Revis surmised she at least until the next night came to retrieve her objective if the town's adventurers moved fast enough.

Furthermore, as soon as the murder was discovered, the entire floor would be locked down, preventing her next target from escaping easily. As for she herself would leave, her clique had access to several secret routes she could take advantage of when the time came.

With this in mind, she left the inn without speaking a word to no one. Her first order of business being finding out who had Hashana given her prize to.

Unbeknownst to her however, a hidden figure had been observing her go about her business with an interested look.

Needless to say, it was Nox. He had watched the proceedings with a vested interest. Something about Revis felt off. He couldn't quite place it but there was something, a piece of information he learned from something related to the original series, it was floating around in his mind, yet just out of his reach.

It could not be a critical plot element, otherwise he would have remembered it already due to its importance but the nagging feeling seemed to tell him it was important.

Nox instincts were good and had saved him a few times already but he still did not like to rely on something so uncertain, even if it had never led him astray.

He began stalking Revis as she went about her search but part of his powerful mind was focused on trying to grasp whatever it was that Nox felt he was missing.

As the hours trickled by, Revis had already acquired a basic description of Lulune and though it took longer than she had planned, in her mind, it was still fast enough that she could catch her target.

What she did not take into account, were Lulune's formidable skills at running and hiding, she had most definitely figured out who was killed already and was cowering someplace hidden no doubt.

This time around though, she would not have the Loki Familia to help her out as Nox's existence had derailed the set of events completely.

Those were Nox's thoughts at least. But was fate really that easy to thwart? Maybe certain events where he was directly running interference would change tremendously but for this one, Nox had been acting passively so far, just observing. Who was to tell if things might not adjust to go down that path.

In truth, that was also one of Nox's reasons to play such close attention rather than simply neutralizing all parties involved before investigating. He had certainly felt fate fight back against him, the whole debacle on the 59th floor being the most blatant example.

Based on the original series, it should've been an easy endeavour, especially since he and his familia had reached the floor earlier than in the series which meant their opponent did not have nearly as much time to grow.

Despite this, even with him being far stronger than any member of the Loki familia ever was within the story, he still nearly got killed. Their enemy was so strong that his teammates were more of a hindrance than actual support. It was one of the reasons Nox was strengthening his girls for.

And so he wondered, if he did not do something like specifically tell his girls not to come to the 18th floor, would they still find a reason to come even if the one in the original series was no longer valid for them?

It made Nox roam around in his memories of his current life and all of the things he had changed. It was then that something about that illusive piece of information clicked.

He was remembering his girls and the time he spend with them but his intinc flared when his mind arrived to one of them.

'Ryuu . . . Whatever I'm missing is definitely related to her . . . But what could it be?

It was then that a realization hit Nox like Truck-kun.

'This world . . . Although it is infinitely close to the Danmachi I remember, it is also different in at least one major way . . .'

Bella Cranel. She was not even supposed to exist. Bell Cranel was who he knew and though Bella was pretty much just a genderswapped carbon copy of the original protagonist, she was still and entirely different individual and while that difference might not be that great in and of itself, it did set a dangerous precedent.

Even without taking Nox's own influence into account, this world was not the exact same one from the series. If Bell became Bella, there could also be other, far more critical and important changes that deviate from the original plot, which Nox had zero knowledge of.

This realization told him that perhaps blindingly trusting what he knew was not only foolish but also potentially incredibly dangerous.

Additionally, it also provided him a critical clue to solve the mystery he was currently facing, one that allowed him to get that much closer to finding the answer he was searching for.

'This is about something that was not a part of the original story . . . Something related to Ryuu which had come up in his conversations with her . . . And something he had read about in his previously life . . .' Nox pondered.

'It doesn't make sense.' He frowned.

If not for his masterful ability to split his focus almost completely, he might have even lost Revis or, even worse, fail to keep up his concealment which would draw a huge amount of attention from suddenly appearing in the middle of the street out of nowhere.

'How could I have have read something about Danmachi that was not a part of the story in my previous life? I did not read any Danmachi fanfics so it can't be that . . .' Nox felt closer to the truth than ever but it still eluded him.

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba  without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR weeks ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novels Kage of Kages and FATE of DxD, do check them out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.