Chapter 9: Soma, you don't want to never be able to brew new wine again, do you? (Patreon)

While Renan was busy teaching the members of the Astraea Familia, Astraea wasn't idle either.

She was just as quick to act. After breakfast she left the Star Hall alone and spent a little while making her way to the Guild's main hall.

"I have business. I need to see Uranus."

Astraea was a goddess, and a Goddess of Justice with considerable prestige in Orario at that. As long as her request wasn't unreasonable, the Guild had no cause to obstruct her.

Barely half a minute later, the Guild chief Royman appeared in person. He bowed to the brown-haired goddess and ushered her into a reception room to wait and rest.

About a quarter of an hour later, Royman returned. "Lady Astraea, please follow me."

They passed through a narrow, cramped corridor and soon reached the Guild's innermost depths.

An old man with long, white, slightly curled hair and a black robe, the great god Uranus, sat on a stone throne not far away. His eyes were half closed. Divine power spread out around him, only to be swallowed in an instant by the magic circle carved into the floor and used to suppress the Dungeon lying directly beneath Orario.

"Astraea. So you've come."

Uranus opened his eyes and looked at the friend he'd met in Heaven while playing Familia games.

Astraea nodded and smiled, first sending Royman away. Then she abruptly spoke four words: "Juggernaut."

While she spoke, her eyes stayed fixed on the god across from her.

Then, faint as it was, Astraea definitely saw it. Uranus's brow creased ever so slightly.

"It seems," the brown-haired goddess said, the corners of her mouth curling, "the information I got wasn't false after all~"

Uranus closed his eyes again. "Since you know about Juggernaut, I imagine you can guess why I've put this information under control."

Astraea nodded. She and Uranus were both benevolent gods who loved the people of the lower world, so of course she understood that many secrets weren't suited to being made public.

But…

"I can keep Juggernaut's existence from getting out. In return, though, I need to know more about it."

Had anyone else made this demand, say Loki or Freya, then given how those two were a little… well, extremely terrible in personality back in Heaven, Uranus might have hesitated.

But Astraea's domain was 'Justice.' She was without a doubt a teammate standing in the same camp as Uranus. Under no circumstances would she exploit the conditions for Juggernaut's birth to harm others.

So after only two seconds of silence, Uranus slowly nodded.

"Very well."

For the next ten-odd minutes, he laid out everything the Guild had investigated. More precisely, everything the Zeus Familia and Hera Familia had gathered back in the day about Juggernaut.

It included what Renan had told her earlier: Juggernaut's fighting style, its conditions of birth, its body's immunity to magic and ability to reflect it, and its strength scaling with the floor where it spawned.

There was also the fact that in the Dungeon's first twelve floors, thanks to Uranus's own divine power suppressing it, Juggernaut would never appear even if a floor were completely destroyed.

When he finished, he paused for two seconds, then asked with a trace of curiosity, "Where did you hear your information from?"

The corners of Astraea's mouth curved upward. She set her index finger before her lips and winked playfully. "It's a se~cret~."

She had known Uranus since their days in Heaven, so she knew exactly what kind of person he was.

Having spoken, she added, or rather threatened: "Also, you'd better not think of sending your people to investigate. The child who gave me that information has grown quite disillusioned with the gods because of his past experiences. If you go stirring things up and push him toward the dark factions, or just make him leave Orario, then don't blame me for rallying the others to go after the Guild with everything we've got."

Uranus: "…"

Just as Astraea cherished the children of her Familia, Uranus held a special fondness for the Guild. It was, after all, an organization he had watched grow piece by piece ever since he came down to the lower world. Otherwise, with Chief Royman's miserly, money-grubbing nature and the clearly rotten upper and middle ranks, the mid-sized and large Familia that had been burned by them would probably have found a way to throw sacks over their heads long ago, or simply wiped them out without a trace, if Uranus weren't standing behind them.

After a little while, Uranus sighed softly and forcibly suppressed the thoughts in his mind. "I understand. Let's leave the matter here."

…

After leaving the Guild, Astraea made a trip to the Soma Familia's grounds.

In the world of DanMachi, whatever people truly felt inside, the humans of the lower world were at least outwardly very respectful toward the gods.

When the Goddess of Justice arrived, the two beastmen guarding the entrance didn't dare stop her.

Soon, led by one of them, Astraea met Soma in his workshop.

Soma was a shut-in god who cared only about brewing tastier divine wine. Even so, he couldn't very well leave another god standing off to the side ignored.

"Astraea, what do you want from me?"

He scooped a ladle of divine wine into a porcelain bowl, handed it over, and asked.

Astraea thanked him and took it, lowered her head and sipped lightly. Then, without wasting words, she went straight to the point: "Renan. You know this child, don't you?"

Soma, whose eyes were hidden behind his long bangs, nodded. He remembered this member of his Familia vividly, one who seemed not to be addicted to the divine wine and had even personally refused to drink it again.

"I originally wanted to confirm for myself whether he was immune to the divine wine I brewed, and then refine my recipe based on his reaction and condition. Instead, he refused my order and even gave up his Falna update."

Astraea: "…"

Hearing Soma's self-absorbed explanation, one with no respect at all for his Familia members, the smile on the brown-haired goddess's face vanished, which was extremely rare.

She raised her right hand to her forehead and let out a soft sigh. "Soma, the children of the lower world were never your tools."

Soma was unmoved. "I give them my Falna, and they repay me with Valis and brewing materials. That's fair."

If it were only that, there'd truly be no problem.

The gods granting a chance to grow stronger and their Familia members supporting them in return was the very foundation that kept Orario running.

But…

"That doesn't include being treated as a test subject, does it?" Astraea countered.

Soma raised his head and glanced at the goddess before him through the gap in his bangs. "The divine wine I brew isn't dangerous. Giving it to them is an extra reward in itself."

The gods of the DanMachi world were all 'Transcendent Beings.' Born holding their domains, with the power to destroy the world with ease, nearly all of them, with only a few exceptions, were incapable of truly empathizing with the people of the lower world.

Soma showed this especially clearly.

The only reason he'd come down to the lower world was to further improve his brewing craft. As for founding a Familia and recruiting members, in the end he merely treated them as tools on the road to his goal.

Originally, Astraea had been reluctant to interfere on this point.

After all, she was a god herself and knew full well that gods didn't change easily.

But since she had already made a bargain with Renan, she naturally had to do something more.

"I won't meddle in the Soma Familia's affairs. That's your Familia's policy, after all." The brown-haired goddess's expression turned serious. "However, as for the child named Renan, I hope you'll allow me to update his Falna."

Soma might be a shut-in, but he was still a god who had existed for hundreds of millions of years.

In truth, the moment Astraea arrived and spoke Renan's name, he had already roughly guessed where this was heading.

"Only the Falna update?" Soma's flat tone carried a hint of surprise.

"That's right." Astraea nodded. "I'll help update his Falna, but Renan will still count as a member of your Familia."

"He doesn't plan to leave?" Soma asked again.

Hearing this, Astraea couldn't help pressing her lips together. "Because of you, he doesn't trust the gods much anymore. The fact that he came to me is most likely because my reputation in Orario is, well, passable."

Soma fell silent for two seconds. "Actually…"

He never got to finish. Guessing what the fellow was about to say, Astraea cut in first: "Put away those little schemes of yours. The people of the lower world aren't supposed to kill gods, but that's only an unwritten rule agreed upon over thousands of years. If you truly enrage that child, it isn't entirely impossible that your grounds blow up one day and you get sent straight back to Heaven."

Having said that, the brown-haired goddess switched to a gentler tone. "Soma, you wouldn't want to never brew new wine again, would you?"

Those words struck Soma's real weak point.

He could lose the Familia, and shelter and food mattered little. But if he could no longer use materials from the lower world to brew more divine wines he had never made before, Soma felt his life as a god might lose all meaning.

For the sake of his pursuit, he didn't mind in the least handing Astraea this Familia member who showed such 'unknown' qualities and potential.

Besides, Renan had no plans to leave the Familia in the short term. Whenever the mood struck, he could just give the boy a status update himself.

Seeing Soma nod in silence, Astraea's smile widened.

"Then it's settled." She set the porcelain bowl of divine wine on the table beside her and raised her right hand with a wave. "I'll look after that child for you for now."

—Of course, who knows, one day he might just become mine~

Astraea didn't say that last thought aloud.

…

The Goddess of Justice really did work fast.

In under two hours, she had confirmed the truth of the Juggernaut information and also obtained from Soma the right to look after Renan.

Just as she got back to the Star Hall near noon, Renan's lesson on Thunder Breathing had just finished.

Astraea took the chance to walk up and pat the black-haired boy on the shoulder.

"Renan, I've already spoken with Soma about updating your Falna. It was a little bumpy, but he did agree in the end."

Hearing this, Renan breathed a sigh of relief.

He turned around and bowed to the brown-haired goddess with real sincerity. "Lady Astraea, thank you for your help."

"Don't mention it." Astraea's face was full of smiles. As she spoke, she wrapped both arms around the boy's arm, and something soft as a slime pressed up against him. "Come on, follow me inside. To be honest, I'm really curious about the skills you awakened~"

Renan had come to Astraea precisely to get his Falna updated. Now that she had brought it up herself, there was no reason to refuse.

So he nodded. "All right."

Off to the side, Alize, Kaguya Gojouno and the others exchanged glances on hearing this.

Honestly, they were curious about Renan's Falna too.

But the Justice Familia was still the Justice Familia. Even with something like little bugs crawling around inside them, the girls didn't ask to watch.

To guard against unforeseen situations, Astraea had in fact bought a few update potions through her divine connections in the past.

After rummaging around and finding them, she smiled and patted her faintly fragrant bed. "Take your shirt off and lie down on it."

Renan: "Okay."

With that, he did as told and took off his shirt, revealing a body with sharply defined muscle, built up by sharing the strength of himself from the Demon Slayer world.

Standing beside the bed, Astraea first dripped a single drop of update potion onto Renan's back, onto the Falna engraved with the Soma Familia emblem.

Then she picked up a silver needle, pricked the pad of her index finger, and once the blood welled up, ran her fingertip lightly along his spine.

The next instant, the wine-god emblem that had been showing above the Falna vanished completely, replaced by a vertical longsword and a horizontal scale.

Beneath the newly formed emblem, sacred characters rose out of his skin, and under the influence of the power in the divine blood, the numbers began to jump.

[Renan]

[Lv1]

[Strength I0→I33, Endurance I0→I25, Dexterity I0→I37, Agility I0→I41, Magic I0]

[Magic]

[] [] []

[Skills]

[Rabble: Me as Me, Others as Me, Only Me, Ten Thousand Hearts as One]

[Thunder Breathing: 1. While active, grants a temporary boost to all attributes except Magic. When using the accompanying sword techniques, grants an additional boost to Agility, Dexterity and Strength, and attacks carry a faint lightning attribute. 2. Body tempering.]

A total attribute gain of 136 points was actually quite good for a rookie adventurer. After all, Astraea hadn't forgotten that the boy before her had been an adventurer for only two days.

Of course, more than the growth in his five stats, the brown-haired goddess cared about the skills Renan had awakened.

And one look at them sent her into thought.

First, 'Thunder Breathing.' Besides the buffs Renan had mentioned earlier, it even came with a 'body tempering' effect. That was probably why the boy's stat growth beat the average for Orario's adventurers.

As for 'Rabble,' which explained nothing by explaining…