Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

They've become so paranoid that they'll rush to the scene at the slightest sign of trouble.

“…………”

After looking around the maze-like street from the rooftop platform for a while, Loki left the railing.

She descended the steps and wandered into the back alley, wanting to escape the clamor of the adventurers.

at this time……

"Hey Loki. What a coincidence to run into you so early in the morning."

"..."

She met Hermes.

Seeing that her crush was just looking for an opportunity to get close to her, Loki didn't reply.

She silently looked back at the other person.

"How about we chat for a bit?"

"Okay, I'll talk to you then. So, please get to the point."

The other person shrugged at her.

Hermes had already dismissed his retinue and guards and removed everyone else from his sight. At this moment, the handsome smile that had been on his face disappeared.

"I'd like to hear your opinion on the mastermind behind it all, <Ernio>."

With a serious look in his eyes, his orange-yellow pupils asked her this question.

"My thoughts are pretty much the same as yours. There's not much information to use to form a viewpoint."

"You're right, we know far too little. Not even about clues to the mastermind behind it all, or their motives."

All Loki and his crew knew was the absurd codename "Urban Destroyer <Ernio>".

Because the other party was an uncertain existence, like a dream or a bubble, even their very existence was unknown, Loki and the others never seriously investigated them.

To be precise, it's impossible to trace.

But the real enemy, with his clear malice and true nature, bared his fangs at Loki and the others.

It's like loudly asserting one's existence.

It's like letting out a loud, mocking laugh.

"So, let's count to three and together reveal our previous guesses about who's behind this?"

Hermes then changed his tone, making a suggestion with a slight smile.

But still, only his eyes lacked a smile.

Loki silently accepted the offer.

Following Hermes's lip movements as he said "one, two, three," she spoke:

"Dionysus."

The same pronunciation resounded throughout the surrounding area.

Upon hearing the same name, Hermes and Loki maintained their unchanged expressions.

Why would you think that?

"The timing is too coincidental. The opportunity to get involved in the incident, the timing of the contact with Loki... it all has a 'hindsight' feel to it. At least that's how it appears to me."

When Loki asked the question, Hermes answered her immediately.

"Did you know that after the incident on the 24th floor, the first person to come looking for me was Dionysus?"

"...So you suspected him from the very beginning."

"I didn't make a definitive statement, but I was probing him, that's all."

Hermes spoke with ease, but Loki shared the same sentiment.

Dionysus "made too many moves".

Although they were once a top faction in the city—before the "Nightmare of the 27th Floor"—they are now at best a mid-sized organization with a large number of members. While they seem to adhere to secrecy and conceal their [Familia's] strength, they are simply not qualified to contend with the remnants of dark factions and underground forces like monsters. The fact that only Level 3 Philvis Sharia could provide assistance until the start of the conquest operation is the best evidence of this.

"I am a fellow countryman of Dionysus in the heavens... an ally of Olympus. Loki, I think I know that god (man) better than you do."

"Is it that incident where he would 'have an episode' and incite others to kill each other?"

"Oh, you already knew that."

There are still some other points of doubt.

Dionysus was overly hostile to Uranus and had a tendency to try to hinder his cooperation with Loki and others.

Because Uranus also harbored the "bomb" of "heretics," they had no opportunity to cooperate in the past, but Dionysus's stubborn statement did have some effect on the antagonism between the two sides.

"Dionysus possessed a dangerous aura even back in the heavens. Putting that aside, he plays a far too significant role in this commotion."

The once-skilled double agent concluded his statement by saying, "That's why I made a verbal agreement to form an alliance, so I could monitor him."

"May I ask you a question? I want to ask you, if you clearly had doubts, why did you still let Dionysus go with you to conquer the man-made labyrinth?"

"...One reason is that he didn't reveal his true intentions for a long time. Once he entered the enemy's headquarters and stayed close to us, no matter how cautious or patient he was, he would eventually take action... That's what I think."

Loki secretly told Grace how to deal with things if something went wrong.

However, no one could have imagined that Dionysus's actual action would be to leave Loki's side.

"And then there's... I can't genuinely doubt him."

"..."

"I'm fairly sensitive to the smell of lies... but I can't smell that scent on my idol, Dionysus."

This is Loki's honest opinion.

Dionysus's words and actions always carried a certain "mystery".

But the will he spoke, the divine intent he concealed, were all "real." At least, that's how it sounded to Loki.

The recent incident, in particular, has become crucial.

Loki could not doubt the authenticity of the "oath" he made at the gravesite of his family.

"Dionysus was telling the truth... If he was just playing a trick on me, I wouldn't be able to beat him even if I had three heads and six arms. At the time, I felt that even if I had fallen for his trick, there was nothing I could do."

"To think Loki would go to such lengths... In that case, our suspicions about Dionysus were indeed just prejudice and wild guesses, and we ended up wrongly accusing him?"

"That's also his fault. Why did he have to act so pretentiously? He was completely suspicious."

"That's right." Hermes chuckled softly.

After laughing, I looked up at the sky.

"I'm sorry, I misunderstood you... Dionysus."

Looking up at the sky where the divine pillar had just ascended.

"Are you feeling guilty?"

"Haha, just kidding."

Hermes turned his face back, placed his fingers on the brim of his hat, and pressed it down as if to cover his eyes.

Then, he brought his face close to Loki's, revealing his sharp, narrow eyes from under the brim of his hat.

"As for me, Loki... I feel very resentful."

"..."

"We've completely fallen into their trap, haven't we? Dionysus is the sacrificial lamb, used to distract us and throw us into disarray, while the mastermind takes the opportunity to leisurely and secretly plot. Yes, I don't know who that god is, but I'm absolutely furious."

Indeed, Hermes had no endearing guilt whatsoever.

The eyes before me held a burning rage.

It is the frustration of acknowledging that one has been manipulated and being played by others.

"Loki, you don't care at all? Unlike me, I'm just a 'half-baked'... You, the celestial rascal, are being toyed with for fun. There's no greater humiliation than that, is there?"

Hermes turned his face back and jokingly pointed his palms toward the sky.

It would be a lie to say I don't care.

But at this moment, even Loki, a god, couldn't explain what this feeling, like a dry breeze swirling in his chest, truly was.

"...Alright, fine. Now I know Loki thinks the same way I do. I'll start tracing the line of events related to Dionysus."

"You mean you're going to track down the criminal?"

"That's right. Next—it's time to find the real culprit."

With those words left behind, Hermes took a step forward.

As he left, he placed the chess piece—the black king—in Loki's hand and walked away.

"..."

After the male god's figure disappeared, Loki leaned against the wall of the back alley.

She stared at the black king that her opponent had given her—a piece symbolizing the mastermind behind the scenes—for a long time, then looked up at the sky.

A vast expanse of blue sky.

Everything seemed perfectly normal; the sky was cloudless and crystal clear.

"How could you just ascend to heaven like that...?"

Loki snapped out of his daze and realized he was muttering to himself while looking at the sky, which was cut into the shape of a back alley.

He was speaking to a male god who had disappeared into the sky along with many of his followers.

"Are you really being manipulated, Dionysus...?"

Even if you were to ask a question about the blue sky that is now devoid of even a single beam of light, you would not get an answer.

Is Dionysus looking down at Loki from the heavens right now?

Or perhaps the gods who were peering down into the mortal realm had already seen the whole thing clearly?

They might be pointing at her and laughing right now, saying that even the famous Loki is so useless.

Normally, just imagining it would have made her furious; but for some reason, she didn't feel that way at this moment.

"..."

To shake off a sentimentality that didn't suit his personality, Loki followed Hermes's example.

What we should do now is not dwell on the past, but move forward.

Loki thought about it for a moment.

(Was Dionysus really a "clown"? Like Hermes said, was he just there to distract us...? Even if he was, how could Dionysus be so conveniently manipulated by the mastermind behind the scenes? Why... no, how did he do it?)

That's the point that Loki just couldn't figure out.

In that case, it would be more reasonable to speculate that "Dionysus colluded with the mastermind behind the scenes."

(Judging from what the little dwarfs said, the god Dionysus did indeed have a biased side, just like I used to be.)

Sometimes, the gods are afflicted by a strange disease called boredom and dullness.

Loki also incited the gods to kill each other.

"The territory of Dionysus and His people... the incident that nearly escalated into a bloody struggle for the twelve seats in the heavens. Besides the twelve gods themselves, he dragged the other gods into it—"

Loki pondered this for a moment, then suddenly tried a different approach.

(What if... I mean, what if... Dionysus was actually being manipulated from that point on? What if someone else had made him repeatedly make extreme statements and actions, and had already been made a scapegoat at that stage... then he would have become a "smokescreen" for the mastermind behind the scenes.)

This speculation was too imaginative and far-fetched, but Loki couldn't just laugh it off at this point.

Just as she was lost in thought—silently…

"...Loki?"

"Huh!? So-Somo!?"

Without warning, a handsome black-haired man appeared.

Upon seeing Loki, Soma was taken aback and slowly tilted his head slightly.