Chapter 62 - Care

Regaining some awareness, Ethan found himself immersed in darkness. Having time to think, he slowly remembered what had happened before we went unconscious

'The event..so I lost'

Looking at where his fist should be, he clenched it to try to check his condition. Surprised, he felt the pain was gone...

'I could have acted differently... I underestimated that, although it is a powerful magic, it doesn't mean that I can transform it as I want without the proper training.. There isn't a manual to help me understand everything on my magic, so the only thing I can do is write or keep in mind all its functions and things not to do..'

Remembering that he had Light with him, he immediately tried to ask her to keep in mind these things for him..but..

'She isn't replying..?'

Calling her many times, he tried to think of all the possibilities

'She should be a part of me, that does mean I'm somewhere Light can't be....'

Looking around another time, he closed his eyes just to realize that there was no difference.

'Am I dreaming?'

Feeling sleepy, his last thought was this before his consciousness faded away from that space.

---

Placing him on the bed, Ais looked around and, finding a chair, she sat on it. Closing her eyes to try to understand what she should do, she closed herself in her world while, next to her, Lefiya stared at Ethan's sleeping face

'His breathing seems regular ... at least he isn't in danger...'

Holding the staff in her hand tightly, she felt as if Riveria's last words echoed continuously in her mind. Looking down, she was lost among her contradictory thoughts

'H-Heal his heart...h-how can I put such an abstract concept into practice...!? And then .. would he be really happy while Ais is here next to me ..? After all, she is...'

Thinking this, she had a blush while she also had other things in mind. Looking at the staff she held to tightly, she felt the sadness that continued to influence her thoughts, but this was beginning to have its good effects, thanks to the words of Riveria and Tiona

'Riveria told me..t-the only thing I can do isn't related to my ability as a Mage.. I.. I don't want to feel that feeling of helplessness anymore.. Is trying to get stronger to continue being in the group so wrong?'

Remembering Ethan's words, she felt slightly comforted.

'No..it isn't wrong. Ethan himself said this to me.. I can't stop only because my magic hasn't helped, one day I will reach the point where it will certainly be...'

With a hint of resolution, she continued to stare at Ethan while Ais tried to understand better what she felt at that precise moment. Realizing that she didn't like that feeling at all, she too had the same determination as Lefiya. Getting stronger, for Ais, was the answer to any question.

---

Busy working in a Jagamarukun Stand, Hestia saw as the streets began to fill up with people, many coming from the Colosseum. She felt confused because the event, from her perspective was surely going to last longer

'Maybe he didn't participate anymore? But it would be strange, also because he was so determined...'

Remembering Ethan's internal struggle just for this event, she was worried that something had happened... Giving a Jagamarukun to a customer while checking if the money given was enough to pay, she asked

"Ano...sorry to bother you, can you tell me what happened in the Colosseum?"

Hearing this, the man turned around with a smile

"Oh, are you perhaps Hestia-sama?"

Surprised, she made a nod while the man, seeing her confirm, added

"You are quite famous now, because many say that you are connected with Ethan..by the way, if you want to know what happened in the Colosseum I can make a small recap"

Nodding even faster than before, she didn't care that much about being famous or not..at the moment, the important thing was to know what happened

Telling the whole story to her, the man finished his speech with a somewhat sad smile

"At the end Ethan fell unconscious..probably, I'm not sure. The only thing I saw was The King defending him while the Thousand Elf used magic to heal him"

Hearing this, she felt extremely anxious. Approaching him while taking him by the sleeve of the shirt, Hestia asked

"What happened after!? Where is he now??"

Feeling sudden pressure from her, the man immediately shook his head

"I-I don't know, probably they brought him back in the Twilight Manor.."

Understanding he wasn't lying, Hestia understood she had to do something. Releasing him, people in the surrounding stared at the scene while thinking about what happened to make a goddess this angry. With hurried steps, she ran away, shouting

"I'm sorry, Tenchou-san! I need to go.."

Hearing this, the man that explained the whole situation was surprised while Hestia started to ran towards the Twilight Manor

'I hope he's all right...'

Finding determination in this thought, she completely ignored people that looked at her.

'It isn't that far from here.. I can make it in time..'

---

After some minutes, the few ones who missed entered the room without actually saying anything. Inhaling and Exhaling a few times, Loki decided to be serious this time.

"Before we start, I want to update even those who weren't present"

Looking at Bete, he made a 'tch' while Gareth made an apologetic smile. With a sigh, she continued her speech while they had their full attention on her

"Ethan won the event, although it is a more symbolic victory, if it had been simply to judge whether he won or lost, he certainly lost today"

Hearing this, Bete was even more pissed off than he was before exiting the event

"Than? Why should I care about that weakling? I said it from the start that he couldn't be one of us"

Shaking her head, Riveria replied

"He may have lost, but it was something I expected in part, what I didn't expect is the number of defeated people and the fact it wasn't them who defeated him, but he himself exaggerated and ended up in a state very similar to Mind Down"

Looking away, Bete wanted to continue raging but, knowing it wasn't going to end well, he decided not to answer anything while Loki replied

"Ganesha brought me the report, he successfully defeated 761 people at level 3, but that's not all, if we want to count the ones that have declared defeat..."

Hesitating for a moment, she added

"5,306"

Knowing he made the right choice, Bete closed his eyes before sighing internally. Seeing he had nothing to reply, they were surprised.

Placing the doc.u.ment on the table, Loki looked at the reactions of their familia members for some seconds before, the first to say something was Finn

"I think nobody would be able to contest his loss, the number of people he defeated while being a level 2 is superior to any other person of his level.. I honestly thought he wasn't even a level 2.."

Sighing, she made a nod while Riveria had something to say

"The damage he has received is quite difficult to heal, even I could only cure the parts around the damage and not the damage itself..so my suggestion is to wait until he woke up to check on him.."

Nodding, Loki opened her eyes while Tiona said

"Ethan will surely overcome this too, he has already faced many situations in the last few days!"

"L-Loki-sama! Sorry if I interrupt, but there is a problem!"

Looking at him, Loki replied

"I hope this is something really important, otherwise .."

Nodding, the man bowed while adding

"At the gate of the Manor, a goddess named Hestia-sama is requesting your presence without an appointment saying it's extremely urgent..."

Hearing Hestia's name, she flinched slightly while thinking about the man's words

'Hestia? That Chibi? What is she doing here?'

Trying to resolve this enigma, she said

"Bring her here, I will listen to what she has to say.."

With another nod, the man immediately exited the room to go and make Hestia enter the manor. Confused, Riveria asked

"Loki-sama, do you know why this goddess came here so suddenly?"

Shaking her head, she looked towards the door while answering

"That Chibi descended in the Mortal World just a few months ago, but she didn't manage to find any member for her familia.. I don't really know why she's here"

Knowing even her goddess was without an answer, they patiently waited until the door opened, revealing a youthful girl with blue eyes and black hair tied into two twin tails panting heavily. At this sight, Loki made a mischievous smile while asking in a playful tone

"Why are you here, Chibi? Perhaps you missed me?"

Looking at her with hate, Hestia replied

"Nothing like that and it's not even the time! Where's Ethan?"

Surprised, she immediately understood the situation

'Was she the person he went to ...? Judging by her level of concern it must be so.."

Sighing, Loki understood that she too was involved now but, she wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to tease her

"Ethan? Oh, he's resting at another location, why ?"

Totally ignoring the fact that Loki was trying to tease her, she breathed a few times before adding

"His life isn't in danger... right?"

Hearing this, Riveria decided to intrude on the conversation

"I apologize Hestia-sama for the behavior of our goddess, but yes, Ethan isn't in danger, he's resting right now"

Feeling the stress fading away, she made a sigh of relief before Loki pretended to be offended by Riveria's words

"I was going to inform her anyway, don't spoil the fun"

Glaring at her, Hestia replied

"you could have said it from the beginning!"

Waving her hand, she looked away before asking

"What is your relationship with Ethan? Chibi, I would like to point out that he is a member of my familia"

Knowing it was the truth, Hestia looked down while the core members of the Loki Familia were curious to know.

With some seconds passing in silence, she weakly replied

"H-He helped me a lot.."

Ready to ask what did she mean by this, Loki was about to ask before she saw Hestia turn her head towards her while tears filled her eyes

"He brought me a familia member, he praised me saying that I was also someone who worked hard even if I'm lazy, he kept me company when nobody else wanted to, I don't know what our relationship is or I care at the moment, I just wanted ..."

Stopping for a moment to sob, Loki didn't utter a word while she continued to glare angrily at her

"I just wanted to know if he was fine!"

Seeing her starting to cry, Loki looked away while she sighed rather heavily. With Riveria glaring at Loki, the other members couldn't say anything but, Tiona, said

"Don't worry Hestia-sama! No matter how tough the defeat has been, he will recover and show us something even more fascinating than what we have been able to witness!"

Hearing her words, she stopped to cry for a moment while Riveria had time to add

"Hestia-sama, I can't understand how much you care about him, but the fact you are here will surely make him happy..."

Seeing this whole situation playing in front of him, Bete immediately got up from his chair and, with a 'tch' exited the room

'Why everytime it's something about that weakling? I'm getting bored!'

Pissed off to the extreme, he directly went towards the exit of the Twilight Manor

'I hope one day Bete will finally be honest...'

Understading why Bete exited the room, Tiona decided not to stop him this time while Gareth followed him to try to calm him.

With a sarcastic laugh, Finn observed the situation while sitting on his chair

'I knew it, with Ethan there are always surprises..he even have a goddess that cares this much about him...'

Sighing, he had this thoughts in mind while their dialogue continued...

---

(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8 If you enter it, you can choose one of Ethan's future powers from the pool I created, but that's not all! On the server, you can see the reference on some things that will be present in the story! Right now you can freely see some things like the [Twin's Digimon] and [The Devoted Heart].)

(A/N: Today I will release another chapter)

(Alternate Titles: "Hestia, venting her concern about Ethan while Loki can no longer say anything!", "Tiona, you're the wisest but you're so underrated", "Finn is jealous because Ethan has an harem while he hasn't!? By the way, it's not like that")