Chapter 204
Three days later…
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed since the high-level meeting of the top familias.
The involved adventurers had kept up their usual routines, ensuring that the evilus couldn’t catch even a hint of their plans.
Early in the morning inside the Bahamut familia’s home, Draco and his familia members were busy at work.
“Draco-nii, are you sure we should stick to normal patrols? Isn’t today supposed to be—” Michalis grumbled while polishing his weapons.
“Are you seriously asking that? What if the evilus discover our plan because of your laziness?” Vasiliki snapped.
Michalis had assumed they’d have most of the day off, conserving their strength for the planned raid in the evening.
However, Draco had insisted that everyone stick to their patrol routes.
Vasiliki glanced over at Draco as he flipped through a notebook, quietly mumbling to himself—a habit he’d taken on since two days ago.
With a resigned sigh, she joined the others in preparation for their usual patrols.
Meanwhile, Bahamut was nowhere to be seen.
For the past three days, she had been heading to the Hephaestus familia’s home after breakfast.
No one knew what she was up to, but she never failed to serve breakfast and dinner on time.
‘How do I handle this?’ Draco wondered.
Just yesterday, a crucial memory had suddenly surfaced—details about their intended raid.
He recalled that the raid had been a bait set by the evilus to lure out the strongest familias; their real target was the city, where their most powerful forces were stationed.
Hesitantly, he penned a letter to Finn, outlining his concerns as mere speculation rather than hard truth.
He was careful— not asserting his information as a certainty, because it might cast suspicion on the Bahamut familia as potential spies for the evilus.
Information had definitely leaked from somewhere, and Draco didn’t want that ‘somewhere ‘ to be placed on his familia.
If it somehow happened, catastrophe would follow.
For instance, he wouldn’t be allowed to join the raid, meaning Adi would be left defenseless.
Many more civilians and adventurers could perish without the Bahamut familia’s help, and even if they ultimately defeated the evilus without the Bahamut familia, Orario would be severely weakened.
Draco slowly came to grasp why the evilus had attacked the 18th floor: it wasn’t merely to weaken adventurers but to force them into excessive caution, thereby reducing surveillance in other areas of the dungeon.
This implied that the evilus had hidden plans for the dungeon that they certainly did not want revealed.
All of these new realizations plunged Draco into a dilemma.
He couldn’t voice all he knew, for the Bahamut familia didn’t yet wield enough influence.
‘Sigh, it’s either I stick to the original plan— save Adi and reduce the Ganesha familia casualties, or I stay back to protect the civilians during the first wave of the attack,’ Draco thought.
“Guh, so it’s really a case of the few versus the many,” he muttered wearily.
Both choices came with their own perils.
Even if he split his familia into two groups to manage both tasks, there was the risk of encountering one of the evilus powerhouses—a battle they would have little chance to win.
Was he really prepared to sacrifice his family for the sake of strangers? The answer was a resolute no.
‘Wait—what if I’m approaching this all wrong?’ Draco realized.
“Why was I so fixated on being the one to save Adi?” he chided himself.
It dawned on him that he could simply assign some members of his familia to stay with Adi. Given that the evilus base was staffed by their weakest operatives, the risk would be lower there.
In that case, he could assume command and establish a headquarters for evacuation before the Loki and Freya familia’s realized it was all a trap and returned to the city.
“Yes, that’s it. Now I just have to decide who can, with cold resolve, kill a little girl carrying bombs inside her—or, alternatively, who can shield Adi from the blast,” Draco grimly considered.
With newfound determination lighting his features, Draco sprang to his feet.
He quickly gathered his familia and began detailing his plan.
They took his sudden change calmly; after all, Draco had always been unpredictable.
After relaying the revised strategies, Draco sent another letter to the Loki familia, conveying the Bahamut familia’s altered plans.
Fortunately, by evening—the time of the raid—he received positive replies to both messages.
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Soon enough, the hours slipped away, and the moment for the operation arrived.
The backstreets buzzed with activity as adventurers from the Ganesha, Astraea, and Bahamut familias hurriedly ferried supplies before taking up positions in the shadows of nearby buildings.
“Here are the supplies from the Dian Cecht familia!” reported a Ganesha familia member enthusiastically.
“Good. How long will it take to distribute them?” Shakti asked.
“Ten minutes, ma’am!”
“You’ve got five—hurry it up,” Shakti commanded.
Despite their swift movements, an eerie quiet prevailed among them.
The three familias had congregated in the northwest of Orario, specifically in District Six, to execute their mission and neutralize one of the suspected bases of the evilus.
“Vasiliki, where are Draco and the rest? I don’t see them anywhere,” Alise whispered.
“There’s been a change of plans. Draco-nii and the others have been reassigned to different duties,” Vasiliki replied.
She, too, had been surprised by Draco’s sudden change of direction—issuing new instructions and even making predictions about what might occur.
Vasiliki, Vasileios, Michalis, and Clair were chosen to represent the Bahamut familia during the raid.
Their primary task was to protect the members of the Ganesha familia, with a special focus on Adi, for reasons that were not entirely clear.
For a fleeting moment, Vasiliki wondered if Draco might secretly harbor feelings for Adi, which could explain his intense protectiveness.
However, she quickly dismissed the idea; Adi simply didn’t match the type of girl Draco would be romantically interested in—he had only ever had eyes for his current lover, Bahamut.
‘Well, I just need to keep her alive. The reason will reveal itself soon enough’ Vasiliki concluded.
“Tsk, after all that fuss in the meeting—he didn’t show up,” Alise muttered, her cheeks puffing in a cute pout.
Observing this, Vasiliki found herself pondering aloud, “Do you… perhaps like D…” Her words were abruptly cut off as Kaguya arrived.
“Everyone is in position, Captain,” Kaguya reported, dressed in her usual battle attire with a katana holstered at her hip.
“Understood. Do you think the enemy has spotted us?” Alise asked, her pout turning serious.
Narrowing her eyes, Kaguya replied, “If they have, they haven’t revealed it. It’s too quiet—a silence that makes one wonder what we’re about to walk into.”
Vasiliki added, “I’m also not noticing anything out of the ordinary,” her beast-like ears twitching as she strained her senses.
“We’ll have to attack regardless; this base must be crushed one way or another,” Alise declared with firm resolve.
Their target was a large warehouse once owned by a prosperous merchant who had since fallen into bankruptcy.