The next day, in the morning…

Straf snaps out of his meditative trance.

「Whoops. Guess I should check on Lia.」

Straf hops off his bed, and leaves his room for Cycelia's. He opens the door to her room, and peeks his head in.

「Lia, you alive?」

「Uggghhhh…」

Cycelia groans out as she lays on her side in the bed.

「Good answer. I'll invite myself in.」

Straf says, and shuts the door behind him. He takes a seat on her bed, near her legs.

「Hangover, like I said?」

「Ugh…」

Cycelia groans again. Straf shrugs.

「Well if you're sober enough, you could try asking me that thing from last night. Maybe I'm a mystic healer? I'm already immune to getting stabbed and most likely getting shot, too. Want to give it a try?」

Straf smirks, shrugging his hands as he looks at Cycelia.

「Straf… What are you talking abou-」

Cycelia manages to squeeze a few words out of herself, she then abruptly gasps for air with her face in wide-eyed shock. Straf's smirk turns to concern.

「Woah. Lia, you alright? Can breathe?」

「Yes.」

She shoots back a quick answer with a rapidly reddening face.

「Right. So, remember last night-」

「Aaaaaahaahaha! I don't remember anything from last night! I must have drank too much!」

Cycelia exaggerates her laugh and hides most of her face away from Straf under her blanket.

「Really? Not a thing?」

Straf furrows his brows, placing his fists at his hips as he stares down at her.

「Not a single thing! At all!」

Cycelia declares, further hiding her face behind her blanket.

「Huh. That's weird. Never happens to me.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders and nods his head sideways.

「I'm not much of a drinker, ha ha!」

「Yeah, I don't get it, I can remember everything, every time. I guess some people just have a really weak head. Anyway, how are you feeling, Lia?」

「Sick…」

Cycelia sighs out, losing her previous energy. Her weary eyes peek out from the blanket.

「Well, if you're too sick by afternoon, you don't have to go. Or we can pay some peasants to haul the whole bed up the arena.」

Straf shrugs, Cycelia sighs.

「Sorry… I'll try to get better…」

Cycelia sighs out an apology. Straf shrugs again.

「Relax. I think alcohol poisoning might end up leveling your abysmal endurance. Get well soon, Lia. I'll be in my room」

Straf gets up and opens the door. Cycelia lifts her head, as if she wanted to say something, but then it plops back down without a word from her. Straf enters his own room, and sits down on his own bed.

「Right… Since it's my next target, I need to brush up on my MacGuffin knowledge. Athea!」

Straf crosses his arms as he thinks out loud, he then looks up at the ceiling with a face full of contempt.

《Not again… What!?》

「Don't shout at me in my head, that's what. And get your ass over here.」

《…Why?》

「Because I said so. You agreed to it.」

Fwooom.

The golden-haired literal goddess appears before Straf in a blink of light, with a minor displacement of the air in the room. Her shoes clack on the wooden floor as she appears with crossed arms and a massive, displeased scowl on her face.

「What do you want?」

Athea asks in an irritated tone, her deep blue eyes glare at him with a frostbite-inducing glare. Straf's bored eyes look her over toe to head with a scornful grimace, as he sees her flowing white dress covering her.

「I want you to put my gift on.」

「I am not going to wear that! It covers nothing!」

Her scowl only intensifies as she protests. Straf sighs.

「Well, I guess I'll have to file a complaint-」

Straf shrugs with his hands, and Athea shouts out, interrupting him.

「Fine! You reprobate scum. Fine. I'll wear it.」

Fwooom.

Athea disappears into a beam of light trailing upwards. Straf crosses arms again, and waits.

「Well? Isn't time all over the place there? Shouldn't you be done changing already?」

《Shut up! How am I supposed to show myself like this!?》

「Easy. Do your fwoom thing, do a little spin for me, and thank me for the lovely gift-」

《You are completely insane if you think I'm going to thank you for this!》

「If I am insane, whose fault is that? I feel a little sorry for the guys who hear a voice in their head, but can't grab its obscenely large tits. I'd probably bomb stuff too in that case.」

Straf scoffs with a smirk, shrugging his hands.

《Close your eyes!》

「Huh!? As if! Maybe tell the elves, that being in nature doesn't mean they have to be naturists!」

Fwoom.

「Tsk. I knew I should have recycled you in a peaceful world first, so you get over your death…」

Athea reappears in front of Straf, wearing Straf's looted elven clothing. Although clothing is a very lenient description for what she has on her. The elven clothing amounts to two very thin silk straps overlapping each other on her chest, theoretically protecting her decency.

The problem, however, begins with the skirt, which is just a very short, very fine mesh hanging off her hips. While at a distance it obscures a clear picture of everything behind it, when the skirt presses against them, her hip and thigh become clearly visible.

While the skirt obscures, it does very little to conceal the outline beyond itself. It is just a fine mesh, after all. Athea is doing her best to protect her dignity as a goddess with her hands, concealing what she can, unable to even look Straf in the face.

「Sorry, you made me non-combustible trash.」

Pat pat!

Athea looks at Straf when she hears a sound of fabric being slapped. Straf is holding his hand on his thigh.

「You disgusting… Vermin. Garbage. Filth. You bottom-feeding, debauched gutter-dweller. Do you really think you can just-」

Pat pat!

While Athea is insulting Straf with utter and complete disgust and disdain on her face, he pats his lap with his hand again, smirking.

「Go on, have a seat.」

He scoffs, smirking and greatly amused. Straf even adds an encouraging nod.

「…What do you even plan to do with me, you perverted, lecherous degenerate?」

Athea glares daggers directly at Straf's groin. He shrugs his shoulders with a slanted mouth, and a roll of his eyes.

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「Nothing, I want to ask you some stuff. You know you've sent me here with absolutely no knowledge, right? Back in my world, I could tell you about all sorts of funny mustached men, great wars, old technology, medicine… Basically, all sorts of stuff.」

Straf makes his point, spreading his hands with his head askew.

「…And?」

Athea asks, still scowling and glaring with complete disgust on her face.

「Aaaaand, you sent me here, and I don't even know what language people here speak. I don't even know what is this country called. Are there any religions? I don't know! Historical events? Dunno! I have to play the clueless village idiot! Do you understand how crippling that is in my position? Can I at least get a history lesson? I like history, tell me about that hero chump for instance.」

「…Fine.」

Athea sighs heavily, and walks towards Straf, still covering herself.

Pat pat!

「Hup hup!」

Straf hurries her, patting his thigh again.

「If you touch me-!」

Turning her round behind to Straf's lap from the side, she attempts to caution him before she takes a seat.

「I woooon't. I just want a history lesson.」

But Straf interrupts her, reassuring her about his intentions. Athea sighs, then sits down on his lap, still covering herself. Straf puts his hands on her thigh and far side of the hip.

「You said you're not going to touch me!-」

Athea starts fuming with shocked, disgusted, and disdainful glare. Her blue eyes have seldom any space for more emotions left, but Straf interrupts her again.

「Hey, I have to put my hands somewhere! If you think it's obscene where they are now, you really need to pay closer attention to mall santas and presidents. Now, can you tell me a little something about the hero?」

「Like what?」

Athea side-glances at Straf, and asks with a voice full of scorn.

「Y'know… Who he waaas, how'd he come to beee, where did he go tooo, what happened to the swooord…」

Straf wobbles his head left to right as he lists the bullet points.

「…You just want to know what happened to the sword, don't you?」

Frustrated, Athea looks down, sighs, and asks Straf directly.

「…You got me!」

Straf exclaims, holding his hands up with a smug grin. Athea breathes in, and lets out a heavy, heavy sigh.

「The hero left the sword in an extremely dense, extremely tough, extremely rare boulder not far from this city. He wanted to pass the sword down onto further generations that would need it, and he didn't want to have sole ownership of it when he no longer truly needed it.」

Athea explains, slowly calming down as she fondly remembers the hero with her eyes closed.

「So, where is it?」

「Up a hill, near a lake, stuck in a stone. I can guide you to it, if you promise me to not be extremely obnoxious. But that's if you just want to see it for tourism purposes, or gain an inspiration. You can wave goodbye to your idea of pulling it out.」

Athea looks up at Straf, glaring at him with moderately calmer eyes, but still heavily disgusted and disdainful.

「Huh? Why? I'm fairly sure I can rip that thing right out.」

「No. No, you can't. I know for a fact you can't, because the hero possessed a greater blessing from me, and the sword is blessed as well. His strength is unimaginable to you.」

「Great topic idea… What the fuck are blessings? Go on and weave the exposition of that into why wouldn't I be able to pull it out. Is the sword being held by some sort of magical leglock?」

Straf asks, momentarily taking his hands off Athea before placing them back on her. She jumps a little, and her large unsupported breasts jiggle as they jump with her.

「…Blessings are something akin to your abilities. Someone with your [Portable Storage] would be invaluable to any army due to a blessing like that. Rarely, I grant blessings to creatures and objects, usually when one side or race gains too much of an advantage over others.」

Athea almost took her hand off her clothes to rub her face in frustration, but she managed to resist the urge and avoid potentially indecently exposing herself.

「Like humans and the demon lord?」

「…Correct.」

Athea looks Straf in the eyes with a surprising lack of disdain.

「So why can't I pull the sword out? I'm stupidly strong, and I can get stronger right now if it's not enough.」

「I already told you. You do not grasp how powerful he was, when under the influence of my full blessing. His power could destroy the world if misused, and so I thought, that it would be a good idea if it only activated when his emotions made sense for it to do so. I even made it so, that negative emotions make the blessing very weak. Love and gratitude were pure and undiluted power, while hatred and fear resulted in significantly reduced output.」

「Ugggggghhh… So you basically made him off the demon lord with the power of friendship?」

Straf throws his head back as he visibly cringes and groans.

「What's wrong with that!? He came a long way to be able to use its full potential!」

Athea begins to scowl at Straf again.

「Now riddle me this. You are a super awesome hero guy. Hooray. You go and off the demon lord with your childhood friend best buddies, one or two of them presumably dying… You decide to settle down. Alright, fair enough, not everyone is going to want to run around with a sword slashing goblins until they're old. But there's one thing I don't get…」

「And that is?」

Athea asks, rising her eyebrow, veiling her anger.

「…Why the fuck would nobody remember your name after all that!? What's the point of being a hero, then!?」

Straf throws his arms up in complete disbelief, albeit mildly amused. Athea sighs, her anger unveils.

「Maybe it's to help other people around you, and the world in general, you unbelievable disgusting scumbag. And the reason why nobody remembered him is, he was so humble that he seldom gave anyone his name. He asked his party members not to spread his name either.」

「Well what the fuck was wrong with that guy!? He basically won the game! That's it, just side quests left! That's like throwing the save file into the trash!」

The goddess sighs, scowling again in anger.

「Setting aside your inane game analogy, he wasn't doing it for the fame. Or money. He was praying every day for someone to save the world, until one day, he started praying for strength to be the one to save the world, which I have granted him. They were genuine prayers, full of goodwill and wishful for peace. This world was in a disastrous state mere 1000 years ago. The demon lord-」

「Yeah, yeah, yeah. Demon armies, vampires being edgy, dragons making things even worse, I get it. So what the fuck did that guy even do after all of this? Don't tell me he just rotted away staring at his stupid cape in his home, or whatever he was wearing as an adventurer.」

Straf skips Athea's explanation of the abridged history he heard from Cycelia previously, resulting in an annoyed scoff.

「After he left his sword in that rock, he bought property and married his party member. They had a farm together. They also had a few children, descendants of which I am keeping my eye on to this day, in case something or someone gets out of hand again-」

「Tsk. Man, don't fucking tell me… He just picked cucumbers off his farm until he kicked the bucket? Are you serious!? His life turned into a fucking slow life farming!?」

Straf clicks his tongue and rolls his eyes.

「How else should his life end!? Isn't that a beautiful, and peaceful epilogue to everything he did!? He rose from obscurity, saved humanity, and then disappeared back into obscurity with his new wife! He lived a humble life, and none of the villagers even knew who he really was! He was a kind and a beautiful man, unlike you! You perverted, twisted, disgusting maniac!」

Athea shouts in Straf's face, clenching her teeth openly as soon as she's finished. Straf clicks his tongue and rolls his eyes again.

「Alright, that's enough of this. My legs are numb, get your fat ass off of them.」

Straf nods his head up, and starts nudging the almost-naked Athea off.

「Fat!? I am not-!」

The goddess gets up, carefully turning around to face Straf without showing him anything while protesting his compliment.

「Okay. Meaty. Thick. Voluminous. Better? Do you like those more?」

Straf interrupts her shouting, spreading his hands with his eyebrows raised and forehead wrinkled. Athea scowls heavily at him again.

「Do not look at me like I'm meat! You are completely, utterly unbelievable. I absolutely can't believe someone in this world would ever treat me like this.」

She glares down at him, still covering herself with her hands to protect her decency, or what's left of it.

「Yeah. Too bad I'm not from this world, you slutty exhibitionist manhole maniac.」

Straf grins, and plops down on his bed with his hands behind his head.

「I am not an exhibitionist-」

「Yeah? Then why are you still here, showing yourself off to me? Just admit that you want to get explicit already, stop being so shy about it-」

「I hate you.」

Interrupting Straf, Athea growls through her clenched teeth…

Fwooom.

And disappears into a beam of golden light trailing upward, with nary a trace left of her…