The night cast just enough shadow across Faen's face to conceal the fleeting emotion in his eyes.
"For some people, love is the most beautiful thing in the world. It's a light in the darkness, hope in the depths of despair. But for others… it's the most painful poison. It carves into the heart, cuts to the bone. It's the abyss of longing for something you can never obtain."
Those words made Artemis fully turn toward him.
For the first time, she studied the white-haired boy before her with complete seriousness—free of bias or doctrine.
He was young. Yet in those blue eyes rested a weight far older than his years.
She could tell he wasn't preaching.
He was speaking from experience.
"…Are you in pain?"
She stepped a little closer. A goddess's instinct allowed her to catch the emotion hidden beneath his calm tone.
"In pain?"
Faen turned the word over in his mind before letting out a faint, self-mocking laugh.
"Not exactly. It's more… frustration. Regret."
He lowered his gaze, watching their reflections shimmer together in the stream.
"Love… is complicated. Sorry. I dragged you into something so strange."
Artemis realized she might have brushed against something painful.
"I apologize. I do not understand these emotions, so I cannot properly comfort you."
"It's fine."
Faen shook his head and lifted his face again, offering her a quiet, composed smile.
"The fact that Lady Artemis is willing to speak with me is already an honor."
And he meant it.
She was famous for her disdain toward men. The fact that she could stand here calmly conversing with him was no small matter.
"Do not say that."
Artemis shook her head. In her green eyes flickered a curiosity she had never shown before.
"If you would allow it… could you tell me more? I wish to understand this thing called 'love.'"
Perhaps it was the impact of her children's words earlier that day.
Perhaps it was the contradictory depth she sensed in the boy before her.
For the first time, this unchanging goddess had willingly stepped toward a domain she had always rejected.
"Me?"
Faen gave a bitter smile.
"There's not much to tell. Just the story of a one-sided, obsessive fool."
He tilted his head back and looked at the moon overhead.
Would Alfia ever have loved him?
Impossible.
In her eyes, he would always be the child she had picked up and raised.
Was what he felt love?
Or was it resentment?
Did he want to protect her?
Or was it something darker—an unwillingness to accept her sacrificing herself for others?
Even he could not untangle it.
After a long silence, he spoke.
In a tone so calm it bordered on detached, he recounted his story.
He concealed her name and identity.
He spoke only of a woman who had saved him from despair, raised him for eight years. A powerful, lone woman burdened by a curse, who walked willingly toward destruction.
And of a boy who could do nothing but watch.
Artemis listened without interruption.
When he finished, she did not offer comfort or sympathy like a mortal would.
She did not understand the flavors of love.
But she understood gods.
"I cannot grasp the emotions you describe," she admitted honestly. "But perhaps… it is precisely because of that obsession that children of the Lower World fascinate us so deeply."
Her green eyes shimmered under the moonlight.
"We gods possess eternal life. We remain unchanged. But you mortals burn like shooting stars. Brief, yet blazing brighter than the sun because of love, hatred, and longing."
"Your stories. Your struggles. Your refusal to accept fate… that stubborn obsession—"
"That is the miracle we eternal beings most desire to witness."
As she spoke, something in Artemis seemed to settle.
It was as though she had finally found a framework to understand her children's feelings.
Some unseen weight lifted from her shoulders.
On the way back, they walked side by side in silence.
The atmosphere was no longer heavy, only strangely harmonious.
...
But when they stepped back into the brightly lit camp, that harmony shattered instantly.
A few Familia members near the bonfire looked up just as Artemis and Faen emerged together from the dark forest path.
Clatter.
A piece of firewood hit the ground.
Then another.
Then a third.
Within seconds, the entire camp fell into a stunned silence.
Every movement froze.
Pairs of wide eyes stared in disbelief at the man and goddess standing side by side.
That was Artemis.
The chaste goddess who loathed men.
She had just returned from the forest…
At night…
With a man?
Artemis felt the shift in the air immediately.
Twenty burning gazes, shock, curiosity, scandal—fell upon her at once.
The eternally cool goddess's face flushed crimson at a visible speed.
"I—I'm going back first!"
She threw the words at Faen in a rush before practically fleeing to her carriage, pulling the curtains shut with a firm swish.
The next second—
The camp exploded.
Letessa and Lanti led the charge.
The boldest girls surged forward like arrows released from a bowstring, surrounding Faen completely.
"Hey! How did you do that?!"
Lanti's face radiated excitement. She had completely forgotten the Familia's prohibition, nearly pressing herself against him.
"What did you talk about?"
"Did she smile at you?"
"Tell us!"
Their chatter sounded like a hundred sparrows shrieking in unison.
The scent of sweat and faint perfume enveloped him.
He could even feel their excited breaths brushing against him.
Faen backed away helplessly, only to realize there was nowhere left to retreat.
He cast a desperate look toward Furina, who was standing nearby with her arms crossed, watching the scene with obvious amusement.
"Ahem!"
Receiving the signal, Furina cleared her throat dramatically and strode forward with exaggerated queenly dignity.
She shoved aside Lanti and Letessa, spread her arms, and shielded Faen behind her like an overprotective guardian.
Hands on her hips, she declared righteously:
"What do you think you're doing? Have you no sense of propriety? Men and women should keep proper distance. You are not allowed to get this close to my child."
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