16 The Cold and Warmth

(Flashback-Riveria POV)

After a short briefing by the goddess Loki Oberon, Orstrid and Alicia left the room, leaving only Loki, Finn, and Riveria. Loki and Finn were well aware that Riveria had worries in her mind that erased her calm demeanor.

"Riveria, you know that Alicia is the fittest person to join his first dungeon dive, right? Why are you still worried about their safety?"

"No, Alicia As a former member of the Fairy Force, she has mastered concurrent chanting and trained to fight in high-speed combat, being able to skillfully use short chants. So I am not worried about their safety. What I am worried about is Oberon's mental well-being."

Viska, Oberon's mother, told her that Oberon always forces himself to work and train hard, sometimes nonstop, which makes his name well known in the Elven Kingdom at such a young age.

"I know his Mother well; she told me that Oberon is a high elf that rarely appears in Gekai; his talent is almost limitless, but his mental being is a different story."

"What do you mean by that, Riveria?"

"When Oberon, ten years old, was still in the Wishe Forest, there was an incident involving one of the Wishe Forest's children being kidnapped by a Slave trader. When Oberon heard that, he was tracking the kidnapper."

Loki was intrigued by Riveria's story. Loki gets excited about what happens next.

"Then what happens?"

"The child was saved by Oberon, but the slave trader shop was all destroyed in one night without any trace of the one responsible."

((!!))

"Oberon maybe tried to hide what happened, but his Mother and Father are well aware he is the one responsible. He maybe looks calm and kind-hearted, but…. when he is consumed by anger, the only one left is a cold-hearted person."

(Current-Oberon POV)

Inside the dungeon on the eighth floor, Everyone was standing still, and I saw everyone take their position and be ready for everything while Alicia and Orstrid were by my side. Oberon was well aware they were all likely to want to kill all of us, or maybe worse. I can see that Lola, Chynthia, and Claire are all in fear.

"Oberon, are you sure they are Evilus members?"

"I am sure of it, Alicia; at least they are all murderers. With my eye's ability, I can see a good and evil person in sight through their aura, and they are all pitch dark, especially the one in the middle."

That Dark aura reminds me of the most scumbag person I've ever met in Gekkai world when I was ten.

"They are all lost causes; you didn't need to hesitate, Alicia."

"Understood."

They all held weapons coated with poison. Oberon had a healing scroll that could cure any poison, but he didn't know the poison they used could be cured using detoxification magic.

("Orstrid put a barrier around Lola and others.")

("Understand Master.")

"So one of you members has been tailing us all this time?"

They all went silent, but I know they did. They may have tried to fool Orstrid's detection ability, but I know the haze that Orstrid felt when trying to detect the surroundings was their doing.

'I hope goddess Ereshkigal does not hate what I am going to do; they are all truly helpless and cannot be safe; if I let them go, they will probably kill the innocent later on.'

Then I take off my gravity magic bracelet on my hand and ease my movement and strength.

"Alicia, let me be the one to take all of them down."

"Are you stupid!? They are most likely a level higher than you!"

"I know you can take them down, but their weapon is coated with poison, and I don't like you and the other hand coated with their fifty blood, at least not now."

"Oberon,… I will repeat what Loki-sama said: 'You are not alone'. We are ready for whatever is going to happen, and I hope we face it together as a Familia."

("I am sorry, Master, I will decline to let you fight alone.")

("Orstrid.")

"*sigh* What a troublesome Familia I join in, Hahaha."

'Even I know they are all gone by just a hindrance, but she was right—don't try to do everything alone or you just end up like the person I don't want to be.'

Everyone was dumbfounded that I could laugh at this situation, even the Evilus Familia, which was a bit hesitant to take a step forward. I know that Alicia was at the highest level among us; Cynthia has great offensive magic, but she was weak in close combat as a normal mage should be; Claire and Lola have great strength but still lack experience, as I can see from our battle in the dungeon.

"Everyone just sticks together and is aware their weapons are all coated with poison. Avoid close combat and try a range attack."

Everyone nodded in agreement with my advice.

"Alicia let me take their leader. The rest I leave to you and Orstrid."

Then I turned my eye to the Evilus group.

"Before we start, I want to ask. Why are you targeting us?"

"There is nothing you just need to di-"

{Gravity}

In an instant, they saw me teleported right in front of their leader.

(Slash)

"I see, then die."

I cut their leader's throat before he could even prepare. Seeing this, all of them started to panic and start charging forward. Without me saying anything, Alicia and Orstrid sprinted forward and stopped their advance. Alicia uses her magic to create a sphere of blue and white light above her head that launches countless magical bullets that freeze their targets. While Orstrid went forward and slashes the enemy that was left with her Claymore.

((Arg-))

She managed to hit two of them and freeze them in place while the Evilus member left tried to escape. Then I point my finger in his direction.

{Electric}

The mini-sized lightning came out of my fingertip and struck the Evilus member that tried to escape. When the lightning struck, he was just paralyzed on the spot. After that, I saw my blade coated with blood.

Then I cast a 'Water Fall' magic spell to wash away all the blood stains on my clothes and blade. After all the blood was washed away, I cast warmth into the wind to dry my clothes.

"Master, let me."

"Ortrid, thanks."

Orstrid help me dry my clothes using the same as mine.

"Oberon, did that kill him?"

"No, I don't think so Alicia he is only unconscious, but not for long."

"I see…. Are you okay?"

"If I say yes it will be a lie I just…. Don't like taking life other than a monster."

After gathering all the bodies I burn their remains and I can smell the burning flesh of them. It reminds me of the time I was traveling alone and being hunted by an assassin many times that I stop counting how many bodies I cremate the same with.

"*Thud*…*Blargh*"

"OBERON!"

When I am reminded of such a scene I can't help but to drop my knees and vomit. Alicia and others went to my side and try to comfort me.

"I am sorry Everyone I just feel a bit sick."

"Alicia-san I think we should head back Oberon-sama look not well."

"I Agree with Cynthia… Oberon-san is pushing himself too much for us."

"Cynthia,… Lola…. I thik-"

"No…. I am okay now it's just I remember a bad dream that's all."

Seeing my sincere expression Alicia was still reluctant, but she know that if she does not finish the investigation mission it will leaf stain Loki Familia's record in the guild.

"I understand…. We continued to dive deeper, and Orstrid please watch over the prisoner until we can hand him over to the Ganesha Familia for further investigation."

I can see everyone still hesitating to agree with Alicia's decision, but I know we must finish the mission.

----

"Alberich, my love wake up."

"... *sigh* It comes back again."

Whenever I had a bad day, there was something or someone with that unfamiliar name in my dream. My guess is that it was just the remnant of my memory that hunted my dream, but when that dream appear somehow I feel like my heart was just being healed.

"… Who are you?"

Then someone open the tent and it was Orstrid bringing me warm food.

"Master you're finally awake. Here I am preparing you warm food."

"Thank you Orstrid. you are a lifesaver."

After that encounter, our party went to the nine floors, but Alicia wanted us to take a rest in a safe place, but it's not a hundred percent safe because there is a chance a monster will find us by chance.

"Was everything okay while I was sleep?"

"Yes, Master, everything is okay, and for the prisoner thankfully we don't need to take care of him anymore."

"What do you mean?"

Just before Orstrid explain two women went inside the tent. It was Alicia and the woman that we meet on the second floor.

"Thank you for letting one scum life, it will benefit us greatly."

"You are welcome, Shakti. I know we need every information we need."

Alicia told me that she met Shakti while patrolling around to secure the resting point, but then she crossed paths with the Ganesha Familia party by chance. When Shakti learned that we manage Chatch with one of the Evilus Familia members, he was feeling down.

"You just came days ago, yet you managed to catch and gather more information compared to our Familia."

I can see that Shakti sees a bit of frustration in her expression.

"Don't need to feel down, Shakti; it's just that for some reason they are targeting me more than other adventurers. I hope with us capturing him I can learn more about why that is, but they are making a grave mistake by thinking I am weak because I just arrived here."

"Then why do you look tired compared to others?"

'Did my face that easy to read? *sigh*"

"Just…. No, I don't want to talk about it because right now I feel much better and I don't want to be reminded about what happened again."

"I- I am sorry."

"It's okay. Then, Alicia, I believe it's time we descend to the 9th floor, right?"

"Yes, we are all waiting for you to awake to start."

"Okay just let me eat first."

"Sure Oberon take your time."

After bidding farewell to Ganesha Familia members, We descend much deeper, and after a long walk, we finally arrive at the ninth floor of the dungeon. The eighth and ninth floors have the same brown color, but the hall that connects the rooms becomes shorter and the ceiling of the room becomes higher.

"Master, monster ahead."

"Right, everyone be ready."

((ROGER!))

The enemy went closer and closer Lola's ears were twitching. It was a group of Kobold.

"Oberon, can you stop their movement?"

"Sure, Alicia, but I need help, Orstrid please use water magic flooding 15 meters away in front of us."

"Understand Master."

To help make sure the water was not spreading, I lowered the ground on the spot to contain the water. Orstrid uses a simple water magic called 'Flood Flush. The magic will flood the ground.

After the ground is well flooded, all that is left is to do the Monster Step on the area.

"Cynthia, prepare your magic when Oberon paralyzes them."

"I understand, Alicia-san."

After they took a step on the spot, we prepared to point my finger at the spot that had flooded with water.

{Electric}

The monster was roaring in pain, making Lola close her ears because of the loud sound they made. After I was sure they were all paralyzed and unconscious, I laid my gaze toward Alicia and stopped my magic spell.

"Alicia, it's done."

She nodded and dashed forward with Orstrid as her support, but they just needed to stab the monster to end them because my magic had already put them unconscious.

"Oberon-sama."

"Cynthia, what is it?"

"What magic is that, Oberon-sama? I've never seen someone create lighting before."

Electric is indeed the small version of lightning magic, but Electric magic is not categorized as water magic; it can be categorized as Unique Magic because it's never been written or recorded before, so it's not decided yet.

"That magic that I create myself is unique magic because you can't find it in any record or book in the Elven Kingdom, just like 'Abslute Zero'."

"I see, Oberon-sama, can you teach me about your way of magic?"

"Sure Cynthia I will teach you and Riveria later, but I will not give you a book because I don't want other people to find and publish that book. You know what will happen if the enemy has much better magic compared to our race, right?"

She then bows to me.

"Understood Oberon-sama I will be under your care."

"Good now concentrate on our mission."

After Alicia and Orstrid killed all the Kobolds, Lola then gathered all the materials that were dropped by the monster. I can see that her bags and Claire's bags get bigger. I did ask her if both of them needed help carrying those materials, and she said that it was their duty as supporters to carry every material that could be found in the dungeon so it could be sold to fund our Familia activity.

According to Alicia, we just had to survey the normal route that had been taken by other adventurers to find any abnormality or the reason why many of the adventurers went missing, but we all know it was most likely caused by the Evilus Familia that had been dealing on eight floors.

When we survey the ninth floor, we meet mostly monsters and sometimes adventurers, but they are all high-level because the low-level doesn't dare venture deeper when Evilus Familia can ambush them at any moment.

"It's done. We survey the ninth-floor route. We will head back out of the dungeon and exchange the material we gather and report our founding to the guild."

everyone nodded in agreement after there is nothing we had to do there, but still, I was a bit curious about the deeper part of the dungeon.

'Well, there is another chance.'

It takes us probably 6 hours from the entrance to the ninth floor according to Alicia we arrive at the ninth floor far quicker compared to other adventurers, if we are just walking and do not encounter any monsters along the way we should manage to travel far quicker and if I didn't hold back to much.

----

It takes us 3 hours to go to the exit of the dungeon, the day almost went dark outside. It's not a smooth walk on the way out, but we encounter fewer monsters, maybe because they are taking some time to spawn back.

"Good job, everyone; you all do a great job."

"Well, it's all thanks to Oberon and Orstrid that we manage to finish our mission far quicker than we should."

Everyone agreed with Claire's statement.

"Thank you, and I'm sorry that I left you little chance to defeat the monster."

"Oberon-sama, we should be the ones to apologize that you keep holding your power back for our sake so we have a chance to level up. We thank you for caring for us, not only yourself."

"I see…."

They are not wrong about that. If I am not limiting my power, I can probably reach the ninth floor in less than two hours, maybe less than that.

"Then let's head to guild everyone."

((Understand))

It takes half an hour to arrive at the guild building, which is located northwest of the Bable Tower. Along the way, we meet a couple of adventurers; they are all staring at us, but Alicia and the others do not pay attention to it.

When we arrive at the guild, it is pretty crowded; they are all exchanging the materials they are gathering in the dungeon. Because we were inside a room, I could hear what the people were murmuring about.

"Hey, is that the person that they are talking about?"

"Yes, you were right; he matches the description."

'Tsubaki was right. My present in Orario has already caused such fuss among the adventurers.'

Seeing us Rose greeted us and bowed to me for some reason.

"Rose, why are you bowing to Oberon? She may be a high elf, but in your eyes, he is just an ordinary elf, right?"

"Alicia-san I, as the guild staff, just show gratitude for Oberon-sama. He just cleared up Evilus Familia, who killed many of the adventurers in the dungeon today."

'I see, Shakti already shared the information about our encounter with the Evilus Familia member in the dungeon.'

"You're welcome, Rose."

"Now, Alicia-san, I believe you are here to exchange material; please put it here."

Lola and Claire follow Rose's instructions and put the gathered material away. It takes time to calculate and identify the magic crystal's quality. To kill some time, I tried to read the bulletin board news that had been posted on the board of the guild. There, I saw many wanted posters, most of them the same as yesterday.

'Hm, here it says that 5 days from now Denatus will be started.'

From what I know, Denatus is the time when the gods and goddesses will gather and discuss an important thing that happens.

'Hm, and there is a sight of Evilus Familia outside of the forest of Orario, and some caution is being advised to the newbie to dive into the designated floor diced by the guild was safe.'

"Oberon?"

"Hm, Alicia? What is it? Did you need something?"

"No, I just want to ask something if you don't mind…. About our encounters with Evilus Familia."

When she mentioned it, she felt the atmosphere was changing and becoming heavier.

"From what I know, Wishe Forest was a peaceful forest for elves to live in. Yet,... I see that when you cut down the Evilus member, you do it without any hesitation; it's like it's not your first time taking somebody's life... I am sorry, Oberon. I just want to know why?…. If you don't want to answer it, I will never mention this ever again to you."

I was a bit hesitant to answer Alicia's question, but I didn't want her to think I was a cold-hearted person and think negatively about my parents.

"Wishe Forest is not a peaceful place. Alicia, if it does, my father will spend more time with me than when I was a child and not spend his time patrolling the Wishe Forest border. I experienced my first monster encounter when I was eleven years old, but my first time killing someone was when I was ten years old…"

Alicia can see Oberon's expression change to anger, a sign of trauma that makes her regret asking this question.

"No…. I am sorry, please don't need to continue. I understand."

"…. Thank you; it's not a pleasant memory that I want to tell anyone. I hope you all are not scared of me because of what happened in the dungeon."

"fufufu It's the opposite; we all feel safe beside you, Oberon. How can you be afraid of the person who has saved your life more than once? I think it's impossible."

I can't help but smile and feel relieved that I am not losing their trust.

"Thank you, Alicia. I mean it."

After half an hour, Rose finally finished inspecting and calculating how much value the material we gathered had; it was 400K Valis, and they added more for the bounty of the Evilus member we defeated, making it a total 800K Valis.

"Thank you for your hard work, Loki Familia."

Then we left while Rose was still bowing to us.

'It's finally time to go back home. *sigh* I want to take a rest.'

It looks like everyone has the same thoughts as me. It takes a long time before we arrive at the main road leading to Twilight Manor.

"Alicia-san, is that Riveria-sama behind those trees?"

Everyone follows the direction that Lola pointed at, everyone knows that indeed it was Riveria, but she looks like she's tailing someone, and then I follow where her gaze points; it was a young girl, yellow-haired, sitting alone on the bench.

"Alicia, everyone, please head first... I think I know what happens."

"Sure, Oberon, let's go, everyone."

Then I walked closer to Riveria, and when I was close enough, she noticed my familiar presence.

"Oberon? You have finished with your mission already?"

"Yes, we did; thankfully no one got hurt, but leave that aside….. What's wrong with Ais? She looks sad."

When I ask that, Riveria's expression becomes more grim and sad.

"Ais… She wants to register herself as an adventurer, but I told her that she was still too young…. It's not the first time she behaves like this."

"I see… I will talk to her."

Riveria nodded in agreement. She probably doesn't know how to deal with this condition in her mind. The best action is probably to let Ais alone to cool her head while watching and protecting her from the shadow.

"Ais-chan."

"Oberon-san…. Welcomeback."

Then I took a seat beside her.

"What's wrong? You look so sad."

"Riveria-san…. I don't want me to be like her because Ais is still small…. She is wrong."

"Hm, why does Ais-chan want to be an adventurer?"

"Ais wants to kill monster. Revenge Mother and Father's deaths."

When Ais mentions the words 'Revenge', somehow he remembers his past life and the pain he felt. He struggles in the end, finding nothing but being alone with no one to care for him anymore because his mind is being consumed by an act of revenge.

Riveria may be trying to reason with her, but I know it's impossible to be reasonable with people whose life purpose is only to take revenge. It leaves me with one option.

"Ais-chan, how old are you?"

"Four."

"You know, when I was still your age, I locked myself in the room with plenty of books and tried to learn as much as I could first before I started to swing a sword…."

Then I patted her head gently.

"Ais may think Ais is ready, but Ais-chan is not yet old enough…. I promise this: when Oberon sees Ais-chan is ready, I will bring you to the dungeon. In the meantime, I will train you till the time is right."

I can see Ais start to smile again. I can't hold back a chuckle, seeing how happy she is.

"Really?"

"Yes, of course, I promise; in exchange, Ais has to promise to follow Riveria-san's class more seriously, okay?"

"Um, Ais promise."

"Good, how about before we went back, we bought some food to cheer us up and a gift for Riveria-san."

When I stand up, I can feel a small hand holding my right arm.

"Ais wants food Oberon-san bought yesterday."

"Sure, thankfully, it is not so far from here."

Before we took a step together, I heard a familiar voice come from behind the trees.

"Can I go with you?"

It was Riveria when Ais saw her bowing and asking for forgiveness and running and angry at her, but Riveria had already forgiven her from the start. Then Ais took her left arm, and we walked together.

"Um, Riveria-san, is it weird if we walk together like this? People will make stupid rumors about us."

"Fufufufu, I don't mind at all."

Her statement makes me stunt a bit, and I feel a bit embarrassed.

"I-I see…. Let's head to the Jagamarukun stall."

When we walk together, Riveria just forgets to tell me something important.

"Oberon I forgot to say this…. Welcome back."

I can help, but smile at her and replied…

"I am home."