Chapter 178: Chapter 178: Back
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For several seconds, an awkward silence settled between the four of them. Grayfia remained off to the side with her usual serious expression, while Damon simply watched the teenager with one eyebrow slightly raised. Issei, for his part, began to grow increasingly uncomfortable under their gazes. From his perspective, the clothes the three of them were wearing were far too eye-catching to be normal, especially Rhea’s and Grayfia’s, so his brain quickly arrived at the most logical conclusion it could come up with.
"Uh... sorry. My name is Issei Hyoudou," the brown-haired boy introduced himself while lightly scratching his cheek. "I just thought you had really good cosplays. Although, now that I think about it, I don’t remember ever seeing an anime with characters like you."
Issei hesitated for a few seconds before firmly nodding to himself, as if he had just confirmed something extremely important. "Yeah, yeah, definitely not. If there were one, I would’ve already seen it." His eyes drifted toward Rhea and Grayfia for a moment, making it painfully obvious exactly why he was so certain about that.
Rhea, being considerably kinder than her son in situations like this, raised both hands while taking a small step back. "Um... I don’t exactly know what you’re talking about, young man, but please..." she tried to say gently, hoping that would be enough to make him understand that she wasn’t interested.
Unfortunately, Issei was Issei. The boy clasped both hands together in front of his face as if he were praying before leaning forward slightly. "Please, please! Just one picture, I promise. Just one!" the brown-haired boy begged shamelessly, causing Grayfia to look at him strangely while Rhea simply seemed unsure of what to do with him.
Damon, who had remained silent and watched everything up until that point, finally decided he had seen enough. "Issei, right?" he asked while taking a couple of steps forward and partially placing himself between his mother and the boy. The difference between the two of them was rather obvious, and Damon’s imposing presence caused Issei to instinctively step back. "Kid, no means no, so you’d be doing me a big favor if you left my mother alone."
Issei’s eyes widened immediately. "Whoa, whoa, wait!" he exclaimed while raising both hands in front of himself. "Your mother? I thought she was your girlfriend!"
Behind her son, a faint blush appeared on Rhea’s cheeks at the completely unexpected implication.
"Well, now you know," Damon replied seriously, his patience beginning to run thin. He couldn’t care less what this kid thought. "So get lost."
The redhead took another small step forward, and this time Issei had absolutely no doubt that he was sticking his nose somewhere it didn’t belong. Damon could tolerate an idiot, but this boy seemed to be missing several necessary brain cells and, worse yet, it was painfully obvious that he thought far more with his dick than with his head. Not to mention Damon didn’t like the way Issei had been staring at his mother at all.
Before Damon could say anything else, he felt a hand gently grab the sleeve of his coat from behind. Damon turned his head slightly and found Rhea looking at him with a small smile, making it clear that she was fine and didn’t want him to do anything more. The redhead watched her for a few seconds before letting out a quiet sigh and relaxing. It wasn’t as if he wanted to cause a scene in the middle of the street anyway, much less ruin the day he had been spending with his mother because of some hormonal teenager.
Issei, proving that he at least possessed some survival instincts, quickly understood the message. "Well, it was nice meeting you!" And then he ran.
Damon followed him with his eyes for several seconds as the brown-haired boy disappeared into the crowd walking through the street. Grayfia watched him leave as well, though she didn’t make any comment.
"Damon." Kurama’s voice appeared inside his mind. "That kid."
Damon narrowed his eyes slightly while continuing to stare in the direction Issei had disappeared. "I know," he replied mentally. He could feel some kind of Sacred Gear inside him.
The redhead let out a sigh before finally looking away from the street. "Let’s head back to Olympus. I’m tired," he said while rolling his shoulders slightly. It had been a fairly peaceful day compared to the previous ones, but between meetings, traveling, and spending several hours exploring Japan with his mother, he had had enough for one day.
Grayfia nodded, though before preparing to leave, she remembered something. "And Koneko-san?" the silver-haired woman asked. Damon stopped for a second before answering. "We’ll come back for her later. For now, let’s not interfere with that." He had no intention of immediately taking Koneko out of Kuoh when there were still unresolved matters surrounding her and Kuroka. There would be plenty of time to deal with that when necessary.
Without anything else to do, the three left Kuoh and returned to Olympus. The moment they arrived, Damon briefly allowed his senses to sweep through the area and quickly recognized two familiar presences inside the main temple. Hera and Athena appeared to be meeting there, so he decided to head directly toward them. Rhea, for her part, chose to retire to Damon’s temple with Grayfia after the long day they had spent traveling around Japan.
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When Damon entered the main temple, Hera and Athena rose from their respective thrones almost at the same time. Floating in front of them was a transmission created by Iris, showing images from somewhere in the mortal world. The Goddess of the Rainbow herself briefly appeared within the projection and, upon noticing Damon’s arrival, gave him a smile. Damon immediately returned it; it was always good to see little Iris.
"I hope things went well," Damon commented as he approached Hera first. The Queen of the Gods barely had time to respond before the redhead wrapped both arms around her and pulled her against his body. Hera didn’t hesitate for even a second to reciprocate, wrapping her arms around his neck before receiving a kiss directly on the lips.
Far from pulling away, the goddess closed her eyes and eagerly returned the kiss, her usual serious mask cracking within seconds and giving way to a more than satisfied smile. She hadn’t expected Damon to simply show her affection like that in front of someone else, and as the Goddess of Marriage, receiving that kind of open affection from him was something she enjoyed far more than she would probably admit out loud.
When they finally separated, Damon still kept one hand around her waist while the other shamelessly moved down and firmly squeezed one of Hera’s buttocks, his fingers sinking slightly into the flesh through the purple fabric of her dress. The goddess let out a small sound of surprise before looking at the redhead with slightly flushed cheeks. "Damon..." she murmured, although the small smile that appeared on her face made it more than clear that she had enjoyed what he had done.
Damon simply smiled before giving her another short kiss on the lips and finally letting her go. Hera continued watching him for another couple of seconds, clearly wishing the greeting had lasted considerably longer, before seeing him turn toward Athena.
The Goddess of Wisdom had watched the entire scene from where she stood with a much more restrained expression, although internally she wasn’t nearly as calm as she appeared. Athena considered herself one of the greatest minds on Olympus. She could analyze wars, strategies, and political problems with an ease very few could match, but when it came to moments of affection like this, she suddenly seemed to have absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do or say.
And to make matters worse, Damon was now walking directly toward her. Athena swallowed almost imperceptibly as several thoughts far less appropriate than she would ever care to admit began crossing her mind after what she had just witnessed between him and Hera. The goddess quickly pushed them aside, annoyed with herself, just as Damon finally stopped in front of her.
"Uh... wait. There’s no need to—"
Damon didn’t even let her finish.
He wrapped both arms around her and pulled her against his chest, causing Athena to become completely rigid. Her eyes widened slightly as she simply stood there for a couple of seconds without knowing what to do with her hands. Rarely did anyone hug her like this; actually, the more she thought about it, she couldn’t even call it rare. She literally never received hugs from other deities, much less someone of the opposite sex. Being so close to Artemis had unconsciously created a certain barrier around the Goddess of Wisdom, not to mention Athena had her own prejudices regarding that kind of closeness, though never to the same extent as the Goddess of the Hunt.
That being said, Athena felt no ill intent whatsoever coming from Damon, and she also couldn’t deny that after spending so much time working alongside him, she had started to feel rather comfortable around him. Because of that, after a few seconds of hesitation, she raised her arms and eventually returned the hug rather awkwardly, giving Damon a couple of small pats on the back.
When the redhead finally pulled away, Athena slowly released the breath she hadn’t even realized she had been holding. "Never forget that we’re family," Damon said with a small smile.
Before Athena could respond, Damon raised one hand and gave her a couple of gentle pats on the head.
Athena froze as an intense blush immediately began spreading across her face. She stared at the redhead with a mixture of disbelief and embarrassment; after all the thoughts that had crossed her mind only a few seconds earlier, suddenly being treated like a little girl was somehow even more humiliating. "Lord Damon..."
"Yes?" the redhead asked while tilting his head slightly.
Athena clenched her hands, completely embarrassed. "Please, don’t do that again."
Damon simply dismissed her words with a wave of his hand. "Nonsense. You need to stop being so shy. It’s not that serious," the god replied, completely unaware of the thoughts that had been running through the gray-eyed goddess’s mind only moments earlier.
Hera, who had continued watching the scene from the side, raised a hand to her lips as she tried to suppress a laugh. Athena immediately turned toward her with an expression somewhere between furious and even more embarrassed, which only caused the Queen of the Gods’ smile to grow wider.
Damon was about to continue speaking when the sound coming from the transmission caught his attention again. His eyes shifted toward the image and, this time, he actually paid attention to what was happening.
A group of demigods were fighting against a reptilian-looking woman. Scales covered parts of her body and, where her hair should have been, countless snakes twisted constantly around her head. It took Damon barely a moment to recognize her. "What the hell..."
The redhead pointed a finger toward the transmission, completely caught off guard as he watched the demigods attempt to surround Medusa. "Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourselves? I didn’t order this," he commented while slowly turning toward Hera and Athena.
Athena didn’t hesitate to answer, quickly recovering her usual composure as if she had already been expecting that question from the redhead. "You told me to deal with the problem involving Medusa. Well, it’s considerably easier to solve a problem when the other person is willing to listen, which she obviously wasn’t." The goddess gestured toward the transmission with one hand before continuing. "Besides, Artemis wanted to take a group of demigods into a real fight."
Damon looked back toward the transmission, following the group’s movements for several seconds before turning his attention toward Athena again.
The Goddess of Wisdom smiled with complete confidence. "Don’t worry, they aren’t alone. Artemis is supervising everything and won’t allow any of them to die."
Hera crossed her arms beneath her chest before adding quite naturally, "Besides, you didn’t seriously expect us to just sit around doing nothing while you went around doing whatever you wanted, did you?"
Damon moved his head slightly from side to side. There wasn’t much point in arguing when, deep down, he knew both goddesses were right. After a few seconds, he looked back toward the transmission. "...Fair point."
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