Chapter 64 - Strength

Hearing Riveria's speech, Hestia understood that in the room she was in, everyone believed in Ethan's strength.

'I guess I made a totally wrong opinion of this familia. They're trusting this child's judgment, and they're doing their best..'

Closing her eyes for a moment, She was determined to take them as an example. Slapping her cheeks with her hands, she replied

"You are right, I'll return home before evening"

Even though she was confused by the goddess' action, Riveria nodded while Ais was still deep in thoughts.

---

(There's a small 18+ part, I advised you)

With time passing while the group talked about various things related to the event, things were going even for others...

"What happened in the event, Ottar?"

Asking this while taking a sip of wine, Ottar immediately bowed

"It went as you planned, Freya-sama. I had to interrupt the event while Ethan had lost consciousness, so I would say it went even better than expected"

Surprised, She looked at him with a smile

'I can't wait to have him for me..'

L.i.c.k.i.n.g her lips l.u.s.tfully, she put down her glass while asking

"Can you tell me the details?"

Nodding, Ottar started to tell her everything he saw and roughly how much people he defeated

"It was around 700 people..? I am surprised, I expected a lower number.."

"Thank you, Ottar, I'll call you again when I need you"

With another bow, he did as she said without saying anything more. Seeing his sleeping face from the girl she used as medium, she licked her lips another time.

'I hope you'll manage to entertain me even more.. Ethan'

Feeling aroused, she started to touch herself while breathing rather heavily, pronouncing his name a few times. One of the perks as a Goddess of S.e.x made her able to get aroused instantly, as Freya's case, it was even more effective if she thought someone she wanted. Deciding to think about the details later, she called Ottar again...

---

After the sudden urge to fall asleep that Ethan felt in the dark space, he felt the same feeling, just that his body seemed more real...

'Oh...this bed is comfortable..'

Thinking this for a moment, memories of everything that had happened in the last few hours came back to him

'Right.. I can't sleep, I have to wake up'

Feeling the sensations fading, he could finally see Lefiya, holding her staff tightly while Ais was in her emotionless state that, even though she was having an interior battle, to Ethan was like an open book. Sighing, he decided to finally make his presence known

"Lefiya..Ais.."

Hearing the well-known voice, the first to react was Lefiya. Staring at him while he stared at her, the two continued like this for some seconds before Ais opened her eyes with her emotionless face even more evident than usual. Not minding it in the slightest, he took her hand in his while saying

"Sorry if I made you two worry so much.."

Shaking her head, Ais pat his head while Lefiya just stared at him without adding nor doing anything. Feeling the situation was going to be awkward if he didn't say something, he directly smiled while saying

"I am very grateful that you have watched over me"

Saying this, he started to stroke Ais' hair while she closed her eyes to enjoy her moment. Having prepared something to say to him all this time, Lefiya felt really stupid. With a large blush, she covered her face while trying to make order in her mind

'I.. I had to just s-say it..why the words got stuck in my throat and won't come out..why I have to a-always be the consoled or reassured one.. I wish to be firm...at least for this..'

Finding some courage, she slowly removed her hands from her face. Although her blush was still pretty visible, she decided to think about it later. Staring at him, she inhaled before finally saying

"Y-You d-don't have to worry about this loss! F-For me you.. you were very coo--"

Feeling the words struck in her throat again, she nervously continued

"I-I mean you could see that your strength is not to be underestimated..a-and you still won the event so everything is o-okay"

Completely losing the thread of the speech that she originally prepared, Lefiya sighed internally while hating herself for her shyness. Seeing her reaction, Ethan felt like laughing at how hard she tried to put her feelings into words but, Shaking his head, he decided it was better to not do that.

"So I won.. I see.. But that's not important right now. Why are you so troubled?"

Hearing this, she looked down while saying weakly

"I wanted to console you in some way.."

Looking at Ais for a moment, she saw her nodding in approval. Nodding on his own, he released her hand before standing up from the bed. Now in front of her, she looked so sad from his perspective that he thought only a thing could improve the situation. Trying to not mind the pain, he placed his hand on her head.

'I always think doing this is risky, but I don't really know how to help ease her stress and anxiety in another way...'

Boosting the temperature of his hand, Lefiya felt the warm sensation of his hand while her blush became even more evident.

"You don't need to do that for me, I am just happy to see that you waited for me...that's all it took to make me happy..."

Hearing this, she felt her heart racing somehow. Feeling even more embarrassed, she didn't notice that Ethan was struggling to not make her notice his pain. Removing the hand from her head, he sat on the bed while he looked at his hand. Clenching it in a fist, he understood that Riveria or Lefiya tried to heal him.

'I'm surely in a much better state, but I have not yet acquired my maximum fighting ability...I guess It's time to check my status..'

Thinking this, he tried to call Light.

["Light, are you here?"]

Hearing this, she immediately replied

[Welcome back, Ethan...]

Stunned by the way she was speaking, he decided to ask her if everything was ok. Being asked this question, Light took a few seconds before replying

[I have something to tell you, There are good and bad news, but I guess it's better to wait until you're alone. For now, you wanted to see your status?]

Surprised, he was curious to know something

["Yes, I want to see my status but before that, you can't interact with me in my dreams, right?"]

Such a question brought silence for some time before Light confirmed his theory.

'So it was a dream.. That's why I felt as if everything wasn't reality...'

Deciding to put the matter in the back of his mind, he saw his [Status Board]

-----------------------------

Name: Ethan

Age: 15

Race: Human

Lv 2(+)

[Falna: 486,1/1.000]

End: 522D→ 601C

Dex: 630C→ 700B

Agi: 702B → 776B

Mag: 824A → 1063SS

{Total Parameters : 8.975 → 9.489}

Skill: [Qienta's Blessing:SSS], [Mana Control:A], [Boost Magic:F], [Avian:G→F]

Magic: [Sagitta Magica:D]

Development Ability: [FeatherFoot:E→C], [Spirit Healing:G], [Hunter:H]

-----------------------------

Seeing his Status, he wasn't that surprised about most parameters except magic. He knew that he made a big mistake. Boosting the mana that flowed in his body, enough to make his mana pool beg for mercy was something no healthy person would do

'I didn't know its disadvantages, and that makes me even more stupid. I will never use an unknown technique like that again without testing and knowing it works without such an effect...'

Lost in his mind, he hadn't even noticed that Lefiya was calling him for a while

"Ethan!!"

Removing the Status Board Interface from his eyesight, he replied in an apologetic tone

"Sorry, I was thinking about something else... What were you saying?"

Hearing this, she looked away while adding

"I was saying that many people have come to see you in these hours, even Loki showed up to check on you"

Speechless, he saw at the System's interface to check the time.

'It's 11PM.. I lose consciousness roughly at 6PM..so they remained here for 5 hours!?'

Understanding how much the two girls in front of him were worried about him, he sighed while replying

"Why didn't you go home with Loki then? I could've just reached you tomorrow.."

Shaking her head, Ais replied in a firm tone

"I had to protect you"

Even though he felt she was right, he still felt a little down by her words but, before he could say something, he saw as Lefiya held her staff tightly again while looking down. Seeing how sad she was, he felt a little worried about her. Deciding to tell him what happened, Lefiya started to talk..

"I.. When you fall unconscious, Ais tried to help you with everything she could, she immediately went towards you, protecting you from any harm that could fall upon you.. Seeing you were injured I came in the arena and tried to use my strongest healing spell to heal you but it had near to no effect.. I tried again, and again, but It didn't work..until Riveria said that for the moment it was impossible to heal you with normal means..."

Sobbing, she wiped out the tears that were already flowing down. Watching this, he was so shocked that he missed his chance to stop her. Missing it, he continued to stare at her as she continued her speech

"I felt so scared... I felt all the happiness I had the chance to find in this group being taken away with no way of doing anything to avoid it...Riveria told me..that as a mage this isn't something I could do, but I still had a chance to heal your h-heart..at first I didn't u-understand...I thought about it for all this time while waiting for you..but I am too shy to say what I wanted to... I feel like I'm always taking advantage of you..I don't want you to hate me..."

Gulping, he looked at Ais for a moment. Understanding what he had to do, he inhaled for some seconds..

'I can't really do anything else other than this..I feel like every single word I can say won't be enough to help her...'

Approaching her again, he slowly put his hands on her back before squeezing her into a strong embrace. Trying to avoid anything more then this, he looked away while she stared at him with a somewhat shocked expression.

'I'm not scaring her now..right...?'

In reality, Ethan's action felt, from Lefiya's perspective, as if all the darkness she felt around her being replaced by a strong, warm and dazzling light that could wipe out any sad thought...

'This..This is so e-e-embarrassing...but..I can feel that warmth...it's so pleasant...'

With all her previous thoughts not important anymore, she tried to hold on to the warmth she felt all over her body until Ethan released her from his grasp. With a sad smile, he asked

"Is everything okay now..? I think no words could improve the situation..so It was the only thing that came to my mind, sorry.."

Feeling the warmth still on her body, her blush was so deep to even reach her ears. Looking down, she weakly replied

"N-No....It's f-fine.."

With a sigh of relief, he sat on the bed again while saying

"It doesn't matter that you were unable to heal me. The damage I received it connected to my magic, making it impossible to heal from others. I can only heal the damage myself.."

Having somewhat understood this as Riveria said something similar, she made a nod

"I know it, but...I felt so scared...even though Riveria said you would have woken up, I couldn't stop being worried..."

Nodding, his smile seemed like it had lit up a bit

'I hope that one day she'll be able to believe more in herself and her abilities, even though I've told her a few times, I doubt if I tell her now she will take my words seriously...'

Staring at her, his smile didn't fade while Ais approached Ethan on the bed to get her moment back.

'I just have to show it to her with facts...'

---

(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: I hope it was clear that there was a time skip. In that Loki came to pay a visit to Ethan and to bring him back but Lefiya and Ais refused as if they brought him back they couldn't watch on him the whole night because people would surely notice them remain in his room all day..From the last scene with Hestia and everyone, 4 hours passed)

(Alternate Titles: "Lefiya, passing 4 hours thinking on how to heal his heart just to f*ck everything in a few seconds...", "Ais, you should be more honest", "Ethan: What should I do... *looking at Ais for the approval* Ais: *Nodding* Ethan: I guess it's fine then")