Chapter - 26 [ #V1.9 : Danmachi : Hephaestus! ]

(A/N : I was really busy studying for my Japanese Language Test! It's on June 6th! So, i couldn't write more chapters. But since one of the readers requested to add her to his Harem, i thought why not? So here you go boys and if there are, girls ~😉)

On the way back to his Manor which he named Eternal Manor, Ash saw someone he have seen multiple times in the anime.

It was a woman with red hair, fair skin, a black eye patch covering her right eye. She had a disinterested eyes looking slightly lazy but at the same time filled with vigour. Similar to her hair, her eyes was red, but crimson red. Her body was on the slender side probably due to her work as a blacksmith. She has an aura of maturity and aged person. But in no way was she old looking! In fact she looks like she's in her middle twenties at 26, or 27!

She was ordering some dwarves who were handling transport of resources into her shop.

Though he wasn't going to meet with anyone else today, since this was coincidental, he decided to try and talk to her. Not because he was interested in her, but he was interested in her line of work.

Most likely due to her years of experience, the woman sensed someone approaching her. She turned towards him, but she was confused at who he was. Although she wasn't showing any kind of hostility, someone wearing a mask can't be anyone but a suspicious person. But what made her look at his side was because she sensed something familiar from him. It was divinity!

Divinity is something only gods possess! Although Demi-gods do possess divinity, it is only a fraction of what their parents have. But this young man was perfectly hiding it, as well showing off that he was a god.

Her interest grow as he walked closer to her. Of course since she stopped giving out orders, her workers continued without her words.

It was none other than the goddess of smithing and the only existing divine smith, Hephaestus! Ash stopped in front of her and slightly bowed in respect as he always had respected her from the first time he saw in the anime. After all, even when Hestia, a lazy bum asked for her help, she made a growth weapon for her and allowed Hestia to pay back slowly to alleviate her concerns! In truth, Hephaestus was kind for her own good and strict at times against her familia members! But she truly cherished the feeling of having a family...

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Seeing him bowing, she was startled as it was her first time meeting him, whoever he was. But before she could ask, he said,

"Greetings, Goddess of Blacksmithing, the divine smith, Hephaestus. I'm a new God, Ash is my name."

She smiled as she understood that this was his way of showing respect to those he find worthy of it. She also bowed slightly to follow his suit and said,

"Greetings to you too, Ash. As you know my name is Hephaestus. You can just call me that. By the way, may I ask what God are you of? Forgive me if I'm rude, but it's the first time I'm seeing you and not to mention I can't see your face..."

She chuckled as she said that. He nodded after thinking for a while. Then he said,

"Do you mind if we talk inside? Although I don't mind, removing my mask here may attract unwanted attention..."

This made her raise her brow. Is he like her? Not wanting to show a integral part of her own body because many despised it? Or was he being narcissistic?

"Sure. Let's talk in my office. This way."

She regardless nodded with a smile and invited him to her office inside the shop. When he entered, he noticed the hidden room which contained her Smithy, tools and her works... Seeing his line of eyes, she was surprised as she never expected anyone to see through the rune that she carved to hide her Smithy. But she wasn't really against it, rather she just wanted to have privacy and concentration during her work.

She told him to sit on the chair and he followed her words. She took her own seat in the office behind the desk. Then she said,

"Now can you remove your mask? Though it is fine if you don't, I just wanted to know if you are trustworthy..."

She was honest. She didn't want to sugarcoat anyone, not to mention someone she just met.

He nodded but before removing his mask he said,

"No, I don't mind. But how about a fair exchange?"

"??? Exchange? Wow... You are really a piece of work... But it is fine... What would you like?"

He smiled under the mask and said,

"How about showing what are you hiding under that eye patch?"

She stopped blinking for a moment. Then she thought,

'Well, what's the problem with that? Besides I don't think it's a fair exchange... I mean what is there to see in my face...?'

"Well, I don't mind, but are you sure? There is nothing special about it. It's a mutation of my eyes, and it is very distrubing and disgusting. At least that's what many commented to me before..."

He tilted his head and said,

"Well, although I said fair exchange, I just wanted to do something similar to you? It's fine if you don't want to show me. But I won't say it's disturbing or anything. Why the sad face? Rather, let's get to it."

He said and didn't allow her to continue to degrade herself. He slowly removed his Mask under the slightly nervous looking Hephaestus which he found a cute side of her.

As he put the mask on the desk, he heard a total silence, or rather, she wasn't even breathing which made him smile softly. When he stared right back into her face, he saw a small blush creeping up on her cheeks.

She shook her head and tried to hide her embarassment as she muttered in her mind,

What the hell is he!? A male version of Freya!? How can he be....so....so handsome and beautiful at the same time? He looks like a perfect sculptured body created by unknown entities! And when he smiles... Oh I can't believe I'm showing my face to him right now....'

He chuckled seeing her, which made her glare at his direction but he ignored her warning and said,

"I don't have any divinity of beauty or charm if that's you are worried about. In fact my divinity is just one. But my divinity is everything at the same time. That's why, I have such a face. Now you understand why I'm hiding my face, right?"

She nodded with a small blush still on her cheeks. She couldn't stop her feelings of shame and embarassment, so rather than trying to force it out of her, she was enduring it.

"So, you don't mind me hiding my face, do you?"

She unexpectedly answered,

"No. Don't hide it. In fact, i can sense that you are not lying to me, so the fact that you do not possess a divinity related to beauty is the truth. So, this is your natural beauty. So, it is good to show it off rather than hide it."

Although she was saying this, inside her mind was a total battlefield of chaos!

'Why am I so admant of making him not hide his face? Is it to see his face every time I see him? No no no! How can I, an experienced person feel that way? Besides he may end up hating to talk with me after a few minutes... Should I refuse to show him my eyes? What if he is also disgusted by it? At least I didn't want anyone to see it and tell me in honesty...'

"By the way, you haven't shown me your eyes.."

Ash said with a smile and a nod. He will not hide his face in front of her if that's she wants.

"May be I shouldn't show you it after all... How about I show you some of my fine works?"

Hephaestus asked with sadness and fear in her eyes evident. Although she doesn't feel anything for him yet, she feels that he was a kind and also interesting person. So, she didn't want to make another person feel disgusted at her, in such a way due to her eyes.

Ash showed a sad eyes as he said,

"I see... So you don't want to show me huh... May be you were lying about it... Fine, you can do as you like.. I'm leaving.."

Although he was acting, he wasn't actually acting as well. He felt that she was too hard on herself and she was digging her won grave.

Seeing his sadness and leaving figure, she panicked. She never expected he to trust her and even feel no kind of expectations from her eyes. She hurriedly said,

"Wait! I'll show you..."

Ash stopped in his tracks and smiled as he turned back to her. Then he returned to his seat. Hephaestus sighed and said,

"Don't tell me I didn't warn you, okay?"

He nodded with a serious face. She then sighed once more before removing the knot behind her head. As she removed her eye patch, he saw her closed eyes. She looked straight into his eyes and saw anticipation and a little excitement. She was stunned. But regardless that emotions may change upon seeing what's in her eye socket.

She unhesitatingly opened her eyes lids. As she opened her eyes to check his reaction, she was again stunned. Because he wasn't disgusted or rather showing any kind of negative emotions. In fact, he was staring at her black eyes with red pupils like that of a devil, with interest. With seconds passing by, Hephaestus began to feel more shame and restless as she never expected such a result.

'He is not disgusted?'

'Why is he staring at me like that?'

'Why am I feeling so restless about this?'

'I feel like I'm naked in front of him... How shameful..'

But she didn't say away from his eyes, instead she began to enjoy his beauty rather than trying to fight her embarassment.

Finally breaking the silence, he said,

"Why did you say it was disturbing? It's just a minor mutation of your eye and divinity. Most likely happened during your last ascension, right?"

She was shocked. How did he know that? Gods have growth of their own too. In fact gods didn't just show up like rain. They are born from their kind of divinity. And by time, their divinity will grow alongside them, making them go through evolution each and every time. And the last time she grew was eons ago, when she became a divine smith, a total singularity in this universe as a special goddess. She became the goddess of blacksmithing by her own efforts. Not because she was born as one. She worked hard to become one. There was other gods who had blacksmithing as their divinities. But only she became a divine smith! And during her last ascension, her eyes which always analysed resources mutated together with her divinity. Although I did bring her some good things like more clarified analysis and perception, but it was a curse for her.

Many gods and goddesses began to hide from her because of fear and disgust. Even the man, the god she once loved left her because of this eyes. She was heartbroken. But when she heard that he was acting like he was in love only to have sex with her, her spirit broke. In other words, she lost her virginity to a sex crazed god!

Hephaestus who heard this was angry that she half killed the god who broke her heart. Although she wasn't an offense oriented god, her divinity was the top among the second generation or even first generation gods! So it was impossible to defeat her unless they were strong first generation gods or Primordial Gods like Uranus for example.

"How did you know that?"

"Hm? Because I can see it? Your divinity which was evolving clashed with your body which was not strong enough, but thanks to your will power and soul, you were able to stop yourself from self exploding. But that became a curse for you as that defect founded it's way to your eye. I can see that your eyes have the root of your divinity in it. Let me guess, you tried to heal it, but was unable to do it?"

She was once again stunned. How does he know everything? Was he an omniscient god? No! There wasn't such a god in heaven! Everyone was imperfect! But she nodded her head.

"Since it is your own divinity, you are unable to heal it yourself. And since it is a higher tier divinity of blacksmithing, others can't heal it without the divinity at the same level as you. That's why no one was able to heal you."

"So, if there was someone with the same level and kind of divinity as me, i could have healed it? You understand that much huh... Haaah... But it is impossible. There exist no one who can heal me then..."

Ash looked at her melancholy and looked straight into her eyes and said,

"Why do you say so? Here, in front of you is a person who can do various things... Do you want to give it a try?"

She looked at him with confused eyes. But then she remembered that he never explained his divinity to her. But he said his divinity was one but all at the same time. Besides, the aura that he was hiding is at least ten times stronger than her. At least according to her perception. But with a little hope and painful expression, she asked,

"Can...you do it..?"

She was doubtful. Besides if he were to heal her, what would she give him? Her weapons? Free service of her familia? No! Anything that she can give him won't be enough to repay such a heavy favour...

Before she can do anything, he nodded and said, 'Excuse me' and moved towards her. He touched her right eye lid and pulled back his finger.

As she watched him returning to his chair, she felt despair, sadness and anger. Despair because she lost the hope she had. Sadness because she became sure that she can never heal it. And anger because he wasn't able to do it. Although her last emotion was something she wanted to hide, she couldn't hide it properly.

And when he saw her face, he was slightly sad. To think she was angry just because he touched her. At least than what he thought. His smiling face became that of emotionless as he stood from his chair. Then startling her, he threw a mirror at her direction before leaving without even waiting for her answer.

Seeing his leaving figure, she felt a pang of regret. But sighing, she looked through the mirror to see what he was telling her. But when she saw her won reflection in the mirror, her whole body trembled uncontrollably losing her grip on the mirror.

With a shattering sound, the mirror broke! But unable to contain her shock, she ran towards her secret forge and stood in front of the mirror!

In her reflection, she saw her right eye, now similar to her left one was crimson, but her previous demonic looking eyes was no more. In fact she couldn't even believe if this was an illusion or not!

But illusion or not, her heart began to beat wildly. Not because of her eyes, but because of a certain young man. She ran towards the entrance of her shop and exited through the door. But she saw no one there. Only busy folks running around the street was the scene she could see.

Now she understood why she felt regret. Because she show him such a face, even after he done so much for her! Then she noticed something. People on the street began to stare at her. Almost all the young men in the vicinity had a small blush on their faces when their eyes met.

A servant near her uttered,

"Hephaestus-sama...! You—Your eyes?"

She once again touched her eyes and hid it from the eyes of strangers. Then she returned to her office. As she took her seat, she began to breathe heavily remembering his words.

"He said he can heal me... Why did i have to show such a face to him..."

She said and once again returned to her forge, not to make any weapons but to check her figure once more. With the reflection of her healed eye and the reactions she got from the people, she knows one thing!

She was saved!