Prytaneum
Lamp
As we walked through the city, it was impossible not to see at least some of the festival. The streets were packed, in places so congested that the chariots that could be used to ferry people around the city like taxis—which was exactly what they were called, apparently, named such by some god—couldn't move any further forward. Banners decorated the streets, stores and street vendors and carts alike were showing their wears, and more. There seemed to be more adventurers that normal on the streets today, though I was guess that most of them were just wasting time until the show started at the coliseum on the east side.
To be honest, I thought it was interesting. My feelings were still a bit mixed—partially because of what Welf and Lili had told me of the 'Taming' process and partially because of my own experiences as a spectacle in a coliseum—but I thought it might have been nice to see at least once and I'd have liked a chance to just relax and spend time with my friends. Stop by the Hostess of Fertility, pick up a few gifts, maybe find something nice to give Hestia when she came back as a sort of preemptive apology.
But how could I possibly have fun watching Monster Tamers while my own monster was suffering? I wasn't sure about all the details, what with Mrs. O'Leary being a dog and having been dead at the time, but I knew she'd pushed herself hard for my sake. On top of the fairly frequent help she'd been giving me in the Dungeon, she'd been tiring herself out with shadow travel, especially yesterday when she'd shadow traveled something like six times in quick succession. What's worse, because of how busy we'd been and the general lack of…everything I remembered, we hadn't had any chances to just relax, play fetch, and have some fun. Mrs. O'Leary had been pushing herself hard for my sake and was, in what I suspected to be several ways, the only reason I was still alive; even if I wasn't feeling great, I needed to do my part and return the favor.
Not that we just charged in, of course. Even though we only planned on going to the sixth floor, we came loaded for bear, stocking up on everything we thought we might need, including a few High Potions and High Magic Potions. Even with Welf's reassurances, I felt a bit worried spending so much money right now, but since it was for Mrs. O'Leary's sake, there was no helping it—because while all of us, including Lili, were more than up to the task of fighting monsters on the sixth, we were coming off a pretty rough day and while I was feeling better, I wasn't at my best. Better to err on the side of not being eaten.
Especially since not all our losses could be so easily mended. The armor that Welf had made me had been broken and given the materials he'd used to make it in the first place, it wasn't as easy as simply making another one, even if he had the time. Today, I was making do with a somewhat ill-fitting set that Welf had on hand which, while a lot like wearing paper on the floors we'd begun to frequent, should be more than up to the task of surviving the sixth. I say should because a normal set of Welf's armor had managed to endure the ninth before I met him and started getting more personalized equipment, but…well, on the other hand, it was me we were talking about. The minotaur horn armor should have been decent equipment even for Level 2 adventurers, but I'd wrecked it in a few days, if under special circumstances.
But then, my life was basically a series of special circumstances, so…yeah.
Anyway, getting cocky could get me killed. Had gotten me killed, sort of, when I'd underestimated the power of Crozzo's magic sword and the strain of dealing with it alone. I loaded up on everything I thought I might need, from potions to more shells, and even packed a special something of my own devising, just in case. Once we'd made all our preparations and loaded everything into Lili's new bag, we heading towards Babel, which seemed a lot less crowded than usual with the festival going on. We breezed through the first five floors with casual ease even with all that had happened, but even before Welf said so, I hadn't intended to go past the sixth, simply because of all the more annoying monsters I was sure I'd encounter there. Even having recently been dead, I was pretty sure I'd be fine if it was just fighting weaker monsters, but I'd rather not deal with poisons or shrieks or whatever else right now.
The sixth was good enough for now. The War Shadows on this floor, while nothing compared to the creatures down below, still provided actual magic stones instead of simple shards like those on the first five, and I was hoping that if we dealt with enough of them, it'd be enough to at least tide Mrs. O'Leary over until I was sure everything would be fine.
To that end, after taking a bit of time to warm up on hordes of War Shadows, I guided us towards one of the Pantries on the sixth and we settled in for another long day's work. Welf played defense, sticking close to Lili just in case while she acted as support and I stretched my metaphorical legs while going on the attack. The Pantry waters gave me strength and left me feeling better than I had since yesterday, but it also gave me a chance to use my magic safely. I'd been laying off using my powers for a bit after literally killing myself with them, simply because it had felt like I'd strained or broken something and I wanted to give it some time to recover, but…everything seemed to be working. I felt occasional flashes of pain and odd sensations through my gut, as if it were still tender, but my powers were a literal part of me, after all. As long as I was alive, they should be fine, and they'd probably recover completely by the time I did. I'd just need to be careful not to hurt them, or myself, until that happened.
And like that we fought until the floor of the Pantry was covered in dark corpses, the creatures being tedious but simple work. Once that was done, it was Lili's time to shine while Welf and I took a break.
"Here," Welf said, offering me a Magic Potion as he took a seat beside me on a small mound of corpses. Which sounds and was icky, but there wasn't anywhere else to sit. "You've been using your powers a lot since we got here. Best to be safe after what happened yesterday."
I didn't argue, accepting the potion and concern both. I felt fine, but there really wasn't much point in taking chances now.
"Thanks," I said, turning back to watch Lili, just in case any more monsters decided to appear. As she worked, more and more of the corpses turned to ash, steadily clearing the room. For some reason, that made me remember something important. "Hey Welf, I meant to ask you something last night but I guess I was feeling a bit out of it at the time. Did you happen to pick up my dagger? Eina said she might have seen you with it."
"Hm?" Welf hummed inquisitively, though it seemed to take a moment for the question to register. "Oh, yeah; the Sword Princess found it while we were carrying you out of Soma's house and gave it too me. I was surprised it hadn't been destroyed outright, but it was still badly damaged. I intended to try and fix it, because I figured you'd want it back, but…I don't know if I can do it without weakening it with my current skill. I was doing to ask you if you'd be okay waiting until I gained Blacksmith; once I'm Level 2, I might be able to do something about it."
"That's fine," I said. "As long as it's still there."
"It's an impressive dagger," Welf said. "After what you told me about your sword, I meant to ask you about it, but I guess it never came up."
"I don't use it much," I answered simply, shrugging. "It's nothing like Riptide if that's what you're asking—at least, not as far as I know."
"Ah," Welf mused. "Since they seemed to be made of the same material, I wasn't sure. But…it's still important to you, right?"
I closed my eyes and sighed slightly at that question, but nodded.
"Yeah. It belonged to a friend of mine," I said, remembering her. "I…she died."
Welf grimaced. It seemed I'd killed the mood pretty well with that factoid.
"I'm sorry," He said quietly. "Do you…if you want, I can try and fix it now, but…"
"Don't worry about it," I replied, looking down for a moment. "To be honest, I don't really like that thing. It's just that I don't want to be without it, either."
"…Why?" Welf asked after a long moment of silence, probably wondering if it was okay to do so, but the only answer I could really give was a shrug.
"I don't know," I said, resting my chin on a knee as I watched Lili work. I didn't really want to talk about this either, except that I kind of did, at the same time. "I keep it to have something I could remember her by, but sometimes it's like none of the things it reminds me of are things I want to remember. The man who gave her the dagger was…not the one who killed her, but the one responsible for it, someone who hurt her a lot. It was supposed to protect her, but instead she…she died protecting me. And all the adventurers we went on and the fun we had…when I think about it, it just reminds me of what's gone now and that I wasn't strong enough. I don't know."
"I'm sorry," Welf said again, looking down as well. "I…I think I get it. Kazuki was sort of the same way."
"Kazuki?" I asked, trying to remember who that was supposed to be before remembering. "That was…your magic sword, right?"
"Yeah," He said. "The one that Zanis broke—its name was Kazuki. And it's silly but…even if I hated magic swords, I've kept it all these years. When I look at it, it reminds me of Rakia and…and Phobos. Maybe that's why I gave it to Hephaestus for 'indefinite safekeeping.' I wanted it to exist, but I didn't want to see it or use it. I didn't want anyone else to use it, either, but…now it's gone."
"Another thing to blame Zanis for," I said, making him snort.
"I guess so," He said. "Hephaestus will probably exact horrible vengeance for it, though. But now that Kazuki's gone, so is the last of Crozzo's magic swords."
I nodded but then tilted my head, looking at his face.
"Are you glad?" I asked him. "That they're all gone now?"
"Yes," He said firmly, though not particularly happily. "After seeing what Zanis did, seeing the destruction it caused, I'm glad there aren't any more. I'd forgotten what those swords could do, what people used them for. This is why I ran away from Rakia, so…yeah, I'm glad. I'm just sad, too."
I wasn't sure how to answer that, so I just watched Lili instead, letting my shoulder's sag.
"Look at the two of us," I mused, exhaling slowly. "We're a mess."
"Well, we're all a mess together," Welf said, nodding towards Lili. "So it's not all bad, right?"
"Right."
We lapsed into silence for a few minutes after that before Welf cleared his throat and looked at me again.
"Hey," He began slowly. "You don't have to answer this and maybe it's rude of me to ask, but you never really said what happened. Before you came to Orario, I mean. I don't want to ask you if it's something that's best kept secret, but…is it?"
I frowned again, working my jaw for a moment and then biting my lip when that seemed somehow insufficient. I hadn't told him about it—about Manhattan or Olympus or the world I remembered. The truth, basically. I hadn't even told Hestia about it. Was that because it was best kept secret? Not really. I mean, maybe; I'd probably draw a lot of uncomfortable attention on a number of levels if the truth ever got out and I suppose the same 'don't tell me' clause that Welf and Eina had invoked could apply there, too, but that wasn't why I'd stayed silent about it. At the very least, I probably could have told Hestia the whole story, but I hadn't. I didn't even really want to think about it too much. I'd like to say I wasn't sure why, but…it was probably because that story ends with 'I fucked things up and everyone died because of it.' That I failed everyone, in the end. I just…I guess I didn't want them to know just how badly I'd let people down before.
But maybe he deserved to know, since he was putting his life in my hands.
"I…fought in a war, more or less," I began with great reluctance, trying to force the words out in spite of myself—but all of a sudden, I was saved from having to say anything else by a sudden noise.
And that was where the good news stopped.
"What is that?" Welf asked, frowning as I abruptly stood but quickly following suit. "You hear that too, right?"
"I hear it," I said, immediately on edge. "Lili! Come over here!"
"Is it a monster?" Welf asked, sword in hand as he watched the entrance and glanced periodically at the walls. "Something coming up again like those Minotaurs or—"
"No," I said, and yet that answer was completely uncomforting. "Whatever it is, it's coming from above us."
And as if in response to that statement, the ceiling exploded and something that looked like a Venus Flytrap from Hell came tearing down towards us.
So much for staying safe on the sixth, I thought.