Chapter 77

Once Eris was gone, I wrote down a note on the table directed towards Tina and Tamamo on where I had put the Astraea Familia's repaired/slightly upgraded weapons in my workshop. And that I would be stepping out for a bit to do something.

With that written down I decided to go see how the Belladonna's were.

I knocked on the door of the room they were sharing and but a couple of moments later, I heard some shuffling before the door cracked open and Kali opened the door halfway with her keeping her body behind the door.

"Hello Jake, may I help you?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah, I was wanting to know if you wanted to meet my goddess in a couple of minutes to get your Falna changed over to hers?" 

At my question, I saw Kali's dark cat ears that had a couple of gold piercings twitch before she made a slight humming noise and then she smiled and said. "Oh that would be lovely. Blake has been wanting a Falna for a long while... Just let me and her get dressed real quickly!"

I gave an encouraging nod and the door was gently closed in front of me while I couldn't help but wonder at their state of dress. Either way, I quickly made my way into my warded workshop and then to the Vanishing Cabinet and used the method of communication Hepheastus told me to do in sending a ringing clock alarm to her side to tell her I wanted to come through.

And after the ringing clock disappeared, I knew Hepheastus or Tsubaki was in her office, with Tsubaki knowing what the cabinet could do along with knowing it was an escape route for Hepheastus should the members of the Zeus Familia come after the Familia again.

I hopped into the cabinet closing the door behind me, and after a couple of minutes, the gentle magic lights of Hepheastus's office hit my eyes as my goddesses voice rang out.

"Did something happen in Melen?" She asked with clear concern.

I smiled hearing the actual concern and care for me and I looked around the room and not seeing Tsubaki, Hepheastus gave a huff of amusement as she answered my unspoken thought. "Heh, Tsubaki is busy doing some custom work. Anyway, back to my question?"

"Nothing... Bad per say happened in Melen, I got found by Eris the Sword Saint, which was basically inevitable with the way she can pick out fucking souls from miles away so long as she has seen them before, and me being on an open lake didnt help with that. Anyway, I had some stuff to talk about."

I told her about meeting the Astraea familia in which she nodded telling me that keeping them on my good side was for the best as their members were definitely talented and very pure of heart with Astraea being their goddess.

And then I got into the whole of giving Alfia's cure away for the Grimoire, dealing with the Free-Will Removal, Evilus had going on in their slave trade, and of course the Belladonna's I took in.

Hepheastus placed a hand to her chin with her solitary eye tightening as she chewed on her thoughts before saying. "Well its good you came to me first before just bringing them here... Anyway, I will not get involved or say anything about your deals with the Hera Familia, I do have some bad blood with her from our time in Tenkai but our dealings here in the mortal world have been entirely business."

She shook her head and then continued with a breath. "If you can swindle her of a hundred million Valis in a Magic God-made Grimoire be my guest Jake. I certainly am not going to tell you not to take such a life-changing deal. Now as for the Belladonna's..."

She looked at me with a slight frown before she said. "Jake, I am a high-ranking crafting Familia, I don't normally just take people off the streets, but a level three is certainly a boon to be found."

I got what she meant. The Familia was mostly a crafting Familia, and although I was definitely a great artisan and craftsman due to my cheat doing all the crafting via my soul manipulating the magic and objects in the combination.

But Tina? Tamamo? Yeah, they were straight murderhobo adventurers.

"Kali, has experience making leather armor and some other stuff." I offered with a wry smile making Hephy give a sniff at my weak excuse.

And it seemed Hepheatus wasn't going to go further as she shifted and asked carefully. "So... Tamamo, how is she doing?"

My mind blanked as I realized why she looked so awkward, as Hepheastus knew Tamamo was literally blood-related to her. No different from a daughter and after a moment of thought I realized very quickly I shouldn't say how I had been prone bone fucking her through my bed.

So I smiled and said honestly. "She has been well. She has fallen in love with cooking, and she prefers to use a large Zhanmadao for a weapon... Oh, and she certainly likes to sit down at night with a strong spirit and read." 

Hepheastus slowly nodded with her single exposed eye closed as though in thought before she took a breath and spoke. "Good... I am glad she is doing well with you. Could you bring her and Tina over tomorrow? I wish to spend time with Tamamo, and I might as well make it a girl's day out with Tina and Tsubaki as well."

I blinked and after a moment of thought, I nodded as it would allow me to do the business with the Loki Familia and such tomorrow afternoon after I get done playing with Materia and killing monsters on my ship.

"Alright sounds good. Are you ready to meet with the Belladonna's now though to get their tramp stamps changed over?" 

Hepheastus's face twitched at my words before she shook her head with a fond sigh and said with some annoyance. "Fine, but this weekend, I need you to come down to the storage shed and combine some of the ores we collected to into their purified states." 

I nodded in agreement as such a chore won't even take me half an hour and so I climbed back into the cabinet and exited back into my mansion back in Melen to go check and see if the belladonnas were ready.

Once I got back to their rooms, I knocked on their door, and I heard Blake respond faintly. "One second."

And the door opened up and I blinked as I saw that the two did actually have some seamstress skills as they had taken the frills from their slutty maid uniforms and added some length to their skirts to go down almost to their knees while exposing a bit more cleavage from taking the lines of lace that was previously there.

"Tadah! Do I look good enough for meeting our goddess hehe?" Kali asked excitedly as she did a bit of a pose making me smile awkwardly as I saw Blake cover her face in shame.

Though I was certainly enjoying the eye candy as to saying nothing of Blake who had some very nice curves but Kali had aged like a fine wine with her curves filling out her maid-altered maid uniform very well.

"Yes Kali you and Blake look... Great honestly. But alright, Hepheastus agreed to meet with you both, but there is one small tidbit, we will be using a magical form of transportation to Orario that will only take a few moments but its kinda cramped to get through it." I explained quickly.

Blake actually raised an eyebrow at that and asked curiously. "That should be fine, though if you don't mind telling. How does it work?" 

At seeing Blake actually engage in conversation with me, I smiled at her coming out of her shell after getting some time to decompress so I began explaining the general workings of the Vanishing Cabinet.

How it was a cabinet/dresser more like that was created from a tree that had been split in half via lightning naturally with two new tree trunks being formed and using that sympathetic magical connection, the different dressers shared the same temporal space.

And once we got there. I said. "Alright, we gotta climb into the dresser and we will be sent to Orario inside the other dresser." Or technically the moment we enter the dresser we would be both here in Melen and out in Orario. The only difference was where we climbed out of.

Either way, I used the little kick stool, I left for Tina to easily climb into the cabinet and sit down in the back and I saw Kali giving me a look before she pushed Blake towards me with a smile as she said. "Go ahead and take Blake with you, have your goddess ask the needed questions like whether we are going to be trouble or anything. I will be patient ufufu." 

"Mom! I will basically be in his lap!" Blake whined a bit with a flush entering her cheeks.

And Kali with no shame said. "And I am getting closer to forty without any grandkids in sight, now get there before I put you in there young lady."