CHAPTER 69: GOSSIP WITH THE DOLL PRINCESS 069

"What’s going on with you two?"

Theona’s gaze wandered back and forth between Reiger and Ais, voicing her curiosity.

Theone, who usually maintained a composed demeanor, couldn’t hide her interest this time, her eyes teasing as she stared at Reiger and Ais.

It was well known that Amazons were a rather belligerent female warrior race, known for their unrestrained nature.

As a race consisting only of females, with no males, they needed to rely on males from other races to reproduce.

Therefore, Amazons had the custom of capturing men, and they revered male-female relationships; they were bold in this regard, without any of the shyness or secrecy of other races.

Thanks to this, within the Amazon race, there were many with disordered private lives. And since the entire race was female, more conservative races like the elves considered their conduct quite licentious.

Although Theona and Theone grew up in the Loki clan and did not adopt the same promiscuous lifestyle and chaotic personal lives as other Amazons, the reverence for male-female relationships, an almost genetic instinct, was still there.

Normally, members of the Loki clan were quite self-disciplined, including clan leaders over 40 years old; there had never been any particularly explicit romances.

Within the clan, thus far, no one had married, nor had there been any couples, with virtually no romantic relationships.

Now, the hint of something new, especially between Reiger and Ais, had excited Theona and Theone a bit more than usual.

The others, while not as agitated as Theona and Theone, also displayed subtle and peculiar expressions.

Especially Rephia, who looked adorably puzzled with her mouth agape.

Unfortunately, Reiger and Ais’s subsequent behavior did not meet everyone’s expectations.

"Where’s Bert?"

Reiger, as if nothing had happened, averted his gaze, put away his smile, and calmly inquired of the others.

"Bert didn’t come."

Ais, too, resumed her usual somewhat aloof expression and replied to Reiger.

Theona paid no mind to Bert’s whereabouts, instead not letting go of the exchange of looks and smiles between Reiger and Ais, muttering, "Say, did you two do something we don’t know about?"

Although the words came from the innocent mouth of an Amazonian sister, their content nonetheless felt somewhat scandalous.

Theone couldn’t help but whistle, speaking flippantly, "Reiger and Ais, huh? That’s a possibility I’ve never imagined before."

When girls gather, gossip is inevitable.

The ladies had often discussed such topics in private, like who had budding romantic potential, who was exchanging glances, who seemed to like each other, or even who secretly adored whom, and if anyone was planning on confessing.

It’s true that the clan was a big family, but not everyone within this large family was related by blood. With dozens or hundreds of people, including both men and women, it was impossible for nothing gossip-worthy to happen.

However, Ais had hardly ever participated in such conversations, nor had she frequently been the subject of them.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t popular.

What a joke, she was considered a princess by the gods, a woman with beauty comparable to that of the goddesses.

In Eorzea, Ais’s popularity had never fallen out of the top three.

Within the Familia, aside from Revilia, a member of the elven royal family, almost no one could compete with Ais in terms of popularity.

Countless people admired her, and the number of those secretly in love with the Doll Princess could form a line from here all the way to the gates of the city.

It was said that there had been at least a thousand males with ulterior motives who had approached Ais, but because of a certain overprotective and excessively doting chief god who was so fond of Ais that his affection had twisted, all those men met their heroic end, including some gods.

Even within the Loki Familia, more than half of the male faction secretly admired Ais.

That was just the male faction.

What? You think this has nothing to do with the female faction?

The elven girl next to her, who for some reason started to feel very confused and spun her eyes in circles, might have something to say about that.

Even Bert, perceived by others as having a nasty character and resembling a delinquent werewolf, had never hidden his fondness for Ais, and almost everyone in the Familia, except for Ais herself, knew that Bert liked Ais.

But what about Ais?

She had never been the subject of any scandal.

Those kinds of rumors about so-and-so and so-and-so being intimate and something being off between them had never arisen about Ais.

The reason was simple: Ais spent all her time either diving into the underground city or practicing her swordsmanship. She was the Doll Princess whose expressions rarely changed and who appeared cold and distant to others. How could such a person have any hints of an intimate affair?

As a result, there had never been gossip within the Familia about Ais having any kind of relationship with the opposite sex.

If there was, the person involved would probably be kidnapped in the middle of the night, bound in ropes, and served with candles, guaranteed to be annihilated by the envious and jealous members, or even by the chief god himself.

Ais had also never been particularly close with any member of the opposite sex.

Although Ais had been with the Loki Familia for some years, the males who had gotten closest to her to date were the Familia leaders like Finn and executives like Bert. Arguably, the next in line was Reiger, who had been sparring with Ais and had become increasingly familiar with her lately.

Now, as these hints suddenly began to surface, not only Theona and Theone but also the other members lowered their voices and pricked up their ears, silently paying attention to this matter.

Unfortunately, regarding this topic, Ais just tilted her head in a perplexed manner, while Reiger had always remained calm.

"You’re overthinking it, nothing happened between us," Reiger shook his head and said, "It was just that last night when I went to update my ability values, we talked briefly about matters of strength, that’s all."

"Mhm."

Ais nodded in agreement.

"Really?"

Theona was somewhat skeptical.

"Yes."

Reiger still had the same calm expression on his face.

That demeanor made many people start to believe his words.

"I, I just knew it....."

Raul muttered with a sigh of relief, only to get elbowed by Angel, making him cry out in pain.

"Yes, yes! Mr. Reiger and Miss Ais often discuss topics about strength! It must be so, without a doubt!"

Finally returning to her senses, Rephia loudly proclaimed this with an unusually desperate effort.

"Oh, what a pity," Theone said regretfully, "I thought Ais had finally seen the light."

"?"

Ais was still tilting her head, a question mark appearing above her forehead.

That expression, that demeanor, straight-up devastated many of the boys and girls present.

"So cute——"

"So cute——"

The crowd roared in their hearts, especially a certain elf girl who was just short of screaming on the spot.

"What are you all doing?"

At this moment, an interrupting voice came from the direction of the mansion.

Finn, Revilia, and Grace walked out in company and arrived at the gate.

"Why so noisy? What are you talking about?"

Grace asked with furrowed brows.

"No, nothing!"

Seeing the parents appear together, all the young boys and girls immediately shook their heads and sat up straight.

"It doesn’t seem like nothing."

Revilia cast a meaningful glance at everyone.

Finn seemed to have a guess, looked at Reiger and Ais, who were calm in their demeanor, then glanced at the formally seated crowd and couldn’t help but laugh.

"Since it’s nothing, let’s get ready to set off."

Finn briskly turned the topic.

"We’re leaving now?" Theona asked in surprise, "What about Bert? That dumb wolf hasn’t shown up yet."

"Never mind him." Grace immediately blew up in anger, "That rascal, it seems he neglected our expedition affairs and ran off to the underground city by himself, truly not giving us a moment’s peace."

The crowd exchanged glances then collectively looked towards Reiger.

"..."

Reiger remained silent, and unconsciously averted his gaze.

He could guess, Bert ran off to the underground city probably because of his own provocation.

That lone wolf was very proud, and it was impossible for him to admit being overtook by Reiger just as Tiona and Theone had done.

The heads of the clans also knew Bert’s personality; although they spoke as such, they were just somewhat concerned whether the young werewolf would do something reckless.

They were truly worried that Bert, under Reiger’s provocation, would take unnecessary big risks to increase his strength and level up.

Achieving great deeds indeed requires demanding conditions.

If Bert ran off to take on some daunting foes or to venture into some dangerous realms, the possibility of losing his life might not be a hundred percent, but it was around seventy to eighty percent.

"Let him go, he should still know his limits," Finn reassured everyone before speaking up.

"I’m going to start assigning tasks now, everyone listen up."

With that, Finn gave the instruction.

"As usual, Grace, Revilia, and I will take the magic stones to the guild to exchange for money."

"Raul and Angel, each of you take some of the dropped items and sell them to the business clans we’ve dealt with before."

"The items from the Cadmus Spring and any related to potions are to be handled by Ais, Tiona, Theone, and Rephia, all four of you are to work on this together."

Finn turned to Reiger.

"Reiger, you follow the leaders and take a good look, as you might need to handle this work on your own in the future."

Reiger naturally had no objection to this arrangement.

Finn continued giving instructions and arrangements then finally clapped his hands in satisfaction.

"Everyone, follow the planned itinerary and head to your respective destinations now."

"There’s a celebration banquet tonight for our return from the expedition. Don’t miss it."

"Let’s go."

The crowd responded and dispersed.

"Let’s go."

Ais called out to Reiger.

"Okay."

Reiger followed her.