Hello everyone! Happy holidays and welcome to my first ever official fanfiction. I have another Danmachi story that I was writing but felt I should post this first. I want to do weekly uploads but sorry if I'm off a day or two. I don't really know what I'm doing so I'm just gonna go with the flow.

Enjoy :)

Posted 12/19/2020

*DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN DANMACHI

Prologue

Several hundred miles outside of Orario

It's around the end of his third year outside Orario's walls. He walks through a local village as he makes his way to his destination. He's a few days early, but time isn't of the essence, at least not to him, not now. As he walks through the village, he can hear their murmuring as he walks by. Some look upon him in awe, others in fear. He is quite well known in these regions, there aren't many like him all the way out here after all.

There are non as strong as him, at least…not here.

He keeps walking until he reaches a tree overlooking the lake below. He stretches, yawning, and makes himself comfortable as he awaits his meeting.

He reminisces of his old life, a part of him, though while short was filled with many adventures. He was well known back then, still is, though for a different reason. The few months he spent in the city he had come to call home- 'What is home anymore?' he thinks to himself. He hasn't had a home since then, since Orario. He moved on and explored, he visited many places in his three years outside those beautiful walls. He has learned a lot. Surprisingly, as diverse as Orario is, there is so much more the world has to offer. He would keep exploring if not for his need to return to his familia, and to return to her.

He is known to some as an assassin, a murderer. To others a hero. There were times when he held on to that dream, the dream to be a hero. It is inscribed into his falna, into his soul. He doesn't have Hestia's falna anymore. He's had many falnas, over his short stint outside Orario. It feels wrong to call anyone of those gods and goddess's, his goddess. But, he does what he must to get paid. Whether it be to kill or capture a criminal for a bounty, bodyguard deities, protect villages from monster raids, and even help farming familias plow the fields. As his strength far exceeds any ox pulled cart. He is reasonable in price and has few conditions, those being that the deity must supply him with their blood beforehand so they can't force him to stay, allow him to convert to any other deity after his task is complete, and he doesn't kill children and the elderly, though he does sometimes make exceptions for the latter.

He has leveled up in his time outside of Orario. It isn't hard, not with Liaris Freese. It takes more time than in Orario, sparring with the best of the best and fighting for his life in the dungeon helped with that. He feels dirty for showing his life story to any deity that pays enough. He would admit it is probably just as bad as selling one's body, for he is temporarily selling a part of his soul to the god he works for. He feels even better for saving Haruhime all those years ago. He sometimes wonders if she left Hestia familia for Takemikazuchi familia with Mikoto. His contact never tells him too much, just enough.

He prefers it that way, it doesn't spoil the surprise.

After sleeping under the great oak overlooking the lake, he goes back into the village to grab something to eat. He goes to a local pub, it quiets down when he walks in, before rising back up to what it was before he disturbed it, if not for the few hushed whispers here and there. He sits down in the corner and places a bag of coins on the table. A few moments later a waitress comes and grabs the coins, already knowing his usual order and trying to avoid talking to him anymore that she must. He misses the headstrong and fierce waitresses at the Hostess of Fertility and the usual banter he would hear whenever he walked in. As he awaited his order, he saw a drunkard get up and grab another waitress's wrist. Before the drunkard can even think about feeling her up, a knife whistled past his head, nicking his ear and embedding itself in the wall behind him. The pub stood in a shocked silence as the drunkard let go of the waitress' wrist, grabbed his ear and looked at the figure in the corner with wide eyes, before booking it out of the pub. He simply sat there and took a swig of the tankard in front of him.

Leaving the pub after his meal he walks to the village's orphanage down the road. He visits them often enough. The staff are wary of him, but the children don't mind.

He often tells them stories of the great heroes of old, much like the ones his grandfather told him. Sometimes, every once in a while, the children manage to get him to talk about the adventures of the heroes they hear of through travelers like himself.

He tells them of a boaz so strong he himself is an army, a pallum wise in his years able to break down even the most meticulous of plans, a high elf with enough magic to wipe towns off maps, and a princess of gold who fights as if she herself is the wind.

They ask of his own adventures to which he only chuckles. He tells them of his travels outside of Orario, but never those within. He only ever tells them that he has once trained and fought beside the best, until he chose to save the life of a girl. A girl, no a people, born from the depths of the earth. He doesn't regret it.

Though, he has paid dearly for it.

Standing at the end of a dock overlooking the water is a blond figure with a feather in his hat. The pale moonlight above reflecting in the rippling water below him, gently lapping the dock and nearby boats. The figure awaits patiently for someone. A meeting they hold every six months or so, however who he waits for doesn't always show up. He didn't last time. Yet still he waits.

A few moments later another figure drops down at the front of the dock, almost silently, before walking up to stand beside him.

"Good to know you made it"

"I wouldn't miss it, not this time at least" the new figure replies with a chuckle. "How are things, Hermes?"

"Same old, same old. Ouranos is being a grouch, Freya is after a new poor victim, though she still says you're more beautiful…You know she almost went on another excursion outside Orario to find you." the one identified as Hermes chuckled nervously, remembering how that conversation with Orario's resident Goddess of Beauty went.

"I'm sure she did but how are they? How is she?" the figure asks almost desperately.

"Loki and Hestia still won't talk to each other and Hestia familia recently dove to around the 36th floor on their own but didn't want to attempt any deeper without a more experienced familia or higher-level adventurers. Ryuu and Welf are leading as well as they can. They're doing fine without you, but…"

"It could be better," he sighs. "But, what about her."

"Patience." he laughs, "Don't worry kid, she's the same, aloof but the same, still melancholic about all that. But I'm su-"

"I'm returning soon." the figure says cutting off Hermes' rant.

"Huh, really? Your return would screw with the balance of power in Orario." Hermes states.

"And my leaving did as well!" the figure retorts, "Besides a stool stands on three legs, not two. And there are very few people who would be able to stop me, anyway" he adds softly before breaking into a laugh.

"I have one request before I go, could you give this to her?" he asks softly, taking out a black knife and a worn sheath.

Hermes gingerly takes the blade from the figure's hand. He knows of the power it used to hold when its owner was in Orario. He unsheathes it, showing a pristine if not dull blade. As clean as the day it was forged with beautiful markings in the god's language he could decipher if he so chose. The only sign of its age was found in the handle-where it was gently smoothed out to fit perfectly in one's hand- and in the sheath where the name of a certain goddess was barely visible in the weakening leather.

"Are you sure? Why not Hestia or Hestia familia to hold it until you return."

The figure let out a sad laugh, "Yes I'm sure. I can't use it without Hestia's falna, and while Hestia familia could put it to better use it is still connected to me. I would prefer she holds it for me. Besides Grandpa always said to never make a woman sad and I'm sure it would cheer her up until I return."

"The old man did say that huh?" Hermes laughs, "If you so wish, would you like me to tell her anything or just leave it with her."

"Drop it off in a place where she frequents most, away from prying eyes if possible. Drop off this message with the knife as well," he says as he takes out a piece of paper with a message written on it and hands it to Hermes. "I'm sure she would appreciate it."

And with that the figure turned around, walked to the end of the dock, and jumped over the roof tops, spinning as he did so and landed without so much as a sound. He then quickly dashed away, leaving Hermes there with a dull knife, as strong as any other, and a message.

Hermes stood there staring down at the knife in his hand before looking across the lake, then up at the moon, "So you're coming back to Orario, Bell Cranel. Well, I for one await your return."

I hope you enjoyed!

See you all later!