Chapter 4

Hestia smiled and waved as her last customer walked away from the stand.

It hadn't been a very busy day, what with Monsterphelia coming up and everyone preparing for that. But she had finally sold her last potato snack.

She glanced down. Well, second to last. The last was hers.

She smiled and held it up, preparing to bite into it. It was the end of the day anyways, no one would want it so…

"I'll buy that."

Hestia's mouth floated over the snack. Slowly, almost painfully she tore herself away and turned to smile at the customer. "Of course good sir!" She failed at keeping her annoyance out of her voice. "I would be delighted to sell this to you!" She took a good look at the customer and felt her eye twitch.

It was that boy. What was his name? Bell? Bell Cranel, right? It was easy to remember.

He laughed, and Hestia found that she liked the sound. "I was actually wondering if you would like to join me for a meal my good lady. So, would you join me for a meal good lady?"

Hestia couldn't help herself, she grinned. He was so goofy. She'd noticed it the day before, when he was acting "cool." He was a silly character, but not unpleasant to be around. At least that was what she got after a single conversation with him which, wasn't a lot. But she felt confident in her assessment.

She also liked being treated like some noble despite her state of dress.

"Of course, this lady would be honored." She said it with teasing in her voice.

He gave a wide boy. "Then allow me to take you out." And held out a hand.

Hestia took his offered hand the potato snack forgotten. She'd be getting a far better meal soon.

"The Hostess of Fertility?" Hestia asked, raising an eyebrow at his choice of dining location.

He shrugged. "I was invited here earlier by one of the waitresses. Decided I didn't want to eat alone and the only other option I had was a cranky old man." Hestia giggled.

"Ah! Sir adventurer!" Hestia looked away from her partner towards the new voice. It was a silver haired waitress. Must have been who he was talking about.

"Ah good!" Bell clapped his hands together. "Table for two please."

The waitress blinked surprised. "T-two?"

Bell nodded. "Of course. I brought a friend along, I'd hardly like her to eat by her lonesome."

The waitress's gaze snapped to Hestia. It snapped back to Bell and she gave a wide, obviously fake, smile. "Of course! I would be happy to help you." Hestia could tell the poor girl was suffering inside.

Bell smiled. "That would be appreciated miss waitress." The girl's eyebrow twitched, before she turned around and led the pair to a table.

"So…" She hesitated. "Your orders if you please?"

Bell nodded to Hestia. "Well?"

Hestia went for a hefty meal. Could you blame her? She was living off potato snacks. Bell had something light. A salad… and that was it.

"So-" Hestia started between bites. "What are you? You can't be an adventurer; you've made it clear that you won't join any familias. That means that you have to have some occupation to take me out like this?"

Bell smirked at her. "How would you know that? For all you know I could be some rich noble child. What makes you certain I'm not?"

Hestia swallowed down another bite of her pasta. "Well, your attitude for one. Most nobles wouldn't act quite the way you've acted, all self-aware and stuff. At least I'm not aware of any who would act like that." Hestia internally admitted that she had no idea what she was talking about. "I could believe that you're the son of someone wealthy, just not a noble."

"Yes…" Bell mused leaning forward with his arm on the table resting his cheek on his hand. "I suppose my… father… is wealthy. Not that he'd lend me much of his wealth though." Bell chuckled about something.

Hestia raised an eyebrow and Bell chuckled. "I deal business, that's how I make money. I sell items that I come across. Really a lot of random junk."

"A pawnbroker then?" It was a logical guess.

"Something like that." He smiled mysteriously. Dang it all! Why did he have to be so hot?!

Bell glanced around, before raising his flask that he carried around everywhere to his lips. Hestia jabbed her fork into her pasta and, leaving the fork sticking up, she pointed at him. "You're paranoid!" She proclaimed.

He raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you say that?"

She looked back down at her fork. Man, this pasta dish was huge, her fork hadn't sagged at all. "You're secretive, like you're hiding something, and I've never seen you eat anything, and I've only ever seen you drink from that flask you carry around!"

He chuckled. "Yes, I'm very paranoid. Truthfully before I met you I've made it a point to avoid all the gods. Still am really-" he pointed at her. "-you're the exception."

Hestia couldn't help the large blush that erupted over her face. She noticed out of the corner of her eye the silver maid glaring at her.

She coughed awkwardly. "Well, thank you I guess." She then started shoveling her food into her mouth before he could give her another sexy look and cause her to start blushing again.

Once she gathered up her courage, she began questioning him again, and the two spent a good while getting to know each other. She ate all of her food, he didn't touch his, and all in all they had fun. He even let her eat his salad! A win win for everyone! Then he paid for their food.

It was nice.

And then… something happened.

Bell suddenly clenched his hands on the edge of the table head down. Surprised Hestia saw that his eyes seemed to glaze over and… were his teeth longer?

"Are you okay?" She asked. He took a deep breath, and Hestia decided that yes his teeth were longer. She seemed to be the only one that noticed, perhaps because she was sitting right next to him watching him, but he seemed to be leaking some kind of intimidating aura. And then the door to the place opened up.

And the Loki familia entered.

Bell clenched the table harder, and… was he vibrating? Concerned she reached over the table and took his hand. He looked up at her, eyes glazing. "Help me."

Hestia felt power in his words, but he was pleading. It was very obvious that he wasn't trying to command her in any way. Fortunately she was a goddess so it didn't work on her.

He was asking her for help though. "To get out of here?" He nodded, seemingly starting to drift. Hestia looked over at Loki familia and nodded. She didn't want to be in the same place as her either.

Carefully she helped him stand up, and he clung to her like she was his lifeline. Hestia didn't know what was going on, what she did know was that he needed help. When they passed by the Loki familia he'd shuddered, and his head had started to turn towards them. Hestia pulled him away.

Thankfully no one noticed his strange behavior, despite how crowded the place was, and they were able to make a getaway.

Ais stopped and quickly spun around. Had that been?

"Ais?" Riveria.

Ais looked around, scanning everywhere. She was sure that had been him! The boy with the beautiful eyes! She'd sensed his presence here!

Had she imagined it?

It took a moment for Ais to realize that she was making a scene.

"I'm sorry, it was nothing." But it wasn't nothing.

Ais had missed him, and the longing she'd felt all day had returned in full force.

Hestia hadn't known where to take Bell afterwards, so she took him to the only place she knew. Her home, an abandoned church.

It took a while for Bell to calm down. For the first little while he almost seemed to jerk against her, however given how little fight he put up it was clear that he wasn't actively seeking to go back. Now he seemed almost limp.

Hestia didn't like it.

"We're here." She let go of him and made a wide exaggerated motion with her arms and hands. "Welcome to my home!" She said it in a really grandiose tone.

Finally he reacted to her. He laughed, and Hestia grinned. She was glad, that her disposition seemed to help in some way.

"Seems like a fixer upper huh." He said this with a… tired? grin.

Hestia pouted. "It's a work in progress." She said taking a step into the church. She turned around. "Well what are you waiting for? Come in!" She frowned. What was that?!

He smiled gratefully and stepped into the building. "Thank you goddess." He said. He then followed her into the building.

Hestia led him towards the back of the church, her living area. The two sat down on opposite couches facing each other. "So, what happened back in the Hostess?"

Bell still looked ill. "Would be content if I said it was the Loki familia and leave it at that?"

Internally Hestia screamed yes. "I'm afraid it won't be that easy for you boy." She said the words in a teasing tone of voice.

Bell sighed. "It's strange. I've not known you long, a single conversation was all before tonight. But I feel like I can trust you." He narrowed his eyes at her. "You aren't using some kind of charm magic on me are you?"

Hestia laughed. "Charm magic? Me? Do I look like a goddess of beauty to you?"

He looked her up and down. "Yes."

She blushed. "I er… thanks. But no I'm not a goddess of beauty. As far as I'm aware I've done no magic on you."

He stared at her long and hard, before sighing again. "I can trust you, right?"

Hestia took a deep breath. "I swear by my authority as a god, whatever that may be worth, that you can trust me." She felt the power in the words, and this time it was deliberate.

There was a moment of silence, then he dropped the bombshell. "I am a vampire goddess Hestia. And one of those adventurers in Loki familia's blood smells really really good. It took everything I had to stop from attacking her, and had you not been their I can guarantee that I would have."

Hestia took several moments to take that in. "Well. I have a lot of questions." Vampire, she was familiar with the term, but she had descended from heaven recently, so her knowledge was lacking. What she did however know was that they were a mistake on Athena's part.

Of course Athena made a lot of mistakes so that wasn't saying much.

Hestia stared at him, she felt all of her questions bubbling on the surface just waiting to be asked, and yet she found she didn't need to ask them. Obviously she would, just not right now. Right now what she needed to focus on was.

"Are you okay?"

A moment, and then. "Thanks to you, yes. I am okay."

Hestia smiled. "That's good then."

AN: Not really happy with the second half of this chapter. I don't feel like I can really get it to feel like Bell. Now obviously this version of the character isn't the same as canon because he's a vampire but I don't want him to be completely alien. [I hope I've been successful on that front so far.] I've redone the second half of the chapter a few times and this was my best version so….

Want another omake?

Omake:

Bell was annoyed.

Collecting souls was annoying!

Seriously the things were obnoxious. They just kind of floated around waiting to be collected, occasionally one might notice him and run away because they realized what he was.

The grim reaper.

Well one of them anyway. He was starting to wonder if he should have taken up a different job. Maybe he should have contracted with some teenager, y'know entertainment in exchange for power that kind of thing. Nah didn't sound like him.

He glanced up and cut the minotaur charging at him in half. And that was another annoyance about this world! The freakin dungeon!

Most monsters didn't have souls so that wasn't the issue. The issue was all the adventurer souls that were just LYING AROUND!

Seriously they got themselves killed in the dumbest ways! Bell supposed he did get some kind of entertainment from this world, these adventurers seemed to have some kind of bet going to see who could get themselves killed in the most convoluted dumb way possible.

Actually, it wouldn't surprise him if the gods had bets of that nature going on.

"Hi?"

Bell blinked and put his scythe back on his back. There was a blond girl staring at him.

"Name?" He asked pulling out a clipboard.

She blinked in surprise. "Ah um, Ais, Ais Wallenstien."

Bell gave the list a scan. "Nope, you're not on here girl. Let me see, yeah. So you're gonna survive for at least another six months or so." He nodded. "You won't have to worry about your soul or its purity for a while."

Ais stared at him. He stared back. Eventually he shrugged. "Well, good luck with your life." He walked past her striding further into the dungeon. "Those souls aren't going to collect themselves."

Bell didn't really think about the implications of that girl being able to see the ghost spirit being that he was. Some people could just do that it wasn't abnormal or anything.

If only he knew.

Ais stared at the back of the white haired boy. What the heck had just happened?