The Protagonist System-291 A Little Aftermath

After Aiz fell asleep, I had some time to myself to go over what happened the last time I had been here. Freya was dead and her Familia was defunct because her blessing ended. The worst part about that was that her death didn't end the charms she had conditioned them with. Even without the spells active, none of them would ever betray her or her memory.

Ishtar was also gone, as were her Familia members. I knew there had been a couple of them that were coerced into the life; but, she was just as bad as Freya about controlling her people by any means necessary. Their slaves and servants, including all the prostitutes, had been freed from her control with her death and then absorbed by the other Familias in the area.

The goddess Loki had the strongest Familia now, with the strongest leaders and the most adventurers. She herself was fairly weak, however. How she survived this long with her tricks and perversions being widely known was a mystery.

Then again, she didn't know Aiz had defected to Hestia's Familia to be with me, so Loki might become a problem if she thought she could get her back and ordered her Familia to attack and 'rescue' her from us. I wouldn't let them, of course. Aiz was going to stay where she was loved and needed. That she would get massively stronger much faster than she ever had before, was only a secondary benefit.

The Soma Familia was disbanded and arrested to end their criminal empire and I confiscated their stock, which I had completely forgot I had until this moment. I really needed to empty my inventory out or something, just so I could have a comprehensive list of everything I had in there. I can only imagine it was a lot, since I never threw anything away.

The Adventurer's Guild had a new manager, Eina Tulle, and I was earning tons of valis every day from the various machinery they built and produced using the ideas from the mechanical timer I had sold her. She came into power when the previous manager tried to have me robbed of my Jackbird payoff.

Since I had only just delivered a barrel of medium quality wine before my timely demise, another wouldn't be needed to be sent until next week. I took out ten of them to set against the far wall of the bedroom using telekinesis and stacked them to be out of the way. I had several warehouses worth of them stuffed into expanded trunks and could keep the Guild supplied with wine for years.

I would expand my room later and make it more suitable for Aiz to stay in while also leaving it as my room, so her mind could relax about knowing she was mine while she was inside. It was an odd way for her to accept my claim on her and that was okay. That was how she saw things and that was all she needed to be happy.

I felt Lili arrive home in the normal way, coming down the stairs, and I lifted my head to wave to her as soon as she opened the door. She beamed a smile at me and disappeared into her own room, dropped off her things, stripped off, and came back into mine. I subtly cast a sleep spell on Aiz to let her get her sleep as Lili climbed onto the bed and onto me.

She had love in her eyes as she played with me to get me hard, then she tucked me inside of her and laid down on me to kiss me slowly and tenderly. She didn't ride me hard or did much to shake the bed, which seemed like she just wanted her body to enjoy having me inside of her again without the rigorous pounding she usually enjoyed.

After quite a long a while, Lili finished and moaned loudly as her whole body trembled. She had a huge one apparently and slid off of me and laid down on my other side. She hugged herself and looked like she wanted to wallow in how good that felt for as long as possible, so I cast sleep on her and the smile stayed on her face.

I felt Ryuu appear inside the living room and didn't hear a thump, which meant she had remembered my advice and bent her knees to land when the portkey finished. A few seconds later, I felt a detection spell locate me and she walked over to my bedroom door. She stood outside of it for several seconds and I could feel her indecision.

I covered both Aiz and Lili with a nice blanket and stepped from the bed to behind my door. I equipped a set of pyjamas as I opened the door. “Oh! Hello, Miss Lyon. I was about to set up the tub in the bathroom for you.”

“T-tub?” Ryuu asked as she stared at the floating leaves that moved on my pyjamas.

It was the only room I didn't expand, since it was so easy to overlook and was fairly small.

“No one expects you to ignore relaxing after such a long day at work.” I said and stepped out to intentionally let her see the two women in my bed. “If you'll give me a minute, I'll have it ready for you.”

Ryuu nodded, her eyes taking in everything in my room before I shut the door. I noticed she carried a small suitcase-like opbject in her hands and I motioned to it. She handed it over to me and I walked down the hallway to her room and opened the door. I set the case inside and walked over to the small bathroom.

I entered it and closed the door behind me, so she wouldn't see me working, and took out my trunk. It was moments of work to expand the bathroom to the size of a large bedroom and I added a huge free-standing tub in the middle of the room that could hold four people easily, added four sinks on one wall, set individual mirrors above the sinks, and added a bank of shower stalls along the other wall.

I filled the huge tub with water, added some bubble bath to make it full of suds, and heated it in a second. I added an end table and piled towels, sponges, and facecloths onto it, then added another end table with soaps, shampoos, and perfumes. With the setup done, I walked back to the door and opened it.

“Your bath is ready, my lady.” I said and waved her inside.

Ryuu caught her breath when she entered and saw the place. Since this was a medieval level society, she had never seen anything like modern conveniences and everything pretty much sparkled. I had to take her hand to bring her inside and over to the tub. I snapped my fingers to change her barmaid clothes back to her normal ones and she didn't react, even when I mimed stripping her off.

I mentally shrugged and disrobed her, had to add another table for clothes, and then I helped her into the tub. She looked a little lost with all the options she had, so I explained what each thing did, lathered up a cloth and a sponge for her to use, and reminded her that she could stay there and soak for as long as she wanted.

Ryuu nodded and I left her in the bathroom and shut the door. She had been so stunned by the bathroom that I was sure she would never realize she had been completely naked in front of me. A brief glimpse with my powers that showed five minutes from now, I saw her happily scrubbing her back and she started shampooing her short blonde hair.

I smiled and stopped looking ahead, because I was sure she would relax a lot more around me after a good bath and having her own room. It made me wonder what her boss said when she told her about being accepted into another Familia, assuming she did tell her. I shrugged and went back into my room, stored my pyjamas, and climbed under the blanket on my bed.

I closed my eyes and used my clairvoyance power to peek at where Hestia was and then immediately ended it, because she was asleep in bed with Hephaestus. I guess that means she's not coming home tonight. I thought and tried to not feel disappointed by that.

I had told her a lot of things, some of which were quite horrible. She might need some time to come to grips with it all, assuming she believed I really had gone through it all, even though I told her that I had no reason to lie to my personal goddess. I just hoped she didn't push me away like Rias did after I came back.

I drifted off to sleep before Ryuu finished her bath and wouldn't find out how much she liked it until breakfast the next day and told Lili and Aiz all about the changes in the bathroom.

*

Thanatos sat in his mansion and trembled with fear for the last few hours. Unlike what everyone else thought, he was fully connected to the realm of the dead and actually did collect the souls of mortals when they died. It had been his job for eternity and even though he was mortal, his job would always be there.

What he had felt when Bell Cranel had been killed was shocking, because the soul had been plucked out of his firm grasp as if he had no powers at all. Then, that same soul appeared almost right afterwards and he couldn't touch it at all. Souls were his domain and he couldn't even check it to see if it was supposed to be there.

That was when he felt true terror, because the soul of the goddess kicked into the disposal portal was extinguished. It wasn't added to the reincarnation cycle, sent back to their verson of heaven called Tenkai, or moved on to the next world. There was nothing left after their supposed everlasting energy was snuffed out.

Thanatos swore he would have nothing to do with Hestia's Familia and would secretly warn the other gods and goddesses to do the same. All of their normal games, teasing, and temptations, would only draw the attention of forces they had no concept of. He never wanted to find out what was out there that could destroy a goddess as if she was nothing.

*

Apollo retreated back to his throne room after distracting himself with a handful of very beautiful lovers. His Familia had well over a hundred members and it wasn't one of the most powerful, mostly because he was focused on beauty and not power. The Familia did make most of their money in the entertainment district and they had gained a lot of new members and retainers when they absorbed a good portion of Ishtar's slaves and prostitutes.

He need a good lay to stop himself from thinking about the schemes he had formed against the upstart Hestia Familia that had been gaining so much attention from the other Familias. How dare that virgin goddess usurp his own position as the one everyone looked at to see what was going to happen next! He was supposed to always be the center of attention, not her.

How could a little known child of a brand new Familia become the focus of the gods and goddesses so quickly? Everyone thought Hestia was a joke after all the running around she did in the city the last few months as she begged everyone and their slaves to become a member of her Familia.

They all refused, of course. No one wanted to be worse off than they already were by becoming a child of a useless goddess. She was just another mouth to feed and a body to clothe, and her powers were pathetic when compared to any other god or goddess in the city. Who would voluntarily join someone that would only drag them down even lower than they already were?

The thing was, that didn't happen. Her new child, Bell Cranel, had performed well beyond anything anyone could have ever expected, which was probably why Freya had been keeping her eyes on him and why he had gained Ishtar's attention.

That was obvious to see now that Apollo was thinking about it. When he found out that Bell had approached every Familia in the city to beg to become a member, he found the one that rejected the boy and had him executed for it, even if Apollo himself would have rejected the petition anyway. Who needed the ugly riffraff? Not his Familia, that was for sure.

However, the magic Bell performed would have been more than enough to earn his entry. After he was cleaned up and looked presentable in appropriate clothing, everyone saw that he was handsome in his own right and would have fit in well with Apollo's other lovers and Familia members.

Hephaestus' Familia Captain had gained a transformation with that tiny magic hammer Bell made for her as well, which had made Tsubaki the best magical blacksmith in the city, with only Hephaestus herself surpassing her. The armor Bell made for himself after that? It would have raised the Apollo Familia to new heights if it had been theirs.

Instead, it was the Hestia Familia that now had three, possibly four members clad in the orange-yellowish embossed flame-covered armor that sported her Familia's emblem on their chestplates. It was such a blatant and in your face way to promote a Familia that he was surprised he hadn't thought of doing it himself.

The problem with that was if he started doing it now, he would be copying the technique from a much lower status Familia and that would make it look doubly bad for him for those reasons.

Apolo sighed and sat on his throne as his Captain and Seer walked over to him.

“Did you dispose of the upstart?” His captain asked, the handsome man's stoic face unchanged.

“Yes.” Apollo said.

“Good. He was acting above his station.” His captain said, satisfied.

“He didn't come back?” The Seer named Cassandra Ilion asked. “He was supposed to!”

Apollo sighed at the woman. He had forgotten he had cursed her to never have her visions believed. Even he himself wouldn't believe them, even though both he and her knew they would always come true. He had cursed her to stop her from telling anyone about his plans and schemes and how they would turn out, so if she did speak, no one would believe her.

“He did come back.” Apollo confirmed and she nodded. “He also killed a goddess as if it was nothing.”

The Captain huffed. “He killed two others, what's one more?”

“This one didn't return to heaven.” Apollo said and both his Captain and his Seer gasped, which was surprising. “You didn't foresee that?”

Cassandra shook her head. “I could only see what I was allowed to see.”

Apollo didn't believe her. “Be that as it may, I am issuing orders to cease all actions aimed towards inconveniencing and causing problems for the Hestia Familia and their associate, the Hephaestus Familia.”

His Captain was shocked. “My God, that's weeks of preparations wasted. Please rethink...”

“You do not question me.” Apollo cut him off. “You follow my orders.”

“Yes, my God. As you command.” His Captain said and walked off to relay his orders.

Cassandra didn't look as the man stalked off, clearly unhappy about being dismissed. “He will take another lover if you ignore him approaching you tomorrow.”

Apollo gave her a disbelieving look. “He would never allow another to touch him like I do. He is my plaything to play with when I want, not when he wants.”

Cassandra hid her smile at using his curse of disbelief against him. “You do know best.”

“I do.” Apollo said, missing the irony completely. “You are dismissed.”

Cassandra left at a normal walk instead of fleeing like she wanted to. If only she could convince someone, anyone, that what she saw was the truth, they might save her from her miserable lot in life. It was a faint hope, considering she was cursed with telling the truth and no one ever believing her.