章 2: Familia

"So... You want to join my familia?" asks Hestia in her usual chirpy voice. Her big round blue eyes are sparkling as if they hold the entire galaxy inside. I feel like I could get lost inside of them. She had removed her hair accessories, leaving her beautiful silky onyx hair swaying around her head.

Her skin is like glossy white jade and seems to brim with vitality, perfectly complementing her facial structure, so symmetrical that it puts her several steps above humanity. Not a single imperfection could be found on her, and all of that is magnified by the excited expression she is offering me. I feel like she would very quickly become the reason for my journey to the Heavens.

I feel like... I should stop using Chinese metaphors for describing beauty. If I go down this path, it won't be too long until I start spouting nonsense about young masters and heaven-toppling beauty.

Still, if there was one description of this kind of beauty, it would be Hestia, my goddess.

I don't know how she does it, but she seems to be soft and fierce at the same time. She has a motherly air around her that sometimes combusts into pure excitement like she's a child. I never thought before that a goddess could be this much.

According to my calculations, she comes up to my chest if we were to stand next to each other, and when I see her, I feel like I just awakened a fetish for petite women I never had before. Fortunately, I managed to get a grip earlier and ask her in a suave manner if I could join her familia.

That is, stumbling and gawking at her beauty.

What can I say? I'm a pure playboy.

Once in the church, I was stunned by how familiar this place was to me. I have never been here before, but the scent that was permeating the building made me feel relaxed. The superior senses of a cultivator told me that this effect was due to the presence of the goddess in this building. I've never been to church before, yet I felt at home here.

I feel like this is because Hestia is supposed to be the goddess of hearth and home

So this is the kind of power the aura of divinity has even sealed?

The only thing that could outdo this peaceful atmosphere is the fact that I have the most beautiful women I have ever met looking at me with pleading eyes.

I can understand her disbelief, she went from an unwanted, destitute, and unknown goddess that even got to be kicked out of her friend's house to a goddess that someone specifically sought out to become her child.

For someone that had to spend weeks trying to find someone that would want to enter her abode, all in vain, I must have been a gift sent from the sky.

Which isn't too far from the truth, but still.

Anyway, I better clear her doubts before she realizes that I'm stuck staring at her amazing cleavage while she twirls in joy.

"Yup, I saw you in the street earlier, and immediately, I was stunned by your beauty. After snooping around a little bit, I learned that you were the goddess named Hestia and I decided that if I had to join one familia in this city, it would be yours."

I think my chances to seduce Hestia are pretty high if I just toss these little compliments each time.

Or that would be my thought, if I didn't have to watch her joyous expression morph into a suspicious one at my words instead of, you know, blushing or something like that.

What part made her feel that way?! I'm both confused and panicked at the thought that I may have already slipped and said something that I shouldn't have said.

"Uhmmm...." she trails off, leaving me in the dark of what her thoughts are.

My heart picks up its pace when I see her expression becoming worse each second.

"Excuse me goddess, but... what did I say that made you upset?" I couldn't help but ask, willing to fix my mistakes. She just continues to stare at me for a while, before she tells me the reason.

"You see, us gods and goddesses have a way to know when mortals lie Tian..." she says, waiting to see my reaction.

I raise my eyebrow, before kneeling in front of her. Due to the height difference, I barely have to look up to her. I take her hands in mine and give her the most honest look I can muster, knowing that if my next words aren't truthful, it will seem like I am trying to deceive her.

"Goddess Hestia, I do not lie to you, you are by far the most beautiful person I've met in my current life or my past one."

Thanks to what I would like to call my masculine and rumbling voice, it only takes Hestia a couple of seconds until she starts to blush.

"W-what?" The rest of her words become incomprehensible even with my vastly superior hearing. She turns around in embarrassment and refuses to look at me.

There's no way I won't capitalize on that. "I think you can tell that I'm telling the truth right?" I continue, deciding to keep on teasing the cute girl in front of me.

"O-of course I can!" I take a step back when she turns around again, the heat on her face nearly gone.

I take a deep breath before uttering my next words: "Then, will you let me join your familia, Hestia?"

"But Tian...." Hestia visibly cringes at my words and sighs in embarrassment, not the kind of expression I want to see on her angelic face. "Even though I would be ecstatic to have you as my first child, I have nothing to offer you as a goddess. I have barely enough money to support myself, much less someone else, I have no resources that could help you grow, all I can offer is this dilapidated church and myself."

I don't think she realizes how much she is worth by herself. But what I take away from her words is that there is no Bell yet in her life, considering she just said that I would be her first child. Thank you to whoever sent me here that made it so I could meet Hestia before Bell was in the picture.

"My goddess," she visibly perks up at my words, "The thing is, I have nothing myself either. I just arrived in a new city with nothing but my labor to offer. I think it would be better for us to start from the bottom together, and rise to heights that have never been reached before!" I say dramatically, extending my arms to the side as if I was making a grand speech about a serious topic.

Hestia giggles at my theatrics before looking at me with an eager expression.

I can tell that she's so excited about the prospect of finally starting her familia that she has to contain all the energy her small body wants to explode with. At the same time, she seems scared that the opportunity will slip away and that I will leave for someone else if she doesn't hurry to snatch me.

"Then... lay down on this couch and remove your shirt." She says, impatiently. Her hands are trembling with excitement and her eyes are red as if she was about to cry.

I feel something move in my heart at the sight, the demeanor of my goddess forcing me to swear that from this day on I shall never let her cry from sadness. I wonder she was able to draw me in so deep in just a matter of minutes, maybe this is also a power from her divinity, who knows.

"Your wish is my command," I reply.

Once I get rid of my T-shirt, Hestia's mouth curls into a smile as her eyes widen. Even though I am fit from my past life, I don't think my body should elicit this kind of reaction, especially from someone that is supposed to be billions of years old.

I look at my torso and raise my eyebrow at what I see. There is a bit, no, a lot more muscles than what I'm used to.

It's not to the extent of someone like a bodybuilder, but the growth certainly would explain why my T-shirt felt so tight. I don't even know how I was unable to notice it before.

I knew that the opening of my meridians made me taller, but this is a welcome surprise.

I wonder if I should try to flirt with Hestia right now, using my better body to do so, but I figure out getting my falna is more important than something I could do later anyway.

As if she can hear my thoughts, her eyes narrow as she looks at me suspiciously. "W-what?" I say, surprised.

"Nothing Tian... nothing." She answers before she ultimately ignores whatever her intuition was telling her. "Quickly Tian, I want to see your status!"

I do as she says and lay down, exposing my back to her. I suddenly feel her straddling me, putting all of her weight on my back. I resist the urge to shift a bit to play with her when I realize how light she is. Or maybe it's my new body simply being able to carry much more weight.

A drop of blood hits my back and I feel something shifting inside of me. The deeply uncomfortable feeling of your existence and your soul being scanned is not something I'd want to repeat every day, but considering how falna works, I guess I will have to deal with it.

A short silence envelops the room after the feeling goes away.

"...Huh?" I hear her say, stunned.

I start to get anxious, wondering how bad things are related to my cultivation for her to react like that.

I try to ask her what is going on, but she is too focused on whatever my status displays to answer me. It takes a couple of seconds for her to realize that I'm trying to get her attention.

"O-oh? D-don't worry, nothing's wrong with your status!" She awkwardly tries to lie.

"Hestia, I may not have the power to know when you lie, but if you're making no effort like this, then it doesn't matter whether or not I have the ability..." I deadpanned. She shuffles, embarrassed, and her cheeks redden because of her inability to lie, but she finally finds the resolve to tell me what is on my back.

Taking a piece of paper that she tried to hide, behind her back, from me, she pushes it against my skin, exactly where my status is supposed to be written. After a few seconds, I watch her slowly collect the paper before giving it to me.

Tian

Level 1

Strength I0

Endurance I0

Dexterity I0

Agility I0

Magic I0

Skills:

Schism: No longer, the rules of the sky bind me.

Quintessence: Because one must know themselves, before walking the road of the sky.

Magic:

The Essence of Life: (Variable Chant Magic)

Alters reality following the way of the five elements.

"That's.... huh..." Ok, this could get me in trouble.

The description of my skills is vague, but considering what cultivation entails, I start to realize how problematic the situation I've landed in is.

Even without a drop of knowledge about cultivation, the implication of these words simply isn't boding well for me if anyone discovers it.

Magic with the words 'alters reality' is not good for my heart either.

"Listen to me Tian." She says as she grasps my shoulders and puts her face close to mine in an attempt to make her point. "You must never, ever, ever, ever reveal your status to anyone, is that clear?"

I have never seen Hestia this serious before, so I just nod when she finishes. She sighs as the tension leaves her body, before realizing that I turned around to read the paper and that now she is straddling me in a very suggestive position. Her face becomes red as she hurriedly stands up.

"I suppose nobody is expected to have these kinds of things on their status the first time they receive falna?" I ask while I retrieve my shirt.

"That's even more than that. Putting aside the questionable descriptions of your skills and your magic, there are only two cases that I know where mortals had magic or skills displayed the moment they received falna. The first is when they already have learned magic before, and the magic is strong enough to imprint the falna into their souls. This is an extremely rare case and even then I'm not sure of all the specifics. The second is with demigod children." At her words, I can feel her eyes stare at me.

"I can assure you, I'm not the child of a god," I say, trying to clear any misunderstanding.

"I know... I would have felt your divinity if you were. However, if you don't fit into either of those cases, you're an anomaly. And trust me, you don't want to know what bored gods do with anomalies like you." she said, looking very worried for me.

I felt my heart flutter at the care she is giving someone she barely knows. Even if I knew her a little from the anime, I still can't help but be moved by the devotion she shows to the children of her familia. This somewhat reassures me, knowing that the girl in front of me is everything I expected her to be and more.

"But don't worry Tian! Your goddess will protect you from any bad gods trying to manipulate you." She said in the moment of silence, pushing her chest in pride as she regained her cheerful demeanor.

Her movement doing interesting things to her chest, I can't help but sigh in happiness at the display of her seemingly unending joy. "Yeah... I thank you for welcoming me into your familia, Hestia, no.... my goddess."

She pauses at my words, closing the small distance between our two bodies, and engulfs me in the tightest hug her little body could give. I can feel her trying to hold back her tears as I hug her back.

"Welcome to your familia, Tian-kun!"

Still, I can't help but feel like I've let something slip out of my mouth during this conversation...

"Oh by the way Tian, what do you mean by 'in your current life or your past life' ?"

God fucking damn it.