A sharp, furious roar echoed endlessly beneath the high vaulted dome of the Guild's Pantheon.
Ishtar, clad in a revealing orange-red silk gown, no longer carried even a shred of a goddess of beauty's grace.
Her face, normally done up in exquisite makeup, was now twisted beyond recognition.
The veins on her forehead bulged one by one.
"Out of my way! All of you, get out of my way!"
In her high heels, Ishtar forcefully shoved aside several Guild employees who tried to block her path.
"Lady Ishtar, please calm down, this is the Guild hall—"
A short-haired female employee steeled herself and stood before the staircase, arms spread wide.
Smack! Ishtar's palm struck the employee's face hard.
The crisp sound of the slap rang out across the hall.
The woman's cheek instantly swelled red, and she staggered backward from the blow.
Ishtar's nails, painted in gaudy lacquer, even tore several long gashes across the employee's crisp uniform.
Throughout the Guild's first-floor hall, every adventurer, every merchant come to do business, and every employee behind the counters froze at the sight, their hands stilled.
Proposing something as absurd as making the [Haimer Familia] the "Constable."
Ishtar's expression was ferocious—she was a hundred percent certain!
There was no way this was the idea of that old, undying Ouranos!
She knew Ouranos's true nature all too well.
That old man spent his years praying at the underground altar, pouring all his Divine Might into suppressing the monsters of the Dungeon.
He would never dare stir up something this disastrous—a violent shift of power on the surface!
This was a fact that all the gods of Orario understood perfectly well.
Even back when Evilus had been rampant to the extreme, killing people in the streets day after day.
Even then, Ouranos had never granted the [Ganesha Familia] this kind of privilege!
And yet today, at the Denatus, Haimer—
Had actually thrown this so-called proposal before the gods in Ouranos's very name!!!
Five hundred and thirteen votes in favor!!!
That was more than seventy percent of all the gods at the Denatus raising their hands in agreement!!!!
Recalling all those evasive eyes at the Denatus, Ishtar's nails dug fiercely into the wooden railing.
If it had been any other Familia that gained this status, she wouldn't have cared in the slightest.
In the Pleasure Quarter, her battle prostitutes were vast in number.
She could easily send any troublemaker packing.
Just as she had always dealt with the [Ganesha Familia], who served as the "City Military Police."
Ganesha, being an honest god, had always turned a blind eye to the Pleasure Quarter, never daring to clash with her head-on.
After all, she was a goddess of beauty.
No god could resist the charm of a goddess of beauty. But!
Of all people, it had to be Haimer.
!!!
There was no way she could ever resign herself to letting all this happen!!!
How long had she been scheming?
For ages she had secretly funded the god of death's [Thanatos Familia]—the remnants of Evilus, in other words.
She had even planned to ally with the [Kali Familia] from outside.
Once she had integrated these two forces, she would lure all those bastards of the [Freya Familia] into the man-made labyrinth beneath Daedalus Street—Knossos.
Then, in one decisive push, she would wipe them out within the labyrinth and rise to become the strongest in Orario!
But now it was all ruined.
With the fawning attitude Dionysus had shown Haimer at the Denatus, once Haimer rose to power, there was no way he would help her anymore.
And Kali was even less likely to stand on her side.
That battle-crazed madwoman, whose head held nothing but fighting, fancied herself the one to defeat Haimer alone and possess him utterly; having learned that Haimer had descended to the Lower World, there was no chance she'd split her focus to cooperate with her.
As for Apollo—well, that went without saying!
That fence-sitter had, in the end, actually cast an abstention vote at the Denatus!
If not for the fact that a few Familias, whose weaknesses she held in her grasp, dared not defy her, she would have been the only one in the entire Denatus to cast a lonely vote against.
At this thought, Ishtar lifted her foot and kept climbing.
The sound of her high heels striking the steps grew ever more urgent.
She would pressure Ouranos, force that old thing to rescind his decree.
Standing in the center of the hall, Aisha watched Ishtar's raging back and frowned. She had no idea what was going on.
After all, while waiting outside the Denatus earlier, she had only seen the adventurers of the various Familias standing quietly.
The moment the Denatus ended and they left the [Ganesha Familia]'s base, Ishtar had grown more and more frantic with rage, cursing nonstop the whole way, and had even charged straight to the Guild.
She turned her head and glanced at the adventurers in the hall.
Beast people, Pallum, humans—all of them whispering and pointing.
The clerks behind the counters were also frozen in place, unsure whether to step forward to stop her or go fetch a superior.
Eina, mouth half-open, watched Ishtar about to rush up to the second floor, then looked at the notice boards strewn in disarray across the floor and at the colleague clutching her bleeding chest.
She, too, couldn't understand how the lofty Lady goddess of beauty, normally so far above it all, could have turned into this.
Eina instinctively clutched her documents tighter and leaned toward the counter.
"Eina! Eina!"
And then, at that moment.
A burst of urgent shouting suddenly came from outside the Guild's main doors. There—Misha, panting heavily, her short pink hair blown into a mess by the wind.
She wasn't wearing her Guild uniform but an ordinary long dress.
Today was supposed to be her day off.
The instant she stepped into the hall, she braced both hands on her knees and gasped for air.
"Something… something big has happened."
Misha raised her head and immediately spotted Eina standing outside the VIP room.
She swallowed and ran over in big strides.
Along the way she bumped into several dazed adventurers.
"What big thing?" Seeing Misha in such a sorry state, Eina quickly reached out to steady her arm.
"I was just shopping on West Main Street."
Misha said between gasps, pointing toward the doors, "And I heard a bunch of adventurers huddled together reading a newspaper, their jaws practically dropping to the ground, so I went over and took a look myself."
Eina was utterly bewildered.
"And then what? What newspaper, exactly?"
Misha took a deep breath and straightened up.
Her voice rang out especially loud in the quiet hall.
"Following the proposal of the Great God Ouranos! The Denatus has resolved and passed it!"
"As of this day, the [Haimer Familia] becomes Orario's specially authorized 'Constable'!"
Eina's eyes flew wide in an instant.
Two of the documents slipped from her hands and crashed to the floor.
Misha grabbed Eina's arm and raised her voice further.
"The Ganesha Familia steps fully into a supporting role to assist them!"
Misha stared into Eina's eyes.
"The Guild should be issuing the notice any moment now—Eina, you're going to become the exclusive advisor to the new Constable!"
The moment those words came out.
The hall fell utterly silent. Eina was completely stunned. She looked at Misha, her lips moving, but no sound came out.
Aisha, standing in the center of the hall, likewise turned her head and strode over to Misha in a few steps.
She reached out with that bronze-colored hand and yanked away the slightly crumpled newspaper Misha clutched in her grip.
Misha jumped at Aisha's motion and shrank her shoulders back.
Aisha lowered her head toward the newspaper in her hand, eyes widening as they swept rapidly over the bold black print.
"[Haimer Familia] authorized as 'Constable'… independent authority to intervene in city security, with the power of armed adjudication…"
Aisha read the words on the newspaper aloud, her pupils trembling.
How many years had it been? Never had Orario seen a shift of power this enormous.
The [Ganesha Familia] had always been the military police maintaining the city's basic order—a balance tacitly accepted by all the various powers.
Now, that balance had been shattered outright by a new Familia formed mere days ago.
And one that possessed the power of armed adjudication, no less.
Did this not mean they could now legally draw their blades and kill people in the streets?
____
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