Is It Wrong to Try to Tame Monsters in a Dungeon? (Written seriously)

(This chapter was uploaded on Friday 22/November/2024 0:30 AM, timezone GMT+3)

(Line Break)

('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the chapter's footnotes.

"..." small moment of silence.

"Talking"

[Different Language Dialogue (Different from the language of the PoV)] (What language it is: Accent if necessary)

"He-" Someone was interrupted.

'Inner Monologue'

{Skills' names, chanting, spell keys and spells' names}

(PoV)

(Flashback, including the text)

Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

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(Friday, 16/10/1058) 

(???'s PoV) 

I was walking the city's streets while casually greeting the merchants, business as usual. The few who recognise me asked where I went, now that I'm back in the city years later. I loved that caring side of the elderly. It reminds me of gramps... Both this life's and the one I had in my previous one. 

"We don't accept thin kids like you here!" I looked to an alleyway on my way back to the guild, to report the completion of my quest outside the city's walls. 

"Give me a chance! Sir!" Oh, no you don't. I recognise that voice wherever I hear it. That's brother's voice. 

"Brother! Here!" Though it was barely after sunrise, his face was glimmering under the sun's shine. I ran to my twin, however that relationship came to be. I threw myself at him the same way he would. He was freaked out but caught me nonetheless. 

"Carillon?! You were here?!" Brother asked in surprise as we both ignored the piece of shit who bullied him just a moment ago. Said piece of shit clicked his tongue and slammed the door shut. 

"Yeah! Brother!" I smiled at him, a smile that we shared, and one that melted the hearts of many. I looked at his state, covered in dirt and grime as he was just thrown on the street's cobblestone. 

"How have you been, brother?" I stood and pulled him up with me then hugged him again. 

"Not so great" I saw his metaphorical rabbit ears droop. He was depressed. "How about you, Carillon?" He was evaluating my light armor, shortsword and dagger. I saw some innocent envy in his eyes. 

"Brother, how cool am I?" I twirled to show him my gear. I'll lure him in with my gear, just so I could give him a shield against the stronger familias. 

'Sorry, Hestia. I can't allow you to take him, lest I endanger him' 

"I heard that a white-haired kid was looking for a familia?" A certain voice sounded in the alleyway, full of expectations and hopeful dreams, only for the footsteps of the owner of that voice to halt after having a look at my armor. My armor had the Loki familia emblem on it. But that didn't stop the short goddess from trying. There was desperation in her voice. 

"My older twin was. And I was about to invite him to join my familia, the Loki familia" I said, adamantly standing between them as if guarding him from danger. If the plotline went as it should, then this brother of mine needs to join a different familia. 

"The... Loki familia?" I heard brother's voice quivering. 

'Ah, shit. He met Bete, then' I cursed my luck. 

"The werewolf?" I said monotonely. 

"The werewolf" Came in brother's muted confirmation. 

I looked at Hestia, making her hesitate a bit before nodding. 

"You want to join this goddess's familia instead?" I turned to him and stepped a bit to the side, ready to block her if she launched a missile towards this frail, girlish boy. 

"Umm" He nodded. I then turned to the goddess. 

"Then, at least, allow me to accompany him into the dungeon and to keep tabs on how you treat him every other day" I said solemnly. 

"I promise you both that" Hestia thumbed her chest in confidence. All that did was make it bounce a bit, with me shielding brother's innocent eyes from such impurity. 

"And no more of that, please. Brother's too pure of a rabbit for that" I was pointing directly at her disproportionate chest, my voice sharp. 

"Hey!" Both the goddess and brother shouted at once. 

"We look the same! If I am a rabbit, then you are a rabbit too!" Brother's shout was in defiance that I called him a rabbit. 

As for the goddess, she backpedaled while covering her chest and looking at me as if I was some sort of pervert. 

'Woman, you walk with half of your cleavage bare. What'd you expect? The absurdity of your expectations amazes me' I gave her a stupefied, yet critical stare. She got the message and recollected herself. 

"Would you like to join me? Child?" Hestia's demeanour as a goddess of family, coupled with the fact that she exudes that aura of her kind, it eases one's mind into a false sense of security. 

'Let's not forget who released their arcanum for a mere cheek wound. If hers was a false sense of security, then there is no true sense of security' 

"Yes!" Brother said, shedding tears of relief as he held onto Hestia's outstretched hand tightly. His expression was quivering, borderline sobbing. Knowing him, and how he diverged from canon brother, he tried to man up and get a hold of his emotions rather than let them get a hold of him. 

"I'm Hestia, the goddess of home and family. What's your name, child?" Hestia asked with a welcoming voice, soft eyes and a wide smile. 

"Bell..." Brother told her his name. "Bell Cranel!" He was really holding in a load of tears. 

After a little giggling while watching brother struggle to bottle his emotions and act like a grown man, we moved to a nearby library and the two of them got a room to give him his falna in private. 

"Carillon!" Brother called my name with a disappointed tone, a very disappointed tone. "I have no skills or magic!" He threw himself at me for emotional support. 

"You know, brother, that's the norm. You don't normally have your first falna come with a skill. And it'd be rarer for magic to show up, especially if you weren't an elf" At the mention of an elf, brother's ears twitched a bit. 

'Innocent perv. How he has qualities of both being an innocent child and a pervert is beyond any mortal to understand. It's Zeus' lifework, after all, that created this unusual personality' 

"But, let me remind you, brother. No harems, and especially not of elves. Most of them prefer monogamy" I said sternly with my right index raised. 

"C-Carillon!" Brother stuttered as he barely choked out my name, flustered. He was blushing like no other, his face red as if caked in blood. 

'Anime protagonist anatomy for you. Any normal person would have suffered some internal bleeding by now' 

Hestia was smiling fondly while looking at our interactions. It's to be expected of the goddess of family to like such a sight. 

"Anyway, brother, I want to know how you feel. Do you feel stronger already?" I asked him with a cheeky smile. 

"Yes! I feel like I can finally put up a fight against some monsters!..." He brightly and energetically said before shrinking in his seat while shaking in fear. "But not that one..." He had the look and posture a prey animal would have. 

"Brother" I said as I held him by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. "What scared you? I may be able to help with that" If he tells me, I'd go and exterminate it. 

"..." Brother wilted as he looked away, refusing to tell me. 

"We'll leave this subject, then" I said as I gave up. If he doesn't want to talk about it, then it's either traumatic but not deadly, or it's deathly embarrassing. 

"Then, let's meet later. I still got to report my return to Loki" I bid them farewell. 

"See you later! Carillon!" Brother waved his hand at me; I just know it. I raised a hand to wave back. 

I flinched but marched it off as if nothing happened. But my thoughts went haywire. 

'Wait a fuckin' minute! You mean to tell me that holding him bought enough time for Hestia to reach him? In their backstory, Hestia always just misses him. And I had to hold him up for him not to miss him! I should've thought of this sooner!' 

(At Pantheon) 

"Rose!" I called the name of my favorite lady. Beside a few core memories from my past life, this woman was one of the few I remembered anything about. Though, in her case, I remembered every detail that I knew about her from the books and the show. 

When I called her name, she was looking at some documents with her ears raised to catch any information flying from someone's loose mouth. That tended to happen back then. And since she's still doing it now, it seems that there are still enough loose mouths around. 

"!" When she heard my voice, her ears perked up some more as her face showed a teeny tiny bit of emotion. Her face morphed back to the usually aloof, ice-covered social mask I knew her for after meeting her in person. "Welcome back, Mr Cranel. I am glad to see you back here, seemingly alive and well" She momentarily bowed her head slightly in greetings. I felt a knot form in my chest, hearing the professional rigidity ingrained in her voice. 

"And I'm glad that I was seemingly remembered by you this whole time, my lady" I bowed down with practiced precision, according to the etiquette I learned in my past life. 

"Please, don't make me regret ever knowing you" I heard some sting and lots of discomfort in her voice. Not any unpleasant feelings, weirdly enough. 

'I could be wrong, though' 

"Sadly, I'm still adamant about realising my promise from all those years ago" I said as I raised my head and straightened up. My cape returned to its rightful place over my right shoulder, not covering my left. In any other situation, I might've made a joke about how small the cape became, only reaching down to my elbow, when it originally reached my ankles when I was little. 

"Ugh! When will you learn?" Rose staggered in her chair with a pale face filled with guilt. Her guilt was laced with a felling of self-loathing, likely from her inability to make me give up on her when I'm so young compared to her. 

"Never" I strongly denied it, making her flinch a bit. 

'That was not something I expect of you, Rose. Your character in the show was so composed in almost all situations that making you flinch is so farfetched I didn't even consider its possibility. I'd have avoided those words if I knew they'd make you flinch' 

"I'd scoured the world searching for someone, an old friend of mine. And in my search for him, I met and interacted with many people. I found no woman more beautiful than you are, even when including goddesses" I said, eagerly waiting for a reply. 

"Your words are the misguided and the short-lived fantasies of a young boy. You will grow out of it sooner than later. Give up now, please" She turned away from me, pretending to read some documents to mask her emotions. She squeezed a fist under the table. I could tell by her coworker's concerned look. I'm impressed by her control over the movement of her ears, which didn't droop in accordance to her emotions. 

"I have lived the last half decade with you coming to mind every time I had free time I could spend in peace and quiet. Every day, I promised myself that I'd return to you alive without fail, always" I said, physically taking a step back and bowing down in apology. "But I apologise if that makes you feel uncomfortable" 

"See you later!" I suddenly turned around to go get my magic stones' worth of Valis, announcing my purpose with an energetic attitude. 

... 

"Should I give this to brother as a starting fund?" I asked myself as I scrutinised the bag of coins. I could feel the gazes that were on me in worry. They took me for a madman for talking to myself. "Yeah, I should" I smiled warmly to creep them out even more. I felt Rose's eyes leave me and return to her paperwork. 

'Well, I can try talking to her later. For now, let's just leave her with the thought of me returning alive even though I looked young and weak. With some more work from my part, she might start seeing me in a different light' I thought. If anyone from my old world knew of my thoughts, they'd probably think that I was aiming to form an improper relationship with someone twice my age. To that, I say they have no business interfering with me. I want her love. And if she is fine with it, then nobody got any right to deny it once I'm of legal age. 

(AN: Yeah, he isn't the most morally good human by this day and age's moral standards, aiming for the love of someone 14 years older than him while knowing full well that that is the case) 

"Lady goddess! Of course I would want to register immediately!" I heard brother's excited voice while making my way to the door. He was very clearly pestering Hestia to finish his registration today. And I guess I know why. 

"And why's that?" I said menacingly. I put my hands on my hips as I walked up to him while maintaining all the body language that screams dangerous. It was effective enough to make him go pale. "You weren't trying to go to the dungeon today, were you?" I had our faces practically fused at this point. Our foreheads were pressed tightly together. 

"Carillon! Calm down!" He tried to push me with both hands to no avail. Someone who just received his blessing wouldn't be able to easily push off someone like me, who's about to become a level 2. With the excellia I had accumulated over the past 5 years, I'd max out every parameter and be eligible to rank up to level 2. It'd be announced tomorrow if we follow the official procedure. 

"Sometimes, brother, sometimes, I do wonder who the older one between us is!" I seethed in anger at his careless thinking. Subjecting himself to danger when he wasn't at all ready to face even a portion of it is bad. He needs someone to help, doesn't he? 

Try being someone's twin, someone like brother, and you'll come to care for him and gradually become more overprotective of him, whether you like it or not. And there lies the problem. Seeing tears starting to form at the edges of brother's eyes, I couldn't but back off. 

"Take this, brother. Get a weapon with it and try getting a feel for the weapon for today" I said as I held up a small bag of coins. 

"And what about the dungeon?" Brother said as he shyly averted his eyes. He knew that his impatience was bad, yet he allowed himself to ask. 

"We could go together tomorrow. What about that?" I said before getting tackled into a hug by an excited bunny. 

While my world spun as we fell to the ground, I caught a glimpse of Hestia radiating with pleasure, as if someone who's not been fed for days and weeks was suddenly given a whole course meal. 

"That's a promise! Carillon!" Brother said and snatched his new goddess by the hand before I could change my mind. 

'I didn't want brother to suffer under Hestia's care, as she's powerless against everyone who got eyes for him. But I could still help him in this situation. And should that damned phallus try and take brother by force, I'd somehow convince Loki to allow me a temporary change of familias. I will become his worst nightmare should he aim for my brother' 

I walked my way to the Twilight Manor hurriedly. I wanted to go tell Loki about this happy occasion. And maybe ruin her breakfast if I was fast enough. On my way, I dealt with some thug who thought he could rob me and left him unconscious on the ground. 

(End of Chapter)

Greetings, dear readers

So, today, some very crazy things happened.

Out of nowhere, I developed a mild headache. Going out to fetch my little brother in spite of that, and during the blazing hours of the day to boot, my headache levelled up on me. By the time it was around 6 PM (just over 6 hours ago), I was completely incapacitated and laying in bed.

After a quick power nap, here I am, with absolutely no headache, as if disappeared through magic. If someone tells me sleep isn't its own form of magic, I'm gonna get confused. 

Jokes aside, taking a short sleep like that can help if the headache started because your eyes were strained. I know that's the cause because I'm prone to developing such headaches, and simply closing my eyes for extended periods of time, even while awake, helps a lot.

ENOUGH OF THAT! I lose myself in rants randomly like that.

But, what do you think of this first side-story? Does it qualify to be a side-story?

And if it does, how good is it? What do you think could be made better? And how?

Again, I am open to suggestions about side-stories. Make a suggestion, and we could work it out together to make a side-story that could be more than one chapter.

Although I will take some time to write the side-stories, I will still prioritize the main storyline. That is unless it is like this one. You will get it by next chapter.

Be well, then, ladies and gentlemen.