Under the moonlight, a small figure blurred, rushing forward faster than the eye could see, then lightly landed on the ship's deck.
----------------------------------------
"Nice work, Fron!" those were Finn's words to Fron as he leapt onto the ice path.
Without even turning his head, he struck down the frantically thrashing Violas behind him with a single blow. Fron smiled and shrugged.
"You're welcome, but don't blame me for not going to rescue Tione, alright? I think if it's you, Finn, doing the whole 'hero saving the damsel' thing, Tione would be much happier."
"..." Finn gave a bitter smile, then departed.
"Elfy, gather everyone together, then head to meet up with Ais. Just do a perimeter check and report back!"
Before he even finished speaking, the young man had turned into a blur.
The staff in his hand glimmered with violet magical light, flashing like lightning, arcs of purple light shot through the Violas again and again. Then, suddenly, he stopped, steadied himself, and lowered his weapon.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom, "
In an instant, all the Violas died without a sound, turning into dust.
Compared to the first time he'd encountered this new type of monster, Fron now handled things with much greater composure and skill.
It wasn't just because of his higher level and improved stats, experience mattered too.
"So… so strong, Mr. Fron!"
Everyone who looked at Fron's cool, confident back wasn't merely admiring him anymore, it was genuine reverence for their familia's leader.
"Form up. We're moving out."
Under Fron's command, the group swiftly advanced toward the area where their allies were concealed.
...
As the chaos in the harbor town gradually came to an end, the port, nearly engulfed in disorder for the entire night, finally began to regain its calm.
The rampaging monsters and the battling adventurers had brought great harm to both local and foreign merchants, even threatening Orario's reputation itself.
Of course, dealing with all these messy aftermath tasks fell to the Guild.
After all, even though Melen Town wasn't within Orario's city limits, it was still under the administrative jurisdiction of the Guilds' headquarters.
In fact, power within Melen Town was highly fragmented, the day-to-day port operations, ship traffic, and import/export inspections were all managed by the Guild.
Meanwhile, local governance was handled by a local Familia.
Because of these overlapping powers, the two sides often clashed.
It was precisely because of this that the Evilus found loopholes to exploit, even using hidden routes through the area to smuggle and transport contraband, or worse, infiltrate the familias themselves.
This matter was no longer just the concern of the Loki Familia, it had become a conflict involving the city's internal power balance.
...
By the time Fron and his team reached Loki's group, the battle was basically over.
At the mouth of the Sea Cave, Loki stood with hands on her hips, grinning comically, though her squinting eyes betrayed her true exhaustion.
A glance at the ground made it clear, Tiona lay there, and Riveria was already tending to her with healing magic.
"Fron, perfect timing! Help heal Tiona, the poison's tricky!"
Seeing Fron arrive, Riveria quickly called out to him.
"Got it, on it."
Kneeling on one knee, he examined Tiona's body, her skin covered with violet patches of poison, and smiled faintly.
"Your former Familia members didn't hold back on you, huh?"
Softly chanting the Dea Saintess' healing spell, Fron treated her while joking.
"Hiss… she even came all the way to Orario just to fight me in some ritual? I think she's gone insane after staying too long in that country of hers."
"Your whole country's full of lunatics, isn't it? No, more like that war god of yours is the real lunatic," Loki suddenly interjected.
"Heh, that little, let's see if she still dares show me attitude next time!"
Clearly, Loki was still holding a grudge against the goddess.
"Anyway, what's going on? Finn said you were supposed to be investigating the second monster transport exit under Melen, right?"
Loki and Riveria exchanged a glance, Loki rolled her eyes, Riveria sighed softly.
"This whole thing… is a long story."
...
After Riveria's detailed explanation, Fron finally understood.
After their expedition, when Loki realized the Creatures' true objective, she began investigating the case of the dungeon's supposed second exit.
However, due to the familia's massive debts, they couldn't afford another large-scale mission. So after discussion between the executives and Loki herself, they decided to split up.
The male members were tasked with raising funds, through dungeon dives or guild commissions, Fron included.
While earning money, they also collected rare materials they personally needed, leading to their later expedition into the Great Tree Labyrinth.
Meanwhile, the female members, under Loki's command, took charge of searching for the suspected second dungeon exit.
On the return journey from their expedition, Loki coordinated with the gods Hermes and Dionysus, each taking responsibility for one area.
The two male gods handled the inner city, while Loki took the waterways around Orario. After all, confirmed intelligence suggested that monsters were being transported through Orario's vast underground waterway network.
Thus, Loki led her female party to Orario's only seaport, the town of Melen.
And that was where everything began.
Loki probably never imagined that what she meddled in would end up being far more complicated than she expected.
The enemies weren't just the the Creatures, or remnants of the Evilus, but also powerful familias from outside the city and large ones within.
Everyone knew that the Ishtar Familia ruled the Pleasure Quarter and was one of the major powers of the underground world. In terms of influence and resources, they were a true titan, plus their members were incredibly strong.
In the past, a coalition of four smaller familias had once challenged them, but in the end, all four gods had to quietly withdraw.
Their familias had been crushed because they grossly underestimated Ishtar's true strength. They even tried to file a complaint with the Guild, but… the final investigation concluded that Ishtar Familia had not concealed their levels.
Eventually, those four familias were suppressed into decline and completely vanished.
That alone showed the might of Ishtar Familia.
Yet, even a familia as powerful as that was secretly colluding with underground forces, something even Loki hadn't imagined.
After hearing the full story, Fron could only sigh in disbelief.
"Seriously? The Ishtar Familia could've just kept being the gray-market overlords, they had it good. Why stir up this mess?"
He knew that their cooperation with the Kali Familia wasn't about targeting the Loki Familia, they just happened to stumble upon their operation by accident.
Ishtar's real enemy was her eternal rival, another beauty goddess: Freya.
This entire incident was, in the end… just one big misunderstanding.