The commotion quickly died down before that overwhelming display of force.
At least, that was how it looked on the surface.
"..."
But Aphrodite knew. The goddess before her was absolutely not the kind of woman who would bow to brute force.
Even after being threatened, the goddess had not wavered. She only faltered after hearing the voice that came right after.
"-Orion?"
At that moment, Misin had clearly heard it. A goddess's voice. And the emotion contained within it.
"Orion...? What is that?"
Her mind only grew more tangled by the voice she was hearing for the first time, even counting the days in the divine realm.
But no matter how she turned it over in her head, she couldn't come up with an answer she liked. That was especially true for a goddess who had spent her whole life never using her brain.
Gods were omniscient, but they did not know everything. Omniscience made of knowledge alone could not handle every situation. What helped one navigate those situations was not knowledge, but wisdom. And that was something Aphrodite, who had lived her entire life off her beauty, had always found very far away.
"Aphrodite."
"Hm? What is it? Have you finally decided to apologize to me— I'm sorry."
As she wrestled with her thoughts, Artemis spoke first.
Compared to the days in the divine realm, it was an absurd situation, but Aphrodite knew that life in the mortal world could change even a god.
Then maybe Artemis had softened a little too?
Maybe she felt guilty about trying to send her back just now?
Thinking that, Aphrodite the Great Lady began to puff herself up. But under the goddess's icy stare, she immediately raised the white flag and signaled her surrender.
She had no followers to protect her now. Aphrodite was not so foolish as to forget that she could really be sent back if she pushed too far.
"Wh-what is it! If you're not apologizing, then why are you suddenly talking to me?!"
"Why are you standing behind me?"
"Hah? What nonsense are you spouting? You're the one who said we had to line up, idiot."
That was right. The two of them were currently waiting in line to enter Orario.
Pressed right up against each other.
"Your place in line isn't here."
"What? You're not seriously saying that someone as absolutely invincible and super-beautiful as me has to stand around in line like everyone else, are you?"
"I didn't say that, but cutting in line is wrong."
"Sigh~ That's why people call you such a rigid stick-in-the-mud. If you're going to live in this world, you need to be more flexible."
The more diligent a person was in this world, the more they lost out. Artemis had never possessed such obvious common sense.
It was a simple principle: do what must be done because it must be done. And yet, it was also a principle that was somehow not simple at all.
Cutting in line was clearly wrong. But that did not mean she wanted to cut in line.
The only reason she did not cut in line was because she could not bear the cost of doing so. And Aphrodite was someone who could bear that cost.
Not least because she could simply make the people she was cutting in front of move aside themselves.
That was why she did not wait. She was a goddess who believed she had power, and that if she had power, she had to use it.
Yes, that was why she disliked Artemis. Just looking at this useless goddess who could not make use of anything she had made her blood boil.
"Then why are you here?"
"...Huh?"
"If what you said is true, then you wouldn't need to wait here at all. You could just go right in, couldn't you?"
"..."
But at those words, she fell silent.
Because it was true. From the beginning, Aphrodite had intended to charm the gods and gatekeepers in the front and enter Orario on a free pass without waiting.
That was why she had ignored the line and moved forward. And that was why she had found Artemis standing in the middle of it.
"...I just got swept up in the flow and ended up standing here."
"Then now that you've broken the flow, you can move on again."
"Why should the world's most pure and noble beauty have to follow your orders?"
"Or were you looking for me?"
"Wh-what?! N-no, you idiot! Why would I, the invincible goddess, stop walking for you?! Don't get the wrong idea!"
Artemis gave the suddenly flustered Aphrodite a suspicious look.
For the record, despite all her efforts to seem imposing, Artemis was taller than Aphrodite, so from the start she lacked any real sense of intimidation.
"..."
Knowing that, Aphrodite quietly rose onto her tiptoes, but Artemis had no interest in that.
"Anyway, the owner of that voice just now. Do you know him? How unexpected. You having a connection with a man. For a god who's never had a boyfriend, that is."
"...What are you talking about?"
"I heard it just now, didn't I? Your voice going, [O-Orion? (heart flutter flutter)]! You sounded like a girl who'd fallen head over heels in love! At this rate, shouldn't you give up that title of the chaste virgin goddess~?"
It was a voice record that had been distorted to the point of historical revision, but she could not deny that the emotion contained within it was anything but light.
The feeling that had spread through her chest the moment she heard that voice, and the dreamlike scene that had flashed by in an instant, were not things she could dismiss lightly.
"What, did you finally come to understand love now? But it's too late! Even if a wooden, utterly unlovable woman like you realizes it now, you can't just go around calling it love! Just because the other male gods say things like [I think the holy Artemis, that cliff-top flower, is better than poor Aphro-chan, who's cute and pretty in the face but pitiful in so many ways] doesn't mean you should actually start thinking you're more beautiful than me!"
"But my chest is bigger than yours."
"Shut up, you rotten bastard! I'm a divine ideal! The very embodiment of the golden ratio! Besides, if you think about your height, of course yours would be bigger than mine! You can only say that kind of thing if you're at least on the level of Hestia or Demeter! In terms of proportions, I'm the most perfect of all!"
"How nice for you. Being small overall."
"Y-Y-Y-You bastardtttt?! ...You've changed, Artemis."
In the middle of letting out a gorilla-like shriek, Aphrodite's mood changed as if cut by a knife.
Her earlier excitement vanished like an illusion, and in its place there remained a distant, divine stillness in her eyes.
"The unchanging goddess has changed. What happened?"
"...Who knows."
Rarely serious, Aphrodite's tone drew a casual answer from Artemis.
Her eyes held a faraway look, detached yet faintly wistful, as if gazing toward some distant place.
That was the end of their conversation.
For the record, Aphrodite had been standing on her tiptoes the entire time they spoke.