A/N
Welcome one and all! Fear not, I am still here! (whether you like it or not!)
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Forgot to mention in the last chapter that the goddess you all met was in fact Nusa-kor-kamuy, she is the one I mentioned that will replace Hermes Familia in Orario.
You will all learn more about her in the future, but her children will be the two shown in the last chapter, and a variety from the now disbanded Apollo and Hermes Familias.
I don't want to add any more OC's than that.
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Please enjoy!
5,110 Words in total.
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Riveria shifter her weight right, then center again as she stood from couched beside the elated girl and embarrassed boy.
She couldn't help but let her smile persist while Bell struggled with his current situation, flailing about as Ais held onto him with a hug of death.
Bell, dying of embarrassment as this went on and on, at least wasn't freezing up like he had last night.
She looked around the room, seeing it in better condition than at any point in the last week.
"Did you do all this Bell?" Riveria asked.
He question was met with a deep exhale, that exhale being all that was left within the boy, she elected to intervene.
She wanted to intervene.
But who was she to end such a happy moment for the two, er, Ais.
Someone who wanted Bell to live past today, that's who. The princess crouched again, then shifted to be on one knee as her hands wiggled between their shoulders, trying to pry them apart.
She struggled, voice strained. "A-Ais! Let- him- go-!"
"No!" Shouted Ais.
Bell could feel his soul leaving.
"I will make you go swimming Ais!"
The girl flew back.
Bell could finally breathe, talking several seconds to cough, before sitting up with Riveria's assistance. He was somewhat surprised to see Ais down cast, as though she'd come face to face with death, shaking and huddled off by the book shelfs.
"I-Is she okay?" He asked towards Riveria while still observing Ais.
She sighed. "Yes, she'll get over it."
He peeled his eyes off the shell shocked girl, letting them quickly drift to Riveria beside him. "So… Swimming?"
The princess slowly turned away. "It's nothing…"
"She tried to drown me!" Bell's head whipped over to Ais, who had only temporarily come back to reality.
"You called me 'Old Hag'!" The wall would have reacted more than Ais, who had already left them again.
"What…" Was all Bell could say to this.
Riveria only began to pout, turning away from the boy as well.
The library doors flew open.
"There 'e is!" Loki shouted just after the doors banged loudly against the walls. "He's 'n here!"
Before Bell could guess who she'd been calling down the hall to, Ryuu came into view, finding him as she entered behind the goddess.
Her pace picked up, speed walking over as he stood, almost falling when his foot slid on a book, one of those scattered across the floor because of Ais just a few minutes ago.
Riveria only noticed the book because of his near tumble.
Soon enough, Bell and Ryuu stood face to face.
Bell was a little unsettled by the angry, happy and stressed look in her eyes.
"How have-" Bell was cut off.
"Are you hurt?"
"Wha-"
"Are you hurt?" Ryuu's eyes became sharper.
"N-No… I think."
"You think?!"
Riviera picked up the book Bell had stepped on, the title reading 'Ancient Elvendom: from those lost to time.'.
"Ah- No, I'm fine, thank you for the concern!"
She sighed. "Good."
They continued to share their gaze, neither speaking, but a smile slowly appearing on both.
Riveria was skimming the books table of contents, not recognizing any of these chapters or topics. 'Have I never read this one? But, it was out on the table?'
"How's the Hostess been?" Bell tried to get an actual conversation going.
Ryuu perked up just barely. "It's been good. Everyone sends their best."
Bell smiled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Almost forgot. I still owe Mia some work time."
Ryuu quickly raised her hands up, waving them ahead of herself. "N-No, Mia would understand if you didn't feel up to it, please don't worry about it!"
Riveria slowly made her way to one of the last titles in the table of contents.
He sighed, smiling. "No, it'd be good to do something more… Normal…"
"O-Oh..." Ryuu stuttered out, not really sure what to say after that.
'-Great kings- -Elven Heroes-' "-Snow Elves?" Riveria spoke the last chapter's name aloud, which was also the first one she'd felt lost on.
The emerald haired woman could almost feel Bell flinch from several feet away.
Everything stopped, the four people, including the slowly recovering Ais, stared at him.
"Bell?" Riveria called, the only male present not even turning.
"Y-Yes…?"
"What's a Snow Elf?"
His voice was shaky, high pitched, and sounded of lies. "...Wouldn't know…(?)"
The princess deadpanned as he turned to her, nervousness coming across every part of his person.
"Well, I'm sure I don't need to tell ya, that was a lie…" Loki crossed her arms.
Bell quickly turned, leaning just around Ryuu, to glare at the now smirking goddess.
"Uncle Bell… What's a Snow Elf?" Ais called this time.
Not even thinking about how he'd now need to explain Ais and his relationship to Ryuu, Bell tried again.
"I-I don't-"
"Kid." Loki called, taking everyone's attention. "There's no point in lying."
Bell wanted to respond, but he couldn't find any words to do so. Loki was a little unsettled by the sheer fear coming through from his body language.
"Is this information really that dangerous?" The goddess asked.
Bell tried to at least give them something to understand his predicament.
"Right now, that information is trivial… But it can very easily become dangerous, too dangerous."
Loki scoffed. "We've got a full team of executives ranging from Level Five to Six, and you think we can't handle a little danger?"
"Yes." Bell responded immediately.
Loki was admittedly surprised by this.
"Bell." He looked over to the voice, finding Riveria having stood up, still holding the book. "Tell us."
He kept staring, the high elf returning his challenge whole heartedly, refusing to back down.
"...Are you sure…?"
They continued to stare, Riveria not wavering.
"Yes."
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Bell explained the basics of his people's lives, and their final days.
How they had been a peaceful people, never partaking in any of the wars that consumed the southern lands, always staying where they'd felt most at home.
Then, the death of his people, leaving out the reason behind it. Next the now lost culture he'd spent centuries trying to recover, with little, if any, success.
They ushered him to continue, the group of four wanting to hear more about him and so, reluctantly, he did.
Bell told them about his years in Anny's care before her passing, though not going into detail.
Ryuu wanted to speak up and talk about how the Ryumilua forest was where she'd grown up, but didn't feel it necessary, so she kept it to herself.
Bell made quick work of his time with Albert and Aria, having guessed there was a reason behind Ais' different last name, not wanting to out her with Ryuu here.
He didn't have much to say about the next half millennium of his life, having spent it slowly losing hope of ever finding his best friend's wife and daughter.
He knew it would incite questions, and he didn't feel like answering them after having talked for so long about less than preferable topics. So he left out his time with Artemis, and now, Eina. He also didn't want to burden them with the concept of Evilus, a chapter of his life he'd rather not remember.
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Bell was getting annoyed with the world lately, honestly thinking of gathering everyone he knew in one place and shouting over the crowd so he'd never have to tell the story again.
No, that was idiotic, he must be tired right now.
"...S-So you're older than the 'Age of the Gods'?" Ryuu asked.
He tiredly looked over to her. "Yes."
"E-Even before Albert took the Orarioan Fields?" The elf girl was desperately trying to get a sense of his age based on well known historical events.
"Y-Yes… I was actually there for the battle…"
Everyone, even Loki stared at him.
"It's not like I did all that much!" Bell both felt this was true and not at the same time.
Though this being the case, Loki didn't call him out, but he did see her eyes widen just a bit.
He continued to look between his four listeners.
"Okay then... Is there anything else we should know?" Riveria finally found her voice.
"Uh…?" Bell scratched his cheek, searching for anything he didn't purposefully miss.
"No, I think that's it."
"S-So you're older than the wall? The one around the city." Ryuu clarified, still trying to grasp his age.
"Yes." Bell smiled, finding Ryuu's questions somewhat amusing.
The light from the high window at the library's far end suddenly darkened, gaining attention from everyone.
This wouldn't have been an issue, but it wasn't some random cloud blotting out the light. In fact, it was-
"Trje!" Bell shouted, quickly standing hurrying over to just below the window.
"Get down!" Bell shouted from beneath the window sill, sitting some ten or twelve feet off the ground, Bell was actually very confused at how he'd gotten up there. Cats definitely can jump higher than most people, but still, there's definitely a limit?
"Trje." Bell spoke loudly, getting the fuzzy cat to look over the edge.
They stared at each other, the four at the table watching.
"Get down."
"Mwow."
"Get down!"
"Wmwouow!"
"Stop it before I get Naaza."
Trje hissed, Bell flinched, the others only able to wonder at the meaning behind this.
"Fine, I'll go get-"
"Uh, your Familia left a while ago." Loki spoke loudly from the other end of the room. "They went to open your guys' shop."
Bell simply hung his head a small way, and sighed angrily.
"Plan B it is." Bell spoke just loud enough.
Bell swiftly walked to the edge of the table, having more than half the room between him and Trje. He suddenly took off in a dead sprint for the wall below the window.
He lowered just barely in his last few steps, springing up and pushing on the wall about half way up, fingers catching on the window sill.
As the others watched on, they were very concerned, Bell was a Level Three according to the guild, how did he so easily run faster than Ryuu could.
Bell, oblivious to the very evident fascination plastered across the four, started to grab at Trje. But the cat realized Bell's intentions, simply stepping just a little further away with each attempt.
Eventually, Bell had pinched Trje between himself and the end of the window sill. The elf boy grinned victoriously, still hanging by one hand as he lunged. But he wouldn't catch Trje, no, the cat jumped, landing perfectly on one of the recently cleaned tables thanks to Bell's earlier efforts.
Bell watched this happen over his shoulder, an expression only readable as pure anger and defeat screamed out.
"Mwow." Trje teased from his new perch.
Bell stared daggers at the feline, before refocusing on the ledge, re-fixing his grip on it. He wasn't scared from the consequences of falling from this height, but he needed a minute to cool down, feeling the gazes of everyone behind him now.
He sighed, then eased his fingers, bending at the knees upon landing.
Now standing, he looked back at the cat. Though Trje couldn't physically do this, he could almost feel the cat grinning at him.
Trje jumped off the table, Bell and company watching him scamper across the room and eventually exit the library door, nobody sure of when it was that he'd entered in the first place.
Before anybody at the table could look back to the only male in the room, he was already seated again.
"Sorry about that, the little Beardsplitter has it out for me some days, I swear."
"...'' The four looked between themselves.
Riveria spoke up for the group. "Beardsplitter?"
"Oh- It's… Old slang…(?)" He seemed uncertain.
"Is it now…" Came Loki.
"Y-Yeah…" Bell knew she could see through his words.
The goddess only grinned, inciting the glares of the other three.
"I'm not telling. It slipped out either way. I don't normally talk like that! Honest!"
"Bell." Ryuu called. "What does it mean?"
"..."
"..."
"No."
They continued to glare, but unfortunately for them, this was the hill he'd die on.
He would take it to the grave if need be, especially with Ais here. The word, a less than polite way of saying 'penis', was in fact a word that Bell had heard Albert say a lot. Barring when the man was around his wife and daughter.
Ais did not need that type of memory of her dad.
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After some time, the long standing glares and questions about a certain word passed. The group of five made their way to the food hall of Twilight Manner.
Bell was quite excited to try today's food, openly stating that he'd never tried steam clams before. Riveria and Ais were mildly confused about Ryuu taking such an initiative to sit opposite of Bell.
The two women were watching with even more confusion as Ryuu stared holes through the boy, him being too preoccupied to even notice her stare.
But they learned why this was after his first bite, having put the faintest amount of broth from the dish into a clam shell then sucking everything up from it.
The three women simultaneously blushed faintly from the adorable sight of his wide smile and long wiggling ears.
It was settled, from this day forward secret war's would be waged for that which was currently Ryuu's seat.
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A short time later, Ryuu had left for work at the Hostess, only having the morning off.
Bell had made it back to the library with Ais and Rivera, now joined by Alicia and Lefiya, when a guard arrived to inform him of Syr waiting outside the front gate.
It only took a second for him to recall that Syr was either Horn or Freya, so he didn't keep her waiting any longer than his farewells took.
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Bell did not expect this when he found Syr, soon discerned as Horn, waiting patiently outside Twilight Manner for him.
Freya, Horn, Ottar and himself were currently touring the building which once upon a time belonged to Apollo Familia. Bell was rather confused when he first approached the building beside Horn, not even knowing of the structure's history before entering the gate, and soon the front door.
"This is all well and good, but what are we doing here exactly?" Bell asked, following just behind Goibniu himself as the group's guide.
Freya exclusively trusted this god with her own construction needs, the god and his followers were lesser to none when secrecy was involved. The god himself was responsible for a great deal of Folkvangr's construction, knowing every nook and cranny of the compound, but he'd die before ever speaking a word of his involvement.
An invaluable asset to the goddess.
Freya spoke up from beside him, Ottar and the now normal looking Horn trailing just behind. "Through some… Convincing, Ouranos has agreed that you should receive any unseized assets from Apollo Familia, including this home."
"So this mansion belongs to me?" He asked, more than a little skeptical.
"Yes." The goddess responded bluntly, genuinely surprising him. "I've had Goibniu-" She motioned to the man in front of her, the god grunting in recognition. "-install some… security measures beforehand, along with general renovations for convenience."
"Those being- What the?!" Bell exclaimed, the god having just led the group down a pathway alongside the courtyard, which was filled to the brim with statues of Apollo.
"Oh, that." Freya was all too unsurprised in Bell's opinion. "Some of my Familia will be stopping by to collect those for Folkvangr, we plan to use them for magic practice." She smiled.
"Ah… Okay then…"
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The building was a rectangle only just longer than wide.
In the central hallway, leading from the front door to the courtyard, you could go to the right at about half way, finding a short hallway. This hall ended at the right side lounge/living room, but also had two offices on the outer wall side. Between this hall and the courtyard was a kitchen.
Once in the living room, there was a door to the left connecting another hall to the room, going alongside and almost level with the courtyard while also having a door out to it. Front to back was the longer side of the building, and opposite of the courtyard window were a series of eight good sized bedrooms.
At the back corner was a staircase leading up to the second floor. Along with it was a storage room, taking up what was not hallway or staircase. In between that storage area and a mirrored storage area on the left side, was another set of six bedrooms.
The second floor looked a lot like the first, the front section consisted of various offices and a main hallway. The side wings being exact copies of below. The storage rooms were instead each a larger bedroom, and an armory replaced two rooms on the right side of the back six bedrooms, now four.
He was told that there was an unfinished bath house at the back side of the building, currently under construction and would be connected via a short hallway.
Bell noticed after the tour had finished on the second floor, that they had not seen the front left section of the house's first floor, and for good reason.
That section was being entirely redone as a hospital wing, taking up that entire front corner, as well as using the left first floor, and back side bedrooms. It was only then that he had learned from Freya that Heith was in fact leading the planning of this remodel.
Needless to say, Bell didn't want to stick around for very much longer.
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Bell was again walking beside Horn, once more disguised as Syr.
They passed street after street while heading north towards Western Main, bakeries, small-time shops, and other mom and pop stores dotted the cobbled lanes. The space between them filled in with various types of buildings made after the architecture from all across Genkai. Orario was truly the center of the world, a culmination of the various art styles belonging to cultures once seen as distant, now just down the street.
He was paying attention to everything around him, though he'd improved drastically since losing his goddess, Bell couldn't help but be hyper aware.
He watched the store fronts for oddities, windows for shadows, roofs for silhouette. He casually turned his head at every intersection, a glance to anyone else, was a scan for threats to Bell. He even went as far as to listen for footsteps, making sure nobody was following them at the same pace as they went, even turning at the wrong corners when people were behind them for a little too long.
He smiled though, noticing how Horn was forcing herself to step harder. Freya was only a little bit taller, but her weight was more than Horns, mostly due to… Other factors than just height. She tended to walk light footedly as herself, but to think she'd go this far for Freya's cover.
Bell could only smile.
"How are you doing, Bell?" She called out while they drifted down a less populated area of the district.
Bell sighed lightheartedly. "Could be better-" Horn abruptly began assessing him from the corner of her eye. "- but it's the type of thing only time can fix."
She seemed to deflate, though it was almost unnoticeable.
"I do appreciate your concern. Truly."
Horn relaxed her shoulders with a heavy exhale. "She would be upset if you weren't."
Bell smiled just a bit more. "Only she, huh?"
Horn smiled.
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Bell was once again in the library.
He was getting tired of sitting down and telling stories, but he had only just found something he hated even more. That was when other people told his story, like Riveria had done while he was out.
He now sat across from Lefiya and Alicia, both jumping in their seats from the giddy fascination bubbling out of them. It wasn't everyday that something this fascinating happened.
But Bell was tired now, and much to his annoyance, Riveria sat at the head of the table, going through page after page in 'Ancient Elvendom: from those lost to time.' asking question after question.
"So… In the north, winter could last years, with only days between the just ended and next winter?"
Bell nodded.
"Snow elves emitte a 'warmth' that draws people to them?"
Bell spoke with a rather worn voice. "Yes, it's the thing that messes with your head when I pass out, you may recall when I woke up on Floor Eighteen."
Bell and the elven duo across from him became momentarily concerned as Riveria refused to look up from the book resting on the table, refusing to make eye contact.
"A-Anyways, it says here that your people live for thousands of years, is that true?"
Riviera finally looked up, the pink on her face blending almost entirely with her natural skin color.
"Yeah- um, we live for a currently unknown lifespan, but yes, we do."
"What does that mean?" Alicia questioned.
"Hm?"
She clarified. "What do you mean your lifespan is unknown?"
Be took a quick breath. "No snow elf has ever died of natural causes before, so I have no actual number to give you."
It took a moment of thinking this over, but Lefiya found a question. "W-Wait, does that mean the ones from all the way back during creation were still alive?!"
"Yeah, grandpa told me all about the first days when Lady Goddess created us in our homeland." Bell said matter of factly.
He was only met with looks of shock.
"W-What was it like!" Riveria seemed almost desperate to hear this, quite unfortunate for her.
"I have no idea."
The emerald hair princess nearly fell backwards in her chair.
"You try remembering stories from before you could properly think!" Bell defended himself.
Lefiya stood from her seat, also a bit upset at this. "Wait, how old were you?!"
Bell was silent, in thought as he didn't normally give his own age and it's association to specific events.
"Uhh… Maybe… Two hundred, give or take a few decades."
This only stole away more attention for the more and more uncomfortable boy.
"Bell." Riveria spoke up. "How old are you?"
He was hesitant, especially after their last reactions.
"S-Somewhere over Twenty Three hundred."
The poor elf girl, Lefiya, was so shocked from this that she fell back into her chair, shattering it from the weight of her adventurers gear she for some reason still wore.
Alicia was the next one to speak, Riviera sitting in shock, and Lefiya… Well you know.
"S-So if a normal elf lives around a quarter millennium, and a high elf just over twice that…"
"He's older than my Great-Great-Grandfather…" Riveria muttered, still in a good deal of shock.
"..."
The room sat quiet, nobody speaking as they came to terms with the sheer age of the person they believed a normal human just a few weeks ago now.
"How- How old are you in terms of mental age?..." Riveria called.
Though she'd never admit it, the poor girl was just hoping she hadn't become emotionally invested with a person significantly older than herself in terms of mental age.
.
Mental age was something regarded mostly for the purposes of relationships, specifically that of interspecies relationships. Also, due to the frequency of humans being in these relationships, their age system was the benchmark to make things easier.
Humans typically lived in the range of Seventy to Eighty years on average, and again, they were the baseline.
An elf and high elf typically aged about the same as a human till their twenties, then they began to slow down, a human year lasting for them Four to Five years in mental age.
A dwarf aged, again, the same as a human before twenty, until their aging slowed down to around three years per human year for mental age. Dwarves typically lived to around one-hundred to one-hundred and ten years of age.
Pallums actually had a shorter lifespan than humans, a one to one with humans until the end of their life which averages at sixty to seventy years. Exceptions occur like in all species where a pallum may live to be over a hundred.
Animal people vary by subcategory, but for the most part, they are one to one with humans in every aspect of ageing.
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"Around Eighteen I think… Wait… uh… Maybe Nineteen by now?" Bell seemed to be asking himself questions as they simply listened in while Lefiya went to find herself a new chair.
Riveria was relieved to an extent, though he was notably younger, the difference between his nineteen and her mid thirties was reasonable. Though, it both did and didn't make her feel like a cradle robber.
"I-I see." Riveria smiled with mild relief.
Lefiya and Alicia were too busy trying to comprehend their crumbling world, or at least the parts about elven history, before the doors burst open.
Everyone, even the two shell shocked elves, turned to look, finding a seething Ais where the doors should have been.
"Ais?!" Riveria called out in surprise.
The golden haired girl couldn't take her anger filled eyes off of one person though.
She pouted. "You're home, and you didn't come see me?!"
"Ah-" Was all Bell could get out before Ais full send dove into him, leading to an unwillingly breathless Bell on the floor.
"A-Ais?!" Riveria stood, but didn't move.
"Lady Ais?!" Lefiya shouted, yet unknowing of their true relationship.
"A-Ais get off! I'm sorry alright!" Bell shouted with the first air he had to spare.
Lefiya was freaking out, not knowing what to do, fearing her idle to have been stolen out from under her.
"Ais, let him go!" Riveria finally found the logic in moving, quickly trying to separate the two for the second time today.
Lefiya was having her own little freak out, before blurting out a sentence she'd wish she'd never uttered.
"Bell! You already stole Lady Riveria! You can't steal Ais too!"
Everything froze.
Everything froze.
Slowly, every eye shifted to Lefiya, standing in between the table with Alicia, and the wrestling trio.
Lefiya's face began to heat up, realizing what she'd said. Riveria wasn't far behind her, only left to hope that Bell hadn't heard Lefiya.
But of course, Ais was the least fazed by this. "Riveria likes Bell?"
Once again, the room fell silent.
"N-No I-" The high elf attempted to save any honor she might've been losing.
But then Ais piped up again.
"Auntie Riveria?"
"..."
"..."
Riveria passed out from embarrassment, head steaming from an overclocked brain.
Bell was simply stunned as he looked at Ais, who was currently looking back at him with a questioning gaze.
"Smooth~" Alicia mumbled from beside Lefiya.
.
It would be a long night of explanations and blushes.
Alicia and Lefiya would be sworn to secrecy alongside Riveria after being woken, the latter of which having proven her inability to keep her mouth shut about personal secrets.
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Bell had just gotten up, he could see the sun shining through the curtains.
A new day.
He was hoping to encounter Miach or Naaza, needing to tell them about the revelations of yesterday and see if they would even want the old mansion provided by the guild from Apollo Familia.
So, game plan.
-Find his Familia captain and god.
-Find out the progress of the mansion's renovations.
-Try to avoid Riveria after yesterdays… Incident.
Bell stood, now dressed for the day, his luggage was half dirty, half clean. The snow elf hoping to soon find where he could clean said dirty clothes, not wanting to reuse them before then.
He got to the door, hand around the door knob.
He rotated… tried to rotate the knob, but it wouldn't budge.
He sighed, knowing full well that someone was trying to enter his room at the same time.
'For crying out loud! What if I'd been changing?! What kind of place is this!' Bell thought, just before forcing the handle to the side.
The door swung open, and there was Riveria.
"..."
"..."
"H-Hello." She muttered.
"Hi?" Bell questioned.
She seemed taken aback, the person she'd come here for now right in front of her.
Her mouth opened, but nothing came out, closed, then opened again as she seemed to get more and more flustered.
"C-C-C-Cranel…!" She fumbled out finally.
"..."
"Miss Alf?..." Bell quipped back, more and more confused by the second, wondering why this was happening before anything of value had been said.
She slowly lifted the book for him to see, the same one from yesterday, Bell reluctantly leaned forward, reading from the page shown as her hands seemed to tremble.
- The Cranel Family : Identified by their white hair and red eyes, this family has led the Snow Elf people since the oldest records of their existence. The exact reason they command the kingdom (village) is unknown, but it is known that they are seen as fair and just by the community. -
Bell finished reading, he did not want to look up.
From down the hall came Alicia and Lefiya, both out of breath from running to catch up with the Level Six.
"B-Bell!" Lefiya called with her none existent breath.
"I-Is it t-rue?!" Alicia fumbled her words as well.
As they gained their breath back, Riveria stared at him incessantly.
Bell took a second, then nodded wordlessly while looking at the open book in Riveria's hands.
Though they were going to believe this was his family whether he told them so or not, they did for a moment think he had confirmed this himself.
But no.
He was nodding to himself.
But what about you might ask.
Bell grabbed the book in one swift motion, immediately bolting down the hallway at breakneck speed, one that shouldn't have been possible for the Level Three.
He soon came to a family room, one with a hearth.
Before they could catch up, the elven trio watched as Bell grinned madly, throwing the source of his recent headaches into the flames, which was weird, because it was the late summer.
They stopped some six or seven feet from him, each staring at the leather binding that slowly became hollowed of pages.
They watched and watched, Bell believing he'd defeated them, but slowly coming to regret this more and more. He personally hated the destruction of knowledge, what he'd just done was quite horrible.
Until Riveria produced another copy from thin air.
Bell's momentarily relief was overshadowed by sudden and abrupt anger.
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A/N
Aye! You've reached the end, I am tired as heck, and need to get some sleep.
Sorry if this one seemed inconsistent in writing style, I've been reading a bit more recently and it's influencing that aspect of my writing.
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Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Take care and stay safe this weekend!