The child that Loki had set her sights on, the one she'd schemed and fought to snatch away from Hephaestus…
Ended up getting turned away by Loki's own familia when the kid showed up at their doorstep.
Their reason? "Too strong—definitely not here to join us." Just kicked 'em right out.
Word of something like this spreads like wildfire among the gods.
Adventurers might gossip behind closed doors, maybe mutter a thing or two about Loki's lot.
But the gods? They don't hold back. After hearing what went down, some deities—especially those who'd been messed with by Loki before—even started throwing parties, boasting about how they'd take in that child named Alice as their own.
Then they'd parade her right in front of Loki's face just to rub it in.
So…
Even though Loki herself had given up the search, other gods started sending their children to look for Alice's little shop.
Of course, so far, no one's found a thing.
Pretty much all the gods caught wind of what happened with Loki.
Hephaestus definitely heard about it too. After all, she was the one Loki had beaten out to get the kid—even if the kid ended up slipping away.
And honestly? It was Hephaestus who let it slip that both of them had been trying to recruit Alice in the first place.
So when Hephaestus heard that Bete from Loki's familia had driven Alice off, she couldn't help but feel a little pleased.
After all, now there was no way Alice would want to join Loki's familia. Which meant Hephaestus had a real shot at getting her to join her own.
She'd even sent her captain, Tsubaki, to look for Alice.
But so far, Tsubaki hadn't found anything either, which was starting to annoy Hephaestus.
"Hephaestus! I'm baaack~~~!"
Just as Hephaestus was stewing, the door to her workshop flew open. In stumbled a petite figure with… impressively generous assets up top, reeking of alcohol.
Seeing her best friend wobbling in, liquor bottle in hand and completely sloshed, Hephaestus's already simmering temper flared up.
"Hestia, who did you go drinking with this time?" Hephaestus glared coldly.
"Hic~~~" Hestia's face was flushed from the booze. "It was Miach~~ I got some divine sake from Soma—this one's for you~~"
She swayed over to Hephaestus and plopped the bottle down on her worktable.
"Hey, hey~~ Hephaestus, I heard you and Loki were fighting over something and you lost, right? Hic~~"
Hestia kept hiccupping, and with each one, the stench of alcohol poured out of her mouth.
Now, when gods descend to the lower world, they take on mortal bodies—but they're still gods. Their bodies usually have a self-cleaning function.
But right now, Hestia was drunk. So that smell…
Hephaestus frowned, reached out, and planted her hand right on Hestia's face, pushing her away. With her other hand, she pinched her nose. "Forget about me for a second."
"Even the cheap version of Soma's sake is crazy expensive. You've been mooching off me this whole time—where'd you get the money? Don't tell me you stole it from me again."
"Hehe… Bingo!"
Hestia gave Hephaestus a thumbs-up.
"Oh, right! Hephaestus, where's your bed? I need to sleeeep~~~"
She started wobbling toward Hephaestus's bedroom.
Watching her, Hephaestus sighed. "And here I thought you might finally come to your senses—that you'd want to work hard and start your own familia."
"But no. You've been living with me for ages without a single ambition. You're just… ridiculously comfortable being a freeloader."
Hephaestus stood up, walked right up behind Hestia, and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
"You want a bedroom? I've got a huge place all ready for you. All yours. Aren't you thrilled?"
She started dragging Hestia right out of the room.
"Hephaestus, stoop~ I can walk on my own~~" Since she was being dragged by the neck, Hestia was stumbling backward awkwardly.
"But, a big house? Hephaestus, you really are my best friend! Love you~~ Snore~~~"
"Yeah, yeah…" Hephaestus replied dismissively. Then she felt Hestia go limp in her grip. She glanced back—yep, drunk Hestia had passed out cold.
Hephaestus took a deep breath, then bent down, scooped Hestia up, and tossed her over her shoulder.
"Whether you're drunk or asleep, I'm kicking you out today."
She'd made up her mind.
Carrying Hestia, she walked out of Babel and headed toward the outskirts of Orario.
About thirty minutes later, Hephaestus arrived at a run-down church. She went inside, straight into the living quarters, and dumped Hestia onto a bed that was still somewhat intact.
As a blacksmith, Hephaestus was plenty strong, and Hestia was light. Even after carrying her for half an hour, Hephaestus wasn't even winded.
She glanced at Hestia, still dead to the world, raised an eyebrow, and nodded in satisfaction.
She pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket, wrote down her final act of tough love for her dear friend, then turned and walked out of the church without looking back.
One problem solved. Feeling satisfied, Hephaestus returned to her familia.
--+--
When Hestia finally woke up, she was completely disoriented.
"Where am I? Hephaestus! Where are you?!"
After calling out a couple times with no answer, she noticed a piece of paper on the room's only table.
"Ugh, my head… What's this? Did Hephaestus write this?"
Battling a hangover headache, she got out of bed, walked over to the table, and picked up the note.
It was in Hephaestus's unmistakable handwriting.
[To the unnamed goddess who has been mooching off the Hephaestus Familia for three full months: Said goddess and her familia can no longer support your freeloading.]
[Therefore, this abandoned church on the outskirts is hereby gifted to the goddess Hestia. It is hoped that Lady Hestia will use it to establish her own familia.]
Those two short lines short-circuited Hestia's brain.
She stared at the note for a long moment before it finally sank in.
"Don't tell me… Hephaestus dumped me?"
--+--
T/N: It might be because of the anime, but I really didn't like how annoying(?) they made hestia lowk
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
20+ advanced chaps on my patreon.
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.