I'm currently negotiating for ownership of Danmachi, let's hope it goes well

"It seems Sir Bell's actions have created a stigma around our Familia. Myself and Lady Haruhime were receiving glares when we were doing our shopping." Mikoto said apprehensively, not wanting to create any more discomfort for the Familia than they were already experiencing.

"I do not need to be a Goddess to know you are not lying Mikoto. Me and Supporter-kun have been reading the newspapers and they are all slandering my sweet Bell." The Goddess Hestia replied.

"Is Mr Welf…?"

"Yes, Lili believes he is still in his forge. I've left food outside and it disappears when I go back so he must still be alive." The prum begrudgingly responds to Haruhime's unfinished question.

"What about Nathan, has he gotten up yet?" The Renard posed her next question.

"I'm not sure, if he has I know nothing of it."

"Well, he can be quite… quiet Goddess," Mikoto said, not knowing how to describe her friend best.

"I guess you are right as his healing has progressed abnormally fast. I'm still worried about Bell. He has barely eaten and come out of his room." Hestia said with worry in her sapphire eyes.

Just as the white-haired boy had been mentioned, he appeared in the living room where the girls had been chatting. A look of confusion and nervousness etched onto his face.

As Hestia followed Bell out of the Hearth manor front door, the female residents of the Familia worriedly continued to stare out the door through which their captain and Goddess had just left. They all knew of the hatred and possible danger the young boy would be putting himself in and they didn't like it one bit. However, they were soon broken out of the trance when the person who disagreed with the decision the most spoke up in his usual quiet voice.

"What the hell are they doing?" Nathan said, surprising the girls.

"Eeep!"

"Nathan! You really need to stop sneaking up on us like that. You almost made Haruhime faint."

"Sorry, force of habit. Now, where are those two off?"

"Sir Bell wanted to go into town. He mentioned something about not liking just sitting around and doing nothing."

"Yeah well me and him both." Nathan said, folding his arms.

A silence then fell over the group as the realisation of what the half-elf meant settled into the girl's brains. Nathan hadn't been able to move much because of his broken leg and arm from his fight with Asterius. Though he had been healing at an alarming rate, his bones still seemed to take some time to fully repair. He had basically needed Welf to carry him home, barely able to put pressure on his leg. Even now, the girls could see that he was trying not to show his discomfort but they could just about see that his left leg was being a bit more supportive than the right.

For Nathan, he had been on edge, not being able to gather any intel about what was happening outside. He felt more discomfort from not knowing what the Loki Familia was planning than the pain his body was feeling, especially after a certain orange-haired elf had tried to barge into their home, intent on hunting down their captain. It had all come to a boiling point and now he, just like Bell, couldn't just sit around and wait for things to play out.

"Absolutely not, you are not going as well." Lili protested, being the first to figure out what Nathan intended to do.

"Someone needs to protect them."

"Sir Bell is strong enough to protect himself and Goddess Hestia." Mikoto fired back.

"Not from the Loki Familia he ain't."

"Oh and you are, are you?"

Nathan kept his mouth shut, knowing he had led himself into a corner. He couldn't retort the Prums statement in a way that would help his argument.

"Besides, you still aren't fully healed. Can you even walk properly yet?"

"I can move fine enough if I activate my magic."

"And that wouldn't stand out at all or indicate to others that you were just on a nice strole."

"It would show not to mess with Bell and Lady Hestia."

"Nathan, If I may. That is not the message we should be portraying at this point." Haruhime calmly stated. Nathan knew she was right about it but he still couldn't fully accept what was happening.

Seeing she wasn't getting argued back by the half-elf, Haruhime continued. "I understand you are on edge about the Loki Familia after Thousand Elf came and demanded to speak to Master Bell, but we shouldn't retaliate. It would only escalate things further and that is not what Goddess Hestia or Master Bell wants."

Nathan's shoulders slouched after Haruhime's speech, signalling to the others he was beaten. A small smile graced his lips as his Jade eyes met Haruhime's emerald ones.

"Ha, I remember when you first joined and you were terrified to even talk to me and now you can say that with such a strong face. You really have gotten stronger Haruhime."

Haruhime blushed at this very uncommon compliment from the boy but then a smile of her own returned the boy's own.

"Maybe it is just that I realised that there was nothing to fear."

"Heh, yeah I guess I have been getting soft nowadays, I'm blaming that on you lot."

The atmosphere had gone from tense to relaxed in just a few seconds and now the Familia was able to calm down just a bit, a much-needed rest from the past few days they had had to experience.

"Anyway, me and Lady Mikoto have just brought some food from the market. I could make us some lunch if you would like."

Nathan didn't respond immediately, looking at the front door. His mind was conflicting right now, not knowing what to do. But after a few seconds of contemplation, he came to a conclusion.

"Sure, why not. Haven't eaten today anyway."

"Very well then, I shall go start preparing."

"I shall help Lady Haruhime."

"When are you two gonna drop that Lady schtick with each other. Ain't you childhood friends."

"You keep bringing this up, Nathan. Lili and the rest of us stopped it for you because you basically threatened us too."

"Cause I don't like it, waste of breath. We are family now, why are we still so formal with each other."

"We shall think about it Nathan but for now I need to concentrate on what I'm going to cook," Haruhime said with a smile.

"Fine, whatever. I'll go check on Welf, see if he wants to join us."

"I wouldn't bother, Lili has tried knocking several times but he doesn't respond.

"Who said anything about knocking," Nathan replied with an almost sinister smile.

Aki was currently on the lookout duty on the Hestia Familia home. She was previously meant to be helping find the monsters in Daedalus but ever since Lefiya was taken off the team for a sudden outburst that, apparently, came from nowhere, according to Cruz and the rest of the lookout team that was there to witness it, Aki had been her replacement. She thought she should still be looking for the Xenos as she was a cat person, her detecting skills were better than most but everyone else was busy as well. Finn also saw 3 opportunities in this. First, it was giving Raul a chance to do stuff on his own without having Aki there to back him up all the time, which she knew she did and she knew it might hinder him a bit but like hell would she let others talk him down, Raul was amazing and she just wanted himself to see that the way she and Finn did. The second was to give her a chance to properly lead a division, even if it was something as boring as a lookout. While she had led groups in the dungeon before, this was something else, well according to her captain, though she couldn't see it. The third was the most surprising though. Finn wanted to give Bete a chance at leading the other beast people in the hunt for monsters. She didn't understand why her captain wanted to subjugate his subordinates to such cruel punishment. What annoyed her the most was that Finn was trying different tactics out during a very important time when the tried-and-true methods should be used. The raven-haired Cat girl had said as much to the Blonde Prum, but he simply replied with, " We haven't yet hit the most important time, that is yet to come."

While praised for her intelligence and cunning by her peers, Aki knew she could never rival her captain, but that is why he is the captain and she is still not an executive, even though people like Ais, Tiona and Bete were and they were the worst people to ask for making smart decisions. Aki still didn't understand how Raul wasn't an executive yet those three were. Raw strength isn't everything you know but that can't even be argued as Lefiya is an honouree executive. Aki knew she was Riveria's protegee and all that but wasn't Raul meant to be the next captain. Surely he should be in the meetings at least instead of an air-headed 16-year-old girl who only focuses on getting stronger. Aki loved Ais; she really did. She has known her for 8 years but she knew that Ais didn't have many lights on upstairs. Raul was so much more qualified to be an…

"Hey Aki, someone else is coming out of the house from the backdoor."

The cat girl was pulled out of her inner rant by the young mage next to her.

"Who is it, Elfie? We have already seen Bell Cranel and the Goddess Hestia leave just a few minutes ago."

"Well we have yet to see the smith leave the forge and we just saw the far eastern woman and Renard return with food."

"So that leaves the Prum girl and the half-elf. Let's get round there now."

Aki knew of the two and she knew both of them could be dangerous. The Prum girl made herself into Aki's watchlist when she showed her transformation magic in the War Game, something very few people picked up on. Then she had overheard about how Finn Deimne himself thought her worthy of his wife, speaking of her bravery and smarts. This only added caution for the Cat girl.

Then there was the half-elf. Seemingly coming out of thin air to only show formidable strength when easily wiping the floor with 65 Apollo Familia members. Though registered as a level 3, it had already been discussed by the people in her family that they all considered that BS. (Little did she know that that very half-elf had listened in onto that very conversation with a small smile). Aki had been there in Daedalus street when they had found the Little Rookie smelling of the disgusting perfume that radiated from the pleasure district. A quick explanation sorted out the misunderstanding but when the fully masked half-elf dropped down in front of them and just walk up to them with no hesitation or fear did Aki really get a sense of how suspicious the boy is. She still remembers how he just appeared from nowhere, even surprising the level 6 people they had with them. And then the lack of fear when talking to the Loki Familia of all people. Yeah, she knew they weren't as scary as the Freya Familia but still, they were the strongest dungeon-delving Familia in Orario. The voice as well, she didn't like the voice, with how quiet and….

"It seems to be the half-elf. Aki, hey Aki."

Elfie sighed at her superior. Though she respected her intelligence and cunning, the cat girl did have a tendency to space out sometimes or get lost in thought.

"Hmm, oh ok. Well, let's just wait and see what he does." Aki replied, not fully realising she has already got around the back of the house

By now, most of the lookout team were now aware of the half-elf walking out of the back door of the Hestia Familia residence. Just like the last time, when most of them had seen him in the war game, the boy was wearing black shorts and a short-sleeved black shirt but this time with no under armour. He didn't have any gloves on but his hands caught be seen by his sides, suspiciously close to the pair of swords strapped to both sides of his body. He had no hood on so his half-elf ears and bleached hair was on full display. Instead of the boots he wore, the boy was barefoot while walking across the well-kept lawn nestled behind the manor. Most of them had noted the slight limp coming from his right leg. The Familia had all found out one way or another about what the boy had gone through in his fight against the black Minotaur when Tiona started shouting about it at dinner the night after the incident.

"It seems he is going for the workshop." Aki pointed out to the others who had now come to surround her position.

"Probably just going to talk to the smith," Cruz said from the lookout post one over. He only needed to whisper for the level 4 cat person to hear and vice versa.

"Hey look, he stopped."

"What the…?"

"Oi, oi. What a minute, there is no way he heard Mr Cruz."

Aki too was also shocked about what she saw but she was more importantly feeling… what was she feeling. It was a feeling that she didn't expect to feel while on the surface and not in the dungeon. As the now stationary half-elf turned his head slightly to the left and upwards to stare straight at the lookout party through his mask, the Loki Familia felt a sense of dread being shared throughout the group. A resounding gulp almost echoed around the area with how many of the lower-class members swallowed in anticipation. Most couldn't hold the stare and after only a few seconds only Cruz and Aki were left continuing the staring contest, though to all 3 participants it was clear who was winning.

"Is he trying to threaten us or something?" Cruz quietly remarked.

This was heard by quite a few of the newer people of the Familia. The arrogance they had gained from being part of the Loki Familia wouldn't allow their great Familia to be threatened by a single person. They weren't happy at all that they hadn't gone and confronted the half-elf for trying such a thing. As they looked at their two superiors, they watched with wide eyes as they both inevitably lost the staring contest both looking away after only being able to hold the boy's glare for less than 20 seconds. The slight bead of sweat that rolled down Aki's face and the breaking of eye contact was masked quite well by the cat girl as she turned to start heading back to her original lookout post saying that she should get back to her original post. As everyone else then returned their own gaze back at the boy, a sinister smile could be seen on the boy, a smile of a victory against the Alchat, the cat girl who was seen as the strongest level 4 in the city. This was the final straw for some of the younger people as they watched the smiling boy turn back around and continue his previous endeavour towards the forge. All it took was for the sound of one sword to slightly be removed from its scabbard by a young human to ignite a flame in the others. Even if they were weaker than the boy, they were part of the great Loki Familia. They wouldn't take such an insult lying down, especially not towards the ones they look up to. As others reached for their own weapons, Aki was just about to order them to stand down. She had also heard the sword be readied and was adamant about stopping any form of contact, especially any that would result in violence. Though that future was swiftly stopped as the other person who had heard the weapon be drawn now had begun to draw his own.

The sight made everyone freeze. The single male that had begun to draw his own blade sat there in terror as the small glint of another sword made its way into his vision. But it was the deathly cold stare resonating from the cold blue mask that made him almost start shaking. The smile from just a second ago was replaced by an emotionless, featureless complexion and the firm grip from the gloveless hand that held onto the black hilt of the slightly drawn sword. A sword which they had seen effortlessly dance its way around a battlefield of opponents stronger than most of them.

"S-stand down Michael, just put it away and he will do the same." Aki slowly said, steadily reaching out her hand and placing it on Michaels's that had begun to draw his weapon. Slowly she pushed the sword back into its scabbard. And just like the cat girl had said, the half-elf did the same, which only served to confirm that he could hear them, even though they were over 100 metres away from where he was standing. This, while comforting Michael, it only made the others more restless as it showed that this masked boy, who they knew very little about, held a portion of the Loki Familia at bay with only a look, including Anakitty Autumn and Cruz Bussel. Not to mention they now realised who could have been listening into all the conversations over the past few days.

At the end of the day, Aki was confronted by her captain and Vice-captain on why so many people didn't want to be on the Hestia Familia lookout team. The cat girl could only do her best to describe what had transpired.

'First the mask and the war game, then the magic weapon incident against the Irregular minotaur. Now this, who is this boy?' Finn Deimne thought, now knowing there were two people to watch out for in the upcoming fight he knew was inevitable. The question of the boy's identity was also thought of by his Vice-captain. Even though she was the only one to have an actual conversation, if you could call it that, with the half-elf, she was the most confused out of them all. However, with all that was happening, both simply made a note of it and continued with their day, as there was more important stuff to focus on.

'I can hear you lot, not exactly quiet." Nathan thought as he made his way to the door of Welf's forge. He knew he was being watched the moment he stepped out into the backyard; he'd expected as much. He had been listening into most of the conversations, which only served to make the boy more restless. But as more and more gazes piled on and the more and more talking that surrounded his appearance, the less and less he could control his emotions. As he returned their gazes, his mental fortification kicked in to stop any bloodlust from seeping through. In the half-elf's mind, it was their fault for all the suffering his Familia was going through. He blamed them for the hateful looks Haruhime and Mikoto had gotten from this morning and he wanted nothing more than to confront them. He was mildly surprised to see the Alchat amongst the group and wasn't surprised when he tried to look for Thousand Elf with no luck, already assuming she had been kicked off for her outburst. Nathan smiled as his gaze outmatched hers and she pulled away and his smile grew more when he earned hateful gazes from the newer, inexperienced recruits. It was a childish win over the Loki Familia that Nathan enjoyed thoroughly but that all stopped when he heard a sword being unsheathed.

'I gave them the smallest amount of anger I could hold back and they all quivered in fear. Didn't know the Loki Familia were recruiting such weaklings.' The mental Fortification was the only reason why Nathan hadn't initiated when that human started pulling his sword. Nathan's irrational mind immediately went to it as an attack on not just him but on the Familia, something he had sworn to protect. But he was able to reel his thoughts back in and stopped himself from fully pulling his own sword out. But even in that fraction of a second when his development ability caught up, he had already subconsciously released a bit of wrath and had showed a bit of his blade. Though it had done well at repelling any thoughts of trying to attack him, so Nathan just accepted the outcome and continued on with his previous mission of yanking Welf out of his forge.

As he had stated to Lili earlier, Nathan had no intention of knocking and instead he just went to open the door. Seeing it shut, Nathan grabbed a knife that he had brought specifically for this scenario. With years of practice behind, the half-elf very quickly picked the lock on the door. Nathan hadn't even bothered with asking Welf if he wanted to unlock the door.

"You could've asked for me to unlock the door!" Welf yelped not liking being barged in on. This earned a quick "meh" and a shrug of the shoulders from his intruder.

"What was so important that it needed you to break in then?"

"Just wanted to see what you were up to."

"And that meant lock picking my door and just barging in!"

"Oh yeah, I also came to invite you to see if you wanted to come to eat with us."

"Oh and that makes it so much more important, does it !"

"Well, Haruhime is cooking it."

To say Welf was upset at the laxed half-elf would be wrong. He was in fact quite annoyed up to the point his face was almost the same temperature as his forge. It wasn't just the lack of asking, the lack of importance that made him stop his very important work, it wasn't the lock picking… wait, actually, it was the lock picking. His forge was HIS, and his alone. It was his safe space where he liked to come and sit and think. To know someone could just enter whenever they want to, displeased the red-headed smith to no end. With all the stress that the past few days had piled up on everyone, this wasn't something Welf appreciated.

"I've also been meaning to ask why you have stayed couped up in here?"

Welf could only smile as just before Nathan had barged in unannounced, the smith had finished the final part of his project.

"Might as well show you, come and take a look."

Nathan walked over to where Welf stood and watched as he unveiled his latest creations.

"Heh, guess you have been busy then. What do they do?

"Well, this one…."

"… generates a thick barrage of ice."

"That's so cool Welf. I guess who have been busy then." Bell said, staring at the magic sword Welf made.

"And that one, Sir Welf?"

"This one causes a massive gust of wind strong enough to blow away a first-class adventurer," Welf responded to Mikoto's curiosity.

"Guys, thank you so much for helping me. It really means a lot." The white-haired boy said, smiling at his family. All of them returning it, even the half-elf couldn't stop himself from grinning a bit.

"So I guess we are doing this then. You do realise we will most likely be taking on the Loki Familia."

"Supporter-kun is right. I tried talking with Loki today and she said she couldn't stop her children even if she wanted to."

"Well, we can't just face down the Loki Familia."

"Who said anything about facing them." Nathan spoke up.

"How are we meant to do that, we don't all have a hididng skill like you." Lili said back.

"And that is why you lot should focus on the Xenos and let me deal with distracting them. I won't even engage in a fight unless it' absolutely neccesary."

They all looked at the half-elf nervously but they all knew what he could do by now and they trusted him to be able to use his skill set to help them.

"Ok Nathan but you promise me not to get in any fights without asking for my permission. Understood?"

"I did say unless necessary and..."

" .STOOD!"

"Y-yes ma'am." Nathan said, looking down at his feet like a child who had just been scolded.

"Ok good, Supporter let start coming up with a plan."

"Already on it Goddess Hestia."

"Let's do this guys. Let's go save our friends."

A resounding yeah filled the living room after the final words of the captain before everyone got to work on their respective jobs as tomorrow night, they would begin their rescue mission.

Seen as the closest part of the mortal world to the heavens, Babel tower loomed over the city of Orario. It could be seen for miles and miles, used as an indicator for travellers and traders to be able to tell they are within a day's walk to the centre of the world. It was the city's pride, the cage that held back the hordes of evil that use to terrorise the world over a thousand years ago. And sat right on top of her throne, the queen that ruled the most astonishing view in the world was currently entertaining another.

Trickster orange met beautiful, commanding silver. The God of travel had come to request an audience with the Goddess of beauty who sat on top of the world, showing how much power she wielded.

Hermes bowed deeply at the eyes that burrowed into his very soul.

"If you believe me and are willing to entrust me… I'd like you to give me the key."

Freya raised an eyebrow at the god, not in shock but in confusion.

"With the key to Knossos, I can turn that boy's role back to that of a hero."

Freya could only continue to watch as Hermes stayed in his bow, a perplexed look on her face. After 10 seconds of no response, the blonde god raised his head to look at the Goddess sat above him, wondering why she had yet to respond. He knew she would have probably found the Key while ransacking Belit Babel and now he hoped to gain possession of such an important item through Freya without having to do much work for it.

"My dear Hermes, what are you on about?"

"Eh?"

"What is this key to Knossos that you just mentioned?"

"W-wait, you mean you didn't get one after you sacked the pleasure district?"

"Hermes, I have no idea what you are on about but I would so hope you would explain it to me," Freya said, slowly leaning forward in her chair, knowing she was going to get what she asked. She always did.

Meanwhile, in Hermes' mind, he could only come to one conclusion.

'The only person that night who could possibly know of this was…'

The memory of a hooded boy came to mind almost a year and a half ago. How he had asked for help and how he possessed a lot of useful and shocking information on the current situation of the dark underbelly of Orario. The most shocking one was how the Goddess Ishtar was working with the Group Evilus to further her own gains.

"Nathan must have got it." Hermes unintentionally whispered to himself and unfortunately, Freya heard it.

"Nathan?"

Like Hermes, Freya immediately realised who the God was on about. Maybe this would open up the mystery of the bloodied, scared boy that walked into the Hostess one night almost a year and a half ago.

"Hermes my dear, you are going to tell me everything about this Knossos and about this Nathan, ok."

Hermes could only gulp as he was set for round two against a goddess of beauty but unlike last time, Freya didn't even need to take her clothes off to get what she wanted.

And that's the set up for the fight on daedulus street. Wonder how things how are going to go differently with how other scenarios have staryed from its intended path.

Bit of a shorter chapter this time but I've still been healing and resting but that's allowed to me to properly go through the future for this story, especially the parts after canon has ended.

Btw did you like the little thing I did for Aki. She doesn't get enough love imo as when we did in the valentine event for danmemo, she was my favourite part alongside Raul and I want more god damn it. But unfortunatley this isnt an Aki story and I have no idea how to do one of them so shame.

For Jank7457 and the others who were wondering, GOOD NEWS. My wrist has finaly decided to function properly again so hopefully it means quicker updates.

With that, I'll see ya next time and peace.