Inside the familia, Soma stared at the hidden accounts the Guild had sent over and felt a splitting headache.
"Rotten to the core."
Every profitable line had been cooked—obviously meant to fool both him and the Guild. The gap between the falsified books and the real numbers wasn't small either. It was off by tens of billions of valis.
Aside from the brewing materials he absolutely had to purchase, Zanis had squeezed every last benefit the familia could produce. Anyone capable of making money had been treated as a consumable, just to make the exploitation smoother.
"There are far more parasites in the familia than I imagined."
"The consequences of overindulgence in divine wine."
A complicated light passed beneath the fringe shadowing Soma's eyes. This was the price of his disappointment—of refusing to guide or admonish—and it had let a monstrous leech grow within his ranks, draining the value out of everyone.
He picked up another ledger the Guild had delivered—a compilation of complaints against the Soma Familia.
A heavy list to read.
A large portion detailed robberies and killings of other familias' adventurers. Those cases had all happened in the Dungeon and, on the surface, were pinned on monsters, so not everything could be laid at Soma Familia's feet.
But most of them were, in fact, the doing of his own children.
"I never heard a word about this."
Those naked tallies of human lives slammed down before him. Even Soma's eyes kindled with anger.
It was the first time he had seen or heard of the Guild's complaint ledger.
"Zanis, you were even more 'thorough' than I thought."
Soma closed the book. These accounts would have to be untangled one by one.
Right now, he could feel his blood pressure climbing.
Fortunately, the money Zanis had embezzled through those fake ledgers had been recovered. If not, Soma might have seriously considered returning to Tenkai.
He would also have to begin compensations owed to several familias.
Soma mentally sorted the tasks awaiting him and concluded he would have virtually no time to himself for the next six months.
"The internal parasites need to be cleaned out as well."
Those who had taken lives would all be handed to the Guild. Soma had no intention of wiping their backsides for them.
If you do wrong, you pay the price. That was his rule.
"After purging the parasites, the familia's rules must be reshaped. The ones who didn't cross the line still need course correction."
"Try to curb the wine's influence on the children."
"Addiction is a serious problem. Speaking of which, could my brewing produce a divine wine that doesn't make people addicted?"
Soma had no regard for "addiction" as an attached attribute. He had no desire to brew a wine that stole hearts and reason. What he wanted was to transcend his own technical limits and reach a higher level, not wallow at the plateau of "addictiveness."
The thought actually stirred his interest.
Research a divine wine suitable for children of the Lower World—one that would not make them addicted.
Soma took up a pen and jotted the idea down. He could pivot his brewing studies for a while.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Lord Soma, it's Lili."
The voice outside made Soma set his things down.
"Come in."
Only after his words fell did the door open.
Soma watched Lili step into the room—the first child he had raised within the familia after witnessing Lower World children fall into addiction to divine wine.
He noticed how she kept tugging her hood lower, head bowed, eyes avoiding his.
"Why don't you lift your head?"
Lili's body jolted. Small to begin with as a pallum, she seemed even more diminished and humble.
"Lili… Lili doesn't know what to say."
"Ever since you fell into the wine, you've kept yourself from coming to my room. Because you know I despise children like that, don't you?"
Lili trembled harder.
She had been tempted into drinking divine wine at six years old and fallen completely into addiction. From that point on, the child Lord Soma had rescued and raised gradually stopped visiting his room.
It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to. But once, when she did step inside, she felt the coldness and disappointment in Lord Soma's gaze. Only then had Lili realized she had become someone he despised.
Every time she thought of her addiction—so like her parents from the past—she understood why Lord Soma would look at her that way.
From that day on, she no longer dared set foot here. She didn't want to see Lord Soma's cold, distant, disappointed eyes.
This was the second time since then that Lord Soma had summoned her to this room.
"That child was lured into wine at six… so five years have already passed?"
For a god, that span was a blink. For a child of the Lower World, it was very real.
In the past, Soma had had no clear sense of such time. But now, after learning all Zanis had done behind his back—the wealth he had skimmed, the complaints he had suppressed—Soma's sense of time had grown concrete.
"The children sinking into divine wine have disappointed me deeply. Especially seeing you up on the dais, clawing for wine like a ravenous ghost… it made me abandon all my thoughts for the Lower World's children."
"Even those I raised myself."
Hearing the heavy words, tears spilled uncontrollably from Lili's eyes.
She hadn't known. She had no idea that her addiction had helped drive Lord Soma to despair over the entire familia.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… Lord Soma, it's all Lili's fault…"
As he watched the weeping child before him, Soma recalled what Loki had said.
Withholding guidance. Offering no admonition. Merely waiting for them to wake on their own…
He remembered what he wanted to re-confirm and made up his mind as he faced the child he had raised.
"My judgment of you has been 'worthless,' because under the wine's sway, you cannot remain clear-minded."
"If you want me to take those words back, then you must prove me wrong."
"Since you believe this is your fault, you will be the first to prove it to me."
Lili's head snapped up. When she met Lord Soma's eyes again, they were just as cold, but the disappointment was gone.
She suddenly understood why he had said what he did. She scrubbed the tears from her face.
"Lord Soma, I will prove it to you!"
In truth, Lili knew her reason to prove herself was simple: she could not bear to see disappointment in Lord Soma's eyes.
Because Lord Soma was the only person who had ever treated her kindly since the day she was born.
(End of Chapter)
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