Ch 75 -- The Companion Goddesses (Part 1)
Before Sui and I returned to to our room Fer reminded me, "Shouldnât you be making an offering to Ninril-sama sometime soon?"
His reminder was a surprise. Itâs not been a week since the previous offering but I had completely forgotten about it. Again. It might help, shameless goddess if you sent me an oracle from time to time to remind me... Saying that though she can get a bit shrill when she starts complaining to me telepathically about me being late with the offerings.
I opened up the Net Super and started rummaging through the menus to choose what Iâd offer up this time.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
"Western confectionery and Japanese sweets seem to be to her taste, so what would be good this time around...?"
This world doesnât have chocolate or other such sweets from my world. I also need to think about choosing snacks that will keep for a while. That disappointing goddess will have to wait a week after this offering before I make the next one after all.
I decided to put American chocolate-chip cookies in the Net Superâs shopping cart, about twenty packs or so. I thought that would satisfy her for a time but when I went to buy them that shrill voice which had become distressingly familiar recently echoed in my head.
"Insufficient. I want more." Twenty packs of chocolate-chip cookies, and you still want more?
"How much sugary food can you eat?" I enquired, a vision of a fat goddess appearing in my mind. The deplorable megami-sama was silent, for once.
OK then, what else do you want?
"Hufufufu, I was waiting for you to ask. Some of those Western-style cakes and puddings and daifuku and sweet bean jelly and, oh I absolutely must get some dorayaki and..." I held up my hand, hold on hold on. Thatâs quite a big order to keep track of. I ticked them off on my finger. Cake and pudding, daifuku, youkan jelly and plenty of dorayaki? Thatâs it...
Right then, cake? I chose Mont Blanc and chocolate cake and added them to the cart. Pudding, the same custard pudding and pudding a la mode as before. Daifuku, I bought two bean daifuku and two strawberry daifuku and followed up with a complete box of youkan jelly. Oh, and âabsolutelyâ dorayaki, three off. Will that do?
"Fine, fine. Just hurry it up." Donât rush me, disappointing goddess.
"Wow, no, no, no, why are you here?" The goddess said in a squeaky voice.
"Nice to meet you, other-world-guy-kun." A different female voice sounded in my head.
"The same, other-world-guy." Yet another female voice chimed in, gruffer than the previous one.
"........................" Yet another voice? Huh? What? Who?
"I saw what was going on the other day, Ninril-chan receiving delicious sweets from a different world. She was keeping it a secret from her fellow gods and goddesses to monopolise the source. Sneaky, huh? So I told everyone what she was doing, eating delicious sweets all by herself."
Oh, they are companions of the goddess. So the secret is out, finally.
"Donât hide yourself away, Ninril-chan. If you are eating delicious things, please let us know."
"Thatâs right. Itâs not fair if itâs only you who gets to eat such sweets."
"... ..." (A silent voice nodded in my head)
"Sh- sh- Shut up! Th- th- this guy, I- I gave him my blessing, itâs the only reason I get offerings and prayers from him! Th- th- thatâs why it doesnât concern you lot." The deplorable goddess was panicking now.
"Ohhh, so thatâs how it works? Then I will give my blessing to this other-world guy and receive offerings and prayers from him too." came the first voice.
"If it means Iâll get to eat something delicious then Iâll do that too." came the second voice.
"......Me too." came the silent voice. How did that work? I wondered. Itâs silent but I can hear it somehow...
"Y- y- you canât, you canât you canât you know---" Panicking, definitely.
"Oh, itâs not up to you to decide such things, Ninril-chan."
"Ho ho ho, true that."
"............"
These strange voices echo in my head, just what was going on in the world of the gods?
"I am the Earth Goddess Kishar." the first voice explained. "Hello again. Well, I guess you overheard our discussion just now? The Fire Goddess Agni and Water Goddess Rusalka are with me."
"Hello there." the second voice said. Fire Goddess Agni, I presume.
"......" Water Goddess Rusalka-sama?
"So we will give you the blessing of three Goddesses if you would please give us sweets too?"
Eh? The goddess of water, the goddess of fire and the goddess of earth? Iâve already got the divine blessings of Wind Goddess Ninril right now so do I really need their protection too? Iâm safe from abnormal status effects already, or so I think.
"Oh no, if you think about it, Ninril-chanâs blessing is (small). Sheâs a bit stingy in that regard, and besides it canât be said that status abnormality invalidation is perfect protection." the goddess continued. "And youâve got no aptitude for wind magic. Ninril-chanâs blessing (small) doesnât help you out in that regard. Youâd be better off with the blessing of goddesses whose magic you can use right now. Like me. See?"
Thinking about it, I have earth magic and fire magic powers. If I received the blessing of Earth Goddess Kishar and Fire Goddess Agni would I get any other benefits?
"I hear what youâre thinking, kiddo. Iâm Fire Goddess Agni. Since youâve already got fire magic youâd be unbeatable with my divine blessing. Youâd be able to use high-powered fire magic with only a little magical power."
Well ~ Thatâs amazing.
"A-, Agni, what are you saying? We canât afford to give him all sorts of blessings. If we hand out divine blessings willy-nilly, weâll be scolded. Thatâs why I only gave him my divine blessings (small)." Deplorable goddess-sama was panicking even more now.
"Well, thereâs some truth in what you say Ninril-chan, but it shouldnât cause problems if we just give other-world-guy-kun our divine blessings (small) too. Besides, if heâs got an aptitude for fire and earth magic then getting divine blessings from Kishar and me is better for him, wouldnât you say?"
"Yeah. Ninril-chanâs divine blessings (small) doesnât allow other-world guy to use wind magic at all."
"Yes thatâs right. Even if we only give you our divine blessings (small) your magical energy consumption will go down but your magical power will go up and youâll be able to use higher types of fire and earth magic. After we give you our divine protections (small), try your magics out and see what you can do. Do you understand?"
"Kishar said it all, nothing for me to add." Fire Goddess Agni chimed in. So Fire Goddess Agni and Earth Goddess Kishar have decided Iâm going to receive their divine blessings whether I want them or not. Donât I get a say in this?
"Hey, did you just think you donât want our blessings? You might wanna reconsider blowing us off so lightly, kiddo." Fire Goddess Agni has a short temper, it seems.
"Thatâs right, listen to what Iâm telling you. You only want my blessing, isnât that the case?" A certain deplorable Wind Goddessâ intervention wasnât going to help.
Ah, that is not that I do not want the blessings, but anyone with the protection of several gods and goddesses is going to considered a bit strange, arenât they? I want a quiet life, really.
"Well other-world-guy-kun, I do remember hearing about a famous Hero in the past who had two divine blessings but I donât recall anyone ever having more than that." Earth Goddess Kishar explained.
So having three of them would be considered strange, then? Even though hardly anyone else could Appraise my status and see all the blessings, Iâd know they were there and thatâs bad enough. Besides Iâve got one goddessâ blessing already and that will do me fine, thank you.
"Câmon, man up you wimp! Here you go, blessings of Fire Goddess Agni (small)!"
"Hey donât jump the queue, Agni... My turn now. Earth Goddess Kisharâs blessing (small)."
"Aaaah-, you shouldnât have done that, you know?!" Deplorable goddess chimed in, ineffectual as usual.
"Uhufu, make offerings to us too from now on."
"I will expect delicious things from you."
Ah, I seem to have acquired two more divine proble- uh, protectors.
Maybe itâs not really a big issue but I am worried if anyone else catches sight of my Status even by accident. Well Iâve always got Fer and Sui to rely on if it turns into an emergency situation.
"..................I? " The creepy silent voice was back. What did she want?
"A- Ah, R- Ruka-chan..."
"The other-world-guyâs got no aptitude for water magic." Earth Goddess Kishar explained.
"Well, uh, hey ... ...."
"Since heâs already got Ninril-chanâs blessing it doesnât make much sense to give him yours as well."
Huh? What do you mean?
"You donât have any aptitude for wind magic and water magic and you already have Wind Goddess Ninrilâs blessing (small). That means even if Ruka-chan here gave you her blessing (small) it wonât add anything more to your status change invalidation powers. Itâs better for you to have blessings from Goddesses whose magic you can use already like us two. Receiving Ruka-chanâs blessing as well wonât make any difference to you." Agni-sama explained.
Well, thatâs something I suppose. Three blessings are bad enough, but four?
"............If I donât give him my blessing Iâd be the only one who canât get sweets. Iâd have to share everyone elseâs offerings." Water Goddess Rusalkaâs quiet voice trembled.
"Hey hey, donât cry, Ruka-chan. You, other-world-guy, think of something!" Fire Goddess Agniâs voice crackled with anger.
"Yes. Itâs your responsibility after all." Earth Goddess Kishar agreed.
Er, what the heck is that about? Itâs my fault and itâs my job to figure out what to do? Really?