"Once something like this gets exposed and spreads around out there."
"The gods of the Heavens will learn that our Kami-sama has such a strange quirk of a taste—and it'll become a handle for them to mock and attack him with!"
A monster is just a monster.
Even humans reject them.
The gods wouldn't spare them so much as a second glance.
Rei curled up against the edge of the pool wall, her gorgeous wings now sinking listlessly beneath the surface of the water. Yes.
She was just a bird, a monster born in some dark corner of the Dungeon.
She didn't even have the most basic qualification to bear a god's Grace.
A being like her, who couldn't even be called a human of the Lower World—what right did she have to sully Kami-sama?
And if her presumptuous, reckless yearning were ever exposed, not only would she end up despised, but she'd drag Kami-sama into bearing that kind of infamy too.
She'd rather have died in the Dungeon yesterday than let the one god worthy of her longing suffer even the slightest harm because of her.
"I..."
"I won't think about it anymore..."
Watching Rei in this pitifully self-abasing state.
A flicker of heartache passed through Rania's eyes as well—but what could be done? These were the rules.
She didn't say another word either.
And then. Just as the last syllable of Rei's words faded.
"Splash——"
The surface of the water not far off suddenly stirred with a sound.
Rania and Rei both jolted.
Especially Rania, the spider Xenos so keenly attuned to danger.
In that instant, the coarse black spider-bristles at her joints stood bolt upright all at once.
She whipped her head around.
Her sharp gaze cut straight through the thick white mist, fixing on the direction the sound had come from.
But with just one look.
Rania's every ounce of wariness instantly froze into utter rigidity.
Because there, only a dozen or so steps away, at the steps leading down into the pool.
"Sorry about this." Haimer spoke up helplessly.
"Eavesdropping on girls' conversations really is a bad thing to do."
"But you can't put all the blame on me. After all, you're both children I care about especially, so I always want to pay a little more attention."
Hearing Haimer's words.
Both of them felt a stab of panic.
He'd heard everything.
Kami-sama had heard everything.
Rania panicked and immediately moved to rise to her feet.
"Kami-sama!"
"You've got it all wrong! Everything Rei just said was nonsense—please, please don't take it to heart!"
By now Rei had come back to her senses too.
Utterly flustered.
Nodding again and again.
"I... I won't do it again... Kami-sama, I'm sorry..."
"I'm sorry..."
Haimer listened to the two of them plead their case, thick with the most extreme self-deprecation.
And sighed helplessly.
"Miss Rania. And Miss Rei."
Haimer's voice turned somewhat serious.
"From the very day I learned that you Xenos existed."
"I stopped seeing you as those brainless monsters in the Dungeon who know nothing but swinging their claws and fangs."
"I see you as beings who can think for yourselves, who have your own joys and sorrows—equal residents of the Lower World, just like everyone up on the surface."
"Since I chose to step forward and shelter you."
"Then I won't, on that account, imagine myself superior, free to boss you around or dole out pity as I please."
"Just as I treat Lun, Mary, and Kirukiru and the others."
"With you, I treat you with that same equality."
"Like an adult treating a child in whom they've placed high hopes."
"Here with me, you are my good children."
"Not to mention."
"Whether it's Miss Rei or Miss Rania, you're both truly beautiful, aren't you?"
"Also." Haimer paused.
"As for the feelings Miss Rei just expressed."
"Honestly, I can't just play deaf and dumb and let them pass ignored."
"And so."
"Miss Rei, allow me to ask you—when it comes to how one loves a god, are you truly prepared for it?"
Rei didn't grasp what Haimer meant, and stared blankly at him.
"A god is a god precisely because a god knows no birth, aging, sickness, or death."
"A god's time is eternal—so even without drawing on our Divine Power, we can still live for hundreds of millions of years."
Gods love mortals.
"So if we're to say."
"That Miss Rei truly wishes to accept a god's love."
"Then it means, Miss Rei, that your soul—for all your lifetimes, even should it enter the reincarnation cycle of the Lower World and be born anew."
"Will belong solely to this one god."
"And unless the god is willing, you could never once escape it."
And what's more.
"I've already taken in so many children who rely on me with all their hearts. I can't, for Miss Rei's sake, choose to abandon or ignore the others."
"These conditions—can you, Miss Rei, bear them?"
Rei looked at Kami-sama.
Tears fell unstoppably.
Never in her life had she imagined.
That these feelings of hers, humble enough to sink into the mud.
Would actually be laid out in the open by a noble god like this, answered and weighed with such gravity and sincerity.
He was discussing the future with her as a life worthy of respect.
He didn't see her as a monster at all!
Rei drew a deep breath.
From somewhere she suddenly found a strength she didn't know she had.
Riding the swell of the water, she pressed a step closer, wrapping her arms around Haimer's water-beaded arm and burying her head deep in the crook of his elbow.
This was already the boldest gesture this handless Xenos believed herself capable of.
"Reincarnation, ten thousand years—Rei is willing to face it all!"
Rei's voice came thick with sobs.
Anyone could hear it plainly.
Hearing those words.
Rania, somewhat crestfallen, drew back the few spider-legs she'd raised and leaned back.
She knew.
Rei had fallen completely.
In all this world.
Who could ever resist a god like this—one who saw a monster as a person, and pulled you up out of the muck at your most self-loathing moment?
Haimer looked at Rei, weeping her heart out against his arm, and let her hold on for a good while.
Until Rei's emotions finally seemed to settle a little.
Only then, blushing.
She hurriedly took a small step back.
Sinking most of her body back beneath the water's surface, leaving only her two eyes exposed.
"I'm sorry, Kami-sama..."
Rei's voice had shrunk to something like the whine of a mosquito.
She seemed to suddenly realize just how bold she'd been.
"About..." "this matter."
Rei glanced at the door not far away, her gaze wandering.
"Kami-sama, could we... maybe not let the other girls know about this for now...?"
Rei was still afraid of this getting out.
Haimer saw through her worry.
And nodded helplessly.
"Alright. If keeping it a secret for now would put you a little more at ease, then we'll do as you say."
Haimer waved a hand.
"It's not that big a deal anyway."
"Also."
"It really is getting late—head back and rest soon."
"Good night, Miss Rania, and Miss Rei."
With that.
Haimer picked up the long bathrobe that had been laid out on the rack beside him.
Draping it casually over his shoulders.
He turned and pulled open the bathhouse's heavy wooden door.
After all, by now.
Every last sound from within the bath had surely been taken in, word for word, by Inaba Tsukuyo.
After Haimer walked out.
The bathroom door closed.
Rania and Rei stood blankly in the water.
After a good long while.
"That was truly something to die over."
Rania let out a long breath this time, and looked over at Rei, still leaning in the corner and dazed.
After all, to be honest, in a situation like this, even she couldn't quite say whether she ought to be angry or relieved right now.
This Kami-sama's way of doing things completely defied the prejudices the Xenos had built up over decades.
As for the corridor at this moment.
The light within the Magic Stone wall lamps flickered.
Draped in his bathrobe, Haimer rounded the corner without a single sound from his feet.
He passed through the hall.
It had grown quiet again; all the girls had returned to their guest rooms, and half the hall's lights had been switched off.
Haimer headed straight up the solid-wood staircase to the second floor.
All the way to the door of the master bedroom.
He pushed it open.
The moment he stepped inside.
He could see it.
Hestia had already claimed the center of his master bed and was sleeping away in blissful oblivion.
Sprawled out, no less, in a flamboyant spread-eagle, her nightgown flipped off to one side.
Limbs splayed every which way, dead to the world and sleeping sweetly.
This girl.
Seeing this, Haimer pressed at his temple with a touch of a headache.
Seeing that she'd taken up the very center, Haimer had no choice but to circle around to the empty patch on the left side of the bed, meaning to grab a pillow and prop himself there.
But Haimer had only just sat down, hadn't even had time to snuff out the light.
When.
"Tap."
An extremely faint knock came against the wooden door.
Haimer raised his head.
Before he could even speak.
That heavy door was pushed open—just a gap wide enough to admit a single person.
There he saw.
Inaba Tsukuyo, draped in a loose but rather thin undergarment, her two little bare feet planted on the soft carpet.
Her eyes stayed tightly shut the whole time.
After the door opened.
She stood timidly against the doorframe, her two small hands gripping fiercely at the hem of the fabric, washed until it had gone a little stiff.
Though her eyes were closed.
Haimer knew that everything which had just taken place in the great bathhouse—including every word Haimer had said to those two Xenos, right down to the sound of every single droplet of water falling.
Inaba Tsukuyo had absolutely heard it all, crystal clear.
This was brought about by 『Magatsuko』 and the 『Mind's Eye』 that had awakened after her recent promotion to Lv.2.
Her powers of perception had become a net that could no longer be shut off.
Gathering in every sound and stirring throughout the manor.
Yet Inaba Tsukuyo asked nothing at all in this moment.
And showed nothing of it either.
She simply stood quietly by the doorway.
Her little head dipping slightly.
"Kami-sama..."
Inaba Tsukuyo's voice carried a faint tremor of unsteadiness.
On that pale little face there was still a faint flush, forced up from holding her breath so hard.
"Tsukuyo was lying over there alone just now."
"And really couldn't fall asleep..."
"Kami-sama."
"Tonight."
"Tsukuyo would like to stay by your side just a little longer... may I?"
With that.
Inaba Tsukuyo tentatively edged half a step forward, the motion light in the extreme.
After all.
If even a Xenos monster who'd come out of a place as terrifying as the Dungeon could win a god's promise.
Then for Inaba Tsukuyo—who had long been sealed away within her own world of perception—the unease it stirred was simply too great.
In any case.
Seeing the others' offensive on Kami-sama growing ever fiercer, she too had to advance a step further.
Haimer looked at Inaba Tsukuyo standing there so awkwardly before his bedroom door.
He understood perfectly well what would come of shutting this child out at a moment like this.
At that thought, Haimer gave a helpless little shake of his head.
Then he patted the small patch of bed space beside him that Hestia hadn't yet conquered.
Haimer gave a small smile.
"Come, sleep here."
"As long as you don't mind that a good chunk of the spot's already been taken."
This word of permission.
Instantly loosened Inaba Tsukuyo's stiffly rigid shoulders all at once.
She nodded right away, the curve at the corners of her mouth utterly impossible to hide.
Then Tsukuyo padded softly inside and carefully circled around to the spot beside Haimer.
She didn't draw too close to him.
Instead she kept as much to the edge of the bed as she could.
Lying down at just the distance where she could still catch his faintly water-scented warmth.
Tsukuyo peacefully tugged over a corner of the single down quilt still draped across Hestia's legs.
And curled herself up contentedly.
The lamps went out one after another.
The whole manor gradually sank into the embrace of nightfall and silence.
Early the next morning.
Sunlight streamed through the wide floor-to-ceiling windows unique to the upscale residential district.
Lighting the room up bright and clear.
Haimer opened his eyes at the command of his exceptionally punctual body clock.
He sat up.
Hestia was still dead asleep, buried in the pile of blankets.
And at this moment.
Haimer suddenly noticed.
Inaba Tsukuyo, who had been sleeping beside him, was now already sitting at the edge of the bed.
Sitting there bolt upright, both hands resting flat on her knees.
By the looks of it, she'd been awake for quite some time.
With her sublimation to Lv.2.
And on top of that, the developmental ability known as 『Mind's Eye』.
Her powers of perception had clearly grown even more fearsome than before.
Inaba Tsukuyo simply sat there on the edge of the bed.
Then, seeming to sense that the god had awakened, she tilted her head just slightly in Haimer's direction.
"Kami-sama."
Inaba Tsukuyo spoke up in a soft voice.
And because Haimer had only just sat up, Tsukuyo leaned her head forward a little as she spoke.
As the distance between them closed.
Haimer saw that Inaba Tsukuyo, having slept her fill, actually looked far more full of spirit and vigor now.
"Why up so early?"
Haimer asked offhandedly.
Then he reached out and, quite naturally, rested his hand atop Inaba Tsukuyo's head with its neat, straight-cut bangs.
Giving that smooth white hair a couple of rubs.
"Didn't sleep well last night?"
Inaba Tsukuyo felt only an especially comfortable caress atop her head.
She didn't shy away.
The face that had just taken on a hint of color was instantly and utterly overrun by a blush once more.
Her two hands clasped tightly together.
"Thanks to Kami-sama's blessing."
Inaba Tsukuyo said, blushing.
"These past two nights, with Kami-sama by her side as she slept."
"It's been the most restful night's sleep Tsukuyo has had in years—not the slightest bit of unease."
"She paid no mind to any of the sounds at all."
Having said all this.
Inaba Tsukuyo then seemed to recall something.
She raised a finger and pointed outside.
"Oh, right—because Tsukuyo's perception has grown deeper."
"Tsukuyo just now sensed that Miss Shakti of the Ganesha Familia set out walking from the corner over on Long Street."
"And by now she's already reached the flagstone path in front of the manor gate."
"Kami-sama, shall we go open the door and meet with Miss Shakti?"
____
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