Hephaestus and Ares
Hephaestus's temple was nothing like Hestia's Temple of the Hearth.
Where hers had been gentle and warm, this place felt as though heat itself had wrapped the world on every side. I walked through the heart of it. The clang of metal rang out in every direction, and people milled about shouting over the din, every last one of them stripped to the waist and pouring sweat. Yet the stifling heat never quite reached me — Hephaestus was clearly shielding his visitors from the forge-fire within these walls.
"This way."
The blacksmith guiding me led me onward, then steered me into a corner. There stood the same burly, muscle-bound man I had seen when I fled the heavens. The God of Fire and the Forge — Hephaestus.
"It's been a while, Lord Hephaestus."
Hephaestus slowly lifted his head. He glanced at the blacksmith who had brought me in.
"Back to your station."
He waved a hand. The blacksmith turned and left without a word. Then Hephaestus looked at me as I stood with my head bowed.
"I heard the story from Aphrodite. You want to become a hero who hunts monsters?"
That perverted goddess. I'd wondered how she'd managed to work over a husband she was practically separated from. So this is how she spun it? After boldly declaring me her sex slave, no less — which I wasn't!
"Yes, yes. That's right."
I answered Hephaestus with a carefully maintained smile. He studied me for a moment in silence, then turned his attention back to the iron he had been striking.
Clang! Clang!
He brought the hammer down on the metal and asked without looking up,
"How did you come to know her?"
"Well, by chance, I just happened to…"
Hephaestus dislikes lies.
"…She came looking for me because she wanted to have sex."
There was no way around it. I had to tell him straight. Besides, I owed this god. He had pulled me down from the heavens on Hera's orders, even knowing it meant making an enemy of his own father, Zeus. Better to be honest than try to wriggle free with a lie. And no — I was absolutely not doing this because of the Status Window's warning.
"That sounds like her."
Hephaestus took it in stride, as if it meant nothing at all.
"Of course, she refused me outright the moment I tried to share a bed with her for the first time."
He laughed at himself. I watched him quietly.
Strange.
Looking at this man — even accounting for the scarred half of his face — he wasn't bad-looking. And that massively muscled upper body? Aphrodite would have lost her mind over it. I could guarantee that from personal experience. A torso like that, paired with solid lower body strength, would hit hard enough to drive Aphrodite wild. And yet she had never slept with him even once?
"Was there some kind of problem?"
"You dare ask about the marital affairs of the gods?"
"Ah — I'm sorry."
What a thing to say to my benefactor… I quietly bowed my head and waited for his temper to cool.
Clang!
After one final strike, Hephaestus turned to face me in silence.
"This is not my true body."
I doubted my ears.
"N-not your true body?"
"My real body exists elsewhere. Only my mother, my father, and Aphrodite know this."
I was hearing it for the first time. I already knew this ancient Greek otherworld twisted and varied from the myths and legends I remembered — but Hephaestus too?
"Th-then what exactly…"
"I cannot say."
Hephaestus answered at once.
"But do you understand why I am telling a mere human like you this much?"
I had no idea.
"Because I have a request for you."
You have received Hephaestus's Quest.
What the hell was this? A forced quest?
I couldn't bring myself to say I wanted to refuse. All I had was a vague sense of foreboding. But experience had taught me that the gods' quests, once completed, came with extraordinary rewards — and those rewards always fueled my growth in a major way.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them. I was almost too afraid to look at the quest's contents. But as if taking pity on me, Hephaestus explained it himself.
"I want revenge on the woman who crawled into bed with Ares."
I hadn't wanted to hear that!
Objective:NTR Aphrodite
Rewards: Experience · Hephaestus's Affinity · Hephaestus's Blessing · ???
My mind went blank.
"W-wait a second."
I raised a hand. Hephaestus held one out toward me.
"That sword you're carrying — isn't that why you came here? To have it enhanced?"
W-well, yes, but…
I nodded frantically.
"I'll enhance it as a free service."
Hephaestus snatched Hestia's divine relic from me.
"The enhancement costs nothing, so think it over carefully while I work."
Then the rhythmic clang of hammer on metal began to pound against my eardrums. I stood frozen in place the entire time.
Okay. Okay. Let's sort this out.
First, the rewards. Experience and affinity were standard. On top of that, Hephaestus's Blessing. Given that male gods did more of the actual fighting in Greek myth than goddesses, his blessing had a high chance of being useful in combat. My abilities mostly drew on goddesses' blessings — male gods were rare. From that angle, this was a genuine opportunity. The "???" bothered me, but there was no way to know what it was right now, so I set it aside.
This is a massively profitable offer for me too.
I needed to claim Aphrodite completely anyway. Of course, it wouldn't be easy. Corrupting a goddess as lecherous as Zeus himself would be harder than taking Hestia's virginity.
Two things worry me.
First: making an enemy of an enraged Ares. Even if Greek myth painted him as something of a pushover, in Roman myth he ranked among the highest of gods. I had no idea how much stature he held in this otherworld, but he was still a god of Olympus. And Aphrodite herself had told me — if I wanted to buy weapons, I should go to him.
I swallowed dryly. If I truly made an enemy of a god…
I-I'll set that aside for now.
And second — this was the important one.
Can I actually steal Aphrodite?
She was a slut, a pervert, and a serial cheater on par with Zeus — maybe worse, in her own way. Would a woman that lewd fall so easily? Hadn't she already fallen?
NTR, by definition, was a world of stealing and being stolen from. It was already rampant across this Greek mythology. Where exactly did the definition and the standard end? And if Ares found out, would Aphrodite and Hephaestus really shield me from his wrath?
Absolutely not.
In Greek myth, the gods were endlessly merciful to themselves and utterly ruthless to humans. If my affair with Aphrodite was discovered, Ares's divine punishment would fall on me alone.
"About that…"
I was about to refuse — until Hephaestus spoke again.
"If you succeed, I will personally forge your weapon with my true body."
My mouth watered on its own.
"Divine relics can only be produced when the true body handles them. You already know that, don't you?"
Of course I did. Even Hestia's relic I currently owned wasn't, strictly speaking, a combat sword — it was a ritual blade I was using in battle. And he was offering to forge me a proper combat sword, made by a true body almost no one had ever seen?
"In front of me?"
"If not before the weapon's master, then before whom would I forge it?"
He grinned.
"Of course, whether you can survive looking upon my true body is another matter — but you survived seeing my mother, so you should manage well enough."
He was confident. I squeezed my eyes shut.
Steal Aphrodite. And gain Hephaestus's weapon on top of it.
Quest rewards have increased.
Even the Status Window confirmed it.
The reward is too big to refuse.
In the end, I spoke with my eyes still closed.
"I'll… do it…"
Hephaestus smiled faintly.
"Good choice."
Clang!
The enhancement of the divine relic was complete.
On weary feet, I headed for my next stop.
Ares's temple boasted a grandeur that outstripped even Hephaestus's. He was the God of War who bestowed blessings upon heroes, and in this age of heroes he deserved reverence equal to Hephaestus's — if not greater. But after accepting Hephaestus's quest, every step I took felt unbearably heavy.
"I've come to purchase a weapon."
"Welcome."
True to a temple of war, weapons of every kind stood on display in dense rows. I was casually looking around when I witnessed a blessing in progress.
A soldier of perfect discipline. Neatly trimmed hair and beard. A solid frame packed with muscle. And a face handsome enough to rival Zeus — Hollywood-actor handsome. Even without seeing his true body, I knew. That was Ares.
Ah, fuck.
Steal Aphrodite from a man like that? My stomach twisted as if I'd eaten something rotten. I suddenly felt like I'd made a terrible choice.
Then —
"Hm?"
My eyes met Ares's.
"You there, boy. Come here."
I stood frozen. Only when the people around me gently ushered me forward did my feet finally move. I found myself standing before him.
"W-why did you call for me?"
"I am called Polemos. A great warrior of Lord Ares."
Bullshit. Anyone could see he was Ares himself.
No — maybe he only looks that way to my eyes.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them. The Ares claiming to be Polemos leaned in close to my ear and whispered,
"I heard from her. You spent a night together, didn't you?"
A low, growling murmur. I turned to him with a bloodless face. His eyes flashed with a light that looked ready to kill me on the spot.
No. That wasn't it. That wasn't a look meant to kill. It was a light I knew far too well — I recognized it instantly.
"So it wasn't for nothing after all."
Ares is targeting you.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
Goddamn ancient Greece!