Hello, I'm back!

Thank you everyone for all the support and reviews on the last chapter.

I would like to thank Fathira for correcting me on my mistake of "epilogue" instead of "prologue", which was very embarrassing. And everyone else for voicing their opinions.

I saw some reviews on why Bell gave his knife to Ais/Aiz (Whatever you prefer). To me, the knife is something very special to Bell and so is Ais, especially given the fact that he was gone for so long and his want to catch up to her is etched into a part of his soul. So while it may seem like he should care about his familia more, and while they are important to him, when he is away from things important to who he is (Orario, the dungeon, his friends, his familia, his love) he would prioritize them, with Ais taking the cake. I think anyway.

Also also, I already have like three chapters done in advance so expect some suggestions to be integrated much later (if I choose to integrate them). I'll try for longer chapters but it may be harder considering school and stuff. Also, I don't want to add too much, because some chapters just feel like they should end there, for either a cliffhanger or to let something sink in, yeah? And while I could combine chapters it wouldn't always mesh well without me changing a bunch of things. Also, it gives me at least a few more weeks to come up with more chapters and allows me time to make sure they are of a certain quality. So it is for both your guys' and my benefit.

Anyway, onto the chapter.

Enjoy :)

Posted: 12/26/2020

Chapter 1- Gift from a friend

Orario- Twilight Manor, several days after the meeting.

It was another peaceful morning in Loki Familia's Twilight Manor. Adventurers were milling about, minding their own business and tending to their wounds as they had just come back from an expedition to the 65th floor days before. Upon realizing that the now temperate forests of the 59th to 65th floors give way to the glacier region, of which they weren't prepared, they were forced to turn back lest frostbite and hypothermia claim their lives.

They had finally beaten the main force of evilus just a year ago, though not without heavy casualties on both sides. The last of evilus, including Revis, hides in the Knossos, along with some of the Xenos that almost split Orario if not for a certain sacrifice.

That sacrifice was one that had to be made to keep Orario's trust in its adventurers. To place the blame for the destruction of Daedalus and Orario on the most hated adventurer in the city at the time. Of course, the guild tried to blame it on Ikelos but even then, no one trusted him, so for his safety and to appease the general public, the gods held a denatus and in a landslide vote against Hestia and her allies, banished Bell Cranel. Freya oddly enough did not voice her opinion for whatever reason. Loki and Ganesha and several other smaller deities sided against Hestia and her allies. Hermes, Hephaestus, Take, Miach, and surprisingly Soma, sided with Hestia, but it wasn't enough.

Orario wasn't the same afterward.

Back at the Twilight Manor, a certain golden-haired adventurer was going to a section of the nearby wall to relax. She usually hung out there, especially after Bell left, and more so after most of evilus' main force was destroyed, she spent more and more time at the wall, just sitting and thinking. She felt conflicted, she is one of the strongest adventurers in Orario but she doesn't feel strong enough. Not strong enough to beat the OEBD, not strong enough to save her mother, and not strong enough for Bell.

She didn't know how she felt about him when they fought all those years ago, why it tore her up inside to land strike after strike with the intent to cut him. Why, when she finally subdued him and he was arrested before finally being banished for both partial blame in the destruction of Daedalus and for his own safety, she felt like sitting curled up in her bed and crying.

She hated watching as the city booed and jeered at him. Watching as he held his chin up and said goodbye to his familia. No. His family. His falna stripped beforehand, if to kill him quicker outside the walls or to allow him to convert, she will never know. But she knew he was being strong for his familia, to not allow them to see him for the last time, as an outcast or a failure.

But his eyes said it all.

She didn't know why, but she wanted to run up to him and hug him, to cry into his shirt. But she bit her lip and held herself back, she would later regret doing so.

She watched as he walked past the gates, the guards stopping beforehand. She watched as he looked back upon the crowd of familiar faces trying to memorize all those, he knew one. last. time. She felt her heart flutter as his eyes landed on her last, and almost leapt out of her chest when she saw the way he looked at her. She didn't know why she felt like that at the time. But she has had three years to figure it out. And she did.

She loved him.

When she finally knew what she felt, it took her familia's executives to hold her back and stop her from leaving. It took Riveria saying that 'He's gone, and he can't come back,' to stop her. She took out her frustration in the dungeon slaying every bloody monster from the 1st to 18th floor. One-shotting Goliath, because she felt like it. Magic stones littered every floor and no other monsters spawned near her on her way up, even the dungeon was afraid. When she finally got back to the Loki familia gate, she collapsed in front of the guards and was taken back inside.

Now she spent an hour or so sitting in the section of wall she trained him on, thinking. Thinking what her life would be like if he stayed. Would she have realized her feelings and stood by his side, watch him be the hero he so often told her he wanted to be. Would they, together, slay the OEBD and save her mother. Would they marry? Would they have children? What would they look like?

Does he even love her?

And then like a teen in those romance novels she would find herself doing sword swings, asking herself, "He loves me, he loves me not…" and would always make sure to do an extra swing to land on the one she desired most.

She was lying to herself; he was not coming back.

He can't come back.

She may have forgiven him for saving the Xenos, for saving Wiene, but the rest of Orario wouldn't have.

When she finally reconciled with the fact that she loved him she went to his familia for answers, and unsurprisingly they didn't tell her. But that didn't stop her, she kept coming back, sometimes with gifts, until-if only out of pity-they told her. They told her of monsters that act as if they themselves are human…maybe, just maybe, they are. She of course would have called them crazy for believing such a thing, but she spent a lot of time thinking of such things. Thinking of when Bell asked her, what she would do if she encountered such monsters, only for her to tell him that no such monster could ever exist.

It pained her to know she was wrong, and in being wrong, drove him away.

She met Wiene, Lyd, and Rei first, her weapons confiscated beforehand, not that she couldn't kill them without weapons. However, after just a few minutes of talking, yes talking, to them. She understood. And she left, running away, not knowing how to deal with these new emotions. She apologized to them later and hadn't talked to them since. She didn't tell anyone else what she knew. That they were wrong, and Bell was punished because of it. She couldn't.

And so, these were the many things that she thought about on an almost daily basis. The wall was her safe space, so to speak. She always went there to start her day and just ponder things or stare off into space and watch the sunrise before the stress of the day caught up to her.

So, imagine her surprise when she finds a simple wooden box laying across the parapet she so often sat on, addressed to her. She at first wondered how another person knew of her whereabouts and took a quick look around to see if she was being followed. Not sensing anyone else on the wall, she cautiously took a few steps toward the box. It was simple in design, rounded at the corners of the lid with a small piece of parchment sticking out, which held her title, 'Kenki,' scribbled across it. The box was about the length of her forearm, maybe longer. She hesitantly picked up the box and after giving it a thorough search on the outside, even sniffing it, she found nothing out of the ordinary besides the box itself, which was made of some exotic-looking wood, trimmed with a type of metal. She cautiously unlatched the lid of the box and slowly opened it. She found something wrapped in what she assumed to be a silk cloth. She gripped it cautiously, feeling the shape of what the cloth hid. She felt a flat thin surface that slowly morphed into a more handle like object, that her hand easily fell into. She quickly deduced this was most likely a knife or dagger, based on the length and feel it was definitely familiar, like she's held it before. Happy with her skillful deduction and curious as to why someone would give her a knife and why it feels familiar, she slowly unwrapped it.

What she found brought her to tears.

It was his knife.

She quickly unsheathed it, seeing the runes she only saw in her memories. The blade was exactly as the day he left, if not very dull. It was his knife. 'Why it is here? Who brought it? Did he bring it? Is he here? Why me? Why not his familia? Is he okay? Did he die?' Hundreds of questions raced through her head as she tried to deduce why his knife was in her hands. Then suddenly a piece of parchment fluttered down to the ground. She quickly picked it up, reading it, she fell to her knees holding the knife close to her chest.

The parchment fell to the ground once more.

It read; 'Ais, can you please hold this for me until I return. I'll see you soon. ~Bell Cranel'

I hope you enjoyed that.

I know that Ais may seem a little more...emotional than she normally is, but if your only concept of love is that of your parents, and have spent many years being apathetic to most things only to realize that you may have found love again. Then have that very love ripped away from you because you were wrong in accepting the truth, I feel like Ais being Ais, would either act on it or repress it, and she already tried to repress the urge to hug him so of course, she would act on it. Also, we know Ais acts... differently in any aspect regarding Bell to the point that her familia members and Ais herself mentions it in canon so...you can blame that if the first excuse doesn't work.

Umm, I hope that makes sense as to why Ais may seem OOC.

Also yes, one-shotting Goliath because Goliath is level 2 and an angry, emotionally frustrated Ais would not be one for games, so maybe just Tempest and Lil Rafaga straight through Goliath's magic stone and leave.

Hope that explains some things.

Also because of school, I may post a chapter every two weeks instead, if I choose to make the chapters longer, just to give me more time.

Catch you all later!