“You doing okay there, Delair?” Ben asked after they reached their last planned stop for the day and finding his student starting to lag.

“Mmh, I’m fine, I can keep up.”

He looked at her as she said it, clearly worn out from the long day and shook his head before picking her up to let her sit on his shoulders as they went. “Sorry kiddo, I didn’t think about how tiring being on your feet so long might be for you. I should have noticed sooner.”

“No, it was fun. I had such a great time seeing all of these new places and trying so many new snacks too!”

“Which reminds me, I saw how much you ate. If you think you’re going to be sick, try to give me a heads up before you barf all over me, would you?”

“I’m not going to be sick,” She said indignantly. “When you’re working, you need to eat, it’s important!”

“Ha, it is but it really shouldn’t be anywhere near as many snacks as I let you get. I feel like your mom won’t be thrilled with me if I ruined your dinner.”

“It’s fine, mom’ll understand.”

“Well, I hope so and… Abel, what are you doing?”

“Nothing,” She said, completely innocently as she did her best to climb Ben’s back.

“Half of your attributes are higher than mine; there’s no way you need me to carry you.”

“No, but it looks fun! I don’t usually get to be so high unless I really stretch out and that creates other issues so it’s not worth it.”

…If Thera sees this, she’s really not going to stop saying I’ve adopted Abel until she leaves, but…

“Fine,” He sighed, moving Delair to sit on one of his shoulders and letting Abel sit on the other. “But no kicking your leg while you’re up there. I know you have the strength to collapse my rib cage if you do and having already suffered plenty of rib damage less than a month ago, I’m not looking for a repeat.”

“Got it!” She laughed, taking in the better view and just enjoying being higher up while Ben ignored the looks they were getting as they went through the gate to the magic towers. Carrying Delair usually didn’t draw attention since not only was she young, she seemed on the shorter side for her age. Abel, though, was undeniable in the latter end of her teenage years and carrying her like that was more than enough to get some eyes on them.

But since I doubt anyone’s ever done this for her before, it’s fine. He thought with a sigh. Being a good influence and a positive role model and absolutely not a father.

No, you’re definitely like a dad spoiling his daughters.

Quiet you.

The looks only continued through the magic towers, where far more people were able to recognize him on sight for his various work there, both in their library and their guild, but since it was making the two happy he kept up with it till arriving at the guild hall itself, finally setting them down and ignoring their complaints about it as they passed through the building and back to the shop.

Okay, a ton of healers have been leveled and even more ordinary people got their brains augmented too so both Thera and the gods should be happy. And with a bit of time left in the day-

A loud banging came to the front door, unexpected since the town in general was aware they were closed and anyone who was meant to be there either had a key or else would come with some sort of warning, yet it didn’t let up, even as they went unanswered.

Well, I guess if it’s nothing crazy, nothing wrong with making a quick sale. He told himself, purely from the perspective of getting Delair some firsthand experience on that front since they’d been closed up ever since he’d started training her and led him to answering the door, finding far more than he’d been expecting on the other side from the small crowd that was waiting for him.

Aaaand I instantly regret answering.

People of various species, none of whom looked particularly happy to see him as they wore faces of either resolutions or discomfort waited for him on the other side and before any could so much as get a word out he’d closed it again, seeing a problem he didn’t want to have to deal with.

“Alright guys, new plan,” He said lightly to the two with him as the banging started again, all the more insistent now that they knew he was there. “That looks like it’s going to be a pain so what we’re actually going to do is dip out to where Thera and Mora are going to be and then get Thera to give us a lift back into town the long way. It’s going to waste an extra hour or two but it will probably be worth it.”

“Sounds funny,” Abel laughed at the very thought, imagining how long they might wait before giving up while Delair was more practical.

“What if they vandalize the shop though?”

“Well, then I track them down one by one and… Not do that because I’m trying to be a good influence on you. Okay, fine, I’ll see what they want.”

Whatever it was, he just wanted to avoid it but it was important to try and put on a proper display for his student as he opened up again with his most professional smile on his face, speaking up before any of them could.

“Sorry about that, I was expecting a shipment, not customers so you all caught me off guard,” He lied. “Having said that though, we’re currently closed for sales but if you need anything, I can direct you to a few other shops in town that might be able to help with whatever-”

“Mad apostle,” One cut him off and left him to cringe at the use of that particular title. “We aren’t here for your wares, we’re here for you.”

“Ah, well sorry about that but I’m not for sale either so if that’s all-”

“It’s not,” A different one cut him off. “You’re a third tier now.”

“...That’s correct.”

“And an evil god of all things,” A third said in disgust, making it clear which of his skills they were there for. “Do you feel no shame? No self-disgust? For an apostle of all things to fall so far-”

He stopped listening as they droned on, instead looking in their minds for proper answers about who they were and why they were there, finding the lot of them to be the core believers of various gods who’d heard of his achievement from the ones they’d worshiped and clearly shared their deities negative opinions of him, stretching back to when he’d first earned mad apostle as a title to begin with.

Still though, with the distance between Stonewall and the nearest gate, they got here surprisingly quick to raise a fuss and… Ah, they used the mini-gate network I built around Stonewall, got it. In that case, even ruder to come complaining to me when taking advantage of my work.

“Alright, so what do you all actually want then?” He asked, already having seen the answer but tired of hearing the group drone on and only getting firmer looks for it as the first who’d spoken told him exactly why they’d come.

“We want you to be better.”

“Do you, now?”

“Despite being an apostle, you have no respect for the gods. Every request they make of you is met with a demand, your greed is legendary among the faithful of the world and your brazenness is nothing if not disgusting. Can you do nothing simply because it’s right? Powers far above you are willing to request your services but all you do is bargain and complain.”

“Look, I’m sorry-” He started, giving some there a mild hope he might repent his ways before going on.” That on a species-wide level, you were all born and bred to be obedient to your makers without considering your own worth, but I’m different. What you call greed, I call an exchange of services, same as I’d do for any mortal. If your gods are so delicate that they can’t handle not getting every little thing they want for free then sorry but I have enough people I’m trying to help raise into upstanding citizens as it is, I’m not adding any more.”

A few looked prepared to fight him for those words then and there but cooler heads among them stopped them, a different one who Ben could tell acted as her goddess’s oracle raised a hand to quiet the rest before speaking up.

“That’s all well and good to say but you must see the truth. The system itself has named you as an evil god, are you really not going to make any attempt to change your ways and just wait until your ascension because as things stand, the divine won’t allow it.”

“What, you think they’re going to kill me when I go up there?” He laughed. “Yeah, maybe some’ll try but you know what? It doesn’t matter. For all of the gods who hate me, there’s plenty who are on my side and if they want to kill me for demanding fair treatment then I’ll make sure I give them a hell of a fight. Hell, like you already said, I’m the mad apostle and notice one keyword in there. My god isn’t against me expecting fair payment for my work so why would I listen to any of you, unless you all think the opinions of yours should stand above my own?”

“Listen here-” A high priest started while tempers flared, with Ben accepting none of it.

“No, you listen. The gods have already made their decisions about me, the fact that you’re all here means you're ignoring the larger consensus because of the opinions of your individual deities but first off, that’s not how that works and second, I’m above every one of you.”

“You’re just a man.”

“No, I’m a third tier. A person destined for godhood thanks to the nature of my efforts and talents who isn’t going to listen to some underlings of beings who were born into their power bitch and moan about the fact that I think I should be paid for my work or whatever the system’s decided to name me, so since you clearly failed in your goal, get the hell out of my town.”

“No. Whatever power and authority you have for your skill, it doesn’t matter. You can’t compel us to leave and like it or not, we intend to stay to force you to repent your ways.”

“...And is that true of all of you?”

“It is,” Another said, with more agreement coming from the rest. All of them were there to try and force him to conform to what they viewed as right despite the power he held and none would give up so easily, leaving Ben to sigh.

“Welp, then it looks like things are about to get a hell of a lot more embarrassing for the rest of you,” He said and before anyone could ask so much as why, thick chains of metal materialized around their arms and waists, linking them all together while their mouths were likewise gagged for his convenience to keep them from bothering him any more than they already had as he turned to the other two, Abel watching in naked excitement and seeing far too much of the same from his apprentice.

Yep, there goes me being a good influence.

“Abel, would you do me a favour and walk Delair home while I deal with this?” He asked, ignoring the instant fear in the eyes of those he’d captured and the prayers going off in their heads while the other third tier shook her own.

“What? No way, this looks fun as hell.”

“Yeah, I wanna see what’s coming next,” Delair added, not at all put off from the display, leaving him to rub his head.

“Okay, fine. I guess you both get to come while I deal with this so let's go.”

Pulling the chains with strength beyond even the group's collective power, he brought them all deeper into the shop to deal with them as he would.