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"Knock knock knock"~
The door of Male God's Cabin was knocked on once again.
At this moment, Matthew had just finished modifying Little Black Sand Dog's punishment data.
He'd still been screwed over by that dead dog.
Mother Goddess Hera had used her ability to return all the stolen clothing to its original place and offered an explanation, but next door, Otaku Goddess Angela had already known the truth, and believed this was Matthew ordering his dog to do it.
And so Hera's explanation turned into a cover-up, and the cover-up turned into confirmation that it had really happened.
"Knock knock knock"~
"Again? That dead dog!..."
Matthew opened the door in a huff, but this time the one standing at the door wasn't the Otaku Goddess, nor was it another goddess who'd suffered a theft — it was War Goddess Ares, who had earlier almost stumbled onto the truth.
Here, Lord Matthew needs to give that dead dog a bit of praise.
Ares had sensed something was off and insisted on entering Male God's Cabin.
It was Little Black Sand Dog who knocked G27 to the ground, helping him dodge that disaster.
Looking at Ares, who had changed clothes, the anger in Matthew's heart faded a little, though not a trace of a smile appeared.
"What, Lord Ares, still want to search my house?"
Across from him, Ares, only slightly shorter than Matthew, lowered her head, her long golden hair falling forward over nearly half her face, making it hard to see her expression.
Ares said, "I already know everything. Thank you, Matthew... and, um... may I treat you to a drink?"
The Goddess of War's method of hitting on a man was really something else!
Hearing this, Matthew chuckled and said, "Don't get the wrong idea. I was only acting under Her Majesty Hera's orders, and besides, you all could have taken down Hages long ago. It's not that you're too weak — you simply didn't need me to step in."
Weak... Big-chested and Brainless, it really was him!
Ares was about to retort at once when a scene suddenly flashed before her eyes — Matthew holding the Dragon Slaying Holy Sword.
God Matthew VS S-Rank Demon King Hages.
The attack of the three-tailed Dog Demon King had already arrived, yet Matthew remained unhurried, gazing at the blade in his hand and intoning, "Bankai!"
The 40-meter Golden Dragon-Slaying Holy Sword made its appearance!
The scene cut off there, and Matthew sat back down on the sofa, picking up his comic book again.
Not a photo album — good, thank goodness.
But it proved that "Big-chested and Brainless" was right on the mark.
Ares stepped inside, Ares closed the door, and lowered her head again.
The master bedroom and the second bedroom were both closed, so all she could catch, from the corner of her eye, was the decor and furnishings of the living room.
So many posters, so many toys — the decor leaned toward a modern style from the Human Realm, and there was even a Human Realm television and game console.
Does he just read and play games at home every day? If she were to live with him, would she need to keep him company doing that too?
Ares hadn't forgotten Her Majesty Hera's words: "look everywhere."
As a goddess, she had come into contact with quite a few male heroes, but all of them addressed her as "Lord Ares."
The man on the sofa addressed her the same way, and yet Ares felt no respect in that form of address.
Nominally, they were both gods, and while the gap between B-rank and S-rank wasn't small, that man was very likely an experienced S-rank hero and Male God as well.
He had no need to go out of his way for Ares — especially since he was also the one who had saved her life.
"Can you cook?" Matthew asked.
"Ah, not really," Ares answered.
"How can we drink without food?"
"Oh, then I'll go buy some and pack it to bring back."
With that said, Lord Ares, who had returned to the God Realm in glory not long ago, went off to run errands and buy food for a man.
Counting the time, Matthew really hadn't had a drink in quite a while, so he agreed to Ares's "request."
Sitting back down on the sofa, going back to his comic book, Matthew suddenly said, "Feels like I'm forgetting something, but it can't be a big deal, otherwise Old Lady Hera definitely wouldn't have let me come back so easily."
Goddess Hera of the Goddess World = professional scapegoat.
That's right, blame it all on that old lady!
.....
Meanwhile, Ares walked out of the Goddess Residential Area and finally realized something was off.
"I only said I'd treat him to a drink — why do I have to go to a tavern and pack food to bring back too? Just who does he think he is?"
He was Lord Ares's savior.
"Fine, I'll treat him to a meal and drinks, the favor's repaid, the apology's made, and after that he'll have no reason not to give me his Photo Album."
She reached the Commercial District and packed up both food and drink.
After returning, Ares knocked the door open directly with her finger, and found Matthew hadn't budged an inch.
"What a total shut-in he is. Back in the day, Dad certainly didn't treat Mom this way."
A short while later, the food was on the table, and the drinks were on the table.
Ares rolled up her sleeves, raised a cup of wine, and said, "Matthew, thank you again for saving me from Demon King Hages."
Matthew drank. "Good."
A second cup. "What happened at noon was my fault. I apologize."
"Good."
With two cups down, Matthew's appetite picked up too. He ate and drank at the same time, and turned on the television along the way.
A new anime was out on P-site — good.
A hero story adapted from the Human Realm — good.
This hero was handsome, powerful, and clever; the goddess, aside from her size, was pretty mediocre in every other respect, and with the Demon King invading the Different World being extremely cunning on top of that, it all resulted in a series of hilarious incidents.
A Sand Sculpture anime was great to watch over a meal now and then, and the hero's character was decent, so Matthew easily found himself relating to it.
As for Ares — quite the opposite.
Listening to Matthew's laughter, watching the goddess on screen acting foolish, she really wanted to switch into her battle stance.
"You're doing this on purpose!" Ares said, puffing up with anger.
Matthew, focused on the anime, didn't catch it clearly.
"What did you just say?"
Ares drank alone in sullen silence and said, "You don't need to keep pretending. I know you look down on me."
Matthew: (_)?
Honestly, he'd always felt that women, as a creature, had something wrong with their thought process, and the same went for goddesses.
She'd come to thank him, come to apologize, come to treat him to food and drink — so what business was it of hers if he turned on his own television to watch some anime?
"If you don't like watching it, you don't have to," Matthew said.
Ares, sitting across from him, indeed stopped watching, taking big bites of food and big gulps of wine, a thousand words condensed into one: "Hmph!"
"Fine, fine, once this episode's done I'll wait until you leave before I watch again." Matthew didn't want to argue with a woman.
The woman, Ares, continued: "Hmph!"
Then: "I'm finishing that cup — you drink too."
One cup, two cups, three cups!
Ares had been drinking since she was young, and when it came to alcohol tolerance, not even the Goddess of Wine was a match for her.
Of course, the Goddess of Wine's "wine" leaned more toward brewing it than drinking it.
When War Goddess Lord Ares sat down at a table in a tavern, one against ten burly men, it was always a total victory.
Generally speaking, when Ares got drunk, it was never because of anyone else — she simply got more and more into it the more she drank, and ended up getting herself drunk.
Four cups, five cups, six cups!...
Ares and Matthew went cup for cup, and in the end thoroughly drained the stock the former had brought along.
The difference was, Ares stayed focused on drinking the whole time, while Matthew drank and fooled around at the same time.
A Max-Level Boss with every attribute maxed out — alcohol tolerance was just one of those attributes.
Once the wine was gone, Ares's face was flushed red, she swayed unsteadily, and her eyes grew hazy.
"You just look down on me!"
"Hm?"
"You're bullying me too!"
"What?"
"That little scheme you men have — don't think I don't know it. You got me drunk just so you could take the chance to peek at me!"
"......"
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