The Pleasure Quarter was a land of tender delights.
It was also a place that countless adventurers, residents, and even visitors from distant lands had long dreamed of. Situated between South Main Street and Southeast Main Street, it fell within the Fourth District — one could even say it was among the most essential parts of Orario itself.
Establishments of every style and origin rose here in succession: clubhouses, Western-style manors, and palatial halls from every corner of the continent. And among them worked women and men from every nation and region, employed as entertainers and service staff, living lives turned completely upside-down — day for night — utterly unlike the lives of adventurers.
The reasons they had come here varied wildly.
Among them, setting aside the rather special "tribe" of Amazon women, the majority had arrived as "cargo" — smuggled into the city and sold into the Pleasure Quarter.
Orario had never been a city of light.
As the Adventurers' City, chaos and disorder were woven into its very foundation. The Guild and the gods of the righteous side had only just barely managed to defeat the Dark Familia. In the thousand years prior, slave traders smuggling "quality goods" from across the world into the city and selling them to the Pleasure Quarter had always been one of Orario's most traditional trades. And wherever gray dealings flourished, violence and all manner of terrible things naturally took root as well.
Fortunately, many goddesses had eventually arrived in the city, one after another.
Ishtar, Hathor, Isis...
The goddesses who protected the women of the trade brought with them a basic order, giving even this chaotic district a set of foundational rules. And so, right up to the present day—
"If you ask me, Haruhime, if you can't do it, you should just stop trying. Every single time it turns into a huge mess — you nearly gave the poor client a heart attack."
"I'm so... so sorry!"
"Besides, the Lady Goddess never said you had to work or anything. Don't worry about it. The Ishtar Familia is huge — feeding one extra mouth is no problem at all."
"Mm..."
Faced with the sharp-tongued Amazon girl before her, the girl known as Sanjouno Haruhime could only lower her head slightly. Between the silky strands of her pale-gold hair, a pair of fox ears trembled faintly, and her face was a picture of soft, pitiful helplessness.
She had been trafficked to the city by slave traders from the far-off Far East. Beautiful enough to command a high price, she had been sold to the Ishtar Familia — but unlike most of the "sisters" in the Familia, Haruhime possessed absolutely no talent whatsoever for the trade.
Yes. Even courtesanship required talent.
For the Amazons, this was simply an everyday matter — one might even call it their dream job. Not only could they be with men, they were paid for it, and they never had to worry about pregnancy. It was far better than living in some ancient tribal village, going out to hunt, kidnapping men and dragging them back, only to share them around.
Haruhime had heard her sisters recount plenty of those old stories — tales of Amazons living in the primal rainforest or in city-states clinging to the edges of the continent, lives of brutal poverty where there was almost nothing beyond fighting and hunting. So to them, the Pleasure Quarter was nothing short of paradise.
This place was almost too wonderful, so much so that the Amazons could hardly believe it. As for how she felt about it herself — Haruhime just blinked and thought: I've come here, so I'll make a home here. Nothing more.
She wanted to share some of the burden for the sisters who looked after her. Anything at all would do. But she simply had no talent for it.
Her face and figure were first-rate. She was a fox-girl, an exceptionally rare sub-species among Demi-humans, born with an innately bewitching face that made many a client fall for her at first sight. Yet the moment it came down to the critical juncture, she would uselessly and completely pass out cold — so thoroughly that clients feared someone had actually died!
Whenever that happened, all she could do was let the other sisters come and "clean up the mess" for her.
Today was no different.
Lena would be leaving soon. The petite Amazon girl hummed contentedly, all carefree and unbothered, and told Haruhime not to take it to heart — apparently, for some reason, a whole wave of new sisters had recently joined the Familia. Right now it was actually "too many Amazons, not enough clients," and she herself hadn't had a single booking in days.
Tonight, she might even have Haruhime to thank.
"Alright, I'm off~"
"Yes, thank you, Sister Lena."
"I'll treat you to something good tonight!"
The girl departed cheerfully, sliding open the Far Eastern-style screen door and vanishing in a flash.
The room fell quiet.
Before long, only Haruhime remained.
The fox-girl in her red kimono sat composed before the window, blending in a curious harmony with the stillness inside the room and the clamor beyond.
A faint scent of incense mingled with fruit and wine, overlaid by the thick sweetness of powder and perfume.
The Pleasure Quarter was a riot of color. Streamers and magic-stone lanterns so vivid they made the eyes swim cast their kaleidoscopic glow across every street and alleyway, all of it packed and noisy.
Compared to her homeland, this place felt to Haruhime like another world entirely. The fox-girl didn't feel any particular resentment toward that. Back in the Far East, she had been the daughter of a noble family in service to the gods — but in that world, all she had known were walls impossibly high, and a suffocating silence.
Her father had sent her away to a Pallum merchant simply because she had supposedly stolen fruit meant as an offering to the gods — even though she had done no such thing. And that merchant, on the road away from the Far East, had run into bandits, abandoned her, and fled alone — leaving her to be sold off to Orario.
It was only after arriving here that Haruhime discovered there were actually people who cared about her.
The sisters in the Familia were all kind. Life here was good. She didn't miss home at all — and out of gratitude, she truly wanted to help share the sisters' workload. But she couldn't do anything right. She had become an adventurer and still couldn't defeat even the weakest monster. A complete failure.
The fox-girl's thoughts were that simple. She only wanted, as best she could, to repay the kindness she had been shown. As for anything beyond that — Haruhime didn't dare to even dream of it.
Besides, this place really wasn't bad. There was enough to eat, enough warmth to wear, and the sisters were all gentle and caring. Goddess Ishtar even allowed her to go out as she pleased — though she needed sisters to accompany her — and move freely about the city.
What more could she ask for?
Outside the window, fireworks began to crack and burst — the Pleasure Quarter's nightly ritual. Brilliant blooms of fire exploded against the dark sky, accompanied by waves of cheering: beautiful, dazzling. And though this "beautiful dream" would dissolve the moment daylight came, it was enough.
Haruhime was not the only one who felt this way. She thought this place was good. She wouldn't mind living here forever. With the Lady Goddess here, even if her looks faded and her hair turned gray, she would still have a fine life ahead of her.
Haruhime picked up a fairy-tale book — one of her few hobbies in this place. Through those equally dream-like tales of heroes, she could briefly imagine other ways of living: passionate adventures alongside companions, the small mundane moments, the grand journeys to save the world — all the things she herself could never do, and therefore could never have.
But before she even turned a page.
The screen door slid open again. Turning around, Haruhime saw Sister Aisha appear in the doorway.
She was everyone's "big sister" — one could even call her the de facto captain of the Ishtar Familia. Captain Phryne didn't handle much of anything, and nobody liked her anyway; she'd only gotten the position because she was the Familia's sole Lv.5. As for the vice-captain Tammuz, he spent all his time at the Lady Goddess's side and paid attention to nothing else. So in practice, most of the Familia's affairs fell to Aisha.
The Amazon woman had flowing black hair, a tall and voluptuous figure, and dressed much like the rest of her kin — the kind of outfit that had once made Haruhime blush to her roots. Her upper body was wrapped in a single strip of purple cloth that concealed precious little, leaving the better part of her generous curves on full display. Her purple chiffon skirt looked long but was in fact completely transparent, exposing her long, shapely legs beneath and the delicate, ribbon-like undergarments within, laid completely bare.
The Amazons loved their "alluring" attire.
"Haruhime, I heard you fainted again. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
The fox-girl shook her head. Sister Aisha always looked out for her — she had probably come to help. It had happened several times before; those frightened clients were always "taken care of" by her afterward. So Haruhime felt genuine gratitude, and offered her a warm, sincere smile.
"Good, so long as you're fine."
With that, Aisha lowered her eyes, gave a small nod — and left the naive young girl shut inside her elegant cage.
Goddess Ishtar was, to be fair, genuinely good to the women of her Familia. She established rules, kept the chaos at bay. And she was generous: if a sister truly fell in love with a man, the Goddess would allow them to leave — provided the man could pay the buyout price, which was neither small nor exorbitant. If the story was beautiful and moving enough, the Goddess of Love would approve wholeheartedly and grant them special favor.
But rules were made by the Goddess, and naturally, she could break them however she pleased.
"Keep a close watch on her."
"Yes, Sister Aisha."
From the darkness came the composed replies of several women.
Outside Haruhime's room, no fewer than multiple Lv.3 adventurers were stationed at various positions, watching her every move. They were there to ensure the fox-girl's safety — and her continued "presence."
Haruhime was only a Lv.1 adventurer. Yet she was the Ishtar Familia's most precious treasure — not because of beauty so stunning it would leave even a goddess breathless, but because of a certain extraordinary magic she possessed.
The children of the Lower World are endlessly strange, and their potential is limitless.
Goddess Ishtar had managed the Pleasure Quarter ever since arriving in Orario. She prided herself on having recruited many children over the years and witnessed countless skills and magic spells.
But even so.
Haruhime alone was a one-of-a-kind, incomparably precious gem.
For the fox-girl's unique magic was—
[Uchide's Mallet].
· A level-raising magic, activatable on one target at a time.
· After activation, there is a fixed cooldown period. The caster cannot target herself.
· Upon use, the target's Level is raised by 1.
No side effects. Can be used continuously. Its only weakness lay in the caster herself — the magic consumed mental stamina, and its duration fluctuated depending on Haruhime's own power level.
But there was no doubt about it.
This was the most powerful ability in existence — "broken" to the point of being a bug. Were it to become known to the outside world, even Loki Familia and Freya Familia might come swarming, fighting to seize her.
It could bring a Lv.1 adventurer straight to Lv.2. It could turn a Lv.4 adventurer into a first-tier powerhouse overnight. Even Lv.5, Lv.6, even Lv.7 — it could push any of them one level higher.
When Ishtar had first seen Haruhime's status panel, she had even murmured to herself: if Zeus Familia and Hera Familia had possessed Haruhime back then — could the subjugation of the Black Dragon have succeeded? What kind of unfathomable existence would the [Empress], broken through to Lv.10, have become?
That was a question no one would ever be able to answer.
And for the Ishtar Familia, Haruhime's value went without saying. She was the Goddess's absolute secret trump card — necessary to satisfy that jealousy that had long since curdled into madness.
All for the sake of defeating Freya Familia.
The enmity between the two beauty goddesses was no secret in the city. It was Ishtar's one-sided obsession — jealousy of Freya, who always stood at the center of every god's and every mortal child's attention. In beauty, in power, in everything.
In short: crushing Freya Familia was Goddess Ishtar's obsession. And it was very nearly an impossible goal. Everyone knew that Freya Familia, with multiple officers at Lv.6 or above, was a force Ishtar could never hope to defeat.
So the Goddess's jealousy was taken seriously by no one.
But they had all underestimated the depths of a woman's obsession. The Ishtar Familia had been making preparations for years, engaging in all manner of "investments" — all toward one end: obtaining the power to defeat Freya Familia.
This included once funding the Dark Familia in exchange for cursed weapons and the powerful monster known as the "Jewel Fetus." It included making contact with the overseas martial nation of Telskyura and inviting its two strongest Lv.6 adventurers to the city. And it included the discovery of Haruhime's existence.
Aisha knew all of this because she was the Familia's de facto manager.
She also believed the Lady Goddess had gone completely mad.
But nothing could stop a beauty goddess's jealousy — unless a hero were to appear. Like one rescuing a princess locked away in a tower.
Aisha thought to herself: perhaps a hero would someday come to save Haruhime. Because once Goddess Ishtar had confirmed that the fox-girl could never truly function as an adventurer, she had abandoned any idea of developing her — and instead begun to regard her as a disposable tool.
Aisha didn't yet know the specifics. But she was certain of one thing: if Haruhime stayed in the Familia, she would die.
Yet this was all nothing but wishful thinking. Ishtar would never allow Haruhime to leave — especially now that the Dark Familia had been annihilated. She had become the Goddess's only hope. The foundation of that impossibly distant, utterly unrealistic dream. If the fox-girl were gone, that would be the most terrifying nightmare Goddess Ishtar could face.
Aisha was deeply conflicted.
She truly thought of Haruhime as a little sister.
And so—
When deep in the night, word reached her that the fox-girl had suddenly vanished without a trace — that the entire Familia compound had been searched and she was nowhere to be found—
Aisha quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
For the "nightmare" that had descended upon the Lady Goddess so suddenly that night, she felt nothing but overwhelming gratitude.
____
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