The Protagonist System

Lili gently woke me up when it was time for us to leave. I opened my eyes and saw that my head was tucked into her belly as it rested on her lap. The warm smile on her face let me know that she didn't mind being a lap pillow for me and I surely didn't mind her doing it.

“Thanks for looking out for me.” I said and slowly sat up. I was only about half-healed, so I had to refrain from casting a cleaning spell to clean the dirt from my suit.

Lili saw my grimace and chuckled as she whispered that I had to do things the normal way for once and helped me pat the suit down and we shook most of the loose dirt off. I stood up and we did my pants, then we walked out of the Hephaestus Familia's compound. The passing guard waved to us and we waved back.

“Did anyone ask about me?” I asked her.

“Did you expect them to?” Lili asked me with a knowing smile.

I chuckled at her evading the answer. “You're going to tease me about it until I figure out who it was, aren't you?”

“Relentlessly.” Lili said with a huge smile.

I laughed and put an arm over her shoulders. “Go ahead. We have quite a walk ahead of us.”

Lili did and her verbal jabs and teasing was pretty good and never strayed into being mean. I complimented her on keeping it clean like that and she laughed and complained about how difficult that was. I figured out that both Tsubaki and Hephaestus had come out to check on me and they left with Lili's reassurances that Tsubaki's amulet was doing its job well.

We made it to the shop Hestia worked at and all of the customers were talking about the explosion that rocked the city that morning. Hestia saw us and waved us aside as she whispered that she only had a few minutes left before she could leave.

A few minutes later, her boss told her that she was done working her shift and sold her a large bag of discount potato snacks that Hestia paid for with the tips she earned that day. That made the man smile, because Hestia always did that and made sure the money she spent went to him first. The three of us left the shop and were quiet until we left the main street.

“What did you do?” Hestia asked me.

I opened my mouth to ask her what she meant and she reached out and poked my belly. A sharp pain shot through me and I flinched, then I sighed at being caught out so easily.

“You're walking like you're crossing dangerous ground and you're trying to be quiet.” Lili told me.

“I wasn't sure how to describe it, Lili. That was a great way! Thank you.” Hestia praised her.

Lili blushed slightly and nodded to her.

“So.” Hestia looked up at my face. “Go ahead and tell me.”

I sighed again and looked around as I took the chance to cast a detection spell. I winced and found three people following us and shook my head. “We have extra ears around.”

Lili quickly took my hand and Hestia's and we veered off the street and went down an alleyway. We ducked through a basement walkway and came out onto another street, then we jogged for a minute and entered an abandoned building. Lili placed us beside the wall and out of sight before she nodded to me.

I cast another spell with a wince and whispered where the remaining person was. We had lost the other two, thankfully. Lili nodded and drew her dagger. I reached out and placed a hand on hers and gave her a sharp nod of permission to kill him if necessary. She nodded back and left us there alone.

Ten minutes later, Lili carried a trussed up scruffy man with several bleeding wounds into the building. She dropped the man at our feet and kicked him in the gut. Neither Hestia nor I asked her why she was upset with the man, because we could clearly see the dirty handprint on the front of her dress.

“He dies for that.” I whispered to her.

Lili looked into my eyes and she nodded at the resolve she saw there. She stepped back from the source of her ire and let me kneel by the captured man.

I held my hand out for her dagger and Lili handed it to me without a word. “My Goddess Hestia, please close your eyes and cover your ears.” I said and she did so and turned around as well. “You will tell us why you're following us.”

The man barked a laugh. “You'll never make me taAHHH!”

I had interrupted his defiance with a dagger to his upper thigh. I pulled it out and moved it down an inch. “Let's try that again. Why are you following us?”

“Do your worsSSAAAHHH!” The man yelled.

I pulled the dagger out and moved down an inch. I didn't ask anything this time and stabbed him again. He started crying and I moved the dagger down an inch and did it again without speaking.

“All right! ALL RIGHT! I'll talk! I'LL TALK!” The man yelled, then he did so.

Apparently, someone from the Freya Familia had gotten word that I was somehow involved with the disappearance of their Goddess, because she had been interested in me and had me under observation for several weeks before trying to approach me. He had been paid a lot of valis to track me down and to bring me to the Tower of Babel where the Freya Familia was waiting.

The other two people were from the Loki Familia and didn't have a skill as good as his Hunting skill. I sighed at that and looked at Lili as I gave her the dagger back. I nodded towards Hestia and Lili walked around us to hug Hestia and made sure her eyes and ears were covered.

The man looked relieved that I was no longer going to use the knife on him and I quickly drew my sword and stabbed him right through the neck. I twisted the blade and had to decline the Karma Absorption option again, because I was saving up to remove the curse from Hephaestus' mangled eye. I had no idea what kind of Karmic Debt this man had built up after years of hunting down targets for money and I felt kind of bad that I couldn't accept it or possibly gain his skill in exchange.

The cost wasn't worth it, just like it hadn't been when I personally killed that giant frog woman and Aisha and was given the same option. I knew they did a lot of bad things in their lives and I couldn't plunge myself that deep into debt on a world where it was so difficult to earn those Karma points back.

In fact, I had only gained 3,200 points for offing the entire Ishtar Familia. Everyone in the city knew they were the biggest prostitution and gambling rings in the city and were full of corruption. I did feel better about taking all those lives when I received a 1,200 Karma point bonus for breaking their charms over their civilian prostitutes and club workers.

I clutched at the pain in my chest as I spent another 300 magic points to disintegrate the body. He hadn't had any valuables on him and we couldn't leave his body to be found. Without an expanded backpack to hold him, magic was the only way to dispose of him.

“Idiot.” Lili whispered and knelt by me to hold me steady.

“At least I'm not dying.” I said and coughed up some blood.

Hestia walked over to stand in front of me and glared down at me. “You have a lot of explaining to do, my Bell. A lot of explaining.”

I nodded acceptance and held a hand out to her. Hestia took it and knelt to hug it to her chest, gave me a quick kiss, and slung my arm over her shoulder as the three of us stood. I was a little wobbly and had to deal with it, because we couldn't stay there any longer. I didn't cast a detection spell, though. I just knew that sticking around a crime scene was a mistake, because it always was.

We left the abandoned building at a slow walking pace and stayed in the shadows as much as possible as we worked our way back to the church. By the time we reached the dead end where the church was, I was feeling well enough that I could laugh at seeing Hestia's outrageous reaction to the 10 foot tall marble statue of her sitting on a throne.

The large and quite real sapphires in the eyes seemed to follow you as you walked closer and the gold jewellery and silver dress really stood out against the marble-colored skin. The statue was behind a formed metal brazer that was the same as her emblem and the hearth had a roaring orange-yellowish flame burning inside that never went out, thanks to a lot of charged magic and runes for flames and protection.

Hestia ranted about how pretentious it was and how that had nothing to do with welcoming, until I pointed out her wide arms that begged for a hug and the beaming smile on her face. She moved on to say it was too big and I countered that it was only twice her size and that was only because I couldn't figure out how to make it bigger and still fit it above the front doors.

Her rant changed to people wanting to rob us and steal all that wealth, so I told her that it was warded and that everyone would assume that it was fake, just like the gold covering Ishtar's old temple compound and Ganesha's Colosseum.

Hestia caught her breath and stopped her rant to stare at me. “What do you mean by her old temple?”

Lili chuckled under her breath and shook her head at me giving the secret away.

“Let's go inside and I'll explain everything.” I said and they helped me down the stairs and sat me on the couch that was mine and Hestia stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. “Potato treats while we talk?”

Hestia glared at me for another few seconds before she nodded and divided up what she bought and the three of us sat down and started to eat.

I swallowed a bite and looked at Hestia. “What do you know about Freya?”

“She is the strongest goddess in the world right now and spends all of her time at the top of the Tower of Babel to look down on everyone in Orario. It's her favorite pastime. Her Familia is also the strongest Familia and has the most members. Some of her children are Level 7 and there are rumors that she has a secret Level 8 hidden somewhere.”

“She's not the strongest goddess anymore. Her mortal body is dead.” I said and took another bite of my potato treat.

“Wh-wh-WHAT?!?” Hestia gasped, the half-eaten treat in her hand was forgotten.

“She's been dead for a couple of days, actually. I meant to tell you about it and ended up too busy and forgot about it.” I said and took another bite and chewed it up. “We need to buy some honey from somewhere. These things would be great with...”

“My Bell.” Hestia said, her voice full of authority. “What happened to Freya?”

“That guy we found told you what happened. Freya somehow was interested in me and tried to investigate me, only she was a little too eager to get close to me.” I said and took another bite of the treat and smiled. “She had been posing as a barmaid and popped up right behind me when I was heading through the city wearing my full armor.”

Lili laughed and slapped a hand over her own face. “What an idiot! Even the newest adventurer knows that you always make noise when approaching another adventurer.”

“If she had approached me by walking up, I wouldn't have reacted like I did. She just appeared within arms reach and I swung around as I drew my weapon, because I assumed it was an attack. She was dead before either of us could blink.” I explained.

“That's what that bright light was the other day. No one could figure out who was missing from the normal meeting circles.” Hestia said, her face showing a thoughtful look.

“Which Freya would have missed if she usually stays in her rooms and doesn't interact with the other gods on a regular basis.” I said with a nod. “I wonder what will happen to her Familia now?”

“Nothing.” Hestia said and I raised my eyebrows at her. “They are all fully devoted to her and would never consider defecting to join another Familia. Their skills and abilities are locked unless they do join someone else, so the Freya Familia is essentially disbanded without being officially disbanded.”

“What should I do with her body?” I asked, just out of curiosity.

“You still have it?” Both Lili and Hestia asked at the same time. They had seen me get rid of a body already and knew I didn't have to leave remains if I didn't want to.

“Technically.” I said with a smirk and finished off the potato treat.

“Bell!” Both women exclaimed.

I chuckled. “It's currently concealed inside the marble throne that the Hestia statue is sitting on above the front doors of this church.”

Both women stared at me with shock on their faces for almost a full minute.

Hestia was the first to break and started to giggle like a little girl. “My likeness is sitting on Freya's dead body?”

“Your perfectly formed marble ass is sitting right on her face, actually.” I said and picked up another potato treat. “I thought it was appropriate.”

“I LOVE YOU, MY BELL!” Hestia yelled and lunged for me. My face was covered in kisses before I could do more than laugh and hug her back with one arm.

Lili plucked the treat from my hand and started eating it. “Your hands and lips are busy.”

I nodded and gave Hestia a full hug and returned the multiple kisses she gave me. She was blushing when I finished returning her affection and she settled down on my lap as she looked into my eyes.

“My Bell, I...” Hestia paused and took a deep breath. “I'm not jealous of the girls you've been with.”

“I know.” I said and she looked surprised. “You've been very accommodating and you haven't tried to stop me from talking to or interacting with anyone, even though I have been really busy lately and haven't had a chance to spend much time with you.”

“That's because I believed you when you said that everything you do was for me.” Hestia said.

“It is, even the accidents.” I said and she giggled. “You see, I think Ishtar noticed that the Freya Familia stopped moving around the last couple of days. Since she's been so obsessed about becoming the most desirable woman in the city, by using her own charms to try and counter Freya's charms, she would have noticed that she wasn't meeting any resistance.”

“With what that man said, she would also know that you were the last man Freya was interested in, so you would be the first one Ishtar would seek out for answers.” Hestia said and I nodded, because that was what made sense. “Since that's true, what happened today?”

Both Lili and I recounted what happened from the moment of the blatant charm use in broad daylight, to the power play from Ishtar's Head of her Familia to steal her conquests, to me dealing with them and then setting off an explosion so strong that it was felt halfway across the city.

“...and that's how I ended up so hurt. I cast too much magic in too short a time.” I finished. “I barely had enough magic left to activate an emergency teleportation to the closest ritual circle.”

Hestia gave me a sorrowful look before she leaned in and gave me a long and lingering kiss. “My Bell.” She whispered. “You are an idiot and I love you so much.”

Lili softly laughed and nodded several times. “I completely agree. He's reckless as well.”

I opened my mouth to argue, then shrugged. “I got nothing. You're right.”

Hestia gave me a quick kiss before she climbed off of my lap. “Now we can baby you and take care of you, because you're too hurt to refuse.” She said and giggled. “Lili, it's bath time!”

I would later swear that I witnessed a cloth explosion because both women were suddenly naked as their entire outfits flew off in multiple directions. I was so stunned to suddenly see two beautiful women without clothes in front of me, that I was dragged across the room into the bathroom and didn't even realize it until they started washing me. I couldn't even tell you where my clothes went.

Both Hestia and Lili snuggled into my sides in the tub and I could do nothing but put my arms over their shoulders and hugged them. My whispered words of thanks for taking care of me, made both of them blush, and they kissed my cheeks and hugged me tightly. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the bath and let all of our worries fade away.