After Theodore and the rest left, Violet decided to get to work. It was a relief knowing that she would no longer have to worry about David, but it had come at a cost. Now that he was gone, there was less of a guarantee she'd have enough mana and dungeon points coming in to freely build. She still had Camellia and Avorn she could depend on, but they were only one group and they couldn't be depended on for everything. Thus, she no longer felt as free to let her mana and dungeon points go to waste. She'd need to spend her mana in a timely fashion and conserve her DP as much as possible.
Taking her full 100 MP, Violet headed to the flower hunt room. It was the only room that didn't have [Monsters] assigned to it on the second floor, nor did it lock its doors when non-dungeon entities entered it. That was something that she was starting to question now, though. David had been with Theodore's group yet they had made good time traversing her dungeon, suggesting the dungeon rooms weren't locked for them. Well, hopefully, Theodore would never purposefully allow other adventurers to use this weakness against her. It certainly didn't seem very responsible of him if he let someone follow him and skip past all of her dungeon defenses, anyway.
Finally arriving in the room she wanted, she went to summon two new pixies. After the incident with Aster and Hawthorn, she knew that it was entirely possible she wouldn't end up leaving the pixies she summoned in this room. However, there was no way of knowing what she would get until after her mana was spent. She would just have to roll the dice and see what she would get.
"Good afternoon-"
The first male pixie was cut off abruptly by the second
"Wait! No! Send me back! You have to send me back!"
Violet was a bit surprised by the fact that she had managed to summon two male pixies this time. Most of the ones she had summoned, thus far, had been overwhelmingly female at a rate of three girls for every one male pixie. She had almost been convinced that male pixies were rare for their species. A bit too caught up in her own thoughts, Violet seemed almost oblivious as she stared blankly at the pixies in front of her. It wasn't until the first pixie snapped at the second that she came back into focus.
"Would you stop that?! You're acting ridiculous! You shouldn't have signed up to join a dungeon if you weren't prepared to actually join one. Most of the people in my village would happily take your place in a heartbeat!"
Violet raised her eyebrows questioningly at the first pixie, just now taking note of how distraught the second male seemed. Feeling a bit unsure of herself, she said.
"Look, I apologize, but I must have missed your names. However, that doesn't matter right now, we can get to that later. Why don't you go over there and give the two of us some space to talk?"
She gestured to a random corner of the room and the more calm, if a bit annoyed, pixie was quick to follow her orders. Looking back to the distraught male pixie, she sighed. Violet wasn't exactly the right size to comfort the man, but she definitely didn't want to just dismiss him without getting some answers. Scratching her face as she felt her anxiety increase, she asked
"Could you, perhaps, explain why you want to return to your village? I'd rather see if we can't find a different solution rather than resorting to such a thing, if at all possible."
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Violet couldn't really understand what was happening, but she definitely wanted her [Monsters] to all feel at home. She would happily change the temperature of a room or decorate it to look more like their previous residence, if she could. If it was a matter of needing more purpose, she would happily try to design a new puzzle with them in mind. No matter what it was, she was happy to take action, but it would most certainly have to wait until later that night when Camellia and Avorn arrived. It wasn't like she was going to regenerate mana without people actually being in the dungeon, after all.
The male pixie sounded like he was having a panic attack as he explained
"It's my wife and daughter, they're still back in my village. It isn't safe there, they could die without me!"
Violet felt herself beginning to panic as the pixie's words sunk in. However, this wasn't something she could take immediate action on. The small creature continued to speak
"I knew there was the chance that we could end up separated when we signed up for a dungeon contract. However, I had consoled myself that I could live with it so long as my wife and daughter were safe. I never thought I would be summoned first, I wasn't even the first of us to sign up for the program!"
Violet wasn't really sure how signing a contract with [Monsters] from outside the dungeon worked. Up until now, she had just ended up with complete strangers or pairs of pixies who knew each other and she hadn't questioned it. Cedar and Lily were husband and wife, as were Hawthorn and Aster. There were even the twins, Iris and Orchid, who had been summoned at the same time. Since things had never gone like this before, she had never had to worry about whether families could become separated or not. Now she was starting to worry that she was harming those in her dungeon and whether she really should just send the man back.
"I'm sorry, I don't really know what to say. Could you maybe tell me more about what's going on in your village? Are your wife and child actively in danger?"
The man seemed to calm down a bit, feeling a bit uncertain as he answered
"Well, I suppose so. My village used to be part of a more swampy area with an Elven village a decent distance away. Over the decades, the swamp dried up and the Elven village grew. However, in more recent years, we've had issues with Humans entering the forest. Now, it seems, the Elves and Humans in the area have gone to war with one another. Sometimes the Humans set the forest on fire or they chop down the trees to use them for their own needs. We never had any issues with the Elves because they have a lot of respect for the forest and those that call it home. They even killed off the more troublesome beasts and [Monsters] like the goblins or a rabid wolf, so we ended up benefitting from them.
Shortly before I was summoned here, one of our village scouts reported a fire and our village was planning to evacuate. I don't know what is going to happen to everyone else, but I know I can't just leave my family's lives up to chance. Without me, I'm not sure they'll be able to flee fast enough and they most certainly won't be able to bring enough supplies with them. That's why I need you to send me back."
Violet nodded in understanding as she listened to the pixie speak. She still wasn't sure what his name was, but she was glad he was willing to explain things to her. It wasn't really clear whether her pixies were all from the same kingdom her dungeon resided in or anything else. The way they talked about it, none of the pixies knew much about the world at large. They were all very isolated in their villages and only ever really learned about other pixie groups if they joined a dungeon, something they weren't guaranteed to come back from alive. Sighing, Violet made her decision.
"Alright, well, I hate to ask this of you when I don't even know your name. However, I'm going to need you to wait until tomorrow morning before I make any official decisions on whether to send you back home or not. I have a lot more free mana at night and I'd like to try summoning more pixies to see if I can get lucky enough to bring your wife and child here as well. I don't make any guarantees, but it's the best I can do."
Violet felt nervous, even as she said the words. If the man ended up never seeing his family again, something she certainly had no way of knowing about, she was fairly sure he wouldn't forgive her.