"I got scolded..."
Late at night, the golden-haired girl sat alone by the window, gazing up at the night sky.
She had expected to be scolded, but it was worse than she thought. Normally, it wouldn't have gone this far, but it was all because of that white-haired man.
"Puu..."
She puffed out her cheeks and grumbled. It felt as if she couldn't bear it unless she complained about something.
"My, my, Ais, why are you puffing out those cheeks like that~?"
"Loki..."
Seeing her own goddess poke at her cheeks, the girl began to mutter her grievances.
"U, uh?" Loki was flustered by the rare display of sulking from her usually stoic child, but soon, the goddess became strangely excited, exclaiming, "This is actually pretty...!" Seeing this, the girl's lament began in earnest.
The goddess of mischief looked at the girl with delighted eyes. Of course, the expression was vulgar and lowbrow beyond belief.
Still, seeing her child—who usually only ever looked worried—seem to have found a little peace of mind brought a genuine sense of relief. Even if she was always playful, her affection for her children was real.
"Ais has changed too~"
"...Changed? Me?"
"Yeah~ You've changed~"
"Ah..."
A shadow of distress flickered across the girl's face.
Change was the thing she hated most. It was the very culprit that had stolen her most precious moments.
"Oh, no, that's not it. This is a good kind of change."
"A good... change..."
"That's right! A good change! In other words, you could call it growth!"
"Growth..."
Seeing her child look sad, Loki hurriedly soothed her, and thankfully, the young girl's expression softened a little.
Thank goodness~ I almost got sentenced to the 'frozen tuna' treatment by Riveria...
"Did something good happen in the Dungeon? Why are you in such a good mood?"
"In the Dungeon...?"
At those words, a white light flashed through her mind.
Snow-white hair like the first snowfall, reminiscent of a rabbit, and ruby-red eyes that looked as if precious gems had been set into them.
...The fact that he only had one eye was extremely distracting, but those clear, deep eyes were the first she had ever seen that made her think, beautiful.
"Oh-ho, so there was someone like that. Is our Ais having a hard time because of that guy~?"
Even when Loki casually used a nickname Ais would normally never allow—our Ais—the girl only grumbled in response.
Now then, just what kind of guy did she meet...
What sort of man had she encountered for that sharp little thing to finally act like a girl her own age?
It was something they had all worked so hard for, and yet some random fellow had suddenly appeared and succeeded. It was enough to make Loki feel strangely indignant.
Perhaps that was why Loki, who was already mischievous by nature, wore an even more impish expression as she egged Ais on.
"Is that so, is that so? Then should I just go and beat that guy up for you?"
"Eh...?"
Ais looked as if she had just heard something she shouldn't have.
Loki sensed something was off, but she only grew more mischievous.
"Our Ais is angry because of that guy, isn't she~? I'll have the kids go and give him a proper thrashing!"
"No."
"Yes, ma'am."
At the unexpectedly firm voice, Loki shut her mouth. Quick on the uptake as ever, she understood. This was a landmine.
Trying to curry favor only to ruin her child's good mood would be a disaster, so she quickly backed off. Thanks to her swift response, Ais didn't seem to feel any worse.
Just a little angry, perhaps.
"Don't say things like that... It's not okay."
"Yes, understood, I'm sorry, I won't do it again."
The goddess bowed and scraped without a shred of pride under the girl's gaze. It was funny enough that a god would grovel before a mere human girl, but separate from that, the fact that Loki was thinking, This is this in its own way... was very much like her.
"Still, I'm really curious. What kind of guy is he for Ais to like him this much?"
"I don't like him."
"Yeah, yeah~ I get it, so spill the story."
"...Mm."
And so the girl began her story.
For Loki, who was hearing her young child tell such a long story for the first time, she forgot even to tease her. Instead, she looked at the golden-haired girl with a warm, pleased expression, closing her eyes and listening to her voice like a lullaby.
Even the way she stumbled over her words now and then, trying hard to convey the story with her meager gift for speech, was delightful in its own way.
The gods desired stories. Happy stories, sad stories, glorious tales of success, and ridiculous tales of failure.
Among them, the one they loved most was undoubtedly this one.
Heroic tales. The greatest reason the gods had descended to the mortal realm.
The children of the lower world were fascinating. Without special power like Arcanum, without immortality, they still changed and kept moving forward.
They sang lively songs that made shoulders bounce, created tragedies that brought tears to the eyes, repeated their own myths of success that drew applause, and suffered ridiculous failures that made people burst out laughing.
And in doing so, they built splendid heroic tales that even the gods admired.
The stories piled up and piled up, remaining forever in the gods' memories, becoming something they shared together.
Loki loved that. Every single story of every child of hers was a treasure and the meaning of her life.
That was why even the first "girl's story" she heard had a special flavor to it.
After all, the first memory is always special in that way.
"So then, when I was in danger, he suddenly appeared and kicked the Infant Dragon to death..."
"Mm-hm, mm-hm... huh?"
Then she heard something she couldn't just let pass.
"So..."
"Wait, wait, Ais. Hold on a second."
"Loki?"
"What did you just say? What did he kill?"
"The Infant Dragon..."
It seemed she hadn't misheard after all.
That doesn't sound like a lie...
What was an Infant Dragon?
A powerful monster said to serve as the de facto ruler of the upper floors where no floor boss existed.
A monster of the upper levels that threatened even Lv.1 and Lv.2 adventurers.
In Ais's case, because of her special skill and favorable match-up, she could fight one-on-one even as a Lv.1, but normally the standard was to hunt them in groups over a long period of time.
And she said he killed one of those Infant Dragons?
That's impossible.
Killing an Infant Dragon was fine. It wasn't that impossible.
The problem was the method.
"He really killed it with one kick?"
"Yes."
An Infant Dragon was a monster even Lv.2 adventurers couldn't always beat.
At the very least, you needed to be Lv.3 to win with any certainty.
And that was only if you were judging by victory alone. If he had killed it with a single kick, that was a different matter entirely.
Level 4? 5?
At minimum, he would have to be around that level to send an Infant Dragon flying with one kick.
Of course, that in itself wasn't wrong. Looking at Loki Familia alone, there were a few who could do something like that.
The problem was that it had been done by a human.
White hair, red eyes, one arm, one eye.
An unforgettable appearance, enough to make her want to complain, That's too many traits at once.
No matter how she looked at it, it was not the kind of appearance that would ever go unnoticed.
And yet, as far as she knew, there was no such person in Orario.
Of course, there could be people in Orario she didn't know about. But someone that strong, and yet completely unknown until now? That was clearly strange.
Is this Hermes's doing? That bastard did seem like he was hiding something...
The one she suspected most was the male god in the hat.
He was the kind of sneaky bastard Loki especially hated, a fellow she disliked on principle. So-called kin hatred.
I figured at most he was hiding his children's levels to lower the faction's rank, but he pulled off something this cute, did he?
Maybe not with another Familia, but with one that had ties to Zeus Familia? That was certainly possible.
It was a little irritating, but if that was the case, it made sense.
Or maybe it's the Evilus side.
That was possible too, but she didn't want to think ill of someone who had saved her child. If possible, she hoped that wasn't it.
Otherwise, she'd have to kill the very sanctuary Ais had finally found.
"Anything else? Like a name or something."
"I heard his name."
"Oh, really?"
So it's not Evilus?
If it were Evilus, they wouldn't reveal their names so easily. Maybe her worries were unfounded.
"But... it felt a little strange."
"Strange? What do you mean?"
"It felt like... it wasn't his real name."
"Hoho."
A fake name... well, that's only natural, I guess.
There was no proof that he had given his real name. She couldn't be sure he was Evilus, but he was definitely suspicious.
"It didn't seem fake..."
"Hm?"
"It was like... not fake, but not real either... that kind of feeling."
"What in the world does that mean?"
"I don't know."
With that, Ais turned her head away in a huff.
So that was the issue~
No wonder she'd been sulking strangely. It seemed she was angry because the man she liked hadn't told her his real name.
And she didn't even seem to realize it herself.
She's in bad shape, all right~
Just what kind of fellow had she met to change this little girl so much? At this point, Loki was starting to want to meet the man Ais had spoken of with pure curiosity.
"All right, then at least tell me that name. I'll go find him first thing tomorrow!"
"...Really?"
"Really, really."
"I don't believe you..."
"That's harsh, Ais. If you look into my pure eyes, that thought will vanish in an instant!"
Ais looked straight into Loki's eyes.
To her surprise, she saw nothing at all.
When Ais gave her a suspicious look, Loki used her fingers to pry her own eyes wide open.
"See now!"
"Loki, that's disgusting..."
"Kah?!"
A fatal blow! Loki's world went dark!
Unable to recover from the strike of her promising child, Loki was still reeling when she came to herself again, only after receiving Ais's lap pillow.
Huh? How did this happen again? She had questions, but Loki gave up on thinking.
"Heh-heh-heh, Ais-chan's bare thighs...! Sniff sniff! They smell like flowers! Her skin is soft and springy, this is truly the greatest in all the world!"
"..."
Even under her child's contemptuous stare, Loki remained faithful to her desires.
"Ah, right? What was that guy's name again?"
"Vesta."
At those words, Loki's hand, which had been stroking Ais's thigh, stopped.
"Vesta..."
"What is it?"
"...Nothing. It's just a name I know, that's all."
What flashed through her mind was an irritating little goddess.
A virgin goddess who was far younger than her, yet had absurdly huge breasts, flickered in and out of her head.
She's not supposed to be here yet, is she?
Coincidence? But it was a suspicious coincidence.
"Vesta is the name of a goddess, you know."
"A goddess's name..."
"Of course, it's not her real name, and it's not exactly a bad name either, so I can't say no one would use it as a name... but..."
Even as she said that, Loki couldn't help trailing off.
There was no particular reason. It was just a god's intuition flashing.
Don't dismiss intuition. A god's intuition is so incredible that it can stand as evidence all by itself.
It wasn't for nothing that Finn trusted Loki's judgment second only to his own thumb. Part of it was because she was his goddess, but he probably especially trusted this thing called intuition.
That cheeky little brat, honestly.
It was one of her favorite things about him, but sometimes, thinking of her first child—so excellent it made her want to flick his forehead—Loki continued her thoughts.
My gut says that guy is probably connected to that little brat.
She didn't know how, or what kind of connection it was, but for some reason she was certain of it.
How did he interfere? That stubborn little girl wouldn't have broken the rules...
Annoying as she was, the goddess of the hearth was definitely a good goddess. Even if she descended to the lower world, that fact would never change.
Though she still had a long way to go before that happened.
And Vesta probably isn't his real name either.
That was Ais's intuition, carrying the blood of a spirit on one side. It wasn't as accurate as a god's, but it was right often enough.
In this case, it was probably not his real name, but an alias.
Though it's strange that he even has an alias.
Aliases are only granted in Orario. But how many people actually follow that rule?
Even in the Kingdom of Rikia, that foolish Ares had ruled, and in other regions too, there were places where gods other than Ouranos reigned.
Orario was unique because it sat beside the Dungeon, but customs in other regions certainly existed as well.
Just in Telscula, hadn't there been two Level 5s born there before? There were definitely wonders outside Orario too.
Still, something feels off.
Even so, why would a guy like that be wandering around the Dungeon...
Dungeon exploration? Was he from somewhere else and simply found the Dungeon fascinating?
"Ah~ I dunno~"
"Loki?"
"Ah, nothing. Nothing at all."
Loki quickly changed the subject, remembering who had been using her lap as a pillow.
But the foolish expression that had been stretched across her lap was already long gone.
I'm definitely going to have to check this out~
Whether she knew the goddess's thoughts or not, the girl was once again staring blankly out the window.
Unlike usual, her mind was filled entirely with a white rabbit.
Not revenge, not hatred, just a white, adorable little rabbit.