"W-who... are you?" Artemis stammered.
At the same time, she was annoyed at herself. How could she lose her composure just because of a man's appearance!?
[Should I tell Artemis that I am her future husband? I came all the way from Orario just to prevent her from being eaten by Antares.]
[I can't let the tragedy in the original work happen in this life.]
!?
Hearing Eiji's inner voice, Artemis realized that the man who saved her was him!
It was Eiji.
She certainly remembered that he'd saved a woman from a monster's mouth before.
At that time, she doubted that it was her.
Artemis was moved, she did not expect Eiji to come all the way from Orario just to save her.
Still, why did he refer to himself as her future husband!? The blush on the Goddess of the Hunt's cheeks grew thicker.
"My name is Eiji Seiya, a god from Orario, who happened to be passing nearby." Eiji smiled faintly, then turned to fully face Antares. The creature certainly did not remain silent while they were talking, it tried to attack. However, its large body was unable to move.
That was natural.
Right now, just as he blocked the energy shot earlier—he was using his Force Field as the dragon emperor to isolate Antares. That made it difficult for its body to move.
Artemis could see this and wore an expression of amazement. Even so, her lips twitched when she heard Eiji say he happened to be around.
He was lying.
He obviously came here just to save her. Artemis didn't know why, but Eiji's lie made her feel sweet in her heart.
"Oh, I am Artemis, a Goddess. I'll call you Eiji. How long can you withstand Antares' movements? Let me help, I can call my familia members to—"
She pretended not to know that she could hear his inner voice. At least for now. Artemis thought about helping but before she could finish her sentence, Eiji interrupted her.
"No need. Just leave the rest to me, Artemis."
As if understanding what Eiji was saying.
Antares felt humiliated, it roared angrily and tried to pull together the energy at the tip of its tail. However, Eiji did not give a chance. "Sit down."
Suddenly, the atmosphere in the entire forest turned extremely heavy. Enormous spiritual pressure or Reiatsu exploded from Eiji's body in a controlled manner. Artemis and her familia members who were within his range were not affected. The air seemed to freeze, and gravity seemed to multiply a thousand times.
The Shinigami in the Bleach series would definitely be horrified, because the oppression of Eiji's Reiatsu surpassed the captains in each division and could only be compared to the Soul King.
*CRACK!!!*
The ground beneath Antares' feet shattered instantly. The giant monster that had been so proud was now trembling violently. Its crystal legs snapped as they couldn't bear the weight of the pressure pressing down on its back.
With a heartbreaking boom, Antares—the monster feared in the original work and predicted to be able to destroy the world after absorbing the Goddess Artemis—was forced to bend its body and kiss the ground in front of Eiji.
It could not even lift its head. Artemis was surprised, even though she did not feel the pressure from the gravity around her, she could feel how strong the oppression from the energy released by Eiji was.
Even if she released her seal as a Goddess, she felt she would not be able to stand up.
Eiji called himself a god, but in the lower world... he could use his power to that extent.
"You're called Antares, right? You're just a big scorpion. Many people overestimate your power."
"!?" Antares.
Who's overestimating my power?
Whoever it is, they're clearly not as strong as you!
It's not me who's weak, it's you who's too strong.
Eiji raised his index finger, pointing it right at the helpless Antares. A point of emerald green light began to glow at his fingertip, it grew larger and made a deafening buzzing sound.
"Cero."
A giant beam of green light shot out, engulfing Antares' entire body in an instant. There was no messy explosion, only complete destruction at the molecular level. Its hard shell simply vaporized into dust in the face of that absolute power, leaving a huge hole in the ruins, and even the distant mountains.
"....." Silence engulfed the forest.
Artemis was speechless when she saw the scene before her.
Eiji retracted his hand and the suffocating Reiatsu disappeared instantly, leaving only the calm night breeze. He turned to look at Artemis who was still surprised, and extended his hand to her.
"Why do you keep sitting on the ground? Is your leg hurt?"
Hearing his casual question, Artemis complained in her heart.
How would she stand or react after witnessing his power?
Give her time to process what had happened!
However, seeing his hand, she hesitated and shyly grabbed it. She stood up, but did not immediately let go of his hand as the other party continued to hold it.
"My leg is fine. I'm just surprised that even though you're a god, you can use your divine power in the underworld."
Eiji humbly said, "That's not divine power, and if you're talking about divine rules... they don't apply to a god from another universe like me."
"A god from another universe? I see."
Artemis widened her eyes, Eiji's identity as a god was more special than she expected. This was the first time she knew of the existence of a god from another universe, but she was a goddess who had lived for thousands of years... she could accept that information easily.
It made her admire Eiji even more, he was also very mysterious.
When a woman finds out about this. They couldn't help but be curious like a cat.
A goddess like Artemis was no exception.
"Thank you for saving me, Eiji. Not only did you save my life, my family members and many people were also saved because you killed Antares."
"I, Artemis, owe you a favor."
While saying that with a gentle smile, Artemis seemed to forget that it was her first physical contact with the opposite sex.
After all, she wouldn't be called a Virgin Goddess who had never fallen in love if she was even used to having contact with men.
Eiji rubbed the back of her hand gently, Artemis gasped and her face turned red again. She finally realized that she had come into physical contact with a male!
However, she did not feel disgusted or feel any discomfort. She only felt embarrassed.
Should she retract her hand?
No, what if it made Eiji think she was rude?
Artemis started to panic, she didn't know what to do in that situation.
"You're welcome, I'm glad to see you're doing well." Eiji said as if he was really relieved he managed to save her.
He prevented her from being eaten by Antares.
And made it unnecessary for her to sacrifice herself.
His love operation was underway.
Artemis suddenly remembered that the man in front of her seemed to be very worried about her from the things she had said in her heart before.
He seemed to... really like her.
Her heartbeat was beating fast. A strange feeling filled her heart, but she did not resent it.
'Just... What should I do to this man!? Wait, I remember from his inner voice, he seems to have relationships with many women.'
'Some of them are Demeter, Hestia, and Hephaestus. What exactly is their relationship with him?'
Suddenly, Artemis felt uncomfortable and a little bitter.
She hadn't realized that she was being jealous. Her gaze at Eiji also contained a hint of irritation as if to say 'Are you a playboy?'
"....." Eiji.
Artemis' level had increased significantly, but why was she looking at him with annoyance?
[I bet she thinks you're a playboy, host.]
Miss System commented.
Eiji didn't believe it right away.
Before he tried to read Artemis' mind, the voices of several women were heard and made Artemis immediately pull her hand back in panic.
"Artemis-sama! Are you alright!?"
"We saw a very scary green energy shot!"
"Where's Antares? Artemis-sama, you..."
Among the members of the Artemis Familia, Lante did not finish her words and was stunned to see her goddess standing opposite a man.
That man was very handsome!
However, what surprised her even more was how close he and her goddess were. As far as Lante knew, Artemis hated men.
But, what were they looking at?
Not only did the goddess not look disgusted or uncomfortable, she actually panicked and had a suspicious blush on her cheeks.
That reaction was like... she felt guilty and embarrassed about being caught swallowing her own saliva.
"Artemis-sama, is this handsome man your secret lover?"
"Really!?" Rethusa and the other members were dumbfounded, there was a fire of gossip in each of their eyes.
"N-Nonsense! Lante, don't slander your own goddess. This man... he is a god named Eiji Seiya. He is the one who killed Antares and saved me."
Artemis scrutinized Lante with embarrassment and slight anger. She hurriedly introduced Eiji to the women in her familia.
"And Eiji, these are my familia members..."
She also introduced each of them to the man who would become her future husband—Bah! Bah! What was I thinking!?
Artemis felt herself going crazy because she really thought Eiji was her future husband.
It was his fault, he was saying things like that in his heart.
"It's nice to meet you all. It's a pity I didn't bring my family members with me. Otherwise, I would have introduced them to you as well."
Eiji looked at the women of the Artemis Familia very kindly. Each of them was not particularly beautiful, but not ugly either. Especially Rethusa and Lante, they were the prettiest among the other members.
And they were all women.
None of them were male.
[Artemis, I'm liking you more and more.]
What are you thinking!?
Artemis glared at Eiji with embarrassment in her beautiful eyes. She wondered if he really didn't know she could hear his inner voice?
If so, he must be teasing her on purpose.
"Wow! Eiji-sama, you actually killed Antares by yourself? Amazing!"
"Thank you for saving our goddess!"
"I heard that gods and goddesses are forbidden to use their true power in the underworld. But that doesn't seem to be the case. So the green energy shot earlier was Eiji-sama's, right?"
Ignoring the exclamations of the other women, Eiji answered Rethusa's question. "Yes, it was mine."
Rethusa looked at him in awe. "The gods are powerful."
Artemis was silent.
She wanted to argue because if she used her Arcanum, the strongest arrow in heaven, she doubted she could create the same damage as Eiji's previous attack.
And compared to the other gods, she felt Eiji was much stronger than them. Her intuition as the Goddess of the Hunt told her that.
Eiji obviously hadn't used his full power yet.
But forget it, such things did not need to be known to mortals.
Soon, Lante invited Eiji to follow them to their residence. Artemis wanted to say something about that, but she certainly couldn't just let Eiji go.
Orario and the place they were at were far away.
She thought Eiji needed a place to rest that night. Artemis didn't know that to come to his location, the man was actually just using teleportation magic.
Of course, Eiji didn't mention it and agreed to come to Artemis Familia's residence. Actually, the so-called residence was not a familia house. It was more correct to say that the Artemis Familia never settled down somewhere.
They often went on adventures so in order to rest, they would usually pitch a tent or build a simple house out of wood.
"Eiji-sama, are you hungry?"
"We can prepare grilled fish for you!"
"If you want to take a bath, there's a river nearby!"
When Lante and the other members of the Artemis Familia were serving Eiji, Artemis sat on the other side and watched with a twitch in her eyes.
There was nothing wrong with that, but why weren't any of those women asking her the same thing?
She was still their goddess, right?
Artemis frowned slightly. Still, when her gaze met Eiji's, she again felt embarrassed and turned her head the other way.
Eiji was amused and said, "I'm a little hungry, but how about I cook for you all?"
"Ehh!? Eiji-sama wants to cook!?"
"A god wouldn't mind doing that?"
"It's an honor for us!"
"Artemis-sama, you have good taste in choosing a man."
"Artemis-sama, Eiji-sama will make a good husband."
"Artemis-sama, we support you."
"Artemis-sama..."
"Stop!! W-Why me? What does Eiji being able to cook have to do with me!?" Artemis felt misunderstood by her familia members.
She folded her hands under her breasts and glanced back at them irritably, especially Lante. That woman seemed to be trying to do something.
It was true. Lante actually wanted to match her goddess with Eiji. Not only her, Rethusa and the other members also agreed because...
If their goddess fell in love with a man, she would definitely retract the rule that her familia members could not fall in love. Honestly, despite respecting their goddess, they could not continue to be single like her with their limited lifespan.
Not only that, it would be good if their goddess experienced how beautiful it was to fall in love. And in their opinion, a god like Eiji was perfect for her.
Eiji knew what the women were thinking and gave a thumbs up in his heart. Nice wingman operation, ladies.
"Ahem! Show me where the cooking utensils are."
Eiji, aren't you planning on contradicting what my familia members say?
You seem to be enjoying it.
Eiji ignored Artemis' gaze, he followed Lante to the other side. Immediately, under everyone's gaze, he showed off his god-level cooking skills. He also did not hesitate to take out the food ingredients he kept in his inventory.
Not just Artemis, all the members of his family were amazed just by seeing how Eiji chopped and mixed each ingredient.
The aroma of his cooking did not help either, it made them gulp and feel very hungry. Before long, Eiji served several large dishes on a large wooden table.
It was already like a banquet.
The dishes also seemed to glow with a golden light, making everyone who saw them mesmerized.
"This... This...! How can these foods shine?!" Artemis asked with saliva almost dripping from her mouth.
Her serious image was shattered.
Eiji naturally sat beside her before saying, "Only because of my level of cooking skills. Put that aside and have a taste."
Hearing this, Artemis did not hesitate anymore. She tasted one of the dishes and just like the other women, she experienced a foodgasm.
"Hmmm~!"
Beautiful moans came out of their mouths, their faces were flushed and their expressions were abnormal.
They, especially Artemis, did not care about their image and ate voraciously.
"So delicious! Is this the food of the gods?!
"This is the best food I've ever eaten!"
"What I've eaten before this tastes like garbage! Eiji-sama, please date Artemis-sama. That way, we can taste your cooking often!"
"Agreed! I agree with Lante!"
"Me too!"
"Cough! Cough! You guys..." Artemis choked, she coughed while glaring at Lante and the rest of her familia.
Her blush thicker than those women, she did not dare to look at the man sitting beside her.
What was he thinking right now?
Why couldn't she hear his inner voice anymore?
"Eat slowly and don't keep bullying your goddess. If you want to taste my cooking more often, you just need to visit my familia house in Orario."
Eiji casually said.
He deliberately ignored the topic of his and Artemis' relationship.
Artemis was not satisfied, but her familia members were delighted and started persuading their goddess to visit Orario in the near future.
Artemis was helpless, these women getting so excited just because of the food Eiji made.
However, she did admit that it was delicious. She nodded, agreeing to visit Orario and adding the excuse that they had to replenish their supplies.
This was what Eiji wanted.
As long as he could keep Artemis around for a while, wooing her would become easier.
Or perhaps, he could even conquer her tonight?
He remembered she owed him a favor.
[Host, is it just my feelings or should any woman who owes you a favor give up their body to you?]
'It's just your feelings, but if there's love between the two parties, why not?'
Miss System rolled her eyes.
This man was good at twisting the logic behind his every action.
He was... shameless and very perverted!