Interlude: A New Journey's Bell

"Bell?!"

The voice of the gray-haired man went unheard as the white-haired adventurer ran towards the heavy crowd on Main Street. He ran as fast as he could, running towards who knows where; it didn't matter to him.

Bell Cranel wanted to get away from The Hostess; he wanted to run from the shame he felt, the embarrassment from that event, and especially his crush. He wanted to deny the claims, say that he wasn't pathetic, and tell him to shut up.

But he couldn't; the matter of fact is that He did run, He is pathetic, and most importantly, He is too weak to even stand beside her.

"It hurts. gods damn it, it hurts."

That was the boy's deepest thoughts, he had been ridiculed by another adventurer. No, not just any adventurer, possibly a high-ranking adventurer from the Loki Familia.

And in running away, he knew that the wolf man's words were right.

Bell eventually calmed down enough to realise where he was.

"The Dungeon? How did I?"

The boy had somehow run all the way to the entrance of the dungeon. Maybe his subconscious led him here due to all the times he went adventuring. Or maybe this was a sign or an answer to the questions he had.

If one was weak, then the answer was obvious, especially for an adventurer. So he steeled himself and ran towards the base of the dungeon. This time he wasn't going to run; he was going to fight.

Bell didn't know how long he had been fighting; it could have been 4 to 5 hours by now, but at this point he didn't care. He didn't even bother to pick up any magic stones on the way; by the looks of it, he was on the sixth floor of the dungeon. Every monster he encountered, he just slew them without remorse, everything to get stronger and reach his goal.

After the dungeon excursion, Bell somehow got back up to the surface. After the brutal fights in the dungeon by himself, his face was bloody and tired, his clothes nearly completely shredded, and his blades looked to be chipped.

But more importantly, his body was battered and bruised. All of his fights in the dungeon were without any armor. On the upper floors, that would be no problem, but when he reached floors 3–5, he was taking some damage; it was mostly small cuts and scratches, but even that added up. The worst was when he reached the 6th floor.

"Those war shadows and frog shooters really hurt! Ugh, maybe Miss Eina was right. No! I need to be stronger, strong enough to...

The boy hadn't realised that he had taken more damage than he thought; his movement was swayed and his vision was blurry.

"Shit, I was too reckless.

But I won't give up.

I have too..."

Just as he was passing out, a person had caught him. Bell couldn't see the person's face or feel who's hands had caught him.

"Hey, kid, don't die on me like this." The man seems distraught; he didn't expect to find an adventurer this injured early in the morning.

"Guess I'll take him to the break room at work; Agnes should be able to heal his injuries.

Geez, wonder if Alain can recognise the Familia logo on his back."

The voice, which he could identify as male, was the last thing Bell heard as he passed out from exhaustion.

When Bell woke up, he could feel his nerves in pain; even moving parts of his body felt like a chore.

"Um, please lie down; I'm not done treating you."

He looked to his left and saw a young woman with light blue eyes and beautiful long blond hair, tied with braids and a black ribbon and reaching her waist.

"Um, sorry, please continue."

The girl continued applying some sort of gel around the cut marks and bandaging parts that looked to be more serious.

When the girl stopped, she let out a breath she'd been holding and addressed Bell.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Agnes Clement. Al brought you here during his morning run and saw you collapse on the street. You're very lucky that these injuries are very minor; the worst is a cut on your left arm. Fortunately, I know a bit of healing magic and medical knowledge."

"Yes, thank you for your help, but where am I? Before I collapsed, I was heading home.

"The Hestia Famiia right?" A new voice was heard as an androgynous-appearing man with lime green medium-length hair and yellow eyes entered the room.

"No need to be shocked; I ran into a twin-tailed goddess not too long ago searching for a white-haired boy; you fit that description to a T.

Right, my manners, my name is Alain."

"Anyway, you've been out for an hour; rest for a bit, and you can walk back to your goddess." The healer in the room told them as she was still dressing up his left arm.

Even when injured, Bell still tried to sit straight and voiced his thanks to these kind people.

After getting checked once more by Agnes, Bell was confirmed to be healthy enough to walk towards the main restaurant.

"Morning, kid, you look much better than an hour ago. The name's Alcaeus, but people call me Al."

"Bell Cranel,

So you're the one who found me?"

"Yep, I was doing some exercises and ran into you. I asked Agnes if she could come early after I put you in the break room. Me and Alain practically live here, so when I brought you here, I asked him for info about you.

Still, didn't expect him to meet your goddess in just 30 minutes after leaving the restaurant. He told her that you were resting at our place and convinced her that you were fine, and she went back home.

Bell felt something was off about that comment—not that the person who said it was wrong, but the contents of what was said were wrong.

For the short weeks that Bell knew his goddess, she was an earnest if clingy goddess, so to hear that she was convinced so easily threw him off.

"She said something about her being sure that you would come back to her. She also said that she has a surprise waiting for you."

The words he heard made Bell happy that his goddess trusted him that much, but he wondered what surprise she had in store for him.

"Well, you look well enough; get going; you shouldn't keep a lady waiting. Trust me, that's the last thing you should do."

Bell thanked the man and walked towards his home. It looked to be either 6 or 7 a.m. in the morning. His gait was a bit of a mess due to his injuries, but he still had a smile on his face. All he wanted to do was see his goddess again and be welcomed to his humble home.

Bell finally reached his home. It took a while, but he made it. As he reached the door, he heard more than one voice inside the home. One was definitely his goddess, but the other was an unknown male voice, but it didn't feel like any of the gods that he had met since he reached Orario.

So Bell did the only thing he knew in his sleep-deprived state.

He entered by accidentally tripping, because once again he is injured and tired.

The sounds of him falling to the ground and the whimpers he made from the pain took his goddess and her guest by surprise. They were not expecting to see the white-haired adventurer on the floor of the home.

The young man was helped by both the goddess and the newcomer on his feet and on the couch that they had.

The young man that helped Bell was a teenager of average height with grey eyes and short, dark, messy hair. He wore a black shirt and dark pants, with a coat over him. His face made him think that he was from the Far East.

"Bell, sorry for bringing this up to you. I was going to the restaurant; really, I was, but before I met Alain, I stumbled upon another potential member of our Familia when I was looking for you.

I told him to wait in our home and that I was looking for someone, and he agreed to wait. When I met Alain and he explained what happened to you, I realised I had left our guest for a long time. So I'm really sorry for that, Bell."

If Bell was offended by Hestia's words, he didn't show it. Though in reality he wasn't offended at all, in fact he was ecstatic; after all, he could be a senior in his Familia, something he didn't imagine at all.

"Right, let me introduce you to him.

Bell, meet Soujuurou Shizuki, "

"Nice to meet you, Bell."