Authors Note1: Hey everyone, thanks again for your Reviews, this chapter is a bit shorter than usual because what comes after this should be in one part. I´m happy to announce that I have my vacation for the next three weeks, so I will work hard on writing.
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Bell heard some whispers and mumbles on his way to the Twillight Mansion of the Loki Familia.
It was the second day after he had fought against Udaeus and he was the number 1 topic of conversation in town.
"Thats him."
"Thats Argonaut."
"Woah...so handsome.."
"He did that? Defeated a Floor boss on his own?"
"The hero..."
"Like the sword princess."
"And he saved a party from the Ganesha Familia. while he fought a Monster Rex."
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The day after he had returned, a very serious looking Ganesha came to the Mansion in the morning. It wasn´t a whole Familia he had saved, but a party from the Ganesha Familia, the biggest Familia of the city.
"Hestia...is your boy here?"
"Ganesha? What´s wrong?"
"I would like to talk to Bell Cranel, please."
Hestia was worried, she had never seen Ganesha like this, she invited him in and went first. Bell sat on the couch next to Ryuu, while Haruhime softly carresssed her belly, fascinated.
"Lord Ganesha?" Bell got up surprised.
Without saying something, the sturdy god walked over to him and pulled him in a tight hug. "Bell Cranel...thank you! Thank you so much, you saved my children!"
Ganesha had tears coming out from under his mask. Most of the people in the room were really surprised.
"Oh ahm...they were from your Familia?"
"Yes, without you...they would have all died...thank you so much!"
Bell was too perplexed to return the hug.
"If you ever need something from me, just say it. You will get it, I swear on the name of Ganesha!"
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And because of that he heard those mumbles, a few people had blocked his path to thank him personally for rescuing a relative of them.
Bell was happy that he could had helped people, and that he brought joy to them...but somehow he was really embarassed with that much attention. After he had returned and showered in the evening, Ryuu told im about Riveria´s offer.
Like she had guessed, Bell was extremely excited, but also worried.
"But Ryuu I..."
"Bell.." Ryuu had kissed him. "The decision is yours, as long as you return in time I have no problem with whatever you choose."
After that he had talked with his Familia, surprisingly it was Lily who made the argument that helped him.
"Master Bell I think you should go. You will probably never get this chance again and it will help you and our Familia. You will make a unique experience and you will learn how expeditions into the deep levels are handled."
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It was about two hours before noon when Bell arrived at the Loki Mansion. Two armed members of the Familia stood guard at the main gate.
"Do you have business here?"
"I am Bell Cranel, I was invited by Ms. Finn Deimne."
"The one they call Argonaut?"
"Yes."
"Okay, come in." Apparently he was expected.
It wasn´t the first time that Bell came to that Mansion, but the guards weren´t the same as last time. He was always amazed by that Mansion, the building looked somewhat bizarre with many small towers of different sizes.
"Ah Argo! Good morning!"
By chance he walked past Tiona.
"Ms. Tiona, good morning."
Bell showed her a smile and for some reason Tiona blushed and looked shy.
"Ms. Tiona? Is everything okay?" He leaned forward to get a better look at her face.
"Eep! Wha-? Ah eh...y-yeah all good...ehehe." Tiona hid half of her face behind her hand. "Y-You surely w-want to see Finn, d-don´t let him wait!"
"Oh yeah, I see you later then."
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As Bell turned around, Tiona clapped both of her hands on her cheeks and blushed fiercly. Whats wrong with me? I am an amazoness, my heart shouldn´t pound like thaaat!
What made it even worse, Tione saw her sister and as soon as Tiona turned around and saw her sisters face...Tione got a smug grin when she saw her sisters flustered face.
"Well well well..."
"Sh-Shut up!"
"Tiona...so in love."
"Oh! Finn!"
"Wha-?! C-Captain?!" Tione whirled around and stroked her hair, but no one was behind her.
"Ha serves you right!" Tiona struck out her tongue.
"You will pay for that!"
And as many times before, the amazone twins fought each other.
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In another room of the Loki Mansion.
Ais looked up to the ceiling, her breath was going fast. Just to be sure that no one would walk in, she had locked the door and closed the curtains.
"Bell..."
After she had calmed down a bit, Ais hugged her Bell plushy, pulling the nose close to her face.
"Be-"
She stopped as she heard a voice from the lower floor...Bell´s voice.
Why is he here today?!
Immediately she panicked, jumped out of her bed and made sure that her door was locked. With a pounding heart, Ais walked back to her bed and slipped under her covers, on the way she accidentely stepped on some of her clothes. Her heart calmed down after a few moments, she felt sleepy...but the thought of Bell being nearby right now...was embarassing.
Clueless about it, Bell Cranel had destroyed the black flame in Ais Wallenstein, had given her hope, joy, love and more things. The only thing her friends noticed was that Ais smiled more often than usual and it looked even more beautiful when she did.
Never again would she fall back into her self-destructive tendencies, she would move forward to get stronger. But never again that reckless, it was time for her to see the joys of life, with her friends, her family...her love. And one day...she wanted to fulfill her goal...but not with a heart filled with nothing but hatred, her mother wouldn´t want that.
She was optimistic about the future.
Especially since...
Ais could never knew when they would make a new special flavor for the potato snack.
She was the life time special customer after all..
"Ehehe...I can´t wait for it..." She drooled a little bit as she sunk into sleep.
Happily and relaxed, Ais took a long nap with her Bell plushy in her arms.
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"Hm?" Bell looked upwards to the ceiling, he thought he had heard something, then he shrugged his shoulders and went to Finn´s office. .
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Just before Bell arrived at the office, Lefiya came out of the room holding two books in her arms.
"Ah Ms. Lefiya, good morning."
"Oh ah Bell, hello."
Bell made a slightly surprised face by the way she called him.
"Is Mr. Finn inside?"
"Yes, also Gareth and lady Riveria. Here you go." She held the door open for him.
"Thank you." He showed her the brightest smile.
"Ehe, no problem." Lefiya returned the smile.
And as the door closed behind him...
Haaaaaa what did I do! I just called him by his name! Shameful me, I also smiled to him. Aaaaah Bell Cranel! What did you make out of me...?!
In under five minutes since he arrived, Bell made three of the strongest women of the Familia very flustered without knowing it. And all that while he was only here to dicuss something important, Bell was a natural born lady killer at this point...and all that while being completely innocent.
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"Good morning."
"Ah Bell Cranel, come in and please take a seat."
Riveria and Gareth nodded to him while Bell sat down.
"So Riveria managed to contact you about our offer."
"Yes, Ryuu told me about it, I´m sorry that I took so long but it was not an easy decision."
"I´m sure of that, now...what do you say?"
Bell took a deep breath and looked at all three people in front of him. "I would gladly accompany your expedition, but on one condition."
Riveria smirked. "Let me guess, you want to be home in time for Lyon giving birth?"
"Yes, I absolutely won´t miss the birth of my daughter, that is my condition."
Finn and Gareth couldn´t help but smile together with Riveria. "Bell Cranel I have to say I am impressed, that is a really down to earth condition for joining an expedition. And of course we will make sure you come back in time."
Bell nodded. "Thank you."
"Not for that."
"Now...what exactly will I have to do? How will this work? I have been on small expeditions with my Familia, but I dare say that things are a little different for you."
"Most likely, what is the deepest Floor you have reached?"
"The thirty-eighth, twice."
"Monster Rex kills?"
The Amphisbaena once but without me and well...Udaeus."
"As a party?"
"No..."
"So you did it alone?"
"Yes..."
Finn smirked lightly. "Impressive, but..."
"But?"
"As far as I heard stories about you, seen you fight...you are very strong Bell Cranel. But the expedition might confuse you."
"What do you mean?"
"You are the strongest person in your party by far, well except your wife, and it is to be understood that you are the pillar on which you lean."
"Yes." Bell nodded.
"But a bigger expedition fight in formations, like your vanguard and rear guard, but I asume you help when their is trouble in the rear guard?"
"Yes, I want to protect my friends."
Riveria smiled. "That is very noble of you."
"But in a bigger expedition you have to stay in the vanguard and let the rear guard deal with it themself except...I give the order to do so."
"Okay.."
"Can you do that Bell Cranel? Can you follow orders? It is very dangerous deep down in the dungeon, we must be able to rely on everyone holding their position."
Bell made a serious face and thought for a while. "I will do my best, I promise to hold my position."
Now it was for Gareth to say something. "You have our trust, but don´t be worried if you do that once out of reflex, it will be your first big expedition after all. But only once."
He nodded again.
Rivera cleared her throat. "Since you will need lots of informations, we have a team prepared to help you learn. Someone you are pretty familiar with...Lefiya!"
The door opened again and Lefiya walked in, followed by Tiona.
Riveria frowned. "Where is Ais?"
Tiona shrugged her shoulders. "She doesn´t want to come out of her room, said something about not feeling well, she sounded rather short of breath."
"She won´t get sick on us?" Finn looked slightly worried.
"I-I don´t think so, she said it will be okay later."
"Hm...anyway...Bell Cranel, these three will teach you about what you will need to know. Ais and Tiona are always part of the vanguard, Lefiya is sometimes in the middle and sometimes the rearguard. Normally Riveria or I would teach you about it, but we have too much to do with preparing the expedition.
While we won´t look at your Falna, we need to know about your abilities. And there is one more very important thing."
"I´m all ears."
"You are a level seven, we got a clue about how strong you are now, and I won´t lie to you it will get dangerous on that new Floor, there might be situations where we have to rely on your strength."
"I will do my best."
"But!"
"But?"
"The most important point on the expedition is the safety of the party, you will be one of us and we leave no one behind. Our main goal is that everyone returns home."
"I have promised that to Lyon after all." Riveria made a serious face.
"Understood."
They continued to talk for a while until the most importants things were done.
"So Bell Cranel, I´m happy to have you with us on the next expedition, Lefiya, Tiona and Ais will show you how we do it."
Bell looked at Lefiya and the grinning Tiona. "Please teach me well, I will be in your care." He bowed lightly with closed eyes.
"Ah no problem Argo!"
Teaching Bell...might be !
Lefiya blushed while she smiled. "N-Nice to have you, w-we will be gentle."
Now Riveria sighed. Phrasing Lefiya...phrasing...
"Ehe, I guess I´m lucky to have three beautiful women teach me." Bell smiled bashful while he scratched his cheek with his index finger.
"!" Lefiya startled.
"Mh!" Even Tiona blushed.
I can see why they like him so much. Riveria smirked.
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Two weeks went by fast.
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"Are you sure, Ryuu?" Bell adjusted the straps of his backpack while they walked slowly towards Babel.
"Yes, I talked to Ahilea, she will come over when it is time."
Ahilea was an older female elf who took care of female elves when they gave birth. At the start of her pregnancy, Ryuu had taken a look at "the forest" and it was really nice. But someday when she visited for a check-up, Ahilea suggested she could also give birth home since they had that small spring-like bath surrounded by trees, if Ryuu would like that more. As nice as the forest was, being at home made her feel more at ease, the rules for the birth were still the same, only Syr was allowed to stay by her side.
"When it helps you to calm down, it is the best."
Ryuu smiled. "You are always so worried about me."
"How could I not be?" Bell glanced down to Ryuu´s big round belly, he smiled.
"Haa...not even a month and we will be parents..."
"I´m pretty nervous I have to say."
"Me too my love, me too." Ryuu nudged her shoulder against his while they held hands.
Normally Ryuu didn´t liked showing off romantic feelings in public, but she wouldn´t see Bell for a long time and due to her belly it was more than obvious that they were a couple.
"Haa...can we stop for a minute?" Ryuu was lightly out of breath.
"Of course, do you want to sit down?"
"No, its okay..just...a minute."
They couldn't look more different than they stood together.
Bell wore his full armor, weapons and his usual backpack. Ryuu only wore sandals, a wide green dress and a broad-brimmed green hat. The Familia had wished Bell a save journey at home, but Ryuu wanted to see him off at Babel, where he would meet with the Loki Familia. In the two weeks he had to prepare for the expedition, an idea came to Bell and he went to Babel one day alone, taking the drop item from Udaeus with him.
He talked with Hephaistos and sold it to her in exchange for dropping a huge amount of Hestia´s debt, it was for his Knife after all.
"Shall I carry you?"
Ryuu only raised an eyebrow as her answer.
"It was just a suggestion..."
"Bell my love.." Ryuu put a hand on his cheek. "I know you love to carry me...and you can do that as often as you want when you return...but not in public."
"Ehe...I guess I will not only carry you when I come back."
"No...haa...I can´t wait..."
They shared a loving kiss. "Me too."
The few people who were out so early and saw them smiled.
After walking for the quarter of an hour they arrived at Babel, normally they would be faster but both weren´t in a hurry and Ryuu needed another break. Astrea would come to Babel to escort Ryuu to the pub for a visit and after that back to the Mansion after Bell would be on his way. She wanted to give them some time alone.
"Ehe...I have to say I miss wearing my old clothes."
"I am sure you will wear them in the future again, I´m looking forward to that."
Ryuu chuckled. "Do you want to see me in these clothes that badly?"
He looked up at the sky like he was thinking. "My wife as a young mother in those clothes? It would be like a dream."
"A young mother hmm..." She couldn´t help but smile.
Bell´s expression got dreamlike. "Or an apron..."
"Apron?"
"Y-Yeah..."
"Hmmm..maybe...I will wear it...for you."
"Really?!" He looked excited.
"Come back first my love."
"I will!"
"Oh I got a message by the way, the bed will arrive tomorrow."
"Really?! Aw...a shame I couldn´t see it before I go."
"Then you have something to look forward to for your return."
"But I already have you to look forward to."
Ryuu blushed by his natural reply. "Mou Bell..ehe...you are making me blush again."
Bell was always Ryuu´s weakpoint...and he knew that. And sometimes...just sometimes...Bell enjoyed teasing Ryuu a little bit.
"Do you have anything? Your special coat?"
"Everything packed, I checked it twice."
"Good...do you remember what we talked about?"
"I will put my hand on it whenever I go to sleep."
Ryuu and Bell had discovered that they could lightly feel the others heartbeat when they put their hands on the hilts of their swords.
"And you absolutely have to come back to me."
"Nothing in this world could stop me, I will be back before you give birth...I want to see you holding her in your arms as soon as possible."
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Eventually they arrived at the main place in front of Babel, the Loki Familia and some other people had gathered there already, the sun was about to appear over the wall that surrounded Orario.
"Oh Argo..*yaaaawn*..mornin´..." Tiona swayed sleepy from one side to the other.
"Oy, pull yourself together." Tione jabbed her sister lightly in the ribs.
"Bell Cranel, good morning." Lefiya nodded to him, she looked pretty nervous.
"Bell...morning..." Ais looked even worse, not nervous but really tired...she even had bedhair, and yawned heavily.
"Bell Cranel, Lyon, good morning you two." Riveria looked much better than the younger members of the Familia.
"Lady Riveria, good morning." Ryuu smiled.
"Good morning." Bell greeted the others one by one.
A few members of the Familia weren´t that happy to see Bell, for one Bete Loga, the others mostly because Bell got along so well with Ais and the others.
Look at that greedy rabbit! He has a beautiful, pregnant wife and is still after our lovely Ais, Lefiya and Tiona!
That bastard!
Gigolo!
Fiend!
Curse on you, Argonaut!
Charming four women...and going along with lady Riveria...don´t you dare charm her too!
Yes...even some women of the Familia didn´t liked Bell.
Finn walked over to him, the spear leaned on his shoulder. "Bell Cranel, you made it in time. Good morning."
He nodded to Bell, then he faced Ryuu. "I promise you, your husband will be back in time."
"Thank you." Ryuu didn´t looked serious, she had a warm smile on her face.
Woah..pretty..
Such a beauty..
That lucky bastard..
After they all greeted each other, Finn jumped on a box so that everyone could see him, Loki waited right next to him, for some reason she looked slightly angry into Bell´s direction.
"We will now begin our expedition deep into the dungeon. Again to avoid crowding the upper floors we will split into teams. I will take team one, Gareth team two and Riveria will command team three. Blacksmiths from the Hephaistos Familia will accompany us, as well as Argonaut from the Hestia Familia.
We will meet on the 18th Floor, from there on we head down to the safety point at the 50th Floor. From there on we will head further down, past the icy hell and move to the 63rd Floor, which has never been reached before, unknown territory awaits us. We are prepared as good as we can, now then move out!"
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After his speech, the first team lead by him moved towards Babel, Gareth´s would wait a bit and Riveria´s going last, so Bell had a few minutes to talk with Ryuu.
"Well then...I will be going now." He took her hands and both stared deep into each others eyes.
Thankfully Riveria´s team were mostly women so he was spared from jealous stares.
"Bell, I love you...stay safe, and come back to me." Ryuu didn´t cared who glanced over to them.
But a few women got pink cheeks from the behaviour of these two.
Carefully Bell put a hand on Ryuu´s belly and carressed it gently. "I promise, I will come back...to both of you."
"Bell.."
"Ryuu, I love you."
Both closed their eyes and shared a long loving kiss, it might had been the longest kiss they ever had, it had to be worth for two weeks.
Wow..
Lucky her...
The Loki Familia couldn´t help themself, not one of the women could be angry at Bell in this moment, not after they saw how much he loved his wife.
Riveria cleared her throat. "Bell Cranel, we have to go now."
Bell and Ryuu separated their lips for a moment, then they kissed again for a short moment.
"I love you, Ryuu."
"I love you, Bell."
Until Bell vanished out of sight, Ryuu followed him with her eyes...and Bell looked over his shoulder to her. It would be a long time until they would see each other again .
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...Way longer than just two weeks...
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On the 52nd Floor...
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"Aaaaaaah! Aaaarghlbluawgrl!"
Monsters, lots and lots of monsters were running...away in fear. Something followed them to hunt every single one of them down...and everything else that would come into it´s way.
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And much deeper down in the dungeon...behind the icy hell...
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Fwhp!
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Fwhp!
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A titanic roar shook the whole Floor...
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A floor ten times bigger than Orario.
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Authors Note2: So this was the intro for the Expedition Ark
The next chapter will be a small one in its own, about what Ais did before and during Bell´s visit at the Loki Mansion...and yes this chapter will be pretty lewd, but it has an actual meaning and isn´t just fanservice, since this story is all about Bell and Ryuu, what happens to Ais in her extra chapter is all I can give her. If you read it you know what I mean. Ais gets her big role after all in the next story.
I put it extra for those who don´t want to read it. You miss nothing by skipping it, I just was in the mood to write it and didn´t want to make it an extra story. So if you don´t like those stuff, just skip the next chapter, it will come out today or tomorrow. Start of the next week will be the start of the Expedition.
So long.
Oh and btw for those who are wondering, I am aware that Ais beat Udaeus on level five alone and Bell is level seven. But Ais didn´t fought Udaeus for the first time like Bell, she would have died afterwards if Riveria wasn´t there and Bell wanted to protect that party.
And one last thing.
I will do my absolute best for the last two chapters of the story to make you cry. O,...,o (not in a bad way...maybe?)