Hephaestus's eyes widened when she understood the implication of what the boy had just said.
The weapon was his. The same boy who claimed he could heal her wound—a god's wound. The weapon belonged to him.
'Was all of this planned?' That was her first thought. The coincidence was so absurd that it was hard to believe. But even if it wasn't a coincidence, didn't that mean the boy's claim became that much stronger?
"Are you certain the items are yours?" Hephaestus asked with narrowed eyes. In this regard, she wouldn't tolerate any jokes or lies.
"Can't you tell whether I'm lying or not? If you can't, then your claim to be a real goddess is at doubt, not my claim to those items." Orion looked at her with eyes that almost made her feel like he was mocking her.
She wished to refute it. This mortal was a bit too casual with a goddess. However, he was a witty one.
"Tell me clearly, are those items yours?" Hephaestus asked with irritation evident in her voice.
"Yeah, mine. Both of them." Orion understood what she was trying to do. She needed him to say directly that those items were his, in a way that he couldn't twist the truth.
Gods could tell lies apart from truth, but they couldn't tell partial lies apart from full truth. This way, she could be certain that the items were his.
Hephaestus just kept her ruby-red eye on him.
'He wasn't lying.'
Instead of relieving her doubts, this only made her more troubled.
Questions arose in her mind—questions like who this boy was, how he got those weapons, how Hestia came to know him, whose child he was if he wasn't Hestia's, and of course, knowing the uniqueness of the items, the one question which for the first time truly became exponential inside her head—
Could he really heal her?
She seemed to stare at him for a little too long for comfort, to the point Hestia had to appear between both of them to bring her out of her reverie.
"What are you thinking, Hephaestus? Why did you stop talking?" Hestia waved her hands rapidly in front of her red-haired friend, to the point it created afterimages.
Irritated, Hephaestus snorted and pulled back.
"I'm alright. I was just thinking," she said, trailing off as her eye fell back on Orion.
"So can I get my weapons back?" Orion asked, completely uninterested in whatever the red-haired goddess was cooking in that godly brain of hers.
"NO!" Hephaestus seemed to jerk upright at that, taking two steps toward where those weapons were kept, almost protectively.
"Excuse me?" Orion folded his arms, half amused at the reaction and partially done with all this roundabout way just to get his weapons and go back home.
'Wait…' he paused. 'Isn't Hestia's church actually her place? Meaning if this redhead wished, we could be homeless in seconds.'
That toned down his earlier attitude a bit—from not caring to caring a little more.
"Ahem… do you have some business with the weapons, Lady Hephaestus?" he asked, this time with a bit more respect.
If her earlier reaction hadn't already made her think she made a fool of herself, then this sudden tone of respect from the boy surely confused her.
"Hmm, yes. I do have some sort of professional interest in those weapons of yours." Hephaestus didn't know what brought this sudden shift in tone, but she would take it.
"Professional curiosity?" Orion raised his brows.
Hephaestus folded her arms, once again taking a confident stance before stating, "Those weapons—they are unlike anything I have seen. Where did you get them?"
"They appeared in front of me."
Hephaestus blinked. How absurd that answer was—she didn't need to ask anyone to prove it. But surprisingly enough, it was the truth.
"What do you mean they appeared in front of you?"
"Just as it sounds. They appeared in front of me. As for how, why, and when, those would force me to reveal intel about myself which I would rather not disclose."
Hephaestus's lips pursed tightly. She knew quite well that pushing any adventurer from another Familia for their status intel was frowned upon. Even among gods it was an unspoken rule. Even if Orion was from an unknown small Familia, she wouldn't force him.
"Ahem… then how about this. Tell me your price. I'll buy them from you," she offered.
"No… I don't want to sell them." Orion outright shook his head.
Hephaestus's brow seemed to twitch at that.
"Are you certain? I'm ready to pay a handsome fee for them. How about 500 million Valis?" Hephaestus offered.
Hestia, listening until now, felt like the ground beneath her crumbled upon hearing that amount.
'F-f-five hundred million…' she gulped. Her eyes for a second lingered on Hephaestus. She never knew her friend had a thing for jokes at times like this.
But upon seeing the serious face of Hephaestus, Hestia knew she wasn't joking. Her eyes darted then toward the weapons themselves. Countless times she had seen Orion handling them casually, and she had almost always ignored them.
'Do they really cost that much?'
Finally her eyes landed on Orion.
Who remained unshaken.
'Wait… is he still not planning on selling them?' Hestia almost panicked. Chances like this hardly came. She had to help him make the best deal for them.
Before she could even open her mouth, Hephaestus, seeing the unmoved Orion, narrowed her eye and increased the amount.
"How about 700 million Valis?" she offered.
Hestia could only feel the tension increasing.
Orion was still unmoved.
Five hundred million was already the price of the most expensive weapon sold in her own shop. Knowing the nature of the weapons, she had started from there. But the boy wasn't budging a bit.
Gritting her teeth, Hephaestus increased the amount again.
"How about 1 billion Valis? This is the highest price you will ever receive in Orario," Hephaestus said.
"W-wait… what?! A b-b-billion~" Hestia felt like her soul left the lower world and returned to heaven.
"Orion… Orion, sell them. Sell them right now." She almost sounded like a certain useless goddess he had come to know.
"NO…" Orion was unwavering on this stance. He wasn't selling his Uchigatana for a mere billion Valis. Over time he could earn that much, but he might never get another weapon that suited him like that weapon from the Lands of Reed.
In fact, Uchigatana wasn't even from the Lands Between, where Elden Ring took place. It was from another land called the Lands of Reed—a place never mentioned again in the game outside the origin of the blade itself.
He could get countless items from the Lands Between, but this one weapon was one of its kind.
Hephaestus kept staring into Orion's eyes. Hypnotic as they were, she couldn't find any ripple in them. They were just as steady as when he first arrived.
"Boy, do you even know what a billion Valis is worth?" she asked in almost personal irritation, seeing not even a grain of reaction from him.
"I know," Orion answered.
"Now more than anything, after knowing what kind of price you are ready to pay for them," Orion said coolly.
That only drew more irritation from the red-haired goddess.
"However, I don't wish to sell those items. Perhaps the shield, but not the sword. That is not just my main weapon, but a weapon that works well for me. I don't intend to sell it."
Hephaestus just stared at him, wondering whether he would fumble at that.
But he didn't.
"Though… I might sell something similar to you for the right price."
That drew both Hephaestus's and Hestia's attention.
"There are more?!" Hephaestus snapped at him like he had committed a crime by not starting the conversation with that in the first place.
xXx
A/N : Did you like the conversation ? I don't do things much back and forth between characters so can't say. Hope you like the chapter.
Tell me in the comments and also give some stones, that would help a ton.