Coincidental Reemergence

"Eh?"

Surprised by his refusal, Lefiya stared blankly at the man in front of her. She really hadn't thought that he would reject her. Of course, she hadn't thought that he had any romantic feelings for her - no, nothing of the sort. Instead, she had assumed that he knew about what kind of special meaning there was behind touching an Elf's ears and had decided on accepting the consequences regardless.

Considering how Isaac had claimed that he had a bit of knowledge about this world even before he had come here and how he had already spent multiple weeks here, him knowing about something as ingrained in common sense as this had felt natural to her. She hadn't even thought about the possibility of him not being aware of it.

In fact, the only thing she thought about was that she wouldn't mind getting involved in some of this couple's 'plays'. And seeing such a great opportunity, how could she just let it pass? She wasn't in love with either of them, but…

Yet again, a heavy blush crept on her face. Luckily, nobody noticed this 'change', as she had already been beet-red before this.

As the only one who mostly understood both sides of this conversation, Ais couldn't help but chuckle, which instantly made the other two focus their attention on her. After all, it was such a precious and adorable sight.

But even while looking at her with a loving smile, Isaac didn't forget to shoot Ais a questioning glance. He already had a few guesses as to what exactly could be going on, but without asking about it, how could he be sure?

Neither Isaac's quizzical gaze nor Lefiya's wronged and pouting look did escape Ais' eyes, so she decided to explain what exactly was going on.

"An Elf's ears are a very special place. As per tradition, they can only be touched by their spouse. It's common knowledge that when someone of the opposite sex touches an Elf's ears and they don't particularly dislike that person, they end up marrying them."

What Ais didn't know about was that in the past, after every long period of isolation the Elves underwent in their forests, their reappearance would lead to a lot of surprise and curiosity from the other sentient races. After all, most of them would have already mostly forgotten about them after a few hundreds of years, only regarding them as a myth. Back when there was no need for Elves to venture out into the world like today, where they journeyed far and wide to gain experience in Orario or to trade for some special products produced there, they had often shut themselves off from the rest of the sentient races for remarkably long periods of time.

The curiosity of many people often led to them touching an Elf's ears accidentally, which amusingly enough brought about a huge number of interracial marriages. Well, both this and the fact that the Elves were constantly out of touch with the rest of the world resulted in quite a bit of bloodshed as well. But that is a topic for another day.

Now having a rough understanding of the situation, Isaac nodded and turned to face Lefiya again, which made her turn quite fidgety. There was one last thing he had to confirm. He practically already knew it, but he really needed to hear someone else spell it out for him.

"What is so special about an Elf's ears?"

Even though it had seemed impossible before, Lefiya's face reddened even more and Isaac even began worrying about whether the young Elf would slip into unconsciousness soon. While dodging both Ais' and Isaac's gazes, she whispered to herself, just loud enough to let the other two hear it.

"It feels really good when they're being touched…"

While Isaac's expression outwardly didn't show any change, he was cursing inside. Of course, the damn ears had to be an erogenous zone! Everything made perfect sense now, great. What horrible luck, his worst suspicions had been confirmed! But how did all of this even make any sense? If this was the case, shouldn't Elves try to cover their ears as much as possible so they wouldn't get aroused by a gust of wind? How come he had never seen them do so at all?

As so often, a sigh escaped Isaac's lips. Ais' reaction didn't make the whole situation better at all either. She was confusedly blinking, trying to understand the exact meaning of Lefiya's words. But Isaac didn't want to stain her pure mind with such things yet, even though she had probably witnessed lots of them when experiencing his past. After all, young Isaac didn't abstain from researching such topics. Luckily, he had always maintained a purely scientific mindset back then…

"I'm really sorry, Lefiya. I had no idea about any of this."

The blushing Elf would have had to be a very special kind of idiot if she hadn't been able to vaguely figure out how Isaac planned to continue this conversation. And she was proven right almost immediately, as he didn't give her much time to get more disheartened before continuing.

"Please forgive me for this transgression. Also, please don't ask me to marry you. While this was undoubtedly my mistake, I don't have romantic feelings for you. So if you forced the issue and - by some miracle - got me to agree, it wouldn't work out well for either of us. Once again, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel this uncomfortable."

At this point, Lefiya couldn't do anything but sigh and nod. While she had initially hoped for a different kind of development, mostly out of curiosity, she had calmed down significantly again. By now, it was clear to her just how much of an awkward situation she had put Ais and Isaac in. She felt really fortunate that she hadn't been violently assaulted by Ais, as Lefiya would have definitely chosen a more forceful approach if her beloved had been cornered like this directly in front of her face. Thankfully, the golden-haired beauty had a very gentle and forgiving disposition when it came to her friends.

While Lefiya was still wallowing in self-pity and trying to reconcile the fact that her ear-touching virginity had been taken just like that, a familiar hand started to gently pat her head, causing her worries to melt away very quickly. This time, Isaac was paying special attention to not accidentally make the same mistake again.

It really was a shame. Her ears were just so cute, moving about in response to Lefiya's feelings. It was truly a pity that he couldn't touch them without creating quite the delicate situation. Touching a girl's erogenous zones when he wasn't even in a relationship with her was unacceptable. But why did these ears have to be so lovely!?

After a couple more minutes of consolation, the now sleepy Elf left their partition. Finally, Ais and Isaac could get some well-earned sleep.

-----

On the following day, nothing extraordinary happened.

The main force members returned from their scouting missions on the 51st floor and all of them reported a success. Nothing about the dungeon had changed in the past few months. With this confirmation, Finn's plans could finally be put into motion.

Every time an exploration-type familia went on an expedition, they would try to challenge their previous record and descend even just a single floor deeper. And as for the few who could make it to the 50th floor, they were also tasked by the Guild to gather as much knowledge about the mostly unexplored floors beyond that point as they could. So even if Finn had been fine with confusing the other expedition party members and had planned to abstain from going deeper, he would have had to report their progress to the Guild anyway. And if just one of the people here had accidentally slipped up about them not trying hard to break their record this time, it could have become a problem for the familia.

But why would Finn even think of not attempting such a thing? That was because Isaac could enable them to come here anytime they wanted - completely unseen. It was far more efficient to have a few cards hidden than to be read like an open book. Even an arguably neutral force like the Guild still had to be looked at warily.

So, for this expedition's attempt, Finn, Riveria, Gareth, Ais, Tiona, Tione and Bete would be trying their hardest. Pretty much all of the Executives and above were dispatched on this mission. As for the rest of the main force, they were restricted to hunting on the 49th and 51st floors and protecting the campsite.

As their attempt to break the record would only take about a day or two, the group wouldn't need to bring any supplies other than a bit of water and some light snacks. At their Levels, they weren't as harshly restricted by their bodies' basic needs and it would be relatively easy to stock up on those in advance. As long as they wouldn't be gone for too long, that is.

Tomorrow morning, the aforementioned members would set off, so they would have to get a much longer rest than usual tonight.

But how long would this expedition take anyway? Seeing how the attempt to break the record wouldn't take much longer than two days, it would seem like their return to the surface was imminent. Still, that wasn't the case at all. By now, the main force members had started to gather the Level 5 monsters' magic stones and drop items on the supporters' carts. Because they only explored the 51st floor in small parties, it would still take a few weeks to fill up all of that space. It would simply be a waste if they returned before they filled their pockets to the very brim. And even more importantly, this was one of the rare times where the Level 4 and weaker Level 5 main force members could gain a significant amount of excelia. Their following increase in combat power would be far more crucial to the familia's future operations and survival than just some simple wealth.

During all of this, the supporters didn't have to do too much work. They mainly focused on helping out wherever some menial work was required and were left to their own devices for the rest of the time. If they hadn't been in one of the 'three great unexplored regions of the world', the dungeon, they might have even been able to kick back and relax without any worries.

For Isaac, it was a period of extreme boredom. No matter how often he complained about it, it wouldn't be enough. While he was grateful for the opportunity to learn from his senior adventurers and it was a good thing to get some insight into more floors of the dungeon, he would have probably made it almost halfway here already if he had been on his own. One thing was for sure: In the future, he would need to be given a far more active role.

Because Finn had already explained the training schedule to everyone in the morning, only the main force members asked him for pointers today. All of the Executives abstained, although some of them - especially Tiona and Tione - were quite unhappy about it. Originally, they should have had the opportunity to improve, just like the others. But now that they needed to get some good rest to be prepared for tomorrow, it would be better to just sit back and relax for the day. Only that way would they be able to be in top shape.

What positively surprised Isaac was that Lefiya didn't hesitate to join the daily training. She didn't even make things hard for him by acting in an embarrassed manner, so it seemed like now that she had had almost a day to think about it, she had gotten over yesterday's embarrassment. Maybe she had realized just how unreasonably she had behaved? Isaac couldn't be sure, but seeing his student refusing to slack on her studies momentarily brought a small but genuine smile to his face.

-----

The headquarters of the Hermes Familia was known as the 'Traveler's Inn'. Just as the name implied, it was an actual inn. It even was multiple times larger than most other inns in the city because - besides its guests - it also had to harbour the members of the familia. One would hardly be able to gauge exactly how big the inn was from its storefront, as it seemed completely ordinary. But behind the small layer of neighbouring houses directly facing the small street its entrance was located in, the Traveler's Inn spread out like a sprawled behemoth. Hundreds of people could easily stay here, without anyone being the wiser.

Contrary to what might be expected, the inn wasn't actually that popular. After all, Hermes had gone out of his way to build it in a remote location, so even though the Hermes Familia members provided great food and housing, not too many people would go far out of their way just to come here. And that was all according to Hermes' plan, of course.

Hermes' office was located right in the center of all of the many guest rooms, while the familia members took up pretty much all rooms in its vicinity. Besides Hermes and his 'children', nobody knew just how many of the guests staying at this inn were actually members of his familia - not even the Guild.

Although Hermes' office had the word 'office' in its name, it was actually just a normal guest room, outfitted with a bed and cabinet like any other. The only difference was that Hermes had put a few bookshelves, a chair and a desk in here as well, making the room feel kind of cramped. But considering how he almost never spent his time here, it wasn't a big deal to him.

To Asfi, however, it was. And him always being out and about was exactly the reason she was glaring at him with a vengeful gaze right now. For an entire week, right after the payment for the mission to protect Isaac's students had been received, the shameless god had disappeared to who knows where. It wasn't enough that he had left her with all of the burdens of running this place and the familia, but if he got himself killed due to his negligence, they would all be in deep trouble.

"At least tell me where you're going next time. How else am I supposed to protect you!?"

Asfi had lost count of how many times she had voiced this exact complaint to this troublemaker before. Of course, nothing changed this time. While reclining on his chair, her god ignored her question and stared at her with an amused and slightly apologetic look from underneath his feathered hat.

"So, how is the mission going?"

After tiredly sighing and sorting through her notes to make sure she didn't forget anything, Asfi started to give her report. It really was no use arguing with him. But - if that truly was the case - why did she try it every single time?

"Everything is under control. But there are a few things that need your attention."

With a playful smile on his lips, Hermes nodded, signaling for her to continue. There was unconcealed curiosity in his eyes. After all, it wasn't too often that Asfi judged something to be important enough to require him to do anything. Usually, she would just bombard him with the entire report and not even give him a chance to interject, as his opinion wasn't needed.

"Besides the youngest of Mr. Blackshaw's students, the Cat Person by the name of Quinn Graham, all of them seem to have superb combat skills. They have rapidly advanced through the dungeon, far faster than the average adventurer. This seems to be because they are capable of slaying monsters stronger than them with relative ease. Considering how we have already observed such a development from Mr. Blackshaw, it is reasonable to assume that his proficiency at teaching others is superb. None of them, not even the Loki Familia's Hume Bunny, Jakk Maytin, have been known to be particularly skilled at combat before Mr. Blackshaw's appearance."

So far, none of this was outside of Hermes' expectations. He had hoped for Isaac to be a capable teacher when he saw him fight before, so it was great to get a confirmation for that.

"There is one oddity, however. And that is the talking rooster, Averin. He looks quite similar to a Jack Bird, so Lulune guessed that he might be a Jack Bird Xenos. I'm also convinced of this. As to how Mr. Blackshaw managed to find and befriend it, we have no idea. Averin has been hunting monsters alongside the students and supporting them, so they truly seem to trust each other."

This news was beyond anything Hermes had even dreamed of. Jack Birds were already some of the rarest monsters in existence, so how unlikely would it be for one of them to happen to be a Xenos!? Barely containable surprise coloured his face for a few moments, before he was able to control his emotions again.

'It seems like I need to accelerate a few things. This is… very interesting indeed.'

After he had made up his mind over how to continue, Hermes nodded and returned his attention to the patiently waiting, albeit slightly annoyed Asfi.

"Did any enemies try to take out Isaac's students so far?"

For a moment, Asfi showed a conflicted smile, then she decided to humour her god and clarify.

"Yes, I even had to send Tabitha and Suicia to support Lulune's team. There were a lot more than we expected. Nearly every day, groups of weaker adventurers tried to make trouble for them. But before they could even approach them, we nipped them in the bud. Mostly, we managed to talk them out of whatever they were planning, as they only wanted to scare them a little. But quite a few of them needed some more violent measures. We even needed to kill 15 Level 2 adventurers. They were all from criminal familias and dead-set on killing the kids, so there was no other option. We could have handed them over to the Ganesha Familia after knocking them out, but it's better if we eradicate such people whenever we have the chance."

With an approving smile, Hermes gave Asfi a thumbs-up. Years ago, he had decided to change the way his familia operated. Now, whenever they could do so without anyone else noticing, they would 'take out the trash'. Quite a few harsh lessons had to be learned until he had finally been comfortable with directly opposing his fellow gods' familias like that. Or, well, just his more problematic brethrens' ones. It would put the entire familia into a lot of danger if his actions were to be exposed, however. After all, he often mingled in these unlawful circles as well, due to necessity. It would be foolish to avoid gathering information on them and what better way was there than to become an insider?

At this point, he noticed that Asfi had started to grow a little pale, while she was clenching her fists. An uncomfortable feeling spread in his chest, while he had already made a certain guess…

"Also… we've run across some Remnants."

As soon as these words left Asfi's lips, Hermes instantly turned serious. He had hoped this wouldn't be the case, but now that it obviously was, there were a few things he needed to clarify.

"Did they aim for Isaac's students?"

Thankfully, Asfi shook her head in response.

"No, I don't think they know about or are paying attention to Mr. Blackshaw for now. It was simply a coincidence. We ran into them in one of the back alleys we were monitoring. They are still wearing these unsightly robes, so they stick out like a sore thumb. We weren't able to interrogate them, because they had already swallowed a lethal poison and been beyond saving by the time we managed to capture them. So with the way they dressed and their ruthlessness in mind, we concluded that there was no doubt that they were indeed Remnants."

"Tsk."

For a moment, Hermes' expression darkened considerably, then it softened again and he smirked to himself.

Now that there was a 'hero' on the rise, it felt like fate that the Remnants had reappeared. He had been fully convinced that they had been wiped out that time and had rejoiced at the thought of at least one minor problem having disappeared, but it seemed like he had been mistaken. While they were only one of many lethal weapons pointed at the people on his side, they were still a threat. With their reappearance, he had to yet again put some things into motion.

"Keep an eye out for any of their movements."

Before Asfi had a chance to continue her report, Hermes had already stood up and prepared to leave. The earlier he took care of all of this, the better.

While someone else might have been fooled by his current serious look and heroic disposition, Asfi was no fool. She knew that he had simply judged the most important parts of her report to be over and didn't want to continue staying here any longer. While he truly might have some relatively urgent things to take care of, they were definitely not that pressing. She would unrestrainedly laugh at anyone that tried to convince her that this shameless pervert didn't have many aces up his sleeves that he had prepared for a situation just like this many years ago. But anyway, that wasn't important right now. It was time for Hermes to properly do his job as this familia's god!

Her face emotionless from anger, Asfi forcefully grabbed Hermes' shoulders and dragged him back to his chair, before 'helping' him to sit down again.

"You won't leave before I'm finished."

With an innocent smile on his face, Hermes hastily nodded, pretending to pay attention to her as best as he could. Inwardly, he couldn't help lamenting. He really didn't care too much about the finances of their headquarters and other miscellaneous things. Leaving them all to Asfi was good enough in his eyes. He would much rather prefer strolling through various pubs and 'establishments' while setting his plans into motion.

'Seeing Asfi glaring at me like that is always a treat. She's truly a beauty, so I'm not losing out by staying here.'

Placating himself with thoughts like these, Hermes listened to Asfi's report until deep into the night.