Several minutes later, Asahi’s harem joined them after some minutes to deliver the news about Asahi facing some trouble in his work.

“How long?” Alise asked. “Where did he go?”

“I don’t know,” Saeko said, the guilt of lying forcing her to look away from Alise’s eyes. “Please, wait.”

“Yeah,” Nao added with a soft smile. “We’re sorry.”

Kaguya easily saw through their lies, but she chose to keep her mouth shut.

Alise folded her arms on her cold breastplate. “This is an urgent mission… doesn’t he understand? What if someone leaked our mission, and they escaped? What will we do?”

Rika narrowed her eyes. “Simple. Aa-chan can find them again.”

Saeko and Shiori nodded their heads.

The sheer confidence in their eyes brought a sigh out of Kaguya. These women loved Asahi, almost to the level of blind faith her family had in Amaterasu.

“I will wait another hour,” Alise said, flinching at her how cold she sounded.

Saeko and Shiori shared a long glance. Asahi was busy making love to his maid as said by Klyscha. Making it another hour sounded close to impossible due to the two hours gap and the battle itself might last several minutes.

“What do we do?” Saeko asked through their inmate telepathy.

“Alise looks pissed today. Did she hear Asahi-kun’s confession to Astraea-sama?”

“It could be the reason.”

Shiori pursed her lips. “Tsunderes are annoying. I’m glad Saya wasn’t a full-blown tsundere anymore.”

“Alise might lead the party alone. We’ll go with her if that happens. We cannot let the ambush succeed at any cost.”

“Don’t worry, Imouto. I’ll judge the evil scum with my hubby’s new katana.”

“Hmm.”

...

And the worst happened. After another hour of waiting, Alise led the party towards the dungeon. Saeko and others tried to reason with her, but the redhead had no intentions to yield. Even Kaguya couldn’t get through her thickhead.

Astraea had gone to attend a meeting held within the Guild, so she wasn’t there to stop Alise.

The girls had a brief discussion about who will accompany Alise’s party to the dungeon. Saeko, Shiori, Rika, Aimi, and Rini decided to go. Rini and Aimi were most suited for brutal fights as they had no hesitation in killing anyone outside her family. Shiori could kill humans but not so unemotionally as Rini. Saeko for one had sworn an oath to Asahi for being his sword. How could her sword waver before evil people?

Nao was forced to stay behind to deliver the news to Asahi. Everyone knew Asahi could never get mad at her. Not that he ever got angry at any of them.

Nearly two hours later, Asahi appeared and immediately hugged Nao. After explaining what happened, Nao kept her face hidden in his chest.

Was he angry or sad?

“I see. She truly rebelled.”

His reply befuddled her. Thinking again, Alise’s behavior was like a rebellious child.

He gently stroked her back. “It’s not your fault. I should’ve paid more attention to that tsundere.”

“Um… should we go?”

No matter how comfy she felt in his arms, pursuing Alise had to be done before she fell into some trap.

“Of course.”

Klyscha teleported them to the dungeon.

***

“Fucking little shits.”

Curses reverberated through the dim cave, coming from the captain of Rudra Familia, Jura. Frustration was apparent on the cat beastman’s face as he pranced around the cave. He sat down and ran a hand through his hair. His subordinates hadn’t returned from a simple search mission.

The sound of the door opening came from a distance. Dix, the captain of Ikelos Familia, soon appeared and scanned the room with his red eyes. “It’s been unusually quiet around here. How is progress?”

“The inferno stones are ready to go on the 27th floor.”

“Good. They are coming down as we speak.”

‘Fuck.’

Jura cursed again in his mind. He’d need several hands to ignite the inferno stones.

Dix noticed Jura’s pale face under the flickering torch and narrowed his eyes. “Is something the matter?”

“My… subordinates are missing…” Jura slowly revealed the truth, clenching his fists.

Dix’s eyes widened behind the hazy quartz goggles. He grabbed Jura’s throat forcefully. “You didn’t think of informing us?”

Even as a level 4 adventurer, Jura couldn’t resist the hand strangling him. “I… sorry.”

Hearing the apology, Dix put Jura down and shoved him back to his chair. “Tell me everything. Leave one word, and I’ll kill you.”

Jura nodded his head and conveyed everything including the appearance of Siren capable of speaking. Dix took in the matter of a talking monster rather calmly.

“Incompetent bastard. Why did Ikelos-sama even think of telling you goons about this place?” Dix spat. “Valletta is going to be mad.”

Jura felt the air getting colder and colder. The woman whose tongue lashed harder than his whip. Her one-of-a-kind barrier was the biggest weapon in the Evilus’ arsenal. She was also the biggest bitch Jura ever met.

“Maybe monsters ate them… If they get caught they won’t reveal anything,” Jura said in a low voice. “I swear.”

He lied despite knowing his subordinates had high chances of ratting him out for all the pain and punishment he gave them.

“What a fucking bastard. You think she’ll leave you to feed your men to monsters?”

Jura slowly shook his head. That woman was going to bite his head for losing manpower that could’ve helped in expanding this dungeon.

Dix gave a glance over Jura, his red eyes flashing a sharp glint. “Stand guard with your monsters behind the adamantite walls.”

Jura’s pupils stretched as he realized the cruel meaning behind Dix’s words. He was going to be used as fodder to buy time.

“Valletta is out talking to a new sponsor. It’s all on you now.” Dix flashed a bright smile. “The adamantite walls will block their path for a day at the very least.”

Giving some hope to Jura, Dix turned around and shuffled out of the narrow hallway.

***

Sharp breaths rang in the dim room. A lone figure folded her knees and buried her face in her golden wings, the only warmth left in the cold bedrock surrounding her.

“I should’ve listened.”

The Siren Ray, classified as Xenos by Ouranos and Fels, whispered in a room where minotaurs hadn’t shown up.

She had spent fifteen years in the village, waiting for a day she could spread her wings and soar into the vast sky filled with light. Not the twinkles birthed by the dungeon walls, but genuine, breathing light of the sun.

For this sole wish, she escaped the village and climbed the floors. The weak monsters scurried from her soundwaves. Everything was easy until she ran into a human with hair as pale as the sky. The human sprouted beautiful wings from her boots and chased Ray throughout the floor while calling for her to stop. Strangely, Ray wasn’t attacked, not even once. This went against the words of her fellow Xenos who told her about how cruelly the humans treated them. She believed her family more than anyone, that only meant the human had different motives.

To catch her alive without harm.

Ray only escaped because of her ability to maneuver her wings in narrow places. While she escaped, the human was stuck fending off a frenzy of minotaurs.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap* Footsteps scrambled far away.

Ray held her breath, hushing any noise that could alert anyone. All she wanted was to reach the surface and drift into the sky. She hoped to fulfill her selfish wish without harming anyone.