The Labyrinth City, Orario.
Northwest Street, also known as the Adventurer's Street.
This is where the Adventurers' Guild headquarters is located, along with numerous general stores, item shops, inns, and other businesses.
On one of the busiest pedestrian walkways,
at a stall specializing in fried potato balls, a crowd of onlookers three layers deep had gathered.
"Please, without Hestia, I..."
A plain-looking young man with black hair was desperately clutching the loli goddess's delicate arm, pleading earnestly.
His name was Ying Ping, a transmigrator from Earth.
After transmigrating, he was bound to a system called the Shadow Monarch.
Having a golden finger was naturally a good thing.
But the tricky part was this:
the system actually required him to become a member of a deity's Familia and receive a 'Divine Blessing' before it could be officially activated.
This stumped Ying Ping.
After all, he was just an ordinary person now, without any outstanding qualities or talents.
Plus, this body was almost thirty years old.
Anyone would see him as having no potential for development, so no respectable large Familia would be willing to take him in.
Ying Ping also didn't want to casually join any god's Familia, and he especially didn't want to join a male god's.
So, he went around asking if there were any goddesses with small Familias willing to recruit members.
As expected, he found himself at the doorstep of Hestia, the virgin goddess who presided over the hearth.
However, for various reasons, Hestia didn't seem to have any intention of taking him in.
"Ha! Na! Sei!"
"I told you, I have no intention of recruiting Familia members!"
Hestia, wearing an apron and working, turned around indignantly.
Her voice was adorable and she symbolically waved her small hand.
"What do I have to do for you to accept me?!"
"Anything I can do, I'm willing to do!"
Ying Ping's emotions flared, and he continued to press his case.
"You, you're saying such strange things!"
Hestia's face flushed, and she tried to pull her apron from Ying Ping's grasp.
The surrounding crowd burst into laughter.
A certain drunken dwarf adventurer whistled, "Say yes, fallen Goddess-sama!"
"Exactly, exactly! A Familia member so devoted to you is rare!"
"He must be in love with you!"
A few passing Amazonian female warriors joined in the jeering.
Seeing this, Ying Ping immediately struck while the iron was hot, even spreading his arms wide and exclaiming dramatically, "Lady Hestia! Even if you tell me 'I hate you the most,' I will not change my feelings!"
"No matter how many times you reject me, I will always persevere!"
Sincerity is always the ultimate weapon.
"Ah, ah, ah! Stop talking!"
Hestia's face was beet red.
She frantically glanced at the increasingly large crowd around them, then suddenly grabbed Ying Ping's wrist, "Come with me!"
After being dragged through three alleys, Ying Ping was finally flung against a moss-covered brick wall.
Hestia put her hands on her hips, indignantly standing on her tiptoes—even then, she could barely look Ying Ping's chin directly in the eye.
"What exactly do you want?!"
"These past few days, I've clearly rejected you several times, haven't I?!"
A look of embarrassment flickered in her beautiful blue eyes: "There are so many powerful Familias in Orario! Why are you pestering me?"
Ying Ping rubbed his reddened wrist and suddenly became serious: "Because to me, you are the most special."
"Eh? Special?"
Hestia blinked, momentarily unable to find any reason to refute Ying Ping.
"Other gods wouldn't need someone like me, who seems useless and can't even find a job."
"Their Familias either only recruit elites, or they're only interested in interesting humans."
"Unfortunately, I am neither an elite nor an interesting person."
Ying Ping looked directly into Hestia's eyes and said very sincerely: "Only you, Hestia, for some reason, the first time I saw you, I remembered many things."
"Your existence makes me realize that this world has infinite possibilities."
"Then I understood, I can't do without you."
"Please, Hestia, give me a chance and let me become a member of your Familia."
"I definitely won't disappoint you. Once I become an adventurer, I'll support you!"
His sincere words made Hestia feel shy.
Her toes unconsciously drew circles on the ground, and she said coyly, "You, you're such a strange person..."
"I swear."
Ying Ping suddenly knelt on one knee, mimicking a knight's salute.
"No matter what happens, I will never betray you."
The alley suddenly fell silent.
Humans cannot lie in front of gods.
Hestia could feel that every word spoken by the black-haired young man in front of her was true, coming straight from his heart.
Hestia's blue ribbon swayed gently in the breeze.
She lowered her head, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz: "...I can't do anything about you."
"Since you've said all this, I can't really refuse you anymore."
"But as you can see, I am a very poor goddess."
"Aside from giving you the most basic Divine Blessing, I can't offer you any substantial help."
"My Familia doesn't even have a proper base, let alone provide you with equipment and funds to go to the Dungeon."
Seeing Hestia's tone soften, Ying Ping immediately rejoiced.
"That doesn't matter at all!"
"It's enough that Hestia can give me the Divine Blessing!"
Ying Ping's voice echoed in the alley. He excitedly grabbed Hestia's shoulders, his eyes suddenly sparkling.
"I'll go to the Dungeon and defeat monsters! I'll earn lots and lots of Valis!"
He gestured wildly, "Hestia, you won't have to work selling fried potato balls anymore! You won't have your hair smelling like fries from all the grease! You won't—"
"Wait, wait!"
Hestia hurriedly covered Ying Ping's mouth, her cheeks flushed, "Whose hair smells like fries?! I wash it thoroughly every day—"
Before she finished speaking, she suddenly realized that this action brought their noses almost touching, making the distance quite intimate.
Sunlight filtered through the alley's gaps, casting fragmented light spots on Ying Ping's well-defined face.
It was an outwardly ordinary face.
But in those obsidian-like eyes, there was an intense warmth that made her feel unable to refuse.
Time seemed to stand still.
"Pfft—"
Hestia suddenly chuckled, and when she released her hand, Ying Ping's warm breath still lingered on her fingertips.
She turned her back to him to adjust her apron, her blue ribbon gently swaying in the wind: "Honestly... you're so weak right now you can't even beat an ant in the Dungeon, yet you're bragging about wanting to support me..."
"I won't! After receiving your blessing, I'll become super, super strong!"
Ying Ping was so anxious he was about to swear again, but then Hestia suddenly turned back around—
Carrying a sweet, honey-like scent, the petite loli goddess actually threw herself into his arms.
"Alright, alright, I know you're a good kid~"
Hestia stood on her tiptoes, wrapping her arms around his neck.
The playful cowlick on her head brushed against Ying Ping's chin, and the soft sensation, transmitted through his thin shirt, instantly froze Ying Ping into a statue.
Heaven help him.
A single, repressed thirty-year-old man had never experienced such treatment.
"But you know~"
Hestia's voice was close to his ear, with a warm breath, "If, as your main goddess, I let you bear all the pressure alone..." "...I'd be laughed at by the other gods!"
She suddenly rubbed Ying Ping's head vigorously, like a mother comforting a child.
Hearing this, Ying Ping felt his eyes well up for some reason.
In this world... there's actually such a cute girl willing to tolerate me, willing to care about my feelings!
As expected of a goddess!
"Hestia..."
Ying Ping trembled as he tightened his arms, completely embracing the petite goddess.
Hestia smelled of the burnt aroma of fried potato balls, the freshness of soap, and a certain divine, warm, honey-like sweetness, as if baked by a furnace.
"This must be even happier than the taste of heaven..."
Ying Ping was deeply moved.
Hestia's head rested perfectly against his jaw, her body's gentle rise and fall with each breath pressed against his chest, making even his fingertips tingle.
"Hey, are you... are you alright?"
Hestia suddenly noticed something amiss. "Your heart is beating so fast... Whoa! You're having a nosebleed!"
"N-nothing!"
Ying Ping frantically covered his nose with his hand. "This is proof of immense joy! It's a perfectly normal physiological phenomenon for men!"
Hestia narrowed her eyes suspiciously, then suddenly realized, "Eh? Were you just thinking about some—"
"Absolutely not!"
Ying Ping bowed ninety degrees, his head lowered as he muffled, "I only have the purest reverence for Lady Hestia! Like a believer to a shrine!"
"..."
This time, after sensing that he was lying, Hestia was silent for three seconds, then suddenly jumped up and "bonked" him on the head.
"Idiot! Who wants to be your shrine!"
She huffily grabbed Ying Ping's collar. "Come with me to the church basement right now! After I engrave you with the Divine Favor, I still need to go back and close my stall!"
"The church... basement?"
"It's my temporary residence, temporary residence!"
Hestia's fair face was flushed. "If you go there and then regret becoming my familia, I will absolutely never forgive you!"
Ying Ping was dragged along, watching the blue ribbon swaying in front of him, and suddenly said softly, "Hestia."
"What is it?"
"Thank you, truly."
Hestia's steps faltered.
The sun illuminated her blushing, adorable profile.
"...Hmph, just follow me for now!"