A Stroll Through the Home, and an Uninvited God
“Come to think of it, is it really all right for the two of us to be together like this?”
“Hm...?”
I asked Riveria while watching Ais scarf down her jagamarukun, cheeks working away.
“Even if Lady Loki vouched for me, that doesn't change the fact that I'm a suspicious character. Are you truly comfortable letting Ais travel around with someone like that?”
My visit to the Loki Familia home had implicitly proven I wasn't an enemy, but that was a far cry from proving I was harmless.
I was, at the end of the day, a foreign thing that had appeared out of nowhere. On top of that, the power I possessed was far beyond that of an ordinary adventurer. Letting me accompany Ais — still only Level 1 — struck me as altogether too careless.
“Mm. It's a bit awkward to say this to your face, but you're not wrong. Loki gave her word you were fine, but one can't blindly trust even a god's intuition. And since Ais is still a child, she warrants particular care.”
Riveria hesitated briefly at my words before pouring out her honest feelings. This kind of unguarded expression, I supposed, was her own way of showing sincerity.
“But I have no intention of dictating that child's life for her. If I agonized over every conceivable 'what if,' I could never call myself an adventurer.”
“Still...”
“Well — though there does seem to be some self-interest mixed in. Loki appears to be thinking about either pulling you into our Familia or, failing that, steering you somewhere we can benefit from.”
“You want me... in the Loki Familia?”
It was surprising, and yet perfectly natural all at once. In the original timeline, I'd received plenty of recruitment overtures from other Familias once I hit Level 2.
Most of that had been thanks to becoming a Record Holder, of course. Remembering how every god other than Lady Hestia had turned me away at the door before then made the whole experience feel strangely surreal.
A god's intuition is almost never wrong. Gods rarely flip their attitudes the way they do in those cases. Looked at that way, perhaps I'd had a genuinely rare experience.
“From what we've seen, your level is likely quite high. Loki said your disposition doesn't seem bad either, so Finn was apparently rather optimistic about the whole thing.”
“Well, that's... should I say thank you, or...”
A Familia... As someone who had once idolized them, it was a flattering offer, to be sure...
“Regrettably, I have no intention of a Conversion...”
A flattering offer — but one I had no intention of accepting.
I wanted to remain in the Hestia Familia until the moment I died.
“Mm. Loki said it would probably be impossible anyway. Finn figured it was worth a hopeful invitation, not that he expected you to actually come.”
“...I see.”
Oh no, I'd jumped the gun. Now I just felt embarrassed.
“But Ais has taken quite a shine to you, so... I'd prefer it if you thought well of us, whenever possible.”
“A-Ahaha.”
I had nothing to say to that, and awkwardly scratched my head with my one and only hand.
Riveria gave me a sidelong glance at that, then...
“...And I don't particularly look on you badly, either.”
she murmured, just a little too quietly to be deliberate.
“We're back.”
“We're home.”
“Oho. Back in one piece, I see.”
“Welcome back.”
Loki and Finn greeted Riveria and Ais as they returned to the Loki Familia home.
“Both of you at once? Were you waiting for us?”
Riveria was a little taken aback to find the captain and her patron goddess both standing there. Finn, as captain, and Loki, as their god, were both among the busiest people in the Familia. For the two of them — one mortal and one god — to greet her together was beyond expectation.
“We were waiting, yes. There was something we wanted to discuss.”
“Me too, me too! I've been dying to try out a little shin-on-san-taku, y'know.”
“...Shin-on-san-taku?”
At the unfamiliar word, Ais tilted her head. Riveria's temples throbbed at yet another of the gods' particular brand of eccentricity. She had no idea what this 'shin-on-san-taku' was supposed to be, but it was surely some inane divine pastime.
“Inane?! Shin-on-san-taku is the height of romance, I'll have you know!”
“So what is shin-on-san-taku?”
“Shin-on-san-taku is when me and my little Ais-tan eat together, bathe together, and then do the — heheheh — other stuff!”
“Tempest.”
“GYAAAH?!”
So it was inane talk, after all. Riveria let out a sigh and, ignoring her goddess's would-be murderess, turned toward the prum hero.
“Now then. Never mind Loki — what was your reason for waiting on me, of all people?”
“Ha ha. To be precise, I was waiting for Ais, not you.”
Riveria's brow pinched at the unexpected statement.
“Waiting for... Ais?”
Their return had run a bit late, but not nearly so late as to warrant comment compared to a usual day.
And moreover — even knowing Ais had been with me, that Vesta fellow...
“...You're hardly the type to worry for worry's sake. Has something happened?”
“It's less that something happened... and more that I suspect something is going to.”
“...?”
A question mark bloomed across Riveria's face at the cryptic remark.
Without a word, Finn turned his gaze away and let it drift over the rowdy god-and-child play unfolding nearby.
“Say, Ais-tan, you seem awful chipper today. Somebody buy you somethin' tasty, did they?”
“Mm.”
“No fair! What'd you eat that's got you in such a good mood? I'll buy you some too, so spit it out!”
“Red bean cream jagamarukun.”
“...That stuff's good, huh?”
“...Blasphemy. Die.”
“I'm the god here, ain't I?!”
Finn chuckled warmly at the little back-and-forth between his goddess and her child. But soon enough, a shadow fell across his face.
“What is it? Out with it. What's the problem?”
“The Evils. They've been awfully quiet lately.”
“Quiet is good, isn't it?”
It had always been common enough for the Evils to enter dormant periods. True, a few of those lulls had ended with a major incident detonating soon after — but so long as the Zeus and Hera Familias stood, they were always crushed in the end.
“Yes, it is. That would be true in any normal case. In any normal case.”
“And that means things are different now?”
“Not now. Later?”
Finn turned his head and looked out the window. Beyond the glass loomed the towering silhouette of the Hera Familia home.
“The Three Great Quests are about to begin. The Zeus and Hera Familias — and naturally, every first-class adventurer from the other Familias too — will be dragged off in force. Ours won't be an exception. From what I hear, even the people from Egypt were beaten in the last campaign and hauled off as well.”
“I see. But that...”
“What if, on that day, someone invades Orario?”
“...!”
“Picture it. The Evils strike at the exact moment Orario's main fighting strength has drained away. The Guild isn't stupid, of course — they'll leave some adventurers behind — but the city will be nowhere near full readiness. Since it's the moment humanity's fondest wish is finally within reach, they'll be concentrating everything on the Quest.”
The Zeus and Hera Familias wouldn't understand. There are moments when the overwhelmingly strong simply cannot comprehend the plight of the weak.
Leaving aside the prum hero, who had been born weak from the start.
To them, the Evils were little more than a footnote — but to the vast majority, they were anything but. And if the Evils launched an invasion while nearly all of Orario's manpower was gone, it would be nothing short of a catastrophe.
“Th-then couldn't we propose to the Guild that we strike the Evils first...”
“No good. No one's fool enough to shave down their strength at a time like this. And who knows where the Evils are even hiding — they pop out of the Dungeon like weeds, here one moment and gone the next.”
“Then what about leaving a few of our main fighters behind...”
“You want us to hold back key members and take on the Three Great Quests anyway?”
“...”
Impossible, of course. Riveria clenched her jaw at the thought.
“That day, Ais stays in Orario. She's not at a level where she could involve herself in something like that yet. And naturally, the Evils will be aiming for exactly that moment.”
Even the Evils wouldn't dare attack Orario outright while the Three Great Quests were underway. If they did, they'd face an all-out war with the adventurers the instant they returned.
The reason they'd survived this long wasn't merely that they hid well — it was that they never crossed the line, never poked the Zeus and Hera Familias in their vitals.
If they committed to open warfare in earnest, annihilation would come in the blink of an eye.
But abducting a single child entering the Dungeon? That was a different story entirely.
“They have some strange fixation on Ais. The reason... well, I have a guess or two.”
“...Ais's bloodline?”
“I don't know how much they actually know. There might be some other reason entirely. But that's not what matters right now.”
Finn turned his head again toward Loki and Ais.
Ais, kicking at Loki's leg; Loki, flustered by it and grinning all the same.
Watching Ais grow so much more expressive these days, a soft smile crept onto Finn's lips as well.
But that smile quickly gave way to an uneasy look.
“Which means, that day, we won't be able to protect her. And we can't take her along to the Quest, either.”
“Could we leave her to Noire's people...”
“Difficult, I'd think. They can't afford to watch only Ais. They'll have their hands full just with their own duties — asking them to babysit her on top of it all is asking too much.”
In raw experience, Noire, Dain, and Bara were seniors to even them.
Precisely because of that, though, they would be the ones holding the Familia together in everyone's absence — they couldn't be spared to look after one girl.
“So here's my question, Riveria.”
“Ask away.”
“That man, Vesta. In your eyes, how far can he be trusted?”
In the basement of the church, at that very moment.
“Descend.”
I was halfway through my stash of jagamarukun when an old god abruptly appeared before me, and I doubled over coughing, a stray crumb caught in my throat.
A magnificent, imposing frame beneath an old man's kindly face.
And yet no kindly face could quite mask that divinity. I knew this old god's name.
“Insolent brat. What's the meaning of coughing in a god's face?”
“I, um... that is...”
The words simply wouldn't come in the face of such an abrupt situation.
No, wait — why is Grandpa here of all places...?