"What do you think you're doing?"
A voice suddenly rang out beside his ear, its cool tone carrying a faint, nearly imperceptible hint of danger.
Lynn's hand, which had been reaching toward Haruhime's head, froze instantly. His fingertips were just barely brushing against those soft, fluffy, golden fox ears.
They felt incredible to the touch, but at this moment, he felt like he was holding a hot potato.
He turned his head stiffly to see Eina standing there with her arms crossed. The half-elf's signature pointed ears were twitching slightly, and her glasses glinted with an ominous light in the fading rays of the setting sun.
"Ah... well, Eina, you see..."
Lynn withdrew his hand as if nothing had happened, casually wiping it on his clothes. "I was just checking on the health of our new member. You know, making sure these fox ears are original parts."
"Is Mr. Lynn... worried about Haruhime?"
Haruhime looked up, her fox ears pressed flat against her hair out of shyness. Her entire face was so red it looked like steam might actually start rising from it. "Haruhime... Haruhime is truly very happy..."
Eina let out a deep sigh and stepped forward. She accurately thwacked Lynn on the head with her briefcase—not hard enough to hurt, but enough to make her point.
"Stop teasing Miss Haruhime. She's been through enough already."
Eina turned to Haruhime, and her gaze softened instantly. She was suddenly radiating a transcendent maternal glow that even Lynn had never been privileged enough to receive. "Since you've decided to stay, let's start by getting you into some comfortable clothes. Lynn, go clear out that spare storage room on the second floor. Haruhime will sleep there tonight."
"You got it. When the landlord speaks, I obey. Heading up now."
Lynn shrugged and headed upstairs.
After tidying up the second-floor storage room, he finally managed to carve out a little nest for Haruhime in their crowded home.
The next morning, sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains of Eina's living room, casting scattered golden spots on the floor.
When Lynn walked downstairs with a yawn, he saw Haruhime busy in the kitchen, wearing a pristine white apron.
Her golden fox ears twitched in rhythm with her vegetable chopping, and the tip of her fluffy tail was actually curled around a broom, sweeping the dust off the floor in perfect synchronization.
"Mr. Lynn, you're awake! Breakfast will be ready in just a moment. Please wait a bit."
Haruhime turned around, her face glowing with a sense of mission that bordered on the sacred.
"You really didn't need to get up this early, Haruhime," Lynn said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
"That simply won't do! As a maid... no, as a roommate, taking care of Mr. Lynn's daily needs is Haruhime's honor."
Haruhime served a plate of perfectly fried bacon and eggs, her eyes full of expectation. "Please, enjoy."
Lynn took a bite, and his eyes lit up slightly. "Not bad."
"I practiced with Mikoto a few days ago," Haruhime said with a hint of pride, her ears twitching adorably.
After breakfast, Lynn politely declined Haruhime's offer to help him polish the Bloodhound's Fang. The bloodlust clinging to that blade was far too heavy for a pure soul like the young Renard.
Leaving the dishes for Haruhime to clean, Lynn pushed open the door and walked toward Babel, greeted by the morning breeze.
His first stop was the Guild.
"Morning, Eina."
Lynn leaned against the Guild's iconic semi-circular counter, greeting the half-elf lady who was buried under a mountain of paperwork.
Eina looked up, adjusted her glasses, and gave Lynn a quick once-over. "Morning, Lynn. Is Miss Haruhime... settling in well?"
"Settling in? I think she's about to scrub the finish off your floors," Lynn joked, handing over a few monster stones and a stack of quest forms. "Can you help me find some material collection quests? Something with decent pay that isn't too far away. Ideally, something with a high monster density."
Eina gave him a flat look.
"The wounds you got the other day haven't even fully healed. Can you stop looking for quests with high monster counts? However... I do have a request right here. Collecting materials from the eighth floor. It's a hunting quest, but the difficulty isn't high for you, and the pay is fair."
"Thanks, Eina."
Lynn took the quest form and gave a casual wave as he walked off to Eina's parting cry of "Be safe!"
Dungeon, Fifth Floor.
The air here was thick with the scent of damp earth and the characteristic stench of goblins. For the current Lynn, the monsters on this floor were no longer a threat.
He didn't even need to draw the Moonveil. Relying solely on his agility, he wove through the surrounding monsters as if he were taking a leisurely stroll.
"Tch, this efficiency is too low. Is the eighth floor going to be too shallow?"
Lynn kicked away a goblin trying to ambush him and sighed helplessly as he watched the double-digit Runes pop up on his system interface.
Just as he was about to head deeper, a cacophony of insults and sobbing came from around the corner ahead.
"You useless brat! You're complaining about being tired just from carrying these few magic stones? What's the point of the Soma Familia keeping a failure like you around?!"
Lynn arched an eyebrow and crept closer silently.
In a clearing, three male adventurers in leather armor were surrounding a petite figure.
It was a small girl, a Supporter, wearing a large hood. The backpack on her back was unnervingly massive, nearly crushing her under its weight.
The lead thug slapped the girl's hood. The force of the blow made her stumble and fall to the ground. Her hood slipped, revealing short grey hair and the clever, yet fear-stricken eyes of a Pallum.
"Today's pay is halved as punishment for your laziness," the brute snorted, reaching out to snatch the coin purse from the girl's arms.
"No... Lili worked so hard for this..."
The girl clutched the straps of her bag tightly, her voice trembling violently but carrying a trace of stubbornness.
"Talking back?" The brute's expression darkened as he raised his foot to kick her.
"I say, gentlemen."
A lazy voice suddenly rang out, interrupting the man's movement.
The three turned sharply to see a black-haired youth leaning against a stone pillar, idly tossing a small pebble he had picked up from somewhere.
"Where'd this brat come from? Scram, kid. Don't interrupt us while we're educating our subordinate."
The brute saw Lynn's lean frame and let out a contemptuous laugh.
Lynn didn't waste words. He never felt the need to reason with people who had bad attitudes.
His body blurred. Before the brute could even react, Lynn had already closed the distance.
"You're in my way."
Lynn's voice was cold as ice. He didn't draw his sword; he simply delivered a sharp side-kick.
BAM!
The brute's two-hundred-plus-pound body flew back as if hit by a runaway carriage. He slammed heavily into the wall and slid down, his eyes rolled back in his head.
The remaining two were stunned. They hadn't even seen how Lynn moved.
"Beat it."
Lynn flicked his finger, and the pebble in his hand accurately struck the other man's kneecap. With Lynn's Strength stat—equivalent to a high-tier Level 2—the force behind that pebble wasn't something a rookie could withstand.
Amidst a scream of agony, the remaining two scrambled to drag their unconscious leader away, vanishing into the shadows.
Lynn clapped the dust off his hands and looked at the little girl curled into a ball on the ground.
"Hey, you okay?" Lynn walked over and crouched down.
The girl, who called herself Lili, shrunk back like a startled rabbit. Her eyes were filled with the suspicion and loathing she held for all adventurers.
"Lili... Lili has no money for you. If you're here to steal the stones too, please be quick about it. Don't break Lili's backpack."
She lowered her head, her tone carrying a heartbreaking numbness.
Lynn blinked.
This was the first time he had seen someone so pessimistic. Looking at her, it seemed she was used to being robbed.
Was it those men from earlier?
He felt a sudden, inexplicable surge of annoyance.
Bullying, huh?
He let out a long sigh and pulled a flask of deep blue liquid from his inventory.
"Take this. I'm not stealing your money, and I have no interest in 'educating' you."
Lynn tossed the potion into her lap. "Treat the scrapes on your arms. They look painful."
Lili sat there dazed, clutching the glass bottle and feeling the residual warmth from his hand. She looked up, and for the first time, an emotion called "confusion" surfaced in her amber eyes.
"Why?" she whispered.
"No reason. I just didn't like what I saw."
Lynn stood up and brushed the dust off his pants. "Anyway, you're a Supporter, right?"
Thanks to Eina's tutoring, he had the basics memorized. The girl's outfit clearly wasn't that of a combatant, and with that backpack, she could only be a Supporter.
"Y-yes."
"Perfect. I'm short a hand. The materials I need for my quest drop too sporadically, and I'm too lazy to pick them up one by one. The market rate is what, 1,000 Valis a day? You in?"
Lili thought she had misheard. 1,000 Valis a day? That was the price for a top-tier Supporter.
"Are you... serious?" she asked tentatively.
Lynn reached into his pouch, pulled out a small bag of coins, and tossed it to her.
"My name is Lynn, Level 2. This is the advance for the first three hours. I'll be farming a lot of mobs today, so there should be plenty of materials and stones. You're responsible for the hauling."
Lili caught the coins, her fingertips trembling slightly.
She watched Lynn's nonchalant back, grit her teeth, and quickly stood up, hoisting her massive backpack.
"Liliruca... Lili is at your service, Master Lynn."
Over the next three hours, Lili witnessed what true efficiency looked like.
Lynn walked ahead, often not even drawing a weapon. Occasionally, he would fire a shard of deep blue light from a staff, or use a strange rolling maneuver to dodge a monster's pounce before snapping its neck with his bare hands.
He seemed to know every blind spot in the Dungeon. Lili didn't have to worry about monsters at all; her only job was to follow behind this youth and constantly bend over to retrieve the dropped magic stones and ores.
"Master Lynn... are you really only Level 2?"
Lili asked, looking at the magic stones nearly overflowing from her bag.
"Genuine article," Lynn replied casually, using a Carian Slicer to bisect a Shadow Step that was trying to ambush them. "Stay a little closer to me. Watch out for sneaks."
As he spoke, Lynn stopped the small talk and focused entirely on the farming run.
Lili went silent.
This man was completely different from the trash who treated Supporters as cannon fodder or walking ATMs. He would even deliberately slow his pace to wait for her when passing through dangerous zones.
When the afterglow of the setting sun once again bathed the streets of Orario, the two came to a stop in front of the Babel plaza.
"Alright, today was a good run."
Lynn took the heavy bag of materials from Lili. He looked at the girl's sweaty but spirited face. "Keep the change. Go buy yourself a good meal."
Lili stood there, clutching the extra few hundred Valis, looking somewhat lost.
"Master Lynn... tomorrow... will you need Lili tomorrow?" she asked boldly, her voice as thin as a mosquito's buzz.
Lynn waved a hand, walking toward the Guild without looking back.
"Depends on my mood. If I see you at the entrance tomorrow, I'll consider it."
Lili stood still, watching the youth's figure disappear into the crowd. She took a deep breath, a flicker of hope appearing in her previously despondent eyes.
However, just as she turned to leave, a disheveled man with predatory eyes watched her from a dark alley, his gaze fixed on her coin purse.
"Liliruca... looks like you hit the jackpot today. Such a generous offering... if you don't hand it over to the Great Lord Soma, you'll surely be cursed..."
The man sneered and vanished back into the shadows.
The Soma Familia compound was located in a dilapidated district in the northwest corner of Orario. The paint on the outer walls had long since peeled away, revealing blackened wooden planks beneath.
The air was perpetually thick with the sour stench of cheap alcohol and sweat.
Liliruca, carrying the massive backpack that nearly crushed her, carefully pushed open the creaking wooden door.
Inside was a dim hall. A few hollow-eyed adventurers sat at crooked tables. They clutched cheap bottles of booze, offering no reaction to Lili's arrival—or rather, they were simply used to it.
"Stop right there."
A somber voice came from the shadows near the stairs.
Lili's body stiffened. She instinctively tried to hide the coin purse behind her back. But that tiny movement didn't escape those predatory eyes.
A figure stepped out of the darkness. It was a man in his thirties, wearing filthy leather armor, his greasy hair plastered to his forehead. He wore an unsettling smile as he looked Lili up and down.
This was a guy named Zoru. An "acquaintance" of Lili's.
"Liliruca... you're back quite late today."
Zoru strolled over slowly, reaching out to grab the backpack on her back. "Let me see how much of an offering you've brought back for Lord Soma today."
"N-no need, Mr. Zoru..." Lili took a step back, her voice shaking. "Today... today's harvest wasn't much, really..."
"Is that so?" Zoru's smile turned dangerous. He lunged forward, snatching the purse from Lili's arms. He weighed it in his hand, his eyes narrowing. "The weight is wrong. This doesn't feel like 'not much.'"
He roughly tore open the purse. The clinking of Valis coins made several of the drunken adventurers in the hall look up.
"Ho, over a thousand Valis?" Zoru whistled, his gaze sharpening. "And then there's this—"
He dumped the magic stones and materials from the backpack, creating a small pile. Though they were low-level drops, the quantity far exceeded the norm.
"Found yourself a golden goose, Liliruca?"
Zoru leaned close to Lili, the smell of alcohol on his breath making her gag. "Tell me, which blind adventurer was generous enough to let a failure like you earn this much?"
Lili bit her lip, her nails digging into her palms. She said nothing, only lowering her head to stare at the tips of her toes.
She knew resistance was futile. Arguing was useless. Explanations meant nothing.
In the Soma Familia, a Supporter was a walking wallet. If you were lucky, you got to keep a bit for living expenses. If you were unlucky, like her, even your dignity was squeezed dry.
"Not talking?" Zoru snorted, stuffing the stones and materials back into the bag and seizing the purse. "Starting tomorrow, your offering doubles. You bring back at least eight hundred Valis every day, or the equivalent in magic stones."
Lili snapped her head up, emotion finally flickering in her eyes.
"Mr. Zoru, that—that's impossible! Lili is just a Supporter, and—"
"And what?" Zoru cut her off, his eyes cold as ice. "Don't want to do it? Fine. Leave the Familia. Go to the Guild and process the paperwork. However..."
He paused, flashing a bone-chilling grin. "Once you leave the Familia, about that Divine Wine..."
Lili's body began to tremble.
"Be a good girl, Liliruca."
Zoru patted her head, the gesture like someone patting an unruly dog. "Remember to make up the full offering tomorrow. Otherwise... you know the consequences."
Clutching his loot, he headed upstairs humming a tuneless melody.
The hall fell back into a deathly silence. The drunken adventurers looked away, returning to their bottles as if nothing had happened.
Lili stood there for a long time. It wasn't until her legs went numb that she slowly, very slowly, crouched down and buried her face in her knees.
Her shoulders shook, but there was no sound.
She bit her lip hard, forcing the sobs back down. Over the years, she had learned that crying only invited worse treatment.
After a long while, Lili looked up. Her eyes were rimmed with red, but not a single tear fell. She reached into her shirt and felt the cold glass bottle—the potion Lynn had given her.
She couldn't bring herself to use it.
The wounds still stung, but she simply used her sleeve to wipe away the seeping blood and carefully tucked the bottle away.
This was the first thing she had ever received that wasn't charity... but something earned through an equal exchange.
Taking a breath, she braced herself against the wall and stood up.
The backpack was empty, but she still had to prepare her tools for tomorrow.
Zoru said the offering had doubled.
She looked toward the stairs, her gaze gradually turning hollow.
The next morning, Babel entrance.
When Lynn walked over with a yawn, he immediately spotted that small figure with the massive backpack. Liliruca stood at the edge of the crowd like an inconspicuous stone, her eyes searching the entrance.
"You actually showed up." Lynn walked up to her, arching an eyebrow.
Lili seemed startled. Her ears twitched before she lowered her head. "Lili... needs work."
Her voice was even smaller and more lacked confidence than yesterday.
Lynn stared at her for two seconds. He didn't ask questions, simply waving a hand. "Let's go. Today we're hitting the tenth floor. The monsters are denser there, though the path is a bit more winding."
"Yes."
Lili was unusually quiet today. She still followed Lynn efficiently, bending over to pick up every dropped stone and sorting the materials perfectly.
But those amber eyes remained downcast. Occasionally, when she looked at Lynn's back, a flash of complex emotion would cross her face—gratitude, guilt, and a certain kind of desperate vacancy.
During the midday break, they found a relatively safe corner to sit. Lynn pulled water and rations from his inventory, handing a portion to Lili.
"Take it. Why didn't you even bring rations?"
Lili nibbled on the bread in tiny bites, her movements as stiff as if she were on trial.
Lynn leaned against the wall. His gaze swept over Lili's arms as she rolled up her sleeves—beside the scrapes from yesterday, there were several new bruises.
The color was dark; they were clearly fresh.
He frowned.
"That Familia of yours," Lynn took a sip of water, his tone casual as if he were talking about the weather. "Is it always like this?"
Lili froze. She kept her head down for a long, long time before answering in a voice that was barely audible.
"...I'm used to it."
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