All these gods, down in the lower world, had their divine power sealed away.
Theoretically speaking, Hermes right now didn’t possess the kind of absolute power to casually crush Natsuka with a flick of his hand.
And it was precisely because of this that even when the other party had called him out as a transmigrator in one breath, Natsuka hadn’t been frightened into losing his composure.
After all, this world itself was already pretty wonky to begin with.
Folks from other worlds popping up from time to time didn’t really seem all that out of the ordinary, either.
In a certain sense, the gods themselves counted as a kind of transmigrator.
Some of the luckier gods could even, on occasion, guest-cameo onto another show’s set for a visit.
So at the very start, Natsuka really hadn’t been too afraid.
But there was clearly one thing he had underestimated.
To a god, a transmigrator was, as an existence, actually enormously tempting.
“Young man.”
“How about we have a chat?”
Hermes pointed at the spot beside the campfire, asking with a sunny smile.
The gods were, to begin with, a bunch of beings who’d grown so restless and bored with the heavens that they’d actively sealed away their own divine power and dropped down to the lower world just to experience the unknown and a bit of trouble.
Suddenly picking up a transmigrator from another world right off the side of the road — for Hermes, that was about the same as suddenly seeing a limited-run character drop into the gacha pool while you were pulling.
Now that he’d bumped into one, not figuring out a way to fish him in would be doing himself a disservice.
Regarding which.
“S-sure.”
Natsuka swallowed nervously, but in the end he still nodded.
Before long, the two of them had sat down beside the campfire and exchanged names.
The very first thing Hermes did after that was, with the utmost naturalness, swipe Natsuka’s bento box and that entire pack of instant noodles right out from under him.
His motions were absurdly practiced.
“Ahh, I came over here following this very smell.”
“Processing food like this — pretty clever idea.”
“Could you sell this stuff to me?”
The God of Travelers, while ripping open the packaging with the ease of an old hand, boiling the noodles with hot water all the while, didn’t forget to ask the question with a smile.
Natsuka was left openly gawking. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Why on earth are you so skilled at this?
Isn’t this your first time seeing this kind of thing?
Though he was screaming complaints internally, on the surface he still maintained his manners.
“If you’d like them, please, take them.”
“In return, however, I’ll have to trouble you to take me to the nearest city, and to swap in some other food for me.”
Of course Natsuka knew the value of instant noodles.
Expedition food was usually awful-tasting, heavy, and on top of that hard to preserve.
And instant noodles just happened to bypass every single one of those problems.
But he had no intention of opening his mouth wide and demanding the moon right here and now.
At the end of the day, what was impressive about this stuff was the concept, not the divine miracle.
Dehydration, portability, ready-to-eat with just hot water — once you saw through the principle, imitating it really wasn’t all that hard.
A widely traveled, deeply experienced god like Hermes could of course see the profit hidden inside.
It was just that he wouldn’t tell his own Familia how to make them for free.
As if observing some sort of tacit, mutually-understood rule between the gods.
Not to mention, Natsuka didn’t have the complete production process in his hands either.
If he straight-up handed over the finished product right now, the biggest beneficiary would most likely be Hermes — this god with a razor-sharp commercial nose.
“Now that really would be a huge help.”
Hermes slurped down the noodles at a blistering speed.
Halfway through eating, he suddenly tugged down the brim of his hat, the smile on his face dialed back a little, his expression turning notably more serious.
“Natsuka, my boy.”
“What do you plan to do after this?”
“Or let me put it another way.”
“Coming to this world — do you have any grand ambitions?”
Natsuka was caught off guard, and on reflex was about to shake his head.
But in that very instant, a force he couldn’t resist pressed down gently upon him.
That feeling was strange — not painful, not heavy, yet it made it impossible to lie.
No sooner had that thought surfaced in his head than Natsuka’s mouth opened up on its own, beyond his control.
“I want to build a harem…”
“I want to make everyone into my wings…”
The words had barely left his mouth before Natsuka froze stiff from head to toe.
Granted, this really was a deep-down ambition that many men kept tucked away, never quite convenient to say out loud.
But blurting it out in front of someone else like this — and a god, no less — the impact was just too much.
“…”
For a moment, the air went eerily silent.
The firelight crackled.
The evening wind brushed across the grass blades.
Natsuka’s face flushed crimson in an instant, even his earlobes burning up.
His toes promptly broke ground on a construction project, wishing he could just claw a three-bedroom one-living-room apartment out of the dirt right where he stood and bury himself in it.
His whole body started writhing in extremely unnatural contortions, like that built-in mosaic effect a person’s body takes on once social death hits a certain level.
But he hadn’t been squirming for long before an exceptionally bright, hearty burst of laughter came slamming into his ears.
“Hahahahaha!”
“Interesting, this is way too interesting!”
“That’s right — a man’s romance is, of course, the harem!”
Hermes slung an arm around Natsuka’s shoulder in one motion, laughing like he’d struck gold.
“Natsuka, my boy, how about joining my Familia?”
“Once we get back to Orario, I’ll take you to see some fun stuff!”
“I guarantee you’ll never forget it for the rest of your life!”
The god’s laughter echoed through the entire forest.
Excessive in his enthusiasm.
Almost a touch unreliable, even.
“Hahaha, the girls over in Orario are all so cute, you know.”
“Especially once they’re in bed — they’re really something else.”
“And if you’re willing, even gods aren’t out of the question.”