Chapter 4: Chapter 4
Once the outfit was complete, I heard Fortuna speak from beside me, "Didn't I tell you that a good outfit can make or break your appearance?" she asked rhetorically.
I decided to make fun of her a bit despite her saying something similar to me, "Actually, no, I don't believe that those words left your mouth in that order," I said with a straight face, only to burst into a laugh a moment later.
Fortuna just rolled her eyes and changed the subject, "Well, we should go celebrate the start of the familia," she said as she checked the time, "Perfect if we go now, then we'll arrive at the Hostess of Fertility before the place fills up," she said with a grin.
I had a strained smile on my face as I thought of Freya and the unknown effect my presence would have, "As long as dinner is on you," I said, faking a chuckle.
[You have no need to worry about the Goddess]
I blinked in surprise as I heard Great Sage speak for the first time without me having been the one to initiate the conversation. I quickly slipped into my accelerated thoughts to have more time to discuss with Great Sage. Freya was defiantly someone I didn't want to get involved with this soon. I didn't even want to risk catching her full attention anytime before I reached level three or four.
"What do you mean? Won't she notice my foreign soul or something?" I asked in concern.
[Negative, the user's soul is notably stronger than most, but other than that, the Goddess won't notice anything strange]
"How sure are you?" I couldn't help but ask, not that I doubted Great Sage, but I just wanted to confirm.
[99.999% Sure, but the Goddess Freya isn't always someone who adheres to logic, so there is a chance you will catch her interest]
"Hmm, well, okay then," I said with a shrug.
Since Great Sage said that everything would be okay, I figured that there was probably nothing to worry about. I let my accelerated thoughts stop and turned to Fortuna, who was giving me a look. It seems that she had been able to detect the hesitance in my voice despite me trying my best to hide it.
"We can go somewhere else or nowhere if you don't want to," She said, sounding slightly confused.
I just shook my head and said, "No, the Hostess of Fertility has a good reputation, let's go there."
"You don't have to force yourself to go," She said firmly, seeming determined not to make me uncomfortable.
"I'm already on my way to the Hostess of Fertility," I said as I began walking toward the door, giving Fortuna a grin over my shoulder.
That seemed to finally confirm for her that this was something I actually wanted to do, so she smiled in turn, "Let's go then," she said, running past me to touch the door first, "Victory to me for touching the door first," she said as she swung the door open wide.
"Victory to me for leaving first," I said as I ran past her, drawing the attention of the few patrons still shopping in the surrounding stores.
That started a friendly competition between Fortuna and me. Both of us raced down the steps to the first floor, among various other small challenges. As it turned out, the Goddess of victory and fortune was very lucky and won most of our small competitions. I just brushed off her comments about her victory and cheated my way to victory as often as I could until we reached the restaurant. As we walked, I noticed tenfold more glances than before, and they came with more urgency and seductiveness behind them as well.
Fortuna elbowed me as we passed a cat demi-human who was clearly giving me a bit more than a subtle hint, but I just nodded to her and passed by. It was only my first day here, and plus I wasn't looking for a relationship of any kind at the moment. In the future, perhaps I could pursue a relationship once I was stronger, but not now. I continued to brush off the looks and walked into the Hostess of Fertility with Fortuna at my side. Just as Fortuna has said, the place was nearly empty, but all the staff were clearly preparing for the dinner time rush that would happen at any moment.
I looked around and quickly saw Syr, who was really Freya in disguise, but I acted like I didn't pay any extra attention to her. I saw her glance at me, squinting her eyes for a moment as if in thought, then shrugged and continued to wipe down the table she was focusing on. 'Sees like Great Sage was right,' I thought as one of the other waitresses came by and took our order while we sat at a small table. I proceeded to eat good food and have a generally good time with Fortuna. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see anyone else I knew from the show, but it wasn't something that bothered me too much.
After about an hour, we left and made our way back to Babel and up the endless flights of stairs once more. We made our way up to the 21st floor, where Fortuna pulled out a key and unlocked the door before pushing it open wide to give me a look at the place. Despite the fact that we weren't on any of the more luxurious floors, it was still comparable to the nicest apartments I had ever been in. There was a wide open area in the living room that had an amazing view down at the city.
Fortuna had expected to pick up her first familia member soon, so the guest room was already prepared for me to occupy it. I quickly thanked her, then collapsed in bed and almost went to sleep instantly after feeling the softness of the bed. Even though I had only awoken at noon, I had a long day and was bone tired after everything. I quickly threw off my clothes and crawled into bed, tucking my sword gently by my bed within easy reach. This was more of my body's subconscious reaction than any conscious thought. After deciding that I would spend tomorrow heading to the guild then beginning my training, I quickly fell asleep.
I awoke at dawn, totally prepared to go back to bed, but it seemed like my body had other plans. No matter how long I closed my eyes and sunk into the heavenly bed, the feeling of drowsiness eluded me. Once I truly confirmed that there would be no more sleep for me, I slipped out of bed and put on a bathrobe hanging from a hook on the back of my bedroom door. I then walked out into the living room to find Fortuna neatly piling up clothes of all kinds, shirts, socks, underwear, shorts, pants, everything. I also noticed that she had a needle and thread lying beside her.
"What's all this," I asked casually as I entered the room, eliciting a wide smile from the Goddess.
"You're right on time, Galahad," she said as she patted the pile of clothes, "These are for you, I just spent the last hour embroidering them with the familia crest," she said proudly, puffing out her chest.
My eyes went wide as I picked up a sock and looked at the embroidery. Indeed, just above the ankle was a small golden laurel surrounding a cornucopia full of fruit, the very same crest that was now imprinted on my back. I gave a low whistle as I thanked her and picked up the clothes, and then proceeded to hand them up in my closet. Then, I got changed and headed back out to the living room.
"Are you gonna be manning the shop today?" I asked her.
"I thought we were going to be doing it together?" she asked with a raised brow.
"I need to get everything sorted with the guild before doing anything else," I said, causing Fortuna to nod in understanding.
"It should be a fairly quick process for you to do. I already did all the paperwork on my end that allows me to have an official familia a few days ago," She said while walking toward the door.
I quickly followed her out and stopped when she turned and held out a key to me, "Is this for the shop or this place," I asked, gesturing back at the door to the apartment.
"Both," she answered, "I had it specially made so that it can unlock both doors, its the twin to mine," She said as she held up her own golden key, "Try your best not to lose it, yeah? They are hard to replace,"
I gave her a small salute as I promised that I wouldn't lose it, then set off toward the guild headquarters to get myself registered as an adventurer of the Fortuna Familia.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone