Mist swirled through the bath.
Water trickling from her body, Hestia stepped closer.
"Bell, what exactly did you an by what you just said?"
Bell gave a faint smile.
Judging from the goddess's reaction, it really was sothing incredibly precious.
"I ant exactly what I said. Hestia's Knife snapped in two, and even when I held the hilt, it didn't respond."
Bell answered honestly.
That dagger normally reacted to Hestia's Falna, but under ordinary circumstances, it was just an exceptionally dull black blade.
Now, though, it seed to have lost that special property entirely and could no longer be used in battle at all.
"H-how is that possible...?"
Hestia's mouth fell open in shock.
She knew Bell was not lying, and for a mont she was caught in a loop of disbelief and stunned confusion.
Her expression seed to say that even if the sky fell, sothing like that should have been impossible.
Looking at Hestia's adorable expression, Bell gently reminded her,
"Goddess-sama, you're not wearing anything."
"Wah?!"
Hestia instantly covered her chest with both hands and sank back down into the hot water.
A warm ripple spread out, carrying the goddess's complaint with it.
"Bell! You definitely saw it just now, didn't you?!"
"Of course not."
Bell replied at once.
"I can see through lies, you idiot!"
Maybe she had soaked for too long, or maybe it was sothing else.
Above her cherry-blossom-colored neck, her youthful face had turned an even deeper, more captivating red.
"Don't worry, Goddess-sama. With all this steam, I can't see clearly."
As if rembering sothing, Bell added,
"If anything, I could see more clearly the last ti I went to save Artemis."
Back in the Great Tree Sea, Bell had accidentally stumbled into a scene of the girls bathing.
At the ti, it had only been clear, cool spring water, completely different from this steam-filled bath.
Bell had used his extraordinary mory as a weapon to defeat the monster called amnesia and etched everything into his mind.
"Ugh... you actually rember it that clearly... and don't say it in such a proud tone!"
Hestia complained, blushing furiously.
She knew Bell was telling the truth, and because of that, so of her embarrassnt eased a little.
He had already seen it before anyway, so maybe her current state did not matter that much.
The two of them remained a short distance apart, with the steam between them like a natural barrier.
"Back then, Goddess-sama said you wanted to bathe with ."
There was a note of nostalgia in Bell's voice.
"That was just a mont of madness! And I only said that because I heard you were mixed bathing with other girls!"
Hestia hurried to defend herself.
Back then, Bell had only just joined the familia, and every day he would leave early and co back late.
When Hestia heard that he had been bathing together with a bunch of girls, she was suddenly hit by a completely unreasonable wave of jealousy and blurted out that she wanted to soak in the hot springs with Bell too.
The situation and the feelings behind it were very different, but in a way, those words from back then really had co true.
"You were jealous back then, weren't you, Goddess-sama?"
Bell saw right through her.
"N-no, I wasn't! It was because... um..."
Hestia stumbled over her words, and only after struggling for a while did she finally co up with an explanation.
"Right! It was because that kind of behavior is far too impure, so as your Familia Goddess, I had to correct you!"
The deep red on the goddess's cheeks had already exposed that lie completely.
"So Goddess-sama rembers it just as clearly as I do."
Bell spoke softly, almost with a hint of emotion.
Ever since coming to Orario, countless things had happened.
And yet Hestia still rembered every little mont she had shared with Bell.
To both of them, those were precious mories they had built together from nothing.
"Because Bell was my only follower..."
As she answered, Hestia toyed with the rabbit floating on the water.
Most baths used the sa old yellow duck toys, but when Hestia had the bath remodeled, she replaced them with cute white rabbits instead.
Little touches like that filled the entire mansion.
The paintings on the walls had been replaced with Hestia's own simple drawings, one of them showing a black-haired girl and a white-haired boy holding hands and playing together.
Lili had once questioned it.
"Hestia-sama, that picture looks like you and Bell-sama. Why would you put it in such an obvious place?"
"Oh, that was just so random doodling."
Hestia brushed it off with the authority of a goddess.
In the empty spaces along the hallway, Hestia personally hung wind chis as prayers for Bell's safety.
"Hestia-sama, this is...?" Cassandra had asked in confusion.
"When you all go into the Dungeon, I end up staying here alone a lot. When I look at the wind chis, it feels like I'm looking at Bell... but keep that a secret from the others, okay?"
That was how Hestia filled the entire mansion with traces of herself and Bell.
Even the familia emblem she designed was made of a bell and flas.
Of course, Artemis strongly objected to that.
"Hestia, please, at least add a moon."
"No, it should have a dicine vial too, to pray for Bell's safety."
Airmid chid in.
"Hestia-sama, that's far too sly."
Laurier did not suggest anything to add. She simply complained about the goddess's cleverness.
"Hestia-sama, please reconsider..."
"I think so too."
"I don't really mind, but if it can still be changed..."
In the end, even Lili, Cassandra, and the others voiced their objections.
Surrounded by the chorus of the girls' protests, Hestia pursed her lips in reluctance.
She picked up pen and paper and added a ring of beautiful flowers around the bell and flas.
That was how the emblem of the Hestia Familia was born.
The final design looked as though it were surrounded by countless blossoms.
And it also looked like flas dancing and a bell swaying.
Layered together, the two seed to hold the hands of many flowers at once, capturing all their hearts.
Bell had seen all of it.
In the hazy steam, Hestia stared blankly at the rabbit toy, as though rembering sothing.
"Goddess-sama, I'm not your only follower anymore."
Bell reminded her.
Cassandra, Mikoto, and the others had joined the familia, and even the forr Artemis Familia was now under Hestia's na.
Although those twenty girls still acted together with Artemis, if a War Ga happened, they would join the battle without hesitation.
And in ordinary dealings with other people, they also acted under the na of the Hestia Familia, bringing a great deal of prestige to the goddess who had once been called useless.
The Hestia of today could no longer use the excuse of having only one follower to hide her favoritism.
"Yeah... you're right..."
Hestia raised the corners of her lips and slowly spoke her thoughts.
"It's because I like Bell so much that I did all of this..."
...
...
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