Riezel swore that he truly had not come to the reception room on purpose just to expose Raul's embarrassing past in front of everyone. He genuinely had business to attend to and needed Raul's help, which was why he had made this trip.
Just as Riezel was about to step forward and clarify things for Raul, Anakitty spoke up first.
"All right, everyone, don't look at Raul like that," Anakitty said with a sigh, as though she were clearing up a misunderstanding for a childhood friend she had grown up with. "Raul did go to the Entertainment District quite often for a period of time, but that was because he got fooled by a bad woman there."
"A bad woman?"
Everyone froze for a moment.
"You all know how he's always been insecure and timid since forever."
Anakitty continued, pressing a hand to her forehead with a weary sigh, as if the memory itself was painful to revisit.
"At one point, he desperately wanted to change himself. I don't know where he heard the rumor from, but he somehow believed that as long as he lost his virginity, he would become a real man."
"And so he ran off to the Entertainment District. He fell for a woman there, kept giving her money for a long time, and once even falsified the earnings from an expedition just to support her."
"The worst part is, this guy was still too cowardly. Even after spending that much money, all he dared to do was hold her hand. He didn't dare do anything else."
"Thankfully, the Captain already gave him a harsh lesson over this, and he's admitted his mistake. He hasn't gone to the Entertainment District since then."
"So, everyone, please forgive him."
Hearing the explanation from Anakitty, who had joined the familia at almost the same time as Raul, everyone finally understood.
"So that's what happened..."
"Come to think of it, Raul really did mess up the accounts once and made the Captain furious."
"So he really was tricked by a bad woman, huh?"
All the female members' gazes immediately softened with sympathy.
As for the male members, some looked disappointed in Raul, while others burst out laughing.
"You spent that much money and only dared to hold hands?" Cruz moved closer to Raul in a teasing manner, leaving Raul with a dark expression. "Damn, Raul, are you even a man?"
"Mr. Riezel, why did you bring this up anyway?"
With the misunderstanding resolved, Anakitty changed the subject and looked at Riezel, her small cat ears twitching.
"Oh, it's like this..." Riezel said as he let out a breath of relief, then immediately dropped a bombshell. "I want Raul to guide me to the Entertainment District."
"..."
Silence.
A deathly silence filled the room.
Everyone had only just recovered from Raul's 'earth-shaking scandal,' and now their faces stiffened as if frozen in place, unable to move.
"Guide... you...?"
Raul suspected that he had misheard.
"Mr. Riezel..."
Led by Cruz, the male members all sucked in a sharp breath, staring at Riezel as if they were looking at a god.
As for the female members, their eyes widened in disbelief as they stared at Riezel, who had so calmly made such an explosive statement.
"N-No way!"
After several seconds, Elfy was the first to explode.
"You can't go to a place like that! Mr. Riezel!"
Her face turned bright red as she spoke, both angry and flustered.
"That's right!" Anakitty stepped forward and shouted in a rare loss of composure—her usual calmness had vanished without a trace. "You can't go!"
Aside from them, the male members seemed stimulated and started speaking one after another.
"T-That's way too direct, isn't it?"
"As expected of Mr. Riezel, saying something like that right in front of girls so casually."
"Wait, is this really the time to admire him for that?"
"Huh? Huhhh? What's going on right now? Why would Mr. Riezel wanna go to the Entertainment District in the first place? Doesn't he already have Miss Ais?"
"No way! Miss Ais belongs to everyone!"
"Hey, now's not the time to be jealous, okay?"
Voices overlapped, throwing the entire reception room into chaos and even drawing curious glances from passing members nearby.
"Mr. Riezel, this is wrong!" Elfy condemned loudly. "How can you be so careless with yourself? If you do this, Lefiya will be heartbroken!"
"...No matter how you look at it, this really is too much," Alicia chimed in, speaking earnestly as an elf and as someone who naturally valued chastity and purity. "Lady Riveria cares a great deal about you. If you run off to a filthy place like the Entertainment District and mess around, she'll be disappointed."
Even Raul hurried over to Riezel's side, clearly trying to pull him away.
"You shouldn't say things like that so casually in front of everyone, Riezel."
Raul said this was entirely out of concern for Riezel.
If today's incident were to spread, Riezel's reputation within the familia would likely drop by a huge margin, and his standing might suffer severely as a result.
It should be noted that because of Loki's preferences, the familia was overwhelmingly dominated by women—this was obvious from the fact that there were four towers exclusively for female members, while male members only had three.
On top of that, she loved beautiful, pure women, so the female members of the Loki Familia were all stunning, each one more beautiful than the last.
If word got out that Riezel was openly planning to go to the Entertainment District, all those female members who had secretly become his fans over the past three months because of his heroic feats would probably shatter en masse.
By then, things would truly become a real disaster.
In response, Riezel let out a helpless chuckle.
"Seriously, what are you all thinking?" Riezel said helplessly. "I'm going to the Entertainment District to find someone, not to fool around."
Even so, everyone still looked half-convinced at best.
"Find someone?" Anakitty asked cautiously and seriously, staring at Riezel as if trying to see straight through him. "You're going to the Entertainment District to find someone? Who are you looking for anyway?"
What she meant by this question was, what kind of decent person could possibly be found in a place like that?
"I really am looking for someone," Riezel said, feeling speechless. "I don't know them, and I've never met them before, but I heard that someone there can use an extremely rare magic. That's why I want to find them."
Yes, the owner of the magic he planned to obtain was currently in the Entertainment District.
From the original story, he knew that person was in the Entertainment District on Orario's Southeast Main Street, and he knew who they were.
It was just that he did not know their exact location or address.
Originally, he had planned to investigate using God's Eye, but remembering what had happened at the female dorm yesterday, he immediately abandoned the idea.
After all, that was the Entertainment District.
If his magic eye went flying freely through walls in a place like that, who knew what kind of indecent scenes it might see?
He had no interest in watching other people do those indecent things, and he was even more afraid of burning his eyes, which was why he had no choice but to take this approach, asking someone familiar with the area to guide him and help him gather information.
"So that's how it is..."
Raul finally breathed a sigh of relief, while the others also visibly relaxed, including Anakitty and Elfy.
Although no one here had seen Riezel's status and no one knew exactly what kind of magic or skills he possessed, the fact that he could learn and use other people's magic was already common knowledge, even outside Orario.
As members of the same familia, everyone naturally knew about that ability.
Just recalling the last expedition on the 50th Floor, when they fought the woman-like caterpillar monster, he had used both Ais's and Lefiya's magic in succession, so there was no way something like that could be hidden from fellow familia members.
"An extremely rare magic?" Alicia asked out of curiosity, as someone from a magic-oriented race. "What kind of magic is it?"
"Well, that's a secret for now," Riezel said with a slight smile. "But trust me, it's a kind of magic far more incredible than any other."
"Really?" Elfy asked in surprise. "More incredible than Miss Ais's, Lefiya's, or even Lady Riveria's magic?"
"Yeah..." Riezel answered without hesitation. "Once I learn it, you'll understand."
With him saying that much, everyone's curiosity was immediately piqued.
After all, the Loki Familia had Riveria, the city's strongest mage, Lefiya, known as someone who could use all elf-race magic, and people like Ais and Finn, whose magic was universally acknowledged as exceptionally powerful.
Riezel spent his days with people like them and had seen their magic firsthand, so for him to praise another magic so highly made it impossible for anyone not to feel curious.
"We shouldn't waste time. Let's head out now," Riezel said as he turned to Raul. "Are you free right now, Raul?"
"I mean, I am free, but..." Raul scratched his head, his expression complicated as he muttered, "I just didn't think I'd ever go back to the Entertainment District again."
Perhaps remembering the bad woman who had once deceived him back when he was a pure and innocent youngster, he stood there fidgeting, looking utterly pathetic.
Just then, two hands pressed down on his shoulders, and two voices reached his ears.
"You know this even without me warning you, right, Raul?" Anakitty said, staring at Raul with hollow eyes.
"You absolutely must not take Mr. Riezel to do anything weird, okay?" Elfy added, looking as if she were burning with the passion of protecting her roommate's first love, doing her utmost to threaten Raul.
Alicia, Narvi, and the other female members did the same, fixing Raul with sharp stares that said more than words ever could.
"I-I understand!"
Raul straightened his back and answered loudly.
Seeing Raul's timid, spineless look left Riezel unsure of how he should react to him.
'Hopefully, everything goes smoothly...'
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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