The Protagonist System

27 A Plan Forms

I thought I had been stared at before by the Familia scouts and accepted it as them not realizing I was the kid they had rejected. With me wearing a full matching armor set, they were staring holes through me as they tried to figure out who I was. It was kind of funny seeing them stumbling over each other as they tried to ask everyone around the city who I was.

Maybe I should make a nametag for myself? I thought and it made me laugh, because I doubted that anyone would bother trying to read it.

By the time I reached the address where the Hephaestus Familia conducted family business, and not the storefront, there were about twenty people with weapons following me. I knocked on the door of the building and waited to see who would open it this time. It was just my luck that it was the same asshole that had spit on me and told me to come back when I was stronger.

“Hello, asshole. Remember me?” I asked and I punched him right in the face. I held back, of course.

“GUAH!” The man spat as he was flung back inside the room to land on the floor at a woman's feet. He also spat out several teeth and coughed.

“You told me to come back and here I am.” I said and stepped inside.

“What are you doing?” The woman dressed like a sexy samurai asked me as she drew her weapon.

“I begged to join your Familia and this idiot spat on me and told me to come back when I was stronger.” I said and walked over to him. “I'm stronger now and I came back to spit on him.”

The woman gave me a searching look as her eyes roamed over me, then she shrugged.

I gave her a huge smile before I made a show of building up a lot of spit, then let it go. “PTOO!”

It hit the man's forehead and his head snapped back to hit the floor, knocking him out.

The woman looked from him to me, a bit stunned, then she laughed. “Whoever you are, that was the funniest thing I've ever seen! You and me are gonna be great friends!”

I stepped around the man on the floor and held a hand out to her. “Bell Cranel.”

She looked at my glove-covered hand and at my face.

“Ha. I'm sorry. It's part of the complete ensemble.” I said and slipped the gloves off to tuck into my backpack. I held my bare hand out for her to shake.

She took my hand and immediately ran her fingers over the thick calluses I had instead of shaking it. “Yep, we're gonna be great friends.” She said and then put her hand in mine to shake it. “Tsubaki Collbrande.”

“It's really nice to meet you, Tsubaki.” I said and she let my hand go. “Can you lead me to Goddess Hephaestus? I have a couple of important things to tell her.”

Tsubaki's eyes dropped to the unconscious man.

I laughed. “No, that was personal and it's settled, as far as I'm concerned.”

Tsubaki smiled and waved for me to follow her. I admired her as she led me through the building and up several floors to enter a nice office without knocking. The room wasn't ostentatious or overly-ornate, which was a good indication of the disposition of the goddess running the place.

“Goddess Hephaestus? My new friend Bell Cranel wants to speak to you.” Tsubaki said.

I was a little surprised that she immediately claimed that in front of her goddess.

“Oh? Then it must be important for you to interrupt my very important and essential time set aside to do the important paperwork I absolutely hate to do.” The woman sitting behind the desk said.

Tsubaki laughed and stepped aside to wave me forward. She was only an inch shorter than me and had almost completely blocked me from view. I stepped into the room and Hephaestus cursed in ancient Greek when she saw me, or more specifically, the emblem emblazoned on my chest. Tsubaki looked amused at getting that reaction out of her goddess and stood off to the side of the room with her arms crossed to watch what happened.

Hephaestus stood up and I got a good look at her. She was only 5 foot 5 inches tall, which seemed to be close to the average height of a lot of the women that I've met. She also had a patch over her right eye and short messy red hair. Her chest was a good size for her body type and her tight brown pants left nothing to the imagination.

As I was checking her out, she walked over to me and checked me out with almost the same look that Tsubaki had given me. The blacksmith goddess walked around me twice and her fingertips lightly touched the little details I had made in the armor. She stopped as she faced me and she had to look up slightly as her fingertips traced the flames on my chestplate.

“Tsubaki! Estimation?” Hephaestus asked.

“It wasn't forged. There are no tool marks, splits, folds, imperfections, or even indents to indicate that anything had touched it.” Tsubaki said. “The details are embedded into the metal and not added or cut away, so it was either pressed into shape or came into being in the exact configuration it has.”

“Good. Very good.” Hephaestus said and used a single fingertip to run along the edge of my upper arm piece. “There are no mould lines or marks from removing them.”

Tsubaki nodded and didn't say anything else.

“You will tell me where this armor came from.” Hephaestus ordered and must have guessed what I was going to say. “If you lie in any way, I will have Tsubaki crush you, strip you of your armor, and toss you out.”

“I can see where your store attendant gets her wonderful attitude from.” I said instead.

Both Hephaestus and Tsubaki looked surprised.

“I spent some time waking around the shops not wearing this armor and only wearing my best clothes, and I was treated like less than trash.” I said and Hephaestus took a step back from me. “That was a pretty blatant hint about how things are really run around here, considering when I was dressed as a peasant and was treated almost the same way by every Familia that I begged to become a member of, including yours.”

Hephaestus took another step back and her face went blank.

“I thought you said that was settled?” Tsubaki asked.

“It is. I was just making a comparison between a man without a compassionate bone in his body and your storefront attendant.” I said.

Neither of them said anything to defend their people, which meant they must have had some idea of what they were like and didn't bother trying to fix their attitudes. That changed what I was going to say slightly and how I said it by a lot.

“The reason I came here was to convey the regrets of My Goddess for her previous behavior while staying with her only real friend, someone that took care of her when she descended to the mortal realm and had no one else. She behaved ungratefully and you tossed her out with nothing but a tiny little apartment under her own wrecked church with absolutely no protections. How nice of you.”

That earned an embarrassed blush from Hephaestus and an unhappy look from Tsubaki.

“I was also going to tell you about a minor flaw in your area in the Tower of Babel and I've decided I would rather exploit it instead.” I said and both women's eyes widened. “Not today, obviously. I'm not dressed to go shopping.” I joked and neither of them reacted. “I'm going into the dungeon to see what it's like.”

Both women looked down at my belt and didn't see what they expected to see.

“I was warned to not enter your presence with a weapon that you wouldn't approve of.” I said and Tsubaki nodded. “I hadn't intended to come here and insult you, because that would be stupid. Then you insulted me by daring to command me while I am clearly wearing another goddess' emblem.”

Hephaestus sighed and held a hand up to the side to stop Tsubaki from reacting to that. “You can't blame me for being curious about...”

“I can.” I cut her off and she frowned. “You ordered me to give up the secrets on how this was made. You didn't ask. You didn't bribe. You didn't even offer to open your shirt and pretend to seduce me.”

Both Hephaestus and Tsubaki looked surprised by that.

“My personal Goddess Hestia might contact you in the future to apologize herself.” I said and turned around to walk out. “I certainly hope that you treat her better than you've treated her child. Have yourself a great day.”

That last sentence I had said with as much sarcasm as I could. When I opened the office door, neither woman tried to stop me, so I stepped out and closed the door behind me. I walked back through the building in a reverse of the path to get to the office, and I made it to the front room to see the guy was gone. I reached for the door and a callused hand touched it first.

“Do you mind if I come with you?” Tsubaki asked.

I turned my head and saw her top was slightly opened and revealed her quite large breasts that were mostly wrapped in long strips of cloth to keep them from bouncing. “That depends.” I said and smiled at her. “Do you have a weapon I could borrow? Maybe made of mythril? I have to test some basic magic spells.”

Tsubaki's eyes practically lit up and she gripped my hand tightly. “I HAVE JUST THE THING!”

The next thing I knew, I was in another building and inside a blacksmith's workshop and being shown a wicked looking silver sword that was too thick to be a bastard sword and too long to be a broadsword. I was then given a brief history of the thing and how she couldn't test it properly and only used it as a sword and not as a focusing object for magic.

I complimented her on the workmanship and the style, even if I had no clue what it was. She preened with pride anyway. I was loaned a scabbard and I fastened the sword to my belt. Tsubaki armored up a little and picked up a different sword than the one hung on her hip and grinned at me.

“You're testing a new blade, too?” I asked.

“That's right! I can't let you have all the fun!” Tsubaki said with a laugh.

I nodded and we left there to head to the Guild. I had some information to share with Eina and possibly another deal to negotiate.

*

Eina tried to not freak out when the leader of the Hephaestus Familia entered the Guild Hall with an unknown adventurer that no one had seen before. The complete armor set stood out like a beacon, mostly because it all matched and was a bright orange-yellowish flame color. It wasn't until she noticed the emblem on the chest and saw the adventurer's familiar red eyes that she realized who it was.

“BEEELLLL!” Eina whined at him for scaring her like that and ignored Tsubaki's laughter.

Bell walked right over to her and reached across the counter to take her hand. “I came right here for advice when I decided to finally go into the dungeon.” He said and kissed her hand as he held it tenderly. “Once my armor was done, I had to show it to you after meeting with Goddess Hephaestus.”

Eina's eyes went to Tsubaki.

“My new friend loaned me a sword to test in the dungeon and wanted to come along to spend time with me.” Bell said and let her hand go. “I believe her words were that she couldn't let me have all the fun.”

“Damn right!” Tsubaki said, enthusiastically. “We're going to kick ass and push these blades to their limits, then we're going to pass them!”

Eina stared at her for several moments. “You do know that Bell is only Level 1, don't you?”

“Meh, it's just meaningless numbers. As long as you keep your wits about you and you have a reliable weapon, you don't have to worry about anything.” Tsubaki said.

“That... that... is a horrible philosophy for an adventurer to have!” Eina managed to say.

“Ha!” Tsubaki barked the laugh. “That's because I'm a blacksmith, not an adventurer. I only paid the sign-up fee to stop you people from hassling me for going into the dungeon to test my work.”

Bell barked a laugh as well and coughed to cover it up. “Ahem, yes. Well.” He said and motioned to one of the side rooms. “I was wondering about the maps the guild has for the first few floors and I also have an idea that I think could be a great investment...”

Eina's hand shot out and slapped over Bell's mouth to stop him from saying anything else. “Go over there and I'll bring the maps for the upper floors. We can talk more in a minute.”

Bell nodded and he and Tsubaki went to the indicated small room and Eina gathered up what she would need, plus a few more contracts and paperwork, just in case.

*

“I'm sorry, Bell.” Eina's sad voice said. “We can't condone the danger of using an unknown magic spell or provide you with such expensive material for a simple test, only to see if it might work.”

I sat there and was a little surprised that she had said no. “You don't trust me, even after I sold you such important things for a pittance?”

Eina blushed a little and turned her head slightly to not look at me directly.

“What things?” Tsubaki asked.

“One was a thermos that keeps things hot. The second I can't tell you about because they bought the revolutionary idea and now they own it.” I said and that made Eina blush more.

“My Goddess bought one of those things and it's great!” Tsubaki said. “She said it was a great deal for only...”

“You shouldn't discuss the private deals of your Goddess in public.” Eina said and cut her off.

I had to chuckle at that. “It's all right, Eina. I know you sold them for a lot more than what you paid for them.”

“Bell, I...” Eina started and then sighed. “I'm sorry. It's just business.”

“I know.” I said and pointed at the 12 folded maps. “I don't want to know how much those are, do I?”

Eina didn't speak and just shook her head.

“Then I believe my plans need to change again.” I said and stood. “Tsubaki, let's go visit my home briefly while I apologize to my Goddess for breaking my promise about only staying on the top four floors and then we can go into the dungeon as deep as you want to go to test these blades.”

Eina's face lost all it's color and Tsubaki looked like I just gave her the best Christmas present ever. I took Tsubaki's hand and the woman hopped up and hugged me tightly, giving me a huge look down her top, and then I was suddenly over her shoulder and we were outside the Guild Hall.

This seems familiar. I thought and looked down at her cloth-covered ass. It was damn fine.

“Which way?” Tsubaki asked me.

“The old ruined church in the outskirts of the city, that way.” I said and pointed so she could see my hand. “It's not ruined anymore, though. I fixed it up for my Goddess.”

“You are a good child to care for her so much so quickly.” Tsubaki said and ran.

“I designed my armor for her so that everyone would see her emblem. Word of her will start to spread.” I said and kept looking down. “Tsubaki, you have a really nice ass. Do you work out or something?” I joked and she laughed. We both knew she worked very hard at blacksmithing.

Surprisingly, Hestia seemed perfectly fine with letting me go with Tsubaki into the dungeon. That I was also carrying a blade that was worth more than the shop Hestia worked at, only made her happier. So, with her approval, I put my reinforced pick and shovel into my backpack and Tsubaki carried me back to her blacksmith shop to pick up what I had tried to get from the Guild.

A ton of silver powder and to cement an exclusive deal between my Familia and my new investor.