The way Shiomi held the divine core up and studied it so intently made him look exactly like a miser who'd just come into a new treasure. Olga Marie nearly laughed.
She'd never seen him react like this before. It was unexpectedly charming.
"If you want to stare at it, take it back and do it properly later! Come on, drink, drink!" Drake raised her cup.
After explaining the situation and handing over the spoils, Poseidon's divine core, she acted as if she'd forgotten why they were talking about it in the first place, lifting her cup again to press them to drink.
After all, this was the Sea God's most vicious curse, Poseidon's retaliation against Drake for taking something as important as a divine core.
She hadn't been expecting it to be lifted.
"We can drink later. It'd be better to remove the curse on you first," Shiomi said. He set the divine core down, then raised his cup and took a sip as he spoke.
"…You're serious? This is that bastard Poseidon's curse," Drake said.
"Being unable to sail is a cruelty no famous captain could bear. Even a stranger would understand that at a glance." Shiomi's expression grew more serious. "If I didn't have some confidence, why would I keep rubbing salt in the wound?"
"Oh? Then let's hear it," Drake said.
Even if the chance was one in a thousand, it was still worth listening to.
For a navigator, staking everything on great risks for the sake of a rich payoff was an instinct carved into the bone.
"First, let me be clear. I don't know Poseidon, and I don't understand how his curse works," Shiomi explained evenly. "So the conclusion I came to is this: cancel it out with a blessing of equal weight."
"A blessing… to counter a curse?" Olga Marie blinked. "But Romani analyzed Captain Drake's Spirit Origin. That curse is Poseidon's authority applied directly to her Spirit Origin."
Authority was a miracle that surpassed Magecraft. It was said that even the essence of Age of Gods Magecraft was merely a partial manifestation of divine authority.
Shiomi had studied Age of Gods Magecraft as Scáthach's beloved disciple.
And he had spent six thousand years in the Lostbelt.
But even all of that together might not be enough to stand against divine authority…
"Don't worry. There's always a way," Shiomi said carefully. "After all, we have at least two goddesses on our side."
The fact that Shiomi possessed divine authority was still a secret known to only a handful. Aside from Morgan and the others, only Romani knew.
To everyone else, Shiomi was simply exceptionally skilled at healing Magecraft, to the point that even fatal wounds could be overcome through Magecraft.
So Shiomi chose to keep it that way, and didn't reveal the truth to Olga Marie here.
After all, no matter when he said it, he couldn't predict how badly it would shake everyone's worldview.
"Right… Goddess Skadi, and Lady Artoria, who bears the nature of the Rhongomyniad Goddess." Olga Marie said, finally putting it together.
"Bartholomew mentioned that too." Drake burst out laughing again. This time, much of the gloom on her face had faded. "That's great news! Come on, let's have a drink to celebrate!"
"…I can't… drink anymore…"
At that moment, Jason muttered drunkenly.
He'd probably been pulled into a dream by Drake's boisterous words and reacted on instinct.
"Hahahaha—!"
Shiomi and Olga Marie couldn't help laughing at the scene as well.
Olga Marie then raised her glass along with Shiomi and clinked it against Drake's.
"Cough—! That's strong!" Olga Marie had only taken a small sip, yet the heavy aroma shot straight through her nose and into her head.
What followed was a rich, mellow sweetness lingering on her tongue.
"This isn't ordinary liquor. It's made from alcohol refined from the body of a giant serpent!" Drake said with a grin. "Everyone here drinks this stuff!"
The giant serpents she mentioned roamed the wilds of both Hestia Island and Heracles Island. They were ferocious magical beasts, and a single misstep against them could easily put one at a disadvantage.
The poisonous mist they exhaled could strip away nearly all Magecraft-granted protections and enhancements.
"The people here…" Shiomi paused, recalling something else. "You've been here for quite a while, haven't you?"
"That's right. What do you want to ask?" Drake replied, her mood clearly lighter now, her tone more open.
"You saw Artemis's arrow strike Hestia Island, didn't you?" Shiomi asked.
"Yeah, I saw it." Drake's expression sharpened. "I never imagined you'd be able to deal with Artemis's arrow…"
By all logic, after countering Artemis's arrow, Shiomi and the others would have left Hestia Island, their mana signatures disappearing from the seas of Atlantis. The most likely destinations would have been the two nearest islands.
Hecate Island, and this one.
Yet Artemis hadn't simply fired at random to destroy the remaining islands and narrow things down.
"We have the finest Magi on our side," Shiomi said, smiling gently before turning serious again. "What I want to know is this: why did the people of Hestia Island see Artemis's arrow not as a disaster, but as a blessing from the gods?"
"Well…" Drake thought for a moment. "Put simply, the people of Hestia Island… no, the people of every island in Atlantis are 'defective products' cast out by Olympus."
"What?" Olga Marie's expression changed. "Exiled by the gods, and labeled defective?"
Treating humans like disposable tools immediately reminded Shiomi of the Fairy Kingdom.
But while the fairies and the Olympian gods behaved in similar ways, the reasons behind them were clearly different.
"For people abandoned by the gods, Artemis's arrow doesn't mean destruction. If anything, it means that the gods who cast them aside have finally turned their gaze back toward them," Drake said, her eyes dark.
She hated that reality too, but there was nothing she could do about it.
The humans of this Lostbelt were gentle, incapable of wrongdoing, strict with themselves.
Yet at the very core lay a blind faith in the gods. Like a machine that seemed to function normally, it was already broken at its foundation.
"Then there's nothing we can do about that," Shiomi said quietly.
Footsteps approached again.
The tavern's tent flap was pulled aside, and Skadi and Artoria appeared.
"They are—?" Drake asked, recognizing they weren't enemies but curious all the same.
Olga Marie quickly stood and introduced them. "They're the two goddesses my teacher and I just mentioned."
"So you're goddesses? You're completely different from those Olympians!" Drake said brightly. "How about a drink?"
At that, Artoria seemed tempted to go along with it, but Skadi looked distinctly exasperated.
"You had us come over later just for this?"