Chapter 13 - Agreement
What the hell!
Was what he thought, but controlled himself so as to not blurt it out loud.
"You're are girl?" Adam asked incredulously.
One of his powers, or this reality's Adam, is discernment of race, gender, age, and anything biological about the person.
He didn't use it when he met Bell again because Bell is quite similar to her anime counterpart, except younger. He concluded that her gender was the same as in the anime because, why not?
Young Bell is cute and her counterpart is also cute, so you get what he means.
"Yes, I am a girl. Did you not know that?"
Bell tilted her head in a cute manner, but it did not affect Adam as he feels familial affection to Bell, same for his descendants, the Humanity, or in this case, every race currently existing, according to his memories of this reality's Adam.
Zeus is in the background, still throwing lightning bolts of varying degrees towards Adam, who kept on dodging or blocking or parrying every attacks.
Adam used his free hand and rubbed his face with a sigh, his usual calm and indifferent expression came back as he removed his hand from his face and used it to pat Bell's head instead, this time, with more affection.
Bell squinted her eyes in bliss as he found his touch very pleasurable and warm. It's like her grandpa's hands, but better.
While he patted Bell's head, Adam turned to Zeus and grabbed a lightning bolt and threw it back at him.
"Could you please stop, I'm not planning on doing anything to your 'granddaughter's so rest assured, gramps." Adam spoke with a calm tone.
Zeus once again felt another tug of annoyance from being called 'gramps', earlier he felt a light tug, but now is stronger.
"Then, what is business here? On top of that, how are you even still alive? You're just a mortal with a longer lifespan than others. But it doesn't mean you're immortal." Zeus suppressed his annoyance and asked.
Adam scratched his cheek with his index finger as he looked up in the sky in wonder.
"Well, how can I explain this... Adam, or in this case, Me, is not the same Adam that you know. To put it simply, I am a reincarnation of him and at the same time not him, essentially."
Zeus fell silent at Adam's explanation and his face gained a confused expression, "...What?" is all the he could say.
"Hmm, this place isn't really an appropriate location to talk about this, how about we change locations?"
"Yes, let's move inside the house, I'll show around." Bell replied first after hearing his proposal.
Bell walked excitedly towards the small cottage, that is, strangely enough, still intact even after Zeus' outrage.
Adam followed behind Bell with his usual indifferent expression while Zeus calmed down his aura and released the sparks of lightning around his body, then he followed the former inside the cottage.
Bell opened the door and offered a seat to Adam before going to the kitchen to make some tea.
Not long after Bell left, Zeus entered the cottage as well and sat in front of Adam, the table being the only thing between them as the former(Zeus) glared at the latter(Adam).
"So, explain it to me again, this time, make it clear." Zeus grumpily said.
Adam puckered his lips and looked up the ceiling, "Hmm, do you know about reincarnation?" he asked.
Zeus raised an eyebrow at the question before his eyes widened in realization, "You... Don't tell me-"
Zeus was cut off by Adam before finishing his sentence, "Yes, but it's more complicated than that. It's safe to say that I am essentially the same Adam from this world, but that's only because his record is overwritten by mine. I have no memories of this reality's Adam, but me and him are the same."
Adam paused briefly before continuing, "Take for example a magic circle, two magic circles may look the same, but they are essentially different. One magic circle could manifest flame, while the other could manifest water. In this case, 'Adam' and I are the same, but we are different in many aspects. I may have the same aura, the same powers, the same abilities, but I am not the Adam you know."
(A/N: My explanation skill sucks.)
Zeus put a hand on his chin and looked to be in thought as he murmured something, "So you are not the same playboy brat, huh..."
"Pardon?" Adam asked as he felt that he just heard something outrageous.
"Hmm? Ah, enhanced hearing, that's right. I almost forgot about that ability of his, he uses it quite often to gossip around." Zeus explained.
"Anyway, I'm glad that you're not the same brat that lived with us in Heaven. I don't want to deal with another one of him."
"Excuse me, but can you tell me more about the previous Adam?"
"Sure, sure. Where should I start? Hmm, oh! Right, there was this one time when that brat used his enhanced senses to peep at the woman's bath and got away with it. The bastard got lucky that neither Hestia nor Demeter was there, otherwise he would have been beaten to pulp. The night of that day, all the gods heard cries of pain and pleasure on Adam's house and next day, we saw him full of bruises and his face distorted. Later we heard that he was punished by Eve."
Adam shuddered at the atrocities his previous incarnation has done, luckily his deeds weren't all that bad. There were times where he help with constructions using his absurd physical strength, there were also times that he helped establish rules and resolved conflicts that may or may not end up in war.
He also got to know some of his absurd abilities, besides having the physical strength of all of the gods combined, the previous Adam's intelligence and comprehension surpassed even the gods and goddesses who possessed divinity of Wisdom, his Aura has the effect of calming down everyone within the area of effect, but only if he wanted to, and he is also the number 1 inventor that created and designed many of the common landscapes and artistic devices.
Half-way through their talk, Bell returned with a set of tea and listened to both of them talk, although their words became incomprehensible for her after a few minutes.
Unknown to them, both Adam and Zeus has started to converse in an ancient language unconsciously, they changed from the divine language to dragon tongue, fae language and ancient beast language. Some their words even affected the reality and would have affected Bell as well if not for Zeus protection and Adam's presence.
At the end of their conversation did they only notice that fireballs and spirits are revolving around them and several runes were flowing in the air.
They stared at all of this for a moment before hastily removing their presence, lest they want to mess with causality.
(A/N: I went from Danmachi to SCOG on that one.)
They looked at Bell in panic, but sighed in relief when they found her sleeping on Adam's lap with a smile on her face, she seemed to be having a nice dream.
Adam stroked Bell's hair affectionately with a faint smile on his face, the girl's smile widened and she squirmed in place when she felt Adam's touch.
"So I heard your plan, all I can say is, that is cruel. Why would you even do that? Moreover, on a child as well. Did you even consider what would happen after that?" Adam questioned as he remembered Zeus plan to ascend back to Heaven and leave Bell alone.
"Hmm, certainly I didn't think this thoroughly. I plan to leave it up to fate when she reached adulthood and have her go to Orario."
"..."
"At least give the kid some pointers, if you're not gonna train him. If it were me, I would give the kid hellish training before vanishing." Adam mocked.
"Well, how about that then?" Zeus said with a large grin on his face.
"...Huuuh... Alright, but you owe me one, gramps." Adam breathed a heavy sigh and agreed.
He did plan to train Bell when he saw her after getting Adam's abilities, knowing Bell's hardships in the future didn't help as his fatherly instinct compelled him to train Bell.
He glanced at the sleeping girl on his lap, his hand still stroking her head, and thought up of a training regimen for Bell.
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