Chapter:82 - Is it wrong for a Godslayer to Have a harem goddesses

Want to read more?

The next 10+ chapters are already available on my Patreon!

By joining, you'll get:

📖 Early access to future chapters

🗳️ Polls to shape the story

🎁 Exclusive content for Patrons

🔥 Bonus scenes & content you won't find anywhere else

👀 Don't fall behind—others are already ahead!

👉 patreon.com/FanfictionTakashi

(If link doesn't show, just search on Google: FanfictionTakashi Patreon)

------------

Three weeks is all it takes, if nobody enters the Dungeon, for monsters to start spawning at an uncontrollable rate, and they'll start overflowing out again."

"The Familias could take turns…"

"We already take turns," Loki said, "protecting Orario."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

She laughed. "What? Did you think this world was void of war? People have been fighting other people even before they started fighting monsters. Many of our neighbors are jealous that we have exclusive control over the Dungeon. The only thing that stays their hand is that our Adventurers are second to none. Imagine what would happen if a portion of those adventurers decided to start combing the forests outside for the elusive stray monster."

"They won't invade," Godou said confidently.

"Not at the start, they won't," Loki admitted, "but they can start picking off our numbers one by one. They will gang up and ambush the small parties sent to scout out for stray monsters. The Level Fives and Sixes will be fine, but they are few, and superior numbers can overcome anyone below that. Our strength will crumble, and the world will know true war once again."

They came to a stop in front of an inn. His eyes widened at the exorbitant prices written on its sign. He looked around. This was the only one in sight.

"You look quite unhappy, Godou," Loki said, leaning forward to look at him.

"I thought this world would be simple. That you Gods would be the most troublesome lot." The subsequent words left a bitter taste in his mouth as he said them. "I now see that people will be people no matter what world I am in."

He saw something flicker in Loki's eyes. Surprise? Fear? Mirth? It bothered him that he could not tell.

"People will be people," she said, walking once more, leading him away from the inn. "That is not such a bad thing, you know."

She stopped in front of another building. This one did not look as pristine as the inn, but it exuded a warmth that the previous building did not.

It was the sound of children's laughter, he realized.

He looked at the sign, a plain wooden board with words painted in black ink, written quite obviously by an amateur with a brush.

Greta's Orphanage.

"Those children…" he said, recalling earlier.

"Most of the children here have no homes to go to. Not even in Orario. They were born from trysts and affairs of adventurers, most of the time conceived in the very inn we just walked past. They used to be abandoned here, or even worse, on other Levels, free for Monsters to do as they pleased."

His fingernails dug so deep into his palms he could feel the warm trickle of blood begin to flow. People. Sometimes he despised them too.

"Even if they were taken to Orario, it would not be a much better life. Unwanted by their parents, who would take care of them? The orphanages are already understaffed and under-resourced, no thanks to the irresponsible ways of the Pleasure Quarters. Death may as well have been a kinder fate."

And then, to his surprise, Loki smiled.

"And then Greta came along. She was probably the luckiest of those babies. An old adventurer took pity on her and raised her. Taught her to defend herself. She joined a Familia. Trained to become stronger. By the time she retired, she was a Level Four, and had amassed a rather sizeable fortune. Then she moved here, set up the orphanage, and took care of those unwanted children, teaching them how to be adventurers. Those that graduate from here…they are now highly vaunted among the Familias of Orario. They are the ones that have lived through countless monster sieges, after all."

His rage ebbed away. Fingers relaxed and shoulders dropped.

"I still have all her letters."

Godou blinked. "She joined your Familia?"

Loki nodded, her eyes never leaving the building. "Always asking me to break the rules and come visit her."

He nudged his head toward the entrance. "Then let's go. I'd like to meet her. She'll be pleased that you've finally come."

"No, she won't, Godou," her smile twitched, and with that twitch, all the warmth that had been in the redhead's eyes vanished.

"She died last year."

His mouth opened. No words came out.

"She never told me in her letters she was running out of money. I never knew she'd been going back into the Deeper Floors, hunting monsters with outdated equipment and an aged body, to make ends meet. I only learned why the letters stopped when one of her children came to me and told me she'd gone into the Deeper Floors and never returned."

Finally, he found his voice. "I'm sorry, Loki."

"So am I," the redhead said softly. Her gaze lingered on the orphanage a little longer. She blinked.

Suddenly, her eyes were pressed into thin lines and her signature fox-like grin reappeared, and the Loki in front of him was as bubbly and cheery as the day he'd first met her.

"But everything's alright now! One of the graduates came back to take her place, and I've been making sure that they haven't had any financial problems since!"

"Loki…"

"You know, Godou, I heard from Finn that there's a lovely spring somewhere on this floor where they enjoy taking their baths. Shall we go and find it?"

"Loki—"

"Let's go! An adventure to explore the Eighteenth Floor, START!"

And she marched off, and Godou had no choice but to follow her.

People will be people, he th

ought, and Gods and will be Gods.

He smiled. It really wasn't such a bad thing.