Chapter 745: Negotiation

After ten long minutes [much to Violet's internal annoyance] of a VERY summarized explanation on Hera's part...

Sasha said, "Let me get this straight...

"You guys were having a great day on Olympus with a lot of orgies going on. Then suddenly, there was an attack by your dear father's Faction and his army of boy bands. The Gods of Olympus managed to resist and expel the Titans with the help of an unknown ally and several other extra Gods nobody cared about. Then, just when you thought everything was fine, Zeus suddenly started acting irrationally and nearly killed Hera in the process... That incident was just the beginning of it all."

"Zeus, from that day on, started to act more out of character than you diagnose as 'normal', and now that the situation for the Gods of Olympus is getting more and more difficult, you decided to jump ship and ask for refuge from us who don't have any kind of connection with you guys."

"Yes, basically. You summed it up perfectly." Nyx spoke. Even The Goddess of The Night herself realized how irrational this situation was...

Well, it wasn't the first time that this kind of thing happened.

"...There wasn't an orgy going on!" Hera spoke, but no one cared about her or her opinion. And somehow, that made her sadder. She really was miserable now; after all, she couldn't act the same as usual since she had no 'power' here, and even if she tried to act the same as usual, she would probably just get killed by one of the women here, and she was sure Nyx wouldn't help her.

"..." Sasha looked neutrally at Nyx for a long time until she glanced at the surrounding girls.

"Is she serious?" Sasha just couldn't believe the rubbish she'd just heard.

"Unfortunately, she is." Jeanne nodded.

"Really?" Sasha asked again, just to be on the safe side. After all, maybe she had heard something wrong.

"Mm." Jeanne nodded.

"... Wow... I knew the Gods had no shame, but this is far beyond what I previously thought." Sasha was only able to react like that to this nonsense.

"What's funny is that she doesn't even realize how absurd this request is," Morgana spoke sarcastically. She clearly wasn't finding the situation 'amusing' at all.

"... What are you talking about?" Hera asked.

"See?" Morgana pointed.

The surrounding girls just rolled their eyes when they saw this scene.

"...Haah." Aphrodite sighed, then asked, "Nyx, what's the game here?"

The Night Goddess raised her eyebrow: "...I beg your pardon?"

"Let's use common sense, okay?"

"..."

"First, why is she here?" Aphrodite pointed at Hera.

"Hera was never an ally of mine. She never liked me, and if it were up to her, I would have been dead a long time ago." Aphrodite narrowed her eyes at Hera.

"She doesn't even care about Hestia."

"I-." Hera tried to defend herself but was stopped by Aphrodite.

"Don't... Don't say anything. You know I'm right, and your pathetic excuses won't make anyone believe you.." Aphrodite paused, then added, "Just Hestia, of course. After all, she is a fool-."

"Oyyy!"

"A sentimental fool, who, despite being a fool, she is our fool; therefore, we will not allow anyone to try to deceive her."

"Can you stop calling me a fool already!?" Veins bulged on Hestia's head.

Aphrodite looked at Hestia and flashed a beautiful and gentle smile worthy of the Title of The Most Beautiful Woman: "I will stop the day you stop being stupid and learn to listen to the advice of others who clearly care about you. Even if you're not Mortal, it seems that every time the years pass, you get even more senile."

...Her face and words don't match!" Hestia thought in frustration.

Internally, Hestia was utterly speechless at Aphrodite's sharp words that could cut even the strongest hearts. Fortunately, Hestia had a heart like no other and was a strong woman.

"I am not senile!"

"Most of the time, right?"

"Yes - I mean, no! I was never senile!"

.....There is no game here, Aphrodite," Nyx spoke neutrally as she ignored the two Goddesses' banter.

"Hera was the one who asked for my help."

"And you, a very busy person, decided to stop doing your own things and help someone you never cared about before?" Sarcasm was practically dripping from Aphrodite's words.

"...Yeah?" Nyx confirmed it with a neutral look.

"Cut the bullshit, Nyx. You never do anything that isn't beneficial to yourself."

"You are absolutely correct, Aphrodite." Nyx nodded. "About the 'payment' of my help, I already received that payment from Hera."

"..." Aphrodite and Hestia narrowed their eyes at The Goddess of Night and looked at The Goddess of Marriage, who had a neutral face.

The two were now curious about the payment Hera had to give Nyx.

"Let's skip the part where you want to help Hera and focus on the important point here. Who is this 'mysterious' ally?" Hestia asked pointedly.

"Another thing, what will you give us for our help?" Aphrodite added next.

"Are you going to charge us!?" Hera focused on Aphrodite.

"Of course, there is no free lunch in the world, Hera. You know that fact very well." Aphrodite smiled.

"..." Hera was speechless.

"...Did she really think we would help without asking for anything in return?" Violet commented incredulously to the group.

"Actually, did she really think we were going to help? From the beginning, we didn't even have a connection or anything like that." Violet added.

"...That's Gods for you, Violet. Self-centered, and think the world revolves around their navel." Scathach pointed out, "You know what's worse? Most of them are like Hera on some level. This woman is just an extreme case of mental illness."

"I DO NOT HAVE A MENTAL ILLNESS!" Hera screamed, but no one cared again.

"No wonder Darling doesn't like them," Violet said.

"A sentiment I share as well." Ruby opined.

"I'm starting to get the same feeling, too," Sasha spoke. "Indeed." Jeanne nodded.

"I already disliked them from the beginning" Morgana snorted.

"..." Hestia and Aphrodite were silent, not knowing how to react since they were Goddesses too.

"Oh." The girls realized what they said.

"Of course, Aphrodite and Hestia are an exception, right, Violet?" Sasha sputtered as she nudged Violet with her arm and asked for support.

"Correct. Even though Aphrodite is an annoying bitch, she is a nice woman" Violet nodded.

"Violet!" Sasha looked at Violet in disbelief. Couldn't the woman read the mood!?

"What? That is my form of praise." Violet snorted.

"Your form of praise sounds like an insult!" Sasha exclaimed.

"It's a passive-aggressive compliment!" Violet defended herself.

"That kind of praise doesn't exist! And it wasn't even passive, just plain aggressive!"

"Girls!" Ruby narrowed her eyes at the two. Her eyes said, 'Can you two be less...yourself here? We're in the middle of a negotiation... Kinda.'

"..." Violet and Sasha looked at each other and nodded, and in that brief glance, several conversations were exchanged between the two, but the main point was. "We will hide her Anime.'

Ruby narrowed her eyes even more. She clearly understood what the two were saying to each other. Her eyes blinked, and a message was given to both of them.

"Try bitches; I bet y'all couldn't do it!'

"Anyway! Answer our questions!" Aphrodite spoke up. She knew she should get control of the situation now because once the girls started talking to each other like that, they didn't stop after several hours.

"As for the mysterious figure, I don't know who it is, I just know that he is from outside the Pantheon, and he is contacting Zeus."

"... Even you can't see through it?" Aphrodite asked.

"Yes."

'He is being protected by someone of the same rank as me, namely a Primordial God from some other Pantheon! If it were a Primordial God of the Greek Pantheon, Nyx would have immediately known which one it was just by looking at them. The fact that she didn't meant that another Pantheon was protecting them.

At least, that's what she initially thought. After all, nothing was correct so far, and even if she watched them closely, she couldn't see anything, just as they 'appeared' not to know about her.

Nyx had many suspicions about whether they knew of her presence since they acted unnaturally, even when alone in their chambers.

"... Are other Pantheons already well enough to interfere with each other like before?"

"Of course, Aphrodite, they've been back in business for seven months now. Didn't you know?" Nyx asked curiously, her gaze clearly saying, 'Aren't you a social butterfly? How do you not know that?"

'Of course, I didn't know; after all, the first six months since Victor came back were spent with endless sex, and even when he let me breathe and I left to catch up on the news, I didn't look for things from other Pantheons, since I was mainly focused on the recent news from the places where I currently lived!' Aphrodite really wanted to say it, but she knew it would just be unwise, so she just said...

"We were more concerned with rebuilding our city than hearing the news from the outside."

"Not a very smart decision, after all, we must always keep an eye on the actions of the other Pantheon, especially you, who currently have the most 'popular' man in the Supernatural World living on your planet."

Victor was VERY loved and hated at the same time. He was a controversial figure, but one thing was sure: all eyes in the Supernatural World were on the New King of Hell.

Mainly because it has only been a short time since doomsday.

"I know... And you still haven't answered my question. What are you going to give me?" Aphrodite asked.

"Me...?" Nyx laughed. "I won't give anything away. It's Hera who will deal with you. I'm just here to make sure she doesn't get killed." She smiled naturally.

No one, not even Hera herself, believed Nyx's words.

The group looked at Hera, clearly awaiting the words of the current Queen of The Gods.

"...I am offering myself to your Faction Leader," Hera spoke with extreme difficulty; it was a difficult decision for her. After all, she had nothing. All her belongings were taken by Zeus in the name of 'winning' the war.

It was noteworthy that she was not very happy about this. Hera was a very vain woman and very fond of her

belongings.

"Ugh, if I weren't forced to marry him because of my Divinity, I would have already abandoned him!'

How could the Goddess of Marriage be a non-committed woman? It doesn't make sense, right? A commitment to The Goddess of Marriage was an eternal commitment.

Only death could separate them.

'Seriously, no one on Olympus is good. Even Hades, the most decent of us, still betrayed Persephone twice with a Nymph called Cocytus and the second time with Lauce, the most beautiful daughter of the Titan, Oceanus.

'Persephone herself even betrayed him with Adonis...' While Hera was lost in thought, she didn't realize that the atmosphere had entirely changed.

A deafening silence fell around the area. It was as if the entity of silence itself simply appeared, and not even the sound of breathing was heard.

Nyx facepalmed. 'Words!! A few words were missing, Hera! How could she form such a misleading sentence like that!?'

What Nyx wanted was for Hera to give herself up as a 'hostage' to the Faction that Aphrodite was part of. That way, while Zeus was focused on this Hera problem, she would try to find out who this mysterious helper was. She didn't like someone unknown in her territory one bit.

This fact was something that even Gaia herself agreed with, and the Primordial Goddesses were bent on 'subduing' the mysterious helper with the scent of a foreign God.

But Hera spoiled it by saying it in the silliest way possible. As she said the phrase, it almost seemed like she wanted to offer herself to Victor, something none of the women present here would appreciate.

Nyx looked at the women; as expected, everyone's mood was the worst possible, and several pairs of blood-red eyes looked at Hera as if they wanted to eat her alive piece by piece.

Hestia herself was not left out.

Hera, who was lost in her thoughts, did not know how much her life was at risk right now.

"Yes, we will kill-" Before Violet could give the go-ahead for the hungry lionesses to kill the 'arrogant lamb', Nyx interrupted, saying:

"We will offer the treasure of Olympus!" Nyx made the highest bid!

"... Huh?"

...