Bell Cranel ☆ Ranking ~A Certain Half-Year Trajectory~ (ベルクラ☆ランキング ～とある半年間の軌跡～) is a short story included in the compilation of short stories from the main series released as part of the ninth of ten projects of the 10th Anniversary Campaign of DanMachi.
Summary[]
Misha came to the Guild one afternoon to tell Eina that the Adventurer Rankings for that week had already come out. These were leaderboards compiled by an unspecified number of familias, or rather their Gods, for fun and published.
Not only did they compile even rankings that were questionable on their own, but the votes were also collected independently, so they reflected the opinion of an unspecified number of people. Although the Guild was not directly involved with the rankings, the results sent out were interesting to the employees, who secretly posted them on the bulletin board in the lobby. The higher-ups had given up on stopping that and tolerated it.
The multitude of incidents Bell had been involved in and the rumors that had arisen because of it had made him the center of attention of Orario, resulting in him appearing in all sorts of rankings. Eina preferred to keep her thoughts on the subject to herself, though she was taken aback when Misha said out loud that Bell was ranked ninth for Adventurer I Want to Date. Having lost her composure and completely exhausted, Eina wondered who made these kinds of rankings.
Curious about the Adventurer Rankings, Laurier had offered to help collect votes. She had conducted polls for various rankings, but ended up sad in the end. While collecting votes for the Adventurer I Don't Want to Die Rankings, she had gone to the shop of an old Dwarf named Dald. The shopkeeper couldn't pick a particular adventurer, though he didn't find the ranking bothersome either, acknowledging that everyone wanted to be special to someone else after all.
Though she wasn't entirely sure about doing so, she ultimately decided to conduct the last poll since it was one based on how special someone was to her. Laurier saw a girl who seemed to be shopping and stopped her to talk. Although she initially dismissed the rankings as stupid, Horn became serious when the Elf asked her opinion on the Ranking of White-Haired, Red-Eyed Human Boy Who Would Look Good Together with a Blonde Elf (14 or Older).
Seeing that she had a crush on Bell, Horn took her to the terrace of a cafe. After introducing herself, she criticized the Elf and called her a fool after hearing how in love she was with him since he saved her. Driven by her feelings, Laurier gave her a speech about Bell and his good qualities. Annoyed, Horn interrupted her and responded with an impassioned and ridiculously long speech about how horrible Bell was as well as how dangerous he supposedly was, especially to women, vowing to take him down one day.
Laurier was horrified by her rant and terrified at the thought that she would have to face girls like that to get close to her lover. Bell then called Horn over and the Elf, shocked, asked him what he was doing there. The boy explained that he was just passing by when he heard what Horn had said about him.
After confirming that he remembered her and the promise they had made, an ecstatic Laurier took the opportunity to invite him to go shopping right then and there. She also wanted to get him away from the girl who had terrified him with her words, but when she grabbed his hand, Horn's eyes turned completely black. The crazed girl lunged to attack him with a knife while cursing him.
Laurier stepped in and deflected the knife with her sword while telling Bell to run. After a long battle, the two of them threw away their weapons and switched to a verbal battle in which they exhaustively listed each and every one of Bell's good points. The boy, for his part, had been picked up by Hestia and had long since left.
The following week, Misha told Eina that the Adventurer Rankings for that week had already arrived. As she went through the lists and thought that several of them were weird again, Eina froze and tilted her head upon seeing the last one: "I Love You So Much I Want to Kill You Ranking - Immeasurable, Bell Cranel". Staring into the distance, Eina once again wondered who made these rankings.
Characters[]
- Misha Flott
- Eina Tulle
- Laurier Swall
- Hestia
- Liliruca Arde
- Welf Crozzo
- Sanjouno Haruhime
- Yamato Mikoto
- Demeter
- Dald
- Horn