Tailee

Uhm Sword Oratoria is not "optional" it's actually a vital and huge part of the Danmachi story. It is the other 50% of the story itself, is Canon, takes place in the same timeline as the Main series, develops Ais a lot and shows her growing affections for Bell. They have a deep connection which is shown off in Sword Oratoria. It is a must read to get the full danmachi story experience. So don't go downplaying it acting like it's insignificant when that is so far from the truth.

Bell & Ais have a good amount of stuff over the course of SO with their mains series stuff sprinkled in. It's been her as endgame and the only option since Chapter 1. At least make the effort to read and understand the FULL series not just part of it before saying dumb stuff.

Ryuu had 1 arc with Bell while Ais actually has stuff over the course of the entire series. I agree Omori shouldn't have went the route he did with other girls, but anime onlys and downplaying Ais because the adaptation is terrible and does a severely bad job of accurately portraying her character and relationship with Bell is not her fault. Actually go read ffs.

Bell has also already indirectly rejected Ryuu twice and was going to full on directly reject her in volume 20 but she stopped him and omori is stalling that a bit longer. Ais was vital in volumes 16-17 and without her Bell is gone forever. Something people fail to realize.

BellxAis is the pillar of the Danmachi story and what it is all about. It has been since the beginning and if people paid attention they would know that. They can't just remove it and go another route without completely negating the entire story and Bell/Ais characterization and growth together.

The anime is a bad representation of their characterization, especially Ais where they constantly go out of their way to remove her content, change it, or or rush/condense it into far less than it actually is. It's a shame too cause the books do a great job of actually giving us BellxAis material