Dinner Among the Goddesses
Hera glared at me with displeased eyes, clearly unhappy with my answer.
No matter how hard you stare, what can't be done can't be done!
Though her eyes were so terrifying I decided to keep my mouth shut instead of saying that out loud. Don't get the wrong idea—I was scared, plain and simple.
She's terrifying.
Just a frown carried this much pressure. So this was the goddess who had shocked Loki and made Freya tremble... Scary. So scary.
"Tch."
I flinched.
Nothing more than a quiet click of the tongue, and yet I jolted for a moment. Every single one of her actions was intimidating. I'd respected the gods before, but I'd never once been afraid of one.
Come to think of it, the gods around me had all been nothing but kind. It struck me anew just how lucky I had been.
Though that, too, was a long time ago now.
"Don't refuse it. You'll regret it later and call it a waste."
"Haha... my apologies."
"Oh, so you do know how to apologize?"
Under that blazing glare, my head lowered on its own. Nobody was pushing it down—my neck simply bent by itself. It was enough to raise the reasonable suspicion that she was secretly using her divine authority.
"Um... is that the only reason you called for me?"
"What? You in a hurry to get home?"
Yes... I'm very scared of you...
That was my honest answer, but saying it out loud felt like it would earn me an actual punch, so I shut up and waited for her next words. Honestly, what business could Hera possibly have with me? I couldn't even understand why she was doing this in the first place.
"..."
Her answer never came. Was this her way of telling me to shut up and disappear?
"You..."
Just as she seemed about to speak, the words didn't follow. Her mouth only opened and closed, opening and closing.
What on earth do you want from me?
"...Dinner."
"...Excuse me?"
"Dinner. ...Have you eaten?"
"......?"
The words she'd barely managed to squeeze out were asking whether I'd eaten.
Why on earth would you ask me that all of a sudden?
Under normal circumstances it might have been a rather warm question, but to the current me it was nothing but seasoning piled onto a simmering pot of anxiety.
"Uh... no, not yet?"
She'd asked, so I answered.
But why ask something like that? Surely she wasn't about to tell me to eat here.
"Good timing, then. You'll eat with us."
"Excuse me...?"
And there it was. Premonitions really do come true.
No, wait. She'd just stuffed herself with snacks a moment ago—did she really think a whole meal would fit on top of that?
More than that, she wanted me to eat under the watchful eyes of Hera and her entire Familia?
I could hardly picture it, but I mobilized my meager imagination and hazily conjured the scene. A long table. Lavish dishes. Me, eating them, while countless gazes from the Hera Familia bore down on me...!
Ugh...
Just imagining it made my stomach turn. Actually, it may have already turned.
What is this? Is she summoning me here to starve me to death? So she really was upset about what happened before...!
"I-I'm sorry..."
"What, you can't even manage this much?"
I tried to offer an apology even now, but Hera apparently had no intention of compromising. She'd only opened her mouth once and was already reacting like this—that meant she wasn't letting me go.
And so I found myself abruptly sentenced to dinner at the Hera Familia home.
"A man?"
"It's a man?"
"Who is that?"
"He looks like a rabbit."
"So cute~"
"Did Hera bring him in?"
Murmurs and whispers, rising and swirling.
Every step I took, gazes pinned me down until it stung. If looks could carry physical force, I'd have been reduced to a honeycomb by now.
Leaving my room and heading toward the Hera Familia's dining hall—me and Hera. As I trailed dutifully behind her striding figure, the baffled stares of the Familia members stabbed into me without mercy.
Th-this is too much pressure!
Maybe it was because this was an all-woman Familia, but the attention was crushing. If it had been the Zeus Familia, all men, it might have been more bearable—but that uniquely feminine, oppressive scrutiny bore down on me from every direction. Dozens, hundreds of gazes, heavy as lead. Maybe trailing behind Hera like a duckling had been a mistake.
Of course, the truth was rather different.
The Hera Familia strictly forbade romance by default. With extremely rare exceptions like Meteria, its members almost never had contact with men.
Naturally, as adventurers they crossed paths with men often enough. But the vast majority of those encounters were for battle, and almost all of them were against the Zeus Familia.
The men of the Zeus Familia were mostly hulking brutes. Ideal for adventurers, perhaps—but they couldn't remain adventurers forever.
And whenever they took a rare break, or caught sight of a happy couple passing by, a certain feeling would quietly take root inside them as well.
A girl's simple longing to fall in love.
A desire far too modest for members of the Hera Familia—first-tier adventurers feared by all—and yet, precisely because of that, desperately real. The wish to have someone to love: utterly natural on its face, but forbidden for so long that it had warped beyond all recognition inside them!
They were, most of them, fierce women. And in truth, not just them—nearly everyone who reached the first tier carried a strong-willed disposition, some more than others. They simply had it more than most. There was no particular reason for it. If pressed, you might say children resemble their parents.
To such women, a frail, small-animal-like man should have been the very image of avoidance—and yet, against all expectation, they fantasized about delicate men far more than about hulking brutes.
Why? Because their surroundings were saturated with nothing but slabs of muscle.
The law of the pyramid's peak!
Chocolate milk costs more than plain milk, but when chocolate milk is everywhere, the single carton of plain milk shines all the brighter. What they longed to see wasn't another macho monster, but a boy so gentle it stirred the urge to protect him.
And now, a man who was practically their ideal type had appeared. Hair white as a rabbit's fur, eyes of deep red. That adorable face, trembling with nervousness—it seemed to resurrect a protective instinct they'd believed long dead within them.
It was a flaw, missing an arm and an eye—but they were adventurers. That much didn't even register as a defect. If anything, it was just the spice that amplified pity and a certain forbidden thrill.
And on top of it all, looks so cute they might mistake him for one of their own. With prime prey rolling itself straight into their den, the members licked their lips.
They wanted to pounce right then and there—but alas, the rabbit at the center of it all was being led by the apex of their pride.
So they clicked their tongues in disappointment and stared at a rice cake painted on paper. Stared so hard it could bore holes through him.
Sc-scary...!
He didn't know what it was, but Vesta was terrified of their gazes.
Crushed under that oppressive attention, I somehow dragged myself to what I presumed was the dining hall.
Broad tables. In a hall that looked ten times larger than I'd imagined, dozens of enormous dining tables stretched in orderly rows.
This is... basically an actual restaurant, isn't it?
Frankly, it was big enough that most real restaurants couldn't hold a candle to it. Even the Freya Familia's dining hall—where I'd once, sort of, belonged—was far smaller by comparison.
"Hmm..."
But it wasn't really to my taste.
No, I understood that given the size of the Hera Familia, this layout was inevitable.
At the very least, I preferred the way my own Familia used to gather around a single table, all of us together. Though that, too, was only possible because we were a small, family-sized group.
"Sit there and wait."
"...Yes, ma'am."
The place Hera pointed to was, at a glance, more elegant than any other seat in the hall—the head of the table.
Was this where she always sat? I'd expected it, but apparently I'd still have to face her while eating.
Ugh... my stomach's already...
It churned, but I had to endure it. This was the Hera Familia home. If I upset her, who knew what would become of me!
Reading the atmosphere, I didn't think she was doing this to torment me. Still, the pressure was unbearable.
Because even now the gazes were overwhelming! The stares that had trickled in one by one had swelled, before I knew it, into hundreds—slinking after me and Hera all the way to the dining hall.
"Ah, I'm starving."
"Well, we gotta eat~"
"What's on the menu tonight again?"
The women filed in one after another, exchanging stilted small talk like they were reading lines from a textbook—and every single one of them glanced at me as they passed, which was hard to ignore.
No, more than that—every single look was terrifying. Was that... killing intent? The sensation of a sharp predator's eyes sweeping over me sent chills down my spine.
Seriously, what did I ever do to you people?
"Oh? Vesta?"
"Hm?"
Just then, a familiar voice reached me.
No way. That voice—could it be?
"Miss Meteria?"
"Long time no see! But what are you doing here?"
She greeted me warmly, though her face was full of puzzlement.
Good question. Why am I here?
I have no idea. I'd given up on thinking about it, you see. Thinking only gave me a headache, so I'd resolved to just accept things as they came.
"I brought him."
"Huh?"
But then I heard that.
Say what now?
"You brought me here?"
The moment I whipped around, bristling, there stood a familiar-looking Amazoness.
"Yep. The old lady ordered it. Sorry."
The Empress delivered it with an expression that wasn't sorry in the slightest. If that's how you feel, why bother apologizing at all?
"Captain, if you were going to summon someone, you could at least have explained."
"I know, that's why I said sorry, didn't I?"
With that, the Empress sat down at the table where I'd taken my seat.
"Honestly... Oh, are you staying for dinner too, Vesta?"
"Yeah... I guess so."
Truly against my will, but here we are, I thought, nodding along with forced acceptance while suppressing the urge to pour my heart out to Miss Meteria, seated beside me.
...Hm? Wait. Why are these two sitting here, though?
Don't tell me this wasn't Hera's private table after all?
I hastily scanned my surroundings. Three chairs were still empty.
Even if one was for Hera, two more people were going to join us?
Anyone seated at the head of the table had to hold considerable rank... and there were two of them?
Oh my god. It seemed today was the day of my funeral.
"Haa..."
This really is hopeless.