Loki lay sprawled on the sofa, trembling, her face flushed red.
Hestia and Hephaestus looked at the limp Loki and confirmed it—Bell's magic truly triggered a stress reaction with the "Seven Deadly Sins."
"It seems Bell's magic really does react strongly with the 'Seven Deadly Sins.'"
Hestia was now completely convinced that Freya hadn't lied. With Loki's proud personality, there was no way she'd act so shamelessly in front of her otherwise. Loki was way too proud to lose her composure like that.
"Loki's just too weak—she can't even handle that little bit of stimulation."
"Bullshit!"
Loki, limp on the sofa, was furious. If her body weren't so soft and weak right now, she'd have jumped up and kicked that shorty across the room.
"That reaction..."
Her voice trailed off. The heat on her cheeks reminded her of that overwhelming, near-death feeling from moments ago—a sensation impossible to describe in words, leaving her legs weak.
She couldn't even begin to explain it. That kind of almost dying pleasure simply defied description.
As a shameless old pervert, Loki had no problem teasing her own kids in public—but when the tables turned, her embarrassment skyrocketed for absolutely no reason.
In any case, there was no way she was saying that out loud.
"Anyway, that's what happened!"
"Who even knows what your 'that' means."
Hestia muttered under her breath—but not quietly enough. The three goddesses heard her loud and clear.
The veins on Loki's forehead bulged. She really wanted to kick this idiot.
Hephaestus reached out to pull Hestia back before she could provoke Loki any further.
"Didn't expect the 'Seven Deadly Sins' to react to Bell's magic like that."
Hephaestus wasn't sure if this counted as a side effect, but seeing neither Freya nor Loki wanted to dwell on it, she decided to drop the topic.
"Bell, you can sit down now."
Relieved to finally be off the hook, Bell let out a small sigh and sat back down.
At that moment, Loki, still limp and weak, crawled over to lean against Bell. The move instantly drew all three goddesses' stares, but Loki didn't seem to care in the slightest.
"What? I'm innocent! You all treated me like a test subject—can't I at least enjoy myself a little?"
Her brazen tone made all three goddesses twitch at the corners of their eyes.
'You sure didn't sound like you were suffering when you were screaming earlier.'
Still, seeing Loki trembling and barely able to move, it didn't look like she could do much of anything now.
"Just lie down."
Hestia pouted. Though a bit irritated, she wasn't jealous enough to start a fight—she could be magnanimous. Humph.
"Hmph."
Loki snorted softly, then rested her head on Bell's lap without another word. She'd already embarrassed herself thoroughly—might as well be shameless and take what comfort she could.
Bell, meanwhile, could only give a helpless smile, looking down at this goddess-turned-old pervert.
'If Captain Finn and the others saw Loki like this, their eyes would probably fall right out of their heads.'
Then, suddenly remembering what happened yesterday, Bell spoke up.
"Loki, has Dionysus been making any moves lately?"
"Him? He's actually been pretty quiet recently. I've been keeping tabs on him in secret—he's mostly been active around the commercial district these days."
"It's not just him. Even the Evilus have gone unusually silent. Those probing actions they used to pull every now and then have stopped completely, and even adventurer-related crimes in Orario have dropped a lot."
Loki paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts before sharing the intelligence she'd collected over the past few days.
"After all, Orario's hostility toward the Evilus has already reached its limit. The Guild put out such a massive bounty that any Evilus member who dares to show their face becomes an instant target for adventurers. Those guys aren't stupid enough to test that."
The city's hatred for the Evilus had reached its peak. And with money fueling that sentiment, it had practically turned into a citywide resistance movement.
"Still, there's been a bit of news lately related to them."
"Reports from the City of Rivira mentioned sightings of Evilus members, along with rumors of a missing female elf slaughtering adventurers."
That matched up perfectly.
Bell gave a small nod.
"So it's the same pattern after all. No wonder that female elf walked right into the trap."
"Here's what happened."
Bell briefly explained the events that had occurred in the Dungeon and shared his deductions about the situation.
"Wait, one of Astrea's children is still in Orario? And she's working at Freya's tavern?"
Hestia looked utterly shocked. The image of a green-haired elf came to mind. She often visited the "Hostess of Fertility," so she was quite familiar with that waitress.
"I heard all of Astrea's children died in the Dungeon. I didn't expect one of them to still be alive in Orario."
But as she thought about it more carefully, something didn't sit right.
"Then why isn't Astrea herself in Orario?"
Bell had an answer for that.
"She was probably persuaded to leave by that elf."
"From what I've gathered, after Astrea's familia was almost completely wiped out seven years ago, the only survivor has been secretly hunting for Evilus information and exacting the bloodiest revenge on them she can."
"Maybe she didn't want her Familia God to stay in such a painful place… or maybe she'd already resolved to die, prepared to give everything for vengeance."
So that's how it was...
Those words struck Hestia deeply.
She knew better than anyone how devastating it was for a god to lose their children. Even imagining it made her chest tighten painfully.
"Those bastards again."
Hestia's brows knitted, her face clouded with anger.
Astrea had been one of her closest friends in Tenkai, and to think she'd suffered such a tragedy…
Despite her strong sense of justice, Astrea had never been an overbearing goddess—she was gentle and reasonable.
And yet, she'd been targeted by the Evilus, her entire familia nearly wiped out.
In that moment, Hestia truly understood what kind of monsters the Evilus really were.
...
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