Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

Investigation

(3rd person pov)

Ever since the day the dungeon city of Orario saw the myriad colored smog of energy floating above it something had changed. Those above level four felt it , like a sudden shift in the winds but from a direction they were unfamiliar with. The top familias of the city and the hidden darkness that lurked beneath the streets and around every corner sought answers but it was to no avail as no records of a similar situation existed. Tension rose in these groups as they felt something brewing and could only prepare for the worse.-

Nearly two months passed and nothing could be found so Orario went back to operating as per usual though did not forget the oddity of that day. A new piece of news started circulating at this point however of an up and coming familia that had broken the famed Sword Princess's level two leveling speed not once but twice. The first time was something that created quite a buzz, especially when the one who leveled up was also already indirectly famous for creating the "bone figures" that had become a hit in the city.-

Despite this it wasn't anything that most paid much heed to. That changed when the second member of the same familia, an adventurer of no renown, also broke the record set by Ais Wallenstein. This double feat of record breaking caused many gods to demand an explanation from the goddess of these two adventurers, Hestia. They called foul play as the situation was unbelievable and thus they thought the goddess had raised her familia members through forbidden means. An emergency meeting was called where the goddess Hestia had to prove her innocence. As the most trusted god for his neutrality in all regards Hermes was assigned to look at the evidence and speak of the truth of this matter, that is where Alexander Drake came into play.

(1st person POV)

This trial caught us all off guard to say the least as one moment we were celebrating Bell's level up and the next we were standing before a host of gods all radiating a small amount of their divinity to pressure me and Bell. A god with smooth wheat brown colored hair wearing a feathered hat and traveling clothes spoke up grandly from the center of this place like reminded me of an old roman theater.

"Today the divine host of Orario has gathered to investigate the unusual circumstances surrounding the Goddess Hestia's two children's level ups!" The god said with a flourish of his hands that seemed to keep his audiences rapt attention. He continued "I, Hermes, have been given the duty to interrogate these two mortals in front of you all to put this matter to rest once and for all so without further ado let us get this investigation underway!" Hermes said grandly before turning to us.

"Lets start with the Captain of the familia, Alexander Drake or better known perhaps as Black mark." Hermes said with a gleam in his eyes that didn't look like a good thing.

"Ask away, I have nothing to fear since I have done nothing wrong." I said with a challenging smirk that clearly bothered the god as his eyes narrowed.

He wasn't the only one either as the gods in the bleacher like seats began to scoff, look doubtful or even some angry after I spoke. It wasn't surprising really as in my situation most mortals would be so nervous that they barely be able to stand much less speak so boldly. The thing was though that I could literally see the souls of these gods and that meant all their acting was pointless as I could see their very essence, gods were just people with a lot of power and that's all.-

"Well if you are so confident lets start off with some simple questions to establish a baseline. What is your name?" Hermes asked sternly.

"Alexander Drake." I answered never dropping my smirk.

"What is your gender?" he asked.

"Male." I answered.

"Very good now you need to tell a lie so we can make sure that you aren't able to deceive us." Hermes said sternly.

"Easy, We cheated to level up as fast as we did." I said with a cheeky grin knowing that all their lie detecting abilities just went off at the same time.

There was disbelief, anger, doubt, and all around uproar with that simply statement from my lips. Hermes looked at me with what I could only amount to irritation at how easily I had just played him to throw this entire meeting into chaos. Oh I knew exactly how this was going to go the moment he started doing the same thing they did with polygraph tests back on earth. The two truths and a lie method to determine validity of an interrogation.-

What I did was simply throw the accusation of us cheating to level up so fast unto it's head as my lie. If you are wondering why exactly I did this it was simply because I had a gut feeling that if Hermes had his way he'd make this troublesome for me by asking things private or that I simply couldn't answer. To stop that I flat out made it impossible to continue questioning me freely as I had already covered the main topic so it would be wrong to ask any unrelated questions and he clearly knew it.-

"Straight to the heart of the matter is it then? Fine, Goddess Hestia I would ask that you unlock Mr. Drakes falna so that I may verify that theres been no foul play involved. Of course I swear on my arcaenum to you that any information best kept private shall remain so if there is indeed no issue." Hermes said to Hestia calmly but firmly.

I looked at her and she nodded so I took off my shirt which elicited gasps from the gods seated as my full set of tattoos were revealed. Hermes himself looked at them with a critical eye.

"What is the purpose of these tattoos?" he asked unable to deny his curiosity.

"They are symbolic." I said honestly.

He hummed in acknowledgement before looking at Hestia who rather reluctantly unlocked my falna letting him read it. It was rather amusing to watch his eyes widen to the point of bulging and his jaw practically hit the floor. 

"Seen enough yet?" I asked impatiently since I was standing here without a shirt and it was making me uncomfortable to get ogled by so many people like this.

He regained his composure but he no longer looked so hostile when gazing at me but rather brightly instead? 

"There was no foul play as far as his level up was concerned." Hermes proclaimed loudly and all the gods here begrudgingly seemed to accept that answer.

After that it was Bells turn and the god looked between the two of us with an odd expression but declared that we were innocent of the accusation levied against us. The emergency meeting was ended there though quite a few gods and goddesses came to bother Hestia, Bell and I to try and figure out what made us so special.