The Goddess of Sweets and Severed Arms
I arrived at the Hera Familia home.
It was a strange feeling to see the place that had once been the Loki Familia's home now serving as the headquarters of the Hera Familia. Stranger still, the Loki Familia itself had taken over the building that used to house the Hestia Familia. The strongest Familia claiming the finest home—it made sense, I supposed. Strength or not, buildings didn't simply multiply, so maybe it was only natural that the top Familia ended up with the best base.
"I can make it from here on my own. Thank you for walking me back."
"No, no, I should be the one apologizing. I'll be sure to pay you back for the cookies."
"Don't say that out here in the street! People will hear!"
What a contradictory creature—she'd raised hell over a single cookie, and now she was embarrassed if anyone overheard. Honestly.
"Ahem. Anyway, get home safe. I'd offer to serve you tea, but my Familia has a strict no-boys policy, you see..."
Meteria cast apologetic glances around as she spoke. She really didn't need to worry about it.
"That's quite all right. Well then, I'll be off—"
"Oh, wait just a moment, will you?"
"Huh?"
I had just finished my farewell and was turning to leave when a voice rang out and a hand came down on my shoulder.
My instincts read it as an ambush, and I flung my arm up to shake off the grip—but in the blink of an eye, I was no longer standing in the street. I was inside a tidy, well-kept room that belonged to someone.
"Where am I...?"
"My office."
"...?!"
I followed the voice and found a goddess seated with regal poise behind a magnificent desk.
The name of that goddess, whom I'd seen only recently, was...
"L-Lady Hera?"
The hyper-hysterical yandere goddess who could terrify even my grandfather. The goddess Hera herself.
"Um... Lady Hera...?"
"What is it?"
"Why am I here...? And more importantly, what just happened...?"
"I'll explain everything one thing at a time. Sit down first."
Looking closer, I noticed a chair placed in front of the desk. Its position looked oddly unnatural—as if it had been brought over just moments ago.
Had she meant to summon me from the start? But how could she have known I'd be coming by...
"Sit. Now."
"Ah... yes, ma'am."
At the goddess's urging, I cut off my own thoughts.
Right. Do as I'm told, for now. Defying her was not an option—not after what I'd witnessed before.
I shuffled nervously into the seat, and soon an awkward silence settled over the room.
No, seriously—what is this? I get dragged here out of nowhere, and now this?
"..."
"..."
The silence stretched on. For a goddess whose very name was synonymous with hysteria, Lady Hera was unnervingly quiet.
Compared to the scene I'd witnessed before, the difference was so vast that calling it heaven and earth apart would not have been an exaggeration.
"...Um—"
"Cookies."
Just as I opened my mouth, feeling obliged to say something, Lady Hera beat me to it.
...Wait, what? Cookies?
"Cookies. Eat."
"Huh?"
"I said eat."
Was that an order? It wasn't a command to die, at least—just a command to eat cookies, so nothing serious. But where exactly were these cookies supposed to be...?
"Wha—?"
I looked where Lady Hera was pointing and beheld a mountain of sweets stacked nearly to the ceiling.
...What is this? Why are there cookies piled up over there?
Don't tell me she... prepared them? For me?
"..."
Lady Hera had gone silent again, simply watching me. Under that piercing stare, I felt an inexplicable pressure and picked up one of the cookies just to break the tension.
It was a single-serve package, easy to open one-handed. I peeled it open and took a bite, and the sickeningly sweet flavor laid waste to my entire mouth.
So sweet?! No, it's good, but... For someone who didn't much care for sugary things, it was borderline painful. A girl would probably love it, but to my palate...
"You like sweets, then."
"Excuse me? Um..."
If I said no here, Lady Hera's mood would surely sour. But if I said yes, she was a goddess—she'd see through the lie in an instant... Hmm...
"Thank you... for going out of your way to prepare cookies just for me...?"
Cornered between options, I ended up spitting out an answer that was neither one thing nor the other.
Ugh... she's a god, and I just gave her the vaguest possible reply...
This was the great hysterical goddess Hera I was dealing with. Whatever I answered, offense might have been my inevitable fate.
"..."
I braced for the hysteria, subtly shifting my weight away and preparing to defend myself at any moment—
"Don't flatter yourself. I didn't prepare these because of you."
"Huh...?"
"Eat more."
So saying, Lady Hera tossed a few more cookies my way.
...What is even happening right now?
After that, I gorged myself on sweets so cloyingly sweet they made my head swim, all under a crushing silence. I felt as though I'd eaten more cookies in one sitting than I had in my entire life.
Ugh... maybe that was too much sugar. My teeth ache...
But I couldn't have refused even if I'd wanted to. The goddess's gaze was far too fierce—those drilling eyes gave me the distinct impression that if I stopped eating, they would drill straight through me for real.
"Now, eat more—"
"L-Lady Hera! I was wondering why you called for me so suddenly, actually?!"
Before my stomach could unleash everything I'd just stuffed into it, I forced the conversation back on track. The goddess's hysteria was frightening, yes—but if this went on, I might have to confirm with my own two eyes what had just gone down my throat.
Stuffing a person full of cookies... What kind of new-age torture is this...?
"Ah, right. I've been slow to explain."
You think? I swallowed back the retort crawling up my throat and waited for her to continue.
"..."
"..."
But silence returned once more. No, seriously, what do you want with me?
"Lady Hera...?"
"Hmm..."
The goddess let out a low hum. Something in her expression—a hesitance, an uncertainty—kept me from pressing, and I simply waited for her to speak.
"Your name is Vesta, was it."
"...Yes."
"I see..."
...Huh? Is that it?
I waited for more, but that really was the end of it.
What—you didn't drag me here just to ask my name again, did you?
"Is anything giving you trouble? Anything at all."
"Excuse me? Trouble with what, exactly...?"
"Anything. Your arm... your eyes. Whatever."
I had no idea what she was getting at. Why was Lady Hera suddenly acting like this toward me?
Summoned out of nowhere, force-fed cookies, and now interrogated about my troubles. What was going on?
"Er... not particularly?"
"Truly? There must be at least one thing."
Well, sure, living one-armed came with an inconvenience or two... but why was she asking about that?
"As it happens, a prosthetic arm found its way into my hands. Quite by chance. Completely unexpected. And there's no one in my Familia who needs it—so if you want it, it's yours."
...Where is this coming from?
A prosthetic arm? Out of nowhere?
Prosthetics weren't exactly cheap. If one had landed in her hands, why not just sell it or keep it?
Granted, the Hera Familia was wealthy enough not to fuss over a single arm. But that was no reason to summon me, was it? Why all this...
"I won't take your money for it, of course. Charging a man for garbage disposal would be laughable. If anything, you'd be doing me a favor by getting rid of the useless thing—perhaps I should slip you a little coin for the trouble."
What is even happening...
"Um... Lady Hera...?"
"What? Are you taking it or not?"
"No... I, um, I'm grateful for the offer, truly, but I have no intention of attaching a prosthetic arm."
"...Why not?"
The temperature in the room seemed to plummet to freezing in an instant.
I-I'm scared?! I'd forgotten, with all her strange behavior—forgotten exactly what kind of goddess this is.
The Hyper Ultra Hysteric goddess. Not someone to whom one could casually say the word "no"!
"Why not?"
Her voice was cold, but the fury simmering beneath it was anything but ordinary.
So this was what Grandfather had been so afraid of. It hadn't been for nothing.
Before I knew it, my body had shrunk back into the chair. I could win if we fought—of that I was confident—and yet the sheer pressure radiating from her felt crushing enough to pin me down. And this was without her even releasing her divinity. If this was the baseline...!
"I... can't explain everything in detail, but..."
If I'd wanted a prosthetic arm, I could have gotten one long ago. The money and the artisans were never the problem.
And yet I had turned down every offer. On the surface, my reason had been that it would interfere with combat—but the truth ran deeper.
"If I attach a prosthetic and grow accustomed to the missing limb... I feel like the memories of before would start to fade..."
"..."
Missing an arm was, without question, inconvenient. Everything from simply having only one hand on down—a whole garden of small frustrations bloomed every day.
But precisely because of that, I could remember the days when I had two arms. I could keep those days alive, refuse to let them slip away.
The inconvenience was what made it possible to look back fondly on a time without inconvenience.
"If the arm makes that inconvenience disappear, remembering those days will become difficult."
Of course, someday the time might come when I had to let the memories go. But that time was not now.
I was still a man who had no choice but to live on, murmuring his memories like a prayer.
Growing used to the present was a luxury I was still far too lacking to afford.
"So while I'm truly grateful for your offer, Lady Hera... I must decline."
"..."
To my words, Lady Hera said nothing at all. She simply held her silence.