Chapter 117: Who Told You I Was a Good Person?

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Dix Perdix sprinted through the tunnels, desperate to reach the dark faction's hidden safe house.

A voice rang out in his ear.

"Dix. If you're planning to drag the Hestia Familia back here, do us a favor and die."

Dix stopped in his tracks. His older brother, Barca Perdix, was on the line. Barca hardly ever contacted him, too busy with his obsession over building the Knossos.

"BROTHER. WHAT ARE YOU—"

"I heard the screams of our family's masterpiece," Barca interrupted.

His masterpiece was being destroyed. Most Adventurers who found the hidden tunnels wanted to claim them for themselves. August was different.

The Monster rookie from Hestia Familia just raised his blade and wiped out their creation. The violence was so intense that it set off alarms throughout the labyrinth.

That was how Dix knew August was on his way. The destruction was too obvious to miss.

"That psycho!"

Dix hissed, his eyes frantic. "The Hestia Familia captain just sliced the blast doors wide open! Doesn't he want to claim this place? Is our legacy really worth zero Valis to him?"

"Where are you? I'm coming to your position." Dix needed a safe zone.

"Don't bother." Barca's voice was ice.

"The other faction members know August is inside. They've already rallied."

Barca had gotten the information hours earlier. The dark faction's agents in Rivira had already called for everyone to evacuate. No one wanted to wait around and see if the madman would destroy the whole floor with heavy weapons.

Dix had started this, so Dix would have to deal with the consequences.

To protect the Daedalus family's thousand-year obsession, someone had to pay the price.

This time, it would be the younger brother.

"Dix, I have two choices."

"One: I protect the labyrinth and stop that lunatic from turning it to ash."

"Two: I abandon the labyrinth and save you."

A binary choice...

"..." Dix listened. The frantic panic in his eyes faded, replaced by a much darker look.

"Hah. What kind of choice is that?"

An old grudge stirred deep within him. He had to protect the labyrinth. It was the Daedalus family's greatest legacy, built over a thousand years with blood and stolen riches. They could not let it fall.

"HAHAHAHA!" Dix burst out laughing, almost crazed. He gripped his cursed spear even tighter.

"Dix?" Gran, his loyal follower, stared at him. He couldn't see what was so funny about calling his brother.

"Let's go, Gran. Time to meet our guest."

Dix turned around. Instead of going deeper into the Knossos, he walked toward the exit.

Destination: Daedalus Street.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

Following his trail, Lili noticed the tracker signal shift.

"Lord August. He changed direction." She checked her device.

Dix wasn't going deeper into the hidden tunnels anymore. He was heading up, toward the surface, aiming for the exit to Daedalus Street.

"Let's move."

August had planned to follow him and find the hideout. But if Dix was heading to the surface, he must have decided to give up.

August hoisted Lili onto his back and sprinted after the signal.

"He's making a last stand." August saw what was happening.

Someone had warned Dix, abandoned him, and left him to face the danger alone.

Interesting...

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

Daedalus Street, late afternoon. The sun was setting in the west, casting long, red shadows over the slums.

"I'm back."

Dix stepped out into the open air. This was his ancestor's territory. This was his home.

He took a deep breath, savoring the familiar scent of Orario.

He stood in the middle of the street, holding his red spear. He opened his arms, taking in the feeling of the place.

The people passing by hardly reacted. They knew him as Dix the Hazer, a well-known local thug. They just glanced at him and kept moving.

Then, another voice cut through the noise.

"Enjoying the view, are we?"

"Dead men always get sentimental right at the end."

Footsteps came from behind, slow and deliberate, full of mockery.

Dix turned. "The monster rookie..."

"AUGUST!"

Two figures stood in the street: the Rookie and his Pallum supporter.

The tension between them was heavy. The threat in the air was so strong that people nearby stopped in their tracks, unable to move.

"Drop dead!" Dix stopped holding back. He grabbed his cursed spear and charged at August. He knew he wouldn't survive, but he was determined to ruin August's reputation before he died.

Seeing his boss charge, Gran drew his broadsword and rushed in.

The sudden outbreak of violence made the slum residents run away in fear.

Dix closed the distance, thrusting his spear forward—

A shadow blurred past August's shoulder.

"BANG!!"

Something slammed into the spear's path.

"..." Dix blinked. He hadn't hit August... He had impaled a corpse!

It was a fresh corpse, still warm, blood running down the spear. A thick iron chain was wrapped tightly around its neck, used to throw the body forward like a leash.

Gran skidded to a halt, his eyes wide with horror.

He recognized the face. It was one of their own—an Ikelos Familia member who had just fled the labyrinth, abandoning them to die.

The corpse's eyes bulged in frozen disbelief, staring blankly at the sky.

The chain snapped taut. August yanked the body off the spear and let it crumple to the dirt.

"You sick bastard..." Dix realized the man standing in front of him wasn't an Adventurer. He was a psychopath.

Dix planned to fight him in the open, die a public death, and ruin the "heroic" rookie's image.

Instead, August had used a dead Ikelos member as a human shield. To everyone watching, it was a shocking and disrespectful act.

August didn't care about being a hero. In the Dungeon, he killed without mercy, and out here in the open, he was no different. He refused to pretend to be someone he wasn't.

"Well, well. Look who it is! If it isn't the great Dix! Staying real calm for a guy staring at his own dead crew!" Lili's voice boomed over the street.

She spoke through the drones floating above the street. The loudspeakers made her mocking words echo off the brick walls.

"I actually feel bad for them!"

"Imagine murdering your own Familia just to cover your tracks! Ohohoho!"

The people stopped running and turned back, shocked. They couldn't understand what was happening.

August smiled. "I'm sure the rest of your friends are dying to see you."

He snapped his fingers.

Dozens of iron chains fell from above.

Dangling from the links were the severed heads of the Ikelos Familia.

The crowd screamed. Children wailed. People scrambled over each other to get away from the massacre.

It was a nightmare. Adventurers weren't supposed to act like this. The Guild had rules, but this was just chaos and killing.

Even Gran, a hardened killer, dropped his sword. His hands shook as he stared at the decapitated heads of his friends.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Dix snarled.

"Do you even know what you're doing?"

"Don't you give a damn about your reputation?"

Dix couldn't understand it. Why wasn't August acting like he was supposed to? As a member of the Hestia Familia, he should have been a symbol of justice, someone who wanted to be a hero like Finn Deimne.

Why did the darkness in him feel deeper than any villain...

August's voice rang out, broadcasted across the slums.

"Why would I care about my reputation?" He spread his arms. "If you bothered to pull my file, you'd know I don't give a damn what this city thinks of me."

"I slaughter monsters without batting an eye. Does that look like the work of a saint?"

August wagged a finger, clicking his tongue. "Or maybe you're confused because I fund treatments for crippled orphans? Because I throw Valis around to buy them new limbs?"

"Did you think I was doing that to farm good karma? To build a brand?"

Evil to the bone. Righteous to a fault.

The fleeing pedestrians heard him. The hidden Gods heard him. The Loki Familia executives, who had rushed to the scene, heard every word.

August had only been in Orario for a few weeks. People saw him in two ways: as a miracle healer who saved injured children, and as a ruthless killer who wiped out monsters with heavy weapons. Orario did not know what to make of him.

When he said he didn't care about fame, it shocked everyone.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

"What is this guy talking about?" Bete Loga scowled from a nearby rooftop. Who didn't care about fame?

"Should we stop him?" Ais Wallenstein glanced at Finn.

The situation was spiraling into a bloodbath. As a leading Familia, intervening was their job.

"No. It won't do any good."

Finn bit his thumb.

He knew that getting involved would only bring trouble to the Loki Familia. The Monster rookie thought in a way Finn couldn't even start to understand.

Down in the street, Dix stood paralyzed. He heard the confession firsthand. He couldn't grasp it. Did this man have zero moral compass?

August read the confusion on Dix's face.

"You think I'm crazy?" August chuckled, waving his hand dismissively. "I don't care about my reputation."

"And who told you I was a good person?"

He refused every label the city tried to give him. He didn't want glory, didn't believe in fake kindness, and didn't care about being a hero.

To the onlookers, he sounded like a monster.

The crowd whispered in fear. They didn't understand him, but they knew he wasn't there to save them.

"Sure. I don't care about fame, and I'm not a good man."

"But..." August paused.

His gaze bored into Dix Perdix. The captain of the Ikelos Familia. The heir to Daedalus. A representative of this twisted city.

"I love humanity."

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