Gentle morning light spilled into the hallway.
Hestia hummed to herself as she walked toward the boy's room.
"Bell, wake up. Everyone's getting ready for breakfast."
"Honestly, even Bell sleeps in sometimes."
Hestia spoke with a smile.
Last night, the boy had listed all her flaws, so Hestia was ready to seize this rare chance to strike back properly, showing off a goddess's dignity and generosity.
But what reached Hestia's ears was a beautiful, enchanting woman's voice.
"Orion... your arm is pressing down on my hair... mm... don't touch my leg..."
"Sorry. Airmid is squeezing me."
"Hurry and wake her up. I usually get up very early, so why did I sleep this late today... if Hestia sees this..."
Without caring at all about her image, Hestia pressed her ear right against the door.
Artemis's clear, dignified voice now carried a trace of shyness and timidity, making it sound incredibly gentle.
"Mm..."
Hestia could not help frowning.
She puffed out her cheeks and immediately began pounding on the door.
"Bell, open the door. Bell!"
What answered the goddess was a flurry of panicked voices.
"Hestia?!"
"Just wait a moment, Goddess-sama."
"Orion, stop the blonde elf. She's about to open the door."
"Artemis, Airmid is clinging to my right side, so there's nothing I can do."
"Ugh... why is my nightgown pinned under Orion... don't open the door..."
Before Artemis could finish, Laurier, acting out of pure spite, quickly opened the door.
What met Hestia's eyes was a disheveled Artemis and Airmid clinging tightly to the boy.
Bell, caught between the two of them, calmly offered a morning greeting.
Hestia's eyes flew wide open as she shouted at the top of her lungs,
"Good morning my foot!!!"
"Artemis, what are you doing?!"
Hestia had never imagined she would find this dear friend of hers on the boy's bed.
"Y-you've got the wrong idea..."
Artemis hurriedly tried to explain.
"So then... sleeping in Bell's room, lying on Bell's bed, pressed up against Bell, exactly what part of this is a misunderstanding? Looking at you with your chest and shoulders exposed, you only just put your clothes back on, didn't you?!"
Ignoring Artemis's crimson face, Hestia rattled off her own assumptions.
"Orion was lying on top of my nightgown, and when I pulled at it just now, it accidentally came off... ugh..."
Not only did Artemis have to endure Hestia's judgment, she also had to suffer through her own embarrassment.
The boy's warmth still lingered on her nightgown, and every glance he sent her way tugged at her heart.
"Thanks to Artemis and the others, I slept very comfortably last night."
Bell said it softly.
"Orion, don't say anything."
"Idiot Bell. Don't say another word!"
Artemis and Hestia stopped him at the same time.
"..."
Bell smiled helplessly and cooperatively fell silent.
This was a war that belonged to the goddesses alone, sacred and not to be profaned.
Under the boy's gaze, the bright red faced Artemis launched the first strike.
"How dare you call [my] Orion an idiot, idiot Hestia."
"What did you say?! Artemis is the bigger idiot!"
Hestia refused to back down.
"I don't want to argue with you. Just close the door already. Once I put my nightgown back on, I'll return to my room and change."
Artemis covered her chest with one hand, truly unable to endure this endless flood of embarrassment.
"You spent the whole night flirting with [my] Bell, and you still have the nerve to say that now?!"
Hestia stormed to the bedside, ignoring Bell and Airmid completely and focusing all her firepower on Artemis.
"I already told you, it was just a misunderstanding..."
Artemis's momentum weakened a little.
Gods could see through lies, but that only worked on people of the Lower World.
What happened last night had been full of deliberate accidents and messy circumstances. There was no way to explain it clearly in such a short time.
"What misunderstanding? If you didn't want to sleep here, Bell would never have forced you."
Hestia drove in another blow.
Although Bell was the only male living in the mansion, every girl there knew that Bell Cranel's character was completely trustworthy.
He would never force a girl to do anything. Even with his lovers, he always treated them with gentlemanly respect.
From that angle, it could only mean Artemis had chosen to sleep in the boy's bed herself.
In Hestia's eyes, her best friend, one of the three great virgin goddesses just like her, had committed an outright betrayal.
"Hiss..."
Artemis fell speechless for a moment.
To explain this to Hestia, she would have to touch on [that kind of] subject, and for Artemis, that was still far too difficult.
"All right..."
Artemis took a deep breath, as if gathering something inside herself.
"So you're admitting it after all. I never thought Artemis would turn into some shameless seductress and start stealing my Bell."
Hestia let out a cold snort and puffed out her chest.
She did not even know what exactly she had won, but judging from how things looked, she had the upper hand in this battle between goddesses.
But what Hestia had not expected was that Artemis had not lost her fighting spirit at all.
If anything, under the double pressure of shame and accusation, the moon goddess was gradually losing her reason.
"..."
Artemis took another deep breath.
Because one of the boy's lovers wanted to do something extremely shameful with him, she had cast aside her modesty for the first time in her life and shared a bed with a man in order to stop it.
And yet in Hestia's telling, Artemis had become the most wanton one of all.
The moon goddess simply could not accept that.
She stared directly at Hestia and answered with stern resolve,
"I won't make excuses. Even taking ten thousand steps back, even if I really did do... do something shameful with Orion, that still wouldn't be any of Hestia's business."
"Hah? I'm Bell's Familia Goddess!"
Hestia stood by the bed, full of momentum.
"So what? Orion and I are lovers. We can do whatever we want."
Artemis played her trump card.
"Ugh..."
It was as if Hestia had just been doused with a bucket of cold water. She instantly clenched her fists and lowered her head.
"Idiot..."
"Idiot?"
Artemis waited for her answer.
"Idiot Artemis. I'm not talking to you anymore!!!!"
Hestia spun around and ran out the door.
And so the sacred battle came to an end.
Morning light slipped through the gaps in the curtains and fell across Artemis's beautiful face.
At the far edge of her gaze, there seemed to be a faint glimmer of tears mixed into Hestia's retreating figure.
Artemis tilted her head slightly. Whether because of the quarrel or because the embarrassment still had not faded, her face remained flushed a lovely red.
"Orion... did I go too far?"