CHAPTER 806: CHAPTER 631: THE BEGINNING OF CHAOS

———"Monster Festival".

This is the annual grand celebration in Orario, a super large event hosted by the Ganisa Clan.

On the day of the festival, the Ganisa Clan collaborates with the guild to rent out the large arena located in the eastern part of the city for the entire day. It’s open to the public, with tickets sold to allow the citizens of Orario to attend and watch.

The main attraction is the taming of monsters.

There’s a profession known as Beast Tamer.

These Beast Tamers are usually high-level adventurers who have received blessings, mastering the skill to train monsters, and can tame the ferocious monsters from the underground city, turning them into obedient pets.

The main event of the Monster Festival involves skilled Beast Tamers from the host, the Ganisa Clan, dealing with ferocious monsters brought from the underground city and taming them one by one in front of the masses.

Simply put, it’s a combination of bullfighting and circus performance.

This festival is held annually in Orario.

For the festival, the Ganisa Clan sends people into the underground city in advance to capture monsters, transport them to the surface, for taming performances during the festival.

This festival also triggers considerable debate among many.

Because bringing dangerous monsters to the surface is not inherently a commendable action.

Thus, every year around this time, many people inexplicably worry, fearing that the guild and the Ganisa Clan that maintain city peace might lose focus, and in pursuit of the festival, introduce dangerous factors (monsters) onto the surface, causing accidents. Many also derisively dismiss it as a shallow policy to appease the citizens.

Nonetheless, despite the numerous criticisms and controversies, the Monster Festival continues to be held again and again.

The reason is simple.

The true purpose of this event is indeed to mitigate the conflict between the citizens and adventurers.

Speaking bluntly, adventurers are essentially an armed group that engages in fighting and killing every day.

Having received divine blessings and gained non-human powers, many adventurers have a tendency to become arrogant, considering themselves superior, and have a habit of using force to resolve issues when they arise, leading to frequent clashes with everyday citizens in Orario, causing dissatisfaction among citizens regarding city safety.

The purpose of hosting the Monster Festival is to use this grand festival to eliminate the apprehension held by city dwellers towards adventurers through clean taming without bloodshed, making them realize that adventurers are not problematic individuals, not violent ones, but heroes who protect the city, who protect the world, and who can handle monsters.

For efficiently reclaiming magic stones from the underground city, and to maintain the stance of safeguarding adventurers who fight against monsters and protect the surface, the guild cannot help but support this action favoring adventurers.

The Ganisa Clan, due to its close relationship with the guild, has always been the organizer of the festival, collaborating with the guild to host this festival.

To this day, this event purely organized for the pleasure of the masses has become a significantly famous day in Orario, with people even traveling long distances from outside the city to watch this show.

Reiger realized that today might be the day of the Monster Festival.

The two flags hanging over the bustling street, one being the Ganisa Clan’s flag, and the other being the promotion emblem of the Monster Festival.

Coupled with the lively scene, Reiger believed that his return coincidentally aligned with this day.

However, he did not feel happy.

"...Won’t I have to get busy as soon as I return?"

Reiger couldn’t help but murmur.

There’s no choice.

If he remembered correctly, on the day of the Monster Festival, serious chaos would ensue.

Someone (a god) would, driven by desire, release monsters without permission.

Someone (a god) would, out of wicked intentions, cause chaos without permission.

Moreover, the Loki Clan would get entangled in it, thus engaging in a arduous and bloody confrontation with the entities lurking in the shadows.

Unfortunately, this is unavoidable.

Because the opponent’s target is all of Orario, and the Loki Clan, being one of the strongest factions in Orario, cannot simply turn a blind eye.

Many within the Loki Clan also have entanglements with those lurking in the shadows, particularly Ais, who will inevitably be targeted by certain entities (monsters).

"Seems like I can’t make a trip to the Clan headquarters first."

Reiger used magic, releasing a virtual magic eye to fly into the sky.

"Anyway, the priority is to find Ais."

......

At the same time, the blond-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman that Reiger was looking for appeared on Orario’s main street, not staying at the Loki Clan’s headquarters.

This is East Main Street, as the name implies, located in the eastern district of the city.

Differing from the northwest street known as adventurer street and the northeast street serving as the industrial district, East Main Street focuses mainly on facilities managed by the guild, the city’s administration, including the circular arena used for the Monster Festival. These guild-managed facilities are predominantly concentrated in this area, and most city-hosted celebrations are also held here, resulting in the opening of many inns, stalls, shops, giving it somewhat of a focus on tourism development.

Thanks to this, on the day of the Monster Festival, East Main Street is arguably the busiest place. Calling it a sea of people is no exaggeration, with roadside stalls lining both sides and the center of the street continually emitting mouth-watering aromas, captivating the stomachs of passersby, drawing their attention to the sizzling roasted meat on the grill, with the sound of oil sizzling enticing people to flock to these vendors.

"Come on, come on, try this, Ais!"

The main god of the Loki Clan—Loki—also appeared on this East Main Street, holding a large skewer of grilled meat freshly bought from a stall, smiling gleefully as they fed it to the swordswoman beside them.

Upon closer inspection, there was actually a small bite missing from the skewer of grilled meat.

There was no doubt that it was a part secretly bitten off by a certain god.

Loki, the trickster god from Norse mythology, female, with a love for women, due to some wicked intention not known to outsiders, was preparing to deceive the naive female swordsman into playing a sweet indirect kiss game with her.

Unfortunately, the god’s wicked intentions did not yield any effective results today.

"......"

The blonde-haired, golden-eyed female swordsman walked next to the carefree god, being fed meat by the smiling Loki, but she didn’t pay any attention to her, remaining silent on her own.

She walked slowly down the street, surrounded by gazes of astonishment, fear, curiosity, admiration, and even jealousy. Despite having no expression on her face, she still became the most dazzling sight on this street, drawing the attention of people from various races.

She ignored the god beside her and also ignored the people around, walking straight ahead, her pair of transparent golden eyes somehow unfocused.

Clearly, the girl was daydreaming or distracted, not hearing a word from the god.

"Hey! Ais dear! Don’t ignore me!"

Loki was displeased, protesting on the spot.

"It’s so hard to go on a date with me at the festival, and now we should be happily playing outdated couple games, right? Ais dear, you’re losing points like this! Points deduction!"

The god’s unreasonable troublemaking brought the girl somewhat back to her senses.

"...No."

Then, the girl spoke.

"What?"

Loki leaned in closer.

"It’s not a date." Ais said expressionlessly, pushing Loki’s face away, "You forced me out here."

"Couldn’t help it! Who told Ais dear to have been so listless recently! Not even going to the underground city you usually love so much? It’s unprecedented!" Loki, instead of feeling repentant, spoke with a sense of justification, "Even though you staying in a place where both I and Revilia can see you makes us a lot more at ease, the way you just stay home every day, seemingly losing your appetite, makes us uneasy in another way!"

Saying that, Loki continued to make her point.

"Finally reaching Lv.6, becoming the first in the clan to catch up with the Headquarters Camp, you’ve left everyone at a loss with your behavior."

"Bert, Theona, and Theone have been provoked by you and have been grumbling about ’being surpassed!’ all the time recently, feeling very dissatisfied, even Rephia got provoked, running to Revilia often, reportedly learning concurrent chanting, everyone in the clan became more diligent and super motivated."

"And in the end, you went against the grain, staying home every day, not going anywhere, looking gloomy, everyone is worried about you now, you know?"

Loki, speaking endlessly, fell silent at one point.

"Are you just that worried about Reiger, Ais-tan?"

The god slightly opened her squinting eyes, seeming to have seen through Ais’s heart, casting a meaningful glance never seen before.

Instantly, Ais fell silent again.

"Oh come on, stop worrying about him." Loki patted Ais’s shoulder, speaking boisterously, "That kid already reached Lv.5, not even you before leveling up were his match, so why do you worry about him?"

"Besides, he’s just out on business, not that he won’t come back."

"He already said that he would return in a few days at the earliest, and in a month at the most."

"So, stop fretting over that heartless guy. Since you’re staying home for a change and not going to the underground city, let’s stroll around, go on a date, and relax, okay?"

Hearing this, Ais was silent for a moment before looking at Loki.

"...Will he really return soon?"

The girl made yet another confirmation, not knowing which time it was.

"Really!" Loki, feeling envious, complained, "You know, Ais dear, children from the lower world can’t lie in front of us (the gods), that kid said he’d return in a few days or at most a month, so it must be true."

"It’s the truth, not a lie."

"So? Are you reassured now?"

Hearing this, the girl’s expression indeed relaxed a little, no longer so tense.

"That’s more like it," Loki chuckled, "Come come come, let’s have a nice stroll."

Ais did not object either, obediently following Loki, moving among the crowd.

They, unaware, did not know that beneath the city, lurking darkness had finally bared its fangs.

"Drip drap..."

Amidst faint sound of water, some enormous creature dragged its long body, slowly moving toward the place where vitality spread on the ground.

There, undeniably, was their destination.

"Rumble..."

The ground trembled indistinctively.

A middling calamity was about to descend.