Chapter 35: Bell's Weapon Was Stolen?
"Making excessive profits from addictive substances? Isn't that drug trafficking?"
Hearing the words of the god Miach, Shirou couldn't help but show a complicated expression.
"Drug trafficking?" Miach was unfamiliar with the term Shirou brought up, but he didn't dwell on it too much. "Anyway, that's roughly what I've gathered. Although the Soma Familia's methods are extremely despicable, they haven't done anything openly criminal.
The customers who buy the diluted Soma divine wine have been completely brainwashed by it—they all willingly spend money to buy it. Because of that, neither the Guild nor other Familias have a good solution to deal with the Soma Familia.
They can only choose to turn a blind eye."
Shirou fully understood Miach's words.
After all, drug trafficking has always been one of the most difficult crimes to eradicate, because it exploits human weakness—corrupting people before they even realize it, dragging them into a pit of no return.
In Shirou's previous world, even nations with well-organized systems couldn't completely solve the problem of drug trafficking.
In a city like Orario, which doesn't even have a law enforcement organization, completely eradicating such a problem is nearly impossible.
However, Soma's divine wine wasn't exactly a real narcotic.
The biggest difference between it and actual drugs was that Soma divine wine had a single, extremely limited source.
Unlike drugs that could be cultivated anywhere if one obtained seeds, Soma divine wine could only be produced by a single person—God Soma himself.
In other words, as long as they could stop Soma from continuing to make the divine wine, the crimes committed by the Soma Familia using the wine could be dealt with at the root.
But there was a major problem with that idea—how could they get Soma himself to stop making the wine?
As a god, Soma hadn't committed any crimes, nor had he incited others to commit them.
He simply made his divine wine and gave it to his followers.
Such behavior, even in a city with a functioning police force and judicial system, might not be enough to convict or prosecute Soma—let alone in a place like Orario, which had no such institutions.
If they wanted to solve this problem, the only viable method might be to use violence—to assassinate Soma himself.
As long as the god Soma was killed and returned to the heavens, the issue of Soma's divine wine would be resolved once and for all.
But this method was, in essence, also an evil act—using evil to fight evil.
For Shirou, it was still difficult to resolve himself to that decision.
More importantly, no one knew what consequences might follow if a god were killed with violence.
If a god were to die, would they instantly return to the heavens? Or would their power linger in the mortal realm for a while?
If the gods could remain in the mortal world, their powers would surely be beyond what any mortal could resist.
Even though Shirou was confident he could fight against Orario's strongest adventurers, if he had to face the power of an actual god head-on, he might not make it out alive.
So, Shirou couldn't go and kill Soma directly. If he wanted to resolve the divine wine issue, he'd have to find another way.
"Thank you, God Miach, for sharing this information," Shirou expressed his gratitude. "I'll take my leave for today."
"Mhm."
Miach gave Shirou a long, meaningful look, as though he had something more to say—but in the end, he said nothing.
Beside him, however, Nahza encouraged Shirou to come back for follow-up visits whenever he could. She still seemed obsessed with his divine injury and wanted to develop new medicine to try and treat it.
Shirou thanked Nahza as well, then left the Azure Pharmacy.
.
.
.
As for the issue of Soma's divine wine, Shirou ultimately decided to take a long-term approach.
Although he still had a strong sense of justice, he knew that justice couldn't be achieved through recklessness and impulse alone.
He needed more preparation—more information on the Soma Familia.
Fortunately, the Soma Familia had a big reputation in Orario, even if it was a negative one. A little digging would easily yield plenty of useful intelligence.
After gathering some helpful information, Shirou returned to the Hestia Familia's base.
But just as he stepped inside, a loud commotion greeted him.
"What?! You lost the dagger Shirou forged for you?!"
"I—I don't even know when I lost it! I only realized it was gone after I turned in the magic stones at the Guild…"
The voices of Hestia and Bell came from inside.
From the conversation alone, Shirou immediately realized what had happened.
He entered the room with surprise and, sure enough, Bell's waist was empty. The "Hassan's Dagger", which Shirou had forged for him, was missing.
"Tell me exactly what happened."
Although Shirou wasn't too concerned over a weapon he had casually crafted, it was still the first real weapon he ever forged—so he naturally cared to some extent.
Bell looked extremely anxious and flustered upon seeing Shirou return. With a bitter expression, he explained, "I don't even know how it happened. Things went smoothly in the dungeon today. I even teamed up with a really cute supporter and earned more than usual…"
"Supporter? Tell me the details."
Shirou encouraged Bell to calm down and silently sat on the nearby sofa.
Seeing Shirou's calm and reliable demeanor, Bell slowly settled down, even though he was still clearly nervous.
At least he could now clearly recount the day's events.
As usual, Bell had headed into the dungeon as an adventurer.
But before entering, he met a beastman girl named Liliruca Arde, who looked to be only seven or eight years old, with a petite figure.
Normally, Bell wouldn't have teamed up with such a young girl, but she claimed to be a supporter of the Soma Familia and said she had been ostracized by the rest of her Familia—so she had to find adventurers outside her own to team up with.
Hearing that Lili was so poor she had to sleep on the streets, Bell's sympathy overwhelmed him, and he agreed to her request to team up.
Once in the dungeon, Bell found that Lili, despite her youthful appearance, was surprisingly experienced. Whether in combat or exploration, she offered many useful suggestions.
As a capable supporter, she made Bell's time in the dungeon far easier.
Because of that, Bell even made plans with Lili to explore the dungeon again the next day.
Up to this point, it all sounded like a story about gaining a trustworthy companion.
But the problem was—after Bell parted ways with Lili and went to the Guild to submit his magic stones, he realized the Hassan's Dagger that Shirou gave him was missing.
"Soma Familia… beastman girl… supporter…"
Hearing Bell's story, Shirou hadn't expected to run into something related to the Soma Familia again so soon.
Given their poor reputation, he almost instinctively assumed that the supporter from the Soma Familia had stolen the dagger.
But there was one issue—according to Bell, the supporter was just a seven- or eight-year-old girl.
Could a child that young really harbor such malicious intent?
More importantly, Bell was nearly a level 2 adventurer.
Could he really be robbed by a little girl without noticing anything?
Thus, Shirou made a different assumption—either the supporter had nothing to do with the theft, or that girl wasn't an ordinary child at all.
Having been in Orario for a while now, Shirou was well aware of the possibility of magic that could alter one's appearance. If someone had disguised themselves as a child to deceive Bell, then everything would make sense.
Of course, all of this still needed to be proven with evidence.
Whether to solve the Soma Familia issue or to retrieve Hassan's Dagger, Shirou knew he had to find out the truth—no matter what.