The Berserk Princess (The Flash Danmachi Oratoria)

(Xenos) Chapter 62 Wandering Calm

No one's POV

There wasn't a single cloud in the sky on that day—clear and blue above the city. The weather was perfect. The residents of Orario believed this to be yet another one of those boringly peaceful days as they wiped the sweat off their brows. The sounds of their footsteps joined together in a ballad, playing the harmony of life in the city. The early-summer breeze was nowhere to be found, and the sun beat down on the city as if to reassert that the summer had just begun. The stone pavement absorbed its rays and gave rise to a heat haze. Asuna and Aiz was working up a light sweat as they made their way to Central Park.

Asuna: In the end, the two of us gotta get to the eighteenth floor and seek out information one more time...

As Loki Familia continued to sniff out more clues, both Asuna and Aiz oversaw the Dungeon. Until the previous day, their main mission had been the discovery and elimination of plants—pantries filled with man-eating flowers, whose existence came to light during an incident on the twenty-fourth floor. The goal was to cut off the stream of income funding Knossos, which had been through the smuggling and sale of monsters out of the Dungeon.

In previous days, Asuna had inspected the pantries of every floor down to the thirtieth. Finn had judged the risk involved in illegally moving things below that level too high for them to establish plants there. Accompanied by an elite squad, Asuna had cleared any and all plants left in the Dungeon.

Now that they'd been freed from this dangerous battle mission, the two latter planned to stretch their legs by heading to the Under Resort. It was already clear that Knossos was connected to the Dungeon. They had confirmed it the other day when they found an entrance on the eastern edge of the eighteenth floor, and she intended to gather information at Rivira after she rested.

Aiz: I'm more curious about this humanoid beast...with wings.

Asuna: Well no surprise there. From what intel we've gather, it looks like someone is sheltering it.

Aiz: B-But, why would anyone shelter a monster?

Asuna noticed the firm and cold voice Aiz was uttering. As someone whom hated monster all her life, to Asuna, it was no surprise at all.

Asuna:...

She noticed several residents whispering to one another and made out the word monster. Over the course of a few days, the initial frenzy seemed to die down, though the report of a monster had to be unsettling to the average civilian. There were a few bards with bad taste, singing merrily at bars about the chaos, which was fine and all. But she suspected this was the source of unfounded rumors of the monster appearing night after night and attacking city folk. This incident was relatively small in comparison to the Monsterphilia, but fear and anxiety hung in the air of the city.

Asuna: Everyone is scared of the monsters...which makes sense...since these people aren't adventurers.

It meant they didn't have the means of fighting back—and there were far more defenseless people than those capable of keeping them away. In their eyes, monsters were fear made manifest, violence in material form. They couldn't be allowed to take root in human residences, or else their fangs would draw blood, their claws would deliver wounds, and their roars would inspire screams of terror. As those two stepped into Babel, Aiz wondered if there was a way to ease their fears.

Aiz: I had a late start. By now, the other adventurers should be...

Asuna: Ah...

They headed one floor underground in the white tower leading to the Dungeon, descending the silver staircase into the big hole and feeling as though they were being observed by the painting of blue sky on the ceiling. It was long past rush hour, and there weren't many people around. As those two were making their descent with two or three other adventurers going solo, Asuna and Aiz stopped dead in their tracks.