One month had passed.
Empyrean Citadel had been completely rebuilt a week ago.
Not only had the building undergone a total renovation, but it had also been expanded to several times its original size.
While it had initially been inhabited solely by Charlie and Aishia, the atmosphere was now far livelier with the addition of Est, Kei, Mahiru, and the Goddess of Justice, Astraea.
Naturally, the existence of a man living together with five extraordinarily beautiful girls under the exact same roof instantly made him the target of public jealousy in Orario.
Even the gods and goddesses throughout the city turned this into the hottest topic of gossip.
After all, although Astraea was not classified among the Three Virgin Goddesses—Athena, Hestia, and Artemis—she had actually still preserved her virginity to this day!
Therefore, when the gods learned that the honorable Goddess of Justice was now living under the same roof with a young man bound to the Hera Familia, their entire community was thrown into uproar.
On the other hand, Charlie chose not to report his level up to the Guild.
In his eyes now, except for the gods with their Arcanum, not a single creature in the Lower World was capable of being his match.
When power reached a certain level, a person would look down upon those who were not on the same level as them.
Charlie was currently in that phase.
To him, the Guild was no different from himself.
When an organization had been at the peak of power for a very long duration of time, they tended to view their status as far superior. They began to look at people outside their circle as lesser beings, no longer even considering them as equals.
This was clearly visible in the behavior of the Guild's higher-ups, who always acted arrogant and felt above other adventurers.
Meanwhile, Kei experienced a truly fantastic surge in power.
After undergoing several independent tests, it was confirmed that all of Kei's basic stats had now matched the caliber of a Level 6 adventurer!
With that drastic increase, Kei—accompanied by Aishia—began building up the courage to step further, exploring the Deep Floors in the Dungeon.
Mahiru, who had also been made a Familiar by Charlie, similarly received an increase in physical strength, albeit slightly below Kei since she had never received Falna from any god before.
In terms of raw strength, Mahiru was in the range of Level 5. However, because she was inherently a gentle girl with neither talent nor combat experience, in a real duel she still struggled to defeat even a Level 2 adventurer.
Nevertheless, Mahiru's orientation in life was completely removed from battle.
The girl simply had not a single shred of interest in fighting or risking her life in the Dungeon.
Understanding this, Charlie did not force her at all and let Mahiru do whatever she liked—from taking care of the household to trying out various new cooking recipes for all of them.
However, the juicy gossip regarding Charlie building a harem at Empyrean Citadel did not last long.
That sensation was instantly swept completely clean and replaced by news far more terrifying: the Loki Familia had gone wild!
The cause was none other than the fact that Loki's absolute favorite follower, Ais Wallenstein, had gone missing without a single word of news for an entire full month!
Even though Loki's behavior had reportedly improved and softened somewhat while living in the Lower World compared to her dark days in Heaven, her true impulsive, wild, and trouble-making nature suddenly exploded anew as a result of Ais's disappearance.
Loki had completely lost her sanity!
Without wasting time, the Loki Familia launched a search operation on an unprecedented scale.
Every single member was fully deployed to search every corner of Orario City without exception!
This arbitrary behavior naturally triggered a wave of dissatisfaction among many other gods and goddesses, since their territorial holdings and Familia headquarters were searched by force. However, Loki did not care in the slightest if she had to offend every single fellow god in the city.
With a fierce expression, Loki even hurled an open threat: anyone who refused or was unwilling to cooperate would immediately be deemed a suspicious party hiding Ais, automatically becoming a target for full attack from the Loki Familia!
Tensions in the city reached boiling point to the extent that the Guild was forced to intervene directly to suppress the situation.
They moved quickly to conduct mediation so this chaos would not trigger an inter-Familia civil war that could destroy the city's structure and sacrifice the lives of ordinary citizens in Orario.
Upon such pressure and compromise, the scale of the search eventually expanded to comb through regions outside Orario.
Unfortunately, even though thousands of areas had been combed and forests thoroughly cleared out, Ais's figure was never found in the slightest—a bitter reality that slowly drove the Trickster Goddess into absolute madness.
Unless Loki recklessly deployed her Arcanum power—with the risk that she would immediately be forcibly returned to Heaven—she would never be able to discover Ais's location.
Just as the atmosphere in Orario City reached its peak of tension, like a powder keg ready to explode at any moment, the original protagonist of this world triggered yet another massive commotion.
Bell Cranel rescued Wiene, a monster girl in the form of a half-dragon who turned out to possess intelligence, emotions, and the ability to speak just like a human.
This unique group of monsters possessing intelligence was known by the name Xenos.
For the sake of protecting Wiene from the cruelty of a black-market hunter syndicate, the Ikelos Familia, Bell along with the Hestia Familia were forced to hide their existence.
However, conflict eventually erupted uncontrollably on the surface of Orario City.
For the sake of protecting the Xenos who were running amok after being provoked and tortured by the hunters, Bell made an extremely reckless decision by standing to block the other adventurers.
That action instantly caused Bell to be branded as a traitor to humanity, losing his entire reputation overnight.
The Loki Familia, who at the time were still busy and frustrated searching for Ais's whereabouts, paid no attention whatsoever to Bell's antics.
On the other hand, Charlie had no intention of interfering in this matter either. He was supremely confident that the protagonist would be fine and recognized that this severe trial was an essential part of the young man's growth process.
Besides, even though he had once promised Hera to look after Bell, Charlie was not a babysitter who had to step in every single time to resolve every problem created by the youth.
And Charlie's prediction proved completely accurate; that major trouble was ultimately resolved.
Following the chaos that had swept the surface of Orario, Wiene and the other Xenos were successfully rescued from the pursuit of various Familias and black-market hunters.
With secret assistance from Fels and Uranus, the remaining Xenos were successfully evacuated back to a safe region within the deepest layers of the Dungeon untouched by ordinary adventurers.
At the climax of that incident, Bell fought with all his might against Asterius—the black Minotaur—in the center of the city, until Bell ultimately tasted defeat. However, that tragic defeat turned out to be a blessing in disguise for him.
The citizens of Orario and the adventurers, who had initially believed Bell had allied himself with monsters, finally witnessed with their own eyes how the youth risked his life fighting to protect the city from Asterius's rampage.
That heroic moment slowly cleared Bell's name from the status of "traitor," even though he still had to crawl back up from the bottom to fully restore his reputation as a hero.
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