Mist swirled through the bath.
Water trickling from her body, Hestia stepped closer.
"Bell, what exactly did you mean by what you just said?"
Bell gave a faint smile.
Judging from the goddess's reaction, it really was something incredibly precious.
"I meant exactly what I said. Hestia's Knife snapped in two, and even when I held the hilt, it didn't respond."
Bell answered honestly.
That dagger normally reacted to Hestia's Falna, but under ordinary circumstances, it was just an exceptionally dull black blade.
Now, though, it seemed to have lost that special property entirely and could no longer be used in battle at all.
"H-how is that possible...?"
Hestia's mouth fell open in shock.
She knew Bell was not lying, and for a moment she was caught in a loop of disbelief and stunned confusion.
Her expression seemed to say that even if the sky fell, something like that should have been impossible.
Looking at Hestia's adorable expression, Bell gently reminded her,
"Goddess-sama, you're not wearing anything."
"Wah?!"
Hestia instantly covered her chest with both hands and sank back down into the hot water.
A warm ripple spread out, carrying the goddess's complaint with it.
"Bell! You definitely saw it just now, didn't you?!"
"Of course not."
Bell replied at once.
"I can see through lies, you idiot!"
Maybe she had soaked for too long, or maybe it was something else.
Above her cherry-blossom-colored neck, her youthful face had turned an even deeper, more captivating red.
"Don't worry, Goddess-sama. With all this steam, I can't see clearly."
As if remembering something, Bell added,
"If anything, I could see more clearly the last time I went to save Artemis."
Back in the Great Tree Sea, Bell had accidentally stumbled into a scene of the girls bathing.
At the time, it had only been clear, cool spring water, completely different from this steam-filled bath.
Bell had used his extraordinary memory as a weapon to defeat the monster called amnesia and etched everything into his mind.
"Ugh... you actually remember it that clearly... and don't say it in such a proud tone!"
Hestia complained, blushing furiously.
She knew Bell was telling the truth, and because of that, some of her embarrassment eased a little.
He had already seen it before anyway, so maybe her current state did not matter that much.
The two of them remained a short distance apart, with the steam between them like a natural barrier.
"Back then, Goddess-sama said you wanted to bathe with me."
There was a note of nostalgia in Bell's voice.
"That was just a moment of madness! And I only said that because I heard you were mixed bathing with other girls!"
Hestia hurried to defend herself.
Back then, Bell had only just joined the familia, and every day he would leave early and come back late.
When Hestia heard that he had been bathing together with a bunch of girls, she was suddenly hit by a completely unreasonable wave of jealousy and blurted out that she wanted to soak in the hot springs with Bell too.
The situation and the feelings behind it were very different, but in a way, those words from back then really had come true.
"You were jealous back then, weren't you, Goddess-sama?"
Bell saw right through her.
"N-no, I wasn't! It was because... um..."
Hestia stumbled over her words, and only after struggling for a while did she finally come up with an explanation.
"Right! It was because that kind of behavior is far too impure, so as your Familia Goddess, I had to correct you!"
The deep red on the goddess's cheeks had already exposed that lie completely.
"So Goddess-sama remembers it just as clearly as I do."
Bell spoke softly, almost with a hint of emotion.
Ever since coming to Orario, countless things had happened.
And yet Hestia still remembered every little moment she had shared with Bell.
To both of them, those were precious memories they had built together from nothing.
"Because Bell was my only follower..."
As she answered, Hestia toyed with the rabbit floating on the water.
Most baths used the same old yellow duck toys, but when Hestia had the bath remodeled, she replaced them with cute white rabbits instead.
Little touches like that filled the entire mansion.
The paintings on the walls had been replaced with Hestia's own simple drawings, one of them showing a black-haired girl and a white-haired boy holding hands and playing together.
Lili had once questioned it.
"Hestia-sama, that picture looks like you and Bell-sama. Why would you put it in such an obvious place?"
"Oh, that was just some random doodling."
Hestia brushed it off with the authority of a goddess.
In the empty spaces along the hallway, Hestia personally hung wind chimes as prayers for Bell's safety.
"Hestia-sama, this is...?" Cassandra had asked in confusion.
"When you all go into the Dungeon, I end up staying here alone a lot. When I look at the wind chimes, it feels like I'm looking at Bell... but keep that a secret from the others, okay?"
That was how Hestia filled the entire mansion with traces of herself and Bell.
Even the familia emblem she designed was made of a bell and flames.
Of course, Artemis strongly objected to that.
"Hestia, please, at least add a moon."
"No, it should have a medicine vial too, to pray for Bell's safety."
Airmid chimed in.
"Hestia-sama, that's far too sly."
Laurier did not suggest anything to add. She simply complained about the goddess's cleverness.
"Hestia-sama, please reconsider..."
"I think so too."
"I don't really mind, but if it can still be changed..."
In the end, even Lili, Cassandra, and the others voiced their objections.
Surrounded by the chorus of the girls' protests, Hestia pursed her lips in reluctance.
She picked up pen and paper and added a ring of beautiful flowers around the bell and flames.
That was how the emblem of the Hestia Familia was born.
The final design looked as though it were surrounded by countless blossoms.
And it also looked like flames dancing and a bell swaying.
Layered together, the two seemed to hold the hands of many flowers at once, capturing all their hearts.
Bell had seen all of it.
In the hazy steam, Hestia stared blankly at the rabbit toy, as though remembering something.
"Goddess-sama, I'm not your only follower anymore."
Bell reminded her.
Cassandra, Mikoto, and the others had joined the familia, and even the former Artemis Familia was now under Hestia's name.
Although those twenty girls still acted together with Artemis, if a War Game happened, they would join the battle without hesitation.
And in ordinary dealings with other people, they also acted under the name of the Hestia Familia, bringing a great deal of prestige to the goddess who had once been called useless.
The Hestia of today could no longer use the excuse of having only one follower to hide her favoritism.
"Yeah... you're right..."
Hestia raised the corners of her lips and slowly spoke her thoughts.
"It's because I like Bell so much that I did all of this..."