Prytaneum
Fire
"Good morning Mr. Welf, Mr. Percy," Lili greeted, smiling as widely as ever.
"Good morning, Lili," Welf said.
"Morning," I said as well, looking at her closely. It's true that her smile hadn't changed in the slightest—but her eyes had. Ever since she'd left the Soma Familia home, they'd looked were even more empty then before, as if something that had already been slowly dying had finally gone out. Even if nothing about her face had changed, it left her looking like a hollow doll.
Quite frankly, it worried the hell out of me. I'd asked her what was wrong the moment I saw her, but she'd simply evaded the subject and claimed she was fine. Physically that may have been true; nothing seemed to have happened to her on that front and she'd only been inside for about twenty minutes, but it was clear that something had happened. Clear enough that a part of me honestly wanted to stage an intervention and make her tell me what was wrong.
But…I'd never been one to give into peer pressure, especially if something was bothering me, and I was pretty sure trying to do so would just drive her further away. If I wanted her to open up, I had to be careful and patient which was really kind of difficult, what with this and the almost suicidal words she'd spoken before.
The cause was her Familia, I was almost certain of that. There was definitely something wrong with the Soma Familia and their dealings. Pretty much every time Lili talked about there, I got the feeling that there were things being left unsaid and stuff I was missing. If I knew more about how the system worked, about who was who and what they did, maybe I'd have put it all together by now, but I wasn't Annabeth. I couldn't figure everything out when Lili herself didn't want to talk.
Though honestly, if she got any worse, I was going to hunt down one of her Familia's other members and bribe, threaten, or force the details out of them. When Lili had walked out of her home with empty eyes, I'd only kept myself from kicking down the door and demanding answers by reminding myself of the consequences to Hestia. And to me, I guess.
For the moment, that didn't leave me a lot of options, though. I'd just have to be careful and make sure she didn't do anything dangerous—
"Shall we go down to the thirteenth floor today, then?" She asked, still smiling widely.
Like that.
"That's…a little abrupt, don't you think?" I answered carefully. "We said we'd spend some time on the twelfth before deciding, right?"
"Mm," Lili agreed. "But we've spent the last two days on the twelfth floor and Lili's had plenty of time to see Mr. Percy's and Mr. Welf's strength. Lili doesn't think there will be any problems going deeper into the Dungeon."
"That may be so, but there's a big difference in strength between Level 1 and Level 2 monsters," I replied.
Lili giggled cutely.
"Did you think I wouldn't notice, Mr. Percy?" She asked. "You've already gone down to the thirteen floor, haven't you?"
"Eh?" Welf asked, blinking before he looked at me. "Is that true, Percy?"
I remained silent for a moment—because yeah, it was. A couple of days ago, Hestia had left to spend some time at a friend's place or something, leaving the house empty. Since there was nothing in particular for me to go back to and Hestia wouldn't be around to worry, I didn't bother going home except to sleep. Since we usually finished up in the Dungeon somewhere between early and mid-afternoon, instead of wandering around I'd made use of my time. I'd finished exploring the eleventh and twelfth, investigating all the Pantries on each floor, and since I'd still had a little bit of time afterwards, I'd decided to scope out the thirteenth a bit, in preparation of coming down there as a party.
"Yeah," I said carefully. "It was only for an hour or two, but I wanted to take a look around."
"Since Mr. Percy is so strong, Lili doesn't think there will be any issue going down to the thirteenth," She said. "No, even beyond that, with Mrs. O'Leary there, there's nothing to be afraid of. Also, Lili thinks this would be a good chance for Mr. Welf, too. Mr. Welf doesn't get many chances to use his Magic, right?"
"That's true," Welf answered slowly before glancing by way with a raised eyebrow. I shot a look at him and he nodded slowly. "But…"
"Since Mr. Welf will no doubt Level Up soon, now might be a good time to work on improving it," Lili interrupted. "The Hellhounds on the thirteenth floor would be a good opportunity for Mr. Welf to practice. And also, if Mr. Welf helps fight against creatures like Hellhounds, Lili is certain he will gather a great deal of excilia."
Welf wavered slightly as Lili hit his weak point, but I continued to frown.
"Lili, is something wrong?" I asked carefully. "You're not usually this insistent."
Lili's smile faltered for a moment before she lowered her head.
"Mr. Percy can see right through Lili," She said, sounding embarrassed. "The truth is, Lili needs to gather a large sum of money in the next few days."
At that, both Welf and I paused.
"Is it because of your quota?" I asked carefully, sharing a glance with Welf.
"Mm," She confirmed quietly. "This month's quota is a bit extreme. Lili doesn't want to burden Mr. Percy and Mr. Welf any more than she already has, but…"
"If it's just money you need, I can lend you some," I offered. "I really don't mind. If you need, I can give you as much as…six hundred thousand valis. Leaving aside what I give to Lady Hestia, I have about that much, I think."
"Mr. Percy is very kind," She said, smiling at me. "But Lili will have to decline. Lili doesn't want to get Mr. Percy involved with Lili's mess. Besides, even that much wouldn't be enough."
"Even six hundred thousand wouldn't be enough!?" Welf blurted out, looking at her incredulously. "How much do they expect a Level 1 to come up with in a few days?"
"Maybe I should have a talk with your family," I said, keeping my voice level so as not to frighten Lili. But honestly, I had to work hard not to growl out the words. "I think there might be a bit of a problem, but I think we could work it out."
"Mr. Welf and Mr. Percy are too kind, worrying about Lili so much," She replied, closing her eyes. "But…it's nothing like that. The truth is, Lili plans to leave the Soma Familia soon."
"Leave?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. "Can you do that?"
"Yeah," Welf answered, lifting an arm to rub at his back. "But you need your god's permission first. But since the inner workings of a Familia are private and everyone has a lot of secrets they don't want to share, it's pretty rare for gods to allow it. Depending on the god, they can refuse the request outright, demand some ridiculous task, or ask for some enormous sum of money. Is that what's happening, Lili?"
"Yes, Mr. Welf," She replied. "And once that is done, Lili will be free."
"How much is it?" I asked, thinking about it. If it was possible, then even if it was expensive it would be worth it. If so many of Lili's problems stemmed from her Familia, then removing her from her Familia was the simplest solution. If I did that, then maybe I could stop whatever was happening and actually do something to help her instead of just wait.
"…Lili would rather not say," She told me. "But the truth is, Lili has been saving money for a very long time. Lili always meets the monthly quota, but Lili's never turned it in."
"Never turn it…wait," Welf said, looking at her oddly. "Didn't you say that the Soma Familia only allows Status updates for those who meet the quota."
"Yes," She said. "In truth, Lili hasn't had her Status updated in about sixth months now."
"Six months!?" Welf all but shouted, looking gob-smacked. I could understand the feeling. Though it wasn't as big a deal for someone like me who had power independent of their Status, for most adventurers, the Status was their lifeline. To continually advance and struggle for six months, despite never improving her Status…that was simultaneously amazing and horrifying. "Then, even in all the time you'd been with us, you've never improved your Status, Lili? Isn't that…?"
"Dangerous?" She said, smiling again. "Yes, Mr. Welf. But, more than anything…Lili wasn't to put an end to her time in the Soma Familia with her own hands."
I watched Lili carefully, still having a bad feeling about this. I understood where she was coming from completely—if someone had offered me a chance to escape from Gabe all those years ago, a way to save myself and my mother from having to live with him, I'd have jumped on it, whatever it took. Her desire to do it herself instead of taking what was apparently an enormous amount of money from her friends…I understood that, too. Really, I did.
And honestly, I still wanted to say no. Maybe I didn't have the right to decide such a thing for her, but it was dangerous and her mental state at the moment was…let's say questionable. Taking her down to a new and unfamiliar area filled with powerful opponents seemed like a bad idea, especially if she can't update her Status. But…
But if she really was having monetary problems, if she really was as desperate and determined as I thought she was, then I was worried about what she might do if I said no. I was the authority figure in this picture, but I hadn't exactly been good about obeying authority figures myself. Me telling her not to and her not doing it were two entirely different things.
In the end, I just couldn't risk it. Arrogant as it sounded, I felt a lot better about keeping her close enough for me to protect then about her finding someone else willing to do it.
So after a moment, I exchanged glances with Welf and made my decision.
"Okay, Lili," I said, making myself smile. "Let's go down to the thirteenth floor, then. We'll gather up all the money you need until you can leave the Soma Familia, okay?"
She looked down again.
"Lili causes Mr. Welf and Mr. Percy so much trouble," She said sadly.
"Don't worry about stuff like that, Lili," I told her, rolling my shoulders. I'd need to be at the top of my game today, just to make sure nothing happened. "We'll help you out no matter what happens, right Welf?"
"Yeah," My friend said with a nod. "You just think about what you'll do once you're free from the Soma Familia. Any idea what you want to do once you're out? Are you going to continue being an adventurer or retire?"
"Lili doesn't know," She said, but that look from before had returned. "Lili's not sure what she'll become once it's over—but Lili doesn't care, as long as it's better then what she currently is."
Those words…
"Hey, Lili," I said, raising my voice abruptly to draw her attention. After a moment, I flushed and coughed embarrassedly, because she was standing right next to me and I didn't need to bother, even if I thought it was important.
"Mr. Percy?" She wondered, blinking at me when I didn't say anything for a moment.
"I know it's a little odd to ask and you probably don't want to deal with all of this anymore," I began. "But…if you decide you want to continue to be an adventurer after all of this is over…would you like to join the Hestia Familia? I can't speak for Hestia, but I'm sure she'd be fine with it if you wanted to join…"
For a moment, Lili didn't speak—she just stared at me with wide eyes as if she couldn't believe what I'd just said. I had a moment to worry about whether or not I'd made some kind of Orario faux pas, before she ducked her head and her shoulders shook.
"If that was possible…Lili would be really happy…" She wiped at her face before looking up at me with a smile—a real smile, unlike the many fake ones I'd seen on her these last few days. "Thank you, Mr. Percy."
I nodded, unable to say anything in front of her honest display of happiness.
But…for some reason I couldn't help but imagine there had been a 'but' in there somewhere.