Chapter 83.1: Elios’ Goddesses
◆Goddess of Knowledge and Books; Totona
The sky garden of Elios located above the clouds was always overflowing with light.
The plants in the garden that took root in the clouds were blooming in various beautiful colours.
The river that flows by the garden reflected the sunlight, almost as if it had turned into a sea of stars.
The reflection of the sunlight was far more beautiful than the scenery of the blooming flowers inside the garden.
There were a lot of beautiful ships floating around the garden while goddesses were laughing merrily inside the garden.
The female angels and high-elves were singing and dancing around the flying ships.
Anyone would think that this garden was beautiful the moment they laid their eyes on it.
Maybe it wasn’t wrong to call this place one of the most beautiful places in this world.
Nevertheless, this place was way too bright for me.
That’s why I never liked this place.
I was already satisfied just by seeing it from afar. But then, I had no choice but to come since my sister Fanacea had told me to come.
And just as I expected, I’ve come to regret this decision.
「TOTONA!! WHAT’S WITH THAT APPEARANCE!!!!!? AREN’T YOU EMBARRASSED COMING HERE WITH SUCH UNSIGHTLY CLOTHES!!!?」
My mother, Faeria, who sat in the seat of honor above the flying ships launched into a full-blown sermon as soon as she saw my attire.
The angels were flustered upon hearing my mother’s angry voice.
My mother, who hailed as the goddess of childbirth and marriage, was an existence that stood above every angel and goddess of Elios. That’s why she wore the most gorgeous clothes amongst the goddesses.
From my mother’s perspective, my current appearance definitely looks unsightly.
「I don’t think my clothes are that unsightly. There’s no need to feel ashamed of my attire.」
「What are you talking about!! Take a look around!!」
My mother pointed around with an angry voice.
The female angels and goddesses who belonged to Elios had gathered in this place.
All of them came wearing beautiful clothes.
No one was wearing dark, gloomy clothes like me.
From a third-person perspective, I look like a crow amongst beautiful looking birds.
「Dear mother! Please don’t blame Totona! She’s going to seclude herself again!」
My sister who stood beside me spoke for me.
And sure enough, our mother stopped her preaching upon hearing my sister’s remark.
「Haa… If Fana says so, I guess it really can’t be helped. Totona, I’ll lend you my clothes. Change into those for now.」
My mother shook her head as she heaved a sigh.
「No… I rather leave this place than change into those troublesome clothes.」
The clothes of my mother who was hailed as a heavenly goddess were gaudy with a pale blue-color as its base color.
I would definitely stand out if I wore such clothes. Thus, I refused flatly.
「TOTONA!!」
Mother stood from her seat while shouting angrily at me.
She was shaking with rage.
But, I had no intention of doing what she said.
I turned my face away from her, pouting.
「Hold your anger, Faeria. Look, you’ve made a mess of your make up.」
Suddenly, someone appeared from behind my mother.
The woman who just appeared grabbed my mother’s breast from behind.
「WHA-WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING, ISHTI!!?」
My mother protested to the newly appeared woman.
The name of the newly appeared woman was the goddess of love and beauty, Ishtar.
She was a beautiful goddess with ruby-coloured hair and bountiful ch*st.
By the way, she, along with my mother and Rena, was known as three heavenly beauties.
Properly speaking, she should be the one who held the position of heavenly queen, but maybe because she felt that position was troublesome, she gave that position to my mother.
「You shouldn’t be angry. Totona has her own reason for wearing such clothes. She’ll naturally want to dress better once when the time for you-know-what is coming.」
After she said so and left my mother’s side, her movements caused her clothes to flutter around her.
The portion of her clothing that exposed her skin was far greater than my mother’s clothes.
Rather, she was literally half-naked.
My mother frowned upon seeing that.
Ishtar and my mother’s personalities were opposite to each other’s.
Contrary to my mother who only had a relationship with her husband; Oudith, Ishtar had relationships with several men.
Even her clothes had much more exposure compared to the ones that my mother had. The exposure was so extreme to the point that she was literally half-naked. After all, she believed that beautiful things shouldn’t be hidden.
In addition, the difference in their way of thinking also affected their human followers.
「Ishtar, you shouldn’t wear such inappropriate clothes. Look, you’re showing a bad example to the young girls. Moreover, that necklace. You should return it to Heibos.」
She was the kind of woman who would seduce any man she was interested in, even if the said man already was in a relationship with another goddess. That’s why she had a bad reputation amongst the other goddesses.
She was also the source of constant trouble for my mother, the leader of those goddesses.
「Oh my, I don’t care about the exposure of my clothes. I’m not as uptight as you after all. In addition, this necklace looks much better when I wear them rather than letting it stay in Heibos’ treasury.」
My mother heaved a sigh upon hearing that.
Preaching Ishtar was like trying to make a stone to understand common sense.
I heard that she didn’t even listen to my father, the god-king Oudith.
Thus, the two heavenly goddesses quarrelled with each other, completely forgetting about my sister and me.
My sister was flustered. It seems she had no idea about what to do about the quarrel.
But then again, their quarrel was a chance for me to avoid my mother’s scolding.
「Haa~h… That’s enough for today, Ishtar. Telling you to do the proper thing is pretty much impossible.」
「You’ve finally understand that point, Faeri.」
And soon enough, my mother gave up like usual.
「Good grief, you really are… By the way, Ishtar. What brought you here today? I mean, you rarely come to this place.」
My mother asked with a curious look on her face.
She was right. Just like me, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Ishta, almost never appeared at this kind of gathering. So the reason behind her arrival today was what everyone was wondering about.
「I wanted to meet Rena. She should’ve come today, right? I mean, that Rena is secluding herself after her man lost in a fight. That’s why I come today looking forward to seeing her sad face.」
She suddenly spouted such malicious remarks while letting out an evil smirk on her face.
Rena had been secluding herself in her own room, drowning in sadness after her lover, the hero of light, was defeated by the Dark Knight. And today, she’d finally come out from her seclusion after a long time.
In fact, her situation was still the hot topic amongst the goddesses.
You could say that Rena was the most beautiful goddess amongst the young goddesses.
Despite the numerous marriage proposals she received from numerous gods–including my big brother; Thors–, she’d rejected all of them.
That’s why the news of Rena falling in love shook the entire population of Elios.
Just what kind of man was that hero of light? All male gods who had a crush on Rena were seething with rage, wanting to tear apart the so-called hero of light.
Nevertheless, that so-called hero of light lost miserably against the Dark Knight, Kuroki.
Rena, who was shocked by the defeat of her lover, ended up secluding herself in her own room, refusing to meet anyone until now.
「Ishtar, you should stop doing that. Rena is feeling down right now. We should be cheering her on.」
My mother chided Ishtar.
But, to be honest, I agreed with Ishtar.
I could never bring myself to like Rena.
Rena was something akin to my mother’s stepdaughter. That’s why she was also my step-sister.
Maybe because we were raised together, the two of us always became objects of comparison to each other.
I always lost to Rena when it came to beauty, wits, and strength.
Everyone loved Rena and I got the feeling that they tended to forget about me.
In fact, both my mother and big brother also only care about Rena.
The only one who was always worrying about me was my big sister.
If I had to say, my feelings toward Rena were akin to jealousy. But, I couldn’t do anything about this feeling either.
And then, though it was true that I hate her, Rena and I were similar when it came to our favourite things.
Since both of us loved the same kind of clothes back when we were still children, we were often compared to each other.
Thanks to that, I did everything to like whatever Rena hated.
Though I’m already used to doing that by now, it was really hard when I tried to do that at first.
That was also the reason for my liking for black clothes.
And just as I’d expected, we never got compared to each other again since Rena never wore black clothes.
But then, I’m really glad that our types of man didn’t resemble each other. [TL: …. Poor Totona]
That was a relief.
I caught a glimpse of the hero of light’s appearance before but, to be honest, he wasn’t my type.
To be honest, Kuroki looks much better than that hero of light.
In fact, I was really happy inside whenever Kuroki came to my library to read some books.
I even recalled myself giving a standing ovation when Kuroki beat the hell out of that hero of light AKA Rena’s lover in broad daylight.
GOOD JOB. As expected of MY KUROKI. It was what I felt inside.
The moment I thought so.
The goddesses were starting to kick up a fuss.
As I was wondering what caused them to make such a fuss, I saw a flying ship was approaching from afar.