/After a few more minutes talking with Hephaestus, Silver left with Hestia, and together, they made their way out of the mansion/

'On the way, they passed by a very familiar Dwarf…'

'Silver immediately recognized him.'

"... Old Dwarf…" Said Silver as he looked at the Dwarf with a guilty expression

'Hestia on the other hand seemed confused.'

"Do you know him Silver?" She whispered to him

'Silver just noded.'

"Hm?... Oh, it's you boy." Said Espínter as he turned his face up to gaze at him

'After 2 months, Silver finally met with this old friend!'

"Now that I am tasking a closer look, you look quite different from last time! I would say... Hum... You don't look as much of a greenhorn, right? BUWAHAHA!" He said as he laughed

"I… I am…"

'Silver felt a little embarrassed. He felt he should apologize, but at the same time, it has been so long that he feels as if apologizing would be even more insulting...'

"Stop it boy, it wasn't your fault." Said Espínter as he put the box in his hand on the ground

"At the start, I was indeed a bit angry, and my anger grew with each day that you didn't visit me." Said the Dwarf as he clutched his hand hard, his veins clearly poping...

'Silver could also hear the Dwarf's muscles tighten…'

"But… After I heard the news of you leveling up, I understood." Said the Dwarf with a serious look

"That you were working hard towards your dream." He said with a rare thin smile

"And I respect that."

"Despite the odds, you fought bravely until you're last breath, even if the difference was high, you did not cower."

"You would be surprised how many adventurers meet their end due to not being confident in the Dungeon... Even if they are strong enough."

'He went to Silver and patted his back... Or he tried, he was quite small.'

"No matter who you choose to be your Goddess boy, I will still be here to discuss blacksmithing with you." He said as he crouched to pick up his box

"Old Dwarf… I understand." Said Silver as he smiled

"Humph… Although I want to catch up, I still have work to do." Said the Dwarf

"I thought you were retired?" Asked Silver

"I never was… If I were to say, I would say I was on a 'long vacation' as I took care of the shop."

"I forged what I wanted and no one would bother me as long as I kept with the quota."

"But I had enough of this passive lifestyle." Said Espínter as he continued to walk

"See you around boy, make sure to pay me a few drinks next time you pass by here!" Said the Dwarf as he chuckled

'He took a side glance at Hestia and said:'

"Heh… No wonder you decided to leave without even talking with me…" Said the Dwarf as he laughed

"Isn't it good to be young?!"

'Hestia was embarrassed while Silver frowned.'

'After Espínter left, Silver led Hestia with him to their new mansion.'

'On the way, they talked a lot, and of course, Hestia asked him about his relationship with the Dwarf.'

'And since he had nothing to hide, Silver just talked about how they met on the day before he joined her Familia…'

/Half an hour later…/

'Silver and Hestia had finally arrived at the mansion.'

'Without stopping, Hestia led Silver inside the mansion.'

"This will take a few more days." Said Silver as he watched the workers through the window

'Several people could be seen walking around the place with things such as furniture and other things on their backs.'

'It was clear that the mansion was still in the middle of being refurbished.'

"I guess so, a lot of things need to be replaced, but, the thing that is delaying us the most is those damn statues and decorations Apollo had around this place!" Said Hestia

'Apollo was a very vain person, and hence, he had many statues of himself around the place.'

'Not only statues but other things such as paintings and other minor decorations.'

'All of it needs to be removed and changed for either something else or simply, nothing.'

"And it doesn't help that… You asked all of them to keep those damn statues!" Said Hestia as she pointed at Silver in indignation

"Didn't I explain already?" Asked Silver in indignation

"Most of those decorations are made from various sorts of expensive materials."

And I can't let those materials be wasted...

"Since Apollo was banished from Orario, all of these are now rare pieces…" Said Silver as he thought

"Even if we can't sell it now, give it a few more years and they might be a little bit more valuable."

I also wanted to keep some of Tityos, but he didn't have anything significant for me to keep…

And even if there was, I don't think anyone would buy it…

"I just can't throw away several Million Valis like this…" Said Silver as he turned his head to Hestia

"But where are we going to store these things?!" She said as she gazed at a small stack of paintings on the corner

"This place is so big, I am sure we can have them stay somewhere…" Said Silver as he yawned

"Even If we don't have space I can have them build a small warehouse to store them." He said

"But we are already running on a tight budget! We barely have enough to even pay the Goibiniu Familia for their services, much less for them to do more!" Said, Hestia

We used most of the money we got from the Apollo and Tityos Familia to pay for this renovation and the preparations for the recruitment day...

And we just spent 30 Million Valis…

"Relax, it's not like we are going to keep everything, some of the old furniture we are changing can be sold."

"The Goibiniu Familia already agreed to buy some of them, we can take our time to find more buyers for the rest or we can just donate it to charity." Said Silver as he layd on the couch

I want to go to the Dungeon man…

I hate doing this sort of bureaucratic work…

/Knock knock…/

'Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.'

"? Are we waiting for someone?" Whispered Hestia to Silver

'He shook his head.'

"You can enter." Said Silver

/Creek…/

'On the other side of the door was a sweaty worker.'

"Sorry for the intrusion SIR! It's just that there are two girls outside of the main gate and we wanted to ask if we should let them in." Said the worker

"?"

'Hestia and Silver looked at each other.'

'Silver got up from his couch and stared at the window.'

"..."

'He smiled and said:'

"Let them in." He said as he went back towards the couch

"?"

'Hestia felt that something was wrong…'

…

/A few moments later.../

"..."

"..."

'Silence…'

'In the room, Hestia awkwardly glanced at her guests.'

'Silver, on the other hand, went to the side to make some tea since Hestia didn't know how to make it…'

'One girl with blue hair and one girl with red hair were now silently looking at each other.'

'It was Artemis and her captain Rethusa, making a visit at the Hestia Familia house!'

'However…'

"It's good to see you… Artemis." Said Hestia in an awkward tone

'The last time Hestia saw her friend was at the party… And despite everything that happened recently, Hestia still remembered the events of the party!'

'That her friend stole her dance!'

"It's good to see you too, despite everything that has happened." Said Artemis in goodwill

'She seemed to be shining from Hestia's perspective.'

'Hestia knew there was no point in being angry with her friend when she tried to help her in the War game theme and naming ceremony.'

'But still!...'

"You too Si… Mr.Silver." She said as she gazed at Silver on the side

"How have you been? Last time we left you all quite abruptly." Said Silver as he continued to make tea

"Nothing out of the ordinary, everyone has already recovered from the previous… Incident and we are now back to our usual everyday life." Replied Rethusa

"That's good to hear… But… I am sad to say this, but we are in no condition to welcome guests as you can see, I hope you can turn a blind eye to this mess." Said Silver as he placed the teacups on the table

"No no, we don't mind this at all! Even more when it was us who came in unannounced…" Said Artemis as she picked up her cup

"..."

I am being excluded from this conversation!

'Hestia felt that she had to say something, so she said:'

"As Silver said, can I ask what you two came here to do?"

"PFFT!"

'Artemis suddenly choked while Rethusa let out a long sigh…'

"This girl over here was a bit worried…" Said Rethusa

"We came here to help." Said Artemis as she cut Rethusa off

"Help?..." Asked Hestia in confusion

What are they going to help us in? Moving furniture?

'Despite Hestia's frown, Silver came to the rescue and said:'

"Well, we are indeed in need of help." He said

"!"

"??"

We need?

'Artemis' face brightened while Hestia seemed even more confused.'

"As you know, in a few more days we will perform a mass recruiting. However, as you can see… The Hestia Familia does not have enough personnel for such a task." Said Silver as he used telekinesis to draw a small stack of papers from a drawer nearby

'Rethusa and Artemis were stunned, however, they had already seen this ability on the War Game transmission.'

"Sorry for startling you." Said Silver as he cleared his throat

"What are those papers?" Asked Hestia

"These are the papers I prepared for the recruitment day… There is a lot to revise, but they are pretty much a guideline towards what we are going to request during the interview…"

"Things like Verifying personal information… Doing some minor tests… You know the drill." He said

"Can't we just choose people based on my discernment ability?" Asked Hestia as she pouted

"No." He replied with a stern look

"Why not?!" Said Hestia as she looked at Silver

"Well… Although your ability to discern lies and intentions can help us in selecting trustworthy people, it's not like we can just choose all of them." He replied

That may be enough in most cases, but I am not too keen on gathering a bunch of people with low potential and motivation… Even if they are rather trustworthy.

And in any case, people can change over time.

Lili started as a thief wanting to bring down Bell for her own profit, and in the end, she reconciled with herself and tried her best to make up for her mistakes.

But so can people who start with good intentions may change them over the course of a few years...

"My idea was to keep things small this time and select around 30 people, just enough to make a few squads."

"Isn't that too little? Considering how famous you guys are right now, I don't doubt it would be possible to go beyond that." Asked Rethusa

"It's exactly because of that, there are simply too many people… I went to the Guild today and there were already several dozen applications… I think it would be better to start small, slowly build up a stable group before going big." Said Silver

"But if we do that, aren't we going to lose this perfect opportunity?" Asked Hestia

People aren't going to be excited forever.

"You are right, people will eventually lose their interest in joining us, and that may not take that long… One or two months is more than enough for things to settle down." Said Silver

"But, I believe our Familia has more than enough potential to attract people's attention in the future."

And it's not like we were having any difficulty previously with me alone…

"I would like a smaller group so I can better manage them." Said Silver

Be it helping them in their training, or simply going closer to them, a small group is the way to go.

With dozens of people, we might grow fast, but we would be akin to a sandcastle.

It would be hard for me to give people advice without jeopardizing my time in the Dungeon.

That's why I think 20-30 people is enough for now.

There are more reasons, such as the fact I am way too fucking lazy and I don't want to babysit 50 to 100 newbies… Of course, some of them may be experienced adventurers, but it's clear that I will still have to teach them something.

Worse, I would have to do things such as teach them who is in charge... Way too much work when I could be getting stronger and richer in the Dungeon.

"You are right with this decision, your Familia is still a small Hestia, there is no need to rush things." Said Artemis as she drank her tea

It's tasty and sweet…

"Urg… I understand." Said Hestia as she thought

'She bowed her head and asked:'

"Would it be too much to ask for your help Artemis?"

"... Of course not, I am more than glad to help, considering all your Familia did for mine…" She said with a smile

And me…

'As she said that, she sneaked a glance at Silver who was currently sipping some of the tea he brewed.'

"Then it's golden, we can think more about this later." Said Rethusa as she clapped her hands

"Yeah, I will definitely need your guys' help." Said Silver humbly

I can definitely learn a little from another Familia Captain… Although I am not one yet…

'Rethusa seemed to understand what Silver wanted as she said in a serious tone:'

"The key to becoming a good Captain is to first find a good Vice-Captain to handle all of the boring documents." She said as she looked at Silver

"..."

"..."

'Hestia and Artemis were speechless while Siver nodded in agreement.'

"Don't agree with her!" Said Hestia as she pulled his shirt

"Stop giving bad advice!" Said Artemis as she knocked on Rethusa's head

'For the next few hours, Silver discussed with Rethusa about how to be a good Captain, they also took a look at his plans for the recruitment while Hestia learned with Artemis about managing a Familia.'

'Once she becomes a Goddess of multiple children, she will need to learn about how to properly divide her time between her children.'

'It's not like she needs to be with them every day, but giving them advice every once in a while is normal.'

'For example, Hephaestus, some of her children can only see her once per year when they have a mass Status update.'

'Loki is quite similar.'

'Hestia will have to act as the spiritual pillar of this Familia, but most importantly… She will also have to learn and understand that disasters may happen.'

'And when they do happen… She might be the final bastion for the children to recover…'

'As she is their Goddess. The head of the Hestia Familia.'

…

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Notes