On the way back, the ordinary monsters of the mid-upper floors posed little real threat to the girls. Even so, the relentless string of battles had taken its toll.
Aihara Enju had it worst of all.
The boots she wore — plain, ordinary material from the start — had been flirting with total ruin for quite some time. So it was that on the return trip, cutting through the tenth floor, she drove a kick into the thick, stubborn sternum of a hobgoblin blocking their path.
Crack.
The sole of Aihara Enju's boot finally gave up the ghost entirely — splitting clean off. And it didn't stop there: the upper disintegrated into a few ragged strips of cloth, leaving nothing that could remotely be called a shoe.
There was nothing to be done.
Enju shed the scraps and, bare feet and all, clambered up onto Kyoubou's broad back, letting the massive creature carry her the rest of the way.
By the time the group wound up the long staircase from the depths of Babel Tower and stepped out of the Dungeon, the sky above had gone completely dark.
The Magic Stone lamps lining both sides of the street blinked to life one by one, their soft, starlike glow pushing back the night and draping the labyrinth city in a glittering, festive air.
A black bear the size of a small hill lumbering down a cobblestone street still drew its share of stares — adventurers and passersby alike pausing to gawk.
The girls ignored every single one of them.
Their minds were elsewhere — fixed on what Inaba Tsukuyo had overheard at the entrance to the eighteenth floor. A hushed, furtive conversation about illegal dealings: the buying and selling of monsters that had somehow retained their reason. And something even more unsettling — a possible hidden exit from the Dungeon that no one was supposed to know about.
The water ran far deeper here than it appeared. This was not something to sit on.
They had to report to Kami-sama at once.
And so the group quickened their pace, following a route they knew by heart after several trips, cutting straight through the clamor of the main streets and heading for the upscale residential district at the corner of North Avenue and West Avenue.
...
Half an hour later. Inside the three-story stone manor.
The moment they pushed open the carved front door, a wave of warm air washed over them, carrying a faint, pleasant trace of tea.
The Magic Stone lamps in the entrance hall were already lit, casting a gentle, amber glow.
Haimer was seated on the wide ironwood rattan sofa. He still wore the same white shirt with its sleeves rolled to the elbow, a cup of red tea in one hand, his eyes resting on a thick pharmacology text spread open across his lap.
He looked up at the sound of the door.
Those deep, calm dark eyes swept over the group filing in. He closed the book, set it on the side table, and spoke.
"You're back."
Haimer's voice was quiet — the kind of calm that made a full day's exhaustion melt away on the spot.
"Yes! Kami-sama, we're back," Onigawara Rin called out first, stepping forward.
Her gaze wandered around the hall. The twin-tailed little goddess who was usually glued to Kami-sama's side, chattering away without pause, was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Hestia-sama? How come she's not here?"
"You came back a bit later than expected," Haimer said. "Hephaestus finally ended her workshop seclusion today. Once she came out, she said she wanted to relax and offered to treat everyone to dinner at the Hostess of Fertility. That fool heard someone else was paying for a big meal and followed along without a second thought."
"I stayed behind to wait for you."
Haimer said it lightly, but those words kindled a quiet warmth in every girl's chest — followed immediately by a twinge of guilt. Their own god had been sitting here alone, waiting for them.
"Thank you for waiting, Kami-sama," Kikakujou Mary said, dipping her head in a small bow.
"It was nothing," Haimer said, waving it off. His gaze swept the group. "So — first time down below. What did you think?"
"The Dungeon was so much fun!" Aihara Enju shot her hand up from where she was still perched on Kyoubou's back, practically vibrating with excitement. Her orange hoodie was dusty from the trip, but her energy was completely undimmed. "The monsters are ugly, but caving their skulls in felt incredible!"
"They're just too weak, though. Not enough to cut through," Hiruko Kohina added, hand drifting to the small tachi at her hip, her reddish-orange eyes full of unfinished appetite.
Haimer smiled and nodded.
His gaze finally settled on the Holy Emperor, standing somewhat apart from the others, visibly ill at ease.
"Something on your mind?"
He saw straight through her.
Called out by her god without warning, the Holy Emperor's hands tightened almost imperceptibly at her sides. She bit her lower lip — just slightly.
It was a rare, unguarded fragility that sat strangely alongside the aristocratic poise she wore like a second skin, and the contrast made her impossibly easy to feel for.
"Today in the Dungeon, we ran into monsters — everyone worked together well and we handled it without much trouble," she began.
She lowered her pale violet eyes.
"But… as a member of the party, I couldn't seem to be useful in any real way. I spent the whole time at the very back, sheltered behind everyone else layer by layer." She paused. "If things stay like this, I'm afraid I'll only ever be a burden to the Familia."
There was a clear undercurrent of dejection in her voice.
Haimer was not surprised. That kind of psychological whiplash — the gulf between expectation and reality — was entirely to be expected.
"There's no need to rush, Holy Emperor," he said.
"Every tool has its use; every inch its advantage. After receiving God's Grace, the traits each person manifests and the direction they grow are different — all different. Right now you're measuring your weaknesses against other people's strengths. That's simply not a fair comparison."
"You must understand: what you've awakened is a dual wide-area magic — something extraordinarily rare even by the standards of the gods."
"That means your value was never in charging to the front of a party and hacking away at foul-smelling monsters with a sword. Your value lies in the moment the whole party is driven into a corner — when everyone is at their limit and on the verge of falling."
Haimer held the Holy Emperor's gaze, his voice unhurried and steady.
"Don't be in such a hurry. Every party needs a member who can anchor things when everything falls apart. Become the core — the one who can drag everyone back from the edge of death with magic, the most unshakeable pillar the entire Familia has."
"When your magical capacity finishes taking shape, you'll find that what you're capable of is far larger than anything you can imagine right now."
At those words, spoken directly by her god, the faint darkness that self-doubt had cast over the Holy Emperor's violet eyes cleared. Light crept back into them.
The helpless, hollow weight that had built up in her chest — it eased, noticeably.
She pressed her lips together, smoothed the hem of her skirt, and gave Haimer a deep, deliberate bow.
"I understand. Thank you for your guidance, Kami-sama."
...
With the Holy Emperor's doubts gently put to rest, Haimer's attention shifted — and landed on Aihara Enju, still draped across Kyoubou's back.
More precisely: on her bare, pale little feet.
Enju seemed to sense it the instant her god's eyes found her. Her body went slightly rigid. She looked down.
Her small, soft feet were filmed with a layer of Dungeon grime.
The excitement drained from her face in an instant, replaced by a flush of embarrassment. She curled her feet back as if trying to hide them, rubbing one ankle against the other.
Her crimson eyes carried the faintest trace of mortification.
"Kami-sama," Enju mumbled, plucking at the hem of her hoodie.
"Kami-sama… in the Dungeon just now, when I was kicking that monster — the hobgoblin — I used a little too much force."
"So the boots that Warabi-nee lent me… I sort of… accidentally broke them."
Her voice got smaller with every word. By the end, her chin had nearly touched her chest.
It made a certain kind of sense. Back in her old world, breaking something nice that someone else had given her wasn't just embarrassing — even lingering too long over food at a street stall would earn her a beating and a swift ejection from the block.
Causing trouble meant being abandoned. That was the rule.
For a little girl who had spent her whole life being pushed away, reading every face around her just to survive, it was only natural to feel a clench of dread at the thought of upsetting an adult over something small.
Haimer looked at her — this small figure braced and waiting for a scolding she was sure was coming — and quietly set his teacup down.
The scolding did not come.
Haimer rose from the sofa. He crossed the room to Enju in a few long strides, reached out, and gave her head a gentle, unhurried pat.
"A pair of boots. That's all." His voice was easy. "If they broke, they broke. It was a foreseeable outcome from the start. I'm sure Warabi won't mind."
"Besides — what ordinary leather was ever going to hold up against the force behind one of your kicks? Don't give a little thing like this another thought."
With that, Haimer turned and walked to the obsidian round table. He reached out and, with a click, unlatched the large iron chest he had brought back from the workshop.
As the lid came up, he lifted out a pair of boots: small and slim, gleaming silver-white all over, with finely articulated movable joints designed into the ankle and the curve of the calf.
He carried them back, crouched down in front of Enju without ceremony, and picked up a clean white towel from the rack nearby. He dried her small feet carefully — scrubbing away the grime — and then, just as naturally, slid the gleaming silver-white metal boots onto her feet himself, fastening each side buckle with care.
The whole sequence was fluid, unhurried, completely without fuss.
When he was done, Haimer pressed the segmented articulated joints along the boot's edges one by one, confirming that none of them would bind or restrict the movement of Enju's ankles when she kicked.
"A perfect fit."
"Think of this as a small welcome gift."
"The primary material I used for these boots is the wing membrane of a deep-level Wyvern from the fifty-sixth floor. The outer layer is purified star iron."
"Stand up and take a few steps — see how they feel."
Enju stepped down from Kyoubou's back in a daze and trod carefully across the floor. The metal boots were startlingly light — they conformed to her feet as though they had always been hers, with not the slightest pinch or bite.
"With these, you won't ever have to worry about your boots giving out in the Dungeon again," Haimer continued. "On top of that, the kinetic circulation structure built into the soles will let you generate air vortices in mid-air — with no foothold at all — so you can chain consecutive jumps. They also absorb the impact force of a high-altitude drop and, when your kick connects with an enemy, convert it into bonus explosive damage."
Haimer explained the equipment's properties patiently.
But Enju didn't hear a single word.
As a Cursed Child carrying the Gastrea virus factor — in her old world, that was all she was. A monster. A plague rat. Something to be driven off the street with hurled stones, herded like garbage into the cold, reeking sewers by people who looked down from far above, forced to compete with actual rats over mold-covered scraps every single day.
Even when they were used and wrung dry for their fighting ability, what they received in return was always the same: wariness, and disgust.
Never — not once — not once had anyone ever looked at her the way he just had.
Without a shred of prejudice.
No one had ever thought to wonder whether her boots might wear out. And no one — no one — had ever done what he had just done: crouched down without the slightest sign of reluctance, wiped the mud off her dirty feet with a towel, and put new shoes on her with his own hands.
A fierce, swelling feeling burst open inside that small chest — a dam giving way all at once.
"Kami-sama…"
Enju's eyes went red in an instant. Tears spilled over.
She launched herself forward.
Both small hands locked around Haimer's waist in a grip that would not let go. She buried her face deep into the fabric of his black formal wear, and when her voice came, it was thick and trembling.
"Thank you… thank you, Kami-sama… uuu…"
The tears soaked through to the cloth at his waist almost immediately.
Haimer felt the shaking against him. He raised a hand with quiet resignation and rested it on the back of her head — patting her, slowly and gently.
After a good while, Enju's sobs finally began to quiet.
At Haimer's gentle prompting, she released her grip, red-faced, scrubbed the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand, and took her place obediently at his side.
And with that, Haimer turned back to the iron chest and continued bringing out the rest of the equipment.
"These are light armor sets and protective gear woven from the mutant spider silk of the Dungeon's deep floors, blended with hardened steel. They look thin, but their physical defense and elemental resistance outperform some of the finest Rank One heavy armor — and they won't hinder your movement in the slightest. In a pinch, they'll save your life."
It wasn't just the Holy Emperor and the others who received their share. Amou Kirukiru — the first of the Five Swords to have joined — was not left out either. Reinforced arm guards, fitted inner-armor linings, and every other piece, all refined to match their individual fighting styles, were handed out one by one.
Loki Familia was bleeding resources today.
When it was all done, the girls held their new gear in their hands and felt the unmistakable, impossible solidity of it. The admiration in their eyes as they looked at Haimer grew heavier by the second.
Once the last of the equipment had been distributed, Haimer clapped his hands together and closed the now-empty chest.
"All right. Now that that's settled —"
"Let's head to the Hostess of Fertility. Hephaestus and the others are probably starting to wonder where we are."
The announcement of a proper dinner lit up the air in the room instantly.
But.
Even with her new armor in hand, Inaba Tsukuyo had not forgotten the real business of the day.
"Oh — right." She turned toward Haimer and spoke quietly. "Kami-sama."
"At the entrance to the nineteenth floor."
"We ran into a group of people."
____
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