Goddess's blessings on this Not So Wonderful New World! 3 (Rule 34 Economy / Overlord)
Of course, I expected to be harried for answers the moment the teleportation process to the Sweet Home had been completed, that said...
"You know… guh, strangulation isn't my fetish at all."
… getting bad-ended via impatient magic gods was not part of the plan at all!
"Rather than waste your breath on such foolishness you will tell me what you kno-"
We just had to get separated again, and I just had to end up with Othinus as my sole companion on this walk to the mansion, ah, such misfortune!
"GOD BLOW!"
My death was averted in the stupidest way possible.
I want to erase the sight of Othinus failing against Aqua, Aqua of all people!
I may have found someone with even shittier luck than Aqua.
Must… ignore… magic goddess getting punched down into the ground like the average Touma gender equality victim!
"*Wheeze* … haa...hack, guh, thanks Aqua-sama." I genuinely thanked Aqua for coming to my rescue the moment she arrived.
"Hehe, now you're showing respect huh? Have you properly realized my greatness?"
Aqua was then thrown into the air by an angry, flustered Othi-chan.
"AAAAAAAaaaah…!"
AQUAAAAA!
Ah, I can't hear Aqua anymore.
Well, she'll be fine. Aqua is more durable than many give her credit for.
Now back to the situation at hand… Othinus was glaring at me, eh… I'll just stick to my previous statement.
"I said it before… *cough*... and I will say it again. I will answer everyone's questions at the mansion over a delicious home-cooked lunch. And that's that."
I fearlessly (mostly because I know that I will just get sent back again) stared back at the Magic God until she huffed and relented, walking away in the direction of the mansion.
"Fine then. A mere handful of hours is nothing compared to how long I've waited."
Just as she was almost out of sight, "Nick! There you are-", Satella came running at me while holding the skirt portion of her long black dress up, looking very relieved at finding me,"-I thought I lost you… again… Nick, what are those marks on your neck?"
"T-these are… uh, from a minor dispute I had with Othinus…"
"Another woman's name?! ANOTHER WOMAN TOUCHED YOU!?"
Before I used up another command seal an unseen force struck the Witch of Envy!
"Ouch! Uuu… well, it worked." Satella had an adorably sad face as she nursed the mark on her face, my mind raced to process what had just happened, and when I did, I quickly ran up to Satella to hug and praise her.
"Wow! Satella! You did it!"
She likely forcibly took control of her Authority of Sloth, Unseen Hand, and slapped herself hard enough to gain the advantage in a mental battle against the Witch of Envy.
She's getting better control. Let's hope that progress continues.
"Y-yeah, I did, didn't I?" She smiled and looked proud at herself for a moment, until she realized that I ignored her first question, "Wait, don't distract me! What happened?"
"I wasn't trying to distract you. I'm genuinely impressed that you managed to take back control from your Witch side that probably wants to kill everything."
Knowing that she was always in a battle for control over her body, I consider her proactiveness in finding a way to get back in control for my sake to be touching and… well... it's more than I deserve.
"Not you. Never you." She whispered softly, as if trying to reassure both herself and I that the Witch wouldn't lash out at me.
I knew better, however, as poor Subaru found out for all of us.
"Uh, anyways, Othinus didn't waste time in asking her questions and I said that I would only explain what I knew when everyone's gathered together over lunch. Yeah, that's about it."
I quickly stuck with the story and avoided mentioning the other incident.
"...aaaaaaAAAAAH!"
Aqua crash landed right behind me.
"Ah, Aqua's back." I noted without much fanfare despite the fact that my heart jumped at the shockwave of her impact to the ground.
And now I had to recall the weirdest moment of my life when the joke character defeated the strongest character in my vicinity. If this was a versus thread then there would be a shitstorm of massive proportions in addition to lambasting whoever thought of such a match-up with a character that can lose 50% of the time.
She looked no worse for wear despite all the crying and shouting she did.
Sasuga Aqua-sama.
"Goddess Aqua! Are you alright!?" Satella quickly showed her kindness as she rushed to check up on Aqua.
Aqua lifted her face up from the ground, looking mildly annoyed and commented on her circumstances with remarkable poise, "Sky-diving is overrated. Seriously, I was scared of this? It's been way too long since I've been at full power."
"Um…"
"Yeah?"
"You're really okay?"
"Of course I am! I'm a goddess after all!"
The other blue-haired goddess of the day puffed up her ample chest in pride! Then she coughed into her hand and quickly went into goddess mode, "Thank you Miss Elf for your kindness. In the name of the goddess of water, Aqua, you shall be blessed for showing kindness and compassion. Now-"
Aqua grabbed Satella by her shoulders then looked at her with a hungry look, ditching the graceful goddess appearance for an expression fitting that of a conman, "-why don't you join the New Axis Order, you're the best fit don't you think? I can make you my first Archpriest and head of the order. You won't get a job offer better than this? Do you think Eris would let you get a high rank in her church without paying your way into it? The Axis Order rewards success if you meet your quota, I mean, adhere to my tenets-"
I pulled the overwhelmed Satella away from Aqua, hugging my cute half-elf protectively, "You offer sounds sleazier than a multi-level marketing scheme!"
"WAAAAH! You take that back! Don't insult how my followers spread my name!"
"You didn't deny it!? That means your organizational hierarchy is a con!"
"It's not. Anyways, how about you show some words of gratitude, or an apology for how you treated such a high-class goddess with such dismissiveness all this time and looked to other goddesses…!"
... This was all about me worshiping Eris?! I thought you actually saved my neck out of the goodness of your heart!
"Artemis! Eris! Izanami! We're over here! Goddess Change!"
"Argh! You damn pretty boy! I'm a goddess, a goddess is right here!"
"Any woman who must say I am a goddess is no true goddess."
Aqua and I argued for a bit while Satella silently snuggled into my chest until all of a sudden, she held a hand to her cheek and said "ouch!"
"Huh? Do you have a toothache?" Aqua asked as she raised her right hand, and used a spell, "Heal! There! You should be better now."
"Ah, it is!" Satella marvelled at how quickly the healing effect had taken place.
"Thanks Aqua. Satella hurt herself a bit earlier."
"Satella? Oh, that's your name!" Aqua only just realized that she hadn't been introduced to the half-elf formally, then she gave us a curious look, "Are the two of you lovers?"
"Ah?" "Mn?"
After a couple of seconds, Satella and I managed to gain some self-awareness on our current position. I did, after all, just went up and hugged Satella in order to shield her from Aqua's attempt at conversion.
"No, no, we just met after all."
"We're not. Um... I wouldn't mind though."
I wouldn't mind either! Why don't we get married now!?
"Heeeeeh?" Aqua smiled teasingly, she scrutinized me for a bit and nodded, "Well, you're doing a couple of things better than the usual losers and hikkineets that get sent to another world, I'll give you that."
"Hey, isn't that benchmark way too low." I didn't like the backhanded compliment, at all. Though I admit it's a step-up from Aqua's usual remarks to guys she hasn't gotten to know.
"What's a hikkineet?" Satella asked innocently.
"It's Kazuma." Aqua answered as if she read out the first definition of a word from a dictionary.
"It's a what, not a who." I clarified and gave the actual definition for Satella.
"Hellooooo! Orion, we made it!" Artemis called out and jumped down from a nearby tree, carrying a grumpy Jibril with her left arm that still had two arrows through her wings. "Ah, Satella, Aqua! It's great that you made it here alright."
The Flugel had a complicated expression on her face, she was clearly humiliated at her current situation, yet there was an odd sense of excitement with how fast she was breathing.
"We landed on the other side of the island. Jibril was stuck somewhere up that mountain so it took awhile."
"It did. Although from my point of view, you were clearly taking your time."
"It can't be helped! I've never been to a tropical island before and the view was just sublime all the way up over there!"
"Of course, I won't deny that the view was wonderful. However, I would have very much enjoyed it more if I could fly around the island with my own power."
"Hmm?" It didn't take me long for me to put two and two together, "So you sealed Jibril's power away with your Arcanum using those arrows as a conduit?"
Artemis smiled and elaborated, "Close. Those arrows were imbued with a curse that seals the target's power, I just had to use my Arcanum to charge it up and the curse would hold without any upkeep from my end."
"It's unfair! Why is it that Old Dei have all sorts of cheats!" My would-be murderer whined.
"I'm feeling a little bad for her. Isn't it wrong to keep her so badly injured too?" Satella was seriously an angel! S.M.T.! (Satella Maji Tenshi!)
"Hey, Jibril, if you don't try to kill us, pick a fight or destroy things needless then we might unseal you. Artemis, would you agree to that if she swears on her honor?"
"That's fine with me."
"Mmnn… those terms are agreeable so long as it's limited to this particular dimension. I still don't understand our situation very much, so I don't think it would be very fair if our aims were to come into conflict in the future and I'm unable to go off on my own."
After everyone here agreed to those terms, Jibril swore her oath with an "Aschente" at the end.
Artemis pulled out her two arrows and retrieved her power (around 5% in each) as Jibril explained for everyone's benefit about the Ten Pledges back in Disboard and what Aschente means.
Aqua went ahead and healed Jibril to max health instantly with a single spell. Which got Jibril super curious to the point where she was hounding Aqua and drooling over the goddess's shoulder for an in-depth explanation on how it works.
Needless to say, Aqua couldn't answer any of them.
Eris and Izanami appeared soon after, the two of them were very engrossed on the topic of Japanese media, specifically anime.
"Haa, I can't believe there's another Dragon Ball series. I didn't even get to finish the first one because Aqua-senpai keeps making more work for me."
"Ehh? Isn't that because you're mucking around on your world playing as a thief?" Aqua was utterly oblivious to Eris's work as Chris.
"That counts as work too! I had to collect all the lost cheat relics that you gave to all the reincarnates!" Eris also said something about never finishing Ace Attorney because Aqua hi-jacked her play-through and passed on more work to her.
"Excuse me. Ace Attorney? Anime? What's that? I am very interested in this." Jibril raised her hand.
"Me too." Satella piped up.
"Ah… My throat's a bit dry from talking so much. You handle it." Izanami passed the buck to me immediately!
And so we walked to the mansion in a lively manner as I explained modern amenities and entertainment to the two non-goddess beings.
Othinus was in a crater right in front of the door… while holding the Yamcha death pose.
What's with this day and surreal sights!?
She got up slowly with a super determined look in her eye, as if she was going through a Shounen Main Protagonist moment of not admitting defeat to a superior opponent…!
"This door is an eyesore. Disappear! This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door. This door!"
Othinus was assaulting the mansion's door with physical strength! Is that a runic chain!? What's with that number of explosions!?
Ah, the magic god self-destructed.
She landed right in the crater again.
"... W-what's with this door? Is it a magic god in disguise?"
Artemis helped Othinus (who no longer had the will to resist) up the ground.
"Really, what are you thinking? Why do you have to attack the door like that?"
"It barred my path."
"... You just wanted to get in the mansion before us, didn't you?"
Othinus had no reply to that. I have a feeling that being denied answers earlier stung her pride had somehow led to this outcome.
"Uhuhu-Ksh-Ksh!" Aqua was laughing like crazy, "After playing tough and going here alone, you ended up being beaten by a door, let me show you how a real goddess does things! GOD BLOW!"
Aqua's attack was reflected and she ended up blown back into the crater of shame.
Satella was being a nice girl by worrying over Aqua whilst Jibril had a look of utter disbelief at such a powerful home security system.
Izanami was at the side snapping pictures with her mobile phone. Ah, I should ask her to send me the one with Othinus later on.
"This mansion's security system is terrifying indeed. Being forced to land in that pose is too cruel for even the most unfortunate." Eris made a show of being sympathetic to her fellow goddess's plight… but her small snicker at Aqua's expense showed just how hollow it really was. I guess both goddesses were more alike than they liked to admit.
I walked up to the door and twisted the doorknob.
The door opened easily.
"You did try opening it normally, right?"
"O-Of course I did, human! It must simply be the case that this building bars entry to anyone other than yourself. Considering your supposed knowledge of our circumstances then it must be the case that your presence acted as the key to this building."
… I want to believe that it's just because I'm the main character in this R34 Economy CYOA scenario, but there's also a part of me that just thinks that Othinus's arrogance knows no bounds and really did forgo trying the door like a normal person (human) would.
"You know what, that's not really important for now. Anyways, ladies, let's explore!"
We toured the house and found the typical rooms (e.g. kitchen, living room, study room) one would expect. I had to give a lot of explanations on modern home functions to Jibril and Satella during this time.
The control room showed a holographic model of the entire island and the mansion, with some custom presets to change the theme for both. We unanimously agreed to leave it untouched for now.
The portal room had a big portal that showed the area we had departed from, I explained briefly about how we would be locked out of other worlds until we accomplished things in this world. Naturally, Jibril asked if killing an entire species counted, and I nodded stating that genocide was probably viable for certain races.
All the goddesses (sans Othinus) and Satella demanded an explanation for that, so I proceeded to explain the excesses of the Beastmen Country that was currently invading the Dragon Kingdom at this point in time.
Even Aqua didn't seem to have an issue with drowning "monsters" that destroy civilization with their only excuse being that they can't wean themselves off human flesh and engage with diplomatic cooperation instead.
I promised to explain the actual main threats to us for the New World later on.
First, we needed to freshen up and get settled in our rooms.
It seemed that all the girls already had some assigned rooms.
Othinus and Artemis's rooms were just opposite of one another's.
Aqua and I watched keenly with shit-eating grins as Othinus slowly opened the door like a normal person. The look she gave me would have resulted in death for any mortal without plot armor like Touma.
Othi-chan's room looked pretty plain, although the bedding was certainly luxurious. She shooed (threatened) us out and slammed the door shut after we took a peek.
Artemis entered her room next and allowed us all to enter. Unlike Othinus's room, Artemis's ceiling was painted like the night skies, and when she turned off the lights, the stars and moon shone as if she were outdoors.
Everyone was very impressed with her room, although I personally had some issues with how much light there was in a bedroom of all places. Artemis opened one of her dressing cabinets and found several duplicates of the clothes she was wearing, a few nightgowns and a couple of swimsuits.
We soon found that the dressing cabinet scenario was repeated with everyone else (except myself), as everyone seemed to have their main outfit, some alternative outfits (Satella had a lot of Emilia's clothes), nice nightgowns and swimsuits that I would kill to see them in.
When I checked out my room, my eyes were drawn to the immense bed that was most definitely meant for harems, and a storage cabinet filled with… tools, for carnal purposes.
Jibril was unsurprisingly excited at the implements while Satella was about to faint at the sight. Eris laughed awkwardly while Izanami seemed to be looking around for something that she was hoping to see but could not find. Artemis was thinking about something seriously while Aqua began accusing me of being a perverted deviant… which I probably was.
Strangely enough, I had the widest selection of clothes among everyone else. Not that I'm complaining.
Everyone set off to wash and freshen up before lunchtime. I had a quick shower while taking note of my prettied up looks (and optimized body), not wasting more time to vainly look at my improved body, I changed my clothes, grabbed an apron that read "Unlimited Food Works" and went into the kitchen.
Appetizer, Main Course, Dessert.
My brain magically supplied several ideas on what to create, thank you Faerie Feast perk!
My body went on auto-pilot as I made a meal out of the ingredients stored in the mansion's magitech virtual storage, operated by a game-like holographic menu. What a convenient system for storing and procuring food!
Unfortunately, it seems that I actually have to "buy" food using "credits" from whatever trans-dimensional company / being that set up this entire system. I get around what seems to be $50 dollars purchasing power equivalent in credits (based on the costs of goods of varying quality up for purchase) per waifu I have living with me every day.
The budget has to be used up or else it's essentially wasted, so I can stockpile food to an extent, but stockpiling large amounts of top-quality food seems to be a pipe dream. I suspect that like Ainz's guild base, there is some sort of item conversion box that will allow me to gain credits, or an achievement system that functions concurrently with how the portal room counts achievements in order to get me some credits.
Taking a short break from preparing lunch, I went into the living room and found a similar menu where I could purchase entertainment like movies and anime series. Unfortunately, there were no free credits allocated to us for this, and I had to earn credits in order to purchase these things.
I suspect that this would be the case for the study room (for books), additional clothes, furniture and other items. I briefly wondered why we didn't notice the menus earlier, and decided to chalk it up to some rail-roaded tutorial bullshit, where we had to check our rooms first to unlock new features.
Ah well, back to cooking lunch.
Satella was the first to come down and immediately followed my instructions in helping to set the table. After that, she started to hover over me in order to watch me cook. Or she just wanted to spend time with me. I felt that her earnestness was very endearing regardless.
Artemis entered the kitchen with some captured turtles after a short hunting trip. I was pleasantly surprised by her initiative and thanked her for her thoughtfulness. I wouldn't be able to use the turtles now but I could just store them with the system and use them another day.
Izanami started to look through the kitchen for some sake, and I broke the news to her that the mansion didn't come with free alcohol. I was about to explain the budget system to her but she quickly lost interest and walked in the direction of the living to, in her own words, "set up the TV".
… I hope I can earn money from whatever dungeon she's making.
Aqua came down with Eris after I called them down for lunch. Jibril floated down alongside a reluctant Othinus, giving curious looks at all the food I had prepared.
Satella and Eris helped me serve the appetizer to everyone, I would have done so myself but Satella wouldn't take no for an answer… and after I agreed to Satella's assistance, Eris just came over to help after asking really nicely.
"T-this is… this is better than Tenkai's food. How can this be? I can't… stop… mmh…!" Artemis was the first goddess to experience the wonder that is fiat-backed superfoods.
I wish I could experience the happiness that she was feeling right now. Because apparently, everything 'only' tastes 'world-class' to my own taste buds.
Such misfortune.
"I take back whatever I said… ah... about inferior races and their…. need to eat.. I don't eat often but even I can tell that the taste is...ahn… sublime! Ohhh! Could it be that those meat-bags always feel this good when consuming sustenance?" Jibril, the perverted angel of death, was already enjoying the food in an entirely different manner. I can't believe she's seriously grinding her wings (erogenous zones) against her seat! This is the dinner table!
Aqua was making silly pleasured faces at the food, "This is so good! Hey, Nick, I will let you be my arch-priest if you cook for-"
"-Denied."
"-you didn't even let me finish! Hey, are you listening to me?! Waaa! Stop ignoring me."
Ignoring the attention whore, I checked up on Eris and Satella, who were both immensely satisfied already with the food. I can see that both of them are going to be addicted to this level of taste already.
Uwah, if only I could make my cum taste this good, I would have an elf and goddess sucking me off already if I had that sort of power...! Well, if I get lucky, they might introduce a patch to the system / CYOA so that I can buy a new perk to do just that!
"Haha, this certainly blows the Mega Beef Bowl and the steak at Junes out of the water." Izanami was digging into the appetizer like it was the best thing she ate since forever.
Considering her mythology, that might very well be true.
"Surely you tried some fine dining around in Japan?" I questioned the goddess, who gave an amused look and asked, "How much do you think being a gas station attendant pays?"
"B-but you made an entire realm where defeating monsters, I mean shadows, drop money. How are you so strapped for cash?"
"... No comment."
At that moment, I decided that one day I needed to reach out for the truth.
… After I get my Social Link level up with her first. Now then, to the last Goddess...
"Is the food to your liking Othinus?"
"It's good… ah… to clarify, I mean, it is a suitable offering for a goddess." Othinus gave her praise while hiding her expression under her hat.
"Glad to know. Alright then, it's time for the main course."
They savored and devoured food with great pleasure, as expected.
A quick revision to an earlier statement. Considering how addicting the supernaturally amazing taste can be, I'd rather not experience such sensations with my own cooking so that I won't get addicted to it myself, thank you very much.
After they cleaned off their plate, I decided that this time was as good as any to give my explanations. "Okay, exposition time. I want you all to listen calmly and try your best not to overreact. You can ask questions and I'll get back to you on that where appropriate. Now then… congratulations, we're all caught up in a scenario based on my friend's choices on a create-your-own-adventure template, turned into reality by some higher power or organization."
Naturally, the table ended up in awkward silence for what felt like minutes, even though only seconds had passed.
"Nick's not lying." Artemis stated with certainty, "Do you have any guesses on this higher being or organization?"
I shook my head, "Not really, no. This type of scenario has been redone to death with different sets of choices, or builds for short, and is often used to generate fictional stories, prompts, plot ideas or just done for fun. We just found ourselves in a scenario that matches the build that my friend made when he came over to my house recently."
"U-unknown! So many things that we don't...Kyaaah!" Jibril was very enthusiastic about our circumstances. I guess being in a new world where she could start killing again is more than enough to make her happy.
Aqua was her normal cheery self, not bothered by the situation at all. Izanami didn't really looked like she cared. Eris and Artemis were both mildly concerned, the latter caught my worried expression and gave me a sweet smile to reassure me that she was fine.
Satella had a bright smile on her face, "It's kind of scary, but I'm glad that I'm here. It's thanks to this whole build thing that I got to meet Nicolas, after all." She took hold of my hand in a carefree manner, although from Artemis's expression, I surmised that I'm missing something crucial here, "And even though it's only been for a short while, you all have been good to me. Except Jibril, but, well, she's Jibril."
"Oh my, how honest." Jibril noted while not responding to Satella's tone.
"I haven't even spoken to you." Othinus said a sentence to Satella for once, essentially demanding an answer.
"Ignoring me is still better treatment than what I'm used to." My cute half-elf smiled earnestly despite the grim nature of what she was implying, "So I'm giving my thanks regardless. This has been more of a home to me than anywhere else for a long while."
To my surprise, Othinus gave a reaction beyond that of mere dismissal or annoyance, looking mildly pained at Satella's admission. I wracked my head for an answer, then remembered Othinus's actual desire that she herself had forgotten, slowly, it started to make some sense.
Eris was about to ask me to explain further, only to be interrupted when all of a sudden, Othinus stood from her seat and stomped off to her room without looking back.
"Hey, if she's not coming back… that means I can get her dessert right?" Aqua forgot about the fact that we were in the exposition phase just a minute ago and reprioritized instantly!
I looked her in the eye, and said, "No."
"Waaah! Come on, I'm a goddess, this is your chance to exalt me more! You can praise and spoil me rotten by giving me the extra portion of dessert."
I gave her the stink eye and shook my head at her shamelessness.
I delivered my judgement.
"You can cook for yourself from now on."
Aqua immediately started crying and went up to grab me as I walked away, "Wait! I'm sorry! I'm sorry Nicolas-sama! I apologize for getting carried away, so please don't stop cooking for me! Don't! Don't! I can't live without your food anymore! Waaaaah!"
Her willpower crumbled in less than 2 seconds!
Then again, this is Aqua.
Artemis looked at Aqua with disdain as if she had single-handedly shamed all blue-haired goddesses across the multiverse, it was the same look I saw in the Arrow of Orion movie where the old Artemis was about to punish the male gods for trying to peep at her.
I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Aqua at this moment.
Izanami was clearly emulating teenagers as she had been filming the occasion with her phone, Jibril looked entertained, Eris was already muttering apologies for her "Aqua-senpai" as if fearing that I would stop cooking for her too.
Satella, for once, did not seem like she wanted to make sure Aqua was okay or not.
"Ha, fine. I will forgive you this time. Get carried away again and I may have to punish you a bit before I forgive you."
"*Sniff* Thank you… thank you Nicolas-sama!"
Oh myriad goddesses, I have never seen such a pathetic sight!
Putting Aqua back in her seat, I served everyone dessert and said that further explanations will be postponed for now until I can resolve a couple of things with Othinus.
I took Othinus's portion of dessert and went up to her room.
Being the gentleman that I was, and knowing the tropes that befall upon men like myself, I performed the advanced maneuver known as "knocking the door".
When she didn't respond, I used the followed up technique, "I take your silence as consent and I will come in now!"
I don't know whether she locked the door or not, but I could enter her room without any problems. The first thing I saw was the pool of blood formed at the side of Othinus's bed and the limp arm lying there.
"Othinus! Are you alright?"
"Just… be quiet human…"
Othinus went from One-Eyed Othinus to just One-Armed Othinus.
As in, both her legs and one of her arms had been blown off her body.
I knew it was the backlash of attempting to change the world at great cost.
"And what did you try to do?"
"Creating Gungnir. I will return to my world and with my symbol of authority, will remake it to how it should be."
How troublesome.
"... I can call Aqua here to help fix that."
"No. I don't need assistance from that self-proclaimed goddess."
"Well, that self-proclaimed part isn't inaccurate."
"If you are here to make jokes then you will leave me be right now."
"I came to make sure you had your dessert."
With great effort, Othinus managed to stick one of her legs back where it belongs long enough for it to start healing, then she moved on to the next leg.
"You may leave it here."
"Crowley." I summoned my Persona and used one of the four techniques it already knew, "Dia."
The healing power had, to my great fortune, miraculously accelerated the healing process in reattaching the other leg.
"I did not ask for your help."
"You're getting it anyway. You know, pushing everyone away and choosing all the antagonizing dialogue options isn't going to make your life easier."
"You have knowledge of my universe. Tell me, do you know of my goal?"
"You claim to desire to return to the "original world" before you placed layer upon layer to the phase of the world."
"I do desire to return to my world, a world where I belong."
"Of course you do."
"Are you mocking me human?"
"I'm just starting to wonder what's so great about a world where you're going to make yourself just as unlikable by acting the very same way you're acting now. You must be so fortunate to have a friend that puts up with you the way you are back in your original world."
"A god has no need for friends."
"Fascinating. Those goddesses that I've been speaking with down there beg to differ. They seem perfectly content with getting along with one another, with humans and elves too. Meanwhile, here you are, being what is effectively an angsty teenager by locking yourself up in your room and hurting yourself trying to go back to a world where you'll end up exactly as you are now. Alone, without anyone to understand you, because you won't let them."
"You understand nothing!"
The rage of the magic god was at a boiling point, deciding that I've said enough to start her along the right path, I withdrew cooly.
"I don't. Or maybe, I do. You aren't the only one incapable of going home, living life the same way and being satisfied with that here. Just… just think about what you're really looking for, alright? I'll see you for dinner, Othinus."
I returned downstairs and joined everyone for dessert. Jibril was a lot more friendly now and started to ask me a lot of questions on human history back on Earth. Although she was still her cocky racist self, which is an attitude I was determined to resolve as soon as possible.
While I could do it the slow way, proving myself to be worthy as her master would be the best route to go, especially since I'm on a tight schedule to beat Nazarick in achieving certain milestones.
There is a type of magic that I could use to defeat Jibril handily in one vs one death match, but with Othinus the way she was right now I wouldn't be able to get her to teach it to me.
Alternatively, I could try to get a time-dilation field from Eris and Aqua (time works differently in their goddess realm) in order to cram a lot of Persona training in a short amount of "real-time", and then die repeatedly until I memorize her attack patterns.
I didn't have much to bring it up in the afternoon since I was already occupied with Jibril and Satella in answering questions about my home. Deciding to resolve it tomorrow, I decided to just unwind and spend time with everyone (sans Othinus) to get to know them better.
Othinus didn't turn up for dinner, so I left her share in front of her room. A quick check a few hours later revealed that she did eat it all, so I cleared the plates and utensils before I turned in for the night.
The guest that knocked on the door inadvertently set me on my preferred route to defeating Jibril in Mortal Kombat.