"Bell-kun~"
After finishing her morning wash-up, Hestia, barefoot and wearing a short white dress, bounced cheerfully into Bell's room. But the moment she stepped inside, she froze. She'd expected that, after sleeping an entire day, Bell would have been up early. Yet here she was, already awake—and he was still lying in bed.
"Hestia, stop running around in the room."
Just as Hestia was puzzling over why Bell was still asleep, Hephaestus walked up behind her. A quick glance into the room made her pause as well.
'He's been asleep for a whole day now, hasn't he? Why hasn't he gotten up?'
Three days of nonstop work without sleep would definitely take a toll, especially on a kid who'd only just started out as an adventurer. That kind of exhaustion was understandable—but this still felt like too much. Hephaestus narrowed her eyes and looked more closely. Her pupils contracted sharply.
'What the—his life force has increased this much? And it's still rising?'
For those born in Genkai, life force was essentially tied to lifespan.
Ordinary people didn't have a life force that increased endlessly. Instead, it rose and fell in accordance with each race's developmental stage.
In essence, life force reflected a person's physical vitality and whether they were in a growth or decline phase. Everyone had a fixed ceiling for their life force—reaching that limit usually meant they'd hit the peak of their life.
For a growing child, an increase in life force was normal. But what Hephaestus was seeing had clearly gone far beyond what should've been possible at Bell's age. It had skyrocketed to three or four times the expected maximum.
And yet she was sure that just yesterday, Bell's life force had been well within the normal range. For such a drastic change to happen in a single day—it was just too sudden.
While Hephaestus was deep in thought, Hestia had already approached Bell's bedside. As she got closer, she noticed subtle spasms running through his body. They weren't dramatic, but they were frequent. Her expression immediately shifted to worry, and she quickly turned to Hephaestus, who was still frozen at the doorway.
"Hephaestus, what's wrong with Bell-kun?"
"Yeah… I was about to ask the same thing."
Snapped out of her thoughts, Hephaestus walked slowly to Bell's side. The spasms were clearly visible. Under normal circumstances, they would've called someone right away—but this clearly wasn't a typical situation.
She carefully checked Bell's mental and physical condition and found that his body was completely tense. Even in sleep, his expression was strained—and whenever she touched him, it only worsened. From that alone, Hephaestus had already reached a conclusion.
"There's been some kind of change in his body. Just look at his face—you can tell he was in serious pain. But he toughed it out all on his own, didn't even make a sound."
Hephaestus might not have been a medical expert, but she wasn't clueless either. Gods who didn't specialize in healing could still recognize the basics. They just didn't have the same detailed understanding as those who did.
There were many causes for muscle spasms, and not all of them were so straightforward. Some were symptoms of deeper issues. But when it was just simple spasms, one common trigger stood out:
Pain.
Intense pain.
It was a well-known cause of muscle spasms. How much pain it took to provoke such a reaction, though, depended entirely on the person. Those with stronger constitutions could naturally endure more. But Bell was still just a rookie—a kid who'd only recently received his Falna. His constitution definitely wasn't anything special. Which meant whatever pain had caused this reaction must have been extreme.
'If he were just an average Level 1 adventurer, he'd probably be dead by now.'
That was the answer Hephaestus arrived at internally. She wouldn't dare say it aloud in front of Hestia—if she did, the idiot would probably run off and start asking every god she could find for help. The fewer people who knew about this, the better. Keeping it between the two of them was ideal.
"There's something abnormal going on in his body. Hestia, keep a close eye on his life force."
"Life force?"
Hestia immediately focused her vision—and then she saw it. Bell's life force was practically spilling out of his body.
"But... that can't be right. It shouldn't be increasing this fast. Bell-kun's condition was completely stable before. How could he change this much in just a day?"
It was clear Hestia understood the implications of life force. And because she understood, she was even more bewildered by the sudden transformation happening within Bell.
Hephaestus had come to the same conclusion. Still, the fact remained: his body had changed, and it had happened overnight. That alone told her one thing for certain—this boy was either born different, or he was something else entirely. From his aura, he was definitely human—not some monster wearing a human disguise. Still, another possibility crossed her mind.
'Could he be a child raised by the Evilus?'
That explanation made a lot more sense. The Evilus was known for training incredibly talented individuals. But their purpose in raising them was fundamentally different from that of the gods—while the gods nurtured their Familia for joy and connection, the Evilus raised theirs to destroy Orario.
It was a plausible theory—but Hephaestus didn't quite buy it. No matter what schemes the Evilus had in play, they wouldn't just toss out someone this gifted as bait. If they wanted to attract the attention of the gods, there were far easier and cheaper ways to do it. Besides, the boy's cautious and low-key behavior didn't line up with that kind of setup.
Given that the Evilus wasn't a bunch of fools, Hephaestus leaned toward a different conclusion: this boy might simply be a unique outlier.
As for the changes taking place in him—when she considered the skills and magic he possessed, Hephaestus felt this kind of transformation wasn't that surprising after all.