Chapter 120: The Operation Begins

'Seriously, how can a kid who just arrived in Orario be this cautious?'

Hermes was someone who always acted carefully. Among the gods, he maintained a neutral stance—siding with anyone too easily would only bring him trouble.

In the past, Hermes had always believed his approach was the right one.

But after recently investigating Zeus' adopted grandson, he started to wonder if he hadn't been just as annoying himself back then.

He'd tried to dig deeper, but all he could find was information about the kid's initial arrival in Orario. Not even the city's top information brokers had anything else on him—it was absurd.

After hitting that wall, Hermes developed a real distaste for secrecy.

He found it especially frustrating when someone like that kid took concealment to the extreme. It gave him a serious headache.

As for the kid's identity—frankly, once it got out, it was bound to stir up trouble.

Especially if someone troublesome like Loki found out. That would only make things worse.

So Hermes decided to drop it.

"Forget it."

"You're giving up that easily?"

Loki glared at him, clearly displeased.

But Hermes was already losing interest. While the information was important, Loki wasn't the right person to pursue it. Hestia and Hephaestus were the better entry points.

"Loki, you don't know much about that kid either, do you?"

"…"

His words cut into Loki like a knife.

And it was true—Loki really didn't know a thing about the shorty's kid.

Hermes knew it. Loki, for all her scheming, was completely in the dark.

If she had known, she definitely wouldn't have acted like she just did.

Still, Hermes had a shift in thought.

"I'm not telling you the kid's identity. If you want to know, use your own strength and investigate."

"If you really manage to uncover who he is, maybe then you'll stop doubting Ouranos."

With that, Hermes left without another word, ignoring Loki's loud cries of "Hey! Hey! Hey!"

Watching him walk away without even glancing back made Loki fume—but it also piqued her interest even more in the shorty's kid.

'That shorty really hit the jackpot.'

Loki still didn't know the child's background, but one thing was clear—shorty had lucked out big time. Otherwise, she wouldn't have crossed paths with someone so absurdly gifted.

As for digging into that kid's identity herself, Loki figured it probably wasn't realistic.

With both Ouranos and Hermes acting this secretive, there was no way the kid's identity wasn't locked behind layers of encryption.

For any ordinary god, it was practically impossible to uncover.

Given Hermes' attitude, Loki was sure—the kid's background had to be top-tier classified.

'But in that case, forming an alliance with Shorty might not be such a bad idea.'

While an alliance didn't mean the two Familias would be tightly bound, it was still a formal relationship—one that would last unless either side broke it. With that connection in place, she could later approach Shorty and Phae to fish for information. Maybe she'd actually manage to pull something useful from them.

Of course, now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

She had just accepted Ouranos' proposal, and what mattered most now was to quickly locate the passageways connected to the Dungeon.

As soon as she stepped out of the basement and reached the Guild's front, Loki gave her orders.

"Ouranos has agreed to my request. The Guild will cooperate with our investigation of the Dungeon and assist in locating the connected passageways."

"..."

"Yes, I've already made the arrangements, Loki-sama."

Before Loki even finished, Royman stepped forward respectfully.

There was not a hint of arrogance in him now—he had lowered himself completely, and even Loki was a bit taken aback by his humble demeanor.

She turned to Riveria and shot her a questioning look.

'Mama, what did you do?'

Riveria's eyelid twitched, and she tossed an eye-roll her way.

'Is now really the time to talk about that?'

Loki smacked her forehead and quickly shook off those thoughts. It really wasn't the time for this.

"Riveria, you get ready too. We might run into members of the Evilus while we're searching."

"I understand."

Truthfully, Riveria wasn't too worried about facing the Evilus. High-ranking members of the faction wouldn't bother with such low-level tasks, so it was unlikely they'd encounter anyone powerful.

Riveria immediately left with the Guild staff to begin searching for the passageways to the Dungeon.

With everything in place, Loki stepped back from the operation.

There wasn't much else for her to handle now. It was best to leave the search to Riveria.

'All that's left is to see if Gareth and Riveria can locate the underground passages quickly.'

Boom!!!

A sudden explosion shattered the quiet of the Guild, instantly drawing Loki's attention.

She rushed to the window and peered out. A distant blast had kicked up a cloud of dust—Loki could see it clearly from where she stood.

The explosion had come from outside Orario.

'Looks like Gareth is ahead of schedule.'

Only Gareth could have caused that kind of ruckus outside the city.

Normally, adventurers weren't allowed to leave Orario without proper documents, so the only one who could be out there at a time like this was Gareth, who had gone to find Ganesha.

Boom!

A second explosion followed quickly after—but this one originated inside Orario.

More precisely, it had come from the outskirts of the Pleasure District.

'So Ishtar's counterattack has begun too.'

A cold smile crept onto Loki's face.

'Ishtar, looks like you figured it out—but not soon enough.'

'I've got no personal grudge against you. But for the sake of that child, this time, you're going back to Tenkai.'

...

(100 Chapters Ahead)

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