“What the fuck did you do in there?!” Nendou shouted angrily, while holding Luke by the collar.

In the guard’s perception, there was a large crowd around the half-wolf and a young girl being rushed away by the guild doctor, so the first suspect was obviously Luke and not the gigantic Dungeon under his feet.

When pressed, the half-wolf remained calm, because from the moment he met that guard, he knew he would face some trouble of this kind.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing!?” shouted Nathalia, realizing what was happening. She was thanking Lorran near the elevator and without thinking of the consequences, she summoned her Panspermia spear to Nendou.

The guards accompanying Nendou drew their swords as well. Tim! The clang shook the people around a little.

Not understanding anything that was happening, many adventurers also drew their swords for Nathalia. Some hesitated to do so because this was an Elf and elves are known throughout the world for their strength and influence.

“Nendou, what do you think you are doing?” Lorran questioned. The metal-armed girl, despite being only an E-Class, was already respectfully known to the Adventurers of Vasconcelos.

“Stay out of it.”

“Do you understand what you are doing?”

“I’m punishing a criminal. What do you think I’m doing?”

“A criminal!? What proof do you have of that!?” Nathalia still had her spear ready for an attack if necessary.

“P-proof?” Nendou thought briefly and cried out in stress, “I don’t need proof! He’s a half-beast!”

This phrase surprised the crowd, who exclaimed, “Ooohh!” But this was not an interjection of surprise due to Luke’s race, after all, there had already been rumors going around the city’s bars about a half-wolf ever since Nendou himself leaked this information.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk…” Someone in the crowd clicked his tongue several times as if disapproving of Nendou’s speech. Among several large, armed adventurers, a woman with short black hair emerged, Luke recognized her as Eliz, the Guild Master’s secretary. “Assuming your prejudice in the midst of everyone? What will Zion think of that kind of behavior, Nendou?”

Upon hearing this and recognizing who that woman was, many of the men and women, who drew their weapons earlier, backed away and some even left the compound.

Nendou let go of the half-wolf’s collar slowly while looking at him angrily. “Tsc…”

“You have to stop being like that, otherwise I’ll have to open a formal complaint against you.” Luke said, and patted the guard’s chest weakly twice, with a cynical smile. Luke liked the guards as much as he liked the smell of dungeons, yet he had to put up with them now, unlike when he was a thief.

After calming down, Nathalia explained everything that had happened, from the discovery of the door to the encounter with Lorran.

“Before I start asking the questions, may I ask you what your authority is? Because we have our responsibility to Zion, but we haven’t signed anything with you.” The half-wolf was still confused as to what authority the Guild Master’s secretary had.

“I am his fiancée.”

That explained the respect that everyone around showed for her, because regardless of social class or ethnicity when two people marry, they enter into a contract to join their souls forever and ever, so besides sharing surnames, they also share their titles and authority.

“Anyway, what did the big door you guys found look like?”

“It was made of stone and filled with skulls.” Luke replied. He was leaning against the corner of the private room, reserved by Eliz for testimony.

“A door with skulls?” Eliz tried to search inside her memory for a few seconds. “Sigh… I don’t know of a door like that on the second floor, but I’m also sure he’s already been one hundred percent explored.”

“Even the dark part?” The half-wolf questioned.

“Why, the dark corridors are just as well explored as the ones with torches. Anyway, we’ll send a guard team to check it out.” Eliz said, rising from the leather couch she was sitting on. “Are you guys going to the Guild or are you going back to the Dungeon?”

“Before we leave, can you answer us one last thing?”

“Sure.” The woman with the hair said with a smile.

“If you share the same authority as Zion, can you tell us later who the two people we found are?”

“Sure, as soon as we identify them.”

*

In the end, Luke and Nathalia decided not to go back to the Dungeon that day and walked back to the mansion, which took a little over twenty minutes as they walked rather leisurely.

Both were finding it odd that there had been an escape of Superior Goblins in the same week that several F-Class newbies disappeared. The two points did not connect, yet the two were too serious to happen almost simultaneously.

“There are many ways to explain the disappearance of the rookies, but I suppose those Class-D Monsters invading the second floor, are the likely cause.”

“Yes, you told me that practically only Class E monsters on the first three floors, no?”

“Yes, I explained it to you like that, however, this is just a pattern and nothing prevents there from being holes in the barriers between the floors.”

The warm summer breeze became much milder when the pair entered the woods and intensified again when they entered the mansion grounds. The labyrinth in front of the manor was oval-shaped and was embraced by two streets of mineral-rich brick.

From a distance, Nathalia and Luke could see Martha, the maid, waiting for them on the front porch while holding two white towels in her right arm. As they approached, the woman, with her usual serious countenance, held out the towel to the two Adventurers, who accepted it to dry their sweats.

“Has something happened, Miss Strogueher?” Martha questioned, opening the front door for the pair to enter.

“Yes, many things… I’ll tell you about them later. First, we need a bath.”

‘We do?’ Luke thought startled. He no longer felt intimidated when he was with Nathalia, because he just saw her as part of the job, however, there were still some moments when he got nervous.

“Yeah, a swim in the pool or the hot tub?”

“I think what we really need is a sauna. Is that okay with you?” Nathalia inquired to Luke, who blushed at the same time.

——

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