ALL NOVEL Chapter 1
7th Heaven Chronicles
Chapter 1
And so they came, heroes once celebrated as saviors, but brought low by the death of their world. With memories of the lost and dreams of redemption, with hope yet in their hearts. They came… to the shining Labyrinth City of Orario, the only city in the world that has a dungeon, located at the western corner of the continent.
Orario is a great and strong city, overlooking the dungeon with a large number of first class adventurers. A city that is the last bastion of hundreds of gods who created their familia to stave off boredom. Passing through the opened gate, A young woman and her companions passed, entering at last a city whose history was written in blood.
It was while the city was in a transitory stage they came… three weary travelers whose arrival would set in motion great change.
Though none knew then how great…
---7HC---
Everyone turned to watch in amazement as a humongous carriage passed through the gates. The guards having already checked the duo driving it, their faces were hidden by the dusty hooded black cloak they wore. Their massive carriage was in the style of the Far-East, but never had the people from Orario set their eyes on a self propelled carriage of this size.
The carriage continued to advance in the city, the drivers looked around them seeing the diversity amongst the population; humans, demi-humans with different animal characteristics and others that they couldn't give a name to because of how new they were to this world. The people looked at them as well, making way for the humongous carriage.
As they drove onto the main road, the delicious smell of food wafted from the different stalls at the roadsides. The man’s stomach who was at the side of the woman who drove the carriage rumbled. The young woman was aware that this was the touristic part of the city as they had crossed the main gates.
"T-Seven, I am hungry." He had almost slipped when he called out her name.
The woman sighed, she understood. When they had appeared twenty kilometers from Orario they didn't have any food in the carriage or her bag. And prior to that they had baptized the carriage vigorously after getting summoned by the being who had given them this chance. They had just found each other again and emotion and pent up desire often overtook reason.
"Can you wait a bit more? We must go to Babel and buy some land first." Seven said not knowing what to do, should they stop or continue?
"We don't have the currencies to buy anything." Someone said behind them.
Wolf turned. It was another woman, she wore a tight black dress but just like the others her face was veiled by a dark hood, only a hint of light-brown hair was visible. Her outfit however, was pristine. She had stayed inside the carriage while the two others were driving and guarding their ride. She continued to walk, the enchantments on the carriage allowing her to not feel it move.
When she stopped at Wolf’s side, she patted his arm, the man stoically tried to not blush, making the woman grin impishly.
"A- I mean, Flower. We really don’t have anything?" It was almost a whine, but he caught himself in the end. As Wolf spoke, his belly rumbled again. Flower shrugged and she climbed in the coach seat at Wolf’s side.
"Nope. Hang in there, Wolf! I promise to make you a good meal later." She promised him in the end.
Breathing in and out, Wolf straightened himself in the coach. "Fine, it's a promise, alright?"
“Yes it is!” Flower happily answered.
She leaned against Wolf and placed her head on his shoulder. “Maybe after that we could have a little date slash reconnaissance?”
Without even hesitating, Wolf agreed. “You’re on.”
Seven grumbled, “Please don’t flirt while I’m driving.”
Placing Wolf’s arm between her breasts and holding on to his arm, Flower said, “Don’t be like that, Seven, you had him for yourself for over one hour.”
“Hmph.” Seven simply sat closer to Wolf this time, the man placed an arm around her shoulders, making her blush.
Flower laughed and said tauntingly, “You like having him near you, huh.”
They had time to pass the midway point to the Babel tower for Seven to finally say, “Yes, I do…”
The other two whipped their heads in shock at Seven but it was Flower who voiced concerns. “Oh you are being honest? Something bad is going to happen.”
“Hey!” Seven briefly turned her head to her friend and glared at her.
Flower laughed, then they bantered while driving until they reached the plaza where Babel was located. They stopped their carriage, and looked at the tall tower spearing through the sky; Seven thought that they had seen bigger, while Wolf and Flower thought that it was really old.
From the memories Seven remembered, Babel was built to stop the monsters within the dungeon from escaping. It acted as a lid, a fragile one. She asked herself why the monsters created by the dungeon didn’t simply riot from the lower depths and simply storm the surface, but maybe there was something she forgot that made it so this status quo perdured.
They parked the carriage in an unoccupied spot, took the bag of holding that contained all their riches and disembarked. As they left the carriage, a lot of people came around to admire it. As they approached the house, they could see it was made of wood with a blue tiled roof with asian influence, denoted by the rice paper windows and the sliding doors. Seeing all those people present, the trio became suspicious as they felt that some of those gathered gave off a bad vibe. Seven and the others looked at each other in tandem and nodded. Wolf chose to stay to keep guard on their things while the two women decided to exchange what resources they had into Valis, the currencies of this world.
As the two women walked inside the tower, they noticed the guards at the entrance and patrolling the lower floors. It seemed that the guild took it’s security very seriously; they spotted no video surveillance gear or anything high-tech. It really sank in that after seeing this hodgepodge of different sapient people that they are not on Gaia. However, they noticed a good number of mirrors everywhere and subtle gazes on them.
Seven decided that she wouldn’t underestimate this low tech world when it had magic and gods and spirits. Their tour of the first floor brought them to the Guild bank after asking directions from a shopkeeper.
They waited in line for a while and finally they were welcomed by a rotund bank teller with dog ears and black hair. He seemed like a sharp kind of person.
“We wish to open an account.” Seven told the demi-human.
He looked at the two women, he couldn’t guess at their races or individuals characteristics. “Very well, follow me.”
Someone replaced the teller at the counter, then they followed the man into a private well furnished room, with a desk and chairs as well as folder-shelves; it was well lit as well, built to be comfortable. It was an unusually high level of service from people still in the medieval era; but Seven reminded herself that they were in a Japanese Light Novel, so of course the author contaminated the setting with the prided efficiency of his land.
The banker invited the two women to sit on the cushioned chairs and began with, “From your clothes, I see that you’re coming from afar.”
It was Seven who answered. “Yes, we just arrived in Orario.”
Nodding as if used to such a state of affairs, the dog demi-human folded his hands together and asked, “My name is Farolt and I welcome you and wish you a good stay in our beautiful city. Are you here on business to open a shop or do you intend to become… Adventurers?”
“All of the above.” Flower intervened, she was smiling at the banker.
Farolt smiled back, he was glad that it wasn’t just a duo of women who wanted to become adventurers, they also wanted to open a business; it was good for Orario’s economy. “Ah, you are entrepreneurial warriors.”
Seven nodded sadly, crossed her legs and began the tale her and her companion had weaved. “We had shops before… but despite our best efforts to defend it, our city was destroyed, we took everything we owned and decided to move here; we've heard it is safe here in Orario.”
Farolt frowned at this, Orario was relatively safe, however, Rakia and maybe the Empire were safer. “If you wanted somewhere safe, why didn’t you just go to Rakia? They are certainly more organized.”
Seven waved him away instantly. “It’s too restrictive there, we are not for the forced military conscription by the familia there.”
“Military law is no fun.” Flower added her two cents.
Farolt chose to not pry further than this. “Ares is being bold as of late, you were right to come here. Let’s proceed to business, what type of account do you wish to open.”
Flower jerked into her seat, leaning forward and took the lead there. She asked a lot of questions to Farolt and they eventually settled on the business package offered by the Guild. Business accounts included a checking account, savings account, and a merchant services account. They were going to end up paying a premium fee for the business they intended to open in Orario.
When this was settled, Farolt inevitably asked where the money they intended to put into their account was. Seven stood up, put her bag on the lacquered tiled floor and began to take something out of it after opening it. Farolt’s eyes widened when Seven took out a really big metal chest, decorated with a wolf head engraved onto the lid.
When Seven put down the chest, it slammed loudly on the floor. Touching the heavy metal lock, Seven took out the key and unlocked the chest; with a little grinding sound, she opened the lid and inside there were rows of gold ingots neatly stacked onto each other. Farolt stood and walked around the desk and looked inside the chest.
Wordlessly, he looked at Seven for permission to take out one ingot; she smiled engagingly at him and he took out a shining bar. The banker started to appraise the item and laughed. “This is pure gold.”
“Yes, a chestful.” Flower piped up with a giggle from her seat.
The more he looked at the perfectly formed and pure gold ingots, the more Farlot told himself that there was something about those women that was strange. There was no deformity or unevenness, he surmised that they worked with someone who was a really talented blacksmith. “I see.”
The banker called a team of appraisers and the process of exchanging gold was stalled when the personnel began to argue between each other on how much all the gold was worth. Some of them had different skills to appraise material and they were getting different numbers on their values.
Farolt decided to cut short at the deplorable service they were doing and decided to just take the higher value that one of the employees had quoted.
"50 Millions Valis, take it or leave it." He lifted his hand and spread his five clawed fingers.
"One moment, I need to do some calculations." It was Flower’s turn to take the lead, she was the merchant in their little group.
Fifty million Valis is one point six million dollars and… it converts to twelve millions Gils. This was a lot of money! "We will take it. This is a good deal." She looked meaningfully into Seven’s eyes.
“Good.” Farolt nodded and turned to the three appraisers present and commanded, “Bring them their money, now you two, you have forms to fill out. I hope you are ready for it.”
Seven and Flower lifted their hands and did a high five. They spent the next thirty minutes getting everything ready for their business accounts. They were given a bunch of promissory notes; Seven lamented over the fact that they were in a medieval era world and didn’t have any technology that facilitated buying things. Flower explained to her what Promissory notes were, they were a bit like checks.
Once done, Seven asked their banker, "Can you refer us to a trusted real estate broker, please."
"Sure." Farolt shrugged.
Before they left he gave them his referral card and asked if they were satisfied with his service and that if they wanted he could become their dedicated agent in the bank. The girls accepted, put the empty chest back into Seven’s and left.
---7HC---
After buying their lands at the realtor, Seven and Flower decided to go shop at the fourth floor of Babel. They got the land centered around the old church at the western part of the city, it was the size of a little village. They had enough land to place the businesses they would eventually create.
While Flower went to shop for ingredients to cook a meal, Seven went on to buy materials from the smith shops. Most of them were held by the Hephaestus Familia, but she didn't want to buy any armor or weapon, they already had those in the bag. Copper, iron, steel and even the odd mithril ingots were available. Then she started to go buy construction tools and painting supplies, but given their qualities she found them subpar, she spent her allotted budget on tailoring supplies and fabrics, Seven wanted to create more clothes for the group.
Finally done, she met Flower at the house carriage; she was busy licking Wolf's tonsils when Seven arrived. After a bit of bickering they embarked into the carriage and departed for Orario’s western road to the land they bought.
---7HC---
(Hestia)
Old Church
She couldn’t believe it! Her niece just kicked her out of her home. What was she supposed to do now? She knew almost nothing of this city, only the tidbits that Hephaestus had taught her. Hestia kicked a rock on the ground but it bounced back on a moldy pew and hit her right shin.
"Ouch!" She crouched and held onto her leg where she was hit.
She wanted to cry, this was the first time she had been so utterly alone, on the way to finding this abandoned old church, she had asked some people if they wanted to join her Familia; like this she would get someone to support her and everything would be solved, right? However, reality was cruel. No one wanted to join the Familia of a newbie Goddess.
Hestia is a beautiful and petite Goddess with a youthful appearance. She has pretty blue eyes and long black hair that she preferred to style into two twintails tied with hair accessories that feature blue and white petals along with bell-shaped ornaments. Here came the problems, because of her tiny stature she attracted… weirdos and perverts who were after her body. The little Goddess avoided those… individuals like vermin.
She walked toward the altar and, lamenting about her twentieth rejection to join her Familia, the tiny Goddess used the secret passage to the basement of the church and descended the stairs. After closing the passage, she reached the basement to find a sofa and a bed. Hestia couldn’t believe that she left Heaven to live in squalor. The bed was just a mattress and a pillow, the sofa and table had seen better days; fortunately, there was running water available, which was a small miracle in her opinion.
When she sat on her sofa, Hestia began to think about what she needed to do. “I need a job. To survive in the lower world and find my Familia, eventually…”
Clac, clac, clac. Hestia heard footsteps coming from the stairs; jumping from the sofa she prepared herself to welcome them with the half broken vase on the nightstand near her bed. She took it in hand and was about to throw it when she noticed that it was a woman in a black dress with a hood that hid half of her face.
“Who are you?! What are you doing in my home?” The tiny Goddess shouted with the broken vase, she was about to throw it when she heard the laugh.
The woman didn’t seem to be afraid, she cocked her head and said sarcastically, “Oh, this is rich… coming from a squatter. It’s me who should ask you what you are doing on my property?”
“Huh?” The Goddess lowered the broken vase and looked at the black robbed woman as if she sprouted another head. “Impossible, Hephaestus told me this was an abandoned church and that no one owned it!”
Hestia believed in her Niece’s information network; some stranger who just broke in shouldn’t be trusted.
“I’m afraid that this is no longer true…” The young woman said in a really sorry tone.
The confident feelings Hestia felt from the woman was unsettling to her. The black robbed woman felt like she didn’t need to lie at all, her words were completely true and this didn’t bode well for Hestia. Where would she go if she had to leave this place?
“I demand proof!” Hestia raised her tiny fist in the air in protest.
The woman grinned and said with great amusement. “Okay! Please follow me.” She quickly walked out of the basement.
Reluctantly, Hestia followed the woman and passed through the secret entrance; there amongst the destroyed pews, two more people stood. The tiny goddess immediately went on her guard and pointed an accusatory finger at the robed woman. “Ah! There’s more of you! I knew it! This was a trap!”
The woman turned toward Hestia looking at her as if she was crazy; while she still pointed her finger at her, Hestia felt somewhat self-conscious. The woman seemed to roll her eyes and just said, “Nope, not commenting on this. Hey Seven, why don’t you show this little one the deeds to this entire area?”
Hestia felt the gaze of the other woman with the shortest cloak on her, she could see her red boots and black tights covered legs. “There’s nothing little on her.”
Hestia hid her chest by crossing her arms around her boobs in a defensive manner. The robed woman sighed and sarcastically commented, “Stop staring at her tits and show her the deed.”
“Okay, okay.” Seven rummaged into her bag, the half of her face completely red as she had been caught gazing at the tiny Goddess’ breasts.
From the big brown bag decorated with wolves running in a plain embroidered on it, Hestia saw Seven take a folder with a stack of paper inside. Hestia made a wide-eyed expression when she saw so much paperwork in Seven’s hands. The tall woman walked to the Goddess and handed the folder to her.
Dumbly she opened the folder and began to read each of the deeds, first her eyes fell on the one belonging to the abandoned church, then to adjacent lands. After a moment, the Goddess couldn’t help but stammer, “This… you bought the entire area?”
Seven smiled. “Yes, this has the potential to become a great commercial district.”
Hestia looked at the ruined building, the trash littering everywhere and the plants and trees growing everywhere, nature had basically reclaimed this part of Orario. “Did you really look at this place, I mean… it’s in complete disrepair, and most of the buildings are dangerous to enter as they could crumble at any moment.”
The Goddess knew about this, it happened when she went to explore when she was too bored to stay in the basement.
Seven looked around her, Hestia thought that she was seeing all the work she would have to put in. The woman cocked her head, then looked at her companion, and Hestia next. “This is our home now, it is worth fighting for. I know that it will be hard and take us some time but we will make something of it.”
Seven’s voice was full of hope and there was a lot of… longing exuding from her. “We have no choice but to put our back into building it, we have lost our previous home and we already used half of our savings on this land.”
Wolf and Flower strode toward Seven, one patted her on the back, the other kissed her on the cheek. Hestia envied her at that moment, she had people who had her back. Hestia sensed the deep sense of loss and how adrift those three felt; the Goddess found herself whispering, “You are like me, you have nowhere to go.”
Hestia was losing hope, did she need to get back to Heaven? So far her experience in the lower world didn't please her at all. But wasn't it what she wanted? It was boring in the higher plane and she was experiencing how the mortals experienced life. But she didn't have it as hard as those three people who had to move to this city. Hestia was curious to know what happened to the trio, so she asked them, “If I may ask, what happened to you?”
It was the tall man who had stayed silent previously who answered her. “Our home was destroyed, our friends are dead or scattered; it was torn asunder by a tyrant and would be conqueror.”
There was a lot of pain that she could sense coming from him and his words were the utter truth. Hestia felt that this man had so much regret, so many people that he knew had died. She staggered back a little from the pain, and putting a hand on her heart she said in a heartfelt manner, “Oh, I am sorry to hear that. It must have been rough… you have my condolences.”
He said nothing, but he nodded at Hestia to show that he acknowledged her condolences. The Goddess wanted to do something to ease his pain; but instead, Flower, the woman who brought her here asked, “What’s your name? You’re clearly a goddess, I can sense your divinity.”
Hestia suddenly felt as if she was judged and interrogated; clearly those three people were different from the children of the lower world she met, they had some kind of inner strength to them that was blinding and a bit painful to see. They reminded her of the soul of the heroes she had taken care of in Heaven, filled with nobility, strength and painful memories. Hestia shook her head, there was no way that this was the case, right?
The tiny Goddess put her white gloved hand on her hips, taking advantage of showing off her mini dress. She looked earnestly at them and introduced herself. “I’m Hestia, virgin Goddess of the hearth, the right ordering of domesticity, the family, the home, and the state. I’ve just descended from Heaven.”
After she said this, Hestia felt a sharp gaze focus on her, it was Flower. The woman didn’t walk so much as she flowed toward Hestia and put a tight hand on her right shoulder. “Ohhh, what a coincidence, we were looking for a God or Goddess to take us in. Hey Hestia, can we join your Familia?”
Hestia felt as if she was stared at by a particularly hungry predator, she tried to run away and flee, but Flower held tightly on her. The tiny Goddess looked right and left for help, finally throwing pleading eyes at Wolf and Seven. *Help me!*
Seven stepped forward and caught Flower’s arm. “Just one moment, A-Flower! You can’t just ask her about it like that, what about my and Wolf’s opinions?”
Flower nonchalantly waved at Seven and Wolf and explained herself with, “I have a good feeling about her, she’s nice.”
Hestia was patted on the head by Flower, the Goddess looked up and saw her face; Flower was beautiful with light brown hair and shining green eyes, she had a kind smile as well; her motherly attitude grated a bit on the Goddess, but she could sense how joyful, good and compassionate this woman was. Hestia then looked at the others and asked, “Would you really join my Familia?”
“I… yes, do you have no one yet?” Flower asked as she let go of Hestia.
Hestia shook her head, no. “I’ve tried and tried, but no one wants to join a poor Goddess like me…” She lowered her head a bit dejected by this fact.
Flower clapped her hand, making Hestia look up at her. “Then it’s all the better for us if there’s no one else!” The brunette said happily.
This surprised Hestia. “You don’t care that I am not rich and a newbie Goddess in the lower world?”
Flower put a hand on her hip and said sarcastically. “Pleeease, we don’t care about money, Hestia. We can make a fortune whenever we want with our skills, just like that.” The young woman called Flower snapped her fingers and laughed.
Hope surged into the tiny Goddess’ heart.
But her hope was mercilessly beaten up by Seven's shouting. “Hey, I didn’t say that we would!”
Hestia’s shoulders fell, only to be patted by Flower who whispered to her. “Don’t worry, Hestia, lemme convince them; I got this.”
Flower turned to her companion and said with a serious tone. “Seven, Wolf, look at her. I mean truly look at her, can you leave her alone after seeing her like this. She’s like us, a drifter.”
The brunette leaned a bit and whispered to Hestia, “Do the puppy eyes, it always works on those two.”
Seven slumped on herself, simply giving up when she saw Hestia’s big and blue sad eyes turn on her. “Fine, we will join. I can’t let a cute girl like her roam those dangerous streets.”
“Ah, you Tsundere!” Flower said smugly to Seven.
The other woman stomped toward Flower and asked her, “Who is a Tsundere?!”
Flower simply hugged Seven and kissed her cheek, saying nothing. Hestia was starting to understand something about these three or at least their relationship.
Wolf began to grumble, “What is it with old abandoned churches? There are always beautiful girls who need saving in them…”
Flower let go of Seven and approached the man, placed her hand on her hips and showed him a sultry expression. “Oh Wolf, I didn’t hear you complain last night. Wasn’t I that girl in need of help in the half destroyed church?” There was a sensual overtone in her voice.
Wolf’s face or the half that Hestia could see was beet red; the man averted his face from Flower’s and gulped. “Point.”
Hestia still replayed the words that Wolf had said to her, he thought that she was beautiful. “Beautiful… am I?” Compared to beauties like Aphrodite and Freya or even Ishtar, she didn’t feel that she could be called that.
Seven commented, “Yes, and not just because of your heaven defying boobs it seems.”
Hestia stepped back again, Seven had been strangely fixated on her chest. Flower hit the other woman behind the head, enough that Hestia could see her face momentarily. Dark brown hair, red eyes and a gorgeous face. Hestia thought that this woman would have given Helen of Troy a run for her money; she expected Seven to be hounded by horny gods and men relatively soon.
“Hey don’t tease her, they must hurt her back.” Flower glared at Seven who scratched behind her head where she was hit.
Hestia didn’t understand why the two women said that, so she decided to reassure them that her back had never hurt her. “They don’t.” But she instantly regretted it when Flower and Seven turned to her and moved before her.
“What?! How? Mine hurt, you know!” Seven was almost crying.
Flower poked one of her boobs. “That’s so unfair!! Let me eat whatever you’re having in Heaven! I’m so jealous… C-Wolf loves’ em big.”
“Ha ha.” Hestia awkwardly laughed.
The atmosphere switched to a serious and solemn one out of nowhere when Wolf strode to Hestia, hefting his gigantic broadsword from his back and planting it to the ground. He kneeled and took his hood off. Hestia’s eyes widened as she saw the attractive young man’s face, he had spiky blond hair and clear blue eyes that she could get lost in. His cloak was opened enough that the Goddess could see the black robe with a high collar sleeveless indigo shirt, black pants and boots, and black cloth covering his left leg and arm.
“We will join your Familia, Hestia. If you’ll have us.” Wolf’s voice did something to her lady parts that short-circuited her mind for a bit.
Flower poked the tiny Goddess’ shoulder to make her stop staring at Wolf. “Are you sure?”
Seven and Flower walked next to Wolf and kneeled in turn. Wolf smiled at her with a handsome smile and praised, “You don’t seem to be a bad Goddess.”
Wolf’s face found itself squished in the Goddess bosom as she hugged him. “Finally, I have a familia.” Tears of joy and relief fell from her cheek as she began to sob.
She recalled all the people calling her a dumb and a weak Goddess, but here she found her first children. They found her and she was more than happy. Hestia was hugged from behind by Flower. “Hey, little one don’t cry.”
Sniff. “Thank you, thank you. Meeting you three… This… this must be fate.”
“Here, here.” Seven patted the Goddess’ head, meanwhile Wolf was slowly struggling and beating his arm in the air from a lack of oxygen.
A/N: So this was my first foray in the manga and anime genre in fanfiction, though I did release Spirit Take Over before 7th Heaven Chronicles.
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