Letting out a breath, I allowed myself a smile. I might have just killed almost a dozen people, but they were shitty bastards who needed to be put in the ground and the world was just that little bit brighter for their passing. Better still, I got to have my cake and eat it too. Not only did I get to feel good about taking care of a small piece of the evils plaguing this world, but I also got a good fight out of it.
Hell, I even got magic out of it, and damn if that didn't feel incredible.
The feeling I'd gotten while first tapping into it hadn't faded, it still felt exactly like Hestia's gloved hand was in mine, warm and homely as it excitedly tugged at me to just go running through the streets with it.
It was proof of a connection and an undeniably positive thing, something I wouldn't mind holding onto forever. The only unfortunate part was that I didn't have much in the way of mind reserves and already I could feel a certain wariness setting in, signalling the need for me to stop. But even with that minor downer, I knew I could always reach out for it again later.
So I let go, warm fingers slipping gently through mine before the feeling was gone, retreating back into the centre of my being. It was a tad saddening to let it go, but also comforting to still be able to feel it within me; I'd just have to train to build up my reserves so I could maintain the feeling for longer… and also train to cast some actual spells.
I did have a lot of ideas on that front.
But that could come later, for now I probably had to stop standing around and actually consider my course of action here.
The impacts from our fight had definitely alerted the authorities; the crowds that had dispersed were returning, gossiping and gasping as they stared into what remained of the warehouse. Which meant the Ganesha familia was almost certainly on their way and I was standing next to quite a few bodies, with a bunch of kidnapped children besides.
In my old world this would definitely be the point where I would start running and leave the kids to the authorities.
Here though? Tsubaki had given me a run down on vigilante justice, and as long as the evidence was clear and reputation was on our side, we were pretty much fine. In this case we had a bunch of victims likely willing to testify, one of the most well known adventurers in the city witnessed everything and there was a warehouse full of horrors to serve as evidence.
Which meant that I was probably clear on sticking around and making sure the kids were okay.
As for after? Chances were that the kids would still be handled by the authorities and sent to some institution or another. If not then I could probably bring them back to the ruined district and whatever Hestia was planning there. Rabbit girl could either meet up with them there, or I could help reunite them afterwards.
Put simply, all I had to do right now was get them free and watch over them until someone arrived to take them off my hands, which was easy enough. Before I could go check on them however, Tsubaki landed beside me, casting a worried eye over my admittedly quite damaged outfit.
"You alright?" She asked softly.
"Need to build a new set of armour, but other than that…" I trailed off, waving a hand vaguely at everything around us, in a kind of 'what can you do gesture'. I gave her a smile, one that she returned and surprisingly more genuinely than I had ever really seen from her.
"It's a bit of a mess, but that hardly matters." She shook her head. "…You did good, Elric."
I paused at that, then nodded. "Thanks, but it had to be done." Modesty was a beautiful virtue.
"You gotta finish what you start, right?" She said, before her smile turned just that bit mischievous. "And certainly not for any other reason, battle junkie."
I handled the comment with all the grace one would expect of me, namely by giving her the local equivalent of flipping the bird. She grinned at that, but all good things have to come to an end eventually, and we soon found ourselves exchanging meaningful glances towards the room where kids were being kept.
The locks fell apart under my knife and I was greeted with a bunch of rough looking kids who were more terrified than I'd ever seen another human. The fact that they were as silent as the grave was also not a good sign.
So I took a knee and smiled at them as genuinely as I could. "They're gone now… you're safe." It was perhaps a little cliche, but even my acting chops were strained in the face of a sight like that.
Still, I found myself going through the same motions I usually did when I saved someone; giving the victims space, helping out where or if I could, all while trying to provide that reassuring presence. In this case that meant steadily getting the kids to open up, healing the ones that would let me, and occasionally chiming in as Tsubaki dealt with the squad of Ganesha familia members who'd shown up not long after.
On that front, it didn't take long before the Athena familia was brought up and the members realised that they were in over their heads, with one of them rushing off to grab their boss. An event that led to me sitting on a rock with a huddle of children wrapped up in blankets behind me as they stared nervously at the 'scary woman'.
Captain of the Ganesha familia, Shakti Varma, was a stoic blue-haired beauty who'd been frowning at me ever since her subordinates guided her here. Or at least she had been, until the fearful looks from the kids seemed to get the better of her. The tentative smile she sent their way was perhaps a bit awkward, but her heart seemed to be in the right place and it definitely helped them relax.
"Elric Carne?" She asked.
"Captain Varma." I nodded, before her sharp eyes drifted from me to my drinking buddy and her expression became notably more strained.
"Cyclops." She addressed cooly.
Tsubaki just grinned. "Heya Shakti."
I couldn't recall anything from the anime that would explain the sudden tension between the two, but I wouldn't put it past my partner in crime to have had enough drunken incidents to piss off the entirety of the city guard, or pretty much any other minor crime for that matter. Tsubaki had told me several stories which essentially boiled down to 'and then I got drunk and wound up walking around naked'.
She was definitely not shy, and public indecency is probably still a crime here.
Fortunately the tension passed quickly, with Shakti's imperious gaze returning to me. "I've heard some of what happened from my men, but I'd like to hear it from you if that's alright."
So I explained, from what happened on the eleventh floor to my subsequent hunt for the group. It came across quite lovely on my tongue, with all the little inconvenient details omitted, like paying orphan spies or my previous model of heroics. Instead it was just the tale of a man seeking justice, and asking the unfortunate of the city for help before stumbling across something bigger than he was expecting.
It was quite a nice tale if I could say so myself.
Unfortunately the good captain wasn't quite as on board.
"So you're claiming you didn't know for certain that Athena familia was behind this? You just suspected?" She asked, her face having fallen into what I was suspecting to just be her default expression, a stern frown.
"Ah that, I should have interjected when Tsubaki brought it up to your men, but the kids had my attention at the time." I feigned a bit of contrition, shaking my head. "I suspected the Athena familia because they seemed to fit the bill the most, but I didn't have anything solid at the time. What I said during the fight was just bait."
"Bait?" The captain intoned oddly and even Tsubaki seemed perplexed, staring at me oddly.
"You know, fishing for information?" I tried.
"I am familiar with the term, it's only…" She trailed off, glancing at Tsubaki. "It's not an easy thing to lie so believably in front of a first class adventurer. Our senses can be quite intrusive."
I nodded, though on the inside I was wincing a little. "Ah, that… it's a bit hard to explain, but it's something of a game me and my Goddess Hestia play, one where I try to lie to her." I deploy a technical truth, I do hit Hestia with random lies to mess with her. "As you'd imagine, I haven't succeeded yet, but it's made me a rather good liar when I want to be."
The answer seems to land, a confused kind of amusement lighting up the pair's faces.
"I see." Shakti tilted her head. "And your suspicions, they were purely rooted in Athena's domains and the comments of this… 'Glasses' man you mentioned?"
"At first, yeah." I admitted. "But then I took a look at her compound and heard some things that turned my head."
Shakti's gaze sharpened. "Things like?"
I explained the doorman's attitude, some of the strange things I'd heard from the regular people around the compound and some of my observations of the compound itself, before turning to the real meat and potatoes of it all.
"You suspect that this is an unsanctioned group?" She asked in surprise.
"You think otherwise?"
"No, but I was honestly expecting you to be a bit more hotheaded given the day's events." A faint smile tugged at her lips as she shook her head. Which, honestly fair enough, I did just dynamic entry the shit out of this place. "By all accounts the Athena familia is an exemplary familia with a history of trying to help the mortal races. The idea that they would do such a thing and here of all places…"
"It doesn't make sense." Tsubaki finished, nodding.
"If Athena wanted to do this, she would do so in her own country." As that tidbit spilled out of Shakti's mouth I blinked in surprise, before swiftly suppressing my reaction. Her owning an entire fucking country was one hell of a detail for me to miss.
Sure I'd kept my investigation brief, limiting myself to asking normal people and a quick glance at the publicly available information in the guild to avoid raising the suspicions of a literal Goddess of wisdom, but that should have turned up this. Unless the average dude on the street knows even less than I'm used to… the woes of living in a world where google isn't a thing, I suppose.
I was going to have to adjust my investigation methodology, and probably start relying on the people around me more.
"Maybe the opposite then, the slimy bastards doing it here to avoid her attention?" Tsubaki huffed.
"Maybe." Shakti considered. "It could be a number of things, including this… Gregory Faust being as talented a liar as Captain Carne here is."
"Shouldn't that be something you already know?"
The Captain of the Ganesha familia frowned. "No, he's not registered with the forces Athena has stationed for training in Orario."
"Only one thing for it then." At Tsubaki's roguish grin, Shakti frowned.
"That's illegal."
"Oh don't be such a nag. What'd ya reckon Elric?"
"I don't even know what you're talking about." I replied honestly, earning myself an approving nod from Shakti and an almost pout from my friend.
"Status thief, it reveals hidden falnas." Tsubaki informed me and I nodded, the term 'hidden falna' was new to me, but fairly self explanatory. Most likely all falna were hidden to prevent spying. "C'mon Shakti, we both know you need this information."
The blue-haired woman took in a long breath before releasing it alongside what seemed to be most of her frustration.
"Fine." She took the bottle that suddenly appeared in Tsubaki's hands before marching off towards where her men had left the bodies. After a few steps however, she suddenly paused. "Thank you." She said quietly, before resuming her march.
"It's always the serious ones." Tsubaki chuckled.
I hummed in agreement. "She seems nice."
"Bit of a stickler for the rules, but I suppose someone has to be." As she spoke her gaze strayed from me to the kids and softened.
Following her gaze I found them mostly as they were before the conversation started, tired, wary and looking at me with an almost fragile sense of hope.
I smiled at them, earning a few tentative smiles back; so I mouthed 'don't worry' at them and flashed them a thumbs up.
"Yeah, glad it isn't you or me though."
Tsubaki snorted. "They wouldn't be able to-"
Loud footsteps interrupted her and we both turned as a familiar voice rang out. "ELRIC-KUN!"
For my part, I managed not to be too surprised as Hestia turned up, the rabbit girl on her back still swallowed up by my cloak and the leader of the street kids by her side.
The kid, who the other kids called Sticky (though he tried to tell us his name was 'The Boss'), nearly tripped as he took in the destruction around us. His wide eyes took it all in for a long moment, before turning to me with the kind of starry eyed awe that normally only crops up when a kid talks about their new favourite comic book character. A toothy grin shifting his freckly features into something incredibly boyish, as opposed to his normally aggressive countenance.
My eyes however were not on him or even my Goddess, but instead on the little girl she was carrying. I watched as she rubbed at her eyes desperately, and kept watching as her eyes filled with tears upon realising that she wasn't seeing things. She tried to call out to her friends who were now standing, but her voice was still too weak.
I watched as she forced herself out of Hestia's grip and ran stumbling into her friends, smiles abounding as they reunited. And for the first time since I'd found them, the kids seemed to finally accept that they were actually free. Satisfied, I turned back to my Goddess as she approached with a proud smile and big eyes shining with unshed tears.
"Hey." I smiled back.
"Hey…" She trailed off, her eyes lingering on my bloody arm. "You got hurt again."
"Yeah." I agreed easily. "It was worth it."
She tackled me into a hug, burying herself into my arms. And for once, she actually agreed with me. "Y-Yeah! But just this once…! you hear me?"
I could accept that.
Still, I had one question I wanted answered. "Why'd you bring Sticky anyway?"
She laughed through her tears. "He said he had to come to keep us safe, I think he was just worried about you."
I laughed with her, it was a cute thought.
It took a while after that, my Goddess and the kids having to cry themselves out before they calmed down, all the while I had to deal with Tsubaki smirking at me. Eventually though things settled down enough that Shakti stopped glancing around the corner and actually approached us.
For a seemingly no nonsense kind of woman, she was surprisingly cute with how considerate she was.
Truly the gap moe was strong with this one.
With her return however, we got our confirmation that the group had been from Athena, something that had Hestia drawing in a cold breath, at least until we caught her up on our suspicions. With that came an explanation of standard procedure in these cases and an invitation to the formal hearing that would be taking place as a party to the events. Something that I asked to be extended to the Skadi familia as well.
Shakti agreed, before shifting into a more formal stance, her intense blue eyes boring into my own. "...Under normal circumstances it would be policy to warn you against taking justice into your own hands in the future, for no other reason than it often ends poorly."
I nodded at that and waited for the 'but'.
"But these are no normal circumstances and I will not, cannot discredit what you've done here. So on behalf of the Ganesha familia and our charge as the keepers of the peace in Orario, I thank you." She bowed her head at that, her men also rushing to copy her.
Huh, that was a lot nicer than I was expecting.
"You're quite welcome." I smiled back.
With that handled there was only the issue of where the kids would wind up, and that wasn't going quite as well.
"Can't we stay with that guy?" One of the kids asked, pointing at me. A trend swiftly picked up by the other kids as they started to look at me hopefully. Apparently they were pretty distrustful of orphanages and refused to even hear a word about them, so much so that even Shakti looked like she was considering it.
But when she raised an eyebrow at me, I could only sigh. "We live in an abandoned building in the Ruined District, there just isn't enough room right now, we are hoping to expand but…"
"Then they can stay with me, we live near the Big Boss!" Sticky spoke up with a grin and a new nickname for me.
And as Shakti's eyebrow raised even more, I was forced to explain that too. "He's talking about another abandoned building that his friends are squatting in."
She frowned quite heavily at that, before chewing over things. "Policy for these kinds of things would be to put them -all of them- into whatever orphanages can take them; we can't just entrust kids to the streets. That being said…" She trailed off, looking worried. "I don't actually know of any orphanage that could take this many, they'd have to be split up at the bare minimum."
I winced at that and prepared to deal with a lot of shouting, but before that could happen a not so surprising voice cut in.
"Then we'll do it." My Goddess declared, taking an authoritative stance like she hadn't been hugging me like a gremlin two minutes ago. "We'll set up something for them and take them in."
Tsubaki whistled as Hestia's eyes blazed happily, and all the while I could feel a faint stirring in my magic, something that tinged of home. My Goddess' domain was doing something, what that was I couldn't tell you, but I did know what it meant. She was set on this path and even I likely couldn't dissuade her.
Not that I'd actually want to, to be honest.
Helping the kids was rewarding enough, but like all the goals I seem to set for myself, this one also achieved multiple aims. Hestia needed something other than me to direct her worry at, and a bunch of kids seemed like a fantastic outlet for that kind of thing. Plus that would give me more time in the dungeon, and with my travel time expanding due to me reaching deeper into the middle floors, time in the dungeon was quickly becoming worth its weight in gold to me.
"We'd need somewhere to house them temporarily while we get an actual building set up, but it's doable." I supported her, and Hestia nearly blinded me with her smile.
"Nice! I even know a tavern near us that I'm pretty sure would be happy to take them in." She chirped happily and I froze. "The Hostess of Fertility I think?"
Shit.
"My place is still free?" Sticky offered once more, probably having seen the wince on my face before throwing in the offer to help me even without understanding why.
It was a touching gesture, but no matter how much I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the woman in that tavern, I couldn't sign off on putting kids out on the street when the alternative was a warm bed.
"We're already stretching the rules here; again I cannot allow them to sleep anywhere without a roof over their heads." Shakti stated bluntly. "But the tavern idea has some merit. I know the hostess, she'd be willing to take them in while you get the building sorted out, likely at a discount."
Hestia looked at me with big, hopeful eyes.
"Sure." I conceded gracefully; either Hestia could deal with the tavern while I stayed as far out of the way as I could, or I'd tell her about the Goddess with mind control bullshit working as a waitress there. Either way I'd smoothly dodge this particular speed bump.
"Then it's settled!" My Goddess announced, before making the mistake of asking the Ganesha familia Captain how to handle setting up an orphanage. I'm pretty sure as a Goddess Hestia can't really be overwhelmed by information, but damn if that didn't mean Shakti wasn't trying. Nor that Hestia wasn't put on a damn good act of it seemingly working.
"Sorry." Tsubaki spoke up, poking me playfully as she joined me on my nice rock. "Would've offered my place for the kids, but apparently the smoke ain't great for 'em."
"It's fine." I said simply, and it was. Money was never going to be an object for me, not with all my various skills and the sheer amount of monsters I had and was going to kill. Funding an orphanage from that perspective was almost trivial, and it accomplished quite a few goals for me.
Plus… watching the kids actually smile and laugh again was pretty damn heartwarming.
"They deserve it, and I certainly have the money."
Tsubaki said nothing, just bumping her shoulder against mine as we waited for Hestia to finish.
-
"You get everything sorted?" I asked as Hestia walked turned into the alleyway I was waiting in, a satisfied smile on her face. We were out of sight and hopefully out of hearing range of the bar; I probably should have just waited at home for the news, but I wanted to be in range in case something did go wrong.
Not sure what I could really do in that scenario given the levels of the people involved, but my thought process rarely feels entirely rational when it comes to this bar, and it was a thought that counted right?
"Sure did!" She enthused. "Mama Mia was really nice about the whole thing after I explained everything, and she even volunteered one of her workers to help out! Apparently that one works at an orphanage as well."
I hummed to hide my relief. "That was nice of her."
"It was. Though I still don't get why you don't want to go in there." Hestia frowned a touch, before leaning over to give me a questioning look. Fortunately she didn't ask me the question that shone pretty clearly in her eyes; 'is this about that?' Where 'that' is my future knowledge. Fortunate because asking that out loud around Freya and her potential high level guards was probably a pretty bad idea.
"The high levels in there freak me out." I said with a faked uncertain smile instead. It was a believable enough excuse to anyone who might be listening in, but one that would ring hollow to my Goddess' divine lie detector.
Fortunately she got the hint and just nodded.
"Shall we head home then?"
"Sure! Though you're going to have to give me your arm Elric-kun, as a proper gentleman should!" She smiled victoriously as I indulged her, holding out an arm for her to intwine her own with.
"Happy?" I asked, smiling as she made one of those strange noises of agreement that seemed so unique to her.
"With your arm, definitely! With everything else?" She paused, taking a moment to consider. "There's probably some rough days ahead for those kids, I could see it in their eyes; hear some of the lies they were telling themselves… but that's so much better than the fate that was waiting for them before."
She tugged on my arm, skipping ahead to face me with eyes shining with happiness. "You did a great thing here today Elric-kun, never forget that."
"I won't." The two simple words that conveyed everything I needed to say.
"Umu! Now, what are your plans for tonight?" She beamed, before a thought occurred and she gave me a slightly dry look. "Please don't tell me it's the dungeon…"
"It's the dun-" I laughed as her face comically screwed up. "Nah, for once I think I'm going to stay topside tonight."
"Oh!?" It probably said something that Hestia's eyes literally sparkled at an announcement that would be plain for anyone else. "That's great! Or wait… You don't have plans with another woman right?" She suddenly growled.
"Not unless you count Tsubaki; I need to get started on that new set of gear, I still haven't done anything with that perk I got yesterday." I admitted, Mithril was one hell of a metal to be sitting on untapped, even if it didn't have quite the same reputation here as it did in Middle Earth.
The magically conductive metal was still incredible at holding an edge and I was hopeful that I could work out how to incorporate it into the pseudo rapier style of blade that I tended to prefer. Hell, with the dungeon opening up, I could also try out that length trick and make my new sword just shy of what qualified as a greatsword. I just needed to work out how I'd go about it.
"Huh." Hestia uttered, looking dumbfounded before her expression morphed into a look of panic. "Who are you and what have you done with my Elric-kun!?"
"I changed." I announce pompously, tousling my hair with just the right amount of douchebaggery. "But I suppose that's only natural when a genius like me is ready to ascend a level."
She snaps towards me at those words and blinks. "Eh?"
"I didn't tell you?" I said, breaking character with a laugh. "I can feel it, I can level up."
…I wasn't going to of course, I still had stats to grind and a week left of the month I'd given myself to level up. But just being able to satisfied a very deep part of my psyche. Two parts actually, both the kid who spent far too long playing games in his bedroom in search of meager thrills, as well as the man who decided that power leveling in a death pit was easier than dealing with his own mind.
It's why I was willing to take the night off.
I wouldn't sleep of course, sleep is for weirdo losers who don't have armour that regenerates stamina. But I could take the time to catch up on the surface, spend the night with Hestia.
Speaking of Hestia, she still looks quite lost.
"Ehhhh…?"
-
Elric takes a day off, the stars must be falling.
Cheers for reading everyone, like if you liked it, and have a good one.