Chapter 21

Fin's eyes locked onto me as soon as he turned the corner. He seemed to take in everything in an instant and must have realized that I was no threat since I was alone. It must have also looked like I had bigger problems to worry about with all the blood covering me. Being a good guy Finn obviously couldn't ignore me if I was in need of help, so he approached and spoke clearly with the authority of a leader. Everything about him radiated power despite his child-like stature due to him being a Prum.

"Do you need any help?" He asked clearly, giving me a once over, "Or some water?" he added.

I watched as the rest of the party looked at me curiously and with a bit of pity perhaps, before responding, "Some water would be great, but it's not necessary if you can't spare some,"

Finn shook his head, signaling that he was insistent on helping me, and tossed me a canteen of water, "What happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I was fighting a Silverback and gave it a deep wound to the stomach, and it decided to dump its intestines out on me," I said with an exaggerated sigh, getting a sympathetic smile out of Finn and a few of the others.

I went with this simple lie since not only is it plausible, but every adventurer faces a similar situation at some point or another. I quickly opened the canteen and dumped the water over my head, cleaning off the worst of the blood as a few more members of the group came around the corner. I watched as Ais and Riveria came around the corner side by side, but both of them froze when they saw me. Ais's eyes opened comically wide as she nearly dropped her sword while Riveria just looked at me like she couldn't quite understand what she was seeing.

'Shit, Ais can probably see the aura of a spirit on me due to Regulus," I thought in annoyance. While Riveria's surprise at seeing me was completely unexpected, Ais's wasn't. I could see that Finn instantly recognized that something was wrong after Ais and Riveria saw me, but the rest of the familia members hadn't noticed yet. I was holding my breath slightly at this critical juncture. I could practically feel the weight of the tension for a moment before Finn turned to me and spoke like nothing was wrong.

"What's your name? I haven't seen you around the guild or dungeon at all," He said in a friendly voice, but I could tell there was a note of warning from the way he looked at me.

I stayed calm and acted as if there were no tension between us, "Sure, I'm Galahad from the Fortuna Familia. You probably haven't seen me around because I'm a fairly new adventurer," I said smoothly, causing Bete to laugh as if I told a joke.

"Fairly new? You're on the 12th floor, you've got to be quite a bit older than fairly new," He said, laughing again.

I just smiled as Finn spoke up, addressing his group, "Everyone, spread out through the party and wait with them for five minutes. After five minutes, we'll push back up to the surface,"

"Are you sure we need a break so soon? We're so close to the exit," Tiona asked, clearly confused by the decision.

"I'm sure," Finn said in a tone that signaled that it was the end of the discussion.

Everyone began to file out except for Finn, Gareth, Riveria, and Ais. I simply took a seat where I was as if their actions had nothing to do with me, acting as if I was taking a break myself. Finn walked over toward Ais and Riveria, but as if broken from a spell, Ais began to charge toward me. Finn and the others were too surprised by her actions that they did nothing to stop her. She quickly stopped before me and asked me the question that I knew was coming.

"Do you know anything about my mother?" she said emotionally as she looked at me.

"Sorry, but I don't even know who you are," I said, looker her dead in the eye while lying through my teeth.

"But, your aura?" She asked questioningly.

Finally, Finna and the others approached, forming a loose semicircle around Ais while eyeing me a bit suspiciously, "I have a contracted spirit working with me, that's why you can feel his aura leaking out of me,"

I could see surprise flash in all their eyes as I spoke, then Ais responded desperately, "Can I talk to the spirit,"

I gave them all a look before answering, "I know that I have no real power in this interaction, but I would really appreciate an oath to keep this secret from each of you,"

"You have my word," Finn said, stepping forward and putting a hand on his chest, "Besides, since you knew what Ais was referring to you immediately, then you must know something about her origin, which is a secret I will ask you to take an oath about,"

"You have my word that I won't tell anyone about her lineage," I said, mirroring Finn's gesture, "I am just putting this out there, but I have no problems with you guys and will stay neutral unless deliberately provoked,"

"Of course," Finn said, "We have the same stance,"

I weighed what little options I had in this situation, thinking of how to maximize my benefits from this encounter. So far, everything had been less than ideal, so I quickly thought of a way to turn this around. I was certain that if I played my cards right that I could leave a favorable impression on the Loki Familia. I snapped out of my thoughts after a moment and quickly summoned Regulus behind me, his massive bulk filling the space behind me. He could sense my tension about this encounter, so his shield was angled so that it could easily block any attack aimed at me.

"I've never seen or heard about a spirit like this," Riveria said as she inspected Regulus.

Ais looked up at the Regulus and asked, "Do you know of a wind spirit named Aria?"

Regulus turned to give me a look and spoke directly into my mind, so I translated for him, "He says that he's sorry, he had no recollection of ever meeting a spirit by that name,"

Regulus tilted his head, confused why I had chosen to omit part of his message. Finn caught this look and asked, "There's clearly more, why omit part of the message?" he said suspiciously.

"I omitted it because it would have no meaning to you. It's a message that assumes you have intimate knowledge of spirits," I spoke truthfully since Regulus had mentioned looking for Spirit Queen Ramiris.

"Maybe Ais or Riveria will know," Finn said with a shrug.

"He says that you would have better luck if you sought out the Spirit Queen and asked her about your lost Wind Spirit," I said with a shrug as they all looked at me in confusion.

"I don't know," was all that Riveria said, and from the look that emerged on Ais's face, it was clear that she didn't either.

"You can find me on the ninth floor of Babel if you want to discuss more," I said, rising from my seat and reabsorbing Regulus back into my body, "My goddess runs a shop called Fortune's Fineries. You all are free to visit any time,"

Finn nodded, seeming to want to end on a positive note as well, "Well, it's a bit late, but I am Finn, and this is Ais, Riveria, and Gareth, and we're from the Loki Familia. I just want to apologize for the tense atmosphere during this whole discussion...,"

"I completely understand," I said, cutting Finn off, "No hard feelings, I would act the same were our situations reversed,"

He smiled and reached out to shake my hand, which I accepted with a smile of my own. It wasn't the best encounter, but it also could have gone much worse. Ais still seemed a bit out of it as she watched me exit. Once I was out of sight, I sighed tiredly and activated Formhide, and began my ascent out of the dungeon.

=

"Why were you shocked by him, Riveria? Also, what was your impression of him?" Finn asked, looking off after the blue-haired adventurer

"Truthfully, he is a monster. I didn't think he is even a level two yet, but his raw magical power rivals mine," she said seriously.

"How about you, Gareth?" Finn asked.

"I think that he may have been killing a bit more than a single Silverback here, and I would guess that it wasn't with his spear," The dwarf said, "I defiantly think he is quite a bit more powerful that what a first impression might suggest,"

"I feel the same," Finn said, heading back to gather the expedition force so that they could get out of the dungeon and head back home.

Ais simply stood silently, looking off after Galahad, clearly still processing the entire situation.