Hephaestus let out a sigh as soon as Ethan left the room.
"What a strange boy. I can't read him."
From Hephaestus' perspective, Ethan was incredibly strange. He showed very little emotion and always seemed lost in thought.
On top of that, he said terrifying things as if they were completely ordinary.
To him, the fact that he had been enslaved was "normal." At least, that was the impression Hephaestus got. But despite speaking as though it were something ordinary, she noticed that Ethan was...
"Very angry. He was filled with rage."
His expression always changed whenever he talked about the Alecto Familia.
Hephaestus hadn't asked Ethan how long he had been enslaved by the Alecto Familia, but she believed it had been for years. Hatred like that only develops after a long time.
'I honestly don't know what to do.'
Hephaestus had told Ethan that her Familia had strong members, which was true, but there weren't many of them.
She wasn't willing to risk the lives of her Familia members for a boy she had just met, even if he possessed an invaluable ability. She decided to keep him safe and let time take its course.
That was what she would do for now.
When the right moment came, she would act.
Just then, the door to Hephaestus' office opened, and Tsubaki walked in. Seeing how deep in thought Hephaestus was, she asked,
"What happened?"
"We found him. He's on the third floor."
"What's he like?" Tsubaki was curious about Ethan as well.
"He's strange. He doesn't show much emotion, and he doesn't talk much either. I can't read him."
"I see. I'm looking forward to meeting him."
"Leave him alone for now. By the way, did you take care of the bodies in Welf's workshop?"
"Yeah, everything's been taken care of. What should I do now? If there's nothing else, I'll head back to work."
"Back to the forge?"
"Yeah," Tsubaki replied.
"Do you have an available forge near yours?"
"Hm? Why do you ask?"
"When you have the time, take the boy there. I promised him I'd provide a forge for him to use during his stay. He wants to keep working."
In fact, the only time Hephaestus had seen Ethan show any sign of happiness or excitement was when they talked about forging.
He genuinely seemed to love it, and that made her happy.
She liked people who were passionate about forging, just like Ethan.
"Should I do it today?"
"No, there's no need. Let him rest today. Tomorrow, go to his room and take him to the forge."
"Alright."
Tsubaki accepted without giving it much thought.
Afterward, she left Hephaestus' office.
She wondered whether she should go up to the third floor or not. But since Hephaestus had asked her to leave Ethan alone, she decided not to bother him.
####
A few days earlier, at the Alecto Familia's residence.
Dina arrived at the room where Alecto was waiting. With her long black hair and cold gaze, Alecto looked at Dina and Vena before asking,
"What happened? I want you to tell me exactly what happened!"
Even though her voice was low, both Dina and Vena could tell that the goddess was furious.
She was on the verge of exploding.
Vena glanced at Dina, silently begging her to say something.
But Vena herself remained silent.
"I'll ask you one more time. What happened?"
Alecto, who could sense whenever members of her Familia died, had felt dozens of them perish within a very short span of time.
The moment she sensed all those deaths happening in real time, she froze, unable to process what was happening.
She had called for Dina and Vena, but both of them had disappeared.
Her hatred was palpable.
Dina, who had been the one to discover all the bodies, finally spoke.
"Someone killed everyone inside the forge."
"The forge? The forge Revinas told us to establish?"
"Yes, that one."
"Do you realize that more than thirty members of my Familia have just died!? Why are you so calm!?"
Alecto finally exploded, slamming both hands onto her desk.
"Who was it!? Who did this!?"
Dina let out a sigh before answering,
"I think it was a blacksmith named Ethan. He's the blacksmith I told you about."
"The blacksmith who was forging those strange magic swords? Why do you think that?"
"His body wasn't there," Dina replied.
She hadn't examined the scene too closely, but she had seen Ethan before. He was the only person in that forge with long golden hair. If his body had been there, she would have noticed it.
"Is it possible that someone from another Familia broke in because of him? Because of his abilities?"
After thinking for a moment, Dina answered,
"Even though the swords he forged are better than average, they aren't that exceptional. It wouldn't be worth attacking one of our Familia's buildings and killing that many members over them."
After a brief moment of thought, Alecto nodded inwardly.
'She's right.'
Alecto had personally seen some of the swords Ethan had forged. They looked ordinary, but they were magic swords with a wide variety of abilities. Their sharpness was also far above average.
Even so, they weren't good enough to start a war over.
A high-quality sword forged by the Hephaestus Familia was far superior to the ones Ethan had made that she had seen.
"But how is that possible? Weren't all the blacksmiths in that forge recruited by Ravinas? She told us they had no combat ability whatsoever. How could he have killed everyone there? It wasn't just blacksmiths—there were guards too!"
Alecto herself had bestowed Falna upon every one of those blacksmiths before they started working.
She vaguely remembered Ethan.
His Falna had been complete trash.
None of it made any sense.
"That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out. It doesn't make any sense that that boy managed to kill everyone. Until recently, he was basically useless. There's no way he could have grown that much in such a short time. Besides, his Falna hasn't even been updated."
Everything about Ethan was so bizarre that it was starting to give Alecto a headache.
After letting out a sigh, Alecto said,
"Handle all the bodies carefully. After that, assemble as many search teams as possible and begin looking for that boy. I want to have a conversation with him. And once I'm done talking to him, I want to watch his head fall at my feet."
Alecto's aura was terrifying.
Dina and Vena left the room.
As soon as they stepped outside, both of them sighed at the same time.
"We need to find him quickly, or we'll be the ones who die," Vena said.
Dina silently agreed.