Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos
chapter-217

Vahn noticed that Hestia was acting a bit peculiar so he looked over his shoulder and asked, "Is there anything strange?" Since he could see his Status whenever he wanted, Vahn didn’t actually need to confirm anything but still thought it polite to ask. This was her first time performing the ceremony, so Vahn thought she was just getting caught up in the moment. It wasn’t the first time someone touched his body, so he didn’t feel strange having her stroke his back since he was also enjoying the sensations coming from certain parts of her body.

Hestia broke from her dazed state and gave an awkward laugh before she dismounted his back and handed him the sheet with his updated Status. Vahn gave it a cursory glance before handing it back to her for safe-keeping. It was common practice for the gods and goddesses of a Familia to track the growth of their ’children’ in books. There were some that even kept journals and recorded significant events and achievements to help inspire the future generations.

After he put on the rest of his clothes, Vahn told Hestia that they could eat at the Hostess of Fertility and explained about the matters regarding Milan and Tina. Hearing that they were prospective members of the Familia in the future, Hestia was excited to meet the two girls. She had already heard the story from Hephaestus previously, and now she would get to meet them personally. Hestia felt especially sorry for Milan, since even now her ears and tail hadn’t fully recovered. She usually worked in the back of the kitchen, out of sight from others, though Vahn noticed there was a fine coat of fur beginning to come in.

Something strange had happened while they were eating, however, when Hestia met some of the waitresses of the Hostess of Fertility. She didn’t know who was close to Vahn and what intentions everyone had, so seeing so many women acting affectionately with him made her feel frustrated. Vahn tried introducing everyone to Hestia and explained the matter about having joined her Familia. Though they all seemed to get along with each other and politely greeted her, Hestia held onto Vahn’s arm possessively and gave each of the women a ’fierce’ look.

As if finding something interesting, when Vahn and Hestia were about to leave, Chloe decided to tease the petite goddess by approaching Vahn. Hestia immediately entered a ’high-alert’ status while Vahn acted like it was perfectly normal as he allowed Chloe to get close enough to embrace his body. Without any hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her waist and the two began kissing within the confines of the private booth.

Hestia had an incredulous expression on her face as she pointed at Chloe with a shaky index finger and shouted, "Eeeii~! You thieving cat!" She then tried to separate the two and Vahn felt for the first time that he had underestimated Hestia’s personality. Though he remembered that she acted this way when it came to Bell, he never expected her to have such a drastic reaction regarding him. He had even explained the situation earlier and talked about his relationship with Chloe.

Chloe allowed herself to be separated from Vahn as she began laughing in a cheerful, yet mischevious, manner. She turned her back slightly and waggled her butt in a cute manner while showing off the blue ribbon that was remarkably similar in color to the ones Hestia wore. Chloe stuck her tongue out at Hestia and said, "You’re a little late to the game to have any complaints~nya!"

As if realizing what the ribbon meant, Hestia looked at Vahn was a strangely ’judgmental’ gaze and an aggrieved looked on her face. Vahn began to feel somewhat taken aback by her behavior, even though he thought she was acting quite cute. Chloe practically danced out of the room while laughing while Vahn tried to console Hestia while explaining the situation in more detail. In response to his words, she turned her head with a ’hmph’ but continued listening as he recounted his entire experience with Chloe while only leaving out the ’secret’ bits.

Hestia was already made aware the previous night by how many women Vahn was currently involved with and she even knew there would likely be various goddesses coming to him in the future. However, even though she knew, it still made her feel sad and frustrated to see him act so openly with girls right in front of her face. She remembered how the half-elf Eina had explained how Vahn was ’broken’, and now Hestia wanted to take up the role that Tina had taken in the past and help ’reign’ in his behavior.

Once Vahn finished explaining about Chloe, Hestia turned back to him with a pouty expression that made Vahn want to poke her inflated cheeks. Unable to resist the temptation, Vahn gently poked her cheek with his finger until she swatted it away with her hand and exclaimed, "Vahn, you can’t be acting like this in public unless you’re on a date! Especially if you plan to be with multiple girls in the future, you have to learn how to show proper self-control. Not all of the people around you want to see you acting affectionately with others, so you have to keep it more private in the future!"

Her words made Vahn remember the meeting two weeks ago between the various girls he was involved with. She was essentially regurgitating what they had said back then and Vahn would have likely still been ’guarded’ by Tina if the kidnapping hadn’t happened previously. Though he wasn’t entirely convinced, he agreed that she was likely speaking the truth so he smiled and said, "Sure, I’ll try to act more reserved from now on. Unless it’s in private, or between people that are okay with my behavior, I’ll try to restrict my actions a bit."

Hestia nodded her head in approval of his words as she held her hands on her h.i.p.s and puffed out her b.r.e.a.s.ts. Vahn saw the very obvious jiggle and how, when her arms were spread, the blue ribbon supported them slightly. He could see that, due to the weight of her b.r.e.a.s.ts, the ribbon cut into them from the bottom and even contorted her dress to match. Since Vahn had some experience with fabric, he wondered how Hestia’s clothes seemed to conform so closely to her body without being restricted.

Though she had her eyes closed while marveling at her own brilliance, Hestia soon opened them and saw the ’curiosity’ on Vahn’s face as he stared at her b.r.e.a.s.ts. She felt embarrassed by his look, but also noticed there didn’t seem to be any ’lecherous’ or ’evil’ thoughts in Vahn’s gaze. From what she could tell, he seemed to stare at her b.r.e.a.s.ts in genuine intrigue and it made her feel a little proud of the trait she was often ’criticized’ for. Many gods in heaven had tried to court her, but all of their gazes made her feel super creeped out so she had refused courtship even though she had been alive for millions of years.

Other than Artemis and Athena, she was the only remaining v.i.r.g.i.n goddess in the western region of Heaven. She simply disliked how they only saw her as a potential object of conquest and an outlet for their desires. One of the few she decided to give a chance to, because he had been very nice to her, ended up trying to coax her into his bed on their very first date! After that, she refused to see him again and saw that he had started dating another goddess just a few days later. Since they had lives that stretched into eternity, seeing how quickly he moved on was a big wake-up call for her at the time.

Now that she saw Vahn looking at her with ’intrigue’ instead of ’l.u.s.t’, Hestia’s impression of him had increased by a marginal amount. She felt like, if she could change his ’bad habits’ of interacting with so many women, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to share him with Hephaestus and ’maybe’ a few other girls. Since Vahn was a mortal that had divinities related to ’Creation’,’Fertility’, and ’Fire’, she actually thought they were very suitable. They seemed tailor-made for each other in a way since her Divinities related to ’Architecture’, ’Family’, and ’Hearth’. Their Divinities were almost perfectly complimentary of each other if she thought about it from a certain perspective.

Vahn noticed that silence had taken over the atmosphere of the room and realized that he had been staring at the small blue ribbon holding up Hestia’s b.r.e.a.s.ts for a little too long. When he looked into her clear blue eyes, Vahn felt a little ashamed of himself so he said, "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to gawk at you." Remembering that she had just lectured him about self-control, Vahn felt especially awkward for his mental lapse.

Hestia smiled at his response before trotting forward in two large steps and stopped right in front of him. Since they had a 22cm height difference, she looked up at his face while he stared down at her smiling expression from above. She looked around for a moment before saying in a low voice, "We’re alone right now, so as long as you don’t do anything too forward it’s fine~" Vahn’s brows raised slightly as he looked around the empty room as well. However, instead of staring at her b.r.e.a.s.ts again, Vahn backed away a step to create some distance as he said, "We should look for a place to stay before it gets too late."

Vahn opened up the door and the noise from the other patrons broke the silence as he held it open for Hestia. She stared at him with a neutral expression for a while until Vahn turned his head away after hearing a loud sound from the pub. When he looked away, Hestia turned her head to the side and clicked her tongue while whispering in a low voice that Vahn couldn’t hear, "How does he have so many girls when he is so dense!?"

Unaware of the label Hestia had given him, Vahn motioned for her to exit the room before following behind her and leaving the Hostess of Fertility. Though she didn’t know where it was located, Hestia had given Vahn a slip of paper with an address that Hephaestus had recommended to her the previous day. Vahn received the paper and understood the approximate location so he began leading the way toward what would likely become their new home.

Along the way, Hestia made conversation and asked about his hopes and dreams while Vahn also returned the favor and inquired about her life, the Divinities she possessed, and any difficulties she might have that he could help with in the future. She seemed pleased by his concern and ended up locking arms with Vahn shortly after as he continued leading the way. Though they were just walking through the streets, Vahn almost felt like they were on a date since she was acting so ’openly’. Since she had just ’lectured’ him previously about only acting this way while on a date, Vahn began to wonder if Hestia considered their walk a date or had just forgotten her own advice.

After cutting through some of the back alleyways he had mapped previously, Vahn and Hestia arrived at a very familiar location that Vahn had passed a lot in the past. The reason why he had recognized the address on the paper is that it wasn’t too far from Hephaestus’s workshop and the main branch of the Guild. Though slightly off the main road, it was on the same path he would take whenever he was leaving the Hearts Embrace and heading toward the Dungeon in the past.

The address on the paper was slightly off the main road, but it was in a residential area that only had large houses, manors, and even mansions. After checking the paper twice to confirm, Vahn looked up at the relatively large two-story building that would probably be his new home. It looked somewhat similar to an Inn that had been combined with a manor since it had a very large courtyard split into four sections and a high fence surrounding the inside.

The building itself was shaped like an L and had two wings surrounding the central area that towered slightly higher than the rest of the building. The smaller part of the L shape was like an annex that, when Vahn inspected the inside, had a large empty area with a bare-bones forge setup. It was missing all the equipment, but Vahn would be able to begin working almost immediately once he set up his own tools and materials.

Within the inside of the L shape, there were various artificial rocks and trees that had been arranged to conceal something that brought a smile to Vahn’s face because it had been a long time since he had used one. Though there was a tall divider in the center, there was a large space within the backyard that had been converted into an onsen. The larger pool was split into two sections and there were even a few smaller pools around the area with small dividers that would provide anyone that wanted to bath alone a certain amount of privacy.

Vahn wasn’t the only one impressed by the structure and onsen since Hestia had been in incredibly high tensions since the moment Vahn opened the front gate with the key she handed him. Hephaestus informed her that she actually requested this building to be built in the past after interacting with Vahn for a long period of time. She had been tailor-making it to suit his needs and now ’gifted’ it to Hestia to celebrate her descent from Heaven. As a goddess with a Divinity related to architecture, she was in high spirits as she marveled at each of the features of the building. Other than a complete lack of furniture, everything else was remarkable.

Once they were done looking around, Vahn and Hestia went into what would be considered the master bedroom. It was the largest room in the house and had two separate walk-in closets as well as a personal bathroom. Though it wasn’t noticeable at first, Vahn also discovered that the room had a hidden wall which opened up to a smaller and sound-proof area. It was very similar in structure to the room Hephaestus’s used to house the ’eternal flame’, so Vahn felt like it was made with that purpose in mind. The walls and flooring had amazing fire-proofing and sound-dampening qualities and there was even an empty and bare-bones forge set up in the corner.

After getting a better look around the inside of the room, Vahn moved toward the far wall, furthest from the doors, and purchased a large bed in the system called [Canopy of Heaven]. Even though it had an awe-inspiring name, it only cost 28,000OP and didn’t look too impressive when he put it down. The only thing he had focused on was finding something ’comfortable’ while also being large. Though he didn’t have the intention right now, it looked like more than six people would be able to lay side-by-side without any discomfort and even stretched out a fair amount lengthwise. Overall, the dimensions were around 4m x 4.5m and it actually took up a much larger amount of the bedroom than Vahn originally intended.

Hestia saw Vahn put down the bed before any other furniture and had a teasing look on her face as she dove into the pure white blankets. Other than the slightly golden-colored wooden frame of the bed, everything else on it was pure white including the sheets, comforter, blankets, pillows, and even the curtains hanging from the canopy frame. When she landed, Hestia noticed that the bed was far softer than she imagined and she began to roll around in it without any semblance of decorum.

Vahn saw her behavior and laughed before he said, "I’ll make sure to purchase a similar bed for your room." Since there were more 13 actual bedrooms in the house, there were plenty of options for Hestia to choose from including two similarly sized rooms as the present one in each of the wings. Hestia heard his words and immediately refuted, saying, "No way, I want to stay in this bedroom with you~! I can’t even imagine staying in one of those huge rooms on my own in the middle of the night!"

Since she had been making her claim while lying lazily on the bed, Vahn felt like there wasn’t a lot of strength to her argument. When she had shouted, she had raised her tiny fists toward the ceiling and had been giving him a very pitiable look like she was an abandoned animal. Remembering that she always slept with Bell in the manga, even though they didn’t have an actual relationship, Vahn felt like Hestia was the type that didn’t like to sleep alone. He wondered how she had managed for so many years in Heaven since he had long known that she refused courtship and had very few if any, friends other than Hephaestus.

After ruminating over matters for a bit, Vahn decided to concede to her selfishness for the time being. He generally liked spending time with her and even enjoyed her spoiled behavior somewhat since he had always intended to spoil her even before they met. Considering they had already shared a bed without incident, Vahn decided it wouldn’t be a problem for now. Once other people moved into the Familia and he married Hephaestus and Eina, he assumed she would naturally find a room of her own. Though he didn’t know if they would be living with him permanently, Vahn assumed that Eina would eventually quit her job at the Guild and become a permanent resident, or even member, of the Familia in the future.

With a smile on his face, Vahn nodded his head and said, "Sure, we can stay here together. Just remember that there will be other people living here in the future, and some of them might be my wives or lovers." Though she was ecstatic at the first part of his words, Hestia took a critical amount of damage when Vahn continued. She rolled herself up in the blanket like a sushi roll and began to bite her teeth as she made an adorable sound of frustration while Vahn watched her antics with a humored expression on his face.

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Hestia senses danger’,’Chloe’s Victory’,’Vahnobtanium is actually the densest material in the record’)

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