True Vorpal Bunny (Danmachi SI) Ch.22 (Patreon)

Chapter 22: Interlude 2

Finn Deime sat in front of many deities and the mortal representatives of their Familias, hands crossed before his face as he analyzed them.

They were a mix of high and low level Familias that could be trusted to not be a part of Evilus.

Freya reclined in her chair, completely relaxed, while Ottar stood at attention behind her like a looming statue.

Hermes hummed an air under his breath. Asfi Andromeda kept her gaze on Finn, waiting to hear his plan and commit it to memory because she couldn’t trust her god to do so.

Ganesha flexed his muscles every time looked in his direction and both of the Varma sisters, Shakti and Ardee, tried to not show their embarrassment. Ganesha was the only one who brought two mortals along, but it was to show off his new Level 4.

Alise bowed to whisper something in Astraea’s ear, most likely to tell her how bored she was.

Hephasteus listened carefully while Tsubaki looked into space, her head lost into what new blade she would craft. 

Loki leaned back in her seat, feet on the table besides Finn.

And then, Finn’s eyes flicked to one of the lesser Familias.

God Soma was looking down and mumbling to himself while his captain, Chandra Ihit wasn’t sure what he was doing here.

Finn had mixed feelings about those two. On one hand, he had thought Liliruca Arde was the captain of the Familia, and with her involvement in Valletta’s death, he thought he could trust her, and show another symbol of the Pallums’ ability to be great. On the other, he could do without the deadbeat dad accusation he was receiving since then.

On a third hypothetical hand, he kind of wanted to talk to the Pallum child because the Skill that turned her eyes red was a similarity that he couldn’t ignore, and while she wasn’t his kid, there was a chance they were related.

But no one was here for Finn’s possible family drama.

“We received new information.” He announced, catching everyone’s attention. “Evilus is feeling cornered and has concocted a plan to distract us while they perform a relocation of their force to the labyrinth Knossos.”

“What kind of distraction?” Astraea questioned.

“Multiple members are currently down in the lower levels of the Dungeon to attract as many monsters as possible to create a gigantic Pass Parade.”

The adventurers all winced. It happened that when some adventurers were overwhelmed by monsters, they would flee and throw off the monsters’ attention by crossing with another band of adventurers. While it sometimes happened by accident, and it was a shame, others did it on purpose to get rid of rival adventurers. It was one of Evilus’s preferred methods of ambush in the Dungeon, especially with their abnormal amount of tamers facilitating the process.

But it generally only involved monsters from one floor of the Dungeon, not multiple being baited at once.

“I am Ganesha! It’s going to be a massacre for every adventurer down there!” The elephant-masked deity of the populace jumped to his feet. “We must go save them!”

“Yeah!” Ardee agreed instantly.

Finn raised a hand to stop them.

“If we focus on that distraction, Evilus will escape and have time to prepare and wreck havoc once more. We can’t let them do that. We’ll ignore the distraction and launch an assault on all of their base, Knossos included.”

That was Finn’s plan. As much as he disliked it, his goal of becoming the hero of the Pallum race included many sacrifices. He would let those adventurers die so that he could bask in the glory of defeating Evilus once and for all, cementing himself as the savior of Orario.

And thanks to the reveal of Knossos’s existence, Evilus had no escape. The other Familias would see the logic of getting rid of Evilus right now and preventing more deaths later on. The dead adventurers of today would be mourned and honored as sacrifices.

Every heroic story carried their traces of tragedy after all.

Finn had to suddenly tilt his head to the side to avoid a glass of water thrown at his face. The glass shattered on the back of his chair and splashed his hair.

Ardee recovered from her throwing position after throwing one of the cups of water that had been poured for every deity in attendance.

“Are you hearing yourself?! Go do your thing! I’ll go save people!”

With that declaration, Ardee left the room in a hurry.

Before Finn could take back control of the situation, more people made their opinion known.

“I am Ganesha! And I approve of my child’s actions! Shakti, take half of the Familia for the Braver’s plan and send the other half with your sister!”

Freya rose from her seat and Finn hoped she would calm the situation down.

“My little bunny is down there. Ottar, send a few teams to make sure he comes back alive. You and the executives will follow the Braver’s plan and crush Evilus. If they think they can take Iru without repercussions, they are wrong.”

“As you wish my lady.”

Finn would take it. Freya’s obsession with her rising rookie still gave him her most powerful pieces.

“Ah.” Soma seemed to finally be spiritually present. “That’s Lili’s friend. We should tell her, I guess.” He mused.

Finn gazed at Astraea, gauging the goddess of justice’s reaction. She caught his look.

“Don’t worry. It seems the children trapped in the Dungeon will have ample reinforcements. My girls will support you fully.”

The other Familias didn’t seem to have any more objections either.

Loki snickered.

“It’s your loss today, buddy.”

Finn was aware. He still had more than enough troops for his plan, but now there was the idea that the Braver was willing to abandon people when there was another solution, instead of making a tragic sacrifice to save the city like he had hoped people to see his actions as.

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“He told us to stay.” Lyd talked to the other Xenos. “He didn’t want us in danger, but he rushed in headfirst.”

“He was nice the whole way here.” Marie added from her pond.

Helga raised her head to show the ribbon around her throat. Iru had said it was pretty and fitted her.

Arles tapped her foot on the spot, rabbit solidarity making her want to go out of here already.

Most of the Xenos turned toward Gros and those who had the least trust toward surface dwellers.

“Stubborn.” The Gargoyle growled. “We’re risking it all for someone we just met.”

“Sometimes we need to take risks. It was a risk to trust Fels, and we still did it.” Ray pointed out. “So, if he trusted someone enough to direct him toward us, I think we should trust our new friend.”

Eventually, the most reticent Xenos agreed and they all charged after Iru.

At the end of the battle, when multiple adventurers stood to prevent their reinforcement from attacking them, Lyd gave Gros a smug smirk that the Gargoyle tried to ignore but couldn’t help the huff that came out of his maw.