“That it would.”
“We’ll keep on slogging away here…Rod, Borg, and everyone else.”
With their plans for the future laid out, both of them turned around to face the same direction, where a certain young goddess currently sat tied up on a chair.
“Now it’s your turn, you demonic urchin. Ready to spit it all out?”
“…Hmph,” she replied with a jerk of her head. Loki just cackled evilly from her spot a short distance away.
Once the fight in the sea cavern had come to an end, she and her followers had taken pity on Bache and the other injured Amazons, healing their wounds and sending them back on their ship to Telskyura. Not so their patron deity, however, who’d been forcibly brought back with them. Seeing the tiny brat hopping mad at her current arrangements only made Loki all the more gratified.
“First off, ya better goddamn well promise not to lay a finger on my Tione and Tiona, ya hear? And make sure those battle junkies of yours know it, too…”
“…If you’re talking about Argana, she’s no use to me now anyway.”
“Huh?” Loki asked dubiously.
“And not just Argana, either…but all of them. Everyone except Bache has done the dishonor of losing to a man…” Kali continued, with a deep frown. Her eyes turned dark and glassy as she mumbled invectives: “If only they could have been Amazons,” “And don’t even get me started on Tione,” “Damn girl. Fall in love, will she?” “With Argana down for the count, Bache doesn’t even have a reason to fight anymore…” “The future is dark indeed…”
“This may very well be the end for Telskyura…” she finally said out loud. “My poor beloved kingdom…”
“I have no idea what you were just mumblin’ up a storm about…but let me get one thing straight. And this is for the sake of my cute little Tiona and Tione,” Loki started. “You’re gonna put an end to all this killin’, you hear? Or at the very least, release those who don’t like these ‘rites’ of yours.”
“Oh, right, because if I say, ‘If you don’t wanna die, just say so, and you can leave,’ everyone won’t raise their hands. What are you, an imbecile?!”
“You wanna die, you asinine punk?!”
“All right, all right. I got it, I got it! Love will save the world and all that. Love and peace, love and peace. All hail Lady Aphrodite.”
“You little shit—”
“This approach seems to be getting us nowhere. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind lowering your fist, Loki?”
Loki’s clenched fist was trembling at the masked goddess’s infuriating expression and cheeky comments, but when Njörðr interrupted with a well-placed jab of his elbow, she somehow released the breath she’d been holding.
“…Fine. First off, why did you all come to Meren?”
“Not sayin’.”
“I thought I just asked if you wanted to die, punk!”
“And that alone is what I can’t tell you. Not after coming this far.”
Kali harrumphed, once again turning her head to the side as big blue veins rose atop Loki’s forehead.
“Come on now, you two…” Njörðr attempted to mediate for Loki—a skill he’d developed far too well thanks to the long friendship they shared from back in the upper world.
“If anyone, Ishtar certainly seems to have done a lot for him and his familia. You don’t suppose she has something to do with it?”
“All right, out with it, midget!”
“—”
Kali responded with a brash whistle.
Though she examined things from underneath her half-lidded eyes, Loki had somehow narrowed down the candidates in her mind after hearing about Ishtar’s involvement. The first face that popped into her head belonged to the abominable goddess of beauty she couldn’t seem to get rid of…But considering she had no duty to warn Kali of the kinds of trouble she could get her into, Loki chose to keep her mouth shut.
“…Next. What do you know about those man-eating viola flowers?”
“Nothing, actually. I’m being honest.”
Loki stared down at Kali but spotted no sign of dishonesty in her crimson eyes.
“Though come to think of it, Ishtar certainly seemed to know a great deal about those flowers, no?” Kali mused.
“Not Ishtar again!…Njörðr, you said yourself Ishtar and her gang were the ones who supplied your violas, right?”
“That’s true. However, they were simply a trading partner…introduced to me as the perfect entity to help in transporting the violas to Meren.”
Once the deal had been struck, they’d both used the sea cave near Meren to their own advantage. In exchange for their delivering the violas, Njörðr had agreed to finance their activities in the city. It had never been anything more than that, and certainly there was no sort of trusting relationship between the two.
“She really chewed you up and spit you out, you know that, right?” Loki commented, holding nothing back.
“Tell me something I don’t know…” Njörðr replied with a sigh.
“Hmm…Then our two leads are Ishtar and that mysterious human skulking about in the sewers…” Loki mused as the two finally turned toward the table where Ishtar Familia’s emblem—one of the insignias on the Guild’s official list—had been placed alongside a refined portrait of the mysterious figure Njörðr had drawn up. The illustration depicted an unhealthy-looking person with bags under their eyes, or, at least, under the one eye not hidden by a set of long bangs.
A shadier-lookin’ guy than Soma even…Loki couldn’t help but think as she eyed it.
“…Come to think, what kinda stuff did this fella want you to smuggle anyway?”
“I’m afraid I never looked inside the boxes themselves, but likely valuable goods, occasionally alcohol…One time there was even a box that made a horrible ruckus. Something alive, no doubt. According to that human, he desperately needed money.”
“Money, huh…?”
Certainly, if the remnants of the Evils and those creatures had any hopes of fulfilling their dreams of destroying Orario, they’d need sufficient capital to support their activities. Then had everything been a wasted effort? At any rate, she’d at least gotten her hands on another clue, which was enough for the time being.
“Yo, short stuff. Ishtar mention anything else? Doesn’t even have to be anything important.”
“Hmmm…I’m afraid we didn’t talk long. Both of us had things to do, you see…So I can’t remember much else,” Kali began, her expression somewhat pensive beneath the gazes of the other two gods. “But…” she added. “What I can say is…that woman is terrifying.”
“…? What’s that supposed to mean? Your familia is kirlos ahead of hers when it comes to sheer power…” Loki said, confused.
“I mean she’s as crafty as they come. And she has an ace up her sleeve to boot. Surely you’ve heard something from your children concerning this matter, hmm?”
And certainly, Loki had.
Thinking back now, Loki remembered Aiz and Bete telling her that Ishtar’s Level-5 captain, Phryne Jamil, had been wielding the combat power of a Level 6. And what’s more, according to Bete, she’d had some kind of magic user in her arsenal, too…If that goddess really had gotten ahold of some kind of magic or curse that effectively leveled up her followers, she’d be a force to be reckoned with. For instance, if those same effects had been used on either Argana or Bache, the situation they’d just dealt with would likely have gone much differently. Sure, she’d been able to play it cool knowing she had reinforcements in the form of Finn and the rest of the men, but had her calculations been incorrect, she’d have been in for a world of hurt. The mere thought of it was enough to send a drop of cold sweat down her temple.
At the same time, though, another thought crossed her mind.
This was exactly what the lower world was about—the most thrilling board game, brimming with possibilities even she and her other gods couldn’t predict.
And it was for this reason that she c
ouldn’t get enough of it—a thought that had her indiscreetly licking her chops.
“And one more thing…” Kali spoke up again. “This is just a hunch, but…the reason she didn’t bat an eye at leaving my girls and me out to dry even after going all the way to invite us here? She’s got something else. Another one of her hidden aces.”
“Another ace in the hole…” Loki ruminated on the words as Njörðr threw a gaze in her direction.
Outside, night had already blanketed the building in shadow. Inside, Loki heard the sound of two unexpected divine wills interlocking.
“That incompetent fool…falling to Loki Familia. It’s just as I predicted…”
A bewitching figure made its way along the stone passage.
Woven hair swaying with each step, Ishtar cursed the tiny goddess under her breath. Her human manservant remained silent alongside her.
But her grumblings were not to last long, and her frown turned into a smile as she let out a puff of noxious purple air from her kiseru pipe. She’d reached the end of the dimly lit passage.
“If I can’t rely on them, I’ll have to rely on myself…even if it means using it.”
The room in front of her opened up.
In a grand hall of stone, robed figures were walking to and fro across its floor. She looked down at them from atop the balcony-like plateau jutting out into the room, and to that which was tied up at the room’s center.
It was a monster, a giant beast bound by countless chains.
“The Bull of Heaven…milady?” the young human behind her murmured, his voice low as his body gave a shudder. The goddess of beauty simply narrowed her amethyst eyes.
Two colossal horns protruded from its head, warped and twisted in gallant depravity.
And from its forehead, a female figure, feasting itself on magic stones, rolled its hideous eyes upward.
Afterword
I took a trip recently where I got to take a leisurely stroll along the coast.
While the sea was certainly beautiful, great blue sky spread out up above, it was the sound of the waves that left the deepest impression on me. As each new wave lapped up silently toward my feet, my mind unknowingly constructed a scene: a man and woman having a conversation. I’ve never been much of one for romantic comedies, but I can remember quite clearly wanting to take to my keyboard with a fervor at that point. Once I finally finished the manuscript, however, it had somehow turned into a brutal slugfest between Amazons. My life!
At any rate, this is the sixth volume of my little side series. Time-wise, it takes place before the sixth volume of the main series, ending just about when that book begins.
My original plot for this book (at least my outline of it) somewhat muddied the sisterly bond of the two Amazonian sisters, as well as their enemies. Try as I might to depict it, I almost always found myself at a loss, and I’d end up simply slapping some bare-bones characterization together as best I could. Tione is a bit like this; Tiona has a very one-track mind. It came to the point where even I, as the author, wondered if they had a bond at all! (That and the fact that it felt a bit awkward for me to describe sisterly love…).
However, as the setting began to come alive across the page, and as I dove into depictions of the girls’ past, I finally managed to banish my misgivings and take to writing about their bond with gusto. Likewise, I was also able to fully flesh out the villains. While this may be all too obvious, I very much believe characters have life in them, countless stories just waiting to be told. And this book was the first time I truly felt these two became “sisters.”
Aside from that, I also tried to do a bit of world building in this book and really expand the setting as much as I could. It makes me think how lovely it would be to create an entirely new world someday. I also tried to insert characters from the main series wherever I could, which should hopefully make it all the more fun when you pick up volume seven.
And on that note, let me segue into my thank-yous for this volume.
To my editors, Otaki and Takahashi; to my illustrator, Kiyotaka Haimura; and to everyone else who made this book possible, I sincerely apologize for falling behind in the delivery of my manuscript. At the same time, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for lending me your strength. I’d also like to thank all of you, my readers, who now hold this book in your hands. I hope we’ll be able to meet like this again and again for books to come.
According to my current schedule, the next item on my plate is the backstory for volume six of the main story, meaning that volume seven will most likely be at least a full main series book’s worth of time down the road. Though when I say “mostly likely,” I mainly mean “certainly”…At any rate, I shall endeavor to do the best I can.
Thank you for reading my little ramblings.
All the best.
Fujino Omori
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Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 6 Page 29
