Is It Wrong To Devour Monsters In The Dungeon - Chapter 18.2 (Patreon)

The first time Caelan was exposed to cruelty, the true cruelty and unfairness of the world. He was four years old.

It started simply with an odd old man. Who didn't have a house and stayed outside covered up in rags all of the time. Caelan did not know what to make of him, did not understand why he stayed out in the cold when he could be inside a house and warm and safe.

Later, when he was older Caelan would learn the old man was homeless and could not get a job. He was former military and cut loose after saving someone in a warzone far away from anywhere Caelan had ever thought about in his young life.

The other kids thought it was funny to see the old man struggling. They taunted him and threw rocks to try and get him to chase them when he got angry. Caelan didn't understand why they did it, but he joined in because that was what all the other kids were doing.

A small pit formed within him even so.

Weeks later, while it was pouring of rain he would be in the house with his mother and her new boyfriend, a much younger man barely into his twenties. Tall, handsome and coming from money.

While watching a movie in his bedroom on his bright red race car bed, he hears a commotion outside. It's the old homeless man, he's being accosted by a pair of young punks, high out of their minds on drugs he'd later learn.

He watches in horror as the two jump the old man and savagely attack him, dragging him to the ground and beating him over and over.

On instinct, he runs to his mother and her boyfriend. The boyfriend is too scared to intervene, his mother shouts from the window threatens to call the police before calling other members of his family.

His cousins who live across the road coming running out and chase them off. And with them, his mother bundles the old man up in a quilt and brings him inside, tries to help him while she calls an ambulance.

Caelan is a mess of emotions, even years later he would not be able to tell just what he felt.

He will always remember guilt though.

He apologises to the old man bleeding out on his couch. For what happened? For bothering him with the other kids and harassing him? For being silly enough to join in just because the majority were doing it?

The old man smiles at him, even through a bloodied and beaten mishapen face. The old man tells Caelan it was okay, that he forgave him.

He dies minutes later on the couch before the ambulance arrives.

The pit deepens and something inside of him, grows older.

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"Praise be to Hestia!"

"Praise be to Hestia!"

"Praise be to Hestia!"

Tens of dozens of Soma familia members were lined up and kneeling upon the ground, hands clasped in prayer and heads bowed reverently.

It was surreal to look at, Lili was not going to lie. 'There has to be over a hundred of them.' Lili thought in abstract shock from where she was forced to recline atop Caelan's shoulders.

Each and every single one that had rallied to the sounds of commotion they made upon breaking into the Soma Familia home, was beaten down and forced to their knees.

And under threat of Caelan's wrath, were forced to sing praises to another deity. The greatest insult of all for a deity, to have their followers, their children pray in reverence to another over them.

It was arrogant and disrespectful on a level Lili had not fathomed a mortal to ever think of, even Zanis knew there were lines.

And above all else, it was cruel.

Yet, even so-

Lili could not wipe the satisfied smirk from her face as she looked down upon each and every one of them from Caelan's strong, broad shoulders. Watching the addled, disgusting fools who had made her life hell, brought a relished satisfaction to her, deep within her core.

Caelan walked through the throngs of kneeling, terrified and praying Soma Familia members, straight into the main home.

"So what way to Soma then?" he asked, a smirk of his own on his face and not even paying attention to the kneeling Soma Familia members behind him, completely confident they would not try anything.

"He'll be in his office as always, he never leaves," Lili responded as she rested her head atop his, "He won't even care about all the commotion, he'll just continue brewing his wine."

"There's still Chandra and Zanis to deal with though," Lili warned, "Mr. Caelan is definitely more powerful than either of them, but they're both level two as well and have been for a while, so if they come together we might be in trouble."

"Nah, I'd win." Caelan assured her without missing a beat as he made his way through the long, dark winding hallways of the Soma Familia home.

Despite the situation, Lili couldn't help but smile. Even as her emotions roiled in her stomach, a mesh of so many she couldn't tell them apart.

Joy? Trepidation? Relief? Anticipation?

All that and more.

At the very least though, she felt not an ounce of fear. Because she was with Caelan.

"So where should we go for our date after this?" Caelan asked as he followed her directions through the long winding hallways of the Soma Familia base.

"Is that really something we should talk about now?" Lili sighed, Caelan's flow was all wrong, she would never be able to understand his tempo. How could someone be so blase about invading another familia's base, at the drop of the hat, with no planning, pretty much alone considering how little help she'd be. Yet even so, Caelan was doing all this for her, and she felt her cheeks burn lightly, "….I don't really know anywhere good to go for a date." she admitted.

She however could not deny she wanted to go on one.

It was just so crazy he was talking about it right now!

She wished she could have the same kind of strength and confidence he exuded.

…Perhaps one day in the future after she had finally got rid of the Soma Familia's mark and trained with Caelan as he offered, she could obtain a sliver of the same kind of strength he had.

"What time is better than when we're on a nice, quiet stroll together?" Caelan laughed in return, "Well, I do know one place myself. It's called the Hostess of Fertility, I hear the food is great there, if a bit expensive for normal adventurers."

"…That name sounds familiar," Lili hummed nodding, "And what do you mean expensive for a normal adventurer?"

"Well it's pretty much a tavern for adventurers," Caelan shrugged, jostling her lightly, "The cheapest meal you'll find there is like four hundred valis I think."

Lili blinked, "…That is quite an outrageous price, Lili admits, but as expected for a place that caters to adventurers."

And it was outrageous. The average working person in Orario, working a full time job would make roughly in the range of four hundred to five hundred valis a day. The average wage was between forty and fifty valis for decent full time jobs. Goddess Hestia worked at a food stall from what Lili had learned upon meeting Caelan's goddess, and only made thirty valis an hour.

The average working adult couldn't even afford the cheapest meal of this place Caelan was talking about with a full days earnings.

There was a reason why there were so many adventurers in the dungeon city of Orario. It wasn't out of any grand desire to clear the dungeon, kill monsters and protect the world. But simply that, even the weakest of monsters within the dungeon, the goblins and kobolds on the very first floor dropped magic stones worth four hundred valis.

Killing a single one in a day, gave an adventurer the same wage as the average full time worker in Orario.

…Which was another reason Caelan was absolutely absurd as a person. He literally bled out more valis in a minute, over six hundred and fifty times more than the average full time worker in Orario made in a month.

"Yeah it's a cool place though, I've heard," Caelan continued on, not at all privy to her awe over the surrealness of his existence within her mind, "Apparently pretty much everyone who works there are all cute girls who are former high level adventurers, we're talking like level four here and the owner of the place is a level six who used to be the former captain of the Freya Familia."

A…tavern full of level fours and the former captain of the Freya Familia, who was level 6.

Lili stilled as she tried to digest the absurdity of such a group, working in the service industry, in a tavern of all things. If they actively fought together, that would make them more or less one of the strongest groups in the entirety of Orario.

Perhaps the fourth strongest? Freya Familia was the strongest of the familia's in the world currently, and in second place would be between Loki Familia and Ganesha Familia.

The Loki Familia had three level six's, and four level five's. But, Ganesha familia was well known for having over thirty upper tier adventurers of level three, multiple level fours, and a full eleven level five's.

Wait-

"Cute girls?" Lili asked the boy drily.

"Yup," Caelan tilted his head to grin up at her, "A few of them are almost as cute as you."

Her cheeks flushed a deeper red. He was so blunt and free with the compliments!

That clinched, that was definitely why he wanted to go. It had nothing to with it being an adventurers place, or them all being high level, but because of all the cute girls.

"Mr. Caelan is truly the greatest enemy of all womankind," Lili sighed in defeat, plopping her chin back down atop his soft spiky messy two toned hair, "So greedy, you've already charmed Lili and a goddess, yet you want more." she pouted.

Though she had already accepted that, she just felt the need to voice it anyway and gripe a little.

Caelan merely laughed in reply, completely unashamed.

And it wasn't long before they reached the top floor and turned into the wing of the massive home where Soma's office was.

As they into it though, there was somebody there and despite herself, Lili felt her heart leap into her throat, reflexive fear filling her at the sight of a tall, willowy man with sallow skin and short wavy dark blue hair, clad in an expensive blue business robe and spectacles framing his face.

Zanis, the captain of the Soma Familia.

"Well now," the man snorted as he caught sight of them, "I was wondering who was behind all this ruckus, and it just turns out to be you Arde? Have you taken leave of your senses then finally?" he gave a scoffing laugh and began walking towards them.

Caelan paused and said nothing, but nudged his shoulders up into her thighs jostling her a bit, prompting her to speak.

"Zanis…" Lili swallowed heavily as she said his name. She remembered the last time she saw him, when he threatened to sell her to the Ishtar Familia and the pleasure quarter if she tried to run away from the Soma Familia ever again.

"Now who's this brat I wonder?" Zanis continued on as he approached them, a smug smile on his face, "I've never seen his face before, and I keep track of who needs an eye kept on them. Did you make a deal with some fool who recently managed to level up? I wonder how you managed it, have you been warming his bed you little-"

Zanis never got to finish, and Lili felt the world blur around her for a moment, bleeding into a whirling kaleidoscope of colour-

And then a high pitched squeal rang in her ears, and the world returned to normal.

And found herself looking down upon Zanis from Caelan's shoulders, from directly above. As the man doubled over a foot, that was buried between his legs, his eyes bulging in agony.

The squeal?

That was still going, and coming from his mouth.

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God this update fought me pretty hard. Probably cuz it's to do with the Soma Familia and they just suck in general.