The day after he won the tournament, Bell looked up to the entrance of the forge complex, that was the home of the Goibniu Familia.
I guess it´s here.
After he talked with Ryuu, Bell had returned to the arena and apologized for running off like that. Surprisingly no one was mad or something like that, some people in the crowd yelled they could understand him and cheered for him, he didn´t understand why. Then the goddess Freya got up from her place.
"Young man, you have fought outstanding and earned the price, now choose."
"I-I would like a weapon."
"Very well."
He had received an envelope with the symbol of the Freya Familia, they told him to give it to the Goibniu Familia. Bell adjusted his backpack and knocked against the open door, that lead to the forge.
Shortly after, a man with a leather apron came out.
"How can I help you?"
"Good day, I-I would like to speak with lord Goibniu. I was told to give him this letter."
The man eyed the envelope, then he nodded.
"Alright, follow me."
"Yes."
The man led Bell through the forge, on every anvil there was a smith or two working, it was pretty loud. At the back of the forge was a door, that looked like nothing special, the man knocked.
"Master, the winner is here to talk to you."
A voice came from the inside. "Come in."
.
The man opened the door for Bell and closed it after he went inside alone. It was a spacey room, filled with shelves, weapon stands and a forge. At a workbench next to the forge sat the god. He looked like an old man with a white beard that reached down to his chest and long hair. He only wore pants, his upper body and feet were naked. The god put down the piece he was working on and turned to Bell.
"Welcome young man, you are the winner?"
"Y-yes, lord Goibniu!" Bell bowed and handed the envelope to the god.
After opening the envelope and reading the letter he nodded.
"Looks alright to me, now what shall it be?"
"I..ahm.."
"Hm?"
Bell took a deep breath. "The weapon isn´t meant for me, I would like you to forge it for someone else...as a gift."
"Oho, fighting so hard in the tournament and not wanting the price for yourself?"
"Yes."
"And what kind of weapon do you want?"
Bell looked nervous over his shoulder for a moment.
He threw himself into the Takemikazuchi-style pose and bowed down deep before the god. "L-Lord Goibniu, I would like to ask you for a favor...please...please don´t talk to anyone about what am I going to say to you now!"
The god leaned back and stroked his beard. "You have my word, everything will stay only between us, but please stand up." I wonder what it is, must be something important.
Bell opened his backpack and took something out, that was long enough to not fit fully into the bag. He unwrapped the bundle and gave the antlers to the god.
"What do we have here..." He mustered the antlers, took some small tools from the work bench and examined them. "Is it what I think it is?"
"It is a drop item from a so called Wolpertinger."
"Fascinating..." He stroked it slowly. "It must been ages since I saw that the last time, do you want me to use this?"
"Yes."
"Now tell me what kind of weapon do you have in mind, young man."
He swallowed. "Ahm...in the past, a few years ago, a smith from your Familia had a custom order from the Astrea Familia.."
The god looked lightly surprised as he put down the antlers. "Go on."
"It was a sword made of wood w-"
"Ah, the sword for the youngest one of the Familia, the "Gale Wind"."
"You remember it?"
"Of course, I remember all of the weapons that my children made...but why are you interested in that sword?"
"I would like you to use these antlers and..." Bell took something out of his backpack and showed it to the god, who´s eyes widened. "..this to forge a new sword."
The god took the other item from Bell and eyed it. "I assume...you know..her?"
"Yes, the..." He took a deep breath to calm down. "The sword is for her."
"So she is still alive...and blacklisted if I remember correct."
"Y..Yeah..."
"Then the rumors were true...I see no problem young man."
"You will forge it?"
"Yes I will and I promise you with these materials it will becmone a first tier weapon."
"T-Thank you so much!"
"Allow me another question."
"Sure!"
"This young woman that you want the sword for...is she important to you?"
Bell nodded with a serious face. "Very important."
Goibniu took out two small bowls. "I have something in mind, I need something else from you."
The god explained Bell what his idea was and at the end Bell nodded.
"That sounds good."
"It´s good to hear, that she found something in her life, that poor girl lost so much in the dark times..."
"But please.."
"Don´t worry, nobody will know anything from me."
"Thank you, lord Goibniu."
The god nodded. "It will be delivered to your Familia´s home when I´m done. About one and a half month."
That is perfect, I have two months.
"Then I wish you a good day, lord Gobiniu."
"Good day, young man."
.
After Bell left the forge, he took several deep breaths. He didn´t knew how the god would react when he mentioned Ryuu, but everything went well. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a small pouch.
One thing done...another to go.
The inside of the pouch was very...very important to Bell.
He walked in the direction of his home after he was finished with the second task.
"Bell."
Bell turned around when he heard a familiar female voice behind him.
"Ah! Miss Ais!"
Ais Wallenstein stood in front of him, in her casual white shirt and blue skirt, with a aouquet of white flowers, a bit behind her was a werewolf girl from her Familia with dark hair. She looked somehow depressed.
"I wanted to give you this."
"Eh? F-Flowers?"
"Yes, I wanted to congratulate for winning the tournament. Loki told me what would be the best."
"T-Thank you!" He beamed all over his face. "I´m really happy!"
"I´m glad." Ais smiled. "But I´m sorry I have to go now, we have a meeting at our home."
"Oh, okay. Again, thank you very much!"
"Goodbye, Bell." Ais waved and turned around.
"Goodbye, Miss Ais!"
Very happy, Bell turned around and ran in the direction of his home.
.
Back at his home, Bell opened the door.
"Hey everyone! Look at this, I got some flowers from Miss Ais!"
"Whaaat flowers fr-...Bell?! What is this?!"
.
Ais walked with a light smile on her lips and Anakity at her side to the Loki Familia´s home.
"Ahm...Miss Ais?"
"Yes?"
"Do you...have something against that boy?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean...do you hate him?"
"Why?"
"The flowers."
"Hm?" Ais tilted her head in confusion.
"Are you not aware of their meaning?"
"No? There are flowers."
"Ugh...okay I will explain..."
.
"Bell what have you done? What did you do to that girl?"
"Eh? W-What do you mean goddess? I did nothing!"
Haruhime came out of the kitchen and clasped her hands over her mouth when she saw the flowers. "Master Bell what have you done?!"
"Huh?"
Even Lily looked shocked. "Master Bell?! What did you do?!"
"What is with you everyone? I did nothing!"
"Yo Bell w- Holy! Who gave you these flowers?!"
"Talk to me! What is with you?!"
Mikoto stood next to Haruhime. "Sir Bell, do you not know the meaning of these flowers?"
"Eh? What meaning?"
Haruhime looked frightened. "Master Bell...these are...snowfall flowers."
"And?"
"Giving someone snowfall flowers means..."I want you dead"."
"What?!"
.
Back at Twillight Mansion, a teary eyed Ais rushed into the house, followed by Anakity.
"Ah my cute little Ais! Y-...Ais? What i-" Loki smiled at first, then she saw that Ais was nearly crying and looked flustered.
"Ais? Ah! Ouch Ah! Wh- Stop! Ah! What are you doing! Ouch! Aaaaah save meee!"
Before the meeting of the Loki Familia could start, their goddess received some divine punishment from Ais Wallenstein.
.
At the evening of the same day, a very embarassed Ais would appear at the Heart Mansion and appologize multiple times.
.
Later that day, Bell visited the Benevolent Mistress, he wanted to talk to Ryuu. They were only a few customers there so it should be possible to get a moment of her time. But as soon as he opened the door...
"Mister Bell!" An slightly angry looking Syr stormed into his direction.
"M-Miss Syr?"
"What have you done to my cute little Ryuu?"
"What do you mean?"
Syr leaned closer to him and whispered, she had that menacing smile on her face that even gods feared. "I saw everything you did...you pushed her against the pillar...ripped her clothes...pushed her down! How could you?!"
"I-It was an accident!"
"An accident? How can you cut a pure girls clothes and nearly bare her skin in public?!"
"I-I didn´t meant to!"
"Is that sooooo?" Syr leaned closer and eyed him.
"I swear!"
"S-Syr! I told you it was not like that!" A panicked Ryuu came rushing over.
But Syr only clung to Ryuu. "My poor little Ryuu!"
"P-please calm down Syr!"
After a few minutes, Syr was convinced that it was an accident and Bell didn´t meant harm to Ryuu.
"But again Ryuu, I´m really sorry."
"Y-You don´t have to...no one saw me."
Silence followed.
Both were still embarassed about what happened yesterday.
"A-Ahm..Bell..."
"Y-Yes?"
"Are you free today?"
"I did all of my tasks."
"Would you..." Ryuu looked embarassed to him. "Help me with the dishes?"
There was a mountain of dishes waiting for Ryuu, normally she would do it alone even if it took it´s time but...she wanted to spend some time with Bell.
"S-Sure."
At this evening the staff of the pub and the customers had something to watch, as Bell helped out. Whenever he and Ryuu came near each other, both smiled or averted their gaze blushing...it was nothing new for the pub but quite enjoyable...
The staff of the pub had something to say to Bell about what happened at the tournament.
Mia spoke to him when he was alone so no one else heard them. "So...you laid your hands on my staff hmm?"
"Ahm..."
She clapped him on the shoulder and winked. "I´m sure you will take responsibility."
Runoa looked at him flustered and said nothing.
Chloe had her evil smile. "Boy...you´re a real bunny aren´t you?"
And Ahnya just smiled. "That was a pretty good fight, but I bet I could have beaten you."
That wasn´t that far from the truth. From all of the staff members, Ahnya was the strongest...even stronger than Ryuu was. At least thats what Ryuu told him, to never make Ahnya really angry..and don´t ask about her past.
.
.
And so...nothing special happened in Orario for a while and two months went by.
.
But somewhere in or under Orario...some dark figures met again.
"Mylord! We have it!"
The robed figure handed the other something...something that looked like a scale...a black scale...a pretty large black scale.
"Excelent! Now we can start the preparations!"
"How long will it take, Mylord?"
"A while..."
"Oh..."
.
And finally, Ryuu´s birthday arrived.
.
Bell looked at the long wooden box on his bed, a week ago it was delivered by the Goibniu Familia and he had opened it only once to take a look. Right next to it was a big package.
I hope she will like it.
It was about half an hour before the break started at the pub, so he had to get going. Carefully he took the box under his left arm, the package under his right and went downstairs to the entrance.
"Ah master Bell, are you going now?" Haruhime came out of the living room when she heard him.
"Yes, I won´t be back before evening, I guess."
"Then have fun."
"Thank you."
.
He walked not as fast as usual, since he carried the wooden box and the package carefully, it would be a nightmare for him if he dropped it, so he arrived at the pub right before the break. Carefully he looked inside, Syr noticed him and pointed to the stairs. They had prepared a small surprise party for Ryuu and Mama Mia had given her tasks that kept her occupied upstairs.
"She is still upstairs, Chloe checked and it lookes like she will come down in a few minutes." Syr spoke softly.
The last customers had left and Syr closed the door, quiet and fast they cleaned the main room with Bell´s help. Since Ryuu was not a fan of sweet things Mama Mia had just prepared snacks instead of a cake.
"Oh Mr. Bell what is this?"
"Ah, you will see in a few minutes."
"Hmmmmmm...I´m curious." Syr smiled.
Not long after that they heard someone coming down the stairs. Ryuu looked a bit surprised when she saw Bell and the others.
"Wha-"
"""""Happy birthday, Ryuu!"""""
"Eh?"
It wasn´t Ryuu who told Bell about her birthday and not Syr, for elves it had no big meaning to celebrate that day, but Bell got the information from Astrea and so he told Syr.
"Heehee, did we surprise you?" Syr beamed all over her face.
"Y-Yes."
"Mission accomplished then!" Syr went over to Ryuu and pulled her into a hug.
"Ryuu I have something for you."
"Y-you don´t have to..." Ryuu looked embarassed.
"But I want to...now listen." Syr leaned to Ryuu´s left ear and started to whisper to her, so that no one else heard what she said.
Ryuu´s facial expression changed from embarassed, to confused and then a mixture of happiness and embarassement, from time to time she looked over to Bell and got redder by the second.
I wonder what Miss Syr is telling her.
"So Ryuu...deal?"
Red to the tips of her ears, but smiling happily, Ryuu nodded.
Runoa stepped forward. "Happy birthday, Ryuu. We three have talked and our next day off is for you, enjoy a small vacation."
"Th-Thank you everyone...b-but you don´t have to do that."
"But we want to."
"You get an additional day off, so you will have five days in a row, enjoy it." Mia nodded to her.
"Thank you, Mama Mia."
Slowly, Ryuu turned her face to Bell, who waited until the others were done.
"Bell.."
He smiled. "Before I give you my gift, here is something from someone else."
.
Bell handed her the package, together with an blank envelope. Ryuu opened the envelope and started to read the letter inside. She started to smile warmly and when she was done, she raised her head.
"Thank you, mother."
The package came from Ryuu´s goddess and in the letter she wrote, that she would watch around this time with her mirror. Astrea could see and hear Ryuu and the room she was in. Carefully, Ryuu started to open the package, inside was something wrapped in a cloth. With great care, Ryuu unfolded the cloth, it was a harp, small enough to be held with one hand. Made from wood and with ten silvery strings. A spirit harp. Wordless, Ryuu looked at the harp for a while, then she carefully pressed it to her heart. The number of strings and the harp itself had a deep meaning about her past. As Astrea had said, Ryuu had a beautiful singing voice and in the past she sung for her Familia or just lady Astrea from time to time. She had tried playing a harp a few times and it went very well. A spirit harp was by no means an easy to play instrument. Unlike a normal harp, someone had to open the heart to the instrument and let the feelings flow into the song. And that harp represented her Familia, the wooden frame was Astrea and the ten strings stood for her Familia members.
"*Hic* Thank you...*Hic*...I will learn how to play it..*Hic*." She was visibly touched.
.
Bell waited a few minutes until Ryuu was calm again.
"And now...something from me." With great care, Bell put the large wooden box onto a free table, it measured 1.3 meters.
"Bell...what is this?"
"Open it and find out." He smiled.
The others also watched curious as Ryuu slowly opened the box and then froze. Inside the box, bedded in red velvet, lay a sword. It was no ordinary sword with a blade made from metal.
It had the exact same length as Alf´s Lumina and the curve was similar, but the rest was different. Instead of wood, this sword looked like it was made from horn or...antlers. The blade had a nearly pure white color,
the back was dull and the cutting edge just a little bit sharper than her old sword. Small blue, red and green runes appeared and vanished along the blade...they were the kind of runes that only the gods could read. Sometimes they glowed, then they were invisible again.
But what caught Ryuu´s eyes the most was the hilt. It was the hilt of her old sword. Astrea sent it to Bell as wrote her a letter about his idea. The god Goibniu managed to fuse the two materials together in the process. The hilt wasn´t just forged on the blade...it rather looked like the blade was growing out of the hilt. In Ryuu´s eyes it was beyond beautiful. Very carefully, she ran her fingers over the blade, she felt a small vibration. Eventually her fingers reached the hilt, after a moment´s hesitation, she put her fingers around the hilt and picked it up.
Badumm!
A feeling like a strong heartbeat came over her and every single rune started to glow along the blade, all became visible at once.
Badumm!
What is this feeling?
Badumm!
It feels...warm.
Badumm!
Ryuu didn´t know how she knew this, but that heartbeat...was Bell´s.
"Bell?..."
Wordless, he handed her a note. On that note the god wrote an explanation.
.
I used the antlers that the young man gave me and the hilt.
Since you are very important to him, I came up with an idea and used blood and hair from him in the forging process.
The moment you pick up this sword and name it, it will be bound to your bloodline...and him.
You might feel some sort of connection and maybe feel him when he is close to you.
About the runes, these are names, I don´t know them but you probably do.
What followed were the names of her Familia members and...Ardee.
You have to test that sword out by yourself to see it´s full potential.
Beside it´s magical characteristics, I also forged the "Durandal" effect into this weapon, so it will be unreakable.
.
Ryuu looked up from the note into Bell´s face, the sword in her left hand.
"Bell..."
"I..hope you l-mf!"
.
Overwhelmed by her feelings, Ryuu lost selfcontrol, stepped forward, grabbed Bell´s shirt to pull him to her and kissed him.
.
"""Ooooh!""" Her friends were amazed, Ryuu would normally never do something like that in front of others.
After a moment she stepped back, only looking slightly embarassed.
"Bell...I don´t know how I should thank you for this..."
"It is enough for me that you are happy." He smiled.
Now what´s left...I have to give it a name...
Ryuu raised the sword and looked at it.
"Mother...I hope you are still watching...and I hope it is okay for you if I use this name."
For a moment all runes imbedded in the blade shone, when Ryuu decided on a name in her mind. The sword no longer felt like a sword...more like a an extension of her arm. Small lights and...wind...whirled around the blade, as if it were attuning to Ryuu´s magic.
"Ryuu, what will you call this blade?"
She smiled. "Justice Lumina."
The light of justice.