3
The evening sun set beyond the western wall.
Surrounded by the gigantic city wall, Orario’s darkness came early. Runoa had learned that much, having come to this Labyrinth City almost four years ago.
“…She’s changed.”
West Main Street was tinted red. In the middle of a street crowded with adventurers returning from the Dungeon and laborers whose jobs were over for the day, she had stopped and looked over at The Benevolent Mistress. The elf staff girl was reflected in her eyes.
Gale Wind…Her expression is softer now.
She was still awkward at her job. She was still not very good at customer service. But after observing the situation several days ago, Runoa could tell that Gale Wind’s face had changed a bit. Before, she always looked as though she was forcing herself and darkness clouded her face.
Her aura had suggested she’d lost someone important, or maybe lost her path.
But it was different now. She was holding her head high, her dignified figure exuding vitality like a large tree in a forest. A spark of determination had returned to her sky-blue eyes, and she sometimes smiled ever so slightly when her colleagues called out to her.
Ahhh…she found a place she belongs.
As if feeling her gaze, Gale Wind turned toward her.
Exchanging glances through the window, Runoa puller her scarf up over her mouth and started moving with the crowd again, heading away from the tavern.
Betrayed is maybe a bit much, but…maybe, recently, I felt like we were alike.
Walking along Main Street, Runoa noticed that she was jealous of Gale Wind.
“Family, friends, familia…I don’t have any of that.”
Looking up at the twilight sky, she spoke to herself.
Being alone in a crowd of people like this brought back old memories.
—Runoa Faust was born in a certain territory of the empire, far from Orario. Before she was old enough to understand what was happening, she lost her parents in the war that led to the country serving the empire, so she became a street urchin, fending for herself without anyone’s protection. Between theft, fights, and turf wars with other street kids, a day did not go by without some new bruises.
For Runoa at the time, it was obvious to jump at the opportunity to join a familia as soon as she found out about them and the Falna she could be granted. It was just that important to have power. If she could join one, she would not have to worry about the bare necessities like food or shelter. After she had a Status, her physical strength increased to a new level. Runoa’s struggle to survive became significantly easier.
The head god of the familia was a confusing guy. Later she heard that he amused himself with a coup d’état and revolution game. She had never really understood his will and did not enjoy how he used his followers like pawns. Maybe he had loved them, but she did not really understand it.
In the end, it collapsed into infighting, and the familia was destroyed.
—After that, she began drifting from place to place like tumbleweed.
There wasn’t a twilight like this in the imperial territory where I grew up.
For Runoa, such an unfettered life was alluring and exciting. She started collecting bounties in order to earn money for traveling. Whenever she remembered to, she would provisionally join an appropriate familia and have her Status updated. She had already had three conversions. She had never really joined a particular familia.
Outside the city—outside Orario—a difference in Level was absolute. Unlike the Labyrinth City, which boasted the Dungeon, people who could level up were few and far between. The only places that could lay claim to multiple people of Level 3 and higher were famous cities and countries like the Empire or the Great Country of Magic, the handful of world powers. With her talent for fighting, Runoa leveled up quickly and was acknowledged as superior wherever she went—but became isolated.
Her time in her first familia had made her stronger by leaps and bounds. Rough as she was, she provoked animosity and jealousy in her colleagues, so she was not familiar with the concept of comrades. She thought she was fine with that. She took pride in her ability to get by on her own strength. That was why she had decided making friends was unnecessary.
—But I was out of my element here.
Three years ago, she had the opportunity to come to Orario. The Labyrinth City was different from anywhere else in the world she had seen. She did not know how it would look in a few years or a few decades. But Orario at the turning point of the Dark Age was a scary place. Back then, the clash of justice and evil, as well as the powers attempting to use that clash, led to countless formidable forces squaring off around the city known as the Center of the World. So many strong people were fighting like madmen to fulfill their desires and wishes.
Coming to that place by herself, Runoa was swallowed up by the raging waves of the period.
—The first time I thought I might die was probably when I got the contract for Freya Familia .
Once, she had targeted an adventurer belonging to a certain beautiful goddess’s faction, but the tables were turned on her. She ran for her life from four terrifying prums, just barely escaping alive.
For the girl who had boasted of her invincibility outside the city, her first total defeat was only the first shock.
I knew that Orario was dangerous, but I still jumped in. I can’t deny that it was mostly just a carefree desire to test my strength. I never thought they would be so monstrous.
Biting back her humiliation, she started to pick and chose her jobs. She fought and fought, and the struggles never ended. By nature, she hated to lose, and whenever she was wounded, she would scream and flail in frustration. She leveled up a third time. But it was endless. Adventurers stronger than her kept appearing one after the other. She would do in a target and get a large reward, but she still did not feel better.
Before I knew, being alone became tiring.
For the den of demons that was Orario, solitude was a poison that ate away at your body.
It was imperative not to go it alone. She had struggled to get this far, but she was reaching her limit.
Just like the Dungeon that could only be challenged with a party, Orario was merciless to solo wanderers.
“…It’s exhausting, really…”
Looking back on the days leading up to now, Runoa sighed, wallowing in a sentimentality that was unlike her.
Some of it was the light shock at seeing that Gale Wind had found a place she belonged, but the source of it was the exhaustion . She was tired. Tired of being alone.
Thinking along those lines as she walked among the crowds coming and going on Main Street, all of a sudden—
“Oh…Runoa?”
A goddess appeared. She had buoyant, long, honey-colored hair. She was holding a paper bag to her impossibly large breasts, clearly returning from shopping. Her kindly, rounded eyes sparkled with surprise. One of her followers was beside her as protection. Surprised at running into her in this crowd, Runoa whispered her name.
“Demeter…”
“That surprised me, I didn’t think I’d meet you in a place like that.”
“Me, too.”
A room in Demeter Familia ’s home, Wheat Hall, in the north of Orario. There, at Demeter’s invitation, Runoa had taken her top off and was naked from the waist up.
“I had wanted to ask you to check my Status, so it was perfect timing.”
“You only come to see me when you need your blessing renewed. You can come anytime, you know?”
Runoa forced a laugh as Demeter examined at her back with a pout.
Demeter pricked her fingertip with a needle, dripping ichor on Runoa’s back while she sat on a chair. In the blink of an eye, a hieroglyph list appeared, and a new inscription was added.
Runoa had contracted with Demeter. In other words, Demeter Familia was her fifth membership.
“The hall is quiet. How are Persephone and the rest?”
“It’s harvest time, so almost all of the children are in the fields outside the city. The sun’s set, so they’ll be coming back soon, I think.”
It was random chance that Runoa had contracted with Demeter. When she came to Orario hunting bounties, her Status eventually became out of date. While she was looking for a suitable group, she had bumped into Demeter as she had today and asked for help. From Runoa’s perspective, the carefree, gentle-seeming Demeter seemed like a goddess of good character and had been easy to negotiate with.
In particular, Demeter Familia was a commerce-oriented faction, running the farms producing wheat, vegetables, fruits, and the like. She figured that she would not end up in a fight if she was in a non-martial faction, even if she messed up.
“All right, you’re updated.”
“Thank you, Demeter.”
Taking the update report that had been translated into Koine, Runoa started reading it without bothering to cover her chest.
Runoa Faust
LEVEL 4
Strength: B 704 -> 780 Defense: C 660 -> B 722 Dexterity: D 545 -> 577 Agility: D 559 -> 599 Magic: I 0 Punch: H Crush: I Brawler: I
I’ve been neglecting it for a while, but still…it rose a pretty good amount…
She should have been pleased with what was a good amount of growth for a Level 4, but Runoa was tired. She fully understood how monstrous Orario could be, so all she could manage was a sigh to herself. Borrowing a candle, she immediately burned the paper with her secret Status on it and fixed her clothes.
“Runoa. You’re going to have dinner, right?”
“Ah, no, I…”
“I planned a feast today. I’m sure I made too much, so there will be food left over. Will you help me? Persephone also wanted to meet you.”
Intending to turn down Demeter’s kindness, Runoa was overcome by the goddess’s gentle smile. She scratched her cheek as Demeter started the preparations for tea.
Strictly speaking, Runoa was a follower of Demeter, but not a member of her familia. It was just for the purposes of updating her Status—Runoa was free to convert at any time. Runoa had intended to listen to any requests Demeter had in return, but the goddess who ruled over fertility had only smiled cheerfully without asking for anything.
Speaking bluntly, it was a convenient place for Runoa to update her Status.
That had made her feel a little guilty, and she still felt rather bad about it.
“Before we eat—here, pie and cookies. It’s just the leftovers from yesterday, though.”
Dessert before dinner, huh? It must be nice to be a goddess who can’t get fat. Runoa looked suspiciously at Demeter’s always-thin waist and enormous, jiggling chest as she reached out to take the handmade treats: a tomato pie, which replaced apples with vegetables, and wheat cookies. The tomatoes in the pie were as sweet as strawberries, and the wheat in the cookies was mixed with herbs to draw out the sweetness.
“Mmm…delicious. Your food is amazing like always. Have you considered opening a restaurant?”
“No way! If you praise me too much, it’ll go to my head.”
Laughing, Demeter made black tea. Runoa smiled unconsciously at her warmth. She enjoyed this time. The only place in Orario that Runoa could feel like this was here.
“Is your ‘job’ still busy?”
“…Yeah, I have one big job left. But I was thinking this should be my last one. I’m getting a little tired…”
Demeter had never asked what Runoa did. There was no way she should have figured it out. But she would sometimes let her have these calm moments, with those kind eyes as though she were consoling a child.
If it were not for Demeter, Runoa might have collapsed long ago.
“After you stop, what will you do?”
“…”
“Hey, Runoa? If you’re interested…why not raise wheat, vegetables, and fruit with us? It’s rather hard work, but it’s really worthwhile, you know?”
Runoa stared in a daze as Demeter smiled across the table. She had actually considered maybe joining Demeter Familia . Among all the gods she had dealt with up to now, Demeter was the best to work with, and the group members who followed her were friendly. And she felt like a place to return to like this would feel pretty nice.
But Runoa did not do it…
“Thanks, Demeter…but I can’t.”
“Runoa…”
“I just don’t think I can do something like that.”
Runoa held her hand up and stared at the back of it.
“You’ve seen my Status, so you’ve probably figured it out I think, but…I do rough work. I beat people up, spill lots of blood…”
“…”
“My hands…are really dirty.”
Runoa’s alias was Black Fist. The origin of the name was not the gauntlets she used. It was another name used by people in the underworld in fear at the blackish red stains on her fists from tearing flesh, breaking bone, and spilling blood by the gallon. Runoa could see her knuckles tainted with blood, her hands colored black by beating so many people.
“Wheat, vegetables, and fruit…you work hard to nurture them so that people get to eat them, right? They bring joy to so many, too…If my hands got involved…Yeah, they would probably taste bad.”
That was the reason she had kept my distance from Demeter Familia . If other people found out that Black Fist was connected to Demeter and the familia, her reputation might tarnish theirs.
After meeting Demeter, she had not accepted any contracts aimed at the faction the goddess supported, the familias affiliated with the Guild. Though no one else knew that.
Bounty hunters were similar to the mercenaries contributing to the city’s turmoil, so it was natural they would be the targets of animosity.
“I’m sorry, Demeter. I should go. Thank you for the pie and cookies.”
“Runoa, we…”
“It’s okay. Really. I’m going to wash my hands of it after this job.”
Standing up from her chair, she put on a full-spirited smile for the sad-looking Demeter. It hurt Runoa to make her worry. It would probably be best to abandon this last job.
But she would not.
Probably, this would be a ceremony that would allow her to break with her bounty hunter past, her new beginning, and also a means to vent her anger.
She felt a childish resentment toward Gale Wind, who had bathed just as much blood as her but still found a place to belong while Runoa had not.
A self-deprecating smirk crossed her face for an instant before she put on a brave smile for Demeter and left the room.
“And if I’m just gonna be hanging out, I should probably do it with idiots like me instead of you guys.”
The light from the sea of magic-stone lamps shone brighter than the stars above.
It was hard to see the stars at night in sleepless Orario. Chloe had come to understand that since she had come to the Labyrinth City almost four years ago.
“…She’s changed, meow.”
Evening settled on West Main Street.
She was staring down at The Benevolent Mistress from a moonlit roof. She was looking down on the elf employee who had just thrown out an adventurer.
Gale Wind…You’re a different person from just a little while ago, meow.
She had spectacularly tossed an adventurer who had made a pass at one of her coworkers out of the building, and she had received a round of applause. She looked hard to deal with, but the smile she directed at the platinum-haired girl she just helped was like a flower emerging from melted snow.
No…she’s returned to how she was, meow.
As if sensing Chloe’s presence, her sky-blue eyes looked up.
Wearing a hood low over her eyes, Chloe suddenly flipped over like a stray cat. She soundlessly crossed the roof and landed in the shadowy backstreet.
“You found a place you belong, meow?”
She spoke to herself in the empty, dark alley, her cat ears making two little peaks in her hood.
She took Gale Wind’s information sheet out of her breast pocket. The Guild had not released this likeness of the mask-wearing adventurer, and they didn’t know her face. This bounty that had been put out by adventurers and merchants.
Gale Wind had gone too far. She had incurred the wrath of too many people and now had a bounty on her head.
If you can make a face like that then…if you’ve found a place you belong in the daylight, at least be a bit smarter about it , she thought.
She sighed with a heavy heart as she trudged along.
“If you’re going to mature, there are easier ways, meow…”
People could be tenacious about clinging to life. Sometimes that made the job hard to do. She knew that from firsthand experience dating back to just after she was born.
—Chloe Lolo had been a member of a criminal familia that was whispered of in secret all around the continent.
Before she was even given the name Chloe , she had to perform a job in order to join the familia. How to handle poison, how to build resistance to it, how to use a knife—she was taught all of it from birth. With a starting point like that, developing a logical point of view was hopeless from the start. If she took out a target whose name she did not know by pretending to be an innocent little girl, she was praised. If she took poison and just barely survived, writhing in agony, she was praised…Life was probably most pleasant when she did not know anything.
The familia I belonged too, well, they were pretty much garbage.
The deity who established it called it role-playing.
“If there are guys who want dirty jobs done, then there’s no way around it. I’ll wear the mud.” Cheerfully saying such absurdities, the patron deity sowed blood and death through the underworld—garbage presiding over slaughter.
She eventually got fed up with the familia when an assassin who was like an older sister to her—the mother who had given birth to her and watched over her without ever sharing her secret—messed up on a mission and died. Going against the rules of the organization, she had lost her life shielding Chloe.
Learning the truth later, Chloe also discovered how useless tears were. Doubting the organization and rebelling against the rules, she told the founding goddess she wanted to quit. Chloe could still remember her smirk even now.
Thanks to that, Chloe got a convenient, handsome way to update her Status, and Njör?r was not in a position to resist with her holding that over him.
“I can’t update my Status if I’m not like this, meow~.”
Lying down on the soft sofa, she gave the impression of a queen. She was enjoying herself since he had covered the high fee to get into the tavern. The god grimaced as he moved beside her to update her Status.
A secret room with a half-naked god and mostly naked girl.
If a waitress brought the alcohol now, she would unquestionably misunderstand what was going on.
“Because you are such a good, handsome god, I’m letting you see this unladylike figure, meow. My lovely nude body honed for assassination…Does it take your breath away, meow?”
“Take my breath away…? Your chest is flatter than mine.”
“What?! I’m just still developing, meow!”
As an assassin, there were times I also used my feminine wiles. Well, only idiot targets were done in like that, though. Truly wary men were usually on guard.
—Incidentally, when Chloe had been about to do it for real once, she scratched her partner’s face, so she was still a virgin.
“There, it’s done.”
“Grrr…you’ll pay for that, meow.”
Miffed, Chloe took the update sheet and looked at it.
Chloe Lolo
L EVEL 4
Strength: G 267 -> F 301 Defense: G 222 -> 279 Dexterity: B 711 -> 751 Agility: B 737 -> 776 Magic: E 412 -> 455 Immunity: G Synthesis: H Escape: I
It’s been a while, but still…it’s gone up a good amount, meow.
She sighed.
Doing people in without too much effort was supposed to be what assassins did, but her Status continuing to rise was proof of a lot of hard work.
“So? If you got an update, does that mean Black Cat got another troublesome request?”
“Please don’t call me that name, meow. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a blemish on my record, meow.”
Code name aside, having a second name or alias from other people was proof of failure to an assassin. Having a second name made meant that an assassination failed or that someone had seen her. This was all because the adventurers in Orario were too strong…
Being compared to a bounty hunter like Black Fist is a real nuisance , Chloe thought.
“Hey…you’re tired, right?”
“…”
As expected of a god, he had figured her out and seen what she was feeling in her heart. Chloe silently got off the sofa and grabbed the food on the table with her fingers in a show of poor manners.
“In times like this, that’s how it has to be, meow.”
“If you feel like it, why don’t you come to my familia?”
Chloe froze for a second and then tried to cover it with a suggestive smile.
“What’s that? Have you been captivated by my beauty and fallen prey to your desires, meow?”
“Aah, yeah, something like that would fine. If I got my hands on a cute female helper like you, the gods would rejoice.”
Njör?r responded to her teasing with a wry laugh, meeting her eyes with a concerned gaze.
Njör?r is a good god.
He’s handsome, tall, and cares for children. He’s a god of good character.
While knowing the true identity of Black Cat, he had not revealed it to anyone, and while he complained about it, he still put up with her selfish and absurd requests, as if he was trying to give her a brief moment to relax.
After being quiet for a bit, she smiled slightly in a way that was different from before.
“You should stop that, meow. A cat who stopped killing people and reformed to be crazy about fish…it’s kind of ridiculous, meow.”
“…I see.”
That was how she truly felt.
She was honestly happy at his offer, but she could not quite see herself taking it.
“And familia aside…I don’t really understand things like comrades and friends, meow.”
That was also how she really felt.
With no interactions since her first familia, she was a lonely stray cat. She did not know how to go about joining a group.
That’s way harder than killing people , she thought.
“Is there anyone who gets along well from the start? No, it starts with conflict. You shout at each other; you want to punch each other.”
“You gods are always talking about ‘fighting under the sunset’; is that what this is, meow? But as for me, I don’t even know how to do that much, meow…”
Chloe’s bread and butter was deadly fights. Alive or dead were the only options she knew.
She could not face Njör?r, who was kindly gazing at her as he tried to convince her. She suddenly looked up at the ceiling. She said the thought that popped into her head.
“But, you know…if there was someone who could fight me with all their strength, come at me to kill…and still crack jokes with me…it would be nice to be that carefree, meow.”
They held many feelings in their hearts.
However, they would soon encounter each other.
“When are you going to do in Gale Wind? Think about how many days have passed since you took the contract.”
“You’re annoying. I got it already.”
The client had called Runoa out to pester her. Glaring back at him in the tavern on the outskirts of the outskirts, she laid out her plan.
“Let me be clear: I’m washing my hands of everything after this job. I want a promise from you guys at the Bruno Corporation to not get involved with me again after this.”
“…Thinking you can return to an honest life after all this?”
“I don’t know anything. But if I don’t make a start, nothing will happen.”
She responded clearly as the human from the corporation scowled.
“Don’t worry, I’ll do the job. Just wait and I’ll finish her, like I always do.”
Adjusting her scarf, she announced with a piercing gaze:
“Tomorrow night—that’s when it starts.”
“Black Fist is targeting Gale Wind, it seems! She even said she would do it tomorrow! What should we do?”
“Mmm~, this is bad timing.”
In a forgotten belfry, a concerned client’s voice echoed. Chloe had been called out here; she used her business tone and slowly replied.
“Competing for prey…These times are really exhausting.”
“What are you saying so casually? If we don’t get her quickly, they’ll get there first!”
The dwarf’s voice came at her from both sides as the hood she wore low over her eyes shook. Chloe understood why she was so tired. It was because Orario was stagnating in darkness. After experiencing so much darkness, she knew that it had borne more swirling malice, more chaos than any other country or city she had seen before.
“…But even that is done.”
By none other than Gale Wind’s hand. Orario had been reborn. Chloe felt that.
“Who’d have thought I’d get stuck taking out Gale Wind…? What an unpleasant job.”
“O-oh?”
“Relax. A job’s a job, and I already took the prepayment, so I won’t ditch the contract.”
While the client lost his composure as though he were seriously getting scared, she reminded him that she was a professional.
The existence of Gale Wind was a breeding ground for future troubles.
People who resented her would probably come at her with malicious intent some point. So her disappearing now was for the sake of the future.
Arming herself with that pretext, Chloe steeled her resolve.
“Tomorrow night, I’ll do her in.”
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