God of What? 16

God of What?

Chapter 16

-VB-

The life of a gutter rat sucked.

While I didn’t understand this because of experience or anything more personal like that, I understood intellectually that being a gutter rat sucked. I come from an era where actual gutter rats would die because someone wanted their liver, kidneys, or hell, even their heart. If it wasn’t that, then they would be recruited to transport narcotics across national borders by swallowing packages of drugs. Less said about the excruciating death when said packages burst, the better.

Well, I wasn’t in my original world, Earth, anymore. I was just in Orario.

Which was, at best, a high medieval/renaissance society.

Which also meant that gutter rats, especially orphans, usually didn’t survive to adulthood.

“Nah, you’re high on that Soma shit, aren’t you?”

The orphan I was talking to right now was obviously suspicious of me. Though I said I was a god, she didn’t believe me.

The girl glared up at me when I didn’t say anything for a bit.

“How about this? Giving a falna is a very private thing, but if you don’t care and just want proof, then I can give you one right now,” I replied with a grin. “You know what a falna is, right? Even a gutter rat like you should know.”

She stuttered at my come back, and both of us knew she had little to no come back she could come up with that, not when she was at the head of a group of other kids, and I was by myself.

Of course, being a Orario gutter rat meant that she knew the cardinal rules that everyone in the city knew. A falna was private, inappropriately touching a god or goddess would have you hunted down like a rabid dog, and more.

I smiled and crouched down so my eyes were on their eye level.

“I get it,” I spoke up. “No one likes you. No one treats you right or even half-decently. They sneer at you, kick you, and spit at you.” With each word, I made the kids slowly angrier and angrier. “And I want to change that. I think you and those adventurers are no different… no different except for the falna they have on their backs.”

I was starting to bullshit. I just pitied them. I didn’t know whether or not if each of the gutter scums here had half the potential of the regular adventurer. I just couldn’t keep bearing to look at the kids wallowing in alleys when I had the means to do something.

“You’re entertainment for me,” I lied with a smile on my face. “I want to see the arrogant adventurers who ignored you turn around and get surprised when they see you right behind them. And whne you surpass them… I want to see that angry face, that dejected look.”

Damn, I knew how to make myself sound like a sick fuck.

It did do the job, though, because most of the kids looked fired up.

Most but not all.

There was one kid in the back who stared at me with distrusting eyes and a frown. It was clear he (she?) didn’t trust me, but the fact that she (he?) was holding onto one of the eager looking kids showed me that they weren’t going to let the other kid go by himself.

“So now you know what I want, and I’m not that different from other gods and goddesses,” I crooned. “I’m here to have fun just like them, but mine’s more interesting … and beneficial to you. So what do you all say?”

-VB-

Yor covered his face with both of his hands.

“So instead of just helping the kids,” he said out loud. “You gave all of them a falna?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“You realize whose responsibility they are now, right?”

“Mine?”

“No, you idiot! I’ll be the one who has to actually teach them everything and take responsibility for them!”

“Yeah, me!”

Yor wanted to scream.

Despite the fact that, yes, he was part of the original, there was still a distinction between them. After all, the original didn’t have to physically chase down someone or a monster, which he was certainly now going to have to do with thirty-plus kids between fifteen and five.

“Besides, not all of them joined up with us. The moment they saw pretty Bell, four of them pestered Hestia until she let them join her familia.”

“That’s worse! They’re not ready for that!”

“Yeah, well, they live in my house, so I’ll be doing work, too. I mean, this sudden increase in familia member is also the perfect time to introduce new, more ‘experienced’ members, right?”

Yor looked at the original.

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

“I had time to think while I was giving out falna, which I definitely can do and not just fake it.”

“That wasn’t in question.”

“...”

“It wasn’t, right?”

“Wel-”

Yor drew a fist back and then lashed out.

When his knuckles connected and cracked his original’s nose, that felt good.