Lefia, Toyed With

Charging through the horde of monsters with her spear in hand, Lefia felt like she was the Great Hero from the adventure stories themselves.

Stab, slash, swing, thrust.

She repeated these four basic moves over and over, backed by her overwhelming base abilities.

This allowed Lefia to cut a bloody swath through the monster pack.

When she finally impaled the last creature around her, she stood there, her entire body flooded with exhaustion.

The thrill earlier had been so intense that she'd even forgotten her fatigue.

Now that she'd stopped, weariness surged over her in an instant.

But even so, a happy smile lingered on Lefia's face. She had finally overcome her cowardice and grown stronger.

At that moment, she suddenly thought of Shirou Emiya, who had worried so much about her. She turned around, intending to find him and thank him for his training.

But the moment she spun around, she saw Shirou Emiya not far away, chatting casually with Ais and the others.

"Huh? Why is Miss Ais here?"

Hearing Lefia's startled cry, the four who had been talking looked over at her. Seeing that Lefia had finished her battle, Shirou Emiya waved her over.

Gesturing for her to come.

Watching Lefia jog toward them, Shirou Emiya said with a smile, "They were passing by, but after spotting you, they insisted on sticking around."

"Who's insisting on sticking around?"

Tiona shot Shirou Emiya a glare, then bounced over to Lefia's side as she arrived, linking arms with her and declaring loudly, "I'm just making sure our Familia's future Great Mage doesn't get led astray by you!"

Hearing Tiona's praise, Lefia's cheeks flushed bright red.

"Great Mage... I'm still far from that."

"Only when I reach the level of someone like Miss Riveria would I be worthy of being called a Great Mage."

"Don't be so modest!"

Standing up from the ground, Shirou Emiya smiled reassuringly. "Riveria herself said that in terms of pure attack power, your magic has already reached Level 5. That's her personal endorsement!"

"Really? Miss Riveria really said that?"

Hearing Riveria's praise of her, Lefia clasped her hands to her chest, her bright eyes practically sparkling.

"Of course!"

"That's right. I've heard Riveria say that too."

Tione, who had been watching the fun from the side, chimed in to praise Lefia as well, helping build her confidence.

And Ais was even more direct. She reached out and gently stroked Lefia's hair, a faint smile on her lips as she said, "Lefia has grown stronger."

"Everyone... thank you!"

Hearing the four of them praise her, Lefia felt deeply moved.

Even though she had always been holding them back, they never stopped encouraging her.

They had never once thought of giving up on her.

That moved her to tears.

Thinking this, the resolve that had already begun to take root in Lefia's heart grew even firmer. Clutching her spear tightly, she was determined not to let everyone's expectations down.

"Mr. Shirou, please continue training me."

"I want to become an excellent mage that everyone can rely on."

Hearing Lefia's wish, Shirou Emiya felt deeply satisfied.

Having conviction was good—it would keep her driven.

The only ones to fear were those lost in confusion, unable to find direction even when they wanted to try.

"In that case, let's head to the middle floors next. The upper floors can't give you any more trouble."

"Yes!"

"Wait, we're coming too!"

Looking at Tiona as she crowded in, Shirou Emiya turned helplessly to Tione and Ais, hoping they would rein her in.

But unfortunately, the other two were essentially problem children themselves.

Sensing Shirou Emiya's gaze, they both turned away, pretending not to notice.

"Don't you have the Dungeon to explore? The middle floors won't do anything for your strength."

"No big deal. We only got back two days ago anyway—let's just treat today as a day off."

The ever-optimistic Tiona kept patting Shirou Emiya on the shoulder, brushing off his concern.

Seeing this, Tione and Ais nodded in agreement.

Realizing he couldn't shake them, Shirou Emiya had no choice but to accept the arrangement.

"Fine, then let's all go together."

"Yay!"

With her goal achieved, Tiona burst out laughing. "Lefia, we're gonna train you real good. I've already got tons of fun training methods in my head."

"Huh? No way..."

A deeply uneasy Lefia couldn't even begin to imagine what her training would be like from now on.

Compared to Shirou Emiya, Tiona was way too unreliable.

"Just as I thought."

Shirou Emiya could guess her intentions with his feet—this girl definitely wanted to toy with Lefia.

Ah, poor Lefia!

Accept your bleak fate.

Shirou Emiya thought with eager anticipation.

"Wahhh, Tiona-senpai is way too much! How could she do that?!"

Having already left the dungeon, Lefia kept complaining nonstop. After all, Tiona and the others had gone too far.

"That's right, you went too far, Tiona. Throwing Lefia into a pile of monsters—look at her, covered in hoofprints from being trampled."

Walking ahead, Shirou Emiya criticized Tiona with a serious face, but the corners of his mouth kept twitching upward.

The sight of Lefia getting bullied by monsters was just too amusing.

"Can't help it. Lefia's attribute suppression is so strong she can easily wipe out monsters even on the thirteenth floor. If I don't spice things up, how's she supposed to grow?"

In the middle floors, aside from the monsters' raw strength, the biggest headache was the endless waves of attacks.

But with the four of them around, Lefia naturally never had to face that kind of situation.

After a quick period of adaptation, though, Lefia could already handle several Level 2 monsters with ease.

So Tiona carefully picked out a batch of Unicorn Rabbits without stone axes and tossed Lefia in among them.

Unicorn Rabbits without stone axes were far less threatening, making them perfect for Lefia's training.

As a result, Lefia got kicked plenty by the rabbits.

After that, Tiona's training methods became a riot of creativity, pulling out all sorts of unique techniques from the Amazon Sisters. The cruelty was such that even Shirou Emiya had to cover his eyes.

Peeking through the gaps in his fingers while laughing.

"I never want to train with Tiona-senpai and Tione-senpai again!"

Looking at the pitiful Lefia, Shirou Emiya barely held back his laughter as he comforted her. "Don't be upset, Lefia. The process might look rough, but it was all under the two senpais' control."

"See? You've already gotten used to reacting quickly to close-range enemies, haven't you!"

The ability to react quickly to close-range enemies was the focus of Shirou Emiya's training.

It was specifically aimed at Lefia's fear of high-level monsters getting up close. Once she could smoothly react to any monster closing in, she wouldn't freeze up and fail to chant anymore.

Hearing Shirou Emiya's reassurance, Lefia finally calmed down.

Just as he said, the process looked brutal, but she hadn't actually taken any real damage.

Once she realized that, her resentment toward the Amazon Sisters faded considerably.

The two at the front of the group both let out a deep sigh of relief. They really had gone a bit too far earlier.

Thinking back now, they actually felt a little regretful.

As for Ais, she acted like she knew nothing, calmly walking along beside them.

At times like this, Shirou Emiya really envied her expressionless face—when she wanted to hide her feelings, no one could tell.

Soon, the five of them returned to Twilight Manor.

Seeing Lefia covered in dirt from head to toe, the whole Familia erupted into an uproar.