At this moment, everyone heard the commotion and turned their heads in unison, casting strange looks toward the door.
The instinct of serpent-kind to sense approaching danger made Euryale and Stheno reflexively pull their heads back, ready to shut their mouths and slip away.
However, a gust of wind swept through the room, and Lorne, activating the [Goat] authority with speed faster than thunder could cover ears, yanked the two passing gorgons inside and greeted them warmly.
"Stheno, Euryale? Long time no see! Come, come, come. Don't be in such a hurry to leave. Stay and eat with us first!"
As he spoke, the smile on a certain someone's face was so radiant it had twisted into something slightly unhinged.
A pair of iron-clamp hands enthusiastically dragged the two Gorgon demonesses to the dining table, pressed them into seats, and extended a hearty welcome.
"Come, come, come. Look at the two of you, you've gotten so thin from hunger lately. Eat more and build your strength back up."
A moment later, two dinner plates piled into small mountains of food were pushed in front of the two Gorgon demonesses respectively.
Apart from the meatloaf and vegetables that Chiron had previously sampled, nearly every one of the remaining dozens of new dishes could be found somewhere on their plates.
Hestia and Circe sitting nearby kept their eyes on their noses and their noses on their hearts, like a pair of statues, treating a certain someone's actions as though they had seen absolutely nothing.
There was no helping it.
The immortal Teacher Horse had already gone down. Someone had to carry the burden forward for everyone's sake.
Besides, with the living example of Old Horse right there, until every dish on the table had been fully tested for poison, they absolutely would not be picking up their forks.
At this moment, the two Gorgons who had been dragged inside faintly sniffed out a subtle strangeness in the atmosphere at the dinner table, and immediately their faces showed suspicion.
"You two aren't eating? Perfect, I've already treated you then. Whatever happened last time, consider it wiped clean from this moment on!"
Lorne was overjoyed at the sight, raising his hand and sweeping both plates toward himself, as though afraid the two would change their minds, a shameless grin hanging on his face.
"Coming back for a visit and actually running into such a lavish welcome dinner. Then I won't stand on ceremony."
"You want to eat? You wish!
Hand it over!"
At this moment, the no-longer-able-to-sit-still Euryale snatched her own plate back in one grab, glaring furiously at Lorne beside her.
This bastard stirred up all the trouble and then abandoned them and run off on his own.
He'd been out fooling around for several months, hadn't lost so much as a single hair, and on top of that had gotten them beaten in turns by the furious Hestia and Athena.
During that whole period their buttocks had never gotten a chance to de-swell.
They'd basically been sleeping face-down every single night.
'Why does he get to walk away without a scratch while we take all the hits?
And now he comes back and gets good food on top of it!'
At this moment, Lorne, who had his food snatched right in front of him, was also feeling quite wronged, lodging his complaint with an aggrieved expression.
"There's still more on the table, isn't there? Why are you grabbing mine?"
"Because I'm grabbing yours specifically. What are you going to do about it? Nya nya nya!"
Euryale made a face, sticking out her tongue, then right in front of the victim she grabbed the dinner plate, opened her mouth to an exaggerated degree that displayed the traits of a serpentine divine creature, and tipped the entire plate's contents directly into her mouth.
"Don't, don't do it!"
Hearing that somewhat off-key cry, Euryale couldn't help but feel smug.
She immediately worked her throat, gulping all the food down into her stomach in one swallow, completely dashing a certain someone's hopes of reclaiming his meal.
Lorne stopped in his tracks, the look he turned on Euryale filled with horror.
"You... you ate all of it?"
"That's right, not a single bite for you!"
A smug smile spread across Euryale's face.
One hand dropped over her eyelid, ready to make another face and launch into taunting.
However, Lorne's face turned deeply pained, and he gave a solemn, deep bow in her direction.
"Brave warrior... go well..."
"?"
Euryale had just opened her mouth in confusion to respond, when she suddenly discovered she could not open her mouth at all.
The next second, her entire body went rigid from head to toe, and her consciousness was pulled into an endless, boundless darkness.
THUD!
Accompanied by a dull impact, the solid wooden chair shattered into pieces, and the stiff, straight-falling Euryale crashed deep into the floor tiles and did not move.
Lorne carefully extended a finger and poked her, discovering that this serpent-haired demoness was rock solid from head to foot, as though she had been hit with a petrification curse.
He then picked up the dinner plate from the floor, sniffed the lingering food smell, turned to glance at the elegantly plated dishes on the table, and then looked quietly over at the Goddess of Wisdom sitting across from him, composed as an elder deity above it all.
"You didn't put a solidifier in there, did you?"
"Did I? Ahem... probably. Just a minor ingredient."
Athena took a sip of fruit wine and replied with casual indifference.
'A minor ingredient? Whose household stir-fry uses alchemical reagents instead of soy sauce, vinegar, oil and salt?'
"Normal, perfectly normal."
Lorne was screaming internally but said the complete opposite out loud, while at the same time calmly pulling the now baton-stiff Euryale up from the floor and deftly stuffing her under the dining table.
And as the tablecloth was lifted for a moment, the nearby Stheno suddenly spotted that there was already a centaur sage lying dead under the table.
Judging by the haphazard way he had been arranged, he'd probably been shoved under there carelessly while they were opening the door.
"I just remembered there's something urgent at home! I'll be heading off now, don't let me disturb you!"
Stheno leapt to her feet, spun around, and bolted toward the door at top speed, attempting to flee this terrifying chamber of horrors.
However, a pair of iron-clamp hands had been ready and waiting, pressing down on her shoulders and pulling her right back, offering "warm" dissuasion.
"What's so urgent, so urgent. It's rare to all gather like this. Finish eating first. This is your chief goddess Lady Athena's hard work. Wasting food is such a terrible thing."
Stheno squeezed out a stiff, strained smile and immediately tried to push away.
"I... I'm not hungry. This is all supposed to be a welcome dinner for you. It would be so inappropriate for me to take your food. You go ahead..."
"Appropriate, couldn't be more appropriate. We're all family here, what is there to be polite about?"
"I've been on a diet lately. I have no appetite."
"What are you dieting for at such a young age. Haven't seen you in so long, just look at you, you're nothing but skin and bones."
The dinner plate on the table was pushed and pulled back and forth.
The two hands pressing down on it, one large and one small, had veins bulging and joints creaking.
"No... I'm... not..."
"You... absolutely... are..."
The two of them smiled at each other, voices squeezing out word by word through gritted teeth.
Because they were exerting so much effort to speak, the expressions on both faces had taken on an indescribably ferocious quality.
Stheno's name meant [Forceful], and among the three Gorgon sisters, though she was small in stature, she possessed the greatest wrist strength.
Meanwhile Lorne, activating [Bull], was no slouch in the strength department either.
The two of them wrestling at the dinner table at this moment were like mortal enemies fighting desperately on a battlefield, each desperately wishing they could stuff the plate of delicious food into the other's mouth.
BANG!
Finally, a fair hand slammed down on the table in exasperation, cutting off the mutually deferential scene between the two.
Athena looked around the table, her expression displeased.
"What's this. None of you dare to eat, is that it?"
"No no, of course not!"
"Absolutely not!"
Lorne and Stheno sat up straight in their chairs and shook their heads in unison, but their two hands, one large and one small, quietly pushed the dinner plate away.
With the two forces meeting, the plate spun and accelerated, sliding to a stop right between Hestia and Circe.
'You two...'
Hestia and Circe, who had been working so hard to reduce their presence to nothing, never expected they could still catch a stray arrow while just lying low, and couldn't help but shoot furious glares at the two culprits sitting across from them.
"It's just a meal. I didn't put any poison in it. What's wrong with eating a little?"
Watching every single diner at the table treat her creations like venomous snakes and scorpions, Athena, pushed past her limit, rose furiously to her feet.
"Watch closely. Fine, I'll just eat it myself to show you!"
Feeling indignant at heart, the Goddess of Wisdom snatched up the fork from the table, skewered a piece of cooked beef from the plate, and shoved it into her own mouth to chew, in order to prove her innocence and the harmlessness of the dishes.
Hestia and Lorne were startled at the sight, and wanted to stop her, but it was already too late.
The beef entered her mouth.
Athena chewed a few times, and her expression froze, as though time itself had paused.
Hestia and Lorne instinctively held their breath, and asked carefully.
"How is it?"
"Are you alright?"
Hearing the voices beside her,
Athena came back to herself, glanced at the two anxious faces, and let out a cold laugh.
"It's just a bite of food. How could anything possibly be wrong with me?"
Lorne dry-coughed once, his gaze drifting.
"Then... the taste?"
"The taste?"
Athena picked up her napkin and dabbed at the corner of her mouth, her throat quietly working as she swallowed, then spoke with a light, airy hum. "What kind of taste can a home-cooked meal have? Not too salty, not too bland. Just right."
'Thank goodness, thank goodness!'
Everyone present let out a collective, unspoken sigh of relief.
It seemed like among so many dishes there were at least a few edible ones.
Seeing that her niece appeared to have some genuine talent in cooking after all, Hestia, goddess of the hearth, felt a swell of heartfelt pride and offered praise.
"Athena, you've actually learned to cook this quickly? Not bad at all!"
"Indeed, it looks wonderful, and the smell is absolutely top-notch!"
Circe chimed in from the side, then exchanged a glance with Hestia, preparing to eat a bit of the cooked beef to show some appreciation.
However, just as Hestia raised her fork ready to put the beef in her mouth, a foot under the table delivered a sharp, heavy kick to her leg.
The beef on her fork slid off and landed on her small side plate.
'Look over there...'
In the silent exchange, Hestia read the meaning in Lorne's eyes, and immediately followed his gaze toward the nearby rubbish bin.
There, she could plainly see that the previously discarded napkin was lumpy and bulging, as though something was hidden inside it.
The hearthfire goddess instantly understood.
Her body gave a shudder, and she quickly set down her fork and sat up straight.
At this moment, Circe had already put the cooked beef from her fork into her mouth.
"This beef..."
And in order to fully appreciate the taste and texture of this dish and deliver a professional, objective evaluation, she had even closed her eyes, completely failing to notice the small exchange between Hestia and Lorne.
'Chewing... hmm... very fresh...'
'More chewing... hmm... very chewy...'
'Keep chewing... full of elasticity...'
'Final chew... hmm... chew what hammer!'
'The texture is as rough as chewing on a shoe sole, and no matter how hard you bite, it simply will not break!'
'Surely they didn't put adhesive in it?'
Circe realized something was wrong, and originally wanted to spit it out to spare herself the ordeal.
However, a certain quiet, penetrating gaze fell upon her, and the great witch immediately lost her nerve.
She could only swallow the "delicious" piece of cooked beef with tears in her eyes, and force out a compliment that went against her every instinct.
"The taste is quite good. Chewy and delicious!"
"If it's good then eat more!"
At this moment, a disciple brimming with filial devotion immediately rose to his feet and swept the entire plate of cooked beef from the table into the dinner plate in front of Circe.
And along with it, he also swept away the piece of beef that had earlier fallen onto Hestia's small side plate.
'You beast!'
Looking at her own outrageously treacherous beloved disciple, and then at the small mountain of cooked beef piling up before her, plus the nameless, indescribable heap of unknown food below it, Circe's body shuddered, her voice cutting off mid-sentence as she quietly set down her fork, squeezed out a thin smile, and rose from her seat.
"You all go ahead and eat. I need to use the..."
But two hands, one from the front and one from behind, pulled her right back into her original seat and cut off what she was saying.
"What's the rush. Eat first."
Lorne smiled from ear to ear.
Beside him, Hestia guiltily lowered her head.
'You rotten pair!'
Watching herself being roasted alive over an open flame, Circe deeply regretted her slip of the tongue.
However, as a hand resting on her back discreetly moved its index finger, tracing out a specific message,
Circe immediately understood, and immediately steeled her heart, stabbed a piece of meatloaf and shoved it into her mouth.
After chewing for a moment, her expression changed drastically as she grabbed Hestia's arm and let out a cry of anguished suffering.
"Save... save me..."
"Circe! What's wrong with you?! You absolutely must not have an accident!"
Hestia immediately scooped up her close friend, wearing an expression of frightened panic, and rushed rapidly toward the door.
At this moment, Lorne, who had orchestrated all of this, also took the opportunity to drag the unconscious Chiron out from under the table.
"Teacher Horse, you hang in there too!"
The two of them each supporting one comrade, scrambled and raced to get out the door first.
But no sooner had the first group of Hestia and Circe stepped through the door, than a golden band of light shot up from the ground, blocking Lorne's path.
"The welcome banquet isn't over yet. Why are you in such a hurry to leave?"
Hearing that quiet, drawn-out murmur from behind him, the latter helplessly turned around and looked at Athena sitting before the dining table with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.
His heart sank with frustration, and he could only snuff out that last tiny ember of hope.
It was plainly obvious.
She had come here for him specifically.
With the same excuse, Hestia could make an early escape.
But he could not.
Unless Athena declared the banquet over, or someone finished all the food on this table.
Lost in thought, Lorne turned a scheming gaze toward the other serpent-haired demoness still at the table.
In an instant, Stheno caught on, and immediately squeezed out an expression of pitiful, panicked despair, dragging her rock-stiff little sister out from under the table and charging straight for the door.
"Euryale, don't frighten me like this.
I'm taking you to get treatment right now!"
"Leave it to me!"
At the same moment, a figure of "warm-hearted generosity" stepped proactively forward, snatched Euryale away in one grab, and flung both her and the Chiron in his other hand out through the door.
The two unfortunate food-testers were, as expected, successfully thrown out the door and landed right in front of Hestia.
"They just ate too much and need some sleep. One person is plenty to look after them."
Lorne kept his face wreathed in smiles, raised his hand and pressed down on the attempting-to-escape Stheno, and dragged her right back in front of that dining table.
'Go ahead and die yourself, why drag me down with you. You're the worst of the worst!'
Seeing that escape was now hopeless, Stheno was so furious her teeth itched.
She wanted nothing more than to leap forward and bite a certain not-quite-human bastard to death.
(End of Chapter)