New Earth- The Dungeon of Madness 76 The meeting of the harpies

"Finally! We are free! Ahhh it has been so long!! Hmmp, Master is so unfair, he sounds like an elder! How could he give us a house arrest!"

"Stop complaining Alice, he just wanted to protect us, and it was just for three nights. You cannot say you did not enjoy lying in bed the entire night."

"I know... But it was so boring... He said we might be in danger, but nothing happened, we ended up spending three nights doing nothing. Isn't he being too cautious? And now, mother is probably anxious since we did not meet her for so long."

"I am sure mother already knows the situation. Let's quickly meet her at the usual place."

"..."

Three delicate figures swiftly jumped out of the waterfall, breaking the silence of the night. Without hesitation, they spread out their black wings and quickly flew East.

...

A few minutes later, the 3 harpies finally caught sight of a lonely person sitting at the edge of the cliff. Revealing expressions of joy, the 3 harpies happily charged towards the cloaked figure, hugging her from three different directions.

Although the harpies did not intend to harm the cloaked figure, they were flying so fast that they a subtle "bam" was heard. Fortunately, that person did not seem to mind and did not even try to avoid the harpies. Instead, she warmly opened her arms and gently caught the 3 little girls while her cloak inadvertently fell off from the gust caused by the charge of the harpies.

The purple-haired harpy, Ariel, brightly smiled as she looked at the person's face in front of her. Under the moonlight, it was hard to see the differences between the two faces such that one would immediately think that the 2 women were twin sisters.

The lonely person that waited on the cliff was naturally Harriet. Her eyes were shining with motherly love as she saw how the 3 harpies missed her after just 3 days. Compared to her other 'daughters', she did not get to spend much time with the 3 harpies, but it did not create much distance between them. She was relieved to see that the three harpies did not treat her differently because of that.

The scene was beautiful; it looked like 3 daughters meeting their mother for the first time. The forest was silent, no one was willing to interrupt this reunion. No one, except for the rebellious Alice.

She was the first to break out of Harriet's embrace. With a seemingly angry face, she pouted: "I missed you so much mother. Master was so mean, he forced us to stay in the dungeon. If we did not beg him to let us out tonight, who knows when we would be able to meet. It's been so long since I've been out, let's quickly fly across the forest."

With a tinge of reluctance, Harriet slowly let go of the two other harpies and looked at Alice, "I know, I also missed all of you. But look at you, you have all grown so much in these past three days. I did not expect you to change so much."

Harriet immediately noticed the change in the harpies' body. Initially, they looked like sixteen years old girls but after the last battle, they all obtained a tremendous amount of experience which allowed them to level up. As a result, their bodies also grew, giving them a more mature look. They now looked more like blooming young adults. It was especially true for Ariel who could now almost be considered as a carbon copy of Harriet both in terms of appearance and temperament.

"I know everything that happened. Don't blame Five too much, he is just cautious. It is the first time he is going through a trial and I doubt he knows there's a short grace period after each trial." She then turned towards the quiet Angela, "I am sorry I could not be there when you needed me. Do you feel better now?"

The silver-haired harpy lightly shivered as she remembered the past event. She spent the last three days with her two sisters and successfully overcame this mental barrier. "I am fine now," declared Angela with an assertive voice but although she sounded confident, her eyes betrayed that she was scarred by the event.

Being experienced, Harriet naturally caught this small detail. "It is good but don't push yourself too much. You know, monsters don't necessarily have to stand on the front line and fight the adventurers to be useful to a dungeon master. You have to keep in mind that everyone is unique with their own personalities and talents! In the 3 dungeons I've been to before, there were several monsters who never fought but were essential to the development of the dungeon. I am talking about the craftsmen!"

"As far as I am aware, there has never been a harpy that displayed an aptitude for crafting, but we also never bothered about that. If you don't want to fight every day, you should consider this path, Angela. Don't think that being a craftsman is humiliating, if you are able to create useful items or artifact, you will make a greater contribution to the dungeon than I will ever be able to do. Think about it and if you like the idea, just mention it to Five, I am sure he will know what to do."

The eyes of the 3 young harpies sparkled as they heard their mother's idea. They were all aware that Angela was not very comfortable fighting against others, she was generally very gentle and did not like to engage in bloody fights, but she still did so since she did not want to simply leech off others. Now that another path opened itself to her, she was naturally tempted by it.

"mmm, I will do my best!"

Ariel nodded and encouraged her sister, "I am sure master will agree and with your talent, it will not be long before you make something extraordinary!"

Alice gently tapped her sister to encourage her. As everyone was silent for a moment, she quickly took the opportunity and excitedly exclaimed, "since we are all here, let's go and fly! It has been so long that I already feel rusty. Let's go, that technique you taught us previously was really effective, how about you teach us another one?"

"I would like to teach you more skills but that will have to wait a little bit. I have been waiting for you to come to tell you that I will have to leave for a few days," said Harriet.

Immediately, the expression of the three harpies changed, "What? Did something happen? Could it be that you have been injured when dealing with those beasts?" exclaimed Ariel.

Angela blinked her beautiful eyes and quickly examined Harriet for any signs of discomfort.

Seeing their exaggerated reactions, Harriet could not help but laugh as she felt a warm feeling inside. "Don't worry, these beasts were nothing to me, I could have instantly dealt with most of them if I did not take care to attract Five's attention. Also, before you come up with any more absurd ideas, I am not abandoning you!"

"It is just that I need to repay my debt to the thunder eagles. After all, it is thanks to them that I was able to travel to the Black Wings clan and come back here that quickly. Without their help, the trip, back and forth, would have taken at least 2 weeks, but they reduced the time by half. Now, I need to honor my words and help their chief, it should not take very long, at most, one week. I promise that once it's over, I will be back immediately. Sigh..." said Harriet while looking at the harpies with concern.

"... In that case, you should quickly help the thunder eagles and come back. We will wait for you here every night!" declared Ariel. She was naturally reluctant to see Harriet leave but she could not ask her to break her promise for no reason.

"It's good that you understand. You should always honor your words. So don't make promises that you cannot hold. Without your integrity and dignity, we are no better than normal beasts."

While Ariel and Angela quietly nodded, Alice pouted, "hmmp, all because of that jerk. What is so good about him that made you want to go back to eagerly..."

"Alice, you should not talk about Ivan like that. If it was not for him, we might have never met. Also... One day he might even become your..."

"No! Never! I will never accept him as my father! Didn't he say he would look after you? How come he never contacted you in 3 years? And don't tell me that he could not find you in all those dungeons, I am sure that with his ability, he surely already knew where you were!" declared the red-haired harpy.

Hearing her accusations, Harriet did not get angry but instead, gently smiled, "I know what you are thinking but I am sure Ivan had his reasons. And even though we have not seen each other for 3 years, he was still my fiancé before I was summoned to the dungeon. We only spent one year together but that year was still the most beautiful year of my life. Before judging him, I should at least meet him, don't you think so? And now that he himself has been summoned to a dungeon..."

"Hmmp, don't talk about him. At least, you should not leave master right after you find him! You are our mother and we support you, but we should still be loyal to master!" said Alice while crossing her arms. For a brief moment, it seemed that their roles were inverted as Alice was the one lecturing Harriet.

"I know. It might be selfish for me to come back only because it is my only chance to find Ivan again. But I won't hurt Five in any way. Maybe that's why he asked me to leave at that time... Maybe he saw my longing to go back home to see him again..."

An awkward silence settled down among the harpies as the 3 young harpies did not know what to say while Harriet lost herself in her thoughts.

Chapter end