The spontaneously started water play was strangely fun.

It might have been more enjoyable because they were playing while postponing all the things that needed to be done immediately.

The group spent half a day playing in the water, pulling out all sorts of rare items to find toys that could float.

“Wow, I’m envious of the physical shield. Really, except for me, you three are monsters. Truly monsters.”

Saint, who had entered the water in short sleeves, lay down in the shade as if collapsing, with the exposed parts of his skin burned red.

“But if light is blocked by the physical shield, is vitamin D absorption okay?”

As Saint grumbled face down, Elaine shrugged her shoulders.

“If light is a particle, it’s blocked by physical defense, if it’s a wave, it wouldn’t be blocked.”

“What’s that incomprehensible talk again?”

Suji responded to Elaine’s words.

“Regardless of the physical shield, it’s probably because there’s a bit of basic recovery ability.”

Saint heaved a deep sigh.

Even though his skills were not to be underestimated, when he was in Team Daphne, there were times like this when only he fell behind.

It’s not easy to get a constant recovery skill, no matter how small the amount of recovery.

But such grumbling soon subsided. Lying in the shade after playing in the water and enjoying the gentle breeze was an incomparably happy thing.

“We should set up beach chairs. Originally, at the beach, you’re supposed to lie on chairs, read books, and drink juice to get in the mood, right?”

“Not a bad idea. I’ll order some later.”

Suji nodded immediately, seeming to be in a good mood too.

“We should install hammocks too.”

“If we’re doing that, then a tent as well.”

“If it’s a tent, we need to buy barbecue equipment too, right?”

“Hey, who came up with such a brilliant idea?”

“And it would be nice to plant some palm trees, can’t we pull some from the Charm Dungeon? I saw them there.”

“If someone sees us pulling those out, it’ll definitely make the news, Saint.”

“I’m not newsworthy in our team, so unless it’s a dating scandal, it’s unlikely.”

The voices of Saint and Peace listing things to buy and then laughing flowed slowly over the four lying side by side on the beach.

Suji looked up at the sky hidden by leaves, then closed her eyes with a gentle smile.

The process of slowly learning to find leisure wasn’t bad.

After that, until the day 〈Laurel〉 appeared, they spent busy days with simulations.

Throughout this time, the ‘Great Beings’ kept trying to talk to her, but Suji had no particular intention of dealing with them.

Daphne’s name was constantly mentioned on the Hunter bulletin board as well. She didn’t pay attention to that either.

She was in close contact with Yeonju, but only learned that the accuracy of measurements had uniformly decreased worldwide, with no other significant findings.

Thus, they approached the day they expected 〈Laurel〉 to appear.

The day before the decisive battle, while checking Team Daphne’s strategies and equipment one by one, Suji suddenly noticed Elaine looking into his terminal.

He seemed to be making extremely detailed plans, as if trying to prepare for everything in this climb.

Suji tied her purple hair into a ponytail and deliberately approached Elaine.

Come to think of it, she had forced Elaine, who was initially opposed, to agree to climb 〈Laurel〉, so she felt a bit sorry about that and kept worrying about it.

“What are you doing?”

Elaine briefly turned the terminal to show Suji, then pulled it back in front of him. In the momentarily visible screen, several trade windows were open.

“Shopping.”

“Shopping?”

“It’s good to make some preparations if we’re going to 〈Laurel〉.”

Suji nodded. Certainly, it’s good to prepare what we can.

But while agreeing, she was also curious.

Elaine tended to repair equipment as soon as its durability wore down, and he regularly replenished simple consumables. Moreover, there had been hardly any battles recently.

If he was buying something, it would probably be equipment or accessories.

Was there anything Team Daphne, armed with equipment obtained from the tower, needed to buy from outside?

“Can I take a look at what you’re buying?”

Elaine nodded.

“Of course.”

Suji leaned her head forward as he moved back to let her look comfortably.

The items in the trade window list were installable weapons that were not often used normally.

Even checking them one by one, their power wasn’t remarkable. They were the kind typically used for catching small monsters.

“Are you buying these now?”

“We can’t buy lethal weapons targeting humans, after all.”

Well, that’s not wrong.

Suji nodded and looked over the items he had bought once more.

It wasn’t difficult to understand what point he had focused on when buying.

Elaine tended not to be overconfident and prepared excessively. It seemed he was preparing something this time as well.

“Since there’s inventory space left, I’ll carry some too. Buy as much as you want.”

“I was planning to stock up generously anyway.”

Watching him buy a bunch of weapons that were relatively close to junk items compared to what they usually carried, Suji suddenly felt that she might be too close to him.

It was because she had squeezed herself between Elaine and the terminal, but she could feel his firm chest touching the back of her head.

Was it because she thought she had read some strange emotion in his eyes while playing in the water? Usually, they were close enough that she wouldn’t mind being piggybacked or given a shoulder ride if necessary, but now she was strangely conscious of the distance.

She glanced at Elaine’s face.

But unlike her, whose back of the head felt ticklish for some reason, Elaine’s face was expressionless.

Suddenly, Suji thought it was funny that she was conscious of anything at all. To shake off the strange feeling, she deliberately acted even friendlier, sticking close to Elaine’s side and linking her arm with his left arm.

Wondering if he would push her arm away, she looked at him with a face full of mirth, and Elaine slowly blinked and looked down at Suji.

But far from pushing her away, Elaine just gave a faint smile as if looking at a pet cat.

“Oh my, oh my, Team Leader, right now! Oh my, are we openly dating within the team now? Is this that kind of team?”

“Saint! What did you just say? Office romance? My goodness, it really is an office romance. Team Leader and Elaine, what are you doing right now? This is morally… oop.”

“Be quiet, please.”

“Saint! You were the one who made noise first!”

“Anyway!”

Suji shook her head, feeling embarrassed.

“It’s not like that, I’m just looking at the items he’s buying.”

“What kind of looking involves being so affectionate!”

“Ah, I said I was just looking! Peace, come here!”

It seemed the joke had gotten out of hand and become noisy.

Suji stuck out her tongue and got up, linking arms with Peace and Saint.

“Is this okay now? It’s fair, right?”

“…Ah, we’ve gained unnecessary fairness because of Peace again. What is this. It’s not communism, but it’s always about equality.”

“Did I do something wrong? Did I do something wrong, I’m asking. Anyway, I can’t stand to see anything like dating before I’m six feet under!”

“Why can’t you see it! Peace, you even have children!”

“I have children, but that doesn’t mean I’m married!”

Saint and Suji, who were laughing and joking around, stopped abruptly and turned to look at Peace.

Peace scratched his head with an annoyed expression, seemingly regretting his slip of the tongue.

Saint and Suji exchanged glances with wide eyes.

It was the first time they had heard that Peace wasn’t married.

Well, for Peace, who is now 31, to have two children around 10 years old, he would have had to have children quite early for it to make sense.

Although they became more curious about the detailed circumstances, it felt wrong to pry into something he wasn’t voluntarily sharing.

As people tried to hide their curiosity and kept their mouths shut, Peace seemed unable to bear the awkward silence and scratched the back of his head vigorously before turning away with a sigh.

“Hey, I never even asked first, but you make a slip of the tongue and then get sulky and leave! What a strange mister!”

Sensing that the atmosphere might become heavy, Saint suddenly complained and went back to Peace’s side, and Suji gave a bitter smile.

Even among team members who shared so much, if it was a secret too heavy to reveal, there was no point in digging it out. They all knew that much about each other.

She was playing around, walking while moving her weight without leaving footprints in the sand, when she suddenly stopped and looked back at her team members who had returned to their places.

After this job is done, she was planning to head back to the tower.

But the monster she was trying to catch didn’t seem to be an ordinary one.

The thought suddenly occurred to her that when she returns to the tower, she might not be able to maintain this team. They had barely made it to the 80th floor, but beyond that, they would really have to charge in prepared to lose their lives.

It was an area where the risks outweighed the rewards. If she was climbing only for her revenge, she might not be able to burden her team members any further.

Although she didn’t know all of their circumstances, it was certain that all of them had someone they were responsible for.

And she was still worried about the ‘Messiah’ potentially targeting her team members.

‘After 〈Laurel〉 is over this time, we should have another meeting.’

Suji sighed deeply and pressed her foot firmly into the sand, leaving a footprint.