WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
“Well, then to a growing familia…”
“Cheers!”
Glasses clinked, and Hestia and Hephaistos sat at the bar and enjoyed their drinks. The wine they shared was an expensive one, perfect for celebrating Hestia’s success—or that of her children, in any case. The goddess of the forge had finally found a break in her busy schedule and invited her old friend out to mark the occasion.
“Still, I’m surprised,” she said. “To think a lazybones goddess like you finally made something of yourself…I don’t believe it.”
“Ahem! Witness my true power! …Or so I’d like to say, but it was really Bell and the other children who did all the work. I didn’t really help at all.”
Hestia’s smug face turned into a gentle smile of pride as she thought about her diligent followers. Seeing her, Hephaistos couldn’t help but smile as well.
“Oh, that reminds me,” said Hestia. “Thanks for saving Welf from Rakia.”
“Don’t mistake it for kindness,” Hephaistos protested. “All I did was shove all the blame on them.”
Then the two goddesses drank long into the night, laughing like old friends should.
“…But you should have seen Bell. He was soooo cute!”
A few hours later, Hestia wore a blithe grin, and her whole face was bright red. Hephaistos looked much the same. In common parlance, they were both smashed.
“‘I never wanted to make you sad,’ he said! ‘That’s why I tried to brush it off, but the truth is, I want to be with you forever and ever! I love you!’ He’s so cute. I just adore him so muuuch! Bell!!!”
“I…I think you made up the bit where he said, ‘I love you,’ didn’t you?”
Hephaistos frowned and downed her drink, clearly unable to stomach her friend’s sappy story. Noticing her displeasure, Hestia got a crafty look on her scarlet face.
“Oh?” she said. “Jealous much? I bet nobody ever says things like that to you!”
“Th-they do too! I just never talk about it!”
“As if! I know how your children see you. You’re their boss, not a woman! But don’t worry. I understand how cute you really are, even if nobody else does!”
Hephaistos could take the goddess’s coy smirk no longer. And as a matter of fact, there had been an event she was dying to get off her chest, and the wine had been just the push she needed.
“Well, listen to this!” she shouted. “Just the other day, Welf said…!!”
In the days that followed, the account that would serve as the basis for one young blacksmith’s new alias spread like wildfire among the gods of Orario, all thanks to the loose lips of one childish-looking goddess.
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