Chapter 5: Intelligence Called 'Juggernaut' (Patreon)

As Renan passed the crowd, he glanced over at it.

Almost at the same moment, the murmur of conversation drifted softly into his ears.

"Look, it's the Astraea Familia, back from their expedition!"

"The red-haired girl at the very front is the Astraea Familia's Captain, 'Scarlet Harnel' Alize Lovell."

"And those two beside her: the black-haired beauty from the Far East is 'Yamato Gentian' Kaguya Gojouno, and the golden-haired elf is 'Gale' Ryu Lion."

"And there's the Level 3 pallum, 'Sly Rat'..."

"I heard that not long ago, the Astraea Familia rallied the strength of several of Orario's big factions and gave those rats lurking in the shadows a real beating. I'd guess the dark factions will keep their heads down for a good while now. Makes the Dungeon safer for ordinary adventurers like us."

Renan's foot, already stepping forward, froze in midair at the passerby's words, and a flash of inspiration lit up his mind.

Astraea... Right, Astraea, the Goddess of Justice!

How could I forget her?!

A goddess whose adventurers would give everything for Orario in the name of so-called "justice," down to the very last survivor, surely had no major problems with her character.

At the very least, she would never threaten him the way Soma had, demanding he drink divine wine just to get his blessing updated.

[DanMachi profanity]!

The thought of that wretch of a god, Soma, made Renan curse him out once more in his head.

In the world of DanMachi, Astraea was the goddess who governed "justice." Needless to say, she leaned clearly toward the side of order.

From that angle, if he asked her to use an update potion to refresh his blessing, there was, if not a hundred percent chance, at least an eighty or ninety percent chance she'd refuse.

Still, as the patron goddess of a Familia with real standing in Orario, Astraea's connections, or rather her divine connections, couldn't be any worse than those of Hestia, who hadn't even descended to the mortal world yet.

If he could use her to meet some god willing to update his blessing...

And as it happened, thanks to his past-life memories, he held a piece of information that was more than enough to pique her interest.

He could use it as a bargaining chip.

Renan stood where he was, watching the red-haired human girl not far ahead, waving to the onlookers lining both sides of the street, as one thought after another flickered through his mind.

Let's give it a try. Even if it fails, so what? Worst case, I just camp the first five floors of the Dungeon until the next version of me shows up.

Once he'd made up his mind, Renan wasn't one to hesitate.

That said, it didn't mean he would march over to the Astraea Familia's base tonight. From what the other passersby had said, the Astraea Familia had only just come out of the Dungeon from their expedition. Even if they looked unscathed on the surface, they had to be mentally exhausted, and barging in now would leave a bad first impression.

That would do nothing for what Renan had planned.

So after another glance at the Astraea Familia, wrapped in cheers, the black-haired boy with the short, choppy hair silently turned and headed back to the inn where he was staying.

...

The morning of the third day since his memories awakened.

Renan woke from a dreamless night on the wooden bed in his inn room.

It was a bit of a shame. Last night, he hadn't managed to step into that shared space, the one only "he" could enter, through sleep.

Maybe the skill Rabble was still on cooldown. Or maybe some unknown prerequisite hadn't been met yet.

The shared space wasn't urgent. Renan figured he hadn't accumulated enough to puzzle it out, so he didn't plan to dwell on it.

But the other matter he'd settled on yesterday, visiting the Astraea Familia's base, he had no intention of putting off any longer.

After a breakfast in the ground-floor hall that wasn't delicious but at least filled the stomach, Renan gathered up his belongings and left the inn.

The Astraea Familia's base wasn't far from his inn. Or rather, precisely because the Star Hall stood nearby, so that the Justice Familia could rush over at the slightest disturbance, this neighborhood was known as the safest street in Orario.

It took him less than three minutes to reach his destination: a mansion that looked neither lavish nor grand, yet was refined and handsome enough.

He stepped up and knocked.

After a moment, a mature, gentle woman's voice came from inside.

"Coming~"

With the sound of slippers padding across wooden floorboards, the front door of the Star Hall was pushed open from within.

Then a beautiful, soft-faced goddess peeked out from behind it. She had waist-length brown hair and wore a fitted blue-and-white dress that showed off her graceful figure.

Seeing a black-haired boy she'd never met standing at her door, Astraea tilted her head, her tone tinged with hesitation and puzzlement. "And you are?"

Renan raised his right hand to his chest and bowed slightly.

"Good morning, Lady Astraea. My name is Renan, formerly of the Soma Familia. I've come in a personal capacity. I have a deal I'd like to discuss with you."

The brown-haired goddess looked surprised at his words, but she didn't turn him away just because he so obviously looked like a rookie adventurer.

"Then come in first." She pushed the door open a little wider and gestured him inside.

"Sorry for the intrusion."

It was actually nearly eight in the morning by now. Normally, Orario's adventurers would long since have been up and heading to the Dungeon or starting their morning training.

But the Justice Familia had only just returned from their expedition yesterday, and everyone was worn out.

So when Renan entered the Star Hall, he found only one person in the living room, a black-haired girl in a red kimono. If he guessed right, she was the Astraea Familia's Vice-Captain, "Yamato Gentian" Kaguya Gojouno.

When Renan saw Kaguya, she naturally noticed him too.

Neither of them seemed inclined to talk, so they simply nodded at each other by way of greeting.

Astraea led Renan to the sofa and gestured for him to sit. She even poured him a cup of hot tea herself, and only then did she speak, smiling. "Renan, you don't mind if I call you that, do you?"

Renan made a go-ahead gesture.

Astraea went on. "You said you wanted to make a deal with me. So what would you like from me? And what are you prepared to give in return?"

At their goddess's words, Kaguya, who'd been maintaining her weapon nearby, visibly paused. Then she raised her head and looked toward the black-haired boy.

Under the gaze of a goddess and a Level 4 at once, another rookie adventurer might have felt awkward, even nervous.

But Renan, who had lived two lives and carried the memories of three, was clearly not among them.

He calmly took a sip of hot tea, then set the cup down without any rush.

Only then did his expression turn serious, and he spoke in an even, unhurried tone. "Lady Astraea, through certain means I can't easily explain, I 'saw' that adventurers of your Familia will die in the Dungeon, whether in a few days, a few months, or a few years, to a trap set by the dark factions. Only 'Gale' Ryu Lion survives from the whole Familia."

"Hm?!" (x2)

The instant he finished, Astraea, and Kaguya, who'd been eavesdropping from nearby, both changed color slightly.

But after her initial shock, Kaguya quickly took on a look of suspicion.

After all, an adventurer whose name nobody even knew had walked in and declared that she and the rest of the Familia would die. By any measure, that was how a con artist behaved.

If their patron goddess hadn't been sitting right there on the sofa, Kaguya might have lost patience long ago and thrown him out.

But Astraea...

At this moment, her expression was gradually turning grave.

The gods of the DanMachi world had lived long enough that, even with their divine power sealed upon descending, they could easily tell from the micro-expressions and gestures of someone speaking whether that person was lying.

Clearly, drawing on divine "wisdom," Astraea had discovered that everything the boy called "Renan" said was the truth.

That stirred a faint unease and urgency in her, a goddess who loved the children of her Familia deeply.

The brown-haired goddess, who'd been leaning casually against the sofa cushions, sat up a little straighter and rested her clenched hands on her knees.

"Can you describe the scenes you 'saw' in more detail?" she asked gently.

Renan didn't refuse. He nodded. "That's exactly what I meant to trade with you. Though even if you turn down my request in the end, I'd planned from the start to share everything I know with you anyway. As an ordinary adventurer, I'd very much like to see the Astraea Familia go on existing in Orario for a long time."

Good people and bad people alike want a world with more good people in it.

And though some of the Astraea Familia's methods didn't sit well with Renan's sense of right and wrong, he had to admit that, in the larger environment of Orario, those girls were already rare, genuinely good people.

His thoughts flashed by quickly as Renan continued. "At some point in the future, the Astraea Familia will receive a report that the dark factions have been sighted in the Dungeon. After fighting them for so long, you'll naturally guess the report may be flawed, that it could be a trap. But out of your commitment to justice, you'll still choose to go into the Dungeon to investigate."

"And then we get wiped out?" It wasn't Astraea who asked, but Kaguya, who had at some point come to stand behind her goddess.

She hadn't believed the boy's words at first. But since Lady Astraea had chosen to keep questioning him, out of trust in her goddess, she decided to hear how her future self, Alize, and the others had actually died.

Yet at her question, Renan surprisingly shook his head.

"Like I said, your Familia has fought the dark factions for a long time. How could a mere trap truly hurt you?"

"Then..." Kaguya started to ask more, but Astraea raised a hand to stop her.

"Let Renan continue."

"...Yes."

Renan lifted his cup and sipped his tea to moisten his throat. "At that time, the dark factions seem to have just survived a siege by Orario's top Familias. Out of revenge, or perhaps for some other purpose, once your Familia entered the Dungeon and reached a floor surrounded by forest, they blew up that floor with explosives they'd prepared in advance. And then..."

Astraea and Kaguya: "And then?"

Renan paused for half a second before continuing. "A monster, the Dungeon's own defense and repair mechanism, Juggernaut, was born out of the Dungeon."

Neither Astraea nor Kaguya was a fool. By this point, they'd already guessed the rest of the story.

"So it wasn't the dark factions, it was that monster called Juggernaut that wiped us out?" Kaguya asked.

"That's right." Renan nodded. "When the Dungeon's floor structure is damaged past a certain threshold, Juggernaut appears. The monster's strength changes depending on which floor it was born on."

"And because it's the Dungeon's 'white blood cell,' used to clear out foreign bodies and repair itself, it has strength far beyond what monsters of the current floor should have. It moves with incredible speed, its claws can easily break high-grade weapons and tear an adventurer's flesh apart, and its defense is formidable too. From what I 'saw,' its whole body seems to be made of magic stone, and its surface is even wrapped in a layer of armor that reflects all magic."

"Hiss..." Astraea took it fairly well, but Kaguya couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath.

As a veteran adventurer, she knew all too well just how terrifying the so-called "Juggernaut" in Renan's description would be to anyone meeting it for the first time.

Kaguya asked herself honestly: if she ever met Juggernaut without knowing its nature, she'd almost certainly be killed on first encounter.

Even Ryu managing to survive was most likely the result of Kaguya, Alize, Lyra and the others giving everything they had.

Just then, Renan seemed to think of something and spoke again. "I didn't make up 'Juggernaut.' The great god Uranus, who suppresses the Dungeon with his divine might from deep within the Guild, and his helpers all know about Juggernaut. As for why they haven't made it public... with your experience, Lady Astraea, I imagine it's not hard to guess."

Astraea nodded as she listened.

She knew perfectly well what Orario was like. Setting aside the dark factions and ordinary Familias, there were conflicts of one kind or another between every faction alone. If the conditions for Juggernaut's birth spread, Astraea had no doubt the Dungeon would become countless times more dangerous than it was now, with adventurers blowing up floors at every turn.

But still...

The brown-haired goddess's beautiful eyes shifted. "Renan, since you saw the future where my children are wiped out, is there any way to help them get through this crisis?"