Chapter 36

Loki was just enjoying herself, lazing on her bed, thinking about all the good things in life: nice chests and valis, when a heavy knock came on her door, interrupting her.

She was lightning quick to her feet, though. A knock meant somebody was coming to her, which meant an opportunity to get in a surprise grope, after all! She licked her lips in anticipation, then closed her eyes. "Come in!" She did her best to sound drowsy, and one of her children came into the room. It was easy to recognize him by the footsteps - Finn. His small size and high Level meant there wasn't much point in pretending to be asleep to get the drop on him, so she snapped up out of her laze, meeting the pallum's gaze. "What is it?"

"A member of the Hephaistos familia is at the gate. Hephaistos wishes to speak with Black Agony, Rei, and Noriko."

"...why?" She asked, squinting at Finn. That didn't sound like a particularly logical list. Xulia had some Skill that just summoned weapons for her, Rei turned into monsters, and Noriko was a supporter. She knew Drake bought weapons from the Hephaistos familia, but he wasn't on the list?

"She stated it was a matter of significant importance," Finn said, shrugging. "She's fine with others coming along, but she wants those three present."

Hephaistos was probably wanting to talk to Loki specifically, and trying to intrigue her with her strange and incomprehensible list. Loki could hardly resist trying to figure out a puzzle like this, after all. Hephaistos wasn't the kind of woman to waste her familia's time on inane nonsense. The sort of person you could do business with - though the Loki familia didn't, mostly preferring Giobniu. She wiggled her finger through the air for a moment. "Me, Drake, Cass, and... you interested in the secret hidden second purpose of the meeting, Finn?" She offered the pallum, standing up to get closer to her.

"I trust that you will inform me of anything genuinely important," he said, which was another way of saying 'no.'

She let out a sigh, making like she was heading for the door - then, when he got in range, she dove for him, trying her best to grope the cute little living shota. But he dodged her! She let out a groan, but there were no more words exchanged before she headed on out, finding Drake's bedroom. She didn't bother to listen at the door, just swinging it open forcefully, and-

Oh, he was in that You and Yours Stance thing. Her shoulders fell as she just drank it in - though she did have enough presence of mind to step into the bedroom and close the door behind her. Beneath him was Noriko, sweaty and panting and with flushed cheeks and saying, "I luh, love you, Papa!" It wasn't much of a show, given the girl's petite build, but obviously, Loki wasn't paying one whit of attention to the tiny flattie! She was looking at the gorgeous figure pounding away.

It wasn't like she could identify some physicality to what Drake looked like in that moment. Well, she could, kinda. Chesty. Hot. You know. But she couldn't have named the figure, or the color of their hair. Yet, at the same time, just looking at Drake, she knew...

This bitch used to hate her. She used to turn her nose up in disgust at Loki, to barely ever come to get her falna updated, to complain to all and sundry about Loki's affectionate touches to her big boobs. But now? Now, those pretty lips of hers were saying, "I love you, Lady Loki. I love you so much. I completely misjudged you, I realize that now. You can grope me any time you want. I just want you to be happy."

Naturally, Loki couldn't resist the urge, moving up to the bed to just grab the big fat tatas from behind. They were so deliciously firm yet soft beneath her hands, the absolute perfect funbags, and she just sighed in relief as she caressed it, as the woman held in her hands proclaimed how wrong she was to ever think that Loki was a bad person! Her gropes were her way of showing love, she saw that now! Complaining about it was not just silly, but actually wrong!

Then Drake cut off You and Yours Stance, and she was left with the much less appealing muscular chest of Drake.

She kept groping anyway, even as he slowed down his pace inside Noriko and the girl blinked owlishly up at her, confused at this unwanted interloper who had ruined her weird daddy kink play. "Heyyy, sorry to interrupt, but Hephy wants to talk to your girl there," she explained. "Plus Xulia and Rei. You can come with. Was thinking you and Cass should come along."

"What about?" Drake asked.

"Yes. Why is she requesting my presence, when I would much rather be having sex with Drake, who I love, who is pretending to be a loving father for a fetishistic sexual purpose that is also very emotionally satisfying?"

"Dunno, didn't say," Loki replied, shrugging. "She wouldn't waste your time, though, so don't waste mine," she whined.

Drake sighed. "Would you rather get this out of the way, Noriko?" He asked her. Bah! Why did he prioritize Noriko's happiness over Loki's?! Just because they were married?!? She was his goddess! His goddess!!

Noriko blinked, glanced at Loki, then spoke. "I do not want to leave you sexually unsatisfied. You have made me come thirteen times during this sex, and I have not made you come even once. However, I have had my mood dampened by the end of your pretending to be my loving father who has lovey-dovey sex with me, protects me, and never hurts me."

Yeesh! This girl had daddy issues! Loki knew that already, but still! It really did prove that Drake's strategy was to find the craziest girls he could and seduce them! It was a pretty good strategy, she had to admit. Maybe she should widen her net? Nahh. She couldn't add a bunch of loons to her familia. She already had plenty enough.

"If you're good with stopping, so am I. Having sex with you is always nice, Noriko, whether I come or not." He leaned down and kissed her on the lips, making her sigh and forcing Loki to crane forward to keep groping those pecs. Sheesh! This saccharine crap was sure something, huh? Especially given she could tell he was telling the truth!

"He's not lying, so let's get you two lovebirds dressed and find the rest of our motley crew!" Loki declared. It was getting a little boring groping Drake, though. He wasn't even trying to stop her. He must have been really distracted by the sex.

* * *

Loki strode on into Hephaistos's office with gusto, followed by Drake and four of his haremettes. "Heyyy, it's everybody's favorite goddess-" she started, before she saw that Hephaistos had a gorgeous tittymonster standing next to her, fidgeting. There was the temptation to go in for the grope, but she was clearly sniffling and trying not to cry, her sclera pink from having clearly failed at that task earlier. "Who is this beautiful lady?" She prompted.

"That's Setsuko," Drake said, and Loki's gaze immediately went down to the tittymonster in potentia, Noriko. Setsuko had boobs bigger than any member of her familia! (Except Rei, but Rei didn't count.) She was even trying to keep them hidden, and they were still threatening to burst out of her top. Noriko was gonna inherit a gorgeous set like that?! Maybe she should work to make a good impression on the girl now, for the payoff later.

"Yes," Hephaistos said. "Setsuko, you know who they are?" Setsuko nodded, not saying anything. "Right. Before we begin - Black Agony, Rei, did you kill Goro Iwakari?"

There was a silence that hit like a ton of bricks. Which was weird, because she was pretty sure that Goro was a Level Five, and Rei was like, well, she could pretend to be a Level Four Goliath or something, but as everybody knew, the number five was bigger than the number four. Xulia spoke up first. "No," she said, and Loki barely had time to process anything else as a wave of pure fucking evil rolled out of her like it was a physical force. Hephaistos recoiled instinctively as well, but nobody else was reacting to it. "Ahh, sorry! You asked me a question with my name in it, that's what happens when I reply to those! But it's a pretty important question..."

"Holy fuck," Loki breathed. She and Hephaistos were trapped in the same room as a Level Two evil monstrosity, and all they had with them were her fucking lovers! She should have fucking dragged Finn here, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Hephaistos was also sitting very still. She swallowed, her eyes like pinpricks. Loki was lucky to have the door behind her, and could take a step backwards towards it, and another, her breathing shallow as she moved. She had to be quiet. Quieter than ever, fuck, Xulia had some super goddamn senses and she was a Level Two!

"Ahh... what's wrong, Lady Loki?" She swiveled around in place, turning to look at Loki without actually moving her feet at all. Loki's heart was thundering in her chest and her ears. "I can't tell what happened if you don't tell me," she explained. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you, no matter what you say," she added.

True. That wasn't really very reassuring, though. "You're- you're evil," she got out.

"Ehhh? No, I'm cursed! I'm a good person! It's because Hephaistos made me say my name, that's the only reason that this is happening! You can run away if you want, but-" Loki bolted at that, and Xulia didn't move her feet, though she did frown at her.

Obviously, obviously, Loki wasn't just fucking leaving Hephaistos and a cute, tall tittymonster like Setsuko alone with that! "Emergency!" She shouted, waving her hands desperately at the air. "I need somebody strong! Hephaistos is in danger!" She shouted as loud as her lungs would carry it.

* * *

The girl without a name stared at the door as Loki shouted for help. She really hoped that she wasn't going to be hurt! Hephaistos stayed firmly rooted in place, clearly able to see something that the other people there couldn't. Ahh! She'd thought she would just get awful nightmares for a week or something, not whatever this was! Drake put his hand on her shoulder, giving it an affectionate squeeze. This was awful. "I'm really sorry, I don't know what it is..." she said. "I promise, I didn't kill Goro, or any member of your familia, and I don't plan to! Or to kill you, Lady Hephaistos! It really is just some evil magic on me, not me! I'm a good person. Right, Cass? Drake? Noriko? Rei?"

"You're an annoyingly good person," Rei huffed. "And call me joousama, bitch."

"Sorry, joousama."

"Bitch is a very well behaved bitch, and has never hurt me or threatened me in any way," Noriko offered. "Therefore, I do not understand what is happening. Also, I am joousama to you, bitch."

"Sorry!"

"She's kind..." Cass offered.

"Julia is the second most moral person I know, only after Cass," Drake said, which made her heart do a fun little somersault in her chest that she hadn't expected! Of course, she couldn't thank him, since he said her name, which would just make the whole situation worse!

"I... see," Hephaistos responded, her expression seeming to calm at least a little from her husband and co-wives speaking.

Then Tsubaki Collbrande burst into the room, brandishing a katana. "Who? Where?!" She demanded.

"The dark one!" Loki shouted, from around the corner, and the girl without a name felt her head separate from her shoulders a heartbeat later. Fortunately, she could draw on the ancient power that sat in her breast, so she didn't die, her head just plopping down onto the floor. She decided to pretend like she was dead, though, falling to her knees, then keeling over, leaving her to glance around the room at everyone else, tension filling the room.

"I'm sorry, Hephy," Tsubaki said, bowing sharply. "I shoulda waited outside yer office." She looked down at the girl without a name's head. Fortunately, nobody moved to do anything or escalate the situation any, so she just kept on pretending to be dead.

"Holy fuck," Loki breathed out. "You had that as your fucking wife? She may have nice tits, but - she -" Loki trailed off, seeing something that was behind the girl without a name's head, so she couldn't see it. She could probably have rolled her head around, but that would have ruined the whole 'pretending to be dead' thing! "What? You should be glad! It's my familia member that just died!"

"I think that... your familia member was merely cursed," Hephaistos told Loki.

"No fucking way. You can feel that too, right?"

"I can, but I do wonder how many people in this room might feel something similar, if I pulled my eyepatch up." Ooo! The girl without a name really wanted to see that!

"Don't," Rei said. "If it's magic then I'll probably go crazy, like I did on Ishtar."

"I wasn't planning to," Hephaistos responded.

"Look," Loki responded, "I get it, a boo hoo, my eye looks funny, but I couldn't just leave you alone with something like that! Especially not when she's a member of my familia, what kind of goddess would I be? Anyway, done's done." Loki looked at the other four. "Did she have some kinda evil spell on you? Really figured you'd be at least a bit pissed I got her head lopped off."

"I'm upset, but not that much," Drake said. "Next time you're in that sort of situation, please take one minute before deciding to kill my wife, though."

"One minute's an eternity to a Level Two." Loki kicked the girl without a name's head, sending it spinning, and the whole world went around and around for a moment before she clonked against the desk that Hephaistos was still seated behind. "She coulda killed me and Hephaistos a dozen times over in that time."

"She wouldn't, as she's a nice girl, and if she wanted to, she could kill you in a moment, since she can create explosives," Drake said.

"Yeah, that's why I was in such a panic. Duh!" Loki let out a sigh. "Safe now, though. Gonna miss them tits, but..."

"Do you think that Julia would try to kill you right now, if she were still alive?" Drake prompted.

"Uh, yeah, obviously. She's fucking evil. You guys can't feel that? Her corpse feels like raw malignance just to look at."

"I can't feel anythin'," Tsubaki helpfully provided. There was a chorus of agreement.

"Huh," Loki said, not seeming to care that much. "Well, trust me."

"...didja ask me to kill somebody just on account of them feeling bad?"

"It's more than a feeling!" Loki parried. "Hephaistos, you can feel it too, right?"

"I can," Hephaistos agreed. "But I think judging people based on such feelings is foolish."

"Alright, alright. So you're all claiming I overreacted. Well, you know what? You're underreacting! Setsuko and Hephaistos, I get, but ain't this dead bitch your wife and co-wife? She musta put some kinda spell on you, and that's why you're not really reacting!"

Drake just looked at Loki, then at Tsubaki. He looked pretty cool right then. Unfortunately, it was Rei who actually talked. "So, you and Tsubaki agree not to do that again, just because of some dumb feeling?" Rei asked.

"Yeah," Tsubaki said.

"It's not a dumb feeling!" Loki replied, stamping her foot. "You might as well say it's a dumb feeling that shit stinks! You can't feel it, but I'm a god, and gods know about things like this!"

"Loki..." Hephaistos said. "I would like you to promise me not to do such things again. I'm not comfortable killing someone on that basis alone." Hephaistos was so sweet and thoughtful! She should definitely join the harem!

"She's a member of my familia! Why are you the one getting so bent out of shape!" Even though the girl without a name was even less able to see Hephaistos than she had been before - the desk in between the two of them as she'd rolled most of the way into it - but she was able to practically hear the piercing glare from Hephaistos. "Fine! Fine, fine, whatever, sorry," she said, insincerely. "I promise," she said, putting one hand on her chest and the other in the air.

It was then that the girl without a name reached for her head, grabbing the long tangle of hair and hefting it up as she rose to her feet. She thought it might be fun to place the head on backwards at first, before corkscrewing it around the right way, but she decided that would probably just upset Loki more, so she rose to her feet properly. "Thank you, Loki-sama," she said, bowing. Loki hurriedly repositioned herself behind Tsubaki, any bravado now completely gone. "I understand that I scared you a lot, so I'm not upset that you got somebody to cut off my head. Not even a little bit! I just want you to understand that I really, really don't want to hurt you. I want you to fall in love with Drake, and have a happy life with him, and maybe have his kids!"

Loki just stared at her, flabbergasted. "Wha, wha? I know you can recover from harm, but she decapitated you!"

"Ohhh? Is that it? My Skill can do that, too!" She spun around to face Hephaistos, who still flinched. "Thank you for being so nice, Hephaistos-sama! I also hope that you fall in love with Drake, have a happy life with him, and maybe have his kids! In fact, to be honest, right now I'm kind of hoping for that even more than I'm hoping for it with Loki!"

"Hey!" Loki said. Then her instinctive urge to argue was overpowered by whatever fear still lingered in her, and she fell silent.

"After all, you're so mature and thoughtful, not like Loki, who is an immature brat!" The girl without a name said, earning a faint tremble of a smirk from Hephaistos.

She was just trying to cut through all the tension in the room, but it was so hard! She really hated those damned 'Neverborn' who apparently had cursed this power in the first place! She'd go track them down and kill them, if they weren't already dead and in another universe!

"Oh! Hephaistos-sama, why are you asking about Goro dying?" The girl without a name asked, tilted her head in curiosity.

It took Hephaistos a moment to gather her wits to respond, and she had to clear her throat. "Yes. Ah. Goro is dead. I checked last night, and..." she trailed off. "We no longer have a contract, and I didn't unlock his falna before he left."

"I haven't seen him since before he left Orario," Rei said, putting her hands behind her head in a casual pose. She was glad that Rei took advantage of the opportunity to phrase a not-quite-lie. "And no, I didn't find him out in the wilderness and kill him, or pay somebody to do it. Haven't even really thought about him since then."

"I see," Hephaistos said. She let out a sigh, then looked up at a still-somewhat-cowering Loki. "Loki. Please. Tsubaki can stay here, if it helps your peace of mind, but it does not actually appear that Black Agony... that the girl in question is actually going to cause us any harm." So considerate! She'd avoided her title once she'd learned that the girl without a name couldn't respond to it! Though, she wasn't actually talking to the girl without a name directly, so it was fine. "I can send a messenger for a high Level member of your familia, if you want."

"Yeah! Yeah, I need my Finn! I should never have left him behind in the first place! Actually, I'm going to go get him myself!" Loki said, leaving the office in a clear rush and audibly sprinting away the moment she was out of sight.

The eight of them stood there for a moment, staring at the door. Hephaistos let out a sigh. "Please close the door, Tsubaki, and don't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you," she said, earning a firm nod from the woman as she obeyed her goddess's orders. The girl without a name was definitely curious now. She focused on Hephaistos. "Goro Iwakari was a very wealthy adventurer. As a Level Five blacksmith with an appropriate clientele, he had many clients, and the total amount he had saved before his death was over two billion valis."

That was a lot of money! Enough to pay to fuck her two hundred million times, if Drake decided to whore her out to Goro! Though, he probably wouldn't. He was pretty good at finding day laborers who would just fuck her face, cunt, and asshole nice and rough, call her names, and then leave. Nobody ever got really violent and started doing things like punching her stomach or choking her into unconsciousness. It was kind of sad!

"Given that he died... under uncertain circumstances," Hephaistos continued, "and Noriko's antipathy for him, I had to confirm that you had not been the ones to arrange for his death." Hephaistos sighed, then smiled gently. "I'm glad to see that isn't true. As his familia head, I now hold access to his savings, which I had simply been holding onto in anticipation of his return. Given his death, however, I think the most appropriate thing would be to split his money between his wife and daughter. He was not a perfect man-" he was a terrible one! The girl without a name let it go, though, "-but he did love them." Yeah, if your definition of love was terrifying someone! But then the girl without a name must have loved Loki a super lot! "It's not safe to simply hand out that sort of money, Noriko, but if there is anything you want to buy-"

"Yes," Noriko said. "I would like to buy a grimoire, so that I can learn magic, and be stronger, and protect my husband and co-wives."

Hephaistos blinked at that suggestion, pausing for a moment to consider it. "I see. Do you understand how grimoires work?"

"You read the grimoire, and learn a spell."

"Yes," Hephaistos agreed, "but it is a bit more complicated than that. You don't simply learn some random spell, or a spell written into the grimoire. The spell you learn is one that relates to the original author's own spells, in the same way the student of an artisan indelibly carries small marks of his teacher's style for all his natural life, even as he develops his own. A spell is a reflection of the caster's soul, and in the same way, so too is a grimoire. For example, Hedin Selland is a mage from the Freya familia, who has multiple super short chant lightning attack spells. When he creates a grimoire, the reader is likely to learn a super short chant spell, likely to learn a lightning-based spell - and even more likely to learn an elemental spell, like fire or ice - and likely to learn an attack spell. Even for those very close to the author - children, for example - no one will ever learn exactly the same spells as Hedin from his grimoire."

"I see." Noriko simply blinked quietly at Hephaistos. "What is the significance of this information, however?"

"It means that you should want a grimoire written by a mage with similar spells to the ones you want to learn to cast," Hephaistos explained. "I will pay attention to the market and purchase one for you, but I do not know what sorts of spells you would most like to learn."

"I would like to learn good and powerful spells," Noriko explained.

Hephaistos smiled at that. "Yes. Everyone would, Noriko. But would you prefer a short spell with a simpler effect, or a long spell with a stronger effect?"

"Stronger," Noriko said.

"What type of spell would you prefer? The most common types are attacks, but there are also mages known for powerful protective magic, healing magic, support magic, crowd control magic, or even stranger spells, like illusions or teleportation. No matter what, you are likely to wind up with offensive magic of some type, but if you would want something else, the odds can be tilted somewhat in favor of something else."

Noriko blinked at that. "I do not need to attack, as Cass, Drake, and Bitch all attack for me in the Dungeon." (Rei had started accompanying them as a bird or a kitty cat, after the Ishtar familia's attack, but she just stuck around in case somebody tried something again, so she didn't count as an attacker.) "Therefore, please give me a different kind of spell. I think that healing magic would be most helpful, but based on what you have said, I believe I would most want magic from a mage who exclusively knows non-attack spells, therefore increasing the likelihood that I also learn a non-attack spell."

"I see. And would you prefer an effect that is straightforward, or more complex?" Once more, Noriko was left to blink at that. "For example, one of my familia members has a magic which causes magical backfire. It could be thought of as a ranged attack spell, but it is also effectively antimagic and control, and requires more care in its use as a consequence. Such spells are generally more valuable, due to their uniqueness, but they are not necessarily more useful in general."

"I would like a spell that is more versatile," Noriko says. "I do not care whether it is hard to use or not, as long as it is able to do many things, like how Riveria can cast nine spells, or how Lefiya can cast effectively infinitely many different spells. This is more useful than a spell which can only do one thing."

"Very well. Are there any other preferences you would like to offer?" Hephaistos asked. "I think this will be about as much as I can reasonably hope to pick out on, and I may wind up only being able to find a grimoire from a mage with two of the three things you asked for, but if there's something more important to you about a spell than any of these..."

Noriko considered for a few seconds. "I cannot think of anything."

"Alright." Hephaistos sighed and smiled gently. "Whew. This was more intense than I thought it would be." She stood up, and with her keen sight, the girl without a name could see the beads of sweat on the palms of her hand as the woman stretched and limbered up. She gave Setsuko a gentle pat on the back. "I think that you and Setsuko should spend some time together, she misses you even more now," she told Noriko.

"Oh. I would also like to spend time with you, mother," Noriko said. "In fact, I would like you to join the Loki familia, as Drake's seventh or eighth wife, depending on whether you do so before or after he marries Haruhime." Tsubaki bit back a chuckle at the comment, and Hephaistos did actually smile warmly for the first time at that. Setsuko, on the other hand, flushed scarlet. Even though she was five foot ten and incredibly beautiful, she was also just about as cute as a button!

Setsuko started to speak, but her voice warbled a bit, and it was particularly quiet, like she'd been crying all last night. "I... thank you, Noriko, I love you, sweetie," she said.

"I love you too, mother."

* * *

Loki rode on Finn's shoulders as her familia captain rushed the pair of them straight to the tower. She held onto his hair like it was reins. She wasn't gonna miss out on anything!

Oh. There was Drake and his wives. Plus Setsuko, the tittymonster. Minus Xulia, the evil bitch who'd spooked her in the first place. (Possibly not evil, but, come on!) Finn spoke before she could. "I was under the impression that Black Agony had... invoked the terms of her curse?" Finn asked, looking around for any sign of Xulia.

"She left a different way, so that not every single god in Babel would also freak out and try to decapitate her," Drake said.

"Bah! A different way? There's only one exit!" Loki spun her head around. "Did somebody kill her? I'm your goddess, you can tell me."

"The only person who has tried to kill her is you and Tsubaki," Drake said, sounding actually annoyed at this point. What the heck? She was the innocent victim here! "Loki, I don't know what vibe you're getting off her-"

"It's more than a vibe! That's like saying a guy who rolls around in shit has a 'bad smell'!"

"-but it's her curse. It's not consistent what the punishment is, but she's always punished for acknowledging her name." True. But that just meant he believed it, not that it was true!

"That's just what she told you," Loki huffed.

"No. I know more about the details of the curse than she does," he said. True. Wha-? He's not the one who cursed her, is he?

"Did you curse her?" Loki asked, squinting at him.

"No. Now, Setsuko, Noriko, and I are going out to eat together, so if you don't mind..." Drake said, starting to walk around her and Finn.

"Wha- wait!" Loki said. "What did you talk about with Hephaistos?"

"Maybe you shouldn't have tried to kill my wife and run off, if you wanted to know so bad," Drake said. Loki wanted to make some kind of mocking parody of his words, but she was too busy being struck.

"As the familia captain, I would like to know," Finn said.

"We can talk about it when I get back to the manor," Drake responded.

"Where you still plan to go?" Finn prompted.

"Yes," Drake said. True.

"Alright then. I would like to offer my apologies for Lady Loki's behavior - she is normally very protective of her children."

"Always! Always very protective of my children!" Loki argued. "Also, you can't apologize for me! I'm the one who apologizes when you do something stupid!" Why was everybody treating this whole thing like a damn joke?!

* * *

Noriko busily chatted about our home life with her mother, which included lots of discussion about her co-wives and training with Ais. Setsuko listened quietly, a gentle smile on her lips. I just held Noriko's hand and tried not to get too pissed off about Loki trying to kill Julia.

It was the Nameless Curse, obviously. It manifested in different ways each time it was broken, but apparently the way it manifested this time was 'every god who can see you immediately feels the raw evil coming off you.' It could have lasted just for the few minutes when we were in Hephaistos's office, or it could last for days.

Still, there was the question of what to do about it. Given what a horndog Loki was, there was the obvious temptation to punish her for her misbehavior by withholding sex, but I didn't actually want to do that. Not because I loved sex with her so much (though it was pretty good), but because Loki wasn't a poorly-behaved dog who needed a newspaper smacked against her nose for misbehavior. She was an adult woman. If I couldn't put up with this, that meant cutting things off, not a punishment. Julia had clearly been accepting of what had happened, and even Cass had been calm. It would be natural to default to their judgment, since they were better people than me, at least in general.

Were they in this particular circumstance? Julia's moral blind spots were that she was too lethal, and perhaps, too willing to forgive - that is, if somebody stopped committing crimes by the time she got to them, she wouldn't hurt them. This wasn't really the same situation, though. It was more like forgiving somebody for incorrectly pronouncing your name because they were an ESL speaker: they were going to keep doing it, you were just accepting the error.

Cass's moral blind spot was also centered around forgiveness and mercy, but in a different way. In the comics, she had wanted to help redeem her father, a highly-trained assassin, or Alpha, a person who had threatened to nuke Gotham in exchange for money. She wanted to offer even evil people a chance at redemption, even though they were basically never gonna take it. But, again, this wasn't that type of thing.

So... were they right to let this behavior go, then? My own moral intuition said that Loki had definitely crossed a line, even if not quite as badly as if it had been Noriko who she'd decapitated. But, also, my moral intuition said the opposite, since I should trust Cass and Julia, at least when it didn't fall into one of their obvious moral blind spots. The obvious answer was that Cass and Julia were behaving in a superlative way, by being forgiving and accepting of this behavior, while I was behaving according to a more baseline expectation by being ticked about it.

Therefore... it was just a problem of if I wanted to be the better person or not. I didn't, but also, I hadn't let Loki exactly explain herself, or really tried that hard to explain things to her. I'd talk to her, be open and honest, and decide from her behavior. That seemed like the correct solution. It wasn't like I could just turn off my "be annoyed at Loki" button, but if she said, "aww, I'm such an idiot! Sorry!" that definitely would have made me feel a lot better. But she was only going to say anything like that if I sincerely tried to talk to her and took time to convince her of something, which was genuine effort, but... yeah, worth it.

I tuned back into the conversation between Setsuko and Noriko. "I am hopeful that Drake will impregnate me soon, as I very much want to be a mother, just like you," Noriko was explaining to a blushing Setsuko. "We have lots of lovey-dovey unprotected sex, however, Drake has the ability to control his fertility, and therefore we will only have children when he decides that we are ready. As he is significantly older than me, and I love him, I trust his judgment on that question."

"O-oh? He can... control that?" Setsuko asked, glancing up at me, though her cheeks were still pink. "That's very impressive."

"Yes. He is capable of many impressive things," Noriko said. "For example, he can stand on the air, or grab objects from a distance. He is also very good at sex, though initially, I believe he was only typically competent at sex. He is also a Record Breaker, which is impressive. Also, the fact that I love him causes my stats to grow faster, which is also true for his other wives, and for Haruhime, who is not his wife yet, but has confessed her love. Therefore, it would be very good if you fell in love with him too."

"O-oh, I'm sure he doesn't want an old woman like me," Setsuko said, ducking her head at that.

I turned her way at that. She was... probably ~18 when she had Noriko, who was 16 in this universe, so about thirty four? "You're not old, Setsuko," I told her. I was pretty sure she was closer to my age than I was to Julia's. She smiled and blushed a bit at that, even seeming to like the attention. It took me about one second to decide that there was absolutely no reason not to seduce her too - she was beautiful and sweet and definitely a pretty high tier girl from the original work. "Honestly? I don't have any particular preference for young girls, it's just that the ones I fell in love with are pretty young. It'd be nice to be able to point to at least one that's older than me. Especially if she's as beautiful as you."

Saying lines like that still felt weird, but it was getting easier, and Setsuko definitely liked it, ducking her head and blushing. "Oh, I know you're just saying that."

"I'm really not," I told her. "Trust me. If I didn't find you attractive, I wouldn't waste time flirting with you. I'd still want you to like me, since you're Noriko's mom, but... pretending like you're prettier than you are just seems like a huge waste of my time." I didn't want to come off as if I was just lusting after her, but... it was easy to see the airbrushed perfection of Setsuko. She had gorgeous full breasts that jiggled only subtly despite their large size, perfectly smooth and flawless skin, symmetrical features, and her ass was very nice too.

"Yes. Drake finds you very attractive, and would like to have sex with you. I would also like you to have sex with Drake. Further, Goro is dead, and thus he cannot have an opinion. Therefore, you should have sex with Drake."

I reached over to give Noriko a patronizing pat on the head. "Setsuko can make her own decisions, Noriko," I chided her gently. She just pursed her lips and then nodded after a moment.

"You're so nice to her," Setsuko said, letting out a sigh, a melancholic smile. "With her personality, I always worried that she... well, I don't want to say. But I'm happy." She reached over to pat Noriko on the head too. "I'm happy for you, Noriko."

"Yes. I am also happy for me, as I have lovey-dovey sex with Drake twice per day, and he is so giving of a lover that he is okay with not orgasming during sex with me, as we were interrupted this morning and he was unable to orgasm, but he stated in front of a goddess that he was okay with that. This is another way in which he would make a much better husband for you than Goro, who was a terrible husband."

Setsuko bit her lip at that. "I... understand why you feel that way, sweetie, but... before he left the city, he told me that I should..." she looked my way, then blushed and cleared her throat. "Ahem. Let's discuss something else, please. I'm not angry, it just makes me a little upset to talk about Goro with you now, especially after..." she trailed off, her body gently trembling for a moment, her head going down. "I just..." she whimpered.

"Hey," I breathed softly, gently placing my free hand on her shoulder. "It's okay to cry. I know Goro wasn't perfect, but I also know that you really, truly loved him." She was a Hentalian who was sexually active with a single man - she basically had to love him, biologically speaking.

"I just- I don't understand," she said, starting to burst into tears. I gently pulled her into a hug, letting her bury her head into my shoulder - she was tall enough for the top of her head to be at eye level with me. "I don't understand. He was- I know, Noriko, the way she feels, it's not wrong, even if... even if he never did hit her, but I still wish he was here... he made me feel so awful sometimes, but I still love him, and I- I'll never see him again..."

I soothingly ran my fingers through her hair. "It's okay," I said, one of those meaningless little words that you say just to make someone else feel better. "Noriko, I think Setsuko would like a hug from you, too," I said, and soon, Noriko was wrapped around her mother from the other side. We were... kinda in public, but I didn't really care. I just made sure we weren't in the way of traffic and held Setsuko as she sobbed and blubbered. A lot of it I couldn't understand, and a lot of it I can't remember well, because it was mostly the same few subjects: I love him, he was awful, I still love him anyway. Besides, it feels a tad... uncouth, to recount it all.

After several straight minutes of that, something she said made Noriko speak up: "If you wish to stop loving Goro, this will be easiest if you have a new man to love, such as Drake, who is very good and loving." Setsuko let out a giggle-sob at that, still shuddering in place.

"Thank you, Noriko," she said. "I- I'll think about it." She finally pulled herself away, wiping at her face. Even having cried her eyes out, she was still gorgeous. "Thank you for- for being so nice, Drake," she said. "Noriko is very lucky to have you."

"I'm much, much, more lucky to have her," I reassured Setsuko, making her giggle a little. "You can ask a goddess to confirm that's not a lie, if you want."

"No, no, I believe you," Setsuko said, smiling gently. She wiped at her face some more, having to pull at her top to start clearing off her face. It revealed a bit more stomach, but - she had genuinely amazing breasts. With the way the cloth was moving around them, shifting them a bit this way and that, I couldn't help but feel my eyes drawn to them, my cock rapidly hardening in my groin as they moved like that. Eventually, she felt she'd cleaned enough to let her shirt fall back down, and my eyes made their way back up to her eyes a second later.

By the sharp blush on her cheeks, though, it wasn't fast enough to hide the fact that I'd been looking at her tits. And by the tiny smile she wore, she actually seemed happy with the gesture, taking it as a compliment, which was good, because it wasn't intended as one. They were just ridiculously distracting due to how gorgeous they were.

"Let's go find a quiet place to eat," I told her, and she nodded.

* * *

Rei #6 uncurled her snake form from around Erza's stomach as the group stopped their movements through the Dungeon, flopping out and switching back to human, stretching as she did. "Right, so, refresh from Rei #1: Tsubaki decapitated Julia at Loki's urging-"

"Julia?" Erza snapped to attention at the words.

"Yeah, she's fine," Rei #6 warned her off, and the other Reis let out sighs of relief too. "Apparently when she responded to her title, it triggered that whole nameless curse deal, so she came off as super evil, which made Loki take drastic, high speed measures to get rid of her. Um. Hephaistos was cool about it, so maybe want to try to fuck her."

"We'd have to use the anti-mind control Skill before she pulls up her eyepatch," Rei #8, currently in the form of a battle boar, noted.

"Duh," Rei #9, currently in the form of a lizardman, said. "I'm not stupid."

"Oh, Hephaistos was trying to find out if we killed Goro, but Rei #5 evaded that question pretty good. And... Loki agreed not to try to kill Julia again."

"She's gonna have to agree to more than that, if she wants to ever grope these tits again," Rei #10, currently in the form of a mad beetle, said.

"Yep," they all chorused together, a cacophony due to their different throats and vocal chords.

"So, any ideas on the Xenos?" Rei #11 asked. "It's hard to focus on what's going on around here when I'm still getting a live feed from Rei #1's senses. At least she's not getting eaten out right now," she added, earning a small chorus of agreement from the other three Reis. They all knew how annoying it could be to try to ride her senses when she was getting eaten out, since they shared a memory pool that only started diverging a few days ago at most.

"Yeah," Rei #8 said. "We're doing an exhaustive search, but it's pretty optimized since we know the map. There's only like 30% of this Floor left to check, hopefully they're not on another floor."

"We're not," came a male voice which Rei #11 recognized as Donner. "I can bring you to our hideout." He emerged from the darkness of the Dungeon a few seconds later. One thing the anime didn't really capture was the way that once your light ended, it was just inky fucking nothing, you couldn't see shit past a certain point - not even with enhanced senses.

"Sure thing, bud," Rei #11 agreed. "Don't worry, we make sure we're not followed."

"I made sure of that too," Donner said. She bristled a bit at the offense, but she guessed she could understand him not trusting her completely, since they only met for like five minutes tops.

Soon enough, they were taken to an unexplored area. It wasn't on the maps, because it was hidden behind what looked like a cave-in, but you could actually just about squeeze through the space between it and the ceiling. Adventurers weren't particularly inclined to do that, though, especially given that there were visible weapons lining the entrance to the little hidey-hole, making it not just incredibly claustrophobic, but also an obvious trap.

"You should probably move to a lower floor," Rei #11 said, as she landed on the other side of the wall next to Donner. "There's actual unexplored areas there, plus fewer adventurers."

"We've been talking about it," Donner agreed. "The main difficulty is getting across Rivira."

"Eh, I can handle that if you want to do it. Plus, what about the Xenos that spawn on the lower floors?"

"Nn." Donner didn't seem too concerned about that. "What about the Xenos on the upper floors? Humans are more likely to adventure a short distance than a far one, so it's better we're there to save them."

"We've taken care of the Ikelos familia," Erza said, her voice sharp as a knife for a moment. "There's no reason to be concerned about them any longer."

"Yeah, and thanks for that, but there's not a lot of adventurers interested in having a conversation with us, so we've got other problems."

"A lack of conversation-" Erza began, her brow furrowed.

"They fucking kill them," Rei #9 interrupted. "Especially ones like Ali that can't talk."

"Ah, that reminds me," Donner says. "Alipheese missed you. Alipheese!" He shouted. There was a slithering noise from deeper into the Dungeon, and then emerged from the darkness Alipheese, looking exactly as gorgeous, big-boobed, and topless as ever.

"Rei! It's wondrous to see you again! And Erza too, hello!" Alipheese wore a brilliant smile as she spoke. "Ah, and I'd like to request that you call me by my full name from now on." No! "Alipheese Fateburn the Sixteenth. I like it quite a lot!" Nooooo! No one should know about her cringey, chuuni-ass sounding full name! Why had she named her that in the first place?!