A few days later, a piece of explosive news spread throughout the entire Labyrinth City of Orario.
Esdeath, the woman who had defeated Ottar, was not a member of any Familia at all.
She was someone from another world.
At first, the news was dismissed as complete nonsense. Hardly anyone believed it.
Another world?
How could something like that possibly exist?
It sounded like something out of a fairy tale—something even more absurd than the wildest fantasy.
Anyone who believed such nonsense had to be either an idiot or a fool.
Did they really think everyone in Orario was three years old?
And yet, for some inexplicable reason, the rumor continued spreading until everyone in the city had heard it.
More and more people began claiming that Esdeath came from another world.
Even those who had initially refused to believe it gradually became uncertain after hearing the same story repeated over and over again.
Could another world really exist?
Could Esdeath truly be someone from another world?
The problem was that Esdeath had defeated even Ottar.
There were not many people brave enough to confront her face-to-face and demand an answer.
When the rumor eventually reached Rowan while he was eating, he raised an eyebrow.
Was Esdeath from another world?
Who could possibly know that better than him?
After all, he was the one who had personally brought Esdeath here from another world.
So the rumor was completely correct.
Esdeath really was from another world.
And not only Esdeath—
Rowan himself was also from another world.
The problem was that he did not remember telling anyone about it.
So why had the information suddenly spread throughout Orario with so much detail that practically everyone knew?
Who exactly was behind this?
The first person Rowan thought of was naturally Freya.
After all, Freya had met Esdeath and the others.
More importantly, she possessed the ability to perceive the brilliance of a person's soul.
Perhaps she had really noticed something unusual about Esdeath's soul and concluded that she was not from this world.
Then she might have deliberately spread the rumor throughout Orario to put some pressure on Esdeath.
Thinking this, Rowan narrowed his eyes.
If that was really the case, then perhaps it was time to leave this world.
After all, the gods of the DanMachi world had lived for incredibly long periods of time.
They had become bored with Heaven, sealed away their divine power, descended to the Lower World, and established Familias.
And they did all of this for one reason—
entertainment.
To put it bluntly, most of them were gods who lived for amusement.
Of course, there were exceptions—gods who genuinely loved the members of their Familias like their own children.
But most gods still lived for entertainment.
And for the sake of entertainment, those gods were capable of doing all sorts of ridiculous things.
It was entirely possible that some of them would try to approach Esdeath and obtain the method of traveling to another world.
The fact that they had not acted yet did not mean they were kindhearted.
It merely meant they were not yet certain whether Esdeath truly came from another world.
Once they confirmed it, they would definitely act.
At the very least, Rowan had already noticed many hidden gazes sweeping over Esdeath and himself during the past few days.
Especially him.
Rowan estimated that he had probably already exposed himself to some extent.
After all, a completely unfamiliar god had suddenly appeared in Orario.
Naturally, the gods would become curious.
And once they discovered that none of them had ever met Rowan before, that curiosity would inevitably turn into suspicion.
Especially when a woman suspected of coming from another world happened to be standing beside him.
That only made humans—
and even gods—
more suspicious.
Just as Rowan was considering whether he should leave this world, Loki suddenly came looking for him.
Alongside Loki were Riveria and Ais.
However, Riveria had already returned to her normal size and was no longer the palm-sized elf from before.
"Yo. Thanks for taking such good care of my child."
Loki opened aggressively, sounding as though she had come to demand an explanation.
Rowan expressionlessly glanced at her, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
Seeing that Rowan remained completely unmoved, Loki burst into laughter.
"The first time I saw you, I already felt something was strange."
"I never expected you to actually be a god from another world."
"Interesting."
"Really interesting."
Rowan noticed that Loki's words were not phrased as a question.
She sounded certain.
As though she had already found evidence proving that he came from another world.
Rowan was curious about what had given her such confidence.
"It was your magic."
Loki smiled.
"Have you forgotten what you did to Riveria?"
"After you shrank her, I studied the magic you used."
"And I discovered that it was completely different from every form of magic I had ever seen."
"It belonged to an entirely different system."
"That was when I first began suspecting that you weren't a god from this world."
After hearing this explanation, Rowan finally understood.
He had underestimated the gods of this world.
As expected, no god who had lived for such an absurdly long time could be underestimated.
Even ordinary humans could become frighteningly cunning with age.
Much less gods.
Of course—
certain Aquas were exceptions.
That idiot probably would not change much even after living for another hundred million years.
But Loki was no Aqua.
She had immediately discovered the flaw from his magic.
"So the rumor about Esdeath coming from another world was spread by you?"
Rowan glanced at Loki.
Loki waved her hand.
"Nothing to do with me."
"When I guessed that you might be a god from another world, my first thought was to secretly make a deal with you and get some benefits."
"I never intended to spread your origins throughout the entire city and turn it into such a huge commotion."
"So no, I didn't do it."
"If I had to guess, Freya is the most likely culprit."
"After all, your woman defeated Ottar."
By the end, Loki was openly enjoying his misfortune.
Rowan gave a faint hum.
That was more or less what he had suspected as well.
"So you didn't come here today to accuse me of anything."
"You came to make a deal."
"That's right."
Loki nodded without hesitation.
She openly admitted that she had indeed come to negotiate with Rowan.
Rowan asked curiously,
"What kind of deal?"
"That depends on what you have."
Loki paused before continuing.
"To be honest, I'm quite interested in your magic."
"That spell that can shrink people is pretty interesting."
"I wonder if members of my Familia can learn magic like that."
"Basically, yes."
Rowan answered frankly.
"The magic I know can be learned by humans, beast people, elves, dwarves—almost anyone."
Magic in the world of Fairy Tail worked exactly like that.
There were essentially no racial restrictions.
As long as someone possessed the ability to learn, they could study magic.
The only real threshold was individual talent.
Some people progressed incredibly quickly.
Others struggled every step of the way.
They might all eventually learn the same spell, but the results could be completely different.
The moment Riveria heard that she could learn it, her eyes began shining.
As the strongest mage in the Labyrinth City of Orario, her fascination with magic far exceeded that of ordinary people.
The possibility of learning an entirely new magical system excited her more than almost anyone else.
"First, tell me what kind of magic you want to learn," Rowan said.
Loki asked curiously,
"What magic do you know?"
Rowan replied,
"I know quite a lot."
"Probably more than a thousand completely different forms of magic."
"More than a thousand?"
Loki's eyes widened involuntarily.
Uh…
What?
She genuinely had not expected that.
A single god had mastered more than a thousand entirely different forms of magic?
That was absurd.
Loki herself knew magic, but even she had nowhere near a thousand spells.
In fact, there were hardly any gods in Heaven who possessed that many kinds of magic.
"What exactly are you?"
"A God of Death or a God of Magic?"
Hearing Loki's complaint, Rowan smiled.
"A genuine God of Death."
"But you can also call me the Magic King."
Loki: "…"
She had to admit it.
That bastard had successfully shown off.
"So tell me what kind of magic you want to learn."
"You can describe what you're looking for, and I'll choose something suitable for you," Rowan said.
Ais thought for a moment.
"I want magic that can make me stronger."
Rowan rolled his eyes.
"That's way too vague."
"There are far too many forms of magic that could make you stronger."
"For example, Time Magic."
"Once you learn it, you could stop time."
"Then you could slaughter entire groups of monsters before they even had a chance to react."
"There's also God-Speed Magic, which can increase your speed to an unprecedented level."
"You're already fast."
"If you combine your natural speed with that magic, you could become so fast that monsters would be dead before they even realized you moved."
"And then there's Dragon Slayer Magic."
"It can grant you tremendous power, although during its use, your body can gradually transform into that of a dragon."
Riveria was startled.
Magic that could turn a human into a dragon?
Something that terrifying actually existed?
"No!"
Loki immediately objected.
"Absolutely not!"
"My Ais-tan is definitely not turning into a dragon!"
Dragons in the Dungeon were monsters meant to be hunted.
If Ais truly became a dragon, Loki would rather die.
More importantly, there was no way she would allow someone as adorable as Ais to become a dragon.
Even Ais herself seemed somewhat resistant.
Killing dragons was fine.
Becoming one?
No thanks.
"Then how about Earth Magic?"
Rowan continued.
"You can freely manipulate the earth and reshape the terrain however you want."
"If your power becomes strong enough, you could even alter the structure of the entire Labyrinth City in an instant."
Ais shook her head.
Although the magic sounded powerful, she was not particularly interested.
She wanted something with overwhelming combat and destructive power.
Rowan thought for a moment.
"If raw combat power is what you want, then magic might not actually be the best choice for you."
"A Devil Fruit would suit you much better."
"Would you like to consider eating a Devil Fruit?"