Empty hallways, abandoned rooms, on this abandoned 'ship' only a pair of echoing footsteps could be heard, followed by the low hums of the soulless machines that cleaned after their footsteps, making it seemed as though the two were never there at all. Thanks to the machines, the Cleaners, cleaning up any markings and footprints they've left behind, Auguste and Henrietta found out the hard way exactly how difficult it was to navigate the near-identical halls of this ruin without Gladiolus' guide. There were signs pointing the way, but they were written in letters unfamiliar to both Auguste and Henrietta, making them worthless scribbles in their eyes.

It took them perhaps a whole day, not to scout out the area, not to search for the others, but to simply find their way back. Thankfully, by the time they returned, their belongings were still there. It would seem that the Cleaners would only bother with the halls and had left the rooms alone.

"So tired..."

Just like that, Henrietta collapsed on the bed. However, she soon sprung back up. Her armor was getting in the way of her feeling the softness of the bed.

"Oi Auguste, give me a hand here, will ya?"

These kinds of armor, the full-body armor that Henrietta and Finn wear can be quite a handful to both put on and take off. Usually, Elaine would be right there to help them with the armor even before they ask, amongst other small tasks she would do for them. Since she had gone missing, her absence was gradually being felt.

After being freed from her armor, Henrietta flopped onto the bed and fell fast to sleep, leaving Auguste by himself in a room that suddenly far too spacious.

Left alone with his thoughts, Auguste began thinking about various things. About where the others could have wandered off to, about what had happened to them, about what he'll do in the worst-case scenario. These were not the happiest of thoughts, but at least they were dreadful enough to keep him from falling asleep. Eventually, his mind settled on a question that he had asked Morganna the prior night. The Alva, why did they leave in the first place? Morganna told him that it might be because they're tired of being stuck in the same old hallways for their entire lifetime and decided that they wanted to live on the outside. Even if that's the case, there must have been a few that were reluctant to leave, right? There must be some that wanted to stay, right? Yet, they haven't met a single soul up till this point. Granted, they haven't even explored all of the ship yet, but if there was someone still here, they would have heard about it from the Orcus, right?

Thinking about it, Auguste realized that the Orcus said very little about this place. Only that it's important and they wanted to be able to enter once more. Previously, Auguste hadn't thought much about it, thinking that maybe even they don't know all that much about this place since they haven't been able to enter for a long time. However, with two-thirds of his party missing and paranoia running wild in his head, he was beginning to believe that the Orcus were hiding something majorly important to them. Who knows, perhaps that this expedition wasn't a chance for them to win back their freedom but was instead, them heading into their own execution grounds.

"Damn, this all feels like some kind of nightmare."

Auguste pinched himself and felt the pain sharply.

"No luck, huh?"

That being said, none of this felt real. He could have never imagined losing such a large chunk of the party before, but here he is. He wondered if that's how Tristan, Feris, and Joseph had felt. They would certainly not be in a good place after losing Conrad and Muriel, both emotionally and financially speaking. Tristan even lost a leg to those Crawlers too. What would happen if Auguste himself had lost a limb? He couldn't imagine it, didn't want to. Especially if it's one of his legs, but then again, he'd like to have both his arms too. Maybe a just finger or two? It'd probably hurt like shit regardless.

You know what, let's just try not to lose them, he decided in his head. It's not a problem if you don't lose them in the first place.

Auguste sighed.

"I'm not thinking straight. I think I might be losing my mind," said Auguste, out loud. He felt like he had to. "Come on, keep it together..."

"Gusty... Yer feelin' alright?"

Turning from the doorway, Auguste had his sight upon Henrietta on the bed, her concerned eyes locked onto him.

"I'm... fine. That's right, I'm fine!" he forced himself to say. He had to be fine. In their current situation, if he wasn't fine, then the both of them would be screwed.

However, Henrietta was not convinced. Her eyes never left him and the look of concern never faded. She just kept gazing at him, occasionally mouthing something, but never quite managed to say anything.

Feeling the awkwardness in the air, Auguste decided to say something first.

"Henri, why'd you become a traveling merchant in the first place?"

"Huh? Why ask that all of the sudden?"

"It's not out of nowhere. I've been wondering for a while now."

Normally, Auguste would have never brought it up. He's not that interested in a person's past. However, the situation being what it was, Auguste brought it up as something to distract themselves from their present predicament, even if for a little while. God knows both he and Henrietta needed it.

"Well, I just did, ya know? I needed some money and figured that's what I was gonna do."

"Really? That's it?"

"What? Yer expectin' a sob story? I ain't about that."

"I mean... I don't know. You looked like you came from a rich family so I thought there'd be more to it."

"W-w-what!? Who told you I was rich!?"

"Your hair and your complexion. I lived at a temple for three years and all sorts of people come by, both the wealthy and the poor, and it's usually the rich people that have time to take care of their hair and skin like you do."

At the mention of her hair, Henrietta held her golden tails close and began touching her face.

"T-that's just my elven heritage. I mean, Gladiolus looks fine and fair all the time, doesn't he?"

"There's that, but that doesn't explain the attention you pay to your hair. I mean, how do you keep it so nice and fluffy? Even Gladiolus had a dozen of splits in his hair or two."

"You... I didn't know yer were the type to pay attention to another man's hair."

"It's only because I thought that hint of green in his hair was weird, alright. Took me a while to get used to it."

"Yeah, sure, whatever, but it's normal for a girl to pay attention to her looks, alright. Especially a maiden in love, such as myself."

Ah, that's right, Auguste suddenly remembered, she went from being a merchant to be Dungeoneer because she wanted to find ways to get close to Albert didn't she? It was such a silly idea at the time. She probably thought that since the Lightbringers deal with all things Abyssal, she's bound to run into him again sooner rather than later if she went to the Dungeons. Well, the party did wound up running into Albert on more than one occasion, so that turned out well for her, up till recently at least.

"Right, sorry about that."

"Huh? Why?"

"Why? You're not mad that I ruined your chances with that whole hi-catalyst deal?"

"But, yer the one who did that, right?"

"The whole party agreed to keep the hi-catalyst around to sell it for a high price later, right? That includes you too."

As the realization slowly crept in, Henrietta's jaw came agape and let out what sounded like a dying screech of an ancient lich, not that either of them knew what one of those sounded like.

"I... I was just going with the flow at the time," Henrietta's eyes began darting about. "I mean, sure, I might have thought that it wouldn't hurt to have a bit more money on the side, these bundles of fluff don't maintain themselves you know."

That last part was said in a tone akin to a whisper, but Auguste's hearing was sharp enough to have caught it.

"I'm impressed that you pretended that you're not at fault this entire time."

"Well, I wasn't paying that much attention in the first place." Henrietta scratched her cheeks with her stubby finger. "I just caught the part where we're supposed to get a whole lot of money and all that."

Hearing that, Auguste could only sigh.

"You know, this is why no one respects you as the leader."

"It's fine, ain't it? You and Gladiolus are here. I ain't good with that kind of stuff anyways."

Once more, Auguste sighed, this one deeper than the last. It was only upon seeing Auguste's exasperation the second time, did it finally struck her.

"I guess I really am no good with a bunch of stuff, huh," she said, her eyes brows knitted together into a frown. "I did mean to try hard. I really do, but... I'm just no good at what I'm no good at."

"If you give it up that easily, can you really say you've tried?" Auguste retorted, his tone harsher than he expected.

"Yer don't get it! Yer don't at all!" Henrietta snapped back, the harsher than expected tone sparked something unpleasant within her. "I'm not like you, alright! I can't just do things if I try hard! Some things just can't be done! I can't do what I can't do!"

Taken aback by the sudden outburst, Auguste wasn't sure what to say. While he did have a few things on his mind, he didn't think that they were the right thing to say. This was, again, a delicate situation, a continuation of the unfinished business from the day prior.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

In the end, Auguste gave up. Allowing himself to fall sideways onto his bed, he couldn't find a good way to refute what Henrietta had said. In a way, he even agreed with her.

"Yeah. I'm no good what I'm no good at either."

Now it is Henrietta's turn to be taken by surprise. She was expecting a scolding, to be told that she was wrong and that she should try harder, that it's too soon to give up, that if she worked hard then she'll definitely do it. She had expected Auguste to say something along those lines. The irresponsible words that guaranteed nothing.

"You know, about the whole hi-catalyst thing, about selling it, that was just an excuse I came up with after the fact."

"What do you mean?"

"There was a priest? Cleric? Well, there was this woman at the temple, Doris, you remember her, right?"

"Oh yeah, that lady who was friends with Lilia."

"Right, that one." Auguste sat back up as he continued the story. "Initially, I planned on just handing it over to Lilia, seeing as she's one of the Lightbringers and all that, but Doris got me to hang onto it. Said something about how I should carry it since I'm so talentless at magic it doesn't affect me."

"So... you're saying that you're banged up about not being good with magic?"

"No, not in particular. I mean, sure, it was pretty disappointing when I heard it from Lyudmila, but when I was talking with Doris, it was quite the opposite."

"I, uh, I don't get it."

"I, well, when she told me that, I felt a bit special. You know? Like a chosen one." Auguste looked away as he said that, his face burning red.

"So it's like a quest only you can complete kind of thing, right? Yeah, okay, I think I get it a bit."

"But I messed up. I shouldn't have done that. I should have talked with Lilia regardless. We could have worked something out rather than sneaking behind her back."

"So why didn't ya? Now that I think about it, this sounded kinda out of character for you."

"I guess I was afraid that she might have some other ideas. Tell me that I can leave it to her and that I'm not needed and all that."

"I can kinda see her telling ya to leave it her, but I don't think she'll say that yer not needed, not to yer face anyways."

"I'm sure you're right, but... I wanted to do it, you know. Imagine, swooping in at the last second, the hi-catalyst that would change the tide of battle in hand and be all like, 'I was planning to sell it off and get rich, but here, you can have it.' You know, something like that."

"Huh?"

"Hey, why are you looking at me like that? It was- I mean- It's just a little fantasy, alright! Argh, goddamn it! Why'd I have to go and tell you that? I wouldn't tell even if I'm drunk. This god-forsaken Dungeon must be getting to my head."

"Ah, I didn't think you were that kind of person, Gusty."

"Hey don't give me that!? And after I just poured my heart out too! What the shit!"

Henrietta began laughing, exaggeratingly rolling around her bed as she did so.

"I tease, I tease. This is payback for all the other times you ran yer mouth at me. How's that for a taste of yer own medicine?"

In response, Auguste let out a sigh, half of it relief and the other exasperation.

"Well there you have it, that's how I am. It's not pretty, pathetic even, but it's undeniably a part of me. Nothing I can do about it but to live with it the best I can."

"Yeah, me too."

"Hm?"

"I'm pathetic like that too, in case ya hadn't notice."

"Oh, really, I haven't noticed at all. I even forgot the fact that you pissed yourself back when we first met."

It was said in the flattest tone Auguste could manage, and it was flatter than a perfectly leveled floor.

"Arrrgh!!!" Henrietta beat her head into a nearby pillow and released a horrible screech as she took the massive mental damage. "Why!? Why!? WHY!? I managed to forget all about it too!"

"We all have to face our inner darkness. I just did it with mine so now it's your turn."

As he said that, Auguste was struck in the face with a flattened pillow. It flew at him with such force that his head bent backwards and something went snap. In pain, he fell onto the bed with his hand on his neck.

"Aaaaaa..." A crackled cry leaked from his throat as he fell.

"Auguste!? Oi, Auguste! Oh, shit!"

He had pulled a muscle in his neck. The recent stress had made his neck and shoulder so incredibly stiff.

As an apology, Henrietta gave him a message afterward. It hardly helped as she wasn't very good at it.

***

End of Chapter 72