Previously: Zenos and the others drove off the men from the underground guild who had crashed the slums’ festival.
“Well then, good work everyone.”
After the first festival in the slums came to a grand close.
With Zofia’s words, the female demi-human leaders clinked their glasses together in the air.
It was a celebration to commemorate the success of the festival.
“Yeah, that’s fine, but why here…?”
The venue was Zenos’s clinic.
Night had fallen, and the outside was filled with darkness.
“Oh, come on. The unsung hero of the festival is the Doctor, so it wouldn’t be a party without him.”
“Besides, this is where Ringa feels most at home.”
“Indeed, this place is like our home.”
“It’s not your home, though?”
“And, in the first place, isn’t it my house…?”
Camilla, who had returned earlier, floated down from the second floor. She glanced down at Zenos and the others.
“Hmph, you’re quite late.”
“Well, we had a bit of a problem.”
Zenos replied, accepting a glass from Zofia.
The problem was that a faction from the underground guild had crashed the festival.
Those lurking in the darkness of the slums. The residents who desired chaos apparently didn’t like the peaceful event.
It took some time to clean up the aftermath of the skirmish, but the damage was kept to a minimum. There were some injuries on the demi-human side, but Zenos had already treated them.
“But, suddenly throwing exploding magic stones, those people with Lily are scary…”
Lily said, holding her cup of tea with both hands and shrinking her neck.
“Well, yeah, they’re a bunch of people who don’t know how to hold back. Even so, I think they were just testing the waters this time.”
At Zofia’s words, Lily looked up.
“Testing the waters?”
“Probably. If they were serious about crushing the festival, they would have sabotaged it in various places without showing themselves openly.”
“Yeah. But if they did that, Ringa and the others would retaliate seriously.”
“That’s why this time it was just a warning.”
Ringa and Reve continued.
“A warning…”
“Hehehe… I see. So next, we’re going to have a conflict with the underground guild, huh?”
Lily shuddered, and Camilla, floating in mid-air, uttered ominous words. The demi-humans brought their glasses to their mouths and shrugged slightly.
“Who knows? The underground guild is different from a normal guild; it’s a place where shady people end up.”
“Yeah. There isn’t a strong connection between the factions, so Ringa thinks it’s just the work of a small group.”
“Apparently, there are bosses and executives, but they rarely come to the surface, so most members don’t know about them.”
“Hmm…”
Zenos, gazing vaguely out the window, caught the attention of the demi-humans.
“Well, Doctor. If that single-minded, muscle-brained big guy is our enemy, he’s not much of a threat.”
“That’s right. He’s a bit crazy, but Ringa is used to guys like that.”
“After all, Zofia and Ringa are also quite crazy.”
“No, you too.”
“I don’t want to hear that from Reve.”
“Hahaha, is that so, is that so.”
“Why are you so happy, Reve…?”
They seem to know themselves surprisingly well.
“However—” Zofia continued.
“Messing with our turf is the same as a declaration of war in our world. They’ve done something pretty bold.”
“Yeah, since it was during a peaceful festival, Ringa held back a little, but normally it would turn into a bloody conflict.”
“We don’t interfere with the underground, and they don’t get involved with us. Until now, that balance has been maintained.”
“I see… So, this time, they deliberately broke the unspoken non-aggression pact—”
At Zenos’s words, Zofia shook her head slightly.
“Maybe something’s happening underground.”
The royal capital of the Hazes Kingdom is centered around the royal palace, with a special district where nobles live, and surrounding it are the city districts where citizens enjoy themselves. The slums are located further outside, especially on the opposite side of the capital’s main gate—an area called “the back.”
Behind it rise mystical mountains and fields, and occasionally magical beasts wander in. There’s even a rumor that the central government intentionally leaves the slums alone as a defensive wall against magical beasts coming from the mountains and fields.
Naturally, the central government’s oversight becomes weaker, so the further away from the center of the slums, the worse the security and the greater the danger.
In an area lined with shacks that shake with the slightest breeze. In a corner of the old underground waterways, like a spider’s web, the groans of men echoed.
“You damn bastards, what are you doing losing to those toothless demi-humans?”
In front of the large man with greenish skin, several men lay collapsed.
“Oh my, what’s wrong?”
A sweet, cloying female voice approached from the back. It was dark, but in the darkness, a seductive outline that seemed to exude a scent emerged.
The big man straightened his back slightly.
“Ah, well. It’s just education for these incompetent newbies.”
“So, the attack on the festival failed? That’s no good, blaming your own failures on your subordinates.”
“No, that’s…”
“What? Are you talking back to me?”
“N-no.”
“Kneel.”
“Guh…”
The man’s huge body collapsed as if all his strength had left him, and he knelt on the spot.
“Why did you fail? Tell me.”
“Well, there was some unnecessary interference… A strange man, I don’t know how he did it, but he blocked the magic stones of the [Bomb] that we had prepared…”
“Hmm, there’s someone like that?”
The woman, hearing the story, put her pure white index finger to her red lips and said stickily.
“Hey. Is that man… handsome?”
Of course…
I guess the female leader of the underground guild will eventually be joining Zenos’s harem…
This seems to be the recurring theme 😅