The morning after Reborn's hellish training session.
"There's way too many of them!?"
Tsuna and the others stood near the entrance of Hearth Manor, staring blankly at the massive crowd gathered outside the gates. Over fifty people were waiting in line.
Their goal was the recruitment interviews for the newly reformed Hestia Familia. After winning the War Game, they had aggressively advertised their recruitment drive through the Guild and at Hestia's workplace.
"I never actually thought this many people would show up…"
Lili's prediction had been spot on, and the sheer turnout left Tsuna completely stunned.
"W-We finally escaped the poverty tier…!! We did it!!"
"Yeah!! It's been three long months since I founded this Familia… It feels like a lifetime!!"
I guess I've finally repaid my debt to them… Having been a desperately poor, minor Familia for so long, Bell and Hestia were practically in tears of joy. While there was no guarantee the Familia would stabilize perfectly, Tsuna was certain they would be fine barring any major catastrophes. Believing he had finally paid them back for taking him in, Tsuna smiled warmly at the two of them.
"Tsunayoshi-sama?"
"Is something wrong?"
"Ah, no… I was just thinking it's great that you guys are finally breaking out of poverty…"
Seeing Tsuna watch the tearfully rejoicing duo with an overly emotional gaze, Lili and Welf felt a twinge of suspicion. Realizing he was about to expose the fact that he had risked his life diving to the 59th Floor just to earn money for them, Tsuna frantically waved his hands and deflected the question.
"So, what's the plan? Are you gonna let all of them join?"
"I'll interview them one by one to determine their character. It will take time, but a God is perfectly suited to ensure no troublemakers slip into the Familia. We can see right through the lies of children, after all."
"I know a much faster way."
"Eh?"
"I'll fight every single one of them. That'll separate the trash from the treasure."
"You just want an excuse to beat people up!!"
"Please, I beg of you, stop!! You'll scare away all the recruits we finally managed to gather!!"
Reborn drew his beloved gun with a deeply sinister smirk. It was blatantly obvious he prioritized his own entertainment over the Hestia Familia's future. Tsuna immediately yelled a retort. Knowing full well that if Reborn fought them, a mountain of traumatized victims just like Bell would be mass-produced, Hestia frantically intervened to stop him.
"Relax, I'll only fight the men. I don't mind inflicting enough pain on a guy to make him wish for death, but I can't do something like that to a woman. Problem solved, right?"
"That has absolutely nothing to do with gender!! Stop trying to solve everything with barbaric violence!!"
"Tch. Fine."
Met with Hestia's fierce refusal, Reborn clicked his tongue in annoyance but reluctantly tucked his gun away.
Ah. Scanning the crowd, Tsuna spotted two familiar faces: Daphne and Cassandra. He walked down the front steps to greet them.
"You guys came too."
"H-Hello…"
"I guess."
Like the other adventurers, they had come to interview for the most rapidly rising Familia in Orario. Moreover, unlike Apollo, Hestia was known for being a decent and upstanding Goddess.
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you something."
"What is it?"
"My plans to return to my homeland got delayed."
"Eh…!?"
Because he hadn't seen them since the War Game ended, Tsuna took the opportunity to inform them that his departure from Orario had been postponed.
"T-Then… does that mean Tsunayoshi-san is staying with the Hestia Familia…?"
"Yeah. Though I'll still have to go back eventually."
"I see… I'm so happy for you, Daphne-chan."
"W-What are you talking about!?"
Cassandra, who had assumed she would never get to be in the same Familia as Tsuna's admirer, genuinely congratulated her friend. Daphne instantly turned bright red and snapped back defensively.
"Y-You're in the exact same boat, aren't you!?"
"!?"
"?"
Cassandra was rendered completely speechless, her face flushing as she began fidgeting nervously. Tsuna tilted his head, completely oblivious to the meaning behind Daphne's counterattack.
In truth, Cassandra had developed deep feelings for Bell. Before the official recruitment interviews, she had tracked down her favorite pillow, leading her and Daphne straight to Hearth Manor. Bell had answered the door and, uniquely among everyone she had ever met, immediately and unconditionally believed her prophecy. For Cassandra, who had spent her life having her visions dismissed as ravings, it was an instant knockout blow to her heart.
As a side note, Tsuna was also aware of Cassandra's prophetic abilities from the War Game, but the sheer shock of discovering his supposed ally was actually a traitor had entirely overshadowed it at the time.
"A-Anyway!! You haven't forgotten our promise to get tea, right!?"
"Yeah, I remember. When did you want to go?"
"H-How about tomorrow?"
"Sure."
"T-Then, let's meet in front of Babel at noon tomorrow. Does that work!?"
"Got it. Tomorrow at noon."
Y-Yes…!! With her heart hammering against her ribs like a war drum, Daphne somehow managed to secure her date with Tsuna. She sighed internally in sheer triumph.
"Alright, I suppose it's time to begin the interviews."
Checking the time, Hestia officially kicked off the recruitment process. Tsuna nodded to the girls and headed back toward the manor entrance.
And then, it happened.
"H-H-Hestia-samaaaaa!?"
The heavy front doors of the manor were thrown violently open. Mikoto stood there, hyperventilating in a sheer panic, clutching a single piece of parchment in her trembling hand.
"W-What's wrong, Mikoto-kun?"
"I-In the luggage… I found a contract for a 200 million Valis debt!!"
"Pfft!?"
"Huh?"
"Two… hundred million?"
As Mikoto held the document high and shrieked the amount, Hestia choked on her spit. Lili, Welf, and the entire crowd of applicants froze dead in their tracks, entirely petrified.
D-Don't tell me…!? Seeing the contents of the contract Mikoto was waving around, Bell instantly looked down at the Hestia Knife sheathed at his waist. Engraved directly into the blade was the official crest of Orario's absolute greatest smithing faction: the Hephaestus Familia. He instantly deduced that the 200 million Valis debt was the price for the very knife he carried.
Overwhelmed by the sheer, crushing magnitude of the revelation, Bell's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed, out cold.
"B-Bell-sama!!"
Lili rushed to Bell's side, shaking him violently, but he showed zero signs of waking up.
"N-No way… After I went all the way down on that expedition…"
"H-Hey!! Get a grip, Tsuna!!"
"Tsunayoshi-kun!?"
Tsuna, while retaining his consciousness, dropped directly to his knees, his soul visibly leaving his body. He had literally risked his life diving into the 59th Floor to build a safety net for the Familia, only to discover they were buried beneath a monstrous 200 million Valis debt. His entire struggle had been rendered mathematically insignificant in a matter of seconds.
Hearing the astronomical sum, the massive line of applicants immediately broke ranks and fled into the city without a backward glance.
"We're leaving, Cassandra…"
"Eh!? Eh!? Daphne-chan!?"
Daphne wanted nothing more than to live under the same roof as Tsuna, but even her massive crush couldn't justify joining a Familia strapped with a 200 million Valis bomb. Grabbing Cassandra by the hand, she dragged her away from Hearth Manor at top speed.
─────
After every single applicant had fled, Hestia confessed that the debt was incurred when she begged Hephaestus to forge Bell's knife, and that she had sworn to pay it back entirely on her own.
With the truth out in the open, the Familia gathered to discuss their new direction.
"I thought this is a clean, upstanding Familia, but it turns out it was a complete sweatshop," reborn muttered.
"Don't use such scandalous terms!! My Familia is not a black company!!"
"No!! Reborn-sama is entirely correct!! In what world is a Familia with a 200 million Valis debt considered 'upstanding'!?"
Hestia raged at the accusation, but Lili vehemently backed up Reborn's assessment. Lili had previously belonged to the Soma Familia—an undeniably black Familia where the deity was completely apathetic, and the executives were corrupt, driven mad by divine wine. But even they didn't have a 200 million Valis debt. Even if Hestia's relationship with her dependents was healthy, classifying a Familia with that kind of crushing liability as "white" was a massive stretch.
"Furthermore, Tsunayoshi-sama risked his life diving to the 59th Floor for us, and this completely invalidates his efforts!!"
"I am truly, deeply sorry about that, Tsunayoshi-kun!! I had absolutely no idea you were trying to support the Familia's finances, and I kept the debt a secret from you!!"
"I-It's fine now…"
Traumatized by the revelation, Tsuna had accidentally leaked the true reason behind his deep-floor expedition. Realizing his intentions, Hestia, unable to lie as a God, demanded the truth. When she heard he had fought to the death just for the Familia, Hestia had turned deathly pale and immediately prostrated herself before him at lightning speed.
"Still, to think Sawada-dono descended to the 59th Floor alongside the Loki Familia…"
Mikoto, who hadn't known why Tsuna was absent during the expedition, was stunned. It also finally explained why Tsuna hadn't been with Bell's party when they executed the Pass Parade against them.
"Well, what's done is done. Let me handle this."
"Do you have a plan, Reborn-sama!?"
"We hit the casino and bet it all on one spin."
"Are you planning on relying on gambling!? Wait, you're an infant, you shouldn't even be thinking about casinos!!"
Reborn spoke with absolute confidence. Lili's eyes had sparkled with hope for a brief second, only to realize his grand plan was high-stakes gambling, prompting her to shriek in outrage.
"Then Tsuna, go take a quick lap around the deep floors."
"Stop saying that like you're asking me to run to the corner store for water!!"
"If you just harvest magic stones and drop items from deep-floor monsters, we'll make a killing. Plus, you'll get some excellent training out of it. It's killing two birds with one stone."
"There is no way I'm letting him go down there alone!!"
No matter how insanely powerful Tsuna was, Hestia adamantly refused to let him dive into the abyssal deep floors solo.
"I'm really sorry I hid the debt from you guys… but I promise. I won't cause any trouble for my dependents."
"But… Kami-sama, you took on this massive debt just to give me this knife, didn't you…?"
Bell, who had been unconscious on the floor, finally stirred and slowly sat up.
"Please don't let it weigh on you, Bell-kun. This is something I did selfishly…"
"Kami-sama. Let's pay it back together."
Even if Hestia had acted independently, she had done it out of pure love to forge him a weapon. Knowing that, Bell couldn't possibly force her to shoulder the burden alone.
"I'll pay back the money, no matter how many years it takes. So, Bell-kun, everyone… I just ask for your support so I don't collapse under the weight."
Understanding Bell's feelings, Hestia offered a compromise.
"I'm sorry for being a Goddess buried in debt… but, will you stay with me?"
"Of course it is."
"...When our Goddess puts it like that, us dependents can't exactly refuse, can we?"
"Fufu, that's right."
"Jeez, just promise never to do something like this again."
Bell accepted without hesitation. Welf, Mikoto, and Lili all smiled and nodded their agreement.
"Now then, let us review our current status and strategy. Thanks to Tsunayoshi-sama's expedition and the mandatory quest from the Ganesha Familia, our immediate living expenses are covered. However, the Guild will likely extract several million Valis a year in taxes, so we must build our reserves."
"So our Familia's primary activities will center heavily around Dungeon exploration," Mikoto deduced.
"To increase our exploration efficiency, strengthening the Familia members is our most pressing issue," Welf added, considering their next move.
"…Strengthening the members, huh."
O-Oh crap!! Hearing Welf's words, a terrifying, predatory smirk spread across Reborn's face. Feeling a violent chill run down his spine, Tsuna immediately tried to bolt.
"I'll take care of that."
"Gah!?"
"Eh!?"
"Whoa!?"
Before they could even blink, a thick rope shot out, binding Tsuna, Bell, and Welf tightly together, completely immobilizing them.
"You guys are letting me stay here, after all. In exchange, I'm going to forge you into shape. That way you can dive deeper into the Dungeon and earn way more money, right?"
"Hiiieeee!!"
Having secured the perfect, unassailable excuse to train them, Reborn smiled brightly. Bell took one look at that smile and let out a horrified scream.
"Alright, let's go, you three. Training starts now."
"H-Hey, wait!! I never said I wanted to do this!!"
Reborn effortlessly dragged the three bound boys toward the underground training facility. Welf tried to resist, but he was completely helpless against Reborn's absurd strength, and was dragged screaming into the abyss alongside them.
Needless to say, another unfortunate soul was added to the growing list of Reborn's traumatized victims that day.
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