Hephaestus

"Huh, Hestia, you are almost one minute late, you almost slept in the street today."

At the door of a single-door apartment, Hestia had just knocked on the door, and heard someone calling to her.

A woman with a crimson eye and red hair reached to the neck. She has a rather sharp face and slender body with an eyepatch over her right eye.

With a straight face and a very bad tone, however, her expression seemed angry, but Xin noticed that she was worried.

"Let's talk about it, where did you hang out again today."

Hearing this, the smile on Hestia's face instantly froze, and she became a little cringed.

"Hephaestus, I didn't go fooling around, I just went to look for a family member."

Hestia seemed self-confident and quickly pushed Xin beside him to Hephaestus, with a proud look.

"His name is Xin, the family member I found today, a very good boy~"

Xin smiled at her and said," Goddess Hephaestus, it seems Hestia has dragged you to take care of her for so long, and I am sorry if she bothers you."

"See? Xin is really caring." Hestia proudly said trying to show off in front of her friend but she noticed she was not responding at all.

"What's the matter, Hephaestus?"

Hephaestus looked at Xin and asked," Can I ask you something?"

"Yes, please ask."

"Are you a God, with a Divinity of Fire, Craftsmanship, and Artisan?"

"Sorry, I'm not a God."

"But-"

Before Hestia even says something Xin hurry, wink at her to hide his own status, he doesn't want anyone to know his information.

"T-That's right! Xin is just a normal human!"

Hephaestus looks at Hestia wh bad at lying and Xin who is standing while looking helpless. Without any second thought she walks on to her table and takes a simple cotton bag and shows it to him.

"Did you make this bag?"

"Hey, you still have that bag?" Hestia, surprised , said she did not expect Hephaestus to keep the bag that Xin gave to her.

"That's right, I made that one."

"Can I ask you about how you craft this bag?"

"Well… sure, but can you give a room for my partners? They need to take a rest."

"Sure,"

Hephaestus prepares a couple of rooms for the girls then pulls Xin to her own private crafting room.

Because it was still early, Erza decided to look around and gather information while Mira and Knightwalker followed her and Hestia became their tour guide.

Meanwhile, inside of Hephaestus's private room, Xin told her all the things he knew and the process of making a dimensional bag.

Their discussion is all about crafting so they both easily understand each other, Hephaestus marvels at Xin's unique design and technique on making a portable bag.

She never expects to combine tailoring, blacksmithing, and alchemist on making a hand-carry portable bag.

Of course, she also shares some thoughts and experiences she knows with Xin, their discussion even takes long until Xin notices that the outside is already bright orange.

"It's time, I think I should go now." Xin siad.

Hephaestus also notices that their discussion is already too long, she still has lots of things to ask but she knows that she cant take Xin's time for her own convenience but still, she knows that they can still talk a lot if both of them have time.

"Thank you for your time, if you have something to ask or wish to do, you can ask me anything I will try to grant it."

Xin looked at her for a couple of minutes and asked." Can I see your other eyes?"

Hephaestus's face suddenly turns pale, she subconsciously touches her left face that is covered with an oversized eyepatch.

"If you don't want to, it's fine, I will go now." Xin politely said, he just wants to see her other eyes become he is curious what she really looks like but from her pale face, it seems the goddess also has something want to hide.

Before Xin even grabbed the door, Hephaestus suddenly grabbed his hand and pulled him back, she nervously looked at him and said," I-Its fine…. But d-don't be scared okay?"

"Okay." Xin calmly replied.

Hephaestus pauses a couple of seconds then slowly undo the eyepatch on her face.

Xin finally sees it, a pale color skin that looks like a burn mark, a deformed right eye destroying her unique beauty.

He can easily tell that this abnormality did not come from any accident but its an inborn defect, he did not expect that goddesses also have this kind of side.

Xin can't help but to gently touch her eyes, if Xin have the ability to help her, Xin will surely help her.

"Are you fine? Does it hurt?"

"N-No… I'm fine, I'm used to it."

Hephaestus nervously looks at Xin for some reason, she doesn't want Xin to see her ugly side, after all, her right eye has a defect so horrible that almost everyone, with the exception of Hestia, who sees it runs away in horror.

That's why Hestia is one of the few friends of hers that she cherishes dearly.

"No, i think you're beautiful, maybe i can find a solution for your problem, i will try to cure it, perhaps your hidden beauty will finally be revealed to everyone."

"Me? I'm beautiful….. But I think I'm not."

Xin smiled at her, touching her chin and gently raising and looking into her eyes.

"Listen, beauty doesn't mean outside as always, sometimes beauty can also be seen inside, there are so many beautiful women but there's few who have beautiful hearts, and from what I saw how you treat Hestia, I can tell that you're one of their few beautiful women so don't discourage yourself."

Maybe a push of her excited emotion, she can't help but to pull Xin pushing him on her couch and jumping on his body redding on the top of him, her eyes seem blurry, she look at Xin who look confused, she don't know why her inner fire is burning to hot making even her who have Divinity of Fire feel feverish.

She slowly leaned down gingerly touching Xin's moth babyface, slowly until the tip of their nose finally touched but she did not stop, her breath became rough, her eye became more watery, her heart was jumping widely like a metal benign smash by a hammer.

"What's the matter?" Xin asked, his breath hitting her face making Hephaestus even more feverish.

"I-"

Bang!

"Hephaestus-sama, I got an order from-."

A tall woman enters rudely after kicking the door, seeing the both of them lying on the couch she suddenly stops, she looks at them then slowly walks back gently closing the door and says." Please continue."