"What's this?"
Cid had barely sat down when Hestia shoved a shield into his hands.
It looked familiar. If he wasn't mistaken, it resembled the shield Laila had been carrying earlier.
"This is armor made for a first-class adventurer, you know? With this, you'll definitely be protected!"
Hestia planted her hands on her hips, smug.
If it weren't for the fact that she and Hephaestus truly were close, and that Cid's safety really mattered, she never would've been able to get this shield in the first place.
She personally thought a weapon would've been better, but Hephaestus didn't have the materials for a staff right now. The recent consumption was too severe.
Being able to make this shield at all was only because it was fashioned from what had been saved while crafting another shield.
"What's it called?" Cid asked, tracing the sacred script engraved along its surface.
"This child is called Aegis."
Hestia didn't expect Cid to know the name, so she said it plainly.
To avoid burdening him, she didn't mention that this was a god-made special piece.
But Cid knew.
In Greek myth, the most famous shield was called Aegis—associated with Zeus and Athena. Some tales framed it as the same artifact passing hands; others treated it as two similar divine shields.
Even Medusa's legend intertwined with it.
Even if Cid knew none of those myths, he could still tell what it was from the sacred script alone.
In Orario, most people used the common language.
Sacred script was the language of the gods, unreadable to normal people.
The blessing on one's back was written in sacred script too; only after being transcribed did it become readable in common characters.
If you stared directly at an un-transcribed blessing, even most adventurers couldn't read it—only someone like Riveria, with her royal elven education, might parse it.
But Cid could update blessings himself.
Which also meant he could read this.
The engraving read:
"A shield forged by the God of Smithing Hephaestus for her ancient ally Hestia.A divine shield named after the one I dearly love.By Hestia's will, display your power and glory to the one who bears her blood.Your master is Cid Rafeal. You and your master are one.One heart, one home; one joy, one sorrow; always at his side, sharing hardship together.Experience will make you sturdier. Grow together."
Holding the shield, Cid felt as if he could touch its heartbeat.
If his guess was right…
This thing was alive.
That wasn't strange at all, really.
By the engraving's meaning, Aegis was a divine artifact forged by Hephaestus's own hands and fused with Hestia's blood.
As a divine-grade item, it would grow stronger through accumulated "experience," and being alive fit the logic of such a creation.
Which also explained why Hestia had unconsciously called it "this child."
"Cid, you've been doing dangerous things, haven't you? You are an adventurer, after all." Hestia's voice softened. "But if you keep this with you, it'll protect you!"
She had absolute faith in Hephaestus's craftsmanship.
Even if it wasn't the "true" Aegis of myth, it would be more than enough for the mortal world.
Cid tilted his head.
"This must've been expensive. Where did you get the money?"
He wanted to know what price she'd paid.
If the debt was big, he could repay it.
With enough effort, raising his forging to god-tier wasn't impossible for him.
If the favor was truly heavy, he could even consider giving Hephaestus a small spark of technical inspiration—something subtle, something he could plausibly "explain."
Hestia looked away for half a second.
"…I have tons of friends in the heavens. Of course I got it for free!"
Her smile twitched, just slightly.
Remembering herself putting on a maid outfit in front of Hephaestus was, frankly, embarrassing.
By contract, for the next thirty-five years she would be Hephaestus's "dress-up doll."
To a god who had lived for incomprehensible spans of time, thirty-five years was nothing.
So in Hestia's mind, calling it "free" didn't count as lying.
In any case, she didn't want Cid repaying that favor.
Cid nodded.
"Then as thanks… I'll tell you some stories from my homeland. You've always liked books, right?"
In his poorest days, he'd considered copying "homeland stories" and selling them in this world.
Later he decided against it. He was broke, but not truly interested in money.
Stealing, for him, was more about "the poor deserve relief" than greed.
But telling stories to Hestia was harmless.
"H-Homeland?" Hestia blinked. "Aren't you an orphan?"
She'd heard from Astraea that Cid had been taken in as a child and raised under her care.
Yet she could feel he wasn't lying.
So what was this?
"My homeland is… kind of boring," Cid said, waving it off. "But it has plenty of stories. Tonight I'll tell you some fairy tales from there."
He didn't plan to explain.
He couldn't, not cleanly.
"Fairy tales?" Hestia leaned forward immediately. "Tell me."
She hadn't wanted repayment.
A god's affection didn't need a cheap return.
But Cid had hit the one weakness she couldn't resist.
She loved books.
She loved stories.
As Cid began, Hestia's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
Cid didn't know it yet…
But one day he would regret this moment.
And in two different ways.
The next morning, Cid went to see Finn—and immediately got caught by Raul.
"Brother, are you alright?"
Raul looked him up and down, then finally exhaled in relief.
Someone had reported that Cid had been cornered by a tyrant at his doorstep.
Raul had nearly lost his soul on the spot.
But Finn had stopped him after thinking for a moment, saying Cid didn't need rescue.
Finn's logic was simple:
If the decisive battle had already started and Cid had willingly stepped onto the battlefield in front of a tyrant, then life and death were fate.
But the decisive battle hadn't begun.
Cid wasn't even considered a frontline adventurer.
If a tyrant personally went to block the door of a Level 2, that was shameless bullying.
Finn believed that even if a tyrant had fallen into darkness, they would still have pride.
They wouldn't truly strike Cid.
So Finn didn't send help—he told Raul to rest and conserve strength for the coming battle.
Raul hadn't understood any of it.
He slept badly.
But Finn—wounded as he was—slept soundly, and Raul didn't dare go against his orders.
Now that he saw Cid unharmed, Raul finally relaxed.
"I'm fine," Cid said blankly. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You ran into a tyrant, didn't you?"
"Yes," Cid admitted. "But she didn't attack."
"She didn't attack, sure, but… weren't you scared?"
Cid's expression turned heavy with a very specific kind of sorrow.
"Does being scared have any meaning now?"
He was starting to accept it.
His background-extra career was approaching its dead end.
If he tried to "act scared" now, almost no one among adventurers would believe it.
Given how every performance of his kept being misunderstood, he was tired.
Maybe if he didn't perform at all—if he stopped getting "misread"—he might finally look like a real nobody.
And if even that failed, then he could only shout at the sky:
It wasn't his acting, and it wasn't his effort.
This world had ruined him.
"Meaning?" Raul's head spun. "Do you need meaning to be scared?"
Raul felt more and more that Cid and Finn were alike.
He couldn't understand Finn's words.
He couldn't understand Cid's words.
And both of them were calm in the face of tyrants at the door.
Was this what a commander's mental resilience looked like?
No wonder Finn had chosen him.
Cid stared at Raul for a moment.
"…Seeing you here makes me think maybe I shouldn't give up yet."
His fighting spirit reignited.
He had a template.
He still had hope.
He wasn't done.
When Cid finally met Finn, Finn only greeted him and didn't even mention last night.
"Cid, you're here. Today, just watch how I move. Learn."
"Yes, Captain."
Cid copied Raul's phrasing on purpose.
Seeing that Cid didn't seem shaken, Finn patted his shoulder.
"The future is yours."
....
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