Chapter 3

Bell was thirsty.

It was a feeling that he had grown used to. Ever since becoming a vampire he'd found that he didn't need to eat food or drink water anymore. In fact, he didn't like doing so. The only thing that could keep him sustained now was blood.

It was simultaneously an annoyance, and also convenient.

It was an annoyance because he felt hungry at seemingly random times. It wasn't actually random, it happened every few hours, but it felt random.

It was convenient because he knew how to manage it easily, unlike his meals, it didn't even take a lot of blood to fill him most of the time. Usually roughly a gulp.

So yes, Bell knew that he'd be fine. At least at the moment. Bell thought this as he raised a flask filled with blood to his lips. He drank a small gulp of blood and then smiled in the moonlight.

He was sitting on top of a building, his legs hanging off the roof. Occasionally someone, usually and adventurer, would walk by.

"So what's the city preparing for in a few days?" Bell asked.

Aethon stepped out of the shadows into the moonlight. "An event called Monsterphelia. It's a festival where Ganesha's monster tamers put on a show for everyone at the coliseum."

Bell grinned. "Sounds entertaining. Should I attend? Get myself a date?"

Aethon sat down next to bell, also letting his legs hang. "What brought this on?"

"Met a cute goddess. I find myself interested in her. Nothing romantic, at least not yet, but I want to hang out with her. Become friends."

Aethon nodded. "Yes, cute goddess indeed. Well, cute goddesses are always good things, so there shouldn't be any issues."

Bell raised an eyebrow at the man. "Experience?"

"Just take my word for it."

Bell chuckled and the two sat in a comfortable silence.

It sounded like there were three days till Monsterphelia. He had time to figure things out.

Bell glanced at Aethon. "I need a way to make money."

Aiz had been distracted.

Lefiya couldn't say what it was that distracted her friend, but regardless she could see that she had something else on her mind.

According to Tiona and Tione, Aiz was quite often off in her own little world but… This felt, different than normal.

Usually she would at least feel like she was doing something whilst her mind wandered. Now though? Well…

"Are you, going to eat Aiz?" Tiona had asked the question. Aiz had been staring at her food but it was clear that she wasn't planning on digging in to her breakfast anytime soon.

"What?" Aiz head jerked back and hit the back of her chair. Poor chair. "Oh, sorry." Almost hesitantly she reached towards her utensil and picked it up uncertainly.

Lefiya gathered up her courage. "Miss Aiz, if you don't mind me asking, what's wrong? You've been… off all day." And yesterday as well.

Lefiya had noticed that Aiz had been distracted when they'd left the dungeon. So after walking through the city and returning to the twilight manor everyone had been surprised by what had happened.

Upon reaching the front gate Loki charged out to greet them, jumping comically towards some of the female members with obvious perverted intentions. Tione and Tiona had dodged out of the way like expected, but Aiz?

Aiz was apparently so distracted that she didn't even instinctively respond the Loki's, er, advances the way she normally did. Loki had jumped her and Aiz had just, kept walking. Of course, Loki's grip wasn't strong enough to hang on so she had fallen off but the incident was still… strange.

Later in the showers a similar incident had happened.

Loki had decided that she didn't like being dragged around by Aiz. Apparently the shower floors hurt.

So Lefiya thought that her question was reasonable. Aiz had been off. More then normal at any rate.

"Sorry." Aiz apologized. "I've been, thinking." That didn't really answer the question.

"About?" Tiona prodded.

"Stuff, in the dungeon." Was Aiz being evasive on purpose? Or was it just the Sword Princess being the Sword Princess?

"What, stuff in the dungeon?"

"The incident."

"Which incident?"

"The one with the monsters." Yeah, she was doing this on purpose.

"Which monsters?"

Aiz hesitated. "The minotaur incident."

Tiona nodded seriously. "Yes, that was horrible, we made a terrible mistake."

"Ah!" Aiz suddenly nodded furiously. "Yes, of course."

Lefiya didn't think the twins had noticed but miss Aiz's response to that had been, unnatural. She didn't think Aiz had been thinking about how the familia had messed up.

So what had been on her mind?

Lefiya didn't know, but she was going to figure it out and help lady Aiz! She clenched her fist in front of her chest in determination. If anybody noticed nobody commented.

Aiz looked away. "Yes… of course." She muttered, her mind clearly returning to elsewhere.

Aiz didn't eat her breakfast that morning.

Bell hummed as he walked through the streets towards the Dungeon.

He'd learned of a way to make money. Magic stones were useful things and the only legal place to sell them was at the guild. But it was possible to illegally sell them elsewhere, which apparently was how Aethon made his money.

They weren't adventurers after all. It was actually pretty entertaining, one of the easiest places to pawn off magic stones was the Hermes familia, which upon Aethon telling him about the god Bell found quite amusing.

Apparently, Hermes was infamous for his hat. Bell couldn't wait to meet the man, if only for that.

All hail the hat.

What was that?

Bell instantly whipped around to look for the source. He'd been careless, he hadn't been hiding from the vision of a god. He hadn't thought he'd needed to. But that, that had clearly been a god's eyes on him.

Where were they?

"Oh!" Bell blinked, a silver haired waitress had jumped back in surprise. Bell stared at her. She blushed.

"Wha, why are you staring at me like that?" She asked in a seemingly nervous tone of voice.

This… waitress, she was a goddess. It was her smell, her blood. There was no doubt in Bell's mind that she was the one that he had sensed, he couldn't see any other gods. She was the only one that was around, and he'd sensed coming from behind him, away from the dungeon.

So the question then was, what did she want with him? And did she know he was a vampire?

He pulled his hood back and ignored the pain he felt from the sunlight. "Sorry, I was caught off guard by something. Did I startle you?"

The waitress goddess girl blushed and nodded. "Yeah, you just spun around so quickly, and you looked like you were on the defensive. I think you'd have shocked just about anybody." Right.

"Sorry about that. I felt like I was being watched and reacted instinctively."

The girl nodded her head in understanding. Bell got the feeling that she didn't understand just how creepy that feeling was or she probably wouldn't do it to people. "So-" She started. "-You dropped this yesterday." And she held out a magic crystal.

…Bell didn't collect magic crystals. He was just about to go and start collecting them but today was going to be the first time. Bell had to admit that it was a pretty good excuse though, probably would have worked on any adventurer. Fortunately, in this case he wasn't an adventurer.

It would probably be unfortunate one day, but for now it was fortunate.

"Thanks!" Bell smiled and held out his hand waiting for her to drop it into his hand. She hesitated for a moment, then did so.

Bell inclined his head. "Well if you'll excuse me miss waitress I should be going. Once again thank you for returning this to me." He turned away.

"Wait!"

Bell stopped. This girl was extremely suspicious. "Yes? Do you need something else? I'm unfortunately a little busy right now." A lie but fortunately he knew it would work. Vampires could lie to the gods. At least Aethon said they could.

"Oh." She sounded disappointed. "I was just wondering if you'd like to stop by and eat sometime."

Bell glanced back. Hostess of Fertility huh? "I'll think about it. Later though, right now…" He gestured with his hand.

She nodded in understanding. "Of course!" She said brightly.

He smiled, pulled up his hood, and left. He needed to keep his hiding up, that girl had some kind of supervision. He could hide from it; he didn't want to be found out. He nodded, he would hide from her vision, even if she didn't look for him again, he wasn't taking any chances.

He'd consider stopping by later. Either with Aethon, or somebody else.

Syr pouted as she realized something.

"We never traded names!"

She sighed. Oh well, it wasn't that bad, she was bound to learn it eventually. He had said that he'd stop by later.

Actually, he'd said he'd think about it.

Well, he'd probably stop by later, no one could deny a cute girl like herself!

Could they?

Ah well whatever. She'd spy on him later and learn more about him. She grinned and fist pumped the air.

"SYR! GET BACK TO WORK!"

She jumped in surprise. "Yes Mama Mia!" But first, work!

Bell had been leaving the corpses lying around so much that actually cutting up monsters to get to their cores was a novelty to Bell.

He supposed that adventurers were probably used to it but well… once again he wasn't an adventurer. Even though he had the Dungeon experience.

He got the feeling that the Dungeon was a lot more dreadful for actual adventurers. Of course he'd never been to the middle floors yet so he couldn't really say how dangerous it actually was.

How many adventurers made a living off of the upper floors he wondered? Probably not a whole ton but still.

Bell glanced down at his pouch. He'd already filled several bags with magic stones, he wondered if most adventurers got this many in the upper floors. He'd have to ask Aethon.

He sighed. "Might as well take a break, for a drink at least." He was starting to feel thirsty.

He took out his flask and, uncapping it, raised it to his lips. Normally he'd just drink the blood of the monsters he fought but he hadn't really thought about it. He wasn't hunting for blood, he was hunting for stones.

Ah well, he supposed he could be smarter later. Just so long as he actually was smarter.

He chuckled and his nails suddenly seemed to sharpen and his molar teeth grew longer. Back to the hunt!

AN: Shorter then the previous chapters but it didn't need to be longer. This chapter kind of exists just to introduce Syr and Lefiya. So I enjoyed this chapter.

So in part because of the lack of substance for this chapter I decided to try out what is known as "Omakes." Alright then, here goes!

Omake:

Aiz sighed. She didn't feel like she was growing stronger. Despite her efforts her excellia had only gone up a little bit this last time.

She needed to find a way to grow stronger faster!

Or at least find a way to deal with this feeling that she was lacking.

Then, as she was walking through the streets of Orairo she noticed something. It was out of the corner of her eye, nothing spectacular, in fact everything around it seemed to be more flashy, like they were trying to get your attention. But still, Aiz couldn't help it that her eyes strayed to this location.

"The Rabbit's Home?" It was a strange name to be sure. Aiz walked up to the establishment unsure. She'd never seen it before. Was it new? It must have been because glancing through the window's she saw no customers.

She hesitated, before making the decision to at least check the place out, see what kind of establishment it was.

So with a deep breath Aiz stepped through the door. And without knowing it her life changed in that moment.

A slight jingling sound alerted Aiz to the small bell that must be there to signify the entrance of a customer. Aiz took a moment to take a look around.

Place was small. At least smaller than she expected. There was a counter and several stools to sit on. On a nearby wall their was three round tables, each had a few cushioned chairs around them. Presumably for customers to sit.

What immediately struck her was just how welcome and… homey it felt. Like returning to the warmth of a house after being outside in the cold. It was a pleasant feeling.

"Welcome!" She looked up, and behind the counter there was a boy. He was… cute was the word that came to Aiz's mind. Cute like a rabbit. He had bright white hair and red eyes. He was dressed nicely, a white shirt and a suit, but he was lacking in a tie.

"Could I help you with anything?" He had a kind helpful smile. It was pleasant.

Taking a seat at one of the stools on the counter she realized what kind of establishment this was, it was an eating place, despite being quite small. She looked up at the menu, it seemed to be mostly made up of deserts, although there were a few lunches as well.

Making a choice she pointed. He grinned. "Good choice, would you like a drink?" She thought about it but shook her head. She wasn't thirsty right now.

With a smile he reached down beneath the counter, and he pulled out a slice of cake, strawberry cake if her order was to be believed. He set it in front of her, and with slight hesitation she took a bite.

It was delicious.

She stopped. She didn't feel like feeling good right now.

"What's wrong? Is it bad?" Looking up she could see a concerned face.

"I'm sorry, it tastes delicious. I'm just… a little tired I suppose." Not really a lie, this homely welcome feeling did make her feel a little tired.

He hummed. "Well, we all feel like that sometimes. Personally when I'm upset I try to find something nice. I think of all the hero stories my grandpa used to tell me. Personally I like to imagine them doing something silly, they're always good for a laugh!"

Aiz smiled, albeit a small one. "Yes, heroes are." She agreed.

The boy chuckled. "So yeah, just imagine something funny. Like Albert Waldstien striking an epic pose before an audience, then being told off for a time and a place."

Aiz giggled. It was amusing to her because it had actually happened, her mother had told him off. Not that she'd tell this boy that.

He grinned. And Aiz decided to take another bite. She didn't regret it. She didn't regret eating the entire slice either.

She'd visit this place again, she decided.

She looked at the boy. "I'm Aiz Wallenstien." She wasn't sure what compelled her to introduce herself but still she did so.

The boy grinned again. "I'm Bell, Bell Cranel!"

Yeah, she'd visit again.

AN: Aw, and now I've screwed myself over. I want to see a full fledged story with this concept in the hands of someone who knows how to write it. [Cause I sure don't.] Just imagine it, you could get some awesome chapters out of the other characters from the Loki familia, some good chapters out of the various gods, heck imagine Lily stopping by for whatever reason!

It would make an awesome full-fledged story. Someone should write it. Maybe Suahtloh? [If you read this I'm joking.] But seriously, someone who knows how should write a story with this concept. You don't have to but it would be really awesome!