Otherworld Adventure

When the party arrived at the settlement, they bumped into another party, similar to theirs. It was a party composed of students from the academy. Cecil saw this particular party at the dungeon entrance earlier.

He didn't put them in mind though since it was only in passing. However when this party saw theirs, a couple of the students in the party smirked and blocked their way.

The leader, a tiger-kin and 2 others who were also tiger-kin walked in front of the rest. They were somewhat surprised seeing that Cecil was the one leading the party.

"Well, what an honor. To meet the first ranked." The leader said with a clear tinge of sarcasm in his tone.

Cecil tilted his head and began thinking, 'Did I offend this dude somewhere?'

"But, even with you in this party, I'm guessing it's nothing special. You guys still took this long to get here. Haha, I mean... my party arrived here before you guys." The leading tiger-kin said while shaking his head, he turned towards his party and the members began echoing his words, saying that Cecil's party was nothing special.

"What's that?" Ghina said while eyeing the opposing party coldly.

"Oh? I'm sorry if I offended you... maybe it's not that your party is slow or anything, but somebody was probably dragging you guys down, right?" The leader said with a sneer. He threw a condescending look at Light who was in the back with his head down.

"Hey~ isn't this little ol' Light. How've you been?" The leader walked over and slung his arm over Light, which caused the latter to be visibly appalled.

"Hey... what's with that look huh? Not happy to see your brethren here?"

Cecil started frowning seeing the pained look Light had on his face. Fina had already begun glaring fiercely at the party leader.

"N-no... it's not that Vale... I was just... injured earlier." Light said with a forced smile.

"OH! So you were injured? How careless of you! Here, let me see your wound! I'll treat it." The leader, Vale, replied in fake surprise. He then sneered and said, "So it's like I thought... you've been dragging your team down."

"!" Light flinched at his remark. "N-no! I–"

"Tsk, tsk... Light what did our Young Leader always educate you about? You should NEVER, under any circ.u.mstances, be a burden to your teammates! How could you be such deadweight to them? What'll you do if they fail with the assignment?"

Light started paling at his words, he turned his eyes towards his friends and saw Cecil's cold expression, the furious Ghina and an angry Lu Garulle that was just about to raise his mace and pound the idiot who was next to him.

Before any of them could make a move however,

"GWAH?!"

The leader who had his arm slung around Light was suddenly sent flying away.

"Eh?"

"LEADER!!"

Vale's party began panicking seeing their leader being launched far away. They glared at Cecil's party and ran towards the collapsed tiger-kin who had crashed into the dungeon rest area's walls.

"Hmph." Fina snorted coldly. "Irritating freak."

Cecil whistled and laughed, "Haha! Well... I didn't know you had such a temper Fina."

"Tsk, I couldn't take that stupid freak's words anymore... Light was clearly contributing a lot to the party... and that bastard said he was a burden? Hmph!"

Fina once again snorted while eyeing the collapsed Vale and smiled in satisfaction at her handiwork. She then turned towards the stupefied Light and said, "And you! Light! At least say something! What's with you clamming up like that?"

"Eh? Oh..." Light snapped out of his surprise and turned towards the small, but fierce girl that was pointing her finger at him.

Normally Fina was quiet and timid, but even she had times where the beast within would rear its head. She didn't like the fact that people were degrading their classmate like that. Cecil however knew the actual cause to her little outburst.

In their party, you could say that Fina was the 'weakest' of the bunch. She was really talented at support magic, but she often felt a large sense of inferiority to her friends. Ever since, Ainz, Eli, and Velicia had gotten stronger, the support needed from Fina was becoming more and more unneeded.

She was dispirited and felt that she was no longer necessary to her friends. She even had negative thoughts such as leaving the party since she didn't want to become a burden, especially since the party's name was 'Little Kings'.

The name alone implied that every member would have a combat prowess of a 'King' level character of the academy. At least, that was what Cecil and Lucia envisioned. This expectation soon became a large factor to Fina's insecurities.

She didn't feel this at first, but with every quest that didn't require her support she became increasingly insecure, but it was a good thing that Lucia noticed this and quickly addressed the problem.

-----

So one day while they were training, Lucia gave her 'wise' words of encouragement to the insecure little girl.

"According to Cecil, if you're in doubt, just punch your way out!" Lucia said seriously to her, but then she crumpled into a fit of laughter when she saw Fina take it so seriously.

"L-Lucia?!"

"Nah, it's just funny seeing someone actually take this advice so seriously! But in your case... this may just be the solution to your problem."

"..."

"Well, if you find yourself insecure being with us... Fina should just get stronger!"

"...How?"

"I dunno, that's for you to decide! Look! Eli and Velicia could do it! Heck! Even Ainz, that idiot could do it! So there's no reason for you to not be able to! No friend of mine is weak, especially not my cutie best friend!" Lucia said while hugging onto Fina.

"...Get stronger... for me to decide... okay! Thanks Lulu!" Fina responded with a determined look.

Lucia was smiling happily when she saw her friend get up on her feet, "Ahah~ you even started using my nickname~ it's about time though. But! I won't permit any of you to call Cecil, Cel, since it's for my exclusive use only!"

------

After that, Fina's magic prowess became increasingly powerful. Her confidence returned and although she remained quiet and timid, she smiled and talked a lot more even if it was only with her party members from Little Kings.

"Chin up Light! If you're strong then show it! Who cares about what others say, but make sure that you don't doubt yourself!" Fina saw the change in Light's eye and continued, "If you're in doubt, just punch your way out! That's something my precious friend gave me for advice, though it did come from her boyfriend~"

"!" Light's eyes brightened, he nodded and thanked the girl, "Thank you Fina... I'll... try and not doubt myself anymore."

"Mhm, good then, now let's go in. I got tired after seeing that freak's clownish act."

"..."

"Ahaha! Well said Fina!" Lu said and followed after her.

"...was she always that fierce? I thought she was more of the quiet type..." Ghina said in surprise, she turned towards Cecil who seemed to be deep in thought.

'Precious friend... Lucia? Eli? But.... they don't have a boyfriend– Ahh! It's Velicia! How could I forget that tin can?'

Cecil followed after the rest of his party. He quickly got to Fina's side and said, "Well... I can't believe that the fatty had such nice words to say! Though, he did always give off that older brother vibe."

"?" Fina turned a puzzled looke towards him.

"Hm?"

"What're talking about?"

"It's about your words earlier, the one from Velicia's boyfriend right? Oh, fiancé's a better word. When in doubt, just punch your way out. I like the ring to that. Didn't think it'd come from Lucius though."

"What?" Fina became increasingly confused at Cecil's words, but then she quickly realized something before she facepalmed and mumbled, "Ugh... I feel sorry for Lulu..."

"What's that Fina?"

"Nothing... but you better get your act together Cecil... You never know when someone else just might steal her from you." Fina advised seriously.

"Steal? Steal what?" Cecil responded a bit confused.

"..." Fina became increasingly worried for her friend.

"Well, I don't care who it is, but no one can steal anything from me! The last time someone did, it didn't end so well for them! So I'll just beat anyone up if they come stealing something from me!"

"...ahaha..." Fina dryly laughed. 'Good luck, Lulu.'

Just behind them, Light who was in deep contemplation finally had an understanding look on his after hearing Cecil's barbarous reasoning.

"...Ah, so it was from Cecil..." Light murmured in the back in realization. "So, Fina meant Lucia... well, I guess that was obvious."

Light began nodding to himself and looked at his party leader in admiration. "Punch your way out huh... hehe."

"Why're you laughing like that?" Ghina asked.

"Nothing, but don't you think our party leader's a bit cool?"

"Cecil? Well... he's strong... smart... has that leader-like aura when he's actually serious, but most of the time... he's never serious! It's like he's always playing around or something! Ugh, it's so frustrating sometimes! You'd never notice this at the academy since he's always so serious with classes. I'd hate to be the girlfriend of such a playful person... I almost feel sorry for Lucia."

"...I guess... well everyone has their preferences, but I think Cecil's like this because he's strong." Light said and looked at their ape-kin friend. "Don't you think so, Lu?"

"Yeah, no doubt, his first rank already tells us everything!"

"Yup."

'And, there's no way that a person who would say that line wouldn't be strong.' Light added in his heart.

"Well, whatever, although I do agree. Cecil is strong, without a doubt. I'm glad he's our party leader. I learned a lot from his commands and arrangements since we've grouped up. It'd be more perfect if he was more serious though."

Their banter didn't escape Cecil and Fina's ears. Fina was smiling proudly since her party leader was being praised, while Cecil was chuckling helplessly while scratching his cheek.

"Am I really playful?"

"Other than the times when you train and lecture us, like a demon, you're like a free spirit doing whatever you want."

"...demon?"

Fina only smiled back in response, leaving Cecil not knowing how to respond.

They checked into an inn-c.u.m-diner and ate a very late lunch. They had neither the time nor luxury to have a lunch break while traversing the dungeon so they could only eat now.

The previous unpleasant event that the party was subjected to was tossed to the back of everyone's minds when they began eating. The party rested for another hour after their lunch before they walked out of the rest area to continue their dungeoneering.

------

"Th-that little creep! Ack!" A despondent Vale cursed when he saw Cecil's party exit the rest area happily.

"Boss! Careful, your wounds might open up!" A tiger-kin underling said.

"Tsk. Just because he's got a little back up he actually dared to raise a hand against ME?!"

"...Well, boss... it wasn't actually him, but the little merfolk girl in their party..."

"SHUT UP!"

"..."

"Tsk... I won't take this lying down. Just you wait you stupid entitled failure, how dare the clan's humiliation raise a hand towards me?!" Vale spitefully said.

"What'll we do boss?"

"We're tailing after them! But, we should just track their whereabouts. I heard that the First Ranked has some sort of detection spell. We should keep our distance."

"Yes boss!"

Once they made their plans, an hour after Cecil's group left, Vale's party began tracking them. Once they found their trail, the party would begin moving, trying to get ahead of Cecil's party.

"...should we even be doing this?" A member asked worriedly. He and the last member of Vale's party wasn't a part of his clique. They were only there to fill in the spots after the teacher had arranged the class' party.

"Let's just do what they want... it's not like we can finish the assignment alone."

"But... tsk, never mind..."

Vale's plan was to track the direction in which Cecil's party was heading and hopefully get ahead of them. Once they were ahead, Vale would begin setting up traps that lured monsters onto their path.

"Hehe, just think of this as payback, you little shits. No hard feelings, really." Vale said as he angrily gritted his teeth.

He then eyed the pouch inside his ring and smiled sinisterly.