"Hello Artemis and co, been a hot minute hasn't it?" I said with a grin.
"Alex, you've been well it would seem." Artemis said motioning to the vast lush property and large manor.
"Yeah, been a busy little madman. Please come in, lets catch up." I said cheerfully as I fully opened the door to let them in.
"Hey whats up with that?" Ariande asked curiously pointing at the door to my workshop.
"Oh that's my workshop door, eats fingers if you aren't an authorized user. Totally pick proof, my own personal design." I said proudly.
"It eats fingers!?" she exclaimed in shock and horror.
"Yep! Not a fan of people trying to steal my shit you see. The only way you are getting in my workshop is overwhelming force or if I let you in, any other attempt will result in a lost digit or flat out failure." I said grinning.
"I knew you were some big shot blacksmith now but I didn't think you needed that much protection, most others don't." Rethusa said with a frown.
"First i'm not some big shot blacksmith but THE big shot blacksmith, second only to Hephaestus herself. Or so she says but i'm not sure if that's just flattery at this point or not. As for protection I myself don't need it so much as my shit does. I usually spend most of my time in the dungeon after all so my stuff is mostly unguarded. This keeps it all safe even while I'm gone." I said with a shrug.
"Why not just have one of your familia members work as a guard like most other familias do?" Ariande asked confused.
"Ah well you see there's only like seven others beside myself and they also spend most of their time in the dungeon. The only one who regularly stays behind is Haruhime and she's about as tough as a wet napkin." I said honestly.
"I see. Where is Hestia?" Artemis asked looking around.
"Probably waking up now that her body pillow is missing." I said with a chuckle.
"You sleep with Hestia!?"she said in shock and disbelief.
I shook my head "Get your mind out of the gutter, she uses all of us as body pillows with me getting her more often than not. There's nothing lewd going on." I said chidingly.
"Bet you don't mind huh?" Ariande said with a wink.
I rolled my eyes "It's a bit annoying after I wake up but I swear she's a fucking ninja because before that point you don't even realize she's there. I have no idea how she even does it either since my senses are constantly on high alert." I said with a helpless sigh.
"Sounds like the opposite of our goddess. Once she gets asleep she's practically a rock." One of the other amazons said with a chuckle while Artemis pouted slightly at the comment.
"Eh? Artemis? When did you get here?" A voice said sleepily from the doorway to the rooms.
"Not long ago, I apologize for waking you Hestia." Artemis said sincerely.
"It's fine, when'd you get back to Orario?" Hestia asked curiously.
"Last night, we are merely here to turn in our spoils and restock on some supplies before heading back out. We decided to visit you before we left. Are the rumors true? Is Alex really as strong as Ottar?" Artemis asked after explaining.
"Depends on how you look at it. If we were trying to kill each other I'd easily crush him but in terms of pure force he's stronger than me, for now." I said with a shrug.
"That makes no sense! Either you are stronger or he is!" Ariande said with an annoyed look.
"No it makes perfect sense." Rethusa said earning a confused look from Ariande and several others who agreed with her.
"Right so you are under a bit of a misunderstanding. Ottar and I aren't the same kind of adventurer. He's a bruiser, all force and no magic for the most part. I on the otherhand am a rather unique kind of mage, while I can play the role of bruiser with my stats alone I rely on my magic in combat more than anything. As far as pure physical force and durability goes he wins, hands down. But if I went all out with my magic to kill him he'd die simply because he has no defense against it. Some might think that makes me stronger but it's simply not a fair comparison as we just aren't the same sort of build. If you went about it fairly we'd be roughly equal more or less." I explained seriously.
"That's already more than impressive. Ottar is one of only two level sevens in the entire world after all." Artemis said seriously.
"Believe me I'm aware. Honestly the hassle of dealing with the fame is not worth the trouble. Did you know no less than twenty fucking familias have tried to egg us on to clashing with the Loki and Freya familias? The audacity! We are practically allies with the Freya familia for certain reasons I won't go over and even the Loki familia is on good terms with us, why the fuck would we ruin all that? My reputation is fucking golden already and I can make enough money with a single commission to flat out equal an entire dozen small familias annual incomes. Literally no reason to clash with the current status quo even if nobody else understands why." I said exasperated.
I wasn't kidding as after my reveal that I could handle Ottar everyone seemed to be waiting for us to butt heads with the Loki and Freya familias and when we made no such movements tried to hurry us to that outcome. It was frankly annoying that very few seemed to understand we DIDN"T want to become another hegemon familia. The biggest reason for this is simply because that position comes with a VERY heavy burden.-
You need to either be overwhelmingly powerful at all times to fend off challengers or needed a damn good reputation as a peacekeeping force. I couldn't be bothered to take on such responsibilities, too annoying. Additionally we had freedom that neither Freya or Loki had as the fact was neither could leave Orario at will. By claiming hegemony for themselves they bound themselves to the city through responsibilities. If a need arose to protect Orario spontaneously they had no choice but to do so. On the same level if a disaster class event happened again elsewhere they couldn't just leave Orario defenseless to go deal with it.
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