Chapter 118: Going After the Soma Familia?
"How?"
After a brief moment of thought, Lily looked at Ethan and asked.
To Lily, the Soma Familia was no different from a den of demons. The people inside could hardly be called human anymore, and she had spent more years than she could count wishing those inhuman bastards would just die.
Liliruca's parents had both belonged to the Soma Familia, so she had also been a member of the Soma Familia from birth.
Many years ago, her parents had gone into the Dungeon because they were desperately short on money, only to lose their lives in battle.
Lily, who was bullied within the Familia, was also constantly exploited by adventurers outside it. Later, she briefly escaped from the Familia.
However, when the Familia members discovered that a florist couple had taken Lily in, they destroyed the flower shop. That indirectly caused Lily to be hated by others, and it made her despise adventurers even more.
Perhaps because she had always been the one being squeezed dry within the Soma Familia, by the time she first met the protagonist, her attitude had already fallen into a state close to self-abandonment.
So if she had a chance to take revenge on the bastards of the Soma Familia, Lily would absolutely jump at it.
"Very soon."
Ethan looked at Lily and smiled as he spoke.
For Ethan, hatred was not a problem. The real problem would be if she had none.
At that moment, Lily raised her head for the first time and met Ethan's eyes.
It was hard to believe that someone who looked like a child in her early teens had already long passed the stage of being a real "child."
It was only because she was a Pallum that Lily looked so small and childlike.
"Take me to the Soma Familia's base. As for everything else, you don't need to worry about it. I'll handle it."
"Okay!"
She did not doubt him, nor did she ask what Ethan planned to do. Her role was simple: obey.
No matter what ideas he had or what plans he was making, as long as he was going to make the Soma Familia suffer, Lily would not hesitate even if she had to stake herself on it.
After that, Ethan and Lily left the Dungeon together.
Because the place where Ethan had fought Ryomen Sukuna was on the upper floors, and now that everything had settled down, he was also quite curious about what would happen to the Soma Familia.
The Soma Familia was a well-known large Familia in Orario, with a great number of members.
Those people were all addicted to divine wine.
Rather than calling them the Familia of the wine god Soma, it would be more accurate to call them the addicted Familia of the divine wine. In their hearts, divine wine mattered more than anything else, and everything else had to take a back seat.
As for Soma, he was a famous wine god in the heavens, utterly devoted to brewing divine wine.
Even after descending to the lower world, he relied on his own skill and did not need help from Familia members with [Mystery]. Through developing ingredients, blending them, and refining his methods, he created the lower world's version of [Divine Wine].
Most adventurers in his Familia admired that divine wine. After tasting it, their minds became enslaved by the pleasure it brought them.
In order to drink the divine wine again, the adventurers of the Familia had to pay a certain amount of money to Soma. Only then could they taste it once more.
However, the divine wine they spent their entire lives chasing was actually nothing more than an unfinished product.
In the lower world, due to both the limitations of materials and other reasons, Soma could not brew true "divine wine."
For various reasons, Soma became more and more obsessed with creating the perfect divine wine. Because of that, he kept expanding his Familia and used it to amass money, since brewing divine wine required no small amount of valis.
Later, because the adventurers of his Familia could no longer escape the divine wine's hold after drinking it, Soma was bitterly disappointed.
From then on, he buried himself in brewing divine wine and stopped interfering in the Familia's internal affairs.
In Soma's eyes, children like that no longer had any value.
But Soma had forgotten one thing.
The divine wine he brewed was something that even gods in heaven might fall victim to, let alone the children of the lower world. Expecting a child from the lower world to resist it was simply impossible.
People who could resist "divine wine" did exist.
However, there was absolutely no way every mortal could do it.
"Arde, you're finally back. I heard you made quite a bit of money recently. We've been a little short on cash lately, so…"
Just as they were about to leave the Dungeon, several people walked out from a corner.
Ethan swept his gaze over them. Most of them were beastmen, and in Ethan's "eyes," their bodies were filled with pitch-black "evil."
The moment Lily saw them, her body trembled slightly. Fear and dread also began to rise uncontrollably in her eyes.
These people were trash from the lowest level of Orario.
Their strength was limited, so the only people they could bully were those even weaker than themselves, the old, weak, sick, and helpless people whose lives were already miserable enough.
And Lily, who had no parents, no strength, and could only work as a supporter, was the perfect target.
On top of that, although Lily's heart had already grown numb, there was still a trace of despair buried deep inside her. Among supporters, she was also one of those who earned a decent amount.
Because of that, Lily was often extorted by them.
Most of the valis she earned ended up being stolen. And that was even after she used little tricks to secretly hide part of it.
"Hm? Is this guy the new sucker you hooked?"
Because Ethan looked far too good, they had never taken him seriously from the very beginning.
In Orario, there were people who looked like pampered young masters, but most of them were not that strong.
"Ethan…sama…"
The fear built up over years made Lily look so fragile in front of them, as if she had come face-to-face with a nightmare.
"Sama? Haha, you're calling this pretty boy 'sama'? Arde, you really have fallen low."
Mocking laughter rang out, and the others also looked at Ethan with sneers.
Orario was cruel and realistic. The only thing that truly earned respect was strength, not some flashy identity, because people died here every single day.
Listening to these people mock him, Ethan smiled.
Since they were all trash, then he could activate his "Cursed Technique" without any hesitation.
"Give me your 'evil.'"
As Ethan's words fell, a blooming pitch-black Manjusaka appeared behind him, swaying in the void as vividly as if it were alive.
Under the corruption of the "Flower of Evil," the "evil" inside these people began to manifest.
"What did you do?!"
At that moment, they were horrified to discover that their bodies could no longer move.
At the same time, they could feel something draining out of their bodies, and the speed was growing faster and faster. They did not know what it was, but their instincts screamed in terror.