The Selene Family

Downtown District 20, the heart of Guild City, is divided into zones, each with a theme befitting its role.

For instance, District 2, renowned for finance with institutions like Shylock Bank, is known as 「Golden Street」.

District 19 is 「Steel Heart Street」 where blacksmiths gather, and District 6, home to the Biotech Guild, is nominally called 「Street of Life」, centered on medicine, though in practice it is riddled with quacks.

Among them, one district cannot be overlooked. District 1, the symbol of Downtown, a place where even among the major guilds, those that defy standard classification congregate.

It is the domain of colossal guilds so vast that even the word “major” fails to capture their scale, the so-called 「Megacorps」.

A name as grand as it gets, 「Megacorp Street」.

The place Solomon was headed now was none of those.

Downtown District 8, where the Selene Family’s grand mansion stood. Compared to the nicknames mentioned earlier, District 8 was a bit… lacking, in more ways than one.

Street of Groceries.

Coincidentally, the base of the Elven Mafia, the Selene Family, was there. This was no surprise.

Selene Distribution Company.

Selene grocery stores bearing the same name could be found all over the city. There was even a branch down in the Lowlands.

Even the Lowlands common sense of ‘Why pay when you can steal’ did not apply there.

When Solomon first saw it, he doubted his own eyes.

Even Lowlands criminals who had tossed law and morality to the dogs turned into model citizens inside Selene grocery stores. It was nothing short of a miracle of conscience.

At first, he thought they had some kind of moral-rearmament barrier set up.

‘…So this was the secret behind the magic.’

In a sense, it really was magic.

Mafia magic.

In a city where fists were closer than law, and knives and magic were closer than fists, distribution was not a business just anyone could do.

Even taking that into account, the Street of Groceries was a rare place in Downtown that actually felt lived in.

A street formed by endless rows of two- and three-story brick homes.

In every narrow alley, milkmen bustled along, pulling rattling carts.

There were girls selling baskets of eggs that cost only a few krona each.

True to its name, there were people buying and selling small things.

There was the smell of baked bread too.

A street of people living day by day without fuss. The smell of life continuing even without a quest.

‘…So Guild City is a place where people live too.’

Even so, Solomon’s vision was aimed at the grand mansion rising far in the distance.

Of course, he was not seeing it with his own eyes.

Through the sight of his Black Bird Spirits flapping overhead, and perched on streetlights, countless scenes of District 8 overlapped in his vision.

It was like a drone pilot scouting the area from above through a camera.

As he crossed the residential area in that state, the number of people visibly dwindled.

A bleak scene that plainly showed no footsteps reached there.

At times, dark elves in fedoras and dark brown coats came into view, and every one of them gave off a nasty aura.

It was to the point that it looked like they had “I’m mafia” pasted right on their faces.

At the end of that grim-looking street stood the Selene Family’s grand mansion.

Around the mansion, there were no grocery stores, no street stalls, no children wandering around selling eggs or milk.

A street empty without even a single ant.

Even though the mansion was built in the middle of Downtown, there was a wide front yard and a carefully tended garden.

In the garden, blue and black flowers of unknown kind were growing.

[All through the carefully tended garden, blood roses and corpse flowers are growing in abundance.

They are all flowers that grow by drinking blood, and flowers that feed on rotting corpses.

It seems someone who is kind and loves flowers tended them with great care.]

“……”

Solomon decided not to imagine what fertilizer might be buried under that garden.

When he headed for the iron gate at the mansion entrance, it opened on its own.

Solomon followed the executor and crossed the marble floor leading into the mansion.

It was an old-fashioned mansion that did not fit this era, like a medieval noble’s fortress.

As dark elves who looked like members of the Selene Family stared from here and there, a gnome who seemed to be a butler approached and spoke.

“Welcome, Mr. Solomon. The boss is waiting.”

Following the gnome butler, they crossed into an office at the highest part of the mansion.

It was not just any office.

It was the place where the head of the Selene Family, one of the five major Families of the Elven Mafia, resided.

“Mind your manners before the Godmother, you short-eared bastard.”

At the entrance, another dark elf with his fedora pulled low warned him.

Short-eared bastard.

“Yeah, good for you, having long ears.”

Solomon answered like it was someone else’s business.

“Come in.”

Then a voice rang out. A cold voice full of authority.

When he entered the office, a silhouette sat there with the sunset glow behind her, backlit.

“Mistress Selene.”

At a glance, she was a dark elf filled with intimidation and dignity befitting a leader.

A fur shawl draped over her shoulders, obsidian earrings shining in the backlight, expensive adornments wrapped her from head to toe, yet none of it felt excessive.

Because an elegance that overwhelmed all of it was rooted in her.

Truly, the dignity worthy of the head of a Family—

“Welcome, contractor of Hotel Snark.”

As she said that, the head of the Selene Family extended her hand.

Solomon walked up to her and lightly kissed the back of her hand.

Even as he did, he could feel it instinctively.

That an unimaginably black, dark magical power was rippling within her.

‘A dark elf necromancer….’

She didn’t even intend to hide it.

“You’ve already heard about the contract, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“You must’ve suffered, playing along with those ridiculous antics of the pointy-ears. Right?”

“I only carry out the contract. I don’t care about appearances, nor am I interested.”

Solomon answered calmly.

‘That actually sounded kind of professional just now.’

Swallowing a small pride, Solomon thought further. Come to think of it, he really was a pro.

“Where is the target?”

“Here.”

As she said that, Selene, the Family’s godmother, took something out.

It was a button box.

Nothing grand enough to call a device. Just a small box with a single red button stuck on top.

“The moment you press this button, the poison gas device activates and the ‘Elf of Honor’ will die.”

“……”

“You could call it a kind of kill switch.”

‘A kill switch?’

Solomon was dumbfounded.

[Analysis Success]

It was a ridiculous lie. He could tell the moment he saw it.

[The button box before you… is an empty box with no mechanism inside.]

There was no poison gas device to begin with.

Pressing it changed nothing. It was just a clicky button.

Literally, with no purpose at all.

“…Did you already kill him?”

[Insight Great Success!]

He understood at a glance.

The Elf of Honor was already dead, and Solomon would never see him, ever.

From the start, this was nothing but postmortem processing.

“Hmm, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hearing that, Mistress Selene burst into laughter.

“The Elf of Honor is still alive. At least until you press that button.”

“……”

After laughing, she continued in a cold voice.

“Regardless of the truth, what matters is that he is formally alive.”

Selene recited the fabricated sentence without blinking.

“We must avoid the dishonor of having an Elf of Honor killed by the hands of his own kind.”

“So you needed someone to kill him ‘again’. Formally—”

“Form is the discipline that binds the elven society together and protects the race’s identity.”

Selene shrugged.

“Compared to that, truth and facts are truly trivial. No elf is an exception.”

In other words, once you protect the form, truth and facts do not matter.

He couldn’t understand the elven way of thinking. He didn’t need to.

As a contractor of Hotel Snark, Solomon only carried out the contract and received payment.

So he silently looked at the pendulum clock on the office wall.

There was a little over a minute left until sunset, 8:16 p.m.

53 seconds, 52, 51….

Nothing would change.

As per contract, Solomon would carry out the ‘Elf of Honor’s’ execution at sunset.

After that, by the organization’s code, he had the duty to face the three executors moving for vengeance for their kin.

Even if it was nothing but a meaningless formal act.

‘3… 2… 1.’

When the time came, Solomon pressed the button without hesitation.

Click.

It was truly a meaningless action.

Even so, when Solomon pressed it, Selene smiled coldly.

“Ah, our organization’s Elf of Honor has been murdered. Who on earth did it?”

“……”

“No matter who killed him, it’s a truly heart-rending tragedy. I can’t hide my sorrow.”

Her tone sounded like she was reading a textbook, and Solomon was dumbfounded.

“So, for the honor of our dead kin, we must carry out blood vengeance.”

“……”

“Because that is the organization’s code.”

Of course, what followed was not like that.

“Erinyes.”

Selene spoke, not in that textbook tone, but in a voice cold enough to freeze.

[The Erinyes are the three goddesses of vengeance worshiped by the dark elves.]

“Tisiphone, Alecto, Megaera. Before your names, I swear—”

[They are also three sisters symbolizing vengeance, rage, and hatred of betrayal, respectively.]

“Vendetta.”

Pushing down an inexplicable chill, Solomon stayed silent.

“Murderer of the Elf of Honor, you have been cursed by the three goddesses of vengeance.”

“……”

“From the moment you leave this mansion until the next dawn comes… by the organization’s code, the three goddesses of vengeance will pursue you.”

A voice ringing solemn and formal. The contract was not over yet.

“─From dusk to dawn.”

No, it was only starting now.

「Whether vengeance for our kin is carried out honorably,

whether the target survives until dawn by evading the executioners,

or whether all executioners are eliminated before daybreak,

the Selene Family shall solemnly accept the outcome in the name of the organization’s code and the race’s honor.」

Three executors who would track Solomon, taking the names of the three sister goddesses of vengeance.

To preserve this meaningless form, it was time to start a deadly game of tag.

Solomon didn’t hesitate.

He immediately left the office, crossed the mansion while dark elves glared at him like they wanted to kill him, and passed through the garden where blue-black flowers bloomed in abundance.

Before long, Solomon stood before the grand mansion’s iron gate.

The moment he took one step from here, the game of tag would begin.

Without a word, Solomon gripped the Ghost Whale bone blade hidden in his sleeve, and took out the modified Nightfall crossbow in advance.

Click, click!

The crossbow frame and drive parts, mechanical assemblies folded in layers, unfolded all at once, making a satisfying sound of gears interlocking.

For this day, the Nightfall modified crossbow had been reborn after undergoing the Deadlock workshop’s Type-A modification.

And on top of that, Black Bird Spirits still patrolled the air above the street like drones, keeping watch.

After finishing his preparations, he moved.

Beyond the garden filled with flowers, beyond the twilight boundary dividing the Selene Family’s grand mansion from the street.

Step.