Lust (11)
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“What… is this?” Vena mutters inexplicably as she stares at the embedded monitor’s screen.

On it, the mascot-like character of a cloaked figure with red, glowing round eyes replies. Its eyes move up and down to imitate the act of speaking.

[I am an automatic response system designed to guide newcomers to the Undercity. Which is what you wish to do, is it not?]

My expression immediately turns composed. 

“How do you know that’s what we want to do?”

[That is a secret, Your Highness Altarin. Do you wish to begin the questionnaire right now?]

“What if I refuse?” 

[Then none of you will be allowed inside the Undercity.]

I tried testing the machine, but its response is somewhat expected.

“So it’s not going to budge unless we play along, huh?”

It seems that if we want to gain access to the Undercity and find Eden then the best way of achieving that is probably to just take the questionnaire and see what happens.

“Well, Altarin, you go first,” Vena says as she pokes her head in the direction of the monitor.

“Why me?” 

“It makes no difference whether it’s you or me." Vena turns to Ruby. "Or do you want red-eyed thief here to offer herself as a test subject?”

“I... have a name, you know?” Ruby’s eyebrows twitch as she grumbles.

I briefly glance at Ruby and immediately reject the idea. We can’t get an inexperienced person involved with something that could potentially turn out to be dangerous. And despite what a certain someone keeps saying about me, I am a gentleman. 

“Alright, fine.” With confidence, I turn and say to the monitor screen, “Can you at least tell us what kind of question would be asked?”

[That depends on the person. But for a vessel of the Goddess of Wisdom and War and such as yourself. The questions would definitely only be of the most serious, most profound kind.]

—Hmm… is that so? 

“Then I would like to begin the questionnaire.”

[Understood. The first question will be coming right up. Please stay put.]

The mascot disappears from the screen, replaced by an image of a red, spinning hourglass, telling us to wait for some kind of process to finish. 

In my mind, a few predictions as to what the questions could be start to appear.

It’s likely that the question will be something related to Vena and me, or specifically, our past. But there’s also a possibility that it will be about Lady Athena directly. When it comes to secrets, our House Athena has accumulated plenty over the last few millennia, so it wouldn't be that surprising if it decides to pick out one of them. 

Soon enough, the Undercity’s automatic response system finished its calculation, and the shadowy-cloaked mascot returned to the screen.

[Thank you for your patience, Your highness Altarin. Your first question is~!]

[What is your true sexual orientation?]

Bang—!

A concrete-shattering sound vibrates through the air as the wall next to the monitor cracks like countless branches of a spider’s web.

“Ah, sorry, my leg just moved on its own to kick the wall. I didn’t mean to do that, haha-haha haha…"

It’s definitely not because I suddenly hear a certain troublesome brat whispering ‘Brother Altarin~’ into my ears or something like that—totally!

—No, hold on, what the hell kind of question is this in the first place?!

“Kuhum, how is this a question of the most serious kind?”

[Because depending on your answer and how you feel about it, we might be able to use it to red-letter you for the rest of your life.]

“…”

—Of course, that makes so much sense. I wonder why I even bother asking.

“It’s a simple question, just answer and get it over with, Altarin,” Vena says coldly after sparing me a glance.

Haaah, calm down, Altarin. As Vena said, it’s just a simple question. All the books that you read were preparing you for exactly this moment. Yes, think of all the beautiful ladies you’ve met. But now that I think about it Eden is probably cuter—no, stop! Just answer the question right now!

After composing myself, and wiping the fallen dust off my uniform, I turn to firmly say to the monitor’s screen.   

“My sexual orientation is normal.”

[Are you certain of this?]

“Yes.”

[But are you really certain of this? Like really really?]

“YES!”

[Sigh. Alright then, next question.]

“Wha— Did it just sigh?”

As I stand there, speechless by the attitude of the ‘supposedly’ automatic response system, a small chuckle escapes from Ruby who’s standing behind me. 

When I turn around to look at her, she quickly blocks her mouth with her hand and says, “Don't worry, Brother Altarin, it's not like that sort of thing is weird nowadays, is it?”

Even Vena's smirking slightly.

—Oh, is that so? I’m glad you both enjoyed watching me suffer a mental crisis…

I glare irritably at the two of them, before the realization that there are still two more questions after this starts to make me nervous.

Just then, Lady Athena’s voice resounds in my mind like a benevolent goddess granting me a blessing from the heavens.

[It'll take too much time to go through each of these one by one. Let’s just get past all of it and skip to the end.]

—Lady Athena, please tell me there’s a way to gain access to the Undercity without me having to sacrifice my pride as a man—I mean, reveal an important secret of our House.

[Maybe. But you have to do as I say and stop acting silly.]

Lady Athena then tells us her idea. However, instead of feeling relief, Vena and I are completely frightened by it.

“Are you certain about this, Lady Athena?” Vena says out loud.

[If Eden stays down there for too long, she will know anyway. Besides…]

She pauses, considering her words before speaking.

[We need to hurry and get him out before she finds out too much.]

Vena and I exchange glances. Judging the weight behind Lady Athena’s words, we both realize there might be a more pressing matter underlying all of this, which means we should hurry and find Eden as soon as possible. 

And so, I turn to the monitor screen and ask the shadowy mascot a question, “Say, if we were to give you one really important secret. Would you be able to skip the questionnaire for all of us?”

[That depends on the importance of the information. We will decide if it’s of appropriate worth after hearing it.]

—So that’s a yes.

After confirming Lady Athena’s idea. I walk closer to the monitor screen, put my right hand by my lips, and whisper.

“There’s a human here in Anorlon, hiding among the angels, under the knowledge of a god.”

That; is the secret that Lady Athena has decided to trade in. If this automatic response system was truly designed to test people by extracting secrets from them then it should be able to comprehend its gravitas.

For there to be a human in Anorlon with the knowledge of a divine being, meaning that they had to have given their consent—and purposely broken the Divine Pledge.

From the built-in speaker, a contemplative voice responds to us.

[That is indeed quite a gossip. We will need a moment.]

After saying so, the shadowy mascot disappears and gets replaced by a red, spinning hourglass, and not long after that.

[The results are conclusive, the three of you have been granted a pass to the Undercity. Your secrets will be safe as long as you do not reveal the location of this place to anyone.]

Krrrrrr—!

The wall at the end of the alley sends out a loud creek and slowly lifts, kicking up the dust on the ground into faint clouds of smoke.

[Please enjoy your stay~!]

With its duty fulfilled, the monitor screen flashes white and shuts down. Leaving the three of us to stare into the newly open entrance with scrutiny. 

By utilizing the sharp intuition developed through countless years of battle, Vena and I can tell that this is exactly where the mysterious van that carried Eden went.

—That, and the dusty tire tracks on the ground that lead inside... actually, probably just the tire tracks.  

“So it actually turns out to be a secret underground city, after all?” Ruby exclaims as she stares at the newly open entrance in wonder. “Who would have thought that the entrance would be right across the street from my store... Anorlon sure is the city of gods.”

Ruby walks forward, but then suddenly, Vena grabs her arm and evokes her magic, creating a beautiful ice bracelet and immediately uses it to pin Ruby's right hand to the nearby wall.

Bang—!

Ee-eeeh?! What are you—”

“I should be the one asking that, don’t you think?”

Vena walks a couple of steps away from Ruby, before turning around and giving her monologue with a cool, serious expression.

“Firstly, isn’t it strange for the entrance to the Undercity to coincidentally be right across the street from where you live? Add the fact that you seem to be the only angel around here who has contact with the Undercity on top of that, and the fact that you’re a suspicious individual is indisputable.”

“That, um, well, it’s not like I knew who the sender of that letter was before today—”

“Then why did you get in my way when I was fighting with those people earlier?”

“T-that was an accident! W-well, it started off that way, but I really was trying to help!”

“Now that I think about it, the five times that Eden was kidnapped before all happened after he met you.”

“That one doesn’t even make any sense! Do you really want to pin this on me that much!?”

“Yes.”

—Dear sister, aren’t you being a little too honest? 

“And besides.” Vena cups her cheeks and begins to blush slightly. “I finally get the chance to rescue Eden and be a hero, you know? Why would I let anyone take away that opportunity?”

“Guu...” Ruby bites her lips and grumbles, unable to do anything against her oppressor. Which, I think, is probably for the best.

“Miss Fairwright, we don’t know what exactly we’ll find down there. Your safety isn’t guaranteed if you decide to come.”

I walk past her into the newly opened secret elevator. Vena follows me without saying anything. Once we both step our feet inside, the door of the elevator starts to lower, and as it does so the space within the elevator also gets dimmer and dimmer. 

—Where we’re going, even the light of Anorlon is not allowed to follow.

On the other hand... 

“Wait, please hold on! Unfreeze my hand before you go at least!”

Ruby’s desperate pleading can still be heard very clearly.

“...”

“She’ll be fine.”

—Even if you say that with a smile, no one’s going to believe you, Vena!

Eventually, the entire room begins to descend downward. And it’s during this time that Lady Athena’s voice resounds in our minds once again.

[Casandro Casanova...]

“Did you find out something from reading that book, Lady Athena?” Vena asks.

[This is the only thing I got from it so it’s probably unrelated—at least I hope so. But the name just happens to sound strangely familiar to a certain character from the Chaos side...]

Within the closed space that continues to descend further and further—

[Karzio Kasandra. The current Prince of the Abyss.]  

—Lady Athena’s words seem to echo with an indescribable sense of foreboding.

—————………..

[ Anorlon’s Undercity 3rd District Entrance ]

—So, uh, in the end. What is happening?

Um, hi, this is Miwari, formerly of House Lucianna—currently a member of an adventuring group led by Boss.

I ran away some years ago, you see? After she and her friends asked me to go ‘adventuring’ with them.

Well, when I say adventuring, I basically mean doing odd jobs around the Undercity for pitiful amounts of money. I sometimes even had to sleep in the van—it’s quite pathetic. We got into plenty, plenty of troubles, each one somehow more ridiculous than the last.

For example, there was this one time a guy stole every building’s mana antennas because he—quotes, ‘Likes their shape’. We tracked him down and destroyed the ‘mannequins’ he created and retrieved the stolen antennas. Which made him cry pretty hard, and made us feel kind of bad. That sort of thing is rather usual.

But right now...

“Um, um… It’s really lonely… when they ignore us… like that,” sitting holding her knees in front of the van’s wreckage, a golden-haired little girl sullenly mutters.

“Hong...” sitting beside her, a three meters tall three-headed Cerberus whines and nods.

“It’s not like they… can’t understand us… but they just don’t even try,” the little girl says again.

“Hong, hong...” And the Cerberus nods again.

—As I asked before. What is happening?

To further elaborate on the current situation. After the little girl named Eden somehow communicated with Cerberus and pacified it, they both sat down right on the streetside and began discussing something in a way only they could understand.

And as for us… ah, well, we thought about running away, but that would be very rude. So we just sort of sit by their side, half-listening in on their conversation while Kevin is doing his best to try and fix Liza.

Eventually, after almost 20 minutes of talking to the Cerberus, Eden springs to her feet.

“Alright... It’s decided,” Eden somewhat firmly declares, nodding her head. “Eden will help you... Bery.”

“H-Hong!”

The Cerberus' eyes light up. It seems quite excited. Boss, Bell, Kevin, and I, however, still have no clue what they’re talking about.

Finally, it’s Boss who mustered up the courage to ask—though, while remaining a fair distance away from the Cerberus.

“Um, Little Eden, can you tell us a little bit of what’s going on?”

It seems that the Cerberus might be the reason why the street was deserted, but perhaps she can give more information as to why.

Upon hearing Boss' question, Eden frowns, before taking out a book from the bag that’s hanging from her shoulder and begins flipping through it.

“His owner... is...”

Eden pauses; her frown deepens.

“There is... a lady... who is...”

Eden goes silent. And after a moment, she closes her book and simply points to the five-story pagoda far on the horizon. 

“We’re going there.”

““““—Don’t give up so easily, damn it!”””” The four of us protest in unison.

Eden gives us a troubled look and sighs. 

“All of you... don’t need… to come.”

Then almost too comfortably, Eden climbs up onto the back of the crouching Cerberus, who lets her do so without any resistance.

“W-wait. Little Eden, you’re leaving?” panicking a little, I move closer to ask.

Eden nods.

“To the House of Mistresses?”

Eden briefly glances at the bright red pagoda in the distance, and nods.

“But what are you going to do after you get there?” I ask. “It’s not really a place for someone like—Eh?”

Before I can finish my sentence, I feel a tuck at the back of my collar, and then the sensation of my feet being lifted off the ground. 

Then, it hits me that my entire body is being lifted up by the Cerberus.

“Bery says he finds your smell... familiar… so he decides to bring you along,” Eden calmly tells me from atop the Cerberus back.

—I suddenly regret my decision to step forward!  

“Boss! Bell! Kevin! H-help me!” I scream, flailing my arms wildly as the Cerberus breathes down on my head.

They all slowly back away.

“...”

—Those traitors!

Without giving me any more time to curse my terrible friends, the Cerberus crouches down and begins gathering strength in its hindlegs before leaping into the air with a level of agility that’s unfit for its size.

First, it jumps onto the back of our van, using it to springboard onto the side of the nearby building, where it can then vault over a large neon sign and launch its massive body high enough to then claw its way up to the building’s rooftop while breaking everything in its path.

—I forgot to breathe during that entire process...

Once the Cerberus—and I, who’s hanging from its mouth—reaches the top. I hear Boss’s voice yelling from far below, “Hey. Miw~! Do you see anything from up there? Can you tell us where the people are?” 

“I-I’m literally being dragged around by a mythical beast and that’s what you want to know!?” I yell back, trying not to move much to not fall. Aside from ghosts, I’m also afraid of heights.

“But Miwari, you won’t die that easily! You’re in Lady Lucianna’s Domain!”

“That’s not the problem here!”

Despite my complaining, I still cast my gaze far into the distance to search for signs of people.

The streets are unusually silent, but far away from the tangled masses of wires that messily connect the multiple-storied buildings around the third district’s entrance where we are, a massive wooden restaurant floats along the main canal of the Undercity, glowing majestically against the darkness of the underground.

“Boss! There seem to be some people in the Golden Catfish! Maybe you should—AAAaAAAhhhhhhH!”

Without any notice, the Cerberus once again leaps high into the air, causing me to bite my lips and scream.

—Ah… I’m starting to think that ever agreeing to Boss’s invitation in the first place was a mistake.

—————……….

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