"At this hour… I don't even know how Liz is doing. Is she at least eating properly?"
Raul's mind was entirely on Liz. He was so distracted he could hardly get food down. All he wanted was for the banquet to end so he could hurry home and check on her.
Watching the hall and sensing the mood winding down, he started looking for an excuse to slip away. "You all keep drinking—I'm going to the restroom."
"Mm, go ahead," the teammate beside him answered, thinking nothing of it.
Raul took the chance and headed out of the dining room—only for his consciousness to halt the moment he crossed the threshold. Darkness wrapped around him as he was dragged into another space; frozen mid-air, he hung there unconscious while Tiona and Tione studied him with sharp, measuring eyes.
"This guy's sneaking around again," Tiona muttered. "The banquet isn't even over and he's already making up excuses to run off. What exactly was he planning to do?"
Loki's face wasn't pretty either. Raul trying to leave before the party ended made her stomach sink—especially with how often he'd been out lately. Bete had already reported that Raul's visits to the "Training Space" and "Challenge Space" had dropped way off, nothing like the hard-charging pace he'd kept before. Put together, Loki had plenty of reason to doubt where Raul's focus had gone.
"Tsunayoshi—check him."
No more talk; Loki waved Tsunayoshi forward. Don't overthink it—verify first that he hadn't sold out the familia.
A pale crimson mote wriggled past Raul's temple—Tsunayoshi's "Memory Worm" slipped into his mind and began to sift. A quick pass was enough.
"It's not betrayal," Tsunayoshi said. "He's been going out for another reason."
He paused, then added, "But he has been misappropriating the familia's rolling funds. He skimmed 120,000,000 valis."
Not treason—but embezzlement.
That was serious enough in its own right. The familia's liquid funds weren't anyone's personal purse; get caught, and you could be expelled on the spot. And a hundred and twenty million far exceeded any threshold Loki would tolerate.
"What the hell—where did this punk get the guts to pull that!?" Loki snapped. Relief about Tsunayoshi's secret turned to instant fury.
Tiona and Tione stared at the suspended Raul, equally thrown. They hadn't expected sneaking for this reason—not to sell information, but to dip into the familia's money.
"As for why… I'm guessing Miss Liz 'couldn't keep up,'" Tsunayoshi said.
"Couldn't… keep up?" Loki blinked.
"She's pregnant."
"…Pregnant!?"
Loki's eyes went round. Tiona and Tione were just as stunned. Of all the explanations for Raul's constant trips out, fatherhood wasn't one they'd considered.
"This fast?" Loki spluttered. "Hasn't it been less than three months since he even met that elf?"
Compared to news of betrayal, this was somehow more outrageous. Loki could hardly believe the speed—or the efficiency.
Tsunayoshi coughed, a touch embarrassed after paging through Raul's memories. "They haven't known each other long, no—but the frequency was… high. Their compatibility is good, their rhythm very in-sync. So they got careless and—well."
"Looks like it was confirmed about a month ago," he added.
Loki blew out a breath. "So he's competent in that department, at least."
"No wonder he's been running out so often lately," she muttered. "Seventeen this year… curiosity at its peak—and an elf woman taking the initiative. Losing control isn't exactly unheard of."
"But the nerve," Loki's voice hardened, "to dip into the familia's funds a second time. I remember he misappropriated money once before to go to the Pleasure Quarter—and not even six months later, here we are again."
"We'll sort the money after," she said coldly. "However much he swallowed, he'll spit back exactly that much."
"Still… in this situation, looks like Bete's effort went to waste."
"Bete's effort?" Tsunayoshi asked. "What did you mean by that?"
"What else—this kid," Loki flicked her eyes at Raul. "Bete thought Raul's recent slump was just because he couldn't keep his lower half under control. So he tried to 'stimulate' him—brought in Alicia and Angie, both pushing hard toward Level 5, hoping their grind would light a fire under him."
"But Raul's problem isn't just self-control," she said, exasperated. "He went and made a baby. With that on his plate, no amount of example from Alicia and Angie will matter."
"So, yes—Bete's plan was for nothing."
Tsunayoshi nodded slowly. So that was the story behind the two hardworking female adventurers Bete had recommended earlier.
And if it was like this, then Bete's idea really had been doomed. Pregnancy alone would swallow a year or two of Raul's focus. Maybe the familia would still keep him on after that—but commanding Second Squad again? Unlikely.
Meanwhile, the rest of Loki Familia was clawing upward. In a year or two, Level 3 might well be the floor. With the Training Space accelerating everyone's growth, the latecomers would be anything but weak. If Raul missed this window, he'd slip into the crowd of ordinary adventurers.
If that happened, Loki could only sigh and call it a pity. Time and opportunity had been right in front of him—and he'd failed to seize either.
(End of Chapter)
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