The clamor went on for quite a while before the mood inside Twilight Manor slowly turned peaceful.
The members who'd stayed behind at the home base began taking the baggage the expedition force had brought back and hauling it elsewhere, while the expedition force themselves headed one by one toward the surrounding towers to wash up and rest.
"Everyone go get some proper rest first. The rest can wait till later."
Finn gave the instruction himself, and even hauled off Loki, who'd been scheming the whole time to take liberties with the female members.
"Knock it off, Loki. Everyone's worn out this time, and if you keep this up they won't get any rest."
Under Finn's slightly exasperated urging, the off-key goddess reluctantly came to a stop.
"Fine, fine, go get some good rest, all of you. Finn, you lot too, get your strength back first, and you can tell me about the expedition report and all that later."
As she spoke, Loki even cracked open her perpetually narrowed eyes, glanced at the travel-worn Leo and the gear-shattered Ais, and gave a meaningful smile.
"Look at the state of you two, this trip must've really put you through it. Don't think about anything for now, just go back and sleep it off."
At that, everyone nodded and split off from each other in the central courtyard, heading back to their own quarters.
"Get some good rest, Ais."
Leo added a word for Ais, since the girl was still aching all over.
"You too."
Ais's meaning was clear: the two of them were in the same boat.
She ached all over from overusing her magic, and Leo, from casting magic the whole time, had pushed his Mind to the very brink of overdraft, the exhaustion in his eyes now impossible to conceal, kept upright by sheer willpower alone.
A certain deity had seen through this, which was why she'd said all that just now.
Understanding this, Leo and Ais traded wry smiles, and then, wasting no time, said a word to those around them and headed off for their own quarters.
"Want to go wash up together, Leo?"
On the way, Raul called out to Leo, asking him to come to the baths together.
Inside Twilight Manor, whether the men's towers or the women's, there were only communal baths and no private ones, and the members generally went to wash whenever they felt like it, only at times like the return from an expedition needing to go in shifts, and though there was no written rule, everyone still followed the unspoken custom of the higher one's standing in the Familia, the higher one's priority.
By rights, with Leo's Level, he was certainly not among the group with first priority to enter the baths, since he was only Lv.3, with plenty of people higher in Level than him ahead of him.
In the expedition force, Lv.3 was just the bottom rung, so by all logic it would be no surprise if he were among the last group to enter the baths.
But when Raul called him toward the baths, not one person around them raised any objection, all of them instead wearing a look of taking it for granted.
Who didn't know by now that Leo was no ordinary Lv.3?
He'd defeated a Floor Boss single-handed, the only being in Orario at this stage capable of such a feat, and on that point alone his strength surpassed most Lv.4s. Adding in his performance throughout this expedition, everyone had come to regard him as a core member of the Familia, the kind who could stand on par with the Familia's first-class adventurers.
His magic firepower and peerless magic control had outclassed every Mage in the entire expedition force apart from Riveria, including Lefiya, hailed as Riveria's successor.
Never mind that he'd also joined forces with Ais to subjugate that female-form monster the whole expedition force had found so troublesome.
The scene of the boy and the girl walking slowly out of the sea of fire together was, to this day, still seared into many hearts, impossible to forget for a long time.
So, though it was his first expedition, Leo's standing within the Familia had, through quiet, imperceptible change, climbed without anyone noticing to a height on par with the Familia's executives, with even Raul, one of the leading figures of the Second Army, now ranking just below him.
Under such circumstances, Raul's calling Leo to walk together naturally drew no objection from anyone, and even Bete, passing by nearby, only shot a glance before ignoring it all and walking off on his own.
"You all go ahead." Leo didn't agree outright, shaking his head. "I'll go later."
A whole crowd of grown men going into the bathhouse together was something Leo had never quite gotten used to.
Before coming to this world, he'd been a standard southerner, and had felt deeply shaken just learning that northerners would go into bathhouses together, never mind now experiencing it firsthand.
Over this past year and more, he'd always gone to wash only in the dead of night when no one was around, and after receiving the blessing and becoming an adventurer he'd spent most of his time showering off in Babel, rinsing clean before coming back, never once having washed alongside anyone else.
So, even though he was now travel-worn all over, sticky and damp everywhere, Leo still meant to wait until everyone else had finished before going to the baths.
"All right, then we'll head off."
Raul didn't press him, and left with his arm slung over the shoulder of the person beside him.
Leo, for his part, went all the way back to his room, shut the door, and sealed all the noise outside.
The quiet air only then fully wrapped itself around him.
"I'm back..."
Looking at the room that hadn't changed at all from when he'd left, Leo first murmured a quiet word, then walked to the full-length mirror and unfastened the Dragon Fang Sword, the Emerald Staff, and the waist pouch holding the potions, setting them on the table to the side.
He took off the Giant's Battle Garb too, and this set of armor was worthy of being a first-class special armament, for even after so many battles, even after the saturation bombing of the female-form monster's pollen bombs, it still hadn't a single nick on it, intact all over, only with too much dust, blood, and sweat caked on it, filthy beyond belief, so he'd have to give it a good cleaning later and take it in for maintenance.
Weapons had durability, and so naturally did armor, and if it wasn't properly serviced, properly maintained and repaired, this garb's resilience would surely drop a great deal, and it might just break down on its own one day, so when he had time later he'd have to take the garb in for maintenance.
There was also the Emerald Staff, which he'd used the whole expedition, and the jewel on the staff was nearly cracking, so he'd have to take it to the shop that sold it for repairs, or fit a new jewel before he could keep using it.
The sword, on the other hand, since he'd rarely used it this expedition, hadn't dropped much in durability, still plenty sharp, no need to take it in for repairs, just a bit of upkeep.
"Used up quite a few potions too, especially the Magic Potions, this stuff's pretty much a necessity for me, I'll need to restock in time."
Given his magic's special nature, if he couldn't keep his Mind topped up at all times, he definitely couldn't draw out its full power, so a supply like Magic Potions had to be kept on hand at all times, and the higher the quality, the better the recovery effect, the better.
With all sorts of plans surfacing in his mind, Leo went alone to the baths, showered off, and once his body was clean, fell straight onto the bed and dropped off to sleep.
Night quietly fell.
After an afternoon's rest, the members of the expedition force had finally recovered some of their spirits, and came out of their rooms one after another, making the whole of Twilight Manor lively once more.
"Leo! Let's go eat together!"
Raul knocked on Leo's door too, calling him out.
Dinner was already prepared, and everyone was heading to the great dining hall to start the meal.
Roused from sleep, Leo hesitated a moment, but didn't choose to refuse.
"Let's go, then."
Before, because Bete couldn't stand the sight of him, and because quite a few people in the Familia had harbored some odd thoughts about him, Leo hadn't gone over to the great dining hall much to eat with everyone.
But now, he'd been on an expedition with most of the Familia, not only fighting shoulder to shoulder but even sharing a tent with others, and the people in the Familia had come to see him differently, no longer looking at him with odd eyes that left him ill at ease.
That being so, eating together with everyone wasn't such an uncomfortable thing after all.
So Leo came to the great dining hall together with Raul.
The space here wasn't exactly roomy, with only several rectangular dining tables set out inside, and yet the goddess Loki was a strong advocate of the "meals should be eaten together" policy, so for both breakfast and dinner the group meal here wouldn't begin until all the members aside from those on patrol had gathered, leaving the already cramped hall always packed to bursting, so that even moving between the chairs took some effort.
Still, since they'd only just gotten back from the expedition, no one had the energy to be rowdy, and on top of that Loki had probably given orders beforehand for this meal to be a lavish one, to properly reward the returned expedition force members, so everyone was tucking in heartily, eating to their hearts' content.
Some were telling the tales of this expedition to those who'd stayed behind, and others were chatting away with relaxed expressions, and all in all it was a warm, convivial scene.
"My little ones! Open up your bellies and eat!"
Loki stood right up at the head seat, a big mug of drink in hand, one foot even planted on the table, bellowing loudly, which drew a round of cheering from the members around her.
Finn, Riveria, and Gareth sat beside Loki, paying the worked-up goddess no mind, chatting among themselves, and a little way off was Bete, eating alone, this aloof young werewolf clearly unwilling to join in this kind of merriment.
As for Ais, Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya's group, they were sitting at another long table.
"Leo! Over here!"
The moment Tiona saw Leo come through the door, her eyes lit up and she waved him over.
Ais looked toward Leo coming in too, and there was an empty seat beside her, plainly saved specially for him.
The people around, seeing this, all quietly drew their gazes back.
"Coming."
Leo naturally wouldn't refuse, and after answering, looked toward Raul.
"I'll go over there!"
Raul hastily spoke up first, fleeing as if for his life toward the long table where the cat-girl Anakitty, the beautiful Elf Alicia, Line, and other core members of the Second Army were.
That was where he belonged, his heart not yet big enough to dare, like Leo, go sit together with the Familia executives.
Leo certainly had the right to now, but he himself was still far from it.
At least, that was how he saw it.
Seeing this kid so utterly chicken about it, Leo found it half funny, half exasperating, but said nothing, and crossed through the crowd on his own to the long table where Ais and the others were.
"How'd everyone's rest go?"
After sitting down beside Ais, Leo picked up his fork and asked them.
"Already perfectly revived!"
Tiona, still chewing something, hollered it out and accidentally sprayed out a few crumbs of food, much to the disgust of Tione beside her.
"Don't talk so loud while you're eating! That's filthy!"
Tione complained, thoroughly displeased.
"Hehe... I get to sit and eat together with Miss Ais..."
Lefiya paid Leo no mind, looking for all the world like she was blowing pink bubbles, a blissful expression on her face.
The seat on Ais's other side was hers, which had kept this yuri Elf in this state from the start of the meal until now.
"I'm fine too."
Seeing Leo watching her, Ais answered quietly.
She knew Leo was mainly worried about her, since she had genuinely been aching all over before, gritting through it the whole way back, only able to rest easy at last once they'd returned to Twilight Manor.
Though she wasn't fully recovered yet, the aching in her body had faded a good deal.
Ais looked Leo over too, and found the bloodshot in his eyes gone and his whole self much more spirited, which set her at ease.
"That's good, then."
Leo felt the same, and seeing Ais in decent shape, his heart settled a little, and then he started on the meal.
Everyone chatted on and off, mostly Tiona and Tione doing the talking the whole time, Lefiya timidly cutting in a few words now and then, while Leo and Ais said little, eating on their own.
By this time, Loki, having finished her drinking, stood up and said a word.
"I'm heading back to my room now. Anyone who wants to update their Status, come on over, but don't all pile in at once, you know. Tomorrow or the day after's fine too."
With that, Loki took herself off.
Tiona, Tione, and Lefiya started talking.
"You all going?"
"Nah, tomorrow's fine."
"Th-then I'll... too..."
None of the three girls seemed to mean to go update their Status right away.
Only Leo and Ais, both setting down their utensils, looked at each other.
"Want to go?"
Leo asked the girl.
He was definitely going.
"Mm."
Ais nodded hard too.
No one wanted to grow stronger more than she did, which was why, the first chance after every expedition home, Ais would always go update her Status without fail.
"Let's go together, then."
Not in the least surprised, Leo extended the invitation to the girl.
"Okay."
Ais looked like refusing had never crossed her mind, answering with unusual readiness.
The two stood up together and walked out of the dining hall under everyone's gaze.
"Say, do you think Leo might, this time...?"
"Probably not..."
"I think it's pretty likely..."
"It's him, after all, and this is his first expedition too, so his haul's gotta be big..."
"I'm starting to look forward to it..."
Such talk drifted faintly from behind them, but Leo didn't hear it.
Carrying a little anticipation, he headed for the Central Tower together with Ais, making his way up to the God's Chamber on the top floor.
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