First Bath – The Fire Country’s Specialty, Hot Tofu

We arrived in Hephaestusopolis a few days after exiting the underground tunnel.

Roni sat in the driver’s seat. Clena, Rium, and Rakti were inside the carriage wagon. Rulitora and I were armed, keeping guard from outside the carriage.

The region was filled with red-tinted mountains as far as the eye could see. The occasional tree dotted the landscape, but despite it barely being the end of summer, they were also coated in a red hue as if it was the middle of autumn. In short, my entire view was colored red. The skies were still cloudy today, so I couldn’t see any blue, either.

I initially thought the red mountains stood out here, but they were hardly the only thing colored red. According to Clena, nature here was like this year-round. Unlike the deciduous plants in Japan that would change colors every season, the plants here were red due to all the fire spirits.

I see, so this was what Rakti meant by “a single glance.” The pure red color certainly brought fire to mind.

Not to mention it was hot. It wasn’t as bad as the void at least, since the sun wasn’t beating down on us. But Rulitora was the only one keeping a straight face right now.

Hephaestusopolis was located at the foot of a mountain in this scorching weather. Since the country rested along a gentle incline, I could see sprawling white houses beyond the city entrance. Farther in, I saw stacks of smoke coming from certain buildings.

“What are those? Not a fire, right?”

“I believe those are workshops. Hephaestusopolis is particularly known for its blacksmiths. There are mines close to Mt. Lemnos in the distance, then blacksmith workshops, then houses closest to where we are.”

I looked up at the mountain as I listened to Roni’s explanation.

Hephaestusopolis. This was the location of the head temple of the Goddess of Fire, as well as the go-to place for blacksmiths. The sprawling white city left a distinct impression in the red landscape. The blocky white buildings resting on the slopes reminded me of tofu.

As we approached the city entrance, we spotted a crowd of people outside. Rulitora was the first once to notice with his sharp eyes.

“Sir Touya. There is a group of people outside the city entrance.”

“People? Are they armed?”

“I can’t tell from here, but I don’t believe they are...”

I wondered for a moment if they were tourists coming to see the Goddess of Fire’s head temple, but then I remembered that that wouldn’t make sense in this world. Only a few people traveled in this world, since they’d bear the risk of being attacked by monsters. When we drew a little closer, Rulitora noticed something else about the crowd.

“Hmm... the people in the front of the group are clerics.”

“What? They’re wearing cleric robes?”

“Yes. They look slightly different, but they’re similar to the robes we saw at the temples in Jupiter and Ceres.”

Cleric robes were normally white, but could be decorated differently at the hems depending on the temple. The light temple’s robes were embroidered with gold thread, while the earth temple used a plant-like green.

As we drew closer, the rest of us could see the group as well. They didn’t look like they were waiting to get access into the country. If they were, they’d be facing away from us and looking toward the city entrance, but they were looking away from the city—at us. They noticed our presence and a group of them at the vanguard came rushing over to us.

“Three red and one gold.”

Four people were running up to us, all of them clerics. The red most likely signified that they were from the Goddess of Fire’s temple.

I had some idea of what was happening. I had contacted Haruno after we defeated the Masked Cleric, one of the demon generals. I also told her that we’d be going to Hephaestusopolis. Haruno was staying with the pilgrims right now, so they must have contacted the temple for us. How did they know I was the hero, though?

“I see you have a muscular sand lizardman with you... Might you be the Hero of the Goddess, Sir Touya?”

I looked up toward Rulitora at those words. Of course. He’d be the easiest identifier.

“Yes, I am. Are you the clerics of this country?”

“I represent the Goddess of Light’s templ—”

“We represent the temple of the Goddess of Fire, please let us be of assistance!”

The cleric from the light temple came up to me first, out of breath. However, the remaining three from the fire temple pushed him aside. The three fire clerics were middle-aged men panting in exhaustion, but the light cleric was particularly young, skinny, and seemed unreliable. I could tell what the power balance was like in this country just from these four.

I had spread news about the demon general’s defeat to boost my reputation. There was no use in hiding it, so I handed them my status card and confirmed that I was indeed the Hero of the Goddess. They opened their eyes wide at my MP and MEN stats, but that made it all the more clear that I was a hero.

“I came to receive a blessing from the Goddess of Fire. Guide me to the fire temple.”

“Ooh!”

“No...! Are you casting aside your faith toward the Goddess of Light?!”

Three out of the four responded happily at my proclamation. The fourth let out a cry of despair, though.

“No, no,” I responded to him. I was barely pious in the first place. “I already have the Goddess of Earth’s blessing, though it’s not from the head temple. I’m planning on getting all of the goddess blessings.”

“...!” All four of them were speechless at my statement. They were probably reminded of the arch-cleric from the first sacred king’s party, San Pilaca, who had been blessed by five goddesses. I had received the Goddess of Darkness’ blessing as well, but I kept that a secret for now.

“I-in that case...” The light cleric stepped back. He probably figured that he wasn’t relevant to the situation. I was a bit concerned about Rakti, but I had no reason to be cold to a cleric from the light temple, so I tried talking to him.

“Oh, can I ask that you deliver a message to Jupiter’s temple?”

“Wha... Oh, yes! What is the message?” The cleric was caught off guard for a moment, but then leaned himself forward in curiosity.

“We defeated the demon general named Masked Cleric at the ruins of the demon lord’s castle. There are six generals remaining, the Five Great Demon Generals and the Beast King.”

“My goodness, you defeated one too...?”

“...‘too’?” I couldn’t ignore that one word from the cleric’s mouth. What did he mean, “too”?

“We received a message the other day. A hero of the sacred king, Natsuki, defeated the Beast King.”

Natsuki? That was referring to Kannami Natsuki. Back in Jupiteropolis, he had defeated his party candidates one by one, looking for someone to match him in battle. He was the most battle-ready of all the summoned heroes. So he had defeated a general too, huh.

“Okay then, tell them that only the Five Great Demon Generals remain.”

“Understood. Right away, sir!”

In any case, this would give the cleric something important to do. The light cleric ran back to his temple in a hurry, while the fire clerics guided us into the city.

Once we passed the gates, we met with a group of temple knights and temple ravers. All of us headed for the temple as one large group. There was no way we didn’t stand out like this.

“Over there is the temple of fire.” The oldest-looking cleric pointed toward a building with chalk-colored walls. I was worried that the temple might be bright red and hurt my eyes, but my fears were unfounded.

“Is it possible to conduct the blessing ritual right away?”

“Unfortunately not. It takes a day to prepare, so we can do it tomorrow at the soonest.”

“Okay, we’d like to repair our equipment first, then. Would you mind introducing us to a skilled blacksmith?”

“Understood. In that case...” The cleric stopped talking and eyed the other two clerics.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, er...”

The cleric looked at Rulitora, then inside the carriage. I looked back to see Roni in the driver’s seat. They were most likely looking at her.

“...Um, do you mind if the blacksmith is a demi-human, Sir Hero?”

“What?”

“Well, many of the skilled blacksmiths here are demi-human, not human...”

I cocked my head at the clerics, who were awfully hesitant in speaking further. “I’m sure you know, but I was summoned from another world. I have no idea what you guys are worried about.”

The clerics looked at each other again. What were they deliberating over?

“Well... there should be no issues then, if you do not mind.”

“What do you mean?”

“The problem is usually on the customer’s side, you see.” “...Oh, I get it.”

I got the gist of it. The issue wasn’t that the blacksmith was a demi-human, but whether or not the customer disliked demi-humans. I was a Hero of the Goddess, but that was short for Hero of the Temple of the Goddess of Light. After Rakti was sealed, the demi-humans had all their power extinguished. Perhaps followers of the Goddess of Light tended to disapprove of demi-humans in the past. The temple elder at Jupiter treated Rulitora perfectly normally, though. The prejudice likely wasn’t as widespread these days and varied based on the individual. If I hadn’t had Rulitora with me, the cleric might have skipped the question altogether and introduced me to a human blacksmith.

“I’m sure you understand from looking at Rulitora here, but I don’t mind, so just introduce me to someone with skill.”

“Ohh...!” the temple knights exclaimed in response. What were they so impressed about?

“Oh, I have one other request. Could you introduce us to someone who deals with magic weapons, or at least is able to analyze them?”

We had picked up a variety of equipment in Hadesopolis, so this was important.

“Would you mind if it was someone different from the skilled blacksmith we’d recommend?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

The clerics breathed a sigh of relief, hands on their chests. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t ask you to find some superhuman for me. What was the image of a “hero” in their minds, anyway?

In any case, we didn’t want to go straight to the places the clerics recommended. We headed to the temple, dropped off our excess belongings, and separated from the temple knights.

“Ahh, I can finally breathe in the air outside the carriage.”

We weren’t attracting as many stares now that our group was smaller. There were still a few people stealing glances at Rulitora, but that couldn’t be avoided. Sand lizardmen were a rare sight in human civilization.

Roni was in the driver’s seat, while Rium was riding on Rulitora’s shoulders. Clena had stepped out of the carriage and was walking beside me. Rakti remained inside the wagon, perhaps not wanting to attract stares. I left her in Roni’s care.

We had one young cleric and two temple knights accompany us. The cohort from earlier was them trying to demonstrate their authority over the light temple. Apparently they normally didn’t go to such lengths to greet someone.

“By the way, what kind of demi-human will we be seeing?”

“Oh, they’re small, but don’t be condescending about it. Many of them dislike it if you do.”

“So they’re short?”

“Yes, you could say that. They’re stronger than they look, though.”

Blacksmiths who were short yet strong. I could imagine what they looked like.

“Do they have mustaches?”

“Of course.”

“Even the women?”

The cleric nodded. Clena cocked her head at our exchange.

“Have you heard of them, Touya?”

“I guess you could say that?” I gave her a vague reply.

From the cleric’s description and knowing that they were blacksmiths, the name “dwarf” came to mind. They were a famous race who commonly appeared in fantasy stories. The elf who had joined Cosmos’ party was another famous race I had heard of. I grew excited to meet a race I had only read about in the past. I picked up the pace a little as we made our way to the smithy.

“Meowcome to my smithy.”

We arrived at the smithy and the owner greeted us like so. I wanted to make a joke, but I suppressed the urge and kept my mouth shut. The rest of the group looked at me in confusion as I wriggled around in my internal struggle.

Yes, he was short. He only came up to my waist. He was wielding a large hammer over his shoulder, so he appeared to be strong as well. And I suppose you could say he had a mustache. The one in front of us was male, but I was sure females had them as well. I could tell from his face.

“So what brings mew here to my smithy?”

I was staring back at a cat’s face. Yeah, the blacksmith we had been recommended wasn’t a dwarf, but a two-legged cat. Apparently they were a race of demi-humans called ketolts. He didn’t look very muscular, in fact he only seemed heavy-built from the waist down. But he was still waving a large hammer around like it was nothing. He was definitely stronger than he looked.

Come to think of it, Roni was stronger than she looked as well. Rulitora looked strong, but in reality he was even stronger. Maybe all demi-humans were like that.

We entered the smithy, and the sooty walls provided a stark contrast to the chalk-white walls outside. Unlike in Jupiter, the workshop and reception desk weren’t separated by any walls here. There was a counter as soon as you entered the door, and then the furnace and work benches with tools scattered around were right beyond that.

“Purrr, we have some young customers here today.”

The ketolt blacksmith looked up at me, head tilted to the side. He had white fur, but it was sooty from his blacksmith work. He wore a brown leather vest, trousers, and boots reinforced with metal at the toes. The trousers had a hole in them for his tail to go through. His tail was sooty too, no longer its original white color.

He looked adorable, but was actually a middle-aged man in his forties. Honestly, he looked pretty dashing. Was this the vibe an adult man was supposed to give off?

His name was Pardoe Paul. He was one of the top blacksmiths in Hephaestusopolis. Not only that, he was one of fewer than five blacksmiths who knew how to deal with magic weapons and armor. Apparently having a family name in this country was proof that you were a capable blacksmith as well.

“Well, standing ameownd won’t get us anywhere, come on in~”

We were led to another ketolt with pure white fur. She was wearing a skirt and an apron. Her tail peeked out from under her skirt.

Her name was Crissa Paul, and... she was Pardoe’s daughter. So the women grew mustaches after all. If you counted whiskers as mustaches, that is.

On that note, Crissa was apparently well known in the neighborhood as a beautiful girl with a kind personality, and everyone wondered how such a good daughter had been born from such a gruff father. Well, I couldn’t tell the difference between them. I could tell the difference between Rulitora and Dokutora, but I could barely tell cats with similar physiques apart. Pardoe was just a little bigger than his daughter.

Crissa led Clena, the cleric, and me to a table. We had left the other four waiting by the carriage outside. Pardoe sat himself down, arms crossed, and I began talking.

“We found some armor that had magic cast on it, so we’d like to know what sort of spell it is. And if it’s not anything dangerous, I’d like you to tailor it for me.”

“Purr... You sure look like you’ve fought through some tough battles,” Pardoe murmured as he looked at the brigandine I was wearing.

My armor had been thoroughly roughed up by the flying swords Goldfish had sent at me and was now torn all over the place. Since ruins were being scavenged everywhere nowadays, maybe it was normal to get this tattered up to find magic equipment. I had figured it’d be easier to get a new set of armor rather than repair my current one, and Pardoe probably guessed the same as he nodded along.

“What else did mew find?” Pardoe asked, leaning forward. His eyes were sparkling with keen interest.

“Well... we did find some other things, but could we deal with that armor first? We want to make sure we’re properly protected.”

“Meow~ We’ll save the rest as a treat for later, then. So where’s this armurrr?

“It’s in the carriage up front. Hey, Rulitora!”

We had taken the armor out of the Unlimited Bath beforehand, so I shouted for Rulitora to come over. Soon enough, he came inside with the full set of armor in hand.

Pardoe and Crissa opened their eyes wide at Rulitora’s giant stature. Crissa even hid herself behind Pardoe, frightened. Pardoe quickly collected himself, though, and began inspecting the armor at once.

He used something that looked like a golden magnifying glass, a magic circle drawn on parchment, and a crystal ball faintly tinted crimson. All of them were tools I had never seen before. They were likely helping him determine what kind of spell had been cast on the armor.

He was in his forties, but he was about the size of a human child, so I couldn’t help but think he looked like a child playing with his toys. His eyes had sparkled like a kid’s when I told him about the magic armor, too.

Anyway, it was the black set of armor with two horns pointing out from the helmet. Rakti had confirmed that the armor had some spell cast on it, but she wasn’t able to tell what. The design was enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually cursed.

“Will this take time?” I asked the cleric in a low voice.

“No, inspections can be finished almost immediately. That’s what all those tools are for.” He answered me in a similarly low voice, covering his mouth.

Analysis didn’t take much time by itself, since the tools did most of the work. It was possible to not use tools and cast spells to directly analyze the item instead, but that took too much time and would wear out the practitioner quickly. On that note, the spells used were categorized under “artisan magic” here, not cleric magic.

“Hmm...” Pardoe was deep in thought as he inspected the armor.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Not wrong, but... you could say it’s cursed, in a sense?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it were, but what do you mean by that?”

“Well, it’s not actually cursed. It’s got a propurr spell cast on it.” Pardoe faced us and started explaining the details on the spell. “This set of armor can deter all attacks.”

“Whoa! That’s like legendary armor, isn’t it?!” Clena jumped up from the table and yelled out in shock.

Even I could tell it was something special. Speaking in game terminology, it was like gear that negated all types of damage. It’d be something you couldn’t obtain until endgame.

“In exchange, it sucks MP from its wearer after every attack.”

“...So every time you’d take damage?”

“The amount it absorbs depends on each attack as well... if I were to give this armor an inscription, it’d be the ‘magic eater.’”

“...Well, I get that this is some pretty dangerous armor, at least.”

I understood why Pardoe said it was cursed in a sense. I could tell why it had been left in the armory unused now. You couldn’t control how much MP it sucked away from you, after all.

“Honestly, you could collapse at any time if you wore this. I wouldn’t recommend this armor... It would take some time, but I could make a mew set for you as well,” Pardoe told us in a worried tone. But in response, I showed him my status card.

“...No, don’t worry about it. Work on it for me.”

Pardoe and Crissa peered at my status card next to each other, and then their tails whipped upward. Crissa’s tail lifted up her skirt. Well, it wasn’t a surprising reaction, seeing as how my stats were shooting off the card itself.

“...U-understood. I’ll take care of it. So you want me to tailor it to your size?”

I was wondering if it was possible to modify a piece of armor with a spell cast on it, but Pardoe was showing no signs of getting worked up despite being a little baffled. He sure was professional.

“I should call Shakova over for this.”

“Shakova?”

“Shakova Remus. He’s second to none when it comes to fiddling with magic equipment.”

According to Pardoe, he was another ketolt blacksmith good enough to have a family name. Pardoe was at the top in magic appraisals and handling, but Shakova beat him in craftsmanship and ornamentation.

“I see. Please do, then.”

“So about the price...”

After we agreed, Crissa came forward holding something in her hands. It looked similar to an abacus with round stones inside the frame.

She was in charge of all monetary matters. What an upstanding lady. Rather, Pardoe seemed like he was the typical workaholic handyman who couldn’t be bothered to calculate anything.

In any case, the total cost ended up being quite high, maybe because we were dealing with a magic item. The tailoring itself cost ten times as much as the brigandine I bought in Jupiteropolis. The fee for bringing in Shakova’s services also contributed to the final amount. It was like a technical fee.

I looked over at Clena just in case, and she nodded at me in response. So the price was fair.

“Why don’t we have him inspect that black thing while we’re at it?”

“You mean the metal grave marker?”

“Yeah, that. The grave marker.”

We figured it might need some fine-tuning, so we had Pardoe take a look at it as well. He confirmed that the grave marker had been cast with a spell that unleashed tremendous power against demons. It was definitely something the first sacred king had used, judging by the “Demon King of the Sixth Heaven” inscription as well.

This would be proof that Hadesopolis was once the home of the demon lord. I’d tell both temples about this and have them spread the word.

I had some other ideas about the grave marker as well, but I wanted to focus on the armor for now. If this went well, then we would have them work on our other equipment too. I agreed to the price without trying to haggle. I paid a portion of it as deposit.

Clena also suggested we show him one of the chests of gold coins we’d found, and he confirmed that it was the real deal.

After that, Pardoe took my measurements. I wondered how he would do it with his small body, but he took out a stepladder. I knew he was a middle-aged man, but I couldn’t keep myself from smiling as his tail swayed back and forth.

After that, we left the “magic eater” armor to Pardoe and returned to the Goddess of Fire’s temple. The elder greeted us when we arrived. He was a tanned, muscular man with a boisterous laugh. All the other temples were similar enough to each other, but the temple of the Goddess of Fire felt particularly broadminded. They had a fiery atmosphere, you could say.

Of course Rakti entered the temple along with us, but no one took any notice of her true identity. I asked her about it, and she said concealing herself was a simple task.

Since the blessing ritual wasn’t until tomorrow, we were guided to our room after our meeting with the elder. It was another fancy VIP room reserved for pilgrims. The room itself was similar to the one we had stayed in at the earth temple. There were separate living and bedrooms.

“And of course, there’s this,” I muttered, looking at the relief hung on the pillar above the fireplace. The relief depicted the five goddess—or rather six goddesses, except the last had been cut off.

The bottom of the relief should have depicted the Goddess of Darkness, Rakti, but it had been broken off. Rakti looked at the relief from beside me with a complex expression.

“It’s kind of weird looking at it again, though.”

“What do you mean?” Clena asked from behind me.

I continued staring at the relief and said assertively, “They look nothing like the actual goddesses.”

I had only seen the Goddess of Light and the Goddess of Earth in my dream, but they looked nothing like these depictions. The Goddess of Light looked more majestic and had a harsher personality, while the Goddess of Earth was like a kind older sister. I looked at Rakti, who was nodding in agreement to my words. She didn’t think they looked alike either.

“By the way, are they ordered by age here?”

“They should be.”

“Light, Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, was it? Earth didn’t seem like she’d be the second youngest at all.”

“That’s right. She’s the closest to Rakti in age.”

Come to think of it, she had been soothing Rakti while the Goddess of Light was scolding her in my dream. Maybe she was the motherly type by nature.

“It’s okay to be surprised, Touya. Sister Earth is very mature.”

“...Whoever carved this had never seen the goddesses before.”

“That’s true. We haven’t shown ourselves to humans for a long, long time now. It’s the first time I’ve heard of someone seeing us in a dream, too.”

“Not even San Pilaca did?”

“Oh, the one who received all of my sisters’ blessings... no, I don’t believe they met my sisters either. Also, they kept on ignoring me...”

Rakti had a mix of emotions on her face. They were enemies back then, so not much could have been done about that.

So even San Pilaca never met the goddesses in a dream, huh. What in the world was that dream, anyway?

“What kind of person is the Goddess of Fire?” Roni asked.

“Sister Fire is always really cheerful and energetic...” Rakti looked over to her and replied. She seemed to cheer up a little. She must have been good friends with the Goddess of Fire.

“I bet she doesn’t look anything like this relief either, right?”

“Oh, she doesn’t. Not at all.”

“Now I want to see this relief with all six goddesses on it. Not that it would make them look any more accurate or anything.”

“I don’t remember seeing anything in the temple in Hadesopolis...”

“Actually, there was a relief of just one person in the temple ruins.”

Rium and Rulitora joined the conversation.

“Oh yeah, I think I remember that...” I searched my memories and just barely recalled seeing a relief in the temple.

“I’m sorry. That was me.” Rakti started apologizing for some reason. She had no reason to, though. I wondered if it was just a habit.

“...That depiction couldn’t have been further off, though.”

Rakti wasn’t even that old, for one.

“I’m so sorry...”

“Okay, stop there. The real one is much cuter, so keep your chin up.”

I had to make sure Rakti didn’t fall into one of her holes again.

I woke up in the temple of the Goddess of Fire’s VIP room the next day. The layout of the room was mostly similar to what we had seen in the Goddess of Light’s temple in Ceresopolis. By the standards of this world, this was essentially a five-star hotel.

My bed was the second from the wall. Rulitora was lying face-down on the bed closest to the wall. His long striped tail was spilling from the edge of the bed as he slept. His posture was as sloppy as ever, like a father who was taking a much-needed break from work on the weekend. The ceremony for the Goddess of Fire’s blessing wouldn’t be until afternoon. Since we were always relying on Rulitora day in and day out, I let him sleep for now.

Rium had buried herself into my bed. She had originally come here to deliver the holy tool I needed to communicate with Haruno’s party. She ended up tagging along during our investigation into Hadesopolis, but still wasn’t showing any sign of going back now that that was over. She was hardly being a bother, not to mention we had gone farther east and away from Athena, where Haruno was, after crossing the void, and I wasn’t about to let Rium go back on her own. I’d sent Haruno a message last night saying as much, and received a reply asking us to take care of Rium for the time being.

I looked over at the bed beside me to see Rakti’s sleeping face. It felt a little wrong to say this about a goddess, but she truly looked like an angel as she slept.

One bed down from her was Clena, who had woken up and was rubbing her eyes, still half-asleep. She had a bit of a bedhead.

Roni should have been sleeping in the next bed, but she was nowhere to be seen. She had probably gotten up already. Though the temple was taking care of our meals, she still had plenty of tasks on her plate, such as mending our clothes. She was as much of a workaholic as ever. I’d need to thank her later.

“Morning, Clena. You look sleepy.”

“Good morning. I guess I am, but...”

“What’s wrong?”

Clena was staring at me for some reason. Was that a hint of jealousy in her eyes, or was I imagining things?

“I realized something. Even the VIP room in a temple can’t compare to how secure I feel sleeping in the Unlimited Bath...”

“Oh...” I mumbled, understanding how she felt.

I wasn’t complaining, but now that we knew that the temples were hiding a sixth goddess, this wasn’t exactly a place we could rest peacefully. The fact that we had brought along Rakti Loa, the Goddess of Darkness and the youngest goddess sister concealed by history, wasn’t helping. In contrast, my Unlimited Bath, which blocked all interference with the outside world, was a space where we could rest without having to worry about anybody bothering us. Though I had gotten desensitized to the fact that the Goddess of Darkness was right next to me, there was one thing I couldn’t forget. The Olympus Alliance had made all knowledge and documents pertaining to this goddess taboo.

“Would you rather sleep in there starting tonight?”

“I don’t mind either way. I appreciate having a real bed, too.”

It was exciting to stay in a room in a foreign land, but it was also perfectly reasonable to prefer the Unlimited Bath for its security.

“Oh yeah, who should we go to for new bedding?”

“The Ficus Brand could take care of that.”

According to Clena, the legendary pervert Ficus, who had focused exclusively on crafting women’s undergarments, was also the name to trust for all things sleep-related. It’d be a different story if we had to consider traveling, but they were the best in the business for bedding and garments for indoor use. Now that we had a Japanese-style bedroom, I wanted to get us better bedding instead of sleeping on the blankets we had been using up until now. If it was possible, I wanted a set of Japanese futons.

Clena looked like she was about to change, so I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath. In the past, the girls would change while I stayed outside, but now the Unlimited Bath was divided into a few rooms. There was a big changing room, a bathing room, and a Japanese-style bedroom. Clena usually used the bedroom, so I got dressed in the changing room.

I quickly put on my clothes and washed my face to freshen up, then looked around the changing room, where all our luggage had been piled up. It was filled with the treasures we had scavenged from Hadesopolis. We’d thought about exchanging all of them for gems, but how would we even approach getting rid of so much? It was a crazy amount, including what we had already transported outside. So much that they wouldn’t all fit inside the carriage no matter how tightly we packed them. If we were asked how we’d managed to carry so much, I’d have to reveal at least a little bit about my gift. Because of that, we’d need to find someone trustworthy.

We thought about selling a portion of it ourselves as well, but who knew how quickly we’d be able to free up space in our room that way? I wanted to free up some space as quickly as possible, so we’d need to find a way to sell them off all at once.

“Is the sink free?”

Clena finished dressing herself and came back out. She was wearing a clean-looking white dress. The dress looked rather fancy, judging by the complex embroidery around the chest. She had brought it with her after fleeing from home, but didn’t have the opportunity to wear it until now. She had wanted to avoid attracting attention when she was traveling, since the dress looked so expensive at a glance. Two girls traveling together, one wearing an expensive dress. That would have indeed attracted some second glances. But now that she was staying in the VIP room of a temple, the light dress was perfect for the hot temperatures in Hephaestusopolis.

I’d already finished washing my face, so I let Clena use the sink. She finished washing her face as well, then clutched the embroidery on her chest and said to me with a shy smile, “I wasn’t really fond of this dress in the past.”

“Really? I think it looks cute.”

“But it emphasizes my chest so much,” she said, pouting. The dress was sleeveless.

Oh yeah, she had said that she had a complex about her figure because the other daughters of aristocrats were so much thinner than her. She had probably avoided wearing clothes that exposed her arms. Just how thin were those other girls?

Her reputation had likely suffered since everyone knew her father was missing, and people were more inclined to make fun of her figure because of it.

“...Well, if you say it’s cute, Touya, then I guess it’s fine.”

She said something cute.

“...What are you staring at me so much for?”

“No, I was just thinking you were cute.”

“What? Are you still half-asleep?” she grumbled, but her cheeks flushed red.

Her silver hair was cut into a short bob that curled inward. I might have just been boasting, but the shampoo made from my MP had gradually made her hair glossier and given it a healthy sheen. Yeah, she was cute.

She acted strong and had prim and proper looks, yet had the cuteness of a young lady as well. She was now finally able to wear a sleeveless dress after I kept telling her I liked her physique, and that was something to be proud of. Maybe it was wrong of me to think this, but there was a chance some of the girls among Clena’s bullies were simply jealous of her. Though that might have just been a gap in the way I, a person from another world, thought compared to them, so I opted to keep silent.

I thought she was cute and receptive of those feelings, and now she put on a dress she had never worn before of her own will. There was no problem with that.

Clena and I exited the Unlimited Bath right as Rium and Rakti woke up.

“...Good morning,” Rium tottered over to me sleepily and hugged me.

Rakti was holding her arms out behind Rium, but wasn’t moving an inch. It looked like she was trying to imitate Rium, but was hesitating. I’d be happy if she just threw all caution to the wind and jumped at me, but waiting wouldn’t help either way.

“G-good morning...”

“Morning, Rakti.”

...So I reached my arm out and gave her a hug, and then she greeted me in a flustered tone. I pet their heads for a short and relaxing duration, but they couldn’t get started changing like this. I closed the door to the Unlimited Bath, then headed for the bedroom door and once again opened the bathroom door from there. I left the girls to Clena and moved to the living room.

Once the door to the Unlimited Bath was opened, I couldn’t travel far away from it, but I could at least walk around a neighboring room if the door was close by. I spotted the back of Roni’s head as she sat on a sofa beside the fireplace.

“Oh, Sir Touya! Good morning!”

Her wolf ears perked up at the sound of the door opening, then she turned around and greeted me with an energetic smile.

“Were you mending our clothes?”

“Yes, but these three are a little too battered up.”

I followed her gaze to see three sets of clothing on a small table. They were all tattered and covered in holes. Those were the clothes we had worn during our battle against Goldfish.

“There’s no helping that. Let’s go out to buy more after the blessing ceremony is over.”

“Oh, we need to buy some for Rium and Rakti as well.”

“Oh yeah, we do.”

We had met up with Rium after leaving Ceresopolis, and Rakti during our search in Hadesopolis. Neither of them had much in the way of spare clothing. Rakti aside, Rium had made thorough preparations for her journey. Her possessions were still meager though, compared to how much we had been carrying around in the Unlimited Bath. We still needed to buy our bedding at Ficus Brand, so we’d get more clothing during the same trip.

“Where’s breakfast?”

“It’s already been delivered. On that table over there.” Roni directed her line of sight at a large table in the middle of the living room. On it were several semicircular lids covering whatever food lay underneath. They were freshly delivered.

Several chairs had also been set up around the table for us, including a large one without a back for Rulitora. This temple must have been used to dealing with demi-humans, considering how they’d prepared this without us having to ask.

“Alright then, the others should be coming out soon, so let’s all eat breakfast then.”

“Sure!”

The girls should still need a little more time to change. I needed some time to wake Rulitora up, too. I might have to get personally involved in the latter, but I should wait until Clena and the others got out of the bathroom first.

I sat myself down facing Roni and helped her fold the clothes she had finished mending. She was adeptly weaving her needle in and out of the cloth. I had learned to sew a little in school. I recalled learning how to use a sewing machine too, but I had completely forgotten how by now. And yet this younger girl was sewing like it was the most natural thing in the world. There was nothing spectacular about this scene, nothing odd, yet it felt so mysterious to me.

It had been a few months since I was summoned to this world. It wasn’t going on adventures or fighting monsters, but rather everyday life like this that brought about this sense of otherworldliness. Right now I was also feeling a sense of nostalgia, almost like I was homesick. This wasn’t a bad feeling, either. I let myself soak in the comfortable mood as I waited for the bedroom door to open.

Rulitora returned to the bedroom after we finished breakfast. He’d be sleeping again until lunchtime. Until then, we passed the time by organizing all our loot inside the Unlimited Bath. After excluding the equipment with spells cast on them and antiques that might hold some value, all that was left were just old items we needed to sell off.

We had the option of repairing the items and making them look a little more attractive, but then we had to consider if it was worth the effort. Roni and I took care of the physical labor, while Clena, Rium, and Rakti were in charge of estimating how much the antiques might be worth. Lunch came around before we knew it, Rulitora got up, and we ate our meal together.

My blessing ceremony came after that, but it was to be conducted in a tunnel inside Mt. Lemnos rather than in the temple itself. I took along a fully armed Rulitora as my bodyguard, then we arrived after a shaky carriage ride to the largest tunnel there was for mining “fire stones.” It was apparently the place with the highest concentration of fire spirits in Hephaestusopolis.

Our guide cleric took a torch, lit it up using magic, and entered the tunnel. He had probably used a fire spirit summoning spell. The dark tunnel gradually grew brighter as we advanced until it became bright enough that we didn’t need the torch anymore.

“Whoa...”

“This is where the ceremony will be conducted,” our guide priest said as he turned back toward us, looking proud. I had been rendered speechless.

We had been guided to a ceremony space with countless crimson crystal pillars peeking out from the stone walls, each of them giving off a light that colored the whole room red. I unwittingly blurt out when I saw the fantastical sight...

“...It’s hot!” I didn’t know if it was fire spirits or if it was just because we were inside a volcano, but the air was incredibly hot. I felt immediately dispirited realizing that the ceremony would be conducted in here. I’d never say that to the cleric though, what with him looking all smug.

And then the ceremony itself was what you’d call a nightmare. Before me were five clerics, including the temple elder at the center, flexing their muscles and dancing wildly. This had been going on for about an hour now. The beads of sweat flying off their bodies glistened in the light, making me downright depressed. And this was all part of the official ceremony to grant me the Goddess of Fire’s blessing.

The Goddess of Fire was also the goddess of passion and enthusiasm, so her ceremonies tended to inspire a lot of feverish dancing. So naturally, all of the temple elders were buff, wild dancers. I was sure everyone here were elites of the temple of fire.

I mean, the ceremony for the Goddess of Earth’s blessing was just the elder reciting ritual prayers in the most soothing atmosphere possible. I had been blessed by the Goddess of Light the moment I was summoned, but I wondered if the princess, who was traveling with the hero Cosmos right now, had danced during the summoning ritual.

Apparently this group of nightmarish dancers included women in the past. The elder didn’t necessarily have to participate, either. But still, right now they had been dancing for over an hour in this sweltering heat that had me soaking in sweat just sitting there. It was barely tolerable for me, the observer, but for them it must have been rough enough to be considered torture.

Since it must have been a prestigious job, I was sure many people tried to step up to the challenge, but it wasn’t surprising that the few who could survive the harsh environment were men. I’d heard the previous temple elder had chosen female dancers despite that, so it must have depended on each elder’s personal vision. Since the current elder himself participated in this torturous ceremony, he must have had a particularly noble heart. That elder was currently dancing before me half-naked, muscles glistening and white teeth sparkling under the red lights. He showed me a smile so fresh that I wanted to punch him in the face. Okay, maybe I was getting a little irritated from the heat.

The clerics danced like mad for another ten minutes or so, and then the ceremony was finally over. The heat was painful enough to deal with, but I was more mentally drained after my eyes had been repeatedly violated. I stumbled my way out of the tunnel and back to Rulitora.

“...Are you alright?” he asked me with a dubious expression, but that couldn’t be avoided. After all, the clerics had emerged from the tunnel after me, beaming with smiles after a job well done. I endured another shaky carriage ride back to the temple, where I met back up with the girls in the VIP room.

“Wh-what are you doing...?”

“Nothing, I just need a little healing...”

I hugged Clena, then Roni, then Rium and Rakti together as soon as I saw their faces. They all looked a little startled, but still let me do as I pleased, probably noticing my temperament. Rium wrapped her arms around my waist, hugging me back.

“...Oh yeah, sister Fire’s ceremony is a little intense.”

Rakti was the only one who could understand the ordeal I went through. As I hugged her petite body, she reached a hand out to pat me on the head. Ahh, she was healing my soul. I patted her on the head in return.

“Alright then, now that you’ve been healed, let’s go update our status cards,” Clena said, clapping her hands. It was cute how her cheeks were puffing out a tiny bit.

She had arranged our donation to the temple while I was at my blessing ceremony. It was the norm to contribute a donation to the temple whenever they did something for you. This was the case for the two temples back in Ceresopolis as well. Since we were staying here and had them conduct the blessing ceremony, we’d donated gold coins when we first met with the temple elder. The reason we waited to update our status cards was because the update would reflect our conditions at the time. We wanted to rest up from our travels first, but we also considered that the blessing from the Goddess of Fire might affect things, so we waited until we could do an update all at once.

The donation Clena had prepared was meat. She had planned on buying fruit first, but after doing some research with the clerics, she learned that they’d be happier receiving meat as a gift. Indeed, I could imagine them more easily chowing down on whole roasted meat than daintily munching on fruit. I was afraid that some buff men would start dancing again to conduct the status card updates, but thankfully the procedure was the same as any other temple’s.

Rulitora’s level had gone up to 30. That was the limit for any normal person, but I doubted this was it for Rulitora. His stats had slightly improved across the board. For a warrior as well-rounded as him, maybe his stats simply didn’t change much.

Clena had risen to level 22, and Roni level 21. You were considered first-class after passing level 20, so now I had not only Clena, but also Roni as first-class party members. Clena’s MP and MEN had grown significantly after all the time she had spent controlling wind spirits while we traveled through the underground tunnel. Roni’s TEC had also grown a fair amount. I wondered why, but TEC represented how dexterous you were with your hands. During our travels, she had endeavored to cook and do the laundry, butchered whatever monsters we defeated, and above all, learned how to use the washing machine flawlessly. It was no wonder why her TEC had grown so much.

“Your MP and MEN grew pretty fast, Clena.”

“I know you don’t mean it that way, but that sounds condescending coming from you.”

“Come on...”

I knew she wasn’t angry, but she looked a little exasperated. It wasn’t hard to tell where she was coming from though, since my own MP and MEN stats were flying off the borders.

The lines on the radar chart showing my stats had just barely widened in angle. My other stats had increased as well, but it was honestly nothing impressive. Clena must have found it hard to be happy about my compliment after looking at my stats.

As for my level, it had risen to 24. It had been lower than Clena’s at our last update, so I had passed her during our battle in Hadesopolis. Our levels increased by absorbing a portion of the blessings every living creature in this world possessed after defeating them. It was probably accurate to describe it in RPG terms as EXP. That made it easy to understand why Rulitora had only grown one level, too. He was already strong to start with.

But why had my EXP gain surpassed Clena’s and Roni’s so much? Sure, I had used far more magic than they had. However, that only affected stat growth, not necessarily level gain. I’d heard that being blessed by the Goddess of Light let you gain EXP faster, but the biggest difference must have come when I dealt the finishing blow on Goldfish.

“...You beat me.”

Rium’s level was surprisingly low. She was only level 15. She was noting how I had surpassed her level, but I didn’t tell her that that had been the case since Ceresopolis.

Her MP and MEN were even higher than Clena’s, and her TEC was fairly high as well, but her HP, STR, and VIT were all incredibly low. She had managed to travel on her own from Athena to Jupiter, then from Athena to the void, but apparently that had nothing to do with her level. She didn’t actually seem that well versed in traveling, so she must have carefully avoided any possible dangers while traveling around on her flying disc. She had always been the type to ignore anything that didn’t interest her, though that wasn’t the case in regards to us.

Rakti was last, but since we had picked her up in the middle of our journey, she didn’t own a status card yet and had to have a new one made for her. You could say she was similar to the farmer raver who’d fled his village to join the hero Ritsu Nakahana. The clerics didn’t find anything strange with her presence in our group.

She ended up only being level 1. Her stats were no better than any ordinary human’s. This went without saying, but those stats reflected the temporary body she had created after her seal was lifted, not her actual stats as the Goddess of Darkness. We couldn’t have anyone finding out her true form, so this worked out just fine.

“We should buy a maid uniform for her,” Clena said first thing after we finished having our cards updated and returned to our room. She went on to explain that it was relatively common for families to be attacked by monsters or thieves when traveling, and children would often barely escape and then be taken in by other travelers. It was common for temples to take those children in, too. That would explain why the clerics didn’t seem suspicious of Rakti at all, even though she didn’t have an ounce of fighting power in her.

“Maybe they’re expecting us to give Rakti to the temple?”

“Huuuh?!” Rakti cried out from beside me after I asked my question to Clena.

Don’t worry, we won’t be leaving you at the temple. It made me happy to hear that she wanted to stay with us so much, though.

“Well, there’s no way we could explain adding her to our party from just these stats.”

“Yeah, she’s just an ordinary girl... no, her stats are even lower than average,” Rulitora mumbled as he peered at the status card in Clena’s hand.

I didn’t know what was considered average, but it looked like Rakti’s temporary body was on the weaker end of the scale. Though it was temporary, this was still her one and only body in this world, and it seemed difficult for her to summon any more strength to it than she had right now.

“I-I can use magic! Dark magic! It’s really cool!”

“Don’t. You can’t let anybody else find out.”

Rakti tried to object, but Rium denied her right off the bat. Though it was normal for travelers to carry some secrets, I attracted attention as a Hero of the Goddess, so I needed to keep up appearances.

“So I was thinking—we could register her as a labor raver who handles odd jobs for us, which wouldn’t make it strange for her to be traveling with us.”

“The same as me then,” Roni said with her chest held high. She was Clena’s raver, after all.

“The same as Roni?! So I’ll be able to be of service?! Yes, please do that for me!” Rakti jumped up with her arms raised high. She had thought we were going to abandon her at the temple from our conversation, so she seemed especially desperate.

She herself was wishing for it, so it was probably the right decision to bring her along as a labor raver who took care of odd jobs.

“Can we really register a goddess as a raver, though?”

“They’ll make sure she doesn’t have a criminal record, and as long as she hasn’t done anything particularly heinous, her records won’t even make it to a neighboring country...”

“So they won’t be able to look her up too thoroughly. I guess that works...?”

“Yes, Rakti will probably be considered as someone without a citizenship.”

Apparently it was a common situation for demi-humans, and not unheard of if someone happened to be born far away from any nation. There wouldn’t be any problems registering Rakti.

“Touya, let’s go! Let’s go right now!” Rakti pulled my hand even though she probably had no idea where we should be going. Are you okay with that, Goddess of Darkness?

Clena laughed, telling Rakti to calm down. “You don’t know where the raver market is, right? Let’s go ask one of the clerics.”

“Oh, good idea!” Rakti replied energetically, her mood the opposite of how it was just a moment ago.

We asked the nearest cleric we spotted from our room, who quickly guided us to where the raver market was. The registration process went even more smoothly than expected. Since we weren’t buying from the market itself, all we had to do was pay a registration fee. And thus, Rakti officially became my labor raver.

“Would the Ficus store have clothing that could pass as a maid uniform?”

“Anything that needs to be worn on the road would have to be custom ordered.”

So the maids who stayed in the city to work were different. We’d planned to visit the great pervert’s store anyway, so we ordered Rakti some clothes along the way. We also bought some everyday clothes, then headed back to the temple.

Once we arrived back in our room, I summoned the door to the Unlimited Bath and made to open it, but then stopped in my tracks.

“What’s the matter, Sir Touya?”

“Did the door get bigger?”

“It’s both taller and wider, now that you mention it...”

It was obvious once I compared it to Rulitora’s size. In the past, he would have had to crouch to get through the door. But now, even though he was fully clad in armor and standing up straight, he’d be able to pass through the door with room to spare.

“I’d expected the inside to change after getting the Goddess of Fire’s blessing, but...”

“The changes are starting with the door itself,” Clena said with an astonished expression while Rium nodded wordlessly beside her.

“Rulitora, if anyone comes by, I’ll trust you to handle it.”

“Understood.”

There was no reason to hesitate. I left Rulitora to keep watch, then turned the doorknob and opened the door in one go. The door didn’t feel any heavier than it did before.

“The door’s tiny!” I exclaimed right after entering. I thought for a moment that the door inside had gotten smaller, but it was simply farther away than it used to be.

“Um, has this area gotten over twice as big as it used to be?” Roni asked as she peered inside.

The distance from the outer door to the inner building looked to be about three stutos now. The pile of weapons and armor that we had stuffed into the one stuto corridor before now had almost another stuto of space on either side.

“Clena, can you check the left side?”

“Got it.” Clena and Roni walked to the left. I took Rium and Rakti along with me to the right.

“It’s so wide...”

“The weapons have fallen over.”

“We’ll need to reorganize them later. There’re a lot of swords without sheaths, too. Be careful to not trip over anything, Rakti.”

“Why did you only address me?!”

“Look at Rium.”

“Huh?”

Rakti looked toward Rium to see her hovering on her flying disc. There was no risk of her tripping over anything in her state.

“Uhhh...” Rakti looked like she wanted to say something, but just clung to my back instead.

Now I didn’t have to worry about getting her injured as long as I put away all the fallen weapons as we progressed.

“Here.”

“Oh, thanks.”

I turned around at the sound of Rium’s voice to see that she had managed to find my gauntlets. Now I could pick up blades without having to worry about cutting myself.

I picked up fallen swords and spears until we reached the far right side of the building. The corridor was still continuing three stutos wide. We kept walking until we reached the back of the building, which was also still three stutos wide. The building itself looked like it had gotten bigger. The pile of weapons we had put away had been cut off in the middle and continued to the left side.

“Um, I think beyond this would be...”

“Hm? What’s wrong, Rakti?”

“N-nothing... you’ll understand once you see it.” Rakti hid herself behind me, her cheeks blushing red. I had no choice but to proceed into the unknown.

“Huh, I see...” I understood what she had meant once we turned the corner.

The left side of the building was larger than the rest, measuring about six stutos wide. It was practically a garden now. There was an altar in a far corner, and on it rested a giant fire stone. Its shape was similar to the crimson pillars of crystal from the blessing ceremony, but it was several times larger in size. It might have been even taller than I was. I was tempted to call it a “fire pillar” instead of a “fire stone.”

“What in the world is that?”

“Ahh... I’m sorry. Sister Fire loves being extravagant...”

So this was being extravagant? Was this giant altar just because she wanted to be extravagant?

“Sir Touya!” I looked back to see Clena and Roni walking toward us.

I could also see the entire left side now. It was a corridor about six stutos wide... no, at this point I could call it a garden. The side closest to the door was concave, or rather, a part of the building was now sticking out. Looked like there was a new room.

There was nothing besides the altar here, and the gravel... no, the ground was wide open. The ground seemed like it was from Mt. Lemnos. Its texture looked similar to what I had seen during the blessing ceremony. Some of the weapons and armor had fallen over, so we lined them all back up along the building.

There was a door in the space we suspected to be a new room, but it was buried in equipment right now. We should probably check it out from inside the building for now.

Clena asked me as we looked around the garden, “So this is all from the Goddess of Fire’s blessing?”

“Most likely. The ground here is similar to the volcano’s.”

“I wonder if the part of the building sticking out is influencing it.”

“It’s close to that fire altar, so probably. That’s most likely a new room that the blessing created.”

“Sister Fire is the second oldest, right after sister Light.” Rakti said as she peeked out from behind me. Come on, stop hiding and talk to us face to face.

I turned around, picked her up, and set her down next to me. She was light as a feather.

Rakti looked surprised at first, but didn’t try to hide behind me and just clung to my arm instead. One step at a time.

“Anyway, do they have some sort of order? Like they have in the reliefs?”

“Sister Fire is the second oldest, so if we were to order ourselves, sister Fire would be right after sister Light.”

“I see, so there is an order.” Clena and Roni looked at the new part of the building as they listened to Rakti.

“So is that why there’s a new room right next to the bathing room?”

“That’s probably it. We’re done inspecting the outside now, so let’s take a look inside.”

We all entered the building at Clena’s suggestion. The entrance and other areas hadn’t changed. The main difference was the new door on the far left wall. It matched where we had seen the building jut out from the outside.

“Is this the new room created from the Goddess of Fire’s blessing?”

“It won’t shoot fire at us as soon as we open the door, right?”

“S-sister Fire isn’t that extravagant... I think?” Rakti sounded nervous. Even she doubted what she was saying.

All five of us looked at each other. Nobody spoke a word.

“...Stand back just to be safe, everyone.”

In the end, I opened the door while the other four stayed back. Of course, I made sure I was in the right position to avoid getting hit by a sudden blast of fire.

“Ready, go!”

I opened the door all at once, but no fire came shooting out. I fearfully looked inside, but then my eyes opened wide. The girls started approaching and peering inside as well, but none of them could tell what this room was. I could imagine why.

“I-it’s finally here...” I muttered breathlessly, staring at the room before my eyes—the blessing from the Goddess of Fire had brought about a spacious, professional-looking kitchen.

The sink and counters were made from carved and polished stone, looking incredibly luxurious. The stove was similar to what we used in modern Japan, so I gave it a thorough inspection first. Kitchens could potentially be dangerous, after all.

Roni and Rium didn’t dare touch anything, but they stared at everything around them with keen eyes. Clena stayed a few steps back. Rakti was hiding behind Clena.

The sink had been carved from natural stone. I knew these details just like how I had known how to use my gift all of a sudden. The stone was granite, a type of stone that the volcano produced.

Not only was there a sink and a stove, but also a wide open counter. It was in the middle of the room so that everyone could gather around it and cook together.

The faucet was producing warm and cold water just fine. There was a control panel next to the sink. We’d been washing our kitchenware in the changing room sink before, but we could move them over here now.

The stove wasn’t an induction cooker, but a gas stove thanks to the Goddess of Fire’s influence. Though technically it was running off my MP, so it wasn’t exactly a gas stove either.

“...What’s ‘godly’ mean here?”

The knobs controlling the flame went from ‘low’ to ‘medium’ to ‘high,’ but then went to ‘super’ and ‘godly.’” It was written in kanji. I tried turning it up to high for now, but I didn’t dare to set it any higher. The girls’ eyes were sparkling in surprise at how I summoned fire just by turning a knob, but my mind was in a totally different place. I told the girls what the words on the scale read and to never turn it past “high.”

“If I turned it to ‘godly’ heat, would I summon the Goddess of Fire herself or something?”

“I-I don’t think sister Fire would do that... probably?” Rakti didn’t sound confident, but according to her, if fire was enough to summon the goddess, then she’d be sticking her head out of Mt. Lemnos right around now.

I looked inside the shelves and found kitchen knives, ladles, and a bunch of other cooking tools. Next to the kitchen knives was a butchering knife perfect for preparing anything we managed to hunt and kill. I opened a large drawer and found another set of cookware. Roni pointed at one, asking, “Sir Touya, what is this?”

“Hm? Oh, that’s a whisk.”

It was even electric. Well, technically it was powered by magic. I picked it up, turned it on, and the motor resounded as the whisk started spinning at a dizzying speed. Roni jumped away from it at the same time. She was more surprised by this than the stove since she at least knew what fire was, unlike this completely foreign object.

There were other various tools I was familiar with from modern Japan. The pots and frying pans looked like they were nonstick, but I didn’t notice anything else remarkable about them.

On the other hand, I couldn’t find a single utensil. There were cabinets to fit them in, but all of them were empty. This wasn’t a problem though, since we already had our own.

“And what are you doing, Rium?”

Rium had left my side and started doing little hops and spins around the room. To a crystal mage like her, this collection of modern Japanese cookware must have been like a treasure trove. She looked cute doing that, so I let her be for now. Rakti joined in the dancing along the way, which I found pretty amusing to watch. After a while, we started organizing our luggage again.

We had moved near the fire altar. This had become the most spacious area in the new and improved Unlimited Bath.

Rulitora and I handled the physical labor, while Clena and Rakti tried to do basic appraisal on our items. As the daughter of a noble family, Clena had been taught about antiques as part of her upbringing. Rakti didn’t have as much of a discerning eye, but she could tell whether an item had been cast with magic and about how strong that spell was. We brought whatever needed touching up outside, where Roni and Rium handled both that and talking to whoever came by.

We lined up the weapons and armor into three categories—valuable antiques, magic items, and normal old items. Roni and Rium were helping clean up the old items that were dirty, but not particularly rusty. They looked much more appealing after giving them a thorough wipe.

In the meantime, two guests visited us.

The first was a cleric who came to deliver a magic textbook. Roni called for me to come out to the living room, where I met with the cleric and received the book.

The second guest, however, was more of a problem.

“Huh? Crissa’s here?”

Crissa, the daughter of Pardoe, the blacksmith we were having tune up our “Magic Eater” armor, had come to pay us a visit.

Had something happened with our order? We decided to all convene to hear her out. A cleric led Crissa to our VIP room. She was wearing a yellow dress over her pure white fur.

“I’m sorry for bothering you so soon after the order. There’s actually something I would like to discuss about it...” she said, then bowed her head. So they really did encounter a problem.

We asked her to sit on the sofa and explain what the issue was. Her small build allowed her to sit on a human sofa without her tail getting in the way, and she almost looked like a stuffed animal doing so. I wanted to just stare at her with a silly grin, but I suppressed the urge and let her talk.

“So what did you want to discuss?”

“The truth is... that armor is far too sturdy for us.”

We looked at each other while Crissa spoke with a solemn expression. Wasn’t it good for the armor to be sturdy? Rulitora spoke for me, voicing what I was thinking in a confused tone.

“...Isn’t that a good thing?”

“W-well... it’s a bit shameful to say, but the task is beyond the capabilities of my father and Mr. Shakova...”

“And they can’t tailor it, either?” Clena with a puzzled expression. Crissa hung her head and nodded in response. She was so small that it looked like we were reprimanding a child, making my chest hurt.

“...What’s the core issue?”

“The fire stones. They can’t get enough heat from the fire stones to be able to modify the armor. My father said that it was the first time he’d seen a metal like it.”

So the problem lay in the fuel source, the fire stones. In other words, it wouldn’t be resolved by bringing the armor to another alchemist. Not to mention he had been introduced to us after we’d emphasized that we wouldn’t mind a demi-human. A better alchemist here in Hephaestusopolis would be hard to find.

“Do you not have enough? Or do you need something other than just fire stones to make it work?”

“We’d need a larger fire stone, or perhaps...”

According to Crissa, the size of a fire stone depended on the strength of the fire spirits residing within. The larger the fire stone, the higher the heat it could bring out. However, to obtain a fire stone bigger than the largest they had now, they would need to mine deeper into the mountain. Fire spirits were more concentrated the closer they were to the center. However, they had no way of predicting what would happen to the still-inactive volcano if they did so. It was effectively an impossible task.

So they’re lacking heat... I remembered something as I thought to myself. I told Crissa to wait a little as I gathered the others and discussed with them whether or not we could use my gift to help solve the problem. We decided it’d be fine, or rather, we had no other option. If we did have another option, it’d be to abandon the armor altogether, but that’d be a poor choice, considering what trials lay ahead for us. The only problem was whether or not they would keep our secret. I may have been overthinking it, but since my gift was more convenient than strong, I couldn’t predict what troubles might come raining down if knowledge of it were to spread. There were plenty of demerits to having word get out that my gift was “weak,” too.

“Uhh, Crissa. Would you mind sending a message to Pardoe?”

“N-not at all, what is it?” Crissa raised her head at my question.

“We might be able to help. But in exchange, you’ll have to keep a secret of ours. Please tell him that.”

“Help...? But how would you...?”

“I can’t tell you the details, but just know that it has something to do with my power as a hero.”

Crissa stiffened up and nodded in reply. Just in case you’re thinking it, I wasn’t lying.

Jumping ahead a bit, Pardoe accepted our proposal. Maybe that was his pride as a craftsman who couldn’t abandon his work talking.

We let the temple elder know that we’d be staying in Pardoe’s workshop starting today. The elder was disappointed, but he somehow became emotional and understanding when I told him that I’d be helping the blacksmiths tune my armor since they needed the assistance of a hero. I wished he’d stop posing to express himself, though.

As for my lessons in fire-type clerical magic, I already knew the foundations, so I decided to study on my own for the time being. If needed, I’d go back to the temple for training. Training under this temple seemed like it would be especially stifling, so I wanted to do everything I could by myself first.

We saw two other ketolts besides Pardoe upon our return to the smithy. They were both tabbies, one brown and one orange, both with white fur around their mouths and paws. They were wearing work clothes like Pardoe was, but unlike his messy and sooty appearance, the two of them looked clean and professional. I couldn’t tell how old cats were by their looks, but the orange tabby was a bit smaller than the brown tabby and the white cat. He was still larger than Crissa, though.

Crissa introduced the larger, brown tabby as Pardoe’s friend, Shakova Remus, and the smaller, orange tabby as Shakova’s son, Mark Remus. Shakova greeted us with a confident air, holding out his paw for a shake, but Mark only nodded his head in silence. Pardoe and Shakova had been best friends since they were young, which made Crissa and Mark childhood friends in turn.

Pardoe was the first to come speak to me. “I heard the story from Crissa. I’m nyot into spreading around people’s secrets, but how do you plan to create a heat source stronger than the fire stone’s?”

“It’s easier for you to see it firsthand, but that in itself is a secret.”

Pardoe looked at the other ketolts, who nodded at each other, then looked my way again. “Understood. We’ll keep your secret.”

“In that case...” I opened the door to my Unlimited Bath, which made Crissa cower in surprise behind her father. The other three opened their eyes wide but remained composed—or so I thought, but all of their tails stood stiff and upright.

“Wh-what in the world...?” Pardoe stood in front of everybody. His appraiser mind got to work as he touched the door and observed the inside.

“Not yet, the best part is still inside.” I patted Pardoe on the shoulder and invited him inside. Clena and the others urged the rest of the ketolts inside as well, though they all looked nervous.

We took them to the fire altar we had discovered. The fire stone was shaped like a stone pillar, and stood a little above two stutos tall. If he wanted something bigger, this was the best we could offer. We couldn’t transport the stove that had the godly heat setting outside the room, so I decided to introduce them to this one instead. To be completely blunt, I thought the counters in the kitchen would be too tall for the ketolts.

“Ooh, look at all this...” Pardoe exclaimed, impressed as he saw the weapons and armor we had lined up in the garden area.

“There are a few more items here with spells cast on them. Inside the building, too. Well, I’ll ask you to take a look at them later.”

“Purrfect!” Pardoe replied, raising a paw to the sky. He was even more motivated now.

And then we finally walked past the heaps of equipment and arrived at the fire altar.

“M-my goodness...!”

“A fire stone of this size...?!”

The ketolts were almost breathless at the sight. They could appreciate how large the stone was even more than we could, since they used it as part of their trade.

Pardoe immediately began inspecting the altar. Shakova and Mark assisted him, both with serious looks on their faces. Crissa looked on at a distance along with the rest of us.

The fire stone pillar that stood atop the altar was about half a stuto in diameter. The pedestal itself was about one stuto tall. In front of it was a shallow box that reminded me of a donation box.

“Meow, I see...”

Pardoe stood up slowly and went into his workshop, then came back carrying a burlap sack with black stones inside. The black stones looked like charcoal at a glance, but they were actually fire stones that had lost their spiritual power. They were used as mediums to transfer the heat from the fire stones to the metal as thoroughly as possible.

Pardoe spread the contents of the bag out inside the box. A metal item was supposed to be buried among the stones, so they had been smashed to about the size of pebbles and filled the inside of the box. It reminded me of how sweet potatoes were roasted, but I kept that to myself.

“There’s a connection between the fire stone and the box. So if we do this...” Pardoe pointed at the fire stone pillar, chanted something, and then the pillar started glowing.

Rium, who was standing next to me, explained that it was a basic spell using craftsman magic. It allowed the caster to control how much spiritual energy they drew from the fire stone, and was a basic yet vital spell.

At the same time, I felt as if my energy was being sucked out of me. I see, so the source of that stone pillar’s power wasn’t the fire spirits, but my own MP. It was putting a bigger toll on me compared to the other facilities we used inside the Unlimited Bath. Nothing I couldn’t handle, though. My MP had grown more than enough to handle this.

Just as Pardoe said, the fire stone and the box were connected, and the black stones inside the box started glowing red as they gave off heat. Pardoe gave a firm nod at the amount of heat being produced, though the power source was my MP and not the fire stone. Maybe his craftsman magic let him know how much heat was being produced, too.

“...Alright! This will do!”

“Mark, start the preparations! Bring all of our tools in here!”

“Y-yes, Father!”

The blacksmiths busily began their work.

“Rulitora, help them carry their things inside.”

“Understood.”

They quickly set up their tools with Rulitora’s help. I could still feel my MP being sucked away in the meantime, but the sensation was similar to when I used cleric magic. It felt like the times I used spirit summoning spells, but it didn’t feel quite like light or earth magic. Was this what drawing power from the fire spirits felt like? So even though it was my MP, the fire stone pillar was still using the power of fire spirits somehow. In that case, this would be good practice for learning fire-type cleric magic. I could practice spells from my new textbook as long as I made sure to not use too much MP. We could also leave the weapons and armor we didn’t know what to do with to the blacksmiths. I looked over at Clena and the rest.

“We’ll be making this smithy our base for now.”

“I suppose we could call it that, since it seems like you won’t be moving for a while.”

I couldn’t help that. I should just make use of the time to practice my cleric magic.

“Well, I’ll keep you company. I wanted to read the books we picked up from Hadesopolis, too.”

Oh yeah, we still had those. What had happened 500 years ago? What had been erased from history? The key to unlocking the mysteries might lie in those books.

Even if we can’t go outside, the next few days should be anything but boring, I thought as I stared at the lively garden.

I saw another dream that night. Just like before, I couldn’t tell if I was standing or lying down. I might have been floating in the sky or buried underground. However, I didn’t feel the pain or suffocation I had felt last time.

Rakti was clinging to my back. Standing in front of me was a woman wearing a pure white dress, her blonde hair tied in a high ponytail. Was Rakti trying to hide from her?

This time, I knew who she was. The Goddess of Light. I had noticed she was tall before, but she may have been even taller than me. She looked angry, but she wasn’t reprimanding Rakti like she had been doing last time. Perhaps because I was in between them now.

The other woman with wavy green hair must have been the Goddess of Earth. She was standing next to the Goddess of Light, trying to calm her down. She was pretty big, too. Not just her height, which seemed even taller than the Goddess of Light, but a certain part of her body covered almost all of her face from my point of view. I might have started praying to her on instinct if I could move. I couldn’t see her face now, but I imagined it had a very gentle expression. She had such a serene air about her.

I only started noticing now, but she was wearing a pretty racy dress. The skirt was composed of two sashes about a third of a stuto wide each, decorated with a tribal-looking pattern. The front of her dress was rather revealing, and the slits ran far up her legs. I could spot hints of her tanned skin peeking out from underneath.

I had so much to thank her for. I had been saved by earth spirit summoning multiple times since receiving the blessing in Ceresopolis. As I thought that, the Goddess of Earth came up to me with a cheery smile and patted my head. She was bending down toward me, and her giant breasts swaying close to my face made me blush.

The Goddess of Light suddenly became angry again. Rakti cowered behind my back even more. She must have been frightened and trying to hide behind me. It didn’t help a bit though, and the Goddess of Light continued scowling in my direction. It looked like she was angry at me, not Rakti. Maybe she was telling me to use more light magic and appreciate her more. She was rather modest compared to the Goddess of Earth—closer to Rakti than anyone else, but she probably wasn’t upset about that.

Her face grew red as I thought that and she got even more angry, but I didn’t think it was related. Hopefully.

There was one more girl in my dream this time. She was hugging my shoulders next to me, laughing at the Goddess of Light and Earth in a lively fashion.

Yes, she was the Goddess of Fire. Her hair reached slightly past her shoulders and looked a little scruffy, as if she had combed through it with just her fingers. She was wearing a tropical-looking dress, similar to a bikini and a pareo. She was showing the most skin out of all of the goddesses here. On that note, she was bigger than the Goddess of Light and smaller than the Goddess of Earth.

She was petting Rakti’s head, hugging the both of us, and basically doing whatever she wanted to. I couldn’t tell what she was saying, but she had a hearty smile on her face. She hugged me while sticking her tongue out at the Goddess of Light.

I remembered my Unlimited Bath and started to understand what the Goddess of Fire might have been thinking during the upgrade. She was protecting me the same way the Goddess of Earth was. She wanted to guard me against the clash between the light and darkness blessings. Maybe she was able to protect me more than the Goddess of Earth could, since I had received the blessing at her head temple. That would explain why she was so close now.

She was also the reason why we could start tailoring my magic eater armor. I had just received her blessing, but it was helping me a lot already.

I couldn’t voice my thoughts, but I tried to look at her in a way that expressed my gratitude. Maybe I got through to her, because her eyes starting sparkling and she gave me a bear hug with a giant smile on her face. She pushed me into her supple breasts, and while I couldn’t feel anything at the moment, I could imagine their softness and a smile formed on my face. The Goddess of Light looked even more fearsome after seeing us like that, but it was probably unrelated... or at least I wanted to think it was.

Should I tell Haruno about this feast of goddesses the next time I send her a message? I thought as my mind faded from consciousness.