Creatures and Caverns

by Eon Crow

Days before Bell Cranel left for Orario, a deity happens upon him in the village where he lived. Granting him a strange blessing, he travels to Orario with a malicious power that hungers him for the cores of monsters, as well as a letter to a certain goddess to ask for an invitation to their Familia. Harem-fic.

10. Mornings and Evenings: Part II

Chapter 10:

Changed my mind. This is now a part two to the last chapter. Aiz and Liaris Freese has been moved to Chapter 11. If you were you excited and I disappointed, then apologies. It couldn't be helped. This is even longer than Chapter 9 (actually, this is the longest chapter I've written) and if I added this whole thing to Chapter 9, it would've been bloated as hell. I'm not fond of having 30k+ words in one chapter. Plus, the notification system works better if I updated with a new chapter instead of editing the last one.

Scarve: Meter = Meder, Centimeter = Celch. It's the metric system of Danmachi.

Takei Daloui: Advice noted! Hestia gets more important later on (Volumes 1-4). For now, she's relegated to being that girl you have to regularly meet in dating sims to raise love points.

JL Davenport: Highly recommended. Check it out. Sorry for spoiling plot from there though!

---

A little rabbit woke up the next day with the worst headache he'd ever felt, not even able to open his eyes fully as he squinted them shut after being hit with such a harsh ray of sunlight coming from his window. His whole body, in fact, felt even heavier than the last few mornings he'd been having, and in every one of them involved different girls lying with him on the same bed.

So terrible was the headache that Bell couldn't even raise his arm to clutch onto his head in some hope that it'll help ease the throbbing pain, and that was still without mentioning how hot his body felt. It was almost as if there was someone actually on top of him again for the fourth morning in a row.

But that couldn't have happened, the young boy thought, after all, he'd just come back to his snug and pleasant room in the Hostess of Fertility, which meant that his goddess wasn't there to smother him with her 'pillows.' And then Bell realized, the first two cases that happened even before his second night in Folkvangr had been waking up next to the two felines of the pub.

Keeping his eyes shut, just in the case that what he was going to find when he opened them would be another potential reason for Mama Mia to toss him into the courtyard sometime soon, he tried to recall what happened the night before. Unfortunately, that earned him another course of pain, pounding at his head like a hammer smashing itself into a helmet.

"Ohhh… what the…? There was a party and… ouch… I… I can't remember what happened… it looks like I can't tell when I have too much alcohol…"

After all, if he couldn't feel himself getting full no matter how many meals he ate, nor how much water he drank, then it was easy to guess that alcohol wasn't any different. The only particularly important matter was that ingesting anything, or perhaps too much of anything, would still have some effect on him. Given his stature, it would hardly take much to intoxicate him, but Bell thought it was probably important to ask just how much he did drink last night.

"I wonder if… Filvis-san has ever tried drinking…"

The elf belonged to the Familia of a god of wine, and the conjured image inside his head of a red-faced and worked up Filvis Challia made Bell's heart beat faster for, he hoped, innocent reasons.

Regardless, he tried to cool his thoughts, methodically inhaling then exhaling, taking steps to make the pain in head feel more manageable, at least enough so that he could once again make an effort to remember.

"There was the toast… I finished my drink… and then I got more… but how much? And then what… Syr-chan was getting me more and I think I wanted to get to know the staff better…"

At that point, it was clear that his memories began getting fuzzier, making less and less sense, and at the same time, making Bell doubt if what he was even remembering had actually happened. The white-haired boy shook his head, he had no other choice than to ask the others for answers, but that was for once the pain had mostly gone away, right now he needed to focus on making himself feel better.

"Like taking this blanket off… it's way too hot…"

Bell opened his red eyes.

And was met face to face with a pair of brown ones.

Except instead of seeing disheveled dark brown hair, the person in front of him, or rather, on top of him, had a much lighter tone to hers compared to the cat girl who'd slept together with him a few nights ago. And what was more important of note, this person had no cat ears.

"L-Lunoire-san?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you in my bed?"

"You invited me while you were drunk out of your mind."

"And… you accepted?"

She looked away, a clear blush on her face.

"You were very… persuasive."

The adventurer would have exploded into an outburst of flustered stammering, in fact, he should have already done so after seeing a girl that was neither his goddess nor his cat-eared coworkers lying on top of him, but the sudden rush of thoughts and blood to his head incited another headache to come pound him with pain, and he was left slamming his head back down onto his pillow.

"Do you want me to get you some water?"

"I-if it can help, then yes, please."

"And can you close your eyes while I get up to leave?"

"E-err, I don't mind, but why?"

"I'm… how do I say it… not decent?"

Bell couldn't reply and settled for taking the pillow from under his head and putting it over him.

"Y-you should also do something about your… you know…"

"Lunoire-san… please don't say anything more," came a muffled cry of pure embarrassment.

The only saving grace it would seem out of this entire scenario was that only his shirt had been tossed somewhere on the floor, black pants still buckled onto him, while on the other hand, the brunette human girl who'd stood up from the bed was in a more risqué state of dress, though not as scandalous looking as she had embarrassedly made it sound. Which meant that most likely, nothing untoward had happened the night before, at least, that was how Bell hoped their time together in the room transpired.

Hearing Lunoire's footsteps get further from the bed, a flustered white-haired boy patiently waited for his friend to dress herself, the sounds of clothes rustling and being worn filling him with images that he really could've gone by at this point without imagining. Strangely enough, the inability to see what was happening made it all the more sensual and suggestive than how it actually was, and a fortiori of an appeal to take a peek at the girl he'd slept together with.

Not knowing what level of an adventurer she was, and in addition to this person being his instructor in martial arts, teaching him how to implement kicks and punches into his knife-wielding combat, were good reasons why he never once dared to slightly raise the pillow on his head. The last thing the young adventurer wanted was to meet up with Naaza later this morning and sporting a broken arm or leg, even if potions could do quite a lot of help.

"I'll be back with a glass of water, alright? Rest easy," were her warm words.

"I thought grandpa said that women after a drunken night were witches that took off with your money and stabbed you in the back…? He… must've met some scary ladies…"

"Thank you," he replied with a muffled voice, earning him a small giggle from the girl.

At the sound of the door unlocking and being opened, Bell froze on his bed.

"Fufu~"

"How was the night with Bell, nya~?"

Voices of two cat girls he was quite familiar with already were right outside of his room, and the white-haired boy was glad that he hadn't been the one leaving the room right now.

"Y-you two!"

"Shh! Don't let Mama Mia hear that you're awake!"

"She's scolding everyone who doesn't have a hangover, nya!"

"Hehe~ Last night got a little too crazy thanks to a certain someone, nya~ He might want to prepare for that if he's awake over there~"

Terrified of what was to come, Bell momentarily forgot about his headache, and thanked the Bell from only a few minutes ago that hadn't let out a burst of flustered noise for saving him from what could have been a month of either sleeping inside the wine cellar or horrendous agony, or perhaps even both. Unfortunately, that didn't mean he was in the clear in any way, since that had been his welcoming party, and something inside his head told him that he was a lot more responsible for whatever happened during then that got everyone it seemed to be in a little trouble.

Lunoire sighed before asking, "Can we get a glass of water from downstairs then? And make it two."

"Ah, so he is awake~"

"Awake, yes, but with a headache."

"We'll be right back, nya!"

"...And not a word of this to Mama Mia… please," the brunette almost begged.

"No worries, nya! All three of us have something in common now, so this only stays with us, nya!"

He could imagine Anya giving a teasing wink saying that and wouldn't be surprised.

"…What do you mean?"

"Fufu~ Why don't you ask our little rabbit while we get you two some water?"

The faint footsteps of two cat girl duo going away and the door closing made Bell feel strangely uneasy, especially since he'd be getting questioned very soon by a quite displeased waitress.

"You can take off that pillow already."

"R-right…"

After doing so, the white-haired boy raised himself up into a sitting position, feeling a little better once calmed down from another out of the blue morning of waking up next to a girl on the same bed. Looking up almost apologetically at Lunoire's raised eyebrow and arms crossed over her chest, she tilted her head to the side, expecting an explanation.

"W-well… Chloe snuck into my room one night and Anya found out about it, so she wanted to sleep next to me too a few days ago. N-nothing happened more than that, I swear."

"Just sleeping on the same bed? Really no more than that?"

Quickly nodding to her skeptical sounding question, bringing a pang of pain to his head, she stared at him quizzically before relenting and easing off of the suspicion on the young boy, the both of them sighing, one in relief and the other in tiredness.

"How that happened so fast... I should be asking them instead, huh?"

She rhetorically said to Bell, who could only give a wry smile in response.

"Are they… always like that?"

"Hey, what do you mean by that?"

"Ah! I didn't mean to make it sound like anything bad!"

Giggling, "I know, I know, but… no, they don't ever go that far for just anyone."

"I-I see…"

"Does that make you relieved, Bell-san?"

"N-no! Or, I mean, y-yes- wait, no-!"

Hearing his conflicted stammering brought a gentle laugh to Lunoire, always amused whenever she teased the poor adventurer in that manner, more pleasant than doing so with customers that would have easily mistaken it as her flirting with them.

"Hmm, but if it was just sleeping next to each other… is that why you've started calling Chloe and Anya just by their first names?"

"Y-yeah, Chloe told me that's how it should be after a night together… and Anya said the same thing."

Lunoire sighed, "It's just like them to get you to do that…"

"Hmm?"

"Oh, forget it."

A brief silence followed before Bell asked, "May I also call you the same way, Lunoire-san?"

Thinking that he'd seen the slightest hint of a blush on her face, Bell shook his head and took another look, though now unsure if it was ever there in the first place since it had vanished upon his second take.

"I guess it couldn't hurt. And we are working together and living in the same building so…"

Seeing the brunette nod to herself as if she was reassuring her decision, the boy made an attempt to call for Lunoire.

"Please, call me Bell too… Lunoire."

She gave him a strange but curious look before hesitantly replying, "Alright, Bell…"

The small cute grin on the little rabbit's face after she'd said so did a tad of a strike on her heart, even if Bell Cranel wasn't the exact type of man that she ideally wanted eventually one of these days. For a former bounty hunter that just wanted to find a nice place somewhere to rest, not needing to have a care in the world about whose face she'd needed to smash in, no worrying about money, and having even a decent looking suitor there to take care of her, that was truly all that Lunoire wanted after the troubling years she'd spent in her youth.

Though that wasn't to say that she would be running off anytime soon away from the Hostess of Fertility in search of that quiet homely life with a husband, and she was still plenty young, the brawler fiercely asserted.

There was a debt to Mama Mia that also needed to be fulfilled after all, for taking her in when she had nothing left after bounty hunting, which the dwarven woman had disguised as forced employment to pay back for the damage she and Chloe caused to the side building when they'd been requested to target the life of Ryuu Lion.

While there wasn't anything to complain about regarding her work here, and on the contrary, the brunette enjoyed it to fullest. No requests for a bounty to target, no more difficult requests to take down high-tier adventurers, no backstabbing clientele, she didn't need to use her fists to solve problems, for the most part at the very least, and she could act like a normal girl.

But that too was also for the most part.

One couldn't be called exactly normal if you were at the leagues of a second-tier adventurer, nor could one be called an ordinary girl if they were employed in the pub ran by the infamous Demi Ymir, former captain of the Freya Familia. It may not have been well known that the employees all had rather troubled pasts, but those that were smart enough not to flirt with the waitresses knew that the workforce of the Hostess of Fertility were as capable as a second-rate Familia. Thus, it could be fairly entailed that there weren't quite a lot of interested suitors adequate enough to have a relationship with.

Of course, there may be out there, but they weren't the only ones waiting for an amazing opportunity, she was there waiting too, and she wasn't getting any younger by the second. Patiently waiting while seeing cute maidens around town stroll the city within hand of a gentle lover.

In that regard, Lunoire couldn't help but still feel far from being a regular girl. She didn't necessarily mind, but even so, it would leave a sour taste on any proper lady's tongue when she scared off any man not intoxicated enough to attempt courting her. Yes, she was strong, and yes, she would admit that she was intimidating, but those shouldn't be very good reasons to drive away sensible gentlemen.

Hence, Lunoire Faust was in a conundrum over the matter.

Was she perhaps not womanly enough to get the attention of a charming young man? They didn't even need to be fetching since she was perfectly satisfied with a husband that would let her lounge around in a small house where they lived together.

"Lunoire?"

"Hmm? What is it, Bell?"

"You looked bothered, is there something wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing, don't worry."

"Alright, but if there's anything I can help with, you're free to ask me," said the white-haired boy, who'd been worried by the troubled look on the waitress' face and thought that he may have been responsible for what was on her mind.

She laughed, "Thank you, Bell. I'll keep it in mind."

Smiling a little at her, Bell let the girl return to her thoughts, settling back to managing the dull remnant of pain in his head, waiting for the two cat girls to come back with glasses of water. As he sat there on his bed, the adventurer looked at the sky outside from his window, and saw that it was no longer the twilight hours of sunrise, which meant that his usual morning session with Ryuu and the others would likely have to be suspended if he wanted to meet with his Supporter on time.

And that was in the hopes that Mama Mia wouldn't also be spending a good amount of time reprimanding him along with the girls. It was better to take a small rest, freshen up, endure the dwarven woman's wrath, and thank Syr for the meal she'd cook before heading out to the Dungeon. Plus, there was also his meeting with a certain Filvis Challia later on at night to think about, and how he was supposed to get permission from his boss after causing her problems.

"Hah, I still have to ask around about what happened last night… did I really drink that much?"

To have drank so much alcohol that he'd ended up forgetting most of the night away, Bell didn't know that he had it in him to be capable of doing so, or maybe it was just his body not reacting to it as how it should have. While it was very much an adventurer-like behavior like in some stories from his grandfather, the young boy didn't think he wanted to have any reexperiences of losing important memories.

Seeing that there was someone there with him, he tentatively asked,

"L-Lunoire, can I ask what happened last night?"

"Oh my, you're making a girl be the one to say such things?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"I can't believe you, Bell Cranel."

"E-eh!?"

"T-there's no way we actually…! I-I'm still wearing my pants!"

"I-I can't remember anything! I'm sorry!"

"B-but it was my first time…"

The rabbit flailed his arms in utter shock, "F-first time!? W-what!? L-Lunoire-!?"

Seeing that he was practically in tears, the brunette stomached her laughter and cut it there before she went too far with her teasing.

"Calm down, Bell," letting out a small giggle, "it was just a-"

But before she could relieve him of that terrifying image,

"M-my grandpa told me to take responsibility!"

That wasn't exactly correct, rather it was the goddess Nyx that made him promise to do so if his pursuit of a harem advanced to that point when he got older, while his grandfather's advice was to run as fast as he could if he 'knocked up' a girl after a one-night stand, otherwise it meant that his grandson would be chained down from adventuring and becoming a hero, and Bell wasn't that type of person to say the least.

"No, Bell, it was-"

Cut off by his rather sudden jumping off the bed, the young boy endured the sharp pain in consequence of that action and walked up to his dear friend to grasp her hands.

"I-I'll take care of you, Lunoire! I promise!"

"This is getting a little out of hand!"

The girl thought to herself.

Strangely enough, she couldn't verbally put it to words so as to clear the misunderstanding, especially not after hearing the resolve tinged in the words that Bell had said so earnestly.

It was not unlike a confession of sorts, and a part of Lunoire wanted to hear it out for a just a tad longer, though inwardly she was unsure of at what point she would have to tell Bell that it was a mere jest, her lack of judgement possibly from her earlier thoughts and still somewhat muddled state of mind the morning after a night of drinking.

"...Y-you really will, Bell?"

She'd asked so nervously, not even the smallest fraction comfortable with continuing the lie that the young adventurer so sincerely believed, while Bell on the other hand, seeing and hearing the girl so anxious of what was to become of her, took a much firmer resolution in this completely out of the imagining scenario he'd found himself in. The matters of his adventuring and future decisions would be dealt later, because what mattered then and there were the feelings of the girl in front of him.

"…What am I supposed to say right now though… umm… if I remember how Lady Nyx advised me… then it would be…"

"Yes, and I'll learn to love you from the bottom of my heart," so overtly sentimental to the point of comedic, if the situation wasn't as serious as it was to the two of them, the young boy would have turned bright red and promptly want to run away and tackle the Dungeon right after saying it.

And while that same type of thought similarly crossed Lunoire's mind, the determination in his eyes, the warm and comforting grip of his hands, the gallantry in his young voice, it all momentarily made her forget that it had started as a joke, captivating her entirely.

"B-but… I-I'm… my hands… they're not fit, Bell! I've done so much… h-how can I take yours with these… A-and I'm not a dainty maiden! You'd be more fit to be with Syr… not with a girl that uses her fists to beat things-... to beat people down…"

What she'd said had bordered into being much too honest, a stark contrary to the joke it had started as, revealing truths about her that she, nor the other girls, had told their newest colleague, keeping him unaware of what their pasts had been.

But having suspecting thoughts weren't Bell's priority at that moment.

"I don't care, Lunoire. I'll take your hands even so. I'll be there for you so that you'd never have to think about who you were. And I'll happily take care of you for the rest of our lives."

Again, the young adventurer thanked the goddess of the night inside his head, for the divine beings' knowledge encompassed those of the mortal world, possessing the most sagely advice and guidance for even the strangest problems such as this.

The gods and goddesses themselves, however…

Just as the names and titles they bestow upon adventurers who'd surpassed their limits, broken free of what they were capable of at a certain level through hard work and the cost of their blood and sweat, what they had their children believe with steadfastness and admiration, the deities used it as a great source of entertainment, and Lady Nyx herself was not so much different from them.

So, purposefully letting Bell think that those words were any bit appropriate in reality had been meant for her amusement. And while that may have been so, the results were not quite as hilariously expected, because the human girl who'd been directed with those words blushed bright red and was left stammering.

"B-Bell-s-san!"

"Bell-san? But I thought we…?"

The white-haired boy's thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a few quick knocks on the door and the reappearance of two cat girls.

"Fufu~ We're back, nya!"

"Sorry it took a while, Mama Mia got a little angry at us, nya."

What greeted the feline waitresses was a flustered Lunoire who's hands were being enveloped by a certain adventurer that they'd slept on the same bed with, and before they could react in any way, the brawler did so first.

"B-Bell, it was just a joke!"

After shouting that, she pulled away from Bell, ran past the duo standing next to the door, swiping a glass of water held out by the frozen hand of Chloe without letting a single drop spill on the floor using the dexterity of a level four adventurer, and then proceeded to shut herself inside her room, leaving three absolutely baffled people behind.

"Bell… what did we miss?"

"Nya, I've never seen Lunoire look like that."

"Umm… I asked her about what happened last night and… no, it was just a joke, I guess?"

Too embarrassed to say it straight, the young boy couldn't tell them that Lunoire's mentioned jest was that the two of them had 'slept together,' and not in the same sense as his previous experiences with his goddess and the two cat girls. But fortunately enough, Chloe and Anya understood what he'd meant, their concern settling down and could somewhat presume what happened.

"Ahhh, I see, nya!"

"Looks like you turned it around against her, eh, Bell~"

"I-I was just being honest," he shrugged, not quite knowing how he was supposed to react after taking Lunoire's joke so seriously and saying those lines that Lady Nyx had taught him.

"As expected of our Bell, nya!"

"Truly, he's one that women should fear, nya~"

"C-Chloe, Anya, please…"

In consideration of what the boy had just experienced, the two of them giggled and suppressed the urge to continue teasing him about Lunoire, giving him the glass of water they'd promised.

"Oh, Bell! Mama Mia wants a word with you, so prepare yourself, nya."

The poor rabbit almost choked on the water in horror.

"Put on a shirt before you head down, nya! But if you don't, the girls won't mind, nya!" Anya added unnecessarily.

Swallowing his drink seemingly like it was unchewed food, not feeling the least bit better because of either his unique physiology or the impending despair that he was feeling, Bell put on the discarded black shirt nearby on the floor and practically whispered,

"C-can I ask why?"

"Mmm~ I'm sure you can guess why."

"…Then can you two please tell me what happened last night?"

"Uwahh, he's forgotten, nya."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Chloe said, "not after seeing him drink that much, nya."

"But he petted the two of us everywhere, nya~ it's a little annoying he doesn't remember, nya!"

"E-everywhere?"

"This… is just another joke… like Lunoire's… i-it has to be…!"

The black-haired cat girl leered at him with a fervent glaze in her eyes, and he felt his stomach drop.

"We could kindly remind him, Anya~"

"Fufu~ that sounds like a plan, nya!"

"W-wait-!"

"Let's tell Bell all about what happened last night in detail, nya~"

"Oh, c'mon, Bell, nya! Mama Mia's waiting downstairs too, nya! You'll need to know what stuff we aren't telling to Mama Mia, nya! Or else she'll think you're lying, nya!"

Impatiently grabbing him by his hands, the two of them dragged him out of the room and into the hallway, where three staff members of the pub were talking in hushed voices a few meders nearby, ones that he hadn't been able to interact with as much as he should have. Bell could certainly remember having at least spoken to them last night but when the three of them noticed him, they unexpectedly blushed red.

"Bell-kun…"

"L-let's work hard later tonight, Bell-kun…"

"Please help us in the kitchen more often too!"

"H-huh...?"

Was his confused reply, unable to say anything more as he was continually being dragged by the two cat girls to his inevitable doom, all the while they told him story after story of last night's events, increasingly making him dread meeting Mama Mia more and more. His embarrassment and shock quite apparent on his face, going from petrified pale to cherry red depending on what they were telling him.

And while on the stairs, another coworker of his, the cat girl May, was proceeding up to the second floor, but at the sight of the white-haired boy, she looked down shyly at her feet and said,

"Y-you're such a pervert, Bell-kun…"

"W-what!?"

In response to his exclaim, she ran up the stairs in a hurry, bringing a foreboding sense of despair to burden his shoulders even more so.

Once he was downstairs, several of the staff were there as well, and not one of them would meet him by the eyes after taking note that their happily welcomed new coworker had finally woken up and was brought there by Chloe and Anya. The worst part of it all, besides the terrifying smile of a dwarven woman who'd just come back to the main hall from her office, was that the kind and lovely bluish-grey-haired Syr Flova walking alongside the older woman refused to even look at him.

It was safe to say that Bell met up with Naaza on that day much later than scheduled. And when asked by the chienthrope why he was late, the poor boy could only respond with soulless eyes and a broken spirit, enough for the Supporter to forget she'd even asked. Though she promised herself to help him forget whatever made him like so as they walked down the street in the direction of Babel, where the two both hoped that the monsters of the Dungeon could take his mind off of anything pertaining to the evening prior and the early morning today.

---

Walking under the darkened skies of Orario, it had been some time since Bell Cranel had gone for a stroll out in the streets during night, since as far as he could recall, majority of his time once the sun had fully set was spent already inside the pub where he worked. Not quite sure when he was supposed to arrive at Babel's entrance, the white-haired boy took the time to appreciate the sights of the city's nightlife while he made his way to where, hopefully, Filvis Challia was waiting.

Dressed in his usual adventuring attire, unsure where he would even be going once meeting up with Filvis, with only his inverted coat being the differing element from what he was commonly seen in. Bell had the hood of his garment pulled over his head, not wanting to wear his mask around just yet. He'd been given some curious glances before he had left the Hostess of Fertility, thus he relented on having it on so that he didn't seem more suspicious.

Though Mama Mia was highly inquisitive of what his intentions were to have taken a rare leave of absence unrelated to matters of his Familia, she'd been generous enough to accept his wish, only under the promise that he makes up the work that he'd left this night for some other day, to pile onto the extra debt of work he incurred after the events of last night. What the dwarven woman had in mind, the little adventurer couldn't guess, and that was the most worrisome part of that the entire discussion.

Even now, he still wondered why she had let him go out at night under the excuse of him wanting to get some extra exercise done in the Dungeon, for it was hardly a good reason, and even the boy who'd thought of that terribly thought up justification wouldn't have let himself out if he was the one to hear it from another person. Which begged the question, what was the reason behind the proprietress' allowing him to skip out on his shift as a waiter?

"Mama Mia couldn't have seen through me, right? I mean… it might be obvious I'm going out to meet someone but… what does she think I'm going to do?"

If it was anything related to this morning or last night, the poor boy didn't want to think about it.

For the betterment of his peace of mind, Bell waved away the thought for now, what was important was that he would be going out to meet Filvis once more since that time where he'd been given the rather nifty coat he was wearing. The elf hadn't been the one to set this meeting, it was he who had set it up at a whim under the circumstance of being asked about a disguise.

And so, Bell thought to himself about what Filvis could've had in mind for their little excursion into the night, with the most likely idea being that he was to have introductions with the other Creatures that she and Dionysus had mentioned.

Supposedly, they were somewhere deep inside the Dungeon, according to what the god and elf told him, doing nothing more than consuming the magic stones of deep-level monsters, and maybe continuing their search for what turned them into Creatures. Which made Bell wonder how they even lived under such dangerous settings as, after all, trips from the surface to the deep levels could take several days, plus there was the time needed for preparations to account.

That had to mean several things; that one, the Creatures down below either stayed down there for who knows who long until they felt like coming back up, or they never chose to leave in the first place. Another thing to note was that if either of those were the case, just how strong and experienced could they have been to survive while powerful monsters surrounded them at practically all times.

"Maybe they stay in the eighteenth floor? Or in those other safety locations Eina-san mentioned… but then… how would Filvis even take me to them in the first place?"

Pondering further about that train of thought, it didn't take long before the little rabbit found himself nearing the tower of Babel, and sensing a familiar feeling of a pair of eyes staring at him from somewhere, it would seem that his fellow Creature was already there before he'd even arrived.

"Cranel-san."

"W-whoa!"

Apparently, she was much closer than he'd expected, making the poor rabbit jump in surprise.

"F-Filvis-san! Where did you come from?"

"Your mask, show it to me."

Ignoring his question, the elf wasted no time in hurrying the boy for what she had in mind.

"It's right here," slipping his bag off, Bell dug a hand inside and took out his bizarre rabbit skull of a mask, making Filvis raise an eyebrow at the eerie, yet fitting for multiple reasons, design of the accessory. It was absolutely convenient for the type of underground, secret societal nature of their operations, and the white-haired boy would blend seamlessly with the other sacrificial masked pawns of her deity.

"Quite similar to Olivas Act's even… but for what reason could that goddess, Lady Nyx, give this – no, why had she had chosen Bell Cranel in the first place?"

"Come and follow," she said, taking one last look at the hooded boy and the item that he held before walking past him, moving in the direction of Orario's famed tower.

"W-where are we going?"

"To the Dungeon, where else."

"Are we going to meet… those others like us?"

"Yes, we only have so little time left before they begin proceeding."

"Proceeding?"

"That, I would much rather you be unaware of, but what you can know is only that they will be unable to meet you for the foreseeable future if you aren't able to make it there on time."

"A-alright then…"

Much as he would like to pry just any bit of information, Bell knew how bad he was at keeping secrets for long, and instead placed his trust in the adventurer walking beside him, hoping that one day he could become a true member of this somewhat tenuous looking alliance of Creatures.

"At least that answers some of my questions… but still… there's so much going on that I've got no clues about."

Striking up a quiet conversation with the elf, as they walked amongst dozens of adventurers who'd just gotten out of the Dungeon in the evening, Bell tried his hand at seeing what Filvis would consider as reasonable to answer.

"Filvis-san, you mentioned that… those guys… were at the deep-floors, right? So… how are we going to get there anyway?"

"…They were asked to come somewhere more convenient for us, I will take you to someone who will guide you there."

"Y-you're not going with me? And that someone... they're one of us too?"

He didn't receive an answer.

"For my meeting, what should I say? Do I tell them my name or...? Is there something I should tell them, or show my," shutting his mouth before he said anything extremely important, "…exchange item…? For proof, I mean! That, you know, I'm one of them…"

"You will keep silent, preferably from now until you return; your guide will talk for you."

Taking the dark-haired elf's advice, Bell decided to stop asking her anymore questions, but without focusing his attention on Filvis, the little adventurer began noticing that there were several eyes on them as they reached the entrance of Babel.

Worried if he had said anything to make people who overheard his questions start suspecting them of something, it didn't take long for him to see that they weren't looking at him because they mistrusted the two of them, but because he was specifically the sole person not avoiding the elf garbed in white. The somewhat tide of adventurers coming out from the Dungeon had seemingly parted or distanced themselves from getting near the path Filvis was taking.

"Why are they looking at her like that? Is this because of what was saying? She's cursed?"

Bell had been walking just a few steps behind his companion, able to barely peek just below his black hood and get a glance at the repulsed expressions most of the adventurers coming their way had on their faces before making an obvious show of drawing away because of the elf. The confused and unknowing adventurers trailing after would follow the herd, not knowing why the stranger was being treated like a plague.

It didn't take long before the kind-hearted boy had gotten tired of this treatment towards one of his friends, going out of his way to stride right next to the dark-haired girl, who looked at him with a curious look in her eye, to which he responded with a lovingly sweet smile. Truly it must've been a sight to behold for those aware of who the Banshee was, as they dumbfoundedly witnessed that same infamous adventurer legitimately blush and look away from the person beside her, flustered like a pure maiden.

There had been a certain rumor going around in Rivera, down in the eighteenth floor, regarding the Banshee, when she was spotted for multiple times looking very much unlike the cold-hearted specter that brought misfortune and death to those around her, but it was almost too unthinkable to believe.

What that rumor was, neither the elf, nor the boy beside her, had the slightest notion that it even existed, and none of the adventurers they passed by would certainly care to enlighten them. But thankfully, they managed to get away from their befuddled gazes once the two took the steps going down to the first floor of the Dungeon.

Unlike every morning to afternoon, the first floor had now been mostly devoid of adventurers, gone were the level ones trying to make a living by hunting down goblins and kobolds, and the rare few people still to be found there were either the shady types, perhaps the odd level one still desperately working, or tired adventurers coming from the middle-floors. Either way, it looked to Bell as if it was now a little safe to resume asking questions.

"Umm… Filvis-san."

"I distinctly remember telling you just now to be quiet."

"N-no, this isn't about meeting those guys. It's about what you said yesterday, about how you became… what we are, and how you were the only one to survive."

The dark-haired elf sighed, "And?"

"Is that why you- or, why everyone is calling you cursed? Because you hadn't been killed like the rest of your Familia?"

She halted in place, making Bell move past her, who turned around in surprise to face Filvis.

"When I returned, it took time for me to continue with adventuring. Getting used to this body… recovering from the horrors that I saw… wanting to die every second of it all… but could not, not while Dionysus-sama was there for me."

Bell didn't know how to respond, unsettled by the pain he heard in the elf's voice, not able to imagine what it would have been if Lady Nyx hadn't been there the morning after she turned him into a Creature. Even now, the faint haze inside his head that told him to block away the perturbation of no longer being a human, worked to unconsciously make him unaware of realizing how nauseating it was to have an essentially monster-like body.

And that had only been his attempt at trying to understand that one aspect of the dark-haired girl's anguish, he'd never experienced such an event as to lose your entire Familia and be left the only one alive, the grief of being left completely alone deep down in the Dungeon.

Filvis closed her eyes for only a second, before looking deep into the boy's own similarly colored pair, seeing the concern they held for her, and she resumed walking to avoid them.

"With Dionysus-sama's help, we worked to regain the strength of his Familia, and successfully received applications from fresh new adventurers. But every one of them… if I came along... they would perish in the Dungeon. Whoever I accompanied... it did not matter if they were from my Familia, they all lost their lives."

She couldn't see what expression the little adventurer walking beside her was making, no doubt by his slowing footsteps, he was surely frightened of her now. Anyone would be, after all, to be told of such a tragic story, and knowing that the very same thing could happen to them, any sane person would want to avoid the slightest chance of demise.

"Of course, in the business of adventuring, where partying and partnerships are essential past the eighteenth floor, that type of word spreads quickly. And I am sure you can guess how and why I am treated like a curse… a banshee, if you will. A herald of death."

Stopping once more, Filvis turned around, expecting the terror-filled eyes of the person who'd arrogantly claimed to be prove her wrong, wanting to hear from his mouth that she indeed was an unclean elf, not even fit to touch any of her kind. And then, he would forget that nonsense of trying to befriend her, trying to make her see why she was beautiful in his eyes.

And yet, she looked behind her and saw that there was no fear, no apprehension from being so close to the elf, not even a hint of disturbance of the cursed adventurer that might as well harbingered his fate. Instead, they held pain, empathy, and a want to comfort her.

"It… must've been lonely."

"D-didn't you hear me? I am a disgrace that could not even die with her Familia, a monster that taints the elven blood, every one that tried to get close to me after have died. I am… doing them all a good by staying away, a lesson you should learn as well, Cranel-san."

"No, I won't leave you, Filvis-san."

"You are being a fool, Cranel-san, one with a death wish," these attempts, whatever reason they were for, earning her courtship, blind kindness, it was beginning to earn her ire.

"You're not a disgrace, we aren't monsters, and I swear that you aren't the reason why those around you die..."

"Spouting all of that will not change my mind, not what you have said before, now what you have said now, and they never will."

"I didn't forget my promise, Filvis-san," he reminded her.

"And do you have any idea how to fulfill it, Cranel-san? Do you not fear the possibility of an early death?" She stepped closer to him, raising up a gloved hand and sharply digging a finger into the middle of his damaged chest armor, where his magic stone should be under, "Misfortune, mistakes, irregulars, even simple accidents, you're far more vulnerable than you think you are."

For the slightest second, she saw could see it, how her words had reminded him of their particular weakness, and the elf wanted to see those roots of trepidation crumble him down.

"I… I'll show you, one step at a time, I won't stop finding reasons that will show you're wrong."

"Even if you do not know how?"

"I may not know right now… but someday, I'll figure it out, because I'll be with you."

"And you will risk dying for it?"

"Filvis-san," Bell threw all caution into the wind, not afraid that it could end with him being struck unconscious once again for daring to do it, as he tentatively took the elf's hand still on his chest into his own, and before she could hit him, said, "I won't ever leave your side, even if it could kill me, that's what my grandfather would tell me if I want to be a hero."

She looked away, and he couldn't see what kind of expression she was making there in front of him, the young boy could only hope that Filvis not immediately smacking his hand and entire body away from her meant that he was at least getting somewhere with his words.

"Why… why do you go so far for me… a shameful excuse of an adventurer… of an elf… is it just so that you can feel like a storybook knight saving a damsel?"

Unlike most of what he had said prior to his answer, there were no doubts in his voice, since he perfectly knew the reason behind his resolve,

"Because I don't want to see you look so lonely. I want to see you smile," the little rabbit blushed in embarrassment, hearing his words echo into the tunnels of the Dungeon, "I want to keep seeing you have a beautiful smile! And I want to be there to see it by your side!"

They stayed in that position for what seemed like an hour, Bell still holding onto her hand with what he hoped was a warm and comforting grip, ignoring that they were both wearing gloves, but eventually he felt Filvis try to retract away from him, and he reluctantly relented. The elf still faced away from him, black hair hiding a potentially angry scowl, or melancholic gaze.

What he hadn't expected was for the girl to gently laugh, like the sound of an enchanting fairy, using the hand that he hadn't taken to try and cover her giggling.

"F-Filvis-san! I-I was being serious! Don't just laugh!"

"I apologize, Cranel-san," she said, though it didn't mean that her mirth had been stopped, as the elf returned to face his direction, revealing a faint color of pink on her cheeks, and the true gem of what his words had achieved,

"Come to think of it… I don't think I've ever seen Filvis-san smile..."

Noticing him look fixatedly at her, she sked, "Why do you look so surprised?"

"W-well… you really do have a beautiful smile…"

Startling the dark-haired elf and making her instantly go back to facing the exact opposite of where he was, at least in that way he'd successfully stopped her from laughing away at his promise, but in its place instead was an awkward, suffocating silence.

"W-we've wasted enough time… your guide might be getting impatient…"

"R-right! Lead the way, Filvis-san!"

"N-no, not yet, your mask, I need to see you put it on first."

The boy let out an exclaim, reminded of why he'd waited to be somewhere more discrete before donning the mask, and he hesitated for a second once he had them on hand and ready to be worn, but of course, he shook his head of the thoughts that he would look incredibly more alike to a rabbit and put it in place, removing his hood to give Filvis a better look.

Almost immediately, as soon as his hands left the mask on his face, Bell felt two light things on top his head, and if he thought about making them move like a new set of arms, the fluffy ears would react accordingly to how he wanted them to. Glad that the mask could hide how embarrassed he was, the young boy waited for his companion looking at him to say something.

"They're white, just like your hair."

"Ah, I guess that makes sense…"

"You look… cute."

"T-thanks!"

"Or at least, you would be if I was not looking at a Hume Bunny wearing a rabbit skull."

"Oh… then I look…?"

"Unsettling."

"I… see…"

"Do not fret, this makes everything easier."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see, now, I need you to wear this."

Reaching insider her frilly white coat, Filvis took out a long strip of cloth and held it out for the boy to take, who confusedly did and tilted his head in question.

"Umm… what is this, Filvis-san?"

"A blindfold."

"And… you want me to put it on? Why?"

"We will be making use of a hidden passageway, I cannot afford to let you know how to reach it, even if Dionysus-sama willingly or accidentally overlooked the matter."

"W-well, I guess I can't fault you for it… but still…"

"I still have my doubts about you, Cranel-san. Still… I… do hope that…"

"Hope that… what?"

"N-no," he saw the elf shake her head, "we should not waste any more time, just do as I say."

Deciding to trust Filvis, the young adventurer did as he was told, wrapping the opaque cloth over the eye sockets of the skull mask and tying it tightly behind his head. And for good measure, putting his hood back up over him. making sure that his newly made rabbit ears poked out from the front of his hood so that his 'humanness' was hidden.

"This feels so strange… both the secrecy and these ears," pausing his thoughts so that he could rub the tips of the magic appendage between his fingers, eliciting a strange feeling that he couldn't understand to run through his body, "and how am I even going to walk around the Dungeon like this? It's just goblins and Kobolds but still, I haven't done anything like fighting while blind!"

"U-umm, Filvis-san, are you still there?"

"Where else would I be?"

"Maybe you could've started walking already, I-I don't know! I really don't want to feel alone while I'm like this!"

"Then what do you suggest I do?"

"C-can we keep talking then? Just so I know that you're beside me?"

"I would rather not… but… I may have an idea…"

"Anything would help! A bonus if it'll help prevent me from tripping everywhere," he joked.

"Then hold up your left hand in front of you…"

Doing as he was told, the confused rabbit waited and then asked, "Alright? Now what?"

Waiting for whatever it was that his fellow Creature had in mind, the last thing Bell expected was for a slender hand to wrap over his own, turning the boy into a sputtering mess.

"F-Filvis-san!? I-is that you!?"

"…Silence, Bell Cranel. You will swear never speak of this again, am I clear?"

"But… don't elves…?

"If you do not shut your mouth, I will expect you to follow me with only the sound of my footsteps."

"U-understood!"

Not wanting to provoke or perhaps fluster the often cold and unfeeling elf who was offering the odd, yet highly welcomed, warm gesture of guiding him through the relatively not quite dangerous first floor of the Dungeon. After promptly silencing himself, and leaving the world around him in an unsettling silence only sometimes broken by the far away echoes of roaming monsters, Bell was left to his thoughts as he began walking towards where Filvis gently pulled him.

"Even through my gloves… Filvis-san's hand still feels so soft and warm…"

Blushing at the inevitable observation he was bound to make with only having the elf's gloved hand to really sense asides from the Dungeon floor he was walking on, the little adventurer unconsciously wrapped his own hand around hers, not enough to firmly hold on but just enough for the dark-haired girl to notice and barely suppress herself from making a yelp of sound.

Truly, if there were anyone lucky enough to catch a sight of the two now, it would be hard to come up with any other conclusion other than, 'silly adventurer couple up to no good late at night in the Dungeon.' Though certainly, it was the boy of the pair that would make anyone have such insinuations with how he wore a blindfold of all accessories, seemingly like a pervert.

However, that type of thought would never come to any passing adventurer's mind, because for that to be the case, there had to have been at least one person to see the two traipsing in the cavernous tunnels while holding onto each other's hands like young lovers. But, the direction of where the Creatures were traveling would guarantee that absolutely nobody, not even a sole curious busybody, would come across them, as the elven adventurer trekkedpathways that not even the numerous level one's of the city frequented, all with clearly memorized steps before she stopped at what may have looked like a dead end.

"Do not take off the blindfold, Cranel-san. No matter what you will hear, you will not make any attempt to try and see what is happening, or else I shall be forced to knock you unconscious."

"I-I promise I won't," was the rabbit's nervous reply, very much anxious and unsure of what his acquaintance was preparing for him, but at the same time, also wanting to have trust in Filvis for what was to come next. Nonetheless, the doubts inside his head, of which he did not want to have, about this whole scenario continued to gnaw at the back of his mind.

And all of a sudden, the sound of earth splitting apart, as if the walls or the floor of the Dungeon had opened up an entire new pathway to travel through, rumbled around Bell, who began panicking at what the unknown possible danger that was right in front him could be.

"A mere passageway, Cranel-san. Are you not an adventurer? Don't let this frighten you now."

"R-right…"

"Eina-san never said anything about the Dungeon having secret rooms! Or is this some sort of hidden sanctuary for Creatures? But then, if that's the case, wouldn't the Dungeon treat this as being damaged and reconstruct itself to remove it?"

"Come," once the tremors had halted, Filvis pulled at Bell's hand, entering the all of a sudden new opening in what had formerly been a dead-end corner of the current floor that they were on. Taking a cautionary step forward, wary of putting a foot forward and falling off into a hole to the floor below, the ground beneath Bell had not been the expected Dungeon earth.

Rather than that,

"Is this… the floor of a building…?"

Tapping what was beneath him with the tip of his boots, the little adventurer could only describe it as almost as if it were manmade, not rough ground or rocky surface, it was like stepping on the pavement of Orario's streets. It might have even fooled Bell into thinking that he was outside of the Dungeon, but the chilly wind of the night did not come to grace him, and what still surrounded him was the same atmosphere of being in the dark underground.

"Welcome, Cranel-san, to Knossos."

"W-where?"

"That question could have you abducted, Cranel-san. Do be careful of making any mention of this, the wrong types of adventurers will surely not take you very kindly for remarking the name."

"I-is this another of those secrets I'm not supposed to know?"

"Certainly you can answer that yourself."

"Does the Guild know about… Knossos…?"

"Perhaps. They hide quite a lot about the happenings of Orario, and so it would not surprise me if they are aware of it. Though I would refrain from asking your advisor, Cranel-san."

"W-why?"

"It would not only be you in danger if you start making others curious, to put it shortly."

"T-this all sounds… very dangerous… I don't think I should be anywhere here… or know about any of this at all…"

"Dionysus-sama and I have our suspects but… that is currently none of your concern, Cranel-san. What you only need to know is that we discovered it through various contacts."

"And… they're not the type to work with the Guild, I'm guessing?"

"You may have your assumptions, but I am not keen to answer nor confirm them, Cranel-san."

"Filvis-san…"

"To reside in Orario and become an adventurer, do not forget what sort of life you travelled here for. The matter of Knossos and the Creatures, they are beyond you, Cranel-san. Number the steps you take, and proceed with measure. There will come a day where you will find satisfaction, but until then, you need only trust in Dionysus-sama and I."

"There's just... so much…"

"Do you trust me, Cranel-san?"

Bell hesitated, and Filvis was not unaware of it. It was anticipated but, to the elf, it brought a strange melancholy inside of her before it was buried to the back of her consciousness.

"…Yes. I do."

"Then allow us to keep some things private, and reassure yourself in what we want to fulfill."

"I understand, Filvis-san."

"Thank you, Cranel-san."

"But…"

"Yes?"

"I… want to get closer with you."

"W-what does that have to pertain with what I have said!?"

"E-eh? Well, you know…"

"No, I do not."

"When that day comes, when Filvis-san and Lord Dionysus will trust in me as well, I hope that the two of us, we'll already be…"

Not knowing quite how to put it, somewhat choked between saying 'trusted friend' and 'a relation that was past the realm of friendship,' the words of the young boy died down to a silent halt, hoping that whatever Filvis interpreted at the end of what he said would speak for himself.

"O-once again, Cranel-san, you and your philandering words!"

It was up to this point that the two came to be aware of their still continued hand holding, and upon realizing that, the dark-haired elf yanked herself away from the similarly flustered boy and stepped back a few steps as if the young adventurer had the plague. For a minute or two, the uncomfortable silence between the pair of Creatures rendered them unable to bring up a conversation, though reminding herself of why she was in Knossos in the first place with Bell, Filvis calmed herself and regained her usual disposition to move the discourse forward.

"Before I leave you with… your guide. I must advise you over a couple important notes that you must take heed to, and if you are to fail in considering these, the risk of death is terribly high. Even I will not be able to save you from the other Creatures."

A definite lie, yet it was the truth only in the circumstance that she was separated in half as she was now, while in any other occasion, ripping Revis and Olivas Act apart would not be so trifling whatsoever if Dionysus gave the order for the elf to return whole once again and cull the two for being past usefulness.

Bell, however, did not need to know of that glaring weakness of hers.

"W-why exactly should I be meeting them if they'll be so quick to kill me?"

"It is what Dionysus-sama wills, and as such, you, Cranel-san, must abide by it if you wish to ally with us. For our objective is for the day where we become recognized as not enemies of the gods, and you are the key to that future. Do not disappoint Dionysus-sama."

"I… I understand. Please, tell me what I should know before meeting the other Creatures."

As if reaffirmed by the reminder of the fabricated purpose of her god, the little adventurer steeled himself, adopting how he normally behaved while in battle with monsters. This was not only for his guaranteed acceptance as an anomalous inhuman, but it was for Filvis and whoever it was that he would be meeting, and that was what his grandfather had told Bell of heroes, of how they fought for others, save the damsel or damsels, protect their smiles.

"Good. Then, let us start with your name."

"Eh?"

"We evidently cannot have you introducing your name around without increasing the possibility of your exposure. To work with us, dealing with the underground, this Hume Bunny wearing the skull of his brethren cannot be the level one adventurer Bell Cranel. I would rather you not invite us anymore trouble and simply accept, Cranel-san."

"A-alright, if you say so… then, how should I refer to myself while I look like this?"

"Hmm, allow me a second to decide…"

"Enyo… Ein… perhaps the name of a god or goddess as an alias would be… but then… this should not be such a difficult arrangement. No, it is my own fault for not calling this to Dionysus-sama's attention."

Briefly taking a glance at the still blindfolded boy shuffling his feet ever so slightly over the uncomfortably of the silence, as well as the possible dangers of being blind in the Dungeon.

"If it's a rabbit…"

"Ēostre," feeling the name on her tongue, the elf nodded to herself, and got the boy's attention.

"The northern goddess?"

"You are familiar with her?"

Bearing no relation to the pantheon that his goddess Freya belonged to, Bell faintly recognized the name spoken by his dark-haired companion, and of course, if it was the name of a goddess, then his grandfather knew quite a number of them, all told to the clueless grandson whom the aged man wanted to conquer them in his stead. That matter aside, Ēostre hailed from the northern lands in Heaven, a goddess of fertility and one who's symbol was that of a rabbit, at least that much he remembered from his grandfather's words, but why choose the name of a divine being as an alias?

"It would be quite rude to them, wouldn't it? And I'm not even sure if Lady Ēostre is here in the mortal world, or what if she is and living here in Orario with a Familia? I wouldn't want to give them any trouble by using her name."

And in that same issue,

"…Why is it a goddess' name? Are there no male deities with a relation to rabbits!? And why does Filvis-san feel the need to focus so much on how my appearance… I know I look like one but there's nothing there that I want to be proud about!"

Shaking his head of those thoughts, Bell answered, "Only a little, my grandfather told me much about lots of gods and goddesses… well, mostly goddesses…"

"That would certainly explain your womanizing behavior, if it was your caretaker who is to blame."

Opening his mouth to protest, the white-haired boy, however, could not make out any argument against the elf, because how was he supposed to deny that it had been the fault of his grandfather for why he wanted, or rather, needed to seek out a harem of cute girls?

"I thought so."

Bell chose to keep silent even after that.

"We have not much time left to be discussing this, and so, if you have any complaints, Ēostre-san, please direct them to me on our next meeting."

"…But why the name of a deity?"

"You will know once you meet your guide, and perhaps when you meet their master, though I doubt you will meet them."

"Their master?"

"Again, we have no time for this conversation, and no, you will not bother your guide with any questions, they are there only to take you and introduce you to the other Creatures."

"Do you trust this guide that much, Filvis-san?"

She was silent for a few seconds before despondently answering,

"…How can I not?"

"Huh?"

"No matter, but what does, is for you to never speak up if you are ever called on. Simply tell the guide your name and they will do the rest. Never show weakness to the other Creatures, or they may choose to devour your magic stone to further themselves. It would not be ideal to lose such a unique Creature that has gained Dionysus-sama's interest."

"I-I understand!"

"Yes, I rather hope you do. Asides from that, do make sure that your mask remains on you, and once again, keep your mouth shut if you do not want to gain any ill-wanted interest. The other Creatures are not in many ways 'good' people, do not provoke them with that personality of yours. Their loyalty is not to Dionysus-sama, and not even to their master. It is to the monster that gifted them their magic stone."

"W-what!? That's-!?"

"Apologies, Ēostre-san, for keeping that information away from you."

"B-but… they're…"

"It cannot be helped. They mistake it to be a Spirit, their savior that prevented them from falling to death in the Dungeon, so they have turned their backs on their gods and Orario, and what they seek now is that monster."

"I… I don't… understand… but, is this why an 'alliance' exists between Lord Dionysus and those Creatures? Both parties want to find that monster?"

"It is as you say, though the matter of intention is different."

"What would they want to do next…? After finding the monster, I mean," Bell worriedly asked.

"That, I am not sure. There is little trust held between each of us, and they have kept the divulsion of their objective away from me, but perhaps I can count on you in that regard?"

"I'll try but…"

"You need only be conscious of how the meeting proceeds; the worries of this continued partnership can come after."

"Alright. I'll do my best."

"…I do not expect much, but if the least you can do is stay silent, then that would be satisfactory, Ēostre-san."

"W-well, is there anything else I should know?"

Within the brief few minutes of Filvis informing the white-haired boy of what other remarks he would need to keep in mind, the faint sound of advancing footsteps echoing across the uncanny walls of wherever Bell found himself in had drawn the attention the two having a peculiar conversation about a fanatical man and a woman obsessed with a certain character from long ago who had an affinity for wind.

Cutting what she had been saying to a halt, Filvis notified, "Your guide has arrived, Ēostre-san, and so I shall take my leave. I wish for your safe return, and await out next meeting soon."

Without wasting a moment, the warmth that had been right next to him disappeared, and in its place was a cold, lonesome dread. It had not even been a short while since his guide had come and yet the elder Creature he'd been relying on was now probably out of his reach.

"I didn't even get to say goodbye… and I thought Filvis-san trusted this person? Not even a greeting between them? Should I already be worried for my safety?"

Moving his head to where the footsteps had stopped, the adventurer could certainly feel a presence of some sort just a short distance from him, and not being able to see what the figure looked like, Bell grew slightly more anxious of his situation.

However,

Taking a deep breath, and spending a second to calm his nerves, Bell straightened his posture to hopefully not appear as an amateur adventurer, or Creature, and opened his mouth to resolutely speak with whomever stood unseen to him.

"I am Ēostre, a Creature who arrived only a short few weeks ago. Please, I am in your care."

A tense number of seconds in silence passed, the feeling of cold sweat drip slightly down inside his mask, the white-haired boy's breath stopping in wait for what was to come next.

"You may call me Ein," said the mysterious presence, their voice as if coming from multiple people at once, and for a split second, Bell thought that he might have been speaking to more than one person. As for whether they were a man or a woman, with so many different tones of speaking, it was practically impossible to identify the identity of his guide.

"And I will be meeting the other Creatures, correct?"

No response, instead, the sound of a footstep being taken, and then another. When the sound proceeded to become softer and softer did Bell realize that he needed to follow, and unsure of whether or not he was allowed to take off his blindfold, the little adventurer attempted to follow his guide while blind. Rather fortunately, this particular part of the Dungeon's floor was entirely smooth and flat, a far cry from the earthen dirt of the floors Bell had been venturing on.

"I wonder where I am? Where… no – what is Knossos?"

---

How long they had been walking, Bell couldn't tell, and even if he could've been able to see, he didn't have any way to tell what amount of distance he was covering in what felt like a labyrinthian maze of sorts with how often he needed to turn corners and go down steps to lower floors. Strangely enough, the unseen presence offering him guidance also obligated themselves to alert him whenever there was a need to proceed down a staircase, since the white-haired adventurer assumed he would be getting no such comforts.

"Maybe they don't want to waste any more time?"

Rather, what was a more pressing question were the number of flights he had taken, going much deeper into Knossos than he would have wanted or been comfortable with. And had the adventurer thought to count from the start just how many floors they would be going down, he would have felt more assured in that if Knossos was parallel to the Dungeon, then they were currently twice or thrice deeper underground than his previous jaunt with Naaza this morning.

Eventually they would come to a stop, though inwardly, with how seemingly hours of silent walking had passed, Bell worried he would be going back to the Hostess of Fertility past their operating hours, and not quite looking forward to his first night sleeping in the garden at the back of the building. That is, if he would be returning at all in the first place, as the rabbit once again hears the anomalous phenomenon of a passageway into the Dungeon being opened.

Stepping out of Knossos, the boy briefly made contact with the walls of the foreign labyrinth in an accidental bump with his shoulder. Taking a second to feel it with his hand, it displayed similar characteristics with the floor, completely smooth and structured, like it really had been manmade, constructed with much care and dedication.

Feeling the ground beneath him return to being earthen Dungeon floor, as well as the faint sound of monsters he was unfamiliar with echo from far away, perhaps in reaction to the trembling caused by the opening of the passageway. The distinct lack of any evidence of monsters while travelling so far made for another peculiar difference between Knossos and the Dungeon.

However, it was safe to say that he was once again somewhere in the cavernous maze, not that it made the adventurer feel any better. Where within it, Bell wasn't sure, though the air was much moister than he remembered it being, at least in comparison to the upper floors. So, he made the assumption that he was at least in the middle floors, where level one adventurers had absolutely no right to be in unless they were wanting to have themselves killed.

"Take off the blindfold," his guide suddenly said, to which Bell made no complaint with, hurriedly doing what he was requested of.

The dim lights of the Dungeon made for a pleasant sight, not overtly blinding was a kindness on his eyes, but the hard bedrock he found himself surrounded in was more than enough to completely suppress any feeling of relief that might have helped to calm down his nerves. Much unlike the first to fifth floors where he had two weeks of experience venturing in, the smooth and simple maze he'd been somewhat used to had become more complex, with the rough and rocky terrain complimenting the new characteristic of the environment.

"On what floor are we, Ein-san?"

To which their response was a slow and steady walk towards a tunnel out of the room they had just entered. Knowing better than to insist on getting Ein to answer his question, Bell kept silent and followed the guide that he could now describe in appearance. Not particularly tall, almost just a bit taller than him, a long purple robe that hid their entire body, and no sign of any weapon on their person, all in all, not as intimidating as he feared them to be.

Until they turned around, and displayed a mask as eerie as the rabbit skull that he wore.

"...I recognize this person, don't I? I'm sure I've… wait! While I was on that frenzy… before I completely lost myself, I remember seeing that mask somewhere! In that room full of monsters… that had to have been Ein… but what was Ein doing… I can't recall…"

Ein looked at the white-haired boy in black for what felt like longer than it should have been, and then turned away, letting Bell exhale the breath he'd unconsciously held in while being directed with such an uncanny gaze.

"And… that feeling of being looked at… it's familiar… but it doesn't feel like Freya-sama's. It isn't the first time this person has given me that stare… though it does feel a lot more menacing… maybe I'm just imagining it?"

Bell couldn't place where or when it was that he'd felt that familiar sensation of being pierced by this particular stranger's eyes, and yet he couldn't get his mind out of it, that Ein gave off the feeling of someone he knew, but not being able to really pin down any suspects. Just thinking about how many people had at least once looked at him for much too long to be comfortable, there was a decent list the white-haired boy could make.

And as he spent their time walking trying to uncover the person behind the mask, they had eventually reached a far corner somewhere in that floor of the Dungeon, and within that room were two figures. One was masked in a similarly looking accessory as the young adventurer, the difference being the type of animal their skulls had come from, dressed in a full white battle suit with their long white hair resting just above his shoulders. The other was a red-haired woman, attractive in an effortlessly seductive manner with the showy attire she wore, but the more prevalent atmosphere around the woman was that of a highly dangerous individual.

No,

"B-both of them… they're both incredibly… terrifying…"

They turned their attention to the purple robed presence and then onto the boy standing beside them, and instantly, Bell felt a seemingly magnified menacing leer being focused on him, enough to almost send him to the ground clutching at himself against the sheer impending doom upon his life.

"Ēostre, these are your fellow Creatures. Revis, Olivas Act, this is to be Enyo's newest tool. Need I tell you two not to break him?"

The woman disinterestedly looked away, sending a massive relief to the young adventurer, but the man remained fixated on the Hume Bunny before him.

"You tell us that we were to meet another Creature and you present this pathetic rabbit? To think that 'she' would give 'her' blessing to such an insignificant weakling, how magnanimously generous of 'her!' Truly, 'her' kindness knows no bounds!"

"She? W-who is 'she?' Is he talking about the monster that gave him his magic stone?"

Olivas Act grinned underneath his mask, "And this Ēostre would even imitate the mask I wear! Speak, Ēostre! Tell me, how did it feel to be saved from death by 'her' power!?"

Bell couldn't stop his hands from shaking, not trusting himself to say anything to the fanatical man that wouldn't come out in frightened stammering, and with how terrible his lying was, it would be highly possible that his fabricated words would only anger the man and increase possibility of being ripped apart with ease by the muscular Creature.

"Olivas Act, settle yourself."

"Tsk, fine then. If not with words, then…"

"Forget it, we don't need you crushing Ein's new pet," were the spoken words of the red-haired woman, who surprisingly came to his rescue at the sound of the man's, and if Ein's reprimand was any indication as to which of the two was who, Olivas Acts' clear threat.

"Oh? And what do you have in mind?"

Revis, the only other person there that most likely held the other name called out earlier by Ein, stood up turned her back on those present, and though Bell couldn't see what she had done, the resounding noise of a loud whistle rang out from where she stood.

Rumbling earth, and it didn't seem that what Revis was attempting to do had any relation to opening a passageway there in the relatively open room. No, from what it sounded like, there was something tunneling underground, and what direction it was traveling towards,

Bursting out of the ground, a strange looking monster revealed itself, one that Bell had never encountered, nor could even place what type of monster it was from quickly thinking back to the various ones his advisor had previously forced him to learn. Instead of a beast, it much more resembled a plant, almost like a flower animated with consciousness, and from how hostile it appeared, it was clearly there to try and kill them.

"W-what is that!?"

"This, is a Viola," she answered his unvoiced question, astounding the white-haired boy who saw her approach the abnormal monster without a care for her safety and even laid a hand upon it as if it were a pet, "a paltry test for your Creature, Ein. If he falls, I devour his magic stone. If not, I suppose we let him live."

"Hmm? And who decided those affairs, Revis?"

"Will I have to beat you down for it, fool?"

Narrowing her eyes at the man who'd questioned her forced handling of the matter.

"Hmph, fine, no matter. 'Her' blessing will prove victorious in this farce regardless."

Seeing the Viola not strike the two Creatures down so comfortably close to it, Bell felt a shiver crawl up his back, suddenly finding himself faced off against something that looked far from being surmountable for a novice adventurer like him. And judging from how lackadaisical they were treating it, the young boy could only wonder just how strong these two were, Revis and Olivas Act. Or how many they commanded, if Revis had been the one to summon it there.

Taking a glance at Ein, despite telling Olivas Act not to attack him, they didn't particularly want to intervene in this matter, which could only mean that the poor adventurer was now left to his own devices as he took his shaking hands to unsheathe the daggers he had with him and took a stance where he could easily dash out of the way.

And then,

"The Viola are attracted to magic, rabbit. Like your magic stone."

"Huh?"

"Now, kill," commanded Revis.

Faster than he could even see it begin moving, it had already covered half the distance between them, and Bell for the life of him threw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding the devastating onslaught of a charge unleashed by the Viola. Ripping through the ground it treaded on, it turned around without any hesitation and relaunched itself at the white-haired prey in its sight.

Left without any time to initiate a counterattack, the agile rabbit successfully evaded once again another assault that would have likely made him meet his end, but he was in no stable position to continue doing so. The Viola had stopped itself even quicker than before, and the distance between the two were mere meders apart, thus it opted to spin itself around, aiming to blow the adventurer away with its tail, send him to a wall and leave a fatal blow if the strike wasn't enough.

Noticing what it was about to do, Bell thanked the gods and the waitresses at the pub for the fortune in meeting them and learning the basics of how to do battle, it was much faster than Chloe and the others but perhaps that was only because they held plenty back against him. Regardless, knowing the expected attack, the boy put all of his power into a forward leap, just enough for the Viola to miss hitting his legs, and allowing him to jump over the body of the monster.

Breaking into an immediate roll once he'd landed, Bell couldn't even take a second to breathe in air before forcing himself off of the ground, not even able to look behind him as the sound of a loud crash reverberated across the Dungeon floor, the Viola crushing where the adventurer had just been with the return of its tail. Roughly breathing, the white-haired boy ran to create some distance, though the approaching sound of earthen rock being torn made him aware that the Viola was already about to close what little meders of his sprinting achieved.

Once again, taking a sudden stop and throwing himself to the side, another narrow evasive maneuver granted him a couple of seconds to rest before a cycle of the Viola charging and Bell dodging had started. Scurrying from one area of the room to another, the adventurer tried every skillful escape his body had memorized in the short two weeks of fighting experience to be capable of.

Sidestepping an incoming tail strike, ducking down if the Viola expected him to leap up, which directed a sweeping attack just a little above the ground, jumping and leaping over the monster itself or over piles of scattered bedrock, Bell ran as fast his legs could enable him to, and gradually proceeding to exhaust himself against an opponent that was even faster than him. The monster would not give him a moment of rest, forcing him to perform evasions in quick successions of each other, whittling his endurance and rendering him haggard, out of breath, not once was there a chance to take a proper swing with any of his daggers.

With how unscratched it was from repeatedly fragmenting the area around it, the young adventurer highly doubted that his blade would even break skin, much less dig into its flesh, or whatever vegetative organic makeup its body was made of. He was better off using what energy he had to dodge the Viola's attacks, maybe hoping that Revis or Olivas Act would tire of seeing him cowardly flee away from the monster faster than he would tire of compelling his body to keep moving.

And after a few more quick movements, the Viola now only missing him by the slightest hairsbreadth, enough that the wind generated by its powerful strikes were affecting the properness of his landings and making his heart shudder at the near-death experiences, Bell had successfully gotten one of the three Creatures watching him to grow weary of boredom.

Though he did not make a move to end the mockery of a duel between 'her' machinations, and instead slowly approached where the masked boy in black would eventually throw himself towards in gradually last-ditch efforts of keeping himself alive. When Bell landed, he was surprised to see Olivas Act behind him, who put his hands on the smaller Creature's shoulders, and said,

"Enough. Show me what I want," before pushing with enough force to dislocate the white-haired boy's arms, sending him right into a collision course with the charging Viola.

In that moment, Bell felt the world around him turn grey, and would have almost seen his life flash before his eyes, if a certain person hadn't jumped into mind at that moment. Remembering her, the white-haired boy grit his teeth and pushed forward seemingly suicidally.

On Olivas Act's accustomed sardonic smile, one side of it lifted up into a smirk as he observed the boy fix the position the white-haired man had openly ruined by shoving the little rabbit off of that ready to jump stance the boy prepared after getting away from the Viola. While in the middle of tripping forward, Bell forcibly brought his furthest foot in front of him, lightly twisting it as a consequence, but suffered through it and endured the pain of using it as a support to jump off of the ground with.

Making sure that the older man was right behind him, Bell was careful so as to not avoid the charge by going too far to the side, dashing diagonally just enough that he wasn't right in the middle of the devastating attack. At the right moment, the adventurer leapt off the ground, and parallel to it, spun himself around midair so that his right side wouldn't be impacted by the Viola, before finishing the maneuver with a flourish of the Guild knife in his right hand, attempting to take a slash at the monster passing him by.

At that moment, two particular things happened. The shattering of Bell's knife after having struck the Viola's body, who watched the broken chips of his blade dance and glint dimly in the air, as he slowly fell to the Dungeon floor. And the monster itself being brought down in a single piercing blow by Olivas Act, who did not choose to move away from where he stood and ended the Viola's rush forward with a savage punch in front of him, completely unaffected, not even pushed a celch away despite the force of the monster's charge.

Landing roughly on the rough earth, Bell tried to get himself on his feet before the Viola could send another of its tail swipes, but this time his body would not respond, collapsing uselessly as he waited for the monster to inevitably spin around and crush him with the entire weight of its body. Yet instead, the sight that greeted him was a suddenly still plant monster, which proceeded to dissipate like any other monster into dust that faded away in the air.

After disappearing, what was behind the surely dead Viola was Olivas Act, who Bell could spot was grinning behind the mask, allowed to have a glimpse of it from where he was lying down on the ground. Moving his eyes to what Olivas must have wanted him to be putting attention on, the young boy could see the older Creature hold up a strangely colored magic stone.

"Interfering, Olivas? I didn't know you could still feel pity," said Revis, who sauntered her way to where the two were, not as angry as what her statement would have implied, though it was more indifferent than any other emotion.

"As if I wanted to waste my time watching a rabbit hop around," the man replied, tossing the magic stone that must have come from the Viola over to Ein, who without a word, swiped it out of the air.

"What of this boy then?"

"I care not, perhaps leave him here to be found by Minotaurs."

"To repeat, Ēostre will be useful for Enyo-sama's arrangements," the multiple voices coming out of Ein's mask spoke out, joining the two standing over the still prone Bell Cranel, "I will be dragging him out of the Dungeon once introductions are complete."

"Hmph, to deign myself into speaking with one of these… pawns. Does this one hide fire crystals under that coat of his as well?"

"Ēostre is not expendable unlike them. Revis, examine his magic stone closer and perhaps you will understand."

The red-haired woman took a few short steps to stand right next to the boy on the floor, and then gripped him by the collar of his black coat, hoisting him up in the air and slightly cutting off his respiration.

"Keep in mind not tear at his clothes, unless you want to be bothered with the stitching for repairs and collection of materials."

Seeing an annoyed scowl on the female Creature's face, Bell thought to offer his own hands at getting the coat he wore off his body, a tad embarrassed at having a grown woman perform any disrobing but more so wanting to get Revis' menacing hands away from him. At the back of his mind, it did cross his attention that she was quite attractive after getting a much too close and air constricting distance near her, but perhaps the lack of oxygen was responsible for that train of thought.

Dropped unceremoniously onto his feet, the young boy silently hissed at having to now stand on the leg he'd strained past what it was capable of, and did not go unnoticed by the Creatures there with him. Ignoring their distasteful expressions, Bell unbuttoned his coat, shrugging it off his person before doing the same as prior to his long-sleeved button up black shirt, clothing he wore mostly indoors and not in battle. Once finished, he bared the center of his torso open for the others to see.

"Leg still hurting? The kid's really fresh meat, how is this worm supposed to be of any use?"

"Revis will appraise it, be patient."

"Brat, show off your magic stone already."

Bell froze, he'd done it before, or rather his body had done it for him while undergoing a strange phenomenon of his body being used to fuel the magic stone's constant consumption of necessary material, which the young boy assumed could only be the cores of monsters. However, right now, he couldn't will such a thing to happen, truly not knowing how to do it by himself, and conflicted with needing to keep silent due to his promise with Filvis, plus rather not wanting to say anything because he feared the two Creatures, Bell couldn't decide whether or not to tell them of his inability.

After seconds ticked by, and more cold sweat dripped down the back of the white-haired boy, Revis' blank stare twitched.

"Fine then, I would have preferred this in the first place."

Faster than he could blink, the edge of the woman's finger slit the skin and flesh covering the center of his chest with deadly accuracy, the speed and shock overwhelming Bell's trigger of sensation. Once he felt it, Bell suppressed the urge to let out a cry of pain.

"Don't move, rabbit."

With a calculating look, the red-haired Creature made observations of the magic stone through the incision she created, noting the difference in color, size, magic, and- she stopped.

"The assimilation rate… it's abnormal."

"How do you mean?" A peculiarly curious Olivas Act asked.

"Incredibly fast, and there's more to it than I'm familiar. No, it's almost completely different," which garnered a raised eyebrow from the man in white, who turned his attention to the other masked individual in the room.

"Oy, Ein, where'd you find this runt?"

"A new arrival to Orario from what I've heard, running around with all that magic coming out of his body, a level one adventurer."

"Trying to get us exposed, hmm, little rabbit? But… hah, a complete newbie? All that scampering around… just from eating little green skins and mutts?"

"Your precious savior wasn't responsible for it either. It was some goddess roaming the mortal world."

Visibly angered, the man shook with fury, and Bell hoped he wouldn't get caught as collateral or be the closest target to displace onto for whatever made Olivas Act so enraged. Fortunately, the Creature calmed himself, though what thoughts he was having, the white-haired boy had not a clue.

"To think that some…"

What he was about to say was cut off by Revis, "It's better, isn't it? Compared to what we have?"

"Enyo-sama and I will receive an answer to that from observing the boy's growth. So, do please keep him alive until then."

"And what if I were to devour the magic stone itself?"

There was silence.

"The effects are not a guarantee, unless you plan on risking jeopardy to what we have in store."

"…It can't be helped then. The rabbit stays alive, for now."

"Tsk, such an insult to 'her' is being preserved right before me. How vexing."

"Put up with it. Ēostre will continue doing what he does, irrelevant for now to the execution of Enyo-sama's grand scheme."

"…Then why did you give him an audience with us?"

"Purely to see what would transpire."

Dodging a side swipe from Revis, Ein took a step back.

"You don't seem keen to keep him alive yourself."

"I announced that you two were not to break him, it is not my responsibility to do anything further than that."

"Such a flimsy excuse, is this rabbit the reason for your recent behavior? That's amusing…"

"Silence yourself, Olivas Act. Ēostre is now a burden that you – both of you must carrying."

"If he's only meant to be observed, then what pray tell are we to do with him?"

"Forcing him to consume lower floor monsters… I will not degrade myself into hunting for the brat."

"I have much to busy myself with already, preparations are being made for the following weeks, I have no time to caretake a lowly adventurer."

Bell felt the need to scratch the back of his head, if the circumstances weren't the case right now, which was having to silently stand around amongst highly dangerous individuals while they spoke about how he had a role to play in some possibly ill-intentioned scheme and how terribly weak he currently was to be of any use. That was also without mentioning his still bleeding cut and twisted leg, constantly wearing him down even in that exhausted state.

Sighing silently, the young adventurer decided to stop listening to what the three Creatures were talking about, picked up his bag which he'd removed alongside his coat. Bell took out two of the potions he bought from Dian Cecht's and used it on himself, still having three inside.

Seeing the effects of the liquid successfully close the wound on his chest, he moved to start on his leg, kneeling down on the one which he hadn't sprained and pulled up the ends of his trousers so that he could properly douse the rest of the potion he used on the cut onto where pain was throbbing, finishing it off with the other potion he took out. Once finished, the white-haired boy buttoned up his shirt and equipped the black coat, slinging his bag back into place.

Lying in the ground was his Guild knife, of which only a few celches of what would have been a narrow blade remained. Sheathing his Misericordia, and thinking if he should bother picking it up, Bell shook his head but did so anyway, sentimental of the weapon and served as a nice memento for various events. And once he'd carefully stuffed the knife inside his bag, it seemed as if the three Creatures had finished their conversation.

Looking at the two who'd 'tested' him against a Viola, the adventurer regretted not having paid attention to what Ein must have told them, as they looked quite more intrigued than wholly irritated when looking at him. Though the annoyance was still very much clear, Olivas Act having a disgusted expression and Revis' scowling glare, they had tempered down for some reason, like they were staring at something they had to put up with.

"Plans to use the boy as a bait, you say?"

"Tsk, the possibility is marginal, practically nonexistent… but I will not reject it."

"They return in only a short period of time more; I will arrange the contact if feasible."

"…His assimilation rate I do find interesting. How fast his growth is…"

Wanting to imagine that the fleeting predatory leer directed at him had been only been a product of his tired mind, Bell apprehensively darted a glance at the red-haired woman, who'd been the culprit behind the brief sensation of dread and consternation that he'd felt. Rather unfortunately, the fact that he'd detected the ravenous intent Revis had sent, only made the Creature recommence that same wolfish stare at him with an imperceptibly increased intensity.

"Ein said the rabbit was a brand-new adventurer. Allow him to gorge on all the magic stones he wants for a year, and it would only barely get him to level three. Don't bother waiting."

"Aria is who I want. The boy makes for a nice accessory."

"I care not. Ein, can we bring this farce to an end? I have nothing to speak to the child with."

"Thinking of Aria… I start to hunger. Bring me the boy if he shows development."

Without waiting for the purple robed Creature to give an answer, the two departed, making Bell wonder just how this 'alliance' of Creatures functioned, and what sort of goals they held as a group. More importantly, how were Filvis and Dionysus involved with them? Individually, there suggested to be a clear difference in objectives.

Lord Dionysus, and Filvis by extension, wished to seek out the monster responsible for the Nightmare of the twenty-seventh floor, and to make Bell a hero of some sort, one that shaped how the world above would interact with them.

Revis mentioned the name of a person or rather, Aria, and Bell assumed this was someone unrelated to that same monster who'd transformed them into Creatures. Perhaps it was, but the boy already felt overwhelmed from everything on that night, it was simply easier to think that this Aria was just someone important to the red-haired woman. Filvis had also mentioned that one of the Creatures was searching for a woman with an affinity for wind, thus it could only be Revis.

Olivas Act was a fanatic, clued from both the words of Filvis and from what Bell had heard coming from the man's mouth. Obsessed with finding that monster who he thought was a Spirit, and what came after that was the matter that Bell was concerned with.

Ein was the most mysterious, and all that he could figure was that they were working for a person named Enyo, a name he'd heard being mentioned quite a few times between the three. They may not have looked nor sounded like they respected Enyo, but their words were somewhat important to the other two, though not enough to bind them it seemed.

"It looks like Ein-san only follows that Enyo person, so how did Filvis-san get Ein-san to guide me here? She said that Enyo is their master but… it doesn't really seem like it. Does she have a way to contact them? How much does she actually know about all of this?"

Too many questions were rising up, and the young boy felt liked he'd been thrown right into a mess that was far too complex for someone that only wanted to go to Orario and become an adventurer.

"They left before they could even tell me much too… like the Violas, or who they were, what Familias did they belong to, what kind of people were they before they had been... raised from the dead? They wouldn't answer but still…"

Dangerous was the first word that Bell could think of to describe these Creatures, and even Ein was no exception. Bell wanted to think that they were just strange adventurers that perhaps went mad staying in the Dungeon this entire time, but his impressions of them couldn't be that shallow after their meeting. The one question he wanted answered the most was,

What do they plan on doing after meeting the monster?

For all he knew, they could have already met it, that they lied to Filvis about how their objective was to find the monster, and when dwelling on those thoughts, Bell could only wonder what was to come next. They must have continually been devouring magic stones from monsters in the middle to deep floors, but for what reason did they want to get so strong? Maybe he was getting scared for nothing, because there was always a chance that they too were the types of adventurers that wanted to keep going further and further down the Dungeon.

It wasn't his nature to be questioning of people's intentions, and perhaps it was none of his business to pry. After all, he had come to Orario to join a Familia, become a hero, and pick up girls. But Bell couldn't let it stop bothering him, despite how much he hoped that the other Creatures were good people.

The white-haired boy sighed, getting the only other individual there to turn towards him.

"…There's no use… I'm… I… just need to keep doing what I came here for… yeah… that's right… and Filvis-san said that I only needed to trust her and Lord Dionysus…"

Clenching a frustrated fist.

"…Right! If they can't get close to them… that's what I should do…! Next time, for sure!"

Clinging to that sense of hope, that he could trust in Dionysus and Filvis, that the three of them only needed to watch the other Creatures while Bell was in pursuit to becoming a hero. Until then, all of this worrying could at least be in the back of his mind, no matter how much it troubled him inside to leave it at that.

"Ein-san?"

"…Yes?"

"I… want to meet them again… whenever that's possible."

"…That can be arranged. In time, of course."

"Thank you."

"I would not mind to see you be tormented by those two again."

"Eh?"

"Err… alright?"

"Do put up a better fight. I imagine they would not like to see you without having improved."

"U-understood," anxiously said the adventurer, before continuing to ask another question.

"And about… that Enyo-san they mentioned?"

An atmosphere of malice permeated from the masked figure, and Bell promptly cut it off there.

"F-forget it."

"You are here to be observed. Not ask those questions."

Quickly nodding, the white-haired boy would at least try to ask after he'd get a little closer with the eccentric Creatures, and asking Filvis for now would keep him alive much longer.

"I can't ask about the… monster that turned all of you into Creatures?"

"No."

"Umm… what can I ask, Ein-san?"

"You can ask me to knock you down, pest."

Jumping at the aggressive tone, it looked as if pressing Ein for more had severe consequences.

"…"

Bell opened his mouth, reconsidered, and stayed quiet, leaving the two of them there to stand in the middle of an empty room with the only the echoing sound of monsters from elsewhere occasionally breaking the silence.

Ein turned to look at the white-haired adventurer expectantly, waiting for him to do something.

"What is it, Ein-san?"

"Blindfold."

"A-again?"

"Unless you prefer to stay here and meet an end hunted down by hellhounds, Ēostre."

The dry humor reminded Bell of Filvis almost, though her hate for him was getting apparent compared to their time walking in Knossos.

"But I do personally prefer that you are left to rot here," she added.

A much more unpleasant, and at the back of his head, maybe even more honest Filvis.

"By how long you're not doing anything… do I need to wait for your brain to think as well?"

"…Still, I would rather listen to Filvis-san than Ein-san."

---

Arriving at the Hostess of Fertility, it was as Bell, who'd inverted his coat back into white, thought; devoid of any adventurers, not even one drunken soul collapsed outside or bluntly thrown out unconscious men, and the deafening silence stood out the most when overlooking the usually lively pub. It begged the question of what time it currently was, as even with the skies as dark as they were then, there'd still be much merrymaking going on inside, but instead of it, there only seemed to be a few lights still lit visible through the window.

On his way there, even the streets of Orario had been vacant of civilians and adventurers, though there were things to consider such as which main street he'd taken to get to where he lived. When he'd exited Babel, there had been a handful of adventurers similarly leaving at more or less the same time as him, but the direction they took was to the South main street, a side of Orario that he'd only briefly explored, though only in the day. Eina had refused to tell him much about it when he'd asked as well, ending it by calling the area an entertainment district.

Regardless of how odd it was to see the Labyrinth city without any people, it wasn't the first time he'd witnessed an Orario with empty streets, since it was a frequent sight if one would wake up in the early hours prior to sunrise. But even then, there were at least other adventurers and business owners outside as early as Bell, while in the dead of night, practically nobody was venturing out and about.

"Sigh… will it be sleeping outside or… if it's Mama Mia waiting inside for me… maybe it would be better if I stay in the garden…"

Nonetheless, walking up to the pub's front door, Bell tentatively knocked a few times, both hoping that if there was someone waiting for him, they would kindly let the poor adventurer inside, or that if there wasn't, then he wouldn't be disturbing anyone's sleep by coming back so late only to go knocking loudly to be let in. Even he couldn't forgive himself by doing that.

Giving a curt couple of knocks more, the young boy settled with that amount of noisemaking, not wanting to press his luck, and started backing away from the entrance, thinking of what options he still had left. An inn didn't seem like a terrible idea, he thought to himself, the only issues would be vacancy and if they still accepted customers, and there was still a small pouch of valis inside his bag that he could use as long as it wasn't expensive.

Hearing the door creak open was a pleasant surprise to hear, however, and with his back turned towards it, Bell not knowing if it was the mighty dwarven woman he was working for.

Nervously turning around, the white-haired adventurer couldn't get a glimpse of who it was, but a fast-moving female figure slamming right into him knocked him off his feet, sending them both crashing into the ground, with Bell painfully landing on his back though managing to at least get his arms around the girl to prevent her from getting hurt. Down on the pavement, the young boy saw a number of stars and the moon illuminating the night sky above him, and lost himself for a bit at the sight.

"Oh, Bell. I didn't know we'd be laying under the stars like this so soon, nya~"

Grabbing his attention, Bell raised his head just enough to see an elf coldly staring at him from the doorway, not in her usual waitress attire, while a pair of black cat ears adorably raised forward towards him let him know who had just jumped him, with her head buried into his chest and purring comfortably.

"C-Chloe, Ryuu-san, umm… good evening?"

"Where have you been?"

"I-in the Dungeon, a friend of mine wanted to meet me, the elf who gave me this coat, remember?"

"And that meeting lasted past midnight because?"

"W-we were fighting monsters?"

"You're not carrying any magic stones."

"Umm… I gave them to her?"

"You're answering in questions, Cranel-san."

"I-is that so?"

"Yes. It is."

"Err… I'm sorry!"

The poor boy gave up under the scary elf's glare.

"Will you tell the truth already?"

"B-but it was the truth… I just… met with a few others as well… and we lost track of time going somewhere."

"Going somewhere?"

"S-somewhere that I probably shouldn't have been."

That made the cat girl who'd been staying quiet and enjoying herself on top of him raise her head up in alarm.

"Y-you don't mean to say…"

"C-Chloe, nothing bad happened, I promise!"

"T-to go to the entertainment district...! If you wanted to have fun at night, you could have just asked me, you know!?"

"E-eh!? What!?"

"You both need to be quiet. You'll wake the entire neighborhood… and I don't need to tell you two that waking up Mama Mia is the last thing both of you want."

Effectively shutting the couple on the ground silent, the elven waitress gestured for them to come inside, Chloe pulling the white-haired boy up by his arm without an issue and dragging him into the pub. Bell wasn't quite sure if he was to be happy about not sleeping somewhere outside, in fact, he was even more doubtful about whether his current circumstances were proceeding positively, seeing as he would be getting interrogated by one stern elf and one distraught cat girl.

Closing the door behind him and locking it shut, Bell took in the sight of the already cleaned up dining hall, chairs all put on top of tidy tables, the lights that headed towards the kitchen unlit, the floor and counter left spick-and-span, and all there was remaining to be done was to shut off the magic stone lamps in the main hall. But looking underneath one of the light sources, an already dozing off brunette cat girl and an upset human girl were present.

"Anya, Lunoire…"

"Taken to calling everyone but Syr and I without any more tact already, Cranel-san?"

Caught saying the name of the brunette human, who was one of the more disciplined bunch among the five waitresses, though that didn't particularly mean much, it was quite of a blunder that revealed how close two people were, and Ryuu was not someone who wouldn't notice. Starting with Chloe a few days ago, then Anya the day after that, and finally Lunoire at that moment, thus the elf was more than a little inquisitive of their only male resident's exploits.

"W-well, some things happened…"

"We've all spent a night with Bell in his room, Ryuu! Nya, why don't you get acquainted a little bit closer with our lustful little rabbit as well, hmm?"

Horrified by how the girl had put it, Bell hurried to explain for himself.

"I-it's not what you think, Ryuu-san! There's long story behind it all! Please don't misunderstand!"

"…I can't imagine what Mama Mia will do to you if she finds out, Cranel-san."

Before Bell could start weakly praying to the gods for that scenario to never happen, Lunoire seemed to have gotten fed up with being ignored.

"Hey, hey, don't act like we're not here, where have you been, Bell?"

Chloe was the faster of the two to answer, "Bell went out to the entertainment district!"

Completely not expecting those words to come out, Lunoire looked stunned, and similar to her, a dazed Anya raised her head but pointed bleary and disappointed eyes at the white-haired boy.

"T-that can't be true, please, Bell, tell the truth."

"Nya…! When you have us here, nya…! Are we not exciting enough for you, Bell, nya!?"

"No, no! You're all very exciting, I swear!"

"Cranel-san."

"E-even you too, Ryuu-san!"

"…That's not what I was…" she shook her head, "just tell us where you really were, and I'll forget you ever said that."

"Umm…"

Looking at the three flustered girls and the elf avoiding his eyes, Bell was once again put under the pressure of his colleagues, just as he'd been during the time he claimed his sleek coat had been a gift from an adventuress of a high-class Familia. Though, how he'd been able to get himself excused from their prying hadn't been relatively difficult, even with his inability to lie with a straight face, but the difference was that back then, he'd essentially told the truth, only withholding the name of Filvis. And in the end, the waitresses didn't even really believe what he said anyway.

Right now, however, he couldn't for the life of him think of a way to twist a story of blindly walking inside a structure named Knossos, a place that his elven ally within the strange alliance of Creatures had reported as highly likely unknown even to the Guild, meeting 'similar people as him' but with a vastly different goals in mind, and getting nearly killed by those same new 'allies.' With how dangerous the other Creatures were, Bell didn't know how the girls would react, and he was hesitant to bring them in because they were unrelated, not to mention, he didn't want them to get hurt.

"Olivas… I'm sure if Ryuu-san, Chloe, Anya, and Lunoire worked together they could beat him… but Revis… she was the scariest one there…"

If he couldn't come up with a lie, then the poor boy was left with no other option.

"I-I'm sorry! My friend… she told me we could go… have fun there…"

"Entertainment district… that sounds like a place to have fun, right? That's believable, I think?"

Knowing absolutely nothing about the area in question, Bell used what Chloe had guessed earlier to his advantage, which was something about having fun at night, mentally nodding to himself for his quick-witted alternative option over stammering a clearly fabricated lie of going into the Dungeon and leaving without any drops. Plus, he could explain his roughed-up appearance as just a little scuffle with a few drunken adventurers in the district.

Little by little, the little rabbit was getting used to telling these white lies, or at least, that was his thought on the matter.

So then, why exactly were they looking at him so strangely?

"You… really went into the entertainment district, Cranel-san?"

"D-don't worry, definitely nothing happened! I got into a little fight but… I won and showed everyone my worth!"

"S-showed everyone your worth? I-in the entertainment district?" Chloe shakingly asked.

"Y-yeah…? T-that I could take it, you know?"

"T-take what?" Lunoire this time.

"Umm… that I could have fun there…?"

"A-and did you?" Anya surprisingly was as agitated as everyone.

"Oh! Err, no, they just told me to come back if they needed me," Bell finished, quite satisfied with the tale he'd gotten them to think as true, though there was a concern with how disturbed they looked, but saying he didn't enjoy any entertainment curiously enough made them relieved, confusing the adventurer even more.

Hearing them mumble about a certain Familia established there, he pushed down the urge to scratch the back of his head, wracking his head over why the fighting part uneased them so.

"Bell," all four of them, asides from Ryuu who referred to him by his last name like always, seemed to call at once, frightening him, worried that they somehow saw through the lie despite how they all looked to have seemingly believed it.

"Promise us that you never return there again."

"Eh? Why?"

Chloe walked up to him and gripped his shoulder in a tight grip, smiling all the while.

"Bell, don't sully yourself with the women there, understand~?"

"The women?"

"Umm… okay?"

Lunoire stood up from where she sat and wrapped an arm around him, flustering the boy.

"To think that you'd go there with that friend of yours, a female elf of all people… I'd really like to meet this friend, Bell~"

"I… think she'll be too busy… but I'll ask if she wants to eat here sometime?"

Anya didn't look even a little bit tired when she'd left the table as well and stood right in front of him, putting two hands on the front of his shoulders.

"I didn't know Bell would be so desperate to get action, nya! And you were so embarrassed about sleeping next to each other, nya! Holding yourself back with us, hmm, Bell, nya~?"

This was starting to get a little bit scary; Bell had no idea where any of this was going.

"W-well… I didn't think you girls wanted to… have fun…?"

That stunned them for some reason unknown to the young adventurer.

"…Mama Mia would get really mad… that's true…"

"…But even still…"

"…We're still girls, Bell, nya!"

"…Huh?"

Now he was truly lost.

"Then… do you girls want to... have fun?"

"I'm not sure what having fun means at this point but… is it gambling?"

"Y-you mean… with you? L-like all three of us?"

"Fufu~ Bell thinks he has that type of stamina, nya~"

Chloe turned to look at the increasingly wary elf that stood silently there.

"Ryuu, do you also…? Unless you want to-?"

"…No… and please don't ever talk to me about any of this…"

With a cute blush on her face, reaching all the way up to the tips of her elven ears, the stoic waitress took a few steps back, turned away and proceeded up the stairs.

"If I ask what they're thinking about, will they realize I lied? But why does it feel like telling the whole truth would probably be better than what they're misunderstanding? Grandpa, I wonder what's going on? If it's something Eina-san doesn't want to tell me… hmm…"

"Bell did blurt out some stuff about making a harem while he was intoxicated," Lunoire said.

Violently ripped away from his thoughts, a shocked white-haired boy flinched, "W-what…?"

"Ah, did nobody tell him that he'd said that?"

"I'm pretty sure that Bell didn't want to remember anything about what he did last night, nya."

"Uwahh, that was on my mind the entire day…"

"And here I thought that I was the only one around here wanting to have lots of cute little boys around me. Well, it's girls that Bell wants but still," Chloe added, sounding placated.

"Hmm, if Bell invites you into his harem, wouldn't it be strange that you also had one? I'm sure Bell wouldn't want to see one of his girls being doted on by other guys."

"I-I have to make a choice between Bell and having several cuties!?"

"Well~ if you're not picking Bell, then I'll have him all for myself, nya!"

"Hey, he promised me that he'll take care of me in the future. You won't go back on your word, right, Bell?"

"W-wasn't that a joke...?"

"T-that's not fair! How come only Bell gets to play around with lots of lovers!? Ohhh…! Fine! But Bell, you better let me snuggle and cuddle you plenty, nya!"

"Nya!? You accepted a little too fast!? Oh! If only Syr didn't have to go back today, nya!"

"It's fine, she'll be here the morning after and we'll bring her up to speed."

"I was so surprised when she asked to start staying over! That was the night before Bell started living here too! Thinking about it… wasn't that a little bit convenient?"

"Eh, it's Syr, you know? She's scary in mysterious ways."

"Mhm, nya! We're warning you right now, Bell, nya! Syr is a witch, nya!"

"...Syr-chan isn't here?"

"Nya, Bell's finally started talking!"

"Syr said that she was away for too long, a friend of hers was getting really tired of moving around a lot and acting in Syr's place," kindly explained Lunoire.

"Acting in Syr-chan's place?"

"She's taking care of a few abandoned children in Daedalus Street. There was someone willing to caretake for her so that Syr could live here for a little. Though the circumstances are a little…"

"Will she come back? To living here, I mean?"

"Mmm, eventually, I think," Chloe answered, a finger on her chin in wonder.

"Hey, hey, Bell, so what about this harem you were talking about, nya!? Did you also want Syr to be part of it, nya? She heard it too, you know, last night, nya."

The white-haired boy felt a chill run up his spine.

"Why does that sound… unsettling?"

"M-my grandfather said that it's something important to have if I want to be a hero."

"A harem? Of all things? What kind of influence… ah, never mind it."

"Don't think you'll get us to into one so easily, Bell, nya! You'll have to work hard at making us fall for you, nya!"

"Chloe didn't seem so opposed," Lunoire bluntly stated.

"T-that was just me playing around! It was only teasing, just like we planned to do!"

"Still, for Bell to be aiming for such a goal, and with us no less. No doubt about it, you're quite the adventurer, Bell."

The three of them smiled playfully at the completely embarrassed boy, who was blushing madly at having accidentally revealed himself to be, as Lady Nyx had said it, an 'enemy of all women.'

"We expect great persuasion coming from you, Bell, nya! You'll really have to convince us to join… fufu, a harem, fufu…"

Frankly, the cat girl couldn't complain in her amusement, the fact that the boy she was having much enjoyment in playing around with had an ulterior motive to charm them, and maybe even the kitchen staff, into an unthinkable relationship. They might have felt it insulting if it didn't come from their silly, naïve, open-book, but pure hearted Bell Cranel, and so were willing to let him try his best at getting them into a harem, especially now that his little secret was out.

Regardless of what he did, they were confident that the adventurer wouldn't be able to succeed, because if they weren't confident of that, then they might have been a little harder on the sneaky rabbit. Allow the boy to pursue them, tease him plenty for it, and eventually one day he'll mature out of his interests in harems, retire from adventuring after a few years, settle with a lucky lady, and that would be the end of that. This was certainly just another way of teaching Bell, nothing more to it than that, the three of them wanted to think.

"I-I'll try my best!"

Hearing that somewhat determined affirmation, it didn't particularly look like he would be giving up, however. At least, not anytime soon. But if he was lucky enough to pull it off with them, charming three or all five of them one way or another… then that would be a problem.

"Ah, one small condition, Bell."

"What is it?"

"No more going to the entertainment district."

"Oh… I guess that's fine?"

"…I'm kind of curious what's so serious about that place though… if Eina-san won't tell me… hmm, maybe I should ask Naaza about it tomorrow…"

Seeming to satisfy them for now with his answer, the atmosphere settled and Anya yawned.

"All that excitement's gotten me tired again, nya…"

"I'm sure we've teased Bell enough already for one night," Chloe giggled to herself.

"This should be a fun conversation to continue during our morning training session."

Suddenly, the white-haired boy once again felt another chill go up his spine.

"…I'm going to get really hurt… I just know it…"

And with that, seemingly the confrontation had ended, and Bell couldn't wait to sleep the rest of that grueling day away.

Or at least, before the brunette cat girl brought up a question.

"Nya, if Lunoire slept together with Bell yesterday… I'm going next, nya!"

Running up the stairs in a rush, in the most stealthily manner Bell had seen from the often-clumsy girl, the Anya that'd been tired and standing there with them just a second ago had disappeared in a flash.

"W-wait, nya! Shouldn't it be my turn!? Anya come back here!" Chloe dashed away out of the main hall, with the movements of an assassin greatly emphasized in her quiet steps.

Lunoire mumbled to herself as she walked up the stairs, "All that talk about how it would only be teasing during our break earlier… a bit overly eager now aren't they, though it's not saying much if it's coming from me…" the young boy left behind not hearing any of it.

And so suddenly, silence enveloped the once rowdy dining hall, a white-haired boy blinking a few times trying to gather his thoughts in the middle of it, having much to think about.

"Grandpa, Lady Nyx, is this progress or…?"

The unfinished question hung in the air, Bell wondering to himself how the two would see his development so far, the two who taught him about how more or less he was supposed to successfully achieve a harem of beautiful girls. Looking back on his stay so far after arriving just a few weeks ago, he almost couldn't believe how many female friends he'd been making, and all after he'd tempered down his expectations due to the necessity of first becoming a great adventurer.

Surprisingly, things were progressing much faster than he could keep up. Granted, none of the girls looked really interested in him, at least from his perspective, but Bell liked to think that he was making great headway so far. And regardless of the absurdity that he was trying to create a harem, Bell was simply more than happy enough to just have as many friends as he did now.

However, with all these encounters with girls in the city, sans his first meeting with Filvis down in the Dungeon, there was one experience that had gone relatively sidelined so far, one that the white-haired boy had been most eager for ever since he'd decided to travel to Orario.

"Ahhh… wait… I still haven't even had a Destined Encounter with a girl in the Dungeon yet…"

Going upstairs to follow the three he had just been talking with, the adventurer imagined what type of encounter it would be, from saving a girl surrounded by monsters, to getting admiration from female passersby with his combat prowess. Never once predicting himself as the one being saved by a girl in the Dungeon, because what sort of man would he be in that image? Though such a disgraceful scenario it would be, Bell would soon find himself in that sort of situation just less than a week later, and he'd realize then that there couldn't have been a better Destined Encounter for him than seeing his idol for the first time rescue him from a Minotaur.

---

And so, I've fixed this to fit Chapter 16's big surprise. It won't explain everything but it sorta preserves canon, so I'm happy for now. Also, we've got the harem's wheels turning before Volume 1 events begin, so I'm happy there too. Ahh, feels good to get back to writing. Next chapter will time-skip to the day where Bell meets the Minotaur, Aiz, and Liaris Freese finally shows up. Monsterphilia will be hype to write.

Ēostre is a Celtic goddess of Easter, her symbol is the rabbit. Now, will the actual goddess show up later? Eh, who knows… gotta wait a bit in case canon events happen. But she's no Greek or Norse myth, so the chances are pretty low that she appears in canon. Either way, she has a nice name.

Lunoire, Olivas, Ein, and Revis might have been a little out of character but… I don't have much to go off of when writing them. One died in the only volume where he was present, two were vague as fuck, and the other isn't Syr or Ryuu (and not quirky like Chloe and Anya), so not exactly enough character to work with. Lunoire's legitimately the most normal girl out of the five; Ryuu has a lot of character, Chloe's a pervert, Anya is... Anya, and Syr is... not Syr.

Unfortunately, college returns in some weeks and I'll be getting back to getting my ass kicked. Until then, I write as much as I can.

No more promises on when next chapters or updates come! I've got other fics to update and write too. But rest assured, it won't take three to four months. (Ah shit, that counts as a promise)

Mmm, leave a review and that stuff. I like reading those.