Loki, while terror-scrambling backwards behind the long table, was at the same time frantically calling out to her Familia's Big Three for help.
However.
What completely caught Loki off guard was —
Faced with their own chief goddess's heart-rending cry for help,
the Big Three — [Loki Familia]'s strongest combat power —
in this very moment made one single, unified move.
Finn maintained that same respectful smile of his.
Riveria, for her part, lowered her head,
and flipped back open the heavy grimoire in her hands.
As for Gareth — he even broke into a wide grin and threw Haimer a thumbs-up.
Throughout the entire process, not a single one of them so much as bothered to spare a glance for Loki.
"You guys..."
Loki froze stiff in place.
Trembling, she raised a single finger and pointed at the three subordinates who normally hung on her every word.
"You ungrateful pack of wolves!!"
"I treat you all so well, every other day!"
"And now you're just gonna stand there and watch me get hauled off?!"
Finn lifted his head, looked at Haimer, a trace of apology on his face, and spoke in an extremely earnest tone.
"Haimer-sama."
"Our chief goddess has been getting a bit short on exercise lately, and her stamina has indeed been struggling to keep up."
"Having the opportunity to assist you in the workshop will, in fact, be a very fine form of training for her."
"It's just, regarding the matter of upgrading our weapons..."
Finn didn't finish the sentence, but his meaning couldn't have been any more obvious.
Haimer looked at Finn.
And gave a small inner chuckle.
Truly worthy of being the Pallum hero capable of leading [Loki Familia] — when it came to weighing benefits, his decisiveness was infuriatingly sharp.
"Don't worry."
Haimer nodded, his tone casual.
"Tomorrow morning, just come by the workshop and pick the goods up. As long as the materials hold out, your share is guaranteed."
"Deal!"
Finn snapped up the offer without an instant of hesitation, as if afraid Haimer might change his mind.
Then he even gave Haimer a small, careful bow.
"Then — may you have a smooth night of forging."
"And Loki-sama, I shall leave in your hands as well — please, do not hold back on her account."
"Naniiii??!!!!"
"Finn! I'm docking your allowance for a year! No — ten years!!!"
Hearing all this, Loki broke down on the spot.
"Cut the nonsense."
"Let's go."
Haimer, for his part, didn't give Loki another second to keep up her protest.
One flex of his arm.
And he had hoisted Loki, body and all, straight up onto his shoulder.
"Waaaaaah!"
"Put me down!!!"
"Waaaah!! You wicked god!! You evil god!!! You vicious god!!!"
Loki's limbs kicked and flailed every which way.
"Quiet down."
Haimer simply hoisted Loki on his shoulder and strolled straight out through the front gates of Twilight Manor with all the swagger in the world.
And so it came to pass.
The streets of Orario on this particular night.
Were destined to become a night countless people would never forget for the rest of their lives.
"Heeeeeelp!!"
"He's snatching a goddess away under the cover of dark of night!!!"
"Where are Ganesha's military police?!!! Are you all dead?!!!"
Loki's wailing cut clean through the rowdy noise spilling from the taverns on either side of the street.
The passersby on both sides of the road.
The instant they got a clear look at exactly who was being hauled away —
were, as if someone had collectively cast Petrification magic on the entire lot of them,
frozen utterly, completely stiff on the spot.
After all, this was Loki we were talking about.
The chief goddess of one of Orario's two strongest Familias!
And now —
not a single member of [Loki Familia] was stepping out to put a stop to this?
"This is insane..."
"That vicious god, the one who took the Xenos under his wing..."
"What in the world is he planning to do to Loki-sama?!"
The passersby sucked in sharp, collective gasps of cold air, retreating in horror, pressing their backs flat up against the walls.
Hearing what the passersby were saying, Haimer turned to Loki with a slightly speechless look.
"..."
Of course Haimer could see right through her — this woman's panic wasn't the terror of being abducted at all; she was straight-up milking the moment for every drop she could squeeze out of it.
With the scene he'd kicked up earlier today, parading the Xenos through the Guild and out into the streets, Orario was already deeply wary of his true nature.
Now you add to it the act of carrying off the chief goddess of one of the two strongest Familias right in the middle of the street.
Well done — his vicious-god reputation was now welded onto this realm for good.
Give it a few days at most, and the lullabies sung in every alley and corner to put kids to sleep were going to have their archvillains swapped out for his name.
"Alright, enough with the howling."
"Pretty soon, the children of Orario are going to burst into tears the moment they catch sight of me."
With that said,
Haimer lifted a hand and gave Loki's thigh a single swat.
A crisp little slap rang out.
Loki, like a dead fish, flipped over on his shoulder, lowering her red-haired head, and broke into a wicked, smug little grin.
"Heheh, isn't this just perfect?"
Loki grinned wide, baring one small, sharp little fang.
"You were already notorious enough up in the Heavens — now that you're down here in the Lower World, if you didn't stir up some noise, who knows what kind of clueless idiots might just mistake you for some soft persimmon they can squeeze."
"I'm doing free PR work for you here, y'know? You ought to be thanking me — understood?"
Northeast Main Street.
[Hephaestus Familia]'s forging workshop.
As Orario's single largest weapons-production site, even at this hour of the night the place was still ablaze with light, and the clang-clang-clang of hammers on iron never let up.
Outside the workshop's front gate.
A figure stood on the front steps, holding two oversized coarse-cloth bags stuffed full of all manner of ore.
This was a grown woman with healthy, wheat-toned skin.
A black eye-patch over her left eye, her long black hair draped loose across her shoulders, and a single eye-catching tuft of bedhead sticking up off the top of her head.
She wore nothing but a coarse work dress, soaked here and there with sweat.
Her upper body was, with no particular concern for modesty, wrapped tightly in nothing but a single band of thick white cloth, binding down those arrestingly full, breath-stopping curves at her chest.
Both of her solid, lean arms — without an ounce of excess flesh on them — were bared to the open air, the muscle-lines along them glistening, in the corner Magic Stone lamp's glow, with the kind of sheen that promised explosive power.
—— Captain of [Hephaestus Familia], Lv. 5.
—— "The One-Eyed Great Smith," Tsubaki Collbrande.
"What... what scene am I walking in on, exactly?"
Tsubaki tossed the two heavy ore sacks she'd been holding straight down onto the ground.
Haimer, for his part, simply let his grip slacken — and dumped Loki right off his shoulder onto the floor.
"Ouch!"
Loki, rubbing her backside, picked herself up off the ground and dusted off her shorts.
"Haimer-sama, Loki-sama."
Tsubaki looked at the pair of them, momentarily at a loss for what kind of expression to put on, and could only tug at the corner of her mouth.
"I was just out picking up some deep-layer ore — and the whole way back, I've been hearing what people on the streets are saying."
"Talk about how some vicious god had gone berserk and was planning to swallow Loki-sama whole tonight — flayed alive, no less."
Tsubaki scratched her cheek.
"I thought maybe it was just some drunk adventurer talking out of his ass — but it turns out the two of you have been rehearsing yourselves a piece of street theatre, hm?"
Loki rolled her eyes, both arms folded across her chest.
"Street theatre, my foot!"
"This guy is an actual lunatic! Shows up at my Twilight Manor in the middle of the night, doesn't say a damn word, and just hauls me right out!"
"And what's more, says he's going to make me work for him as manual labour!"
At this point, Loki leaned in close to Tsubaki and dropped her voice to a hush.
"Tsubaki — is your chief goddess in? Quick, get her out here to deal with this guy!"
Hearing Loki asking after her chief goddess, Tsubaki spread her hands in resignation.
"If you're looking for Hephaestus-sama, that's some really poor timing."
"Hephaestus-sama stepped out about half an hour ago."
"Said it was some urgent matter over at the Guild — President Royman Mardeel personally sent someone to come fetch her, so I'd guess it'll be a while yet before she's back."
Tsubaki turned to look at Haimer.
"However, Hephaestus-sama did leave me instructions before she left."
"She said that if Haimer-sama showed up, I should take you straight to the private workshop."
"All the remaining deep-layer materials have been fully accounted for and piled up beside the furnace."
"It's just..."
Tsubaki glanced over at Haimer, then over at Loki, whose face was pure resistance.
"With Hephaestus-sama not here — those materials are top-grade goods brought up from below Floor 50."
"An ordinary blacksmith simply can't help you control the temperature, and even Loki-sama — well, she doesn't have any actual experience with forging..."
"What of it?"
"Aren't you right here?"
"Since Hephaestus isn't here, then tonight you can be my assistant."
"Me?!"
Tsubaki froze for an instant, then pointed at her own nose, a flicker of bewilderment passing through her one eye — immediately followed by a faint, kindling gleam of excitement.
After all.
As the captain of Hephaestus's Familia,
Tsubaki was also a blacksmith utterly obsessed with the craft of forging. Getting to watch up close — even personally participate in — the weapon-forging process of an entity that her very own chief goddess held in the highest regard...
for her, this was absolutely an opportunity she could only have dreamed of!
"Alright then!"
Coming to that conclusion, Tsubaki accepted without a moment's hesitation, grinning broadly to bare a neat row of teeth.
"Being able to assist Haimer-sama — well, that's an honour for me!"
"In that case, follow me."
With that said.
Tsubaki turned and led the way deeper into the workshop.
Haimer fell in step behind her.
Loki, her face thoroughly written through with unwillingness, looked at Haimer's retreating back, pursed her lips in a small pout — but in the end, did not choose to bolt, and dragged her feet along at the very rear of the procession.
They passed through several corridors thick with searing heat.
The Hephaestus Familia members lining either side, the moment they saw Tsubaki escorting a man and a woman through —
and especially the moment they recognized the identity of that black-haired man —
froze with their hammer-gripping hands stopped mid-swing, their eyes filled with awe — even a touch of apprehension — and one after another, lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at him.
Haimer paid no mind to any of those looks.
On the way toward the private workshop.
Tsubaki, walking up front, finally couldn't hold back any longer and glanced back at Haimer once.
"Speaking of which, Haimer-sama."
"That scene you stirred up yesterday — you really did give the whole city a hell of a fright, you know."
"Those monsters..."
"You actually marched a whole pack of monsters up to the surface, just like that, brazen as broad daylight."
"When word of it reached the workshop, both Hephaestus-sama and I jumped right out of our skins."
"What — has Miss Tsubaki also started worrying about what kind of trouble I might get up to?"
Haimer cracked a casual little joke.
"Afraid? Not quite to that extent."
Tsubaki scratched her head and laughed in her usual hearty way.
"After all, Hephaestus-sama and Haimer-sama go way back."
"And I am, at the very least, a First-Class adventurer — a few monsters aren't going to make me wet my pants."
"It's just this whole business of being able to bring monsters straight out of the Dungeon up to the surface to live..."
"It's just too damn crazy."
Tsubaki shook her head, the tuft of bedhead atop her head bobbing along with the motion.
"Especially when you're saying they're members of your Familia."
"An ordinary person's fear of monsters is something carved straight into the bone, you know — after all, whose ancestors haven't been chewed on a few times by monsters at some point or other?"
Listening to Tsubaki's blunt commentary.
Haimer didn't find it the slightest bit offensive.
"Fear comes from the unknown, and from weakness. That's perfectly natural."
Haimer's tone was mild.
"But the rules are never set in stone."
"Since I had the nerve to bring them up here, naturally I have the confidence to ensure they won't harm anyone."
"As a god, every now and then dropping some serious seasoning into the stagnant pond that is the Lower World — isn't that a rather interesting thing to do?"
Tsubaki, hearing this, froze for the briefest of moments.
Then she gave a wry, bitter sigh.
"You really do have the nerve to come out and say that, don't you."
"But still..."
Tsubaki came to a stop, turned her head back, and flashed Haimer a wide grin.
"I genuinely can't imagine — exactly what kind of technique did you use to tame an entire pack of monsters in such a short stretch of time?"
"Oh?"
A faint smile surfaced at the corner of Haimer's mouth.
"I'll introduce Miss Tsubaki to it when the opportunity arises."
"For now, though — let's cut the chatter and get to work."
With that.
Haimer lifted a hand and pressed it against the thick, refined-steel door before him.
With a muffled, thunderous rumble,
the door slowly swung open.
A terrifying wave of heat — enough to instantly bake an ordinary person dry — came rolling out to meet them.
This was, of course, Hephaestus's private workshop.
The enormous Magic Stone furnace at the center burned with a blazing white-hot flame so bright it stung the eyes.
Beside the furnace platform, several piles of materials had been stacked in neat, orderly rows.
Tsubaki strode inside.
Her full chest, tightly bound by the binding cloth, rose and fell with her breathing.
At the mere thought of what was about to come next, that single eye of hers gleamed with a flicker of excitement.
After all.
For one of Orario's top-tier smiths, there was nothing more exciting in this world than seeing top-grade materials and a smith stronger than herself in the same room.
Loki, for her part, was driven back, step after step, by that surging wave of heat.
"I'm gonna die of heatstroke! Is this hellhole even fit for a person to be in?!"
Haimer rolled his eyes and couldn't be bothered to entertain Loki.
He shed his outer coat, draped it casually on the iron rack to one side,
and walked straight up to the furnace.
Unfastening the cuffs of his white shirt, he rolled the sleeves up to his forearms.
"Loki, get over to the bellows."
"Eh?! You really are treating me as manual labour, huh?!"
Loki griped and grumbled all she liked, but her body still obediently shuffled over beside the bellows, and she grabbed the metal handle in pure resignation.
Haimer picked up a forging hammer from beside the anvil.
He turned his head to look at Tsubaki, whose face was full of anticipation.
"Let's begin."
And so.
Haimer began to forge.
...
At the same time.
Within the Dungeon, on Floor 17.
The girls were caught in a moment of indecision.
Because the girls had realized —
if they wanted to make it back from the Dungeon to the surface before deep night fell,
they were going to have to abandon a sizable pile of stuff.
"But this stuff could trade for so, so many Valis..."
Aihara Enju, looking down at the floor strewn with shimmering Magic Stones, scrunched her little face up into a knot.
Amou Kirukiru, for her part, was utterly unfazed by the dilemma.
"Just take the most valuable stuff — like that ivory tusk — and as for everything else, we can destroy it all."
"From where we stand right now, that's about all we can really do."
Onigawara Rin gave a nod of her own.
But then —
just as the girls were about to put the plan into action.
From the corner at the rear of the passageway.
Several figures, gingerly, suddenly poked their heads out.
"Um... excuse us, do you, um, need any help?"
—— [Takemikazuchi Familia]
—— Yamato Mikoto.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Jujutsu x Mieruko: Oh no, am I a villain too?
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone