Jonathan and Evelyn looked at each other for a moment. Then, after a moment of silence, they turned back to me and nodded.
"That makes sense. We'll be by your side, even then," Jonathan said. He put his fist to his chest, mimicking the salute the town guard of Hewe performed, as he straightened his posture, "If you have problems trusting us, we'll abandon our humanity."
"Huh," I muttered, impressed. I found myself looking at Jonathan and Evelyn, shocked to my core. The humans I had met so far were all flawed and greedy. Some of them would go to great lengths, whether through deception or violence, to attain what they wanted. Jonathan and Evelyn, in the time that I had known them, were the only exceptions.
"We're fed up with how the world is," Jonathan continued. Evelyn nodded, "It's cruel, dangerous, and an unfair place for everybody. We don't want to live in a world like that. We've seen what you're capable of, as well as had a long time to judge your character. You may not be human, nor do you care if humans die or feel pain, but we trust you more than we can trust anybody else in my life."
"You'd even go to the point to abandon your humanity?" I asked. Jonathan and Evelyn nodded. I chuckled, then turned to Aros, who had been silent this entire time, "Aros, is something like that possible?"
"Hmm? Oh, I understand what you mean," Aros said. He put his fingers to his chin as he began to think. Then, after a moment, he looked back at me, "It might be possible, but it's dangerous."
"When is it not? What is it?" I asked as I mumbled the first part under my breath. Aros looked to the twins, then back to me for a moment before he began his explanation.
"Before I tell you, I need to ask the twins a few questions," Aros said. I nodded, then took a few steps away from the twins as Aros moved closer to them. Once he got close, Aros bent his neck down to look at them, which was required because of his towering height. The twins looked like Kobolds when standing next to Aros, an amusing and hilarious sight, "First, are you willing to abandon your humanity? There won't be any going back?"
"If that's what it takes to allow you to trust us," Jonathan said, his eyes glancing from Aros to me for a moment, "Then, yes."
Aros turned to me, then said, "Do you think it's required? Do you feel like you can trust the twins, even if they're still human?"
I looked at Aros, then turned my gaze toward the twins. They stared at me, already having accepted my decision regardless. I began to wonder if that was true. If I needed to go to war, could I have two humans, who I had only known for a short period, at my side? Would it even be right to force them to abandon their humanity? As I thought about it, I was surprised to find no emotions sprung up. My heart told me it wasn't necessary, but my head told me it was. I sighed, then opened my mouth to answer.
"Can you do it in a way that prevents their physical appearance from changing too much?" I asked, "It would be a pain to lose their connections, especially when their sister is a high leveled adventurer. I would like to be able to use that connection to my advantage in the future, but I can't do that if the twins don't look human anymore."
"It is possible," Aros nodded, "It's not exactly what I had in mind, but I can improvise. So, should I consider this as a direct order? Shall I turn the twins into something inhuman?"
I looked to the twins once more. Jonathan met my gaze, then gave a quick nod.
"Yes. Do it," I said as I turned back to Aros once more. Aros nodded. I nodded back, then turned toward Hazel, "I have to look at the XP and DP I got from that last fight. If I'm lucky, I'll have enough to upgrade the dungeon core."
"Understood, My Lord," Aros said. He gave a quick bow, then turned toward the twins. Then, once his attention was focused on them, he chuckled and said, "Now then, why don't we get this started?"
As I left the twins and Aros to do their thing, whatever it was, I walked to Hazel and sat down next to her. As soon as I got comfortable, Hazel quickly nudged her body so she was sitting closer to me.
"How is your arm?" I asked as I looked down at Hazel's elbow. By now, the wound was almost completely healed. She looked at it, then held up her arm and rotated the joint a bit.
"It's almost done," She said. She let her arm fall to her lap. Then, she turned to look at me and said, "How was the fight?"
"I don't know yet. I haven't had a chance to check the spoils," I smiled. I leaned against the wall, then opened my dungeon menu. As my gaze drifted toward the right screen, my eyes quickly found the DP total.
﹃
Total DP: 3070
﹄
"That's less than I thought," I sighed in disappointment. Before the fight, I had managed to save up around 1,000 DP, yet this fight, which brought me the DP from nearly 30 individuals, barely gave me double of that. Just to level up the core one more time, I would still need 7,000 DP, "Well, I can't expect my problems to be solved after one fight. I'll have to work to get stronger."
"You look disappointed," Hazel said. She leaned in closer, then turned her gaze to meet mine with a direct stare. I felt my face fluster for a moment as I looked into her dark green eyes in silence.
"It's fine," I smiled, "I haven't even checked the XP we got. Hopefully, that'll cheer me up."
I turned away from the dungeon menu, then turned toward the status screen in the center of my vision. I looked over everybody else, as well, just to see if they had managed to get a good amount of XP.
I was disappointed, at first, when I saw the low amount of XP. I, because I killed the most out of everybody, gained 780.85 XP. This was mainly thanks to barbequing most of the Caldwell group, though the two siblings that I killed played a large part, thanks to their rank and high level.
Hazel gained 207 XP, though the number was only low because she didn't participate in the main fight. If she had, then I wouldn't have been surprised if her XP value was much higher. However, because of her low level, even that low amount of XP was enough to let her level up.
Icarus, because he only participated in part of the main fight, also didn't get that much XP. He only managed to get 161 XP, which was just short of the amount he needed to level up. However, thanks to his title,『 Son of the Dungeon Master 』, the XP he got was much higher than it should've been. The twins, because they were only B ranked, each got 145.6.
Out of all of us, only Hazel had managed to level up.
﹃
Arthur Aureys
XP: 4907.65/6400
﹄
﹃
Hazel Conley
LVL: 2 -> 3
XP: 15/400
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﹃
Icarus
XP: 1577.4/1600
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﹃
Jonathan Forsyth
LVL: 8
XP: 155.6/12800
﹄
﹃
Evelyn Forsyth
LVL: 8
XP: 656.4/12800
﹄
"Congratulations," I chuckled as I saw Hazel's improvement. I smiled, then looked back at her and said, "You were the only one that leveled up."
"Really?" She said, shocked. Then, she shrugged, "Well, I am at the lowest level."
"Regardless, you deserve it. Good job," I said. Hazel smiled and nodded as she turned her attention toward the twins. They were talking with Aros, but their conversation was too quiet for us to listen in on. I looked at Hazel, then activated『 Appraisal 』to get a refreshed view of her stats.
﹃
Hazel Conley
Race: Dragon
Level: 3
XP: 11/400
HP: 120
MP: 90
AC: 25
DMG: 60, 5 CRS (+)
Rank: S
Equipped Items: Curse Saber- +35 DMG, +5 Curse
Titles: Curse Dragon, Partner of the Dungeon Master
Skills: Morph, Ancestral Magic (LOCKED), Curse Magic, Sprint, Sword Skills, Mana Control
Status Effects: Flame Immunity
﹄
"So, by the way," Hazel said, bringing my attention away from the status screen floating in front of me. I closed the screen, then turned my attention toward Hazel. As she looked at me, I noticed her gaze was a lot less confident before. Even her face had reddened a bit as her eyes darted from me to the ground like a swinging pendulum.
"Yeah?" I asked innocently, not sure why Hazel was acting this way all of the sudden. Hazel looked back at me, then rested her gaze on mine. Her face reddened even further as she did this, but she pushed through her embarrassment, then took a deep breath.
"Earlier, you said something to Stuart when you were fighting him," She whispered. I cocked my head, not sure what she was talking about. As far as I knew, I only sent death threats and insults toward Stuart. Why was she acting this way after hearing a few death threats? I nodded, shaking any distracting thoughts out of my head as I turned my full focus to Hazel. She reddened even further, then said, "Do you remember?"
"Do I remember? Uh," I muttered, even more confused. I began to feel nervous. Did I miss something? Was I expected to remember it? I couldn't help but feel like I was a student that had been caught cheating on a test, though there was no cheating and there was no test that I could take. I looked away from Hazel's gaze as I tried to remember the most important thing that happened during my fight with Stuart. However, as I continued to rack my brain for an answer, I slowly realized what she meant.
My face reddened and my eyes widened to the point where both could be as large as the full moon. I looked back to Hazel, speechless, as she met my gaze. Suddenly, after both of us realized what she was talking about, my nervousness and her embarrassment almost overwhelmed us.
"Don't you remember?" She asked. I slowly nodded, though her gaze was away from me so she didn't notice. She continued on, pushing through her embarrassment like it was an enemy fortification in war, "You said I was your woman? Did you mean it?"
"Uh," I stammered, now even more nervous. I thought back to the moment when I first decided to personally kill Stuart. My mind was full of rage, so obviously I wasn't too worried about what I said at that moment. The memory of that moment struck my mind like a bolt of lightning, bringing everything else to life. A special part in my lower body reacted strongest, almost like it was hearing a call to action, though I hardly noticed as I attempted to find the words I needed to say, "Uh, I don't know."
"You don't know?" She muttered with a disappointed voice. Her eyes and shoulders drooped down, reacting in a similar way to a depressed dog, as she listened to my answer. I groaned, then rubbed my hair as I tried to find a way to make this situation less awkward. Hazel looked back at me, then said with confidence, "What does your heart tell you?"
I froze, then turned to look back at Hazel. I met her dark green eyes and stopped. My nervousness began to fade like it was washing itself away, as I lost myself in her gaze. I thought about her question. How did my heart feel about her? How did I react when she was happy? When she was sad? I thought about the memories we had shared over the last month or so.
Out of all of the people I had become good friends with, none beat Hazel, but none were as risky as Hazel. She was my best friend, my compadre, my second half. Did I love her? I had no idea, but I wasn't against the idea. Hazel was beautiful, and a dragon no less. She would have the power and lifespan to be at my side, all through my life. However, having a relationship with her was another story. Whether or not that relationship was worth risking our friendship was the big question, one that I didn't know the answer to.
So, as Hazel had asked me, I turned to my heart. I let my emotions control my actions, rather than my usual logical decisions. This wasn't a time to commit to my ideal of 'rational thinking only'. No, this was a time to let my soul have its time to speak.
I looked up at Hazel, then said, "Yes, I did mean it."