Wine cups touched with a crisp sound as three goddesses, who usually maintained only ordinary relationships despite each holding extraordinary influence in Orario, gathered in the same room.
Hephaestus wore men's clothing as usual.
Her posture seemed relaxed at a glance, though the look in her eye carried none of that carelessness.
Across from her sat Astraea, beautiful and dignified, her presence gentle yet unmistakably firm.
Beside them, radiating a charm so dangerous it almost felt like a natural law, was Freya.
Hephaestus looked at the Goddess of Beauty and barely hid the suspicion in her voice.
"I'm happy enough to welcome Astraea, but Freya, why are you here too?"
Freya set down her teacup with graceful calm.
"Hephaestus, although my bond with that boy is not as deep as Astraea's bond through her children, my Ottar was still recognized by your Yōtōsai."
Her smile deepened slightly.
"Tenken is a Zanpakutō as well. If this concerns children who have received Rayleigh's blades, then surely there is no problem with me being here?"
Hephaestus's expression did not improve.
"You make it sound very reasonable."
"Is it not?"
"If Loki heard this, she would complain about being left out."
"Then perhaps you should have invited her."
"And let my shop become a battlefield before the sword even chooses anyone? No, thank you."
Astraea gave a small, troubled smile.
The topic before them was the public-sale Zanpakutō.
Rayleigh had placed it in the shop that morning, and the rumor had already spread across Orario like fire thrown onto oil.
A weapon that chose its master.
A weapon that could change fate.
A weapon that might kill those it rejected.
No shop could treat something like that as a simple expensive sword on display.
Hephaestus tapped one finger lightly against the table.
"I've already ordered the shop to seal the display case. No one is allowed to draw it inside the store. Anyone who wants to attempt the trial must register, sign a formal waiver, and have their Familia notified."
Astraea nodded.
"That is wise. A public death inside the shop would cause unnecessary chaos."
"Unnecessary?" Hephaestus let out a tired sigh. "If some idiot gets himself killed after ignoring warnings, I can still deal with it. The problem is what comes afterward! Their god complains, their Familia demands compensation, the Guild interferes, Loki laughs, Ganesha shouts that he is Ganesha, and somehow I end up buried under a mountain of paperwork."
Freya chuckled softly.
"What a vivid future."
"It's a future I intend to avoid."
Hephaestus continued, "The trial will be held in a secured underground testing room. Rayleigh has to be present. A Guild observer may attend if necessary, and a patron god or Familia representative must sign confirmation before the challenger is allowed anywhere near the blade."
Astraea folded her hands.
"And if the challenger is an adventurer without a strong Familia behind them?"
"Then the Guild acts as witness. I won't let this become a hunting ground for desperate children with more ambition than sense."
Freya's eyes curved faintly.
"But ambition is exactly what such a blade will attract."
"That's what worries me."
Hephaestus looked toward the window.
Even from this distance, she could imagine the crowd forming around her shop.
Rayleigh had not simply sold a weapon, he had placed a question in the middle of Orario.
Who was worthy?
To adventurers, that question was more intoxicating than wine.
Astraea's expression softened.
"Rayleigh likely understands that. He may be using the blade to draw out someone who would never have crossed his path otherwise."
"I know," Hephaestus said. "That child always thinks more than he says."
Freya did not answer right away.
Her gaze lowered toward the tea in her cup.
A child who forged blades that possessed souls, connected people through weapons, and carried a soul layered with scars and secrets that even Freya found difficult to see through.
Freya had seen many souls before.
Beautiful souls, ugly souls, broken souls, pure souls, and twisted souls.
But Rayleigh's soul was troublesome.
It was surrounded by blades, or perhaps entangled with them so deeply that even Freya could not easily tell where the boy ended and the swords began.
Each sword seemed like a petal, a fang, a mirror, a shadow, or a storm.
Somewhere behind him, faint yet unmistakable, lingered a presence that should never have existed in Orario at all.
Freya smiled.
Hephaestus noticed that smile and immediately became wary.
"What are you thinking?"
"Nothing dangerous."
"That's exactly what dangerous people say."
"How cruel! I only find him interesting."
"That is the problem."
The room fell quiet for a moment.
Hephaestus knew very well what kind of goddess Freya was.
Gods were nearly indestructible.
Even Hephaestus, the divine smith of Heaven, could only forge weapons that killed gods. She could not create something that erased a god completely.
To mortals, godslaying meant killing a god and sending them back to Heaven.
For the gods themselves, even that was only a return rather than true disappearance.
Unable to die even if they wished for it, trapped in eternal life and endless repetition, many gods eventually broke in one way or another.
Among those broken gods, Freya belonged to the most dangerous handful.
Her love was beautiful, terrifying, and capable of turning cities into cages while offering people up like sacrifices.
Hephaestus did not hate Freya, but she would never casually trust her near one of her children.
Astraea quietly looked between the two goddesses.
"This sword may become a blessing," she said. "It may also become a fire."
"Most good weapons are both," Hephaestus replied.
Freya smiled.
"And what kind of child do you think it will choose?"
Hephaestus fell silent.
She did not know.
Rayleigh had not even told her the sword's name. He had only left her with one troubling explanation.
'For the right person, its flaw is almost nothing. For the wrong person, it is a blade pointed at their own throat.'
That was not reassuring at all!
At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
A shop attendant entered and bowed deeply.
"Hephaestus-sama, the Guild has sent word. They want to dispatch an observer for the Zanpakutō trial."
Hephaestus rubbed her forehead.
"As expected."
The attendant hesitated.
"There is one more thing."
"What now?"
"The first challenger has already registered."
The room went still.
Astraea's eyes widened slightly while Freya's smile deepened.
Hephaestus lowered her hand and looked at the attendant.
"Who?"
The attendant swallowed.
"A young adventurer without a famous Familia. He says he has no money yet, but he wants permission to challenge the blade before anyone else buys it."
Hephaestus's expression darkened.
Before she could speak, the attendant quickly added, "Rayleigh-sama already heard about it."
"And?"
"He said..."
The attendant's face turned strange.
"He said, 'Good. At least he knows he's broke.'"
Astraea covered her mouth.
Freya laughed softly.
Hephaestus stared at the ceiling.
"That child..."
Outside the room, the storm surrounding the first public Zanpakutō had only just begun.