Chapter 5: Shinobu: That Thought of Yours is Dangerous.
.....
On the question of where to base the Familia, Hestia's initial proposal was sensible enough — use the Guild-provided lodgings offered to newly-formed Familias, build up their falis reserves over time, and purchase something permanent once the finances supported it.
Kihara, apparently constitutionally incapable of doing things the conventional way, took her to the shopping district and bought a detached villa nearby. Eight million falis, spent with the same casual energy as eight hundred.
He had just become an adventurer. Where was any of this money coming from?!
Hestia found herself cataloguing the mysteries that seemed to accumulate around Kihara like weather. The curiosity was exhilarating in a way she hadn't expected — in the divine realm, a god with their full divine authority could simply know most things. The experience of genuinely not knowing, of having questions with no immediate answers, was something she hadn't felt in an embarrassingly long time. Every new puzzle he presented felt like a gift.
She was increasingly certain that descending to the lower world for his sake had been exactly the right decision. He was like a treasure chest packed with surprises — and somehow, she had the distinct feeling that she was the only one with the key.
To celebrate both the Familia's founding and the move into their new home, Hestia volunteered herself for dinner.
"The Hestia who couldn't cook in the divine realm is dead and gone. I am a new Hestia — a lower world Hestia — and I will absolutely produce a meal so good that Kihara-kun swallows his own tongue."
What followed proved, definitively, that not even divine nature was sufficient to override the fundamental laws of culinary cause and effect. Hestia knelt in the wreckage of the kitchen — which now resembled the aftermath of a minor military engagement conducted entirely in cooking oil and smoke — and stared into the middle distance.
"...Why," she said softly, to no one in particular. "Why is it like this."
Day one of the new Familia, and she had already confirmed herself to be a completely useless loli goddess. The evidence was, unfortunately, distributed across every available surface.
Kihara crouched beside her with a handkerchief and gently cleaned the smear of oil from her cheek.
"Everyone has things they're not good at. It's fine."
"Uuuu~ I'm sorry... I'm a goddess who pretends to be capable and then isn't..."
Hestia buried her face in his chest the way a small child seeks comfort after a fall, all defences simply absent. The soft, unguarded weight of her pressing against him carried a certain gravitational authority that was difficult to ignore.
[Oh my~ So you enjoy being bulldozed by a walking hazard, do you? Wasn't it just last night you were telling me that the flat-chested aesthetic is the pinnacle of beauty?]
[Only small minds choose. I, as a mature adult, elect to appreciate everything.]
[Hmph! Go sleep hugging your loli goddess then. I want nothing to do with this.]
[You really don't want to come out and meet Hestia?]
[I am Master's shadow. There is no need for me to materialise.]
[The honest version?]
[...Dealing with people is exhausting. I wish to be a quiet shut-in.]
"Um... Kihara-kun?"
"Mm?"
Hestia tilted her doll-like face upward to look at him. A faint flush of colour moved across her features as she worked up to what she wanted to say.
"I'm... I'm alright now. Could you possibly... let go?"
"Sorry. I wasn't paying attention."
"It's fine. I'm... I'm not particularly bothered, actually."
In the wake of the dinner incident, Hestia resolved to be genuinely useful. She had absorbed a considerable amount of knowledge about Familia management from Hephaestos — enough to know that a chief deity wasn't meant to be a mascot or a passive beneficiary. A proper god shared the hardships of their members and pointed the way forward.
She had, however, both overestimated her own work ethic and significantly underestimated how thoroughly Kihara had everything already handled.
She came downstairs the next day at noon, bleary-eyed and trailing sleep, to find a reheated breakfast waiting on the table. Before she fully understood what was happening, she had been guided into the bathroom, and Kihara was helping her wash her face and brush her teeth with the matter-of-fact efficiency of someone who had made a simple decision and was following through on it.
Judging purely from appearances and behaviour, the dynamic between them looked considerably less like chief deity and Familia member and considerably more like capable older brother and disaster-prone little sister.
This realisation, when it struck Hestia, produced an immediate full-body flinch. She opened her mouth to announce that she was going to contribute something — anything — when a fluffy pancake, gleaming with honey of a frankly unreasonable golden colour, appeared in front of her face.
"I picked this up from the Demeter Familia. Golden honey. Try it with the pancake and tell me if they work together — I'll get more if you like it."
The warmth in his voice and the easy indulgence in his expression hit like a particularly effective curse. Whatever she had been about to say evaporated without a trace. Hestia smiled the helpless, unguarded smile of someone who has stopped trying to maintain a position, and took the bite.
"Hehehe~ It's so good!"
"Glad you like it. What do you want tonight?"
"Hash browns! Made by Kihara-kun's own hands!"
"Done."
He nodded, then reached over with the handkerchief again to dab the honey from the corner of her mouth, and went back to cutting the pancake into pieces and feeding them to her one at a time.
From within the shadow-space, Shinobu watched all of this with mounting exasperation.
[Master. I have the distinct impression you are in the process of turning this goddess into a non-functional person.]
[Am I?]
[You genuinely have no awareness of what you're doing?!]
Kihara looked at the expression on Hestia's face — that completely unself-conscious happiness — and something in his gaze went quiet and thoughtful. The corner of his mouth curved with an unhurried, private kind of satisfaction.
[Getting her to a point where she can't imagine living without me... that has a certain appeal, actually.]
[...Master. That thought of yours is dangerous.]
Hephaestos had developed a nagging sense that something was off.
Since registering Hestia's Familia at the Adventurer's Guild, she hadn't heard so much as a rumour of Kihara — a fighter with enough raw capability to turn heads across Orario — doing anything remotely adventurer-adjacent. The Guild receptionist hadn't seen him a second time. He hadn't appeared in the dungeon. By all observable indicators, he had collected Hestia and promptly ceased to exist within Orario's normal social geography.
Concerned enough to act on it, she had her Familia members make discreet enquiries. The trail eventually led to the Demeter Familia, who confirmed that yes, a young man matching Kihara's description had been visiting regularly to purchase golden honey, and yes, he lived somewhere near the main shopping district.
Armed with an address, Hephaestos arrived at the villa without ceremony. Kihara answered the door looking faintly puzzled. She walked past him, located Hestia still in the middle of sleeping in, physically extracted her from the bed, and pulled her into the sitting room.
"Hestia. This villa. Those ingredients in the kitchen. Please tell me you haven't sent your own member into debt to fund your quality of life."
"Of course not — Kihara-kun bought all of it himself."
Hephaestos was not immediately convinced. Property near the main shopping district was expensive, and a standalone villa in that area even more so. "You're sure he isn't covering for you? Going into debt quietly and putting on a show?"
The effect was instant. The Hestia who had been cowering slightly under her friend's formidable presence snapped upright like a spring released.
"Absolutely not. Kihara-kun would never do something like that — take that back, Hephaestos—"
"You're right. I misspoke. I apologise."
"Hmph. Good."
Watching her friend rise to her Familia member's defence without a moment's hesitation softened the hard line of Hephaestos's expression somewhat. She followed up with questions about daily life, settling in to hear how the Familia's first weeks had actually gone.
The more she heard, the darker her expression became, until she had achieved a shade of displeasure that approached the truly geological.
"Let me confirm what you've just told me. For the past several weeks, you have been doing nothing of substance whatsoever, while Kihara manages the household and looks after you every single day."
"I am not doing nothing — Kihara-kun said that taking care of me is what he most wants to do right now, so I'm fulfilling his wishes — it has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to avoid effort—"
Hephaestos's fist closed. The vein at her temple made a guest appearance. She drew a long breath.
"Hestia. Sit. Down. Properly."
"Y-yes, ma'am—!"
Hestia sat. Ramrod straight. Visibly trembling.
What followed was three hours of uninterrupted corrective instruction, delivered without mercy.
.....
Thank you for reading.