Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1257: Not one to tell her no.

“Hi Seth, Al.” she greeted them with a nod. “Are you two taking a break?” Monique asked as she sat down beside them with her lunch. Her outfit suggested she just finished her training and came by for a grub.

“Yeah, we just came back to take a break before we entered the last one,” Seth answered her readily between bites.

“J—just one left? I mean, how are the hell gates so far?” the Chosen of Athena asked curiously. Seth raised an eyebrow. Her unusual curiosity made Seth suspicious. He didn’t pay much attention to it before, but he remembered that she had actually made a beeline toward them, from the moment she saw them. Was there something the spear demon wanted?

“Not as exciting as you may think. Lots of traveling and walking through empty landscapes, some fighting with monsters. Customer service sucked. Nothing great,” the bard gave an honest review of their adventures so far.

“The last one wasn’t as bad,” Al reminded him. Right, the caves were quite fun. From looting resources to discovering a mystery, the entertainment value was through the roof, compared to the burning wastelands and the swamp.

“How was the last one?” Monique asked eagerly. Now Seth was convinced that there was something burning under her fingernails. He considered for a moment but decided to simply ask directly.

“Monique is there something you would like to ask?” the bard asked, looking her straight in the eyes, even putting aside his fork. The chosen was taken aback momentarily, but then she smiled awkwardly.

“Was it that obvious?”

Seth nodded. Al nodded. Both nodded mercilessly. Monique was a serious person, a strong person, she had even become a great strategist with the help of Athena’s blessings. But she was terrible at hiding something.

“I wanted to ask whether I could come along for the last gate,” she finally revealed the truth. Sethʼs gaze was so obvious, that she continued to answer his question before he could ask it.
“I didn’t feel like this during the meeting. We just won a great victory and the mood was great, but in the past few days… I feel bored and useless. Most of the people from my teams are on other missions, even you are traveling outside, while I’m stuck here.”

During her travels, she had gotten used to having an objective. Now that she had nothing to do, Monique felt restless. But that was not the whole story. Kneading her fingers nervously, she spilled her feelings.

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“I know it’s not true, and that I did my duty, but I feel like I didn’t contribute. I worked hard to level up, but I feel like I was completely useless, and I have to prove my worth,” she said melancholic. It was a good thing it was only the three of them in the cafeteria, or she might not have had the confidence to say it out loud.

Monique was really a serious person. Seth would have never expected that something like this would bother her. After all, he had left the protection of the tree stations to them, not just because he wanted to know them in safety, but also because he trusted them to be able to do something if shit hit the fan.

But as much as he trusted her, as much did he distrusted the means of demons. Al had the confidence to walk into any kind of trap to get information and come out unharmed. Seth had the defense to do the same. But the spear demon? Monique was strong, but not on that level.

Especially since the last gate they were to visit, was the one that managed to kill off their golem eyes. Not only was their information limited, but it meant that the other side was either very dangerous or very cunning.

“Maybe not the Hell Gate, but we are going to meet Mary and Leana after lunch. How about you come along? If you don’t want to rest, maybe Leana has something to do for you. Or maybe something comes up where you can help,” the bard suggested.

Someone else may have told her to calm down and that it was okay, but he felt like that would belittle her feelings. This was who Monique was and if she could only feel accomplished after accomplishing something significant, why would he try and tell her off?

“Really? Great!” she exclaimed relieved. She didn’t seem to be sad at all, that it wasn’t going to be the hell gates, as long as she got “a chance to prove herself”, or however she interpreted his compromise.

Thus it happened that Monique came along, when Seth and Al visited the administrative team, to tell them about their find on the other side of the dark gate. They told them about the gate location, resources, medium monster danger, as well as the destroyed birthing pools and the fortress at the surface.

In the end, they all agreed on the theory that somebody had actually killed the demons that used to occupy that world a long time ago and the hell gate was an abandoned relic. Although Seth strongly advocated to just occupy the new mines, Leana, Mary, Jane, and Luf insisted that they had to contact the people on the surface.

It was for exactly the same reason why Seth originally considered it. Just that he was a blacksmith and valued the unbothered mining process over potential trade with people of a foreign world, that could come along with disputes over the mining rights.

“You are too worried about the resources and forget the profit we can make by trading with them,” Jane reprimanded him. She had come a long way, that she dared to reprimand him. Her confidence had grown quite a bit since she started managing the finances across a whole district.

“We can just lie about the interior of the cave. It’s not like they can verify our words or prove that we lied,” she added craftily. “By the time they may become suspicious and want to see the cave themselves, the drones will have mined away anything precious anyway.”

Seth ultimately gave in, facing overwhelmingly convincing arguments. If they bought enough time they may have been able to mine all the resources using Minas Mar’s drones and Seth’s mining golems. At that point, they could even prove that nothing was there(anymore).

Monique also got what she wanted. Since she was already in the room, they decided that she would be the leader of the team, that would try and make contact with the people on the surface. She was also in charge of choosing the people on the team, apart from Jane. Jane was the confirmed negotiator, as she knew their economic needs and potential the best, even better than Mary.

“Thank you,” Monique expressed her gratitude once they left the office and stood outside in the hallway.

“Why do you thank me? I just gave you a bunch of work. You should have just enjoyed your vacation,” Seth said with a shrug.

“Yeah, but I asked for that, so thanks,” Monique insisted, unimpressed by Seth’s act.

“Yeah, yeah,” Seth said and walked off. Al followed him. Since they had their meal and reported about the potential of the cave world, it was finally time for the two to explore the last remaining hell gate. With a “bye”, the two vanished from the corridor, leaving Monique behind on her own.