And that wasn't all. It also wore a layer of special armor that reflected every attack spell straight back at whoever cast it.
It even possessed an utterly unreasonable, ultra-high-speed mobility.
Not only could it run across walls and ceilings as easily as level ground, it could follow the scent of living breath and, in almost no time at all, hunt down every adventurer left on that floor with any life still in them and crush them one by one.
— You could put it this way. If some fool lost his mind and dared to pack Gunpowder barrels into the Dungeon and set off the "Juggernaut,"
then that was the same as deciding to take every adventurer on that floor who hadn't managed to climb out of the Dungeon and back to the surface, and walk them all hand in hand down the road to the underworld.
Madmen. A pack of thoroughgoing madmen.
For their own profit, for their own escape, they set the lives of hundreds — thousands — of innocents on the scale without a moment's hesitation.
Treating the people at the bottom like weeds to be trampled. Yes, that was very much the style of sewer rats.
Seeing that Lili had already begun to tense up,
Haimer first raised a hand and ruffled the head of Tsukuyo Inaba, who stood at his side, offering a word of praise along with it.
"Nice work. That's a thorough piece of intelligence."
Then, after catching the shadow Lili hadn't quite managed to hide at the back of her eyes,
Haimer lifted his other hand and settled it steadily on her chestnut-brown head, rubbing gently.
The sudden touch steadied her. The fright that had wound her so tight slowly eased.
"There's no need to worry."
Haimer drew his hand back, his voice level. "The little stir they've made won't raise any real waves. Nothing is going to be blown sky-high anytime soon."
"As for their goal, they're clearly aiming at something else."
"So relax, Lili. All you need to do right now is get a good night's sleep."
"Then tomorrow, before you head out, stop by the study first."
"Tonight I'll prepare a voice-transmission item for you, about the size of a fingernail. Once you've slipped into the Pleasure Quarter, if anything comes up that you're unsure of, contact me directly."
"And if you really do give yourself away and get caught, just crush the item. The moment it breaks, a special powder inside will cling to you."
Haimer's voice paused a beat.
"When that happens, no matter what, I'll bring Miss Shakti along and haul you back out of Ishtar's hands."
"I promise."
And that was that. Lili nodded softly, everything arranged.
The two of them walked out together and eased the mahogany door shut behind them, leaving Haimer alone in the study.
Out in the hallway, though —
once Tsukuyo had said her smiling goodbye,
Lili spread the rough sketch open again by the light of the wall lamp. Two glances were enough.
Slowly, a thick cloud of doubt gathered in her chestnut eyes. The longer she looked, the more wrong it felt.
Lili stared at the strokes scratched across the parchment.
This was drawn in far too much detail.
At first, following Kami-sama's line of thought, she hadn't thought anything of it.
But now that she turned it over carefully —
this sketch, drawn by Kami-sama's own hand…
There was no possible way to draw it without having walked the Pleasure Quarter yourself, several times over!!!
That couldn't be allowed!!!
Granted, for the male gods who loafed around the Lower World day after day under false names,
touring the Pleasure Quarter and lingering in houses of pleasure was the most ordinary thing imaginable.
There had even been plenty of Familia captains who, unable to find their patron deity anywhere, went straight to the Pleasure Quarter to drag them home.
But…
How could Kami-sama go to a place like that!!!
And know a renard girl named Sanjouno Haruhime, on top of it?
At that thought, Lili's brows drew tighter and tighter.
And so, before long, a theory she considered perfectly reasonable surfaced in her head.
It must have been right after Kami-sama descended to Orario!
Back when he didn't understand the rules here yet, a stranger in a strange city!
Someone had talked him into it!
Yes.
That was it!
He must have been tricked into going!
After all, idle male gods who liked to chase thrills and amusement in the Pleasure Quarter were as common as grass.
But that list absolutely could not include the gentle Kami-sama that Lili held in her heart!
He would never have gone of his own will!
As for Sanjouno Haruhime —
she had to be the informant Kami-sama had planted in the Pleasure Quarter!
Yes. That was exactly it.
And yet.
Even after Lili had gone so far as to invent excuses for her own god —
still!
The moment she pictured the Kami-sama she adored walking through the Pleasure Quarter, with a swarm of barely dressed women hooking their arms through his…
"Nngh…!"
"A rotten place like that really ought to be torn down and wiped off the map!"
With that said, cheeks puffed out, Lili grumbled her way up to her room on the second floor to rest.
At that same moment, in the study, the footsteps faded away,
and the air inside settled back into quiet.
Haimer pulled open the first drawer under the desk
and took out a meticulously wrapped, elegant gift box.
Inside lay a chunk of raw ore giving off a strange, heady fragrance.
— The very present Ais had given him some time ago.
Come to think of it, when she'd first produced the thing, he genuinely hadn't expected Ais to hand him a piece of aphrodisiac incense ore.
The stuff was in high demand, after all. Not the sort of common goods you could pick up on a whim.
More often than not it was people with certain private tastes who paid steep prices to reserve it in advance.
Still — knowing Ais and her natural airheadedness,
the shop owner had almost certainly talked her into it with a few lines of sales patter.
Loki had come around wanting it back at one point.
He'd found her tiresome and pitched her straight into the pond.
As for why he'd kept the ore —
because keeping it was genuinely useful.
It looked like nothing but a cheap, sleazy trick.
But before anyone discovered its aphrodisiac properties, this stone had been something else entirely:
an extraordinarily rare find in the wild, capable of drawing monster aggression across a wide radius.
All it took was a blade to shave a little fine dust off the outer layer. The scent that evaporated from that powder would cling stubbornly to the cloth and skin of anyone it touched.
Days would pass before it faded completely.
And if the amount scraped off was small, then to an ordinary person it smelled like nothing more than slightly heavy hay.
But to the monsters of the Dungeon,
that scent was unmistakable.
Even in the tangled environment of the Dungeon, through several floors of thick rock, monsters could smell the source of it with perfect clarity.
Which was the point.
So long as Lili carried it on her,
then the instant something went off-plan, all she had to do was crush the voice-transmission device with the stone dust packed inside it,
and Miss Rei and the others could pinpoint her location by scent alone.
Even so, preparing the thing called for care.
A pinch of powder wasn't enough to produce any aphrodisiac effect,
but with the raw ore sitting right here, a little caution was still in order.
With that settled, Haimer wasted no more time.
He found a sheet of parchment and laid it across the desktop, drew a carving knife from beside the pen holder, pressed his thumb to the spine of the blade, and began scraping powder loose with steady strokes.
…
Meanwhile, on the mansion's ground floor. The great bathhouse.
Steam hung thick in the air.
A cool rush of water spilled from the mouth of a beast head set into the wall, striking the surface below and throwing up beads of spray like scattered crystal.
In the corner of the bath nearest the window,
Amou Kirukiru had her long arms stretched carelessly along the stone ledge.
Most of her bare, tightly muscled body lay under the warm water; only her collarbones and the faint rise and fall of her snow-white shoulders showed above the surface.
Her long black hair clung wet to her cheeks and neck.
Across from her,
Onigawara Rin had sunk nearly all of herself into the water, leaving only her head above it,
her eyes fixed in wary, unblinking watch on the languid figure opposite.
"Say…"
"Are the lot of you really planning to sit in this bath and stare at me all night like guards on a death-row prisoner?"
Amou Kirukiru yawned, her long, narrow eyes narrowing further as she gave her head a lazy toss, entirely unbothered by the needling stares. Her red lips parted, her tone flippant.
"Not going to spare a little worry for that rabbit who keeps her eyes shut all day and acts like a breeze would knock her over?"
"She adores the god just as much as we do."
"Who's to say she isn't taking advantage of the window while we're all soaking in here — doing something outrageously forward to the god up in that study?"
That faintly mocking lilt of hers rippled out across the water.
Onigawara Rin didn't waver in the slightest. If anything, her brows knotted tighter.
"We hardly need you to point that out," Lun shot back sourly.
"We know Tsukuyo's character better than you ever will."
"You're the one who should be doing some soul-searching."
Onigawara Rin leaned forward, water sloshing loudly. "Compared with Tsukuyo, who's off honestly reporting intelligence right now, any way you look at it, you're the greater hazard — a wicked wolf who's been fed and still isn't satisfied."
Lun's words were always like a razor with barbs on it. She spared no one's feelings.
After all, everyone in the mansion knew the truth.
Amou Kirukiru was the only one who had spent an entire night, start to finish, with Kami-sama in the master bedroom — the one who had actually taken his first blood.
Jumping the line and pulling something like that.
Who wouldn't keep every nerve on high alert around her afterward?
If nobody watched her, she'd be back to pestering Kami-sama again this very night!
"Heh?"
"Hazard?"
"That's a title I'll accept without a shred of shame."
Amou Kirukiru showed no anger at all in the face of Lun's sharp hostility — only indifference.
Her gaze drifted lazily off Lun and settled instead a short distance from the edge of the bath.
There, finding the water too hot, the household's resident freeloader had let her enviable assets ride shamelessly on the surface and was blowing bubbles into the bathwater out of sheer boredom — Hestia.
"Still, let me say what's really on my mind."
"You lot, hopping about in a panic, really don't need to nail every last scrap of your attention onto me."
"If we're talking about who's best placed to pluck the fruit hanging closest, why aren't any of you watching the goddess who's been openly sleeping in the same bed as the god these past several nights?"
With that, Amou Kirukiru tipped her chin upward.
The spearhead turned fast.
Hestia, who had been sitting off to the side trying to shrink her own presence and quietly enjoy the show while these people bickered, took the line square in the face and jolted.
"Glub—!"
Her chin slipped, and she swallowed a huge mouthful of bathwater.
"Cough— cough… cough!"
Hestia thumped her chest and hacked, face going red from the sudden shortage of air.
But — if anyone had leaned in close enough to study Hestia's face right then,
they'd have caught the flicker of secret delight crossing it.
After all, the urge to show off is impossible to hide.
Amou Kirukiru, Onigawara Rin — it didn't matter.
The one who, night after night, after the lights went out, truly claimed that half of the pillow and lay securely at Haimer's side through the long hours —
that was her. Hestia!
Next to that, these girls who could only seize daytime chances to fuss and flatter didn't outweigh her even all put together!
And yet.
Before Hestia could work that small triumph into words and parade it around properly,
from a far corner of the bath,
Hanasaka Warabi — who looked like an undergrown grade-schooler and had been soaking obediently in the shallow end this whole time — slowly lifted half her head above the water.
"Actually…"
"The way I see it, Lady Hestia monopolizing Kami-sama is something we have absolutely no cause to guard against. There's no need to worry about it at all."
The moment she said it, every gaze in the room swung to her.
Except Enju and Little Hiruko, who were busy splashing each other and paying no attention whatsoever.
"Because, don't forget," Hanasaka Warabi went on,
"Lady Hestia is the 'Virgin Goddess' — the one all the gods of the Heavens acknowledge as the most renowned emblem of flawless chastity."
"Back in the Heavens she already swore an unbreakable commandment: to remain pure as ice and jade for her entire life, and never to entangle herself with mortal men."
"That's the same as wearing a gilded signboard at all times. She's the absolute byword for the very idea of purity."
"So if she were, in private, to get tangled up with Kami-sama to satisfy some vulgar appetite — to go all the way to that final step—"
"For a noble, sacred, spotless Virgin Goddess who has never permitted a stain on her name, that would be an outright insult to her own oath, wouldn't it?"
Hearing that, the expression on Onigawara Rin's face shifted, and she threw herself into the topic with full cooperation, hoisting the goddess over an open flame.
"Exactly!"
"Even I understand that much, and I know next to nothing about divine matters."
"As the Virgin Goddess revered by the multitude, her sacred office is to sever every thread of mortal carnal desire — to trade a chastity that could never be defiled for the lasting reverence of the Lower World's people."
"So…"
"Lady Hestia sleeping at Kami-sama's side every night —"
"her intention must surely be to serve as a protective barrier, purely to guard against certain—"
Here Lun deliberately raised her voice, her eyes sweeping coldly across Amou Kirukiru.
"—to guard against certain shameless wretches who might creep in and ambush Kami-sama any time the lights go out!"
"So whatever else may be true!"
"There is absolutely no chance Lady Hestia would rob the treasure she herself is guarding, or do the slightest improper thing to Kami-sama."
"Isn't that right—"
"—O honored Virgin Goddess? Lady Hestia?"
The instant the words left her mouth,
every head in the bath turned as one,
locking onto a Hestia who had gone rigid from head to toe.
"…"
The look on Hestia's face just then could only be described as barely holding together.
Watching these wretched girls seal off every last escape route with a "Virgin Goddess" here and an "inviolable" there,
the cheek muscles that had been smug a moment ago twitched violently, twice.
These scheming little devils!
Now they'd taken the "chastity arch of the Virgin Goddess" and dropped it on her forehead with a clang.
Which meant that from here on,
even the faintest colorful, out-of-bounds move on Haimer
would be the same as flinging her own divinity as the "Virgin Goddess" into a mud pit and stomping on it in front of everyone!
Damn it!!
This was praise wielded as a murder weapon, plain as day!
"Th— that's right, of course!"
With all those tight gazes pressing in, Hestia had no choice but to force the words out through gritted teeth.
"I— I am the Virgin Goddess, absolutely… lofty, and I would never be swayed by that sort of shameful… urge! You, you can all rest completely easy!"
"Also…"
"I— I'm finished washing! You girls can take your time!"
Having said it,
Hestia had no desire to spend one more second in that bath. She surged up out of the water, snatched the big white towel draped over the edge, wrapped it around herself, and stomped out in a pair of wooden clogs, fuming.
…
"Bang!" The door was yanked open and slammed shut behind her.
With Hestia's exit,
the skirmish in the bath clearly ended there.
Her entertainment spoiled, Kirukiru simply rolled her neck once more and used the excuse of getting up for scented oil to step out of the water as well.
Seeing that, Lun didn't linger either, falling in behind Hanasaka Warabi, and one after another they left the great bath for the changing room next door.
The wide expanse of water
soon held only Kikakujou Mary, who liked a longer soak,
and Rei — the Xenos siren, sunk so far under that only the trembling tips of a pair of golden wings showed above the surface.
Rei had said nothing the entire time, but she had heard every word of the girls' jealous sparring over Kami-sama, not one syllable missed.
That exchange just now
had told her something.
So even the sacred, inviolable Lady Virgin Goddess was at Kami-sama's side every single night?
Rei hadn't known any of this at first.
But now she did. Clearly.
And yet.
In front of these girls with their lovely faces and clean, soft bodies, she didn't even have the courage to push her way into the conversation.
How was she supposed to compete?
Go begging Kami-sama's favor with a pair of wings that could only beat the air — that couldn't so much as hold a cup?
At that thought, a drop of water slid down Rei's lowered lashes and fell into the bath.
The god had already given her his answer.
And still,
the inferiority sat in her chest like a heavy plug of silt, blocking everything.
Kikakujou Mary, resting with her eyes closed nearby, caught the faintly oppressive sound of that stirring water.
She opened her blue eyes and looked toward the corner where Rei leaned.
"Miss Rei… you've hardly said a word this whole time, have you?"
The voice sent a flutter of panic through Rei.
"N-no, it's nothing. It just looked like everyone was… at odds with each other over Lord Haimer… so, so I didn't dare speak up."
She hurriedly sank half her face beneath the water, her voice coming out muffled.
"That's fair. Everyone here does adore Kami-sama, after all."
Kikakujou Mary stretched, wholly unselfconscious, setting off a conspicuous swell.
Looking at a figure that even another woman couldn't help envying, the dimness in Rei's eyes deepened another shade.
Rei glanced at her own wings and gave them two uneasy strokes under the water.
"If only… if only I could be like you, Miss Mary."
"Skin that fair and fine. Not like me… covered all over in feathers that only get in the way."
At that, Kikakujou Mary let out a helpless little snort of laughter and drifted a bit closer to her.
"Miss Rei, please don't praise me for these."
Kikakujou Mary poked at her own chest with a finger, her tone carrying the easy complaint of long familiarity. "Don't be fooled by them."
She sighed. "Lun using them as an excuse to snipe at me is one thing."
"But out there, brawling hand to hand with the Dungeon's monsters, all that running and jumping — the weight really drags at you."
"And when I want to wear something I actually like, I have to trouble a tailor to cut it to a custom size all over again. It's an enormous nuisance."
"Honestly, I think a figure like yours is the better bargain, Miss Rei."
Kikakujou Mary studied Rei's shape where it showed and vanished beneath the water.
"Mature, without being cumbersome, easy to move in, and the curves and firmness are all there, not a bit lacking. You have a wonderful figure, Miss Rei. Have some confidence."
That unpretentious mix of complaint and compliment,
and especially the sight of Kikakujou Mary's utterly unaffected, bright expression,
eased the cloud over Rei's heart, if only a little.
"Thank you, Miss Mary…"
At that same moment. Second floor. The study.
"Knock. Knock."
A few muffled raps sounded, unmistakably ill-tempered.
Nor was that all. The uninvited visitor didn't appear willing to wait for an answer from inside.
She turned the handle and shoved the heavy mahogany door wide open. All bluster.
Haimer didn't need to look to know who it was.
— Hestia, hovering right on the edge of a full-blown sulk.
Thanks to the merciless killing-by-praise Hanasaka Warabi had delivered in that perfectly solemn tone back in the bath,
Hestia had tossed and turned in bed for several straight minutes without any sign of Haimer coming up to sleep.
On top of that, for days on end now, the Haimer who should have been the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes each morning had already gone downstairs long before.
"Just how late are you planning to keep fiddling with that?"
Hestia's patience had finally run out.
She squeezed the white pillow hard into the deep valley of her chest, cheeks — still carrying a touch of baby fat — puffed out,
slippers slapping across the carpet as she marched straight to the desk and bore down on him.
Haimer looked up at her.
She had clearly not long left the bath. The long black hair she normally kept in neat twin tails now spilled loose around her shoulders, water still beading on it where the towel hadn't finished the job.
Over it all she wore nothing but a thick navy velvet nightrobe.
A large white pillow was clutched tight against her, and the moment she arrived she stood there pouting at him — plainly someone who had just been bullied and come out the worse for it.
It was hard to know what to do with her.
Haimer sighed.
"Did you forget how to braid your hair, so you came looking for me?"
"Am I really that useless in your eyes, Haimer?! I'm obviously not!!"
"What sort of nonsense does that head of yours cook up all day long?"
Haimer sighed again and set down the carving knife.
"You're up in the dead of night instead of sleeping, holed up in the study grinding away at this lousy rock. What for?"
Hestia edged two steps closer and leaned in, staring curiously at the dark stone on the desk with its strange fragrance drifting off it. Her nose twitched twice.
"That smell is weird."
"Don't get so close."
Haimer put his hand out over the ore and used the motion to push her intruding head back.
"This isn't a toy for you to play with. All it takes is water on it or a sudden bright light and it reacts."
"What lousy rock is that mysterious?" Hestia curled her lip, entirely unimpressed.
"Aphrodisiac ore."
The words landed, and the air seemed to freeze solid.
The sulk still riding Hestia's cheeks vanished in the instant those two words dropped.
"Aphro— aphro-what?!"
Hestia lurched back half a stride, her heel catching the edge of her slipper — she very nearly went over flat on her back — and hugged the white pillow to her chest as if it were a shield against every impure thought in existence.
"You— you're awake in the middle of the night, alone in the study, grinding up something that sleazy?! No, wait! Where did you even get a thing like that!"
Haimer wasn't remotely surprised by the violence of her reaction. He picked the carving knife back up and resumed scraping carefully along the edge of the ore.
"Miss Ais gave it to me."
"Whaaat?!!"
Hestia's eyes went perfectly round, and it took her a long moment to squeeze out a disbelieving reply.
"Wallen-something-kun?! What is she doing giving you that?! No, hold on — what kind of girl gives someone this!"
____
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