Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 63: Chapter 63: Babysitting

Frost frowned as he heard the discussion between Douglas and Leo, he could tell that although Douglas sounded determined he was truly worried about such a situation coming to pass.

He looked towards his partner standing next to him. Maya felt his gaze and turned to face him.

“Young master?”

“Maya what would you say to a bit of babysitting?” He whispered in her ear. Maya wouldn’t even have to fight, simply unleashing a part of her killing intent would cause even B-rank adventurers to quake in fear and shouldn’t break the restrictions placed on her by his Father.

Her eyes opened up wide as she questioned what she just heard, immediately knowing what Frost was referring to, her eyes moved between Frost and the ‘babies’ to be sat.

Frowning she denied it fully.

“Not happening, my job is to protect you young master, where you go, I go.” What kind of guardian would she be if she allowed her young master to enter danger alone while she looked after a bunch of humans. Although she was rather fond of them, their lives were nothing compared to her young master, her heart nearly broke after seeing him suffer from the wyvern poison, she wouldn’t allow that to happen a second time.

.....

Frost sighed expecting this response, but it didn’t deter him.

“Father assigned you to be my guardian, with your duty being to protect me and train me to be self-sufficient, not shield me from everything, although I was born recently, I am not a child!” He spoke sternly and from his heart. Although he enjoyed Maya’s company as a friend, he didn’t appreciate it as a chaperone. He wanted to experience this world and all its glory including the danger. If he became dependent upon her, he’d never mature.

“I want freedom Maya.” Frost looked into Maya’s eyes while pleading his case.

Maya’s eyes shook with confusion, she was torn between the two choices, Frost spoke logically, and she understood the sentiment, but she had her duty, plus she liked being by his side just in case something happened. She was speechless for a while unable to reply. She estimated the danger of attacking this Adam against Frost’s current strength and to be honest it didn’t fill her with hope.

Frost’s strength was around entry level C-rank when going all out yet two B-ranks were taking part, who knows the level of opponents he’d have to fight. She was worried and it showed on her face.

Frost sighed, he saw the difficulty Maya was having with this decision and was about to ask her to forget about his request. This wasn’t the right time to ask for space.

“Maya on second thou....”

“Ok” before he could finish however, Maya interrupted.

“Yeah, I knew it would be too much to ask....wait did you say ok?” Frost frowned in confusion as he looked at Maya, unsure if he heard correctly.

“Yes, I said ok, you can have your freedom.” Maya spoke with confidence but there was still worry in her eyes.

“.....” Frozen in place as the information sunk in Frost began to smile and felt the sudden urge to hug her.

“But there are conditions.”

“Sure, sure” unfazed by her response his smile grew bigger. As long as he could move freely, he didn’t care what conditions she demanded.

Maya ignored the goofy smile on her young master’s face and spoke sternly.

“First off it’ll only be for one night.” She wouldn’t be able to remain calm if it was any longer.

“Second, if you encounter anyone far stronger than you, run immediately, ignoring Leo and the rest. Your safety is most important.” Frost nodded along agreeing to this statement, his life was the most important thing, although he was fond of Leo and Luna, it wasn’t to the point where he should risk his life for them, he wasn’t their uncle like Ryuu or Bastion.

“And finally,” Maya reached over to her storage bracelet and summoned out what appeared to be some kind of paper talisman with intricate markings. A strong aura of mana was coming from the markings on the talisman and simply looking at it for a length of time gave Frost a headache. It felt powerful and beyond his abilities.

“This is a special summoning talisman given to me by Dark God-sama.” Maya looked at the talisman with fondness in her eyes, in truth she didn’t want to ever have to use it and keep it as a memento. It wasn’t common or even uncommon to receive items from the Dark God, in fact it was pretty much unheard of.

“By filling the talisman with your mana and then ripping it apart, I’ll be forcibly summoned to your location regardless of where you are.” She looked at her young master with a cold expression. This talisman was a single use item, they would not receive another. Maya really didn’t want to waste the talisman on their first outing, especially in a local town. She felt it would be much better saved for when Frost went out exploring alone into the Glacial mountains or another continent far in the future. Using it to instantly travel a few hundred metres seemed a little too wasteful but her young master’s safety was most important.

Seeing her cold expression and the reluctance in her eyes, Frost nervously took the summoning talisman from her and placed it safely in his chest pocket.

‘This talisman is probably the main reason she agreed.’ Frost tapped the summoning talisman under his robes twice for good luck.

‘Unless under the most dire of circumstances I won’t use it.’ He too felt it’d be a waste to use it on his first outing, his father severely restricted the number of times Maya could assist him in battle, he couldn’t afford to waste one of those chances so early on.

Frost suddenly thought of the Holy White empire and their Church of Light at that moment.

With their little discussion over Maya and Frost re-joined the group. Leo was the first to speak out.

“Having any second thoughts?” Frost and Maya had been discussing quietly away from everyone else but from their faces he could see that it was an argument. Leo felt it may be about this operation and released a small sigh.

‘It really is too much to ask of Frost-senpai, I’ll simply ask him to stay with my parents while we act, they won’t be safe in a public inn.’

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Frost replied in a confused tone and tilted his head to the side. There was no way he was missing out on this action, he even convinced Maya to allow him so why would he be having second thoughts.

“Eh!... I thought for sure you were arguing about taking part in this operation.” Leo asked back just as confused.

‘Did I interpret wrong?’

“Well, you’re not completely wrong.” Frost felt a little embarrassed knowing that even though they moved to the edge of the room and whispered it was still seen as an argument.

“I’ll still be taking part in the attack....Maya however.” Frost’s gaze turned to his companion.

‘Ah! I completely forgot that Frost-senpai wasn’t alone.’ Leo internally criticised himself. He turned to look at Maya standing next to Frost. He had no idea of Maya’s strength, all he saw was a young woman of similar age as Frost, she didn’t give off any powerful aura or sense of mana, just like any regular female beast woman. Although he learned that she too was an E-rank adventurer he assumed that Frost did most of the fighting-not entirely false but irrelevant.

‘Perhaps Frost-senpai’s worried about endangering his companion.’ His mind instantly went to Luna, and how he would do anything to protect her. Unfortunately, she was stubborn and refused to not take part, but she was at least connected to these events. Maya however was a complete outsider with no reason to aid them other than the fact that her companion Frost was involved.

Leo felt a surge of regret and bit his lip roughly, drawing blood. His mind flipping through possibilities on how to protect the young woman, unfortunately he couldn’t spare anyone, the amount of people they could fully trust was few, and they would all be required in the attack. His internal struggle was clearly displayed on his face.

‘What the hell is this kid thinking about now?’ Frost felt that Leo was misunderstanding something.

“Maya here doesn’t have anything to do with this so she won’t be taking part in the attack however you said that there were few people you could trust within this manor, correct?”

“....” Everyone in the room looked at one another, afraid to answer and confirmed that suspicion.

Frost placed his hand on Maya’s tiny shoulder.

“Maya said she’s willing to stay here and protect the lord’s mansion.”

“Eh!!!!” Everyone in the room, bar Cassandra yelped in surprise, Cassandra simply looked at Maya with confusion in her eyes but a smile on her face. Guarding the lord’s mansion was actually a pretty cushy job as long as nothing goes wrong. She and Maya would simply be able keep each other company as her son and Maya’s companion did the hard work. She looked over at Luna hoping she’d join them but quickly gave up that thought, there was no way Luna wouldn’t be at Leo’s side.

“Oh, by the way Maya’s stronger than me, way, way stronger.” He gave Maya a slight nudge forward causing her to give him a dirty look. Although she was in fact much, much stronger, she wouldn’t use that strength just her aura to invoke fear. It would be more than enough to deal with some ignorant small fry.

This response caused another round of confused yelps.

“I thought as much.” Bastion mumbled under his breath as he calmly looked over Maya who was smiling innocently. He’d felt a strong sense of danger when they were riding the carriage here. It wasn’t something based on his skills or abilities, more primal like she was the predator, and he was the prey. He couldn’t be sure since it was only a slight feeling but with Frost’s announcement, he was completely certain.

‘She’s probably even stronger than me and Ryuu.’ He turned to face his old friend Ryuu to gauge his reaction.

Unlike Bastion, Ryuu wasn’t in such close proximity to Maya and never felt that primal fear but his senses as an experienced magician let him know that he needed to be wary of her. Noticing his friend Bastion as well as his lord looking his way he gulped, and his lips twitched. Out of the three he was the considered the strongest.

‘Shit maybe we shouldn’t have asked for help from these people.’ Ryuu felt a strong sense of regret, if Maya was truly stronger than him then Frost and her backing must be substantial.

Maya noticed the examining look of Ryuu and smirked in his direction releasing a small amount of aura undetectable by others.

Ryuu visibly trembled and he started to sweat down his back.

‘Fuck!’ He didn’t know whether or not to be happy or afraid, with Frost and Maya’s assistance the operation was sure to succeed but at what cost.

Douglas saw the fear in his friends eyes, he turned to face Maya in surprise.

“Hoh,” he found it interesting, he turned back to Ryuu and smiled, sending a message with his eyes allowing the court mage to calm down.

‘We’ll deal with it later,’ is what his gaze translated as. He gave Bastion a similar look. While the three middle aged men were worried about Maya’s strength and her true reasoning for assisting them, the others were simply happy.

Luna was all smiles as she grabbed onto Maya’s hands, her eyes full of admiration she even declared that she wished to refer to her as big sis. While Cassandra simply smiled softly in her direction, not treating her any differently.

Leo awkwardly looked at Frost before walking over and whispering in his ear.

“That must be difficult.” He felt it must be awkward to have such a large power gap between companions.

Frost whispered back “you don’t know the half of it.” He sighed lightly before adding on a little extra.

“But it certainly is exciting.” He smiled honestly, although he found it a bit restricting to have Maya constantly protecting him, it was fun and reassuring to be close to someone so strong. Regardless of her strength he still viewed her as a cute little rabbit Fenrir.

Leo seeming to understand Frost’s meaning in his own way smiled and patted his back.