Huddled together a little off-set beside the dungeon's boss room door, Yuuvia aimed the base of her staff downward, drifting it just barely above the floor as she sketched away by using solidified mana as ink. Befitting someone of her stature, the social one, the girl twiddled and toiled away at her sketch of the boss room's layout, drawing on the continuous intelligence she telepathically received every few seconds.

  "Alright, so here is the plan: we've cracked the door open enough for me to send some wind conjurations into the boss room to scout and gauge the strength of anything in there. Then we'll plan from there based on the feedback. ok?"

  Inkaro nodded calmly, showing no intentions of disagreeing with her plan, his cute face somehow annoying Yuuvia enough to leave her weakly pouting: "Sounds good."

  His additional verbal agreement only succeeded in further annoying the noble girl and strengthening her pouting; however, she wasn't about to respond with a snarky or aggravated comment, risking the impossible small chance of changing Inkaro's mind. Every time the guy had spoken a word to her, Yuuvia reflexively braced herself, expecting him to go against what she said.

  Having him be agreeable was good enough, no matter how annoying it was with how her brain had been socially trained to expect the butting of heads from her fellow nobles as they gunned to achieve social acclaim. She was so lost in thought, Yuuvia failed to notice Inkaro fiddling with his storage Curio before pulling out a sizable sack stuffed to the point of bursting.

  Stuck within the reaches of her mental musings, her eyes failed to process the bag's contents, not even seeing Inkaro pull out a fairly fresh plain doughnut, but her nose certainly registered what the sack's contents were when graced by a myriad of delectable scents.

  "What are you doing?" Yuuvia bumbled out, her mouth moving before she fully realised what she was doing, leading to her usual noble alliteration and announcement falling to the wayside for a more relaxed way of speaking.

  "I was prepping a bunch of snacks for Lizu, which then led to her saying I should make double the amount so I'd have some; but she knows doughnuts and the sorts aren't really my thing, so we both know it was just a cover-up for her to get more snacks without it being obvious. However, seeing how we weren't partnered up, I doubt she'd be happy if I let them go any longer without being eaten."

  To emphasise his point, Inkaro held up the sach towards the noble girl, practically begging for her to have them. Yuuvia eyed Inkaro's offer with scrutinous eyes, even as her hands were reaching out against her will to politely take the sack off the guy's hands. Not wishing to be rude, but mainly not being able to hold herself back any longer, Yuuvia eagerly delved into the snack sack and took out a lemon-glazed doughnut. After inspecting the doughnut from a few angles, she took a careful bite out of the lemon-flavoured treat, doing so with refined manners.

  One bite, all it took was one bite, and she was hooked. Any hint of scrutiny behind her eyes melted away as sparkles of exhilaration took root in her eyes, and before long, she was eagerly consuming doughnut after doughnut, casting any remaining sense of noble etiquette to the wayside in its entirety.

  Doughnut after doughnut, be it fruity, savoury or sour, no doughnut lasted more than a few seconds once they reached the girl's mouth and succumbed to her ravenous appetite.

  "You could give Lizu a run for her money in an eating competition... however...."

  Just adding that 'however' at the end was enough to make Yuuvia shoot a tempered side eye at him, silently telegraphing Inkaro should think over his next words more carefully. But that warning went right over the guy's head, or maybe it didn't, because instead of saying anything further, he raised a finger before gently poking the dome that had become of Yuuvia's tummy.

  "Hey-! Don't worry about me, my motaboisim is something to be feared, by the time the servaying is done, I'll be streamlined or aerodynamic again or whatever.". On instinct, Yuvvia swatted away the guy's hand like an unamused house cat before resuming her new task of depriving the sack of any snacks, too engrossed with relishing the enthralling taste of Inkaro's baked goods to care about her outward appearance any longer.

  Inkaro, meanwhile, wondered why Yuuvia said metabolism incorrectly.

  Her hyper focus was just that great; the rowdy group of adventurers, a little bit down one of the three bricky hallways, didn't register on her radar. Be it the clanging of the metalic tools or armour, the mystical glow of their magical tools, or them walking right in front of the duo, none of which Yuuvia deemed worthy of prying her attention from her snack session.

  "It's honestly so mind-boggling. Why do those receptionists get so uppidy about my methods? They even force us... me to take on as a form of self-discipline. I mean, gathering slime gelatin? Honesty?" the magic sword-wielding guy complained,

  "It's probably just a policy thing, Voxu; our party's collection-related quests haven't been going all that well recently," the woman, holding a quill-like tapestry, stated, humming and hawing over every other word as she trailed behind the others to ensure they were in formation. The buffer woman of the party, carrying a mighty shield over her shoulder like a relaxed high schooler with a suitcase, jokingly pointed out how it was mostly because Voxu refused to show any discretion when fighting monsters.

  Voxu scoffed defensively, like a kid being told something obvious to everyone but themselves: "And disgrace my opponents' honour by holding back against them, I'd never stoop so low."

  Yuuvia shivered from cringe, although not understanding why, as only her subconscious had heard the guy's words while her consciousness was only filled with doughnuts.

  "You lot, slime up ahead, E-Rank, " the party's crystal bow-wielding archer pointed out as he spoke with the least amount of words to maximise efficiency. Just as he finished divulging his report to the others, it appeared, a slime to match the size of a sizeable beachball with a small slime hat a little off-set from the very top of its body, wobbling its way up to the party.

  Reeling his glowing sword over his head as it sparked the occasional small spurt of fire from its blade, Voxu wasted no time in charging for the slime like a bull before swinging his sword down upon the slime, hitting the ground through it with such tremor-inducing force it managed to make Yuuvia marginally airborne for a second.

  Not once did she acknowledge her surroundings until her butt struck the hard ground and left her behind with a painful stinging.

  The four adventurers stood over the spoils of Voxu's attack, despite calling the state the slime was in as spoils was a stretch; it would be accurate if it were changed to spoiled.

  They watched as the sizzling slime gelatin bubbled and evaporated about on the floor, swiftly reduced to a pitiful puddle of chard ooze with its little hat remaining perfectly intact. Despite not being experts on slimes, the four knew without a shadow of a doubt that the fried gelatin wouldn't be up to the quest requirements.

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  "I think I see what she was trying to say...," Voxu murmured somewhat sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head, followed by a deep groan of frustration.

  As they walked off out of sight, Inkaro glared at the four adventurers who wore their D-Rank Guild Lockets on their clothing like badges of honour: "It's mindsets like that which will get people and those around them killed."

  The sudden shift in Inkaro's tone, going from his usual carefree one to one of eerily heart-stopping impose, almost made her choke on the doughnut she'd bit into. She coughed and spluttered for a moment, snapping Inkaro back to her as his preferred demeanour returned in full swing, when he checked if she was okay.

  "I suppose we can agree on that, Inkaro."

  The oppressive aura Inkaro gave off for that brief moment had snagged her attention, full force. It felt almost surreal, nostalgic even. She was sure it wasn't just her nerves getting to her, because that never happens nowadays. She was affirmative in her assertion; someone she'd encountered in the past gave off an even stronger version of that sensation Inkaro displayed mere moments ago.

  "Hey." She spoke coldly, intending to come across as unfazed but ending up sounding like a disappointed mother moments away from giving a scolding.

  "Ah... sorry about losing my cool there. It bothered me how that lot's equipment was calibrated, and the way that guy acted only added to it."

  Yuuvia jumped on the spot, shocked. It was like Inkaro already knew what the focus of her next words was going to be without even speaking them into reality. Or was she just overthinking it, she wondered. It wasn't like it was a far fetch for even as mentally liberated from burdensome thought to realise when he might've upset someone. "It... fine, just try to aim it at a monster next time."

  For the next few minutes, there was silence, a tense atmosphere in the air that only served to afflict any possible negative consequences on her overactive mind. It drove her crazy. So crazy she'd rather do literally anything else, and she was spurred on to break the tension in her mind with the first thing that came to mind: "How about we play one round of Dareing Truth before the conjurations finish their scouting?"

  "Dareing Truth, you say?" Having never heard such a game before, he thought he'd definitely need to ask Nuenala if she knew about it.

  "Indeed, it's an offshoot of true or dare. To put it in simple terms: each person will ask the other a question and then need to reveal a 'risky' truth about themselves, related to the other's question for them. Then whoever has the more risky reveal is the winner. For instance, if I were asked: What is your favourite food. I would then say, I once ate so many banana omelettes that the chair I was sitting on's legs snapped. Understand?"

  Inkaro assertively nodded, understanding the rules well, and instantly jumped into the game by asking a fairly innocuous question: "Is it true elunoatite's internal organs have the same glass panel effect as their palms and the such?"

  Yuuvia only had many questions on her mind: why would someone ask a question like that, and how was she supposed to reveal anything related to the state of her insides without it coming off as strange? It had her so stumped, Yuuvia considered the possibility that Inkaro had already figured out the implication of the game; if she couldn't think of a response, then she'd automatically lose. It was such a Lizu move for him to do, but knowing Inkaro, he probably did it out of genuine interest in the topic, whereas Lizu would've done it just to stump her. The noble girl mulled over many responses to the question. From an embarrassing reveal during a medical check-up when she ate a toy as a kid, to the time she stumbled out a window when trying to compare the texture of her tongue to her palm, and not looking where she was walking. In her ruminating state, she'd absent-mindedly allowed her mouth to run amok: she ended up spilling both options before her mind caught up.

  "Oh-ho, double dipping on my first game, you must have a truly tricky question for me," Inkaro said expectantly, sporting a grin that gave off the impression he already knew what answer to prepare.

  "What was the first spell you and Lizuranti collaborated on?"

  "It would have to be Virlteul, the size-changing flying gem-shell turtle conjuration. It became significantly easier for Lizu to sneak out and come visit me when she could fly out of her father's estate. Now that I think about it, she still hasn't gotten around to returning the first spell I ever showed her...," Inkaro mused as a blanket of nostalgic bliss washed over his face that nabbed all the air from Yuuvia's lungs from how adorable Inkaro's face of reminiscence was.

  Yuuvia almost toppled over from the recoil of almost passing out on the spot from the cuteness Inkaro smacked her with; she almost couldn't will her brain to believe such a storybook event had happened in reality, that Lizu was a shy and bashful tsundere as a kid.

  Her disbelief was just that potent, unable to fully grasp how Lizu could have a shy side at all, that was the part of Inkaro's answer that seemed untruthful. The flying turtle thing, that seemed like something someone fit for the Star Course could achieve, but Lizu being shy? Not a chance: "You know the statements have to be true, right?"

  Inkaro found himself snapped out of his subconsiously induced trance by Yuuvia's sudden question that didn't seem related to the game. "Huh, but it was... ... does that mean you?"

  Yuuvia turned a ready shade of red as she realised that in her eagerness to escape the awkward silence, she ended up revealing an embarrassing moment when she hadn't needed to do so.

  "Yes! I've broken many chairs and chair legs alike," Yuuvia bellowed before stuffing another three doughnuts into her mouth. Followed by her wiping some glaze off her face, Yuuvia swiped her head to the side, getting a musical clicking choir out of her neck as her noble face returned in full swing: "My second question for you is: what is the least favourite thing you've done with your favourite spell?"

  "I've killed people." He spoke with a deadly calm voice, devoid of any inkling of insincerity but rich in insensibility.

  "What did I just say?" Yuuvia asked unamusedly, despite her external demeanour being nothing but a lie, when in reality she was screaming her mental lungs out. Somehow, she was out of breath, her quickening in breathing doing little in the way to sate her glass panel-textured lungs at that answer.

  "Ah, sorry; my life's been rather uneventful in the embarrassing story department, so videogame events are the best I can offer," Inkaro remarked cheekily before sticking his tongue out playfully once he finished speaking. Yuuvia would've ascended to the afterlife from the amount of relief she got from reprieving her mental screaming.

  "More like you just don't feel shame or embarrassed to begin with," Yuuvia grumbled as she gradually lifted a strawberry doughnut to her face and into her slowly opening mouth, but ended up bumping it into her cheek and smeering strawberry glaze over herself.

  Paying no attention to the spill on Yuuvia's face, much to the appreciation of Yuuvia's pride, Inkaro lightly rocked his head from side to side, thinking over how factual the retort's contents were: "True."

  Once the strawberry doughnut, the last snack in the sack, was consumed, Yuuvia felt a pinging vibration course from her staff and into her fingertips. Her wind conjurations were done.

  Feeling unusually energised, chalking it up to the doughnuts, Yuuvia wasn't about to let her renewed vigour go to waste, especially when she'd expected to be going into the battle against the boss with a slightly groggy haze over her mind. Patting her once again flat tummy, she honestly felt conflicted by how rejuvenated she'd become from the food that's influence on her went beyond simple good cooking skills.

  However, Yuuvia decided that was a question for later; she didn't want to come across as ungrateful for the food she'd been given, extra so, since she had eaten over ninety percent of the snacks.

  Using her staff as a crutch, Yuuvia clambered to her feet, followed by some stretches to hide her true reason for getting up: that being to keep her legs from going fully numb from sitting for so long on the hard floor and the little scare Inkaro played on her. On the topic of said scare, it didn't feel like Inkaro was referring to a simple video game: was he that good at faking it? It made Yuuvia a tiny bit uneasy, no matter which was true. Either or, how could the guy say that with such a straight face? It was bonkers to her.

  "Is it time to get the ball rolling?" Inkaro asked contentedly as he pushed himself from his sitting position on the floor and into a standing position with a single foot, "I look forward to seeing what spells you'll grace my senses with this time."

  Yuuvia's cheeks reddened under the strawberry glaze, followed by her making a "tsk" noise as she licked the glaze off her face: "Quit talking so strangely, it's weird of you."

  Following that response of hers, Yuuvia quietly stomped her way over to the boss room door while Inkaro matched her pace to the door with a light stroll. The two were now more than ready to take on the boss, one from experience and the other from the pre-planning.