Chapter 49
Coming back into the main shop area where the other girls were grilling Heath about what happened with Evilus, they all whirled on me as they wanted to get the story from the source and person who was there from the beginning.
Well, all the goddesses and Beatrice did. Bell on the other hand was far more interested in something more important at least to her. "Jake, you leveled up?!" Bell excitedly asked and at my nod, she threw up her hands as she exclaimed. "Congratulations for breaking the record, Jake!"
Seshat proudly smiled beside me as though it was partly her own accomplishment as the other girls including Hestia gave me some form of congratulations or another. Though Hestia's were more along the lines of. "Good job Jake but don't rest on your laurels because my Bell is going to overtake you.' Yeah, that kind of nonsense.
"So, Heath would you like me to escort you outside so you can make your way home?" I asked the Freya Familia member that got shoved into my life. And like Freya herself she merely smiled shaking her head as she tried to have a reason to latch onto me.
"Jake if it's alright with you, I would like to discuss the pros and cons between my healing magic and perhaps your potions. Let's see if we can draw any inspiration from one another?" She asked excitedly with a welcoming smile being aimed at me but with Seshat's repeated warnings about her. I could see it.
I could see the trailer park, the tweaker in her eyes. This girl was a broken mess and worse it wasn't even a chemical mess that you could sweat out. No, this girl had her soul twisted into knots under Freya's mere presence and was not even deliberately being charmed by the goddess. She literally got addicted and broken just on the contact high like people could just by touching Fentanyl and with the drug seeping in through the pores.
Did I want to try to, as Seshat advised, mind break the girl back to normal?
Like a badly set bone that never healed right and needed to be broken again to heal properly? No... Not particularly.
"Nah that's ok. Here is a gift for helping me with the antidote and tell Ottar thank you for interceding." I said pushing an extra shield of Cthulhu into her arms that I got for trading some Terraria mana potions to people who didn't even want the shield as they were mages or archers. I then firmly threw an arm over her shoulder as I escorted her outside of the shop as I continued loudly monologuing which prevented her from getting a word in.
"Yeah, seriously Ottar was so cool with how he cut off the arm off the crazy chick. But no seriously, did you guys see all the bombs going off? I hope the people around the area are alright. Hey, actually that's a great idea! You should take these potions and make sure all the civilians are alright, so here!" I monologued before pushing a literal pile of potions into her arms with the pile of haphazardly stacked glass vial potions literally being taller than her face so she couldn't see how I pushed her outside the tower.
"Have a nice night and I wish the civilians of Orario the best of luck!" I said cheerfully as I closed the drawbridge into my tower which then had the river of lava continue to flow as Heath's wide eyes stared at me with incredulity at my actions.
I spent just taking a deep breath to recover from my monologuing before I nodded as I muttered. "Got enough trouble in my tower..." Seriously it wasn't even like she was trying to hide how she wanted to spend longer here.
"Uh Jake you alright?" I heard Bell ask me as she came from behind me as I was just staring at the flowing wall of lava that was in front of myself.
I snapped out of my mental lamentations as I looked behind me to see the cinnamon roll had changed out of her armor and was now just wearing a backless dress similar to what Ais typically wore, but instead of being blue with some white highlights. Hers was predominantly black with some white highlights.
Honestly, with her pale skin, white hair, and red eyes she had a bit of a Saber Alter vibe with the dress, but she didn't have a saber face at all. And frankly, she had bigger breasts.
"Yeah, just wondering what Freya's game is. Evilus has risen up from the shadows and... Honestly, I can plan around hiding away from the adventures of Orario. But the freaks from Evilus are literally broken disposable tools that have no qualms blowing themselves up in suicide bombings." I shook my head sadly before I shrugged speaking. "I can plan for Ottar's strength, I can plan for Allen's speed. But how can I plan for a Pallum that looks like a child asking me to help find her parents only to blow herself up with an alchemical bomb." I spoke hauntedly.
I wasn't joking or exaggerating either. Both from reading the public files on Evilus's actions as well as actually seeing it in the Ryuu storylines in the Danmemo game and other things, I knew Evilus had zero qualms about throwing their lives away in order to accomplish a goal. Because in the end, the evil gods made a divine oath to take care of them in the afterlife so they could at least reincarnate even if it wasn't with any memories or anything.
Bell just gave me a soft side hug as she squeezed my frame tightly for a second before only softly holding my arm as she joined me in staring at the lava. "I heard you even fought alongside Ais Wallenstein too. What was she like?" Bell asked me softly as she leaned her head against the arm she was holding.
I took a breath to calm myself finally after all the day's stress. Which consisted of dealing with Bosses, Apollo dropping a fucking War Game in my lap, Evilus attacking Orario in order to get me, and even the stress of worrying about what mods I needed to take for my future development.
"Ais Wallenstein is certainly a great fighter. She was like a graceful dancer with each step being a step to kill a monster. But that's just it, her style seemed to be tailor-made for sidestepping large monsters and carving them apart in the motion, so she had some issues with the level five that she was fighting but then again, the woman was wielding an obviously cursed sword. So, Ais had to be cautious and not get cut at all." I explained with Bell's grip on me tightening.
"Do you like her?" Bell asked me quietly and I couldn't help but softly chuckling at the question and Bell whined swinging my arm that was in her grasp around. "Don't laugh Jake! It's a serious question!"
At Bell's pouting face, I couldn't help but laugh as I patted her white hair-covered head. "Yeah, Bell I totally like Ais Wallenstein, she is so adorable when she is making grabby hands and reaching for anything I dangle in front of her." I joked.
"Bwahah!" Bell broke into giggles as she herself recalled Ais's face and actions when I mentioned how I could make a wind blade that would heavily strengthen her wind magic and be a lot more in tune with her fighting style than the large cumbersome broadsword she had been using. "Jake that's not what I mean!" Bell added pouting but I just flicked her forehead as I shook my head.
"Ais is trouble, both for how Loki wouldn't let her date anyone, especially outside her Familia, but she also has a number of issues that makes dating difficult or better put impossible," I said dryly as I turned back to enter the tower. "Besides Bell, I got enough girls living in my house!" I joked making Bell grin wryly as I was certainly outnumbered in here.
"Oh, and umm would it be alright if we had a bit of a sleepover in celebration of your level-up, like we had when we first came to stay with you guys?" Bell asked me and I shrugged feeling a bit miffed about not spending the night with Seshat or Beatrice in bed, but some time with Bell could be fine as she was a sweetheart.
I looked down to Bell head shorter form as she was walking beside me, and I agreed with a simple. "Yeah, that would be cool."
"Sweet! I will bring snacks and stuff!" Bell said excitedly as she ran into the shop ahead of me, giving me a moment to stop and just look up at the false star above me before I chuckled and went into the shop to hopefully just relax with a friend for a few hours before I slept and got dragged into Orario's mess in the morning.
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