As the sun set in the west, the chaos, destruction, and casualties caused by the dungeon monsters that had poured out from the Daedalus District, combined with the daytime monster assault on the 18th floor of the dungeon, weighed heavily on the city's citizens.
All these piled together, so that even though night had come, the city could not hide its noise and the undercurrents beneath it.
Beneath the orange-red afterglow, along the ruined streets, the Guild employees who had come to clean up and close the aftermath worked diligently.
Bell Cranel stood there in a daze.
Now that his mind had calmed and his eyes could take in the devastation around him, a trace of regret welled up in his heart, but it was fleeting.
Finishing her work and hugging documents to her chest, Eina's expression was not pleasant.
"Bell Cranel, because of your selfish judgment, you put this city and its citizens in danger. You also caused other adventurers great losses. Worse still, because of you and that monster, many innocent people lost their lives. …Is all of that true?"
"…" Silence. Self-reproach. Regret.
Facing Eina's questioning gaze, Bell lowered his head and struggled to speak.
"…Yes."
Slap!
Her response was not words, but a look of disbelief, anger, and a resounding slap.
"Incredible…! That you could do such a thing!? Protecting a monster!?"
Watching her storm away in fury, the boy was left without words.
He couldn't possibly tell Eina that he had acted because that creature possessed reason, or because of a strange sense of compassion.
Or perhaps… simply because this was a world where appearances decided everything!?
From the rooftop of a distant building, his cloak whipping in the wind, Fron thought the whole situation was a bit absurd.
And why was he here?
Because the Loki Familia had already caught the enemy's trail. Naturally, they could not let go so easily.
While they returned to their base to discuss strategy and make plans, they could not afford to relax their surveillance and vigilance over the Daedalus District.
As someone who had been involved from the start, Fron was of course the best candidate. When Finn had asked, he had accepted without hesitation.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, inside a ruined, half-collapsed abandoned house,
"No matter how you ask me, I don't know much more than you do. Don't look at me like that, Loki."
The god Ikeros showed no awareness of his position as a prisoner. With crimson hair, and black-toned clothing, his upright face carried a carefree smile.
It was the smile of a god who loved pleasure, indulgence, destruction, the hardest kind to deal with.
Seeing that expression, Loki spat.
"In my children's words, you so-called 'pleasure gods' are truly hopeless."
"Ah? Pleasure gods? Aren't we all like this? Not just the children below, even we in the heavens can't resist joy. Compared to suffering, pleasure is far easier to sink into. Seeking happiness, it's the nature of all living beings, you know."
Loki sat on a shabby chair, legs crossed. Watching him prattle on endlessly, her face grew more and more impatient.
"Don't think I don't know, the sewer rats survived this long only because you and Ishtar were backing them! Otherwise, how could they afford to recruit manpower and expand that Man-made dungeon? You think adamantite and orichalcum are scraps of junk!?"
"Hey now, Loki, don't slander me. There's no such thing as me supporting those people. It was all the choices of my own Familia's children. I never ordered them to do it. Don't look at me like I'm some degenerate god. That's just their nature. Even if I were exiled back to heaven, they'd just find another god to follow and keep doing the same thing."
Seeing Ikeros look so carefree, Loki and Finn exchanged glances.
They knew they wouldn't be getting much intel.
Which was expected, if Loki and Finn were the masterminds, they would never expose their collaborators either.
Especially not a "pleasure god" like Ikeros, who might hand enemy secrets over just for fun, simply for his own amusement.
Loki knew gods' natures all too well.
"Heh. Enjoy it while you can. Your good days are almost over. When the Guild takes you away, if you're permanently banished from Orario, that's one thing. But if you're sent back to heaven, heh, heh, heh."
With a cold laugh, Loki couldn't be bothered to deal with him further.
"Oi, Loki. Put in a word for me, would you? I'll die of boredom if I'm sent back to heaven."
"Oh?" Loki narrowed her eyes, a sly grin curling on her lips.
…
In the end, from Ikeros they learned this much: the remnants of the Evilus faction had mostly joined the Thanatos Familia, while the others were long gone.
They also confirmed the origin of Knossos, the Man-made dungeon, dreamed of by the famed craftsman Daedalus and constructed by his descendants over the centuries until it reached its current scale.
Hearing that, Loki's brows furrowed openly, while Finn sighed quietly in his chest.
"Thank you for your answers, God Ikeros."
…
Returning to their headquarters, Finn and Loki quickly convened a meeting. Meanwhile, Fron had just witnessed Eina slap Bell Cranel.
"Sticking around here isn't worth it. Evilus must have already pulled their tendrils back. Better to track down that notebook Dix had on him."
…
In Fron's hazy memory, that notebook contained designs of the Man-made dungeon Knossos, an extremely important document.
If their side found it, all would be fine. But if the enemy did, the coming labyrinth raids would become far more difficult, possibly costing them several times the price.
His eyes glinted. Taking advantage of the falling night, Fron slipped into the hidden passages.
…
In the following days, all sides worked to clean up the incident and restore the ruined streets and buildings.
"This axe… forged by Tsubaki, isn't it? Why was it in the hands of a monster?"
Even without Fron pointing it out, Finn could already guess.
Through talks with Tsubaki, they learned that the buyer of the magic sword was Hashana of the Ganesha Familia.
After his death, through "certain channels," the weapon ended up in the hands of a monster.
"…So the Guild and the Ganesha Familia also have connections with those monsters."
Glancing at the ever-unfazed Fron, everyone understood.
This wasn't something that could be brought up openly. Since the Guild was intentionally covering it up, there had to be a deeper reason.
Until the truth was clear, it was best for both sides to maintain tacit silence.
"All right, after several days of work, we've cleared up most of the mysteries around this incident. The next question, how do we deal with the armed monsters rampaging on the surface, and with this so-called 'Enyo'…?"