Danmachi: Is It Wrong to Be the Main Character in Orario?

Three minutes later, Bell could clearly feel that the pain in his body had eased by nearly half, and about thirty percent of his strength had returned.

As the pain dropped to ten percent, his recovery began to slow down, but even so, his stamina had already reached about seventy percent. Most of his mobility had returned.

'Full recovery will still take a bit... maybe fifteen minutes.'

Recovering from near-collapse to full health in just fifteen minutes—just through breathing—was even faster than when he used Rune-enhanced healing last time.

'Now that my natural recovery speed and quality have reached this level, I should avoid relying too much on Rune healing.'

When the body was this capable of healing itself, letting it recover naturally might be the smarter move. That was something Bell had learned from experience—even in his sleep.

Once he'd regained most of his strength, Bell returned to the basement.

Goddess-sama was still awake, sitting upright on the bed as if she'd been waiting for him the whole time.

"Bell-kun."

The moment Hestia saw him, she leapt off the bed.

That confirmed it—she had been waiting for him.

She threw herself straight into his arms, and Bell hurried to catch her.

Thankfully, Goddess-sama wasn't heavy. Otherwise, the still-healing pain in his body might've caused him to falter and drop her.

Still, there was no way Hestia wouldn't notice how strange his body felt.

"Bell-kun, what's wrong with your body?"

She could immediately sense the tension in his muscles—they were rock-hard, unnaturally tight. This wasn't how Bell usually felt.

He hadn't expected her to notice so quickly.

Faced with her concern, Bell decided not to hide it.

"I ran into some issues while training. Ended up with a few injuries... all over."

"Ah!"

Hestia quickly jumped out of his arms and gently guided him to sit down on the bed. Then she rushed to the cabinet and grabbed an emergency treatment vial—a topical medicine Miach had specially prepared for her.

"Bell, don't move."

She carefully took off his cloak. Underneath, he wore simple casual clothes—no light armor at all. She lifted the fabric at his back.

As she gently placed her hand on him, Hestia's face changed.

She could feel it—Bell's body was twitching slightly, still wracked with pain.

"You... you bad boy..."

Hestia looked like she was about to cry. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much pain he was holding in.

If she hadn't asked, would this stubborn fool have kept hiding it?

She quickly uncorked the medicine and carefully poured it across his back.

In moments, the medicine revealed the full extent of the damage—spreading in patches of color across his skin, showing exactly where the pain was worst.

Several spots had turned completely black.

Which meant the pain there was severe—extreme.

Hestia nearly cried out in shock.

'How... how did this even happen?'

She couldn't understand what had caused such terrible injuries, but she still calmly and carefully rubbed the medicine across his back with both hands.

"Mm..."

The cooling sensation helped his body finally relax a bit. Bell hadn't realized just how effective the household medicine really was.

To be honest, he didn't even need it. With just one night of sleep, the injuries would have healed on their own.

The delay in recovering his stamina earlier had just been his body focusing on repairing the damage.

Using this medicine was probably overkill.

Still, he didn't dare say that—not with how worried Goddess-sama had looked just now. If he did, he'd probably get hit with one of her signature glares.

As Hestia gently spread the potion across Bell's back, the swirl of colors slowly began to fade.

At least it wasn't that terrifying black from before—now it had turned into a deep purplish-blue.

"Honestly, Bell, why would you do something so reckless?"

"You just said earlier you were planning to slow down and focus more on improving your technique. How did you end up in this state after just a few hours?" Once the colors on his back began to fade, Hestia finally let out a breath of relief.

Bell wasn't really sure how to respond. After all, he really had put everything into refining his 'skills'—but who could've guessed he'd get so lucky and hit the jackpot today?

Still, looking at his condition… was that something he could actually say?

Obviously not.

But there was one thing he could be certain of.

"Goddess-sama, I think this still counts as part of the process of honing my 'skills'."

"How does wrecking your body count?"

"I mean, improving my technique also requires my body to keep up. So I thought maybe using Rune could help enhance my physical abilities."

Hestia was speechless. She couldn't tell he was lying—meaning he really was telling the truth just now.

"This is how you decided to level up? By risking your life?"

Hestia truly couldn't hold back the urge to lecture her child.

"Doesn't this just mean I've become even more determined to follow this path?"

"I'm doing it for Goddess-sama… and for Hephaestus-sama too. I need to be more serious than I ever was before."

Bell never aspired to become a hero. Frankly, he didn't believe someone like him could be called a hero anyway. He was simply working hard for his own personal goals.

But now that he had accepted the blessings of two goddesses, his path was already set—to walk the hardest road.

He felt a bit more urgency.

He wanted to push himself a little more.

Hestia went quiet for a moment, her cheeks puffing out.

"For me, sure… but you're doing it for Hephaestus too?"

That stung a little. Even if she had decided in her heart that Hephaestus was acceptable, she still couldn't help but feel bitter.

The child who once worked so hard for her alone now also wanted to work hard for Hephaestus.

'Hephaestus, I'm going to make you pay for stealing him away.'

Hestia resolved to have a little talk with Hephaestus tomorrow.

Still, looking at Bell groaning and squirming in pain, her heart ached.

She leaned down and whispered in his ear.

"Bell, no matter what, don't ever do something this extreme again."

"Yeah… I'll try."

You're definitely going to do it again.

Hestia sighed helplessly. It was only in moments like this that she felt Bell really was such a disobedient, troublesome child.

...

(100 Chapters Ahead)

p@treon com / PinkSnake