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Chapter 446

「Well, I’ll take my leave here. Thank you so much for your help today, and I apologise for any trouble my party member caused you. Thank you and sorry.」

Inside a small room with a magic circle and stairs to the 13th floor, an adventurer gave a deep bow as he spoke.

The adventurer with a sword had caught up with Rei’s group a short distance away from where they had fought the Rock Spider and had asked to stay with them until he could leave the dungeon. As a result, he had stuck with them until they reached the stairs to the 13th floor.

At first, Set had gave a grumbling cry because the adventurer had been a party member of the adventurer with a spear who had stolen the Rock Spider he had killed. But, it seemed the adventurer had felt it too dangerous to stay back. By handing a few pieces of dried meat to Set, which he had brought to eat when hungry, Set’s irritation subsided. It wasn’t to the point of welcoming him, but at the very least, his grumpy attitude was alleviated.

(As for me, I’m glad that Set didn’t eat the spider.)

Rei knew that eating insects as food wasn’t uncommon in some areas on Earth.

He also knew that in Japan, there were people who ate locusts simmered in soy sauce and mirin, and bee larvae. He had also seen a program where a comedian had eaten caterpillars, spiders, and scorpions in unexplored areas of the world.

To be exact, spiders weren’t insects, but the details of classifications didn’t really interest Rei. From his point of view, they were basically handled the same way.

Anyway, after the adventurer with the sword joined, there were no particular issues. Continuing to defeat various monsters as they made their way through the rocky desert, they arrived at the stairs to the 13th floor.

Seeing the man leave by the magic circle and returned to the surface, Elena gave a sigh.

「I never thought that Goblin Bandits would appear here.」

「I thought the same. If they showed up at the oasis on the 11th floor, could it be that they were originally from the 12th floor and had gone up for some reason?」

「But, how could they have done that? Considering that the magic circle also keeps monsters away, it would be impossible for the Goblin Bandits to enter this small room, right?」

Rei nodded involuntarily at Elena’s words.

It was possible if the monster had some sort of magical connection to an adventurer or it was wearing a Necklace of Subservient Monster, but it was a fact that ordinary monsters were unable to enter the small rooms where the magic circles were.

However, the figure of the Goblin Bandit Mage appeared in Rei’s mind.

「There was that abnormal species, wasn’t there?」

「……That’s right.」

With just those words, Elena knew which monster Rei was talking about. She frowned slightly as she nodded back.

Even for Elena, the matter of Rei fainting after the Death Scythe absorbed that magic stone was a bitter memory.

「Gururu~?」

Set rubbed his body against Elena as he gave a cry.

Unlike Rei, Elena couldn’t fully understand what Set wanted to say, but she could still understand that Set was worried for her.

「Fufu~, are you worried? Thank you.」

「Gurururururu~!」

When Elena gently stroked his head, Set must have understood she was okay. He gave a happy cry, unlike the worried one from a few seconds ago.

「Anyhow, it was an abnormal species. Maybe the Goblin Bandits were taken up to the 11th floor by it. I don’t know how though……」

Although he said that, Rei had half and idea in his mind.

Even so, he didn’t say it as it was purely based on his intuition and he had no evidence whatsoever.

(Summoning magic. ……The Goblin Bandit Mage was definitely weaker than other abnormal species. Of course, it was a magic using monster, but it still seemed very fragile. But, what if the reason was that it had used up most of its magic power to summon the Goblin Bandits? No, as an abnormal species, we don’t really have to worry about another one showing up any more. Rather than that.)

Rei turned his attention to the entrance of the small room with the magic circle.

「Should we go out?」

Following Rei’s gaze, Elena gave a small nod.

Although it wasn’t quite evening yet, they could tell it should be getting close to that time. Because of that, they didn’t want to attempt to clear the 13th floor. But even so, there was no harm in taking a look at what kind of floor it was.

「Guru~」

Set didn’t seem to have any objections as he gave a cry and looked at the entrance.

Thus, the three of them agreed to head out the entrance……

「Wow, it’s this desert again?」

Rei had an expression that said ‘I don’t like this’ as he spoke.

「Maybe the 14th floor will be back to a rocky desert?」

「Gururu~?」

Elena muttered with a sigh while Set didn’t seem to care. To Set, a desert was a desert.

Sand was spread out all over Rei’s line of sight. It was a typical sandy desert, the type that came to mind when one thought of a desert, similar to the desert on the 11th floor.

Of course, there were some differences compared to the 11th floor. Although they hadn’t noticed it because of Rei’s Dragon Robe, Elena’s cloak, and Set’s heat resistance as a Griffon, the sunlight was definitely stronger and the temperature was also higher than the 11th floor.

「……We have to walk through this sand again?」

Rei muttered with a disgusted expression on his face and turned to look at Elena before sighing and heading back to the small room with the magic circle.

Elena knew what he meant and also head back to the small room with Set as if to say ‘that’s enough for today’. Entering the magic circle, they transferred back to the surface.

The transfer magic device was located at the dungeon’s entrance. After being transferred back, Rei noticed the buzz around them.

Elena and Set also turned to look at the noisy adventurers near the dungeon entrance.

When they had entered the dungeon, the adventurers around them had been discussing the attack on the Silva family’s warehouse. But now, the commotion was even bigger, it almost seemed like people were in some sort of confusion.

「……Did something happen?」

「Maybe it’s related to this morning’s situation.」

Rei replied to Elena when he heard the words ‘Silva family’ and ‘Levisor family’ discussed by the adventurers. Just at that moment, they were approached by someone who called out to them.

「Rei, Elena. Set as well. From the looks of it, you just came back from the dungeon?」

The man who called out to them, with a sword sheathed at his waist, was Pleiades, who’s party Rei had saved from Sandworms a few days ago.

Unlike when they had met in the dungeon, they couldn’t see the rest of his party members with him.

「We just got back from the 13th floor. ……So, what’s all the fuss about?」

In response to Rei’s question, Pleiades spoke with a serious expression.

「The Silva and Levisor families clashed this morning.」

「……What?」

It was Rei who leaked his voice.

After all, he had stopped by the Silva family residence and met with Vosk before heading to the dungeon. At that time, Vosk had said he would take care of everything all at once, but even so, Rei hadn’t expected it to happen the same day……

Contrary to Rei, Elena gave a small nod, as if she had been expecting that, and prompted Pleiades to continue.

「So what was the result?」

「The Silva family is one based on martial strength and the Levisor family is the weakest of the three in that aspect. I don’t have to tell you the outcome, do I? The direct clash occurred near the Levisor residence, but it seems that Vosk-san was leading the Silva family’s forces and went straight to the Levisor residence.」

It wasn’t difficult to guess what the results would be. In short……

「The Levisor family was defeated, I guess.」

「That’s right. However, the head of the Levisor family, Schaffner, is missing and hasn’t been caught.」

Pleiades addressed Vosk with honourifics but left them out for Schaffner. It was proof of how he felt about the two of them.

No, it wasn’t just Pleiades. Considering what Rei and Elena had heard after coming to Exil, most people probably had the same impression of Vosk and Schaffner.

The only exception would have been those close to Schaffner, but only because it served their own interests.

「And the result? Did they confirm that the attack on the warehouse was conducted by the Levisor family?」

「There was no clear evidence on that end. But, something ridiculous came out instead.」

「Something ridiculous?」

Rei asked back, but he could half guess what the ridiculous thing Pleiades was talking about was.

It was only natural as he had made the same guess just the day before. That is to say……

「Evidence of illegal experimentation with magic stones. It seems they were also experimenting in a lab that was built in secret near the slums. As for the abnormal species, they say they were created in those experiments.」

「……I see.」

The fact that he had predicted it earlier made Rei strangely satisfied in his mind.

「So that’s what this fuss all about.」

He looked around at the adventurers that were talking with each other and not just their friends.

Next to Rei, ELena spoke with a slightly melancholy expression on her face.

「However, this……is going to be troublesome.」

「Troublesome?」

Elena gave a small nod when Rei asked her.

「I don’t know what he was thinking when he decided to create the abnormal species, but now that his misdeeds have been exposed, there is no way out for Schaffner. There is also a possibility he could go rogue and do something crazy.」

「I see. Now that he’s been cornered, he’ll be betting on a way to turn everything around at once. ……Pleiades, what’s the current state of the Levisor family? The current head is Schaffner, but he’s run away, right? Then, at worst, someone has to take over the Levisor family for now.」

「The Silva family is currently handling htat, but it seems that Vosk has announced that Schaffner’s son will take over the position as family head.」

「……Son? Did he have one?」

Those words leaked out from Rei as he had only met Schaffner when they had been invited to the Levisor family. On the other hand, Elena nodded as if it were a matter of course.

「They might not be nobility officially……but they are still one of the three governing families of the Labyrinth City. Naturally, they have to have someone they can pass control to.」

「And yet we didn’t hear anything about his son at all when gathering information on Schaffner?」

「That’s quite understandable. For better or worse, he was hidden in the shadow of Schaffner’s bad politics. Wasn’t he?」

Pleiades nodded hurriedly as he glanced at Elena, unintentionally nervous from her beauty, despite already being acquainted.

「Y-Yeah. It’s true that he seems to be a man with a rather low presence, or rather no presence, so he was rarely talked about. In fact, I didn’t even know he existed until I heard abouit this.」

「Then, this commotion shouldn’t last too long. ……However, that is under the premise that Schaffner, who has disappeared, is found as soon as possible.」

「If the Levisor family was collecting magic stones to experiment in creating abnormal species, what about the Marschel family, who were also collecting magic stones? Is it possible that they were also experimenting with abnormal species?」

Rei’s question was a natural one to have, but it was Elena and not Pleiades who answered him.

「They are probably using the Levisor family as a warning. ……Even the Silva family can’t attack the Marschel family without having any proof other than they were also collecting magic stones.」

「But, in that case, isn’t there a possibility that abnormal species will continue to appear?」

「Impossible. If the Marschel family is really conducting experiments to create abnormal species, the Silva family will attack the Marschel family the moment another abnormal species appears again. That would be enough circumstantial evidence. I don’t think they would be that careless……that is if the Marschel family are indeed conducting experiments to create abnormal species.」

At Elena’s words, not only Rei and Pleiades, the other adventurers who had been listening in to their conversation also let out sighs of relief.

(It is possible, however, that some of the abnormal species created by the Levisor family still remain.)

Although a lot of adventurers were tough people who could easily be out for blood, they didn’t want their friends, family, and loved ones to be caught up in a war between Exil’s ruling families.

It also seemed to Rei that Elena didn’t want the current turmoil to escalate, so she had spoken up in order to calm those around her.