Inside Twilight Manor, crisp footsteps echoed one after another.
Finn stood in the center of the courtyard, directing the Familia members as they carried the day's earnings into the headquarters warehouse.
Among the bags filled with gleaming golden Valis, only a portion had come from selling the Magic Stones dropped by monsters in the Dungeon.
The overwhelming majority was compensation paid by the Guild.
"Raul, how's the count coming along?"
"Ah, Gareth-sama!"
Raul, who had been holding a pen and paper while recording something, nearly jumped when one of the Familia executives suddenly called his name.
He hurriedly straightened himself.
"I-I haven't finished counting everything yet, but according to my current estimate, it should be enough to fill the holes left by our previous expeditions. We should even have quite a bit left over."
"Hahaha! Then I'm drinking a few extra bottles tonight to celebrate!"
"Yes!"
"Oh?"
Gareth grinned.
"That response... Are you challenging me to a drinking contest? Ha! I like young men with guts!"
"N-No! Please spare me!"
Hearing the commotion between his companions in the distance, Finn gave a helpless smile.
Just then, the light to his right suddenly disappeared as a shadow fell over him.
"Finn."
Riveria had somehow escaped from the worshipful gazes of a group of elves and arrived beside him.
She glanced around at the busy adventurers before closing one eye.
"What do you think of the Guild's behavior?"
"In what respect?"
"The compensation."
Riveria frowned slightly.
"The amount they're offering this time is far too generous. The monsters themselves are already producing an astonishing amount of profit, yet the Guild has added such a substantial reward on top of that."
"It almost feels as though—"
"They're deliberately using the money to keep us tied to the Dungeon so we don't wander around elsewhere."
Before Riveria could finish, Finn completed the thought with a smile.
He clearly agreed with her.
"If you already understand that, then what do you think they're trying to accomplish?"
Seeing that Finn had noticed the Guild's intentions from the beginning, Riveria's brows drew together.
She certainly disliked the fact that the Guild was intentionally concealing information from them.
But she also wanted to hear someone else's interpretation.
Loki Familia's leadership had reached its current position precisely because people of different races and backgrounds constantly challenged one another's perspectives.
"They're having our Familias take turns guarding the Dungeon."
Finn bit the thumb of his right hand as he began sorting through the information in his mind.
"With one Familia assigned to guard duty, other powerful Familias like Ganesha Familia, whose members need stronger monsters for training, will naturally reduce how often they enter."
"And the Familia currently stationed inside has to focus nearly all its attention on eliminating newly spawned monsters before any enhanced species can climb toward the higher floors."
He organized the clues one by one, using years of leadership experience to infer the Guild's ultimate objective.
"If the Guild truly has another purpose, I'd guess it involves something inside the Dungeon."
"Something they need to do without us seeing it."
Before Riveria could respond, however, Finn suddenly changed his tone and smiled.
"But the Guild is also responsible for maintaining order in Orario."
"If some major disaster occurred, their own interests would suffer."
"They have no reason to create several high-ranking Familias that openly oppose them for nothing."
Finn shrugged.
"So my conclusion is simple."
"It doesn't matter."
"No matter what the Guild intends to do, they'll try to control the consequences and keep the matter from interfering with us."
"Until that changes, we can simply continue maintaining our mutually beneficial relationship with them."
Riveria released a heavy sigh.
"It's precisely because you always look at things from the perspective of benefits and interests that there's still a faint distance between you and the other Familia members."
"You know why."
Finn smiled faintly.
"If I want to accomplish my dream, prestige is indispensable."
"Even so, you need to relax occasionally."
"How strict."
Finn's smile became teasing.
"When you were lecturing Ais yesterday, I don't remember you worrying about emotional distance either, Mama-san."
"Who are you calling Mama-san?!"
The Pallum's teasing instantly shattered Riveria's elven elegance.
She lifted the staff in her hand as though preparing to bring it down on Finn's head.
"Hahaha! Sorry. Forgive me this once."
Finn immediately raised his hands.
"I just finished talking about maintaining my prestige. I'd rather not get smacked over the head in front of the youngsters immediately afterward."
"If you know I'll hit you, then stop calling me Mama-san in front of Alicia and the others!"
Riveria glared at him.
"I do not want to hear my fellow elves calling me Mama-san every other sentence!"
Despite her words, she never actually swung the staff.
Instead, following Finn's mention of the younger members, Riveria looked in their direction.
"Ahhh! Why does only Ais get a day off?!"
Tiona loudly complained as she dropped an overstuffed crate onto the ground hard enough to make the earth shake twice.
"I want a break too! I want to go buy some new clothes!"
Ever since Tiona learned that Riveria had ordered Ais to rest because she had been fighting monsters too recklessly, her playful instincts had immediately awakened.
She had promptly asked Finn for a day off so she could follow Ais.
Tione mercilessly suppressed the request on the grounds that they were already short on manpower.
As a result, apart from killing monsters in the Dungeon, Tiona had spent most of the day complaining about it.
Considering how hard she had worked today, and the fact that Tione's decision to stop her had admittedly contained a little personal bias, everyone in the Familia had simply turned a blind eye to the whining.
This time, however, someone finally lost patience.
"Shut up!"
Bete displayed his usual talent for making himself incredibly irritating.
"You're always whining over stupid little things like this! No wonder you're constantly one step behind Ais!"
"Hah?!"
Tiona whipped around.
"You bastard werewolf! Didn't you level up on the exact same day I did?! What right do you have to lecture me?!"
"At least I'm not throwing a tantrum just because Ais got a day off!"
Bete sneered.
"And with that completely flat body of yours, it doesn't matter what clothes you wear anyway!"
"You wanna fight?!"
Tiona's face twisted.
"You definitely wanna fight, don't you?! Come on! Who's scared of you?!"
"Um... Lefiya?"
Watching Bete and Tiona erupt into a fierce argument almost instantly, Lefiya's roommate, Elfy Colette, nervously tugged at the hem of her clothes.
"Aren't you going to stop them...?"
"Huh?"
Lefiya looked at Elfy in confusion.
"Why would I stop them?"
"Well... if this keeps going, won't it cause problems during the next expedition?"
Elfy swallowed.
"Two executives seriously fighting with each other and all that..."
What she really wanted to say was that if no one stopped them soon, Twilight Manor might get demolished.
But remembering how their previous arguments usually ended, she decided to phrase it differently.
"That's just how Bete-san is."
Lefiya calmly explained.
"If he's insulting someone, it usually means he still cares about them. His way of expressing it is just... a little difficult to accept."
She was remembering something Shiro had once told her in the Dungeon.
Then, in the very next second, Lefiya seemed to transform into an entirely different person.
Her shoulders sank visibly, and she began muttering under her breath.
"Besides... if they really start fighting, maybe we'll get a break too."
Her lips slowly curled upward.
"Then I could go shopping with Ais-san... Heh... Hehehe..."
"Lefi... ya?"
Elfy stared at the increasingly unsettling smile on Lefiya's face.
"What?"
"N-No... nothing."
Elfy quietly looked away.
Only one thought remained in her mind.
'Lefiya seems to have gotten a little... devious.'
…