A Monster

Hestia, Artemis and Loki were sitting face to face with the others standing around them. From Loki's side, except for Gareth who remained in their manor as a guard, every executive was present. Loki wanted to bring Line, but the latter refused because she was at an important part of her study and didn't want to break her chain of thought.

On Hestia and Artemis' side, everyone except for Serafall, Ophis, Claire, and of course, Tanis, were present. Medusa had also left the room after serving everyone a cup of tea.

"Now, please tell us what you came here for.", started Hestia.

Loki remained quiet for a moment. Until this point, she still wasn't sure if she was doing the correct thing. If the outcome of this meeting was unfavorable, she knew for sure that her children would hate her and they might think that she was forcing them to cooperate with their sworn enemies.

However, the reason she was here right now was because she trusted Kisuke and those around him. If it was just other people who felt sympathy and empathy for the 'monsters', she wouldn't have dared to bring her children here to directly confront them.

But she knew for sure that Kisuke and the girls had an objective view regarding this strange existence and she was betting that their opinion could open the minds of her children who grew up hating monsters. Loki also had a feeling that this might be the key that could help Ais before it was too late.

Sighing, Loki finally replied, "Then I won't beat around the bush. What are those monsters?", her question was directed to Sona.

But before answering, Sona first looked at everyone from Loki's side's faces. It became obvious to her that whatever answer they were expecting, it'll be hard for them to accept.

"Before I answer that, let me ask everyone what a monster is for them."

The first one to answer without much hesitation was Finn, "Monsters have been the enemy of the people since ancient times."

"Creatures from the Dungeon that want to take over the world.", added Riveria.

Except for Ais, the others also answered more or less the same as the first two.

Since she was the last one, all eyes landed on her as she said while clenching her fist, "All monsters... should just disappear."

The members of the Loki Familia became tense. They already knew that they were keeping some monsters and it seemed that they were taking good care of them. Ais' comment, however, was essentially telling them that the monsters in their care should be killed.

But surprisingly, Sona nodded in agreement, "That's true. Monsters should all just disappear and the world would be a better place... probably..."

Like the others, Ais was also shocked at her response.

"I mean it would really be great if there is nothing that could threaten everyone's peaceful life. However, that's really impossible in my opinion. A world like that would essentially or partially be a utopia."

Finn thought that her words were really strange. It was as if they were describing monsters differently, "Then what about you guys? What are monsters for you?"

Sona smiled and replied, "It's as you said, they are a threat to everyone and should be dealt with. However, we disagree that they only came from the Dungeon."

The Loki Familia members were shocked at what she was implying and Tiona couldn't help but lean forward and ask, "Are you saying that there are other sources of the monsters aside from the Dungeon!?"

But instead of Sona, the one who answered her was Koneko with her head tilted, "Of course they don't just come from the Dungeon. After all, people aren't born in the Dungeon."

It was their turn to get confused and Aika immediately supplemented her words while patting Koneko's head, "She meant that people could be monsters too."

They weren't just confused, but also stunned. However, before they could arrive at a ridiculous conclusion that people could somehow transform into a creature of Dungeon, Sona immediately added with a chuckle, "No. It's impossible for one to transform into a similar creature as those that came from the Dungeon."

She then looked at Finn and said, "Cruel, horrible, evil, unsympathetic, and many more. Don't you think there are also people like that out there?"

Finn stared back at her before nodding.

"Therefore, you could also describe them as monsters."

They wanted to say something but they didn't know how they could refute her words. After all, although her words were unconventional, there was truth within it.

"Although we describe 'monsters' similarly, at the core of it, we have a different view. Monsters for us are limited to what's inside regardless of their external form. If he, she, or it, has his, her, or its own will and could communicate properly, it's a person. However, the most innocent person could also be a monster while the most tyrannical monster could be a person. In other words, nothing is really defined before you receive any information."

Sona then looked at everyone's conflicted reactions. As someone born outside of this world, such perception was easy to accept. But to those born in this one, it was a different story with monsters only having a singular definition of creatures of the Dungeon.

"I'm not trying to change your worldview because you have to be the one to decide whether you should change it after accepting or rejecting the idea. I just want everyone to understand that we have a slightly different way of differentiating monsters from everyone else."

After a few seconds, Finn asked, "Then what would you call a mons... I mean a creature of Dungeon that is capable of talking and cooperating with other people?"

This time, it was Akeno who answered with a chuckle, "That's just a stranger, isn't it?"

At her response, Finn could only sigh and smile wryly. Meanwhile, while still conflicted, the others could understand their group's point of view, except for Ais.

After all, all this time, she was getting stronger only for the sake of her revenge and continually slaughtered the monsters regardless of whether they could speak or not as part of it. If she were to accept their view, then it would mean that she was something as bad as the monster that she was trying to defeat.

With nothing else to say, she asked, "...What about Kisuke...? What is a monster for him?"

"For him? If I were to guess, a monster doesn't really mean anything to him as he sees others as strangers, friends, acquaintances, allies, enemies, or customers."

All of a sudden, an image of Kisuke happily selling his merchandise to the monsters of the Dungeon appeared inside their minds and somehow, they couldn't be sure that it wouldn't ever happen.