God of What? 33 (Patreon)

God of What?

Chapter 33

-VB-

Alan Marris

Apollo Familia’s sudden and mysterious death didn’t just create a wave.

It created a tsunami.

Apollo and his familia, while nowhere near the top ten or even top twenty of the familias within Orario (never mind the world), was not a weak familia. They had multiple level 3’s, at least a dozen level 2’s, and many more level 1’s. Those adventurers all died without getting a chance to fight back, without a single fight taking place, and even their god had been killed. This meant every single familia weaker than Apollo familia, which was essentially everyone but the top ten guilds of Orario, found themselves under risk of dying the exact same way.

Investigation by the Guild, though not yet complete, so far noted not a single evidence to point to anyone.

Not a single shred of evidence.

Even stronger guilds were not exempt from this fear and paranoia. After all, Apollo and his familia had been killed in Orario and not the dungeon with a method that left all of his children no chance to fight back. This meant that this method was stronger than a level 3 or undetectable by a level 3. This meant that this method had to be the same as or better than a level 4’s magic or skill.

This meant that any guild without at least one level 4 in their home could potentially meet their end.

In the initial panic, many smaller familias quickly evacuated from Orario, telling themselves that it would only be for a moment and nothing more. Once the god killer was caught, then they could come back, right?

In the meantime…

“EEEHHH????” Hestia nearly shrieked when she read the contracts that I had been working on. “W-W-W-W-What is this, Alan?!”

I grimaced at the volume of her surprised shriek.

“It’s pretty straightforward, though, isn’t it?” I asked her. “A lot of familias are leaving. While not all of them are completely disconnected from the city, a lot of the lower-level adventurers are not bringing in the loot that they used to that high level adventurers won’t even care to look.”

See, Orario existed not just because of the dungeon but the products of the dungeon. It was a city of commerce and adventure, but the recent scare had pushed many of the suppliers out. So the low grade magic stones that level 1’s and 2’s used to bring in?

Well, their supplies have gone down by a good third and the prices had doubled. This wasn’t even including

And I, who had young, impressionable, and able orphan children, had sent them into the dungeon with Yor and Bell to take advantage of the situation. My new clones had also joined in on this, of course, and we raked in some serious cash.

Thus we had earned ourselves almost two million valis.

And I thought…

‘Hey, why don’t I invest with that?’

And so half of that money was spent on contracts buying out the other familias of their now vacant homes.

It felt great to use one opportunity that I made myself (or rather one that Yor insisted and thus myself) to make more opportunities for myself. Because right now? That evacuation and fear?

It was driving the housing prices down, and I was scooping up great properties on the cheap~!

Hestia looked horrified. “Shouldn’t we be … leaving?”

I looked at her. “Why would we? It’s not like made any enemies. Unlike Apollo.”

She paused to consider what I said and then grimaced. “I guess… But we don’t know if the god killer is insane or not!”

Some would say that I was insane.

“We’re away from everyone in the city,” I replied calmly, gesturing to the open area around us. “We’ll be fine.”

-VB-

Freya

She couldn’t help but wonder if this entire scenario was what Marris had planned out.

Apollo’s death, the chaos within the city, and then the silent and creeping grasp of his growing influence tugging away at the fabric of the order that Orario was built upon.

It was … not a scenario that she was accustomed to.

Yes, there have been murders of gods before, but it was different in how it was done now than back then. There was a group of killers with evil intent then. Marris killed them, she knew it, but did he plan the death of a god … for money?

If he did, then she was going to bring down the full might of her familia on him at the earliest possible time.

“Othar.”

“Yes, my goddess?”

“Have our … accountants … look into buying out some of the familia homes so that they can come back home once the crisis is over.”

“... You are a generous goddess.”

She chuckled. “Yes, I can be sometimes.”

-VB-

Eina Tulle

There was an undercurrent of anxiety that all adventurers felt these days, and she felt “infected” by it every time she interacted with them in the Guild.

Worse, there was a silent battle happening outside of the dungeon and the court room as some of the more opportunistic familias were doing something that was making bigger familias respond in kind.

How did she know this?

The paperwork.

When familias obtained a property over 50,000 valis, then they were obligated by law to report it to the Guild as part of their “claim of property,” which was used for tax assessment.

And three familias were submitting one claim of property one after another: Marris-Hestia, Freya, and Loki. She knew that the latter two were rich and powerful, but Marris-Hestia?

She also knew how they were doing this; the exodus of weaker familias led to a gap in the supplies of low level loot and magic stone, and Marris-Hestia Familia had filled the market as best as they could.

It … was actually a point of contention between them and the Guild. It almost felt like they had brought as many children onboard their familia just to have enough manpower to take over the now empty market.

She couldn’t believe that cute and innocent Bell was part of that familia!

… Unfortunately, nothing was done outside of the law. Making orphans into helpers and supporters was ethically dubious but nowhere close to breaking the law.

She just sincerely hoped that they weren’t being taken advantage of…

-VB-

Victor

He gasped like a mule because he was a pack mule right now.

While Yor and Bell was up ahead killing any monster that stood in their way, Victor and half a dozen of the orphan members under his original self carried giant bags filled to the brim with loot and magic stone.

Beside and in front of him, the other children also gasped as they carried heavy bags they weren’t used to but their bodies could carry nonetheless thanks to their divine blessings.

This was child labor! Original, what the fuck?!