"Guildmaster,"
Tanjiro looked at the group, who all wore troubled expressions, and couldn't help but ask, "Will things really become that bad now that Mr. Laios knows about all this?"
Knowing he was inexperienced, Tanjiro simply asked directly what he didn't understand—hoping Kairo Retsu would explain.
"It's troublesome because we don't know."
Kairo Retsu scratched his head in frustration. "To put it simply—it's like a butterfly flapping its wings in the far west, and then, after some time, in the far east…"
"Oh, I've heard of this!" Kazuma nodded. "It's called the butterfly effect, right? A butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tornado somewhere else…"
Before Kazuma could finish his sentence, Kairo Retsu rubbed his temples and went on: "In the far east, that butterfly turns into a two-meter-tall muscular magical girl and lands a devastating Shoryuken on some alien."
"?"
Naofumi and Kazuma—both educated enough to have heard of the butterfly effect—each threw out a mental question mark.
But Kairo Retsu pressed on. "And this is exactly our current situation!"
Kairo Retsu pounded the table in anguish. "All we did was accept a quest and hold a meeting—who the hell could've predicted that Laios would become a Hunter!!! Now the whole storyline's out of whack!"
"Is it really that dramatic?" Joseph raised an eyebrow. "Even if Laios knows his future, what's meant to happen should still happen, right? Like how we beat Muzan—maybe we could even save more people this way."
"That's exactly the problem!"
Kairo Retsu pointed at Joseph. "Take you, for example. You know that getting Kars launched into space was practically a miraculous coincidence. Now, if you had to face Perfect Being Kars again…"
"You'd know that ramming a plane into a volcano and triggering Kars's Ripple reaction would launch him into space—but can you be sure things would still play out the same way?"
Joseph paused, realizing Kairo Retsu's headache wasn't unwarranted.
"I think I get the gist of it."
Laios, meanwhile, was still chewing a juicy piece of grilled Rathalos tail. After swallowing, he pointed his fork at the big screen. "That demon seems to be able to perceive desires related to itself. If I go through the events leading to becoming the dungeon's master while already knowing all this… then the demon won't act the way it did originally."
"Even someone as clever as Marcille got fooled by the demon. I don't think I can replicate that moment of devouring its desire like I did before. That's what you're worried about, right?" Laios gave a matter-of-fact analysis.
"!"
Kazuma was shocked. "Wait—you actually think, Laios?!"
He had skimmed through Delicious in Dungeon earlier and got the impression that Laios was unreasonably… personified.
"What are you saying? This is the Glutton King, Laios," Kairo Retsu chuckled. "Anyway, what's done is done. We just have to roll with it…"
"Well then, officially—welcome to our Gathering Hub, Laios." Kairo Retsu gave Laios a big thumbs-up. "Let's introduce ourselves! I think you'll find the worlds we come from pretty interesting."
Kairo Retsu gave a brief introduction of himself, Tanjiro, and Joseph—three individuals whose worlds lacked large-scale monster ecologies.
When he got to Naofumi and Kazuma, Kairo Retsu got visibly more excited.
"Naofumi Iwatani's world has a bunch of unique monsters. One of his companions is a Filolial that transformed into a humanoid form!"
Then he moved on to his star attraction—Kazuma.
"This guy, Kazuma, is next level!"
Kairo Retsu beamed. "He's done what none of us have! He bagged a dual-gender synthetic being! And has an entire beastfolk harem! Truly inspiring! A man worthy of awe!!"
"I DON'T HAVE ANY DAMN HAREM!!! I'm seriously in love with a hot succubus onee-san, you jackass!!!!!" Kazuma exploded. "Quit making up stuff about my life! None of that even happened yet!!"
"Oh! So what exactly are you Hunters?" Laios asked, still chewing. "You're all from different worlds like me, right?"
"And is this really dragon meat I'm eating? It's the second time I've eaten dragon, but it tastes different…"
Laios savored the Rathalos tail meat thoughtfully. "Is it because it's tail meat? Or maybe it's a different dragon species…"
"You're asking the right guy!"
Kairo Retsu immediately pulled up the projector. After a quick search, he displayed images of the flame dragon Laios had eaten, and the Rathalos from Monster Hunter.
"This is the flame dragon you ate, Laios. And over here—this is a Rathalos, from this world."
Kairo Retsu flipped through several pictures of Rathalos. "In this world, dragons are everywhere—some strong, some weak… And we Hunters…"
He briefly explained the world of Monster Hunter, what it meant to be a Hunter, and the physical transformations that occurred when someone joined the Gathering Hub.
"Oh! No wonder I feel like I've eaten so much but still haven't gotten full!" Laios looked thrilled. "So even though there aren't dungeon monsters, there are powerful and unique creatures here?! That's amazing!"
"That's one way to put it. But I'm curious, Laios—what's the current status of your party?" Kairo Retsu asked, both curious and apprehensive. "We might have no choice but to prepare for action. We can't just ignore the demon now."
"Let me think… We just ate griffon meat," Laios recalled. "It wasn't long ago—we'd just eaten griffon meat and were heading deeper into the dungeon. Then everyone came down with high fevers…"