552 His Training Plan Is Not Going Well

Well… I'm already lost even with the map since this map was pretty much useless…

I've already led them to three dead ends and this was the fourth one I had guided them to.

Katsuki looked at me with a worried gaze, "Mistress? Is something wrong with the map?"

"Hmm… I don't think so. Let's go back and try the other way instead," I half lied.

I wasn't sure how much I could tell them but I pretty much confirmed that Sebastian does not want me revealing to the others that the map in my hands was useless.

But despite the dead ends I've led them to so far, they weren't doubting my skills in navigating at all.

Katsuki made a concerned face at me, "Could this Dungeon be one that changes its layout everyday? That would make the map useless, won't it?"

I wasn't sure if I should tell her that it was a possibility but Sebastian spoke up from behind before I could say anything.

"There is nothing wrong with the map in Aster's hands."

Are you sure about that, Sebastian? I'm pretty sure everything is wrong about this map…

Hmm… I get it.

This map could be reflecting a different floor or a different location altogether. So technically speaking… There was indeed nothing wrong with the map, I'm just using it incorrectly was what he meant, probably.

With Sebastian's assurance that there was nothing wrong with the map, I'm pretty sure any doubts everyone had about the map had dissipated.

Ah… I think I get the point of this training.

Sebastian mentioned how everyone around me basically always agreed with whatever I said no matter what, even if what I wanted was something that I was better off without.

Though I suppose it's a case where they took Mother's words about letting me do whatever I wanted too literally.

So now Sebastian has placed me in a position where I was seen as doing something wrong deliberately or even failing repeatedly to get the others to do something about it I guess? It's quite obvious especially since he placed Katsuki in the leader position too, who everyone knows would do anything to accommodate me no matter what it was.

But… Are you sure this would even work, Sebastian? I don't think this would work on this particular group of people though…

Well… I guess I can play along and see how this goes…

I led them back to the intersection and decided to turn right this time, wondering if this would lead us to another dead end or even a trap.

At this point, I wasn't even trying to look for the stairs anymore and simply pretended like I was consulting the map to lead my party there.

I was already kind of getting the feeling that the others behind me were also getting a little suspicious of the situation, since I managed to guide them to the Dungeon without much problems before this.

But I don't know if it was fate or not, the new route I chose ended up being the right one and a set of stairs stared back at me when we reached the end of the corridor.

"As expected of Mistress. I believe the Dungeon has changed its pathway and differs from the map," Katsuki declared.

Sebastian sighed, "I reiterate this… There is nothing wrong with the map."

My Inugami maid turned to narrow her eyes at him but chose to say nothing.

I also decided that it might be better for me to just keep quiet and lead everyone down to the next floor.

Sebastian stopped us the moment we reached the bottom floor, "I'm assigning Odeta as the new leader."

Odeta thumped her chest, "Alright!! Leave everything to me, Sister Aster!! I'll back you up!!"

Err… Pretty sure that's not what Sebastian wanted you to do but ok…

He then took back the first map and gave me another one without another word.

I took a look at it and decided to just follow the map for now to see if this one was also another fake map.

Sure enough, on the first turn, we already reached a dead end.

While Katsuki remained silent when we reached those dead ends, Odeta did not.

"Ha! Is there supposed to be a path here, Sister Aster?!"

"Err… Yes, there is."

"Alright! Then stand back!! Let energy flow through my veins and give me strength. I ask for the strength to surpass limits and go beyond boundaries, may those that stand before me tremble from my might! [Body Current]!!!"

I didn't manage to stop her before the Amrap leapt forward and punched the wall as hard as she could.

The wall shook but predictably, nothing happened.

I immediately rushed over and started healing her bruised fist, "What are you thinking, Odeta?! You can't break a Dungeon wall!!"

"Wahaha! But Sister Aster said there's a path there right? I thought that meant that this wall must be breakable! Sister Aster is never wrong after all!"

I can see why you want to do this training, Sebastian… But is this really the right way? I kind of have a feeling that this might be counterproductive instead…

Just by looking at the Head Butler, I could see on his face that he was also starting to have doubts about this training plan too.

Well… For the moment, I finished healing Odeta and brought them back to the stairs, using the map again to try and find an alternate path.

The route I followed this time seemed a little more promising as we encountered no dead ends, though I had to start improvising halfway through because the route we were taking no longer matched with what was drawn on the map.

I was fully prepared to reach another dead end again but… Well… We found the stairs to the next floor.

"Wahahaha! Sister Aster is great!! We found it so quickly!"

Err… But to your knowledge I was just following the map… There isn't anything special about that though?

We went down to the next floor again and I felt that Sebastian chose this Dungeon on purpose because it was another labyrinth floor with no boss rooms in sight.

"Delmare… You're the leader this time," Sebastian instructed, to which my Siren merely nodded.

He then handed me another map and for this floor in particular, I decided to just follow my gut instincts to lead the party instead of looking at the map.

A right turn… Straight through the intersection… Let's just guess another right… And then a left… And.. Oh.

I found the stairs.

'Aster is great! <3' Delmare praised in her sketchbook.

I turned to look at Sebastian and the Wrunch was just looking up at the ceiling in slight exasperation.

Hey… Not my fault, ok? How the heck was I supposed to know that this was the right route?

The next floor we descended to was a boss room and I peeked inside to see what we would be facing against.

[Name: Dungeon Rock Golem

Race: Monster

Stats:

380 Strength

100 Dexterity

400 Endurance

50 Magic]

Huh… Almost the same as the golem we had encountered earlier I see… Was that golem we met on the higher floors some kind of hidden boss or something?

Well… Needless to say it wasn't even much of a fight for this with our lineup.

Even discounting the fact that Sebastian was not helping us directly, this party is pretty much quite overpowered for this Dungeon already.

Like come on… I could have soloed this boss myself, much less fighting this boss in a party.

I just instructed everyone to surround the boss monster and started wailing on it while I healed anyone that was unfortunate enough to get hit.

One thing I noticed was that Groelle, our Wrunch maid, worked pretty well together with Odeta.

I suspect that the training session they had yesterday must have helped them get an understanding of each other somewhat?

The Wrunch would harass the golem from one side to get its attention while Odeta delivers a heavy blow from the other side.

Then once the golem shifts its attention to Odeta, Gorelle would do the same thing and just kept that on repeat.

I quickly learned to alternate the buffs between the two of them to maximise this strategy and the golem pretty much never stood a chance.

In less than a few minutes, the golem was already falling into pieces, defeated.

Odeta immediately ran up to pick me up and twirl around in the air, "Wahahaha! That was some great support, Sister Aster!! You're way too awesome!!"

Groelle joined her, "I agree, as expected of our Young Mistress."

The others also joined them and cheered for me while I was pampered by all of them.

I could see from the corner of my eye that Sebastian was sighing to himself in the corner but I guess even he knew he could not do anything about this.

We ended up taking a break after leaving the boss room for a quick tea snack.

I guess our Head Butler was feeling a little unsatisfied with the progress of the training so far since he was seated by himself in the corner while scribbling on several pieces of paper.

Well… I want to comfort him but… Katsuki, Lisa, Delmare and Odeta were feeding me sweets right now so this was more important~

Om nom nom nom~

It's ok Sebastian, I'm sure things will work out somehow! You should just come over and join us for sweets!