Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 4 (25 page)

The street was often called “Adventurers Way” because the Guild Headquarters was built on it. Adventurers of all shapes and sizes strutted their way up and down the road. The shops and buildings that lined the street made the ones that Hestia just passed by look like piles of trash.

“…Isn’t that…?”

Hestia was making her way across the street, her long shadow mixing with the crowd as the sun set behind the wall that surrounded the city, when she happened to see someone by chance.

A white-haired human boy was standing outside a shop.

Bell…?

The member of her
Familia
had his back to the throngs of adventurers and had his eyes locked on something in the shop’s show window. Seeing the boy so intensely fixated on whatever was inside made Hestia come to a stop in the middle of the road.

A few moments went by before Bell’s shoulders drooped and he practically tore himself away from the window. At long last the boy took his eyes off the shop and left.

Hestia watched him disappear into the crowd before rushing up to the window.
Tup-tup-tup-tup
, the soles of her shoes echoed off the stone road as she went.

“…So that’s what it was.”

After seeing with her own eyes what in the show window Bell had been ogling for so long, she knew why he had been so interested.

The show window was filled with different types of weapons. Freshly polished, strong blades of all sizes sparkled beautifully in the display.

Whether Bell had been drawn here when he was passing by or by the power of envy in a wish that he knew wouldn’t come true, Hestia didn’t know for sure.

No matter the reason, Bell was obviously extremely interested in the weapons at this shop.

“Hmmm…All right, this is it.”

Hestia folded her arms across her chest and decided it was about time she did something “godlike,” giving her “child” a present. She nodded to herself. After everything that had happened, Hestia wanted someone to realize that she was indeed a goddess. And being the warmhearted deity she was, she resolved to give Bell a present.

She figured that if she spent every val she had saved up since arriving on this world, she could get him something good. A small grin
growing on her face, Hestia moved away from the window and toward the front door.

Doing her best to remember the angle of Bell’s gaze, Hestia worked out that the boy had been looking at a shortsword. More than likely, it was the one in the back of the display, sticking out of a jewel-encrusted treasure chest. Even Hestia had to admit the blade was a work of art.

Then, she saw the price tag. “Huh?” The sound drifted out of her mouth, her hand on the door handle and eyes blinking.

“Eighty million vals.”

Hestia’s fingers released the door, her body frozen in place.

Forgive me, Bell.

That’s impossible
, she said to herself as she turned on her heel and left the shop as quickly as she could, cold sweat dripping down her neck.

That price was too big of a monster to slay. Hestia’s life savings were nothing but a helpless goblin at the feet of a dragon.

“Wait, isn’t this…”

Looking back over her shoulder at the redbrick building, Hestia realized it belonged to one of her friends.

Masters of the Forge,
Hephaistos Familia
. She had lived with them from after her arrival on Gekai up until very recently.

Being a brand name known around the world, the fact that she couldn’t afford a
Hephaistos
weapon should have been obvious. She took one last look at the billboard before taking off at a light sprint.
Know your place, Bell
, she said to herself, feeling defeated.

Robbed of her chance to show her godly prowess, Hestia sighed yet again as she made her way down the stone-paved path toward home, bathed in the last crimson light from the setting sun.

…My hair ties are in pretty bad shape.

Catching a glimpse of herself in another shop’s show window on Northwest Main, Hestia stopped to take a closer look.

The two bands that kept her shiny, jet-black hair up in a set of twin ponytails practically had one foot in the grave. Frayed and falling apart, they could break at any moment.

The only thing these hair ties were doing for her now was to make her look less dignified. Running her fingers over them, she looked at her reflection in the glass. Suddenly, the mannequins behind the glass caught her attention.

Each of the statues was wearing a dress as well as all sorts of protective accessories like amulets. Among the shop’s standing advertisements was a statue with very cute hair ties.

“…”

She stared at the blue bands on the mannequin’s head, mesmerized for a few moments. She jerked her shoulders before vigorously shaking her head side to side.
A goddess can’t waste money
, she practically screamed at herself, despite how much she wanted them.

Swish.
She flicked her chin away from the shop window to get her eyes off of it. She took another quick glance from the corner of her eye before forcefully turning her shoulders away.

Making up her mind to live with the ones she had for now, Hestia wrapped her fingers around her hair bands and turned off West Main into a side street.

“…”

A pair of ruby-red eyes whose owner had yet to make his way home happened to catch a glimpse of what had just occurred. Hestia, however, didn’t notice.

It had now been a week since the founding of
Hestia Familia
.

Hestia looked at the boy in front of her, a worried look in her eyes.

“S-sorry I’m late…”

Bell walked through the door to their home trailing a cloud of dust, armor and clothes so dirty that Hestia could almost hear the fabric cough.

The clock on the wall showed that it was already past nine at night.

“…Bell, aren’t you working a little too hard recently?”

“N-no, I don’t think so?”

Bell grimaced as Hestia’s expression grew more and more concerned. “I’m fine,” he said to reassure her.

Bell had come home in this state every night for the past few days.

He’d get up really early, spend all day crawling the Dungeon, and come home late at night. The dirt and damage on his clothes and armor showed just how hard he was working; his body was faring no better.

Of course, Bell might have been a little too excited when he became an adventurer, but there was something different about him recently.

“Goddess, here. This is the money I earned in the Dungeon today.”

“Ah-haaa…”

Ka-ching.
The coins inside a linen sack rattled as he handed it to her.

Every night, Bell always gave Hestia some of his profits from crawling the Dungeon to help support the
Familia
. It went without saying that he took most of it for himself, to pay for items and equipment repairs as well as to have a little pocket money.

Hestia undid the strap and took a look inside the bag. A quick glance told her there were at least 500 vals inside. Assuming that Bell took around 1,000 vals for himself to prepare for his next trip into the Dungeon, he had been making a lot more money than he used to. Hestia could tell just how much effort Bell was putting into his early-morning to late-evening excursions into the Dungeon.

In that case, the boy had to have a reason to want to make a lot of money as soon as possible.

“…Hey, Bell.”

“Ah, yes?”

“Are you hiding something from me?”

A very exhausted Bell had just grabbed a change of clothes and was headed toward the shower room when Hestia stopped him to ask her question.

Whether it was her divine intuition or just a feeling as a goddess that Bell was trying to keep a secret, she didn’t know. But she knew something was up.

Bell froze on the spot, something that Hestia saw as a very suspicious reaction.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha…wh-what are you talking about, Goddess? Of course I’m not.”

“…”

Hestia lowered her eyelids at Bell’s fake and forced laugh.

Ignoring Bell’s words that she wouldn’t have believed anyway, Hestia locked eyes with him.
Tell me now
, she mouthed at him, her aura on fire.

“…G-Goddess, I’m going to take a shower now, okay?!”

“Gah!”

Bell practically dove into the shower room, clothes in his hand and a nervous sweat running down his cheek. Hestia was surprised by the boy’s speed for a moment, but anger built within her the moment the door closed behind him.

There was a part of Hestia that couldn’t stand the fact that Bell was hiding something from her.

Over the past week, Hestia had come to like the boy and was glad that she had brought him into her
Familia,
made him a member of her family.

In return, the boy treated her like the goddess she was—and yet she could feel the warmth of the more personal bond with him.

Hestia couldn’t help but want to protect the naïve Bell. But at the same time she felt drawn to him, almost safe in his presence.

In this world of Gekai that was extremely harsh on her, Bell was the one who did everything he could to help Hestia.

She loved his smile. It always seemed to melt all of her worries away whenever she saw him.

“I tell you to spill it, and yet you refuse to crack, Bell…”

That could be the reason why she couldn’t allow Bell to have any secrets from her.

This feeling eating her from the inside could be the arrogance of a god who’d found something beyond their control or a feeling of betrayal of trust and loneliness as a family member.

Whichever one it was, it was putting Hestia in an extremely foul mood that was getting worse by the moment.

All right, then, if that’s the game you want to play…

A threatening light sparkled in her eyes. She glared at the door to the shower room and muttered, “Just you wait,” before turning on her heel and walking toward the kitchen.

She silently set to work preparing dinner.

“Um, Goddess…”

“You’re tired today, right, Bell? I’ll cook tonight; you go relax on the sofa.”

Hestia flashed a smile at Bell, who had changed into clean clothes after taking a shower. Bell looked like he wanted to say something, but the goddess’s smile sent a wave of relief through him. She must’ve forgotten about their earlier conversation.

Shing, shing.
Seeing that her prey had let his guard down, Hestia smiled again at the “rabbit” while sharpening a knife out of Bell’s line of sight.

“So, Bell. Shall we update your Status tonight?”

“Um, sure.”

After finishing dinner, Hestia made a casual suggestion.

The white rabbit didn’t protest and did exactly as he was told.

The knife behind the smile was already razor-sharp.

Bell lay on his stomach on the bed as Hestia sat on his lower back and looked at the boy’s new Status.

As usual, Defense and Agility were at the opposite ends of the
spectrum. While genuinely surprised that his Agility was already
H
after only one week, Hestia finished the process as quickly as she could.

—Now then.

A moment’s pause after the Status update was complete.

Hestia’s true nature suddenly emerged as her eyes sparkled ominously before she sprang the trap on the “rabbit” beneath her.

Flop.
She had been sitting on his lower back when she suddenly fell on top of him.

“?!”

“—You’re not getting away this time, Bell.

“No……” came a very ominous sound from Hestia’s lips as she put her head right above Bell’s shoulder.

Her voice was low, her mouth close enough to Bell’s ears that he could hear her breathing. The questioning had begun.

Bell’s body jolted as if he’d just been struck by lightning, his face turning bright red.

“G-G-Goddess?! What are you doing?!”

“An interrogation. Because you seem to be hiding something from me, eh?”

Bell’s body shook again the moment he heard the words “hiding something.” He could feel the goddess’s soft body pinning him down as his body jerked from side to side.

“Did you know, Bell?
No one can lie to a god!
”

“Wh-what are you talking about…?”

“Ohooo. Trying to claim innocence, are you?”

Hestia’s eyes narrowed.

His face a full-blown red, Bell looked at Hestia’s expression from the corner of his eye. If he wasn’t scared before, he was terrified now.

A moment later.

Hestia wrapped both of her arms around Bell’s neck and squeeeeeezed as hard as she could.

“Dahh?! G-Goddess—?!”

“Now scream—scream it out, Bell!! And you still might be forgiven!”

“I DON’T KNOOWWWWWW!! I-I-I-I’M NOT HIDING ANYTHING FROM YOU, GODDESS!”

“Very stubborn…!”

“GHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?!”