"I repent! I was blinded by this world's filthy desires! After hearing your words, I finally realized how wrong I was!"
--------------------------
"Please, take it all, my possessions! I don't want to live like this anymore!"
Those fanatical people began offering up everything of value they had, begging for spiritual peace.
Fron was so dumbfounded he didn't even know what to say.
And not just him, Tione, Tiona, and the others all looked completely brain-dead.
"Uh… what the heck is that?" Tiona's mutter finally gave voice to everyone's thoughts, their faces full of question marks.
"Who knows!? Are those people idiots?"
"Are they blind!? Look at Penia, eating meat, drinking wine, a chicken leg in one hand and red wine in the other! What the hell is that!?"
Even Ais, normally expressionless, twitched her delicate face, apparently she'd never seen anything like this either.
"Let's go. That idiot Penia, she's a walking natural disaster among the gods. Wherever she goes, the gods there go bankrupt."
"…."
There was actually a goddess like that!? Everyone was thoroughly amazed.
"Hey! You small group over there! What are you staring at! Hurry and offer your wealth to Lady Penia!"
"?" Loki turned her head, face dark, and Penia instantly froze.
"Ah, ahaha, isn't that Loki! Fancy seeing you here in Orario! You've got quite the famous familia these days!"
"You think I wanted to run into you!?" Faced with this half-deranged, half-pitiful goddess, Loki was fuming.
Still… having an acquaintance around wasn't a bad thing. Narrowing her eyes, she stared at Penia with interest.
"Hey, Penia. Daedalus Street is your turf, right? I know you don't have a familia, but gods need to make a living too, don't they? You've been hanging around here quite a while, huh?"
Penia didn't look divine at all, her hunched figure wrapped in a tattered cloak, wrinkled old face framed by messy white hair.
If anything, calling her "Granny Penia" would've been fitting, though she did act like a beggar.
"I haven't actually been here that long… hmm, wait. In divine terms, anyway. For mortals down here… maybe a few centuries~"
"…" Finn and Ais exchanged looks, both dumbfounded.
"A few centuries? She's been living here for hundreds of years!?"
But Penia wasn't ashamed, she was proud.
Raising her chicken leg and goblet, she showed her crooked yellow teeth and laughed.
"Wealth corrupts the spirit! Abundance robs people of labor! Don't you see that's the truth?"
"Hey, Penia, enough! I don't care about your sermons, but stop brainwashing my kids in public!"
Even though Loki had faith in her own children, this rhetoric really did sound dangerously persuasive.
Maybe that was why Penia had managed to survive here for centuries with her "philosophy."
"Come on, Loki, gods like you have it all wrong! Look at those other fallen gods who only chase pleasure and indulgence, don't they disgust you? Poverty! Only poverty keeps gods and mortals pure!"
"The only one who might not laugh at me is probably that little Hearth Goddess! Hmph! You'd better go, Loki, you're not welcome here! I still have to purify these fallen lambs."
After that, Penia looked pityingly at the kneeling worshipers.
"Tch, that little… she's another debt-ridden fool. Don't think I don't know she owes Hephaestus two hundred million valis."
With that, Loki stopped arguing and pulled out the portrait, showing it to her.
"Penia, have you seen this boy?" The sketch showed a young man with hollow eyes, dark circles, and a lifeless aura, as if he'd been shrouded in darkness for years.
If one word described him, it was "gloomy."
Even from a drawing, his dull, eerie expression looked almost possessed.
"You're looking for this boy? Did something happen to him?"
Naturally, Loki didn't tell her the truth.
"Nothing big, just some business. I heard he's been spotted around here, so we came to check."
Of course, Penia didn't believe a word. She might not have a familia, but she knew all too well how dirty the feus between familias could be.
After glancing at the portrait, she took a huge bite of chicken and mumbled with her mouth full:
"Sorry to disappoint you, Loki, but I've never seen that boy, at least not on this street where I usually move around. Besides…"
She sneered.
"Even if I had, do you think I'd tell you for free?"
Loki raised an eyebrow, her sly eyes narrowing into slits.
"I see… then how about I pay you to mobilize your followers to help search? It's easy money for you."
"?"
Penia immediately grew wary, if someone was willing to pay for a search, the target had to be no ordinary person.
"Forget it! I'm not getting dragged into this mess!"
After shouting her refusal, she quickly gathered her offerings and darted into the labyrinth-like streets.
"Tch, I told you, rich folks are all trouble…"
"…" Loki watched her leave, clearly thinking of something.
Neither she nor the other girls noticed that beside them, Fron had lowered his head slightly, his half-lidded eyes hiding his thoughts.
That bottle of wine… it must be a god-tier liquor, even stronger than Soma's divine wine. Just one sip could enslave even a god…
...
When Loki returned, everyone curiously asked about the woman's identity.
After Loki explained her background, everyone understood, no wonder she could spout such rhetoric; turns out she was the Goddess of Poverty.
And… wasn't her way of "enlightening" followers a bit too unique?
"Tsk tsk tsk, just standing there talking and people give her money, that's quite the scam."
"Loki, those people offering money to her didn't look like her followers, right?"
Riveria walked over, asking curiously.