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"I see..." Loki said, trying to feign disappointment. "That's unfortunate." But inside, her interest in Godou's sword only increased tenfold.
"Why'd you ask?" Hephaestus leaned back on her chair. Then she suddenly sat up straight and her lone eye was opened as wide as it could. "Did you find one?" she asked excitedly.
Loki panicked momentarily, remembering how Finn had made her promise to tell no one, absolutely not another soul, about Godou's abilities.
"Of course not," she said, trying to laugh it off. "I was just thinking about what kind of present to get Aiz on her next Level-Up," she lied expertly. She was a trickster goddess after all.
"Oh, she's Level Five now, isn't she?" Hephaestus sounded mildly curious. "Tsubaki's Level Five too. I don't think even Aiz can reach Level Six so soon."
"Of course!" Loki chirped excitedly, glad that they were changing topics. "Which is why my present to her has to be the absolute best!"
"Heh, is that so?" Hephaestus raised an eyebrow. "Then I wouldn't recommend a talking sword. In reality, they're not very practical to use, unless the soul is developed on its own, like with the magical dagger I was talking about."
"Really? Why not?"
Hephaestus pursed her lips. "Stuffing a soul into a weapon basically limits any other kind of magical inscription on it. So you'd end up with only a sword as strong as the soul trapped within it. You'd need a very powerful soul if you want to make it a gift Aiz can actually use."
"Oh." Loki hadn't thought about that. "Like what kind of soul?"
Hephaestus shrugged. "I dunno. But the soul of a God would definitely do the trick."
XxxxX
Godou sneezed for the third time in one minute.
Someone, somewhere, must have been thinking about him very hard.
"You'd better be not be sneezing into our customer's food," Mama Mia warned all the way from the bar counter.
"Don't worry Mama Mia," he laughed meekly, trying to hide the fact that he was throwing away the entire batch of fries he was cooking.
"Are you sick?" May asked, sounding concerned. "You've been acting a little weird ever since you came back from the Dungeon."
"Ah, I'm fine," Godou said reassuringly. He didn't want his fellow cook to be fretting over him, not when he'd made her cook solo recently. "Just a little tired. The Dungeon does that to you, you know." In truth, he wasn't tired at all. Gone were the days when using three or four Authorities put a strain on his body. He'd have to activate his Avatar for that to happen now.
"Actually, I don't."
Godou was a little surprised to hear the mixture of embarrassment and disappointment in her voice.
"Huh?" was his eloquent response.
The Cat-Girl's eyes looked away, and Godou admittedly found her sudden shyness a little cute. "Unlike most of the rest, I wasn't an adventurer. I've never been into the Dungeon. I've been the chef in the Hostess for my whole adult life. The only weapon I've held is a kitchen knife." The smile she gave him at the end looked forced, which didn't look right at all since she was holding said weapon.
"Ah." Godou took a step back. Had he hurt her feelings? "It must be hard on you. Working in a pub for adventurers, and all your colleagues being ex-adventurers themselves. Sorry if I've made you feel that you've missed out."
"Eh?" May's blush turned even redder. "It's not like that at all! If anything I'm glad that I'm not an adventurer! All I hear are scary stories of monsters, I'm glad I'm just a simple chef!" She was waving her hands frantically in denial, but stopped when she heard Godou laugh.
"A simple chef, huh?" he said to himself. "I wish I could be a simple chef."
"Do you really?" May asked, disbelief quite clear in her voice. "You seem to like having adventures in your life though."
"I don't!" Godou immediately denied. Where had she gotten such an idea? "I just want to be an ordinary guy that lives an ordinary life!"
"Liar," May said, snubbing her nose in the other direction. "I heard that you beat up Bete from Loki's Familia. And Syr couldn't stop talking about how you tamed that Battle Boar in the Monster Feria. And when you came back from the Dungeon, you looked completely refreshed, as if you'd came back from a holiday instead."
Godou was stunned when she jabbed a finger into his chest. "You're a reckless adventurer through and through, Kusanagi Godou."
"I...I" Godou had no words. He'd heard arguments exactly like this countless times. Every time he'd tried to convince someone that he wanted to be normal, his girls would immediately shut him down by bringing up a long list of examples where he'd jumped into a fight without hesitation. "I didn't have a choice!" he immediately reverted to his default counter-argument. "I had to do all that."
"You say that..." May smiled forlornly. "But you're going to choose to go back into the Dungeon again, aren't you, Kusanagi Godou?"
"I don't have a choice..." he said again, much weaker than before. "Bad things are happening in there, and it could be partly my fault."
Ever since that monster tamer had said that one word.
Campione.
He had known that he'd been dragged into whatever mess that was going on in the Dungeon.
"Nonsense," May said immediately, crossing her arms. "Did you even have an idea of how any of those mishaps happened?"
"No," Godou admitted.
"Then how can it be your fault?" she demanded.
"It's complicated," was the only thing Godou could say.
"It's not." May's tone suddenly became gentle. "It's very simple. Bad things are happening. You want to stop them. You're the type of person who thinks that having power means having a responsibility to protect others." She flashed a beaming smile at him. "Do you know what we call people like you?"
"No?" Godou said, unsure. May was being awfully chatty today, wasn't she?
"We call them heroes."
It was almost like a slap to his face.
The gash is still bleeding, no matter how much Godou tries to stop it. In fact, it only seems to be getting deeper and wider.
"A cursed wound from the scythe of the Grim Reaper," Ena says, laughing pathetically. "If that can't kill me, then I don't know what can."
Godou doesn't how she can still smile while saying it, not when he can literally see her heartbeats slowing down and weakening through her ribcage.
"Don't talk, Ena. I can still save you."
He presses his hands into her wound again, channeling every single Authority that comes to mind, but stops when she wince
s and places her hand on his own.
"Stop, Godou. I can't be saved."
"Shh. Don't say that. I-"
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Want to read more?
The next 10+ chapters are already available on my Patreon!
By joining, you'll get:
📖 Early access to future chapters
🗳️ Polls to shape the story
🎁 Exclusive content for Patrons
🔥 Bonus scenes & content you won't find anywhere else
👀 Don't fall behind—others are already ahead!
👉 patreon.com/FanfictionTakashi
(If link doesn't show, just search on Google: FanfictionTakashi Patreon)