Avrora Florestina stared at the girl in front of her—Hestia—with a puzzled expression.
"Enkei…? What's this 'Falna' thing she's talking about?"
She didn't really understand, but then—
She sniffed the air.
Once.
Twice.
Her eyes widened.
Drool immediately slipped from the corner of her mouth.
"Th-This is… super delicious blood!"
The next instant, Avrora lunged forward, clearly intending to pin Hestia down and take a bite.
Izumi reacted instantly and grabbed her by the collar, stopping her mid-pounce.
"Idiot," he said flatly.
"She's a god. Do you want to stuff yourself until you explode?"
"You just drank my blood, and now you're going after a god's blood?"
"Are you trying to go pop on the spot?"
Looking at Avrora's blatantly greedy expression, Izumi felt a headache coming on.
He knew exactly how strong Hestia's attraction was to her.
After all—
Hestia was a virgin goddess.
And Avrora had an almost instinctual obsession with virgin blood.
Not to mention, this wasn't just a virgin—it was a god who embodied virginity itself.
Hestia, meanwhile, was completely stunned.
She stared blankly at Avrora, who was being held in midair by Izumi, her brain struggling to process what was happening.
"…Eh?"
Ophis tilted her head slightly and glanced at Hestia once, but quickly lost interest.
She quietly went to sit with Tina and the others instead.
Seeing Hestia's utterly confused face, Enju Aihara couldn't help but comment.
"Well, Avrora-chan is a vampire," Enju said casually.
"Wanting to suck blood is pretty normal, right?"
"Hestia-onee-san, isn't this basically sending a lamb into a tiger's den?"
Hestia froze.
"…Huh?"
"V-Vampire?"
"Seriously?!"
Her eyes widened.
"There's even a vampire this time?!"
She looked at Avrora again, disbelief written all over her face.
She really hadn't expected this cute-looking girl to be a vampire.
After being stopped by Izumi—and especially after hearing that Hestia was a god—Avrora finally came to her senses.
She frowned slightly.
"…Stupid god."
"Tch."
All interest vanished instantly.
Vampires had a natural aversion to gods.
Hestia, upon being so blatantly rejected, felt oddly depressed.
"…What did I even do?"
Izumi then briefly introduced Avrora Florestina and Ophis to Hestia.
When Hestia learned of their true identities, her jaw practically dropped.
"W-Wait—this child is a dragon?!"
"That's amazing!"
She couldn't help but stare at Ophis again in awe.
In this world, dragons were symbols of calamity.
Especially with the One-Eyed Black Dragon—the monster that had annihilated both the Zeus Familia and the Hera Familia—still looming in legend.
To think that such a quiet, adorable child was actually a dragon…
Ophis herself didn't care in the slightest.
She had no interest in gods, vampires, or explanations.
Where Izumi went, she went.
That was all that mattered.
After learning who they really were, Hestia immediately abandoned the idea of giving them her Falna.
It wasn't that she didn't want to.
She simply couldn't.
Even if she drained herself dry, she wouldn't be able to carve even a single Falna onto either of them.
After Ophis and Avrora were brought out into the open, Izumi began taking them around daily.
Sometimes they stayed in the shop, helping collect materials.
Other times, he took them out for a stroll through Orario.
This, naturally, attracted a lot of strange looks.
Before long, a rumor spread through the city:
"That high-class weapon shop owner is a hardcore lolicon."
There was really no helping it.
Every so often, Izumi would bring out a few more girls and have Enju and the others take them into the Dungeon to get accustomed to things.
Once those girls settled in, he'd bring out even more.
Slowly but surely—
The number of girls in Izumi's shop kept increasing.
Eventually, he even purchased a large residential base through the Guild, housing all of them together.
An entire Familia made up of girls.
At that point, the lolicon label was practically carved in stone.
That said—
No one dared look down on them.
The upper floors of the Dungeon—up to the teens—were almost entirely monopolized by these girls.
And even on deeper floors, their figures could occasionally be seen.
Orario was starting to feel like it was being occupied by lolis.
Cute girls were everywhere.
It wasn't that no one ever tried to mess with them.
But those who did—
Disappeared in the Dungeon the very next day.
No mystery there.
Izumi made sure of it.
There were even underground rumors claiming that Izumi was so monstrously strong that when he entered the Dungeon before, he had angered it—
causing that massive Monster Rex rampage.
In a very short time, the so-called Lolicon Familia had risen to prominence.
Mostly because there were simply too many girls.
Meanwhile, Hestia, the loli goddess herself, also became famous within the Dungeon.
After all, every Falna used by those girls came from her.
Even if she was treated like a tool goddess, plenty of other poor gods were still extremely jealous.
Following Izumi meant—
Weapons? No shortage.
Money? Even less so.
Just the daily revenue from Izumi's shop was enough to make countless Familias grind their teeth in envy.
Not to mention—
Izumi was on very good terms with the Loki Familia.
Normally, given Loki and Hestia's relationship, their Familias should've been at odds.
But ever since Loki obtained a divine artifact, she'd become far more confident—and far less hostile toward Hestia.
Before, her irritation mostly came from Hestia being small but absurdly stacked.
Now?
"Who's afraid of who?"
With an artifact in hand, Loki was overflowing with confidence.
Because of this—
Even though many people were jealous of Izumi and Hestia's Familia, no one dared make a move.
Not even shady adventurers involved in theft or underhanded business dared target Izumi.
After all—
The Soma Familia had tried something once.
Their captain's ashes were probably still scattered somewhere in the Dungeon.
By now, an unspoken rule had formed among Orario's adventurers:
You want to mess with Izumi?
Fine.
Then don't enter the Dungeon—and don't leave Orario.
Because the moment you do—
You're dead.
Better yet—
Don't even walk into deserted areas.
You might vanish without ever knowing why.
Thanks to this almost absurd level of protectiveness, Izumi's influence in Orario grew at an alarming speed.
Despite that, he was actually very easy to deal with.
As long as you didn't endanger his girls, he was more than happy to trade.
Everyone in Orario knew this—
But people who had just returned from outside the city didn't.
For example—
Apollo, the god of the sun.
Today, he finally returned to Orario.
And almost immediately, he heard about a famous weapon merchant—
one surrounded by countless girls.
Apollo's eyes lit up.
The timing matched.
Perfectly.
The moment Izumi arrived in Orario lined up exactly with the moment Apollo had sensed that strange power—
the one that had made his divinity tremble.
That unknown force…
It must be in that man's hands.
The more Apollo thought about it, the more convinced he became.
Still, he needed confirmation.
And so—
Apollo went straight to one of Orario's ruling powers.
The Freya Familia.
He intended to gather detailed information about Izumi—
the man who might hold the key to bypassing the gods' restrictions on the Lower World.