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Meanwhile in Twilight Manor…

"How could this happen?!" Loki exclaimed in frustration as she sat on the desk of her second-in-command's office looking at a huge fine her familia executives brought back from the guild. In front of her stood Riveria while Finn sat at his desk and Gareth had taken a chair for himself.

"We don't know…" Finn replied, bearing a grim look. "As far as anyone else can remember, all we did was scare off a minotaur party…"

"Then why did we receive a fine for something else, then?" Loki asked furiously.

"No one – not even the guild knew what that was. It killed with ease entire groups of adventurers ranging from level one to three." The blonde pallum replied.

"The guild had to put the blame on someone to keep order among the familias. If news of a monster like that one kept on roaming through the dungeon's upper floors, no adventurers would ever dare to go back in there." Gareth added sadly.

Loki shook her head in rage and held her hairs in her fists as though she was about to tear them off. "But whyyyy is it so priceyyyy!? That's sooo unfair!"

Finn ignored his goddess's complaints and went on. "Moving on, Riveria, do you know anything that could help us find this monster?"

"I've asked the guild and there was not much to work on." The elf woman replied as she took a piece of paper and began reading it. "Female humanoid-looking, large mouth, white hair, wears clothing and can… talk?"

"WHAT?!" Loki exclaimed in shock. "Riveria! Are you sure that this is a monster? Couldn't it simply be an adventurer that has gone bonkers?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"No, we are quite certain that this is a monster… well, considering the many eye-witnesses. Its eyes glowed red, its proportions were strange, and the witnesses keep on emphasizing about how big the monster's jaw was."

"This is what we find alarming about the whole incident." Finn added. "If this monster keeps on roaming through the upper floors, it will be a carnage…"

"Wo-Wait a sec! You mean that no one killed it yet? Despite being on the upper floors?" Loki asked incredulously.

"No, unfortunately. It vanished shortly after an extermination party was sent after it. No one knows where it went to." Finn replied grimly.

"And that is the scary part in all of this." Gareth added.

"How so?" Loki asked, confused by how this was the scariest part of all of this.

Finn nodded. "Indeed. The problematic part is that if the monster was intelligent enough to speak, then who says it couldn't decide to hide or sneak outside the dungeon without having to blast its way through and cause a commotion?"

"You mean that you believe it could do that?" Loki asked, once again in shock.

"Who knows. This matter needs further investigation. We don't have enough clues to jump to conclusions." Finn shrugged.

"But about the debts-" Loki began, almost on the verge of crying.

"With enough time, we can repay them." Riveria began. "It just means more trips into the dungeon, that's all."

"What!? You just came back from an expedition and you want to leave me again?" Loki complained.

Gareth chuckled at his goddess that looked like she was on the verge of throwing a temper tantrum. "Don't worry; we ain't gonna go that far deep."

"He's right. We should be gone no less than one or two days between each trip and it's not like there's that many preparations to do. I might even stay here to train the rookies." Riveria added.

"Aww~ Riveria you are so nice. Here, lemme give ya a hug" Loki jumped over her second in command's desk and threw herself at Riveria with her arms wide opened in a hug.

*Thow*

The elf woman, already used to this kind of behavior from her goddess, quickly moved herself and the chair she'd been sitting on aside, allowing Loki to hit the hard floor headfirst.

"Ouchie~." Loki said, caressing her face as she stood up.

The three executives shared a small laugh. It felt good to be able to laugh together during such grim times.

"Then how about we go dine at the 'Hostess of Fertility' tomorrow, since you've missed us so much?" Finn proposed with a small smile on his face to which the goddess shouted 'Yay!' and the other two executives nodded in approval.

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