Heart of Oak was on North Main Street.
From there, after about half an hour's walk, Valka's Red House, the workshop and headquarters of the Hephaestus Familia, finally came into view.
The place was filled year-round with the thunder of hammering metal, and even the air carried the mixed smell of coal and iron.
The moment they stepped into the main hall, a wave of heat mixed with the scorched scent of metal rushed toward them. It was the unmistakable smell of a forging Familia.
But compared to the heat, what hit first was an utterly miserable wail.
"Wuuuugh… Hephaestus~~~~!"
"You can't treat me like this!"
"I'm going to starve to death here!"
The voice was so pitiful it sounded like a cuckoo crying blood, enough to make anyone who heard it feel sorry for her.
Anyone who didn't know better might have thought some horrifying case of abuse had taken place here.
In the corner of the hall, beside one of the reception tables, a blue-and-white lump of something unknown was curled up there.
It was a person.
Or more accurately, a god.
That iconic twin-tail hairstyle.
And that blue ribbon running beneath her chest, forcefully outlining a shocking curve.
Who else could it be but Hestia?
Only at this moment, Hestia was using her face like a neet that had lost all hope, rolling it across the tabletop while making a series of pathetic noises.
Her whole body was wrapped in an aura of utter despair.
"Grrrr…"
"Wuuu… I'm so hungry…"
"It's been hours since I last ate. Hephaestus, that heartless woman…"
Hestia lifted her head.
Her originally lively little round face had already scrunched up into a bitter gourd.
The cause of all this was actually very simple.
Not long ago, she had finally slept her fill, then crawled out of the guest room in a daze with her cowlick sticking up everywhere, planning to look for food.
Normally, even if she had perfectly missed lunchtime at this hour, it didn't matter.
As long as she wandered casually into the workshop, blinked those watery eyes a couple of times, and called out in that sickeningly sweet voice, "Hephaestus~,"
the sharp-tongued but soft-hearted Hephaestus would sigh helplessly and have someone bring her a steaming hot meal while scolding her for being impossible.
That trick had never failed.
That was the source of Hestia's confidence.
But today,
the script had changed.
When Hestia wandered over to Hephaestus's personal workshop like she always did, what greeted her was not Hephaestus's helpless, doting sigh.
Instead, hanging coldly from the doorknob was a wooden sign that read:
[In seclusion. Do not disturb. Not even Hestia is allowed in!]
And the door had been locked from the inside.
No matter how much Hestia knocked, acted cute, or even threw a tantrum and rolled on the floor, there was not the slightest response from inside.
It was as if the best friend who usually treated her the most kindly had suddenly vanished from the world.
"This is too much!"
Hestia slammed a fist on the table in grief and anger.
"And even Tsubaki isn't here! There isn't a single person in this entire Familia willing to care about me!"
"I'm a noble goddess, you know!"
"Grrrr…"
Another loud growl came from her stomach.
Then, just at that moment, footsteps sounded from the entrance.
Hestia's blue eyes, which had already lost all their sparkle, slowly turned toward the door.
The moment she recognized who had come in,
"Haimer!!!"
A miserable shriek instantly rang through the entire hall.
Hestia sprang off the chair with all four limbs and charged over.
"Wuuu… you're finally back!"
"If you'd come any later, Hephaestus would've starved me to death here!"
Without caring in the slightest whether there were outsiders present, Hestia threw herself at Haimer's waist. Her still slightly babyish little face rubbed against him over and over, tears and snot coming out on command as though she had rehearsed it.
"That heartless Hephaestus!"
"She actually had them lock the workshop doors! She won't see anyone!"
"And that would've been bad enough!"
"But the worst part is this!"
Hestia looked up, her watery blue eyes full of accusation.
"When I woke up, the workshop cafeteria was already past meal time!"
"And they actually told me there were no leftovers! Not even a single bun!"
"Wuuu… I want fried potato balls… I want red bean cream crepes…"
"But I don't even have a single valis left on me…"
Standing off to the side in full armor, Shakti's stern expression cracked ever so slightly.
She had long heard stories about this goddess.
But hearing about her and seeing her in person were clearly two very different things.
…
There was really nothing to be done about it.
After all, this girl had been mooching off Hephaestus here for a long time. Laziness and freeloading had already been carved into her bones.
With a headache coming on, Haimer reached out, planted a hand against the face still rubbing against his waist, and tried to push her off.
"Enough, enough. Your snot's about to get on me."
"This outfit is new. If you dirty it, I'm selling you off to pay the debt."
"Haimer!"
Unfortunately, that tactic did not work at all.
Not only did Hestia refuse to let go, she even took advantage and pushed further.
Her short little legs kicked twice in the air, and she somehow climbed even higher like a koala, latching onto his waist with all her strength.
"Lend me some money! Please!"
"Just a little! Even enough for one fried potato ball would do!"
"When I have a Familia in the future, I'll pay you back double! No, ten times! No, twenty times!"
…
At that point, Haimer completely gave up on trying to reason with her.
Trying to talk dignity with a starving poor goddess was no different from playing the lute to a cow.
"Haa…"
In the end, he sighed helplessly, reached a hand behind him, and grabbed the back collar of Hestia's slightly old but still fairly clean white dress with perfect accuracy.
Then he put some strength into his arm.
"Up you go."
Like picking up a stray cat in the middle of a tantrum, he lifted her bodily off himself and held her suspended in midair.
"Let go of me! Put me down already!"
With both feet off the ground, gravity might have been late, but it was never absent.
Hestia flailed uselessly in midair, all four limbs paddling while her two iconic black twin-tails whipped around wildly.
"Stop yelling. You're going to make me deaf."
Haimer lifted Hestia in front of him so she had to look him in the eye.
"Hephaestus is in seclusion for something important."
"You, on the other hand, as her so-called best friend, do nothing but sleep here, eat here, and freeload here. And you still have the nerve to complain that she didn't make you food?"
"And besides…"
"It's a good thing you're awake now. Saves me the trouble of looking for you."
"There's something I need to tell you."
"W-what is it?"
The moment she heard that, Hestia stopped flailing.
She sniffled, and those blue eyes instantly filled with suspicion as she stared at Haimer.
"As long as you're not here to borrow money from me!"
"I'm a real pauper right now! I'm poorer than a clean face!"
"If you dare set your sights on my secret stash, I'll bite you to death!"
…
What was this?
This was what people meant by judging a gentleman's heart with a petty person's mind.
Did he really look like the kind of person who would rob a beggar?
Haimer couldn't help rolling his eyes hard.
…
"Relax. I'm not borrowing money from you, and I'm not asking you for food either."
"What I wanted to tell you is this."
"I'm planning to move out of that old two-story house I was living in."
With that, Haimer let go and set the little menace back down on the floor.
"Since I'm moving out, it'd be a waste to just leave that place empty."
"So if one day Hephaestus throws you out on the street…"
"you can go live there."
"It's a little run-down, sure, but at least it'll keep out the wind and rain."
"Well? Pretty decent of me, right?"
After saying that, Haimer had assumed that, by normal logic, even if this girl didn't feel grateful, she would at least be a little touched.
After all, in Orario, where every inch of land was expensive, giving away the right to live in a house for free, even if it was just a shabby two-story little building, and even if it was only the right to live there, would still count as timely help in a snowstorm for a poor goddess who currently had no money at all and couldn't even afford a fried potato ball.
It was like handing half a steamed bun to someone on the verge of starving.
No matter what, that ought to earn at least one "may good people live in peace," right?
But instead, the moment Hestia heard it, she shook her head like a rattling drum, looking completely unimpressed.
"Oh, come on, Haimer~"
"Are you kidding me?"
Hestia planted both hands on her waist, her face brimming with inexplicable confidence.
"Hephaestus and I are sisters!"
"We go back billions of years!"
"How could she possibly throw me out?"
"Sure, she locked the door today…"
"but that's only because she's busy with work. I understand that."
"Once she's done being busy…"
"All I have to do is act spoiled, be cute, and squeeze out two tears, and she'll definitely soften up~"
"Hmph, hmph~"
As she said that, Hestia even smugly lifted her chin and wagged a finger in front of Haimer.
"When that time comes, won't she be completely in my hands~"
"When that time comes, forget living here, even the red bean cream crepes I want, she'll obediently have someone bring them right to me!"
"So really…"
"You can keep that broken house of yours and let it collect dust~ This goddess doesn't want it."
…
What kind of confidence was this? What kind of hopeless case was this?
Looking at how this girl could talk about freeloading with such perfect confidence and no shame whatsoever, Haimer could only feel the corners of his mouth twitch. He was completely speechless now and had already started looking forward to the day Hephaestus actually threw her out.
Because when that day came, this girl would definitely come running to him unable to take it, and then he could laugh at her properly.
…
"Oh, right."
"You said you're moving out of that two-story house. Have you already figured out where you're moving to?"
Remembering the important part, Hestia tilted her head and asked.
"Yeah. It's already settled, and it's not far."
"Where is it?"
"In that high-end residential area at the intersection of North Main Street and West Main Street."
"The three-story stone house with a laurel tree."
"…Huh?"
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Read Advanced Chapters
p(a)treon.com/Shalltearr
Drop some POWERSTONES to push the story forward!