85 The complications of Love

(General POV)

Riveria opened the door to Ais's room to check in on whether or not the girl was awake. And sure enough she was, sitting upright in a foetal position with her blanket on top of her, her ever empty eyes staring at complete nothingness.

Immediately the elf knew this to not be a good sign. Ais was perpetually quiet and nonchalant, and a bit of an airhead to boot, but once you got to know her well enough, you could discern what mood she was in. As of now, the girl seemed to be buried deep in her thoughts, agonizing over something.

"Are you okay Ais?" Riveria asked gently, offering a small smile. It was met with no response.

Riveria shook her head and closed the door behind her, making her way to sit by the girl on her bed as Ais wriggled her toes a bit, a habit she had whenever she was deep in thought. The only indication of her acknowledging Riveria's presence was a slight turn of the head as the elf sat beside her, the mattress sinking a little as it had to accommodate the weight of two people.

(And screw women's over-sensitiveness over their weight. Alex didn't give a crap, and neither did he as Lyze.)

"You shouldn't be cooped up here by yourself." Riveria said as she put a hand on Ais's shoulder. "Being left alone with your thoughts isn't always the right choice. What's on your mind?"

Ais looked up at her for a few seconds, blinking slowly.

"Lyze...he defeated Phryne Jamil...didn't he?" Ais finally asked, slowly and carefully, as if she already knew the answer but just wanted to hear it for herself from another person's mouth.

Riveria sighed, seeing where this was going. But if it wasn't addressed now, it would seed itself in the girl's mind and then blow over later in a bad way. The incident with the black wyvern not that long ago was a prominent reminder.

"Yes, he did. Utterly destroyed her even." Riveria replied, closing her eyes at the bluntness of her own tone. "By the time we got to you, she was at his feet and at death's door. If Finn hadn't intervened and allowed one more blow, she would be dead by now."

"Hm." Ais said as she let out a huge sigh, visibly deflating as her face sank into her arms. Only her eyes peeked over them. "As expected. Lyze is strong...really, really strong." Ais's voice trailed off as her gaze lowered.

"...You have questions, don't you?" Riveria asked.

"...It's just...how?" Ais asked, lifting a hand and looking at it. "How does he grow so strong so fast?"

"To be honest, that's something we're still trying to determine." Riveria smiled a little. "It's caused us a great deal of confusion...and no small amount of headaches."

"But how though?" Ais asked, her expression pleading for some answer. Well as pleading as Ais could make herself appear. "It took me a year to become level 2, and I was considered the record breaker. Then he came along, and broke that record in one day." Ais looked down again. "Now he's able to fight middle floor monsters easily and he can beat level 4 adventurers. While he's meant to be the same level as me. I just don't understand."

Riveria looked away for a moment as she remembered another thing. Shaking her head, she sighed as she realised Ais would be faced with this inevitably. Better sooner than later. Ais noticed her behaviour and raised a brow.

"Riveria?"

"It's just...it's not exactly like that anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you see...Lyze levelled up this afternoon. He's now level 3."

"..."

"So now he's a level above you...and fit to join the second string group in our upcoming expedition. Finn has gone over it, and we all agree."

"...I see." Ais said as she looked back towards the direction she'd been staring before. Riveria was concerned to see a small smile on the girl's face. "Of course he would. No-one else but him could do that."

Riveria watched her carefully, feeling that something was off.

"And how do you feel about it?" She asked the girl.

"That's the thing." Ais said quickly. "I feel like I'm supposed to be jealous, upset and angry. I worked so hard to get to where I am, and yet he came and surpassed all of it in a day. His swordsmanship is on par with Mr. Noir' s, his wind magic is more powerful than mine, he's not afraid of any challenge or any monster. And he just keeps growing stronger at an insane speed." Ais said as she looked at her hand. While her youth was supposed to keep her skin soft, already her hands were starting to become calloused from long hours of training and fighting with the sword.

"But...?" Riveria pressed.

"But...I don't feel that way at all. Instead I'm in awe, and I admire him. I find myself happy for him, and wanting to be like him. It's like I can't have any bad feelings around him. Instead I feel...other...things." Ais mumbled, confused.

Riveria narrowed her eyes as something in the back of her head began to gnaw at her.

"What kind of feelings?" She asked Ais.

"I don't know. I only feel sad whenever he says he can't spar with me or eat potato snacks with me. Which is weird because I shouldn't feel that way. Every time he's around me, I feel warm...and my stomach feels funny. I always want to be with him everyday, at his side. Like it's just the right place to be." Ais held a hand to her chest as she unknowingly flushed a little. The elf could hear with her species' excellent hearing that her heart rate had sped up a little. "What's happening to me Riveria?"

Riveria herself could only stare at the girl, a little amused and certainly shocked. Of all the things it could have been, she did not expect it to be this. Of course, Riveria was a grown woman. Furthermore she had experience guiding children around the early stages of their lives. Beastmen grew up a little too fast in her opinion, but with human children she found quite an interest in seeing how their senses as well as their maturity developed.

Humans always heeded their emotions more than elves did, a possible consequence of their empirically shorter lifespans. But Riveria was a scholar, and studying natural human mannerisms outside the extreme isolated confines of her home forest made for quite an interesting subject.

Of course, human emotions were something she gave great importance to. They were not just an object of study for her, but she found that they were also quite spontaneous which often led to ruin rather than a healthy start to a relationship.

OF COURSE, both of them were much too young for that sort of thing but it astounded Riveria how Ais could already carry such feelings at such an early age, even if the girl herself was unaware of exactly what those feelings were. Riveria had heard that human girls tended to grow up quicker than boys.

Speaking of boys, there was no indication that the feelings were mutual. You could not expect them to be but none of the executives could deny that the person Lyze was most at home besides was Ais. The two were stuck together all the time besides their separate dungeon runs and Lyze's classes.

Ais even had a habit of crawling into his bed some times, which Riveria at first judged to be harmless. Now though, she was starting to believe that perhaps she should prohibit such things even if they were only children.

But she did still want those two to improve their relationship as much as possible. THOSE feelings, if they still remained could be explored in the future but it would be better if they simply grew as strong friends for now. They were already on a good start in terms of that. The two children were both orphans, and both had a colossal yearning for strength, both seemingly founded on a bedrock of suffering and desolation.

Kindred souls. It was little wonder that the two had drifted close together. Perhaps she could use that then? To help not only Ais, but Lyze as well. Ais had revealed the past that plagued her and Riveria knew what to do when it came to comforting the girl. Lyze was even harder to crack, seemingly adamant that only Loki be kept in the know.

Riveria KNEW that Loki knew something. Lyze had undoubtedly revealed his past to the trickster, and some real heavy baggage if even Loki seemed genuinely afraid of sharing it. Riveria had no interest in those secrets herself but she desperately wished that she could help him. Deep within her gut, something pleaded with her to help the boy like it were her duty. She'd almost call it a motherly instinct if not for the fact that it was the very point of her ridicule by her patron.

But if Riveria herself could not find a way to the boy's heart and help keep his mind in check, then perhaps someone else could...someone whom he saw as a familiar. Someone that could relate to him. Both their circumstances were similar so what were the chances that each of their objectives may share something in common too?

"It seems to me that you've grown attached to him Ais." Riveria said. "And you appear to have placed a large amount of trust in him as well."

"Really?"

"Yes. And it seems he trusts you too. Maybe you should ask him how he gets so strong. Anyone who fights that hard is fighting for something. Maybe if he told you what it was, you could use it as a reference, and change your own take on things."

"...And grow strong like he does?"

"Maybe. I will say though, if he pushes you to do something reckless, you back out of it instantly."

"Yes."

"Listen Ais." Riveria said gently. "Even if Lyze is strong, don't forget that he is still a human. He still has feelings and problems. No matter how fast he he grows, he is not invincible or untouchable. He can still feel pain. So don't push him either, understand?"

"Yes, Riveria."

"Good. Now go and see if you can find him. He should be training somewhere nearby...and if he isn't and he's outside somewhere, he'd better come back home soon." Riveria said with a stony face. She was quite strict on the children's curfews and the sun was setting at the moment.

Not to mention, there was still that little thing from earlier that had to be dealt with...

---

"Mind explaining this?" Riveria held up a piece of paper in front of Lyze as he sat before the executives once again.

Lyze gave her a confused look before he skimmed over the paper. As he did this, Gareth took note of some burn marks on his clothes as well as what looked like some residual dampness in them. There were also certain tears here and there which did not give his appearance an overall smart outlook.

But the contradictions that lay in the damages made the dwarf wonder exactly what the boy had been up to today. Lyze formulated a summary to the paper he was reading in order to speed things up, and his confusion deepened at the information it held.

"A notice of the guild of a new charity raise in Babel's central to fund housing, clothing and feeding of the poor and destitute living within the slums of Daedalus as well as other places of misfortune in the dungeon city. Includes regular instalments of funds to various orphanages, chief among them being Maria's orphanage. There also projects in motion to build new orphanages and care homes as well as workhouses for those unable to find jobs." Lyze said. He zeroed in on one particular piece of information. "Movement founded by Loki Familia member, Lyzof Keele."

Lyze drew back as he cast a glance at his superiors. It was not so much that they seemed upset or angry with him but confused and...tired even. But putting that aside, he was definitely sure he would remember doing something like this. Because he didn't remember it at all.

"Well don't look at me." He said as he raised his hands in defence. "I didn't start any of this. And even if I did, wouldn't that be a good thing?"

"It's not so much the movement itself we're concerned with." Finn sighed. "Look closer at the bottom of the page."

Lyze did exactly that and came upon a section where there was supposedly a list of people who supported this motion. And surprise surprise, there was a singular name on there. Which brought a whole lot of sense to what Freya was saying to him earlier. For her name was written on there in big bold letters. And if she was supporting it, it meant her entire Familia was supporting it as well.

Obviously she was the one who actually created this new 'charity'. But why credit him with its creation though?

"How did you manage to get Lady Freya of all people on board with this?" Riveria asked almost solemnly.

"I told you, I did not move to do any of this! Hell if I know why this thing exists and why her name is on there."

"Even if it did not have anything to do with you, which it clearly does by the way..." Finn noted. "...think of the position it puts us in. The fact that one of our own has supposedly created this charity and yet a completely different Familia is the first to back it as well as being the only one to back it, would reflect poorly upon all of us." Finn said.

"How exactly?"

"It would make the rest of us look selfish, while at the same time improving the image of the Freya Familia in the public's eye. We would be bound to put Loki's name on the list as well to save face." Finn's eye twitched a little. " Which means our money and our income has to be rearranged...and more paperwork for me." Finn gave Lyze the stink eye.

Lyze refused to be pressured like this so he upturned his nose a little with some mock snark.

"You make it seem as if something like this is a bad thing Captain. Is not the objective of such a movement a noble deed, an attempt to take care of the unfortunates dwelling beneath our noses all this time and yet nothing was done to accomplish helping them?"

"Of course it is a good thing." Finn replied. "Which is why for you alone, being the one responsible for this, I'm taking a bigger cut from your personal income for the pursuit of this 'noble cause'." Finn smiled although the intentions behind it were anything but warm looking.

"That's not fair! And I told you I was not responsible for this!"

"Might as well lad." Gareth said as he shrugged his shoulders. "Everyone knows how you hoard your money all the time. Instead of gathering dust wherever you've hidden it all, it's best that it goes back into circulation, and this is the way of doing it."

"And besides, the guild has already passed it, which mean's it has gained the government's and therefore Ouranos's approval." Finn closed his eyes and clasped his palms together. "So even if you didn't do it, the charity already exists and is in full swing. It will be out in public before long, if it isn't already. So as fitting as the founder of this charity, YOU will be the one to attend all the events as well as managing the directions of the funds that come in." Finn opened a threatening eye. "Now that you've committed to something like this, you had better take responsibility and see to it that everyone gets their rightful dues. And no foul play on any part either."

"I told you I'm not responsible! And just what sort of person do you think I am anyway?" Lyze growled before the room became cold all of a sudden. All the men there directed their attention towards Riveria who was giving a severe glare to Lyze.

"You still have not bothered to explain why this thing exists in the first place, and any sort of reason why the Freya Familia would be the first ones to jump on board with this plan." She said coolly.

'DAMN YOU FREYA!'

---

The silver haired goddess could only chuckle as she watched these events unfold. Strength came in different forms, so naturally she would still have to test her Odr in all manner of ways.

Including seeing if he could navigate through her antics. After all, wasn't that what husbands were for?

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