The twilight breeze blew across the church courtyard, carrying fallen dry leaves that rustled against the cobbled street surface. That rustling sound was usually soothing, but this evening, every second felt as if it were forcefully dragged through a distortion of time.
The silence blanketing the churchyard felt incredibly thick, as sharp as a sword blade pointed straight at one's neck.
At the threshold of the mahogany double doors, Alfia stood frozen. The Silence, an entity known for her steel mentality and her near-absolute calmness even when facing death, was now petrified. Her heterochromatic eyes widened, her pupils trembling violently as they locked onto the figure of the fourteen-year-old youth standing awkwardly.
Impossible.
That word kept screaming and bouncing around inside her mind, yet her eyes refused to lie. Alfia was a Level 8. Her sensory sharpness could not possibly be deceived by a cheap magical illusion. She could feel the blood flow and the heartbeat of the youth before her. The boy was real, stepping on the soil of Orario with flesh and blood.
However, the youth's appearance completely defied all the common sense in her head.
The youth's hair was snow white, a specific color that all this time had only belonged to her and her sister, Meteria. His facial structure, the curve of his awkward smile, and those bright ruby-red eyes... Alfia knew that annoying combination all too well. Those were the eyes of the idiotic man surnamed Cranel, the low-class Zeus Familia member who always became the target of Alfia's wrath for daring to approach her sister.
And as if that impossible physical combination wasn't enough to shatter her sanity, Venti had just loudly announced a name. Bell Cranel.
That was not just some name that could be picked up randomly on the streets of Orario. That was a secret name, chosen with a gentle smile by Meteria while caressing her swollen belly, prepared specifically for the fetus that had not even seen the light of the world yet, a name Meteria took and was inspired by from her magic that sounded like a bell.
Is the world playing a joke on me? Or did this drunkard god just create the worst prank ever?
Alfia's jaw tightened. Fine veins began to bulge on her alabaster-white neck. Dense magical aura began leaking from her skin pores, pressing down on the gravity around the church until the draft horses of the carriage whinnied in panic.
Zald, standing beside the carriage, instantly noticed the change in air pressure. His hand, encased in a steel gauntlet, reflexively reached for the hilt of his Grattor sword.
"Venti," Alfia growled, her voice dropping until it sounded like a threat, "if this is one of your illusion tricks to amuse yourself, I swear I will level your head along with this yard. Who is this brat who resembles..."
Alfia's sharp words were cut off by the sound of small footsteps echoing from within the church hallway.
"Aunt Alfia? Why is it taking so long to open the door? Has Uncle Venti come home?"
That innocent, flat, childish voice broke the suffocating tension. From behind Alfia's frozen body, emerged the figure of a seven-year-old little girl.
Bell Cranel's eyes, which had been looking down awkwardly because of the murderous pressure from the silver-haired woman in front of him, now reflexively looked up. And instantly, the youth's heart seemed to stop beating.
The little girl had golden blonde hair that shone as beautifully as the morning sun rays, flowing long down her back. Her pair of eyes were a clear gold, radiating absolute innocence without the slightest dark shadow from the past. She wore a miniature suit of armor dominated by blue and white colors, specifically designed with a size that perfectly fit her small body, complete with a wooden practice sword sheathed at her tiny waist.
Behind the little girl, followed another little girl, wearing goggles raised on her forehead and strands of sky-blue hair. Asfi, the child genius from Dizara, held a parchment notepad while peeking out the door with curiosity.
Bell's breath caught in his throat. Every joint in his body lost its strength. His legs went weak, forcing him to take a half-step back before nearly tripping over a stone.
A... Ais-san...?
Bell Cranel's mind exploded. The visual in front of him completely shattered the remnants of his sanity. The golden-haired girl was Ais Wallenstein. He recognized the contours of her face, her distinctive eye color, and the aura that always radiated from her. But the girl standing at the threshold of this church door... had shrunk. Shrunk until she became a toddler whose height didn't even reach Bell's chest! And the blue-haired girl behind her... wasn't that Asfi-san, the captain of the Hermes Familia nicknamed Perseus? Why had she also turned into a little kid?!
A terrifying vortex of confusion swallowed Bell alive. His eyes darted wildly, looking back and forth between the silver-haired woman radiating a deadly aura, the blue-haired genius girl, the golden-haired little girl, and the Apollo Familia emblem he saw at his familia's headquarters.
No, this isn't real, Bell's mind thrashed, his hands trembling violently as he clutched his own chest. The missing Hestia Familia Mansion... Not a single Orariopiad flyer... Venti-san knowing nothing about Goddess Hestia... and now, Ais-san has turned into a little kid! What the hell is this?!
The logic inside Bell's head began drawing the most rational conclusion he could accept. He must be dreaming, or worse, trapped inside a continent-scale magical illusion. Was this a curse from the dragon in the north? Or was he hit by mental manipulation magic from a rare monster that could bend reality?
With slow, dragging steps, ignoring Alfia's murderous glare and Zald's confusion, Bell walked forward approaching the door. His body trembled, but his eyes, radiating longing and despair, were locked entirely on the golden-haired girl.
"W-Wait..." Bell knelt on one knee on the ground, leveling his gaze with the little girl. His voice was hoarse and trembling as he forced his lips to move. "Excuse me... forgive my insolence, but... is your name... Ais?"
Hearing the sudden question from the foreign white-haired youth before her, little Ais tilted her head. Her face remained flat, but her large eyes blinked with pure innocence. She looked at Bell from the tips of his hair to the tips of his shoes with typical childlike curiosity.
"That's right," Ais answered softly, her voice flowing light and gentle. "My name is Ais."
Bell's eyes widened. He swallowed hard. That was her voice. Although the tone and resonance were much more childish compared to the Sword Princess he adored, the essence of that voice purely belonged to Ais Wallenstein. The girl who saved his life from the Minotaur. The girl who made him desire strength. The girl he always wanted to chase after.
However, before Bell had the chance to breathe a sigh of relief, Ais continued her sentence with an innocent, burdenless face.
"Who are you? Your hair is white like a rabbit. Do we know each other?"
Stab!
A giant, invisible illusionary arrow pierced straight into Bell Cranel's heart. The blood drained from his face instantly. His body stiffened rigidly.
The question was spoken without malicious intent, purely out of the ignorance of a seven-year-old child. But for Bell, who had gone through the hell of the dungeon and danger just to be able to stand beside that girl, that sentence was the deadliest psychological attack he had ever received in his entire life. Ais, the girl of his dreams, looked at him like a strange foreigner.
"Ugh..." Bell groaned softly, both his hands reflexively touching the ground while his head hung low. A dark cloud of comical despair seemed to hang thickly above his head. His soul seemed to have just floated out of his mouth.
Seeing the shattered reaction of the white-haired youth, silence returned to the church courtyard. Alfia furrowed her brows, her confusion growing at witnessing this absurd interaction. Little Ais tilted her head to the other side, not understanding why the rabbit youth suddenly looked like he had just lost all his will to live. Zald could only scratch his temple.
And then, the laughter erupted.
"Pfft... BWAHAHAHAHA!"
Venti, who had been standing with both hands covering his mouth all this time, finally couldn't hold himself back any longer. The wind god exploded in an incredibly loud laugh until he had to bend over and hold his stomach. His laughter echoed loudly, shattering the tension and chasing away the remnants of the twilight wind in the church courtyard.
"O-Ouch, my stomach hurts so much! Bwahahaha! His expression... did you see his expression, Zald?! Ah, this is the best theatrical performance I have ever seen in thousands of years!" Venti guffawed while wiping crocodile tears from the corners of his eyes, his body shaking with glee. "It turns out the effect is much funnier when seen in person! The invisible arrow of a broken heart! Ehehehe!"
Venti's laughter, which was completely out of place given the situation, was the final trigger that snapped the thread of Alfia's patience.
With a movement as fast as lightning that Bell's eyes couldn't even follow, Alfia had already disappeared from the doorway. In the next thousandth of a second, Alfia's left hand, clad in a black glove, had grabbed the collar of Venti's green cloak. The woman lifted the god into the air with one hand effortlessly, while her right hand was already radiating a vortex of dense magical energy ready to explode.
"Stop laughing, you crazy god," Alfia whispered right in front of Venti's face. Her heterochromatic eyes narrowed sharply, radiating absolute wrath. "My patience is gone. Tell me the truth. What happened? Who exactly is this brat? And how is it possible he has the name, the eye color of that bastard man... along with the face and gentleness of my sister?!"
Venti did not struggle even though his mortal body was hanging in the air. Instead, his mischievous smile remained comfortably in place. He stared straight into Alfia's heterochromatic eyes, which were filled with a storm of emotions. Venti knew exactly when to joke around and when to drop the truth.
"I knew you would recognize him right away, Alfia. A grandaunt's instinct is indeed terrifying," Venti said casually, completely unfazed by the magical threat in front of his face. He raised both hands in a gesture of surrender, then smiled gently. "You are not hallucinating. Your logic is not wrong either. He is indeed Bell Cranel. Your blood nephew."
Alfia's grip on Venti's collar loosened slightly due to the trembling in her hand. Her breath caught.
"But... Meteria..." Alfia stammered. "Meteria is inside. She is still pregnant. How is it possible..."
"Time is a river that has many branches, Alfia." Venti cut in with a tone that suddenly turned very authoritative, reflecting a wisdom that contrasted sharply with his usual casual demeanor. He used his hand to gently remove Alfia's grip from his collar, then planted his feet back on the ground.
Venti pointed toward Bell, who was still kneeling dazedly on the ground. "He is Bell Cranel. But not the baby currently gestating within Meteria inside this church. He is Bell Cranel from a different timestream. From a future that jumped back fifteen years and landed in our world. He is your nephew from another timeline."
A silence far more absolute than before swallowed the entire church courtyard. Even the chirping of the twilight insects seemed to stop breathing.
Zald, who was standing beside Venti, was instantly dumbfounded. The mouth behind his hard jaw opened slightly, displaying a very foolish expression rarely seen from a former Zeus Familia veteran.
"What?!" Zald turned his head stiffly, staring at the god beside him with a look of disbelief. "He is Alfia's nephew? That means he is the son of Cranel and Meteria? But as far as I remember, Meteria is still pregnant, right? And what is another timeline?!"
Zald's brain, which had always been focused on slashing monsters and formulating combat tactics, suffered a severe short circuit when forced to swallow the quantum physics concept regarding temporal dimensions thrown out by Venti. For an adventurer, jumping through time was something alien to adventurers in this world.
Meanwhile, Bell Cranel, who was lamenting his fate for being forgotten by Ais, slowly lifted his head. The shockwaves from the conversation happening above him had just penetrated his ears.
"N-Nephew...?" Bell murmured softly, his voice trembling. He looked back and forth between Venti, Zald, and the extraordinarily beautiful yet terrifying silver-haired woman.
Bell stood up with great difficulty. His brain worked at maximum speed to connect the scattered pieces of information. Venti had just mentioned the name Meteria. In the past, when he was still in his village, his grandfather indeed rarely talked about his parents. His grandfather only said that his father was a brave (+ perverted and cowardly) man and his mother was a very kind-hearted woman, but both had died long ago. Bell had never known his mother's face.
And now, this god had just casually announced that the silver-haired woman with an aura as cold as ice was his aunt? That his mother... was still alive and was inside this church?!
"V-Venti-sama..." Bell stepped forward with his hand outstretched, his face deathly pale but his eyes radiating a despair thirsting for answers. "What does this mean? Who is Alfia? Who is Meteria? What do you mean I am the nephew of this woman? Please, don't play with me anymore. Is this really an illusion?"
Seeing the emotional turmoil striking the three generations before him—Alfia still experiencing a mind-break, Zald in confusion, and Bell almost crying searching for his identity—Venti smiled gently. His mischievous aura evaporated, replaced by the soothing warmth of a spring breeze.
Venti realized that the limit of surprises for today was enough. Explaining the concept of time paradoxes in an open courtyard was not a wise idea, especially when their emotions were on the brink of shock and confusion.
"This is not an illusion, Bell-kun. The wind around you, the ground you step on, and the pain in your chest are one hundred percent real," Venti answered with a calm and melodious voice, staring right into the ruby-red eyes of the youth.
Venti then turned to Alfia, patting the woman's arm gently to calm the storm of thoughts raging within her.
"You have a lot of questions in your head right now, don't you? About the past, about who your parents are, and about how you could be in this timeline and this city of Orario that you don't recognize," Venti continued, then he turned around and gestured toward the warm, bright church hallway.
"Explanations about timelines and cosmic paradoxes can wait. We have plenty of time for that. But for now..." Venti smiled, his eyes radiating sincere empathy. "Let's go inside the church first. Meet Meteria, your real mother. And you can also say hello to Sylphie, who is the birth mother of the golden-haired little girl you were teasing earlier."
Hearing that simple invitation yet containing a giant information bomb, Bell's feet felt like they were nailed to the earth. Ais-san's mother is also inside there? My mother... my birth mother... is behind this door?
Bell stared at the church hallway illuminated by the warm light of magic stone lamps. Even though his brain refused to comprehend this temporal weirdness, and even though he was still engulfed in fear of the unknown, there was an incredibly strong magnetic pull resonating within the recesses of his soul. A primordial longing of an orphan boy who had always dreamed of the warmth of a family.
With a trembling breath, Bell nodded his head slowly. Ignoring the remnants of logical confusion, the white-haired youth stepped over the threshold, following Venti's footsteps into the warmth of the house to meet a destiny he never expected.
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P - Gem_Blanks
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