"Oh, right. Ouranos asked me to give you this last time."
Loki suddenly smacked a fist into her palm as if she had just remembered something. Under Shiro's puzzled gaze, she dove headfirst into the crooked pile of empty wine bottles stacked in the corner of the room.
"I remember putting it around here after getting drunk... Ah, found it!"
The empty bottles stood like soldiers defending a fortress, sacrificing themselves to block Loki's advance. Unfortunately for them, their opponent was still a god.
After a loud series of clinks and crashes, Loki easily broke through the defensive line, grabbed something with one hand, and shoved it into Shiro's arms.
He looked down.
It was a birdcage woven from pitch-black metal. Inside floated a gray ball of light that flickered constantly.
"What is this?"
"Weren't you planning to resurrect those kids from Astraea Familia? Someone kindly provided us with a... 'test subject'~"
'So it's a soul.'
The birdcage suddenly felt much more sinister in Shiro's hands. Even its black decorations began to resemble countless hands reaching toward him from the depths of hell.
He knew it was probably just his imagination, but hearing Loki casually point at the cage and say, "That's a ghost," still made the back of his neck feel strangely cold.
"How did she even end up in your hands?"
Shiro carefully placed the cage on the floor as though it were a fragile ornament.
"No matter how awful the gods responsible for reincarnation are, they wouldn't normally hand souls over for people to play with, right?"
"Normally, no. The one you've got is a special case."
"Did she pull some prank that made you gods hold a grudge?"
"Hah? Do you really think we gods are that petty?"
Loki seemed ready to defend the dignity of the divine.
Shiro thought about that for a few seconds, then nodded with a completely serious expression.
"I remember you telling me that Hestia mocked your flat chest back in Heaven, so you camped outside that shut-in's house for tens of thousands of years. Then you waited until she fell asleep, cut her hair, and got chased around by her for another few tens of thousands of years."
"That little shrimp mocked me first! Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with her!"
Loki stretched her neck and loudly defended the righteousness of her actions before glancing back at the cage.
"This kid's situation is different. She committed some extremely serious crimes while she was alive. If she wants to reincarnate, her turn probably won't come for tens of thousands of years. In a way, you could call this part of her atonement."
"And the real reason?"
"Well, even if your experiment fails, her soul will just return to Heaven anyway. So why not use her to have a little fun?"
Loki grinned.
"When Hades secretly sent her soul down to Ouranos, his exact words were, 'A child of the Lower World trying to defy the rules and resurrect someone important to him? Doesn't that sound incredibly entertaining?'"
"That somehow sounds worse than you holding a grudge over a prank."
Shiro's eyes filled with a trace of pity.
"At least that would actually count as punishment. Instead, nobody even seems to care about her crimes. She died, and now the gods are using her for entertainment."
Was there really anything more miserable than that?
"Other than Hades, none of the other gods know what I'm trying to do, right? I don't want to open my door tomorrow and find a crowd of gods staring at me like I'm a zoo animal."
Shiro paused.
"Knowing them, someone might actually throw a couple bunches of bananas at me."
"Hades only knows because his Authority is special. If you want to mess with resurrection, there's no way around involving him."
Loki shrugged.
"The rest of the gods are busy lining up to descend to the Lower World. They don't have much time to care about the reincarnation of some random kid."
"Then why didn't you bring the others down too? It would save us another trip to Ouranos later."
"That's completely different. Completely."
Loki raised one finger and waved it back and forth in front of Shiro's face for emphasis.
"We got this soul down so easily because she's a 'criminal.' Even if she suddenly disappeared one day, nobody would care."
"But those 'heroes' from Astraea Familia are another matter entirely. There are still tons of gods in Heaven waiting for their chance to descend."
Shiro immediately understood what she meant.
To the gods, creating a Familia was almost like playing a game.
Inviting children into a Familia was practically like pulling characters from a gacha.
Naturally, everyone wanted their Familia to become stronger, which meant they needed talented children capable of serving as its pillars.
But before a god actually granted someone Falna, even they could not know exactly how talented that child would become.
So how could they reliably find the kind of child they wanted among countless people?
The answer was simple.
Look among the dead.
Yes.
This was a cheat available only to the gods who still remained in Heaven.
If you could not see a living person's potential, why not inspect their previous life instead?
By investigating what someone had accomplished before death, the gods could gain a rough idea of their personality, talent, and potential.
Then all they had to do was keep an eye on the souls they liked, estimate when those souls would reincarnate, and descend before the god who had known them in their previous life could find them again.
Then immediately steal the recruit.
Never expect dignity from gods who had already spent hundreds of millions of years bored out of their minds.
Even the most elegant deity would eventually start looking for something entertaining to do.
Unless two gods were exceptionally close, trusting one of them to honestly point out which reincarnated souls possessed the potential to become "heroes" was probably less reliable than grabbing a random stranger off the street.
At least that random stranger might actually have more heroic potential than whoever a god recommended.
That was why this criminal soul, whose reincarnation was tens of thousands of years away, could disappear without attracting attention.
The children from Astraea Familia were completely different.
Those souls possessed the potential of heroes.
Countless divine eyes were already watching them, waiting for the moment they reincarnated so someone could descend and snatch them first.
"I really overestimated the dignity of you gods..."
Shiro silently sighed.
"Don't tell me you've also thought about stealing someone's former child, then bringing that kid over to show off in front of their previous god. Even the God of Pure Love would want to punch you in the face for something that shameless."
"..."
"...Why did you suddenly stop talking?"
"..."
"Alright. Forget I asked."
"I would never plan something that tasteless!"
Loki puffed out her chest.
"Back when I started Ragnarok and made a name for myself, those guys were still playing house!"
'She said she never planned it.'
'Does that mean she participated?'
Considering Loki's personality, Shiro decided it was better not to dig any deeper. Otherwise, this conversation might never end.
Instead, he returned to the important subject.
"So according to you, if I want to retrieve the souls of Ryuu's companions, I first need to draw the attention of the gods still in Heaven somewhere else."
"Oh?"
Loki looked at Shiro with interest.
"You already know what to do?"
Shiro lifted the birdcage from beside his feet until it was level with his face.
The weak gray light illuminated only half his features, leaving the other half hidden in shadow.
"Obviously, I'll give the gods a little surprise."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"There probably isn't anything more attention-grabbing than a Divine Repatriation, is there?"
...
On Orario's North Main Street, an adventuring party made entirely of beautiful girls walked through the envious gazes of the crowd.
There were lively Amazon twins, a quiet blond princess who resembled a doll, a golden-haired elf with downcast eyes, and an elven royal whose beauty could rival the gods themselves.
A party like this should have been surrounded by admirers wherever they went.
Yet the people nearby merely watched from a distance, occasionally whispering with their companions.
Not a single person dared approach them.
The reason was simple.
Whether in status or strength, these girls existed far beyond the reach of the ordinary people watching them.
They were the executives of Loki Familia, one of the two strongest Familias in Orario.
"Haaah~ Finally, it's over."
"Yeah. Coming back to Twilight Manor always makes me feel like I'm finally home."
"That was so much fun! I wish every Monster Party was this strong."
Tiona turned toward Lefiya excitedly.
"Lefiya, haven't you been practicing swordsmanship too? Next time we run into those Obsidian Soldiers, how about trying to fight them with a sword?"
"Haha... Th-that's still way too early for me..."
Lefiya gave an awkward laugh and firmly rejected Tiona's suggestion.
Obsidian Soldiers were rock-type monsters that normally appeared only beyond the thirtieth floor.
Their bodies were made of obsidian, giving them extremely high resistance to magic. In exchange, they were relatively slow compared with other monsters from the same floors.
After all her recent sword training, and with Lefiya herself already at Level 4, she normally would not have needed to fear clumsy monsters whose potential was only around Level 3.
However...
"After being strengthened by this special Monster Party, those things were already almost Level 5! If I tried fighting them with a sword, I'd get killed instantly..."
Remembering the monsters she had encountered today, which had shrugged off most of the damage from her magic, Lefiya clutched her staff with both hands.
Her entire expression seemed to turn gray with despair.
She had been doing her best to overcome her fear, but facing monsters as large as small hills still made her hands tremble uncontrollably.
"Really? But the stronger the monsters are, the more Great Feats you can earn!"
Tiona seemed completely unconvinced.
"This is such a rare opportunity. Look, even Ais is—"
Thump!
Before Tiona could finish, something slammed into the top of her head.
"Ow, ow, ow! Tione, what was that for?!"
"Stop trying to make Lefiya do something that dangerous."
Tione glared at her sister.
"She's only been learning swordsmanship for a few weeks. Fighting Level 5 monsters already is far too much."
"But a Monster Party this huge might never happen again! It's too dangerous for most top adventurers to enter, so only a few major Familias like ours get to hog all the experience."
Tiona pouted.
"Wouldn't it be a waste not to train as much as possible?"
"Even so, Lefiya is only Level 4. Right now, even monsters on the Dungeon's first floor are reaching Level 3."
"So what? We'd be watching her from behind."
"The captain specifically ordered us not to let Lefiya charge ahead alone. Do you have a problem with Finn's orders?"
"Fine, fine! Stop yelling. I won't let Lefiya get hurt."
The moment Tione invoked Finn's name, Tiona immediately surrendered.
Watching the twins argue, Riveria closed one eye and let out a heavy sigh. She then turned toward Lefiya with a serious expression.
"You don't need to force yourself, Lefiya. Move forward at your own pace."
"Yes, Riveria-sama!"
"Honestly... How many times have I told you not to call me '-sama'?"
"B-but..."
"You've been studying swordsmanship under Shiro for quite some time, yet your personality hasn't changed much at all."
Riveria's voice became slightly more forceful.
"Listen carefully. This is no longer your elven homeland. You don't need to treat me with such stiff respect. I've had more than enough of being placed inside that kind of cage."
Unable to withstand Riveria's pressure, Lefiya turned watery eyes toward Tiona and silently begged for help.
"Speaking of Shiro, I don't think I've seen him for a whole week. Do any of you know what he's been doing lately?"
Tiona instantly understood Lefiya's desperate look and jumped into the conversation at the perfect moment.
Riveria gave her an annoyed glare.
"He mentioned during training that he had something to take care of and would be leaving for a while. He never told me exactly what it was."
Relieved by her savior's arrival, Lefiya eagerly helped Tiona change the subject.
"What about Ais?"
In an instant, everyone's attention turned toward the blond girl who had been silently walking beside them the entire time.
"I don't know."
The doll-like beauty answered with her usual brevity.
However, when the subject came up, the normally unchanging expression on Ais's face shifted ever so slightly.
"That face definitely says you know something."
Tiona immediately caught the subtle change.
Clearly, she had no intention of letting Ais escape that easily.
"Come on, just tell us quietly. Even if Shiro finds out, he won't mi—"
BOOM!!!
Before Tiona could finish, a deafening explosion shook the street.
A massive burst of flame rose into the sky nearby, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
And the explosion had come from somewhere extremely close.
"That location..."
Tiona stared blankly at the rising smoke.
"Isn't that Twilight Manor?"
The sudden explosion left her frozen in place.
'Did our home... just explode?'
While Tiona stood there stunned, Ais and Riveria exchanged a single glance and reacted immediately.
"Awaken, Tempest!"
Green wind wrapped around Ais's body.
In the next instant, she transformed into a streak of light and vanished from Tiona and the others' sight.
"Eh?! Wait for us, Ais!"
…