God of What? 22 (Patreon)

God of What?

Chapter 22

-VB-

Hestia

How was she supposed to refer to Alan in public? In private, she called him “honey,” “dear,” or “hey, you~,” the last one spoken with her best “come hither” voice. However, she didn’t… exactly want to do that in public.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want people to know!

She was … just embarrassed about it? Unsure about how to say it? Unsure about showing it in public?

Yes, she was just unsure about how to carry herself about her romantic relationship with another god. It was not like it was a rare thing. It happened, even up in the heavens, but it was like… not something that happened to a virgin goddess.

Still.

“Hah!”

She paused in her cleaning and looked out of the window. Standing in front of many new familia members was Alan’s captain and first child, Yor. He took up a pose and began to talk to the kids about why it was necessary. And how long they needed to hold it.

She grimaced at the idea of doing the invisible chair stance for five minutes, never mind one.

“Your lower body is the foundation of all martial arts!” Yor instructed them as he did exactly as he preached, holding the invisible chair pose while in his full armor. “If your lower body is weak, then you will fall! If you fall, then you die! That is the truth!”

Yor used to be such a quiet child when she first met him. A little tired of his god’s … uniqueness, but a quiet and firm child. She wasn’t sure of when or why he became so loud and brash as he was now. But she also remembered what he said to Bell about why he was being harsh with the kids, including that troublemaker “Victor.”

It was better for them to sweat here than to spill blood in the dungeon.

But still, wasn’t it a little too harsh to make little kids, even if they had falna, to do that invisible chair pose with a bag filled with rocks?

She winced as one of the kids fell over backward, but smiled when she saw Yor helping up the little kid.

… Only to make the kid keep on doing that pose.

Truly, he was a harsh and merciless taskmaster.

“Are you watching them train?”

She looked up and saw Alan looming above her. He had a bandana over his forehead and head and a mop in his hand.

“Yeah. Did you finish mopping the bottom floor already?”

“Uh huh,” he hummed as he turned away from the sight. Was he not interested in seeing his children train? “Say…”

“Yeah?”

“Are you not going to try and have more children?” he asked her.

She puckered her lips. “No one wants to join,” she grumbled.

“Why not? Bell’s pretty great.”

“Yeah, but she’s just a level one in the eyes of everyone else,” Hestia sighed. “So most new adventurers don’t care about me.”

“Sons of bitches,” he grunted. “Ignore them. If they can’t see how great you are, then they are worthless.”

“...Ehehehe.”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing.” It just felt great to hear that from him.

-VB-

Victor “Victim” Marris

“Gah, I hate being the example,” he grumbled as he walked around the main street of Orario.

But even now, he knew it was necessary. He saw the difference as clear as night and day.

There were a few more kids who joined the familia later. These kids were kept separate from the orphans who joined in the initial wave of … the original’s carelessness. He stayed with the first group only, and despite the fact that they were more numerous and thus harder to keep an eye out on, they were more disciplined because he acted as the “example” through which they feared punishment.

The second group? They became troublemakers very quickly. Some of them even roamed the streets like street gangs. When they found out about that, Yor put the stick to the kids real quickly.

It wasn’t that he was just a “victim,” it was that more was expected of him. He had to run harder. Stand longer. Fight better. Know more. He was a victim, yes. He got more lashing for making critical mistakes, yes. But they were mistakes the other kids saw and learned from.

‘And it’s better for the kids to do better than for me to live,’ he thought.

Because, honestly, once the kids got to Level Two, he would rejoin the original or have his body changed to fit a new role.

That was what it meant to be part of the hive mind.

Yor himself would be changed once his body can no longer keep up.

The original…

Victor had an inkling that the original might even be planning to abandon his current body for something more. All three of them knew that in their current state, they were not strong enough to face the threats that would face them in the future and Hestia Familia.

After all, they had other powers other than just the Forest and Self-Biokinesis, which were the primary powers that they had been using. Wasn’t it time for them to finally dip their hands deeper into the gifts they got when they arrived here?

It would certainly make life interesting for -.

“KYAH!”

Victor froze and whirled around.

That was a fucking monster in the streets?! What?!

… GAH! He forgot today was Monsterphilia!

‘Did I seriously let myself get caught up in canon events?!’

And that monster, some kind of an orc, was heading straight for him.