In the men's bath, a singular scene took place. A frail, puny, and seemingly small boy stood in front of the water, a towel tied around his hip, Hope stammered."G-Gersey?"
"H-Hi, Mr. Hope."
"What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be in the mansion!"
Hope stood up, as if he had seen a ghost and wanted to confirm the identity of the young boy, the latter shyly hid his body and tried to make his way toward Dora, until he met his gaze.
"... Um... H-Hi, Mr. Dora..."
"... Do I know you?"
Gersey flinched and lowered his arms, looking to the side.
"N-no...I guess..." He sat down next to Hope, dejected. The latter looked at Dora, with the intention of making him change his behavior but he was too used to his temperament to know that it would be useless.
For their part, the girls were surprised by Freya's unexpected return, it had been several weeks since her departure and no one thought she would return.
She took a quick glance at each of them and smiled.
"I see you haven't slacked off, you look very different from last time."
"Really?" Morgiana exclaimed. "Do you really think we've gotten stronger?"
It was the very first time that she complimented them, despite knowing her through only a single raid, they had agreed on the idea that the young lady's compliments were a rare commodity.
"If I say so?... But even from here, the biggest change comes from the other side of this fence."
She smiled mischievously, looking at the wall separating them from the men.
"What an overwhelming pressure... How are you planning to keep pretending to be an E-rank with such power?..."
"Oh, yeah, s'true that you have like fairies powers, I heard that you're sensitive to people's energy."
"... Well, thanks for speaking about my abilities out loud, you chatterbox."
"Ah, sorry... But what took you so long? I thought that you wouldn't come anymore."
Freya placed her hands side by side and admired the reflection of the moon in the palms of her hands.
"Many things happened... And I guess you two are not aware of it."
She starred successively at Mercy and Zuri. The two girls looked at each other dumbfounded, making Freya sigh in frustration.
The others observed them for a moment and Marie scratched her ear, feeling a little anxious.
"Hm... How is Barron?"
"You still think about it? Well, suit yourself, he is fine, a Holy Knight using creation magic made him a prosthetic so he stayed back for his re-education. But his life is not in danger."
Marie sighed softly with relief, but her face showed a little sadness.
Freya crossed her arms and decided to divert the discussion to something else.
"What level are you all now? I feel that you're far stronger than before, isn't it almost time that you go your own way?"
She attempted to change the subject to something more exciting, from her point of view, but it was the last subject that all of them wanted to talk about.
"Eh?... Um... I... We..." Marie couldn't find the words. She had a clear idea of the situation, but when she tried to formulate it, no clear sentence could come out.
"Hm? What? Don't tell me that you're scared. You should be all on the verge of C-rank."
"Well, we know but... Maybe it's a little too sudden?" Lilith explained, looking at her friends in search of support.
"Y-Yeah, we... We must get used to C-tank rifts first, right?" Morgianna added, but it was to the biggest displeasure of Freya.
"What do you mean? You're not planning on getting carried by Dora all your life, are you? It was the point of this whole collaboration."
The girls looked at each other, very annoyed. This situation was a painful call back to reality, they weren't scared of going in rifts without Dora, in fact, their training went to the point where the young boy wasn't even fighting the boss anymore, he would intervene if they were overwhelmed but it was a challenge to fight without him. So what was the problem?
For most of them, the problem came down to Liliana's words earlier: "They could do that every day."They were living the happiest days of their lives, the adventure they had all dreamed of, and at that moment, no one wanted it to end.
"And what if we're carried by him? What's your problem with that?" Every gaze turned toward the most unexpected person, silent for too long, Sana.
"He is a founder of our team, he has been with us from the beginning, what's your problem if he likes it and chooses to stay?"
Sana, usually sweet and calm, was throwing a death glare at Freya.
"My problem? What problem? Are you stupid? Have you forgotten his own words? He should have left from the start but he's here for you to succeed, why would you want him to stay now?"
"People change, maybe he prefers this kind of life to your little knight and princess game."
"... Yeah, you're an idiot."
Mercy and Morgana stood between them, to prevent them from coming to blows, but the tap was already turned on, and from now on, they ignored the people around.
"Why do you think you have any say? He is not your knight and you are not part of our team, why do you think your opinion matters?"
"Well, he's HER knight!" She pointed to Zuri. "She's the one he's bonded with and she's the only one he'll follow... And you, why are you so silent? Defend your knight!"
"... Uh, oh! The water is so watery, Blu Blu Blu, I'm a submarine." Zuri sank but kept her ears on the surface so as not to miss a moment of the spectacle.
Sana was at her wit's end and screamed.
"He was my boyfriend! Stop being so clingy and stay away from him!"
Everyone fell silent and looked at her, paralyzed. She was breathing heavily, barely hiding her frustration, but she knew she had gone too far.
"... I knew it." Lilith whispered. The two girls stared at each other. Sana's face was red with anger and she started to shake, she couldn't say anything else, it was already too late.
"You're stupid... Bitch! What's wrong with you?!"
"Leave me alone!!!"
She stood up and walked away, Lilith tried to follow her but Marie held her back.
"L-let me go!"
"Lilith, please! It's enough!" The difference in raw power between the two was colossal and the puppeteer was getting dragged, forcing Liliana and Morgiana to interfere, under the stunned gaze of the 3 nobles.
"Now it's enough! I'm sick of her! She's the worst... Stop holding me darn it! She's the reason Dora and Leon hate each other! Don't you care about that?! Don't you care about everything she said about him?"
"I... I know... Dora knows it too and it was what he wanted!"
"... What?"
She calmed down a little, they got out of the bath and moved a little away from the other customers, Marie then told them the whole story between Sana and Dora, after which the girls showed various reactions.
"I don't know if I should feel sad for Leon or happy that Sana played herself..." Morgiana nodded.
"Glad she played herself." Lilith crossed her arms. "She's the one who tried to manipulate everyone."
"Yeah but... Dora is weird... Why not break up with her? It's fucked up."
Marie lowered her head, she knew the truth would be a blow to Dora's reputation and began to regret her decision.
"That's not the case... Idiora has always been a bit weird. He... If he knows he can get what he wants effortlessly, he'll gladly accept it."
"Even let his 'girlfriend' sleep with another man? The same guy who cut off Erick's fingers for touching him?"
Marie had difficulty responding to Morgiana. She shook her head and looked at the ground.
"I don't know how to say this... Some days Dora acts a certain way and other days he... He changes..."
"What do you mean he changes?" What I see is that there are 3 creeps in this story.
Morgiana sighed but flinched, remembering what Dora had done for them in recent weeks.
"As if there were people inside him?" Everyone turned to Freya. Marie, a little tired, nodded.
"What do you mean?... I... It doesn't make any sense."
"... You mean that green girl with the snake eyes? The one we saw in that strange room." Mercy asked, keeping her eyes on her surroundings.
"Maybe? I don't have any answers, I just assumed that since you're his old friends... Well, it's not that important anyway."
"Wait, actually, that makes sense!" Lilith jumped. "Remember the undead rift? After what he did to Erick, he said something like... 'We hate him?' He never spoke like that! Why did he say 'we'?"
They all took a thoughtful pose for a moment, Marie seemed at a loss for words. Freya glanced at Zuri and seeing how she showed no interest in the conversation, she sighed in disappointment and started walking.
"Let's forget it, it's no use if none of you know, don't talk about it in front of him, a hypocrite is worse than a cheater."
She left, leaving her comrades slightly annoyed at not satisfying their curiosity.
She entered the locker room and started to get dressed, but before putting her towel in her bag, she took out a card and looked at it for several seconds.
"... Hydra."
A little later that night, Marie was sitting alone on a bench in front of the inn. She looked up at the sky and sighed deeply.
"Huh? I haven't even started to piss you off."
She opened her eyes, unconsciously smiling as she recognized that voice.
"Idiora."
"Himself, what are you doing here?"
"... Minding my business, you should do the same." She said that but she moved a little to give him some space.
Dora sat down and both stared at the sky without a word for a full minute.
"Idiora?"
"Yeah?"
"... No, forget it, you don't care anyway."
"Ah? If you say so."
They remained silent once again, the cicadas echoing in the distance.
"Hey, do you feel something for Sana?"
"Haha, is this a threat?"
"...."
".... No, I think you already know that."
"Yeah... I know you're different... but then a part of you loved her?... Since you still accepted his choice."
".... No... Honestly, I don't know why we... But why are you asking that?"
She remained silent once again, she lowered her head and looked at the ground, forcing a smile.
"Dora, are we really friends? Or is it just... This You."
"Have I ever given you a reason to doubt me? What's going on? I don't like it when you're too serious."
She looked at the ground a little longer then she sighed and took a letter out of her pocket.
"I need... To talk to you about something... with each of you."