Kapitel 12: Plans

"You did what?!" shouts Hestia, getting up from the couch where all three of us are sitting. After the little emotional moment between me and her, we had to calm down a flustered Bella and sit down with her. Although I intended to not involve her in the mess that I am currently in, there is no point in hiding the truth now that she's there.

I seriously doubt that she won't find a way to get in trouble either way.

"Well, I didn't have a choice, did I?" I answer, shrugging my shoulders. Hestia seems to want to say something, but stops herself and bites her lower lip in annoyance. She sits back down and bemoans the situation that befell me.

"Of course it had to happen…" she trails off, clutching her head with her hands and wriggling around.

"You're exaggerating the situation, Hestia… It's not like I'm being put in a corner for the time being. For now, I just have to grow stronger and be vigilant," I say, trying to reassure my goddess that I feel is inches away from eating her hair.

"Exaggerating?! Tian, you have a conniving little backstabber in your party now! I don't want anything to happen to you," she claims, her head snapping towards me. Her face truly shows how worried she is.

"She can't be that bad so long as I pay her well…"

"And how do you know that? I know that you need a supporter, but I'm pretty sure there's plenty of them wandering around that are much less dangerous than her!"

"Well, yes, but at the same time, I thought about this on the way home…"

"Yes?"

"If we manage to play our cards well, aren't we in a position to gain a loyal and efficient supporter for our familia?"

Hestia looks at me like I've grown a second head for a few seconds, before deeply sighing and rubbing her head. "It's… It's not that simple, first of all, how do you plan on gaining her loyalty? I doubt not being an ass is the only requirement…" she pauses, giving me a meaningful glance at the same time. I wince, knowing exactly what she is insinuating.

"Right, so basically, it requires putting yourself in danger once more," she states, not allowing me to talk. "Is she worth all of that? I can't stop you from doing what you want, but do you think that she's worth all the problems that come with her?"

"I me-"

"Even beyond getting her loyalty," Hestia cuts me off, really peeved by what I've just said. "How do you plan on getting her out of the Soma familia?"

"I think there's only a couple of ways that we can do that," I admit, leaning back into the couch. "The first way would be to pay whatever price they would invoke to get Lili out of their familia."

"Are you even sure they would be willing to let her go? Is she important to them in any manner?"

"Yes and not really. She makes them money, sure, but I don't think she's inherently worth keeping around. I don't know how much a supporter makes, but she is only level 1, she can't follow higher leveled adventurers down due to her weakness, therefore I doubt that she could be making that much money," I say, lifting my index finger in the air. "Even then, I don't think she is even completely clean with her familia. As I've told you before, she and the rest of the Soma familia aren't exactly getting along with each other. The money they make from her is probably only coming from threatening her in all sorts of ways."

"So… She keeps some money for herself?"

"There's no doubt about that, she wants out of the Soma familia as well after all."

"Alright, but even if that's the case… How much are we talking about?"

I sigh, trying to think of any amount they gave in the anime.

"Either I can't remember, or it was never specified in what I saw."

Hestia hums and looks thoughtful for a few seconds. "I can't say I know what someone like Lili is worth, but I'm pretty sure that they won't let her go for less than a million," Hestia says. "Or more like a couple of millions."

"Well, if it's in the million range then it shouldn't be that much of a problem. With the amount I'm bringing each day, we should be able to pay it off relatively easily."

"Yes, but it doesn't change the fact that it would cost all of our money," Hestia mentions, still looking unhappy with the situation. "And you need to remember that they will without a doubt increase the price if they see that we're able to pay it off easily. They will want to see where's our bottom line if that familia is as money-obsessed as you say."

"They're not really money-obsessed, they're addicted to what their God makes, and their captain just took advantage of that to make a lot of money, while Soma simply watches and gets more people addicted each time someone joins their ranks."

"Soma sells his stuff to mortals?!" Hestia says, flinching at the same time.

"From what I know, yes," I answer. "Why, is there a problem?"

"No, not really a problem. It's just that… Soma's alcohol is well-documented as one of the strongest substances. If even gods can get affected by it, there's no doubt that the vast majority of mortals would not be able to withstand the effects of the liquor. For him to just sell it to mortals… This doesn't even make sense," Hestia pulls back, as she seemingly gets an idea all of the sudden. "Soma wine is extremely difficult to get, even if you have the money as a god. It's so rare that there used to be fights breaking out over it in the Heavens. The difference is that in the Heavens, even if very few came close to Soma's standard, other deities were able to make divine liquor, to stem off the overwhelming demand."

"But in Orario, I've never heard of anyone else reaching this quality. Even without his Arcanum, Soma wine should be all but forbidden due to its inherent qualities as a wine made by a God. That's why Hephaestus's own creations are carefully regulated since it can easily destroy the whole market and by that token the competition."

"Is that coming from Hephaestus herself?" I can't help but ask.

"Yes, that's what she told me. If there weren't other blacksmithing gods in the city, she wouldn't be able to sell any of the weapons and armor she creates. The skill of a god is not something a mortal can approach even when we do not have access to our divine abilities. So divine creations are carefully treated here in the mortal plane. But Soma giving his wine to his children, while not forbidden, would still be looked at," Hestia states. "Be very careful with this information Tian, what you just said to me is not public at all."

"Err, alright. But why would other gods care about all of this?"

"Because that means that Soma is distributing a divine product in an unregulated manner. Since it's his familia, he has the right to, technically, but who knows what these children do with it. They can easily get other people addicted to it and skew the already feeble competition that way. And even if that's not the case, as I've mentioned, divine creations are generally sold to other deities, very rarely directly to adventurers for a reason. The only way Soma has maintained his monopoly is through the fact that his wine is that good and very few gods will let go of it."

My eyes widen at the implications. "So that means that…" I trail off.

"Exactly, Soma is protected by other familias. While what you just disclosed isn't exactly public, I'm pretty sure that gods that are important enough in this city know about this. If he's selling his wine to his children, that means that either they are as rich as the most well-established familias in the city—or they get incredible discounts compared to the gods buying it. I think you know which one is the most plausible option."

"So, the gods won't budge so long as their money isn't involved?"

"Yes, the moment they hear that mortals are getting the same product for much less, troubles will come knocking on Soma's door."

"But can't he just justify this by saying that he's giving some sort of experimental versions to the member of his familia?" I ask, trying to see any way out for Soma.

"He can try," Hestia scoffs. "But it simply won't hold. Experimental or not, whatever Soma is making is always the best quality possible. Even me, who didn't mingle too much with other gods and don't know him, has heard how good his wine is. The problem is that no matter what he makes, it's always going to be much better than any mortal's best product. And its addicting proprieties are well-known as well, that's why it's mildly regulated when distributed to mortals."

"I see," I note, pondering over the issue for a few seconds. "Didn't you say that you didn't know him? How are you knowledgeable of all of this then?"

"When you first told me about Lili," Hestia states, a smug smile making its way over her face. "I did some research about it. I didn't know that he was selling his wine to his familia, but I learned other things that in the end, proved to be valuable."

I nod, before thinking about the original issue again, Lili.

"Is there a chance that Lili is addicted to Soma?" Hestia asks me, her arms crossed under her bust. It takes me a monumental amount of willpower to not fall for the obvious trap, as evidenced by the corner of her lips slightly rising, but I push through and simply answer her question. "I have no idea, I think she isn't, since I don't remember any issue regarding this topic from what I know, but who knows what changed since my arrival."

Although it's difficult, trying to avoid the topic of my knowledge of the future is necessary, since Bella is right next to us, listening intently to our conversation, despite having no idea what half of what we say means, as shown by the heavy frown on her face.

It may also be the result of something else, who knows.

Certainly not me.

Hestia must have noticed my glance at our resident white-haired girl, because she follows it and addresses the rabbit, in this case, in the room.

"Do you have any questions, Bella?" Hestia says, tilting her head to the side.

"...Who is Lili?" Bella asks after a moment of hesitation.

As I blink, it dawns upon me that we never explained to her who the person we are talking about is. I chuckle, realizing what Bella's expression meant, and just listen to Hestia describe the pallum to her second child.

"You didn't even know what a Supporter is?" I ask, raising my eyebrow in surprise. In response, Bella gestured a 'no' with her head, and I nodded in remembrance that she didn't in the anime either. It's hardly a surprise that she doesn't know much about the city since she's even newer to it than Bell was when the anime started.

I wouldn't have known if I hadn't watched the anime either, since I arrived even later than Bella, and wasn't born in this world.

"Well, now that you're all caught up, what do you think about all of this?" Hestia asks tentatively and catches my confused glance without answering it. I already know what Bell will think about if she's anything like her male counterpart. And the moment I've spent with her, while short, already confirmed this for me.

"I…" Bella squirms on the couch in front of us, uncomfortable with being put on the spot like this. "I think that we should help Lili."

I send an 'I told you so' expression to Hestia, sighing fondly at Bella's answer. She is just someone that can't let anyone that she knows about to suffer, in a stupid idealistic way—but damn if it doesn't make me feel a certain type of way.

Hestia is the same, albeit a little bit more reserved due to her dislike of her children getting hurt, something that is inevitably going to happen if Bella is allowed to pursue this path.

Her view of being a hero certainly does not involve saving everyone, but it is a core part of it. Therefore, someone like Lili with a somewhat tragic backstory hits every string possible in her heart.

"We don't have a choice now, don't we?" I mockingly say to Hestia, who is rubbing the bridge of her nose, unable to hide the slight smile gracing her feature. When she sends me a glare, I just shrug my shoulder and get up from the couch.

"If we don't do it, I'm pretty sure that this girl right here will just go and try to help Lili anyway, right?" I say, patting Bella's head as she blushes and tries to deny my accusations. But her mannerisms and the way she refuses to look at me just invalidates her words.

"I guess we don't…" Hestia sighs, before staring at Bella. "Alright, we will help this Lili, but I want you to not do anything by yourself, Bella. No matter what, always listen to Tian, ok?"

Bella nods, a fire lighting up in her eyes.

"Even if he can be stubborn and don't always think through," Hestia states, ignoring my weak protest at her words. "He is still rather reliable and should be able to protect you if things go wrong."

"Of course I can," I say, scoffing as if I am offended by her words.

Heria rolls her eyes, smirking, and grabs Bella's shoulders in an attempt to get her message across, knowing from my words that her male counterpart is often willing to put himself in danger for others.

"I don't want to have you be needlessly injured, okay?" Hestia's tone is much higher, showing her vulnerability and how concerned she is for us. Bella gulps before smiling at her. "Don't worry, Hestia-sama, I won't do anything crazy," she answers.

She stares at her pensively for a few seconds, as if searching for any signs of deception, before sighing and letting her go.

She turns to me, "You have an appointment with the people that accosted you in the dungeon tonight, don't you?" she asks.

"I do. In fact, I probably need to get going soon," I respond, looking at the clock against the wall.

"In that case, you should get a proper contract with Lili. This, in my view, will help us negotiate for her more smoothly since we can use it for justification in the future whenever we take steps towards acquiring her for our family. If they know that it is for some emotional reason, they will probably try to extort a lot more money from us," explains Hestia, closing her eyes in thought.

"Understood."

#####

As I walk towards the Hostess of Fertility, with my new weapon strapped behind my back—thanks to Hephaestus' foresight in giving me a way to successfully walk around with the Guan Dao.

Wait, is this weapon like Bell's knife in the anime?

I pause in the middle of the street. Suddenly, I feel someone bumping into my back.

"Hey, why did you stop you asshole?!"

I ignore the obnoxious adventurer that has too much alcohol in his system, as evidenced by his slurry speech.

"Oi! I'm *hick* not done with yooo-"

He proceeds to drop on the floor. The sun is still up in the sky and he's already wasted. Classic adventurer.

I thought of taking my brand new shiny weapon out in the open right now, but the size of that thing is already getting enough attention as it is, if the Guan Dao…

Damn, I need to find a name for this polearm, Guan Dao really isn't cutting it for me.

If the Guan Dao ended up being as special as Hestia's knife in the anime, then it would probably glow, inscriptions appearing on the weapon the moment I try to do anything with it. If the size of the weapon wasn't enough to grab everyone's attention in this street, then a magic weapon would surely be.

While the Guan Dao will certainly be impractical for a lot of areas in the dungeon, due to it being close to 7 feet in length if I had to guess, it will make for a fantastic weapon against other adventurers.

While the monsters of the dungeon were my primary targets, I am not naive enough to believe that my hands will stay clean during my journey.

The reason why I mentioned wanting a polearm in the past is because of the general length of these weapons. The reason I will keep on training my fist is not only that I will probably rely on it in the dungeon for a long time to come, but also that it's ingrained within me from what I did in my previous life. In any case, I'm very excited about the chance to learn how to use a weapon that is so different from what I'm used to, and more importantly how to use it to its fullest potential in a world like this one.

Honestly, I kind of wants to go to the pub where the Soma familia will be waiting for me later on, just so that I can find a reclused place to test this bad boy out. But I know better than making the Soma familia wait.

And while I do not doubt that there is probably a whole industry of martial arts teachers in Orario, I can't be bothered to search for one. Part of my objection comes from my experience working with these kinds of people, but the biggest problem is that these people will be able to directly track not only my weapon growth but my physical growth as well.

Therefore I will have to learn how to use my new weapon by myself.

Then again, I feel like being slightly paranoid is the best plan of action in these parts, because the Soma family's already managed to track me down after only a couple of days in the city.

After all, I still have no clear idea of their objective, but I refuse to believe that they just want to gain a part of my profits through the pallum supporter. The anime taught me that trusting the Soma familia, and even Lili to a certain extent, is a bad idea.

So I must step carefully and try to delay the inevitable conflict that is to come when they try to push and exploit me for money. They might be able to get me by sneaking some Soma wine into a drink, but as for forcing it down my throat, short of their higher-level adventurers crashing down on me, none of them have the capability of doing so.

Keep my distance from them, don't accept anything they offer—whether it's food or drinks—and navigate through the lies... Jesus Christ, that's why I prefer to beat people up.

Too much work is involved in diplomacy.

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A/N:

I have a chapter in advance on my Pat re on! Here if you'd like to give me some support: Pat re on .com (slash) HiddenSword

This chapter comes a bit earlier than I thought because there's not much that happens except laying down foundations for the arc basically. In the next chapters, there will be the bit with Canoe, and we're going to be diving in cultivation as Tian finally figures out a way to cultivate properly!

He'll also need to learn how to use his weapon. Please, if you have any suggestions regarding the name of the weapon, feel free to tell me in the comments, since I have no idea what to name a 7 feet tall guandao.