Dragon's Sin in the World of Danmachi

Chapter 18 : Frustration and Anxiety

Hestia returned home when Bell was in a middle of a bath. When she saw some of the clothes lying on the floor. She sighed and picked them up but not before taking a sniff as a small blush appeared on her face. Then she noticed blood stains that were on his shirt.

She internally panicked and was about to burst inside the bathroom to check if he was okay. But held herself back knowing that if he managed to return home, he should be okay, plus with Meliodas guiding Bell, she had nothing to worry about but was still a little bit anxious.

So she gritted her teeth and waited for Bell to finish up his business.

When Bell was in the middle showering he was ruminating his thoughts and just stared off into space, while Meliodas just let Bell do his own thing and minded his own business, trying to not disturb him.

When Bell was peering into the memories of Meliodas from when he passed out, he was focusing in the interaction between Meliodas and the two figures that introduced themselves as Ais and Bete from the Loki Familia.

What caught his attention was Ais' beauty, her golden blonde hair and golden colored eyes. Just her sight alone made Bell blush. Though he was confused about his own feelings a bit, he knew he wanted to meet that girl again, he felt that fate somehow connected them together, the same feeling that Meliodas felt about the two adventurers, but Bell was more focused on Ais.

He wondered if he somehow was in love with her, despite not meeting her directly himself. What really got his attention is the smile that was on her face that showed itself for a second then reverting back to her expressionless usual self.

He shook those thoughts off his mind then dried himself with a towel. Meliodas knew exactly what he was thinking then muttered in a low voice that even Bell couldn't hear despite having technically zero distance between them 'Poor Hestia.'

Though he wasn't sure if Hestia was in love with Bell, he knew that Hestia was strongly attached to him in some shape or form.

When Bell exited the bathroom, Hestia was waiting for him just outside the room as she then rushed towards him and inspected his body to see if there were any injuries. She noticed a circle shaped mark present on his left shoulder, it was red which was a contrast to his pale white skin. The injury was fully healed and Hestia released a relieved sigh.

"I told you to be careful Bell, don't scare me like that, AND YOU, Meliodas, what happened to making sure that he doesn't get harmed" Hestia says with a reprimanding tone

"I'm sorry Kami-sama, I'll be careful next time, I was just testing out my new status and got excited.. hehe" Bell says while scratching the back of his head, he didn't looked like he was sorry at all, mostly because he wasn't the one who got himself injured but felt the need to apologize anyway to appease Hestia.

Meliodas felt like he should be the one to be blamed but realized that if Bell wasn't playing around with magic too much, he wouldn't have messed up and got injured in the first place but wasn't really sure if that was the case and just remained quiet, not responding to Hestia's scolding.

Hestia saw through Bell but she just let it go... for now. 

"Do you want to update your status now or?" Hestia asked.

(I don't think that is a good idea, we got to report our level up to the guild and we need Eina to see our falna first hand, we'll have to wait tomorrow)

"Mn" Bell says, then relayed what Meliodas said to Hestia and then she nodded .

"Lets eat dinner, I'm quite hungry" Bell says, as he pulls up the takeaway food from the table.

Hestia also bought some potatoes from her workplace but just stored it away for now and just ate the food that Meliodas bought.

They had dinner and then Bell talked about his time in the dungeon. When Bell got to the part when the Minotaurs appeared, Bell let Meliodas tell the story himself since he can get into more detail on what happened and Hestia just listened with intrigued written on her face.

After that, they talked about the matters regarding their financial situation, since they didn't cash in their magic stones, they have little to no money left to buy equipment. The only equipment that Bell had used until now were the ones provided by the guild for new adventurers of familias that recently formed.

Since their equipment could no longer be of use, they would have to buy their own equipment unless if they don't want to be in debt. 

They did the math about how much they would earn from the magic stones they currently own. They assumed they would have enough to buy basic weapons and gear. They hoped that their little calculation weren't too far off or else Bell would have to dive into the dungeon with nothing on him but his nearly broken gear.

Their anxiety probably rose since they didn't how much the standard equipment usually cost or any equipment for that matter, Bell never really gave the time to check the prices since he was way too excited for becoming an adventurer and never really put much thought into it and just went straight to the dungeon and Meliodas is from another world and don't know the standard worth of Valis or the basic economics of Danmachi. 

They then went to sleep, Hestia wanted to sleep together with Bell, but he protested, with the excuse that Meliodas would also be with them, technically. Hestia realized what she said and just walked towards her room without saying anything. Pouting that her time with Bell was reduced even more.

Meliodas was quiet during the ordeal since he doesn't want to deal with their little 'quarrel' and just played the role of an observer.

Bell closed his eyes while lying down on the couch as the darkness of the night took over him and at the same yawning while saying goodnight to his companion. 

Meliodas realized yesterday that while he was in the soul realm he didn't require any sleep or at least he couldn't become exhausted, hungry or required any other psychological needs. He can still sleep but it would be pointless. 

Instead of just sleeping like he did yesterday, he was ruminating his thoughts while lying down using hands as a pillow on what he thinks is the floor.

Meliodas used this opportunity to properly inspect the soul realm that he was in. He never had taken a good look at it before but he realized that the area of the realm seems to be infinite because all he sees is pitch black in the distance but it was not, when he walked up and felt an invisible wall, he went to the other sides and sure enough these walls formed a square, it measured to be about 25m².

The area itself that he was was able to walk through was pitch black and his soul glowed a purple color as his sole light source while Bell glowed white when he enters the soul realm.

Meliodas was used to be living in an area of darkness. As a demon prince himself, darkness was an essence of his being, unlike Bell who would panic if he was in a dark room for a long time, while Meliodas wouldn't even care. 

He has been in worse places like the purgatory and the demon world itself, where he grew up and was born in.

He inspected the room in hopes in finding a clue to how this soul entrapment magic works that the Supreme Deity used to send him here. He sighed from frustration and continued to think deeply about the predicament that he was in.