Sword Oratoria: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side Volume 6

“This approach seems to be getting us nowhere. Perhaps
you wouldn’t mind lowering your fist, Loki?”

Loki’s clenched fist was trembling at the masked
goddess’s infuriating expression and cheeky comments, but
when Njörðr interrupted with a well-placed jab of his
elbow, she somehow released the breath she’d been
holding.

“…Fine. First off, why did you all come to Meren?”
“Not sayin’.”
“I thought I just asked if you wanted to die, punk!”
“And that alone is what I can’t tell you. Not after coming
this far.”
Kali harrumphed, once again turning her head to the
side as big blue veins rose atop Loki’s forehead.
“Come on now, you two…” Njörðr attempted to mediate
for Loki—a skill he’d developed far too well thanks to the
long friendship they shared from back in the upper world.
“If anyone, Ishtar certainly seems to have done a lot for
him and his familia. You don’t suppose she has something
to do with it?”
“All right, out with it, midget!”
“— ”
Kali responded with a brash whistle.
Though she examined things from underneath her half-
lidded eyes, Loki had somehow narrowed down the
candidates in her mind after hearing about Ishtar’s
involvement. The first face that popped into her head
belonged to the abominable goddess of beauty she couldn’t
seem to get rid of…But considering she had no duty to
warn Kali of the kinds of trouble she could get her into,
Loki chose to keep her mouth shut.
“…Next. What do you know about those man-eating viola
flowers?”
“Nothing, actually. I’m being honest.”
Loki stared down at Kali but spotted no sign of
dishonesty in her crimson eyes.

“Though come to think of it, Ishtar certainly seemed to
know a great deal about those flowers, no?” Kali mused.

“Not Ishtar again!…Njörðr, you said yourself Ishtar and
her gang were the ones who supplied your violas, right?”

“That’s true. However, they were simply a trading
partner…introduced to me as the perfect entity to help in
transporting the violas to Meren.”

Once the deal had been struck, they’d both used the sea
cave near Meren to their own advantage. In exchange for
their delivering the violas, Njörðr had agreed to finance
their activities in the city. It had never been anything more
than that, and certainly there was no sort of trusting
relationship between the two.

“She really chewed you up and spit you out, you know
that, right?” Loki commented, holding nothing back.

“Tell me something I don’t know…” Njörðr replied with a
sigh.

“Hmm…Then our two leads are Ishtar and that
mysterious human skulking about in the sewers…” Loki
mused as the two finally turned toward the table where
Ishtar Familia’s emblem—one of the insignias on the
Guild’s official list—had been placed alongside a refined
portrait of the mysterious figure Njörðr had drawn up. The
illustration depicted an unhealthy-looking person with bags
under their eyes, or, at least, under the one eye not hidden
by a set of long bangs.

A shadier-lookin’ guy than Soma even…Loki couldn’t
help but think as she eyed it.

“…Come to think, what kinda stuff did this fella want you
to smuggle anyway?”

“I’m afraid I never looked inside the boxes themselves,
but likely valuable goods, occasionally alcohol…One time
there was even a box that made a horrible ruckus.
Something alive, no doubt. According to that human, he
desperately needed money.”

“Money, huh…?”

Certainly, if the remnants of the Evils and those
creatures had any hopes of fulfilling their dreams of
destroying Orario, they’d need sufficient capital to support
their activities. Then had everything been a wasted effort?
At any rate, she’d at least gotten her hands on another
clue, which was enough for the time being.

“Yo, short stuff. Ishtar mention anything else? Doesn’t
even have to be anything important.”

“Hmmm…I’m afraid we didn’t talk long. Both of us had
things to do, you see…So I can’t remember much else,” Kali
began, her expression somewhat pensive beneath the gazes
of the other two gods. “But…” she added. “What I can say
is…that woman is terrifying.”

“…? What’s that supposed to mean? Your familia is kirlos
ahead of hers when it comes to sheer power…” Loki said,
confused.

“I mean she’s as crafty as they come. And she has an ace
up her sleeve to boot. Surely you’ve heard something from
your children concerning this matter, hmm?”

And certainly, Loki had.
Thinking back now, Loki remembered Aiz and Bete
telling her that Ishtar’s Level-5 captain, Phryne Jamil, had
been wielding the combat power of a Level 6. And what’s
more, according to Bete, she’d had some kind of magic user
in her arsenal, too…If that goddess really had gotten ahold
of some kind of magic or curse that effectively leveled up
her followers, she’d be a force to be reckoned with. For
instance, if those same effects had been used on either
Argana or Bache, the situation they’d just dealt with would
likely have gone much differently. Sure, she’d been able to
play it cool knowing she had reinforcements in the form of
Finn and the rest of the men, but had her calculations been
incorrect, she’d have been in for a world of hurt. The mere
thought of it was enough to send a drop of cold sweat down
her temple.
At the same time, though, another thought crossed her

mind.
This was exactly what the lower world was about—the

most thrilling board game, brimming with possibilities even
she and her other gods couldn’t predict.

And it was for this reason that she couldn’t get enough
of it—a thought that had her indiscreetly licking her chops.

“And one more thing…” Kali spoke up again. “This is just
a hunch, but…the reason she didn’t bat an eye at leaving
my girls and me out to dry even after going all the way to
invite us here? She’s got something else. Another one of
her hidden aces.”

“Another ace in the hole…” Loki ruminated on the words
as Njörðr threw a gaze in her direction.

Outside, night had already blanketed the building in
shadow. Inside, Loki heard the sound of two unexpected
divine wills interlocking.

“That incompetent fool…falling to Loki Familia. It’s just as I
predicted…”

A bewitching figure made its way along the stone
passage.

Woven hair swaying with each step, Ishtar cursed the
tiny goddess under her breath. Her human manservant
remained silent alongside her.

But her grumblings were not to last long, and her frown
turned into a smile as she let out a puff of noxious purple
air from her kiseru pipe. She’d reached the end of the
dimly lit passage.

“If I can’t rely on them, I’ll have to rely on myself…even
if it means using it.”

The room in front of her opened up.
In a grand hall of stone, robed figures were walking to
and fro across its floor. She looked down at them from atop

the balcony-like plateau jutting out into the room, and to
that which was tied up at the room’s center.

It was a monster, a giant beast bound by countless
chains.

“The Bull of Heaven…milady?” the young human behind
her murmured, his voice low as his body gave a shudder.
The goddess of beauty simply narrowed her amethyst eyes.

Two colossal horns protruded from its head, warped and
twisted in gallant depravity.

And from its forehead, a female figure, feasting itself on
magic stones, rolled its hideous eyes upward.









Afterword

I took a trip recently where I got to take a leisurely stroll
along the coast.

While the sea was certainly beautiful, great blue sky
spread out up above, it was the sound of the waves that left
the deepest impression on me. As each new wave lapped up
silently toward my feet, my mind unknowingly constructed
a scene: a man and woman having a conversation. I’ve
never been much of one for romantic comedies, but I can
remember quite clearly wanting to take to my keyboard
with a fervor at that point. Once I finally finished the
manuscript, however, it had somehow turned into a brutal
slugfest between Amazons. My life!

At any rate, this is the sixth volume of my little side
series. Time-wise, it takes place before the sixth volume of
the main series, ending just about when that book begins.

My original plot for this book (at least my outline of it)
somewhat muddied the sisterly bond of the two Amazonian
sisters, as well as their enemies. Try as I might to depict it,
I almost always found myself at a loss, and I’d end up
simply slapping some bare-bones characterization together
as best I could. Tione is a bit like this; Tiona has a very one-
track mind. It came to the point where even I, as the
author, wondered if they had a bond at all! (That and the
fact that it felt a bit awkward for me to describe sisterly
love…).

However, as the setting began to come alive across the
page, and as I dove into depictions of the girls’ past, I
finally managed to banish my misgivings and take to

writing about their bond with gusto. Likewise, I was also
able to fully flesh out the villains. While this may be all too
obvious, I very much believe characters have life in them,
countless stories just waiting to be told. And this book was
the first time I truly felt these two became “sisters.”

Aside from that, I also tried to do a bit of world building
in this book and really expand the setting as much as I
could. It makes me think how lovely it would be to create
an entirely new world someday. I also tried to insert
characters from the main series wherever I could, which
should hopefully make it all the more fun when you pick up
volume seven.

And on that note, let me segue into my thank-yous for
this volume.

To my editors, Otaki and Takahashi; to my illustrator,
Kiyotaka Haimura; and to everyone else who made this
book possible, I sincerely apologize for falling behind in the
delivery of my manuscript. At the same time, I thank you
from the bottom of my heart for lending me your strength.
I’d also like to thank all of you, my readers, who now hold
this book in your hands. I hope we’ll be able to meet like
this again and again for books to come.

According to my current schedule, the next item on my
plate is the backstory for volume six of the main story,
meaning that volume seven will most likely be at least a full
main series book’s worth of time down the road. Though
when I say “mostly likely,” I mainly mean “certainly”…At
any rate, I shall endeavor to do the best I can.

Thank you for reading my little ramblings.
All the best.

Fujino Omori

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