Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? My Familia Is Full of Heroines from Other Worlds!

A petite, exquisitely pretty Loli Goddess with twin ponytails, an outrageously curvy figure, and her signature short white dress with a blue ribbon tied across her chest barged in, frowning slightly.

However.

The very next second.

Hestia's voice abruptly cut off.

It was as though an invisible hand had seized her throat.

She froze with her hand still pushing the door open, one foot across the threshold and the other still outside.

Her big blue eyes stared fixedly into the room.

Because she had seen it.

This dilapidated temple, which ordinarily not even a rat would bother visiting.

Was now packed with people!

And...

They were all beautiful girls, each distinctive, and none looking easy to mess with!

An arrogant, commanding woman with long, straight black hair.

A white-haired girl in a kimono with her eyes closed.

A righteous-looking, short-haired swordswoman.

A blonde with curly hair clutching a dictionary.

A little girl holding a bear cub that was smacking its lips.

And a green-haired girl whose smile sent chills down one's spine.

As well as...

An enormous black bear, nearly tall enough to touch the ceiling, scratching its belly with a guileless expression.

Hestia: "..."

Silence instantly fell.

Hestia blinked.

Then blinked again.

As if trying to determine whether she was still half asleep or hallucinating from hunger.

She looked at the girls, who were studying her with equally curious gazes.

Then she looked at Haimo.

Finally.

Hestia couldn't help raising a hand to rub her eyes.

The paper bag in her hand fell to the floor with a thud, and two piping-hot Fried Potato Balls tumbled out.

When Hestia opened her eyes again and finally confirmed that she wasn't hallucinating.

"Whaaaaaat?!"

A shriek loud enough to blow the roof off erupted.

Hestia stiffly turned her neck, pointing at Sasamori Aya, then at the bear.

Finally, she looked at Haimo's infuriatingly handsome face.

W-what was going on?!

Was this really the temple of that same Haimo who could barely afford food and spent all day mooching meals with her?!

Where had this roomful of beautiful girls come from?!

And what the hell were those two black bears, one big and one small?!

At that moment.

The enormous contrast instantly shattered Hestia's fragile psychological defenses.

That feeling.

Was like having a best friend who ate instant noodles with you every day and complained about being unable to find work.

Then one day, he suddenly pulled up in a luxury car with a crowd of supermodels and said, "Buddy, come on. Let's have an imperial banquet at my mansion."

Betrayal!!

Utter betrayal!!

It surged through Hestia's heart like a tide!

"H-Haimo?!"

Hestia's voice suddenly shot up an octave. Her trembling finger pointed at the roomful of people, and her cheeks puffed up at a visibly alarming speed.

"Wh-who are all these people?!"

"You... you actually went behind my back..."

"Behind my back, you found so many..."

"Waaaaaah!"

"We agreed we'd be Orario's freeloading gods together! How could you secretly make something of yourself?!"

Chapter 16: The New Arrivals and the Smithing Faction-the Hephaestus Familia

"Calm down, Hestia."

Haimo reached out and patted the bristling little Loli Goddess on the head, then picked up the bag of Fried Potato Balls she had dropped and blew the dust off them.

"What do you mean, I secretly made something of myself?"

"This is called laying the groundwork and waiting for it to pay off."

"And besides..."

Haimo bit into a piping-hot fried potato roll and pointed at the girls behind him, who wore a variety of expressions.

"Isn't this perfect?"

"Since Hephaestus is treating us, we'll just need a few more place settings."

"A-a few more place settings?!"

Hestia looked at the roomful of people-and the two bears-with her mouth twitching wildly.

"They won't even fit around one table!"

"And besides..."

"These children..."

"Are they really Familia members you recruited?"

"They don't look like Orario locals at all..."

"Don't worry about that."

"Let's get going. Didn't you say we'd be late?"

"We shouldn't keep Hephaestus waiting."

Haimo waved a hand, cutting off Hestia's interrogation.

And so.

After a chaotic flurry of commotion, this bizarre-looking group finally emerged from the dilapidated temple.

Dusk was Orario's liveliest time of day.

The streets were brightly lit, with Magic Stone Lamps casting a gentle glow.

"Wow... those ears! Are they real?"

Clutching her dictionary, Kikakujō Mary pointed at a passing Rabbit Person girl, her eyes wide as she exclaimed involuntarily.

"Shh! Don't point at people. It's rude!"

Although Onigawara Rin said that, she couldn't help glancing at the Rabbit Person's twitching long ears herself. Her hand remained on her sword hilt, as though she were overly tense.

"Is that a beastman?"

Sasamori Aya saw a burly Pig Person adventurer with a brutish face pass by carrying a massive axe.

"Rrr..."

The big black bear belonging to Hanabishi Warabi, named Fierce Man, had completely lost all reason to the rich aroma drifting from a roadside grilled-meat stall. Drool pooled on the ground, soaking a patch of paving stones.

"Come on, Fierce Man! Stop embarrassing me!"

The bear and the other cub planted themselves there and refused to budge. In the end, Hanabishi Warabi had to tug desperately at the chain, her face flushed and her whole body leaning so far back she nearly toppled over. Only after a veritable tug-of-war did she barely manage to drag the bear and cub away.

All along the way.

The girls were like country folk visiting the city for the first time-no, they were even more exaggerated than that.

They showed immense curiosity toward every Magic Stone Lamp, every passerby of another race, and even the roadside drainage channels.

Those gazes.

Were as innocent as a child's first glimpse of the blue sky.

Hestia walked beside Haimo. Seeing how utterly unfamiliar the girls were with the world only strengthened her suspicions.

She nudged Haimo with her elbow, lowered her voice, and gave him a disdainful look.

"Haimo, be honest."

"Are these children newcomers to Orario you tricked into joining you?"

"Look at them. It's like they've never even seen a demi-human..."

Hestia folded her arms, looking for all the world as though she had uncovered the truth.

Haimo merely shrugged without arguing.

After all.

In a certain sense, saying he had talked them into coming wasn't wrong.

Those promises about a "vast world" and "feeling alive" did, admittedly, smack of dangling empty hopes before them.

Still.

As he watched the light sparkling in the girls' eyes ahead of him.

The corners of Haimo's mouth curled upward slightly.

Because.

They had taken the bait.

Viewed through the lens of evolution, human beings were inherently a bundle of contradictions.

Just as humans were not born brave.

Fear of the unknown was the first line of defense encoded in their genes to keep them alive.

But.

Over the long passage of time.

Another, deeper and more primal instinct would gain the upper hand and suppress that fear.

That instinct was-curiosity.

Fear of the unknown made living creatures stop within the shells they believed were safe, turning those boundaries into prisons.

But curiosity.

Could swiftly draw humans out of their fear of the unknown and make them begin greedily seeking everything unfamiliar.

Precisely because it was a primal instinct rooted deep in human genes, older and stronger than fear.