Danmachi SI-The Silence's Heir

Part 5

Chapter 5

GODDESS ASTRAEA

A Denatus had been called, an emergency one, to deal with the situation regarding the slaying of Rudra familia and the return of the God himself. The return of a God to Tenkai was not really that rare, but Rudra's return was special for it was caused by a human child.

It was a divine rule that God's descending to Earth from Tenkai would not use their powers, and yet Rudra used Arcanum. There were visible traces of it all over the ruin of his familia's secret base, and yet the God had been defeated despite the use of Arcanum, and that was a troubling sentiment.

The Denatus would decide the fate of Inumaki. For while Rudra familia was part of the Evilus. Their massacre, as it had been done, was a violation of the laws governing over Orario. People were scared, the memories from the great war two years ago had been refreshed, and there was uproar, and it was upto the Gods to settle this, and yet the truth was all in the hands of Orario's two greatest familia.

Inumaki's fate was truly in the hands of Freya and Loki familia. Had this been before the massacre, she would have been a strong voice, as well, yet her own familia had been decimated by the attack. She was not oblivious to the fate that awaited them. It was the same fate that had awaited Zeus and Hera familia after the massacre they suffered.

And the fate that awaited Inumaki-kun was even much worse. Both Freya and Loki familia had their own grudges and fears against the boy. Loki would never wish the boy well, given the danger he posed to her own familia and its influence, and would always oppose him, while Freya. Freya's grudge against Hera was well known, and she knew that Inumaki had denied her offer to join the Goddess of beauty's familia a few years ago, incurring her wrath and displeasure, and everyone knew that Freya could hold a grudge.

"Why?" she questioned the boy sitting in the specially crafted prison cell for adventurers. She had requested special permission to see the child.

"Why did you go and attack the Rudra familia?" she asked again as the boy sat there, his grey hair shining in the darkness. He stared at her with his dark eyes.

"You knew this would happen, that if you went, they would come for you?" she implored angrily, and the boy raised a brow.

"So be it. But I really couldn't break my promise to you, and more importantly, Rudra familia was a part of the Evilus. You should all be thanking me for what I have done," he replied, and she bit her lip, her fists balling as she looked him in the eye.

"You massacred them," she gritted out. She could see the reasoning for his actions, but still, as a Goddess of Justice, it unsettled her, though not as much as she was worried by the satisfaction she had felt when she had first heard the news.

As heinous as their crimes were, she could not justify a massacre, and yet when she had first heard the word of it, she had been satisfied that her children had been prevented. That her children would be safe, that it was not one of her own girls caught up in this game of revenge.

"If I hadn't done this. One of your own children would have done the same," he repeated, and she stilled at those words, knowing the truth in his words. Knowing that he was not lying.

"I have just lightened the burden for one of your children," and the image of the blonde elf girl appeared in her mind as she looked down on the floor.

"They will kill you," she spoke softly as guilt riled her heart. And she saw him smile.

"If that is what they decide," though there was one way. One way out for him.

"But not if you join Freya familia," she said, seeing his face shift, the smile gone from his face.