DanmachiMC - Chapter 172: Eina's Concern

After leaving the Dungeon, Bell went straight to the Guild.

He moved cautiously, blending into the crowd like any other adventurer as he entered the building.

Since it was the Guild’s busiest time of day, his presence among the crowd made it difficult for anyone to notice him.

But Bell wasn’t there to join a party or socialize. He was looking for Miss Eina.

Eventually, he spotted her seated nearby, engaged in conversation with a Chienthrope girl.

Out of respect for her work, Bell didn’t approach immediately. He waited until the girl left before stepping forward.

“Miss Eina.”

At the sound of that familiar voice, Eina looked up and immediately recognized the hooded young adventurer—Bell Cranel.

“Bell-kun.”

She quickly glanced around, then stood up and pulled him toward one of the inner reception rooms.

Once she hung the “In Use” sign outside the door, she led Bell inside.

“Phew
 Bell-kun, you really need to be more careful when coming here.”

Eina’s voice dropped to a softer tone—what she was about to share came from within the Guild.

“Bell-kun, you should be on your guard. While reviewing some files yesterday, I found that the one I handled for you had disappeared.”

‘That fast, huh?’

Bell wasn’t too surprised by the news. After all, Hermes had already shown up in person—he’d clearly done some digging.

But Bell couldn’t say for certain who had taken the file.

Beyond Hermes, he suspected the Goddess of Beauty, Freya, could easily be behind something like this as well.

“Luckily, I didn’t include any specific details in that file. Otherwise, it could’ve turned into a serious problem.”

Eina was deeply relieved she had the foresight not to treat Bell’s file like any other, instead processing it as an unsigned case. If she hadn’t, the situation would have been far more complicated.

“Thank you for going out of your way, Miss Eina.”

Bell had never forgotten the help she’d given him.

Offering that kind of support to a newly registered adventurer was well beyond the responsibilities of a receptionist.

Bell didn’t know whether her actions might jeopardize her position, but he was sure they had some consequences.

That’s why he’d always remember her kindness.

Looking at the boy standing in front of her, still full of energy, Eina finally felt some of her initial worries begin to ease.

"It's fine to be concerned, but Orario really has become unstable lately.

Even the Ishtar Familia has been caught up with the Evilus. There's no telling how many other Familias might be involved with them too."

At that thought, Eina felt a wave of exhaustion.

Fortunately, she was just a Guild receptionist and had no direct involvement with the Evilus. Otherwise, even the Guild could end up in serious trouble.

"The Evilus might be an even bigger problem than we think."

Bell also understood that there were deeper layers to this situation. Many Familias had shadows of the Evilus behind them—but until those people showed themselves, he still didn’t know enough.

"I’ve been hearing more and more about the Evilus lately."

"A lot of the horrible things from the past were their doing. And now it seems they’ve been hiding within the very Familias of Orario all along."

"Yeah."

Eina understood that perfectly well. But even though she was aware, she couldn’t just come out and name which Familias had ties to the Evilus. Most of them went out of their way to hide their true identities.

"In the past, the Evilus were firmly suppressed by the two top Familias. Back when those two were still around, the Evilus didn’t even dare raise their heads."

"But ever since that power vanished, they’ve been crawling back out, one after another."

The thought gave Eina a sudden sense of unease.

"Bell-kun
 do you think the Evilus might’ve stolen your file?"

The question caught Bell off guard for a moment. He could only respond earnestly.

"Miss Eina, I don’t think they’d go to all that trouble just for my file."

"The stuff they’ve done in the past doesn’t seem like the actions of a group looking to recruit people. They’re more like cultists—doing mindless things with no rhyme or reason."

"I think their actions are tightly tied to their goals."

"And judging by how they usually operate, stealing someone’s file seems completely out of character."

Frankly, given how reckless and chaotic the Evilus were, the idea of them sneaking in to steal his file sounded like a joke.

"Besides, could those kinds of people even sneak into the Guild?"

"...Good point."

Eina wasn’t entirely sure whether the Evilus would dare attempt it, but realistically, they likely couldn’t pull it off.

Thinking it over, she realized she’d probably been too on edge. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have even considered such a thing.

"The file room has a special security setup. If you don’t know the layout, even getting close will trigger an alarm."

"Whoever took the file must be someone very familiar with the Guild's internal systems."

With those conditions in mind, the range of possible culprits was actually quite narrow.

Even so, just confirming that it probably wasn’t the Evilus who stole Bell’s file brought Eina some relief.

"But still, Bell-kun, you need to be careful going forward."

"Like last time—bringing in that many Goblin Daggers to the Guild just isn’t appropriate."

Honestly, if not for that particular incident, the file might never have gone missing.

But Eina also knew that was Bell’s first day as an adventurer—he’d had no idea how anything worked.

And since then, Bell hadn’t repeated that kind of mistake.

Thinking back on that moment, even Bell felt secondhand embarrassment from his past self.

"Don’t worry. This time, it’s just some Magic Stones."

Since he'd found another outlet for weapon-related trades, Bell wasn’t about to drop a pile of Dungeon loot at the Guild again.

He pulled out a large batch of Magic Stones from his four-dimensional space.

Eina glanced over the pile on the table and let out a quiet breath of relief. As long as it was just Magic Stones, there was no paperwork involved—they wouldn’t even appear in the records. Tracking them would be practically impossible.