Chapter 16: Hestia: I Should Be in the Carriage, Not Under the Bed.
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"I'm awake. Come in."
Hestia pushed the door open quietly and slipped inside. Kihara was sitting up in bed, clothes slightly dishevelled, the collar of his sleep shirt falling loose enough to expose his collarbones in a way that struck her as unreasonably distracting. A faint warmth crept across her face before she could address it.
"Sorry — were you asleep?"
"Not at all. Just thinking about the dungeon."
Kihara kept his expression steady while his eyes found somewhere neutral to settle. He had been in the middle of a rather different kind of conversation with Shinobu when the knock came, and the transition to fully clothed and presentable had been executed with more haste than grace. Hestia,
mercifully, was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice.
She crossed to the bed and sat down, close enough that the mattress dipped slightly. After a moment of quiet deliberation, she placed her hand lightly over his.
"Today I was frightened — that's all it was. I didn't mean to be harsh. You don't think less of me for losing my composure like that, do you?"
"Why would you even worry about that?"
He lifted his free hand and settled it gently on top of her head, moving it in slow, unhurried passes. "You were angry because you cared. I was happy about that, not put off by it. There's nothing to forgive."
The effect was immediate. Her feet, dangling over the edge of the bed, began swinging in small contented arcs. She swayed left and right with the unguarded ease of someone who had set down something heavy.
"I kept imagining you deciding I was useless and leaving."
"Hestia." His voice was patient. "Do you remember why I came to the divine realm looking for you specifically?"
"I — yes. Of course I do."
She became aware, gradually, that his hand had shifted from resting near hers to quietly enclosing it. The realisation arrived with a secondary realisation: she had walked directly into this room, in her sleep clothes, without any particular plan beyond apologising, and was now sitting in the dark being held by someone who looked at her the way he did.
She was, she acknowledged privately, a very trusting small creature who had once again wandered directly into the wolf's den.
He released her hand before she had to decide anything about it.
"It's late. Go sleep."
"Mm. Goodnight."
She had barely swung her feet toward the floor when someone knocked at the door.
Lili's voice came through, small and tentative. "Lord Kihara? Lili can't sleep. Could she talk with you for a little while?"
Hestia and Kihara looked at each other.
"I — what do I—"
Hestia's gaze swept the room, found no immediately obvious solution, and arrived at the space beneath the bed. She was under it before either of them had finished processing the decision. In retrospect, she could not have explained her reasoning — walking out and citing a routine Falna status check would have been entirely plausible.
But the bed had seemed like the right answer in the moment, and here she was.
Kihara arranged his expression into something approximately normal.
"Come in."
Lili entered wearing a pale lavender slip dress, the sheer fabric catching the moonlight in a way that left very little to the imagination. Under ordinary circumstances this would have produced a predictable response. Under the current circumstances, Kihara sat completely still in his blankets and did not move a single muscle.
He's still angry, Lili concluded, reading his stillness as evidence of continued displeasure. He would normally have reacted by now. I need to apologise more sincerely.
She took a breath, found her best approximation of a cat-girl's saunter, and walked toward the bed. Her form shifted slightly as she moved — an inch or two taller, a pair of soft ears appearing at the crown of her head, a tail curling into existence behind her.
"Mrrrow~"
She pressed her left hand to her cheek, let her wrist dip in a small cat-paw gesture, and looked up at him with luminous eyes.
"Lord Kihara~ Lili was a little difficult today. Please don't stay angry. If you need somewhere to put your frustration, you can take it out on Lili~ Mrrrow~"
"I'm not angry. And you really don't need to—"
"But you won't even touch Lili." She leaned forward, closing the remaining distance, and looked up at him with genuine bewilderment.
"You used to act like you could barely keep your hands to yourself. Why won't you even look at me properly now?"
From under the bed, Hestia listened.
They play together?
What kind of toy requires that level of enthusiasm?
Then Lili's next line reached her.
"Don't you like Lili anymore?"
"WAIT."
Hestia emerged from under the bed like a small, extremely motivated force of nature, one hand on her hip and the other extended in direct accusation.
"Lili-san! Are you trying to become Kihara-kun's girlfriend?!"
"Lady Hestia — why were you under the bed?!"
Lili yanked her slipping shoulder straps back into place, face flooding with colour. She instinctively shifted slightly closer to Kihara — a small, reflexive movement that Hestia interpreted as a direct and personal provocation.
The tears arrived instantly and at volume.
"WAAAH — you're both ganging up on me!"
She collapsed onto the floor, face in her hands, crying with complete commitment. Lili stood over her, baffled — she had not anticipated a goddess dissolving into tears, and she had certainly not anticipated a goddess admitting openly that she had feelings for a mortal. Freya and Ishtar both took lovers among humans, but always from a position of condescension, of granting favour — they would never have framed it the way Hestia just had.
Before Lili could find appropriate words, Hestia wiped her eyes, stood up, and turned to face her with restored composure and a slightly wobbly dignity.
"Lili-san. I like Kihara-kun. He is the entire reason I descended to this world. Whatever your relationship with him is currently — I was here first. Do you understand?"
"Lili has never been trying to become Lord Kihara's wife," Lili said honestly. "Being allowed to stay near him is already more than enough."
"Then we understand each other perfectly. I'm the elder sister. You're the younger sister."
"Yes!"
As the two of them moved with remarkable speed toward establishing formal sisterhood, Kihara pressed two fingers to his temple.
"Hestia. There's something I should probably tell you. I already have five girlfriends. Among them, no one operates on a seniority system."
Gods could not be deceived by human words when spoken directly. Hestia heard the truth in every syllable, and understood, in the same moment, that the Divine Favour skill she'd puzzled over in his status had nothing to do with her specifically — it had simply responded to what he already was.
The brightness in her blue eyes dimmed.
It lasted less than a second. She brought both palms up and slapped her own cheeks with brisk purpose, squared her shoulders, and raised her fist.
"Fine. Then I'll work my way up from wherever I am and become the one he values most."
Lili's jaw hit the floor.
A goddess. Willingly entering a harem. Announcing her intention to climb the rankings.
She was fairly certain that if she repeated this story anywhere in Orario, no one would believe her.
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Thank you for reading.