8

Orario, Ruined District

Hestia

Relaxing in one of her favourite spots, a blanket wrapped around her and the warm, steady presence of her child beside her, Hestia felt... stable for the first time since the whirlwind that is her child came into her life.

Stable was a good word for it, Elric had this way about him that brought her to every emotion under the sun and all the while he'd just keep smiling, playing along with her outbursts. Like a parent humouring a child, an irony that was very much not lost on her. She'd been wrapped up in a whirlwind of feelings since she'd met him, worried and enamoured in equal measure as he spent every waking moment and then some in the dungeon, as if showing off that strange resolve she'd felt the day they met.

The day he stated his intent to become a hero.

She smiled at the thought, snuggling into his side and grabbing one of the last crackers they'd brought up here for their little picnic under the stars. It was like something out of those romance novels the Elves enjoy so much, the dashing figure swooping in to sweep the damsel off her feet, only... the girls in those novels never seemed to feel that sense of worry that had been clawing at her ever since Elric first entered the dungeon. When he didn't return for the first time, when she saw just what he had been doing down there and then...

She barely slept that night, worry keeping her twisting and turning as Elric did what he felt he had to, compelled by that strange drive of his.

And then he came back, still bleeding from a dozen wounds, a smile and wince on his face in equal measure. Just the thought of the sight tightened her grip on his arm, pulling it tighter around her.

"You alright?" He asked, his voice deep and-

She swallowed. "Y-Yeah!"

"Cold?" On a normal day she would preen and extol about her role as the Keeper of Heaven's Flame and how she could never be cold! But here, now? She just shook her head and inched into her child's embrace, immersing herself in the flame of his physical being.

Elric chuckled, pulling the blanket tighter around her. She hummed happily, just enjoying this peaceful moment where she knew her child was safe and sound and not -not doing what he was so prone to doing.

He was going to give her a heart attack one day! And Gods couldn't even have heart attacks!

Idiot!

She grumbled into his side, twisting as she resisted the urge to punch the dumb blonde in his stupid face; he was already holding that… s-spanking over her head and- flame, what has her life become.

"Tell me about the rest of your day!" She demanded, pouting up at him for daring to remind her of her waiting p-punishment.

"You don't need to be so pushy, you know." He smiled.

"If that's the case then why didn't you tell me over dinner, huh?"

"Because murder isn't proper teatime conversation." He stated bluntly, staring at her reprovingly.

"Weird culture." She grumbled, killing monsters was perfectly acceptable conversation anywhere! Gods talked about it all the time!

"So we call dinner, tea, big deal." He rolled his eyes.

"Mou, I was talking about the killing; but that too!" She agreed. "Weird otherworldly culture."

He gave her a blank look. "My parents would wash your mouth out with soap if you tried talking about that shit at the dinner table."

"Eh…" Hestia trailed off, Elric was kinda scary when he wanted to be, so if he got that from his parents… then that's kinda scary too! But then again… "Anything else you want to share about them?" She asked cutely, staring up at him with stars in her eyes. An ability that seemingly had Elric trying to puzzle out how she was doing it as opposed to just answering her. Idiot!

He snorted after giving up. "I'm good." He deflected like he always did when she'd try and find out about his past. He was stupid and mysterious like that, it drove her up the wall even if she was hiding it super well! "What about you, any parents?"

"Eh?" She blanked on that question, honestly kind of baffled that… well, Gods don't- "Eh?"

"Do you have any parents?" He enunciated more clearly, looking down at her with a tiny frown. "Or did you like spawn out of the primordial soup and you don't wanna talk about it?"

"Primordial soup...?" She uttered in befuddlement.

"Right, don't ask Gods where they come from, gotcha." He uttered in amusement, shaking his head. "So my day huh? Where did we leave off again?"

Hestia blinked, looked at her child and then grinned. "Umu! You left off when you were going into the dungeon!" Before she remembered what he'd said about that meeting with Loki and that brought back her pout all over again.

Elric gave her a weirded out look which was super rude! Before shaking his head. "Right… it was weird, first time in the adventurer rush and all that. I dunno, it felt like my old MMO days there for a while." He smiled with a distant look in his eyes as he walked over another one of the weird terms that he sometimes used and would never explain because he was such a big meanie! "Just plunging into a dungeon you've explored to hell and back with a mass of friends and strangers around you. A lot less doritos are involved though." He added on, and her mind spun at the idea that he had faced dungeons before.

She didn't know much about her risk-averse child, but what she did know had been catalogued in the analogues of her mind extensively, he'd never mentioned dungeon delving before now, and that feels like something that would have come up. And yet… he wasn't lying. There was that baseline dishonesty that she felt from basically everyone -everyone wears masks after all- but it was no more than she normally felt from Elric. Her child had explored dungeons before and-

"Doritos are like snacks; you could say they fuelled the entire industry." He actually explained it for once and yet it was the most useless part! And he had the gall to smirk the entire time!

"Mou, you're making fun of me aren't you!" She demanded.

"Nope." He said, lying. She sighed, trying to get the truth out of him would be like pulling teeth and he probably wouldn't budge and it would probably take all night and-

"I'm never making dinner for you again, meanie! Idiot!" She pouted, to which he just laughed and pulled her struggling form closer, which she totally didn't enjoy or anything!

Elric hummed as she turned away with a pout. "First four floors are what you'd expect, didn't even need to fight anything given the wall of adventurers around us… kinda felt sorry for the bastards to be honest." He lied, chuckling all the while. If she didn't have her divine senses though… he'd likely have convinced her. Elric lied as naturally as breathing she'd noticed.

"Fifth floor was… easy." He went on. "The stat boost and being in a group made things a bit too trivial, I'll probably need to move on from War Shadows in general at this point." It was an off handed comment, but it was one that sent a thrill of fear down her spine. Elric had a habit of pushing himself insanely and-

"Don't!" She shouted, spinning around to a surprised Elric. "Don't… at least not without your group…" She could see the hesitation in his eyes, that cold calculating mind of his spinning in those blue orbs. "...Please?"

He blinked and then smiled. "Sure." He agreed with an easy tone, as if he wasn't a split second from disagreeing with her.

"Ehe~ Thanks Elric-kun!" She rewarded him with a nice smile that he immediately rolled his eyes at because he's a big stupid meanie!

"No worries." He said coolly, already moving on without even acknowledging that she was mad at him! Idiot! "So, fifth floor… It was fun, fighting as a group like that, covering for them when I could. I tried to focus more on that than just bashing my head into monsters like I did on the first day."

She nodded along with his soothing tone, settling down against his chest because she was a generous Goddess. She'd definitely seen his single minded focus in his Falna the night before, but that was pretty understandable given his tendency to fight opponents that were very nearly beyond him.

In his Falna the War Shadows were almost a blur of motion that would pierce through Elric's guard again and again, trying to slowly whittle him down while he searched for that one killing blow that would end the fight. It was a style of combat she'd never really seen or heard about before; most adventurers would be fighting against the endurance of their opponents, or sheer rampant numbers. Her Elric was just unique like that, challenging well above his stat range and-

She took a shaky breath, pushing that thought away.

"You alright?" Elric asked, looking at her with those stupidly blue eyes and all that stupid concern and- He wrapped her in his embrace and she definitely didn't melt against him or anything!

He chuckled, the deep sound seeming to echo throughout her being and fill her with a sense of safety.

"Y-Yeah." She spoke softly.

"Imagine getting scared by a story." He suddenly teased, totally ruining the moment!

"I'm scared for you baka!"

"Weeb." He said flatly, smug triumph filling his expression as her jaw dropped open. How does he even know these words! That's an insult only the Gods are supposed to know!

"I guess that's the best insult to use against Gods huh?"

"MOU!" She pouted, turning away from him. Stupid idiot couldn't even let her have one tender moment without immediately ruining it!

"Anyway." He went on again without even acknowledging her suffering! "We got to the sixth floor entrance, but the rest of the group chickened out other than Judith… I barely even got to use my dual swords, the speed made things way too easy." He grumbled, before he side-eyed her. "I know you don't want me going past the War Shadows to the seventh floor, but I'm hitting up the sixth tonight." He stated it as a fact and despite wanting to complain she sighed and gave him a hesitant nod.

"I get it, even if I do think you're trying too hard Elric-kun." He opened his mouth to speak so she gave him a look. "Mou, I'm going to have to keep telling you this, aren't I?" She sighed to herself, before reaching up to touch Elric's cheek. "You can't save anyone if you're dead, so survive first."

"I will." He responded simply, gaze unwavering, not a trace of a lie in his words. At the very least, he was convinced that he would survive. Where that confidence came from, she had no idea, but it was at least reassuring to hear.

"You gonna stop stroking my cheek or what?" Her infuriating child cut in, smirking down at her.

"JUST LET ME ENJOY A SINGLE MOMENT YOU-!" She froze, her hand a mere inch away from slapping this damned meanie silly when she caught the knowing look in his eyes… her child was waiting for her to do it!

"Not going through with it?" He asked.

"Mou! You're waiting for me to do it; you want me to add to the punishment!" She pointed at him, gasping as she realised just how devious her child was, he was goading her into a trap! "T-That's evil! And it totally wouldn't count!"

"Okay, slap me then." He smirked that infuriating smirk of smuggy smugness, looking down on her with his stupid tall body.

"I…" She couldn't, he would definitely add it to the punishment which was really, totally unfair of him! So she switched tracks. "Elric-kun, heroes… aren't this mean." She shook her head sagely, standing up on his lap, ready to impart her Godly wisdom. "They're good, pure souls who would never stoop to abusing their Goddess like this; if you want to be a hero Elric-kun, then you have a lot to learn and even more to do to grow."

There, she said it, and now Elric-kun would reflect on his mistakes and grow as a person, becoming a better child and an even better hero. Really she was helping him with his dream, and wasn't that worth her occasionally getting a little excited and slapping him a little? Yes, Hestia nodded, it was worth a little play fighting amongst famil-

"Okay weeb." Elric's disinterested tone cut straight through to the very core of her being and dealt what felt like critical damage. Hestia collapsed.

"Uuuuu! You're so mean Elric-kun!" She whined, curling up into a ball against his chest.

"You're the one who wants to physically abuse me." He shot back without sympathy.

"Mou, you can take it! Last time I stomped on your foot you didn't even feel it!"

Elric shook his head sagely, giving her the same magnanimous smile she had just graced him with.

"It's not about physical abuse, it's about the damage you're doing to me mentally." He smiled calmly as he fucking lied his ass off and she resisted the urge to scream in frustration! Her mouth opened before he went on without hesitation. "Hestia… you've got a lot of learning and growing to do as a Goddess." Her jaw dropped at the sheer and utter horseshit that her child was shovelling.

"Y-You…!" She stuttered without words. Who the hell raised this human and why did it feel like she was the child when she was talking to him, that's so unfair! She was an immortal for flame's sake!

"Me?" He asked, feigning cluelessness.

"You're such a-!"

"-LADY HESTIA!" An unfamiliar voice shouted out in the distance, causing them both to blink in confusion.

They looked at each other in confusion, before the voice called out again, sounding oddly lost.

"You get deliveries into the ruined district?" He whispered.

"No!" She whispered back. "And the guild only makes house calls for rich people." His brow furrowed at that. "We should go-"

Elric rose suddenly, the blanket put aside as he dropped her beside him; right onto the cold floor! Maybe she couldn't get cold, but she was comfy and whoever was ruining her totally not a date with Elric was going to suffer her wrath!

Elric snuck up to the ruined ledge of the building, staring off into the darkened streets of the district as the voice called out again. She tried peering over with him, but the darkness was pretty total.

"See anything?"

"Looks like a blacksmith." He answered to her surprise. Higher level adventurers obviously had supernatural senses, but she hadn't expected Elric to be already at that point, not so soon at least, but before she could ponder that further her mind clicked.

"Is it a Hephaestus smith?"

"What's her symbol?"

"Two hammers." She answered

"Looks about right, but we're a bit too far to be sure."

"I can't even see anything." She grumbled, making him blink at her before he shook his head.

"Well... shall we go see what they want?" He asked, standing to his full height, which definitely didn't make her feel small!

"I already know!" She smirked smugly. "C'mon Elric-kun, time for me to show you the amazing connections your incredible Goddess has!"

-

Given the rather informal and welcoming greetings we were given by the messenger and every Hephaestus familia member we'd encountered on the trip, I had expected this meeting to be as easy as Hestia had been hyping it up to be.

Sadly Hephaestus wasn't in the mood for that.

"So this is your brat?" The second red-headed tomboy I'd encountered in this life asked, looking at me with a hard, singular gaze.

"Yup!" Hestia shouted grandly, striking a 'cute' pose. "Hephy, meet my first child, he's really cute isn't he!"

Feeling a bit like a show dog at a fair, I allowed myself to smile politely, if a touch awkwardly.

Hephaestus sighed after a long moment of silence. "He's very interesting Hestia, but I believe your letter said something about wanting to rent one of our services?"

"Eh… but…" Hestia deflated at the unimpressed look the red-headed Goddess was shooting her -which I kinda understood, bullying Hestia was quickly becoming one of my go to pastimes after all- but this was so flat and awkward that I couldn't help but feel second hand cringe.

In the anime, Hephaestus had supported my Goddess for an undisclosed amount of time before finally getting sick of her and giving her the boot, a fact that made Hephaestus rather uncompromising and weary when it came to Hestia, especially if my Goddess was looking for a handout. Here however things seemed to be even worse than that, perhaps because not enough time had passed for things to simmer down, or perhaps because there was an apology between them prior to canon that Hestia hadn't gotten around to yet.

Whatever the case, Hephaestus clearly wasn't in the mood for Hestia's particular brand of interactions.

"We'd like to rent a forge, preferably in the evenings, quality and amenities are irrelevant." I state simply. "We'd also like to buy the raw materials from your stock."

The woman met my gaze with an unwavering frown, her lone eye searching me for something.

"And you came to me?" Her blunt statement told me exactly what she thought of the idea and the one who came up with it. A sentiment I honestly agreed with; going not only to the top smithing familia in the city, but also to their leader directly for something you could get from any corner smithy with more than one workstation was… pretty damn entitled, and a really good way to get fleeced.

"Respectfully, I'd rather have asked the closest smithy around, but…" I trailed off, glancing to the side at Hestia who was looking progressively more uncomfortable, a fact shared by Hephaestus. "I can wait outside if you'd-"

"-Yes." Hestia cuts in, seeming to steel herself.

"There you go again, making decisions by yourself." Hephaestus huffed, but nodded to the tanned woman who had been leaning against the wall behind us for this entire awkward encounter. "Get a good price out of the kid Tsubaki." The tanned beauty grinned at that, finally opening her lone red eye to stare me down.

Sidenote, I'm not sure if eye patches and red eyes are a requirement for the women in this familia or what, but they certainly pull it off.

I met her gaze steadily until her smile widened and she nodded towards the door. I followed, but not before giving Hestia's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Something she probably needed if the way she gripped my hand back was any indication.

The tanned smith waited for me outside of the office, a dangerous smirk on her face as she gave me a knowing look. "So… you and the short stack?"

"No." I return simply, walking besides her into the bowels of the Hephaestus compound. "You and Hephaestus-sama fucking?" I asked back just for the sake of it, even if I couldn't deny that the idea was more than a little attractive; Hephaestus really filled out those leather pants of hers and Tsubaki here seemed to be almost spilling out of her chest wrap.

The woman let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Hah, you'd love it if we were, wouldn't cha?" She smirked knowingly. "But I don't like to kiss and tell gaki! Or well, I suppose there was that one time…" She trailed off, looking lost in her thoughts.

I smiled and decided to ignore that particular contradiction. "I guess that would depend on whether or not it'd mean you were taken."

The woman blinked, before turning fully to look at me. "Hoh? You're a bit taller than the men I usually cuddle, but maybe I can make an exception if you're any good with that forge you're asking for."

I let out a half laugh at that. "Doubt it, it's been a while since I touched a forge." I let out a small strategic lie; if my growth rate ends up being unbelievably fast, I can just pass it off as me slowly getting back into the groove of things. Plus I did technically use a forge in my past life.

And if she was being serious about that comment, then I could always level to the point that I impressed her later.

The woman hummed. "We'll have to get you back into the swing of things then, which brings us neatly around to prices." Her smirk grew vicious at that. "Fifteen thousand valis every two hours."

"Sure." I agreed to the blatant rip-off. It was peanuts to the Hephaestus familia anyway, me just taking this smith's time was probably costing them more than I'd made in total so far

"Eh?" Surprisingly, my easy agreement brought her to a stop. "You know I'm fleecing you here right gaki? You rich or something?"

I shook my head. "My Goddess is in debt to you guys, helping pay it off is part of my duty."

"Hoh?" She considered me appraisingly. "Aren't you a dutiful little captain…"

"I'm taller than you woman." I pointed out.

"Hah?" She got on her tiptoes to get in my face with a playful smirk. "I can fold you like a piece of bar-stock gaki."

"And you'll still be short."

"At least I'm taller than your Goddess." She grumbles half-heartedly, putting her hands behind her head as she continues to lead me somewhere without a care.

"That's not a high bar to clear." I point out. "Hestia has to wear child-sized shoes."

She snorts, laughter spilling out of her as she side-eyes me with a wide grin. "I take back what I thought about you gaki, you aren't stuffy after all!" She… insults me? Her grin not wavering in the slightest as I blink and then snort myself. "Mah, you're alright gaki… and well, I was asked to get a decent price but I really thought you'd haggle so… I mean, we can call it five thousand with material included and say it's even yeah?"

Given that I'd made forty one thousand on my first day and night and I was set to make exponentially more from now on, the original cost would have been increasingly trivial for me -but even so- hearing Tsubaki amend her offer in genuine good faith was… nice. Definitely a step up from my dealings with other familias so far.

"You're not so bad yourself." I smile. "Thanks Tsubaki."

"Heh, don't mention it..." She paused, looking at me in embarrassment. "I uh, didn't catch your name."

"It didn't come up." I shook my head of thoughts of that awkward ass meeting, earning a commiserating look from her. "Elric Carne, Hestia familia captain." I offered her a handshake.

She took my hand and we spent a moment just grinning at each other, shaking hands in a dark corridor. "Tsubaki Collbrande, Hephaestus familia captain, nice to meet cha." I nodded at the expected reveal, Tsubaki both felt strong and she was just hanging around in her Goddess' office, which for big familias like this usually meant they were high up.

"Well now Elric, time to show me what you've got." She kicked her foot back and damn near knocked a door off its hinges, leaving me blinking into a random forge we'd apparently been standing next to since we stopped.

"Like I said, don't get your hopes up." I reminded her, but she just gave me a look to get on with it.

Nodding, I walked past Tsubaki as she eyed me intensely and let myself focus on something other than the rather captivating woman behind me; namely the forge. It was small, dirty and yet well stocked. Its fire dead but with a pile of coal exactly where you'd expect it, it didn't take long before I was working the bellows to get things up to heat. There was no instructor yelling at me when to stop or start this time, but I knew the temperature for steel by instinct.

Padded gloves for safety, a look to check with Tsubaki to see if I could- yup, I grabbed one of the steel ingots from the stock and brought it to heat with a pair of blackened tongs.

Tsubaki slid in and leaned against the wall beside me, staring intently into the flames. If I had to guess, she was already judging me for how evenly I was heating the ingot, which… I think I was doing alright? Steel felt pretty damn easy to me because of the perk, almost like it was telling me what to do, but I had no idea what kind of crazy standards blacksmith adventurers were held to, especially since the blacksmith DA was a thing.

Either way, my gut was telling me now was the time, so I brought out the now yellowed ingot and immediately got to work on the anvil, pounding out the corners and quickly defining the shape of the Skyrim steel dagger and a half tang, half handle that should probably let me use this as a throwing knife. With the heat starting to fade I pounded out the start of the bevel on all four sides, quickly coming to the conclusion that I should really be doing one-sided blades from now on.

At minimum a quarter less work.

Evening out the bevel took long enough that metal cooled past softness, but it was time to normalise anyway. I shifted in my seat, side eying the woman besides me as I began the first of three boring heat cycles.

"How do you deal with it?" I asked.

"Deal with what?" Her eyes never left the metal.

"The waiting."

"Never thought about it." She spoke calmly enough, but her eyes darted from the flame to me and back again giving me the feeling she was lying. Was it a smith's pride kind of thing?

I hummed, pulling the ingot to air cool on the anvil. "I can manage, but some part of me desperately wants to be doing something else right now."

"I don't have a cock-" My head snapped up at the turn of phrase. "-but if I did, then I wouldn't pull it out in a forge like this!" She laughed.

"Well damn, I didn't even think of that." I uttered, feeling more than a little perplexed; that innuendo had gone right over my head and I was the one that said it.

"Probably why there's more women than men." She nodded sagely, smirking at me.

I snorted. "Well, as fun as all that would be, I more meant reading a book or something."

"Boring." She scoffed dismissively, watching me put the ingot back into the heat. "And it'd probably catch on fire anyway."

"People watching?"

"You want to 'watch' the kinds of people that willingly live next to a forging complex?"

"If they're as drunk as I'm hoping, then yes." Because honestly? Drunk people watching could get really fun when you didn't have to deal with them.

"Just focus on the blade gaki." She said dismissively. "A restless mind does not a fine edge make." She spoke the last part as if by rote and actually blushed at my raised eyebrow.

I smiled, but ultimately turned back to my blade to finish its final normalisation heating. Waiting for it to cool in the air a final time was… boring, next time I'm definitely coming with a book, or making multiple knives at once. But once it wouldn't melt around the grindstone, I was finally able to sharpen this bad boy, then heat, quench it in oil and go through the mind meltingly slow heating process to 'relax' the quench.

"You're weird." Tsubaki suddenly spoke up, gently taking the knife from my tongs even as it comfortably sat at around four hundred degrees, running her fingers along the edges. "Your hammer work is quick, but it needs work…" She trailed off as she tried to flex the blade, but given that it was a dagger, she had to give up before it snapped in half. "Your tempering was… unique; I can't really give you advice there, familia secrets and all that, but you should be fine for steel."

I nodded along, watching intently as she downright sensually fondled my hot blade.

"All in all, not bad." She smirked, her gaze slowly rising to meet mine. "I wouldn't mind stealing you away from little Hestia and her kid shoes... but I don't think you have the patience to be a smith."

"No, probably not." I shake my head. "Still need to work on it though."

"And if I ask why?"

"Because it'll help." I answer vaguely.

She hummed, placing my dagger down onto the anvil. "Having a smith to maintain weapons is always useful." She approved, taking my vague statement and running with her own understanding of it. "I'll stop by later for that payment gaki, till then."

"Til then." I returned with a smile, watching her back as she shuffled out of the tight room and gingerly closed the battered door with a sheepish grin.

And when I was sure she was gone. "Tsubaki Collbrande huh?" I smiled and readied myself for a grind session. What kind of idiot makes one knife when you can make multiple instead? Why be bored when you can instead be hitting things?

I have free materials, skills to grind and an inventory to fill full of sharp things that I can throw at monsters.

The only enemy is boredom, and possibly Hephaestus if Hestia annoys her even more.