"So, which ore d'ya want?"

When shopping for weapons, the clueless Juno usually just picked whatever looked like it was decent for the price. Therefore, it took her a total of three seconds to select a large rock from the lineup in front of her. Lei, on the other hand, spent a good five minutes eyeing the lumite ores laid in front of him before making his choice.

 

"Can you two even use lumite after that...experience?" Iliya watched confusedly as the slayer picked out a few other things from the merchant’s stall..

"It's a buy one get one free deal, and we need weapons. Plus, I just got a 10% discount since she's the priestess." In the end, no nightmare was strong enough to overpower human greed. 

"Alright, time to find a blacksmith."

"Thanks for buying us all these things," Juno said. Even if she didn't know how to choose materials, the type of lumite only available to slayers like Lei was guaranteed to be of high quality.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, Alfred's the one paying. As retribution."

"H-Hey! What did you just say?!"

"Speak of the devil."

 

A familiar redhead walked over from the stall ahead of the group. 

"I don't even know what I did wrong!" Hearing his complaints, Juno remembered what she had originally chased after him to do. She prepared to lecture Alfred, but Lei beat her to the punch.

"When you were all dramatic, you ran straight into the holy priestess and ruined all of her belongings. I had to pay for all of their new things out of my pocket, so you're going to pay for the weapons." He tossed both chunks of lumite into Alfred's arms. "3000 experience. Pay up."

"Wahhh, you're so mean, Lei!" Despite whining, Alfred still held out a pendant towards the merchant. 

"Uh, you don't really need to pay that much for me..." Seeing the full price of the lumite, Juno felt a bit bad for making someone else pay for it. Normally, the income of a Standard-level adventurer would only total around 50 experience a month. Although she did know that higher-leveled adventurers had higher pay, as a Standard adventurer herself, Juno still felt bad about spending so much of someone else's money.

Lei scoffed. "Oh, don't worry about it. He's just overreacting as usual." 

The merchant used a magic tool to scan the pendant, revealing its balance on a slab of crystal.

' H-How many zeroes is that?!'  

 

After the purchase was complete, Alfred turned back towards the group, unfazed.

"So what kind of weapons are you gonna get?" 

"I'm getting Sword remade. As for the priestess..." Lei glanced in Juno's direction.

"You can just call me Juno. I'll try a spear, I guess. Theoretically I can use it as a staff too, right?"

Alfred scratched his head. "I mean...probably? Technically a staff would just be a stick with some lumite on it, and a spear fits those requirements. It’s more of a difference in application."

The four adventurers headed down the market, quickly arriving in front of a shabby-looking shack. The man inside the shack was burly, with calluses all over his charred hands. When he turned back to greet the customers, Juno noticed that the man had a large burn scar across his left eye.

“Ey, if it isn’t the little Cressian! I see you’ve finally brought yerself some buddies.”

At the sound of that title, Lei’s face slightly darkened. “Phulke. This isn’t the time to joke around.”

“You’re always so serious, kid,” Phulke said. “So what do you want today?”

“Turn this back into Sword.” Lei tossed one of the lumite chunks at Phulke, resulting in an airy grunt escaping the man upon impact. “And turn this into a spear. For the priestess.”

“Alright, then, it’ll be done real quick!” Phulke caught the next rock, then turned back towards the table behind him.

 

For a short while, the room was filled only with the sound of hammering and chiseling from the blacksmith. During this brief moment of reprise, Juno was able to think harder about her future plans.

Although the hero’s party was filled with one-trick ponies, Juno did notice that a lot of the members were able to fulfill other minor roles if necessary, with Vie as the strongest example. But Juno never really thought about doing anything aside from supporting the team. It was only after the difficulty started getting dangerous that Juno practiced a few basic melee exercises and whatnot. And even then, she was still inexperienced and weak in comparison to their enemies. To most, the holy priestess was only an entity to support the hero, after all.

However, everything would be different if Juno could strengthen herself in combat.

Even Expert-level commoners were respected, and those at the ranks of Slayer were known worldwide. If Juno, as the holy priestess, could rank up and grow in prestige…

 

‘Forget that bastard, I’ll be the summoned hero instead!’

A menacing smirk slowly crawled onto Juno’s face as she fantasized about her future plans. With the help of these allies, she’d definitely be able to defeat the demon king! And once the demon king is defeated, the kingdom should then transmigrate her back to her original world, right? After all, if she was transported from her old world, the reverse should be possible as well, right? Depending on how it goes, Haruki might be able to come along too. But of course, that would depend on whether or not Juno could manage to become allies with these two. 

As a pair of Slayer and Master, Alfred and Lei had to be extremely busy. Lei, specifically, was infamously known as the “Tempest Blade” due to the nature of his magic. Juno had only heard about it in passing, but she knew enough about the rumors to understand that Lei was among the strongest adventurers in Diverre. Alfred, on the other hand...

Although Juno disliked the idea of siding with a relative of Alice, she herself saw the sheer strength within the swordsmage’s magic. For a party with two ranged-attack mages, the balanced offensive capabilities Alfred had would save them at least weeks of training.

 

“Sorry if this is a rude question, but do you two have a party?” Juno decided to go all in and ask to recruit the two. Even if it ends up in failure, at least Juno could find solace in the idea that she tried.

Lei looked away from Phulke, meeting Juno’s side glance. 

“We work alone.”

“No we don’t!  We work together!” Alfred yelled in response, his tone raising a playful mood amongst those present. “You’re so mean, Lei! We even share our experience! You know, Juno, the balances on our accounts are linked! So even though he said he wasn’t paying he totally was! But he’d never admit it, because he’s too embarrassed! See?”

Alfred’s gaze turned towards Lei, and Juno followed. Sure enough, the slayer was looking away, covering his face with one hand. Juno swore she could see a faint tinge of red on Lei’s ears.

“...Shut up. I said we work alone. As in. A pair. But alone.” With each passing word, the tinge on Lei’s face grew brighter, and his speech grew choppier.

The way Alfred teased Lei reminded Juno of the interactions between Haruki and Alice she had experienced. From their outwards personalities, it was impossible to tell that Alfred could have been related to the snide and egotistical Alice, but when they were around the people close to them, both Ennendares had a tendency to accurately deduce a person’s deepest weakness.

Quite scary, if used in certain ways. Juno hoped to never get onto Alfred’s bad side.

 

“Either way, we don’t work with any other people. His personality’s too disagreeable for that.” Alfred nudged Lei, who returned the favor with an elbow jab.

“Ow! But since you asked, are you worried we’ll just plop you with the weapons and leave?”

“Oh, uh.” Right on the money. 

“Nah, we wouldn’t do that. After we get the weapons, I’ll take you to the Ennendare estate for some formal training. It won’t be a lot, but it should be enough for you to learn how to better use your magic and whatnot. As far as I know, the church just drops the hero and priestess into the battlefield without warning, right?”

“Yeah… but sh-”

“And also! Don’t worry about any payment.” Each response Alfred gave seemed to trap Juno in, giving her no escape routes.

Juno sighed, giving in at last. “Thanks, but… Why are you doing all of this? You’ve already reimbursed the potions tenfold.”

“Why? That’s because…” Alfred paused to put on a more sinister smile. “Politics.”

“Huh?”

“We Ennendares do hold a decent amount of power, but it still pales in comparison to the Royal Family and the Church, who have the backing of the hero and priestess. But this way, I at least have a failsafe, which is you. When this corrupt king eventually brings the kingdom to ruin, having the priestess on our side will be immensely helpful.”

 

An air of silence followed Alfred’s statement. Obviously, talking about the failure of the royal family was a dangerous topic to touch upon. But within the musky old shack, there were not as many imperial officers, and far less risk of getting caught.

“But if the Kingdom of Diverre falls, will the demons not overrun the humans?” Iliya asked.

“Nope, the demon’s don’t actually eat that many humans. Not since they’ve developed technologically. In any case, they’re quite a bit similar to us, in the sense that they have a conscience. But the Kingdom of Diverre will fall without a doubt, at the very least because of the C-”

“Alfred. That’s. Enough.” Lei stepped up, covering Alfred’s mouth with his hand. Grabbing Alfred’s collar, he dragged the other man outside the shack.

Juno and Iliya began following, but they were quickly interrupted by the blacksmith.

“Oh, by the way gals, these are the weapons.” Phulke quickly handed a spear and a scimitar to Juno. “Tell him it’s on his tab!” 

 

With those words, Juno exited the shack, met once again with the bustling light of the market.