Chapter 281

The weekend arrived quicker than expected, and with it, the upcoming delve with Elida’s team—an event Natalie was both wary and apprehensive of, yet also admittedly interested in.

While Natalie certainly didn’t like Elida, to be generous in the description of her feelings, that didn’t mean she wasn’t intrigued by the top performer of their year, since Natalie was a delver and warrior at heart, and that woman excelled in both fields.

Vanetta too had caught her attention. There was no denying the short, scar-faced woman was a person of immense talent and equal intrigue, considering her unknown background. A place on Elida’s team, temporary or not, would give Natalie insight into both of them that she might not ever get otherwise.

It was just a shame she had to suffer Elida’s presence to get that insight.

While apprehensive and equally dreading the event as much as she was interested in it, Natalie wasn’t scared of heading into the dungeon with Elida. The Parda-Halts were snakes; everyone knew that. A dagger in the back wouldn’t be out of character. They had literally tried such a tactic on the ruling family of Valhaur, the Beaumons, a few generations back—and high treason was a more dastardly crime than arranging an ‘accident’ in the dungeon.

But Natalie wasn’t a blood enemy of Elida’s, merely allied with Liz, and just a teammate at that. Even if their relationship had been more significant, Natalie seriously doubted—as Liz did, since they’d of course discussed the topic—that Elida would try anything. Beaumon and Parda-Halt relations were already tense, and unless Elida intended to kick off a war between major houses, she would keep Liz’s teammate safe, because no matter how solid her excuses should something happen to Natalie by ‘accident,’ no one would believe her; the Parda-Halts had unfortunately ruined any such benefit of the doubt with past exploits—and even with their current reputations. Possibly, Elida would be more concerned over Natalie’s safety than if she had been some random delver, as to not raise tensions further.

Though all of that did assume Elida didn’t want a bloody war between the two houses. It wasn’t a zero chance of that, Natalie supposed, but it was unlikely enough—and using Natalie as a pawn toward that goal would be a strange enough approach—that she felt in no real danger.

To play it safe, she would hold off on confirming her denial of Elida’s invitation onto the team until after the trial had ended. Maybe that was smart anyway: this was a weekend delve, and they might be fighting for their lives for days to come, so while calling the red-haired bitch a bitch would be satisfying, playing nice was better for team cohesion—which meant better for team safety. And while Natalie might have disappointed herself and her team with her lack of professionalism when it came to Alaina, she did, at least, treat the life-and-death danger of the dungeon with far more severity. She couldn’t keep her dick in her skirt, but she would absolutely protect those she’d sworn she would: and even if she despised Elida and her team, Natalie intended to uphold her role of tank with as much solemness as she would in her own party.

Like with any planned weekend delve, they started the expedition on the final day of Tenet classes for the week as to eke out a bit more time in the dungeon before they needed to return. Elida’s team was no less optimizing than Natalie’s, and maybe they were even more so.

After getting dressed and collecting the monster cores with the items she would need—and a few empty ones to store what she found—she met Elida and the three other women that would be making up her temporary team. She spared a brief moment of amusement that even during her excursion onto another party, it would still be on a team of five women. Elida had lost the two men previously joining her: the fighter and the tank, replaced by Vanetta and Natalie herself, respectively. Though presumably Otto would be returning, since she didn’t intend to stay.