Rose's lips curled into a faint smile. She took Kureha's hand, leaned close to her ear, and whispered softly.
"We can't let her sneak off with him all by herself, now can we... Right, Kureha?"
Being teased so openly by this cunning older sister, Kureha, the total novice... had no defense against this kind of assault.
Her cheeks flushed red, her eyes darted around, and her voice came out in stammers.
"I... what am I supposed to do?"
A flash of sly triumph crossed Rose's amber eyes before she quickly hid it.
She leaned in with that same sweet smile and murmured a few words into the Sword Saint's ear. Kureha's eyes went wide.
"Th-th-th-that... there's no way I can do that!"
"No no no no no! That's way too embarrassing!"
Rose had fully anticipated this reaction. She continued in a soft whisper.
"Trust me, Kureha. If we use this one move, our gentleman is definitely going to..."
"..."
"Ngh..."
"That's... that's too embarrassing..."
...
...
Just as Leon's Familia meeting had wrapped up and he was about to begin his rich and colorful nightlife...
On the other side of things, even though it was the dead of night, the top brass of Evilus weren't resting either.
A hall shrouded in darkness, as if buried in the depths of forgotten ruins, or tucked away in a corner of some cold labyrinth.
Figures wrapped tightly in hooded black robes stood in silence among the shadows.
Fire pits blazed against the cold, lifeless walls.
The flickering flames stretched their elongated shadows into something grotesque.
"Valletta, the last raid might have damaged the city's reputation, but we lost a massive number of soldiers too! Several of our officers were even killed by those self-righteous bastards!"
"Add in all the sacrificed believers, and we don't have nearly enough manpower to launch the next planned attack!"
"Meanwhile, on the Order's side, aside from some throwaway Adventurers, they didn't lose a single important figure. No... forget killing any of them, barely any were even injured!"
"On top of that, they've got the backing of all those merchant factions behind them, which means they can get their wounded back in fighting shape in no time..."
"When you add it all up, this raid only cost them some resources and killed a few nobodies. The damage to them? Forget crippling, it doesn't even qualify as a scratch!"
"Now look at us! The losses aren't even close to proportional!"
"In conclusion, the plan you put together was a complete and total failure!"
An officer from the Alecto Familia, his expression dark, leveled the accusation at Valletta in a voice like nails on glass.
With him breaking the silence first, the others, who had been too terrified to speak, slowly raised their gazes and snuck cautious glances at Arachnia lounging casually on her stone chair. The moment they caught sight of that bloodthirsty, manic grin on her lips, they quickly looked back down at their own feet, as if flowers had suddenly sprouted from the floor.
"Heh... complete and total failure?"
Valletta grinned, hopped lightly off the armrest of her chair, and sauntered over to the Alecto member who'd questioned her, her face full of amusement.
"Looks like you're so fixated on resource losses that you completely missed the public opinion fallout those civilians are dumping on Finn and his band of mongrels... That's not good."
Before he could respond, she grabbed him by the collar of his cloak and yanked him to her face with zero effort, nose to nose, eyes boring into his.
"Come to think of it, I've been hearing some rumors lately. Sounds like your Alecto Familia has been getting awfully cozy with our big-money backers... Tsk, tsk, tsk. Don't tell me you've all been scheming behind everyone's backs?"
She shifted tone abruptly, laughing loudly.
"What, did we make them lose money?"
"So they sent you, their little errand boy, to come question me?!"
With that, Valletta hurled him into the wall. As he let out a terrified wail, she followed up with several vicious kicks until he was barely clinging to consciousness, then turned away with a cold expression. She swept her gaze over the self-serving rats below.
"All of you, remember this. Our goal is to destroy Orario. Slaughter. Rivers of blood. Dragging this world back into chaos!"
"As long as we achieve that, nothing else matters!"
"Those greedy pig merchants think they can tell me what to do?"
"Heh. They really think they're something special, don't they?"
"In Orario, do they still fancy themselves big-shot merchants and nobles?"
"Trying to pull rank on me? Pathetic."
She turned to Vendetta beside her and gave a cold order.
"Olivas. Go teach them a lesson."
Vendetta, Olivas Act. Level 3. One of Evilus's officers.
His strength wasn't top-tier within Evilus. In fact, among the officers of the core Evilus Familias like Rudra, Thanatos, Alecto, Apate, and Ikelos, he didn't even register.
But...
Every evil god and every member held a certain "appreciation" for that inhuman soul of his that set him apart.
That was madness.
Cold madness. Inhuman madness. Bloodthirsty madness.
And precisely because of that, even though Vendetta's strength wasn't first-rate, he was still highly valued by the evil gods and Valletta alike.
The moment he heard Valletta assigning him his favorite kind of job, Olivas licked his lips in excitement and flashed a savage grin.
"If it's just a lesson, then as long as I don't kill them, anything goes. Right?"
Valletta waved her hand dismissively.
"Even if they die, who cares. Just don't wipe them all out. I want to make an example. You get me?"
"Heh, I get it."
Olivas grinned and turned to walk into the darkness.
Just then, Valletta's voice came from behind him again.
"Oh, and one more thing. Don't let your lucky winners die too quickly."
He paused mid-step, then broke into uncontrollable laughter.
"Hahaha! Perfect. That's exactly what I wanted to hear!"
Just the thought of the screams of terror, the shrieks of agony, and the look of utter despair in their eyes made his whole body tremble with excitement.
"Heheh... heheheh..."
Watching the two of them decide those merchants' fates in a few short sentences, the grunts below were frozen stiff, their bodies shaking uncontrollably.
Some were even starting to question whether listening to those cultists' pitch and joining this place had been the right call after all.
"Hey, you. What are you shaking for?"
"Is there something about me that scares you?"
"Or maybe... you've got a guilty conscience?"
"Oh ho, your faith in the gods doesn't seem very strong, does it?"
A dull impact echoed through the hall.
...
...
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