Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darouka III – 04

「遠い夢アコガレ」 (Akogare (Tooi Yume))
“Aspiration (Distant Dream)”

We continue on from last episode’s festivities – with the Xenos hosting a celebration for furthering monster-mortal relations. From my perspective, many parallels can be drawn to real life in terms of social commentaries, which make this arc believable for me and excellent where characterisations and darker themes are involved. As such, Danmachi continues to be on a roll where it concerns world building. Where did these Xenos come from? Why are they uniquely sapient? Turns out that the Labyrinth itself is something of a God, with a will of its own – carrying the consciousness of monsters through cycles of rebirth and death.

In recent times, it seems that as a response to the desire of dying monsters, the Xenos have begun manifesting – who generally crave the outside world. More importantly, Ouranos has become aware that more sapient monsters have appeared, collaborating with Ganesha to try and organise events that will help mortals come to turns with the idea of harmonising with the Xenos. That looks to be off the table for now. But the Hestia Familia present a ray of hope that one day, surface dwellers can come to accept them. Which would allow their dream of living in the outside world come true. So I can see why the visit made by Bell and his friends meant so much to them, on top of the fact they protected and cared for Wiene – which demonstrates trustworthiness as well as good will.

That said, Lyd made a really interesting distinction between Xenos and regular monsters. From their brief skirmish, he naturally grasped Bell’s reluctance to kill monsters and tells the young adventurer to avoid sparing thoughts to sentiment – because he should value his own life in a battle to the death. There’d be no hard feelings from the Xenos – who also understand, since they are forced to fight and kill monsters that behave hostile towards them. On the other hand, it shouldn’t have been unexpected. Yet I was really surprised when it turned out many of the Xenos kept amicable outwards appearances, despite the fact they secretly hated mortals and despised the idea of integration. Unfortunately, I do not think they will be changing that opinion anytime soon. Especially with what happened next.

The brutal ambush, torture and murder of some Xenos planned by the Ikelos familia really shocked me. Using the tortured cries of a Xenos to lure the rest into a trap was exceedingly cruel. A violation of the Geneva Conventions I say. Their plan seems to be driven by monetary incentives. But the question is – who would pay a fine price for sapient creatures? And for someone who gives clear instructions not to kill the Xenos, it doesn’t look like Dix has any qualms brutally torturing and murdering any himself – if previous scenes at the Ikelos Familia’s base are anything to go by.

Things also went from bad to worse for Wiene – who was already devastated at being forcefully parted from Bell. What frightens me is that Wiene has found herself caught without anyone to protect her. I pray for her safety. But going by track record, I suspect that Dix will torture and maim her at best. Maybe even kill her at worst with no way for Bell to immediately respond. What now? Hopefully the remaining Xenos can launch a quicker rescue operation, while alerting the Hestia Familia so that Bell can come to save the day before it’s too late. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading this post and see you all next week!