Chapter 355: Since when did Ishtar care about her reputation
Chapter 355 - Since when did Ishtar care about her reputation
Today, the streets of Orario were far more lively than usual.
The reason was the upcoming war game between the Hestia familia and the Apollo familia.
Everyone was excited, treating the event like an impending festival.
Taverns opened early in the morning and adventurers flooded inside, ordering food and drinks while waiting for the war game to begin.
Vendors set up their stalls along the street corners.
Promotional parchment posters lined the walls of every building, advertising the upcoming war game.
Thanks to this grand publicity, Orario felt as if it were hosting a major festival, turning the war game into pure entertainment for its citizens.
Naturally, no one besides the gods, who constantly craved excitement would orchestrate such a massive spectacle.
Today was the fifteenth, the day of the main event.
After three or four days of intense promotion, almost every adventurer took the day off.
Some even set up betting pools, taking the festive spirit to its absolute limit.
In front of the guild headquarters, a temporary stage had been built.
A guild official held a magic stone device that functioned like a microphone, speaking loudly to the massive crowd gathered below.
"Welcome, everyone. I am the host responsible for broadcasting today’s war game, so please lend me your support."
Although the guild usually forbade direct conflicts between familias, for an event like a war game, they collaborated with local merchants to make it as grand as possible.
Doing so served multiple purposes.
First, it energized the city and framed the war game as an official performance, preventing citizens from worrying that it was an underground brawl or illegal fight.
Second, it generated massive revenue, just like a real festival.
The divine publicity campaign worked so well largely due to the guild working behind the scenes.
Furthermore, events like this showcased the strength of Orario to the outside world, acting as a demonstration to attract talented adventurers into the city.
Most importantly, war games served as the ultimate form of entertainment sought by the gods.
The setting for the war game was not inside Orario itself.
Instead, they used the mirror of god, a unique permitted magic technique capable of broadcasting the entire war game live to every corner of Orario.
This feature allowed the gods to view anything they wanted in real time, no matter how far away it occurred providing them with excitement and stimulation from the lower world.
This was the sole exception for using such divine power.
Of course, it was restricted strictly to public events like war games.
Using it privately without guild permission would result in a god being banished back to heaven.
While the citizens of Orario celebrated below, the gods gathered inside Babel, the central tower of the city. On the thirtieth floor, the gods who eagerly anticipated the war game more than anyone else assembled together.
As the key deities involved in this war game, Hestia, Ishtar, and Apollo were naturally present.
"Hestia, my offer still stands. If you surrender right now before the fight begins, I will not make unreasonable demands of your Hestia familia," Apollo said provocatively, looking at Hestia.
"Of course, I still intend to take Mahiro."
"Hestia, this whole affair was originally just a minor dispute among children."
"Yet your stubbornness escalated it into this mess, so you have no one to blame but yourself," Ishtar said, glaring at Hestia coldly.
"We will show no mercy in this war game. Is your Hestia familia prepared to be expelled from Orario?"
Because of this war game, the Ishtar familia had been brought into the public eye but they gained notoriety rather than fame.
As a familia running prostitution businesses, they naturally had a dark underbelly that could not compare to standard familias.
Normally, they hid these dark aspects well, following unspoken rules that others turned a blind eye to.
However, taking advantage of the war game, curious onlookers had dug up many hidden secrets and exposed them to the public.
As a result, the Ishtar familia received a warning from the guild even while preparing for the war game.
Of course, Ishtar did not care about that.
What truly infuriated her was the growing sentiment among the public: Ishtar is no match for Freya.
"We are ready," Hestia said, glaring at the two of them before speaking firmly.
"Get ready to watch us crush all of your children."
"Well, it is fine for you to act brave for now," Apollo said with a light shrug, utterly unconcerned as he gazed out the window at the sky.
"My familia’s reputation was severely damaged because of you."
"In this war game, I will have my children completely wipe away this humiliation," Ishtar added.
"Reputation?" Freya chuckled softly nearby. "Ishtar, did you ever have a reputation to begin with?"
Hearing this, Ishtar looked even angrier, glaring at Freya with fury. "Those foolish mortals cannot tell the difference."
"Otherwise, how could I possibly be inferior to you?"
Freya merely smirked. "That’s simply a difference in character."
Loki glanced at the two squabbling goddesses.
She looked up at the sun resting in the center of the sky, an excited smile spreading across her face.
"Let’s begin this war game."
"Yeah!"
All the gods present cheered with excitement, unsealing tiny amounts of their divine power inside their bodies.
In the next moment, as if responding to the arcanum across the massive screen.
The mirror connected to the distant battlefield.
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