I sat down with them at a table. I wasn't hungry. In fact, my clones don't even feel hunger. Frieren just really enjoys eating. But even without feeling hungry, I accepted the food they bought for me.
While eating with them, I started making small talk.
Frieren wasn't the type to talk much when she was with them, so I had to be careful.
I asked them basic things like:
How they were doing.
How the Loki Familia was.
What they'd been up to lately—things like that.
Tiona was the one who answered most of the questions. But her answers weren't to my liking. She didn't mention me at all. She didn't say anything about the Loki Familia hunting me down. 'Did they change their minds?'
The conversation went on for almost an hour. I stayed quiet, just listening to them. Fortunately, they eventually touched on a topic that caught my interest.
"Are you guys planning to go after it?" Bete asked. "I'm curious about it. I've never seen it before."
"You mean the creature? I don't know if I want to do that," Tiona said. "It could be more dangerous than it seems."
"Tiona's right," Tione said. "It's not mandatory. Some of the other Familia members started forming groups to go after it, but I don't want to. Besides being dangerous, it sounds boring."
"Well, if you guys aren't doing it, I'm not going to either. I'm not joining another group just for that," Bete sighed. He actually seemed excited about the idea of hunting me.
"What creature is this?" I asked, feigning ignorance.
"Oh, you haven't heard? There was a notice put up at the Guild recently."
"At the Guild? I'm not part of a Familia, so I don't go to the Guild."
"Oh, that's right! Well, there's a monster that appeared inside the dungeon recently, and it's causing some trouble."
Me? Causing trouble? That's a lie.
I've never caused trouble—I just kill monsters.
"This is the first I've heard of it. I'm really curious now."
"Don't do anything stupid, okay?" Tiona said, placing her hand on my head. "Don't even think about going to the Guild and trying something. You could get yourself killed."
How did she jump to the conclusion that I want to go to the dungeon?
"Well, if I were part of a Familia, I'd probably go after him," I said, looking at Bete.
He didn't react, but I know he liked hearing that.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you guys about something," I said, putting my fork down and turning to Ais. "I want to join the Loki Familia."
I know she's not the captain of the Loki Familia and can't just put me in, but she can make things easier.
It was a bit sudden, but I didn't know how else to bring it up. The right way would be to say this directly to important members of the Loki Familia or to Loki herself, but I'm not sure when Frieren will get the chance to meet Loki.
"What? Join the Loki Familia?" Tiona looked surprised.
I have memories of Tiona and Frieren talking about this before, but Tiona always seemed to be joking.
"You? In the Loki Familia?" Bete said. "No way. That's impossible. You're just an inexperienced kid."
"Kid? I'm an elf."
"You don't stop being a kid just because you're an elf."
"..." I got irritated but didn't show it. "Ais," I called her, and she looked at me.
"Hm?"
"You can talk to Goddess Loki, right? You too, Tiona. Help me with this."
"Why do you suddenly want to join the Familia?"
"Because I'm tired."
"Tired?" Tiona asked.
"Yes. I've been working at that potion shop for a while now, but I've had enough. I wanted to start learning potion-making, but it's harder than I thought. I want to join the Loki Familia and start exploring the dungeon."
"No!" Tiona shouted. "I don't want you going into the dungeon. You're too fragile!"
"Well… If I were in your party, you could protect me, right?"
Everyone went silent and exchanged looks. The first to speak was Bete.
"In our party? No chance! I'm not babysitting some elf kid."
"I already said I'm not a kid."
"You're a kid. Ais, don't do anything stupid. Let this girl keep working at that shop—don't bring trouble into our group."
"Bete, that's rude!" Tiona said, annoyed.
"It's okay, Tiona. Well, it's just something I want. If I can't join the Loki Familia, I'll look for another Familia. It's fine."
"Ais…" Tiona looked at Ais with teary eyes, but Ais stayed silent and didn't say anything more.
####
After we finished eating, Frieren's work shift had long since passed. By the time I got back to the potion shop, the shop owner was the one attending to the customers.
She was pretty mad and started saying all sorts of unnecessary things to me.
So, I left—and then returned to my original body.
As soon as I was back in my original body, I spoke to Frieren:
'Be careful from now on. The Familias are after me and my clones. Don't let them find out you're a clone. I've already removed the mark from your arm.'
I did that before returning to my original body. I'll do the same with all the clones.
Strong adventurers like Finn and Ottar can tell if someone's a clone since they can sense whether someone has a falna.
But weaker adventurers might use the mark to identify my clones.
They don't know it's the mark of my Familia, but they'll figure it out soon if I don't remove it.
Marking all the clones wasn't a great idea after all.
So I started visiting each clone's body and removing the mark. After taking care of that, the clones kept hunting for over a day, and I finally leveled up again.
I spent the last day in the mountain village, watching what was happening in the city through Frieren's sight and hearing.
Just as I was about to return to Clone 16's body, Frieren contacted me.
[Master, Tiona reached out. Loki wants to meet me.]
'Oh?'
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Next chapters: Chapter 67 - 64 clones. / Chapter 68 - Well done, Frieren. / Chapter 69 - 25th floor.