Chapter 73: Soma Tara!
Countless sparks danced through Orario.
East, west, south, north—the sound of clashing blades rang out from every corner of the city.
"There are too many enemies... Should we protect the civilians first, or intercept the attackers...?"
"The chain of command has collapsed..."
Helplessness exploded inside Tara's chest.
At the very end of despair, she saw a broken white flag lying on the ground.
"Everyone, calm down!!!"
With her only usable left hand, Tara raised the flag high.
Even if it only lasted for an instant, the chaotic scene truly fell silent. Countless adventurers turned their helpless gazes toward Tara.
But Tara had only acted on a rush of emotion.
Since she usually left Familia affairs to Zanis, even she had no idea what she was supposed to say now.
At that moment—
"I'll take it from here."
A slender hand brushed over Tara's shoulder, and a figure stepped to her side.
Tara's gaze was stolen by her in an instant.
"You're from Astraea Familia..."
That pure, unstained beauty was like a goddess descending upon the battlefield.
Astraea looked back at them with deep-blue eyes like a sea of stars and gave the lost children the direction they needed.
"Have all civilians evacuate to the city center. Anyone capable of overseeing the entire board will definitely gather there."
Her words became gentle water, flowing through the anxious adventurers.
Finally, she turned her head and looked at Tara with a soft gaze.
"You're the captain of Soma Familia, correct? Could I trouble you to lead them to the city center from here?"
"Yes..."
"The injured and the civilians will move with the white flag as their signal! She will lead you to the city center!"
Under Astraea's command, Tara began leading the civilians away.
...
At the city center, Loki Familia and Freya Familia had broken through to protect the civilians.
Using their respective abilities, they searched for spies hiding among the crowd.
"C-Captain!"
Raul arrived with a pale face, bringing terrible news.
"The Familia holding the southwest was wiped out. Their god, their upper-class adventurers... all of them were killed."
The scouts relaying information around them reacted.
So did Loki, who had only been moving her eyes as she continued searching for spies.
Everyone turned sharply toward the anxious Raul.
"Was it Valletta?!"
Finn asked back, his face filled with shock.
"It was a warrior with a greatsword... and a white-haired female mage... In an instant... they killed everyone..."
Raul's muscles spasmed with fear, but he still desperately pieced together what he had seen into words.
Finn's thumb throbbed painfully, as if screaming.
...
"Once we pass the corner up ahead and run a little farther, we'll reach the Guild!!"
Tara shouted to the injured people stumbling behind her.
In truth, they were still some distance away from the Guild.
But she knew the people right now needed hope.
They kept running through the explosions and finally reached the corner.
The scene before them made every one of them stop.
It was not a road leading to hope.
It was a shortcut to hell.
On the walls, beneath the eaves, and across the ground...
The remains of adventurers were scattered everywhere.
Someone could not endure the cruel sight and covered their mouth as they vomited.
In the middle of the street, a man clad in pitch-black armor slowly walked toward them with a greatsword in hand.
One step could crush everything.
One strike could destroy everything.
One swing could cut through everything.
Tara recognized his identity at once.
Gluttony, Zald.
A Level 7 executive of Zeus Familia.
He was the one who landed the final blow in the subjugation of Behemoth, the King of the Land, one of the Three Great Quests.
But why was he here?
Shouldn't Zeus Familia have left Orario long ago?
All kinds of questions appeared in Tara's mind.
But she no longer had time to think carefully about any of them.
Judging by the scene before her, there was no doubt that he was an enemy.
Run!!!
The words were still stuck in her throat.
She did not even last a single second.
In an instant, Zald cut her body in half at the waist.
Losing the support of her lower body, Tara widened her eyes and fell to the ground.
The wine rolled out from her breastplate and stopped in front of her severed upper body.
Zald stepped over Tara and walked toward the civilians.
Only after another round of slaughter did Ottar, the Level 6 boaz who had come as support, finally draw Zald away.
"Damn it... I was so close..."
She had finally reached Level 2.
She had finally obtained the Development Ability called Mystery.
She had been only one step away from making it.
It was so frustrating.
The divine markings on her back began to burn.
"Huh...?"
In the final moment of her life, she understood the purpose of her Mystery.
Tara dipped her finger into a drop of her own blood.
With trembling hands, she used the thumb of her left hand to push open the bottle cap and dripped the blood inside.
Tara's blood quickly fused with the wine.
The mellow red wine itself turned an even brighter crimson after her blood entered it.
Lying on the ground, she closed her eyes.
The smell of gunpowder smoke kept slipping into her nose as Tara whispered softly,
"I really wanted to see Soma-sama's face after he drank this wine..."
Even without tasting it, she believed it.
This bottle of wine was absolutely perfect.
"Tara!"
A voice like a howl came from above her.
Tara forced her eyelids open.
For her current self, even that motion had exhausted all her strength.
"Soma-sama..."
She showed off to her bewildered god.
"I finished it... A wine that surpasses Soma-sama's..."
Tara wanted to smile like she always did.
But her face refused to obey her and froze there.
All she could do was slowly twitch the muscles around her mouth, trying her best to make them hold a curved shape.
"It's a shame it can't be mass-produced... But I believe Soma-sama will definitely be able to make a wine close to it..."
"If... I mean, if, okay? If Soma-sama one day manages to surpass even this wine, could you let me taste it too...?"
"Anyway, Soma-sama... hurry and take a sip... My masterpiece..."
Looking at Tara, who was on the verge of death yet still speaking entirely at her own pace, Soma trembled as he drank the wine in his hand in one gulp.
"You liar... It's clearly bitter..."
"Huh...? Soma-sama lies too...? Don't worry... I won't steal Soma-sama's title... You can look at the bottle..."
The bright moonlight fell over the two of them, draping a thin white veil across their bodies.
With the help of the moonlight, Soma barely made out the words written on the bottle.
After seeing Soma's shocked gaze, Tara moved her neck slightly, as if nodding.
"I'll leave the rest... to Soma-sama..."
Under Soma's gaze, Tara smiled and lost her life.
...
After the Great Feud ended, the captain of Soma Familia changed from Tara to Zanis.
Soma seemed to grow even gloomier.
His hair hung down in front of his face, making it impossible for anyone to see his expression.
One day, he gathered the children of his Familia and had them try the newest wine he had made, one by one.
After the last child collapsed drunk, Soma shook his head and locked himself inside his room, beginning his experiments on a new kind of wine.
"Why can't I make it...?"
Soma muttered to himself inside the brewing room.
All kinds of Soma wine were placed before him, but not a single one satisfied him.
He was investigating how a mortal had managed to create divine wine.
He wanted to find another fool like Tara, someone who could drink Soma wine and still proudly thump their chest afterward.
But the result only disappointed him further.
After that, Soma simply stopped remembering the names of his children.
They were nothing more than people who joined his Familia out of greed for wine.
As long as they could provide materials, nothing else mattered.
In the corner of the brewing room, all kinds of empty wine bottles were piled up.
Most of them had fallen crookedly across the floor.
Only one bottle was placed on a separate shelf.
The words on its body were written in divine hieroglyphs, as if the person who made it had deliberately wanted to show the value of this wine.
Sunlight shone in from the window.
It made Soma frown, but at the same time, it illuminated the words on the bottle.
Soma Tara
…
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