5

The friendly smile on the loli goddess' face leaves Bell at a loss for words. He hasn't seen many of those since he arrived in Orario. Seeing him in this state, Ziggy claps him on the shoulder. "I think she's talking to you, Bell," he says and guides the timid young man forward.

"Huh?" Bell says. "H-huh? O-oh, g-goddess, um... Yes, I am looking for a Familia!" he shouts while bowing.

Ziggy shakes his head while Hestia giggles. "I'll leave you two to get to know each other. Goddess Hestia, my name is Siegfried Solomon of the Xuannu Familia. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Ziggy says with a short bow. "Bell, cherish your goddess, and I'll see you in the dungeon."

Hestia nods with a cheerful smile to Ziggy as he turns to leave. Bell waves. "Thanks, Ziggy. I'll see you in the dungeon."

Ziggy walks away, deep in thought. 'Well, that gives me a rough timeline of when I am. Bell is about to become an adventurer and is just starting with Hestia. He hasn't been rescued by Ais yet, so, based on how long he had been dungeon diving before the minotaur incident, I've got maybe a little more than two weeks for the main plot to start up.'

Still lost in thought, he steps around the corner out of the alley and straight into a bundle of frilly pink wrapped around a petite girl with long dark golden hair. "Oh!" she yelps, bouncing off Ziggy and falling back towards the ground.

Ziggy reflexively snaps out a hand, catching her by the waist, and pulls the girl to him. She lets out a sound like an 'eep' before catching her balance. 'Damn,' Ziggy thought. 'I have divinely inspired awareness, and I still bump into random girls. Is this some sort of ecchi Lucky Pervert ability that didn't show up on my Falna?'

Noticing the girl's pointed ears, Ziggy releases the girl once she's stable, but she seems frozen in place with her hands pressed against his chest. "I apologize, miss. I should have been paying more attention when I came around the corner. Are you alright? You aren't hurt, are you?" he asks in a gentle voice.

The girl looks up into Ziggy's eyes and a rosy blush lights across her face. She looks back down at her hands pressed to his chest, and her blush intensifies to another level. Finally, her mind catches up with her embarrassment, and she takes several steps back.

'Oh, geez,' Ziggy thinks. "I apologize once again, miss. I've been told that elves do not appreciate being touched. I reacted on instinct to keep you from falling." By told, he means, remembers it from the anime.

"Huh?" the elf girl says, looking back at him with a surprised look before waving her hands in panic and laughing nervously. "O-oh, no. I-it's alright. That's only some elves. I don't mind you touching me. I-I-I mean, it wasn't deliberate, and I'm not hurt. I'm perfectly fine, in fact. Hahaha. Loki-sama always molests me anyway."

Ziggy smiles at her unsettled state. "What a lucky Loki-sama," he says.

Ziggy looks around at the onlookers and sees what he assumes to be her friends. He recognizes almost all of them, even the blushing elf in pink, but he wasn't anticipating running into them here, especially when he was just thinking about one of them.

There are two dark-skinned Amazons, a stoic green-haired elf, a petite human with short brown hair, and a side-tail whose name eludes Ziggy, and of course, a certain pale blond kuudere with golden eyes and impressive... skills.

The small-chested Amazon grins mischievously and walks over hands behind her back as though to show her to be harmless, which she certainly is not. "Oh, Lefiya, look at you over here flirting? Are you trying to make Ais jealous, or is this the type of guy you're interested in? Hmm?"

"W-what are you talking about, Tiona!? It-it's not like that! W-w-w-we just bumped into each other," she says with a stutter bordering on hysteria. "W-we don't even know each other. I-I don't even know his name."

"Hmm," Tiona says, looking Ziggy up and down. "That is a good point. So, what's your name, tall, blond, and handsome?"

Ziggy hits them with a thousand-watt smile and chuckles in amusement before answering. "My name is Siegfried Solomon, but my friends call me Ziggy. It's nice to meet you, miss Tiona, miss Lefiya."

"Oh, I can see why you like him, Lefiya," Tiona says with a teasing lilt, grabbing the flustered elf around the shoulders.

Lefiya is at her limit as her face reaches a new shade of crimson. "Wh-wh-wh-"

"You feel different," the gorgeous blond kuudere says, interrupting. "What are you?"

The blond's question catches the three off guard. Ziggy had seen the rest of the group approach while Tiona teased Lefiya, but he wasn't expecting her to sense something different about him. "Huh? What do you mean, Ais?" Tiona asks.

"He feels... different," she says with a slight frown. "More."

Ziggy is surprised by her question. 'Is she sensing the High Human lineage, or is it because of the Heart Blood of the Dragon Skill...?' he wonders. 'She does have that whole hate on for monsters and dragons in particular...'

Deciding this may be an opportunity to flirt with the group of beautiful women, Ziggy chooses to answer with a story. "Hm. I can think of two reasons you might think I feel different. One is related to my Falna, and the other is related to my name," Ziggy says, looking at Ais. Thinking about it for a moment, he comes up with an idea. "Really, they're the same, with one lending a measure of credence to the other. It all starts with an old family legend. Would you like to hear it?"

Ais tilts her head for a moment and then nods. "Well, understand there is a lot of interpretation as the story was passed down through oral tradition," Ziggy says. "The truth is something lost to history. However, the story goes that another Siegfried, an ancestor of mine, long ago, slew a fearsome dragon, bathed in its blood, and consumed its heart. This granted him near invincibility and, strangely enough, the ability to understand birds."

"That sounds farfetched," the green-haired elf says, having approached with the other girls when Ais came over.

Ziggy nods. "I would say that too," he acknowledges. "And up until recently, I thought it was pure fantasy."

"But, when I recently joined a Familia and acquired my Falna...," he says, holding their attention. "I received a Skill, much to my and my goddess' surprise. That Skill improves my physical condition... and allows me to talk to birds."

It was the 'talking to birds' part of the Skill, to begin with, that led Ziggy to remember the story of Siegfried. After all, how many tales have consumption of dragon blood, conferring the ability of avian communication? Tiona and Lefiya stare at him wide-eyed. Tiona asks, "Can you really talk to birds?"

"Pfft," he snorts. "To be honest, I haven't had the occasion to engage one in conversation. I only gained this Skill a few days ago, and I spent most of that time either training to go into the dungeon or in the dungeon. I suppose I should test that aspect of it out, but really, how good of a conversationalist is a bird going to be. I imagine their thoughts are centered around finding worms and seeds to eat."

"Yeah, I guess that's true," Tiona says with a thoughtful expression.

"But...!" Ziggy says, holding up his finger. "Do you know what the name of this Skill is?"

Lefiya shakes her head, enthralled in the story. Ziggy looks at each of the six girls, in turn, ending with and focusing on Ais before saying, "Heart's Blood of the Dragon."

"Are you making fun of us?" the green-haired elf asks.

Ziggy bows slightly. "I promise you I am not," he says. "Everything I've told you about the Skill is accurate, though not the whole of the truth. You wouldn't have me reveal all of my secrets, would you? Also, the story is a near enough approximation of the legend. All the important parts are accurate to the best of my recollection."

"It still sounds questionable to me," she says. "If consuming dragon's blood conferred these abilities, I'm certain others would have noticed by now."

"I can certainly understand your reticence," he says, nodding. "Consider, however, the story of the Crozzo family and their encounter with a spirit."

Most of the girls look slightly confused, but the elves seem to understand what he's saying. "Much may be lost to time, but there is more to this world than we know, so who is to say what the true catalyst was. Perhaps a spirit helped confer these abilities that I seem to have inherited. Perhaps the blood of a dragon slayer flows in my veins."

He laughs. "Though, I imagine that it'll be some time before I'm capable of testing that hypothesis."

It may be his imagination, but Ziggy is almost sure he saw the green-haired elf smirk a little, and Ais looks at him with brighter eyes. Ziggy has no idea whether the story he told has anything to do with one of the Soul Crystals he gained. Still, given what he remembers from Googling his name in his previous life and finding the tragic story of Siegfried/Sigurd, it's as plausible as anything else.

"What happened to him?" Ais asks.

"Hm? Oh, the original Siegfried?" he says with a sigh. "Well, there are a few versions of that, but none of them are great endings for the mighty warrior.

The common thread is that he rescues a woman from her fate, marries a different woman, sets up the first woman with the second woman's brother at the behest of the second woman- there was some trickery involved. The first woman finds out, gets mad, and sets Siegfried up to be killed.

Some versions indicate that the first woman was in love with Siegfried, and when she discovered the trickery that led to her becoming another man's bride, she was infuriated. Can't say I blame her."

"You don't?" The busty Amazon says.

Ziggy shakes his head. "Imagine being in a hopeless situation and being rescued by someone; the strong emotions that would evoke in you. If those emotions were to turn towards love, and then that same person tricks you, betrays that love, and you end up married to someone else, and then you find out... I can see why that person would want to make the people who tricked her suffer."

"What happened to her?" Lefiya asks.

Ziggy refocuses on her. "In at least one version, she commits suicide by joining Siegfried on his funeral pyre."

Several of the girls cringe at that. Ziggy nods. "Not a pleasant ending. To be honest, it's not a story I'm overly thrilled being associated with. There's a lot in there about destiny and immutable fate. I hate the idea that we're all just dancing on some greater powers strings with no agency in our choices."

"What would you have done?" the green-haired elf asks.

"In Siegfried's place?" Ziggy says. "Well, assuming that I felt no romantic feelings for the woman I rescued, I'd be honest with her. I would not attempt to set her up with another, or worse yet, trick her into marrying another. Even if it hurts her at first, it's better, to be honest about your feelings than to let them fester into something unhealthy."

"And if you did have romantic feelings for her?" she asks.

"If I had romantic feelings for both women?" he asks and shrugs. "If possible, I'd probably marry the both of them."

"Huh!?" a chorus of women sang.

Ziggy chuckles and shrugs. "It's not unheard of, is it? I've heard of entire Familia's based around the idea. Powerful adventurers have done the same on a smaller scale. I just have to get strong enough to be worthy of my future wives."

Tiona ponders that for a moment and looks at the busty Amazon. "Don't even say it," the busty Amazon says. "Boss is..."

"But Tione, you know that he will eventually marry another Pallum to fulfill his dream. This way, you could still be one of his wives, and he could fulfill his dream."

"Th-Th-The-w-wife, of-of-of-of-B-Boss!" Tione stutters out.

Ziggy looks over at Tiona. "So, is it okay to ask what's up with her and the 'Boss?'" he asks.

"She's in love with him, but his dream is to elevate the Pallum race, and, to do that, he has to have Pallum children," Tiona says.

"And thus a Pallum mother for said children," the green-haired elf says dryly. "However, I'm not sure that it would suit Finn's purpose. His goal is more than just to produce Pallum children. He wishes to be the guiding light of his race."

"Ah," Ziggy says, nodding in understanding.

"Still, I admit a bit of jealousy that there is a gorgeous woman so dedicated to him," Ziggy says, looking around with a smile. "Though, I suppose, I'm probably evoking some pretty intense jealousy from passers-by, myself, considering the number of beauties around me, right now."

Lefiya and the human girl blush at the compliment; it goes right over Ais' head, the other elf ignores it, Tione is still mumbling about her "Boss,' and Tiona smiles with a teasing look. "Oh-ho! So, you think that we're beautiful, huh? Do you want to add us to your harem?"

"No," he says, shaking his head. "it is an unassailable fact that you are all gorgeous, but we just met, and I'm new to the city and adventuring. Every single one of you is of a higher level than me, and while that doesn't have any bearing as to whether I am attracted to someone, I'm not currently strong enough to be anything more than a burden on you, and that is unacceptable."

The green-haired elf may have flashed the hint of a smile before returning to her usual stoic expression. "Though," Ziggy continues with a smile for Lefiya. "That doesn't mean I don't want to be friends and get to know all of you. Maybe we could all go out for drinks sometime? I'm sure you have some fascinating tales of adventures to share."

Lefiya smiles and nods excitedly. "Un!"

"That may have to wait for a while," the green-haired elf says calmly. "We will be making an expedition to the lower levels in the next few days and will have to prepare."

"The lower levels," Ziggy mutters, looking pensive. 'They should be fine. No one dies in that encounter though some are injured. That's assuming that this world completely matches the story.'

"Do me a favor," he says, gazing at the green-haired elf. "Be careful and bring some extra elixirs."

The elf frowns. "May I ask why?"

Ziggy smirks. "Call it a sixth sense for trouble. I don't think it is too much for you to handle, but I'm careful by nature. Just be safe. I don't like losing friends," he says. "Especially new ones that I haven't even had a chance to get to know."

He pauses for a moment. "Although," he says, resting a finger on his cheek. "I still don't even know all of your names."

The green-haired elf freezes. Recovering, she coughs lightly into her hand. "I apologize for that. I am Riveria Ljos Alf, vice-captain of the Loki Familia."

"It's very nice to meet you, miss Riveria," Ziggy says and turns to the only other member of the group whose name hadn't been mentioned, and he didn't remember from the light novels or animes. "And your name, miss?"

"Hm? Me?" she says, pointing at herself. "Oh, I'm Lefiya's roommate, Elfy. Elfy Colette. It's very nice to meet you, mister Solomon."

"Likewise, but please, call me Ziggy," he says. Stepping back from the group, he gives a slight bow. "It was a pleasure meeting you all. Lefiya, I'm happy I bumped into you today. Everyone take care."

To the chorus of pleasantries, minus Tione still mooning over her dream of becoming Finn's wife, Ziggy continues towards his Familia. Xuannu is probably worried about him. It's about time he got back.

.

.

.

The pre-dusk light of the setting sun paints the walls of the Peach Blossom Palace in the colors of its namesake. Ziggy can't help but feel at ease seeing it. As he approaches the front gate, he passes a few trees and stops. Looking around the tree branches, he sees a few birds and squirrels.

"Can you understand me?" he asks the birds. They stop what they're doing and look at him.

"Hello," he waves. "If you understand me, I was hoping to make a deal with you. If you keep an eye on the area here, I'll set up a station within my courtyard with food and water for you. It'll be easier than scavenging the city for something edible."

He looks over at the squirrel that's been watching him since he first started to talk. "The same deal applies to you," he says and then indicates all of them. "I'll even set up some boxes so that you can create homes in a relatively safe area. Think about it."

He waves once more and walks off. 'I might as well get some use out of my Skills, and having some extra eyes on the place wouldn't be a bad thing... I wonder if I can get some bats in here too for nighttime surveillance?'

Ziggy wanders inside and waves to the guards by the gate. He makes his way to his room and changes out of his armor. Stretching a little, he lets out a small groan.

"Damn, I could use a hot bath," he says out loud. "Goddess first, though."

Xuannu made him promise to come to see her as soon as he'd returned. He only took enough time to wipe the sweat from his body before looking for her. Looking out the window, he could see that the sun had dropped below the horizon.

"Better hurry up before she gets worried," he says and walks out of the room, shirt still in hand. Turning to the right, he sees goddess Xuannu talking with Asuka. The two turn and see Ziggy, and he waves to them with a smile. He can see Asuka's eyes shimmer with unshed tears as she breaks into a run towards him.

Leaping, she wraps her arms around his neck, and he catches her dropping his shirt in the process. She presses her face into his neck, and he hears her weep softly. "Shhh... It's all right, Asuka. Don't cry," he says, one hand rubbing her back while the other holds her up.

"Y-you said you'd be back before sunset, but I didn't see you, and goddess Xuannu hadn't seen you yet either. I-I thought you weren't coming back," she sobs, her arms tightening.

"She was very concerned about you today," Xuannu says. "She wasn't the only one."

Chagrinned, Ziggy winces a little. "I'm sorry I was a little late getting back. I ran into some interesting people on my way and stopped to talk with them for a few minutes."

Asuka's tears slow, and she calms a little. At this point, Ziggy remembers something about Asuka's clothes or rather lack of real clothes. Particularly her lack of undergarments as his hand not on her back was currently cupping her rather firm silky smooth ass with two of his fingers comfortably sandwiched between her warm cheeks.

Worse, or perhaps better still, the poor excuse for what the girl terms clothes got pushed aside when she wrapped her legs around Ziggy's middle, and her most intimate warmth is currently pressed against his lower abdomen. Unconsciously, Ziggy's hand squeezes a little on the firm yet supple posterior.

Asuka leans back to look at Ziggy, eyes a little wide. He smiles and slowly lets her slide down until her feet touch the floor. He steps back and bows forward a little placing his head closer to her ear. "I'm sorry for being late and making you worry. Why don't I take you shopping and to dinner to make up for it?"

She's quiet; her lips pressed together as she realizes what just happened. Her cheeks, the ones on her face this time, burn red.

"I'll come to find you after my goddess is done with me and I take a bath," Ziggy whispers to her.

He picks up his shirt and steps past her, his hand brushing against hers. She lets out a soft squeak, clutching the touched hand with her other, before running off down the hall, cheeks ablaze.

Xuannu shakes her head as Ziggy arrives in front of her. "So, the little mouse gets embraced and an evening with you. What of your goddess? How do you intend to make it up to me?" she asks.

"In any way, my goddess wishes," Ziggy says with a bow.

"Hmmph," Xuannu scoffs. "Come to my chamber. Leave the shirt. You will not need it."