Did being good to the children of your Familia need a reason?
It didn’t.
But being able to watch the affection number go up, like completing a quest, gave Hestia an odd little sense of accomplishment.
She looked at the translucent panel above the boy’s head.
…
[Affection Stage: 0]
[Affection Needed for Next Stage: 5/10]
…
Five more points and she could unlock Renn’s next stage and officially start taking part in the hero raising plan.
Hestia had never once imagined something like this.
More precisely, in the whole long history of Orario this was an absurd thing to exist, since all a god could really offer a follower was a Falna.
That, or help with exploration gear.
But being able to develop Renn through the game functions of the Hero Raising Plan and push his future achievements higher.
Wasn’t that overpowered no matter how you looked at it?
“I hope the development function unlocks soon!”
Full of anticipation, Hestia walked along Adventurer Street toward the Pantheon, filling Renn in on the local customs.
Which mostly meant which restaurants were cheap and actually tasted good, and the local specialty snacks like jagamarukun.
Since he’d be living in this labyrinth city from now on, Renn paid close attention.
The city looked exactly the way it did in the original work.
Medieval in style.
Thankfully the street drainage was good, so there wasn’t any harsh stench.
The genuinely novel part was the adventurers on the street.
They came in all kinds.
There were tall, heavily built beastmen in armor with weapons at their hips, and elves with long pointed ears who looked exactly as aloof as the stereotype said.
Very novel indeed.
And as a guide, the goddess he’d run into was doing a thoroughly competent job, and not just by sharing information.
Whenever they passed a specialty snack, she was actually willing to pay for it!
But that same kindness left Renn feeling a little strange, like he was some pretty girl’s kept man.
Which was basically the truth.
If Hestia hadn’t picked him up, he didn’t want to think about how miserable things would have been after waking up in another world.
Forget becoming an adventurer.
He’d probably have ended up no different from a certain streaming show.
Except he didn’t have return by death or any kind of cheat system, so the result would’ve been even worse.
“…”
“Hurry up and eat.”
Hestia was holding the paper bag of jagamarukun.
She took a bite, then looked up at the boy next to her.
“If it goes cold, it won’t taste as good!”
“…”
“Thank you, Lady Hestia.”
Renn tried the salt-and-pepper jagamarukun, and it really wasn’t bad.
Maybe it was because gods had come down to Orario.
Did that bring more variety to the food?
Noticing how uneasy he seemed, Hestia stopped walking, and this time she didn’t just blurt out whatever was on her mind the way she had at the start.
She tried putting herself in his place.
He’d just arrived in Orario.
He’d become an adventurer without really understanding how, in an unfamiliar place, receiving kindness out of nowhere.
That was more than enough to leave anyone at a loss.
If it were her…
Hestia figured she’d feel the same way.
And she could hardly just tell Renn about the Hero Raising Plan game, could she?
That made no sense!
She didn’t want her relationship with the child of her Familia built on impure motives.
She was treating Renn this way because he was the first member she’d recruited, and even without this so-called development game.
Hestia was sure she’d have done exactly the same.
“Um…”
“When gods create a Familia, they all have their own hopes for it.
For me, a Familia is a family, and my followers are my children.”
“So I’d like you to…
not be so stiff around me.”
“…”
“I’m a…
child too?”
“That’s right!”
Standing only 140cm tall, with a face and figure that earned her the title of loli goddess, Hestia nodded seriously.
Getting it out in the open.
That would make things much easier between them going forward.
She put her hands on her hips, and the smile on her young face was especially bright.
“A god and her children are supposed to be close.
If we’re too formal with each other, I think we’d both feel awkward about it.”
“So, Renn, do you know what you should do?”
“…”
Faced with a speech that didn’t match her childlike appearance at all, and with the expectation in her eyes, Renn reached up and scratched his head.
So he forced himself to nod and answered, testing the waters.
“Mo…
mom?”
“?”
That’s not right!
…
The Adventurer’s Guild was efficient.
Hestia brought her first follower in and got both his Familia affiliation and his adventurer registration completed.
With that, Renn had taken the first step of a very long journey in Orario.
As for housing, the conditions were passable.
It was a shared dormitory in the alley behind the Pantheon.
A single room by a window that got sunlight.
The furnishings were simple, just a plank bed, a desk, and a cabinet.
Washing up happened at the shared bathroom in the inner courtyard.
Even so, a single room in that dormitory cost twenty thousand Valis a month.
By the time Hestia had taken Renn around to buy everything he needed for daily life, it was getting close to evening.
“You only just got here.”
“And you passed out in an alley on top of that, so rest tonight.
I don’t think there’s any rush on exploring the Dungeon yet.”
“I’ll figure something out about your equipment!”
“…”
Renn watched her walk away, then looked at the coin pouch she’d left him with ten thousand Valis for living expenses.
Food, drink, and everything else.
Conditions were definitely a step down from modern society, but it was obvious this was everything Hestia had to give.
Thinking about that, the feeling of being a loli mom’s kept man only got stronger.
“So…”
“I’m supposed to be a guy who transmigrated.
Is living off someone else really okay?”
That said, Renn had to admit the free ride tasted pretty good.
How should he repay Hestia?
He looked at the sunset pouring through the window into the room, and thought about what she’d said, about holding firm to the road he wanted to walk.
“Hmm…”
He didn’t have a cheat to dump points into.
So Renn knew the only thing he could do was work twice as hard as any other adventurer and not let her expectations down.
“Whatever strength I gain is mine anyway…”
“Why do I feel like I’ve got a real reason to work hard now?”
…
Meanwhile, Hestia had left the dormitory and was heading back to her friend’s mansion when she noticed the notifications the Hero Raising Plan had put up.
The adventurers around her were giving her strange looks, but she didn’t care in the slightest.
…
[Affection Stage: 1]
[Affection Needed for Next Stage: 10/30]
[The daily quest function is now unlocked.
The player may use daily quests to provide appropriate assistance to the character Renn’s growth.]
…