Chapter 24

{Ganesha Familia}

"Ganesha, Ganesha, have you heard? The Ishtar Familia-" Someone tried to report.

"Got burned down, right?" The usually excited god seemed to harden at the report.

"Yes, sir, the culprit is still unknown."

"Now this is PERFECT!!" Ganesha said cheerfully.

"Do you know what people need when a strong unknown enemy is on the loose? They need a good way to reduce stress!! You, mister, should take this opportunity to motivate you to make this Monster Feria better in every way possible!!!"

{Cain}

"News really travels fast…" Cain let out, surrounded by the familia's most exceptional fighters. This comment did not go unnoticed.

Cain knew that he would have to tell the executives, if not everyone, that he was responsible in one way or another.

"Do you know anything about this?" Cain looked over at Finn, who was staring right at him with a serious look on his face.

"Yeah, I know who did it, why, and how." Cain revealed a much as possible in a small statement.

"This is no place to talk, executives, and Ais as well." Finn got up and made his way over to an executive meeting room.

In a sole room disconnected, there were Riveria, Finn, Gareth, Ais, and Cain.

Taking charge, Cain started explaining.

"To be perfectly honest with everyone, the one who burned down the Ishtar Familia was me."

Everyone else seemed to have accepted that as a possibility and wasn't all that surprised.

"Burning down a familia is a tad excessive, no? Innocent people and adventurers were killed." Riveria had asked Cain that question.

"My condolences…" Despite how much Cain knew he should feel sorry, the feeling simply wasn't coming to him.

"My problem lay with the Familia's adventurers, not with the people who simply made serving them their livelihood."

"What made you have such a quarrel with the Ishtar Familia squirt?" It was Gareth asking Cain a question this time.

"Well… I got a new magic, so after the party, I went back down to the Dungeon to practice and experiment. When I got low on Mind I decided to fall asleep and come back tomorrow, but the Ishtar Familia Captain, that frog-looking bitch, tried to assassinate me while I was asleep. I fought like hell and barely managed to kill her." Cain left our Haruhime involvement to keep her safe.

"So you destroyed the entire Ishtar Familia out of revenge?" Finn asked.

"Well yes, but I believe it might have been for the betterment of the world. What if Ishtar had picked a different target? We would be talking about an assassination on the 18th floor instead of the annihilation of a familia. What if Ishtar had kept doing that? How long could something like that last years? Decades?" Cain pradled on.

"What I mean to say is, in my eyes, the Ishtar familia was nothing more than a human trafficking and assassination front, and I wasn't going to let it stand." Cain proclaimed proudly.

"Then what about Ishtar? What is her status?" Finn asked.

"Last I saw, not well; she did lose her familia after all, but sadly, she's out of my hands. Sorry, but I can't say anymore!" Cain said it in a cheerful, businesslike manner.

"Cain, you are dismissed." Finn said it firmly.

That didn't go too badly, I think. Maybe I kind of had to make up a reason for it; I did kind of just do it because of Haruhime.

But being in that room, I noticed something. I might be the strongest in the Loki Familia, but I at least think I can take on all three of the level 6's in 1-on-1's and prevail. I might not even need my new Destruction Magic to beat Ais; she does still have me beat in sword play, though. I sigh. It wasn't a sad sigh, but rather one that you do when it's the last day of school. 

Shouldn't I go check on Hestia? And off I went to the abandoned church to meet with the newly accepted members of the Hestia Familia.

As I was meandering my way over, I remembered to check my new inventory for the quest rewards. I saw a 5x5 panel with a card icon in the upper leftmost slot and the number 3 on the slot's lower right corner.

[Random Sex Skill Cards x3]

[Use] [Discard]

I decided to use all three in quick succession, and I got:

[Pheromones: you constantly secrete pheromones that increase your favorability with women.]

[Dominator: Increases your constitution to look more dominating. People follow you easier, which awakens masochistic tendencies in woman]

[Demon Dick: Semen output increases and can change the body of any woman based on their desire.]

Interesting, I think, as I read through my new perverted skills.

Wait a second, I think I grew a bit taller. I look down and see that my shoulder's might be a bit broader; it was nothing super noticeable, maybe an inch or two, but I think my muscle definition is what changed the most as I looked at more forearms.

It was probably the [Dominator] skill, I thought.

I really hope these don't show up on my falna; it'd be a bit embarrassing to explain all this to Loki. I reached the abandoned church soon after those thoughts. I opened the door to Hestia's abode.

I saw that Aisha had her arm over Belle's shoulder and was pushing her against her bust, while Haruhime seemed to have been reprimanding her, but they all just looked at the new guest with some shock on their faces.

"Big Brother!!!! Help!!!" Belle ran to my side and hid innocently behind me, shielding herself from Aisha.

"Big brother, huh? Waitdonttellme" Aisha asked and muttered to herself as her face lost some color.

"She just calls me that." I say this to clear up the misunderstanding.

"So she's competition?" Aisha asks playfully.

"Please go easy on her; she is still young haha…" I laughed the comment off.

"I'm not young, I am an adult!!" Belle protests cutely from my side.

"Yes, yes" I say calmly as I give the previous main character head pats.

"So how did things go with Hestia?" I asked Aisha and Haruhime. Aisha answered first.

"My status switched just fine." Aisha said as she grabbed her bicep and looked at Haruhime who just nodded shyly.

"Oh that reminds me Haruhime. Would you like to become my personal maid?" Everyone was a bit taken aback by my question, especially Haruhime, so I guess I should explain myself.

"To clarify, your magic would be kept a secret, and you wouldn't even need to come on Loki Familia's expeditions with me, but your power is special, and at least for now, I think being close to me as much as possible is the safest option. And when we have an expedition, you can come back here. OH! And finally, you'll be paid—nothing crazy but probably above the norm." I rattled off for a bit. I waited for Haruhime to accept.

"Uh, Yes, I accept," Haruhime replied.

"Great! You start tomorrow!" I said cheerfully. I then handed her a bag of Valis.

"Use this to buy the maid uniforms." Haruhime seemed a bit overwhelmed and stared at the bag with wide eyes, a bit flustered.

"No fair! I want to spend time with Cain!" The child who proclaimed themselves an adult yelled out.

"It's her job, Belle, like it's your job to explore the dungeon." I say. Belle thought for a bit.

"That makes it doubly unfair. I have to risk my life and not even spen-" Belle was interrupted by the door slamming open again, revealing the loli goddess and the goddess of smithy Hephaestus.

"Hello everyone!! I hope you got along! Oh, Cain's here! See, I told you to trust me." The hearth goddess said this to her red-haired friend.

"Oh, I guess I got a bit ahead of myself, I thought you'd be longer." I said to Hestia. She looked at me and tilted her head.

"I went and made arrangements to look after Haruhime; I hope you don't mind." I told her. Her face brightened a bit.

"Oh, no worries, I was going to try to do something similar. Thanks for doing that" she said as she gave me a couple taps on my shoulder, probably because she couldn't reach the top of my head.

"My friend here, Hephaestus, actually wanted to speak with you, apparently, about how your equipment is." Hestia said, and she tried pushing toward Hephaestus. Me and Hephaestus soon left the abandoned church.