RD 4 Ch 17

Simone hooked a finger at me and I stepped back at Simone's request.

We had been in here for five days, and I was itching to get back out. They had been five very productive days. Our rate of killing hives had increased significantly, and we had breezed past both of the mini-bosses that I would have expected for an SS-rank instance and were getting close to taking on the giant hive structure itself.

Everyone had significantly improved their skills, and we had divided up some of the loot, sharing the gold freely so people could increase their stats.

I turned to face Simone, my confidant in many things, wanted my ear for something.

Simone raised an eyebrow at me. "What?” She flashed a brilliant smile at me.

“You asked me to hang back," I answered quickly, smirking.

"I did. I was hoping you had realized the problem," she replied, playing with her long blonde hair.

I shook my head. "No, but if there's a problem, I'd like to fix it, especially before we get to the boss."

Simone frowned slightly, an expression I did not like on any of the people that I cared about. "You have to remember, Nyx was a spoiled little rich girl. She may have done some training to prepare her for the hero's clan initiation, but she's well beyond some little initiation with level ones and being led through by people who were prepared bringing far too many resources for what that instance was supposed to be." Her emerald green eyes bore into me.

I opened my mouth to argue before snapping it closed. "You're right. She did kind of go from zero to a hundred quite fast, but she handled the vault."

"She handled the vault because she had to. She was also isolated for a part of it. After that, I was hoping we'd have time to recover, but that was taken away from us now, wasn't it?"

I nodded in agreement. It had been less than ideal. "And now I've thrown her into another intense training scenario," I continued, glancing over at where she appeared, at least to me, to be doing quite all right.

She was firing off arrows into hives while Gloria and Merlin's ice golems did their best to keep several scouts distracted so the other three could pound them into dust.

"So I'm pushing her too hard, and she's near her limits," I said slowly. "What do you suggest? It's not like I can take her out of this."

Simone relaxed, as if she had been somewhat prepared to push even harder. Somewhat prepared to have an argument. "Nothing too obvious or it might do more damage," she said after a moment. "I just need you to slow down a little on Nyx. Perhaps you could throw some more encouragement her way. Unlike the rest of us, she's still young enough that we need to build her up."

I looked down. "Right. Right. No, you're absolutely right, Simone." I shook my head. In some ways, I had jumped her ahead of a new recruit in my mind, because at her level and current abilities, she didn't look like a new recruit. "But you're absolutely right. She's only been in three instances, all of which have been incredibly difficult."

Simone patted my arm. "And here I was expecting you to say something like, 'we don't have the luxury of going easy,' or push harder and harder, saying that it would just make her stronger." The way Simone made an angry fist was almost comically cute.

"Those things would have been true if not for the preparation that we had done." I put a hand on Simone's shoulder and pulled her close. "And to be honest, the work you've done with the Mul Branova, it has bought us a lot of wiggle room. And I think we can use that to make sure that Nyx is as stable as possible."

Simone scowled at my wording.

I held my hands up. "No, maybe 'stable' is the wrong word. I don't mean it in any sort of..." I hesitated, trying to pick out my words carefully.

"It's fine," Simone patted my arm and leaned her head against my shoulder. "I understood what you really meant."

"If you push someone too hard, they'll break. We need to ease up and temper her a little more slowly so that cracks don't form. So that in the long run, she's not too brittle," I said.

Simone nodded against me. "Good. And if I'm perfectly honest, Bran, I am ready to get out of this instance," she confessed.

I chuckled. "Me too. We've all made good progress. But this is not an instance we can ignore, either from a potential growth aspect or from the danger it poses to the city and, quite frankly, all of Europe. Now that we've held the demons back from getting a foothold, or at least as strong a foothold as they had in my previous life, that only means that the destruction this instance would cause would be even greater this time.”

Simone sighed. "I don't suppose you could hand this off to the Heroes Clan after you clear it the first time?"

I wiggled my nose. "We'll do it at least a few more times. Now that we're clearing quickly, I think we could do it in three days after we've done it this first time. We only have another day in here, tops."

She waffled her head slightly.

"And if it helps, we could drag the Mul Branova new recruits through here and really turn them into a powerful fighting force."

Simone's eyes sparkled like emeralds. "That's a good idea," she said quickly. "Speaking of good ideas, when are you going to bring Circe or Merlin to your bedroom? To your bed."

I chuckled as Simone so casually switched the conversation. "Both of them are a little old to really go through the love thing again."

Simone looked at me as if I was an idiot. "Can the same thing not be said about you?”

“You realize, even with my past life, I am still younger than both of them, right? And to be fair, you pursued me pretty heavily this time around. I think some of us, when we get to a certain age, we really stop looking."

Simone scowled. "That's so incredibly sad. We'll just stop looking for love one day?"

I shrugged. "You get old. Your priorities change and it just doesn't tend to be one of them."

"Well then," Simone looked like she had a new mission in life. "I think I'm going to have to change that." She poked me in the side. "Why don't you pursue them since they aren’t looking? They are both lovely ladies and adding them to our core forces would be significant."

I squinted at her. "That's a very interesting argument you make." I knew exactly what she was doing. An argument like that was an appeal to the militant part of me, to the wandering king that roamed around with a powerful force to stop horrific acts from tearing humanity apart.

"It doesn't matter if I'm phrasing it in an interesting way, Bran. What matters is that I'm right."

I breathed deep, continuing to stare at her with narrowed eyes. "How would you suggest that I approach either of them?" Before she could answer, I continued. I waved a hand over at Circe in the distance. “Leader of the Odyssey branch of the Heroes Clan, thousands of years old. Obviously a little bit of a flirt, but no actual intentions behind them."

Simone pinched her eyes and waffled her hands, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Really?" I asked.

"I don't think she's as opposed as you think," Simone offered me an encouraging wink. "But I get it, old, important, within the Heroes Clan you two are on very different levels. That's fine. We can just increase your status in the Heroes Clan until you're closer to equals." She dismissed that concern of mine handily.

"Second, while she's been fighting with us, I know some of her combat abilities. Truth be told, she's told me precious little about her past. I think she's actually quite guarded. Not only for me, but everyone in general." I added.

Simone pursed her lips. "You might be right on that one," she hummed to herself. "I'll figure out a way to crack that particular nut. But you're not intimidated by her age or her strength, right?" Simone asked, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Not in the least," I replied, watching the woman in question.

Circe flew through the air, her scandalous toga rippling in the wind along with her hair. She had seemed slightly younger the last few days. Perhaps pushing her out of her comfort zone had restored a small spark of youthful vitality.

"We also have to be careful," I warned Simone. "If we push too hard, we could go from having an ally to an enemy."

Simone waved a dismissive hand through the air. "That won't be a problem. I'm fairly certain she has some level of interest, even if the two of you aren't going to act on it. Don't worry. I understand the problem now. It's up to me to play matchmaker." She sighed and put a hand on her chest, even as it sparkled with magic. She cast a barrier over Gloria just before the woman bounced off a charging Hivnara scout.

Gloria, on the other hand, had become incredibly fierce in this instance.

"Am I pushing Gloria too hard?" I asked.

Simone snorted, "Not hard enough. Our favorite mobster princess really seems to enjoy rising to the challenge. I think amongst the boys in her family, she's always been slightly overlooked. And that's given her quite the competitive thirst. You pushing her as hard as you are puts her leagues above the rest of those men. Your approval of her is more important than I think you realize. Although, unlike Nyx, she has the confidence that the approval isn't going anywhere anytime soon. And no, you don't need to heap praise her."

I glanced over at Simone, pulling my eyes away from Gloria's fight. "Despite all of this, I am incredibly lucky to have you here."

Simone flashed me a brilliant smile, the kind that melted my heart and made me regret that we were in an instance where I couldn't drag her into a bedroom. She seemed to sense some of that and began bouncing her eyebrows, ruining the effect somewhat.

"I'm glad you appreciate having me around, because I'm not going anywhere. And, besides, if I left you to your own devices, you would probably just stomp around, grunting and killing things, like it sounds you did in your last life. In this life, you need to be more strategic, and you need to have more people to help you, and take that strategy to a broader scale."

I acknowledged her comment with a nod. "You've done well with the Mul Branova. Gloria has done well with the Nestor family. Between the two of you, I certainly have more influence over this timeline's total path than I expected."

Simone looked at me, this time with a burning question in her eyes. "What kind of king will you become?" she asked.

"We’ll see what options there are," I smiled at her. By the way she said it, not posing it as if I was going to become the Wandering King again or not, we both knew that I couldn't. "Assuming everything's the same, there will be a few options. However, there were a few anomalies with the Trial of Kings, so I can't promise you what it will be just yet."

She narrowed her eyes slightly. "Should the rest of us go give them a try?”

“I don't think Nyx should," I squinted at the younger heroes, "and I don't think Circe or Merlin could pass the Trials either."

That caused Simone to raise her eyebrows in shock. "Truly?"

"Truly," I sighed, echoing her. "One of the Trials is a test of will. Your memories are partially erased before it starts. So believe it or not, your character is heavily on trial. It's… passing the Trial is largely dependent on your base character. You can't overpower that one."

"And you'll pass it just fine?" she asked.

"I will. When it comes time, I suspect I'll do very similar to the last. But Circe and Merlin..." I shook my head. "I don't know. I don't think they could pass it. In truth," I glanced down at Simone, "I think out of everyone here, you probably have the best chance. Gloria has some chance."

"Then won't you tell me what it is?" She smiled prettily. "So that I can prepare."

I only shook my head. "You can't prepare. It's one of the things that makes them so difficult." I kissed her on the top of the head and squeezed her briefly. "Thank you for the talk. Now," I rolled my neck, "let's finish this instance."