by Fujino Omori
“Bell…Not hurt?”
“No, not at all.”
She starts tearing up in earnest, smiling from ear to ear.
Wiene reaches for me with both hands. Her palms clap against my cheeks, rubbing back and forth like she’s playing with a dog.
“E-hee-hee!” She giggles and smiles brighter than the sun. Her fingers sliding across my skin tickle my cheeks and neck, but I grin and bear it.
“You mustn’t touch others this much, especially faces! And what are you smiling for, Mr. Bell?!”
“I-I’m not exactly enjoying…”
Lilly’s glaring daggers at us from across the room.
I’m just trying to keep Wiene happy by going along with her game, so why am I suddenly on the receiving end of a lecture?
“…Does Lilly…hate Bell?”
“Huh…? Th-that was sudden.”
The prum’s obvious irritation and angry tone prompted Wiene to ask that question.
Lilly’s face goes blank, so the vouivre asks again:
“Hate?”
“L-Lilly…Lilly, um…!”
Her chestnut eyes anxiously quiver as words leave her.
Cheeks turning red, her eyes jump between Wiene and me.
Her mouth is moving, but no sounds are coming out. Wiene’s shoulders droop, her expression clouding—then Haruhime suddenly leans forward.
“I love Master Bell!”
Her face pops into my line of sight from behind my seat on the floor, and she makes an ardent declaration.
The sight of Haruhime’s flushed cheeks catches Lilly and Wiene by surprise as my heart skips a beat.
Welf stops picking up his tools, stands, and turns toward us.
“I’m pretty fond of the guy myself.”
“Of course I love him, too!!”
“Ho-ho…I as well.”
The goddess and Mikoto chime in.
Lilly looks around the room as everyone gathers near us. She must’ve decided that it was pointless to go against the grain and yells at the ceiling:
“—Argh, fine! Lilly does, too!! Lilly loves Mr. Bell!”
The magic-stone lamps on the ceiling shake, their light wavering.
Hearing over and over that I’m loved…My cheeks are burning up. I can’t help but smile with my goddess and friends.
“I love you guys, too.”
I put the warmth of our familia into every word.
Suddenly, Wiene puts both her hands on my chest.
“Everyone loves Bell…Everyone loves one another.”
She squeezes her eyes shut as another expression of joy blooms like a flower on her face.
“Warm…”
In that moment, with everyone here, it feels like we all fit together. The air is free of tension, and Wiene dives into my chest.
Wrapping her arms around my shoulders, she presses her ear against my heart as if hoping to hear it beat.
One look at the giddy happiness on her face is enough to melt all our hearts before we know it.
I put my hand against her silver-blue hair and look up.
The scene in the living room is reflected in the glass window.
Humans, demi-humans, a goddess, and a monster.
All of us have our differences, be it skin color or race or all matter of things. But here we all are, together around one girl.
The picture of a warm family.
After Hestia Familia spent some time with the monster girl, the members decided to call it a night and returned to their rooms one by one.
The magic-stone lamps on each floor of the manor turned dark.
“Please tell me, Lady Haruhime. What are your thoughts on Lady Wiene…?”
“I feel much the same way as Master Bell. I do not want to abandon her. It may, however, be empathy getting the best of me…”
Haruhime and Mikoto lay on adjacent futons in a dark room.
As they lay on their sides, green and violet eyes met as they spoke.
“I view myself as a courtesan…Separated from Miss Mikoto and the others, perhaps I see my former self in her. My own selfishness may be blinding me…”
“That is not so, Lady Haruhime. You are still the same generous person you were back in those days.”
Haruhime had donated food to the impoverished shrine where Mikoto and her friends lived many years ago, even before she knew their names. Reflecting on the memories of those days brought a smile to Mikoto’s face.
Her face hidden in shadow, Haruhime smiled back.
“What are your thoughts on her, Miss Mikoto?”
“It pains me to admit…but I have yet to reach a definite conclusion,” Mikoto said. “However…I feel that Lady Wiene’s smile is the same as our own. If possible, I would like to build a lasting bond with her…Like our familia.”
“…Thank you, Mikoto.”
Mikoto and Haruhime slowly closed their eyes beneath the narrow streaks of moonlight between the curtains over the window.
Just like when they would take naps together at the shrine in their childhood, they leaned in close enough to feel each other breathe as they drifted to sleep.
“Lady Hestia knows…The gods and goddesses know something about the Dungeon.”
Inside the dim and mostly empty living room…
A lone magic-stone lamp cast a faint light on the room from its spot on the wall. Welf had almost finished cleaning up after disarming the monster girl when Lilly broke the silence.
“That was also the case when the Black Goliath appeared. They are hiding the truth about the Dungeon…or something inside it…from the people.”
“Probably.”
“Despite that, the existence of that monster surprises them.”
Lilly sat in a chair, swinging her short legs back and forth as she spoke. Welf had his back to her, responding with the occasional grunt or a word or two to show he was listening.
“An Irregular incarnate, even to the gods…We have a problem on our hands, but it may be much more trouble than it’s worth.”
“You accepted that risk when Bell brought her back here. What’s the point in moaning about it now?”
“Lilly did not ‘accept.’ She gave up…Mr. Bell likes people too much to see reason.”
The prum, who simultaneously supported both the familia and Bell, continued her conversation with the young man.
“If her presence here puts our familia in danger…When that time comes…”
“You’ll chase her out and leave her to her fate?”
“…If necessary.”
Welf raised his head and turned to Lilly upon hearing her thoughts on the matter.
Lilly’s concern for her ally’s future was so strong that she was willing to become hated in order to protect it.
“Take a look in the mirror. Determined people don’t make that expression.”
“……”
Lilly’s face contorted. Distress filled her downcast eyes.
Without lifting her gaze, she strung words together and squeezed them from her throat.
“Following our emotions will lead to disaster…If all of us become attached to her, we will surely regret it.”
“……”
“It can’t go on like this forever. It’s impossible for tonight to repeat itself for the rest of our lives…”
Because that girl was a monster.
Lilly’s voice faded to a whisper. This time, Welf didn’t have anything to say.
“Well then, why don’t the three of us sleep together tonight? Just family!”
“Just family?”
“Huh? Goddess…?!”
They were in Bell’s room, third floor of the manor.
The room itself was mostly devoid of identifiable features, save for the closet that had been refurbished into a storage unit for equipment such as mended armor and other items for adventuring. Hestia was standing in the open doorway, a pillow tucked beneath her arm.
Wiene flat-out refused to sleep anywhere other than at Bell’s sid
e, and Hestia arrived on the scene to fulfill her divine duty. She practically forced her way into the room so she could keep an eye on the two.
No one else knew she was there.
“First things first…Wiene, you must now call me ‘Mama’ and Bell ‘Papa.’”
“Mama, Papa…?”
“Goddess, what are you teaching her?!”
Hestia coached Wiene and gently stroked the girl’s hair while Bell yelped in despair.
The vouivre girl inquisitively tilted her head as the deity, shorter than herself, reached up to lovingly pet her head.
“Bell, at times like this, you must obey the mortal realm’s rules about how families behave. We have an image to uphold.”
“What image? I’ve never heard anything about this!!”
Bell’s astonishment did nothing to curb Hestia’s enthusiasm. A crisp smile on her face, she gave him an energetic thumbs-up.
“But…but my room only has one bed! So it’s not possible!”
“What do you mean, Bell? You slept with Wiene snuggled up next to you last night, yes? So you can do that with her but not with me?”
“Th-that’s not what I…! You’re a goddess! Sleeping next to you would be…!”
“We slept on the sofa back in the room under the church, remember?”
“Huh? We did?!”
She didn’t sleepwalk her way on top of me?! Bell raked through his memory in search of answers.
Hestia turned to Wiene and gave her a friendly smile as the boy clutched his head in both hands a short distance away.
“Is it okay with you, Wiene?”
“…Okay.”
Bell’s only hope of escape had vanished. The three of them climbed into the single bed and lay down.
“Is…isn’t this a bit cramped?”
“Hee-hee, I think you mean ‘cozy.’”
“It’s very…warm.”
Bell’s face turned bright red; he knew that they were close enough to touch each other with the slightest turn. Meanwhile, Hestia’s smile widened as Wiene settled into the bed.
The vouivre lay between human and deity, all three of them on their backs. While it would have been more efficient for Hestia to sleep in the middle based on their height, Wiene looked so comfortable that neither of them had the heart to move her.
Every magic-stone lamp in the room was extinguished; the sound of rustling sheets filled the space. Bell’s anxiety prevented him from moving at all while Hestia and Wiene jostled for bed space. The sound of light breathing began to fill the air as the clock on the wall ticked on.
With all the lights off, sleep descended upon the manor.
“…?”
Bell was somewhere between slumber and consciousness when movement beside him caused him to open his eyes.
He saw Wiene facing him, her body huddled up close.
She was holding onto Bell’s right arm as she had done many times before.
“Can’t sleep?”
“No…I’m fine.”
Two voices whispered in the dark room. Her amber eyes closed to a sliver.
The garnet jewel emitted a faint light as her blue-silver hair slid down, exposing the bluish-white skin at the nape of Wiene’s neck above her pajamas’ collar. She smiled up at him from the pillow.
Bell quickly averted his eyes. “ZZZ…” Hestia snored and rolled over at the same time. Bell paused when he saw that the goddess had turned her back to them and adjusted his shoulders to face Wiene.
The vouivre girl donned a calm expression and snuggled in closer.
“…Wiene, where did you come from?”
Bell couldn’t help but ask as she pressed her body against his like a sleepy child.
The girl from a different world finally trusted him. The question that had been eating at Bell this whole time slipped out before he knew it.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you have friends? …Are there any monsters that don’t attack you, Wiene?”
“I don’t know that, either…”
The girl claimed ignorance no matter what he asked and looked away. Then she mumbled that her earliest memory was of being alone in the Dungeon.
“But.”
Wiene lifted her face up from Bell’s chest.
“I have dreams.”
“Dreams…?”
“Yes. Attacking Bell…people like Bell.”
The boy’s eyes went wide in surprise.
“Slashing people I don’t know, biting them, tearing them apart…”
In an area filled with rocks and boulders, amid intricate passageways.
Baring fangs at drawn swords, sharp claws ripping through anything in their way.
Loud screams of those who avoided the fangs; ramming horns through the backs of those who ran away in a panic.
“Everything turns red…Scary dreams.”
The sight of her hands, claws dripping with fresh blood.
Wiene described it all, how these dreams would play out whenever she closed her eyes.
“I’m always angry in the dreams…always get colder and colder.”
“Huh…?”
“Lots of people, just like Bell…protect someone from me.”
As Bell had protected Wiene from Lilly and the rest of the familia when they first met, the people in her dreams did the same, she explained.
There was one, possibly an elf, who embraced her badly injured partner and used his own body as a shield.
Another, a dwarf maybe, who blocked the passageway by himself, fighting against a whole wave of monsters at once to allow the rest of his party to escape.
Another, and another, and another…Listening to her fragmented stories, a picture began forming in Bell’s mind.
Wiene curled up next to him, making herself as small as possible as her long eyelashes trembled.
“I see those people, and I feel cold.”
“……”
“Like there’s a hole in my chest letting everything flow out, until I feel empty…But those people were beautiful.”
People supporting, protecting, and loving one another.
Sights normally overlooked, such as allies overcoming their fears to save each other, were suddenly so much clearer.
“What happens next is always the same. I become red, and everything goes dark.”
That was how the dreams always ended.
A cutting flash of silver and a body going cold. Limbs that wouldn’t move anymore. Bleeding that wouldn’t stop.
Lying on the stone floor, staring at the ceiling as vision blurred into nothingness.
“I cry for help…but no one ever comes.”
No amount of screaming or begging convinced any of her kind in the area to come to her aid.
Their battle cries filling her ears, they continued to attack the people.
Clouds of ash choked the air before everything turned dark.
“Very scary and lonely dreams.”
The visions always ended without her receiving a helping hand.
“……”
Bell kept his mouth closed, listening to her story from start to finish.
Were those really dreams?
Or were they Wiene’s—?
Bell’s train of thought had reached that point when the vouivre girl buried her face in his chest once again.
“But I’m not scared anymore.”
Because Bell was here.
Her muffled voice was tranquil as she wrapped her arms around the boy.
Wiene was smiling.
She yearned for his comfortable heat. Bell didn’t say anything and accepted her embrace.
However, he gently reached out and stroked her hair.
“……”
Hestia, her back to Bell and Wiene, slowly opened her eyes.
Mulling over what she just heard, she gazed out the window at the night sky.
After a time, she heard the telltale breaths of two sleeping figures.
Hestia rolled over once again and, after hesit
ating a few times, wrapped her arms around the vouivre girl from behind.
A bluish darkness covered the sky.
Countless twinkling stars filled the night. Ash-colored clouds partially hid the moon from view as the heavens cast light and shadow on Orario.
Business was booming in the bars along the main boulevards and street corners. A small group of humanoid figures distanced themselves from the liveliest and noisiest area, the Shopping District and the Pleasure Quarter, to gather in an alleyway close to the city wall’s East Gate in Orario’s Eastern Block.
The wall’s imposing shadow overhead, they met where the alleyway intersected a cul-de-sac.
Several adventurers sat atop a pile of wooden boxes and barrels that had been left outside. A god stood among them, although this particular deity was mostly preoccupied with adjusting the feather in his hat.
“Lord Hermes, Laurier and the others have returned.”
The clouds high above drifted away from the moon as a beautiful woman sporting short aqua-blue hair appeared in the alleyway.
The white cape over her shoulders seemed to cut through the darkness. As soon as the words left her mouth, three demi-humans wearing traveler’s robes appeared behind her.
Hearing the report of his follower, Asfi Al Andromeda, Hermes wore a delicate smile as he glanced toward her silver glasses and stood up from his barrel.
“Good work on your long journey, Laurier and company! I’ve been waiting.”
Hermes thanked the three for their hard work as a young elf woman and two animal people, male and female, lowered their hoods. “So, how did it go?”
“Sir…We tracked the illicit sales taking place around the city and identified the merchant organization pulling the strings.”
“You did? Well done.”
Hermes nodded, seemingly satisfied with the elf Laurier’s news.
Orario, possessing the world’s only Dungeon—the sole source of magic stones—had to keep constant tabs on the black market. The Guild controlled all legal rights to magic stones and their related products, but that didn’t stop people from smuggling them through the checkpoints and into other countries, where they would be sold to the highest bidder. While the Guild and the familias collaborating with them did everything in their power to eliminate these crimes, the truth was Orario had grown too large to prevent them from happening.
Therefore, it had fallen to Hermes Familia to investigate the various black market operations and shutter the organizations behind them. They traveled outside the city at the behest of the Guild to investigate where the products were being smuggled. This was one of the reasons that Hermes Familia, which nominally worked as a delivery service, could pass through various checkpoints at will. With Perseus’s magic items at their disposal, the Guild placed a great deal of trust in the mid-ranking familia—even if they weren’t completely honest about their members’ Levels.