CHAPTER 4
A SKIRMISH IN DAEDALUS STREET
The strategy began with Lilly.
“What are those monsters braying about?”
“Find where those cries are coming from!”
The howling had sent the adventurers in Daedalus Street into an uproar. Amid the chaos, a young prum boy snuck down a back alley. Once he was out of view, he drew close to a dingy wall and put his hand to his forehead.
“Stroke of midnight’s bell.”
A film of gray light enwrapped the boy’s body and then melted away to reveal Lilly, who had just deactivated the shape-shifting Cinder Ella spell.
“Ooh, I hate this. It’s so scary. If the adventurers catch me, they’ll kill me on the spot. Why do I have to be the one to do it…?”
Mumbling to herself dramatically, she prepared for what she had to do next.
She lowered her chestnut eyebrows and closed her eyes.
“Your scars are mine. My scars are mine.”
As her petite lips uttered the chant, the magic once again transformed her appearance.
In an instant, she was wearing a bulky blue battle jacket and a broken watch around her neck. She had a fluffy round tail, long ears, and round, shifty red eyes. She had become an al-miraj, or rabbit monster.
So long as she resembled the thing she was transforming herself into, Lilly had the power to take on the appearance of a monster using Cinder Ella. Now that she was the al-miraj Aruru—whom she felt had the least unpleasant appearance of all the smaller Xenos—she bounded resolutely out of the shadows.
“Kuuuuu!” [I can’t do this!] She shrieked with her no-longer-human voice.
The adventurers quickly found her.
“I—I see one!”
“A monster! In the alley!”
Shouting wildly, they poured from the main avenue into the side street.
Mad with desire for a bounty, eyes bloodshot, swords and axes hoisted, they chased their prey as it hopped this way and that. Those greedy bastards! No wonder adventurers have a lousy reputation! Putting her own identity aside for the moment, Lilly uttered a rabbit’s curses.
Still, the adventurers were a ferocious and quick-witted bunch. Cinder Ella allowed her to change her appearance but not to take on a Status higher than her own or a monster’s potential. Some of the adventurers pursuing her were upper class, and since she was merely an ordinary supporter, she feared they would quickly catch her. Fact of the matter was, they nearly did catch her more than once.
Every time that happened, she fled into a blind corner and quickly deactivated Cinder Ella.
“Stroke of midnight’s bell.”
Once back in her own form, Lilly walked right past the demonic adventurers, feigning innocence.
Transform, deactivate. Transform, deactivate. Her pursuers’ irritation mounted each time the al-miraj disappeared just before being caught. Every time their shoulders and bodies collided as they crisscrossed every celch of the narrow alleys, an exchange of shouting and verbal abuse would follow.
With the sound of growing chaos in her ears, Lilly used her magic over and over again, panting as she frantically hopped around the Labyrinth District.
“Oh, I hate Fels…!”
Even as she cursed the sage who had devised this plan, however, Lilly poured everything she had into her designated role.
“There’s an al-miraj on the loose!”
“It’s over in that direction. Go get it!”
Bell was in a different part of the Labyrinth District’s south side, but the frantic shouts of the adventurers had spread to where he was.
“…!”
Eina, who had been stunned by the howling of Lido and the other Xenos, was still holding Bell close to her. Now that an opportune moment had arrived, Bell carefully extracted his arm from hers. By the time she noticed, he was already running.
“I’m sorry, Miss Eina!” he yelled, glancing back as he gained distance.
“Huh?! Bell!”
“You can get mad at me later!”
“Oh, you…!”
Eina’s indignation was only for show, however. In truth, she wanted to run after him. No—she wanted to stop him from going. She was beside herself with worry that he would run straight into danger and get himself hurt. But Bell was an adventurer and Eina was a Guild employee. She had come this far fueled by personal feelings and passion, but now she had to fulfill her duty as a worker.
“…Uh-oh, I forgot to give him that bracelet he lost, the one Hermes gave me.”
She glanced down at the band on her right arm, her expression changing from anger to worry.
Meanwhile, Bell was running straight down the street away from Eina.
“Bell. It seems that two of the lost Xenos are on the east side of Daedalus Street.”
Hestia’s muffled voice filtered through his mantle from the gauntlet underneath. Fels must told her the location of the Xenos who responded to Lido’s call, and now she was relaying it to him.
“Hmm…That’s a good distance from where I am on the south side. So…” he whispered into the oculus.
“Please keep focusing on diverting attention, as we planned.”
Bell nodded.
Miss Aiz is still following me…and just like we wanted, other adventurers are tracking me, too.
He glanced over his shoulder at Aiz, who was following him by running from rooftop to rooftop. As he looked back, he noticed that while some of his pursuers were closing in on him, he could also sense the eyes of others who were following at a set distance, neither approaching nor receding, like hunters. Perhaps on orders from their patron deities, they had not run off to chase the al-miraj but instead kept after Bell, the more certain bet. If he included those he couldn’t see clearly, there seemed to be quite a few chasing him. It was like they thought Bell would lead them to some enormous pile of gold.
But if the eyes of Loki Familia aren’t on me, the diversion isn’t working. My only choice is to shake off these people once, along with Aiz, too!
He increased his pace and turned down one of the innumerable alleys branching off the main road.
“!”
“Hurry up, before you lose sight of him!”
Skirting the pack of adventurers on the wild goose chase after Lilly, Bell headed to the neighboring southeastern district. The adventurers followed. Bell was happy to lure them this far, but now he needed some way to pin them there so they would stay in the southeast while he continued on.
Nahza and Lyu, I’m counting on you for the rest!
He slipped into a shadow where his followers could not see him, withdrew a stink bag, and sprinkled the contents over his head to mask his scent. Then he pulled off his black mantle, turned it inside out, and threw it back on so that it covered his entire body. The next instant, he had disappeared without a trace.
“?!”
“Where’d the Little Rookie go?”
Bell listened to the hubbub all around him. He could sense Aiz’s astonishment as well.
He had used the Reverse Veil, one of Fels’s magic items.
Like Asfi’s Hades Head, it turned whoever wore it invisible. But in contrast with the Kaos Head, which made its wearer invisible no matter what, Bell’s veil was reversible, so the user could benefit from its powers as needed. An ordinary mantle swiftly became a tool for secrecy and stealth.
Leaving the surprised adventurers and Aiz behind, Bell moved away, still veiled.
“Where is that little twerp hiding…?”
The adventurers searching for Bell were growing irritated at the complicated streets and numerous obstacles. Just then, they noticed something.
“What’s that sweet smell…?”
The animal people were the first to notice, but soon others, too, were sniffing suspiciously at the faint perfume.
They forgot their suspicion, however, when a human in the pack shouted out.
“I saw him! The Little Rookie! He went into that house!”
A crazed look came over the adventurers’ faces, and they rushed in the direction he was pointing. Swearing at Bell for putting them through so much trouble, they burst into a barrack in a back alley.
“Not that one, this one! Over by the main road!”
“What?!”
“M-monster! It’s a monster!”
Amid all the shouts flying back and forth, the adventurers began to get confused. What should they make of all the claims of monster sightings or of the fact that Bell Cranell seemed to be popping up in multiple places? Each band of adventurers began to distrust all the others, suspecting they were trying to trick the rest and slip away.
“Hey, I don’t see anything in here at all! Not a monster or the Little Rookie!” said a dwarf upper-class adventurer.
“B-but it’s true! He’s over there—behind you!”
The dwarf turned his head in the direction the animal person—also an upper-class adventurer—was pointing, but not a soul was there. Flushed with fury, he punched the animal person in the face.
“Wow…these things really do make people hallucinate!” Nahza murmured.
She was standing at a distance, listening to the angry and confused voices inside the building as she pressed a damp scarf to her nose. In her other hand, she held two wilted flowers. Their petals were blue and red, and when she looked closely she could make out fine grains of golden pollen floating from them. They were another of Fels’s magic items.
To use the flowers, the person first had to impress a certain image on their memory. Whoever breathed in the pollen after that would see visions of that object or person. Certain abilities warded off the illusions, but in a large group of adventurers like this, they were rather effective. Lower-class adventurers and upper-class adventurers who hadn’t yet gained any immunity shouted out alerts about whatever they saw. The flowers had plunged both the southern sector, where Lilly was, and the southeastern sector into chaos.
Holding the magic flowers in one hand, Nahza wandered through the night streets as she pleased. Bell had explained how the flowers worked and asked her to simply walk around the southern part of Daedalus Street holding them.
“I wonder where he got these…I’d sure love to know.”
Fascinated by the flowers, Nahza tilted her head quizzically.
“What could Bell and his familia be up to…?”
“He’s disappeared?”
Aiz had been sprinting from roof to roof as she followed Bell. Now she peered down, astonishment in her golden eyes.
She’d thought he was simply hiding in the shadows for a moment, but he’d suddenly disappeared.
She stopped running and searched the surrounding area from her high perch.
No, he’s still here.
She had sensed his presence. No matter how well he erased his scent and form, he could not evade the perceptive powers of the first-tier adventurer, who was able to discern the faintest footsteps and hints of presence. Immediately, the veteran swordswoman guessed that he had become invisible.
While the confused adventurers below her chased after mistaken sightings of the boy, Aiz sped through the Labyrinth District in pursuit of the real Bell.
“Sword Princess.”
“!”
A figure was blocking Aiz’s way forward. The masked adventurer who stood before her wore a long hooded cape and long boots resembling Aiz’s own. She drew a wooden sword from her hip.
“I ask you for a contest.”
Aiz looked at her in surprise.
“Now?…Here?”
As a leader of the city’s largest faction, Aiz had dealt with surprise attacks many times. An assault from an unknown foe was nothing surprising. Neither was it unusual for a fighter confident in her swordsmanship to ask for a contest with the Sword Princess.
She was only surprised that it was happening in this situation.
“I am a creature of the shadows. It is only in a situation like this that I can match my sword against yours,” the mysterious figure said.
Her quiet voice did not sound as if it was lying. And interestingly enough, this fighter had an aura not entirely unlike the Sword Princess’s. Aiz felt a twinge of something akin to empathy.
But could the timing really be a coincidence?
Her hand on the hilt of her favorite sword, she thought of the boy speeding away from her.
“Pardon me, but I insist.”
Aiz was still trying to decide whether or not to ignore the request when the masked adventurer flew at her on sure feet, her sword slicing the air.
She was incredibly fast!
The speed of the stranger’s wooden sword suggested she was a first-tier adventurer. Left with no choice, Aiz drew her own weapon. As the sound of blade hitting blade echoed into the night, the momentum of the fight carried the two combatants from the roof down to the alley below.
Aiz knew that even if she had prioritized the pursuit of Bell, the masked adventurer would likely have followed her. Since that would prevent her from watching the boy properly, she had decided to return the attack of the opponent at hand.
Those sparks of light…
Watching as brilliant specks drifted from beneath the masked adventurer’s cape, Aiz remained locked in swordplay.
“Um, is that elf going to be okay…?”
A worried look on her face, Haruhime gazed in the direction of the masked adventurer. Hestia, who was looking down at the magical map, also followed her movements.
“All we can do is trust in the elf. She is a very capable fighter, but judging by what I saw in Daedalus Street, that little Wallen-something-or-other is unbelievably strong herself…”
Shortly before, Lyu, the masked elf, had visited Hestia and Haruhime at their post on the southern edge of the Labyrinth District. Bell had asked her to prevent Aiz from following him, and as per his instructions, she had come for a level boost. Haruhime’s powerful sorcery was indispensable if Lyu was going to take up much of the Sword Princess’s time.
And so, in the southeastern section of the Labyrinth District, a battle far too fierce for an ordinary skirmish was playing out between Level 5 and Level 6 adventurers.
“Goddess!”
“Bell?”
“Thanks to Lyu, I was able to get away from Aiz…but I haven’t been able to attract any of the other Loki Familia members. Maybe it would be better if I went to Wiene and the others…?”
He was worried that if he couldn’t draw attention toward himself, the Xenos would be risking capture.
“Wait a second, Bell,” Hestia said. “Not knowing your location must be scary for Loki Familia. At the very least, worry will be lurking at the back of their minds. You know yourself how difficult an invisible enemy can be, right?”
“Well, yes…”
“Do you still have any magic items? If you do, I want you to stay invisible and cause some disturbance among the adventurers. And don’t let Loki Familia find you. Our supporters should be making their move soon, too.”
“…Got it!”
Having convinced Bell to hold firm, Hestia let out a sigh of relief. But a moment later, she was frowning.
“I know I just said that to Bell…but damn. Loki Familia’s formation hasn’t budged.”
“Lady Lilly and Master Bell are doing their best…” Haruhime said.
Despite the frenetic movements of Bell’s and Lilly’s symbols on the map, however, Loki Familia still encircled the central zone of the Labyrinth District. At least the magic-stone lanterns they could see from the roof hadn’t moved.
Lifting their gazes from the magic map, the goddess and the girl looked out impatiently at the central zone.
“So they’ve made their move,” Finn murmured.
Information had begun to come in after the monsters signaled the start of the battle with their howls.
“Word is an al-miraj showed up to the south! And there have been multiple monster sightings in the southeast, too!”
“Bell Cranell was in the southeast as well! And, uh, 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 west is where I smell something suspicious. Elfie, tell Tione and the others in the northwest to move to the ninety-eighth block and take up positions there.”
In fact, the news that Bell had managed to shake off Aiz surprised Finn, but he didn’t let it show as he rapidly fired off commands. Seeing the calm demeanor of the captain, the other familia members remained composed themselves, responding with a “Yes, General!” before briskly setting to work.
They were in Daedalus Street’s central zone. Like Hestia, Finn had installed himself on top of a tall building with a good view of the whole district. The wide-open, windswept rooftop brought to mind an old castle.
Loki Familia communicated by signaling with magic-stone lamps. Familia members were on standby on various rooftops, continually updating central command about what was happening on the ground by flashing the lamps.
Something must have prevented Aiz from moving. An ambush? I hadn’t expected the enemy to be so strong…but it’s fine. Aiz will probably be back on track soon.
Finn had rested the shaft of his long spear against his right shoulder and was thinking about the situation.
The enemy group is probably fairly large. The fact that our lookouts and scouts haven’t spotted any of them and they haven’t gotten caught in any of the nets most likely means either that one of them is very familiar with the terrain in Daedalus Street or they have some kind of magic item. Maybe both.
Finn had deduced that the enemy was clustered in one main group due to the likely number of keys to Knossos. Based on the information from Ikelos, he guessed there were no more than two. And there would be no point in the monsters reaching Knossos, which was below the zone that Loki Familia was currently guarding, if they weren’t able to open the door. Counting adventurers from other factions, Finn’s side was patently superior to the monsters in both number and might. And if the two sides encountered each other, it was very unlikely that the enemy would spread out and attack from all directions. That would not be an option for creatures so unwilling to leave behind any of their brethren. Finn had witnessed their strong camaraderie when he crossed swords with them before.
The fact that they had risked revealing their location by letting out those howls must mean they were signaling the jet-black minotaur and the other monsters who had been separated during the battle several days before.
The enemy’s movements are what worries me…despite what I said about the west being the most suspicious.
Finn looked down at his right hand. His thumb was not throbbing.
He looked back out at the Labyrinth District, then turned to a faction member he had held back with him.
“Any news about the black minotaur?”
“Nothing so far.”
“I see…We’ll hold the formation. For now, I’m going to wait and see what happens,” the prum faction leader said.
He resumed his quiet watch.
“Wow…the captain is incredible. Just like he said, the battle has begun.”
Raul Nord was a lackluster second-tier adventurer in Loki Familia. Despite his Level 4 Status, he didn’t make much of an impression on members of other factions. This was due mostly to his personality. He was the polar opposite of Finn and the other leaders. By his own account, he had accumulated excelia by stealthily picking up opportunities others left behind. This was one reason for his poor self-esteem, the end result of which was his reputation as a bore. His exceedingly average appearance—black hair and black eyes, medium height and weight, and facial features that were neither overly handsome nor especially ugly—probably didn’t help. The deities had given him the alias “High Novice.”
In short, the distinguished leaders of the faction, in whose presence he simply withered, constantly overwhelmed him.
Even now, the human boy was in awe of Finn’s ability to accurately assess the state of the battle, and he whispered in amazement as he looked out over the southern and southwestern areas, which were roiling with activity.
“Raul!”
He turned around, surprised by the voice calling his name.
“Um, uh…Captain?!”
It was the very same prum commander he had just been marveling at.
Raul was in the western sector of the Labyrinth District, on a line of defense some distance from the central zone. The sight of Finn walking along the front, not back at headquarters where everyone expected him to be, threw other familia members present into similar confusion.
“Wh-why are you here, General? Don’t you need to be directing the action…?”
“The main monster force has arrived in the southeast! And so has the black minotaur! Meet Aiz there and crush them! Tell your unit—we’re changing formation! I’ll join you there!”
“Yes, sir!” Raul said, standing at attention and responding reflexively to Finn’s strong tone as he mentioned the black minotaur.
“Also, Raul, do you remember our positions in Knossos?”
“Uh, do you mean the underground Knossos? I remember, but—”
“Tell me what they are. Something has been bothering me.”
Raul was flustered but obeyed Finn’s command.
“Uh, Gareth and his group should be guarding the four doors we discovered—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!”
As Finn set off in that direction, Raul shifted into frantic action, passing on his leader’s command to those posted near him. He was a bit concerned that no similar order had come through the signaling device, but he told himself it was all right because he’d heard it directly from Finn himself. He ceded his own judgment to the order from his eminently accomplished superior.
But what happened to the captain’s spear…?
The memory of Finn standing there empty-handed struck him as strange.
“Huff, puff…!”
Finn was running at full speed.
He flew down the steps at the end of the alley, looked around to make sure that no one was nearby, and then, still running, pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Stroke of midnight’s bell.”
Finn’s form instantly dissolved into thin air. In his place stood Lilly.
“I did it!”
Once again, she’d used Cinder Ella.
“My apologies to you, Finn, but that fuss over the marriage proposal really came in handy!”
Cinder Ella allowed Lilly to transform her external appearance, but she couldn’t fool anyone unless she imitated the personality of whomever she was impersonating. When Finn proposed to her, she had come to understand his character, and in that sense the experience was now proving extremely useful. Her sharp insight, honed through her former career as a thief, had efficiently analyzed Finn’s speech patterns, mannerisms, and character.
It wasn’t that the memory of his earnest feelings left her completely cold, but her own life and that of the Xenos were on the line. She had no other option. And so, to deceive Loki Familia, she had transformed herself into a spot-on copy of Finn.
Lilly’s role in the storming of Daedalus Street was both to create a distraction, like Bell, and to use his actions as a cover for spying.
Most of Loki Familia’s members were upper-class adventurers, and the Guild made their basic profiles public. In order to successfully fulfill her role as spy, Lilly had memorized them all. Her old thief’s sense had told her that the High Novice would be the easiest to control, and therefore she had targeted him.
“He’s as simple as Bell!”
Quite pleased with herself, she insulted both adventurers at once as she took an oculus out of her pocket.
Her cheeks flushed, she shouted into the crystal the information she’d extracted.
“As we suspected, the guards are posted at the northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast doors of Knossos.”
“Well done, Supporter!”
“Lady Lilly, you’re amazing!”
Having listened to Lilly’s report through the oculus, Hestia and Haruhime applauded her.
“With this, we’ll be able to breach their defenses…!”
Hestia Familia’s ace in the hole was Daedalus’s Notebook.
As Fels had pointed out, there was a high likelihood that Loki Familia had not discovered all the entry points shown in the book’s maps. The aim of Lilly’s spying had been to find an unobstructed route into Knossos.
Hestia flipped through the pages of the book, which she had with her in addition to the map spread out on the rooftop. She was trying to figure out which of the unguarded entrances to the upper floor of Knossos—in other words, the one directly below Daedalus Street—was closest to the Xenos’s current location.
“The west one! Fels, the western door is unguarded!”
“Thank you, Goddess Hestia!”
The blue crystal at the far end of the row of oculi—the one connected to Fels—sparkled brightly.
The sign hanging at the entrance of the backstreet in western Daedalus Street read 98TH BLOCK.
“Hey, everyone is up in arms about some monsters on the south side. Don’t you think we should head over there, too?”
“Yeah…damn it, we’re off the mark again.”
The pair of adventurers was walking down the abandoned tunnel-like street. One was a human, the other a dwarf. All the other adventurers guarding the area had rushed off to the south side as soon as they heard about the monsters.
On the ceiling above the two stragglers, something was listening to their conversation.
“?!”
Without a sound, the scarlet tail dangling behind the two men wrapped itself around the dwarf’s neck.
Unable to cry out, he was whisked upward off the street.
“Huh? Where’d ya—Ack?!”
The dwarf’s ax was knocked from his hand by the impact of the attack and fell onto the back of his companion’s head.
Looking up, he saw a lizardman clad in armor, his four feet stuck to the ceiling. Easily hoisting up the hefty dwarf, the monster was now looking down on the man with glittering yellow eyes.
The terrified human opened his mouth to scream, but before he could—
“Pardon me.”
A mellifluent female voice that one wouldn’t expect to hear in such a location echoed from directly behind him. In the next instant, a strange sound wave emanated from directly next to his ear and overwhelmed him.
“Ah-ah-aahh…!”
“Ouch!”
Robbed of both his balance and his consciousness, he fell flat on his face, blood streaming from his ears. The dwarf fainted as well and fell from the rooftop, bubbles frothing from his mouth. The two adventurers lay sprawled on the stone pavement.
“Thanks to Bellucchi and the others, the adventurers have really thinned out…But of course there are still some around,” Lido said, dropping from the ceiling with a thump.
“It’s unlikely things will go easily,” the siren Rei responded.
A lamia and a troll, who had been waiting nearby, poked their faces into the tunnel and then ran over to hide the unconscious adventurers in the shadows. Wiene, still an apprentice, rushed to help.
“They sure are good at this…” Welf said.
“Yes, they really are. They’re as stealthy as the ninjas in my hometown…” Mikoto replied. She and Welf had already seen the Xenos take down quite a few adventurers, but they couldn’t help commenting on their skill once again.
“We had to do it all the time in the Dungeon,” explained the gargoyle Gros, standing next to them. Shortly before, he had been hiding among the stone statues in the Labyrinth District and attacking one unsuspecting adventurer after the next.
“Lady Haruhime, are you sure it’s near here?” Mikoto said into the oculus she had just taken out.
“Yes, Lady Mikoto. The closest one to it is…Lady Wiene.”
“Me?” the dragon girl asked, cocking her head. She tapped her bluish-white hand along the wall of the tunnel until one of the stones slipped in with a grinding noise.
“Oh!” she exclaimed in surprise as the wall slid aside to reveal the entrance to a hidden passage.
“Hurry up, before Loki Familia gets here. According to Hestia, Braver is a cut above us.”
Fels and the Xenos were advancing through Daedalus Street by way of secret passageways and hidden doors in order to avoid adventurers and Loki Familia scouts. One reason Fels had asked Hestia to get the Legacy of Daedalus map from Ouranos was that some of the secret passages in the area were unknown even to the mage.
This one, like many of the others they had used, was thick with dust.
Lido breathed flames to serve as an impromptu torch in the stone passageway, which was completely devoid of magic-stone lamps, and the group headed down it. The unicorn neighed as if seized by a fit of coughing, tossing its silvery mane.
“It’s Lido, right? There’s a branch in the passageway up there. Please take the route that slopes down to the right. The next exit will take you out right near Loki Familia.”
“Got it, Goddess.”
Having Hestia guiding them was a huge help. Not only could they proceed smoothly through the tangled streets of the Labyrinth District while the adventurers were busy getting lost, her support also enabled them to use secret passageways like this one. It was thanks largely to the communication support from her and Haruhime that the circus-like procession of Xenos had remained undiscovered.
“You’re the one who surveyed the Labyrinth District, right? Don’t you remember where the hidden passageways are?” Welf asked Fels.
“Well, it’s been six hundred years since I made that map. Certain points are less than clear,” the mage replied, black robe shifting as if with a sigh. “I made the map at Ouranos’s request. It took me five years just to survey the ordinary streets, you know…”
“And you didn’t find any streets that led to Knossos?” Mikoto asked.
“No, probably because I was only able to map the surface. Or maybe it was that six hundred years ago the expansion had not yet begun.”
“You’re just a sore loser,” Welf said. But Mikoto sensed some truth in Fels’s words. Daedalus’s family was connected to evil in the city, and she guessed that at the time they may not have had adequate capital or manpower to do the work.
“I…wonder if Bell is doing all right,” Wiene murmured, her words echoing among the long shadows of the monsters in the passageway.
“Wiene, have faith in him for now. Remember what you said about repaying this favor?” said Gros from next to her.
“…Yes,” she answered, nodding firmly.
“Halt!” Fels said.
The end of the passageway was in view. Before they emerged onto the streets, he wanted to have one final meeting.
“When we go out this door, we will be immediately in front of Loki Familia’s camp. And there are no more hidden passageways we can use.”
“So that means we’ll have to race to our destination without stopping?” Rei asked.
“Yes. The underground passages leading to Knossos are all under the central zone, which is in the heart of enemy territory. We’ll aim for this one that leads to the western door,” Fels said while spreading out the copied plan of Knossos and pointing to the route.
“Thanks to Bell Cranell and Lilliluka Erde, the activities of Loki Familia and other adventurers have fallen into disarray. Now is our only chance to break through. Welf Crozzo and Mikoto Yamato…I’m counting on you to intercept any attacks.”
Welf and Mikoto nodded.
“Leave it to us. We’re on top of it.”
“We will protect your lives with our own.”
Both were wrapped in the same black Reverse Veil mantles as Bell. In the shadows of the mantles, Mikoto carried a knife and an aqua dagger at her waist, while Welf had a similar dagger and a sword. The hilts of the aqua daggers glinted in the dim passageway.
“…I’m going to count down. Please prepare yourselves.”
The line of Xenos and humans moved into a wedge formation well suited to charging. The atmosphere was tense.
“Five, four…”
Lido, armed with a longsword and scimitar, was in the vanguard, together with the unicorn. The middle guard was made up of the lamia, a winged monster, Fels, and Rei, her face smeared with blood for battle paint. Those who were the size of a troll or smaller, along with the slowest of the group and those like Wiene, who had poor combat skills, brought up the rear. Gros, his stone wings creaking, played the role of key rear defenseman.
“Three, two…”
At the front of the formation, Welf and Mikoto threw the Reverse Veils over their bodies and put their hands on the door. Watching on the other side of the oculus, Hestia and Haruhime gulped anxiously, their nerves frayed from the tension in the dark alley. The dragon girl wrapped her arms around her robed form and hugged her slender chest tightly.
“One—Go!”
The instant Fels gave the command, they flung open the door.
“…!!”
Like an arrow released from a taut bowstring, the Xenos shot into the dark night.
They found themselves on a street so narrow it resembled a ravine. Beneath the watchful gaze of the dark brick buildings on either side, the group sprinted forward.
The powerful legs of the lizardman pounded the stone pavement, while above him, the siren’s golden wings and the gargoyle’s gray ones beat the air.
“E-ENEMY ATTAAAAAACK!!”
Almost as soon as they had set off, the scream of an adventurer rent the air. It was a Loki Familia member standing on a rooftop. The first-tier adventurer had noticed the group of monsters materializing from the darkness. He abandoned the signaling device and moved to ring a bell.
Before he could do so, the now-invisible Mikoto scaled the wall as skillfully as a ninja, grabbed the man’s ankles, and pulled him off the roof. He didn’t even have time to yell out when the unicorn raised its horn and sent the adventurer spinning through the air. His body slammed onto the ground. But that was only the first opponent to spot them.
Another lookout was already ringing bells that echoed through the Labyrinth District.
“They’ve seen us!”
“It doesn’t matter. Keep moving forward!”
Clang! Clang! Clang! As the high-pitched ringing of bells and the angry bellows of adventurers engulfed the Labyrinth District, the Xenos ran even faster.
The parade of the monsters had begun.
Shortly before…
“—Raul?”
Finn had quickly noticed the movement in the west.
Troops were leaving their posts and advancing southward. From his position on the high ground, Finn could see the signaling devices flashing, as if they were swaying.
“Th-the western troops are on their way south! He said they were going to encircle the pack of monsters that showed up there!” the messenger said, staring at Finn.
“I’ve heard nothing of the sort! And I never gave a command, so why are they moving on their own?”
“B-but, uh…Mr. Raul said you came directly to him and gave him the command…”
“What?!”
As the messenger explained the situation to the captain, a buzz passed through the central encampment. Finn alone was seized with a sense of déjà vu.
Yes! This is just like the war game between Hestia Familia and Apollo Familia!
The prum who had invited Bell and his team into the castle—assuming it hadn’t been a trick—and then the prum girl who had appeared only at the end of the battle—
Finn whispered unconsciously to himself as the pieces came together.
“So that’s what happened…”
“Captain?”
Finn ignored the faction member who was giving him a strange look and instead focused on the face before his mind’s eye.
It must be that girl.
He had witnessed the bravery of his fellow prum and guessed that she was the sharpest member of Hestia Familia. She must have some magic item—no, some form of magic. He realized she had duped him.
At the same moment, he realized that he had allowed Bell Cranell to monopolize too much of his attention.
“Pull back the troops. And tell Narfi to fill the gap in the formation…No, scratch that. It’s too late,” he said, shaking his head.
As if to confirm his conclusion that it was too late, the high clanging of bells echoed through the air. Since the sound was coming from the west, it could only be a warning that the monsters had been sighted.
In the next instant, a cacophony of shouts surrounded Finn.
“C-Captain! A large group of monsters has suddenly appeared from the west. They have breached the gap where Raul’s troops were and they’re heading for the central area!”
“I know. Calm down. Tione’s unit probably noticed what’s happening, but I want you to call them back. We’ll pincer the enemy using the remaining garrison forces.”
The commander appeared as calm as ever. Seeing his reaction, the young female faction members also regained their composure, took up their arms, and ran off to their assigned tasks.
“So it was the west after all,” Finn murmured to himself. Despite the calm with which he had issued his orders, he asked for additional information with a new urgency.
“What route is the enemy taking? What part of Knossos are they headed for?”
“Uh…straight ahead! They are moving straight east from the point in the west where they appeared!”
“Straight ahead? So their route takes them toward the west of Knossos?”
For the first time, Finn’s composure crumbled.
He looked at the faction member, who was nodding confusedly, and then shifted his gaze to the dark Labyrinth District.
I thought that if they appeared in the west, they would head either to the north or the south…
Loki Familia had discovered four entrances to Knossos: the northeast entrance, where the charging vouivre girl had appeared, plus the northwest, southwest, and southeast entrances. Even now, Finn’s troops were closely guarding the orichalcum doors to these entrances inside the underground passages.
They can’t know of a route into Knossos that we haven’t found, can they?
Over the past several days, the faction had made an extremely thorough search for underground passageways leading to Knossos. But what if they had missed one, and the enemy knew where it was?
Suddenly Finn remembered something.
The god Ikelos mentioned the existence of a book called Daedalus’s Notebook. He said it contained a plan of Knossos…Could the enemy have that book?
When they took in Ikelos, he’d said he didn’t have it. And Finn had believed him.
But if he’d been deceived—
“This is bad,” Finn muttered, looking down at his right thumb.
The captain’s razor-sharp instincts were directly linked to this digit. Whenever it ached, he knew danger was near.
Yet that thumb, which throbbed at the approach of an insect, was quiet now.
Did I depend too heavily on my instincts?
Even as he reflected with shame on his error, Finn quickly shifted gears.
He had originally anticipated luring the monsters into the underground passageways. Now he tossed aside that more extreme plan and looked out at the streets of the Labyrinth District where the monsters likely were at this very moment. His thoughts were moving so fast that the outside world faded away.
“Hey, Finn!”
His patron deity’s drawl broke his concentration.
“Loki, where were you?” he asked, without turning to look at the goddess who had arrived at the hectic headquarters.
“Oh, here and there…”
The vermilion-haired goddess walked up to him from behind.
“Thinking about something, are you, Finn?”
“Yes. It seems I overestimated my own abilities a bit. I’d appreciate if you could give me some time to myself right now.”
Loki stared at the side of his face, which he had kept averted as he spoke. Then she smiled ever so slightly and placed her hands on his narrow shoulders.
“Finn—get to the bottom of this,” she whispered into his ear.
He abandoned his previous train of thought.
Did she mean the monsters or Bell?
Without turning his head, he looked at Loki. Her eyes were narrowed, and she was smiling.
“With your own two eyes. Don’t rely on anyone else.”
“…”
“As for the decisions after that, I leave those to you. I won’t say a word.”
Loki stepped quickly away from Finn, back to her usual self. She laughed foolishly. As the blue-eyed prum gazed at her, she waved, then disappeared like a capricious twilight.
“…”
Still standing at his high, incessantly noisy post, Finn sighed.
The next moment, however, he assumed an expression befitting a commander and trained his gaze once again on the darkness of Daedalus Street.
He knew what he needed to do. He called a faction member over to him.
“Bring Raul to me. Now.”
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