The beauty of a goddess, he figured, must look something like this.
That was Leo's first impression the moment he laid eyes on the sword maiden.
Waist-length golden hair flowed naturally down a slender, graceful back. She wore light pale-blue gear, her frame fine and delicate, her skin pale and smooth. Her features were too perfect to belong to this world, flawless as a work of art. And then there were those eyes, the same gold as her hair, with a quiet translucent light behind them.
It was the kind of beauty that drew countless men in, and made even women lose their footing.
She didn't lose to any fairy on looks alone, and she wouldn't lose to even a so-called perfect goddess. There was a mysterious air around her too, adding who knows how much more charm on top. Even Leo, who'd long since gotten used to that face, still found his eyes pulled to her now and then.
"...Leo?"
Ais looked back at him. When she saw he was just staring at her without saying anything, she spoke up softly.
The voice was the same as it had been a year ago. Flat, lacking emotion, lacking the rise and fall of normal speech, and yet beautiful as music from heaven.
"Morning, Ais."
Leo came back to himself and smiled as he greeted her.
Ais Wallenstein. That was the girl's name, and there wasn't a soul in the Labyrinth City of Orario who didn't know it.
She was hailed as the strongest female swordsman in the city. At only sixteen, she was already a household-name first-class adventurer, one of the fewer than forty Lv.5s in the entire city, and a genuine executive of Loki Familia, a pillar of the Familia.
A year ago, this girl was the one who brought Leo back from the Dungeon and recommended him to join Loki Familia.
Leo was deeply grateful for that.
"...Morning."
The golden-haired girl kept her eyes fixed on Leo, her manner cool.
To outsiders, that attitude came off as a little inhuman, too cold, the kind of thing that kept people from getting close.
Only those who knew her well understood she wasn't cold at all. She was a kind girl, actually. Otherwise she wouldn't have brought Leo back under those circumstances without holding any of it against him, giving him, fresh into this world, a place to stay.
She just didn't really know how to express her feelings, so she came across as cold.
Leo, who knew this perfectly well, never took Ais's attitude to heart.
"Up early to practice with the sword again?" Leo walked over, his expression easy. "Hardworking as always."
"Just... a habit." Ais sheathed her sword. Compared to Leo's easy expression, her own delicate face showed almost no change. "It's been like this for years."
"No wonder you're so strong." Leo looked into her golden eyes. "With this much effort, it'd be weirder if you didn't get strong."
At his words, Ais lowered her head.
"...It's not enough."
The girl murmured.
"I'm still not strong enough."
There seemed to be too many untold stories buried in those quiet words, an obsession too heavy to put down, and the air around them shifted a little.
"Heading to the Dungeon today too?"
Leo went quiet for a moment, then changed the subject.
"Probably..."
Ais nodded. Short and to the point.
Even on days like this, with no assignment, no expedition, the girl still trained the way she had for the past ten years, slipping into that monster-filled underground labyrinth when no one was watching, to kill, to swing her sword, to wring every last drop of potential out of herself and turn it into strength she could put to use.
A year ago, the reason Leo had been able to run into her on Floor 18 of the Dungeon was thanks to this habit of hers.
Even with so many people worried about her, afraid she'd push too hard down there and get into danger, the girl wouldn't budge on this one thing.
So Leo didn't try to talk her out of it either.
"Come back early."
Leo just smiled and told her that much.
"...Okay."
Ais looked at the smiling boy and nodded.
It wasn't a polite formality.
Once she agreed, she would remember, and she would do it.
Somehow, Leo just knew.
Maybe because, every time it came to this moment, he'd say the same thing, and the girl would respond in that offhand way of hers, and then she'd quietly come back earlier than usual without a word, putting him at ease.
"You're receiving it today, aren't you?"
Ais's translucent eyes brightened slightly, like she'd just remembered something important.
"The Falna."
So she had been paying attention to Leo's business after all.
Leo hadn't told Ais about it, and yet she already knew.
"I was just about to head up to the God's Chamber."
Leo's mood lifted, and he smiled as he answered.
"Congratulations." Ais said it seriously. "You can officially join now."
"Yeah." Leo opened his mouth, wanting to say something thankful, but seeing how serious her face was, he swallowed the words and smiled instead. "Once I get a little stronger, you'll teach me the sword, right?"
Ais was silent for a while, then nodded.
"...Yeah."
No fuss about it, short and to the point as always.
Leo waved at her, turned, and walked into the Central Tower.
......
The top floor of the Central Tower, the God's Chamber.
This was the personal room of Loki Familia's goddess, and the highest point in all of Twilight Manor.
Climbing the spiral staircase set inside the tower, Leo finally made it up here, stopped in front of the room, and knocked.
The first time he knocked, there was no response from inside. Just dead silence.
Leo was patient. He knocked several more times, waited a long while, and finally heard a listless voice.
"Come in..."
Only then did Leo push the door open and step inside.
A room stuffed with all kinds of random junk sprawled out in front of him.
It wasn't a huge room, but it was a mess. One look and you could tell it hadn't been tidied in ages.
Leo's eyes skimmed across the room. He saw an expensive-looking feather pen tossed carelessly on the desk, white crystals shot through with faint rainbow colors left lying around, old-looking shoes and hats hung on the walls, and the bed piled with thick books and short swords. No order to any of it.
The thing the room had most of was the alcohol stashed in every corner. Bottles of every color and shape sat in every nook, some of them already half-drunk.
One such bottle was being cradled by the figure slumped beside the bed, giving off a thick smell of liquor.
"I figured it'd be you, kid. You're up nice and early..."
The figure with the bottle spoke listlessly toward Leo as he came in.
She was a strange one.
Her hair was a vermillion red that made you think of dusk. Her eyes were squinted so thin you almost couldn't see them. She wore a white shirt and trousers like some salaryman, and she talked with a Kansai accent. Anyone who didn't know better would mistake her for some scruffy uncle.
And yet, despite the slovenly getup, her features were impossibly fine. Even sprawled there like a discarded ragdoll, there was something otherworldly about her, like the person in front of you wasn't really here, but existed in some other dimension.
That was only natural.
Because the being in front of him was one of those gods who'd grown bored of life in Heaven, had descended to the lower world chasing entertainment, and did whatever they wanted.
She was something else entirely from Humans, Demi-Humans, and monsters alike, a transcendent being from another dimension, the noblest, most perfect, most powerful life in this world.
She was the goddess of this Familia, the one who had forged the contract with Ais and the others. Loki.
Looking at this transcendent being, Leo could never quite connect her with the gods from legend.
"You really did drink yourself stupid last night, didn't you?"
Leo, who used polite speech even with Raul, his senior in the Familia, somehow always forgot to be respectful in front of the Familia's goddess.
"It wasn't that bad."
Loki didn't seem to care in the slightest. She got up unsteadily, and made a little pinching gesture with her fingers at Leo.
"Just a sip, you know. Just a little bit."
That grinning, shameless look pulled her even further from the idea of a "god."
Lucky for her, Leo was used to it by now.
"If Miss Riveria finds out, she's probably gonna lecture you again."
Leo just let that out, and Loki's brow shot up.
"You're not actually gonna rat me out, are ya?" Loki said warily. "Listen kid, I've been good to you. If you bite the hand that feeds you, I'll curse you, you hear?"
What kind of god curses someone over getting ratted out?
Oh, right. The gods of this world. Never mind.
After all, no one knew better than Leo just how free-spirited the gods here were, how bored, and how casually they did whatever they pleased.
"Hm? Were you just badmouthing the gods in that head of yours?"
The thought had barely formed in Leo's head when Loki leaned in with her eyes narrowed, making the corner of his eye twitch in a way he hoped she couldn't see.
The gods of this world were famously sharp. Mortals couldn't even lie in front of them. Who was he supposed to complain to about that?
"The captain told me you've already approved me joining the Familia officially."
He went straight to the point to brush past what had just happened.
"Hmph, yeah, that's the gist of it."
Loki snorted, and seemed to decide to let him off the hook for now, going along with the change of subject.
"It's been a year already, I've been watching you for a good long while, and if I didn't make it official soon, my Ais was gonna start sulking at me, right?"
The moment she said that, Loki herself started sulking instead.
"Where the heck did my Ais even drag a stray man like you back from? She used to only care about getting stronger, you know, and now look. My heart's breaking here."
The more she talked, the more she seemed to actually feel sorry for herself. She grabbed the bottle and took a big swig, looking thoroughly put out.
"So what about me now...?"
Leo knew better than to say much more on this topic. The goddess who doted on Ais would never let him off if he did.
"Take off your top, and sit down in front of me."
Loki glanced at him and spoke in a slow drawl.
Leo had been ready for this. Without a word, he pulled his shirt off, exposing his upper body.
His frame was on the slender side, his skin pale, but not particularly toned. Loki started muttering as she looked at him.
"Sheltered as anything, doesn't look like you've ever done a day of hard work in your life. If I didn't know better I'd say you were some young master out of a noble house. Doesn't look like the kinda guy who'd end up on Floor 18 of the Dungeon at all."
Leo pretended he hadn't heard a word of it and sat down in front of Loki.
Loki settled in behind him. She pulled a needle out of a box at her side, and spoke in that quiet, dreamy tone.
"Well, whatever. Once we've decided to take you in, you're family from here on out."
"I'm not gonna press you on where you came from, or why we can't dig up a thing about your background no matter what we try. We've got plenty of kids around here with stuff they can't talk about. You don't wanna say, I won't ask."
"As long as I know you're not here with some ulterior motive, that you really want to be one of us, that's enough for me."
The god's voice deepened, the way it did when she started to enjoy something unknown, full of amusement.
"Let's see how far you can go from here on out."
As the words trailed off, the needle in Loki's hand pricked her finger, and a drop of fresh blood welled up.
Drip...
The blood of a god fell onto Leo's back, and a ripple spread out across his skin.
Then, one by one, Hieroglyphs surfaced, and together with the image of a jester they etched themselves into his back.
This was the Falna, the one miracle a god of the lower world could perform in this realm.
It awakened the sleeping possibilities inside a mortal, transformed ordinary lives below, and set them step by step on the road toward the extraordinary.
Only by receiving it could a mortal escape their helpless weakness, and gain the power to stand against monsters.
Right now, at this moment, he had finally received it.
Leo felt a small thrill in his chest.
Behind him, though, Loki's eyes opened, just slightly, a glint flashing in them.
Those divine eyes were locked on Leo's back, unreadable.