"Something happened in Orario. Erebus teamed up with several Dark Familia and pulled a monster-offering stunt. Not only did a huge number of Orario's adventurers die, even more than half the city got dragged into the fighting."
After they finished hauling the supplies back inside and storing everything away, Zeus tossed a thick letter onto the wooden table and said it plainly.
"…So he finally did it."
After a brief silence, Alfia let out a quiet sigh, picked up the letter, and began reading at a blistering pace.
"The report came from Hermes. Because Finn of the Loki Familia and Freya's powerhouse were there, Erebus's plan was ultimately crushed. Astraea sent him back to Heaven. But the losses among the core Familias were horrific. Several mid-tier Familias were completely wiped out, and the casualties overall are beyond counting. Orario itself took heavy damage."
"Hmph. That Finn brat and that boar kid really have become Orario's 'top brand' now."
Chardo snorted as he read. From the moment Alfia refused Erebus, his scheme was never going to succeed—no matter how many low-level adventurers he stacked up, they couldn't bridge the gulf between top-tier fighters. As for Ottar, who had always chased behind him desperate to catch up, Chardo might talk big, but he had to admit it: after the fall of the Zeus and Hera Familias, adventurers who could truly contend with him were vanishingly rare.
Chardo had never particularly cared whether other Familias lived or died. If you became an adventurer, you accepted that you were putting your life on the line. Adventurers who died peacefully were rare to begin with. In Chardo's eyes, anyone without that resolve didn't deserve to be an adventurer—wasn't even fit to be a supporter.
What actually darkened his mood was something else.
Loki and Freya had inherited the banner he and Alfia's Familias once carried, becoming Orario's foremost trump-card powers… and yet the Dark Familia had still managed to cause losses on this scale.
It felt like betrayal—betrayal of the captain's expectations, betrayal of everything they'd once sacrificed.
Had they grown complacent, thinking that after driving out Zeus and Hera they could just crown themselves kings? Or were they so incompetent they couldn't even finish off the Dark Familia?
Chardo found himself wanting to grab his greatsword and march to Orario to demand answers.
"Chardo. You're going to crush the letter."
Zeus, calm as ever, reminded him.
"…Tch."
After a moment, Chardo finally loosened his grip and threw the letter down on the table. No matter what, the Zeus and Hera Familias were history now. Even if he and Alfia stormed back to Orario with weapons in hand and smashed the Loki and Freya Familias to pieces—so what?
Neither the captain nor their old comrades would ever come back.
In the end, the true root was that catastrophic defeat against the Black Dragon. He was still too weak. And his battered body no longer had the capacity to climb any higher.
"The casualties are way too severe. Finn's always been praised for his command—looks like it was nothing special after all."
Alfia looked just as grim after reading. The Zeus and Hera Familias had always shared a certain flaw: under Hera's influence, they had little patience for weakness. Finn might be older than Alfia by a fair margin, but among adventurers, strength was everything. And seeing Orario's new "pillars" perform like this after her people had already paid their price… her first impulse mirrored Chardo's.
"Even if you two go back now, it won't change anything," Zeus said. "Sit down. You're grown adults—stop acting so rash."
Unlike the other two, Zeus had lost the tension he'd worn on the ride back. He lifted the tea Duncan had brewed and drained it in one go.
"Old man, you chose the wrong people."
"And what else could we have done at the time?" Zeus shot back. "Was there any other choice besides Loki and Freya? The era chose us—it wasn't us choosing the era. The Zeus and Hera Familias stood in the Lower World for a thousand years. It was time for new banners to rise."
"If those are the new banners," Alfia answered coldly, "then the captain and the others should've been allowed to cling to life. At least with us still here, the Dark Familia wouldn't have dared move."
"But we never managed to wipe them out either, did we?" Zeus replied. "And judging from Hermes's letter, even though Orario suffered terribly, the Dark Familia were almost netted in one sweep. A new situation is about to begin."
He paused, eyes sharpening with interest.
"I'm curious whether they can carry forward the key we left behind."
"That girl…" Chardo muttered, startled despite himself.
"I hear she's already Level 3," Zeus said, and for once, a faint smile appeared. "She distinguished herself in the chaos. There were other standout Familias among the survivors too—Astraea's people, for one, aren't bad."
"Level's too low," Alfia said flatly. "Not even a first-class adventurer."
"Then focus on raising the next hero," Zeus answered, tipping his chin toward the deeper room of the cabin, his tone carrying a pointed meaning.
Inside the room, Duncan carefully inspected the spear in his hands.
The spearhead, forged from the Magic Wolf King's fang, seemed to have been blended with metal powder—under the glow of the magic-stone lamp it shone with a faint, steely luster. The shaft was made from some unknown wood; its flexibility and grip felt excellent.
There was only one problem:
It had been made to adult proportions.
For ten-year-old Duncan, it was simply too long. It wasn't a custom order, so he'd have to adjust it himself later.
"Duncan—Duncan! Let me see too!"
Bell shouted excitedly from the side. He took the spear with exaggerated care, examined it for a while, then looked up with unconcealed envy.
"Bell, you don't like short swords and shields either?"
"Yeah." Bell thought for a moment, then answered honestly. "I like weapons that are more nimble. And shields can't block Mama Alfia's attacks at all."
"…Like daggers?"
Bell nodded repeatedly.
Duncan couldn't help feeling a complicated sort of nostalgia. No matter how far things wandered, it seemed like they always circled back to the same starting point.
"By the way, Bell—how are your status values?"
Only then did Duncan realize he hadn't actually checked. Since coming back, he'd been so busy watching Bell get thrown around that he'd neglected the obvious.
"Grandpa measured them yesterday."
Bell dashed to his room and returned with the updated sheet, handing it to Duncan.
Bell
Level 1
Strength: F319
Endurance: B741
Dexterity: C611
Agility: C622
Magic: 0
Skill — Hero Longing (Precocious):
Born from admiration for heroes and the desire to become one. Grants an experience-gain correction and improves through adventure.
The numbers themselves didn't impress Duncan much—after living through his own absurd growth curve, Bell's stats didn't feel shocking.
But that skill…
It looked a lot like the "single-minded longing" Duncan remembered—like his own "Outsider" in that it boosted how efficiently experience was earned. And from the description, it sounded especially tied to adventure: the more dangerous the adventure, the higher the gain would likely become.
Yet Alfia still didn't seem to have any intention of letting Bell start his first real adventure.
Watching Bell beam with pride over his numbers and his new skill, Duncan couldn't help thinking of Bell's old, mortifying "caught admiring heroes" moment.
Now, though—
Now was exactly the age when admiring heroes made perfect sense.
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