by Fujino Omori
Greeted as if she was the star of the day, Mikoto stood with the cake in her arms, more confused than ever.
“What…what is the meaning of this…? Today is Lord Takemikazuchi’s day, is it not…?”
“Of course, that is true…but the main reason we gathered here today was to give you a proper send-off.”
Mikoto looked at each of her childhood friends in turn until a smiling Ouka let her in on the secret.
She might be gone for only a year, but they had been planning to have a going-away party for Mikoto since she went to Hestia Familia.
They wanted it to be a surprise, so they disguised the event as Lord Takemikazuchi’s yearly celebration and even got Haruhime involved.
Mikoto’s jaw dropped the moment the cat was out of the bag. She looked at each of them once again.
“Haruhime lent her assistance to prepare this food…Said she wanted to help celebrate our reunion, too.”
“…I also wanted to commemorate Miss Mikoto’s departure.”
Ouka did his best to contain a chuckle as Haruhime smiled at Mikoto like a blooming flower next to him.
One look at the dumplings sitting on the table, and Mikoto finally connected the dots as to why she had met with Takemikazuchi the day before.
“It was Lord Takemikazuchi who suggested we throw you a going-away party.”
A wave of nervous energy passed through Mikoto as soon as Chigusa said those words.
Her friends stepped aside to make a path as Takemikazuchi came forward.
So many emotions assailed her heart at once that Mikoto couldn’t move, much less say anything. The deity came to a stop right in front of her and gently placed his hand on top of her head.
“Ahh…My apologies for yesterday.”
A small smile appeared on his lips at the look of shock on the girl’s face. Takemikazuchi’s expression softened and his shoulders sank.
“To be honest, I’m still unsure what I did to deserve such a reaction…but in the end, I did something that upset you, didn’t I?”
“…!”
“Even back in the Far East, I often did things that upset you.”
“Th-that isn’t so!”
Mikoto came back to herself when Takemikazuchi started to apologize, and she vigorously shook her head.
“It’s me, it’s all my fault! My fault that I was upset with you, my fault that I felt anger…That I was jealous!!”
Her episode had caused Takemikazuchi distress, bringing even more shame and guilt into the storm of emotions swirling within her.
Tears began to pour out of her eyes, her face a light shade of red as she explained that she had no right to feel upset, angry, or jealous.
But she lacked the courage to tell him what was really going on in her heart. She felt she didn’t have the right to do that, either.
“No, not your fault. Because I am your god, and also your father.”
Mikoto’s gaze was fixed on the floor, but Takemikazuchi’s words made her eyes open wide.
“If there’s something you want to say, say it. I will accept anything and everything. That’s what families are for, is it not?”
Then he smiled and added that it was the only way for him to notice things.
Slowly, very slowly, Mikoto raised her head. Cheeks getting darker by the moment, her lips parted and closed over and over without any sounds coming out. Even though she was separated from the familia, they cared enough about her to organize a going-away party. They were still her family, and knowing that warmed her heart.
Accept what she had to say—would he really?
If it was true, she wanted him to. To not only accept but respond.
She wanted to hear what he would have to say about going beyond their relationship as father and daughter, as a family.
She wanted to know the true thoughts of the god she had put through so much trouble over the years.
Lips trembling, Mikoto’s ears turned bright red as her heartbeat pounded audibly.
Chigusa, Ouka, and the other members of the familia realized what that meant and waited for Takemikazuchi’s next words with bated breath.
Mikoto kicked her pride to the side and built up as much courage as she could muster.
“Lord Takemikazuchi, I—!!”
“Mikoto, I have a gift for you. Wait right here.”
There was a hint of self-satisfaction in his voice as Takemikazuchi turned away from her and walked to the corner of the room, oblivious to Mikoto’s once-in-a-lifetime level of determination.
Mikoto froze, a dark-red statue in front of the doorway. Ouka and the others stared at their god, disappointed by his horrible sense of timing.
A fresh torrent of tears made its way down Mikoto’s cheeks. Oblivious to the glares of dismay, Takemikazuchi returned to her with a gratified smile on his face and held his gift out to her.
“A going-away present.”
“Eh…?”
A small sword the length of a dagger was in his outstretched right hand.
He held another one in his left hand, but a different color.
“…Male and female, a matching pair of swords.”
Mikoto’s voice trembled.
“That’s right,” Takemikazuchi responded with a satisfied nod.
“I used money earned at my part-time job without involving the familia…and, yes, a loan as well.”
Astonishment overtook Mikoto’s face with that admission.
Ouka and Chigusa didn’t know about it, either. They were just as shocked as Mikoto.
“I heard that Hestia went into debt to acquire a knife for Bell Cranell. I’m not trying to compete with her, but I figured I should be able to do something on that level as well…I don’t consider a loan to be appealing, but I…”
He closed his eyes toward the end, stumbling over his words. A faint blush appeared on Takemikazuchi’s face.
Meanwhile, Mikoto gazed at the small swords in the god’s hands as he admitted his rivalry with the young goddess.
One black, one white. Shaped like katana, even their sheaths were well-designed and high quality.
Goibniu Familia’s signature was carved into each; both were custom made.
Mikoto’s dark velvet eyes began to tremble and moisten.
“…Something for my beautiful daughter, a little token.”
The smile she gave him broke what was left of the dam, sending more tears than ever streaming down her face.
Takemikazuchi hesitated for a moment, forcing a smile in front of the tearful girl. He took a step forward and bent his knees so that his eyes were level with Mikoto’s.
“The male is Tenka, the female Chizan…I give this one to you now, and I’ll carry the other.”
With the box in her arms, Mikoto couldn’t take the blade from him, so Takemikazuchi slid the dagger-size black sword—the female, Chizan—into the sash around her waist.
After making sure it was secure, he looked into Mikoto’s still leaking eyes.
“And the other one shall be yours on the day you come back to us,” he said. “So make sure you come back.”
Showing her the white blade, Tenka, Takemikazuchi smiled once again.
“I will wait as long as I must, Mikoto.”
More tears flowed as Mikoto closed her eyes.
A pleasant, warm feeling swelled within her heart and grew to envelop her entire body. Eyes still closed, she smiled back at him.
She envisioned the moment when the two blades would be reunited.
That would be the day she would reveal her true feelings, the ones she couldn’t say this night.
She would become someone worthy of carrying both blades.
Next time, for sure, she would speak her mind.
“—Yes!! Please wait for me!”
Cheeks slick with her tears, genuine joy appeared in her expression.
She exchanged smiles with Takemikazuchi, face-to-face.
Chigusa, Ouka, Haruhime, and the rest of the group that surrounded t
he two couldn’t help but follow suit.
“Um, this…this is a cake…so, Lord Takemikazuchi, everyone together…”
“Oh, thanks, Mikoto! Now then, all of you—let’s dig in!”
““Yes!”” came their voices in unison.
Takemikazuchi took the box from the still-sobbing Mikoto as the room came alive. The men couldn’t wait another moment and were around the table in the blink of an eye, hands outstretched.
Chigusa, Haruhime, and the other girls gathered around Mikoto. All of them exchanged hugs, smiles, and pats on the back. The star of the evening wiped the tears away with her arm and smiled back at her friends.
Light from the magic-stone lamps outside came in through the living room windows.
It was just like back at the shrine. Their small home overflowed with laughter.
Warm sunlight shone down through clear blue skies.
Early signs of summer had arrived in Orario. A blade flashed in the sunlight from overhead as it whistled through the air.
Hestia Familia’s home, the manor’s garden.
Mikoto was by herself, shedding droplets of sweat as she practiced combat techniques among the lush green of the lawn, shrubbery, and trees.
Spinning, tumbling, and slashing like a ninja, she held Takemikazuchi’s gift Chizan tight in her grasp.
“My opinion of Lord Takemikazuchi has improved…a little…”
Bell and Welf watched Mikoto’s training from the shade of a nearby hallway. Nahza spoke up next to them.
She had come to the manor to deliver the items that Hestia Familia had ordered. Hearing about what had transpired yesterday seemed to put her in a good mood. Even her tail swished back and forth with more enthusiasm than usual.
“Was a bit worried for a while there. Can’t help but feel like we’re missing something important, though,” Welf remarked as he stood with his hand against a wooden pillar.
“But Miss Mikoto’s back on good terms with Lord Takemikazuchi. She certainly looks happy…” Bell, right next to him, wore a cheerful smile.
Every so often, Mikoto would stop practicing, admire the blade in her hand, and grin.
She looked to be in very high spirits. Bell and Welf watched her and shared a lighthearted, wry smile. On the other hand, Nahza narrowed her eyes at the girl. While she admired Takemikazuchi for preparing a weapon for Mikoto on his own, there was another concern.
“But, you know…”
Slowly but surely, the corner of her mouth tilted up.
“…he does things like that all the time like it’s nothing. I think that’s why people call him insensitive.”
Dividing a male and female pair of blades between god and follower like Takemikazuchi just did.
The female blade to the woman, and the male blade to the man.
It was almost like—
“An engagement ring. Deities tend to call it a ‘proposal.’”
“…Well, yeah.”
“Ah, ha-ha-ha-ha…”
Welf rubbed his neck with his free hand. An empty laugh escaped Bell’s mouth before he could repress it.
It was easy to get the wrong idea as the recipient of something close to a marriage proposal. All three observers were thinking the same thing.
“Everyone! Why don’t you join me in training if you have time—?”
Mikoto stopped her practice swings, turned to face the onlookers, and waved.
With the female half of the pair firmly in her grasp, a smile as clear as the sky above bloomed on her face.
CHAPTER 2
THE PRUMS PROPOSAL
Fifty kirlos due east from Orario.
While life was going on as usual behind the city wall far away, the Alliance was still busy dealing with Rakia’s army.
“Gahh, I’m soooo bored. Fiiiinn. End this already, will yaaaa.”
The battle had begun five days ago.
Loki Familia had built their base of operations in a clearing in the middle of the plain. There they had a commanding view, from the harsh Alb mountain range all the way to the edges of the Deep Forest Seoro. While Loki Familia’s flag flew high above their heads, they kept a close eye on enemy movements.
A goddess lazily sprawled out over several chairs lined up side by side underneath the largest tent inside the base. Finn, meanwhile, leaned over a large map stretched across a table. He smiled dryly to himself.
“I would like nothing more than to do just that…”
Alone with his goddess inside the tent, Finn studied the locations of different pieces on top of the map.
“Their movements seem half-hearted, far too indecisive.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“They cause enough commotion to get our attention but never truly go on the offensive…Even their generals, equal to our second-tier adventurers, refuse to show their faces. Their forces take one step forward and then three steps back. Our allies are being spread too thin chasing them down. We can’t keep this up.”
If Rakia had one advantage over the alliance of powerful adventurers, it was numbers.
It went without saying that many large familias resided within Orario, but none had the manpower to match that of an entire country. It might have been the era of quality over quantity, but overwhelming an opponent with numbers was still a viable strategy.
Even if the Orario familias committed their forces to eliminating all the small battalions that were cutting off Orario’s trade and crippling its economy, they would inevitably end up chasing the enemy too far, stretching their already thin lines to the breaking point.
“So the main army’s hidin’ somewhere, and the guys we’re fightin’ now are just distractions?”
“That can’t be completely ruled out, but…”
Finn begrudgingly answered Loki, who hadn’t shown the slightest interest in, nor bothered to remember, any incoming information since the start of the war. That was when another member of Loki Familia ran into the base and entered the tent.
“General, I have confirmation.”
“Good work, Raul. What’s the latest from Port Meren?”
“Everything seems normal. There were no sightings of a fleet or even suspicious ships, from Lolog Lake up to the cliffs.”
Finn listened to his subordinate’s report and turned to face the map. His hands went to the west side of Orario, opposite to their base’s location on the map, and he removed all the stones from the lake, all the way up the coastline.
“So there’s no possibility of an incursion by sea…”
Loki got out of her makeshift chair bed and joined Raul beside the map. They could see that Finn had marked the location of the first battle and indicated the current location of Rakia’s many battalions with red pieces. The troops that Finn had sent in pursuit were marked blue.
“It appears our enemy wants to draw out this war…They want to spread Orario’s forces as thin as possible, chip away at our supplies and morale, then finish the bulk of the fighting outside the city.”
“Ahhh, got it. So that’s what’s goin’ on.”
Loki smirked as Finn worked out Rakia’s strategy piece by piece and arrived at their final goal.
The prum general had a little chuckle at the range of expressions that passed over his god’s face.
“Let’s return to the city for the time being. Whatever the enemy is after, it’s there.”
“Music to my ears!” Loki jubilantly clapped her hands, rejoicing in her newfound freedom.
“Raul, we’re withdrawing. Spread the word to all units. Leave our flags in place. Rakia can’t know we’re gone.”
“A-are you sure, General…? If we just abandon the front…”
“We have a good reason to return to the city. I doubt the Guild will complain.”
Finn ignored his subordinate’s shocked expression and started packing up his belongings.
“Freya Familia can take care of the rest.”
“Hee-hee-hee! She can’t say no to the Guild ’cause of
everything that happened with Ishtar. That airheaded vixen got slapped with a mighty high penalty. They can take care of all the dirty work!”
Loki couldn’t have looked more pleased, since a certain Goddess of Beauty would have no choice but to obey the Guild’s orders. She could unload all the boring jobs onto that goddess’s familia. A small group of messengers rushed out of the base to deliver the orders to field commanders. Loki Familia was in full retreat a little less than an hour later.
“Any powerful familias still left in Orario?”
“Hmm…Of the big ones…there’s probably only Phai-Phai’s kids.”
“Hephaistos Familia? That’s perfect. I’ll have them help out as well.”
After going over a few more things with Loki, Finn left to oversee the final stages of their withdrawal.
Much like during the expedition into the Dungeon, the familia’s lower-ranking members quickly disassembled the base, packed it into cargo boxes, and carried it all away effortlessly. The only difference was that, this time, it was under a clear blue sky. They set their sights on the white tower rising up above to the west.
“General! Need something to drink? Or maybe some food? I just caught a wild boar! Should I roast some for you?”
“Oh, um, I’m going to have to decline, Tione. If you do start a fire, make sure there’s no smoke.”
“Will dooo!”
With bronze, wheat-colored skin and long black hair, the Amazon Tione Hyrute wore minimalist battle gear that barely covered her lush bosom and smooth skin. Finn gave his Amazonian field commander a vacant smile as she made another pass at him.
Tiona shot a look that screamed, “Again?!” at her older twin sister, Tione, who made no attempt to hide her intentions. This was a common occurrence in Loki Familia, so Aiz and the other members were used to it and took care not to get involved.
Finn waited out the storm until someone else got Tione’s attention and she left.
“Finn, what are your plans after our return?”
“Okay to wait fer new orders at home?”
After Tione left, the elf Riveria and the dwarf Gareth came up to talk to him.
Finn turned to face the other two leaders of Loki Familia and opened his mouth to speak.
“I’ll issue orders in advance, so could I have a little time off, Riveria, Gareth?”
