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"make use of whatever we have. that's all you can have this week."

i can vaguely remember my mother. i don't know much about her, she always liked keeping to herself.

she was a woman of a few words, the longest i heard her talk was when she was telling me how much she regrets having me.

i was always afraid of what she would do to me if i dare disobey her.

but i do not remember anything else.

i'm glad i don't. i doubt i have pleasant memories with her, not with a woman like that.

i do wish i could meet her again. because despite everything, she did know how to protect me.

and i wish i could ask her how she did it.

"[name]!!"

the cold embrace of ice engulfed her whole body, the touch of the ghosts that surrounded her almost freezing half of her body at an overwhelming pace.

[name] had her arms around her bag the whole time, backed against the corner while arms tried to pull her in the walls.

she had her eyes closed, seemingly exhausted from trying to fend off the ghostly entities up until now.

marcille quickly took action, pointing ambrosia at one of the ghosts.

"marcille! be careful not to hit her!"

"i know...!"

one by one, the ghosts blocking their way exploded with marcille's help. she focused hard, trying her best not to hit [name].

this gave senshi a chance to jump in, swinging his hand made ghost repellent around and hitting the ghosts away.

[name] exhaled out slowly, puffing out mist with each breath as she slowly regains her vision.

"there you are! we've been looking for you, you know."

marcille ran to the girl in concern, immediately fussing over her as her body went back to normal, the frost slowly melting away.

"good thing we made it in time."

laios sighed in relief with a small grin, watching the elf girl rubbed [name]'s scales hard, a poor attempt to warm her body up considering the size comparison.

"don't run off next time, got it? we gotta stick together. this is what happens when you stray away from your party."

chilchuck scolded the girl, who only stubbornly stuck her tongue out to him, irking him.

"you always put yourself in dangerous situations. you have to stop doing that, okay? you always make me worry."

marcille says in exasperation, remembering the many times that [name] killed herself from her own reckless behaviour. if the starvation doesn't kill her, then her deadly potions will.

yes, she almost accidentally killed herself from her own potions many times. that's how reckless she is.

after fussing over how careless she is, marcille managed to get [name] settled down on the floor, resting her head in her arms as she slept.

"she probably used up all her mana. i doubt she'd let ghosts surround her like that."

marcille sighed as she braids through the girl's hair, struggling a bit. it felt like she's handling ropes from how heavy the collected strands are.

"how do you get back mana anyways?"

laios sat on the ground next to marcille, watching her as she does her thing.

"you have to consume something that has a high magical energy in order to recover the mana you lost. usually, magic users eat mana herbs to restore some energy- but obviously, we don't have that at the moment."

marcille glanced at senshi who was trying to remove the rope around the jar of holy water he made, and the dwarf merely shrugged his shoulders.

"i still stand with what i did."

"...in this case, i'm not sure if eating something smaller will have an effect on [name]."

marcille says, tying up the end of [name]'s braided hair, finishing it.
with a satisfied grin.

"there. now your hair won't hinder your sight."

she pats [name]'s cheek, then turns to laios.

"but i guess it depends on what she consumes. even if it's small, as long as it has a high magical energy, then it should make up for the mana she lost."

"so... we look for monsters that have high mana energy?"

"exactly."

chilchuck raised a brow, crossing his arms.

"easier said than done. how are we supposed to catch magical beings? and what are those magical beings to begin with?"

"well-"

"uh, guys...?"

laios interrupted the two, sitting in front of the giant pouch where [name] kept her eggs in, a pensive look on his face.

"i might have bad news."

"what's wrong?"

"marcille, can i get some lights here?"

marcille and chilchuck shared a confused glanced before approaching laios.

"lights please."

laios didn't even look at them, and marcille summoned in lights and directed it near the eggs.

they didn't know what the young man was up to, so they just patiently waited as he stared at the eggs intently.

"what exactly are you doing, laios? is this another one of your egg warming tactics?"

"shh, marcille."

marcille's eye twitched but she kept quiet, watching as laios studied the eggs closely.

"you're making us worry here. something wrong with the eggs?"

chilchuck frowned, leaning over to try and get a glimpse of whatever laios was looking at.

[name] stirred and immediately started looking for her eggs, crawling over to the three curiously.

laios looked up at the girl, seeing how tired and nauseated she is.

"...no, nevermind. it was just a false alarm."

he smiled, waving his hand dismissively.

"what?! so you made us worried over nothing?!"

marcille shakes laios by his shoulders, and chilchuck shook his head in disapproval.

"i can't take you seriously sometimes..."

laios only grins sheepishly, patting marcille's shoulder to calm her down.

senshi soon joins them and actually managed to cool down marcille with a cold treat he made from the jar of ghost repellent he's been trying to open the whole time.

"it's sorbet."

"...is it really safe to eat something that has ghost funk all over it?"

"i'm more worried about what holy water this powerful is gonna do to our stomachs."

"i'm worried about how much sugar i've had today."

senshi chimes in with the two, and they both sighed.

despite marcille and chilchuck voicing out their hesitance as usual, they still ended up trying to cold, sweet treat made from exorcising ghosts earlier.

laios was once again the first to take a spoonful, tasting the sweetness of the sorbet and humming in delight.

"it's good!"

he says, and chilchuck glanced at marcille with the elf doing the same, both of them nodding at eachother before taking a scoop of their own.

the moment they taste it, they immie light up in surprise. it was actually good, but that's expected from senshi.

"he's right, it's good."

"it's light and refreshing too. i like it! here [name], you should try some."

marcille scoots to [name] who gazed at the sweet treat, her interest piqued. the colours resembled a bowl of crystals, and it's very appetising to [name].

and the best part is... it actually has crystals from the treasure bug! so yippee for that.

"instead of getting cursed by ghosts, we actually got blessed."

chilchuck huffed with a smirk, taking another scoop of the sorbet.

"she actually likes it!"

marcille cheered as she shares half of her sorbet to [name], satisfied when she rubs marcille's head with her finger, a gesture she had learnt to know as her way of showing gratitude.

"oh yeah, you said there's monster in this. what did you end up using?"

laios asked senshi, looking at his sorbet in curiosity. it had a familiar texture for him.

"just some grated slime guts is all."

"oh, that explains the jiggly texture."

says chilchuck as he jiggles the spoonful of sorbet he was holding, while laios tried to feed some of his to kensuke.

there was a comfortable silence that followed after that, with the group merely enjoying their sugary snack and [name] napping in the background, not until laios spoke.

"hey, guys? get this."

he started, turning to the other three with a grin.

"we're so lucky. if falin didn't get eaten, we wouldn't be having sorbet right now."

chilchuck stared at him blankly, marcille's lips quirked into a thin line, and senshi looks at laios with a neutral expression.

"huh?"

"you're joking... right?"

his smile turns into a nervous one as the two sweatdropped, giving him strange looks.

"you sound like you're happy that falin got eaten..."

"huh? wait, no-"

"that's the worst thing a brother could say."

"guys wait-"

"some things are better left unsaid."

laios cried tears of defeat as he turns his back to the three, clutching his chest with his face scrunched up as if he was just hit with multiple fatal blows.

"i-if only falin was here... [name], save me...!"

laios pathetically crawled his way to the girl who cracked one eye open to look at him, before huffing through her nostrils and closing her eyes once again.

"aw c'mon-!"

'falin would definitely say something that'll fix things and back me up!'

"i don't know if it's just me or the sorbet, but the vibes here suddenly got chilly."

senshi muttered, looking in between the three as laios comically shed more tears.

'come back, falin! i need youuuu!'

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"aw, rats. this one's locked too. hang on, give me a sec."

it felt like they've walked through hundreds of corridors and still had no luck with finding the way to the lower floors at this point. at least that's how it felt for the touden party.

while chilchuck worked to unlock the door with his lock picking skills, the others stood back and watched, looking pretty tired themselves.

"we've been walking for a while now, guys. maybe we should set up camp here for now."

laios says, glancing around to observe his group. the most prominent one to show signs of exhaustion was of course, [name]. but he could also sense that the others are close to giving out too.

mostly because they only had snacks and no proper meal so far.

"plus, i think [name]'s gonna need to rest for a while."

"actually, that's a good idea."

marcille agreed but then paused, her face flushing red in embarrassment as her stomach growled loudly.

"letting your stomach do the talking, huh? classic."

"that wasn't me, darn it!"

marcille stomped around chilchuck as he laughed, successfully teasing her.

"i figured she'd be hungry. we've been eating snacks all day and nothing else."

senshi rubs his beard in thought before turning to laios.

"i don't think it's a good idea to stop just yet though, laios. the only food we managed to find today is about a bowl's worth of treasure insects. i say we keep going to the fourth floor."

"i hear ya', i hear ya'... but the thing is... the monsters are just gonna het stronger from this point on, and it's important that we're all well rested."

laios then gestured to [name].

"i'd agree with you if [name] could function properly right now. but with her current state, i think we'd have more trouble if we go to the lower floors immediately."

he then scratched his head, his brows furrowed.

"but you're right. we need food so we'll have energy to fight, but we also need to rest if we want energy and now i'm confused."

as if to add more to laios' distress, [name]'s stomach began growling loudly and the girl made a noise of discomfort. she's already suffering from ten types of headaches and nausea, she doesn't need to be hungry right now or else she might actually eat a whole table in her delirious state.

"oh no... let's hope she doesn't try to eat us as a last resort."

after a few more clicks from chilchuck's tinkering on the locks of the doors, it finally unlocked and opened for them.

"it's open."

the half-foot announced, catching everyone's attention.

as they entered the room, they were greeted by the sight of an abandoned, dusty dining room with paintings on the wall. [name] struggled to fit herself through the door for a moment.

[name] groaned and squeezed herself further inside, huffing in defeat when she couldn't even move an inch, her upper body now stuck halfway inside the room.

just as she was about to move back outside, she felt herself shrinking ever so slightly. it was subtle, something that no one will notice unless you really pay close attention to it.

[name] tried once again and this time, she managed to slip through with only a bit of struggle.

"hm? you need any help, [name]?"

chilchuck asked as he turns back to check up on the girl, hearing her slight struggles.

she hummed in response and immediately followed them, knocking a few things over on her way with her bag securely slung over her once again.

the girl had no idea what just happened, but she's not interested enough to question it. she's more worried about how delirious she'll be the more hungry she gets. it's nothing serious, it's just that her friends look more yummy than usual.

"we should be lucky..."

laios sighed while looking around, his gaze then trailing over to the painting on the wall right next to where he stood.

"wait... we are! we got food right in front of us!"

as soon as laios acknowledged the existence of the painting, it morphed into a whole completely different creature, becoming a whirlpool of some sort as it tried to suck laios inside.

"it's a living picture!"

"laios, get back!"

marcille immediately sent an explosion to the painting, stopping it just in time before it could pull laios inside.

it stopped, turning back into a normal painting.

"that was dangerous, it could've pulled you inside!"

the group approached the young man who looked like he was in despair.

"i know! that's exactly the plan, and you ruined it!"

"what?!"

"look at all those fat, juicy grapes she's got!"

laios pointed to the painting that had started melting from marcille's explosion.

"just so we're clear, your plan was to eat the grapes inside the painting?"

chilchuck raised a brow and laios turns to him with a pout.

"that's right. it's a good idea, don't you think so?"

"that's like, the dumbest thing ever!"

"yeah, if you were stupid!"

laios holds marcille's staff away from his face as the girl tried to poke him with it.

"you know what it means to chase "the pie in the sky", don't ya'?"

senshi asked the young man, and laios shook his head.

"yeah, i know that! but i'm not chasing after some imaginary pie i can't eat. if these are actually living paintings, then those pies are actually eatable!"

"okay, but those ones could actually kill you."

"my point is, if i'm in the painting then i can fight for the food in the painting too!"

the look on everyone's faces was exasperated but they all knew that they'll have to let laios do what he wants, or he won't stop talking about it for the whole day.

"whatever. give it a try, then. and if you die, then that's on you."

chilchuck raised his hands in surrender, and laios lit up in excitement.

"really?! deal!"

"tie this rope around yourself then, laios. tug on it, and we'll pull you out immediately."

senshi helped tie a rope around laios' waist, securing it with a tight knot.

the group was startled when there was a loud slam, looking up at see [name] punch one of the paintings before it could suck her inside, cracking it in half.

"uh, i guess we can use [name]'s help in this."

looking around, laios tried to search for an appropriate painting that will feed him well.

"hmm, now which painting.... maybe this one? this has a lot of food in it, right?"

he stops in front of a painting of a king with his wife and newborn child, surrounded by their servants.

"i guess this will do."

soon enough, laios dives into the painting of his choice, and senshi, marcille and chilchuck held onto the rope as it slowly slid further inside the painting.

inside the painting, laios fell into a colorful void before he finally hit the ground face first, and he groaned in pain as he pushed himself to stand up.

he looks around, finding himself in a hallway of some sort.

"who are you?"

he flinched, noticing the woman who was standing before him, holding a white cloth in her arms.

'crap, i've been spotted!'

laios mentally panicked, reaching for his sword which didn't go unnoticed by the woman.

"your sword..."

"huh?"

he paused as the woman looked at kensuke in recognition, before she gazed on his armor.

"i've never seen armour like that before, but you're a palace guard aren't you?"

"what?"

in the blink of an eye, laios was no longer crouched on the ground and instead, playing servant as a bowl of fruits was shoved in his arms.

"hurry now! let's go, there's no time to waste! for goodness' sake, i never have enough help."

laios gulped as he glanced at the fresh fruit bowl, rushing along the unknown woman despite not knowing what he was doing at all.

"hurry, no time to be dawdling back there."

the woman led him in a spacious room, and he stops completely when he spots a sight that was quite familiar.

it was the same scenario as the one in the painting that he is in at the moment, so he figured that he's reliving the painting itself.

"my word. what a clever-looking boy we have here."

the man who laios presumes as the king says, both him and his wife- the queen, cooing at the infant child in the woman's arms.

"true. and did you notice? he has your nose."

the queen smiles, and the child stirred awake and started crying. the king chuckled and took the child in his arms.

"when you grow up, little one, you shall become a great king."

the king laughed wholeheartedly as their child continued to cry, and out of nowhere, an elf approached the king.

"king freinag, i'm so happy for you."

laios wasn't even paying attention to what's happening behind him at all, too focused on the fresh food served on the table.

"hey, don't just stand there! go and help with the rest!"

he snapped out of his drooling state as the female servant from earlier began pushing him along, much to his dismay.

"i, uhm... can i just-"

"that's it, i have it. delgal! your name will be prince delgal! and someday, you will be king, delgal."

laios jumped in surprise as the king shouted in joy, raising his son up in the air who had stopped crying by now, giggling from his father's cheerful tone.

the young man groaned and ran away from the scene.

"that does it, i lost my appetite! i. want. out. now!"

he tugged on the rope repeatedly, and from the other side, marcille, chilchuck and senshi immediately took action.

"ah, it's laios! he wants out!"

"on the count of three! one, two-!"

as they pulled in full force, laios came flying out of the painting and face planted on the ground for the second time of the day.

"..well?"

senshi raised a brow, and laios kinda just kept laying on the ground flat