Chapter 70: Loki: Did That Little Runt Hestia Really Get Lucky? (Subscribe Request) (Patreon)

Time can smooth over a great many things.

That included the wholly unexpected novelty a god might occasionally glimpse in an Adventurer—an apt way to describe Loki's Mood right now.

Of course.

Though more than that, she simply had no idea what to do about it!

Back in the heavens, she and Hestia used to bicker every time their paths crossed, but at the end of the day, they were still friends.

Besides, this shorty had come to Orario pretty late to begin with.

Judging by how protectively Hestia acted over him—the Familia member she'd finally managed to recruit—Loki could tell she valued him enormously.

So there was no way she could go and do something like that, right?

The strongest faction in all of Orario, poaching the sole hope of some bottom-tier, nobody Familia—if word ever got out, she'd never be able to show her face again.

"Hmm..."

"A Hero Cloud-Raising Plan... as if some random rookie Adventurer she just happened to run into could become a future hero!"

The red-haired goddess narrowed her eyes out of habit.

Sprawled lazily across the couch, Loki swirled the wine glass in her hand. She could hardly admit that she'd been the one to invite Rozz over that night.

And to think, he still hadn't come looking for her since.

How embarrassing!

Her plan was simple enough: a rookie Adventurer definitely needed special training, and outstanding Adventurers were the one thing her Familia never lacked.

In exchange—

her Familia's children would help Rozz with Dungeon exploration, and in return, she'd get to openly study whatever was strange about him.

Hero Cloud-Raising Plan.

Loki was curious too.

Why did this translucent, game-interface-like screen never show up on any other Adventurer—only on Rozz?

"How dull..."

Just then—

the door to the Familia's parlor quietly swung open. The red-haired goddess looked up, her gaze landing on Ais, who had just made it safely back to the Home.

Loki's eyes narrowed into a grin that looked, oddly enough, like some middle-aged uncle's.

She drew out her words, feigning concern for her Familia member. "Ais, did you finish the request Airmid gave you without any trouble?"

"Yeah."

The golden-haired girl nodded lightly.

But compared to her usual self, Ais was clearly distracted, her mind kept drifting back to the sight of Rozz fighting.

Magic Power Release.

On her way back to the Familia Home,

she'd been mulling the question over the whole way: her own Ariel was a Wind-attribute magic, but whatever Rozz used had no attribute at all.

It was as if—

in its purest form, he simply wrapped mental energy over the surface of his body, boosting every physical trait and sharpening his weapon's edge.

The principle itself wasn't hard to grasp.

But when Ais actually tried it, she found it simply didn't work—or more precisely, there was no incantation to even chant.

She couldn't channel her mental energy at all...

"Hmm..."

In the end,

the girl could only chalk it up to whatever "magic" Rozz possessed being something unusual, even if it shared certain similarities with her own.

Noticing that her own child had seemed distracted ever since returning to the Familia,

Loki arched an eyebrow and asked, "Ais~ did something happen while you were out on today's request?"

"You seem a little... different from before, now that you're back?"

Faced with her goddess's concern,

Ais lifted her head, expressionless. After turning it over in her mind, she decided not to hide it. "It happened on my way back to Orario."

"I ran into something... I still can't quite make sense of."

"Oh?"

For once, Loki didn't act the way she usually did.

After all, when it came to something serious, treating it with sincerity was a form of respect—even toward her own Familia member.

"Go on, tell me."

The girl tilted her head.

She explained calmly. "On the 12th floor, I ran into an Adventurer... the magic he used was similar to my Ariel."

"He was probably around Lv. 1."

"When he faced a rare-species... baby dragon, he killed it cleanly, without any hesitation. That's why it's been bothering me a little."

Hmm...

For something in Orario to actually catch Ais's attention—let alone an Adventurer—was rare enough on its own.

In the face of Ais's confusion,

Loki, ever the goddess, waved a hand dismissively. "There are so many Adventurers in Orario. Some of them are bound to have similar magic effects."

"Isn't that pretty normal?"

Having said that,

the red-haired goddess paused for a moment, recalling that the miracle of Ais breaking through to Lv. 2 had itself come from a rare-species baby dragon.

To deny him

would be no different from denying the very path this girl in front of her had once walked.

"Still..."

Loki wasn't stingy with her praise. "Beating a rare-species baby dragon with only Lv. 1 strength—at the very least, this Adventurer..."

"has earned himself a ticket onto Orario's stage."

Having settled the matter, she looked at Ais with more than a little curiosity. "Ais, do you know which Familia he belongs to?"

"I don't know."

Back then, she'd only asked for his name.

The golden-haired girl shook her head lightly, but answered anyway. "But I do know his name. I think he said it was Rozz."

"Rozz..."

Why did that name sound so familiar...

Loki leaned back into the soft couch, and then it hit her—the Familia member Hestia had recruited a while back... his name was Rozz too.

She sat bolt upright in an instant.

Even the expression on her face turned complicated as she pressed further. "This Rozz you're talking about—he doesn't happen to have black hair, does he?"

"That's right."

With her answer confirmed,

the red-haired goddess's expression stiffened. If she remembered correctly, it had only been a little over ten days since Rozz became an Adventurer.

A total rookie, still in his earliest stage—

and now he'd already pushed his exploration all the way to the 12th floor, and even managed to kill a rare-species baby dragon on top of it...!

Was that even right?

Loki suddenly didn't feel like talking. In her mind, she recalled the translucent screen hovering above Rozz's head, the one labeled Hero Cloud-Raising Plan.

Could it be...

that the Adventurer this shorty had stumbled onto by sheer dumb luck actually had the makings of a hero?!

At the thought,

the androgynous red-haired goddess reached for her wine glass out of habit. The wine that had tasted so rich and full a moment ago now tasted only sour.

Loki suddenly burst out laughing. "It's gotta be this bottle—been open too long.

"What decent Adventurer could develop strength worthy of a fine Lv. 2 vintage in just ten-odd days!"

"No wonder it tastes sour..."

At dawn,

Rozz opened his eyes, staring dazedly at the ceiling. Maybe it was because his stat growth rate, once unlocked, had never once slowed back down.

And—

his stats already surpassed the vast majority of Adventurers in Orario.

He'd slept soundly the night before. Unlike the two nights before that, the nightmarish Pure White Room hadn't shown up again.

That was a good thing.

He needed to keep his mental state in good shape—only then could he stay in good shape while exploring the Dungeon.

Yet for some reason, Rozz felt a strange heaviness pressing on his chest, as if something weighty were pinning him down... he could barely breathe.

The lights in the room weren't on.

It was hard to make anything out in the dim light. He reached out a hand and felt something incredibly smooth and soft.

So soft...

"Something's off."

Rozz frowned slightly and gave it a gentle squeeze to figure out what it was. One thing was certain—this definitely wasn't part of his own body.

Still without an answer,

he decisively switched on the Magic Stones lamp beside him. In the light, he found a goddess sleeping soundly on his chest—he had no idea when she'd gotten there.

The front of the girl's dress had come slightly undone.

Especially—combined with that texture no modern manufactured product could ever hope to match—the answer became clear in that instant.

"There's no way..."

The good news:

Hestia was sleeping deeply enough that the commotion he'd just caused hadn't managed to wake her fully.

In fact,

he could even see a satisfied smile on her sleeping face.

It definitely hadn't been intentional—who could've guessed a beautiful girl would be lying on his chest when he woke up?

Thinking back on what he'd just done to Hestia—the one who'd always looked after him with a warmth that felt almost maternal—

Rozz felt a pang of embarrassment. At least, he told himself, he hadn't been caught.

He gently carried the goddess back to her bedroom, tucked her under the blanket, and headed to the Home's bathroom to wash up.

But—

the instant Rozz left the bedroom, Hestia's eyes slowly opened. She pressed her face into the pillow, trying to hide her flushed cheeks.

She could clearly feel her own heart racing.

This had been real, genuine physical intimacy—after all, ever since coming home from dinner the night before, Hestia had been making all sorts of preparations.

Today's first kiss was absolutely going to be hers!

She'd waited patiently until Rozz finally fell asleep.

Having gotten exactly what she wanted, she'd suddenly found herself unable to walk away—and unable to resist, she'd simply curled up and slept right there beside him.

"If that's the case..."

"this should raise my Affection, right? Then his feelings for me could gradually shift from seeing me as a goddess... to seeing me as a lover?"

Hestia.jpg

Even now, Hestia could still feel the warmth of Rozz's hands. Her pale legs clenched instinctively around her pillow.

Copped a feel.

Mm.

Truthfully, the goddess didn't mind this kind of thing at all—as long as he stopped treating her like some kind of mother figure.

Everything else, she could accept!

And at that very moment, the translucent screen of the Hero Cloud-Raising Plan delivered fresh news of an Affection boost to Hestia.

Upon waking this morning, Rozz unintentionally overstepped with the goddess he revered, and deep down he felt a strong pang of guilt.

He suddenly realized his goddess wasn't just a Petite mom, but a rather beautiful woman besides—his Affection for you has increased.

Affection +3.

"!"

"Why does he have to feel guilty about it—couldn't he have gone a little further?"

"I don't mind at all!!"

Hestia frowned slightly, unable to stop herself from muttering under her breath. Still, going by everything the Hero Cloud-Raising Plan was telling her,

at least there was good news in it.

Completely changing his impression of her as a "family mom" figure would obviously take time. But him realizing she was a woman... that meant something.

Rozz definitely liked women!

A sudden pang of regret hit her—if only, back when she'd first recruited him into her Familia, she'd just told him outright that she wanted to be his partner.

By now,

leaving the whole matter of children aside, she'd have every right to wring him dry every single day...

"Hmph, hmph."

Hestia's gaze drifted to the window, where Orario was just beginning to lighten with dawn. She decisively decided to stay in bed a little longer. "Guess I'll get a bit more sleep in."

"Come to think of it..."

"I've noticed Hephaestus has been a lot gentler lately. Even when I slack off at work or show up late, she hasn't said a word about it."

"And the key thing is—I keep catching her smiling!!"

Given how serious her old friend usually was about work, she never would've let Hestia get away with slacking off like this before.

Getting scolded should've been a given, but now things were strangely different.

Even though Hestia had never actually dated anyone and was still very much a maiden, thanks to all those books she'd devoured as a shut-in back in the heavens,

she considered herself something of a romance expert, and quickly arrived at a conclusion. "Don't tell me Hephaestus is in love too?"

"No way~"

"Could someone with her personality really find a partner she's actually into? Still, that'd be a good thing—if it actually worked out in the end."

"Hehe~"

Heh heh heh.

Hestia pictured her wedding with Rozz, her eyes brimming with anticipation. "Maybe I could even hold a double wedding with my best friend!"

—

After leaving the Familia Home,

Rozz met up with Lili without a hitch. Breakfast, as usual, was one of the Supporter girl's oversized sandwiches, piled high with extra meat and toppings.

Unlike the day before,

he didn't head straight for Central Park where Babel stood. Instead, he looked at Lili. "Let's swing by Hephaestus's weapon shop first."

"Why?"

"When we killed the baby dragon yesterday, didn't it drop a bunch of loot?"

Noticing the confusion in Lili's eyes, Rozz explained honestly. "Lady Hestia suggested we hold off on selling it.

"We could go ask Senior Tsubaki to custom-make two sets of armor with it."

"That way—whenever we run into danger exploring the Dungeon from now on, we'll at least have some way to protect ourselves."

"Sounds good."

Especially hearing Rozz say "we"—

Lili answered without a moment's hesitation. He might be dense as a block of wood, but he did care about her—given enough time,

she'd definitely be able to warm this guy up!

The Supporter girl looked up, adding with a light hum. "Custom armor's probably pretty pricey... if you're short, I've got some saved up."

"There's no way—"

"I'd let you cover the whole cost. If we're going by Adventurer registration dates, technically I'm your senior!"

"Fine."

Walking along Adventurer Street,

Rozz had a clear destination in mind—Hephaestus's weapon shop. He'd assumed he'd have to wait for it to open properly.

But—

the moment he reached the shop's door, he looked up and spotted a familiar, tall, mature-looking goddess not far ahead.

She really was stunning.

Hephaestus.jpg

The red-haired goddess's white shirt traced the magnificent curves of her flawless figure, paired with fitted black trousers.

A complete opposite type from his own Hestia.

[Striking and dashing]

Rozz looked at the goddess standing before him, a hint of confusion in her eyes, and spoke up first. "Good morning, Lady Hephaestus."

"Morning."

Hephaestus nodded lightly. She'd come early precisely because she'd seen the Exploration Log, though her expression stayed calm as she asked a question she already knew the answer to.

"Rozz, you're here so early—is there something you need from me?"

"That's right."

Rozz nodded earnestly, feeling a bit awkward even as he came clean. "There's something I'd like to ask a favor of you for, Lady Hephaestus."

"Could I ask Senior Tsubaki to craft two sets of armor for me using the baby dragon's materials?"

"No problem."

Faced with an Affection-boosting opportunity Rozz had all but delivered to her doorstep, Hephaestus figured she had absolutely no reason to refuse.

Sure enough—

the early bird really does get the worm!!

[Author's Note: PS: Don't use voice-to-text in crowded public places. The author keeps feeling like the patients around him are looking at him like he's some kind of pervert—especially when he's writing that kind of intense, repressed content.]