A/N - Well I'm getting this out sooner than expected. I was gonna publish this wednes day but I was dragged to a super bowl party and not be the sports fan I am decided to take the time to edit this chapter.
Now to address some stuff last chapter, yes I know some parts were predictable but it needed to be done to set up plot and that kind of stuff.
Finally, I'm interested in if you guys would like me to write a Bell x Harem story I got an idea that would basically be Ryu, Ais, and Lefiya. If you guys are interested let me know and I'll start putting more work into planning it out.
And thats all. Enjoy the chapter.
After a frantic Bell was able to stop Eina's bleeding she fell into a deep sleep. With the help of Asfi, he was able to take Eina into one of the now abandoned houses to let her rest. Soon day turned to night and the realizations of the days events took their toll.
Bell sat in front of a fire that Asfi had prepared but was shaking uncontrollably with tears running down his face at the fact that he murdered someone. Asfi saw his distress and walked over to him, putting a gentle friendly hand on his shoulder.
"Bell, it's okay. You did what you needed too." Asfi sat down next to the boy in an effort to calm him.
"But Ms. Asfi I murdered him. Because of my decisions I have his blood on my hands."
"Bell look at me. If you didn't act Eina would be dead. Let me ask you this, did you enjoy killing him?"
"Wh- n-no of course not." Bell stuttered in between his tears.
"Then you're not a murderer. A murderer takes fun in the killing. That's what separates killers from heroes. Now, do you remember his face?"
"I don't think I'll ever forget it." Bell looked away from Asfi and back towards the dancing flames of the fire.
"Good. Don't ever forget his face because he won't ever forget yours." Asfi spoke with a kind of gentleness that a mother would speak to her child. "Now go to bed. As soon as Eina wakes up we're leaving this hell."
"Okay thank you Ms. Asfi." Bell got up from his seat, slowly and shakily walked to where his bed was. Leaving Asfi to her thoughts.
'Hermes when I get back you have some explaining to do.' Asfi then leaned back a little and sighed, "Gods damnit. What have we gotten into now."
The next morning Eina still hadn't woken up. Asfi left to patrol the perimeter of the village to make sure there were no troubles. Bell stayed in the house sitting next to Eina with tears running.
"I'm sorry Eina, I'm so sorry that this had to happen. If only I stayed with you." Bell felt something warm touch his hand. He opened his eyes to find Eina awake.
"It's okay Bell. I know you did what was right. You put your faith in me enough to leave me alone. I should be the one to apologize since I'm the one that failed you." Eina tried to get up but a sharp pain in her chest prevented her from doing so. "Bell can you come here, I want to tell you something."
Bell put his head closer to Eina's and by a sudden surprise took him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him down into a kiss. "I love you Bell. Once again you're my hero. I wanted to tell you since we don't know what the future holds."
Bell gave in and returned her kiss. "I love you too Eina. I swear no matter what I will always protect you. Even if I am branded a killer." At that moment all of his nerves calmed.
"Good, looks like you're awake." Asfi called coming out of the shadows.
"M-Ms. Asfi!" Bell basically jumped out of his skin and turned a bright shade of red.
"Eina, how are you feeling? Can you move?"
"No not quite yet. If I try to get up a sharp pain in my chest stops me." Eina explained her condition. Asfi then went to her bag that was sitting on the floor near the fireplace.
"Well in that case, here drink this. It should help dull the pain enough for us to head home." Asfi handed over a potion which the half elf quickly drank. "Now rest for a little bit, you lost a lot of blood. We will head out in a few hours. I'm gonna go back out and patrol, you two try to keep things quiet." Asfi gave a quick wink and a sly smile as she left the house leaving both Bell and Eina bright red.
Back at Hearth manor, where all hell was about to break loose.
Haruhime called in Hestia and Lili for a meeting. The two agreed with no questions asked. They entered the living room to find Haruhime sitting on one of the couches with Welf and Mikoto standing on either side of her. She gestured to the two who just arrived to take a seat in front of her.
"Guys we need to talk and the three of us agreed that this was the best time." Haruhime explained in her naturally calm voice.
"Okay? So what is it we need to discuss?" Hestia questioned with a suspicious gaze towards the trio.
"Well it's about Bell."
Hestia soon followed with questions of her own, "What about Bell?"
"Don't tell me he found another girl to take in!?" Lili added to the already large fire.
"See this is exactly it. This is our problem." Welf sighed as he put his hand over his eyes in disappointment at the two.
"Problem?" Hestia and Lili both said in unison.
"Yes, everytime we mention Bell and another girl you two always jump to conclusions. Then when he shows interest in someone you two block him and get in his way. Don't you two see your ruining his romantic life." Haruhime explained trying to calm everyone down.
"Well why would Bell need another girl when he already has me?" Hestia protested.
"Exactly, master Bell already has us. We should be enough for him." Lili added.
"Okay looks like this is gonna be a long day." Mikoto said, trying to figure out what they should do.
For the next three or so hours the two sides kept arguing back and forth. Hestia and Lili refused to budge till Haruhime came up with a great point.
"Well what if Bell has finally had enough of your guys' games and decides to leave and join a familia that isn't as smothering?"
All the color drained from Hestia's face when Haruhime brought up the point that Bell could leave the familia at any time if he's had enough of what they have been doing to him.
Knowing their defeat, Hestia and Lili agreed that they would try and give Bell more freedoms in his romantic life.
Back at the village, Eina was finally able to get back on her feet and the group was going to be able to head back to Orario.
"If we keep going at this rate we should be able to return to Orario by tomorrow morning, noon at the latest." Asfi announced as they were behind on schedule due to Eina having to rest.
"Are you sure you're okay Eina?" Bell asked, concerned for his new girlfriend.
"Bell don't worry about me I'll be fine. We need to get back to Orario so we can figure out what's going on."
"Eina's right Bell. We have lost too much time already and we need to hurry. I for one want some answers." Asfi was visibly annoyed. She knew that Hermes knew something and that is why he asked for Bell specifically.
Once again the night swallowed the day and Bell, Eina, and Asfi had to stop and set up camp for the night. Bell seemed to have relaxed a little but he still wore a distant gaze. The three didn't stay up long and soon after they all dozed off.
Late into the night Eina was awoken by Bell having a nightmare. 'It must be because of what he did. I can't blame him with his innocence, it must be hard for him.' She thought.
She went over to the sleeping Bell and laid down next to him and gently took him in her arms. Almost like magic Bell began to sleep peacefully and Eina fell asleep with him.
When Bell woke up the next morning he found himself in Eina's arms. She was already awake and just held him petting his snow white hair. For the first time in a very long time Bell felt at peace. All of his troubles just seemed to melt away with each passing moment they shared in their embrace. Eina noticed he was awake and spoke, "Good morning Bell. Did you sleep well?"
"Good morning. I slept okay, thanks to you." He smiled at her and she smiled back down to him. They stayed like this until Asfi woke up. They then packed up camp and finished their journey back to Orario. As the group entered the city, Asfi said her farewells and headed into the direction of her familia home. Bell and Eina walked hand in hand back to Hearth manor. On the way however Bell couldn't help but feel stares come from every male adventurer. But, to be honest it was expected as he knew how popular Eina was and how many people wanted to be with her. He was just the lucky one.
They made it to Hearth manor and were greeted by Haruhime who was out sweeping the pathway. "Welcome back master Bell and lady Eina. How was your trip?"
"It was okay. I think it will be better to tell everyone at once. Speaking of, did you talk to Hestia and Lili?" Bell asked with slight worriedness in his voice.
"Yes I did and we have come to a favorable conclusion on that topic." Haruhime replied with her gentle smile.
"Good. One last thing though." Bell didn't want to ask for more favors after all that Haruhime did for him but this was something special. "Could you gather everyone into the living room?"
"Right away master Bell." She said with a bow before she walked off to retrieve the other members.
After a few moments everyone was gathered in the common room with the exception of Hestia and Haruhime. Then without warning Hestia came flying towards Bell yelling, "MY BELL! YOU'VE FINALLY RETURNED TO ME!" She latched onto his stomach and rubbed her face into his chest. Bell quickly raised both arms so that everyone could see them.
"Goddess there is something we need to discuss." Eina was now in her advisor mode as she spoke to Hestia in a stern tone. "Me and Bell are in a relationship now. He is now my Bell." As Eina told everyone and Bell even backed her up, all the color in Hestia and Lili's faces drained.
"Your Bell?" She asked, confused.
Bell picked up where Eina had left off, "Yes goddess. Me and Eina are officially a couple now."
"A couple?!" Hestia and Lili were about to protest until they were stopped by Welf and Mikoto.
"Don't you guys remember what we discussed earlier." Welf yelled at the two as they almost immediately did the opposite of what they agreed.
After that was taken care of everyone gathered around the new couple and congratulated them and wished them a happy life.
Over at the Hermes familia home.
"Lord Hermes I have returned from my quest." Asfi announced as she walked into the gods office.
"Hey Asfi! So tell me how did everything go?" Hermes questioned in his usual sly sounding tone.
"Well for one you have some explaining to do. First we went to the village and we found everyone dead, that was until the killers made themselves known." Asfi then recounted what happened at the village and how Eina almost died and what Bell had to do.
"Woah! Never thought Bell would take it into his hands to kill someone." Hermes was almost smiling at his statement.
"Anyways, Lord Hermes, I collected this mask from the scene. Can you tell who made it or who it belongs to?" Asfi then handed over the mask Ainz wore before he was killed by Bell.
"Well judging from the looks it seems that you guys ran into children of Hel. She is a bloodthirsty familia and almost any murders that happen in Orario are caused by her children. She doesn't care though she thinks of killing as a work of art and that it is beautiful."
"What should we do now, Lord Hermes?"
"For right now we'll wait. For all we know it could have been one of those wrong place wrong time type of deals. If it's not I'm interested in what she's after."
