About one year later...
Time sure can fly in Orario even when nothing unusual happens, adventurers went to the dungeon, merchants sold their wares, festivals took place and so on. Spring was about to make place for the summer so it was warm, the weather was nice and most people were in good mood...except a certain goddess.
While the sun rose early as always this time of the year, goddess Freya sat in her chair in the top room of Babel. Her familia had the usual squabbles and fights but not so much she had to say a word. All in all she could be statisfied, wouldn´t be there two points that spoiled her mood. Hermes needed much longer to procure the information she wanted and...these two.
Freya sighed. "Slow...these two are so slow...why haven't they long since fallen for one another !" Freya pouted like a young girl, she was the number one expert in Orario when it came to love, they just had to fall in love !
Ottar who stood right next to his goddess sighed in his mind. Here we go again...
She had done many things to bring Ryuu and Bell together, giving hints, ensure via the guild that Loki familia respectively the sword princess had much to do so she had no time to see Bell and much more. Yeah these two came closer together month after month, she could see it in their souls, whenever seeing the other the souls circled around each other but never touching...it was like some small push was missing.
Freya took something from her table without looking. It was a piece of paper written by Hermes, only containing a single name, but that was all she needed. She looked over her shoulder to the young female attendants that were waiting for her wishes.
"Be so good and bring me something to write."
Bowing down one of them went and brought her paper, her favorite feather pen and an envelope. She wrote five words and drew a symbol at the bottom of the letter, waited for the ink to dry,
folded the note and put it in the envelope. After a minute looking at the letter she gave it to the waiting girl, sliding one finger along the girls wrist, making her shudder with pleasure.
"Bring it to "that place" will you ?" Freya had a seductive smile on her face.
"Y-Yes !" The other attendants were envious, not being the one touched by their goddess.
Again Freya looked out of the window, now things would get rolling. Looking down she saw two familiar soul lights circling around each other, not like they were dancing but...clashing. As if they were fighting.
Late spring mornings were peacefull for most residents of Orario, but from the inner courtyard of a certain pub you could hear the sound of weapons clashing. Thanks to the surrounding buildings the sound wouldn´t disturb the neighbours and the ones living in the house were already awake or waking up right now. Two people fought each other in the courtyard, but why were they fighting ?
Maybe a dispute ?...an assassination attempt ?...a lovers quarrel ?...no it was just simple morning training...but fought with a speed that most adventurers would have problems calling it training. On one side stood a young man with two knifes, one black with engraved runes, the other pure white, the black one he hold normal, the white one in reverse. His opponent was a young woman wielding two short swords, holding them like the man. They had clashed for about half an hour, both covered in sweat and panting...but still focused on their opponent and the training field.
Here and there were cleaning tools and a few stones, it helped to sharpen the senses during the fight, ever misstep could mean losing.
Over the last year Bell had grown a bit, his face had become more manlier and through all the dungeon crawling he was well built, despite being only sixteen years old now. He slowly grew into his role as the captain of both his familia and the dungeon party, which was not so easy for him, considering his character. He also had a personal problem to overcome.
Ever since she rescued him from the minotaur, he had feelings for Ais Wallenstein, his idol. She was the reason he wanted to get strong and catch up to her, so he could protect her in time of need. But...something has changed...or had Bell changed ? When he thought about the girl of his dreams he would always see her face until a certain incident happened. The face he saw since then was Ryuus...Bells heart was in a conflict. A lot happened between him and Ryuu in the dungeon and over the last year, he didn´t know what to do and asked Lord Miach for advice, later Welf and Lord Takemikazuchi, none of them could give him the right answer. The heart wants what the heart wants. His goal never changed, he wanted to protect everyone and prevent that anyone had to shed tears and Ais was still very important to him, he wanted to help her, protect her like always but...the one who made his heart throb...was Ryuu.
Bell had steeled himself mentally before the fight, even meditate under she shower in his home. The problem was not the strength of his opponent but...who his opponent was. The woman he faced right now was probably one of the most beautiful in the world...in his eyes. For the daily training Ryuu wore shorts, a white shirt without sleeves and short boots with the same heels as her normal ones. Bell wore a dark shirt and pants like the ones under his armor. They didn´t train every day togehter, some days he would train with Ais on the top of the walls of Orario, fighting against each other or sometimes racing one round around Orario, even with the difference bewteen level six and four Bell never gave up. He even fought against one of the other girls from the pub if they were in the mood and he discovered something important, they were really bad at holding back...especially Ahnya, the sight of her whirling her golden spear around while laughing like a child was frightening. Chloe toyed with him if he was not careful enough, always trying to get behind him as close as she could, she knew exactly how to use his nature against him, one time she blew softly in his ear and really enjoyed seeing him blush and squeak. Runoa was straightforward, no complex tactics or tricks, just punch after punch until one of them lost. They had reached level four long before Bell and had more experience than him.
Ryuu and Bell had a handicap for this fight, she had to watch out not going to far again and send him flying. Mama Mia would get mad if she desytroyed a wall again by mistake. Bells handicap was of a different nature...Ryuus looks. For a growing boy like Bell, the sight of a whirling sweating elf woman in such clothing was...distracting.
Another problem for Bell was Ryuus fighting style. Like most adventurers such as Ais, Ryuu used only one style most of the time but she had developed a few new styles. On example would be her "Neze style", she would hold both short swords in reverse when she did that, like the member of her former familia the demihuman wolf girl Neze. The other styles also copied from her former familia, this way she honored them and a part would always be with her. Since her wooden sword was destroyed she could not copy Kaguya, her fighting style demanded a longer sword.
A sudden change in movement sequences would surprise even the strongest adventurers. Bell had the small advantage, that he knew her styles...often enough she had send him flying like that...
Bell relaxed and closed his fingers around the grip of his knifes. They would get stiff if he had his fist closed all the time while fighting, a hard learned lession, after one training he wasn´t able to open his hands so cramped were his fingers. It was painful to let them open by Ryuu by force. When Ryuu jumped forward, Bell closed his grip and met her halfways. He thrusted the Hestia knife forward and whirled to his right side, this way he could use Hakugen to attack Ryuus back. But she squatted down and jumped to her right side, kicking the ground and jumping back towards Bell. Blow after blow, slash after slash they never stopped moving, sometimes they got so close that their bodies nearly touched, the next second they jumped away from each other,
before attacking again. They didn't just limit themselves to their weapons, a knee strike or a kick was also a good strategy. Right as Ryuu twisted herself into a thrust they heard a voice.
"Heeeey you two ! It´s time for breakfast !" Syr waved from a nearby window.
Ryuu finished her rotation the sword she hold in normal grip stopped mere centimeters in front of Bells stomach, the other arm raised to block possible counter attacks. "My win."
But she felt a cold touch at her armpit, Bell had countered from below and holding Hakugen now in normal grip.
He panted exhausted. "Draw ?..."
After keeping still for a few moments, both relaxed their posture and straightened up.
Ryuu nodded. "Draw."
"Phheeeeew.." Bell sheathed his knifes and wiped his forehead with his thump, before shaking away the sweat. Meanwhile Ryuu walked over to where the scabbards of her swords were. After sheathig them she took the water hose and drank a few sips, poured some over her face and wiped it with a towel.
When Bell came to her she reached him the hose.
"Eh ?" Bell looked at the mouthpiece that had just touched her lips.
"Mr. Cranell ?" Ryuu looked at him while wiping the side of her face with the other hand.
"Ah eh...nothing !" He took the water hose, gulped lightly and started to drink.
After he finished drinking, Bell gave Ryuu the hose back and took his stuff. "Then I´m off, good luck today."
"Until next time Mr. Cranell." Ryuu tossed the towel over her shoulder.
Right when Bell was about to leave he heard Syr talking to Ryuu who entered the house. "I´m so proud of you Ryuu, you didn´t send him fly !" Bell could hear the smile in her voice.
"D-Don´t make it sound like I´m a ruffian." Ryuu sounded embarassed.
The last thing Bell heard before stepping through the door was. "Oh right, a letter came for you..."
Back at the mansion Bell took a morning shower before hanging up his clothes to dry, they would later be washed. After the shower Bell joined his familia for breakfast, the other two familia had settled in well. Sometimes they would all eat together, sometimes the familias among themselves. Today was such a day with the exception that Haruhime ate with Takemikazuchi familia as well as Mikoto who had rejoined the other familia as promised after the one-year-trade expired. They had no new members until now, there were a few applicants but Hestia was not satisfied with any of them.
Lily had really made herself up as the supporter leader of the familias...well they were only three supporters but it counted. Welf was statisfied with his life right now, he had much to do in his forge with that many party member. And Hestia was happy, she was promoted from part time worker at Jaggarmaru-kun to full time.
"Master Bell are you going to the dungeon today ?" Lily poured herself some tea right now.
"Hmm I think maybe a bit...we still have some time before our next crawl starts." Bell filled his plate with some scrambled eggs.
Right when Welf wanted to say something they heard the door bell ring. "Who comes this early ?" He went up to check.
Between the bites Bell looked to Hestia. "Goddess, today will be your first as full time employed ?"
Hestia puffed her chest. "Thats right ! Just wait, in the future my face wil be the face of Jaggarmaru-kun !" She was in really good mood.
They continued a moment before Welf came back. "Yo Bell, there´s someone waiting for you at the gate."
"Hm ? This early ?" Bell went up.
The one who waited for him at the gate was Syr. "Mr. Bell !"
"Syr ? What brings you here ? We´ve just seen each other an hour ago."
"Please hurry and come with me ! Something happened with Ryuu, we need your help !" She had a pleading expression on her face.
"What happened ?" Bell was alarmed.
"She shut herself in her room, whe don´t get her to talk to us." Syr turned around.
"Then we should hurry !" Bell ran into the mansion for a few moments, comming back with his jacket on.
"Syr...I beg your pardon, you can get mad at me later !" He looked at her.
"Huh ? Wha-Kya !" Syr yelped when Bell stepped to her, reaching down with his left hands to her knees, the other to her back and lifted her up in a princess carry.
Before she could protest Bell dashed off, as a level four adventurer he could run much fast faster than her. But Syr didn´t protest, even tough she was worried about Ryuu, she enjoyed the moment. After a few minutes they arrived at the Benevolent Mistress again. Runoa opened the front door for them.
"She´s still upstairs..." Runoa closed the door.
Hurried they climbed the stairs and went to Ryuus door. Mama Mia had told the girls to leave Ryuu alone for the moment and start to work. Syr pushed him to the door.
"Ryuu...won´t you talk to us ? Mr. Bell is here to." She knocked softly.
"Bell ?" They heard her through the door, she sounded glum. "Okay...come in you two.."
Syr looked at Bell, nodded and opened the door, closing behind the two. Ryuu sat on her bed, legs drawn up, her arms crossed on the knees, her forehead resting against the arms.
"Ryuu...whats wrong ?" Syr went over to her, placing a hand softly on her shoulder.
"I..I´m..." Ryuu sounded insecure.
Bell went to the bed and saw a letter lying on the ground. He picked it up. "Is it because of this ?"
Ryuu shifted her head a bit, one of her eyes became visible, it looked like she had cried. They could see her lower lip trembled as she nodded.
"May we...take a look at it ?" Syr asked her carefully, while caressing Ryuus back.
Ryuu only nodded again while sobbing.
Together Syr and Bell looked at the letter, only four words were written there.
"She is waiting...Edas Village." And at the bottom was a symbol drawn...a sword with wings at the sides...the symbol of Astrea Familia...
When they finished reading Syr and Bell looked at each other, both had heard from Ryuu about her past. They had a clue what these words meant.
"Does...does that mean..." Bell watched at Ryuu.
Ryuu sniffed before raising her head. Her eyes were red from crying. "Syr..." She looked at her friend who hugged her wordless.
Then she looked at Bell, it nearly broke his heart to see her crying.
"Bell...would you...come with me to the 18th floor ?..."
