Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darou ka Gaiden – Sword Oratoria - Volume 2 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 GEKAI DETECTIVE LOKI 

The sun shone brightly at its zenith. 
The hustle and bustle of daily life in Orario carried on underneath a clear blue sky. The Shopping District was alive with the voices and footsteps of its many visitors, but even the surrounding areas were so full of people that it was difficult to see the stone pavement below. Many had given up trying to reach their destinations on foot and flagged down one of the numerous horse-drawn taxis to traverse the large city. 
Loki and Bete, however, made their way through all the humans and demi-humans as they walked down East Main Street. 
“Lookie there! Jyaga Maru Kun! Bete, wanna split a few with me?” 
“I ain’t eatin’ any. Now, would you stop makin’ detours already?” 
Bete’s patience was reaching its limit when the two of them turned off the main road and Loki happened to spot a street stall selling the fried potato puffs known as Jyaga Maru Kun. The werewolf clicked his tongue in frustration as Loki went off to place an order, anyway. 
They started walking side by side as soon as the goddess returned, one of the jam-flavored puffs already in her mouth. Bete was attracting a lot of attention from people on the street and inside shops with open windows. Every set of eyes locked on him was female. 
His long, muscular legs moved his 180-celch frame forward. The young man exuded a wild aura that was compounded by a tattoo on his cheek. Despite that, his face was perfectly symmetrical and very attractive. Apparently, many people considered an animal person’s signature ears on top of their head and swishing tail to be rather cute. 
Bete could feel the yearning stares of two female animal people on the other side of the street. He met their gazes with his own amber glare. 
The two young women jumped in surprise before nearly tripping over their own feet. 
“Ahh, such a waste. An’ those two were pretty cute…Be~te, ya gotta be nice to the ladies, ya hear?” Finishing her snack, Loki licked her fingers as she watched the events unfold. 
“I hate weak women most of all.” 
Bete didn’t bother watching the girls disappear and spat out his retort. 
“Eh~, no way. Ya don’ get that squeezin’ feelin’ in your heart when a damsel in distress looks at ya for help? No urge to be her shield?” 
“Hah! Makes me wanna puke. If you can’t protect yourself, go crawl in a hole somewhere and don’t bother coming out.” 
“So cold…Yer a real contradiction, aint’cha, Bete.” 
“Oi, what’s that supposed to mean?!” 
“It’s, well, ya know—ya bein’ head over heels for Aiz an’ all!” 
“Like hell I am!” 
Bete growled as his face turned bright red. 
“Hee-hee-hee,” laughed Loki, clearly enjoying the exchange. 
The werewolf’s efforts to hide his emotions, and even his threatening posture, could not withstand the giggling goddess. 
“Ahh, screw you…Oi, how many times are we gonna walk around the same block? Didn’t you wanna look into something?” 
Bete pulled back his lips, baring his teeth as he asked Loki for a straight answer. 
He didn’t have much of a choice when his goddess came to him at home and asked for his help “searching.” However, they’d made several laps around the buildings that lined East Main Street without doing much at all, up to this point. 
Loki had stuck her head into a few out-of-the-way empty buildings and tried talking to shop owners and passersby, but frustration was starting to get the better of Bete. Even his ash-gray tail was starting to twitch with annoyance. 
“Hnnn~,” muttered Loki as she looked around on tiptoes, holding a cloth sack over her shoulder. “To be frank with ya, I’ve been doin’ some diggin’ on my own since yesterday…Now I’m makin’ sure I didn’t overlook nothin’.” 
Two days had passed since the Monsterphilia, and Loki was investigating East Main Street. 
After her meeting with Freya, Loki had gotten a hunch that a third someone—someone with a hidden agenda—had released the man-eating flowers at the same time the Goddess of Beauty set other monsters free. 
Considering that Lefiya had sustained considerable injuries when she and a few others had been drawn into the fray, Loki had more than enough of a reason to get involved. 
She had focused her investigation on East Main Street exclusively, but had yet to come across any promising leads. 
The plant monsters had burrowed up from beneath the street. Unfortunately, all the holes had been plugged and everything seemed back to normal in the surrounding area. 
“So you’re saying the ‘lookin’ into’ you’re doing is to find where those monsters came from? What a pain…Don’t Ganesha’s guys or the Guild know anything?” 
“Thought about asking ’em, but they were attendin’ to festival cleanup and gettin’ people back on their feet. Wasn’t the right time.” 
Loki looked up at the Coliseum while conversing with Bete. The imposing structure towered over everything else in the area. 
In fact, many facilities owned and operated by the Guild were located on or around East Main Street, including the Coliseum. Most events hosted in Orario were held in one of the many Guild-operated facilities built in this area. That meant there was an abundance of hotels and inns close by to accommodate travelers visiting from out of town. 
Turning off East Main Street, the two went into an area dominated by expensive hotels standing higher than three stories tall. The farther in they went, the more the beautiful red brick buildings gave way to the cheaper, wooden inns. Suddenly, Loki came to a stop. 
There was a slight opening between four buildings at the end of the narrow alleyway. 
It led to a square clearing with only a few old dusty crates in the corner and a small shack made of stone built opposite to the alleyway’s entrance. 
“We’ve crisscrossed the town quite a bit already…so this is all that’s left.” 
With that, Loki made her way to the shack’s heavy wooden door. Expecting it to be locked, the goddess was genuinely surprised that there was no resistance when she grabbed the rust-covered handle and pulled…Creak, the hinges moaned as the door slowly opened. 
There was nothing inside the shack, except for the entrance to a set of spiraling stairs that went straight down. Loki showed no hesitation and went right inside. Tap, tap. Her footsteps echoed off the stone walls surrounding the stairwell. 
Loki and Bete descended into the thickening darkness, following the spiral around and around—until they emerged into the city’s sewer system. 
Dim light from sputtering magic-stone lamps provided vague outlines of the surroundings as the sound of flowing water reached their ears. The darkness farther down the sewer tunnel was so thick they couldn’t see where it ended. 
“I knew I shoulda forced this onto Raul…” 
Feeling that this was going to be more trouble than it was worth, Bete voiced his frustration under his breath. 
“Now, now, you’ll get a nice treat after we’re done.” 
Loki stuck her hand into the cloth sack and withdrew a magic-stone lantern. She clicked it on, and the details of their surroundings immediately came to light. 
“It’s just gonna be some kind of liquor, right?” said Bete with a cocked eyebrow. Loki laughed at his accurate prediction as the two of them started walking down the tunnel. 
“Tiona and Tione did some pokin’ around down here the day of the Monsterphilia, but I just wanna be sure. They might’ve missed a few things chasin’ after those monsters.” 
“Those two only got air between the ears. Can’t even imagine how much they missed.” 
They continued down the rather narrow tunnel, the sound of running water growing steadily louder until they found the main drainage vessel. 
Constructed completely out of stone, the tubelike tunnel was about six meders wide. The water flowed down the center while footpaths lined the edges. Loki and Bete followed the path along the right side. 
WHOOSSSSH. The rushing sound was so loud that it drowned out the possibility of conversation. Other tunnels fed into the main one from many directions, amplifying the echoes. 
At the same time, while the air was mustier down here than on the surface, the stench of sewage…was missing. 
Loki’s light illuminated several thin, purple crystalline columns at the end of one of the smaller tunnels. In the shape of a grate, this magic-stone product of Orario wasn’t designed to alter the flow. 
Instead, it served as a barrier to contamination, and only allowed the current through after purifying it. Put simply, it was a filter. The liquid rushing through the main tunnel was so clear it was hard to believe it had ever been dirty. 
These purifiers had been set up at the end of every channel feeding into this one, preventing the smell from ever reaching suffocating levels. This way, the brackish lake to the southwest would never be contaminated by draining sewage. 
Loki marveled at the creativity of the people of Gekai, coming up with useful inventions like this. 
“Ya know, with all these twisty-turny paths and the feel of this place…it’s a little bit like the Dungeon, wouldn’t ya say?” 
“Hah! Don’t make me laugh.” 
Bete, who spent his days in the real Dungeon, scoffed at Loki’s remark. This man-made “dungeon” was not even worth comparing to the real thing. 
Along the wall were openings that branched off into side paths, or sometimes staircases, and there were even raised bridges that connected to the other side of the tunnel. Bete felt no pressure from traveling through the dark sewers and was very careful to keep Loki safe from danger, albeit while voicing complaints. A raider fish, a monster native to the open ocean that must have found its way in through the brackish lake, jumped out of the stream to feast on potential prey. However, one swift kick, courtesy of Bete, slew it before it even got close to the goddess. The whole incident was over before Loki even realized she was in danger. “Ouuu,” she said with puckered lips, impressed by the strike she hadn’t even seen. 
The lantern-style magic-stone lamp in her hand cast light in all directions. Two long shadows trailed across the stone walls. Bete’s silhouette resembled that of a wolf on the prowl, complete with ears and tail, stretching as far as the light shone down the tunnel behind them. 
“Oh?” 
Something came into view after the two of them had spent a decent amount of time exploring the main channel. 
An iron door, the likes of which they’d never seen before, appeared at the edge of the lantern’s glow. 
It had obviously been there for quite a long time. Opening down the middle, the two sides were made from heavy iron and sealed shut by a large padlock on the front. 
“The heck is this?” 
“A sewer…from the old days.” 
Loki spotted a plate on the wall. Holding the light up close to it, she managed to read the faint letters on it. Apparently the sewer had been built before the modern system was installed and ignored ever since the new one was completed. 
Even so, Loki thought it was a bizarre design and questioned the intelligence of the architect as she brought the light closer to the iron door. 
As more details came into view, Loki noticed that the jet-black rock showed signs of being used—opened and closed many times by human hands. 
“Well, ain’t this fishy…” 
Her thin eyes opened a little wider as she whispered to herself. 
It would be perfectly logical that Guild employees came through here periodically, but that meant there was something interesting behind the door. Loki wasn’t going to walk away from this without knowing one way or the other. 
She summoned Bete to her side with a simple glance. The werewolf was by no means enthusiastic, but he took the padlock in both hands and started to pull. Crick, crick, crick. The padlock groaned right away before breaking with a metallic pop. 
Splitting the lock into two pieces, he tossed them aside and opened the iron doors with ease. 
To their surprise, wall-mounted magic-stone lamps lit up the old sewer that supposedly wasn’t in use. 
“Hold on, why’s there water in here?” 
Passing through the door and ascending a small staircase, they realized that the path was flooded. There were no dry bridges like the ones they had followed to get here. Bete curled his lips back as he watched the surface of the black river running through the tunnel. 
Loki lowered her lantern to just above the surface of the water so she could see its depth. Suddenly, she looked up at her adorable family member. 
“Bete, gimme a ride!” 
“Come again?” 
“I don’t wanna get my shoes wet! So, piggyback!” 
“Are you frickin’ serious? It ain’t that deep, so shut up and walk!” 
“But~! You have to carry me! I want a piggyback! I can’t go on without a piggyback!” 
Watching his goddess throw a temper tantrum, Bete muttered, “Dammit, woman,” under his breath with his tail twitching up a storm. “Fine, just shut up already!” He gave in, covering the wolf ears on top of his head to protect them against Loki’s whiny voice, and knelt in front of her. 
Looking down at his wide shoulders as if her own personal chariot had arrived, Loki grinned and squealed like a child as she jumped on. 
“Now then, onward, Bete! I’m expectin’ a smooth ride!” 
“Any complaints and I’m tossin’ you in.” 
Doing his best to hold down the rage flowing through his veins, Bete stood up smoothly with Loki draped on his back. 
“Whoa!” shouted Loki with innocent glee, suddenly seeing everything from a higher vantage point. It was hard for Bete to believe that a deusdea could be so pure. 
She looked left and right, thoroughly enjoying the view as Bete trudged his way through the flowing water. 
“Neh-hee-hee, do ya feel like yer carryin’ some cute little lady? Too bad, ’tis me!” 
“Shut it.” 
“Tell me, tell me! What’s it feel like?! Me on yer back instead of Aizuu—how do ya feel?!” 
“Wanna go for a swim…?” 
Bete’s lips twitched as Loki leaned over his left and right shoulders back and forth, trying to get a better look at his face. Veins bulged on the werewolf’s forehead as he fought back the urge to throw off the extra “luggage” and her perverted smile right then and there. 
Bete pressed forward, water sloshing around his legs as he did his best to ignore Loki’s constant questions. Half of his metallic boots were hidden by the dark water flowing by his shins. Compared to the well-organized layout of the modern system they had just passed through, the old sewer was far more complicated and felt more like the labyrinth farther below. 
“Wonder if the Guild was lookin’ around this far in after the festival?” 
“The air still smells like people. This water’s muckin’ things up, so I can’t tell much more than that…” 
Loki raised the lamp and kept her head on a swivel, looking for anything strange. Bete took a long whiff of the air after she made her comment. 
Using the superior sense of smell that all werewolves had, Bete was able to tell that someone had been in this part of the old sewer recently. He explained that it was too faint to figure out how many people there were as he turned to face the direction of the smell. 
“Hnn,” whispered Loki, her left arm wrapped around his neck while the right held the lantern high to light up the path. 
She casually swung her legs back and forth while Bete made his way up the tunnel against the current…until a “hole” appeared in the wall. 
“Well, somethin’ really let loose…” 
The stone wall was crumbling around the edges of a wide, jagged opening. With water pouring from the lower rim, this seemed to be the origin of the liquid flowing through the old sewer system. 
Loki tilted her head as she gazed upon the opening. Judging by the outward-facing border, whatever caused it had most likely come from the other side. 
“This the jackpot…?” 
Loki grinned. Her searching had finally paid off with a promising lead. And then… 
Flick! Like a beast raising its head, Bete’s wolf ears suddenly stood on end. 
“Get off.” 
One look at the side of Bete’s face told Loki she had no room to argue, and she complied. 
Bete was so focused on the dark area on the other side of the hole that he barely heard Loki’s feet hit the water next to him. 
“Those damn Amazons…where the hell were they lookin’?” 
His mood worsening by the moment, Bete led the way inside. 
“It’s all still here,” he spat, with Loki not far behind. 
Loki followed the werewolf even deeper into the cavity. It had been carved by something large—whatever it was, it had passed through many different tunnels on its journey, all of which were now inundated with water. Bete showed no hesitation as he went even farther into the darkness. Soon, he spotted a wide staircase in the distance. 
The cold sensation of water around his ankles gone, his footsteps echoed against a hard surface as the straight path opened up before him. 
“Is this…a reservoir?” 
Loki held her lantern aloft as she looked around the area. 
It was a long, rectangular chamber filled with a forest of columns. Each of the equally spaced structures was supporting the ceiling overhead. They had to be at least ten meders high. The vast hollow space shrouded in darkness was indeed worthy of being called a reservoir. 
Since the Dungeon was beneath the city and the brackish lake was connected to the sewer network, Loki reasoned that they must now be underneath the southwest portion of the city, quite a ways from Central Park. Evidence of the water level still remained on the walls and columns, as if this reservoir hadn’t held water for a long time. This space could have practically been used to dry-dock a boat. The magic-stone lamps on the ceiling were just barely strong enough to emit a thin, weak light. 
Loki’s ears picked up a faint, slithering sound in the distance. 
Spinning to face it, she immediately saw Bete with his back toward her and something large moving in the darkness. 
A yellowish-green body emerged from the darkness a moment later. 
The flowered predator appeared, resembling an overgrown vine intertwined with the columns, and was soon was joined by another, and another. 
Sensing that they were not alone, the snakelike creatures worked their way through the darkness toward the intruders. Their bodies writhed, releasing puffs of pollen as their bud-like heads split open. 
Their fangs bared, flashing in the darkness from the other side of the colorful, ominous pollen cloud, the monsters reared up their bodies and looked down on Loki and Bete from just below the ceiling. 
“Loki, get back and stay there.” 
Bete, who was already braced for combat, didn’t even look at his goddess as he spoke. 
His amber gaze was locked solely on the monsters. Leaning forward, he kicked off the floor and raced into battle at the same moment the closest monster’s roar echoed throughout the chamber. 
 
“OooOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOOOO!” 
The plant monster charged, its roar the pitch of a broken bell. 
Three in all, the monsters advanced in unison like a muddy green tide. Not to be outdone, Bete charged forward to meet them. One hard step with his left leg launched him off the stone floor. 
Setting his sights solely on the closest monster, he swung his long right leg forward. 
“You freakin’ stink, all of you!” 
“?!” 
Bete’s right foot connected cleanly with the monster’s head like an athlete kicking a ball. The creature’s long body arced backward into the air as echoes of the dull impact filled the chamber. 
It was pure strength; no tricks or special techniques were involved. Bete repelled the monster’s charge with a limb that paled in comparison to its gigantic, snakelike frame. Crack! The metal boot that covered Bete’s right foot had struck one of the monster’s fangs. Pieces of the tooth fell from its mouth. 
Bete easily dodged the incoming attacks that came from his left and right, counterattacking as they passed. He refused to let the plant beasts get anywhere near Loki. Their bodies fell far off to the side. 
Along with power, the ash-colored werewolf was known for his speed and precision. Even among Loki Familia, he was considered the best at reading his opponents and retaliating against their next move before it could even happen. Each of the beasts seemed to be two or three seconds behind him as each attack was neutralized in quick succession. 
His speed to overwhelm, his precision to keep the opponent at bay, and his uncanny ability to start vicious brawls in an instant were what inspired his nickname: “Crazed Wolf, Vanargand.” 
Setting up for a final blow, Bete jumped toward a monster that had fallen to his right. Every muscle in his body worked in unison to bring his right leg down onto the monster’s exposed neck like the blade of a guillotine. 
“Huhaa?” 
However, his killing strike didn’t go through anything. 
He was expecting the creature’s bud-like head to roll across the floor. Instead, a single petal fell. That was the only sign that he’d made contact at all. 
A sound of surprise and disbelief escaped his throat as pain shot up the nerves in his legs from behind the metal boot. “Tsk!” Anger coursed through him at the thickness of the creature’s hide. The monster shook its head a few times to recover, then released its own rage-filled roar. 
“The hell you need that solid a body for…?!” 
Bete voiced his frustration as his other two enemies joined their ally and attacked as one. 
It was strange for Bete to agree with Tiona about anything, yet they had the same opinion about this monster. Lips twitching at the thought, he moved to engage all three at once. Each of the beasts released several vines, launching them like spears from all angles. Bete made use of all the space available to dodge them, as well as take cover behind stone pillars when necessary. 
Not even Aiz Wallenstein could match the werewolf in terms of pure speed, and Bete was using everything he could muster as he fought the creatures to a stalemate. 
“Mhmm, they’re movin’ so fast I can’t tell what’s even happenin’.” 
Back at the entrance to the reservoir, Loki watched the battle from the shadow of a stone pillar. 
The moment that she saw an ash-gray flash that was probably Bete, one of the monsters went flying. She couldn’t comprehend anything that was happening, so she kept her vermilion gaze on the monsters not currently in combat, in an attempt to study them. 
It was impossible to tell at the Monsterphilia because the flower monsters had never fully emerged from the ground, but the ends of their “tails” were thick and bulbous. Numerous tendrils sprouted from the bases of their bodies like the roots of a tree, along with things that seemed like root hairs. 
They probably dig those thingies into the Dungeon to feed, she thought to herself…before suddenly noticing a strange shadow above her head. 
It came from the ceiling—a single stem wrapping itself around the pillar that served as her hiding place. 
Twitch. She felt a shiver run down her spine. Her suspicions were confirmed the moment a speck of pollen fell on her shoulder. 
That ain’t good. Loki knew she was in trouble. Dashing from her hiding place, she looked up… 
And saw exactly what she had expected: another one of the plant monsters staring at her with its fanged mouth wide open. 
“AAAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAAA!!” 
“Ehgawd!” 
An intimidating roar hammered her from above. Green stalks raced forward like whips in an attempt to grab her, but only hit empty air. 
Loki’s screams didn’t sound as afraid as they probably should have, even as she sprinted at full speed. 
“Uoohhh! I’m done for! It’s gonna catch me~!” 
Loki raced through the chamber, her quick and light-footed movements reminiscent of a fugitive on the run from the law. However, with her all-powerful Arcanum abilities sealed, an actual mortal criminal would have been faster. There was no way she could escape the ravenous monster. 
With a great deal of luck and good timing, Loki jumped to the side and behind pillars as the vines raced past her head. However, the monster’s open jaws slithered closer every second. 
“There was another one?!” 
Confidence disappeared from Bete’s face for the first time. Putting his battle with the other monsters on hold, he kicked off the ground in a desperate attempt to reach his goddess in time. However—it was already too late. 
The monster’s gaping mouth was mere seconds away from swallowing the deity whole. Bete’s face was blank as he reached out to his goddess at full speed. At that moment— 
Loki thrust her hand into the bag she carried over her shoulder and pulled out a handful of dark crystals. She scattered them across the floor with one quick flick of her wrist. 
“Lookie there!” 
Dark purple magic stones now sparkled all over the floor off to her right. 
Not just any magic stones, but high-quality magic stones. Even the monster could tell at a glance, immediately changing course with a hungry look in its eyes. 
Bete watched in amazement as the monster sharply veered away from behind his goddess. 
“Pure magic energy, magic stones, livin’ people…These monsters seem to pick targets in that order.” 
Loki whispered to herself as she watched the monster willingly slither away from her with her thin, discerning eyes. 
She had heard about it from Lefiya, who had firsthand experience during the battle at the Monsterphilia. Therefore, she had prepared quite a few magic stones to use as decoys during the investigation—just in case. 
If they’re drawn to magic, then magic stones should work, too. Her hypothesis had been right. 
“Look, Bete, it took a hike!” 
“Sheesh…Just don’t get eaten, got that?!” 
Bete didn’t have long enough to actually sigh at his goddess. Catching a glimpse of another monster coming up behind him out of the corner of his eye, he unleashed an arcing roundhouse kick over his right shoulder. 
Picking up momentum, he spun even faster as his left leg slammed into the approaching creature’s head. Thrown backward through the air in a wide arc, the monster hit the other two creatures, sending them all to the floor. 
“We make one heckuva combo, Bete! Breathin’ as one!” 
“Like I care. Stop trying to piss me off, stupid woman!” 
Bete snarled a retort as Loki ran toward him. The goddess couldn’t help but grin, knowing her follower wouldn’t openly admit he was worried about her. 
The werewolf broke off eye contact to keep from feeling even more uncomfortable. 
“These things sure are a pain in the ass…Can’t even make a dent in ’em.” 
“Now that ya mention it, the Amazon twins couldn’t do nothin’ with their bare hands, either. That skin’s pretty thick, ya know?” 
“Why didn’t you say that sooner?” 
Bete furrowed his eyebrows, irritated that his goddess brought up this information as an afterthought. 
The two turned together to look deeper into the dried reservoir. The monsters were beginning to untangle themselves. 
Neither let their guard down as Loki explained that Lefiya’s Magic and Aiz’s sharp slashes had worked well on these creatures last time. 
“…Hate to use this, but might as well,” Bete mumbled as he reached behind his waist with his right hand. 
The sound of sliding metal softly echoed in the chamber. He withdrew a knife from its sheath that appeared as if scarlet flames burned from within—a magic sword. 
He leaned down so that he could align the blade with one of his faintly silver boots. 
Frosvirt, his “Superior” metallic boots, had the ability to absorb magical energy. The scarlet flames burning in the blade of Bete’s knife died down almost instantly as their energy poured into his right boot. 
“Just curious, but what did that run ya?” 
“One mil.” 
“Uwaoh, a one-million-valis attack! That’s gonna be somethin’ to see!” 
A pale yellow jewel in the middle of his right boot shone in the darkness until all the energy from the magic sword had been absorbed. Crack! The blade shattered and fell to the floor the moment the last of the scarlet flames disappeared. The jewel then instantly turned scarlet. As if on cue, the boot erupted in searing, crimson flames. 
Whoosh! New echoes filled the chamber as Bete stood ready, an inferno embracing his right foot. 
“—I’ll send ’em flyin’.” 
Bete’s wild nature appeared in a toothy grin on his lips. 
He stepped once toward the nearly untangled mass of monsters. Then, slowly, he took another step and another. As the red-hot flames seared half of his footprints in the stone floor, suddenly, he picked up speed. 
The creatures howled like so many broken bells as he approached. All that did was make him smile, the tattoo across his cheek flexing with the muscles beneath. Finally, he kicked off the floor. 
Jumping clear out of his enemies’ line of sight, he eyed them from above as he snorted. His arc came to an end at a stone pillar, and he kicked off of it with his left leg over to another pillar and another. He changed his angle of attack three times before finally charging the monsters from their blind spot. Bete swung his flaring right foot out to the side and brought it crashing down with all his might. 
“?!!” 
A searing flare bloomed upon impact with the closest monster’s head. 
The flash was enough to make anyone want to shield their eyes. Frosvirt’s physical power combined with the energy from the magic sword to enhance Bete’s already enormous strength. Flames roared as the creature’s head was cleanly severed from its body. It instantly dissolved into ash before it could even feel any pain. 
As Bete landed on the floor, the first monster to notice him leaped into the air for a counterattack. 
“Burn!!” 
Bete somersaulted into the beast’s oncoming strike. 
Deep-red shadows danced across the chamber walls and pillars as Bete’s burning leg swept across the beast’s entire body, setting it alight. Whoosh! Roars of the ensuing inferno filled the chamber while Bete jumped out of the way. 
Flipping in midair, he watched upside down as what was left of the creature dissolved to ash. The corner of his lips pulled back into an unmistakable grin. 
“Bete, get one of the stones!” 
“Ah-hah? Just had to ruin my fun…” 
The werewolf heard Loki’s order just as he finished off the second monster. He selected his next target to carry it out. 
He knew from his previous encounters with the carnivorous plants that their magic stones were located deep in their throats. Closing the distance in the blink of an eye, he held back his full strength and delivered a dizzying blow just under what would pass for the monster’s chin. 
The upward strike flung the creature backward, with flower petals falling in its wake. It was still very much alive, shrieking until it landed on the stone floor, where it writhed in pain. Bete stomped on its still-smoking lower jaw to pin it in place. Grabbing its upper jaw with his left hand, he ruthlessly forced its mouth wide open—wide enough to snap the joints. 
The creature’s hot breath bellowed up from beneath him. Bete wasted no time in thrusting his right hand deep into its mouth to snatch the stone out. 
“Nasty!” he growled to himself, wrinkling his nose as he dodged an attack from the remaining monster. 
Tucking the magic stone into his shirt, Bete turned to face his final opponent and charged. 
“You’re the last one!” 
He advanced at full speed, but the fanged plant had other ideas. It launched a wave of tendrils at the werewolf in an attempt to forestall the frontal attack. 
The yellowish-green whips reflecting in his eyes, Bete turned, dodged, and wove his way through them. The monster’s body seemed to cringe as the last of its spear-like stems passed by the werewolf without hitting its target. 
He closed the remaining distance with the ferocity of a hungry predator, kicked off the floor, and soared. 

 

Bete thrust his burning foot forward in midair, tearing through the darkness like a flaming arrow. 
“Burn in Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell!!” 
The resulting kick caused an explosion that engulfed the creature’s head. What was left of its body came blasting out of a cloud of smoke, as though it had been shot from a cannon. 
It hit the closest pillar head-on, but didn’t stop there. Two, then three pillars were destroyed before a fourth one finally withstood the impact. A small avalanche of stone joined the lifeless corpse on its way down. 
The headless creature’s body was covered in the rubble before finally turning to ash and disappearing entirely. 
“Hell of a show, there…” 
Loki’s murmur echoed through the silence as the dust cleared. 
The scarlet light disappeared from Bete’s right foot a few moments later as the remaining embers went out completely. 
The fight over, a stunning silver gleam returned to the metal boots as he stood still in the old reservoir. 
 
“Got some evidence, but nothin’ that’ll get me closer to the bad guy.” 
“Had to use a magic sword, wasn’t even close to worth it.” 
Flip, flip. Loki tossed the magic stone between her hands as she and Bete made their way back through the sewers. 
Their battle with the hungry plants over, they were retracing their steps to return to the surface. Looking around the dried-up reservoir yielded no results, and since Bete didn’t have a spare magic sword, they felt it was a good time to call it a day. It was too dangerous to proceed without the proper equipment. 
Already clear of the older sewers, Loki took a closer look at the magic stone as the two of them walked down the main waterline. 
It had a brilliantly colored core. It was obvious that this was different from normal, dark purple magic stones. “Hmm,” Loki whispered to herself, without realizing, as she eyed the ominously shimmering crystal in her hand. 
“Now that I think about it, it’s the same as the one Tione ripped from that a monster on floor fifty.” 
“Floor fifty…You mean the new breed that y’all ran into on the expedition?” 
“Yeah, that filthy-lookin’ caterpillar monster.” 
Bete commented on the similarity of the two magic stones as Loki intently examined the one in her hand. 
It wasn’t long before the two of them arrived at a familiar spiral staircase. Going up the many loops and arriving back in the stone shack, Loki and Bete enjoyed their first breaths of fresh air after hours underground. 
Turning toward the sun shining brightly in the blue sky: “Haaaa!” Loki took a deep breath and stretched her arms high above her head. Bete showed no signs of fatigue, only cracking his neck with each hand as his shoulders finally relaxed. 
“Shall we head home?” said Loki casually, and the two of them left the shack behind. 
Out of the narrow backstreets and on toward row upon row of high-class hotels, the street steadily became wider and busier as they went. It wasn’t long before they were surrounded by the voices of townspeople. 
Then, just as they were making their way back toward the center of the city— 
They encountered a deity as they rounded a corner. 
“Oh? That you, Dionysus?” 
“…Loki?” 
Loki came to a stop in front of the familiar face. 
His beautiful golden locks stretched down to his neck, framing an enchanting smile that could make anyone, male or female, melt on the spot. His glass-colored eyes met Loki’s. Indeed, it was the god she’d had a short conversation with at Ganesha’s Banquet of the Gods only a few days ago. 
Of course he wasn’t dressed in his finest attire, but he still carried the aura of royalty and wore an expensive outfit. An elf woman with beautiful black hair stood at his side, most likely a member of his familia. 
“Yo,” said Loki, surprised by their chance meeting. 
“Hold it.” 
Loki came to a sudden stop. “Hmm?” she said as she turned to face her own follower. His gaze was fierce, staring icy daggers at Dionysus. 
“It’s them.” 
“…What’s them?” 
Loki questioned as Bete jerked his chin in their direction. He opened his mouth to speak, eyes unblinking. 
“The unusual stench in the sewer—it’s theirs.” 
Loki’s usually narrow eyes went wide, while the other two’s expressions froze in shock. 
 
An endless stream of voices traveled all around the cliffs and up the blue crystal pillars. 
But the nervous interest of all the adventurers outside was nothing compared to the all-out confusion threatening to overtake an inn built into the rock face. 
The location was the Dungeon eighteenth floor, at Willy’s Inn in the town of Rivira. 
No one could take their eyes off the Status engraved into the back of the headless corpse in the middle of the room. Onlookers, including Aiz Wallenstein, wore various expressions of shock. 
“…W-was this man truly killed with only brute force? There could have been, I don’t know, poison or something…” 
“As in, the attacker strangled him once he couldn’t move?” 
Tione responded to Lefiya’s question with another question. The obviously uncomfortable elf nodded awkwardly in response. 
Her view of the body was obscured behind Aiz and Tiona. However, her dark blue eyes could still see his lifeless limbs, and that was enough to make her tremble. 
“The Advanced Ability ‘Immunity’ is listed under his Skills, so no, I don’t think so…” 
“Someone of Hashana’s prowess would hardly be affected by even the most potent toxins, even in high doses. It is unlikely he fell victim to that.” 
Aiz and Riveria continued their analysis of the hieroglyphs on the dead man’s back. 
One combination of the divine characters spelled out “Immunity” in one of his Skill brackets—it protected him against different types of status effects, including poison. What’s more, the skill had reached “G.” 
A G-level Immunity would have granted him protection from almost everything under the sun. Even a poison created by an expert chemist would have a difficult time slowing him down. 
“We know that she caught him off guard, but a female adventurer strong enough to strangle a Level Four…?” 
“…What about one of Ishtar Familia’s Berbera?” 
Tiona responded to Finn’s verbal train of thought. 
Bringing up the group of ferociously seductive, lithe courtesans made Finn pause and think. “Hmm,” he mumbled without looking away from the corpse on the floor. “If that were true, then this would be a simple open-and-shut case. But there’s something more here, just begging to be discovered.” 
“That’s right. This is too out in the open,” Tione added. 
One of the guards in the room suddenly pointed at Aiz and the others, his entire body shaking as if he were one step away from losing his mind. 
“L-listen to what you just said!! The lot of you show up here, actin’ like you only just got to town. How do we know one of you ain’t behind this?!” 
Bors and the rest of his group snapped to attention, his words ringing in their ears. 
Top-class adventurers, people so strong they could silence a crying child with a glance, were now the top suspects. Indeed, there were several female adventurers in the room who were physically powerful enough to kill a second-tier adventurer like Hashana. 
“Huuh?” Tiona voiced her disbelief while Tione denied his claim with a look. Riveria closed an eye, more perturbed than threatened. Lefiya, however, was on the verge of a panic attack. 
Aiz wasn’t sure what to do, either, nervously shifting her weight. 
“If one of them is the culprit…” 
“Yeah, Finn couldn’t’a done it.” 
A ring of adventurers surrounded Loki Familia. Willy was too scared to finish the sentence as he backed away, but Bors nodded and finished it for him. Prums were small, but more importantly, Finn was male. That automatically removed him from the list of suspects. With that, every set of eyes in the ring moved across each of the women. They were looking for someone who matched the description of the lady with a body curvy enough to be identified beneath a hooded robe. 
First Aiz and Lefiya, then the room examined Riveria and Tiona. 
Not much in the way of a bustline…That was especially true for Tiona. Showing quite a bit of skin as it was, all the men in the circle nodded as one. 
“Not her.” 
“No, definitely not.” 
“Hey!” 
Tiona stepped forward, fists raised and itching for a fight—until Aiz grabbed her under the armpits to keep the Amazon at bay. 
Tiona continued voicing her grievances, but the ring of adventurers turned their attention to Tione. 
“…A body like that could lure any man she wanted into a trap, don’cha think?” 
Plump breasts with shapely cleavage, a small waist, and a round, soft behind, in addition to supple thighs, made her an extremely attractive woman with curves in all the right places. 
Tione could feel every set of eyes wrapping around her body from all angles the moment Bors said those words. The men seemed much more interested in her than her younger sister. 
“—Agh?” 
Tione wasn’t about to let that slide. 
A spark of fury ignited within her; her eyes burned with enough anger to char anything that got too close as she exploded into a tirade. 
“My chastity belongs to the general and no one else!! 
“Da’ hell do any of you know about it?! 
“Seriously, anyone bring something dirty anywhere close to my legs, it’ll get ripped off and shredded to a thousand pieces!” 
A surge of insults and threats poured from her mouth. 

She brought her body up to its full height, acting much like a dragon, ready to lash out. She took a step forward, cracking the stone floor beneath her foot. 
This time it was Tiona who jumped in to keep her older sister under control. However, every man in the ring had just experienced the true meaning of terror. Every single one of them had their knees together in a desperate attempt to protect their manhoods. 
“…Um, Bors. As you can see, none of these girls would use their body in that way. It’s just not in their nature.” 
“Y-yeah…Sorry for suspectin’ you. M-my bad.” 
The normally gruff and masculine Bors had both hands clamped tightly over his crotch, pitifully nodding as he struggled to put words together. 
Finn had grown tired of the situation, rolling his eyes at the spectacle. So he took a deep breath to clear his thoughts and took another look around the room. 
“I’d like to do a little investigating. Might have to touch a few things, is that okay?” 
“Sure, do what you want.” 
Bors surrendered his authority over the crime scene without any fuss, realizing that it was now beyond his ability. Finn thanked him and asked for Riveria’s help in checking the area around the body. 
Everyone in the room, including Aiz and the Amazons, gathered in a corner to give the two some space. First, Finn took a closer look at Hashana’s remains. 
“The cause of death was blunt force to the head…No, these wounds suggest the neck was broken first.” 
“So you surmise that the killer snapped his neck and killed him before crushing his head?” 
“Looks that way to me.” 
Finn responded to Riveria’s inquiry while taking a closer look at what was left of the man’s chin and neck area. 
Rolling the body onto its back and replacing the cloth that covered the gruesome sight, he noticed that the rest of the man’s body showed no signs of a struggle. It must have been over in an instant. 
“There had to have been a reason…Or maybe…” 
Finn raised his gaze from the body and onto a backpack in a corner of the room. 
Walking past blood-splattered armor, he made his way over to the pack to see if there were any clues left behind. Immediately, he could tell that someone had nearly torn it apart while looking through it. 
“The robed woman might’ve been after something special Hashana was carrying at the time.” 
“Ohhh, now there’s a simple answer. And because of that, the poor guy got lured into a honey trap and ended up dead.” 
“Looking at the condition of this bag…I would say the attacker was not acting in desperation, but something closer to irritation.” 
Finn, Bors, and Riveria shared their opinions. Aiz walked away from the group of observers to take a look for herself. 
The fabric was torn in many places, literally nothing more than threads holding the seams together. The bag’s contents were strewn about the room, potions and other items lying scattered across the floor. Someone searching for an item in a panic would have likely thrown everything in the same direction. This seemed more like the result of the killer venting her frustration. 
“So she couldn’t find her objective and decided to take it out on the corpse…That would make sense.” 
“Sounds like something Tione would do.” 
“I would never do anything like this!!” 
Tione howled at her sister, refusing to be compared to the murderess. 
Finn ignored their steadily escalating bickering and started looking for any leads that might still be waiting to be found among the items. 
“What have we here?” 
His sharp eyes managed to spot a bloodstained piece of paper among the shattered potion bottles and broken drop items. 
He picked it up as Aiz, Tiona, and Lefiya came to his side. 
“What’s that?” 
“A request form…for a quest?” 
He unfolded the piece of paper, but the thick bloodstains made it nearly impossible to read any of the information written on it. 
Finn squinted his eyes and held the red paper up to the light in an attempt to read what was still legible. 
“Floor thirty…Alone, collect…Secretly…” 
The group around Finn used the new information to form their own ideas about the quest’s original intent. 
A few moments passed before Finn took a guess, but they all were thinking the same thing. 
Quietly, he mumbled as if talking to himself. 
“Hashana accepted the quest, and the killer was after the thing that he went to the thirtieth floor to retrieve…?” 
Silence pervaded the room. 
Still kneeling where he had found the paper, Finn got to his feet. Then he looked up at Bors, who was standing beside him. 
“Any idea what kind of equipment Hashana usually wore?” 
“Let me think…That guy was pretty famous, but he almost never showed up in Rivira…Willy, any ideas?” 
“Well, if my memory serves me…he always had a helmet on. Looked a lot like Ganesha’s. You could never really see his face. But I don’t think he ever wore full-plated armor before this—no, I’m sure of it.” 
Finn pondered their responses, fingers resting on his chin. A long “Hmmmmm” escaped from his lips. The prum’s eyes were back on the dark wheat-colored corpse. 
Riveria took a step forward and opened her mouth to speak. 
“I believe that Hashana concealed his identity in order to carry out the quest. It is highly unlikely that he mentioned this to anyone in his familia.” 
Riveria’s emerald gaze was locked squarely on the blood-splattered armor on the floor. 
There was a strong possibility that Hashana had acquired this armor for the sole purpose of fulfilling the client’s request. Ganesha Familia’s emblem was nowhere to be seen on any of the plates. 
Considering how fast information spread, the fact that none of his former allies were taking any action at this point proved that Hashana was working alone—he’d accepted the mission directly from the client. 
“…Bors, would you seal off the town, for a bit? I don’t want anyone still here to leave Rivira.” 
Everyone’s gazes snapped to Finn the moment he made his request. 
Bors’s face wrinkled up around his eye patch as he scratched his boulder-like chin. 
“You think the killer is still walking around here like nothing happened? If it were me, I would’ve hightailed it out of here while the gettin’ was good.” 
“A powerful adventurer like Hashana was given a quest in secret…Whatever the culprit was looking for, it needed a powerful protector. At the very least, it was worth committing murder to acquire. If said item wasn’t recovered, the killer can’t exactly go back empty-handed. 
“That and,” added Finn as he licked the base of his right thumb, “I’m sure she’s still here…Got a strong hunch, anyway.” 
Bors look down meekly at the confident blue eyes staring up at him. “All right, then,” he said with a nod. 
Waving his thick arms in the air, Bors issued orders to his fellow residents in the room. 
“Close the north and south gates. Then, gather everyone in town in one spot. Restrain anyone who won’t to listen to ya—they might be the one we’re after. Willy, explain the situation to adventurers that just arrived and separate them from the main group.” 
“O-on it.” 
Tiona, Tione, Lefiya, and Aiz watched all of Bors’s subordinates trip over themselves and each other in their rush out the door. 
“Well, we walked into something big.” 
“Yeah…” 
“We’re already in this deep. Looks like it’ll be a fight to honor Hashana’s memory. We owe it to him to find the killer.” 
“Y-yes.” 
Aiz gave short responses to the Amazonian twins, her eyes focused on the now forever-silent body. 
Taking their words to heart, she resolutely raised her face and joined the others as they left the room behind. 
The town of Rivira was being shaken to the core. 
 
The air crackled with tension. 
The temperature was mild, the heat of the afternoon sun warming the street. However, the area around Loki felt ice-cold. Four people stood face-to-face, exchanging glances of surprise and suspicion. 
Bete’s declaration hung in the air for several seconds before anyone made a move. 
Seeing the wolf glare at her god, the young elf jumped in front to protect Dionysus. 
“Stand down, Filvis. You’re no match for him.” 
“But, still…Lord Dionysus.” 
The elf called Filvis didn’t move from the spot, keeping herself directly between them. 
She was a pure young elf. Face perfectly symmetrical and delicate, her eyes were like a set of unmarred red jewels framed by silky pale skin. Her outfit was mostly white, complete with a cape around her shoulders and a high collar that concealed her neck. Elves were known for exposing as little skin as possible, and she was no exception. 
Arrow-straight glossy black hair fell nearly to her waist. Carrying herself with dignity, dressed in white, she had the look and feel of a young priestess. 
What a fine-lookin’ young lady, Loki thought to herself as she watched Dionysus place his hand on the girl’s shoulder and step in front of her. 
“We shall make no attempt to run or hide. Would you be willing to hear us out, Loki?” 
“…Why not. Let’s find some place to go.” 
It was the deity’s willingness to cooperate and the sincerity in his glass-colored eyes that convinced Loki to take him up on the offer. 
They found what they were looking for in a red brick hotel facing the street nearby: a lounge with a window. Handing the owner some extra money was enough to convince him to let them make use of it. 
“If possible, I’d like to keep this conversation between us,” requested Dionysus. Of course he didn’t want strangers overhearing what he had to say, but he also wanted to keep their “children” in the dark. Loki accepted. 
“Oi, you sure about this?” 
“Eh, it’s fine. I’ll signal ya if things go sour, Bete. You’ll come to my rescue, won’cha?” 
Bete whispered into the goddess’s ear and she responded in kind. While he wasn’t all that thrilled with her answer, he went outside the hotel and stood right in front of the lounge window, ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. 
The two deities found a private booth away from the other seats in the lounge. Loki took the closest seat and looked Dionysus right in the eyes. 
“All right, spill the beans.” 
She leaned forward, her elbows on the table between them. 
Loki was determined to hear any and all information concerning the Monsterphilia and the hungry plants that Dionysus had to offer. 
“Of course,” said the deity with a nod. “To start with, I would like to resolve the misunderstanding. I am not the one behind these incidents, as you seem to believe, Loki.” 
The goddess was eyeing him like an interrogator. Dionysus’s opening statement made her raise an eyebrow, but she said nothing. He took that as his cue to keep talking. 
“Just to confirm, the information you seek all pertains to the plant monsters, am I right?” 
“Damn right. And ya showed up while I was seekin’ it.” 
“Is that right.” Dionysus gave a quick sigh. “Now where to begin…” 
The god broke eye contact, choosing to look at the table while he collected his thoughts. 
As Bete and Filvis stood side by side, facing the street just outside the window, several moments passed before Dionysus slowly opened his mouth. 
“I’m looking for those monsters. Well, I was.” 
Looking Loki in the eyes once again, he continued. 
“One month ago, several of my children were slain.” 
“!!” 
Dionysus added that she would understand if she looked for evidence at the Guild. 
“The killer’s method was simple: approach from the front, grab the neck, then break it. Three of my followers died instantly.” 
“…And their Levels were…?” 
“Two were Level One, and the last was Level Two.” 
If what the god said was true, that meant the killer had to be strong enough to kill an upper-class adventurer without a second thought. 
Loki turned her ear to listen more closely. 
“I was unable to take the deaths of my children lying down, so I launched my own investigation. During that time, I found evidence that led me to believe my children saw something they shouldn’t have, and were subsequently erased.” 
“And that would be…?” 
“This.” 
Dionysus reached into his jacket and withdrew a brilliantly colored magic stone. 
Loki watched in silence as the god placed the stone on the table. 
“The one that I found a month ago was much smaller, a fraction of a shard at best. I recovered this one on the day of the Monsterphilia, from one of the creatures that your Sword Princess slew during combat. I was lucky to get my hands on it before the Guild.” 
“…That’s one dangerous bridge yer crossin’.” 
Had he been discovered, Dionysus would have aroused suspicion and possibly been mistaken for the perpetrator. 
Dionysus smiled wryly at the mixture of awe and respect on Loki’s face. 
“Their bodies, as well as the stone fragment, were discovered in a desolate alleyway in the eastern part of the city, very close to where we are now. And then, a particularly large event was held here just a few days ago.” 
“The Monsterphilia?” 
“Yes. It may have been a coincidence, but I thought the two could be related. Thinking that something might happen, I set up a watch, and then I waited.” 
Just as he had suspected, something had happened. 
While Freya’s game of cat and mouse had caused quite a stir, the green monsters with brilliant magic stones in their throats had appeared, just as Dionysus had anticipated. 
“The reason that you found us during your investigation, and that our smell was present in the sewer system, is that we, too, were on the trail of those monsters…While it’s painful for me to admit, they were too strong for my children to overcome, and I was unable to reach any solid conclusions.” 
Dionysus’s shoulders sank, confessing his disappointment. His side of the story complete, the deity fell silent. 
He answered every single one of Loki’s follow-up questions. It turned out that the strange door to the old sewer system was also his doing. At his request, Filvis had removed the old door by force and replaced it with a similar one. 
Loki couldn’t help but admire his character, the confidence to take evidence right out from under the Guild’s nose, as well as to answer any question without hesitation despite his delicate looks. Dionysus must have figured out what Loki was thinking because a small smile began to form on his face. 
“Cut that out, will ya? Givin’ me the creeps,” said the goddess, waving her hand a few times across her face. “…Anywho, for the time bein’, I’ll take yer word. I’ll know for sure once I get to the bottom of this.” 
“Sorry about this. And thank you, Loki.” 
A long sigh escaped from Dionysus’s lips. Relief flooded through him the moment their misunderstanding had been cleared up. 
“To tell you the truth, I was trying to discern the familia of my children’s killer at Ganesha’s Banquet the other night. It was my intent to provoke the gods I suspected at the party and see what rose to the surface.” 
Oh yeah, Loki thought to herself after hearing Dionysus’s admission. Memories of that night came flooding back. 
“Are you going to cause a ruckus again?”—Yes, he had asked her that very question. 
So he was trying to provoke her then judge her reaction? 
This bastard…Loki growled to herself and nearly gritted her teeth. 
“…But the strength to suffocate a Level Two adventurer without breakin’ a sweat, that’s somethin’ else. That’s gotta mean the killer’s around Level Three or Four, yeah?” 
“Yes, I believe so as well.” 
“The list of suspects gets a heck of a lot shorter if we only look at familias with adventurers over Level Three.” 
That was the reason Dionysus had targeted Loki during his investigation. 
With high-level adventurers like Aiz Wallenstein in her court, he had no reason not to suspect Loki Familia. 
“Not quite. There are some, like Hermes, who don’t report children who have ranked up. Ignoring any of them would be careless.” 
“The dandy’s up to that kinda stuff…?” 
“Indeed. A child’s lie may be plain as day, but gods can never be sure if the words of their own kind ring true.” 
Dionysus emphasized that a considerable number of deities had no problem with bending a few rules. He straightened his shoulders for the first time since the meeting began and boldly declared: 
“As far as I’m concerned, every god and goddess in Orario is a suspect, and an enemy of my children.” 
The blond deity’s unwavering gaze met Loki’s. He was absolutely serious. 
“Ohh?” said Loki, opening her thin eyes a little wider under his glass-colored stare. 
A grin appeared on her lips. 
“So, what d’ya think of me?” she asked him casually. 
“…Much more innocent than I thought before.” 
“C’mon, go ahead an’ make that completely innocent, why don’cha?” 
Dionysus’s smile returned, irritating Loki to no end. 
“At the very least, I trust you more than any other god in Orario.” 
I wonder about that, Loki thought to herself. “Still no idea what the bad guy was after, but I got the feeling this ain’t over. Monsters in the sewer an’ all.” 
“Yes, I’m inclined to agree.” 
“Ya said ya already did some pokin’ around? Anything catch yer eye?” 
Dionysus’s smile disappeared the moment Loki asked her question. A frown grew on his face, his gaze sharpening. 
He leaned over the table and dropped his voice to make sure he wasn’t overheard. 
“How do you believe those monsters made it to the surface in the first place, Loki?” 
“…Well, you’d think Ganesha’s kids woulda brought ’em up for the Monsterphilia.” 
Several types of monsters had been captured in the Dungeon and taken to the Coliseum in the days leading up to the festival. 
Ganesha’s followers were the only ones who could do so without appearing suspicious or being investigated by the Guild. 
“But we’re talkin’ ’bout Ganesha here. He loves kids. Him, doin’ somethin’ he knew would put ’em in danger? Wouldn’t happen.” 
She could see the dark-skinned deity in the back of her mind, wearing his usual elephant mask and making his usual strange declarations. 
Ganesha’s love for the children of Gekai bordered on blind stupidity. Of all the deities living in the city, he was by far the least likely suspect. Loki took it a step further and said that investigating him at all would be a waste of time. 
“It’s more likely that someone like a certain airheaded vixen swiped the monsters from the shadows, or one of Ganesha’s kids is pullin’ the strings…” 
Dionysus cut her off, shaking his head. 
“That’s not it, Loki. You’re starting from false premises.” 
The deity leaned in even closer, their faces aligned and gazes locked. 
“Who was it that ordered Ganesha Familia to retrieve monsters from the Dungeon? Going back even further, who was it that came up with the Monsterphilia in the first place?” 
Loki’s eyes shot open. 
“Ya sayin’ the Guild’s behind everything?” 
Dionysus’s silence was his confirmation. 
“That’s crazy…” Loki mumbled, gazing at the deity’s face and shaking her head. 
“They’ve protected Orario’s peace, the Guild. Yer pointin’ yer finger at Ouranos? You’d be threatenin’ the whole city.” 
“Even so, they are at the top of my list. At the very least, I have a good reason to suspect the Guild.” 
It was true that the Monsterphilia had been first proposed by the Guild. It hadn’t been born from the gods’ eccentric impulses. 
The festival itself was still rather new and had only been organized relatively recently. When it was first brought to Denatus—the meeting of gods and goddesses—the Guild didn’t explain much about it, only that it would be “interesting.” But that was enough to get their plan approved. 
Only now did Loki understand why Dionysus put himself in so much danger to retrieve the magic stone before the Guild could. He had already suspected them and needed to make the first move. 
Loki sat quietly in her chair. 
Keeping her mouth closed, she only eyed the deity with caution. It was Dionysus who finally broke the silence. 
“I have a suggestion.” 
“…?” 
“Would you be willing to investigate the Guild for me?” 
His words hit her like a stone wall. It took almost a full minute for her to respond. 
“Wanna run that by me again?” 
“Should the Guild have someone at or above Level Three at their disposal…If Ouranos has warriors under his command, it’s too dangerous for my own familia to get too close. On the other hand, as the leader of one of the strongest familias in Orario, you don’t have that problem, Loki.” 
“Oi, quit horsin’ around! Who would actually do somethin’ that idiotic?!” 
Dionysus was unaffected by Loki’s angry outburst, letting her words brush past him like the afternoon breeze. 
His eyes narrowed again, a faint look of sadness on his face. 
“You can’t pretend that none of this ever happened, either—can you, Loki?” 
—This bastard. 
Loki grabbed hold of the deity’s collar, raising her right hand high, filled with the urge to drive her palm into Dionysus’s perfectly shaped cheek. 
He was right. Now that Aiz and her other beautiful children were involved, she couldn’t just sit silently on the sidelines. And now that she had a solid lead, she couldn’t just let it drop. 
But above all, she hated the satisfied smile on Dionysus’s face. His grin widened, white teeth glistening. 
“…Ya planned on draggin’ me into this from the very start, didn’t ya?” 
“Of course not. This is complete coincidence, I assure you.” 
Loki clicked her tongue. She couldn’t help but feel like she had walked right into a trap, and now the weight of her role was clamped tightly to her shoulders. 
While Dionysus denied Loki’s accusation, he did admit to one thing. 
“But yes, I was looking for some assistance.” 
Loki no longer tried to hide her contempt for the brazen god. 
One look at her eyes and Dionysus flashed another grin. As Loki’s grip on his collar loosened, the god slowly rose to his feet. 
“Of course, I will be continuing my own investigation. But please, give it some thought. You’ll be the first to know if I find anything else.” With that, Dionysus left the lounge. 
Loki watched him with a glare intense enough to burn a hole in his back. “Dammit…” she mumbled to herself through gritted teeth as she sat up in the chair. Putting both hands behind her head, she looked up at the ceiling and gathered her thoughts. 
Completely forgetting the time, she didn’t even notice when Filvis disappeared from the window. 
She didn’t snap out of the trance until Bete came to the lounge to check on her. 
“Oi, finished yet?” 
Loki didn’t move, or even look at him. A heavy moment passed before she brought her hands back down to her sides and, full of resolve, jumped to her feet. 
“Sorry ’bout this, Bete, but could ya stick with me a little longer?” 
The werewolf was caught off guard by his goddess’s serious manner. Sighing to himself, he obeyed without argument. The two left the hotel and turned onto East Main Street. Arriving in Central Park, they set their sights to the Northwest. 
As soon as they arrived on Northwest Main Street, affectionately known as Adventurers Way, the solemn Pantheon—the white marble building that served as Guild headquarters—came into view. 
“Bete, wait for me here.” 
“Again…?” 
“If I ain’t back in an hour, somethin’ probably happened to me and ya can charge in all ya want. Countin’ on ya.” 
Giving Bete orders to stay put once again, Loki walked halfway across the Guild headquarters’ grounds and came to a stop. 
Now it was important not to draw unwanted attention. Going in alone was best. After all, she didn’t want to get kicked out before they heard what she had to say. 
She needed to get to the Guild’s very core, to a certain god who sat in the inner circle. 
“Well, then, wonder what I’m gonna find…” 
After a moment to admire the superb architecture and craftsmanship of the building, Loki started walking once again. 
An open blue sky high above her head, she brushed shoulders of adventurers as they walked by and passed through the front doors of the Pantheon. 
 
The town of Rivira was humming with unrest after Bors gave the order to seal the exits. 
Many people watched as groups of powerful dwarves pushed boulders into the north and south gates. 
The town of pristine white and blue crystals had been transformed into a prison. 
“That didn’t take long.” 
“Because I threatened anyone who didn’t show up with being put on our blacklist and gettin’ thrown out of all our shops. Anyone afraid of losing the privilege of using our facilities will follow orders, even if they don’t like it.” 
“That, and they’re afraid to be alone, I bet.” 
“Yeah,” said Bors, nodding at Finn’s assessment. The two of them looked over the crowd. Each face showed different levels of unease and fear as the mass of people shifted nervously from side to side. 
They knew what was going on. Bors had already informed them of Hashana’s murder. It was an understandable reaction to finding out that a powerful adventurer with no qualms about taking a life could be hiding among them. 
Everyone had gathered in Crystal Square. Not only was it the center of town, but the wide clearing also had an amazing view of the surrounding area. Two gigantic crystals, one white and one blue, stood like twins in the middle of the clearing. Hashana’s blood-splattered full-plated armor and a few of his other belongings had been placed at the foot of the crystals. 
Hundreds of adventurers stood in front of the many tents and makeshift shops that surrounded the square. 
“This’d be real easy if we found a top-class adventurer other than you guys mixed in with the rest…” 
“She probably wanted a scene from the get-go. Either she’s in disguise or has an unreported Level…I’m certain she’s taken steps to avoid sticking out.” 
“So we’re not dealin’ with an idiot.” 
Finn and Bors stood at their perch under the shadow of the twin crystals and continued looking through the crowd. 
Rough estimates of the number of adventurers and shop owners in Crystal Square were around five hundred. Considering that many adventurers used Rivira as a base for their own Dungeon prowling, it wasn’t a particularly low number, but not all that high, either. 
“It’s going to take forever to check everyone…” 
“True, but…we can narrow it down quite a bit.” 
Tiona was overwhelmed by the sheer number of adventurers they would have to question, but her eyes went wide with Aiz’s response. “What do you mean?” 
“It was a woman who killed Hashana…” 
“Oh, I see! We only have to talk to the female adventurers!” 
“You should’ve been able to figure that out by yourself…” Tione was dumbfounded by her sister’s reaction to what she considered to be obvious. 
“To refine our investigation further still, said woman needs to have a body that men desire,” Riveria added. 
“This’ll be a piece of cake!” said Tiona with her fist in the air. Lefiya looked on, not noticing the strained smile forming on her face. 
“This would go a whole lot faster if we could see their Status or at least their Levels. But that would violate the rules in place to protect our privacy.” 
“Not to mention that we would draw the resentment of every familia in Orario.” 
Lefiya added to Riveria’s comment. 
They watched from their perch atop a low boulder as men and women were divided into two groups. About two hundred of the adventurers in the square were female, most of whom were Amazons. It almost looked like a witch hunt from the Ancient Times, with all the men surrounding the female suspects. 
One of the Amazons puffed out her chest and declared she was guilty of nothing. A young cat person crossed her arms to express her anger and frustration, tail swishing back and forth. 
It was the “afternoon” on the eighteenth floor of the Dungeon. 
A large hourglass had been placed at the front of the square—it didn’t tell time so much as show when the next “night” would fall. There wasn’t much sand left in the top as the group made their preparations. 
The “sky” shone bright blue overhead as they started to focus on finding someone with the criminal’s body type. 
“I believe it would be easiest to start the investigation by physically examining the suspects and their baggage.” 
“Hee-hee-hee, well, if you insist…” 
Bors laughed like a dirty old man at Finn’s suggestion and turned to face the crowd of women. 
“You heard him, ladies? We need to check every inch of your bodies—so off with the clothes!!” 
“HELL YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!” 
Bors’s demand sent all the men into a frenzy. 
“As if!” “Burn in hell!” The women wouldn’t have anything to do with it. Glaring at the men waving their hands in the air and overflowing with enthusiasm, all the female adventurers voiced their refusal in no uncertain terms. 
“Enough with the foolish assumptions. We will conduct the investigation, not them.” 
“Okay, then.” “All right.” “Where’s his masculine solidarity?” “U-understood.” 
Ignoring the moans of disappointment coming from the male adventurers, Riveria stepped forward to begin the process. She called out to Aiz and the others to follow her into position. 
Complaints from the men filled Crystal Square as the members of Aiz’s battle party lined up shoulder to shoulder and waited for the female adventurers to come to them. 
“Now then, please line up, here…” 
Lefiya paused in her instructions. 
Looking around, she noticed that none of the female adventurers were coming to her, or any of the other girls for that matter. Instead, there was a mad rush to line up in front of Finn. The queue was already snaking its way around the square. 
“Finn, hurry up and inspect me!” “Please!” “Every inch of me!!” 
“………” 
Finn didn’t know how to react as an avalanche of women threatened to overrun his position. 
“Braver” Finn Deimne. 
As a top-class adventurer, he also held the title of being the first or second most popular man among the ladies in Orario. 
“Damn those sluts…!!” 
“Wait, Tione!” 
“Let go of me! Can’t you see how those perverts have their eyes set on the general?!” 
The sight of a small army of women overwhelming Finn infuriated Tione. 
Tiona jumped in at the last moment, holding her older sister back in a desperate attempt to stop her. “Look in the mirror, would you?!” she retorted. 
“Finn’s getting pushed down!” 
“Oh no, they’re trying to take him home!” 
“—URGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!” 
The prum was in danger of being carried away by the mob, and the jealous roars of the male adventurers echoed through the air. 
Tione was ready to snap. Breaking free of her sister’s hold, she charged headlong into the chaos that had descended on Crystal Square. 
“Um, ehh…” 
“Ahh, I don’t even know what’s happening anymore…” 
It would be impossible to find the killer in this mess. Aiz and Lefiya watched quietly, both feeling a headache coming on. 
Riveria and Tiona did their best to intervene but were unable to get the pandemonium under control. 
“…?” 
Aiz couldn’t bear to watch anymore and looked away from Finn. At that moment, she happened to catch a glimpse of someone toward the back of the mob. 
A chienthrope girl with a midsized bag slung over her shoulder. 
Most of her skin was the color of wheat, the one exception being her face. It was pale green, as though she might be sick at any moment. 
“Miss Aiz?” 
Lefiya noticed the blond girl had spotted something. The elf followed her line of sight and found the suspicious dog person. 
She stood out like a sore thumb among the frenzied women, her eyes darting between the twin crystals in sheer terror. 
She took a step back, then another. The mob engulfed her for a moment before she used the commotion as cover to make her escape. 
“—Let’s go.” 
“Y-yes!” 
They could hardly afford to ignore her at this point. 
Aiz and Lefiya exchanged a quick nod before taking off in hot pursuit. 
 
“Such a pain…” 
She sighed and muttered to herself, disappointed in this turn of events as she watched the women fight over a prum. 
Killing him might’ve been rash…but he saw too much, and he had to be silenced after. Enyo’s gonna be pissed. 
She could still feel Hashana’s last breath and his neck snapping under her fingers. 
She cracked the knuckles in her right hand while feeling more and more trapped, with nowhere to go. 
“Now then, what to do…Freedom of movement is a thing of the past…And it might not be in this town anymore…Although my gut tells me otherwise…” 
More talking under her breath. 
Watching the events taking place in the square like a hawk, she hid among the crowd and started to plan her next move. 
And I’ve got to worry about “Aria” on top of all this…Such a pain… 
Growing more irritated by the moment, she briefly considered killing everyone in the square. The moment that that thought crossed her mind—her eyes caught quick flashes of movement. 
An animal person breaking away from the mob, with a blond-haired knight and the elf magic user on her tail. 
Sensing an aura of desperation from all the girls, both chasers and pursued, she watched the three of them disappear from the square. 
“…” 
Ker-thump. She dug her heel into the ground and changed direction. 
Making her way through the mob as quickly and quietly as she could while ignoring the suspicious glances coming from all directions, she took off after the girls. 
Far above, the water-blue crystals on the ceiling sparkled like the sky. 
Slowly but surely, that sparkle dimmed as “night” fell over the town.