(3rd person PoV)
"Henryk.... did you...." Hestia, the one who knows that he came from a totally different world, paled at the notion of blacking out while bleeding from the neck.
"... Yes, my lady. The blunder I mentioned before starting the story was dying to the bear. If I didn't, I'd be able to confirm Norman's situation or do something about it" Henryk was hesitant to tell them, but he convinced himself to tell them under the excuse that they are his family.
His children and Ray felt sorry for him. The man who was so brave was someone who tasted a horrible death first-hand. That was coupled with not knowing if his sacrifice was worth it or not.
"Our condolences" All of those who could talk said in union.
Hestia had a passing thought she wanted to share with him.
"Henryk, maybe he will-"
"No, really. He'd be laughing at me if he knew I got emotional about this" Henryk was feeling a bit of the weight on his heart go away, a weight he did not know he had.
"Hen~ hen~ You don't need to feel down for that~" Out of nowhere, a person snuck up behind him and whispered in his ears with a laugh about to escape his mouth.
By sheer instinct, one that barely did not deteriorate yet, Henryk covered that person's face with his hand, holding his head in a crushing grip.
"Norman? Is that you? Am I hallucinating you into existence right now?" Henryk felt a twisting thing in his chest. 'If it's really him, then does that mean he died too?'
"OW OW OW OW OW OW!!! My face! My head! Henryk! I'm unblessed! My head will burst if you keep gripping it this tightly! Release my head! HENRYK!!!" Norman struggled to peel Henryk's hand off him. He could not.
"Haaaahh" Henryk let him free then released a long sigh. "When did you arrive in Orario?" Henryk was hunched forward, elbows on his knees and his face hidden by his interlocking fingers.
"Yesterday. You know, you being a tamer's the hot talk of the city now, even more so than the achievements of bigger familias! So, can I assume this siren here's one of them? The monsters you tamed" Henryk did not answer him. Instead, he stood up and held Norman's neck under his arm, strangling him a bit.
"Henryk? Where're we going?" Norman surrendered to his situation. He let himself be dragged to who knows where. His voice reflected the fact of him being choked right now.
"Somewhere, you know where" Henryk mentally gave all of them the order to not follow after the duo. He went downstairs to the basement.
"Finally! Air!" Norman took large, savory gulps of fresh basement air. To be honest, there was a little window near the basement's ceiling that refreshed the air in it all the time.
"Can you... tell me what happened afterwards? Did you live after that grizzly incident?" Henryk sat on the other side of the coach and turned to face Norman.
"Not entirely. You see, your majesty-" He got hit for that. "Anyway, while your eagles were carrying me to wherever you trained them to, someone shot Fey. That offset the balance they had and made me fall to the ground. I died after a few more minutes of pain and suffering. Sometimes, death's mercy" He was enveloped in a bone-crushing hug.
"Uggrhh! My back! Henryk! My back'll break! It'll break!" Norman pleaded to be free from it.
"It's good to see you again, Norman" Henryk said warmly with a smile as he released Norman's poor back.
"Ewe! That's unlike you!" Norman was flustered when he was faced by a not-so-Henryk-like behavior.
"Death changes people, man. By the way, do you think I can go back and kill that person?" Henryk sported an unusual amount of thirst for another's blood.
"I don't think so" Norman shook his head in denial.
"I'll do it if I could. Anyway, the people here're real. They're sentient and will choose to take actions not based on the canon story but based on reality" Henryk warned Norman as he laid his head back on the couch.
"Really? What tells?" Norman was curious how Henryk reached this conclusion.
"I saw them thinking before making a decision, real thinking. And Bell... He's already becoming a better captain and someone who can keep secrets. We better treat them as we'd treat a person from our world.
And one more thing. Make them two things. The first's to not tell them about the novels, the manga and the anime's contents. That will hurt them, to know they were originally a mere work of fiction. It wouldn't benefit them either, as the future's changing"
"Are you hiding information from them? That's unlike you, Henryk" Norman was thinking of many reasons why Henryk may have started hiding the truth from them.
"Aside from Ray, I don't care about what they may think of me, but Bell might not be able to handle the truth as he is. I'm waiting for the right time to tell him, once his mental fortitude can withstand it without crashing down in a heap of ash.
The other thing's to know that the monsters I tame are my family. Treat them with respect, unless they didn't deserve it" Henryk said.
"What? Family? Are you sure monsters're your family?" Norman was putting a hand in front of his mouth to suppress a laugh.
"You're belittling them, huh? Fey! Lick 'em!" Norman got a bad feeling.
He saw a nightmare fuel, a personal nightmare fuel, more like. A mini-Fey wormed her out of Henryk's shirt. The problem was not just because she was smaller than she should be. No, there was more to his fears. He noticed her horse half.
'That's a hippogriff! Now I can't even resist her! She's become a monster! Not to mention the cramped room we're in right now!' Norman thought dreadfully.
Fey used [Size Adjusting] to make herself bigger. She settled for a size where her eagle half matches the size it was when she was a normal harpy eagle.
"Fey will!" A further shock to Norman.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" He was licked to death. People passing nearby the church would talk about some dead adventurer's ghost screaming and wailing in self-grief.
(Line Break)
Fey was sent upstairs, as they would talk about some heavy secrets.
"So, what you're saying's that all your monsters become xenos. And that siren that was with you was Ray, one of the xenos leaders, and that Ray has become your lover. Did I catch that right?" Norman blankly looked at him. 'So, that's why Fey was talking'
"Yes" Henryk said red faced.
"You, the person who almost never talked with women before, got a lover in less than two weeks from arriving here?" Norman said while pointing a shaking finger at Henryk.
"... Yes" Henryk nodded.
"BULLSHIT!!! I CALL BULLSHIT!!!" Norman flipped the table. Seriously, it is not a meme. He literally flipped the table they had in the basement.
"Forget that little bit. How in heaven's name did you find me after only one day of arriving to this world?" Henryk said while Norman was picking the table and putting it back in place.
"Well, I heard of Hestia's familia having more than one child. And as both of us know, while Hestia's still in the church, she'd not have any other members aside from Bell. I immediately knew that a reincarnator interfered or, on a lower chance, I got into a different timeline where there was another member. I came here today to confirm it. Well, that was the plan, until I heard the rumors about a tamer named Henryk and his eagle daughter"
"Huh. Lucky you" Henryk huffed at Norman's luck. He almost felt like the main character, only if it was not for Bell.
"Well, I expect to get something hefty in my falna. You're not gonna be the only one to get something" Norman smiled wickedly. He was thinking of new ways he could mess with Henryk after getting a suitable skill.
"Our friendship's one of the most toxic ones even though we're this close, isn't it?" Henryk looked at Norman with glaring eyes.
"Anyway, knowing how adaptable you are, it's not that strange for you to do something like this. But onto the more pressing topic. You didn't tell me all the details. The only things you told me were the names and appearances of your family members. What've you changed in the timeline? Tell me in great detail, what've you done? Leave the dungeon things out for later" Norman changed the topic.
And so, Henryk told him everything that's happened until then.
"Pfff!" Norman was laughing while getting choked by an embarrassed Henryk.
"What was it again? "They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you... you will be worse. Against all the evil that the dungeon can conjure, all the wickedness that non-intelligent monsters can produce, I will send unto them... only you. Rip and tear... until it is done. Go, Taurus!".... Ha ha ha ha ha ha! That's a very random thing to do! A very Henryk thing to do! To think you'd teach a minotaur the Doom Guy's gospel!" Norman continued laughing some more.
(Line Break)
Henryk left Norman to calm down then resumed discussing their main topic.
"You alerted Artemis of Antares's capabilities through Hermes.
When Hermes demanded something in exchange for delivering the info, you felt like he was demanding too much, so you gave him info that he'd have gotten by himself or already knew anyway.
You had Bell meet Tiona and befriend her as a fellow hero enthusiast way earlier.
You signed a contract with Welf early.
After that, you went to ask Ganesha about the terminology "xenos", went down there and played a test on them, got forced to be friends with Lyd, got Ray to be in a relationship with you.
You tormented the forgettable guard on your way down there and back then warned him of Revis"
Poor Hashana, his days are going to get worse.
"After purposefully letting Bell get chased by a minotaur, you incapacitated the entire Loki familia table in the Hostess of Fertility.
On the same day, you prevented Lili from going down the route that'd have her steal Bell's knife.
You attended the banquet with Hestia, slapped Hermes in the face with a cake full of cream, then played a prank on Freya to use it as an 'I will give you a service to pay back for playing a prank on you' card.
You got a shield made by Hephaestus herself" Norman's eyes bled in jealousy.
"On the day of monster feria, you stood in Freya's way and succeeded in swaying her from releasing as many monsters, alongside succeeding in getting Ganesha to focus on dealing with the damage the violas caused that day by evacuating people early.
You also tested Bell and forced him to overcome his fear of generally large monsters.
Did I get all that correctly?" Norman took a long, deep breath after that rant.
"Yeah, that's nearly all of it" Henryk said.
"Now, let me tell you of the repercussions of a few things you did.
Just by existing, you grab Freya's attention from Bell entirely.
By joining Hestia's familia, you divide Hestia's attention and make it nearly impossible for her to have romantic feelings for Bell, especially with Fey's presence.
Also, alerting Artemis early means that she's not dead and that she may not even come here. Bell's not gonna charm a goddess this way" Norman lamented it. He was of the same mindset as Aphrodite, meaning that he would have most likely received an arrow to his behind.
"For lady Artemis, she may end up with him if I find a way for him to hold that arrow thing in front of her. I can manage that" Henryk said.
'What about me? Does he not think of me? Doesn't he want me for himself?' Some peeping tom was thinking to herself, reading their lips to the best of her ability.
"Getting Bell to befriend Tiona and talk with her closely like that as early as you made it might affect his most broken skill" Norman said.
"It did already. [Liaris Freese] had the word alter attached to it the moment it manifested. The new description implies having an interest for miss Hiryute" Henryk purposefully changed how he words the description of Bell's skill. It was Bell's secret, and Freya did not need to know it should she so chose to watch them at the moment. He did not know that she did.
'A skill to indicate an interest? It may not be so important' The creepy stalker dismissed it. She was wrong in dismissing it.
"Hoho~? That's great work, Henryk. You broke a fundamental thing about the story's cornerstone. Next, by contacting Welf early, you prevented Eina from going on a date with Bell to get his armor for the first time" Norman said. Knowing that someone prevented another from experiencing a good date irked Freya. As bad as she was as a person, she still liked seeing people fall in love and feel it.
"I know, and I don't regret it. She still got interested in him, anyhow. She'll need to grow out of her crush. He might reject her when she eventually can't hold it in and confesses" Henryk said. He caught her calling him cute some time ago.
"Well, he's a charming rabbit. It was par for the course for him to charm women left and right unintentionally.
Leaving that aside, getting in contact with the xenos early might not have that many repercussions early, so let's leave that out. But what about Ray?"
"I proposed this relationship because I wanted to start changing my life, maybe getting a permanent family member while on it. For Ray, she was also able to come to the surface and see it with her own eyes. She spread her wings like she wanted to.
I'm not regretting getting attached in a relationship like ours. I started wanting her to stay with me for the rest of my life"
"Oh~! Really? Good luck with that!" 'He's finally overcoming that barrier. He gets attached easily, so let's not test his love. His love for her's as genuine as one could get. Though it would be impossible, I hope he can get some children with her. All for the greater cause of teasing him by telling his children some of his more embarrassing dark past, maybe after preparing some cookies and milk!' Norman thought to himself, believing that he was secretly planning it.
"Don't you dare" Henryk knew exactly what Norman wanted to do.
"To the next thing, good thing you didn't prevent Bell from acquiring the determination to climb higher. Although Bete was an ass back then, it was kinda necessary, unless you knew how to replace Bete with a more lighthearted occasion and still get Bell his determination" Norman said. There was an unasked question in there.
"Right! What was that about captain's relationship with Ryuu? You mean that there's no way to bond them now? At least, I wanted them to be some form of friends" Henryk was sure of his words.
"You could wait for that one to happen naturally, since Ryuu's too sharp for us to manipulate a situation involving her and have no risk of being discovered. As for the banquet, thanks for ruining that night for Hermes!" Norman said, cheerfully bringing Hermes's misfortune into the conversation.
"You're welcome!" Henryk said with an equally pleased smile.
Both of them skipped the talk about Olympia beating Bete senseless.
"By the way, what you did to Freya made her attention divert entirely towards you" Norman said.
"Crap....! FUCK HER!" Henryk did not think it through the same way Norman did. Norman knew what Freya's thought process was like, whereas Henryk did not.
'Fuck who? Is it me they are talking about? I may allow him to!' Freya was almost fully ready to cement Henryk as her Odr if he came up to her.
"Sorry, no. Ottar'd not allow me near his lady. I prefer to keep my life" Norman made his eyes look the deadest fisheyes he could. Freya was thankful Norman was not trying his luck with her.
"Ha! We can deal with her later, though. Her existence ain't urgent" Henryk said dismissingly.
'The movement of his lips and throat, they were talking about me. My existence is not urgent to him, huh?' Freya saw him using her magical mirror. Experience from living with people for so long and reading their body language helped her discern what he said.
"Disregard her for now. Considering that they're real people, per your words, Bell might've been upset because of your test. What was his reaction?" Norman said nonchalantly.
'I have been... disregarded?' Freya blanked out for the rest of that day.
(In Freya's suit at Babel)
Freya zoned out and did not respond to members of her familia calling her name.
She has not been disregarded. Ever. Especially not after she was seen by the individual.
She stood looking over Orario from her suit's oversized reinforced glass window, hands locked behind her back. Her gaze was empty and felt like she was seeing an entirely different reality than the present.
Later, she was found sitting in a chair in the gardens, emptily staring into space. The stars were not what she was looking at, even when it was an especially starry night tonight.
She did not notice when she got hungry or thirsty, she just did not notice anything happening around her nor what she was doing.
She almost crashed into Ottar many times if he did not move aside for her to move.
She crashed her knee to the bedside and fell to the bed on her face. She remained there until she subconsciously moved to the next location.
She went back to her chair overlooking the nightlife of the city.
"My lady" Ottar finally decided to prompt her to get out of her trance.
"Hmm? What do you want, Ottar?" She absent-mindedly asked him.
"Excuse my rudeness, my lady. But are you aware of your surroundings?" Ottar's question, just as he hoped, brought her back to reality.
"When has it become nighttime? It was noon just a moment ago" Freya almost forgot what made her enter that weird mode. The shock made her forget the details of Henryk and Norman's entire conversation.
"You don't have to answer that, Ottar. I remember now" She remembered that Henryk's disregard of her being what caused today's wonder.
"Is there anything I could help with, my lady?" Ottar said.
"Tomorrow, as he is about to enter the dungeon, bring him to me first. I want to see him up-close" Freya said, a gleam in her eyes as she looked at the stars.
"I will, my lady" Ottar said. He will carry it out as his lady wishes it, even if it cost some poor man his freedom.
'I will teach you a lesson for disregarding me, Henryk' Her expression returned to its perverted nature.
(Back to the conversation between Henryk and Norman)
"He appreciated the thought, but he told me to not do something similar again. Not that I was planning to, anyway" Henryk said.
Norman knew that what Henryk said was a total bold-faced lie.
"No more things of importance happened on the surface?" Norman asked.
"Oh, yeah. That did happen, I guess" Henryk scratched his head.
"What happened?" Norman raised an eyebrow.
"We're gathering a huge amount of money to purchase land for the familia. Every day, we're getting a good portion of what we need. We need around five million total, and you'd be helping us" Henryk said.
"And how do you think I'll help? ...!" Norman said. Henryk scared Norman by forming a large and evil toothy grin.
"You will join the familia! Dear friend!" Henryk said with tone that meant he would leave Norman no room to argue.
"Oh, okay" Norman felt like his fear was wasted. Oh, how wrong he was.
"I'd have joined anyway, since you're here. Moving on, what're you doing in the dungeon?" Norman said.
"We're focusing on many things at once. We enter the dungeon and head directly to floors around the fifteenth, the most comfortable floor for now. We devised a devilish training plan" Henryk said.
"And why's it devilish?" Norman supported one of his cheeks on one of his palms.
"We rely on stimulating the dungeon. Doing that makes it angry enough to ignore spawn limits. Swarms start pouring in after some minutes pass by. Our method works so that we have Ouros use a combination of his skills to make a safe area, then make another area where we can control the number of monsters the lower-level individuals fight, including me. And there's the area where we farm the rest of the swarms for magic stones and drop items.
Black monsters occasionally spawn, but we can deal with them, as they spawn with the strength of a level three maximum. For me and Bell, we're always fighting on death's door. It's only possible by Ray's assistance, of course. She acts as the party's failsafe inside the dungeon for now" Henryk said.
"Why only the fifteenth floor, though? It'd be much more efficient if you went further down" Norman still thought of the dungeon as a game mechanic in an anime world. Some things would take more time to grow out of apparently.
"It isn't just me. Lili, too, doesn't have high stats. Going further down might not be a problem for me or for Bell's leaping growth, but it certainly is for her. Not to mention that Welf's still level 1" Henryk said.
"I swear, if you weren't still the ever-bleeding heart, even after all that social betrayal and isolation" Norman massaged his temples for a bit.
"You know me, I just can't not care, for those around me at least" Henryk turned away with an awkward smile. He then turned back to Norman, focused on more pressing matters. "On that notice, I want you to help me with something, Norman. Remind me of any prospective familia members. For now, I remember you saying something about Welf, miss Lili and lady Haruhime joining us. Who else was there? Include those who Bell rescues or helps, even if they don't join after"
"Well, for starters, Yamato Mikoto, from Takemikazuchi's familia. Then there's nobody, really. Other than Bell, there were four other members, and you got two of them in your party already.
Aside from them, we should get Cassandra Ilion and Daphne Laurus from Apollo's familia. Cassandra occasionally has prophetic dreams. That may come of use later" Norman said.
"Why does miss Ilion's name sound familiar?" Henryk was scratching his chin.
"That's 'cause she was the one that nobody believes, remember?" Norman said. He repeatedly ranted about how Apollo's familia might have been running business as usual if they believed her prophetic dreams.
"Yeah, I remember now. We really need her by our side, since we already know that she sees the future and would believe her" Henryk nodded.
"There's also Aisha Belka, from Ishtar's familia. She'd join Hermes' familia if left unattended. There's nothing special about her, but she's still a very capable adventurer.
Don't forget Miach's familia of only the god himself and his one and only loyal member, Naaza Erisuis. We should help them" Norman said.
"On the mention of lady Belka, what do you think about challenging Ishtar's familia to a war game after updating my children's falnas?" Henryk said, wondering if it would be possible this early.
"There was that skill of yours, yeah. You need them to at least be level three, preferably four. Counting on the ludicrous number of magic stones you farm every day; I assume it'd at most take you two months. That's still around the time Bell did the same" Norman said. "It's just that you'd be much more sure about victory, even possibly going for a War Game"
"Maybe [Pack Member] could allow them to help while still at level three?" Henryk wondered. He was cupping his chin in his left hand.
"What's that?" Norman said.
"Oh? [Pack Member]'s a skill that all kobolds share. Under the influence of a clear leader, they could fight foes out of their league. The more pack members, the stronger they will be" Henryk said.
"Can't you just add more kobolds to your family then? That will just crush most familias, unless there's a limit to the number of members in a pack?" Norman said.
"That seems likely. But considering wild dogs (They are talking about their world's African wild dog equivalent here), they could go up to a hundred in a single pack if there were enough of them, even though rarely" Henryk said.
"I guess that may work" Norman remembered some videos on those wild dog hunts. The prey would almost always end up living a nightmare.
"But remember, if you did it earlier than canon, you'll for sure warp the timeline so much. It'll be so warped that everything'll fall out of order. Our knowledge will be mostly useless, outside of who's who and how their personalities are at the moment. I won't stop you, if I was ever able to, but be warned that your actions already changed things" Norman said.
"Yeah, butterfly effect, ripples of a drop in a lake and all that stuff. Yada yada. I already skewed the timeline. It's irrelevant now" Henryk made a gesture with his hand, imitating a blabbering mouth.
"Heh, that attitude of yours" Norman said to himself in a low voice. "I will take care of your back"
"It's good to have you back, walking spoiler" Henryk said, stretching a hand for Norman to shake.
"By the way, I didn't see Lili anywhere. Is she staying in her own place?" Norman said while shaking Henryk's hand.
"No, we brought her here. It's just that she insisted on going back to that 'apartment' of hers. Surely, she doesn't fully trust us yet" Henryk said.
"Before we go back upstairs. Be wary of Freya. She gets attracted to unique souls. Yours's surely attractive to her. The problem with her's that if she left herself to her selfish desires, she'll do anything and everything to get the one she deems to be her 'Odr'. It was revealed later that if she did succumb to them, she'd ruin herself and lose almost everything she had at the time" Norman said.
"Her ability to see souls, huh?" Henryk said.
"Yes. Call it my guts" Norman said.
"Weeb guts, I see" Henryk mocked him.
"Did you calculate how many points the magic stones give to your children?" Norman asked.
Henryk simply went upstairs and brought the papers containing the magic stones' experiments.
"Upper floors and middle floors give different values, you say? Then give the lower floors a try. Maybe Ray could be the one to go to those floors instead, if you wanted to avoid Amphi. Your children could go there and test if any lower floors' monsters give more pps, if they felt the need to challenge themselves" Norman said with an interested raised eyebrow.
"It's disturbing how you shortened that" Henryk said.
"You're welcome" Norman took it as a compliment.
"And about the lower floors, I'm forbidding them from going there exactly because of Amphi. Maybe they could go there if they each became level four" Henryk said.
"Well, Hestia familia expedition had less than ten members, and without Bell. They weren't even all level three, not to mention four, when they fought Amphi. If all your children became level four, I can see it happening.
Anyway, have them gain enough stats so they can push for magic stones from lower floors' monsters. If they get more stats from them, then aim for that. We don't wanna waste time when we could abuse a skill to get stronger.
You can leave them to themselves and go train alone with your party members, which I'll be part of" Norman said.
Henryk did not tell Norman about Olympia's invincibility. He did not want Norman to start considering it in his tactics.
"Oh, great! The status maniac's back!" Henryk said, going back to being carefree.
"Oh! You! Don't make me blush!" Norman said.
"That wasn't a compliment" Henryk deadpan.
"I consider it one" Norman shamelessly disregarded that.
"Shameless walking spoiler" Henryk said.
"Remove the shameless part. It doesn't fit in there when it's about me" Norman puffed his chest proudly.
"See? Shameless" Henryk said confidently.