To Hearth and Home

Bell had swiftly made it to the Guild, and met up with his Guild Advisor, Eina Tulle. He had tried to tell her about the Earrings and what had happened, but the woman had been absolutely adamant that they not speak until after he had properly showered and cleaned off all of the blood still drying into his clothes, armour and skin.

He spent a lengthy amount of time cleaning himself and his possessions, the earrings included. Finally he was finished and headed out to talk with Eina in a tucked away booth within the Guild. They spent a lengthy amount of time in discussion, firstly with her lambasting him for heading down to the 5th floor without consulting her, especially when he was so new to being an adventurer and was definitely not ready for it. Then she coddled all over him for having encountered a Minotaur of all things. And finally he asked what he had been dying to the entire time.

"What can you tell me about Aiz Wallenstein?"

Eina had been taken aback at first, but soon gave him a deluge of purely public information about the legendary Sword Princess. Everything that was said just fanned the flames of his burgeoning attraction to the woman. Already a level 5 despite her relatively young age, she had started as an adventurer at the young age of 7, and managed to achieve level 2 in only a single year, the current record for that feat. Now she had a decade of experience under her belt, and was well on the way to being one of the most powerful adventurers in the entire city, well up there with the best of Loki and Freya familias.

Eina wasn't allowed to give her any information on Aiz's status, after all that was incredible private information, but she was able to share that the woman was already nearing the upper stat levels of Level 5, and was expected to soon be reaching the milestone of Level 6.

All in all, it was one of the most impressive resumes of any in Orario. It only served to reinforce his awe of the woman. She was barely a few years older than him but was already on a completely other tier to him. He was out of his weight class several times over, and Eina was sure to impress that upon him.

"But Miss Eina. I need to speak to her to give her these!" He said, pulling the earrings out of his pocket and presenting them to the woman. "They dropped from the Minotaur she killed saving me. That means I need to get them to her."

"Bell, it is incredible unlikely that any sort of item like this came from a Minotaur. Monsters in the Dungeon can only leave behind drop items that are parts of themselves, for Minotaurs that is usually the horns, or sometimes their hides if thy are particularly tough and resilient, but earrings? Those are simply impossible. They are much more likely something that was dropped by an adventurer and you happened to find."

"But Miss Eina, I heard them drop besides me when monster was killed."

"In that case Bell, the most likely explanation is that they were items belonging to someone that Minotaur killed. It is a horrific truth but some monsters consume the corpses of slain adventurers, or otherwise steal their equipment after ****. What you have there is the remains of one of your fellows."

Bell looked down at the earrings in his hand, suddenly very uncomfortable. "Would there be any way to find out who they belonged to? I should return them to their Familia right?"

"Well these earrings aren't particularly distinctive. If you just give me a moment." She left for a minute or two with the earrings before returning with them. "I've filled in a form for the earrings. If anyone steps forwards to claim them as belonging to a member of their Familia, I will get in contact with you, but chances are there won't be anything. For now, I think it would be best for you to hold onto them."

"Are you sure? Shouldn't I give them to Aiz still? If no one claims them then they definitely should belong to her."

"Seek her out and give them to her if you wish to, but for now I think it would be best for you to hold onto them. If you hand them over make sure to let us know so that we can direct the owners to Aiz instead, but for now, these earrings belong to you."

"Umm. Thank you Miss Eina." He said, accepting them back hesitantly. He was unsure of what else to say at this point, so took a glance out of a nearby window to distract himself. It was late evening, the sun beginning to set. "Oh no! I'm late back, Hestia-sama will be worried!" He jumped out of his seat, bursting up and immediately sprinting away with all the speed his level 1 stats could carry him with. "Thanks for all the help Miss Eina!" He called out as he left, waving back at her without looking.

"Oh Bell." She muttered to herself, the tips of her half elven ears reddening slightly. "What does that Wallenstein have that catches your attention so completely?"

Bell's arrival at the ruined church he and his Goddess called their home was rather abrupt. He burst in through the doors that were just barely hanging on at the hinges, and leaped across all of the crumbling pews to reach the door at the back of the room that lead down to the basement where the two spent their time together.

It was a cramped and enclosed space, with only a single small bed for his goddess, and a couch where he usually slept, as well as a small table. Right now, with how little money he made from slaying monsters in the dungeon and collecting the crystals they contained, his goddess was **** to work a job of her own selling potato puffs as a street vendor. It wasn't all bad, she was allowed to take some of their stock home each day so they were able to feed themselves for free, but he still felt so useless. Hestia-sama was a goddess, she deserved to live in luxury, especially after everything she had done for him, and here he was forcing her to live in a basement and waste away her immortal life acting like a mortal.

When he entered, she was walking back and forwards in front of the couch, practically wearing a divot into the wooden floorboards while she muttered to herself under her breath. "Goddess, I'm home!" She turned to look at him, freezing still as if she were paralysed. Her eyes grew three sizes and began to water, and she began to shiver and shake in place. And then she was launching herself across the room, slamming into him, and instantly began to rub her cheeks into his chest, her tears spilling out onto him.

"Bell!!! I was so worried about you!" She cried out between sniffles. "What took you so long? You should have been back hours ago!" He went to answer, but Hestia was a whirlwind of care and emotion right now, and using some hidden strength spun the two of them around and threw him down onto the couch, falling atop him as he went. "Never mind that, it is so good you're safe!"

Bell allowed Hestia to do as she pleased for a while, burying her head into his chest and sobbing away lightly. Slowly, he brought his hands up to hover around her waist. She was a Goddess. She was supposed to be so far above him, an untouchable beacon. But he couldn't just leave her when she was like this.

His hands came down and he hugged her back.

Hestia stiffened at his touch. He stiffened too. This was the first time he had really returned her affections like this. It was entirely inappropriate for him really, to touch a goddess in such a way, especially not when uninvited. He was afraid that any moment she would leap from his arms and lambast him for his lack of respect like Eina would. But Hestia didn't do that. She just relaxed into his arms, looping her own arms around him tighter, and properly snuggling down into his chest. He did his very best to ignore her considerable breasts pressing down into his stomach. It wasn't easy. They were very large.

The two of them laid there on the couch for 20 minutes. One of Bell's hands slowly drifted up from around her waist to stroke and pet the back of his goddesses' hair, and she seemed to appreciate that quite a bit. What finally disrupted their time together was a loud grumbling coming from her stomach. "Goddess, did you not eat?"

"I was too worried waiting for you!" Hestia mewled out, propping herself up so she was now sitting in his lap, looking down at him with a pout on her face.

"I'm sorry Hestia-sama, we can eat right now." He got up, and Hestia pouted at him harder behind his back while he fetched the small brown paper bags that his goddess had left on the side, each of them contained a small loaf of bread and a potato puff. "Here you are Goddess." He said, passing one over to her. She immediately whipped out one loaf of bread and took a huge bite, swallowing it quickly, and letting out an almost sexual moan as she filled her stomach.

"Ah. That is better." She said, smiling widely up at him. It struck him that his goddess was incredibly cute. His hand hung at his side, and brushed across the small bump in his pocket. Reaching into it he found the earrings he had acquired earlier. If he was going to be holding onto these for the foreseeable future, then perhaps he could make things up to his Goddess using them?

"Umm, Hestia-sama. I got you a gift today."

"Bell?" She asked, blinking at him confused. He revealed the earrings, holding them up for her to see. "Bell how did you afford something like that?"

"I found them in the dungeon today. Miss Eina said that I could hold onto them." Best to leave out the more morbid parts of the story. "I thought they would look beautiful on you."

"Oh Bell, how could I turn them down then?" She accepted them from him, and immediately put them on her ears. "How do I look?"

"Perfectly normal Goddess."

Now for a moment I would like to take an aside to reveal the internal workings of the mind of the virgin goddess known as Hestia. For you see, she is a very jealous and affection starved person, who is overwhelmingly attracted to her lone Familia member. He is the only one in the world who brings a true smile to her face. He had found her and become her Familia member after being turned down by everyone else she approached. "Goddess Hestia?" They had said. "Never heard of her." She had truly been on her last legs when Bell had found her, and he had turned her entire life around since. She was more than willing to bear anything to help her precious Bell. It also helped that Potato Puffs were delicious.

But this meant that she was extremely disappointed with Bell's response. She wanted him to call her beautiful, to say she was the prettiest woman in the world. And he had said she looked normal. Of course her powers and arcana were sealed just like every other deity who had descended to the mortal plane, and as such was unable to recognise the tremendous powers of the earrings she now wore, or the effect they were having. 'Stupid Bell. Why can't you see how much I care about you?' That bit was his fault though. The earrings were in no way responsible for his stubborn refusal to ever acknowledge that such a beautiful and divine person would ever feel for him in a romantic fashion.

She took the earrings off. "Fine then Bell, how about you wear them? Let me see how good you look with them on."

Bell was perplexed. Why was his goddess suddenly so upset with him? Better not to do anything that would upset her further. With that thought he accepted the earrings back, and clipped each one onto his own ears. It felt strange. "How do I look Hestia-sama?"

"As good as always Bell. I think you should keep them on all the time."

"Goddess, I don't think that would be-"

"No buts Bell! As your goddess I hereby order you to keep those earrings on at all times from now on. They are your Goddesses gift to you, as her favourite Familia member."

'Of course I'm her favourite, I'm her only Familia member right now.' He thought to himself.

"So Bell, as punishment for you showing up late and getting me so worried, you are also ordered to sleep on the bed tonight. With me!"

"But Goddess, you're a goddess! It wouldn't be right!"

"Of course it would be. It would be perfectly normal in fact."

"It is normal for Familia members to be allowed to sleep with their gods?"

And with that simple question, the first of many great changes was made to the world of Orario. For now it was just a possibility, not a rule or an order installed to the reality of this world, but one slip of the tongue leads to another, and the Normality Earrings were very experienced at corrupting innocent souls such as Bell's.