Chapter 03: Protection(Familia of the Justice Deity)
"Have a nice day, Bell." Astraea waved him off as he left for the day.
"Bye, Rea-sama." Bell waved back before heading off, his destinations clear. First, he'd pass by Naaza's store to buy new potions, then the Hostess of Fertility to apologize to Syr for taking off so suddenly.
It wasn't long before he soon reached the run-down storefront that was actually Blue Pharmacy, the home/store of the Miach Familia. "Good morning, Naaza-san."
"Good morning, Bell-kun." Naaza greeted back, as demure as ever. "The usual?"
"Yes, please." Bell requested, prompting Naaza to replenish his personal stock of potions. "By the way, Naaza-san, do you have any idea on how one would go about to getting stronger?"
"Hmm..." Naaza barely paused in her work to answer. "I believe that depends on what you particularly desire that strength for? Is somebody you know in trouble?"
"No." Bell frowned a little. "It's just my selfishness speaking."
"Don't speak like that, Bell-kun. That's an innate desire of all adventurers. In the end, it all comes down to whether you can keep at it, or not." Naaza assured him with a sad smile as she idly patted her prosthetic arm. " By the way, Miach-sama just made this new batch yesterday evening. These ones work exclusively to rejuvenate stamina, and come at the same price as the healing ones. Would you like buy one of these?"
Bell stared at the potions in question with some trepidation. While he had absolutely no doubt about the God Miach's potioneering skills, healing potions were expensive. And a stamina boosting potion that was just as so appeared to be the same. But when one lived a profession that really required them to be as active and alert as possible for most of a day...
"How much for all three?"
Naaza's smile grew wider. "I knew I could count on your patronage~"
"Finally here..." Bell came to a stop before the Hostess of Fertility. "Hopefully, she's inside at this time."
Stepping inside, Bell greeted the two women currently sweeping the quiet tavern. "Excuse me."
"I apologize, but we're still preparing for the day." The dark-haired elf waitress greeted.
"Oh, I'm not a customer, at least not until later." Bell corrected. "I was with Syr-san until-"
"Ah! It's the guy who Syr suckered last night-nya!" Anya suddenly pointed at him in recognition. "The white-hair moron who tried to challenge a Level 5 and just left Syr hanging-GWAACK?!"
"Why don't you shut up?"
Before Bell could even begin to become embarrassed, Ryu's hand blurred and struck the back of the cat girl's head faster than he could see. Bell didn't know which was scarier: Ryu being apparently fast enough that her movement just couldn't be caught by a relatively normal person, or Anya being apparently durable enough to tank such a strike with nothing more than a small bruise.
The Hostess of Fertility waitresses(a.k.a. hidden high-level adventurers) sure were scary...
Footsteps caught the three's attention as Syr came down the stairs with a small lunchbox in her hand before pausing at the sight of him. "Bell?"
"Syr-san, I came to apologize for suddenly leaving last night." Bell greeted as the waitress quickly came down to him. "Even now, I'm still a little upset at that guy's words."
"It's okay, don't worry." Syr shook her head before grasping his hands. "I'll only forgive you if you come here again for your dinner."
"...seriously?" Bell deadpanned.
"Seriously." Syr confirmed with a firm smile as she nodded before extending the lunchbox in her hand. "See, take my lunch again and we can repeat what yesterday was supposed to be into today."
"...I'm not falling for that again." Bell denied her offer. "No matter how cute you are, I've gotta get set limits."
"Are you sure that I'm not cute enough for you to disregard that?" Syr blinked, her blush somehow seeming to deepen on command.
"...that can't be fair." Bell whined as he accepted the lunchbox with a little warmth in his own cheeks. "That face of your's is too deceiving."
Behind Bell, Ryu and Anya nodded in simultaneous sympathy.
"So the brat came back, eh?" Mama Mia questioned as she walked out of the back before eyeing the waitresses. "You girls go inside. You still have chores to do, you know?"
"""Yes, ma'am.""" The three waitresses immediately bowed before rushing back inside.
Bell stared at their quick disappearance before turning back to the dwarf who apparently had words for him. "I hope my actions didn't cause too much trouble after I was gone..."
"Trouble?! Business, more like! Even earlier before this morning, I still heard some fellas speaking of the maniac who wanted to throw down with a Level 5!" Mama Mia cackled, causing Bell to wince. He really should've handled his anger better.
"Being an adventurer isn't as glamorous as those Loki fellas make it look." Mama Mia suddenly advised after seeing his expression, placing her hands on her hips. "There's nothing shameful in desperately surviving deathly situations in the Dungeon, regardless of what stage you're at. For an adventurer, every time you walk out of there alive is a victory, whether it's a pretty sight or not."
Bell felt his heart grow at her words. Astraea had basically said the same things to him every morning, but for another to do as well...
"Stop making that face!" Mia slapped his shoulder, nearly making Bell stumble from her strength. Yeah, she was definitely an adventurer as well. "Now that you've made me tell you all this, I'll never forgive you if you get killed. Now get going! We've got work and you're in the way!"
"Then I'll 'win' by seeing you all again tonight!" Bell gave her a smile as he turned to head out of the tavern, an extra spring in his steps as he rushed towards the Dungeon.
"Hey, there!" Bell greeted cheerily as he entered the 4th Floor, his smile dissonant with his motion of unsheathing his new Guild-issued sword. "How's it going?"
"RAAAARGH!" A veritable horde of goblins and lizards screamed back, the first of them leaping forward with a vicious strike.
Not even needing to use his ki, Bell dodged the attack and decapitated the goblin in one smooth movement. Without barely a little pause, he lashed out in a kick into the next goblin's face that disoriented it enough to stabbed through and cleaved apart.
Skidding to a stop, Bell suddenly directed his sword upwards and pierced through the head of the lizard that had tried to attack him from above. Ripping his sword out, Bell finally let {Ki Empowerment} rise to the forefront, his ki coating his weapon as well as he prowled towards the the remaining monsters before him. "Come on."
The monsters obliged, theirs roars echoing across the caverns. By the time it was over, Bell panted with some satisfaction at the sight of the thirteen dead goblins and three dead lizards. It was definite proof that he really was improving with how he'd slain them all under a minute with minimal damage.
The only problem was...
Bell raised up the sword he'd bought earlier in the morning, the simple steel blade having been proven difficult in infusing with chi as the knives before had also been. It seemed that normal weaponry couldn't conduct Ki very well, with even the dangerous likelihood of them breaking apart whenever the Ki got forced in.
When he'd mentioned it to Astraea, she'd assured him that she would do something about it and had left that same day, stating that she wouldn't be back for a while.
"I hope she's doing okay, wherever she is." Bell murmured as he began cutting apart the nearest lizard's chest for it's magic stone, almost wishing for a supporter to help.
But not just any supporter would do. There was only one supporter that Bell Cranel desired to find, let alone request the help of.
But for some reason, Liliruca Arde was proving very difficult to find!
The 6th Floor came with... a surprise...
"Are you guys... supposed to get this big...?" Bell asked of the War Shadow that had slammed down before him, it being thrice his size.
"Shriiiiiiii!" The War Shadow screeched as it shot it's giant arm forward, it's speed not affected in the slightest as it nearly split Bell in half had he not dodged.
*thump-thump-BOOOM*
*thump-thump-BOOOM-thump*
Bell charged forward with his sword at the ready, meeting with clash with strikes that deflected the fatal slashes and thrusts. Lashing off a limb after managing to get to it's shoulder, Bell visited the same fate upon the War Shadow's head and hoped that it was over with.
Unfortunately, the decapitated War Shadow immediately trembled before bursting apart into three lively but normal-sized War Shadows, with the third immediately dying as it's head lopped off on it's own.
So War Shadows could merge into stronger forms?! What a terrifying thing that had never showed up in DanChikara! Locking blades with the first War Shadow's claws, Bell backhanded the furious swipe of the second War Shadow before twisting about to cut it's waist.
Barely managing to do so, Bell twisted his leg as he continued his turn with no pause, slamming a Ki-enhanced heel into the first war shadow's head and ripping it off.
*thump-BOOOM-thump-BOOOM-thump-thump*
*thump-thump-BOOOM-thump-thump-BOOOM*
*thump-thump-BOOOM-thump-BOOOM-thump-BOOOM*
Electrical sparks crackled off Bell's form as he locked eyes with the last war shadow, his grin confident as he immediately shot forward faster than the war shadow could react, swiftly tearing it half.
(Across the Ki-infused sword, the tiniest of cracks began to form from the strain of the foreign energy invading it's structure.
That crack would not be the only one present soon.)
Later on his way up, Bell paid no mind to the many adventurers and parties giving him a wide berth as he passed by. Blood, both of his and monsters, had stained his clothes. His clothing itself had numerous tears in it, torn away patches revealing bruised skin and muscles beneath. His heavy backpack constantly jingled with the many magic stones he'd gotten from his endeavors.
(He also idly noted the cages for the upcoming Monsterphilia but paid little mind to them. The Loki Familia had handled the violas well enough.)
But most terrifying of all (to the observers) was the humming smile Bell wore all the way to the Guild, until Eina laid eyes on him.
"Welcome back, BelllAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!" Eina shrieked at the sight of him, causing Bell to finally regard how he appeared.
"None of the blood's mine!" Bell shamelessly lied.
"He's lying~" A passing deity immediately betrayed him as he walked outside.
"Okay, some of it's mine, but my wounds are already healed." Bell confessed. "I took my potions like you always advised me to!"
"Now he's speaking the truth." Another deity confirmed as she followed after the other deity.
"What am I going to do with you?" Eina sighed as she rubbed her forehead. "Do you want to be the first man to ever give a half-elf grey hair?"
"Ah, I'm so sorry!" Bell sincerely apologized. "Even though you'll definitely still look as beautiful as you do now, it wasn't my intention to trouble you like this!"
Eina made a strange noise in her throat, her cheeks and ears reddening. "A-Anyways, let's get your report done."
And so, Bell went on to describe his endeavors for the day, Eina's brow slowly twitching as his history involved clearing out a few of the popular hunting grounds before moving on deep into the 6th Floor.
Then she snapped her quill at the mention of the merged war shadow. "What?!"
"Yeah, it shocked me, too." Bell confirmed. "Three war shadows had combined into one to face me. Not only was it immensely stronger, but it's huge size hadn't taken away it's speed at all."
Eina's wide eyes darted to Bell's side as he absentmindedly traced one of the cuts across his damaged clothes. "Then when I beheaded it, it simply fell apart into the original war shadows, albeit one of them immediately died from my prior decapitation."
"Bell, do you realize how impossible the event you're describing is?!" Eina slammed her hands upon the table between them and leaned over, her face getting closer. "In all of our years of monster behavior recording, there has never been an instant similar to what you're describing."
Bell stared back without a flinch. "Have I ever lied to you about my achievements in the Dungeon?"
"...no. No, you haven't." Eina retreated back to her seat slowly, a worried frown on her face. "You're reckless, but not a braggart or embellisher. So... war shadows can merge into larger forms now..."
Taking a moment to settle down, Eina reported the incident twice over. The first for Bell's files, then the second to be delivered straight to her boss. Pausing, Eina took a look at his appearance again. "At this point, you might have to look into getting better gear rather than always coming to us."
Bell nodded his goodbyes before heading for the exchange counter, leaving with 20,950 Valis in tow.
Astraea thought over her options with a little worry.
Throughout his tenure as an adventurer, Bell's equipment had stayed remarkably the same as he'd begun with. And it had only taken his request to change from his usual knives to a sword that caused her to notice.
Normally, that wouldn't have been much of a problem, but her Bell was progressing too fast. By now, she was quite sure that he was reaching his restraint before he'd eventually dive into the 7th Floor, something that had taken her dear Alise two months to achieve while being almost three weeks for him.
She knew that Bell took both her and Advisor Eina's warnings seriously, but she also knew that she could do so much before her actions would become hampering. So in the end, it came down to Bell requiring much better equipment.
But even with that determined, Astraea despaired over her current options. At first, she thought she could grant him one of the spare weapons that had been left behind in the Stardust Garden, only for years of neglect to have done them in.
Then she'd looked to their monetary resources at hand. With Bell's wages and her income pooled, it was good enough for two people to live comfortably without dabbling into lavishness. But nowhere enough to purchase a weapon of significant worth without draining their funds dry.
Which now left her to the final option. An option which had left Astraea reeling from the idea that she had to consider it an option at all.
She only hoped that Lyra would forgive her for it.
"I thought that Ganesha hadn't been serious about it, but you really did return..." Hephaestus finally spoke after having let herself be guided out of the Banquet by an invisible Astraea.
"I always told you that you'd look gorgeous in a dress, Hephaestus." Astraea commented as she pulled down the hood of her Reverse Veil, the both of them on a balcony hidden from majority of the partying deities still inside.
"This really isn't my style, though." Hephaestus complained. Astraea begged to differ as the smith goddess before was still a beauty even by their Olympian standards, her lovely figure was currently being accentuated in a red dress of incredibly high quality. "I thought you would've wanted to lay low while here. This is the worst place for you to be right now."
"I know that, but I'm here for the sake of my newest child." Astraea confessed. "I'd like to commission you for a custom weapon."
Hephaestus's sole eye immediately narrowed. "We both know that you can't afford me."
"I'm not trying to buy your services with money." Astraea dropped a clothed object before Hephaestus from within her Reverse Veil. "I'm trying to buy your services with this."
Frowning in trepidation, Hephaestus reached for the wrapped object and removed the cloth, only to immediately gasped at the scarlet ore immediately revealed. "Th-This is?!"
"Hihi'irokane from the Far East, also known as crimsonite." Astraea cut her off. "Lesser in hardness in adamantium, lesser in magic conductivity to mithril, lesser in durability to orichalcum-"
"But perfectly balanced in them all..." Hephaestus swallowed as she stared down at the five kilograms of unrefined crimsonite ore before her. "You evil woman."
"That's a mean thing to say to a goddess who pursues Justice." Astraea took the empty insult with a shrug, mentally sending her thanks to Lyra for obtaining it... even if she'd never gotten to use it herself. "How long has it been since you were able to forge something worthwhile? As a deity presiding over craftsmen and the forge, it's literally in your soul to practice your skills whenever you can. Even with our divinity leashed, you never really lost that part of yourself."
Hephaestus placed a gloved hand over her eye, only to immediately peek through her fingers. "Astraea, who are you going this far for?"
"There's only one reason a deity ever puts serious effort for anything nowadays, isn't there?" Astraea answered.
Hephaestus's eye snapped up from the ore to look at directly in shock. "You... You have a Child? I thought..."
"I understand your surprise, but it really did happen." Astraea admitted with a small smile. "I never sought him out with that intention, and he'd never even asked me for such. Before becoming God and Familia, we were simply two travelling friends who confided in each other. Bell... Bell has been good for me, far more than I think he realizes."
"...apparently so." Hephaestus sighed. "I haven't seen you so happy since that terrible incident."
"Me neither." Astraea stilled as a pair of smooth arms in stylish white sleeves circled her shoulders before a curtain of silver hair fell down her side with the scent of blood-tinged honey filled her nose. "It's been a while, Astraea."
"Freya, you look well." Astraea greeted as she reached for the hand trying to sneak down her cleavage. "I'm still uninterested in sharing a bed with you, though."
"Boo." Freya pouted even as she leaned back and away, the little smile on her lips and the slight amusement in her eyes failing to mask her blatant interest. "So, you have a Child again?"
"Yes, for the past few weeks now." Astraea admitted. "However, I can only let him go so far with Guild-issued weapons before wanting to support him more."
Freya hummed. "His name?"
"Now why would you be interested in something like that?" Astraea asked tepidly.
"Don't play coy, Astraea." Freya wrapped an arm around Astraea, the blood-tinged honey scent growing thicker. "You have an eye in picking out talent as well as I do. And if this child was good enough to make you ignore your preferences of girls..."
"Bell was my friend first before becoming my Child." Astraea warned, her nightly indigo gaze darkening. "Be forewarned."
"You make it sound like I'm going to hunt him down like prey." Freya giggled before leaning towards Astraea, the purple of her silver eyes smoldering. "He sounds far worth more."
"Ahem." Hephaestus awkwardly coughed, gaining the two goddesses' attention off each other. "You say that this is a custom order. What are your specifications?"
Astraea reached into her robes and passed over a folded paper to Hephaestus, who's eyes widened upon unfolding and reading it. "Can you make them?"
"Can your Child use them?" Hephaestus shot back, her eye still fixed on the paper.
Astraea smirked. "My Child drew them."
Hephaestus stared up at her, before looking down at the paper, before looking up again. "...say, are you sure your Child has no interest in blacksmithing-"
"Oh, not you, too!"
"Hmm... Rea-sama's been gone for three days now..." Bell sighed as he finished his Saitama Method Workout for the morning. He wasn't worried as she said that it might be possible that she would be gone for several days, but he had to admit that the Stardust Garden felt lonely without her constant presence.
"Wa... Wait for me..." His partner gasped as she reached him, finally collapsing to her knees at his side.
"Good job, Anna." Bell commended, letting the girl catch her breath. "You're a lot more athletic than I thought you'd be."
Anna was a girl he'd happened to run into the previous day, having needed to be saved from some adventurer punks who clearly didn't get the idea of a girl saying 'no' to them. Luckily, he'd been passing by at the time and had smoothly kidnapped her without breaking his stride, easily leaving the apparent Level Twos in the dust as he used {Ki Empowerment} to leap over two small buildings in one go.
(He never considered the fact that such a move to those unaware really looked like that of a Level Three, flat-out breaking their enthusiasm to even begin to chase after him.)
Introducing herself as Anna Claes after he'd set her down later, they'd struck up a fast friendship which had helped Bell with his own slight loneliness.
Still, despite her bad experiences with adventurers, Anna seemed to have taken a liking to him very quickly despite his profession. Her parents had far more natural opinions of him after they'd met.
At least until Anna defended him, the girl pointing out that Bell had saved her from some other adventurers. When they'd asked for his patron deity, Bell had refused to answer. After all, Astraea had asked this of him to never reveal his Familia name until he had Ranked Up.
Then things got really strange when Anna's father suggested that she join his Familia, much to all of their shock.
"Those bastards are already getting bolder and bolder, Karen!" Huey Claes had protested. "At least this way, she'll have some better protection than what we can give her until she can defend herself! Better she's with an adventurer who saved her for nothing than some other type!"
So that's how Bell, much to Eina's surprise and relief, took the day off to train up Anna as much as he could try. Acting as he'd done for himself, Bell had first tested her stamina, which seemed surprisingly ideal as she'd used to work as a flower girl who did deliveries all over the city.
Then the problems came as it had been for him. For Anna knew absolute jack about weapons like he'd been like weeks ago. At least, he'd gone for the dull but usable knives before eventually evolving into a sword.
But Anna had instead chosen... "Are you sure you don't want to use anything else other than that chain?"
"Yeah." Anna easily answered, fiddling with the chain mace hanging off her hip. "Stop acting like I've hurt myself with this thing after you had me attack you with it."
Well in Bell's defense, she also hadn't been able to aim well with it. Nevermind that she seemed to be a quick learner, after all.
"Hey! Wait up, white-hair!" Bell staggered a little at the sudden callout, almost immediately recognizing the sole person to ever address him as such. Sure enough, Anya stood before the Hostess of Fertility waving at him from his side. He'd almost passed it with his discussion with Anna. "I have a request-nya! Oh, good morning-nya."
"G-Good morning." Bell replied with Anna following after him. "Anna, this is Anya-san. She works here. Anya-san, this is Anna, my soon-to-be Familia member if Rea-sama agrees when she returns."
"Nice to meet you." Anna curtsied.
"The same to you-nya." Anya replied before suddenly handing over a purse to Bell. "So what I want is for you to give this wallet to that airhead Syr-nya."
"Anya-san, please give me more context." Bell requested. "That sentence has too little."
"Anya, that is not a good enough explanation." Appearing from the side of the tavern with some clothes in her hands, Ryu joined the group. "You're just troubling Cranel-san and his friend."
"You're so dumb, Ryu-nya." Anya held up both hands with a shrug. "He can understand that I want him to take Syr her purse, which she forgot when she skipped out on her shift and went to Monsterphilia."
"That's the situation." Ryu confirmed, much to Bell's relief. "Syr, of course, did not skip out n her shift. She took a vacation day for the festival. She's probably in trouble without her purse. Please help, Cranel-san."
"Please-nya!" Anya chirped.
"Who's Syr?" Anna asked.
"She's their colleague and a recent friend of mine." Bell held up the purse. "I don't really mind helping, especially as I'm free today. It's Monsterphilia, after all."
According to DanChikara, Monsterphilia was a spectacle similar to that of a circus, parading about monsters for the sake of amusement. But for Bell, there was a different reason for his own focus on Monsterphilia.
In the story, it marked the start of the Second Orario Dark Age with the surprise attack of the violas upon the populace. While they had been taken care of swiftly, it had required the prowess of numerous Level Fours to not get instantly killed by them while having nearly killed some civilians.
Bell wished he could warn others about it, but knew it was impossible for many reasons. So his best option was to hope that Astraea was at a safe location herself simply put him and Anna right at the coliseum, which would ironically be the safest place to be with most of the Ganesha Familia being there.
Then afterwards, he could work on maybe stealing away Filvis from Dionysus, and finding a way to grant the revenant some peace.
"Yo, Freya! Have you been waiting long?"
"No, I just got here, too." Freya answered Loki as she sat down while the Sword Princess hanged back as an escort, picking up her cool tea for a sip. Even if it was help lessen the effect of her charm, her full-bodied black cloak was so stifling~ "So, who's the beauty escorting you?"
"Yeah, I guess you've never met her before." Loki smiled happily. "This is Ais-tan from my Familia. Good enough?"
"...nice to meet you." Ais bowed slightly to the other goddess.
'Sword Princess, such a cute one even in casual wear.' Freya thought as she looked Ais over.
"It's Monsterphilia after all, and I gotta enjoy a lovey-dovey date with Ais-tan, ain't I?! If I leave her alone, this princess would rush back into the Dungeon!" Loki explained with a laugh as she gently patted Ais's back, the blonde swordswoman looking both resigned and flustered at her goddess's antics. "Even though her expedition was recently finished, she'll never rest unless someone forces her to."
"Well, then..." Freya set her empty teacup down. "Why don't you tell me the reason you called me out here?"
"Hm?" Loki smiled at Freya. "Just wanted a little chat. It's been so long, y'know?"
"Has anybody ever told you that you're a terrible liar?" Freya challenged with a grin and was rewarded by Loki's brief flare of malice. The poor waiter bringing over Loki's drink froze mid-step and started trembling while Ais held out her arm to prevent him from getting any closer.
Such a good girl~
"...tell me honestly, what are you up to?" Loki demanded, actually opening her eyes a little to reveal red eyes that briefly flashed toxic green.
Freya kept smiling. "Whatever could you mean, Loki?"
"Don't play dumb with me." Loki pressed on. "On top of showing up so suddenly at the Banquet, I actually saw you leave with that smile."
Ah.
It seemed that she'd been a tad careless... but meeting Astraea again had been so fun~ "So suspicious... You're making it seem like me smiling however I want is a bad thing."
The respective war and deceiver deities kept glaring at each other until the later sighed. "So it's another man, huh."
Freya giggled at Loki coming so close, yet so far from the truth.
"So you're hitting on some poor schmuck from another Familia, huh?" Loki groaned at the Vanir, Ais's confusion growing more and more visible despite her stoic expression. "You sex-obsessed goddess!"
"Now that's no way to speak to your mother, Loki." Freya chided.
"We ain't in the MCU, damnit!" Loki retorted at her fellow deity of the Norse Pantheon. "It's even worse when those dumbasses think some truth to that maddened elseworld!"
"A very popular elseworld, though." Freya pointed out.
Loki scoffed before leaning forward, her eyes nearly sparkling. "So? Which Child is your target this time? After all you put me through, I think I deserve to know."
"...fair enough." Freya's thoughts drifted back to her first glimpse of him. "He's weak, yet gives off such a strong aura of dependability..."
Soft in appearance, but strong in will...
"He gets into danger so easily, yet has little fear of it... No, rather than having no fear for it, it would be more accurate to say that his fears are his armaments instead of shackles..."
He truly was beautiful, in a way she'd have never expected a being of two different but identical souls so seamlessly fused she'd initially believed it to be a single one. A totally unexpected synergy between a soul that was completely clear with a crackling outline of lightning storms and a soul that was a comforting void with the serene outline of twinkling stars.
The souls pulsed well in tandem, easily switching back-and-forth in the lead so much that not even Freya could tell if he'd been born like that or that one was a mere visitor in Bell's vessel.
How come Astraea had found him first?!
Freya looked to the window with a sigh. "It was truly a coincidence that I saw him. At that moment, I happened to be looking out a window just like now..."
Freya's words and thoughts halted when she actually saw him at that moment, Bell jogging through the crowded streets with a flaxen haired girl in tow.
...eh? Who was that? What was her relationship with Bell?
"And? What's wro-" Loki blinked when Freya suddenly stood.
"I'm sorry, but something urgent requires my attention." Freya excused herself and left quickly, a snappy scheme brewing up in already.
It looked like she would have to cause a little trouble already~
The smile Freya sported at that moment caused a passing young man to shudder in both terror and arousal.
Finally, for the finishing touches.
Doing as she was directed, Astraea ran her finger across the crimson-tinted steel of the gauntlets she'd commissioned from Hephaestus, it's hieroglyphs lighting up with a soft glow as she did so.
"And they're finished." Hephaestus beamed at her latest achievement. Astraea couldn't blame her, the forge goddess having been really into the work despite her reluctant attitude at first. "Do they meet your expectations?"
"Completely." Astraea held up the gauntlets before wrapping them up. "I should name these, shouldn't I? How about... Justitia Libra?"
"Can't you pick a less obvious name that doesn't totally relate to you?" Hephaestus deadpanned before helping her adjust the sack to her back.
Then ignoring Hephaestus's calls about needing to rest, Astraea grabbed her reverse veil and left immediately.
She could use Bell's shoulder as a resting spot while he admired her gift.
"It's almost time for the next event!" Ayasha shouted as she stomped into the cage room. "The monsters should be ready to go by now!"
Silence met her, and she instantly knew why. "H-Hey, what happened?!"
All of the guards were down, each of them sporting red faces while drooling with wide smiles. Poison from the monsters? No, they hadn't brought any poisonous types up, and even then, something like that wouldn't have affected everyone like this.
What the hell was going on?
Then a pair of the softest hands ever closed over her eyes from behind, with the silkiest of voices whispering into her ear. "Stay still, okay~?"
Ayasha shuddered in place, overwhelming pleasure suddenly hitting like a storm as she writhed against Her.
"Where are the keys to the cages?"
Ayasha shakily retrieved the keys from her pocket, trembling as fingers not her own took them.
"Much obliged~ Now, have a nice dream~"
And then, Ayasha peaked into ecstasy.
Bell frowned at how he'd still yet to find Syr throughout the busy festival, Anna not really helpful at all as along with not even knowing the waitress, she was more interested in exploring the stalls with him.
"Well, worst case scenario, I'll return her wallet to Ryu-san and apologize for being unable to find her-"
Bell blinked as a familiar presence reached his side before instinctively reaching out to the empty air on his right. Before he could do so-
"Bell! Head to that nearby ally, and don't just reach of me like that!"
-he paused at the sound of Astraea's voice hissing into his ear, briefly pressed up against him before her presence vanished. "Anna, follow me for a minute."
"Eh? Oh, okay." Anna dutifully followed and became just as surprised when Astraea stepped into the visible spectrum, revealing herself from beneath an invisibility cloak. He didn't know those existed in here. "Eh?! Goddess?!"
"Anna, this is Rea-sama." Bell introduced the women to each other. "Rea-sama, this is Anna. A new Familia member if you're okay with it."
Astraea slowly blinked, her gaze blanking out worryingly. "N-New Familia member?"
"A pleasure to meet you, Rea-sama." Anna curtsied.
"My name's..." Astraea halted before sighing and grasping Anna's face to lock eyes with her. "For what reason do you wish to join my Familia? What did Bell do that you wish to follow him?"
Eh? What did she mean by that? It wasn't like Anna was his subordinate or... Wait, he'd technically become the Familia Captain as they increased in numbers, wouldn't he?
"Um, I..." Anna's cheeks reddened a little as she glanced at him. "Bell-san saved me from some men back then... Then my parents thought that it'd be best to have better protection from him... And he's been training me..."
From there, Anna's words went down to a mumbling that only Astraea still seemed to hearing properly, given the goddess's continued attention. Then she sighed. "Very well, then. I welcome you into my Familia. Bell, take care of everything else after I've granted her a Falna tonight-"
A roar split the peaceful atmosphere.
Principles of the Astraea Familia Members
Astraea: Starry Justice("There are as many kinds of Justice as there are stars in the night sky. I can only hope that they can all cooperate together to guide towards a lovely completion.")
Ryuu Lion: Turbulent Justice("Justice must be like the wind. A refreshing breeze to the innocent and an unforgiving disaster upon the guilty, with no hint of mercy.")
Bell Cranel: UNDETERMINED