Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

"Ivory and Onyx, one white and the other dark like midnight. Just as ye had described her," her hands extended to the idol standing tall in the back of her shop, Reina let Erika Marvel at the lady that soon the entirety of Athenia would serve. "I hope the crude dark slab on her back matches what you had in mind."

Turning her head to the priestess who was still admiring the idol closely, Reina hoped and prayed that she would no longer work on the same piece of rock ever again.

"They do look like her aura, but the strands of life that stretched out of her, they look like steel and not exactly ether…" Although Reina had caught the resemblance of the goddess well, the dark and light aura of Athenia's true form that permeates the soul, couldn't be matched. "But, all in all, I think this will work well."

Heaving a sigh of relief, Reina folded her hands and turned her gaze back to the idol.

"Lemme know once she's in that empty church, I'd be first in line to pray never to have to work on something as tedious as this ever again." Feeling a strong sideways leer at her, Reina almost wanted to eat her words, but being tired from chiseling stone for almost a week, she couldn't care less about what the priestess thought.

"I heard you're coming with us to the ocean, why not pray for your safety? I doubt you can fight monsters like the rest of us," with a curious hum, Reina let her hands fall to the side and faced Erika directly.

Thinking about what the priestess had just said, she rolled up her sleeves and curled her biceps.

"These aren't just for show, you know? Besides, I was raised on that ocean, if anything I should be concerned about you idiots trying to chart it without a proper crew," letting her hands fall again, Reina added further. "But then again, those pirate creeps onboard are way too friendly for a band full of girls."

"I heard you stopped sailing because of the same problem, didn't you?" Erika enquired, her body facing the idol yet her eyes still leering at the red-headed human.

Reina's lips moved around for a moment, biting them even, she wondered where to begin the explanation. But after just a few seconds of stress on her tired head, she shrugged her shoulders and came out with the first thing that popped into her head.

"That's right, it was me father's crew too. I was practically raised around those idiots, but when my father walked the plank, things got a bit more rusty and loose like the ship on which we were sailing." Placing her hands on her hips, she took a deep breath and tried to forget about her old man. Then with a shake of her head, she lifted her gaze and stared back into the priestess's leering gaze.

"Having a girl on the ship, those bastards were practically jizzing their pants every chance they got. Had it been up to me, I would've renamed the Earl's Pearl's to Old Wanking Wanker's or something."

Rolling her eyes at the crude mouth of the ex-pirate, Erika closed her eyes and begged forgiveness from the idol for Reina having uttered such unpleasant words in front of it. Once done, the priestess finally turned to face her, her heart full of gratitude and yet another prayer.

"Thank you for your hard work, and I hope you'll guide us well." Wearing a faint smile, Erika closed her eyes and prayed some more. "I hope your father's soul finds peace, and you continue on this righteous path of honest living so you won't have to return to being a pirate again."

'A thank you?' Reina felt strange just hearing those words, there weren't many customers who cared for her. As far as the adventurers were concerned she was just another cog in the wheel, a bystander to their self-important lives, and thus required only gold and not a word of appreciation.

Even so, feeling awkward, Reina folded her hands and looked about randomly as Erika lifted her head back up. Trying to appear as if she didn't care, the blacksmith fanned her hands as if to shoo her away.

"Go get a wagon to take the idol off me property, I'm no Athenian nor do I worship yer goddess. So get it off as soon as you can!" Standing up straight with a kick to the ground, Reina quickly turned and headed into her workshop.

Left alone in the back of the shop, Erika stood in silence. She was confused as to what made Reina tick, but her confusion was quickly halted by a question from an internal friend.

'I thought that girl was an orphan, she acts the rough and tough part at least.' Asmodia's words rang true to Erika to some extent, but there was a major flaw in her theory.

"Her father's dead so she probably is now, but if a pirate's habits are to be explored, I'd say her mother…"

'A whore and possibly alive somewhere?' Asmodia finished Erika's thoughts, and she was right. Smiling internally as her assumption appeared to be right, the devil chuckled to herself. 'I suppose we should keep our eyes peeled for a whorehouse, maybe we'll meet a short-haired short-tempered redhead in one of them; who knows?'

"Are you done trying to make fun of her?" Sensitive to the matter of parents and paternity, Erika wasn't exactly thrilled about Asmodia's mocking tone towards Reina's potential parent.

'Not really, but I'll stop…for now.' Being a devil, Asmodia couldn't help trying to get in trouble, but having shared the body with her for a while now, Erika knew that the devil was intentionally being dense.

"We'll find someone for you to humiliate when we're en route at the end of this week, so hold off on your mockery for now, okay?" Erika requested.

'A priestess of the goddess of Mockery telling people not to do mockery,' heaving a comical sigh, Asmodia tried to portray just how absurd things felt from her perspective. Yet the priestess remained adamant, and so the devil was hushed into submission…for now, and until the chosen's journey starts once again.

"Now…" Looking at the idol, Erika folded her hands, wondering just how exactly she was going to move a ton of stone with a wagon.

'Fuck…' She cursed before instantly praying for forgiveness.