The following day I was awoken at the damned crack of dawn by Bell gently nudging me awake. "Jake, you got to wake up for the Wargame. Come on I made you breakfast and a lunch to go." Bell spoke softly making me groan but I nonetheless opened my eyes to Bell's encouragement.
Bell was leaning over me wearing a loose large dress shirt that hung down on her shoulders, a tight-fitting apron, and some slightly tanned shorts that almost matched her skin tone that made it look like she wasn't even wearing shorts.
"Come on Jake you are going to be late!" Bell chided me as I rolled up out of bed while yawning and rubbing my eyes.
"Alright alright, Bell, I am up. Let me get washed so I can get ready for today." I said patting Bell on the head as I stood up to stretch and as Bell hurried out of the room to take care of getting properly dressed herself.
Once I got all my tribulations of the day dealt with, I yawned as I exited the bathroom to go to the kitchen and eat a hearty breakfast made by Bell who blushed in happiness at my joy at her meal.
"Here Jake. I made you lunch for today and Beatrice and Hestia helped make meals for you to keep in your pocket space, so you don't have to worry about actually cooking. You just got to reheat the dinners and the rest of the meals are sandwiches and other simple stuff." Bell explained all but hovering and fretting for me as I was going to be doing the Wargame on my own.
"Don't worry Bell I got a plan." I soothed the bunny and even leaning in to give Bell a quick hug before I separated from her to give her a quick kiss on the forehead which made her squawk in outrage at my surprise attack.
As I separated from Bell, I poked her cheek. "Alright, Bell I am leaving the safety of my goddess in your hands so keep the weirdo's away from her," I said wryly as I still was worrying about what in the world Filvus wanted and what Seshat saw in her soul as she inscribed the Falna upon her along with her weird fate sight stuff she kept from me.
Bell just hugged her head into my chest silently giving her own support to me leaving me to only pat her soft white hair as I introspectively thought about how weird my life had become.
I had gone from a Midwestern American whose only experience with the violence that was so common in Orario was smacking other people my age with sticks and video games... Which did little to prepare me for the sight of people being mulched by monsters even if the experience I had as the stick-swinging king of my childhood did actually help me a bit in fighting other adventurers.
But the realization that the people I saw mulched under monsters affected me more than the people I killed with my own hands had filled my thoughts after the Evilus attack hence why I didn't want to slaughter the Apollo Familia.
I may have come from Earth and maybe it was stupid or weak of me, but I was proud of my still mostly intact morals, and I refused to be some psychopath that just kills or tortures anyone who irritates me.
'But being a proud American I am a firm believer of lethal self-dense so if someone actually messes with me or mine, I will shoot them in the face with an actual shotgun!' I thought as I broke the hug between me and Bell as I smiled at her. "Ok, Bell I am going to raid the storage facility for metal and stuff... Don't tell Seshat till after I leave!" I pleaded putting my hands together in a prayer in front of Bell who giggled at the sight.
"Fine just hurry up and get going. Beatrice will probably get up soon... Good luck and be safe Jake." Bell said finally as I left the room to loot the storage room of stuff before I left the tower and property to head to the designated spot, I was to be handed the flag.
-
A long while later as I dealt with the Guild and Ganesha members guarding the gates to Orario I then for the first time in this life, left the city and headed south of Orario quickly in case there were Evilus members in wait for me. But luckily there was nothing and no one on the lonely roads leading to Orario that bothered me other than a random squad of surface goblins that broke through the forest I was traveling through to attack me.
"God you guys are so weak," I muttered as I finished killing the surface goblins with my Teardrop Cleaver. Not only were they trash mobs but with them being merely surface monsters they were half as strong without the dungeon fueling them with a monster stone. That and level one monsters that weren't an Aberrant class of its race were a joke in of itself nowadays as the adventurers of Orario had adapted to the new monster variants.
Finally, after another half an hour of traveling, I found the castle I was supposed to 'defend' with a kiosk lit up with several torches and a Ganesha Familia member standing outside the kiosk guarding the Guild member obviously waiting for me to hand me the flag or whatever.
As I approached, I saw the Ganesha adventurer nod to me, and I couldn't really recognize the lion beastkin dude, but just because I didn't know him didn't mean I was going to be rude or whatever. "Hey, I am Jake of the Seshat Familia. Can I talk to the Guild person?" I announced myself with the man raising an eyebrow.
"I recognize you. And that weird-as-hell glowing armor and the fleshy sword is good enough proof that you are who you say you are. Anyway, go ahead, my name is Blaine, and several Ganesha members are in the area to make sure Evilus don't do anything stupid like ruin the Wargame, so don't attack people wearing bright orange clothes like mine." Blaine warned me and I nodded while taking in the... Disgusting combo of bright orange pants and a jacket the lion man was wearing.
"Jake get on in here! You can gawk at their stupid clothes later!" I heard a woman yell and as I entered the tent while the Ganesha member curse his god for making the uniform so neon damned orange.
As I walked into the tent, I saw a familiar half-elf sorting out a couple of papers who wryly smiled seeing me enter. "Hello, Eina, how have you been," I asked politely as Eina shrugged.
"Oh, you know trying to keep Bell from killing herself in the dungeon. At least she doesn't bring me the stress of having a whole other Familia breathing down the solitary member in the adventurer's Familia I am guiding... Rose is pissed at you for that by the way." Eina told me matter-of-factly as she stacked her paperwork.
"Riighttt..." I stretched out the word before I continued. "So, what's the rules and how much can I cheat?" I asked directly making Eina roll her eyes.
"There is typically no 'cheating' in a Wargame. Well normally anyway for this event there are two rules. The flag must be in 'clear view'" she said making quotations are the clear view part as she looked at the large golden flag embroidered with glowing golden threads. "And lastly you cannot summon a Monster Rex or more specifically you cannot summon any monster you do not have control of." Eina finished before yawning.
"Now I have been here already for an hour waiting to give this message so when the guards rotate, I will be going home for a nice, pleasant nap before going back to work at the Guild. Do you have any questions?" Eina asked and I firmly shook my head as I smiled.
"Nope... No questions at all Eina. You have a pleasant nap. I know I am going to later as well." I said in a friendly manner making her blink in surprise, as I whisked away the flag and all but pranced away as I realized the gods of Orario are still dumbasses.
For all that they focused on my making of scary ass monsters, they neglected to remember everything I make is literally unbreakable without a Terraria Pickaxe/Axe which I have made sure to never give to anyone.
And in a defense-style Wargame... I am going to live a comfortable next three days without needing to fight a single damned battle.