Around the same time, on the first floor of the Dungeon, Bell came to a halt.
He turned his head to look back over his shoulder, down the stairway connecting the lower first and second floors.
"What's the matter, Mr. Bell?"
Bell paused, his gaze fixed on the depths below.
"...Did the Dungeon just shake?" Bell asked.
Lili looked up at him as he tried his best to peer deep into the second level... no, even farther into the Dungeon.
"Shake? Lili didn't feel a thing." Lili replied.
"…Was it just me?"
Bell's senses were on full alert.
Even after waiting a few moments, he didn't calm down.
After a moment of contemplation, he decided it was just his imagination.
"It was a long day today," Bell said, stretching his exhausted body.
"Yes, it was. But not just a long day…..a very long day! It's already past midnight," Lili added.
"Huh? Really?!" Bell asked.
Lili nodded, her golden watch necklace clasped in her hand.
The hour and minute hands on the clock face were very close to overlapping.
"Whoa, I had no clue..." Bell gasped in shock.
"Because the monsters kept coming at the end," Lili said.
There had been no time to look at her watch.
They had picked up many drop items today, and there was no room left in her oversized backpack.
Several days had passed since they had met and signed a contract.
Thanks to Eina's constant nagging for him to find a supporter, Bell had searched and soon found Lili.
After a short trial period, an official contract was made.
With Lili's help, Bell had very productive days in the Dungeon.
His daily kill count was increasing, far greater than it had been when he worked solo.
Now he could go full speed toward his goal.
Lili, on the other hand, was confounded by the freakishly high kill count of this supposed newbie adventurer every day.
She only knew a few people in Orario that grew this fast, and they were all great people...at least most of them were.
This was why she had decided to sign a contract with him…..that, and the fact that he seemed rather naive.
If he was going to be someone great, it was worth the investment.....but if he turned out to be like the shitty adventurers, then...
Lili suppressed these dark thoughts as Bell spoke.
"So then, fifty-fifty on today's loot?" Bell asked.
Upon hearing him, Lili let out a deep sigh.
"Mr. Bell, I think you need to learn about the value of money and common sense. It may not be Lili's place to say, because Lili is very grateful....but Mr. Bell is too generous," Lili said, choosing her words carefully.
Her current manner of speech was one she used when speaking to adventurers; from experience, the more naive and subservient she seemed, the less likely they were to be wary of her.
"But you need money now, right, Lili?" Bell countered.
"That's true... But Lili can't stand to see you vulnerable. It's like taking care of someone else's pet rabbit and being worried about every little thing....Lili feels as though she's being poisoned."
'She's been giving me a lot of these lectures recently,' Bell thought.
Their relationship had been like an ordinary person working with an aristocrat until a short while ago.
But at some point, the etiquette and protocols for interacting with strangers had been discarded.
Bell felt as though the gap between them was being bridged... like he and Lili were becoming friends.
Bell and Lili quickly traveled through the rest of the first floor, tossing any goblins that appeared in their path aside like tissue paper, and left the Dungeon.
"Wow, you weren't kidding! It's very late..." Bell exclaimed.
Central Park, the open area around Babel Tower, was covered by a curtain of darkness.
Amid the lights of the magic-stone lamps embedded in the walls of the city, the atmosphere was completely different from the afternoon.
On the other hand, all the bars in the distance looked as lively as ever, even at this hour.
"...It really is huge."
Bell's gaze swept around Central Park until it finally landed on the tower itself.
It pierced the night sky.
"I wonder, why is Babel Tower so tall? It's great that the Guild rents out spaces to tenants, but hauling things all the way up to the fiftieth floor seems like more trouble than it's worth..." Bell commented.
"Mr. Bell, the Guild's tenants only go to the twentieth floor, you know?" Lili countered.
"Um... is that right?"
Lili's lips twitched ever so slightly at the look of cluelessness in Bell's eyes.
Slightly embarrassed, Bell decided to ask her directly.
"If it's not filled with stores, then what the heck is above the twentieth floor?"
"The gods and goddesses reside on those floors, Mr. Bell."
"...The gods?"
"Yes. Just the heads of the many familias in Orario are allowed to live there, but their rooms go up to the top."
It seemed only natural that gods, who had a taste for the extravagant, would want to live in Babel Tower, the symbol of the labyrinth city Orario.
Each room was equipped with the most advanced and elegant amenities, but the real draw was the view.
No other buildings were allowed to climb that high, so the gods could see the entire city from their windows.
Many deities paid a very high rent to the Guild in order to live there.
However, if they had enough money to ignore that detail, then they could inhabit the highest-class dwelling in all of Orario.
In other words, only the richest, most powerful gods and goddesses could live there.
"Ohh... So there are gods who don't live at home but choose to live apart from their familias." "Think of it like a private room, Mr. Bell. While there are gods who like to talk and interact with us, there are other gods who like their privacy. That's how their image has been since ancient times," Lili explained.
Bell nodded in understanding.
"Lili has heard that Babel Tower wasn't always this high. It used to be the lid over the Dungeon, but it wasn't any bigger than the other buildings around it."
"Well, then why is it so big now?" Bell asked.
"When the first gods came down, the tower was destroyed... They came down like shooting stars and hit the tower."
It was like they did it on purpose.
Those gods completely destroyed the finished tower.
In his mind, Bell could see the citizens' faces, mouths half open, tears rolling down their cheeks, as well as the cackling gods trying to apologize.
He let out a dry chuckle.
"Since then, it's been known as Babel the Falling Tower. That could be another reason why gods live here now."
Lili continued by saying that the gods apologized by contributing to the rebuilding effort.....and by deterring the Dungeon monsters.
Their method: Falna.
The people of the time revered the blessings of strength they received from the gods and offered them Babel as a way of showing their appreciation.
Babel grew to its current height as a result, as well as gained the image of a shrine to the power of the gods.
"I think I understand...Whenever I hear stories about the gods, I can't help but wonder just how boring their world is. They'd have to be bored enough to want to leave the heavens and come down here, right?"
"Maybe they hated their jobs enough to run away?" Lili replied.
Bell had been looking at the tower during their conversation, but these words got his attention and he turned to face Lili.
"Lili's heard that the gods had many responsibilities in the upper world. Their most important one is taking care of us, their children, when we go to eternal sleep."
"Isn't that...?"
"Yes. They're in charge of guiding people after they die."
Hearing those words, Bell felt his heart speed up a little.
That was not the typical reaction to this topic, but he sensed his destiny in Lili's voice.
Lili's point, in short, was that the gods would decide what happened to mortals after death.
To put it another way, they judged everyone's souls.
The treatment of a soul could vary wildly, depending on the god responsible for it.
It might be allowed to live on in heaven, or it could suffer unimaginable pain, or be forced into endless, meaningless hard labor...
If one were to begin listing the possibilities, the list would never end.
The fate of all the souls released from the bonds of the mortal world hinged on the caprices of the gods.
The concept of being a good or bad person during life didn't enter into it.
The gods either liked you or they didn't.
Their mood determined heaven or hell.
A judgment free of rules and regulations, based instead on whims and opinions, awaited them. Then again, most souls were simply reincarnated anyway.
Since there was so much work to be done in the heavens, the gods who remained above had to pick up the slack left behind by those living in the lower world.
They were overworked, with no time to rest.
'They'd be angry, wouldn't they?' Bell wondered.
The next souls to arrive would likely face an intense "discussion" just to determine the order in which they were allowed to leave.
'I don't want to go there... I don't want to die' Bell's mind churned.
For some reason, he believed that if he were to die now, the gods would cast him into hell just for the fun of it.
As if she could see exactly where his thoughts were taking him, Lili reached up and shook his shoulder.
He snapped out of his trance and gave her an embarrassed smile.
However, something was still off.
"…But there was a time when Lili longed for death."
The words were like a punch to the gut.
"…Eh?"
"If Lili went before the gods… if Lili could be reborn...the new Lili would surely have been better than the current one."
Lili stared at the top of Babel…..no, she looked farther out into the heavens as she spoke.
Her hood slipped back, exposing her chestnut hair and big, round eyes.
They were blank.
It seemed as though she were searching the sky, yearning to go home.
"L-Lili!" Bell suddenly yelled.
He felt as though if he didn't, she might simply disappear.
Lili slowly closed her eyes, breaking her staring contest with the stars.
She looked up at Bell, her eyes partially hidden behind her bangs.
"Sorry for saying such an odd thing," Lili apologized.
"That was a long time ago. Please don't take Lili seriously. Lili is stronger now. Lili doesn't have those thoughts anymore....besides, my Hero would definitely be disappointed if Lili gave up that easily."
'Hero?' Bell wanted to ask, but the words wouldn't come.
He had to believe she was telling the truth.
Lili puffed out her chest with a small grunt; there was no lingering sadness in her body language. 'She must have recovered from something in her past' Bell speculated.
That realization was yet another reason he hesitated to put his emotions into words or actions.
"Well, it's already very late, Mr Bell. Let's hurry home. Lili has to return to her Familia tonight, too," she said, changing the topic.
A bright and cheerful Lili turned her back to the tower.
She moved away with quick, small steps.
Bell glanced down at her shoulders...shoulders that were far too small to be carrying such a heavy burden.
He watched her carry that unnaturally large backpack with a heavy heart.
A moment later, he ran after her.
........................................................
"So, you've gotten even stronger."
A voice whispered from above.
Below, a white shadow ran after another, both fading into the distance.
A woman's excited eyes followed the white shadow with absolute intensity.
Clouds shifted in the night sky, flooding the woman's room with moonlight.
The entire outer wall was made of glass, and as the woman stood beside it, she was so clearly illuminated she seemed to be standing in a spotlight.
Her thin yet luscious body was wrapped in a provocative black nightgown.
Her fair skin gave off a mysterious glow in the lunar light, and her silver hair, reaching almost to her waist, sparkled like ice.
"That's wonderful. You must shine even more…"
Clap.
Freya pressed her hands together, her outrageously beautiful figure reflecting off the glass. However, her joyful musings soon morphed into a frown.
"Quit your perverted monologue and come drink with us already! Today is a day to celebrate!" a rather annoying voice yelled from above...specifically, from the roof of Babel.
"Yeah, come join us!" another equally drunken voice added, followed by the sound of chunky brown liquid splashing down past Freya's perfect view.
It was vomit….
Bahamut and Hephaestus were celebrating the change in Hephaestus's relationship status with Draco.
As for why they weren't drinking at the Hephaestus or Bahamut Familia home...there were a variety of reasons.
In Bahamut's case, after the mess she had caused the previous night, she was too embarrassed to face her children.
Upon learning about, Draco's confession...She had run to Hephaestus.
As for Hephaestus, she wasn't quite ready for her children to hear the news.
Completely annoyed by their drunken stupor, Freya pulled curtains over her window.
If it were other deities, she could handle them...but Bahamut and Hephaestus were just too much of a pain to deal with.
It was best to simply ignore them.
As for joining them, why would she?
Everything she was hearing from their mouth, was displeasing.....especially when it concerned the dragon she favored.
The only consolation was her white rabbit that was growing well.