"123: The Blue-Ribbon Goddess Can’t Possibly Be Preg—..."

Danmachi World—Orario.

After returning from the mist space, Su Mo opened his eyes to find Hestia sitting across from him. She was resting her face in one hand, gazing blankly at him with her large blue eyes. The oversized marshmallow beneath her signature blue ribbons was casually laid flat on the table. Despite her rather suggestive posture, Hestia's expression remained as innocent as a child's, staring at Su Mo as though she could watch him like this for a thousand years.

"What are you thinking about, Hestia?" Su Mo asked curiously.

"I was wondering what we'd name our child—ahhh! What are you making me say, Su Mo?! That's blasphemy!" Hestia, having accidentally voiced her innermost thoughts, blushed furiously and shot him an embarrassed glare. Yet the glare was anything but intimidating—if anything, it made her look even more adorable.

"...You're the one who said something blasphemous," Su Mo replied dryly. "I didn't ask anything strange."

Su Mo let out a helpless sigh. By now, he had grown quite accustomed to Hestia's increasingly obvious feelings toward him. Still, he couldn't help but become curious. "Actually, there's something I've been wondering..." he said, his eyes gleaming with interest. "Can gods even get pregnant?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Hestia's face instantly flushed red. W-Why was he suddenly asking such a thing? Wasn't it far too early to be thinking about that? They hadn't even reached that stage of their relationship yet! But... if Su Mo really did have such intentions, should she start considering it too?

As her mind spun with wild thoughts, Su Mo cleared his throat and added seriously, "Hestia, I'm asking from an academic standpoint."

"...Of course we can," Hestia replied after blinking a few times. Once she realized Su Mo was genuinely asking out of curiosity rather than teasing her, she felt both exasperated and a little embarrassed. Was this really something worth academic discussion? Regardless, she still answered. "Physiologically, there's not much difference between gods and humans. You're human, so you might not know, but many gods were actually born from previous generations of gods. For example, my generation of gods was born from the Titans."

She paused for a moment, then glanced shyly at Su Mo. "If it's between a god and a human, then the child would most likely be a demigod." Her thoughts were obvious, though left unspoken.

"I figured as much," Su Mo nodded. After all, Orario had gods from all sorts of mythologies, and the Greek pantheon—where Hestia belonged—was well-known for divine procreation. Thanks to the knowledge he gained from his Campione counterpart, Su Mo was quite familiar with myths from around the world. But his real question lay elsewhere. "What I want to know is—can you gods still get pregnant after sealing your divine power?"

That was the real crux of his curiosity. "I've heard that Freya has... well, been with many gods and even some of her mortal followers. At that rate, wouldn't she have had children long ago if no precautions were taken?" Though there was a rumor about Syr being Freya's child, everyone knew she was merely one of Freya's incarnations. In truth, Freya had no children—or at least none that had been discovered. That was puzzling.

Hearing such a bizarre question made Hestia bury her face in her hands. Why was she even discussing godly pregnancy with her own Familia member? Yet since Su Mo wanted to know, she didn't hide anything. "Of course Freya has her own means of protection!" she explained, her voice muffled as her head remained buried on the table. "I don't know exactly how she does it, but if she doesn't want to get pregnant, she can simply use her divine power to... expel things from her body."

Despite being a virgin goddess who rarely left home, Hestia had read plenty of books—sometimes acquiring quite unexpected knowledge. Among those readings, she'd come across many details, including such basic preventative methods. Su Mo, meanwhile, was astonished. Even though he didn't know the precise mechanics, he was still deeply shocked. So gods could literally expel, with divine power, anything left inside their bodies? Divine energy was truly... convenient.

Wait a minute—divine power? Su Mo suddenly caught on to something. "But I thought gods had agreed not to use their divine powers? How are they able to do this kind of internal manipulation?"

He hadn't looked too deeply into the rules that restricted gods from using their powers in the mortal world. Now that he thought about it, perhaps those restrictions weren't as absolute as he assumed. In the original story, Hestia had indeed attempted to use her divine power once, though she stopped before fully unleashing it. Still, it showed that divine power could be activated internally.

Seeing Su Mo's continued curiosity, Hestia patiently explained. "While it's true we've sealed our powers, it's actually more like self-regulation—a reminder, really. As long as we don't release divine power externally, there's no real issue. Only if a god is seriously injured and loses control, causing divine power to automatically repair their body, would they be forced back to the heavens for breaking the rules. But using a tiny bit internally doesn't count as cheating."

In essence, these restrictions were created simply to let gods enjoy their time in the mortal world fairly, preventing anyone from gaining an unfair advantage and ruining the experience for others. The main rule was to fully play the role of an ordinary person. Any use of divine power that actively interfered with the outside world—such as healing injuries or altering events—would violate that balance and result in immediate expulsion from the lower world. But manipulating divine power internally for something as private as contraception? No one cared, not even Ouranos, who oversaw the gods' conduct. Since it didn't affect the game's balance, it was tacitly allowed.

"I see," Su Mo nodded in understanding. In the end, the gods themselves held the final say on how strictly to interpret the rules. The nuances were looser than he originally thought. "So as long as divine power doesn't influence the outside world, internal use is fair game." As he processed this, his expression grew thoughtful, as though a new idea had occurred to him.

"By the way, why did you suddenly bring this up?" Hestia asked, growing curious herself. "Isn't it a little early for us to be thinking about that?"

She still wanted to enjoy her time alone with Su Mo. Although the thought of children occasionally crossed her mind, she honestly wasn't ready yet. On top of that, she couldn't help but worry—while she preferred having a daughter, what if their child divided Su Mo's attention and love? And beyond that, there was another matter weighing on her mind: the issue of divine inheritance.

Gods could control how much divinity they passed on to their offspring. That was why some demigods possessed strength far surpassing ordinary deities, while others were barely different from regular humans. It depended on the parent gods' own divinity, their willingness to share it, and the child's capacity to inherit it. Naturally, Hestia wanted nothing but the best for any child she and Su Mo might one day have.

Even so, no matter how powerful a demigod might become, they would never inherit a god's longevity or wisdom. This was what troubled Hestia the most. Compared to a god's eternal lifespan, human life was painfully short. Even though their story together had only just begun, she couldn't help but imagine the scene decades from now, when Su Mo would inevitably leave her. Though she was willing to wait for his reincarnation again and again, hundreds of years might only bring her one chance to meet him anew—a reunion far too brief for someone like her.

If possible, she wished that Su Mo could become a god too. That way, they could truly be together forever.

Unfortunately, that was nearly impossible. In this era, the birth of new gods was practically unheard of. Of course, Su Mo had no idea that Hestia, the shut-in goddess, had already thought so far ahead. Otherwise, he might've told her that his own lifespan had long surpassed the limits of an ordinary human.

So when he heard Hestia's concerns, he simply smiled mysteriously and shook his head. "Let's keep that a secret for now. I'll tell you once my plans are complete." In fact, from her words, Su Mo had just found a new source of inspiration. If the monsters in the dungeon could truly be converted into Philosopher's Stones, then perhaps this idea wasn't just fantasy—it might actually be achievable.