He stood where he was for a long moment, hearing only Hedin's composed footsteps as the elf walked deeper into the shop and faded away.
"Phew..."
After a while, Leon drew a deep breath. His whole body finally relaxed, and a trace of helplessness surfaced on his face.
His strength had been seen through?
The thought flashed up, and he immediately shook his head to dismiss it.
Impossible. With his cheat's built-in concealment, not even Hildrsleif... not even his own goddess standing right in front of him could see through his disguise.
That left only one possibility.
Leon's eyes narrowed faintly as he thought to himself:
He used his own formidable mental strength, the sharp senses of a top-tier Adventurer, and the opening that my mind-body disharmony gave him, to catch the sliver of aura I'd let slip without realizing it.
Like spotting a palm tree that looked reasonably vigorous and tossing out a casual compliment in passing?
He glanced back once at the tailor shop's sign, then pulled his hood low. His figure melted into the deepening dusk at the street corner, and he left the First District at a brisk pace.
...
Seventh District, Leon's home.
The heat of the day hadn't fully dispersed, and the string of unexpected incidents had left Leon utterly spent by the time he finished his errands and made it home. It was as if every ounce of strength had been wrung out of him.
He sank into the rattan chair in his courtyard like a puddle of melted mud, all dignity abandoned.
With the faint creak of the rattan, he closed his eyes and let his body sway gently with the chair.
"This is nice..."
A satisfied sigh slipped out, barely audible.
A faint smile still clung to the corner of his mouth as his heavy eyelids fell shut, his breathing soon slipping into a long, even rhythm.
As for learning new magic?
The Evilus attack, running into Astraea Familia, the pressure of Hedin... this whole chain of shocks had already stretched his nerves to their limit.
Right now, all he wanted was to empty his mind completely, get a good sleep, and treat himself to a lavish meal when he woke up.
...
While Leon drifted into an infant's sleep in his little courtyard, things were different over at Tsubaki's workshop.
The apostles of justice, the captain of the military police, and the workshop's master had finished dealing with the attack and were gathered together.
Their faces remained calm, but the atmosphere was heavy enough to cut.
None of them could make sense of Evilus's latest move. It had come without warning, and they were completely in the dark.
Looking at the whole picture, the attack carried an unsettling, chaotic feel to it, as if... it had been aimed purely at sowing panic, with no discernible objective at all.
But every one of them knew perfectly well that such a thing wasn't possible.
"In the words of my beloved Braver, Finn: Arachnia, Valletta, may be a total lunatic, but she never does anything without a reason!"
"There has to be a purpose behind this attack, one we haven't figured out yet. Otherwise, they would never have committed that much force, to the point of having three executives show up at once!"
Lyra said flatly, leaving no room for doubt.
As Astraea Familia's resident brain, her words carried real weight.
And as she'd said, everyone in the room was a veteran who had spent years locked in both open and covert struggle with Evilus. They couldn't claim to know their style inside out, but they had a solid enough grasp of it.
The style of this particular attack was completely at odds with anything they'd done before.
"So unless Arachnia actually got dosed by Braver and lost her mind, there's only one possibility left."
Kaguya said with a smile, turning her gaze toward Tsubaki, whose eyes had started to wander.
"Their objective has something to do with Tsubaki... no. It has to do with the workshop."
Alise, who had been running through every possibility with her head slightly lowered, looked up at Kaguya's words. Her expression turned serious.
"If we widen that possibility... then the entire industrial district might be their primary target."
The others exchanged glances, repeating Alise's guess in low voices.
"Industrial district... industrial district..."
Tsubaki's expression changed. She shot to her feet and said loudly:
"Hey, hey, hey, they aren't planning to hit Orario's Magic Stone product industry, are they? If that's really it, the blow to the city would be terrifying!" Her face kept shifting. "No, if that's actually the case, I need to tell Lady Hephaestus right away."
With that, Tsubaki grabbed her weapon and rushed out the door, heading for their headquarters.
Watching her leave, Lyra shrugged.
"Tch. If it really is the industrial district, that's genuinely bad news. Their actual target this time wouldn't happen to be Lady Hephaestus herself, would it?"
Kaguya stroked the hilt of her sword, her long eyes narrowing. A cold curve tugged at the corner of her mouth as she said lightly:
"The odds aren't low. Everyone knows Lady Hephaestus's familia supplies our Order Alliance with a massive quantity of weapons and armor. It fundamentally shifts the balance of combat power between the two sides."
"If they can take out Hephaestus Familia, that's actually a pretty decent plan from Evilus's perspective."
She let out a mocking laugh.
"Can't handle Loki Familia or Freya Familia, so they go squeeze an easier target instead? Classic Evilus."
At that, Alise chimed in with a well-timed joke:
"Easier target? Isn't the familia that's even easier than Hephaestus Familia... ours?"
Lyra shot a glance at Ryuu, who was close to flushing, and sighed:
"Hey now, don't talk about your own familia like that, Alise. Though well... our combat power really is dragging us down these days. The situation lately has been strange and turbulent. Even Braver can't quite read it. Looks like we need to step up our training."
...
The news of Evilus's indiscriminate attack on the entire city soon spread throughout Orario.
It didn't just stir up a storm inside the city. Even in the harbor town of Melen, near Lolog Lake, it became the talk of every street corner.
The peaceful, ordinary familias, every single one of them, gods included, cursed the perpetrators without exception.
Hostess of Fertility.
"I've had it. Can these lunatics not give us a break?"
An Adventurer threw back a mouthful of ale. His cheeks were flushed and his expression furious.
"Every damn day it's either an attack here or an assassination there, and they keep pulling that damn Adventurer Hunting crap in the Dungeon. I don't get it. What's the point of killing people? Can you eat corpses for dinner? Is gold not appealing anymore? Are the festivals not fun enough? A pack of mad dogs, I swear. Damn them all!"
The guy at the next seat over snorted.
"If you could understand them, would you still be sitting here drinking with me? Those Evilus bastards worship evil gods. You get what I mean?"
He took a hard swig, his face flushing.
"Yeah, I got nothing."
The Adventurer set his mug down heavily and sighed.
"Haah... this is gonna be a rough stretch."
"You said it."
Behind the bar, Mama Mia wiped a glass with a blank face, as if all the noise and cursing had nothing to do with her.
"Mama Mia, it looks so crazy out there. Business is way quieter than usual today, meow!"
The cat-girl Anya swished her tail as she bounced over.
Mama Mia didn't even lift her eyelids, but her voice shot up.
"Are the dishes in the back done? Anya, if you're slacking off, your pay for the month is gone!"
"Meow! Nooo, meow!"
Anya wailed and scurried back to the kitchen.
Syr, who had just returned from a delivery, happened to catch the scene. She hugged her tray to her chest, a small smile appearing on her face.
...
Due north of the city, at the end of the Eighth District: Twilight Manor.
This was the famed base of Loki Familia.
The brick-red castle looked dim and indistinct in the heavy dusk.
Its vast courtyard and corridors were unusually empty, with only a scattered handful of members moving through in a hurry.
"It seems everyone has been under a lot of pressure lately. Even the time they spend in the Dungeon has gotten rare."
The blond Pallum turned away from the window and looked at his two old partners in the reception room, letting out a sigh.
He was none other than the captain of Loki Familia, the one Leon had met once before, Braver, Finn Deimne.
At his sigh, the stunning elf leaning against the wall kept one eye closed. Her waist-length green hair fell like a waterfall.
She crossed her arms, her voice cool.
"It's to be expected. A lot happened today, and the Guild is forcing familias like ours to ramp up patrol frequency. Everyone was already worn down by all the incidents, and now they're being thrown out on assignment without prior notice. It's piling strain on already frayed nerves. Some grumbling is only natural."
She paused.
"At least the juniors of the familia don't need to pay much attention to all this turmoil. They just need to keep improving themselves and training."
"Speaking of the juniors..."
Seated in a specially built tall chair, unable to even cross his legs properly, the middle-aged dwarf stroked his thick beard and turned to the elf universally regarded as the "foster mother" of the Nordic familia, chuckling teasingly.
"Riveria, that girl Ais has been running into the Dungeon even more often lately. Any idea why?"
The green-haired elf, Riveria, let out a quiet sigh.
"It's because Raul and Anakity both made it to Lv.2. It must have gotten under her skin."
Finn: "..."
Gareth: "..."
For a moment, neither of them said anything. Leveling up once a year was already terrifying, and even that wasn't enough to satisfy that girl?
Finn chose his words carefully.
"Riveria, perhaps... you should have a talk with her? If she keeps pushing like this, her mind will break before her strength catches up."
At Finn's gentle phrasing, Riveria pressed her lips together.
"I understand."
Then she changed the subject.
"About today's attack, Finn, do you have any leads? You keep in regular contact with Ganesha Familia, don't you?"
Finn's expression tightened, and he nodded seriously.
"Valletta is probably trying to clip our wings, wear down our overall combat strength, and then, when the right moment comes, launch the final decisive battle."
"Wings?"
Gareth frowned.
"Mm..."
Finn sank into thought.
The whole city had been thrown into unease by this attack. Even foot traffic into the Dungeon had visibly dropped.
Evilus's reputation for brutality was well known, and Adventurer Hunting was especially bloody.
No one wanted to be the nail that stuck out and ended up sacrificed, so a portion of the savvier Adventurers chose to lie low, quietly watching how things developed before deciding their next move.
What everyone in the city didn't know, however, was that the mastermind behind this seemingly grand attack, the one that had wrecked large parts of the industrial district, was at that very moment seething in impotent rage, her face black.
[Read 50+ chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/NiaXD]