Volume 10 Chapter 616 - Invitation
At lunchtime, the group decided to go up before going deeper into the Dungeon.
But the moment they left Babel, two women blocked their way. The one on the right was a sharp woman with medium-length dark-red hair, while the one on the left one was a timid woman with long dark-blue hair.
"Are you Sona Sitri?" The sharp woman asked.
The group stopped and Sona immediately recognized them, 'Children of the Apollo Familia… What do they want this time?'
Despite the questions in her head, Sona answered while fixing her glasses, "That would be me. I wonder what do I owe this visit for?"
After confirming her identity, the sharp woman looked towards the timid woman and nodded.
The timid woman then approached Sona and handed over an envelope, "Umm, take this."
Receiving it, Sona saw the Apollo Familia's insignia on it and muttered, "An invitation? And from the Apollo Familia no less?"
"The name's Daphne and this one is Cassandra. As you can see, we are from the Apollo Familia," the sharp woman suddenly introduced them.
"Umm… This is… an invitation. Lord Apollo is going to hold a celebration, a-and if you'd like…," the timid woman's, Cassandra's voice trailed off and as if gathering her courage she added, "I-if…! If you don't want to go, that's okay!"
However, she just received a smack to the head from her companion, "Oww!"
Looking back towards Sona's group, Daphne continued, "Make sure to tell your Goddess. Got that? You got the invitation."
Sona sighed and replied, "Understood. I'll be sure to tell her."
"That is all," the two of them turned around and started walking away. But before they could distance themselves, Daphne suddenly turned back and said, "My condolences," before leaving for real.
"What should we do?" asked Aika.
However, Sona just shook her head, "It'll be up to Hestia-sama. This particular invitation seems to be a 'Celebration of Gods' where only Deities are allowed to attend. We'll hand this over and let her decide what to do."
"When is it?" asked Koneko.
Sona pried open the invitation and read through it before answering, "Tonight. And it looks like they'll spice things up a bit."
Due to the sudden invitation, they decided to return home for now.
After handing over the invitation to Hestia, who was currently playing with both Claire and Ophis, Kisuke also came out to see what's going on?
"What's up?"
"Idiots came to disturb us," answered Serafall without hesitation.
"Hooh? Which idiots?" Kisuke's curiosity was piqued.
"The Apollo Familia is hosting a Celebration of Gods. And to add some excitement to it, all the Gods that are attending should bring one of their children as a companion," Hestia answered with a not so great energy.
Kisuke took note of her strange reaction and asked, "Do you have some sort of history with him, Hestia-sama?"
"Even though he's not an Adventurer, the Gods gave him the title 'Phallus the Passionate'."
Everyone except the kids froze before Kisuke started laughing, "Fuhahaha! What the hell was that? I thought my title was crappy. I didn't think anyone would have a crappier one."
Ignoring Kisuke's outburst, Hestia continued, "The Gods gave him that nickname due to his quirk. For his 'love', he'll do almost anything. Some Deities would describe him as a tenacious and passionate lover boy."
Kisuke managed to dig out the underlying meaning behind Hestia's words and said, "So he once went after you."
Hearing that, Hestia gritted her teeth, "I almost destroyed him back in Heaven. If not, I'm afraid he'd still be chasing after me," She then looked towards Sona, Aika and Koneko, "This time, it seems that you caught his attention. I don't know what he's planning to do at the banquet, though."
"Hmm… If that's the case, I'll go with you Hestia-sama," Kisuke proposed.
"But this is our problem…" Sona didn't agree.
"Yes, our problem."
"N-no… I didn't mean it like th-," Kisuke, however, interrupted Sona's words by blocking her lips with his finger and said, "Rascals eyeing my women… I'll have to at least destroy them."
Sona's eyes widened before she smiled happily and nodded, "Umu."
Still not getting used to it, Serafall grabbed Kisuke's hand and snarled at him, "Not in front of me!"
With a slight blush, Aika muttered, "Now I want to return what they said earlier."
Nodding with a slight blush too, Koneko added, "…My condolences."
Akeno and Irina, on the other hand, didn't know what to do in this situation and could only stay quiet. But deep inside, both of them were feeling a bit bitter.
Feigning a cough, Sona said, "Well then. I'll be leaving this issue to you. For now, we'll continue with our plan and maybe camp inside the Dungeon to speed up the process of adjusting, since it would seem that we'll take action on the surface soon too."
After they left, Hestia asked Kisuke, "What're you planning to do against them?"
"As of now, nothing concrete. Since they invited you, they'll probably put on a show to corner you to accept their demands," although Kisuke doesn't have any idea of what they are up to, he can come up with a reasonable conclusion when he recalled that Yoruichi told him that Aika and Koneko hurt some of the members, 'Most likely, they'll put up an overexaggerated drama and ask us to take responsibility. Since Hestia-sama won't accept it for sure, Apollo might instead challenge us to a War Game where his demands could be met. I look forward to it~!'
"You're not planning anything nasty, right?" Hestia suddenly asked when she saw him making a nasty grin.
"Eh~? Nothing really~. I just hope Apollo-sama won't disappoint me~!"
Hestia gave him a suspicious look but Kisuke didn't reveal anything and changed the topic, "I'll prepare our dress. By the way, do you want to invite anyone else, Hestia-sama? It seems that you can also bring other Gods with you."
"Ah, I'd like to invite Miach since he took care of me in the past, but I doubt they have anything to wear for this occasion, so prepare some for him and probably Naaza-kun."
"What about Artemis-sama?"
Hestia shook her head, "She doesn't really like attending these kinds of events, so she won't come."
"Understood. Please ask who's coming with them so I can prepare theirs too."
Hestia happily stood up and ran out to inform her friends, "Got it~! I'm going!"
"Be careful~!"
With Hestia gone, Artemis came in and asked, "May I ask what other reasons you have? If it was just Apollo, you wouldn't have to come yourself."
Kisuke smiled at her and replied, "Because of one troublesome Goddess that may attend. I can't really have Sona and others face that stalker for now, since she can see a lot of things. Aside from that, I also wanted to confirm something."
"Freya…huh… She's the type of woman that would do anything to get what she wants. Be careful around her," warned Artemis.
"Thanks for the heads up, but I'm already fully aware of that."
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