However, that all changed when Bell took a particularly bad tumble in the field and conked his tiny noggin' on a rock that had been unearthed by the heavy rainfall the fields closest to the river experienced this past season. The adults were alarmed by the shouts of the children, and Zeus along with a number of the adults working the fields rushed towards the fracas; Bell's head was bleeding profusely, but one of Zeus' limited stock of Low-Grade Healing Potions was enough to stem the bleeding and reduce the swelling down to a goose egg.
The local healer from the village next door came by, a retired Adventurer by the name of Helena- a beautiful Humme bunny formerly of the Demeter familia who retired out here some years earlier- and checked him over. She was only one hundred and thirty years old, with just the barest touch of grey in her hair, and when she informed Zeus that Bell was going to be okay, and will probably sleep for the next few days, the old man was just so grateful that he showed the blushing woman just how thankful he truly was for her service in taking care of his grandson.
He showed her his sincerity for many, many, many hours, and when Helena left the village the next morning her eyes were tired but there was a permanent smile affixed to her face along with a significant pep in her step.
Zeus smirked as he waved to the neighbors and leaned against the fence as he watched the woman leave; they all knew the type of man he was, which was why they never left their wives unattended around him. Not that he would sleep with their wives- this was his home now, after all, he knew not to shit where he ate!
So, Zeus took care of him as the healer instructed- moved him over to a bed made of hay for easy cleaning when he inevitably soiled himself, cleansed his body when he did, and changed and boiled the bandages after replacing them. Within a few days, the swelling reduced just as Helena said and then the boy woke up.
Bell was sluggish over the next few days, his eyes unfocused and bleary, but he was able to take in the soup she recommended and keep down small bits of bread. There were a few bouts of nausea that caused him to violently wretch a few times, which obviously aggravated the boy's head wound, and the boy whimpered in his grandfather's warm embrace until the pains subsided; Zeus gave him the other half of the healing potion and he watched Bell's discomfort abate over the course of a few minutes.
"Of course, a fucking concussion, duh."
Bell's words were barely a whisper, but it was enough for Zeus to hear it plainly. Who the hell had taught Bell to curse, because it certainly wasn't Zeus! The God of Thunder and the Chief God of the Grekos Pantheon didn't need to curse- the Divine could make the most stoic Adventurer bow their heads in shame by merely calling them a 'pig-headed ninny', if Zeus cursed then one knew just what sort of mood he was in.
To his knowledge no one had cursed around the boy, even the most foul-mouthed of the villagers- the former sailors who became farmers- knew better than to spread that foul language in the village; most of their wives were just as headstrong and hot-tempered as the men, and unless it was an argument that came to blows then it was something that was always best steered clear of.
Well, rather than dwell on something ultimately of little consequence, the God-in-Hiding took to keeping watch over Bell until he looked well enough for Zeus to return to the fields for at least a few hours of the day. Day by day the boy's condition gradually improved until the goose egg was gone from his head and Bell could stand up and walk around without looking like he was going to hurl up his breakfast.
The issue that Zeus ran into was that he felt that this wasn't Bell Cranel.
Whether it was his Divine intuition or something else- his paternal instinct long since developed having raised hundreds of young boys into strong men over the past 1,000 years on the Lower World- he knew that something was fundamentally different about the boy.
He looked like Bell Cranel, but it was like one of those bizarre paintings from some of the more eccentric painters he'd seen in Orario- there was an uncanny valley in what he knew the boy to be and what he was today; something about his injury changed him, but it wasn't trauma. No, it was something different; like something had been brought to the surface.
Bell Cranel had always been bright, fluffy, and innocent, like a tiny white rabbit that all of the older sisters of the village loved to dote on, but there was always a hint of something else just under the surface that unnerved people sometimes; he could be uncannily perceptive and precocious at times.
He knew that Barnabas' wife was cheating on him with Lethil the Tanner the next village over, the boy picking it up just from social cues and idle gossip around the village when every other child was completely oblivious to what was going on, and then when asked about it the boy would just reply with a cheery smile.
"I don't know! I just do? Is that weird, Grandpa?"
The issue was that the boy was completely telling the truth- there was not even a hint of falsehood in the boy's words; no slimy feeling of misdirection or the chalky taste of omission. He was pure, like the freshly driven snow during the winter months in the small village of Orestead. The older he got the more frequently this happened, but the boy remained oblivious to his keen insights and instead focused on what all little boys his age did which was play with the other boys and beat each other with sticks in the name of GREAT ADVENTURE!
However, that bright-eyed boy has seemingly vanished in the night- like a child spirited away by faeries and replaced with a changeling.
If Zeus didn't know for a fact that such tales were bupkiss he would be alarmed with Bell's sudden change.
The bright smiles were gone, replaced by a soft, pensive frown or a severe scowl. His once sparkling ruby eyes were now looking at everything with the keen eye of a man in an unfamiliar place- they shifted back and forth, taking everything in at once and then settling back down to take everything apart with practiced precision.
Bell's stance was wrong, he sat facing the door, when he was spoken to his joyful voice was replaced by something much more polite and neutral, and when they had their discussions about their day over a stew that the boy had somehow put together in Zeus' absence because he was working in the fields, the boy's questions were probing but not invasive. He didn't just come out and say what was on his mind like the Bell of old, no, he slipped into a topic with the ease of an old soldier and transitioned from one point to the next without breaking stride.
Bell Cranel would have talked about how delicious Delilah's cookies were and then leaped over to how Daniver's new stick was the best stick they'd found to date for their Adventure play because it broke four of the other boy's sticks and didn't even look cracked at all!
No, this boy asked about how Zeus' time in the fields was, how the glut of rain in recent weeks was affecting the crops for the season, he'd poke at the nearby villages on the river, asking questions about them and how the river swells would be affecting them. Each question would gradually take them further and further away from their village of Orestead and to the great city of Orario.
Whereas the old Bell Cranel would be bouncing up and down in his seat just thinking about the grandly walled Dungeon City of Adventurers, this Bell asked questions about the state the current city was in. He'd ask about Goddess Freya and Goddess Loki, and he wondered aloud what Zeus and Hera would think about how they were running things. It stung if the God of Thunder was being honest, but once his pride finished healing he began the wonder just where the hell the boy was getting the ideas to ask such questions.
He had heard that head trauma could make mortals different- hell, he'd seen it more than once in his time as the Patron Deity for the City's strongest familia- but this was unprecedented. It was quite frankly downright terrifying, and after two weeks of this, he took a day off from the fields and began to ask around the village and followed the boy wherever he went, utilizing mortal magic to cast a clairvoyance spell- one that he had taught to Freya before she "cast him out" of the City- and watched the boy's movements.
The boy was sort of a homebody at first, sticking around the house and cleaning diligently until there was nothing else that could be cleaned. When that was done, he snooped around, searching for loose floorboards, hidden cubbies, and secret nooks; he looked through every book on the shelf, flipping through them carefully as if he was expecting there to be a hollow cavity in the pages where he would find a pouch filled to the brim with valis.
However, he had gotten distracted by one book in particular, and this one had a map of the world contained within it.
He looked completely distraught, and he buried his face within his arms and wept for a few minutes before he slipped out of the chair and cursed up a storm so thick that even the saltiest of sailors would blush as his verbiage; his little arms swang, his little legs kicked, his little feet stomped, and yet, despite his rage the boy never once allowed himself to actually hit anything. The closest he came to breaking something was one of the books on the bookshelf was jostled by his stomping and he caught it before it slipped off the bookshelf and returned it to its place.
After that, his anger subsided, and he stuffed his head into a bucket of water to cool off. Then he dumped the bucket out and went over to the well to dutifully refill it before he slipped off into the woods and checked a few rabbit snares that Zeus knew for a fact that he hadn't taught him yet; the boy grabbed the bunnies by their little heads and swung them around until their little necks snapped, and then he gutted them, skinned them, and cleaned them on site. There was one rabbit that he found had a large tapeworm in its belly, and the boy cursed the 'damn parasites' before he returned with the carcasses in tow; the infected rabbit was tossed into a fire pit the boy had constructed with flat river stones over the past few weeks and incinerated.
After that, he cleansed his hands with lye soap and near-boiling water, and then set out to make a broth with the bones of the rabbits along with some cow, and while that stewed he began scratching onto the dirt in front of their home with a stick. "Bell Cranel -> Hero -> Realis Phrase" along with a slew of other various words and surprisingly Skill names along with Developmental Ability names from the Falna system.
"Riveria Ljos Alf."
"Spiritual Healing."
"Mage."
"Finn Deimne."
"Command Call."
"Freya."
"Divine Charm."
"Ottar."
"Alias 'King'."
"Daedalus."
"Hive of Scum and Villainy."
"Hephaestus."
"Greatest Smith- looks great in leather pants."
"Hestia."
"Bestia- not for me."
"Liliruca Arde."
"To save or not to save, that is the question."
"Apollo."
"Fuck that guy."
"Knossos."
"Millions of tons of free Adamantium? Door made from solid Orichalcum?"
"Evilus."
"Bad fucking news. 27th Floor Incident. 24th Floor Pantry corruption. 59th Floor Corrupted Spirit- true spirit body lower than the 59th floor? New monsters - Violas: weak to magic, attracted to magic; Level 3 bare minimum, blunt trauma resistant to even Level 5 strength. Virga: weak to magic, weak body, acid can dissolve even Adamantium- requires Durandal to fight effectively; counter with ranged weapons- bow and arrow?"
Zeus blinked and focused his clairvoyance spell onto the boy's face as he sat on the log in front of the front yard's fire pit and skimmed the scum from the bones off the bubbling pot. The boy's lips were twisted in a rictus grin that was both horrified and somewhat excited?
"The future is really going to fucking suck for me, isn't it?"
The God felt his heart stutter as the boy's whispered words barely translated through the spell. The future? Is this why Bell Cranel changed overnight? The head wound had been worrying, but not so severe as to change the boy's personality- no, he had been shown the future, and that fundamentally changed him?
No, not even then. There were mortals who have seen the future- flashes and ill-omens, premonitions, but nothing with so much clarity that the boy was seemingly recalling. This was something else. Something different. That strange undercurrent beneath the boy's snow-drift innocence was something far colder. More firm. Tough and durable. That had been brought to the surface, the snow and purity was naught but a mere facade for the boy who was underneath.
It was something his Divine senses had been screaming at him since the boy had woken up, but he hadn't been able to put into words until now.
It hurt. It hurt a whole lot. He'd failed in his promise to look after Bell Cranel and take care of him until it was time for him to grow up and go off on his own Grand Adventure. His ward. His charge. His grandson. He had failed him, and the God walked towards the creek where he had been spying and tossed himself into the shallow, cool waters to try and calm his hammering heart and roiling mind.
It wasn't the boy's fault he had changed, walking up there angry would do him no good. Right now the boy needed answers, he needed his grandfather, and maybe, just maybe... they could work through this together.
When Zeus returned home a few hours later he was half-dry from the walk back home, but his boots and stockings still squelched uncomfortably, but the still damp breeches, suspenders, and white linen shirt were monumentally refreshing with the warm spring winds that blew as he walked through the forest. When he walked up the dirt path the boy was pulling the small pot off of the iron swing handle and was about to take it inside; the scribblings in the dirt had been wiped away with what appeared to be a leafy tree branch- given the tree branch was nowhere in sight it was probably used to feed the fire. "Ah, Grandpa. You're home early. I hope that you didn't slip and fall into the river?"
He had an easy smile on his face, but his posture wasn't Bell Cranel.
It hurt.
"My boy, almost three weeks ago you suffered a nasty injury." Zeus ran a hand over his beard and worked his jaw. "You've... changed."
A sigh escaped Bell's lips and he gave the God a soft, sad smile; one that looked to be conciliatory- Hera oft gave him the same smile when she'd heard about one of his Children perishing in the Dungeon.
It was a smile meant for a funeral.
Zeus hated that smile, but he kept his temper reigned in. Whatever had happened, this wasn't Bell's fault. He should be understanding. He should listen. He should give him a chance to explain.
The God of Thunder had a temper that was well known, but so far this boy had done nothing to earn his ire; even if it looked like he was a stranger wearing Bell's flesh, he knew for a fact that he was Bell Cranel- one and the same. That he was different but still whole. He could feel it.
"I suppose that I didn't exactly try to hide it; it would have felt sleazy and disingenuous. Come, let me get this inside so that I can get our dinner started and we can sit out on the back porch and talk. I feel that this will best be a conversation over some tea, I think." The boy snorted as he used his elbow to nudge the door open and walked into the cabin; "I fucking hate tea too."
Zeus followed the boy in and he watched, just marveling at how well the boy moved throughout the kitchen; was this what he had been missing while he was working the fields? The boy grabbed the stool and handled the knife like he was one of Hera's daughters, swiftly mincing the meat, onions, shallots, and tossing them into a sizzling pan with butter, garlic, and thyme. "I didn't realize that my Grandson was such an accomplished chef."
The boy froze for a moment before he resumed stirring the meat paste in the pan. "Well, I know that it sounds a bit cliche, but I always loved cooking. I even left the army to go to a culinary school because I wanted to open up my own restaurant."
Zeus felt no lies in the boy's words, and Bell poured the meat onto a dish to let it cool while he prepared a half dozen of the puff pastries that Missus Nami down the street used to bake her pies. When had the boy managed to walk over there to pick some of those up? More importantly, what did he trade for in exchange?
The woman was a hellraiser in the kitchen if her husband was to be believed, and she held onto family recipes as if they were gold coins to be hoarded and guarded jealously like a dragon. "I also didn't realize that Misses Nami gave out her pastry recipe. She always seemed the type to keep her much vaunted recipes close to her bosom."
"Well, she's a culinary fiend, that one. I just had to give her something that she could make in trade - it's called equivalent exchange. I showed her how to make something she'd never seen before, a dish called Beef Wellington, and she gave me the recipe for her puff pastry; I mean, I know how this is made already, but I was fuzzy on the exact measurements and didn't feel like wasting a bunch of money trying to get it exactly right." Bell spoke idly, his tone distracted as he seared the rabbit in the pan, using the drippings from the minced beef to put a nice crust on the lean meat before pouring half of the remaining drippings into the soup and the other half into a small tin bowl.
The fat would be used for getting the next fire going in the morning as there were "too many conflicting fats and spices to be used for future cooking or baking; wouldn't want to get an upset stomach".
The soup broth he made earlier in the day was filled up with fresh-cut vegetables from the garden behind the house, and the rabbit meat was tossed in as well. With the pot over the kitchen fire, the boy grabbed the teakettle off of the stove and made a pot of tea before cleaning his hands off and ushering Zeus onto the back porch overlooking their garden on the fairly generous plot of land he'd set up before he left Orario.
Black eyebrows furrowed as he carefully poured the God a cup and then himself before he reached over and pulled a few mint leaves off from the window sill herb garden and crunched them to put in his tea.
They sat there for a few minutes, just enjoying the slowly setting sun and the tea before the boy sighed. "I don't want you to take this the wrong way, Grandpa, but I..."
He licked his lips and placed his cup onto the table between them before he held out his hands- both palms skyward and acting as if he were cupping water.
"Bell Cranel." He spoke with a soft voice as he gestured with his cupped left hand, and when he gestured with his cupped right hand he spoke again. "Jeremy Winters."
He slowly brought them together until he 'pooled' both together and his hands held a 'single' pool of 'water'. "Bell Winters. Jeremy Cranel."
Bell swallowed as he looked up from his hands and back at Zeus. "Does that make any sense? I was Bell Cranel, but that head injury it... 'woke' me up for lack of a better term. I was Bell Cranel on the surface, but underneath it all, I was Jeremy Winters all along."
Zeus felt his body sag as he placed his cup onto the table. "So a... botched reincarnation then?"
The boy leaned back and his head thumped against the wood of his chair. "Well, you would know better than me, Lord Zeus, I didn't even know reincarnation was a thing until I woke up here."
The God in question felt his jaw pop. "So you know? How?"
The boy blinked and then scrubbed a hand through his white, spiky hair with a grunt. "I had visions. Images. Play out like a story for me. A story of a boy with white hair and red eyes, of a boy named Bell Cranel and all of the Grand Adventures he'd go on in his question to become a famous Adventurer and pick up girls in the Dungeon city of Orario."
Truth.
"I don't remember all of it, but more than enough for me to take note that I'm Bell fucking Cranel, and realize that the boy in that story and myself are two fundamentally different people." The boy gritted his teeth and crossed his arms over his chest as his tiny fingers turned white with how tightly he was holding onto his biceps. "That boy was as bright as the sun, kind-hearted as he was foolish, as determined as he was dense to the affections of the girls around him; a young man with a single-minded focus so strong that it spawned a Rare, Unique Skill that gave him a growth-rate so astounding... so absurd that it put the greatest Legends to shame."
Bell rolled his eyes as he managed to pry his hands away from his arms and let them rest on his lap. "All to chase after a girl who was strong- so that he could be strong enough to stand beside her. How did his tale end? I couldn't tell you, the story I saw just wasn't complete- it was... disjointed, told out of order sometimes. Piecing it together has been my primary focus these past two weeks; other than, you know, trying not to puke my guts up when I stand up to go pee in the middle of the night."
Truth.
He could detect a slight whiff of misdirection with a touch of omission, but he let it be; no doubt that the boy had some things he saw he would rather not talk about, and considering what he was divulging already he decided to not press. Bell... could fill him in more when he felt more comfortable.
That was fine. Bell Cranel wasn't completely gone- some of his peeked through every now and again, but Zeus had to remind himself that Bell Cranel likely hadn't existed in the first place; he was merely a shell that contained a soul much older than it should- a soul that hadn't been cleansed properly before it was sent off into the cycle of reincarnation.
A soul that had somehow had a brush with the Architects of Fate in the Heavens and stolen visions of the future? Or had they interfered directly and imparted such visions of the future before sending this Jeremy Winters to be born into the world?
Zeus didn't know, but when he returned to Tenkai, whenever he did, he would march right down there and ask the many Gods and Goddesses of Fate questions, and they better have answers.
In the weeks since their discussion, Bell had taken to calling himself Bell Winters. He thought that it was accurate to display his new self, to help him center his mind that he wasn't Bell Cranel and that he was no longer Jeremy Winters.
He honored his parents with the birth name that they gave him, and he honored who he was in the past with his surname. Sure, he would officially keep Cranel, but if anyone asked he would introduce himself with Winters.
Over the weeks they had reached an uneasy peace, with neither side willing to extend the olive branch fully, that was until Bell began telling Zeus about his old world. A world without the Gods at all; truth be told the God of Thunder was a little surprised at how easy it had been for him to be enthralled by the boy's storytelling- usually, it had been him making the boy wriggle and squirm in anticipation- but hearing of his own exploits in the mythology from Jeremy's world had been quite a hoot!
Did he truly turn into a golden bathtub to impregnate a woman? And a goose? Ha! The other him was a total mad lad!
After that, Bell began asking some very pointed questions about his parents, and after hearing the tale about his father the boy seemed to be... incredibly disappointed. "So he really was a coward to the end, wasn't he?"
Zeus felt his gorge rise a little bit, but he tamped down his anger a little bit, "Now what makes you say that, my boy?"
Bell's eyebrows hiked up to his hairline as he plated up their meal for the evening- a sumptuous looking meat-dish he called 'Shepard's Pie'- and shook his head. "Well, he was a coward in the eyes of the familia; always preferring to run away rather than fight. You said it yourself, his Rank Ups were always forced upon him by the Dungeon instead of him seeking out the challenges himself; Monster Parties, Pass Parades, an Enhanced Species spawning while he was farming for monster cores and loot."
He scrunched up his nose as he sat down and began picking at the meal- a small bit of the old Bell shining through as he huffed his open mouth, blowing on the hot pie and suffering a slightly burnt tongue as a consequence of his over-eager nature to enjoy the meal he had painstakingly cooked for the two of them. "That and he was a pervert- trying to slip into the Hera familia compound quite frequently with yourself and another unrepentant pervert to try and peep on the girls there."
His lips curled in disgust as he continued to describe the man. "The way you described him was very generous Grandpa, but let us be honest here: he was a man in his 40s perving on a girl barely on the cusp of adulthood, a girl who was in constant ill health and who had barely seen the world outside of her familia's compound. On the days she could call 'Good Days' she was able to walk around her mansion without experiencing crippling amounts of pain, and she was incredibly lonely."
"So lonely that she didn't push away a slovenly man who slipped into her bedsheets at the first available opportunity because he gave her a taste of something that she hadn't experienced anywhere else." Bell sipped on some water to cool his tongue before he continued, "And when he got her pregnant, he was more than happy to leap into the suicide mission that was the Three Great Labors your familia embarked on..."
"Then, upon hearing of her death after my birth, instead of taking leave to return to Orario and care of his infant son, he decided to request your permission to charge the One-Eyed Black Dragon along with the rest of the familia to die with a bit of 'dignity' and 'pride'." The boy's red eyes were startlingly cold- so much unlike his father's mischievous ruby gaze.
"If you look at it objectively, my father took advantage of a sickly girl, got her pregnant, ran off, and then upon hearing news of his son's birth and his mother's death, ran off and committed suicide while leaving me in your care to raise alone without the aid of your familia." The disgust was clear in the boy's face, such vitriol shouldn't be heard in such a young voice except when describing how much they hated their veggies or the child down the street who made fun of their hair or called them names.
"You can try and dress it up as a 'whirlwind romance between a girl who wanted to experience all life had to offer but was a caged bird, and a man who had lived the coward's life but wanted to be heroic at least once' as much as you like, Grandpa, but that doesn't change the facts. Ezekiel Cranel was a scumbag of the highest order, a predator."
Zeus felt his appetite disappear as his anger rose to a height he never thought possible, and he stormed out of the house and into the woods.
He didn't return until the next morning.
When Zeus had calmed he found the boy sitting on the front porch with a few sheaves of parchment sitting on the mobile writing desk that the God used when he felt like sitting outside and doing paperwork; feeling the sun on his skin and feeling the breeze through his hair made it a lot easier for to concentrate on doing things like managing their finances and expenditures.
When Zeus walked up the boy looked up at him and bowed his head slightly. "I could have been more... tactful, but I won't apologize for what I said. If there is more to Ezekiel Cranel than what you've told me thus far, then I'd be willing to listen, but that still does not excuse his actions, no matter how romantic they appear at first blush."
The Divine felt the low embers of his anger get stoked with the winds, but he changed tack and focused on the paper and quill in the boy's hands. Besides, the boy was lying anyways- his mind had been made up, and nothing the God could say would ever change how he viewed his father- no, sire, in any case.
Zeus made a note to find Ezekiel and would apologize to him when he eventually returned to Tenkai; his son saw him as a fiend, one that should have been put down like a criminal, and not as a man who made mistakes and tried his best to make up for them. The boy seemed to view his father's heroic stand, the finding of his courage to face down a monster that none have ever fought and survived - his final legacy-, as a pathetic attempt to escape his duties as a father.
In a certain light, Zeus supposed that it could be seen as such- it was the only reason why he hadn't lost his temper and blown up on the boy right then and there.
"Never mind that, boy, what have you got there?" The God muttered as he took a seat next to the boy on the bench; it was hard to imagine that he was a five-year-old child when he was looking over paperwork like this so intently.
"Hmmm? Well, I'm looking over our finances since I know that you do this every month," Bell tapped a stack of parchment with a neatly ordered row of boxes and grids that he'd drawn with a straight-edged ruler, "And I was planning, ruminating about the future."
"The future, eh?" The Divine picked up the finances and began to look them over; the boy was working off of the paperwork Zeus had in a binder on the bookshelf- it appeared that he didn't know about the sizeable amount of coin the God had hidden in the housings of the magic stone lamps hanging from the ceiling. "What about it?"
"Well, unless I begin training now," The young boy sighed and hid his eyes with an ink-smudged hand, "I'm fucked, the city is fucked, and the world is potentially fucked; unless Ottar manages to make Level 8 sometime soon, that is."
Zeus put the paperwork down and stroked his beard. "Why do you say that, my boy?"
The Divine was intensely curious. This sounded like one hell of a story, and while Zeus thought of himself as different than the other Divines, he still was a Divine that drew great entertainment from the stories that the mortals made of their lives.
The boy went on a small rant, ranging from one topic to another, and the boy at least believed that what he was saying was the truth; Bell Cranel lived an 'interesting life', at least what the Far Eastern Divines termed as 'interesting'. He faced incredible odds and surmounted them, all the while doing his dear Grandpa proud by collecting a menagerie of cute girls who all wanted a piece of him... but made the old man weep because he never got anywhere with any of them because he was a horse with blinders on chasing after a single girl.
The only bright spot was that the girl seemed to be just as interested in Bell as he was in her- the Sword Princess Aiz Wallenstein- but according to his knowledge of the visions he saw, she was interested in him because he reminded her of her father... and boy wasn't that a doozy? The hero that made the 'Black Dragon' the 'One-Eyed Black Dragon' was the father of this young girl- his wife being a Wind Spirit that Zeus himself had once known; Aria.
He didn't know what to think about all of this, but it appeared that neither did the boy, because his visions didn't extend to just how the girl ended up one thousand years in the future and in the care of that up-and-coming upstart Loki. Instead, Zeus filed that information away to chew upon later, and he focused on Bell.
"- since I am fundamentally different from that Bell Cranel, the likelihood of me getting his bullshit OP HAX skill 'Realis Phrase' is slim to none, and without that in my corner, it means that I'm going to have to get started now if I'm going to survive the mess going forward! Like, what the hell, over!?" The boy's arms gesticulated wildly as he alternated between messing up and hair and dragging his hands down his face in utter exasperation.
Zeus had long since removed the lap-desk from the boy's legs and put it off to the side.
Truth be told it was relieving to see the boy angry and acting out for a change- it was a nice change from his usual withdrawn countenance; seeing a boy move either mechanically as he tried to get used to a body that was smaller than it should have been, or acting as though he was an unwanted guest in his own home had been jarring, even for the Divine himself to experience.
"That seems to be quite the predicament, indeed." Zeus chuckled as he stroked his beard with one hand and threw his arm over the boy's shoulder with another to pull Bell close and into his side. "However, you seem to have a keen mind and a fairly in-depth knowledge of the falna system, so if anyone can help the City of Orario, then I think it just might be you."
The boy pouted but didn't pull away. "Way to inspire confidence, Old Man. I was a soldier in my past life, one of the good ones, but I wasn't the cream of the crop- the big dick pipe-hitters who looked at challenges like this and chewed them up for breakfast. I'm also not some story-book hero who views the world through rose-tinted lenses and can only see the good in people."
"I beg to disagree, my boy- you are already on the path, I think. You look at Orario and see not a bastion of greatness, but a cesspool of stagnation and decay, and recognizing a problem is one of the first steps to solving it." The Divine slowly carded his fingers through the boy's hair as Zeus let his head rest against the log facade of the cabin wall, "It was why Hera and I left Orario in the first place; the city needed to experience a change if there was ever to be any growth, and we'd gotten too comfortable in our roles. Too complacent."
"If you ask me you left the city in a pretty sorry state," The boy grumbled, "Just up and leaving. Did you even impart your knowledge to Freya before you left?"
Zeus felt his eyebrows raise as he gave the boy a side-eye. "What knowledge are you talking about?"
Bell shook his head and held out his arms in front of him. "Well, I've been doing some theorizing on the falna, and I think that there are some hidden mechanics behind it. In my mind, Ouranos had to of imparted onto you something- something to give you and Hera an edge over your competition so that you could provide Orario with stability by sitting at the very top."
The boy went on to speculate about how the falna worked, and some of them were surprisingly astute, but his sense of scale was all off. Then there were others that just made him chuckle. "While yes, when experiencing a Rank Up, it is always advised to get one's stats to S-Rank before leveling up, you're wrong in that it only gives a small boost- you estimated a three times increase in one's capabilities? No, you're looking at more like a five to six-fold increase in strength. It is why no Adventurer of lower rank could ever hope to challenge an Adventurer of a higher Level; this 'Realis Phrase' skill, if it truly allowed for the Bell of your visions to fight a Level 4 on equal footing as a Level 3 then it must have been far more powerful than even you believed it to be."
The God shook his head, "Although, if they were the average High Class, then if their stats were in the D's and C's when they Ranked Up then I suppose that would make sense as to why he was able to compete. However, there is no such thing as a 'Rank Reset' or anything of the like; if Ouranos hid something in the falna to improve one's growth rates then I would have found it. Or Hera would have; we were quite meticulous in monitoring our Adventurers."
Zeus mussed the boy's hair and chuckled. "No, we stood at the top of Orario because we wanted it more than everyone else, and by extension so did our Children. We worked harder, and because of that we had more High-Class Adventurers than anyone else; that was also because we took far more risks as well; every one of my Sons knew that greatness could not be achieved without Danger. So they sought it out at every opportunity, but they did it smartly, and thus is showed in our rolls; every member was Level 4 at the bare minimum because they worked for it. There was no shortcut to power, Bell, no magic words or secret mechanisms. Just hard work and a lot of dedication."
The Divine sighed and released the boy so that he could place his hands upon his thighs and looked out over the front of their little plot of land. "Even your father, whom you described as a coward, would be considered one of the greats if he were in another familia other than my own. He was strong, but his strength was often outshone by everyone else's brilliance. However, he never lost heart, and he never quit even when his brothers showed him scorn and derision. Ezekiel stayed with his brothers until the very end."
Zeus' voice was wistful, and Bell remained silent.
"So there really is no other way, huh?" The boy eventually murmured, "Just git my teeth and bear it? Suck it up and move on?"
When the God nodded the boy shook his head.
"That's bullshit." Bell groaned and thumped his head against the facade of the cabin a few times before he hopped off the bench and wiped his hands off on his pants. "Well, nothing for it, I suppose. I can only focus on getting stronger and will have to play it by ear."
Zeus tilted his head and watched the boy as he walked over to the bucket and wiped his hands and face clean of the ink before it could stain his pale skin. "What makes you think that you have to bear this burden all on your own? Why not merely inform Loki and Freya of your visions and allow them to protect the city?"
The boy swung his arms to rid them of the water droplets that clung to them. "If you believe that something should be done, and done right, then you need to do it yourself. I can only trust Freya and Loki to act in their own best interests, and as long as their positions in the city are secure I don't know if that will extend to the citizenry of Orario or not. I have the knowledge, I just need to use it, and maybe, just maybe, I can prevent some greater tragedy from getting a whole bunch of people killed."
Bell placed his hands on his hips as he turned his face towards the sky, his voice quiet. "In my home, there is a saying, one that I firmly believe in. It goes something like this: 'All it takes for Evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing.' I could just sit back and let this play out without me, but if I did I feel like that would inevitably lead to something even worse happening. While I know that rationally I'm not responsible for the evils that Evilus wish to perpetrate on the world, I fucking live here, this is my world now. If I don't stand up then who will? Who knows the lengths these bastards are willing to go to but me?"
"I joined my nation's military and gave them ten years of my life to fight against perceived evils and wrong-doings on the other side of the damn world, and ended up just protecting the interests of politicians instead of actually doing real good." The boy let out a dark chuckle, one that would be found escaping the lips of a veteran who just found out the war he'd fought for had been ultimately pointless. "Here? Here I have a chance to actually fight the good fight, against real enemies who want nothing more than death and destruction for the sake of death and destruction."
He turned his head and looked at Zeus. "For the longest time, I fancied myself a 'Sheepdog', a protector of the 'Sheep' from the 'Wolves' who sought to prey upon them. I still like to think that the drive and will to do just that hasn't left me completely, and here is a world where there is a Dungeon that constantly spews monsters seeking to devour the mortals of the world... along with a legitimately evil organization that is working in concert with the Dungeon to help perpetuate just that. How can I look at myself in the mirror if I just... dropped a few words into the ears of Loki and Freya and then walked away?"
Bell shook his head and looked out over the fields of grain and the rows of vegetables that stretched across the horizon. "Besides, Jeremy Winters died a long time ago, and just a month ago a young boy with big dreams and an even bigger heart by the name of Bell Cranel died as well. In his place I was born; Bell Winters, the amalgamation of two souls made into one. That boy wanted a Grand Adventure more than anything else in the world, and who would I be to deny him?"
Bell Winters believed his words to be true, but Zeus knew that his reasoning was flawed; his understanding of Bell Cranel's soul was only what he as a mortal could perceive. Bell Cranel- that happy, bright-eyed boy- had been a veneer, a facade; much like the logs of his cabin hid the Iron Wood paneling.
Jeremy Winters had been the foundation on what Bell Cranel had been based on from the very beginning.
The only thing that accident did was wake him up. Nothing more, nothing less. It was as he properly deduced when Zeus had first spoken to him before: Bell Cranel and Jeremy Winters were one from the very start. His guilt was misplaced, but... Zeus didn't feel the need to correct him; he believed that he would understand in time.
Neither spoke for a few minutes until Bell looked back at Zeus. "Hey, Grandpa, what about if I stalled my updates as long as possible? Sure, it would be incredibly boring to be stuck on the 1st Floor for a long time, but if the difficulty remained the same, then my stats should continue to grow more quickly, right?"
The God grinned. "Now you're thinking like an Adventurer. Come over here, and I'll tell you some stories of some of my strongest Children. Maxim actually used that same little trick to make it to Level 8, you know? Everyone always thought that he was something special, that he had a unique Skill that I'd kept hidden, but the man just made sure to always keep himself challenged at all times. Why-".
Zeus had to dig into some of their funds to purchase the boy a bow fit for his size, and despite his initial desire to keep the boy unblessed, the God ended up caving anyways so that Bell could get a head-start on his Grand Adventure.
The boy was incredibly well-trained thanks to his experience in his previous life, and had set up a very well thought out training plan; he called himself a "Ranger", but didn't believe he had it in him to be one of his nation's "Special Forces".
"No, I didn't have the right mentality for it. Being a Ranger was tough enough as it was; it really ground me down- mentally and physically. I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did, to be honest; I just wanted to go in and do my time to get a free education when I got out, and I somehow got sucked into all of the 'Hoo-ah' and drank the Kool-aid and signed up for something that I really wasn't prepared for. I mean, I did it, and I lasted longer than most, but to wear that Green Beret? Nah, I wasn't good enough to be one of those guys."
Zeus poked a prodded, asking why he thought he could stand among the Adventurer Elite now when he couldn't stand among the Elite of his nation's military then, and the kid just gave him a huff.
"I don't have a fucking choice, Old Man. It's do or die time. Nose to the grindstone and all that."
Which is wrong, he did have a choice, but he had tricked himself into believing that he didn't. Whether it was on purpose or not Zeus didn't know, but instead, he just focused on helping the boy where he could; deep in the woods, they set up a training area where the boy honed his body to the best of his ability. Zeus had some training weapons fashioned for him by one of the carpenters a few villages over, and a bow and arrows made by a fletcher near one of the hunting settlements that handled providing the wild game that the region consumed.
Bell got up early in the morning, cooked a light breakfast for them, they worked in the fields until noon, and when the other kids broke off to go play out by the creek, Bell and Zeus returned to their home to study some history- reading and writing Koine was easy enough for the boy as it was startling similar to his world's 'English', but learning Far Eastern was incredibly difficult for him, even with his 'enhanced neuroplasticity' from being a child.
The boy questioned the validity of learning the language more than once, but Zeus posited that Far Eastern was the 'other half' of Orario, and he would be at a severe disadvantage if he didn't learn it.
It was also because all of the best hole-in-the-wall whore houses that Zeus liked to frequent were strictly Far Eastern in both written and spoken languages, not that the Bell really cared to hear about it. Sure, he admitted to sleeping with a few hookers in exchange for cash when he didn't have time to settle down in a place and look for a lover, but he didn't sound too happy about it.
Ah, the young man just didn't know that there was no shame in seeking the comfort of Women of the Night! They literally advertise their services! They have a whole district dedicated to it! It was just as much a part of the Adventurer culture as the Dungeon was! How could he call himself an Adventurer if he let his seed stew in that sea of beautiful female flesh while not grabbing a hold of his rod and casting a line!?
Sometimes you don't have time for romance and just need to take the edge off, and there just so happened to be an entire district of the city dedicated to women who would be willing to do just that for a bit of coin; even if he was squeamish about it, or ashamed, he could at least just have them use their hands, tits, or mouth. Hell, if he wanted to do something as inane such as 'save his virginity' then he could just do butt-stuff instead!
Everyone knows that anal isn't sex! It's sodomy! There is a difference! Virginity protected and smiles all around!
Still, Bell Winters sat through every lesson that Zeus was willing to teach and devoured it all like a man on a mission, which he was. Within two summers the boy was capable of speaking the Far Eastern language like he was born into it, and Bell had an inkling that the divine properties of the falna helped him out quite a bit.
By the time Bell was seven years old, he was sent off to the hunting settlement a week's travel away by wagon to stay there for half a year. His skill with bow and arrow had increased to the point where Zeus thought that the only way he could improve any further without updating his falna was to go out and actually kill something with it; the static targets they had set up were far beneath his current skill level now, and attempting to find someplace else where they could set up a new archery range was foolish. They'd have to walk half a day and spend the better part of a month cleaning the next closest area up, and they didn't have the time for it, not with the harvest season drawing near.
So, after the second harvest of Bell Winter's 7th year, he traveled to the Summer Glade- a hunting region where the lands were fertile and the game plentiful- and he spent two seasons there honing his skills.
When he returned he looked very different- his usual clothing had been replaced by hunting furs, his hair had grown out down to his shoulders, and he had an ornament in his hair that named him a 'spoken for' man; apparently, one of the hunter's daughters took quite a shine to him and all but declared him her betrothed.
Zeus took great pleasure in seeing the boy's shocked expression turn to one of utter exasperation as he decided that he would have to go back again next year to reject the betrothal because he had no idea what the significance behind the deer antler ornament was; he thought it was a token of friendship and given in recognition of his skills as a hunter.
As much as the boy ragged on Bell Cranel for being an 'utterly dense dunderhead who was blind to all of the booty around him', Bell Winters didn't appear to be any better.
To be fair, Zeus probably should have given him some warnings about the tribes in that area and how they handled things, but that wouldn't have been as fun, not at all.
Bell practiced with his blades, a short sword, and two long-bladed knives, as best he could, and tried to improve his bowmanship by adding to the complexity of his drills- shooting multiple arrows in quick succession, trying to land bullseyes while making acrobatic maneuvers, shooting the bow while prone and in various awkward positions. It was getting so ridiculous that Zeus had long stopped watching Bell's training as it was getting more and more silly as the months went on.
Who tried to fire a bow blindfolded while doing a somersault?
Well, it made sense for an Adventurer who was a high enough Level to have senses sharp enough to make such shots, but more often than not it was likely the boy just goofing off until the harvest seasons were completed and he could return to Summer Glade.
No, that Zeus particularly blamed him- little tricks like that did impress the ladies from time to time, as much as they tried to deny it. No one knew this better than the 'lady conquerers' of the Zeus familia! Women ate up feats of strength and skill like that all the time, and there were hundreds of bastard children running around Orario to prove it!
Never let it be said that the Zeus familia was not fruitful!
When Bell returned from his second trip to the Summer Glade, the boy looked even more fed up with life as three more totems dangled from his hair. It appeared as if his attempted refusals had backfired when he inevitably started showing off- ha!
Zeus could hardly hold in his chortles as he sheered Bell's long hair off and the boy used a small nail to drill a hole through each totem and threaded a thin leather cord through it; as much as he scoffed at the puppy love of young girls, he still seemed to value the time he spent with them greatly.
"They went through the trouble of making them for me, even if they know that I could never see them in such a light... they asked me to think about them when I eventually made it to Orario. To show the City the Pride of the Beltor and Rimurad Tribe's hunters. It is the least I can do for the kindness that they showed me."
Bell Cranel was almost nine years old when Zeus finally believed him to be ready to go into the city and start making his own way. It certainly helped that Bell Winters had the maturity of a 39-year-old man at this point, otherwise, the God wouldn't have allowed him to even think about setting foot into Orario until he was a man grown at 15 years of age.
"So, who do you think you'll be joining, Bell?" Zeus asked as they ran through his pack one last time.
"Lady Hephaestus." The boy replied immediately, "I've always been interested in blacksmithing, but I instead chose cooking because... well... blacksmithing wasn't really needed in my old world. However, here? A good blacksmith is worth his own weight in Adamantium, probably even more."
Bell rolled his sleeping mat tightly and cinched it closed with twine as he worked through packing his bag with the utmost efficiency; his ten years of experience as a soldier coming through as he tried to pack everything he could into as small a space as possible. "I would be a lot more comfortable going into the Dungeon knowing that what I was relying on would be made by my own two hands; not that I would doubt the workmanship of Hephaestus' familia, but weapons are expensive as hell there too! Half of the Adventurer's 'grinding cycle' is saving up to make their next gear purchase, and if I can fashion my own weapons and armor I'll be able to cut down on the costs significantly."
The white-haired boy ran a thumb over his nose as he sat on his heels and began rolling up his small clothes and stockings. "Besides, as much as I might not broadcast it to the rest of the world... for such a heavenly figure, the woman's ass in those leather pants of hers is positively sinful. I'd be a fool to pass up getting a chance to side-eye it every day."
"Ah-ha! Hahahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Zeus slapped his knee as his entire body shook in the chair he was seated in; the God's laughter abating only after the boy looked like he wanted to pack himself into the bag to avoid his embarrassment. "Ah, my boy, I'm so glad to see that you at least aren't a brain-dead prude. Still can't believe you passed up the opportunity to smooch a whole bunch of young hunter girls though; that was a missed opportunity, for sure, but at least you recognize and appreciate Hephaestus' Divine and Heavenly ass-cheeks as every man should."
Bell's lip curled as his nose crinkled, the boy returning to pack his bag. "They were 7, 9, 11, and 13 respectively; I'm a 39-year-old man trapped in an 8-year old's body. Trying to 'smooch' them would be gross and highly questionable if not downright illegal. I ain't going to have a tribe of hunters chase me down because you suggested I try to play hanky-panky with them. I'd sooner slit my own throat."
"Heh, you say that now, but once those Pallum ladies start squirming around in your lap you'll change your tune soon enough." Zeus countered.
"Well as long as they're adults then I can deal with that when it happens, I'm not so small-minded as to try and shove a willing woman off my lap if she wants my attention." Bell huffed and closed his pack up tight before slinging his sleeping roll over the top of it and tying it on top. "Just like fat girls need love, so do tiny girls. As long as they're grown, I am not going to discriminate."
The God of Thunder cross his arms over his chest and nodded sagely. "Wiser words have never been spoken before, I think."
"What about the wise words 'Don't stick your dick in crazy?'" The boy smirked as he grabbed his pack and moved it over by the door.
"Pah! Nonsense! Always stick your dick in crazy, my boy! Just don't fall asleep with them afterward, and always make sure you're faster than the girl you're sleeping with!" The Divine slapped his palm on the table, his mug of ale bouncing at the force. "You haven't truly lived until a woman you once laid with is after your life."
Bell chuckled and began looking over his bow, his quiver, and his arrows. After a few minutes of silence he spoke up again, the young lad checking the fletching of an arrow before setting it off to the side to be traded over to Jorik the Fletcher on the way towards Orario; the wagon train would last two weeks, and would stop at every village along the way. "Also, I chose Lady Hephaestus because I feel like she would be inclined to keep your existence and my own initial falna a secret from those who would pry. You might have been an irredeemable horn-dog, but it sounded like you and Hephestus were pretty tight-knit."
"Indeed, I was close with every Divine in my pantheon. Of course, they were all more than happy to see Hera and I go, I think, but that was more out of a desire to see a regime change than out of actual malice or spite." Zeus sighed and leaned back in his chair as he brought his ale up to his lips to sip at it, "It's hard to recognize the stars when the Sun and Moon shine so brightly in the night sky, you know?"
Zeus didn't bother to look over at Bell, as the rasping sound of steel leaving leather filled the room; the lad giving his knives and shortsword one last look over before putting them back into their sheaths.
"Yeah, I could see it." Bell murmured, "Everyone wants a chance to shine, even if they say they don't. Everyone wants to be recognized for the blood, sweat, and tears they shed... to see their sacrifices mentioned on the lips of the people. We mortals need that sort of affirmation, even if it's just empty praise from people we don't know."
The weapons were hung up on a hook next to the door, and the boy cursed as he looked at his boots. The front tack had come loose, and would eventually back out and exposed his toes to the world. "Have to hope that Harry is up to repair my boot in the morning before the wagon train leaves..."
"Anyways, yeah," Bell straightened himself up and dug his knuckles into the small of his back, "Such things are important to people. Besides, it is really difficult to show off how hard they've worked when there were two familias that eclipsed them so strongly that it made all of their greatest efforts seem mundane by comparison; I'd imagine that making it to Level 4 is quite the feat, but it seems so much less impressive when there were over three hundred Adventurers and Supporters who all achieved that milestone."
Zeus nodded as he stood up and walked into his small study and grabbed a sheave of parchment as well as his writing set before he sat back down in the kitchen and began to write. Bell watched him for a little while but didn't bother him, instead he busied himself with cleaning the dishes and the cooking pot from the leftovers of their dinner.
After the letter was penned, Zeus folded it up and was about to put it in an envelope before the Divine paused.
The God of Thunder was frozen in place for a few moments he reached into his shirt and withdrew a signet ring, one that he hadn't used in nearly a decade, and lit up a candle so that he could melt a little bit of colored wax and dripped it onto the page next to his signature. He held the ring up to the flame to warm its surface so that the wax wouldn't stick to the cool metal, and then pressed down firmly; when he pulled the ring back, a highly detailed cloud with a single stylized thunderbolt striking the earth below was revealed.
He could have merely imparted a small bit of his Divinity into the paper to be returned to him when Hephaestus read it, but that seemed rather risky in his opinion; he was way out in the sticks hiding out because he didn't want any of his enemies coming after him now that he was missing a strong familia to protect him. No doubt Evilus would poke their heads out if they even sniffed the unmistakable ozone of his Authority, and after Bell's explanations from years past it seemed just the thing they would do.
No, this letter would be all of the legitimacy Bell needed to get him a direct audience with Hephaestus, and when the falna was revealed to the Goddess of the Forge then she would know that the letter was true; it was easy enough to use mortals to trick the Divine lie-detecting abilities of the Gods- all one needed to do was have a mortal truly believe that what they were saying was the truth and it would pass without fail.
Hephaestus might not be a regular player in the games of Orario, but she was competent enough to know that this could be a ruse without the proof in front of her.
The letter was tucked into the envelope and then sealed with a more generic stamp, and then that was placed inside of a wax-paper envelope that would protect it from most adverse weather before it too was sealed.
After that, Zeus stood up on the chair and unscrewed one of the magic stone lamps hanging from the ceiling, and withdrew a coin pouch before tossing it to the boy who caught it with a raised eyebrow. "Secret money stashes? Really, Grandpa? I spent a week out hunting to try and kill enough game to earn back the coin that you spent on wine last month, and you had something like... this..."
The boy's jaw dropped as he reached in and pulled out twenty gold coins before he whispered to himself as he put the coins back into the pouch and cinched it shut tightly. "This is twenty million valis. This is twenty million valis."
He turned around and walked over to his small dresser and pulled out a sock before he opened the coin pouch back up and stacked the coins and placed them in the sock's toe. He twisted the sock tightly until no sound could be heard, and he put the bundle back in the pouch and re-tied it. "Bell Cranel never had twenty million valis in my visions... but that is probably because he left here with only what he could carry in his small pack and the clothes on his back. He probably wouldn't have known to check for secret coin because the boy just couldn't stay quiet."
Zeus chuckled as he screwed the lamp back into place and stepped down onto the kitchen floor again. "Yeah, you were always excitable when it came to coin as a child, just like all children are; nothing like buying your first pastry 'with your own money'.
Bell's eyes became unfocused as he looked off to the side, and then a small huff of laughter escaped his lips. "Yeah, I guess I was pretty excited back then, huh?"
The Divine turned and walked into the pantry to grab the travel rations that they made from the deer meat that Bell caught last week to "pay off the wine" Zeus had "splurged on".
It was nice to see that Bell was not... disassociating himself as much as he used to. At the very beginning, he thought that he was a different person than Bell Cranel, and while it was true in some sense, he was coming around to finally accepting his current situation.
He paid lip service to his words that Bell and Jeremy were different people, but no, they were one and the same. Just because this Bell was different from the Bell from his visions didn't mean that he still wasn't who he was.
It sort of made the whole business a little confusing, but Zeus knew what he was on about; he was a damn Divine for Tenkai's sake! He used to deal with mortal souls on a daily basis up in the Heavenly Administration!
"I think it's best you get ready for bed, Bell. I'll pack your ration bag while you get some sleep. You've got to get up earlier than you thought to go have the cobbler look at your boot, right?"
The pack was on Bell's back, the ration satchel slung over his shoulder and resting over his hip. The boy's quiver was at the small of his back while his knives were strapped to his thighs and the short sword strapped to his hip; a small holdout knife was tucked into a sheath hidden in his boot.
"Got everything, my boy?"
"I've been over my checklist three times, Grandpa. I'm ready to go." White hair was mussed up and red eyes crinkled as a wide grin split the boy's face. "It's time I head off on my Grand Adventure. Be sure to keep your ears open for all of the stories that will be sung about me, okay?"
Zeus felt his heart tremble within his chest and he reached in and embraced Bell as firmly as he could with all of the gear the boy had strapped onto his body. "We've had an interesting few years haven't we?"
Bell's small but muscular arms wrapped around Zeus' thick waist as best he could. "Yeah, we have. Thank you... for being there for me, Grandpa. I know that in the beginning, I wasn't the easiest to get along with but..."
Half of the village that wasn't working the fields for the sowing season was there to see one of the village's very own stride out towards Orario in search of riches and glory. Some were pleasant, smiles all around, but most- particularly the mothers who had gotten to know Bell Winters over the years- thought that Mr. Cirrus had gone senile to send his grandson off to Orario to be killed.
In their eyes it didn't matter how mature or skilled Bell Winters was, he was still just a boy; however, the single retired Adventurer who lived there knew that Bell had a falna of a "Goddess" in Orario and it was time for her Child to be returned to her now that the "danger" she had sent Bell to Zeus for had "passed". They left it vague and Mr. Lewins, a half-elf from the Evlin kingdoms, didn't bother to pry.
"I know that you'll go on to do great things, Bell, my boy. However," Zeus rested his hand against the crown of the boy's head and rubbed it affectionately, "Just because you feel like the weight of the world is resting on your shoulders doesn't mean it actually is; if it all gets to be too much... don't be afraid to come home and rest your weary head, okay?"
Bell pulled away and Zeus saw some of the old Bell Cranel shine through as the boy smiled broadly and nodded. "Yes!"
With that Bell Winters turned on his heel and strode away from the village towards the wagon train waiting at the top of the hill, the boy waving to everyone as he walked away from this sleepy little village and towards what he believed to be his destiny.
"You're an old fool," Martha, the old dwarf woman rumbled, "Sending your grandson off like that. You should be ashamed of yourself; just too weak to tell that boy 'No' and be done with it."
Zeus couldn't help but place his hands on his hips and laugh out loud. "Ha! He's just like his old man, that one, always running off to places he shouldn't be, doing things he shouldn't be doing."
His laughter petered off and he let his arms rest down by his sides. "He was always going to be an Adventurer, Misses Martha, this was inevitable. At least he can continue to grow there- he'd stagnate if he remained here. Or married to four different tribeswomen; he would never achieve his dreams in a sleepy little place like this."
Zeus nodded to himself. Yes, Bell Cranel would never go the Grand Adventures he dreamed of, but Bell Winters would go in his stead.
[Hephaestus - Goddess of the Forge]
Hephaestus looked down at the severe expression of the young boy across from her; he was almost 9 years old according to the letter- under normal circumstances the boy would be lucky if she allowed him to shovel coal to fuel the forges of her budding forge district.
However, these were anything but normal circumstances.
The letter had been enough to get him an audience, but the seal along with the reveal of the falna on his back showed the Goddess all she needed to know.
While Zeus hadn't returned to Orario, one of his progeny did, and she was honor-bound to repay the debt she incurred when he and Hera took her under their wings when Hephaestus first descended to the Lower Realm almost three hundred years ago.
To think that he would hold onto his one 'favor' for so damn long and then use it on something like this.
The God truly was as fanciful as she remembered, and a huff escaped her lips; she would have taken the boy in for his pedigree alone- the son of one of his members along with the nephew of 'The Silence'? That was a no-brainer as far as Hephaestus was concerned, and the fact that he was so mature and focused just made it all the more enticing.
However, if Zeus was going to use his one favor on this, then why would she refuse and wipe that bit of red from her ledger?
Tsubaki Collebrand was looking at the young boy in awe, the thirty-one-year-old Level 4 had just taken over the Captaincy after her previous Captain- a Level 5 Dwarf named Vornir- lost his eye and hand in the fighting against Evilus only a few years earlier; he been her Captian for almost fifty years and decided to let one of the 'young blood' take over so that he could focus on his smithing with his last century of life. With an Adamantium hammer replacing his hand he was feeling more invigorated than ever, which Hephaestus found slightly amusing; who would have thought that it was the soul-crushing amount of paperwork he endured with her every day that was stifling his creative spirit?
"So you're a talented archer and hunter, some-what skilled with your blades, and you can read, write, and speak both Koine and Far Eastern?" The Goddess spoke, her eyebrow arched as she tried not to let her amusement show on her face.
The boy was incredibly serious and was treating this as if he were interviewing for a position as one of Freya's footstools and not a position as one of the Hephaestus familia's future smiths.
Literacy and the ability to communicate were incredibly important in their line of work, and while swinging a hammer can be taught when Hephaestus was teaching at the head of the classes, it often was far more difficult to encourage her smiths to learn a new language unless there was a girl they fancied who spoke Far Eastern.
"Indeed, Lady Hephaestus, I can read, write, and speak both Koine and Far Eastern," The boy switched over to the language as he spoke, "I am also well versed in mathematics, hunting, tracking, skinning, resource collection, and the history of the world as well as the nations that surround the City of Orario."
The boy switched back to Koine. "I am trained, highly dedicated, and very motivated. Learning to smith under one such as yourself would make me incredibly happy, even if I would just be shoveling coal and cleaning equipment to start. The possibility of delving into the Dungeon to compare how my training has gone these past four years under your care would also be wonderful."
Tsubaki's face quirked up into a chortling grin as she looked over at her Goddess and began speaking Dwarven. "Looks like we have our very own Sword Princess on our hands, Hephaestus-sama... and unlike Loki-sama's Child I don't immediately dislike him; he looks focused, but doesn't see himself as a tool unlike her."
Hephaestus nodded in agreement with a hum on her lips. "I agree with you Tsubaki-chan, I like that look in his eyes."
The boy's face scrunched up cutely as he listened to them. "Of course, Grandpa wouldn't think to teach me Dwarvish as well.
Could he be the one she was looking for all along?
The one who would surpass her and become the greatest mortal smith the world had ever seen?
It was too early to tell, but she had a fairly good feeling about this.
Hephaestus felt her lips pull into a small smile as she gestured to the boy with her golved hand. "Very well then, Winter-kun, I'll accept you into my familia, even if you are a fair bit younger than I usually allow in. Please, remove your shirt and present yourself to me."
"Why didn't the Old Man mention the honorifics? This is going to be a pain, I can already tell." The boy muttered under his breath as he hopped off the chair and made his way over to the forward-leaning cushion of the Status Update chair and slipped his shirt over his shoulders and head.
Hephaestus felt herself swallow as she slipped her one of her gloves off and ran a finger along Zeus, the God of Thunder's, 'unlocked' falna.
How many Divines had fantasized about being able to do what she was about to do? How many wished they had the means to entice one of his powerful Children to join their familias?
Probably all of them, if Hephaestus was any indication- on more than one occasion she wished that she had just a four-man party of them at her beck and called to retrieve materials and ores from the Lower Floors at her request; life would have been so much easier with those strapping young men at her fingertips.
Now? Now she was about to have one- even if he was young, he had proven himself to be very capable and competent far beyond his years, and she pricked her finger, letting her ichor drop onto his back as she overwrote Zeus' falna with her own; the thundercloud and lightning bolt slowly changing shape to her own crossed smithing hammers. "I am going to update your status, Bell-kun."
"Ah, actually, Lady- er, Hephaestus-sama, I would appreciate it if you didn't. I would like to try and work as I am now for as long as possible if I could." The boy replied back politely, but the Goddess pinched the flesh of his back, causing him to stiffen.
"I can understand what you're trying to do, Winter-kun, however, if you think that your stamina will be enough for the hardship you're about to endure, then you have another thing coming." The boy's physique was astounding for a child his age, no doubt the boy's training and lifestyle played a huge part in his development, "However, swinging a hammer for hours on end is different than jogging down a deer, do you understand?"
Spoiler: Bell's Physique
The boy didn't speak before he nodded, "If that is what you wish for, then so be it, Hephaestus-sama. I'm the one asking for your patronage, after all."
The Goddess felt her lips quirk as she opened up his falna and began to assign the Excelia he had already accumulated and Tsubaki chortled. "Aww, don't be like that, Bell-kun! Hephaestus-sama has your best interests in mind! Trust your onee-san on this one, alright?"
"Onee-san?" The boy coughed into his fist lightly.
Hephaestus' smile slowly slipped away as she delved deeper and deeper into his accumulated experience.
Training his body in a carefully implemented regimen.
Ensuring the proper dietary and nutritional intake to not only grow a young body but to build upon it even further.
She could feel the earth beneath his feet as he pulled a plow through the earth with his grandfather- Zeus- hollering out for him to pull harder.
Training with his blades to the best of his abilities under Zeus' watchful eyes.
She could feel the twang of the bowstring with each release and watched his journey unfold as he was shooting everywhere but the target only a dozen paces away, to needing to do somersaults while blindfolded to hit the targets at almost a hundred paces.
She watched his every hunt unfold before her, she could feel his careful footsteps as he stalked both deer and monster alike through the underbrush of the forests in the regions surrounding Orario.
She could feel his pulse pound as he and other hunters from a tribe unknown to her chase down surface Goblins and she could feel his elation when he shot an arrow at an attacking surface Hobgoblin and speared it through the eye; the monster tumbling dead in the tall grass.
His every experience from the moment the God of Thunder placed this falna on his back to the trepidation and excitement that flowed through his veins as he navigated Orario's city streets to make it to her smithing district, she felt it all.
A small breath escaped her lips as she felt the Excelia slide into place, and the High-Quality Excelia built upwards into a tower that just barely met the requirements.
"You qualify for a Rank Up, Winter-kun."
Tsubaki's smile slipped right off of her face, and the boy's reserved chatting halted immediately.
"What are my stats looking like? Also, what was it that pushed me over the top?"
The Goddess of the Forge felt her lips tilt upwards. "The surface Hobgoblin. Even if it is significantly weaker up here, it is still a borderline Level 2 monster."
Hephaestus ignored Tsubaki's gobsmacked reaction as she reached over and grabbed a sheet of parchment before she placed it on his back and inscribed the boy's stats onto the sheet. "Anyways, see for yourself. You even have a Unique Skill."
Spoiler: Bell Winters - Level 1
The boy's teeth clicked shut and a small chuckle escaped his lips. "Never thought I'd get a skill, much less a unique one."
Bell shook his head as he handed the parchment back to Hephaestus. "No, I think I'll hold off. I want to get much stronger than I am now. I need to."
Tsubaki seemed to have missed the emphasis on the boy's last words in her own shock, but Hephaestus didn't.
What could be going through this boy's head for him to think that he needed to improve so quickly? If anything, this was a stellar showing for any Adventurer in the Dungeon city, let alone one from outside the city's Dungeon.
"Well then, Bell Winters, welcome to the Hephaestus familia." The Goddess spoke as she dropped down onto a knee and embraced the boy warmly, "Welcome to my family; I do hope that you'll enjoy your time with us. Work hard, okay?"
With nothing else to say the boy merely nodded and buried his face into her shoulder as a few happy tears escaped his eyes.
Yes, she had a good feeling about this.