After parting ways with Fels, Tsuna returned to his Familia's headquarters at Hearth Manor.
"—And so, since the Killing Stone has been handed over to the Guild, neither we nor Haruhime will be targeted anymore."
Tsuna recounted everything that had happened during his solo infiltration of the Ishtar Familia's headquarters.
"So you don't have to be a sacrifice anymore, Haruhime. You're free."
"Free…"
"Eh!? Wait!? Are you okay!?"
Realizing she was finally liberated from the terrifying curse of Ishtar she thought she could never escape, Haruhime covered her mouth with both hands. Overcome with joy, massive tears streamed down her face. Seeing her suddenly burst into tears threw Tsuna into a panic.
"I am so sorry… I'm just incredibly happy, I couldn't help it…"
"Lady Haruhime…"
Seeing Haruhime weeping tears of joy, Mikoto gently pulled her into a warm embrace.
"Mikotooooo!!"
All the emotions Haruhime had been suppressing for so long finally exploded, and she began to sob like a child into Mikoto's shoulder. Bell and the others watched the heartwarming scene with soft smiles.
"Master Sawada… Thank you so much… for saving Lady Haruhime…" Mikoto said, her own eyes tearing up. She smiled brightly, knowing she could finally live alongside the friend she thought she had lost forever.
"Yeah…"
"…"
Despite resolving the crisis, Tsuna wore a gloomy expression. Hestia noticed and stared at him in silence.
"Still, when I saw that deportation pillar of light, my heart nearly stopped… I honestly thought you had finally committed Deicide, Tsuna…" Welf sighed, shaking his head.
"Yeah… When you went to save Lili back then, you were so mad you blew a massive crater into the Soma Familia's courtyard…" Bell added nervously.
"If I recall correctly, you even said you were going to completely destroy the Soma Familia… though it was thanks to that anger that I was saved…" Lili murmured.
"S-Sorry about that…"
While they hadn't genuinely believed Tsuna would commit the ultimate taboo of killing a God, the timing of the deportation had been far too coincidental to completely rule out the possibility. Faced with their valid reasoning, Tsuna could only shrink back and apologize.
"So, Haruhime. What are you going to do now? From what Mikoto told us, you were disowned by your family, right?" Reborn asked.
"W-Well, about that…"
At Reborn's question, Haruhime's cheeks flushed bright red. Her golden tail began swishing back and forth as she nervously stole glances at Tsuna.
Seeing her obvious reaction, everyone except Tsuna and Reborn instantly realized Haruhime had completely fallen for Tsuna. They couldn't hide their absolute shock.
"I see. In other words, you want to join the Hestia Familia." Reborn smirked.
"I-I…!!"
Seeing Reborn's teasing grin as he flawlessly saw through her feelings, Haruhime's face flushed crimson.
"Alright then! To commemorate Haruhime-kun joining us, let's throw a massive welcome party!" Hestia cheered, throwing her arms up.
"Excuse me, Lady Hestia!? Need I remind you that we are two hundred million Valis in debt!?"
Despite their astronomical debt, Hestia was ready to carelessly blow their budget. Naturally, Lili—the one in charge of the Familia's finances—wasn't about to sit back and let that happen.
And so, despite a few bumps along the way, the Hestia Familia officially welcomed a new member into their ranks.
─────
Afterward, Haruhime received her Falna, officially completing her Conversion to the Hestia Familia. Overruling Lili's fierce objections, a lively welcome party was held in her honor.
"…Tsunayoshi-kun."
"What is it, Hestia?"
"I need to speak with you for a moment. Do you have a second?"
"Eh? Sure."
Slightly confused, Tsuna followed Hestia to her private room.
"You did something incredibly reckless again, Tsunayoshi-kun."
"I'm sorry… but I just couldn't forgive her."
"I'm not scolding you. I admit I was shocked when I heard you marched into Ishtar's headquarters alone, but your actions saved Bell-kun, Haruhime-kun, and the others. That is an undeniable fact. So please, don't worry about it."
"Hestia… thank you…"
Despite causing her so much worry, Hestia didn't blame him in the slightest. Tsuna smiled warmly, genuinely grateful for her understanding.
"The real problem is you, Tsunayoshi-kun. It couldn't be helped, but because of this incident, the number of people who know about your power has increased again."
"That's actually fine."
"Eh? Why is that?"
"Sorry, but I can't really talk about it…"
Knowing Fels wanted to keep his existence a secret just as much as he did, Tsuna decided to omit the skeleton's involvement.
Realizing Tsuna wasn't lying and had his own complicated reasons, Hestia decided not to press the issue.
"Well, if you say so, I'll trust you. Anyway, that conversation is over. I actually called you here for a different reason."
"Eh?"
"Even though the threat from Ishtar is gone and everything is settled, you've been looking gloomy all evening. I figured something else must be bothering you."
She saw right through me, huh…
While he was relieved Haruhime and Bell were safe, the warning Fels had relayed—that Rakia was preparing to march on Orario, and the city might face annihilation—weighed heavily on his mind. He couldn't find it in himself to celebrate.
"I am your patron Goddess, after all… If something is troubling you, I'll gladly listen. I won't force you to tell me, of course."
"No… I'll tell you."
Deciding it was necessary for Hestia to know, Tsuna explained everything.
"—And that's the situation…"
"…So, you're saying people from your world might be in Rakia right now? And they might be planning to use the same flames you use to invade Orario?"
"Yeah… We don't have hard evidence that they're definitely in Rakia, and we can't be completely sure that's their plan, so I can't say anything for certain yet… But right now, Lord Ouranos is holding onto the ring we found, and Reborn is asking the 9th Boss to investigate the situation on our side."
"To think all of this was happening where I couldn't see… And if what you're saying actually happens, we absolutely have to stop it… But if we do, your true identity will be exposed to the public… And since we don't have enough information yet, we can't even formulate a countermeasure…"
"Yeah. So I'm sorry, but I need you to keep this a secret from Bell and the others…"
"Right. I understand."
─────
Several days passed since Haruhime officially joined their Familia.
The news of the Freya Familia completely annihilating the Ishtar Familia spread through Orario like wildfire. The Freya Familia, already widely feared, became an object of pure terror.
Ishtar had been deported back to Heaven, yet miraculously, none of her dependents had been killed. Meanwhile, the Pleasure Quarter had completely ceased functioning, and massive restoration efforts were currently underway.
Despite the unprecedented scale of the destruction, it was said that when the Guild handed down severe sanctions to the Freya Familia, the Goddess Freya hadn't seemed to care in the slightest.
"I knew this was going to happen, but to think they actually annihilated the Ishtar Familia…"
Aisha stood in front of the gates of Hearth Manor. She had come to officially say her goodbyes to Haruhime. Glancing to her side, she watched Haruhime happily chatting with the members of the Takemikazuchi Familia, her fellow orphans from the Far East.
"More importantly, what happened to the former members of the Ishtar Familia?" Tsuna asked.
"A messenger from the Guild came to see me. They told us that as long as we kept absolutely silent about everything regarding this incident, we wouldn't face any punishment."
Thank goodness…
Learning that Fels had successfully negotiated the cover-up, Tsuna let out a sigh of relief.
Still, to think we'd get off completely scot-free… Aisha pondered.
The Berbera were renowned as some of the most capable fighters in Orario. If they were banished and couldn't join another Familia, Orario's overall military strength and profitability would take a significant hit. Aisha assumed the Guild had intentionally buried the incident and only publicly acknowledge the Freya Familia's assault to protect their own bottom line.
But it almost feels like the Guild is intentionally covering for this kid…
While the Guild undoubtedly wanted to avoid losing profitable adventurers, Aisha strongly suspected their primary motivation was to completely hide Tsuna's existence.
"That Toad Phryne is completely finished as an adventurer, though."
"Eh… W-Wait, is that my fault…!?" Tsuna asked, slightly panicked.
"It's not your fault. After we parted ways with you and returned to the surface, it seems the Freya Familia had already caught wind of our plan. [Hildisvini] beat her half to death."
"Hildi…?"
"An executive of the Freya Familia. The White Elf, Hedin Selland."
Could it be…
Hearing the word "Elf," Tsuna remembered the incredibly dangerous-looking elf he had passed by before leaving the Dungeon. He quickly deduced that the elf was the Hedin she was talking about.
"The trauma of being executed by Hildrsleif (Hedin) broke her completely. She's absolutely terrified of going outside now and just stays locked in her room. We were lucky he let the rest of us go."
Hedin was a pragmatist who despised wasted effort. By making a brutal example out of Phryne—the strongest member of their Familia—he instantly shattered the Berbera's will to fight, ensuring they fully understood they could never defy the Freya Familia again.
"What about the Familia that was allied with Ishtar? What happened to them?" Tsuna asked.
"Those cowards ran away. They probably realized the plan was doomed the moment you stole the Killing Stone and bolted before the Guild could punish them."
I knew it…
When Tsuna saw a single pillar of light for the deportation, he already suspected Kali had escaped. Still, he wanted to confirm their status just to be sure.
"What are you going to do now?"
"Nothing to worry about. Not to brag, but there are plenty of Familias practically begging us to join them. We'll find a place to land soon enough."
The combatants of the Ishtar Familia were famous throughout Orario for their strength. Knowing how desperately other factions coveted high-level adventurers, Aisha wasn't worried about their future.
"Though I honestly wanted to join your Familia…" Aisha sighed, staring at him intently.
The day after the Ishtar Familia was destroyed, Aisha and the rest of the Berbera had swarmed Hearth Manor, aggressively demanding to join the Hestia Familia.
Amazonesses possessed an innate biological drive to seek out and fall in love with strong men. Having been completely dominated by Tsuna in battle, the Berbera had descended upon the Manor en masse, determined to claim him for themselves.
While Hestia was thrilled at the prospect of gaining new members, the virgin Goddess absolutely refused to let a horde of combat courtesans corrupt the morals of her Familia, and had vehemently denied their entry.
Incidentally, because Tsuna had used an illusion to disguise himself as Welf to defeat a portion of the Berbera, Welf had suffered intense collateral damage from the aggressive Amazonesses. Tsuna silently swore never to disguise himself as someone else when fighting Amazonesses again.
"Miss Aisha. Thank you for everything you've done for me," Haruhime said, bowing deeply.
"Stop with the depressing goodbyes. This isn't the last time we'll see each other. If you ever need advice, just come find me."
"Thank you so much, Miss Aisha."
"And you're finally free now. If you find a man you like, make sure you eat him alive."
"M-Miss Aisha!!"
Realizing Aisha had completely seen through her crush on Tsuna, Haruhime's face turned bright red as she flailed her arms in a panic.
"E-Eat…? Renards actually eat humans…!?" Tsuna asked, his face draining of color as he pictured Haruhime devouring someone like a monster.
"N-No!! That is not what she meant!!" Haruhime frantically denied.
"Then what does it mean?"
"Eh…!?"
Tsuna stared at her with wide, innocent eyes, completely failing to grasp the metaphor. Not expecting him to ask for specific details, Haruhime's face and fox ears flushed entirely crimson before she completely fainted on the spot.
"Haruhime!? What's wrong!? Are you okay!?"
Well, he's going to have a rough road ahead of him…
Watching Tsuna panic over why Haruhime had suddenly collapsed, Aisha could only let out an exasperated sigh.
----
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