The Privilege Of Not Worrying About The Outside Battle

With the battle inside of the city getting wrapped up without too much effort, the areas of interest shifted to the ocean outside of the city. Because the Primordial Deities had stepped in though, there wasn't much else to worry about for the rest of the city. 

The battle was taking place just close enough for people to see it —should they make a trip to the outermost ring and find a good vantage point. But because it was so far removed from the city, people returned to their daily lives. 

Whether it was resuming business, rebuilding their faction, or doing repairs on buildings, everyone in the city began moving on without too much of a fuss. If it was a person uninvolved in battle, they cheered the end of the quarantine and if it was a combatant, they thanked the heavens for the rest time they got. 

Among the residents though, two of them were instead preparing for the possibility they were going to enter a fight. 

Valencia, having given Astrid space for a couple of days after dropping the bombshell of information onto her, was... surprised to say the least. 

She could only raise her eyebrows at how fast Astrid had adapted and come to accept the situation. She had been prepared to give Astrid months, or even years if she wanted it. 

Then again, Astrid still functioned on mortal timescales... 

Not focusing too much on how fast Astrid got over it, and instead focusing on supporting her through the process, Valencia had continued to answer Astrid's questions whenever possible. 

If the question was "what's a divine artifact?" Valencia answered it by explaining the formation process in which someone would put divinity into an object and use it enough to have it linked to their name. 

If the question was "what's the origin behind the name Marcen's Cliffs?" Valencia still kept it serious by retelling the story of the duck they found and named Marcen. It had been sitting on the cliffside before the city was built and randomly threw itself off the cliff and thus, they had named it as such. 

And if the question was "Can I have a kiss?" Valencia would run over like her life depended on it and begin showering her with affection. 

Aside from that last question, Valencia wanted to ensure there weren't any major secrets like that moving forward, and truly tried to answer each question to the best of her ability. 

Astrid, on the other hand, didn't quite know what she was "supposed" to think. She thought it was... pretty cool? She was glad to still be alive to say the least, and it was beyond kind for Valencia to split off a bit of her very essence to save her life... 

There wasn't anything she could do about it anyway, so why not take it in stride and move forward? 

Using her patented "go with the flow" and "don't think about it too much" strategy, Astrid continued on with her life as usual. Well, except for sleeping. With Valencia explaining how sleep for them was more a mental thing than an actual body thing, Astrid realized she could get away with sleeping a lot less without feeling any more tired. 

Which was great! 

Having come to terms with her new situation though, her and Valencia's life began moving forward once more. Astrid, in the know now, still worried a touch about the current situation transpiring outside of the city. 

For now, Solomon had asked Valencia, Sylvia, and Estelle to all just sit back for now since they had the situation under control. With the three of them still in the city, they could keep an eye on the three major factions and cults while also keeping themselves fresh for fighting should the need arise. 

But if there was a development in the battle and Valencia was called... Astrid didn't want to see her get hurt. Glaring at Valencia one night as they laid in bed together, she had made her agree to a promise: either bring her as well, or make sure to come back if she was extremely hurt so she could get healed. 

Of course, most injuries would be fine, but with the scale of the monsters they were fighting, and the power they had, even someone like Valencia might run into grave danger... 

With everything under control for the moment though, Valencia and Astrid had decided to take a rest day and close the shop a couple hours earlier than usual while inviting Sylvia and Estelle over for some tea. 

Rocking up around two hours before dinner time, Sylvia and Estelle walked through the door arm in arm while bearing a couple of gifts. 

"Good afternoon, lovelies," Sylvia waved with a bag of gifts hanging from her free arm. 

With a hole going clean through Sylvia's hand though, where her divine artifact used to sit, Astrid just stared as her mouth fell open. "... Y-You're fine... yes. I keep forgetting you all have... more vitality? I'm not sure how to put it." 

"I'll be fine, my dear," Sylvia walked over while Estelle nodded along in agreement. "It'll take a couple days because the artifact is quite poisonous, but no need to worry." 

"Here, give me your hand, then," Astrid shook her head. "It's the least I can do since you two have brought so many gifts." 

With her hands glowing gold, Astrid pressed them against Sylvia's. A couple seconds later, black liquid began dripping out of her hand as the wound closed over the course of thirty seconds. "There you go, I'll be fine, uh... yeah, I've been a lot healthier recently because of the whole, you know, the intense healing factor from being a deity." 

"Indeed, well, it's nice that you know who we all truly are," Sylvia smiled while thanking Astrid. "Estelle, my dear, do you want to unpack the gifts?" 

"Sure~" Estelle sang, looking up from her phone. "Is the medical intervention done?" 

"Yeah, free of charge," Valencia raised her eyebrows as she floated all of the black liquid in the air. "What the hell is this stuff?" 

"Just some poison I synthesized," Sylvia covered her mouth with a light chuckle. "It could probably kill anyone who's mortal instantly. It'd cause internal hemorrhaging, hallucinations, nausea, organ failure, and nerve pain all at once." 

Following Sylvia's statement, Astrid, Valencia, and Estelle all fell silent and just stared at Sylvia. 

A couple seconds later, Valencia reached over and pat Estelle on the shoulder. "Stay safe out there, Astrid's here to heal you if you ever need okay?" 

"T-Thank you," Estelle stammered before breaking into laughter. "I'd be fine anyway. For the gifts though, hmm... what first? I got two gifts, one for each of you, and Sylvia did the same, so four total." 

"We can start with yours...?" Astrid ventured while craning her neck to look at all the bags Estelle was holding. "You're holding your gifts out right now after all."

"Alright~" Estelle sang doing a light shuffle dance while unpacking the gift. "Okay, for my first item, because you were complaining about being shorter than Valencia, I got you a pair of heels! They're also in a style I saw you didn't have in your wardrobe! They're probably a bit taller than you're used to but they'll make it so you're maybe a hair taller than Valencia!" 

"... You know I can wear heels too, right?" Valencia murmured while stroking her chin. "Those are very nice though." 

"You're like, allergic to dresses and heels though," Astrid teased while thanking Estelle. "These look amazing, thank you!" 

"Of course!" Estelle saluted with a wink. "Don't worry, I've known Valencia for hundreds of years and I've seen her wear heels and a dress... once maybe. For a punishment game we played. She's truly allergic, trust me." 

Cackling at Valencia's glare, Estelle just flashed a middle finger and stuck out her tongue. "Let's… move on to the next gift..."