The Protagonist System

289 The Trial Of Truth Redo (Danmachi Again)

I was really glad my chronomancy powers let me pinpoint the moment my previous self left the world, so I didn't interfere with myself. The first problem I had was should I resume my life as Bell Cranel or should I enter as someone else? Decisions, decisions.

After mulling it over for a few days, thanks to my reading partner keeping me company, I decided I liked the relationships I had already established as Bell. With that important one made, I just had to chose a nearby world to insert into, do something interesting to distract everyone, then shift dimensions over to where I really wanted to be.

The second problem I had was that I no longer had Hestia's Falna, or personal blessing, engraved on my back anymore. That was going to be difficult to explain, unless the blessing itself was attached to my soul and not my body, then everything would be fine as soon as Hestia's blood touched my skin.

The third problem was how I should show up. I could recreate the armor and sword I had lost when I was captured by the Demon General Sylvia in Konosuba, except I had been wearing normal clothes at the time for the marriage ceremony. Oh, and a backpack that I hadn't seen or used in a very long time.

I spent a few minutes thinking about it and chose to appear wearing the same things, minus the backpack. It had been so long since then that I honestly couldn't remember what I had in the thing to replicate it without screwing it up. With my plan set, I chose the right options for inserting into a variant of Danmachi where the Zeus and Hera Familias didn't lose against the One Eyed Dragon.

*

I sucked in a sharp breath and opened my eyes. The insertion had been instantaneous and the memories were already there instead of being shoved into my head like before. Surprisingly, the only difference to the other Bell's memories was that Zeus had voluntarily retired and hadn't lost everyone. Bell still grew up in the cabin, still survived alone after the old man's death, and he travelled to Orario.

That was when things went differently. Unlike in canon and my version, with both of the most powerful Familias still around, neither Freya nor Ishtar came into prominence. The world didn't devolve into scum and villainy, with nearly everyone enjoying the suffering of others and profiting from it. Even the Soma Familia, whom were the worst criminals and drunks, were a high tier Familia.

I sat up in the bed and saw I was in an opulent room that almost screamed what a waste of money it was. My memories told me I was still found by Hestia after being rejected by everyone, even the Zeus Familia.

The difference this time was that Hestia had been one of the first goddesses to descend to the human world and was well established and very well funded by the many members she had. Unlike the other gods and goddesses, she accepted all of the rejects and refugees from the other Familias, unless you were a criminal or did harm to your previous Familia, then you weren't welcome.

As the son of a member of the Zeus Familia and a son of a member of the Hera Familia, I was practically ushered into the upper levels of Hestia's Familia and brought along on all the best hunts and dungeon dives to give me the most experience and monster cores to let my powers blossom to benefit everyone in the Familia.

Unlike what happened in my previous memories, this Bell couldn't take the pressure on his shoulders and had disposed of himself, believing he was a waste of resources and didn't deserve the attention. I reached over to the letter on the nightstand and folded it up to put into a pocket. I held in my sigh at him not going to Hestia to confess his feelings, both the good and the bad.

I hopped out of bed and went to the closet, dressed in his best clothes, and left the room. A quick detection spell and I found Hestia's divine energy signature was in the main suite on the top floor of the large mansion we all lived in. I walked up the stairs and greeted everyone we passed by name, shocking them, and I went to the top floor and walked down to her suite. The two burly men guarding the door nodded at me.

I pulled out two granola bars and handed one to each of them. It was a small but appreciated bribe and one of them knocked on the door.

“Come in.” Hestia ordered, her voice welcoming.

I opened the door and she smiled warmly at me. She wore a silky white gown that covered her from her neck to her ankle, leaving her shoulders and arms bare, and long opera gloves covered her upper arms and down to her fingertips.

“Bell! You're feeling better?” Hestia asked me.

I shook my head and her warm smile faded slightly.

“Then what are you doing here?” Hestia asked.

“I died.” I said and she gasped. “I had a vision of a different me and he died, too.”

“No!” Hestia gasped again.

“It's okay. I'm going to go there and replace him, so I can make their Familia as strong and popular as this one.” I explained and her eyes widened.

“You... how... why...” Hestia whispered.

“I don't want my strength and skills going to waste here.” I said and bowed. “Another you needs me a lot more than you do, and I can't in good conscience deny that I will do everything I can do help you.”

“But... you only just...” Hestia stopped talking.

“I have an idea to help you make more money in a single day than I could earn in a month as a normal fighter on a middle tier team.” I said and her eyes widened. “I just need some silver powder, a load of stone, and one of the Level 5 mages as an anchor and controller.”

“For what?” Hestia asked as her smile faded completely.

“My vision gave me the plans for a secret teleportation circle that can be set up on each level of the dungeon. With them, we no longer have to fight our way through each level every time we want to go down to the next level.” I said and she gasped, as did the two guards, and there was a soft echo of the others that had been discretely listening in for her protection.

“Is that why you don't feel guilty about leaving behind your Familia and all the people that helped you?” Hestia asked.

I smiled at the question. “But, I'm not leaving you behind. I'm going to help you.”

“That's not what I meant and you know it.” Hestia said with a slight frown.

I sighed and realized she wasn't going to accept my word. Unlike the Hestia I know, this one never suffered the same hardships or had to deal with the animosity of all the other gods and goddesses.

“Do you really want me to say what you're implying?” I asked and she didn't respond, so she didn't want me to formally resign from the Familia. “Are you going to accept my idea or not?”

“You will be brought to a mage gathering with all of the Familia's mages and will hand over the design. I will decide what will be done with it after it is fully vetted and tested.” Hestia ordered.

I sighed when I felt the two burly men enter the room behind me. “You are making a mistake.”

Hestia stiffened at that and her eyes narrowed at me. “My Bell would never question me.”

I stepped away from where I was and behind the two men when they tried to grab me. I cast two stunning spells at them to make them drop to the floor. “Your Bell killed himself because you demanded too much from him.”

Several gasps came from somewhere else. I felt a few magic spells and wards go up around the mansion in a vain attempt to keep me inside.

“Liar!” Hestia shouted as she jumped to her feet.

“Why would I bother lying to a goddess?” I asked her and felt her start to gather her divine power. I took out the letter and tossed it through the air. “Why don't you read his writing for yourself and decide how stupid you've been to crush the spirit of the only member of your Familia that genuinely loved you with all his heart?”

Hestia caught the letter and unfolded it as her power continued to grow. Her eyes darted all over the paper and tears formed as she read in Bell's own words how much he loved her and how sad he was that he could never meet her expectations.

“N-no... it... it's a trick. Y-you wrote th-this.” Hestia said, her voice shaky.

“No, I didn't. I read it when I woke up and felt sorry that he didn't have the courage to confront you himself.” I said as her power drained away and she slumped back onto her chair to stare at the letter. “I hope his honesty is enough to show you that despite the good you're doing, providing hearth and home for those that need it, you've overlooked the necessary part. Being a mother figure to nurture your family.”

Hestia didn't look up at me and I didn't expect her to. I didn't check her mind to see what she was going to do next, because it didn't really matter. If the goddess that accepted everyone, didn't want to implement the teleportation circles until they were torn apart and all their secrets were figured out, then none of the Familias were going to do anything different.

I stepped away from the mansion and appeared in an alleyway beside the guild hall. I covered my face with a blank circular mask without eye, nose, and mouth holes and walked out into the street and went over to the Tower of Babel. No one stopped me when I entered it and I walked up the stairs and into the main gathering room.

I wasn't surprised that it was empty, considering they only used it for parties and trials. It did give me privacy to do what I wanted, though. I put up temporary wards that would hide my presence and what I was about to do, since anyone watching the place or feeling out for magic, might detect it.

Since I knew when I had to transition into the parallel dimension to arrive at the right moment, I stored the mask and counted down in my head to the right second and created the visual of a bright white portal on both sides before I jumped through. No one saw me, which was perfect.

“The death sentence has been carried out on the murderer of our fellow gods and goddesses.” The pretty goddess said with satisfaction. The blue portal she had just pushed me into was still there, so I kicked her in the ass and she screamed as she went head-first into it and it snapped closed with her body halfway through.

To everyone's shock, her waist and legs dropped to the polished marble floor and there was no flash of light to show her ascension back to Heaven.

“That's fitting, isn't it? Her own power actually killed her and didn't shunt her back into her divine body.” I said and all of them gasped as they turned around to stare at me. “Hi, everyone! Guess who's back from the dead?”

There were several screams, two goddesses fainted, and Demeter herself had a mix of guilt and fear on her face, despite being the oldest among the gods and goddesses.

“Oh! I just realized. If she had portal power like that, do you think she bothered making a mortal body? Maybe that was her real body and that's why she fully died.” I thought out loud, then I shrugged. “I guess it doesn't matter now.”

When I looked down at the two goddesses that had fainted, I saw Hestia and Hephaestus. It made me smile that they reacted like that and knelt beside them to make sure there wasn't anything nefarious going on. Their breathing was even and there was nothing biologically wrong with them, so I relaxed and stood up.

“You're dead.” Someone said.

“I was. Many times, actually.” I admitted and they all had wide eyes, because they knew I hadn't lied. “So, who voted for me to die instead of sending me off to another world like you sentenced me?”

The entire room cleared out faster than if someone had farted loudly and shat themselves. The only one brave enough to stay was Demeter herself, and the two unconscious ones on the floor.

“I voted for moving on.” Demeter said, truthfully. “I was overruled.”

I nodded and smiled, because when I checked my party information, the spot where Hestia was listed as a wife / goddess wasn't greyed out and only said it was conditional instead of saying it was suspended like before. I had to assume it all depended on if she would accept me back after I died and in my new body.

Mind you, I was 6 feet 3 inches tall now and in my physical prime, when before I was only 5 foot 8 inches and only just started recovering from the Starvation condition. It was quite the change for me to have gone through in what she thought was only a few seconds.

“I hope what just happened won't cause you all to arbitrarily sentence me again without bothering with the actual tribunal, because if I get another summons for one, I'm going to ignore the blatant trap.” I told her and let Holy Lightning flow over my hands, making her eyes go wide. “Before you think you can do that and force me to show up again, I'll do more to the Tower of Babel than add an unnecessary skylight.”

Demeter looked up through the huge hole that went through hundreds of floors and all the way up to the top and revealed the sky. “I'll let the others know.”

I nodded and waved a hand at the two women on the floor. They floated up into the air and I didn't say anything else before I stepped with them from there and appeared on the teleportation circle back at the Hephaestus Familia's compound. Since it hadn't been that long since I had left, the party's guard Aiz Wallenstein, Liliruca our support carrier, and Ryuu that taught me healing spells, still stood there.

“Hello, my lovely loves.” I said with a huge smile on my face. “It's so nice to see you after so long.”

Aiz blushed only slightly, Lili looked shocked, and Ryuu gave me a bit of a glare.

It took me a moment to remember that she wasn't one of the women I had slept with the last time I was here. “My apologies for being so forward, Miss Lyon. It's been so long that I forgot we hadn't progressed past the start of a friendship.”

That made all three women give me shocked looks.

“I need to deliver Hephaestus to her room and Hestia to the guest quarters.” I said to avoid the awkward atmosphere. “I'll be back soon.”

Their shock didn't go away when I stepped away from there and into Hephaestus' bedroom. I levitated the healed goddess onto her bed and thought about waking her, then chose not to. I could handle that confrontation later. Right now, I needed to see to Hestia's welfare and stepped with her to the guest room she used when visiting the compound.

I set her onto the bed and sat beside her. I looked down at her face and smiled as all the moments we had together came back to the front of my mind. I remembered having so much fun with her, even though we hadn't been a Familia for very long. That reminded me I needed to recreate my armor, since I was going to become Bell Cranel again, and I stepped from there to the underground apartment.

My work room was just as I left it, with the multiple shelves of mismatched armor pieces that had no enchantments on them. It took only moments to grab the pieces I needed and I reformed them into a copy of the armor I had before. I had to create another under-armor bodysuit and made it like my superhero suit, only black. I attached the armor pieces to it and then equipped it.

The enchantments activated and I sighed at the familiar feeling of security they gave me. I didn't need the armor, though. It was just an affectation that would let me acclimate back into my life a lot easier than if I didn't have it. Of course, without the limits on my magic that they had before, I easily improved the design and effectiveness to give myself several boosts.

The next thing I made were portkey necklaces and formed them to fit each of the women's personalities, then added various protections to keep them safe. With the presents ready, I stepped back to Hestia's guest room and sat down again. I only had to wait a few minutes for her to wake up and she gasped when she saw me in the full armor I created to promote her Familia.

“We have a lot to talk about, my goddess.” I said and handed her a hearth pendant.

Hestia took it and caught her breath when she felt the enchantments on the thing. “B-Bell?”

“Yes, a lot of things.” I said with a warm happy smile.