Chapter 89: Thank You, Finn!
"So, why did things end up like this?"
Loki sat before the round table with an impatient look on her face.
Sitting across from her were two other gods, Hermes and Dionysus.
"Don't say that. We're all victims here, so we should share information as much as possible."
Loki narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Hermes, who had spoken.
Then she turned to Dionysus, the one who had called her here.
"Dionysus, you have three minutes to explain. I don't have time to chat with you two."
"Don't put it like that. It's not as if I'm running around willingly either."
Dionysus sighed, then began discussing the information they had learned over the past two days with Hermes.
"Even if we know those freaks are all hiding in the Dungeon, the Dungeon is huge. My Familia has no way to search the whole thing."
Hermes spread his hands.
"And we still have to guard against their sneak attacks. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten involved in this at all."
The Hermes Familia liked traveling everywhere.
Combined with Hermes's habit of always keeping a hidden card or two, his intelligence network could be considered extremely wide.
Even so, when it came to matters inside the Dungeon, he could only stare helplessly.
"Stop talking nonsense, Hermes. The other side has already called themselves Enyo. That can be considered a declaration of war against Orario, right?"
There was no god in heaven called Enyo.
But if explained through the language of the gods, Enyo had another meaning—
[Destroyer of Cities].
"Maybe it's just a declaration of war against the Guild. Let's wait until Finn and the others come back before talking about it. Anyway, it'll have nothing to do with me soon."
Loki leaned back and slouched against her chair while fiddling with her fingers.
Hermes and Dionysus did not think too deeply about it.
They simply assumed Loki was too lazy to deal with these matters and had thrown them to Finn.
The two exchanged a nod, then began moving to the real topic of the day.
"Earlier, on the 24th Floor, the Hermes Familia and Loki Familia stopped the remnants of Evilus from trying to transport Violas into Orario..."
"According to the information our Familia investigated, aside from the Ganesha Familia, who held the Monsterphilia, no one saw any cages large enough to hold something as big as a Violas."
For such a large group of monsters to be transported out of the Tower of Babel, it was impossible to hide it from everyone.
There was no way there would not be a single witness.
The gods exchanged glances.
"In other words..."
"Other than the Tower of Babel, Orario has at least one more entrance to the Dungeon."
...
Bell was pulled by Torajirou Shiro into the Loki Familia's group.
The executives had seen Bell's minotaur-slaying feat before, so when they saw him again, they acted quite friendly.
"This, for you..."
Ais moved to Shiro's side and sat down.
She placed a tear-shaped fruit that looked a little like candy in his palm.
"What is this?"
"Crystal Candy. It's a rare fruit from the 18th Floor. You probably haven't eaten it before."
Shiro took the Crystal Candy and placed it in his mouth.
The texture was cool and soft, a little like jelly.
When he bit down, sweet juice burst out and filled his mouth.
"It tastes a little like dessert."
"Right?"
Ais narrowed her eyes in satisfaction.
Over the past few days, she had gradually started to become more like a "person" rather than a "doll."
Bell looked at this scene with envy.
Shiro noticed his gaze and asked, "What's wrong?"
Unexpectedly, Bell suddenly became serious.
He put down his bowl and knelt on the ground, bringing his line of sight level with Shiro's.
"Um! There's something I want to ask Shiro-san. It's very important to me!"
"Ask away."
Since it seemed to concern a major life matter, Shiro's gaze also became serious.
"How many girlfriends have you found so far?"
Pfft—
"Cough, cough, cough! Why would you suddenly ask that? And why are you assuming I've already found multiple girlfriends?"
Shiro wiped away the soup he had accidentally sprayed out and asked Bell with a completely stunned expression.
"My grandfather once said that the most important part of heroic tales is encounters with girls!"
In the stories Bell had read, even if the plots were different, every hero was surrounded by all kinds of girls.
His grandfather had once told him as well.
Encounters with cute girls were the essence of a story.
Without girls, no matter how exciting the story was, no one would read it!
Become a hero!
Find encounters in the Dungeon!
Then build a harem!
This was Bell Cranel's small little dream.
Feeling Ais's needle-like gaze beside him, Shiro shook his head and said, "I don't have a girlfriend right now."
"Then what about encounters with girls?! There must be a lot, right?!"
Bell clearly had no ability to read the room.
Even in this situation, he chose to keep asking until he got to the bottom of it.
The surrounding adventurers were also drawn over by Bell's words and began looking in their direction.
Bell Cranel!
Right now, you are being really unfair!
"I do have some female friends I'm fairly close with..."
Shiro thought of Ryuu, who had said she would do anything for him.
Their relationship was probably, maybe, kind of good.
The moment Bell heard that his idea had not been wrong after all, he grew even more excited.
The dream he had held since childhood was about to be proven true!
"Right?! Then Shiro-san, when are you planning to find a few girlfriends?"
As if they had heard Bell ask something incredible, the surrounding adventurers went quiet and raised their ears to listen carefully.
Please stop asking.
What kind of new torture method is this?
Even though Shiro had already imagined stuffing Bell's mouth with a rag in his heart, he still forced out a smile.
"Ha... haha... we'll talk about that later..."
Bell seemed like he still wanted to offer some suggestions.
Fortunately, at that moment, Finn, who shared the same dream of starting a harem, finally showed some emotional intelligence and quickly spoke up to rescue Shiro.
He raised the cup in his hand and shouted.
"Let us welcome Bell to our Familia's dinner!"
"He and his companion risked their lives and reached the 18th Floor. They are adventurers filled with courage!"
"I won't force you all to get along with them, but even if only a little, I hope that as fellow adventurers, you can treat them with respect."
"At this moment! Let us drink to their courage!"
As the captain of the Familia, Finn's words naturally received a strong response in this kind of situation.
Not to mention that Tione was also there, giving him plenty of support.
"Cheers!" ×N
The atmosphere around them became lively.
Bell, who had still wanted to keep asking questions, was surrounded by members of the Loki Familia.
One after another, they came over to offer him drinks.
Shiro was finally freed.
Thank you, Finn.
So you were actually this gentle of a person?
Shiro thought silently in his heart.
After the incident of seeing Ryuu bathing and this rescue from Bell's questions, Finn's position in Shiro's heart rose sharply.
…
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