Chapter 446 - 446 - News from Asfi

"You..."

Royman glared at the cat person Allen, who sat with his legs propped on the table and his arms folded, swaggering without a care, and jabbed a trembling finger at him. He had gone red with rage, breathing in great heaves, unable to get a word out.

It looked like Royman's eyes might roll back and he'd pass out from sheer fury, but the representatives of the various Familia around him wore amused expressions and none of them showed any intention of stepping in. In the end Finn couldn't stand it and came out to play peacemaker and smooth things over.

"Allen, that's enough out of you."

With the Braver stepping forward, someone else tried to patch things up too.

"That's right. At a time like this, the Freya Familia really should be keeping its attention on the surface. None of us knows what Evilus is still planning, and if a gap opens in the city's fighting strength and they slip through it..."

"Damn Pallum, shut your mouth!"

Allen cut him off, snorting with contempt in his eyes.

"Who do you think you are? You're not fit to lecture me. I'll do whatever I want. If you don't like it, then let's go outside and settle it right now!"

With that he turned to Finn and bared his teeth in a challenge.

Seeing Allen openly pick a fight with Finn, Vana Freya against the Braver, the representatives of the small and mid-sized Familia pulled their heads in and went dead quiet.

Anyone who stuck their neck out to look big now would instantly become a target for both sides.

Better to keep playing dead.

Let the great Familia settle their own grudges.

Couldn't they see that even the Guild Master was about to faint from rage?

Of course, besides those playing dead, there were plenty who simply didn't care.

Alise, Kaguya and Lyra of the Astraea Familia, for instance. Flora, attending on behalf of the Demeter Familia. Miss Asfi, the Hermes Familia vice-captain, who had come back from the Dungeon only yesterday and had been dragged here to the meeting without a chance to rest. And the captain, Lidith Caverna, who had stayed at Hermes's side as his guard and hadn't taken part in the Expedition.

Watching Allen plant a foot on the table and snarl a stream of choice language at Finn and Royman, Alise, long since bored of the argument, looked around the room, her eyes darting, then crept off in a crouch to where Asfi, Lidith and Flora were sitting.

She hooked an arm through Asfi's, lowered her voice, and asked with shining eyes.

"Asfi, Asfi, I hear you just got back from an Expedition yesterday?"

The Perseus sat blank-faced, with heavy dark circles under her hollow eyes, letting Alise handle her like a doll without a flicker of reaction.

"So? How was the haul? Mm... what floor did you get down to? Hehe, no lying to me now, I know you people have a secret weapon!"

Flora, who had been eavesdropping with her ears perked up, winced. If even Alise knew about it, could it still be called a "secret weapon"? Tell her anything and the next second all of Orario would know.

Lidith sat upright beside them with her arms crossed, and her eyebrow jumped when she heard Alise. She clearly had the same thought as Flora.

"Off with you, Alise. Don't go digging into our Familia's core secrets, or I'll go complain to Lady Astraea and make life difficult for you."

Alise paid Lidith's threat no mind and leaned in, still smiling.

"Hmph, fine, don't tell me then. But you can tell us what you saw along the way, right? That's not a secret."

What she saw?

At that, not only Alise but Lidith beside her felt a stir of curiosity.

Asfi was, after all, the captain candidate she had picked herself, and this was a good chance to hear about her trip into the Dungeon.

The girl had only gotten back to the surface late last night. Never mind a detailed report, she had barely managed three hours of sleep before Lidith hauled her out of bed and dragged her to the meeting.

"What I saw on the Expedition..."

Asfi's gaze stalled for a moment, and a spark of life crept back into her hollow eyes.

Then she set her sluggish, stiff brain in motion, and up came that man and his party of beauties. And of course, that absurd Super-Wide-Area Annihilation Magic that rewrote the climate of an entire region.

"Now that you mention it, there was one thing. On the way back, our party ran into the Demeter Familia's Expedition party. Miss Persephone, and Mr. Leon, Miss Jeanne and Miss Rose were all there. Mm, about ten people, I'd say. They'd just finished dealing with a massive Monster Party. Come to think of it, a few of them were hurt, because the Monster Party had a whole swarm of Poison Vermis in it."

"Leon?"

"Persephone?"

Alise, Kaguya and Lyra, along with the eavesdropping Flora, all paused.

Kaguya narrowed her eyes and spoke coolly.

"Where?"

"The Withered Bone Wasteland, Floor 28..."

Asfi's news brought them all up short, and every one of them sucked in a breath at once.

Their points of focus differed, but they had all caught the same piece of information. Leon and his people had already set foot in the Withered Bone Wasteland.

Kaguya and Lyra exchanged a look, then Lyra narrowed her eyes and worked it through.

"Floor 28? They've pushed as far as the Withered Bone Wasteland? Going by how fast Miss Asfi's group travels, that would have been three or four days ago. Which means, if everything's gone smoothly, they've probably already entered the Sand Land by now."

Kaguya bit her lip, and thinking of something, folded her arms and lowered her head slightly.

"Tsk. That guy."

Alise's mouth fell open and her eyes went wide, her expression blank with disbelief.

"Th, this, this... doesn't that mean they've caught up with us, or even passed us? Damn it, I've been training with everything I have, and even so I can't match how fast they're getting stronger. Then all the effort I've put in..."

Lyra sighed, stood up and patted Alise on the shoulder.

"Don't forget how far off the charts that man is. As for believing they're Lv.2, is there really anyone in the whole Order Alliance stupid enough for that?"

The peanut gallery had nothing to say to that.