Violet knew there were people in her dungeon. She even knew that they were nearly to her dungeon core room now. However, she just couldn't be bothered to go and greet Theodore, especially knowing that he had brought David with him. Two others were with them. They were labeled as Dungeon Diplomats by her [Guest List] skill, but that only made her feel more anxious. She hadn't been given any advanced warning, so she had to assume something was wrong.

Was her dungeon core going to be destroyed today? Had Theodore felt it necessary to bring back-up to ensure she couldn't put up a fight and prevent anything from happening? The fact that David was with them just felt like that much more of a betrayal. She thought she could trust him, that Theodore actually cared for her. Yet, if he had been swayed by David to take action against her, then that clearly wasn't the case.

This had, of course, led to even more confusion once their group finally made it to the dungeon core room. A rather large man, who looked just as much beast as man, set a tied-up David down on the floor rather roughly before kicking him. Where Violet had been ready to submit to the fate she thought was awaiting her, thinking she didn't stand a chance of resisting, she now just felt confused.

"Greetings, Madam Violet. Or would you prefer if I called you just Violet? Theodore here has told me that might be the case, but I'd prefer to get your permission before making any assumptions. I'd hate to be rude, after all. I am Kendric and this is my subordinate, Beowulf. I do apologize if our visit has caught you off guard."

Violet couldn't help but relax as she heard Elder Kendric speak. He spoke slowly, as if he was a wise old man, but he also had quite a bit of youthfulness to the way he spoke, which was reinforced by his rather young look. If Violet had to compare him to someone, she'd have to say he looked to be, roughly, David's age. His hair had streaks of gray in it, but his face was still free from wrinkles. There wasn't even a single scar or stubble to subtract from his youthfulness, making his entire persona seem at odds with itself.

Rolling her shoulders back, she took a calming breath, trying to center herself. Then she answered

"Yes, well, Theodore is certainly the only one willing to respect my wishes, usually. I do prefer not to be referred to with such fancy titles, but I can't even get my own dungeon [Monsters] to skip the formalities, so it's whatever.

More importantly, can I ask why you're here? I, kind of, assumed that you were here because I did something wrong."

Elder Kendric looked at Violet with concern, only stopping for a moment to taste the air, before responding

"Did Theodore say something to you to make you think you were in trouble? I assume you haven't actually done anything we should know about. You certainly seem quite nervous, my dear. Shall I take a look at your dungeon core while Theodore explains things to you?"

Violet stepped out of the man's way, gesturing towards the dungeon core in acceptance. She felt a bit uncomfortable being surrounded by so many men, so she could only try to make herself feel more at home by keeping her focus on Theodore, the only one she was actually familiar with.

Theodore smiled warmly at Violet, offering her a hug in greeting, before explaining

"I do apologize for taking so long to return. It took a while to finish up the recent investigation we've been doing. I know I probably should have taken the time to inform you we would be visiting today, but I didn't want to raise suspicions more than necessary."

Violet looked warily at David as she replied

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"A bit late for that, I should think. I'm pretty sure David caught on to the fact that your investigation was related to my dungeon a few days ago."

Theodore pursed his lips, looking a bit angry as he asked

"Did something happen last night? Your pixies seemed a bit worried about you. Besides which, you still seem tense."

Elder Kendric was quick to add in

"The dungeon core seems to have undergone quite a bit of stress recently as well. It's nothing too serious since we're here to resolve things now, but I'd hate to see the result had we waited any longer. No recent deaths, besides your slimes, in the dungeon, though, so I guess you haven't had many visitors to the second floor. That should change soon enough, though, I'm sure."

Theodore looked up at his senior a bit exasperatedly. Violet wasn't really sure what that was about. While Kendric wasn't exactly as friendly, nor did he praise her as freely as Theodore did, he wasn't exactly being unkind. Violet still felt a bit uncomfortable around Beowulf who looked quite scary as he towered over everyone present and didn't seem particularly happy, but she was otherwise warming up to her visitors. Looking warily back down at David, she decided to just be honest. They were supposed to be here to help her renegotiate a contract with David anyway, right?

"Well, it's just that David has been rather passive-aggressive most of the winter season. I've tried to be as understanding as I can about things and help him out as much as I'm comfortable with. However, he hasn't exactly been willing to reciprocate and has been anything from passive-aggressive to violent towards me. He started bringing me better tributes than just random rocks and twigs after the last time you visited. It's mostly been random trash like rusted helmets and such, but I don't mind that so much. As I've said before, I wouldn't mind if people brought me literal trash since it would still give me resources to improve the dungeon.

I don't think he has really broken the contract we initially made regarding his training either. He shows up every day to train me and he hasn't killed me or anything like that. However, he was a bit more violent than usual last night. I had to wash the blood off my arms and it took a bit to heal everything as well. Besides which, when I said I was done training, he continued to lash out at me, as if he wanted to kill me. To be honest, I was planning on hiding in here and making him come to me. I know it likely wouldn't work to keep him away since he'd still have to follow his end of the contract, but I didn't have any other ideas.

I don't exactly have very deadly [Traps] unlocked right now and I wouldn't want to make changes to the dungeon just because of him. I want other adventurers to visit the dungeon, so it's important to me that I gradually increase the danger level of the floors. As it is, I'm sure you've seen I have a deep pitfall [Traps] in the hallway. Even the [Monster] fields with the rabbits have briar patches, even if they are easy enough to avoid."

Beowulf seemed to almost foam at the mouth and he looked so angry. Violet was sure that if he had been holding anything in his hands it would have been destroyed now. His fists were balled so tight she could see blood dripping down from the way his nails were digging into the flesh. Theodore didn't look much better, but he seemed more so defeated, as if he had failed her. Only Elder Kendric seemed to still be calm, but he still looked at Violet with a mixture of pity and curiosity. As the only calm one in the room, Kendric stepped forward and said

"Alright, well, we can fix the contract for you, not to worry. Now, while I'm sure Theodore was bonded to your dungeon for a reason, I would like to ask, do you want to request someone else? It'll take some time and be a bit painful to break the connection so that someone else can be assigned to your dungeon, but it isn't impossible."

Violet couldn't help but feel repulsed by the idea. She vehemently shook her head, gesturing wildly, as she replied

"No, no, no, no, no! I like Theodore and I don't blame him for this at all. He always considers my opinion when it comes to decisions like this and I don't want him to suffer. Besides, I don't exactly have very many friends and I've enjoyed his visits. While I'm sure someone else could also do his job, I don't want anyone else."

Violet flinches as she finishes speaking. She sure hoped this wasn't one of those situations where having a good relationship was considered a problem. However, that wasn't something she needed to worry about as Theodore was smiling at her in gratitude when she looked his way. Kendric's response was also quite positive as he replied

"Ah, that's high praise. Theodore really is lucky to have been given such an opportunity. Very well, that'll make things simpler. Right, well, shall we get started on amending the contract then?"