Kisuke, Hestia, Artemis, and Serafall went on and talked about random things for half an hour before Kisuke decided to leave. It took some time to peel both Ophis and Hestia off of him, but he had to if he wanted to leave.
At the gates of the mansion, Kisuke and Serafall stopped walking. "What about the God that I asked you about?", asked Kisuke suddenly.
"He's been coming in and out of the Red Light District with his Captain these past few days in secret. I don't know what he's scheming but it looks like he's looking for something or someone.", answered Serafall after thinking for a bit, "Do I really need to watch him closely, though? Hermes, that is."
"Yep, but you only have to watch in secret. Don't get involved with anything he does."
"Even if it involves Sona-chan and the others?"
"That's right. Of course, you can intervene when they're in danger, though."
Serafall sighed, "Well, my sentiments are the same. I want Sona-chan to have as many experiences as possible. Besides, this is actually my first time seeing her work so hard and intensely to achieve something."
Kisuke became interested with her words, "Eh? Wasn't she like this since before? The overly serious Student Council President and heiress of the Sitri House?"
With a smug expression, Serafall answered, "Don't underestimate my 'CuteLittleSister' journal observation records!"
Her smug expression then changed into that of nostalgia, "She's indeed very hardworking, but that's only because of her sense of duty that her family gave her. Aside from the time when she tried to break off from the engagements that were proposed to her, this is the only time that she's doing something of her own accord."
Serafall then started stretching her arms and continued, "Hnnng...! Ah... Enough of that. Why are you giving him so much attention anyway?"
Kisuke didn't mind her suddenly changing the topic and answered, "Because he wants something from me and if his first plan fails, he'll come after me. I presume that it'll only be a matter of time before he starts scheming behind Sona-chan and others."
"If he's going to do it, and I think it'll be when you're not around, how do you want me to approach it?"
"It's enough if you give them a warning before they advance further, depending on what they know."
"Then what about this Freya? She's always keeping an eye on us."
"Don't mind her too much. Unlike Hermes, I doubt she'll do anything. She's just very curious regarding a few things.", Kisuke then turned away and said his goodbyes, "I have to go. Take care."
Serafall waved her hand at him with a smile and said, "You too. Take care. And by the way, thanks for bringing me to this world."
Kisuke smiled too and said, "It seems you're enjoying this world. Don't mention it and just enjoy your vacation. The future isn't too kind."
After leaving those words, Kisuke disappeared and to no one in particular, Serafall muttered, "I know... And I'm actually thanking you because I finally found my way forward. Thinking outside of the box really does wonders~. Though in this case, it's thinking outside of the world."
Skipping happily, Serafall returned to the manor to finish the Magical Girl costumes that she had been working on for everyone.
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Several thousand kilometers away from Orario, Yoruichi and Kuroka, who were investigating the middle floors of the Dungeon located under the ocean, suddenly shivered, "...What was that!?"
"N-no clue, nya..."
Yoruichi became quiet for a moment to think about the shivers they both felt, 'It was not a dangerous feeling, but is this unpleasant premonition? There's no message from Kisuke's side so I wonder what it was?'
Sighing, Yoruichi continued, "No matter... Let's continue our search."
"Alright, nya.", Kuroka nodded, refocusing her attention to the task at hand, "According to the strange reports, it's around here that Adventurers have felt something strange. But so far, I haven't detected anything with my Ki yet."
"I'm sorry that I had to leave the scanning to you. I can't recklessly use my Reiatsu-Ki within the Dungeon."
"Don't say that, nya! I'm really happy that you can depend on me, nya! And you should do it more often!"
Yoruichi smiled gently and said, "I guess that's true. Even Kisuke is trying his best to change himself to depend on others when needed, as we both knew the limitations of doing everything on our own... Anyway, let's go."
But after walking for a few minutes, Kuroka suddenly stopped and said with a lowered voice, "Yoruichi-san... Troublesome people ahead."
Yoruichi frowned and sighed, "Again? Then we can be sure that we're being tracked by these people."
"I guess being rouge Adventurers really does attract others' attention in this place, nya."
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Two days later, the whole of Orario came into an uproar once again when Freya suddenly invaded Ishtar's territory, not just destroying her Familia, but also sending her back to Heaven. A lot of people were wondering what was going on inside Freya's head and why she would suddenly assault a big Familia.
Of course, no answer would be given to them as only a few people knew the real reason and no one among them wanted to share anything regarding that incident.
Without any surprises, the Freya Familia was penalized by the Guild due to their actions, raking up multitudes of fines. But many knew that they only needed Ottar to slaughter monsters in the deeper floors for a week or two to gain all of that back.
The next big event that happened was when the Evilus members started assaulting and assassinating former Ishtar Familia members for some unknown reasons. Even though the scale was small and quiet, it still brought fear to everyone in Orario as Evilus, once again, started their activities which could potentially put them in danger.
As a result, many citizens petitioned the Guild to sort out the problem with Evilus.
Although the Guild announced that the Loki Familia had already repelled and apprehended the members that assaulted the former Ishtar Familia members, the fear in their hearts didn't abate completely.
But soon, all of this was drowned out when a large army from Rakia arrived three days later, attempting another invasion on Orario.
As troops from Rakia initiated their siege, Adventurers immediately intercepted them with the Loki Familia in the lead. And within just a few hours, the Rakian troops were all downed to the ground, exhausted but not injured heavily.
Since most of the soldiers from Rakia were just normal people and were just forced to participate in this meaningless war by their idiotic God of War, Ares, they stood no chance against the people of Orario who defied common conceptions. As this was the case, the Guild prohibited any killing and would shoulder all the cost of the defense.
Of course, the Guild would not willingly shoulder the cost if they couldn't get anything out of the Rakian soldiers. Instead of a threat, the citizens of Orario treated them as tourists from far away which bolstered the city's economy.
When Serafall saw Ares and how he acted, she immediately thought with a twitching mouth, 'Compared to the Ares that Kisuke fought, he's pretty pathetic...'
Beside her were Claire and Ophis with food in each of their hands while watching the ongoing noise.
But with keen eyes, one could tell that the Adventurers, especially male ones, were avoiding them like plague. Not because of the recruitment incident, but because of the black-haired little girl.