[DanMachi/Percy Jackson] Prytaneum

Chapter 36: Lamp part 1

"Good morning, Mr. Percy," Lili said as I yawned and all but rolled off the couch. "I made breakfast. It's not much, but..."

"Morning," I mumbled, rubbing my face with a hand and rolling my shoulders. I still felt tired, but it was a massive improvement on yesterday and I was hoping a nice, long shower would help me brush off the rest. "Don't worry about it. Just let me go wash up first, okay?"

As I stumbled towards the shower, doing my best not to stumble into anything and worry Lili as I did, I tried to brush the last remains of sleep out of my eyes. Despite how much had happened, the day—or yesterday now, I guess—had passed by quickly, by simple virtue of me not being conscious for most of it. After I woke up at the Guild, Eina and I had talked while I experimented with an idea I'd had and that had consumed an hour or so, but then I got tired and went to sleep again while waiting for the gods and Guild to decide our fate. Sometime later, when it was almost dark, Eina woke me up to hear the news, which had turned out about as well as it possibly could have, and then I went home to continue to sleep.

Honestly, I'd have preferred to stay at the Guild where I had a nice comfy bed to sleep in, because it just didn't feel right for me to sleep in Hestia's while she was away—but Zanis had kicked down the door to our house at the start of this all and I didn't want to risk anyone slipping in and stealing our stuff while I was gone. Once I'd walked all the way from the Guild to my house, though, I didn't want to walk back, so I'd just decided to sleep there for the night. I'd offered to let Lili come with me to the church on a maybe-permanent basis, seeing as she didn't have any place to stay now that she was officially free of the Soma Familia, and while she hadn't wanted to at first—apparently worried about taking anything else from me—she'd changed her mind when I nearly fallen asleep a few times on my own. Once we got there, I claimed the couch by sitting on it and falling asleep, leaving her with the choice of where she wanted to sleep for the night.

As hectic and dangerous as it had been though, yesterday had been productive. Sure, I may have died and gotten in a bit of trouble, but I'd helped Lili escape from the Soma Familia, avoided the worst of it, got closer to a few of my friends, and didn't stay dead. I wasn't the most optimistic person around, but on the whole I was willing to call it a decent day and a lot of the concerns I'd had were set at ease, despite all the explosions. I'd even finally told the truth to Eina, who'd really taken things pretty well. I'd told her pretty much what I'd told Welf, because after she began to understand what I was talking about, she'd vowed me to secrecy the same way everyone around me seemed to, which I suppose was understandable. While she was supposed to be protected as a member of the Guild, with her membership still up in the air it seems she hadn't wanted to take any chances, though that had apparently worked out, more or less. All's well that ends well, I guess, though it could just because I'd seen things go way, way worse.

Shoving those thoughts from my mind for the moment, I enjoyed my shower, standing under the spray until it started to go cold—and even then, I only stepped out as a courtesy to those who couldn't just ignore how cold water was, since I didn't know if Lili had gotten a chance to shower yet or not. Even so, it helped energize me enough that I wasn't worried about facing the coming day when I stepped out and willed myself dry, so good enough. Even with everything, it'd probably take me a day or two to completely recover, but I was already feeling pretty damn good for a guy who died yesterday. Still, as soon as we could afford to buy a house, I was getting an actual, real bed and a nice bath to go along with it, though those dreams seemed to be a bit further off now.

"Is Welf here yet?" I asked as I stepped out, stretching before moving to the couch again in a replacement set of Undine Silk clothes. Welf had volunteered to come over today because Zanis had kicked down our, I was no...carpenter? Smith? I wasn't a guy who fixed broken doors, basically. Apparently Welf was, though, or at least knew a guy who knew a guy.

"Not yet, Mr. Percy, but Lili's sure he'll be here soon," Lili said as she sat on the floor by the couch, giving me a slightly pitiful look. "Lili's sorry she can't do anything to help Mr. Welf and Mr. Percy, after everything they've done for her, but Lili used up all of her funds the day before..."

"Like I said before, don't worry about it," I told her with a reassuring smile. "I like being alive more than I like not being in debt—and we'll handle it all in no time, I'm sure."

"...Yes," Lili replied after a long pause, looking down at her hands. "It's certainly true that for Mr. Welf and Mr. Percy, something like this shouldn't be hard to overcome. It's just..."

I understood what she meant. After all the damage caused by the fight against Zanis, the Guild had leveraged fines against everyone involved, though from what I'd heard, the Soma Familia ended up being held responsible for most of the damages—about ninety percent of it, apparently. Our punishment, split evenly between Welf and I, was almost a token gesture in comparison, but a few million valis was still a bit...

Well, it was enough that all the funds Hestia and I had gathered in preparation for an emergency would vanish and still leave us in a great deal of debt. According to Eina, it wouldn't be quite as bad as it seemed, because it didn't account for the money the Soma Familia would be paying us, what with stealing and breaking a magic sword and nearly, almost, actually killing me. Those prices, however, would apparently need Hestia and Hephaestus to help mediate, and the two of them were still incognito, so I was left with nothing but the numbers I could see, which were more than a bit depressing. Like Lili said, nothing I couldn't handle, but if I took regular cuts from my daily pay and continued splitting the rest normally, then buying a house was still a long ways off.

Although, if I were being honest with myself, I didn't care too much about that. I was worried more about how disappointed Hestia was going to be when she came home and I had to tell her I'd gotten us in debt while she was away. But there was no helping it at this point.

"We'll just have to deal with it together, Lili," I said, refusing to let my smile falter. "But it'll be okay."

She nodded and opened her mouth to say something else, but a voice interrupted her.

"Hey guys!" Welf called through the open, broken door. "You two awake?"

"No," I said, but leaning into sight of the small hallway that lead to the door and waved. "Hey Welf. Need any help?"

"Nah," He said, already eying the doorframe. He had a tool belt around his waist and a new door under one arm which he set down lightly before getting to work on the hinges of the broken one. "Should be simple enough; just give me a few minutes. Feeling any better, Percy?"

"Yeah," I said, shifting to sprawl across the couch so as to look at him more easily. "You know I heal fast."

"I suppose I do," He said, swiftly clearing away the remains of the previous door and beginning to settle the new one. The process seemed pretty easy for him, but being able to carry a door with one hand probably helped. "I take it Lady Hestia didn't show up last night?"

I shook my head.

"Is Hephaestus still gone, too?" I asked.

"Mm," Welf hummed as he worked. "I asked around and I think I know where she is, but...it seems like she's working on something. I wanted to talk to her, but I guess it can wait."

"You want to get your Status updated, right?" I asked. "After yesterday, maybe you Leveled Up. You fought a fair number of Level 2s if we count the monsters."

Welf just chuckled under his breath and shook his head.

"I doubt anything like that will happen," He said, smiling at me. "You handled all the hard stuff. After that blast especially, if anyone Leveled Up, it was probably you."

I wonder if that was true but didn't mention it out loud. It was true I'd pushed myself to the point of death yesterday, but would something like that be enough...well, I suppose I'd find out sooner or later. If nothing else, after her recent absence I could probably expect a decent increase in my Status once Hestia returned, but it wasn't that big a deal to me. If I'd saved Lili and protected people, that was accomplishment enough.

"The Monsterphilia festival is today," Welf said as the room lapsed into silence when I didn't answer. "If you really are feeling better, I thought it might be fun to check it out."

I blinked at him a few times, wondering what he was talking about until I remembered a conversation we'd had...was it a week ago now?

"That's the Monster Tamer thing, right?" I asked uncertainly.

"Yeah," Welf said. "I figured that since you'd never been, it might be a good way to relax. Have you ever gone to the festival, Lili?"

"...It would be a lie to say that Lili never attended the festival, but Lili didn't have money to waste on such things," Lili said, voice a bit quiet. "Lili usually used the situation to steal things while disguised."

Welf blinked slowly at that but then just set it aside.

"Well, all the more reason to just go and have fun," Welf said. "What do you guys think?"

Lili tilted her head and then nodded before turning to look at me questioningly, with Welf following her gaze. With their attention on me, I couldn't help but scratch my cheek; it sounded a bit interesting, but—

"—Sorry guys, but can you go without me this time?" I asked.

"Ah, I was just an idea," Welf quickly said. "If you're not feeling up to it, it's fine."

"It's not that," I said, sighing. "After everything that happened yesterday, I think wandering around in public might be a bit..."

"Oh," Welf said as Lili nodded. His brow furrowed as he frowned and then sighed as well. "I didn't think of that. Yeah, after yesterday, I guess we'd draw attention, huh?"

"Eina said she'd try to keep things like our names from going public for as long as possible," I replied. "But given that we blew up a street and they called all the gods in to chat, I'm going to guess that everyone who matters already knows. There will be people asking questions, wanting details, talking shit—"

"—Asking for magic swords, not taking no for an answer, being pricks," Welf interrupted and continued, nodding. "You're right, I didn't think it through. I thought it would just be fun, but after yesterday, it'll just be a hassle. Sorry."

"It was a good idea," I assured. "Just a bad time. I doubt we'd have much time to enjoy the festival if we went out today. But to be honest, even if we didn't, I couldn't go. There's something else I have to do."

"What, Mr. Percy?" Lili asked.

I looked between them, scratched my head, and then sighed. I knew what they were going to say but they still deserved to know.

"...I was thinking about heading into the Dungeon today," I said.

They both stared at me for a moment, apparently stunned into silence by the absurdity of my words.

"Lili...thinks that would be a bad idea," She said slowly.

"I think it's a horrible idea," Welf said, following up her words but looking more confused than anything else. "You died yesterday, Percy. I think that warrants a few days off to recover. This isn't about the debt thing, is it? Because I'm sure whatever Hephaestus demands for that magic sword will handle it and then some. Trust me—she is going to be pissed. At me, of course, but also Soma. It's probably not an issue."

I hummed at that, honestly considering the question even as I felt reassured by his words.

"That's not it," I said at last. "I know the debts won't be an issue, even if that isn't true, and while I feel a bit guilty for getting them without Hestia around for me to explain things to, she'll understand. Honestly, taking a few days off sounds pretty good right now, but...I'm not the only one who got hurt. You saw it too, right? Mrs. O'Leary really tired herself out yesterday."

"She was like...a shadow," Lili murmured, to which I nodded.

"She hasn't complained or anything, but she's used enough power that I'm honestly worried about her," I said, nodding towards an unnatural spot of darkness that filled a corner of the room. "She hasn't said anything, but she didn't even go back to the Dungeon last night—she just slept in the shadows up here and she hasn't woken up yet. If nothing else, I want to get some magic stones to help her recover faster."

"Oh," Welf murmured, pausing for a moment before finishing up something on the door and coming towards us. He stopped when he saw Mrs. O'Leary laying there, frowned, and then sighed. "I guess if it's something like that, it can't be helped, but...let me go then. I'll bring everything I find right back here."

"Lili, too," Lili quickly added, nodding her head. "If we fill up Lili's bag...even Mrs. O'Leary should feel better, right?"

"...Thanks guys," I said, smiling at them both before shaking my head. "But you don't have to worry too much—I don't intend to go past the Upper Floors today and I'll try to stick where it's safe besides. With my skill, it'll be easier to draw monsters, too—no offense, but I could find more monsters in an hour then you could probably find all day."

Welf sighed again and worked his jaw.

"You're not wrong, but...that's kind of the issue, Percy," He said before looking at me carefully. "Are you sure you're feeling better?"

"Want to try arm-wrestling me?" I returned challengingly.

"No thanks," He said, still frowning. "I know you're probably fine, it's just..."

"Then..." Lili began carefully. "If we all went together, it'd be safer, wouldn't it?"

Welf still looked uncertain but he nodded slowly.

"Is the sixth floor fine?" He asked. "If it's just that far, there shouldn't be any issues. That should be enough to start helping Mrs. O'Leary, right?"

"Yeah," I said, smiling at them both. "That's what I planned to do."

"Okay, then," He said, taking a deep breath. "The sixth it is. Let's go."