'An archer, and a highly skilled one at that.'
Rayleigh was surprised to discover that even when he focused on tracing them, he still could not find the flight paths of those arrows.
He could not follow their trajectories back to the shooter's location.
And now, the other party had revealed herself on her own.
Also...
She was beautiful!
Even Rayleigh, who had seen more than his share of beauties and goddesses, was caught by that face for a brief instant.
Her beauty was not the slightest bit inferior to that goddess of justice, and the divine aura she gave off made one thing clear.
This huntress was a goddess.
"Hello, Lady Goddess. I am not a bandit, as for these..."
Rayleigh glanced at the wounds on his body and, for a moment, found himself at a loss.
Because he suddenly had no idea how to explain them.
Should he say they came from a clash with an army?
There was a good chance—no, a hundred percent chance—that she would think he was messing with her.
"These were left from a battle." Rayleigh gave a vague answer.
But the goddess pressed further.
"With what?"
In truth, she had already seen that the wounds were caused by sharp weapons.
In other words, there was an eighty-percent chance they had been inflicted by people.
"An army."
"An army?"
Rayleigh sighed.
When he faced this goddess's eyes, he felt as if he could not lie to her.
So he chose to tell the truth.
"I fought against Rakia Kingdom's army."
He did not mention the scale of the injuries.
Although this goddess was beautiful, the more beautiful a woman was, the more likely she was to—
That saying had been engraved in his mind ever since childhood.
What if she was an evil goddess?
The chance of her suddenly attacking him in the next second was definitely not low.
'Rakia?'
The blue-haired goddess was clearly startled.
Then she asked again, "How many?"
"..."
"I'm asking how many people were on the other side."
Rayleigh took half a step back and said, "I didn't know anyone was here. However, I also haven't done anything offensive, so I don't see why I should be interrogated. Since you're using this place as a base, I'll leave."
This world was by no means a safe place.
If possible, he did not want to clash with an unfamiliar Familia while in his current poor condition.
"Wait!"
Hm?
Rayleigh's gaze darkened, and his body reacted.
He faced her from an angle that allowed both offense and defense, one hand already resting on his sword hilt.
That obvious readiness to draw was Rayleigh's warning.
But the other party's next words made him pause.
"You said leave? What kind of joke is that? With injuries that serious, where are you planning to go? Somewhere to die?"
'Huh?'
Rayleigh was momentarily stunned by that sudden concern.
Of course, he did not lower his guard.
A stranger's sudden concern, even from a goddess, was not necessarily goodwill.
There might be some hidden purpose behind it.
Seeing him frown, the goddess suddenly looked a little embarrassed, her expression caught in awkward conflict.
Just as she seemed unsure whether to advance or retreat, another woman's voice came from nearby.
"Sorry about that. Our patron goddess is a little proudly awkward, she's actually worried about your injuries and only wants to help."
"Letsa!"
The goddess let out a dissatisfied cry.
Rayleigh looked toward the newly appeared woman called Letsa.
The woman introduced herself. "I am the captain of Artemis Familia, Letsa. Nice to meet you. If my guess is correct, you are Yōtōsai of Hephaestus Familia, aren't you?"
This woman named Letsa had actually called out Rayleigh's identity directly.
That surprised him inwardly.
But what surprised him even more was that they were that Artemis Familia.
No wonder they possessed combat strength that was not inferior to Apollo Familia's main force.
Then the true identity of this goddess was the famous moon goddess Artemis, one of the Three Virgin Goddesses?
No wonder she had such beauty and bearing, even among goddesses.
He remembered that this goddess did not exactly accept men easily.
In fact, one could say she rejected them.
Considering that her Familia had around twenty members and every one of them was female, that was not hard to understand.
It made sense.
After all, she was a virgin goddess.
And Artemis was the goddess who governed chastity!
"You know me?" Rayleigh asked.
Letsa wore an expression that seemed to say, 'Isn't that obvious? What kind of question is that?'
"Of course we know you! How could we not? You made such a huge name for yourself in the Great Feud. Even those of us fighting around the outskirts of the city heard all about you."
Rayleigh understood.
He knew that Artemis Familia had also participated in the Great Feud.
However, he had never met them face to face.
So that was because they had been fighting on the city's outskirts the entire time.
Still, Rayleigh had heard about their activity.
After all, they were not a Familia based in Orario, yet they had still joined the struggle against Evilus.
That had everything to do with the sense of justice held by the goddess Artemis.
She was a goddess of justice and goodness.
"My name is Rayleigh. Nice to meet you, Miss Letsa, and Lady Artemis."
Since the other party had shown goodwill first, Rayleigh no longer acted as if he were keeping them at a thousand arms' length.
"Your injuries... They're really awful. I'll find you a clean house so you can treat your wounds."
After saying that to Rayleigh, Letsa turned to the goddess and asked, "This is fine, right, Lady Artemis?"
The moon goddess gave a tiny "Mm" in a voice as soft as a mosquito's, expressing her approval.
For her, actively asking a man to stay was something she had never imagined doing in all her hundreds of millions of years of existence.
Although she felt somewhat embarrassed and displeased that one of her children had seen through her thoughts, the concern she had shown came from the heart.
"Then thank you."
Rayleigh followed behind Letsa and entered the village.
As he moved deeper inside, he saw the members of Artemis Familia.
At that moment, all of them turned curious gazes toward Rayleigh, the lone man among them.
"Haha, sorry about that. Our Familia only recruits female members, so we almost never interact with men," Letsa said.
"I understand. There's a Familia like that in Orario too," Rayleigh replied, not particularly surprised.
When Letsa heard that, the corner of her mouth lifted.
"You mean Astraea Familia, right?"
Hm?
Rayleigh glanced at her in surprise.
He had not expected the other party to know so much about the situation inside Orario despite not operating there.
"Speaking of Astraea Familia, their performance in that war was dazzling! As another Familia made entirely of women, I've always wanted to meet their captain."
"That Scarlet Harnel must be a righteous, graceful, and decisive person."
Letsa's imagining left Rayleigh somewhat speechless.
Was that really Alise's image in outsiders' eyes?
What an unexpected surprise.
If that girl heard someone describe her like that, her nonexistent tail would probably shoot straight up into the sky!