9 Hestia's Determination

Third Person POV

Hestia, walking in the city by herself, had to admit that her first child is really strange.

She was slowly starting to become desperate when the weeks turned by and she couldn't find anyone willing to enter her familia. Even though she understood the reasons why every adventurer, even those at the first level, refused her, it didn't make the blow any softer. She genuinely thought that she would be stuck here, working at the potato stand forever, a life that wouldn't be too different from what she experienced in the Heavens during all of those years.

Just instead of selling potatoes, she was used to judging the souls of humans that died.

She even contemplated killed herself and get back to the Heavens, so that her worthless self wouldn't stop the descent of another god that could get mortals to join his familia. Even though she was one of the first goddesses born in the Heavens, she never had been one to socialize with the others. No doubt being a virgin goddess after all of this time played a role in the way others approached her—mostly male gods—but her temperament and the way she saw the gods fall into degeneracy due to their boredom was the main reason for her lack of socialization.

There are several gods and goddesses like her that are somehow distant from the rest of their kind—though often not as much as herself—and that results in some sort of alienation, in various forms. This meant that she had very few acquaintances, even fewer than what she has in the Heavens when she came down on the mortal world.

She was barely polite with the rest of them.

Hephaestus, the only one she could truly call a friend, had kicked her out and left her fend on her own due to her laziness at the beginning of her journey in this world. At first, she had been very entitled and thought that people would just rush to her to join her familia—that belief had not lasted for long.

So after getting a much-needed reality check, Hestia decided to take things into her own hands and tried to scout for adventurers that would join her familia. And slowly, she realized that no one wanted her.

She couldn't afford to get a good place to live in, she had no money and she had nothing to gift her children with. She was a bad bet from the beginning and she understood that nobody sane would want to become her child.

That was until Tian came.

Hestia could not recall how joyous and thankful she was when she could see her mark upon his back for the first time. It felt like all of her worries disappeared for an instant.

And they all came back with a vengeance when his special gifts were revealed to her.

Hestia cared for him too much, as the first one to believe in her and accept her despite the reality of her situation, to let him go outside in the dangerous world by himself. She had waited for far too long for this moment to let him endanger himself each day in the dungeon, only for her to sit at home, hoping that he would be safe.

There wasn't much she could do directly to support him, however, she wouldn't skip on the little things she could do.

But first, she has to wake him up.

So she jumped on him, still sleeping on the couch, "Wake up sleepyhead…" she whispered in his ear as if she was coaxing a child.

He groaned and tried to turn, but since she was straddling him, he found himself locked in place. The frustration appearing on his face made her chuckle fondly before she continued to slowly murmur in his ears.

After a while, Tian blinked, his eyes having trouble opening up. However, he seemed to be completely refreshed from his night of sleep, even though the clock showed 4:30 AM. As a goddess, even in the body of a mortal being, she didn't need a lot of sleep if she didn't push herself either physically or mentally.

Therefore—having quit her job—she could wake up normally after only a couple of hours of sleep. Despite now being a morning person, Tian wasn't at that level just yet.

When he finally grasped his surroundings, Tian's bright smile at the realization that she was so close to him made Hestia sigh wryly. She knew that Tian had a lot of affection for her, and not in the way she thought it would be between a goddess and a member of her familia, but she couldn't say that she didn't enjoy the attention.

While being used to attracting male attention, there was something very different about the way Tian expressed his for her. She didn't know if it was because he was her first child, or because he was a mortal, but a lot of the problems she knew would accompany entering a relationship with a god—If that could even be called as such—simply didn't register in her brain when thinking about him.

So when he raised his upper body close to hers, and when she hugged him, she tried very, very hard to stop the subtle red color from appearing on her cheeks.

And she failed.

At this moment, Hestia realized that hugging Bella and hugging Tian were two very different actions. As someone who was naturally affectionate with those she cared about, Hestia felt this was bound to be a problem.

The surprised but pleased face he wore when she ended the hug made her chuckle, as she enjoyed how he couldn't control his facial expressions. His face would always show how he felt, despite what his mouth would say.

Not even a week after having met him for the first time, and she already knew how much he meant to her.

Her first child.

Calming the burst of joy threatening from erupting due to these thoughts, she stopped straddling Tian and stood up.

"It takes you a bit of time to wake u-" started to say Hestia, before noticing Tian's expression. "What?"

"I didn't know you enjoyed that hug so much, my goddess," he teased, giving her a roguish smile.

Before she could utter an answer, her face became red and she rolled her eyes. After all, just like him, she knew that she couldn't hide her emotions from showing on her face.

"Don't act like you didn't either," she answered, tried to change the subject, but adorably failing.

"'Either'? Are you ready to admit it Hestia?" he said, standing up as well and looking straight into her eyes.

Hestia had to admit that the height difference and his somewhat deep voice weren't unpleasant at all. But she couldn't waste time here, playing around with him, since she had an appointment with someone important this morning.

"A-Anyway," she gave a faux-cough in her hand. "Today I have to talk to Hephaestus about hiding your status."

"I see," Tian nodded.

"Yesterday, after my final shift was done, I visited the headquarter of the Hephaestus family to arrange an appointment with her. Since she's someone I consider my friend, she made time in her busy schedule. So I can't afford to be late for this."

"Do you think it's possible to hide my status? As in, the mark will disappear from my back?"

"I'm not sure, when I was living with Hephaestus, I didn't care about the mechanics of being the goddess of a familia," Hestia confessed, slightly embarrassed. "But I remember hearing a bit about this—but this is probably my only shot."

Tian stared for few seconds. His eyes darted to behind her for a mere instant before he ignored whatever distracted him from the discussion at hand. Hestia turned around, her brows slightly furrowed, and saw Bella standing in the staircase—her eyes barely opened—but her posture made it clear that she wanted to listen to their conversation without being noticed.

She gave her a deadpan gaze and gestured her to join them.

"A-Ah, no, I just arrived here," she tried to justify herself, but the visible sheepishness on her face made it hard for Hestia to believe her.

"It doesn't matter," said Hestia, "We were talking about how we could potentially hide Tian's troublesome status."

"Why would you want to hide- No, I understand," commented Bella, walking into the room under the amused gaze of her first child. "But isn't just wearing clothes enough?"

"It depends," stated Tian. "There's going to be times where my clothing won't necessarily be safe from the fights I undertake. I mean, ever armor wouldn't be safe, so why do you think simple clothes would be."

"... That's true," Bella whispered—after raising her eyes in thinking. "Do I need to hide my status as well, just in case?" she asked.

"I plan on hiding both of your statuses yes, if I can get the method to do it," Hestia answered, crossing her arms under her chest. "Of course, that is if there is a method, to begin with."

She didn't miss the look Tian gave her when she did so, but she also didn't care enough to shift from her position.

Hestia, when Bella entered her attack range, jumped on the opportunity and hugged her second child with a large smile on her face. The cute squeaking noise Bella made at the proximity of her goddess was Hestia's reward as she smoldered the white-haired girl in her affection.

"Good morning Bella!"

"G-Good morning, Hestia-sama," answered Bella, from the depth of the goddess's cleavage. Meanwhile, Tian lamented the fact that he was too tall for Hestia to just trap him in her cleavage—she couldn't jump high enough.

Hestia stopped her administrations when she looked up and saw the time ticking.

"Ahh! I'm going to be late!" she shouted, running towards the exit of the Church.

"Late? It's not even 5:00 AM!" declared Tian, jerking back his head in confusion.

"When I said that Hephaestus had a busy schedule, I meant it!"

"No, isn't this against some kind of worker law?! Surely you have those in Orario."

"We do, but they don't apply to divine beings. Anyways, see you both later!"

And with that, Hestia disappeared from the children of her familia's view. Tian was silent for a while, his eyes closed as he followed Hestia with his ki sense—something he couldn't help but do with nearly everyone he encountered ever since the Guild's surprise visit.

Bella squirmed a bit from the awkward silence between the two of them, and when she was about to break it, Tian beat her to it: "Alright Bella, we need to talk about what we are going to do today," he explained, sitting down on the couch and tapping the spot next to him, gesturing for her to sit down.

"So," started Tian, turning around to face her because she was sitting next to him. "Today should be the day where we go on our separate ways, right?"

Bella nodded but didn't comment.

"Alright so, I don't want you to go any further than the second floor today. Despite there being little to no difference between the first four floors, the number of monsters spawned in the third and the fourth increases exponentially. As a party of one, you will have to be much stronger than your current self to be able to safely navigate through these two floors. Remember the tips that I gave you yesterday, and you should be fine."

"Sure."

"More importantly, of course, the point is to push yourself to the limits, but remember to not be overconfident. Neither Hestia nor I will take well news of you being gravely injured or dead in the worst-case scenario. If you won't try to be safe for yourself, at least try for us two, because we care a lot about you," instinctively, Tian had to stop his wandering hand from laying atop Bella's head and pat her. "Also, if you have any problems, do not hesitate to tell me, I'm willing to help you with anything you need, so long as I don't think it will impede on your progress."

Bella nodded much more earnestly this time, slightly smiling at his words. While the admiring eyes made Tian feel a little bit uncomfortable at the start, now he felt like he had to live up to Bella's expectations of him, because her stare made him feel like he was doing a good job at being the familia's captain.

'Hold on… Am I even the captain of this familia?' mentally asked himself Tian, realizing that Hestia never even mentioned the idea of having a captain.

Bella tilted her head at the sight of Tian's serious thinking expression, "Tian-san?"

He blinked, his thoughts broken by the way Bella addressed him, "'san'? Bella I'm only 18, I can't be that much older than you," he said, laughing awkwardly.

Tian suddenly realized that Bella was supposed to be only 14, just like Bell was in the anime he watched.

"You're two years older than me, that qualifies for a 'san' in my opinion," said Bella with a smile.

At her words, Tian could hear the loud sirens of the police slowly disappearing from his mind. The heavy sigh he released after that confused Bella even more.

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The goddess Hestia was walking through the city with a purpose. Ironically, despite being a goddess, she sometimes found herself grateful for her lack of notoriety and her diminutive size—and this situation was one of those times.

The busy streets of Orario—while not being as filled as they could be since Hestia got out very early in the morning—were annoying to get through. Despite being here for a couple of months now, Hestia still didn't know the city completely yet. As such, her size allowed her to weasel through the crowds dispatched on her way, since the only way she knew how to get to her destination, was through the most frequented alleyways of the city.

In just under half an hour, Hestia reached the place where she would meet Hephaestus—Tsubaki Collbrande's smith shop. As the adventurer with the highest level in her friend's familia, as well as her most talented smith, Tsubaki was allowed to make her shop in the city. Despite it being somewhat far away from the traditional marketplaces of the city, the quality of the gear she forged was enough to make adventurers, with the coin necessary to purchase what she created, come to her shop.

Hestia didn't exactly know why Hephaestus wanted to meet in her child's workshop—something about reparations undergoing in her mansion—but she didn't care. All that mattered was to know if there was a way to hide Tian's status from wandering eyes.

Also, Hestia had something else to ask Hephaestus for.

The anticipated discussion with her already made Hestia wince, because she knew what would be her friend's answer. However, Hestia had already promised to herself that she would do anything to repay what Tian's arrival in her familia offered her. If it strained the relationship between Hephaestus and herself, then so be it.

She had the eternity to repay her fellow goddess, but at the pace Tian was going, she simply couldn't wait for things to happen. He needed something to facilitate him because she didn't want to lose him. Hestia realized that she wouldn't be able to tell him to slow down and be more cautious.

Giving her essence to someone meant much more than just giving them the possibility to grow stronger, it established a bond between the two of them that only another god could break. When she gave her essence to her first child, she could feel his soul around hers. It was like a planet rotating around its sun, and the same could be said for Bella.

She understood those two in a way that she couldn't describe. It wasn't like she knew them all that well, but thanks to that connexion, they felt familiar to her.

Honestly, Hestia had no idea giving her falna to someone would mean that king of things, since she didn't bother listening to Hephaestus's explanations most of the time, but she was glad that her children were such wonderful beings. The heat from Tian's soul even kept her awake for most of the night the first time she felt it.

Due to these feelings, she knew that—with how emotional she was—she wouldn't be able to handle the death of either of those two. That was what kept her from turning around, despite the dread that was settling in her mind at asking Hephaestus so much without being able to pay for it immediately.

Thanks to her first child telling her the truth, she now knew a little bit about the future and what was about to come. She also knew that with Tian taking the brunt of Bella's fate by being her first child, he would be the one needing help immediately. Hestia guessed that the reason why Tian was so motivated was because of Bella joining her familia—since judging his gaze, she could tell that the young member of her familia had already become important to him.

Now that she thinks about it, it was the same for her.

'Could it be that Tian is weak to women in general?'

The sign saying Collbrande's Smithy dispelled her thoughts about Tian, and at the same time intensified her fear for the coming minutes.

Or even hours, if Hephaestus proved to be difficult to convince.

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Author's Note:

There goes the ninth chapter. In this, basically, I tried to give a reason why gods would be attached to their children ( in the familia ), and that could also explain how Hestia fell in love with canon Bell so fast. Hestia in this fanfiction keeps the same exterior as in canon, or I'd like to think, but I tried to connect the fact that she's so old yet yearning for affection that much and fell easily in love with canon Bell when there were like thousands of gods trying with her for thousands of years.

So Hestia appreciates Tian's obvious affection because she doesn't think that he will become like the gods, since he's mortal, and since she has a direct connexion to him thanks to the link they share. Those two things are beyond personal preferences that she could have and makes way for me to write about her falling in love and at least give it a try to explain it. If rich people in 80 years can do a lot of fucked up things because they're bored and they have money, then gods with a lot more power and billions of years can do much worse.

All of this, just because I decided that Tian would fuck Hestia btw...