Chapter 12 Hephaestus

Inside was a comfy office with a set of couches in front of a desk with stacks of papers on it. A bookshelf dominated one wall and hammers were lined up next to the shelves. The other wall held a variety of beautifully crafted weapons and armor. Most made from material that made no sense to me, like perfectly white metal or dull green metal. Those had to be from the Dungeons' many resources.

In the room were two people, one was a pretty dark skinned woman that was shirtless for whatever reason, only a bandage wrapping around her large breasts. Her red pants looked like those that I had seen in shrine maidens in anime, but with slitted sides giving me a view black leggings over her wide hips. A black eyepatch covered her left eye, and she gave me a distracted look.

It was the other woman that drew my attention, she had short red hair except a single tail at the back and wore a white collared shirt that covered her shapely breasts and long black gloves that ran up her arms. A larger eyepatch than the dark skinned woman covered her right eye.

But the thing that drew my attention wasn't necessarily the beauty, it was the divinity emanating off her…

This was Hephaestus' office and the only Deity here was the woman…

Percy Jackson himself talked about the ugly God from Greek mythology, the male one.

"Yes John?" The dark skinned woman asked.

'John?' I thought. 'He's never gonna be seen again, background character lookin' ass.'

The Goddess was looking at me, her one eye widening slightly.

"This young man would like to join our Familia."

The three of us stared at him for a moment.

"And why did you just bring him up here?"

The man looked at me as though I had a good answer other than I bribed him to break their Familias rules. Which I did.

Taking the letter Teshgar wrote from his hands I turned him around and pushed him out the door, closing it behind him.

'And there goes John's one and only cameo.'

"Soooo," I said, still staring at the Goddess.

"Yes?" She said.

I bit my lip looking at her for a few moments.

"Sorry, I just have to get this out there… I thought you were a dude."

The Goddess' mouth dropped open in shock, and I realized she would be able to tell that I was 100% telling the truth.

The other woman laughed, kicking her feet wildly, hitting the table once and cracking it in half.

Shit she was strong.

The Goddess hung her head low, breathing deeply a few times then looking up. A bit of a blush was on her cheeks from embarrassment.

"And who are you?"

"I'm Kova Nact, I'm from Altena, but me and my parents have recently been "displaced."" I said using my fingers as quotation marks.

"So-"

"Wait wait, before we continue I'd like to apologize. It's not that I thought that you looked like a dude, you're a very beautiful woman. It's just that I was under the misconception that you were male before I entered Orario. Shit- wait. Not that women can't be smiths, after all with monsters, gods and magic it makes no sense to hold people to gender stereotypes right?"

I didn't know whether I was digging myself deeper into a hole, my only saving grace was that she knew I was telling the truth.

She seemed even more embarrassed by the compliment than by me calling her a dude. The other woman saw this and gave me a thumbs up grinning childishly.

"So why here? Why my Familia," Hephaestus asked.

"Before I get into that… Who is she?" I asked, pointing to the woman.

"Hiya, I'm Tsubaki, captain of the Hephaestus Familia, Level Four," Tsubaki said waving.

Damn… strong and beautiful woman.

"Hmm, well good to meet you Tsubaki. As for you Lovely Goddess."

Exploit the weakness.

"I want to join a Familia that would make use of my skills instead of just," I motioned my body, "This."

She obviously knew what I was talking about but Tsubaki tilted her head.

"Being a cute boy? Well I guess so, from the moment I saw you I thought you'd make a great pillow," she said nodding. "At the very least we can't let him join Ishtar, no doubt she'd make him a super gigolo in a few years. He'd come back to break your heart, Goddess."

"Please Tsubaki, no that's not what he's talking about," Hephaestus said while rubbing her brow.

"Eh?"

Taking a deep breath she thought about it for a moment. "Do you have anything that you made with you?"

"Uhh, no. You see me and my parents recently escaped slavery so we didn't really stop for a smithing vacation."

"Really? You don't seem to have had it that bad."

"Just a few small scars," I said, showing the small slices on my wrists that the shackles had left.

"I honestly don't even know if you could call us slaves, we sort of just got away as soon as we arrived to Bast Familia."

"How did you escape," Hephaestus asked.

"A friend of the family invaded their headquarters and took the entire Familia hostage."

Silence.

"It was kind of funny actually," I added.

"How so?"

"Well after taking them hostage, we politely robbed them in front of their faces."

"Politely robbed them?" Tsubaki asked, enjoying the story.

"Yeah they even gave us horses to travel on, in fact it's thanks to them that I'm up here right now. I used the money to bribe John, bless his naive soul."

Their faces darkened a little at that.

"Tsubaki, go discipline him. Add him to some patrol teams for the city or retrieval teams for two weeks."

"You said a month? Got it," she said standing up.

Passing him she rubbed my head a little with a kind smile on her face. After she was out the door the Goddess leaned back on her chair.

"A half-elf, half-dwarf," She muttered. "Never thought I'd see the day that happened."

"Yeah…"

We just stared at each other for a minute.

"Alright, follow me. I want to at least make sure you at least know the basics of smithing before I just let you in. If you have adequate skills then we can proceed with the rest."

She stood up and walked out the door making sure I was following.

-Hephaestus-

She looked behind her to see the young boy following.

She had been able to tell his heritage the moment she had seen him. Not only her Godly eye being more perceptive than mortals, but her tens of thousands of years as the Goddess of the Forge.

Usually half-breeds had their non-human side dominate their features. Which is why she was sure that Tsubaki just thought he was a half-elf due to the slightly rounded out pointed ears and smooth skin.

But the more defined jaw and the broader bone structure that would never be seen in an elf were present, even his stance was a mix between the sturdiness of a dwarf and the grace of an elf.

Hephaestus also had to give Tsubaki credit when she said he'd be breaking hearts, like a piece of metal before the hammer she could already tell how he would shape out. When Tsubaki had said that he'd make a great pillow she pictured it and had to stop from giggling a little from the cute imagery.

Her psyche was still a bit damaged from him calling her a man, even though it had been a mistake and not because of the broken right half of her face.

Despite all that there was the fact that the boy smelled of trouble, but she still didn't turn him away.

"I'm too soft," she muttered to herself.