"Ron..."
"What the hell is going on now?"
Compared to Orario, the Safe Floor was actually pretty cramped. Any slightly larger disturbance was hard to hide—let alone explosions.
One after another, blasts continued to erupt without pause.
And even more so—
The explosions had directly spread from the outer edge of Rivira all the way toward the area where the Familia expedition camps were stationed. Under those circumstances, there was no way people wouldn't notice.
Looking toward the distant black smoke continuously rising ahead of them—
To put it bluntly...
Those flames were absolutely capable of burning all of Rivira to the ground. There was no way an ordinary fire could create this kind of commotion.
As for the reason behind it—
There was no need to guess at all!!
"Fuck..."
"Don't tell me this is aimed at me again?"
"..."
Back when they had left the Floor Boss chamber on the 17th Floor, that hidden observer lurking in the shadows—someone who hadn't revealed much hostility—had already served as a warning sign for Ron.
And now...
They had only just arrived at the Safe Floor and hadn't even gotten a chance to properly rest before this previously peaceful street was suddenly thrown into chaos by such an outrageous incident.
Staring at the distance ahead, Ron's expression became extremely grave.
This definitely didn't feel like something arranged by the Dungeon itself. As for the exact reason, though, he still had no clue.
Nothing could be allowed to go wrong...
Time flowed inside the Safe Floor almost the same as it did outside in Orario. If the cooldown on "Revival" had already refreshed, then as his final insurance policy, Ron actually wasn't too worried about his own safety.
But what about now?
Even the two Lv.5 senior adventurers from the Loki Familia assisting them had already been dragged into this mess.
He only had one last chance for error remaining.
"So annoying..."
"Let's not head over there for now."
A fire would inevitably throw people into chaos.
If danger approached amidst all that confusion, using those adventurers as cover, it would be difficult to detect in time. And the saying "a wise man does not stand beneath a collapsing wall" certainly existed for a reason.
Besides—
Ron didn't think he was a gentleman anyway.
"Alright."
"Then we'll follow your lead, Captain Ron."
Most of the Familia's main combat power had already been scattered elsewhere.
Daphne even had a strong intuition—
That the flames triggered by those explosions would ultimately spread toward the area where Ron currently was.
If it had been anyone else, she might not have thought that way.
But after personally witnessing the miracles Ron had created, this kind of thing somehow felt completely natural.
And now—
This was exactly the moment to make use of her own strengths.
Back when she had served as a commander in the former Apollo Familia, Daphne had dealt with Rivira quite a few times.
Though most of the time, it had been adventurers from the settlement trying to join parties challenging the Floor Boss Goliath, paying compensation in exchange for a chance to piggyback on the achievement of the kill.
She wasn't worried about her captain's safety.
After all, his strength was there for everyone to see.
But rather than sitting here waiting for the situation to calm down, it would be better to use her connections to gather information firsthand. That way, they could seize the initiative instead of remaining passive.
Thinking that, Daphne decisively stood up.
"I'll go ask around. They should know..."
"What exactly happened in Rivira!"
"Cassandra, your combat ability isn't good enough, so stay here with Captain Ron and Miss Mikoto." She quickly assigned everyone their roles.
Immediately afterward—
The girl's agile figure headed straight toward Rivira.
This was the role she could contribute to the Hestia Familia under special circumstances.
...
In the central area of the Safe Floor, the flames rising from the explosions had thrown all of Rivira into complete chaos. Adventurers busy trying to put out the fires could be seen everywhere.
The noisy commotion filled Daphne's ears as she frowned and carefully observed the surroundings.
And even more so—
From somewhere in the distance ahead, the girl could hear the sounds of fighting and slaughter.
But by the time she pushed through the crowd, all that remained before Daphne was the corpse of a slain adventurer.
Killed instantly—
The adventurer's heart had been pierced straight through in a single strike. Blood spread across the muddy ground from the wound, while the metallic scent of blood filled the air itself.
"..."
"What the hell happened here?"
To end a fight that cleanly and decisively, overwhelming strength was required.
Not only that—
Daphne even found the dead adventurer vaguely familiar, as though she had seen him before in the Floor Boss chamber on the 17th Floor.
"Could it be... the two senior members from the Loki Familia?"
"..."
However, the moment that thought surfaced, she immediately dismissed it.
As members of one of Orario's top Familias, they shouldn't go that far.
If news of something like that spread, the negative consequences would be enormous.
"Hm..."
"So it's Commander Daphne!"
Among the crowd of adventurers gathered around the murder scene, one adventurer recognized Daphne and took the initiative to greet her before explaining: "That guy..."
"According to that senior adventurer, he was one of the surviving remnants of the Evilus Rudra Familia. The explosions in Rivira were caused by them."
"Fuck..."
"My damn shop finally started doing well, and now it got caught up in all this. Who the hell's gonna compensate me?!"
"..."
The chaotic discussions and complaints continuously gathered together, forming a dense stream of information.
'An attack by surviving remnants of Evilus.'
That was the conclusion Daphne pieced together.
There was no way this was a coincidence.
Why had chaos erupted the moment the Hestia Familia arrived here?
The instant that thought crossed her mind, alarm bells immediately went off in the girl's head.
So the disturbance in Rivira was meant to lure them away and create an opportunity to abduct Ron?
She had to go back.
Without stopping for even a moment, Daphne directly drew the slender sword at her waist to force a path through the adventurers crowding toward her.
Her gaze was sharp and murderous, to the point that the adventurers clogging the street instinctively moved aside and opened a path for her.
"I just hope..."
"That Senior Tiona and the others realize it too!!"
"..."
...
Things unfolded exactly as Daphne had guessed.
Filvis was far too familiar with the aura carried by these Evilus members. As a result, the speed at which she slaughtered them was even faster than expected.
Preventing the massacre of innocent adventurers from escalating further.
And afterward—
Once she noticed that there were not many adventurers remaining around Ron, with most of them having been drawn away by the chaos in Rivira, she finally made her move.
She understood that this might be one of the few natural opportunities she would have to come into contact with him.
"..."
The girl made no effort to disguise herself.
Holding a slender sword in one hand, after slaughtering those expendable Evilus adventurers, blood slowly dripped from the blade's fuller onto the grassy ground below.
Faced with Ron's extremely high level of vigilance, the black-haired elf girl hesitated briefly before taking the initiative to show her intentions: "Um..."
"The explosions in Rivira were caused by members of Evilus. As for those people... it's still unclear whether all of them have been completely eliminated."
"Have you seen any suspicious adventurers pass through here?"
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