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Meanwhile, At The Banquet Of The Gods

Hestia was busy raiding the food tables under the din of conversing gods. She had been invited to the Banquet of the Gods hosted by the Ganesha familia. This party helped building up expectations for the upcoming monster festival among the many gods residing in Orario.

Despite the grandiose name that was given to this banquet, it was simply a party held by Ganesha and Hestia had gotten an invitation to it. Normally, this wouldn't have happened since her Familia was still new and that she was rather poor, but Ganesha was a kind god. The fact she got an invitation to attend this party was proof of that.

She still had to question his tastes though. The elephant-like building she had entered was modeled after the god and the entrance was right between the legs. That had been awkward, and she did her best to ignore it.

Her arms flew around from dish to dish as she gathered as much food as she could onto her plate, and she had absolutely no intentions of slowing down. It was a buffet, after all and she was going to take full advantage of Ganesha's everlasting generosity.

"Oh my, the loli boobs is here." Hestia froze when she overheard that. In the back, she could hear other gods and goddesses talking amongst one another.

"What, she's still alive?"

"Speaking of which, I saw her working part-time at a food stand."

"I heard she was patted by a guest on the head."

"As expected of the loli goddess."

"...mmhnngg…mm!" Stuffing a piece of meat into her mouth, Hestia tried to ignore the chatter behind her. They were obviously trying to tease her, and retaliating would end up in even more embarrassment.

"Just what do you think you are doing?" A very tired voice hit her from the side.

Turning around, Hestia came face to face with a familiar red-headed goddess. Her hair reached to her waist and her crimson eye matched perfectly with her sharp face. The red dress that complimented her slender figure made Hestia envious for it was the type she wouldn't be able to afford unless things got better for her Familia.

As for why she said eye instead of eyes is because of the eye-catching eyepatch that covered the forge goddess' right eye.

She was the goddess of one of the most powerful and influential familias in Orario. Her familia was home to many specialists capable of creating weapons so strong that even a hundred others wouldn't measure up. In other words, she had created a brand known all around the world with her name.

"It's been a while, Hestia. I'm glad to see you're still doing well."

Hestia gulped down the remaining food in her mouth. "Hephaestus!" She immediately cheered up at the sight of her friend. "I'd knew you'd be here! So, I made the right choice coming here!"

"You wanted to see me, huh? Well, I'm only going to say it once: I won't lend you a single valis."

"H-How rude of you!" Hestia exclaimed. "Do I look like who would ask a friend that?"

"You've been leeching off of me ever since you came to Orario, so..."

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"T-That's a thing of the past! I'm no longer willing to swallow my friend's purse!"

"But it seems like you've swallowed a lot of free food there." Hephaestus pointed out with a teasing smile, making Hestia flinch.

"No, this is...I'm just keeping these as leftovers!" Hestia answered quickly, trying to save face.

"That's a great way to put it. I'm so happy you've changed that my tears of happiness won't stop. Hephaestus said sarcastically.

"Gyuuuu…"

Hephaestus scoffed through her nose at Hestia's pained face.

Hestia looked around her. While many gods were partying, there seemed to be lacking some Greek gods. Being a Greek god herself, she had spent myriads with her fellow Greeks, so she would've liked to see them, except for Loki. Still, did something happen making them all so busy that they couldn't attend the banquet?

"Anyways Hephaestus… Why are there so few gods attending the feast? Do you know where Loki is? And Freya too… Surely they wouldn't miss a party like that." Hestia said.

"Freya, I don't know. Some child must've caught her attention or something like that; you know how she is. As for Loki, well…"

Hephaestus glanced around at all the gods in the place before back at Hestia.

"I'm pretty sure many of the gods in the room wants to kill her after the incident from a few days ago…"

"What do you mean?" Hestia asked, not having heard about an incident made by the Loki familia and you could be certain that she would be one of the first ones to mock the flat-chested goddess for it if a big incident were to happen from her actions.

"Well, when her children came back from an expedition into the deep floors, they scared a minotaur party along with…" Hephaestus stopped for a few moments before continuing. "… Something even more terrible… Over thirty adventurers lost their lives to an unknown monster and some of them were huge losses to their familias. I was lucky that none of my children were harmed, but – Hey, Hestia, what are you giggling about?"

Hestia was indeed cackling evilly at the mention of her rival's big mistake. "That trickster got what she deserved."

Hephaestus placed a hand on her forehead and shook her head. "You shouldn't be like that Hestia. What if one of the victims happened to be your child? Bell was it?"

It took a few seconds for the scenario to play in Hestia's head, and she immediately became furious. "I. Would. Never. Forgive. Her. If. That. Happened."

"As expected of a goddess of the heart. You really do love your children." Hephaestus smiled with a hand placed on her cheek.

Thinking about Bell, a light snapped on in Hestia's brain. Her shoulders almost jumped when she realized that she had almost forgotten something very important.

"Hephaestus… Could you stick around for a while? Have a drink or two?"

"Um… Yeah… Well…"

Hephaestus's expression changed when she saw Hestia start fidgeting. An action she had seen many times before.

Ignoring the blast of suspicion bursting out from Hephaestus's flaming red hair, Hestia made up her mind. She cleared her throat.

"I… Um, have a favor to ask of you."

"…"

Hephaestus's left eye narrowed, sharp as a dagger.

The carefree Hephaestus was gone in an instant. She was engulfed in a more serious aura.

"You ask now after what you said minutes ago? Think back, what did you say?"

"Umm… What was it again?"

"Does 'I don't need to eat from someone else's plate' ring a bell?"

Hestia smiled and nodded, not arguing the point. She had said that, after all. While she wanted to take back her earlier statement, she clenched her jaw and waited out the awkward silence. She had to give Bell a better weapon. One that would surpass that silver-haired girl's amazing lance.

While Miach told her that this teenage girl may be more interested in other females than males, it wasn't said as a fact and this did not mean that Bell could not fall in love with her since she was quite pretty, arguably even prettier than a goddess like Hestia. This kind of beauty amongst mortals was extremely rare. Not only that, but Bell also developed a new skill since he began adventuring with that girl.

That skill was [Liaris Freese], and its description was troubling…

It is said to increase the speed of Bell's growth as long as his feelings for the person he loved lasted. The strength of the effects is also related to the strength of Bell's feelings.

The fact that the skill appeared at the exact time when this little girl began adventuring with Bell in the dungeon raised a huge flag for Hestia.

Hestia couldn't let this girl have her Bell. Why did she approve of their training sessions together early this morning? Her Bell needed someone that would love him back, like Hestia the goddess of heart and that is why she had to do everything in her power to convince Hephaestus.

"… Okay, I'll play your game. What. Is. Your. Request?" Hephaestus said as she stared down at the goddess, her red hair on the verge of bursting into flames.

Hestia took a deep breath and said in the strongest voice she could muster. "I would like you to make a weapon for Bell!"

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