"So, you just want to drag me into this?"
Hephaestus pressed a hand to her forehead, asking with a speechless expression.
"I'm just keeping the good stuff within the family~" Hestia said coquettishly, hugging her friend's waist. "Besides, it's not like you don't have any feelings for Levi at all."
Before the effects of 'The Goddesses' Loving Protection' were revealed, Hephaestus might have had the nerve to deny it.
But now, she could only avert her gaze. "You're really willing to do anything for your precious child, aren't you."
Hestia proudly lifted her little head. "As long as Levi can grow up smoothly, a small sacrifice is nothing. Besides, Hephaestus, you seem to have forgotten that our time is infinite."
"...That's true."
Hephaestus nodded.
In all her tens of millions of years, she had never heard of a single god truly perishing.
And if Levi truly grew as Hestia planned, she might have to share a lot of his time while he was in the lower world.
But once he died and entered the cycle of reincarnation, Hephaestus was certain her friend would snatch his soul away before anyone else could.
No!
Would a boy who had awakened an unknown growth skill, and could even obtain items from other worlds through it, really die like the other children of the lower world?
Such a doubt suddenly arose in Hephaestus's heart.
Seeing her contemplative expression, Hestia smiled. "It seems you've realized it too."
Gods are eternal beings. So once their hearts are moved, that feeling will last until the end of time.
However, compared to them.
The time of the children of the lower world is far too short.
That's why love between a mortal and a god often ends in tragedy—even if, after death, the human's soul is taken from the reincarnation system to be kept by their divine lover's side forever.
But if there was a person who could obtain a long life like a god, and even reach a status equal to theirs...
Then, eternal happiness could truly become a reality.
Hestia might look like a big-chested loli, but in Tenkai, she was the goddess who guarded the sacred flame, an important being whose status was second only to great gods like Ouranos, Zeus, and Odin.
In fact, ever since she first saw the effects of the magic 'The Goddesses' Loving Protection' through the Falna, she had already begun mentally selecting potential allies, or rather, supporters, in the lower world.
However, even Hestia hadn't expected that the first person she would approach would be Hephaestus.
It could only be said that Levi, her child, was simply too dazzling.
"So, what is your answer? Yes? Or no?" the twin-tailed goddess asked with a smile.
Hephaestus fell silent for a moment upon hearing this. "Can you let me think about it a little more?"
As she spoke, she unconsciously raised a hand to touch the right side of her face, which was covered by a black eyepatch.
Hestia had seen her friend's true face and realized at once. "Are you worried Levi won't be able to accept it?"
The red-haired, one-eyed goddess averted her gaze, her silence speaking volumes.
Hephaestus descended to the lower world several hundred years before Hestia. During that time, it wasn't as if she hadn't met children who were moved by her and even confessed their feelings.
But among them, not a single one could see her right face without showing fear.
Even the gods, though they weren't afraid, had treated her as an outcast, mocking and toying with her.
Only a very few had never done such a thing.
Hestia was undoubtedly one of them, which was why the two had become best friends.
Another was Aphrodite, who had been Hephaestus's wife in the upper world for a very long time—though it later turned out that getting involved with that woman was the stupidest thing she had ever done. After all, she couldn't even count the number of green hats she'd been made to wear.
At this moment, Hestia suddenly smiled. Her lips parted slightly as she said in a calm tone, "Then, how about you make a bet with me?"
"A bet?" Hephaestus tilted her head, then it dawned on her. "You actually intend to let Levi see my right face?!"
The red-haired goddess's tone was less of a question and more of an accusation.
It carried a hint of anger that even she herself hadn't noticed.
But Hestia, who had detected this subtle emotion, found the smile on her face growing brighter. "In any case, if you truly fall for him later, this is a step you'll have to take eventually, isn't it?"
"Rather than waiting until then only to be met with disgust and disappointment, it's better to stop now, while you can still control your heart."
"Of course," the twin-tailed goddess paused slightly, "from what I know of Levi, he won't care about such a small thing."
"And if things truly develop as I predict, Hephaestus..." she looked at the goddess sitting beside her, "you definitely won't be able to control your heart."
Something similar had happened in Tenkai before.
The goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, upon seeing the right side of Hephaestus's face, had not been repulsed at all. Instead, she thought it was another kind of 'beauty'.
And so, the red-haired goddess who received such a compliment fell hopelessly in love with her and spent the next several tens of thousands of years as a cuckolded man—oh, wait, a cuckolded woman.
Hephaestus was also aware of her own desires. Hearing this, she shot an annoyed glance at the blue ribbon beside her. "You really spare no effort for your child, do you."
"So, are you willing? Or not?" Hestia asked in return.
"I am, of course I am. If I really met a child who wasn't afraid of my appearance, I would absolutely never let him go." As Hephaestus said this, an image of Levi involuntarily flashed through her mind.
But then, she shook her head again. "Regardless of the final outcome, just for the research on otherworldly armaments that Levi can provide me, I could never leave him alone."
"Then it's settled!"
Although it wasn't the answer she most wanted to hear, since Hephaestus had given her assurance, Hestia nodded forcefully.
If she could, she would naturally prefer not to share Levi with other goddesses.
But for one, the fledgling Hestia Familia was clearly not strong enough to protect him.
And for another...
Hestia, still hugging her friend coquettishly, turned her head and gazed westward—to be precise, towards the location of the divine human domain, 'Olympia'.
If her senses weren't mistaken, the sacred flame that Prometheus had secretly sent down to the lower world should be on the verge of extinguishing.
____
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