Buying a Favor

For the next three days, the group continued their journey uninterrupted. Although the scenery was breathtaking from the start, it started to lose its charm after looking at forest after forest. Hermes also prepared the supplies needed for the journey, so Kisuke and Yoruichi didn't bother taking out their own provision.

One thing they also noticed was that Artemis never ate any food and they heard from Hermes that due to her Divinity, she didn't need any sustenance like any normal Deities in the mortal world.

During these three days of flight, as Kisuke and Artemis bonded and talked about various things, which resulted in them getting closer, Kisuke noticed some changes on the spear, 'Not just Mana, but it also started accepting some of my Reiatsu-Ki? Interesting. Is this what Hermes is aiming for?'

On the fourth day of their journey, something out of normal finally happened as Kisuke, Yoruichi and Artemis spotted a mother and daughter pair being chased by numerous scorpion type monsters, "Descend!" Artemis hurriedly shouted.

Kisuke controlled the wyvern and approached the running pair while Artemis took out her bow and started shooting at the monsters with great accuracy. Yoruichi controlled her wyvern, so that it went towards the direction of the running girls, to secure them.

The scorpion type monsters were jet black, with red-light running through their carapaces. These monsters were as long as an adult person and their pincers could easily grab someone's waist and pinch them in half.

Although Artemis was hitting the monsters with her bow and arrow, the rate of killing them was very slow and the monsters were slowly closing up to the pair. She then came to a decision and stood up, intending to dismount and go into close combat.

However, before she could do so, Kisuke suddenly grabbed her collar, putting her back in her place, "What are you doing!? They're in danger!"

"Yeah, I know. So take the reins. I'll be dealing with them." Kisuke, without letting Artemis refute, suddenly passed her the reins and jumped down, "Kisuke! That's dangerous!"

Not minding her, Kisuke landed and took out his blade while also inspecting the monsters, 'Now this is interesting... It seems that their Mana is connected to a single source. It looks like a cheap imitation of the Dungeon.'

He then started to decimate the monsters with just his swordsmanship.

This scene startled and captivated Artemis. Although he was using strength and speed not any more than what she was capable of, the way he danced through the battlefield with his blade was something that she couldn't hope to achieve.

Different from all the Adventurers she met in the past, and even her own children, this was the first time Artemis witnessed someone move so efficiently and beautifully, where normal Adventurers would just haphazardly use their skills, magic and brute force to kill the monster.

A few minutes later, Kisuke was able to annihilate the monsters which threatened the mother and daughter pair. "Thank you very much for saving us!", said the mother while she bowed down to him.

While Yoruichi, Hestia, Artemis and Hermes were disembarking from their wyverns, Kisuke crouched down to the daughter and patted her head, "Are you scared?"

The kid shook her head and said, "I'm with mom!"

Kisuke smiled, "That's great~!" He then looked back towards the mother, "It seems that your daughter won't have much problems. Though you should stay close to her for a while."

"Thank you very much." The mother thanked him again with greater fervor.

"That's fine, but can you tell us what happened?" With everyone already around, Kisuke asked.

The mother then explained what happened these past few days while Yoruichi entertained the daughter with the wyvern as part of post-stress relief, so that the experience wouldn't leave any emotional scars on the kid.

According to the mother, it seemed that the monsters appeared a few days ago and started decimating villages after villages. Although there weren't many casualties, as they were able to run away thanks to receiving the news about the first attack, they all lost their livelihood from the escape. The mother and daughter pair, in particular, got separated from the fleeing group and was about to rejoin them when the monsters started chasing them.

"I'm sorry that I can't be of much help. I don't have any idea of what's going on aside from that."

After a few more questions, the group finally let go of the pair. As help, Artemis also gave them almost all of their food supply.

After they left, Yoruichi finally asked Artemis, "It's good to help people, but what are we going to do about the food? We only have a few pieces of bread left."

"Eh? That won't be a problem. I don't need to eat." Artemis answered with an innocent face.

Yoruichi could only do a facepalm after hearing her, "What about the rest of us? We need to eat..."

Artemis' eyes widened and she looked towards the rest of the group who nodded at her. Realizing her mistake, she immediately performed the greatest form of asking for forgiveness which she learned from Takemikazuchi, a dogeza, "I'm very sorry! Please forgive me!"

"What the hell... She's way too naive..." Yoruichi muttered with a twitching mouth.

Chuckling, Kisuke asked Hestia, "Is she really like this?"

Hestia sighed and replied, "I also wonder how she ended up like this. Back in Heaven, she was so strict and cool that some were even afraid of her."

"If somebody was to peep on her bathing, she would be like, 'Know your worth! You shameless swines!', and hang them up for a few months up to a few years on the tallest tree in her domain. Though some people would still continue to peep on her, most of which were arranged by Hermes because he and his group liked being scolded by her."

Kisuke and Yoruichi then gave Hermes, who was nodding to himself proudly, a dirty look, "Ah, good ol' times~." He then proposed to the group, "Well, the sun's going down. Let's call it a day, stay here for tonight and leave in the morning."

"W-what about the food?" Artemis asked.

"We can skip it for today."

"I'm really sorry!"

Hestia then suddenly faced Kisuke, "How about you take it out now?"

Hermes and Artemis looked at them with a confused expression.

Kisuke only smiled and said, "Yes, yes. But we first have to find a good spot for the camp."

A few minutes later, the group found a good spot and Kisuke, from the bag that he took with him, started taking out a bunch of foodstuffs that you can only find in various parts of Orario.

"W-what is that!?" Hermes stood up and asked in shock.

"A little tool that can carry more things than usual," Kisuke explained simply while distributing food.

"W-where did you get it?" Hermes asked again, 'If I can get this for Asfi, things would get a lot easier for them! And maybe, she'll be able to replicate it!'

Kisuke grinned at him and said, "I made it."

"Y-you made it!?" Hermes was even more shocked, "So you have the 'Mystery' Development ability?"

"I don't have any obligation to answer that," Kisuke replied.

Hermes knew that he was about to step over the line with that question, so he backed out from interrogating him and instead asked, "How about you sell one to me? I'm willing to pay the price!"

Kisuke stayed silent for a moment before giving a reply. He already figured out the connection between the 'spear' and Artemis in front of him. He was already 90% sure that this wasn't the real Artemis but she should be closely connected to the original.

Thanks to that and the fact that they were now going on a monster subjugation quest, Kisuke came up with a few possibilities and a few of those were not so good. If one of those possibilities happens to be true, then during this journey, Hestia will surely figure it out and she would be asking for their help. Kisuke and Yoruichi didn't have any intention of staying deaf to any of Hestia's pleas.

"I can give it to you for free~." Kisuke gave Hermes an answer.

Hermes knew that there was nothing more expensive than 'free' so he asked, "What do you want?"

"I just need a favor."

"What favor?"

"I couldn't think of anything right now, so I want to save this favor for future use."

"You know there's no way I can agree to that."

"I know. That's why I'd like to limit this favor to something that will help Hestia-sama's wellbeing. How about that?"

Hestia was a bit surprised when it suddenly became a topic about her, but she thought that it was just Kisuke's good gesture and smiled happily.

Hermes stayed silent for a while before finally nodding his head, "Alright. If it's about Hestia's wellbeing, then I don't mind."

"Great. I'll give you the bag to you once we've returned."

During their talk, Artemis only stayed silent and stared at Kisuke. It was unknown what was on her mind.

================================================================================================================================================================================================

Editors

Alexander: I've never seen the movie, but was Artemis really like this? Seems a bit forced to me, that she becomes such an easy heroine.

28th00: I didn't see it either, but I assume it's because she's a wisp, a shadow of herself? She's a fragment of a fragment, it's kinda impressive she's still sapient at all. She's on a timer though. Favours for Bestia are obviously for the best. I don't think that girl has a single malicious bone in her body. I think her epitome of evil would be to harass Loki with magical girl costumes… Wait a second, that's not evil, it's diabolical!

Goyya: Yeah, even in 1.5hour movie, within half of that time, Artemis already fell in love. I can only attribute it to her not having an experience and tried to push for it since her time is already limited. She wanted to experience love before she's gone.