CHAPTER 4 THE SKIRMISH ON DAEDALUS STREET: BEHIND THE SCENES
Loki Familia moved their camp to the central area of Daedalus Street.
This area of the Labyrinth District was a jungle of towers and tall buildings. The stairs and narrow paths were jumbled together in such a chaotic mess that someone observing the city from up above wouldn’t be able to see the ground. Finn set up his headquarters on the roof of a large building that resembled an old fortress. Its roof was wide, and it was possible to look out over all of Daedalus Street from it.
Directly beneath them, just on the other side of the ground, lay Knossos. The familia members were in position to defend access to Daedalus’s legacy.
“Captain, Hestia Familia is on the move.”
“I see…Notify everyone. It won’t take long for things to start happening. Have the squads deploy according to the plan.”
“Yes, sir!” replied Anakity, serving as Finn’s aide for the operation, after she brought him the report.
When he gave her his orders, the catgirl dashed off, straining her voice as she conveyed them to the members deployed nearby.
According to Cruz’s surveillance report, Bell Cranell and his familia went outside to buy equipment and items…He didn’t have direct contact with anyone, but he’s gotta be moving in accordance with orders from the monster side.
The armed monsters had a commander. From Gareth’s report, Finn suspected that this person wasn’t a tamer but a mage. And the hunk of metal—the golem—that Tiona had destroyed wasn’t a monster but a magic item, as unbelievable as that might sound.
Finn had never heard of an automaton capable of engaging in combat by itself. An incredibly advanced mage had to be supporting the monsters. It must be one of Ouranos’s secret pawns—someone selected from his personal forces, presumably.
A magic item would work or even a written note, if he considered going back to the basics an option. Finn guessed that the armed monsters in the city’s sewers and Hestia Familia were communicating and coordinating somehow. Also, the monsters had probably already concealed themselves in Daedalus Street.
“Finn.” Aiz alone came to him, while the members of the familia started to head out en masse after taking a break.
“If he comes to Daedalus Street…I’ll watch him.”
Finn froze in place and looked back at her. Aiz was asking for the role of monitoring Bell Cranell.
Was it an obsession? Or lingering feelings of attachment?
“Really?…Can you do it? Aiz, you’ve supported Bell Cranell in too many situations. If I’m being honest, I’m afraid you’d purposely lose sight of him,” Finn frankly informed Aiz.
In her heart, Aiz felt turbulent, though she didn’t let it peek out of her usual expression.
“I’ll be frank with you, Aiz. Objectively speaking, Bell Cranell is a destabilizing force in Orario right now. He’s a risk. Given that, we need to do two things. First, be hypervigilant. Second, stop him from acting if need be.”
“…”
“Can you really do that?”
Aiz looked down before meeting Finn’s eyes again and nodding.
“If he tries anything…I’ll stop him. If someone has to stop him, I want it to be me.”
“…”
“And if a monster shows up…I will take it down.”
In her declaration, Finn could hear both an obligation to her duty and her personal desire. He could guess from her resolute expression that something had happened between her and Bell.
In his eyes, she appeared to display a clear sense of responsibility.
“Got it. I’ll leave Bell Cranell to you.”
“Thank you…Finn.”
Finn had approved Aiz’s request upon evaluating her.
As Aiz turned and left, Finn watched her get farther and farther from him before lifting up his head.
“…The rain’s stopped.”
It’d started yesterday and finally gone away. The outline of the clouds in the sky was visible as the moonlight dimly seeped through.
Night had arrived.
Its dark-blue shroud settled over Orario.
The clouds parted after covering the sky for a long time, unveiling a sea of stars.
The sky peered over the giant Labyrinth District. Somewhere in the fray, a single shadow scaled a building in secret. Belying its large body, it leaped lithely onto a roof.
As if steeling itself, it paused for a second before looking up at the moon like an animal.
“OOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo?……”
The howl of a monster reverberated through the dark night.
Its long and rumbling roar resounded all through Daedalus Street, making it out to the edges of the city.
In unison, all the adventurers looked up. The residents became scared. Everyone within earshot froze, knowing the time had come.
“AAAaaaaaaa?…”
Next, a high-pitched voice resembling a girl’s cry pierced through the sky.
The monsters exchanged cries that echoed across the sky, yowling something incomprehensible to the humans and the gods.
“What’s that?!”
“The damn monsters have come!”
Many of the adventurers in the Labyrinth District began to yell.
“It’s starting.”
A goddess with vermilion hair stopped and scanned the area from high ground.
“Filvis, follow Loki Familia’s movements.”
“Yes, Dionysus.”
The god with blond locks instructed his elf attendant as he watched over the battle—their opportunity for the taking.
“Captain!”
“…”
And ignoring the sudden movements of his fellow familia members, the prum hero glared at the darkness below as it roamed the ground as it pleased.
The monsters’ shouts were a declaration.
The curtain opened quietly. The battle had begun.
The fight with the enemy started in the southern sector.
“I—I think they’re coming out?!”
“A monster! In the alley!”
A single al-miraj had appeared, wearing a blue battle jacket too large for its body and a broken pocket watch hanging around its neck. It matched the armed monster Loki Familia had fought before. It started running around the backstreets in the southern area of the Labyrinth District.
The adventurers roared, rushing to the identified prey.
“An al-miraj!”
“Over there! Follow it!”
Ignoring the intense clamor reaching her ears, Aiz stuck to her original task.
There’s no need to falter. I’m watching him.
On the roof of a building, Aiz was keeping an eye on Bell Cranell in the streets below her. From the moment he’d arrived on Daedalus Street, Aiz had been marking him. She’d been maintaining a distance that would allow her to subdue him at a moment’s notice if he made any suspicious moves or contacted any monsters.
Bell glanced with distress up at Aiz, letting go of the hand of the half-elf Guild member at his side and sprinting.
The game of tag began.
“Go! Don’t lose sight of him!”
The more perceptive adventurers hadn’t fallen for the distraction—the appearance of an al-miraj—and had chosen to follow Bell Cranell. As she dashed along the rooftops, Aiz could see upper-class adventurers who seemed powerful.
Bell ran to the district’s southeast area without slowing down. With Aiz’s eyes glued to his back, he raced through the streets before suddenly flipping directions. When he ran into a curve in the road, out of sight for a split second, the boy disappeared without a trace.
“?!”
“Where’d Little Rookie go?!”
The adventurers’ confused shouts came at the same time as Aiz’s surprise.
Bell had literally disappeared, leaving the others dumbfounded and locked in place. Even Aiz paused for a second.
The opening chords of chaos rang out in the next moment.
“He’s here! Little Rookie’s here! He went in that house!”
“You’re wrong—he’s here! He went up the street!”
“What?!”
“I-it’s a monster! A monster came out!”
Confusion reigned over the conflicting shouts coming from adventurers searching for their target—not just reports of monsters but also reports of Bell Cranell in entirely different locations. Of course, all of them were false. Everyone was losing track of the monsters and the boy.
In the blink of an eye, their surroundings had become anarchy.
“Did he disappear?” Aiz calmly scanned the area, ignoring the bewildered cries of others.
No, he’s here. And she quickly found his presence.
It didn’t matter if he tried to erase his scent and disappear; his faint footsteps and other traces would never escape the perceptive powers of a first-tier adventurer.
He’s gone invisible! Is this chaos part of his plan, too?
With her wealth of experience, the Sword Princess knew how to follow the boy’s tracks, leaving the other adventurers behind.
Was the turbulent situation created by a spell or a magic item? Either way, they would outwit her if she let her guard down. Aiz discarded her haughty belief that Bell Cranell and Hestia Familia were a lower tier than she was.
As a lone hunter, she continued to track down the boy.
“Sword Princess.”
“!”
Someone was blocking her path.
Someone in tall boots and a long cape with a hood. An adventurer hiding their face behind a mask. The person before Aiz drew a wooden sword worn at their waist.
“I challenge you to a game.”
Aiz gazed in wonder. “Now?…Here?”
“I’m a creature of the shadows. I can cross blades with you in these types of situations.”
There were more than a few people who’d pursued the path of the sword and challenged the renowned Sword Princess to a match. But the commanding voice of the challenger didn’t seem to be hiding a lie.
But could this timing truly be a coincidence?
Is this one of Bell’s…comrades?
In other words, an impediment.
As she reached her hand to her sword belt, Aiz glanced in the direction of the boy’s presence as it continued to move away from her.
“I’m afraid I can’t accept no for an answer.” The masked adventurer charged, swinging their sword.
This person’s fast!
Their wooden sword matched the speed of a first-tier adventurer’s, forcing Aiz to draw her sword. A sharp sound rang out as their weapons clashed. The anonymous adventurer put significant force into it, sending them both tumbling from the roof to the alley below.
Aiz gave up on Bell and confronted the masked adventurer.
“Word is that an al-miraj showed up to the south! And there have been multiple monster sightings in the southeast, too!”
“False information is getting mixed in…The area is becoming chaotic!”
The progression of the battle was reported in detail at Loki Familia’s encampment. They were relying mostly on magic-stone semaphores to communicate. Members standing by on the roofs of buildings flashed their lamps, sending messages to the main base in the center of Daedalus Street.
“Don’t break formation! Make sure everyone maintains their positions!”
Anakity strained her voice, responding to the familia members receiving the signals.
She tried her best to not disturb the prum leader as he imagined a board and pieces moving around it in different combinations, deftly handing out orders as his second-in-command.
It’s not just Bell Cranell but all of Hestia Familia who have gotten away from their watchers. Even their goddess. Did they use a magic item or just their knowledge of Daedalus Street? Either way, the enemy is moving freely right now.
Finn had lost the initiative.
From the start, his two-front plan meant that Loki Familia had no breathing room, forcing them into a position where they needed to analyze the enemy’s movements and respond almost immediately.
The monsters are using Bell Cranell as a lure, as I expected…but we’ve brought in Aiz. How will they respond?
Aiz’s request had been a stroke of luck. He could neutralize the enemy’s tricks with a single stroke using the strongest piece on his side. The enemy would be forced to make a move. But first, he would find out exactly how good they were.
“Bell Cranell was in the southeast! And, ummm, Aiz has lost track of him…”
“As I said before, Bell Cranell is a diversion. Leave him to Aiz and forget about it. We don’t need to do anything in the south or the southeast yet.”
The report that he’d slipped past Aiz shocked the familia members at the base camp, including Anakity. Finn was surprised but suppressed his emotions and fired off more instructions.
“I think something suspicious is brewing in the west. Elfie, tell Tione and the others in the northwest to move to the ninety-eighth block and take up positions there.”
When they saw their captain was unperturbed, the others were able to keep their composure and replied, ““Yes, sir!””
Loki Familia wasn’t shaken by the enemy’s diversion. They continued to maintain their impenetrable defensive stance around Knossos’s entrances.
Something must have forced Aiz to stop. An ambush? The enemy’s forces are greater than I expected, but…it’ll be fine. Aiz will break out soon.
Placing the shaft of his long spear against his shoulder, Finn meditated.
It bothers me more that our scouts and lookouts haven’t been able to pick up on any of them. Did they see through our plan?…No, it feels more cunning than that.
The enemy was surpassing his expectations. Could they be using a magic item?
As he thought about the presence of something he hadn’t predicted, he asked a question to a nearby familia member.
“Any reports on the black minotaur?”
“Nothing yet.”
“I see…Maintain the formation. Let’s watch how it unfolds.” Finn stayed in the same stance as he continued watching over the battlefield.
And at the same time, he devoted another part of his mind to a different plan. His thoughts never stopped.
We’re still fine. Everything is still within expected bounds. The problem is—
over there. Finn grimaced.
“Violas are coming!” A shout echoed in a hidden passage beneath Daedalus Street.
The adventurers took their positions, faces tense as tall yellow-green figures approached.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The monsters howled as Loki Familia’s members prepared to fight. They were large-scale monsters, even though they were constrained by the width of the underground passage. There were three—four of them. And more kept coming.
The adventurers were outnumbered against the mass of flailing tentacles and disgusting jaws.
“Which door is open?!” Gareth boomed.
“Southwest! A swarm of monsters is flowing out of Knossos! They just keep coming!” a familia member yelled back in response.
They’d been hit in the length of a single moment. The adventurers had been waiting on standby in the underground passage, redirecting their focus to the report of an al-miraj for a second—when the door to Knossos had swung open without any warning, unleashing a revolting stream of violas.
Unable to hold their ground against the surprise attack, the members had been forced to pull back temporarily.
“The flow of monsters isn’t stopping, which means the door is still open! We can force our way in…!”
“Stop! It’s a trap! After we enter the Dungeon, we’ll be trapped right where they want us and slowly ground down! That’s what they’re hoping for, since the monsters are all that’s come out. There hasn’t been a single one of the remnants!” Gareth rejected the familia member’s impatient plea.
If a single tamer or creature controlling the monsters had emerged aboveground, there would be a target to capture. But all that came out was monsters. They couldn’t noticeably deplete the enemy’s fighting forces, let alone get their hands on a key.
Considering the tide of monsters, the goal of the enemy was clearly harassment—a war of attrition.
“Between a rock and a hard place, huh?! Finn, you mule’s arse! Choose easier plans next time!” Gareth cursed, grinning odiously as he swung his ax.
“Lady Riveria, monster reinforcements are coming!”
Meanwhile, Riveria’s elf squad was exposed to attack, protecting the southeastern side. Her second-in-command, Alicia, manipulated her short bow and magic as impatience started to show through in her graceful features.
“This isn’t the time to fall for the enemy’s machinations. At this rate, even if we lure out the Evils, we can’t do anything here…!”
“Endure it. Don’t become agitated, Alicia. It will spread to the other elves. Maintain the spirit of the great tree as you fight!”
Riveria was standing on the front lines, Concurrent Casting and acting as a lure for the monsters while the elves bathed the whole passage in a volley of magic. But it wasn’t long before more monsters appeared. Unlike the skirmish aboveground, the tunnel had already transformed into a fierce battle scene.
Closing an eye, Riveria finished chanting and unleashed an ice cannon.
“Loki Familia…fools.”
A purple robe swayed on the other side of the orichalcum door.
A masked person commanding a swarm of violas and vargs scoffed at Loki Familia with an ominous voice. It sounded as though several different voices were overlapping. Holding out their hands encased in metal gloves, they sent another swarm of monsters toward the adventurers.
“Excellent work.” Thanatos smiled deep inside Knossos.
They were in a large hall inside the labyrinth, the base of the Evils. There was a pedestal holding a large crimson orb in the center of the room. Using that, it was possible to freely manipulate the doors in Knossos. With that special trait, it was called “the room of the labyrinth master” by the members of the remnants.
As he listened to the reports regarding Loki Familia brought in by his followers, a thin smile spread across the face of the god who ruled over death.
“Ikelos’s screwup was certainly outside my calculations, but…I see what you’re planning. You intend to use the key of the talking monsters as bait to lure us out, right?”
The long, deep purple locks of the god swayed, giving off a degenerate atmosphere as he crossed his legs atop the pedestal.
“We’re just going to keep spitting out monsters. You can self-destruct as you please. An easy job. Even someone with no knowledge of battle can do this.”
Thanatos had seen through Finn’s plan. And in doing so, he’d recognized that it put a large burden on Loki Familia. As he said, Thanatos only needed to unleash a stream of monsters to harass them. With that alone, the members of Loki Familia in the underground passage would incur losses. Meanwhile, on the side of the Evils, they wouldn’t suffer any lasting damage, no matter how many of the dispatched monsters were defeated.
Thanks to the help of the creatures, there were countless vividly colored monsters in Knossos.
“Keep the monsters flowing!”
“Ha-ha!” Thanatos’s lazy voice broke into a resounding laugh, as if he might break out into song at any moment.
The followers of the God of Death dashed off in response.
“Barca, I’m counting on you, too.”
“…This is a waste of time. But it’s also an effort that cannot be spared.”
At Thanatos’s side stood Barca, a descendant of Daedalus, manipulating the crimson orb in front of him on the pedestal.
His left eye was hidden by his white bangs and had long forgotten the light of day, but it shone with the light of D, opening the labyrinth’s inner walls, unlocking doors to release the violas inside. Opening and closing doors in succession, Barca led the monsters out of the labyrinth.
“Loki Familia won’t be able to handle it in this situation…And while they’re reeling from their losses, our forces can retrieve the key.”
Thanatos had already readied his countermeasures for dealing with the armed monsters. He looked up at the ceiling enclosed with stone, grinning in the direction of the enemy base aboveground.
“Being caught between a rock and a hard place is rough, isn’t it, Braver?”
For Loki Familia, the difficult situation persisted.
For Thanatos Familia, the comedy continued.
Thanatos laughed like a child.
While the intense battle was unfolding in the underground passage, the uproar on the surface was just starting to pick up speed.
“Wow…the captain is incredible. The battle has begun, just as he predicted,” murmured Raul, who was charged with one part of the formation.
Raul Nord was a second-tier adventurer.
His status as a Level 4 was proof enough that he was strong, but there was an impression among the others that his personality was lacking. From Finn on down, Raul was plainly daunted by the first-tier adventurers who were among the best in the city. He was the spitting image of a normal person who lacked self-confidence. Unlike most adventurers who often got carried away with themselves, he had unusually low self-esteem, which was why he was seen as an ordinary person.
Which meant there were times when enemies facing off against Loki Familia saw him as a weak link.
“—Raul!”
“Um, uh…Captain?!” Raul responded in a wild voice, swinging around.
Finn was running toward him, even though he should have been at the central base. Raul was leading the squad to the Labyrinth District’s west, which was part of the defensive line connecting to the central area. He was confused why Finn would come all the way out to their position.
“Wh-why are you here?! Who’s giving orders…?”
“The main monster force has arrived in the southeast! And the black minotaur! Meet Aiz there and crush them! Tell your unit—we’re changing formation! I’ll join you there!”
“Y-yes, sir?!” Raul instinctively snapped to attention at his commanding tone and the words black minotaur. He didn’t doubt the prum in the slightest.
“Also, Raul, do you remember our positions in Knossos?”
“Uh, the one underground? I remember, but—”
“Tell me what they are. Something has been bothering me.”
Raul was totally confused as he responded, “Uh, Gareth and his group should be guarding the four doors—northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast…”
“I see…Well then, I’ll head out first. Gather everyone in this area and come to the southeast.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Raul started moving without hesitation upon receiving orders from the great captain himself. He informed everyone to change formation, accepting Finn’s intention to prioritize subduing the black minotaur.
Huh? But what happened to Captain’s spear…?
Raul didn’t notice.
He couldn’t realize that as he turned and ran off, Finn’s lips curled into a cold smile.
“—Raul?” Finn noticed the change in formation immediately.
The western squad was moving south.
The flickering phosphorescence of the semaphore seemed almost agitated by the unexpected movement.
“Th-the western troops are shifting southward! Raul said they’re going to encircle the pack of monsters there!”
“We haven’t gotten any reports of that! The captain hasn’t given any orders, either. What are you doing moving on your own?!”
“B-but, uh…Raul said the captain came directly to him and gave him the order…”
“What?!” Anakity responded in a fluster when she received the report from the messenger, looking back and forth between Finn and the cityscape below her.
The main camp filled with a sudden unease, but Finn alone had a sense of déjà vu.
That’s it…This is like the War Game between Hestia Familia and Apollo Familia.
He was thinking about the war two months ago between factions that made the name Little Rookie resound throughout the city. In that fight, a single prum betrayed Apollo Familia and brought victory to Hestia Familia.
If that wasn’t an actual betrayal but a disguise…No, a transformation—
“So that’s what happened…”
“Captain?”
Disregarding Anakity looking at him in curiosity, a single prum came to Finn’s mind.
It’s her, isn’t it?
The truth was that there was a fellow prum who had caught Finn’s eye ever since Bell had impressed him during the minotaur incident. It was the girl who’d sought out help for the boy’s sake even at the risk of her own life, a girl whose bravery Finn had acknowledged.
Finn guessed it was the work of the girl who had the keenest mind in all of Hestia Familia. With the use of a magic item or spell, she’d beaten both Raul and Finn. It was a failure on Finn’s part for being on guard only against Bell Cranell.
“Draw the squad back. Fill the hole from the north with Narfi’s…No, that won’t work. Too slow.”
Finn was about to tell another squad to fill the hole, but he shook his head before he could finish the order.
Immediately after—clang, clang, clang!
As if affirming his resignation, the warning bells of monster sightings in the west started ringing.
“C-Captain! A large group of monsters suddenly appeared from the west. They’ve breached the gap where Raul’s troops were earlier and are heading for the central area!”
“I know. Calm down. I’m guessing Tione’s unit noticed what’s happening, but I want you to call them back. We’ll pincer the enemy using the remaining garrison forces.”
Agitation raced through the base, but the sight of Finn’s resolute leadership kept his allies from panicking. As they regained their composure, they started carrying out the things they needed to do.
“What route is the enemy taking? What part of Knossos are they headed for?”
“Uh…straight ahead! They’re moving straight east from their point in the west!”
“—Straight ahead? Meaning toward the west of Knossos?”
For the first time, Finn’s face clouded over at that report, looking at the confused messenger as she nodded. He glanced back out across the Labyrinth District.
If they appeared in the west, I would have expected them to angle northwest or southwest…There isn’t a door to Knossos in the west. Or at least not one we could find in four days of searching…Is it possible they know a route that we didn’t uncover?
Finn’s thoughts raced, recalling a certain conversation as he considered the worst possible case.
Ikelos touched on the existence of Daedalus’s notebook, which had a blueprint for Knossos…Do they have that?
During the interrogation, Ikelos had definitely said, I don’t have it…Maybe it just fell somewhere in Knossos.
Loki was on hand, so Finn had believed him.
But if he’d managed to pull the wool over their eyes…or if the notebook had changed hands in a place where Ikelos couldn’t see it…
“This is bad,” Finn whispered as he looked down at his right hand.
His thumb that foretold his apprehensions hadn’t begun to ache yet.
I relied too much on instinct without realizing it.
Finn was ashamed of himself, but he quickly switched gears. His original plan had envisioned them luring the armed monsters into the underground path, but he started adapting as the situation changed. He discarded the possibility of using them as bait to lure out the Evils, prioritizing capturing them aboveground. They couldn’t afford to let them advance into the central part of the district now that they knew there was another possible route that had slipped past their investigation.
His thoughts accelerated at a dizzying rate.
“Heeeey, Finn!” The goddess’s drawl rang out.
“Where’ve you been, Loki?”
“Here and there.” Loki made her appearance in the hectic main camp, approaching Finn from behind.
He didn’t bother to glance back.
“Mm, thinking about something, Finn?”
“Yeah, I guess I was a little conceited. I’d appreciate it if you left me alone for a bit.”
Loki looked intently from the side as he continued to weave his thoughts.
And then the corners of her mouth twitched up—ever so slightly.
Loki placed her hands on Finn’s shoulders and whispered.
“Finn—get to the bottom of this.”
“—” Finn’s thoughts ground to a halt.
Did she mean Bell?
Or was she talking about the monsters?
Finn couldn’t understand her divine will. She was intentionally making Finn think about it.
She watched from his periphery as just his eyes moved, and the goddess smiled faintly.
“With your own two eyes. Don’t rely on anyone else.”
“…”
“I’ll leave the final decision to you. I won’t say anything else.”
As she released his shoulders, Loki smiled thoughtlessly as always, swinging her arms playfully and walking past Finn.
“…”
A small pause.
As the uproarious bustle of the main camp continued, Finn drew in a long breath.
As he stored the goddess’s words in a corner of his mind, he prioritized dealing with the current situation. Donning the mask of the leader again, Finn looked out over Daedalus Street.
“Call Raul here. At once.”
“Y-yes, sir!” responded the messenger Elfie before running off.
Finn started to issue orders without hesitation.
“We’re shifting the formation. Reposition Gareth’s forces from the southwest back aboveground with the monster-assault squad.”
“Is that okay, Captain? If we don’t have them underground, it will be harder to check the Evils’ movements…”
“If the monsters know another route connecting to Knossos, it’ll be a bad plan to leave them belowground. Our goal is the key. What’s the point of trying to use them as a lure when we’re letting what we’re actually looking for slip away? The Evils’ attacks are getting more intense, which is why we’re moving Gareth to shake them up.”
“U-understood!”
Anakity realized that Finn was shifting the priority to the armed monsters, which had originally been intended as bait. While he was explaining it to her, he was working on another plan, too.
I knew we’d be relegated to taking a defensive position, but I might have given them too much of an advantage. To come at me without any hesitation…First, there’s Bell Cranell, and then, the rest of you. You’re really out to get on my nerves.
As he continued to whine internally, Finn smiled at the situation, as if his heart was rejoicing at the unseen opponent on the other side of the board moving their pieces shrewdly.
She’d deny it, but our lines of thought really are similar. In which case, her next move would be…
Finn looked up when he finished his thought.
“Aki! I’m giving you a squad, so head out.”
The base stirred as Finn hammered out a new set of deployments.
“I don’t mind, but…what should we do about your logistical support?”
“I’ll have Raul take over for you. You’re the only one who can do what this plan needs,” Finn said with his full confidence in her.
Anakity responded with a nod, and her expression remained unchanged.
He explained the mission details to her as fast as he could, and she crammed them word for word into her head.
As he looked out over the Labyrinth District while the semaphore’s light flickered intensely, Finn gave her an order.
“I’m about to tell you where you need to spread a net.”
“Loki, where did you go?”
After leaving Finn, Loki went to the location where Dionysus was observing the battle—a spire near Loki Familia’s main base, looking out a window inside it.
“I went by the Guild for a bit.”
“What? Did you go to Ouranos?”
“Who knows.” Loki giggled as Dionysus looked at her reproachfully.
Loki glanced around once she was satisfied by the discontent of the god who was cunning under normal circumstances. The narrow light of a lamp made of magic stones was barely visible, sending an unending stream of signals going back and forth. Was that bonfire in the northwest actually a watch fire in the plaza where the evacuees were gathering?
Filvis wasn’t with Dionysus. Loki had two members of her familia as bodyguards, but they were keeping their distance.
“…How does the situation look to you?”
“No clue. Without clairvoyance or the divine mirror, there’s no way to know what’s goin’ on out there.”
“That’s true.”
Loki stuck out her tongue at Dionysus peering into the darkness. But she sniffed as if she could sense the minute changes through the air of the Labyrinth District.
“But they’re done with feelin’ one another out.”
The warning bell in the west was still ringing.
Its chime seemed to confirm Loki’s comment, declaring the end of the opening skirmish and announcing the beginning of the real battle.
Loki opened her crimson eyes just the tiniest bit.
“The real fight starts now.”
She was a young animal person, one of the many shameless adventurers aiming to make a killing from the rewards the Guild had put out on the armed monsters.
As she pretended to play that part, she scampered around among the other violent people, gathering information and occasionally shouting, “Outta my way!”
“Th-this’s awful…”
“Shit, how many people is that?!”
There was a sea of blood—adventurers collapsed at every turn on winding roads, bodies piled up as far as the eye could see. It looked as if they’d been crushed, broken, their blood splattered from an excessive amount of brute force. Among the fallen were some bearing the jester’s emblem.
Gasping at the awful scene, she left the place without being noticed by the other adventurers, from 277th Street to the sign for the back alley of 278th.
As she slunk around the eastern side of the Labyrinth District, she made extra effort to ensure that no one was nearby before she crouched and stealthily held her hand to her mouth.
“This is bad. The Xenos aren’t here. They were probably noticed by some adventurers at the meet-up point…Yes. Yes…Yes, give up on meeting with them and start another diversion—” she softly whispered into the crystal in her small hand, even though she was alone.
She stopped murmuring, stood up, and scanned the area, about to run off again.
“Just as Captain predicted—”
Huh? She was stopped by a shadow floating above the ground.
“—you were passing from the south to the east.”
The shadow leaped down on the girl’s head, silently and in a feline fashion. Without allowing her a chance to get a good look, the shadow woman held a blade to her slender neck.
“?Gh?!”
Her left hand was twisted behind her back. She could feel the cold blade against her skin. She was rendered helpless in an instant.
The animal person’s eyes widened in shock, unable to process what had happened.
“Supporter? What’s wrong? Did something happen?” called out the crystal in her right hand, giving off a dim glow.
It was painfully quiet in the middle of the alley. A single crimson drop seeped from her neck under the pressure of the blade.
The cold steel commanded that she lie. The girl breathed in and responded with a quivering voice.
“There are…adventurers here…I’ll be caught…Please cut transmission for the time being…”
“Okay, got it,” replied the goddess on the other end, withdrawing without noticing anything and mistaking her hushed voice for nervousness about being near other adventurers.
The light dimmed, and the crystal went silent. At the same time, a sudden cold sweat drenched her entire body.
The distasteful insignia on the hilt of the shortsword was that of a certain familia: the emblem of a jester, its lips strung up into a crescent smile.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest.
Wh-why…?
Why did I get caught?
Did they see through my disguise?
No way! Why? How?
This isn’t my real body—
As if to answer the questions running through the girl’s head, the woman standing behind her, Anakity, whispered in her ear.
“You, and only you, don’t smell like anything.”
The girl’s body temperature instantly dropped.
“A scent-erasing item, right? I noticed it when I was investigating with Bete…Were you the one who hid the monster in the west?”
“…?!”
“When you’re alone, it’s one thing…But when you’re in a group, it stands out.”
Is that it?
Is that all?
Did she find me hidden among all the adventurers from that alone?
As the emotions swirled on her face at a blinding pace, her small body started to quiver.
“And…you’re the same height as the fake Captain who fooled Raul.”
Anakity Autumn.
A Level 4, just like her uninteresting colleague Raul Nord.
But despite being a second-tier adventurer, she was a little too skilled.
With Finn’s prediction about the girl’s transformation, she managed to narrow down her target and find her among all the adventurers running around.
Several members of Loki Familia appeared around them.
This time, all the blood drained from the girl’s face.
“I’ll have you come with us.”
—Bell.
As if sensing her end, she whispered his name.
INTERLUDE
THEIR RESPECTIVE BATTLES
The sound of a blade parrying a wooden sword, an intense clash, rang out as Aiz landed in the alley.
“Guh!”
As she fell on the ground from the roof, Aiz faced off against her attacker, the masked adventurer.
The stranger’s long, hooded cape fluttered, and they wore boots that extended halfway up their thighs. The svelte adventurer held a wooden sword as their lower body shifted into a battle stance.
The location was a backstreet in the southeast of the Labyrinth District.
The street was unexpectedly wide at seven meders with wooden boxes and casks and mounds of scrap wood haphazardly scattered around. The skirmish between the boy and the adventurers chasing the monsters was in the distance. That one corner of the Labyrinth District became a battlefield all their own, as if the rest of the world had been closed off.
“Who are—?!”
“Unfortunately, I cannot identify myself. Please forgive what practically amounts to a surprise attack,” the anonymous adventurer interjected sincerely as Aiz started to question their identity.
It was a resolute, honorable response, and the face behind the mask could be that of an elf. Their polite tone had an apologetic tinge to it, but it also revealed their readiness for battle, a declaration that combat couldn’t be avoided.
“Against an opponent like you, I can’t take a wait-and-see approach—I’ll be going all out from the start.”
The next instant, the masked adventurer disappeared.
“!!”
In one high-speed action, they retreated out of Aiz’s field of vision.
Her golden eyes were a split second behind, tracking them moving diagonally to the right, and the anonymous adventurer leaned down enough to scrape along the ground before unleashing a strike with the wooden sword from a low angle.
Aiz responded precisely to the attack closing in from her periphery, deflecting it with Desperate.
““—Gh!””
The wooden sword and rapier cut through the air, their impact sending a stinging jolt through both their arms.
The moment they traded blows, Aiz’s golden eyes met sky-blue ones.
As if recognizing from the start that the attack would be blocked, the anonymous adventurer darted away, brushing past Aiz, accelerating further.
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