"Come in."
When the voice came from outside the door, everyone in the office turned their gaze toward it, and Riveria even spoke up directly, calling the person at the door inside.
"S-sorry to disturb you."
The visitor's voice still couldn't quite hide a trace of nervousness, but the moment she stepped into the office and saw Leo inside, she froze.
"Mr. Leo? You're here too?"
The girl's voice carried a note of surprise.
Leo was equally surprised by her arrival.
She was a girl about his age.
The girl had a petite build, her height around 155 centimeters, but she was curvy front and back, her figure shapely and very well-proportioned.
Her long black hair was braided into a single twist that hung down her back, and she wore an acolyte-style outfit with a pair of round-rimmed glasses on her face. The overall impression was of a young student deep in her studies, fresh-faced and lovely.
Of course Leo knew this girl.
She was a member of the same Familia, and in the original work she had a fair amount of presence as well, leaving readers with a deep enough impression that you couldn't really fail to recognize her.
Although Leo didn't have much overlap with her, hadn't even exchanged more than a few words, he still called out her name.
"Line."
Line Arshe. An adventurer of Loki Familia, Lv.2, alias Loki Acolyte. A member of the Dungeon expedition team, and one of the core members of the Second Army on top of that.
The so-called Second Army referred to the strongest combat force in Loki Familia outside of the seven first-class adventurers. It was made up mostly of Lv.4 members like Raul, and ranked just below the Three Heads and the Four Captains as the highest-status group in the entire Familia.
And in this Second Army of Loki Familia, made up mostly of Lv.4s, Line had earned her place at only Lv.2, and was even one of the core figures granted special protection and attention.
The reason she could pull this off was simple.
Because Line was a Healer.
She could use Magic that healed others' wounds, and that put her even higher up than a Mage.
Across Orario and indeed the whole world, Healers who could use healing Magic were extremely scarce talent, more precious than Mages. So Healers were highly valued in every major Familia, especially during expeditions, when supplies were limited and the Healer became the entire team's lifeline. No one could afford to take them lightly.
So although Line ranked near the bottom in terms of combat strength within Loki Familia, was even a non-combatant who couldn't fight on the front line, her importance to the Familia far outstripped that of others. She was very special talent indeed.
Another such special talent was Lefiya, who was a year younger than both Ais and Line, and only Lv.3 herself. But thanks to special Magic, a Skill, and an outstanding Magic value, her firepower could even match a Lv.5 Mage, which was why she was viewed as the successor to Riveria, the Familia's vice-captain and the city's strongest Mage.
Failing to recognize such a special talent, as a fellow Familia member, would be the strange thing.
Forget within Loki Familia. Even outside, Line had a certain reputation, more famous by far than Leo, who was still a nobody.
"Sorry to call you over when you're so busy."
Finn spoke to Line, and his gentle attitude eased the girl's nerves a little.
"I-it's nothing, my work's basically done, I'm not really busy at the moment."
Line hurriedly said to Finn.
"You've already finished the work assigned to you?" Gareth praised Line. "How diligent. If those punks could be half as diligent as you, that'd be something."
"N-no, it's because I had nothing else to do, so I figured I'd get the post-expedition work out of the way first." Line said, a little embarrassed. "I'm not a combatant, after all, so I can't spend time training myself the way everyone else does. All I can do is handle the odd jobs like this."
"Don't ever sell yourself short, Line." Riveria frowned and looked at Line, her tone deeply serious. "You're a Healer, a deeply precious talent. Without you, who knows how many lives we'd have lost in the Dungeon on expeditions."
"We can't do without you, that's why we don't let you fight on the front line."
"If that made you feel inferior instead, we'd be the ones to blame."
Under Riveria's earnest persuading, the girl's expression finally brightened considerably.
"I understand. Thank you for telling me this."
Line's attitude toward Riveria was very respectful. Not only because Riveria was the Familia's vice-captain, a senior of theirs, but because she was also a High Elf, of noble birth.
Line's attitude was, in fact, on the milder side. The Elves who shared Riveria's race were even more extreme. Their attitude toward Riveria couldn't really be called respect anymore. It was fanaticism, adulation, devotion.
Even Lefiya, the social-butterfly Elf, was so respectful toward Riveria that it hardly seemed like the relationship between student and mentor.
If you said the person Lefiya admired most was Ais, then Riveria was the person she respected most.
In Loki Familia, you could count on one hand the people who'd address Riveria by name without any honorific.
And Line was clearly not among them.
"All right, let's get to business."
Seeing that the pleasantries had run their course, Finn cut in.
"Line, the reason we called you here is actually because we wanted to ask something of you." Finn looked the girl in the eye. "For the time being, could you serve as Leo's Supporter?"
That's right. The Supporter the Familia leaders had planned to introduce to Leo was this precious Healer.
"B-be Mr. Leo's Supporter?"
Line was clearly stunned.
Forget Line. Even Leo was caught off guard.
But on second thought, this girl really was the most suitable person to be his Supporter.
The reason was straightforward.
"You're a Healer, and you're also a Supporter who specializes in backing up the Familia's front-line combatants. We feel reassured entrusting this task to you."
So said Finn.
In the Familia, in addition to being a Healer, Line was also a professional Supporter.
After all, a Healer was only of major use when someone got hurt, and when no one was hurt, Line naturally needed to have other roles.
A Familia's Supporters were generally either non-combatants who didn't go to the front line, or rearguard Mages doubling up. Lefiya, for instance: when she wasn't chanting Magic to support the front line, the Lv.3 girl often had to do Supporter work.
There was also Raul. Although he was a Lv.4 member of the Second Army, in battles where only first-class adventurers could really pull their weight, he'd typically be brought along as a Supporter.
Compared to Lefiya and Raul, Line's Supporter work was much more proper.
Because not only did she, like any ordinary Supporter, handle hauling loot, spare weapons, supplies, and various items, she also did scouting, surveillance, pathfinding, even map-making. She really was an all-around backup for the front-line combatants.
On expeditions, when front-line combatants got hurt and couldn't fight, she'd take charge of covering the wounded as they withdrew, leading them out of the battlefield and tending to their injuries. The work might not look like much, but its importance was beyond question.
Lefiya and Raul's Supporter work was generally just a side role, an amateur thing, but Line's Supporter work was thoroughly professional. She was far more reliable than the outside Supporters of unknown background that you'd find for hire.
So when they learned Leo needed a Supporter, after discussing it with Loki, Finn and the others had decided to send Line to take the role.
This choice of person, too, was something they'd settled on after careful thought.
First, Line was not a combatant. In periods when there was no expedition, she didn't have anything particularly important to do, so she had plenty of time and capacity to accompany Leo on adventures.
Second, the girl already filled the role of Supporter on the team, and her professional ability and qualifications were strong enough.
Third, Line was also a Healer. If Leo really did run into some kind of danger, took serious injuries, she could treat him in time.
On top of all that, Line was a Lv.2 no matter how you looked at it. If she only operated in the Upper Floor region, the first through twelfth floors, then even though she wasn't a combatant, she generally wouldn't run into situations she couldn't handle, and Leo wouldn't have to go out of his way to protect her.
Putting all of that together, the Familia leaders had decided to send Line out to be Leo's Supporter.
The only thing was, Line herself was in the dark about the why.
It wasn't that she had any objection to being Leo's Supporter. She did roughly the same kind of work around the Familia anyway.
She also wouldn't feel it was beneath her to be a Supporter for a Lv.1 newbie adventurer. She wasn't a combatant to begin with, didn't go to the front line, and even as a Lv.2 she didn't have much combat ability to speak of. Saying she was at the bottom of the Lv.2s would actually be flattering her.
The problem was...
"Hasn't Mr. Leo only been an adventurer for less than half a month?" Line said, puzzled. "Does he already need a Supporter?"
Because that was her own role on a daily basis, Line knew very well that ordinary newbie adventurers in the early stages didn't need a Supporter at all.
Just exploring the Dungeon was hard enough on its own, and the number of monsters they could take down in a day was extremely limited. There was no real need to bring a Supporter along just to haul loot, when even a casual belt pouch wasn't guaranteed to fill up with magic stones.
Generally speaking, it was only after reaching the seventh or eighth floor that an adventurer would start to feel stretched thin: the loot got hard to carry, and after battles they'd have to deal with the spoils themselves, which was just too much hassle.
Handing all that cleanup over to a Supporter so you only had to focus on the fighting was the most efficient way to push through.
But Leo had been an adventurer for less than half a month. He shouldn't yet be at the stage of needing a Supporter, right?
As she thought this, Line heard Finn chuckle.
"Whether he needs a Supporter or not, you'll just have to go into the Dungeon with Leo and see for yourself." Finn said, his tone laden with meaning. "After you've confirmed it with your own eyes, remember to keep it under wraps for Leo for now."
"Right." Gareth also looked over at Line and said cheerfully, "This kid's abilities are still a secret within our Familia. We can't have it leaking out, Line."
"I believe you can manage it." Riveria seemed to place deep trust in Line. "You're a reassuring child. Having you keep an eye on Leo will save us a lot of worry."
The leaders' words, one after another, hit Line with no small amount of shock.
It even touched on Familia secrets?
Mr. Leo's abilities?
Just what kind of abilities were they, to be elevated to the level of a Familia secret?
Line didn't understand, but she was deeply shaken.
"This won't be too much trouble for you, will it?"
Seeing Line standing there in a daze, Leo asked.
"N-no! It's not!" Line came back to herself and hurried to say, "Since the captain's assigned this task, as long as it's something I can do, I'll see it through!"
"Then I'm counting on you." Seeing that Line didn't look like she was forcing herself, Leo nodded. "Honestly, having you as my Supporter takes a lot of weight off my mind too."
Leo and Line weren't really close. They could only be said to know of each other, weren't even friends, but Leo knew very well what she was capable of.
If nothing else, the simple fact that she could use healing Magic was enough to make Leo feel like he'd been matched with a god-tier teammate in ranked play.
Even if this god-tier teammate couldn't pull off a pentakill, couldn't even step onto the front line, what adventurer ever got to be this extravagant, bringing a Supporter who could heal along on a Dungeon run?
A Healer like her was something usually only the large teams could afford to field, right?
This was far more luxurious than his original plan to hire an outside Supporter.
The kind of Supporter you could hire from outside, forget healing, wouldn't even be Lv.2. They'd be at the bottom of the Lv.1s, otherwise they wouldn't have given up adventuring to take work as a hired Supporter.
That was the polite term for it: Supporter. The less polite term was porter.
Anyone who had the ability to fight on the front line, to be an adventurer, didn't want to be that kind of porter.
Compared to those people, Line was, from any angle, the best of the best.
"Well, since neither of you has any objections, that settles it." Finn made the call. "For the time being, the two of you will team up and explore the Dungeon together. We'll pull Line back when the Familia's preparing for the next expedition."
Loki Familia's expeditions were generally held every month or two, and the most recent one had been just before Leo became an adventurer, so it was still a ways off.
At the very least, for the next month, Line should be able to team up with Leo.
By then, at Leo's growth rate, he'd probably already be Lv.2, wouldn't he?
He might even make it in time for the next expedition.
The Familia leaders were all thinking this, quietly calculating whether they ought to bring Leo along when the time came.
"Next time might still be too soon. Better to wait and see a little longer."
So Finn and the others reckoned, as they watched Leo and Line leave the office.
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