5.2 Getting that Tramp Stamp

A/N: You know the drill guys.

Here is a bit of a key:

{this is The Game talking to the MC and also system messages}

"This is speaking out loud"

'This is thoughts'

{{This is Gods saying Godly things, in a Godly way}}

-----------------------------------

!!!

Hestia shivered and almost immediately jumped up to her feet like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. She whipped her head around, her twin tails following. "Who's there!?"

Ramiel moved to sit on the side of the bed and ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "That's [The Game]. The sarcastic asshole that lives in either my head or soul or wherever."

"Rami-kun!"

{Love you too sweet cheeks.}

"Aaaanyway. You were saying, about showing her instead?"

{Here.}

All of a sudden, A semi-transparent, milky-white window blinked into existence. Nonchalantly floating in the air in front of the young man and after a momentary sharp pain in his head, he instinctively knew how to physically interact with it.

He wrapped a hand around the still wary Goddess's waist and pulled her into his lap so that they could both see. For a moment, she forgot about everything, closed her eyes and snuggled back into his chest, sighing contentedly.

Ramiel could appreciate that but felt like one of them should keep things moving before he himself became lost in her warmth. So, he tapped her on the shoulder and amongst her grumbles, gestured towards the floating screen.

{Sup shortstack.}

Hestia's eyes went wide and Ramiel just rolled his. She raised her hand and waved at the screen. "H-H-Hi."

{Okay, that was cute. You're up big guy.}

Firstly, he showed her his status, explained what each skill including [Gamers Mind] and [Gamers Body] did, what each different Stat stood for and how the Exp worked. Obviously, she enquired as to why there were two different levels and that led into a basic explanation on the class system and what each class could feasibly do. That also inevitably ended with Hestia asking if it was possible to change classes to which he explained how it could be switched when certain conditions were met.

It was a good clarification of how his relative nonchalance had already started to rub off on her when she simply commented "As expected of my Rami-kun!" after finding out that he would auto-learn some magic, as well as being immune to Ignis Fatuus after selecting the Mage class.

After that, they decided to look at the notification of a completed quest.

…

{Quest Chain Unlocked!}

Familia Series

…

…

{Quest Completed!}

Familia Series: Divine Child

Join a Familia and receive a Falna

Rewards: 500Exp, +1 Gacha Token

…

…

{New Quest!}

Familia Series: Taking Command

Officially become the Captain of your Familia

Rewards: ???, ???, ???

…

Ramiel and Hestia both snuggled closer together when reading. "We will go to the Guild tomorrow to register our Familia, okay. I already talked with Miss Tulle today about registering."

Hestia's eyes narrowed a little but she still nodded and pumped her fist. "Mhmm!"

"For now, let's claim the reward."

…

+500Exp, +1 Gacha Token

Level Up

Level Up

…

"I will need you to do the Falna update again after I allocate these stat points, or I will be feeling extremely uncomfortable."

"Of course Rami-kun!"

"Try not to be too shocked Hestia. One thing you need to know about Gamers is that we unceremoniously and unscrupulously abuse every method of growing stronger." His grin grew mischievous. "In other words, we cheat!" He exclaimed jovially while allocating the free points, making his status look like this

…

{Name: Ramiel Gedeon (The Gamer)}

Level: 4

Class: Warrior(4/100) - {Class Bonus - (+1 to CON/STR/DEX per level)}

EXP: (170/400)

Race: Human (Race Bonus - HP/MP/SP = CON/INT/STR x10)

HP: 140 {(0.1% regen p/s) (Every 25 points in DEX will give 0.05% extra regen p/s)}

MP: 80 {(0.1% regen p/s) (Every 25 points in WIZ will give 0.05% extra regen p/s)}

SP: 150 {(0.1% regen p/s) (Every 25 points in AGI will give 0.05% extra regen p/s)}

CON: 14 (+4)

STR: 15 (+5)

DEX: 12 (+4)

AGI: 10 (+3)

INT: 8

WIZ: 4

CHA: 29

LUK: 85

Unallocated Stat Points: 0

…

Ramiel rolled over and his Goddess once again eagerly straddled him in the less fun way.

While she recorded his new status he was mentally going over his newly gained stats and planning for the next day's actions.

Ahh, There was that warm drop of Ichor and the refreshing feeling of freedom it brought with it.

His damage output had almost doubled since his first dive and those new stats should enable him to survive the first four floors of the dungeon tomorrow with ease.

If the Exp gains increased with each floor, it also made sense to push first for physical stats so that he could ensure a steady influx of Exp.

A sharp gasp from above.

There was no point in allocating any points for INT just yet as he didn't have any spells or skills that used MP other than [Observe] which was, without a doubt, incredibly useful but also a non combat skill in the first place.

Something seemed to be shaking him around a bit.

His physical growth would already have to slow down when he got round to picking the Mage class later anyway as the WIZ stat in no way correlated to any Danmachi Basic Abilities but it would still be extremely important.

It would seem that Hestia had started to repeatedly tap him on the head at some point. "R-R-Rami-kun! You n-need to see t-this!"

…

Ramiel Gedeon

Level 1

Endurance: I63 - H147

Strength: I63 - H105

Dexterity: I42 - H126

Agility: I21 - I84

Magic: I0

…

She held the parchment in front of his face, while a look of disbelief still covered her own. "Oh, they went up quite a bit, it's not a bad thing."

"N-no, but it's too fast!"

Hestia got off of his back, then the bed and began to pace around the room while muttering to herself under her breath, this time quiet enough that he wasn't privy to her thoughts. After a few laps, she seemingly decided something and came to a stop facing away from him with her fists balled up and her eyes squeezed tightly shut as if internally struggling with something.

When she finally turned around, her whole demeanour had changed, practically bleeding nervousness. Ramiel noticed that she had bitten her bottom lip ragged and was immediately concerned but when she opened her eyes, those beautiful azure globes, were tinged with a hint of worry and betraying a sadness that hadn't been there a moment before, his breath hitched.

When she spoke again, her voice was barely a whisper.

"Rami-kun, I don't know how much information you have about this world but any of the top Familia's in Orario would happily go to war with each other to have someone with your potential join them.

You could go to Loki, Freya or even Hephaestus right now and they would welcome you with open arms. They could provide you with everything you would ever need and I-i don't want to hold you back." Her eyes got a little moist and just saying those words seemed to upset her greatly but it would have definitely hurt more if she kept it from him and he left her later on.

Now, one one hand, this absolutely wasn't the time to tease her but on the other hand, her lack of belief in him had really started to grind the young man's gears. So, in the end, he decided to put on a contemplative look accompanied by a simple "...Oh."

That didn't last long as those big blue eyes began to promptly fill up with unshed tears and she was once again utilising her uncanny ability to look exactly like an abandoned puppy.

...He caved instantly. "Okay, okay don't cry. I already know these things, no need to worry about me joining them. I don't need their money or their resources and I managed to make over 3000 Valis just from scouting the 1st floor for a couple of hours today. Oh, and I already have around two hundred thousand Valis for equipment which is more than I need right now."

"Eh."

"I also already informed Lord Ouranos that I was going to join you when I turned down the invitation to join his Familia earlier on in the day."

"Ehhh."

"Oh and just a little FYI, Freya was the one that spotted me first and is most probably just a little bit… Okay, she's absolutely obsessed with me by now. My soul must look pretty good to her because she almost used her Arcanum to get a better look at it and that's how Ouranos found me all after all of a single minute within the city walls."

{Almost Definitely.}

"EHHHHH!"

Ramiel winced and covered his ears, a half-smirk hanging from his lips. "Also, if I had to hazard a guess. From tomorrow onwards, she is probably going to be both 'sort of' trying to kill me and also pursuing me romantically at the same time."

{Hestia.exe has stopped working.}

"... … … ...WHAT?!"

-----------------------------------

Once Hestia had calmed down and Ramiel had assured her that he knew exactly what he was getting himself into when coming to Orario and joining her Familia, she had regained some confidence.

He also made sure to explain the details of his deal with the guild which made her feel relieved and ask her to find out about hiding his Falna so that other gods or nosey elven princesses couldn't easily find out about him.

She promised to ask 'Hephy' the next day and Ramiel told her it was okay to explain the growth skill to her if she needed some persuasion.

After he had reassured her, Hestia's feelings about her first 'child' seemed to have transcended pride and entered the territory of a strange sort of smugness at the fact that he had chosen her over Loki or Freya.

That was until she remembered something else from their earlier talk and she went from laughing and mumbling under her breath about a "Stupid flat chested Goddess" to excitably bouncing around again.

"Ooh ooh! Rami-kun, what's Gacha?"

Ramiel's pupils shrunk and a little bit of madness bled its way into his crimson eyes before he managed to catch himself by chanting his own personal mantra.

'you're better than this! You don't need the Gacha! You don't want to relapse'

"R-relapse!? What does that mean Rami-kun?"

Oh, he'd let the inner voice leak, hadn't he.

Ramiel met Hestia's gaze with absolute seriousness and grasped her shoulders. Sensing something very wrong with the situation, she closed her mouth immediately.

"Listen to me Hestia, Gacha is both wonderful and evil, both sacred and blasphemous... With it, you can achieve the utmost peak of happiness or experience the deepest depths of despair. You must always remember to respect the Gacha or it will chew you up and spit you out!"

The Goddess gulped and nodded fervently even using his full name. "Go on Ramiel, tell me. I can take it."

Ramiel nodded to himself. "The Gacha itself is a roulette type chance game that has a few amazing prizes intermixed with a large amount of absolute rubbish.

Back in my old world, companies would use the Gacha as a way to make money from unsuspecting mooks by giving them a rare prize for free on their first roll to reel them in. Then they would charge for every single roll after that."

He said that with such severity that Hestia nodded strongly again, that did indeed sound tempting.

"The trouble is, the deck was obviously stacked against the player from the get-go. Most rolls after the first one would only ever give you trash that was worth far less than the chance to roll the Gacha cost!"

Ramiel was now gesturing wildly with his arms. "The really dangerous part would be how easy it was to pay for extra rolls. It literally only took the press of a button and you would be charged before you even had time to regret it! But that's not even the worst of it! Oh, no! The more you spent, the higher number of 'bonus' rolls you would get, tempting you to spend more and more each time!"

He finally took a breath and glanced up to see a worried look on Hestia's face. Worried for him, he noticed. Perhaps he had taken that too far. Oops.

"*Ahem* Anyway, I sometimes get Gacha Rolls as a reward from Quests and probably as a rare drop from stronger monsters and I guess the reward could be literally anything within the vast multiverse. From the Holy to Evil, from Divine Tier to the Trash Tier but I digress. Last time I got something amazing but also extremely dangerous that would benefit absolutely no one if I brought it out now."

"Oh, I wanna see what we get! Roll it now, roll it now!" She was back to excited again.

"Okay, Roll the Gacha!"

…

1x Item: Divine Comforter

…

"What!"

…

{Divine Comforter

Probably the most comfortable, single-piece duvet, either side of heaven.}

…

Hestia, ever the fan of sleeping, relaxing or just plain old lounging around in bed, had stars in her eyes, whereas Ramiel was decidedly unimpressed.

"Huh, is this the beginning of the slice of life arc?"

Still, he dutifully redeemed and withdrew it from his inventory before handing it to his beaming Goddess who promptly spread it over the bed and dived under it.

"Ahhhh! It's soooo soft!"

She did look absolutely adorable like that, so maybe it wasn't all that bad...

He just left her to it, leaned back against the headboard and continued to form some rough plans for the future

-----------------------------------

Tomorrow was a day off for Hestia which was lucky because he hadn't broached the topic of her quitting her job yet and he didn't really want her to spend all day alone out here.

He would need to look into somewhere nicer and preferably closer to Babel to rent. That would, however, take a while and his funds may be lacking.

Maybe he should get her a pet in the meantime.

Ramiel's eyes slid over to where she was snuggling and making strange noises underneath the comforter and he shook his head. Then he would have to take care of two small animals...

"Rami-kun…" Came the muffled voice of said, not pet. "Why do I feel like you thought something rude there?"

"Must be your imagination." He deadpanned. "Well, it's getting late and we should get some sleep. We need to go out early." He smirked internally, slowly sat up and made to move off of the bed when a tiny hand darted out from underneath the comforter and grabbed his wrist.

"...y"

Ramiel smirked. "What did you say, my dear?"

"...ay"

His smirk grew wider. "I didn't quite catch that."

Hestia threw open the comforter, a look of righteous indignation upon her flushed face as she practically yelled. "I said Staaaaa- Eeep!"

Ramiel of course used that opportunity to slip under the comforter and sweep her into his arms and it wasn't until she dropped it back down on top of them that he noticed three things.

The first one was coming to the realisation that for the first time in both lives, he legitimately wanted to take a given gift back and keep it for himself...

The second was the understanding that he could just share it with Hestia from now on, followed closely by intense relief at never having to compare it to another comforter again.

The third was his acute awareness of how he had never actually put a shirt back on and how he now had an extremely beautiful, extremely soft and extremely pleasant smelling woman in his arms.

One who was more than happy for him to be touching her, attention starved as she was.

Hestia for all her Hestianess seemed to just be content to relish in the close contact of another person without thinking too much. In fact, her eyes were already closed and there was a large smile on her lips. "...Good- ...night, Rami-kun…" She mumbled in between yawns and wriggled a bit closer.

"Goodnight Hestia." How the hell was he supposed to sleep now?

-----------------------------------

As it turns out, really damn well!

Despite his distraction, the comforter allowed Ramiel to drift off to sleep just fine. He had barely managed to spam Observe enough to empty his MP before unconsciousness had claimed him. Thinking about that, He wasn't sure whether he went into Mind Down or if he was just tired and much to his frustration, the Game was still keeping silent on that one.

Part of him was extremely afraid to open his eyes, he was terrified by the thought of everything being a delusion or a dream.

That was until he felt something extremely soft and springy pushing back into his diamond-hard morning wood.

When that was also accompanied by a quiet "Mmm, Rami-kun, ehehehe." That terror rapidly drained away to be replaced by something far more pleasant.

His eyes snapped open to find that Hestia had turned around in his arms during the night and was now pressing her very shapely rear onto his painfully hard dick. By the sound of her pleasant humms, she was having a great dream about him too…

Many thoughts went through his head in just a few seconds but he eventually decided that although it was going to blueball him badly, he couldn't bring himself to do anything lewd to the innocent Goddess he only met yesterday, especially while she was sleeping.

A little grinding probably wouldn't hurt and he could easily play it off as being asleep but... it kind of felt like cheating and not the good sort of cheating, so instead, he carefully extricated himself and went to make breakfast.

{Hell must have frozen over because I actually agree with you.}

-----------------------------------

It was around 6 AM when Ramiel woke up and after spending some time familiarizing himself with the kitchen (mostly trying to get the magic stove working) and cooking breakfast, it was almost 7. He didn't go too far, cooking a simple omelette with ham, cheese and onion along with a thick slice of buttered toast and a glass of orange juice to accompany.

Unfortunately, instant coffee was absolutely not a thing here and he was vastly underprepared for turning dried beans into that delicious brown holy water.

"Soon…" He said wistfully to himself. Just because hours/days/months in character creation had guaranteed that he would look good, no matter the time of day it didn't mean that he felt any more human than the next guy at 6 AM okay!

Ramiel finished cooking the breakfast, sadly without gaining a new skill, and loaded it onto two plates before bringing them through to the bedroom/living room/dingy basement. Setting them down on the small bedside table, he then began the gargantuan task of separating Hestia from the world's most comfortable comforter…

Surprisingly, it was easy to wake her up but Ramiel was absolutely sure that it would take a better man than he to coax her out of it, especially when she was pouting so adorably at him like that. He was still about to give it a half-hearted attempt… until she scrunched her eyes up, opened her mouth like a baby bird and chirped. "Feed me Rami-kun, feed me!"

Suffice to say, the young man lost all willpower to resist and she happily ate bite after bite from his fork until everything was finished.

"Wow! Thanks, Rami-kun. It's been so long since I had something nice to eat like that."

She said it so naturally and cheerfully yet Ramiel couldn't help but wince a little at the pang of sadness that followed hearing those words. However, he dutifully forced it down so as not to ruin the mood and quietly promised that she would never lack delicious food from now on.

Instead, he chuckled. "You should get used to it. I always did love to cook and good food is one of the joys of life!"

"Mhmm!"

After he had cleaned up the dishes, put on some of the new dark leather clothing and brushed his teeth (thankfully without the cringe-worthy dance), Ramiel sat behind Hestia while she washed herself up and untied her twin tails.

She turned her head slightly her mouth full of toothpaste and raised an eyebrow questioningly. With a small flourish of his hand, the young man summoned a hairbrush from his inventory. She grinned and giggled through the foam, turning around to finish up.

Just a couple of minutes later, she was humming a happy tune with her legs swinging about over the side of the bed as he brushed through her obsidian locks. The smile never left either of their faces but she did make the cutest little noise of discontent when he stopped brushing and started gathering up her hair to put it back into her iconic style.

Far be it for him to lower the adorableness levels, even if she did look exceptionally beautiful with her hair down.

"Although your hair does look amazing when it's down, being so long, it would get in the way. We should also get you some new ribbons today, these are ragged." He chided gently.

"Rami-kun... that's fine. You, you don't have to spend money on me like that." When she spoke it came out in such a quiet and subdued voice that he had to do a double-take.

He probably needed to be firm here. Goddess, give him strength. "Hestia... remember what we talked about yesterday?"

She shrunk her neck a bit at that. "B-but Rami-kun, you are already doing s-so much for me, for the Familia. I-i don't want you to think that I'm taking advantage of your kindness."

Ramiel sighed, thinking it was a good job his hair was already white. "Hestia. I said that we would be not just a Familia but a real family right? That means that what is mine is just as much yours too you know. I also strongly believe that you deserve to have all the nice things in life and you should accept that even if it's for no other reason than because I think you should have them."

In response, she just leaned back further into his chest, only speaking after a couple of quiet minutes. "Thank you Rami-kun."

-----------------------------------

The taxi-cart ride to Babel was about as interesting as the day before which was to say, not all that much but hey, he did get a good look at the Hostess of Fertility so that was something. Though now that Ramiel had seen the somewhat seedier parts of Orario, he would have to admit that the novelty of the colourful medieval fantasy city had worn off a little.

What made everything better, however, was the bubbly and excitable Goddess by his side. Hestia hadn't stopped bouncing up and down or grinning excitedly since they boarded the vehicle. With her eyes wide and her head on a swivel, she took in all the sights an early morning main street of the world's biggest city had to offer.

Ramiel, however, couldn't keep his eyes off of her. She was somewhat different today, somehow, she looked lighter, unburdened and in the young man's eyes, she was rather dazzling.

When their ride came to an end near the base of the Tower, Hestia's excitement turned into determination as she glared at the Divine stone as if it were her greatest opponent yet. Of course, being Hestia, it was adorable. After paying the driver, Ramiel offered her a hand down. She took it without hesitation and then just kept on walking... practically dragging him into Babel without a backward glance.

As they walked together, hand in hand across the guild floor, Ramiel scanned the available desks and his crimson eyes met a pair of shining emeralds framed by those sexy, sexy glasses. He offered up a charming smile and the woman, Eina Tulle raised a hand in greeting.

"Ramiel!"

He pulled Hestia over to the half-elf supervisor's free desk and offered a greeting of his own. "Good morning Miss Tulle. This is my new Goddess, Lady Hestia."

Eina offered a small bow. "Greetings lady Hestia." Said Goddess puffed out her chest, once again doing brilliant things to her bust. Eina's attention then turned back to Ramiel and she smiled slightly before speaking in a hushed voice. "I'm free now if you're ready to complete all of the necessary proceedings?"

The young man's smile grew wider and he nodded. Good, she had remembered he preferred discretion. She gestured towards a private room off to the side of the hall and… *grrrrrrr* Ramiel looked down towards the Goddess still gripping his hand only to see her looking the other way.

...Strange.

-----------------------------------

All in all, the registration was fairly easy and only required filling out and signing a lot of paperwork. It was mostly to do with taxation, funds and liability. Ramiel of course changed the beneficiary of his will to be the Hestia Familia, he also merged his bank account with the Familia one and then it was done.

…

Name: Hestia Familia.

Captain: Ramiel Gedeon

Type: Exploration

Rank: I

…

The Familia crest could be decided and submitted at a later date and he would leave the design to Hestia because drawing had absolutely nothing to do with blades or guns, so enough said there. The only problem was the not so subtle but still arguably cute little glares that Hestia had been occasionally sending Eina's way throughout the entire process.

The contrast was only made so obvious by the way she would smile radiantly at him whenever they needed to fill anything out together or she thought he was looking her way.

This caused Ramiel to almost audibly groan when he put two and two together, realising that the great enemy His Goddess had summoned her determination to face was not another God, nor was it Babel or even the Familia registration process. No, it was his pretty little half-elf advisor.

{It doesn't make this any less funny but it might make you feel better to know that Freya would have probably been a lot more openly and ...violently jealous here.}

'Quiet you! It's still adorable for now.'

When everything was finished, Ramiel asked Eina for a moment in private with his Goddess and she left after sending him a gentle, almost sympathetic smile. As soon as the door closed, he turned his gaze to Hestia who by that point was touching her two index fingers together looking pretty apologetic. "...Rami-kun, I'm sorry I-i Jus- Ahhh!"

He couldn't help it, he pulled her out of the chair, into his arms, only to spin her around in the air while rubbing their cheeks together. "You are just so cute when you're being all jealous like that!"

"Ahhh... B-but Rami-kun, don't you mind?"

The young man cocked an eyebrow. "Mind? Why would I mind? In fact, I'm flattered." Then he smirked and brought his lips close to her ear, his next words carrying with it a puff of warm air that left her shivering. "After all, it just means you want me all for yourself~."

The flustered Goddess took a few minutes to come back down to earth and then she shouted something along the lines of "ImgoingtovisitHephymeetyoudownherelaterbye!" before practically fleeing the room and leaving him alone with his thoughts.

With nothing to do but check his recent notifications, Ramiel retrieved his trusty ashtray and lit up a cigarette.

…

{Quest completed!}

Familia Series: Taking Command

Officially become the Captain of your Familia

Rewards: +500Exp, CHA +10, Perk

…

…

{Perk Unlocked - [Leadership]}

[Leadership] - People acting under your direction are more likely to perform to the best of their ability.

…

…

{Title Acquired!}

[Captain of the Hestia Familia] - Boosts morale of any group led by you.

…

Ramiel sighed and ran his free hand through his hair.

'Extremely unspecific yet again… Would it kill you to make things easier to understand.'

{Yes.}

'Come on buddy... the explanation for the title is fine, but the one for Leadership…'

'I mean what the fuck does "more likely" even mean? Where are the percentages, the numbers?!'

{Numbers are about as fucking boring as your internal monologues.

Do you want reality and immersion or do you want to min/max your own life, relying only on numbers for every decision?}

'Unsavoury as always but…'

That was actually right, wasn't it. He didn't want to truly treat this world like a game because then that would make the people here something akin to... NPC's.

Everyone, including Hestia...

Well, that settled it. He couldn't do that because, after just a single day, she was already so much more than that to him, wasn't she?

Eina thankfully chose that time to knock once before opening the door, saving him from too much self-reflection.

She took a single step into the room and glanced around, her eyes flickering to the ashtray. "Normally, I would not interfere with the life choices of Adventurers under my care..." she said with a frown.

{False.}

In response, Ramiel raised a single eyebrow, his lips quirking in disbelief.

Eina, at least had the decency to look mildly embarrassed. "...I guess I deserved that. What I meant, Ramiel, was that whatever you have there doesn't seem to be especially healthy."

The young man smirked and clapped the half-smoked cigarette between both of his palms as it vanished in a shower of golden embers, making sure to brush his elbow against the ashtray and store it away as he did so. "Thank you for your concern Miss Tulle but I'm a big boy."

The pretty little half-elf blinked owlishly before pinching the bridge of her nose and taking a seat opposite him. "And what is it that I can do for you today Ramiel?"

Ramiel adjusted his seating posture and adopted an air of seriousness. "I intend to scout the first four floors of the dungeon today so it would help me greatly if you could give me any necessary information."

She reacted immediately and in the exact same manner, he expected. "What!? Ramiel, you shouldn't bite off more than you can chew here. You may have previous combat experience, sure but the dungeon is very different to the outside world."

The young man held up a hand. "Miss Tulle, I am fully aware of the risks and dangers involved with the dungeon which is why I am sticking to the first four floors. The Goblins and Kobolds on the first floor did not prove to be even the slightest of challenges, and that was before I had Falna or an appropriate weapon and when I had to face two groups in quick succession."

Eina crossed her arms. "Ramiel, leaving the fact that you faced groups of multiple monsters on the first floor aside, for now, that doesn't mean you should be reckless! Your overconfidence is going to get yourself killed!"

Now, this was why he wasn't especially fond of the woman in the source material. She definitely meant well but she clearly had a problem with showing it beyond a professional scope which made her come off as annoying. Just because she was attempting to keep him safe in her own way, however, it didn't mean that Ramiel would allow her to dictate his actions.

The smile slowly slipped from his face. "Miss Tulle." He said sternly. "I am not a child. As much as I appreciate your concern, I was informing you of my plans and asking for you to provide me information to aid me in my endeavours, nothing more."

She bit her bottom lip in worry and frustration. "...But"

"Eina…" He said softly. "Let me just ask you something. Would you rather continue to insist against my own wishes, knowing full well that the way it ends is with me leaving this room, alone, and heading into the dungeon regardless…"

She looked conflicted but didn't interrupt.

"Or, would you rather first help me to prepare by providing the knowledge of how to survive down there, trust that I know my own body's limits and wish me good fortune?"

There was a certain chance that her pride would get in the way here, causing her to take his comments as just another rude Adventurer talking back to her. But if Ramiel were a betting man, and he absolutely was, he would bet on Eina adapting. Perhaps it was the genuine nervousness and concern she had shown for his well being but it had softened his heart for her a little as they were not such easy things to fake.

Just as he expected, she seemed to struggle for a moment but then her shoulders sagged and she relaxed her stern expression a little, allowing herself a small, tired smile. "...Fine." Then she leaned in close and pointed a finger at his nose. "But! You aren't leaving this room until I'm satisfied that you know enough mister."

Ramiel chuckled, flashed his best charming smile and as she averted her eyes, he took advantage of the fact to gently hold onto her outstretched hand. "Thank you, Eina."

-----------------------------------

Somewhere in the upper floors of Babel, Hestia scowled. "Eh, why do I suddenly feel so mad all of a sudden?

Gunununu. I bet it's that annoying elf woman sniffing after my Rami-kun again!"

-----------------------------------

A/N: I swear these chapters keep getting longer. The next chapter is some more Dungeon Diving!