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Freya's fingertips trailed across the man before her's dusky dark cheeks. His soul was nothing much to look at, if she were being honest. Neither beautiful nor ugly. A child's artwork, perhaps. Not heinous enough to be truly ugly, but lacking any of the aesthetic purity that went into something beautiful. "And your daughter?" She asked him.

"Ahm?" He asked her, clearly bewildered to have caught the attention of a woman as beautiful as Freya. She could hardly blame him. "O-oh, my, my daughter, ah, Xulia," he said, fumbling for his words. She simply quietly tilted her head, patiently waiting him. "I, why do you want to, uh, discuss her?"

"I was just wondering about how your relationship is."

"It's- fine." Lie.

She took a casual hold of his ear, and for just a fraction of a moment, he foolishly believed she was being affectionate with him. She then grabbed his earlobe and dragged him down towards her, making him let out a sharp squeal of pain. "Tell me the truth, Kenet," she told him, her voice growing sharper with each word.

"She hates me," he admitted, and she released his earlobe. He rose, idly stroking the point, not out of pain at the injury caused, but at the fact that he had just been touched by a woman so beautiful as her. He was hardly loyal to his wife, though that explained how she had been kidnapped by a certain deceased serial rapist and slaver. (Killed by the filthy maggot-soul.)

"I see. So do you think she would be happy if you left your wife?"

His mouth opened and closed. He swallowed. He did not want to lie to her, but he also did not truly know. "I don't know," he admitted, which was the truth. Given his obvious ego, the actual answer to her question was 'Yes'; he surely was not biased towards claiming that he had brought only pain to his family.

"I think she would." Freya's smile curled up her lips as she looked up at the man before her, her thoughts a tumble of possible strategies. She was in the mid-game. She simply needed to acquire a better position with every step, to claim her Cassandra and rid herself of the filthy maggot-soul. "I think you should leave your wife to be with me," she said, her fingers trailing along his cheek, down his throat, towards his collar bone, sending shivers down his spine as he was completely entranced by her beauty. She tilted her head just so, naturally making his eyes dip down towards her cleavage. "Join my familia, Kenet. You'll be happier there. You'll make everyone happier. Don't you think?"

She could not let her divine light reach its full effulgence, but she was still more than beautiful enough to dissuade a man like this from his wife. If he was a better husband, he would not have become a gambling addict who bet his wife on some lost hand. "Yes," he said, after only a moment's thought, and Freya smiled.

* * *

The girl without a name held her trembling mother in her arms, gently running her fingers through her mother's hair as she just cried and bawled. 'Kenet' had proven his fickle nature in this world too, running away and abandoning her mother. He was probably up to his neck in gambling debt and had decided to foist that off on Mari. "It's alright, Mom. Don't worry. No matter what happens, I'll always be here for you," she told her.

"Th-thank you, Xulia," her mother said, not using her proper name, a small reminder of just how far she was from home. Of course, it didn't matter, since the girl without a name couldn't respond to that name either. "H-he mentioned another woman." Yeah, Miss Fortune. He was a gambling addict. "Ahm, here," she said, handing over a letter to the girl without a name.

She unfolded it, then read:

I'm sorry, Mari. I caused you so much harm, and I can never be worthy of you. I'm leaving you. Tell Xulia that I still love her, even if I know she's disappointed in me. There's a woman who wants me to be better than I am, and I think she just might be able to do it. You've probably heard of her - Freya.

The girl without a name's expression became more plastic as she read that name. There was no way to read that last line other than that Freya was trying to target her family. She didn't understand why, but- there had to be some trick here. She was annoyed - this was her least favorite part of the 'killing someone', the part when you painstakingly made sure they were really guilty! (That was the most important part, though!)

"I'll go look into this woman, Mom. Give this letter to Loki and see what she thinks."

"Ah, uhm, alright, dear," her mother said, her voice still a bit choked up. The girl without a name let darkness engulf her, and she vanished from sight and sound alike.

* * *

The girl without a name loomed in the air overlooking the Freya familia's headquarters. She peered down through the sights on her scope, holding her breath as she stood on thin strands of fate overhead them all. There were faces she recognized, faces she could guess at, and strange faces as well; there were over a hundred members of the Freya familia, after all, and she only knew the most important members. Spotting her father shouldn't have been hard, though, since he was like her: a dark inky blot visible against the pale and creamy colors that filled Orario. The darkest people she spotted, though, were two tanned amazons and a dark elf she was fairly certain was Hogni Ragnar. Her father wasn't visible at all.

He could have been simply resting, of course, the lazy bum that he was - but she suspected something else had happened. She didn't see any sign of Freya, either, not even in the way that her familia members might glance back towards her quarters or anything like that. She knew that the goddess made her home in the Tower of Babel, so she let Fate guide her footsteps towards it, eventually finding a blank white glass. The physicality of the room was different, in a reality where it was all natural three dimensional objects rather than art drawn by human hands. But it was recognizably Freya's, like the inversion of a caricature. The goddess sat in her plush chair, legs crossed, drinking wine, oblivious to the girl without a name's presence (in fairness, the girl without a name was a good hundred meters from the glass, and also invisible).

Freya was right in the scopes of her rifle! She could have just pulled the trigger right then and there! Well... possibly not. The gods' punishment for using their arcanum came from the sky, didn't it? Would all the people on the higher levels be safe? It didn't seem too likely...

Anyway, she didn't know that Freya had done anything really, really, death-penalty bad yet. If Freya was Syr, then she was even sleeping with Drake, just to try to get together with Cass, which was adorably pathetic in the girl without a name's opinion! Oh, sure, those guys who were probably working for Freya had probably been ordered to kill her, but they were rotting in prison so maybe they weren't given special orders? Maybe they were lying? Who knew! Heck, maybe Freya wanted to kill her because she knew that the girl without a name had murdered Soma, in which case, it would be like shooting a police officer trying to bring her in - an absolutely evil thing to do!

Her dad emerged from one of the side rooms. He had clearly just showered, and was half-naked, a towel around his waist, his dark hair clinging to his features as he awkwardly approached Freya. She glanced his way and spoke, and the girl without a name strained her ears to hear. "...here," was all she really caught. He approached her, so presumably she was asking him to get closer. "...daughter?"

"...don't know..." was what she collected of his response, and she didn't need to hear to make out Freya's annoyed sigh. She said something else, pointed to the space in front of her, and her father promptly got on his hands and knees in front of Freya, the woman in question kicking her feet up on his back and using him as a footstool.

He definitely looked even more crazy-pathetic than a yandere lesbian who was sleeping with the girl she liked's husband! But if Freya was trying to piss her off this way, then, okay, it was working a little bit since this was so pointlessly humiliating and showed she was a really rotten person!

But, was she a rotten enough person to warrant death? She did lead the Freya familia, whose members both loved her and were miserable. But that wasn't really enough to do it on its own. Freya drank some more wine from her glass, then simply poured out the remainder on her father's head, before (she couldn't hear, but she could guess) ordering him to lick it up off the floor, which he promptly did.

Ah! She'd totally forgotten the obvious question! Why was Freya doing all this? She could only assume that Freya wanted to piss her off, which is why she was treating her father like crap. (Though, maybe she was enough of a bitch to do it anyway! She probably had lots of unresolved sexual feelings thanks to getting fucked by Drake while Cass looked on!) But to do it like this? It implied she knew that the girl without a name could (probably, possibly) see her. Which meant she might realize that the girl without a name was right here. Which meant there was a good chance that Ottar was right there, right now! She hadn't seen him down in the Freya familia headquarters, after all!

She let out a sigh and then shook her head. She had almost done something really stupid! It was almost like Freya was an incredibly intelligent master of strategy with millennia of experience, while she was just a very diligent girl with a suite of supernatural powers that made killing so much easier for her! She took a couple steps back, then wandered back to the Twilight Manor.

* * *

"Idiot, idiot!" Loki yelled at Julia, bonking her on the head repeatedly. "Obviously! Who gives a fuck about your deadbeat dad! You're my precious little Record Breaker! You were always the target you dimbulb!"

"Ah? I'm precious to you?" Julia asked, placing one hand on her chest as if in awe at the compliment.

"Obviously! You're a Record Breaker, plus you sometimes let me grope you!" Loki countered, letting out a huff. Koriand'r supposed that was probably Loki's ideal partner - the sort of woman who sometimes allowed you to grope her.

"This is a very serious situation," Drake said.

"I know! Duh!" Loki declared, crossing her arms. "Cripes! Nnnyugh!"

"Lady Loki," Finn said, the petite pallum speaking up. "This is quite a lot of people to be involved in such a discussion."

"Oh, who gives a crap," Loki declared with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Oh nooo they'll all hear that Freya's a fucking loon!"

Indeed, the current room contained not only Drake, Julia, Koriand'r, Loki, and Finn; but also the entire rest of Drake's harem (excepting Aisha), as well as the major members of the Loki familia: Tiona, Tione, Ais, Riveria, Gareth, and Bete. It made the room feel cramped, and led Koriand'r to try keeping quiet, lest she add to the din.

"I am not clear on how Freya is 'a loon,'" Ais said, raising one hand.

"She's in love with Cass over there," Loki said, "and she hates Bitch. Or Xulia. Or Julia. Whatever. The darky," she said, lazily pointing at Julia. "She's decided that rather than keep it in her pants, she's gonna be a total freakazoid and start shit. Almost certainly, the whole idea of recruiting Kenet is just to get this dumbass," she said, grabbing a tangle of Julia's hair and forcibly yanking her around by it, the girl in question letting out squeaks of delight, "to start some shit so she can just kill her and do a War Game which ends in Cass joining her familia."

"I don't... want to," Cass said, her lips a frown.

"Yeah!" Lena said. "We only did that wargame for me, or Haruhime, or whoever, on account of us wanting to be with Drake since he's so nice and sexy!"

Riveria clasped the brow of her nose between her index finger and thumb, while Gareth let out a low chuckle. "I really do question the intelligence of allowing the center of such relationship drama into our midst."

"Ooo no, not the intelligence of a fuckable stud in our midst," Loki said, wiggling her fingers. "Too much estrogen around here anyway."

"There is only so much estrogen because you keep recruiting only women you want to bone!" Riveria said.

"Yeah, and?! It's my familia, I'll recruit who I want! Besides, Finn's not a fuckable stud, right, Finn?"

"What! The general is absolutely extremely studly, I can't believe you would say that!" Tione declared. "What she said isn't true at all, Finn: you're super cute and desirable!" It was obvious to Koriand'r - and no doubt even more obvious to the rest - that she was in a one-sided love with Finn.

Finn chose to ignore those feelings and carry on as if they hadn't been expressed. "Drake, Cass, and Julia are all Record Breakers," Finn said, more mildly. "Erza is the strongest Level Three ever. It is Freya's decision to create these problems, not anything they've done."

"Thank you!" Loki said. "My Finn really knows how to defend me, right?" She just slumped into Finn, resting her cheek on his shoulder. Finn merely took a deep breath and sighed.

"Why not just cut loose the chaff?" Bete asked. "Black Agony's a liability, this isn't the first time she's started shit. We don't really need the bitch anyway."

"No," Drake responded, his words a snap. He wasn't the only one to respond so swiftly and clearly to Bete's suggestion. There was also Cassandra, Rei, Erza, and Haruhime whose response was swift and reflexive. Noriko and Lena took slightly longer, but clearly more due to their lack of swift comprehension of the subtext of the conversation. It was obvious that the little family that Drake had built was very tight-knit, and it made Koriand'r feel happy to have joined it, despite the strange circumstances.

"Oh? Or what, you gonna-"

"Shut up!" Loki pounded the table several times, her good-natured, playful jocular voice lost for the moment. Everyone fell silent and looked at her. "Freya is a fucking psycho, this is known!" She took a deep breath and let it out. "The only Gordian knot cutting strategy I can see is letting her have Cass, which I am not doing, by the way."

"Why not?" Bete asked, eyeing Cass warily.

"She reached Level Four inside a year and she's cinnamon sweet! If you can't act like you're older than twelve, I'mma kick you out of here!"

"Tch," Bete said, then fell silent, his arms crossed. He didn't seem to be adding much to the conversation regardless.

"Too many of you idiots are thinking, Ooo, Drake's too sexy, so it's okay to feed him and his wives to Freya!"

"I am most certainly not-" Riveria started.

"Let me finish!" Loki interrupted. "You're thinking this is his fault, so therefore, what, let's let it go? Eat my godly ass! You know, polygamy's actually normal, which is why I have a harem of dozens of hot chicks!" There were a few scattered laughs from those arrayed around the table, Finn and Riveria both pinching the bridges of their noses as Gareth started to let out a hard, belly laugh. "Yeah, yeah," Loki said. "Look. Freya is the problem. Is Drake going over to Freya's house and trying to get in the pants of her hot babes? Is he trying to fuck Freya? Is he going to the Hostess of Fertility and seducing Anya over to come join our familia? No! You know why? Because he's not thinking of me enough! But also because he's just a fucking dork with a hot body and a whole lot of love to share! Not some rapacious teen boy with a desire for more girls than he's got fingers and toes!"

"He has nine wives at present," Riveria corrected. "Including this one, who I hardly know."

"He's loved her for years, just got to get in her pants, also NOT THE POINT!!!" Loki slammed both hands down on the table, hard. "Now, it was one thing to have a little friction in the familia when we're talking just casual life. This isn't casual life. We are under attack." She raised her fingers. "Freya paid for hitmen to try to kill Xulia, who also broke poor Cass's legs and arms like a bunch of jerks. Freya somehow arranged for a pile of fomoire to block Erza off in Rezianal. Freya recruited Xulia's dad. Hell, for all I know, Freya masterminded the whole stupid situation with that Eris chick. What have we done? Taken it on the chin."

"Are we going up against them?" Tiona asked, her expression becoming more serious. "A War Game?"

"God..." Loki's chest rose and fell. "I wish! That stupid Ottar asshole! He's too damn strong! Augh!"

"Couldn't Haruhime simply use Uchide no Kozuchi?" Finn asked. "If it was used on me..."

"Then Ottar, being a person with more IQ points than your typical potted plant, would go like this-" Loki made a flicking motion with her finger, "-to Haruhime's head! My cute, sweet, innocent Haruhime, who doesn't deserve any of the bad things that have happened to her so far, much less that one!" Haruhime's own expression flushed, and she was clearly uncomfortable with being so publicly complimented in that way. "Wait, I got it! Riveria, if you fall in love with Drake then you'll reach Level Seven in no time flat, so just ask him to fuck you or something! He's really good!"

"I-" Riveria's cheeks lit up a sharp red, though for an entirely different reason than Haruhime's. "I will most certainly not!"

"Bah!" Loki slammed her forehead down into the table and just lay there. "It's so frustrating! I'm so tired of this crap! Fucking awful timing... even if Drake hadn't brought along Cass, it'd be fine! If Ottar hadn't hit Level Seven yet! Blehhhh... buncha crap..." She twisted her head up, taking a deep breath and stretching her body for a moment. "Right. Smart people, any ideas?"

"If the concern is merely Haruhime's ability to survive such a War Game," Finn began, "perhaps something could be arranged to protect her from Ottar?"

"I can fly," Koriand'r offered. It appeared to be a quite unique talent in this world - even Drake and Julia merely walked on the air, not properly flew through the air under their own power. "I could carry Haruhime well above any field of battle."

"He can throw rocks," Loki said, her voice lazy and dull.

"If I used You and Yours Stance," Drake began, referring to one of his mystical talents that was particularly well-suited to sex...

"No!" Loki said, waving her hands hurriedly. "Well... I guess it can't make things any worse. No!" She shook her head. "We're being stupid! So we win a War Game, what's stopping Freya from continuing to be a huge bitch?"

"We could kill her!" Julia offered. An utter and total silence fell over the gathered people there. Julia pressed one finger to her cheek. "What? Did I say something wrong? Gods die just the same as mortals without falna," she said, making a popping noise with her mouth. Her behavior was exaggerated and playful, but Koriand'r had come to see that she was one of the most serious people there.

"It's... wrong... to kill people..." Cass said.

"Ah! Don't worry!" Julia declared. "She'll just be going back up to Heaven! It's not death-death, Cass!"

"She'll be causing a fuckton of problems up there," Loki said. "Her feelings for Cass are undeniably... new. Different than normal for her. She normally doesn't act like this."

"What if I just cut out her tongue and cut off her fingers?" Julia asked, smiling brilliantly as she spoke. "Then she couldn't-"

"No, Xulia," Loki interrupted. Julia looked around in confusion, and Loki just rolled her eyes, slumping in her seat. "New idea. Somebody."

"Someone could seduce her," Rei suggested. There were many eyes turned her way. "What? No reason for her to have one-itis for Cass if somebody has shown her what for. Drake could probably bang her absolutely silly, he's fucking awesome at sex."

"Freya's a shallow bitch who only sees people soul-deep," Loki replied.

"Yeah. I guess she is already fucking Drake anyway, and that hasn't worked."


"Syr is not Freya," Loki said, her eyelid twitching as she glared at Rei.

"She obviously is."

"I'm afraid I'm unaware of the details of this debate," Finn said. "Care to fill me, and the rest of us, in?"

Rei managed to talk over Loki and explain her own position, that Syr was obviously Freya due to her ability to see through lies and the like. Loki countered by pointing out that Cass had similar abilities, and Syr had shown herself to have a falna. Finn simply hummed in quiet acceptance, putting it aside for a moment.

"Are there any magic items we can use?" Drake asked. Everybody looked at him. "I mean... Hephaistos is a supernaturally good blacksmith. Is there anything that could even up the score?"

"The Hermes familia..." Loki hummed, leaning up and tilting her head. "Agh, that guy will definitely squeeze us hard if we go to him for help... plus I'm not even sure Asfi's gear can even things out! Plus, what if she falls in love with you and loses her glasses?!"

"What?" Riveria asked. It was more a bark than a sincere question.

"Oh. Right. If you fall in love with Drake, your physique gets topped off and you Level faster," Loki explained.

"Of all the absurd nonsense!" Riveria moved to Ais, placing her hands over the girl's ears. "You're really encouraging that delusion?! It's just ordinary emotional valence and going through great danger together! Perfectly ordinary! Don't fill Ais's head with nonsense!"

"Nope," Loki said. "It's one hundred percent true, can guarantee it personally," Loki explained, lazing back in her seat. Everybody looked at her. "What?" There was a pause, various members of the familia looking at one another. "What?! No! Not on account of me falling for Drake!" She looked desperate to dissuade everyone from that idea as she slammed forward, her seat rocketing onto the front two legs. Koriand'r, of course, knew that she had given a sincere, heartfelt declaration of love, thus her own presence here. "The only thing I love is big boobs! Because I discussed it with him and he gave an explanation which, in addition to being crazy and private, confirms those claims!"

"Even if it's true, you shouldn't say it! Ais could hear and do something crazy!"

"I am not doing anything crazy," Ais said. It made it obvious that Riveria's attempt to clamp her hands over Ais's ears was utterly pointless, and she let out a sigh and stopped.

"Back to the point!" Loki declared.

"Via Shilheim?" Riveria suggested, making Loki hum in response. "If I used it to protect Haruhime, and Haruhime in turn enhanced the strength of Finn, he could defeat Ottar with minimal risk to Haruhime herself."

"Hmm... hmm hmm..." Loki hummed. "Maybe. Maybe maybe. But again, we can't count on a War Game..."

"If we killed Ottar, then there wouldn't be any more risk of that kind of thing!" Julia offered, excitedly. "Then, once he was dead, Freya would have to stop going crazy, because she'd know she'd be in trouble if she got in a fight with you, Loki-sama!"

"Stop always resorting to murder! Once we start that..." Loki let out a low groan, something animal. "Once we start that, Orario will be drenched with blood."

"Ooo! That sounds like fun!" Julia said. She received simultaneous slaps from both Drake and Rei, making her moan in seemingly-genuine delight.

"If..." Haruhime spoke up at that point. "If you acquired a Killing Stone... and rid yourself of me that way... wouldn't-"

"Nope," Loki interrupted. "Nope, not doing that. Got it, Haruhime? And it's not just because you're cute and got big boobs! It's wrong! I'm not a bad guy!"

"As I understand it, you think Freya is no longer interested in the laws of Orario?" Finn asked. Loki nodded. "In that case, it's probable that the Black Agony is right - we'll have to eliminate Ottar altogether. It's likely the only way to even the playing field; without doing so, we'll be forced to continue to accept Freya's misbehavior."

"Nnn... it's not like you're wrong, though," Loki said, hands going to her face. "But then I'll look like the bad guy!"

"I don't disagree," Finn said. "It's a difficult problem." He pressed one thumb to his mouth.

"Come on, General! I know you can come up with some amazing solution!" Tione began bouncing up and down in place, practically cheering him on.

"There's always getting rid of Freya some other way," Gareth chimed in. "If she ain't in the city, then she's not a problem."

"Yeah, but-" Loki started, then stopped. She wheeled around, looking at Cass. "If you left town..." she started. "If you left town... yes, yes," she said, nodding more rapidly to herself. "Ahaha! Of course!" She grinned. "If Cass leaves town, then so does Freya! Or, if she doesn't, she at least chills the fuck out! Without Freya being an annoying yandere, the whole problem resolves itself!"

"And if Freya leaves without Ottar, then we can kill her!" Julia offered, making everybody look at her again.

"No," Loki said.

"Why not?" Julia asked, tilting her head curiously, her blue eyes peering into Loki's crimson pair as the pair stared each other down.

"Because- because once you start breakin' rules like that, all hell'll break loose!"

"I also don't think it's wise," Finn said. "Even if you could kill Freya, and even if she did not enact vengeance from Heaven, her familia members would not simply vanish. There would be many high Level individual, all of whom would bear a grudge against you in particular, and our familia in general."

"Ehh? I said we could kill her!"

"I heard," Finn replied, simply.

"Right, right, shush on the murder ideas, you murder addict," Loki said. "We need to pick a place, and a group - we'll want at least one Level Six to be present on the mission, just in case..."

"I don't..." Cass started, making everyone's head swivel her way. "Want to... abandon Daedalus... Street..." her voice got smaller and shyer as everyone just stared her down.

"I'll take care of it for you," Rei said. "Don't worry." Cass did not look particularly affirmed.

"It's all Level One criminals, at worst," Loki said. "So any of our people could handle it pretty neat. Free excelia, too. Any takers?"

Finn sighed. "I can do it, as long as it doesn't cause problems with my other duties."

"Great! See! In good hands!" Loki paused for a second. "Oh! Oh, I have a great idea, but Drake has to send at least one body, haha!" Everybody looked at her. "Telskyura!" She declared, making Tione and Tiona still. "Oh, you don't have to go you two! But think about it! Drake gets a power boost from making girls fall for him, and it's a whole shebang! Think of how strong we'd be as a familia if he brought home a dozen more haremettes, all of whom were power leveling, and he had a dozen more bodies to grind in the Dungeon, too!"

"I'm pretty sure he'd just get killed," Rei said. "Telskyura has at least one Level Six I can remember." Loki's mouth worked fruitlessly in the air, trying to come up with a counter.

Finn spoke up. "It is also their custom to kill unwanted foreigners."

"Right... dammit! It was such a great idea, though! When he's stronger, then! Okay, Drake? And you gotta share the Amazons with me, got it?!"

"I... I don't know if Amazons are ever bisexual," Drake replied.

"What the hell's a bisexual?" Loki asked.

"It's a person who is romantically interested in members of both sexes. Like you. Or Rei." He turned over to Tione and Tiona. "Do you know of any Amazons falling for another woman?"

They looked at each other, then shook their heads in a shared no. "I'm pretty sure if that happened, I'da heard about it," Tiona said. She spoke slowly and awkwardly, like she didn't want to talk about it much. "Since Amazons back home fought all the time..." She trailed off.

"Noooooo!" Loki declared. "It was such a good plan! Which idiot god made the Amazons only interested in guys, huh?! When I get back to Heaven, I'mma kick his dumb ass!" She paused, looking at Haruhime for a moment. "Aha! Okay! I got an even better idea!"

* * *

"Just in case Rei's right and Syr is Freya - which she's not! - but just in case, Cass, you should invite her along!"

Cass didn't like this plan... it felt like running away. She didn't want to run away. She wanted to fight. But... she had seen Ottar before. She knew by the way he moved that he was more than a match for anyone in the Loki familia. She knew it was a dangerous fight, with long odds, and that people besides her would be put in danger... and she knew she couldn't fight it alone.

Some tiny part of her made one last proposal: take Freya away from Orario in a different way. Just... ask her to come along... wherever. She knew Freya would, by the way Freya looked at her. That she'd abandon what she had... that she wouldn't even care that Cass didn't love her back, as long as she could be with her...

But that would be wrong. She loved Drake, she didn't love Freya. She liked her family. She liked Rei, and Erza, and Drake, and Noriko, and Haruhime, and Lena, and Setsuko, and Koriand'r, and Aisha, and Loki... she even liked Julia, even if she didn't agree with her. They were her family. The only family she really had. So she did what Loki wanted, and went to the Hostess of Fertility, acting just like normal, Erza accompanying her there.

Syr arrived shortly, smiling brightly. "Hello! Early today, huh? Did you two get done in the Dungeon extra-fast?"

"No," Erza said. "We didn't go to the Dungeon at all. In fact, we're planning on setting out on a great journey tomorrow!"

"We came here to tell you," Cass said. She could see the quiet way that beneath Syr's mask of happiness, she was inwardly collapsing in concern and worry.

"Oh? Ha... well, where are you going? A little trip outside? A honeymoon?" She made a teasing lilt to her voice. She was... unhappy, but not as unhappy as Cass had expected.

"We're going to the Kaios Desert!" Erza declared, making Syr frown. "Drake is going to buy a lot of female slaves there and bring them back." Syr's eyelid twitched, a mix of restrained fury and her own worries. "Don't worry - it's for their own benefit."

"Aha, of course," Syr declared, smiling. "Slaves! A lot of them!" She just kept a smile on her lips. "My! And all women, too! I'm sure it's all for their benefit, and not his, you know?" Cass just quietly nodded, making Syr turn her gaze her way. Her lips pursed. There was some inward decision made, based on some outward stimulus Cass didn't notice, and then Syr spoke again. "You know what! It is so stuffy and boring here! I'd like to come with you, if that's alright? I mean, I am getting up to dirty things with Drake nowadays!"

"I would welcome you along," Erza said, moving up from the table at such a rapid speed that Syr couldn't react meaningfully before she was engulfed in a titanic hug. "I hope you become a co-wife soon enough!"

Syr did not house similar hopes, but she gave Erza a limp pat on the back - she couldn't talk at the moment, anyway.

* * *

When we finally left Orario, our party was composed of Cass, myself, two Reis, Erza, Ais, and Riveria. Plus Syr, obviously. Cass was the bait, and I was the "dirty pervert slave harem-wanter," so we were obvious picks. Rei had the ability to spam bodies and had done this before; Erza came because she was Syr's friend and wanted to protect her; Ais came along because she wanted to fall in love with me and seemed hopeful that watching me do this might help... and Riveria came along to protect Ais from falling in love with me. Her feelings towards Ais were maternal, which meant that Ais's constant, flailing attempts to induce herself to fall for me earned plenty of sharp glares from the elf woman.

There was the possibility that I was only still alive because she could see I wasn't encouraging Ais in any way. I didn't think a member of the Loki familia would act that way... but if Riveria was trying to keep me unsure of that question, she was very good at it.

On the opposite end of things, Finn and Haruhime stayed back in case Ottar tried anything in the city itself. Aisha stayed with Haruhime. Setsuko stayed with Hestia, and Noriko stayed for Setsuko. Julia stayed back because otherwise Syr would have been on a constant vomit trip, and as funny a concept as that was, it would probably have gotten a lot less funny after the first two times. Lena and Koriand'r stayed back so they could train in the Dungeon more. (And, of course, I left two bodies in Orario, one staying with Setsuko, the other going into the Dungeon with what of our party still needed it.)

We had paid for a good guide and a number of camels, riding on them beneath the increasingly heavy sun as we made our way ever further from Orario, and ever deeper into the desert. We were wearing the local clothes, too: loose-fitting robes in pale colors, including hoods to cover the face from the sun. Given the desert lacked any obvious landmarks (our guide was using the sky to affirm our direction), it was boring, which meant conversation naturally erupted.

"So... buying a whole slave harem, hm?" Syr asked, a pleasant, playful smile on her lips. "I had heard about that, but I didn't think you were the sort... oh!" She placed a hand over her mouth as if something had just occurred to her. "Is that how you got this harem in the first place?"

"No. None of my wives are my slaves," I responded. She was obviously very, very unhappy with me doing this, gauging by her responses to everything I said. "I'm not buying a slave harem anyway."

"Oh? Then what are we going out for?" Syr asked.

"I'm going to buy some female slaves, free them, and bring those who want to, back to Orario, where they can get jobs in the city." Syr nodded along.

"Ah! So you're planning to play the conquering hero, come to save them in their moment of need? Hoping that they'll be so grateful they'll join your harem?"

"It's not a play," I told her. "I will literally be saving them from slavery."

"True, true. But your motives aren't entirely pure, are they?" Syr asked.

"There's a quote I remember from Taira Shigesuke," I told her, making her frown, as she had obviously never heard that name. "He can surely be said to have known what is right and have done it," I recited.

"I don't think I quite get it! You'll have to explain it to me," she said, smiling as she spoke.

"I know that freeing slaves is the right thing to do. I am also doing it. Therefore, I am doing a good deed. If freeing slaves was not a good thing, then I wouldn't do it."

"How could freeing slaves not be a good thing?" Syr asked.

"It couldn't be," I replied. "But if the thing I was doing was, I don't know, enslaving women just to free them later and claim credit for it, I would not do that. As it would be morally wrong."

"Mmm, interesting," Syr said, humming thoughtfully as she considered it. "But if you do that, are you really a good person?"

"Would you rather live in a city of a thousand people acting virtuously because of some external factor, or a thousand people not acting virtuously at all?"

"I'd rather live in a city of nothing but virtuous men!" Syr declared.

"I know very virtuous people," I said. "I didn't save Haruhime because she was beautiful, or because I wanted her to love me, but because what would have happened to her was heinous. I actually..." I glanced over ot Riveria, who was of course looking at us. Syr followed my gaze. "You know what, I'm not ashamed. I'll say it," I said, and Syr looked at me with curiosity at that point. "I actually suggested to her that I could kill her and save her from her fate that way."

Syr did seem surprised by that, her eyebrows raising. "How would that save her from her fate? It seems like it'd just be speeding things up, to me!"

"She was going to have her soul turned into a magical item by Ishtar," I said.

"Oh, I see! Interesting! I wouldn't have thought of that, but I suppose it would work!" Syr hummed thoughtfully. "Mmm. Oh! Weren't you going to say more about very virtuous people you know?"

"Cass, Koriand'r, and Julia are all incredibly good people. Far beyond what's normal, driven by an inner desire for good and justice and whatnot," I explained. Syr's expression soured at Julia's name, but I just carried on nonetheless. "I'd like to think I'm one too, but obviously, I can't compare. But - I think of it like this. Being a good person is like any other skill. Some people have talent at it. But there's no point you ever reach, where you can't work to get any better at a skill, whether you're talented or untalented. Well, I guess theoretically there's some point where you solve some games and you can't get any better at them, but that's not most things. You can always be a better cook, a better artist, a better fighter... and you can always be a better person. And doing good things is how you do that."

"People do get old," Syr noted. "Their skills wane as their body can't keep up with their mind, and even their mind starts to slow."

"I don't plan on getting old," I told Syr, who let out a deep, belly laugh.

"I suppose it's not much of a concern for adventurers anyway, hah!" She said, smiling brightly. "One way or the other." She hummed. "It's an interesting perspective, at least. Thanks for sharing it, Drake!"

"No problem." She smiled brightly, then brought her camel over to Cass to immediately start chatting her ear off about something else. Riveria, at least, seemed to appreciate the story in her own way, though she was also checking to see if Ais had appreciated the story a bit too much and was now about to be drawn into my harem. I just took the moment to think.

* * *

The girl without a name stared down the barrel of her scope for what felt like the hundredth time. (It was probably just the twentieth or so, though.) There, in the middle of her rifle, was Freya. Syr was out of the city (Drake had confirmed), so that meant that she wasn't Freya, unless Freya had two bodies. She was a little surprised at that...

But she was mostly focused on Freya. There, under Freya's bare foot, was her father. He was wearing only a close-fitting pair of underwear, which was somehow more humiliating than if he'd been naked. (Well, the same thing applied to girls in the good hentai, so she understood how.) She didn't like her father very much. She thought that her family would be better off without him. No, she knew they would be! He was an idiot! A gambling addict! A bad father! A bad person! He'd gotten her mother sold into slavery, where she would have been raped over and over if it hadn't been for her shooting Ted in the head!

But right now, she was feeling something for him that she didn't like to feel for him in particular. She wanted to protect him. To save him. He didn't deserve this (probably).

She wanted to pull the trigger. She really really wanted to pull the trigger. But, for one thing, Loki would be upset. Drake would be upset. Cass would be upset. Everybody would be upset! They would be so angry at her for killing Freya, even though-!

There was that, too. Was this so terrible? It was her father who was suffering it, but he grinned and bore it with a smile on his lips. Compared to what the other Freya familia members gladly went through for their goddess - well, she suspected some of them would feel jealous of her father for being allowed to be used as a footstool. Maybe she got her masochistic submissive side from him! Who knew? Her mother certainly wasn't as kinky, she knew that! Even Drake knew that, because in the other life she might have (did? Was currently? Well, it had been months, so presumably it had happened), Brighton had tried doing stupid goofy kinky things with her mother and just been laughed off! In any case, what people did consensually in their bedrooms was their own business, and that shitty letter her father had written had sounded just like him, pretending to be good as he does something obviously selfish and harmful.

Oh, plus, Freya was obviously actively trying to agitate her into pulling the trigger, and it was completely ridiculous that she had walked up into the sky a dozen times now and stared directly into Freya's eyes through a rifle scope, even when she knew that was what Freya wanted! She wanted her to pull the trigger! Obviously! Hoping that Freya didn't understand how sniper rifles, air walking, and invisibility worked together certainly was a very stupid idea!

Also, her father would die in the explosion that followed Freya getting another hole in her head. She didn't like that that bothered her more than the other things.

She lowered the rifle and let herself walk down to the streets of Orario again. She wandered Daedalus looking for any jerks who needed an extra hole in their head (but she would actually hit them with a taser because Drake and Cass would be mad at her if she started killing people), but unfortunately, Finn was really good at that, so she wound up having that unpleasant, unfulfilled feeling, like if you jill off right to the edge but don't get to complete! And it wasn't the sexy fun time where Drake would pound her into heaven in a minute or an hour!

This sucked.

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