“You’ve explained how to improve the military police.
What about improving Orario as a whole?” “Restrict authority and rewrite the laws!” “You mean restricting the Guild?” Ganesha had never heard such an argument before and immediately became curious.
“That’s right.
The Guild’s authority needs limits, while legal reform means imposing harsher punishments!” “Like what you did to those robbers yesterday?
Wasn’t that too severe?
You destroyed their futures.” Ritsuka was not someone who enjoyed cruel punishments, but…
“There’s a saying where I come from: troubled times call for harsh laws.” “The more chaotic a place becomes, the harsher its punishments must be to deter anyone trying to cause trouble.” “As for claiming that I destroyed their futures, we have another saying: it wasn’t me who ruined them.
These troubled times ruined them!” Ganesha froze briefly before objecting.
“Surely Orario isn’t that chaotic.” “It isn’t?” Ritsuka bluntly challenged him and raised two fingers.
He had been robbed twice in one day, yet Ganesha claimed Orario was not chaotic?
“…” Ganesha remained silent for quite some time before finally speaking again.
“Fine.
It is…
somewhat chaotic.” “That’s why authority needs limits, and the laws need to be rewritten.” Orario was an unusual place.
More accurately, the entire DanMachi world was unusual.
Because gods existed, mortal nations were loosely organized and possessed very little influence.
No matter how powerful a human or demi-human kingdom became, it could never truly oppose a god.
Even when gods did nothing, their mere presence served as an overwhelming deterrent.
As a result, this world had very few properly functioning nations.
Even the elven kingdom was no exception.
Human kingdoms were even worse.
One country near Orario was entirely controlled by Ares, the God of War.
It technically possessed a royal family, but that royal family might as well not have existed.
Within Orario, Ouranos was occupied with suppressing the Dungeon, while the other gods focused on raising adventurers and entertaining themselves.
Almost none of them concerned themselves with governance.
Consequently, Orario lacked anything resembling a true ruler.
The Guild founded by Ouranos therefore became the city’s de facto government.
The Guild created the laws, established regulations, commissioned Familias to maintain security—and then sat back while money poured in.
It taxed every business in Orario.
Adventurers, merchants, and civilians all paid fees when entering through the city gates.
Whenever adventurers exchanged magic stones for valis, the Guild took a percentage from that as well.
Its officials did not even need to leave Guild Headquarters to collect an endless stream of money.
Yet even that was not enough for some of them.
Many Guild employees had secretly cooperated with Evilus for illegal profits.
Since the Guild possessed information on every adventurer in Orario, collaborating with Evilus made targeting a particular Familia incredibly easy.
That was also why the Guild merely issued a large bounty after Ryuu killed its corrupt employees without seriously pushing anyone to capture her.
Executing Guild members herself had been vigilante justice and publicly humiliated the organization.
However, the Guild knew those officials had been guilty, so it posted the bounty to preserve appearances without actively sending anyone to hunt Ryuu down.
In Ritsuka’s eyes, that was still nowhere near enough!
As someone raised in the East, his opinion was simple.
If the Guild collected that much money, then it had to work!
What was the point of keeping it around if it refused to do anything?
The Guild existed almost entirely to serve adventurers and showed little concern for ordinary citizens.
It rarely mediated conflicts between Familias and often overlooked illegal acts committed by powerful ones.
The most obvious example was its claim that it preserved Orario’s fairness and stability.
In reality, a powerful Familia could attack a weaker one in broad daylight without the Guild taking meaningful action!
In the original story, Apollo wanted the white-haired rabbit so badly that he openly sent his followers to attack the Hestia Familia’s ruined church.
They blew the church apart and forced Hestia to accept a War Game.
The Guild responded with little more than a few symbolic words.
That only worked because this was Orario.
Had the Guild operated in Konoha, villagers overflowing with the Will of Fire would have bullied it from sunrise to sunset!
Yet an organization like this still possessed the authority to pass judgment.
Worse still, no one supervised it!
“I understand your point, but unfortunately…” Ganesha shook his head.
“The Guild will never agree to that.” As the Familia that cooperated most closely with the Guild, Ganesha understood its internal situation extremely well.
That knowledge was precisely why he knew such reforms were currently impossible.
Ouranos paid almost no attention to the Guild.
Otherwise, it could not have remained unchanged for so many years.
Its daily management had been left entirely to Guild Head Royman, a greedy elf whose mind contained little besides money.
“That’s because the Guild feels no pressure.
It would never change merely because a single Familia demanded it.” Ritsuka showed neither disappointment nor outrage.
He had never expected the Guild to immediately accept his proposal.
Orario’s major Familias focused entirely on raising talented newcomers and competing against their rivals.
None paid much attention to the Guild.
As for the ordinary people suffering throughout Orario, what did their problems have to do with those Familias?
“So, Ganesha-sama, you’ve chosen to reform your own Familia first?” Since changing the Guild was temporarily impossible, their only option was to begin by changing themselves.
“That’s right.
If the Guild refuses to change, then I must take the first step.” “I also want Orario to become a better city.” Ganesha nodded firmly.
“Fujimaru Ritsuka, as we discussed, will you serve as an adviser and help reform the Ganesha Familia from within?” “I will, of course, provide compensation that satisfies you.” “In that case, I look forward to working with the Ganesha Familia.” The Guild might be impossible to change for now, but that did not mean it would remain impossible forever.
By cooperating with the Ganesha Familia and gaining Ganesha’s friendship, Ritsuka would acquire a valuable ally when he eventually confronted the Guild.
After discussing a few more matters with Ganesha, Ritsuka left the Tower of Babel.
Today’s conversation had only established their general direction.
True reform could not be accomplished through a few sentences.
They would need to draw up detailed plans later.
When Ritsuka descended and walked out of the Tower of Babel, he found Ryuu waiting for him in the plaza.
The moment she saw him emerge, she hurried over.
“You didn’t go back first?” Ritsuka spoke before she could, and Ryuu answered with a faint blush.
“I promised to show you around Orario today.
I only came down earlier because you needed to meet Ganesha-sama.” At the same time, she was quietly making an excuse for running away earlier.
“In that case, it’s still early.
Let’s continue exploring the city.” …