Several days had passed since the horse carriage carrying the three anomalies of destiny left the territory, heading east.
The overland journey across the continent proceeded at a slow but steady pace. From his cross-legged position at the back of the carriage, Venti rested his chin on his hand, letting the cool breeze caress his face. His teal eyes stared straight ahead, past the gap in the driver's curtain, toward the silhouette of a giant tower piercing the clouds on the horizon.
The Tower of Babel. The center of the lower world, signaling that they had arrived at the outskirts of the Labyrinth City, Orario.
In front of Venti, Bell Cranel appeared restless. The white-haired youth had been standing ever since the outline of the city walls became visible, his hands gripping the wooden edge of the carriage tightly. His ruby-red eyes radiated a mix of profound relief and a hint of lingering confusion since he was thrown by something from the Dragon Valley.
Venti flashed a faint smile, hiding the wild anticipation churning in his chest. He knew exactly that the city spread out before Bell's eyes right now was not the Orario the youth knew.
Their horse carriage slowly decelerated as it approached the Main Gate of Orario. A line of merchant caravans and adventurers snaked outward. At the checkpoint, guards from the Ganesha Familia stood with upright spears and stern, vigilant expressions.
When their carriage's turn arrived, two guards wearing uniforms bearing the elephant mask emblem stepped forward to inspect the cargo. However, their steps halted abruptly. The air around the checkpoint seemingly froze.
"W-Wait a minute... you... that armor and posture..." One of the guards took a step back, swallowing hard while his trembling hand reached for the hilt of his sword at his waist. "Are you... Zald of the Zeus Familia?!"
Before the guard could shout in more hysterical panic at the gate, Venti hopped down from the back of the carriage with movements as light as a feather.
"Excuse me, excuse me! Please make way for this exhausted bard!" Venti exclaimed in a cheerful tone that instantly broke the tension.
He stepped forward past Zald, then reached into the pocket of his cloak. It was a high-level special access card issued directly by Royman from the Guild.
The two guards' eyes widened. They immediately stood at attention, removed their hands from their weapon hilts, and bowed respectfully. All suspicion toward the gluttony in the driver's seat had to be swallowed back down to comply with the absolute authority of the Guild's emblem.
"W-We apologize for our insolence! Please enter, Sir!" the guard said in a loud voice that trembled slightly.
"Thank you for your hard work!" Venti winked while flashing a playful smile, then hopped back onto the carriage. He patted Zald's shoulder lightly. "Let's go, my big driver."
Zald merely snorted softly, pulled the reins, and guided the carriage through the gates, entering the hustle and bustle of the Labyrinth City.
Upon arriving at the main streets of Orario, Venti sat cross-legged again, observing every change in expression on Bell's face. Just as he expected, the real show had just begun.
Bell looked left and right with stiff, jerky movements. The cobbled streets he stepped on felt the same, the rows of shops stretching along the route to the commercial district looked unfamiliar, and there was something wrong. Very wrong.
The city of Orario around him looked very bustling and active as usual. Adventurers and locals strolled about casually. However, the most striking thing that made Bell's forehead crease was the fact that there was not a single banner or festival decoration adorning the city corners.
"Strange..." Bell murmured, his voice almost trembling. "Venti-sama, isn't this strange?"
"Hm? What's strange, Bell-kun?" Venti replied in a pure, innocent tone, resting his chin on his left hand.
"The festival. The Orariopiad," Bell pointed toward the rows of building rooftops devoid of decorations. "Before I departed for the north with Leon-sensei, the entire city was being massively decorated to welcome the competition between Orario and the School District. Banners, flags, festival stalls... everything is gone. Even the people are walking around as if nothing ever happened."
The white-haired youth looked down, staring at his own palms. "Besides... why doesn't anyone recognize me? If my final match was cut off abruptly on the Divine Mirror screen, the whole city should be in an uproar. My Familia friends, Haruhime, Welf, Liliruca... and our Kami-sama would definitely look for me right away."
Venti let out a short sigh, hiding a faint smile behind his clenched fist. Of course no one was looking for him. The friends he mentioned were currently either still toddlers wandering outside Orario, or hadn't even been born into the world yet.
However, Venti decided to stretch this drama out a little longer.
"That Orariopiad you told me about yesterday, huh?" Venti tilted his head, putting on a highly convincing confused face. "How very strange. I just looked at the Guild's bulletin board and asked people around, but there wasn't a single flyer or registration announcement about such a massive competition between Orario and the School District."
Venti tapped his chin, looking at Bell inquiringly. "And by the way, Bell-kun, since yesterday you've been busy telling me about your duel in the north, but you haven't mentioned where you live. Which familia are you a member of? Perhaps we could take you directly to your Familia's headquarters so your friends won't worry."
"Ah, please forgive my rudeness, Venti-sama, Zald-san! I haven't introduced myself properly," Bell bowed respectfully. "I am the captain of the Hestia Familia. My plan is to return directly to our headquarters, Hearth Manor, to report to my Goddess."
Silence instantly seized the back of the carriage.
From the front, Zald turned his head past the partition curtain, staring at Bell with a flat gaze laden with astonishment. Venti himself maintained his surprised expression, but this time he wasn't entirely pretending. Bell's innocence truly made this temporal joke even more perfect.
"Hestia?" Zald and Venti uttered the name in unison.
"Yes! Goddess Hestia!" Bell nodded enthusiastically, his eyes sparkling.
"I have never heard of a Familia with that name in this city before," Zald snorted, chipping away a bit of the enthusiasm on Bell's face. The Gluttony looked at Venti. "Do you know her, Venti?"
Venti tapped his chin with his index finger, shifting his gaze upwards as if trying to remember. "Hestia... ah! You mean that lazy Goddess of the Hearth?"
"Venti-sama knows her?!" Bell's eyes widened brightly again.
"Know her? Of course I know her," Venti nodded, then looked straight into the youth's red eyes. "But as far as I remember, that petite goddess whose only job is to eat and sleep is currently still kicking back in the Tenkai. There hasn't been any news of her descending to the lower world, let alone establishing a Familia in Orario."
Instantly, Bell's world felt like it stopped spinning.
"Eh...?" Bell's lips parted, but only a sound as small as a breath of wind came out. He blinked a few times, trying to find a lie in the wind god's eyes, but Venti's teal gaze looked so clear and honest.
"B-But... that's impossible," Bell took a step back, his hand feeling for the emblem hidden beneath his chestplate armor. The proof of the Falna blessing contract was still on his back, but the lump of energy felt dead and tightly locked. "I... I am a member. I am the captain! How could she still be in the Tenkai?"
"Boy, if this bard god says that goddess isn't here, then she really isn't," Zald interjected with a final tone that accepted no argument. "Stop daydreaming in broad daylight."
"No! I'm not daydreaming!" Bell exclaimed, panic beginning to overtake his common sense. He pointed toward Orario's elite district towering in the distance. "Our headquarters, Hearth Manor, is located in the southern sector near the Amor Square area. A large building with a spacious garden! Let's go there, you will surely believe it once you see it for yourselves!"
Venti shrugged his shoulders casually, hiding his mischievous smirk perfectly. "Is that so? Very well, Zald. Turn the carriage around to the south. Let us verify this confused young man's claim."
Zald merely clicked his tongue softly, yet still steered their horse carriage through the city streets toward the sector Bell mentioned.
The journey across that sector felt incredibly agonizing for Bell. He kept biting his lower lip, praying in his heart that he was merely a victim of an illusion or large-scale magic.
When their horse carriage finally stopped in front of a tall, magnificently towering iron gate, Bell immediately jumped down before the vehicle had completely come to a halt.
"Here! This is the place!" Bell cried out, jogging toward the tightly closed gates.
However, his steps were forcibly halted just a few meters from the iron bars. His eyes widened immensely, his breath caught in his throat.
The large, mansion-style building was indeed there, standing grandly with its well-kept garden. However, it was not the warm Hearth Manor filled with the laughter of his family at all.
The white walls of the mansion were adorned with incredibly tacky and excessive gold decorations. Above the main gate hung a large emblem Bell could never forget: a shining sun symbolizing the god who had once harassed him in the past.
The Apollo Mansion.
"W-What...?" Bell whispered in horror. His body began to tremble. This was the Apollo Familia's headquarters before Welf, Mikoto, Lili, and he won it in the War Game. Why did this headquarters belong to Apollo again? Why was there no emblem of Hestia's hearth?
"Hey, you! Brat! What are you doing staring at the grand headquarters of the Apollo Familia like that?!"
Two neatly uniformed guards appeared from behind the gates. They pointed their spears through the gaps in the bars, glaring at Bell with disgust. "Get away from here before we report you as an intruder!"
Bell stumbled backward, as if he had just been punched hard in the solar plexus. His legs felt like they were made of jelly. His brain was no longer capable of processing the twisted reality around him.
A small yet warm hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder, pulling him away from the gates. Venti stood beside him, shooting a brief, sharp glare at the two guards before turning back to Bell with a feigned expression of concern.
"I see it now, Bell-kun," Venti said gently. "The large building you mentioned apparently serves as the headquarters of the Apollo Familia. Not the Hearth Manor you are looking for."
"B-But... this doesn't make sense," Bell ran his hands through his white hair. His eyes began to well up, filled with absolute despair. The fact that his friends were gone, his goddess was gone, and his home was gone, finally slammed against the walls of his consciousness. Temporal reality had swallowed him whole. "Where am I... where is my place now...?"
Seeing his prey had reached the lowest point of existential confusion, Venti smiled gently in his heart. It was time to drop the spiderweb.
"How pitiful," Venti sighed sympathetically, patting Bell's back as if trying to comfort him. "It seems you truly have lost your way home, young man. In a city as big as Orario, sleeping on the streets is not a wise choice."
Venti tilted his head, his teal eyes radiating an incredibly captivating gleam. "How about you come with me? At least until you can clear your head."
Bell looked up, his teary eyes staring at Venti hesitantly. "Come... with you?"
"Of course!" Venti patted his own chest proudly. "My Familia happens to be looking for some fresh air. Oh, don't worry about luxuries like that tacky sun mansion over there. Our headquarters is very simple. We occupy an abandoned old church on the outskirts of the city. Very quiet and peaceful."
Venti's words seemed to press a deeply buried memory button in Bell's head. The phrase 'abandoned old church' was the place where everything started for him and Hestia. The first place he called home before all the hustle and bustle of the War Game and fame came his way.
A strong wave of nostalgia hit Bell's chest, catching him slightly off guard. However, his inherent nature of not wanting to burden others took over once again.
"I-I am very grateful for your offer, Venti-sama," Bell swallowed hard, bowing deeply. "But I have already troubled you and Zald-san too much. I am just a confused stranger, I have no right to set foot in your Familia's secret headquarters. I can look for a cheap inn..."
"Ah, no, no, no!" Venti immediately interrupted before Bell could finish his sentence. He grabbed the youth's arm with a grip that was surprisingly impossible to shake off.
"You are not a stranger, we are travel companions! And a friend won't let a friend sleep on the side of the road when he has a cozy church roof!" Venti laughed cheerfully, forcefully pulling Bell's body toward the horse carriage still waiting by the side of the main road. "Come on, let's go! Don't be stubborn. At the very least, come along just for dinner! Our driver is an expert at cooking extremely delicious meat soup!"
In the driver's seat, Zald let out a long sigh seeing his god's behavior. The veteran's gray eyes narrowed, catching the mischievous glint that couldn't be hidden from Venti's face.
This god... he must be planning something exceptionally terrible, Zald thought suspiciously.
"Get in, kid. Before this wind god actually drags you," Zald grumbled softly, playing along with Venti's charade.
Bell, whose mental state was basically a bit shaken, let himself be pulled by Venti. He finally gave in, letting himself be pulled back onto the pile of luggage in the back of the carriage.
The wooden carriage resumed its journey, this time leaving the main road and turning through quieter alleys toward the northwestern outskirts of the city. The shadow of the Tower of Babel was slowly obscured by rows of lower brick buildings.
Throughout that short journey, Bell tried to piece back together the shattered fragments of his mind. If Goddess Hestia was said to have not yet descended to the lower world, and Apollo still controlled that grand mansion... was it possible he was trapped inside a large-scale illusion magic? Or was this some kind of curse from the mysterious monster he faced in the Dragon Valley? The thought that he was being toyed with made his head throb painfully.
"We're here," Zald's voice from the front broke Bell's reverie.
The horse carriage stopped in a grassy courtyard surrounded by an old iron fence. Bell jumped down, his eyes locking onto the building before him with high anticipation. He expected to see the dusty ruins of a church leaking here and there, his secret haven with his beloved loli goddess.
However, he was once again left astounded.
The church was indeed located in the exact same spot in his memory. However, there was no gaping hole in the roof. There were no crumbled brick walls, or weeds choking its courtyard. The building had been completely renovated. Its stone walls were clean and sturdy, large stained-glass windows reflected the twilight beautifully, and a pair of massive mahogany doors stood grandly, inviting anyone who came. This was no outcast church followed by a grand building behind it; this was a legitimate, enclosed Familia headquarters, radiating a very strong aura of protection.
"This is... the abandoned old church?" Bell whispered, staring at Venti with accusing eyes, feeling deceived by the description Venti had given.
"Ehe, well... we renovated it," Venti chuckled without a hint of guilt.
The androgynous-looking god stepped lightly up the stone steps, standing right in front of the door. He turned to look at Bell, his eyes flashing with anticipation, welcoming the climax of the grand drama he had orchestrated.
Time to open the theater stage, Venti cheered inwardly.
He raised his hand and knocked on the wooden door three times with a cheerful rhythm.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
For a few seconds, only silence replied. However, a moment later, a soft squeak was heard. The door was slowly pulled inward.
From behind the door, emerged a woman who made Bell's breath unconsciously catch in his throat.
She had long silver hair left to flow elegantly down her shoulders, framing her beautiful face. A long, gothic-style black dress wrapped around her slender figure, yet she radiated absolute authority. Her heterochromatic eyes, which were incredibly sharp and intimidating, swept across the church's front area with a flat gaze.
It was Alfia. The blood aunt of the youth currently standing frozen in the courtyard.
Alfia's heterochromatic eyes first caught sight of Zald, who was tying the horse's reins. There was a very faint hint of relief deep within her eyes, but her face remained expressionless.
"So you haven't died yet, you stupid gluttony," Alfia said, her voice as cold as ice yet flowing melodiously, hiding a bit of her surprise at seeing her old comrade from the Zeus Familia suddenly standing before her.
"Poison and destiny weren't strong enough to take me down before I saw you fall first, Alfia," Zald retorted with a small snort of laughter.
Alfia then shifted her gaze to Venti. And before the woman could ask about the smoothness of their mission, Venti quickly took control of the situation.
With a very theatrical, fluid motion, the wind god spun to the side, bowing low with one hand extended toward the courtyard, pointing directly at Bell, who was still standing in confusion.
"Tada! Good evening, cold Lady of the House!" Venti exclaimed in a loud voice deliberately made to echo. "Behold, I have brought back a fascinating wanderer from our journey! Please get acquainted with this sweet young man... his name is, Bell Cranel!"
The twilight wind suddenly stopped blowing. The leaves in the church courtyard stopped rustling. Time seemingly truly froze in that place.
Alfia, known for possessing mental calmness, froze completely in the doorway.
That name. Bell Cranel.
Those two words struck her eardrums like lightning striking in broad daylight. It was no ordinary name. It was the specific name chosen personally by her twin sister, Meteria, who was currently asleep in the upstairs room of the church, caressing her swollen belly. A name prepared for the fetus yet to be born into this world.
A highly logical doubt immediately crept into Alfia's sharp mind. Is this just a coincidence? Is there another child out there who happens to have the exact same name as my unborn nephew?
With stiff movements she almost never displayed in her entire life, Alfia slowly lowered her gaze, shifting the focus of her heterochromatic eyes from Venti's face to the fourteen-year-old youth standing awkwardly in the courtyard.
When their eyes met, all logic in the head of the woman known as the incarnation of talent shattered to pieces.
Pure snow-white hair, exactly like hers and Meteria's. A pair of bright ruby-red eyes radiating absolute innocence and kindness. The shape of his jawline, the curve of his nose, down to his slender yet supple posture.
Alfia's heart pounded hard. Her hands, wearing black silk gloves, clenched tightly at the sides of her dress, trembling violently.
The youth before her was not just a stranger sharing the same name. That face... a face radiating the absolute gentleness belonging to Meteria, yet simultaneously inheriting the annoying gaze, Meteria's innocent smile, and the eye color of the foolish man named Cranel from the Zeus Familia whom she used to beat up in the past.
It was a combination of features impossible to exist in this world other than from the fetus growing inside her sister's womb.
Why...? Alfia screamed internally, her eyes widening as she stared at the existential anomaly defying the laws of nature before her. How is it possible... this boy has a face that looks exactly like a fusion of Meteria and that idiot man?!
In front of the church, Venti hid his smirk behind an innocent smile. The theater stage was open, and the greatest family comedy drama had just begun.
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P - Gem_Blanks
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