Chapter 125
"You mean Bete?"
Finn glanced at the werewolf youth and shook his head.
"You’re underestimating him. Something like this won’t break him. Besides... isn’t he there?"
As he spoke, Finn gestured toward Kiriya with his chin.
Kiriya was strolling toward Bete with his hands clasped behind his back, wearing the kind of grin that made a person’s want to punch his face.
"Well, Bete? You’re not going back on your word, are you?"
"Don’t tell me the famous Vanargand is going to become a wolf with his tail tucked between his legs."
Riveria frowned.
Bete was still their companion, after all, and Kiriya’s words were a little too harsh.
She parted her lips, about to say something, but Finn raised a hand and stopped her.
"It’s fine. Let’s hear him out."
On the other side, the words "going back on your word" and "tail tucked between your legs" finally made Bete’s expression change.
His dull eyes gradually grew bright and heated again.
When he spoke, his voice sounded like it was being forced through clenched teeth.
"...The hell did you just say?"
"Hm? So you’re not brain-dead after all." Kiriya’s face lit up with mock relief, and he leaned in with a shameless smile.
"In that case—time to make good on your promise, yeah?"
"Go on. Call me big bro."
Bete: "..."
Under the teasing, amused, and openly entertained gazes of everyone around him, Bete’s face turned red.
His teeth ground together so loudly that people almost wondered if he would crush them.
But at his core, Bete was a proud person.
He could not do something as disgraceful as refusing to honor a bet after losing.
So with an expression like he had swallowed something awful, he held it in for a long while before finally forcing out a few stiff words.
"B-Big bro...?"
"Huh?"
Kiriya still looked completely confused.
"Did you say something just now?"
"You—" Bete nearly bit clean through the curse. But then he met Kiriya’s lazy half-smile, and the words died in his throat.
"Big bro."
This time, it was not as reluctant as before, though the humiliation was still obvious.
"What? What did you say?" Kiriya put a hand to his ear and shouted dramatically, "Louder! I can’t hear you!"
"You call yourself a werewolf, with a voice that pathetic?"
"BIG BRO!"
Bete’s eyes widened, his beast-like pupils almost spraying fire as he roared.
"BIG BRO!"
"..."
Kiriya reached up with his pinky and cleaned his ear, then blew away some nonexistent earwax.
"Mm. Good. Plenty of fire in you." He clapped a hand down on Bete’s head. "Keep at it, kid. Big bro’s got high hopes for you."
Then he turned and sauntered off, laughing loud enough to shake dust loose from the cavern roof.
Bete’s face darkened until it looked carved from stone.
The watching crowd wanted so badly to laugh, but none of them dared.
They were terrified that one careless sound would set Bete off on the spot, so they held it in until their faces nearly cramped from the effort.
"What are you all standing around for?"
Finn spoke up at exactly the right moment, calling out to the group.
"Move out!"
At once, everyone looked as if they’d been let off the hook.
In the blink of an eye, they scattered and hurried away.
"Bete, are you okay?"
Tiona bounced over and reached out as if to pat his head—only to be driven back by his vicious glare.
"Waaah, so scary, so scary! Bete’s going to bite me!" Tiona cried, throwing herself into her sister’s arms.
"There’s always someone stronger." Finn walked over to comfort him. "Losing once doesn’t mean much. A truly strong person keeps honing himself until he reaches the top."
"Hmph. That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?" Bete snorted. "You agreed to Ais’s suggestion and let that brat join our expedition because you wanted to use him to push the rest of us."
Finn only smiled, neither confirming nor denying it.
"Wow, Bete, you actually figured that out! Amazing!" Tiona praised him with complete sincerity. "I didn’t expect you to have a brain under all those muscles!"
"Flat-chest, you want a fight?!" Bete’s voice turned cold. "I can give you one."
"Hah, you think I’m scared?!"
Tiona didn’t back down either.
Seeing this, Finn spoke up.
"That’s enough. We’re on an expedition now, not up on the surface. You don’t get to mess around however you like." He paused. "If you want to compete, that’s fine. There’ll be plenty of powerful monsters ahead. Use them as the target for your contest."
"That sounds good!" Tiona’s eyes lit up, and she rounded on Bete beside her. "Bete—you dare?!"
"Hmph, bring it on! The loser treats everyone to dinner when we get back. At the Hostess of Fertility."
"Then prepare to be eaten into bankruptcy!"
"I’ll throw those exact words right back at you."
The two walked off bickering, both suddenly full of energy.
"Using that boy as a whetstone is risky." Riveria spoke thoughtfully. "Aren’t you worried the blade might break?"
"From what we’ve seen, that boy knows where the line is." Finn smiled gently, his tone calm and confident, as if everything were still within his grasp.
...
Bete was fired up, and Tiona was not much better.
Because of that, the monsters along the way suffered terribly.
The moment they sensed a large group of humans and began emerging from the walls, floors, and ceiling of the Dungeon, they barely had time to appear before they were sent straight to their end.
Silverbacks, infant dragons, hellhounds, and even the 17th Floor’s Floor Boss, Goliath... monsters that would have been serious trouble for ordinary Familias weren’t even worth a second glance from this group.
"You’re not fighting?" Ais moved closer and asked.
"No." Kiriya shook his head. "At my current level, these low-level monsters don’t give me much experience anymore. I might as well let that prickly werewolf vent a little."
That was how you dealt with canines.
After teasing them for a while, you had to give them a chance to burn off their energy.
It was good for their physical and mental health.
"That’s nice. I’m a little jealous."
Ais clearly understood what he meant, and there was something different in her voice.
"Jealous? Of what?" Kiriya turned his head and looked at the girl’s flawless face.
"Of how quickly you can grow stronger." Ais took a deep breath and spoke very seriously. "If I could become stronger as fast as you, that would be good."
"Come on. Finn and the others told me your strength has improved a lot lately too."
Kiriya rolled his eyes.
"It’s still not enough. If I’m going to defeat that monster... it’s nowhere near enough."
When she brought up that topic, the girl’s usually calm, almost expressionless face showed clear emotion for the first time.
That emotion was hatred—and anger.
"A monster?" Kiriya raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were only interested in strength itself. Turns out you just want to defeat one specific monster."
"I have a reason I must defeat it." Ais’s voice was firm, and her eyes seemed to burn. "So if you have a method that can make someone grow stronger quickly, please, teach me!"
As she spoke, the girl actually bowed to him at a perfect ninety degrees.
"Ais!"
Riveria hurried over and reached out to pull her up, but the girl was surprisingly stubborn and refused to straighten.
A helpless look crossed Riveria’s eyes.
’This silly child.’
A method to grow stronger quickly was one of the deepest secrets of any adventurer and their Familia.
How could someone simply hand that to another person?
Besides, Riveria had her own guesses about this so-called "method."
Most likely, the boy possessed some rare and powerful growth-type Skill—the kind of thing that couldn’t be copied or used by anyone else.
Asking so directly would only put him in an awkward spot, and in the worst case, it might even breed hostility.
"Well... it’s not like there’s no way."
Kiriya rubbed his chin.
His words came as a shock to both Riveria and Ais.