Though the words stung, after so many years of having that weakness used against her, Loki had built up some immunity.
But still...
Lowering her gaze to her flat chest, the images of Hestia and Hephaestus with their full, curvy figures surfaced in her mind again, and a surge of indescribable anger welled up inside her.
"Damn it! It's just a couple lumps of fat, isn't it?"
Yet the "fat" she spoke of was exactly what she envied most.
If she could, Loki wouldn't mind having a bit more herself—especially in certain places.
Normally, comments like that irritated her to no end.
Her figure was a subject she could never escape.
But tonight, this issue of her "figure" had her so restless she couldn't even sleep.
And deep down, Loki knew the reason why.
And knowing only made her feelings more tangled.
Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Loki had none of her usual slyness or arrogance. She looked more like a tomboy. Yet even that tomboyish exterior now carried something completely uncharacteristic... a faint shyness.
'Could it be... that I actually have feelings for that kid?'
The more she thought about it, the more it seemed true.
Recently, she had been paying more and more attention to Bell. The boy just had this natural spark that kept drawing her gaze.
On top of that, his talent and ability—every time she remembered them, it made her heart ache with envy.
Damn it! That kid is a Familia all by himself!
Loki knew full well Bell didn't need companions. On his own, he was already the equivalent of an entire Familia.
"All-rounder"—that was Loki's judgment of him.
But even that wasn't the real problem. Those were just reasons she had been watching him more closely. The real reason, perhaps, was that she had been living under the shorty's roof all this time.
'Ugh… how did a girl-crazy perv like me end up worrying about the shorty's kid?'
Loki's feelings were a complete mess.
...
"Loki doesn't actually like Bell, does she?!"
Hestia sat on her bed, anxiety plain on her face.
Across from her, Hephaestus tilted her head slightly, one arm supporting the weight of her heavy chest, one leg crossed neatly over the other.
"Unconscious actions say the most."
That one sentence made Hestia spring to her feet.
"How could this happen!?"
He was her child—why were so many gods trying to meddle with him?
"Could it be because of Bell's talent and abilities?"
"That's unlikely."
The reason Freya had set her sights on Bell didn't apply to Loki, and Hephaestus knew it.
"The children of Loki Familia are all excellent. They may not measure up to Bell, but even without him, they're still one in a thousand—maybe even one in ten thousand."
"But most importantly, Loki is not Freya."
"...That's true."
The phrase "not Freya" struck with piercing clarity. Once Hestia calmed down, she realized it was absolutely right.
Loki was not the same as Freya.
"So Loki really has fallen for Bell?"
If it wasn't about his talent or power, then it had to be genuine feelings.
But that only made Hestia's heart sink further.
"Most likely."
Hephaestus confirmed it without hesitation, though her own mood was no better than Hestia's.
She was certain Loki was caught in the same situation as them.
And right now, Hephaestus could feel the headache setting in.
In the past, even when Loki favored her own children, she never changed herself for them in this way.
"Though Loki often teased her children and even got handsy, she's a goddess—and the ones she liked were always of the same gender. Those kids would instinctively let her fool around, at most just treating her as a playful goddess. Loki's affection for them was actually much purer."
"Her children also softened her once-crazed, merciless nature. That's why, after descending to the Genkai, Loki gradually became more smooth and restrained, no longer as ruthless as she had been in Tenkai."
This is, in truth, the fundamental reason many gods descend.
What the gods seek is "change," and the children of the mortal world have the power to bring it about—sometimes even altering the gods' own supposed "unchanging" nature.
Loki was such a case...
And so were Hestia and Hephaestus.
"But those are still changes within the gods' control. If a god starts changing for the sake of one single person, that becomes an uncontrollable shift."
"For the gods, it's 'change' itself that cannot be controlled. That's why, when I began paying attention to Bell because of the curse on my face, my own change was already out of my hands. Just like when Loki covered her face after Bell said a few words—maybe she only meant to hide her smile, but the act of hiding itself was an uncontrollable change for her."
"So we can be certain of one thing: that woman definitely has feelings for Bell."
Having gone through it herself, Hephaestus understood all too well what it felt like.
At first, it was just a bit of curiosity, an unconscious shift of the eyes toward Bell.
Then, once that focus became habit, you started paying more attention to the things he said.
And in the end, without realizing it, your heart would dwell on him, stirring up that fierce possessiveness only gods could feel.
Back then, Hephaestus hadn't chosen to resist it. She had simply followed her heart.
In her eyes, Loki was already in the second stage now—dangerously deep in it.
But when exactly had she entered the first?
Hephaestus laid out her thoughts and the stages, but this only made Hestia feel worse.
Hestia ground her back teeth hard.
"With so many outstanding children in her Familia, why does she have to fixate on my Bell-kun?"
Wasn't the answer obvious?
Hephaestus shot Hestia a sidelong glance.
"You're a god too. Don't you know that exceptional children in Genkai often draw the eyes of their Familia Gods?"
"And someone like Bell, with talent beyond reason, even more so. If he hadn't been so determined to hide his strength, the gods would've already noticed him the moment he reached Lv.2."
"You should know this—gods fighting over Familia members has always been the way of things."
"Urgh..."
Hestia knew that all too well. Which was why, right now, all she could do was clench her teeth in frustration.
...
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