Change of Fates (rewrite)

by Ventanus

The rewrite of my Change of Fates story, since there are many things I d like to change or wished I wrote differently. Bell will have three partners here. (third one cant be taken in the pull-down menu, so I take Lefiya since she is very important even when not Bell s lover here) Rating MA again.

5. Chapter 5

Author`s Note: The chapter was supposed to be longer and contain more of the original chapters and changes. But the AI I use to check the grammar can´t easily handle a chapter that is twice as long as this one.

grandcanyon2: No gaslighting here. Maybe it wasn´t shown well, but all that Zeus did was a bit of teasing and fooling around. Imagine how happy this old man is to have his last child back. In this story, Zard and Alfia are partners, not in a romantic sense. Maybe you could call it more than friends, but not as lovers. They live together, eat together, spend time with each other and Bell, but that´s all. It´s enough for both.

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"Giiiiii..."

"Ahm..."

"Giiiii..."

"Bell?"

"Giiiii..."

Ah...I feel purified just by looking into his eyes...my little angel is so cute...

"B-Bell, is something?"

Alfia looked a bit troubled, Bell was watching her from up close, sitting on the couch next to her. Zeus couldn´t help but chuckle, trying to stop himself from bursting into a loud laugh. It sparked joy in him to see how easily Bell was able to make Alfia flustered...as far as he knew, Bell was the only man who ever managed to do that...at least so easily. Especially when he adored her like that. Even when he himself tried to peek at Alfia together with Bell´s father, she didn´t get flustered...just angry.

Zard sat in his armchair, his arms crossed in front of his chest, looking with a calm expression, and a faint smile on his lips. The time in this village, in this house, was for some reason very good for their health. Zeus had guessed for Alfia it may be motherly love, for Zard...maybe a life in peace? He enjoyed the simple life, getting firewood for the whole village since he could easily pull entire fallen trees, tending the fields with them, and go all out on his cooking.

For him, it was also the presence of Zeus and Alfia. She was his only friend, and the old man was still his old man. Then there was Bell, it really touched his heart to spend time with him. While he had made clear to Bell, that he couldn´t be his father figure, since he wasn´t related to him by blood, he was fine with being his uncle. In a way, he was his uncle.

And now he smiled even more when he saw how Alfia reacted to Bell´s stares, it was indeed quite funny to see this strong, stern woman react like this.

Heh, you actually enjoy this, my friend, don´t you?

"That was so cool, Mom!"

"Huh?"

"How you destroyed the avalanche! Was that magic? Are you a mage? Are you able to do magic tricks? Are you an adventurer? Are you strong?!"

Alfia was nearly blinded by the pure, sparkling shine in Bell´s eyes...and how much he admired her. Zeus was a bit taken aback, he felt as if Bell´s mere presence purified something inside him!

"Magic...tricks?"

"And you, Uncle Zard?!"

He smiled and raised his shoulders, looking at Alfia, he would leave it to her to reveal anything. This was something he wouldn´t take away from her.

"Ahahahaha!"

Zeus slapped his thigh and laughed, he couldn't help it.

"B-Be quiet, old man." Alfia looked embarrassed.

Bell kept beaming at his cool Mom.

I guess I have no choice.

"Bell.."

"Yes?!"

He is so excited...so cute...

Bell was the cutest and most precious thing in the world for Alfia.

"Bell, yes I can use magic. But I am no adventurer."

At least not anymore.

"It looked so cool!"

"And I only did it because you were in danger...my little darling."

"I have the coolest Mom ever! How did you learn magic? Was it hard?"

"Let´s say it wasn´t easy."

"Woah!"

Alfia turned towards Bell and gently took his hands.

"Bell?"

"Yes?"

"Would it be okay with you, if we wait until I explain it to you? For now, I would like to just tell you, that my magic is only for emergencies, okay?"

"Okay! I will wait!"

Her heart wanted to melt by his grin. Alfia would need time to decide what exactly to tell Bell, when to tell him, and how...she also wanted to talk with Zeus before that.

"Hehe, I really love you, my little hero."

"And I love you, Mom!"

Bell grinned at Zeus. "And I love Grandpa!"

"And I love my grandson...and your Mom of course."

"And I love Uncle Zard!"

"Thanks, little one."

"Are you an adventurer, Uncle Zard?"

Zard glanced to Alfia, who nodded slightly.

"I was, in the past. Not anymore. And yes, I also can use magic, but it isn´t something that should be used, except when great danger comes."

"Is that why you were wearing that armor?! Where you a knight?!"

"A knight? Hm, I wouldn´t call myself that."

Zeus grinned. "Why not, boy? You surely looked like one in full armor."

"I was more of a w-"

Zard stopped when he saw Bell´s face, the pleading hope. Bell loved stories of adventurers and knights, who protected the innocent.

Zeus tapped his chin. "Weren´t you once called "The Black Knight" in the past?"

"Geezer..."

"So, you really were a knight?!"

Zard couldn´t ruin Bell´s good mood. "Let´s say...yes."

"Awesome! But wait..."

"Hm?"

"Did you protect Mom on your journey? Were you her knight?"

This time it was for Zard to laugh. "Ahahaha! No, by no means. Your strong Mom isn´t a damsel that needs to be protected. We were and are companions, friends."

"Woah...a knight and a magician...like in my stories!"

"Indeed."

Bell´s eyes turned to Alfia again. "So your black dress was your magic robe? But where was your pointy hat?!"

"I ahm...lost...it?..."

Zeus winked when he saw Alfia becoming more red. Bell admired his Mom so much, that he insisted on reading the story of Alfia with her again, about the fight against the Leviathan. He still had no clue that the story's heroine was her.

And when he went to bed that night, Bell read the second story of this book on his own, about the gold-furred fox priestess.

Far away in the Far East, at the same time but early in the morning, a small fox girl read a hero story about Argonaut, her favorite book.

At the same time, both thought about something.

I want to meet someone like him/her one day.

It was four days before someone framed her for eating an offering...which would bring her on her destined course towards Orario...

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And while Bell kept admiring his awesome, cool Mom, things happened in Orario too.

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Astrea looked up from her desk when she heard a soft knock on her door.

"Come in."

The door opened and a blond elf looked inside.

"Lady Astrea, do you have a moment?"

"Ryu, for you always. What do you need my dear?"

Ryu walked inside and closed the door behind her, when she turned to Astrea, she stopped for a tiny moment. The reason was something in front of Astrea, aside from her paperwork, there was a tiny figure there. A figure that looked very much like a certain god with an elephant mask on his face.

The gods called a figure like this a "chibi", he had his hands on his hips and was grinning in his usual way.

"Hm?" Oh, hehe, you haven´t seen it, right? It was a gift from Ganesha, it´s kind of cute."

Astrea gently tapped the head of the figure.

"I am Ganesha!" The voice from the god came from the figure, but a bit higher than usual.

"Ehehe.~~~" Astrea giggled.

"Uhm...why would god Ganesha gift you something like that?"

"Oh, he wanted to give one to every god at the last Denatus. But most of the others declined his offer."

In fact, only Astrea had taken the figure. Her followers knew that Astrea liked small, cute things. She had more than a dozen plushies in her room, all of them gifts from her children. Each night she would sleep with one of these in her arms.

"Hah...well okay."

"So, what do you want, Ryu?"

Ryu took a deep breath, to steel herself.

"I wanted to ask you something important, lady Astrea."

"Hm?"

"It is..about "that"."

"That" was the maid uniform that Alise had to wear after she ran away from home. Astrea liked it so much that she asked Alise to wear it again at the last "birthday" of the goddess. The Familia celebrated the day when Astrea came down from heaven, they called it her birthday since they had no better name.

The Familia really adored their goddess...and Alise when she looked like that. Eventually, following an embarrassed shout from Alise, the others should wear this once too, to see how she feels like, Astrea also asked them to do that. She wanted to see her cute children in it. For Asta and Lyra, it was out of question, their bodies were too small for it, and Neze had trouble since there was no hole for her tail.

Kaguya was the first to agree, not showing even the tiniest bit of embarrassment. The others followed one by one, Iska looked really exotic as an Amazon Maid.

But when it was Ryu´s turn...how she had averted her face in shame, one hand clutching into the long skirt, the other half covering her face...it was beyond adorable.

Ryu could easily withstand the cheers and pleas from her fellow familia members, but not from Astrea. The goddess had asked her with puppy eyes if she could wear this more often, on special occasions.

So it turned away from Alise, leading to Ryu doing it from time to time.

Eventually, Ryu had asked Astrea if not one of the others could wear this uniform for once...so she would be spared. Astrea had thought a while about this and said it would be a good idea, this could become a form of punishment in their Familia, for doing bad things. The goddess liked the idea of seeing her adorable children in maid clothes.

But...so far Ryu wore it about ninety percent of the time, only rarely did it one of the others. Not even Alise anymore... In fact, for a while now it had only been her!

"Oh "that", right. My birthday is coming up again, hehe, I´m looking forward to it."

"Right..."

"Ryu?"

"Lady Astrea...please answer my question...why...did none of the others ever wear it? I...I will wear it for your birthday if you want me to...but..."

"Oh, Ryu...hah...I thought that this day would come..."

"Lady Astrea?"

"It is because none of the others wears this uniform anymore, right?"

Ryu looked very uneasy, by no means did she want to accuse her goddess of breaking her word.

"Yes..."

Astrea sighed, she looked a little bit depressed.

"Ryu...I hoped this day would never come...I wanted...to spare you that..."

"Lady Astrea, please tell me."

"I...can´t...I´m sorry Ryu."

"But why? What did I do wrong? Are you mad at me?"

"It isn´t because of that, trust me."

"Then why? I can´t think of any other reason than that. You said it would be a form of punishment in our Familia and yet I am the only one wearing it. So...you want to punish only me?"

Ryu looked sad now.

"No, Ryu! Please believe me, it isn´t because of that!"

"Then why? Did I do anything wrong? Do you all love to tease me that much? Have you...maybe...stopped to see me as a warrior..."

"Dear goodness, no! Ryu you are still my precious daughter, like all the others! But I can´t tell you the reason...please...I..."

"Lady Astrea?"

Astrea looked down for a moment and played with the Ganesha doll with her fingers for a moment, it helped her often.

"I can´t tell you the reason...it would...hurt you."

"Hurt me?"

"Yes..."

Ryu´s ears dropped...if that hadn´t happened because she was sad, Astrea would have thought about that being so cute.

"So it is a secret...something I am not allowed to know...that you do hold a grudge against me."

Astrea put down the Ganesha doll near the edge of her table.

"Ryu, please believe me when I tell you, I swear on justice, we hold no grudge against you. The whole Familia loves you very much and the others just don´t want to hurt you."

"Then why? Please tell me!"

"I can´t...it would hurt you...I don´t want to hurt you..."

Ryu had small tears in her eyes, she didn´t want to talk with her goddess like that.

"Lady Astrea, please! Please tell me the reason, I have to know it!"

"It would hurt you!"

"I can deal with that!"

"I don´t want to hurt you!"

"You won´t hurt me! Please!"

Astrea´s heart broke when she saw the begging in Ryu´s eyes.

"Are you...sure?"

"Yes."

"Fine..."

Astrea took a few deep breaths.

"Ryu..."

"Lady Astrea..."

"The reason why they don´t wear the uniform like you do is..."

"Yes?"

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"The uniform is way too tight around their chests, they all complained about that."

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"..."

"Ryu?"

Astrea looked worried at her child, Ryu´s expression had gone blank.

"Ryu? My dear?"

"..."

"R-Ryu?"

"Kuuuh..."

Tears gathered in Ryu´s eyes, she was seventeen now...but it was unlikely that her body would develop much more...it was unusual for elves in the first place to be...well endowed. If Astrea thought about it, the only real exception she knew was Loki´s elf, Riveria.

"Ryu...my sweety...I didn´t want to tell you...because..."

Ryu was as pure-hearted as a maiden could be, she said to herself that it didn´t matter if her chest wasn´t that big...but deep inside her...she would be glad to have a little bit more...to be a bit more womanly...

"Kuuuh..."

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And of course, things had to get worse for the poor elf. By chance, Iska walked past Astrea´s door when she met Alise there. Both Astrea and Ryu heard what they talked about.

"Oh captain, good to see you here."

"Hm, what´s wrong Iska?"

"Here, your package. I went to get my weapon from the Hephaistos Familia and they asked me if I would take your order with me."

"Ah, thank you so much! It´s finally here."

"What did you order?"

"A new chest plate."

"Oooh that looks good, adamantine?"

"Yes, pure adamantine, hehe."

"It´s bigger than your old one, right?"

"Yeah...my old one got too tight around my chest."

"Oh, I know that problem... When I went out today, Kaguya accompanied me on my way for a while, she needs new bras again."

"Well, the luxury problem of being a woman, hm?"

"You are right."

Both continued to chat while they went away.

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"Kuuuuuuh..."

"R-Ryu? Sweety?"

Astrea saw that Ryu was crying...it hurt her pride as a woman.

Ryu´s instinct took over, she wanted to jump up and run to her room.

"Ryu, please wa-unf!"

Astrea got up too fast...Ryu saw what happened. Her goddess leaned forward and due to that movement...her large chest knocked over her mug...and something else happened.

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"I am Ganesha!"

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The voice of the doll came again...muffled since it got stuck in Astrea´s cleavage.

"Oh no...my chest got in the way again..."

Astrea pulled the grinning doll out between her breasts...was it just her imagination or grinned the doll more than before?

"Kuuuuuuuh!"

"R-Ryu?! I-It isn´t what you think, I didn´t try to mock you! The size of your chest isn´t important!"

Ryu slopped down to her knees and sobbed. Hearing Astrea say that was the same as when a rich person told her that money didn´t matter...

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"Et tu, lady Astrea?"

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In the home of the Ganesha Familia "IamGanesha", the sturdy god suddenly started to cry.

"Ganesha? What is wrong?"

"I feel like I missed something incredible just now, Shakti! Something heavenly soft!"

"Huh?"

"I can feel it, all around my body!"

"What are you talking about..."

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But the Astrea Familia didn´t only have silly things happen. Their fate had changed, most of the Familia was alive. And due to their fate changing, the fate of other people would change too.

One evening Astrea asked two of her children to come to her room.

"Thank you for coming, you two."

Ryu glanced to her right side, Kaguya stood there in her usual outfit. She wasn't kidding with what she said to Ryu. Kaguya wore a hakama instead of a kimono now. The side with her silver arm hung down, the sleeve along her leg. She also wore bindings around her chest to protect her from looks. Kaguya was the only person Ryu knew to openly display her silver limb. She had even begun to draw fine lines on her arm in Far Eastern ink, reaching down to her shoulder. On one hand, that covered up the spot where metal went into the flesh a little, on the other hand, there was another reason. According to her, tattoos were frowned upon in her home country and were mostly worn by criminals or crooks. As far as Ryu knew, Kaguya was originally of quite high status in her home country or her clan. So apparently she took great pleasure in being a "bad girl".

"We always follow your wishes, lady Astrea."

"Indeed."

Unusually for her, Astrea had a slightly grim look on her face.

"I have talked with Ganesha for a while now and we both concluded. We need...specialists."

"Specialists?" Ryu looked confused.

Kaguya smiled slightly. "I guess you talk about justice work...and yet at the same time not?"

"You are right, Kaguya."

"Eh?" Now the elf was even more confused.

"Leon, you never heard about my family...my clan from back home, right?"

"You mean, the Gojouno clan? No, except from the name I know nothing...you never talked about it."

"And you probably won´t ever hear much about it. I will just say...my former clan is doing "dark jobs" for the Imperial Court, led by the Goddess Amaterasu."

"Dark jobs?"

"Yes, it is one of the great families in the Far East, some have the job of protection, others do other things. and the Gojounos...jobs like espionage, torture for pieces of information, assassination...things you don't want to associate with the sun goddess."

"How cruel..."

"Not necessarily."

Astrea nodded with a grim face.

"And that is why I called you two. There are some dangers in Orario that we can´t get rid of openly, but they are too dangerous to be left alone. I will not ask you two to become assassins but take care of some hidden problems. The plan is to expose the crimes of certain people so that Ganesha's Familia can arrest them and have them tried publicly. I'm talking about things like human trafficking, slavery, and forced prostitution."

Kaguya nodded. "I am your woman, lady Astrea."

"Ahm...I understand that Kaguya was knowledgeable about this...but why me?"

"I need someone to watch Kaguya´s back, to help her, fight with her when necessary."

"I understand but..."

"Ryu you have a problem with doing such hidden things, right?"

"Yes."

"And that is the reason why you are the perfect partner for Kaguya."

"Huh?"

"Do you know what a naysayer is?"

"Ahm..."

Kaguya winked at Ryu. "She wants you to argue every decision we have to make during our job. That you will always be the voice of "Bright Justice", while I have to think about what to do as "Dark Justice", and that you will help me to not lose sight of what justice means. You´ve seen the symbol in my room once, with the white and black whirl, in which each has a dot of the other inside it?"

"I did."

"You could say what we do is something similar to the meaning of this symbol."

Astrea nodded. "Exactly."

"Alright, I will work together with Kaguya."

Together these two would do the work that the Astrea Familia couldn´t achieve openly. Most of the time it was about asking people things while they were incognito and making the crimes of certain people public. Syr, who found it incredibly exciting, helped Ryu with her "detective work", later they would give lots of trouble to a certain casino.

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And since the fate of the Astrea Familia changed, the fate of other people also changed.

One day the whole Familia sat in the big living room...something was about to change. Astrea had talked with her children that now, a bit over two years after the incident with the Juggernaut, they would start to recruit new members for the Familia, those who were worthy of Justice.

And now...the day came when they would greet their first new members...the Familia would still remain completely female. For now at least.

There was something special about Astrea, a certain race was "drawn" to the goddess of justice. A race that had normal problems with most of the gods and thought of them as pleasure seekers. But Astrea and a blue-haired hunter goddess were much different.

Those of that race who were a bit...more rigorous, were more interested in joining Artemis´ Familia. But those with a more open mind and tolerance...were interested in Astrea. But the biggest difference between the two Familias was that Astrea didn´t forbid her children to seek for a partner, fall in love, and marry.

In fact, Lyra had thought about dating Finn of the Loki Familia for a while...but the things he did during the Dark Times, sacrificing people to lure out Evilus members, which sometimes resulted in many casualties among adventurers and citizens alike... had not only pissed off Lyra.

"So, please greet our first new member."

A young woman came slowly inside the room, she wore a long cape with a pulled-up hood, covering most of her face.

"Hey everyone..."

The others simply smiled, not saying too much.

The young woman immediately walked to Ryu and sat down next to her, making sure that the cape always covered one side of her body, and the hood remained up.

The fact that this young woman was now here and joined their familia, was a great joy for all of them.

Ardee.

Four months ago, they got a message from a crying Ganesha familia member, that she had woken up. Ryu immediately dropped what she did and sprinted to the hospital, Astrea and Alise followed her a bit slower, not wanting to cause too much trouble. But there was no holding back for Ryu. When she went into Ardee´s hospital room, she heard and saw a crying Shakti, holding her weak little sister in her arms, Ganesha stood next to the bed and shed tears too.

Ardee had smiled so weakly, her voice barely audible. "Hey Leon..."

Ryu had gently hugged her friend and cried as Shakti did.

It had taken a while for Ardee to get out of bed again, she had been in a coma for almost two years, her body was so weak.

And scarred...

The right side of her body had many burn marks and scars, her right eye had lost some of its colors, and apparently, it was half blind.

Out of shame, Ardee hid her scarred body and face, not being able to bear with the looks of others. Over these few months, she got fit enough again to walk around normally. But she couldn´t bear being next to most men, with Ganesha being an exception. He was like a father to her. To make it easier for Ardee, Astrea had invited her to the Stardust Garden, since in IamGanesha, there were just too many people.

Shakti and Ganesha visited her every day, but Ardee was pretty gloomy most of the time, the healer told them it was also due to her losing two years like that, and it would take time to heal her heart.

Ardee would continue her life, training softly with Ryu, to bring her old strength back. She still wanted to save people, heal people, and protect them. Eventually, the day came when she talked to Shakti and Ganesha. They didn´t have a problem with her spending most of her time with Astrea familia, to get acclimated to being awake again.

But Ardee explained she would continue to fight against evil, and later go into the dungeon again. But they couldn´t underestimate either of them. So for her skill to function, which improved people with the same blessing close to her, Ardee would convert into Astrea´s familia. Yet, she stated that with an adamant expression, she would always remain Ganesha´s child too. And of course Shakti´s little sister.

The god agreed to it, and Shakti too. Ardee would get treated as a part of both familias.

Over time, Ardee eventually revealed how her body looked like to the Astrea familia, when they all bathed together...even Ryu, who never did that with the others in the past. In a way, Lyra and Kaguya helped her the most with that. Kaguya always openly showed her silver arm, and Lyra wore a metal patch over her empty eye socket.

And yet...both smiled, both could laugh.

Maryuu had even opened her top and revealed the long scar on her back, the others showed the scars they had too. Almost all of them wore a few scars that couldn´t get removed with magic or kept for a personal reason.

But today, Ardee would keep her cape and hood on, since new people would arrive here...

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"And now for our second new member, please come in."

No reaction.

Astrea smiled gently and went out of the door.

"It´s okay my dear, they will welcome you, don´t be afraid."

"Okay..."

Three things caught the attention of the members of the Astrea Familia as the young lady entered the room. Her pointy ears...her red eyes...and her black hair. It was an elf a bit younger than Ryu. Ryu knew what black hair usually meant...that this girl was "cursed" ever since birth.

"I am...F-Filvis...Filvis Challia..."

It wasn´t easy for this poor girl to trust someone, since most people...especially elves...reduced her to her hair color...and what it meant.

The first one that greeted her wasn´t Alise...someone else got to her feet faster.

"My fellow elf."

Filvis looked up at Ryu, who was a bit taller than her...but not much.

Ryu smiled warmly. "I offer you my warmest welcomes to our familia. Rest assured, neither I nor anyone here cares about your hair color."

Alise grinned. "Leon is right, doesn´t matter!"

Kaguya used her silver hand to move it through her hair. "What´s wrong with black hair, hm?"

Lyra played with a strand of her hair. "Pink one is more unique anyway."

Filvis was a bit taken aback, she wasn´t used to that behavior towards her.

"Leon...it´s usually my right as the captain to greet her first...but I guess it was important for you all. So, Filvis, welcome to our Familia."

Alise winked, while the others smiled.

Astrea leaned slightly towards Filvis´ ear and whispered.

"See? I told you."

Filvis didn´t say much, just because she wasn´t used to people not resenting her.

"Th-Thank you for having me..."

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The life and fate of Filvis Challia had changed completely. Since she joined the Astrea Familia, she would never be on the Floor with the other adventurers when the corrupted spirit tentacles attacked and killed them. The core would never be put into her body, she would never become a creature or join the Dionysus Familia.

Due to the question that led to Alfia deciding to live, how the fight against Evilus changed, how the Rudra familia used more bombs for their trap, which led to the cave-in that saved the Astrea familia...Filvis Challia´s life would be spared and she would get the chance to become happy.

In the end, her hair color would mean nothing and just be an unusual hair color.

Filvis wouldn´t remain the only elf that joined the Astrea Familia, it would be a few later... which would lead to Ryu becoming something of the "elven captain" since she was the oldest elf in the Familia, she would become even more of a big sister for them than the other Familia members.

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"So, everyone, please greet our next two newcomers today."

Astrea didn´t need to say it twice, as soon as her sentence ended, two young women came in.

"Jahooo! Nice to meet you!"

"Hello..."

It was...twins. Amazon twins.

The short-haired one raised her right hand. "Name´s Tiona!"

"I´m Tione."

"We´re sisters!"

Iska smirked. "Obviously."

"Oh, another amazon! Hello!"

Before one of them could say anything or greet them, Tiona walked towards Ardee and sat down next to her. "Hi!"

"H-Hello, Ms. Tiona..."

"Ah, Tiona is fine!"

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How did it happen that the Hiryute sisters joined the Astrea familia when none of the members except for Ardee and Alise had seen them before?

The reason was simple, it was due to Tiona because she saw something by chance.

Two days ago, after the sisters had arrived in Orario and got pestered by many gods to join their familias, both had walked through a park, trying to get a bit of peace for a moment. Both didn´t know that a certain familia was looking for them at this moment and would find them in about an hour in a tavern.

Except of course...they would never go to this tavern.

While they walked chatting, Tiona noticed a figure sitting on a bench. This figure was probably a young woman, wearing a cape and a hood, hiding most of her body.

And she was reading a book.

A book that started with the letter A.

"Tione, wait a moment!"

"Huh?"

Tiona jogged closer to the woman, leaned down, and looked at the book. With a gasp, the woman noticed her and leaned back.

Tiona grinned. "I knew it, you´re reading Argonaut, right?!"

"H-Huh?!"

"Your book, that´s the journey of Argonaut, right?!"

"Y-Yes..."

"I knew it! I love this book!"

The woman...Ardee...was taken aback by the sudden approach and Tiona´s behavior.

"Eh?"

"I´ve read it so many times in the past! It was my first book after Bache taught me how to read!"

"Who?"

Tione stopped next to her sister. "Tiona, she doesn´t know Bache."

"Oh, right! Ehehe! Hey, what do you like about Argonaut? Name´s Tiona by the way!"

And like this Tiona met Ardee, her carefree behavior surprised Ardee, but she wasn´t appalled by it. Both started to talk for a while, this while would turn into three hours. Ardee opened up more and more when she talked to Tiona about the Journey of Argonaut, telling each other what their favorite parts or characters were. Tiona said she admired the character of Orna, right after Argonaut. For Ardee, it was of course Argonaut and the bard Ryulu.

Tione didn´t say too much, this whole book-reading stuff wasn´t something for her, but her sister was pretty happy at the moment, so she would take her time.

And then, Tiona asked the question that would change her and her sister´s course.

"Hey, hey, to which familia do you belong?! And are they strong?!"

Ardee had already officially gotten Astrea´s blessing at this point. And when the Hiryute sisters caught a glance of Ardee´s scars, since her hood slipped away one time, Tiona actually smiled more.

"Woah, you have to be strong, these things show you fought heavily!"

Tione nodded to agree with her sister, as Amazons they easily showed respect for scars. It was the first time that someone not only didn´t mind Ardee´s scars but complimented them.

This by-chance meeting would be the starting point of a strong friendship between Ardee and Tiona, as fellow hero-stuff nerds.

It wasn´t only a huge change for Tiona, since Tione would never get beaten by Finn, and fall for him that way, she would maybe become pretty caring for her familia members. And as a true amazon, it was good that Astrea didn´t have any rule that forbid her from finding love.

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After Astrea was finished introducing the sisters, and they got greeted by the familia, the goddess smiled.

"And now, it´s time for our last newcomers today, even when you already know them. Come in, nyou two, Meow."

Why did Astrea talk like that all of a sudden? It got obvious when the last two women came inside.

"Nyufufufu! The nyautiful Chloe arrives and takes the stage! That was purrrfect, Lady Astrenya!"

The black-haired catgirl walked in, wearing her outfit from the past, playfully whirling her dagger with her right hand.

She wasn´t the only one, a fellow feline person followed her inside. Anya had a bit of trouble with the door, not because of her height, but because of her weapon. She wore her adventurer outfit from the past, with a small backpack as an addition, it looked like a black cat head.

"Meow, Chloe! Meow wanted to say it like this!"

"Nyufufufu, then nyou should´ve come in first."

Astrea giggled. "So, everyone, we already talked about this. You know Chloe and Anya from your work. Both of them believe in Justice in their own way. Anya wants to protect her family and friends, and Chloe strongly wants to protect children."

The goddess might´ve misunderstood what Chloe meant when she said "Little boys are justice!", but the cat-girl didn´t correct her, since she believed that a goddess would understand what she meant. And since she had heard that Astrea loved small, cute things, she thought maybe the goddess was a bit like her.

This "misunderstanding" would never get solved.

"Both will now join us, while they will join the Expeditions, they can´t go into the dungeon every day with us. Anya doesn´t want to leave the pub, so she will go down to a part-timer. And Chloe still has her debt to pay to Mia...But both will also defend justice up here. "

Chloe didn´t have any desire in the past to go into the dungeon, but now she had a dream. It was like a question, she hoped for something special to happen in the dungeon. Like she called it.

"Is it wrong to try to pick up cute boys in a dungeon?"

While she smirked at the group, a slight movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Chloe looked out of the window next to her, maybe it was just her imagination, but for a split second, she saw a black cat tail.

Nya?

For Anya, things had been different. She became really good friends with Alise, and later with the others too. Ryu still refused to let Anya touch her, but she wouldn´t give up! Syr was the one who encouraged her the most, to get out of her shell, and try some new things. Mia also agreed, that staying holed up in the pub all the time, wouldn´t be good forever.

It took a while for her to gather the courage, to talk to Freya about allowing her to convert to Astrea´s familia. Freya didn´t look too happy, why should she let her cute little kitten go? She saw that Anya was a bit scared, Freya kept talking to her for a long time, pushing Anya further and further, until she jumped to her feet, screaming out her true feelings, even when she cried while doing this.

Anya didn´t hate Freya, she could never hate her. Just like for Ottar, Freya was in many ways like her mother. She wanted to become strong, stronger than she was now so that maybe one day Allen would talk to her again, when she wouldn´t be such a crybaby anymore.

By herself, Freya knew that Anya had changed over the years, and become much stronger, but at the same time old things were still her weakness. If she just knew how much her brother actually loved her...

Freya told her one secret, Allen did everything he could to become as strong as possible, to strike down the black dragon one day. Anya loved her brother to no end, and would always do it. So one of her goals to become stronger, was to stand at his side when the day came and help him.

So that the foul beast wouldn´t take away the last member of her family.

In the end, Freya told Anya that Syr had a lot of arguments, so far Anya didn´t know that Syr also had a connection to her familia. When Freya finally agreed, she hugged Anya after unsealing her blessing, startling her.

"I will still watch over you, my cute little kitten."

"Lady Freynya..."

"Fuh~~"

"Unya!" Anya was startled again when Freya had softly blown into her ear.

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On this day, the Astrea familia got six new members. And it would become quite troublesome in the familia´s home during the next weeks. Tiona and Tione weren´t used to such an environment, Filvis was mostly alone in the past, and being an elf had also something to do with it, Ardee was bad with new people. Chloe and Anya would move out of the dorm of the pub, leaving Lunor a bit sad behind. But since they showed up each morning anyway, to at least work one or two hours even when it was a dungeon day, it wasn´t so bad.

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"""Bell, happy birthday!"""

The young boy smiled happily, it was his eleventh birthday, Alfia and Zard had been in the village for nearly three years now.

"Thank you so much!"

Bell was really happy, he loved to spend time with his grandfather, Uncle, and Mom, and every day was pure bliss for the young boy. Two presents were on the table in front of him, wrapped in paper, one was long, and the other more of a bundle.

Zard didn´t have an extra present for him, but he made all of Bell´s favorite dishes, giving them extra care.

A birthday cake was on the table and in the kitchen, the food was prepared for later. Zard had done his absolute best to make this cake, since Bell didn´t like sweetness that much, he had to think about something else. He found out that Bell liked fresh fruits when they weren´t too sweet.

So instead of adding sugar, Zard used finely sliced carrots and fresh fruits for the cake...Bell loved it.

Zeus knew that he loved more the fact that it was made by his Uncle, to have an uncle...but the taste was just too great. The old god thought of it as a great achievement, to great a cake that Bell would eat! He was amazed at how good Zard had become at cooking, maybe this was his true profession after all?

When the day came and Zeus would update Zard´s status for the first time in many years, he would be shocked to see something that appeared there...

To make both happy, Bell changed the order in which he opened his presents every year. This year, Alfia´s came first.

Carefully he started to unwrap his present and his eyes shone more and more.

"Woah! It looks so good!"

Alfia had worked a long time to make the long red cloth for Bell, he could wrap it around his waist and wear it like a belt. Together with the black, scarf like cape she made for him, Bell could look pretty close to his hero, Argonaut.

"Mooom! I love you!"

Bell jumped up with the red cloth in his right hand, landed on the couch, and gave Alfia a kiss on the cheek...that alone made all of her work worth it.

"Ehe and I love you, Sweety."

"Hehe."

But Bell didn´t forget his grandfather, so he carefully put the cloth down on the table and started to unwrap the long present, even Alfia didn´t know what was inside.

"WOOOOOAH!"

Bell´s eyes shone...literally.

It was a sword. Zeus had carved a wooden sword for Bell. It wasn´t a simple carving, what Zeus had produced was a masterpiece, the details were amazing, and the only thing that made it look different from a real sword was that it was made from wood.

"Graaaandpaaaa! I love you!"

Zeus got a kiss on his cheek too and grinned.

"Now you can look like a real hero."

At first, Alfia wanted to complain to Zeus, that gifting a weapon to a child was not right. But when she saw Bell´s happy face...she decided otherwise. All that mattered was that Bell was happy...and it wasn´t a real weapon, a wooden sword wouldn´t harm him...at least she hoped so.

"I´m going to get my scarf!"

Bell put the sword on the couch and ran to his room.

"I hope you made sure that the edges aren´t sharp?"

"Of course and don't worry about splinters, I sanded the wood neatly and sealed it with varnish."

"Is that the reason why the blade part looks so dark?"

"I wanted to give it a slight metallic look, so it's more immersive for him."

Alfia allowed herself a slight smirk.

"You became a good grandfather."

"Right back at you, Mommy."

Zard couldn´t help but chuckle. Alfia shot "that glare" towards him. "Want to say something?"

"Oh, of course not."

"Grandpa, Mom, look!"

When they turned around to Bell, Zeus´ eyes started to shine.

Hehe...you always liked that look back then.

Bell had wrapped the red cloth around his waist, wore his long black scarf, and held the wooden sword in his hands.

"You look heroic, Sweety."

Alfia knelt in front of Bell and adjusted the red cloth for him.

"Do I look like Argonaut?!"

"Very much I have to say." Zeus grinned.

Bell had a bright, innocent smile on his lips.

"But Bell, please be careful when you play with your sword, okay? And please don´t do it in the house. Promise me?"

"Yes, Mom!"

"Shall we eat some cake?"

"Yeeees!"

Bell carefully put his sword on the table, he would wear his small hero outfit for the whole day and play a lot. Zeus and Zard dressed themself up with a bit of hay and other things, to look a bit like monsters. They used two short ground branches that they tied to their heads with a leather thong to look a bit like a certain monster. Zard never thought he would do something like this one day, but this kind of life was very nice.

They didn´t need to ask Alfia twice to join their little play outside, Bell´s happy laughter and smiles brought her so much joy...he was her very reason to live.

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"Please save me, hero."

"Grooooo!"

"I will save you, Mo-..Princess!"

Maybe it was a bit embarrassing for Alfia, but as long as it made Bell...her son...happy, she did it with joy. She wore a simple, white dress and sat next to a tree stump, a small rope was put loose around her wrists. Zard and Zeus pretended to be Minotaurs that had captured the Princess, and Bell... played the role of his hero Argonaut.

While Zeus was well-padded with straw and clothing, he was still cautious. Still a kid, Bell could get a little overzealous...even when he was careful. Of course, Bell didn't have the strength to hurt Zeus...it was just a game anyway. And the one time he got Zard, the tall man didn´t feel anything and told Bell he didn´t get hit. Bell's sword strokes were overly heroic and would be unsuitable for a normal fight, but it looked good...in his opinion.

The little boy was having the time of his life.

"Groooo!"

"You will not devour the pretty, young Princess! I will defeat you, evil fiends!"

Alfia got a bit red, she had been praised before during her time in Orario, but it made her only happy when Bell did that...especially when he called her young. Well, it also made her a bit happy when Zard called her young, in general when she got called young, but she only showed this happiness when it came to Bell. Zeus was proud of him, on an instinctive level Bell understood what to praise on a woman.

On this day, Bell saved the princess four times and he received a kiss on the cheek every time from Alfia.

Around noon, they took a break since Bell was lying on the ground, panting from playing so much, but he never looked happier before. When they returned to the house for now, Zeus showed Bell how to wash and take care of his most precious possessions. Zard was busy in the kitchen, getting as much help from Alfia as she was able to. Since it was Bell´s birthday, she wanted to do something for him too.

For his birthday she would make his favorite food...rabbit stew. This meant Zard would look at every single step, telling her what to do. But it was important for her that she was the one doing the individual steps.

Since the day Zard and Alfia moved to the village and she growled at every wolf and other predators when they took a walk, these animals had moved away more from the village. For them, it was like a female dragon and an enormous bear had moved in there and declared their absolute dominance in this territory.

And due to that, the bunny population exploded. There was much food here and no predators...so it got a bit troubling for the village. They did their best to defend their vegetables. In the end, they made a virtue out of necessity...there wasn't usually much meat for the villagers as cows and chickens were very valuable. But thanks to the rabbits...there was meat on the table regularly. And deers in the nearby forests. Having too many deer could also become a problem, but they never hunted too many.

So the villagers made sure that the bunny population didn't increase too much, which would also become a problem for the animals. Alfia or Zard went hunting occasionally, making sure that any arrow they used was instantly fatal so as not to torment the animals. In this way, they also gently taught Bell where meat came from and that they had a duty to follow certain rules while hunting. They used almost everything from the animals, taking the fur to one of the villagers who knew how to process it. The winters became all the more bearable because there was no shortage of winter clothing. Of course, no one could have known that Alfia was the reason for the rapid increase in bunny numbers.

And since they didn´t want to waste the meat, Alfia trained to cook this meat, under Zard´s "merciless" eyes, the kitchen was his small kingdom after all. Bunny in garlic sauce, bunny with mushrooms, roast bunny, stewed bunny, grilled bunny... and many more ways she learned to cook.

And even when Alfia was his only friend, even when they lived together for many years now, were partners, not in a romantic way, he didn´t tolerate anything in his kitchen.

Bell got to love this meat, even more because it was Alfia who made it...his love for his Mom knew no end.

But bunny stew was his favorite, so she made it for him whenever he asked, the only dish she became really good at. Which made her quite happy, that out of all things, Bell´s favorite was her best, made her really happy.

Zard just had to smile when he saw that.

You became a complete Mom, Alfia.

She had looked at him. "Something wrong?"

"Just happy with my life, and the boy."

This made her smile, which was rare. After all, Alfia almost only smiled when she looked at Bell, but talking about him also let her smile. Zard just swore to himself, he would make sure that Alfia didn´t baby Bell too much.

By herself, she had to admit...Alfia´s weak point was Bell...whatever he asked or whenever...she did it for him. And Bell´s weak point was her, he swore to her he would absolutely do everything to protect his Mom.

"I want to be your hero, Mom!"

"My little Sweety...you are my hero."

"Hehe!"

"A-And what about me?..."

"Of course your hero too, Grandfather!"

Then Bell´s eyes wandered to Zard. "Can I become a great knight like you?"

For Bell, Zard would always remain the black knight.

"Probably. But always listen to your Mom, she knows best."

"I will!"

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And then, half a year later, something happened that would change Bell´s fate a bit more.

A slip of the tongue...that would help them in the end since they never knew how to start to talk with Bell about a certain theme.

While Alfia was busy cleaning the house...she heard a noise that was...unpleasant to her.

Crash!

Something in the house broke...and shortly after she heard two voices.

"Oh oh..."

"Oh oh indeed..."

While Alfia was a loving mother and would do everything to protect her little boy...she was also strict at some times...because she feared he might go astray or turn into a delinquent if she was too casual about his upbringing.

One time Alfia had a bad dream, that she had looked for Bell after calling him to come to eat dinner. In her dream she found him wearing the clothes of a ruffian with a coat, squatting on the ground, and talking with a delinquent friend.

"Ha, my Mom called me for dinner, but I´m just gonna chill and eat two potato snacks...and I will just throw the paper on the ground."

"Woah dude...you are such a bad boy."

Alfia had woken up from her nightmare, drenched in cold sweat.

That was the reason why she was strict sometimes and punished Bell lightly when he deserved it...like for breaking promises...like not playing with his sword in the house.

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Stomp...stomp...stomp...

"Oh oh..."

"Oh oh indeed..."

Zeus looked as uneasy as Bell, they had played in the house and Bell had accidentally caught and broken a vase with his wooden sword. Since he was a wise man, Zard had decided not to enter the house when he heard the crash...and Alfia´s stomps.

"Grandfather, what are we going to do?"

Both felt more like the approaching shadow...or storm...that came from the kitchen.

Zeus carefully lifted Bell and held him on his arm.

"Listen to me Bell, a man must not run away. If he makes a woman angry, he was to face that anger."

"Okay..."

In truth...Zeus wanted to use Bell as a "shield"...he knew that Alfia was weak to Bell´s sad face or puppy eyes. When she appeared from the kitchen, it looked like she was Medusa herself...as if her hair was alive and waved around her head.

"Bell...Old man...what did I tell you two? What did you promise me?..."

"Fueh..."

Bell clung to his grandfather.

"Bell...be a man, we will stand up for our mistake."

"Mom...I´m sorry..."

Alfia´s anger vanished a bit...she wouldn´t punish Bell fiercely...that was something she just couldn´t...her heart forbid it, but give him a small punishment when he deserved it.

And due to her nature of not liking loud noises, Alfia had pretty sensitive ears...so she heard the old man mumbled.

"Phew...looks like the Bell shield works..."

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"Be quiet, Zeus! How dare you use Bell like that!"

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Bell looked confused up to his grandfather. "Zeus?"

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Zeus blinked a few times, then he looked at Alfia who clapped her hands in front of her mouth in shock.

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The cat was out of the bag...

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Now these two would have a lot to explain...a lot.

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The cat was out of the bag.

Bell looked at his grandfather with a questioning expression on his face.

"Grandfather, why did Mom call you Zeus?"

Zeus sighed while he looked over to Alfia.

She lowered her hands from her mouth. "I´m sorry, old man..."

"No, I think it is time anyway."

Zeus gently put Bell down on the couch and sat next to him, while the contrite Alfia sat down in one of the armchairs. Zard came in when he heard them talk.

"Is it time?"

Zeus nodded. "I guess so."

After all sat down, they looked at Bell.

"Bell, will you listen to me for a while?"

"Of course, grandfather."

The old man smiled.

"First I want to apologize to you, Bell. There's something I've never spoken to you about. To be honest I didn't know how and when or if I should tell you. It was not like I wanted to keep it a secret from you, but it isn´t easy to explain."

Bell just looked at him, his trust in his grandfather was endless.

Zeus took a deep breath, and Alfia looked at him apologetically.

"Grandfather?"

"Bell, to tell you the truth...I am Zeus, the king of Olympus...a god."

"A...god?"

"Yes, Bell."

Zeus felt very uneasy, which surprised him. He liked Bell very much and had looked out for him since he had waited all those years to see him again. Now he, the king of Olympus, the prime god of whole mythology, was afraid that the boy he saw as his grandson would feel betrayed or stop loving him.

Would Bell change? Would their relationship change? Would he treat Zeus differently?

"You are Zeus? THAT Zeus?"

"Yes..."

"Woah..."

"Bell?"

Suddenly, a bright spark of childlike amazement filled Bell´s eyes.

"WOAH! My grandfather is the great Zeus!"

"Eh?" Zeus looked surprised.

"This is so awesome! My books said that you are the most handsome, intelligent, smart, and cool god of them all!"

Alfia who knew where Bell´s books came from rolled her eyes.

"Bell...aren´t you...upset?"

"Why would I?"

Irkh...I feel purified.

The shine in Bell´s eyes purified Zeus from the inside, if he would stare too long into these innocent, pure, shining eyes, he would even lose his lewd tendencies towards women! Alfia looked relieved at Bell's reaction.

"But grandfather, I am confused."

"I will explain it to you, okay?"

"Mhm!"

"Bell, you remember reading about the stories of old, about Orario and such?"

"Yes!"

"You know that adventurers followed the gods after we came down to the surface. We call this a Familia. And I had my own Familia."

"But then...are we...I mean..."

Zeus smiled. "Your father was one of my children, like all the others, he was like a son to me."

Bell´s uneasy expression was exchanged with a bright smile. "So you still are my grandfather!"

The heart of the old god grew warm, Bell didn´t seem to care that Zeus was a god. Family meant something else for Bell than just blood relation. He and Alfia were related by blood even when she didn´t give birth to him, but for him, she was his Mom and that would never change.

"So that´s why you are so wise and strong, grandfather!"

And for Bell, Zeus was his grandfather and that wouldn´t change.

"Hmm..."

"Bell?"

"But grandfather, you said my father was part of your Familia."

"Yes he was, he was what adventurers called a "Supporter", he was stronger than many of Orario´s adventurers."

Alfia smiled slightly.

Even when he was the weakest of the whole Familia, but I guess our Familias weren´t called monsters for nothing.

"I don´t understand, I thought the battle against the big monsters was hundreds of years ago."

"Was that written in your books?"

"No, there was no date, I just thought it was like that."

"The battle wasn´t even twenty years ago."

"Woah..."

For a moment they were quiet.

"Wait a minute..."

Bell´s eyes slowly wandered to Alfia, she tried to look away.

"Mom?"

"Y-Yes, sweety?"

"You were an adventurer in the past, right?"

"Yes."

"And...the book I read..."

Alfia gulped.

Zeus took pity on her.

"Bell."

"Yes?"

The old god grinned. "Your Mom is a hero."

"So...she..."

"She was the one that defeated the Leviathan."

Bell looked wordlessly at Alfia.

"Bell, Sweety, I´m sorry for not telling you the tru-"

"Awesome!"

"Huh?"

"So awesome! My Mom is a hero! The great hero Alfia! The most noble, beautiful, and strong adventurer of the whole Hera Familia!"

Kuh...

Alfia was weak when Bell praised her.

"Woah...I knew that my Mom was cool...but so cool...wow...Awesome!"

"Bell...I..."

"You are so cool, Mom! You defeated the Leviathan! You are my favorite female hero! I always admired the hero Alfia, but to think that she even is my Mom! So cool!"

Ah, Bell...you are not good for my heart sometimes...you´re too cute.

"So you are a really strong mage? You defeated the Leviathan with the bell of angels?"

Zeus smirked. "She more or less did, yes."

"Wow, can you tell me about it? What was the bell of angels? A weapon?"

Alfia suddenly got a serious expression. "No, Bell. I´m sorry but I won´t tell you about this fight. At least not now, when you are a bit older, okay? But I will tell you as much, it was a magic spell of mine, but I can´t show it to you."

I want him to be able to stay as a child as long as possible.

Alfia wanted to protect her little boy...her son...as long as possible, to keep the evil and dangerous things of the world away from him.

"Okay, I will wait."

Bell looked like he was in thought for a moment, then his mouth opened wide.

"Uncle Zard!"

"Hay hay, you caught me. This old man here is my old man, I´m part of the Zeus familia."

"Woah...Woah! Wait!"

"Hm?"

Bell ran into his room, and came back shortly after, flipping open a book and searching for a certain page.

"Is this you?!"

What he showed him was the picture of the Zeus familia, with the Behemoth in the background. One of the figures was a pretty good drawing of Zard in armor.

"Ahahah! Hey, old man! That drawing is amazing! You got every detail from Maxim and the others! And me of course!"

"Of course I did."

Zard grinned and pointed at the figure. "Jup, that´s me."

"But your sword looks different."

"This here is my true sword, I used it to slay the Behemoth, it still remains where it has fallen."

"Woah..."

Then Zard pointed at a different figure.

"And this here, Bell."

"Hm?"

"Is your father."

Bell became quiet.

"My...father?..."

"Yes. He was one of us. While the weakest in the whole familia, he was stronger than almost every other adventurer in Orario, except for Hera familia of course."

"My father was that strong?"

"The strongest supporter that ever lived."

"Wow..."

"And remember one thing."

"Hm?"

"Your father was probably the bravest of us all. He was the weakest among us, and couldn´t be compared to boss Maxim or even me. He was often afraid, but he overcame his fear, and faced the Behemoth with us, as well...as the black dragon. All for your mother, and you."

"So Papa...was really brave?"

"The bravest man I´ve ever had the honor to know."

"Hehe..." Small tears appeared in the corner of Bell´s eyes.

Alfia wouldn´t argue against that, she wouldn´t take this from Bell.

"Grandpa? Mom? Uncle Zard?"

"""Yes?"""

"Can you tell me more about my mother and father? What happened back in Orario? You told me Mama had an illness."

They exchanged a look before they started to tell Bell about his parents, Zeus and Zard about his father, and Alfia about his mother. That Meteria was part of the Hera Familia too, that the goddess gave her the Falna to expand her life as much as possible, to fight her illness. And Zeus told him how his father joined his Familia and fell in love with Meteria at first sight...he spared the detail that he saw her and Alfia bathing.

Zard told Bell about many things he remembered of his father, acts of bravery.

Bell knew that his mother had died from her illness and that was why Zeus took him with him. But he wanted to know what happened to his father. Zard and Alfia told him that his father stayed back with the Zeus and Hera Familia to protect Orario and Bell from a strong monster.

"Your father was a brave man, Bell. And he loved you and your mother so much."

Alfia would not contradict Zeus. Normally Bell´s father was quite the scaredy-cat and was the first to run away. But courage didn´t mean to know no fear, it meant to fight even when someone was afraid. As much as Bell´s father was afraid of the black dragon, he did it for his son and Orario.

"Hehe, they were really cool."

Alfia noticed small tears in Bell´s eyes.

"And I´m happy to have such a cool grandfather and Mom. I love both of you very much."

Bell´s happy smile with the tears in his eyes brought tears to the eyes of the other two too. At first Zeus from the side, then Alfia from the front, hugged Bell.

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"Are there people left from your Familia, Grandpa?"

Zeus couldn´t say with words how happy he was that Bell still called him like that.

"Only Zard, the others all went on like true heroes."

"And from your Familia, Mom?"

"I should be the last one."

And if Erebus hadn´t asked me this question back then, I also wouldn´t been here. Erebus, if you can see or hear me in heaven or wherever you are now...thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. And you too Zard, because of you two I am able to spend my days with this little angel.

"So sad."

"Sad? No, Bell, it isn´t sad."

"Not?"

Zard smiled. "They lived how they wanted to and they went on how they wanted to. Not many adventurers can make this choice and go how they want to. As true heroes should, they stood on their feet and laughed into the face of their doom, not one of them tried to flee. I was there, we were there, we witnessed it."

"Wow...they were really brave."

Zeus looked a little wistful. "They were, all of them were good boys."

"And your Familia, Mom?"

"What can I say, we were all women, according to your grandfather, one more beautiful than the next."

"But you were the most beautiful one, right?"

Alfia shook her head, smiling. "No, that was Meteria."

"I think you are both pretty!"

"Thank you, sweety."

For a few moments, Bell looked like he was in thought.

"Grandpa?"

"Yes?"

"My father was your child and Mama was Lady Hera´s child, what does that make me?"

"You mean if you belong to my or Hera´s Familia?"

"Yes."

Zeus shook his head slightly.

"You are free. Free to make your own choice someday. Neither Hera nor I will force you into the Familias and we shouldn´t do that. You are my cute grandson and I want you to be happy. When you become a bit older, there will be choices that you can make. And it should be you who makes these choices.

You can listen to others' opinions."

He grinned slightly and looked at Alfia for a moment before he winked at Bell. "Especially to your Mom´s opinions."

Then he continued normally. "But it always should be you to make an important decision. Don't let others make decisions for you, don't let them force you into anything, and don't let them push you into a corner where you can only do as they will."

"I don´t understand."

Alfia gently tapped Bell´s hand. "You will when you are a bit older."

"Hm, okay, I guess."

She smiled softly. "You will understand it."

For herself, Alfia hoped that Bell would just get the chance to live a peaceful, normal life. But like Zeus had said, it wasn´t her decision to make. As much as it pained her, whatever path Bell wanted to choose for his life, she would support him. Well, most of his choices at least.

I will not tolerate that he turns into a delinquent!

The talk continued for a while, Bell learned more about the three. But not everything would go well for him on this day. When Alfia wanted to make them some tea, she suddenly swayed when she got up to her feet. Before Bell and Zeus could react, she stumbled and started to cough heavily.

"Mom!"

"Alfia!"

Zard and Bell caught her before she could fall. She got a coughing fit like she never had ever since she came here. It felt like her heart was being squeezed and her lungs were clenching. This otherwise strong woman became extremely weak within seconds and completely defenseless. She had one hand clenched above her heart, with the other she covered her mouth.

She caught Bell´s expression while she coughed, he was afraid.

Zeus went into the kitchen fast to get her some water, but Bell and Zard remained at her side.

"Mom, what is wrong?"

When she calmed down a bit, Alfia drank some of the water.

"Au...I guess it caught up again."

"Mom?"

"Bell, it´s okay I-"

She got interrupted when he hugged her from the side.

"No, don´t say that! I don´t want to lose you like Mama!"

Just from what he saw in this moment, Bell got something like a flashback of his mother. He was very small back then but a part of him still remembered some moments of his mother´s illness.

Alfia was happy for every single day that she could spend with Bell, but deep down she knew that her illness would kill her one day.

Except there would be a cure somewhere.

Zeus looked at her with a grim expression. "Is there a cure for it? Or something to help you?"

She shook her head. "If there is any, I don´t know it."

Zeus looked at Zard, but he shook his head, it was the same for him. In fact, it was a miracle that both had been so well until now.

Alfia looked a bit sad, she felt Bell sobbing at her side. "Mom...don´t go away."

"Don´t worry my sweety, I´m sure it will turn out okay."

"No!"

"No?"

Both looked at Bell when he raised his face, he looked pretty determined. "I will find the medicine for you, Mom!"

"Bell?"

"And for you, Uncle Zard!" Bell got to know earlier that Zard had become sick after defeating the Behemoth, that it had been a sacrifice he had to endure.

"I will...I will become big and strong! I will go with my sword and look for medicine for you! I will help you, Mom! Uncle!"

Alfia smiled as her heart grew much warmer. "Thank you Bell, I really mean it."

She kissed his forehead and hugged him gently.

"I will become your hero, Mom!"

Ah, do I deserve this happiness? This little angel?

At this point, Alfia didn´t know that what Bell said wasn´t only words. Her illness, that his beloved Mom was in danger, ignited the fire in Bell. He had always dreamed about doing things like he had read in his books, but now that spark was about to become a raging inferno.

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Far away in Orario, a young girl with fox ears and a tail looked up from the book that she was reading, she thought she heard the sound of a bell. This poor girl was very gloomy most of the time, she still waited for her hero to come.

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Ryu's mood was as good as it had been for a long time, the reason for that was Syr. After her emotional breakdown after she talked with Astrea about the maid uniform, Ryu hadn´t looked too happy at work. Syr noticed that and asked her what was wrong.

Outside of her Familia was Syr the best friend that Ryu had and both had grown pretty close over the few years they knew each other now. Ryu just felt that she could talk with Syr about everything.

Her dear friend had listened to Ryu´s problem with the maid uniform.

"Oh, I´m sorry Ryu, this is all my fault, I shouldn´t have told Lady Astrea about the uniform."

"No, it´s not your fault, Syr. Hah...as an elf I shouldn´t feel like that about my body."

"But Ryu, I honestly see no problem here."

"Huh?"

Only her familia members, Ardee, and Syr had seen Ryu naked since she came to Orario. The familia bathed together sometime in one of the bigger baths, or a special facility in Orario. Ardee had joined them in the past a few times. And Syr had invited Ryu once to a small Spa weekend, there they had bathed together too.

"I mean I have seen your body, Ryu, your body is justice itself."

Ryu blinked perplexed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean your body! Your everything! You are the definition of justice!"

"I don´t understand."

Syr looked surprised. "You don´t know about the language of the gods?"

"Ahm, no?"

"There is a saying among the gods, regarding a woman´s chest."

"Okay...do I want to hear that?"

"They say "Flat is Justice!"."

Ryu went quiet for a moment. "Excuse me?"

Syr nodded while she smiled excitedly. "You do know about the three great treasures that we got from the gods, like swimsuits, yes?"

"Yes."

"And there is some wisdom among the gods that they brought to us from heaven. One of those has something to do with a woman´s chest. Maybe it is their language, but they call a big breast "Plot" and say "Flat is Justice!". So your body, your chest Ryu, it isn´t something to be ashamed of, you are Justice itself! The truest child of lady Astrea!"

"Gah!" Ryu opened her mouth wide in shock.

Syr wanted to help Ryu and it was good that Ryu missed some common sense. It also helped that when Ryu asked Astrea shyly about that later, her goddess sighed.

"Yeah, I heard that, the male gods talk like that."

She noticed that Ryu tapped against her top one time and smiled happily. "Justice, hehe."

It would break Astrea´s heart to make Ryu sad, so she didn´t explain it further. From that day on, Ryu was proud of her body and used the maid uniform from time to time with pride.

Syr had tapped her chin. "Hm, is that why Chloe joined Lady Astrea?"

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The time in Orario and the small village moved forward. Bell enjoyed his life with his grandfather and his super cool Mom. Spring made room for Summer and went into autumn and winter before a new spring arrived. Bell beamed at his Mom more than before, he adored her very much.

She was his hero, for all she had done for him and did in the past. He also admired the former members of the Zeus and Hera Familia, they told him about them when he asked about that topic.

Aside from enjoying his life, a desire filled Bell that had started to grow and grow and grow.

He wanted to become a strong adventurer, a hero. Bell loved all of these hero stories and wanted to be like them, especially Argonaut. Whenever his outfit got damaged slightly, Alfia fixed it for him. He still had the wooden sword that his grandfather had carved for him, three years ago.

Bell had bombarded Alfia and Zeus about allowing him to become an adventurer.

Zeus wasn´t the problem, he allowed it to Bell right away, since it was his own choice.

The problem was Alfia...´s maternal feelings. She wanted to protect her little baby at all costs, not wanting him to get hurt or face danger. To not get into trouble, if anything would hurt her little angel, she would go insane.

The one who persuaded her wasn´t Bell, but Zard.

Both had a long talk after Bell went to sleep, he was close to becoming thirteen years old now.

"Alfia, I understand that you love and want to protect Bell, but this is his choice."

"What if he gets hurt? What if people attack him? I did what I did so that he never has to pick up a weapon."

"But he wants to do that, Bell wants to experience adventures. He wants to go to the dungeon in Orario, wants to save a girl there."

"But this is wrong."

"Is it really wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon?"

"I...the dungeon isn´t a romantic place like that! Also, it's creepy to hear you talk like Zeus!"

"For you at least. But doing this is part of a man´s romance."

"Ugh...I heard Zeus say this so often..."

"Because it is like that."

The old god grinned when he joined their conversation. "A woman can´t understand that feeling."

"But...my little angel..."

Zeus smiled. "Alfia, you might probably be the most overprotective Mom there is. But this is Bell´s wish, his dream. You shouldn´t hold him back forever."

"Holding him back?"

Now he looked serious. "Alfia you are still young so-"

He noticed how her eyes flashed shortly, Zeus knew that it was a good thing to call Alfia young, it got him bonus points.

"I am pretty old now and I have met countless people and adventurers in my long, long life. Time and time again there were parties and groups that formed, sometimes around a strong leader. Some of these leaders had very kind hearts and were overprotective of their comrades and loved ones.

Whenever they were in danger, they would protect them, and while that was noble, it ultimately held their comrades back. They never had to overcome an obstacle, and never grew on their own, they were always held back without knowing it.

In some cases that was a bit extreme, I have seen people that were mostly like a pet to their leader, without any ill intent, their leader didn´t see them as real people, since they were too kind."

"And you say I do that to Bell?"

Zeus shook his head. "Not directly. You are his Mom and it is natural for you to protect your little boy. Bell will soon be thirteen and if you like to admit it or not, he will be a teenage-"

"Don´t say this word! Bell is still my baby! My cute, little boy! My little angel!"

Zard took over for Zeus. "And he will always be since you are his Mom. But Bell also starts to grow, I mean not only his body, even when I´m sure that he will be taller than you one day. No, his mind is slowly changing from a pure child to a teenager. His fantasies about becoming a hero and adventurer will turn into desires. He wants to do that, and..."

"And?"

"He wants to save you. Do you know how often Bell cried in his bed, out of worry because of you? Because of your illness? He is beyond afraid to lose his Mom after he lost his mother. He loves you so much Alfia, more than any other mortal person in this world."

"Bell..."

"And you love Bell more than anything else. So Alfia, I have to ask you, will you help Bell?"

"Help him? What do you mean?"

"Train him."

Alfia went quiet for a moment, training Bell?

"I don´t think we can and should hold Bell back in his wish, I for my part will help him. He wants to become a hero and save his Mom. And as you said, the dungeon is dangerous. He wants to go, so to ease your worried heart, train Bell. Show him how to hold a sword correctly, you know how much he admires Argonaut and wants to be like him. If he asks me to show him the ropes, I will do it. I can´t think of a better instructor than you. How could it become dangerous in the dungeon when you train him before that? He couldn´t be better prepared and more safe."

"But, without a Falna...and don´t tell me you intend to give Bell your blessing, Zeus? Do you know what would happen if he goes to Orario and someone discovers that he has your blessing? Our Familias are banished from Orario."

"To answer your question, yes and no. So that the training will do something for him, I will grant Bell my blessing and update his status, until the day that he sets off to Orario, then I will take it away from him."

"But why?"

"He should find a fitting Familia for him in Orario, a fitting god or goddess."

Alfia wrinkled her nose. "I can´t picture one that would be fitting of my pure angel."

"What about my dear sister, Demeter?"

"She is a goddess of fertility! I am sure she would be enchanted by his cuteness!"

Zard grinned, it was fun teasing Alfia a bit. "What about Ganesha?"

"I don´t want my son to turn into a weirdo."

Zeus' grin widened. "Loki?"

"Are you making fun of me?"

"Maybe. What about...let´s say...Astrea?"

"Are you sane? She is a nice goddess, yes, but her whole Familia contains only women! They are a dungeon Familia, what do you think would happen to my pure angel when he was alone in a home of many love-starved, lonely women? I-I-I don´t even want to imagine that!"

Zard shrugged his shoulders. "In the end, it will be Bell´s choice, we can give our opinions and I´m sure he will especially listen to yours since you are his everything."

Alfia sighed. "Maybe you are right."

"To be honest I don´t think he should join a big Familia, a small one or a god without followers may be perfect for Bell, so that he can find his way on his own."

"We have to see what we can find."

Zeus raised his eyebrow. "We?"

"What? I know you can´t go to Orario, but don´t think I will let my baby go alone into that city!"

Alfia had horror scenes in her head, they didn´t want to go away. She saw Bell crouching on the ground, wearing a cute bunny suit while female adventurers tried to lure him towards them with sweets and other things. The next image was Bell lying in a bed, holding a woman in each of his arms, smoking...she really feared he could become a delinquent. The last picture was Bell sitting with an innocent face on a black couch, five tall, adult amazons behind him, looking down at him, grinning.

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

"I-If even one woman in this city will look at my little angel with lusty eyes, I will destroy her!"

Zard smiled. "Then I will accompany you, can´t let you alone. Also...there may be a few things to do in Orario after all."

"Irkh...please give me time to think about everything...what you say is bad for my heart."

Zeus nodded. "Alright, please think about my idea."

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And so, the day after Bell´s thirteenth birthday, he stood outside in a wide grass field. Bell held a hardened wooden sword in his hands, Alfia a few steps away also with a wooden sword in her hand. For his first lesson, Zard would let her do it. Having two instructors at once would maybe too much.

Mama Dragon would properly train her little one.

"Bell, are you ready?"

"Yes!"

"Then let us start, slowly. I will teach you how to hold and swing your sword right."

"Yes, Mom!"

Alfia smiled. "Good."

Bell Cranel would discover a new side of his Mom, she was adamant about helping him to become prepared. Not in his dreams would he be able to imagine what kind of training awaited him.

For the next two years, Alfia and Bell would train, she had begged Bell with tears in her eyes to wait until he became sixteen before he would go. It was hard for her to let her little angel go and she wanted to enjoy a bit more time with him, Bell was the same.

"Then, let us begin."

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"Bell, attack me when you are ready."

The wind moved the grass a little bit, and Alfia´s open hair waved slightly. She had thought for a long time together with Zard, how to train Bell and even asked Zeus for his opinion.

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He had simply smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? Your whole existence is a cheat to the world anyway, whatever you do it will surely turn out perfect."

"A cheat? What do you mean?"

"I mean look at you. You are an incredibly powerful mage, maybe even stronger than the Empress. Yet you are one of the best swordsmen I have ever seen, even Maxim had massive problems with you, or Zard."

"Oy."

"What? Tell me you could´ve defeated her easily."

"In a swordfight? No problem."

Zeus continued. "Anyway, that together with your speed...don´t you think the skills you have are quite unfair? On top of that you are quite the looker, in fact, I know a few goddesses who thought it was unfair."

"Are you trying to praise or mock me, Zeus?"

"Maybe both."

"Grml."

"Hey don´t stare at me like that. I´m sure your glares really can kill. To get back to the topic, Bell couldn´t hope to get a better teacher in the whole world. Just do what you think is right."

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Bell held his wooden sword with both hands, he had learned how to hold it properly over the years of playing hero. Alfia only used her right hand for her sword, not to mock Bell, but it was her favorite style of using it.

Since there was only one person who knew Bell as well as she did, Alfia knew about his temper and what Bell wanted to do in his life. Based on that she had worked on a training plan, Alfia wanted to start with something else, but at first, she had to show Bell something.

"Attack me with all you have, Bell! Hold nothing back!"

"Daaaaaaah!"

Bell charged forward and raised his sword in a direct attack against Alfia, it didn´t even come close to threatening her, and with a dull thud sound, she blocked him.

"Continue!"

"Raaaah!"

As good as the untrained Bell could, he attacked Alfia from various directions, she didn´t move an inch from her position, just kept blocking him.

"Good, continue!"

The "fight" continued for a while, until Bell was completely sweaty and lowered his sword.

"*Huff**Huff*My fingers *Huff* are numb *Huff*, I can *Huff* barely feel *Huff* my hands. My arms *Huff*are so heavy.*Huff**Huff*"

"And you are completely out of breath, Swe-...Bell."

While it hurt her very much, Alfia wouldn´t call Bell her sweety during training, that was really hard for her. She watched how he lowered his sword more and more, and put the tip onto the ground to lean on it.

"Pff...Pff...Pff..."

"You did well, Bell."

"Really? Pff..."

"Yes, you passed the first test and learned something."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, come, let us sit down then I will explain it to you."

"Okay, Mom."

"Ahem!"

"I´m sorry. Okay, teacher."

Alfia smiled. "Better."

Both sat down, Alfia wore wide pants and a shirt for the training, wearing her dress would let her feel that she mocked Bell. And no one mocked her little angel, not even she herself!

"To learn how to fight isn´t that easy, you have to understand a few things."

"Okay."

"At first, you notice that you are completely out of breath."

"Because I am untrained?"

"No, because you breathed wrong."

"Breathed wrong?"

"Yes. This will be our first lecture today after I finished to explain everything to you. Breathing is very important in a fight, an opponent or monster doesn´t need to do anything if you just faint from fighting."

"Makes sense I guess."

"Then the way you swing your sword. It looks good and looks flashy, but it won´t work in a fight. You show too much what you are doing. I don´t say that to make you feel bad, you are untrained and that´s all."

He nodded enthusiastically.

"And you are too eager to attack and don´t watch what your opponent does."

"But you didn´t do anything, Mo-..Teacher."

"Correct."

He looked confused. "But why did you let me attack you when I would make all these mistakes anyway?"

She showed him her motherly, loving, understanding smile that was reserved for him alone in the whole world.

"Because I know you, Sweety."

We aren´t training right now, so it is okay to call him that. Yes, I´m sure it is okay.

"You would have become restless when I told you to sit down and breathe. You would have wondered why we are just sitting here and breathing without doing anything else. Then we would go through the basics of moving your legs and feet, without tripping."

Bell had indeed tripped a few times during the fight.

"And I would have showed you how to place your hands on your sword and how to swing it. Your fingers hurt because you are too cramped. These lessons will take between one and three weeks, depending on how good you are. And now tell me you wouldn´t have become restless and asked me why we are wasting time and don´t actually train how to fight with a sword."

"Is that the reason why Grandpa hasn´t given me his blessing yet?"

Alfia nodded. "Yes, we wanted to wait until you know the basics or it could be dangerous for you. The first time after receiving a blessing can be confusing and strange since you get stronger nearly every day. Especially your stamina increases and now imagine that you can do more and endure more while breathing wrong all the time."

"Makes sense I guess."

"Okay, it is important for me that you always understand why we are doing a special kind of training. So if you don´t understand something, just ask me, okay?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Alfia got up and gave Bell a signal to do the same.

"Okay, now let your arms hang down, relax, and breathe slowly, deeply in and out."

Bell did as she told him, he soon felt his breath calming down and he relaxed again.

"It is always important to get your breath back after a fight."

For the whole first day, both did nothing else than breathe. Alfia showed him how to breathe to calm down again, how to do it while he fought and even while running. After their first training fight, Bell understood how important that was.

"I have never thought that breathing is such an important part of a fight, my books never mention that."

"Well, they are meant to entertain and tell the story of old. I´m sure your idol Argonaut knew how to breathe, even when he fought against the Minotaur."

"You are right!"

In the past, these stories didn´t interest Alfia. But Bell loved them and she often read these stories together with him. It was important for her little angel, so it was important for her.

"So, Bell. We will start and end each day with a run around the village, to increase your stamina and train breathing. You will notice that at some point you won´t even get out of breath of sweat from that anymore, and then we will increase the distance."

"Understood."

"Then come, I´m sure when we will be back, your Uncle will have dinner ready."

While they jogged around the village, Alfia explained their daily program for the future. First a run around the village, breakfast, taking care of the fields, starting the training, and so on. But Alfia didn´t allow Bell to train every day, he should get time for his hobbies and books, to spend time with them. Also, Zard would do a different way of training with Bell, showing him how the Zeus familia had trained since he was one of them now.

Alfia wanted her baby boy to be able to enjoy his peaceful life as long as possible.

And there was a hidden reason for Alfia. She had to steel herself and make up her mind. During the training...she would have to hit Bell or at least move the wooden sword in his direction, and she had a serious problem with that. Zard on the other hand...he said getting hit now would be better than in the dungeon.

When they were outside, Zeus often sat in a chair and watched them, while he carved new training swords, in case the ones they used would break. As long as Alfia didn´t give her okay, Bell wouldn´t get the chance to use a real sword. To get a sword in such a village was just impossible, but Zeus had two in his possession.

One for nearly a thousand years now, the other not even twenty. But the time to give them Bell was not now, and of course not without his Mom´s okay...Zeus wasn´t crazy after all. The idea of what Alfia would do to him if he gave Bell a sword and he hurt himself with, it was frightening even for a god.

So for the next two weeks, Zeus watched the basic training of these two. Bell wasn´t the only reason he watched, seeing Alfia move in pants and a shirt that sometimes clung to her body or had problems covering her chest, was nice. But whenever Alfia glanced at him to see if he was ogling her, Zeus reacted faster than she could look and focused on his carving or looked at Bell.

Don´t underestimate me, Alfia! I have peeped on women hundreds of years before you were born! I have skills in that, that no mortal or other god can even hope to come close to! That sounds a bit creepy I must say...at least if someone else than the handsome, smart Me had said it!

And then came a fateful evening.