Chapter 172 - Lunch(1/2)

After about 20 minutes as Maple had had time to stay in the water for a while, Ethan then proceeded to dry her carefully, without leaving any point of her body uncovered because he didn't want her to catch a cold.

With her now dried, the two of them returned to the kitchen for breakfast, but as soon as they arrived, Ethan noticed they had already prepared everything they needed, and with their help no longer needed, Ethan went first to the table where from that day on they would have breakfast...

As Maple sat on his l.a.p, the rest of the group arrived shortly after with dishes in hand and, although Ethan had offered his help more than one time, they all refused, unexpectedly even Ais.

But even though this was something he couldn't explain himself, he decided since it didn't seem they wanted his help, it was better not to force his hand and let them do on their own...

After a couple of minutes, everything was brought to the table and, in no time at all, the rest of the group began to choose where to sit, even if in reality there was little to decide.

With Lefiya and Ais sitting on his right and left respectively while Hestia and Lili had Ethan in front of them, the breakfast passed rather quickly and, Ethan this time having Maple on his l.a.p, he helped her eat and seeing her gently biting the fruits, he had a smile on his face, indicating that whatever was going on around him was making him happy and, while this was evident to all the participants in the breakfast, the atmosphere became lighter and lighter, leaving ample field for the group that in addition to breakfast, had been able to open up a little with the others.

Even if both Lefiya and Ais still saw Hestia as a Goddess, Hestia didn't consider Ais and Lefiya mere children of the Loki Familia, but even if that was the case, Ais didn't care much, since it was okay for her to respect the rules in her own way.

The opposite could be said for Lefiya though. Being an elf, she was very attached to respecting the Gods, and she could only question herself on the problem that perhaps the relationship they were having was going to be too intimate...

She wasn't so stupid not to understand where the story would end if Ethan and Hestia would be in a relationship, but the real problem for Lefiya was that this would lead their status to be the same, or maybe she herself would even above Hestia, which the pride and respect in the goddess in question would never have allowed her to have no remorse about it, and even though her heart would appreciate such an elevation to status, her mind knew this wasn't possible, or at least not with a goddess...

But her worries were taken into consideration by Hestia, who responded by smiling at her

"Do you really think that something like that is worth anything in love? It doesn't matter at all if the status is that of a God, a human, or everything else, because in the end, the only thing able to change the hierarchy is the level of affection that Ethan would feel towards us, right...?"

At her question, Lefiya immediately nodded without actually answering but, before she could do so, Hestia rested her chin on the palm of her hand as she added

"Then, wouldn't that be a problem...If my position was higher than yours..."

Lefiya hadn't thought about what was best for her, but Hestia's words were enough to make her understand fighting for her position was equally important to respect the goddess in front of her as best she could, and if the two things were to interfere, Lefiya would have no choice but to choose which of the two things to give more importance to.

But even though all of this had gone off quite casually at the table, Ethan still understood the seriousness of their words, and was considering in his mind what he should do with Hestia in due course, this was because there were so many qualities of Hestia that made her so unique, and Ethan would feel really lucky to have the chance to be with her too, but the real question in her head was...

'Would that..work?'

He decided to take some time to improve the relationship between him, Lefiya, and Ais. Even though this was going pretty well so far, so much that he didn't even believe all of this was true, Ethan also knew that integrating people was something really complicated at the moment, because there was a sort of link between Ais and Lefiya before, which made it quicker for them to accept the fact the distance separating them before could no longer exist now, and instead, it seemed that this had led them to want to be even closer than before, improving the relationship accordingly, but if it tightened too much, Ethan was also afraid that they would be too attached to this, which would shake everything he was trying to defend the moment he approached some other girl.

Thinking even of all these issues, Ethan could almost feel his head hurting, which led him to sigh in exasperation while Lefiya, Ais, and Maple, turned to check if there was any problem...

But before Ais and Lefiya could ask if anything had happened, they heard someone loudly speaking

"Ethan...! You're home, aren't you?"

At Tiona's 'call', Ethan stood up from his chair holding Maple in his arms and, as Lefiya and Ais followed him with their eyes, Ethan went out the door of the house, nodding before answering

"Why shouldn't I? after all I have a training to follow..."

His response seemed to have pleased Tiona as the latter had a cheeky smile on her face as she replied with a "Well said!" while he let her enter his house' area.

"As for training, for me it's okay to train here or there is an unused part of the garden we can head to, since I think it's better to fight there to avoid causing unnecessary damage..."

But while Ethan was talking about it, Tiona noticed the fox he was holding in his hands, which immediately made her smile wider and, after asking for her, plus c.a.r.e.s.sing her for a few seconds, Tiona turned before adding

"How long are you going to stay hidden, Riveria?"

At her 'provocation' Riveria responded with a "hmph" and, before he knew it, Riveria was in front of them, which led Ethan to blink while Riveria, seeing that Ethan seemed confused, decided to clarify why she had hidden

"I'm sorry if I scared you, actually this was a way to check if you were able to track down an opponent like me, but it seems that you are not yet able to do so, so now I know that's another one of the things you're going to have to hone in on during your training."

To his words, Ethan felt rather bored but, this vanished the moment the image of Riveria with a hand on his head and, even though he questioned himself as to why he remembered such a thing now, Ethan sighed for the umpteenth time the embarrassment was difficult to counteract and, in addition to that, Ethan had no idea how to face Riveria, which was obvious to the latter.

Feeling the atmosphere between the two seemed to be a bit awkward, Tiona was confused for a few moments but before the situation could become even more awkward than before, Tiona went to separate the two by bringing herself in the middle of their conversation with the first thing she had in mind...

"B-By the way...have you had breakfast already..Ethan?"

Hoping that Ethan would play along and continue the conversation, the group began to move towards the entrance of the house as he replied

"Yeah, I actually just finished having breakfast"

After a few seconds, they went straight back to the front door, and once they got in, Ethan already had the training clothes, so he didn't bother change again and in no time at all, their training began but, in addition to his training, Riveria also idealized a training for Lili, which was still focused on the generality, since Lili had not yet chosen what to be, or what was most suitable for her and enhanced her strength to the maximum...

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During Ethan's and Lili's training, Lefiya was in charge of running the house, but above all she was busy choosing which rooms would need to be 'renovated' although all there was to change were the furniture while Hestia had the morning shift today, so she was getting ready for work, because she was also going to warn her boss that Lili should only occupy the afternoon for school reasons.

In addition to this, however, all that remained was Ais, at the time engaged in preparing because Riveria had informed the latter Loki had requested her presence, to take care of a mission together with other core members...

With everyone so busy, time passed quickly and in no time at all, Ethan's training was over and it was also time for lunch...

Breathing heavily, Ethan wiped off the sweat from his forehead as he proposed an idea he was thinking about while Tiona was using him as a punchbag...

"Since Ais and Hestia aren't here at the moment, I'd say we can make lunch, and then we can continue...ah but there's something I need to talk to you about later, Riveria."

Although Ethan had nothing 'strange' to talk about with her but just wanted to express his doubts and know what she thought, he even had the intuition himself that it seemed to be a bit..misleading.

"Ah of course I don't mean that in any strange way"

Although her answer was a bit suspicious, Riveria decided before thinking carefully and, coming to the conclusion there must be something important he had to hide, but instead of asking for more explanations for the time being, Riveria nodded before answering

"I understand, after lunch then we will discuss this.."

These were all the words that came out of her mouth before the group composed of Tiona, Riveria, and Ethan arrived in the kitchen and, seeing Maple sleeping on one of the couches from the distance, he smiled as he decided to concentrate fully on cooking something good...

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(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

(Poll going on in the discord: Who do you prefer? Qienta or Light? | Cat-girl or Renard(Fox) | Are you liking the interactions between Maple and Ethan?)

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(Alternate Titles: "Hestia...the lazy goddess with the heart of gold?!?", "Riveria felt almost as sneaky as Ais out there...", "Lefiya respect Goddess Hestia, but her love is for Ethan and Ethan only", "In this chapter Lili is literally the MC", "I guess this is what happens when your harem is too small, it becomes a strange form of monogamy in the end, even if it's poligamy...", "You can do it, Tiona!")