[DanMachi/Percy Jackson] Prytaneum

(Interlude: Fairy Break (1)

Eina watched the two men leave, feeling simultaneously helpless and understanding. Her charge and his friend were running off to raise up trouble she wasn't sure they could put down and there was nothing she could do to stop them. As just a normal half-elf without a Falna, she'd be of no use to them in a fight and she had no chance of stopping them if she got in their way. The only thing she really could do, as an advisor and member of the Guild, was tell her superiors and try to get them to act. But if she did such a thing, she was doubtful they'd come down on her charge's side, even under these circumstances. She knew better than most that the peace of Orario was a tenuous thing at the best of times and to the Guild as a whole, it took priority over all else. Even the life of a little girl wasn't worth the risk of Familia warring in the streets. She understood that, having seen the records of what had followed the fall of the Familias.

But the thing was...in a way, she was proud of them for what they were doing. Since she was a little girl, she'd heard stories about adventurers and heroes, but had eventually realizes those two things weren't always the same. She'd joined the Guild when she was fourteen simply because the pay of a Guild employee could sometimes surpass that of a low-level adventurer—and though she wasn't that interested in the pay herself, she needed the money the money for other reasons. In comparison to the risks involved with becoming an adventurer, it was a far safer choice, but...looking back, she still wasn't sure what she thought of her job, though she took it very seriously.

She had a few complaints about the job itself, as she was sure everyone did; issues with superiors and coworkers, overtime, and so on. But if she was to point to any particular reason, she'd have to say it was the adventurers she served. Not for who they were as people, because that's all they were—people. Some good, some bad, some loud and annoying, others silent and reserved, and everything in between. She'd figured out quickly that whatever the stories had said, being an adventurer was a job, first and foremost. And as an advisor, her job was to help them do their job.

The only issue was, their job got them killed. It was dangerous, no matter how lightly they took it; more adventurers died in the Dungeon than in any other way by a good margin. In many ways, 'helping them do their job' meant 'keeping them alive,' and...and she didn't always succeed.

Like she hadn't with Maris. The first adventurer she'd ever been assigned, back when she was still new to the Guild. They hadn't gotten along at first, hadn't gotten along for a full year in fact, and she'd spent most of that year complaining about her; Maris had been headstrong, stubborn, persistent, driven, and strong-willed in ways that seemed designed to annoy her. She'd progressed though the Dungeon quickly, reaching the tenth floor in just a year, and it was only then that they'd started to get along...or rather, Maris had decided they were friends and ignored all evidence to the contrary. But when Maris had apologized and said she was a great advisor, she'd been truly happy. She'd learned why Maris pushed herself so hard, too; she wanted to prove something to the parents that had abandoned her and to the God that had taken her in.

She died just over a month later in an act of random chance—an encounter with an Infant Dragon on the eleventh floor. The Dungeon and its monsters didn't care about one's motives for entering, just one's ability to survive. Maris death had reminded her of that and it had marked both the first time someone close to her had died and a turning point. After Maris, the next four adventurers she was assigned all died, sometimes after just a few months. Maybe that was her mistake, maybe there was something she could have done or told them; she didn't know. But her supervisors and coworkers had all warned her, before and after, not to get close to any of the adventurers she was assigned; that it would be hard on her later, that they could have chosen safer professions, that it was better to be callous.

Maybe they were right. But it was also clear that none of them had ever figured out how to stay removed from people they worked with and guided, so she wouldn't know—and she'd never really tried herself. Instead, she just tried harder with her next adventurers, instructing them as hard as she could, to the point that most just began to avoid her lessons. Some still died, but others survived, and she began to move on. Her jobs was hard at times, but she learned how to bare it.

But Percy was a special case. Perhaps in many ways, but mostly in trying her nerves. She'd volunteered to be his advisor in large part because of it—or rather, because so many others had declined when Misha spoke of him. Words like 'looks like a troublemaker,' 'flippant,' and 'very confident' didn't tend to imply long lives when it came to rookie adventurers and it had gotten to the point that her coworkers had actually made bets on how long he would last; a semi-traditional practice that she hated, especially because they were usually right. She'd take the role for herself and made them promise that if he survived a year, they'd stop it.

Sometimes, she wondered if they'd somehow bribed Percy into trying to die, because sometimes it seemed like he was doing everything in his power to resist her attempts to keep him safe. In many ways, he was the most difficult adventurer she'd ever been assigned. Not because he didn't listen; things like that tended to resolve themselves quickly after a few close calls. Indeed, despite his apparent learning disabilities, Percy was always interested and intent when it came to their lessons; indeed, he seemed to plan on sticking with it where everyone else had fled. It was just he listened intently...and then did whatever he wanted.

Since she'd become his advisor a few weeks ago, she'd had migraines because of the things he'd done. Going down to the fifth floor on his first day, without any armor or real supplies. Going down to the seventh the next day, followed by a series of more and more dangerous adventures. He pressed on until his armor or supplies gave out, coming back in rags and shredded steal, and never seeming to consider it worth learning from. He didn't slow down, waiting only long enough to 'clear' a floor—which in his case meant exploring it in its entirety—before moving on to the next without taking any time to consider whether it was a good idea or not. He reminded her of Maris on a level that was almost painful, but where she'd reached the tenth floor in just over a year, Percy had gone down to it in just over a week.

It had been something of a godsend for her when he decided to form a party, because however casually he seemed to take the possibility of his own death, he seemed reluctant to put others at risk. Even so, he was quick to move on to lower floors like the eleventh and twelfth, the better to put his life in more danger—and had immediately run into not only Infant Dragons, plural, but Minotaurs. Not only her coworkers but the very gods seemed to have decided that Percy Jackson had to die, and yet he stubbornly refused, throwing himself into danger and walking back out again alive despite the odds.

He wasn't normal, she knew. Not in any sense, but especially not as an adventurer. When he'd shown her his Status to confirm his level, she'd seen his abilities and for an adventurer who'd only been at work for a few weeks, his growth was simply absurd. His magic and skill sections had been somehow concealed, written in such a way that her middling grasp of the Sacred Text couldn't translate them, but the fact that they'd been written in such a way was telling, as was the height of his Magic ability. Whether because of the lengths he went or for some other reason, he was on a meteoric rise by anyone's standards, but that didn't mean he couldn't get hurt. It didn't mean he couldn't die.

And now, he was intent on challenging another Familia—and an entire Familia—illegally and outside of the Dungeon, all for the sake of his friend. And...she respected that, was even proud of the fact that he would go so far for another. Having seen what many adventurers could do and how they treated their supporters, she was glad that Percy was willing to literally challenge the gods and the Guild if it meant protecting those he cared about. She'd known many adventurers, but relatively few heroes, and Percy was willing to go farther than she would have imagined for what he—and, if she were being honest, she—knew was right. Many could say the words, but Percy would happily face the risks, if he had to. In that regard, she was proud.

But she was also well and truly terrified. Her mind was racing with all the ways this could go wrong, all the things that could happen to him, from financial penalties to horrific deaths. She'd promised she would do everything she could to help him, but she couldn't do a thing, not unless she could pull either a miracle or evidence out of thin air, and that was horrifying.

And yet there was one thing that scared her more—the thought of doing nothing and watching this all come to pass. But what could she possibly—

She stopped, looking down at the bottle in her hands and silently replaying the conversation in her head. One specific part of it stood out to her, but...she couldn't. Or, at least, she shouldn't. But she would.

"You better appreciate this, Percy," She said, sighing to herself as she made her decision and then taking off running. The Soma Familia home was in the southern part of the city if she remembered correctly, while her destination was at the very north. Since she was already on North-West Main, if she took a few side streets, it should be possible for her to get to her destination before Percy and his friend reached theirs. If she acted quickly, then it might even have been possible for her to do something. And maybe it was only fitting that if Percy was risking his life, she put something on the line as well.

At this point, she was unquestionably acting outside of her limits as a member of the Guild. While there was nothing wrong with giving legal advice to an adventurer or assisting them with research and she could have claimed any number of reasons for asking for more information about the Soma Familia, especially given their growing reputation for unruliness in the Guild itself, this was something far beyond that. Going to the doorstep of another Familia with the intent of using her personal connections and internal knowledge to ask for help? Potentially going so far as to turn them against another Familia based on, at best, inconclusive evidence, all for the sake of aiding a personal friend?

She could lose her job for this. She could lose her job and so much more. But if she did nothing, it would be nothing more than shifting that price to Percy instead. So, if this was the only thing she could do to protect him, both from the battle and what came after—

"You are...a member of the Guild?" One of the guards at the gate asked, voice touched by confusion. "What business do you have here?"

"Ah, my apologies," She answered quickly, pausing to bow low. "My name is Eina Tulle. I'm here to speak to Lady Riveria Ljos Alf, in response to a message sent to me recently. Could you please inform her that I'm here?"