Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
I looked at Naaza, who was sitting next to me, and looked into her eyes. Naaza looked at me, confused, and I took advantage of the crossing of our eyes to slightly get inside her mind.
"Hit my arm to stop me at any time." I transmitted the message mentally through Occlumency. Naaza opened her eyes and stared at me. I just smiled at her for a few moments before looking at Loki's group.
"I remember you," Ais said suddenly as she looked at Bell, who blushed. "You're the guy from the incident," she said neutrally.
"Y-yes! I-it's me! " Bell squealed before bowing deeply, only to slam the table. He barely flinched, not even raising his head. "T-th-thank you f-for saving me!" Bell shouted loudly.
"...it was nothing," Ais said calmly. Then they fell silent. Bell raised his head, completely blushing and with a dumb look on his face as he looked at Ais.
"I see…" Finn said, looking at both of us. "I suppose Bete is to blame for speaking ill of your… friend, but please, remove the curse." Finn asked calmly, but it sounded almost like an order. I smiled mockingly.
"Oh, a curse you say? I didn't cast one." I said amusedly, after all, Oscausi was just a Hex, not a curse by my definition, I could see Loki frown as she grasped the truth of my words before it vanished when she looked at me. Her eyes widened slightly.
"Loki… I don't appreciate your child accusing my new daughter of something she didn't do." Miach said with a frown, having also noticed my words. Loki just smiled as she approached the table, sat down at the table with a rather fluid movement, and stared at me.
" Ma, ma, ma, Miach, we are not accusing you of anything, especially not a woman as beautiful as her." Loki said, sounding suggestive as she looked at me directly. "Tell me... You don't want to come to my family, a thing as beautiful as you... I will make sure you are treated well." Loki purred as she smiled gallantly, her hand trying to grab my hair.
Tried was the right word; I slapped her with the back of mine, before she touched me. I looked at Loki in disgust.
"How disgusting." I spat out in complete disgust. I could hear Naaza's stifled snort as Loki froze completely.
" Haaaa … I'm so sorry for our goddess." Finn sighed as he dragged Loki off the table.
"Wait! No! Let me go, Finn! What do you mean? How disgusting!? I'm a goddess, you know! I can give you anything you want! You're as beautiful as my Ais-chan! You have to come to my side! " Loki tried to say pleadingly while looking at me, almost incredulously. I blinked, looking her up and down for a few seconds.
"I've seen better." I snorted dryly. Loki froze. I could almost mentally see an arrow passing through her body.
"Goddess, for the love of- stop sexually harassing the other adventurers," Finn chided before sighing and looking at me. "Forgive the interruption, and please excuse our goddess's behavior. We know our goddess's... attempt at flirting can be awkward." Finn said with a crooked smile.
"Try!? Try, Finn?! I'll have you know I'm great at flirting! A marvel! " Loki said incredulously. I scoffed.
"Please, that was terrible, and my wife is mean." I snorted dryly. Yes, Sera could be many things, but flirting wasn't one of her strong suits.
"Hey, no wa- wait, did you say wife?! Like a woman?! " Loki asked as she approached incredulously, almost pressing her face to mine.
"Yes, that's what a wife is," I said dryly. Loki's eyes widened even further.
"You have a wife!? What, are you two married women?! In a relationship with each other?! " Loki asked excitedly. I raised an eyebrow at the Loki family, who sighed tiredly.
"Any problems?" I asked calmly.
"A problem?! No! None!! In fact, excellent news! Where are you from!? Ais, we have to go visit! We could get married while we were at it! " Loki said happily as she smiled excitedly at Ais.
"No thanks," Ais said boredly.
" Gah !" Loki groaned in pain as she took a step back. " Then -"
"No." Riveria intervened before Loki could finish.
" Gah !" Loki moaned again. "Finn! Ais and Riveria are mean to me! They don't want to marry me! I want a harem of cute girls! " Loki cried, Finn sighed.
"Even if women can marry, I don't think multiple marriages are possible," Finn replied, not even comforting his goddess.
"My wife has four wives, including me." I said simply. Loki froze stiffly, slowly turning towards me before taking a few steps back and dramatically falling backward as she began to cry.
"It had to be me! Not just any mortal! " Loki cried, literally weeping a sea of tears. The Loki family looked at their goddess with a grimace of disgust and exhaustion.
"Can we please get back to the topic at hand?" Finn asked calmly, trying to ignore his goddess's sobs. I stared at him and shrugged.
"I already told you I didn't cast any curses." I said calmly.
"Even so, someone cursed Bete, and Riveria said it was you. Riveria is never wrong." Finn said firmly. I smiled sarcastically.
"Wow... are you saying that I... a level 1 adventurer, with a Falna I acquired a few hours ago, was able to cast a curse that affected a level 5 adventurer?" I asked playfully.
"Yes." Riveria said without hesitation. Wow, that girl had confidence. I was about to speak when the werewolf approached, grabbed me by my clothes, and tried to lift me up while I screamed furiously. A surge of fury ran through my body. How dare he touch me?!
"Don't touch me, you filthy mongrel!" I growled violently as I threw a Petrificus Totalus at him. The werewolf, had his arms and legs tied to his body as he froze. I snorted in his direction and waved my hand; the werewolf flew away.
"Bete!" exclaimed several people.
"No fighting in here!" Mia Grand growled from the kitchen. I could see the Loki family getting on guard, and I snorted as I cleaned and arranged my clothes.
"What? Are you going to attack me just for defending myself? " I asked as I narrowed my eyes at him. I could feel an itch in my hand as I slowly pulled Kazikli Bey into existence.
"No, you're right, put your weapons down," Finn interrupted, frowning as he looked at the werewolf. "Even so... no matter how correct your reaction was, I can't allow you to call Bete that way or use your... magic against him," Finn said seriously. I rolled my eyes.
"Then keep your werewolf-halfblood-thing's leash tight, pallum; no one's allowed to touch me," I said mockingly. I grimaced. At least I got the word half-blood out, not mudblood. It really wasn't something I felt like explaining.
And maybe it was better not to tell Sera... or yes, she still hated werewolves except Enid.
"Are you an elf?" Riveria asked curiously as she looked at me, specifically at my ears. "The magic you used… it didn't come from your Falna," Riveria said simply.
"And it's not like it's any of your business, right? " I asked mockingly. Riveria just looked at me before looking at my ears once more, and then her eyes went to my rings; she nodded slowly.
"I can feel the magic in your rings… magical items? Capable of hiding your ears?" Riveria asked, and I rolled my eyes. Okay, admittedly, she was more perceptive than I gave her credit for. She didn't have as many rings as Sera—no one could have. The number of rings she wore was constantly changing, ranging from 5 to 10, depending on her mood.
Then there were the bracelets and bangles on her wrists… or on her arms; she even wore some on her ankles. And then there were her piercings. Really, Sera liked her jewelry,, no matter what she said.
She'd already crossed a certain threshold months ago, where she had stored attributes worth hundreds of stacks. She didn't need that much metal on her body, yet she continued to use it. And then she wondered why everyone in the Underworld thought she loved metals.
On the other hand, I only had four rings that were capable of enhancing physical attributes when I needed them. If I ever needed a special one, I could always pull out one of the many jewelry pieces Sera keeps in Pocket Space.
"Irrelevant," I said simply. Riveria looked at me for a few seconds before nodding and returning to the topic at hand.
"I apologize then for my partner's abruptness, but even so, I still have to ask you to break the curse—the curses you've placed on him." Riveria said firmly, and I snorted.
"Once again, I didn't place any curses, well, didn't place the first curse, you can ask our gods if what I say is true or not. I didn't cast the first curse." I said slowly, looking at Miach and Loki.
"She's telling the truth," Miach said without hesitation. Loki clicked her tongue.
"She's saying it," Loki said reluctantly. Riveria blinked slightly in surprise, as if being wrong wasn't an option.
"See… I didn't cast any curses," I repeated playfully. "Besides… if I were you, I'd thank whoever did," I said mockingly.
"Our partner was cursed… and you want us to thank him?" Finn asked with a frown, and I laughed in amusement.
"Well, I mean, that werewolf-thing is saying some very insensitive things," I said amusedly, resting my chin on my hand. The entire Loki family looked terribly confused, as did all the other diners watching the show. I only smiled wider. "After all, he was practically laughing at how you planned a murder."
"What?" Finn asked stupidly, not understanding. Everyone else seemed equally shocked.
"Yeah, I mean... come on, I just became an adventurer today, but even I know that minotaurs appear on floors 15 through 17, and you're saying that one of them made it to the 5th floor with all the Loki Family executives following him?" I asked sarcastically. "Something smells really fishy," I said playfully.
"It was an accident, a very unfortunate one," Finn said tensely, and I raised an eyebrow.
"An accident, you say… is that really it?" I asked playfully.
"What else could it be? A group of Minotaurs ambushed us; several of them escaped to the upper floors, and we were too exhausted after returning from the deep floors." Finn said with a frown.
"So you're telling me... that the executives, and the top executives of the Loki Familia, couldn't catch minotaurs... for 10 floors?" I asked slowly. The Loki Familia froze. I smiled. "So... it's not murder, but... incompetence? Or were you really that tired that level 2 monsters were a problem for you?" I asked playfully.
"It's not that," Finn said immediately as he clenched his fists.
"Then it's murder." I said simply.
"Stop twisting my words." Finn said, frustrated, and I laughed lightly.
"But I'm not doing anything. I'm just trying to... understand. It's one or the other. Because it's a coincidence... too good to be just a 'mistake'." I said playfully. "After all... the boy who was almost killed is Hestia's child." I said with a wolfish grin. I could see everyone in the tavern freeze.
"Hestia's… child?" Finn asked slowly as he looked at Bell, who was slightly flushed and pale at the same time, a truly incredible feat.
"Oh yeah, I've heard a lot about the great rivalry and bitter hatred between Loki and Hestia, but I never thought Loki would try to kill Hestia's first and only son... how scary." I said playfully.
"I would never try to kill the son of those fat tits," Loki growled, interrupting. "Besides, Hestia's son joined two weeks ago! They were still inside the dungeon when it happened! " Loki shouted, and I laughed condescendingly.
"Please, you could have sent any of your remaining children to wait for them on the lower floors." I dismissed her claim. "There are too many coincidences. By chance, you faced a group of minotaurs. By chance, you were so tired that some of them ran away, and while I can understand that, by chance, one of them ran and escaped from you for over 10 floors without any trouble."
"And by chance... It just happened to try to kill Hestia's only son. There are only so many coincidences that can happen one after another until it becomes something planned." I said, amusedly. The entire tavern fell into a deathly silence. All the diners began to look at the Loki family with suspicious glances.
"Yeah, they were coincidences! Besides, Ais saved him in the end! If she wanted him dead, why would Ais save him!? " Loki asked furiously while glaring at me. I shrugged.
"Oh, and how would I know the designs of a goddess... the trickster goddess? Perhaps you wanted Hestia's son to feel indebted to the Loki family? You wanted to control Hestia somehow? How would I know? I'm not a goddess," I said nonchalantly.
"That didn't happen!" Loki exclaimed furiously.
"So we're back to where we were before… if it's not attempted murder, it can only be incompetence, right? " I asked simply. Loki was about to scream, but Finn intervened.
"You're right, it was our incompetence that almost got your friend killed. I'm sorry. We'll make sure it doesn't happen again." Finn said, bowing. Well, well... I had to admit, he was good at staying calm and bowing.
It was better to humiliate themselves than to pursue the murder charge, at least if they wanted to maintain people's approval. I just laughed lightly.
"Well, excuse me if I don't believe you...I mean, they have a history." I said, amusedly, Loki glared at me.
"What do you mean?" Loki growled, and I scoffed.
"I mean, I even heard the rumors that while you were in Tenkai, you were killing other gods for fun, and also, you took the opportunity when the Zeus and Hera family were at their lowest to kick them out of the city… even far away from here, I heard the stories… the Zeus and Hera family bravely faced the Black Dragon to protect you all."
"And when they failed and all of their core members died, you immediately took the opportunity to expel the rest of them from Orario, like a plague... who's to say you wouldn't do the same to other families," I said with a sneer. Loki gritted her teeth.
"We had to maintain order in the city," Loki growled furiously, and I snorted contemptuously.
"Order in the city? How curious that it would benefit your family the most, right? Look... another coincidence!" I said with fake surprise and a huge, shit-eating grin, then tilted my head slightly. "Besides... since when do the gods care about the order, stability, and well-being of the city? I thought we were just entertainment."
Loki glared at me, and I just smiled widely.
"Enough, this isn't getting us anywhere," Finn said, interrupting everything before it got any further out of hand. I just shrugged. "Please undo Bete's curses, and we'll leave peacefully," Finn said firmly.
"What curses?" I asked playfully, looking at Bete. Finn gritted his teeth and was about to speak again when Riveria's gasp stopped him.
"What?... When? How? " Riveria asked completely incredulously as she looked at Bete, a Bete with a regular mouth and not petrified, just very unconscious. Riveria turned to look at me incredulously. I smirked as I stood up and mocked them.
"So, the problem seems to be solved." I said innocently with a smile. I then looked at Miach and Naaza. "Miach-sama, Naaza, are we leaving?" I asked with a smile while discreetly winking at both of them. Miach nodded and glared at Loki and her family.
"I hope they don't accuse my family of anything else," Miach snorted as he pulled out a small bag of coins and dropped it on the table. "Bell-kun, say hi to Hestia for me. Tell her to stop by the pharmacy when she gets a chance," Miach said more kindly in Bell's direction.
Bell still didn't seem to understand what was happening, but nodded awkwardly.
The three of us stood up and started walking without anyone stopping us. We didn't stop or even speak along the way until we reached the pharmacy. Miach closed the door, and Naaza finally broke down.
She started laughing out loud. Miach immediately followed her, but he only let out a few minor chuckles.
"Oh gods! Did you see their faces!? I'm so glad I was able to witness that! " Naaza exclaimed in joy.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you." I said playfully as I bowed slightly.
"I admit it was fun, but I still have to ask... how real was that... assassination attempt on Bell?" Miach asked seriously, and I snorted.
"Oh, that was completely false," I said simply. Miach looked surprised.
"Fake?" Miach asked in surprise, and I just smiled at him with a shit-eating smile.
"I'm sure you noticed. It was all a big coincidence, but hey, it worked in my favor." I said simply. Naaza burst out laughing while Miach shook his head with a small smile, but calmer.
"I didn't know you hated the Loki family." Miach said, I snorted.
"Hate them? Of course not, I don't even know them." I snorted dryly. "Like I said, I came to experience the Dungeon, I'm in Orario to have fun… If I can have fun outside the dungeon, why wouldn't I enjoy it?" I asked, amusedly. Naaza snorted amusedly.
"Only you would believe that insulting, humiliating, and angering one of the most powerful families is fun," Naaza said dryly, and I shrugged in amusement.
"Of course, the risk is what makes it fun." I said, my eyes shining with excitement.
"Speaking of risk, be careful when you go down to the dungeon… the Loki family is very proud, I'm sure the executives won't try anything, but the minor members will possibly attack you inside the dungeon." Miach warned seriously, and I nodded.
"Don't worry, I can take care of myself," I said simply. Miach nodded, but still looked worried. "Even so... I really thought you'd be upset about what I just did," I said honestly in Miach's direction, who blushed and shyly scratched his cheek. Naaza snorted.
"We're both upset with the Loki Familia. They dissolved the contracts they had with us in favor of Dian Cecht," Naaza said, crossing her arms. "It's a pleasure for both of us to watch them squirm," Naaza said with a predatory smile. Miach just smiled shyly.
"I'm glad to provide such entertainment then." I said, amusedly, Naaza snorted with a smile.
"So… 4 wives? And you're an elf? " Naaza asked playfully. I rolled my eyes while shaking my head.
"Now, do you want some dessert? I think my wife has some here somewhere," I said calmly.
Well, I guess I could mess with the Loki family even more. Today was a good first day.
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Riveria Ljos Alf Pov.
"You've been very quiet," Finn said as we walked toward the mansion. "Are you thinking about that woman?" Finn asked, perceptive as always. I nodded.
"Yes… the elf." I said simply.
"An elf? Are you sure? It really doesn't look anything like one," Tione said as she lazily approached.
"I'm sure… she hates being touched and even despises Bete for his race, calling him 'Mongrel', her whole body was covered by thick clothing for colder climates when it wasn't necessary, her face was the only thing visible, and… her magic, I could feel a lot of magic from her, it all matches." I said without hesitation.
"So we're facing an unknown elf? Why is she hiding? " Tiona asked, confused.
"Dark elf," I said immediately. "Her magic is different from that of the forest elves. Even if she denied it and deceived the gods in some way, her magic… was curses. I could sense something unholy in her magic." I said with a grimace.
"Are you sure? I mean… don't all dark elves have brown or dark skin? " Tione asked, confused. I wrinkled my nose as I shook my head.
"Not necessarily, but... It's also possible that she's hiding it with her rings; she never denied it in front of the gods, there was something she wanted to hide," I said immediately, although I hesitated for a few seconds later. "She's possibly a High Dark Elf," I said uncertainly.
"Royalty?" Tiona asked in surprise. I wrinkled my nose.
"Or from a noble family." I said immediately. "She has a sharp tongue, she twisted the whole event in her favor with just her words, she made us look bad, and everyone else seemed to believe HER version, the only reason she didn't escalate further is because she decided to stop halfway." I said simply.
"She got bored." Finn said, immediately noticing. I nodded, and Finn sighed. "Human, elf, dark elf, or even a royal, it doesn't matter her identity; she is dangerous."
"The important thing is that we stay away from her until the rumors that will surely start soon calm down, and also from Hestia's son, or she could make them worse. And for the love of the gods, we must control the other members so they don't do anything stupid." Finn sighed. I just nodded.
"That would be best, especially to keep the mages away from her." I said without hesitation. The others looked confused, but I just sighed. "Her curse instantly left Bete's mouthless. No mouth, no chanting, no chant, no magic, and she was able to use it so casually... she's dangerous. She's a natural mage killer." I said without hesitation.
The others looked alarmed and seemed to panic, but I ignored it, my thoughts turning to the dark elf once again.
She… seemed more entertained than anything else; she was having fun with us, after living so long with Loki, I could understand that attitude well. I couldn't sense malice in her actions at any time, not even in her magic.
The only time I felt genuine irritation and annoyance was when Bete touched her, which was understandable if she were an elf; everything else... We were simply entertainment for her.
Also, that way of using magic without chanting, with just a single movement. How... curious... maybe I'll have to experience it up close when I have the chance.