Gin stared silently, looking for the pub's exit door handle.
The fact that somehow reality kept wobbling around and occasionally blasting away in chaotic flashes of light didn't really help either.
The cook, who turned out to also be the owner, along with the waitress, helped open the door for him and Mr. Scarface.
The two of them split the bill in the end, as before either of them succumbed to alcohol, the pub's supplies ran out of it first.
Well, both of them looked happy, so everything was fine.
Gin breathed in the fresh air of the outside world and immediately coughed it out.
Mr. Scarface stood beside him, patting his back again.
"Going to vomit?"
"Wha-!? Hell no! I ain't gonna waste food! That's just gross!" Gin glared at the old man.
"You are glaring at a signpost. I am here." His voice somehow came from a completely different direction.
"…Help me glare properly at you then." Gin felt himself being pushed a bit before being righted a moment later.
Yup, there was another old man there.
He glared at him.
"Better."
Even under his fierce glaring attack, the man only stared back at him silently.
Was he challenging him to a glaring contest? Gin would never blink before this old man did!
"Gin Hvergel." Gin raised his eyebrows at the use of his full name. "Does the name Maxim mean anything to you?"
"…"
He closed his eyes at the mention.
"…No." Gin shook his head. "I know no one by that name."
"…Forgive me for asking, then. Thank you for keeping me company. Good night, Gin Hvergel." Gin watched him walk away into one of the alleys.
"Your lying face is exactly like his."
Gin tightened his fists at his parting words.
He knew. That man definitely knew.
"Fuck."
Just when he thought no one would find out, too.
Maxim… The strongest adventurer in the world. Level 8. The Supreme King of the Zeus Familia.
A dead man.
Gin closed his eyes.
"How long do I have to keep chasing after your shadow? Father."
...
Gin sat cross-legged on the floor of a small hut.
In front of him, a boy and a woman chatted as the woman carved a wooden arrow.
"Ma, where's Pa?" The young boy in front of him pouted at the woman. "He's not coming again?"
"Papa is busy doing papa things," she explained curtly.
The kid nodded at her words, as if the answer actually meant something.
"Do you know about the One-Eyed Black Dragon? Papa and his friends are going to defeat it."
"Pa against a dragon? Can Pa even wound it?" The kid sounded worried.
Guess he really liked his father, huh?
Stupid, dumb kid.
"Papa is strong. Super strong. Stronger than anyone else. He will come home after winning, as usual," the woman said almost smugly. "That's why you need to practice more too, okay? Let's show off to Papa once he gets here."
"'Kay!"
Gin clicked his tongue at the obvious dream.
Walking closer, he knelt in front of the young, dumb brat.
Looking at his star-struck, hopeful eyes made him feel irked for some reason!
"Your father isn't going to come home, though," he said to him matter-of-factly.
The brat ignored him.
"He will die chasing needless glory against some dragon that has stayed quiet for hundreds of years, leaving his family, whom he hardly took care of."
Gin turned his attention to the woman.
She was a simple hunter who managed to somehow catch the eye of the Zeus Familia captain.
Playful, teasing, but kind, she was one of the few hunters in the village.
Well, she kind of sucked at it.
If talent was really hereditary, then his archery probably came from him… That was a pretty upsetting thought.
Gin closed his eyes and sighed.
"Your mother will receive the news from gossip brought from Orario, fall sick some time later, and die a year after that."
He looked at her form.
It had been eight years.
Had she always looked like that? He wasn't really sure.
He turned back to his younger self again.
"And you, little guy, will stupidly walk into the Beol Mountain Range with nothing but a knife and a bow, hoping to search for a guy who has been dead for a year." Gin clicked his tongue. "You'll sleep tied to a tree, eat tree sap and insects when you catch nothing, and struggle against goblins of all things. It's a fucking miracle you survive that experience."
"Of course I'll survive! It's obvious, silly." The boy finally responded to him with a creepy-ass smile. "I am the son of Maxim, after all."
I am the son of Maxim? He couldn't really deny that.
Denying the truth was just childish.
As such, he picked the brat up and placed him on the table. He lowered his body and let fury fill his right hand.
"Hvergel-Style: Rising Dragon Fist!"
His fist lashed out from under the kid's chin, sending the stupid brat airborne!
What? How could he do that to a child? Fuck that!
His annoying smile was harming him mentally, so that action was just legal self-defense.
He crouched down, preparing to strike him down with a mid-air combo.
Yet before he could mash down the command in his head, an unexpected fighter joined in.
"Hvergel-Style: Polygamist Castration Kick!"
The retaliation came like a storm.
Somehow, without him knowing, the caricature of his mother had sneaked up behind him and delivered a punishing low kick.
He fell to the floor holding his nuts.
His mother's grinning face appeared from behind. She was playing dirty, as usual.
"…That's just… dirty… Ma…"
"Hmm? For someone throwing hands at his younger version, you sure can complain, huh?" she huffed.
"This strike will remind you, my son. Two-timing is not allowed in the Hvergel Lineage."
His mother readied another kick. She was fucking merciless!
"I am not two-timing anyone!"
"You are planning to."
As images of two important women in his life surfaced, he realized that he couldn't retaliate against that.
"Well yeah, but…"
"Hvergel-Style: Polygamist Castration Kick: Za Another!"
He passed out inside the hut and woke up in his bed.
...
"Gin!"
Gin caught the flying blonde projectile as he entered the Twilight Manor.
Following the momentum, he spun her around for a bit before setting her down.
"You finally came."
"Ah, you know I am a captain, right? I was busy doing captain things." He patted her head slowly.
Sheesh, this head was just relaxing.
It was a good thing that head-patting was a mutually beneficial action for the two of them.
"I know. I am smart, so I understand." Ais nodded, before turning her attention to the rest of his familia standing behind him. "…Intruders?"
"No, they are my lackeys, so please don't pick a fight with them."
""Oi!"" Gin ignored his familia's indignation.
The way his familia was right now, calling them lackeys was sadly not completely untrue.
"Un, I understand. In other words…" Ais cocked her head to the side, touching her chin. "They are the new followers of the dark star, those who seek power and approval from the dark empress. Those who follow in your leadership to glory… Are they?"
"Oh, that's correct!" Elise responded happily while the others just stood in silence. She crossed her arms proudly.
"We are the… Hands of Darkness! The followers of death and the companions of her most loyal bloodhound."
Gin fell to his knees.
Waves of secondhand embarrassment and regret crashed over his body!
Children grow when you don't look at them.
He hadn't met her in a month, so it was natural that Ais would have matured a bit. But… Away from his supervision, Ais had grown in a disappointing direction before he even knew it.
There was only one person he could blame for this.
"Damn you, Loki!"
He felt the strength leaving his body.
Ais, the quiet, spoiled, munchkin kind-of-a-little-sister of his, had fallen to the dark path.
He had failed to protect her from the evil clutches of No-Tits Loki!
Rather than aiming for him directly, Loki had instead aimed for a weak spot.
Not only that, it was a weak spot from which he could never recover. Every time Ais spoke those cringeworthy words, he would be brought to his knees.
She had basically turned his sister into a walking reminder of his failure.
…Maybe it was time to seriously think about striking back at her, after all!
"…Anyway, yeah. They are my familia." Gin turned to them. "Guys, this is Ais Wallenstein. She's Level 2, so please don't mess with her. You don't want me as your enemy, yeah?"
"What is he doing, threatening his own familia?" Elily groaned at him. "His priorities are all over the place."
"Ah Elily, well, Ais is Gin's little sister," Elise explained to the newbies.
"Different last names though. They look nothing alike either," Pock responded. "You sure this isn't just our captain being a criminal?"
"Pock, please say it quietly. The culprit is still over there," Pott whispered to her brother.
Gin made a mental note to put some hot sauce in their breakfast.
"Mou! All of you shouldn't be that mean to Gin! They might have different parents, but they really are siblings!" Elise chastised the two. "Real siblings are connected by fate, not blood!"
Gin noticed that Elise seemed to be really fired up about this.
Thinking for a while, he realized that she wasn't all that disconnected from this topic.
It was because of her history with her dragon-morphing big sister.
Corrin, was it?
Well whatever, the peanut gallery could talk all they wanted. The only thing that mattered was how he and Ais saw each other.
"Ais, Gin is your big brother, right?" Elise asked Ais, making all of them focus on her again.
"No."
…
'Eh?'
Gin cleaned his ear for a second.
There seemed to be something wrong with his hearing. Maybe age was catching up with him.
He readied himself to hear her words again.
Ais's lips seemed to move in slow motion before his eyes.
"Gin isn't my big brother."
Gin's consciousness cut off...
....
"…Elise, the victim has finally spoken up about the matter. Should we escort the suspect into the custody of the Ganesha Familia?" Pott asked the lawyer.
"No! That's not right! Ais and Gin are really close with each other! I believe that their bond is true!" Elise cried out.
"Ais, were you just misleading Gin all this time!? That's not it, right?"
"…Blonde Twin Tail, you are rude. I am not misleading Gin." Ais scrunched up her brow in anger. "Gin isn't my brother."
"What is he then!?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Ais pouted and hugged Gin from the side. "He is my hero."
""…Eeeeeeeeh?""
'Not a brother, but a hero?' Elise didn't know if it was a demotion or not, but she knew one thing for sure.
Ais truly treasured Gin as much as he treasured her.
It was a beautiful bond.
"I see! I am sorry for not noticing it, Ais!"
"Umu, refine your sight more, Twintail."
The others watched the two girls' exchange fondly.
"Aren't you glad, Captain? You are actually a hero. That is super cool." Rem went to Gin's side and nudged him teasingly.
Gin's body fell to the ground without any kind of resistance.
Rem stared at him for a while before placing her fingers in front of his nose.
"Captain?" Rem looked at the rest of them in horror. "…He's not breathing."
...
Gin was standing inside a dark cave, lit by countless cages filled with floating blue fireballs.
"Where am I?"
"You're in Kur, O' lost spirit." He turned around and saw a blonde… goddess.
Yup, she was a goddess.
It was hard to see how she looked since she was draped in a dark cloak.
She held a cage in her hand, standing quietly in front of him.
"It might be surprising, but this is a journey that everyone must…" The goddess paused for a while, drew closer to him, and closed her eyes in frustration.
"You are alive. How can you get here when you are still alive!? This isn't making sense!"
"Uh well, I am from the Hel Familia, so that might be the reason?"
"Hel-san? Ah, that might explain it, yes. Hmm, a coworker's child… Should I bring him in for tea first then? That's common courtesy, right? Hel-san is always nice to me too."
Gin watched as the goddess mumbled away.
...
A lot of weird things happened in someone's life.
For example, finding out that you had a non-blood-related sister, or that you were a descendant of a hero, or you had a right hand that harbored the ultimate evil or something.
For Gin, this small tea break with a goddess of death in the middle of the underworld, surrounded by what he now recognized as souls, would probably take the cake for the weirdest thing that had—or ever would—happen to him.
He munched on a cookie, apparently baked personally by Ereshkigal-sama, the goddess in front of him.
Hmm… He might be the only person who had tasted the home cooking of two goddesses of death!
"So yeah, Thanatos is apparently one of the big bads in the lower world," he whispered controversially to her.
"Eh!? No way! He is doing something like that!? He looks so tame and duty-driven here though!" He nodded solemnly at her gasp.
"He said that he likes big boobs too and women with small chests shouldn't be counted as women!"
"…He's dead after he gets back here."
Hehe… Keikaku Doori!
"So these are souls, huh? Hel-sama said that they have different gleams to them, but they look kinda the same to me."
"Fufu, you are a mortal, after all. For us diligent goddesses, spotting their differences is a piece of cake." Ereshkigal-sama smiled proudly and looked around. "This place is the first stop for the soul. All souls here still have their taint, their memories. Hel and I have spent centuries watching after every last one of them, so of course we would know how to differentiate them."
"Ah, so it's just a matter of experience then?"
"Correct! Well, there's a goddess that could do it since she was born, though. You do know about Freya, yes?"
"Yup, she's kind of a big deal down there." He sipped his tea again. "She could read souls like you and Hel-sama too?"
"Yeah. It's really unfair, right? She's already so pretty and all too. Her palace is bright and beautiful as well. Hahh… I am so jealous."
"Hmm? You are beautiful as well, though, Ereshkigal-sama," he remarked honestly. "Or more like, your whole atmosphere makes you really attractive. It might sound rude, but you feel really homely. I feel easily at ease with you."
Different from Hel, Ereshkigal felt like your everyday good girl.
If he hadn't met Hel, this goddess before him would definitely check all of his criteria for an ideal woman.
Now he was firmly on Team Hel, though.
Ereshkigal's face lit up at his words.
"Eh!? W-wait, you are… telling the truth!? Eh, no, Gin-kun. That is, I am flattered. Truly! But, uh, well, you aren't half bad either, and your soul is really interesting to look at—no, well, this is too sudden! I am taking a break first!"
"Yeah, take your time." Gin waved to her. "Oh, can I take more cookies?"
"They're all yours!!!"
"Woohoo! Ereshkigal-sama is da best!"