"Calm down, Hestia."
Heimdall reached out and patted the head of this bristling Loli God, casually picking up the fallen bag of potato croquettes and blowing off the dust.
"What do you mean'secretly got ahead'?"
"This is called'success after long accumulation'."
"And..."
Heimdall took a bite of the hot potato croquette and pointed at the group of girls behind him with varied expressions.
"Isn't this perfect?"
"Since Hephaestus is treating, it's just a matter of a few more pairs of chopsticks."
"A... a few more pairs of chopsticks?!"
Hestia looked at the room full of people—and the two bears—her corners of the mouth twitching uncontrollably.
"This won't even fit at one table!"
"And..."
"These children..."
"Are they really the Familia you recruited?"
"They don't look like locals of Orario at all..."
"Don't worry about that."
"Let's hurry up and go, didn't you say we're almost late?"
"It wouldn't be good to keep Hephaestus waiting."
Heimdall waved a hand, cutting off Hestia's interrogation.
...
And so,
after a chaotic uproar, this oddly-assembled group finally walked out of the dilapidated shrine.
The twilight in Orario was the busiest time of day.
The streets were brightly lit, magic stone lamps emitting a soft glow.
"Wow... those ears! Are they real?"
Kikakujuo Mary, holding her dictionary, pointed at a passing rabbit-girl, her eyes wide as she couldn't help exclaiming.
"Shh! Don't point, it's rude!"
Though Rin said this, her eyes also kept darting to the rabbit-girl's twitching long ears, her hand constantly resting on her sword hilt as if overly tense.
"Is that a beastman?"
Kirukiru Amou saw a burly, fierce-looking Pigman Adventurer carrying a giant axe pass by.
"Awoo..."
Hanazake Warabi's large Black Bear, named Fierce Person, was completely enticed by the rich aroma wafting from a street-side barbecue stall, losing all reason, drool pooling on the ground, wetting a patch of the pavement.
"Come on! Fierce Person! Don't embarrass us!"
It and the other little bear stubbornly refused to budge, forcing Hanazake Warabi, her face flushed red, to desperately tug on the chains, leaning back almost like in a tug-of-war, barely managing to drag them both away.
Along the way,
the girls acted like country bumpkins just entering the city—no, even more exaggerated than that.
They showed immense curiosity towards every magic stone lamp, every non-human passerby, even the roadside drainage ditches.
That look in their eyes,
was as pure as a child seeing the blue sky for the first time.
Hestia, walking beside Heimdall, watched the girls' uncultured demeanor, and her suspicions only grew stronger.
She nudged Heimdall with her elbow, lowering her voice, her expression full of disdain:
"Heimdall, confess honestly."
"Did you trick these kids who just arrived in Orario?"
"Looking at them, they haven't even seen demi-humans before..."
Hestia crossed her arms, looking as if she had seen through the truth.
Heimdall just shrugged, not refuting.
After all,
in a sense, saying he tricked them here wasn't wrong.
After all, those grand promises about 'vast horizons' and 'the feeling of being alive' were indeed a bit like painting a pie in the sky.
However,
looking at the light shimmering in the eyes of the girls ahead,
the corner of Heimdall's mouth curled up slightly.
Because,
they had taken the bait.
From the perspective of evolution, the human species is itself a collection of contradictions.
Just as humans are not born brave,
the fear of the unknown is the first line of defense etched into our genes for survival.
But,
over the long passage of time,
another, deeper, more primitive instinct can gain the upper hand, suppressing that fear.
That is—curiosity.
Fear of the unknown makes creatures stop within their perceived safe shells, drawing boundaries around themselves.
But curiosity,
it can swiftly pull humans away from the fear of the unknown and make them start greedily seeking all that is unknown.
Precisely because it is an instinct deeper and more ancient than fear, firmly rooted in human genes.
It is a more enduring driving force than hunger.
Because the history of human migration is a history sparked by curiosity.
From the first time Homo sapiens ventured out of the African continent in ancient times, to the later navigators who sailed their ships time and again into the vast oceans.
Behind every adventure in human history, besides the pressure of survival,
wasn't it precisely that primal impulse of 'wanting to see what lies beyond the mountains' and 'wanting to know if there is land across the sea' at work?
It cannot be denied that,
as the saying goes, 'curiosity killed the cat.'
—This spirit of courting death, seemingly etched deep in the human genome,
has led humanity to die repeatedly on the path of recklessness, paying a painful price.
But it is also this very spirit
that allowed humanity to conquer the land, the skies, and the seas, ultimately setting their sights on the stars.
'Don't worry, as long as they have this drive,'
'I believe they will soon amaze the entire city of Orario.'
'We're here.'
As Heimdall's voice fell,
after walking for about twenty minutes,
the group finally came to a halt.
Before their eyes,
in the line of sight ahead,
a magnificent building came into view.
...
The headquarters of the Hephaestus Familia.
The moment they stepped into this area,
a wave of heat, completely different from the outside, washed over them.
It wasn't the temperature of flames, but the passion of steel and forging, radiating from countless furnaces operating day and night.
This was the workshop and stronghold of the largest forging Familia in Orario—the Hephaestus Familia.
A huge signboard was engraved with the pattern of two crossed hammers.
Weapons and armor hung all over the walls, reflecting cold and captivating glimmers of light under the glow of magic stone lamps.
Greatswords, battle axes, spears, rapiers...
Each piece was exquisitely crafted, with streamlined designs and perfect balance; even an amateur could tell at a glance they were extraordinary.
For a group of young women who live and breathe martial arts,
this place was simply paradise.
'Um...'
Rin's footsteps instantly froze.
Her gaze was glued to a tachi displayed in a showcase.
The blade was pitch black throughout, with cloud-pattern-like forging marks on its edge, exuding a heart-palpitating aura of sharpness.
As a swordsman,
seeing a famous blade of this caliber was like an alcoholic spotting aged fine wine—utterly impossible to look away.
However,
when Rin swallowed hard and her gaze drifted down to the price tag beneath the blade.
[Famous Blade · black crow]
[Craftsman: Hephaestus Familia · Senior Blacksmith]
[Price: 3,800,000 currency]
'Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands...'
Rin counted the string of zeros, her face instantly turning pale. In the end, she could only avert her gaze in despair and squeeze out a dry sentence:
'This price is absolutely outrageous!'
Although she wasn't clear on the purchasing power of this world's currency—currency—
just thinking about the dilapidated shrine she had just left,
she immediately felt that a famous blade of this level was far, far beyond her reach.
However,
Heimdall did notice Rin's gaze and couldn't help but take another look at that famous blade.
...
'Hey, Heimdall! Hestia! You're too slow!'
At that moment,
a slightly hoarse yet magnetic female voice came from deep within the workshop.
Everyone turned to look.
They saw
a woman with fiery red short hair striding towards them.
She wore a crisp white shirt and black trousers, a black eyepatch over her right eye. This did nothing to diminish her beauty; instead, it added a touch of imposing aura.
It was the main deity of the Hephaestus Familia—Hephaestus herself.