"Daphne. Daphne. Daphne!" Who's voice is that? It seems kinda familiar, I wondered as I slowly opened my eyes to see...

  "Phildina! What are you doing in my room?!" She was sitting on top of me with a big smile on her face. She usually wore a set of light armor, but today she was sporting a white, flowing dress that made her look more angelic than she actually was. Uh-oh, I've seen this smile before! I remembered the ridiculous idea she proposed in the cave. What was she up to now?

  "Master! Don't look at me like that! I just want us to go shopping today!" So, now I've graduated from 'master tactician' to just 'master?' She needs to work on her fttery...

  "Really?" I asked with disbelief written all over my face.

  "Yes! It'll be a date! A date for just the two of us!" I didn't know how to feel about that now that I'd become a girl. Ever since this change occurred, I began to ask myself some questions. Would I still be attracted to girls, or would I start to have a thing for boys? No, no, no, no, no, that can't be allowed to happen! I shook my head furiously at the thought and vowed to never venture there again. Phew.

  "Master, is something wrong?" Phildina asked with a puzzled look on her face.

  "O-oh, it's... n-nothing." At first, she looked a bit confused at my reaction. Then, it was like a lightbulb lit up within her, and she smiled mischievously.

  "Oh, Daphne, you're so fun to tease," she said with an understanding look on her face, except she didn't understand anything! I didn't want to go along with her pace, but I did need to buy some more arrows, so I wouldn't mind going shopping with her, even if I knew that she was pnning something. Well, I'll just have to be careful, I thought as I made up my mind.

  "Fine, I'll go with you," I said with a sigh as I got up from my bed.

  "You know, you could buy a house and still have some gold leftover. I don't see any reason why our honorable tactician should live in such a run-down inn." Honorable? I felt like face-palming on the spot, but she did have a point. The wooden floors creaked so loudly I feared they were going to crack, the bed was hard, the window was broken, and let's not talk about the smell. Ugh, body odor and alcohol. A wonderful combination. She made a surprisingly good point, one I would keep in mind moving forward, but for now, I could live with it.

  "That's a surprisingly thoughtful suggestion, but I'll only start thinking about that once we've made a bit more money. I have to consider the party's needs, after all."

  "How self-effacing!" Does she want me to buy something for her? As we walked out of the inn, Phildina asked, "Any business ideas?" with a curious look on her face.

  "Nothing much, really. I was just thinking of taking up a few missions."

  "He~? I thought you'd come up with something crazy."

  "Nah, missions are the way to go for now. You can only try all the crazy stuff once you're loaded." I'd started expining it to her when I saw her. What's she doing here? Lucia was standing in front of the item shop, and she seemed to be looking for somebody. Once she spotted me, she approached us and said to Phildina,

  "I'd like to talk to Daphne privately," to which Phildina replied,

  "Sure, knock yourself out!" On her way to god-knows-where, I overheard her say, "Daphne sure is popur. I was hoping she'd buy a dragon scale for me, but I guess my luck was bad today." I knew it! She wanted me to buy something for her! Once we entered, the old man at the counter called out to us, but we expined that we just wanted to use one of the tables on the far-right side of the room. He gave us permission, so we walked up to the table, sat down on the opposite chairs, and quietly faced each other. Lucia gazed deeply into my eyes for what felt like an eternity until she let out a deep sigh and broke the silence.

  "I grew up in a remote vilge in the southernmost parts of Camelia. I was an only child, so I would usually spend my days reading all the books and magical tomes I found in my father's library. I didn't have many friends, and my parents were out adventuring for a living most of the time, so I was lonely until she came along."

  I listened intently to her, giving her my full attention as she continued,

  "Her name was Arturia, and she was a monk-in-training who had come to live in my vilge as part of her training. I dunno... she never really expined it to me, but" She said with a sad smile, "She was my best friend. When I heard she had completed her training, I invited her to join our party, and for a while, everything seemed fine. One day, however, an elimination mission was posted at the guild. We were to kill ten HellHounds that day, but a Cyclops showed up instead. We all managed to escape, but... Arturia... Arturia."

  I got up from my seat and hugged Lucia, whose tears wouldn't stop. My uncle died in a car accident, so I could truly sympathize with her feelings. I could tell that she bmed herself for Arturia's death, which was why she pushed herself so recklessly. We stayed like that for a good few minutes before she slowly separated herself from me and said,

  "I want to be strong, Daphne. I don't want to lose another friend because I was too weak, so... can you make me strong?" She asked with a look that pulled at my heartstrings. I just wanted to hug her again, but I managed to control myself and answered,

  "Yes! I will make you strong, Lucia, stronger than you could ever dream of. All I ask is that you trust me."

  "I would entrust even my soul and body to a demon if it meant that I could be strong," She answered with resolve in her eyes. D-demon? How fttering... I thought as I tried not to let the hurt show on my face. "Thank you for listening to me," She said as she got up from her seat, but that's when it occurred to me.

  "Wait, you still haven't told me your level."

  "O-oh, that... I'm," She fidgeted nervously before saying, "Level 20." What?! She was even lower than me! I could see why she didn't want to tell everyone her level back then. It'd have been lower back then, too, now that I thought about it.

  "Your attacks were so powerful I had assumed you were no lower than level 30."

  "Oh, that's because my magic attack stat is excellent for my level. Everything else suffers as a result, though. Would you like a summary of my stats?"

  "Well, sure, if that's fine with you."

  Her stats looked like this:

  LuciaLV 20HP30Mag108Dex24Spd49Luck 25P-DEF7M-DEF56Status-----Compatibility-----How terribly unbanced, I thought to myself as she concluded her summary. Her magic attack, magic defense, and speed were good, but everything else was cking. I mean, her HP and physical defense were so low she probably couldn't survive a single attack from a Centaur or Spider. I felt so bad for her that I brought out a dragon scale from my pocket and gave it to her. It'd give her five extra points of defense if she used it. It wasn't much, but at least that was something.

  "I look forward to working with you," She said with a polite bow as she got up from her seat and left the item shop. This would significantly slow down the execution of my pn, so I had to start convincing the others to give her more kills. It would be troublesome, but I decided she was worth the investment as I left the item shop that day. If she's like that at level 20, how powerful will she be at the higher levels?