It was an abandoned building located on some random street of Daedalus. No guard outside, nor anyone on lookout.
Are they really this careless just because everyone's busy with reconstruction? I thought, but it didn't matter. According to Lulune's intel, there were several small hideouts like this scattered throughout the city like infected wounds.
I circled to the back of the building, scouting for alternate escape routes, but found none. Only one way in, one way out.
(OST: Aviators - Red Water Dreams (Acoustic Rock))
The interior opened into a large hall where about twenty people had been gathered—some sitting, others lying down like vagrants. They all jumped to their feet at my entrance.
"Wha—What's happening!" one shouted.
"Sh-shit, have they found us!" cried another, panic clear in his voice.
"Calm down, it's just one guy," growled a werewolf who seemed to be their leader. "Kill him."
At his command, they grabbed whatever weapons they could find and charged. Most were ordinary humans without falna, with a few Level 1s and 2s mixed in—the dregs of Erebus's fallen army.
I cut through them like wheat before a scythe.
I may not have shown it, but I was really pissed at them, because of them, all the plans I had made were washed away! Because of them, the girls had to suffer so much! If I had not saved Ardee, Ryuu would have been in despair! If I had not saved Lydia, Asfi would have cried! Ais had to take part in this madness because of them! Because of them, Riveria had been injured! Because of them, thousands of people died!
Yeah, I just can not let them live.
"You bastard!" the werewolf screamed, finally engaging as his subordinates fell around him in spreading pools of blood.
He lunged at me with a sword, aiming at my chest. I casually side-stepped, slitting his throat open in one fluid motion, and a fountain of blood erupted, as he collapsed.
"Ca-Captain is dead!" The remaining ones tried to flee through the doors, but…
"Agni O."
""AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!""
Flames erupted from my hands, engulfing the fleeing cultists as they wailed in agony. I ignored their screams and began searching the building for documents, ledgers—anything useful.
Nothing. Just another dead end filled with dead fanatics.
After that, I left and made my way to the next hideout. It was another building, but larger than the last one.
This time, I didn't waste energy fighting the fodder—the moment I entered, flames filled the room.
"GAAAAAHHH!!"
"You monster—!!"
They scream in the background as I search through the building once again, cutting down all those who came at me.
But this time I found something worthwhile: a detailed list of merchants and influential citizens who'd been supplying the remnants with funds, weapons, and safe passage.
I felt my lip curl in disgust. These people were worse than the cultists themselves. At least Erebus's followers believed in their twisted cause—these were just opportunistic parasites who'd profited from terror and death.
They were just as much responsible for this mayhem as the evilius were.
And so my next target was decided.
.
.
.
.
The merchant's house sat near the city center, a three-story building of fine stone with ornate windows that gleamed even in the dim moonlight. Unlike the squalid hideouts I'd just cleared, this place reeked of wealth and comfort—wealth built on blood money.
I studied the building from across the street. Before making my way towards the back door it was locked, naturally, but a small application of heat to the iron mechanism solved that problem quickly enough. The metal expanded just enough for the lock to give way with a soft click.
I slipped inside what appeared to be a kitchen—clean, well-appointed, with copper pots hanging from hooks and fresh bread still sitting on the counter.
Soft footsteps echoed from somewhere above. I moved through the house, up the stairs. The merchant was in his study, visible through a crack in the door. A middle-aged man with graying hair, hunched over a desk covered in ledgers and correspondence, is completely absorbed in his late-night bookkeeping.
How fitting that he'd be counting money at this hour.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside. The merchant looked up from his papers, and his face went through a fascinating transformation—confusion, recognition, and finally, pure terror as he saw the flames beginning to dance around my fingers.
"Please," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "I have a family..."
The ledger on his desk was still open, showing neat columns of numbers. Payments made. Services rendered. Lives destroyed, all reduced to careful accounting.
"So did they," I replied quietly. He tried to run, but I shot a ball of fire, burning his legs.
"GGUUUUUHHHAAAA!"
He screamed like a pig. I wanted to take my sweet time, but seeing as I have other places to raid, I moved forward to end his pathetic life.
"Please spare me! I swear I will never do anything wrong again!" He screamed, spit flying from his mouth.
"Your voice is annoying me," I said, stabbing his neck with the sword. His cries died down as his soul left his body.
It was not enough; the flame in my heart is not going to calm down with just this.
.
.
.
.
.
I met with Lulune again in a random alley, the Chienthrope girl seeming unusually skittish as she told me the information she gathered. We are meeting very frequently to exchange information, or more like me buying information from her, and the hunt has begun.
"So these are the last hideouts remaining?" I asked her, as I thought of which one I should attack first.
"Ye–Yes! At least these were all I found, any information on." For some reason, she seems nervous.
Hmmm…. Meh whatever.
"Good work. Don't worry—I'll craft that item we agreed on as compensation, and here are the information fees," I assured her. Maybe she thought I'd renege on our deal. "and also thank you for keeping this a secret from Asfi."
"Ye–Yes, of course, but umm, are you sure you can keep going? You have been fighting non-stop." She asked, observing my face.
"Yeah, I am fine, I am sleeping properly."
"Your face says otherwise! You look like death warmed over!"
"You're being dramatic," I replied." Besides, a 15-minute power nap is all I need to keep going. That's what you do when there is a tight deadline.
"See you later then," I said, walking away to my next target.
____________________________________________________________________________
Lulune saw him as his figure to disappear in an alley, as she remembered the figure of four women who had the beauty to put gods to shame, but all she felt as she remembered them was fear, a fear that stems from her encounter with them.
It was about two days later, and she was making her way back home. Lulune was humming to herself as she walked back to the Hermes Familia home, jiggling the coins Arin had given her for the latest intel. Easy money, she thought cheerfully. And all I have to do is—
"Lulune."
The Chienthrope girl froze mid-step. That voice. That terrifyingly calm, 'I-know-what-you-did' voice that every member of Hermes Familia had learned to fear.
She turned around slowly to find Asfi standing in the middle of the street, arms crossed, glasses glinting ominously in the moonlight. Behind her stood Riveria, Ryuu, and Ais, all wearing expressions that ranged from disappointed to downright murderous.
"Oh! Vice-Captain Asfi! What a... lovely surprise to see you out so late!" Lulune's voice cracked as she tried to maintain her innocent act. "And Lady Riveria! Ryuu! Ais! What brings you all—"
"Cut the crap, Lulune," Asfi interrupted, pushing her glasses up her nose in that way that meant someone was about to get verbally eviscerated. "We know."
"Know what?" Lulune's tail was practically trying to hide between her legs now.
"That you've been playing information broker for our resident pyromaniac," Riveria said dryly. "Really, Lulune? Did you think we wouldn't notice the pattern?"
"What pattern? I don't know any patterns! I'm terrible with patterns! Ask anyone!"
Ryuu stepped forward, and Lulune could practically see the vein throbbing in her forehead. "Mysterious fires at Evilius hideouts. Bodies burned beyond recognition. A certain someone asking very specific questions about locations and guard rotations—"
"That could be anyone!" Lulune protested weakly.
"Anyone who pays so much money and has an unhealthy obsession with turning people into crispy critters?" Asfi raised an eyebrow. "Really, Lulune. I'm disappointed. I thought I trained you better than this."
Ais, who had been silent up until now, finally spoke. "Where is Arin?"
Her voice was so flat and emotionless that Lulune actually shivered. "I... uh... who's Arin? Never heard of him. Is he single?"
The four women exchanged glances that clearly said, 'Should we just skip the interrogation and go straight to the torture?'
"Lulune," Riveria said in her most patient 'I-am-trying-not-to-turn-you-into-a-block-of-ice' voice, "we found the last hideout he hit. There were scorch marks in the shape of running people on the walls."
"Could be a coincidence?" Lulune tried hopefully.
"The adventurer witnesses described someone who matches Arin's height, build, and disturbing tendency to monologue while setting things on fire," Asfi continued.
"Lots of people monologue! It's a very popular hobby!"
"They also mentioned he was humming," Ryuu added grimly. "Humming while people burned alive, Lulune."
"...okay, that is a little specific," Lulune admitted, her ears drooping.
"And," Asfi said, pulling out a small notebook, "I did a little investigating yesterday after I noticed some... irregularities in the reports. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that every single location he's hit had been scouted by a certain Chienthrope information broker just days before."
Lulune looked around desperately for an escape route, but Ais had somehow moved to block her path without her noticing. The Sword Princess stood there like a golden-haired wall of impending doom.
"Look," Lulune said, trying a different approach, "he pays really, really well. Like, embarrassingly well. Do you know how expensive this city is?"
"So you sold out your friend for money?" Ryuu's eye was definitely twitching now.
"I didn't sell him out! I was helping him clean up the city! It's like... urban renewal! With more fire!"
"Urban renewal," Riveria repeated slowly. "With more fire."
"...when you say it like that, it sounds bad."
"Because it IS bad!" Ryuu exploded. "Do you have any idea what he's becoming out there? He's not sleeping, barely eating, and according to the witness, he's started talking to himself!"
"Lots of people talk to themselves! I talk to myself all the time! Right now I'm talking to myself about how screwed I am!"
Asfi rubbed her temples. "Lulune, he's hunting merchants now. Civilians. People like them are not going to leave him alone; there will be bounties on his head."
"But they were funding terrorists! They are the ones in wrong!" Lulune protested.
"They do not care about that." Asfi shot back. "And besides, what's next? Is he going to start burning down bakeries because they sold bread to someone who once talked to a cultist?"
Lulune opened her mouth to respond, then closed it. "...that would be bad for the bread industry."
"LULUNE!" all four women shouted in unison.
"Okay, okay! I get it! Maybe enabling the descent of a friend into vigilante madness wasn't my best career move!" Lulune threw her hands up in defeat. "But in my defense, he's really, really scary when he's focused on something, and I didn't want to be the one to tell him no!"
Ais stepped closer. "Where is he now?"
"There's... there's a list," Lulune said, pulling out a crumpled paper with shaking hands. "These are the last hideouts."
Asfi snatched the paper, scanning the addresses. "There are a lot of them remaining, huh?"
"And now they're all on Arin's barbecue list," Riveria said grimly.
"He's not that bad!" Lulune protested. "He only burns the ones who try to run!"
The silence that followed was so heavy it could have crushed diamonds.
"Lulune," Asfi said very, very quietly, "please tell me you understand why that statement is deeply concerning."
Lulune looked around at the four increasingly murderous faces surrounding her. "...I should probably stop helping him, shouldn't I?"
"You THINK?" Ryuu screamed.
"Okay, okay! I am sorry!"
Asfi, who was studying the paper, turned to the others. "If we move fast, we might be able to catch up to him. He might be strong, but even he can be outnumbered, and besides, there is still a first-class adventurer among them."
"What do we do with her?" Ryuu asked, jerking her thumb at Lulune.
"House arrest," Asfi said firmly. "No more information brokering until we sort this mess out."
"Aw, come on! That's not fair! I was just following market demand!"
"The market demand for enabling psychotic behavior?" Riveria raised an eyebrow.
"...it's a niche market, but surprisingly lucrative?"
Ais stepped forward and, without a word, picked up Lulune.
"Hey! Put me down! This is undignified! I have rights!"
"You'll have the right to remain silent," Asfi said as they started moving toward the Hermes Familia home. "We need more help as well."
The others agreed. As they discussed who they should include in their team.