"Well, well, look who we have here. What a surprise, isn't it, Brian?"
A calm voice carrying a hint of arrogance rang out from high above, where a rocky outcropping jutted out into the open air. Brian and Noelle looked up at the same time. Standing there were three members of Golden Dawn, the Magic Knight squad said to be the strongest in the Clover Kingdom.
A tall, handsome young man with black hair and golden eyes, standing beside him a young man with glasses who appeared to be the senior member of the group, and a beautiful girl roughly the same age as everyone else present.
Yuno stood at the center, the hem of his cloak embroidered with a sun emblem drifting lightly in the pale green wind radiating from his body. The two people flanking Yuno were Klaus Lunettes and Mimosa Vermillion.
These two had been accompanying Yuno for most of the time since he joined Golden Dawn, so they had also been assigned this Dungeon mission together with him.
"Yeah, what a surprise. Who would have thought we'd get the chance to work together this soon."
Brian curled his lip slightly. He answered Yuno in a nonchalant tone, as though the two of them were running into each other back in Hage Village rather than in the middle of a Dungeon while carrying out an important mission.
Yuno smiled without saying anything. He controlled his mana and guided his group of three into a landing so smooth and gentle it was like a leaf drifting down to the ground.
The wind surrounding the three of them dissipated. Yuno's eyes swept briefly over Noelle before settling on Brian, as though sizing up how much his old friend had changed since joining the "worst Magic Knight squad."
"It's only been a few weeks, but you look a lot stronger, Brian."
"Same goes for you, Yuno."
The two of them quickly took stock of each other's mana. Yuno's mana had become more refined and sharp, while Brian's had grown harder and more solid. It seemed neither of them had been neglecting their magic training or the work of improving the quality of their mana.
The two old friends fell into conversation, and it appeared they had inadvertently forgotten that everyone else was still standing right there.
The amicable mood between the two old friends was immediately shattered by a cold scoff from the young man walking beside Yuno. Klaus pushed up his glasses, his eyes sharp with disapproval as they dropped to the Black Bull emblems on Noelle's and Brian's robes.
"What a peculiar arrangement."
Klaus spoke with a sardonic edge. "What was the Magic Emperor thinking, allowing the worst Magic Knight squad in the kingdom to show up at an important mission like this?"
Klaus's contemptuous attitude toward the Black Bulls dissolved the harmonious atmosphere that Brian and Yuno had created between them in an instant. Brian had been planning to use the easy mood from his reunion with Yuno to draw the two groups closer together, but it seemed that idea was not going to work out.
Standing beside Brian, Noelle frowned slightly at Klaus's cutting remark. She was used to this kind of thing, but that did not mean she found it any less unpleasant.
Noelle's gaze settled on Klaus with an emotion that was far from friendly, and then the silver-haired girl shifted her eyes to the girl standing beside Klaus.
If Klaus made Noelle feel annoyed, then Mimosa gave Noelle a more complicated feeling altogether, a whole tangle of emotions rising in her when she laid eyes on the Golden Dawn girl. Because of this, she made no move to go over and greet her.
"Things like this can happen."
Brian spoke up in an amiable tone. He looked at Noelle, then at Yuno's two teammates, and with a single glance he could tell that the one looking down on his group more than anyone else was Klaus.
"If the Magic Emperor chose us for this mission, then he must have judged us to be capable. Are you really questioning his decision?"
The matter of attitudes and prejudice was not something that could be changed in a short time, nor through any single major event. Brian also held no expectation that he would earn respect from others before he had done something that forced people like Klaus to acknowledge him.
"What do you mean by that?"
Klaus stepped forward, placing himself one step ahead of Yuno. "I am not questioning the Magic Emperor. What I'm questioning is whether the Black Bulls are worthy of his trust. He trusted us enough to assign this important mission to us, and we will carry it out with the seriousness it deserves."
He pushed up his glasses once more and continued, his eyes on Brian and Noelle. "Just look at you. If I recall correctly, both squads were each supposed to send three people to this Dungeon, weren't they? Where is the third member of your group? Don't tell me they ran away, or got killed by a trap in here. How utterly unprofessional!"
Yuno and Mimosa both frowned slightly as they heard Klaus direct those words at the two Black Bull members, but neither of them spoke up to stop their senior.
As for Yuno, he trusted that Brian would not be the slightest bit affected by anything Klaus said. As for Mimosa, she felt Klaus's words were a little harsh, but she also believed they were not entirely wrong.
"Our senior went to deal with the enemy."
Brian answered in an unhurried tone, completely unaffected by Klaus's words. He pointed in a direction far from where they were standing and relayed the situation to Yuno's group.
"People from the Diamond Kingdom have already entered this Dungeon. We decided to have him go and take care of them, while the two of us would find a way to regroup with your team and look for the treasure."
Half truth, half fabrication. Brian had no intention of letting someone like Klaus know that Luck had wandered off purely out of a desire to fight. If he did that, there was no telling how much longer Klaus would continue to criticize them.
"Hmph, what a recklessly foolish plan."
Klaus commented immediately. "What was that person thinking, leaving two rookies behind in a Dungeon and just walking away like that."
"It's fine. He's very strong, and we're perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves."
Brian answered in a steady tone. "I can sense mana extremely well in an environment suited for it, like this Dungeon. I think we should cooperate and make our way to the treasure together. I already know where the treasure is located. We can reach it from here in just a few minutes of travel."
He paused briefly and looked straight into Klaus's eyes. Klaus stared back without yielding an inch. Brian let a smile cross his face, an expression with something decidedly cunning about it on a face that was already quite difficult to like, as he continued speaking.
"The Magic Emperor assigned this mission to both squads, so you've already figured out that he wants the worst squad and the best squad to work together, haven't you? A person who criticized us for being unprofessional surely wouldn't let his own oversized ego get in the way of cooperation and end up obstructing this important mission, would he? Would he, senior?"
Klaus clicked his tongue at Brian's choice of words and the tone of voice he used when emphasizing certain parts of what he had just said. He found it deeply irritating.
The unfriendliness and hostility Klaus had directed at Brian and Noelle earlier came from the fact that he had already guessed the reason the Magic Emperor would send two groups from two completely opposite Magic Knight squads out on the same mission together. He felt that the Black Bulls would get in Golden Dawn's way, and so he had shown them no respect whatsoever.
But regardless of whether Klaus wanted this or not, the mission had been handed down by the Magic Emperor himself. Whether he liked it or not, he still had to carry out the orders from his superiors.
Despite feeling as though Brian had grabbed him by the nose and was leading him around like a water buffalo, he could not bring himself to refuse Brian's proposal to cooperate.
"Fine. As a Magic Knight of the Clover Kingdom, and as a member of Golden Dawn, I accept the Black Bulls' proposal to cooperate."
Klaus's voice made it sound as though he was being forced to act against his own conscience, and the others could practically hear his teeth grinding as he said it.
Yuno, standing close to Klaus, could not help but smile as he watched the way Brian had maneuvered Klaus into allowing the two groups to work together. As for Mimosa, she was looking at Brian with something that resembled admiration for having managed to persuade someone as stubborn as Klaus.
"Good."
Brian adjusted his tone. This time he showed considerably more respect in his manner toward Klaus. "Then let's get going. Yuno will carry all five of us, and I'll guide him. You don't have a problem with that, do you?"
"No... of course not."
"Then let's move."
And so, through Brian's skillful persuasion, all five of them set off toward the treasure in an atmosphere of "friendly" cooperation united behind a common goal.
The treasure was not too far from where they had been standing, and with Yuno's speed and Brian's precise guidance, their group of five would make it to the location of the treasure without encountering any obstacle along the way.