I have enough on my plate," he said with a sheepish shrug. "I purely want to touch your ears, because I feel there's something unique about them." He hesitated, then pressed on, his voice turning hopeful again. "In exchange, I'll waive Ais's month of training."
Riveria's brows drew together at once. "That is not mine to bargain," she said firmly. "The wager over Ais is a private matter between you and Loki. I was not part of it, and I will not let it be used as a bargaining chip here."
Max's shoulders slumped, and he grumbled under his breath. "Fine. Then I'll just cut that month into small pieces and spread them out." He perked up as the idea settled in. "That way, I'll have a valid reason to visit regularly."
Riveria's eye twitched. He would be in their home, training their Ais, again and again, for who knew how long. But the wager was Loki's to answer, not hers, so she pressed her lips together and said nothing.
Besides, a better idea already came to her. She wanted to put his wish to use, and her Familia already owed him a far bigger debt. He saved Loki and the rest of them during the raid and took vengeance on their behalf, but he refused to name a price and left it for Ouranos to call in whenever the Elder God wanted. Finn was not at ease since he heard that. If she gave Max her ears in return, she could close that debt herself. It would cost her dignity, but for her Familia, she was willing to pay it.
"Once a month," she said, lifting her chin as the color crept back into her cheeks.
She meant to add that there would be no end to it, but the words caught in her throat. She could not bring herself to say them aloud, so she left them out and simply held his gaze.
At first, Max did not notice anything missing. Then it struck him that she said once a month but never said for how long. She was still holding his gaze, so he knew she didn't simply forget. She left it out on purpose.
From there, he understood the rest. Riveria would never let a stranger near her ears, so if she was offering them with no end, she meant it as payment for the raid. That was exactly what he tried to avoid. He used Ouranos's name as an excuse so that no one would trade those lives for a touch of her ears, and now she was setting that price herself. But she chose to offer it, with her chin up and her cheeks burning, and refusing would only insult her.
Once a week was on the tip of his tongue, and he knew he could press her for more. He swallowed it. He already had his hands full with Freya, and Riveria made it clear she wanted no romance from him. Once a month with no end was more than fair, so he decided to leave it there.
"Once a month it is," he said, and his voice came out softer than he meant it to. "And as for the raid, consider it settled. Your Familia doesn't owe me."
Riveria's shoulders loosened, and she inclined her head. She was thankful he understood without her nudging. Whatever share Lord Ouranos might still claim, their debt to Maximus was closed, and that alone was more than she hoped to clear today.
She was ready to call the others back in, but Max was not done yet. A simple thank-you would not cover what she gave him today, and if he wanted a next time, he needed her to trust him, not to remember him as a man who took what he wanted and walked away. So he held his hand out toward his shoulder. Kairu bubbled and drew a small velvet case from his storage, and Max held it open for her. Inside lay a pair of earrings and a matching hairpin, each set with a pale stone that caught the light from the window.
"Ms. Riveria," he said softly. "I know this wasn't easy for you. Please accept these as thanks."
Riveria's gaze dropped from his face to the case, and her heart lurched. Earrings, from the man who just called her ears divine. The thought she pushed away earlier returned in full force, and her grip tightened on her staff before she could stop.
Then it struck her that he might mean them as amends for his assistant, and the thought steadied her. He told her only minutes ago that he held no grudge against her people, and the last thing she wanted was to give him a fresh one over his assistant's rudeness.
"There is no need to punish your assistant," she said with a tired shake of her head. "What she did was rude, but I do not think she meant any real harm."
Max's shoulders dropped, and he gave her a grateful nod. "Thank you. But I'll still make sure she understands the severity."
Then she opened her mouth to refuse the gift. She already offered him her dignity today, and taking jewelry on top of it felt too much like being paid. But as she looked at the stones, she felt a faint thread of magic humming inside them. Curious, she reached out with her own Mind, and the stones answered her. Layer upon layer of protective enchantments unfolded under her senses, each woven neatly into the next, and she forgot what she was about to say. Somewhere in that matrix, something felt faintly familiar, though she could not place where she felt it before.
These were not payment. They were wards, made to protect whoever wore them, and they were woven with real skill. Her reluctance faded, and her curiosity as a mage took over.
She closed her mouth and took the case without another word, her fingers lingering on the clasp as she studied the spells inside. The longer she looked, the more she thought of the circle she etched for their new teleportation room. She tried to activate it more times than she could count and got nothing, and she still could not find where she went wrong. If he could weave wards like these, he would likely spot her mistake at a glance. By the time she looked up, her voice held steady.
"Then, if I may make one request," she said, a little hesitantly. "The teleportation circles I etched for our new room… would you check them for me? However much I try, I cannot get them to activate."
Max's face lit up like a man reborn. "It will be my pleasure!"
After all of that, the flush finally drained from Riveria's face and ears. She let out a slow breath and turned toward the door at last, but before she could take a step to call the rest of them in, Max snapped his fingers.
-◈ -
While Riveria was still contemplating letting Max near her, on the other side of that door, the wait was far less pleasant.
For a while, nobody spoke. Gareth stood with his arms crossed and glared at Robin from under his brows. Barely a minute ago, this girl seized Riveria's ears without a word of warning, under their own roof, and the dwarf was not about to forget it.
Finn was no happier. He kept his face polite, but his eyes stayed on Robin, and his fingers tightened around his spear each time he thought of the yelp that came out of Riveria.
Loki studied Robin with narrowed eyes and a foxy smile. She was sure the brat was hiding something. She only needed the right question to make her slip up, so she started thinking of what to ask.
Robin bore all three stares with a smug smirk. She caught every one of them off guard, and she was still enjoying it. Her thoughts kept drifting back to how those ears felt in her hands. They were warm and impossibly soft, the tip twitched under her touch, and a strange warmth seeped into her fingers and filled her with a comforting feeling she did not expect. When Hedin and Hogni first joined her, she touched their ears out of curiosity, and theirs felt nothing like this. It was no wonder she did not want to let go, and no wonder Max wanted to experience them for himself.
As the minutes ticked by, Finn let go of his anger. They badly needed information about Maximus and his status, and here was an unsuspecting source. It would be foolish to waste her. The hard part was being civil. Their two Familias never saw eye to eye, and Freya's executives always treated them with open contempt, so neither Finn nor Gareth ever expected to be polite to one of them. Now he had to be, and it did not come naturally. Finn cleared his throat and put on his most polite smile.
"Forgive my curiosity, Ms. Robin," he said, "but are you an adventurer yourself?"
"No, I am not," Robin replied pleasantly.
Finn waited for more, but none came, so he tried again. "And how long have you been working for the Primordial Dragonslayer?"
"Not long," Robin said, her smile never wavering. "But I knew him well before that."
Gareth scratched his beard and took his turn, his deep voice gruff with the strain of being courteous to one of Freya's people. "So, how's life in your Familia, lass?"
"Very fun," Robin said brightly. "Especially now that we have opened an outpost in the Dungeon."
She said it while looking straight at Loki, and all three of them felt the jab. Gareth coughed into his fist, Finn's smile stiffened, and Loki narrowed her eyes even further.
"Fun, huh?" Loki drawled, folding her arms. "Must be nice, with Max dragging you along everywhere while you just smile and nod."
"Master Max asked me to come, and I was happy to," Robin replied sweetly. "Not everyone needs to be dragged."
Loki's eye twitched. "Cute. You always this mouthy with gods?"
Robin only tilted her head with an innocent smile. "Is there something I said wrong, Lady Loki?"
"Yeah," Loki shot back with a crooked grin. "You said everything with a whole lot of smugness."
Robin looked entirely unbothered by that.
Finn saw an opening in the mention of Max and tried a different angle. "Speaking of your master," he said, keeping his tone light, "that familiar of his is quite something. How strong is it?"
Robin's smile cooled. "His name is Kairu," she said, a note of offense in her voice. "And Kairu is very gentle. I often play with him."
Finn nodded politely, as if that answered anything. Beside him, Gareth shook his head, unsure what to make of a woman who played with the same slime that stopped Ais cold.
Loki jumped on the opening before it could close. "Is it true this Kairu has a Falna?" she asked, her eyes fixed on Robin's face.
Robin paused. However much she wanted to tell Loki to mind her own business, she could not. With that one question, Loki cornered her. If she said no, Loki would hear the lie, and if she dodged it, all three of them would know they hit something, and her fun would be over. So she decided to mix the two.
"How did you know?" she asked, leaning in with bright interest. Then continued with a gasp. "Mr. Kairu is Level 5, did you know that as well?"
Loki's hopes rose at the question and fell flat at the claim that followed. It rang false the moment it left the girl's lips. Just making things up, then. Phew. She let out a sigh and gave Finn and Gareth a small shake of her head.
Robin kept her smile perfectly sweet. Kairu was Level 6 now, so the only false thing in her answer was the number itself, and it did exactly what she wanted.
For a moment, Finn and Gareth looked as if their hearts stopped. Level 5? Even if the slime had a Falna, a Level 5 slime would have made them question their entire lives. Then Loki's signal reached them, and the tension drained out of their shoulders.
Clearly, this girl doesn't know what she's talking about, Finn concluded. An airhead.
Gareth was not so sure. Sneaky little lass, he thought, rubbing his chest. Almost made me cough up blood.
The corridor fell quiet for a few minutes after that. Then Gareth cleared his throat and spoke up again, his voice gruff but curious. "How are dwarves treated in your Familia, then? Has anyone stepped up since Mia left?"
A melancholic look crossed Robin's face. "Mama Mia was a great Captain," she said softly. "When she left, the Familia felt it." Then she brightened a little. "But we do have a good prospect. He was given command of the Rivira base."
"Who?" Gareth asked, leaning in with interest.
"Mr. Trent."
Gareth's brows shot up. "That Gillthunder? Truly?" He stroked his beard as he thought back. "That lad must've grown big."
Finn saw his chance and tried one more angle. "Do you know how deep your teleportation network goes inside the Dungeon?"
Robin gave him an indulgent smile. "Sorry, Mr. Braver. I cannot share that information."
Loki did not expect that probe to work anyway, but she was watching the girl the whole time, and her eyes turned calculating. "You seem to have good gossip on you," she began. "Anything more you're willing to share as a welcome gift? I'll share a toast of my latest Soma vintage with you."
Robin paused. Soma wine? Her eyes shone. Then she leaned in and dropped her voice. "Master must not find out about this, at any cost."
Loki raised an eyebrow. "Eh? He doesn't drink?"
Robin bit her lip. "Not often," she said, and went quiet.
Loki nodded, agreeing to keep it between them. But Robin was not finished. "If I like it," she pressed, "I want the whole bottle."
"Greedy little gremlin," Loki said, half laughing. "That's too much. If what you share is truly that good, I'll give you the second-best bottle I've got."
Robin eyed her suspiciously, so Loki walked off to one of the side chambers and came back with the bottle in hand. One look at it, and Robin nodded eagerly.
Then she leaned in and lowered her voice, as if letting them in on a secret. "There are rumors," she said softly, "that most of the executives leveled up in secret."
--> Devil in a Dungeon <--
AN:
Cultural Milestone is fulfilled and Max and Riveria negotiate for more as well. What a surprise!
Both Max and Robin were having too much fun. ;)
Max was being the best gentleman he was born to be and Robin being the menace she wanted to be. I was particularly proud of her acting, lmao.
Do you think Loki would give her Soma Vintage for the info?? The chapter was very fun with everyone thinking they are making the moves and would gain something only for all of them to fall in Robin's traps.
The next chapter will be very fun as the black hearted Braver jumps in to make the best of the situation...
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.
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Next update will be on Tuesday.
Ben, Out.
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