Late in the night.
Having done what needed to be done, Isagi and Ryuu quickly regrouped between the city walls.
Everything had gone smoothly.
On the Elf girl's end as well — from Goddess Astrea's perspective, the idea of her own Familia's children returning from the future to the present was something almost impossible to wrap her mind around.
But regardless, the fact remained: it had happened.
The Goddess could even sense it directly — two additional presences within the city bearing her own Falna. Isagi and Ryuu, unmistakably real.
And as for the information the Elf girl brought — a god who could see through whether a mortal was lying had no trouble at all grasping the gravity of it at once, and quickly resolved to share it with Loki and Freya.
And so the first step of Ryuu-senpai's three-step plan was complete. What came next was step two — and the most critical piece of all.
Stop Alfia and Zard from ever reaching Orario.
When it came to the full story of the [Great Dispute], Goddess Astrea had been there herself — she had even, in the end, personally judged the one responsible for igniting the whole catastrophe. As eyewitnesses, both Isagi and Ryuu were more than familiar with how it had all unfolded.
After Zeus Familia and Hera Familia were wiped out hunting the Black Dragon and driven from the city, Orario had fallen into its long dark period.
The Dark Familias, who had been lurking in the shadows until then, began to stir — growing bolder, openly contesting the city's dominance against the justice-aligned Familias.
But at that point in time.
It was nothing more than a grinding stalemate — neither side able to get the upper hand on the other.
From Ryuu's perspective, the beginning of everything — beyond the Magic Stone factories being compromised, with the Dark Familias stealing the firing mechanisms and converting them into crude remote detonators capable of triggering Flame Rocks from a distance, inflicting unimaginable casualties on the city and even forcing multiple gods back to Tenkai — was one other thing.
The arrival of Alfia and Zard.
The last two surviving adventurers of Zeus Familia and Hera Familia. The power they possessed was simply overwhelming compared to anything the city could field at that moment.
"According to the Goddess, it was the god Erebus who persuaded them to come to the city — as adversaries, to forge the adventurers of the current era through trial."
As someone who had crossed over from another world, Isagi found that pretty easy to understand.
It was basically a delivery service for [Excelia].
Freya Familia's captain, Ottar, had leveled up to Lv. 7 specifically because he defeated Zard of Zeus Familia in single combat.
Ryuu-senpai's side had fared considerably worse, though.
After "defeating" Alfia, the entire Familia had each advanced one level — but that still only put them at Lv. 4 and Lv. 3 at best.
The god Erebus was the one ultimately responsible for the [Great Dispute].
Even if his intent had been selfless — sacrificing everything so that the city's young generation of adventurers could grow — the damage he had inflicted on the city was undeniable.
This was no playhouse drill. It had been a fight to the death, through and through.
"We can't let them come to the city," Ryuu murmured to herself.
If they could stop Alfia and Zard, then the [Great Dispute] might never happen at all. The Dark Familias could go on existing, but they'd remain roughly deadlocked against the city's adventurers — and nothing more.
So how would they do it?
The answer was simple enough: find the two of them, and talk them out of ever coming to Orario.
Erebus was the god of darkness.
Just as day must always give way to night — just as darkness descends upon the world — "darkness" was an indispensable part of existence.
Because of darkness, people had learned to kindle fire from wood. They had learned to gather together, to help one another, to stand against the unknowable beasts lurking in the black depths. They had learned so much — everything necessary to survive in this world.
Even among the gods, there was a distinction between the "great gods" and the "ordinary gods."
The Olympians, for instance, competed fiercely over twelve seats, each one a mark of standing and prestige.
Erebus was, without question, one of the "great gods."
A being revered by gods and mortals alike.
So when he descended to the mortal world, it had been almost effortlessly easy for him to unify every Dark Familia under his banner and crown himself the "Dark King" of the adventurer city.
And yet.
For all his greatness, even this magnificent god was currently troubled by something.
Namely —
"Seems like I don't have enough money…"
Scratching his head.
The god had fine, tousled black hair with a single strand of ashy grey falling across his brow, and wore a perpetual expression that looked uncannily like self-deprecating amusement. Right now, though, his face was a mask of suffering.
Erebus Familia's total assets currently stood at 444 Valis — not even enough to cover a single dinner at the city's most famous tavern, the Hostess of Fertility.
And at this moment, he needed to board a carriage and leave the city to handle something very important.
"In that case, guess I'll have to ride for free… and when we get there, I can just have them — Zard or Alfia — pay up. It's not like they'd be broke, right? Surely not, surely not. They were the strongest Familia in the city once, after all…"
Muttering away to himself.
At that moment.
At the coach station near the city's western gate, a convoy was just about to depart.
For a group to be leaving the city at this late hour, they had to be serious — going out at night meant a very real risk of being attacked by the Dark Familias. It was no small thing.
The convoy traveling now had adventurers from Hermes Familia serving as escorts — that was the only reason they dared venture outside the gates at all.
Erebus had originally planned to find a carriage and slip away during the day, but he had overslept. Nothing to be done about it, really — what else would you expect from a god who ruled over darkness? There was no such thing as being sharp and alert in broad daylight.
Daytime was for sleeping! Obviously!
Only when night fell was the world truly his!!
Such were the god's thoughts as he waited for the coachman to look away — and then, in one swift motion, wriggled himself into the pile of cargo loaded at the back of the carriage, and quietly crawled his way through to the passenger compartment.
Not a shred of divine dignity.
[Nice, nobody saw that!]
He was just congratulating himself and settling in for the journey when Erebus looked up — and found himself staring at the face of an Elf girl he vaguely recognized, and a black-haired boy he had never seen before.
"?"
A child of Astrea's?
The Goddess of Justice presided over the "stars" as well — so naturally, there was something of a connection between her and the darkness. Of course.
From Erebus's perspective, his interest in them was really just the same as always: the amusement of teasing these little "children."
[What is justice?]
The moment Ryuu laid eyes on the god before her, the voice rose again in her mind — the question he had put to her, over and over again, during the [Great Dispute].
[What, exactly, is justice?]
Is it the stars wheeling endlessly through the sky?
Is it wings that spread wide and press ever forward?
Is it a blade that will never yield?
Ryuu shook her head. Even now, she still couldn't say with certainty what the justice in her own heart truly was.
She was someone who tied herself in knots. That was her nature — changing it would be no easy thing. In stark contrast, Isagi was refreshingly simple and uncomplicated.
The boy turned to face the god of darkness before him with a smile, and asked his question with complete directness.
"What do you think — could I beat Zard right now?"
"?"
"Or what about Alfia?"
____
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