Once they had confirmed that no god had actually been torn apart by monsters in the plaza, the girls had rushed back — following the rumours rippling through the streets — to the place where they worked.
Ryu Lion was the first one over the threshold.
She gripped her wooden practice sword, chest heaving, breath coming in short bursts. Her short green hair was soaked with sweat, damp strands plastered to her pale forehead.
The result was that the cool, composed face — the one that never cracked a smile and had earned her the whispered nickname "Ice Beauty" among the adventurers — now wore a faintly dazed expression.
Her gaze drifted past Haimer, who sat at the head of the table with a quiet smile on his face.
Ryu Lion's eyes landed, and stayed, on the extra seats that had been pulled up around the great round table.
There sat a Siren of extraordinary beauty.
And beside her, a half-bird girl with carmine-coloured hair, her face buried almost entirely in her dinner plate. Her cheeks were stuffed to bursting with great chunks of sizzling roast meat, round and tight as a ball, and she was eating with complete and utter disregard for appearances. Every now and then she let out a muffled little grunt of satisfaction, her broad wings flapping happily behind her.
Elsewhere, on the floor, sat an enormous wooden tub.
It was filled to the brim with steaming-hot stew.
A massive Hellhound, black as pitch from nose to tail, had — incongruously, absurdly — a large red ribbon bow tied around its neck. And this creature, which should by rights have been spewing lethal fire in the middle floors of the Dungeon, was now huddled up companionably beside an Almiraj rabbit in a tattered little blue smock — a breed notorious for its aggression.
Dog and rabbit alike had their entire heads plunged into the tub, gorging themselves without ceremony.
With every great swallow, the Hellhound's tail — thick and bristling with coarse black fur — thrashed frantically back and forth, so fast it left an afterimage. The draught it kicked up was enough to scatter the dust on the floor around it.
Was this really a sight they had ever seen before?
In the minds of Ryu Lion, Chloe, Lunor, and Anya, Hellhounds and Almiraj had always been counted among the most aggressive, most troublesome monsters in the Dungeon's middle floors. To say nothing of the Sirens and half-bird creatures that made their homes even deeper, or the spider-woman of startling size.
They were monsters born to kill adventurers. That was all they had ever been.
This staggering gulf between expectation and reality.
It left Ryu Lion, Chloe, Lunor, and the others rooted to the spot, minds completely blank.
Until Anya pushed out from behind the group, forcing her way to the front.
She took one look at the scene before her.
The pair of brown cat-ears on top of Anya's head shot bolt upright in an instant, every hair bristling. She raised a trembling finger and pointed at the Hellhound and the rabbit in the corner, and let out a wild, strangled shriek.
"Mya-AAAH!!"
"Monsters actually came into the city, mya!!!"
That shriek of Anya's was what finally snapped Chloe and Lunor back to their senses, drawing sharp gasps from both of them.
"They did indeed come into the city."
Seeing the four girls' reactions, Haimer leaned back in his chair and tilted his head toward Ryu Lion, Chloe, Lunor and the others with a look of mild resignation, setting his wooden cup down on the tabletop without particular ceremony.
"But there is no need to be alarmed. They are already members of my Familia."
"They are well-behaved. They will not harm anyone."
Hearing this breezy, matter-of-fact explanation from Haimer.
The eyelids of Ryu Lion and the others twitched violently, several times in quick succession.
These were monsters, after all.
The blood enemies of the surface-dwellers, locked in mortal combat across generations without end!
And now here they sat, bold as you please, at the tables of a tavern, eating food?!
But watching Haimer — perfectly at ease, not a scratch on him, even finding the leisure to savour his wine — the grip Ryu Lion had on her practice sword finally, gradually, eased.
She tucked the weapon to her side, lightened her step, and walked over to stand beside Haimer.
Even so, Ryu Lion maintained every last scrap of her vigilance.
Her pale blue eyes stayed fixed hard on Lei and Fei, who sat on either side of Haimer, her muscles coiled in a state of readiness to move at any instant.
At the same table.
Onigawara Rin and the others had pulled chairs up alongside them. Onigawara Rin held a silver fork and prodded at the grilled sausages on her plate with idle, irregular jabs, her gaze travelling back and forth across the monsters assembled there.
A few days ago, in the passageway on the eighteenth floor, Inaba Tsukuyo had overheard with her own ears the captain of the Ikelos Familia — a man named Dix — talking about capturing monsters with rational minds and trafficking them.
Now, looking at these creatures in front of them, the girls understood perfectly well. They had already guessed that these must be the so-called "heretic children."
But since their own Kami-sama had not said a word about it, they naturally had no intention of bringing it up themselves.
They simply found it extraordinary.
"Come to think of it — if these monsters truly no longer attack people, could they live peacefully alongside the residents of the surface?"
Inaba Tsukuyo, who had been sitting perfectly upright with her eyes closed and sipping tea from a porcelain cup in small, measured mouthfuls, now spoke up quietly.
Lei and the others heard the question, and their eyes lit up.
And then.
Chloe reacted as though someone had stepped on her tail — she jumped forward, waving her hands frantically in denial.
"Mya! That won't do, mya! Something like that would be incredibly strange, mya!"
"In Orario, this would be a matter of earth-shaking importance, mya!"
"That's right, mya!"
Anya was nodding furiously beside her in agreement.
"You don't know what it's like, mya — in the past, even a single monster getting out of Babel Tower would send the streets into a panic unlike anything ever seen!"
"The Ganesha Familia's military police would mobilise every last one of their troops on the spot, and cut the monster down without a moment's hesitation!"
"A monster sitting calmly at a table and eating — no one has even heard of such a thing, let alone seen it!"
"As of right now in Orario, it's only because of Lord Haimer today, mya, that they've been brought out into the streets."
"Just now, running through the streets, we heard adventurers saying it was all because Lord Haimer used some terrifying art from the Heavens to forcibly wipe their minds clean, mya!"
The back-and-forth explanations from Chloe and Anya gave Inaba Tsukuyo and the others a much sharper understanding of just how extreme — and irreconcilable — the ordinary residents of this world considered their relationship with monsters to be.
In a city riddled from end to end with adventurers and Dungeon entrances, the hatred between humans and monsters had been built up body by body, life by life. It ran deep, and it did not bend.
At that moment.
Lei — the Siren, who had been sitting perfectly straight in her chair with considerable effort to maintain her manners — swallowed the food in her mouth.
She raised her head and looked toward Ryu Lion and the others standing beside Haimer, their expressions still guarded.
And then.
With a complicated feeling stirring in her heart, Lei lowered her head slightly and performed a perfectly proper, entirely human bow of greeting.
"H-hello. I am Lei. It is a pleasure to meet you."
Lei's voice was clear and musical, her words crisply enunciated.
But that one polite greeting.
Sent Ryu Lion, Chloe, Lunor, and Anya all staring wide-eyed at the very same moment.
Silence.
The hall fell into a dead silence that stretched for several full seconds.
"Uwaaah!!!"
"The monster can TALK, mya?!!"
Anya's cat-ears shot straight up on the spot. She let out a strangled, off-key shriek, leapt clean into the air, and landed on Lunor's back, locking both arms tight around her neck.
Ryu Lion too was so startled by the greeting that her wrist jerked involuntarily.
Her pale face was written all over with disbelief.
Not only could the monster understand human speech — it could use the language of the surface to greet someone of its own accord, with such perfectly composed courtesy?!
"All right, all right — stop making such a fuss!"
At that, the heavy curtain to the kitchen was swept aside by a firm hand.
Mama Mia came striding out.
She set a great iron pot — still bubbling and steaming — down in the centre of the table with a resounding clang.
"Never seen a customer with wings before?"
Mama Mia twisted around and shot a ferocious glare at her staff members, who were all clustered together with expressions of pure shock — apparently having forgotten entirely how she herself had looked the first time she'd witnessed this scene not long ago.
"Also! Now that you've confirmed your precious Kami-sama is perfectly fine, get back to work this instant!"
"Can't you see our guests' plates are nearly empty? Get to the kitchen and bring out more roast meat, now!"
That bellow from Mama Mia — delivered with the full force of her considerable lungs.
It was enough to jolt Anya and the others out of their daze, sending them stumbling free of their shock in a flurry of confusion.
But.
Anya dropped down from Lunor's back and looked around the room.
She scratched at the cat-ears on top of her head, face puzzled.
"Hm?"
"Mama Mia, how come so many of the customers have suddenly disappeared, mya?"
The Hostess of Fertility — which should have been packed and raucous with business before they had left — was now, apart from Haimer's large table, entirely empty through its wide hall.
Only a handful of senior adventurers with slightly steadier nerves and higher levels still lurked in the most out-of-the-way corner near the bar, pressing themselves against the wall with ears pricked, listening furtively to every sound from this direction.
Everyone else had vanished.
Following Anya's observation, Chloe and Lunor also looked at the empty tables, the corners of their eyes twitching.
Well, wasn't the reason staring them right in the face!
Who in their right mind would want to sit under the same roof as a pack of monsters who were not only armed to the teeth but apparently capable of speaking perfect human language?!
This was more hair-raising than being in a deep-floor monster's lair!
"Less talk! Get back to work!"
Mama Mia rolled her eyes, raised one of her fan-like hands in a gesture of impending violence, and summarily shooed the still-dithering Anya, Chloe, and Lunor off to the kitchen.
Ryu Lion remained where she stood. She drew a slow, deep breath, and forcibly pressed down the surge of sheer absurdity that had been churning wildly inside her chest.
"Kami-sama…"
"These level-four and level-six monsters — what are your plans for them?"
Ryu Lion looked at Haimer, a faint tremor of uncertainty threading through her cool, composed voice.
Because a living creature that could greet someone with such genuine politeness — it was simply impossible to lump it in the same category as the mindless, slavering beasts of the Dungeon.
"I'll bring them back to our residence first, of course, and get them settled."
Haimer leaned back in his chair and spoke in a thoughtful, measured tone.
"They have nowhere to live on the surface, after all. I can hardly have them sleeping in the street."
Faced with Haimer's answer, Ryu Lion bit her lip, gave a nod, and asked nothing more.
…
Meanwhile.
On the other side of the round table.
Fei and Lei, confronted with the freshly delivered spread of food in front of them, had run into a rather obvious difficulty.
As heretic children in avian form.
They had no human arms — only a pair of broad, sweeping wings in their place.
And so.
Faced with the neat cubes of roast meat on the porcelain plate and the delicate soup in the small bowl, bending down and gnawing directly with their beaks seemed decidedly uncouth.
Lei especially.
She had the beautiful, vivid face of a mature woman, together with a natural quality of dignified grace. She had eaten quickly just now purely because, in all her decades of existence, she had never once tasted food that had been cooked. But now that her appetite had settled somewhat, she looked at the greasy plate before her.
She tried bending forward and using the edge of her wing to pinch up a piece of meat soaked in sauce.
The surface of the meat was too slick — she had barely lifted it when it went "plop" and fell straight back down onto the table, scattering a few drops of brown sauce.
A flush of embarrassed colour instantly bloomed across Lei's pale cheeks.
She lowered her head, her golden feathers quivering faintly, gazing at her dinner plate with a look of helpless uncertainty.
Fei, on the other hand, was rather less refined.
With the guileless energy of a boisterous girl, she cared not at all for appearances.
She simply pushed her entire face straight into the plate, opened her mouth, and in two or three sweeping motions shovelled all the food chaotically inside. Her nose, her cheeks — and even a strand of carmine-coloured hair that had fallen forward — were smeared all over with grease and sauce.
"So good, so good!"
Fei chewed with vigour, mumbling indistinctly, her eyes squinting into two happy, contented slits.
Watching these two bird-women eating in a manner that belonged to entirely different worlds.
Haimer too was at a loss.
He reached out and pulled two clean white paper napkins from the wooden box on the table.
First he leaned over.
And with a gentle hand, wiped the sauce from the corner of Lei's mouth.
"There is no need to be so on edge."
Haimer's tone was warm.
"If there is anything you need help with, you may say so at any time."
Hearing Haimer's considerate words, Lei blinked, momentarily startled.
Looking at the god who was so close before her, and feeling the touch against her cheek.
Lei did not know why, but her heart was suddenly hammering in her chest — and across her cheeks, in an instant, a flush of red spread like fire across an evening sky, bleeding all the way to the tips of her ears. Even the golden feathers on top of her head rose slightly, trembling with a faint, involuntary flutter.
"Th-…thank you, Kami-sama."
Lei looked at Haimer, her expression faintly dazed.
And then.
Haimer pulled out a fresh napkin and turned toward Fei, who had eaten so enthusiastically she looked like a little tabby cat with sauce all over her face.
He reached over and began wiping at Fei's tender, grease-covered cheeks with careful strokes.
Slowly, methodically clearing away the sticky brown smears.
Feeling the motion of the napkin against her cheek, and the scent coming off the person beside her — that deeply, inexplicably reassuring scent.
Fei stopped chewing.
She raised her head and stared at Haimer with wide, blank eyes.
But unlike Lei — whose reaction had carried the reserved, restrained quality of a more mature woman — when Fei came back to her senses, she actually leaned further in of her own accord, pressing her pale, soft cheek against Haimer's hand through the napkin with no guard whatsoever.
Her fine, smooth skin, separated only by the thin paper, even carried the faint warmth of her slightly quickened breath from eating — and she rubbed herself lightly against his fingers.
A pair of clear, bright, liquid eyes stared straight up at Haimer, shining.
"Kami-sama, you are so kind!"
"But, come to think of it — Fei feels so strange!"
"When Fei looks at Kami-sama right now, Fei's heart is beating so fast, so fast!"
"It feels like it is about to leap right out of her throat!"
"Kami-sama — is Fei sick?"
Fei blinked, the picture of guileless innocence.
In that instant.
Fei's perfectly direct shot.
Carried by that utterly unclouded, crystalline voice.
Rang out with perfect clarity.
And landed squarely on everyone else at the round table — and on Ryu Lion, standing not far away.
Clatter.
Onigawara Rin's expression froze on her face mid-sip, a visible twitch running through it, and the silver spoon in her hand dropped straight into the porcelain bowl with a splash of soup.
Inaba Tsukuyo's fingers tightened almost imperceptibly around the sheath of her sword, White Heron.
Amou Kirukiru narrowed her long eyes to the faintest slits, and deep in those black pupils, a flash of extraordinarily dangerous, predatory intensity ignited.
Ryu Lion, standing behind Haimer, was struck by those words so hard that her heart skipped a full beat.
The air pressure around the entire table seemed to plummet off a cliff in that single moment.
Because…
This monster...
Was far too direct!!!
She had been on the surface for what — no time at all — and yet here she was, in full view of everyone, wearing that deceptively adorable face, saying something to Kami-sama that was positively dripping with the most vivid, rose-tinted implications imaginable?!
What sort of terrifying development was this?!
"Ah… ahem…"
Shakti, seated across the table, was caught so completely off guard by this inter-species declaration of transparent affection that she broke into a fit of violent coughing.
Haimer, for his part, was entirely unperturbed.
He crumpled the grease-stained napkin into a ball and tossed it into the waste bin at his feet.
Then he reached over with a resigned hand and ruffled Fei on the head.
"What you have is not an illness."
"It is simply a perfectly normal reaction — you have just come to the surface for the first time, and you are too excited by all the new things around you."
"Now finish your food."
Oh!
Hearing Haimer's explanation, Fei gave a half-understanding, half-uncomprehending nod.
And then plunged her face back into her plate and resumed eating with great enthusiasm.
But.
No sooner had Fei swallowed a mouthful than a large new smear of rich sauce reappeared on her cheek.
Haimer sighed with resignation and was just reaching out again — by this point edging close to the territory of simply hand-feeding her himself —
Clang!
Kikakujou Mary, watching this unfold, immediately shot up out of her chair.
The legs of the chair scraped against the floor with a sharp, grating sound.
In one stride she was across the room, inserting herself bodily between Haimer and Fei.
"Kami-sama!"
Kikakujou Mary squeezed out a perfectly composed, aristocratic smile — with only a hint of stiffness around the edges.
"Lady Lei and Lady Fei have no hands, and eating is truly so inconvenient for them!"
"This sort of rough work — attending to someone's eating — please, allow us to handle it!"
"Yes! Kami-sama! Please, you must let us help!"
Onigawara Rin and Hanasaka Warabi started for a moment, then reacted in the same instant — each snatching up a plate piled with roast meat, planting themselves one to Fei's left and one to her right, blocking her off completely.
"Here, open up. Aah—"
Onigawara Rin gripped her spoon tight. Her delicate doll-like face wore a smile, but beneath it her voice carried a warning note that left no room for argument, as she shoved a dripping piece of meat unceremoniously into Fei's mouth.
What did they think they were doing?!
Their Kami-sama could afford to be generous with them — fine, they were all members of the same Familia, after all.
But now he was on the verge of personally wiping their mouths and hand-feeding them — acts laden with intimate, special significance?!
Unacceptable!
That sort of thing was absolutely unacceptable!
Watching his girls suddenly erupt all at once in a surge of fierce, collective possessiveness.
Haimer leaned back in his chair.
His gaze swept over their tense, rigid backs.
He knew perfectly well what was happening. And he smiled — a helpless, fond, entirely resigned smile.
And so.
When they finally left the Hostess of Fertility.
The sky had gone completely dark.
The magic stone lanterns along both sides of the street had lit up one by one, shedding their soft, gentle light.
Haimer walked at the head of the group.
Still cradled in his arms was the Almiraj rabbit — Aruru — who had eaten and drunk her fill and was now lying flat on her back, all four limbs in the air, dozing with soft, faint little snores.
Behind him followed Onigawara Rin and Kikakujou Mary and the others.
And those heretic children, once again wrapped from head to toe in their black cloaks.
All along the way, Shakti had been nothing short of conscientious in her duty, escorting them every step of the road — through the streets gradually growing quiet around them — toward the high-class residential district at the intersection of North Main Street and West Main Street.
"That will do — you may stop here."
Before the heavy wrought-iron gate of the residence.
Haimer came to a stop and looked back at Shakti.
"Thank you for your kindness today, Miss Shakti. I enjoyed the meal very much."
"This… this is my duty."
Shakti pressed her lips together, stood up straight with a moment's hesitation, and gave Haimer a formal knight's salute.
Then she looked at the monsters quietly filing in behind Haimer, preparing to walk through the gate.
She hesitated for a moment — then, in the end, could not hold back, and spoke.
"Lord Haimer."
"Although you have them under control through your art — I still hope you will keep strict watch over them, and ensure they do not cause any disturbance in the city."
"But of course."
"So long as no one launches a sudden attack against them, I give you my word, Miss Shakti — they will not provoke any trouble of their own accord."
"Then… I shall take my leave."
Hearing Haimer's words, Shakti understood clearly that there was nothing she could change. She turned away with a complicated expression and dissolved into the night.
And with that.
Haimer pushed the wrought-iron gate open.
And led everyone inside the courtyard.
Then, slowly, drew the gate shut behind him.
Sealing the outside world entirely away.
At last.
When everyone had entered the residence.
The Magic Stone climate-control system in the hall hummed into operation, and the interior temperature was wonderfully, perfectly comfortable.
"Wow!"
Fei yanked her black hood off, tilted her head back and looked up at the Magic Stone crystal chandelier overhead, and let out a cry of wonder.
"It is so beautiful here! So much brighter than the Dungeon! And so warm!"
Lei too pushed back her cloak and looked around with curiosity at the elegant, finely crafted ironwood-and-rattan furniture and the soft sofas, those gentle eyes of hers brimming with wonder.
And Helge went further still — dropping straight down onto the wooden floor, stretching all four limbs out wide, and rolling around with enormous satisfaction, apparently very much taken with the cool, smooth sensation beneath her.
"All right then."
Haimer set the sleeping Aruru down gently on a single-seat sofa.
Then he turned around to face Onigawara Rin, Kikakujou Mary, and the others, who had each found a place to stand and now had all their eyes fixed on him.
"I believe the time has come for proper introductions."
Haimer extended a hand and indicated Lei and the others, who were standing off to one side looking slightly uncertain of themselves.
"As you have seen, they are the very monsters with rational minds that you overheard talk of on the eighteenth floor."
"Known as — heretic children."
"From this day forward, they are associate members of our Haimer Familia."
"I trust that within this residence, none of you will allow their origins to be a source of any distance or rejection."
Hearing Haimer's formal declaration.
Onigawara Rin and the others straightened up.
"We hear and obey, Kami-sama."
"Please be assured — we will have no reservations whatsoever."
The girls nodded in agreement.
Watching his girls comply without a single objection or trace of dissent.
Haimer smiled, satisfied.
And then he turned his gaze to Lei, Fei, Rania, and the Hellhound Helge.
"From this day forward, this is your first foothold on the surface."
"You may settle into the rooms on the third floor for now. In a few days, once the new residence I have arranged has been built — somewhere with more space — I will find a way to bring the rest of the heretic children up as well."
____
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