by Fujino Omori
“Probably so…”
“It’s a bad situation…”
The red-haired, red-eyed Hephaistos pushed aside her bangs.
“I’ll be honest with you. I’m reluctant to come down on the side of saving the Xenos,” she said, abruptly changing the mood in the room.
“Hey now, what are you saying?”
“Admit it, I’m right. Knowing Hestia’s personality as I do, I can understand how she couldn’t leave that orphaned vouivre to die. But as long as they’re on the surface, the Xenos are a poison, plain and simple. At this very moment, they’re doing nothing but causing chaos, right?”
“That’s—”
“Come on, Takemikazuchi, you haven’t talked to your followers about the Xenos, have you?”
Takemikazuchi had interrupted Hephaistos in a surprised voice, but now he pressed his lips together.
Any movement to integrate the Xenos would ignite strife—even more so among the children. Takemikazuchi knew that, and that was why he hadn’t shared the truth with Ouka or Chigusa.
On the other hand, Hestia’s children—who had accepted the presence of the Xenos—were mavericks, and that was precisely why they were on this precipice.
“Honestly, I don’t even know if the Xenos are worth saving!” Hephaistos said, not concealing her feelings about the irregular Dungeon monsters whose existence not even the gods had foreseen.
Miach, who had been listening with eyes closed, spread his hands and looked at the other two.
“…Hmmm. Well, let us come to some conclusion.”
He shook his waist-length sea-blue hair, his voice melting into the sound of the rain.
“Our decision is—”
“So you’ve assigned it to Loki Familia, have you?”
The elderly god’s stern voice echoed through the altar.
At the sound, the plump figure kneeling before him curled up like a piglet.
“Y-yes, sir, that is what I did! I took the liberty of determining that they were the best suited to protecting Daedalus Street at the moment!”
The sound of the rain did not penetrate the underground temple built beneath Guild Headquarters. In the Chamber of Prayers, illuminated by four torches, Ouranos sat still as a statue while looking down on Royman, head of the Guild, who was dripping sweat onto the stone floor.
“With regards to Knossos, I made him promise to not only prevent any leaks about its existence but also provide us with information! Braver will keep his word! It is practically as if he is under our control!”
“…What are you hiding from me, Royman?”
The elf gave a start at the words of the Guild’s true master, who had so easily seen through his deception.
“Is it the key?”
“…I—I forgot to mention it. I have ordered them to hand the key to Knossos over to the Guild if they find it…”
Royman was drenched in a cold sweat, but Ouranos’s voice did not change.
“Make sure they give you all the information about Knossos. Once we have the key, we will find the right time and then organize a survey. It is the Guild, not individuals or familias, that oversees the heritage of Daedalus.”
“Yes, sir!”
“I will overlook the matter of Loki Familia. Now exit!”
The quivering Royman complied.
As he walked unsteadily out of the room, a god with hair the color of flames descended the stairs leading from the surface. He patted Royman on the shoulder as they passed each other.
“Royman is a shrewd one, eh?” Hermes said once he had entered the Chamber of Prayers.
“He possesses twice the greed of anyone else. But he’s capable, and his desire to see to the city’s development is sincere,” Ouranos replied matter-of-factly with a slight smile.
“So it seems Loki Familia will be remaining in Daedalus Street, eh? Well, as long as Lady Freya is encamped in Babel, the obvious choice for Braver and his people is to stay and wait for the Xenos on their only alternative path of retreat.”
“Yes…And as long as things remain in this state, Ganesha will probably act to protect the lives of the residents before all else,” Ouranos said. Although he did not say it out loud, he had accepted that it would be impossible at this point to rearrange the various groups.
Because he was in a position of leadership, issuing too forceful an order for Loki Familia to withdraw would undermine trust in him. His continued reign was a symbol of peace in the city, so he needed to avoid such a situation.
Furthermore, if the monsters that had emerged onto the surface needed to be brought down, no one was more suited for the job than Loki Familia.
“Well, for now I’d like you to report on the current situation, since you have taken on the task of suppressing the disturbance.”
Hermes proceeded to the center of the altar, where the deity of the Guild sat on a chair, and removed his traveling hat.
“The Xenos are currently moving around in the sewers beneath the city. Reports of sightings are increasing, but…thanks to the bounties, the adventurers are not cooperating with one another. That may be our only bit of luck.”
“What about the Xenos who were separated from Fels?”
“I haven’t found out anything about them—not even how many were separated. Some of them may have been captured already by adventurers or less scrupulous gods.”
As long as no one came forward saying they had done so, it would be impossible to know for sure.
“Well, a number of adventurers found the black minotaur and intended to kill it, only to be attacked themselves…But even now that they’ve recovered, they’re still trembling as if they’ve had a terrible nightmare, and it seems they won’t tell their full story.”
Sighing, Hermes held up two fingers.
“Options are limited for the Xenos.”
Under the current circumstances, the runaways had two goals. First: meet up with their brethren who had been separated from them. Second: get to the Dungeon entrance. The latter was the most important. If the Xenos were to survive, they somehow had to return to the Dungeon.
There were two possible routes to get there.
The first was through the center of the city to Babel, where they would use the large pit leading to the Dungeon. The second was through Daedalus Street in the southwestern part of the city, where Knossos was located.
“If they head for Central Park, there will inevitably be a battle with the adventurers…and no one knows how Freya Familia will act. Fels probably won’t let them choose that option.”
“I tried to negotiate with Freya myself in various ways, but as you’d suspect, she didn’t seem inclined to listen to what I had to say.”
Hermes sighed and smiled bitterly at Ouranos’s mention of the silver-haired queen reigning over Babel.
“In that case, the Xenos will likely head for Daedalus Street, where they can use the terrain to their advantage…”
“But Loki Familia will block their way to Knossos.”
In other words, if they made use of the Labyrinth District—which was fully as convoluted as the Dungeon—they perhaps would be able to avoid the watchful eyes of the adventurers. But once they had passed through, the greatest difficulty would be waiting.
“I knew it before, but this is a really tough situation,” said Hermes with a detached laugh.
“And what can you tell me about Knossos?” Ouranos said, directing Hermes back to his report.
“According to adventurers in Rivira, the monsters who attacked on the eighteenth floor joined up with the monsters who appeared on the surface. Many of the familias have realized there is a second entrance to the Dungeon.”
“And adventurers are gathering in Daedalus Street?”
“Yes. Some of them seem to be taking initiative to search for the entrance on their own, but…Well, that area is Daedalus’s creation, and so far only Loki Familia has found it.”
“Hermes, what about your familia…?”
“We have already thoro
ughly investigated the matter.”
“!”
As if to offer proof, he pulled out a book.
“It’s called Daedalus’s Notebook.”
For the first time, the normally self-possessed Ouranos widened his eyes.
“Before I got Ikelos to let Loki Familia catch him, I had him give this to me. It has a drawing of the layout of Knossos—including, of course, the location of the entrances.”
“…”
“I had my children investigate to make sure the information in the drawing wasn’t incorrect. They had to use both the Hades Head and the stink bag…Asfi complained to me that she was afraid for her life dodging Loki Familia to do the survey. She even hit me.”
It was Hermes who had sniffed out Ikelos from his hiding place. According to him, he had cornered the other deity and compelled him to give in to a number of demands, one of which included handing over Daedalus’s Notebook. Over the four days since the incident, his children had been surveying the area around Knossos on his orders, keeping quiet and staying in the shadows so that Loki Familia wouldn’t notice them.
Having explained matters up to this point, Hermes drew closer to the wizened god. Then he held out the book.
“I’ll leave this with you. You need it, don’t you?”
“…”
Ouranos squeezed his eyes shut as Hermes narrowed his own yellow-orange ones.
The flames in the pine torches crackled fiercely. Surrounded by a swirl of sparks, the wizened god reached out to accept the ancient volume, along with all the consequences it entailed, and slipped it into his pocket.
Hermes flashed a smile and backed down from the altar.
“Hermes…What do you plan to do now?”
“Well. As I said before, my concern is with Bell.”
Hermes had brought up the matter with Ouranos two days earlier in this very room. At that time, he’d stated very clearly his divine will as a deity. He felt it would be wrong for Bell to lose his name and honor and then withdraw from the action, and therefore Hermes was betting everything on the boy. People’s disappointment in Bell and their labeling him an “enemy of the people” would only get in the way of his progress down the noble path.
That was why Hermes was acting now behind the scenes.
“I’ve ordered Asfi and the others to do a number of things. Beyond that, it depends on how the boy reacts…”
Hermes was certain Bell would be unable to sit by and do nothing. He laughed lightly, as if he were watching the situation from afar.
“Let me ask you a question, Ouranos. The Xenos, and the ruined Sage who is leading them…What do you think they will do next?”
“…”
Ouranos at first said nothing in response to the question about the assistant with whom he had spent countless centuries. Finally, after a long pause, he answered.
“As for what Fels will most likely do next…”
“Lido, can I have some of your blood?” Fels asked.
Even in the subterranean dimness, the black-clad mage could hear the sound of the rain.
“Blood?”
“Yes. If I were physically whole, I wouldn’t need to ask you, but…”
“Well, you are a skeleton, after all.”
“Don’t say that,” the mage responded with a sidelong glance. Lido scratched his arm with his sharp claws.
Fels withdrew a feather pen from his pocket and dipped it in the red blood from the ragged wound.
As the blood soaked in, the feather turned red, and a similarly colored liquid oozed from the tip.
“Is that a magic item?” Lido asked, watching Fels’s movements with interest.
“Yes, although I didn’t invent it myself.”
Fels began to write on a sheet of parchment with the item, which enabled blood to be used in place of ink.
“Who was separated from us?”
“Aruru, Helga, Lett, Fia, and then Asterios…Fia was with us, but when things got too intense, she fell from the sky…and Lett went after her,” the siren Rei said, listing the names of the al-miraj, hellhound, red-cap goblin, harpy, and minotaur.
She was sitting on the floor at a slight distance from Lido and Fels, talking to Wiene. They were in a sewer tunnel. Beyond its crumbling walls, the tunnel connected to what seemed to be a long-forgotten well, with broken barrels, buckets, and frayed ropes scattered in a corner. A gentle rain fell through the hole that connected to the surface. Other Xenos who had been wandering the city were resting nearby.
“So…you don’t know where Fia and the others are?” the vouivre asked, concerned for her brethren.
“No. We’ve walked this sewer from end to end, but there’s no scent of them…They may be hiding somewhere on the surface,” the gargoyle Gros replied.
Wiene’s stomach made a cute rumbling sound.
“I’m hungry…”
“It’s only natural. We’ve hardly eaten anything for the past few days…”
Naturally, monsters became hungry, too. For the Xenos, who would never eat a human, their current situation meant they hadn’t been able to eat properly at all. Wrapped in a robe that one of the fleeing adventurers had dropped, Wiene rubbed her slender bluish-white stomach.
Gros turned toward the black-clad mage, worried over their fading strength and missing brethren especially with no sign that they would be able to reunite.
“Fels. We’re not getting anywhere running from place to place like this. We need to…Hey, what are you doing?!” he exclaimed.
“I’m writing a letter,” Fels replied without stopping the crimson pen.
The mage finished his work without further explanation. The moment it was complete, a shadow rushed down the old well hole, just as if Fels had planned the timing.
Lido and the others instantly took up defensive positions, but Fels reached out an arm and restrained them.
“So you’ve finally managed to find us.”
An owl with one false eye had landed on the mage’s outstretched arm. It was a familiar spirit.
“If only my oculus hadn’t been destroyed in that battle, I would have summoned you sooner…”
Expressing his regrets over the fierce combat with Ikelos Familia in Knossos, Fels tied the completed letter around the owl’s foot.
“Fels, is that letter perhaps…?”
Fels nodded in response to Lido’s question and let go of the familiar. The owl stretched its wings and took off into the rainy sky, scattering white down from its wings.
“Our last hope.”
Like a late monsoon season, rain falls in unceasing sheets on Orario. But I doubt even this rain can wash away the tangled and hopeless mood gripping the city.
I gaze out the window of my room at the streets stretched beneath an ashen sky.
“…”
Though I’ve returned home with the goddess, I still can’t escape a certain feeling.
Like I’m being watched.
The moment I left home, I sensed many eyes on me. At first I thought it was the townsfolk…but as I grew more sensitive to the gazes, another possibility began to whisper into my ear.
Something far less organic than either anger or mockery…Could it be surveillance?
Am I being watched? If so, is it me they’re interested in? Or Hestia Familia as a whole?
I’ve been standing by the side of the window in order to conceal myself, but now I lean halfway out and scan the area around the building. Outside the iron fence enclosing our home, I glimpse a figure darting around the street corner and out of sight.
“Agh.”
I step away from the window and leave the room. I hope I’m mistaken. My heart pounding unsteadily in my chest, I head for the place where the goddess and the others are gathered to tell them what I’ve been feeling.
“…?”
After hurrying down the hallway, I’m greeted by an unexpected sight.
Outside a window facing onto the courtyard, drenched in rain but nevertheless apparently waiting fo
r someone, an owl is perched in the middle of the garden.
The owl looks up as I stop in the hallway, and I see its eye. I start at the glitter of the quartz orb.
I turn on my heels and run down the stairs. As I step into the courtyard and walk up to the owl, it flutters onto my arm.
“What in the world…?”
A letter is tied to the owl’s leg.
“A secret message from the Xenos…”
The clock on the living-room wall shows an evening hour. The entire of Hestia Familia has gathered here to look at the letter I received from Fels’s familiar.
“The code is incredibly difficult to decipher, but…there’s no mistaking it; this letter is a call for help from Fels and the Xenos.”
Lilly is holding a dictionary pulled from the library in one hand. As she says, the letter is peppered with demi-human words, and at first glance, the sentences seem to be incoherent. They can be deciphered only by rearranging and recombining words from two different languages: the language of the prums, which includes the word irregular, and the language of the renarts, which includes the word fool. Only someone who knew the nature of the Xenos and Fels would be able to read the code.
With serious, tense expressions on their faces, the goddess, Lilly, Welf, Mikoto, and Haruhime gather around the table and look down at the letter.
“‘We will try to reach Daedalus Street tomorrow night.’ It seems they’ve been driven to take extremes…” says Welf, who has just emerged from the workshop, where he’s been holed up since the incident.
“And, well, I am quite certain that right now, Daedalus Street…” says Haruhime, pressing her hand to her chest. Mikoto confirms her fears.
“Yes, Miss Haruhime. It’s full of adventurers, not to mention it’s Loki Familia’s encampment.”
The letter, whose red handwriting has not bled despite the rain, begins with an apology, then goes on to explain the situation that Fels and the Xenos are currently in and their plan for returning to the Dungeon. It ends with a call for help. The final sentence entreats us to somehow find a way to assist them again.
At first, Haruhime, Mikoto, and I are relieved to read that Wiene safely regained consciousness…but now we are all silent.