Capítulo 28: [28] The Difference
"Why? Do you dislike me, Aiden-kun?" Hestia, who had just been smiling, her cute face instantly fell, a mist beginning to fill her deep blue eyes.
Facing the childlike Hestia, Aiden felt somewhat helpless. He spoke softly with the sincerest tone he could muster, "How could I ever dislike Hestia? I'm just not used to this kind of..."
"Huh, Aiden-kun, are you shy?" Sensing Aiden's bashfulness, Hestia's tears disappeared in an instant, replaced by a look that said, "My child is growing up."
"Not a chance." Aiden huffed, then turned to pour himself a glass of water.
"Could it be... could it be that you're attracted to men, Aiden-kun?" Hestia once again displayed her skillful changing faces, looking at Aiden with shock.
"Seriously, Hestia, stop with the nonsense." Aiden's mind echoed with a certain epic song, shook his head to banish the melody, and replied irritably.
"Anyway, let's not do this again." Aiden's tone remained gentle as ever, but his expression was somewhat serious.
It was perfectly normal for Aiden, inexperienced in matters of the heart, to feel a bit shy about Hestia unconsciously flirting with him. Without a wife or girlfriend, any heterosexual man would enjoy the attention of a beautiful woman.
But Aiden asked Hestia to stop mainly because he feared hurting her. As a virgin, he lacked confidence in his self-control. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to resist Hestia's advances and might do something irreversible.
If Aiden could stay in this world indefinitely, he wouldn't care about these things. On the contrary, he would gladly accept Hestia's advances and even her affection. After all, as a Sparda, his lifespan was surely longer than average humans, allowing him to accompany Hestia for much longer.
But as someone with a system mission, Aiden could only be a traveler, uncertain if and when he could return to this world.
After all, in Aiden's eyes, any romance without marriage as its goal was nothing but playing with people's feelings. For this world, for Hestia, he was destined to be nothing more than a passing traveler. So why bother teasing her? To flirt and then run away? How devastated would she be once he went off to another world?
Though Aiden certainly enjoyed perks, pretty girls, and living large, he still firmly believed that he and Hestia should maintain a certain distance. He couldn't allow Hestia to invest too much emotion in him; after all, what's the point of flirting if there's no chance of marriage?
At the same time, Aiden spent twenty thousand valis to ask the guild's Eina to leverage her connections within the guild to inform him immediately if there was any news about Bell. With his subtle influence, Hestia had already moved out of that rundown church. He couldn't be sure if Bell would join Hestia Familia as in the original story.
After all, someone needed to act as Hestia's treasurer after he left, and Bell was a good candidate.
Of course, if they couldn't find him, it didn't matter. Aiden had left enough money for Hestia. He wasn't particularly optimistic about the romantic relationship between Bell and Hestia in the original story. After all, their lifespans were vastly different.
Though Aiden's tone remained as gentle as ever, Hestia could still sense the determination behind his gentleness. She could only sigh in disappointment and reluctantly agree, "You really don't dislike me?"
Feeling Hestia's disappointment, Aiden chuckled and gently patted her head, "How could I ever dislike you, Hestia? Look, this is what I earned today." With that, he handed her the pouch of money.
"This... huh... why is it so heavy?" Hestia exclaimed in surprise as she caught it, her hand nearly pushed down by the weight.
Luckily, Aiden was quick to react, noticing Hestia's discomfort and catching her to prevent the pouch from hitting her foot.
"Because there are 180,000 valis in there, mostly in small denominations." Aiden explained. After spending twenty thousand valis to discreetly offer a reward for information on Bell, he had around 180,000 valis left.
"Huh?" Hestia's mouth hung open, looking somewhat dazed as she stared at Aiden.
"What did you say? 180,000?"
Was this the pleasure of appearing noble in front of others? Feeling a bit proud of evoking such an exaggerated reaction from Hestia, even more so than the people in the guild, Aiden took a sip of water and casually remarked, "It's just 180,000, no big deal."
"This is 180,000 valis, not 18,000, not 1,800, but 180,000!" Even with Aiden's casual tone, Hestia remained thoroughly astonished.
Though Aiden, enjoying the pleasure of appearing noble in front of others, knew that 180,000 was an amount impossible for novice adventurers to achieve, he still pretended to be puzzled. "I know, so what's so surprising about it?"
"It's very strange. Normally, a team of low-level adventurers can only earn around 20,000 valis in a day, but you, Aiden, managed to earn 180,000 in a single day." Hestia explained, following Aiden's question about why she was so shocked. But then she thought of Aiden's permanent skill, Inborn Divine Strength, and it all made sense.
Placing the pouch of money on the table, Hestia stood with her hands on her hips, chest puffed out, and grinned foolishly. "Right, Aiden-kun is destined to surpass the Sword Princess. Hehe. From now on, we'll have money. No, from today, I'm no longer the Goddess of Poverty! Look, even Loki with her cutting board won't dare to call me the poor little dwarf anymore, hmph!"
"No, even if you become the richest god in Orario, it won't change the fact that you're a dwarf." Aiden silently retorted in his mind, inadvertently casting his gaze towards Hestia's prominent frontal armor, which made him quickly avert his eyes and take another sip of water.
"Then let's update our stats." Hestia enthusiastically suggested. This was Hestia's first time having a familia in the Lower World, and it was also her first time updating the stats of her familia members. Two firsts combined meant double the happiness. So, Hestia was eagerly anticipating how much Aiden's stats would improve.
Hearing Hestia's proposal, Aiden nodded, "Sure thing."
After all, Aiden was eagerly anticipating the results of his day's training. Most of his time today was spent in the dungeon. Not only did he miss lunch, but he also turned into a tomato spirit. This directly impacted the progress of his missions.
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