A few minutes later, Leo left Loki's God's Chamber.
In the end, Loki had relented after all.
She'd attached one condition, though.
"Take Ais-tan with you."
She wasn't sending Ais to help Leo subjugate the Floor Boss; she was sending Ais to serve as Leo's insurance.
The moment Leo faced genuine mortal danger and couldn't subjugate the Floor Boss, Ais, with her strength, was perfectly capable of pulling him out from under the Floor Boss, carrying him back to the surface, and getting him out safe and sound.
To this Leo naturally had no reason to refuse, and wouldn't refuse.
He did want to challenge Goliath once, but it wasn't that he truly had no fear of death, and still less did he want to die.
Taking on a Lv.4 Floor Boss with a Lv.2 Status was simply too great a risk, and even he himself had no confidence he could pull it off.
So what if his magical firepower could now rival a Lv.4, even be pushed up to rival a Lv.5?
In the original work, even Lefiya, already at Lv.4, had nearly been pushed to the point of self-destruction when she faced Goliath, only finally taking it down with the help of a few juniors. Leo couldn't even measure up to that Lefiya right now, so just how high would his success rate be soloing Goliath?
Appallingly low, most likely.
So his own intention from the start had been to invite Ais to come along with him.
He didn't need Ais to lift a hand; as long as she was holding the line, ready to save his life when he failed, that was enough.
That way, even if he failed, the most he'd suffer was a bit of hardship, with no other loss whatsoever. He could perfectly well start over, whether continuing to challenge it or switching targets, no problem either way.
Loki's demand, for Leo, could only be called hitting the mark exactly.
So Leo left the Central Tower, crossed the courtyard, and headed toward one of the four towers reserved for the female members.
Inside the corridor.
He climbed the spiral staircase, came to one of the floors, and walked toward the long, dim-shrouded hallway. Light spilled out from the windows of the various towers along with faint murmurs of laughter and chatter, and Leo paused a moment before continuing forward.
To be honest, a man walking through a women's-only tower at this dead of night was a bit conspicuous, no matter how you cut it.
But whether it was because of the coming expedition or not, the members still hadn't finished up by now, or had finished and gone straight back to their rooms to drop into bed, with the result that Leo didn't run into a single person the whole way.
This put his mind a little more at ease; at least he wouldn't have to explain anything awkward.
And so, following the memory in his head, Leo arrived in front of a certain room.
He'd come here a few times before, so while he wasn't exactly an old hand at it, he wasn't about to mistake the room either.
"She should be in, right?"
Murmuring this under his breath, Leo reached out and knocked on the door.
He didn't say anything, and no sound came from inside the room.
But the next second, the door opened.
"...Leo?"
The familiar cool voice rang out, the faint puzzlement and surprise it carried hard for anyone to catch.
The room's owner appeared without a sound, dressed in a homey one-piece dress, the safety shorts beneath it running a good half-length longer than the skirt, covering her thighs and hiding anything alluring.
The golden-haired, golden-eyed girl looked at Leo outside the door, a trace of astonishment in her clear eyes, as if she hadn't expected him to come find her at this hour.
"I'm not disturbing you, am I?"
Leo gave the girl a small smile, his tone softening without his meaning it to.
Ais shook her head.
She'd just been sitting on the bed spacing out, so how could she be disturbed?
"You... need something from me?"
Ais tilted her head and asked.
The gesture was rather cute, and with the girl having shed her usual armored getup for plain house clothes, no one would think this was a swordswoman who could mercilessly cut down countless monsters with a casual swing of her blade. They'd only take her for a princess of the deep palace out for an evening stroll.
"Yeah, I've got something to talk to you about."
Leo never beat around the bush when talking to Ais; he said what needed saying, plain and direct.
Ais was the same. She didn't know the first thing about beating around the bush, and even the content of her words was kept as short as it could possibly be.
"...Come in first."
Ais looked at Leo thoughtfully, then stepped aside and invited him into her room.
Leo didn't feel awkward about it and just walked right in.
He was honestly a little curious about Ais's room.
He'd come by a few times before, but those times had only been because he wanted to find Ais, the main purpose being to call her out the door, with no chance to actually enter her room.
If anything, in all of Loki Familia, not a single male member had ever had the chance to set foot in this princess's room.
So Leo had, in a sense, pulled off another feat.
If word of this got out, never mind whether those male members would riot, a certain yuri-obsessed Elf was sure to blow her top.
But... who cared about her?
A mere loser-dog Elf could only huddle in a corner biting her handkerchief.
Stepping into Ais's room, Leo took a casual look around and finally got to know just what the place this Doll Princess lived in was actually like.
It was an extremely bleak room, with only a desk, a bed, and curtains inside it. There was very little furniture and not a single decoration, and it didn't look like a room a girl lived in at all, more like the shabby cell of some ascetic.
A sword leaned against the wall by the window, and the light armor Ais usually wore was scattered in a corner, a stray few articles of clothing folded at the foot of the bed, while on the desk sat a few potions and a coin purse holding her money, and beyond that there was nothing at all.
"...Sorry, there's nothing here."
Ais seemed to belatedly feel embarrassed herself, her pretty face flushing faintly in a rare moment. She couldn't even manage to drag over a chair for Leo to sit in, which left her looking a little at a loss, and it was clear at a glance that she basically never had anyone over to her room as a guest.
"It's fine, my room's not necessarily any better than yours."
Leo said this to Ais with a wry laugh, though it was plainly meant to comfort her.
His room really wasn't all that lavish; after all, in that year before he became an adventurer, he'd basically had no source of income and no way at all to buy any decent furniture or do any decent decorating. But working in the logistics area, besides inheriting some equipment the seniors had cast off and didn't want, Leo had also dug up some furniture that had been swapped out.
In his room, besides a desk, a bed, and curtains, there was also a wardrobe, a full-length mirror, two chairs, some odds and ends of decoration, and even a rug on the floor that Loki had thrown out half a year ago, spread across the whole floor. It wasn't lavishly arranged, but it was absolutely far better than Ais's chilly room.
He wasn't going to come out and say that, though.
After all, he knew better than anyone that the seemingly cool-natured golden-haired girl was actually very rich on the inside, and if he let the slightest hint of distaste show, the other party's face might still be expressionless, but inwardly she'd be dejected to the extreme.
So Leo could only put on an unconcerned air and sit down at the edge of Ais's bed.
Mm... getting to sit on the Sword Princess's bed was another great achievement.
Seeing this, Ais grew a little bashful too, but she still sat down beside Leo.
The distance between them wasn't far, close even, their arms nearly touching, which showed that in Ais's heart Leo was someone she could be a bit close to.
It was a subconscious behavior, and she herself perhaps hadn't even noticed it.
Leo naturally still wasn't going to point it out, and only mentioned to Ais the reason he'd come to find her.
"...You're going to challenge Goliath?"
Ais was silent for a good while before she spoke.
"That's right."
Leo nodded, his expression calm, without the slightest awareness of how startling the words he'd just said were.
Ais, for her part, was a bit startled, but she cared more about something else.
"So... your Status has already reached its limit, and you've got to think about leveling up?"
Ais said this in a low voice.
"Mm."
Leo had probably picked up on what was on Ais's mind, and said no more, only giving a soft murmur of acknowledgment.
And Ais did indeed fall silent again.
She stared blankly at Leo, her eyes flickering faintly, her heart in turmoil too.
Too fast...
Really too fast.
How long had it even been?
Half a month at the very most, surely?
Just half a month, and this man who'd once needed her to lead him before he could even walk out of Floor 18 had now shot up, in one breath, from the state of having just leveled up to Lv.2 all the way to the limit of his current Level, forced to think about leveling up?
And on top of that, he meant to go challenge a Floor Boss to gain great deeds?
That was a Floor Boss!
Even if it was only a Lv.4 Floor Boss, even she would have to put in some effort to subjugate it, and that was still only because she was Lv.5, able to manage it by crushing it with her Level.
And Leo?
He was only Lv.2!
If he could succeed, then it wouldn't be as simple as just leveling up to Lv.3.
An opponent that took her some effort to subjugate, if Leo could subjugate it back when he was Lv.2, what did that say?
It said that this man's strength was already strong enough that it wasn't far from her own.
At the thought, something trembled inside Ais.
"You okay?"
Leo spoke up at just the right moment, as if he'd seen straight through the girl's thoughts.
Ais came back to herself, pressed down the tangle of feelings inside her, and said a single line as she shook her head.
"You're really going to challenge Goliath?"
Only now did Ais's tone take on a touch of worry.
"That's right, it's already decided. Loki knows too, and she's given her permission." Leo looked Ais straight in the eye and said, "She did ask me to bring you along, though."
There was no need for Leo to explain why he had to bring Ais; the other party would surely understand.
Sure enough, Ais agreed at once, without a moment's thought.
"I'll go with you."
Not just to protect Leo, but to witness with her own eyes exactly how this man, who'd grown at a speed that made her envious, would fight a Floor Boss.
The girl wanted to witness that battle.
She wanted to know just how strong Leo would be, fighting with everything he had.
=-=-=-=-=
200 powerstones for the extra chapter
=-=-=-=-=
Read 40 Chapters ahead at Patreon.com/NiaXD