Wiene's situation was temporarily settled.
However, her identity was far too unusual for Shiro to simply keep her inside Loki Familia indefinitely.
Loki may have created the Familia so she could enjoy life in the Lower World, but it was by no means a place where her word was absolute. If the members disagreed with her decisions, they were free to choose whether they wished to remain.
The moment Wiene's existence became known, it would inevitably cause an uproar.
"Forget Ais, who hates monsters more than anyone, or Finn, who has his position to maintain. Even a softhearted guy like Raul would probably hesitate for a moment before attacking Wiene."
Shiro was certain of it.
It had nothing to do with good or evil.
At its core, the problem was simply a difference in worldview.
Shiro could regard Wiene as an unusual demi-human species.
The adventurers of Orario could not.
Even if some of them felt goodwill toward a creature like Wiene, that goodwill would come from pity rather than truly seeing her as a life equal to themselves.
To them, monsters were monsters.
They were disasters that brought destruction, threats that shattered peace, and demons that killed their companions.
They were absolutely not beings like humans, capable of joy, anger, sorrow, desire, and every other emotion.
More importantly, even if adventurers did eventually accept the existence of intelligent monsters like Wiene, that might not actually benefit them.
Imagine exploring the Dungeon and encountering a monster.
If the thought suddenly crossed an adventurer's mind that the creature in front of them might secretly possess intelligence, and that hesitation caused them to hold back...
That hesitation could easily result in injury or death.
At that point, kindness would have completely defeated its own purpose.
Bete might spend his days mocking weak adventurers with an irritating expression on his face, but there was one thing he said that Shiro actually agreed with.
"Only the strong get to live however they want. Small fry don't get to spout fragile nonsense that falls apart the moment someone pokes it. It's useless!"
For weak adventurers, merely surviving in the Dungeon was already difficult enough.
Knowing that intelligent monsters existed would only place another chain around them.
"So that's why you brought them to me?"
Inside the Hostess of Fertility, Syr...
No.
Freya, currently working here under Syr's identity, stared toward Wiene in the distance.
The girl was completely hidden beneath a pitch-black cloak.
Freya's expression became rather complicated.
"Yeah."
Shiro casually took another bite from the apple in his hand.
"You can cooperate with my plans, and you can actually control your people well enough to make sure Wiene never appears in front of ordinary adventurers."
"I can't think of a better option."
If someone asked which god possessed the greatest authority over their Familia, nine out of ten people in Orario would answer Freya.
As for the remaining one...
They were definitely an Evilus remnant who had spent far too long hiding underground.
How could anyone living under the sun not know something this basic?
"I am a Goddess of Beauty."
Freya narrowed her eyes.
"And you want me to babysit a monster?"
"Why not ask that elf instead? She looked like she'd be quite happy helping you raise a child."
"Yes, yes."
Shiro nodded casually.
"A Goddess of Beauty who can't even charm a single mortal."
Freya's teeth audibly ground together.
What did he mean, couldn't charm a mortal?
Her charm was powerful enough to affect the overwhelming majority of gods!
The only reason it did not work on him was because of that strange magic he possessed.
If anything, someone with that level of ability still being classified as a mere mortal was what made no sense.
"What does it matter?"
Shiro ignored her dissatisfaction.
"Horn is covering for you back at the Familia anyway. You seem pretty happy working here as a waitress."
Horn's original name had been Syr.
She was an orphan Freya had found among some ruins.
Because she admired Freya so deeply, she offered up the name "Syr" to the goddess and obtained the ability to transform into Freya.
She could also share Freya's five senses and unilaterally feel the goddess's emotions.
Whenever Freya disguised herself as Syr and worked at the Hostess of Fertility, Horn would take Freya's appearance and temporarily manage the Familia in her place.
Work at the Hostess of Fertility began around noon with ingredient preparation and usually did not end until after midnight, when the last drunken adventurers finally left.
In other words, except during certain special occasions, the "Freya" staying inside Freya Familia's headquarters and managing affairs was Horn nearly ninety percent of the time.
The real Freya was here working as a waitress under her former captain.
"That's different. Besides, I'm not here because I enjoy taking care of people. I'm here because—"
"You're trying to find the partner you've always wanted."
Shiro cut her off without hesitation.
"You already told me that plenty of times on the day I discovered you were Syr."
Freya had been preparing to rely on the usual shamelessness of the gods and claim that she was simply busy with more important things.
Shiro's next words tore away even that last excuse.
"You could watch people perfectly well from the Tower of Babel."
"No, your field of view would actually be wider from up there, which should make searching even easier."
"So why did you come work for Mama Mia?"
"Why did you abandon your identity as a goddess and become a waitress?"
"Why do you willingly waste so much time here even though you know it's inefficient?"
Shiro raised one finger.
"There's only one answer!"
Freya's expression shifted several times.
Embarrassment became confusion.
Then confusion slowly transformed into curiosity.
To be perfectly honest, even Freya herself could not explain why she had continued pretending to be Syr and working as a waitress all this time.
If she absolutely had to define it...
It had simply been a whim.
Just as some gods occasionally dragged their children into strange activities for no particular reason, Freya becoming Syr had begun much the same way.
She had thought of doing it.
So she did.
Seeing Shiro act as though he had uncovered some great truth genuinely caught her interest, so she patiently waited for him to continue.
"Goddess of Beauty Freya!"
For some reason, Shiro's presence suddenly became much more dramatic.
Even Anya, who was preparing ingredients in the kitchen, poked her little head out to see what was happening.
Fortunately, Shiro kept his volume under control.
Otherwise, by tomorrow Freya's rivals among the goddesses would probably be lining up outside the tavern just to laugh at her.
"You've been craving an ordinary human life from the bottom of your heart!"
"Me?"
Freya blinked.
"I crave an ordinary life?"
Her first instinct was to scoff at Shiro's conclusion.
What nonsense was this?
She was a Goddess of Beauty.
Even among the gods in Heaven, where everything was effectively an eternal game, Freya had always been one of the most exceptional beings.
How could she possibly become obsessed with something so trivial?
Yet when memories of Heaven surfaced in her mind...
Freya gradually fell silent.
Among the gods, Goddesses of Beauty were an extremely unusual category.
Mortals wanted to preserve beautiful things when they saw them.
Gods were no different.
And to gods, a Goddess of Beauty was among the rarest treasures imaginable.
Yet while a Goddess of Beauty's appearance could bring joy, that same beauty could also destroy reason.
Because of this, there were generally only two ways gods handled Goddesses of Beauty.
Either destroy them...
Or protect them like treasured princesses.
Most gods naturally chose the latter.
They would surround a Goddess of Beauty with protection while placing a virgin goddess immune to charm beside her as the final safeguard, preventing the Goddess of Beauty from dominating the wills of the surrounding gods.
But even among Goddesses of Beauty, Freya was uniquely troublesome.
Even the virgin goddess assigned to watch over her had eventually fallen under her Authority.
Naturally, that exceptional nature meant Freya received both the strictest supervision and the greatest privileges in Heaven.
Whatever she wanted could be obtained almost effortlessly.
If she wanted food, gods would present her with Heaven's rarest fruits.
If she wanted something to drink, gods would bring her divine nectar that others might spend centuries searching for without success.
Freya drowned in an ocean of material abundance where anything she desired immediately appeared before her.
Eventually...
An emptiness formed inside her heart.
Everyone knelt before her, desperate to obtain her "love."
Yet if their positions were reversed and Freya became the one seeking "love," then no matter who she approached, that being would immediately offer it to her.
What a contradiction.
What a distortion.
Yes.
That kind of "love" was the emptiest thing in the world.
When had she become like this?
When was the last time she had smiled genuinely from the bottom of her heart?
For once, Freya removed the mask covering her face.
Looking back along the road she had traveled, she suddenly realized something.
She, a goddess who governed "love," had unknowingly become a slave to it.
As long as she remained a Goddess of Beauty, that emptiness would continue following her.
And so...
Freya ran away.
For the first time, she abandoned traits like "elegance" and all the other qualities the gods liked to praise her for.
She fled the temple they had built around her.
She crossed mountains.
Passed through valleys.
Crossed oceans.
Traversed the stars.
Freya wandered through Heaven, desperately searching for the thing she herself truly desired.
Using her Authority, she took the appearance of one girl among her countless faces and escaped the gods sent to retrieve her.
Eventually, she arrived at an endless sea of flowers.
There, she encountered a goddess from her homeland.
Her name was Idun.
In Heaven, she governed the Authority of [Youth].
Apparently, Idun had spent a long time searching for Freya.
By the time Freya saw her, the goddess was already drenched in sweat.
Idun declared that she could no longer stand watching Freya waste her life in such a miserable way, so she had come specifically to lecture her.
'What an idiot.'
That had been Freya's first impression of Idun.
The woman had never experienced Freya's life.
How could she possibly understand how Freya felt?
Countless people dreamed of living the kind of life Freya possessed and would never obtain it.
Yet Idun knew nothing and still wanted to lecture her with empty ideals.
Idun did not care what Freya thought.
She simply found a relatively flat patch of grass within the flower field, pushed aside some flowers, sat down, and began enthusiastically explaining the wonders of youth.
She said relationships between men and women should feel brighter and more refreshing.
She said sweetness and hardship should both be faced together.
She said no matter how much time passed, at the very least, one's soul should remain young.
Then she said—
"Come on! Let's embrace youth together! ⭐"
Freya finally became so irritated that she walked behind Idun and prepared to strangle her with both hands.
That was when Idun said something else.
"So go find the partner who belongs to you."
"I think once you truly find that person, you'll finally be able to break free from the chains binding you now."
"Something like that couldn't possibly exist in this world."
Freya had sneered.
And yet...
The arms she had been about to wrap around Idun's neck stopped in midair.
From that day onward, Freya chose to temporarily believe Idun's words.
And she began acting on them.
That was also when Freya developed the strange habit of collecting extraordinary souls that she still possessed today.
She remained inside her temple and gazed upon countless souls, hoping to discover the one meant for her.
More than once, she also secretly slipped out of the temple just as she had on the day she met Idun, wandering Heaven in search of someone who could become her partner.
Unfortunately...
Even after searching the vastness of Heaven from one end to the other, Freya never found that existence.
So she eventually turned her gaze toward the Lower World.
At the time, the gods had begun descending to bring Falna to the children below.
Freya happened to join that wave.
Reality, however, was cruel.
Compared with Heaven, the Lower World was simply too small.
She could practically see the whole thing at a glance.
Before long, using her special [Eyes], which remained available even after sealing her divine power, Freya had looked upon the souls of the Lower World.
The hope buried inside her heart quickly turned into despair.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
No matter where she looked, she could not find the person Idun had spoken of.
'That stupid goddess really was lying.'
'There is nothing in this world that can free me from the shackles of divinity.'
Freya extinguished the final bit of hope within herself.
And once again, she became lost.
Around that time, Mia Grand was still the captain of Freya Familia.
One day, Mia approached her and announced that she intended to leave the Familia and open a tavern where adventurers could eat until they were full.
'How nice.'
That had been Freya's first thought.
Mia understood exactly what she wanted.
And she could move toward that goal without hesitation.
Compared with her, Freya herself seemed far more like a lost child.
"Hey, why don't you come help me?"
Mia, who had only just reached middle age at the time, casually invited her own goddess.
Freya instinctively frowned.
Even though she treated her Familia members generously, Mia's words were unquestionably insolent.
More importantly, Freya had not completely abandoned her search for a partner.
If no such person existed yet...
Then she would cultivate one herself.
With that dream in mind, Freya had only one demand for everyone in her Familia.
"Become stronger."
"And then capture my heart."
She said the same thing to every member.
Freya continuously gathered brilliant souls into her Familia, hoping that one day one of them would grow into the partner she sought.
Mia's response to that behavior was simple.
"You're just sitting around in the Tower of Babel with nothing better to do anyway."
"Instead of spending every day encouraging those little brats to get stronger, why don't you come teach this dumb dwarf how to run a tavern?"
Her overbearing attitude reminded Freya of Idun sitting down in that flower field without permission and talking endless nonsense at her.
Naturally...
Freya rejected Mia's request to leave the Familia.
Mia was also one of her potential future partners.
There was no way Freya would let her go so easily.
Even after Freya firmly told her that leaving was impossible, Mia did not give up.
About a week later, she came back again.
"If you're here to ask me the same thing as last time, please leave."
Freya sat high above her in the divine chamber at the very top of the Tower of Babel.
Mia scratched her head.
"What's the point of clinging to me so hard?"
"Even if you're worried about losing combat power, that boar should catch up to me soon enough and eventually surpass me."
"I'm getting old."
"I don't have the same drive as those little brats anymore."
"So please, Goddess-sama, give me a break."
"You are all precious children of mine."
Freya's answer was unusually firm.
"So I will not let even one of you leave."
That unprecedented stubbornness finally made Mia realize that Freya was serious.
"Hey."
Mia scratched her head again.
"I've wanted to ask this since I first joined."
"There are already plenty of people in the Familia, so why do you keep recruiting more adventurers?"
She gave Freya a suspicious look.
"Don't tell me you're the kind of god who's terrified of being lonely?"
"..."
Mia stared.
Then sighed dramatically.
"Wow. You really are."
"You always act so composed in front of those brats. Never thought you'd be this starved for 'love' yourself."
Mia possessed no divine eyes.
Yet with nothing more than ordinary human eyes, she saw directly through the weakness buried inside Freya's heart.
And struck it perfectly.
"How about this?"
As Freya unconsciously tightened her grip on the armrest of her throne, Mia made another proposal.
Just like Idun had once done.
"Didn't that girl Horn give you her name?"
"Then try living under it."
"Use human eyes and take another look at this enormous city."
"Maybe you'll see something different."
Like all mortals, Mia had no idea what the world looked like through divine eyes.
But she understood at least one thing.
When humans looked at the world, it did not normally leave them wearing the kind of lonely expression Freya so often showed.
So as repayment for all the years Freya had sheltered and cared for her, Mia wanted her goddess to experience the beauty of the world as humans saw it.
Freya agreed to let Mia leave the Familia.
The decision caused an uproar throughout Freya Familia.
For the first time ever, Freya allowed one of her children to leave.
The members immediately began wondering whether something about their own performance had disappointed Freya-sama.
The result was predictable.
Everyone began training even more obsessively, terrified that Freya might eventually become disappointed in them as well.
Among them, the one Freya currently regarded most highly, and the one closest to fulfilling her expectations, was Ottar.
Yet around that same period, Ottar noticed something strange.
For some reason, Freya had begun leaving the Familia far more often.
The lonely expression that once frequently appeared on her face had also gradually disappeared.
Meanwhile, Mia opened a tavern in Orario after leaving the Familia.
Its name was the Hostess of Fertility.
According to Mia herself, business was going rather well.
Ottar visited once.
Among the constantly shifting crowd inside the tavern, one gray-haired girl stood out more brilliantly than anyone else.
More than one adventurer entering the tavern found themselves captivated by her sincere smile.
She frequently claimed to be worried about the adventurers' health, then mischievously squeezed extra money out of them by ordering the largest and most expensive dishes on the menu.
That girl who effortlessly drew everyone's attention wherever she went...
Was called Syr Flover.
…