Babel, Central Plaza...
Leo and Ais walked together, coming from the direction of North Main Street, and entered the plaza.
Neither of them had invited the other. When they'd learned each other's plans both involved heading into the Dungeon, they'd just naturally ended up walking side by side, as if it were the obvious thing to do.
The passersby around them noticed the two of them arriving and started whispering.
It came as no surprise to Leo that he'd grown even more conspicuous, even easier for the people around him to recognize.
Even though he'd already pulled up the hood of his cloak, covering the upper half of his face, the people around him could still pick him out by his gear, pointing at him and casting all sorts of looks laden with strange emotion.
Of course...
Having this one at my side is probably a big part of why I get recognized too.
Thinking that, Leo glanced at the blonde girl beside him.
Unlike him, Ais wore her usual outfit. Her beauty could rival a goddess's and drew every eye around her. She was also at the center of the recent rumors after defeating Udaeus with Leo and reaching Lv.6. In a sense, she attracted even more attention than he did.
Both were the talk of the town, and seeing them together in Central Plaza was like spotting major celebrities on the street. If the title of first-class adventurer didn't command such caution, the crowd might already have surrounded them.
"What's wrong?"
Perhaps sensing Leo's gaze, Ais looked over, tilting her head and asking.
"Nothing."
Leo shook his head, brushing it off, which left Ais a little confused.
He didn't look at the girl again. Telling himself he had to get used to it, he kept walking toward Babel.
He'd decided to ignore the chatter around him, but he couldn't help catching some of it anyway.
"Those two are heading into the Dungeon again? They only just leveled up."
"You've got it wrong. It's because they just leveled up that they need to go into the Dungeon, right?"
"Yeah. One went up to Lv.5, the other to Lv.6. Those two must've gotten a lot stronger. How could they not go get properly used to it?"
"I really envy those geniuses, leveling up at the drop of a hat. Especially Leo Eligos. Going from Lv.1 to Lv.5 in under three months, turning straight from a newbie adventurer into a first-class adventurer. The gods really do favor him."
"Of course they do. You've got no idea how worked up those gods get every time they hear news of him leveling up. It's like they're throwing a festival."
"I hear some gods have even opened betting pools, wagering on how long it'll take before his next level up."
"Sounds exactly like the kind of thing those bored-out-of-their-minds gods would do."
"So what? If Leo Eligos weren't part of Loki Familia, those gods would probably be going even crazier right about now."
"Crazy enough to poach him, you mean?"
"You even have to ask?"
Talk like this kept coming from every direction, and even though Leo didn't want to hear it, he couldn't help catching some of it.
He was Lv.5 now, with senses far sharper than an ordinary person's. His hearing could pick up a mosquito flying ten meters away, so even quiet conversations reached him.
He'd meant to just tune it out, but a topic some people were discussing caught his attention.
"Seems things are pretty restless over at the Guild today."
"A lot of people have rushed over there, looking especially worked up."
"Something happened in the Dungeon, apparently. Somebody's party members got trapped down there."
"I heard that too. The Dungeon's been really restless lately. The Upper Floor region's fine, but the Middle Floor region seems to have had quite a few abnormal situations crop up."
"Haven't you noticed? The Guild's put out several requests recently, having adventurers investigate why the monster numbers on a certain floor have abnormally spiked."
"Which floor was it again?"
"Floor 24, I think."
Hearing that, Leo's steps faltered.
"...Leo?"
Ais had to stop along with him, and the look she gave him held even more confusion.
"Sorry." Leo quickly recovered, giving Ais a smile. "Let's hurry into the Dungeon."
Ais looked at him for a moment. She thought he was acting strange today, but she nodded anyway, agreeing with what he'd said.
So the two of them picked up their pace and walked into Babel, entering the Dungeon.
The moment they entered the Dungeon, their pace quickened again, and they soon left the crowds behind, heading downward along the regular route.
With their strength as it was now, walking through the Upper Floor region was child's play. They didn't need to give the slightest thought to whether they'd run into monsters.
They didn't even plan on lifting a finger. Even if a monster suddenly appeared ahead of them and let out a cry at their sudden arrival, they acted as if they hadn't seen or heard it, turning into two gusts of wind that swept past before the thing could react, not even leaving an afterimage behind.
At this rate, it took Leo and Ais less than an hour to reach Floor 10, thick with white mist.
Only here did Leo stop first.
Ais didn't seem to expect Leo to suddenly stop again. She shot forward some distance before finally halting.
But this time, before Ais could say anything, Leo spoke first.
"You're not going to show yourself, sir?"
This line was clearly not directed at Ais.
Ais's expression tightened. Without a second thought, she reached out and gripped the hilt of the sword at her waist.
Everything around them fell silent. Beyond the pale, hazy mist, there was nothing else.
But it was precisely because it was so quiet that it all the more proved something was wrong here.
The cries of monsters, the ever-present footsteps, all of it seemed to have vanished here. Only the sound of wind blowing across the grassland was so clear.
Leo showed no sign of impatience, standing quietly and waiting.
Ais tilted her head to listen for a moment, then abruptly turned to face one direction.
"...Who's there?"
The girl's cold, clear challenge was answered by a swaying of the mist.
"As expected of two people growing more renowned by the day. A little concealment trick like this can't fool you."
A hoarse voice, raspy as if leaking air, rang out, and a pitch-black figure slowly emerged from the swaying white mist.
It was someone dressed head to toe in a black robe.
The figure's sex was impossible to tell. Their outline was abnormally thin, as though no flesh or blood existed beneath the robe. Nothing could be seen beneath the hood, and intricately patterned gloves hid both hands. Not a sliver of skin showed. They resembled an empty set of human-shaped clothes moving on its own, with an extraordinarily faint presence.
"A pleasure to meet you both." The black-robed figure spoke in a low voice. "I've long admired your reputations and came here expressly to see you. Forgive my rudeness."
The figure's tone was polite and refined, plainly that of someone highly educated. Whatever Leo thought, Ais hadn't lowered her guard in the slightest.
"Who are you?"
Ais kept up her questioning. Even though she didn't sense the slightest hostility from this person, she still didn't dare take it lightly.
This was the Dungeon, beyond the reach of the Guild's order, where adventurers robbing one another was commonplace. Few would be foolish enough to target Loki Familia's first-class adventurers, but caution was still necessary.
Besides, the figure's getup was obviously extremely suspicious, and even their manner of appearing was this shady. Who wouldn't feel wary?
Ais was just naturally airheaded, not stupid. As an adventurer who'd spent years down in the Dungeon, her experience far outstripped Leo's.
Still, with an entrance like that, it went without saying the figure wasn't about to reveal their identity.
"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is what I'm about to say," the black-robed figure replied. "You two have already made contact with Lulune Louie, haven't you?"
The moment those words came out, Ais's expression changed instantly.
"You're the mysterious client who hired Lulune Louie to receive the goods on Floor 18, aren't you?"
Leo, who'd been silent all this time, finally spoke, and the content made Ais's expression change again, her grip on the sword hilt tightening.
"Correct. That would be me." The black-robed figure admitted it readily. "Not long ago, I hired Hermes Familia's Lulune Louie to receive the goods on Floor 18. I also hired Ganesha Familia's Hashana Dorlia to retrieve them."
"I'm the one who had those two bring that jeweled fetus up to the surface."
"I just didn't expect it to not only fall short at the final step, but also get Hashana Dorlia killed. Thinking about it, I really do owe an apology to the god Ganesha."
Hearing this, Ais couldn't hold back any longer and stepped forward, seeming to want to ask something.
Leo reached out to stop her, keeping his gaze on the black-robed figure.
"So you're with the Guild, then?"
That line left Ais stunned.
"...You even know that?"
Even the black-robed figure hadn't expected this, and sounded surprised.
"It's Finn... our captain who figured it out." Leo said mildly. "He said the Guild forcibly reclaimed the strange magic stones we got from those new species monsters, which is pretty clearly connected to the thing behind these monsters. On top of that, both Ganesha Familia and Hermes Familia have deep ties to the Guild, so he made a bold guess: someone in the Guild is working against the thing behind these monsters, and the person who hired Lulune Louie and Hashana Dorlia is very likely someone from the Guild."
Ais hadn't known any of this.
Finn and the others didn't seem to have let her in on it, and a blank look came over her face.
The conversation between Leo and the black-robed figure continued smoothly.
"I can only say, as expected of the Braver. Trying to do something behind his back really is difficult."
The black-robed figure gave a bitter laugh.
"So?" Leo looked the figure straight in the eye. "The people you've set your sights on this time, have they become us?"
"Don't put it so harshly. It's just a normal adventurer request," the black-robed figure said calmly. "Since you've already encountered those beings, you two are unquestionably the best choice for this request."
This time, Ais finally understood what was going on.
Clearly, the figure before them, the one who'd once hired Lulune Louie and Hashana Dorlia, wanted to put out a request again.
The target of the request was them, and its content was obviously tied to what had happened on Floor 18 last time.
Those iridescent monsters, and... the mysterious woman.
The figure had come for these things.
Understanding this, Ais's gaze turned sharp.
Leo, on the other hand, had long since known exactly what the figure wanted to ask the two of them to do.
"According to our intelligence, monster numbers have surged abnormally on Floor 24, leaving numerous adventurers from several Familias dead," the black-robed figure explained. "I hope the two of you can investigate and eliminate the source of the anomaly."
What the figure raised was exactly what Leo had overheard in Central Plaza.
"An abnormal explosion in monster numbers...?"
For Ais, this was the first she'd heard of it.
"That's right." The black-robed figure gave an almost imperceptible nod. "A similar anomaly previously occurred on Floor 30."
"That time, it was Ganesha Familia's Hashana Dorlia whom I hired to investigate."
"And then, he brought that green jeweled fetus back from there."
What it implied, Leo aside, even Ais understood.
The abnormal explosion in monster numbers that had occurred on Floor 30, the root cause behind it, was connected to that green jeweled fetus.
And this time, the same abnormal phenomenon had occurred again on Floor 24.
That undoubtedly told them that the abnormal phenomenon on Floor 24 was, in all likelihood, also connected to that green jeweled fetus.
Even the mysterious woman who'd appeared on Floor 18 last time might possibly appear again.
Ais gripped Desperate's hilt until her knuckles whitened.
Leo said nothing, but his eyes narrowed too.
Seeing this, the black-robed figure continued.
"I'll prepare a generous reward and reliable helpers," the black-robed figure said in a low voice. "You'll receive the reward when the job is done. The helpers have already reached Floor 18 and are waiting in Rivira. Please meet them there first."
With that, the figure tilted their hood slightly as if looking at Leo and Ais.
"Well? Are the two of you willing to accept this request?"
When the black-robed figure finished, silence settled over them again.
Ais looked at Leo.
She didn't say anything, but Leo could tell from the look in Ais's eyes that she cared a great deal about this matter.
Or rather, about the thing that existed behind it.
That mysterious woman who'd once called her "Aria," and that jeweled fetus she found so intensely revolting.
The two of them seemed to have appeared again, and there was no way Ais wouldn't go and confront them.
Leo knew this perfectly well, had even guessed it would go this way before they'd come.
He had no reason to refuse either.
After all, he too wanted to confront that woman who'd sworn she'd kill him again.
"All right."
So Leo nodded.
"This request, we'll take it."
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