Is it Wrong to Have a Harem in Danmachi

Voices echoed up from the Floor 17 stairway entrance an hour past midday.

I was sitting by the lake cleaning the Hestia Knife when the sound carried across the open air of Floor 18. Voices in the Dungeon usually meant combat or monsters, but these were too organized. Too conversational. Someone was complaining about stairs.

Welf heard it too. He stopped mid-chew on a strip of dried meat from Ryuu's supplies and looked toward the entrance.

"More adventurers?"

"Sounds like a party," Lili said. She was repairing her torn backpack with needle and thread she'd bought in Rivira that morning, her small fingers working the leather with a precision that was either talent or stubbornness. "A large one."

Ryuu appeared from behind a crystal tree. She'd been circling the perimeter since dawn, checking spawns, mapping the safe zone edges. Her hood was up. She looked at the stairway entrance and her lips pressed together.

"That's Hermes's voice," she said.

The rescue party came through the entrance in a loose formation. Hermes first, orange hair and a wide-brimmed hat and the kind of smile that looked friendly and made me want to count my valuables. Behind him, two figures in Far-Eastern gear. A large man with a build like Welf but wider, and a smaller woman with a cloth over her face. Behind them, a nervous-looking girl with a bow.

And behind all of them, running before the last step was done, twin-tails flying, bare feet slapping on the crystal-threaded grass, arms already out-

Hestia hit me at full speed.

She launched from the bottom of the stairs and covered the distance to the lake in seconds and her body collided with mine and I caught her because the alternative was both of us in the water. Her arms went around my neck and her legs came off the ground and she was shaking. Her whole body, vibrating against my chest, her fingers digging into the back of my shirt.

"You're okay," she said. "You're okay, you're okay, you're okay-"

She was saying it into my neck, her face buried against my collar, and her voice was cracking and she was pulling herself closer with each repetition like she could climb inside me if she held tight enough.

I held her. My arms around her back, one hand between her shoulder blades where the shaking was worst. Her twin-tails hung past my arms. Her bare feet dangled.

"I'm okay," I said.

"They said you didn't come back. They said the pass parade- they said Floor 17- Miach told me and I couldn't- I thought-"

"I'm here."

She pulled her face out of my neck. Her blue eyes were wet and red-rimmed and her nose was running and her mouth was trying to do several expressions at once. She looked at me like she was memorizing my face in case I disappeared again.

I wiped her nose with my sleeve. She made a sound that was half sob and half offended goddess.

"Don't wipe my nose in front of people."

"You had a thing."

"I'm a GODDESS."

"Goddesses get boogers?"

"Bell!"

She punched my shoulder. Weak, with no follow-through, and her fist stayed against my arm after impact and her fingers curled into my shirt and she didn't let go.

I set her down. She kept hold of my shirt.

Hermes had stopped at a polite distance. His smile was in place and his hat shaded his eyes and he stood with his hands in his pockets and watched the reunion. I knew him from the anime. The god who'd used Bell as a piece on a board while calling it help. Who knew about Zeus and kept the secret. Useful. Dangerous.

"Bell Cranel," he said. "Glad you're alive. Hestia would have been difficult to console otherwise."

"Lord Hermes. Thank you for coming down."

"Thank Takemikazuchi. He's the one who organized the supplies when he heard what happened." The smile widened. "I merely volunteered to escort."

He was watching me the way Asfi had. Measuring. His casual body language was as deliberate as his hat placement. I returned his smile and kept my distance.

The large man and the smaller woman had stopped behind Hermes. The man was big, square-jawed, dark-haired, carrying a spear and wearing leather armor that was worn at the joints from heavy use. Ouka. Takemikazuchi Familia's muscle. Beside him, the girl with the cloth mask over her face and a bow on her back was Chigusa, and she was studying the ground with dedicated focus.

The third person in Far-Eastern gear stepped forward.

She was my height. Black hair pulled back in a ponytail, bluish-purple eyes, a purple kimono over a sarashi wrap, dark-red sash at her waist. A katana hung at her hip and her hand rested on the pommel and her fingers were fidgeting on the wrap. Small, barely visible.

She stopped in front of me. Set her feet. Drew her spine straight. And bowed.

Deep. Formal. Both hands at her sides, spine precisely angled, held for a full second before rising.

"Yamato Mikoto," she said. "Takemikazuchi Familia. I am honored to meet the one Takemikazuchi-sama has spoken of."

I bowed back.

The same angle. The same depth. Hands at my sides, spine straight, held for a count. The motion came from two places. Bell's body, which had never bowed in its life. And my old life, where I'd learned the gesture from a year of judo classes and a lifetime of watching anime.

"Bell Cranel," I said. "Hestia Familia. Thank you for coming to help."

She stared at me. Her fidgeting had stopped. Her hand was still on her katana but it was frozen there.

"You- no one in Orario bows," she said.

"I do."

Her bluish-purple eyes were bright and her mouth was slightly open and the formality was still on her face but underneath it was genuine surprise. She recovered fast. The mouth closed, the posture reset, the hand resumed its fidgeting at a lower frequency.

"It is... properly done," she said. "Your form is good."

"It's rusty."

"It is not rusty." She said it like the compliment cost her. "Where did you learn?"

"My grandfather taught me." True. My real grandfather, in my real life, who'd done judo and insisted I learn the etiquette before the throws.

Hermes was watching the exchange with his hat tilted back and the smile had gotten wider. I didn't look at him.

Camp expanded.

Welf helped Ouka pitch two more tents near the crystal tree. The Far-Eastern canvas was lighter than standard Orario equipment and Ouka assembled the frames with the efficiency of someone who'd done this on trails and mountain passes and floors deeper than this. Chigusa arranged supplies without speaking. She moved around the edges of the group and when I caught her eye she looked at the ground and adjusted her face mask.

Ryuu emerged from wherever she'd been and distributed the remaining rations from her pack. She'd been feeding us since last night and the supplies were getting thin. Hermes produced a crate of food from the rescue party's stores and set it near the fire. He made sure everyone saw him do it.

The fire was larger tonight. More wood, more people, more light pushing back the crystal twilight.

Hestia sat to my left. She hadn't let go of my shirt since the tackle and at some point she'd switched to my arm and she wasn't letting go of that either. Her twin-tails were loose, her bare feet tucked under her, and she was eating stew with one hand because the other one was on my bicep.

Lili sat to my right. She'd taken the position without discussion and her shoulder pressed against mine and she ate with her usual measured precision and her brown eyes tracked Hestia's grip on my arm at regular intervals.

Ryuu sat behind me. Close enough that when I leaned back my shoulders nearly touched her knees. She ate in silence with her hood down, her flaxen hair loose, her sky-blue eyes moving across the camp. She looked at everything and lingered on me when she thought I was looking at the fire.

Mikoto sat across the fire. Her katana lay across her lap and she ate with proper posture and she kept glancing at my face and then at Hestia's hand on my arm and then at Lili's shoulder against mine and then back at her bowl.

Welf sat between Ouka and the fire and ate fast. Hermes reclined against a crystal tree root with his hat over his face and appeared to be napping. He was not napping. His breathing was too regular and his left ear was tilted toward the group.

"So," Welf said. "How long are we staying on Floor 18?"

"We go back up tomorrow," I said. "The horde from the pass parade should have dispersed by now."

"Lili agrees," Lili said. "The exchange rate in Rivira is robbery. Lili will not pay for another breakfast."

"We brought supplies for three days," Ouka said. He had a deep voice and he used it sparingly.

"We won't need three days," I said. "But thank you."

"Takemikazuchi-sama insisted." Mikoto's voice was formal. "He felt responsible. The Familia that initiated the pass parade. He believes they may have had connections to elements he has encountered before."

"Elements?"

"Criminal elements." She said it stiffly. She was being vague on purpose and she wasn't good at being vague. Her hand was fidgeting on her katana again. "I should not say more without Takemikazuchi-sama's permission."

"You just said it was criminal elements," Welf pointed out.

"I said I should not say more." Her ears were pink. "Please do not ask additional questions."

"I have additional questions."

"Welf-sama. Please."

I cut in. "We can talk to Takemikazuchi when we get back. Mikoto, thank you."

She bowed her head. The fidgeting slowed.

The fire burned down. Hermes went to his tent first, still performing the nap. Ouka and Chigusa cleaned up. Mikoto went to the tent she was sharing with Lili and Chigusa, and she bowed to me again before entering, shorter this time, and disappeared through the flap.

Lili stood last. She looked at Hestia, who was still attached to my arm and showing no signs of releasing it.

"Goddess will be sleeping with Bell-sama tonight," Lili said. It was a statement delivered as flat observation.

"Bell-sama is sharing his tent with me," Hestia said. "His goddess. His patron deity. Who thought he was dead."

"Lili will be in the other tent."

"Lili should sleep well."

They held eye contact for two seconds. Neither said what they were both thinking.

Lili went to her tent.

Ryuu was last. She stood from behind me and her knees brushed my back as she rose. She picked up her twin swords and slung them across her shoulders.

"I'll patrol," she said.

"All night?"

"Elves require less sleep than humans." She looked at me. The crystal-light was purple now, the late-night shade. Her sky-blue eyes were dark in it. "Be safe, Bell."

She walked into the crystal tree line. Her footsteps faded.

Hestia tugged my arm toward the tent.

I stood. Welf was in his own tent, already snoring. The fire was low. The crystal ceiling hummed above us.

Inside the tent, the bedroll was one. Single width. Barely large enough for two if both people agreed that personal space was a concept for larger accommodations.

Hestia pulled me down beside her. Her arm went across my chest. Her head on my shoulder. Her twin-tails spread across the bedroll and her bare feet were cold against my calves.

"Don't leave," she whispered.

"I'm here."

"Don't leave again."

"I'm not going anywhere."

She pressed closer. Outside, the camp sounds settled. Ouka's tent flap closing. Chigusa's quiet cough. Ryuu's footsteps, distant, circling the perimeter.

On my left, Hestia's body was warm and small and holding on.

On my right, through the canvas, Lili's tent was six feet away.

Behind us, in the crystal dark, Ryuu walked the perimeter with her swords and her silence.

I closed my eyes. Three women breathed around me in the crystal dark of Floor 18.

I didn't sleep for a while.