EPILOGUE
BOUNDLESS MALICE
“Damn bastard!”
Wham! A loud kick landed on the cage.
The sound of the rattling chains that restrained four limbs and shrill screaming halted at precisely the same moment.
The one who had been howling and pleading, saying “It hurts, let me out from here,” had fallen completely silent as though fearful of its master’s furious voice.
A man’s sharp, angry breaths echoed off the stone walls.
“Glenn, keep it down, would you? Want me to feed you to the monsters?”
“Gah…s-sorry, Dix. But come on, we were so close to finding their nest…!!”
A hulking human named Glenn howled in frustration, fists clenched at his sides.
The goggled man, Dix, sat on top of a black cage while resting the shaft of his red spear against his shoulder.
“Tailing Hestia Familia and the vouivre monster was going so well, too!”
Surrounded by a ragtag group of animal people, humans, and Amazons, he let out a sigh loud enough for all to hear.
Thanks to his deity investigating Hestia Familia , as well as assuming that the female vouivre had caused the ruckus in town, Dix had instructed his subordinates to stake out Hestia Familia’ s home.
Of course they noticed when Bell’s party left the building with the disguised vouivre in tow. They had planned on jumping them right away, but they quickly deduced that the group was headed for the Dungeon after seeing their equipment. So they had decided to wait. Returning the beast to the Dungeon—had the vouivre told them where the talking monsters’ nest was located? Were they on their way there? That was Dix’s theory and why they hadn’t made a move.
In fact, they almost hit the nail on the head. They followed the party into the Dungeon, drooling at the idea their target would lead them directly to the nest.
Unfortunately—
“Burn in hell, Hermes Familia ! Who would’ve thought we were being followed?”
Dix and his companions had been denied their prize by a second familia tailing them.
They were so focused on Bell’s party that another group of adventurers went unnoticed.
Since Hermes Familia members were equipped with magic items, Dix noticed their pursuers only by lucky coincidence. Bugbears were known for their keen sense of smell—and a few of them seemed to be looking for someone who wasn’t there . Getting a bad feeling, he ordered them to give up the chase and split up.
Once the enemy’s presence was revealed, they had scattered through the Colossal Tree Labyrinth to make a clean getaway. Now they had regrouped.
That was the true identity of the many “eyes” Bell had sensed outside Babel Tower before the mission began.
Some of them belonged to Dix’s group, members of Ikelos Familia ; the rest were Hermes Familia ’s.
“Damn that god of ours. Just when he finally makes himself useful, he pulls shit like this.”
Dix grumbled and complained about his deity.
“Hermes’s kiddies may have noticed…” Ikelos had mentioned in passing, smiling in anticipation. However, the deity was not present now. Most likely, the idea of a three-sided struggle enticed him—and he was keeping a close eye on the show involving his own familia from someplace close by. The god thought of his followers as nothing more than pieces on a board that he could manipulate for his own amusement.
Dix was all too familiar with their deity’s hunger for entertainment, having experienced this kind of thing many times before. “Damn that god,” he muttered with his lips curled back.
“So it’s Hermes Familia that’s sniffing us out…meaning they know about our dealings. Is the Guild on to us, too? Tsk, such a pain.”
There was yet another side to Ouranos’s secret mission.
Bell and the party, in addition to bringing Wiene to the Xenos Hidden Village, had served as bait to draw out the hunters, Dix and his subordinates.
That was the mission in its entirety.
“Thinking logically, they didn’t jump us when we were trailing the brats…meaning we were stronger. My bet is they were trying to find this place.”
The pursuers had been more interested in the location of their base than themselves.
Dix ridiculed their opponents while analyzing their actions.
“Wh-what are we supposed to do, Dix? At this rate…”
“The hell is there to do? There’s no way we’re gonna stop doing something so interesting. You all are having plenty of fun all the same, ain’t that right?”
Dix chuckled from deep in his throat as he looked out at the not-quite-humanoid figures locked inside the cages.
Several of the captives trembled upon hearing his cruel laugh.
“If the Guild is getting involved, I doubt they want word about talking monsters spreading around the town. There’s only so much they can do…We continue the hunt.”
Dix stood up and paced back and forth while spinning his spear around in his hands.
“We pretty much know what floor the nest is on. Maybe we should use it for the first time in a while.”
Walking down the line of black cages, Dix took about ten steps.
Holding his breath, he came to a stop outside one particularly silent enclosure.
Hyy! A small, fearful cry emerged from among the bars.
“You’ll do nicely—better prove yourself useful!”
He thrust the wickedly curved spearhead deep into the cage. An earsplitting shriek of pain flooded out not even an instant later.
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