A sky as dark as midnight. The day the calamity arrived.
-■■■... ■■!!
-No■, don't go ■■ ■!
-I■■■... ■■ ■ ■■■...
-■■■, please... ■■■...
-No, ■■■... ■■■...
-Please, I'm telling you ■■■... please...
-■■■■■■■■■!!!
How had I survived that hell, where screams and laments ran wild?
Why had I survived?
By stepping over the corpse of my beloved ■■■.
By sacrificing the life of the revered ■■■.
And in the end, even the cherished ■■■ burned themselves away.
-■.
The black calamity looking down on me. The embers buried deep within my heart, still vivid even now.
-■■■.
It always constricted me, always tore at my heart.
Why was I so weak?
Why couldn't I protect anyone?
Why had I been the only one to survive?
Even as I cried out, the people who always gave me answers were no longer by my side.
I was always alone, in solitude...
Crash! Clang!!
Alone, in solitude...
-You little @#%$#&~!!!?!??!?
-It's a misunderstanding! It's a misunderstanding, Hera?!!
Alone, in solitude...
-Stop Lady Hera!!!!
-Zeus got taken down?!?!!
-Serves him right, send him back as is!
Alone... solitude...
-Hahaha, a fight! A blood carnival!
-Huh? But why are we fighting?
-Who knows. I don't know why, but... this is great. I'll kill you all here. Especially that pest and Zeus.
"Hmm."
Looks like this wasn't the time to be lost in sentiment.
Ever since I arrived here, it felt like I couldn't sink into an emotional mood for long. It was a good thing, in a way, but it was still a bit frustrating.
"Where am I...?"
When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling. It was high, suggesting a fairly large room... Why was I here? What had I been doing before I ended up here?
"I was definitely..."
After getting food-tortured by Lady Hera, I'd gone out for a nighttime walk to help digest it, then ran into that giant...
And then... and then...
"Did I... lose?"
I couldn't remember clearly, but I distinctly recalled my final attack being shattered. Had I just been hit and knocked out?
Judging by my internal clock, I'd probably been out cold for a full day. I wasn't sure whether I should lament that I'd been unconscious for so long, or be glad I'd woken up after only one day.
Any problems with my body...?
I checked myself over, but aside from feeling a little weak and having a slight headache, there didn't seem to be anything wrong.
They'd probably healed me by burning through expensive potions like water. There was a big expedition coming up soon, so I couldn't help worrying that I'd put a serious strain on the finances for no reason.
...Well, whatever. Let's just think of it as compensation for damages. If I thought about it, they'd been the ones to pick the fight first anyway.
-@##$@%@?!!!!
-Kyaaaaaaah!?!?!?
"..."
As I was lost in thought, I heard the sound of some old man having his throat ripped out outside. Should I stop that first?
But that hysterical, indescribable scream just now... if my memory was right, wasn't that Lady Hera's voice...?
Why were those two fighting?
*
Yesterday, Zeus Familia had been turned upside down twice.
Once because of the white-haired man who came flying in and smashed through the home.
And a second time when they saw the state the giant had arrived in afterward.
He wasn't as bad as the man, but the giant was still in a pretty wretched condition.
There were shallow cuts all over his body.
And injuries that looked like he'd been beaten in, leaving deep dents.
The members were stunned by the sight of their supposedly invincible captain's injuries. In the midst of that, Zeus, who had grasped the situation fastest, sent everyone away and spoke with the giant one-on-one.
The result was...
"You fought?!"
"That's right."
An unimaginable situation. An unimaginable dispute.
Zeus could hardly close his mouth at the behavior of his child, but what shocked him even more was this.
"That kid was strong enough to wound you...?"
"Yeah. He was strong."
"...Hah."
Strong. Maxim's unadorned praise of the rabbit left Zeus speechless.
For all his faults, Zeus was still the chief god of a Familia, the father of many children.
So he already had a good grasp of his children's personalities. Especially Maxim, who he had spent the most time with; his thoughts were practically transparent, as if Zeus had some kind of mind-reading ability.
And Zeus's assessment of Maxim was that he was the very definition of sincerity. He didn't put words in his mouth that he didn't mean. There was no need to lie.
And the word Maxim would never say was that someone else was strong.
Because Maxim was the strongest.
For that Maxim to say someone was strong... He'd thought the same thing ever since fighting Arphia, but to think it was this much...
He was a little dazed, but it wasn't a bad thing. After all, the rabbit was a joint creation of Zeus Familia and Hera Familia. And given his sex, there was a high chance he'd be raised under Zeus's hand, which meant he'd become a vital part of Zeus's strength.
"Heh, heh, heh..."
Zeus let out a sinister laugh and imagined a glittering future... but there was one thing he had overlooked.
That Hera, in order to keep watch over Zeus's wandering eye, had used Ouranos—or more precisely, Fels, Ouranos's soldier—to create [Oculus], which was monitoring Zeus Familia.
"...Forte."
"Huh...?"
Hera Familia's office. She called out to her foremost child, who was eating the snacks she hadn't finished.
The empress, who had been happily munching through all kinds of sweets, felt the chill in Hera's voice and straightened up at once.
Normally the goddess was always throwing tantrums, but this wasn't her usual kind of hysteria.
This coldness, this heavy atmosphere. Something was wrong.
"Get fully armed. We're invading Zeus Familia."
Nope, she was normal as ever.
Her eyes looked a little unhinged, but what she said and did was unmistakably her usual self.
The empress immediately left the minimum number of troops behind, led her members, and headed for Zeus Familia with the goddess.
And that leads to the present.
-@#$%^$##@$!!!!
-Hiiiii?!
Zeus felt a fear unlike anything he had ever known as Hera screamed out a shriek that didn't seem fit for a sentient being.
The fear he hadn't felt even when he'd been caught taking on eight women at once, or when he'd been caught groping Arphia's chest, or when he'd matched Cranel and Materia together.
Overwhelming madness. Zeus and every member of his Familia were terrified by the sight of Hera in a rage so extreme that all the madness he had felt until now seemed like child's play.
Even the giant.
The giant, for some reason, was also cowering in fear at the anger directed toward him. To make matters worse, Hera Familia's intent to draw blood had caused Zeus Familia's losses to mount rapidly.
At this rate, the Familia itself would disappear.
The battlefield within the home was descending further and further into chaos. Just as things were about to continue to the point where casualties would surely appear...
"Um, excuse me~?"
A hesitant boy's voice rang out from the middle of the chaotic battlefield.
*
After a short while, the situation was sorted out, and the two gods and one other person gathered in Zeus's room.
Huh? Why did it end up like this?
Hera Familia had already withdrawn long ago. The people of Zeus Familia were quietly cleaning up afterward and passing the time.
I'd wondered why they were so calm, but apparently this was some kind of event that happened about once every quarter.
They did this four times a year? What on earth was the conflict I knew?
No, more importantly, why was I here...? I couldn't think of any reason I'd be included in a conversation between gods...
"...Is your body all right?"
"Huh? Yes? Uh... yes, I'm fine."
The one who broke the heavy silence and spoke... no, the goddess was Lady Hera.
Her voice was blunt, but I could sense the faint concern hidden within it, and I answered properly despite my confusion.
This goddess... I'd thought so last time too, but she seems to take a strange interest in me. I couldn't think of any reason why, which made it feel a little burdensome.
If I had to guess, maybe it was because I'd nearly been Apollo'd by Grandpa? Was she taking pity on me as a victim or something?
"...And then you go around beating up some random person."
"No, I'm the one who's wronged here. How was I supposed to know that bastard would do that?"
"And you call that an excuse...!"
Bang. Hera slammed the desk and frowned.
Th-this is scary... Even among everyone I'd met so far, her presence was overwhelmingly terrifying, and I found myself shrinking back without meaning to.
Seeing that, Hera coughed lightly, trying to change the mood, but there was no way that would actually work.
In the end, the heavy silence settled again. Unable to bear it any longer, Vesta opened his mouth and asked the question on his mind.
"Um... so why did you two end up fighting?"
"...It was nothing."
...Nothing, and you fought on that scale?
For a moment I thought it was absurd, but if I thought about it, she really was the kind of goddess who could do that. Maybe it would be stranger if there had been a reason.
"You, did you just think something rude?"
"Ahem... Anyway, I'm glad it ended without any deaths. There's an expedition coming up soon, so if people get injured over something like this, that'd be a huge problem."
"If you mean a major injury, there's already been one."
"Huh?"
There had? I hadn't heard about anyone like that.
"You, of course. What do you mean you're fine after being unconscious for a full day?"
"...How do you know that, Lady Hera?"
"...A god's intuition."
A god's intuition. Well, if it was a god's intuition, there was nothing to be done.
Hearing that, I realized all my gear had disappeared. Without my robe, there was no way to evade a god's intuition.
It felt a little strange, but Lady Hera had no reason to lie, so... yes, there was no reason to doubt it.
"Ahem. Are you really all right? Even if your body is fine, something like that must have been a considerable mental shock."
"Ah, I'm fine. I'm used to it."
Getting beaten to the brink of death, or getting beaten until I really died, was something I'd gotten more than used to. At this point, mental shock from something like this—
"What?"
""Hiiiii?!""
I felt it. It hit me hard just now.
Lady Hera's expression right now was more shocking than Maxim's magic by twenty times!
Lady Hera glared at Grandpa. Grandpa shook his head at lightning speed.
"I-it wasn't Zeus-sama who did it."
"...I wasn't really paying attention."
Hera muttered irritably and stood up from her seat.
Was she already done here? It didn't seem like they'd even talked that much.
"Zeus. You know what I'm trying to say, don't you?"
"Of course! Naturally!"
Just from a glance, Grandpa was sweating cold sweat all over and nodding over and over like a broken doll.
For Grandpa to be this terrified... she really was a frightening woman.
Hera was about to open the door and leave, but then she seemed to remember something and turned back to look at me.
"Come to think of it, you seem to live in that underground place. Do you not have anywhere else to go?"
"Uh... yes, unfortunately."
"Then how about living in our Familia?"
"Eh?!"
"What?! How enviable—?!"
Grandpa was sent flying by Hera's dropkick. Even while watching that, I was too shocked by what Hera had said to do anything.
"I heard Lady Hera's Familia doesn't allow men...?"
"That's right."
"Hey, does nobody care about me?!"
"But if I were to live there... wouldn't that be a problem?"
"No problem. There's a way."
"A way...?"
"Um~? Could someone pay attention to me...?"
Some kind of noise kept coming from somewhere, but there was no one around who paid it any mind.
Zeus, looking dejected, went to a corner and crouched down.
"What kind of way is that?"
I wasn't actually saying I wanted to go live in Hera Familia. The thought of living in a Familia full of women was uncomfortable just imagining it.
I was only asking because I was curious about this so-called way.
At my question, Lady Hera wore a confident expression and said,
"Simple. If men aren't allowed, then you just stop being a man."
"Huh?"
"Get castrated."
""Kyaaaah?!""
Overwhelmed by terror, I stumbled backward without meaning to.
No, what had I just heard?
"L-Lady Hera... do you perhaps have some complaint against me...?"
"Hera... isn't that a little too harsh? Wouldn't it be better to just kill him...?"
"I'm joking."
""...""
Was she really? It felt like there had been a little sincerity in there.
"Still, if you think about it, cross-dressing might not be a bad idea. I doubt anyone would notice."
"Oh, that's good. If it's something like that, I'd gladly agree... no, wait."
"Hmm?"
"Hey, in that case, how about living here instead?"
"What?"
"Huh?"
Grandpa, who had been thinking about something, suddenly made that offer. No, was he trying to intercept this?
As expected, Hera's expression soured. But surprisingly, it only stopped at being a little displeased.
What was this? Given Hera's personality, I thought she might flip the table. Was there some kind of unspoken rule among gods?
"Well, it's originally your right, so just bringing it up is..."
"And cross-dress! Become a delicate little otokonoko in my dreary Familia!"
"..."
At that moment, I understood why Grandpa so often found himself on the verge of being sent back.
Was that really something you had to say out loud?
Well, anyway, it seemed like they'd misunderstood something, so I should clear things up for both of them.
"I'm sorry, but I'll politely decline both of your offers."
"Why? I'm not making the offer out of some filthy desire like this old man."
"Yeah, once you try it, you won't be able to stop."
Grandpa said it like he was selling some suspicious drug.
What kind of life had Grandpa been living?
"Are you perhaps not confident? Then don't worry. I, Zeus, guarantee that if you just cross-dress..."
"Every time I cross-dress, men start flocking to me and it's a pain."
"Ah, I see..."