"Hmm... I know that Hestia-sama is your best friend, but is it alright for you to do this much for her? Frankly speaking, I'm trying to look for your bottom line and even with this, you didn't yield." Kisuke asked. Even if he had failed in getting Hephaestus's 'help' regarding the gears, he had a backup plan, but it looks like he didn't need it.

Hephaestus smiled gently at his question as she recalled why she's doing this. Unconsciously touching her blindfolded right eye, she answered, "Back in Heaven, her place is my only safe haven."

"Oh, does it have something with that eye?" Kisuke then noticed the minute change in her expression, "Ah, I'm sorry that I asked, I'm just a bit curious. I just noticed that despite having that eyepatch, you can still see through it."

Hephaestus shook her head, "No, it's fine. I knew you would be curious too. Although I'm surprised that you can tell that I can see through this."

Kisuke chuckled, "Of course I would. We've been working together for these past few days so something like that would be obvious for me. Though I really wonder, there are times that you want to take off your eyepatch so that you can take a closer look at things, but each time, you'd immediately stop yourself. Why is that?"

"It's nothing interesting, in fact, this is just a disgusting eye. Snuff out that curiosity of yours. Save yourself from disappointment and disgust."

But instead of being discouraged, Kisuke's eyes shone a weird glint as his curiosity soared up, "Now, now, Hephaestus-sama. Disgusting or beautiful, every experience is important! Most of all, I'll be the judge of whatever I see! So please let me see it!"

'Ah... I forgot he's this kind of guy. Normally, others would respectfully back away, but this guy said he's a researcher that pursues knowledge. Of course, he would want to see it...' After a few seconds of contemplation and staring at Kisuke's shining eyes, Hephaestus sighed and held her forehead, "Fine. I'll let you see it. But don't blame me if you get emotionally scarred." She agreed while thinking, 'It doesn't really hurt to show it to him and I think he won't stop bothering me until he gets what he wants. Better get this out of the way now.'

While unfastening her eyepatch, Hephaestus warned Kisuke again, "Get yourself ready, alright? Even the Gods are afraid of my eye."

"Even Gods? How interesting~!" Kisuke muttered as he waited for Hephaestus.

Hephaestus only smiled wryly and closed her eyes while thinking, 'We'll see about that.'

Hephaestus dropped her eyepatch. Kisuke stared at her right eye which is still close but he can already see pulsing red like nerves surrounding her eye. And around those nerves, he can see Hephaestus's burnt skin, 'It's hot?'

Hephaestus finally opened her eyes and looked towards Kisuke, waiting for his expression to change to that of disgust. At the same time, various information entered her right eye while looking at Kisuke, information that she didn't know before, 'T-this is? How can he have such strong spiritual energy!?'

The moment she opened her eyes, Kisuke furrowed his brows, which was something Hephaestus already expected. But she was wrong to think that it was disgust, "Heh, that's some amazing eye~!"

The large spiritual energy within Kisuke's body then suddenly shrunk to that of a normal human, "What!?" Hephaestus exclaimed.

Ignoring her reaction, Kisuke continued his observation while reigning in his spiritual pressure since he noticed that Hephaestus was able to see through it. Hephaestus's right eye had golden hexagonal pupils, blood-red iris, and jet-black sclera, 'If the other 'children' would see this, they would immediately liken it to a monster's eye and in this world, anything related to monsters, for normal people, is fear-inducing.'

'For Gods to fear this, I guess it's because of its nature of seeing through. Different from Freya that can see through souls, Hephaestus's eye can see through weakness, composition, and possibilities. As expected of a Goddess of Smithing. Her eye is very suited for her job. And I can understand why Gods would be afraid of her eye.'

Hephaestus was startled when what she saw became different and tried to find what was wrong, however, she failed. She then thought that she saw it wrong and it could be because they just finished forging those gears and she facilitated the injection of spiritual energy on those weapons and probably Kisuke just carried those energies until it went off.

After all, even Gods couldn't control spiritual energies that freely and dismissed the possibility that Kisuke can control it better than the Gods.

Calming herself down, Hephaestus finally noticed Kisuke's unnerving stare, looking directly at her right eye without blinking. She couldn't help but back away and blush a bit since this was the first time someone would stare at her eye like this, "Uhmm... What do you think?"

Alas, she couldn't help but ask his opinion, seeing that he was not even remotely afraid.

"Hmm...? Ah, well, honestly speaking, it's not that impressive." Kisuke muttered honestly.

"...What?"

After staring at her eye for a few more seconds, Kisuke backed away, "As I said, it's not that impressive. You even told me that your eye is disgusting, but if you ask a certain group of people, they would even compliment it for being cool."

"And Gods are afraid of this eye? It can see through things, yes. But you can do the same without that eye if you observe long enough. And what exactly are they afraid of? Probably because your eye magnifies their insecurities. As supposedly unchanging beings, I guess that's a pretty big thing for them."

"...You..." Hephaestus was in shock. This is the first time that someone would have an opinion like that about her eye. But somehow, his opinion ticked her off, "Are you saying that I don't need to hide it?"

Hephaestus was already hiding her eye for as long as she remembers. Because of the disgusted looks she was receiving, she had no choice but to cover her eye. It was also because of this eye that she had a big defect on her face and even though she was a Goddess, she was still a woman who was conscious of her appearance. Despite that, she was also proud of her eye's ability.

So when Kisuke told her that it was nothing impressive and there was no reason to be afraid about it, which was also the same as telling her that her effort was wasted, she didn't like it.

Kisuke instantly guessed what was on her mind and said, "No, I didn't say it like that. You hid it because you don't want trouble, right? That's a very valid reason. I also don't like trouble as much as possible. However, my point is, you don't really need to hide that just because of other's opinions."

"So what if they're afraid of you? Isn't that nice? And sooner or later, with enough exposure, they'll get used to it and accept it."

"Besides, if you're conscious about your appearance, please don't be. I think you're beautiful enough even with that eye and my aesthetic sense is on the normal side. And in my opinion, someone who can be proud even with their physical 'defect' is more beautiful than those who fake their 'beauty'."

Kisuke didn't wait for Hephaestus to reply and left.

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Harem King Appreciation Club's corner:

Alexander: Strike one, Strike two, Strike three and we're out! Finally, I've been waiting for this for ages. Beside that, I'm a bit surprised that there was so little for me to edit aside from the usual mistakes with the time tenses.

28th00: The Harem watching this interaction is all in agreement for a single opinion "Why did we leave him alone with a beautiful goddess with self-image issues, who is also single?" Bestia would totally have Hephaestus' back up in Tenkai/Heaven though! She's a saintess among gods, ya know!