"Lord Ganesha! Something terrible has happened!"
At the center of the arena, Monsterphilia's main performance had already begun.
The member responsible for taming the monsters was controlling one's movements like a bullfighter, even jumping straight onto its head to demonstrate his taming skills.
The performance greatly fed the audience's vanity, and excited cheers rose in wave after wave.
"What happened? Don't tell me the monsters escaped."
On the dais at the very top of the arena, where he had the best view of the entire venue, Ganesha had been happily chatting with Shakti, the level 5 mainstay of his Familia and the child he trusted most.
Hearing the anxious shout from the Familia member wearing an elephant mask, he grew somewhat nervous too. The Guild was paying particular attention to this Monsterphilia. If anything went wrong, there would be trouble.
"Not yet..."
But the Familia member who had come to report gave a rather peculiar answer.
Ganesha tilted his head in confusion.
"Then why are you so anxious? And what do you mean, 'yet'?"
"The stronghold holding the monsters is under attack. Everyone is fighting hard to resist, but it looks like they won't last much longer."
"It's that bad? Which Familia are the attackers from? With the Guild's reinforcements, there should be more than one level 4 stationed inside and outside that stronghold. Are they first-class Adventurers?"
Shakti frowned and took over from her patron god, asking for details.
"They aren't first-class Adventurers, but the attackers' Familia..."
The reporting member suddenly began to stammer, obvious hesitation in his voice.
"Has our patron god's flippancy rubbed off on you too? Out with it!"
As one of Orario's famous comedians, Ganesha was notoriously unreliable. Shakti naturally deserved much of the credit for the Ganesha Familia's ability to maintain its routine peacekeeping