Currently in the meeting room of the Twilight Manor sits two gods looking across the table staring at each other. One is the patron goddess that lives in this very manor with her beautiful high elf vice-captain behind her instead of the Pallum captain who is currently busy with paperwork. And the other a cunning and scheming messenger god with his lovely and capable captain behind him.
"So, Hermes, what schemes are you cooking up this time that you need to involve me?" Loki initiated the conversation with a cautious grin while leaning on the couch wondering why he requested to meet her in the first place.
"Well Loki, I'm here with a business proposal," Hermes said with a confident smile on his face.
"Business proposal?" Loki raises a brow wondering what kind of money-making scheme would need to involve her and her familia.
"Well as you know, high-classed adventurers are celebrities with many fans, and your familia members have many popular and famous girls, with your lovely vice-captain alone having a dedicated fan club that has every elf in Orario as a member." Hermes pauses for a brief moment and sees Loki starts to smile at the mention of her familia's popularity, and Riveria herself blushes a little while remaining silent as she is reminded of the existence of her embarrassing fan club.
"Yeah, I know, My Riveria is just amazing isn't she? You have no idea the amount of fan mail we received and people wanting to join just because of her." The red-haired goddess happily boasts and couldn't help but smile at the praise despite knowing how the male god is really just buttering her up for whatever his plan is.
"Loki, telling others about something so embarrassing." Riveria spoked up blushing hard while having a stern expression, " Anyway, Hermes-sama what does that have to do with it?" she said getting things back on topic.
"Yeah, so what do you want from me?" she got serious for a moment wanting him to get to the point already
"I'll get straight to it, after seeing how Dian make bank from selling Armid's bath water gave me an idea, I want to work with you to make merchandise of your Familia members, if you give me permission I will make and sell the merchandise and you will get to sit back, relax and collect the royalties." Hermes declared with his arms wide open and straight at the trickster goddess.
"Merchandise?" Riveria said in surprise, wondering what he plans to sell.
"Oh? That sounds like a good idea, but there is no way I'm selling any of my precious girls' bath water, also why do I need your help when I can just do it myself." Loki questions, wondering why she would work with him when she'll be able to keep all of the profits instead of needing to share with him if she did this herself.
"I knew you would say something like that so I have two reasons why, first is that you are an exploration-type Familia so if you tried to make the products yourselves it would be detrimental and pull away the focus of your familia's expedition." He points out and sees Loki with a hand under her chin, processing the truth of his words, "And second I brought some prototype samples to show you the quality of work that my familia can produce especially with the help of my talented Asfi!" Hermes said excitedly as he signaled the blue-haired woman to bring out the items she made.
"Here it is, please take a look at it, Loki-sama." Asfi said as she placed the sample product on the table in front of them
"Oh wow!" Loki's eyes opened wide in awe seeing what he had presented on the table.
"T-these are-!" Riveria spoke just as surprised as Loki.
On the tables are extremely well-made and detailed figures of Riveria and small ornaments such as keychains, shirts, and drinking mug with Riveria's face printed on them, and there's even a cover for body pillows with the image of Riveria's full body.
"And of course, this is not all, I also have plans to sell the products of your lovely sword princess and other members too." Hermes said with pride, confident of winning Loki over to agree with his deal
"Look! Riveria, this is really well-made, it's like I'm holding a tiny version of you," Loki said as she excitedly picked up the figure and plays with it examining every detail of it, while handling it she noticed a button on the back which she pressed causing the clothes to cast off changing the Riveria figure into a swimsuit. "It can even strip!? This will definitely sell like hotcake with how many fans you have!" The red-haired goddess said seemingly convinced of taking on Hermes' proposal from seeing the products.
"No!" The high elf shouted, "I don't want people to own a tiny statue of me in their home, especially not one of me capable of stripping! It's far too embarrassing! And that's not even mentioning the possibility of seeing people wearing something with my face on it." she said with the red hue on her face spreading to her long pointy ear, " And Andromeda how could you make something like this!" she screams facing toward Asfi.
"I'm sorry, but this is my lord's order that I can't go against, not to mention our familia are in desperate need of funds" Asfi said apologetically as she looks to the side avoiding eye contact with Loki's vice-captain.
"Well, even if Loki agrees to you mass producing and selling it, I won't! No matter how much money it will make our familia!" The High elf said sternly resolute in her decision and gets ready to chant a spell to destroy it all if she has to.
"What!? Don't be like that, just imagine what we can do with all the Vails that we can earn selling this, and could even boost our Familia's popularity even more. Not to mention how much booze- I mean just how we can use the money to fund the expedition as well!" Loki told Riveria trying to convince her to go along with it.
"No means no!" Riveria simply shouted at her.
"I expected as much, so I have prepared a gift for you to sweeten the deal, that will change your mind." Hermes said as he handed her a well-wrapped object to the high elf who looked skeptical at the 'gift'
"What could this possibly be that you think will make me agre-" Riveria paused her words upon opening the wrapping and saw it to be a very special book "T-this is the limited edition-! How did you even know- I mean-" The high elf is stunned with what to say as her eyes focus on the cover of the book.
"I am Hermes after all, I have my ways of finding out what people want and let me tell you it was not easy getting my hands on that book. But, if you agree to give me the blessing to sell these products with your likeness, then it is yours along with many future volumes of books that will fit perfectly in your private collection." the messenger god tipped his hat and said with a smirk on his face giving her an offer that she can't resist.
"Riveria, what is it?" Loki asks curiously, wondering what exactly Hermes offered her to have her make such a reaction.
"It's none of your business!" Riveria said, hugging the book close to her chest with a deep blush on her face, "Fine I'll agree to your terms." She declared with the temptation of his gift too much for her to resist, "Loki, I'll let you handle the rest of the deal so I'll be going first. Also since you mentioned that you plan to make products of the other Loki familia members then you'll have to convince them to agree with you yourself, since I won't be helping." the vice-captain told Loki before exiting the meeting room and ran off to her room, unable to wait to read her new book.
"That book must be something if it got my Riviera-chan so excited. Gonna need to 'borrow' it from her collections when I have the chance." Loki said with a cheeky grins as she stare at the door that Riveria just left through before turning her head back to face Hermes, "I'm on board with your plans, but Riveria has a point, even if you managed to bribe her there are still the others that will be hard to convince even by me, their own goddess."
Hermes smirked in response and held several pieces of paper, "Way ahead of you, Before the meeting even started I already convinced some of your other girls to give me their written consent."
The redheaded goddess examined the signature on the contracts " Damn these are genuine. You really are a schemer through and through to have things so prepared even before our meeting." She stares at the blonde god cautiously as she is reminded of just how sometimes he feels more like a trickster god than her, the actual tricker goddess. "What did you offer them anyway?" She asked just wondering how her precious children fell into his trap to go along with it.
The messenger god leaned back on the couch and said "Well, it's nothing much, for that sword princess of yours I just promised her a year's supply of free Jagamarukun."
Hearing it Loki did a facepalm, "Seriously? to think my precious Ais would agree for just one year supply of it. I should have tried offering her that in exchange for her to let me grope her boobs more!" Loki whines for a moment before letting the conversation continue once more.
"And as for Lefiya, let's just say in addition to a few bribes, I promised that I'll help keep a certain secret of hers." Hermes said keeping things vague about it.
"Oh? So you blackmailed her? Did you threaten her about telling everyone about her being a pervert that walks about the streets naked at night that she thinks no one knows about?" Loki asked with a serious tone with her red eyes wide open staring at the male god, causing the tension to be so thick that it caused Asfi who is watching their conversation so far to break a sweat.
"What? No, no, no. Calm down a little, I didn't blackmail her in any way shape or form. It's a different secret that she is actually fine with me exposing, that I even have to convince her it's a bad idea to tell anyone about. Plus her being a closet pervert isn't that big of a secret that I can use when most of the Loki familia already knows about it." Hermes said with his raised up defensively while trying to calm her down. "And if you don't believe me you can ask Asfi about it.
Loki in response turns her head towards the blue hair woman, to which she quickly replies the goddess,"Everything that Hermes-sama said is true, in fact I would say the Thousand Elf herself seems a little too excited to the prospect of her secret being exposed that we have to convince her otherwise."
Loki, seeing how there are no lies in Asfi words, relaxed a little, "If Lefiya is fine with it then I guess it's fine, but if it's not about her being a closet pervert then what secret are you talking about?" she asked with her arms folded, curious about what Lefiya's new embarrassing secret is.
"Well, sorry to say but as I promised her I can't tell you. Plus I'm sure you'll find out yourself soon enough." Hermes said keeping his mouth knowing it's best to hide the relationships about the elf in question with a certain rabbit for now, and much more funny it will be once Loki finds it out herself.
"Ehh? Can't you tell me now, I mean I could ask her myself but that would ruin the fun of pretending to not know about her delusional perverted hobbies." Loki whines now feeling even more curious about what Lefiya's new secret is.
"Come on now let's just leave it at that, not to mention that we should go back on topic. Now let's discuss how much the split of the potential profits should be." Hermes changed the conversation back about the new business.
And so by the end of day after much arguing about how much royalties the Loki familia should receive they come to an agreement with a handshake and a signed contract that allows Hermes and his familia to start mass producing the merchandise and introduce it to the market. Where it will not just bring in hefty profits but also greatly raise the popularity of the Loki familia even more, to the point that other familia in Orario will be planning to sell merchandise of their own to compete