"Ohhh, Ken! Welcome home!" Hestia cheerfully waves at me, doing a set of little bounces that do lovely things to her chest, "You too kids, nobody got hurt, right?"
"Aha, I got a little scratched up, but it was small," Bell reaches up to rub at his jaw, and I squint a little at the action.
I don't think I've seen him do that before? Hrm.
"Don't worry though, it healed fast!" Relicadia cuts in, "He got a lot of Drops though, so we had dinner to celebrate!"
"He did well though," Gil agrees, and then says nothing else, standing firm. I give him a nod at his stoicism, and while slightly confused, he gives a single nod back.
Goddamn, Gil, you're so cool at such a young age. All the ladies are going to be disappointed by your thing with Al.
"Muuuu, I'd made something simple though," Hestia sighs, before shaking her head with a wry smile, "Guess I'll bowl it all up and put it in the fridge."
The crystal magitech of this world still gets to me sometimes. The thought that they go into battle with sword, board, and armor, but have air conditioning, heated water, and refrigerators is so damn surreal. It's convenient though, so I try not to let it get to me.
"Mmm, leftovers breakfast tomorrow?" I ask.
Hestia gives me the stink eye, walking up and lightly jabbing me in the belly.
"I never did that until I met you, you know? It's your fault! It's definitely your fault that I eat leftovers as breakfast food! They aren't, and shouldn't be!"
I consider that for a moment, and muster all my intellect, experience, and skill with speaking to formulate the best counterargument I possibly can.
"Tastes good though."
Hestia huffs and rolls her eyes, walking away to the kitchen, "Those books I got you are in our room. Take a look at them, why don't you?"
"Yes, my goddess," I smile at her, my expression widening a little as I note the flush that spreads across her cheeks at my simple statement.
Relicadia lightly clicks her tongue, looking up at me, and I stare back in silent query.
"Nice," is all she says.
I smack her in the back of the head and roll my eyes.
"Relicadia volunteered to help bowl up the food!" I cheerfully call out to Hestia, knowing damn well my goddess can tell I'm lying, "Thanks, Rel!"
The blonde Pallum gives me a betrayed gasp, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Thank you, Rel!" Hestia calls from back in the little kitchen area, and the Pallum's head snaps towards her, then back up to me.
"I'll, uhm, also help with," Al tries to offer, awkwardly chuckling, before I rest a hand on his shoulder.
"No can do, bud. She chose the path of the brat, and deserves correction for it," I dramatically declare, before quietly adding, "Also, it's funnier this way."
Then, without any fanfare, I walk off to my room and to track down the books Hesia got me, and begin reading.
Huh.
This stuff is… it's definitely interesting as hell.
During my tenure as Lenoa's assistant (and later apprentice), I had heavily read into the function of magic, or at least, the well-studied basics and heavily debated function of magic.
The basics are pretty simple and follow a lot of magic settings, even if things like Mind don't necessarily map exactly to other worlds I know of. You recite an aria, focus on the spell effect, and expend Mind to generate the effect. It's well understood, such as the issues with casting, notably Mind Zero, running out of Mind and falling unconscious, as well as Ignis Fatuus, i.e. spell blow-outs.
There are additional bits like the difference between congenital magic being granted by race or through ability, and finer stuff like that, but the grubby, dirty unknowns of magic start hitting once you get into the nitty-gritty 'hows' of magic function.
Nobody fucking knows how actively cast magic works, the most we know is that elves have a better feel for it, and thus suffer Ignis Fatuus less often.
That said, when it comes to other areas of magic like circle enchanting, smith enchanting, and alchemy, it's a lot easier to work with.
Well, it isn't necessarily more understood, it's just that a lot more of the variables are easier to measure and analyze, even if people still aren't sure how it all works.
With circle enchants you can compare number, quality, and contained concepts, while smithed enchantments can be measured a smith's skill, Drop quality, and in the case of adventurers doing it, Development Ability rank. Alchemy, meanwhile, is far more measured in the ingredients and mixing process.
Now, the local magitech is pretty damn simple in practice, because it's a thing of beauty.
Brilliant minds gazed upon the well-studied bits of circle enchantment, and declared, "That high-end shit is hard, but the first three circles are pretty easy."
Then they put in elbow grease and engineering to go with a few pieces of enchanted machine equipment that served specific pieces, and increased the power output of whatever enchantment necessary by way of crystals.
Fridges and air-conditioning? Coldness enchantments with fans and dials that determine distance of the crystal from the circle enchantments to increase the degree of temperature cooling.
Gone is the incredibly refined engineering purely based on understood natural principles of my old world, and in it's place is a fifty-fifty split between understood natural principles with a big heap of 'it just works'.
It's a perfect blend of complicated, simple, interesting, and boring that leads me to understand why it was never really explored when I'd watched Danmachi.
Technological rants in my waifu-collection LN? 'Nuh-uh,' the horny otakus screamed.
"Ken?" Hestia blearily calls out from the bed, moving a little beneath the covers, "How long have you been awake?"
"Uh," I cleverly respond, blinking in surprise, "Uhm."
"Have you been up the whole night?"
"…Perhaps," is all I offer, steepling my hands in thought.
"You've been up all night," she tiredly groans, "Ken, no, Dungeon-diving is already dangerous enough without sleep deprivation mixed in."
"Oh, that's fine," I shrug, "I can actually go for weeks without any negative side-effects. I tested it once just to see if I could."
Hestia quietly stares at me, before nodding like I'd said something completely normal, "Mhm. Yup. Of course you can. Makes sense."
"Are you sassing me, Hestia?" I ask, carefully affecting a teasing note.
"Perhaps," is all she says back.
I snort and stand up, popping my neck.
"Well, I should take a quick shower and head out," I nod at her, "I promised my Supporter I'd meet her early, and I want to show up on time."
"Shower," Hestia sleepily responds, "Hmmm, we should get a hair dryer. That sounds nice."
"Like what, a blow dryer?" I ask, rolling the idea around in my head.
That sounds fucking sick, I always loved them; the warm air through my hair after a nice shower. It sounds fun as hell, especially now that I'm keenly aware of the feel-good chemicals released by good experiences. I didn't know they had them here, though I guess it makes as much sense as air-conditioning.
"Yeah, that sounds nice. Been a while since I had one," I grumble, ready to prepare for the day, Hestia quietly watching me as I go.
Hestia
Hestia's morning was… normal.
It was incredibly normal, as far as her Familia's morning routine was concerned.
She and Ken woke up early, cleaned themselves, then woke her other Children. Reli would change from her nightclothes into her day clothing in the her and Ken's room, while the boys changed in their collectively shared room. They all cleaned up at the Guild's facilities after their Dungeon dives and considered that enough for now as they didn't want to impede too much into their goddess and captain's room, though they'd both let them know they wouldn't mind.
Space was at a premium in her church, so they had to make do. Ken was divvying a portion of his funds into saving for a better home, as were the children when they'd learned of his plans, but until then…
That sort of thing took time and effort when limiting oneself to purely mortal means.
While the younger Children were going about their own routines, she worked with her first Child to go about making a good breakfast.
Pork sausage, scrambled eggs, nuts, berries, milk, and honey to add to whichever food they pleased for a bit of sugar, and a single muffin for each person that Hestia had prepared the night before. Ken insisted that breakfasts should have a small amount of baked goods for some reason, so the hearth goddess had gotten into the habit of preparing food ahead of time.
They all ate, chatted a bit about their plans for the day, and it came to a close as Ken got up to leave.
Hestia followed him to the entrance of her church and tugged at him lightly.
"Hm, what's, oof," he began, only to get cut off as Hestia wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug.
"Stay safe, dummy," the hearth goddess mumbled.
"Hahhh, I always try," he answered back, wrapping both arms around her back, one a little higher to rest a hand on her head, gently rubbing her hair that she hadn't yet put into her twintails.
Hestia's eyes drifted shut to enjoy the moment.
Pressed against him and his nice, nice muscles. Arms wrapped around her tight. The delightful feeling of her breasts tightly squished against him.
'Ehehehhh, this is the good stuff~'
But, as with all things, it had to come to an end.
Hestia loosened her hold on her first Child, and he likewise let her go, turning a guileless, slightly worried look at her.
"Everything okay?" he asked, reaching up to rub a hand on the back of his neck.
That look wasn't the look of a man that was keeping secrets from his goddess, Hestia thought to herself. It definitely wasn't, but appearances could be deceiving.
She reached up and pat his cheeks with a smile. "I'm gonna need to start getting closer with you," was all she said back.
His look of confusion only increased, "We, uh, sleep together. It's hard to get any closer than that?" True.
Ahaha, nobody could piss her off quite like Ken, could they?
"Get out, dummy," she answered, tone short.
Ken's eyes whipped side to side in a quick, animal panic, up to see the kids watching them from the table, then back down to his goddess.
"I'm, uh, I'm just gonna," he trailed off and hooked both thumbs to his side, towards the entrance, before Hestia's brave captain bravely retreated.
Hestia stared as he quickly left and rested her forehead upon the door after it closed.
"That man," she grumbled, "Ugh, he's going to end up pushing me to the brink of madness, isn't he?"
Why would he be pursuing a relationship with her that involved any sexual interest? He'd told her he wouldn't, and it had been the truth.
Ken always told Hestia the truth, no matter what.
She'd never thought that was odd, until he'd told her a truth she couldn't reconcile with fact.
What did the truth mean to him? What truths was he keeping from her? How important did he think they were?
He could consider them valueless, or simply not even as secrets at all.
Hestia groaned a bit, before biting it off in frustration.
"You should just fuck him already," Relicadia spoke up from across the room.
The immortal, eternal goddess Hestia, tender of Tenkai's flames, whipped around in a sudden panic.
"What did you say?" she blurted out, eyes wide.
"I said you should just fuck-" the young pallum began, only to get cut off by her goddess.
"MESUGAKI!" Hestia shrieked, "Shut up! Aghhhh, if I wanted a rat in my Familia I would have blessed Mr. Squeaker, not you!"
Relicadia blinked in confusion at the start, before snickering at the rest.
"Ah, my goddess," Bell began, confidence dwindling as Hestia looked at him, before mustering the necessary bluster to continue. "Even if it's scandalous and blasphemous to the highest degree for relations between mortals and gods… I'm cheering you on!"
Tiny knives of True pierced the hearth goddess's immortal heart.
She glanced at Gil, and he quietly, guiltily averted his gaze.
"All my Children are monsters," Hestia whispered.
"Hey…" Al spoke up, hurt in his voice.
"Except you," Hestia amended, "You're a good boy, and all the rest are terrible influences."
"Yeah," Reli agreed with a smile, "It's only a matter of time until we've got you completely in our grasp."
Gil nodded and Bell grimaced.
"I, uh, count me out of that," the albino spoke up, clearing his throat and reached up to rub at his neck, similar to his captain. "I think that Aiz… and, uh, Syr…"
"Huh? Who's Syr?" Hestia asked, confused.
"Bell's possible second girlfriend," Relicadia snickered.
"If she can convince Aiz to share," Albritch added, shooting Reli a disappointed look.
Hestia stared at them, clenched her eyes shut, and breathed deeply.
Nope.
"I'm leaving for the day," she decided, before glaring at them, "You will all stay safe, or else."
"Yes ma'am," Gil spoke up, giving her a single nod.
"Where are you going?" Relicadia asked, cocking her head.
To get answers.
Prana didn't know anything about her student, openly admitting she knew he was strange, but not why. Erlang Shen wouldn't have an explanation for why Ken knew about his product and had seemingly owned one as a child and the question would only lead to a barely known god's interest. Hephaestus, precious friend that she was, couldn't help Hestia solve the headache that was the hearth goddess's captain.
Fortunately, Hestia wasn't completely lacking in options.
"Looking into magic," the goddess sighed, slipping on her shoes as she turned to leave her home.