At four in the morning—before the sun had even begun to rise—many members of the Loki Familia were already awake. Today was the day of the expedition, one of the most important events for everyone in the Familia.
Knock, knock, knock!
Hearing the knocking, Tsuna opened his eyes from where he was still lying in bed. Dressed in his pajamas, he shuffled over to open the door.
"Finn?"
Finn Deimne stood outside, already fully dressed in his adventurer gear. Judging by how ready he looked, he must've been up even earlier.
"Up this early for the expedition?" Tsuna asked, blinking sleepily.
"No. Normally, expeditions don't start this early. The only ones who wake up at this hour are the members in charge of logistics. They need to handle inventory and inspect the supplies for the expedition. It's a tough job, so they start earlier than everyone else."
Finn explained with a small smile.
"It's just that this time, there's a bit of an exception. The ones handling the inspection are me, Riveria, and Gareth. So we're the only three who had to get up this early."
"You three… are doing the inventory check?"
Tsuna rubbed his ears as if he'd misheard. Was Finn seriously saying that the captain, vice-captain, and executive of the Loki Familia—the three heads—were handling supply checks? Wasn't that the kind of job for regular staff, not the leadership?
"We detected some… irregularities in the Dungeon recently, remember? This inventory check is partly because of that. Our Familia hasn't gone on an expedition for the entire past year. Ever since the major incident in Orario three years ago, everyone's been on high alert. Especially last year—early on, the Guild even announced that remnants of the Dark Faction had been sighted in the Dungeon. So we used that as a reason to postpone our expedition."
Finn's voice grew quieter, his tone serious.
"To be honest, the Dark Faction itself wasn't much of a concern. But Ais reached Level 5 last year. We were worried that they might target her, so we decided to cancel the expedition altogether."
"So that's why…"
Now Tsuna finally understood why Finn had been so cautious about letting Ais go into the Dungeon lately. Given the circumstances, it made sense to be wary—ambushes weren't out of the question when it came to the Dark Faction.
"But what does that have to do with the three of you handling the inspection?"
"That's the thing." Finn's expression softened into something wry. "If this expedition's likely to run into some kind of irregular situation, we can file for compensation from the Guild afterward. Since the Guild is forcing this expedition, if an abnormal event occurs in the Dungeon and they fail to warn us, they'll have to take some responsibility."
The mention of "compensation" made Tsuna's eyes sharpen slightly. Now it all clicked.
"In that case… should we maybe include a few first-class weapons in the list? If anything happens to them because of these 'abnormalities,' we could claim they were lost during the expedition, right? The Guild would have to compensate for that too."
Finn blinked—then realization dawned on his face. "You're right. Get dressed, Tsuna. I'll have Riveria and Gareth add a bunch of magic swords from the armory to the supply inventory."
The moment Tsuna mentioned it, Finn immediately saw the angle. Losing a first-class weapon might be too implausible to claim—but losing a few magic swords? That was far more believable. And considering how expensive and high-consumption those were, the compensation would be just as significant.
The Loki Familia's armory still held a sizable stockpile of magic swords. If they added all of them to the expedition supply list, they could realistically claim a massive reimbursement once everything was over. And Finn wasn't the type to let an opportunity like that go to waste.
The more he thought about it, the more his feet itched to move. Luckily, only the three of them were handling the inspection this morning. Otherwise, adding things to the list last minute would've been a nightmare.
Watching Finn's retreating back, Tsuna yawned, shut the door, and stumbled back into his room. He still needed a moment to shake off the fog of half-sleep. Turning off the magic stone lamp, he lay back down and closed his eyes again.
Knock, knock, knock!
The knocking returned.
Tsuna cracked one eye open. Judging by the light filtering through the curtains, some time had passed since Finn's visit. He got up again, stretching slightly, and opened the door.
Standing outside were Tiona and Tione Hiryute, both already dressed in the Shrouds made from the holy fabric he'd tailored for them.
"Tsuna, you're still not up?" Tiona asked cheerfully.
"No, I'm awake now."
He drew in a deep breath, feeling more alert than the first time.
"Do you two usually wake up this early on expedition days?" he asked curiously.
"Mm-hmm. It's already five-thirty," Tiona said, checking the sky. "We have to start getting ready now. We leave the home base at eight-thirty, so that gives us about three hours—for breakfast, prep, and getting into the right mindset. We'll be going straight to the eighteenth floor today, and we'll be taking down Goliath too."
"Goliath? The floor boss of the seventeenth floor? It's time for its reappearance already?"
Tiona nodded. "That's probably another reason the Guild's forcing us to join the expedition. Normally, when Goliath spawns, the Guild commissions Orario's Familias or adventurers from Rivira to handle the cleanup. But recently, Rivira's been overrun by monsters from the Dungeon. They're still rebuilding, so they don't have the manpower to take care of Goliath. That's why they turned to the Guild for help."
"I see…"
Tsuna knew that Rivira had its own internal ecosystem. The adventurers who did business there weren't ordinary—they were all strong, many of them Level 2 or Level 3. If they hadn't been in disarray, there'd be no need to outsource the job at all.
"By the way," Tsuna asked, "when you and Tione fight a floor boss like Goliath, does that still count toward your Excelia accumulation?"
"It does," Tiona said, nodding. "But it takes a lot to gather enough to level up. Unless it's a cross-rank challenge, getting enough Excelia just from normal fights takes time. If we hadn't skipped expeditions for the past two years, Tione and I probably would've reached our next level already."
Despite that, Tiona didn't look disappointed. In fact, she looked downright cheerful.
"Honestly, I'm kinda glad we haven't leveled up yet," she said with a grin. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to max out our Status like this."
"Exactly," Tione agreed, her tone calm but approving. "Sometimes being a little late doesn't mean you're falling behind."