House Silva's residence stood in the north of Exil.
A crowd of adventurers had gathered there.
They were not merely the so-called House Silva adventurers who were loyal to Bosk Silwa. There were also many adventurers present who usually had no connection to House Silva whatsoever.
Their numbers already exceeded fifty, and more were gradually arriving even now.
"Dammit, I just got back from the dungeon and was about to start drinking! But as soon as I hit the guild, they hit me with this news like it was some kind of lucky break... Ah, my ale..."
In the crowd gathered in House Silva's backyard, a man in his mid-twenties dressed in standard leather armor with a longsword muttered regretfully, venting his frustrations to the acquaintance beside him.
The man he spoke to, who carried a battle axe and wore a breastplate, sighed and shrugged.
The sun had already set, but they were within the grounds of the Silva estate. Magic items that radiated light had been placed throughout the garden now open to the adventurers. While it wasn't as bright as the midday sun, the area was illuminated well enough that the grumbling adventurer could clearly see his companion's gesture.
"Then you shouldn't have accepted the request. Even if it's House Silva, they can't exactly force a commission on you."
"There was no way I could refuse! If I hadn't taken it, who knows what would've happened to me later... Besides, you're in the same boat as me, aren't you?"
The man asked with the casual air of a friend, but the response he received was not what he expected.
"Actually, I heard that House Marstchel is the one kidnapping those adventurers who've been going missing lately. A friend of mine vanished into thin air one day, too. Maybe..."
The man trailed off, and the adventurer in leather armor looked as though he realized he had asked something he shouldn't have.
Just as the man in leather armor opened his mouth to break the awkward silence—
"Uooooooo!"
A roar echoed from out of nowhere.
It wasn't just one or two people. It was the voices of ten, twenty, perhaps even more.
The shouts were laced with a palpable sense of hostility.
The two men, along with the other adventurers gathered in the garden, sensed the danger and focused their concentration, ready to move at a moment's notice.
Suddenly, an adventurer came rushing into the garden.
The men instinctively reached for their weapons, but they breathed a faint sigh of relief when they realized the newcomer was one of the adventurers belonging to House Silva.
That relief only lasted until the man opened his mouth to scream.
"The Silva residence is under attack! Most of the attackers are from the slums, but we believe House Marstchel is behind this! We need your help to intercept them immediately!"
The garden erupted into a commotion.
They had been hired under the premise of raiding House Marstchel, but they had assumed they would be the ones initiating the assault. They never imagined they would be fighting a defensive battle on their own doorstep.
Even so... the people here were adventurers who braved the dungeon, where the unexpected was a constant. Moreover, House Silva had specifically hired those they judged to have significant combat prowess.
Most of the adventurers decided to move to intercept at once, heading straight toward the main gate where the fighting was loudest.
The adventurer who had been lamenting his lost ale and the man with the battle axe also gripped their weapons and ran toward the front of the estate.
It wasn't a long distance; they arrived at the main gate in mere minutes, but the scene was already one of absolute chaos.
House Silva adventurers and servants—even those who weren't warriors by trade—were locked in a fierce melee. Each brandished a weapon, engaging the attackers in front of the main gate.
Among them was a muscular man nearly two meters tall, likely a cook, swinging a massive frying pan. Elsewhere, a figure who appeared to be a maid swung a metal staff, knocking down her opponents with single, crushing blows. Even a man who seemed to be a gardener swung a pair of pruning shears, blowing away the slum residents who made up the bulk of the attacking force.
(Maybe we aren't even needed here?)
It was one thing for hired guards and escorts to fight off attackers.
But before their eyes, cooks, maids, and gardeners were holding the line.
"Wait!? Hey, look at that!"
The man with the battle axe shouted in shock.
The surrounding adventurers followed his gaze—and collectively gasped.
Monsters were there. ...And they were not ordinary monsters.
With summoners and tamers in existence, a few monsters in the city wouldn't be unheard of. But a group of nearly twenty monsters was a different matter entirely.
There were familiar species like Goblins, Orcs, Kobolds, Soldier Ants, and Lizardmen, but there were also monsters that looked like rabbits with single giant horns nearly a meter long, and frog-like creatures with nauseating purple spots across their skin.
And then...
"H-Hey. Unless I'm seeing things, that Goblin looks way bigger than normal."
"Yeah... and that's not all. Almost all of those monsters look wrong."
"That Lizardman has two tails!"
"Even the Soldier Ants have wings like bats..."
The adventurers who had gathered at the gate muttered in bewilderment at the forms that were similar yet fundamentally different from the monsters they knew.
In the midst of the confusion, one adventurer let out a low, trembling breath.
"Anomaly Species..."
The word sent a shudder through everyone nearby.
The adventurers froze. One of them spoke up, his voice trembling with the desperate hope that he had misheard.
"What did you just say?"
That sliver of hope was instantly crushed.
"I said they're Anomaly Species. There's no doubt. Once, while diving to find a Grand Treant, I encountered an Anomaly Species that looked like a dog with two heads and two tails. I don't feel a pressure quite that intense from these, but I sense the same nature in them."
"You're... you're kidding... If they're Anomaly Species, why are they being so docile? There are humans right in front of them!"
"It means they're being controlled. That has to be it. It's not just the kidnappings—House Marstchel is involved in the Anomaly Species incident too, and they've actually found a way to control them. That's the only explanation."
As dungeon-delving adventurers, they understood perfectly what Anomaly Species were. They knew exactly how dangerous they were, and above all, they knew that until now, such things had never appeared outside of the dungeon.
Despite the deafening roar of battle at the gate, the sound of someone swallowing hard was audible to everyone present.
No one moved. No one could move.
In front of the gate, the slum residents—who were clearly being used as disposable pawns by the attackers—were being cut down one after another by House Silva's adventurers and servants. But as the lead unit of slum residents fell, the real power behind them naturally moved to the front.
Namely... the Anomaly Species.
As the last of the slum residents were defeated, the Anomaly Species began to appear on the front lines.
Still, the adventurers remained paralyzed.
If this had been the dungeon, they would have already drawn their weapons and charged. But this was Exil. Hostile monsters were never supposed to appear here. The sheer absurdity of the situation had thrown them into a state of shock.
And then, just as a maid came face-to-face with a Goblin Anomaly Species—
"Do not fear!"
Along with that commanding voice, an object flew from the direction of the residence, piercing the Goblin's head and killing the Anomaly Species in a single blow.
"Adventurers are supposed to be those who protect the innocent! How can you expect to do that if you are frozen in fear by monsters? Stand! Act! Now is the time to unleash your strength and protect Exil!"
It was a voice that commanded obedience, naturally dispelling their confusion and stoking the fires of battle within their hearts.
The figure who had spoken stepped forward, calling the object that had slain the Goblin back to her hand.
She possessed a beauty that fascinated all who saw her, making them forget even the fear of death. Her voice was filled with majesty, and she possessed combat prowess that thought nothing of Anomaly Species. With her whip-sword held in her right hand, Elena walked through the path that House Silva's servants instinctively cleared for her.
She moved as though no obstacle could ever stand in her way.
It wasn't just the adventurers and servants who were affected; even the Anomaly Species were overwhelmed by her presence and stopped their advance.
Had they been true Anomaly Species—the kind Elena had encountered in the depths of the dungeon—they might not have been so easily suppressed.
Fortunately, the Anomaly Species present were limited to those the underground presence of the Holy Light Religion could fully control. In other words, there were no truly high-rank monsters among them.
"Now, we hunt these Anomaly Species! To allow them to exist would be to invite a crisis for the very survival of Labyrinth City Exil! Everyone, follow me!"
Elena's words rang true in the adventurers' ears. The servants of House Silva felt the same surge of resolve.
"U... Uoooooooooooo!"
Letting out a roar of defiance, they followed Elena as she charged.
"Do not think the likes of you can threaten Exil!"
Elena shouted, her golden drills of hair fluttering in the wind as she lashed out with her whip-sword.
Like a whip... or a snake, the blade's trajectory changed freely in mid-air. The magic-infused sword tip flew toward an Orc Anomaly Species that looked more like a wild boar than a common pig.
The Orc tried to block with its spear, but the whip-sword easily severed the spear tip and struck the creature's head, piercing and crushing it in an instant.
As the Orc's brains, flesh, and blood scattered across the pavement, the surrounding Anomaly Species turned toward Elena with stunned, terrified gazes.
But the despair for the monster horde was far from over.
"Get out of the way!"
Boom!
A figure blurred past Elena and onto the front lines. A claymore with a blade nearly two meters long swung through the air, striking the torso of a white, two-tailed Lizardman whose vision had been obscured by the Orc's blood. A spectacular explosion followed, even more violent than the one that had claimed the Orc's head.
"Sha..."
The Lizardman hissed a single, confused sound, seemingly unable to comprehend that its entire midsection had just been pulverized. A second later, it collapsed to the ground, dead.
"Come on! What's wrong with you? Are you supposed to be adventurers or not! If you want to protect Exil, then help me wipe out these Anomaly Species!"
The man shouted while swinging a claymore nearly as large as himself. Everyone on the battlefield knew exactly who he was.
Bosk Silwa.
He was the current head of House Silva, one of the Three Houses Governing Exil—a man who should have been far away from the front lines.
Yet there he was, swinging his massive claymore and fighting Anomaly Species on equal terms, all while bellowing encouragement to his allies.
Because the observers were Exil's adventurers, they were deeply moved by the sight of the city's ruler fighting alongside them.
"I'll do it... I'll do it! We'll be the ones to protect Exil!"
One adventurer shouted, brandishing his spear and charging forward to support the House Silva adventurers already engaged with the Anomaly Species.
The others followed suit. Having recovered from their temporary panic, the adventurers turned the tide, launching an all-out offensive behind Elena, Bosk Silwa, and the servants of House Silva.