"Oh my, Artemis?"
"...Aphrodite."
A voice both familiar and strangely awkward.
When I turned my head, I saw the golden-haired goddess who had been entangled with me since long ago, staring down at me with an arrogant expression.
Come to think of it, she had descended too. I'd forgotten because I wasn't interested.
"You came down to the mortal world too. Hestia didn't come with you?"
"Hestia still has some time before she descends."
"I see~ I felt sorry for you being all alone like some loner, so I came to say hi, and sure enough. You're such a hardcore anti-romance type that you don't even have friends besides Hestia, so I guess it can't be helped~"
Oh-ho-ho! At that infuriatingly smug way of speaking, a vein bulged on Artemis's forehead.
"If you want to be sent back, say so."
"Hah! Sent back? What, do you think this is the divine realm? Ordinary bodies can't beat my cute little pigs anyway!"
"That's right, Lady Aphrodite!"
"You are beautiful, Lady Aphrodite!"
"""Aphro! Aphro! Milky-white A.P.H.R.O.!""""
"Ohohohoho! Hear that? The cries of these pigs! Your stiff little stone-faced girls can't compare—"
Thwip—ting!
Aphrodite's triumphant voice vanished together with a flying arrow.
The archery that had reached a divine level, one that even Level 3 members could not react to, brushed past her cheek in the blink of an eye, and a thin line of blood began to trickle down her face a few seconds later.
"H-hiee?"
"Lady Aphrodite!!!"
Her followers panicked at the injury to their goddess. But the goddess herself said nothing, only teary-eyed and frightened, staring at the culprit who had loosed the arrow.
"Aphrodite."
"Hic!"
"Are you really that confident?"
Aphrodite had nothing but beauty. In contrast, her opponent was the goddess of the hunt.
It was obvious which side had the greater force without even looking. And on top of that, her opponent was a virgin goddess, so even the power of her own divinity would not work.
How many deaths had she caused in the divine realm with her tyranny over the years? That was just my extremely personal opinion, of course.
At least in the mortal world, all divine powers were reduced to the level of ordinary people, so she had thought maybe it would be fine if she had followers with her. But now it looked like she wouldn't even get that much.
"Look, it's Aphro-chan (laugh)."
"Where, where? ...It really is. It's really Aphro-chan (laugh)."
"Aphro-chan (laugh). You still don't get along with Artemis, huh."
The local gods whispered among themselves as they looked at her. Aphrodite's face turned bright red at the sight.
Public humiliation made her body tremble, but now that she had realized she couldn't win by force, there was nothing she could do.
And besides—
"Lady Artemis!"
"Are you all right!"
Her opponent's followers were already rushing over here. In this situation, even the advantage in numbers meant nothing.
'Should I just charm them all?'
For a moment, she considered it, but then dismissed the thought. Even if she did, once the moon rose she would summon her temple anyway, and if she did something like that before then, she'd really be sent back.
Aphrodite rather liked life in the mortal world. She didn't want this little game to end in a place like this.
"Hah, still so savage. You're a goddess, and you're still just shooting arrows?"
"Hah?"
"I mean, uncivilized! Ignorant! The most ignorant of the ignorant! Hah—being the same goddess as someone like you is making my face turn red!"
"Hah?"
"That's why men call you the [Number One Goddess They Want to Be Trampled By]!!"
"Hah?"
"Lady Artemis! Please calm down?!"
Still, it was also true that she didn't want to back down here.
So she put on as much of a carefree front as she could and started needling Artemis's nerves.
Of course, in reality she was hiding behind her followers with trembling legs, only poking her head out.
She really was Aphro-chan (laugh). Or was it just my imagination that I could hear that voice from somewhere?
Artemis, who was dealing with Aphrodite, was not exactly normal either.
Her followers screamed at the way she kept saying nothing but [Hah?].
It was a reaction, a tone, that their goddess of all people would never normally show, and yet she did it only to Aphrodite.
Artemis and Aphrodite.
To put it simply, the relationship between these two was close to that of sworn enemies.
They each found the other distasteful. Aphrodite governed beauty. Artemis governed chastity.
Mixing these two was impossible—more than oil and water, it was oil and [Firebolt]. It was only natural they'd end up in a huge fight every time they met.
Usually it was Aphrodite who picked the fight unilaterally, but Artemis was not the type to avoid a fight once it came to her.
Just as Aphrodite disliked Artemis, Artemis disliked Aphrodite too.
However, unlike Aphrodite, who governed beauty alone, Artemis was also the goddess of the hunt.
What she hunted were beasts, and the goddess before her eyes was, in Artemis's view, nothing but a monkey that did nothing but copulate. In other words, a beast—and a hunting target.
"That's a bit much, don't you think?!"
"Oh dear, I said what I was only thinking."
"You can't even think it?! You're comparing a beautiful woman like me to a monkey?! You think I'm just going to sit still after hearing that, you jerk!"
"And if you don't sit still, what then?"
"Yeah, what are you going to do?"
"I'm curious too~"
"Hey, you in the back! Shut up!"
The difference in their combat ability was not merely severe; it was beyond heaven and earth. All Aphrodite could do was chirp away right up until the moment Artemis loosed her arrow.
"Hmph... Enough nonsense. It looks like you have business in Orario, but you'll have to wait your turn."
"Hah? Could you not talk nonsense yourself? There's no way I'd ever line up."
"This isn't the divine realm. You should follow the rules."
"What changes just because it isn't the divine realm? My beauty doesn't change in the mortal world either~"
Then she glanced around at the other gods.
"You'll let me through, won't you?"
"""Yes, Lady Aphrodite!""""
One wink. That alone charmed every male god present.
And not just the male gods.
"Ah, ahhh... so beautiful..."
"I want to be trampled by her feet..."
"Her scent... her warmth... ah, Lady Aphrodite..."
The goddess of beauty had charmed everyone in sight in an instant. Contrary to her frivolous impression, her standing as a goddess of charm was no less than Freya's.
Even Artemis's followers could not completely escape its influence.
"Kuh...!"
"Haa..."
"Oh my?"
They were not fine, but they had not fallen completely either.
Realizing that, Aphrodite's eyes lit with a little interest.
"Hmm, as expected of Artemis's followers. You're stiff~"
"Kuh..."
Slipping forward, Aphrodite approached one of Artemis's followers and smiled seductively.
At such close range, the follower's eyes began to unfocus little by little.
"Hey, you... don't you want to be mine?"
"Ahh..."
"If you come with me, I'll promise you the best time of your life."
It was the whisper of a devil. A devil of lust seducing a woman who had preserved her chastity all her life.
At the sticky voice that stirred up desires accumulated through her prime yet never released, the follower squeezed her eyes shut.
Hoo—
"Hiee?!"
"Hey, are you ignoring me?"
Slipping, her slender fingers brushed up the follower's lovely chest. With that alone, the sensation of her waist melting away made the follower's face flush, and sweetness seeped into the eyes she turned toward the goddess.
The other followers watched their comrade fall in real time. They, too, were not immune, and could only blush helplessly as they stared at the scene.
Gulp. The sound of someone swallowing somewhere seemed to speak for their feelings.
"Now, just one word. Say one word, and I'll give you sublime love."
"L-love..."
"Yes. Just say, [I swear loyalty to Lady Aphrodite]. That's all."
Ridiculous. She was Lady Artemis's follower. There was no way she would swear loyalty to another god.
"A-ahh..."
But contrary to what she thought, what came out of her mouth was only such a pitiful moan.
A woman wavering between reason and emotion, letting out a heated sigh. She should refuse, and yet every time the goddess's hand brushed her ear, her cheek, or somewhere else, her reason was shaved away in chunks.
There was no direct contact. No decisive place had been touched. Only the faintest brushing contact. And yet even that was enough to drive the woman toward ecstasy.
Sweet. The pleasure was like a blaze.
Pitiful. This half-hearted stimulation.
She wanted to give everything to the goddess before her right now. She wanted to savor the greatest love with this body of hers.
The follower's reason was being stripped away in real time. The reason pushed to its limit was about to surrender to emotion when—
"N-no, I can't!!"
"Oh my?"
With a sudden burst, she gathered every last shred of reason and rejected the goddess's temptation.
Aphrodite watched her with interest. As expected, to maintain her reason even with such beauty before her was admirable mental strength.
"What a shame."
"Ugh..."
But that was only endurance. She had not overcome it. She had merely buried the primitive desires of a living being deep in her heart, and their size was in fact far more intense than that of others.
Her condition was not normal. Her eyes were glazed, and a thread of saliva ran from the corner of her mouth. She could not control her body. Her heartbeat was rough, and her lower abdomen throbbed.
An expression full of regret and melancholy. It was a face that made one want to torment her.
Well, of course. There was no way she could abandon this rapture without a shred of regret.
If she had applied just a little more stimulation, if the goddess had truly tried to make her fall, she would not have been able to endure it.
Her legs were already trembling like a newborn fawn's. She had not collapsed, but she was right on the verge. Aphrodite stopped exactly there.
To her, a naive girl who knew nothing of love was nothing more than a toy to play with.
But she had no intention of truly charming Artemis's follower, so this was only harassment. Aphrodite's own version of generous treatment.
...Or so she sincerely believed.
"Aphrodite."
"Oh my, Artemis. If you're going to thank me, please do it properly? Say, [Thank you for not stealing my follower!] I mean, you should be bowing all the way to the ground in gratitude like a man who nearly got NTR'd by a golden sun!"
"I'll kill you."
"Beep?!"
That utterly calm declaration of murder. No, a declaration of godslaying made Aphrodite's instincts ring alarm bells.
That girl... was she serious?!!!
"P-protect me! Protect me, you pigs!!"
"""Yes, Lady Aphroditeeeee?!""""
Pipipipipiping!!!
With rapid fire, the divine archery that loosed dozens of arrows almost simultaneously instantly neutralized the goddess's followers.
"H-hwaaa..."
And just as the final arrow was about to pierce the goddess's forehead—
Flash—KWA-KWAKWAKWANG!!!
"Hii?! What now?!"
A bolt of lightning suddenly shot past the formation and smashed the ground beside them.
When the dust kicked up by the impact scattered in the wind, a small crater had been carved into the ground beside the line.
From the entrance of Orario all the way to the far end no one could see.
"Please do not make a scene!"
Compared to the attack just now, the voice was far too clumsy and unpolished.
Whether it was magic or a magic item, the awkwardly amplified voice reached all the way to Aphrodite from far away.
'W-what. They detected the commotion from this distance and attacked?'
Impossible. I hadn't felt the slightest surge of Mind at all?!
So this was Orario... the level of adventurers in the labyrinth city...!
For a mere gatekeeper to be this strong. The goddess swallowed nervously.
'Hah, come to think of it, I was being threatened by Artemis, wasn't I?!'
That threat was probably meant for her, but the goddess before her did not care about such things.
She would kill Aphrodite. Nothing else.
It felt as though she could hear a voice saying that. She was definitely going to ignore the threat and try to kill me—
"...Huh?"
That was what she thought, but contrary to her expectations, no attack from Artemis came.
She only stood there, blankly staring in the direction the voice had come from.
As if she had seen something strange, her eyes wide.
"...Orion?"
In a voice no one else could hear, she murmured that name.
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