Chapter 84: Mutual Exchange (Patreon)

Astrea didn't press him.

She raised a hand, signaling for everyone in the room to stay quiet. Kaguya, standing by the window, drew the curtains closed, leaving only a narrow gap for the morning light to filter through. Alise turned and shut the door, then carefully checked the lock.

Naaza flipped over the paper where she'd recorded his injuries, ready to jot down whatever came next. Ryuu set a cup of warm water by the bedside and took up position at Artorias's right, watching his condition closely.

Adi remained seated at the bedside. She kept her hand braced against Artorias's back, and with her other hand propped the pillow higher so he could speak without straining.

Astrea took in everyone's positions, then let her gaze settle back on Artorias.

"Start from when you disappeared. Keep to the order things happened as much as you can, and flag anything you're not sure about separately."

Artorias nodded.

"I can't say for certain how many days I was gone."

He closed his eyes, trying to sort through the tangled memories.

Dim passages, one battle bleeding into the next, the crushing weight of Zald's fists, Alfia's cold voice, and the way pain had stretched every second — it all surfaced in fragments, tangled together.

"There's no day or night in the Dungeon. Zald never told me the time. All I have to go on is how many times I rested and recovered — I'd guess about three days, maybe longer."

Astrea nodded slightly. "Go on."

"Adi and the others already know how it started."

Artorias raised his right hand, fingertips brushing the side of his neck. The mark left by the curse-chain was still there, and even the lightest touch sent a jolt of pain through him.

"I'd meant to visit Miss Alfia during a patrol. That's where I was ambushed."

Though calling it an ambush was almost too generous a word.

Kaguya leaned against the window, arms crossed. "Was it Zald who attacked you?"

"Yes. There was another god there too — a god named Eren."

"Did you see his face clearly?"

"I saw it clearly after I woke up. He didn't try to hide who he was, either."

Artorias paused for a moment.

"They said they valued me highly, so they wanted to give me what they called a trial."

Alise's brow furrowed slightly. "A trial."

"Apparently they'd originally planned to take me into a few regions with no other adventurer activity and have me fight the monsters there alone."

"But somehow — I'm still not sure how — it just turned into them tormenting me."

Artorias's gaze drifted past everyone, settling on a spot on the wall.

"Before every fight, he'd take away my potions. He only let me keep Tensa Zangetsu. And he wouldn't treat my wounds right away — not unless they were bad enough to leave me unable to move."

The arm Adi had braced against him went suddenly rigid.

She caught herself a moment later and eased her grip.

"How many of those wounds came from the trial?"

"Most of them."

Artorias glanced at his splinted left wrist.

"The wrist broke in the last fight. My ribs got hurt then too. The sword wounds on my shoulder and stomach are from the Dis Sisters."

Adi lowered her eyes, her voice dropping a shade. "He left you in the middle floors while you were critically wounded?"

"Zald said walking back to the surface was part of the trial too."

"That's absurd." Ryuu cut in coldly.

"There was a woman." Artorias stared at the water swaying in his cup.

"Long hair, almost gray in color. Thin build, hardly any expression on her face. She'd cough now and then."

Adi's head snapped up.

Kaguya pushed off from the window, straightening.

Alise caught both reactions. Reading her companions' faces, a dangerous answer was already forming in her mind.

Astrea's gaze turned grave.

"You're saying it isn't just Zald. She's involved too—"

"Yes. Alfia and Zald — members of two great god Familias — have already joined Evilus's operations."

The room went utterly silent.

The rattle of cart wheels drifted in from the street, rolling over the stone road before fading into the distance. That small, meaningless noise only made the silence inside feel heavier.

Naaza's pen hovered over the paper, refusing to come down.

It wasn't that she'd never heard the name before.

Anyone who'd lived in Orario for any length of time would have heard of the Hera Familia's top adventurer.

The woman known as [Silence] had once stood among the era's greatest heroes, and had also taken part in the campaign to defeat the Three Great Quests.

An adventurer like that had long since vanished from Orario along with the Hera Familia's defeat and retreat.

Now, reappearing on the stage after all this time, she'd chosen to stand against Orario.

"Even Miss Alfia, too—"

Artorias looked toward Adi.

She remembered that power.

Even the memory alone brought back the suffocating feeling of being pierced by that voice.

There was no one else in Orario who could turn a voice into sheer destructive force like that.

Kaguya's expression didn't change much, but her right hand had already drifted to her empty hip. She'd left her weapon in the hallway before entering, yet years of ingrained wariness still had her reaching instinctively for a hilt that wasn't there.

"She took part in this so-called trial too?"

"A few times." Artorias answered.

Alise gripped the edge of the table. "You fought Alfia head-on?"

"It wasn't much of a fight."

Artorias shook his head with a wry smile. The movement pulled at the wound on his neck, and the pain forced him to stop and let it pass.

"She used nothing but a wooden stick. I never even touched her — I couldn't even get close."

"Surviving that at all is remarkable." Kaguya's tone stayed measured.

"Back in her day, even a lot of first-class adventurers couldn't take her attacks head-on. She's a mage, sure, but if she'd meant to kill you, that stick alone would have been enough."

"She wasn't trying to kill me."

Artorias recalled the last time Alfia had brought the stick down.

That blow had stopped less than a finger's width above his head.

The force of it had already torn open the ground, but the stick itself never fell. Afterward, all she'd left him with was "not enough yet," before turning and walking away.

"She and Zald wanted the same thing — they were both testing my strength."

Astrea folded her hands in her lap. "Who do you think they're working for?"

Artorias lifted his eyes to meet the goddess's gaze. "Evilus."

Those three words sank the room's mood even lower.

Alise spoke first. "What's your basis for that?"

She believed Artorias wouldn't make such an accusation lightly, but the stakes of this information were too high — every link in the chain needed confirming.

Former top adventurers of the Zeus and Hera Familia, now joined with Evilus. If word of this got out, all of Orario would be thrown into turmoil.

Artorias handed the cup back to Adi.

"On the second day after I was taken, Zald left for a while. Alfia moved me to an underground stronghold. It wasn't a naturally formed part of the Dungeon — the walls had been deliberately shaped, and the storeroom held a huge stockpile of weapons, potions, and crates marked with the Evilus emblem."

Naaza's pen moved quickly. "What did the mark look like?"

"A moon pierced through by a long black spike, with three flame patterns beside it."

Kaguya took over. "The black moon and the spike stand for the destruction they worship."

"There were other people at that stronghold too."

Artorias kept remembering.

Looking back now, they were only fragments that had drifted into his mind unbidden while he was being tortured, but once he started speaking them aloud, they came out with surprising clarity.

"I heard one of them report Orario's patrol routes, and mention the shift-change times between the Ganesha Familia and the Guild."

Adi's expression went cold at once.

As a member of the Ganesha Familia, she knew exactly what patrol routes meant.

The city's peacekeeping force rotated its assigned zones periodically, and only people within the Familia and the Guild knew the specific arrangements.

If Evilus could get hold of the shift-change times, it meant there was a leak somewhere inside Orario's administrative system.

"What did the one giving the report look like?"

"He wore a hood, so I couldn't see his face. He was missing two fingers on his right hand, and his left foot looked like it gave him trouble walking."

Adi committed the details to memory.

"I'll pass this to my sister so she can quietly check who's had access to the patrol lists recently."

Astrea offered a quiet reminder. "Don't investigate this openly. If they've managed to get the routes, they'll be watching for how the Ganesha Familia reacts."

"I'll handle it under the pretext of adjusting the guard rotation." Adi nodded solemnly.

Astrea turned back to Artorias. "The stronghold alone isn't enough to confirm they've joined Evilus. They could simply be using those people."

"I considered that too." Artorias's voice dropped a little. "So I didn't base my conclusion on the stronghold alone."

He remembered that day's scene clearly.

Deep inside the stronghold was a stone hall draped in black cloth. Several Familia emblems were carved into the floor, and maps gathered from different regions of Orario lined the walls.

Artorias had been left in the adjoining room at the time, but neither his hands nor his movement were restrained.

Maybe Zald had known all along he'd eavesdrop — or maybe he simply didn't care if the information reached him.

"I heard Zald say they no longer stood for Zeus and Hera."

Artorias slowly repeated the words as he remembered them.

"Their old Familia lost to the Black Dragon; the era that belonged to them is over. Now they'll act as members of Evilus, until each of them has gotten what they want."

Alise's breath caught.

Kaguya lowered her eyes, fingertips pressing into her palm.

Naaza's writing slowed more and more. When her pen finally lifted, the ink had gathered into a heavy black dot on the page.

"What do they each want?" Astrea asked.

"I don't know." Artorias answered honestly.

"Alfia never explained it. Zald just said Orario needs stronger heroes — that an age of peace can't raise people capable of overcoming disaster."

Ryuu's face went cold. "So they mean to manufacture a disaster?"

"From what he said, that's how it sounds."

"Harming the innocent, all to give birth to heroes."

Ryuu's fingers slowly tightened around her wooden sword. "That's no different from what Evilus has always done."

Alise walked to the window and glanced out through a gap in the curtains.

Pedestrians moved along the street below. A breakfast stall had just begun sending up smoke, and a few children chased a wooden hoop past the mouth of the alley.

Orario still kept to its ordinary morning rhythm.

Almost no one in the city knew that two people who had once stood at the very peak of adventurers had returned — and had already set their sights on them.

"Zald."

Alise, her back to the room, spoke with anger pressed beneath her voice. "Alfia."

"And the Dis Sisters." Kaguya added.

"Two Level 5s alone are enough to wipe out an ordinary Familia. Alfia and Zald are even more dangerous. If all four of them coordinate, no patrol force we currently have could stop them."

Adi spoke up at once. "We have to notify the Loki Familia and the Freya Familia."

"And the Ganesha Familia too." Alise turned around.

"The patrols inside the city need to be reorganized, and we need more high-level adventurers stationed around the Dungeon entrance and Babel."

Naaza folded the paper full of notes, but didn't hand it over right away. "What should the Miach Familia do?"

She looked to Astrea. "We're short-handed — we won't be much help in a direct fight. We can prepare potions and medical supplies ahead of time, but buying in bulk would shake up the market."

Astrea considered this for a moment. "Buy the materials in batches, under the guise of routine restocking. Don't concentrate your purchases of antidotes and curse-cleansing potions — we don't want Evilus reading our preparations from the order patterns."

"I'll have Lord Miach reach out to a few trusted merchant guilds."

"And please keep this information confidential for now." Astrea looked at the paper in Naaza's hand.

"Besides Miach himself, don't give the other members any specific names. The more people know, the higher the risk of an attack."

Naaza handed the paper over to her. "Understood."

Astrea didn't take it right away.

She read through everything on the page first, making sure nothing was missing, before kindling a small burst of golden flame with her divine power.

Naaza froze for a second.

The paper curled in the flame, the writing burning to ash in moments.

"Lady Astrea?"

"No copy of this can be left behind." Astrea watched the ashes drift into an empty bowl.

"I'll relay it in person. If a written record were ever intercepted, Evilus would know exactly how much we've learned."

Kaguya nodded in agreement. "Artorias needs to be moved too."

Adi turned her head. "The Miach Familia already has people guarding this place."

"The Dis Sisters know he'll return to the surface, and they know we're connected to the Miach Familia."

Kaguya moved to the door and studied the hallway through the crack. "He's too easy to find here. Once he's stable, we should send him to the Astrea Familia headquarters. There's a barrier there, and we can concentrate our people to guard him."

Artorias frowned. "I don't want to lead the enemy there."

Adi turned to face him directly. "The enemy's already got eyes on the Astraea Familia."

"But if I go there, they'll have an even clearer target."

"Still safer than letting you stay out here alone." Adi didn't look away from his eyes.

"You already left yourself behind to cover for us once. This time, let us carry some of it."

Artorias started to say something, but Alise raised a finger. "Objection overruled."

She walked back to the foot of the bed and bent down to tuck the fallen edge of the blanket back into place.

"I'm the captain — decisions like this are mine to make. You'll stay at headquarters until you've recovered; the Familia will cover your room, food, and treatment. In return, you tell us everything you know, and no more acting alone."

"And the cost?" "It's going on your tab."

Alise answered without missing a beat.

Artorias was quiet for a few breaths, then could only nod.

Astrea had been watching him the whole time. "Is there anything else you haven't told us?"

Artorias thought for a long moment. "Zald mentioned a date."

Everyone's attention snapped back to him.

"He said there were less than a few days left until the 'Opening.'"

Astrea's eyes went sharp and still. "His exact words?"

"His exact words. He mentioned it while talking to Alfia. I don't know what the 'Opening' refers to."

Kaguya quickly ran through the calendar. "There are three major events coming up in Orario. Monsterphilia, the Denatus, and the return of the Guild's Expedition party."

Alise shook her head. "It could be that all three are a cover."

"The Expedition party is bringing back a huge haul of resources from the deep floors, and the Monster Festival will spread the city's security thin. If they strike somewhere between those two events, the city won't be able to redeploy in time."

Adi's expression grew even more serious as she spoke. "And there's still an Evilus mole inside the Guild."

Astrea rose from her chair.

She reached out and rested a hand on Artorias's forehead, gauging his condition for a moment. The goddess's palm carried a gentle warmth that eased the lingering pain around his wounds.

"What you've told us matters a great deal." She withdrew her hand, her tone gentling. "Rest well from here on — don't dwell on the details of the trial any more than you have to. Once you've recovered, I'll come ask you about the stronghold's location again."

"Lady Astrea."

Artorias called out to stop her. "Zald might have known all along that I'd tell you all this."

"I suspected as much myself." Astrea showed no surprise.

"He didn't restrict your movement, didn't hide his name, and let you overhear that conversation about Evilus. It could be a warning. It could also be a lure."

"Then is my information still useful?"

"Yes." Astrea's answer came firmly.

"Even information deliberately handed to us can still reveal the other side's intentions. As long as we stay careful and verify each piece, they won't be able to lead us by the nose."

Kaguya pulled the door open.

The two Familia members in the hallway snapped straight at once.

Astrea thanked Naaza first, then instructed Ryuu and Adi to remain here. Alise and Kaguya would come with her back to headquarters to work out who needed to be contacted.

Before leaving, Alise glanced back at Artorias. "Don't try getting out of bed the moment we're gone."

Artorias sank back against the pillow. "I couldn't even walk right now if I tried."

"You always find some strange way to manage it, though."

Alise pointed a finger at him, then looked to Adi. "Keep an eye on him."

Adi nodded solemnly. "Leave it to me."

Artorias suddenly suspected he might need permission just to roll over from now on.

As Kaguya stepped out, her gaze swept over Tensa Zangetsu by the bed. "I'll have someone bring your sword to headquarters too."

"No need, I can carry it myself."

"Once you can lift a medicine bowl with one hand, we'll talk."

The door swung slowly shut.

Out in the hallway, the warmth faded from Astrea's face.

Zald, of the Zeus Familia.

Alfia, of the Hera Familia.

Two elves of unknown affiliation, Level 5s who moved in perfect coordination.

A leak existed inside both the Guild and city's peacekeeping force.

And the so-called "Opening," due to arrive within the month.

Any single one of these would have been enough to put Orario on high alert. Now that the threads were tying together, the plan behind them had clearly grown into something far beyond an ordinary attack.

Alise walked at the goddess's side, her voice lowered. "Where first?"

"The Hephaestus Familia."

"Tsubaki saw the Dis Sisters with her own eyes, and she can confirm Artorias was attacked. After that, we contact Ganesha, then meet with Loki and Freya."

Kaguya walked on the other side. "What about the Guild?"

"They're notified last."

Astrea looked toward the morning light spilling in at the end of the hallway. "The Guild doesn't get the full picture until we've found the leak."

The three sets of footsteps faded into the distance.

Orario was still waking into the morning — shops swung open their shutters, and a bell tolled from a distant tower.

People went about starting their day, adventurers moving in groups toward Babel, none of them aware of the shadow already gathering beneath the calm surface.

Astrea left the Miach Familia's safehouse, carrying the news Artorias had brought back to the great gods of the city.

If everything he'd said was true, Orario was about to face a disaster unlike any it had known before.