The next day, Hephaestus arrived after being called over by Kisuke, telling her that they were moving ahead of schedule and that he already finished his preparations.

Hephaestus arrived and was guided by Hestia, with a twitching face, towards a certain big building in their underground hideout.

"Hooh, he built something like this in just a few days? Truly amazing. Did everyone help out to build this or did he hire some people?" Hephaestus asked after seeing it from the distance. Then she looked towards Hestia and was shocked, when she saw Hestia making a very complicated expression, "What's wrong?"

"...It wasn't here last night." Hestia softly muttered.

"...Huh?" Hephaestus thought that she heard it wrong and asked.

"Before I slept last night, this building wasn't here! And apparently, he worked on it alone!" Hestia shouted her frustration as she recalled Kisuke's words this morning, 'Building? I can make a few more like this. Would you like some?'

'This isn't some limited edition Jaggamaru-kun that you can just offer!' She remembered retorting to him.

"H-he did this overnight?"

"No. He said he woke up early and did this."

"..."

The awkward atmosphere was broken by Kisuke, who caused it in the first place, after he suddenly got out of the said building and greeted Hephaestus, "Good morning, Hephaestus-sama~! Is your side good to go?"

Hephaestus chose to not think about it for the moment and focused on their current place for forging these Sacred Gears, "The materials are outside. It should be enough for what we are about to do."

"Thank you very much~." Kisuke then faced Hestia, "Hestia-sama, please let the others take those materials in."

Hestia just simply nodded and went to the dining room where everyone was having breakfast.

"Now then, Hephaestus-sama, please follow me inside. I'm going to show you the equipment that we'll be using and explain to you how these things work."

Hephaestus nodded and followed him inside as she prepared herself, 'He could build something like this easily, so his equipment should be on another level. More so with the fact that he seems to put great importance in these Sacred Gears.'

The tour took half an hour and by the end of it, Hephaestus was completely speechless, 'T-this... Where did his technology come from!? I couldn't even understand the use of half of the equipment that we'll apparently use!'

Shaking her head, Hephaestus partly gave up since she knew that she wouldn't be getting any answers from Kisuke. Even if she could, she had a feeling that it would only make things worse so she saved herself from more headaches, "If I understand it correctly, all of these will speed up the process of forging and most of the time that will be saved is from curing the materials?"

"Yep. So for now, we'll work for two days and rest one day. We should be done by the seventh day." Kisuke replied with a smile.

"Great. We should start." Hephaestus then went towards the entrance and started to arrange the materials that the others brought in.

.

.

.

Two days later, in the morning, Hephaestus and Kisuke finally left the building, "Well then, I'll see you again tomorrow." Hephaestus bid her farewell.

"I'll lead you outside."

"It's fine. I'll just ask Hestia. Besides..." Hephaestus then looked towards some people who were coming over, "It seems that you won't be getting any downtime."

"Hephaestus-sama, Kisuke-san, good morning." Riveria greeted them with Ais, Line, and the rest of the girls behind them.

"Good morning to you too, Nine Hell. As much as I would like to have a good talk with you, I have to go since I still need to do some work at my place. So if you'll please excuse me."

"Please don't mind me, Hephaestus-sama."

Hephaestus nodded and bid her farewell to everyone before leaving with Hestia.

After they left, Riveria faced Kisuke, "I'm sorry for bothering you, but if you have some free time, I'd like to consult something."

"Sure, but for now, let's have a meal." Kisuke invited Riveria, Ais, and Line to a meal. The other girls already had theirs so they were doing some sparring before diving back to the Dungeon.

During the meal, Kisuke and Riveria only talked about some trivial stuff about what was currently happening in Orario while Ais and Line only silently ate their food. While Ais was truly a silent type of person, Line, a clumsy girl, only realized now that she was currently with the top Adventurers of their Familia and couldn't immediately calm down, 'It's a lot different when Loki-sama is here...', was what she thought as she recalled and missed her noisy Goddess.

Once they finished their meal, Kisuke served everyone a cup of tea. Riveria and the two girls thanked Kisuke.

"You're welcome." Kisuke sat down and continued their talk, "Well then, let's go with today's agenda. But before that, how are you feeling, Line-san?"

Line was trying to distract herself and quietly sipped her tea. But when Kisuke suddenly addressed her, she almost spat out her tea, "*Cough* *Cough*, y-yes? Ah, yes! I'm fine! Aside from feeling slightly heavy, everything is going as normal. You asked me not to go to the Dungeon for a while so I practiced my magic and I couldn't find any problem. I also progressed with my magic."

"Is that so? Then you can join the others when they go to the Dungeon later. If you want, you can also join them now with their sparring."

Line was a bit shocked, "Is that fine?"

"Yep. You can go. Those three also enjoy acting like a senpai or something. Every time when they buy some potions, they would act like some 'great teacher' or 'wise senior', teaching a newbie Adventurer some 'tips and tricks'."

Line didn't know how she should react to Kisuke's words, but the chance of sparring with them, especially with 'seniors' of the group, Yoruichi, Kuroka, and Medusa, she wouldn't want to miss out on. Line drank her tea with big gulps and stood up and said, "Please excuse me.", before running off.

Seeing this, Ais was a bit envious. She wanted to know about the secret to their strength and the easiest way to do that, for her, is sparring with said person. She heard from Bete how Yoruichi played around with Olivas, who was a match with him, despite just being a Level 2 and had been curious about it all this time.

Noticing her stare, Kisuke also said, "You can watch them or join them if you want."

Ais' eyes widened as she didn't expect that Kisuke would offer it to her by himself. It must be known that Inter-Familia sparring is very rare as it could reveal the other party's secrets and skills, "Is that fine?"

"Yep, you can go. Besides, you'll get bored with us just talking."

Like Line, Ais also immediately drank her tea and stood up, "Excuse me." Before running off.

"...I'm sorry for their poor manners." Riveria could only apologize.

Laughing out loud, Kisuke just waved his hand, "It's fine, it's fine. It's good that they're pretty energetic. Besides, I'll also teach her some things as I promised. But enough of that. It seems that you have a problem?"

Riveria nodded her head, "Yes. You asked me to also study the books that you gave Line, but I can't emulate what she's doing. I kept failing."

Kisuke furrowed his brows, "You kept failing?"

Riveria nodded again.

The two of them went silent for a few seconds before Kisuke suddenly remembered something and muttered, "...Could it be...?"

"Did you figure something out?" Riveria asked excitedly.

Kisuke nodded and with a serious face, he asked, "Can I touch your ears?"

In response, Riveria couldn't help but back away and look at him like he was a pervert.

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Comment section

Alexander: What a ride. Because I had been busy for a few days, I didn't edit anything. So today I've read through four chapters, from So-tans Bad-Ass scene over soap opera to comedy relief and the beginning of a training session. Only for cliff-kun to leave me hanging for a day with an erofu.

28th00: I was promised something exceeding Ear Waggles. So this is how it's gonna be, huh G0yya?

Goyya: Yes. Another victim.