BELL-O-EMON SAVES A PARTY

Ais couldn't stop thinking about the white-haired boy. It wasn't every day that she saw an amateur-looking adventurer go toe-to-toe with a minotaur and emerge victorious. And then there was the pink door that seemed to open up a portal directly to the front desk of the guild.

That wasn't supposed to be possible, right?

She had heard that teleportation, whether instantaneous or through a portal, was exceedingly rare. You'd be lucky to find even a mention of it in the entire library.

The fact that he had a.....stomach pouch that could seemingly hold an entire door confused her further. While historical items bags existed, they were typically bestowed directly by the Gods and considered national treasures.

Was this boy a prince from a faraway kingdom?

All of these questions led her to the guild, where she tried to inquire about this mysterious boy from the guild staff.

"Oh, that boy, haha, you'll get used to him."

"Yeah, so you've met him. Well, he's kinda like that."

"...he's on our watchlist. The rabbit could ruin our entire economy if he wanted! No, I'm being serious here!"

"He's cute, right? Wonder if he's still single, hehehe."

Their comments about the boy didn't answer her questions; in fact, they only added to her confusion. Why were they acting as if nothing extraordinary had happened? And what about the boy causing an economic crash? She couldn't make sense of it all. Sure, he was kind of cute, but that wasn't the point!

Her rabbit hunt seemed to have attracted some attention, as she overheard other adventurers whispering about her desperately looking for some boy.

"Oh, you're talking about Bell?"

Finally, a name to work with. The guild advisor and receptionist, a half-elf woman, claimed to be the boy, Bell's, advisor. After a few more questions, Ais learned some details about Bell.

His full name was Bell Cranel, a fourteen-year-old adventurer who had arrived in Orario a few days ago. What surprised her most was that he was still a level 1 adventurer.

That! That confirmed her suspicion! The boy, Bell, was indeed a level 1 adventurer.

How could a level 1 adventurer defeat a minotaur all on his own?!

The half-elf receptionist noticed her perplexed expression and sighed. She then gave Ais an address and simply told her that it was Bell's residence. The receptionist said she would understand more about the boy if she went there.

Ais nodded and thanked the receptionist before heading to the address. As she walked, she realized that the location was an abandoned and rundown church. Did Bell come from an unfortunate Familia?

Approaching the church, she saw something peculiar. Several small creatures were present, but they didn't appear aggressive or harmful. On the contrary, they were helping elderly people around, assisting them with various tasks. It was a strange sight.

When she reached the address, what should have been an abandoned church had transformed into a seemingly sizeable brand new church, still covered in cloth most likely from the ongoing renovations. Many more of the small creatures she had seen before were there, diligently engaging in construction work. They used weird machinery that produced noisy sounds while carrying wood, bricks, furniture, and even trees around.

Weird boy.

Weird door.

People acting as if nothing was weird.

Weird small creatures with weird machinery.

Ais had come seeking answers, but now she had more questions than ever. She massaged her forehead and turned around. It was all too much for her to process at the moment. She decided to head back home and search for answers later.

...

It was the next day, and Bell was getting ready to head to the dungeon, while Hestia had some business at the local orphanage.

"Here's the Gourmet Cloth, Goddess," Bell said, handing over the item.

"Thanks, Bell. The kids would love this gadget so much," Hestia beamed a smile.

As Bell went to the dungeon, Hestia spent her time helping around the local orphanage. She would play with the kids, read them stories, and assist with chores. After all, as the Goddess of Hearth, providing a sense of home to these children was in her nature.

"I'm glad. Then I'll go to the dungeon. Bye, Goddess," Bell waved at Hestia.

"Be careful, Bell."

Bell walked out and saw the Mini-Doras already resuming their work.

"Thanks so much, guys. Please take care of the church while we're gone," he said to the Mini-Doras.

"Dora! Dora!"

The Mini-Doras gave him a wide smile before returning to their tasks. Bell then strolled through the busy morning streets of Orario, humming contentedly and greeting people along the way. While he could technically use the Anywhere Door to go directly to the dungeon, he enjoyed taking in the sights of the city.

"Uh, excuse me."

Bell stopped and turned around, spotting a silver-haired girl in a green waitress uniform calling out to him from in front of a pub. Being a polite and kind-hearted boy, Bell smiled at her.

"Yes, miss?"

The girl seemed slightly taken aback by Bell's smile but quickly composed herself. "Uhh, you just dropped this," she said, showing him a small monster stone.

Bell tilted his head, quite sure that he had already exchanged all his monster stones yesterday. "Uhm, I don't think that was mine, miss."

"But I saw it drop when you passed here."

Bell frowned, "But I didn't—"

She gave Bell a charming smile, "Maybe you have one tucked in that you didn't notice!" and dropped the stones into Bell's hand.

Since Bell couldn't take what wasn't his, he pulled something from his pouch, surprising the girl.

The girl watched in surprise as Bell pulled out a magnifying glass. "Associated Inference Magnifier!" Bell exclaimed.

"H-Huh?"

"This gadget will help us find who actually dropped the monster stone," Bell happily explained, unaware of the girl's dumbfounded expression.

"Let's see," Bell then looked at the monster stone. The Associated Inference Magnifier showed the color green, then plates of food, and finally a guild receptionist woman uniform.

"I see!" Bell announced, "Plates of food and a woman's uniform mean that the one who dropped it works in a food-related business. Green is the color, which means the person works in a food-related job and wears a green uniform!" Bell elaborated.

The girl was stunned and slightly twitched her eyes. How did he know?!

Bell then stared at the girl before asking, "Does that mean you are actually the one who dropped this?"

"N-No..?!" The girl hastily replied.

Bell narrowed his eyes, "Your coworker then?"

"Uhm, m-maybe?"

Bell scratched his chin, "But they weren't here when the monster stones were supposed to drop, though?"

"I-I mean..."

"I'm sorry, that's my stone," a voice interrupted their conversation. Bell turned around and saw a blond-haired Elf wearing the same green uniform as the girl.

"It seemed I dropped it when I went out to take out the trash," the Elf explained simply.

"Oh, then here you go," Bell returned the monster stones to the Elf. "Don't drop it again, okay?"

The Elf nodded, "Thank you, mister?"

"Oh, I'm Bell Cranel. Just call me Bell."

"Bell then, my name is Ryuu Lion," the Elf, Ryuu, gave a slight bow.

"A-Ah, I forgot to introduce myself," the girl said, panicking a bit. "I'm Syr, Syr Flova. Nice to meet you, Bell."

"The feelings are mutual, Ms. Syr and Ms. Ryuu."

"Just Syr is fine," she replied.

Bell nodded, "Ah, I see, Syr then."

"Uh, Bell wait here for a sec, alright?" Syr ran inside the pub before returning with a basket. "Um, I'm sorry that I held you for quite some time here, so as an apology, here's lunch for you."

"Y-You don't have to, Syr," Bell tried to politely refuse.

"No, I insist."

"Then..." Bell sighed, smiling, and accepted the basket. "Thank you, Syr. I'll return the basket later."

"Oh, you could come to our pub tonight then! You could return the basket and try our food as well!"

Bell chuckled, "Sure, sounds nice. Goodbye, Syr. Ms. Ryuu, see you again tonight." He then put the basket into his pouch, which shocked both Syr and Ryuu.

"Wha?"

"..?!"

Bell left the two very confused waitresses. As he walked away, Syr sighed a breath of relief. "Thanks, Ryuu. He almost caught me there."

"You shouldn't have done that in the first place," Ryuu chastised her friend.

"Gah, I know..." Syr sighed again. "Well, at least it was a success, in a way."

"Out of all people you could trick, you picked him."

Syr tilted her head, "Is he famous?"

Ryuu nodded, "You could say that. I've only heard rumors so far, and this was my first meeting with him personally."

"What rumor?" From Syr's perspective, Bell looked like a harmless white rabbit.

A naive, harmless white rabbit.....with a peculiar pouch.

Ryuu answered, "Beware of the white rabbit with a pouch."

"huh?"

...

Bell hummed as he harvested the stones from the monster corpses he had killed. While today's haul wouldn't yield as much Valis as yesterday, it was still a satisfactory result. He had slain seven kobolds and five goblins so far. Although he could continue hunting monsters, the afternoon had arrived, and Bell decided it was time to eat his lunch.

As Bell prepared to eat, he suddenly heard groaning coming from nearby. The sounds grew closer, and he saw a group of adventurers approaching, one of them visibly injured with a noticeable wound on his stomach. The wounded man was gritting his teeth and leaning on one of his party members for support. A young woman from the group noticed Bell and ran towards him.

"E-Excuse me, do you have any potions? Our captain is wounded, and he really needs one," the young woman begged Bell. "W-We will pay for it."

Asking for a favor in the dungeon was risky, as the law of the jungle ruled there. The city of Orario couldn't enforce its laws within the dungeon, which made seeking help a perilous proposition.

Understanding the urgency of the situation, Bell tried to calm the young woman. "I don't have a potion with me, but I can help."

The young woman bowed gratefully. "T-Thank you."

Bell scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Uh, don't thank me yet. Please lay your friend down so I can take a look."

Her party gathered around and gently laid their wounded captain on the ground. The wound appeared quite deep and seemed to have been caused by something jagged, likely from a landform weapon from within the dungeon.

Without wasting any time, Bell reached for his pouch "Time Cloth!" and pulled out a medium-sized cloth with a clock pattern all over it.

The adventurers were confused as Bell casually covered their captain's stomach with the strange cloth. They watched in disbelief as Bell's actions seemed like he was merely playing with them.

But then...

WHOOOOOSH

They heard a strange sound, and to their astonishment, their captain's pale face regained its color. He stopped wincing in pain and opened his eyes. The adventurers were astounded to see that not only had his wound vanished, but his damaged clothes and armor had also been restored!

The young woman turned her gaze to Bell, who was calmly folding the Time Cloth and putting it back in his pouch.

"U-Uh, thank you for your help. I don't know how you did it, but still, thank you so much. We're in your debt," the young woman said, bowing again.

"No, no, it's okay, really. Us adventurers should help each other, after all, right? There's no need for any debt," Bell replied humbly.

The young woman weakly laughed, "Yes, yes, you're right. I'm Yamato Mikoto from Takemikazuchi Familia. They are my Familia members," she introduced her party.

The wounded man introduced himself as Kashima Ouka, expressing his gratitude for Bell's help. The others in the group, Hitachi Chigusa and Asuka, also thanked him.

Bell smiled warmly, "My name is Bell Cranel from Hestia Familia. So, what are you guys going to do now?"

"After what happened?" Ouka grumbled, "I think we're done for the day," which was met with nods of agreement from his party.

"Then how about this..." Bell reached for his pouch again, "....Anywhere Door!"

Unaware of how shocked the adventurers around him were, Bell nonchalantly opened the door and said, "To the guild."

The Anywhere Door revealed the entrance to the guild, leaving Ouka and his party members stunned.

"Get in, it will take you straight to the guild," Bell offered.

"A-Ah, yes, thank you again," Ouka replied as they were still processing what had just happened. They mindlessly walked through the Anywhere Door, leaving Bell waving goodbye from behind.

Unknown to Bell, this act of kindness would soon become the start of another rumor surrounding him: "If you are in a pinch, find the white rabbit with a pouch and ask for his help. If you did nothing wrong, he will aid you with his strange magical items," or so the stories would say.

-[Chapter 2 END]-

Associated Inference Magnifier : A magnifying glass that could be used to find something by providing the user with hints needed to locate it.

Time Cloth: The Time Cloth is able to advance/regress the state of a target by causing a temporal distortion that goes forwards/backwards by covering an item with its blue/red side.