Dense rows of dirty multiple stories structures create a jagged skyline against the dark backdrop; cheap-looking mana antennas connected by bundles of loose electrical wires hang from buildings to buildings.
The narrowed, mess-filled street is thick with the smell of grime and dust.
—The Undercity, huh. I guess the expectation I have for how this place looks turns out to be quite accurate.
"I-it really was just a job we took on!"
“Yes, that’s right. We’re not bad people!”
"Please don't kill us!"
In front of the wreckage of the van, three people are now performing a synchronized kowtow. A woman with red hair. A large man with black hair. And a smaller man wearing a red beanie.
Judging from the black cloaks they’re wearing, these people are definitely the ones that took Eden. The van—or whatever is left of it—should also serve as the decisive piece of evidence.
Still, even though we were panicking so much because of what they did, seeing them submitting so easily without even trying to put up the least bit of resistance is a bit funny.
“Right. And all the black cloaks and threatening people with sharp objects after luring them into an Illusory Domain is just a form of friendly pranks."
I can't help but toss out a sarcastic comment.
But for some reason, the red-haired woman’s expression instantly brightens.
“Actually, it was a form of friendly role-playing.”
I stare at her.
“We wanted to pretend to be third-rate villains for a change.”
Holding an ice-formed blade, Vena also stares at her.
“You see, we took these cloaks as compensation for our last job. They look similar to the ones described in a recently popular novel.”
Vena and I continue to stare at her.
“And, uh…”
And we continue to stare at her.
“We thought… they were… cool.”
Eventually, the red-haired woman’s excited expression falters. And her voice grows faint as she looks down timidly.
—Why did it take her so long to realize that we didn’t care about her cloaks at all?
Crossing my arms, I cast a glance at the other two. They shudder and tense up respectively.
Then they both point their fingers at the red-haired woman at the same time.
““We are actually being forced to work for her because she has our family.””
“You traitors!” the red-haired woman yells at the two men kneeling beside her.
“I’m sorry, Boss, but you can’t keep threatening us with their lives,” the man wearing a red beanie says while showing a mournful face.
“That’s right, we’re sick and tired of your evil, oppressive ways,” the large man says while clenching his fist tearfully.
“How did the two of you even come up with the same excuses simultaneously? Don’t tell me you've already discussed something like this beforehand!”
The red-haired woman points at them angrily. And the man wearing the red beanie raises the corner of his lips.
"Not to brag, but we actually worked out all available life-saving methods just in case this kind of thing happened a long time ago," he says.
"Throwing you under the bus just happened to be the easiest one on the list,” the large man nods sagely.
"Y-you! After this, our friendship is over!"
“”Goodbye, Boss, we’ll miss you.””
“Arrgh~! —Wait, why did you two say that? Now it’s not gonna work.”
““...”’
Looking at the three stupefied Chaos Angels who are now sweating profusely, the corner of my mouth involuntarily twitches.
—What are they doing? Some kind of three-man comedy routine designed to distract us while trying to think of a way to escape?
[No... I think they’re just a little bit dumb.]
—That… might very well be the case, Lady Athena.
I quietly scan the nearby area with my eyes just in case they’re actually up to something suspicious—signs of reinforcements for example.
However, I eventually notice something else that causes me to frown.
“Wait, aren’t there four of you?”
When we ask Miss Audrey to tell us more details about what happened in the evening. She did mention that she saw four people in the van.
—Actually, that’s not the only thing that’s off.
“Actually, more than that, isn’t this place quite a mess? What happened here? Where is everyone else?”
Abandoned street, tipped-over for cart, that garbage bag is on fire. Don’t tell me this is how this city always is.
The red-haired woman pauses for a moment. Then her eyes widen.
"Well, you see, there was a dog—"
“Altarin, who cares about any of this?”
But as the red-haired woman's about to say something, Vena cuts her off before grabbing her by the neck and pushing her against the wreckage of the van.
“Tell us where Eden is, right now.”
“L-little Eden is… gone!” feeling the ice-cold blade touching her cheeks, the red-haired woman stutters out a reply.
"...!"
A dangerous light glints across Vena’s eyes. And the temperature in the surrounding area drops by several degrees.
My hands instantly raise toward the other two men.
The instant she notices our reactions, the red-haired woman panics.
“Like I was saying there was a dog!” she screams and puts her hands in front of her. “Like a big, three-headed dog that breathes fire from its mouth! W-what do you call that again?”
—A big, three-headed dog that breathes fire?
“You mean a Cerberus?” I say with a squint.
“Yeah!” the red-haired woman exclaims.
“Why would there be a Cerberus in the Realm of Gods, that doesn’t make any sense,” Vena points out, also with a squint.
“But it was here! Please believe me!”
The red-haired woman immediately points to the van behind her and looks directly into Vena’s eyes.
"The Cerberus chased after us until we crashed our van. Then it took Little Eden and our precious friend Miwari and leaped off even though we tried everything to stop it!"
“The Cerberus… took Eden?”
As Vena and I squint our eyes at the strange development, the red-haired woman actually corrects herself while awkwardly scratching her cheek.
“N-no, actually that’s not really what happened. Little Eden just sort of climbs on its back and rides it away.”
“What…?”
—Okay, what’s actually going on here? I'm confused.
“Bell, Kevin, back me up!”
The two men nod profusely.
[It doesn’t look like they’re lying....]
Hearing the words of confirmation from Lady Athena, in my head, the image of Eden happily riding a giant Cerberus and directing it to go wherever he wants appears. And suddenly I feel my temple ache.
—Eden, why are you just doing whatever you want without any regard for anything? Aaaah!
Vena seems to be perplexed by what the red-haired woman is saying too. But eventually, she shakes her head.
“Whatever actually happened here's not that important.”
Then she grabs the back of the red-haired woman's collar and drags her to her feet.
“We’re only here to find Eden.”
Realizing what Vena’s going to do, I walk over to the other two men and grab them by the back of their collars as well.
“Point. Direction.”
The red-haired woman looks confused by Vena's command. But she soon realizes that she’s asking her for the direction Eden went.
She raises her finger. And meekly points to the red pagoda in the distance.
“Um… there?”
And then…
Boom~!
Vena kicks the ground, shattering the cemented street, and instantly shoots forward in the given direction.
“AaaaaaaaaAAAAaaaAAaaaaaAaaaaah—!”
And before the look of panic can even appear on the face of the other two, I also tighten my grip on their collars and launch into the air. Leaving behind a small crater in the street.
The shockwaves that were generated as a result of our sudden accelerations send all the nearby objects smashing into the nearby buildings.
Within a blink of an eye, Vena and I fly past half of the Undercity and directly toward the red pagoda standing tall in the center.
We spread our wings briefly to catch ourselves and slow down our momentum. And now we’re simply hovering slightly above the central part of the city.
From here, I can see a few spots that can serve as landmarks. The red pagoda in front of us obviously is one. But there’s also a large glowing building floating in one of the waterways that run all across the city some distance away...
The strange thing is, aside from those two places, every other building is just pitch black.
“Is this the place?” Vena asks the red-haired woman who she’s holding up like a grocery bag.
“*Cough* *Cough* Yes, I think this is where Little Eden must have gone.”
The red-haired woman seems a little bit shell-shocked. And she lets out a cough before answering Vena’s question.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
“I can’t see any signs of Eden or that Cerberus you mentioned at all.”
—Rather than signs of Eden, I don’t see signs of anything moving at all.
For a city this large to feel this dark and lifeless—isn’t it weird?
I look at Vena. And she looks at me. We both come to the same conclusion that there’s something strange going on and keep our guards up. You never know what could happen when you’re inside a domain like this.
“Lady Athena, we’re not in another Illusory Domain, are we?” Vena asks. Just in case.
[No.]
—So that’s that…
But just as we are about to go around and continue our search.
“Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second, there’s someone lying on the ground there,” the man wearing a red beanie, who I’m still holding with my hand, yells, and points at something on the ground.
—————……….
Vena and I land at the center of a large plaza. And what awaits us there—is probably one of the strangest sights I've seen in the Realm of Gods.
Broken chairs and tables, bent garbage cans.
Bodies littered the grounds, lying lifeless in even the strangest of positions.
At a glance, it almost seems like the aftermath of a horrible massacre.
—Except for the fact none of these people are dead.
[Aren’t they just passed out because they drank too much?]
It looks like that, but…
—Did they all pass out drunk?
—All of them, everyone in the street, just simultaneously decide to get so wasted that they lose consciousness at the same time?
The red-haired woman walks over to the body of one of the people lying on the ground, grabs him by the collar, and shakes him.
"Helloooo~"
Then she slaps him twice.
Pa! Pa!
And then bangs his head against the floor a couple of times.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
“He’s not waking up?” the red-haired woman asks innocently.
“...”
—Are you sure he’s still capable of that after what you just did?
“Strange,” says the large man who’s also inspecting the body of another woman who’s lying nearby
“Indeed,” says the beanie-wearing man who’s poking the cheek of another unconscious man.
I look around for a bit, not sure what to make of the situation.
“If there’s nothing you can do to wake them up, it’s probably best to just leave them here,” shrugging, I turn to say to the red-haired woman.
“White-haired big brother, do you have no curiosity?”
“Like Vena said. We’re only here for one thing.”
I then turn to look at the massive, bright red pagoda standing tall in the middle of the city. Up close, it’s even larger than I expected.
“Eden’s probably trying to go to that place right?”
“If not for any specific reason, he would probably try to go there anyway because it looks interesting.” Vena sighs softly.
Without paying any more attention to the people who are lying unconscious on the ground, Vena and I begin walking toward the red pagoda—the so-called ‘House of Mistresses.’
Surprisingly, the three Chaos Angels didn’t try to take the opportunity to run away and instead followed behind us quietly after looking at each other’s faces for a bit.
—Is this what they called people with a strong sense of crisis?
It’s almost like they knew what would happen if they did try to escape. Chaos’s Instinct is still as impressive as ever when it comes to self-preservation, it seems.
After crossing the bridge that overpasses a small canal, we are greeted by a lavishly decorated front garden. Beyond that, a small series of steps lead up to a large sliding door.
Vena and I walk up to the door…
Bang—!
—And immediately try to kick it down.
"It's locked," Vena says, frowning slightly.
Seeing what we did, the faces of the three Chaos Angels standing behind her are visibly distressed.
“W-white-haired big sister, can’t you be a little bit more respectful?” the large man nervously asks.
“What for?”
Vena turns around and raises her eyebrow at the three of them.
“Ahh… hahaha. No, no, forget we said anything,” he laughs and swipes the sweat off his forehead.
Instead of standing here and continuing to dissect their body language for no reason, I decide to quickly fly around the pagoda in order to try to search for another entrance.
After that’s done. I land beside Vena and report my underwhelming findings.
“None of the doors or windows can be opened. There doesn’t seem to be a way in.”
Hearing that, the red-haired woman raises her eyebrows puzzlingly.
“But that can’t be right. The House of Mistresses never closes its door no matter what time of day it is.”
“Then why can’t we go in?” Vena asks her.
“I don’t know but. All those people earlier too… There’s quite a lot of strange things happening today.”
The red-haired woman touches her chin and narrows her eyes. The other two men beside her have similarly confounded expressions.
“Are you absolutely sure that Eden and your friend were trying to come here?” I squint my eyes skeptically and ask them.
“That was what Little Eden was telling us he was going to do…” the red beanie-wearing man faintly mutters.
I try to look up at the grand pagoda, but because of how tall it is, I can’t even see the top.
—Could they have… gone inside already?
“Is there no other way in?”
Vena cast an inquiring glance toward the three Chaos Angels.
“As far as we know, no. But…” The red-haired woman claps suddenly. "I think there's one person we could try asking."
Immediately when she says that, the expressions of the other two men light up in excitement.
"That’s right! Xiao Hong should be able to tell us what's going on,"
"Who in the world is Xiao Hong?”
The red beanie-wearing man looks at me with a smile.
“The two of you must have met her before when you entered the Undercity through the 3rd District Entrance, right?”
The 3rd District Entrance? I guess he means that dingy back alley that was kind of hard to find.
But I don't remember meeting...
—Oh, no.
[Greetings, Dear Guests.]
“Why do I have to face you again?”
After giving us the suggestion to go talk to someone, the three Chaos Angels then proceed to lead us to the corner of the front garden, whereupon the wall of the House of Mistresses, a large monitor's embedded.
And sure enough, when the monitor turns on, a familiar outline of a cloaked figure with glowing red eyes appears.
"Xiao… Hong?"
"You’re talking a little differently than usual.”
“How interesting.”
[Ah, this is the first time the three of you must have seen me like this.]
Facing the curious gazes of the three Chaos Angels, the figure inside the screen continues to speak in a monotonous voice. Or at least that’s what is being sent out of the built-in speaker.
[For our first meeting, I'll be in your care.]
“What do you mean this is our first meeting? Didn’t we just meet?” A little surprised by what it's saying, I can’t help but ask.
[Please do not mistake me for the Automatic Response System, Dear Guests.]
[I am the Emergency Response System.]
“What’s the difference?”
[As you can tell, I have a much more serious expression compared to my counterpart.]
“That is true…” The red-haired woman strokes her chin thoughtfully.
—No, no it isn’t. What the hell are you people talking about?
The other two are also nodding, seemingly agreeing wholeheartedly with the statement.
“Xiao Hong… when she’s not talking very energetically… is also kind of cute.”
"Right, right, I bet if we sell this information to the head of her fan club, we’ll surely get paid a lump sum"
—Or maybe they're just thinking of something else entirely, never mind.
“Well, whatever you are, I’ll be brief.” I look directly at the figure on the monitor. “About half an hour ago, was there anybody who went inside that pagoda?”
[There were, in fact, three individuals who had recently entered the House of Mistresses.]
“Three?”
“It must’ve counted the dog,” the red-haired woman mutters quietly.
“If Eden really is inside.” Vena turns her head to look at the House of Mistresses' entrance. Then back to the monitor. “Open the door and let us in.”
[I can not.]
“Then contact the Goddess Lucianna. We want to talk to her directly.”
[I can not.]
“What do you mean you can not? Aren’t you a part of this domain?”
I narrow my eyes and stare at this so-called ‘Xiao Hong’. Normally, If this thing really is the [Emergency Response System] created by the god of this domain, then it should also be considered a part of its owner and hold some form of authority.
[I am, yet at the same time, I am also not.]
“What?”
As I, and everyone besides me, look at it with a questioning gaze, the glowing red eyes of the figure on the monitor dim slightly.
[If only there was a term to describe such a curious state of being.]
[Sadly, there is no such thing.]
[How shameful. If there is such a wonderful term, I would like to use it at every opportunity.]
[Ah, I must apologize. Due to a certain matter of concern I have become more existentially aware than usual.]
“...” Everyone.
“Okay, this isn’t getting us anywhere. Let’s ask simpler questions.”
Growing a little impatient, Vena directly pushes herself closer to the monitor.
“Can you tell us why we can’t go inside?” she asks in a commanding tone.
[The House of Mistresses is currently in a state of lockdown.]
[No unauthorized being is allowed in. And no one is allowed out.]
[More than that, all connections to Lady Lucianna on my end have also been cut off.]
—So it turns out to be something like that after all? Haaa~ This is going to be really troublesome.
I sigh, internally and externally, and look at the monitor again.
“For how long is this lockdown going to last?”
[Forever.]
“Huh?!”
This time, it’s the large man who exclaims in panic. The red-haired woman and the red-beanie-wearing man also gasp in surprise.
Even Vena and I tense up after hearing what was said.
[Until the matter of concern has been resolved. There’s no way for the House of Mistresses to open up again.]
“This matter of concern that you keep talking about, is it related to those people lying on the ground?”
The red-haired woman speaks up with a shocked face. Despite my initial impression, she seems to be quite fast at picking up on things.
[You’re correct, Dear Guests.]
[Due to unknown reasons. 90% of the populace of the Undercity has experienced a sudden and irreversible loss of consciousness.]
[Though that is not exactly why the lockdown happened, it may have a connection.]
[Because of my limited authority at the moment, I am quite lost as to how to gather more information relating to it.]
"So what you're saying is, you're not sure what's going on either."
I cast a suspicious glance at the figure on the monitor. The pair of glowing red eyes narrow slightly. And when its voice is cast out of the built-in speaker again, its tone softens.
[Therefore… If you would be so kind, Dear Guests, this lowly one would like to make a request.]
—Turns out to be that pattern, in the end, huh?
We should at least listen to what it has to say. But before we go on. One thing needs to be absolutely clear.
“Is Eden really in there?” I say, looking at the red pagoda again.
[Again, if you’re referring to that golden-haired child and the Cerberus, then I can assure you that they’re inside the House of Mistresses as we speak.]
[Along with all 14 of the Angels of House Lucianna.]
"So Miwari and her sisters are also trapped inside?" The red-haired woman blinks.
Vena and I touch our chins as we begin to consider the situation.
If this ‘Xiao Hong’ is a part of this Domain, then what was said about the House of Mistress being inaccessible is probably a [Rule].
A [Domain], in simple terms, is a powerful being's projection of their desired reality onto the physical reality. It is due to this nature that within any domain, the desires of the creator would manifest as rules that can not be defied.
For example, if a creator of a domain creates a domain in which “movement” is prohibited. Then whatever the creator of the domain thinks is considered “movement,” whether it’ll be left and right through the 3 spatial dimensions, or forward and backward through the temporal dimension—not only would they not be allowed, they wouldn’t even be possible.
—Within a domain, [Rules] are something that can bend even time and space.
So if this thing is saying that the House of Mistress is impossible to access, then that too must be a [Rule] of this reality. So that means that Eden might really be trapped inside forever...
Although with Lady Athena’s help, perhaps even the most tightly written Divine [Rule] could be broken. It would still take a significant amount of time to figure out the exact minutiae of the domain’s construction.
—And we don’t have enough information, either.
“What do you want us to do?”
Finally admitting that there's no easier option but to comply, I sigh and speak to the figure on the monitor embedded in the wall of the front garden.
[You need to go to the location of the restaurant known as the Golden Catfish.]
“Why? What’s over there?” Vena asks.
[Aside from the fact that the people inside the restaurant are the only people who are still awake, I don’t know. That’s why I want you to go find out.]
“You’re… not very helpful, are you?” I say.
[I must apologize again.]
All of this seems as fishy as they come. But fortunately for us, whenever there’s a situation that arises which requires difficult decisions to be made, we can off-load that responsibility onto someone more qualified.
—Lady Athena?
[We don’t know too much. It’s best to just figure out what’s really going on before doing anything too drastic.]
“But Eden…” Vena's expression turns grave.
[I know. But this is our best course of action.]
I cast my gaze onto the wall-embedded monitor again.
“I suppose we have no choice,” I say.
“We accept your conditions,” Vena says.
“This seems quite important... we should probably go to the Golden Catfish too.”
The three Chaos Angels who are standing behind us also seem to have made up their mind about what to do.
But as we’re about to walk away from the wall.
[One more thing, Dear Guests.]
[It’s best if you are swift in your investigation.]
"...?”
[Currently, inside the House of Mistresses, the true state of lockdown is not only to keep everyone out, but to keep something in.]
Vena and I turn around. The Chaos Angels too.
On the monitor, the glowing red eyes of the shadowy, cloaked figure seem to shine several times more ominous.
[If my guess is correct. Someone, or something, has used an unknown method to impersonate the angels of House Lucianna in order to steal parts of Lady Lucianna’s authority, forcing her to disconnect from the rest of the Undercity.]
[That pretender is certainly still inside as we speak.]
—————……….