Chapter 672 - Hinaja

With a tight squeeze, Eisen shook Dirmon's hand as the old man got ready to leave the workshop. He had done all that he needed to do here for now. If something else came up, he could always come back and go for it, but for now, Eisen thought he shouldn't waste too much time and move on to the next place.

"It was nice to see you again. I'm sorry that I didn't remember you so that we could speak to each other about the old days some." The old man pointed out, "Remembering things is incredibly mentally draining at the moment." 

With a loud laugh, Dirmon looked back at Eisen, "Ya really do sound like an old man, don't'cha?" He exclaimed, and Eisen looked back at him with a slow nod, "Well, I know how to act my age, at least."

Dirmon slowly looked at his former teacher and then turned back toward the ground, "Listen, I know that yer a bit worried about what ya were like in the past. And sure, over time, ya sure did change. But yer a hundred thousand years old, there'd be no way that ya wouldn't have changed. I'd be more surprised then."

"Of course, I realize that. But that's not really my main issue here. I'm mostly scared about two things. One, did I slowly turn into a bad person over time? And two... Will I become that person again once I recovered all my memories properly?"

Dirmon looked up at the sky in thought as he was trying to find something to say to the old man in front of him, before he slowly did just that, albeit in a sligthly weird way, "Oak will be oak. Spruce will be spruce. Sure, they can turn into the handle of a tool, or they can turn into beautiful furniture. But in the end, they will always be the same sort of wood that they started out as. I don't think ya ever really became a bad person. Sure, I never really saw ya in the last few hundred years, but ye are quite the hot topic 'ere. Whenever a determined craftsman dies and comes to this realm, new rumors start spreadin 'bout you. I never heard anythin' too bad. Sure, ya pissed off a guy here and there, but who doesn't?" The Lesser God said in a reassuring tone. He smiled softly at the old man, who couldn't help but feel slightly reassured by what he was just told.

It was a bit of a weird feeling, considering that it's been decades that he's been given advice in such a form. It made him feel a little immature to an extent, but for the most part, Eisen was able to stop worrying about that, considering that the sort of issue he had was something that literally nobody, except four others, ever had to deal with in the existence of everything.

The old man took a deep breath and nodded his head. He felt reassured by what this literal god told him, and chose to quickly pull him in for a hug. Eisen could hear a quiet groan from right behind him, most likely coming from Ambriel, as far as he could tell, but Eisen just ignored them and enjoyed hugging one of his oldest apprentices ever.

Eisen was a hugger, although he didn't really get that many chances to do so lately. He was glad that it came to it now again, though.

The old man took a deep breath as he looked at Dirmon, "Thank you for your advice, and thanks for letting me work at your workshop. It looks honestly amazing. Did you create it yourself in the way that all these souls do with their houses?"

Dirmon slowly turned around and looked up at his giant workshop before shaking his head, "Nay, Argalan made it. Ya should go meet 'im as well, he might give ya a lot of insight on masonry. 'Specially might be useful for those portable structures ya told me about."

"Hmm... You really think so?" The old man asked with his brow raised curiously. Amongst all of the different lesser Gods that he could visit here in this realm, it was true that Argalan was certainly on the lower end of the list.

After all, it wasn't like Eisen had any particularly special connection to him. He wasn't his apprentice, and Eisen wouldn't really be able to create any buildings either. Well, that's what he thought at least. Eisen might actually be able to create a few portable structures, just like Dirmon suggested. Or at the very least, he could create a few rough bluebrints for portable structures that he could create. If possible, he may simply try and upgrade his current portable shop a little to try and get Silmos' Holy Aura into it. 

A workshop like that would surely give Eisen a few benefits, at the very least when it was working together with his 'Crafting Realm' skill.

"Alright, I'll be sure to visit him as well. For now, I was thinking I should head off to get some leatherwork done, since I'll need it for the rest of the tools here." Eisen pointed out, and Dirmon slowly nodded.

"Aye, sounds like a plan. I've gotta head back in. T'was really great to see ya again, teach." Dirmon said with a broad, hearty smile on his face, and Eisen looked back at him with a nod, "Likewise, Dirmon." 

And so, Eisen activated his Draconic Demon King transformation and flapped his wings, swiftly lifting off from the ground before making his way to the next workshop after this quite uplifting conversation.

It took Eisen a while to get there, considering the sheer size of this huge heavenly city, but soon, Eisen landed in front of hte Leatherworking Workshop of the lesser Goddess Hinaja. He deactivated his transformation and swiftly stepped inside of the shop.

And just like Eisen expected, the base vibe that this place gave off was the same as the other two before this, but it still had a quite unique feeling to it just because of the sounds and smells that were travelling through the air.

"My guess is that you will simply continue with your blasphemous, disrespectful behavior from now on as well?" Ambriel asked with a hate-filled glare, that would have certainly killed Eisen if Ambriel had the power to do so.

"I will. Got a problem with that?" Eisen asked.

"Is that even a question?" The Angel replied with a scoff.

"I guess. Either way, it's not like I really care. If you're so bothered by it, you can just leave." The old man said, his voice hinting at the fact that he would actually rather prefer it if Ambriel just chose to leave and never come back.

But since Eisen knew that they were never going to do that, he just chose to try and keep ignoring them, like he had been doing up until now. 

He stepped through the room, approaching the woman that was standing there with a rather lazy demeanor. Lazy didn't mean that she wasn't working or something like that, it just meant that she was constantly tired, a trait that Eisen was reminded of by both Jephas and Dirmon as he was speaking to them. And of course, there were a few small parts about her that Eisen remembered in the first place. After all, this was another one of Eisen's former apprentices.

The little bit that he did know about her was that she was the one that actually sought down the old man and that they didn't just randomly meet each other like it was the case with Dirmon. Instead, back then, Hinaja was a rather energetic young woman that wanted to get all the help she needed to prove herself to her godly parent, Silmos.

She really just looked like a human woman, for the most part, although there were a few smaller details about her that were quite obviously not traits that a human would have. Her eyes were glowing in a pink color, and insted of having normal round pupils, she had X's as pupils instead.

Her long hair seemed to be practically floating weigthlessly, which is why instead of a normal headband, she had one that was made of more heavy materials, seemingly something like slightly elastic, metallic threads that she had one of the other deities specifically make for her.

But for the most part, that was where her 'Godly' traits stopped. As far as Eisen could tell so far, most half-gods had some forms of godlike physical traits to them, things that simply weren't natural and showed that they themselves were not from this normal plane.

Quite often, this affected the eyes, since they held quite a lot of meaning and power on their own. Sometimes they were just internally different, having two hearts or three lungs, or seven stomachs for all Eisen remembered. 

Eisen looked at the outwardly young woman and watched as she rubbed her eyes, surprised to see Eisen. It seemed like her angels were similar to her in that way... While Dirmon's angels simply had wood-like, mossy wings and otherwise were still their own entities, these angels were creepily close to Hinaja even in personality.

For one, all of their eyes were similar to Hinaja's, simply in a slightly softer shade of pink, while their wings were a pale, nearly faded blue like the lesser Goddess'. And close to half of them were lazily standing around, daydreaming and obviously wishing to sleep. And the other half was in the middle of doing that, blatantly sitting in random places in this workshop and napping for some reason.

It didn't seem like Hinaja cared too much though. Rather, it was more like she was jealous that they didn't have her responsibilities and could just always sleep whenever they wanted to.

The Lesser Goddess turned her head toward Eisen with a surprised expression, just like Jephas and Dirmon did before, "Huh..?" She asked surprised and kept staring at the old man for a while, but instead of doing or saying something else as a followup, Hinaja just stood there and lightly tilted her head to the side, as if she was trying to figure out of this was really Eisen or if she was just half-asleep somehow.

The old man looked back at her and lightly smiled, "It's nice to see you again, Hinaja." 

She looked back at Eisen and slowly opened her eyes wider as she realized that this wasn't actually just a dream, but instead, that Eisen, her former teacher, was actually standing in front of her. Hinaja rubbed her eyes for a moment and stared at the man in front of her.

"Huh?!"