Danmachi: The Focalors Familia — Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Vice-Captain Robin

Startled by Furina’s sudden shout, the young women of the Artemis Familia finally halted their aggressive advance. They stepped back a few paces, though the flushed excitement on their faces hadn’t dimmed in the slightest.

They glanced toward their own deity’s carriage—where Artemis was currently hiding, refusing to show her face—and then back at Noah, who stood securely behind Furina. Knowing, mischievous looks passed between them.

This was a monumental shift. Their pristine, untouchable Goddess was actually showing signs of change. This was a brilliant start. Perhaps in the future, they wouldn’t have to leave the Familia just to experience a normal romance. If their deity took the first step and started dating, wouldn’t the strict Familia taboo against men simply dissolve on its own?

Thinking of this, their gazes focused on Noah once again, eyeing him as if he were an incredibly rare and valuable treasure. Lenti took the lead, pumping her fist vigorously in his direction, and leaned in to whisper loudly.

“Come on, Captain! Hurry up and win over our Goddess!”

“That’s right, our future happiness depends entirely on you!”

“We support you in spirit!”

Hearing these brazen declarations, Noah wanted to sigh. This was a massive misunderstanding. That wasn’t what he and Artemis meant at all. After tonight’s absolute disaster, he was entirely certain the pure Moon Goddess wouldn’t speak to him for a very long time.

The chaotic camp disturbance only ended when Artemis firmly locked herself inside her carriage, and Furina physically dragged the surrounded Noah away from the gossiping crowd.

Just as Noah had predicted, the aftermath was brutal. For the remainder of the journey, Artemis never took the initiative to speak a single word to him. She reverted to her usual glacial detachment. During the daylight hours, she either rode her horse at the very vanguard of the caravan to scout the path, or she remained sealed inside her carriage, refusing to even part the curtains.

The colder she acted, the more frantic Lenti and the other girls became, scratching their heads in frustration. They shot Noah desperate, exaggerated hand signals whenever they had a moment of privacy, urging him to make a move.

Noah could only offer a wry smile in return. A deity’s pride was a fragile, heavy thing, far stronger than any mortal could imagine. The sheer social humiliation of that night had left a deep mark in the Moon Goddess’s heart. Pushing her now would only ruin things further.

Despite the heavy silence between them, Noah still witnessed the terrifying martial prowess of the Goddess of the Hunt firsthand.

Once they left the frozen expanses of the Far North, stray monsters began to bleed onto the trade routes. Deep within a dense, shadowed forest, a Claw Bear ambushed the caravan. It was a massive, brutal beast, the kind that would force a standard party of Rank 1 Adventurers into a bloody, desperate struggle.

Captain Letesha drew her longsword, barking orders to form a shield wall. Before the vanguard could even brace for the impact, a singular streak of silver light erupted from the deity’s carriage.

Puchi.

The sound of tearing flesh was soft, almost delicate. The Claw Bear, mid-roar as it lunged from the treeline, instantly went rigid. Its massive bulk crashed into the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dead leaves. A perfectly plain, unadorned wooden arrow jutted from the roof of its open mouth, having pierced straight through its brain.

One shot. One kill.

Barely anyone in the caravan had even seen Artemis draw her bow.

“As long as I draw my bow, there is no target that I cannot hit.”

Artemis had casually said those words to Furina days ago. Only now did Noah truly understand the crushing weight behind that statement. It wasn’t a boast; it was a law of nature. This was divine archery. Even stripped of her Arcanum, her physical vessel suppressed by the rules of the Lower Realm to match a mortal, the sheer technique etched into her soul remained absolute.

In pure, lethal combat power, Artemis easily eclipsed Letesha, a Rank 3 Adventurer and the Familia Captain. She was the undisputed apex predator of her own Familia.

This sharply contrasted with the vast majority of deities in Orario, who acted merely as figureheads and never touched a blade. The gods of the Lower Realm possessed absolute authority in their chosen domains. There were martial types like Artemis who wielded divine-level combat skills, just as Hephaestus held unrivaled mastery over the forge, Miach over medicinal brewing, and Soma over distillation. In their respective fields, they effortlessly broke the limits of what any mortal could achieve.

And then there were deities like Furina, who possessed absolutely zero practical talents, relying entirely on being cute and granting Falna.

Noah took his own turns clearing the road during the early days of the trek. His physical conditioning was already superb before receiving his Falna, and the blessing had elevated his basic abilities to an entirely new tier. But the surface monsters were pitifully weak. Most were barely Rank 1, no more threatening than the sluggish Goblins haunting the first floor of the Dungeon.

A single, casual swing of his blade sheared them in half. They dissolved into black ash, leaving behind tiny, worthless magic stones. The safe, heavily patrolled trade routes offered no real combat experience. Generations of Adventurers and guards had long since cleared out anything truly dangerous. Soon enough, Noah lost interest entirely.

The long journey dragged on, but the “ice-breaking” incident had permanently altered the dynamic of the caravan. Seeing that Artemis wasn’t actively punishing them for interacting with a man, the young women of the Familia grew incredibly bold.

Having lived highly sheltered lives away from men, they treated Noah like an undiscovered continent. They swarmed him during breaks, firing off endless, curious questions. They asked about his favorite foods, his preferred weather, his sword stances, his future ambitions, and even highly specific questions about the differences between male and female psychology that left him entirely stumped.

The sheer volume of their enthusiasm was exhausting. Noah frequently found himself casting desperate, pleading glances toward Robin for help.

And Robin, with her impeccable timing, always arrived to save him. She would slip into the crowd with a warm, disarming smile, using gentle, perfectly measured words to steer the conversation into safer waters, or simply claim that the captain required Noah’s assistance with the cargo to pull him away.

Noah felt a deep, deep gratitude for her quiet intelligence. After she smoothly extracted him from yet another interrogation, he leaned against a wagon and looked at her, half-joking and half-serious.

“Miss Robin, effective immediately, you are the official Vice-Captain of the Focalors Familia.”

Robin’s lake-green eyes curved into beautiful, amused crescents. She accepted the title with a graceful nod, entirely unfazed by the fact that the entire Focalors Familia, including their deity, consisted of exactly three people.

Just like that, the month of dusty, grueling travel finally came to an end. Without any major delays, the caravan crested the final, towering ridge.

The center of the world sprawled out below them. The Labyrinth City of Orario.

Even Noah, who had spent countless nights imagining this exact moment, found the breath catching in his throat as the sheer, magnificent scale of the city filled his vision for the very first time.