Silence fills the inside of the van, only being disturbed somewhat by the loud hums of the engine as it travels on the road, passing by buildings that start to look—familiar?

In front of me, the four ‘adventurers’ close in on each other and begin whispering in low voice—in a ‘can still clearly be heard from all the way over here’ kind of low voice—even pulling over their black robes and everything.

“Boss, what do we do?” the now hooded Bell asks quietly, sounding genuinely inexplicable.

“No clue! Never encountered an eager hostage before,” Boss whispers back, also hooded for whatever reason. “Is this that ever so convenient sounding ‘Slockholm Syndrome’ or whatever?”

“Maybe she... f-fell in love with me at first sight?” asks Miwari from the side, playing with her bangs and brushing her hair behind her ears.

“Miw. Stop,” Boss seriously reprimands her, her eyes turning narrowed as she does.

“W-why? What’s wrong with what I said? I was just joking.”

“““Everything?””” Boss, Bell, and even Kevin the driver join in to say to Miwari. While they were all doing that funny-looking group session, the familiar buildings outside of the van’s window finally made sense to me.

“Isn’t this… the 3rd district’s… market street?”

We've just passed by the alchemist’s shop, and Ruby’s store should be two blocks ahead. Even though the time of day is different, the market street itself is still as bustling as ever, perhaps because they’re preparing for the night market a couple of hours after twilight.

—I’ve never been outside this long before, would something interesting show up after dark? I’m a little curious...

“Huh…? Could it be that you live around here, little Eden?” Boss finally takes off her hood and says to me from across the seats.

All and all, I think she seems like a nice person despite being a ‘kidnapper’ so there shouldn’t be any problem telling her this.

“Um… Eden lives in the mansion… with Athena… Big Sister Vena... and Brother Altarin.”

In reaction to that, a look of panic flashes briefly across Boss’s face, before she forces herself to show a perfect—albeit a little stiff—smile. “Athena? Which Athena?”

Tilting my head, I don’t know if there’s another Athena around here but. “Athena… The most beautiful… Athena?”

Everyone goes silent again, and I can see on their very expressive faces which nodes of info they’re connecting inside their minds.

—One impossibly beautiful little girl…

They all furrow their brows.

—From Anorlon’s 3rd district...

Their frowns significantly deepen.

—Living with ‘Athena’ and those scary Order-aligned angels in a mansion…

They’re now clutching their heads with their own expressive variations of ‘despair’ as dark shadows loom over them.

“Kevin, stop the car!” Boss destroys the ominous silence by aggressively pointing at Kevin and suddenly giving a loud command. Kevin the driver instantly brings the van to an absolute halt with the screech of its tires.

Boss then turns to me. “Little Eden, we’re so so so sorry about this—how about we drop you off here and buy you a bunch, and I mean a buuuunch of stuff in the market! You can have anything you like, a-and Bell wouldn’t mind paying for it at all~”

“Hey, when have I ever—!”

“So can you please just, forget that any of this ever happened?” Boss interrupts Bell and literally pushes herself through the van’s seats to open the door, closely staring at my face as if expecting me to get out.

Looking at Boss up close, isn’t she fairly pretty? Her hair, I mean, they’re red—red is pretty. But why is the pretty Boss lady trying to leave me, weren’t they the ones who took me in the first place?

“What about… the Undercity...? Can you maybe… bring Eden there?” I try asking her politely again, this time while looking into her widened black eyes. “Please?”

“Aaaah~! Stop it! Don’t look at me with those cute, innocent, round eyes of a harmless kitten—!” Boss blocks her eyes with both hands and turns away, but she still peeks at me anyway through the cracks between her fingers.

“That place is rather dangerous, you know? Especially for someone like you,” warns the petite lady Miwari from between the seats. “Why do you want us to bring you there, Eden?”

“Because… It’s interesting?” I touch my chin with my index finger. “And because… if you don’t… Eden will tell everyone… about all of you?”

The four of them look a little stunned by what I’ve said. The pretty Boss lady meekly raises her hand and asks. “...E-everyone?”

“Everyone,” I answer her, turning to look out the window. The sun has begun to set, and if I don’t go back home before dinner, I’ll risk angering Athena…

…..

—Isn’t that, a good thing?

““““G-gulp—!”””” Back inside, the sound of all four of them swallowing at the same time is quite audible.

“Boss? Any thoughts?” Bell asks.

The pretty Boss lady closes her eyes as she drums her fingers meditatively, pondering, before opening them again and beginning a passionate speech.

“Life is like an ocean, beautiful but cruel and unpredictable. And if we want to survive we have to adapt to its unrelenting current, sometimes that means we have to play the cards we dealt even if it’s a straight-laced, none ace, four of spade with zero pair!”

"What...?" Miwari raises his hand.

“She still hasn’t gotten over that time she loses everything in the House’s poker game, huh,” Bell mutters.

“So Little Eden—! We are going to bring you to the Undercity.” The pretty Boss lady grabs my shoulders. “In exchange, you’re going to—NOT—tell anybody about us, okay?”  

“Um.” I nod my head lightly. “Thank you... Pretty Boss lady.”

“P-pretty?”

She stares at me with widened eyes, petrified, before coughing and saying to herself, “...Kuhum, now that I think about it, harmless kittens have always been one of my weaknesses...”

“Are we really doing this, Boss?” asks Kevin the driver, going on to restart the van’s engine before receiving any confirmation.

“Of course! When have I ever told a lie~?” says the pretty Boss lady, puffing up her chest proudly.

Miwari responds by pulling out a notebook. “Do you want us to go through the list?”

“Miw~!! That’s just cheating!” Boss lunges to try to grab the notebook from Miwari’s hand, only to fail, and ends up flailing around like a child.

The van resumes steadily moving through the market street and stalls, and not even a while later it arrives at a dead-end alley the opposite of—   

“Eh...? That’s curious…”

After telling Miwari to get out of the van and take care of ‘it’, Boss turns to address me. “Curious? About what? Ah! But if you want us to tell you about the super-duper secretive method of accessing the Undercity, then we certainly won’t~! N-no matter how much you beg us to do it!”

“It’s not... about that.”

Boss slaps her chest. “Phew~! That’s good! Because I really was beginning to waver.”

“That bookstore…” I point at Ruby’s store on the other end of the alley behind us. “Is Eden's girlfriend’s.”

“...?” Boss tilts her head, smiles silently, then her expression warps into total shock. “Huh—!?”

“Maybe she meant girl, friend?” Kevin hesitantly points out.

Boss stiffly turns to him and hammers her fist into her palm as if reaching an epiphany, her expression relaxes. “That’s right~! That has to be it!”

“I—See... ‘Girlfriend’ as in a friend that’s also a girl. That makes sense.” Bell summarizes and nods.

““Um, um.”” The other two also nod along with him.

“Boss, we’ve got a pass.” Miwari opens the door and comes back to her seat. In front of the van, a passage that was once a dead-end opens up, revealing an elevator-like room that’s large enough to at least fit in a truck.

As the van moves inside the elevator-like room and the wall slides back down, Miwari looks at me with a gentle smile under the dimed space.

“Welcome to the Undercity, Eden. I’d say that you don’t need to worry too much because we won’t let anything dangerous happen to you while we’re down here—but no promises alright?”

“What is the Undercity… like?”

“Compared to Anorlon? Different. Really different, ” Kevin answers. The entire floor begins to descend.

“Imagine, a massive metropolis crammed inside a hollowed-out cavern like a Titan’s lair. Separated into districts by underground waterways and subterranean canals,” Boss narrates a general depiction of the place.

“Each apartment complex and towering high-rises overcast the already dark sky," Miwari continues to explain, "the crimson red five-story pagoda of the House of Mistresses erected in the center like a sacred temple.”

“While the murky, grimy streets are infested with shady streetside vendors and chaotically flashing neon signs battling for your attention. And if you’re ever distracted by the colorful lights, cheap thieves are always hiding and vying to steal your wallet,” Bell encapsulates.

“Doesn’t that sound… terrible?”

They all laugh softly.

“Yes, it’s terrible. A complete shit hole the likes of which you’d never expect to find in the Realm of Gods.” Boss merely declares.

“That’s why… it fits our likes perfectly,” Miwari reveals a wicked smile.

“Anywhere you go, there’s always trouble waiting for you,” says Bell, cracking his knuckles. “Excitements at every turn. Opportunities at every step.”

“While I don’t personally prefer how life’s being treated here. I must agree on one thing.” Kevin firmly grips the van’s steering wheel. “It is one lively place.”

The wall before the van slowly lifts up, randomly mixed rainbows of colors shimmer from between the gaps, luring any unsuspecting mind while hiding its secrets under its energetic display. And when the gate to the secret underground city is fully open—

…..

The street behind it is completely deserted.

""""…."""" 

Kevin scratches his head awkwardly. “It’s usually not like this, you know?”

“No, it’s not,” Boss sharply replies. “That means something's wrong.”

Bell and Miwari also tense up.

I glance through the window at the street. It looks very much like what Bell has described with food stands and neon signs posted everywhere, making the relatively wide road before us feels claustrophobic.

—So why is there not a single person in sight? Not only that, but every stall and food stand also has its contents spilled all over the place. Whoever was here has just left… in a hurry too.

The four adventurers vigilantly watch the street, on edge.

As the van continues forward, sounds of rolling garbage cans follow us along the road’s side. We pass by several more emptied stalls—even some broken pieces of neon signs that have fallen from the side of a building with sparks of electricity shooting out of its opened gut.

—The street was... truly deserted.

“Actually, now that I think about it… I’ve heard some weird rumors about the 3rd district entrance in the past weeks,” Bell quietly whispers, amplifying the already creepy atmosphere.

“W-weird rumors? L-like a ghost story?” Miwari stutters, colors visibly draining from her face.

“No, of course not. Why are you scared of ghosts anyway, Miw? We’re angels!” Bell shrugs incredulously. “All of us had to have died at least once.”

“Ghosts are still scary alright!” Miwari insists. “I’ve heard that in the Mortal World, ghosts are frustrated dead people with deep grudges and pent-up desires that can turn invisible and go through walls… just thinking about them stalking me everywhere makes my skin crawl!”

“When you put it like that… they’re actually kind of scary,” Boss says, then turns to Bell. “But more importantly, what were the rumors about?”

“Well, it was a while ago, but it did stick out to me then,” Bell begins to recount in a toneless voice. “There have been anonymous accounts for about a month that people were hearing strange, disturbing sounds, echoing between the dark alleys during the night. Sometimes, it was a violent sound of scratching—other times, it’s the rough breathing of a hundred beasts.”

“Ah~! So it is a ghost story! I’m not listening, I’m not listening,” Miwari repeatedly murmurs, blocking her ears.

“And one day,” Bell continues, voice lowering. “At one of the alleys where the sounds were heard—there are scratches, behemoth-sized markings of nails and claws EVERYWHERE! Some were even big enough that they look like chunks of the concrete wall have been ripped out—”

“I’m not listening, I-I’m not.”

“—They thought that those marks were the works of a group of dangerous and vile beasts—at least three of them. They told everybody about it but nobody listened! We’re in the Realm of Gods, after all, anyone could have made those scratch marks. So, to prove their theory, they decided to camp out at one of the dark alleys frequented by this ‘beast’... and wait.”

Beside me, Boss is breathlessly focused on Bell’s story. I look out the window to the emptied and deserted street of the Undercity. It’s a little disappointing that there’s not a lot to see out there but—

—Eh? Why is that…?

“Nee…those scratches…” I call everyone’s attention and point at the nearby wall of a building that has crisscrossed markings of beastly claws on it. ”Are they… Like that?”

“Yeah like—” Bell glances at it and immediately agrees, before snapping back outside the window. “Wait, what?”

“And are those…” I point at another building on the other side of the road. “The walls with missing chunks… you talked about?”

“...”

Everyone turns to Bell with accusing eyes, demanding an explanation. The beanie-wearing man sweats profusely. It’s obvious that he has no idea what to say.

“How did... that rumor end?” I ask.

Hearing my question, Bell scratches his cheek nervously and resumes the recounting. “Well, they lied in wait. The night deepened. And for hours, nothing came. They thought that they’d failed and were about to give up—just then—a faint, distant growling… calls forth from the dark.”

Grrrrrrrr—!

Each of us holds our breath instinctively when, earlier than we could have expected, the van arrives at the front of ‘something’ that’s blocking the road.

It’s a dark, furry back of a large ‘creature’, crouching and busily digging into a fallen-over kebab stand as it sends out a faint growling noise.

And for a short moment, no one knows how to react.

“…They turned to face it—and under the pitch-black shadow of the high-rises, 3 pairs of bloodred hellish eyes stare back at them,” Bell absentmindedly finishes his story.

The slouching beast turns around slowly, wiping its scaly tail behind its back. And under the illumination of the van’s headlight, it greets us with three ferocious heads, each bearing a full set of scary sharp teeth—and 3 pairs of glowing red eyes charging with chaotic energy.

…..

“So the rumor... turns out to be... surprisingly accurate?”

GRRRRRRRR—!!

““““AAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAhhhHHHhhhhh~~!!”””” the four scream.

“Kevin! Quickly turn around—it’s coming!” Boss shouts at Kevin who immediately reverses the van, hitting all the fallen garbage cans and broken neon signs as he turns it around.

Behind us, one of the three-headed beast’s mouths begins leaking deep red flames from between its fangs, ready to burn us to crips—or maybe that’s just its way of saying ‘hi’?

Either way, Kevin steps heavily on the gas, and the van speeds forward, rushing through the cluttered street in an attempt to outrun the three-headed beast that’s now running after us on all four.

While we’re all occupied with the appearance of the three-headed beast, Miwari yells out. “Hey, watch where you're going, we’re going to crash!”

KRrrrooOooMmmmEE—!!

The van smashes right into an abandoned food cart. The windshield shatters. The front hood crumples due to the force of the collision. The violent crash throws everyone all over the place, but for some reason, the actual impact I experience is unexpected...

—Soft?

It takes me a second to realize that, at the moment of the crash, Boss has chosen to pull me into her embrace and absorb most of the impact with her body—the body that’s still hugging me tightly right now.

I pull up my head from her breasts, brush my messy hair from my face, and tell her, “Thank you.”

—You really are a good person. Pretty Boss lady.

Boss blushes slightly and avoids my eyes. “Thank you? F-for what?”

“For protecting... Eden?”

"Ah, that…” she sounds a little embarrassed but soon regains her energy. “Of course! How could I let a cute little kitten get hurt?”

“Boss, I don’t actually remember you liking kittens this much...” Miwari interjects, holding her head painfully.

“Y-you! Well, I decided that from this moment on, I'll be the number one fan of kittens in the Realm of Gods, happy?”

“—Nooooo~! Liza!” At the front of the van, Kevin cries out loudly with the broken-off steering wheel in his hands.

“I’m so sorry, Kevin… this van was like your only defining character trait.” Miwari gently touches his shoulder. “But on the bright side—you don’t have to worry about us calling you a bad driver anymore?”

“...Not another word,” he says coldly, glancing back at Miwari with piercing eyes. “Or I’ll get really angry, got it?”

“Ladies and gentlemen, might I remind you all that we’re currently being hunted by a three-headed hellhound?” Bell speaks up while wiping some pieces of glass from his red beanie.

Boss separates from me and begins confidently giving commands, “Everyone takes formation 3. Alakazam variant. Splintered-Queen’s gambit—NOW!”

“You could’ve just said ‘RUN’ and we’ll all get it...” Bell retorts.

“And RUN!” Boss says it anyway.

Springing into action, the four swiftly open the wrecked van’s doors and get out, even if Kevin does it a little slower than the rest of them. I follow behind Boss and step outside, feeling a little like I’ve forgotten something...

—Ah! My bag!

So while the four have run a considerable distance away from the crashed van, I turn around and crawl back inside.

“Little Eden, what are you doing! Quickly, come over here!” Miwari calls me from somewhere far away.

—I can’t just leave it behind!

The bag seemed to have flown off somewhere when the van hit the food cart… Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Please don’t let it be damaged. Eventually, I found it under the second seating row, and the dictionary as well.

Huaaaaa~

I hug both of those things closely in front of my chest and heave a huge sigh of relief. I get out of the van, still holding onto them dearly. But when I look up in front of me—

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr—!

I see the three-headed beast standing there imposingly, its mouths fuming with fire while its six eyes crackle with sparks of dark red energy. It should be very scary to look at up close but...

—For some reason, it looks sort of like a three-headed black-furred puppy?

—————……….