Chapter 6: Astraea's Heartbeat (Patreon)

Beside her, Kaguya Gojouno said nothing, but she turned her gaze on him as well.

Under the faintly scorching stares of the two women, Renan couldn't help a wry smile.

"Lady Astraea really thinks too highly of me. I'm just a Level 1 adventurer. The deepest I've gone in the Dungeon is the fourth floor, and I've never even seen a monster of Level 2 caliber. What right do I have to offer advice to your Familia?"

"Oh~~~~~~" Astraea clearly didn't buy it. She could smell the lie in the boy's words.

But she was a goddess, and one of the few in Orario with a sound temperament and a sound sense of right and wrong. She chose not to call him out and changed the subject for the moment. "The information you gave us, I've taken it in. Afterward, I'll confirm it with Uranus."

That was only to be expected. Renan wasn't the least bit surprised.

"Now then…" The brown-haired goddess folded her arms beneath her chest, which only accentuated her generous figure. After half a second's pause, a faint smile touched her face. "You've shared some rather important information with me and with my children. What do you intend to get from me in exchange?"

At the mention of what he wanted, Renan's expression grew two shades more serious.

He didn't beat around the bush. He'd come to the Astraea Familia's base at the crack of dawn precisely to reach this goal. "I'd like Lady Astraea to introduce me to a god who's neutral leaning kind, but who doesn't mind bending some of the unwritten rules between the Guild and the Familias. And, um, ideally one whose Familia is a little on the weak side."

Hearing this request, Astraea was honestly a bit surprised and puzzled, but after a moment's thought she had her answer.

"You want to leave the Soma Familia you're in now?"

Who would have guessed that Renan would shake his head.

"I don't plan on leaving the Soma Familia."

Astraea: "???"

The brown-haired goddess had to admit that her curiosity had been successfully stirred.

"If you don't want to leave the Soma Familia, then why do you need to know other gods?" Astraea asked. "Of course, if you'd rather not answer, you don't have to."

Renan had decided to find a god willing to update his Falna through Astraea, so of course he knew she'd be able to find out the real situation from the person involved afterward.

He scratched his cheek. "It's really not a big deal. I just want to find a god willing to use an update potion to update my Falna."

Astraea: "An update potion?"

Kaguya Gojouno: "Update your Falna?"

An adventurer from the Soma Familia who didn't go to his own patron god, but instead took a big detour, relying on an update potion and some other god to update his Falna.

Never mind Kaguya Gojouno. Even the worldly Astraea couldn't help wondering for a moment whether the boy across from her was joking.

But as always, the gods of DanMachi could see through whether the people of the lower world were lying.

And clearly, in Astraea's judgment, the boy sitting on the sofa had just told the plain truth.

But precisely because of that…

The brown-haired goddess, something occurring to her, spoke again. "That Soma won't update your Falna for you?"

Renan didn't hide it. From the moment Soma had threatened him with a Falna update last night to make him drink the divine wine, his attitude toward the Soma Familia had gone from initial distance to pure loathing. "He's willing, but on the condition that I drink the divine wine again. And not the watered-down version that circulates on the market, either."

Astraea: "…"

That the Soma Familia's initiation ceremony was drinking the divine wine Soma brewed was something the middle and lower-tier adventurers of Orario might not know, but the Guild, the top adventurers, and many gods had all heard of it.

Still, as always, it was an internal matter of the Familia. Even when some of the kinder gods and top adventurers couldn't stand it, there was nothing they could do to intervene.

And from the boy's words, Astraea had clearly picked up on something. "You must have drunk the divine wine too when you joined the Soma Familia, didn't you? Why do you hate it so much? Or is it that you never actually got addicted?"

Back in the inn room last night, Renan had actually rehearsed the questions that might come up when talking with the Goddess of Justice today.

He gave a dry laugh. "I can't hide anything from you, Lady Astraea. I got lucky. When I joined the day before yesterday, a little accident happened, and although I drank the divine wine, I happened to dodge its addictive effect. But… being immune once doesn't mean I'd be immune a second time."

"That stuff might change my personality after I drink it, make me stop being me. I'd rather die than touch it!"

As he said that last line, Renan's expression and tone were absolutely firm.

He was a transmigrator from China. Porn aside, he at least despised gambling and drugs with a passion.

Don't give him that line about the divine wine being addictive just because it tasted too good.

A thing that changed your personality and values after you drank it? In Renan's eyes, that was poison!

And Soma was getting ready to feed him poison. In a sense, that was no different from trying to kill him.

It was only because Renan was still weak and couldn't yet push back against the unspoken rule and taboo that the people of Orario's lower world must not kill gods. Otherwise, last night, in the rage of the moment, he would have cut down that lunatic Soma with a single sword stroke.

Of course, Renan wasn't foolish enough to say what he really thought out loud.

However kind and gentle Astraea might be, at heart she was still one of the gods of DanMachi. Nobody knew whether, when their interests were truly threatened, they'd tear off the mask and hit you hard.

The brown-haired goddess could see through lies, but she couldn't read other people's inner thoughts as well.

After hearing Renan out, she fell silent.

A good while passed before she slowly opened her mouth and let out a sigh. "That Soma was a strange shut-in even back in the Heavens, and after coming down to the lower world he still refuses to change. He's already stumbled on an uncut gem, yet for the sake of one thing or another he misses it, even pushes it away."

Renan had ignored the divine wine's addictive effect at Level 1, before he'd even had a Falna engraved on him. Even if it was only luck, as he claimed, once word got out, what awaited the Soma Familia would surely be countless War Game challenges.

Whether they were the amusement-chasing gods or the ones who devoted themselves to exploring the Dungeon, they'd all take a swing on the off chance and find some way to snatch Renan away.

All of it just to witness this 'unknown' with their own eyes.

In fact, never mind the other gods who didn't yet know Renan's situation. Even Astraea, though she didn't say so, was clearly a little tempted.

It was only because of her own temperament, and because of her existing members, that the Familia currently recruited only women. So the urge to claim Renan had risen, and not long after she'd pushed it back down again.

But…