CHAPTER 857: CHAPTER 667: SAW NOTHING AT ALL

The anomaly on the 24th floor finally succeeded in attracting the attention of the Loki familia headquarters camp.

Reiger successfully transmitted the information, conveying the seriousness of the situation, making the Loki familia aware of the terrifying darkness and formidable enemy.

Reiger did not know how Finn and the others would handle these matters.

He was more concerned about the condition of a certain golden-haired, golden-eyed girl.

"Not here?"

Reiger made a circuit around the headquarters, even checking the courtyard where the girl usually liked to go, but did not find her shadow.

"Could she have gone back to her room?"

Walking on the aerial corridor connecting the towers, Reiger silently speculated.

After leaving the 24th floor, all the way, Ais had been walking with her head down, without saying a word from start to finish.

The girl hadn’t even drawn her silver saber to cut down monsters she usually loved to hunt that jumped in front of her; she just walked listlessly, causing even the Hermes Clan people to worry.

Upon returning to the familia’s headquarters, Ais directly walked into the mansion, disappearing without a trace, leaving Reiger to report the whole story to the captain’s office alone.

Now, Ais was nowhere to be found, which made Reiger a bit worried, wondering if the girl would do something foolish like last time.

"Am I being too hasty?"

Reiger couldn’t help but reflect.

He knew why Ais was like this.

Alya, the name held extraordinary significance for Ais.

Those "Treasure Bead Children" too were bound to face Ais sooner or later.

Understanding this, Reiger took Ais to intervene in the 24th-floor incident, hoping to let her face things ahead of time and be prepared.

But now it seemed this approach lacked consideration.

"I only thought that it was unavoidable and that Ais needed to be mentally prepared ahead of time. I just wanted to use this opportunity to alert the familia, making them aware of the enemy’s existence and start preparing for battle, without considering Ais’s feelings."

Knowing that this event would dig up Ais’s sealed past and wounds, he failed to take precautions ahead, clearly understanding this fault now.

Usually expressionless, Ais was actually more sensitive than anyone else. He knowingly overlooked proper handling, which was indeed somewhat inappropriate.

"No choice now."

Thinking of how she had previously sunk into a similar state and ran alone to the deep floors of the underground city to challenge the floor master Udaeus on the 37th floor, Reiger was indeed worried the foolish girl might do the same thing again.

So, Reiger stopped on the aerial corridor, closed his eyes, and chanted magic.

"[God’s Eye]."

The ninth-tier intelligence magic was launched smoothly, and the magic eye was successfully generated, appearing before Reiger.

Of course, only Reiger could perceive its existence; others couldn’t.

The invisible magic eye, under Reiger’s control, flew out of the aerial corridor, easily penetrating the walls, emerging outside, overlooking the entire Yellow Twilight Manor.

The Yellow Twilight Manor, made up of many tall towers, was a long mansion. Besides the central tower in the middle, there were seven surrounding spires.

They stood around the central tower, each varying in height and shape. The lower parts of the towers were connected, with the upper parts linked via stone-built aerial corridors extending to other towers, allowing movement between the towers.

Three of these towers were exclusively for male members, while four were for female members, clearly separating the living quarters of the two, quite akin to modern men’s and women’s dormitories.

Public facilities such as libraries, dining halls, reception rooms, and parlors were not concentrated in any single tower but scattered across the towers, giving off a sense of disorderly chaos.

Reiger had just toured the headquarters, with the only place left unchecked being those four high towers for women only.

No choice but to avoid intrusion into the girls’ dormitory, even for Reiger, as it would be daring not to consider potential aversion for such actions.

If it were daytime, maybe, but at night, who knows if any familia’s girl would be strolling in the corridors scantily clad?

So, Reiger opted for this drastic measure.

"Hope she’s in her room."

Thinking this, Reiger manipulated the invisible magic eye towards one of the towers for female members, penetrating the wall.

This penetration immediately resulted in a scene.

"Hey, Rephia, have you been developing lately?"

In a clearly shared dormitory room, a lively, cute girl looked at her roommate with somewhat envious eyes.

"N-no!"

The roommate, being watched, blushed with embarrassment, protectively covering her petite body, her long ears twitching.

It was none other than Rephia.

Rephia seemed ready to change into pajamas, having peeled off her casual wear.

In other words, the elven girl was in a rather indecent state, being inadvertently seen by Reiger’s magic eye.

Of course, as the roommate of the elf girl, the human girl Elfie, who is also active in the clan as a rear guard Magic Guide, is in the same state, even undressing more thoroughly than the conservative elf, Rephia.

"Mumu..."

The human girl Elfie stared unwillingly at Rephia’s chest for a while before pouncing onto her.

"Let me see! See how much you’ve developed secretly from your favorite roommate!"

"N-No way! Don’t touch me!"

"Hmph, I knew Rephia was the most sneaky, secretly developing... Could it be that you’re deliberately trying hard because of Mr. Reiger?"

"What does this have to do with Mr. Reiger...!?"

"Hehe, you can’t hide from me, Rephia, especially since someone was muttering in their sleep all night last night, calling out ’Mr. Reiger’ until dawn?"

"Aaaah! Don’t say it out loud!"

The two girls teased each other, one with a look of unwillingness and mischievous grin, the other blushing furiously, screaming loudly.

"..."

Clearly observing this scene, Reiger remained silent.

"...Let’s pretend I didn’t see anything."

As if breaking out in a cold sweat, the magic eye flew out of the two Magic Guides’ dormitories, heading in another direction.

Unfortunately, the same situation kept happening.

Following Rephia and Elfie, Reiger accidentally intruded into the room of the catgirl Angel.

"Hmm?"

The catgirl who had stripped herself completely naked felt something as the magic eye flew in, and her ears twitched.

"...There’s a strange feeling."

With her keen senses, the catgirl looked around suspiciously, prompting Reiger to quickly control the magic eye to escape.

But Reiger didn’t know where Ais’s room was, so he could only continue to brace himself and wander around blindly, peering through walls, and as soon as he discovered it wasn’t the target person, he immediately withdrew.

Whether lucky or unlucky, in the coming period, Reiger never found Ais’s room, hence he stumbled into many of the clan’s female members’ boudoirs, witnessing countless scenes that couldn’t be casually mentioned.

"In the future, it’s best to keep a distance from Loki."

Reiger was genuinely sweating.

He naturally wouldn’t casually disclose this incident.

But facing a deity like Loki, Reiger was truly a bit worried that if he performed poorly, she might immediately notice the good deeds he’s done.

If that goddess found out about his actions, she’d certainly both envy and fury, and then swallow Reiger whole.

"I’ve never spied like this! How could you monopolize all the good stuff...!?"

He imagined the useless god would make a huge scene, eventually alerting the whole clan, exposing Reiger’s good deeds, and turning him into the enemy of all women.

Thinking of that consequence, Reiger secretly decided to seal this memory away afterward.

...It’s fine to occasionally think about it, right?

Thus, Reiger began recklessly searching for Ais’s room with a hint of resignation.

Finally, after ten minutes, Reiger found Ais’s room.

It was a very barren room.

There were only a table, a bed, and curtains inside, with few pieces of furniture, absolutely no decoration, and certainly no sense of life. It didn’t look like a boudoir of a blossoming girl at all.

On the wall by the window, the silver military saber known as the Sword of Despair was sheathed, leaning there, quietly reflecting the moonlight shining in from the window.

The room didn’t have magic stone lamps lit either; only the moonlight through the window illuminated it, making the already barren room even colder.

In such a room, a golden-haired, golden-eyed girl sat on the white bed, hugging her knees, leaning against the wall, her face buried in her thighs, expression unseen.

"......"

Watching this scene, Reiger was half-relieved, half-silent.

Relieved because Ais was still at home, not running out and causing trouble.

Silent because even viewing through , Reiger could clearly feel Ais’s loneliness, solitude, and sadness.

After staring at Ais for a while, Reiger quietly withdrew from the girl’s room, letting the invisible magic eye disintegrate into magic power residue.

"Alya...?"

Unconsciously muttering the name, Reiger stood for a while in the aerial corridor, then turned around and left the Twilight Pavilion.

Ais’s matters are best not rushed.

Thus, Reiger decided to change his mood temporarily and go collect the reward for his commission.