[DanMachi/Percy Jackson] Prytaneum

Chapter 28: Tentative Light Part 2

The following morning, I found myself walking around Central Park, preparing to enter the Dungeon again. Looking around, I noted that Welf hadn't arrived yet, but I was surprised to find Lili waiting there, looking as small as ever with her worn cloak and gigantic backpack.

"Hey, Lili," I greeted, making my way over to her with a wave. "You decided to come along after all? I thought you might have been scared off after the whole Minotaur thing."

"Mr. Percy," She replied, the tone of her voice a touch concerned as she said my name. The previous day, after paying her, I told her to think about whether she want to continue working as our supporter or not. I honestly hadn't that she'd want to, considering what had happened; at the very least, her share should have been able to tide her over for a while without too much worry. "Lili isn't afraid, because Lili knows how strong Mr. Percy is."

"Mm," I said, noting the way she sounded. With Lili, I wasn't sure if that was just flattery or an actual complement; she was very good at sounding sincere, but given her job, she probably had to be. "Well, hopefully today will be a bit less exciting than yesterday. We'll be going back to the eleventh floor if that's fine with you."

"Lili sees no problem," She said. "Will we be going through the Dungeon or will we be going another way?"

I tilted my head at her before understanding what she meant.

"Oh, Mrs. O'Leary, you mean?" I asked. I'd sort of asked her not to mention her before we parted ways, but after some thought, I decided it probably wasn't a big issue. Mrs. O'Leary spent most of her time in some part of the Dungeon or other and I hadn't exactly explained things to Lili, so I figured that even if word got out, it wouldn't be an issue. There wasn't any actual proof that I had a giant teleporting Hellhound, after all, and most people probably wouldn't believe such a story regardless. Worst case scenario, I would lay off using her for a while or be subtle about it.

"Is that her name?" Lili asked, tilting her head before nodding. "Then Mrs. O'Leary, yes."

"Nah, we'll just walk," I said. "Mrs. O'Leary's our way out in an emergency, after all, and shadow traveling takes a lot out of her. Better to make sure she's well rested, just in case something else happens. Right?"

Lili nodded and might have even looked a bit relieved. Well, her first impression of Mrs. O'Leary had probably been of the insider of her mouth, so I suppose I couldn't blame her.

"Later on, we'll probably need her help to travel both ways," I continued. "But while we still can, we should just walk. I don't want to work her too hard. Oh, that reminds me—when we call Mrs. O'Leary for help, Welf and I usually give her a share of the magic stones. That's not a problem with you, is it Lili?"

"Give her the magic stones?" Lili asked before hunching her shoulders. "Lili thinks she already knows the answer, but could Mr. Percy possible be feeding them to her...?"

"Yeah," I said, noticing her reaction. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"It's..." Lili seemed to stop herself before saying how she really felt. "Unorthodox. Most Monster Tamers Lili knows of do not do such a thing."

"Why not?" I asked. "Mrs. O'Leary seems to like them."

"It's not really a matter of liking them or not," She replied. "Rather, by eating magic stones, a monster grows more powerful. Most monsters do not do such a thing, but upon tasting magic stones for the first time, many monsters will proceed to devour others to gain strength. Has Mr. Percy heard of the Blood-Splattered Troll Incident?"

"No," I said.

"A Blood-Splattered Troll on the Middle Floors began to eat magic stones and grew to the point that it slaughtered over fifty Level 2 adventurers before it was finally put down," Lili told me.

"Oh," I said, frowning and making a mental note not to leave any more magic stones lying around. "But in that case, why don't...Monster Tamers do it? It seems like a pretty good way to strengthen a friend."

"Because," Lili emphasized. "Why would a monster obey someone that it could easily kill?"

"Mm, I think I understand the issue here," I replied, adjusting my mental picture of Monster Tamers. "Mrs. O'Leary doesn't obey me because she's afraid of me—she helps me because she's my friend. I've never forced her to listen to me or anything."

"Then..." Lili began, frowning slightly. "How did Mr. Percy train Mrs. O'Leary?"

"I didn't, really," I replied, thinking about it. "I've been taking care of her ever since a friend of mine died and he said it involved many close calls with death and a lot of giant chew toys. Other than that...well, we're just friends. We've played around and fought with each other and stuff."

"How does one play with a giant dog?" Lili asked.

"Well, uh..." I considered. "It's been awhile because we haven't had as much time, but a friend of mine used to forge her chew toys out of whatever he had on hand and we'd use shields to play Frisbee. Oh, and we'd play Get the Greek."

"'Get the Greek?'" Lili asked.

"It's like Get the Stick, you know?" I replied, gesturing with my hands. "But Mrs. O'Leary's too big for most sticks, so we'd get a catapult or something and we'd shot a training dummy in armor and then Mrs. O'Leary would catch it and play with it."

"Lili feels this is a dangerous way to train a monster," She stated.

I scratched my head, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Well, don't worry—she won't play if anyone but me does it," I said. "Mrs. O'Leary's very well behaved, I promise. It'll be fine even if she's more powerful than me. How do normal Monster Tamers train them?"

"It's about defeating a monster utterly, until it excepts that you're stronger and training it firmly to obey," She replied, still frowning at me.

"I've never really understood the idea of ruling someone with pain and fear," I said, shaking my head. "I mean, if that's all you ever offer someone, shouldn't you expect to be bitten? If something only obeys you because you're stronger, then of course you'll have to worry about it turning on you if it grows more powerful. But worrying about all my friends stabbing me in the back seems like an exhausting way to live, so I'll just trust Mrs. O'Leary, I think."

Lili looked down at her feet, shuffling slightly at that.

"Lili thinks Mr. Percy is naïve," She murmured quietly. "But Lili will accept it if that's what Mr. Percy believes."

"You don't have to, you know," I said, looking at her, making her raise her eyes again. "You don't have to feel obligated by yesterday's payment or anything. I know Welf made a big deal about the Minotaur stuff, but its fine, really; it was just my way of apologizing for that whole mess. I mean, you must have been scared, right? And you said you needed money."

"That's...true, but...Lili wonders if it's really fine," She mused. "The Minotaurs especially really were a lot and higher-level adventurers usually get a larger share than lower ones in the same party, to say nothing of supporters. Mr. Percy did by far the majority of the work, so...it may not be Lili's place to say it as Lili is very grateful, but Mr. Percy might be too generous."

"Oh come on," I said with a sigh. "Not you too, Lili! I get enough of this from Welf. It's not that big of a deal, is it?"

"Lili thinks that most people would consider over two hundred and fifty thousand valis a fairly big deal," She replied. "For Mr. Percy to be so casual with money...was Mr. Percy from a wealthy family? Mr. Percy spends money like a prince."

"A prince, huh...?" I repeated, chuckling a little and looked away. Well, I guess my dad was sort of a king—and, you know, a god—but saying it like that was a bit...hm. "No, nothing like that, really. My mom and I never really had all that much, actually, but money was never a huge deal to me. I guess that's just not the type of thing my mom raised me to value."

"Mr. Percy's mother must have been a very kind woman," Lili said, making me smile.

"She was," I said. "She sacrificed a lot for my sake. Whatever's happened to me, I guess I really can't say I'm unlucky, given that I had her."

"Is she...gone now?" Lili asked with an odd tone before shaking her head. "Lili apologizes. Lili shouldn't pry."

"No, its fine," I said, though it truth it was a bit hard to answer. But given everything I'd seen and everything that had happened...I hadn't wanted to think about it, but I suppose there wasn't any way around it. "Yeah. She's gone now."

"Lili is sorry, Mr. Percy," She said. "Lili hopes the gods were kind to Mr. Percy's mother."

"Hm?" I wondered, tilting my head at her. It could have been just a phrase, but...somehow the way Lili said that seemed off. "What do you mean?"

"Do you know what happens after you die?" Lili asked, looking at me with an odd expression. I nearly nodded, thinking of the Underworld, but...no, that couldn't have changed, too. Could it? "Lili's heard that in Heaven, the gods had many responsibilities—and they hated them so much that they came down here to enjoy themselves instead. The gods that remain have to pick up the slack for the ones who've left and they work constantly with no time to rest."

"Sounds rough," I said, wondering if that's what my dad was doing now. "But what...?"

"One of their most important duties is looking after our souls, when we pass," She continued, lifting her gaze up to the sky. Without her head being constantly downturned, I could actually see her face, but the expression on it seemed so distant it made me worry. "They decide what happens to a person after death."

"How?" I asked, looking at her in concern.

"However they want," She said with a shrug. "It depends on the whims of the god responsible for it. They could be allowed to live in Heaven or suffer unimaginable pain or be forced to do endless, meaningless labor or anything else. Being a good or bad person doesn't enter into it; all that matters is whether the gods like you or not. Their mood determines whether you go to Heaven or Hell. It's a judgement without rules or regulations, based solely on the whims and opinions of the gods."

Well. That was...terrifying.

No, seriously, what the hell? I mean, I wasn't blind; I'd never really considered death fair, as such. Even in the Underworld I'd known, the god's decision trumped everything—if they hated you enough and Hades didn't stop them, it was off to the Fields of Punishment for you. But there were judges, who looked over your record and made a decision, and generally speaking, you got sent where you belonged. Of course, most people apparently belonged in the Fields of Asphodel, which still wasn't exactly, but...this was...

"Of course, most souls just get reincarnated," Lili said, looking at the expression on my face. "Since the gods in Heaven are so overworked, they usually just don't care, unless they're particularly mad. Still, it's frightening, isn't it?"

I nodded at her and she gave me a smile.

"But you know, there was a time when Lili wanted to die," She mused as if talking about the weather. "If Lili died...if Lili went before the gods and was reborn...the new Lili would be better than the current one. The new Lili's life would be..."

She was smiling, same as always—but something in her eyes just seemed blank. More so than usual, I mean.

"Lili!" I said sharply, reaching out to touch her shoulder without thinking, making her blink and look at me.

"Sorry for saying such a weird thing," She said with a giggle. "Lili was just remembering something a bit sad, but...that was a long time ago. Lili's stronger now and doesn't think such things any more."

The look in her eyes was gone, along with any traces of sadness. Her smile seemed as bright as ever, too.

I...was really starting to hate Lili's smile.

"Lili, I—"

"Oh, it's Mr. Welf," She interrupted, turning away. "Mr. Welf, over here!"

"Lili, Percy," Welf said, running up to us. "Sorry I'm late—I stayed up working on something. Percy, are you okay waiting another day for me to finish your armor? It took a while to find all the stuff I needed yesterday and..."

He stopped, looking at my face and then to Lili's.

"...Am I interrupting something?" He asked.

"No," Lili said before I could reply. "We were just waiting for you, Mr. Welf."

I frowned at her, wondering what to do. I sure as hell couldn't just forget about what she said or drop, but she was clearly trying to avoid the topic. Should I press things anyway? Would she respond if I did or would I drive her away and make things worse? Should I ask Welf to give us a minute even when she was clearly using him to avoid this conversation? Should I start a scene to try and stage an intervention, or..."

Slowly, I exhaled.

"No," I said, glancing at Welf and giving him a look. "I was just going to ask if Lili wanted to come to dinner with us, since she's part of the team now. Yesterday kind of got shot to hell and all."

"Dinner?" Welf asked, seeming confused—but too his credit, he recovered quickly and wasn't stupid. "Yeah, sure, that sounds good. Same place as before?"

"Sure," I said. "That sound okay to you, Lili? It's a bar on West Main called the Hostess of Fertility."

"...That is fine with Lili," She said, nodding quietly.

"Cool," I replied, not exactly satisfied with this situation but not sure if or how hard I should push. "So...the Dungeon, then?"