First Days

The following day turned out to be far more intense than imagined.

First, a long and loud bell made the whole Folkvangr wake up.

Changing into the newly provided clothes, which looked like your regular civilian clothes, Gin brought himself into the enormous Sessrumnir hall that greeted him with long tables full of all types of food.

"Good morning, Captain," he said excitedly when he saw young Mia Grand passing by.

"Morning, numbskull," she disdainfully said while frowning and visually examining if the newcomer was anything special.

To her disappointment - he didn't seem that impressive at all compared to that little boaz boy.

Other than being discovered as a disappointment by Mia, another thing Gin noticed this morning that he missed yesterday was that all the windows had some hand-carved colored mosaics of winged warrior women looking over the battlefield.

He guessed that this was how the so-called Einherjar were chosen.

Strangely enough, he thought that the idea of dying on the battlefield to be picked up by one of such beauties was not so bad.

Was he already infected with the cult-like mentality of this place? He didn't know for sure.

The rich breakfast turned out as nutritious as expected - almost filling the 7-year-old's stomach completely. Mia Grand and others clearly weren't wasting her time in the kitchen.

Also, when he looked at the captain sitting at the executive table, he caught himself thinking that she wasn't that bad looking when she young, maybe even quite hot….

'Deserves to be a captain of a Goddess of Love and Beauty…."

Luckily, he was able to stop that train of thoughts shortly afterward.

In addition, he had already found the faces of both Meteria and Alfia.

Not wasting time, they all found a place at the same table they had eaten yesterday.

"Hi, Gin!" "Hi."

"Hi, Meteria, Alfia," he waved and replied with a healthy dose of enthusiasm. "Did you sleep well?"

"The bed was so soft and smelled like flowers. I really liked it," the white-haired girl replied with a smile. She had put some fruits along with some porridge on her plate.

"It was great. What about you?" Alfia said after taking a bite of a big, grilled, and meaty sausage.

"Honestly, the same. Much better than what we had before," Gin replied after finishing his glass of somewhat sweet and fresh milk. "Did Lady Freya say what are you two going to do today?"

"She said we will be going to the hospital today."

"Hospital already?!" he replied, very surprised that Freya acted so fast with the whole treatment agreement.

"Lady Freya said she wants everyone to be healthy and happy," Meteria happily added with a joyful smile. "The Goddess is so kind, just like Mother Maria…."

"That's great, actually. I think if you two got treatment early, it would be for the best," Gin mused. "As for me, I will be going to the training today." After that, they spent the next ten minutes quietly chewing on their respective breakfasts...

Ultimately, he learned that the two of his friends were going to the hospital together with the goddess, so all he had to do today was to train together with everyone.

Right outside the dining hall, he saw how both Meteria and Alfia were picked up by a human chamberlain before they followed her upstairs.

He, on the other hand, went straight to the courtyard. He picked up and put on some leather armor in the massive armory near the front door, summoned his Minazuki where no one could have seen it, and then walked to the courtyard's enormous wooden door.

Even before he opened it, he was already hearing cultist-like screams and clangs of the cold weapons that accompanied an extremely intense death match unfolding on the flower field.

"Uoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!"

"For her love!"

"For milady!"

'Well… time to practice that 1st Kenpachi's swordsmanship…' he thought, before doing some basic swings in the air as he slowly opened the door….

***

40 minutes later. North West Main Street. Dian Cecht Familia Hospital.

"Ohhhh! Look who just came to my humble hospital! Freya, long time no see! Never thought you would come to me by yourself," Dian Cecht enthusiastically greeted the goddess with his arms wide open before taking a look at her entourage. "And look who is that - I assume you came here for these small kids."

"Dian Cecht, stop with this. I came here for an important business," she firmly said. "I would like to talk somewhere private."

"Fine, fine, as long as you got money, I will make these kids healthier than myself," god in white robes with shiny rings on all his ten fingers replied with a salesman's smile.

Since it was still morning, he didn't really have much to do other than going to annoy his son Miach or collect the money from his clients in person.

Besides, his intuition told him that those two kids that Freya brought to him today would land him a hefty sum of Valis….

***

2 hours later.

The mood in the room has already changed dramatically. 3 best healers from Dian Cecht Familia have already tried all possible ways to identify what exactly was bothering the two young girls.

All kinds of questions, tests, everything in the greedy healer god's arsenal has already been deployed.

But the results have been, frankly, disappointing…

In the end, the god himself tried to actually diagnose the condition when he realized the seriousness of the matter. However, that too brought no success.

"I'm sorry, Freya…" was all he said to the goddess of Love and Beauty after another hour, with his head down a little. "I have no idea what kind of disease they must have, but from what I saw, it seems to be progressing. I have observed that it also affects their lungs to a high degree. Without treatment, I see them starting to cough up blood in around 5-7 years."

"Is it that bad?"

"You know me, Freya, I am a greedy bastard, but I wouldn't want to joke about this since I don't want to be on your blacklist," he said with a self-deprecating smile. "Overall, I suggest trying some rare herbal treatments to see if anything would work. Also, the one called Alfia seems to have hearing issues."

"Hearing issues?"

"Yes, it seems that all the sounds she hears are amplified, so I will try to give her some medicine for that as well, but those would only suppress the condition and not get rid of it completely."

"Are you not the best healer among the gods, Dian Cecht? Why do I only hear excuses from you today?" Freya looked at him in the eyes and asked in an accusatory tone. "Do you not see the importance of occasion since I came here in person?"

"Hey… I promise - I tried. I really tried. All my best healers have tried too. If we can't do it, then it's most likely that no one else can," he said while trying to explain the situation. "Not that I am arrogant, but I really tried my best."

"And it's not like, I have no idea what to do. First, I will give you a list of all the herbal treatments for the lungs and their overall health. Then you can also get the hearing treatment for Alfia…."

"And?" Freya impatiently asked, seeing that he clearly had something to add.

"But…"

"Just say it already."

"Meteria's condition is much worse than Alfia's. She probably can't really become an adventurer," he finally said with a heavy heart.

"Are you sure about that? Can't you try to check her again?" Freya asked with a taut voice.

"I tried a few times - the same disease that affects both sisters progresses faster in Meteria. So even the treatment I would plan for her should also be more complex and extensive. If she would get a job, it must be one where she has to sit most of the time - something like a librarian, not an adventurer," he said with an apologetic yet matter-of-fact tone.

"I see," the goddess replied with a heavy mood, lost in thought.

"In that case, I am waiting on all the herbs you talked about, Dian Cecht. I hope there won't be any problems with that."

"Don't worry, Freya. My people will send everything out to Folkvangr with all the instructions," the god of healing said with a confident smile; however, it didn't improve Freya's mood at all.

"Let's go, Bodvar," was all she calmly said to her Level 5 bodyguard before they picked up two girls from the waiting room and went back to the estate.

However, no one has seen the unfamiliar emotions starting to rage inside the goddess on her way back….

***

At the same time, a delightful, secluded flower field in the courtyard of Folkvangr.

"——————!"

'Gosh, it's much harder than I expected….' Gin thought before barely dodging yet another blow from a crazy 10 or 11-year-old swinging a two-handed ax.

'I really can die here. This is not a joke….'

Gin was dumbfounded, he expected a brutal training that he would overcome like a real protagonist, but he didn't expect it to be so brutal and so fierce that he would get trashed by everyone on the field. What about other Level 1s? Even they all seemed to be much more powerful than he was.

It was only with the help of the system's supplied swordsmanship knowledge that he was able to barely deflect and parry all their moves - frequently at the cost of cuts on different parts of his body.

He even saw Ottar, but he was fighting with the Level 2 crowd, so he had no business talking to him. The one thing he noticed, though, was that he was much more vocal than he seemed in canon.

Yes, the one yelling "Uoooooooooooooooo!" all the time was him…

Besides, what can they even talk about? Who likes Freya more?

Swish! Fwish! Slash! Clank! Clank! CLANK!

All types of sounds were heard in the crazy battle occurring in the neat flower field - the field now covered in blood.

'Didn't they say in the LN that the blood of her followers were the nutrients for the flowers here? Seems belie—'

"—GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Gin screamed after getting sliced by an ax because of his distracting thoughts. Bright red blood was gushing out from his shoulder.

However, it wasn't even a few seconds before he felt like someone caught him mid-air and brought him to the healer's tent.

A gentle-looking female dark elf with enchanting, sky-blue eyes and beautiful, long, silver hair looked at him with some interest and a scolding glare. Her eyebrows were slightly raised before she used her signature "Eir's Rain" magic spell.

As tiny emerald-colored water droplets formed in the air and fell down on Gins' wound, he was shocked to see how fast everything regenerated. It wasn't even two seconds before everything was healed.

(Pic)

(Pic, from behind)

"Miss Ellania?" he asked, his voice full of awe.

"Yes?" she slowly said - sounding better than the harmony of angels.

"Thank you so much."

"It's my job to help everyone here," she gently replied as she hugged the silver-haired child.

'So small and cute… But could this be the new healer Lady Freya said will join us today?"

"Is your name 'Gin'?" she asked to confirm her first guess while still caressing his back.

"Yes, Miss Ellania," he said, his eyes closed with a smile, snuggled close to her firm D-cup chest.

'Ahhhhhh… smells of morning dew and lilac….'

"That's great. Since you will be joining us later in the day, I want to see your healing magic before sending you back."

"Did Lady Freya already tell you that I will be joining?" he asked, forced to leave the perfect resting spot.

"Yes, although I am saddened that you won't be learning the art of healing with me all the time, but even joining us to practice together at the end of the day would help you a lot."

To this, Gin only said, "Kaido," before a glowing green light appeared in his hands that healed the cut that Ellania made with a knife in less than 10 seconds.

'The speed is quite bad, and the mind consumption is very high, but not bad for a first try…' thought a gentle elf.

"Not bad," she said while thinking about something in her mind. "You can go back to your training now."

"Thanks again, Miss Ellania," the child replied before standing up and walking back to the battlefield.

"No worries," she replied with her lips quirked up. "I am looking forward to having you as my new student."

At this point, Gin remembered that even though everyone in this familia craved Freya's love, there still were some more rational people like Heith Velvet and Ottar. So, perhaps, the healers would be the ones who would be easiest to get along with.

This would be especially good since if he could become a captain, he would need to have good relations with at least some people.

And everyone who wasn't a 100% cultist was the one he wanted to befriend….

Sometime closer to the end of the day, when he had already finished helping out Miss Ellania with the wounded, he decided to call out 'Status' to check on his own progress:

[Name: Gin

Age: 7

Mind: 17/35

Race: Human

Strength: I 0 - I 11

Defense: I 0 - I 6

Dexterity: I 0 - I 7

Agility: I 0 - I 9

Magic: I 0 - I 4

Magic:

[Kaido: Healing magic. Allows the user to use numerous healing spells by consuming mind power. Release Spell: Kaido]

Skills:

Unity with Sword Spirits

[Provides the ability for a user to summon and use Zanpakuto (Soul Cutting Sword) in the real world. In addition, the spirits of the swords being summoned can assist the user by providing the user with new abilities.]

Templates:

Unohana Retsu:

Swordsmanship: 0.5%

Hado: 0%

Bakudo: 0%

Kaido: 0.4%

Shunpo: 0%

White Hits: 0%

Shikai: Locked

Bankai: Locked

]

'I finally get to see how templates work… but how do I unlock the Shikai?' he thought before directly asking the system about this.

'System, how do I unlock Shikai?'

[Host should complete a hidden task to unlock a Shikai for Unohana Retsu template.]

'A hidden task… At least I can practice swordsmanship and White Hits without any issues for now….'

***

At the end of the first day, when everyone had a great dinner, the trio decided to share their experiences for the first day in their new familia.

"What did the hospital say?" Gin asked after they had just sat on their seats.

"They said Meteria is not really suitable to become an adventurer. If anything, it's better for her not to pursue any physical work," Alfia replied with a gloomy tone.

"I see—"

"But Lady Freya said I can be a librarian! I will start helping out Miss Echidna in the library tomorrow," Meteria hurriedly added. "Oh, there she is!"

What appeared before Gin was a beautiful woman with white-ivory skin. Bluish-green hair that sparkled in the sunlight coming from the window was pulled back into a braid of three very thick strands and draped around her neck. She wore high leather boots and a mid-length white linen skirt with another skirt layer of royal blue cloth around it - quite modest compared to your average Amazoness.

A thick cloudy-colored shirt covered all of her torso, leaving her gentle shoulders naked and highlighting her impressive chest. An exquisite shoulderless leather vest highly resembling a corset protected her body from the front and the back - even her sides were protected by a somewhat large leather pads. It was clear that every piece of clothing provided her with a very wide range of movement.

Different bracelets full of colored gems sparkled under the light of the massive magic crystal chandelier of the dining hall. Even the leather band she wore on her head had some rare-looking gems as well.

Her demeanor was noble and collected, yet it seemed like she would be a friendly person to those she cared about. She walked in as if she knew that nothing could threaten her in this place.

(Pic)

"She looks very strong. Is she really just a librarian?" Gin asked what puzzled both him and Alfia.

"Miss Echidna is actually a mage, but she spends a lot of time in the library. I asked Miss Lina, and she said that she became a Level 4 at 16."

'Level 4 at 16? Not bad… Though she doesn't look 16 anymore, she is probably already pushing at Level 5.'

Although Gin didn't know many things, he knew that she was not a simple character to be able to survive in this Familia. Besides, being a Level 4 at 16 was nothing to sneeze at.

In fact, his suspicions were correct since Echidna was a high Level 4 at the current age of 17. She was so strong that she was the single strongest person on the training field - that's why she had no interest in fighting there at this point and spent all her time reading different magic books in the library.

The fact that she also practically got a carte blanche from Freya on all spending related to books made it even more appealing to her to stay and hone her magic spells in solitude.

'Why are all the girls in this familia so hot?' Gin thought before realizing that he had been in a daze for some time and trying to continue the conversation:

"What about you, Alfia? Will you be joining me during the training?"

"I'll join tomorrow, yes," she replied after taking a bite of the piece of rye bread. "I couldn't join today because we had to drink a lot of strange herbal drinks that Lady Freya got from the hospital with those people from the other familia. They weren't tasty at all...."

"Speaking off herbs, you two should totally meet Miss Ellania - the leader of the healing group," Gin suddenly said since he suddenly remembered the situation that occurred to him today.

"Healing group?" Alfia asked with confusion.

"Well… today I got a small injury during the training, but she or someone else picked me up right during the battle, only to bring me to the healer's tent," he said while pointing to his perfectly recovered shoulder. "Her healing magic was so strong - not even 5 seconds and everything looked perfectly healed."

"So fast?" Meteria asked with amazement on her face.

"Yes, I also got assigned some books to read regarding different herbs and how to use them for healing," he said, not wanting to talk about his healing magic yet.

It would be ok if they would learn about it themselves, but casually dropping the fact that one already used magic spells when others likely didn't even have one wasn't what a considerate person should do.

"I don't want to be a healer," Alfia suddenly said while looking somewhere far away with a firm gaze. "I want to be the one who crushes all the enemies with an awesome weapon in my hands… Yes.."

"Alfia, but healing sounds nice too," Meteria tried to persuade her older sister before putting a finger to her chin and thinking out loud: "Maybe Miss Echidna also has healing books that I can read…."

"Speaking of healing, do you two feel better after taking those herbs today?"

"It's much easier to breathe, yes," said the silver-haired one.

"It feels much better here," said the white-haired one while pointing at her chest with her tiny hands. "Thanks to Lady Freya…"

'Man, the price for everything is probably huge… But debt slavery is not that bad if you get healthy.'

—

Dian Cecht: I totally agree!

—

After that, the trio of friends remained mostly silent - still unfamiliar with the whole new environment, only wanting to finish whatever food they had on their plates.

"Let's all go back already… It's so loud here," Alfia said at some point, with an audible irritation in her voice with hands covering her ears, when there was some sort of loud commotion with a few people already getting beaten up and held by their collars by Mia Grand at the front.

"Alright, let's go," was all Gin said to her request.

Afterward, the kids quietly finished their food and returned to their respective rooms to sleep.

***

In this fashion, the first two weeks at Freya Familia have gone by extremely fast.

Gin already had successfully raised the mastery of his swordsmanship to 5% by practicing the moves supplied by the system.

His Status also had some increases, with his Agility having the most significant gains at a whopping 114 points.

He didn't know Alfia's status changes, but he also saw that she became visibly stronger and faster day by day. The "monster of talent" that Ottar talked about would likely leave Gin behind if he dared to slack off even a little. Her skill with the sword was unbelievably terrifying - she could even copy Gin's style that he had worked so hard to master with the help of the system.

'Alfia with all the moves of Unohana Retsu… What kind of monster would be unleashed in the dungeon….'

Another thing was that Meteria officially became an assistant to Miss Echidna. Not that she had a lot of things to do, since the latter had ice elementals working in the library all the time, so what she mostly did was to read books that she liked and helped people find the ones they wanted. With this setup, Echidna could read her magic books instead of wasting time on other people's requests.

Another major confirmation that Gin got was that the absolute majority of people were total cultists. The word of Freya was absolute truth to them.

Males all craved her attention, frequently at the expense of their own injuries during training.

On the other hand, females were somewhat less affected, it seemed; however, those on the extreme ends of the scale were even worse than the guys.

Just the way even the executives looked at the goddess was, frankly, somewhat scary.

Another thing that Gin had thought about was that even though fighting all the time sounds like a good idea - it should still be suboptimal for an individual.

This idea of finding the perfect opponent for your level - it never stopped bothering his mind.

Why fight someone on the training field when you can just find an opponent that you can barely handle in the dungeon that will give you that perfect amount of excelia.

From what he knew, excelia was pretty much gathered that way.

Another thing was that risk in the dungeon could also be somewhat controlled by having another person on standby when encountering monsters that would give you optimal excelia (he thought that those monsters that you had a mid-difficulty with were the primary target; however, he still knew that his theory was a bare-bones version at best and needed some experimental data.)

From what he knew, the dungeon clearly didn't register Riveria as a participant when it gave Monster Rex Udaeus the black sword - this would mean that excelia was also solely given to Ais.

At the end of the day, maybe daily training in the courtyard was helpful, but it very unlikely provided the optimal excelia for an individual person.

He also thought that this "optimal excelia" method was what Zeus and Hera's familias used since they would be able to deploy high-level personnel to basically let the lower levels grind at the most appropriate places (perfect ratio of high excelia/controlled risk of dying), with an opportunity to save them if they do get in danger at a moment's notice. Perhaps even adding a healer for extra safeguard.

After all, for a top familia, every person from level 5 and above was indispensable.

Another good thing was that Gin would be able to spend a lot of time with Alfia and develop high coordination if they both went to the dungeon together every day.

Yes, that was definitely the least important reason.

***

1 day ago, the training field at sunset.

At that time of the day, the usual training at Folkvangr has just come to an end. The figures of brave fighters stopped crossing blades with each other with real killing intent for the favor of the Lady.

The two young silver-haired children have been standing near the wall, panting for the last few minutes.

However, after both of them put their swords back into sheathes, the boy spoke:

"Alfia, I think I know how we can gain excelia faster than fighting here."

"Really?" she asked, with some excitement and expectation in her voice. The boy in front of her eyes had already brought her and her sister to a place where they could have plenty of food, sleep on soft beds, and even get treated with some strange herbs - she already had some confidence in whatever schemes he planned on.

"Yes, we are going to start going to the dungeon instead of training at the courtyard."

"The dungeon… but didn't they say that you can get training here as well?" she replied with some skepticism on her childish face.

"Yes, I think we should at least try going there and see if the progress would be faster," he replied in the same tone when he described why they should join Freya Familia. "Besides, we can already start to collect the money to repay the goddess. Don't forget the promise that we have made with her - we can't make money in the training hall."

"Money… you are right. Maybe we should go to the dungeon. Also, didn't you say that we also would get to train faster? I think I like that part."

"Well, that's great. Then, after tomorrow's breakfast, we should go straight to the Babel. I asked the captain, and she said we don't need to use Guild advisors. So instead, she just gave me a copy of the notes for low-level adventurers from our library. Also, we are already registered at the Guild, so we can just come and sell magic crystals by ourselves without any extra hassle."

"I will bring the food then," Alfia replied. "Captain Mia shouldn't be mad at us if we would take some food from the kitchen with us to the dungeon. I really don't like to fight here the whole day with only breakfast."

"Yeah… I also don't know why we don't take a break to eat in the middle, but hey - we can't make rules here…."

'At least not yet….' Gin thought before going to his now usual routine of showering, having dinner, and then visiting the library together with his two friends, where everyone could study what they wanted.

Alfia read some beginner magic books that Miss Echidna gave her. Meteria was always reading some adventure stories or history books, while Gin himself had a hard time perusing the healing materials that the motherly dark elf gave him.

Staying up until midnight was a regular occasion for the trio….

***

The evening of the same day, the goddess's room.

"..."

"What did they say, Love?"

"They plan to gain more excelia in the dungeon, My Lady," dutifully replied a cat-girl executive with an alias "Explosion." A beautiful red dress highlighted her small chest and cute feline ears.

(Pic)

"Let them do what they want. I want to see what results they will get, " Freya said somewhat nonchalantly. "Also, send someone to secretly look after them, in case the small children somehow get themselves in trouble."

"I—" started a girl before she was interrupted by the goddess.

"Ohh… and, Love," Freya said with a grateful tone while standing up from her throne and coming close to a 147 cm (4'10'') tall cat-girl.

Not even a few moments later, the goddess's chest practically touched the face of the cat-girl in front of her. Of course, the fact that Freya was one of the relatively tall women didn't help the whole situation - maybe even made it more awkward with the follower looking up to the face of the goddess.

"Yes, My Lady, nya?" she replied with some trembling and excitement in her voice. Her cheeks blushed a little.

"I am delighted with your performance during the last expedition," the goddess said as she gave a very gentle headpat to a girl. "Good job."

That action alone was everything that the shortest executive in the familia wanted. The praise of the goddess herself. And in such a place…

The cheeks weren't simply blushing at this point - they had become tomato red. Her tail twitched slowly at the beginning, only to start madly quivering like a loving cat finally getting to be caressed by the owner.

"I don't deserve such praise, Milady…."

"You do, Love. You can leave, and I hope you will bring me more things to be happy about in the future," Freya only said, her voice full of expectation and care.

'Take that brainless dwarf! Hahahaha! Lady said that I did a good job,' thought a very excited cat. 'Once I become a Level 6, you will not stand in between the Lady Freya and me, nya….''