Three weeks had passed since the dinner with the Astraea Familia.
Quite a lot of time had passed since Gin realized he might harbor feelings for Hel.
That was… unexpected.
Hel was his goddess.
She was an existence that had entered his life out of nowhere and turned it upside down.
She was a weird goddess with a flair for dramatics and complicated words. Interacting with her in front of others usually left him cringing in embarrassment.
…Yet he fell for her anyway.
She had unquestionable trust, bordering on blind faith, in him. Her emotions rarely showed, but when they did, they always managed to make his day.
Kindness wasn't really her defining trait, but he had seen how she treasured mortals—including, no, especially him.
Could anyone blame him for falling for her? Maybe.
But to be honest, did he give a damn about what anyone thought?
It wasn't like he was the only person in the world to fall in love with a deity.
He knew at least one person who had a thing for a certain handsome god.
Heck, if he needed a more extreme example, he had to look no further than the Freya Familia.
That entire familia was basically a Freya-sama reverse/yuri harem!
Anyway… The important thing was that he did have feelings for her.
He wouldn't deny it. But should he act on it?
Romance was entirely alien territory to him. Having a goddess as his first romance target might be too much.
Honestly, did he even have a shot at succeeding here?
He did have a chance, but would it be worth risking his relationship with Hel?
No.
It was not worth it.
He liked being with her right now. Risking it out of nowhere was reckless and dumb. Besides, it might just be a fling for all he knew.
Would he pursue any female just because they made his heart skip a beat a few times?
Of course not. He wasn't a kid. He decided to put his feelings on the back burner.
Some might call him a chickened-out little bitch if they knew, but luckily no one would ever know!
...
Before he knew it, three weeks passed, and he had adapted to a new routine.
He would go adventuring with Raul and Aki every time they were available, spend the weekends taking Hel out to eat, and fill the rest of his free time reading or practicing magic with Riveria.
Here he was now, in another study session with his mentor.
Gin stood at attention while Riveria read the parchment he had handed her.
She hummed and lit the parchment on fire, leaving not a trace of it behind. It was a mere gesture to show that she respected her part of the deal with him.
He knew she could easily remember the notes since they only contained five rows of information.
...
Gin Hvergel
Level 1
Str F 337
End I 66
Dex E 431
Agi H 183
Mag D 580
...
The parchment contained a copy of his status, excluding his magic and skills.
It was something that his fellow familia members—let alone an outsider from a different familia—shouldn't have access to, but he let Riveria know about it as a sign of trust.
"Just a little more and you will reach rank C in Magic. I cannot believe you only began adventuring a month and a half ago. There are people talented in magic, and then there is you, Gin." She shook her head.
"Are you sure you want to stay an archer instead of becoming a full-time mage?"
She was sending him that same jab again.
He was pretty sure she did it fully knowing it would get a rise out of him.
"And miss the title of 'Best Archer Ever'? No thanks." Gin shrugged. "'Best Mage' doesn't sound half as cool."
"You are stubborn in weird places, as usual," she sighed. "At least I know that even with your fixation on the bow, you do not let your talent wither."
"After you put in the effort to mentor me, Teach? If I deliver less than this, the other elves will stone me in my sleep."
Gin was only half-joking. Riveria was a high elf—in other words, elven royalty. All the elves in the world respected her without question.
Even someone like Ryuu.
He knew the elves in the Loki Familia were divided between envying him for his privilege of having Riveria as a mentor and hating his guts for having her spend so much time with him.
"The fact that I grew this much is thanks to your guidance anyway. If anything, this achievement is proof that you are a good teacher."
"I will gladly accept that praise, then," she chuckled. "But take it from me, Gin, you are a good student. You don't complain, but you also don't blindly follow my instructions without knowing the goal. Even compared to others I have taught in the past, you are quite exceptional."
"The fact that your only other student is her doesn't say much about me, you know?" Gin huffed.
"Oh? You are easier to handle compared to her at the start. Even now, she will run off to Finn or Gareth sometimes instead of finishing her studies."
"If I get happy after being compared to a seven-year-old girl, then there is something fundamentally wrong with me, Teach." Gin let out a dry laugh.
"Ais is still young. It's normal for her to be a bit on the naughty side. If she acted more mature than me, then I would jump out of the window in shame."
...
Ais Wallenstein. Level 1. Seven years old. Human.
She might be the youngest member of the Loki Familia, but she certainly wasn't the weakest.
Outside of the time he first met her and a few greetings she ignored, he had never interacted with her. Raul and Aki had told him a lot about her, though.
How she was a relentless monster-killing tempest of fun-sized death, for example.
He had never gone to the dungeon with her, but he knew she always had either Finn, Gareth, or Riveria acting as a chaperone.
By the end of her exploration, she would end up with a mountain of magic stones and monster drops… along with a pile of broken swords.
She fought until her weapons literally shattered.
That was crazy and reckless!
Gin had a suspicion that her chaperones acted more as leashes than guardians.
Honestly, he would be completely okay with never having to interact with her in any way, shape, form, or capacity.
Life, however, said no, and gave him the pint-sized packet of death and suicidal tendencies as his fellow student under Riveria.
Gin silently read the alchemy book in front of him, not even bothering to try to communicate with the fellow student sitting across from him.
Scrape. Tap. Tap.
He heard the scraping of a chair and the tapping of feet.
'Dammit.' Gin swore under his breath.
He finally lifted his head and spoke to her.
"Ais, you know Riveria told us to study here, right? Where are you planning to go?"
She gave him a look that contained a spoonful of annoyance inside a soup of apathy and answered him.
"The dungeon."
Gin sighed. "Yeah, no, nuh-uh. Don't you know there's a big incident outside? Evilus attack? Ring any bells? Teach told us to keep quiet and not leave the mansion until we are sure the situation is safe."
"I am strong. I will be okay."
'For Hel's sake!'
"Ais, exploring the dungeon alone is dangerous. Heading out into the city during an ongoing terrorist attack is even more so."
"I am strong. I will be okay."
"Please pick another excuse for why I should let you out. Other than 'you are strong'."
"I am strong, unlike you."
"Unlike you, I didn't wet my bed three nights ago, but I don't use my superiority over you, do I?"
"…I hate you."
"Yeah, that's fair." Gin sighed.
It couldn't be helped.
He had prepared a plan for this as he reached into his pocket and took out a bonbon.
"Here, I'll share this candy if you promise to stay here, okay?"
"Don't need it."
Left with no choice, he just tossed the sugary treat into his own mouth.
'Damn! This one had vanilla cream in it, nice!'
He should buy some for Hel too, she'd probably like the licorice ones.
Ais stared at him even harder!
The percentage of disdain in her expression somehow rising for no reason.
"…Why did you eat it?"
"You said you didn't want it." He chewed and swallowed another two.
"…I only said I didn't need it," she glared at him. "I never said I didn't want it."
'What a troublesome brat.'
Gin picked up a chocolate bar from a hidden pocket and handed it to her.
"Here, chew well, okay. Make sure to praise Hel before and thank Hel after eating it."
"...Praise Hel." At least she listened to reason.
Gin handed her another gummy from his inner zipper.
"Praise Hel, indeed." Gin picked a pack of bear-shaped gummies from his wallet and sent them down his own throat.
""Thank Hel.""
...
By the time Riveria and the others returned, Ais was already snoring quietly, drooling onto the table.
"Thank god. You are finally here. I almost ran out of snacks," Gin said quietly, pointing at his now-empty pockets.
"If she loses her appetite for dinner, for the record, I tried to tell her that snacking irresponsibly is not something a respectful adventurer would do. I tried to stop her. I swear."
"Hush, Gin. You have my thanks for keeping her safe." Riveria said softly.
"Aye. You've done well, Gin. Thank you for looking after her." Finn quietly thanked him, while Gareth carefully extracted the sleeping munchkin into his massive arms.
"She looks so peaceful in her sleep." Riveria walked up to him, all while staring at Ais's sleeping form.
"Are there other things you did to help her sleep?"
"I read her some stories."
"Oh, which one?" Riveria asked.
Gin showed her the book.
The cover showed a man standing atop a dragon, victoriously holding a sword.
"The Song of the Nibelung? The tale of the dragon slayer, I see," she mused. "A sad story about a dragon-slaying hero who was betrayed for the riches he gained."
"It's okay, I made some creative changes to the story. I told Ais he ended up meeting another dragon slayer and they traveled around as a bard duo."
Riveria gave him a blank look.
"…What? Am I supposed to tell her that the dude gets offed and his wife offs everyone? It's hard to make up a story, okay?" Gin said in defense. "These books are not family-friendly."
He watched as his mentor turned away from him.
He waited for a second before her shoulders trembled and small bursts of laughter escaped the fragile coffin of her fingers.
"Don't laugh, Teach! Do you know how hard it is when Ais asks me to sing one of their songs!? I had to make one up on the spot, dammit!"
"I-I see. May I know? What did you call the song?"
"…Prince of Slayers."
"-Pu!" She turned her back again.
Wow, his entire hard work was repaid with his mentor laughing at him.
This sucked!
...
"Ais seems to have taken a shine to you."
Gin looked at Gareth in confusion, one eyebrow raised in the universal language of 'Are you high?'
The two of them were sitting across from each other in the corner of Hibachitei, a bar located in the Seventh District.
Gareth was the one who had invited him here, telling him it was finally time for the free all-you-can-eat dinner he had promised before.
Having no reason to refuse, Gin eagerly accepted the invitation and departed for the bar with Hel as his plus-one.
Even now, Hel was still silently sipping her root beer beside him.
"I am not joking, Gin. You might be the only person of a similar age that she interacts with willingly." Gareth pointed at him.
"I've noticed the two of you have been chatting more frequently as of late."
Well… that was true.
Following his first actual conversation with her, he had talked with Ais a couple of times afterwards.
"Nah, full disclosure here, I think she just keeps coming to me for my snacks."
It was similar to how puppies, kittens, and ducklings keep bothering people who feed them once.
Ais probably saw him as a vending machine.
"I am just a convenient man to her, you know. Her greeting to me is always something like, 'Gin, candy,' or 'Give me choco.'" Gin gave Gareth his best deadpan Ais impression.
His bemused look told Gin he wasn't taking the statement seriously. "I swear, one of these days she will get kidnapped by the first person who bribes her with sweets. Either that, or she will convert to a Patisserie Familia."
"Hoo, is this the so-called 'big brother blues' I am sensing here?" Gin looked at Gareth in horror, this time channeling his inner Ryuu.
"Big brother my ass. As far as I know, a big brother gets some respect. Ais has no respect for me, like, at all. Ergo: I am not her brother."
"Respect comes second after affection. You show worry for her well-being, and Ais shows that she depends on and accepts you in her own way. That's the important part here." Gareth smiled at him.
"From my view, it is not all that different from a spoiled girl and her attentive older brother."
"…Yeah, right. I am not her brother. If she ever calls me one, I'll lay it all out in the open that she's adopted before it's too late."
"So, you admit that you have adopted her?"
Why was he only taking that part in!?
"Sir Gareth, please look around. There are people listening. Some of them might be on Loki's payroll for all we know." Gin paused for a second, looking around at the other customers, considering the fact that the complete BS he just spouted had a small chance of actually being right.
"You know she'll co-sign my obituary if she thinks I am taking Ais away from her, right? I don't need you putting out ideas about scenarios that are totally untrue, like me accepting Ais as my little sister."
"Is it completely untrue, though?"
"Lalala! Can't hear you! This conversation is over! Over!"
"Geez… Like mentor, like student, huh? Did Riveria rub off on you, or were you always like this from the start?" Gareth sighed. "No matter. Gin, I have a favor for you."
"…Go on."
"Please continue to treat Ais like usual. That girl… she needs more people who will see her as the little girl that she is. People like you."
…When Gareth said it like that, did he even have a choice to refuse?
"…I'll accept it because of the free food, okay? It's not like I care about Ais that much or anything."
"…My champion, you are bad at lying." Hel's words stabbed him right in the back.
'-! Why did you have to speak up now, my goddess!? This was betrayal of the highest degree, dammit!'
Gareth watched the spectacle and laughed good-naturedly. "Hahaha! I see! Then eat up as much as you like! I'll be counting on you in the future, Gin."
...
And so, Gin continued to interact with Ais as usual.
She would come to him, demand a share of snacks she didn't actually own, and leave him behind after exchanging a few words.
On days when he didn't want a little devil taking his snacks away, he would go eat outside.
He didn't know since when, but he had a sinking suspicion that Ais had somehow developed a unique skill to track him and his snacks down!
Even now, he had vacated the Twilight Mansion and gone to his number one hiding spot...
"Oh my, you are here again, Mr. Glutton." Demeter-sama, the goddess of harvest, greeted him lightly. No signs of annoyance could be felt from her cheerful smile.
"Are you running away from home again?"
"That makes it sound like I am some teen with angst, Demeter-sama. Please call it a getaway to get in touch with nature," Gin said as he pulled a carrot out of the dirt, depositing it into the straw basket beside him.
"Besides, I am helping here. See?"
"Mou, I did say that you are welcome on our farm, but how many times will you come to hide from your little sister?"
"For the last time, she's not my little sister," Gin said tiredly, having gone through the exact same conversation a couple of times before.
"She's an ungrateful girl who refused the green pepper I painstakingly harvested and raided my jam rolls when I wasn't looking. That sweet-toothed munchkin is no little sister of mine."
"Sounds like a normal little sister to me," one of the middle-aged farmers piped in.
"Shut up, no one asked you, Hopkins."
"I understand Gin's worry, though. It's hard when children keep eating unbalanced meals, isn't it? My boys are like that too," another farmer sighed.
"Hah! If it was only an unbalanced meal, then it wouldn't be that troublesome. She doesn't eat that much, you know? Ais is practically just skin, bones, and sugar right now," Gin sighed in return.
"She keeps dungeon diving day after day, sometimes she just eats snacks and skips her meals entirely. Her biggest enemies aren't dungeon monsters. It's her lifestyle, I'm telling you."
His remarks were followed by a cacophony of agreement, continued by strings of complaints about the family members of the working farmers.
"Alright everyone, I think it's okay to stop now. It will rain hard soon." Demeter-sama clapped her hands to get the attention of all the workers.
"Please help carry the harvest to the storage! Don't forget to store the farm tools as well, okay?"
Everyone replied in the positive and proceeded to wrap up the harvest.
Gin helped the workers finish up and exchanged goodbyes with the Demeter Familia.
He got himself some fresh vegetables for his hard work!
Not long after he arrived at the Third District, the rain came pouring down as Demeter-sama had predicted.
Gin swore and broke into a run, eager to at least get somewhere to shield himself from the deluge.
And so here he was, squatting down on the roadside under a small awning from some closed cafe.
"Damn… this is some rain." He reckoned it would stay like this for a while.
He sighed and turned his attention away from the sky, deciding to look at the street, taking in the sight of people getting drenched.
Some people decided to take shelter like him.
Some stubbornly walked through the rain.
A god wearing an elephant mask seemed to be screaming something amidst the downpour.
None of the sights managed to hold his interest for long, until a familiar figure entered and quickly exited his field of vision.
"…You've gotta be kidding me."
There, some distance away from him, was unmistakably Ais, being led away by some woman he didn't know.
Gin gave chase without thinking, ignoring the hard rain pelting his body.
He decided to tail them from a distance. It wasn't that hard, considering they were walking without any hurry.
The fact that the road was practically deserted from the rain also helped.
...
Some time passed as he stalked Ais and the unknown woman.
Before he knew it, the numerous cafes and clothing stores of the Third District were gone, replaced by signboards with pictures of anvils dotting the street.
He was already in the Second District.
He observed quietly as Ais entered one of the buildings with the woman.
He looked at the building and read the signboard above it.
The emblem of the Hephaestus Familia was neatly drawn on it.
'…Wait, did Ais only come here to have a weapon made or something?'
He felt pretty stupid for worrying about her now!
----
The next 2 chapter is building a bond with Ais before we go serious about MC development and familia building.
Oh Mc is kinda average looking not like handsome chinese mc with jade skin that makes every female characters he met speechless.
And not only he is average but he is chuuni too! just imagine it as you lot as the mc :D