"This legendary spear can only be freed by the chosen one, who will be blessed by the very Goddess of Purity!" Hermes explained.
"Not only that! He or she will also be invited to a grand trip around the world! A trip officially approved by the Guild!" Hermes added.
"Yaaa!!!" The crowd cheered after hearing about the price. And since the Guild approved of it, they can be sure that this wasn't a scam.
"Each person can only have a single try which costs 5,000 Valis! Now Heroes, come and challenge this legendary spear!" Hermes ended his speech.
"What is he up to? Some sort of trick again?" Hestia muttered as she walked up to Kisuke and Yoruichi, "But it sounds interesting. Want to give it a try, Kisuke-kun?"
"Let's watch the liveliness for a while~," Kisuke replied.
"Let's try it too, Ais-san!" Lefiya proposed to Ais.
Ais nodded at her and said, "Okay. Let's do it." She then faced Kisuke and said, "I won't lose." Before going away along with Lefiya who was confused at her sudden declaration.
"Why is she so strangely competitive against you, nya?" Kuroka asked in confusion.
Kisuke shrugged, "Beats me." He then faced Riveria, "What about you? Are you going to try it?"
Riveria looked at the spear for a while before shaking her head, "That spear gives me a weird feeling. I don't think I'll be able to pull it out."
Kisuke and co chose to stand by and watch how the people tried to pull out the spear from its ice encasing but to no avail. Adventurers after Adventurers, they couldn't even crack the ice casing. Ranging from Level 2 to 4, no one was able to do it.
A few moments later, Lefiya finally decided to take her chance and went up to the stage. However, like everyone else, she failed to even shake the spear, "Owww... No, it doesn't move an inch..." Lefiya fell on her knees after trying to exert herself.
"Ouch~! Isn't that too fast to give up now, Lefiya-chan?" Hermes announced before looking around, "Now, the next challenger? Who is it?"
Before anyone else could say anything, Ais walked up to the stage.
"Oh, that's...! Renowned Sword Princess! A Level 6! Ais Wallenstein is on stage!" With Hermes' words, the crowd started cheering and clapping loudly as the challenger is now someone strong and from a very prominent Familia.
"Oh? She already leveled up?" Kisuke asked.
"It seems that you're really busy if you're unaware of that. She leveled up right after the expedition along with Tione, Tiona, and Bete." Riveria answered.
"Congratulations~!"
"They also let out an intention to challenge you," Riveria smirked at him.
"Now that's strange~. I'm just a miserable Level 2 and a humble store owner! I can't have top Adventurers challenging me or else I won't be able to make a living!" Kisuke protested.
Riveria could only twitch her mouth at his shamelessness, 'After wiping the floor off with three of our top Adventurers?' However, she chose not to speak out since she had a feeling that she would only garner more headaches. Even then, she still hadn't given up her goal of whacking Kisuke's head with her staff, 'I can only bide my time. Wait until I can get hold of your weakness! I'll be sure to use it well. Hehehe.'
Little did she know that her thoughts were spilling to her expression in the form of a bad grin and suppressed giggling, "What's wrong with her?" Kisuke whispered to his companions.
"Who knows~?" Yoruichi whispered to him.
"It's 100% your fault, nya." Kuroka also added.
"You broke an Elf, master," Medusa also commented.
"Kisuke-kun, it's about time for you to learn how to handle people with care. In your hands, people are just little fragile things." Hestia ended it with a reminder.
Hearing their replies, Kisuke chose to not dwell on it and just watched Ais trying to pull the spear out.
"Now! Witness the strength of the Sword Princess!" Hermes stated.
"You can do it, Ais-san!" Lefiya cheered from the side.
But even with her immense strength, she failed to make it even budge. A few seconds later, Ais let go of the spear and said, "No... I can't..."
The crowd became less excited after seeing Ais fail, "...No way... Even Ais, who's a Level 6 Adventurer couldn't do it?" Lefiya muttered.
But before Ais went off the stage, she looked towards Kisuke and asked, "...Won't you try it now?"
The audience looked towards Kisuke's direction and saw him being surrounded by beautiful women, "It's the Gigolo Master!" One of the onlookers shouted.
"It really is the Gigolo Master!"
"Damn! He really has too many women, while I'm just drowning in my own tears at night!"
"Look! Even Nine Hells is beside him! What's their relationship!?"
"That bastard! How did he trick them!?"
"Wait, didn't the Sword Princess just call out to him!? What about the rumor that both of them have something special going on!?"
"What!? Even the Sword Princess!? Just how long are his claws!!?"
"This is ridiculous! How can it be that he's been left alone until now!?"
Yoruichi grinned at Kisuke and said, "It's tough to be popular, ain't it?"
But with a bad grin, Kisuke replied, "I've memorized their faces." He then started to walk towards the stage.
Off to the side, Kuroka and Medusa noticed that Riveria was making a slightly weird expression with a very subtle blush on her cheeks, "Riveria-san?" Kuroka called out to her which also caught Yoruichi's attention.
Riveria was startled and immediately answered, "W-what is it?"
"Is something wrong?"
Calming herself down, Riveria feigned a cough, "Ehem... There's nothing."
Kuroka, Medusa, and Yoruichi looked at her with narrowed eyes, which made Riveria panic, "I-I was just surprised that those people would associate me with that womanizer!"
The three then looked at each other and communicated through their eyes, 'It's a bud, right?' Kuroka asked the two.
'It's a bud...' Medusa confirmed.
'And it's potential to bloom is big.' Yoruichi added.
'What should we do, nya? Snuff it out?' Kuroka asked again.
Medusa only looked towards Yoruichi for her decision.
But instead of saying yes or no, she instead asked them, 'Are you fine with that?'
Medusa and Kuroka looked at each other and thought for a moment before they simultaneously communicated, 'Let's not!'
It was thanks to Yoruichi's leniency that they were able to get close to Kisuke. For them, it didn't feel right to stop others' feelings from developing, even if it was the right thing to do.
Yoruichi smiled, 'Then let's see how this goes~. Besides, it still isn't set in stone.'
Kuroka and Medusa nodded, increasing their respect for her, 'As expected of the main wife.'
Riveria and Hestia, on the other hand, were a bit bothered at their silent communication, "Please don't leave me out!" Hestia protested.
"You need to develop a bit of womanly instinct first before you can join." Yoruichi mercilessly cut Hestia down.
"W-womanly instinct!? Am I not a woman!?" Hestia muttered in shock.
Kisuke reached the stage and he could see Hestia complaining about something, 'What are they doing?' However, he couldn't give them his full attention, as he already started to inspect the spear while also ignoring half of the audience's gritting teeth.
"Oho~! Looks like our next challenger is the infamous, Gigo---!!" But before he could finish his words, Hermes shivered as Kisuke faced him with a big grin. His instinct was telling him not to step on this land mine, "Ehem, the newly arising Green Crusader!"
Satisfied, Kisuke turned his attention back to the spear while also ignoring the booing in the background, 'Hmm... So is this really a Divine item? The quality of this equipment is way beyond what I've seen in this world...'
'Though I haven't seen much of it, I already saw the equipment of every top Adventurer in Orario and I can safely say that this spear is several tiers above those. Even higher quality when compared to the initial state of the Artificial Sacred Gears that we made.'
'And is this even a spear? The shaft is a bit short and the head is too big, it's more like a giant arrow for bows.' Kisuke was roused from his deep contemplation thanks to Hermes' call, "Uhmm... Kisuke-kun? Are you going to do it?"
"Ah, sorry about that. I'll try it now." Without further ado, Kisuke touched the shaft of the spear, but before he could exert any effort, a voice entered his mind, 'I found you?'
"Hmm?" Kisuke immediately inspected his mind and his surroundings for any hostile actions or intent. In the same second, however, inscriptions emerged from the spear's shaft, lighting it up. Hurriedly inspecting what's going on, Kisuke felt how the spear scanned his soul but didn't do anything to stop it.
Although his soul was scanned deeper than Freya did, it didn't reach the important parts and he couldn't see anything else it does aside from gathering information. Thanks to his curiosity, he let it go through him.
A second later, the ice encasing the head of the spear suddenly bursts into pieces, freeing the weapon.
Hermes frowned after seeing this since he was expecting someone else to pull out that spear, 'So he also has what it takes... Just who are you?'
Yoruichi ran up to the stage and gave him a hug, "As expected of my hubby~!"
And as expected, it only garnered a jealous crowd. Of course, this was on purpose and Kuroka and Medusa didn't want to let go of this chance to mess with him as the two of them also ran out and jumped on him both shouting, "As expected of hubby~!" "As expected of Master!"
More fiery gazes of men landed on Kisuke, wishing that they were in his position right now.
Seeing that the situation was becoming volatile, Hermes continued, "C-congratulations, Kisuke-kun! You've just won a trip! Now let me introduce you to the sponsor that made this world trip possible!"
Yoruichi, Kuroka, and Medusa separated from Kisuke and looked towards where Hermes was pointing. Hestia, who lost her chance to join the fun, also looked back and saw a very familiar person standing at the back. In delight, Hestia shouted, "Artemis!? Is that you, Artemis!?"
Artemis who Hestia was referring to, had green eyes and long blue hair with two long bangs, two strands on the sides, and a partly braided tail in the back. She wore a white and pale blue outfit, long brown boots with a light brown design, a belt which she kept a piece of white cloth and a dagger in, gold bracelets, and various gold hair accessories.
"Do you know each other, nya?" Kuroka asked.
Hestia faced Kuroka and excitedly explained, "We were friends in Heaven! My best friend!"
Artemis smiled and started running towards the group. In response, Hestia also excitedly ran towards her to give her a big hug.
However, just as Hestia was about to catch Artemis, Artemis actually veered off from her and continued running towards the stage, more specifically, to Kisuke, "Huh?"
"I found you, my Orion!", shouted Artemis as she jumped towards Kisuke with open arms, which made the spectators drop their jaws as another beauty went to Kisuke's arms and this time, it's a Goddess.
Seeing this, Yoruichi and Kuroka took some distance from Kisuke while Medusa went behind him.
Kisuke, all this while, was focusing on inspecting the intriguing spear. So focused that he didn't really care about what was happening around him. If it was one of his girls jumping on him, he would gladly accept it. But if it was someone unknown, like Artemis, jumping on him while he was in his own little world, there was only one result.
The moment Artemis was about to collide with Kisuke, within a split second, he grabbed her hand and used his strength to toss her without mercy, "Wha!?" Artemis panicked and started flailing in midair, but fortunately for her, Medusa positioned herself to the spot where she would be landing and successfully caught the shocked Goddess.
"Are you alright?" Medusa asked.
"Y-yes, thank you." Artemis blankly answered.
It was at this moment that Kisuke finally woke up from his daydreaming, "What? What happened?"
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Editors
Alexander: Uhhh, I can already see the thief group descending again. But more importantly, poor Hestia, always being left out of the important stuff.
28th00: So, Yoruichi and Co have developed a terrifying level of eye language, that Hestia is not womanly enough to join in, for she is too pure for this world! Hestia is on a rollercoaster of feelings right now, I really feel kinda bad for the girl… Welp, time for them to save a Goddess. That's one way to repay Hestia, saving her best friend!