"The Calamity God's Cursed Weapon." Among Haimer's many titles in the Heavens, one of them was "Source of Calamity."
Who the Calamity God was needed no explanation.
She stole a glance at Haimer, thinking that although this guy never said it out loud, he sure was blunt when it came to naming things.
But then. Hestia immediately thought of that boundlessly arrogant girl, Amou Kirukiru—if she found out her title was "Haimer's Cursed Weapon," she'd probably be so delighted her tail would shoot straight up to the sky.
At that thought, she felt a little annoyed all over again.
As for the first title—once it was settled, the naming of the rest went much faster.
However. Apart from the title-naming, Haimer had also deliberately kept the gods behind to handle a bit of private business.
And so the Denatus didn't end until noon.
After it concluded and they departed, the gods—who by all rights should have left the fierce god feeling light and unburdened—instead all withdrew one after another, their faces extraordinarily grave.
As though they'd signed an unequal treaty they never should have signed.
On the white steps, the footsteps of the gods fell sparse and scattered.
After the gods had all withdrawn, Hestia saw Haimer rise and hurriedly climbed down from her chair to fall in at his side.
Loki, meanwhile, stretched in a big lazy arch, her squinted eyes pressed into a single thin line, muttering that she was finally free.
Hephaestus stood up as well.
The four of them walked down the steps and out the gate of the [Ganesha Familia] grounds, where the noon sunlight came crashing down right on top of their heads.
The [Ganesha Familia] military police still stood on either side, ramrod straight.
Loki's red hair was especially glaring in the sunlight, and she couldn't help raising a hand to shade her forehead as she let out a yawn.
"Haah~"
"Say, what are you all planning to do next?"
Loki turned her head and glanced at Haimer.
"This goddess plans to head back to the Twilight Manor, take a bath, and get a good long sleep—last night was a real ordeal."
As she spoke, Loki deliberately and exaggeratedly patted her own lower back right in front of Haimer, looking utterly worn out.
Seeing this, Haimer rolled his eyes a little helplessly.
Hestia, meanwhile, couldn't help blinking, somewhat puzzled.
After all, once last night's banquet had ended, they'd all been arranged to rest in the guest rooms at the [Ganesha Familia] grounds.
Sensing something was off, Hestia immediately furrowed her brow, turned to look at Loki, and tilted her face up to press her.
"Loki, what were you off doing last night?"
Realizing she'd let something slip, Loki's lips twitched, and she was just about to open her mouth—
But Hephaestus beat her to it.
"As for me, I plan to head back, change out of these clothes, and then go take a look over at the outer ring. The construction can't be allowed to fall behind—I've made changes to some details on the blueprints, and I still need to finalize them face-to-face with the dwarven craftsmen."
The moment she said this, Loki knew Hephaestus was helping her change the subject.
Even so, she couldn't help turning her head toward Hephaestus, her whole face wearing an expression of "you really are unbelievable."
"Hey, hey, you're still going?"
"You really are a thoroughgoing workaholic."
"Late last night I saw you curled up beside the low table in the guest room, poring over a few parchment blueprints."
At these words, Haimer's gaze also turned toward Hephaestus.
Hestia, too, lifted her head, looking at her with some surprise.
Feeling all three pairs of eyes land on her at once, Hephaestus scratched her head a little sheepishly.
"Don't worry—all of this is by my own choice. It's not like anyone's forcing me to do it."
"Besides, if Haimer's new base really is going to house that many children in the future..."
"Water supply, drainage, lighting, ventilation—every single detail truly can't be done carelessly. Honestly, I'd feel less at ease leaving it to anyone else."
"To see with my own eyes a building that can shelter so many children from the wind and rain go from blueprint to reality—that alone is enough to make me quite happy."
"Don't worry about it. I'm off."
With that, Hephaestus waved to the three of them, her figure gradually vanishing around the bend of the street.
Watching Hephaestus disappear into the distance, Loki turned her gaze back to Haimer, idly tugging at the collar of the black-silk woven formal dress she wore, loosening the neck that had been constricting her all this while.
"And you, Haimer?"
"Kirukiru and the others should be over at your place right now, so I might as well head to your Twilight Manor together with you."
Loki blinked and nodded. "That's certainly on the way."
Then Loki suddenly drew her voice out long and narrowed her eyes.
Turning sideways, she leaned in toward Haimer with a wicked grin.
"You're not even going to bother changing your clothes—don't tell me you just want to spend a little more time with this goddess?"
These words of Loki's truly recaptured that smarmy feeling from back in the Heavens.
But the instant she said them, Hestia, off to the side, couldn't help muttering a sly little jab under her breath.
"Lecherous old hag."
"Hey! You damn squirt! Who are you calling lecherous?!" Loki instantly bristled, glaring at Hestia.
Hestia, meanwhile, ducked in beside Haimer, showing only half her face, her big blue eyes peeking out from the edge of Haimer's sleeve as she pursed her lips and twisted the knife in a small voice.
"Whoever answers is the one I mean."
"Haah?!!"
Loki's brow shot up at once.
And so the two of them started bickering across Haimer.
Although Hestia stood only as tall as Loki's chest, when she lifted her head her bravado wasn't the least bit inferior.
Loki, for her part, bent down, glaring at Hestia through gritted teeth and firing back retort after retort.
Being used as a partition wall by these two...
Haimer was well used to it by now; he sighed helplessly and couldn't be bothered to cut in.
...
All on account of Loki and Hestia's bickering and squabbling, the three of them were held up on the road by a good ten-odd minutes.
The noontime streets of Orario.
The shops on either side of the street had long since begun opening, one after another.
Not only that—from the far end of the road came a crisp, clear child's voice.
"Newspapers! Get your newspapers!"
"Fresh off the Denatus!"
"The [Haimer Familia]'s entire roster of titles officially named!"
"Breaker of the world's fastest record!"
"Amou Kirukiru! Title officially confirmed—'The Calamity God's Cursed Weapon'!"
On the street, a little girl clutched a thick stack of newspapers to her chest—wrapped in oilpaper to keep out the damp—her voice clear and bright, carrying that penetrating quality unique to children, shouting out across the somewhat quiet afternoon street.
At her cries, a scattered few passersby stopped in their tracks.
A beastman adventurer in leather armor felt at his coin purse, hesitating.
The dwarf beside her, hauling a basket of ore, also cast a curious glance this way.
Seeing this, the girl hurriedly trotted forward and thrust the newspaper in her hands right up in front of him.
Several of her fingers were dotted with bandages, and she looked up at the beastman adventurer with a face full of pleading.
"Sir! Buy one, won't you! It's only 10 Valis! Today's the special Denatus edition—there are tons of new titles for the freshly promoted Lv.2s in here!"
The beastman adventurer, seeing her, let out a sigh, fished a ten-Valis coin out of his pocket, and took a copy of the paper.
The girl hastily bowed her thanks, carefully tucking the money into her apron pocket, then ran back to the street corner and went on hollering at the top of her lungs.
"Papers! Papers for sale! Fresh from the Denatus! The [Haimer Familia] title is confirmed!"
"Want the details? Buy one quick!" the girl shouted as she ran, her thin little figure darting back and forth along both sides of the street. Now and then someone would buy a copy; now and then someone would wave her off.
But she wasn't discouraged—she'd just bow and keep running.
She was running so fast that the strap of her sandal came loose twice, and each time she crouched down, tied it back up, and carried on.
"Papers! Papers for sale!" "Fresh from the Denatus!"
Hearing those cries ring out one after another, Loki broke off her squabble with Hestia and narrowed her eyes toward the source of the noise.
"Tch, that's quick work. Looks like some god's already gone and spread the Denatus news around."
In the Lower World, newspapers weren't exactly a novelty.
After all, the gods of the Lower World had all seen other worlds.
Some of them naturally brought the marketing methods of those other worlds over to this one.
But.
In Orario, this line of work wasn't actually profitable, nor was it glamorous.
It was basically a trade run by tiny, small-time Familias themselves.
After all, in Orario, information circulated plenty fast through channels like the Guild, the taverns, and everyday comings and goings.
Who'd leveled up, whose floor-clearing count had gone up—there was no need to wait for it to be printed in a paper. Within a few days it would've already spread all through the taverns.
So there really weren't many people willing to shell out money for a newspaper.
On top of that, the highest-leveled adventurer in these tiny little Familias was usually just a Lv.1, and some of them might even be children who couldn't become adventurers and couldn't serve as supporters.
To keep the Familia running, these children—unfit to be adventurers or supporters—would sell papers to scrape together a meager income.
But.
In Orario, without a high-level adventurer to back you up, you'd often find yourself getting bullied.
Having just finished a round of shouting, the little girl with the short chestnut-brown hair wiped the sweat from her brow and lowered her head to count how many papers she had left in her arms.
Her apron pocket held a scattering of coins; she counted them carefully twice, confirmed the figure was right, and a smile had only just begun to surface on her face.
"Snatch."
A thick, burly hand reached over from the side and grabbed up every last one of those coins she'd just earned selling papers, right out of her apron pocket.
The little girl gave a start and jerked her head up.
Three men stood before her.
The one in the lead was a tall, gaunt man.
Behind him followed two companions—one short and stocky like a stump, the other with an old scar running clean across the bridge of his nose.
All three wore half-worn leather armor, and the emblem stamped on their chests was a broken sword with a snake coiled around it.
——The [Acro Familia].
A small Familia that didn't even rank among the bottom-feeders of all Orario—but on a street corner with no military police around, it was more than enough to make a little paper-selling girl too afraid to fight back.
The tall man weighed the few coins in his hand, the corner of his mouth twisting into a grin that bared a mouthful of yellow teeth.
"Brat, you handed over today's cut nice and fast. Not bad—saves us the trouble of hounding you for it."
The child kept lunging forward, trying to grab the money back.
"P-please, I'm begging you—I only just opened up shop today. Can't you at least leave me a little... we're still several papers short of today's quota..."
Before she could even finish, she was cut off by a cold snort from the tall man.
"Who cares about you. No money? Then go dig through the trash. What's it got to do with us?"
With that, he raised his hand and brought it down hard on the crown of the girl's head.
That blow held nothing back.
The girl was scrawny to begin with, and with that single strike, her whole body snapped backward, the back of her skull cracking against the stone wall with a "thud."
Stars burst before her eyes, and her ears rang with a buzzing din.
The papers in her arms scattered all over the ground—some landing in muddy puddles, some blown into the corner against the wall.
The ink of the printed words bled and spread in the muddy water, each title growing blurred and illegible.
Heedless of her dizziness, the girl scrambled to crouch down and gather up the papers from the ground, her hands trembling—it was heartache. If these papers got dirty or torn, they'd never sell.
"Tch, still not clearing off?"
Seeing this, the tall man had just lifted his foot, getting ready to kick her.
The next second.
On another street a dozen meters away.
The figures of Onigawara Rin, Amou Kirukiru, Hanasaka Warabi, the Holy Emperor, Inaba Tsukuyo, Kikakujou Mary, Tendou Kisara, Aihara Enju, Kohina Hiruko, Lili, and the others appeared.
They had come from the direction of the Twilight Manor.
After their morning training wrapped up, the people of the [Loki Familia] had told them the Denatus was about to end, and that if they wanted to go pick someone up, walking over from here would be right on the way.
So Onigawara Rin had led everyone out.
And the moment they rounded the corner of the main street, they happened to catch sight of this very scene.
"『The Calamity God's Cursed Weapon,' huh? So this is the title the god gave me?" "It actually suits my taste pretty well."
Amou Kirukiru, hearing the little girl's cries from her paper-selling just now, licked her lips in excitement.
Lili, walking in the middle of the group, was hugging a small cloth pouch to her chest—it held the savings she'd planned to deposit at the Guild today.
After she saw the little girl who'd been struck to the ground, memories came surging up all at once, like a rising tide.
She thought back to how, in her early childhood, she had briefly fled the [Soma Familia] for a while, with nothing on her but a set of tattered clothes and a few stolen hunks of hard bread.
By the time she reached Southeast Main Street, she was so hungry she couldn't walk another step, so she crouched down at the roadside and cried.
It was a married pair of merchants who ran a little flower shop—seeing how pitiful she was, they took her in.
The shop's mistress was a human woman whose face was covered in freckles, who especially loved to smile. She gave Lili food to eat and let the frail little thing help water the flowers.
This was the first time, for as far back as Lili could remember, that she learned a person could do something wrong and still not have to be beaten for it.
But later, the people of the [Soma Familia] found her.
They didn't lay a hand on her, but they smashed the flower shop to smithereens.
All those blooming tulips, roses, and baby's breath were trampled into the mud, and even the glass greenhouse was shattered to pieces.
The merchant couple trembled in terror, and before the [Soma Familia]'s people left, they didn't forget to toss out one last line——
Dare to take in someone from the Soma Familia again, and next time it won't be flowers we smash.
After the flower shop was destroyed, once they learned Lili's identity as an adventurer, that couple who had taken her in looked at her too as though she were a monster, and told her to leave at once.
The mistress who had once cared for her, who had loved to smile, now looked at Lili with eyes no different from how she'd look at the monsters that crawled up out of the Dungeon.
From that day on, she never again dared to ask anyone for help.
After all, when it came to matters between adventurers, helping out only brought disaster down on yourself.
Who would be willing to take that risk?
No one will do something that brings them no benefit.
Recalling her own past, Lili lowered her head, her gaze dimming a few shades despite herself.
On the other side of the street, across the way, another person had likewise come to a halt.
Ryu clenched her fists, her eyes locking onto those three men of the [Acro Familia].
She wasn't supposed to be here today.
But because Mama Mia's suppliers had been in the middle of an internal shake-up these past few days, several of the vendors who delivered ingredients hadn't gotten their goods to The Benevolent Mistress tavern on time.
The tavern's kitchen was running terribly short on supplies, and with no other choice, Mama Mia had to have Ryu go out and make the run herself.
The bamboo basket dangling from her hand was already packed with quite a lot, so heavy that it bent the bamboo handle into a slight curve.
And just as she reached this street, she happened to run into this scene unfolding at the mouth of the alley.
Ryu's gaze fell upon the adventurers who'd raised their hands against the girl.
Though she didn't know these men's names, she recognized these few faces.
Once, at the Flaming Bee Tavern on East Main Street, Ryu had seen these men when the owner beat them out the door for drinking and causing trouble.
And in the back alley off North Main Street, she'd also seen this bunch once when they were running their loan-sharking, shaking people down for debts.
They were all low-life trash—unable to bully the monsters in the Dungeon that were stronger than them, so they made a point of preying on the weak and defenseless instead.
Back in the old days, if something like this had happened while the [Astraea Familia] was still around—
Captain Alise Lovell would long since have rushed forward in a single bound and knocked the man's teeth right out.
But now...
Ryu's eyes dimmed considerably.
The [Astraea Familia] was no more.
And the [Ganesha Familia]'s military police weren't omnipotent either.
Orario was such a vast city, with so many streets, so many dark alley corners—the military police would never have enough hands to go around.
For petty robberies like this, the kind that happened among the lowest rungs every single day, there was simply no one willing to step up and intervene.
The passersby on the street saw it too, but they all just chose to lower their heads, quicken their pace, and hurry away.
And on top of that, those three adventurers clearly weren't done even after taking the money—the tall man lifted his foot again, getting ready to kick the little girl.
Ryu gritted her teeth and let go of the bamboo basket in her hand. The basket dropped to the ground, and a few potatoes rolled out.
She was about to draw the wooden sword from her back.
But then.
The next second!
A clear, ringing woman's voice cut straight across the street.
"Stop!"
The tall man froze mid-motion and turned his head toward the source of the voice. There he saw Onigawara Rin and the others striding over with grim faces.
The moment he made out who had arrived, the tall man's expression changed at once.
—After all, in present-day Orario, who would dare claim they didn't recognize the faces of the Haimer Familia's members?
Having shattered the record of the Loki Familia's Sword Princess for the fastest level-up—a feat that had taken her a full year—they'd been the talk of the town this whole time.
Rumor even had it that the two bears their Familia kept were honest-to-goodness Lv.2.
A newly risen, blazing star of a Familia like this was simply not one their own Familia could afford to provoke.
Panic seized the tall man, and he hurriedly tossed the coins in his hand to the ground, meaning to call his companions and leave.
But Onigawara Rin clearly had no intention of letting him off that easily.
Her hand pressed down hard on the hilt of the blade at her waist.
She fixed her stare on the tall man and said coldly,
"Give her the money."
"And the damages for the newspapers you knocked over."
"Pay it all back—double!"
At those words, the tall man stiffened where he stood, his face cycling through shades of green and white.
But just as he was about to dig out the money and get it over with—
a short, stocky man beside him couldn't hold back any longer and spoke up:
"Don't think you can—"
"Clang—!"
Before he could finish, Onigawara Rin's gaze sharpened, her short black hair tracing an afterimage through the air.
She stamped down hard on the flagstone ground.
And the five meters of distance was compressed to zero!
The tachi in Onigawara Rin's hand was already laid flat across the face of the stocky man who'd spoken!
One more inch forward, and the bridge of his nose would have been shaved clean off!
The man could even feel the chill of the blade creeping down from his nose-tip into his nostrils.
He clamped his mouth shut at once, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with an audible gulp.
"If this were back at our school..."
"with the way you lot were just bullying the weak, I'd have crippled you long ago—you'd be lying in an infirmary bed nursing your wounds for months."
Seeing this, more and more passersby stopped to gather around and watch.
The tall man's face went ashen. He took a step back, then, feeling the humiliation of it in front of so many people, forced himself to stop.
"Why waste words on these clowns—just hit him!"
An impatient, sweet shout came from the side.
"Bang—!"
A muffled thud.
Hanasaka Warabi, who had just walked over, brought her sheathed tachi—blade and scabbard together—down hard against the back of the tall man's right knee.
The thickest part of the tachi's spine, combined with the arm strength Hanasaka Warabi had gained through her God's Grace enhancement, slammed into the soft tendons behind his knee—the effect no less devastating than a vicious swing from a solid iron bar!
"Aaaagh!!!"
The tall man let out an instant scream of agony, his right leg buckling as he crashed down onto the flagstones with a heavy thud, dropping to his knees.
His features twisted with pain; baring his teeth as he clutched his leg, he viciously lifted his head, meaning to curse them out.
But the moment his gaze rose, a massive black shadow fell over him completely, swallowing him whole on the spot.
The tall man's curses jammed in his throat in an instant; his whole body went rigid, and even his breathing stopped.
For there it was—the Haimer Familia's enormous black bear, bearing down on him.
A huge right forepaw pressed against the ground, and with a light scrape of its claw-tips, it left five shallow white gouges.
"Phoo—!" Kyoubou's breath blasted across the man's face like a wave of heat.
Watching a black bear—taller than he was even when standing—stare him down without blinking,
the tall man trembled all over.
After all, who didn't know that this big bear of the Haimer Familia could tear Minotaurs to shreds in the Dungeon without breaking a sweat?
At such close range, if that paw came down, never mind his mere human skull—
with the strength of a Lv.2 monster, even the flagstone floor beneath them would split open in a great crack.
How could the three of them—Lv.1s scraping by at the bottom—ever hope to make any waves in front of this monster?
Seeing that things had gone south—the other side hadn't bothered with many words, just gone straight to beating them—
the man with the old scar beside him trembled and hurriedly reached into his pocket.
"L-let's talk this out! We'll pay! We'll pay for the newspapers, all right?!"
He hastily dug out every last Valis in his pockets, piling the scattered bits on the ground.
The other one, along with the tall man kneeling on the ground, frantically followed suit, turning out every pocket they had.
All three men's money added up to a small, ragged little pile.
"Pick up every coin! Put it in her hands!"
Onigawara Rin's gaze narrowed slightly as she commanded them from on high.
"Y-yes, yes!"
The three of them agreed over and over, scrambling to gather up the coins from the ground, and with trembling hands handed all the money to the little girl who was still sitting there.
Once the little girl had taken the money—
"Scram." Onigawara Rin sheathed her blade, saying only that single word.
The three Acro Familia adventurers, terrified in an instant, scrambled to their feet and fled, half-running, half-crawling away.
The tall man limped along, and before leaving glanced back at Onigawara Rin and the others, opening his mouth as if to say something more—
but the moment he met Kyoubou's pitch-black eyes, cold sweat broke out all over him again, and he hastily turned and slunk off in defeat.
"Roar?"
In reality, though, Kyoubou—watching the man tremble from head to toe in terror—merely scratched its head in mild confusion.
Once the three Acro Familia adventurers had run off into the distance, the street fell quiet once more.
The little girl, cradling the pile of coins in her hands, lifted her head to look at the women standing before her.
Seeing that her helpers were members of the Haimer Familia, and then casting another glance at the enormous Kyoubou,
the little girl shrank her shoulders in a flicker of fear.
After all, this was a Familia that kept and sheltered a monster from the Dungeon, and Orario was full of rumors about them.
And a child, naturally, believed every word the grown-ups said.
Seeing the girl flinch, the Holy Emperor stepped forward gently.
She crouched down.
"Here, I build a paradise where no one grieves."
As the Holy Emperor finished speaking, a soft white glow of magic welled up in her palm.
The light settled gently over the knee the little girl had scraped, and visibly, before the eye, it healed.
Gazing at the Holy Emperor's stunningly beautiful, gentle face, and then at the wondrous healing magic, the little girl was left a little dazed, the fear in her eyes mostly melting away.
After all, in Orario, few adventurers could use healing magic.
And most of those healers charged a hefty fee.
And even though Orario's very finest healer, Miss Amid, would regularly take her Familia members to see patients at the clinic,
the free slots filled up every day before dawn.
Sometimes you'd go to register at three in the morning, only to find twenty-odd people already crouched ahead of you, and by the time the sun was beating down on the back of your neck, a nurse would come out and say, "We're full today," and you'd just have to carry your aches back home.
When she'd scraped her knee before, she hadn't even dared to dream of having someone heal it with magic—she hadn't even dared to step over the threshold of the Azure Apothecary.
After all, the way she saw it, a little wound like this would pass if she just bore with it.
But now—
this big sister from the supposedly cruel and savage Familia had, for so trifling a little injury of hers, gone right ahead and used such advanced healing magic.
The little girl's eyes reddened at once, a sting rising in her nose.
Tears welled and spun in her eyes.
"Your knee doesn't hurt anymore, does it?"
The Holy Emperor withdrew her hand and instead gave the little girl a faint smile.
The little girl stared blankly at the Holy Emperor's smiling face, a trace of uncomprehending daze still on her own.
"Does anywhere else still hurt?"
the Holy Emperor asked softly.
"N-no, not anymore..."
After the little girl shook her head in a daze,
"Good, then."
Smiling, the Holy Emperor helped the little girl to her feet.
Aihara Enju and Kohina Hiruko, meanwhile, helped her pick up the newspapers that had fallen to the ground.
As for the other side—Ryu, a bamboo basket in hand, having witnessed the whole thing, wore a somewhat dazed expression.
After all, from Onigawara Rin drawing her blade to Hanasaka Warabi striking the back of the man's knee with the spine of her tachi,
back when the Astraea Familia still existed, she'd seen plenty of scenes like this.
But now it was a different Familia, a different group of newcomers, doing the exact same thing as in the past.
Ryu strode forward, sweeping her gaze over the little girl, and only after confirming the child was unharmed did she turn to Onigawara Rin and the others.
"You all..."
Ryu paused, as if weighing her words.
"Doing this—aren't you afraid of bringing trouble down on your Familia?"
After all, as a former member of the Astraea Familia, she understood better than anyone that drawing one's blade to help others in Orario came at a price.
Back in the day, her Familia had kept the peace under the constant pressure of being marked by Evilus, suffering untold hidden losses, until in the end they were schemed against by Evilus and wiped out to the last.
Although by now Evilus's evil gods had all been sent back to the Heavens,
whether other members of Evilus still lurked hidden somewhere in Orario was anyone's guess.
Not to mention, the Haimer Familia had only been founded a few days ago, and acting so brazenly out in the middle of the street like this—by the rules, it really could give other Familias something to hold against them.
Hanasaka Warabi glanced at Kyoubou, who was busy licking its own forepaw, then looked back at Ryu.
"We just dealt with people who needed dealing with, that's all..."
Hanasaka Warabi never finished her sentence.
Inaba Tsukuyo had gently pressed down on her wrist.
Inaba Tsukuyo's tightly shut eyes turned ever so slightly, angling faintly toward where Ryu stood.
It had to be said—
seeing this scene truly stirred a great deal in Ryu.
Especially when she recalled her days back in the Astraea Familia—
the red-haired captain who was always laughing so brazenly,
and Kaguya, sharp-tongued yet who looked after her with special care.
And Astraea-sama, who always embraced every single one of them with such gentle warmth.
Every time they encountered injustice, they would charge forward without a moment's hesitation.
Even if it earned them the resentment of other Familias afterward, they never once regretted it.
Because they believed it was right. Astraea-sama had always taught them through her actions.
Justice was not the rules written down on paper, nor the clauses debated and decided by the gods.
Justice was that instant when, upon seeing the weak being bullied right before your eyes, your body reacted faster than your mind. And so.
Here and now.
Watching Rin and the others step in to help.
Ryu's eyes trembled faintly.
She gazed at Inaba Tsukuyo, who held her sword with her eyes closed.
All at once, Ryu felt that Inaba Tsukuyo seemed—so very much like Kaguya, all those years ago.
And it wasn't only that the kimono-clad Inaba Tsukuyo resembled the Kaguya of back then.
That reckless drive of Rin's was the spitting image of Alise Lovell.
And Lyra, too—and all the comrades who had died in the Dungeon five years ago.
These girls were so alike to the way they themselves had once been.
Even the Holy Emperor, fussing tenderly over the little girl…
reminded her of A Huo.
If only… Ryu thought quietly to herself.
If everyone were still alive, if Astraea-sama were still here, she would surely look upon these few girls with those calm, tranquil eyes, then give a soft nod and say, well done.
At that thought, Ryu's pupils swayed ever so slightly, and a thin veil of mist rose at the bottom of her eyes.
Before her eyes there even surfaced the figures of Astraea-sama and that ever-smiling god, appearing side by side at once.
In this moment, the figure of that ever-smiling god seemed to overlap with that embracing warmth of the Astraea-sama in her memory.
No. That's not right. Just now I almost… Ryu snapped abruptly back to her senses.
To actually have placed Haimer-sama and Astraea-sama side by side, comparing them… how could she!
Within the elven faith, this was, to a certain degree, almost a kind of blasphemy.
Astraea-sama was the very incarnation of justice, the one and only irreplaceable presence in her heart.
As for Haimer-sama...
Haimer-sama was, admittedly, likewise a god she could not see through, and yet one she couldn't help but want to trust. But still….
Ryu hurriedly shook her head all the same, drawing in a deep breath, trying to drive that somewhat dangerous notion clean out of her mind. She tried to calm herself down.
But.
It was right then.
"Kami-sama."
Inaba Tsukuyo's voice suddenly rang out.
Inaba Tsukuyo stood there, eyes shut and a smile on her lips, tilting her face slightly toward another direction.
Everyone present followed the way she was facing and looked.
Haimer was standing at the street corner, five or six steps away.
The onlookers crowded around him automatically parted to either side, opening up a path.
After spotting Haimer, Ryu's fingers gave the handle of the bamboo basket another squeeze; she opened her mouth wanting to say something, but before she could organize her words, Haimer had already given her a faint smile by way of greeting and looked down at the little girl.
Seeing the black-haired god approaching, the little girl hastily rubbed the dirt smudges off her face with the back of her hand, then tugged her grubby apron down, trying to make herself look a bit tidier.
Then, timidly, she lifted her head, glanced at Onigawara Rin, glanced at the Holy Emperor, and finally let her gaze settle on Haimer.
"H-Haimer-sama, please don't blame them… it's all because I'm too weak that I made them step in…"
Hearing this, the girls all looked at one another.
Hanasaka Warabi arched an eyebrow, Onigawara Rin's lips curled up faintly, and the Holy Emperor folded her hands before her and gave a soft, quiet laugh. Even Amou Kirukiru, who had hardly spoken this whole time, let out a snort through her nose.
Their Kami-sama was hardly the sort of pedantic existence who would blame people without sorting out the rights and wrongs of the matter.
As for the little girl's worry, Haimer felt rather helpless about it too—could it be that when he smiled, in front of these Lower World children, he looked an awful lot like a god of the Kyoubou?
Then.
Haimer shook his head, walked up before the little girl, and—heedless of the mud and water staining the hem of his black formal robe—slowly lowered himself down on one knee.
"It's true that Orario has an unwritten rule: when Familias rashly interfere in the affairs of other Familias, it can easily spark conflict."
"But, since they chose to help you, then this is what they believed in their hearts to be the right thing. And as long as something is believed to be right, then setting your hands to it freely naturally carries no question of right or wrong."
"They did nothing wrong, so naturally I have no need to blame them." "What about you, though—are you hurt?"
Hearing Haimer's question, the little girl was visibly taken aback.
It seemed she had suddenly realized that the patron god of the [Haimer Familia] was rather different from the rumors about the man.
Timidly, the little girl raised her head and looked at Haimer, then carefully lowered it again, looking down at her own knee, which had been scraped and bleeding earlier. The wound had already been healed by the Holy Emperor, leaving only a faint, pale-pink mark.
She shook her head.
"It doesn't hurt anymore. The pretty silver-haired big sister just now healed it for me."
Standing behind, the Holy Emperor's face flushed faintly at these words, and she folded her hands before her.
Haimer followed the little girl's finger and glanced at the Holy Emperor. The Holy Emperor pressed her lips together in embarrassment, lowered her head, and revealed a sliver of reddened ear-tip.
Helpless, Haimer withdrew his gaze, his eyes coming to rest on the soggy stack of newspapers clutched in the little girl's arms.
"Come to think of it, you probably haven't read the contents of the very papers you've been selling today, have you?"
Seeing Haimer ask such a question out of nowhere.
The little girl was startled for a moment, then shook her head.
She only sold them; how could she recognize so many characters?
And even if she could read, she couldn't bring herself to take out a clean paper and flip through it herself—crumple it and it wouldn't sell.
Seeing this.
Haimer fished a coin out of his pocket. One hundred Valis.
He gently placed the coin in the girl's hand and drew a single sheet from the stack of papers in her arms that still gave off the smell of printing ink.
He shook it open. And there—
Though a small patch of the front page had been soaked through, the large characters printed in black ink were still clearly visible. "!!!"
[Passed by Unanimous Deliberation of the Entire Denatus!]
[As the [Astraea Familia], who bore the very name of "Justice," has been gone from Orario for many years! For years on end Orario's public security problems have steadily worsened, already reaching the red warning line!]
[Over these past five years! Violent robbery cases in the dark alleys at the junction of East Main Street and Daedalus Street have been confirmed to have risen by forty percent!]
[Theft cases near the free market in the Southeast District—the incidence rate has more than doubled!]
[Indiscriminate attacks by divine Familias after nightfall have surged from two or three a month straight up to one a week!]
[The Guild's grassroots mediation windows handle, on average, more than seven Familia disputes every single day arising from malicious extortion and bullying!]
[The [Ganesha Familia] military police patrol shifts have been forcibly raised from four shifts a day to eight shifts a day, and manpower is still severely stretched thin!]
[Captain of the military police corps, Shakti Varma, has submitted applications for reinforcement personnel to the Guild for three consecutive months! The situation brooks no delay!]
[There are even signs that the surviving remnants of Evilus have grown active, with every indication of staging a comeback!]
"In light of this..." Above on the paper was listed a whole series of shocking figures. Ryu's gaze swept rapidly across those few lines of bold print; her eyelid gave a violent twitch, and then, reading on, her light-blue eyes went wide and round.
Her line of sight was nailed fast to the next several passages on the paper!
[Following the proposal of the Great God Ouranos! Passed by a vote of all the gods present at the Denatus on the spot!]
[Tentatively designated—the newly risen [Haimer Familia]! Effective this day, to serve as Orario's specially authorized "Constable"!]
[The "Constable" shall enjoy the independent authority of armed judgment to intervene in the city's public security!]
[The [Ganesha Familia] shall step back to a secondary role and provide full, unconditional assistance to the "Constable," jointly maintaining order both within and beyond the city, and cracking down on the Evilus remnants and street crime!]
[Trial period: a duration of one week!]
[The newly appointed "Constable" status will, depending on the results of the public security rectification within this week, be reconvened by the Denatus one week later! To re-deliberate whether permanent authorization shall be granted!]
[Appended below are the specific voting results of today's Denatus!]
[Votes in favor: 513!]
[Votes against: 4!]
[Abstentions: 131!]
Every single word and sentence on that paper weighed a thousand tons.
Having read the final line.
The entire street corner fell into utter silence.
All that remained was the sound of the wind in the distance brushing past the wind chimes under the eaves.
Ryu and the other girls all looked at one another, their eyes wide.
Through a collective vote of all the gods of Orario, nearly seven-tenths and more of the gods would let a Familia that had only been founded a few days ago—one that even sheltered monsters—become the Constable of the entire city? And one wielding the special privilege of forcible suppression, no less?
This was practically handing the whole of Orario's public security authority straight into Haimer's hands!
Ryu understood full well how perilous it was.
The remnants of Evilus would absolutely come at the [Haimer Familia] with murderous intent.
But at the very same time.
Within the Guild's Pantheon, situated in the very heart of Orario.
At this moment, here, in the wake of the Denatus, things were likewise far from ordinary.
"Out of my way! Get out of my way, all of you!"
"Royman! Where is Royman?!!"
"Where has that dead fat pig Royman gone off to?!!"
"Get out here this instant!!! I want to see Ouranos!!!"
The Calamity God's Cursed Weapon. Among Haimer's many titles in the Heavens, there was one called "Source of Calamity."
As for whose Calamity God he was—that went without saying.
She stole a glance at Haimer, thinking to herself that this fellow might not say it out loud, but when it came to naming things he was certainly blunt enough about it.
Still. Hestia then thought of that boundlessly arrogant fellow Amou Kirukiru—if she found out her own title was "Haimer's Cursed Weapon," she'd probably be so delighted her tail would shoot straight up to the sky.
At that thought, she grew a little put out again.
As for the first title, now that it was settled.
The naming of the remaining titles went a good deal faster. However. Apart from the naming of the titles.
Haimer had even deliberately kept the gods behind to attend to a little private business.
And so, the Denatus didn't end until noon.
After the council concluded and the gods took their leave.
The gods, who by all rights should have departed the Evil God's presence feeling light and unburdened, instead filed out one after another with extraordinarily heavy expressions.
It was as though they'd just signed some unequal treaty they never should have signed.
On the white staircase, the footsteps of the gods came sparse and scattered.
After the gods had withdrawn.
Seeing Haimer rise, Hestia hurriedly climbed down from her chair and fell in at his side.
Loki, meanwhile, stretched out in a big, lazy arc, her narrowed eyes squeezing into thin slits, muttering that she was finally free.
Hephaestus stood up as well.
The four of them made their way down the steps and out the gate of the [Ganesha Familia] base, where the noonday sun came crashing down on them head-on. The [Ganesha Familia] military police still stood at attention on either side, ramrod straight.
Loki's red hair was especially glaring in the sunlight, and she couldn't help raising a hand to shade her forehead as she let out a yawn.
"Haaah~"
"Say, what are you all planning to do next?"
Loki turned her head to the side and glanced at Haimer.
"This goddess intends to head back to the Twilight Manor, take a bath, and sleep like the dead. Last night was an absolute ordeal."
As she spoke, Loki deliberately gave her lower back an exaggerated pat right in front of Haimer, putting on a thoroughly worn-out air.
Watching her, Haimer rolled his eyes a little helplessly.
Hestia, meanwhile, couldn't help blinking, a touch puzzled.
After all, once last night's banquet had ended, they'd all been assigned to rest in the guest rooms of the [Ganesha Familia] base.
Seeming to sense that something was off, Hestia immediately knit her brow, turned to look at Loki, and tilted her face up to press her.
"Loki, what were you off doing last night?"
Realizing she'd let something slip, Loki's lips twitched, and she was just about to open her mouth.
Hephaestus beat her to it.
"As for me, once I've gone back and changed out of these clothes, I plan to swing by the outer ring and take a look. The construction schedule can't afford any delay—I've made changes to a few of the blueprint details, and I still need to hammer them out face-to-face with the dwarven craftsmen."
The moment she said it, Loki realized Hephaestus was helping her change the subject.
But she still couldn't help turning her head toward Hephaestus, her whole face written with an expression of "you really are unbelievable."
"Hey, hey, you're going again?"
"You really are a workaholic, through and through."
"In the dead of last night I saw you hunched over the low table in the guest room, poring over a few parchment blueprints."
At these words, Haimer's gaze also turned to Hephaestus.
Hestia raised her head too, looking at her with some surprise.
Feeling all three pairs of eyes fall on her at once, Hephaestus scratched her head a little sheepishly.
"Don't worry, I'm doing all of this of my own free will. Nobody's forcing me into it."
"Besides, if Haimer's new base really is going to house that many children in the future—"
"Water supply, drainage, lighting, ventilation—not a single detail can be done carelessly. Honestly, I'd feel less at ease leaving it to anyone else."
"Being able to watch with my own eyes a building that can shelter so many children from the wind and rain go from blueprint to reality—that alone makes me quite happy."
"Don't worry about it. I'm off."
With that, Hephaestus waved at the three of them, her figure gradually vanishing around the bend of the street corner.
Watching Hephaestus walk off into the distance, Loki turned her gaze back to Haimer, tugging at the collar of the black-silk-blend formal dress she wore, loosening the neckline that had been choking her for ages.
"What about you, Haimer?"
"Kirukiru and the others should be over at your place right now, so I'll just come along with you to your Twilight Manor."
Loki blinked and nodded. "That is indeed right on the way."
Loki suddenly drew out her words and narrowed her eyes.
Turning to the side with a wicked grin, she leaned in close to Haimer.
"You're not even planning to change your clothes—don't tell me you just want to spend a little more time with this goddess?"
These words of Loki's truly recaptured that obnoxious, teasing vibe from back in the Heavens.
But the instant the words left her mouth, Hestia, standing beside them, couldn't help muttering under her breath.
"Stupid floozy."
"Hey! You little runt! Who are you calling a floozy?!" Loki bristled at once, glaring at Hestia.
Hestia, hiding at Haimer's side with only half her face showing, peeked her big blue eyes out from the edge of Haimer's sleeve and kept pouting, twisting the knife in a small voice.
"Whoever answers is the one I mean."
"Haaah?!!"
Loki's brow shot up at once.
And so the two of them started bickering across Haimer.
Though Hestia's height only reached Loki's chest, with her head tilted up her momentum wasn't the least bit inferior.
Loki bent down too, glaring at Hestia through gritted teeth, firing back retort after retort.
Being used as a partition by these two.
Haimer was used to it by now; he let out a helpless sigh and couldn't be bothered to cut in.
But because of Loki and Hestia's squabbling—
the three of them ended up delayed on the road by a good ten-odd minutes.
The streets of Orario at noon.
The shops on either side of the street had already opened their doors one after another.
Not only that—a clear, bright child's voice came drifting from down the way.
"Papers! Papers for sale!"
"Hot off the press—the latest from the Denatus!"
"The [Haimer Familia]'s titles are all officially named!"
"Breaker of the world's fastest record!"
"Amou Kirukiru! Title officially confirmed—'Calamity God's Cursed Weapon'!"
On the street.
A little girl was clutching a thick stack of newspapers wrapped in oilpaper against the damp, her voice clear and bright with that piercing quality unique to children, shouting out across the somewhat quiet afternoon avenue.
At her shouts, a scattered few passersby came to a stop.
A beastman adventurer in leather armor felt at his coin purse, hesitating.
A dwarf beside him, hauling a basket of ore, also shot a curious glance this way.
Seeing this, the girl hurriedly trotted forward and held the papers in her hands up before them.
Several of her fingers were plastered with bandages, and she looked up at the beastman adventurer with a face full of pleading.
"Sir! Buy one, please! It's only 10 Valis! Today's a Denatus special edition—lots of newly promoted Lv.2 titles are all in here!"
At this the beastman adventurer sighed, fished a ten-Valis coin out of his pocket, and took a paper.
The girl quickly bowed in thanks, carefully tucked the money into her apron pocket, then ran back to the street corner and kept shouting at the top of her lungs.
"Papers! Papers! Hot off the press from the Denatus! The [Haimer Familia]'s titles confirmed!"
"Buy now if you want the details!"
The girl shouted as she ran, her thin little figure weaving back and forth across both sides of the street; now and then someone would buy one, now and then someone would wave her away.
Undaunted, she'd give a bow and keep running.
Because she ran in such a hurry, the straps of her sandals came loose twice, and she'd crouch down to retie them before pressing on.
"Papers! Papers! Hot off the press from the Denatus!"
Hearing these cries ring out one after another, Loki paused her quarrel with Hestia and squinted over that way.
"Tch, that's fast work. Looks like some god has already gone and spread the news from the Denatus."
In the Lower World, newspapers weren't anything particularly new.
After all, the gods of the Lower World had all seen other worlds.
Some, naturally, would bring the marketing methods of those other worlds into this one.
But this line of work in Orario didn't actually make much money, nor was it glamorous.
It was basically a livelihood taken up only by tiny, small-scale familias.
After all, in Orario information circulated quite fast through channels like the Guild, the taverns, and everyday dealings.
Who had ranked up, who had cleared more floors—there was no need to wait for the papers to be printed; within a few days it would spread all through the taverns.
So the people actually willing to pay for a paper weren't many.
What's more, the highest-level adventurer in these tiny familias was at most a Lv.1, and some of them might even be children unable to become adventurers or work as supporters at all.
To keep their familias running, these children unfit to serve as adventurers or supporters would sell papers in exchange for a meager bit of income.
But in Orario, without a high-level adventurer to back you up, you'd often find yourself bullied.
Having just finished a shout, the little girl with short chestnut hair wiped the sweat from her forehead, lowering her head to count how many papers were left in her arms.
Her apron pocket held a scattering of coins; she counted them carefully twice, confirmed the number was right, and a smile had just begun to surface on her face.
Snatch—
A thick, brawny hand reached over from the side and in one grab made off with every last coin she'd just earned selling papers from her apron pocket.
The little girl started and jerked her head up.
Three people stood before her.
The one in the lead was a tall, lanky man.
Behind him followed two companions—one short and stocky as a tree stump, the other with an old scar running across the bridge of his nose.
All three wore worn leather armor, and the emblem stamped on their chests was a broken sword with a snake coiled around it.
—the [Acro Familia].
A small familia that didn't even rate as bottom-tier in all of Orario—but on a street corner with no military police present, it was more than enough to make a newspaper-selling little girl too afraid to resist.
The tall man weighed the few coins in his hand, the corner of his mouth splitting open to bare a mouthful of yellow teeth.
"Brat, you handed over today's cut pretty quick. Not bad—saves us the trouble of nagging you."
The child kept pressing forward, trying to grab it back.
"P-please, I only just started today. Couldn't you at least leave a little... we're still several papers short of today's quota..."
Before she could finish, she was cut off by a cold snort from the tall man.
"Who cares about you lot. No money, then go pick through the garbage. What's it to us?"
With that, he raised his hand and gave the girl a hard smack on the forehead.
The blow held nothing back.
The girl was small and frail to begin with; the smack sent her whole body lurching backward, the back of her head cracking against the stone wall with a "thud."
She saw stars, her ears ringing.
The papers in her arms scattered across the ground—some landing in muddy puddles, some blown by the wind into the corner of the wall.
The inked words bled out into the muddy water, every one of the titles blurring into illegibility.
Heedless of her dizziness, the girl hurriedly crouched down to gather up the papers from the ground, her hands trembling—out of heartache, because if these papers got dirty or torn, they could never be sold again.
"Tch, get lost already."
Seeing this, the tall man had just lifted his foot, about to kick at her.
The next second—
On another street a dozen-odd meters away.
The figures of Onigawara Rin, Amou Kirukiru, Hanasaka Warabi, the Holy Emperor, Inaba Tsukuyo, Kikakujou Mary, Tendou Kisara, Aihara Enju, Kohina Hiruko, Lili, and the others appeared.
They had come from the direction of the Twilight Manor.
After the morning's training had finished, the people of the [Loki Familia] had told them the Denatus was about to wrap up, and that if they wanted to go meet someone, heading over from here would be right on the way.
So Onigawara Rin had set out leading everyone.
And just as they rounded the corner of the main street, they happened to catch sight of this very scene.
"'Calamity God's Cursed Weapon,' huh? So this is the title the god gave me?"
"It actually suits my taste pretty well."
Hearing the little girl's cries from selling papers a moment ago, Amou Kirukiru excitedly licked her lips.
Lili, walking in the middle of the group, was cradling a small cloth pouch in her arms, holding the savings she planned to deposit at the Guild today.
After seeing the little girl who'd been knocked to the ground—
all at once, the memories surged up like a tide.
She recalled how, in her early childhood, she had once briefly escaped the [Soma Familia] for a stretch of days, with nothing on her but a single set of ragged clothes and a few stolen pieces of hard bread.
By the time she reached Southeast Main Street, she was so hungry she could walk no further, and she crouched at the roadside and cried.
It was a merchant couple who ran a little flower shop who, seeing how pitiful she was, took her in.
The proprietress was a freckle-faced human woman who loved to smile; she gave Lili food to eat and let the frail little girl help water the flowers.
It was the first time, for as long as Lili could remember, that she'd learned a person could do something wrong and still not have to be beaten for it.
But later, the people of the [Soma Familia] found her.
They didn't lay a hand on her, but they smashed the flower shop to utter ruin.
Those blooming tulips, roses, and baby's breath were all trampled into the mud, and even the glass greenhouse was shattered to bits.
The merchant couple shook with fright, and before leaving, the people of the [Soma Familia] made sure to toss out one parting line—
"Anyone who dares take in someone from the Soma Familia—next time it won't be flowers we smash."
After the flower shop was destroyed, upon learning that Lili was an adventurer, the merchant couple who had taken her in looked at her as though she were a monster too, telling her to leave at once.
The smiling proprietress who had once cared for her now looked at Lili with eyes no different from the way she'd look at the monsters that crawled up out of the Dungeon.
From that point on, she never dared ask anyone for help again.
After all, when it came to matters between adventurers, lending a hand would only bring disaster down on yourself.
Who would be willing to take that risk?
No one does anything that brings them no benefit.
Thinking back on her own past, Lili lowered her head, her eyes dimming a few shades despite herself.
On the opposite side of the street, yet another person had likewise come to a halt.
Ryu clenched her fists, her gaze locking onto the three [Acro Familia] men.
She wasn't supposed to be here today.
But because Mama Mia's suppliers had been undergoing some internal reshuffle these past few days, several of the merchants who delivered ingredients hadn't gotten their goods to The Benevolent Mistress tavern on time.
The tavern's kitchen was badly short on supplies, and with no other recourse, Mama Mia had had no choice but to send Ryu out to make the run herself.
The bamboo basket she carried was already loaded with quite a lot, its weight pressing the bamboo handle into a slight curve.
And just as she reached this street, she ran straight into the scene unfolding at the mouth of the alley.
Ryu's gaze settled on the adventurers who had raised their hands against the girl.
Though she didn't know any of these men's names, she recognized their faces.
Some time ago, at the Flaming Bee Tavern on East Main Street, Ryu had seen these men get tossed out by the owner after they'd gotten drunk and started a brawl. And once, in the back alley off North Main Street, she'd seen this same bunch shaking down a debtor over a usurious loan.
They were all low-rate riffraff—too weak to bully the monsters in the Dungeon that were stronger than them, so they preyed exclusively on the helpless and the defenseless.
In the old days, if something like this had happened back when the [Astraea Familia] still existed—
Captain Alise would have already dashed forward in a single bound and knocked the offender's teeth out.
But now...
Ryu's eyes dimmed considerably.
The [Astraea Familia] was gone.
And the [Ganesha Familia]'s military police weren't omnipotent either.
Orario was such an enormous city, with so many streets, so many dark alleys and hidden corners—the military police would never have enough manpower to cover it all.
For petty muggings like this, the kind that happened every single day in the lower rungs of society, no one was willing to stick their neck out and intervene.
The pedestrians on the street saw it too, but they all simply chose to lower their heads, quicken their steps, and hurry away.
And what's more, those three adventurers, having taken the money, still weren't satisfied—the tall man lifted his foot again, preparing to kick the little girl.
Ryu gritted her teeth and let go of the bamboo basket she'd been carrying. The basket dropped to the ground, and a few potatoes came rolling out.
She was about to draw the wooden sword on her back.
And then.
The next second!
A clear, ringing female voice cut straight across the street.
"Stop right there!"
The tall man's movements stalled, and he turned his head toward the direction the voice had come from.
And there—
Onigawara Rin and the others were striding toward them, faces dark as thunderclouds.
The moment he saw who it was, the tall man's expression changed instantly.
—After all, in present-day Orario, who would dare claim they didn't recognize the faces of the [Haimer Familia]'s members?
Having shattered the [Loki Familia] Sword Princess's record for the fastest level-up—which had taken her a full year—this group had been the talk of the town lately, basking in the absolute height of fame.
Rumor even had it that the two bears their Familia kept as pets were honest-to-goodness Lv.2.
A rising new star of a Familia, blazing at its zenith like this, was simply not something their lot could afford to provoke.
The tall man's heart lurched. He hurriedly flung the coins in his hand to the ground, intending to wave his companions along and leave.
But Onigawara Rin clearly had no intention of letting him off that easily.
Her hand clamped down hard on the hilt of the blade at her waist.
She fixed her stare on the tall man and spoke coldly.
"Give her back the money."
"And the cost of the newspapers you knocked over."
"Double compensation on all of it!"
At those words, the tall man froze on the spot, his face cycling through shades of green and white.
And then.
Just as he was about to fish out the money and get it over with—
A short, stocky man beside him couldn't hold his tongue and spoke up first:
"Don't go thinking you can—"
"Clang—!"
Before he could finish.
A sharp glint flashed in Onigawara Rin's eyes, and her short black hair carved an afterimage through the air.
She stamped down hard against the flagstone ground.
The five-meter distance was compressed to zero in an instant!
The tachi in Onigawara Rin's hand was already laid out horizontally, right there in front of the stocky man who'd spoken!
One more inch forward, and the bridge of his nose would be shaved clean off!
The man could even feel the chill radiating off the blade's edge crawling up his nose-tip and burrowing into his nostrils.
He clamped his mouth shut at once, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with an audible gulp.
"If this were back at our school—"
"—judging by that bullying-the-weak routine you all just put on, I'd have already beaten you to a pulp, and you'd be laid up in the infirmary nursing your wounds for months."
Seeing this unfold—
Seeing this unfold, more and more pedestrians stopped to gather and watch.
The tall man's face went ashen. He took a step back, then felt the shame of losing face in front of so many people and forced himself to stop short.
And then.
"Why waste breath on this lot? Just beat him!"
An impatient, sweet-toned shout came from beside them.
"Whump—!"
A muffled thud.
The tachi in the hand of Hanasaka Warabi, who had just walked over—blade, scabbard and all—came down viciously straight across the back of the tall man's right knee.
The thickest, sturdiest part of the tachi's spine, combined with the arm strength Hanasaka Warabi had gained through the enhancement of God's Grace, slammed against the soft tendons behind his knee—the effect was no less than being struck full-force by a solid iron bar!
"AAAGH!!!"
The tall man let out an instant scream of agony, his right leg buckled, and he crashed down to his knees on the flagstones with a heavy thud.
His features twisted with pain. Baring his teeth and clutching his leg, he viciously lifted his head, meaning to start cursing.
But the very instant his gaze rose, an enormous black shadow fell over him completely, swallowing him whole on the spot.
The tall man's curses caught in his throat in an instant. His entire body went rigid, and even his breathing stopped.
For there—
The [Haimer Familia]'s gigantic black bear was charging straight at him.
A massive right forepaw pressed down against the ground, and a light flick of its claw-tips left behind five shallow white scratches.
"Snrrrt—!"
Kyoubou's breath blasted right into the man's face, like a wave of scorching heat.
Her boobs?!
Watching a black bear that stood taller than himself even when he was upright peer down at him with an unwavering stare—
The tall man trembled from head to toe.
After all, who didn't know that this great bear of the [Haimer Familia] had, down in the Dungeon, torn and devoured Minotaurs without breaking a sweat.
At this close a distance, if that paw came swinging down—forget about his human skull.
With the strength of a Lv.2 monster, even the flagstone ground beneath them would split open in a great gash.
How could the three of them—Lv.1s scraping by at the bottom of society—possibly make any waves in front of such a monster?
Seeing the situation had gone sour—the opponents who'd come over hadn't bothered with more than a few words before just laying into them—
The old-scarred man beside him shuddered and hastily reached into his pocket.
"L-let's talk this out nicely! We'll pay! We'll pay for the newspapers, that's all!"
He hurriedly dug out every last Valis in his pockets, piling them in scattered little heaps on the ground.
The other one, and the tall man still kneeling on the ground, frantically followed suit, turning out every pocket on their bodies, top to bottom.
The three men's money, added together, made a small scattered heap.
"Pick up all the money! Put it in her hands!"
Onigawara Rin's eyes narrowed slightly as she issued the command from on high.
"Y-yes, yes!"
The three men assented in a chorus, scrambling to gather the coins off the ground, and with trembling hands they handed every bit of it over to the little girl still sitting on the ground.
Once the little girl had taken the money—
"Scram."
Onigawara Rin sheathed her blade and said only that single word.
The three [Acro Familia] adventurers were so terrified they instantly scrambled to their feet and bolted, fleeing in a stumbling, crawling rush.
The tall man limped along, and before leaving he glanced back at Onigawara Rin and the others, opening his mouth as if he still wanted to say something—
But the moment his eyes met Kyoubou's pitch-black, cavernous gaze, he was so frightened that cold sweat broke out all over him, and he hurriedly turned his head and fled away in disgrace.
"Rrowr?"
Yet in truth, watching him tremble all over with fear, Kyoubou only scratched her head with a somewhat bewildered look.
Her boobs?!
After the three [Acro Familia] adventurers had run far off, the street fell quiet once more.
The little girl cradled the heap of coins in her hands and looked up at the women standing before her.
Seeing that those who had helped her were members of the [Haimer Familia], and then glancing once more at the enormous Kyoubou—
The little girl shrank her shoulders, frightened.
After all, this was a Familia that raised and sheltered monsters from the Dungeon, and Orario was full of rumors about them.
Children, naturally, believed every word the adults said without question.
Seeing the girl's cowering motion, the Holy Emperor gently stepped forward as well.
She crouched down.
[Here I build a paradise where none shall grieve.]
As the Holy Emperor finished speaking, a gentle white magical light welled up in her palm in an instant.
The light settled softly over the knee the little girl had just scraped open, and visibly, before their very eyes, it healed.
Gazing at the Holy Emperor's exquisitely beautiful, tender face, and then at that wondrous healing magic, the little girl stared in a slight daze, and most of the fear in her eyes melted away.
After all, in Orario, there weren't many adventurers who could use healing magic.
And most of those healers charged no small fee.
Even though Orario's very finest healer, Miss Amid, did regularly bring her Familia members to hold consultations at the medical clinic—
The free slots filled up every day before the sky even brightened.
Sometimes you'd go to register at three in the morning, only to find twenty-odd people already squatting ahead of you, and by the time the sun was scorching the back of your neck, the nurse would come out and say, "We're full for today," leaving you to carry your aches and pains right back home.
When she'd scraped her knee in the past, she'd never even dared to imagine finding someone to treat it with healing magic—she hadn't even dared set foot across the threshold of the 「Azure Apothecary.」
After all, the way she saw it, a little injury like this would pass if she just bore with it a while.
But now—
This big-sister figure from a Familia rumored to be so vicious had, for the sake of such a trivial, insignificant little wound of hers, gone and used such high-grade healing magic.
The little girl's eyes reddened at once, and her nose stung.
Tears welled and spun in her eyes.
"Your knee doesn't hurt anymore, right?"
But the Holy Emperor withdrew her hand and gave the little girl a faint smile instead.
The little girl stared blankly at the Holy Emperor's smiling face, a touch of dazed bewilderment still on her own.
"Is there anywhere else that hurts?"
the Holy Emperor asked softly.
"N-no, nowhere..."
The little girl shook her head in a daze.
"That's good, then."
The Holy Emperor smiled and helped the little girl to her feet.
Aihara Enju and Kohina Hiruko, meanwhile, helped her gather up the newspapers that had fallen to the ground.
As for the other side—
Ryu, the bamboo basket dangling from her hand, had watched the whole thing unfold, and her expression was somewhat dazed.
After all, from the moment Onigawara Rin drew her blade, to Hanasaka Warabi striking out and bringing the back of her sword down across the man's knee—
Back when the [Astraea Familia] still existed, scenes like this were ones she'd witnessed many times.
But now, it was a different Familia, a different group of newcomers, doing the very same thing as in days past.
Ryu strode forward, swept her gaze over the little girl, and only after confirming the child was unharmed did she turn to Onigawara Rin and the others.
"You all..."
Ryu paused, as if weighing her words.
"Doing this—aren't you afraid of bringing trouble down on your Familia?"
After all, as a former member of the [Astraea Familia], she understood better than anyone that drawing your blade to help others in Orario came at a price.
Back then, her Familia had maintained public order under the pressure of being marked by the Evilus factions, suffering untold hidden losses, until in the end they were schemed against by those factions and wiped out to the last.
Even though the dark gods of the Evilus factions had now all been sent back to the Heavens—
Whether other Evilus faction members still lurked in Orario was anyone's guess.
Not to mention, the [Haimer Familia] had only been founded a few days ago, and here they were drawing blades out in the open street so heedlessly—by the rules, it really was the sort of thing other Familias could seize on as a handle against them.
Hanasaka Warabi glanced at Kyoubou, who was licking her own forepaw, then looked back at Ryu.
"We just dealt with people who needed dealing with, that's all..."
Before Hanasaka Warabi could finish—
Inaba Tsukuyo gently pressed a hand down on her wrist.
And there—
Inaba Tsukuyo's tightly shut eyes turned slightly, angling faintly toward where Ryu stood.
It had to be said.
Witnessing this scene truly stirred a great deal in Ryu.
Especially when she recalled her time back in the [Astraea Familia]—
The red-haired captain who was always laughing so brazenly.
Kaguya, sharp-tongued yet who took such special care of her.
And Lady Astraea, who always so tenderly embraced and accepted them all.
Every time they met with injustice, they would charge in without the slightest hesitation.
Even if other Familias bore grudges against them afterward, they never once regretted it.
Because they believed it was right.
Lady Astraea had always been telling them, through her actions—
Justice is not regulations written on paper, nor clauses ratified by the assembled gods.
Justice is that single instant, when you see the weak being bullied right before your eyes, that your body reacts faster than your mind.
And so.
At this very moment.
As she watched Rin and the others step in to help—
Ryu's eyes quivered faintly.
Looking at Inaba Tsukuyo, who held her sword with eyes closed—
Ryu suddenly felt that Inaba Tsukuyo was, somehow, very much like Kaguya of days past.
And it wasn't only that the kimono-clad Inaba Tsukuyo resembled the Kaguya of back then.
Rin's headlong drive was the spitting image of Alise.
And there was Lyra too, and all the comrades who had died in the Dungeon five years ago.
These children were all so very much like them, the way they'd once been.
Even the Holy Emperor, fussing over the little girl's well-being at her side...
reminded her of A Huo.
If only... Ryu thought silently to herself.
If only everyone were still alive, and Lady Astraea were still here—she would surely gaze upon these few girls with those serene eyes of hers, then give a gentle nod and say, "Well done."
At the thought of this, Ryu's pupils trembled faintly, and a thin mist of water welled up in the depths of her eyes.
There even surfaced before her eyes the figures of Lady Astraea and that ever-smiling god, appearing at the same time.
In this moment, the figure of that ever-smiling god seemed to overlap with the all-embracing tenderness of Lady Astraea in her memories.
...No.
That's not right.
Just now, I... what was I...
Ryu jolted abruptly awake.
To actually have set Lord Haimer and Lady Astraea side by side in comparison...
How could she!
In the elven faith's view of things, this was, to a certain degree, almost a kind of blasphemy.
Lady Astraea was the very incarnation of justice, the one and only, irreplaceable in her heart.
And as for Lord Haimer...
Lord Haimer was likewise a god she couldn't see through, yet whom she couldn't help wanting to trust.
But...
Ryu hastily shook her head all the same, drew a deep breath, and tried to drive that somewhat dangerous notion from a moment ago completely out of her mind.
She tried to calm herself down.
But.
Just then.
"Kami-sama."
Inaba Tsukuyo's voice suddenly rang out.
And there she was—Inaba Tsukuyo, eyes closed, wearing a faint smile, turning her face slightly toward another direction.
Everyone present followed the direction she faced and looked.
Haimer was standing at the street corner, five or six paces away.
The onlookers around him automatically parted to either side, yielding a path.
Upon seeing Haimer, Ryu's fingers pinched the basket's handle once more. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but before she could organize her words—
Haimer had already given Ryu a faint smile by way of greeting, then lowered his head to look at the little girl.
Seeing the black-haired god approaching, the little girl hastily wiped the smudges of dirt off her face with the back of her hand, and tugged her grimy apron down, trying to make herself look a little tidier.
Then, timidly, she lifted her head and looked at Onigawara Rin, then at the Holy Emperor, before finally letting her gaze settle on Haimer.
"L-Lord Haimer, please don't blame them... it's all because I was too weak, that I caused them to step in..."
Hearing this, the women glanced at one another.
Hanasaka Warabi quirked an eyebrow, Onigawara Rin's lips curved up slightly, and the Holy Emperor clasped her hands together before her and laughed softly.
Even Amou Kirukiru, who had hardly spoken at all, gave a snort from her nose.
Their Kami-sama was hardly the sort of pedantic being who'd blame people without sorting out the rights and wrongs of it.
As for the little girl's worry, Haimer felt a bit helpless—could it be that when he smiled, in front of these Lower World children, he looked rather like the god of Kyoubou the beast?
Then.
Haimer shook his head, walked over before the little girl, and—heedless of the mud and water staining the hem of his black formal coat—slowly knelt down on one knee.
"It's true that Orario does have an unwritten rule: when one Familia rashly interferes in another Familia's affairs, it can easily spark conflict."
"But since they helped you, then this is what they believe in their hearts to be right. And so long as one believes it's right, then doing it freely is, naturally, neither right nor wrong."
"They did nothing wrong, so naturally I have no need to blame them."
"You, on the other hand—are you hurt?"
Hearing Haimer's question, the little girl visibly froze for a moment.
It was as if she'd suddenly realized that the patron deity of the [Haimer Familia] was rather different from the adult of the rumors.
Timidly, the little girl lifted her head to glance at Haimer, then carefully lowered it again, looking down at her own knee that had just been scraped and bleeding. The wound had already been healed by the Holy Emperor, leaving only a faint, pale-pink mark.
She shook her head.
"It doesn't hurt anymore. The pretty silver-haired big sister just healed it for me."
The Holy Emperor, standing behind, blushed faintly at these words and clasped her hands together before her.
Haimer followed the little girl's pointing finger and glanced at the Holy Emperor. The Holy Emperor pressed her lips together bashfully and lowered her head, exposing a stretch of reddened ear-tip.
Haimer, helpless, withdrew his gaze, his eyes settling on the soggy stack of newspapers in the little girl's arms.
"Come to think of it—you probably haven't read the contents of the very newspapers you're selling today, have you?"
Seeing Haimer ask such a question out of nowhere—
The little girl froze for a moment, then shook her head.
She only sold them; how could she recognize that many words?
And even if she could read, she couldn't bear to take out a clean newspaper to flip through herself—if she creased it, it wouldn't sell.
Seeing this.
Haimer fished a coin from his pocket as well.
100 Valis.
He gently placed the coin in the girl's hand and drew one newspaper from that stack in her arms still giving off the smell of fresh ink.
He shook it open.
And there—
Though a small patch of the front page had been soaked through, the large characters printed in black ink were still clearly legible.
"!!!"
[Passed by Full Deliberation of the Denatus!]
[Owing to the [Astraea Familia]—crowned with the 「name of justice」—departing Orario many years ago! Orario's public security has continued to deteriorate over the years, already reaching the red line of alarm!]
[Over the past five years! Violent robbery cases in the dark alleys at the junction of East Main Street and Daedalus Street have been confirmed to have increased by forty percent!]
[Theft cases near the Southeast District free market—the incidence rate has more than doubled!]
[Indiscriminate attacks by god Familias after nightfall have surged directly from two or three a month to one a week!]
[The Guild's grassroots mediation windows handle, on average, more than seven Familia disputes a day arising from malicious extortion and bullying!]
[The [Ganesha Familia] military police's patrol shifts have been forcibly increased from four shifts a day to eight, and personnel remain severely overstretched!]
[Military Police Captain Shakti Varma has submitted applications to the Guild for reinforcement personnel for three consecutive months! The situation brooks no delay!]
[There are even signs that the remnants of the Evilus factions are active with increasing frequency, showing every intent of a resurgence!]
"In light of this..."
At the top of the newspaper, a string of shocking statistics was laid out. Ryu's gaze swept rapidly across those few lines of bold print, her eyelid gave a violent twitch, and then, as she read further down, her pale-blue eyes went round as saucers.
Her line of sight was nailed fast to the next few sentences of the newspaper!
[Following a proposal by the great god Ouranos! Passed by a vote of all the gods present at the Denatus on the spot!]
[Provisionally decided—the newly risen [Haimer Familia]! Effective immediately, is designated the special 「Constable」 of the city of Orario!]
[The 「Constable」 shall enjoy the independent right of armed adjudication to intervene in the city's public security!]
[The [Ganesha Familia] shall step back to the second line, unconditionally assisting the 「Constable」 in every way, jointly maintaining order within and beyond the city, and cracking down on Evilus remnants and street crime!]
[Trial run period: a duration of one week!]
[The newly appointed 「Constable」 status shall be assessed according to the public-security results within this week, and one week later the Denatus shall be reconvened! To re-deliberate whether permanent authorization is to be granted!]
[Appended below are the specific voting results of today's Denatus!]
[Votes in favor: 513!]
[Votes against: 4!]
[Abstentions: 131!]
The words on the newspaper, every single one, weighed a thousand tons.
Having finished reading the last line.
The entire street corner fell into utter silence.
All that remained was the sound of the wind chimes under the distant eaves, stirred by the breeze.
Ryu and the other girls all looked at one another, eyes wide.
The assembled gods of Orario, by collective vote—nearly seventy percent and more of the deities—had let a Familia that had been founded only a few days ago, one that even sheltered monsters, become the Constable of the entire city? And to hold the privilege of forcible suppression on top of that?
This was, quite simply, handing over the entire authority of Orario's public security straight into Haimer's hands!
Ryu understood full well how perilous this was.
The remnants of the Evilus factions would absolutely strike to kill against the [Haimer Familia].
But at the same time.
Within the Guild's Pantheon, located in the very heart of Orario.
Here and now, in this place, after the Denatus had ended, things were likewise vastly different from usual.
"Out of my way! Get out of my way, all of you!"
"Royman! Where is Royman?!"
"Where has that dead fat pig Royman gone off to?!"
"Get out here this instant!!! I want to see Ouranos!!!"
____
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