A Tale of the Gale

Chapter III

It was the rise of a new dawn in the city of Orario. A yellow furred renard entered the room of her familia captain to wake him up. She had a smile on her face as she looked at the sleeping face of the boy who had rescued her from a life of hardship and given her a life of purpose and happiness. She also felt a little bit of pride in herself for helping him, the elves and the dwarf in their final battle against Orario's strongest adventurer. It was a feeling that she rarely felt before, as someone who considered herself as unclean and unworthy. But she liked this feeling of belonging, and it was all thanks to this boy.

"Bell-sama? Time to wake up." she whispered, while gently shaking his left hand.

The boy slowly opened his eyes as he saw the beautiful renard standing by his bedside.

"Good morning, Haruhime-san!" he smiled at the girl, slowly coming to full consciousness.

"Good morning, Bell-sama! Mikoto has already prepared breakfast. Please come down after you get ready." she said, stepping back to give him room to get up.

"Will do. Thanks Haruhime-san." he smiled once again at the renard, before he started to get up and get ready to head out.

Once the girl had left his room, he told himself that his priority for the day would be to meet the elf of the tavern and give her an answer to her proposal.

The morning sun was beaming down on the boy as he made his way to the tavern. But walking through the streets of Orario was never going to be straightforward when you were the most wanted adventurer in the city on top of being the biggest pushover amongst the first class adventurers.

"Bell Cranel!" came a shout from behind him, but before he could even turn around, a long ebony hand snaked around his neck and pulled him closer as he felt the back of his head squish up against something soft. Realising who it was that had called his name, in typical "Bell Cranel" fashion, the boy became flustered as he quickly turned around and made some space between him and the amazoness.

"Aisha-san! How many times are you going to sneak up on me like that?" asked the boy, while trying to regain his composure.

"You're still a scared little rabbit aren't you? Won't you let me devour you one of these days? Giving birth to a baby of 'Bell Cranel' would really put me at the top of the Amazoness' food chain." she questioned him, sounding both flirty and tactical at the same time.

The tactics worked though, as the boy went red and started stammering something incoherent while looking at the amazoness' teasing face. Looking at the boys flustered face brought a smile on the amazoness' lips as she stepped back a bit.

" You don't need to be scared, little rabbit. I won't ever force myself upon you. After all, I know all too well the feeling of helplessness one feels when they are forced against their will to take part in something that they find absolutely revolting." she told him, as the teasing face was replaced with a face of sadness.

The boy saw the trauma on her face and couldn't hold himself back.

"Aisha-san! You are not revolting. You are a wonderful person and anyone would be lucky to have you as a partner."

Hearing the boy trying to cheer her up brought back the smile on her face as she took another step closer towards him.

"Then why don't I make you that lucky rabbit tonight?" she whispered to him, her voice drenched in honey.

"Not this again!" the boy sighed, as they both started laughing at the stubbornness of each other.

The boy resumed his walk to the tavern but he didn't get too far before he found a cat person with black hair and ferocious looking eyes blocking his path.

"Allen-san!" came a whisper from the boy, as the cat person approached him with murderous intent in his eyes.

PS: I just found out that DanMachi Orario Stories 3, the third volume of side stories, is releasing in the middle of this month. It contains a story where Ryuu and Bell go down to the thirty-seventh floor after the events of Volume 18, possibly to retrieve the dead bodies that they found there. I wanted this story to be as close to canon as possible, so I will wait for the side story and see how the author has written their interactions before continuing with this story. Until then!