Chapter 9 - Two Different Kinds of Heat

When Bell woke up, he felt incredible. Every part of his body was so warm and soft.

It must have been because this was the first time he's slept in a bed instead of a sofa for a month and a half.

Plus, there was something even warmer and softer beside him.

It was the beautiful girl in his arms, Eina.

Her back was pressed against his, which created the most inviting warmth he had ever felt. It was gentler than a flame and filled his soul from top to bottom, like he had found the ultimate answer to life. An indescribable warmth that made him feel like this is where he belonged. For all of eternity.

He was about to fall asleep again when a heavenly smell pulled him out.

It was Eina's dark brown hair.

She smelled like a divine flower and he breathed it all in deeply until his lungs and heart couldn't take any more and pushed out all the air he didn't need through his nose. Then he kissed the back of her neck many times and created a melody with hums of pleasure.

Next was her pointy ear, poking just above her hair. Like the rabbits he used to chase on the farm back home.

It wasn't upright like it normally was when Eina was awake, but a little droopy as he thought about how adorable it looked.

He just couldn't resist a lick and a nibble, which suddenly created the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.

Eina moaning without any restraints. Bell bit down on his own lip to suppress a moan of his own. He didn't want to wake her up or embarrass himself with his own moans of pleasure at being able to play so intimately with his half elf.

She truly was the perfect woman for him, he felt. He loved everything about her.

Like when she held him as he grieved over his grandfather for the first time. Eina hadn't run away, pointed at him and laughed or looked at him in disgust. She just hugged him until he was okay.

It made him feel good, like he didn't have to always have his walls up around her or try to act like everything was okay. Even though he wanted to appear like an invincible hero in front of her.

As his grandfather once told him,

"Bell, a man needs to be strong and he must always appear so in front of his friends and strangers. Especially in front of those who are closest to him, because they will depend on you. Most of all your woman. It's okay to show a less controlled version of yourself every now and again, when you don't feel at your best and act on your emotions. Like when you get angry, sad or just want to cry when you lose someone or something important. But never rely on these emotions to get what you want, especially women. It'll only make you do something stupid that you'll regret later and lose the people you care about the most. Emotions are good, every now and again, but only when you don't rely on them. That's how you become strong and stay strong. No matter what. Do you understand?"

Then his grandfather pointed to a few examples in his favourite book 'Dungeon Orario'. He pointed out the strengths and flaws of each hero, how their decisions helped and turned against them when they relied too much on their emotions.

It was a lesson that Bell felt he still didn't fully understand, like everything else his grandfather taught him, because he hadn't experienced them yet. But that's why he had been forced to memorise them all, word for word until he could recite them in his sleep.

So far, everything had worked out for him. He had one of the most beautiful women in the world right now, in his arms. Plus, she had agreed to form a harem with him and all the other women he desired. Even better, she knew who they were and seemed to like them as well. This made him very happy and excited at the same time.

That's when he realised his mistake.

He was getting too excited as a familiar hard feeling made itself known and poked into Eina's backside.

Her heavenly soft and curvaceous bum.

Calm down. Calm down. He told himself. Otherwise, this could go badly. It could end right now.

So Bell decided to focus on something else.

Like his right arm which was wrapped around her chest. Er… yeah, he shouldn't have gone there. Originally, he tried to wrap it around her stomach, when they were deciding how to sleep together. But Eina instantly pulled it up to nestle between the deep valley of her breasts, where it remained. She giggled when he gasped at her bold move.

And right now, he had to summon all of his mental strength not to squeeze them right now.

While his left arm was... wait... was it asleep?

He couldn't feel a thing.

He had wanted to wrap this arm around her too, but that proved to be impossible.

So he just left it under the pillow where her head rested.

But that wasn't his biggest concern.

It was his right hand.

Caught between two heavenly mountains that were impossibly soft and full. He gave in and gave them a quick, but gentle squeeze.

They felt too good to be true, so he squeezed them a few more times to satisfy himself.

"Hmmm... Bell-kun... bad bunny..." Oh, no. Had she caught him in her sleep? Bell froze completely for a few seconds, but Eina only let out another satisfied hum.

Then she did the unthinkable.

She wiggled her bum against the spot between his legs and pushed back even further into him with her entire body.

The boy instantly felt hotter than the sun as he burned from head to toe. His problem had grown even larger now and it felt harder than before.

Bell started to panic when he heard her speak again.

"Bell-kuun... don't leave me, please..." She almost seemed to beg the last part as she pulled his right hand even deeper into her chest.

It sounded like she was in a nightmare. The little kick she made beneath the duvet convinced him of that. All sudden thoughts of lust vanished as he brought her in even closer with a hug and whispers between each kiss to the back of her neck.

"Shhh Eina, I'm here now. Your Bell isn't going to leave you. He's here to stay." She seemed to respond positively to that as he heard her sigh,

"My rabbit."

Her rabbit indeed.

And he would remain so for as long as she wanted.

Bell took this quiet time to think about what he would do next.

Normally, he would have left the church by now to go train with Ais, but she was on an expedition with her familia. No knowing how long that would take.

As for their date today, what should he do?

Well he did want to take her around Orario to explore it for a bit, but not for the entire day.

Why not go shopping again with Eina?

He noticed earlier that his armour had been almost damaged beyond repair. So might as well get a new one.

And since Eina knew all about it, why not take her along? Maybe he'd find armour from the same smith again!

Bell's imagination went wild as he planned the rest of their date in his head and went back to sleep.

Content with everything in his life so far.

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Eina's eyes fluttered open as she woke up with her biggest yawn ever.

There was no doubt in her mind that she had just had the best sleep of her life.

Nothing compared to this.

Then she remembered what 'this' was and squealed inside at the memory.

Bell and her had tried to find the best sleeping position for them both last night. Which after a bit of trial and error, plus a few tangled limbs as Bell tried his hardest not to touch her generously sized chest. They finally managed to find their favourite position. It was the most comfortable thing she could have never imagined.

Warmer than her mother and father's embrace, more intimate than her kisses with Bell and safer than any protection an adventurer could provide her.

To her, it felt like heaven. If there was ever a way to describe it.

Something that felt so good that it was almost impossible to believe.

And yet, here she was. In Bell's arms, experiencing it all.

Her first love.

And the first adventurer she had dared to pursue a romantic relationship with.

To be fair though, it wasn't fair to all the others.

They had tried, like the elf and dwarf who never seemed to give up.

Maybe that was her fault though, because she always chose her words carefully to avoid hurting them.

But Bell was different.

He didn't try to woo her like all the others, with compliments only about her beauty.

Which she did like, but only from Bell.

He didn't try to impress her with his status or any racial differences.

No, he stole her heart with the thing she desired most.

To be a part of his adventure.

Ever since she was a little girl, her mother and father had read her the stories of heroes.

She had wanted to be a hero too, an adventurer.

Or maybe she'd be an adventurer and meet her own hero, saved at the last moment by an awful danger and then carried off to a happily ever after.

But that's not how she turned out to be.

Her athletic ability was not all that great and she quickly pushed that idea aside.

Instead, she would focus on her strengths, which was her ability to study as she never found that too difficult.

That's when Eina decided that if she couldn't be an adventurer, then she'd work with them.

She studied hard to get good grades, which won her one of the school district's limited recommendations. This gave her the change that she longed for, to work at the guild's headquarters. To help the adventurer's on their quests to be a hero and become a part of their story.

That's not how it turned out though.

After she saw her own adventurer's die, one after the other, she started to see the reality of what they faced.

Death was inevitable, one only had to make a single mistake and it would be all over for them.

However, Eina couldn't shake the feeling like the mistake lay with her, not the ones who died in her care.

"That's arrogance, Tulle," Said a werewolf woman, one of the most experienced receptionists, as though she'd seen right through Eina. "There are safer jobs, but they chose to be adventurers. For money, for fame or just searching for some idiot sense of excitement in chasing 'the unknown' or something… there's no way we can save people that stupid."

Eina wanted to object to Rose's harsh words, but she knew deep down that it was true.

"It was their choice to go on an adventure. No matter how much we might try to talk them out of it, there'd be no point." Rose stated, but Eina could tell that a hint of grief came from her. Like she had fallen for an adventurer who was as she had described.

Eina never wanted to experience what that felt like.

While for those who survived, they seemed a bit too dependable.

Like they had everything in order and didn't need her help.

But that didn't stop her from trying.

In addition to the usual dungeon-prowling advice and regular meetings, she would also summon her adventurers to private lessons, where she crammed as much dungeon knowledge into their heads as possible.

Her beautiful face hid an extremely strict instructor who would have made the Spartans of the Ancient Times proud. It was to the point that she had gained a scary reputation among many adventurers. No one lasted all the way through her course, most ran halfway through and never returned. While Bell was barely surviving.

Tears threatened to leak out of his ruby-red eyes on more than one occasion. But even so, he stayed firmly seated at the desk.

His drive came from his idol.

The determination to reach that lofty goal was just slightly more powerful than his fear of Eina's harsh training.

Sometimes his brutal honesty and straightforward nature worked against him.

No matter how many times he fell in battle or in the classroom, he would always get back up and face the problem head-on.

Those were the qualities Eina liked about him.

At the very least, they were the reason she wanted to support him and cheer him on.

But now she had an even greater reason to do so.

She was his woman and he was her man.

A man who also wanted a harem, that naught boy. To be fair to him, she wasn't totally against it.

Eina was attracted to Ais, she had a breath-taking beauty that made even a few goddesses jealous.

However, she didn't want to lose Bell or have him forget about her.

That was what she made him promise her, before she accepted him inside her heart.

And he had almost broken that promise when he ran into that damned minotaur a few days back.

Those three days when he disappeared from her life were the worst she had ever experienced.

But she wouldn't dwell on that any further.

Bell was back and in bed beside her, nothing else mattered.

He was everything she had ever dreamed of.

An adventurer who needed her.

Loved her.

Made her feel like she was a crucial part of his journey, his story to becoming a hero.

It was almost too good to be true.

Until she felt him squeeze her again and kiss the back of her neck as he pulled her in even deeper into himself.

Yes, this was everything she could have ever hoped for.

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"Bell!" A girlish giggle broke out as he woke up again and began kissing his elvish partner mercilessly.

They continued like that until Bell was completely satisfied.

A few minutes later, only sighs of content could be heard from them.

"Did you sleep well?" The white-haired bunny asked.

"Hmmm… yes… the best…" Then another kiss graced her neck. "Okay, that's it!"

Eina finally turned around to face him.

"My turn." Making Bell laugh as they engaged in another duel of kisses.

It ended with her losing as she didn't have the stamina to keep up with him. Most likely because of his falna, she guessed.

The boy just grinned at her, knowingly.

"So… you ready for our date today?" He announced.

"Yes!" Her ears bounced up in excitement.

Then she kissed him again, before they both got up. Bell got dressed and Eina told him that she'd need to go back home first, as she hadn't brought clothes for the date with her.

So they went to Eina's apartment today and Bell waited outside, but not too closely so her colleagues wouldn't notice him.

When she came back out, his jaw dropped.

Her hair remained the same and she wasn't wearing any glasses, but she wore a loose white blouse with pink and purple water-coloured flowers. A folded aqua blue skirt that stopped just below her knees and a large cute bow of the same colour floated over her slim waist.

Bare, smooth white shins and a pair of brown ankle boots completed her show stopping look.

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Picture of Eina's outfit - /a/bO0MbNf

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The boy just stood there like a fish with its mouth open, until an elvish giggle brought him back from his stupor.

"So… anything to say, Bell?" Eina teased with a sway of her hips to one side and her hands spread out as if to say, look all you want, because this is for you.

Bell spent a whole minute taking her in, from head to toe, before biting his bottom lip and said.

"…beautiful." In a breath-taking manner.

Eina was more than pleased and surprised by his reaction. She hadn't expected to render him almost mute, but the way he looked at her sent chills up and down her spine. Bell was the first person to see her in this outfit and she was delighted with his response.

The beautiful half-elf giggled and blushed until Bell pulled her in by the waist for a quick passionate kiss.

"You always look beautiful to me." More giggles and kisses. "Now let's go, before someone sees us." Bell whispered and led her towards their first destination.

.

"Sooo Bell, where are we going?"

"Babel." He grinned, before squeezing her hand that was entangled with his.

"Babel? What for?"

"New armour, my old one was destroyed by the minotaur."

"What?! Bell, how long have you had that armour for?"

"Er… three weeks?"

"Three weeks?! Bell, most adventurers would make it last for a year before they upgraded." Eina sighed, but she really wasn't mad at him.

"Well, there's nothing I could have done about it." Bell chuckled.

"Bell… just what am I going to do with you?" She smiled.

"Help me find new armour." The half elf smirked.

"And what makes you think I'll be able to help you with this time… hmm?" Two can play at that game, Bell decided.

"With a woman as beautiful as you? Anything's possible." He winked.

His confidence had skyrocketed this morning after he woke up with Eina. He was less worried around her and more excited than anything else.

This was going to be a great day; he could feel it!

.

They reached the eight floor of the white Babel Tower where Bell led them to the store that Eina had brought him to several weeks ago.

"Bell, what are we looking for?"

"Er, more of the same armour I bought before."

"Light armour?"

"Yes, but of a specific make."

"Okay, then we should go to the customer service counter and ask them first. Save us a lot of time and trouble."

Bell agreed and off they went until they heard two very angry voices arguing with each other.

"Why always… the middle of nowhere…! You have something against me…?!"

The closer he got, the more words he could make out.

There was a young man, a human, exchanging words with an extremely exhausted store employee. The one who was angrily speaking right now was wearing a long black coat… but it was in a really rough shape, almost like rags.

He also had a head full of flaming red hair and looked a bit older than him. Maybe a bit taller, too, and muscular but not beefy.

When Bell saw his face as he stepped up to the counter, he noticed something strange. The man had short hair that looked like they had been cut by himself, because his bangs kept getting in his eyes.

There was also a box of light armour parts on the counter in front of him. Judging by his choice of words and angry demeanour, Bell's best guess was that he was also an adventurer. So maybe the armour he bought was defective?

"This is my lifeblood, you hear me? At least treat me like everyone else!" The man continued to rant.

"This was a decision made by management… It needs to sell, and without that…" But the clerk's response only seemed to make him angrier.

Bell didn't want to interrupt, because he felt like this was important to him somehow.

Eina elbowed him gently in the side.

"Bell, go speak with the clerk behind the second counter and ask for your armour."

Said clerk was also a human, but a woman this time. She had strong features, but Bell ignored most of it.

"Do you have anything made by Welf Crozzo…?"

Silence. The argument stopped as the clerk's eyes went wide, and the two men arguing at the other counter slowly turned to face him.

Huh… wh-what?

Four sets of eyes are locked onto him right now; this was so awkward.

"… U-um, are you looking for Welf Crozzo's work…?"

"Y-yes. I want to buy armour made by Welf Crozzo…"

Bell had never heard someone so scared to ask a question in his life. Just responding felt like something bad would happen if he said something wrong.

But the first person to react wasn't the clerk in front of Bell. It was the young man with flaming red hair who had been arguing at the other counter just a few moments ago.

"Hee… ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah! Would you look at that! There is at least one name on my list of clients!"

After laughing at the top of his lungs, the young man turned to face the clerk, before slamming his hand down on the counter.

The clerk behind him didn't respond, he just stood there doing his best to fade into the background.

"Yessir, adventurer, if you're looking for Welf Crozzo armour…"

"Eh?!"

"Right here."

Swish. He picked up the box and slid it onto the counter in front of him.

Inside is a full set of shiny, white light armour.

"So how 'bout it? Will you try it out?"

"Eh? Umm, isn't this yours…?"

Was that a strange question? Because as soon as Bell finished speaking, he blinked a few times, before smiling like a kid in a toy store.

Then looked at Bell square in the eyes, before saying, "Yep, it's mine, all right… I forged it you see."

"-huh?"

"Please allow me to introduce myself, fan number one. The name's Welf Crozzo, currently-"

His voice cut off mid-sentence when he glanced over Bell's shoulder. The man's eyes bulged out and he looked like he was going to run away.

Bell looked behind him and saw Eina with her mouth hung open.

What was wrong? Why did the room suddenly feel like it had turned ice cold?

Suddenly, Bell felt like a tap on his shoulder.

He turned around and saw the man now terrified.

"We should go somewhere else-" Welf whispered but was then cut off.

"No!" Eina had spoken up. "He's with me." Welf froze in fear, Bell felt like there was something he was missing.

"Eina… what's going on?" She didn't respond at first, because her face looked like it was going through many different emotions.

Bell was getting worried, "Eina, are you okay?"

"Y-yes… b-but we should speak somewhere else."

"Okay?" Even more confused than ever, Bell turned around to look at the man who introduced himself as Welf Crozzo earlier and saw nothing but shame and fear.

"Crozzo-san, what's wrong?"

"Please, don't call me that. I'm not particularly fond of my family name." Fond wouldn't be the word Bell used to describe his reaction. Welf seemed to loathe it.

Plus, right now he seemed immensely ashamed of something.

"Okay, Welf-san. You look terrified, is something okay? Have you met Eina before?"

Welf seemed to hesitate for a brief moment.

"My family burned down the elven forests, BUT I had nothing to do with it!"

Oh, Bell thought. Eina was a half elf who must have come from one of the forests that Welf's family had burnt down.

This was definitely a conversation they'd need to have elsewhere.

So Bell led them all out of the shop and into a space rest area, right next to the elevator entrance.

The aura surrounding him, Eina and Welf was intense.

Bell knew just by looking at Eina that she was torn between guilt and fear. So he took her by the hand and threaded his fingers through hers. Making her gasp out in surprise, but he didn't pull away. Instead he poured all of his feelings of love and support straight into her eyes until she nodded, as if to say that she trusted him.

Welf on the other hand looked even more terrified now. Whatever it was, he would have to approach this carefully.

When they all sat down on one of the benches nearby with Eina sitting behind him, Bell decided that it was best to ask Welf first. Seeing as how Eina was trembling so much in his hand right now.

"Welf-san, can you tell me exactly what you mean when you said that you had nothing to do with your family who burnt down the elven forests." Give a chance to defend himself first, because if he really was innocent then Bell didn't want to hold anything against him.

The man in front of him let out a heavy sigh, before telling his story.

Of how he was born into a family who used to make the most powerful magic swords in the world. They used to produce hundreds of them every week until they all disappeared one day. Even worse, everyone in their family lost the ability to produce magic swords.

That's when their king, from Rakia, disowned them. His family lost everything. Fame, fortune and power. Then they found out Welf, one of their own, could produce magic swords. Suddenly he was told to produce only magic swords.

Welf hated that, how they saw him and his magic swords as tools.

To him, weapons were a part of the wielder. No matter how much danger a person was in, they should always be able to count on their own weapon. Welf saw it as his duty as a smith to make weapons that last. Not to chase after glory with a weapon that'll always break before its wielder.

No one in his family would listen to him, so with a little help, he escaped to Orario.

But as soon as people learnt that he was a Crozzo, they begged him to forge magic swords and ignored everything else he had made. His customers wanted him for his name, not his work.

Of course he yelled and chased them all away. That's why he hated magic swords.

They had the power to rot people's souls. The user, the smith's pride - anyone and everyone. At the very least, Crozzo's magic swords did.

He'd never forge another magic sword.

Instead, he'd create a weapon that would never break.

One worthy for a god.

Or goddess.

That was his dream.

Bell listened to all of this, trying to find any deceptiveness in his words, but all he heard was the truth. The man really wasn't a cause for concern, but Eina was another matter. If she lost someone dear to her from those magic swords, even if Welf had never been involved, she might still hold it against him. That's what Bell was afraid of.

"…Bell… it's okay… I trust you." She said, before turning towards Welf who's eyes widened in fear. "And I don't hold a grudge against you… I understand that you're not one of them… it's just this was a bit much to take in."

Welf seemed to breathe out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you, for not holding it against me."

Then he asked Bell for his name.

"Seriously? You're Little Rookie?! The new record holder!"

Welf started to get excited again. Then he pushed the box of light armour in front of Bell.

"Do you still want this?"

"Yes?" Bell answered, a bit unsure of why he asked.

"Well you can have it for free." Eina and Bell looked at him in shock.

"For free?" Bell spoke.

"Yes… to be completely honest I don't want to lose you…"

The conversation went back and forth between them about how Bell was his first and only customer. Nothing made him happier then. Welf then asked him if he wanted to sign a direct contract with him.

Eina gasped beside him, then explained what that meant. It was a mutual agreement with smiths and adventurer's helping each other out.

Adventurers would bring drop items back from the dungeon for the smiths, who in turn use them to make strong weapons for the adventurers at a reduced price. An added bonus was that those weapons tended to be better since they were made for a specific person rather than for general sale.

This deal had the approval of Eina, his dungeon hunting advisor. So Bell accepted with hesitation. The man smiled at him like a brother would. Plus he seemed like a good man and smith too.

Welf proceeded to make a show of it, seemingly to let the other smiths know that Bell had already been taken.

Then he asked for a favour, in exchange for continuing to make any and all future equipment for him for free. This made Eina gasp again as Bell's face dropped.

"Here it is. You ready?"

"…" Bell held his breath and waited for his next words.

"Let me join your battle party."

Eina responded first. "Heh?!"

Then Welf explained himself, he wanted Bell's help to level up so he could acquire the Advanced Ability called Forge.

That ability was a complete game-changer for the smiths who got it. It wouldn't be an overstatement to say it could make or break the future for a smith. Welf then explained with a very sad look in his eyes exactly how much more his fellow smiths in Hephaistos Familia could do as soon as they levelled up. Problem was, they never took him on their trips to the dungeon. Something about being jealous of his hidden talent.

Bell accepted and they would start tomorrow. In the meantime, Welf would hold onto his new light armour seeing how Bell was on a date with his beautiful half-elf woman right now.

Eina protested at first, but Bell simply smiled as Welf gave him a brotherly thumbs up.

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"Well, that went better than expected. Wouldn't you agree, Eina?"

"Yes, it was a resounding success!" She smiled as lay her head on his left shoulder with both hands wrapped around his left hand and arm. Then she let out a deep sigh.

"Hey, Eina, you okay?"

"Yeah, I just didn't expect to run into a member of the Crozzo family back then."

"Oh…" He was worried about how she might have reacted if Welf had created weapons that burned down a forest she might have lived in.

"It's okay, none of Crozzo's family magic swords hurt me or my family." Bell breathed a sigh of relief. "I just grew up hearing stories about how terrible they were, so when I heard Welf-san introduce himself, I froze. You know? It was almost like a horror story had come true."

Bell then turned around to face Eina, before using his right hand to lift up her chin and kissed her deeply as if to say.

It's okay, I'm here and you're safe. I always protect you.

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A.N.

Thank you for the 77 story favourites, 83 followers and 14 positive reviews in the first week!

Apologies for giving you guys only three chapters instead of four and being over an hour late with it.

The story seriously kicked my ass this week and you'll see why when you read the rest of my author's notes at the end of each chapter!

This chapter's name was based on two different kinds of heat. The heat from Bell and Eina cuddling each other to the heat from Welf's name and family legacy. Their magic swords.

I figured if I'm going to lift any more noticeable chunks directly from the official translations, then I might as well list them here. As I'd rather not take credit for those particular moments.

Most of Eina's interaction with Rose, the werewolf reception and a bit of Eina's background were lifted directly from the light novel. Plus a bit of Bell's interaction with Welf.

But if anything feels different, then that's probably my own unique take with this story. Such as Eina wanting to be an adventurer and then deciding to become an advisor to help adventurers and be a part of their story. That extra bit was me trying to add more to her backstory.

Another note is because I couldn't come up with any ideas for the date and wanted to move the story along quicker, I decided the chapter there. Plus, it was a good place to leave it and I had reached around 5000 words, which is what I'm aiming for each chapter at a minimum.

Chapter 9: 5159 words. (Including a few dots that act as transitions and dividers)