A quarter of an hour later, inside Demeter's bedroom.
The pink-haired girl lying prone on the bed removed her top, revealing a smooth, fair back.
Demeter sat astride the other's waist, her expression solemn.
"Hilde, have you truly considered joining my Familia properly? As you can see, my children are all on vacation during this period, so there is temporarily no way to take you to raise your Ability Stats."
As the saying goes, one must go through the full set when putting on a show; the Goddess in charge of agriculture clearly understood this principle.
Hilde, needless to say, understood it even better.
"To be able to receive Lady Demeter's help and become your dependent, I am already very grateful. As for Ability Stats or whatever, hehe~ I don't care about that."
"Is that so."
Although she knew the person opposite her was acting to make Filvis, who was following her, lower her guard, Demeter still couldn't help but reveal a gentle smile upon hearing such heartwarming words.
In her heart, a trace of envy and jealousy toward her close friend Hestia rose once again.
As for why Hilde claimed to be a dependent of the Goddess of the Hearth yet did not possess Hestia's Falna...
Although Demeter was curious, she also understood what should be asked and what should not.
She hesitated no longer. The index finger she had pricked touched Hilde's spine, then gently slid from top to bottom.
To the side, the invisible Filvis frowned.
She was not that weak original self. Although she felt somewhat sorry for the pink-haired girl on the bed, since the other party had chosen to join the Demeter Familia, there would only be one outcome for her.
To be forcibly fed the wine of frenzy by herself, and then sent to the secret base to be locked up.
As for why she didn't just kill her directly...
Gods can sense the life and death of their dependents through the Falna. And Demeter loved her children considerably.
Filvis had no doubt that if a certain member of the Demeter Familia died during their imprisonment, the orange-haired Goddess before her would absolutely disregard everything and overturn Lord Dionysus's arrangements completely.
On the other side.
Even though she had made ample psychological preparation, Demeter's pupils still couldn't help but contract slightly after seeing the Falna information revealed on Hilde's back.
Heaven's Feel, Goddesses' Loving Protection, Reality Marble · Plane of Euthymia...
Cold Edge Martial Arts, Chakra Semi-Ancestor, Byakugan, Primordial Runes...
And fragmented Arcanum of Electro, Geo, Anemo, Time, Space, and so on!
Demeter was by no means a stupid person. Coupled with the fact that she had already heard quite a bit of intelligence related to the Hero King at the Denatus...
How could she fail to react at this moment? The pink-haired Spirit girl beneath her was actually a clone summoned by Levi Bright!
'Hestia, that child, how can her luck be this good~'
The orange-haired Goddess sighed with emotion in her heart.
However, she did not reveal a single trace of amazement on her face. Instead, she sighed, and while modifying the Falna information, she spoke slowly: "Hilde, your talent cannot be considered outstanding. You have awakened neither Magic nor Skills."
Hilde naturally knew her own true situation. Hearing Demeter's words, how could she not be clear about the other party's intention?
She went along with the flow and put on a dejected expression: "Is that so~"
"However, being able to become Lady Demeter's dependent, I am already very happy."
"You child."
As Demeter spoke, she patted the other's back. The pad of her index finger, which had been pricked by a silver needle earlier, accidentally left a drop of Divine Blood on the skin because she had deliberately controlled the wound not to heal.
Fortunately, because Hilde reacted very quickly, she collected it into her Inventory at the first instant.
Thus, it was not discovered by Filvis standing at the side.
"Rest well today. Tomorrow morning, I will accompany you to buy equipment, and then we will drop by the Guild to complete your adventurer registration," the orange-haired Goddess said with a smile on her face.
Hilde put on her clothes and nodded upon hearing this: "I will listen to everything Lady Demeter says."
Hestia Familia Resident, inside the Blacksmith Workshop that had undergone multiple modifications.
Levi, standing before the console, took Demeter's Divine Blood out of his Inventory.
Because it was fresh blood squeezed out without activating Divine Might, the energy contained within this drop of Divine Blood was actually far inferior to the Hestia Divine Blood stored in the Inventory.
However, what Levi needed was not the Divine Might of the God Demeter anyway.
Rather, it was the concept of 'Demeter's Dependent' contained within it.
The youth with short pale-gold hair raised his right hand and drew a rune.
He spoke softly: "Condense!"
In the next instant, the originally liquid Demeter Divine Blood truly underwent solidification, turning into a red gemstone less than one-twentieth the size of a fingernail.
Next, Levi took out a pre-forged Concept Compass · 6-Star from his Inventory.
He opened the lid and placed the Divine Blood gemstone at the center position of the compass needle.
Almost at the instant this operation was completed, the compass, which had been rotating randomly, suddenly pointed to the North.
That is, Demeter's location.
Levi's expression did not change upon seeing this. He simply pressed the button located on the side of the compass twice gently with his fingertip.
Then, accompanied by a flash of red light, the concept being sought changed from 'Demeter' to 'Demeter's Dependent'.
The needle still pointed North at this moment, but that was because Hilde, who had obtained the other party's Falna, existed by Demeter's side.
This Spirit Clone was currently closest to him, which caused the needle not to deflect.
In other words...
As long as he moved far away from Orario, or recalled Hilde, the location where Demeter's true dependents were imprisoned would appear on the Concept Compass!
Levi was accustomed to doing things thoroughly.
Unable to find a reason to let Hilde go out for the time being, he immediately had his other clone, Thrud, teleport to the outside of Orario with the compass.
He had set up quite a few teleportation runes in the nearby plains, forests, and grasslands during this period.
It was precisely because of this that, in total, it took only seven minutes from start to finish. The compass held in the golden-haired girl's hand changed its previous posture of pointing toward Demeter and Hilde. Instead, after a bout of rotation, it pointed toward a mountain village located to the southwest of Orario.
Thrud flew in mid-air, and while maintaining her 'Invisible' state, she activated her Byakugan.
Under the dual enhancement of X-ray vision and telescopic vision, she very easily saw the group of Demeter Familia members imprisoned underground.
It just surprised her somewhat that these people, without exception, had all fallen into a deep sleep.
'Dionysus... God... Divine Wine?'
Levi, situated inside the resident base, frowned slightly. He had thought that after finding the members of the Demeter Familia, he could solve the problem in one go.
But looking at it now, perhaps he needed to hold his forces back and wait for a little while longer...
____
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