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"Her ability is extremely unusual. In fact, she has the kind of power that could raise an entire Familia's strength by a full tier."
Hermes rested his chin on one hand, sounding thoroughly entertained.
"Is that so?"
Anos answered in the same calm tone.
By that point, he already knew exactly who this beastgirl was.
But he gave no sign of it.
Hermes had been watching his reactions this whole time, obviously trying to read something from them.
Most likely, he was probing the possibility that Anos was some kind of prophet.
If Anos really were one, then during a conversation like this, he should have let slip that he already knew far more than he should.
Hermes was clearly suspicious of something. That was why he kept testing him while delivering the information.
"You really are not interested at all?"
Seeing so little reaction from him, Hermes started looking a little impatient instead.
Could it be that he had guessed wrong after all?
He had heard that the Guild had been working with a prophet who made outrageous amounts of money every single day. Enough to rival, or maybe even surpass, Hermes's own firearms business.
He had also looked into when those maps first started appearing, and the timing almost perfectly lined up with the period when Anos and his group arrived in Orario.
That was why he wanted to use this little opportunity to stir things up and dig for information.
And yet he had learned absolutely nothing.
"Lord Hermes, if there is something you want to say, then just say it."
Anos gave a helpless little smile.
Hermes really was bored beyond belief. Did he enjoy digging through other people's secrets that much?
Even if Hermes did uncover his secret, Anos knew the god would probably just hoard the knowledge and enjoy it privately.
Even so, he still had no intention of telling him anything.
"Fine, then I'll just say it directly."
Hermes grinned.
He knew Anos had seen straight through his intentions, but he was not the slightest bit embarrassed.
A god who had lived this long had skin thick enough to survive anything.
"Someone wanted to trade this girl for weapons so they could go hunt monsters and make money. So they sold me a girl they stole from another Familia."
"One of my children did not think much of it at the time. They just learned what her ability was and put a price on her."
Hermes said it all as casually as if he were talking about the weather.
In Orario, this kind of human trafficking was basically treated as an unspoken rule. It was hardly any different from doing it in the open.
That was just the kind of place Orario was.
In fact, even in the original story, when one Familia openly chased down a member of another and attacked them, the Guild did not really intervene.
And it was exactly because the city worked like that that Anos's firearms and holy liquor had flourished so wildly.
Seeing that Anos still had barely reacted, Hermes gave up on trying to probe him further for the moment and continued.
"Anyway, we are business partners, right? And on top of that, the deal is nine parts for you and one for me. So in theory, that girl really ought to belong to you."
"I'll be generous and take the loss. I'll just give her to you, and I won't even ask for my ten percent share."
"So? Pretty touching, right? This is a treasure that can raise an entire Familia by one level."
"I'd only hand over something like this so easily because our relationship is just that good."
Hermes kept talking like they were close friends, but Anos had already grasped exactly what was going on.
Haruhime.
Sanjouno Haruhime.
The eastern girl Bell met in the Pleasure Quarter, the one who had already lost her freedom.
She possessed a spell so absurd it could only be called broken.
Magic: Uchi-de-no-Kozuchi.
Effect: Level Up.
It could only be cast on one person at a time. There had to be a certain interval between uses.
It could not be used on the caster herself. Even if Haruhime became unable to act, the effect would still remain.
That was the original effect of her magic.
But there was also an item called a Killing Stone, one that could seal the soul of a fox person inside it.
That was only the first layer of its function.
Its stronger use was even more outrageous.
If the Killing Stone was shattered, then everyone who obtained a fragment of it could use that magic.
Different foxes had different spells, but Haruhime's magic combined with a Killing Stone was unquestionably broken beyond reason.
Someone that valuable.
So why had she been sold off so cheaply?
Anos narrowed his eyes and began a fresh series of judgments.
...
A few seconds later, his expression turned strange.
Because he realized it all seemed to trace back to him.
That was right.
It really did look like this had happened because of him.
A member of Ishtar Familia had gotten hooked on holy liquor and developed a craving far beyond reason. So she sold off a girl like Haruhime, bought weapons, and planned to hunt monsters and make even more money.
That way, she could buy even more holy liquor.
After changing hands a couple of times, both the money and the girl had basically ended up back in Anos's hands.
And all he had spent were defective scraps of modern industry and holy liquor made with the trashiest materials this world had to offer.
Maybe this really was what it meant for technology to be the primary productive force.
That was right.
What Anos was currently selling were defective products from modern industry.
To squeeze every last coin possible out of the market, he had specifically brought in flawed stock to sell first. That way he could later sell upgraded models too.
Why stop at making money from bullets?
The guns themselves should be sold over and over again too.
And the girl named Haruhime had become one tiny sacrifice beneath the wheel of Anos's growing business empire.
Now, she had flowed right into his hands as naturally as anything.
Naturally.
Or rather, naturally according to Hermes's arrangement.
By that point, Anos had already seen through what Hermes was trying to do.
He just wanted to watch the show.
From Hermes's point of view, Hestia Familia was only just beginning to rise. Something like Haruhime was a treasure they could neither reject nor ignore.
If Anos wanted to use her, then he would need to protect the merchandise.
If he did not want to use her and instead treated her as a companion, then after spending time with her, he would need to protect his companion.
Either way, Hestia Familia would inevitably end up clashing with Ishtar Familia.
And that meant Hermes's goal would be accomplished.
He really was a very pure kind of god.
He acted for the sake of his own amusement, and giving Haruhime to Anos this time was no different.
"A good relationship?"
After hearing Hermes say that, Anos could not help but laugh and shake his head.
Was this what Hermes called having a good relationship?
Constantly looking for new ways to drag him into trouble?
Even if Anos understood that Hermes was trying to build up his heroic feats and legend, he still did not enjoy being maneuvered like this.
The only reason Hermes was still safe was that none of it came from greed, and there was never any real malice behind it. He only wanted entertainment.
If not for that, a few more stunts like this and Hermes would probably not have ended much better than Apollo.
"So? Want her?"
"Your luck really is absurd, If my Hermes Familia were focused on dungeon exploration, something like this never would have fallen into your lap."
Hermes spread his hands and deliberately referred to Haruhime as a thing.
A piece of merchandise.
He wanted to see whether that would provoke Anos, whether it would draw out any reaction at all. He wanted to know if Anos was really as composed and intelligent as he always seemed on the surface.
Normally, Anos was exactly that.
But even he would not claim he could stay calm forever.
At the very least, there were still people capable of making him lose that calm.
Even so, he continued speaking with Hermes as though they were discussing cargo.
Partly because he did not want Hermes using this to stir up some new brand of nonsense later.
And partly because, in all honesty, he did not care that much about Haruhime herself.
She was very useful.
But at this stage, useful was all she was.
Right now, she could not bring him any truly qualitative change.
If he wanted Haruhime, he could simply take her by force using the power he already had on display.
If he reached Level 10 and Haruhime's magic could raise him to Level 11, to true god-class power, then yes, that would be a qualitative leap.
But long before that day came, Anos would already possess the power to crush Ishtar Familia however many times he pleased.
So at this stage, Haruhime really was not that important to him.
Of course, that did not mean he intended to refuse.
If she was being delivered to him anyway, why would he reject her?
Did he look like someone who lacked the ability to protect his own assets?
Once Haruhime had been sold to him, she was his asset.
He did not care whether the seller had any legitimate claim over her or not. Once something landed in his hands, there was no chance he would spit it back out.
If it had been some rough old man, maybe he would have considered selling the person back.
But a soft, adorable girl who could warm his bed and also provide a personal buff?
There was no way he was giving that back.
"Lord Hermes, this person will be very useful to us, so I will trouble you to have that girl sent over."
Anos accepted Hermes's gift with a gentle smile, behaving as though he knew absolutely nothing about Haruhime.
He took it as casually as drinking water.
So casually, in fact, that Hermes almost felt like scratching his head.
Had he really been wrong after all?
It certainly looked that way.
"No trouble at all, Leave it to me. As long as you can handle Hestia on your end, leave the rest to me."
Hermes raised a thumbs-up and flashed him the kind of expression only another man was supposed to understand.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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