Happiness

She couldn't believe it. After a couple of weeks of failure, rejections after rejection, she finally could start her Familia. She finally had her first child! She had no clue why he decided to join her Familia after rejecting her so firmly the first time, but she didn't care. Her happiness had overwhelmed her ability to care about such details. Her face was stuck in a permanent smile and her eyes were red from her tears of joy. She felt like she could fly and a happy giggle escaped her.

Her adventure started today! She would have a Familia filled with children of the lower world, each becoming like the heroes of the old, growing and growing thanks to her Falna!

"You're crying again," her first child teased.

She didn't care. She bobbed her head up and down, nodding furiously as the tears flowed down her irritated skin. "It's just- I'm just- I-It's my dream to-" She couldn't stop her stuttered sobs and herself when she looked at him—she dived into her future first child's arms again. He caught her and chuckled, rubbing small circles on her back. Her head came to his torso, firmly sitting between his pectorals. She laughed, her arms squeezing more and more. She didn't want this dream to end and didn't want him to leave her.

"I-I-" She stammered, trying to spout words faster than she could think of them. "I-I have to give you your Falna!"

"I think you need to calm down first," he cajoled, smiling a bit awkwardly at her.

"N-No! Uh, I mean- no… I-I just- we should get this done as soon as possible!"

"Why? Is there a time limit?"

"..." She gulped. "I-I just don't want you to leave me. I-I'm a useless goddess… I have nothing to give you..." She buried her head around him. 'I can't believe I said that!'

But instead of finding that repulsive as she expected, Tian sighed with a hint of fondness. "That makes it all the better." He laughed. Hestia blinked at his words, her eyes still itchy from all the crying she did. "I don't think I have much to offer either… More importantly, aren't we supposed to go somewhere? It's hard to move with you sticking to me like this."

Move where? He did not know. Hestia just told him to follow her, and they started to walk through the city. The crying goddess got them a few odd looks, but nothing he couldn't shrug off. And she was too emotional to care to begin with.

"Alright. Where are we going then?" Hestia lifted her head to his words, but was met with two pairs of eyes. She jerked back with a high-pitched, 'Eep!' escaping her mouth, watching Tiamat's flickering forked tongue.

"Oh? Were you sleeping earlier?" Tian said to the snake around his neck, who didn't stop glaring at the goddess. Not even Tian's careful administration of a healthy amount of petting could distract Tiamat from her mission of glaring down Hestia.

"W-What is that?"

"She's Tiamat," he introduced, expecting the question before she asked it.

"You have a snake as a pet?"

He nodded, a hint of pride appearing on his face. Hestia wouldn't judge. She didn't even care, so long as this snake was not a danger to him… which she suspected was a possibility, considering the animal napped around her first child's neck, her… her fangs really close to his flesh.

She bit her lips, looking at him worryingly. "Are you sure this… snake won't bite you?"

"Don't worry." He waved off her concerns. "I'm safe," he added when he saw the apprehension in her eyes.

She looked at him for a few more seconds, ignoring the snake. 'Does he not see the danger? What if — no, I can't, I can't act like this with my first child! What if he leaves me because I couldn't even trust him?' She decided to not bother him anymore with this, anxiety settling in her mind at the thought of Tian refusing to join her Familia.

She still sent an uncertain glance towards the blue length around his neck, her heartbeat faster than usual. A glance Tiamat returned before twisting her head around, making Tian's facial expression twitch.

"So, where are we going?" He asked, making her smile return.

Her first child! Her giddiness returned as soon as her mind went back to the most important event. Tiamat was already forgotten. "To the bookstore!" She decided, her voice high with emotions.

Tian simply raised his eyebrow, curious about the location and the procedure. What Old Hinks told him about adventurers implied they created some sort of link between the members of a deity's Familia and the deity, but he had no information about this link to him.

Soon, they arrived in front of a bookstore, one familiar to Hestia, because it was where she spent most of her free time. Reading was a habit she picked up to escape the boredom of Heaven. Since other deities wrote to escape theirs, she had consumed a lot of books up in the sky. However, mortal literature differed from what she was used to.

Deities, being unending beings, never pondered on the end of the journey. Gods saw everything from a scope of eternity. Tension, drama, conflicts didn't last millions of years—even the most deep-seated hatred would wash away with time between gods.

Therefore, gods often wrote about abstract concepts, wondering about the meaning of the few things which completely surpassed their understanding. But for the children of the lower world, every second counted, so even the slightest conflict could blossom into life-changing events in their imagination. The concept of finality was like a breath of fresh air for Hestia as an avid reader.

She wanted her children to become just like the protagonists of these heroic tales.

"A library?" She heard her first child comment, looking around inside the building. The librarian didn't bother asking for anything. He was used to seeing her here.

And she suddenly felt very self-conscious. She squirmed before gathering up the courage to look at him. 'What if he doesn't like books? What if he finds it boring?' — "Y-Yes." She nodded. "It's somewhere where we can have some privacy for the ritual… A-And… my- our home isn't close enough..." Her voice lowered with each word until it became nothing but a whisper. Her cheeks reddened at the small lie she just told him. She felt so embarrassed.

"Hmm," he hummed. "So what problems could come from someone else knowing about the ritual?"

He knew nothing about the procedure, did he?

But she couldn't stop her impatience. "I'll explain everything once I give you your Falna…"

When he paused and looked at her, she felt her stomach drop. 'D-Did he not want to do it anymore?' She gulped, her eyes trembling at the fear of being rejected once more, in such a vulnerable state and a critical time, stretching inside of her mind. She asked herself thousands of questions, wondering where she messed up.

"Sure," he finally answered. "So, how do we do this?" Her eyes shined at his words. A burst of relief and happiness surged from within herself, making her nearly slump on the ground. Fortunately, she held herself back this time, and with a smile reaching her eyes, she instructed him.

"F-First, take off your shirt…" she said, watching him reveal his impressive physique. She was a goddess and had lived for an untold amount of years. The number of gods who tried to court her was also unfathomable, all with the most perfect bodies. And despite all of that, she was one of the fabled Virgin Trio of Heavens.

She was not ready for what she felt when Tian exposed himself. She had seen a lot of adventurers as well, and their profession didn't allow them to not train their bodies. 'Oh…' was the only thought she could muster. Maybe it was because he was going to be her first child, but that her mouth gaped when her eyes traced his torso was quite amusing to Tian.

It was his chuckling which pierced Hestia's foggy mind, and her face flushed at being caught staring. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't- I-It wasn't intentional…" She was looking at everything but him.

"L-Lay down on your stomach," she said, gesturing to the couch behind him.

As soon as he hit the couch in the room, Hestia jumped on his back and wiggled a bit before finding a stable spot to sit on him.

The moment her hands went to the needle she always kept on her, she paused. The influx of emotion came back, stronger than ever. 'It's really happening!' She sniffed and her eyes were blurry, but her first child was patient with her, simply waiting for her to collect herself.

"I-I'm going to start…" She pierced her finger with the needle, letting her ichor seep out of the wound and the blood form a droplet on her finger. Becoming too heavy, the bead dropped on Tian's back, instantly sinking into his body.

She massaged his back, tracing the muscles, her hands roaming over the same spots several times over as if painting a picture. Her Falna trickled and seeped from his back into his soul. A divine link was formed, one which had Tian hiss, as if a bucket of icy water dropped on him. Hestia's divine nature bled into him. A cauldron full of flame formed onto his back. Words appeared, written in a language exclusive to deities.

Silence settled in the room. Tian, as if coming back from a dreadful experience, opened his eyes, and tried to turn around as much as possible with the weight on him.

"Hestia?" She heard him call out her name, but she didn't answer. Her mind was too preoccupied with what appeared on his back.

Tian

Level 1

Strength I0

Endurance I0

Dexterity I0

Agility I0

Magic I0

Skills:

Quintessence: Because one must know themselves, before walking the road of the sky.

Magic:

The Essence of Life: (Variable Chant Magic)

Alters reality following the way of the five elements.

#####

She laughed. She laughed until she cried, her laughter releasing the tension in her body. She didn't care of how abnormal his status was; all that mattered was he had one, and she was the one who gave it to him. She plopped down on his back, nearly lifeless, and hugged him with all the meager strength her mortal body could muster.

"Tian, my child…" she whispered, before repeating it—again, and again. Tian, feeling the tears pool on his back—and her large breasts squishing and deforming—sighed. Piecing the clues together, it wasn't hard to guess what Hestia went through.

He could at least let her have this moment.

#####

"So this is where you live?" I asked, glancing around the abandoned church, the noise of the main street fading away in the background. I had to admit it wasn't what I expected from the house of a goddess. Not its state, at least, because a deity living in a church made sense. The noise of the main street faded away in the background.

"W-Well… Yes. A useless goddess like me doesn't have the occasion to earn a lot of money. A friend of mine, Hephaestus, was the one who scouted this building to begin with. I could never get that much land otherwise…" she confessed, her voice trembling a bit. Considering all the crying she did earlier, it wasn't a surprise. I observed the church in question.

I noticed the situation of this area of the city when I first entered through the western main street. Never would I have expected I would live here any time soon. Not only the number of twists and turns necessary to reach this dead-end from the… livelier parts of the city was confusing, but the payoff at the end was disappointing: a rundown church, dilapidated and looking like it would crumble at any moment.

I even entertained the thought architects in this city loved to build mazes—first, Tsubaki's Workshop, now this entire district? There were no such things as coincidences.

"This piece of land was expensive?" My words must have been a bit more hurtful than I wanted because Hestia winced and her gaze went to the ground. "I'm sorry. I did not intend it to be a dig at you. I just want to buy a shop in the future… Did I tell you I was an apprentice blacksmith, by the way?"

"N-No, you didn't… You didn't tell me a lot about you, rather." She gave me a sheepish look like she took the blame for the blatant lack of trust I displayed. I held back a sigh. It seemed I was still stuck in the xianxia mindset, hiding crucial parts to even the one I would have to trust the most from now on. What I didn't hold back, however, was a light chuckle, my hand reaching my nape.

"I-I'm sorry. I was in a bad headspace for a while now, I'll tell you everything."

I would have never imagined the weight I felt disappear from my shoulders at this moment. The expectations I had towards the culture of this world made me feel like I was between a rock and a hard place all the time. I couldn't relax, in fear of being discovered. I was in a goddamn fantasy world, and I couldn't explore what mysteries this world would display. So many things I wanted to chase, so many things I wanted to do… I didn't need to hide my progress as a blacksmith anymore to Tsubaki. I didn't need to stop myself from exploring alchemy or the city anymore.

It was like I could breathe for the first time in this world.

"Are you alright?" Hestia asked me, concerned. She stepped in front of me, grasped my hand, and massaged it. I didn't even notice.

"Ah, yes. I was… I was somewhere else for a second, I'm sorry."

Hestia giggled. It was like the sound of bells echoing in the atmosphere. "You say 'I'm sorry' a lot, don't you?"

"I don't know, I don't think so… But if that is the case, well, bad habits tend to die hard."

She giggled again and led me inside of the church, a spring in her step and a wide smile on her face. Her previous shame at the place she lived in disappeared, it seemed.

I craned my neck back to observe the two-story building which once hosted worship and reverence. Now, it was left alone to slowly collapse under the might of mother nature, judging by the vines creeping out of the cracks in the walls—those still standing tall, because a few of them were in pieces, on the ground.

A statue of a goddess—who definitely wasn't Hestia—her smile half destroyed by time, was placed right above the main entrance. I only spent a wandering thought on the identity of this deity before we entered the building.

And to my horror, there was no security. None. The arched giant wooden door was already riddled with holes big enough they would probably let smaller people pass through them, so the lack of locks wasn't the worst of it.

My lips thinned into a line as I followed the happily humming goddess on her path. Behind the decaying altar, into the empty storage room, with distinct equally empty shelves, into a secret entrance right out of a bad detective movie.

The silence which allowed Hestia to go through her melody uninterrupted only gave me an elongated sense of discomfort. I couldn't help but facepalm when I realized the stairway, supposedly hidden, also had part of the walls surrounding it breaking down, as evidenced by the light sneaking through rather big missing chunks of the building.

This… This was a mess. A security hazard. I never thought things would be so bad. I spared a glance at Hestia—she didn't know. Either she didn't realize or she was so used to her home being essentially a swiss cheese that she didn't care. I couldn't let this go. I wasn't willing to live in an open house.

Even if it wasn't a xianxia, there were some elements of security I wouldn't budge on. Maybe people were not young master assholes, but they were no saints either. Living in such conditions was beyond optimism, it was blatant naivety and ignorance.

I kept my mouth shut for the time being, as the wooden door in front of us creaked before opening wide. My next thought disappeared as the scent of home rushed to through my nose, registered in my brain, and sent my synapses snapping in every direction. Wow.

I staggered, failing to take the next step as Hestia continued to draw me forward, because of the sudden influx of information—no, feelings—I just experienced. What was that?!

"Hm? W-What is wrong?" Hestia asked, seeing me with one knee on the floor. "Are you okay?" She checked my body visually, and I didn't miss the pink dusting her cheeks gained, even if I was still slightly disoriented.

"I'm fine, I'm fine… Your divinity is harsh on me, probably because it's the first time."

"My divinity?" She blinked.

"You're the Goddess of [Home] and the [Hearth], right?"

"Y-Yeah…" She nodded, still confused about where this was going.

"Well, when you opened that door, the feeling of home just overwhelmed me. I wasn't ready for it."

"...the feeling of 'home'? Could it be because of the skill or the magic on your status?" she mumbled under her breath.

"Wait, others have never told you that you smell like home before?" I asked. If this was a xianxia world, I would have tried to change the subject and make this blunder inconspicuous. Since it wasn't the case, I simply smiled.

"No, that's the first time I've heard of it. I guess it makes sense since I am the Goddess of the Hearth, after all." Her voice dripped with a layer of pride at these words. "Maybe your skills give you extraordinary senses?"

"Something like that, yeah…" I answered. Sure, not a xianxia, but I wasn't willing to share all of my secrets so soon.

Once I stood back up, we entered the main room of the home part of this church. The space available was a square and then one long part; the shape of a 'P' underground, essentially. The entrance was in the square, the door in the middle of the front wall, and two sofas face each other against the other two opposite walls. She gestured me to sit on the sofa in front of her once she made herself comfortable. Not even a table was present in the room.

Despite the austere look, the lack of security, and the lack of furniture, it really just felt like… like home.

"So? Are skills rare at the level I am? And magic?" I asked the questions which had been stuck in my mind ever since she gave me a piece of paper with my status written on it in the library. This Falna status so far was consistent with Old Hinks' explanations.

"Incredibly so. In fact… I have never heard of an adventurer getting his first blessing and having a skill, plus one magic spell," Hestia explained, her eyes shining towards me. "I-I can't believe it! My first child is so talented!" She couldn't contain her visible excitement and ended up kicking her legs repeatedly on the sofa, clapping her hands childishly, a bright smile on her face, while I watched on, amused. I preferred this Hestia to the depressed and crying one, and I would lie if her words didn't make me pleased.

I moved my left foot further left, only for me to pause as the sensation changed. I glanced at it—the wooden tiles on the ground, broken. I sighed; one thing needed to be said between us before we could move on.

"Hestia."

"Hm?"

"...you see how this building is rather abandoned and in an awful state?"

She nodded, unsure.

"I plan on renovating the whole thing. There's too much danger involved with the lack of security here, among other things," I cut straight to the chase.

"I-I see…?"

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