With another Denatus on the 30th floor of Babel, many Gods were gathered surrounding a table with two chairs for the main protagonists of today's topic, the War Game.
While their excitement was through the roof, they were also slowly losing their patience because one of the participants still hadn't arrived.
After waiting for another half hour, Apollo clicked his tongue and said, "At this point, we're just wasting our time waiting. I suppose the Guild will have no choice but to forfeit the game."
There would be some difficulties, but since it would be Hestia's fault that the game won't happen, it'd be easier to snatch the three girls from her and let him keep them. Though he would have wanted to win the game to legally transfer them, this is the next best thing.
Many among the Deities sighed in disappointment but a second later, the door suddenly opened up and Hestia came with a calm smile, "Hey~! Sorry, I'm late."
Along with the other Gods, Apollo smiled at her presence.
But as soon as Hestia saw Apollo, she couldn't help but snicker, "Hey Apollo? What sort of skincare products are you into these days? If you want my opinion on it, then I dare say that you look like a tomato. Or is that what you were aiming for from the start? Did a fashion revolution start without me knowing?"
Apollo smacked the table and shouted at her with inflation, "You bumbling bitch! This is your fault! How dare you act ignorant!?"
Although most of the red ink had washed away, Apollo still looked like he was holding a large one in, which earned him amused and mocking laughs among the Deities as soon as they saw him for the first time.
He was very confused as to why his natural 'pureness' didn't work easily on the ink and so were the others, but they were more inclined to point at the amusing situation he was in.
And now that he was very angry, Hestia couldn't contain her laughter and said, "Do you need to go to a comfort room right now? You look like you're pushing a giant turd out."
A round of laughter echoed throughout the room and Apollo instantly exploded at her comment and stood up while slamming the table, "Do you want me to send you back to Heaven right now!?"
But before it escalated further, Loki intervened, "Enough of that. We're here to decide how the two of you are going to duke it out, so save that effort for later."
Soon after, the voices from other Gods also stopped Apollo from acting out and he had no choice but to take deep breaths to calm himself down. He then looked towards Hestia with fury before immediately saying, "Before we start, I want to make one thing perfectly clear. If we win, we get Sona Sitri, Aika Kiryuu and Koneko Toujou, these three people. No wigglings, loopholes or vetos."
Hestia's smile disappeared, "And if we win the War Game?"
Finally, an evil smile grew on Apollo's face, "As you've wanted, I am giving everything up."
He intended to hold back a bit to make it look like he was fair and reasonable. But after Hestia's insults, he decided to fully capitalize on their careless words of 'accepting any rule as long as he bets everything.'
Apollo then turned to one of the Gods and said, "Scribe, please remind everyone of Hestia's proposal when she accepted the challenge."
The scribe of this meeting nodded at him and said, "The exact words are, 'Whatever your rules are, we'll accept! As long as you can bet everything in the name of the Apollo Familia and never set foot in Orario for at least 100 years~!'"
Apollo expressed his gratitude to him and turned back to Hestia, "Since I'm willing to bet everything, I get to decide the rules. You won't take that back, will you?"
Hestia only stayed silent with a serious expression.
Most of the Gods questioned Hestia's motives, but they couldn't think of any reason why she would allow something like that. Since she angered Apollo as soon as he entered, they were pretty sure that Apollo would do anything to his advantage and that would make this game very one-sided and very boring.
Seeing this, Apollo snickered, "In that case, let me present to everyone what I thought of for this game."
"First of all, the game will be a Castle Siege!"
The Deities listening almost had their jaws drop, "How shameless, Apollo!"
"You just had to choose a game where you have the most advantage! Shame on you Apollo!"
More dissatisfied voices filled the room, but Apollo didn't mind them and just looked forward.
Hestia also ignored the clamor and said with a slight smile, "Then let me take the defensive side."
When Apollo caught that, he became extremely suspicious, 'She's still confident and wanted to take the defensive side? I would have taken the attacking side since it'd be hard for their numbers to keep a large castle safe, but where does her confidence come from?'
After a few more seconds of silence from his, Apollo suddenly sneered, "Why are you trying to decide things? It's already been agreed that I'd be the one who'll decide everything! I'll take the defensive side since I also considered that it'd be hard for you to protect a castle with your few children. Be thankful!"
Hestia furrowed her brows and clicked her tongue in discontent which made Apollo happy and he thought, 'That's just the start, my dear Hestia. I'll make sure you won't have an avenue for any advantages and make the game more tilted to my favor. Blame that careless remark of yours.'
Clearing his throat, Apollo continued, "Second, to make the more grand and exciting, both of our Familias will be allowed to seek help from others~!"
Everyone momentarily became quiet at Apollo's words and thought that things were finally becoming interesting until he further spoke, "However, you're only allowed to hire them using your own capital and the price has to be in accordance to that child's strength!"
"What the hell! Apollo, you spineless coward!" More dissent came from the Deities.
Nevertheless, Apollo wasn't done yet, "Third! No one is allowed to accept new Familia members before the game is done!"
"Fourth, both of us are only allowed to use the equipment and weapons we have prior to this discussion!"
"Fifth, those who are going to help us would be subjected to the same penalty I will get when I lose!"
"..." Everyone became speechless before roaring into clamor. Although he could technically do so, they didn't think Apollo would go this far.
Although the second rule was fine, the restriction made it so that only Apollo would be able to hire more children at his side thanks to his assets, a stark contrast to Hestia who didn´t have much under her name.
The third rule would prohibit Hestia to get followers from those she was close with. Although no one could easily lend their child due to the 1-year mandatory contract between a God and child, Apollo still closed that avenue for the Hestia Familia's potential strengthening.
The fourth rule would stop the Hestia Familia from receiving strong weapons and magic swords that would be extremely useful for siege situations.
Lastly, the fifth rule may affect Apollo too, but this is also one rule that would make it extremely hard for Hestia to hire anyone due to the risks.
One could say that Apollo really did corner the Hestia Familia as much as possible.
Hestia, on the other hand, was also speechless, but for a different reason, 'What the hell? Just asking for the defensive side really triggered him this much to issue all these rules? How the hell did Kisuke-kun manage to guess all of this? Though Kisuke-kun did prepare more to lead Apollo in the direction we wanted, I never thought that we'd be successful after just the first sentence...'