"Mmm..."
Early in the morning, Hestia slowly woke from a sweet dream. With the lingering thought of how soft and cozy the bed was, she lazily opened her eyes. But from the look on her face, she clearly had no intention of getting up.
The problem was, the other person in the room had had enough.
"Hey! Do you even know what time it is?"
Hephaestus glanced at Hestia with an irritated look. This idiot had only just become a Familia Head not long ago, and yet she was already slipping back into her lazy habits. It made Hephaestus seriously question whether partnering with her had been a huge mistake.
"C'mon, don't be like that..."
Hestia pouted, her cheeks puffed up as she buried her face deep into the blanket, looking like she had no plans of leaving the bed. And of course, she had plenty of excuses.
"Those few days I spent outside made me realize how tough life really is. The beds were rock-hard, the blankets smelled awful, and the basement of that church had this nasty moldy odor."
To anyone listening, she sounded like some rich kid who'd gotten a taste of real life at the bottom and came away full of complaints. Naturally, Hephaestus could hear the not-so-subtle undertone of wanting to avoid effort altogether—and that ticked her off.
Without hesitation, she reached into the blanket, grabbed Hestia's face, and yanked her up despite her cries of "Ow!"
"What are you whining about? And who do you think made things this way? It's you, you lazy freeloader! You just sit around in my place all day, never once stepping outside to look for a few capable or promising Familia members."
"You think all gods are as idle as you? If Freya and Loki acted like you, they'd never be the Twin Kings of Orario!"
Hephaestus had no patience for Hestia's attitude.
Sure, all gods wanted to slack off sometimes—even Hephaestus wasn't immune to that. But laziness was only acceptable when you were actually putting in effort on a regular basis. Taking an occasional break was one thing. But Hestia? She never did anything. Just lazed around all day. That wasn't laziness—that was outright idleness.
Back when the gods descended from Tenkai to Genkai, nearly all of them were doing their best—whether by scouting out potential Familia candidates or showcasing their abilities to catch the attention of Genkai's children. That was what every god was striving for.
To Hephaestus, that process was far more exciting than anything back in Tenkai. She genuinely enjoyed it. Which only made her even more disgusted with Hestia's slacker behavior. And to top it off, Hestia's ridiculous stunt of personally inviting adventurers one by one into her Familia? Hephaestus hadn't seen that coming at all.
If it weren't for what happened next—the arrival of a certain very promising recruit—Hephaestus had seriously considered kicking Hestia straight back to Tenkai.
"Mmm..."
Having had her cheek yanked, Hestia knew she had no leg to stand on and didn't argue. After all, everything Hephaestus said was true. But the moment she thought about her adorable Bell, pride swelled up in her chest again.
"If I hadn't been slacking off, I never would've met Bell-kun! So really, slacking off was the right call."
That kind of logic made a vein twitch visibly on Hephaestus's forehead. She genuinely wanted to crack open this idiot's skull and see if it was stuffed with pig brains.
"You've got some nerve saying that! You think you just happened to run into him? Please. You're just a blind cat that got lucky and bumped into a golden mouse that walked right up to your door. Don't go acting like it's thanks to your own skill. If you had even half a brain, the Guild would've already lined up a bunch of new recruits for your Familia."
In Orario, it wasn't gods who struggled to find Familia members—it was adventurers who had trouble finding a Familia to join.
Hephaestus had no doubt: if this idiot Hestia had just gone to the Guild and said the word, they'd easily have arranged some rookie adventurers for her. Sure, it wouldn't have been easy at first, but watching those kids grow and develop—that's the whole reason most gods descended to Genkai in the first place.
But Hestia had somehow managed to mess up what should've been a standard start for any god, and she even seemed to be making it worse.
Sure, meeting Bell had been nothing short of a miracle—but in Hephaestus's eyes, it was just dumb luck.
"Hmph~"
With a smug grin, Hestia lifted her head and puffed out her chest.
"But I have Bell-kun! Isn't having one Bell-kun way better than getting stuck with some weirdos from who-knows-where?"
"You… don't actually think you can just get by without recruiting anyone else, do you?"
Now Hephaestus was genuinely concerned. Bell was great, no doubt about that—but no matter how amazing he was, one adventurer didn't make a full Familia. And from the sound of it, Hestia really had no plans to recruit anyone else.
"Of course I don't."
Hestia nodded without even a second of hesitation. Ever since Bell joined, she'd completely lost interest in expanding the Familia. She did know that once Bell truly grew, the Hestia Familia could potentially rival Freya's or Loki's—but that was in the future. At least until Bell had fully matured, she had no plans to add anyone else.
"My Bell-kun will absolutely surpass Finn from Loki's side and Ottar from Freya's. But that's something for after he grows stronger. Bell-kun already told me he doesn't trust any of the other adventurers in Orario. So unless he gives the okay, I won't be bringing in anyone else."
"You… ahh…"
Hephaestus had every intention of talking her out of this, but when she saw the look in Hestia's eyes—firm and unwavering—she swallowed the words, letting them dissolve into a sigh.
Gods who genuinely loved their Familia weren't rare in Orario. In fact, many gods deeply cherished their children, and more than a few even fell in love with them. But the truth was, most romances between gods and mortals ended in tragedy.
And yet, gods still pursued them. Not because they sought a fixed, unchanging future, but because they yearned for the unpredictable—new encounters, new experiences. Even if it meant flying straight into the flame, many gods embraced it willingly.
It was clear now—Hestia was one of them.
...
(40 Chapters Ahead)
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