Disclaimer: I do not own Danmachi

—

Bell slowly awoke to a familiar sensation of having someone running their hand through his hair. It was something he had gotten used to in the last few months. By this point, he didn't even panic when his consciousness returned.

"Aiz…" he spoke the name of the person who was always doing this for some reason. He didn't even consider that he hadn't seen Aiz in a couple of days and that something was slightly off.

"Ara….I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not Aiz." It was a different voice than the one he was expecting. When he heard that he woke up instantly and shot off, he looked up still in a daze at the chuckling high elf. She had a hand covering her mouth as she watched him fumble around. "Sorry for teasing you, I couldn't help myself."

Bell didn't do anything as his skyrocketing heart rate went down.

"Y-You're fine! J-Just wasn't expecting you!" He squeaked out.

"Of course, you must be used to only having Aiz do that with you."

"Y-Yeah," Bell said, glad that everything seemed normal until he processed what she said. "Wait, you know about that!?"

Riveria looked at him with a strange face before she told him, "I suppose you wouldn't remember, but when Aiz found you in the Dungeon passed out I was also there."

Bell covered his face with his hands, not only did he embarrass himself in front of Aiz but also Lady Riveria.

"…Does anyone else know?" He asked, afraid of the answer.

"No, only me and her. I can only imagine what Lefiya or Loki would do if they found out." Bell let out a shaky laugh at that, hoping it was a joke.

He looked around to try to find something else to talk about when he saw the ruins of the hallway. His mouth hung open as he saw the destruction in front of him. Everywhere he could see was covered in a layer of ice that hid the ruined dungeon beneath it.

"Did I cause that?" He asked her, staring at all the wreckage.

"Yes, well not all of it I suppose. The ice was my touch." She said as she elegantly stood up.

"Uh if you don't mind me asking, why did you freeze it over?"

"I wanted to test out your new skill," she answered honestly with a small frown.

"Was it worse than you thought?" He asked upon seeing her expression, but she shook her head.

"No, it was better than I anticipated. We should keep this to ourselves for the time being. We don't want my father to have any extra interest in you."

"…I see," Bell said as he looked away and back at the ice in front of him. "It's a bit of a shame though."

"Hm? Sorry, but once everything blows over hopefully you will be able to tell other people." She tried to cheer him up but that wasn't what he meant.

"No, I meant it was a shame that I didn't get to see your magic." He sheepishly said while looking away. "I don't get that many chances to see magic so I was really hoping to."

It was silent for a while before Bell heard a soft laughter. He turned and saw Riveria covering her mouth with her hand. He burned red and didn't say anything.

"Of course, my apologies. The next time the opportunity presents itself I will gladly show you my magic. It is only fair after all you've shown me." Bell just nodded, too nervous to speak.

"Anyway, that should be enough for down here. Shall we head back?" She asked him once he calmed down.

"Uh yeah if there's nothing else." With that said they quickly started walking out leaving the mess they caused behind. "Will that be fine?"

"Yes, the Dungeon will heal eventually and hopefully it will help spread rumors that we were here."

"Okay. Is there anything else we are going to do today?" Bell asked her, wondering if they were going to do any other magic training today.

But Riveria denied it, "That's enough for today. We don't want to be too obvious so once we reach the surface you're free to go back to your familia."

"…gotcha," Bell responded, trying not to show how he felt about that but it didn't work.

"Is there a problem?" Riveria asked when she sensed something wrong with Bell's answer.

"Nothing for you to worry about," Bell told her not wanting to talk about it. Unfortunately for him, Riveria was used to dealing with unruly children so a simple, kind boy like him was easy to understand.

"…Does it have anything to do with your familia?" She asked but she already knew the answer. The small flinch from him merely confirmed it. He didn't say anything and just kept walking. Seeing that he wasn't going to say anything she continued. "I know this isn't my place but since it was somewhat my fault I would like to help."

Bell hesitated for a moment but still shook his head no.

"This is a Hestia Familia problem, as the captain of the familia it's my duty to solve it." It sounded more like he was saying it to convince himself than her.

He heard her sigh before she tried again, "You really are a kind boy. But you are still new at this, there is nothing wrong with asking for help. This is about your status correct?"

Bell knew she was not going to give in so he answered her, "Yeah it is."

"So what's the problem?"

Bell looked at her incredulously, "What do you mean what's the problem? They lied to me about my status!"

He quietly apologized to her after he finished, for raising his voice but she waved him off.

"It's perfectly okay to express your emotions, you are a child after all. So what exactly bothers you about this?"

While Bell wasn't thrilled to be treated like a child, he figured it would be quicker to explain and get this over with.

"That they didn't trust me with this. I'm their captain, shouldn't they be able to trust me? I mean you would never keep an important status from Aiz would you?"

Bell expected her to agree with him but she nodded her head.

"Yes, in fact, I have before." She said in a matter-of-fact tone. It was so out of nowhere that Bell stopped walking.

"Huh!?"

"I suppose I could tell you but you must promise to not tell anyone else, including Aiz. Agreed?" She also stopped and turned to him.

"Yes, of course," Bell told her without hesitation.

"Good, now where should I start?" Bell waited patiently, learning more about his idol would make all this worth it. "When Aiz first joined she was different from today. She was…very headstrong."

"She was very reckless and barely listened to anyone. Compared to her you are a saint but I digress. Back then she always had her magic but we feared if she knew that she would be even more reckless and might be gravely injured or even die. So we never told her. We waited a full year and during a certain incident, I told her. By then she had calmed down and I felt she could be trusted."

"Now I won't say the situations are completely the same, but I will say I can understand their feelings. I mean while you aren't as bad as Aiz, you do seem the reckless type."

Bell's mouth was hanging open by the time she was finished. To be honest he couldn't imagine an Aiz like that. She was always so composed and knightly. She was a bit airheaded; it was hard to picture her like that. But while he was happy to hear about her, he didn't think they were the same.

"Well, I doubt it was for a reason like that. It felt more like they thought I would leave for another familia. How could they think that after everything we've been through?" He knew he sounded like he was whining but it hurt to find out they thought that little of him.

"I think you are giving them too little credit. It may seem like that but I don't think you understand how amazing your skill is. It is completely unknown. I guarantee that if other gods find out about it they would stop at nothing to make you a member of their familia. Lady Freya in particular can be ruthless, and you don't seem the best at hiding things."

"I was able to keep your secret," Bell said defensively, but he knew it was true.

"You're right and I thank you for that. Nevertheless, I hope you will be able to make up with your family. It was not my intention to make things difficult for you." She said seemingly regretful that everything was going this way. Bell knew it wasn't her fault though so there wasn't any need, and at least he found out now and not later. For a while, they simply walked, lost in their thoughts.

He knew she was right, he would need to go, and while he wouldn't apologize he would forgive them. Even if he didn't agree with it he knew they cared for him and this wasn't something that would break that bond.

"…Thank you," he told her quietly as they approached the exit of the Dungeon. He saw her raise an eyebrow in question and hurriedly explained. "I mean for listening to me. I love my familia and friends but they aren't the best listeners. It felt nice to talk to someone normal."

"Normal?"

Bell quickly backtracked, "Uh I don't mean normal in a bad way! I meant like reasonable! Most of the people I know are strange in one way or another, so that's why you seem so easy to talk to about things. I know you're not normal, you're the strongest mage in the world and one of the leaders of the strongest familias. Not to mention you are the elf princess and incredibly beau-"

He was cut off from his rambling by the sound of laughter. He turned and saw Riveria laughing, not the giggling she did early, but full-blown laughter. Bell felt heat rush to his face again but for a different reason as he stared at her. He knew Lady Riveria was beautiful but just like Aiz she seemed reserved so seeing her laughingly freely like this was shocking. Bell wasn't the only one shocked by this, all the adventurers nearby also stared at her with their jaws dropped.

Finally, she was able to calm herself enough to speak, "Sorry I didn't mean to laugh at what you were saying. It's just not often people treat me like I'm a normal person."

"I'm sorry, Lady Riveria. I-" Bell started but Riveria interrupted him.

"I'm saying it's fine, Bell. Please there is no reason to be nervous around me. This situation is already awkward enough, if we can't act naturally around each other it will make this even more miserable for us. So please treat me as you would anyone else."

"I-If that's what you want I'll try." Bell stuttered out looking anywhere except her face.

"Heh, I'm glad." Finally, they were out of the Dungeon. Once they were Bell turned to Riveria one last time.

"I know you said that was it for today, but what's next for the plan?" Bell asked, being vague in case someone was listening in. Riveria closed an eye as she thought.

"For now this should be good. I'll invite you over sometime to Twilight Manor for some magic tutoring. Hopefully, by then I'll have some idea on how to get us out of this."

"Okay. Thank you for today and have a nice day." Riveria repeated the farewell and soon they left in opposite directions heading home.

When they were far enough away from each other Bell's shoulders dropped slightly. He thought he did well acting normal with her but it was still slightly nerve-racking. He had never interacted with her before and doing so alone was stressful. But she was very nice so it was similar to being with Finn.

But Finn wasn't as beautiful as Riveria so that was different. He shook his head as soon as the thought entered his mind. He couldn't think like that or it would end up with Lady Riveria killing him. He needed to think of something else to get his mind off of her. Something like…Aiz. He wondered what she looked like when she smiled like that.

Once he thought of that he thought of a chilling thought. Did Aiz know what was happening?! He held his head in his hands as he tried to think about if it was mentioned. He couldn't remember, all he remembered was that they talked about his skill, but now that he thinks about it, did the Loki Familia even know who the skill was about?

As much as he would hope otherwise it was unlikely that his familia didn't know who it was about. His Goddess would have known instantly and probably would have told the rest. But that wasn't a problem, they wouldn't tell anyone…probably.

The main problem was not letting the Loki Familia find out. It was one thing that he was forced into this situation, but it was another thing for him to want to date Aiz. He doubted Lady Riveria's kindness would extend that far. But there was another problem too. What did Aiz think about all of this? Lady Riveria had probably told all the high-ranking people in her familia. He didn't want her to think he was a womanizer.

He took a breath to calm himself, he was working himself up over nothing. This was Aiz he was talking about, she wouldn't care one way or the other. With that slightly demoralizing thought, he lowered his hands and awkwardly walked away from the onlookers staring at him like he was crazy. He needed to think positively, because of this he could spend more time with Aiz. So all he needed to was spend time with Aiz while this was happening and not make it obvious he was head over heels in love with her.

"Hehe, not hard at all…" he said trying to boost his confidence. It didn't work that much but it was fine. It killed enough time for him to make it back to Hearth Manor. He stood there for a while wondering what exactly he was going to do. He wanted to fix the problem but he knew he didn't do anything wrong. So he couldn't apologize, maybe he would tell them to forget about it? But that might seem dismissive.

Even though Bell didn't know what to do he walked into the house. As much as he worried about it he knew their bonds were strong enough to overcome this. And besides it wasn't his style to do nothing, so all he could do was move forward. But all those thoughts were knocked away once the door was open.

"We're sorry!" A multitude of voices rang out as soon as he opened the door. He took a step back in surprise as his hand instinctively dropped to his dagger.

Standing in front of him was his familia huddled around the entrance. From left to right, it was Welf, Lilly, Hestia, Mikoto, and finally Haruhime. But that wasn't all, in the middle Hestia was holding out a cake that had frosted writing. It said 'Please forgive us!' Bell looked around and noticed some balloons and a banner hanging up that repeated what was on the cake. He was stunned and just stood there gaping.

After a few moments of awkward silence as no one knew what to say Lilly finally snapped at Hestia with a red face.

"Lilly told you this was a stupid idea! We should have given him some time!"

"No, that's impossible! I don't want Bell to be mad at me for a minute longer! Also, this is how Take told me to apologize!" Hestia yelled back.

"If we were doing that we should have done a dogeza as well," Mikoto added from the side.

"If this still isn't enough I could offer him my services," Haruhime said, completely misreading the room.

"Now is not the time for that," Welf sighed as that comment caused Lilly and Hestia to start yelling at Haruhime. The commotion was stopped by the sound of laughter. They all turned and looked at Bell who was laughing at them.

"Hehehe, sorry," Bell said between laughs as they stared at him wondering if this was a good sign or not.

"So whose idea was this?" He asked once he calmed down a bit.

"Uh it was mine," Hestia timidly said before asking, "Did it work?"

"Heh well, I appreciate the effort at least." He responded with a small smile.

"So you're still mad?" She asked, looking down.

"I won't say I've completely gotten over it but I have calmed down enough to talk about it." He told her, waiting for her to continue. Hestia took a deep breath.

"We- No I'm sorry. I was afraid of what the other deities would do if they found out about your status. We were such a small familia back then and we barely knew anything about how this all worked. Your skill is such a rare thing, I've never heard anything like it no matter how hard I tried to research it. I knew that if I told you then the other gods would be able to get it out of you."

"We've already been in one war game because someone wanted you. If more deities found out about it they would force us into one like Apollo did. And we might have won then but eventually, a stronger familia would come and take you." She told him.

"Was that the only reason?" He asked after she finished explaining.

"Y-Yes!" Hestia answered shakily, Bell stared at her for a moment before a smile came over him.

"So it had nothing to do with Aiz?"

"N-No!" Hestia was sweating at her obvious lies but it seemed Bell didn't notice.

"So you don't have any problems with me liking Aiz, right? So that means I have your blessing to ask her out in the future?" He asked with a beaming smile.

"Y-Yes?" Hestia answered in a tone that sounded more like a question. She was blindsided by that and spoke without thinking but it was too late now, Bell looked as happy as could be.

"I'm glad. I know you had some problems with dating outside the familia so I was worried that was the problem."

"So you forgive us?" Haruhime was the one who asked the question.

"Well I'm bad at holding grudges," Bell said with a chuckle as he scratched his head. "And I understand it wasn't that you didn't trust me, you were just worried about other people. But it will be fine now. We are a big enough familia that people won't be able to force us like Lord Apollo did."

A collective sigh went around as the tension dropped. The only one who still looked befuddled was Hestia.

'How could I let him drag that promise out of me!? No, it will be fine. Loki wouldn't let anyone near Wallensomething, so it'll be fine. And after Loki shuts him down I can comfort him.' She thought to herself.

"So now that that's taken care of, how'd your date with the elf princess go?" Welf questioned him.

"It wasn't a date, it was magic training," Bell answered with an embarrassed smile.

"Training with the best mage in the world, did you learn any new tricks you can share?" Mikoto asked.

"Well, we didn't really do much today. She just wanted to see my magic up close and see my limit. She did say she would invite me over for more magic training. But I'll worry about that later, more importantly, can I have some of that cake? I'm starving."

With that out of the way, they all walked into the living room where they would spend the rest of the day together.

—-

The first thing Riveria did when she reached Twilight Manor was head to Alicia's room.

"Knock knock…" After a few seconds of waiting Riveria spoke up. "Alicia, it's me, are you awake?"

She heard the sounds of someone moving on the other side. When the door finally opened she had to suppress a sigh, knowing it would only make the situation worse. Alicia stood there looking more exhausted than Riveria had ever seen her outside the Dungeon. She gently led her back inside her room and closed the door behind her.

Alicia, like most of the familia, shared her room with someone else but it seemed like her roommate was gone for the moment. Riveria sat down on her side of the room and gestured for Alicia to sit next to her. She did so and for a time they both sat there in silence.

It was Alicia who broke it, "Are you mad at me, Lady Riveria?"

She closed an eye as she answered, "Of course not. Why would I be mad at you?"

"Sniff…sniff…" she sniffled a bit and had tears in her eyes, but she didn't cry. "Because it's my fault that this happened."

"I didn't realize you orchestrated this on purpose."

"I would never!" Alicia said, finally turning to look at her.

Riveria nodded at that, "And I know that. That's why I don't blame you or Lefiya for what happened. It was just an unlucky event, don't blame yourself. Like I said earlier I'm glad you were connecting with Rei. The Xenos problem will eventually come to light and the closer we will be with them the better."

It seemed that Alicia took it better than Lefiya did, but she was older so it was to be expected. Still, it was better safe than sorry so she added more.

"But if you still need something to help get over it I would be glad to ask for your assistance in solving this matter."

"Of course, Lady Riveria! I would be happy to help in any way I can. What can I do to help you?" She asked, happy to be able to fix her mistake.

"I need help looking through all of our ancient texts to find a loophole to get us out of this," Riveria told her.

Alicia agreed without hesitation, "Of course Lady Riveria. I will head to the Great Gnome Library as soon as possible and begin research."

"Don't rush, you and Lefiya can head out tomorrow, tonight you should rest up. We can't have anyone else think that there is a problem, so make sure you are subtle." She warned Alicia, she knew there was no need to though. As her right hand, Riveria trusted her immensely.

"Understood, I'll talk to Lefiya and tell her later." Alicia nodded before her eyes narrowed as she remembered something. "Today you went out with the boy, correct? How did it go?"

Riveria told her briefly what happened, observing his magic and seeing his skills in person. She did leave some things out, however, such as the lap pillow, which she knew would make her mad. And of course the personal talk about his familia.

"…was it really that powerful?" Alicia was flabbergasted at his skill.

"Yes, when he charged it up fully it was easily as strong as my fire spell if I used all my Mind with it if not more. Of course, it does have drawbacks, he can only use it fully charged once before he has a Mind down. And it does take a full four minutes to finish charging."

"How about the elf-boosting spell?"

"I don't want to say anything without having someone else to test its effects on. But when I used my magic it raised its ability by at least a level."

"A level!? If we got that for the Fairy Force!" Alicia was rightfully aware of how desirable that was for elves. And while Riveria didn't like that name, she was right. If they had Bell accompany them then they would be twice as powerful as now. Which still didn't account for the other part of the skill that she had to go see Loki about.

"Still it isn't right for us to treat Mr. Cra-Bell like a tool for elves." She lightly scolded her.

"You're right, I'm sorry." She apologized while looking a bit ashamed.

"It's okay, I know you didn't mean anything by it, but other elves will treat him like that if they find out. I don't want this situation to lower his opinions of us elves."

Alicia knew she was right, elves tended to be prideful. If they knew about someone who could make them stronger just by being near them they would want him. Especially Riveria's father considering he was royalty.

"Don't worry, I will tell all the elves to keep that skill a secret. It might be hard to keep it a secret forever though. Eventually, other elves will start to wonder why they are getting stronger when he is nearby."

She told her, which was a fair concern. While Riveria was wondering what to do about that Alicia asked another question.

"Excuse me for asking Lady Riveria, but it seems that you are taking a lot of care to make sure the boy, Mr. Cranel is okay. I know that you are a very kind person but it feels like there is more."

Riveria nodded, she could trust Alicia with this and it would be good to have outside help since this wasn't an area she was good in.

"Yes, while it's true that I feel responsible for the situation and want to make up for it, there is another reason. I don't want this to interfere between him and Aiz." She told her.

"Him and Aiz?" Alicia repeated with a confused expression.

"Yes, it seems that something is going on between them. So I want to use this opportunity to see if he is good enough for her."

"I knew that they trained together but I didn't realize there was anything deeper. Now that you mention it though Aiz has seemed different recently. It seems like she's more expressive and less closed off." Alicia added her own opinion which mirrored Riveria's.

"I agree and while I don't know how Aiz or Bell fully feels about the other it is clear that they are important to each other. I don't plan to do anything for now just see how they are.

Alicia nodded, she was happy to hear that Aiz, who she considered a little sister, was growing up and being interested in someone.

"I would be glad to help with that in any way I can," Alicia offered her support before adding one more thing, "but I would recommend keeping that part between us. Don't need Lady Loki or Lefiya to hear about this."

Riveria wearily nodded her head. She could already imagine how mad they would be if they found out about it. The less they knew the better, she decided. With that she stood up to leave, Alicia seemed in a better mood already and they had discussed everything they needed to.

"I will be heading to my room to review any books I have to see if they have an answer. If you find one tomorrow let me know as soon as possible."

"Yes, Lady Riveria."

Riveria left the room quietly, closing the door before heading to the upper floors. So far she had been lucky and hadn't run into the twins yet. She wanted to keep it that way until tomorrow at least. It seemed that her lucky streak would continue as she reached her destination without issue.

But it seemed she spoke too soon, as soon as she raised her hand to knock on the door a voice called out to her from behind.

"Lady Riveria!" Lefiya called out to her. Riveria turned around and saw Lefiya standing there. "That human didn't try anything with you did he?"

Riveria didn't even bother hiding her sigh, "No, nothing happened. If you want to know more go talk to Alicia I already told her."

Lefiya looked like she wanted to say more, but did as told and went to bother Alicia. Riveria sighed again and went to knock on the door but before she could it opened showing a grinning Loki. Riveria ignored her and walked inside.

"So how'd it go?" Loki asked teasingly as Riveria sat on the bed and began taking over her white cloak and green robe to show her back.

"Enough, you know why I'm here." Riveria didn't bother answering and focused on the reason she came.

"Sheesh you're no fun," Loki laughed as she got behind her and began unlocking her status. "Well it's fine, I'll find out eventually. For now, let's see how good Rabbit Foot's skill is….damn." She trailed off. Riveria put on her robe as she waited for Loki to write her status on a piece of paper. On it, all of her stats were still zero since she just leveled up.

Except one.

"Magic I35…" she read out what was on the paper.

"What did you do?" Loki asked seriously.

"I used one spell," Riveria answered just as seriously.

"Hah, you're kidding. Just one spell and you got that much of a boost. Imagine going on an expedition with him or how it would affect lower-level elves." Loki laughed at the absurdity of it, but her eyes were serious.

Riveria was also thinking as fast as possible. If she, a level seven adventure got that much of a boost for doing nothing, then Loki was right. If the skill was even half as good as his first one, elves could be leveling up in months instead of years. This boy was trouble, wasn't he? It was getting to the point where even if she did find a way out of this she would still need to make sure her father or other elves didn't go after him.

While Riveria was trying to think of ways to keep this a secret, Loki offered a suggestion. "Why don't we make him join our familia? Just think about it, within a year all of our elves would be at least level 5 and that's not even including what level you and Aizu would be. We would be the strongest familia in the world, even Freya wouldn't be able to stop us."

"He would never, he loves his familia," Riveria responded, not paying attention.

"Who do you think you're talking to? I'm Loki, the goddess of trickery. A naive boy like that is child's play. I could have him in our familia within a week if I tried," Loki bragged.

"Even then, no." Riveria denied her.

"Tsk, you're no fun. Well, it's whatever I was half joking anyway. But let me say one thing, I know you love watching over younger kids like the Mama you are, but remember not to get too attached. He's not one of us."

"I know and I'm not getting attached I'm just being responsible since this is my problem that he got mixed up in," Riveria said as she left the room.

—-

"Man, is it good seeing the sun again," Welf commented as he left the Dungeon. Bell, who was standing next to him nodded in agreement. After two whole days in the Dungeon, it was nice to just relax and soak up the sun.

Since Lady Riveria said he had time, Bell decided to do a small Dungeon dive with his family. This time they didn't focus on missions and mainly just fought monsters down to the 18th floor. Thanks to Bell's luck stat they got a lot of drops so they were able to make a good bit of money. They separated them into the materials Welf and Lilly needed and gave the rest to Bell to trade in for money.

"Are you sure you want to go alone, Master Bell? I could help you." Haruhime offered, but Bell denied her with a shake of his head.

"I should be fine, it's been a while since I talked to Eina so she'll probably want to tutor me about some of the levels we are about to go to."

After saying that they said goodbye as the rest of them headed home. Bell took his bag and began heading to the guild. As he walked he felt that people were watching him but that was normal so he didn't worry about it. Once he got in he had to wait in line for Eina, but he didn't mind. After thirty or so minutes he was finally up next.

"Hey, Eina." He greeted her with a smile but she stared at him weirdly. "Uh is something wrong?"

"….No nothing just a weird rumor I've been hearing lately about you." She answered after a moment, still looking at him suspiciously.

"Are you gonna tell me or….?" Bell trailed off nervously.

"Well, I've been hearing about how you and Lady Riveria have been seen going to the Dungeon together. And you've never mentioned knowing her before. While I doubt you would do anything stupid to her, I know how you are with women so I thought I would check." She finished with a sentence that felt like an insult. Bell had no idea what she meant with how he was about women but he was glad to her that the rumors were going around. That explained the looks he got when he left the Dungeon.

"It's not like I was trying to hide it or anything it just happened recently," Bell explained. Luckily for him, Lady Riveria told him if such a situation arose. "She was just interested in my magic and offered to teach me some tricks to help me use it better."

"She came up to you?" She asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Yeah," Bell gave her his best smile trying to convince her.

"Hmmm….whew I'm glad," she finally said with a smile. Bell let out an internal sigh at that. "Sorry about that looks like I was worried about nothing. You know how elves get, especially with Lady Riveria so I just wanted to make sure."

"No, you're fine." Bell hesitated a bit before asking his question. "You act like you know Lady Riveria personally or is that how all elves act towards her?"

Eina shook her head at that, "No most if not all elves treat her like you would royalty. Even I can't help but do it even though I've known her since I've been a child."

"You've known her for that long?" Bell asked shocked. He was expecting something like she knew her from work.

"Well, she and my mom were friends back in the day so we are close. Even though I know that and that she doesn't like being treated like that by me I can't help it." She admitted sheepishly.

"No, I get it. Something about her just seems so high class it's hard to treat her like a normal person." Bell agreed with her, even though he would try to treat her normally like she asked.

Eina looked like she wanted to say more but got into business mode with a cough. "Okay with that all settled, how can I help you today?"

After that Bell gave her all of the monster cores and items he was handed. After getting the money back they headed to a private booth and spent a few hours reviewing the Water Capital and a bit of the next floor. Bell was tempted to tell Eina about his new, well first, skill but decided against it. His familia was right, the fewer people that knew the better. Bell would never tell her but he was glad when they were done. For such a friendly person she was ruthless when it came to studying. Bell didn't think he knew a more strict person.

So after some farewells, Bell headed home with the money they got from the Dungeon. As he headed home he noticed a lot of elves giving him weird looks or outright glaring at him. Bell tried his best to ignore them and act like nothing was wrong but the situation was stressful. He let out a sigh of relief when he entered a less crowded road. While he walked he looked at the sky, the sun was a bit past its peak so he figured it was around two.

Seeing that they got back earlier than expected Bell didn't know what to do for the rest of the day. He supposed he would go home and just relax with the familia. Maybe he would finally get his goddess to stop worrying about him still being mad. Ever since they talked she had been trying to pamper him as an apology but he already forgave her. With that in mind, he headed home.

He walked through the door and called out, "I'm home."

"Master Bell, can you please come to the living room please?" Haruhime called back to him. Bell's brow furrowed at that but he went as requested.

Bell loved the Hearth Mansion, but his favorite room had to be the living room. It was the room he probably spent the most time awake in. Lady Hestia made sure the living room felt lived in with small trinkets from everyone scattered around the room. There was a large L-shaped couch with two recliner chairs for people to sit in. In the middle was a large table for them to play games and eat on. Finally in the corner was a desk that was meant for Bell but Lilly was the one who used it. And of course the best part, according to Lady Hestia, hearth gave the room a comforting glow. Being here always left Bell in a relaxed mood.

Which is why he was doubly shocked when he saw the two guests who were sitting on the couch drinking tea. One was an elf with chestnut hair and the other was a blonde human with an expressionless face. Bell's mouth hung open as he looked at them before looking at Haruhime, who was standing awkwardly behind them in her maid outfit, wondering what was going on.

"Sorry, Master Bell, they came an hour ago looking for you. Lady Mikoto was going to go look for you but they said they were fine waiting." Haruhime explained.

"I see…" he didn't at all, but he figured it was the quickest way to move the conversation on. "So what did you guys need?"

"Hmph, so rude. Not even offering any apologies after making us wait so long. Also having your familia member dress up like a maid, what's wrong with you?" Lefiya huffed out.

"Sorry, but it's not like I knew you would be waiting here. Also, Haruhime's outfit is more on Lilly and her than me." Bell felt the need to defend himself in front of Aiz.

"Riveria sent us to bring you to Twilight Manor, for studying," Aiz suddenly said. Bell hadn't heard Aiz's voice since the party on the 18th floor, as always it was soothing to hear.

"That's right she did mention that, but wouldn't it have been better for her to come herself?" He wondered since the whole reason they were doing this was so that people could see them.

"Lady Riveria told us that it's fine, don't want to make it suspicious. Besides Lady Riveria isn't someone who needs to do everything herself." Lefiya snapped at him, but he figured she was still upset about the whole situation so he wasn't mad.

"If she thinks so then I'm okay with it. But I just got back from the Dungeon so give me a few minutes to wash up and change." He told them. They didn't seem to care one way or the other so with a quick, "hurry up", from Lefiya he headed upstairs.

Not wanting to make the wait any longer, Bell quickly showered and changed into his usual outfit. He just finished throwing on his jacket and putting his Hestia Blade in its sheath when he walked into the living room again.

"Ready?" He asked with a smile. Aiz nodded and stood up with Lefiya following her.

"Will you be alright Master Bell?" Haruhime asked, concerned about him.

Bell smiled at her to calm her, "Yeah it's just some magical training I'll be fine. I should be home by tonight so I'll tell you all about it then."

She still seemed uneasy but she led them out and waved at them from the door. Bell waved back as he left the gate following Aiz and Lefiya. It was quiet but Bell was used to Aiz not starting the conversation so he spoke up first.

"So Aiz how have you been?" He started off with a basic greeting but before she could even answer Lefiya interrupted.

"Hey, no acting overly friendly. Remember for the time being you're only supposed to act close to Lady Riveria," She told him. Bell wanted to argue and say he was just being friendly but as much as it hurt he probably should keep a bit more distance between him and Aiz. He wasn't the most subtle and he was easily flustered by women in general. So he would have to keep his distance or the elves would kill him if they thought he was two-timing their princess.

'Well, there goes the plan to get closer to Aiz.' With that in mind, he took a step away from Aiz letting Lefiya step in between them. Because of that, he didn't see the small frown that appeared on Aiz's face.

"Um, Lefiya?" Bell hesitatingly called out to her.

"What?"

"Did Riveria manage to find anything about the uh problem?" He vaguely asked her if they had solved it.

Lefiya's grimace let Bell know the answer, well that was okay. It wasn't like Bell expected the solution to be found in a few days. He just hoped it was sooner rather than later.

"No, not yet," she reluctantly admitted. "But it's only a matter of time. Yesterday, me and Alicia went and found all the books that cover elf traditions and history. One of them surely has the answer."

It sounded like she was saying that to convince herself but Bell was smart enough not to point that out. He was glad nonetheless that they were making progress, as he was useless in elf politics.

"Well, that's enough about that. Do either of you know what I'm doing today?" He asked, curious about what type of training the strongest mage was going to give him.

"I wouldn't sound so excited if I was you," Lefiya said with a smile. Bell's eyes narrowed in confusion at her answer. He figured it would be difficult training, but he wasn't a quitter. He glanced at Aiz to see if she would explain but she just nodded to him determinedly.

"Don't worry I will protect you."

That did nothing to help with his fears, but Bell decided it would be for the best if he stopped asking questions. They walked in silence for a while. As they did many people recognized them and Bell had them mutter gossip about them. He tuned it out though, his thoughts on more important things. As they got closer Bell could see the peaks of Twilight Manor in the distance. He forced down the apprehension with a weak grin.

'It'll be fine. I've studied with Eina before and it's Lady Riveria she can't be a bad teacher. Lefiya was just trying to scare me, it's going to be fine.' Bell told himself as they entered the gate.

—

Sorry for the super late chapter, after thinking about it and looking at all the comments, I am going to go with Bell x Riveria x Aiz. For now, though the Aiz part is going to be small while I explore Bell x Riveria. I've also been thinking that I might ask someone to be a beta reader so I don't fall behind, but I don't know anyone who knows the show. So if anyone is interested please let me know. The next chapter should be out in 2 weeks this time. As always hope you enjoyed and feel free to leave comments.