Chương 11: Serious Talk

"Here you are." Sephy brings out our meal.

I still can't believe this. Lady Hestia accepted Lady Hephaestus offers to here. I knew she's thinking hard about it, that we need hurry to head back to Orario. Despite Lady Hephaestus friendly offers, we don't have much time.

I can't help but to think about Masato and Asami. They waited us at the inn. About the other children in Orario. They need a proper teaching about dungeons and adventurers.

"Okay. Business, now." Lady Hestia urged.

"Relax. It's just a few weapon and armor for them, right? I'll make it happen."

"I know that too. I just need something to shows our agreement to your branch at Orario."

"I'll make a letter about it. You can rest assured, Hestia. Now, enjoy my treat." Then Lady Hephaestus drank the beer.

"Uh, Lady Hestia. Do I need to eat too?" I whispered to Lady Hestia's ear. "Of course. Comfort yourself, Ryu."

When I about to put the food in my mouth, a loud sound coming from the door. It was opened hard. I looked at it, it's Lady Lokiーand one of her familiaーAiz Wallenstein.

"Yo Smoly! You were here too."

I looked to the door. It's Lady Loki, right? Who's besides her? She's like a noble or rarther, a doll.

"Urgh. I'm not expecting to see you in here, Flat." Did Lady Hestia just called flat to Lady Loki?

"Enough, both of you. Don't make a mess in here." Lady Hephaestus crossed her hand before Lady Hestia.

"She's right. I need a rest, we're just got here from Meilstora an hour ago." Lady Loki sits in the table right next to us. She's with one of her familia. I don't know who is she. "Care to join, Hestia, Hephaestus?"

"Huh, now you got an understanding, Loki. Come on, Hephaestus." Lady Hestia walked towards Lady Loki's table. Ryu followed her. "Uh, stay here, Ryu. Take your time with him." I can see Ryu raised her eyebrows and came back to sit with me.

When I was going started a topic with Ryu, someone came. "Excuse my intrusion." Huh? Is she the one that with Lady Loki?

"No problem, Ais. Here, let me introduce you to someone who saved my life earlier." Ryu patted my back. So her name's Ais. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Kurt." I gave her a little nod.

"Ais Wallenstein. Nice to meet you." She nods back.

"His got a decent moves with his dagger. Maybe you guys can have a little sparring tomorrow. What do you say, Ais?" Ryu poured a drink then passed it to me and Wallenstein.

"For what?" Uh, practicing moves, I guess.. "I'm not a match for you, Ais. I bet Kurt can match your swordsmanship, moreover he could defeat you. Haha.." Isn't that a bit rash..?

No, Kurt, face it! She looked like very superior from me. So what? Even she's stronger than me, I'll definitely defeat her someday.

"I got no problem with that, Wallenstein." She answer me with a nod.

By the way, I looked at Wallenstein. She got minor armor that covered her several bodypart. A head guard, breastplate, arm guards, hip guard and knee guards. It's still far different from mine though. I just wears a pauldron on my left, haha..

If I looked at Ryu, she looked like she hasn't take a bath. Well, same as me. I hurried to the guild to submit my quest and looked for Lady Hephaestus. Maybe right now I looked like before I arrived at Orlean.

"What are you going to do next, Kurt?" Uh, I don't know yet. Should I ask Lady Hephaestus about [Carnwennan]ーthe mysterious dagger I found earlierーor no.

"Maybe I'll travels to somewhere. My little brother, remember..?" I tried to make a little laugh to not stiffened the atmosphere.

"What happened?" I quickly turns to Wallenstein. I thought she's kind of person that doesn't care people's business.

"You know, Monster Horde. Jumped to my village, everyone panicked, losing someone, that kind of stuff. My grandfather saved me and we're alone traveling around." She's stood silence. Why are you asking in the first place anyway?

"S-sorry Kurt. Ais doesn't meant to." Ryu tossed me another glass. I nods and drank the glass she gave me.

"Uwah! Drinks never failed me. Sephy~ Bring another one." Lady Hestia smashed her glass to the table. She's pretty bad drunk, isn't it?

"Stop wasting, hic, your time growing your familia, hic, Smoly.~" And Lady Loki too. I gestured Ryu to ask Wallenstein and bring them to the inn.

Ryu nods. "See you soon, Kurt. Come on, Ais." She pulled Wallenstein's hand and pushed her into Lady Loki.

"Take..care of them, Ryu, Ais~" Lady Hephaestus waved her hand to them. "We'll take our leave, Lady Hephaestus." Ryu nods and carries Lady Hestia while Aiz already pulled Lady Loki's hand.

"Kurt, come here." Uh, is it the right time? "Coming." I sat across Lady Hephaestus.

"Another two right here, Sephy~"

"Okay." Sephy replied from the kitchen.

"You're having too much drop. Are you sure you don't need to take a rest, Lady Hephaestus?" She shook her head. Okay.

"Whaddya think, hmm, Kurt?"

"About what?"

"Ryu and Aiz, of course~ Unlike them, my familia weren't exploring dungeon. So they'll always smelt of iron and charcoal." About them, huh..

"I'm sorry, Lady Hephaestus. But I need to talk to you about other things. Look." Right before that minotaur came, I was able to pulled [Carnwennan] from that stone. I pretended to pulled out [Carnwennan] from my waistbag when actually I summoned it into my hand. "Oh, what is it?"

"Do you know this dagger, Lady Hephaestus..?" I put the sheathed dagger on the table. Lady Hephaestus quickly took it to her palm. She examined it carefully. I hope she knew something. "Where do you find it?"

"In the dungeon, floor 1. Something's up?"

"Great. Because you're already pulled it out, let me tell you something." Lady Hephaestus leaned her head towards me. "This dagger was belong to Arthur." Huh..?

First thing that comes in my mind is "Who is he?"

"He was one of my friend's apprentice."

Second thing that comes up is "Why it is in the dungeon?"

"I don't know about it, but I do know this. It is a secret knowledge among humans, but I'll tell you anyway. Haha~ Prepare yourself for an old story."

"A long time ago, this dungeon was called Abyss. Many entities rises from it. Unlike Tower of Babel, we don't know anything about the entities from the Abyss. Soon, weーGods, Goddesses and Humansーlaunch a desperate measures to kept the entities away from the surface. Arthur was one of the humans that capable to fight the entities. It was a long war. He died in the battle and his weapon was gone missing. After we banished a lot of entities back to the Abyss, something happened to us. We can't use our power like we used to do and that's made us can't freely travel to Heaven."

"..."

"Kurt!"

"H-huh..?" I snapped out from my daydream.

"Don't tell me you aren't listening." She drank another glass.

"I-I get it." A little bit, actually.

Also, what in the world was that? I don't know that kind of tragedy happened in here. Why's a story like that doesn't spread around people..?

"If you wondering why this is a secret, because we won't to let youーhumansーknow about our tragic past." Lady Hephaestus sighed.

"Give me a second.. That was quite a history. So long story short, Arthur's dagger somehow ended up inside the Abyss? Phew." I sighed too. Lady Hephaestus's nods in a sequence.

"I knew his background, his weapon only chose its own owner. Because of that, I need you to find one of my old friend and also Arthur's Mentor, Merlin." Lady Hephaestus slammed the table.