Chapter 4: Hostess of Fertility
"What the hell was that yesterday!?" Yells Tsubaki.
We're currently sitting in Hephaestus's office the day after I made the Sword Art series. Apparently, When I bonded with Gideon, My divinity spread all over Orario and everyone in the city thinks it's some new God.
Hephaestus is visibly worried about people finding out about my existence but I am not too worried. Naturally, the longer it stays hidden the better but I'm not worried about them trying to force me out of her Familia.
She is my goddess, the one who made me into who I am today, even if unintentional. Nothing anyone says or does will ever change that. Hephaestus doesn't seem to think that though. She's worried I'll leave her, I can tell. She thinks I'll choose someone like Freya over her. I need to do something about that extremely low self esteem eventually. I thought it wouldn't be an issue after flirting with her yesterday but it seems she'll revert back to normal the moment she thinks about some other woman taking me from her.
"I know you love me but that won't stop someone like Freya or that bitch Ishtar from kidnapping you." she says angrily. I let out a sigh, she's been like this all morning. I think she's overthinking things since even if someone kidnaps me I can always just tell her. It's not like we're ever 'out of reach' from each other. Hephaestus blushes as she realizes that I'm right. See, no need to worry at all.
"Hello!? Person who can't hear your thoughts here! You haven't answered my question!" Tsubaki exclaims in frustration.
"I just made a divine weapon yesterday and bonded with it, that's what you felt. I actually made two. The hammer on my hip and the golden sword on the wall over there." I say as I pat the Gideon with one hand and point at Fragrant Olive with the other.
Tsubaki freezes in shock at my words. She looks at Gideon for a few moments then over to Fragrant Olive. A few seconds later her eyes roll back and she passes out, falling unconscious on the ground. I wince as I hear her hit the ground hard. Okay, maybe I could have been more careful about how I said that instead of acting all casual about it. Especially since it's her dream to make a weapon that surpasses Hephaestus's works.
"What am I gonna do with you? Two days and you're already giving me and my captain headaches." Hephaestus says as she rubs her head. Now, I know I said I was a man yesterday, but I'm still 15. I might be considered an adult in this world but I still have a young and childish face, this is the time to put it to use.
"Say, why don't we go out to celebrate me making two divine weapons? To help take your mind off of troublesome matters and relax for a bit." I ask and just as she's about to reject I interrupt her. "Pretty please, Hephy?" I say as I make puppy dog eyes at her.
I see her face go red as she stares at me like I'm the most precious thing in the world. I can see the internal struggle she's having and even though I know she can hear every damn scheming thought I'm having right now, the puppy dog eyes are too powerful to resist.
"Ugh Fine, we can go once Tsubaki wakes up. I hate that I can't say no to you even though I know you just manipulated me with those eyes of yours." she says causing me to smile in happiness. "You should go get changed first though, you're still wearing those plain shirt and pants that were in your room. I left you an outfit in there since you couldn't make any armor yesterday. It should fit you well, It's in the bottom drawer." she finishes with a grin making me a bit nervous.
I guess I should look better if I'll be walking in public so as not to embarrass my Goddess. I run out of her office and run to my room. Once there, I open the bottom drawer and pull out the clothing and armor and look at it for a bit before putting it on.
First is black pants with the legs tucked into the brown boots that go halfway up my shins to prevent them from snagging on anything. Then the back shirt with a white Hephaestus crest on my chest over my heart, also tucked in. I can tell both of these are slash resistant so that I don't have to wear chainmail which would weigh me down too much.
Next is a bronze chest piece with darker bronze filigree on the front of it to protect my more vital organs with matching thigh-guards and shin-guards over the pants and boots. Going on the top of the chest piece is probably what made Hephaestus so happy. A long hooded brown coat that has Hephaestus's crest emblazoned on the back of it in white. The coat goes down to my shins and is held together with a brown leather belt that goes around my waist and has a holster on the right hand side for my hammer. The sleeves of the coat are tucked into black leather gloves which are perfect for when I'm smithing, even though the flames don't really bother me.
The most armored part of the outfit is my left arm. An arm harness made up of a five layered shoulder pauldron with the middle layer being the topmost layer, an elbow-guard, and a forearm-guard with one last piece covering the gap between the elbow and forearm. On the forearm-guard is one last crest of Hephaestus in black. My right arm only has the five layered pauldron so I can swing my hammer without any restrictions to my movement.
I'm happy with the outfit. It's well armored without being too heavy or restricting and it looks good. Most importantly, it blatantly shows off that I belong to Hephaestus. I guess this is also another form of armor she prepared to protect me. Most people wouldn't want to piss of the Goddess providing not only the most armor and weapons, but some of the best as well.
'Damn right.' I hear her say in my mind. Even though she might not see herself as much of a woman, at least she knows just how much influence she has.
Now dressed to impress, I make my way back to Hephaestus's office. Along the way I notice people looking at me and pointing to the Familia crest on my back. I would be confused too if I saw what felt like a God wearing the crest of another Goddess. I have to learn how to restrain my divinity but by the time I do that everyone will already know about it. I sigh and shake my head as I arrive at the doors to her office.
Walking in, I notice Tsubaki is still unconscious so I sit on one of the couches and start humming while waiting for her to wake up. It might not be just the two of us this time but this is still technically my first date with Hephaestus. Out of the corner of my eye I see her glance at me with a smile.
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"Hostess of Fertility!? Here!?" I ask as we stand in front of a building not too far down the western road of Orario. This isn't good, this is not good at all. I wanted to avoid this place for now due to a certain goddess working here undercover to find new prey to. . . lets just say devour.
"Yup, this is where we'll be eating. It's been a while since I've come here personally and it's Tsubaki's first time here despite her getting drunk in all the bars in Orario. Why? Is there a problem?" Hephaestus asks making Tsubaki get embarrassed. I shake my head as I hope that she isn't here today.
"Lady Hephaestus, you don't need to tell him that." Tsubaki says, a little embarrassed.
Hephaestus laughs as she leads us inside. Once inside, I take a look around. It's a pretty cozy looking place with rectangular tables along the sides while circular ones are in the middle. In the back is a bar counter with a large woman behind it and there are several waitresses wearing green dresses with white aprons and a frilly headdress going around taking orders and delivering food.
I do notice however, that among the waitresses, a certain gray haired girl is not present at the moment, make me let out a sigh of relief. We head over to one of the side tables and talk for a bit. Before long, a cat-eared waitress with short light brown hair and hazel eyes comes over to us.
"Hi hi! It's good to see you here Lady Hephaestus, and you too Tsubaki!" she says making Hephaestus nod to her and Tsubaki grin before continuing. "Now who's this little cutie here? A new member of your Familia?" I notice Hephaestus narrow her eyes and Tsubaki takes full advantage of the situation.
"Anya! Can you believe me when I tell you Lady Hephaestus doesn't want me anymore!? She abandoned me the moment she saw this boy. I think it was love at first sight. I'm so pitiful, aren't I Anya?" she says dramatically.
"Oh no! So this cute little boy is a homewrecker then? That's not good at all. I feel for you Tsubaki, I truly do, but there's nothing I can do to help you. Once a goddess sets her sight on delicious meat, they won't stop till they devour it." Anya says and both Hephaestus and I go crimson.
"Just get our food! We'll have triple of my usual!" Hephaestus says angrily.
"You never denied it!!" Anya says as she runs off to the back room of the restaurant.
Once she is gone, we sit in silence for a while with Tsubaki looking at the both of us with a huge grin plastered on her face. I hear Hephaestus take a deep breath before she begins talking like what just happened didn't happen.
"Now that you have your weapon and armor, are you planning on going into the dungeon tomorrow?" she asks me. I can see the nervousness in her eyes. She doesn't want me to go too far into the dungeon right now I suppose.
"Yeah, I want to see what exploring the dungeon is like and to see how far I can go at the moment." I say and she looks at me worriedly.
"Don't get overconfident, You might be stronger than others are at the start but you're not invincible. I don't want you to die because you bit off more than you can chew." she says and Tsubaki cuts in.
"Don't worry, Lady Hephaestus, you spent all night yesterday making that armor for him and barely got any sleep so I'm sure he'll be fine" she says.
Hephaestus looks away in embarrassment and I feel touched. I though this was some armor she had laying around but to think she spent all night making it for me.
"Thank you Hephy, I really appreciate it." I say and she turns to me with a smile.
"You don't have to thank me. You're. . . you're important to me, so it's only right for me to make sure you stay safe. I wanted to make better armor but I didn't have enough time." she says. I just can't get enough of this woman. Maybe I should make another divine weapon for her as thanks. She glares at me making me laugh, too soon I guess.
"This armor is enough for the monsters on the upper and middle floors and I'm not even planning on going to the middle floors just yet." I say and I see her shoulders relax.
We spend a bit longer talking about the dungeon with Tsubaki explaining to me the details of upper floors and what monsters can be found. Hephaestus cuts in from time to time to tell me about what ores there are on each floor. She also tells me to go register with the guild before going in so I don't get in any trouble.
Eventually Anya arrives with our food and Hephaestus quickly chases her away before she can make any teasing remarks making her pout and Tsubaki laugh. We start eating and I find myself enjoying it. There's all kinds of delicious foods like, noodles, chicken stir fry, rice, and steak, among other things. Of course there's also beer which Tsubaki is downing like it's nothing. As expected of a Half-Dwarf. I just hope she doesn't end up challenging me to a drinking contest because I'm sure I would lose.
As we are eating, I notice a group of nine people come into the pub. At the head of the group, with almost closed eyes and a large grin on her face, is a somewhat short woman with coral colored hair tied into a short ponytail. She wears a short crop-top hoodie accentuating the the vast flatlands she has alongside a pair of shorts that reveal the bottom of her admittedly attractive ass, as well as some black thigh-high stockings with blue heels.
Hephaestus smacks me upside the head making me yelp and rub the spot she hit. I look over to see her glaring at me and I have the decency to look embarrassed. This interaction however, manages to catch the eye of the woman I was just looking at. Noticing Hephaestus, she runs over and I swear her large grin just got bigger.
"Yo Hephaestus, It's interesting seeing you here. Finally taking a break from all that work you do?" she says as she arrives at our table with her group behind her.
"Loki, It's not surprising seeing you here considering how much of a drunk you are." she says coldly, surprising Loki.
"Whoa there, why so frosty Hephaestus?" she asks with her hands up and a look of genuine surprise on her face.
"Little lover-boy over there was probably thinking something inappropriate about you and it pissed her off." Tsubaki says with a laugh while pointing at me, making my face go red as Loki turns to look at me. Up on seeing me she get extremely shocked.
"You. . . you're a god? No, you have a mortal feeling about you. . . It can't be, A Demi-God? But that's impossible, Gods can't have children! How can you exist?" Loki says as she starts freaking out wanting to know more as she comes closer to examine me.
"He's my Demi-God Loki, so keep your hands to yourself." Hephaestus says as she stops Loki from approaching me.
"That not fair Hephaestus. It's a real Demi-God! You can't just keep him all to yourself! Or maybe. . . did you finally find a boy-toy? Is that why Tsubaki calls him little lover-boy and why you got mad at him checking me out? Hoh-hoh-hoh Hephaestus, Finally becoming a proper woman now eh?" Loki says, teasing Hephaestus.
"Oh yes, he was admiring your. . . vast flatlands was it?" Hephaestus asks as she looks over at me making me pale in fright. From what I remember, just as Hephaestus has a complex about her eye, Loki has one about her chest.
"Haaaah!? The hell did you say about me!?" she yells as she glares at me and her Familia has to hold her back to prevent her from harming me.
"Sorry about my Goddess, she can get like that sometimes. We'll take our leave now so as not to disturb your meal any longer." The little Pallum with short blonde hair and blue eyes, Finn if I remember correctly, says. As expected of the captain of one of the strongest Familias, calm and rational.
They drag Loki away, kicking and screaming, as some of them keep glancing back at me. Now that I think about it, everyone in the pub is taking subtle looks at me. Most likely they all heard what Loki said about me being a Demi-God. I choose to ignore them however as I have something more important to do.
"I'm sorry Hephy, I can't help what I think sometimes, but you know I think you're the most beautiful woman in all existence." I say and I notice her blush and smile.
"I'll forgive you, but you have to make it up to me." she says and I happily nod my head. I love how I can make her blush like a schoolgirl despite her usually serious demeanor. She elbows me and looks down at her food with red cheeks as she continues to eat. I smile and decide to finish my food and get out of here sooner. It's getting late and the looks are starting to get a bit uncomfortable.
A while later, we all finish eating and Hephaestus pays for our food. I decide to pay her back for it in the future even though I know she doesn't mind. We get up and make for the door, passing by the Loki Familia as Loki stares at me with a heated glare. As we're about to leave through the door, I look back and take one last glance at the room and instantly wish I didn't.
In the back, poking her head out from around the doorframe that leads to the backroom of the pub, is a short, gray haired girl with matching gray eyes. She's staring at me with a look if undisguised lust and affection that sends shivers down my spine.
Oh no. . . I'm fucked.