The Protagonist System

38 Cleaning Up The Trash

I had an early morning date to get to, so I pulled my lubrication trick and slipped out of the death grip Hephaestus had on me. I wasn't sure why I was okay with her being so clingy. Maybe it was because she was always so stern and projected so much strength, then in private she was even more feminine than a normal woman. It was definitely a huge turn on when she kissed me with love and tenderness.

I left a big fluffy towel in my place with my face copied onto it and a note embedded into the cloth, another dozen roses, and an apology for having to leave so early because I wanted to stay there with her all morning. Her hugs and kisses were some of the best I had ever gotten.

After ensuring I would make her blush, I dressed and cancelled the magic over her door and then teleported back to the church. It cost a bit more magic to do it without using a teleportation circle on both ends and I accepted that as a price to pay to slip out of the Hephaestus Familia compound without being seen.

I went to my room and changed out of my fancy clothes and hung them up. I was sure I would need them again and used a cleaning spell on them. I also changed the color, just so it wouldn't be seen as the exact same suit each time.

I thought about what I should wear on the date with Lili and smiled at the thought of wearing the suit she helped design. That might embarrass her too much, though. Of course, I could show up at her room wearing it and let her tell me to change into something more appropriate.

I chuckled and put on the now deep green suit with everything else and I even added back in the accoutrements that she wanted me to wear for Hephaestus, extra frills and all. I left my room and knocked on her room's door. The door opened and Lili's mouth dropped open at seeing me standing there wearing a full-on Goddess greeting suit.

“Are you ready for our date, Liliruca Arde?” I asked her formally and bowed to her.

“Eep.” Lili softly squeaked and then fainted.

I easily caught her before she hit the floor and carried her back into her room and laid her down on her bed. I looked at her clothes and she was wearing a nice sun dress that complimented her light skin. I would have to make a matching normal suit to fit in with her choice, just so we would match while we walked around.

After a few minutes, Lili woke up and her eyes stared at me.

I chuckled and whispered to her. “You are the only one that deserves to see me like this.”

Lili blushed hard and looked faint again. Her eyes watched me diligently as I stripped off the main extra pieces to leave myself in just the pants and shirt. I summoned a normal pair of dress pants and a normal shirt, changed into them, and altered the color of the pants to match her pretty dress.

I summoned a suit coat next and changed the color as I put it on, then held a hand out to her. “Please allow me to escort you on this fine morning, dear Lili.”

Lili accepted the hand and let me pull her up and off the bed to stand her on her feet.

“Just so you know how I did it, I used a slippery trick to sneak out of Hephaestus' grip and replaced myself with a fluffy towel in her arms.” I said with a smirk.

Lili looked surprised for a second and then giggled. “You got away from her grip? She's going to demand you tell her how!”

I laughed and handed her the back-up dagger she owned and led her from her room. We entered mine and I picked up my sword and strapped it to my hip. With us armed, we left my room and went up the stairs. We exited the basement through the secret door and walked though the completely restored church.

It was a pain in the ass creating the stained glass windows, because I hadn't done them in one shot. I had to create and alter each piece and then put them together. Thankfully, it was a normal skill and my mastery let me work surprisingly fast. However, it still took a lot of effort and patience to complete them and then set them into the proper window shapes to secure them.

I was really glad that the amulet let me work so hard with magic, because I never would have gotten them done so quickly or without severely hurting myself in the process. Buying them or having them commissioned from another Familia was so far beyond pricey that it was laughable.

We left the church and walked at a slow pace, mostly because it was a bright and sunny morning and the sun was rising and lighting up the city with beautiful colors and light reflections. It was quite the sight to see and enjoy with someone else. When I looked down at Lili's face, I could see that she thought the same thing. She turned her head and looked up at me with a smile that matched mine.

I bent down and gave her a quick kiss, which made her giggle because I almost tripped, and we walked for about half an hour towards the marketplace with the hope that one of the shops was open for breakfast.

*

Hestia started her shift and she was grinning from ear to ear. Everyone talked to her and no one looked down on her anymore. She was dressed well, worked hard, and she enjoyed herself more and more each day.

It wasn't because the job was any easier, though. It was because she wasn't working to earn enough money to eat that day. She worked because it helped the shop that had helped her when she needed it. The door to the shop opened and the little bell rang.

Hestia smiled happily and walked over to the new customers. “Welcome, welcome! It's a fine morning, isn't it? Let me show you to a table!” She said and led the couple to one near the front window and handed them both a menu without really seeing them, because she had done the same thing with everyone that came into the shop. “Would you like to order something to drink or do you need time to decide what you want?”

“Two teas and a plate of your best scones.” A very familiar voice said.

Hestia finally realized who she was talking to and gasped. “My Bell! What are you doing here?”

“Ordering breakfast.” Bell said and motioned to Lili. “My date hasn't tried your delicious potato treats yet and I was thinking we could walk you home after your shift this afternoon to fix that.”

Hestia beamed a smile at them. “Okay! I'll be so happy to have you both walk me home!”

Bell smiled back and repeated the order and handed her the money for it. Hestia left with a hop in her step and told her boss about the order and handed the money to his wife, whom added it to the box under the counter. The tea and scones were ready a few minutes later and Hestia added an extra drop of whipped cream on top and delivered the cups and plate of scones to Bell and Lili.

“Please enjoy it.” Hestia said and bowed slightly, then moved on when another customer entered. She saw her Familia members leave half an hour later and they waved and left her a nice tip. She giggled at them acting like that and cleaned up the table and worked for the rest of the morning with a huge smile on her face. She would be seeing her Bell again later and they would be walking home together!

*

Lili and I spent about an hour browsing through the marketplace and some of the smaller shops. The stalls had a few things Lili was interested in and she hummed as she internally debated if they were worth buying before we had cashed in the things we had gathered the day before. I reminded her that we didn't bring her backpack and would have to go home to get it before heading to the Guild.

That seemed to make her decision for her and she told the man that she would be back either that afternoon or tomorrow to buy what she wanted. He seemed pleased by that and put her things aside for her. Lili took my hand again and we walked down the street.

I cast another detection spell and felt someone enter my range. They were fairly strong magically, so I whispered a warning to Lili as I bent down to kiss her. She nodded slightly and kept her own eye out for whomever it was.

We both saw the scantily-clad woman as she approached us. She wasn't even trying to be subtle about it, even with me visibly holding Lili's hand.

“Hey there, handsome.” The dark-skinned woman said and swayed her hips as she moved her arms to push up her breasts. “How would you like to have a great time?”

I felt the push of magic flow over me and blinked my eyes at her, then looked down at Lili. By her wide eyes, she had felt it, too. I looked back at the woman and saw her slightly frustrated face, then she seemed to squint and I felt another pulse of magic.

“You're going to love spending time with me. I promise.” The woman said and the pulse repeated.

“Lead the way.” I said and she let out a sound of triumph and jumped to my side, grabbed my arm possessively, and started walking back the way she came. I didn't let Lili's hand go and she was dragged right along with me.

Lili gave my hand a squeeze and I glanced down to see her worried face. I winked at her and nodded at the ignorant prostitute, which made her smile and nod in return. She knew I was playing along and wasn't caught up in whatever magic she had cast.

We were led right into the Ishtar Familia's main compound, to my surprise. Lili looked a bit worried again and I gave her hand several reassuring squeezes. When we were brought to the main room that almost looked like a throne room, Lili's hand stiffened in mine and gripped it hard. There was a giant fat woman, that looked more like a frog than a woman, waiting for us.

“Oooo, Aisha has brought you to me. Wonderful!” The giant woman said.

“No, Phryne. I brought him here for our Goddess.” Aisha said.

Phryne scoffed. “What she doesn't know, won't hurt her.” She said and stomped over to us and I noticed that she was just over a foot taller than me. “Hand him over and I won't have to... convince you.”

Aisha let out a growl. “Just because you're a higher level than me, that doesn't mean...”

“Yes, it does. I'm strong enough to make him my slave and I'm going to before Ishtar does.” Phryne interrupted. “Doing whatever you want is the whole point of getting stronger.”

“Thanks for the clarification.” I said as I stabbed my sword through the base of her neck.

The large frog-like woman choked and reached for me with one hand and for the blade with the other, probably to try to push me away and remove the sword. I charged it up with Holy Lightning and she screamed with a loud gurgle. It didn't kill her, so I twisted it and severed her spine. Her giant body acted like a puppet with the strings cut and bonelessly dropped to the floor.

“By the GODDESS!” Aisha yelled. She had been too shocked by the sight to react, like letting me go or running away, which was great for me. My sword slid into her neck next as I whispered that I didn't like being kidnapped. A twist of my wrist later, she dropped to the floor and the shocked look on her face faded as she bled out and died.

I bent down and touched the large woman's arm and winced as I cast a 300 point destruction spell. Her body was covered in black miasma and started to dissolve away. I did the same with Aisha's body and then stood, grabbed Lili's hand again, and ran over to the large dais to duck behind it and knelt to hide out of sight.

It was just in time, because twenty people of various strengths entered the room at a run. All of them had weapons drawn, from daggers to swords, and looked around for the threat as the two black things on the floor finished dissolving and disappeared. None of them saw us.

“Search the rest of the building and grounds.” Ishtar ordered as she and her male attendant entered the room. “I felt unknown magic cast and he couldn't have gotten far. Find the intruder and bring him here.”

I wasn't going to allow this chance to pass me by, so I recreated the mistake I had made at the ruined church when I tried to deal with the stray exorcists. Lili's eyes widened as she watched me create a very strong source of magic and compress it into a marble.

“THERE! Behind the dais!” Ishtar shouted and pointed at me. “GET HIM!”

“You're too late.” I said and threw the small glass ball at her as I cast the teleportation magic on myself and Lili. It pushed me right to my limit after the two disintegration spells and my insides churned from the backlash.

Lili held me up as we disappeared in a flash of light and we both heard the tinkle of glass breaking when her attendant swatted it away. We appeared in the Hephaestus Familia compound on our knees just as the sound of a humongous explosion echoed throughout the entire city.

*KAAABOOOOOM!*

Even from this far away from the Entertainment District, we saw and heard the explosion that came out a hell of a lot bigger than I thought it would, which gained everyone's attention. That meant that everyone in the city saw the bright beam of light that pierced the sky as another goddess was forcefully ascended back to heaven.

“I can't believe you did that.” Lili whispered as she stared at it.

I coughed and held a hand over my mouth to stop the blood from spurting out. “Did... what?”

Lili gave me an incredulous look for several seconds before she softly laughed. “I get it.”

I chuckled at her understanding that no one was alive that saw us there and motioned to the ground.

“This isn't going to be comfortable.” Lili said and laid me down on my side.

“I just need... a few hours.” I said and closed my eyes. Tsubaki hadn't been kidding about my insides still tearing up, despite the amulet's power.

“I'll wake you when we have to go pick up Goddess Hestia.” Lili promised.

“Thanks.” I said and sighed. “I'm sorry about... ending our date... so soon.”

“Well, you did end it with a bang.” Lili joked.

I laughed and coughed up some blood. “Not the bang... I wanted.” I said and took her hand. “I tried to give you... a good date.”

“You are not doing something like that every time we go out.” Lili admonished me.

“Not... every time.” I said with a smile and Lili shook her head at me as I lost consciousness.

*

Most of the city's inhabitants were shocked. The entire Ishtar Familia was gone. No one knew what had happened or how it had been possible for someone to blow up the entire compound and vaporized everything. All that was left was a huge circular crater and bits of stone. In a single act, someone had destroyed the Entertainment District's ruling Familia and there was no one left to run things.

Of course, this left a power vacuum that several other lesser known Familias in the area decided to take full advantage of and they moved in and claimed businesses and territory that was previously owned and controlled by the Ishtar Familia. Because of this, no one bothered trying to gather any evidence about what happened.