Chapter 288

Now that was a statement to send a chill down a girl’s spine.

Elida liked ‘hurting things’ more than most people?

And she didn’t miss the word Vanetta had chosen to summarize what she’d seen of Elida. The ‘connecting thread’ to Elida’s challenges: the way she reacted.

Angry.

At someone, something, maybe the world.

Natalie had caught a glimpse of that cold-boiling fury herself, once.

“Oh, please. Dearest Elizabeth. Nobody smiles that much and means it. Nobody’s that...” Elida’s lip pulled back, and she waved her hands in an exaggerated way that, oddly, made Natalie understand what she was getting at. Liz was an energetic, sociable person, to a sometimes amusing degree. “Much less a Beaumon,” Elida said. “No, she’s as much a schemer as any of us. You’d be a moron to think otherwise. Seriously. She’s a Beaumon.” Elida laughed. “Not that you understand what that means. I’m almost jealous of your ignorance.”

Agitation appeared on Elida’s face, coming surprisingly fast—almost out of nowhere. Her words grew hot, too.

“And even if it wasn’t an act,” she sneered. “It’s because she’s just been handed everything. Do you know what I’ve had to do, to get where I am? To get approval from my family? That bubbly bitch is just waltzing through life. No wonder she can smile so much.”

The outburst had been uncharacteristic, appearing in a flash. It had only been a single instance, so Natalie hadn’t let it influence her entire opinion of Elida—at least when it came to who her sponsor might be.

But with Vanetta’s insight?

Anger. The guiding force behind that toxic, sweet mask was anger?

Was her sponsor Rage, then?

Even now, she couldn’t be certain. It could just be a facet of the woman’s personality. But it had jumped to the forefront of the possibilities, as far as Natalie was concerned.

“I see,” she finally said. “Should I ... be worried, about that?”

She’d thought coming down into the dungeon with Elida would be a nuisance, but nothing truly dangerous, because of the political situation between Parda-Halt and Beaumons. She was doubting herself now.

Vanetta glanced at her, then blinked. “Oh, no,” she said. “I don’t mean she’s ... well, she might be a little bit of a psychopath,” she admitted. “But she’s not, I don’t know, a deranged murderer. I’ve seen those sorts, too. She’s just...”

A pause, then a dry laugh.

“Passionate,” she said. “In a way most people can’t understand, maybe.” She shrugged. “I respect it, honestly. The only kind of person I can’t respect, is someone who wants something badly, but does nothing about it. And if there’s anything in the world Elida is doing—she’s getting what she wants.” She hummed. “She’s angry about something, and it drives her. It’s why I agreed to be her teammate, even if I don’t like her very much. I’d rather respect someone than like them.”

Natalie couldn’t say she agreed with that sentiment at all.

The conversation dried up there. Half because it had run its course, and half because it was time to get a move on.

She was somewhat distracted in the following fights, and a slip-up that resulted in a shoulder-blow that forced her to take one of their three healing potions brought her head back into the game: she discarded from her mind what she’d learned of Elida and focused on the dungeon with as much clarity as she should’ve from the start.

As they neared the City of Eros, Natalie’s own curiosity and apprehension grew. Just what was in store for them? She hadn’t given Vanetta any guesses half because she genuinely wasn’t sure, and half because she didn’t want to suggest something overly lewd only to discover what was awaiting them was chaste in comparison. Somehow she doubted that though. Lust’s influence over the floor seemed stronger than most, seeing how the entire thing was themed around the City of Eros, with all monsters dropping Tokens meant to be spent there. It wouldn’t make sense for such a prominent, and thematically named place, to be chaste.