Time slipped away unnoticed. Dusk settled over the little homestead, draping it in warm amber light.
Leon gathered his prized collection of study materials into a neat stack and dropped them onto Jeanne's mostly bare desk with a solid thump.
"Here you go. Your 'brain food' for the foreseeable future."
He picked up the tome on top, a brick of a book thick enough to bludgeon someone with, and held up the cover for Jeanne, who was busy making her bed.
"3,000 Essential Characters for Reading and Writing Common Tongue: A Beginner's Primer So Easy Even a Kobold Could Learn It."
"Trust me, once you've chewed through this thing, everyday conversation will be a breeze."
"As for the rest..." He patted the stack. "Geography, history, mathematics, an overview of the gods and Familias, heroic epics... and the two big ones: The Adventurer's Survival Guide, Volume I and Introduction to Dungeon Knowledge, Volume I."
"All mandatory reading."
"And of course, once you've got the basics down..." A sly grin crept across his face, the look of someone who'd been through it all before. "There's the advanced stuff. Dungeon Monster Encyclopedia and Drop Catalog, Dungeon Environment and Resource Survey Handbook... books like that."
"They won't just keep us alive longer down there. They'll also, well... fatten up our savings a bit."
Jeanne, a country girl from Orléans at heart, stared at the mountain of books. The sheer weight of it pressed down on her shoulders until she could barely breathe.
"I... I got it. You don't have to go on and on about it."
Her expression had gone stiff, her eyes betraying a dazed helplessness at the ocean of unknown knowledge ahead, threaded with the faintest hint of dread.
Leon caught the flicker in her face. Mischief sparked in his eyes.
"Well, well. So even our great Holy Maiden has a weakness."
The words had barely left his mouth before a chill crawled up his spine. The look Jeanne leveled at him could have frosted glass. He shut his mouth immediately. He knew when to quit.
He'd struck the village-girl saint right in her sore spot.
"Get your room sorted, then come down for dinner. We're running late tonight, so we'll go out and celebrate properly tomorrow."
He dropped the reminder and fled the room like the floor was on fire.
Instinct told him that staying any longer meant being frozen out for the rest of the evening.
...
The kitchen on the ground floor was thick with the smell of home.
Leon stood at the counter with an apron tied around his waist, his knife tapping a steady rhythm against the cutting board. On the stove beside him, a pot of stew bubbled and murmured. Rich spices mingled with the sweetness of vegetables and the deep warmth of braised meat, filling every corner of the small space.
With a new member in the household, he'd cooked more than usual. The spread was noticeably grander than anything from his bachelor days.
The feast was partly to celebrate Jeanne's arrival and partly because, well, his wallet could finally handle it.
He'd just come into a tidy sum. What was the point of earning money if you couldn't treat yourself and your own?
Besides, Leon was a man who loved good food. Even when he'd been scraping by, he'd refused to cheat his stomach. Now that funds were a little less tight, every ingredient he'd once only been able to stare at longingly was finding its way onto the table.
...
"Jeanne, dinner's ready!"
She was sitting on the stone bench in the little courtyard, brow furrowed under the last light of the setting sun, locked in mortal combat with 3,000 Essential Characters for Reading and Writing Common Tongue: A Beginner's Primer So Easy Even a Kobold Could Learn It.
"Coming." She rose, still wearing her usual deep-blue linen dress and soft leather ankle boots.
Leon ladled out the food, noting her outfit as they settled into their seats at the table.
"Get some proper rest tonight. Fresh start, fresh look. Tomorrow I'm taking you on a full shopping run."
"Casual clothes, training gear, weapons and armor, potions, supplies, daily necessities... we need to get everything sorted."
"And while we're at it, I'll give you the grand tour of the Labyrinth City. Let you get your bearings."
He paused, a note of anticipation slipping into his voice. "Seeing it with your own eyes hits different from listening to me ramble about it."
A new world...
Jeanne ate in small, careful bites, the thought turning quietly in her mind. She buried the memories of betrayal and fire somewhere deep, then looked up. A small, faint smile touched her lips, genuine despite everything.
"As long as... you don't mind the trouble."
"Trouble?" Leon's eyebrow ticked upward. A low laugh escaped him. "I'd kill for this kind of 'trouble' every day. It'd mean we've hit the point where money's no longer a problem."
"Money? You mean gold coins?"
Pure, unfiltered confusion filled Jeanne's eyes. Money was something both familiar and foreign to her, a concept she'd never really needed to wrestle with.
"Wait... Leon, are you short on money?"
Those clear blue eyes turned on him, wide with innocent bewilderment.
Their gazes met. Looking into those eyes, so crystalline and so utterly clueless, the corner of Leon's mouth twitched involuntarily.
He was silent for a few seconds. Then came a long, weary sigh.
"My dear Miss Jeanne, in this world, who isn't short on money?"
"There's an old saying: money can't buy everything, but without it, you can't buy anything."
"Take us Adventurers, for example. Food, shelter, weapons, gear, potions, supplies... every last bit of it costs real coin."
"Maybe," he said, his tone turning earnest, "you should update your worldview sooner rather than later. Otherwise, one day someone's going to sell you down the river, and you'll be standing there counting their profits for them and saying 'thank you.'"
The jab hit home. Jeanne's face flushed scarlet, guilt written all over it, and she fired back louder than necessary.
"You... don't be ridiculous! Who... who would be that stupid?!"
Unfortunately, the sheer intensity of her denial only proved exactly how naive she was about money.
"All right, all right. Eat first."
Leon knew when to back off. Smiling, he poured her a glass of sweet plum wine.
Jeanne said nothing. She just buried her face in her food, eating with fierce concentration, as if she could swallow the embarrassment along with it.
...
"This is good..."
She savored the generous dinner bite by bite, warmth and contentment spreading through her. Over the meal, the two of them talked about life in the city, drifting from one topic to the next.
"Leon," Jeanne swallowed and looked up, curiosity bright in her expression. "People like us... you know, the 'special' ones. Are there many in this city?"
She was asking about the various Familias and the exceptional individuals within Orario.
"Special people? You mean the top-tier Adventurers everyone's heard of." Leon nodded in understanding, then began to explain.
"It's common knowledge that nearly all the strongest Adventurers in the world are gathered in this city."
"In the Labyrinth City of Orario, as far as I know..."
His tone turned serious. "The number of people in all of Orario who showed potential like yours when they first received their Falna? You could count them on one hand."
He held up his palm for emphasis.
"Huh? That's actually still a few, though."
Between Leon's earlier briefing and this, Jeanne now had a rough picture of the Adventurer landscape and just how unusual her own situation was. Hearing that there were other powerhouses out there, a spark of interest lit in her eyes. She set down her utensils.
"Who are they? If they're that strong, they must be famous."
Leon thought for a moment, then spoke.
"Take Finn Deimne, for instance. Captain of the Loki Familia, a Pallum. Word on the street is that guy started with one Magic and three Skills right out of the gate."
"Then there's Riveria Ljos Alf, also Loki Familia. Elven royalty. Just as ridiculous. Three Magics and two Skills at the start. And here's the real kicker: her three Magics can be linked through Chanting to branch into nine different spells."
"Both of them are Level 5 First-Class Adventurers, famous not just in Orario but across the entire mortal world."
And that's only the ones who started strong. The ones who were ordinary at first and transformed as they grew? There are even more of those. He kept that part to himself.
When he finished, Jeanne fixed him with a sudden, sharp look.
"Didn't you say that a person's Falna details are usually a Familia's most closely guarded secret? How do you know all this?"
"..."
Leon stalled.
"Ah, well... a man has his ways. Everyone's got connections, you know what I mean?"
He waved vaguely, trying to bluff his way through.
Jeanne eyed him up and down, suspicion plain on her face. After a moment she gave a slow, thoughtful nod and let it go.
...
After dinner, Jeanne volunteered to handle the dishes.
Leon sank into the couch in the living room, his gaze drifting to the figure working at the kitchen sink. The last of the sunlight poured through the window, tracing a warm halo along her golden braid and the slender curve of her waist.
His thoughts wandered.
Jeanne's abilities were far more valuable than the casual summary he'd given her over dinner.
Two Magics and five Skills. Calling her kit "overpowered" didn't even begin to cover it.
When Jeanne arrived in this new world through the Invitation Letter and adapted to its rules, the two Noble Phantasms he knew so well had converted into Magic.
Luminosité Eternelle. A wide-area barrier Magic: protection, healing, and defense rolled into one devastating composite spell. With this in their arsenal, exploration of uncharted Dungeon floors and extended expeditions would be exponentially safer. Even in an absolute worst-case scenario, they'd have something to fall back on instead of dying to some senseless ambush.
La Pucelle. A single-target annihilation Magic. After all the multipliers stacked up, its destructive power was impossible to predict. Only one shot per day, sure, but as a trump card held in reserve, it was the kind of ace that could flip a losing battle on its head.
Beyond her Magic, Jeanne's Skills were equally comprehensive, each one fitting her nature like a glove.
Nearly all of them leaned toward defensive specialization and utility, a perfect match for who she was.
Five Skills in total: enemy detection, defensive enhancement, target debuffing, stat amplification, and a group-wide aura.
As a frontliner, her utility and survivability were maxed out.
And among them, the effect of Holy Maiden was nothing short of absurd in its simplicity.
Here was the critical part.
A permanent, massive boost to all abilities. Not merely all Basic Abilities.
One word of difference. A gulf as wide as the sky.
All abilities meant the enhancement covered Basic Abilities, Magic potency, Development Ability effectiveness, Skill strength, stamina, mental fortitude, combat technique, and even latent potential. Every dimension, elevated.
All Basic Abilities would have meant only the five core stats: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, and Magic.
In practice, it was as if Jeanne had a top-tier Beastification active at all times.
No conditions. No drawbacks. Always on.
Its value was incalculable.