[Hestia’s Retainer].
That was the name of the special blessing Hestia could give to those close to her, sharing with them the increased experience and skill proficiency gained properties ingrained in her [Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood] and [The Light] titles, granted to her through Goddess Aurena’s blessing. Even though Hestia was not a Goddess or divine being, [Hestia’s Retainer] had “mutated” along with its master, protecting her retainers from demonic influences and also allowing them some ability to hear a god’s word. A consequence of Hestia’s unconscious usurpation of [The Light] from Aurena.
And outside of these effects, there was also another ability that came with this title, although it hadn’t been quite as useful…
… up until now.
Individual [Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor] is facing a life-threatening experience
Individual [Hestia Atsuko Kargrxymor]’s connection with you has been severed from this world. Location cannot be confirmed
It was [Hestia’s Retainer]’s ability to help the retainer locate Hestia wherever she was. The ability to assure themselves of the safety of their mistress.
“H-Hestia?!” Priscilla dropped a ladle to the ground, shocked to see those System messages while working.
Eh?! Lady Hestia, how?! Reajaen’s face grimaced as she was working out a deal with one of the local alchemists, the only outward sign of her sudden panic that Estralia’s alchemist guild’s master allowed herself to show.
“Lady Hestia?!” Svena dropped a plate as that message appeared, her heart suddenly skipping a beat at the shock.
Whenever Hestia entered her [Room], fought her way through a dungeon or was taken into the divine realm, her connection to Peolynca was still clearly established. She still had the influence of the Divine System, meaning there was nothing to worry about. However, those were very different cases from the dimension breach she was just sucked into with Melloxtressa.
Unlike the prior examples, the latter took Hestia outside Peolynca, or to be more specific, in between dimensions. As such, this was a major difference. Hestia and her retainers did not have a connection binding them together. In other words, [Hestia’s Retainer] could not grant access to the skill point System and other blessings it gave until Hestia returned.
And this clearly caused a ruckus not only amongst the people Hestia granted her [Hestia’s Retainer] to, but also those who were her fans. To those less familiar with Hestia’s constant shenanigans or Aurora's terrible encounter luck, such a message would without question unnerve them.
Poor Priscilla was already nervous after watching her parents march off with Firwood’s lord, Marquess Sirius, but now seeing her great-great-aunt in danger made the young girl nearly break out in tears. Reajaen kept her composure, but contemplated Hestia’s disappearance while working. Svena panicked, only to be calmed down by Josine.
Even then, her closest friends and allies weren’t the only ones who were anxious about the missing dragon princess. The people of Elyonda were equally as confused, but not only because of her disappearance, but also because of the aftermath of Melloxtressa's hasty rescue attempt.
“Here! Here is another ice ball!”
“More people here. Bring the Earth mages!”
A mere wing beat of Melloxtressa’s could freeze an entire football stadium if she wanted to, but what would happen if she were to fly without controlling her strength? In Elyonda’s case, two sections of their city’s walls were shattered, the southern area of the city, which led to the port, was turned into a giant pile of earth and debris, with countless people trapped inside of it.
Thankfully, Melloxtressa had the forethought to use her scales and the frozen rain droplets to create a protective ball around anybody in her flight path. No one died, but most did not escape from the trauma of being buried alive. The knights and the earth mages were struggling with the rescue process, and it wasn’t known how many more were trapped.
In addition, the places where Hestia fought Vifi’Yok had turned into a smoldering magma pit, not to mention a giant hole leading to the underground was there. This was close to the merchant district, so thankfully, most of the inhabitants were attending the musical at the arena. On the other hand, the area Melloxtressa flew by was the residential area for day laborers and those less fortunate.
Jethro, Alistar, Alberstien, and Anasthasia knew all this damage was caused by Hestia and Melloxtressa after Fargryneill, Rajah, and Larent returned from their raid. Larent was mostly unchanged from his fight against the seventh seat of the Yanderu Eluseuss, but that was because it wasn’t an actual fight. The assassin’s job was to save one of his employer’s soldiers, and that was how Hee’Rlak escaped, arriving just in time to protect his master from Hestia’s devastating [Solar Beam].
[“Master’s connection was lost!”] Rajah yelled after he was questioned by the three pillars of Yeos’s government, causing them to panic, as they couldn’t believe Hestia was defeated.
It was obvious. Not only did they lose a Champion of Aurena, they also lost the SS rank Dragon Empress in the process. Jethro, Alberstien, and Anasthasia wanted to deny this report, only for Fargryneill to confirm.
“The dirt hill was frozen, right? Silver powder, a silver dragon’s most iconic draconic ability. If Hestia were in danger, her mother would have rushed over to her without question. Dragon mothers are overprotective to the extreme. If something had happened to Hestia and she was still around, she would be roaring at this very moment.”
“Helicopter mother,” as Hestia liked to call dragon mothers. While Melloxtressa had suppressed her urge to coddle Hestia like Cernust or Fargryneill's mothers did with them, the sixth dragon empress would still not allow her only child to die while she was around. City, armies, or even dimensional breaches; nothing would be able to stop her from reaching her daughter in her time of need.
And understanding this made the Yeosians lose hope in the upcoming battle. Jethro and Alistar had designed strategies to fight off the siege with Hestia’s participation in mind. They would be facing both land and sea invasions, and were planning to utilize Hestia’s magic to prepare for the battle. However, this plan was throw awry with Hestia's loss, all so as to destroy an underground hideout.
Was taking out an inside threat really worth losing one of their strongest fighters?
“This is my fault. If I hadn’t let that demonkin escape, this would not have happened. Allow me to repay you for this disgrace with my blade, your Grace,” Larent kneeled before Prince Markval, who was panicking from all the information and bad news.
“Wha- But what about Princess Hestia?! Where exactly did she go?!” the young prince shouted after watching his aides and sister looking crestfallen, to the point his mother stood up and tried to calm him down.
She laid her hand on his shoulder. “Markval, please, you don’t—”
“No, Mother!” The young prince slapped her hand off him. “This… This cannot be! We can’t just leave Princess Hestia alone like this! We need to save her. Where is she? She has done so much for Yeos in these past few days, not to mention God Yeostar had vouched for her! Not only because of her valor, but also the way she spoke to him! We need to save her!”
The Yeosians and Larent were stunned by this outburst, finding it strange Markval mentioned Hestia spoke with God Yeostar. Blessed could gain oracles from all gods they had a spiritual connection to, even those outside their main pantheon. From them, the blessed could gain knowledge in the form of a broken System message, but everyone understood a mortal couldn’t speak with a god, as it was impossible for their soul to endure their words.
Thus, they thought Markval misspoke in the heat of the moment. Even the ruler of Yeos, a descendant of Yeostar who has the right to wear the crown of Yeos, could only hear the words of Yeostar at the level of a devoted blessed. Markval could not hear him as well as Hestia could, but was still able to gain some knowledge. To most Peolyncians, Hestia being able to perfectly communicate with Yeostar or Aurena was the delusion of a mad woman.
Unless you were Rajah and Fargryneill, who were privy to Hestia’s secret.
“But, my Prince, where are we supposed to look?” Duke Alberstien grimaced as he spoke with his ruler, unable to even keep his poker face up in this dire situation. “If we cannot find the dragon princess, we—”
[“Master will come back.”]
However, even if Hestia’s retainer knew she was gone, those closest to her knew exactly what to do in this situation.
[“Master is not dead. Rajah’s title is not gone. She will be back. Trust!”]
Although his time with Hestia hadn’t been too long, Rajah's time spent with her in the Belzac forest had taught him a valuable lesson. His master was reckless and had terrible luck, but even in the face of an A rank monster, she would come out of it with her life. Because she was a survivor.
With all the stories she had told him of her adventures after they went their separate ways, Rajah knew what he needed to do right now was to believe. To him, he needed to show his faith in the person who saved his life.
“I agree with the cat.” Fargryneill came forward with a lax smile. “If you want to look, then the area where those knights reported Hestia was fighting would be the best place to start searching. No way any of the knights would miss seeing her flying out of the city in her dragon form, right? Prince Markval, have you spoken with God Yeostar, yet?”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“N-No, I apologize. There are rules for what I may ask or learn from him. I cannot ask mortal concerns as— Oh!” The prince jerked back, worrying everybody in the room. “I… I just received a System message from God Yeostar. ‘Dimension. Demon. Room.’ was the message.”
‘Dimension. Demon. Room.’? … Oh, ‘Room’ as in like [Room]? A pocket dimension?
Having managed to decipher the message, Fargryneill shared her thoughts on the matter with the others, convincing them of her interpretation. As most god messages were like this, it was imperative for the people to understand how to read them.
“In that case, there's nothing we can do unless we have a [Space-Time] mage, then?” Fargryneill scoured the room, looking at every in attendance to no avail. “Thought so. So, instead of worrying, all we can do is like what the cat said — trust and faith. She is a [Space-Time] mage herself, so she can probably figure something out. Instead, what we should do is make sure she has a place to return to.”
Fargryneill pointed at the dirt hill Melloxtressa created, reminding Jethro and Alistar how they needed Hestia for their plans. Although she wasn’t an earth mage, Fargryneill’s dragon path could simulate what they could do.
Although Melloxtressa had destroyed such a large portion of the city, she had also left a gift behind for the defenders — her silver powder and frozen earth. Even now, the rescue process was going slowly because it was almost impossible for anybody to break through the ice and the scales. However, if they were to excavate them, they could prove to be invaluable defenses.
And who else could attempt to use them but Fargryneill and her dragon paths?
Truly, this wasn’t the time to worry, a fact Hestia’s closest friends knew too well.
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[“Tasianna, we have to leave now!”]
[“Our mistress is in danger! If Her Imperial Majesty couldn’t do anything, then something is wrong! We need to go now!”]
Shay and Beth argued with Hestia’s most earnest maid, hovering over her as they followed along three Caedhulen merchant ships. They were in their wyvern forms, but the many nagas, merfolks, and levianewts did not bat an eye at them. After all, how could they after what their saviors did for them?
“Nonsense!” Tasianna yelled at the two wyverns, causing both to flinch at her confrontation. “Firstly, we just managed to help these ships escape those grimgarian ships. If we go back now, we will have to fight them again! There were enough B rank commanders on their ships to give Lady Hestia and Lady Fargryneill trouble, and you expect us to rush through that again? We just barely made it past them because of the storm and moving during the night!”
Tasianna summarized what had happened last night after they found the Caedhulen ships, helping them evade the detection of multiple warships by using their ice to create a large haze. Going back to Elyonda with the fastest route would bring them back into the area of detection of the grimgarians.
“Secondly, this is Lady Hestia’s order! We are to bring these Caedhulens to the port.” Tasianna raised two fingers for her arguments, before ending it with her third. “Lastly, trust in our mistress!”
Nobody else right now could feel as torn as Tasianna did. As a servant, she had witnessed the death of Princess Schuri, her first mistress. Her chest burned with the desire to fly back, unable to forgive herself if something terrible were to happen to her current mistress right now.
Hestia and her friends in Aurora gave Tasianna a new life after what had happened in the past, and a chance to grab the revenge she dearly wanted. However, through their time together, Tasianna had learned much about humans, allowing her to understand the good and the bad. Instead of demonizing them all because of one portion of black sheep, she instead learned to judge each person as their own individual, as not only humans could perform tragedies in her eyes.
She could sympathize with the wyvern siblings, even applaud their loyalty to Hestia. She wanted to be there for her mistress, now that her connection with her was severed for some unknown reason. However…
“I feel… for some reason, I don’t feel that worried. I don’t feel like something terrible is happening, right now,” Tasianna told the wyverns, confusing them at Tasianna’s lack of urgency. “Yes, it is bad the connection was severed and we cannot pinpoint her, but… our Princess is strong. Don’t you think so? At this very moment, I believe in her to prevail. I believe the best decision we can do now is to proceed with the duty she gave us, and to bring back reinforcements.”
“Tasianna!” Interrupting their discussion, a levianewt with a captain hat ran over to them on the deck. “Hahaha, our swimmers made it back! We’re about seven bells away from Annencia! Oh boy, the fight there is pretty serious!”
It was Adhi, the levianewt captain Aurora had met in Estralia, and also one of the main contractors for this trip, despite not owning a single ship amongst this crew. Thankful for being saved like the rest of the Caedhulens, Adhi made sure to report any intel he had, which included their scouts. Unlike human sailors, Caedhulen sailors were all aquatic, allowing their fastest swimmers to scout ahead without a vessel.
Tasianna nodded and asked him to specify it further. “Damn huge amounts of warships and sea serpents! Must be a tamer in the attacking force. However, what scared the swimmers the most wasn’t the enemy and the sea serpents outracing them, but a damn silver-scaled dragonewt dragoon! She was sinking ships with a human, all while silver spears materialized around her!”
Yorshka! Right, she was fighting on behalf of King Drangleic. Then, the human must be Farron. But, spears? As in, materializing from thin air? Maybe she finally made a custom spell, or were they made from her scales?
Happy to hear this news, she turned back to the wyverns. “The best way for us to help Her Highness is to bring the necessary reinforcement for us to push back the invaders. In this case, we need to bring our allies and even one of her family members into the mix. So, instead of worrying, let us do what we can for Princess Hestia!”
[“Understood, Tasianna!”] Beth cheered on for Tasianna’s speech, all while Shay contemplated if this truly was the best decision. However, one thing the more cautious snow wyvern could accept was how Tasianna’s trust and faith in their mistress were unwavering, something he couldn’t help but envy.
I am still too inflexible… I need to stop thinking like a wyvern, but as ‘Shayatierus, royal guard of Dragon Empress Melloxtressa!’ I need to watch and learn from Tasianna more.
A small portion of his heart just opened up, willing to abandon his taciturn attitude towards anything outside of fighting and service.
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But Tasianna wasn’t the only one to think the same.
“Please, Goddess Aurena! Please, protect them all!” Priscilla prayed inside the kitchen before slapping her cheeks, tensing herself up to return to her work, knowing the bistro needed her to serve the many people outside. She couldn’t do much more than that, but at the very least, she knew she could trust her father, mother, and great-great-aunt to prevail.
Tsk, as if! That girl faced down a Warbringer and didn’t flinch. Even provoking them with a bluff. As if she would die and disappear, right now. A good merchant knows when to put her coin into a basket, Reajaen thought, sweeping away any worry she had until news of Hestia’s death arrived.
“What?!” And for Svena and Josine, their concerns were dissipated when two familiar faces appeared and entered the subspace. “A-Are you sure about this, Lady Ellaine? Master Grimnir?”
“Gahahahaha, of course! This is our team leader you are talking about!” Grimnir, looking filthy with all the dirt, soot, and dried blood on him, bellowed a laugh while scratching his still-growing beard. “Aye, that girl isn’t somebody you can put down so easily. Not with how completely absurd her profile looks. Healing, dragon abilities, and magic casting at the tier of an archmage candidate, you can’t beat her down. Gahahaha!”
“Besides, there are things we need to do on our side.”
A woman covered from head to toe in almost form-fitting armor with seams of mana flowing on it. She took a step forward, before her two spell rings shone brightly and caused the armor to morph armor pieces into a pair of wings, a tail, and two horns.
“We have a blacksmithing contest to win to restore master’s honor! In the process, access to his cousin’s and his workshop. Whatever Hestia and Tasianna bring back from their side, I’m sure they will need some people to turn all of that into weapons and equipment.”
“Gahahaha, right, you are! Honor restored, get an audience with the king, and get some more blueprints from Goddess Chihiro’s vault! Gahahaha, I’m gonna make Hestia and Saori some armor they can use in their real form! Right, Ellaine?”
He stared up and down at his apprentice, admiring their newest work in preparation for the blacksmithing contest against his clan. Although a prototype, it was a creation made with the knowledge and ingenuity of his second apprentice, Daichi. This was a piece of armor made to morph with the body of the user — the Heavy Enhancing Shapeless manaTech Incursion Armor.
Or short, H.E.S.T.I.A. E. 0.9
… Certainly a first for Daichi and his terrible naming habits.
However, despite the terrible name, this new armor did exactly what its acronym said it would. Ellaine poured some mana through the faceplate in her armor, opening it up to reveal she had demonized with Klea’Hatma’s power.
Made in the design of her old armor, Ellaine’s newest equipment could morph with her current form as long as it was configured through artificer work beforehand. In other words, Ellaine could transform into her demon form whenever she wanted while hiding her demonic appearance from everybody with the armor. Although, it wouldn’t block out the demonic aura.
““Lady Ellaine?!”” Svena and Josine closed their mouths, unnerved to see their mistress becoming a demon.
“Don’t worry you two. I’m alright. I’m getting more used to Klea’s powers, so entering and maintaining this form is getting easier and easier, and with lower demonic blood concentrations too.”
“It’s still experimental and only our ninth attempt, but we got it working for now. Still no runes or enhancements, but for now, it should do. Gahahaha!” Grimnir proudly laughed. “But, it’s not done yet. Not even close! One day, I will make armor the lass, Saori, and Tasianna can wear in their original forms! Ha, my pride as their blacksmith is on the line… so those three better make it back to us alive!”
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Trust and faith in their leader were strong, and nobody knew this better than Aurora’s vice-captain. The one who had been with Hestia the longest.
“You heard it, Segawa?” In the depth of a tunnel, a young girl in white robes spoke after retrieving her white-black flowing mace from the skull of an orc knight. She turned around to a wolfkin woman, moving through numerous grimgarian corpses in an armor or her shadow.
“Sure, I did, Asaka-san,” the black-haired woman replied, staring into the darkness with her red glowing eyes.
“Tsk, since when are we on a first-name basis? Come on, just call me Hanazawa, or this’ll get awkward for me!”
“Then call me ‘Saori,’ already. Just because we dislike each other’s personality, doesn’t mean we can't be casual with each other.”
“Oh shut it. You know I hate your guts and how you like to control things for your sake… So why the hell aren’t you panicking since Hestia’s connection to us is gone?”
The wolfkin turned around to her former student, showing her a gentle smile as she replied, “Because Hestia still has to go with me around the world for her tour. She won’t die until our dreams come true, and I sure haven’t explored Peolynca enough to be satisfied.”
Saori then turned around, whistling into the darkness. The noise echoed through the tunnel, reaching its depths before, finally, somebody responded. Four giant garms appeared before her, all staring down at her with their black eyes, while three green virigress jumped out from her shadow. At the same time, a black slime was moving through the cave, eating up the corpses to clean things up.
Lastly, quiet footsteps could be heard, drawing Saori’s attention to them. With red-blood eyes and the appearance of a semi-zombie garm, the creature approached Saori and rustled her head against the wolfkin.
“Hello, mom. How is your new body?”
[“I still need more time. The mana slime Goddess Ilsaphone created for me is doing its work, but I still need some time to fully integrate myself into my body.”]
This was Saori’s garm mother, reborn into her old body. Once buried by Hestia after her death, Saori was the one to dig her out, allowing her mother’s onnikai body to possess her corpse. Using Ilsaphone’s blessing and wish to create her new race, she allowed the garm matriarch to repossess it.
And to think I was so aloof when it came to her when I first met Hestia. Well, what could you do? Just have to make it up for now.
“Come, everybody. We should start causing some trouble for these grimgarians and their Ogre King. They dared invade my forest while I was training, now they will pay for attacking Artorias and my party members!”
“““Gruuuuuuuuuuh!”””
“Grrrrrouuuuuh!”
“Mreeeeow!”
Everybody howled, roaring, and meowed in response to Saori’s demands, only to be followed by Asaka’s deep sigh.
“Those boys will honestly regret going with that bloodsucker,” Asaka complained, reminding herself how both Tatsuya and Kyouya went with Ilsaphone for a trip.
“True, after all, this won’t be a friendly visit into grimgarian territory. We will cause so much trouble they will have to retrieve their forces from Artorias.” She then stared at her shadow pack, smiling as she thought of the hunt. “Time to get all of you enough levels to evolve!”
Hope you’ll enjoy my gift, Hestia. Give those demonkins hell!