CHAD HESTIA - Chapter 5

AN: So I said that Himmel and Frieren had five children but I only wrote four and Fern. I edited chapter 3 & 4 to include the fifth child, Mond who's the eldest daughter. She looks like Luna Runcandel but with elf ears.

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A Few Minutes Ago

Frieren Hvit Alf is old. She was an adult a thousand years ago, before the gods had descended. She had been slaying monsters for decades by the time the different races organized to face the monsters, and before that boy who became the Mercenary King achieved a feat so epic, it inspired and galvanize the gods to descend and live among the mortal races.

Because of that, she had witnessed the highs and lows of the gods. The boisterous, the hubris, the pettiness, the generous, the dutiful and the virtuous.

She'd like to think that made her a good judge of character.

So far, Goddess Hestia didn't seem like someone Frieren would need to... "arrange for her to return to Tenkai".

It is foolish to kill a god, obviously. Gods don't die, they just return to the heavens. But that also means that once their killer dies, their soul would be under that god's mercy.

Of course, after confirming with her Familia god, Odin, well... if gods die of natural causes, like slipping off a cliff and no one was around, then they can't find out if anyone killed them. Since it was just an accident. Bad luck.

The goddess's arrival was a surprise. Frieren almost though she was here for her, having heard a complain or the like from one of the gods she sent up "accidentally" and came to check her out.

Yet, Hestia didn't seem to know her. Oh she seemed surprised by meeting her. As in her, Frieren, a High Elf marrying a Human.

Beyond that thought Hestia seemed happy for them. Frieren supposed Hestia... shipped? (that was the term gods used, right?) her with Himmel. Which if so, then the goddess had good taste. Frieren should know.

So far Hestia has shown herself to be a kind and diligent goddess. When she first inducted Bell Cranel into her Familia, she looked around before approaching Frieren and her family about hiring them to guard Bell while fighting the forest monsters. Hestia insisted that they don't make their presence known to Bell if they could, but to step in immediately if his life was in danger. Frieren found herself interested in how this newly descended goddess could have known the inner workings of the Falna so soon, when multiple gods stated not to known, but learned as they experienced life on the Lower World and how a Familia works.

Hestia's Domains were something Frieren rarely seen together in a god. Home, Hearth, and rarely spoke but she Hestia had slipped out Family a few times. Those who were of the Hearth usually were more of cooking gods, or for chores, or home protection. Those of Family were about bonds, but not about the home and role within them.

Honestly, while not a Goddess of the Home, of all the gods Frieren met in her travels, Agni, the Hindu Goddess of Fire and Hearth reminded her of Hestia the most. There was an odd but subtle madness to this caring, cheerful goddess.

Frieren wondered if Hestia's Domain of Family, was the reason for her insight. The ability to know what's best for her adopted children allowing her to know how to help them grow best? Maybe such insight could be seen as a "cheat" by the other gods, and thus she doesn't mention that Domain in her usual ones, only imply it at most.

During the past month, Frieren and her husband Himmel, helped out with Hestia's request of protecting Bell in secret. Frieren with her magic, and Himmel with his bow. They had their kids also help out as well, which inevitably resulted in some of them getting the "adventuring bug". Frieren chuckled at the thought. It was inevitable she supposed, but so far Hestia seemed like the right choice.

The last thing to be sure of, would be the goddess's reaction to Frieren's demands for her husband and her children before joining the Hestia Familia.

"You had a previous goddess before?" Hestia asked her dear Himmel.

"Yes, Hela, the Norse Goddess of the Dead and the Underworld." Himmel nodded, before chuckling at a memory. "While she complained she got stuck with the dishonorable dead, she was more the type of worry about 'pathetic idiots'." He shook his head, smiling. "Sadly we ended up falling against Ares' alliance of gods, and she refused to join him. I think he tried to court her and failed."

Hestia snorted and laughed. "Oh, so she was like that, huh."

"You didn't know her?" Frieren asked.

"All the gods know of each other, but that doesn't mean we know each other." Hestia answered.

"Hmm." Frieren nodded, and Himmel did the same.

The couple fell into a nervous silence as they awaited the goddess's decision.

Frieren's demands were, for Himmel and her children to join the Hestia Familia, but only those who wished to go with the goddess and build their familia, would join her and Bell on their journey to Orario. Himmel wasn't to go with Hestia, but stay and live with Frieren. That condition was one the high elf was adamant about. She had lost this man once, realizing too late that she indeed loved him. She will never do it again.

Finally Hestia spoke.

"Tell me a story." The goddess said, surprising the couple.

"Hmm?" Himmel hummed, tilting his head, waiting for the goddess to explain what she meant.

"You want to join your family to Familia. Your children to get free access to grow as they wish, and I guess for a High Elf, you wish for your husband to live by your side as long as possible." Hestia said, before nodding. Frieren lightly frowned, worried if the goddess had a hidden nasty side that was showing itself now. Himmel smiled, staying optimistic. "One condition, if I ask for your help, then both of you, please come and aid my Familia. Should anything happen to the Familia you are free to escape with your Falna's only locked, so a new god could unlock it."

"Hmm," Frieren nodded, her ears twitching. That was... a surprisingly generous deal. "And you wish only for a story as payment?"

Hestia seemed to hold back a squeal, before coughing and nodding. Frieren blush as her ears gave away her excitement. Himmel chuckled, furthering his wife's blush as he had noticed what happened.

"Yeah, let's see... how did you two get together?" Hestia asked with a wide grin of anticipation.

Himmel and Frieren looked at each other. Frieren frowned, not sure if she wants that story to be the one told. It's so embarrassing.

Himmel smiled and nodded. Frieren sighed and let her husband do as he wanted.

"A long, long time ago, more than a thousand years ago, there was a man named Siegfried..." Himmel began the tale.

"Not that far off from a thousand. Like a thousand and seventy four years ago." Frieren rolled her eyes.

"Honey, please. I'm trying to be dramatic." Old man Himmel whined.

===x===

Once upon a time, a thousand years ago, before the descend of the gods, there was a young man named Siegfried.

He was a very dumb man.

For you see, Siegfried was a human, who fell in love with a mage girl that saved his life from an Adolescent Dragon. A higher form of the Infant Dragon. A monster born from a hellish place known simply as, the Dungeon.

Siegfried thanked the mage girl and even proposed to her on the spot. For him she was Gudrun, a goddess of runes, of magic. Such was the awe inspiring power she had shown.

He was rejected. Obviously.

In the girl's eyes, he was but a child.

Yet not to be discouraged, Siegfried simply took the rejection as a sign to try and be better. Thus the man trained and grew into a great warrior, worthy of traveling with mage girl on her dangerous adventures.

Siegfried met the mage girl, his Gudrun, as an adult and proposed to her once more after slaying a dragon himself.

She rejected him again. Obviously. It's not like she knew who he was.

Siegfried explained his story, and thus Gudrun remembered the "cute child" she once helped.

Siegfried was dejected, but he supposed the girl he fell in love with would be difficult to court.

For you see, the mage girl, Gudrun was actually a High Elf. While she looked like a young girl, she was a woman of many ages. Thus Siegfried simply wished to travel with her, to be a shield to protect her on her travels.

Siegfried had accepted that Gudrun simply can't fall in love with a Human, as he would live a very short time compared to her. Yet, he simply wished to spend his time by her side.

Unknown to Siegfried, the reason Gudrun refused him wasn't because of some notion on their species different lifespans. Rather, she didn't understand what love was. Even while being a centuries old being, she hadn't ever fallen in love with someone before.

Thus even when she did fall in love, she didn't know or realize it. Only that she enjoyed having Siegfried around.

Yet, their time together wasn't meant to last.

One of the Three Great Monster, the Behemoth threatened Siegfried's country, his home, the Kingdom of Hunaland. A country that no longer stands today.

Yet, their people aren't gone. For while Gudrun used her magic to help with the evacuation, Siegfried bought his lover and his people time.

The Warrior faced the Great Monster. And from the clash, emerged a Hero that managed to injure the Great Beast, enough to divert its path away from his kingdom.

Siegfried, a mortal man, a Human, gave his life to protect his people, and his love. His last wish was to confess his love one last time. To tell her, his Gudrun, to tell Frieren that he loved her. Independent of everything, he loved her and wished her well.

Sadly for him he died before saying those words.

And sadly for Gudrun, she realized the feelings in her heart only went the man she fell in love with was gone forever.

Except!

The impossible happened. Something that not even the gods could have predicted.

The Soul of Siegfried... traversed through the cycle of reincarnation exceedingly quickly.

And was reborn as Himmel Heldenhaft less than a thousand years later.

===x===

God. Fucking. Damn.

He really is Him. HIMmel indeed.

The moment I unlocked his Falna and graced the old man my ichor, his Falna shined with new information and Skills.

-=-

Siegfried: The story that once was, the journey already walked, now realized and actualized in full. All previous achievements are now recorded.

-=-

A Skill that grants him all the Stats and Levels he would have gotten, had he had a Falna in his past life.

How do I know that? Well, beyond my god intuition, Himmel just gained; Three. Fucking. Levels.

Jumping from Level 2 all the way to Level 5. He even gets to choose three Development Abilities as a prize.

However in my opinion, that doesn't compare to this second new Skill.

"You. Horny. Little. Shit." I try to sound stern. Really I do, but I can not stop my shit-eating grin as I watch Himmel get younger before mine and Frieren's eyes.

"Eh? Lady Goddess?" Himmel said, looking shocked. His wife looks pleasantly surprised by this development.

-=-

Odysseus: Through will and longing, User speeds through the cycle of reincarnation. Fate itself can not stop the reunion with the desired partner. Thus for as long as this desire hold, the user and their partner can walk their road in equal measures side by side.

-=-

A Skill that reflects Siegfried, or rather Himmel's will, to be with Frieren again, that blitzed through the reincarnation cycle, reborn again just to meet her. Heck, even according to them, Frieren recognized Himmel as Siegfried, even if he didn't remember everything of his previous life, by his flamboyant flirting.

He only had instinct to act out on, giving him an intense attraction to elves, but none of them felt quite right. Only when he met Frieren did he feel like he would face the world to be with her, and outright proposed on the spot, before apologizing for his rash action.

"Sorry, I felt like that is something that I must do at all cost, or I'd regret it for the rest of my life." Himmel said he had told Frieren upon first meeting her, before simply acting like a fool by continuing to court her when she didn't show a reaction. "But what stars must have burned themselves to ensure they shine by our meeting, milady." 

As he spend time around the High Elf that he started to gain bits and pieces of the major parts of his previous life.

"Lady Hestia, I know Himmel is perverted for me, but is there a reason for your reaction." Frieren asked, trying to play it cool.

"You're me damn right, I do." I flipped the stats sheet to show them, while pointing at the Skill. "Your hubby here is so horny to plap your elf cheeks, that his soul literally gave him a Skill to always match your age." I said, shocking them. "Obviously as you could see, that doesn't mean he doesn't match your age by looking a thousand years old, but by having the same lifespan as you. And trust me, I can tell exactly what the desire written is. I can feel it and it's to put more babies into you!"

Silence fell on the couple as for the first time, I saw Frieren blushed heavily, while Himmel laugh with a silly grin.

"Ehehehehe, what can I say? I really love my cute wife." Himmel said.

"Himmel, seriously..." Frieren said with a pout, but I could see a sublty smile while her ears were twitching.

Fuck me, this riajuu couple were adorable.