Chapter 55 – Has Lefiya's Favorability Increased?
Shirou never expected that the elf girl in front of him would suddenly burst into tears.
This completely unexpected development left him frozen on the spot, and after a while, he finally spoke to comfort her, "Sorry, it's my fault. I don't know what I did wrong, but still, I apologize."
What Shirou said was a logical mess.
But there was no helping it.
Because he knew far too little about Lefiya.
They had only just met, and trying to understand her thoughts all at once was really too difficult.
Moreover, for some reason, Shirou had felt from the moment they met that Lefiya seemed to especially dislike him. But he had never met her before, so he had no idea why she would dislike him.
While Shirou was lost in thought, it seemed his words had comforted Lefiya a little.
The tears at the corners of the girl's eyes gradually disappeared, but her expression remained bitter and gloomy. Perhaps because Shirou had seen her in such a disgraceful state, her mood became even lower.
"…Well, can I leave now?"
Generally speaking, when someone is feeling down, they prefer to be alone. So it was natural for Shirou to request to leave.
But unexpectedly, Lefiya glared at him fiercely, speaking in a tone like he was the culprit:
"No, you have to stay right here!"
"..."
He really couldn't figure out the situation, but Shirou couldn't just leave Lefiya alone either. He had no choice but to accept her demand and silently sat on the other side of the cliff.
"Can I ask, why do you hate me so much?" Shirou, unable to just sit there in silence, asked Lefiya directly. "Before today, we've never met. Since there's no prior interaction, you shouldn't have any reason to dislike me, right?"
Faced with such a direct question, Lefiya didn't really want to talk about herself, but she also knew that if she didn't explain, the conversation couldn't go on.
With no other choice, she took a deep breath and quietly answered:
"It's because of Ais-senpai."
"Ais?"
Shirou was surprised to hear that this involved the Sword Princess. He couldn't quite follow the logic at first.
After revealing her feelings for the first time, Lefiya seemed to give up all pretense and pride, and poured out all the thoughts in her heart.
Simply put, Lefiya and Ais both belong to the Loki Familia.
Lefiya had joined the Familia about three years ago. At that time, because of her personality, she severely lacked self-confidence and couldn't get along well with the other members.
Not only in interpersonal relationships, but she also often made mistakes in battle. Because of her fear of injury and death, she would always mess up at critical moments, becoming a burden on the Familia.
She was very discouraged back then and even began to doubt whether she was qualified to be an adventurer at all. She thought about giving up everything and returning to the elves' homeland.
But just when she was at her lowest, Ais came to comfort her.
As her senior, Ais also personally taught Lefiya how to fight and deliberately looked out for her in battle, covering for her mistakes.
In Lefiya's heart, Ais was undoubtedly a heroic figure, and she was filled with admiration for the Sword Princess.
Unfortunately, that admiration didn't seem to reach Ais's heart. Ais had always treated her as just an ordinary junior.
Still, Lefiya wasn't discouraged. She believed that as long as she kept working hard, she would eventually earn Ais's recognition—maybe even develop a closer relationship. She just needed to take it one step at a time.
However, that belief soon faced a huge crisis—because of Shirou's appearance.
When Shirou first met Ais, nothing happened at first. But after his battle with Bete, Ais began to seriously question Shirou's strength and started paying close attention to him—even to the point of acting like a stalker and monitoring his every move.
While Ais and Shirou both understood the reason, as an outsider, Lefiya didn't know any of this.
So she mistakenly believed that Ais had developed some special feelings for Shirou.
And when Ais started visiting frequently to eat Shirou's cooking, Lefiya became even more convinced—Ais must've fallen for him.
Faced with such a suddenly appearing love rival, Lefiya naturally couldn't accept it.
She began investigating Shirou's background, thinking about how to stop the relationship from developing further, and even privately regarded Shirou as someone she must defeat.
Therefore, when this joint expedition began and she learned Shirou would also be joining the team, she vowed to perform well and show Shirou the vast difference in strength between Level 3 and Level 1.
That way, she could force him to break off from Ais and prove that she was the one truly worthy of Ais.
However, Lefiya's plan was ultimately shattered.
Not only did she fail in her duties as team leader, but when a member of the Apollo Familia caused trouble, she panicked and had to rely on Shirou to defuse the situation.
Yes—Lefiya was certain Shirou had done it deliberately. It wasn't because he had discovered some crucial clue. It was just a girl's intuition.
And truthfully, her intuition was spot on.
In short, because she had embarrassed herself in front of her love rival, and had even been helped by him, Lefiya's pride was completely crushed.
That was why she burst into tears the moment she saw Shirou.
"I really am pathetic, aren't I?" Lefiya had already given up entirely. "Not only did I fail as the team leader, but you, the person I hate the most, saw me in such a disgraceful state. I'm done for. I can't even face Ais-senpai anymore… Uuuuu…"
Lefiya's sobbing grew worse as she curled up, hugging her legs.
Seeing her like this, Shirou naturally couldn't say anything harsh.
But he didn't know how to comfort her either. In the end, he could only say helplessly:
"Have you always been this lacking in self-confidence?"
"…What?"
"I mean, don't sell yourself short," Shirou sighed. He wasn't good at comforting people and lacked experience in this area, but there were things that still had to be said clearly.
"Lefiya, your personality is indeed very timid. Leading a group of unfamiliar adventurers must have been very difficult, right?"
"Difficult? Someone like me could never manage something like that."
"That's probably true. But do you think you're the only one who can't do it?"
"…What do you mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. Leading a team composed of members from different Familias to explore the dungeon together? That's not something anyone can do.
Not just you—even I or Ais, the person you admire, couldn't pull it off. Probably only a handful of adventurers with maxed-out charisma in this entire city could manage that…"
Shirou quietly looked at Lefiya.
"So from the very beginning, you were given a task that normal people simply couldn't do. Lefiya, there's no need for you to pressure yourself so much."
"You bastard… How dare you say Ais-senpai couldn't do it! Ais-senpai can do anything!!"
"..."
Never expected her to argue on something like that—Shirou couldn't help but show a wry smile.
But after instinctively rebuking him, Lefiya gradually understood what Shirou meant. She couldn't help but say:
"If I really couldn't do it, then why was I made the leader of this team in the first place?"
"Because your level is high," Shirou answered naturally, waving his hand. "In the dungeon, strength rules all. Since you're Level 3 and the strongest in our party, naturally, you should be the leader."
"..."
Seeing that Lefiya was still unconvinced, Shirou continued explaining:
"Besides, Loki and the others probably wanted to use this chance to train you."
"Train me?"
"Seeing the way you are now, I'm guessing you've always depended on Ais or other senior members in your Familia, right?
When you have reliable seniors around, they'll always look after you. But what will you do when those seniors aren't there?"
Shirou slowly analyzed the reason behind this joint expedition:
"Of course, most people don't need to learn this sort of thing. It's fine just to work as a cog in the Familia.
But Loki and the others probably have higher expectations for you. They see your potential and hope that you can grow—not just as a cog, but into a leader of the Familia one day.
That's why they gave you this extremely difficult task, even against your wishes, so you can gain experience and grow."
"..."
Shirou's words were simple but full of persuasion.
Lefiya immediately realized what he said was likely the truth.
She murmured in disbelief:
"Someone like me… am I really worth that kind of expectation?"
"Well, how should I know? I'm not even part of your Familia."
Shirou shrugged, with an "it's not my problem" attitude.
"Personally, I don't see much potential in a crybaby like you."
"You jerk… You really are the worst!"
Lefiya was very dissatisfied with Shirou's attitude and turned away in anger.
But a few seconds later, she turned back, speaking very reluctantly:
"Can't believe I was actually comforted by someone like you… It's super annoying, but… thank you…"
Her last words were very soft, but Shirou still heard them.
He smiled.
By the way, there was one last reason Shirou didn't tell Lefiya.
Yes—Shirou had one crucial reason left unsaid.
That was: he believed the reason Lefiya was made the sole leader of this expedition… was because of him.
Loki—or rather, the gods including Loki—must have already foreseen the many issues that would arise if Lefiya led the team.
But they went ahead anyway. Not just to train her—but also to deliberately create such a scenario.
Although a poorly matched team would bring many dangers and even potential casualties, the gods were confident that Shirou would be able to resolve all the problems.
They trusted in Shirou Emiya's strength.
So they dared to let a powerless girl like Lefiya act as the leader.
Also, if danger arose in the dungeon, Shirou would have no choice but to intervene.
That way, Loki and the others could judge Shirou's strength and capabilities.
Of course, Shirou had no intention of playing along with Loki's scheme.
He had already decided—unless it was a life-or-death situation, he would slack off completely on this dungeon expedition and never reveal his true strength.
After the talk with Lefiya ended, Shirou returned to the camp.
He didn't care what the other adventurers were doing and just crawled into his tent to sleep.
After a full eight hours of sleep, he woke up feeling refreshed and began a new day.
"Hey, you brat! Go fetch us some water to wash up!"
The Apollo Familia adventurers ordered Shirou around like a servant, with no politeness.
Shirou was already used to this. He nodded calmly and picked up a bucket to go fetch water.
But just as he was about to leave, the orange-haired, single-ponytailed elf girl suddenly stood up and said quietly:
"Don't waste time. Let's hurry and move to the next level."
"What?"
No one expected Lefiya to speak up on Shirou's behalf. The other adventurers all looked shocked.
Lefiya simply said,
"We're adventurers, not guild clerks. There's no need to care about appearance."
"..."
Lefiya's words were logical, and since she was a Level 3, the Apollo Familia members had no way to refute her.
At the same time, Shirou looked at Lefiya in surprise. He didn't expect her to actually help him.
"Hmph, I wasn't helping you. I just got annoyed by those guys' behavior, that's all."
Lefiya snorted proudly, then turned and walked away.
Has her favorability increased?
Faced with this unexpected change, Shirou gave a wry smile—but accepted the girl's kindness.
As a result, he didn't have to do as much grunt work.
After packing up his belongings, he set off with the group toward the next dungeon level.