Bell stood in front of two small doors, only capable of giving comfort to those unfortunate in size. Inside was a workshop heated to the brim. Smiths were working on weapons and armories; sparks shot through the air with each strike, and the wood crackled so violently in the hellish furnace. The place was a giant oven itself. However, it did not take Bell a lot of time to reach his destination. After walking around the small building, he took a turn to the dark alleyway, where an old wooden door resides.

"Pardon my intrusion." The door creeks gently, begging not to be forcefully swung out of its place. There he saw an old, short man, with gray hair and a beard, peacefully carving a slab of metal into what would be a fine piece of weaponry.

"What does a young man like you want to see me for?" The old man spoke, yet he didn't even turn an eye at him. Bell watched him strike the hot metal repeatedly before dipping it in a bucket of water.

"If it's all about elegant weapons and armor, visit Hephaestus. That's what they are all about." He blew at the now-smoking rod, getting rid of the smoke. Bell noticed that it had already taken the form of a blade.

"I'm here for inspection. Loki has instructed me to visit you, Lord Goibniu." Goibniu looked at him straight in the eyes as silence followed. He dropped the unfinished blade on a basket of dirty, unpolished metals and wiped his hands before ultimately taking a seat on a small chair.

"Ya Loki's kid? Never seen you here before."

"You can say that,"

"Very well, then. Show me." The god pointed at Bell's hip, where a piece of cloth was suspended on his belt.

Bell dropped the piece of wrapped cloth, the table creeking due to its weight. He then unwrapped it and welcomed Goibniu's eyes with two dull blades shaped into the form of a katana.

"Whoever made this is a moron," he murmured, sliding his finger on the katana's pathetically blunt end.

"I did, and it does its job pretty well," Bell replied, to which the old man snorted and grumbled in disappointment.

Goibniu held the two blades up, facing Bell. "Son, what you see here is two chunks of unpolished mithril. Each of these costs millions in valis."

He swung the blades simultaneously on a bamboo pole, which resulted in nothing but a few dark marks, possibly caused by the raw material itself.

"It can't even slice properly." He pointed the sword at Bell. "What do you even plan to do with these?"

Bell took one of the blades from Goibniu's hands and whispered something inaudible to the god. Less than a second after the blade lit a flame-like blue, I swung the blade into the pole and split it in half, leaving nothing but frozen marks in between.

The god raised his brows.

"I see. But that technique will wear your mind. You'll pass out before you know it," he added.

"And what do you think is the reason I visited you?"

"Exactly what I think it is," Goibniu scoffed. Bell laughed.

"You can stop now; you're killing my furnace."

"Oh, my bad," Bell said, giving the blade back to Goibniu, who, currently, was reviving the frozen firewood in his trusty oven.

"You could've said you want me to craft you, and I would've agreed. No need to kill my fire." The old god sighed as he inserted one of the blades into the furnace. Bell could only offer a silent apology to God.

"I actually want to request a few modifications,"

"And what is it?" The god couldn't care less about turning around to face the boy for obvious reasons, with both of his arms dedicated to hammering and shaping the blade.

"I want you to turn the other blade into something else, something new to this generation but relatively old for me."

The god batted an eye. Bell's eyes looked nothing like playing; they housed seriousness and determination.

"I want to control the voice of mankind, but also grant a child's wish. What am I?" Bell threw a stick at Goibniu's hands, to which the god laughed loudly. He looked at Bell with fire, smiling wildly.

"That should be enough information for you to figure it out." He dares humor the god.

"You challenge me to a riddle, and I'll give you what you want!"

Bell smiled. He's going to spend a long time here...

...

"So, is this good enough?" Goibniu laid a cloth on his office table.

"I didn't know you had a bigger office," Bell jokingly said, and the god snorted.

"I modified it a bit; see it for yourself." The old god walked out of the room with a big sigh, holding his back after all those hours sitting on his little chair.

Bell slowly moved the wraps to slowly unseal what was inside. And what donned him,

---was art.

Crimson eyes were devoured by the reflecting blue light from the newly-crafted blade. To say it was a masterpiece was an understatement. It's as if a god has given life to an object----a child. Azure lines enveloped the entirety of the blade----pigments of light blue present all over 100cm of its glory. The hilt, on the contrary, was simple yet clean. A blue and white design that imitates a snowflake, with two horns ultimately climbing up the bottom of the blade.

"Beautiful" was all there was to be said.

"A simple broadsword, made by yours truly." Goibniu spoke behind him, leaning on the doorframe with a small leather scabbard on his hand.

"You call this simple? This is a work of art!" Bell exclaimed, pointing at the sword with both of his hands.

"Sometimes simplicity is all needed to achieve perfection." Goibniu picked up the blade and inspected it, the blade glowing ever slightly at its creator's touch.

"Perfectly crafted by the hands of a god. There's no need for fanciness in this piece, for it will only hinder its usefulness." The god added,

"Does it break?"

"Are you mocking me?"

"My apologies," Bell let out a dry laugh, which the god didn't appreciate in the slightest.

"You will see if you try it out yourself."

"I will try it the following week, where I'm allowed to dungeon dive."

"Well, that's unfortunate. I guess these will have to wait before they get to taste their first....blood." The god laid the blade back on the table.

"If you're wondering, this was one and a tenth of the mithril that you gave me. I used at least another fifth of it on your order, and I made this with the rest." He threw the leather scabbard at Bell. "Your request is also in there."

Bell peeked inside the scabbard and smiled with satisfaction. "Thank you, Lord Goibniu; this is much appreciated."

Goibniu waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Plus, you're paying me too. It won't be as much as the others since you've provided the majority of the materials needed."

"And what's the price?"

"Roughly 200 million valis," Bell's eyes widened, holding his hand up his sockets to prevent his eyeballs from falling.

"Sorry, I didn't hear it properly. What's the price?" At this point, he was sweating buckets. Not only is he going to be 200 million valis in debt, Finn and the others will also scold him for it, and he's barely even halfway through buying his supplies.

"200 million valis. Where do you want to tab it? Under Loki's or yours?" This somehow calmed Bell's down. Knowing this, he can earn this debt by himself, ultimately leaving his family out of the way.

"Oh, well, that's fortunate. Just put it in my name, and I'll try to pay it off as quickly as possible."

"That's a bold take. Adventurers usually take years before they can pay off something this big. Additionally, you could've just added it into Loki Familia's expedition funding. Finn usually spends billions when it comes to this stuff."

"But you see, 200 million is quite a big figure, isn't it?" Bell bargained,

"They're going to find out about it, no matter how you look at it."

"That's it, huh. I forgot Loki's going to ask you what I bought here." His shoulders slumped in defeat.

"No point whining about it now. Just focus on paying it off as soon as possible. I won't be doing any of your appointments if previous bills go unpaid."

"I understand. Thank you so much, Lord Goibniu!" For the last time, Bell bowed with all of his heart before leaving the shop.

...

"How long was I...?" Bell silently questioned, finding himself now walking the busy streets of Orario. I am currently heading for Babel. He planned on buying armor after his appointment with Goibniu, but his schedule was a little messed up due to them spending more time than expected. He was so occupied thinking about it that he didn't even notice another person exiting a nearby building.

and accidentally collided with each other.

"Kya!" A soft squeal rang out. Bell reached out his hand but immediately withdrew it, seeing the person in front of him.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" He bowed his head repeatedly.

"My..."

"Nya! Ryuu, how indecent!"

Three heads popped out of the entrance beside them, one with orange, black, and yellow hairs, respectively, with the black and brown having animal ears hiding behind their headbands, all wearing the same waitress outfit, looking at the green-haired woman in front of Bell whose face was beet-red up to her relatively pointy ears. Blue eyes hiding behind her hair were barely visible for him to see; otherwise, he wouldn't have recognized her.

"Wait you're--"

"Whoops, Mr. Adventurer! Don't be so harsh to our elf like that!"

A high-pitched voice interrupted him, followed by a tap on his shoulders from behind. A gray-haired woman----with the same uniform----looked at him with obviously fake angry eyes and a pouty face.

Immediately she went ahead and helped the green-haired elf---- who was quite dumbfounded----back on her feet.

"To not even help a maiden up gently, I can't believe you, adventurer!" She nagged.

"But she's a... you know...an elf? And I thought they don't like getting touched by humans?" Bell, this time, justifiably replied, hoping to save himself from a misunderstanding.

The gray-haired girl flushed but remained composed.

"I see, plus points for you having common knowledge about elves!"

"...what?"

"However, you must eat here tonight to maintain your praise and to properly apologize to Ryuu as well."

"Okay?" Bell and the gray-haired girl stared in silence before she pushed his back slowly into the center of the street, as if letting him walk out of the scene.

"Then, we're done here! Go do what you're supposed to do, and we'll see you tonight here!"

Out of nowhere, he found himself walking in the busy streets of Orario, heading to Babel as if nothing had happened. He may have heard several shouts of "Elf in distress" and the loudest laugh he has encountered today, but that should be on the back of his mind. All he knows is that he needs to eat at the "Hostess of Fertility" tonight.

...

"Three million valis." If there was no glass in between Bell's face and the armor in front of him, they would've fused and never been separated forevermore. Not until a small black-haired woman with a... considerably blessed upper body politely asked him to cease wiping his face off the casing.

"W-well, it's justifiably high. After all, it's the work of the Hephaestus familia," she reasoned, pulling his arm, trying to separate him from the glass.

"But still! Three million for an arm piece, isn't that quite overpriced!" He exclaimed, leaving the saleswoman taken aback by his behavior. While this may seem normal to the naked eye of humans, specifically adventurers, In the vision of the all-seeing eye, Bell was undoubtedly

A hypocrite.

"However, sir! This price guarantees high-quality material! Confident to protect you from the dungeon!" The woman retorted. Bell bit his nails through his teeth, wondering why he's having a hard time accepting the price.

"N-no can do!" He raised his arms in a cross----hastily. The short-haired woman sighed in disappointment.

"Fine, there's another store upstairs. You can find more affordable armor there!"

"You should've told me that in the first place!" A tic mark appeared on the woman's head, then out of nowhere she snapped,

"Grrr, you cheapskate! Wasting my time and embarrassing me!"

Bell ran with his life through the elevator, barely closing on the fuming raven-haired woman tailing him. He sighed. This has been a really long day for him.

...

The smell of dust hit his nose from the get-go. Bell came face to face with a shabby floor filled with dirty armor, with the sign of 'Hephaestus Familia's on the doorframe. It's strange, but for him, compared to the elegant and fancy shop below, it wouldn't have crossed his mind that this belonged to the same family as that one.

"I never thought hierarchy existed in the Hephaestus family." He silently browsed through the piles of metals stacked on each other.

"Almost eight thousand valis." Bell picked up a chest plate with a red lining. In the same box was a full set of armor intended to be worn altogether.

"These are light and of good quality. I like them!"

...

"Welf Crozzo?"

"Yep, a Crozzo making cheap armor. What a waste of talent, honestly." Bell raised his eyebrows. Truly, it was amusing, to say the least.

"But these are good, though. Do you know a way to talk to him?"

"Hmm, I'll do what I can. That kid doesn't want any visitors."

"Appreciate that. Just tell him, I'm a fan of his works." Bell waved his hand at the man, then he threw a bag of valis at him before ultimately leaving the room.

"Crozzo, huh?"

...

"Welcome to the Hostess of Fertili! Oh, you really came, Nya!" Bell waved awkwardly at the catwoman. No, it's not the fact that there is an actual talking animal person in front----practically everywhere around him; it's actually the fact that someone still adds the suffix 'nya' at the end of their sentences, which is what weirds him out. Maybe he'll get used to it, or maybe not. So far, this chestnut-haired catwoman has been the only one to use it that he's currently aware of.

"Syr, your customer is here!" She shouted in the kitchen's direction, to which a muffled, inaudible 'coming' responded, followed by a gray-haired woman appearing out of the kitchen doors.

"Oh, hello, Mr...."

"Bell Cranel, just call me Bell."

"Right! Please take a seat, Bell." Doing exactly as ordered, Bell sat down at the bar table, where a giant woman was dropping orders on the table. A menu paper slid in his direction. He looked at where it came from, and he saw the woman looking at him with a grin, which came out more threatening than welcoming.

"Lemme take your order, kid. Name's Mia."

"Uhm, I'll get spaghetti with meatballs and a side of any juice you have." She narrowed her eyes before a smirk emerged on her face.

"You don't want booze? You look old enough to drink, though?"

"Do I?" she scoffed.

"Boy, you're one inch smaller than me. You're fooling nobody."

"One spaghetti with meatballs!"

The woman shouted at the back before disappearing into the kitchen.

"How's everything going?" A voice behind Bell appeared. It belonged to the same gray-haired waitress from earlier, now holding a wooden plate in her arms. "Name's Syr!"

"Oh, I'm doing good. Just waiting for my order," he replied, watching the noisy adventures partying around him----not until he noticed three empty tables left occupied despite the huge number of customers standing.

"Hey, what's with those tables?" Bell asked Syr, to which she gleefully replied,

"Oh, those are reservations for our VIPs!"

"You can do that?"

"Yes! Well, if you pay enough per table. However, only loyal customers get this privilege." A sweat fell on Bell's forehead. Even simple things are meant to be paid for, but the world is melting. Or so he thought.

A sizzling plate of pasta dropped in front of his face, decently startling him. Mia responded with a grin. Soon he stuffed himself with the saucy pasta, boredom plastered all over his face. All before choking on it as he saw a familiar red-haired goddess, along with her subordinates, enter the hostess.

"Now that you mention it, the first VIPs are here, the Loki Familia!"

"Look, that's the sword princess! She's pretty in person!" A random adventurer whispered, talking to his buddies behind Bell.

'Middle-aged men are creepy' Bell took it as a mental note.

He shook his head as he watched the rest of the family settle down on the reserved tables, but not before making eye contact with a certain green-haired high elf.

He waved his hand, and she ignored him.

"How mean?" Bell lowered his hand while deflating in embarrassment.

"You know them, Bell?" Syr, who was still beside him, asked in curiosity. Bell flushed, realizing that she probably saw the gesture he just made earlier.

"Yeah, you could say that. Are you not going to serve them?"

"Well, I'm not the one assigned to them; Ryuu is. Look, she's already taking their orders." For a moment, the elf was there, then suddenly she was heading to the kitchen.

"Syr! Help Ryuu bring the orders!" A voice rang in the kitchen. Syr was quick to head towards the voice, for obvious reasons.

"Coming! Ah, see you, Bell!"

Bell waved back. Now he's left alone for himself, eating his still warm food and watching the chaos at Loki Familia's table unfold.

"Why don't you join us at the table?" Red met Jade as Bell turned his head behind. Riveria sat beside him and asked Mia for a drink.

"Nah, why would I? They don't really know I'm a part of the family, do they?"

"But you are, though."

"I am yet to be welcomed properly. That makes me an unofficial member."

"I guess. Whatever you say." Silence followed. The two of them watched as the family dove into what seemed like a casual conversation, until the gray-haired wolf stood up and started yapping loudly.

"Bete's at it again...tsk," Riveria clicked her tongue, which didn't go unnoticed by Bell.

Bell listened for a bit, then frowned. Things seemed to escalate after that. Not long after, an orange-haired elf dashed out of the tavern.

"Now he's done it. Lefiya, that poor girl."

"I'll follow her; you take care of him." Riveria nodded before approaching her family's table. Bell dashed off, following Lefiya into the dark streets of Orario.

...

10 minutes earlier...

"Ha, finally, we can relax!" Tiona slumped back on the chair, her sister looking at her weirdly. Aiz wore the same blank face as she sat down beside Riveria and Loki. She's as noisy as ever.

Finn smiled at this to see his family being able to relax a bit, especially after their expedition and the fiasco the other day as well. It's been a long week for them.

"We deserve this," was all there was to be said.

"Damn right, captain. Now, if personal rewards are granted, maybe we can."

"Yeah, I don't think I'm into that part yet." Finn pushed a clinging Tione a bit further away from his face, probably avoiding two big things squishing him in case things get a bit too intimate.

"I'm going to get something real quick." Riveria stood up and walked out of the table, heading towards the bar---specifically to a white-haired person. Finn smirked, but his attention, including that of everyone else, was transferred to the orange-haired girl who was now beside Aiz, where Riveria sat before.

"I'm sorry everyone. It's my fault that the manor is damaged. Ms. Tiona and Ms. Aiz as well. Both of you got injured because of me." Lefiya's ears dropped in embarrassment as she bowed in front of her comrades, hoping to receive some criticism she had prepared to hear.

"No biggie! See? My arms are all healed now; no need to apologize! Besides, it's white hair that's supposed to be in your position!" Tiona cheered. Lefiya looked up before getting patted on the head by Aiz's, who wore a small smile on her face. Lefiya's eyes sparkled, and her cheeks flushed. This might be her best night yet.

However, that all went down the drain as a gray-haired wolf stood up, with his left leg on the table, looking at Lefiya with sharp eyes.

"Pssht, don't sugarcoat it. The reason that even happened is because she's weak! Weaklings shouldn't be allowed to perform something they can't do!" He bragged, everyone frowning.

"Bete you're drunk. Sit your ass down before Riveria ties you up." Tione hissed.

"But it's true, though! You can't deny it,right? She knows she can't handle it but still agreed to do so. What happened? She got herself embarrassed! She even dragged the whole manor into a mess!" Bete continued.

Lefiya listened through gritted teeth, clenching her skirt; her bangs shadowed her eyes; and her ears dropped as Bete poured more of his insults down the table.

"If you give her abilities to Aiz or any other mage, they'll be able to accomplish what she never did!"

Finn frowned,

"You're crossing the line, now, Bete. Calm down."

"A weakling with a gift that they don't know how to use is still a weakling at the end!"

Snap

In a split second, Lefiya had already dashed through the doorway. Tears followed in her direction, leaving the others dumbfounded. A white blur soon followed as Riveria reappeared beside the table, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"You've done it now, Bete." Muffled protests echoed as Bete found himself tied upside down on the ceiling, with a piece of cloth wrapped around his mouth.

"Is she going to be fine?" Aiz questioned Riveria, concern slowly flooding her eyes. Riveria let out a sigh in response.

"I don't know; the night is long. Let's just hope she'll return home safe tomorrow."

Loki watched the chaos unfold, eyes half open, all while drinking her fifth mug of beer, trying to contest Gareth. She let out a contented sigh before grinning ear to ear.

"You guys are really troublesome, aren't you?"

...

I ran,
And ran, and ran, and ran.

The monsters can't keep up with me; the monsters can't survive me.

Where's my staff? Where's my weapon? What the hell am I doing here?

How many walls has it been, how many holes have I entered-how many floors have I passed?

"Weak."

Laughter echoed, and voices rang. All inside my head.

I hate it. It's all a lie; I'm distinct, I'm gifted, I'm...

Unique.

That's why she chose me. I have the talent and the ability.

"A weakling with a gift that they don't know how to use is still a weakling at the end!"

"T-that's not true...!"

Lies,
The truth hurts; I can feel it.

It's warm; it's painful.

It's...

"Thorns of Sorrow."

Coldness surrounds me, yet warm arms embrace me. I looked around, and tears fell from my eyes.

Icy petals flew, and stems of roses grew from the ground. Giant flowers sheltered me from the dangers outside, along with a single glowing light that illuminated the room.

It was beautiful.

Then I saw her, raven and blue. Gentle and comforting eyes met mine. However, only one thought races through my mind.

"How...?" She giggled.

"It's a secret..." Her hand caressed my face; it was cold yet lovely.

"I'll tell you later. For now, you need to rest peacefully."

"But...."

"Nope! Just sleep."

The whole world blurred as the light turned dark. It's cold again, but I do not care. I'm safe here, with her...

...

"So you chose her, huh?"

End