After checking his equipment one last time, Dio drew a deep breath.
He had been living in this bizarre crossover world for more than a decade.
For years, he had assumed he had been reincarnated without any special advantage, but one month ago, his long-awaited ability had finally awakened.
It was not the sort of cheat that granted him overwhelming power overnight.
Instead, it gave him the opportunity to travel to other worlds.
The Dimensional Gate—a doorway capable of connecting him to entirely different realities.
Dio had used it once before, exactly one month ago.
On the other side, he had found himself inside a dark cave, where several green-skinned, goblin-like creatures immediately charged at him with wooden clubs raised over their heads.
He had not hesitated for even a second.
He had turned around and fled straight back through the gate.
The Dimensional Gate had entered a thirty-day cooldown immediately afterward, and only now had it finally become available again.
Dio had spent the past month preparing as thoroughly as possible.
He had purchased a crossbow, a stab-resistant vest, a military knife, and a sharpened blade that could technically be called either a sword or a katana.
Why the uncertainty?
Because this ridiculous crossover world had never been particularly consistent about where one ended and the other began.
“Dimensional Gate, open!”
At his command, the outline of a doorway appeared before him.
Instead of a solid door, a rippling curtain of blue light filled the frame.
During the cooldown period, that light vanished completely, making passage impossible.
Dio slung his backpack over his shoulders, then secured the crossbow, knife, and sharpened blade where he could draw them as quickly as possible.
After taking one final breath, he stepped through the gate.
The next instant, his eyes widened.
He had expected to return to the same cave.
Instead, he appeared inside a bathroom.
And standing beneath the water was a voluptuous woman in the middle of bathing.
Dio instinctively tried to step backward through the gate, but his foot slipped on the wet floor.
He crashed onto his backside, and by the time he looked up, the blue light behind him was already fading.
The Dimensional Gate vanished completely.
He was trapped!
Dio stared at the naked woman before him and the corner of his mouth twitching.
“Would you believe me if I said this was all a misunderstanding?”
“Hm?
That isn’t Orario’s common language.”
Dio did not understand the words she had spoken, yet somehow, their meaning appeared clearly in his mind.
Orario?
The name immediately set off alarm bells in his head.
As realization began to dawn on him, the woman calmly picked up a towel and dried herself, apparently unconcerned by the armed stranger who had fallen into her bathroom.
She slipped into a long dress, then walked over and stopped in front of him.
“I think the two of us need to have a proper conversation,” she said.
“Wouldn’t you agree, young man from another world?”
Dio’s expression stiffened.
‘She already figured it out?’
Seeing his reaction, the woman smiled triumphantly and reached down to take his hand.
“Come along.
We have quite a lot to discuss.”
Dio considered pulling free and making a run for it, but his escape route was gone.
Even if he managed to get away from her, where exactly was he supposed to go?
If this really was Orario, then the woman in front of him might very well be a goddess.
Running blindly through an unfamiliar city would only make things worse.
He did not even know what point in the timeline he had arrived at.
With his luck, he would escape one dangerous situation only to stumble straight into the hands of Evilus.
That would be a far more miserable way to die.
Before long, the goddess had dragged him into her bedroom.
She sat on the edge of the bed with one leg crossed over the other, folded her arms beneath her chest, and fixed Dio with a pointed stare.
“All right, then.
Let’s talk about the fact that you suddenly appeared in my bathroom.”
“I’m truly sorry,” Dio said quickly.
“I didn’t do it on purpose.
I had no idea the portal would bring me into your bathroom.
The last time I used it, I ended up in a cave with several green monsters charging at me with wooden clubs.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Dio froze.
He was no longer speaking the language he had grown up with, nor the one commonly used in the world he had been living in.
He was speaking the same language as the goddess!
The woman noticed his stunned expression and quickly guessed what had happened.
A knowing smile appeared on her face.
“You don’t honestly think that explanation is enough to make me forgive you, do you?”
Dio remained silent.
He could not run, and resisting her would probably end badly.
At this point, all he could do was accept that she held every advantage.
“All right,” he said at last.
“What do you want as compensation?
As long as it isn’t completely unreasonable, I’ll agree to it.”
The woman’s smile immediately brightened.
“Excellent!
Then you’ll join my Familia.”
Dio stared at her.
“Your…
Familia?”
“I am Demeter.”
Dio studied the goddess in front of him and compared her appearance with the memories he had of the anime.
There was no mistake.
She looked exactly like Demeter.
Unfortunately, becoming a member of the Demeter Familia might be rather dangerous.
If he remembered correctly, hadn’t the Demeter Familia been destroyed because of Dionysus Familia’s schemes?
Or had their members been controlled and used as leverage against Demeter?
Dio could not remember the details.
It had been more than ten years since he had arrived in the crossover world, and even before that, he had watched countless anime.
Remembering the broad outline was already impressive enough.
There was no way he could recall every minor plot point perfectly.
Still, did he actually have a choice?
He had materialized inside Demeter’s bathroom without warning.
All she had to do was call for help, and members of her Familia would rush in and restrain him immediately.
He could attempt to kill her before that happened, but even if he somehow succeeded, who could guarantee she would not drag him down with her before being sent back to Heaven?
A mortal killing a god sounded like exactly the kind of act that might bring down some horrible divine curse.
It was not worth the risk.
That left Dio with only one path forward.
He would have to accept Demeter’s demand and join her Familia.
Demeter was already looking at him as though his answer had been decided from the very beginning.
Dio gave her a bitter smile.
“I don’t actually have a choice, do I?”
Her face lit up with a dazzling smile.
“Of course not.
You have no choice at all!”
Dio’s own smile became painfully stiff.
“In that case, I choose to join the Demeter Familia.”