Day Thirteen #4

It was not entirely Inis's fault for the things she had overlooked or missed during her first life but she still felt a little bad for not looking deeper.

She knew that she already had her hands full with clearing each dungeon that it made it difficult to look more deeply into the ongoing troubles related to different groups.

To enter a dungeon, it required resources and support from others if the chances of success would be higher so there were often times where deals had to be made with those that held influence.

If the preparations were not enough then a dungeon attempt could be delayed to a later date and if it still went ahead then there was always a risk of the attempt failing or resulting in many losses.

If the supporters or those cooperating had a clean appearance on the surface and they did their duty as promised then there was no reason to look into their private affairs.

If a dungeon hunter did go around snooping into others business and playing hero then there would often be real consequences that would follow.

Nobody liked working with those that started to dig up their dirty secrets and weaknesses.

It was the same for anyone back during the Dungeon Era and it was the same for any other era.

There were times when Dungeon Hunters would be praised by the public for bringing down corruption and stopping many heinous crimes committed but it was actually very rare for them to have a stable reputation and a long lasting success rate in the dungeons.

If a person got on the bad side of those in power then their entire future could be sabotaged.

When the world was at stake from the threat of the dungeons, Inis could not afford to risk losing what she had built up.

In order to stay on everyone's good side and ensure the complete success of the clearing of the dungeons, she had to partner up with those that were powerful or had a lot of influence while not worrying too much about what they had hidden.

Even if she had not investigated the many things happening in the world while she was diving deep into the dungeons, she could now look back on some things she had overheard and come up with some possible theories about the things she had missed.

It would not be too surprising for different Dungeon Hunter groups to be using illegal and forceful methods to recruit and exploit their members since some had been exposed in the past.

There were missing people appearing often due to monster attacks or for other reasons so there was always a chance that they could have been taken by someone or a group.

There had to be some form of underworld groups that dealt with kidnapping of people and even human trafficking since there were similar groups that dealt with infiltrating dungeons to capture the creatures out to sell for high prices.

It would not be too surprising that there were some people who used innocent lives as test subjects to test various potions and mixtures of ingredients while conducting other illegal and harmful experiments.

It wouldn't have been surprising for there to be some people during that time which had a collection of different races like the elves that had been taken from the dungeons or from areas where there was a dungeon break resulting in many of those being released outside as a wave of them so that they could be used to satisfy their twisted desires or to show off to others as a symbol of their power.

It wouldn't have been too surprising to guess that the saving of the world from the dungeons had been achieved and built up thanks to the suffering of others.

There were many that did bad deeds for the sake of the greater good so it would not have been that difficult to guess that a lot of the potions and other helpful items provided had been created after a lot of trial and error on innocent victims.

After having been betrayed and experiencing new things for herself, Inis couldn't help but question every little thing about her previous life.

Things she paid little attention to or had not pursued further for various reasons had become something she had started to doubt more deeply.

It could have just been her being paranoid and overthinking things but she had every reason to think like that after she had been betrayed in such a way.

It made her question deeper how much had really went on behind the scenes and how much involvement her ex had in all of it.

Watching the people being dragged away after they had their homes invaded and destroyed, Inis knew that their fate would not be good in the future.

Their future would be one where their status would be at the level of a slave and they would be at the mercy of their captors whims.

Inis followed behind as she watched the captives be pulled along and beaten if they were too slow. 'I guess this is also a part of taking some responsibility for being so inactive when it came to human affairs.'

She had seen her new form as a punishment for not noticing such things and for not taking any action when she could.

Her new form would only further restrict her access to the humans and to make it more difficult to form relationships with humans again as she would have to accept her new life as a monster.

However that would not stop her from looking into the matters of the humans through the eyes of her new monster form.

Inis was determined to see what she could with her own eyes and witness everything she could before she made up her mind on how she should handle her future affairs.

Her tiny body moved behind the group that kept moving as she silently trailed behind them.