Among Jeanne's five Skills, one had been nagging at the back of Leon's mind: Beloved's Crest.
He shifted his focus inward, pulling up his own status panel without a flicker of outward expression. His gaze locked onto the Skill column.
Back in the kitchen, Jeanne felt the weight of that burning stare vanish from her back and quietly exhaled.
She couldn't explain it. When Leon watched her that intently, something fluttered in her chest, a strange blend of shyness and tension she had no name for.
What's wrong with me... he was only looking...
A small, private torment for the Holy Maiden.
But Leon's attention had already moved on. He had no bandwidth left for the girl's subtle fidgeting. The connection between his Skill and hers consumed him entirely.
His eyes swept the panel and zeroed in on the target.
Beloved's Blessing
Bestows a beautiful blessing upon the beloved, granting protection to members of the same Familia.
The greater the number of opposite-sex members and the deeper their bond, the stronger the protection.
The description managed to say everything and nothing at the same time.
Jeanne's Beloved's Crest was, without question, an aura effect or linked product generated by his own Beloved's Blessing.
He'd never fully understood how the Skill worked, and the reasons were painfully simple.
First: he had no Familia. The Skill explicitly stated "granting protection to members of the same Familia." No Familia, no protection.
Second: because he had no Familia, there was no way to test it.
The realization hit, and a cold sweat broke out across his back.
What if... what if the Invitation Letter had summoned a male companion? That would've been a total disaster.
Thank god the System had some kind of hidden filter that perfectly matched my... uh, core requirements...
The puzzle clicked into place. Comparing his Beloved's Blessing with Jeanne's Beloved's Crest, the implication was impossible to miss.
"Tch. Who do you take me for? I'm not that kind of guy. An all-female Familia, seriously..."
The words said one thing. The grin threatening to split his face said another.
That's my System. Knows me better than I know myself.
...
Chores finished, the two retired to their rooms early.
One of them spent every spare moment of his recovery poring over newly acquired Magic and Skill combinations, rebuilding his combat framework from the ground up.
The other, having lived through death, rebirth, and joining a Familia all in a single day, was so drained that sleep claimed her the instant her head touched the pillow.
The Common Tongue textbook lay splayed open beside her. She'd brushed it aside in her sleep without realizing it.
...
The next morning arrived in a wash of sunlight through green canopies, dew clinging to every leaf like tiny jewels.
Creak...
Jeanne pushed open the window and stood there, tucking a loose strand of gold behind her ear. She squinted against the brightness and let the morning breeze, fragrant with grass and growing things, brush across her cheeks.
A deep breath in. A slow stretch into the dawn.
"Mmm... that feels wonderful..."
The quiet peace of it soothed something wound tight inside her, unwinding tension she hadn't known she was carrying. This simple, ordinary morning was something she could get used to.
Movement in the courtyard below caught her attention.
She looked down and found Leon with a watering can, tending to his modest little garden with all the urgency of a man who had nowhere to be.
He noticed her watching. Their eyes met.
A flash of white teeth. A bright, easy grin.
"Morning, Jeanne! How'd you sleep? Settling in okay?"
Something about that open smile dragged her mind back to yesterday's lingering gaze. Warmth crept into her cheeks. She gave a small nod, barely perceptible.
"Mm... peacefully. It's been a long time... since I slept that deeply."
Leon chuckled. "Glad to hear it. Let me finish spoiling these little guys and I'll get breakfast going."
The thought of sitting idle in someone else's home while they cooked for her needled at Jeanne's conscience. She blurted out before she could stop herself.
"I... let me make breakfast?"
"You?" Leon's eyebrow rose. His tone stayed warm but carried a teasing edge. "Give it a few days. You've got to learn the kitchen first. I'd rather not start my morning watching the great Holy Maiden wage war against a spatula and lose."
Picturing herself in that exact situation, Jeanne bit her lower lip. A stubborn little pout crept in.
"Then... fine."
...
Breakfast was sweet-and-spicy beef pancakes in the style of the Forge City, paired with a rich corn and milk chowder and a plate of crisp side dishes.
Leon was nothing if not observant. He'd already factored in Jeanne's likely palate.
Alongside the local fare, he'd toasted soft bread and set out jam, butter, orange juice, milk, and coffee.
From what he knew, a traditional French breakfast was barely a meal at all, more of a formality. Most people grabbed a coffee and called it done.
He wasn't about to settle for that. So he'd raided the pantry and assembled a proper spread.
"Wait, you know what people eat where I'm from?"
Jeanne had barely sat down before her eyes went wide at the familiar dishes.
"Who do you think you're dealing with?"
Leon slid a glass of warm milk across the table. "Everything leans sweet, so dig in. Give my cooking an honest grade. If the jam, butter, or coffee aren't to your taste, we can swap brands when we're out shopping later."
Jeanne watched him across the table. He was tearing into a pancake with the unrefined gusto of a man who loved food, yet somehow every detail of the meal spoke to a quiet, meticulous thoughtfulness. Something warm settled in her chest.
This feeling of being looked after so carefully brought a sense of safety she'd never known before.
"Thank you for the meal," she said softly, and picked up her knife and fork.
...
The "simple" breakfast opened the floodgates.
Under Leon's increasingly incredulous stare, Jeanne demolished nearly two-thirds of everything on the table.
"How does a stomach that flat hold that much food? Don't tell me... is this a talent thing too?"
As a man with no innate gift of his own, someone who scraped by on cheats alone, Leon was getting his first up-close look at the gulf between himself and the genuinely gifted. Everyone knew that appetite was a reliable predictor of an Adventurer's potential, and Jeanne clearly fell into the "blessed by the heavens" category.
Her cheeks colored again under the scrutiny.
"I... I don't know why I'm suddenly eating so much either..."
Leon rubbed his chin, thinking it over. "It's probably the Falna activating your latent potential. Your body's instinctively consuming nutrients to make up for everything that was locked away before."
"Is that how it works?"
Jeanne still looked lost.
"More or less, yeah. Probably." He nodded, though even he wasn't entirely sure. Some things in this world just didn't come with instruction manuals.
...
After breakfast, they cleared the table together with the easy rhythm of people already falling into a routine.
A quick wash-up, and they headed out.
The two strolled through tree-lined side streets, cicadas and birdsong trading calls overhead. A left turn here, a right turn there, and the quiet lanes fed them into the river of foot traffic on the main road.
Through the bustling residential quarter they went, Leon navigating on autopilot until they stepped onto Adventurer Street.
All along the way, the village girl's eyes hadn't stopped darting. This was the first time she'd seen so many demi-humans in one place, and she couldn't contain herself.
"I can't believe it. So many races from myth and legend, just... walking around."
"Elves, dwarves, beastfolk, Amazons, Pallums, humans... this city is a melting pot."
Watching Jeanne marvel at everything she passed, Leon found himself thinking back to his own early days. The same overwhelming sensory assault of a fantasy world made real. It had taken him days to stop gawking, and even long after that, moments of surreal disbelief would ambush him out of nowhere.
Maybe that's just what being an isekai transplant does to your head, he'd eventually concluded.
...
Walking side by side, he answered her steady stream of questions in a low voice near her ear.
"Leon, is the rest of the world like this too? I mean... all these different races living together?"
She turned to him with open curiosity. The corner of his mouth twitched upward, barely visible.
"Well..." He drew the word out deliberately. "No."
Her attention sharpened. He continued.
"The full name of this city is World Center, Labyrinth City, Orario."
"Because of the Dungeon, and because this is where Magic Stone products originate, Adventurers, merchants, nobles from every nation... they're all drawn here like iron to a lodestone."
"That convergence is what created the melting pot you're seeing. It's unique to this place."
"Everywhere else, a typical village or town, especially in human-majority settlements, you'd be hard-pressed to even find another race. Elves in particular keep to the deep forests and rarely venture out."
"The rest of the world is more... live and let live. Separate, not hostile. You follow?"
His phrasing was diplomatic, but Jeanne caught the unspoken meaning instantly. She didn't even need to think hard. As a human, she knew perfectly well that even people of the same race slaughtered each other over politics and belief. Throw entirely different species into the mix, with clashing faiths, cultures, instincts, diets, territorial claims, and chaos was inevitable.
The answer didn't surprise her in the least.
"I see. Then the very existence of Orario is something of a miracle."
"A miracle? Maybe."
Leon considered the word. "But if you ask me, the real force holding it together is probably the system of gods and Familias... and the existence of a common enemy that every race has to face together."
Gods and Familias...
Jeanne murmured the words, a quiet light of understanding dawning in her eyes.