(General POV)
"I suppose it has been a long time Syr." Lyze replied as he held her hand while she balanced herself. On a side note, he noticed how dainty her fingers despite the slight callousness of them and the strength he could feel from her grip, although it was nothing compared to his own strength.
Some contradictions he supposed were a welcome thing.
"You gave me quite a shock." She said sheepishly before looking towards the basket she'd dropped on the ground. Some of the towels inside had been spilled out onto the muddy pavement. Syr groaned a little as she gently picked them up. "I was supposed to bring these back to Mama Mia straight from the laundrette. Now they're dirty again."
"Your fault for just suddenly appearing out of that alley so quickly." Lyze said. As he spoke he kept his guards up on full. From somewhere nearby he could feel a malicious gaze locked onto him that began the moment he bumped into her.
From simple deduction, it was clear that who he'd bumped into was not Horn but Freya in her Syr persona. And because her Familia were so hell-bent on keeping her safe and monitoring her whereabouts, one of Freya's children had to be nearby. And judging by how they were able to hide their presence despite him being able to feel their gaze, he could only deduce that it was one of the higher levelled ones.
It couldn't be Ottar since for one thing, the Boaz was not one to get that worked up over him simply bumping into his Lady. So it had to be one of the other executives. Of course, Lyze could easily find him whoever they were. Just as he was about to use Chaos Vision to scan the area though, Syr gave him a very cute and small pout.
"Well it's your fault for not grabbing the basket when you grabbed me!"
"...What kind of accusation is that? You were about to fall into the mud so obviously I prioritised you over the basket. Shouldn't you be thanking me?"
"I would normally." Syr looked down sullenly. Lyze felt the malicious gaze intensify. Now he definitely knew it was one of the other executives. "But Mama Mia is so scary when she's angry. Without sufficient clean cloths, we won't be able to do the cleaning rounds when we're done with our shifts."
"And there goes my naïve self expecting praise for saving a damsel." Lyze held his face in his hand. "Of course the world is not going to be that simple."
Syr blushed before she murmured. "It was not fair the way you grabbed me as well. You need to work on these things before being that comfortable."
"I'm sorry but I'm not interested in you that way." Lyze said simply.
"Huh?" Syr looked shocked. "But how? Aren't boys supposed to fall in love at first sight with a cute girl like me?" She placed a finger on her lips which formed into another pout as she gave him the puppy-eyes.
Let it be known that this deadly weapon often employed by females whenever they want something from the opposite sex never sat well with Alexander Turner. He had a history of once kicking someone in the face because they tried to force something out of him with that same expression.
As Lyzof Keele, while his temper and his control swayed a lot more, he did not get so easily annoyed by cringe stuff like this. It only left him mildly unamused.
"The most beautiful things tend to be the ugliest within, Syr Flover. That's a principle I tend to live by and one which I don't let go of until I get to know people better. I've not let go of it from the get-go when meeting anybody new and I'm not about to start with you."
"But we have met before!"
"Once. This is our second encounter, which is not nearly enough for me to get a good judge of character on you. As we are now, we are mere acquaintances, let alone potential lovers." Lyze crossed his arms and tapped his foot. "I'm still waiting for that thank you by the way."
"Nuh-Uh. You bumped me and made these towels dirty, so I'm not going to thank you."
"Stubborn girl." Lyze rolled his eyes before clicking one of his fingers. Syr watched as the towels that were caked in mud rose into the air before a pinkish glow flashed over them and before her eyes, there were clean again. They floated over to the laundry basket before being deposited by whatever force held them aloft inside.
She amazedly picked one up and inspected it all over, and upon finding not a speck of dirt on it, she gave Lyze an open-mouthed stare.
"It's all clean again!" She exclaimed.
"I can see that. I'm the one who did it after all."
"How? Was that magic?"
"What do you think it was?"
"But I thought magic could only be used in battles."
"Attack magic maybe. Magic for the day to day like this? I would suppose I'm the only one who could do this." What Lyze had used was the {Clean} spell that he'd use every morning he got up.
While he appreciated a nice hot shower and a bath just as much as anyone else, he didn't like the morning rush for the stalls. Not to mention Aki who kept on sneaking in to prank him with ink wells. This spell was just as effective if not more so than a bath, and it also cut time in his morning schedule by a lot.
"I suppose I'm owed a 'thank you' now, wouldn't you say Miss Flover?"
Syr looked at him before pouting extra hard this time. Though she conceded after a few seconds and got up to bow her head.
"Thank you Lyze for helping me."
'You're welcome.' Lyze thought gleefully as he revelled in managing to turn Freya's petty little game of emotions on her.
"I know!" Syr suddenly exclaimed which even startled him slightly. "You haven't been to the Hostess ever since that day you levelled up! Why don't you swing by tonight and I'll make sure to thank you properly. I'll serve you myself!"
"I'll think about it." Lyze muttered in reply. He paused for a moment before reaching out and pulling on her cheek.
"Hey!" She said as she tried to push his hand.
"Anyone ever told you that you look like a little puppy?" He asked.
"I do not!" She exclaimed, a little appalled.
As wary as Lyze was of Syr and her real identity, he couldn't deny one thing...Syr was extremely cute and adorable and this was just a way to piss her off a little.
"Well, see ya." He said as he waved her away before continuing on his path to the guild.
"Dummy." She muttered as she watched him go while nursing her cheek. But even she couldn't control the blush that had appeared on her cheek.
---
(On the rooftops)
Watching the entire ordeal from a few rooftops away were five figures in total. Four smaller ones with identical heights and proportions while another was much bigger yet still a bit on the small side for an adult.
It was difficult to distinguish any features from them due to their attire other than the obvious fact that the smaller ones were Pallums. But as for the big one, all one would see would be a sharp jawline under his helmet and that would be about it.
All five of them were broiling in jealousy and outrage as they watched the petulant little child lay his hands on their goddess. What right did he have to grab her by the waist like that as if she were his woman to claim? How dare he lay his dirty fingers upon her heavenly face and mar it with the redness of pain.
If it hadn't been for her explicit orders to never attack anyone unless they had an obvious intent to maim or kill her, Allen Fromel, as the fastest of the group would have been upon the little bastard in an instant and would have torn his head right of his weak little body.
"Filthy little human!" He spat. "I should skewer him on the end of my spear. The audacity!"
"We'd do it before you."
"Yeah. We'd get the job done before you could even blink."
"Stupid cat would never get the chance to kill the stupid boy."
"The little pussycat is incompetent as always."
Came four different voices from the Gulliver brothers, beginning with the eldest to the youngest. But as much as they liked seizing every opportunity to mock their fellow Familia member, they were no less perturbed by what had happened.
They had a lot of spite boiling in them anyway. For a month now, their lady had not been paying them any attention. Not once had she bothered to check in on Folkvangr and see them for the effort they put into training.
Instead she'd been locked up in her tower with only Ottar by her side like a little princess waiting for her knight to come rescue her and sweep her off her feet. And from what they gathered from their regular inquiries, the particular little prince in question was the boy they'd just seen.
Of course as per their duties, they did everything they could to search the on background of this boy. They needed to know whether or not this boy would be a threat to her (or them) and suffice to say there had not been much. Of course his record break was absolutely stunning, as well as the achievement in defeating Goliath on his lonesome.
None of them had ever done that. So they tried doing it themselves even though the Astraea Familia had already laid claim to the giant. The Gulliver brothers had bounded towards the 17th floor only to meet the same scene as that other Familia.
The little boy had robbed them of their chance to impress their lady. And given how she seemed to be extra infatuated with him all of a sudden, which also coincided with the time their Captain had received that strange scar of his, she was barely paying attention to them at all.
Freya had not actually been paying them enough attention to tell them of her plans for the boy during Ottar's match with him. Hence why they didn't know that Lyze had been the one to maim Ottar. Perhaps it was a good thing as Allen would have been the first one to declare how unfit Ottar was to lead the Familia at their goddess's side or to even serve her if a mere level two could even touch him.
They'd been too focused on Lyze to care much though, and their dislike of him was growing by the minute. Not just because he seemed to be keeping all their Lady's attention for himself but because he didn't even seem to respect those feelings, and furthermore was rude and refused to apologize when he wronged her.
Allen was already fantasizing about impaling him on the end of his weapon a thousand different ways. Of all the other members of their Familia, he had been the only one to realise how seemingly highly Ottar thought of the boy and they had been keeping tabs on him as well.
Being able to solo all the way to the 18th floor was unheard of, as even level twos needed to band together to survive the ninth floor onwards. None of them had been able to do it at that level, and that signified to Allen how much talent the boy seemed to have.
More talent than he himself had which obviously captivated his goddess...and it made him absolutely furious. Some would say that out the Freya Familia, Allen would be the most unpleasant character to outsiders. Only some though.
"Soon little lamb." Allen ran his finger over the point of his spear. "Soon."
---
Lyze exited the guild and breathed out a relieved sigh. It turned out that any mention of a new monster in the dungeon garnered a lot of fuss and attention. Of course you got a lot of skeptics out there.
Lyze simply drew Claw's appearance down as well as wrote down the details about the monster's strengths, habits and abilities and where he'd fought it. They had not been as surprised as he thought they would be when he said he fought it in the safe zone.
He also chose to leave out any mention of the golden chainmail as well. For some reason he didn't think it would be necessary. And then there had come some pestering from the receptionists that he had not taken a guild advisor as of yet which was pretty much a mandatory thing for level one and level two adventurers.
In particular was certain red wolf girl who berated him on his suicidal tendencies and how he was just asking to die by just diving in headfirst into dangerous situations without learning of his environment beforehand.
Yes, Rose Fannett was most certainly a cold beauty and just as admonishing as portrayed. He basically shut her up by telling her he'd already studied the dungeon by himself and he was close to levelling up to 3 which would rid him of the need for an advisor soon enough anyway.
Of course some didn't believe him but he supposed the truth would present itself when he did level up. Meetings within the guild tended to be boring which was why it was boring to regale them.
Now he had a little more pressing matter. The soles of his boots had weathered quite a bit from constant use and he was starting to experience feet ache. If he wanted to be rid of this distraction while dungeoneering, he needed to find a cobbler soon and preferably today.
Where to look though?
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