Golden Artificer c16 (Patreon)

“Oh… an actual castle. That is so Loki.” Marcus hummed while saying that.

“You know about our Goddess?” Riveria asked as she heard his comment.

“Loki was a God in my world, too. Only that she was a myth, and she was he in my world.” The inventor replied to her as they entered the Twilight Manor.

“...Interesting.”

As they entered the manor, Marcus noticed that the entire Familia was there to greet him, which was something else.

“You are already getting royalty treatment,” Alfia whispered.

Leading at the front was a red-haired girl with a grin.

Marcus didn’t need to use his senses to know who it was. 

“There you are. I wanted to meet you for a while.” Loki walked over.

The Goddess looked at Riveria and Finn.

“Tell the cooks to start working on that dinner. In the meantime, I will speak with our guest,” the goddess said to her children as she looked at Marcus.

But, this was where Ais looked at her Goddess with a heated gaze.

“Don’t worry, I won’t embarrass you, Ais.” The God of Mischief sighed as she realised that Marcus' claws in her Ais were deep.

Marcus snorted upon hearing that. He was amused that a God was listening to a child.

“Sure, let’s talk. I do want to hear what you want to say.” 

Loki nodded as she motioned for him to follow her.

The Goddess noticed the shadow, a level 7 from Hera’s Familia is following Marcus.

They got into a spacious room with comfortable seats. The Loki immediately got to the point.

“I do wonder what is your connection to Hera’s Familia.” 

“Never meet her.” Marcus plopped into a seat opposite Loki.

“If you are wondering about Alfia, I educated her not to barge into people's houses.” He said with a small smile. 

“And I haven’t seen her since she disbanded our Familia,” Alfia said from behind Marcus as she was just standing there with closed eyes.

“...Hmm, I see.” 

Like Alfia, Loki looked like she always closed her eyes, but this time, she opened them and looked at Marcus.

“Now I do wonder what you want with my Ais?”

When Marcus heard that, he raised his eyebrow.

“Ah, I see. You are concerned that my assistance has an ulterior motive.”

The Goddess simply nodded as she was looking at him like a hawk. After all, a God can tell when someone is lying.

“I don’t have a motive. She was like me. Unlike me, who became obsessed about something by myself, it was forced on her.

Unlike me, I never had help, as it was self-imposed. I lasted more than seventy years. By that point, I realised all of my generation were dead of old age, including my relatives.

So, when I saw someone like her struggling with her obsessions, I decided to help.” 

“Hoh… I see.” Loki relaxed as she leaned into her couch.

“So it’s a form of pity.”

“Not really. It's more like I've been there before. I know what it feels like, so I will help. I am more surprised that a God of Mischief could not see how she is struggling.”

Humph!

“I knew. However, I don’t have the same abilities as you. I can’t just give a powerful artefact that would assist her.”

“Magic?”

“I already gave her my falna, and my children are helping her.”

“But it's not enough?”

“Precisely.” Loki nodded as she crossed her arms.

“As you know personally, it's not enough, isn’t it?” The Goddess expanded on it.

“Yes, it's like an all-consuming fire.” Marcus nodded at her.

“Yes. Whatever you call it, revenge is a powerful motivator. You should have seen how she was the first time I saw her.”

Loki sighed loudly before smiling at Marcus. Her smile was a wicked one.

“But since you are willing to help, my burden will lessen.” 

Snort

“Aren’t you afraid I will make her join me?” Marcus joked.

“As long as you don’t join any Familia, I do not care.” Her smile turned into a smirk.

“But from what I saw. You will never join anyone, I am right?” 

Loki guessed it right as Marcus nodded. His reply only made her smile widen.

“Indeed. Falna is not enough to make me join a Familia.” He told her in a bored tone.

“Good. That is all I needed to hear.” The Goddess said while looking at the door.

Marcus followed her gaze as he knew that presence. It was Ais…

The girl was listening to all of it.

“...You should teach her some alternative things to do.” He said with crossed arms.

“You think I haven’t tried?” 

“You are a God of Mischief. Can’t you use your honey tongue?”

“I don’t do that to my children.” She huffed at him. It felt like an offence towards her character!

Sigh

“I assume as Gods you never had proper children.”

“Gah! Where does this come from!?” Loki was taken aback.

“Hmm, interesting.” Marcus looked surprised as he realised that these Gods couldn’t have kids.

It made sense now. It appears they are disconnected from mortals because they are eternally young and very old beings.

“Hey! What are you mumbling about!” 

“Nothing. I realised that you Gods never had children on your own, meaning that you have no idea how to deal with their issues.”

He has hit her and all the other Gods' sour spots. 

“...”

“...Yes. well, having Familia and a good environment will help her, but it is an infested wound that will never heal if it's not treated.” Marcus said to her.

“...Yeah, Yeah, I guess you are right.” She huffed at him. It appears humans with a lot of life experience are even more annoying than she originally thought.

“Let's go get something to eat.”

“Sure, I want to see how good are your cooks.”

~~~

Ais swiftly rushed away as she heard them walking to the door.

The girl internally was all gushing over what she just heard. 

Some part of her worried about why Marcus was helping her, but now she knows. She no longer worries! Now, all she needs is to get strong, not just in one sense but in several, just like he is.

Swordsmanship, magic, maybe learning how to cook? Yes, then perhaps some other things.

Yes. She will become incredibly strong. Strong enough for him to notice her in a different way!

As the girl was cooking some wild ideas, the dinner started.

In a way, Loki was flexing how big her Familia has become.

~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~

The Goddess Freya was pissed that Marcus had not appeared in the marketplace as she had hoped. All she saw was that annoying black-clad girl going to shop instead of him.

She is getting frustrated, as soon enough, everyone will know that she has lost six elite members. 

It was frustrating…

But then…

As she was pondering her next move, she saw a group of girls.

‘Aren’t those…’ 

The Goddess' eyes gleamed as she just saw a perfect catch.

There were four girls around level 4 walking together in one place.

She could use them to bring Marcus to her place and recruit them to her Familia ranks.

It would work as a surprise as Marcus won’t realise that these girls are no longer with their old Goddess but with her!

By then, it will be too late for him, and she will use her charm!

As she revealed herself, she walked towards the four girls.

“May I have a moment of your time~?” Freya said with a hypnotic voice as she got closer to the four who were about to split up to start their patrol shift.

These were Astraea Familia members. Quite a small Familia compared to Loki, Freya or Hephaestus, but they were an elite group.

So if Freya is to capture the four right now, almost all of Astraea Familia will be gone. 

The worst thing about charm is that it is hard to prove anything unless someone has special means to detect it.

That is why Freya doesn’t care. She will use them to make Marcus come to her.

All she needs to do is make them find him and tell him that their Goddess wants to see him.

Marcus would think that it is Astraea who wants to see him, but it will be her.

“Now~ Why don’t you four assist me with something~.” Freya giggled for a second as she saw how the girls’ eyes turned misty.

They all were under her spell.

“As you wish, Goddess.” The red-haired girl nodded at her request.

~~~

After dinner, the pair walked back to their house.

“It was not bad. But I can see that people are missing several versions of cooking,” Marcus said to his maid, commenting on the food he had in Loki’s castle.

“Not everyone comes from a technologically advanced civilisation,” Alfia complained out loud.

“Right~”

As they were walking back, the pair sensed several people.

“?”

“?”

Sure enough, four familiar girls greeted them.

“Marcus, our Goddess, would like to talk to you about something.” The leading red-haired girl spoke in a strange tone.

She was weirdly too nice. While she is nice from what he remembers, this time, she was strangely TOO nice.

“Something is off,” Alfia whispered.

“...Yeah…” 

As the four approached them, Marcus gazed at Alise’s eyes.

‘Here goes. Let’s see if I can do a mental probe.’

Marcus focused his mana and sent a pulse right into Alise's eyes. This was the first time since he used mental arts from a distance and delivered a direct mind invasion like this.

Once inside the girl’s mind, he noticed that it was misty, and her mind was clouded. After exploring for a bit, he saw a recent memory of the girls meeting a woman with silver hair and purple eyes. She was a Goddess… that's for sure.

After seeing this, he slipped out of her mind.

“They are charmed.” He said to Alfia.

“I see. What should we do?” The black-clad girl whispered her question.

“Let’s play along.” He replied to her.

“...Alright.” After replying, she pulled back and stood behind him.

“Very well, take me to your Goddess.” Marcus smiled at them as he motioned to lead the way.

“Follow us.”

The four proceeded to walk towards a location.

~~~

The group arrived at a Restaurant. It was an empty building with only a few staff members doing something. They took the stairs to the upper floor, where one woman was waiting for them.

“Welcome~,” The woman with silver hair said in a sweet voice.

“Goddess Astraea, I didn’t know you changed your hair colour.” Marcus played dumb. His ‘dumb’ reply made her frown for a second. Being confused with someone else makes her annoyed.

“Sadly, I am not Astraea.”

“Huh. Surely, I would have noticed that.” Marcus showed her a smirk. There was not that much respect for the Goddess coming from him.

“But it appears it's not a Goddess but a Slut. So tell me, slut, what can I do for you?”

“...Watch your words…boy.” With a frosty tone, the Goddess replied that whatever playfulness there was now was gone.

“...I need a reason to watch my words, slut.” Marcus didn’t give her an inch as he moved his head to the side and crossed his arms.

“I see. So you won’t cooperate. In that case…” Her eyes glowed as she used her charm. But Marcus just kept on staring at her.

“Now kneel.”

“...”

“...”

“...I said kneel!”

“Fuck off, slut.” Marcus replied to her.

“!!!”

“...You…”

“...As I thought, your inborn power is magical in nature. Considering you have no Arcanium, its power is mediocre at best.” He snorted as he realised that his barrier scheme worked. Now it's time to go on offence.

As he made up his mind, he kicked the table, which shattered upon impact. The Goddess was about to move, but everyone except him and Alfia dropped to their knees.

“Since it has been ages since someone punished you. I will do it in their place.” As Marcus said, his eyes started to glow.

“W-What you going to do!?” 

“Take something you hold very dear.” He smirked before grabbing her chin and made her hold a direct eye contact.