Sleep came while he was thinking about Astraea Familia and the situation of Goddess Astraea, all the problems, risks and uncertainties involved in trying to join that Familia.
While in a deep sleep, Bell felt himself wandering into a space full of darkness as far his eyes could see, the only thing visible in the unending darkness was a Eight Handled Wheel, radiating a golden glow suspended in the darkness.
Curiously though, the Wheel was bound by chains made up of condensed darkness, with their ends dissolving in the darkness surrounding it.
Just by looking at the bound Wheel, Bell felt an unknown impulse rise from inside him, he started walking closer to the Wheel....closer and even closer, but just before he could touch the Wheel, it sent out a pulse of gentle light towards him, pushing him away from itself.
He felt a violent tug from the push, and woke up with a start as morning sunlight fell across his face from the window adjacent to the bed.
Bell was now awoke yet remembered the Wheel and the darkness with startling clarity but understood, that now was not the time to think about things which he had no idea about and to focus on the present.
His stomach grumbled from hunger, since he'd not eaten any dinner yesterday night, only the apple from yesterday had kept him going till now.
Bell opened the door of his room and walked out with slightly hurried steps, and started walking down the stairs while his thoughts still roamed over Goddess Astraea and her Familia.
"I'd like a light and nutritious breakfast boss lady." He spoke to the Inn keeper lady from yesterday night while walking to the a free table and sat on a wooden chair while waiting for the food.
The Astraea Familia was a Familia which checked all of his boxes, A Familia with not many children, so the Goddess can focus on the limited children she has, A Goddess that really cares for her children, and with at least some backing and connections with most Gods of Orario.
But the problem was twofold, first of all, Astraea Familia only accepts women, as far as he knew from the Danmachi anime, since he'd not watched the Astraea Records nor Sword Oratoria.
Second was that the Goddess Astraea was not even in Orario at the moment, she was in Sword-Smithing city Solingen around this time, due to the incident that happened around five to seven years ago by the trap set up by Evilus.
Hot food was served to him while he was lost in his thoughts, the palette being nothing special, just some soft bread along with boiled eggs and some boiled vegetables accompanied by a tankard of orange juice.
Bells thoughts were all over the place as he ate the food amongst the chatter coming from people sitting at the tables surrounding his.
He remembered his current savings, which were merely a 100 valis, which would allow him to spend merely one more day at his current inn.
Bell knew he had to make a choice quickly if he wanted to get anywhere with joining a decent Familia. The quicker he gained a Falna, the quicker he'd get true backing in Orario.
As he was now, if some bloodthirsty adventurer killed him in an alley, he wouldn't even be able to scream for help before being send back to reincarnate in another world.
Even though he knew there was no chance that he'd be accepted by Loki Familia, he still wanted to give it a try, because to join Astraea Familia, he'd have to travel to Solingen, then try to convince Goddess Astraea to let him join, which too had no guarantees.
It was better to try joining the Loki Familia before even thinking about going to Solingen, even though his chances for being accepted were in the negatives.
Bell finished his breakfast while being lost in his thoughts, went back to his room to grab his sachet and left the Graceful Swan Inn behind.
He asked people along the way about the directions of the Twilight Manor, the headquarters of Loki Familia and reached it after thirty grueling minutes.
It looked just as shown in the anime, with an imposing entrance, a huge manor and guards wearing pauldrons with Loki Familia's emblem etched across them at the gate.
"Hello, is Loki Familia recruiting? I came here to try to apply to join." Bell stopped in front of the manor guards and spoke with cautious respect since these guards could probably steamroll him quite casually.
"Kid, you better not dream big, joining Loki Familia is hard even for veterans with dungeon hunting and martial art experience, with your posture and temperament, It's easy to infer that you're a total newbie with nothing particularly special about you, so better quit early instead of getting humiliated by others." One of the guards spoke with a dismissive wave, his voice full of disdain after taking in Bell's posture and temperament.
Bell did not say much since he did not want to take a beaten from these burly guards at the main gate, but he imprinted the face of the guard berating him in his mind and started to walk back.
It went just as he expected it to go, being held up at the gates like some Chinese protagonist just after coming down the mountain to a city.
Though his mind told him facts, that what the guard was saying was indeed true, he did not have any qualities which would make him unique, he was not even sure if he would awaken [Liaris Freese] like the original Bell.
While walking away, a flash of golden hair flashed past the corner of his eyes, but he was too focused on his thoughts to take note of it.
The sword princess, Ais Wallenstein glanced as Bell walked away from the Twilight Manor while she herself was walking towards it with her trademark expressionless face.
She and Bell passed each other, Bell buried in his thoughts, and Ais considering Bell as just one of the many newbies trying to join Loki Familia like others.
Nothing remarkable about him.